Earlier that month, Inner Rim, aboard the Black Knight

Gar, hope you're not too beat up after that party. Had a really wild time but wait a little while before your next visit okay? We're still recovering from all the excitement.

Love you, stay safe.

--Sel

Garin smiled as he read the message from his sister, he'd been pretty sure that she'd escaped the attack unscathed despite everything, after all the attack had taken place on the opposite side of the planet, but still, to get a message from her letting him know that she was alive and well was worth any security risk. Of course now he had to trust that the Republic wouldn't decide to drop the planetary shields and just let the asteroids fall at will. That didn't seem to be their style, so with luck his sister would be safe for the time being.

His com buzzed and he picked it up, "what is it?"

"Mantis and Reaver are returning from the raid sir, I thought you might like to hear their report."

Garin nodded, standing up quickly, "I'll be at the debriefing. Thank you Orliss."

Slipping his com back into its carrying case he switched off his terminal and opened the door to find Sissir leaning against the wall in the hallway.

"Was going to ask you to come to our training session," she said with a smirk. "Sounds like you've got other plans though, care to stop by afterwards?"

"Going to thrash the clones again Major?"

She shrugged, stepping off the wall as they walked together down the hall.

"If they're supposed to be the best genes can create. I'm not impressed; I'll get them up to par if it kills them."

Garin chuckled and shook his head, "I'll come by once the debriefing is finished."

"I'll hold you to that," she said with a wave as they parted ways. "You need a good thrashing too."

Garin sighed, wondering what he'd done this time as he headed towards the debriefing. Maybe he'd bring Toth along to lessen the beating.

He entered the briefing unobtrusively, the room was dimly lit as Commander Kindran went over the mission with Mantis and Reaver squadrons. Their task had been fairly straightforward: hit a Republic logistic station and cripple its ability to distribute supplies to fleet elements in the sector. Diamond had been on standby should they be needed but from the sounds of it the two squadrons had done a fairly good job of knocking the place about themselves; which was part of the problem actually. Imperial Intelligence had reported that this facility was heavily used by the Republic Defense Force, and yet the defenses had been light at best. The defenses had been predominantly static in nature with just the bare minimum of mobile support which was certainly counter-intuitive if you wanted to effectively defend an important facility. The rest of the briefing was routine at best and Garin paid little attention; there had been no casualties and nothing of note aside from the lackluster performance of the defenders.

As the pilots filed out he caught Toth's eyes and nodded towards Commander Kindran who stood by the holotank waiting patiently. The pair joined him as the last of the pilots left the briefing room, Garin starred intently at the information being displayed in the tank.

"Where are they," he said with a scowl, "this facility was supposed to have a small task force guarding it."

"Two gunships, three corvettes and a trio of frigates with roughly four squadrons of fighters," Kindran supplied helpfully.

"Yeah so where are they," Toth repeated Garin's question with a flicker of annoyance. "We went in there expecting a fight and we ended up taking on a single fighter squadron, the two gunships and one of the corvettes with some pop gun defense platforms."

"So the question is," Kindran continued thoughtfully, "why strip a major logistics base of its defenders. The obvious answer is that they're needed somewhere else."

Garin didn't need the school teacher tone; it wasn't hard to discern that the Republic thought they had a better use for those ships.

"Pull up all the reports of Republic strength as reported by strike units like ours."

The holotank changed to show the strength's reported, Garin nodded, "alright. Now show what intelligence reported unit strength to be in those systems."

Again the view changed, the supposed unit strength was significantly larger than what was being encountered by Thrawn's strike units.

Toth swore, "it's not just one system, this is multiple sectors being mobilized. They're going to launch a counter-offensive."

"In retaliation for Coruscant," Kindran said quietly, "yes that would make sense. The question is what target will they move towards?"

"Depends on what they hope to accomplish, the Ubiqtorate base at Tangrene," Toth said quietly, running through the list of targets he could think of. "Any of our shipyards;" he shrugged. "Spit they could even strike one of the planets that Thrawn has brought over to our side."

Garin wasn't listening as he searched for possibilities, where would the Republic gain the most. What was worth leaving their facilities and bases open to hit and run attacks the question flew around inside his mind as he stared at the galactic map divided into blue and red. This was going to be it; wherever they chose to strike they'd be doing it with everything they had and if the Empire won the engagement there'd be no stopping Thrawn. This could finally be the end of the war that had been raging over a decade.

