Taris' Open Orbit

Faina Delvardus
Nicademus Delvardus IV

Despite the misgivings he may have about his identity being revealed so nonchalantly it felt good to hear those words from someone else. It felt good to have someone else know of his existence. Despite the years of hiding, of operating from the shadows the feeling of isolation was strong. Even amoung his brothers, the Praetorians he had to maintain a distance. Releasing a breath he did not know he was holding Xeonon smiled falling into the role of comforting friend.

Don't be sorry, it had to be done. The future of everything that you see now may not have been if the betrayal of more than a single Imperial Knight be known. If anyone should be sorry it should be me. I had hoped that I had destroyed the traitors when they first struck. I was wrong.

Although it had taken time Xeonon had eventually read the after action report about the events on The Maw. The fact that so many Knights had sullied the Order was a black spot on its name. One that may never be removed. Worse still was that through his actions, they had tried to use his own false betrayal to justify their own. It was one of the few things he truly felt responsible for.

My capture on Aaragu was my own choice, the Empire is changing as he spoke Xeonons head motioned to the fleet outside the view port. and I felt it best to operate within the Empire to defend Nicademus from any threats within or without. 

It may not be the whole truth, but after years of lying what was withholding the rest of the truth. The truth that it was he who had helped orchestrate the attack on Muunilsnt and actively participated in the destruction of Harnaidan. The truth that he really had fallen to the darkside and was only redeemed by being reminded of his oath as he defending Nicademus.

When I first met The Emperor when he was only a General he had a man with him who would defend him with his life. You can rest assured I have taken that same mantle but I can only do that if my survival is kept a secret. No one outside this room should know that I am alive.

Faelan nods when Nicademus speaks about the education he plans for his son, which includes being trained as an Imperial Knight. Familiar enough with the history of the Imperial Knights and the Fel Emperors to know what Nicademus means when he says that his son being trained as an Imperial Knight would be a return to an old tradition, Falean can see the wisdom inherent in the plan, as well as feels some sympathy for Nicademus' son, who it seems has so very much of his life already planned out for him.

Accepting the kind words Nicademus voices about his clan with a humble nod, Faelan smiles with a chuckle when asked about the reunification of the Mando'ade, understanding how it could seem to an aruetii that a lack of obvious activity denotes a possible lack of continuing momentum. "Reunification is a different thing for the Mando'ade than you imagine, I suspect. In many ways, we are as united as we always have been. Unless and until the Mand'alor calls all of the clans to action, the individual clans often go about their own affairs with limited involvement from the others save when cooperation is required. Waving the matter of the disparate definitions of unity that he and Nicademus may harbor aside with a gesture of his hand, Faelan says, Things are, as you say, quiet over all, but our Mand'alor has set some things in motion that I believe will foster a greater sense of cooperation among the clans than has been present in the past."

Faina arches an eyebrow in a rare moment of permitting her customarily stoic, inscrutable expression betray some hint of the thoughts and emotions it conceals; Nicademus asking, even if it is only a comment made in passing, to be forgiven for something he felt was necessary is surprising, and without precedent so far as she can remember.  As though the very idea of Nicademus so much as feeling, if only for a moment, that he needs to be absolved of anything he has done to make the First Order and the Imperial Knights who protect it and him is profoundly distressing to her, Faina shakes her head emphatically, raising her hands as though to reject the very need for Nicademus to ask forgiveness of her, "There is nothing to forgive, my Emperor.  You did what you felt . . . what was necessary to preserve the integrity of the Imperial Knights and the First Order."  Ever since Nicademus had dispelled the last vestiges of doubt lingering within her mind about the future of the First Order given it's alliances with more than one Dark Side aligned group, Faina's loyalty to him has been absolute, bordering at times on fanatical, and yet she finds it strengthened even more now, knowing that the decision to ask what was asked of Xeonon cannot have been an easy one, and is one that clearly weighs on him even now.


As though anxious to leave the moment behind them, Faina seizes on to the last words Nicademus spoke, taking a knee and bowing her head as she affirms in a tone both firm and fervently reverent, "I vow to ever be worthy of your trust, my Emperor, and to serve and protect you as I have always done, with my very life if necessary." 




Rising after her pledge of continuing, unswerving loyalty to Nicademus, Faina listens to all that Xeonon shares with her, not interrupting even when she shakes her head to convey to him that he need not be sorry for the choices he himself made.  Smiling, only sadness and resignation to the need to keep Xeonon's fate, his sacrifice, a secret from all, evident in her expression, Faina rests a hand on Xeonon's shoulder as, unable to forget that it is in many ways he that shaped her into who she has become, she assures him, "And no one outside of this room shall ever know it, not from me.  Her smile fades, a grim, weighted look in her eyes replacing the sadness that had been in them a moment before as Faina tells him, As for the traitors that remained within our ranks after your sacrifice, they are no more.  And it is only because of your sacrifice that the Imperial Knights survived long enough for their betrayal to be discovered, and answered for.  We are as strong as we are now because of you, even if it is only those in this room that will ever know that it is so." 

