Chapter 1

Frosty Reception

"I am Admiral Rooseland of the Imperium of Man to unidentified ships…we are under heavy attack by the traitorous forces of Chaos and are in need of assistance"

Admiral Rooseland

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The area of space around the World of Magos IV was a maelstrom of battle as warships of the Imperium of Man duelled with the dark tainted vessels of the Chaos Traitor fleet. The battle was a losing one for the defenders as the remainder of the enemy ships hung over them like a pack of predators ready to strike their wounded prey.

Lance batteries and Torpedo launchers from weapons platforms and warships alike fired continuously, unleashing deadly blasts of energy and clouds of plasma torpedoes in an attempt to at least slow them down. But the traitors outnumbered them by at least three to one and had already punched holes into their defences.

Admiral Davis Rooseland grinded his teeth as his ship shook violently from several more strikes, his ship; an Emperor-class Battleship named the Daemon Slayer was around eight kilometres in length and armed to the teeth with line after line of Lance Batteries and Plasma Cannons which were built into the well armoured hull. Out of the few remaining vessels in this force his was the only ship that was holding its own, the few Cruisers that were her escort were now smouldering hulks of wreckage and their escorts were scattered in panic.

The Admiral fell into his command chair, this is it, this is how the newest Battleship is to fall, in her first real fight against a small Chaos raiding fleet… no, by the Emperor this ship will fight off these vile traitors.

"Keep firing till the barrels of the guns glow!" he yelled.

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Meanwhile Admiral Halos had to hold onto the railings of the command deck to keep his balance, the Vigilance shook violently as it was tossed around like a rag doll, outside the viewports was something not short of a passage way, the tunnel walls, if they were walls, were made of a blue light that seemed to ripple like water, then as suddenly as it started it stopped, the blue light was replaced by the blackness of space once more, the stars speckled back into existence.

"Damage report" Halos asked bewilderedly as he got back to his feet.

"No serious damage to the superstructure Admiral" Captain Florn replied a few moments later from the crew pits "But the sensors are scrambled, shields have been halved and the hyperdrive is damaged" he paused as what Halos guessed was the reports from the other ships in the fleet coming in "The Firestorm and Vengeance report the same, the Spirit of Ithor and Dominator report that their shields are gone along with the same damage but the Guardian reports no damage besides slightly weakened shields"

"And the Vong?" Halos asked wearily.

The silence seemed to stretch forever as Florn and the operators scanned the surrounding area "I'm not getting any readings on Vong vessels out here sir" he finally said, slightly baffled "They're not here"

That was another surprise "What?"

"It's like they vanished sir, but my guess is that whatever just occurred was too much stress for their hull" Florn ventured, Halos felt like scoffing at that idea, the Yuuzhan Vong wouldn't be destroyed that easily, they were out there somewhere. Florn continued to scan the surrounding area before stopping, even from this distance Halos could see the eyes of the Captain widen in surprise and panic "We have incoming ships sir!!!"

"Are they Vong?" Halos returned, suddenly alert.

"The craft are unknown sir, the computer can't identify them" Florn said "But their coming in fast"

The Admiral glanced out at the space around him, the ships were too far away to be seen so he turned to the round table built into the centre of the walkway, several strategists and advisors were already there magnifying the holo-images to see these vessels. They were menacing looking craft; bristling with weapon emplacements, they were black in colour with what looked like dark red glowing veins covering the hulls.

"All ships, defensive formation" Halos suddenly yelled as the guns on the leading ship opened fire "Spirit and Dominator will be the rear guard; the rest will form up into a V-formation!!!" Halos included as the first wave of weapons fire hit off the shields of the Vigilance "All craft return fire with extreme prejudice!!!"

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Admiral Rooseland watched with interest as a portion of the Chaos fleet broke away from the main battle and set a new course, he had wondered why they were leaving, then he saw the six new ships that had arrived. They were wedge shaped and about a kilometre and a half long, roughly the same size as a Space Marine Strike Cruiser.

The enemy ships that broke off to engage them were a small cluster of Iconoclast-class destroyers lead by an Infidel-class Raiding Cruiser. They came within firing range and fired with Dark Lance Batteries, that should have been it, these new vessels should have been destroyed. They not only took the bombardment but returned fire, long lances of red and blue energy collided with the attackers shields and destroyed adestroyer and sent a second drifting powerlessly out of the battle line.

