Legend of The Sorai

A/N: I was reading this past semester a few good literature books, specifically of the British kind. The old British kind, stuff by Blake and other good authors. What does that have to do with the story? I don't know. Originally, I wanted to bring in a couple of characters from Visions of The Daughters of Albion, Theotormon and Bromion who are the two male characters/lovers to the woman character. I wanted to use them as the Dark Moral presence that the Emperor uses when he sends out his minions, but then I decided that taking classic literature and using it in my book was a bad idea. I do not want to take away from what Mr. Blake did. In fact, I am in awe of his writing, he is one of the few Old British writers that I appreciate. A man of morals, if slightly skewed, he is still an apt writer. However that doesn't mean that I can't misuse other genres. Anyhow, on with the story.

Prologue

Mount Olympus

"This is disastrous," said Zeus, "If Apocalypse truly wants to destroy everything, then all hope is lost."

"Can we not intervene?" asked Athena, "I mean, we've intervened in other events in the past, after all, we sent Thor down to be our presence on Earth 216."

"That was before this current crisis," said Zeus, "We cannot intervene."

"Yet," said a pissed off woman's voice, "You let your children intervene, The Musi."

Zeus turned to see Hera standing before him, utter rage filling her, reminding him again of why he should have never married his own sister. Let it be that mortals had unfortunately followed in his incestuous footsteps, and he sighed, "The Musi are not my children, though I slept with Mnemosyne, these beings, these Musi are not mine. Mnemosyne slept with some other being, one of the titans I believe, or Hercules, though I believe he is currently still with Megara. Hades, I believe wouldn't have slept with her, though he has sent out a few of his operatives to watch the chaos unfold, but not interfere. He said that the End of Days would be his play ground, because he would be part of it, but this isn't The Right End of Days."

Dionysus smirked, "You know very well what has to be done though," he said, "Ares always wanted control and power, he got what he wanted, but the extent is that The End of Days comes when he wants it, not when we want. We are still to far off for The End to come, even Odin is having issue with this, he has held back his own men from going off to take on Ares."

"Why can't we call him who he truly is!" roared Hera, "he is Apocalypse, he wanted the power, he stayed behind when we left humanity, because of the Gould, we now face the brink of destruction, he can and will destroy us all, god and mankind alike. While I am not in favor of the Musi or whoever fathered them, letting them go, they are not the Muses. Even the Muses power isn't enough."

"There is still one alternative," said Odin as he appeared, "We combine our powers to awaken an individual who we put into stasis long ago when he was no longer of use to us. The power that he possess can help The Three Avatars. Merlin and the staff of The Aegid."

Thor appeared beside his father, "That's not all, The First has awakened, Tyronis, the first being who was given powers by the Ancient ones, the ones before us, he has allied himself with Chronis, in fact the Avatars of Chronis and Tyronis both came to be during the battle against Megatron. We believe that hosts were chosen because of the Ancient Link."

Hera looked bemused, "Only three god beings possess that link; Hercules, Achilles, and Zeus the father of all."

"You forget that The Altera, the first humans, the ones who were not helped to mature by our hand, had the power, many of them became what we are, though on a lesser scale that they do not interfere as it is forbidden," said Athena, "The Musi may be acting under Desala's orders or some other beings. I have dealt with a few of the Ancients, in fact I dealt with their Merlin, called Merdin, a while back. He is far different from the Merlin we have here. More rash, irreprehensible and deadlier and far more powerful. Sadly though, after the Ori came through, their Merlin is no more."

"Doesn't the destruction of everything matter to The Ancients, or whatever they're calling themselves?" asked Hera.

"Yes and no," said Hercules appearing with Meg at his side, "I've met one of the Ancients, or at least one of their trainee ancients, I think, a Daniel Jackson who was one of the few humans of Earth 319 the StarGate Universe to achieve help ascending, they only concern themselves if they are to be threatened."

"What plain do these Ancients live on?" thundered Zeus, "I will go pay them a visit!"

"They are a plain of existence that we cannot even achieve or be in, they are everything and nothing," said Hermes.

"Buddhism?" asked Hera.

"No." said Hercules, "They shut all other nexus and realities out, there is no access to them, only if they wish you to enter."

"Then we must bring forth Merlin and the Aegid staff," said Zeus, "Send him on his way to help."

Chapter One.

Essences of Everything.

Third and Final Conversion point.

Agrahbah

Southern Desert

10th Air Fleet

Cruiser Ship: MechaWrath

Patrol Ship: Light of the Sand

Cruiser Ship: Golden Hand

8th Armored Ground Corps

Hand of the Titan, Mozenwrath's command

Soldiers of the Sand, Crushers command

Tin Cans. Robotic corps.

