Heart of the beast
a run-on from chapter one of the Great Jedi War

"We've made it, we really did." Timbal passed the drinks around in the Clan's assembly hall, which was now used as a party room. "We showed the rest of the Brotherhood that we are a force not to be ignored."

Rhaub nodded, his face all serious despite the happy and relaxed atmosphere. "Just like the old times."

"The old times... I haven't been aroudn for those," Exodius said thoughtfully. "But you have told some glorious stories about them. But ah, why linger in the past, now is what counts - and the future."

"But sometimes the past is still important," Saitou pointed out. "Especially for our new members. Tradition and..."

"Yes, yes," Eliza Orit stopped Saitou's impending speech and handed him some chips. "We know we know."

"He's right," Radek, one of the new members, spoke up. He was sitting in a comfortable arm chair near the fire with some other new folks and looked thoughtfully at his glas of red wine. "I know that for some time, our Clan was the weakest among them all, even compared to Clan Exar Kun. What happened that made us come back like this? I mean, I know about new leadership and all that, but when exactly did we get our spirit back?"

"That was slightly before your time," Eliza said.

"Yeah, it all started during the recent Sith war," Phoenix added. "You've heard of it?"

Radek nodded. "It was trouble with the Antarans, too, right?"

"That is how it started," Voldemort chimed in. "But then the Sith Houses decided to see who of them was best, and so there was the usual war for domination. With little losses, as the DC managed to confine a lot of the battle to morph halls and simulations. But still, lives were lost, of course."

"But I was told that CSP's Sith didn't do much in the actual conflict with the Antarans. How come? What happened that they later were involved in the conflict?" Mordecai asked.

"For one, it was not only the Sith involved. For some reasons, the Order barriers have become a lot more transparent lately," Saitou growled.

"Yeah," Arania chuckled. "I showed them in the ACC that we aren't a helpless prey."

"So, why did you keep low in the Antaran conflict?" Temptress asked.

Cooch chuckled. "We didn't want to risk anything just then. We weren't organized yet either. Better to have the other Clans bear the weight of the battle."

"Which isn't to say we were coward," Vail made clear. "Just clever in planning. Although I didn't have a part in that." The Consul shrugged. "Would I have been, we'd done better than 5th."

"Because the others were already troubled from the Antaran war, although they had won with ease." Arania shrugged. "Their agression wasn't fully released, so when they went on each other, they did not all keep a clear head."

"And we did?"

"Yeah, we did," Phoenix grinned. "We've planned for just such a case."

"How did you plan? What happened..?"

"We had us organized in teams," Saitou explained. "At least a Sith, an Obelisk and a Krath helping each other. But there usually was more than one Sith in a team, of course, as this was a Sith War."

Draco sat down beside Radek, a glas of wine in hand as well. "So you had teams working seperately to get our adversaries down?"

"Yeah but they communicated." Arania sat down opposites them, her feet closer to the fire. It was winter in this region of their homeworld right now, and the clan halls were chilly. "I was heading up the reconn team, logically. Phoenix headed the assault team." The woman waved to Phoenix to sit down beside her.

"Who did you assault?" Temptress' eyes sized Phoenix up and down.

DJM Arania

“So what did you assault?” Asked Temptress as she eyed Phoenix.

“What did he assault? What didn’t he!” laughed Arania. “He was all over the place! But my favorite was when he assaulted Clan Exar Kun”

“Yeah, I remember that well” said Phoenix as he laid down the bottle he was drinking from. “It was when we got communiqué from them, as they invited us to join them on an attack on Clan Satal Keto… They presented the entire attack plan to us, claimed it was flawless, and offered us a part in the loot. Well, at the time, Arania was on good terms with them so it was natural they offered her this alliance… yet, Rakhai was cunning enough to decline it. Arania politely declined, claiming we’re staying out of this all, and Rakhai told me to prepare for my mission…”

---

“This is insulting” Rakhai shouted “We were first to say Clan Scholae Palatinae will NOT take part in this war versus Antarans, and we will certainly NOT be the first scum to use this opportunity to wage war on other Clans.”

“Still, it would be beneficial to do something.” Arania said calmly “This whole situation, attention of other Clans turned on each other and the Antarans… It just asks to be reaped for awards.”

“Yet, we must not be the first to strike” said Rakhai, more calm now “If we do that, after that speech I made of staying out of this whole thing, we’ll draw the wrath of entire Brotherhood”

“So what do you suggest” Arania eyed him suspiciously, trying to figure out if he had some plan.

“We will decline this kind offer from Exar Kun right now. I know you have some communication channels with Satal Keto – some very unofficial ones. Well, I want this plan to reach them – but so carefully timed that they have barely any chance to react. Maybe when Exar Kun heads into attack. We’ve got some spies there, so it won’t be a problem to know when they strike”

“So, you plan to get two Clans against each other? If we succeed, damage they deal to each other will be great, but it still won’t benefit us”

“I’m not done yet” Rakhai said. “Phoenix – take some of those Y-Wings and single transport we captured from Antarans that attacked us last time. Take as many men as you need, and when Exar Kun begins their attack, attack their storages. Once they see their storages are under attack, they might try to evacuate it via freighters. If they do, disable and board their highest capacity freighter, and once you escape clear it of any valuable cargo, transfer it to our freighters and then destroy the craft. And remember – all must think that was an Antaran raid. Leave no suspicious trails behind”

“Yes boss” Phoenix nodded, picking up his pilot helmet as he left the council chamber.

KPN Vail

The Antaran ships were a real bore. The only thing they were really usable for were suprise attacks, as their technical standards could not hold up to that of the Brotherhood.

But as Phoenix' team boarded the transport, none of them cared about that. They were on a mission again, and one that would benefit the clan directly at that. No more doing the bidding of the Council.

The Y-wings looked rather new but in the chaos that would break out, the Kunars would probably not notice. Deathdealer was piloting one of them. Carefully going through the preflight check, he listened to Phoenix' instructions. They would go in first and cause confusion, just to be out as fast as possible again.

As they lifted off the ground of their autumn colored home, Deathdealer saw Arania standing close to the landing pad, her arms crossed, looking slightly doubtful. But if there was something wrong, sure she would have mentioned it?

DJM Arania

Busying himself with preflight orders, and with glancing at Arania's troubled features every now and again, Deathdealer did not notice one Y-Wing being mounted by a single Jedi pilot. This would not have been so remarkable, except that this particular Y-Wing was not on the scheduled rosters to launch.

In the meantime, Phoenix gave the pre-flight squadron check. "Ruby Leader to Ruby Squad, how copy by flights?"

"Ruby Flight Two, copy" came a response after a few seconds, immediately followed by, "Ruby Flight Three, copy."

"Excellent. Ruby Squad, Ruby Lead. Launching now." With smooth and practiced motions, Phoenix's Y-Wing rose up on it's repulsorlift coils, and exited the ground-based hangar and exited Caina's humid atmosphere quickly. Eleven Y-Wings followed him out, with one Y-Wing showing a stronger sensor reading than the others, and jumped to the first designated navigational position.

Arriving a short time later at the first hyperspace navigational point, the Y-Wings changed course, and headed to the next navigation point. This process would be done twice more, as to throw off any attempts to track them back to their point of origin. Finally, the reached the last point, and jumped to their target's navigational point, with the usual Jedi-sensed honed precision. Finding their targets, Phoenix spent no time broadcasting any demands, and wordlessly commanded his flight to initiate the first run. His flight, as the most experienced flight, would go in first and engage any defensive screen. The second flight would make a quick proton torpedo on any hardened targets, and then engage any other defenders, if necessary. The third flight would singly engage only the targets that they were after, and provide cover for the recovery teams.

While Phoenix's flight was orienting on the nearest escort threat, which was a flight of common shielded TIE Fighters, Phoenix quickly pulled a sensor reading from all enemy ships in the area, and found that the convoy was practically unarmed. While pulling the sensor readings from the enemy craft, Ruby 12 was showing some weird anomalies with its sensor readings, but Phoenix did not have much time to ponder on that, with the TIEs pouncing in on the flight.

Normally TIE fighters would be quite a threat to a Y-Wing. With its superior mobility and speed, it could strike at will, pecking the enemy to death with its twin laser cannon. This was anything but normal, however. The pilots of the TIEs were obviously new Jedi, not yet fully in control of their new strength. On the other hand were seasoned Jedi in one single flight who had flown together in combat for some time. The results were disastrous for the TIEs. In twenty seconds, they were free floating atoms.

Quickly scanning his sensors yet again, he saw that his flight was clear and that the rest was going according to plan. He was beginning to relax when two things hit him.

The first was that, not including himself, there should have been eleven Y-Wings present.

Currently, he saw eleven working in concert. One other was headed straight for him.

The other thing that caused a dagger to go into his stomach was the sudden appearance of sharp, pointed ship that had just reverted in from hyperspace. Lean and deadly, it immediately came in shooting at anything and everything...

...Including Phoenix. Although the shields of a Y-Wing can take severe punishment, it could not hope to stand the assault of a capital ship's ion cannon. With three precisely aimed bolts, it caught his Y-Wing straight on. The last two images Phoenix saw was the unknown Y-Wing bearing down on him on his right, and the crest of the capital ship which was on his left. The crest had positively identified the capital ship.

The ship was the modified Strike Cruiser Penitence. It was the Exar Kun flagship.

Knowing that he had little left to live, Phoenix desperately tried to see if he could somehow influence his fate. He could not, however, use his Jedi powers. His orders were quite specific on that point. There could be nothing that he could do to make them think that this was CSP's doing. Glancing over to his right, he saw a flash coming from the incoming Y-Wing, and Phoenix closed his eyes, ready to surrender himself to the incoming bolts of destruction that would soon hit him.

He got a mild thump behind his cockpit instead.

The unidentified Y-Wing roared extremely close overhead, and Phoenix could see that the Y-Wing had harpooned his own Y-Wing, and was now pulling him forward. Even more shocking was that in the brief glance that he had at the Y-Wing, he saw the small mini-bar that was set up behind the cockpit and right before the R5 unit.

That was Mage's Y-Wing.

But Mage was on a separate mission....

Whoever it was, it gave Phoenix a surge of hope. He saw that his pilots had rallied, and had delivered a coordinated proton torpedo launch against the Cruiser. Although the gunners were able to shoot down a great deal of the incoming missiles, they could not shoot them all down. Holes in the ship's shields were being punched through in places, causing damage to the ships' armor. Also, the recover teams had come in quickly, and were able to salvage about half of the supplies before the arrival of the Penitence.

