D&R Thread <Here> (http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=178777)
Mandalorian Wars:
The Jedi Torn

The Mandalorians began a crusade of conquest against the
galaxy beginning with the worlds on the galaxy’s outer rim.

For 32 years the armies of the warrior race invaded many
planets and moons destroying any one who dared to stand
against them before their sights finally turned to the
Republic.

The Army of the unified worlds pleaded with the Jedi
council for help but they refused to fight, however two young
Jedi known as Malak and Revan chose to go against their
masters wishes and went to the republics aid taking all
those who would follow with them…

_______________________________________

The small Republic starfighter spun out of control above the planet known as Corellia, the pilot fought his own ship trying to regain control. The young soldier began to panic as he couldn’t see where he was going, the man breathed deeply and then twisted his control-stick straightening the ships trajectory. The young pilot smiled as he realised he wasn’t in any immediate danger, but these feelings were short lived when he looked out his rear window and saw a squadron of Mandalorian fighter craft.

The Mandalorians began to fire on the lone fighter and the pilot began evasive manoeuvres, Blaster fire narrowly missed the ship and shot past the pilot’s cockpit window. He began to panic again as he was young and inexperienced, the pilot knew he was about to die, he couldn’t shake the Mandalorians off.

The pilot looked down at his scanner and noticed something else coming in on an intercept course really fast. The pilot couldn’t read the sensor panel that well, he knew it was a fighter but he didn’t know if it was friend or foe. He looked out the front of his ship and saw the fighter getting increasingly larger as they flew towards each other. When it was closer the young man closed his eyes feeling the two ships would crash into each other, but they didn’t crash the fighter flew right over the cockpit.

The new fighter fired three shots at one of the Mandalorian ships, each hitting and causing the Mandalorian vessel to explode. The fighter sped through the explosion and the young pilot could hear a ‘Wahoooo!’ through his radio, that’s when the pilot realised what the new fighter was, A Jedi starfighter.

The Jedi fighter swung around so it was now behind the Mandalorian fighters that pursued the lone republic pilot. The Jedi vessel begun to fire at the remaining Mandalorian pursuers from behind and made short work of them disposing of each one in quick succession.

“Are you okay Indigo 6?” CJ asked the Lone pilot from the cockpit of his fighter.

“Yes Sir.” The young man replied. “I just got a little lost.”

“Okay, Form upon me and I’ll reunite you with Indigo leader.” The Jedi ordered.

“Aye Sir! And thank you.” The pilot replied as he manoeuvred his republic starfighter round so he was flying closely behind. Castov led the other pilot away from the planet and into the maelstrom of the battle.

Capital ships, fighters and support craft from both sides were engaged in battle and launching blasters, missiles and torpedoes at each other. CJ looked around at the battle and noticed a Mandalorian ship launching long range missiles at the capital ships.

“Change of plan I-6.” Castov announced to the pilot. “I’m going to need your help taking that artillery ship down.”

“I’m with you Sir.” He replied following the Jedi as he changed course for the Artillery ship.

((OCC- OK I left it relatively open for you guy to jump in wherever you want as I said before. If you want to join my characters and indigo-6s assault go ahead, if you just want to command a capital ship do that or if you want to board a Mandalorian capital ship and fight for control of it take ‘em down. Do whatever you like but please be in the battle somewhere.))

"General Truth Sir, Turbo Lasers 3 and 7 have been destroyed. Engineering is requesting that the power being forwarded to those turrets be redirected to Deflector Shield Generators 5 and 9." A young Republic officer stated from his station on the bridge of the Brilliant Vigilance.

"Permission granted. Order Bomber Squadrons 1 and 8 to concentrate fire on the Mandolorian Destroyer opening fire on our right flank. Launch Lancer Missile Pods 5 through 12 at Mandolorian Battlecruiser Alpha and concentrate all Turbo Laser fire on the Mandolorian Dreadnought. Reroute all power from the engines to support the Turbo Lasers." Truth ordered all the officers on the bridge as he studied the battle map before him.

He spotted General Jesp, along with one other fighter, heading to intercept a Mandolorian Artillery Frigate and stated "Order Bomber Squadron 6 and Fighter Squadrons 7 through 9 to assist General Jesp."

"Roger that, Sir." Came the reply, and Truth diverted his eyes for a moment from the battle map to see the actual battle.

Laser fire, both red and green, crossed each other to make a fantastic spectacle. Fighters entered deathtrap dog-fights and missiles erupted against the massive hulks of ships. Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts faced off against their equivalents, some going so far as to ram their ships into the enemies rather than lose. And then that was when his own ship rocked.

Many officers who were standing were knocked off their feet, but Truth stood as firm as a tower and asked "What impacted us?"

A shaky officer at his station replied "A Mandolorian boarding party. They must have used an anti-matter charge to get through the hanger bay shields. Decks 10 through 24 are reporting enemy contacts."

"Order the crew to repel boarders. Keep me informed of the space situation, I will be joining the crew in repelling the boarders." Truth said as he pulled his saberstaff from the belt of his combat suit and headed out of the bridge.

On one of the Mandalorian capital ships, Jedi Padawan Lake Kiel stuck her head around the corner of a corridor to check if it was clear. A sudden barrage of laser blasts streaming toward her told her otherwise, and it was only due to her quick Jedi reflexes that allowed her to duck back unharmed. “Damn.” Her body pressed up flat against the wall, she shot a frustrated look at the Republic marine sergeant beside her. “Assault droids. Two of them.”

“Well, Commander,” he said sarcastically, “so much for a covert boarding. I think it’s safe to say the Mandys know we’re here now.”

“Yes, I’d say that’s a fair assessment, Sergeant,” Lake agreed, as the sergeant motioned for a few of his men to get out their grenades. “But Admiral To’knel said that he wanted to take this ship, so we’re taking this ship. Covertly or not.” She frowned at the grenades his men were readying. “But grenades aren’t what we need right now, Sergeant. I don’t want to take a chance in setting off an explosion that could possibly cause a hull breach.”

Across the corridor, she could see an elevator door. “What we need to do is to get to that elevator so we can reach the bridge.” She paused a moment. “I’ll hold off the droids. You get your men inside that elevator and take them up to the command deck. We can easily reach the bridge from there.”

The sergeant shook his head. “You may be in charge, but it’s my responsibility to ensure the safety of everyone on my team. And that includes you, missy! Jedi or not, you can’t destroy two assault droids on your own!”

“I’ve no intention of destroying them. If we destroy them the Mandalorians will just send out more, or worse, send their security troops down here. I’m only going to repel their blasts to allow you and your men to get in that lift.” She peeked around the corner again, and was met again with a barrage of fire. “And don’t worry. I’ll meet you up there. Just get your men to that elevator and up to the command deck.”

The sergeant reluctantly agreed, and motioned his men to get ready to move.

“On my mark,” Lake said. She peeked around the corner once more, and the barrage of laser blasts started again. Now she had figured out the droids' pattern of fire. “One, two….” The blasts ceased. “Three!”

Dropping to a crouch, Lake did a tumbling roll into the corridor, activating her lightsaber as she did so, and came to a defensive stance directly in between her troops and the assault droids--and all in one smooth move. No sooner than the droids’ blasts began again in earnest, she began deflecting them with her blade with moves and flourishes as graceful as a dancer.

Protected from the blasts by keeping behind her, the small squad of marines filed across the corridor, disappearing into the elevator of the Mandalorian Capital ship. When the last marine had boarded, the sergeant called out to her, beckoning her to hurry and come with them.

“I’ll be right behind you!” she shouted over the din of blaster fire as she slowly backed towards the elevator.

The seargent closed the door and the elevator lights indicated that it was going up. Lake positioned herself up near the elevator, and when she was sure that the elevator car was no longer behind the door, she slashed it open. Wielding her lightsaber in her left hand, she reached for the rocket powered grappling hook on her belt, fired it at the bottom of the rising elevator car, then leapt into the shaft. The hook secured itself on the counterweight bracket and she rose up the shaft.

By the time the sergeant had disembarked his troops from the elevator and onto the command deck, Lake had joined him, having disembarked a floor below the marines and taking out the sentry droids as she had made her way to them.

The sergeant shook his head in amazement. “Jedi…,” he mumbled, then to his troops he shouted, “Right men! Forward to the bridge!”

On Board of my flag ship “The Shield IV” In a critical moment we where been heavily fired by 2 Mandalorian ships



"Sir, our shields are in 30%, we can’t hold on for much longer, all our fighters are destroyed"-An experience officer said to me

"Hmmm, there is help on the way, General Jesp Is on the way, I can sense it"- I said

"Sir, We managed to destroy the other mandalorian Ship , We still have One heavy fire in us"-Another Officer said

I studied all in the battle map And saw a week stop on the life support system , but our lasers cant hit there for it is under the ship , only a squadron can do that and since our squadron was destroyed I will be very difficult ,I said ......