He hadn't realized that the thought had made him hold his breath until he had to release it and draw in a new one to speak, "send this information to Thrawn. He probably knows about it already but I don't want to take any chances."

Orliss nodded, "yes sir."

"Toth, want to come save me from the Major?"

His friend snorted and held up his hands, "no thanks. I wrestle with her enough already. You're on your own Gar."

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"So the raiding parties that Thrawn was sending against targets behind the lines noticed the shift?"

"I don't know how many of the other commanders put two and two together. We were one of the few units that actually stayed behind Republic lines while conducting the raids so we had a continual source of intelligence. Most of the others were cruiser and frigate groups that would strike one area and then jump out before doing it somewhere else. The other fighter units that Thrawn had doing hit and run operated in much the same way, jump from Imperial space to Republic space and back again before moving to the next target. Not many commands were willing to stay in Republic space to persecute their missions;" I thought for a moment before shrugging. "In fact I can count the number of units that did on my hands."

She watched me for a moment, before adding something to her notes.

"Why did you choose to operate that way, remaining in Republic space?"

"It was simpler and more cost effective than just jumping our fighters into Republic space. Plus it was harder to detect the attacks in advance; less warning for your side. You couldn't notice we were gone because we were never in Imperial space."

She frowned, "what if the Knight had been drawn into a battle?"

I snorted and looked at her with a mirth filled smile, was she really asking me that question after everything I'd told her?

"You've been listening to all of this." I said, my smile growing dangerous, "you know what Hades was capable of. Do you seriously think that any unit that engaged the Knight directly would last very long? We had a wing of highly trained fighter pilots flying some of the most advanced starfighters the Empire has ever used. With our commandos we could have easily taken a few prizes and sent them back to Thrawn and further bolster our forces. You'd have needed to commit a sizable force to knock us out and you couldn't afford to do that given the losses you would have sustained, and especially not with Thrawn at your throats."

There was a long pause before she spoke again, her tone reluctant. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Barring sending a disproportionately large force against you there'd be very little you wouldn't have swatted away and probably even destroyed or captured."

"One thing I'm curious about," I leaned forwards intently, "why leave so many areas exposed? I understand you wanted to hit us with as much firepower as possible, but still; withdrawing that many ships and units into your strike fleets left you wide open for Hades and the others and I know our raids took a very heavy toll. Considering those freighter infiltrators you had here I hardly think you'd need the extra ships."

"We needed to make our assault as effective as possible. We wanted all of Thrawn's big hitters in play; it was an all or nothing gamble."

There was something there, when I'd mentioned the infiltrators there had been just the slightest pause, as if she'd been unsure of how to phrase her response. It made me wonder, but we had to continue. I could always ask her later, it seemed after all that I had time.

Earlier that month, Inner Rim, aboard the Black Knight

Garin took Sissir's kick rather well all things considered, falling into a roll that carried him out of her reach. It was true he'd been sparring with her all these years but he was still no where near her level when it came to close quarters combat. Whatever notions of the inferiority of women that may have been indoctrinated by the academy had been just as effectively scrubbed by her and others among Hades' number; she could wipe the floor with him without breaking a sweat and they both knew it. She just had the professional courtesy not to batter her CO into the same bruised state as she did her own commandos. The clone members of her unit looked especially ill used though they didn't seem to mind, watching the match intently as if it were a sporting event. These sparring matches were so common that the veterans simply went about their business, paying the pair little mind unless something of note occurred. His eyes widened as he got back on his feet and realized she'd closed the gap in an alarmingly short span of time. Sissir leapt forward and delivered her knee straight into his diaphragm, clearing his lungs of any air that had been there. He collapsed in a heap on the mat, banging his open hand against it in surrender as he tried to breath.

The room had gone dead silent and he supposed that this had qualified as something of interest for the commandos both clone and otherwise. He got up on his knees and looked at Sissir incredulously.

"Wha—" he took a gasping draw of air, "what was that supposed to be?"

"Disabling," she said tritely, sitting down next to him, he glowered at the gleam of amusement in her eyes.

"It worked," he hacked.

"I know, I like that move, most opponents don't expect it to be a threat; they think it's too slow."

