Starwars (in no particular order)

"Heavy Fire From The North Building Commander"

It was just an ordinary day, or so it would seem. Ace was walking into the commercial district of yet another world along the Thrawn/Imperial border. Tensions were not high, no indication of conflict was apparent. The Thrawn's version of the Emprie had an increased level of readiness here, however, just two days earlier troops were moved off world to a neighboring planet due to "intelligence" reports. While this world had been on the "front lines" it was farther away than any other border world and there were a series of anomalies in space that made navigation from Imperial space difficult.

The sun shone brilliantly as Ace navigated his way through the central district of the capital city. At the edge of his vision, a shadow began to creep its way over the outskirts of the city.

"Great, a beautiful day ruined by..." Senses honed from repetitive and endless training flared "Maybe not just an ordinary day..." Ace spun smoothly, tracking a White clad stormtrooper, passing with his quad into a building. It was off duty hours for them and one had already removed his helmet to reveal a non human underneath. They were about to walk into a bar.

Ace's movement, caused his cape to roll away from the right side of his body revealing the increasingly familiar sight of a Lightsaber. The sun reflected off the weapon angled in the direction of the troopers, of which the last paused and regarded the disturbance before walking into the bar with his comrades. The trooper tracked it to its source, and then regarded the individual wearing the weapon. Dressed in black, in a jumpsuit that matched Luke Skywalker's outfit when he faced the Emperor, a young man strode toward him. The cloak, he was wearing was the only indication of who he was. It didn't match his outfit. The blue and crimson lined cloak was only worn by members of an elite Jedi Academy. In fact, they were the only Jedi not of Thrawn's Empire that were allowed to operate in Thrawn's territory.

The trooper turned and approached the young man approaching him. The trooper looked at Ace as he approached and began to speak, while holding his helmet under on arm "You are a bit out of uniform don't you think?" Pausing as Ace closed, then recognizing the face as the blinding sun was obscured by a shadow falling over the city. "Well, the breach in dress uniform is ... understandable... now” as the progeny of Corwin Amber walked up to him and stopped. The trooper thought to himself "these kids, always wanting their own identities..."

"Sergeant, you have a problem" Ace began

His statement put the trooper on guard, as he reflexively dropped a hand to his E-11 Blaster rifle and shifted his helmet to his left hand.

Ace pointed up "We are about to be invaded" and as the words left his lips the bar behind the trooper, housing the rest of his squad and his lieutenant exploded as a Turbolaser blast ripped through the entire building from top to bottom. The building detonated, and the trooper registered the fact by donning his helmet. However, to Ace, the fire rolled in slow motion. He moved with amazing speed as he stepped into the trooper’s personal space, sweeping his arms into the trooper’s underarms and pulled him down, then from the crouch Ace leapt backward with incredible speed and carried the trooper and himself up and over a parked skimmer truck, which shielded them from the blast.

Within two hours the capital city had been turned into a warzone. This world might have looked like a “soft target” however, there still were ample military elements remaining on world. The problem was that they were all cut off from one another. Space based assets were heavily engaged, and ground forces were as well. The ground forces were hit with sensor reflective assault ships that came out of hyperspace so close to the planetary gravity well that there was only one explanation, an interdictor. The special anomalies were being used against the planet on the Imperial force’s approach. It was some sort of Imperial project adapted to this specific situation.
The Imperials were hoping for a beech-head, and the world would not be optimal, however, it would give them a planet deeper in Thrawn’s realm than any of the other border worlds. The assault perfectly targeted the officer’s of the world, which meant spies and preliminary spotters for the initial assault wave. However, the battle in the capital city ground on an on. The imperials simply could not take it. Moving from location to location a pieced together resistance force annihilated imperial invaders, one group at a time.

“Commander, we have heavy fire from the north building” the trooper shouted over the comm.

“Well, then, I’ll give them something to shoot at while you take them out” Ace responded leaping out of cover igniting his lightsaber and parrying fire, he never stopped moving. Darting from cover to cover as a volume of fire was redirected in his direction. Ace began to close the distance to the building drawing increasingly more fire from the building. Three minutes later it was over, as Ace’s “command” took the building while he played the bait.

Three weeks later…

Thrawn’s forces had finally removed the Imperial threat from the world. The Capital city never fell; in fact Ace had taken the fight to two other cities after reorganizing the defenses of the Capital. He bought them the time they needed. Thrawn showed up personally, and annihilated the invasion force that had been welling up its defenses in space.

Ace walked into the command corridor of an Imperial Star destroyer, there a he could sense at least two distinct life forms of alien nature. A hint of danger and he spun force pushing one Nogri commando into the far corridor wall while spinning out his lightsaber and locking “blades” with another. Then the Nogri commandos backed down as suddenly as they had assaulted and melted back into shadow. Ace closed his lightsaber and stepped into the command ready room as the door opened.

“It was the same with your father” the charismatic voice played out from his command chair, back to him the chair rotated and revealed none other than Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. “Save for the fact that you actually showed restraint, and you have my thanks that I do not have to look for replacements.” Thrawn paused taking in the young “Corwin” before him. “Ace is the name of your Father’s freighter… The Ace of Sabers, please enlighten me” Thrawn stated

“I choose Ace over Junior, Junior seems a bit juvenile to me seeing as I carry the same name as my father. However, I didn’t choose Ace for his freighter. I named myself after his friend”

“Ah yes, the reckless man who rode his Dreadnaught into a Sovereign Class Super Star Destroyer. The true irony of that tale is the fact that he became his namesake “Starkiller”. As the subsequent detonation, destroyed the star in system.

“Well, regardless, Ace, I am here to applaud you on your efforts here. It would seem that my faith in your Father’s academy was well founded. You and your order are welcome to freely roam my worlds rooting out corruption and the Emperor’s minions. I have you to thank for the holding action you fought here. Without your help, I would likely have lost this world. Now, I have you to thank for not only holding but allowing my other initiatives to take and hold two other worlds.” Thrawn paused regarding the young man

“Is this where you ask me what I want?” Ace stated bluntly

That elicited a chuckle from Thrawn “I suppose it is” he remarked

“Nothing, Grand Admiral, save for redoubled efforts for rebuilding the world as well as additional support to the families who lost so very much in the fighting. Oh… perhaps, one small favor besides the restoration of the populace and their industry.” Ace said, showing visible discomfort asking a Grand Admiral for a favor

“It has already been done, two fold. I have replaced the Academies freighter that brought you to the world and as a gift to you; I have provided you with your own method of transportation. You will find your documents already registered and in order when you arrive at Hangar bay C. Oh yes, I am also awarding you a medal of valor and defense. That is not an optional award, I want to galaxy to recognize you for your efforts.

And for the galaxy to recognize that others are willing to fight for the preservation of my realm, which Jedi are willing to fight for my realm. It will go a long way with public opinion. Thrawn thought to himself.

