Kuat Orbit

[Freedon Nadd]

=Captain Eaden=

*Noting Shepard's return, the captain eyes him.*

What did Lord Freedon have to say?

=Lt. Shepard=

*Shepard stops and turns to the captain.*

It's simple. Keep an eye on them for now.

*Without further word, Shepard returns to his post. The captain simply raises an eyebrow but says nothing further.*

[Sith Trooper]

*A Sith Shuttle departs from the Avenger and moves to the edge of the system. It then jumps into hyperspace bound for Korriban*

[Alexander Organa]

*A single Sith Interceptor flies at full speed out of the Avenger's secondary hangar bay, dodges down around the ship and then starts heading toward the edge of the system*

[Exar Kun]

Aboard the Avenger

*A message from one of the Trooper squads comes over the bridge monitors. There is the sound of heavy blaster fire in the background as well as Troopers shouting orders*

::Bridge, we've spotted the intruder. He's in a fighter, trying to blast his way out!::

"Switch to hangar bay image-feeds!"

*One of the main bridge viewscreens shows a Sith Interceptor firing into the secondary hangar bay door*

*One of the techs in the Bridge pit yells up to the Admiral*

"Admiral, that door is about to blow!"

*Before he has even finished his sentence the viewscreen shows the hangar door blow open and the Interceptor speed through the hole*

"Emergency forcefields! Get a tractor beam on that fighter!"

"I... I can't Admiral. The tractor beams are all offline!"

*Amanti clenches her fists in anger*

"Damn him.... Then open fire, and send out a squadron to shoot him down! Talik is not getting away!"

---

*The Avenger fires it's turbolasers at the fleeing Interceptor and eight Sith Interceptors are launched from Avenger. They pursue Talik's fighter and once in range, they open fire on it*

[Alexander Organa]

*The alarm inside the Interceptor begins to blare, and Talik punches it*

"Shut up!"

*He looks over his shoulder, trying to see behind him. The screens said they were coming up on him fast, but something in him told him to always look for himself. Just then the ship shudders as it is hit with laser fire*

"Kark it all to Mustafar...."

*Talik pulls up on the throttle and begins evasive maneuvers. Doubling back to get a clear shot, but the Interceptors simply break off in different directions. He was outflanked and outgunned. Not good. He stays on the tail of one them, firing off a few shots, and manages to hit the engines, but the fighter continues on as if no damage had been scored*

"Dammit!"

*Then Talik's ship shudders again, this time more violent. Talik looks wildly over his shoulder, there was one right on his back. A critical systems warning light pops on*

"Port thrusters are down.... this is not good."

*Talik veers to the right and then down, headed toward the KDY shipyards. Talik's ship is hit again, and smoke starts bellowing from the engine. A proximity indicator goes off as the Interceptor screams toward the shipyards. Talik reaches out with the Force, using it to guide the ship. There was a hangar just a ways off... if he could hold it for that long he could probably land. Probably*

*The stolen Interceptor flies right into the hangar*

[Exar Kun]

*Exar Kun's personal Sith Shuttle drops out of hyperspace and immediately heads for the same hangar Talik's fighter went down in. It glides into the hangar and sets down.*

[Exar Kun]

*Exar Kun's personal shuttle exits the hangar it previously entered and heads to the Avenger. It lands in the Avenger's primary hangar*

[Alexander Organa]

(OOC - I am responding to this post)

*Alexander's fighter screams out of a KDY hangar and shoots for the edge of the system. That's when Alex realizes that there were two full Sith fleets in this system*

"Oh kark me.... This isn't good."

*A Sith Interdictor-class Cruiser starts heading his way*

"Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!"

*But then the Interdictor suddenly stops*

"What the..."

*Alex shrugs and sees this as his chance. He punches the lever and the Black Vapor jumps into hyperspace toward Alderaan. He had to get to Vrook. He was the only one that could help him. At least that's what the glowing magic elf-thing had told him*

[Exar Kun]

*The combined fleets of Exar Kun and Freedon Nadd form up and await the retreating forces from Dantooine. Eventually the fleet arrives and merges with Exar Kun's forces. Following moderate repair work to the Dantooine fleet, the invasion force is at full strength and is ready for battle*

New Fleet Group 1: Under the command of Exar Kun
(combined half of the former Fleet Group 1 [Dantooine] and the remains of Fleet group 5 [Kuat])
- 3 Centurions-class Battlecruisers
- 15 Interdictors-class Cruisers
- 2 Derriphan-class Battleships

Fleet Group 4: Under the command of Freedon Nadd
- 2 Centurions-class Battlecruisers
- 10 Interdictors-class Cruisers
- 5 Derriphan-class Battleships

[Freedon Nadd]

*When Kun's entire fleet makes the jump to Alderaan, Freedon takes his entire fleet around Kuat and makes the jump with him.*

[Skree]

*General broadcast frequency*

::Hitchhiker looking for rescue and pick up. Likes long walks on Y'Toub and all night snuggles. Won't be able to respond to comm, follow the frequency in Kuat City. Reimbursement likely.::

*With a trembling, sexy female voice, the message periodically repeats as it radiates through space.*

[Alec Childress]

((Continued from here))

Due to some problems with Sith and other undesirable traffic, Alec and John took a more roundabout path back to Coruscant. Instead of the more direct route they had taken to Alderaan, they selected a longer, but lesser-used hyperspace lane that took them closer to the edge of the Deep Core. This swung them out farther from their destination to start with, but it would hopefully keep them away from more Sith and pirates.