After watching a bit, Phoenix understood why he was disabled so quickly. By some quirk of the Force, he was flying in the exact trajectory to the trajectory that the Penitence had entered. The ion bolts had just been fired ahead of the ship to clear out any danger in front of the ship, which was a wise precaution. He was slowly beginning to get his systems back, and after restarting his R2 unit, things began to go quicker. The first thing he did, after enabling the engines and then the shields, was to enable the comm unit.

"This is Ruby Lead to unidentified Y-Wing, who are you?"

"Ruby Lead, this is Ruby Alpha. I don't think the entire DB needs to know who I am right now. Let's do what we have to do and get outta here, ok?"

Reluctantly, he had to agree. "Ruby Lead to all Ruby elements. Extract.... Now, now, now!"

With that, and with all systems functional, he left a very frustrated Exar Kun commander behind.

Taking off his helmet, revealing sweaty locks pasted to his forehead, he climbed down the ladders of his Y-Wing, and saw as the Mage's Y-Wing arrived. Waving off the electrolytic fluids that his ground crew had offered, he went over the rouge ship....

...And was surprised to see a certain HAD OathMaster step out. Where in the Sith had a Guardian known how to fly like that?

Even more important, how did Exar Kun know about their raid....?

Then McKell started to talk to him.....

KP Timbal

This was Voldemort's first real conflict of any type. With the shadow Jedi, he had lived in a sheltered area, but with Dark Jedi, there was no such place to shelter him from the reality of battle. It was frightening and exciting at the same time.

Voldemort was sticking close to his adoptive mother ever since their plans had been announced. He did not know what to make of it, but he knew for sure Arania was behaving strange. She should not be so worried, the plan was good, or wasn't it? And if it wasn't, why didn't she speak up? Did it mean the Clan was doomed to fail no matter what she did?

Voldemort wasn't asking her. He knew she would not answer. Not if he was the one asking, anyway. To her, he was not a real Dark Jedi yet, still a Shadow Jedi trying to prove his worth to the Brotherhood. But when Arania paced up and down in her office, not even paying attention to the fact he had been shadowing her, he had to say something.

"Mother, you behave like a caged animal," he said. "Would you finally get your famous wit together instead of wasting your time like this?"

Arania turned around and stared at him, and he gulped. 'Wrong thing to say,' he thought.

DJK Voldemort

Arania's gaze was fixed on her son, and she slowly came back to reality. He was right, of course, but she definitely didn't like to be reminded by him of all people. An illogical reaction, sure, but logic did not have much to do with the issue.

Arania's uneasiness was partly based on information she had gotten from several sources. But it was mainly centered around the fact that her ties with CSK and CEK were strong enough to make what they did seem like a betrayal - a concept she should not have had issues with as such was the way of a Dark Jedi. Yet, her time with the Shadow Jedi had shown her that despite of her time with the Dark Brotherhood, she would never be completely dark. Such was her destiny and her birthright, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Voldemort was still staring at her, although it was obvious that the boldness was gone. "It's a conflict in loyalties, is it not?" he asked her, his voice so low Arania had trouble to understand him. "There you go telling me about making my Clan my main priority, but you yourself are stuck on other values? Mom, really."

Taking a deep breath, the woman turned around and stared out of the window. This was her Clan now, she liked it here, and people expected her to do her best. Even if that meant to wage war against friends. She had fought friends in other battles for CSK before, so why did it feel so different this time? It was something she needed to get over fast. Especially under these circumstances.

Turning again, she grinned at her now confused son and marched out of her office. The latest informations were about CEK getting information from Arcona, and this information in turn had come from CNS. Arcona, while not being aware CSP was launching an attack on CEK, had passed on news about Taldryan activity in the same area. So chances were that Phoenix had encountered some trouble on his mission. But the much more important intelligence had come from her old home. CSK sources had reported their intentions to attack CSP instead of CEK while planning to blame it on CNS. When she had told Rakhai, he had cancelled the official alliance between CSP and CSK immediately.

Arania was sure this would cause a reaction from Gord. Probably an official attack. She had to make sure all the latest news were correct, and see what else she could find out. The situation between the clans begun to get confusing, and they would all need a clear head now.

As Arania reached the Clan's communication center, she noted that voldemort had not followed her again. Strangely, this gave her a new feel of confidence. "We might not do very well in this conflict," she said to herself. "But we will certainly not be the losers this time, either." And for the first time, the 'we' truly included her.

DJM Arania

Exodius had taken to training while the conflicts raged on. He could fly a ship, no doubt, but he knew Phoenix needed the best and he decided to stay clear for now. He thumbed a button on his lightsaber, igniting the orange blade. Eight remotes encircled him, aiming their weapons. Then, two in front of him fired and the Trandoshan's saber was a blur. He deflected the two bolts right back at the remotes, then turned and made an upward slash, taking out another two. The other six remotes flew off a distance. Just when he was about to attack them, they dropped to the ground. Confused, Exodius turned to see a holo image of Arania. "You always like to interrupt my training, don't you Ara." Exodius said.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, we sorta got a little war on our hands. Why are you training and not helping out Phoenix?" the Dark Jedi Master asked.

"For one thing, I'm definently not as good of a pilot as the ones he took with him are. And secondly, I had a vision the other night. It appeared to me that I would be needed elsewhere, which is why I assume you are talking to me now." The Trandoshan grabbed his robe and pulled it around him, waiting for his long time friend to respond.

"Yes. I need you to come to communications, we have matters to discuss and I don't want them on open channels," Arania stated.

"As you wish, Master Arania." Exodius rushed out the doors, wondering what could be going on...

KP Exodius

“We are going to be attacked by Clan Exar Kun” said Arania as Exodius entered the communications room “I have a mission for you”

“Good day to you too” he said ironically “What to you need me to do?”

“I need you to infiltrate Clan Satal Keto’s fleet and hide the tracking device on their Clan Flagship, M/STRKC Malevolent. It is a simple device, fits in your palm, which, when attached to ship’s communicator systems will transmit a ping on our frequency.”

“Ugh, sounds easy enough, just… how should I do it?”

“You’ll think of something” she said as she handed him the tracking device and quickly escorting him out of the room, almost slamming the doors in his face.

KPN Vail

Aliena and Marr again, Voldemort thought. Probably because they already had their lightsabers, and he didn't. Or maybe they were generally trusted more. And while he know they were here long before him, it still bothered him that they had their sabers and he had not.

Tired of being last on the list when it came to Arania kids, adopted or fostered, he had developed a plan of his own. With two large bag full of explosives, he made his way out of the Obelisk complex several hours after he had had his little talk with his mother.

He would take the old shuttle and go for his own glory, permitted or not. He was good with explosives, so what could go wrong? And the Clan he had targetted would not expect any suprise like this at all.

DJK Voldemort

Hmmm, forgot what this place looked like almost," Exo mumbled, pocketing the tracking device. Behind him his two recruited infiltrators, Marr and Aliena stepped down the ladders off the shuttle. "So, how are we doing this?" Marr impatiently asked. Exodius smirked and handed Aliena the tracker. "Just be ready at the ship. I've got a nice distraction in mind and I'm going to the bar." The reptilian started walking off. The two dark jedi looked at each other in confusion.

TWO HOURS LATER.

"Where is that giant lizard at anyway?" Aliena asked, clearly getting annoyed. "I have no idea," Marr stated. "But there are still a lot of guards around the ship and we might have to do this...." Marr was cut off by the sight of a naked lizard on a speeder bike flying around the ship's dock. "Wheeeee!!" Exodius had one of his blasters with him and was firing into the air. Waza stepped out the ship. " I thought he was banned from the CSK bars?" A technican looked at him, "I guess they lifted it. Think it will take the whole crew to catch him again?" Waza pondered this for a second. "No, inform Gord that Exodius is at the docks and has been to the bar again. I have dismissed the crew except for the maintanence staff to finish up. The guards are dealing with Exodius as am I. Looks like another trip to the brig for him." Waza stormed off after his reptilian friend.

Marr got up from behind the crate he was hiding behind and Aliena was right behind him. They got past the door without incident. "Well, that was subtle, wasn't it?"

KP Exodius

Rhaub was by and large a miserable pilot. Buzzing around in a T-16 Skyhopper through slow-moving asteroid fields was lively exercise, but wrangling a cumbersome Y-Wing through oncoming fire was not. It was veritable suicide -- at least for someone with Rhaub's space-sick constitution. So, he made himself useful by hunkering down in the CSP comstat bunker to monitor transmissions and decipher codes.

It was tedious work. While Phoenix and his team were living on all guts and glory, Rhaub sat plaintively, staring at a bank of holo-displays, trying to distinguish coded messages from the ubiquitous commercial chatter. Clearly, all of the Clans were abuzz. Troop movements and fleet deployments were happening in real time, but it seemed to Rhaub a jumbled mess, as though each Clan was scrambling to position itself for attack while simultaneously fortifying its base, but not knowing from where or who they'd be defending. Chaos.

But just as Rhaub was about to revisit some transmission logs from Taldryan's base commander, a coded message came through CPS's secured line, addressed to him personally, by way of an "unknown sender."

Rhaub's breath halted when the first transdoc completed its scan. It was a map, broken down into separate clusters, some labeled "POV" -- which Rhaub knew from his command and control training to mean "points of vulnerability." Each POV was immediately recognizable to him, as he'd aided in fortifying these points with ion cannons himself, and one in particular he was currently sitting in. They were CSP's generator plants, munitions factories, bunkers, command posts, and comm stations. Along side each POV were arrows that clearly suggested aerial assault patterns, and X's that connoted troop drop sites. These were, without a doubt, a plan of attack against CSP. But who had sent them, and why? And from where was the attack coming? The transdocs gave no clues, but clearly stated -- if they were to be believed -- that an attack was immanent.

Rhaub hurriedly downloaded the maps into his datapad and rushed to the Summit suites. He stumbled into the executive atrium, where Vail and Saitou were having a quiet discussion, and screamed, "We're going to be attacked!"

They looked up at Rhaub, and in a cool, unruffled tone, Vail asked, "Ok, so what've you got, Aghasett?"

Rhaub laid down his datapad and pulled up the map. "Clearly an attack against CSP," he started in an anxious breath. "You can see that it's current by the markings here...and here." He pointed to the map. "These fortifications are weeks, if not days old. Whoever drew up these plans had intimate and immediate knowledge of CSP's inner defense network. The transmission has no markers or signatures that I can identify, so the source remains unknown. But it's possible we have a traitor in our midst, feeding our enemies this info."