"Ok, all heavy fire to the ships bridge!!!, send a message to General Jesp for assistance and backup , If he has a Squadron send him the info of the week spot of the enemy ship" - I ordered

"Yes Sir” The Experience officer replied

"You young officer stay with me"-I ordered

"Yes sir?"-He replied

"Unlock the escape Pods, We don’t know if General Jesp will make it in time, we might not make it."- I said

"Yes Sir, I will do as commanded"-He then run to the main computer and unlocked the Pods , but gave the command to everybody to stay on their positions.

"CJ, you have always been there when I need you , Please make it"-I said

"Red Squadron, we have incoming enemy bombers coming in from heading two-seven-five, please advise."

Caelux 'Lux' Vanas clicked his comm unit. "Red Flight Three copies, Defiant. Moving to intercept. Just try not to shoot any of us down with those big lasers of yours."

"As if, Lux," the Defiant's captain retorted. "May the Force be with You."

"And you," Lux responded, clicking his comm twice, then focusing his attention on the task at hand. Switching over to his Flight's frequency, he said, "Okay boys, we're coming around to heading two-seven-five---"

"Hey now!" an annoyed female voice spoke up.

"Er, yes. Boys and girl," Lux corrected. "My apologies, Red Ten."

"Damn right," was the response, but Lux could hear the amusement in fellow Jedi Anya Bethesda's voice even over the crackling static of the intercom.

Lux rolled his eyes. "Right, so we're coming to heading two-seven-five and intercepting bombers vectoring in for a run on the Defiant. Break off in pairs and try to take them out at range. We'll want to save our torpedoes for the big boys." He heard his flight acknowledge his order as they closed in on their objectives. Ahead were six Mandalorian heavy bombers, their ugly green asymmetric shapes making them easy targets against the explosive backdrop of the battle. "Red Ten, you're my wing."

"I copy, Red Nine," Anya responded, her tone all business now.

"On my mark, break off in pairs and engage," Lux commanded, tightening his grip on the stick, his thumb hovering over the trigger. As the four Jedi Aurek fighters closed within range, the Mandalorian bombers started to go evasive. "Mark!" Lux shouted, banking his fighter towards the two closest bombers, his practiced eyes already picking out the engine emplacements on the enemy ships. Squeezing the trigger, he watched in satisfaction as twin red streaks of light lanced out and burrowed their way into the enemy bomber's exhaust ports. It shuddered from the impact, then was rocked by a terrific explosion that tore it in half. Lux's lips formed a thin line as he nodded almost imperceptibly, acknowledging the death of a fellow starfighter pilot, enemy or not. It always pained him to take lives, as he was a disciple of the living Force, but that did not hinder him from seeing the larger picture. He had joined this battle to fight the Mandalorians, who were sweeping across the galaxy, causing pain and suffering wherever they went.

Lux watched as his wingman vaped her own target, then moved up on his starboard wing. "Good shooting, Ten."

"Thanks, Nine."

Lux's console screamed at him and he jerked his stick hard to port. Green streaks of energy boiled down into the space that his fighter had occupied not seconds before, followed by three Mandalorian starfighters. Lux oriented himself and punched the throttle. "Looks like we've got company."

"No, you think?" Anya answered in return, grinning a bit at her companion's obvioous statement. Gritting her teeth, she followed Lux as he bore to the side, steering to face the new comers.

"Let's show them why they shouldn't run with scissors, shall we?" she said through the comm., and they moved to a new formation. Heading directly for the oncomming fighters, the Jedi pair waited for the last possible moment before impact before Anya angled her fighter up and Lux angled his downward. Both released a stream of fire as they did so, which lanced down the center of both the underside and topside of the fighters. When both were behind the enemy fighters, they switched positions, Lux taking the top and Anya taking the bottom. With another spurt of fire, both Jedi left a blossoming explosion of ship fluid and metal as the ships exploded.

"Hoo-rah." she said, grinning.

Tegan Marr strode through the corridors of a Republic capital ship, moving in solemn silence toward the bridge. She reached the bridge to find another Jedi already there. His name was Korwin Vash and his greatest problem, in Tegan's eyes, was the false assumption that he was the Force's gift to the Republic.

"Vash," Tegan barked. "You were supposed to call me as we entered combat."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the arrogant young Jedi grumbled sarcastically. "I forgot, I'm only a Padawan. I'm supposed to look up to the Knight and Guardian, to call her when things get interesting." He scowled. "Begging your pardon, Marr, but we're equals now."

"Don't you wish..." Tegan muttered. "Look, Vash, if you can't learn to cooperate, I will have you thrown in the brig. Trust me, the crew of this ship will take my word over yours."

"You wouldn't dare!" the man snapped irritably.

"I would if you continue snapping orders about like you're a pin-on-the-collar Admiral of the Fleet!" Tegan shot back. "You're still a young kid, alright? You shouldn't even be here."

"Revan doesn't turn down the youth," the seventeen year old growled.

"My point is you don't have the experience," Tegan sighed. "You've never been in battle before."

"Oh, and you have?" Vash challenged. Tegan's stony expression made the boy frown. "Whatever."

Tegan nodded. "What's our status, Captain?"

"I already have things taken care of here, Marr!" Vash exclaimed. Tegan's eyes remained on the captain of the ship.

"Captain?" she repeated.

"He's got us on a suicide run," the captain answered fearfully. "You give me the command to abort, I'll..."

"Abort!" Tegan exclaimed. Vash growled.

"Press on!" he yelled, drawing his lightsaber.

"Belay that!" Tegan shouted, drawing her own. She called on the Force to knock the captain out of the way of the boy's hazy yellow lightsaber. "Pull back! Focus fire on the flagship. Safe distance!"

"What are you doing?" Vash screamed, lunging at Tegan. She calmly deflected his blow and spun around behind him, knocking his head solidly with the hilt of her saber.

"Saving our lives," she answered as he slumped to the floor, unconscious. She turned to the captain, switching off her lightsaber. "Captain, command of the ship is yours. I need to be sure this idiot doesn't kill us all."

With that she left the bridge, carrying Korwin Vash with her to the brig. There, she would watch over his cell, ensuring he could not use his Force powers to free himself.

CJ’s Fighter and Indigo-6 continued on their path managing to stay off the enemy fighters scopes. They sped at top speed across the battlefield occasionally having to avoid a stray blaster fire or missile. Three fighter and a bomber squadron soon formed up behind the two small vessels.

“General Jesp, we have been ordered by general Truth to assist you.” The commanding officer announced.

“Great squad 7 leader, me and indy-6 could use the help.” Castov informed.

The twenty fighter craft continued on their path to the Mandalorian long-range bombardment ship. It appeared to be concentrating its fire on the The Shield IV one of the Jedi commanded ships in the fleet. The ship was losing shields fast and it wouldn’t hold out too much longer unless Jesp took it don quickly.

“General Jesp, this is the shield four. Do you copy?” An office asked over the comm..

“Reading you loud and clear Shield.” Jesp responded.

”We are under attack from an imperial artillery ship.”

“I’m already on my way to take it down.” Jesp Cheerfully replied.

”We have tactical information on the vessel.” The officer informed. ”We’ve found a weak spot a couple of heavy bombs hit in the right place should start a reaction that’ll destroy the whole thing.

“Where?” CJ asked.

”The secondary exhaust port.” The officer.

“Really?” Castov replied rising his eyebrow thinking that it was a ridiculous suggestion. “O.K I’m on it?”

The Fighters and bombers under Jesp’s command flew at great speed towards the Artillery ship. While travelling Castov had laid out a plan to get the bomber squadron close enough to the exhaust ports after the Mandalorians noticed what was going on.

It didn’t take long for the Mandalorians to send several dog fighters towards Jesp’s taskforce. Castov ordered the three squadrons sent to him by General Truth to split from the group and make sure those Mandalorians didn’t interrupt the bombers. Now it was up to CJ and indigos-6 to protect the Bomber squadron from any other fighters or defensive turrets the Mandalorian ship may have.

A Republic Heavy Cruiser entered the battlefield, opening all gun batteries of other Mandalorian ships which met it's own calerper. Captaining it was Mignola Sapien, or more commonally known as Mike. Mike had chosen to command a small ship which a decent firepower capabilities and ended up with this Cruiser. It's orders was to simply supply firing support, and because of it's firing range, could do so rather well.

"Sir, we have detected 3 bombing fleets heading for the Capitalship Atlantis," Reported the Radar officer
"Engage," Mike replied before moving his hand towards his mask, there was a small button on the side of his mask

If pressing down, the filters in the eyeparts changed to block out all light together, leaving Mike physically blind. He needed it was way so he could allow the force to give him sight. All living objects in his view came clear to him however many unnessiary objects disspeared as Mike began to concentrate on the Capitalship, his own ship and the bombers, this allowed gave him a more stragical view on the battlefield and remained this way untill the cruiser had shot down all the bombers, once that was complete Mike returned his vision to normal and order his ship to continue with their previous objective.