The trip was uneventful and boring. John was apparently not one for socializing and kept to himself. Alec was left to her own thoughts. She wondered how her friend Taloombray's assault on the Kashyyyk Czkera headquarters had gone and momentarily considered sending him a message. But she decided against it since she couldn't guarantee a secure channel while in hyperspace. Eventually she settled down to nap away the 10-hour trip back to the city-planet she called home.

Just as she was beginning to drift off in the bunk she had claimed, AJA-X chirped to life in his "camera" disguise.

::Marion. Receiving distress signal from Kuat.::

"You can call me 'Alec' again Ajax. The mission was a bust," the tech corrected the droid as she rose from her bunk. "What is the message?"

The camera-looking hovering droid replayed the message it had intercepted. It was an odd thing hearing a woman's voice come out pleading from the droid's usually tone-less vocabulator.

::Hitchhiker looking for rescue and pick up. Likes long walks on Y'Toub and all night snuggles. Won't be able to respond to comm, follow the frequency in Kuat City. Reimbursement likely.::

"And that is coming from Kuat? How far are we?"

::Alec. We are nearing the Kuat system and will pass by the primary planet in approximately 15 standard minutes.::

The tech was impressed. "You can pick up transmissions at this distance? Even not being integrated into the ship's sensor systems?"

::Alec. Affirmative.::

Well, wasn't that interesting. Alec didn't remember programing AJA-X to be able to do that. But that was one of the benefits of never wiping a droid's memory; they literally took on a life of their own and picked up skills not in their original programing.

——————————————————————

After some cajoling, John was persuaded to land on Kuat. Alec wasn't overly motivated by the potential of addressing the distress call — though that was a potential to make up some lost credits on this busted run if the mention of likely reimbursement was believable — but she had some contacts on Kuat she might be able to tap to salvage the Alderaan mission.

Soon they were in Kuat's atmosphere and descending towards the central city.

((Continued here))

[Freedon Nadd]

Freedon Nadd's Fleet:
- 2 Centurions-class Battlecruisers
- 10 Interdictors-class Cruisers
- 5 Derriphan-class Battleships


*Only a few days earlier the fleet under the command of Sith Lord Freedon Nadd arrived in Kuat's orbit. Not long after it's arrival it began holding position in standard defense around Kuat's orbit. Unbeknown to any of the fleet, Kuat had turned it's attention to the Republic while they were gone. However, Kuat was now in a very awkward position. They had gone to the Republic for aid, and never heard back from them. Apparently their pleas for neutrality and want for open talks between the Republic and Kuat got lost in the shuffle during Vienna Organa's assassination.

Now there was an entire Sith fleet under the command of a very powerful Sith Lord in their orbit. Kuat could only hope the truth of their actions never reached the ears of the Sith above them but quite a few politicians of the Kuat government, the prime minister included, knew it was only a matter of time until they found out. They could only hope to stall it and have some plan to appease or possibly evict the Sith from their system. Kuat certainly was in a tough spot, but they had days to talk it over.

Unfortunantly those days did not even amount to a standard week. A Sith spy planted within Kuat's own works made his way by shuttle to the Fist of Nadd. *

[Joe Civilian]

The Kuat government had indeed taken note of the Sith fleet hanging over their planet like a silent raptor waiting to strike. The fact the fleet had shown up, taken up a clearly militaristic posture, then made no effort to contact the planet added to the anxiety in the City. The fleet's silence was the most concerning as it gave the bureaucrats, politicians, and their legions of political analysts and PR spin doctors nothing to go on. They had no idea what to expect.

Top on Kuat officials minds was what would certainly look like their traitorous attempts at seeking Republic alliance while the Sith had been away. Only top officials had been party to that effort and the information was kept on a high security, need-to-know basis. There was no way the Sith could have known about their attempts to contact the Republic… right? When one was facing down a Sith fleet, doubts about information security naturally plagued the mind.

Shortly after the fleet's arrival, (hopefully) secret official orders went out to all planet-side defenses and the orbital ship yards to be on high alert, but not make any detectable moves. No shields up, no weapon systems locked, no increased low-orbit patrols. Just keep it casual. We're all friends here. Just be ready to act at a moment's notice if that giant silent fleet decided to open up on the planet or the shipards.

As the second day of silence wore on and the pretense of friendly relations diminished with each passing hour they did not greet their past allies, orders came from official sources to try to break the silence. If nothing else they might find out what they're up against.

The lead ship of the fleet was hailed under the banner of the Kuat aristocracy and parliament. The message was brief, formally friendly but pointedly non-committal.

::Fist of Nadd. We would like to officially extend our welcome at your return to our space. It has been some time since we last communicated, but if there is any service which we could render to you, do not hesitate to inform us of your needs.::

Following the message was the contact information for key members of the Kuat government with whom the Sith forces had interacted before. Among these were representatives of The Ten aristocratic families, members of parliament, and most notably the prime minister.