The small contingent, about five hundred men total, not counting the robots, headed out. The ground forces were in traveling tank like ground crawlers that were quite impenetrable, the only way to destroy one would to blow it up from the underside or a good atomic bomb. The troops selected were a small contingent of the Southern Command that the Sultan had given over to the people of the desert, basically the peoples of the sands were Civilian-warriors. they were civilians during the peace times and warriors when called. The 10th and 8th were the most elite division that had been created. The only two divisions that worked together as a tactical unit. The Tin Cans were the only robotic corps that the Sultan had allowed, and by far it was smaller then what the Empire had back on Corascaunt.

"This is amazing," said Goldwood, "That you have this many willing to die for a cause."

"This is nothing," said Mechanicles, on board his command ship MechaWrath "Full troop strength is ten thousand, including the Al-Muddy, who while are free-lance swear allegiance to me and Mozenwrath. They are the closest thing to special ops/spy corps that I have, since they are nature bound, that enhances their abilities more then any modified spec ops could ever be. In fact, the Sultan is grateful to them, for keeping some of the more aggressive free lancers at bay. Most free lancers, and there are a few swear allegiance to Mirage, and work for her. She is like what the show says. Evil with a capital E, she won't attack unless provoked, which is usually when we enter her territory, otherwise she's peaceful. The Al Muddy are the only creatures who can stand up to her magic, Lord Muddane the leader is the only Al Muddy who seems to have an affinity for magic, in fact he has tangled with Mirage personally and lived without having to be consecrated back to the sand from whence he came."

"Sir," said a tech, "We are approaching the Gate, I am reading anti-air weaponry, and the gate is open."

Goldwood rushed to the display and cursed, then nodded to a tech who opened a com channel.

"This is Commander Goldwood," he said "To Sultan Liander, come in."

The sultans face appeared on the screen, looking sad and worried, he'd been crying since Jasmine and her daughter had been taken. The palace had suffered some damage, a few people inside had died, but most everything was okay, minus Jasmine being gone, "Commander," said Liander, "They're saying Jasmine is their prisoner til we turn over the Dragon Avatar, the problem of course is that we don't know where he/it is, hence forth, when we told them that, this was after a black ops team stormed the palace and kidnapped Jasmine and her kid, they sent us the ransom message. We responded and now the Gate is open and at least as I have been informed from fly-by that three more contingents have come through the gate, and that at least eight walkers have been brought through to be assembled, plus there is the ship they have in orbit, a super star destroyer which will also be used to subdue the planet and make it part of the Grand Unified Empire."

Mozenwrath's screen lit up, and he was pissed as well, more so, his eyes had done the whole "Rage to Red I want to lift my hand and destroy everyone with magic" thing, "They expect to black mail us?"

"That ship has enough fire-power to take out the Palace with one hit, and the rest of the planet subdued in a matter of hours," said Crusher, who was leading the ground command, via screen, "I've got the specs that I managed to get by hacking via their own network, we need a crack force to go in, Mechanicles the code is 87nega1."

Everyone had their eye on Mechanicles to see his reaction, he sighed, "we had one ship built with special features, including a cloaking device to hide us from scanners, we need to take the ship. Mozenwrath, I give you full command of the force, distract them, rescue the princess and if possible, take us a few walkers."

Everyone saluted Mechanicles and then screens went off, he then activated the ship wide com, "This is the commander," he said, "all stations prepare to go to orbital mode, mode conversion on my mark....mark."

Immediately the ship changed from the small cruiser with weapons hidden to a full fledged war ship, gun emplacements immediately activated and came to bearing, two new screens appeared above tactical, the gunners chair had a VR head gear pop down, then Mechanicles input the stealth code and the ship went cloaked and silent.

"How do we get in?" asked John, "I mean, do we just go into the docking bay?"

Mechanicles smiled, "Crusher did us a favor John," he said, "There was a reason it would be assumed one ship would be going space side, it's the only one with experimental transporters."

"experimental transporters?" asked John, "In other words, Crusher built them, but didn't have the right components or materials, and so they probably won't work."

Mechanicles sighed and shook his head, "No," he said, "These are different, per instance if we were to beam into another Star Fleet ship, we wouldn't have to wait for their shields to be down, we could just beam in and out, but what makes these unique, is that they won't give off a signature even with us cloaked."

John nodded, he liked Wes a lot more, even if he was a nerd.

Tactical nodded at Mechanicles, who nodded back, then pushed a button, "Armory, get up here."

John figured, that the armorist would be coming up to the command deck to fit everyone for weapons, after all, on a ship this small, 5 decks including the command, there wasn't much of a fighting force, however John was wrong when thirty young men and women and at least two cyborg types appeared on the command deck, wearing black gear.