"Give my regards to Grand Admiral Grant when you see him." Thrawn said as an after thought

Ace shook Thrawn’s hand firmly, thanking him and then left. Now it was time to see what Thrawn’s gift amounted to…

“Avoidance”
The room was very dark; as his vision cleared he realized he was sitting on a chair. His hands were bound behind his back. “Why does it always seem to start and end this way?” Elliot thought to himself. A slight movement in the corner of the room alerted him to the presence of another occupant. A dim light cast a minimal diffused light to appear around him, thus obscuring his counterpart in what he had come to realize must be a cell.

“You must obviously know why you are here” A voice said

The bound man responded “No, I really don’t, do you care to enlighten me?” his off the cuff remark elicited a snarl of anger from the other occupant and he was cuffed roughly across the face. “Ok, I think things are starting to resolve themselves in my mind. I suppose it had something to do with the girl..” His mind trailed off lost in a memory. She smelled sweet, like some exotic fruit and her hair was Jet Balck. Heer skin was so soft… He couldn’t help but smile and was cuffed again “Ok” he said grimacing “I suppose you want some sort of admission of guilt then?”

“Admission of guilt would be an understatement. What I want to know is how long you have known my daughter and how she contacted you.” The other occupant stated

“Well, I’d never seen her before but after last night I’d like to see a WHOLE lot more of her, if you know what I mean.” He remarked and was slammed in his midsection. The strike to his gut allowed him to fold forward, while simultaneously dislocating one of his shoulders purposefully.

“If you outlive your usefulness, I will make your stay here very painful and very enduring before I kill you.” The voice said

He could hear the man draw a blaster from his holster on his hip. It was a very distinct sound, if you knew what you were looking for. Then, the slight pressurized sound as Tibanna gas entered the chamber of the pistol when the safety was taken off was completely unmistakable to his trained and perfect ears. There was a slight overtaxed sound to the magazine, and given the sound of the gun being drawn he determined it was a heavy blaster.

“DL-6H, if I’m not mistaken. You had the aftermarket, that is black market mod to the magazine to bring her from 25 to 40 shots.”

“How, the hell…” as the man leaned into the light roughly grabbing his face in one hand, and beginning to bring his gun up.

He slammed his head upward hard, into the man’s chin with the back of his head. He stood up from the chair and drove his booted foot into and through the man’s kneecap, which snapped his leg, instantly dropping him. The other foot ground the man’s hand around his blaster until all his fingers snapped, followed by his wrist. A knee to the face and his captor was unconscious.

Marcus Raynor, Corporate Sector Mogul, woke up beaten with the taste of coppery blood in his mouth. He was bound to a chair, his knee was shattered and he couldn’t feel the entirety of his right leg. His left hand was pulverized and even though one of his eyes was swelled shut he realized he was not alone in the room. It had been a total reversal of the situation he had placed the unknown man into, the very same man who had killed his three bodyguards with his bare hands. He heard a clatter, and then saw the magazine of his DL-6H spin into view, then he heard the gun’s tibana gas chamber as it exhausted its charge. A moment later he heard the weapon discarded as it was tossed into the far corner of the room.

“What do you want? I can give you a million credits.” Marcus said

“I was simply sitting in a bar having a drink when your daughter sat down next to me. We shared a couple drinks, enjoyed some good conversation and she came back to my room with me at the hotel. That’s where your goons showed up and tried to kill me.” He paused “You can keep your money, however, consider your daughter gone. She’s never coming back. You’re a possessive monstrosity. She’s gone, I made certain of that. If you ever go looking for her, you’ll find me and you’ll be dead. If you ever come looking for me, same story.”

Marcus heard the door open as the man strode toward it. “What about me? You’re just going to leave me here?”

“Someone will find you. If not, someone will smell your rotting corpse and then they’ll find you. Either way, you’ll get found. “ Then he left

An hour later he walked into the nearest Corporate Sector Authority precinct. Walking up to the front receptionist “Here’s my ID, and my credentials.” Then he slipped the girl a datapad “The man who’s responsible for having his goons shoot up a hotel and bar is at the address on this datapad.”

“Let me summon my superior sweetie” she said

“You do that, honey, I’ll wait”

A couple minutes later an officer showed up and nodded to him and walked into his office. He followed

“I hope this is the last job you’re going to be involved in” the officer said

“yeah, he was a high mark. Its getting too hot here for me. Payment?” he asked

The officer slid him a small box and he opened I, checking the creds and then closed the box. “Its all there. I’ll be seeing you, it just won’t be anytime soon.” And he left
He caught a public transport off world and out of the Corporate Sector that evening.

A week later, back on Ord Torgle…

“Where the Hell have you been?” Gunney questioned him “You’ve missed the last three annual Order 67 reunions. Not to mention you were supposed to be instructing the militia and that job I asked you to do.”

“Well, I spent some time in a Galactic Empire Prison, at least until I escaped and wiped my records out of the system. Then I spent about a year in the outer rim, moving here and there. I did a six month tour under an alias in the Republic guard, working with their special forces teams. After that, I found myself in the Corporate Sector where I worked as a freelance troubleshooter, for special needs cases.” He responded

“What the hell does your definition of ‘Special needs’ amount to?” Gunney asked

“That would amount to people who don’t have the money to pay. Regardless, CSA thanked me for my work as I operated under their mandates and helped them out. It basically paid for my room and board, some down time, the gym and my ticket home.” His son said

Gunney was speechless for a moment, then “well, there’s a lot to be done we need someone to cover the Military demonstration and we’re a trooper short for the Order 67 lineup…”

“Sorry, but you know I don’t like guns.” He remarked

“yeah, yeah, but I taught you how to use them and I’m sure the Republic had you using them…” Gunney began to say

“nope, I was a hand to hand instructor for the special forces units. I got the position after I incapicated the top three instructors they had in the sector. How about this, I’ll handle the Close Combat demonstration.”

Gunney began to chuckle, then he just shook his head

“what?!” his son asked incredulously

“You’ll be sparring against Corwin… He’ll kick your ass, it will be embarrassing. He took out a couple Royal Guards on at least on occasion in close combat.” Gunney said with a smile

“Well, now don’t go underestimating you little boy now dad. I learned a couple things here and there.” He responded

“Elliot, I’ll just tell him to go easy on you.” Gunney said Smiling

That really pissed his son off and Gunney laughed hard and long

“Frequently Underestimated”
Elliot had met Corwin on dozens of occasions when he was being raised along with his other brothers and sisters. He had even met Corwin’s own son, who was now calling himself ‘Ace” and Elliot couldn’t blame him for that choice, being called Junior all the time had to get old. Honestly, thinking back to Ace or Corwin Jr. or whatever he was calling himself these days, there was nothing “juinor” about the kid. Apparently, he was currently engaged in a protracted holding action on the Galactic Empire border… The kid was leading the resistance… Not someone you would think of as a “junior”. Elliot cleared his mind as he mounted the stage where the demonstration was to be performed. People had already begun to filter in through the doors filled with anticipation for the upcoming fight.

