OOC:

This story is set between the RAIDERS story "Garg II Round II" and the HSC '07 to '08 story.

RAIDERS Mission Clock 20:25:34
VEI Prowler Pandora, in geosynchronous orbit around Garg II.

The phrase "as empty as space" is overrated, Dante mused. Looking out into the void around Garg II, he could easily see dozens of craft, from the Star Destroyer Fate to fleet tenders, hanging in low orbit and exchanging fire. Grey starfighters chased each other through the void, exchanging green lances of energy as they did so, and vanished in brief flares of light. There were hundreds of those flares, and the shattered remains of countless vessels were drifting aimlessly in a loose ring around Garg II or burning as they reentered the planet's atmosphere.

Dante saw a flash of pure white as a Thrawnist Dreadnaught's shields flickered under a relentless barrage from the Fate's main guns. Its twin tried to draw fire away by attacking the vessel's more vulnerable underside, but the Star Destroyer's powerful shields easily absorbed the laser cannon and turbolaser fire. Neither ship was really capable of doing any damage to the Impstar, and they knew it. That didn't stop them from trying to attack the massive cruiser though. Watching them wilt and burn under the return fire, Dante briefly wondered what could inspire such loyalty in the Thrawnists. Couldn't they see the alien for what he was?

The first Dreadnaught had begun to turn in order to spread out the traumatic damage Fate was doing to its side when the last turbolaser bolt overloaded its shields, which collapsed as the shield generator violently exploded, sending debris from the crippled ship flying in all directions. Two of the six hundred-meter long vessel's engines had been slagged, and parts of the vessel's middle were leaking atmosphere, which flash-froze in the space and created an eerie halo effect around the mortally wounded heavy ship. The metal superstructure of the Thrawnist heavy cruiser became exposed as the vessel's skin and insides melted away under the relentless barrage. As suddenly as it had started, the barrage stopped. The Dreadnaught made now attempt to move or attack, however. It simply drifted randomly, a hollow shell of its former self.

Looking through a pair of electrobinolculars, Dante guessed there had to be thousands of flash-frozen bodies in the clouds of debris surrounding the destroyed vessel. He sighed.

He knew he should have been happy at the prospect of avenging the VE forces massacred by the warlord's faction, but just felt weary.

When is it no longer worth it?

The longer the war dragged on, the less progress seemed to have been made. Dante was tired, his fellow troopers were tired, hell even Darr Rann seemed weary. Enough.

The Prowler shuddered, and the artifical gravity generators briefly failed. Several Raiders shouted in surprise as they felt themselves rise off the floor for a split second before landing heavily. The engines began to roar, a dull thump-thump that echoed throughout the stealth ship.

"We're moving." Dante began. "I wonder why..."

He was cut off by Rogueboy. The Raiders ASL was gesturing at an ever increasing shape in the far distance.

"It's the last Thrawnist Dreadnaght." Dante said, his mouth suddenly dry. "It knows it can't take on the Impstar so it's trying to inflict as much damage as it can before it's destroyed."

Leon broke in, speaking much faster than usal.

"Darr. Can the Prowler's shields withstand that kind of firepower?"

The Raiders SL didn't reply. Instead, he slowly shook his head, and turned away from the viewport. As if on cue, a speaker crackled, and the tinny voice of the VEI officer who had met them in the shuttle bay came through.

"Stormtrooper Squad Raiders, report to the bridge at once. Repeat, Stormtrooper Squad Raiders to the bridge."

The squad turned to Darr, who shrugged and palmed the doorseal. It hissed open and the squad made their way through the ship's corridors, following the various holographic signs on the walls. Some of these signs were flickering on and off, and the lights were dim or even off in parts of the ship.

We must have already taken some hits.

Within minutes, Raiders Squad had filed onto the Prowler's small bridge and were standing in a loose group. The crisis atmosphere was clear as reports filed in and orders were given. Captain Azoreth, the ship's commander, spoke quietly with a crewman, who then nodded and ran off the bridge, before turning towards the Raiders and nodding.

The squad snapped to attention.

"At ease, Raiders. As you can see, we've run into some complications."

That's one way to put it.

"We're trying to take..."

Whatever Captain Azoreth was about to say was cut off as a series of loud thumps echoed through the Prowler's hull. Crewmen were thrown into walls or forced to clutch at handholds as the deck shook like a thing possesssed. Several terminals turned from green to red, and the reports became more frantic.

The captain had grabbed onto a console and got back to his feet, brushing his grey hair back as he did so. He turned to the row of crewmen behind him.

"Status?" he barked. One of the Lieutenants stammered a reply, his face pale.

"Shields 15 percent, forward turbolasers disabled, sir."

"There's no way we can outfight that thing. Lieutenant, get me Fate now. Tell them to drop whatever the hell they're doing and give us a hand."

"Yes, sir. Transmitting now."

The bridge fell silent except for the crackling of overloaded electronics and tapping keys.

Another volley sailed through the darkness, a few hundred meters away from the dimunitive ship. Despite its small size, the Prowler had several advantages, not least among which were its impressive engines and the small target it presented to hostiles trying to engage at long range.