"Commander Goldwood," said Mechanicles, "Meet The Armory, my personal fighting force, these young people have been with me for a while, Mozenwrath and Xerxes have their own, The Macedonian Guard, The Armory is more a tactical based spec ops group, which exists for situations like this, they are at your command for this venture aboard the ReignCaster, once we take it, it will be yours to command, as will The Armory."

The strike force saluted John, and he just nodded, "At ease people," he said, "I'm not military, I'm just the Avatar of the Dragon. We need to take this ship, no destroying it, or at least minimal damage please, we need a presence that says we mean business, though I am sure that Commander Crusher will be modifying her when we take her, prepare for bea out on my mark, Mechanicles....Mark!"

They disappeared off the Wrath and on board the Caster, whoever had 'ported them, knew what they were doing, because they appeared in a corridor that was very unlit and very useful.

(From here out to the end of this segment, Goldwood will switch to first person, for the author's sake)

"Get me a reading," I said, "I want to know how many people are on this ship, cause after all, we're only thirty against in my guess of what I know from SuperStar Destroyers one hundred or more."

The Cyborg, whose name was Expacknor, pulled out a device that looked a lot like the life signs detector the Puddle Jumpers used, and punched in a couple of keys, looked at it for about five minutes, then put it away, "fifty sir," he said, "according to the computer mainframe which I hacked into, this ship is merely a picket ship, more a trainer, most of the people on board were sent for training in how to subdue a planet, they are authorized to use extreme force on the planet if the backup is unsuccessful."

"Lets go then," I said, "Half of you take the bride, the other half, take the lower levels, Expacknor you will come with me and the bridge crew, Lady Shirvas, you go with the lower levels crew."

Both cyborg types nodded and saluted.

"How many on the bridge?" I asked, "And how armed are they?"

"Thirty on the bridge," said Expacknor, "not armed, this is a training mission, the only armed thing is the ship weapons."

"That is a slaughter," I said, then activating the com, "Goldwood to Lady Shirvas, if you have encountered anyone, do not fire on them, this is a training mission, they are not armed, I repeat they are not armed, shoot to stun, shoot to stun!"

She didn't respond, but I could hear orders being shouted as the safeties were disengaged, and then reengaged, and yes, that can be heard over a com.

"Thank you," I said, "Use stun beams, and put the prisoners in the cells, once this battle is over with, we will deal with them."

We moved to the bridge, again checking the computer, since they didn't know we were on board, it was easy. I motioned to one of the women, a sergeant Kora, who signaled two other men, who moved to either side of the blast doors, stun beams ready, Expacknor moved to the door interface terminal, and slid in a rod that was used for bypassing security protocols. The doors opened, and three things happened, Kora threw two flash gernades in, the two stun beams fired, and we moved in. In short order, it took about five minutes. The captain, who looked young enough to be my age was the only one left standing.

"Who are you?" he stammered, looking very scared.

"You are hereby under arrest," I said, "I am Commander John Goldwood of the Freedom Alliance, your ship is now under our control, you will turn command over to me and my men, deactivating all former protocols, your other men are already in cells, which is where you and your men will be going shortly, after which, one the ground situation is under control, we will transport you down to the planet, where you will stand trial for invading a sovereign system not interested in The Emperors war."

He laughed, which I wasn't surprised at, "And if I don't?"

Expacknor pulled out his pistol and shot one of the men in the leg, "like I said," I said, "Cooperate, or the next shot is in the head."

the Captain gulped, "Understood" he said, "This was only to be a training mission, we're just fresh out the academy, they wanted a small crew operating this girl, the main force would be coming in via the gate, our orders were to subdue the planet and occupy, this isn't the occupation force on the ground, just the rear guard, the occupying force will come once we have control of the The Sultan and The Palace."

"Well," I said, smiling, "Then you have already lost, my allies on the ground, will make short work of everything, now that there isn't a space cannon holding by, take him away."

Lady Shirvas appeared on deck, "contact Mozenwrath," I said, "Inform him that he now has air support."

Mozenwrath's face appeared on the vid screen, "Well," he said, "I'm impressed, think you could fire a couple of shots around the camp to make our point that we are better armed, we've managed some damage, and The Al-Muddy came in and mucked up the walkers, right now it's just artillery and men against us, but even so, the walkers are still useful with the guns, even if they aren't moving."

"Understood," i said, pointing to Shirvas and Expacknor, who both took tactical, "I'm contacting the camp."

Soon enough the strike force's commander was on screen, Commander Jurst.

"I assume I am speaking to the commander in charge of this stupid attempt?" I asked.

"And you are?" the man asked.

"Avatar of the Dragon," I said, "Commander John Goldwood of the Free Alliance Forces at your service."

"So you wish to surrender, where are you calling from, the palace?" he asked, "I will give the princess for you."

