Space over Myrkr aboard the Chimaera

The wisp covered orange and yellow ball that was the planet Myrkr stood bright in space before the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera's main viewport. On the bridge, Captain Gilad Pellaeon switched between the viewport and the tactical display which showed the formation of Imperial ground forces in position near the marker that indicated the base of the smuggler chieftain Talon Karrde. They had been sitting there ready for almost ten minutes and the Chimaera itself had been in position for almost an hour. Everyone was waiting only for the order to attack. Captain Pellaeon stole the barest hint of a glance over his shoulder to where Grand Admiral Thrawn sat in his command chair, his hands steepled in front of his blue skin and red eyes.

As Pellaeon turned his focus back forward, the melodious and well measured voice of the Grand Admiral was heard. "A question, Captain?"

Pellaeon resisted the urge to sigh. He had been caught, of course. "No, Sir;" he replied.

"You're perhaps wondering why we haven't yet attacked?" said Thrawn, just the barest hint of amusement in his voice.

Pellaeon should have known that Thrawn would have known his mind. "Yes, sir, I was. All our forces appear to be in position."

"Our military forces, yes;" agreed Thrawn. "But not the observers I sent into Hyllyard City."

"Hyllyard City?" asked Pellaeon, perplexed by his commander's decision.

"Yes;" said Thrawn. "I find it unlikely that a man of Talon Karrde's cunning and would set up a base in the middle of a forest without also setting up security contacts with others outside the immediate area. Hyllyard City is too far from Karrde's base for anyone there to directly witness our attack; hence, any sudden flurries of activity in the city will imply the existence of a more subtle line of communication. From that we'll be able to identify Karrde's contacts and put them under long-term surveillance. Eventually, they'll lead us to him."

The Captain frowned at that. "Yes, sir; then you're not expecting to take any of Karrde's own people alive."

"On the contrary. I fully expect our forces to find an empty and abandoned base;" said Thrawn with a tight, brittle smile.

"In that case, sir, why are we attacking it?"

"For three reasons, Captain;" explained Thrawn, much like an academy instructor giving a lecture. "First, even men like Talon Karrde occasionally make mistakes. It could be that in the rush to evacuate, his base, he left some crucial bit of information behind. Second, as I've already mentioned, an attack on the base may lead us to his contacts in Hyllyard City. And third, it provides our ground forces with some badly needed field experience."

The glowing red eyes burned into Pellaeon. "Never forget, Captain, that our goal is no longer merely the pitiful rear-guard harassment of the past five years. With Mount Tantiss and out late Emperor's collection of Spaarti cylinders in our hands, the initiative is once again ours. Very soon now we'll begin the process of taking planets back from Rebellion; and for that we'll need an army every bit as well trained as the officers and crew of the Fleet."

Pellaeon had to agree, especially after the poor performance of the troops who had been sent to intercept and arrest Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. "Understood, sir."

"Good. It's time. Signal General Covell that he may begin;" ordered Thrawn as he focused on his tactical displays.

"Yes, sir;" said the Captain, returning to his station and activating his comms unit. "This is the Chimaera - launch the attack."

The forests of the Planet Myrkr

"Acknowledged, Chimaera;" said the Imperial General Covell into the mic of his combat helmet, keeping the impatience and scorn out of his voice. It was so typical and predictable for the blasted fleet people to sit up in their clean ships and their clean uniforms and dither and discuss while he and his Army unit scrambled around like hellions to get into tactical positions and then sat and waited the pleasure of those in the ships overhead to finally get around to giving the order to attack.

"This is General Corvell to all units: we've got the light. Let's go."

Acknowledgements came in and, with a shiver from the steel deck beneath him, the huge AT-AT walker was off, lumbering its ponderous way through the kilometer of forests towards the smuggler base. Ahead of the AT-AT was a pair of AT-ST scout walkers in point formation, scanning and watching for traps, ambushes, booby traps and other tricky, yet futile hazards. After commanding and directing hundreds of Imperial assaults, his awareness of the war machines under his command and the full range of their capabilities was complete.