Elliot began his routine, where he stretched and prepared himself for the upcoming fight. The people entering the room took notice of him only briefly, and then began to converse among themselves. It wasn’t that he was uncomely, because he was a rather handsome man. His long black hair brushed his shoulders, and if they had seen his physique under his baggy attire, more people might have taken notice. However, Elliot was well accustomed to this, It was more than likely his stature, standing at no more than five feet eight inches tall, most people tended to simply overlook him. Gunney, his foster father was a big man. If the term “Maximum human strength” actually carried any weight, Gunney was a prime candidate, followed by his son Elliot. Elliot stripped his shirt and pants off revealing his body glove and his rippling musculature. There wasn’t an ounce of him that wasn’t completely toned and honed into a killing machine.

People did take notice at this point, and seeing his grace and flexibility a couple of the women in the room audibly gasped, eliciting looks of scorn from some boyfriends and looks of complete inadequacy from the rest. The room started packing up just before Gunney and Corwin arrived. Elliot nodded to his father who returned the gesture and after a few words Corwin and Gunney broke, with Gunney sitting amongst the crows with Mike Vantor. People started to cheer when they saw Corwin, the savior of Ord Torgle. Normally, a hero would have eaten up the applause, not this time however. Corwin was gracious, but it was a façade. Even after twenty years, he still carried the burden of all the man and women who had died under his command. He carried haunting memories of the shelling of the major population centers on Ord Torgle and hundreds of other worlds.

That’s not to say that he looked old. No, there was a confidence and an air of gravity about the man as he mounted the stage. Yes, his hair was streaked with silver but his skin and his face… He looked barely older than 25 when most men his age looked closer to their age or even ten years older than his 45 years. Royal Guardsmen were supposed to be experts in hand to hand combat. Elliot had heard the story, even without the Force, Corwin had bested several in the same fight. However, a proton Torpedo warhead in a bottle of Fizzy Glug, took care of any opposition that might have come creeping after Corwin as he faced his main adversary. Regardless, the five foot ten man in front of him was a living legend.

“Elliot, it’s good to see you. I was wondering if you were going to turn up this year.” Corwin said sincerely “Good to see you’re still in form.”

“Nice to see you too, Corwin. Now about this business of you taking it easy on me…” Elliot began

“I won’t. I will not use the Force as an edge or any sort of advantage, so you have me at my best. Otherwise, how the hell would you learn anything from this?” Corwin said with a smile

“Thank you. Shall we begin?” Elliot stated

And they did, Corwin and Elliot demonstrated maneuvers for a good twenty minutes before things got really hot. They paused and explained the moves for the audience’s benefit. Then things got a bit more serious when people from the crowd demanded an “actual” demonstration. The fight lasted for about twenty minutes; Corwin feinted a lot. Judging the changes in the man before him and weighing the responses. Corwin, to his surprise received amazingly few return strikes. Elliot had surpassed Gunney’s training, picked up some Republic forms and a mish mash of a dozen more. There were even some of the more lethal techniques of the old Imperial Regime mixed in, which meant that he had a serious dosing of either training or pure experience.

Corwin’s money was on the “experience” as Elliot was a quick study. The kid was a sponge, though calling him a kid was a stretch at twenty six. Elliot had been on the move since he turned fifteen. He had been in combat since he was born… A war orphan of Ord Torgle’s Imperial occupation/liberation and occupation/liberation again had something to do with that. Elliot had been to dozens of worlds and had been in hundreds of problem situations. Most of which, he had come out of all on his own.

In the end, Elliot was soundly defeated. Corwin was a close combat monstrosity and that was putting things lightly. Elliot had faced Assassins, regulars, Special Forces and even, on one occasion, A Nogri Death Commando. Through all of it, he had been victorious though the Nogri had almost killed him with that fight that never should have happened ending in a stalemate leaving both combatants incapacitated. Elliot learned a lot from the fight, picking up Corwin’s moves and incorporating them as quickly as he landed his blows. However, fifteen strikes later, Elliot was seeing stars on the mat. He couldn’t move his arms of legs, as Corwin had target nerve centers. Nothing to cripple him and more than anything he would recover mobility in a couple hours. The three strikes to his head, however, dropped him soundly. Two to his face and one to the back of his neck and he was down. Some people might have been embarrassed even mad. He went down with a smile on his face.

For the next week he spent some time with his father and Corwin and picked up even more moves. It was really nice to be the son of Corwin’s best friend. After that Corwin went his own way, and he did as well after talking with dad he headed to the starport to hitch a ride off world.

There he saw a couple goons beating on a young man and looking to have some fun with his girlfriend. The starport guards had been taken out and there were sirens blaring. The three men, obviously had training. Elliot calmly walked up to them and asked “Is there something I can help you with?” as he picked the beaten man off the ground and helped him into a chair.

“This is none of your business, stay out of it.” One man broke and headed his way
“I’m not going anywhere” Elliot gave him a stern look

The man closed and immediately began to grapple with Elliot, drawing a blaster.

“Why do you guys always have to go for the gun?!” Elliot growled

He twisted the man’s wrist pointing the fun skyward and the man just barely managed to pull the trigger at that point, which blew a chunk of the ceiling apart. They just locked arms at that point, for a moment. Elliot looked at the gun, then back to his assailant and followed the look with his forhead. Spinning the off balance man around he swept his legs, still holding his gun hand. He kicked out, at the point where the man’s gun arm connected with his torso and then simultaneously twisted his arm, popping the shoulder violently and wrenching the arm around. With a the man having a death grip on the pistol, Elliot grabbed the upper part of his arm and reversed the natural motion of said arm, violently snapping it in the opposite direction. At this point the man passed out.

He came up behind the second man and moving forward quickly reached past his head, grabbing his jaw from behind while placing his other hand on the base of the man’s skull and cleanly broke his neck wrenching then man’s head all the way around so his horrified eyes were staring into Elliot’s. They were obviously ex-imperial. You could tell by their outmoded side arms. Knockoff DL-44’s carried by imperial smugglers. The final guy was already in a meeting room and had the girl up on a table and was trying to ring some enjoyment out of her displeasure.

“Hey, assohole, party’s over” Elliot said to the towering six foot five behemoth turning to face him.

“What are you gonna do little man?” the giant said to Elliot

He was dead in less than five seconds

“Never underestimate your opponent” Elliot said right before the man died

"Criminals"

After his little starport rampage Elliot was held for questioning, namely about how people died everywhere he materalized.

"Ok, and I suppose I should have let the Ex-Imperials have their way with the girl. Its not like they didn't incapacitate two of your guards, wounding one seriously." Elliot was explaining the ovbious

About four hours later he was out under Gunney's recognisance. Gunney didn't say a word, he just shrugged a bit and looked at his foster son... proudly. They climbed into his speeder and headed out. Gunney took the heavily modified two seater up into the lower atmosphere and accelerated to roughly 1100 Km/h.