"You must have faulty equipment if you cannot see where the call is coming from," I said as I nodded to Shirvas and Expacknor as they targeted two sections outside of the camp and fired a spread each. Watching his eyes go wide as two energy bolts hit and did a bit of damage made me laugh, "Now surrender, your men are outnumbered, your artillery will be destroyed, your walkers are pretty much useless."

He laughed, motioned off screen, and brought out the princess, holding a gun to her head, while another man held a gun to her daughters head, "I don't negotiate," he said, "With terrorists, now surrender, or I kill the woman and her brat."

I smiled, and laughed, "Had you half the brains which got you to your position, then you would realize that not thermocreting where you are operating as a command center, is the stupidest thing you could do."

he looked at me like I was wacky, and clicked off the safety, his lieutenant did the same, then Jasmine and her kid disappeared, not shot mind you, but disappeared, as in down. The Al-Muddy had gotten her, the same happened to her kid. The Al-Muddy would get them somewhere safe.

I opened another channel, "Mozenwrath," I said, "The Al-Muddy got Jasmine and her kid, they're out, pull all ground and other forces out, I'm leveling the camp."

I turned back to Jurst and laughed, "Well," I said, "You tried, time to die, all stations fire!!"

cannonade and proton torpedos launched away, leveling the camp, doing damage to the surrounding desert area. I saw storm troopers and other officers who hadn't been in the immediate blast radius, run towards the gate, which one of the guards was trying to open, then light hit him and he died, which stopped the dialing sequence. The camera which I had hacked into, was showing what was going on. The Tin Cans were moving in, they were using a variety of weapons, mostly energy rifles, but a few disruptors as well. That's what the gate man had been hit with, though these weapons had been augmented to be more deadlier.

I signaled Mozenwrath, "Remind ground forces and air forces, that some need to survive, I want a trial, mainly for show, just so there is an excuse to execute the Imperials, and then send the heads back."

Mozenwrath looked at me, and nodded, "Get the prisoners down from the ship, we'll finish mopping up in a bit."

the signal ended, I turned to Lady Shirvas, "Get the prisoners and take your crew down to the bay, take one of the landing shuttles down to The Palace."

She nodded, and the people who I had assigned her (they were still in the holding area) went with her.

"Goldwood to Mechanicles," I said, "Take the MechaWrath down to the planet, I will stay up here and watch the procedings from the bridge, as soon as that's done, get all who are coming and transport them up here, I want a small contingent of the ground forces, I want air support (besides the ship we're currently on), I want mechanized, which I think the Tin Cans, and if there are any walkers left those, and of course you, Mozenwrath, Xerxes, and Aladdin and his Rats."

"Aye sir," he said, "What are you renaming the Caster?"

"Command of Light," I said.

"Mechanicles out," he said.

While the other things happened on the ground, I had Expacknor and my people get the ship ready, checked out the armory, found it to be loaded. checked out the hanger deck, three flights of Tie Fighters, one of Bombers, eight landing shuttles. Checked out the main deck, and found three ST-ST walkers, and two AT-AT walkers, in the big crates, ready to go. This took about two hours, then the com activated.

"Report," I said, as Mozenwrath's face appeared on screen.

"The Street Rats are ready," he said, "everyone is ready as well, we managed to salvage three AT's, and a couple artillery. We captured the weapons in the outpost, they had a few atomics, plus other weapons, they had enough stuff here sir, that they could have taken the palace with just the capture group that took the princess, incidentally, we sent their heads back, we also gave them a nice gift, one of the bombs, an atomic incendiary, along with a holographic message. the bomb is in the message."

"Good work," I said, "Get everyone up here soon, the space gate is being activated, as soon as we're through, the Sultan is destroying it, we're going to the Star Wars universe. I just got a premonition, and I believe that Phoenix and Chronis are there."

"Understood sir," he said.

A full hour and a half later, the gate was active, and the rest of the commandos got on board. All ships were secured in the other bays, the artillery and other mech stuff safely chained and ready to go.

A vid screen opened and Jafar was on the line, "We have two neo-kinetic war heads pointed at the gate," he said, "Soon as you are through, they will fire, good luck gentlemen."

"Jafar," I said, "Thank you, good luck to everything there as well."

the screen went dead and the ship drifted out, Mechanicles at the helm, Crusher in one of the workshops working on something. then we were through, above a planet. the gate closed behind us; exploded actually.

"We're in the outer core sir," said one of the techs running up, "We are three hours out via hyperspace from Tatooine, and I just heard chatter, three Super Star Destroyers are on their way towards the planet as well, Jabba the Hut just called the Emperor, he has Phoenix."

I nodded, "Inform Crusher that he is to get the cloaking device active for the Light active," I said, "then inform anyone who wants to, that they are to report to the shuttle bay, I want a flight of Ties ready to go, I want to landers ready as well, get the other commanders to the bridge immediately as well, I want to discuss battle plans."