On the command view console was a holographic view of the Imperial forces as they advanced on the smuggler's base from all sides. With the lumbering Imperial walkers were hover scouts in back stop positions, carrying full squads of Imperial army troops. The whole assault was moving forward in good order. However, Corvell noticed that there is a break in the northern formation - scout walkers lagging in what appears to be a particularly thick section of woods. Because of that, the whole formation was lagging. With a scowl, the general commed the AT-AT command frequency. "Unit Two, bring it up."

"We're trying, sir;" came the reply, slightly crackly and tinny due to the strange dampening effect caused by the high metal content of the planet's flora. "We're encountering some thick vine clusters that are slowing down our scout walkers."

Covell resisted the urge to roll his eyes and snarl, electing instead to patiently ask, "It is effecting your AT-AT any?"

"No, sir, but I wanted to keep the flank together-"

"Pattern coherence is a fine goal during academy maneuvers, Major;" said Covell rather tersely. "But not at the expense of an overall battle plan. If the At-St's can't keep up, leave them behind."

"Yes, sir;" came the reply, enthusiasm that tried to hide abashment.

Covell broke the connection and snorted. Grand Admiral Thrawn was certainly correct about one thing: if they were going to take the fight to the New Republic in earnest, they desperately needed more experience and seasoning. With satisfaction, he watched as the two hover-scouts moved forward and took the positions formerly held by the AT-ST's and the northern flank closed up. Yes, the raw material was there, it just needed to refinement.

The proximity warning beeped. "Status?" asked the General.

"All weapons charged and ready;" said the gunner.

The driver took a quick glance over his instruments again. "No indications of resistance, active or passive."

"Stay alert;" said the general as he activated his comms unit. "All units, move in."

Simultaneously, four AT-AT's broke through the trees and into the open. The scout vehicles and AT-ST's fanned out, encircling the darkened and quiet buildings. According to the sensors, there were only two still-working energy sources - in the main building and in one of the barracks structures. But there were no weapons, no energy fields, no sensors in place. Everything in the area, with the exception of a cluster in the main building, was utterly devoid of life.

"I'm getting approximately twenty life-form readings in that main building, General;" advised the walker commander from unit four, "all in the central building."

"They don't register as human though;" announced the driver of Corvell's own walker.

The general grunted and said, "Perhaps they're shielded. Let's find out. Assault Squads: go."

The hoverscouts deployed their squads - groups of eight army soldiers. Four rushed forward while four remained by the scouts, ready to provide cover fire. They cleared each building and barracks as they came to it, covering one another in leap frog-like movements. It was clear from their micro-hesitations, the breathing in their mics and the barely detectable trembling in their voices that these soldiers were still green but even so, they had the potential.

As each building and room and area was cleared, Corvell intently watched the sensors and listened to the open comms. Finally, the officer in charge commed him. "Sir, this is Lieutenant Barse. We've secured the target area. There's no one here."

His suspicions confirmed, Covell nodded, "Very good, Lieutenant. How does it look?"

"Like they pulled out in a hurry, sir; they left a fair amount of stuff behind but it looks pretty much like junk;" replied the Lieutenant.

"That's for the scanning crew to decide. Any indication of booby traps or other unpleasant surprises?"

"None at all, sir. Oh- and those life forms were nothing but these long, furry animals living on the tree growing up through the center of the roof."

Corvell nodded. Ysalamiri they were called. Thrawn and Lord Diabolis had been making big deals about them for whatever reason. The general was sure that, at some point, the Grand Admiral would get around to informing him what the blasted things were for. "Set up a defensive honeycomb. Signal the scanning crew when you're ready. And get comfortable. The Grand Admiral wants this place taken apart, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

Space over Myrkr aboard the Wild Karrde

"Very good, General;" said the lieutenant, his voice barely understandable, even with the heavy amplification and computer scrubbing. "Proceed with the dismantling."

