STAR WARS: DARK TERROR I: REMNANTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Jedi Order:
Garyn Dakara; Jedi Apprentice (male Kiffar)
Hayden Dalair; Jedi Knight (male human)
Kalaan Stone; Jedi Master (male Cerean)
Nauli Kamisk; Jedi Master (male Talortai)
Rhyen Vankar; Jedi Apprentice (male human)
Raven Varos; Jedi Apprentice (female human)
Galactic Alliance:
Slair Onasi; Commodore; commanding officer of Galactic Alliance Battlegroup Four; commander of the Star Destroyer Resistance (female Human)
General Torus Brade, commanding officer of the Galactic Alliance ground operations (male human)
Liberator Squadron:
Creyo Voir'ma; Liberator-Three (male Bothan)
Edos Bilki; Liberator-Two (female human)
Grider Trinko; Liberator-Four (male Rodian)
Jori Carver; Liberator-Five (female human)
Nek Kermis; Liberator-Six (female Bothan)
Vorin Wikk; Captain; commander of Liberator Squadron (male human)
Imperial Remnant:
Kerlos Tavsiri; Admiral; commanding officer the Imperial Star Destroyer Grievance (male human)
Zaimur Craid; Commander Imperial 9th Armored Attack Battalion (male human)
Reaper Squadron:
Tiro Kilstar; Captain; commander of Reaper Squadron (male human)
Oryn Dalzak; Reaper-Two (male human)
Klide Winter; Reaper-Three (male human)
Bennar Rost; Reaper-Four (male human)
Darryn Korror, Reaper-Five (male human)
Gav Sadeuse; Reaper-Six (male human)
Cardan Verza; Reaper-Seven (male human)
Navin Yzalli; Reaper-Eight (male human)
Mandalorians:
Baydo Titus; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Boba Fett; Manda'lor; Leader of the Mandalorian Strike Team (male human)
Dyir Carud; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Corin Bralor; Mandalorian Supercommando (male Barabel)
Elai Kareb; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Goran Beviin; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Jax Hamaire; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Kas Birek; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Keth Bralor; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Kial Volar; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Rev Devieyc; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Rixa Numeck; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Ryia Devieyc; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Tyran Numeck; Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Aggressor Squadron:
Ami Laylis; Aggressor-Three (female human)
Dain Dolvo; Aggressor-Two (male human)
Dinua Jeban; Aggressor-Five (female human)
Miles Violat; Aggressor-Six (male human)
Savah Tervho; Aggressor-Four (female human)
Yunauli Drau; Captain; commander of Aggressor (male human)
Yuuzhan Vong:
Kirnak Rai; Yuuzhan Vong Warrior (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Yraka Rai; Yuuzhan Vong Warrior (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Sehn Rai; Yuuzhan Vong War Fleet Commander; Transcendence (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Turik Khoa; Yuuzhan Vong ship commander; Glorious Agony (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Prologue
Katna Rae System, three days into the Liberation of Katna Major
Galactic Alliance/Imperial Remnant Taskforce in orbit
Yunauli Drau was one of the many fighter pilots standing around the holo-projector in the belly of the Alliance Star Destroyer Resistance. Drau was the commanding officer of an all Mandalorian fighter squadron dubbed the Aggressors, they'd been given modified XJ3 X-Wing starfighters with a blue on black paint scheme. Drau though the Mythosaur skulls painted on the nose of each craft was a nice touch by the Alliance crewman who'd painted the craft. Drau and his men had been given temporary status as officers in the Alliance, should they need to rally more starfighters in a skirmish with the Yuuzhan Vong they would have the rank to do so.