"Ha-ha Cj always there"- I acclimated

"Full power, let’s move soldiers!! Take does Cannons and shoot at the engine, Lasers at the bridge, Let’s take them down!"- I said trying to encourage my soldiers.

"Sir, the engineers are trying to stable the force of the shields"-my officer said.

"Good, lock does escape pods , we wont be leaving this ship"- I ordered.

"Yes, Sir"-The officer did as commanded and locked the escape pods in the main computer.

“Sir, Shields 50% and upraising”-The Officer said.

“Good , take some utility droids to help there, I’ll send my personal utility droid to help , T3-H8 help assist the engineers”-I commanded.

“Poow, Doow”-T3-H8 responded.

“Good, now go help”-I said as he was leaving to help the engineers.

"Sir, our cannons have managed to destroy their communications"-A soldier informed me

“Good, how much time until they’re engines is destroyed?”-I asked

“They are damaged at 68%, In 2 or 3 minutes more they will explode”-The Officer responded.

“They’re shields are down sir , and our shields are at 74%”-The bridge engineer specialist said.

“T3 keep it up”-I said by comlink.

“Deew”-T3-H8 responded.

“Sir, the mandalorian ship is now immobile”-The officer said

"Good, now let's move to help other ship’s, General Jesp can take care of the rest" - I responded

"That was very Dark Side of you, Korwin," Tegan said softly as the young man came to. "You attacked me."

"I just don't like you coming in and taking charge," Korwin complained. "I had everything under control!"

"You were about to send a capital ship into the middle of a firefight," Tegan pointed out. "So it's my educated guess that you have not even taken any tactical education courses."

"And you have, which makes you the better commander?" Korwin snapped. "I know how ships work..."

"And I know how armadas work," Tegan cut him off. "Korwin, you're arrogant, self centered, you think you know everything there is to know in the galaxy and let me tell you, you don't. You're young, undereducated, and what's worse, you have the male instinct to show off. If you can agree to do as I say, I'll let you out of that cell. If not, you're a prisoner and I'm your guard. For the rest of the fight. Then, I'm shipping you back to the Jedi."

Korwin fell silent, glaring sullenly at his captor. "Maybe you're right, mom," he sneered.

Tegan smiled cheerily. "Oh, thanks for that!" she said. "I'm happy to take the position... 'cus it's a mother you need." She stared at him thoughtfully. "You know, I used to be just like you. Then, Cora Juana became my master... and my mother. If that's what you need, Korwin, then that's what I'll provide."

"I don't need a mother," Korwin growled. "I don't need anyone."

"You're still a padawan," Tegan pointed out. "You need someone to complete your training. Now stand up."

The boy refused and Tegan lifted him to his feet with the Force. As soon as she released him, he fell, limp to the floor once more. Tegan patiently hauled him to his feet again, and again, he did not attempt to keep himself standing.

"You know, that's giving you far more pain than it's giving me," Tegan remarked, once more lifting him to his feet. This time, he held his feet beneath him.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, disgust dripping from his voice.

"I want you to go to your quarters and meditate on your feelings," Tegan answered. "Feelings are powerful and if used properly, they are tools of great good. But you are not using them properly. You are channeling your rage and pain of being left alone at the nearest, most convenient outlet, which in this case happens to be me. I understand, I've been there. But you can overcome it. I am living proof. Now go to your room."

"Yes, mother," the boy grumbled, shuffling away to his room as ordered. He knew she'd be able to tell if he disobeyed. And he'd heard of Tegan Marr; he didn't exactly want to open the floodgates he was sure hid beneath her calm surface. And he certainly didn't want to go against her lightsaber skills... up on the bridge had been a momentary lapse in judgement and he hoped it wouldn't happen again.

"Flying is for droids," Pallas muttered as she clambered out of her starfighter. Landing it in the middle of a firefight had not been the easiest thing to do and now she was squarely in the middle of the fray. The Mandalorian boarding party had breached the hangar bay and were pushing forward towards the Republic defense line. She had swooped in with her fighter and taken out as many as she could, but the Mandalorians were quick to take out their shoulder mounted rockets and target her craft with them. It had taken some slick manuvering, but she'd managed to land it behind the Republic line with only half the nose section blasted off. She wrinkled her own nose at it as she dropped to the floor and shed her heavy outer cloak, revealing her dark Jedi tunic and leggings.

Unclipping her lightsaber, she strode to where a grizzled Republic officer stood, shouting orders at his soldiers. "Commander Assant," she addressed him, reading his name tag. "Where do you need assistance?"

The tall soldier stopped barking orders long enough to look the white-haired Jedi woman over. "Everywhere," he finally replied, his voice heavy with stress. "I was hopin' you'd bring more of your friends with you."

Pallas shook her head curtly. "That distress signal you put out should draw more Jedi here, but right now, I'm all you've got."

Commander Assant nodded and turned back to the firefight. The Mandalorians were slowly but surely pushing forward, using their superior tactics and weaponry to systematically overwhelm the Republic defenders. "They'll overrun us soon if we don't do something."

"Right," Pallas acknowledged, coming up to stand next to Assant. "Please form up a fire team for me, Commander," she said after a few moments of studying the battle.

Assant looked at her askance, then nodded to one of his lieutenants. "What do you plan to do?" he asked as soldiers began to form up behind them.

"Buy us all some more time," she replied, turning around to look at her new subordinates. True to his word, the commander had formed a fire team of five soldiers, no more, no less. She nodded to them and gestured for them to follow her. She led them down towards the front lines and found cover behind a large cargo container. "Lieutenant," she called out to the senior ranking soldier in her team.

"Yes ma'am," the lieutenant responded, his youthful face set into a hardened expression.

"We're going to flank the Mandalorian front line from the right, then move our way across. I will lead the way, you provide suppressive fire. That should give Commander Assant enough of a respite to push forward." She looked at him. "I hope he's one to take the initiative."

The young soldier nodded. "He is, ma'am."

"Good." Pallas thumbed her lightsaber on, the brilliant argent blade boiling out with the familiar snap-hiss accompanying it. "Then let's get to work," she said as she moved from behind the container and put action to words.

A young Mandolorian commander bristled with pride as reports came in about his troop's advances into the ship. The enemies weak resistance were no match for Mandolorian tactics and fire power. His own temporary command post was in the hanger in which they had come in through. He could see himself getting promoted for the capture of this vessel, and possibly even-

"Sir, we've lost contact with Sierra Platoon." a communications officer said.

Great. No need to panic though, it was probably just a communications failure.

"Get them back on the-" The Commander began to order, but was cut off by another officer.

"Sir, we've lost contact with Alpha Platoon."

"It must be-"

"Sir we've lost contact with Bravo and Delta Platoons."

"Damn it, get me in contact with-"

"Sir, Oscar Platoon is reporting heavy enemy fire from enemy troops wearing black armor. It is also reporting that it's sister platoon, Sierra, has experienced depressurization in their area, resulting in sudden death."

The commander's eyes widened he heard the hiss of a lightsaber snap into existence behind him. And they were still open as his head fell to the ground, watching a slaughter come upon the rest of his command post.

Lake and the group of marines began to make their way to the bridge. They had encountered some droids, which had been little trouble for the marines’ blasters or the Jedi’s lightsaber, but now, as the closed in on the bridge, they had encountered actual Mandalorian soldiers.

The Republic marines had taken up positions just off the main corridor that led to the bridge. The Mandalorians’ armour was top notch—difficult, if not impossible, to penetrate with ordinary blaster fire.

“Sergeant?” Lake called to him over the sounds of blaster fire from both sides. “Now would be a good time to use those grenades. Knock out as many Mandys as we can, and rush the rest in the confusion. We might suffer casualties, but we have to secure that bridge.”

“Already on it,” the sergeant replied. He motioned to some of his men, and they hurled heavy concussion grenades down the corridor at the Mandalorian forces.

No sooner than they had gone off, the sergeant yelled, “For the Republic!” and he and Lake charged forward leading the marines to charge the Mandalorian line. Blasters were quickly replaced with vibroblades in the close quarter battle that followed, and the fighting was fierce and bloody on both sides.

Lake slashed away with her lightsaber, hacking against the energy shields of her opponents until she could slice through the Mandalorian armour. She enjoyed face to face combat and relished good opponents, but now was not the time to practice her skills or to show off. She was fighting to win.

Finally, the last of the Mandalorians fell, and she and her marines had a clear shot to the bridge doors.

“Get those charges planted and get that blast door open, now!” the sergeant barked to his troops.

“I’ll get it open,” Lake said, and she stabbed her lightsaber into the middle of the door. It began to glow as the lock mechanism melted. It didn’t take long for the lock to fail and the door slid open.

The bridge crew were expecting them, as Lake knew they would be. In a second she had dispatched the two assault droids placed at each side of the door, while the marines rushed through on to the bridge yelling battle cries.

In another minute, the last Mandalorian, the captain of the Acadia Raider, fell to the floor—dead from a lightsaber strike through the heart.