Garin managed a snort as his breathing began to normalize, "too slow my backside. I didn't have a chance to react."

"Sleight of hand, I let you think you'd gotten clear, it gave me the opening I needed. Probably wouldn't work on professionals."

"Okay, so you've gotten me on the mat, what now?"

She shrugged, looking around at her people who had been quietly edging closer to them. They instantly scattered under her gaze, Garin couldn't help his smile. Yes, any woman that could perform well enough in the Naval Commandos to make major was bound be well feared by her subordinates.

"Daru's pretty confused right now you know," she said conversationally.

"Makes two of us," Garin replied incredulously, was that what the beating was about?

"I suppose, I just wanted to make sure you weren't trying to do anything intentional. She'd made up her mind to stop caring you know."

Garin felt something grab at his heart strings, yes, he'd assumed as much when Hades had first reformed and she'd made every effort to avoid or ignore him; whichever was more suited to a given situation.

Sissir continued when he made no verbal reply, "I'm loyal to this unit, to you, but Toth and Daru mean a lot to me sir. I've never had a little sister before and I don't want you doing any more damage to her."

Garin snorted, so that was what was going on, Hades was still surprising him it seemed.

"Don't worry, I'm being careful."

She nodded appreciatively, standing and helping him to his feet.

"That's part of why she's confused actually, but don't worry she's not going to pull another stunt like locking herself in the hangar."

Garin looked at Sissir helplessly, Daru was confused because he was being cautious about their new relationship and trying not to hurt her? What the hell was he supposed to be doing?

She apparently saw his bewilderment because she smiled, "don't worry sir. We're women. If we made sense we wouldn't be any fun now would we?"

Garin snorted, shaking his head. "I'm not too sure about that."

"Good match today Commander, thanks for letting me beat you up."

"Yeah, I'll remember it next time you're up for promotion."

She chuckled, "I haven't been promoted since this unit was formed sir, I won't hold my breath."

Garin lay down in his bunk and closed his eyes; the ysalmir that had made a nest in his sheets crawled out of its abode and chirruped at him inquisitively. He reached down and scratched it behind the ears soliciting a long sustained purr from the furred lizard* as it settled down on his stomach splayed out across him like a rolled rug. There was a chime from his terminal, and he looked over to see the mail icon flashing. He rolled over; the ysalmir squawked indignantly and scurried to make a fresh nest. Tapping the keypad he opened the message and Thrawn's piercing gaze jolted him to full wakefulness despite the sores from Sissir's sparring.

"Good evening Commander," Thrawn said cordially.

"Good eve—" he began.

"I've received your information and have drawn similar conclusions." A recording Garin realized with a frown, normally Thrawn contacted him directly. That meant that those conclusions of his were keeping him busy. Not good. "I want Hades to meet the Chimaera for a private briefing; by the time you arrive here I should have a good idea of what the Rebels intend. Abort any current operations and set your course immediately, the usual codes and algorithms apply. I expect you here soon Commander, do not keep me waiting."

Thrawn's face faded away and Garin grabbed his comlink, "Iriana?"

"Yes Commander?"

"We're aborting our mission, set a course for the Chimaera."

There was no question in her voice, "yes sir. The Admiral thought of something?"

He smiled, of course Orliss would have told her about their findings, "so it seems. He's waiting for us."

"Then we don't want to make him wait, we'll get underway immediately."

Garin couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had been settling in his stomach since he'd seen the data on the Republic fleet strengths in the galaxy. Yes, this was going to be big, probably as big as Endor. He just hoped he'd see a different outcome this time.

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"So Thrawn was already formulating his own ideas about our intentions," Deana said quietly.

I nodded, "is it that surprising? We were waiting for you, armed and raedy."

"I still find it hard to believe, even after all the preparation. After all the effort we made to make Tangrene look like the real target and he still saw right through us and knew what we would do."

I couldn't help smiling at her, "I know, pity he died isn't it?"

She glared at me, no; I suppose she wouldn't think it was a pity. Personally I think the galaxy had lost more than it had gained by his death.

Author's Note: Dear god, it is getting close isn't it? I don't know what I'll do once this is finished, it will be so dull around here.....

*Don't ask me what the heck they're supposed to be, all I know is that they're described reptile-ish but have fur. I'm just going off of the visuals given from their various appearances in canon.