Off to the Mandalorians' left and down a few people was another squadron commander, clad in the jet black flight-suit of an Imperial Ace. Tiro Kilstar was just less than five foot seven inches tall, his hair shaved close to his head and a beard matching his jumpsuit in color. Kilstar had shown his skills as a fighter pilot in the last three days, he was barely thirty and already he held command of his own squadron, dubbed The Reapers. They'd initially been flying TIE/in Interceptors during the first engagement with the occupying Vong forces, but promptly switched over to flying the unfamiliar XJ3 X-Wings after the Interceptors had proven to be outmatched by the Yuuzhan Vong Coralskippers. The Reapers had all shown their skill as fighter pilots by taking the X-Wings into battle with hardly any flight time in the craft.
Next to Kilstar was the only real Alliance squadron commander; Captain Vorin Wikk, a thirty-two year old Corellian about a foot taller than his Imperial counterpart who'd joined the New Republic Starfighter Corps five years before the beginning of the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, was clad in the orange flight suit made famous by the Rebellion starpilots years ago. He was leading Liberator Squadron, unlike Aggressor and Reaper Squadrons, Liberator Squadron was host to various species as members. Wikk had two Bothans, Two Humans and one Rodian under his command.
Drau himself was the oldest and more experienced fighter pilots of the three commanders, Forty-one years old and current on all the latest starfighters, he'd seen his share of action during the war between the Rebellion and the Empire, having lead a wing of TIE Fighters for the Empire and also flying a flight of Y-Wing bombers for the Rebellion, he didn't really care who won he only cared if he got paid on time after completing his contract.
The deal with the Alliance however was something different. He wasn't being paid to fight the Vong, he'd volunteered to do it. After the massive attack on the Mandalorian homeworld and the massive amount of casualties inflicted by the Yuuzhan Vong, Drau and his five compatriots were more than ready to take the fight to the Yuuzhan Vong.
The image on the holo-projector was the map of Katna Major and the contested space around the planet. Images of broken Yuuzhan Vong, Alliance and Remnant ships floated dead in space. The remaining twenty ships in the Alliance/Remnant fleet were far from unharmed, the Resistance had more than one hull breach, the Nova-class Star Destroyers that served as escorts for the much larger Imperial-II class Star Destroyers Resistance and Remnant flagship Grievance were pock marked and carbon scored.
The Yuuzhan Vong fleet wasn't in much better shape. The Alliance had managed to push them back to the planets far side, where the newly arrived Remnant group of Victory-II class Star Destroyers was re-engaging them, giving the remaining wounded ships in the taskforce some time to regroup.
None of the starfighters new how the ground battle was going, that wasn't their job. Any and all information the needed would pertain to the space battle, unless they were ordered to provide air support to the ground units. Even then it wouldn't be broadcast to the starfighters at large, just the group that the Fleet Commanders charged with the task. Seeing as neither Drau, Wikk nor Kilstar had bombers in their squadron it wasn't likely to be them. Drau felt certain though that things weren't going great for the ground troops, it wasn't going horribly wrong due to the presence of a large Mandalorian contingent and fresh Imperial Stormtroopers dropped by the recently arrived Imperial ships, but it surely was going great. The Yuuzhan Vong were ruthless warriors. But the Jedi were in charge of the ground defense, so he'd leave the worrying to them and keep his head on the task at hand.
The door to the hangar bay opened and a man and woman entered the room, getting salutes from their respective troops. The man was wearing the uniform of an Imperial Admiral, the woman wearing the uniform of a Galactic Alliance Commodore. The admiral was Kerlos Tavsiri, a veteran commander who'd served under Grand Admiral Thrawn during his reign of the Empire, he was the commander of the entire taskforce, and thus far had proven worthy of that duty. The woman was Slair Talath, she'd recently changed her surname to Onasi after tracing her bloodline back to that honorable lineage, but no one felt right calling her Onasi yet, if she survived the battle maybe that would change.
Tavsiri took up a position to the left of the holo-projector, Onasi was standing off to his right with her hands clasped firmly behind her back. The Imperial admiral scanned the crowd of fighter pilots and cleared his throat.
