OOC: I would like to thank Rogueboy for compiling this backstory for us. Now you all have something to look at while you await the story. Once the story starts, I will try to post on this thread so as to basically update the overall situation of the three stories.

The meeting ended and Major Scott was disappointed as another round of negotiations miserably failed. The annexation talks have been going on for months without any headway being accomplished. The New Republic keep insisting that the Vast Empire is run by a militant group of xenophobic humans and that they enslave humanoid species in order to keep a cheap unskilled labour force in order to build the next Death Star. The accusations were obviously false especially when they were asked to come up with evidence but they still insist it for argument’s sake. When the accusations first reached the table Scott had secretly sent a message back to Tadath to verify that there was no basis to these arguments, and was gladly told that they were baseless lies.

There was a representative from each of the three major factions in the annexation talks; Lieutenant Danson from the New Republic, and a mysterious man who goes by the name Tevler. Scott did not believe that Tevler was the man’s real name as he seemed to be really secretive, and since Thrawn had no military reason to annex Malastare as it was considered to be out of the way for him, his appearance was only a formality.

The council of Malastare was elected through a series of seats and an election takes place every year, when elected they serve a term of five years, and as there is five of them; one elected each year. The reasoning behind this is that most households do not change much within a year whereas in more prolonged gaps families may split up and whatnot. Lately the council has been getting more brazen with their demands, most of them social freedoms but that is not the Empire’s way. Any planet that has more social freedom than another will most likely cause the Empire to split into two, so Scott has been playing it as a politician, promising things while never planning to deliver them.

Scott was having an ethics struggle within himself while he was normally an honest straightforward type of man he was instructed to get Malastare no matter what the cost. This was rather odd because Malastare does not contain any economic infrastructure, military benefits as its population consists of Dugs and Grans neither of which care for the Galactic war, unless they are being hired for mercenaries.

This once again brought Scott back to the original problem, some of the demands that the council made would have to be met most of these involved setting aside funds for various reasons; increase the amount of schools, hospitals, and many other social services. If things do not drastically change the VE would have to change its tactics to something...less peaceful. A platoon was standing ready to take the planet by force, this was a last resort and while a platoon is not enough to completely secure a planet the plan was designed to capture and hold the capitol. Once dug in the troopers would have no problem repelling and nationalists and New Republic sympathizers.

The plan was eerie and gave Major Scott the chills but he had the odd feeling that the NR would not let the planet go, as a matter of fact a open-lipped NR guard let slip that Lieutenant Danson was under equally strict orders to not give up the planet.

A knocking on Scott’s door brought the Major out of his reverie, signalling at his guard to check the holocam before opening it. “It’s Councillor Ridalgis.” The guard said as he opened the door after Scott’s nod.

Standing up to greet his guest Scott bowed at the Councillor. “Councillor Ridalgis, what a pleasure for you to join us, can I offer you anything? A fine glass of Corellian whiskey? A particular brand of wine that was imported from Kashyyk? Perhaps you are hungry?”

The Councillor waved away his concerns. “No thank you Major, I’m here because you and I have much to discuss.” It was odd to see a Dug wear rich garments and carry himself around as if he were a human noble. However these comments Major Scott kept to himself it would not be very diplomatic of him to mention it, also it would lend credence to the xenophobic lies that the NR were spreading. The Dug continued “I have reason to believe that the NR has a platoon nearby ready to strike.” Pulling out a datacube from one of his sleeves the Councillor pushed it into the reader that opened up an intercepted message.

The figure of Lieutenant Danson emerged, the faint image of the holo barely showing his features. “The VE scum seem unlikely to yield up the planet peacefully, currently the negotiations have reached the maximum allotted amount of funds that I have been instructed to use. I am requesting that for permission to increase the spending budget, or to fall to plan B; call in Malta squad. Lieutenant Danson out.”

The holo ended and Ridalgis ejected the cube, once again concealing it in his robe. “What do you plan to do about it?” The Dug asked.

“First to question your motives, why would you help me?” The Major asked.