"Aye sir."

On Tatooine

Most of the hullaballoo was happening inside Jabba's palace. Phoenix of course had been confined to his room, and about three sets of six guards each had been assigned to make sure that no one got in. No one thought to make sure he couldn't get out, no one had thought to put a spectrometer in the room for him originally, if they had, then they would have realized that Phoenix was not powerless, and more or less was ready to reek some havoc. Jabba had moved behind his blast shielding. Most of his men had moved to the gate area, and two tripod cannons had been set up, one in incineration mode, and one on disruptor mode, class 3. (don't ask, cause I'm only the author). So in essence, the palace stormers wouldn't even make it in. Or at least, that's what the Palace Guard thought, had they known the mind of Malcolm Reynolds or even Gandalf, they would have thought to retreat. Jabba's palace had very little outer shielding, most of it was activated, and the turrets were active. That's the other unfortunate thing, minimal weaponry. Not by choice, but no planet side mercenary base or smuggler camp may have heavy weaponry or artillery. This was according to the Mercenary/Smuggler rules, and most followed. Those who didn't somehow got found out and were throughly destroyed, usually by Imperial agents who knew some of those rules as well (cause of their consorting sometimes....sometimes) Though Jabba had gotten around some of that, the rule book said nothing about floating turrets, or outer defenses that lined the court-yard, so his defenses had a few modifications to them.

"Remind me again?" asked Bib Fortuna, "Why we don't just ask the local garrison for help?"

taking care of the final setup and cameras and control room, Boba Fett stared at Bib, "If they knew we had the Phoenix, they would storm our gates as well, Jabba isn't even all that well liked by Captain Ukral, that's why none of us really like going to town, unless we can get a low level or a sympathizer."

"I don't think the local garrison would be much help right now boss," said someone, "I just got a call from one of our informants, apparently there has been a commotion."

Boba and Bib stared at the man, motioning him onward, "The little space fight we witnessed a few days ago, apparently resulted in a couple of somethings escaping from the ship, my informant told me that what happened was that the Princess, the Princess of Alderaan apparently stole something, the informant doesn't know, but the princess sent down two of her droids with whatever she stole."

Boba Fett at this point got tired and pulled out one of his blades and stuck the man to the wall, and growled at him, Bib looked a bit scared, "Boba!" he said, "Behave."

"The man is milking it for all it's worth," muttered Boba, "I could kill him and interrogate someone else."

Bib pulled out a gun, and pointed it at Boba Fett, several others pointed at both parties, "Everyone shut the Hell up!" roared another man walking into the room, a brash young officer by the name of Edward Elric, member of the Full Metal Clan, a group of humanoids who had the power to wield energy of nature or something like that, his brother Al, had a disfiguring accident when he was younger, and wore a suit of armor to hide the disfigurements, most of the time, Al used a large gun that looked more like a hellbore cannon. Al was the one person, most of Jabba's court, including Jabba feared.

"Here is what we know," said Edward, "The droids were wanted by the imperials, the garrison tried to take them, apparently an old Jedi happened to befriend them first, along with a local moisture farm kid, along with a few other adventurers, there were two super stars in system, but apparently the Jedi had some backup waiting in space, because those two star destroyers are now in their hands, as well as another super star destroyer that was apparently lost a week or so ago, there are at least two or more Jedi types besides the main Jedi, plus a lot of other wackos with guns and whatnot. We are in luck though, Jabba called about fifteen hours or so ago planetary time and requested aid, since he had captured Phoenix Avatar, the Emperor has sent three Super Star Destroyers with a full compliment of soldiers each, they were launched immediately, not from Courascant, but from a close by system, somewhere near Alderran, or something like that, as long as we can hold out long enough, the fleet should be here to help out."

The tech by this time, had been removed and taken to the infirmary, but that was besides the point, watchers from all over the place in the desert and in Mos-Eisley were reporting that the freedom fighter strike force was in a building some place, and not doing much. Well maybe, two smaller craft had been spotted leaving the docking bay. What the people in the palace didn't know was that Tattooine had just been taken over, the Imperial presence had been wiped out. literally. The citizens knew that, but weren't celebrating, there were imperial guards out, but they were mostly the freedom fighters men, dressed up, to keep the order and also as a ploy, in the event that the the three ships moving towards their prize sent men here first. Which they hoped wasn't going to happen.

So the mood around the palace was jubilant, the smugglers happy for once that they were going to one up a bunch of freedom fighters with outdated weapons. Only if they had known the truth.