Seated at the Wild Karrde's helm, the orange skinned Twi'lek Rianna Saren turned to the man and woman standing behind her. "Well there you have it. They're raiding the base. Are we heading out?"

Karrde seemed to smile slightly. "Do we have somewhere to be Rianna?"

"Yeah we do;" she muttered, "anywhere but here."

"I think it would be best to wait just a little longer to be sure we didn't leave anything about Rishi base behind."

"We were pretty thorough, Karrde;" said Aves.

Karrde cocked an eyebrow. "Are you willing to stake your life on that assessment?"

"I am; at least more than I am willing to risk it hanging around here, quite literally behind Grand Admiral Thrawn;" said Rianna rather pointedly. She nervously stroked her prosthetic lekku while she observed the Star Destroyer over the crest of the asteroid that the Wild Karrde was hiding behind. "Besides, I checked and double checked everything and so did Shada. There is nothing down there about Rishi."

Shada D'ukal nodded. "I have to agree with her, Karrde. What if they spot us? Hiding behind asteroids like this is one of the oldest tricks on the list."

Karrde chuckled and replied, "I doubt that the possibility would even occur to them. The average man running from the likes of Grand Admiral Thrawn isn't likely to stop running until he is a good deal farther away than this."

"Than the average man is really smart;" said Shada.

"Also makes me wonder why we are still here;" grumbled Rianna as she worked with some of the instruments, setting the sensors up to the highest sensitivity and checking that the engine prestart sequence was keyed in and ready.

As expected, the scanning crew were fast, efficient and thorough. Indeed, in less than thirty minutes, they had covered the abandoned base and come up completely dry. As each new negative report came in, Pellaeon grimaced more and more. "Well so much for that."

It was, indeed, an excellent field exercise for their army ground forces but that's all that it really was - a field exercise. He turned to Thrawn. "Unless your observers picked up any reactions in Hyllyard City."

"There was a small twitch, as a matter of fact, cut off almost before it began, but I think the implications are clear;" said the Grand Admiral, his eyes still on his displays.

"Yes sir," said Pellaeon, "Shall I have Surveillance begin equipping a long-term ground team?"

"Patient, captain;" chided Thrawn mildly, still gazing at his instruments. "It may not be necessary, after all. Key for a midrange scan, and tell me what you see."

With a frown, Pellaeon and called for the appropriate process. The readout showed the planet Myrkr itself and the TIE formations on patrol. Other than that, there was really only one other thing. "You mean that little asteroid out there, sir?"

"Yes that's the one. Nothing remarkable about it, is there? No, don't do a sensor focus. We wouldn't want to prematurely flush our quarry, would we?"

Pellaeon frowned and looked at the sensor data. "Our quarry? With all due respect sir, I don't see any indication that anything's out there."

Thrawn agreed. "I don't either, but it's the only sizable cover available for nearly ten million kilometers around Myrkr. There's really no other place for Karrde to watch our operation from."

The captain pursed his lips. "Your permission, Admiral, but I doubt Karrde is foolish enough for us to sit around waiting for us to arrive."

Thrawn's glowing red eyes narrowed. "You forget, Captain, that I've met the man. More important, I've seen the sort of artwork he collects. No, he's out there. I'm sure of it. Talon Karrde is not merely a smuggler, you see. Perhaps not even primarily a smuggler; his real love in not in goods but information. More than anything in the galaxy, he craves knowledge... and the knowledge of what we have or have not gained here is too valuable a gem for him to pass up."

Pellaeon studied his superior, thinking it a tenuous leap of logic at best. However, he had seen too many of these leaps of logic turn out to bare fruit to be dismissive. "Shall I order a TIE squadron to investigate, sir?"