"Hmmm. Do we have any CEK sympathizers in our ranks?" Vail asked.

"Exar Kun? Is that where you suspect the attack is coming from?"

Vail thought for a moment, "Perhaps. Or perhaps this map is a fake, sent to us so that we commit our forces to the wrong place, leaving us vulnerable at their real target."

"Then who would benefit?"

Saitou lifted the datapad and studied it carefully, then murmured "Arania had strong premonitions...CSK."

"Or..." Vail gazed off, "we'll be attacked on two fronts. CSK and CEK working in consort."

Saitou stiffened, "We must prepare for the worst. A joint attack could be devistating to CSP."

KP Rhaub

Phoenix awakes from mid-drunken stupor, recieving an evil glare from temptress.
"What, what I do now?" Asks Phoenix, then catching part of the so-called Exar Kun attack.

Phoenix then bitchslaps Vail for letting such a calamity be told...then opens his mouth.

"The attack on Exar Kun didn't go like that you fools, what are you drunk?!" Yells Phoenix.
"And ruby flight, are you mad....Ugh, the only parts that were closely right were Mage saving my ass and that friggin modified Strike Cruiser Penitence. This is how it really went."

---

“Yes boss” Phoenix nodded, picking up his pilot helmet as he left the council chamber.

DJK Phoenix entered his office and began to read through possible candidates for the mission. Being the second in command of a failing house and trying to find dependable people was hard.

"Bossman?" asks Phoenix over the comm.
"Yo Phobird?" answers OT Magus. Magus mumbled something underneath his breath, most likely concerning his disatisfaction with things as of late with CSP.
"Projected casualties?"
"Most likely the same if not more than what we suffered in the Obelisk Rite of Supremecy.....But this time, they won't see us coming."
Magus moved closer to the comm, a slight grin came to his face.
"Target?"
"Exar Kun master."
"I assume they have given you command of the assualt group since you are the craziest bastard in CSP."
Phoenix nodded slightly with his evil grin, "I do my best."
"Ready your group, inform me when you are leaving.....Magus out."
Phoenix nodded as he sat back in his chair letting out a slight sigh.

If we run into any problems, we have an Antaran distress code which will cover our escape. Unfortunately Exodius, due to health problems, and Mage, who was sent out on recon, will not be able to provide us cover, so we will have to watch what we are doing."

Magus looked on from the shadows with his cognac in hand. He knew it would be an uphill struggle, not the getting in part, but the getting out. All were accomplished pilots, cept for maybe the newbs, who were still just learning. Still, the balance of power in the clans would shift through this attack.

"You have room for one more?" Asked Magus as he set down his drink.
"Y-Yes my lord..." Stammered Phoenix, confused by Magus' interest in the mission.
"All report to the hanger bay at 0000hrs for flight prep. We leave at 0100." Ordered

Phoenix as the members of the team stood up to leave.

SWM Phoenix

Eliza interrupted the story....

"Wait a minute, who was in that Y-Wing? How did Phoenix get involved in a ground mission?"

Timbal took over, with the approving nods of the others. "Well, originally, as I had mentioned, Phoenix believed that Mage was in his Y-Wing. We know different now, of course, since he was off doing that special mission. I was in that Y-Wing. There was a little piece that was left out in the story, let me fill you in on what happened after the initial raid, and the subsequent raid. There were two raids, you know."

"Ok, go ahead," Eliza offered.

"Well, after we got back from the first raid, I took the offered liquid refreshment from the ground crew, and made my way over to the stunned Phoenix. He quickly recovered, and started to ask questions."

"McKell, what the hell? Where was your authorization to join this raid? Who gave you the access codes to Mage's Y-Wing?"

"I had taken a quick swig from the plastic container, since I was thirsty as hell. Then I answered, 'Sorry about that. I didn't have time to explain. I was in the HAD Archives, when I felt a really strong feeling to join up. By the time I had suited up, you were all leaving. For some reason Mage had given me the personal access codes to his Y-Wing some time ago, and told me that if I were to ever need it and he wasn't using it to go ahead and use it. I would just be responsible for refilling any used liquor. Anyway, I shadowed Ruby Twelve, and I had a really bad feeling about you once the attack started, so I turned towards you and was about to tell you about it when we got jumped and you were disabled. I knew that I had to get you out of there, or else you would be killed, so I did the only thing that I could and harpooned your ship, while giving the rest of the squadron orders to screen us as much as possible. Once you were able to get your systems fixed up, we jumped out. Now you know everything I know.'"

"Taking it all in, Phoenix had to agree that the Force worked in mysterious ways. Still, there was a question that was unanswered. 'Ok, that makes sense. However, pulling off the maneuver that you did was not something that an amateur can even think about pulling off, Force powers or not. How were you able to do that? In fact, how was a Krath able to pull off flying a Y-Wing, someone with no previous training?'"

"I had frowned, and hesitated for a bit before responding. I told him, 'That I am afraid that I cannot answer. Apparently, whoever I was before my accident, I guess I was trained in flying starfighters. It came naturally to me, as if my fingers were doing all of the tasks for me automatically. It was weird, as if I wasn't in my own body. Who knows?'"

"Phoenix nodded, aware of my then memory problem. After my apparent accident, I had suffered massive self-induced amnesia, unable to recall anything from my former life. I had struggled once I was released from the hospital, eventually being rescued from certain death by a mysteriously unknown Dark Brotherhood member. It was widely known at that time that I spent almost every scrap of my free time attempting to find out who I was, and many had helped in my quest. But of course, that's going off topic."

Eliza nodded, well-acquainted with the story.

"Anyway, Phoenix then told me, 'Well, I guess it turned out all right. I leave you to your duties, then, OathMaster. I thank you for your help!'"

"I responded with, 'No thanks are necessary, sir. I'm sure that if our situations were reversed, you would have done the same for me.'"

"He said, 'Indeed,' with a grin, and left to report in with Arania."

Arania nodded, and then took over the story.

"Well, about a half-hour later, Phoenix showed up and gave me a full report on the situation. I had told him that it definitely fits the pattern. He didn't know what I was talking about, and asked what pattern I was referring to. I was deep in thought, making sure that all of the known pieces fit in some way. Then, after a minute or two, I explained. I told him that we've been getting reports from various sources that an attack was incoming. Although we've managed to take in some needed supplies and materials thanks to Phoenix's raid, apparently other Clans have had the same thoughts concerning us. Since the vast majority of the Brotherhood viewed us as the weakest Clan, they wanted to wipe us out and take our considerable assets away from us. They thought that we were not worthy enough to continue as a Clan, and wanted to absorb us into their own Clans and strip us of our Possessions. Even worse, some Clans were not beyond treachery to commit their acts of aggression. Although that's to be expected of Dark Jedi, that left us at an interesting juncture. I told Phoenix that we've received word that we were to expect an aerospace and ground assault soon."

Phoenix picked up on the story. "I was shocked. I asked Arania about who would dare strike our Clan? I told her that we'll wipe 'em out to the last man and woman! No one Clan would ever be able to take us!"

Arania grinned. "Ah, yes. I told him that this indeed was the crucible, and that we could hold our own against any Clan out there. However, I asked him what would happen if we were hit with the firepower of two Clans, working together?"

Phoenix nodded. I asked, "What?! Which Clans would want to wipe out our legacy?"

Arania continued. I had told him, "Exar Kun and Satal Keto. We want you to join the planning team, as your expertise will come in handy. So far we figured out that since Exar Kun lacks many capital ship and starfighter assets, they'll be used in direct combat against the Antarans. However, their ample transportation assets can be used to transport Obelisk troopers to assault our star system. Satal Keto, on the other hand, has a good portion of their capital ship and starfighter assets tied up with the Antarans, but what they have left over can challenge our own assets, if used right. We don't know how clever they'll be, so we want to be cautious. We need to come up with an integrated plan to defeat these invaders, and then make them pay. Phoenix had nodded agreement and asked me how we are going to do that. I responded just by getting up, and grabbing my comm unit on my way out of my office. I called several people, and went to the Council Combat Operations Center. We had an interesting plan to think up...."

Phoenix continued. "Yep, and that's how Arania signed me up to lead the second raid. I had left the council chambers, and planned out the mission as I had previously mentioned."

"Ah, ok. So once you left on the mission, what happened?" Eliza inquired.

Saitou took over after sipping his drink. "Simple, really. What we did was....."

KP Timbal

“Wait a minute!” Vail interrupted by raising his hand. “How come Arania brought the plan to attack two Clans? Wasn’t that my idea?”

“Your idea?” Phoenix shouted, pausing only to take a sip from his bottle “You good-for-nothing Consul, you had no idea other than challenging Naga Sadow Consul, Malik to a game of sabbac!”

“Hey, and I won!” protested Vail “And anyway, what story is this? Who the heck named attack squadron Ruby?”

“Errrr… Really” Arania looked around “Who?”

Timbal shrugged “I thought it was Ruby”

“I definitely think it was not” Phoenix shouted “Hell, do you think I’d be in house with such squadron?”

“Who cares how the damn squadron was named!” Saitou rose his voice “Anyways, my story…”

KPN Vail

"Have you all forgotten the orginal threat... the Antarans?" Saitou stammered. "They were the first and foremost enemy that even made the Grand Masters pale."

The gathered CSPers grunted, but let the Pontifex continue.

"The most important task allocated to each clan was to gather a way to bring their forces into a solitary unit to push back the seemingly endless waves of the enemy..."

------

Arania paced to and fro with an impatient frown across her face. She muttered something about how the Consul was always off on the bidding of the Council as soon as the [Expletive Deleted] hit the fan.

"Apprentice... go to our communications relay and notify them that they must make contact with the Concil."

The APP bowed and started to walk but was hurried by the burn of a force-induced strike. Arania was in no joking mood. Within minutes the link to Antei was reestablished and a highly positioned assistant greeted the ProConsul.

"Sorry for our brief loss of communication. Who did you say is to lead the gathered forces against the Antaran threat?"

The answer came as a shock. Arania ran out of the room leaving a very confused Council assistant staring at his communication link. Arania hoped it wasnt yet too late...

--- (meanwhile on the bride of the VSD Excidium)

"That is correct, commodore. You are to signal to the gathered forces that you will join the leading strike and are to stay behind."

The commodore saluted Saitou and walked into the command center of the bridge. Saitou strolled out at his leisure and grinned. Arcona would feel CSP's might as never before. This pleasant thinking was cut short when he could hear Arania hailing him telepathically. The order was clear enough: stop the VSD. Yet it made no sense.