It was three hours later when the excitement started, three ships came in system, Judgement, Joyless, and The Acclamator. They spread out, with escort craft appearing out from under them, and moving out system towards any pirates who might have followed them in. Mostly small frigates, then the tie patrols poured out, four flights total from each ship of about ten fighters each, patrolling out even further. Then three landing craft dropped from the under belly of Joyless, followed down by a trio of escort frigates, which would patrol the surface from the Palace to Mos-Eisley. The three landing ships were full of soldiers, and the offensive commander, one commander Thrawn, the only alien who had achieved a high ranking, and for that matter, the only alien with command of a ship in the fleet, in fact the only alien being type in the fleet, minus all the.....well.....janitors and the like.

The Command of Light (cloaked) came out of hyperspace half an hour later, and dropped down to a lower altitude in space to avoid the patrols. By this time, Crusher with a few assistants had managed to get a few of the other ships cloaked. The Command of Light was slowing down and would reach the planet momentarily and then go up to a higher altitude and destroy at least one of the other ships, then take the other two over. The capture crews were to be dropped off, and sent free-fall til they hit atmosphere then move in. John had already been informed that the rest of the Light's fleet had dispersed to the other side of the system, but was moving back in slowly. most of the smaller ships had stayed on the planet, Serenity and the Falcon being the two that had, the rest had dispersed to their assignments. All the USAF Earth Force Capital ships had moved off to their assignments, only two, Aristotle and Socrates had stayed with the Redemption, the prototype special Star Destroyer which Malcolm and his crew had captured.

John stood on the bridge and looked at the cameras that were showing the action to him, "Remind me again," he said to no one in particular, "How this is supposed to work?!"

Mechanicles who was in the landing bay, readying the Tin Cans, looked up at the camera and shook his head, "Dragon," he said, "We've done these things enough times, that the pre-battle operations are easy, the battle itself, while hard, is the fun part, besides, you get to shoot down the space stuff, that's even more fun."

John just shook his head, and started roaring orders on the bridge, "All guns to green mode now, all drop ships and escort craft, prepare to drop, stay cloaked until you hit atmosphere, tactical and com, listen and watch, if something's going on planet side, I need to know."

One of the officers who had gotten used to John's tirades, looked up, "Sir," he said, "chatter increased just now, "The Imps have landed, repeat, the imps have landed."

John then nodded to his second, Expacknor, who started shouting other orders, "This is Dragon," said the Commander, "To all sections, drop, May the Force be with you comrades."

then John turned to the Com tech, "Hail whoever is in charge of the current ground operations for our side, and inform them to move out now, and then patch me into the Palace, I want to give them a chance to surrender."

In the palace, one of the techs on com, suddenly looked up a bit surprised, "Anyone know where any of the command staff is?" he asked.

Bib Fortuna came walking over, along with Boba and Edward, "What is it?" asked Edward.

"Uhm..." said the tech nervously, "Don't shoot me sirs, but I have the strangest call just come through, saying that we are being graciously given one last chance to surrender, respond now, or meet your match."

Boba took of his helmet and looked at the man on the screen, a kid, about as old as twenty, maybe. Telling a bunch of hardened vets to surrender? Wow. this kid had guts, "Hail him back" said Boba, "I want to hear what he's selling."

Soon the link was established, "This is Boba Fett, of The Smuggler's Alliance, currently working for Jabba the Hut, who might you be?"

John rolled his eyes and then smiled, "I am Commander Goldwood," he said, "Avatar of the Dragon, Commander of the Freedom Alliance, Commander of the Command of Light, a captured Star Destroyer. Surrender."

Bib laughed, "You're a kid, still young," he said, "Telling us to surrender, what, you gonna cry til we laugh and die?"

John smirked at them, looked off screen at something, then looked back, and smirked some more, "Nope," he said, "Only this."

Suddenly there was a rocking explosion around the palace compound, the imperials who had come into the palace, checked video feed to see that the escort craft which had been patrolling had been shot down, mostly on the palace, the landing craft themselves had a couple of small teams swarming all over them.

Boba turned to Thrawn, "Go!" he shouted, "Take your men, I'll have mine provide cover fire!"

Thrawn and his men came out, with Boba Fett and his cronies firing randomly over them, then that's when the other excitement happened. In designing the sanctuary, no one had thought to make it easy to get in the back way, no one for that matter was guarding it, the prison cells and torture areas were all under ground, so the boom at the back of the base, startled everyone, including those on guard in the throne room. Fortuna glanced at Elric who ran down towards the throne room, shouting orders all the while. Fortuna picked up a rocket launcher and walked outside. That was the smart thing, the unfortunate thing was that he didn't see the tracer on him or the gate that was lowering partly, so as to reduce damage. However, no one saw the blast until the gate was blown apart. Thrawn and his men hunkered down and started firing down towards the rock walk way, which twenty people in stormtrooper armor were advancing, backed up by a ship that looked like a sea horse, with a cannon on the underbelly. If that wasn't bad enough, several other ships were free falling in from space, about four to be exact, as soon as the ships hit, the bottom of two unloaded about twenty men in armor, who fell to ground like a sack of asteroids. Then they started moving and firing. Most of Thrawn's men started backing towards the entrance, knowing that it was hopeless. Had any of Jabba's men been smart enough, they would have gotten to their ships to combat and be on equal terms with the attacking force, but they figured that with the imperial presence, that would be enough.