"We're not going home, are we?" Elliot asked

"No, there's something I need you to do. It has to be off the books, I have to send you alone and by a means that dosen't follow legal guidelines. If Corwin caught wind of it he'd be furious." Gunney finally reponded

"So, of all your kids you picked me for this job?" Elliot was a bit incredulous

"Yeah, that's right. I picked the only person I knew who has better underworld contacts than I do. I also picked you because I know you'll live through it. Sadie's good, but she's still a bit too young. Granted she's 18, which is Junior... er... Ace's age, but Corwin's boy is of tougher stock. He's more like you, just younger and there's the fact that he's a Jedi trained by his own father. Sadie woudl be my second choice, but I don't think she could hack the criminal involvement." Gunney said

"Thanks, dad, I'll take that as a compliment." Elliot responded

"You should, because it was one." Gunney replied before swinging the speeder around and setting down in a clearing he flew over. "I need you to take out a CSA/Hutt alighned thug and take his place with the crew he's supposed to run with. They've never seen his face. They only know him by rep, he's an expert in Close combat. Thats where you come in. Black Sun is the interested party." Looking at his chronometer "Any time now..." Gunney flipped the dash panel and it folded down revealing a botton which he depressed. The chassis on the hood of the speeder split apart, revealing a scaled down turbolaser.

Elliot whistled

Gunney stared intently at his hud and pulled the trigger only once, the turbolaser erupted radioactive heavy particle death skyward. There was an explosion in the cloud cover and a handful of atomized debris fell flaming toward the ground. "Don't say I never did anything for you." Gunney looked at his son

"What... er... I'm guessing you took out my mark. Thanks for going easy on me." Ellior just shook his head

"The info packet is in the dash. There's a speeder bike parked 50 Meters south of here. read the packet, memorize it and then destroy it. Then go to the coordinates outlined in the information, you'll meet the smugglers you'll be travelling with. They're your ticket in, once you get to your final destination send word to Ace, he'll be near by and you two can link up. He asked for help and I'm sending you. Corwin's son left the academy under false pretenses. He left on a cargo run and never came back. The frieghter he lost in the fighting on that border world was replaced by Thrawn himself... It, more or less, jumped into Tsarriq's vicinity and abandoned after the Corwin was contacted. Thrawn gave him a ship to pursue his own adgenda, and that's not exactly what Corwin had in mind. So, his son basically went rogue and I want you to back him up. He's got something to prove, and he thinks he's gotta prove it to his dad. I want you on the inside, so when things go wrong, as they will, you will be there to pull his ass out of the fire." Gunney said at length

"Corwin could track his son, but I convinced him to let his son stretch his legs a while. He'll come home when he's good and ready. I'm not supposed to get involved, so I'm sending you, covertly. You always just happen to show up in the worst possible situations and come out of them with a smile on your face. Hell, even I'm not that lucky. I don't want Corwin to know his son's going after the last Black Sun ring operating out of Thrawn's side of the Empire. They're a dedicated and decidedly deadly bunch, they have to be if they're running ops out of Thrawn's borders. They're also up to their eyeballs involved with Thrawn's main adversary, the other Empire." Gunney finished

"Got it, see you in a couple months." Elliot said and hopped out and was on his way.

A couple hours later Elliot had assumed another identity and was on his way off worlds with a Black Sun crew. Hopefully, he could actually do something to to help Ace out...

To be continued

"Criminals" Part Two

Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in the assault on the border world. The Empire hadn't made much of an effort to minimize civilian casualties. After Thrawn had, more or less, given Ace free access to go hunting Galactice Emmpire agents he had made it his vocation to bring down those responsible. In just a few weeks he had already uncovered two "spotters" though the first one thought he was scouting military operations for the media. However, the second gave him a name.

Or rather, Ace was able to "coerce" the guy into slipping the information to him through the power of suggestion. After which he turned him over to the local Imperial offices and immediately sent out a message to Gunney. He needed help, and he wasn't going to ask his father for it. He needed someone who he could trust, that wouldn't be squeamish about bending the rules. Corwin would have just walked in the front door, shut down the
offices himself and no one would have gotten hurt. Ace's thoughts on the matter involved working with "assets" that would make certain that those responsible got more than a slap on the wrist. That's not to say that his father had gone soft, its simply that Ace wanted the organization responsible to "feel" the mistake they had made. He wanted the last Black Sun organization in Thrawn's area of space to be completely and utterly decimated. Corwin would have spooked other cells into hiding and they would have resumed activity after some time. Ace's plan was for Black Sun to be gone, forever, from this sector of space. Its funny, because he thought he knew his father so well. In fact, Corwin would have likely done exactly what he was planning.

Black Sun was escalating operations after the "success" of their last initiative. Normally criminal organizations might have slowed down operations, however, this was not the case in this situation. Something was wrong, and Ace could "feel" it. There was more to this than what an investiagtor might discover on the surface. If Black Sun was escalating, then that meant one thing... The Knights from the Galactice Empire must be involved, it fit and explained a lot of what his instincts and the Force were telling him.

Gunney's response was simple "Enroute. Link with contact through direct contact." He didn't expect much more, but was glad to see his request to keep it off Corwin's table was heeded.

In a remote office - "get this report directly to Grand Admiral Thrawn." A lieutennant in the intelligence analysis department stated. The message was immediately forwarded. The office had flagged the communique as a priority one threat.

About an hour later

"So, what do you intend to do with this? We should have him arressted immediately, and he should be forced to give us the information so we can deal with this matter." Capitan Dev Colroy said to Thrawn

"No, we will not interfear with the young Jedi's search for the truth. I gave him some flexibility, even awarded him a medal. He's practically a ward or a political celebrity of our realm. We will let him do what he's tasked himself with doing." Thrawn responded

"Sir, this basically makes our intelligence and undercover operatives look inferior." the capitan stated

"Indeed, a boy, just entering maturity is solely responsible for following leads and tracking the spies on his own to their logical source. You should feel humbled by his experience, skill and dedication. Learn from this, and study his methods. No, we will not interfear with his agenda." thrawn raised a hand to quell the coming protest "The backup he'll be recieving will be doing heavy infrastructure danage to Balck Sun. What more could we ask for?"

"Sir, I emplore you, we could surgically remove the cancer from our realm. It would be..." Thrawn cut the Capitan off

"It would be seen kilometers before we actually landed the blow. They would see our troops and clear out only to setup somewhere else. No, there is more at work here than meets the eye. They are expecting just such a move. The Amber boy knows this as well, and he's oeprating under my mandate. As for his companion, he may be a mystery as, Gunney, formerly of Order 67 will not be the one arriving. Do not even prep the offices on the worlds that Ace is on to respond, don't brief them. Balck Sun will be looking for this and their extra aid, possibly a Dark Jedi will be "feeling" for the shift. The Galactic Knight will be looking at our forces and encounter another of his kind, just of the opposite spectrum. The other operative will likely take care of the rest." Thrawn stated "I will prep a Nogri Team, off world, in our Ysalimiri outfitted response cruiser to support our Jedi ward and his backup. That is all you need to know." Thrawn closed

At the Black Sun headquarters -

Things were going from bad to worse. Elliot had already been in two fights, apparently he was required to authenticate his skillset. That meant two dead fighters already. This, however, just seemed to please his new "employer" to no end. The organization was pretty tight, operating out of a facility in plain sight under the guise of Sienar Fleet Systems. The odd thing is that they were actually producing untampered war equipment for Thrawn's war machine. This led Elliot to the deeper conspiracy... Sinear Fleet Systems had been compromised on some level, at least in this sector and that spelled deeper problems for Ace and Elliot.