Arania boarded the VSD and the ship was prevented from leaving with the clan summit aboard. She quickly made her way to Saitou and the commodore was fetched to get the message.

"Change of orders? But from who?" the commodore asked.

"It happens to come from the Dark Council itself" replied Arania.

"What are our forces to do now, mistriss?" Saitou inquired.

Arania grinned and Saitou couldnt help but grin as well. She told him about the request for McKell, whom Saitou was becoming more and more wary of, and they both paused for thought.

"It is time... it has finally come." Saitou grinned.

"Indeed. The Dark Council is in a panic and our clan's space is completely removed from all imminent danger. We also have intelligence that suggests we could harrass other clans for territory and then make peace with these... things." Arania turned to the commodore of the Excidium and told him the plans to unfold.

---

Vail couldnt contain himself and shouted "But why was the squadron named Ruby!?"

Saitou groaned and then turned towards the audience to see if this story was going to continue or even go forwards.

KPN Saitou

"Well, all I remember is that those 'health problems' I had were just me being in CSK's detention center to for way too long. What took you guys so long to get me out, anyway?" Exodius asked, sipping his drink. "I know Marr and Aliena got on board the ship and planted the device because they stopped by. Not enough credits for bail they said." The room snickered at the Trandoshan's complaining.

KP Exodius

"You had health issues for all I know," Saitou insisted. "Didn't know of your mission. First time I hear it. Would you now let me continue, please? So we..."

Exodius piped in, interrupting Saitou once more. "Just so you all know, I was NOT sick, and I was indeed on that mission to plant a device at the CSK flagship. Being drunk is not sick."

"Yeah," Marr, who had kept quiet until now, spoke up. "Although you didn't make it through the hangar bay naked. You were already caught the first time when we entered the rest of the ship. Then you got away again by peeing on..."

Exodius stopped him, blushing. "I do not think that part is necessary for our story."

"And the whole thingamadings wasn't easy to install either," Aliena now said, sitting down on the ground beside Eliza.

"No, indeed not." Marr chuckled. "Because no one had told us that we'd need screwdrivers and screws."

"Yeah, so we went towards their comm system, carefully avoiding being seen, although we'd been able to talk our way out of the situation, and then..."

"Stop!" Saitou interrupted Aliena with a stern look. "I was first to tell what happened!"

"And I really did leave with explosives to CNS..." Voldemort stopped when he felt Saitou's eyes on him.

"You can all talk later. Let's try this again now. What happened was..."

DJM Arania

“Wait a minute” Vail interrupted “We fought the Antarans? I don’t remember that! What are you talking about!”

“Errrr…. You don’t?” Saitou looked at him confused “And what is your story?”

Vail took the position by the fire and began to speak “Well, I remember acting as an informer in Clan Naga Sadow right from the start”

“Informer?” Exodius looked strangely at him “How do you mean?”

“Well, I did a few favors to Lannie before this whole Sith War thing, so I called up on that. She agreed, as long as I didn’t do anything against Taldryan – and that was perfectly ok with me, so she promoted me as her personal inspector, so I could access all Clans and move unhindered, lest they risked the wrath of the Dark Council…”

---

“Where is your permission to be here, Pontifex?” asked Malik, newly appointed Consul of Clan Naga Sadow, eyeing Vail suspiciously with a cruel look in his eyes and a hint of cruelty in the voice “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

Vail smiled and showed card given to him by the Krath High Priestess “This, Consul, explains that I am inspector in service of the Office of the Krath High Priestess, and that I am here to check on how is your clan faring in the conflict against the Antarans. I hope you will not interfere in this mission, given to me by the Dark Council itself”

“Of course not” Malik nodded reluctantly. “Here, Pontifex… I believe you would like a room? Access to our communication systems?”

“Only unhindered access to all Clan installations, Consul” Vail replied, acting totally uninterested “I will find my own accommodations, and thank you, but I have my own communication channels. I will not need anything else from you”

“As you wish” Consul replied uneasily “Now, if you would excuse me, I have some matters to attend to… Consul’s work is never done, especially in the times of war such as these”

“Indeed I understand you, Consul. I will find my own way around, thank you”

This was always the same, Vail thought as he observed Malik moving away with great haste. Now he’d go to control room and hide all war plans from him. It was so predictable. And because of that, Vail will go to docking bay and check ship logs he can find, and attempt to learn anything of Naga Sadow plans from them, and report to Scholae Palatinae. This was a game he played so many times, and it held no secrets for him. He was the one who attacked wherever he wanted. Malik could only hope he’ll guess Vail’s next objective correctly.

“That’s why I’m going to win Malik” he whispered for himself “I decide our next battleground. I am always one step ahead from you in this conflict”, he added as he smiled, increasing his pace as he hurried toward the docking bay.

KPN Vail

"Excuse me, Mister Intergalactic Man of Mystery!" Saitou interupted Vail. Vail frowned as he was about to tell of a certain sexy Guardian whom he was about to 'persuade' that the female showers needed inspection while in use.

"Now, I know you think I'm nuts for talking of those silly Antarans, but stick with me." Phoenix threw a wad of gum at Saitou, but it was narrowly dodged. Saitou coughed and began again.

---

The Excidium's commodore gave the orders for the jump to hyperspace and the Victory-class Star Destroyer disappeared into the void of the Antei system.

"Why did the Dark Council put McKell at the head of the joint strike team?" Saitou pondered. He was quite obviously insulted that he was one-up'ed by the Rollmaster of HAD.

"The ways of the Council are always a mystery to me as well. But do not worry, I have detailed McKell with our new plans. He will see to it that we are aided." Arania paced off and towards the cantine with Saitou following closely behind her.

The Excidium dropped out of hyperspace just beyond tactical range of the Council's main planet and was instantly hailed by all Clans and the Dark Council flag ships. Clearance was maintained and McKell greeted the Council's flag ship commander.

"Sir, this is Oathmaster McKell of House Acclivis Draco representing Clan Scholae Palatinae. What are your orders?" McKell waited for a response and had just enough time to think of another question before the reply came.

"Oathmaster McKell of HAD... it always has to be one of that House..." The Heresiarch's commodore trailed.

"My orders, sir and if you could disclose any information on Consul Desmos, it would be appreciated." McKell grew impatient.

"Your VSD is to jump in last as agreed between the Council and your ProConsul. You are to be reinforcements and are to await our signal. As for your Consul, I have no further information." The communication link ended abruptly. McKell decided not to press the issue as he did not want any extra attention to call attention to the fact that the VSD would not come to the Council's aid.

---

"Wait a sec, did you see any boobies!?" Cooch started to become excited.

"You werent even in the vicinity when the War was in motion..." Saitou sighed as the interruptions would not cease.

"But were they sexy?" Cooch continued to press the issue and Vail started to chuckle.

"Ok, ok... your turn again, Consul." Saitou resigned from his story telling and started to poke Eliza in the side.

KPN Saitou

“Anyways, where was I?” continued Vail “Oh, right”

---

Malik was far better then Vail could have guessed. Within first few days, Malik was able to hide all information count Unteminar could use. Vail was able to gain some insight in their plans, but specifics, something CSP could have used in the upcoming conflict, he could not discern.

There was still an obvious new approach… If he could find some way, someone he could agree with to leak information, someone he could approach… But who?

Young guardian… Someone whose link to the Clan was not yet completely built, who was not yet as dedicated as the oldtimers…. Like that young woman, red robes of Guardian… Carrying paper files from Consul to briefing room…

Vail approached her, stepping in front of her. “Hello, young lass.” He smiled seductively as he produced Lannie’s inspector’s badge. “This is my authorization to see everything…And I would definately like to see more of you” he winked at her as he said that.

The girl smiled and gestured Vail to come closer. As he bended his head forward, closer to her, all light faded and everything disappeared, except stars, spinning around Vail’s head…

---

“She slapped you!!!” Cooch laughed loudly, pointing at Vail and rolling in his chair from laughter “Hello there, great seducer! How’s it hanging?”

“Anyways” Vail continued “There I was, coming out of the bacta tank, checking my rebuilt jaw…”

KPN Vail

"Wait, wait, wait!" Eliza shouted, having understood the hint from Saitou. "Your spy story is all nice and dandy, Conboss, but what about Aliena and Marr in the meantime? Can you suck it up for a moment and let them do the talking?"

Vail looked confused at being the one interrupted this time. "Right, I need to get some more to drink anyway. You have 10 minutes."

Alina chuckled as Vail got up, and started the tale. "So, we got out of the hangar and of course found the comm center. It wasn't guarded, as about always when there was no direct danger. Inside, we only found a sleeping Guardian."

"Yeah, and I made sure she stayed sleeping..." Marr added

"Ouch, you hit her pretty hard." Aliena grimaced as she kneeled down close to the main comm panel.

"Yeah but she'll be ok," Marr grinned. "I just don't believe in not hiting girls."

Aliena grinned back and tried to get the cover off the comm panel. "Krath and Sithspawn," she grumbled. "It's stuck."

Marr kneeled down beside her and checked the panel with a hand held scanner. "Not stuck, but they secured it with some sort of maglock. New security measure, I suppose."

"So what now? Can we break it? With the Force maybe?"

"I can't. I think we'll have to screw it open." He reached inside his utility belt and got an old fashioned screwdriver out.

"I can't either." Aliena got up and threw a look at the door. "But hurry up."

"I will, I will." Marr started with the first of 24 screws, and he had to help it with the Force to manage to move the screws at all. But he was unable to grab the screws with only his mind, he wasn't skilled enough yet.

The girl kept her mind and eyes open for any possible detection, but was torn out of her watchfulness by a pain filled cry. "F...ing screw!" Marr shouted, and Aliena could duck just in time to avoid a flying metal object the size of a pin.

"Stepped on it?" she asked.

"Worse, kneeled on it." Marr went to work again.

Aliena had a look at the communcations going in and out, but it was mostly boring stuff. The only thing half way interesting were the reports about killed and captured Antarans. But after a while, this was utterly boring, too.

"Ouch, frigging screw!" Marr shouted again, having repeated his earlier mistake. "Come give me a hand, sister."

By now, half the screws were out, but Marr had managed to break the screwdriver off. He only shrugged as Aliena threw him a puzzled look. "Sith happens," he declared. "But now we need to unite or Force powers to screw the rest of them."

"Oh, we'll screw CSK pretty good, don't worry," Aliena chuckled.

"I'm back," Vail grinned, sitting back down. "You can continue when I'm done, kids." Ignoring Saitou's rolled eyes, he went on to continue...

DJM Arania

"Well, so I went back into the depths Naga Sadow's domain..."