Boba Fett got on the main com, and radioed The Acclamator for back up. "This is Boba Fett," he roared, "Acclamator, Judgement, or Joyless, we could use back up, ships or more troops, or cover fire, but we are under assualt!"

A man's face appeared on the screen, "This is Lieutenant Jastas," the man said, "I'm with the Freedom Alliance, Acclamator, I mean the Reborn, or the Joyless, now the Joyful, or the Judgement, now the Redeemed won't be answering you, we have taken possession of them, your men are coming to you though, they'll be joining you in a couple of minutes."

Boba screamed out to Thrawn, "We've just been out done!" he roared, "Your ships were taken!"

Thrawn's eyes blazed as he heard that, "FALL BACK!" he roared, "ALL MEN FALL BACK!"

Everyone jumped up and back pedaled in, shooting at the silvery men advancing towards them, as well as the armor.

"We're in deep crap here," said Boba, "We didn't think that this could happen!!"

"We were expecting your men to be vigilant Thrawn!" said Elric as he came in and laid his hand down and a wall appeared where the gate had been, "We're now sitting ducks, royally screwed."

"Can we call anyone?" asked Fortuna, who was busy checking the feed of the cameras, and repositioning the guns, "anyone?"

"No," said Thrawn, "The Emperor cannot spare anymore ships to this area, or any other allies, we are on our own, that's why he sent me, I am the leading Grand Admiral in the fleet, the best at what I do, and before this incident, more kills under my belt then any admiral or commander in the fleet. I have never lost a single command ship or had a man go down, the fact that these people are using stolen technology, and reworking it to their own ends, is disturbing. What's even more disturbing, is the fact that the local garrison was taken out, by a smaller strike force."

"Well," said Edward who had created a peephole to look at, "That small and unorganized strike force you seem to think they are, have completely neutralized our ground weaponry defenses, and our arterial defenses for that matter as well. Apparently they have some sort of energy shielding, there are maybe ten men down, but even those ten men are only injured, and are lying on the ground from where they are, with.....oh crap......HIT THE FLOOR!"

Everyone jumped out of the way and either hit the floor or flattened themselves against the walls, ten booms hit the doorway which Edward had built with his power, and destroyed it, the two guns fired out, but no one could see from the smoke if anyone had been hit, in answer, two blasts in return destroyed the guns and the two gunners.

The silvery men marched in, continuous firing, while the downed men were launching grenades from their positions. Boba and Thrawn waived everyone back to the throne room, while they fired back. Al and Edward moved in and erected another one of their barriers, jointly, this time more sturdier.

Jabba looked at the men as they came in, "So how screwed are we?" he rumbled.

They all looked at each other, finally Edward spoke, "Right now sir, we'd be wise in surrendering, they want The Phoenix, provided that we surrender him, they'll leave us and go about our way, we've lost our air support with the taking of the three Star Destroyers, we have no communications to anywhere outside, they're being blocked, right now sir our only option is to surrender."

Jabba growled, "Surrender is not an option I want to consider," he rumbled, "Edward, Alphonse, take your men who are guarding the lower levels up to your wall, I want them up there, Fett, take a contingent of men down to the lower levels and shore up defenses."

Seven men in blue cloaks came out, The Full Metal Squad, under Edward and Al's command, a group of humans from another multiverse who had been augmented to control elements. And yes, if you're wondering, these are the FMA people. They went up to the gate that Edward had constructed. They could hear the pounding on it. Edward smirked, a double wall worked every time, hopefully they could hold out.

Then the unexplainable happened, the wall simply vanished. It simply vanished. One minute it was there, and then a ripple and it wasn't. Edward and his men looked very surprised, especially when they found guns aimed at them, but not firing. Most of the silvery men had taken entrance outside the gate, while most of the others were walking in. A few had swords, mostly guns, there was a kid with a humanoid looking tiger. A few women in garb that Edward figured to be priestess's. Another bunch with garb that looked military, with a rather young guy with non-reflecting glasses, then a bunch of people that looked civilian, if you considered that two of them had large blades, and one of them had a big staff with an orb like weapon in it, and one looked rather effeminate. Then there was the trio of kids with sticks. That made Ed laugh, well he was laughing until Armstrong, the guy who punched stuff, ran at the kids, most everyone was shocked, but the kids, seeing as how they were his target, flipped their wands up, and all at the same time said, "Avadra Kedavra!" a green light came out of their wands and Armstrong was no more. Disintegrated on the spot, and the kids didn't even break a sweat, their robed cloaks swaying in the breeze. Then someone spoke up.