“Get someone to take the helm, and someone on the comm,” Lake ordered the sergeant, while she sat down herself at the security station. “I’m putting the rest of the ship on emergency lockdown. If they’ve got any other troops on board, they won’t have an easy time getting up here.”

Finished with her task, she moved over to the nav station. “Now, let’s see where we are and who’s where out there.”

The sergeant snorted. “Planning to do some friendly fire?” he asked with anticipation.

Lake shook her head as she studied the nav panel. “Nope.”

The sergeant frowned.

“Planning to cause a traffic jam,” Lake said, grinning slightly. She turned to the marine on the comm. “Give me the comm control over here.” The marine punched some keys and then nodded. Lake cleared her throat. “Acadia Raider to Blacksilver. Please proceed to co-ordinates 43-12-87 for regrouping and await further orders. Acadia Raider, out.” There was silence for a moment, then a reply. “Blacksilver copy. 43-12-87. Proceeding.”

“That was easy,” Lake commented. She proceeded to contact several other ships, ordering them to proceed to the same co-ordinates, or co-ordinates nearby, thus causing a sort of traffic jam in space.

“Now, let’s see if we can render some assistance to our ships.” She nodded to one of the marines. “You, take weps. See if you can target some of those artillery ships.” She looked down at the nav station. “But be careful. Some of our own guys are out there.”

Mike smiled underneath his mask as he watched Lake's plan unfold and the capital ships move dangerousally close together. With a short chuckel he told his crew "Aww, now that's unfortuant isn't it. Direct all fire one of the ships. Take a random pick, if we hit the one with our people in it, well they're smart enought to cause a traffic jam in space, they're smart enough to send us a message."

((sorry it's rather short compared to the others however it was 4 minutes to midnight.))

“Right,” said Lake to the sergeant, “now that we’ve established mass confusion out there, and a traffic jam to rival a Coruscant rush hour, it’s time to let our people know that we’ve completed our part of the mission.” She frowned at the nav panel. “Before we get shot at,” she added.

She connected her comlink to the nav station, and with the push of a few buttons, she had rigged up the ship to broadcast to the Republic forces that the Acadia Raider was now under friendly control, yet at the same time, the Mandalorians were still none the wiser.

“There.” Lake grinned. “That’s better.”

"Tell me the situation, Captain," Tegan ordered, returning to the bridge.

"It's looking better and better," the man answered. "Covert infiltration succeeded on the Acadia Raider. Republic controlled now. In addition to that, under orders from that ship, several other Mandalorian ships are on a collision course for the same location... nice little traffic jam there."

"Good," Tegan murmured. "How are we holding up?"

"Shields holding decently," the captain replied. "Ninety-seven percent and holding."

"Excellent," Tegan said. "Be prepared at a moment's notice to defend the Acadia Raider. At any moment, the Mandalorians will discover she's no longer their ship. We're closest to her, so we're best suited to cover her retreat."

"Yes ma'am," the captain agreed. "How's your young friend?"

"He's meditating on his actions and emotions," Tegan answered. She frowned. "I don't mean to seem surprised or anything but..." She looked to the captain with a rather surprised look on her face. "... I think I just took him as my apprentice..."

The captain laughed. "I'm not to be a judge of that, Jedi Marr. But if you want my opinion, I think you're just the one to whip a bit of sense into that kid."

Tegan smiled. "Thank you, Captain. Carry on."

And with that, the captain returned to issuing orders and Tegan pulled back to observe.

Lux pulled his control stick hard to the left while chopping back on the throttle. This caused his fighter to execute a hard and precise 180-degree change in direction. He could feel the metal of his fighter scream as he pushed it to its limits with his manuvering. Punching the throttle forward, he was driven back into his seat by the acceleration as his fighter zipped towards the fray.

Juking and jinking, Lux wove his fighter through the dogfight, two Mandalorian starfighters still on his tail. Squeezing a shot off at an enemy bomber, he heard his console scream again and sent his fighter into a spin just as the bogeys on his tail opened fire on him. Pulling the stick to the right and back, he snap-rolled to starboard, then sent his fighter into an upward trajectory. He diverted power from his front shields to the engines, giving him a little boost in acceleration and putting some distance between himself and his pursuers. After a few moments, he reversed shields and executed another U-turn, orienting himself towards the now oncoming Mandalorian fighters. Let's see if they like playing Chicken, Lux thought grimly as he goosed his fighter forward, watching the distance readout between him and his targets rapidly decrease. As soon as they came within range, he squeezed the trigger and opened fire on the Mandalorian craft. He watched as his lasers chewed up both fighters, causing one to explode and the other to drift off to the side, disabled. He had little time to savor his victory, however, since he had not escaped unscathed. Alarms were going off, indicating serious damage to his fighter.

"Damn," he muttered, punching up a system readout. He'd lost his port engine and laser cannon and was trailing hydraulic fluid from his wing. "Not good," he swore as he brought up his comm. "Red Ten, this is Red Nine. I've been hit."

"I copy, Nine. Coming to your assistance as soon as I can," Anya's voice was controlled, but Lux could sense his friend's concern.

"Take it easy, Anya," he told her, just as his console flashed again. "Oh, what now..." he exhaled, bringing up the alert. A distress signal? he thought. It seemed to be coming from one of the Republic capital ships. Well, that's as good a place as any to land. He hit his comm again. "Ten, I'm coming up on coordinates six-eight-three-five. There's a distress signal coming from a Republic ship there. Gonna see if I can land myself on it."

"That's crazy, Lux," Anya replied, sounding a bit more strained. "Your fighter's in no state to manage that."

"It's better than sitting out here waiting to get vaped," Lux retorted, firing up his manuvering thrusters and orienting his damaged snubfighter towards the Republic ship.

"Idiot." Anya hissed under her breath as he cut the comm. connection. Barrel-rolling to the left, she dodged the two seekers that had been on her tail, a frown coming to her lips as they chanced to hit a Mandalorian fighter that had been aiming a trajectory for one of the capital ships.

Of course, as a Jedi, she knew there was no such thing as chance.

Her distractions over for the moment, she sped the fighter around until she had a lock on Lux's fighter, sparking and leaking as it was. Teasing the controls and redirecting the energy flow of her shields, she shot forward until she came level with his fighter.

"Red Nine, this is Red Ten." she said, establishing the communications again, "You're not going in there alone."

CJ and the lone pilot were flying on the right and left flank of the bomber squadron heading towards the Artillery Ship. The bombers were locking on to the large exhaust port on the rear of the ship, so far only a couple of Mandalorian fighters had attempted to halt the bombers path but the combined efforts of Castov and Indigo-6 neutralised them. Castov wasn’t willing to take any chances and ordered all three Republic bombers to fire at the exhaust port in case one missed.

”Bomber squadron six locked and loaded sir.” One of the bomber pilots informed.

“Check that, Weapons free, Let’s blow this thing!” Castov ordered.

The bombers launched one large torpedo each towards the target, the torpedoes were travelling at a slow peed compared to most projectile weapons but they more than made up for it with it’s payload. The missiles glowed a bright cyan as the moved closer and closer to the exhaust port, Castov smiled as he checked his sensor readout and saw they were all on target.

A metallic trap door on the Mandalorian vessel slid open and a point defence turret extended out of the hole. The turret began to fire at the oncoming missiles with a rapid fire of green energy, the blasts impacted each of the three torpedoes.

”Sir that turret is going to make it difficult.” The bomber pilot announced.

“OK Bomber squadron break off and get orders from command, me and indy will deal with this ship.” CJ replied. The three bombers broke off the attack run and flew away further into the battlefield. Castov switched the comm frequency to indigo-6’s. “I-6 prep a torpedo. We’re going to have to fly in hot to avoid that turret fire.”

“I’m with you General.” The young pilot replied to the Jedi’s orders.

The two fighters accelerated to fall speed, both of the pilots locked on to the secondary exhaust port. They were going so fast the targeting computers were having trouble getting the lock on secure. Jesp knew he could use the force and still get a hit but the pilot I-6 was an inexperienced pilot and Castov could only hope the force was with both of them. Both fighters had gotten a few meters away from the port before they both let their torpedoes fly, the turret didn’t have time to lock on to the torpedoes and both flew in unhindered. Jesp and I-6 both had to pitch their ships upwards quickly to avoid fire and fly away from the ship.

CJ looked down through his rear window and winced. “Well that didn’t wo…”

The ship then ignited in fire and went up in a single explosion sending fragments of it’s hull in all directions.

“Now That was a big explosion!” Jesp exclaimed.

Twirling her blade into an infinty loop, Pallas deflected several blaster bolts coming her way, then used the momentum to slash downward into the torso of a Mandalorian assault droid. Twisting her wrists, she brought her lightsaber up into a diagonal cut, further mangling the assault droid. She used her right hand to swing the blade in a horizontal arc, deflecting more blaster bolts, while using her left to levitate the cloven droid shell as sort of a makeshift blast shield. Casting a momentary glance behind her, she saw her fire team diligently spraying blaster bolts while gesturing for the rest of the Republic forces to push foward. She grinned a tight-lipped smile as she turned her attentions back to the fight ahead.