"And he had not gotten his kiss," Voldemort chuckled and made kissing noises. Marr and Arania burst out laughing.

"Right, leave that type of stuff out, it's icky," Eliza agreed. Thw Wookie roared his approval as well, and only now did Saitou realize he did not have his legs on a furry pillow.

"Can't tell a good story, uh?" The Conboss scowled. "As I was saying..."

"Conboss and the Guardian, kissing in a tree..." Eliza giggled.

DJK Voldemort

Rhaub took away the glass Eliza held. "Hey, she might be a Priest but she's not yet an adult. Who gave the wrong stuff to the kids?"

"Not the wrong stuff," Arania said, giggling as well. "They can detoxify if they really feel too bad."

"But that's the problem, they wont feel bad enough for a while, and they'll keep having silly fits!"

"So what?" Timbal pointed at several older members, some of them were chuckling as well. "It's not as if a few drunk kids make much of a difference, and they are actually just a bit tipsy."

"Yeah,.and we did good work, too, and want to talk about it..." Aliena tried in vain to get back to their own part of the story. "We were just busy figuring out how to telekinetically screw the screws, and..."

"No, its my turn now," Vail insisted. "I walked back to the hangar, and luckily, the woman I had seen before was gone. Unfortunately, someone in CNS, probably that Korras guy, he is an Aquillarum after all..." He looked around angrily as some in the Clan moaned at the mentioning of the Crazy Coven. "Well, someone had taken care of the ship logs. They weren't wiped, exactly, just coded with several strange riddles. To solve them, I'd have had to do suspicious things in CNS' halls. Or that is what it looked like. And of course, I did not even want to admit I was on to something."

"So, what did the great spy do?" Saitou grinned. And before Vail could reply, he answered himself. "He went to play Sabbacc."

"No, not just yet," Vail protested. "There were some other things coming to pass first..."

"Like the local bar?" Cooch grinned.

"Shhh... just listen!" the Conboss commanded.

DJM Arania

Timbal decided to interrupt. "Wait a second, boss! You forgot to mention that while you were off giving your mojo a try, I was in some serious poo-doo."

Vail looked at Timbal, really exasperated. "Fine, tell these children what happened. It looks like everyone's drink needs refreshing, anyway, so I'll summon a random hot Novice to fill up the drinks...."

Timbal shrugged, and continued.

---------------

"Clans of the Brotherhood, I, the Sith High Warrior, salute you! We are to embark on grand crusade, one that will liberate us from the plague that is constantly gnawing at us. These Antaran scum will pay the price for their attempted meddling in our affairs. With this grand assembled fleet, we will crush them, and leave nothing that is not destroyed. We are to take only one percent of the population as prisoners, but neatness does not count. I will be sending out a shuttle to each of you containing your orders. These orders are too valuable to transmit, so make sure that the commanding officer of each ship keeps these orders to themselves. We shall be departing in ten minutes. Brothers and sisters, here is to the death of those that dare oppose us!"

McKell grunted to himself, recognizing the speech for the cheap flattery that it was. He motioned to his aide to expect the incoming shuttle, and surveyed the fleet that was assembled. The Sith High Warrior indeed had it right when he said that this fleet was grand. Not many other fleets could withstand this much assembled firepower, aided by the Force. He smiled lightly when he remembered what his orders were. Indeed, all this power would be for naught after he carried out his orders....

"Sir, the Sith High Warrior's messenger has arrived."

McKell nodded, and asked him to have him brought to the bridge right away. The aide mentioned that he was on his way, and a minute or two later a protocol droid entered the room. McKell waved to it, and the droid asked for the presentation of some DNA to prove that he was the commanding officer of the ship. McKell pressed his thumb to the offered sensor plate, and after a second or two, the droid release a datapad to his custody. The droid departed, and McKell turned on the datapad, and read the contents. After reading it, he gave no sign of anything was wrong, and merely passed the datapad over to the commodore of the ship. He arched an eyebrow, but then shrugged.

McKell nodded, and said, "Helm, upon the order of the Sith High Warrior, you are to execute the jump and follow the course according to the instructions I am sending to your navicomp at this moment. Please advise me when we arrive."

"Sir, yes sir!"

A few minutes later, they jumped into hyperspace.

"Sir, we have arrived at the Besche System."

"Thanks. Confirm the arrival of the Nighthawk, the Keepsake, and the Doomsday."

"Roger that, sir. They have all arrived, and are deploying their starfighters."

"Ok. Starfighter Boss, deploy your fighters, and form a screen. Comms, have the fleet join up in formation, and begin the approach."

With a chorus of ayes, McKell watched as everything came into play. So far, the enemy Antaran defenses have done nothing but scramble their own fighters ineffectually. Their space platforms began to shoot at the incoming capital ships, but being way out of range meant that this response was also impotent. Finally, someone higher up must have gotten a handle on the situation, since all fire had stopped, and the fighters began to organize, and then started to make attack runs. Apparently, they were well equipped, since their R41's started to launch proton torpedoes at maximum range against the incoming fleet. Although McKell originally had planned to have incoming missiles launched from the platform, this suited his needs even better.

"Vampire, vampire, vampire!" came the traditional call from the Tactical Officer for incoming missiles.

"Roger that, TACCO. Begin anti-missile defenses, but ensure that at least two or three get through."

That caused quite a few double takes amongst the crew, especially from the commodore. A nervous, "Aye, sir!" came from the Tactical Officer, and the commodore motioned for McKell to come closer to discuss the order in private.

"Sir, this is a serious battle. Although we are able to take a few hits, it's better to not take any at all. I respectfully recommend that we shoot down all incoming projectiles!"

"Calm yourself, commodore. Rest assured that no harm will come to the Excidium." The commodore reluctantly let it go. McKell then quickly went to his console, knowing that the time was near.

"Sir, we've destroyed all but two of the missiles. Two missiles are about to hit!"

McKell nodded, and saw the incoming projectiles. As soon as they hit, McKell killed the engines, and then removed the power from the engine rooms.

The Helm Officer, naturally, protested. "Sir, you've killed our engines. We can't maneuver!"

The commodore nodded angrily, and was about to further dispute when McKell glanced back at him knowingly. "Comms, give me an open channel to the fleet."

"Done, sir. Channel Two."

McKell nodded to the young officer, and hailed the other ships. "Brothers, we have been hit with a lucky shot, and our engines have been damaged. We've lost power to the engine rooms, and are working to restore power. We need to jump out to perform running repairs, and we'll be back to recover our fighters. Doomsday, you're in charge. For the Clans!"

After getting eager confirmation from the other ship commanders, McKell closed the channel, and ordered the helm to jump out. Luckily, they were on a course where they could jump out only a light year and not run into any gravity wells. That they did. Once they arrived, McKell restored power to the engines and the engine rooms, and began to rapidly give orders. They only had a short time to do what they had to do. Striking at Clan Exar Kun while the rest of the fleet was busy was going to be easy with the firepower of the Excidium, but they had to work fast....

---------------

"Ahh," Eliza said, with a few things clicking into place. "That's how we managed to take-"

"Yep," interrupted Vail. "That was a masterpiece of an operation, and how they managed to get me out. Which leads me to where I was...."

The rest of the gathered Jedi groaned, but let their boss say his say.....

KP Timbal

"But before you continue," Marr jumped in, "let me assure you that in the meantime the CSK ship was also busy, and they wanted us off the ship before they followed their new orders."

"Yeah, and we had just managed to get the screws out..."

"There we are." Carefully, Marr allowed the cover to glide to the floor, then he put his head inside the opening. Kneeling down he reached for the device Aliena was already preparing... and jumped up again. "Ouch, f...ing screw!" he shouted. The back of his head collided with the inside of the comm system, and he fell back on his behind. "Aaargh." Rolling over, he removed another screw from his backside.

"Nice work," Aliena commented. "Let me do the rest while you better collect the screws again."

Usually, Marr would have argued, but he was too dizzy to do so. As he went around picking up several screws, his comm beeped. "Here's Waza," the voice of his ex-Quaestor sounded. "Exo is completely drunk, naked, and he peed into the garbage bin. He's in the brig, just come and buy him out, and then take him back home, please. We got new orders anyway."

Aliena stopped in her movement, shaking her head violently. They'd need at least another 20 minutes.

"Sorry, Waza," Marr explained. "We don't have any money to bail him out."

"But if I let him out like this, Dalthid will have my ass!" Waza exclaimed.

"Yeah well, it is not as if we could change the fact that we are broke," Marr replied, successfully keeping the laughter out of his voice.

"I'll call back," Waza said and deactivated the comm link.

"So how did you manage to bring him back? Why didn't they tell you to leave alone?" Radek wanted to know.

"Ah, well, I'm not a good pilot," Marr admitted.

"He sucks," Aliena made it more plain. "And while I by now can handle a shuttle if really needed, I was not about to tell them."

"Talking of not about to tell them," Vail started again. "Back at CNS..."

DJM Arania

Vail figured that by failing to bring any CNS member over to my side, he had only one option left. The ancient saying, “There is truth in wine” was always true, and count knew well how drink could loosen even the tightest tongue.

Thus a plan quickly formed in his head. A diabolical plan on how to get all secrets from Clan Naga Sadow. Plan so foolproof that Consul Malik would tremble in fear.

First he brought dozens of cages with Ysalamiri, hanging them all over the canteen, until creatures suppressed Force in entire room. Then he brought liquor. Lots of liquor, finest drinks money could buy. And finally, as a last touch - Max Beebo’s band – very similar to Max Reebo’s band, but much more core, and much less commercial then the famous players.

So, with the music running around, drinks been consumed by all, who couldn’t detoxify poison, Vail sat in the corner with a bottle of Corellian brandy, waiting his diabolical plan to unfold…

KPN Vail

Exodius looked confused. "So, what was your plan, Vail, to get them drunk? Why didn't you ship them over to CSK's brig. I would have shown them how to party."

Vail walked over and smacked the Trandoshan upside his head. "No, you idiot. Man, sometimes I think you drink way too much. Anyway as I was saying...."

KP Exodius

Mage sat quietly in his chambers, meditating on the events of late. Recent happenings were a combination of troubling and intriguing.

The Obelisk Primarch's deadly skills had not yet been called on. He continued to ponder the meaning of the patterns emerging from the seemingly endless chaos perpetuated and espoused by the Brotherhood's foe.

His conscious thought lapsed into deeper exploration of the vast recesses of thought and memory as he searched for strength and direction, awaiting the call of duty...

OPM Mage

Of course, Vail didn't get to say anything more. "Where's Mage anyway?" Loretta Hett asked.