"Greetings Edward Elric," said the man, he had weird armor, it looked like it was merged with his skin. Even weirder was the round objects on his arms, Edward could have sworn that he heard ticking from them, but the weird thing was they seemed to be glowing. The sword and cape seemed to make the guy look a bit out of time, and more like he belonged in the 13th century, with knights and whatnot.

"And you are?" asked Edward, trying to use his powers, and realizing it was impossible.

"I am Chronis," said the man, "Co-co-co-leader of the Army of Light, I am the Avatar of Time."

Edward gulped, the Time Avatar, they had the Phoenix Avatar captured, what other avatar's were out there?

"Captain Tyronis," said Chronis, "take a squad in and get Phoenix out, if there is resistance, wipe them out, leave only Jabba alive, I want to make an example out of him."

Edward gulped, and tried to raise his arms to produce a weapon, he succeeded in raising his hands and attempting to do the incantation, but then the unexplainable happened.

"Don't even try it Ed," said Chronis, his sword (which was glowing) pointing at Ed, rippling with energy, "It's not a good idea."

"Actually," said the old man with the white beard, "injure him enough, and send him back as a warning to Jabba, so that he gets there and then dies."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," said Edward, backing away and looking for something, a stick, something, "I will not be your pawn."

"Not your choice," said Chronis, "You will die!"

"Brother!" screamed Alphonse, "Run!"

Al had somehow managed a sword out of a part of the wall, and he charged Chronis. Chronis side stepped and hit Al with the edge of his arm shield. It shouldn't of done anything to Al, but merely startled him, however the fact that Al who was about 8 foot went down and then started dematerializing before them. Chronis stared pointedly at Edward, "This is what I do," he said evily, "I control time, you will cooperate, or I will erase all your friends here, and then I will erase your parts one by one. That's what I do for fun when I'm bored, I torture people, for fun."

By this time, guns and blades and sticks were pointed at the rest of the Full Metal Clan, and most had backed against the wall and surrendered, Ed sighed, shook his head and accepted. The pain was brutal, searing, he now knew what his enemies felt as he had killed them and he laughed, and spit on them. then Chronis kicked Edward. He woke up in the throne room. with several people looking at him.

"Explain?" asked Fett, who looked at the hole in the wall that Ed had apparently created when he was kicked.

"The Army of Light," coughed Ed as blood came out of his mouth and other places, "Has asked that we surrender."

"And?" asked Fett, "Anything else?"

Ed didn't answer, he wasn't breathing, in fact, as Fett felt his pulse, another boom and Armstrong came through the wall, badly bleeding and dying as well.

"EVERYONE SHOOT!" shouted Fett, as more of The Full Metal Clan was kicked through the wall, and men started climbing through. But it wasn't enough, all of the guards in the throne room were soon down, and dead or dying.

Chronis appeared in the room, his blade extended, "Greetings Jabba," he said, "You have lost,"

A couple of shots later, Phoenix appeared in the throne room, his sword drawn as well, Tryonis as well. Dragon's Astral form was there as well.

"We," they said, "Represent the Quadresence of Light, we are the lead force behind the Army of Light. You will be allowed to live, but only for a bit. You will be a message to the Imperials and what they stand for."

Jabba gulped, "WHO ARE YOU?!" he thundered.

"We," said Tyronis who sort of had become the spokes person, "Are the essence of life, the Ancients, I am Tyronis the First Ancient, the First Avatar, your time has ended."

"This is Chronis," said Chronis, "All ships, Beam up now, lock on to all signatures and beam up, the armory has been tagged, so beam it up."

soon enough everyone was in their respective ships.

"What about Jabba?" said Phoenix, "How are we punishing him?"

"Watch," said Mozenwrath, "Mozenwrath to tractor control, do it."

A beam of energy hit the palace, and disintegrated it, then pulled Jabba who was struggling, this was of course being recorded, they pulled him up to the outer atmosphere and left him there. The video recording watched Jabba's last minutes. It took him ten minutes to die, then the camera switched to the four avatars.

"We are The New Hope," they said, "Emperor Palpatine, your time has come, you are next, Thrawn could not stand before us, he fell, all your people fell, you have lost."

The recording ended, soon enough, all the ships were gathered, and all commanders were on screen, "This is Chronis," said Chronis, "We are now on to war, this is how we will proceed, we will be open, no cloaks, we will be aggressive, if we are attacked, we will kill them and try to take their ships, nothing more, nothing less."

The message was sent through the Sub network, soon enough it would end up on Coruscant, before being transmitted to Byss, where the final confrontation would take place.

End Chapter