She and her team had managed to push the Mandalorian boarders back a few precious meters, backing them up to their second line. In response, the Republic defenders had moved forward and secured better positions on the hangar floor. Pallas and her team had managed to shift the momentum of the battle, but the Mandalorians were still coming on strong, and she was tiring. Lightsaber combat had never been her strong point and it took all her concentration and a deep immersion in the Force to keep at her current pace.

Pressing onward, Pallas observed a small team of Mandalorian warriors break off and rush towards her. She stepped forward, then using her front foot as a pivot, spun around and hurled the mangled assault droid at them. It hit the leader in the helmet with a satisfying smack and the burly raider crumpled to the floor. His compatriots remained undeterred, however, as they came at her with vibroswords unsheathed. She felt blaster fire erupt from behind her and two more Mandalorians went down under the guns of her team, but one lone Mandalorian broke through and charged at her, vibrosword upraised. Perhaps it was fatigue or a misjudgement, but Pallas was a mite too slow in bringing up her parry. She caught the sword as it was coming down towards her head, but didn't compensate for the power of the Mandalorian's blow. The cortosis weave sword sizzled as it impacted her lightsaber, the argent blade deflecting it away, but the tip caught Pallas' cheek, drawing blood. She gasped at the white hot pain, momentarily losing her balance. She caught herself just in time to parry a horizontal slash meant to cleave her in two, but again was a split second late as the tip of the sword again slashed her, this time in a line across her abdomen. Gritting her teeth, she pushed back the pain and drew on the Force to give her strength. Parrying yet another attack, she pushed against the Mandalorian's blade with her own, catching him off-guard. Seeing her chance, she flicked her lightsaber downward and severed her enemy's blade hand. It fell to the floor, still clutching the sword hilt. Hearing the Mandalorian cry out in pain, she brought her left hand forward in a violent Force Push that forced him backwards, knocking him into a bulkhead, which he slumped against, unconscious.

Breathing heavily, she staggered backwards, only to be caught by the young lieutenant. "Are you all right, ma'am?" he asked, concerned.

Pallas righted herself, bringing her lightsaber up again to deflect more oncoming blaster blots. "I'll live, Lieutenant. For now, we need to pull back," she told him, backpedaling.

"Aye, ma'am," he responded, matching her pace. "Commander Assant informs us that we've got more Jedi coming in."

"It's about time," Pallas gritted out as the pain in her abdomen flared up.

"Well this is fun," Lux muttered through gritted teeth as he tried to regain control of his fighter. The port side cannon had exploded, sending the wedge-shaped snubfighter into a spin. It had taken all of Lux's ability and willpower to keep it headed for the Republic capital ship, as he was spiraling and twisting in all directions.

"Red Nine, are you all right?" Anya's voice came over the comm.

Well, at least something works. "That would be a negative, Red Ten. I'm kinda dizzy." He groaned and tried to spot the capital ship through his flashing viewport. "Do me a favor and find me a nice place to land."

"Already done. There's an open hangar bay six point five seven degrees to starboard."

"Sounds good," Lux replied as he managed to finally flatten out his starfighter's spin. Now he was only spinning and not tumbling. "Let's see if I can't point myself that way."

"Commander, how far off are reinforcements?" Pallas asked, striding up to Assant with a hand over her belly.

"They didn't say, communications were abruptly cut off," he responded, his voice grave.

"That isn't quite what I wanted to hear," she said, wobbling a little. The commander reached out and caught her elbow, steadying her. "Thank you, Commander," she whispered, then looked toward the pitched battle in the hangar bay, then the open blast doors above the fray. Reaching out with the Force, she tried to sense the incoming Jedi. She couldn't help but arch an eyebrow as she detected the Force signature coming towards the ship, not because it was arriving so late, but because it seemed to be spinning. Shaking her head, she turned back to Assant. "Commander, keep those Mandalorians away from the hangar doors. We've got back up incoming."

He looked at her confusedly for a second, then nodded and barked more orders at his troops.

"Sir General Jesp Is in combat with the ship"- my officer informed me

"Yes, I can see , he can take control of that , let's help other ship's on our need"-I replied

"Sir , we have 1 mandalorian ship coming this way"- a soldier said

"hmm , all power , let's move and give some nice race to that ship, prepare for battle"-I said

"As you command sir , our shield are at 100% sir , we have a nice chance here"-the officer informed

"Good , everybody prepare for combat!!!"- I informed

Castov had continued to take out Mandalorian fighters and bombers that were unfortunate enough to get in his sights. He had no real objective other than taking down as many bucket heads as possible and protecting those Republic vessels that needed it. His communications console began to beep a high pitch noise signifying he was receiving a priority message.

“Jesp here.” He announced switching the channel open.

”General, we have a problem.” A voice said that Castov immediately recognised to be Admiral To’Knel.

“I think we have a lot of problems out here Admiral.” Castov replied as he narrowly missed colliding with a piece of debris. “That was close.”

”Yes but this one requires your immediate attention.” To’Knel began to explain. ”The daughter of a Corellian diplomat was kidnapped and is on the Astral Eclipse. You’re the closest to it and we need her rescued before the vessel is eliminated.”

“So you want me to single headedly infiltrate a Mandalorian battleship, find a kid and then get out with her before the whole place goes to hell… In the middle of a war zone?” CJ asked.

”That’s the sum of it.” The Zabrak wryly replied.

“Well I’m in and on my way.” Jesp responded as he flew his ship in the direction of the Astral Eclipse. He had to avoid several friendly and enemy vessels while he scanned the ship for any tactical information. He frowned as he saw that the only war in through the main hanger was currently shielded and would disintegrate his ship on impact. He had no way to take out the shield from his little ship so he checked for any nearby ships. He noticed that a Mandalorian ship, the Acadia Raider was sending out a republic comm frequency. The Jedi knew that meant some republic marines had taken control of the ship and he could use this to his advantage.

“This is Jedi Knight Jesp to the Republic commander of the commandeered Acadia Raider please respond.” Castov asked through his communications console.

((OOC: Ah... how I love co-postiness. :) Thanks, StarMark2k! ))

“This is Jedi Knight Jesp to the Republic commander of the commandeered Acadia Raider please respond.” Castov asked through his communications console.“Sarge?” said the marine at the comm station. “I’m receiving a message from one of the Jedi fighters. He’s asking for the Republic commander of the Acadia Raider.”

The sergeant turned and grinned tongue-in-cheek at Lake. “That would be you, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Well, patch me in,” Lake replied coolly. She hit the com button near her nav station and listened to the repeated message from Jesp, then said, “This is Jedi Commander Lake Kiel of the Acadia Raider,” she said. “Go ahead, Jesp.”

"I need you two do me a favour, Kiel," Castov responded.

Lake grinned. "Does it involve explosions and flying debris?"

"No, that would be the opposite of what I need," Jesp informed her. "Do you have any ion batteries on that thing of yours?"

Lake cocked an eyebrow as she surveyed the controls around her. “Ye-eaah,” she said slowly. “Why?”

"I need you to fire an ion burst at the hanger of the Astral Eclipse," Castov confidantly asked.

“You having problems with your ship?” Lake asked, slightly confused. “I can open up our bays if you are.”

"That's a negative," Castov replied. "I'm on a search and rescue mission, and the damsel in distress is on board that ship.”

Lake blinked and looked over at her sergeant. “And you called me reckless,” she said quietly to him. The sergeant smirked. Back on the comm, Lake said, “I’m on it, Jesp. But let me try the back door first before we go charging through the front. Two secs.”

She looked up the secure frequency for the Astral Eclipse, then switched com channels to mimic one of the Mandalorian’s fighters. “Priority channel zero zero one. Request Astral Eclipse open port hangers for emergency landing.” And the she waited for a response.

"This is the Astral Eclipse. Turn back Pilot, we have been ordered to accept no incoming Spacecraft," the mandalorian officer replied in a heartless tone.

“Typical,” Lake sighed off comm. “Weps?” She turned to the marine at the weapons station. “Target an ion burst on the port hanger bay of the Astral Eclipse.” Switching channels to Jesp again, she said, “Well, we did ask nicely, but it’s a no go. Targeting hanger bay as requested. Kiel out.”

She nodded to the marine at the weapons station. “Fire.”

Lux felt as if he was in a child's amusement park ride, the one which spun in a circle ridiculously fast. He had never understood the appeal of the ride and the fact that he was spinning around fast enough to induce nausea wasn't helping his comprehension. Jamming his control stick to the side to keep the broken fighter on its course, he sat back and closed his eyes, immersing himself in the Force. First, he steadied his own internal equilibrium, otherwise he probably would have thrown up. Once he accomplished that, he reached out to his surroundings outside his fighter. He could sense the hangar bay approaching rapidly; it was probably no more than a few hundred klicks away. Gotta think fast... He quickly stretched his Force sense into the hangar, trying to get a handle on what was happening inside. The presences of the numerous troops doing battle flooded into his mind. He didn't need the Force to tell him that the ones closest to the hangar doors were the Mandalorians; they were probably a boarding party, trying to bully their way into the ship.