He was doing everything he could to see how deep the corruption ran. No wonder why they had never been discovered, they all operated directly under the noses of the local government. Whatever Ace was planning had better be a helluva good plan, otherwise they both might just end up dead.


He was invited on as security and had some decent access posing as a guard. Elliot spent the better part of a week casing the facility. Still, no word from Ace. He was starting to think the kid ws never going to show up until he spotted a familiar domed shape moving around and about in the Sienar Fleet Systems offices. D20, it had to be the same droid.

Not too many people really knew about the droid. It had been spotted sporadically in the time of Corwin's youth. Sometime after Corwin's "Death" the droid had gone "off the grid" with a GX security model and Jeeves. Jeeves later turned up as the head chef for the Republic Senate, and he eventually found enough time to have a hand in being a companion to Corwin's son Ace as he grew up. D20 hadn't been seen in almost 10 years.

It was a curiousity, a cranky R4 droid that tended to show up at places and then those places would explode. Scanning the offices, he spotted another droid standing guard over a corporate executive... A GX model, with amber piping around its connection joints. No, this was no chance encounter, this had to be where he was supposed to make his contact.

The R4 started to teeter and sparks flew when he was running routine maintenance of a diagnostics panel. The Droid fell over and within minutes it was called in, the droid was taken down to maintenance. Elliot followed.

"I don't know why we're still using this model, its a piece of junk. Lets stuff it in the droid overflow closet and get back to our duties. I want to finish my shift and see that game tonight." A guard said to his friend

"If you don't want to do the dirty work, I can take that task off your hands" Helliot said 'Its gonna be a great game, it would be a shame if you missed it". He said

"He's right, take the droid to sub level 4, past R&D. here's the key card. Just return it to the desk on your way back up." and he left with his friend

Elliot took D20 down to several levels. Curiously enough, there were no survelliance cams on Sub level 4. he had finally found something worth

noting. Scanning the corridors and rooms Elliot literally ran into another man as he approached the overflow room. "Watch where you're going scum." the figure said with arrogance and disdain

"Apologies, I will be on my way." Elliot said and continuned on to the overflow closet. Opening the door double doors with a keycard, it revealed a room more akin to a warehouse of discarded droid units. All likely sitting here depreciating for some sort of tax write-off. Elliot flipped on the lights, closed the doors behind him and then twirled the lightsaber he had palmed off the Galactic Knight in his hand. "Looks like

I found something worth about 20K, my day is looking up." Looking to D20

"Cut the act already." D20 responded, his lights flickering on and the Droid sat up on the repulsor cart. Elliot helped the droid off and a holo message began to play.

It was Ace "I don't know who Gunney sent, but I'm grateful. I'm certain you realize that this operation runs much deeper than expected." to which Elliot responded "no Shit..." and the recording continued "Infiltration has not been the issue, the nature of the business is, howewer, an issue. I have GX and D20 in place and, now thanks to you, we should have a sizable distraction. I am assuming you took D20 to or met him in the Maintenance room. There should be hundreds of droid models that that D20 can cobble together to get some sort of working distraction/army. My manifest shows at least three outmoded security models and a droid labled under a blank manifest, my guess is an assassin droid." Elliot whistled "You might not be aware of the presence of another Jedi, however, and I recommend you exercise extreme caution." At which point Elliot had already stepped on the focusing crystal after removing it from the lightsaber, shattering it. He pulled a couple fires loose and melted the emitter array after motioning to D20 who provided the torch. Then he reassembled it as best he could manage.

The holo continued "I'll be placing an off world comminique to Thrawn's people this evening after the civilians are gone. That's when I'll make my move, look for my signal and we'll link up." The doors behind him opened at the point at which the holo cut off

"What is all the talking going on in here." It was the Dark jedi

Elliot turned around mere steps away from the man, with a lightsaber in his right hand.

The knight's eyes went wide and he instinctively grabbed for his weapon that wasn't there.

"Missing something Jedi?" Elliot said

As the Jedi ripped the weapon out of Elliot's grasp, he closed the distance. The jedi said "You just made a very big mistake, I don't know who you are but we'll figure that out after you're dead. Making to activate the hobbled weapon, when nothing happened his eyes went wide. Even wider when Elliot hit him so hard to the midsection, twice that they almost bugged out of his head. Spinning the Jedi around, Elliot wrapped one hand in his cloak and drove him forward with the other slamming his face in to a shelving support whle simultaneously yanking him back with his cloak. Elliot hit the dazed Jedi in the head so hard that his neck broke. He remembered what his father said "Always, always, make certain a Jedi you face is dead. Make absolutely, grimly certain."

Elliot grabbed a server panel off of the shelf, taking the leanest edge he drove it down into the prone Jedi's throat with both hands. The Jedi actually squirmed, for a momemnt or two. Which galvanized Elliot to drive it through even harder, The "bladed edge" ripping his head off unceremoniously and driving almost three inches into the floor tile. "That gruesome enough for you dad?" Elliot whispered to himself, from bad to worse indeed. The Jedi should have been dead, the first time... Now he understood exactly what his father was talking about. From bad to worse... It looked like the "cleanup" had to begin almost immediately before anyone grew suspicious...

"D20, I need you to find the black listed manifest droid. Get it up and running, and those other three security droids. Coordinate with GX, and hook up with me on this frequency."

Elliot ran out to sow discord and cause some big problems...

"Closing Time"

Something was wrong, Ace knew it as he felt the death of his counterpart in the SFS building. Namely because a large Force surge alerted him to his rough location, then another Force Spike and then after Ace was sensing for him, lookingat the ground he recoilled horribly as the Jedi was, more or less, executed brutally.

Looking down at the device he held, Ace triggered the activator. And his message relayed on a surface to orbit direct link. "Sienar Fleet Systems has been infiltrated by Black Sun. That's your target. The production center and corporate center on the north side of the city near the industrial grid. Sub level 4 is my best guess where Black Sun Operations are being held. A large part of the operation is legit, with key officers having been infiltrated. This means SFS is likely corrupt throughout the sector and it needs to be addressed simultaneously. I had wanted more time to warn you, but something is wrong. A dark Jedi just got executed, brutally... Going in now to stall their retreat."

In orbit -

The message played out for the strike team and they were already en-route. Using drop cocoons designed for dark troopers the Nogri commandos entered the site rapidly, in fact, they did this on three other worlds simultaneously...

On the Ground at Sienar Fleet Systems -

"You don't have clearance to enter, I'm sorry but...oof!" Ace force lifted and threw the security guard away from him, slamming him into the wall, and he walked in the front door. He ignited his blue lightsaber, "feeling" for the response. "My name is Ace, I'm a Knight of Amber, you've been infiltrated by Black Sun, I'm here to deal with that problem." The real guards hid, diving out of his way as he walked. The Black Sun Guards immediately opened fire.