“Well by looking at this holo clearly the NR do not believe that Malastare is worth our current negotiations, how is it supposed to flourish if our leaders do not care about us? And I think the VE would be more willing to...compensate me for my efforts.”

“I’ll see to it that you are generously taken care of. Now if you do not mind, I need to send out this turn of events to back home.” Major Scott said as he ushered out the Councillor.

Major Scott quickly opened up a transmission. “Mother, I’m currently busy with negotiations on Malastare, don’t think I will be getting that leave as they might take longer than usual. You wouldn’t mind sending me my stuff, would you? Love you.”

There was a loud knocking on Field Marshal Fury’s door, getting out of bed was harder with each passing year, yet he still was able to be up at the crack of dawn every morning with only one cup of double caf. Fury opened the door; when you’re this high of a rank you don’t need to worry about security. “The call to arms from Malastare arrived not ten minutes ago.” A man with a bald spot said, his hair coming down on the side. This was Fury’s personal assistant’s assistant, the former being on vacation.

“Notify Phalanx platoon, and let me get back to bed.” Fury said before closing the door on the man’s face.

This transmission was sent to an inconspicuous mining shuttle that was docked at an asteroid, which was circling Malastare’s gravity pool. Sergeant Major Perez Santiago was the platoon commander of Phalanx. For the past week they were docked on this damned asteroid, cabin fever was quickly spreading amongst the men, forty troops should not be garrisoned in an area fit for eight even with the changes made. Either way the coded message was received, the platoon was heading down to Pixelito, the Capitol of Malastare.

Perez was busy with the small bunch of officers that had remained behind to help set up a mock-base for themselves. They felt it important to be able to maintain regular communications and tracking rather than leave them on their own. Things were still coming along slowly...it was rather difficult getting four men to do twenty men's work; it would get done though...Perez would see to it. In the meantime, they HAD a form of communication: Perez's personal comlink. At the present he was in the middle of a conversation with Major Scott, the negotiator for the Empire.

"That is right Major we have started the campaign. I worry though about the amount of troopers that I have at my disposal to accomplish this."

"Santiago, if your men are half as good as you say they are: they will be fine. Have you had any incidents since you landed?"

"Now that you mention it...I thought we had an intruder after everyone left, but my guess is that it was an animal or a breeze. We found no trace of anything suggesting that we were being watched. Why do you ask?"

"No particular reason...it's just the New Republic negotiator seems to be less anxious now. It's as if he has a new confidence about him. I was curious as to wether or not their army had begun a similar plan to ours."

"Major...your guess is as good as mine."

"Oh...there is one other bit of information I have for you."

"Yes?"

"Your brother is on-planet. He has been assisting the negotiator from time to time. Apparently he is a Platoon Commander for the New Republic."

"I see. Well, then why don't we assume that they are down here and they are either planning something or know what we're doing and planning to counter our plans."

"Is there something I should know Santiago?"

"No sir...he just has a way of knowing things that's all. I need to get back to setting base up though so we can provide support to the troops if needed."

"Understood."

That was no disturbance we heard earlier it was Dominiq! No doubt about it. Well, I guess I can hardly blame him for being loyal to the people he serves. Either way he's going to pay for screwing things up for me.

"Pack everything up...we need to move."

"SAY WHAT?!?!?"

"Our location is no longer secluded. We must move to a new location."

"But we just finished unloading everything."

"Well then best to get started....I'll pitch in. The sooner the better."

They knew at this point their commander was not joking. Something had worried him about his talk with Major Scott. They didn't argue the point further rather they loaded everything onto the four ships.

"We will have to use the pilot droids seeing as there are only four of us." Perez suggested as they were carrying the equipment.

"Sir...where are we headed to?"

"Not too far...just far enough so that they can't find us."

"Who sir?"

"I'll explain later....right now: let's finish this."


***************************************


Elsewhere on the planet, the conflict had begun. Banshee Squad had already had a direct conflict with Chimera. Casualties occured but were too scarce to mention. Darconis Squad had already lost some troopers to security gaurds and had yet to face the New Republic's Sabre Squad. Absolut Squad had not had any conflict yet with Candy...but they will....they will....