Looking at the main bridge viewscreen, Dante saw the Fate send one final volley at the motely array of starships and troop carriers, which were either fleeing the planet or engaging it, before turning and heading towards the Pandora at maximum speed.

The Thrawnist Dreadnaught, seemingly oblivious to the battleship bearing down on it, continued to fire on the Pandora as i t advanced on the Vast Imperial vessel. There were a series of green flashes from the Fate's triangular outline and emerald fire washed over the Thrawnist vessel. It's shields vanished under the barrage, and smoke began to pour from the holes torn in the ship's hull, only to vanish upon contact with space. Sluggishly, it tried to move into a better position and return fire, but quickly stopped as ion cannons sent waves of static crawling over the vessel and crippled the engines. They faded from their bright red-orange to a dull grey, as well as black where the hits had created carbon scoring. A few escape pods hissed from midship, but they quickly vanished in bursts of flame.

"No life signs..." Captain Azoreth muttered, as he watched the battle unfold. "They must be trying to draw fire away."

The ship's armour plating and weaponry softened and faded away under the continuous fire. Slowly and methodically, the Fate reduced the Drednaught to slag.

Why didn't they try to run? There had to be some reason for their suicidal attack on Fate; a lone Dreadnaught can't take on a Star Destroyer and her captain had to know it.

Captain Azoreth must have been thinking the same thing, as he spoke sharply to the human manning the sensor station.

"Scan the area around the planet. Report if you see anything suspicious."

"Nothing, sir. Just a lot of battle debris. Wait, picking up dozens of hyperspace entries, sir."

"Zoom in."

The image on the main viewscreen blurred, then focused on the area the Captain had indicated. Dozens of troop transports, small freighters, and even a few hyperdrive-equipped Interceptor fighters were flickering and vanishing into streams of blue light.

The Dreadnaught was buying time for the others to escape. It could have gotten away...but it didn't.

Dante turned back to the still-glowing remains of the Thrawnist cruiser, his eyes slightly wider than usual under the helmet.

What loyalty would make them do such a thing?

He briefly wondered if the crew was made up of clones, then shook the thought from his mind. That doesn't matter. What matters is that if the enemy has that kind of resolve, we have to as well.

Shaking his head, he looked back at Garg II, the planet they had fought for and been forced to give up to Thrawn. Huge clumps of wreckage formed loose fields around the planet, and there were shimmers as some reentered the atmoshere. Over the next few months, dozens of pieces of wreckage would impact the planet, making it almost uninhabitable for decades to come. Dante sighed as he watched the debris leave glowing trails as it burned up on reentry.

And we're supposed to go back there...

"Xendor..." someone whispered.

There were a series of beeps, and the man seated at the sensor suite swivelled around.

"Sir, recieving a transmission from Fate."

"Patch it through."

Silence descended on the bridge for a moment, followed by a burp of static and a slightly garbled voice.

"This is Captain Korn of ISD Fate. Raiders Squad, in light of recent events the High Command has decided to scrub your mission."

What?

There were a series of murmurs from the Raiders. Ignoring the sudden outbursts, Korn pressed on.

"Both the Pandora and Fate have been ordered to return to Tadeth upon the removal of the remaining forces from the system."

But if our mission's been scrubbed, how can we 'remove the remaining forces'?

Mulling the statement over, Dante understood.

We aren't retaking Garg II. We're destroying it.

As though to confirm his conclusions, Fate slowly turned back towards Garg II and moved into a low orbit. There were bursts of azure as point-blank range laser cannon fire vaporized large pieces of debris that were threatening to impact the Vast Empire star cruiser.

It then rained fire down on the globe below it. Forests, valleys, and rivers were all vaporized by the turbolaser blasts. Dante wondered how many Vast Imperial troops were caught in the blasts, and had to fight to repress a shiver.

Behind him, Namyr was whispering in a language he didn't understand, but her tone made it clear that it was a prayer of some sort. Dante almost leaped forwards, almost asked why they were killing their own men, but forced himself to stand still.

There isn't time. The Thrawnists will be back and in greater numbers. The troops don't matter to the high command; they see it as 'denial of resources' ".

Dante felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he thought of the surviving Vast Imperials on the ground who were dying. Killed by "friendly fire".

So goes the Empire. How could they do this to their own troops?

The unspoken question was there but there was no answer.

A Prowler is a ship class used by Vast Imperial Intelligence (called Vast Empire Intelligence in the story and its inspiration). The vessel mentioned in this story is the "Pandora". It was mentioned in "Garg II Round II" and "Sith Spit", although it was changed from an ISD to a Prowler by Rogueboy halfway through Garg II Round II. My explainatio n is that the Pandora was deliberately exaggerating its status in order to disperse the Thrawnist blockade around Garg II long enough for it to pick up the Raiders.

The source material:

http://comnet.imperialnetwork.com/topic/8814/[url]
[url]http://comnet.imperialnetwork.com/topic/9081/
[/url]http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dreadnaught-class_heavy_cruiser[/url]