Ace was moving fast, parrying some fire and cutting down black Sun operatives as he closed the distance and passed them. He was good, but unlike his father he didn't have thirty years of experience. He had to make it to sub level four before Black Sun vacated the premisis...

On sub level Four -

Elliot was at the turbolift shaft, calling in an incident report "Two of our officers have neglected thir duties and skipped work, they left me to cleanup after them. Officer Jenkins and Thuruul. I..." he froze mid sentance as the lieutenant that had witnessed his "trials" walked up to him out of an adjoining corridor.

"What the hell is going on? Why ar you down here?" He asked enraged

"I was just reporting the incident, You have a pair of lazy ass employees that felt taht watching the game was worth more than their duties." Elliot, actually told the truth so there was no deception

"Fine, I'll ride with you and we'll deal with them personally." he said

they got into the turbo shaft and it lifted right as a second dark jedi rounded the far bend

"Dammit!" I just missed him, unclipping a comm on his belt he was about to send the lieutenant a message, when we was instantly distracted by the sense of danger coming from the skies... His eyes glazed over and he looked to the present and saw the drop pods.

Unfortunately for him he was standing in line with the maintenance closet's doors, when they exploded violently outward he was thrown and impaled by debris from the explosion. the ZQ Infantry droid's concussion missile launcher had something to do with that, the oddity is that it was being operated by D20, as in, he fired its dismembered weapons mount.

Dazed, disoriented from farseeing and in a narrow corridor, which he had been blown into gave him mere feet to maneuver. Three more missiles streaked in and that was the end of Kinght number two...

In the turboshaft, the Lieutenant took a personal call and started looking about the shaft wildly "Is that blood on your boots..." as he looked at Elliot's feet.

Elliot just shook his head and nodded to him "Why, yes, it is" There was a gurgling sound, for about twenty seconds and the Turboshaft began to descend once more. At that point the top of the pod tore off from a lightsaber storke and Ace dropped in.

"Elliot, good to see you." Ace began

Before Elliot could respond, there were four consussive explosions that threw both of them off their feet. The turboshaft doors opened to a corridor filled with fire and sporadic blaster fire, with Black Sun operatives screaming in every direction. Down at the end of the corridor, through a hole in the wall you could see concussions missiles streaking by followed with explosions moments later, screams of the dead and dying echoed with an alarmingly increasing frequency.

The entire building trembled and shook violently as the Nogri drop pods penetrated the structure, followed moments later by the cocoons protective shell splitting and then blowing off, allowing the Commandos to disgorge.

"What the hell was that?" Elliot asked, then just shook his head and waved to Ace "This way, the cell leaders should be in here" they could already hear screams and blaster fire from that direction. They rounded the bend to find the last Kinght standing waiting with his lightsaber drawn.

"I was wondering when you would arrive Amber." He said "I want to know how well yoru academy stands up to ours."

Elliot remarked "Buddie, your academy sucks. I already killed one of your friends and I'm not even a Jedi." Which made the man scream, Elliot was force hurled into a wall violently slamming the back of his head into it. The Force wave rolled down the hallway and had seemingly no effect on Ace. Elliot was dazed for a moment, but only a moment "Yeah, Ace, why don't you take this one. I'll get the stragglers." As Elliot picked himself up and they nodded to one another, Ace closed with his adversary locking sabers and driving his blade high, Ace dropped to the floor and kicked up into the man's groin, doubling him over and allowing Elliot to sprint past.

On the corporate Office Level-

GX was motoring Black Sun security in to the ground. With his highly updated wrist mounted lasers he chewed through walls and the dirty executives hiding behind them. Blaster shots skipped off hs armor occasionally, as the volume of fire he was under was relatively extreme. He was glad they had founf the chemical composition for the creation of the Frick Armored Shell, totally worth every credit he had put into it. He swept from floor to floor, smoking ony those that the last three weeks of compiled data led to trails of corruption. He motioned for the innocent to flee and even covered their escape from the fire fight. Still using the deck sweeper, he would swing it off his holster mount from time to time to pump a shot into a hallway or room, clearing opposition as he went.

When the Nogri showed up, he knew it was time to clear out. GX dove out of a window on the 37th floor of the office building as a Nogri closed with him, falling until he hit about the 25 floor or so, after the Nogri had looked away and resumed his duties GX triggered his anti grav belt and the limited repulsors he had built into his armor and made his escape.

On Sub Level Four-

When Elliot got to the sub level hangar he could see it had descended into madness. At least three transports had detonated on the ground, which would explain the violent explosions that threw him around like a ragdoll on the way here. Two more concussion missiles streaked out and obliterated any of the last static defensive emplacements. The concussion launcher fell silent and he could have sworn he saw D20 discard it, he also could have sworn he saw D20 shrug off at least three blaster shots like it was a joke. he shook his head to clear it, wiping grime and sweat off his brow and looked again. D20 was nowhere to be seen.

What he did see was the Nogri Commandos sweeping in to mop up, they were brutally efficient. That was over in a matter of seconds, one of them broke from his squad and moved in his direction. Until now they had avoided him like he just wasn't there at all. The Nogri removed his combat webbing, and weapons and took a fighting stance in front of him.

Elliot looked at the Nogri long and hard. Signature Bronze hair silouetted the creature's face. Yes, he was looking at the one he ran into about two years ago that he got the drop on. He was looking for a rematch. Wonderful... At least this time he was familiar with the Nogri's lethal fighting style. He had practiced those lethal maneuvers almost daily, and incorporated them into his own regimine. This was going to be ugly...

To be continued in part four

"Academy Training"

Ace was dueling with the Galactic Knight and he realized that he was outmatched. Perhaps not in power, or in determination, but in swordplay. It was something his father was attempting to impress upon him in the argument he had just after the "holding action" he led. His father had told him he wasn't ready, definitely not ready to face a dark jedi in a duel. Even though things hadn't gone to plan Ace had made the most of what he had laid into motion. Everything was redeemable until now...

"I can fee your fear Amber" The Knight taunted him

"No, you're wrong." Ace responded "I'm just lookng for a way out, and you've done a great job of boxing me into a corner. Plus taking the emitter off my lightsaber in the duel was an excellent show of swordmanship. I really didn't expect you guys got any sort of decent training. Your power level is a bit lacking, but what can I say, I'm Corwin's son."

"You are beaten Junior" the Knight mocked him, blade extended toward him. the Knight moved in for the kill

Ace threw his broken lightsaber at the jedi, a bit off center and to the left of him. the Dark Knight lazily swung his weapon up and out to intercpept the hurled hilt. With Speed, Ace closed, and hit the Knight with his shoulder. He carried him, with speed out of the ded end, locking one hand on his sword arm as they hit the wall on the adjoining corridor.

The knight was a bit stunned and then he began to laugh "Is that the best you can do, hahaha!"

Ace reached behind his back and grabbed something "Being a Jedi isn't the only thing they teach us at the academy..."