"The reinforcements that my government has provided this taskforce has just reported in." He began in a droning monotone that someone would pick up after spending a lot of time in high-society "The Yuuzhan Vong fleet seems to be in a retreat, odd given their past strategies while engaging Alliance or Remnant forces. Myself and my command staff don't believe they are retreating, more likely regrouping their forces for a final attempt at beating back our fleet. Which we won't let happen."
The group of pilots, minus the Mandalorians, let out a cheer and Tavsiri continued "After the last engagement the Grievance commanding officer met an untimely end, I shall be passing command of the Resistance over to Commodore Onasi and assuming command of the Grievance. The Commodore shall continue your briefing as I have a shuttle to catch. Commodore?" Tavsiri said giving a slight bow of his head and stepping out of her way and heading off towards a battered Lambda-class shuttle sitting at the back of the hangar bay.
"We're repositioning the fleet and preparing to maneuver around the other side of the planet to catch the Yuuzhan Vong between the Remnant frigates and the rest of the Taskforce."
She highlighted the route the ships would take on the projector, which showed scaled down versions of the two flagships in the center of the rest of the beaten and bruised fleet.
"Admiral Tavsiri has informed me he wants Captain Drau to lead the fighter assault," Onasi continued indicating the gray armored Mandalorian in front of her. "You're targets will be assigned to you upon reaching the enemy fleet."
Drau noticed how Kilstar and Wikk bristled, Drau was above such emotions. Jealousy got you nothing in war except more disaster and ruin…something he was trying to prevent.
"Squadron commanders have five minutes to prep your ships and get into position." Onasi said making a sweeping glance at the pilots in the hangar. "May the Force be with you."
She walked back to the turbo lifts to make her way to the bridge to assume command of the Resistance. Without much comment, the pilots made their way to their separate crafts for the next round of combat.
Drau climbed up the ladder set up by one of the hangar techs and seated himself inside the Incom XJ3 model.
"Wings up in five Trench." He addressed his R2 unit "Any anomalies in the diagnostic you ran."
The Astromech gave a hesitant chirp.
"You didn't run the diagnostic?"
Another string of high-pitched tones erupted from the little droid.
"That briefing wasn't for you, you had your orders already."
What amounted to a disgusted snort erupted from the droid.
"Well it's good that you're doing your job now but I would have preferred to have the diagnostic readout before takeoff."
An inquisitive blirp.
"No not shortly before takeoff you sarcastic rust bucket." Drau sighed "Just warm up the engines for me, can you do that?"
An affirmative blirp.
"Good." At least you're good for that.
He pulled on his helmet and established radio contact with the rest of his squadron, first on his list was his squadrons second in command Dain Dolvo. Not a popular Mandalorian, his father had tried to revive a small Death Watch brigade not too long after the Imperial Occupation of Mandalore. Dovlo's father and his compatriots had all been hunted down and killed after they had crossed the path of Ruima Numeck; killing Numeck's father and mother.
Ruima had been killed during the Yuuzhan Vong attack on Mandalore, and his son Tyran was down on the planet below. Drau mused over the idea of Ruima avenging his parents, and Tyran now avenging his father. Drau had known Ruima and was good friend with Tyran, and Tyran was ten-times as deadly as his father had been.
Drau felt a sincere moment of sorrow for the Yuuzhan Vong who crossed that man's path.
Though he was among the bunch who didn't favor Dolvo, he had admitted to the fact that Dolvo was a superior fighter pilot and had made him his number two.
"Dolvo you up and running?" he asked.
"Green across the board Lead." Dolvo replied back.
"Good," Drau replied "Three and Five are on your flanks this time around, Two and Four are on me."
"Affirmative." Dolvo replied.
The affirmative confirmation of his squadron's orders came back at him in short crisp "Gotcha." Or "Copy that."
"Captain Kilstar, are you receiving?" Drau said over the open tactical frequency.
"Kilstar go." The Imperial pilot replied.
"What about you Wikk?"
"Receiving."