"As I said before, patience, Captain;" replied Thrawn. "Even in sensor stealth mode with all engines shut down, he'll have made sure he can power up and escape before any attack force could reach him. Or rather, any attack force from the Chimaera."

A stray memory clicked: Thrawn, reaching for his comm just as Pellaeon as giving the ground forces the order to attack. "You sent a message to the rest of the fleet, timing it against my attack order to mask the transmission."

Thrawn's blue-black eyebrows lifted just a fraction. "Very good, Captain;" he said, "very good indeed."

"Thank you, sir;" he said, feeling warmth inside him - until the sensor suddenly picked up a sudden power spike.

"It would seem that Karrde has seen enough;" said Thrawn.

He was correct. The action IV bulk freighter was leaving for open space.

"Rianna, what are you doing?" demanded Aves.

"I'm getting us out of here. We've seen everything and confirmed that they didn't find anything. It's foolhardy at this point. Karrde can fire me later;" said Rianna, not even bother to look at Karrde.

Aves looked helplessly at Shada. The dark haired woman just lifted her hands. "Don't look at me! I'm just Karrde's bodyguard."

He turned to Karrde. Karrde sighed and said, "I suppose that there is no real point in staying. Aves, lightspeed calculations. Take the easiest course setting that's not anywhere toward Rishi; we'll stop and reset later."

Aves looked like he was about to object but instead, elected to comply. They kept the asteroid between them and the Star Destroyer. Just as the calculations to the jump to lightspeed were finished and the engines were ready, an interdictor cruiser dropped out of lightspeed. "Look at that;" said Rianna casually, "looks like Thrawn suspected we were here. Making the jump now."

The bridge was silent as the freighter disappeared in a flicker of pseudo motion. For several long moments of silence, Grand Admiral Thrawn stood at the forward viewport. "Interesting; apparently there is someone aboard that ship whose survival instinct and protective nature for Karrde or themselves is stronger than their respect for Karrde's thirst for information. I think it's critical that we learn more about his employees."

"Yes sir." said Pellaeon.

"In the mean time, Captain, we do have other important concerns, such as finding new warships. Have there been any recent responses to our invitation?"

Pellaeon pulled his mind from the problem of Karrde to the problem of warships, pulling the comms logs and giving the more recent ones a quick scan. "Nothing particularly interesting, Admiral. Eight of the fifteen groups I contacted have expressed interest, though none were willing to commit themselves to anything specific. We're still waiting on the others."

Thrawn considered that and nodded, "We'll give them a few weeks. If there have been no results after that, we'll make the invitation a little more compulsory."

Pellaeon nodded before stating, "There has also been another communication from Wayland."

Thrawn nodded. "I see. Has Lord Diabolis sent a report from the Mount Tantiss operation?"

"Yes, sir. Everything is going smoothly but most of his report is concerning his special units for killing the Skywalkers. Apparently there were some drawbacks."

Thrawn nodded. "When working with technology that old, it isn't surprising. But I have confidence his technicians will figure it out. Those droids are certainly works of art. The next time he sends a report, offer him our help. I doubt that he will accept the offer but it can't hurt to offer."

"Yes, Admiral. Is there anything else that you would like me to convey to the Dark Lord?"

Thrawn thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "That will due just fine, Captain. Except reiterate out gratitude for his loaning of his Dark Jedi to assist us in the attack."

"Of course, Sir;" said Pellaeon.

"In the mean time, Captain, tell General Covell to return his forces to the Chimaera. I want his report on file in three hours. Twelve hours after that, I want his recommendations as to the three best infantry troopers and two best mechanized operators in the assault. Those five men will be transferred to the Mount Tantiss Operation and given immediate transport to Wayland. While we await the general's return, you will contact the long term surveillance team in Hyllyard City. Tell them to get comfortable."

"Understood, sir."

Thrawn gave a smile. "It's a large galaxy, Captain, but even Talon Karrde can run for only so long. Eventually, he'll have to come to rest."