The Knight's eyes grew wide as he sensed the danger, he was pinned and so was his arm, which he struggled to free as he felt the muzzle of a blaster press against his torso

Ace emptied the magaizine of the DH-17 he was carrying under his cloak, normally it was a dirty jury rigged modification. However, with the right tools and the right amount of money and high end barrel modifications... It was fully automatic and it emptied the reduced magazine in three seconds, coring the dark jedi.

Ace picked up the Dark Knight's lightsaber, checking the Dark Jedi to make certain he was dead. With the lower half of his body no longer attached, it was a safe bet... Ace walked away. It was time to return home, to complete his training.

He holstered the "new" lightsaber and then reached behind his back and pulled out another barrel for the DH-17. Discarding the old barrel on his spent DH-17 connected the new one and then reloaded. Setting the blaster's fire selection lever, he set the blaster to standard fire.

He had to find Elliot, D20 and GX and wrap this trip up. Then there would be one last meeting with the government and he would, finally, be free to return home, he hoped. Retraching Elliot's path through the maze of tunnels was tedious, however, he finally came upon the spectacle... Elliot was ringed by Nogri and he was squared off against one, they let him into the ring and one put a hand on his leg "Let themmm finishhhh, this is a matterrrr of honorrr"

Yeah, this was going to be bad he figured. As Elliot andthe one Nogri stalked one another. He recalled Elliot mentioning once that he ran into a Nogri and it was more a mistake than an actual planned encounter. The blows that the two had exchanged already were feints, and they were probing each other. It was a precise match, where footing and placement as well as skill and endurance would determine the outcome.

Elliot had come a long way, because when the fight began both opponents seemed evenly matched. To Ace's eyes, as he "slowed" the motions of the two fighters with enhanced perception, could register the blindingly fast connects and counters. Elliot had the basis for their martial form, but no more. It gave him no edge, however, it certainly allowed him to remain in the fight.

The second matchup between the two combatants was going to be a long drawn out affair. Ace had only seen Elliot loose fights when he was training with dad or Gunney and the rest of Order 67. He was a quick study, incorporating new manuvers as fast as his opponents introduced them. He was one of those really deadly opponents that got better, on the fly, while you were fighting them.

Ace knew it had something to do with his perception being tweaked, in addition to his dietermination. He wasn't a pure "human" he couldn't recall the race exactly, "near" human or mostly human would have classified it. He couldn't recall, as it had been years since his father had brought it up. Corwin had mentioned he had a date with a woman from Elliot's species once, but it ended badly after "the Colonel" showed up driving a combat hover vehicle through he front of the building.

After about forty munites of exchanging blows, both combatants were bleeding and their movements, while still graceful, were deliberate only. They were both grimacing, and only Elliot showing the hint of a smile. Well, the Nogri might have been smiling but they just looked creepy to begin with... An hour into the fight Elliot had two broken ribs, and almost an hour and a half into the fight his opponent had at least three. The fight ended, after Elliot had broken the Nogri's leg and then did something unexpected. He took a couple steps back, bowed to his opponent and looked to the Nogri's companions. "This looks like a draw to me..." Elliot let it hang in the air for a moment and his opponent then bowed to him "A draw indeeeed..." the Nogri limped to him with elliot limping toward his opponent in return "I beeelieeeve it issss customarrry innnn yourrrr cuulltuuree to shake handdsss" and they did. Ace couldn't beleieve it but Elliot might have just made a friend, as the Nogri "sniffed" him on the shake.

"Weee willl alll knowww your sscent, from thisss day forwarddd." and the Nogri and his companions left

Ace approached him "Here" he laid a hand on Elliot and accelerated his natural healing "You should start to mend at a more accelerated rate than usual, can you walk?"

Elliot just looked at Ace and then smiled, "yeah, its nothing" then he passed out.

"A Girl In Every Port"

Elliot moved around too much for any sort of real relationship. He might have had something real in the formative years of his education, assuming he had ever stayed in one place. However, unlike Ace who's "education" prevented him from leaving before the finalization of his training, Elliot learned everything he needed to know from experience. Training played a part in the basis of his experience after which he naturally built his reportior of skills from direct experience.

The last job he was involved in drew a lot of attention, it had apparently taken Ace several minutes to get him moving. He had to hand it to the kid, he never forgot things that he observed. Like Ace knew that Elliot wasn't a fan of being "known" so when he "came to" in the back of a cab he was grateful. Vaguely he recalled Ace, actually carring his ass to the cab and putting him inside. Looking back over his shoulder he saw Ace in the spotlight, talking with Imperials near the entrance of the SFS building.

Elliot was right as rain about after spending about a day in a hotel near the starport. Whatever Ace did to him, worked... His ribs had mended almost overnight. It only took one more day for him to recover fully. After cleaning up he headed for the public transit terminal, and found most of the outbound flights jammed with paraniod people after the Sinear Fleet Systems assault. He, basically, flirted his way onto the the flight off world. Coach was the ony way he flew, it was more anaonomyous to do it that way and it didn't raise too much attention.

Gunney, his father had told him once "You can hide all you want, but eventually no matter how hard you try, people start to know who you are. Its the curse you've inherited as my son and as a result of my relationship with Corwin. Anyone in his circles is followed closely, eventually."

Public transit was something he lived by, sure he knew how to fly a freighter, but he never needed to... Until now. He knew he was being followed...

to be continued

"A Girl In Every Port"

Part Two

Elliot made his way to the forward cargo section of the ship, after showing his credentials and ticket they let him in and closed the door behind him. he moved to his hatch a couple asiles down and opened his cargo container. After rumaging around for a second or two he finally found the items he was lookng for.

He knew the one that had been watching him was coming up behind him, so without closing his cargo hatch he stood and turned around with a look of suprise on his face, as if startled. "Woah! Didn't see you there!" he remarked

The Nondescript man frowned "Black Sun Sends its regards" as he moved forward with blinding reflexes and made to impale him on a blade.

Elliot countered by sidestepping slightly, grabbing the assailant's arm with his left and then pushing the thrust the rest of the way clear from his body. His right arm came up and drove a combat knife through the man's neck and into his brain stem. He held the man aloft for a moment, then gently laid him down and pulling a dose of fast flesh from his medkit he sealed the wound as he carefully pulled the knife out, making certain to get no blood anywhere. He wiped the blade on the inside of the man's trousers, pulled his ID and credits and then stuffed him in the cargo storage container as he pulled his gear bag out. He stuffed the guy in with other people's luggage...

As he ewalked out of the storage room "You guys allow one carry on right?"

The guard said "that is correct"

"Oh, silly me, I should have brought this on with me in the first place. Thank you." And Elliot walked coolly back to his accomodations and rearranged his gear.

About a day later he arrived at his destination and was among the first people to get off the passenger liner. He looked different, being a bit taller, and his features were altered enough that a facial scan coming off the liner wouldn't ID him. It was nothing so elaborate as a disguise kit, but it was enough cosmetically and the heel inserts he used, while uncomfortable added two inches to his height. He walked right past the people who were looking for him.