   

“Bring us out of lightspeed,” said Lyrica, instructing her bridge crew of the Aldar's own unique cruiser design, the X-Wing class battlecruiser, “the signal stops here. Right on...Taris.”

Her announcement of the planet made almost everyone stop short as the three cruisers dropped out of lightspeed. Two X-Wing battlecruisers and one Y-Wing escort carrier. The idea had seemed appealing, and the shipwrights had put the designs and schematics for a cruisers that resembled the well-known snubfighters used most commonly by the Rebel Alliance in the height of their conflict with the Galactic Empire. The Resistance that developed in the wake of the rise of the First Order saw those same ships, updated, still put to use. Lyrica thought that if it worked for the fighters, it would work for a cruiser shaped like the fighters.

The developers couldn't decide if the Y-Wing cruiser should be a troop carrier, a fighter carrier, or a blend of both, like the X-Wing cruiser. But the Y-Wing cruiser had nearly three hundred more meters in length over the X-Wing cruiser's five hundred. Right now, Lyrica was glad her escort Y-Wing cruiser was configured towards being a heavy fighter carrier and had multiple interconnected hangar bays allowing for rapid deployment of a blend of actual X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing and B-Wing starfighters. Because Taris was clearly under First Order control, and she was looking at some familiar wedge-shaped starships. Any shock value her cruisers had due to their unique shape would quickly wear off.

“Plot for escape routes, keep us out of range of their tractor beams and gravity well generators if any,” Lyrica ordered and swung around to examine the command tactical display, “Send a burst transmission, First Order encountered. Engagement imminent. May the Force be with us.”

The two X-Wing battlecruisers' "S-Foil" wings spread open, like a real starfighter, and the Y-Wing cruiser's grand cannons (what was normally a Y-Wing starfighter's ion turret) swivelled about to level on the Victory-class star destroyer in front of it. All three cruisers opened their hangar bays, fighter pilots scrambling into their vessels, ready to deploy.

“Do we have an estimated time before we can make the jump?” asked Lyrica, her eyes watching the tactical display fixedly. One of the crew members piped up with a response and the princess thanked them. The First Order was beginning to move into action. Their telemetry and response speed was nothing short of extraordinary. Lyrica's people were sorely inexperienced with fleet combat and just about anything else aside from ground combat, and even then, in small-scale engagements. When it came to something like this, they often deferred to the other Jedi Lords or the commanders.

They were taking the newest Aldar ships to test them out when they picked up a transmission that they had mistaken for a distress call. Upon arrival, they quickly worked out that they had followed the signal all the way to Taris, which, as far as they knew, was a First Order stronghold. The Jedi Lords were in no shape for any kind of conflict just now, and Lyrica did not want to lead them right to the doorsteps of Serenno, but she wasn't confident on her new fleet's first original cruisers and their combat capability. They tended to build their ships in support of others rather than something that could stand on its own.

The X-Wing cruisers were Tanicus (which Lyrica commanded from) and Corona, while the Y-Wing cruiser was Sunrise.

When she saw the TIE Vectors and Defenders emerging, her eyes widened. Like her and the cruiser crew, her fighters were competent but inexperienced, and she wasn't interested in pitting them against First Order superiority fighters, but she ordered the deployment nonetheless, with orders to hold their position and defend the fleet. “Do not respond to any attacks by pursuit. Maintain distance and finish plotting an escape route.”

The Aldar fighters deployed and held a close formation to their cruisers. They began to reverse away from the First Order ships, but kept their forward facing towards the enemy ships, their heavy weapons trained and ready. The commander of this small fleet was clearly not interested in an engagement.

Lyrica's eyes popped open again when she saw the attack begin. “Full protective screen!” She ordered, and watched as her fighter squadrons scrambled to intercept warheads. The cruisers' laser turrets and the X-Wing cruisers' autoblasters opened up whenever their fighters were behind them and took out the missiles, letting the shields take whatever they could of the turbolaser exchange. But they didn't have the special equipment for targetting missiles. It was all down to the skills of their gunners and crew, along with their fighters.

As the beacon reached the cruisers, in particular, the Sunrise, an X-Wing fighter flew directly into its path and the beacon attached to its hull. The pilot, largely unaware of the unwanted guest, continued to fly a screen of protection with the other fighters, targeting and firing on missiles or torpedoes whenever they could. One missile clipped the fighter and destroyed both the fighter and the beacon with it. Lyrica and the cruiser commanders noted the losses of five more fighters in quick succession and the FIrst Order's fighters hadn't even joined the fray yet. The three fighter-shaped cruisers finally stopped in their reverse movement and began to return fire, crimson and white-blue bolts firing, concentrating on the cruisers. They began to fire what few missiles, rockets and torpedoes they had, and focused the shield power to the front.