"Kilstar form your squadron up on our right flank, Wikk the same on our left. We'll take it from there once we get our targets and see what shape they're in."
"They're probably in better shape than we are." The voice had the IFF tag of Reaper-Five, which would make him Darryn Korror. In the senior Mandalorians' opinion, Korror was one of the better fighter pilots in the entire taskforce.
"Cut the chatter Reaper-Five." Drau transmitted just as his Astromech chirped that the engines were primed for takeoff. "All fighters prepare for takeoff.
The X-Wing rumbled as its engines roared to life. As it slowly lifted from the ground, Drau maneuvered the controls to point the craft in the direction of the containment shield that was all that separated the inside of the hangar from the cold confines of space.
He took a deep breath.
Here we go again.
Galactic Alliance foot hold, four kilometers from capitol city Surok
Three days into the liberation of Katna Major
Three days of constant combat and still the Mandalorian/Remnant/Alliance soldiers still couldn't break the Yuuzhan Vong hold on Surok. The planets vegetation had been vastly mutated into that of the Yuuzhan Vong, making progression harder than it should have been. The rain that had begun to fall, fell in large drops of a clear, sticky substance that testified to the amount of pollution in the atmosphere. The ground was so treacherous that the entire group of Walkers the ground forces had brought with them had either become unable to maneuver across the terrain or their mechanical limbs had become so encrusted with alien dirt and muck that they just seized up, unwilling to move.
In all his years of warfare Boba Fett had never seen anything like this, he'd never seen anything like the Yuuzhan Vong either. Alien creatures so enthralled by pain that they willfully disfigured themselves to show their rank and stature within the alien culture, the more disfigured you were the higher in rank you were. Fett better approved of the color and insignia system his galaxy used, even though he was disfigured as well.
He looked over his shoulder at the long line of Alliance and Remnant soldiers, a mix of uniforms that were more commonly found on opposite sides from each other, were all now sitting and awaiting the next move from their deadly enemies. A Galaxy united.
Too bad it took the Yuuzhan Vong for that to happen. Fett thought to himself as he looked up into the trees where a handful of his Mandalorian Supercommandos were keeping watch for the Yuuzhan Vong counterattack.
"Team-One to Scout, see anything?" Fett transmitted.
There was a slight rustling in the trees and a hiss of static over the comlink.
"Negative Team-One, everything looks clear." Elai Kareb replied back.
"Doesn't mean that it is Elai," Fett said "Keep me posted."
"Yes sir."
There was a wet thwack as a large mass landed to Fett's right, Fett didn't move a muscle, he just turned his head. A Human male in camouflaged combat gear with long black hair and a few days of beard growth on his face rose to his feet.
"A Jedi should know better than to surprise a Mandalorian." Fett said.
"Good thing I didn't surprise you then." Jedi Knight Hayden Dalair said "We found a way into Surok that the Yuuzhan Vong haven't discovered…yet."
"You and the rest of your Jedi are certain?" Fett said.
He'd asked the six Jedi attached to the attack force to search out possible routes of infiltrating the Yuuzhan Vong held city and it appeared that they had.
"Fairly." Dalair said pulling out a datapad and a map of Surok before the invasion. "Katna Major is known for mass deposits of phindo resin, there are dozens of abandoned mining tunnels that have entrances nearby and come out in the cities underbelly.
"Now how are we supposed to know what lies underneath the city?" Fett said.
There was a second impact and a young girl with dark streaks of purple running through her jet black, shoulder length hair, wearing the same combat gear as the older Jedi, rose up from the crouching stance she'd landed in.
"Because," She said "We already checked it out."
The young girl was Raven Varos, Dalair's Apprentice.
"You did?" Fett said flatly "Without letting anyone else know."
"The Master's knew." Varos said.
"Well girlie," Fett said crossing his arms and staring at the young girl "A lot of good it does the rest of the taskforce if you Mystics go and get yourselves killed, and any information that could have been put to use gets lost. From now on, you find something you report it in to either myself of Commander Craid, understood?"