Then doubling back at the gate, he moved through the luggage claim with a uniform he swiped from a maintenance closet and walked back out on the tarmac to watch for the pursuers. When three beings rushed to the liner and then came out in an equally hurried fashion, after bribing a guard he knew he had his persuers. He tailed them back to their vehicle, watching as three of them together talked and then two went off to make a comlink call that didn't go through in the parking structure.

Elliot approached the loan Bothan, and gutted him from behind with one of his combat knives. Dragging the body off he opened the speeder truck withe the Bothan's keys. Reaching under the dash he pulled a couple wires and ran them to the ignition. Then popping the maintenance hatch he rerouted the wires to the extended range battery cell the truch possessed. Closing and locking the door, he made certain to leave no trail as he hauled the dead bothan off to the alley dumpster. Again, he stripped the being of its ID and money.

When the two Black Sun operatives returned, they looked around for their partner for a while eventually climbing into their truck and then attempted to start it up. There was a distinct, high pitched while as the operative hit the ignition. They looked to one another, and then made for the doors and didn't quite make it out before the vehicle exploded killing both of them. Elliot walked away, his father was right, eventually you get noticed.

Coming down out of the terminal, to a roar of sirens and emergency vehicles he flagged down an old flame that was waiting for him at the Ord Torgle Starport. "he honey did you miss me?"

"What's going on?" She said seeing the commotion

"I don't know but it looks like there's a fire coming from the parkling garage. we should get out of here, otherwise they'll have traffic stopped up for hours." He responded

"Yeah, Elliot, I did miss you. Next time, at least end me a message more than once every three years..." Her words trailed off as they pulled away, Elliot just grinned to himself. It was time to go running with his father on some errands. But first thing was first, the girl, then dad. A Girl in every Port Indeed.

"In The Service Of The Empire"

My father is a career line officer, reaching Admiralty at the young age of 26 and then his career exploded in fortunate ways from there. He was one of a very select few to be invited into the ranks of the Grand Admirals. Thus from an early age I was regaled of all the tales and experiences of a flag officer who wanted me to follow in his footsteps. In fact, he even facilitated it.

I was priviledged to attend advanced training at the best academies the Empire had to offer. Cardia, the primier military academy of the Empire. I graduated top of my class and unlike so many others, I immediately recieved my own command. I grew up with people wondering who the hell I was and why I was given the opportunities I was afforded. I can't say I didn't deserve it though, all one had to do was look at my background, my grades or my service record and they would understand why I was where I was.

Other academy graduates were stationed on patrol vessels, or even in the ranks of other more experienced officers on Imperial Warships. Very few recieved positions on Imperial Star Destroyers and only one, that being me, recieved his own Imperial Star Destroyer. Graduating ahead of everyone in my class at the age of 19 I was already standing proudly on the bridge of my own Victory Class Star Destroyer. She was a throwback to the days of the Old Republic, and as such had not been refitted from mothballs like other vessels.

I had my choice of commands, of everything up to an Imperial I Star Destroyer. I chose the Vicfor many reasons. After analyzing the attack patterns of pirates and Rebels alike I concluded one key flaw in most of our line vessels. A lack of anti starfighter defenses. Couple that with the versatility of the ships ability to enter the atmosphere and her heavy armament and concussion missile batteries... There was no better ship at the time in the Imperial Navy. Efficient as all hell, and fast. She matched ISDs in speed and exceeded them in Hyperspace transit. Mine was refitted for space combat, so she matched the fighter compliment of an ISD, while running light on ground forces.

Who am I? My name is Captian Rogue'n Grant and my life began with as much pomp and circumstance as the way it ended.

"Family Ties"

A little known facet of the Grant family tree is my relation to the Amber family. Generally not spoken of or even known of in Imperial circles, I am directly related to the widely known and respected (even by Imperial Admiralty) Corwin Amber, Jedi Master and expert military tactician. He had very limited training and we all know what he accomplished.

I, on the other hand, have been in and out of the Empire's best academies. I have been given privilidges and opportunities he never had and I while good, at what I do, still am lacking in a couple areas. I have never hated him, he's family. My father always told me to give him a wide berth, and I have never encountered wiser words in all of my life. Namely because, Corwin always wins against all odds and reason. He has embarrassed every military commander he has ever come up against, save for perhaps, Thrawn. Even in that encounter or series of encounters, he was able to defeat him by what would appear to be pure luck. Seeing as I don't believe in luck and neither does he... I gave him a wide berth.

I could go into boring depth about my actions as an imperial commander, and perhaps I will one of these days. However, with the disintegration of the Empire as we knew it came change. Radical and particularly violent. My father faded into obscurity, then I ended up dropping him off at the Pentastar laignment for a short stint there before he wound up in the Corporate Sector.

I too found my way there, after I lost my ride and my crew to the infighting for power that was the Void of the Empire after the Emperor died. I say that, because, I know like so very few do that the current Emperor is actually Black Hole, an Emperor's Hand. Its deadly information to possess, most are dead who know.

Remember, I picked the Vic for a reason. Getting back to what happened to me. So, needless to say, I went out with a bang. However, that is a tale for another time. The stars open themselves up to me, as I cruise the space lanes in search of purpose. My father has a calling, and a place in the Galaxy, me... I'm still looking.

Reaching over the consold of my Modified Z-10 Seeker, I hit the hyperdrive levers and I'm gone, where will I end up?

"Knowledge is Dangerous"

My Victory Star Destroyer was on fire, literally. She had taken fire from at least six Imperial Class Star Destroyers on the way in.

"Capitan, we've successfully severed all connections to the Imperial Holonet... Finally." Commander Jev said

"Fire all batteries, keep her steady as long as you can. Target Star Destroyers three, six and Nine with overlapping Concussion Missile fire." I said

In less than a minute, which seemed to stretch for almost an eternity, Three sensor contacts on the display ceased to exist.

"Roll 25 degrees starboard and fire a full salvo at the Super Class Star Destroyer, Roll us 180 Degrees and alternate all batteries with pattern fire on the bridge. Keep our speed at 12 Space units." I said again to my second. We watched at the bridge of the Super Evaportated under heavy fire. It was chaos.

"Pull us up and around through the wreckage of Star Destroyer's One and Two, using them for cover on approach." The Vic altered course on her final flight. The Holonet Media Hub loomed large before us.

"Concentrate all fire on the outer defenses, accelearate to maximum speed. Remaining batteries fire aft and target our pursuit. Give me the General Shipboard comm." It switched over "All hands, abandon ship." It had been a wild ride, This wouldn't kill Black Hole... But it would put a serious damper on his plans in the Core worlds and just beyond for at least six months. It might, just might, give everyone who knew the truth a fighting chance.

"This will knock out his interstellar communications, tactical data and war efforts for months. The price is too high, for a target that's apparently not as worthless as we would have imagined..."

The Vic, on fire, rode straight into the mouth of hell and within moments the Media Hub, a gargantuan Battle Station detonated spectacularly under the maximum force impact.