“Attention all flights,” said Lyrica, “Make a hyperspace microsecond jump to the provided coordinates. Put distance between ourselves and the First Order. We will finish final calculations and meet at the rendezvous point. We will make our way home through the usual redirects, after we've made certain they can't track us. After your first jump to a safehouse, remember to scrub the navicomps and any relevant data. May the Force be with us all.”

Receiving affirmations from the commanders and flight leaders, one of which had received a battlefield promotion since the last one just died, Lyrica turned to look out the viewport dejectedly. This was her first solo engagement and foray without the rest of the Jedi Lords' fleet. And she knew, she had made quite a severe mistake. She hadn't even bothered to send a long-distance probe or scout before just jumping in blind. She made a very common mistake of assuming a distress signal would be nothing but just that. The X-Wing and Y-Wing class battlecruisers were completely untested, and already showed signs of problems or design flaws. She was in no way prepared for an engagement, especially not with ships like those in front of her fleet. Reaching out in the Force, she sought the mind of the commander of the enemy fleet, but found extremely disciplined and resistant minds, and she had no way of telling who was who. It only made her more certain that she would lose this battle quickly if she tried to fight her way out. As far as she could see, they hadn't brought an interdictor cruiser, for which she was very grateful. At the most, she might manage to bloody their noses a little on her way out.

And that's if the Force was with her. Otherwise, this was going to be a short event.

Powering the engines once more, the three cruisers and their fighter escorts lurched forward at full speed, firing their forward-facing weapons, then they dove, hard. The three cruisers turned their noses downwards from the enemy ships, diving further and further away, with their fighters following. Those that were damaged or unable to make the jump to lightspeed on their own did emergency docking procedures, one or two barely making it in as the cruisers moved forward and further away from the enemies. As soon as they had a clear path, all vessels made the jump and were soon at the edge just outside the system. They did a quick scan of their ships to see if there were any tracking systems or devices, but could not find any.

From here, their next course of action was to make a full jump to a nearby rendezvous point. They then refueled all small transports and fighters and jumped again, almost every ship going in different directions, where they remembered the princess's instruction to scrub their navicomps once they reached a safe point, they refueled, plotted their next course, and jumped again, where they hid their ships or fighters and boarded civilian or merchant vessels, and made for the next rendezvous, where they boarded a different vessel, before finally making their way back to Serenno. Lyrica and her staff took their cruisers to an uncharted asteroid cluster and hid the ship within a base built into a stationary planetoid. From there they took small transports to planets with bustling spaceports, and did a similar evasive act of boarding different transports going in random directions. It was nearly a week before she returned to Serenno to inform the Jedi Lords of her fleet's disastrous encounter on Taris, and reassured her people that she wasn't dead or lost.

It was a near thing, but she learnt quickly that she was far from ideal for commanding any fleet in space battles, and their cruisers were most definitely not suitable for lone engagements against the First Order. If a token defense force was that potent, they had no chance unless they began to beef up their own vessels in firepower, shielding, power plants and engines. The loss of a number of fighters further demoralized the enthusiastic but inexperienced Aldar, who no longer wished to explore space on their own.

What fleet was being remarked about involved the commanding presence of a Resurgent-class Battlecruiser, several smaller patrol vessels, and a modest flotilla of transports and carriers. These were the recent arrivals from the Coreward territories of the Empire that were bringing in supplies and fresh troops in order to fulfill their orders. The First Order was undergoing a massive redeployment and shuffling for planned operations in the near future. This was just one of many such that were occurring across the Empire, it was hard to keep secret such a titanic movement.

When the new ship dropped out of hyperspace, the alarms on the bridge of Hyperion blared as a proximity signal. Captain Faellan stood on the bridge as an ensign reported the appearance of a vessel in Sector D-7. A scan was underway when a transmission came through from the freshly arrived vessel.

=Captain Faellan=
The Illusive?

He hadn't heard of that vessel before. The Imperial nods to his ensign, requesting that a search of the records be done. In the mean time, a channel was opened in response to the one that was hailed to his fleet.

=Captain Faellan=
This is Captain Faellan of the First Order, commander of the Battlecruiser, Malleus. Per protocol with the law of Imperial space, I must request your credentials so that they are properly documented before granting approval. May you transmit those to us?

Now to see who these people were. While he awaited a response, the ensign got a lock on the records.

=Ensign=
Sir, the Illusive is a Sith Star Destroyer registered to a native family of this world, House Braeden. If the credentials prove accurate, then we would be able to verify its return. Tarisian Archives seem to have lost sight of the vessel some years ago though. House Braeden sort of... stopped existing afterwards.

So, could Tarisian natives be returning then? Hopefully the credentials proved right.