"Let's see if I can't throw a bit of dirt in yer eye," Lux whispered aloud as he focused his mind. Telekinesis wasn't his strongest subject at the Academy, but he held his own. Using the Force, he made minute adjustments to his starfighter's spin, then waited the few inexorable seconds until he breached the doors.

As he crossed the threshold, his fighter skidded along the metal causeway, knocking over several Mandalorian warriors and droids. The spin actually helped Lux's cause; his fighter became a whirling dervish of death. A few seconds before it slammed itself into the far wall, (taking several more Mandalorians with it), Lux opened his eyes and hit the hatch release. His canopy popped open and his somersaulted out, lightsaber already lit and in hand. He landed on both feet in the middle of a Mandalorian bulkhead. The surprised soldiers stood speechless for a few moments, just staring at him, which was all the time he needed.

"Evenin' gents," he said as he rushed forward, his lightsaber blazing.

Death reigned as Truth and his special operations team cut a bloody swath through the Mandolorian command post. It had been a simple matter for him and to sneak into the hanger, as there were dozens of large ventilation shafts that lead there. The part of sneaking up on the Mandolorians was more difficult with guards all over the place, but advanced stealth generators made up for that. The part of killing them all was the most interesting, as all the participants were finding out.

A Mandolorian, a veteran judging by the insignia on his helmet, approached Truth among the chaos with two vibroblades in hand and bellowed “Come and face me like a warrior, Jedi.”

Truth turned to face the veteran and replied “No, as that would not be plausible at moment.”

Then Truth leapt at the veteran, who in turn brought his own blades to meet Truth’s flurry. The veteran was good: he was able to block the first of Truth’s strikes. However, he was not good enough to stop the second, the third, and the fourth strikes. The second strike took off his right arm, the third his left arm and the fourth his head so that he literally fell to pieces. Then Truth walked over the body of the veteran without second thought, taking notice that his team had made a defensive perimeter around the command post, putting down any enemy troops that got too close.

The Mandolorians were leaderless and now under heavy attack from the force that Truth had lying in wait He had most of his personal to retreat deep into the ship while his special operations teams lie in wait in key choke points. When the Mandolorians got in deep enough, he gave the order for areas of the ship to be depressurized for a few moments before allowing it to pressurize again so his troops could move through with ease and retaliate. Then his already-stationed spec. ops. teams came out of their wait and caught the Mandolorians off guard while they attempted to regroup.

“This is the Bridge to General Truth: All the Mandolorians have been driven back to the hanger and our troops are now attacking their front line. Though it appears they are disorganized, they are still putting up more than a fight for our men. Please advise.” The com unit on Truth’s person spat out rather quickly, suggesting uneasiness.

“This is General Truth to the Bridge: Activate our Assault Droids and have them assist the troops. We will proceed to disrupt the enemy from behind their line,” Truth replied and then, turning to the leader of the team, ordered “Have four of your men commandeer those fighters nearby and have the snipers take out any man-launchers with a Beam Rifle. The rest are to remain here and defend this post.”

“Affirmative, Sir.” The leader replied and then began to shout out orders to his men as Truth took a moment to analyze the remaining Mandolorian force. They were outnumbered, and soon to be outgunned. Cornered rats always fought the hardest, and Truth didn’t want to waste any men that would come in good use on the surface of the planet. So his plan was simple: Overwhelm them with firepower, not numbers.

Each blasts of the ion cannons from Lake’s recently acquired capital ship impacted the shields protecting the hanger. Jesp accelerated to full speed as he noticed the atmosphere begin to escape the ship, this meant that the blast doors would soon close to hold it in. His engines burned brighter than all the blasts that were being fired between the two fleets as he hit maximum velocity.

The blast doors began to drop from the top of the hanger entrance and when they were halfway down Jesp managed to enter the ship. As the thick metal door slammed against the hanger floor CJ realised that the hanger wasn’t as long as he expected, even with reverse thrust on fall he would never slow down in time. The Jedi hit the emergency canopy release sending it flying up into the air, Jesp quickly un-strapped himself from the pilots seat and jumped out of the rapidly moving vehicle.

As he flew through the air he noticed two Mandalorians, they were both getting up from obviously being thrown when the atmosphere was being sucked out. Jesp used the force to help guide his fall so he would land between the two of them. Castov took out his lightsaber and ignited it and held it so the blade pointed downward. As the Mandalorians righted themselves Jesp came down and stabbed the first Mandalorian in the back, the blade went right down through the top of the back and came out of his stomach. Jesp then pulled the blade out and then flipped it before thrusting the yellow bade backwards impaling it through the second Mandalorians chest. Jesp deactivated his weapon as both of the Mandalorians fell to the floor bleeding and dead.

“Huh, I’m surprised I pulled that off.” CJ said surprised at his own skill.

Suddenly a large explosion sounded from behind Castov, it didn’t take him long to workout that it was the sound of his fighter meeting it’s inevitable collision course with the hangers back wall. The explosion caused a loud siren to sound and set off a flashing red light. Jesp then noticed that all the entrances to the hanger were beginning to close; the hanger was being put under lockdown.

Castov began to run using every ounce of strength he had along with the force to get through the door before it sealed. As he got close he began to skid feet first at the door as it had gotten too low for him two run through, as he slid under the door he dropped his lightsaber. The slight moment of panic he felt from losing his weapon was interrupted by the fact that he had just stopped sliding at the feet of three Mandalorians.

“Oh Come on!” Castov exclaimed. “This is not the plan!”

The Mandalorians all looked down at him and went to grab their weapons. Jesp turned on to his stomach and kicked his leg out at one of the Mandalorian’s, taking the feet from under him and knocking him to the floor. CJ held his hand out using the force to bring his lightsaber to it, the hilt flew towards Jesp and he gripped. Jesp then used the force once again to push him self high up into the air, he did a back flip and landed on the fallen Mandalorian’s chest. Igniting his lightsaber once again Jesp swung his weapon horizontally across the two standing Mandalorian’s midsections. He then flipped his blade to point downwards and stabbed the remaining Mandalorian in the neck.

Pallas watched in amusement as Lux somersaulted out of his starfighter and right into the fray, taking on several Mandalorians at once. She turned to Assant. "Commander," she started, but he held up a hand.

"I know, ma'am," he said with a bemused look. He grabbed his comlink and yelled, "All troops, suppressive fire around our incoming Jedi!"

Pallas allowed herself a small smile as she moved forward to the front lines again, her fire team still in tow. The pain from the wound in her abdomen was still throbbing, but she used the Force to push it aside.

Her lieutenant was the perceptive type, however. "Ma'am? I don't think you should press forward in your condition. More Jedi are incoming and you'll need a medic soon."

She cast a glance at him over her shoulder. "I wasn't aware you had a medical doctorate, Lieutenant," she told him. "I thank you for your concern, but I'll live, I promise you."

The young officer sighed as he and his team laid down suppressive fire.

He has a good heart, Pallas thought as she cut a swath through the Mandalorian lines, making her way towards Lux. "Once this battle is over and we're all happy and whole, you can take me to as many medics as you like, Lieutenant," she said.

"I like the sound of that," he responded.

"I thought you might."

Anya swooped smoothly in with her fighter, running into no disturbance as she came to a smooth, dainty landing in the hangar. The landing gears engaged as the ship bounced lightly to a stop. As the hatch popped, she disengaged the seat restraints and catapulted over the side of the ship, landing on the balls of her feet and drawing her saber, the blade activating with a snap-hiss.

She was just in time to catch sight of Lux sumersaulting out of his ruined fighter, his yellow blade bluring into arcs as he started cutting through the Mandalorian lines with all the ferocity of a Tatooine sandstorm.

"Show off." she muttered.

It wasn't long before the Mandalorians who weren't totally preoccupied by Lux noticed her and opened fire. Knowing that her time as a spectator was at an end, she flashed into action, deflecting the blaster bolts as she practically flew across the room until the Mandys were within range of her amber blade.

Lux twirled his lightsaber around his body, the aureate blade deflecting a myriad of blaster bolts. About a dozen enemy warriors and battle droids had fallen to it before the Mandalorians got their act together and started shooting at Lux in earnest. The mercenary soldiers were no slouches as they gave Lux a run for his credit chips, making him dance and weave to avoid and deflect their well-placed shots. Still, they were no match for the Jedi and with Anya and Pallas closing in on his position, it would only be a matter of time before the Mandalorians were defeated.