"How come you think of him just now?" Exodius inquired and winked at the woman. "There are enough other men here - if you don't insist too much on your own species."

"Well, it is just he has given a slightly different account about some of the happenings in your tales," Loretta answered, throwing a deadly look at the Trandoshan. "And for your information, yes, I do prefer to date my own species."

"What does his babbling have to do with MY story?" Vail snapped. No one answered, and he nodded. "Good, just what I thought. So, yes, I wanted to make them drunk, but not just drunk, if you know what I mean."

The confused looks from the others showed him they did not. "Sorry, boss," Ramser said. "But drunk is drunk. I'm drunk often enough, I should know."

"No no, there you err. If you think you can detox, you drink a lot more. If you are used to detoxing yourself, you will think you can detox even if you can't, and then you are also not used to the full effects of alcohol any more..."

"Ah," Saitou's eyes lit up. "I get it now. Did you take into account that you couldn't detox either?"

"Well..."

"So, that is a no." Saitou chuckled. "So, in the end you all ended up terribly wasted, and you weren't the wiser, right?"

"No," Vail replied triumphantly. "Because as often as I could, I switched my full glass with Malik's empty one, and he didn't notice."

"He probably didn't think anyone would not go for the good stuff," Issard chimed in.

"Yeah, exactly. So, after the 42nd glass..."

"You really counted?" Aliena grinned.

"Of course. One has to tally his gains as well as his losses, and I was also curious how much the famous Malik could really stomach."

"42nd glass of what?" Eliza wanted to know.

"Different stuff. So, anyway, after said number of glasses..."

"Get me more to drink." Radek shouted from somewhere, but then everyone listened again.

DJM Arania

"...So after the 42nd glass, Malik was really losing it. He started calling me Marty, and started to take of his clothes and insisted that I call him Doc. Although horrifying as the thought was of having Malik undress in front of me, having him call me Marty was weird. He was babbling something about the space-time continuum and about a Great Scott, and other weird things that I'd really rather not get into now. Anyway, finally I just got up the nerve to ask...."

-------------

Vail looked at his hand, and knew that it was worthless. However, that didn't matter, since Malik was well beyond his capability of noticing such trivialities.

"Shhhooo, whadda you-va ghot, Marty?" Malik said in alcoholic bliss.

"Uhm, two Idiot cards and a Stave of Bushels." Or something like that.

"Wwwwwwow. Wow. Wow. Great Shcott. I shink I may have shomething on you, Marty. Here's what I have..... Have a grander!" Vail took a look, and he had three Idiot cards and a Shaved Bantha. Damn, that did beat his cards. Time to even the odds a bit.

"Malik-"

"DOC!"

"Right, Doc. Actually I beat you because you have more Idiots in your deck!"

"Really? Wwwwwow. Wow! I never thought of that! I guessh you're right, Marty! Great Shcott!"

"So, you know what this means, eh?"

Malik looked at Vail with glassy eyes.

"Nooooo. Noooooooooo. Noooooooooooooooooo...."

"Well, to refresh your memory, you promised to take this ship and attack Arcona."

"Ahhh. I did?"

"Riiiiiight. All you need to do is to call the bridge and let them know. Nothing to it at all."

Malik looked confused for a bit there. "Shhhooo, whadda you-va ghot, Marty?" Malik said in alcoholic bliss. Again.

"Doc, you won already. You wanted to attack Arcona as your victory prize, as I had promised!"

"RIGHT!" Roared Malik as he shot to his feet, and then fell to his posterior as he lost his balance. That did not stop Vail from giving him his commlink to the bridge.

"Bridge, thisssh is Doc. Attack Arcona!" A satisfied grin spread on Malik's face. A confused reply come back. "Sir, we'd be happy to comply. Anywhere in particular that-"

"ENOUGH INSHOLENCE! ATTACK AT ONCE!"

The bridge officer had no choice to but to comply. "Aye, sir. We'll report with the results. Bridge out."

Malik placed the commlink on the table with extraordinary care on the drinking table. "There, you see, Marty! I've showed you...."

Vail nodded, trying to keep from laughing. "Yes, you sure did, Doc. Hey, lay down there, and have a nap. That way, when you get up, the battle is over and you can enjoy the spoils!"

Malik nodded happily, and went to sleep. Right before he drifted off, he asked Vail, "But Marty! What about the 1.21 gigawatts? 1.21 gigawatts!"

Vail nodded again, and told him he would take care of it. Malik happily went to sleep. Vail then waited until he was completely asleep, and then packed away the Ysalamiri, and then left, including Malik's clothing in his packing away....

-------------

Everyone had a good chuckle over that. Vail then continued, "And that's when Mage came in. What timing!"

Eliza was confused. "Huh? What did he do?"

Timbal filled in. "He basically prevented Arcona from finding out that it was us who sent Malik on his way. If they would have found out the truth...."

KP Timbal

"...then we'd be screwd!" Ramser piped in. He swayed from side to side, with his 7th glass of absynthe, and reminded Vail of Doc... err Malik somewhat.

"Yeah, and talking of screwd... we still were fighting with those screws at that point," Marr chimed in.

"But that was only because he had thrown one of them all through the room," Aliena hurried to explain. "And we couldn't just forget about it because it really showed. So there I was, crawling on all fours on the floor of the comm center..."

"And in the meantime, I had managed to deform the metal bars of my cell quite good because CSK's Ysalamir had died," Exo said proudly. "And I was loudly demanding my clothes."

"But Waza has told me that you kept rejecting putting them on everytime he did bring them to you," Aishea wondered.

"Well, that was because at that point, I had had a little too much spice in addition to the alcohol. So I thought I was Jac and wanted DGM-ish pimp clothes and robes."

Everyone had a good laugh at that. "I can see why they were happy you left CSK," Radek said.

"No,no, they were sad I left, really!"

"Yeah," Aishea grinned. "That's because they lost their bad example."

Exodius glared at her and tried to think up something witty, but Marr continued his tale. "So, that's when Waza's next call came, and he told me that if I'd find a way to make Exo put his clothes on..."

"...then I'll just let you leave, promise." Waza sounded exhasperated. "And I won't even question what else you were doing here."

"We are just having fun," Marr replied.

Waza didn't let on if he was believing it or not. "One of you or both, get down here to get your Clan mate. But prepare for a shocking sight."

As Waza ended the conversation, Aliena looked worried. "I am NOT going to see him naked!" she made clear.

"That's fine, you can screw it in and I can screw him out," Marr grinned. With that, he left the comm center.

Cursing under her breath, Aliena went back on her knees. A sharp pain in her right knee made her jump up again. "Ouch, f...ing screw!" But this at least meant that she could now finish their work. About time, too, as the guard started moving.

DJM Arania

“Just one thing” Vail interrupted “There is something still unclear. Who named our attack squadron Ruby and why?”

“Yeah” said Phoenix loudly, grabbing two beers, and throwing one to Vail. Vail opened the bottle on his lightsabre handle and poured liquid down his throat. “Just who thought of such crap?”

“Right” Vail nodded “I mean, I’m disgusted to be in a same Clan with such individual”

“Not to say flying for him in such stupid squadron” said Phoenix as he crossed arms with Vail, taking a long sip like that.

“I think we might start Clan-wide inquiry about that” shouted Vail as he cleaned foam from his mouth with his right sleeve.

“Gosh, conboss, detoxify that for once!” someone shouted, with a clear disgust in voice.

“Detoxify? Why I’ll detoxify your…”

KPN Vail

"Shut up you two!" Arania's voice echoed in the large room. Everyone looked at her in suprise - not because she was shouting, but because she was actually able to talk clearly after about 20 drunks, several beers and no detoxify. "who cares who named the silly squad ruby? And for the record, it wasn't me!"

"How... d... d... do you d... do it?" Ramser stuttered.

Arania shrugged. "Training," she replied, smiling sweetly. "And while everyone is quiet, let me tell you what happened with me in the meantime. I was there, sitting in the comm center, getting the first signal from the CSK flagship, plus informations from my informants..."

"Oh, please," Vail groaned. "Not you as well. One after the other..."

DJM Arania

“Anyways” Arania repeated looking at Vail with a look of disapproval on her face “there I was, receiving my information when suddenly… A message, official message for Rakhai, from Malik himself!”

“Naturally she read it” whispered Saitou to Cooch

“Naturally I read it…” continued Arania

“She’ll deny this in the morning” whispered Cooch back

“And there, Malik said that he has arranged everyone from his Clan to be sent on various missions, that him and Korras had empty headquarters and invited Rakhai and Vail to come to them with a pack of sabbac cards, adding a cryptic coded message to the end: Drinks are on you, Twi’Lek slave girls are on us”

“Indeed, indeed!” Nodded Vail enthusiastically “That was my diplomacy work! You owe that to me!”

“But I delivered explosives to Clan Naga Sadow!” complained Voldemort.

“That was when Rakhai and I were there.” added Vail “I haven’t forgotten that, Guardian”

“I am a Jedi Hunter” complained Voldemort, pointing at his green robes.

“You’ll be Guardian for quite some time now you reminded me of it” Vail nodded, more for himself, since head fell on his chest. “Damn… I shouldn’t have mixed drinks” he said faintly.

“Gah, don’t drop now!” shouted Timbal, Saitou and Cooch at once “What happened there! What happened with those twi’lek slaves?”

KPN Vail

"It was more interesting what happened to me!" Exodius chimed in. "Marr came with my clothes to my cell and tried to make me put them on, but I refused."

"Yeah, so I inflicted some pain on his..."

"No need to go into detail," Exodius cut the boy off. "So we argued a bit, and at a point I tried to Force choke him. Just a little bit of course."

"And then Waza came in," Marr continued. "And Exodius said never would he dress up, rather leave naked..."

"...that was when Waza became very agitated, as he didnt want the CSK girls to faint!"

"I am talking," Marr snapped. "But yeah, so Waza went on his knees, asking what it would take to make him dress up and leave, to what Exo replied..."

Exodius jumped onto the next table. "To which I replied 'Undress yourself, minion, and be my escort to the shuttle.' And he did it!"

"He... did it?" Ramser, Radek and Temptress stared at Exodius, but the others nodded. They had heard the story before.

"Oh, yeah, baby!" Exodius started dancing. "And what was best, he didn't realize Marr played a joke on him by kidnapping his clothes. So he had to run back to his quarters naked as well."

"And then we wanted to leave, but remembered Aliena," Marr added.

"You never actually said what happened with her," Eliza said thoughtfully.