Rooseland was impressed, these newcomers were definitely warships yet he had never seen them before "Scan those vessels and see what they say" he ordered the scanning officers who immediately set to work, fingers a blur as they pushed the runes of their consoles.

"The databanks have no information on these vessels my Lord" the Chief Scanning Officer answered a few moments later "But the bio scans show that around fifty percent of the inhabitants are human, the rest appear to be either xenos or droids of unknown origins"

Another assault of Dark Lance fire smashed into the shields causing the Daemon Slayer to shake violently, the last support Cruiser had been destroyed; she was the only Capital Ship in the fight and needed help urgently.

"Contact those ships" he said after several moments of thought, he didn't wish to accept help from xenos but he didn't have much choice at the moment "Send… a distress call!"

The communication officers hesitated slightly before searching for the frequencies of the new fleet, for the moment they will ask for assistance and see who these people are later.

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"We are being hailed Admiral" a comm. Officer called over the chatter of the bridge.

"Put it through" Halos replied and turned to the holo-projector, the man standing before him was middle-aged and his face was covered in scars, a deadly looking gun was holstered on one side of his belt and an equally dangerous looking sword was sheathed on the other, his uniform was red and gold and his voice sounded mechanically amplified as he spoke.

"I am Admiral Rooseland of the Imperium of Man to unidentified ships…we are under heavy attack by the traitorous forces of Chaos and are in need of assistance"

Halos replied to the call, bringing himself up to his full height and clasping his hands behind his back "I am Admiral Halos of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, we would be more than happy to provide assistance"

His counterpart seemed to relax slightly before replying "We thank you in the name of the Imperium" he said before his image vanished.

Halos stood there for a few moments before turning to the comm. Officers "Order the fleet to get into a wedge formation and charge the enemy, launch all starfighter units and order the Spirit and Dominance to reroute power from unimportant systems to their shields"

"Yes sir"

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The Star Destroyers got into a wedge and charged the Chaos fleet unleashing a continuous strategic bombardment of Turbolaser and Ion fire, a Cruiser sized ship twice the size of a Star Destroyer was torn apart by combined fire from the Vigilance, Guardian and Dominance. A second destroyer sized ship received a direct hit to what Halos thought was the bridge and started drifting aimlessly out of the already tattered enemy formation. Return fire became sporadic as the Chaos warships were taken completely by surprise by the sudden charge.

In the space around the fleet were swarms of X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, E-Wing and Tie Interceptors that outmanoeuvred the larger enemy fighters easily and demoralised the Chaos fleet further by doing strafing and bombing runs on the smaller support ships, as the larger fighters finally engaged, the Alliance tore their formations apart, their fighters were smaller and much faster, and plus their movements were being coordinated by a Jedi.

Admiral Rooseland and his entire crew watched silently as the Alliance warships tore a massive hole through the Chaos formations, their firepower was considerably even with the enemies but it was the sudden charge that gave them the edge, half of the fleet sent to intercept them was either destroyed or limping away from the fight. More and more ships were being diverted from the skirmish with his force to try to counter the new assault. The Imperium Admiral saw his chance and went for it.

"All weapons open fire, full impulse speed, lets choke them!!!" he shouted passionately.

The Daemon Slayer and the last few survivors charged forward, lance and plasma emplacements firing continuously at the confused Chaos warships, within minutes the last few traitor vessels retreated into the warp leaving the smouldering wreckage of battle behind them.

The Imperium and Alliance fleets were now facing each other and as Halos crew cheered in triumph the holo-image of Admiral Rooseland reappeared in front of him "I thank you for your assistance Admiral"

"No thanks needed Admiral" Halos replied with a nod.

"Now" Rooseland said, his expression suddenly venomous "You will surrender your ships to the Imperium or face destruction, all aliens on board your vessels are to be arrested and interrogated"

Halos stood there for a moment, letting the information sink in before looking up at his counterpart in outrage "I see" he finally said frostily, fighting to keep the anger out of his voice "And if I refuse?"

Well what do you think of that? In the next chapter the Alliance and Imperium fleets are at a standoff with Imperium reinforcements on the way, will the Alliance fight or will they run? And what happened to the Yuuzhan Vong? The mysterious Jedi Knight will also make his/her first appearance (Haven't decided what gender yet or even if it's a Knight or Master). Stay tuned for the next chapter, Standoff. Oh and don't forget to review.