Backing up, he caught an overhead vibrosword slash on his left Echani wrist shield, then answered with a slash of his own to his assailant's chest. The Mandalorian warrior cried out, then crumpled to the ground in a heap. Lux exhaled, then glanced over his shoulder as he felt a familiar presence in the Force. "I thought you didn't like fighting, Pallasyndra," he told the silver-haired woman as a way of greeting.

“We’ve got the rest of the ship on lockdown,” the marine sergeant reported to Lake, “but it won’t take the crew long to figure out how to reroute bridge control from here to auxiliary control,” the sergeant said.

“I’m more concerned about our other ‘friends’ out there. It won’t take them long to figure out we’re not who they think we are. Soon, we’ll either have to retreat or go on all out attack.”

“Sarge!” Another marine came up to Lake and the sergeant. He was grinning. “We’ve recovered some stealth field generators from the bridge lockers.”

“Well, great! Pass them out, private,” Lake replied. “We might need them later.”

“We might need them sooner than you think, Sarge.” The marine private sitting at the com station on the bridge of the commandeered Acadia Raider adjusted his earpiece and then frowned. “I’m receiving some enquiries on the comm from the other Mandy ships as to why we are firing at one of our own.”

Lake grinned. “Cease fire, and then tell them our navigation and targeting systems have been damaged and we’re attempting to rectify the situation. Then begin to target random enemy ships. Like those artillery carriers,” she suggested. “Take care not to target too close to where our fighters are though.”

Lake glanced at her sergeant. “Have your men finished downloading those command structure files the Admiral wanted?”

“Just about.”

“Tell them to hurry up.” Lake looked out through the view window. “We don’t have much time left.” She began to tap in some co-ordinates for a course change. “Helm? Change course for these co-ordinates I’m sending you. We need to stay away from the Astral Eclipse until Jesp has finished his ‘damsel in distress’ rescue.” She rolled her eyes at the notion of trying to rescue one wayward captive during the middle of a heated battle, but didn’t comment further.

The private at the helm frowned. “Commander, those co-ordinates are going to put us really close to the middle of your ‘traffic jam’.”

“Yep. Glad to see you’re paying attention.”

Several Mandalorian soldiers quick marched down the corridor towards the hanger deck, all available crew had been given one objective: Find the Jedi. After the Hanger lockdown a small team went to investigate and found five dead Mandalorian’s each killed by a lightsaber. The whole of the ship had been put into a lockdown limiting access between decks and with security personnel placed outside all sensitive areas.

The marching Mandalorians were on the Jedi trail until he seemed to have disappeared in to a dead end. If any of them had taken the initiative to look upwards, they may have noticed that a ventilation grate had been tampered with.

Castov looked down through a different Grate further down the corridor as the Mandalorians marched underneath him. He smiled as they all ran past the grate none the wiser that their target was less than a meter from them. CJ began to crawl through the ventilation system knowing that the Mandalorian lockdown fortunately didn’t include guarding every access to it.

It took the Jedi crawling through what felt like a mile of Metal piping before he finally managed to make his way to the ships brig. He used the force to unscrew the grate right above one of the empty cells and dropped down into it. He silently stepped to the doorway into the cell and pops his head out briefly to look down both sides of the corridor. CJ only saw two Guards one standing outside a cell, most likely to be the one with the prisoner and one walking up and down the corridor.

Jesp realised that he could probably take them both down at the same time when the patrolling Mandalorian walks past the sentry. He allowed the wandering guard to make his route several times just to ensure he could get his timing right. When the two Mandalorians were right next to each other Jesp jumped out of his empty cell and used the force to smash the two Mandalorians bodies together. Both the Mandalorians fell to the floor knock unconscious from the surprising blow they received.

Jesp stepped over the fallen Mandalorian bodies and hit the door release button by the cell he believed the diplomat’s daughter was in. The door slid open and Jesp stepped in to see a Teenage Twi’lek girl sitting on the cell’s bed. A look of confusion came across CJ’s face as he looked at the young Twi’lek.

“Well you’re a little short for a Mandalorian.” The Twi’lek said Looking CJ up and down. ((OCC: I know but I couldn’t resist))

“I’m a Jedi, and I was expecting an 8 year old human to rescue.” Jesp looked up stepping towards the young alien women.

“Sorry to disappoint, so how are you getting me off this heap.” She asked getting straight to the point.

“I still have to work that bit out.” Jesp replied completely unconfident.

“Great, all the Jedi who could rescue me and I get the incompetent one.” She said obviously annoyed.

“I work in the moment.” CJ defensively explained. “Now let’s get out of this cell.”

Jesp turned around and walked out of the small prison cell and out into the corridor, The diplomat’s daughter began to follow. On walking out CJ turned his head to the right and saw a large Mandalorian walking towards him, his armour only covered his torso to show off the bulging muscles on his arms. Castov held his hand out to stop the Twi’lek from leaving the cell to give him a chance to deal with the Mandalorian. The Large Mandalorian was almost twice the Jedi’s height and width, the Mandalorian smiled as he walked up to the smaller man.

“Well you’re a large bucket head.” Castov exclaimed as the Mandalorian stopped walking face to face (or more accurately chest to face) in front of the Jedi. "But you know hat they say. The bigger they are, the harder they…”

Castov quickly took out his lightsaber and held it above his head before activating it and swinging down at the Mandalorian. As his hand came down the Mandalorian raised his and grabbed the Jedi by the wrist, The Large Mandalorian began to twist Castov’s hand downwards forcing him to hunch down and drop his weapon.

“Hit Back!” The Mandalorian exclaimed as if finishing Jesp’s sentence for him. The Mandalorian rolled his other hand into a fist and punched the Jedi in the chest, the punches force sent Castov flying backwards down the corridor until he smacked into the back wall twelve meters away. Castov’s back left a dent in the metallic barrier as he fell on to the floor on his backside.

“Ohhh, It never goes to plan!”

"I thought you didn't like fighting, Pallasyndra."

"I don't, Vanas," Pallas replied, slicing through another Mandalorian assault droid to come up alongside Lux. "However, the Mandalorians seem to like it and I saw fit to accomodate them." She twirled her argent blade, redirecting several blaster bolts back towards their shooters. "It took you and Anya long enough to get here," she commented idly.

"Sir, 2 heavy bombers are In our back too" - The officer informed

"What? .... Damn, unlock the escape pod's now, we have No other choice they will destroy us, prepare the soldiers too, down there in Corellia there will be a battle field"-I commanded

"Yes Sir"- He then did as commanded and unlocked the space pods

"Ok , we will have time to have a nice little battle here with the ship in front , but as soon as dose In our back reach we are done , So prepare cannons and guns"- I commanded a soldier

"Yes Sir” He said and then by comlink he said "Soldiers, prepare for fight, prepare cannons, lasers and guns... activate the torrents" - He commanded

In that moment every soldier in my ship where at they’re position and ready for naval fight , then the mandalorian ship past right beside us .......

"SHOOT!!!!"-I ordered

Then gun shoots lasers and cannons started the fight, as soon that it reached the enemy ship they started shooting back .

"Sir, Our shields at 60% and lowering"-The Officer said

"Hold on!!"-I commanded

Then a great bomb hit us

"Damn, what was that!!!?...... Sir our shields lowered at 30%, the causes?, that bomb"- the Officer informed

"Damn, what was that?" - I asked

"Sir, the 2 heavy mandalorian ships, shooted us one of the bomb over shoot us, If it managed to hit us that one, we would already be dead "-A soldier said

"I will not take more chances, Inform all the republic ships at the battle field our failure, tell them we are escaping to the planet and we will await them there"-I ordered

"Yes , Sir" Then he opened the communication and informed "Captains and Generals of the republic , our ship "The Shield IV" have failed , we have been heavily damaged by enemies and we will escape to the planet of Corellia , we will await you there , In the battle field"-He then send’s the message

I then take the comlink and inform to the howl ship ,"Soldiers , abandon the ship , take with you blaster and get ready for combat as soon as we reach the planet , I want every body to be accompanied and ready in that escape pod , now leave"- I ordered

Then all of my man leaved the bridge and reached the escape pods, I then waited to every soldier to escape and I entered the last pod with 7 soldiers and 1 official.

"Guy’s, get ready down there aint gonna be easy, I hope each one of you are prepare "-Then a hit the escape button and as soon as we where shoot out of the ship in less than 7 seconds the ship exploited.........

"Let's see what await us...” I said

From his poistion in the cruiser which was unleashing hell on the ships caught in the traffic jam, he noticed the ship under Jedi controll straight into the Mandalorian traffic jam, he ordered the comm's officer aboard his ship to open a communications channel with Jedi Lake's commandeered Mandalorian vessel. "Errm Ms. Kiel, this Mignola Sapien here I couldn't help but your ship in travelling straight towards the traffic jam, care to explain why?" He asked kindly, talking through his mask.

On board the Acadia Raider, the marine private sitting at the com donned an amused grin. "Commander?" he said to Lake. "Jedi Mignola Sapien is on the com, and I believe he's observed our course change and is asking if you know where you are going."