Varos gave a slight bow of her head "As you wish."
Dalair let a smile creep across his face, his apprentice was actually showing a little respect to her elders. Normally she would have put up an argument.
"Well Fett do you want to know what we found or not?" Dalair asked crossing his own arms.
Fett made a motion to the two Jedi "Follow me."
He led them to a makeshift tent that seemed to be made out of fibrochord intertwined with leaves, a classic design used by many guerrilla militants, probably put up by the Mandalorians Dalair surmised. Inside the tent were four other men, One was very tall with neatly trimmed hair and he moved with the grace that suggested that he was born into wealth. Imperial Commander Zaimur Craid was the commanding officer of the Remnants' Elite 9th Armored Attack battalion. He had brought with him a total of nine-thousand Imperial Stormtroopers, as had the Alliances' 12th Assault Regiment. The Yuuzhan Vong population of the planet was estimated to be much greater than the combined eighteen thousand soldiers the Remnant and Alliance were throwing at them, but the Taskforce had the Mandalorian Supercommandos and one Supercommando was worth five regular infantry in terms of their training and combat effectiveness.
The other two men were advisers to Craid, who was leading the ground assault tactically, Fett was the one on the frontline issuing orders to the troops as per the planned attack. The fourth man was a tall Cerean, young by his races standard and the only Jedi who had not been sent out looking for alternate attack routes. Jedi Master Kalaan Stone looked up from the holo-reader which was displaying the current layout of Surok.
"Jedi Dalair, good to see you've returned." Stone said giving the young human a nod of his elongated forehead. "And you bring good news."
"Well if he does, please share it with us master Jedi." Craid said without looking up from the reader.
"We discovered mining tunnels that aren't being used by the Yuuzhan Vong that lead to the cities underbelly." Dalair said pointing them out on the reader.
"That's all well and good, but how do we know what the Yuuzhan Vong have under the city." Craid said
"Because," Varos chirped up "We already checked."
"I feel like I've already had this conversation." Fett said "Mind telling us what is under the city."
"Well actually…another tunnel." Dalair said.
"Great." Craid said.
"Hold on Commander," Master Stone said "Jedi Dalair wouldn't bring this tunnel to our attention if he didn't believe it to be worth our time. Continue."
Dalair bowed slightly "Thank you Master, the tunnel in the underbelly is worth taking because I believe it leads straight to the Yuuzhan Vong Yammosk."
Fett let out a low hiss "You want to attack the Yammosk?"
"That is suicide." One of Craids' advisers said "That is to be the most well protected being in the Katna Rae system."
"Surely Master Fett and his Supercommandos are up for the task." Stone said.
"Oh yeah, we're up for it but we don't have to like it." Fett said.
Craid sighed "Jedi Dalair do you have a plan?"
"Yes I do."
"Well do tell."
"We select five teams, one for each tunnel that leads into the underbelly and move them into position. The rest of the taskforce we use to draw the Vong out of the city, when that happens the five strike teams enter the underbelly, one of them heads down the primary tunnel and locates and destroys the Yammosk while the other four blow their way into Suroks' city center and begin to fight the Vong from the inside out."
"How many men per strike team?" Fett asked.
Dalair stroked his bearded chin "Let's say thirteen Supercommandos, two Jedi and fifteen regular infantry."
"Thirty men." Craids' adviser said "Are you insane?"
"No," Craid said "If we can take out the Yammosk we have a better chance at taking back the planet, the Vong defense will be uncoordinated."
"Doesn't change the fact that it is well protected sir."
"We all die sometime lieutenant. The way I see you die two ways, fighting for something you love or you die a cowards death."
"I'll pick a team of my commandos who are properly suited for this mission." Fett said "I think I know someone crazy enough to pull it off."
"Master Stone, permission to lead the Yammosk Strike team." Dalair said.
"You and Jedi Varos were already going to go, whether you knew it or not. You found it, you kill it." Craid said.