Aliena blushed. "Well, I was..."

"More important where I was," Voldemort, with a bottle of beer in hand, mixed in, ignoring Vails gestures and his mother's dissapproving look. "When Phoenix had caught me for the other mission, he had left my bag of explosives right where it was, so when I got back, me and Liara..."

"Liara?" Vail, Arania and Phoenix shouted at the same time."She piloted you there?" Phoenix added, a little shocked.

"You weren't to say that!" Liara snarled, looking ready to kill the boy.

"Sorry!" Voldemort looked as if he was about to sink into the ground. "Too much to drink. Can we just pretend I never said it?"

"Sure," Cooch nodded.

"Just as we can pretend your mum has never read any private notices for Rakhai," Saitou agreed.

"Just continue," Arania waved.

"Yeah, well, so we were in the shuttle and on our way to the CNS headquarter..."

DJM Arania

“And that’s the most troublesome moment of the entire war.” Vail took over, not wishing to let go the spotlight “Rakhai and I sat with Malik and Korras, and we finally agreed not to use their sabbacc decks, not to use our sabbacc decks, but to buy new ones, and to play Antei sabbacc.”

“We just began relaxing, it was a great game, each of us had a glass of Corellian Brandy in one hand, cards in the other, and Twi’lek lass in their laps. It was JUST the moment, stakes were JUST right, and I got perfect sabbac – time for some serious taking when… BAAAM” Vail slammed bottle on the floor while imitating the sound.

“Great” said Ara looking over shards of glass scattered over the floor. “Vail, clean up this mess. Voldemort, continue where you stopped while Vail finishes cleaning what he caused”

KPN Vail

"I had left Liara at the shuttle and made my way to the power generator. It was easy to get in because the two bored guards were watching them playing Sabbacc..."

Voldemort was never one for threading carefully. Indeed he was one of grand effects and lots of show. Instead of just blowing the main generator up, the boy planted explosives at the smaller devices, the control panels and pillars and then arranged a chain reaction towards the main generator via the major power lines. A superb firework, indeed. And it did not take him longer than half an hour.

When he started the chain reaction, he had forgotten a minor detail though - he had left himself no escape route fast enough to make it out alive.

"Holy flucking son of a Sith!" he cried out when he realized his mistake - too late, of course, as the first blow was to take part within the minute. The only thing he could think of to save his life was dropping into the bassin with cooling water and quickly going towards the exit pipe to the recreantional area.

Of course, Voldemort could not know it was the recreational area, he had only bothered to study the generator room itself. Tactical mistake of beginners. He also didn't think of any possible pressure waves when his knife destroyed the currently closed connection to the neighbouring pipe.

When he was almost through, the BOOM happened, just the way Vail had described, including the breaking bottles. Because the pressure wave from the explosion sweeped through the pipes as well, pushing Voldemort forward and into the swimming pool and sauna area of CNS. Riding on and in a wave almost as large as the room, he could see people scattering and screaming, and tables and chairs fall, with all their contents. The next thing he knew was his behind landed in something soft.

A young Guardian turned towards him, not recognizing him but obviously not thinking he was the one responsible. "Run, you fool!" she shouted at him.

But Voldemort was checking what he had landed in. A creamy, red mass. As he tasted it, the catastrophe was forgotten for a moment. "Hmm... strawberry pie, yummy," he said.

"Figures," Temptress said. "He seems to think with his stomach only."

"Unfair," Voldemort said. "I am just a practical person."

"So, what happened at the unlucky Sabbacc game then?" Issard asked.

DJM Arania

“Why, we jumped of course” said Vail, throwing away last shards of glass in the can. “At first we didn’t know what hit us, but soon we realized – someone is attacking us!”

---

“Antarans!” Shouted Korras

“Damn!” Cursed Rakhai

“Docking bay!” Shouted Malik “We have our starfighters, we’ll strike at them! Hurry!”

The four Jedi ran to the docking bay, jumping in starfighters Malik showed them. Vail came into one old X-wing, launched while others were still strapping themselves, but made a circle around the darkened citadel, watching the destruction a single explosion caused. It was too much, he realized, as he saw others catching up to him. Antarans had to be punished.

“I see them” said Malik through comm. “And what – they’re attacking us in FREIGHTERS?”

“It must be a new trick” said Korras

“Yes” agreed Rakhai “Attack, attack”

“Ok, I’m on them” said Vail, taking place on Malik’s wing, loading torpedoes as he locked nearest freighter, not thinking how good idea flying is when you’re so drunk you can’t see your instruments, and detoxify doesn’t work because because… Damn Ysalamiri made a habit somewhere in these cursed X-wings…

KPN Vail

There were many freighters indeed, and all of them were just landing close to the headquarter's man storage area. Somehow, the setting looked familiar to Vail, although he could not say why. It was also strange that the explosion had happened at the other end of the complex, but alcohol prevented any logical thought.

"Wheeeeeee!" Malik shouted over the comm as his ion cannons fired at the first freighter. He missed it by several 100 meters, but that did not matter because he hit the second one instead.

Rakhai's voice came from somewhere. "That's not Anarans.. I mean, Antidans... err.. those reptiles," he said somewhat hard to understand. "Those are Botherhead... hat... well, OUR vessels."

It didn't seem to make sense. But then, while Malik aimed at the third transport and finally hit the first, something clicked in Vail's mind. CSP had gone to raid CEK - maybe some other clan was doing the same to CNS. If he could just find out who it was!

DJM Arania

How to find out, how to find out.. Right! How couldn’t he have thought of that before!. He quickly scanned the comm. frequencies, looking for any chatter… Ah! There it was!

“We’re under attack! They’re attacking us! What is this! Where’s that escort! How do you mean they were not needed!”

A-ha! Vail nodded, firing torpedoes at nearest freighter, missing completely, but luckily hitting the last freighter in the line! Now he could know who they were! He activated communicator, and took a deep breath before speaking.

“Sorry, but what clan are you from?”

KPN Vail

An amused voice replied. "Do you really think we'd tell you that, Naga Sadow scum? No Archanis member would ever be dumb enough to do something like that!"

"Ah," Vail mumbled. "Taldryan. Of course."

As he quickly informed the others, he thought of a way to use this to CSP's advantage. If theyd help out now, maybe they'd have a chance at an alliance with CNS. Hadn't Rakhai mentioned the possibility before?

At that moment the escort of the transport convoi appeared, and to Vails horror, they were definitely not drunk. His fighter shook with the impact of a well aimed shot, and he decided to secretly bow out of this.

DJM Arania

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" A young and well endowed Protector screamed as she ran past the storytellers, her breasts bouncing up and down.

"Gonna getcha! Gonna... getcha!" Saitou ran through the middle of the gathered HAD members and was obviously too bored and/or drunk to follow the story anymore.

"Should somebody calm Saitou down?" asked a janitor.

"No, the Protector is receiving valuable training from Pontifex Saitou... and the Squirrel Master is getting rid of his extra energy so he can go to bed easily tonight." Arania grinned and then motioned to everyone to settle down as the story continued...

KPN Saitou

How to get out in the middle of the combat, when flying in a crappy can of a starfighter, cannot see instruments or hold controller straight because you’re as drunk as a plank, and are targeted by top of the class starfighters, trying to do it secretly at the same time, was what occupied Vail at the time.

Still, there was a plan forming in his head. He steered downwards, dodging to miss freighter in flames underneath right in the last moment, although he dodged to the left instead of to the right he planned, but eh… Missiles that were locked on him hit the freighter, exploding, so that crew lost control over it, and it started spiraling downwards, pulled by planet’s gravity field.

Vail got his craft right underneath, then rolled to the side, and quickly hit the eject button, hoping not to be seen in the pile of smoke and ash that came out of freighter, rolling in air couple of times, then, when Ysalimiri was finally gone, strengthening his body with Force, so that it survived the fall on the cold, hard ground, amid lush green vegetation, bruised, but unbroken, away from underneath the falling freighter.

Standing up and finally detoxifying himself, Vail looked at what he did and gasped “Damn… I’d never do that if I was sober” he said, and then hurried to Clan Naga Sadow docking bay to find some way out of this mess.

KPN Vail

"In the meantime, Aliena was drunk as a hooker, too," Marr grinned.

"Only because... well, it is a bit hard to tell..."

When the guard woke up, Aliena was just done with the screws and wanted to find her way out of the comm center. "W...who are you?" the woman said when coming to, staring at Aliena and reaching for the alarm button.

Aliena reacted out of instinct, reached behind herself and took a bottle of something strong from a shelf. "You have forgotten?" she said, a little too fast. "We were in the middle of a drinking match, and you passed out. So I wanted to leave."

"Drinking match? Me? You?" The woman wasn't quite there yet, luckily.

"Yeah." Aliena brought the bottle to the front again, and luckily not much was left in it. "And I wanted to take the rest with me."

"Sure, but there's more where than came from, and I am NOT losing to a kid. Whatever your name is. Come back here and let's start over," the woman ordered.

Aliena gulped and sat back down. It would probably be noted would she try to detoxify, so maybe she should just drink along.

"So that's why sis used to avoid alcohol for a while," Voldemort grinned.

"Yeah, she was puking pretty good by the end of the adventure," Marr grinned back. "She basically crawled into the hangar bay as she was too drunk to detox. And she was singing."

"Yeah. 'Force drops are falling on my head,'" Exo laughed.

"That explains a lot," Eliza frowned. "People must believe we're all drunkheads."

"We aren't," Vail said and waved for Ramser to hand Eliza a bottle. "So, I went into the hangar..."

DJM Arania

Meanwhile, Saitou re-emerged from the hallways and walked back into the conversation room. The story instantly stopped and everyone stared at him... and then his shoulder. Well, maybe not his shoulder, but what was on it: a half naked female PRT.

"So... you caught her, eh?" Arania asked and coughed slightly.

"That I did." replied Saitou who then adjusted her into a better position to carry her weight.

"What now?" asked Vail.

"Time to do something I've been wanting to do for a looooong time." Saitou said with a wink.

Cooch focused solely on the exposed nipple and mumbled something about needing to help Saitou with whatever duty he was to do, but was smacked telekinetically by Arania. Saitou disappeared into a cargo bay with the PRT sighing the entire way. They heard some "mmm"s and "that tickles, hehehe" emerge... but none dared look inside and the story continued again...

KPN Saitou

Vail ran into the hangar, looking around for a shuttle. His look, however, fell on the bottle of thirteen years old Grand Imperial Scotch, best year ever from Palpatine’s Royal Distillery, laying among the garbage left after an explosion. Vail stopped to pick it up and continued, holding the bottle in his hand, toward shuttle…

There, he saw ash-covered Voldemort! Of all people! While battle was raging, while entire Naga Sadow base was in ruins here was… Voldemort!