Lake raised a single eyebrow then turned towards the private. "Oh? Does he think I'm lost?"

"I don't know, Commander." The private grinned broadly. "Shall I ask him?"

"No, I'll ask him myself." She routed her comlink through to the channel that Mike was on. "What's the matter, Mike?" she asked casually. "Do you think I'm lost out here?"

"Well the fact your ship is heading straight for a traffic jam containing several rather powerfull ships," Mike replied, smiling under his mask about her reply "And It might just be me but that's rather stupid unless you have some great plan."

Lake grinned. "You know me, Mike. Of course I have a plan. I always have a plan." She lowered her voice a notch. "They're not always great, but I always have one." The corner of her mouth twisted upwards. "I'm just trying to work out the fine details. You know, Mike, minor things like... like how my squad and I are going to disembark on our shuttle and escape the blast waves from the explosion."

"Oh, an explosion, should of known an explotion should have something to do with it," Mike said as he strached one of his tenticles with his left hand "Very well, we'll cover you. Just be carefull and don't shoot yourself in the foot, I heard the story about your first mission. Is there anything me and my lovely cruiser can do to help?"

Lake thought a moment. She looked at her sergeant, who, apparently thinking the same thing she was, nodded vigorously. "Yeah, Mike," Lake said into the com. "As a matter of fact there is. Think you can lay down some cover fire for us when we eventually bail out? Evading enemy fire in a shuttle while trying to outrun a blast wave really isn't my idea of fun."

The giant Mandalorian stomped over to where Castov had fallen on to the floor, Castov pulled himself to his feet and shook his head to get rid of the ringing in his ears. As the Mandalorian got closer Castov made a fist and leapt forward striking the Mandalorian hard in the face. The huge man took the punch like it was dealt from a small child and smiled at the smaller man.

“I thought you Jedi were suppose to be tough.” He exclaimed as he grabbed Castov by the throat and held his body against the wall.

As Castov began to choke he tried to gather what strength he could and used his fist to punch at the Mandalorians midsection. Castov let out a muffled yelp as his hand impacted the Mandalorian’s armour plating. CJ felt the air in his lungs slowly run out as the huge hands squeezed around his neck slowly taking life from his body. Jesp had almost given up hope when a hissing noise could be heard, the Mandalorian smiled and then fell to the floor in a heap. Castov followed his attacker to the ground and then looked up to see the Twi’lek prisoner holding his very own lightsaber. Looking back at the ground he saw the Mandalorian’s spine had a gaping hole where a lightsaber had been stabbed into it.

“Thanks.” Castov said gasping for air. “But when I tell the story of this rescue, I killed the big guy.”

Castov held his hand out and used the force to pull the lightsaber out of the young woman’s hand.

“Let’s keep escaping.”

"Could of falled me," Mike replied, regarding to her feelings about her quick escape "We'll cover you, signal us when your ready Lake, we're moving in poistion now so when you are ready to make your great escape, we'll be ready for you. Mike out."

"Mandalorian battle cruisers aren't exactly the easiest things to slip by." Anya said as she appeared at Lux's side, putting the blade of her saber through the visor of the Mandalorian troop coming up behind him before he had time to do it himself. Hardly pausing, she kicked the now-limp suit of fifty pound battle armor backwards, toppling onto his nearest companion and flooring him as well. She hardly paused as she whirled into action against another trooper off to her left, her back still to the other two Jedi.

"I only chanced upon the distress signal," she continued, "Lux was the one who pointed it out to me. As you -- can see," - she had to pause for breath after deflecting a lunge from a vibroblade and, using a combination of the force and the sword as leverage, delivered a kick to its owner's head that set its helmet ringing - "His fighter's a little -- banged up," - coming down from the kick, she landed in a crouch in time to kick the legs out from another Mandalorian, putting her lightsaber through the thick armor of his chest - "And he was looking for a safe place to put down."

Another vibrosword came down at her, its shining blade thirsting for the chance to cleave open her head. Grabbing her saber in both hands, she threw it up to catch the weapon and hold it at bay. Using one of her hands, she grabbed her assailant's gauntlet and twisted her full body - making it seem more like they were dancing, and he were spinning her, rather than fighting - and twisted his hand until he dropped the weapon to the ground with a clatter. Releasing his hand as her back faced him, she swung her saber back along her side to stab through his side. As he fell to the ground with a clatter, she put her foot under the blade he had dropped and flicked it up into the air. Catching it, she threw it like a javeline and - with the help of the Force - managed to put it through the shoulder of a Mandalorian that was creeping up behind Pallas.

Breathing a sigh, she stood straight and brushed a lock of stray hair out of her face, as if nothing had happened, giving Pallasyndra a nonchalant smile. "And so now we're here."

In that moment I then realise that General and felow jedi Tegan Marr had her ship close to our's.

"Redirect our trayectory,take us to Generals Marr ship"- I Ordered

"Yes,Sir"- He replied

"Send a massager and Inform them we are on our way to the ship"- I commanded

"Sir,Yes Sir"-a soldier said

Pallas was grateful for the appearance of the two younger Jedi Knights, as they were far more combat-oriented than she was. Together, the three of them carved their way into the Mandalorian lines, whittling down the enemy numbers until there were only a handful of soldiers left, clustered behind a prefabricated bunker.

Wiping her sweaty brow, Pallas frowned as her hand came away with a reddish tinge. "Damn," she swore as she, Lux and Anya stalked up to the last remaning Mandalorian bunker. "Will you surrender?" she called out. In response, a thermal detonator floated up over the bunker and towards the Jedi. Pallas sighed, catching the det in the air with the Force and sending it back. The Mandalorians scrambled out as the device exploded, destroying the bunker. Pallas strode up to the closest Mandalorian and placed the tip of her lit lightsaber at the soldier's neck. "How about now?" she asked.

The Mandalorian, who had scars running down his face, merely sneered at her. "You think you've won, Jedi."

Pallas glanced around, surveying the scene, then looked back down at he prone warrior. "Yeah," she said simply.

He spit on her boots. "Sure, just think that when you're all blasted to space dust," he said menacingly. Pallas raised an eyebrow, then reared back and kicked the Mandalorian square in the head, knocking him unconscious. As his body went limp, something rolled out of his newly unclenched fist. Bending down to pick it up, Pallas saw it was a timer of some sort, counting down. Suddenly, she knew.

"Lux, Anya," she called her fellow Jedi, a note of urgency in her voice. "We have a problem."

Castov and the young Twi’lek, Geonar Eldum, had gotten off of the Detention block and began their journey to the rear of the ship. Castov knew this class of ship well as it wasn’t Mandalorian in design but was built by the Zabrak and taken as a spoil of war. Castov was fortunate enough to have been assigned to a Zabrak master when he became a padawan, the master was also the Jedi Liaison assigned to Irodia for a year. While on Irodia CJ met many Zabrak including the now Admiral To’Knel and became immerse in there society, he found they were a race of soldiers but not like the bloodthirsty Mandalorians. They had a great navy but unfortunately were outmatched by the Mandalorian hordes that chose to attack the Irodian territories.

The prisoner and her rescuer were heading to the rear of the ship because Castov knew there would be escape pods that they could get off the ship in. He chose to take those ones as he could stop off at the engine rooms and leave the Mandies a little farewell present. They’d managed to evade those who were looking for them by sneaking along the corridors and diving into the rooms when they heard someone coming. This plan had worked out for the two of them and they had gotten all the way to the corridor leading in to the room. Only a single sentry droid stood guard outside the door and was easily disposed of with a quick through of his lightsaber.

CJ hacked the control panel to open the door no more than a few millimetres so he could peek through the gap. Jesp could see three Mandalorians working on the engines, all un-armoured and all occupied with keeping the engines running. Castov made a conscious decision to play this quietly, use stealth to take out each of the mechanics without the others noticing. Although he didn’t have a stealth belt on him he knew he had to try anyway, if just one of them noticed these Mandalorians wouldn’t fight they’d call for help and then that would serious hinder the escape.

"General Marr," the captain of the ship announced, "we are receiving a message from the young General Frederick Mejia. His ship has been destroyed and he's stuck in an escape pod."

"And he wants to join us," Tegan concluded. She sighed. "Open the hangar bay and tractor him in. But make it quick... we don't want to leave ourselves open too long."

In less than a minute, Mejia's escape pod was resting safely in the hangar bay.

"General Mejia, please report to the bridge," Tegan announced over the intercom. "And welcome aboard the Defiant."

Lux extinguished his lightsaber as he walked up to Pallas. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She turned and held up a small device with a red digital display. The numbers were counting down.

"Oh." He took the grenade-sized device out of her hand. "We should just toss this before..." He trailed off as his psychometry kicked in, flashing images before his eyes. A large black shape...blinking lights...lots of machinery... Lux blinked and shook his head, still clutching the timer.

Anya came up beside him. "What's going on?"

Rubbing his temple, he looked at her. "There's a gravity bomb on this ship. And it's set to explode in five minutes."