Just then there was a tremendous explosion from outside. Lightsabers and blaster rifles were all brought to bear as the taskforce soldiers rushed outside.
To everyone's surprise there were no Vong rushing the encampment, Dalair, Fett and Varos all looked around and noticed that the rest of the taskforce were looking up at the sky. That had been the source of the explosion, high up in the sky there was a brilliant fireball. All the ground forces could do was hope that it hadn't been one of their ships.
Craid appeared at Dalairs' side, his face looked stricken.
"I think it's time we took out that Yammosk."
Drau put his X-Wing into a dive and hammered down on his auxiliary trigger peppering the Coralskipper in front of him with underpowered laser shots. It didn't take too long for the Coralskipper to begin moving sluggishly and more slowly than it had before, as it's dovin basal began to overwork itself throwing up protective fields everywhere the lasers were hitting. Once his laser shots started to break through the gravity shield the alien craft employed, he hammered down on the primary trigger firing a fully powered quad-burst into the alien hull. One of the lasers bent and distorted as it hit the energy shield just below the propulsion unit, but the other three lasers burned neatly through the ships yorik-coral hull putting the alien craft into a sporadic downward spiral and ultimately crashing into the hull of one of the larger Yuuzhan Vong ships.
"Scratch five." Drau said stating his fifth kill of this particular engagement.
"Affirmative Aggressor-One." Kilstar said "Good hunting today."
As more Coralskippers began to fly his way Drau replied "You ain't kidding."
He put his craft into a barrel roll, avoiding the golden waves of molten plasma spewing at him from five Coralskippers directly ahead of him.
"Aggressor-One, Liberator-Five and –Six on your wing." A Female voice said in Drau's ear.
Scarlet ribbons of plasma began pouring into the Yuuzhan Vong fighters from behind Drau's XJ3. He peered out of his cockpit and looked at his left and right flanks, sure enough there were two additional XJ3s flying in formation with him.
"Copy that Liberator-Five, thanks for the hand."
Drau added his own volley of laser fire to the deadly mix, battering the shields of a fighter that Liberator-Five was already whittling away at. As if sharing the same thought both fighter pilots fired their full powered quad-lasers at the same moment making the Coralskipper erupt in a ball of flame.
"We'll call that you're kill Five." Drau said looking to his left.
"Much obliged, Aggressor-One." Jori Carver said.
Drau looked to his right and noticed that the other XJ3 wasn't there anymore.
"Liberator-Six, report in."
There was only static. "Command, list Liberator-Six as KIA."
"Affirmative Aggressor-One," the Ops lieutenant on the Grievance said
"Listing Warrant Officer Saris as KIA. New orders for your squadron from Admiral Tavsiri."
"Go ahead, Command."
"Your squadron is to re-route to heading zero "
The voice on the other end cut off abruptly and the Grievance split in half, spewing flames and debris before finally erupting in a giant fireball, consuming three smaller corvettes in it's vicinity.
"Aggressor-One this is Commodore Onasi, Yuuzhan Vong Reinforcements have arrived in system, multiple heavy-cruiser analogs have just destroyed the Grievance. Re-route you're squadron to head five-six-four, take that target out!"
Trench chirped and a line of text scrolled across his data display. "Aggressor Squadron, we're moving to assault there recently arrived carrier."
"You're going to need some support." Kilstar radioed in.
"Negative Captain Kilstar, your squadron is needed elsewhere."
"Sorry ma'am I take my orders from the Empire."
"Pilot I am in control of this taskforce now. You will do as ordered."
"Sorry ma'am my receiver is acting up."
Kilstar informed his Astromech to block incoming messages from the Resistance. "Aggressor-One, Reaper Squadron forming up on your wing."
"It's your skin." Drau said.
"I'm pretty thick skinned."
"Alright, Liberator Squadron fan out and commence the attack run on your assigned targets. The rest of you form up on me. We're going in."