“What are you doing here?” Vail shouted angrily.

“I did it!” Young Guardian looked up proudly “I defeated Clan Naga Sadow!”

“You idiot!” shouted Vail “They are our allies!”

Voldemort looked at Vail, not understanding anything, but count shook his head, grabbed Guardian with his other hand, and pushed him toward shuttle. “There, inside! Gah, this is what happens when you let Journeymen act on their own initiative! Quick, we need to let others know what’s going on here!”

KPN Vail

"You want to tell them I blew them up?" Voldemort asked, puzzled.

"No, of course not, moron. Go sit there and don't do a thing."

Voldemort was slightly angry as he did as ordered. He hoped Liara would get out of here at least. Then he noticed the bottles. Sure no one would mind..? Yeah, he was very young, but he just loved this stuff!

Malik reacted strange to the announcement that it was Taldryan attacking. "Damn. [Expletive Deleted]. Holy Krath and frigging Council!"

"It's not that bad, really," Vail told him, worried about the reaction. "Sure, Archanis is good, but Ludo Kressh is better." And he pointed to the stars where the CNS Sith were now participating in the fight, despite Malik not being able to see the gesture.

"But.. but I thought it was Tarentum," Malik said. "So I just sent an infiltration team to blow their base up as well."

"Ah, never mind," Vail calmed him down. "It is probably a good idea to attack them anyway."

"I need to get back to the comm center and find out what happened with the Attack on Arcona," Malik said, obviously also sober again. "Meet me there."

As he left for the comm center, he took Voldemort with him. But he had not noticed the strong liquor smell coming from the boy.

When they entered the comm center, Malik was blinking at Voldemort. But before he could say anything, Voldemort took a step away from Vail and pointed at Malik. "All your base are belong to us," he mumbled. "You are on the way to destruction..."

"What?" Malik's mouth fell open.

"He's drunk. Just like his mother, this one," Vail said, keeping himself from blushing. "And he always wants to play the hero."

"Well," Korras said, for some reason enver to be found out he had not detoxed and was still drunk as hell. "Somebody set us up the bomb. That is for sure."

"It was a missile," Malik snapped.

"Noooope," the Krath replied. "Ground explosives."

"You have no chance to survive make your time," Voldemort babbled on. "For great justice."

"I hate drunk kids!" With that, Vail unceremoniously pushed Voldemort with the bottle into the next cupboard and closed it. "So, what about the Arconan's now?"

DJM Arania

As Phoenix was wandering down the halls to piss before returning back to his story, he heard scuffling behind Saitou's door.....He kicked it open only to be shocked at what was going on.
"Need a hand there buddy?" Asked Phoenix mockingly.

SWM Phoenix

Saitou looked up, startled. The PRT screamed and covered herself. Saitou coughed and grabbed another brush.

"Well... actually, if you'd like to help comb and brush the squirrel horde... be my guest. They've gotten a bit of heat exhaustion due to the extra fur."

Phoenix didnt know if he should laugh or cry. Instead he backed away slowly and closed the door.

"So babe... only 437 more to go. Remember to put the fur into the waste bins."

The nameless, faceless (but definitely not boobless) PRT sighed and continued with her work.

KPN Saitou

After the little altercation in Saitous room, Phoenix finally found the bathroom. While taking a piss, he passed out with his head against the wall. Then, once again, he regained consciousness after being out for a good 30 minutes. Returning to the hall, and recieving another menacing look from Temptress, he overhears the butchering of his story again.
"You buggers trying to tell my story again...God I hate you all." Yells a very drunk Phoenix.

-----------------------------

"This is Wraith one, all wings report in." Ordered Phoenix Over the comm.
"Wraith two copy...Wraith three copy...Wraith four copy...Wraith five copy...Wraith six" Reported Deathdealer and the rest of the wing.
"Your mom...I mean Transport copy." Giggled Voldemort and Aklen over the comm.
"Quite your yaping and get your asses to the the jump point, or those blast marks on that transport will get bigger and more real." Yelled Phoenix.
"YES SIR!!" Stammered both VOldemort and Aklen as they made the jump into hyperspace to Exar Kun's position.
"Hopefully they won't get killed before we get there.." Says Deathdealer sarcastically.
"If we're lucky....Maybe." Chuckled Phoenix
"State your name and business in this sector." Ordered the Comm. Officer of an Exar Kun ship.
"This is the vessel Nuruhuine. We are monks loyal to the Brotherhood. We have just been attacked by Antaran Y-Wings, we are in desperate need of assitance, we have taken heavy fire." Read Voldemort from his script.
"You can land in shuttle bay one..."Answered the comm. before getting cut off..
"You can't put them there..." A voice said in the background.
"No choice...The Antarans are on radar....Scramble the fighter......Proceed to bay one NOW!!" Ordered the Comm.
"Yes my lord, thank you." Answered Voldemort as he punched the throttle to land in the bay.

-----------------------------

"Break formation and destroy anything that moves!! DD you take out the communications towers, we don't need them getting reinforcements in here." Ordered Phoenix over the secured comm.
"Roger, I'm on it!" Replied Deathdealer.
Exar Kun's TIE Fighters were no match against the shields and stronger lasers of the Y-wings. Phoenix and Deathdealer took turns weaving in and out of the numerous formations of Exar Kun pilots, picking them off left and right.
Meanwhile, Magus was off in the distance having is own fun, Phoenix saw no need to interupt him, seeing how he was drawing most of the fighters towards him
"Didn't know they had these kinda numbers." Said Deathdealer sarcastically.
"They won't for long. But, then again, it just doesn't seem fun, they blow up so easily when shot at" Replied Phoenix with a slight grin on his face.
The Black Wraiths were swatting them like the annoying nats they were. Phoenix, Magus, DD and the rest of the flight made it look easy as the now slowly dwindling horde of TIES went up in brilliant explosions.
"Boss.....We have a problem.." Stammered Deathdealer.

-----------------------------

Meanwhile in the cargo ship.....
"Thank you for your kindness my lord, we would have surely perished if not for your help." Spoke Voldemort as he and Aklen bowed.
"No need to bow to me, I am only a Apprentice, as is my friend here." Replied the foolish Guard.
Voldemort bows as he gives the signal to Aklen. The draw their swords simultaneously and dispatch the two would-be guards.
"You load up the transport and I'll mine it." Ordered Voldemort.
"On it!" replied Aklen.

SWM Phoenix

Vail stopped talking. Entire thing… Didn’t make sense. Entire story was so filled with holes, they could get a wookie through. And, according the way this whole celebration was going, they could expect not only some Wookie, but his aunt, an Ewok and her husband, a Hutt, to make an appearance.

“Just a damn minute!” He rose his voice, and others went silent, all eyes turned on him. “What the hell are we talking about? Let’s get this straight.” he stopped for a moment, trying to sort the facts out “Gaah! I cannot! This whole thing doesn’t make sense! Nothing fits! Hell, I don’t even remember pushing Voldemort around in Clan Naga Sadow’s headquarters”

“Err… Conboss” said Issard “You said you did, not we”

“I know I did!” shouted Vail, while spinning around “That’s why this whole thing doesn’t make any sense! And don’t make me come to that battle you talked about! That is a whole world of absurdities for itself!”

“Now when you say it, I don’t remember you being in Naga Sadow either” said Voldemort.

“And who could have named attack squadron Ruby?” yelled Phoenix

“Oh, shut up” shouted Arania “It was prolly you when you were dead drunk, as you usually are!”

“I am never drunk, stupid woman!” Phoenix yelled back at her

“Stop!” shouted a voice from behind. It was him – Sith High Warrior himself, Zorrixor, followed by Lord High Chamberlain, Telaris Cantor. “What is this whole charade? I heard of many clans slipping into hedonism and decadence, but this! Such a disgrace, such mocking of the principles clans are based upon, of companionship, of undestanding, a thing such as this I have never seen! People, Clan should be your family, not people you drink cheep booze with, or argue with who killed most Antarans! People in your Clan should be those that guard your backs, you can rely on and find safety in most dire circumstances. But unfortunately, you have failed. You are a disgrace, not only to yourself, not only to each other, not only to the name of Palatinae, but to the Brotherhood itself! You disgrace Star Chamber with your acts!”

“We were just celebrating” Vail said

“Yeah, and retelling our deeds in your Sith War” added Arania

“just not all stories go along with each other” finished Cooch.

“Events?” asked Zorrixor “Your deeds?” he laughed “Why of course they don’t go along with each other! That’s understandable!”

“You see people” he continued “When Antarans attacked us, and other Clans rallied to fight them, then used that opportunity to attack each other, you actually didn’t do a thing. Not a single thing. No, in fact, I am wrong. Terribly rare, but it can happen as well. You raided what you though was Antaran supply convoy, but in fact it was a great Liquor Run, convoy of ships carrying nothing but drinks, and most of them were strong and expensive ones. So, when you grabbed your prize, you returned here, to your headquarters, and started reaping your benefits. As a matter of fact, you all got so drunk, so fast, that you forgot all about Sith War. And naturally, the supply you had was more then enough to last you through the War. So, while war around you raged, you sat here and well… Drank. There was a small attack group sent here, by Arcona, I think Cyris led them, but you gave them drinks as soon as they arrived and they forgot all about warfare and joined you. After hearing that, Malik announced he would make a one-man invasion of Scholae Palatinae. I immediately recognized what his motive was, but good thing he did, since well, he managed to make your supplies dry just as the War ended.”

“So… This whole place was home of one neverending party?” asked Rhaub

“Indeed” nodded Zorrixor “You didn’t stop until Great Jedi War was over. I understood you got some serious music and lightning here as well. I think I head Vail did some pretty fancy cocktails himself, giving a really fancy show anytime he made one”

“That would explain the state these rooms were after the war” Timbal interrupted “We always though some mighty armies clashed here.”

“Nope, no armies” Zorrixor shook his head. “Now, if you would excuse us, we have to go” he said, turning and leaving with Mav by his side.

“Strange kind” commented Mav “I will never understand them”

“Heart of the beast” replied Zorrixor “And unfortunately, just as civilized”

"Indeed" nodded Mav "Let's get out of here before we become anything like them"

"Yes, we should hurry" Zorrixor agreed, hastening his steps, leaving the feral beasts of the Brotherhood behind.

THE END
FIN
KONEC
KRAJ
ENDE

KPN Vail