[20 BBY]

[Executive Security Solutions City-ship/Capital-class Warship Stormcrow {II}, Battle-group Army of Light, GAR-South, Molavar System, Abrion Sector, Outer Rim Territories]

"Scuttle them Captain..." I ordered the strike squad commander's hologram looking up from the data-slate "...if we can't haul them then we can at least settle for denying them to the Confederacy. Set your charges and then evac back to the prizes we are taking with us"

"Understood Captain-General, by your command" the young Trooper saluted, a Twi'lek man as hinted at by the helmet, before the hologram flickered out. There hadn't been much in the Molavar system, it was a backwater after all, and of that only three ships were worth seizing, while a further two were Hutt and Black Sun respectively so they got a pass. I glanced over at Shesagora's avatar, putting the data-slate detail the latest data-intercepts.

"A decent haul"

She nodded "Yes, we've had a good run so far, but we can't linger here long Daron unfortunately"

I sighed "I know, and why I'm following your advice to scuttle those two droid bulk haulers rather than try rig them up. Your right, we're on a clock every time we jump into a system..." I transmitted over some data on the tight band ship-to-ship between my city-ship and here Lucrehulk "...as our latest intercepts of Confederate orders indicate"

"Hmm...that was fast of'em..." she murmured after a short read "...a reinforced fleet? And kill orders on you...very specifically on you"

"Don't sound so amused, they want you dead too..." I muttered folding my arms and shaking my had "...but yeah, seems I kicked Dooku's ant-hill, you'll note none of it's on the standard communiqués, but on that weird upper level command but not command codes the Confederates use. Feddies want us captured and tortured; Dooku wants us dead and is diverting a fair auld fleet to try do so. Rodia's already been reinforced, gotta a good look before they spotted the probes"

The retired pirate shrugged "Eh, what we expected considerin' your speech, and our raidin' their banks and R . Trade Federation wants their credits back, while the Count wants to win a war"

'I suspect there are other, more pressing, reasons Darth Tyranus wants me dead, but the same response' I didn't say, nodding "True. We can false trail them here, make them think we're going to try for Ukio or Gamorr, and we'll double back to Tatooine. Gotta say I'm not overly happy about effectively doing a job for the Hutts..."

I held up my hand as she made to interrupt "...not for that reason, or at least no more than any dealings with them anyway. I just don't like extra failure points outside of ourselves...its why I want to hit that mission now, rather than later, and then get while they going is good immediately after"

"You'll not get any disagreement from me there Daron..." she answered, avatar clearly studying the summary of intercepts as she spoke "...but we need'em, and then only way you can get anything out of'em is by appealing to their self-interest and greed, then hope they stay bought. We can even call patriotic an' all by favouring the Republic ally in the conflict"

I gave an amused snort at that "Jabba cares only for Jabba's interests and the Republic matters nothing to him, we're helping deal with a rival...who just so happens to be leaning on support from the Confederacy. But, yeah, let's go with that patriotic interpretation when we blow the place to rubble, rather than the whole doing the crime lord a favour some might claim"

"We need make a statement with it of course"

I shrugged "We'll go in hard and heavy Shesagora, hells I'll be leading the assault and put that other Hutt's head on a pike after blowing up his shiny new spaceport and palace for the terrible crime of challenging Mighty Jabba while backing the wrong side in the Republic's war"

In truth it was why we were hitting the place ahead of schedule. I, we, didn't trust them not to sell us out to the Confederates after we'd dealt with his problem, albeit in a way to avoid breaking his word. For all the nature of the Hutts they didn't rise to where they were by being visibly untrustworthy in their business dealings, and I could deal with that. Visibly, and mercilessly, crushing this Boorka the Hutt would be one way of *discouraging* any ideas of simply betraying me and mine. Sure he'd had two years to establish him there...but his new 'palace' wasn't ray-shielded, nor had Jabba been idle in clashing with his rival.

But...in the end a large part of the reasoning for this aggressive campaign, beyond getting away from the dangers on the Republic side, was to get the pressure off of our 'support areas' long enough to build-up some sort of force there. So far that was working, as my implication of Sith-hood, clearly had drawn the attention of the Count of Serreno, and in a perfect Galaxy draw him out to deal with in a battlefield of my choosing. Though we were being essentially pirates, or a maraudering barbarian horde, to do that and stay silent beyond controlled communications. No matter, this was a war, and neither side could be trusted when the leadership of both were secretly on the same side...and I had my own secret meetings to arrange along the way...

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[20 BBY]

[Executive Security Solutions Barloz-class Light Freighter Darsham Aurochs, Battle-group Army of Light, GAR-South, Siskeen System, Hunnoverrs Sector, Outer Rim Territories]

"This is Darsham Aurochs, confirming vector approach..." Zup'holuh, Zup to her friends, replied to the spaceport authorities on the planet below in as friendly a voice as possible "...thanks for that, kriffin' travels gone dangerous ya know? Be glad get our cargo safe ground side"

"Don't we know it Darsham Aurochs, republic pirates not even pretendin' be bout law an' order..." the voice on the other end growled back "...ya'ere what'appen at Rodia? Theys sayin their pirate the Stormcrow runnin' bout with his band ah' terrorists"

'Yep, yep, he is' Zup thought but put on a friendly concerned voice "Oh prophets don't we know it! We can only pray the General or the Liberator brings him and his band to justice!"

"Ay, General Greivous win this war fer us..." the voice on the other end "...sorry, now, got more traffic deal with. Follow the vector in woulda pretty. See ye at Hunders Cantina an' ah'll be ya a drink. Says Uh'vuc'nuc sent ye"

"Sure thing Uh'vuc! Pleasant day!"

"I don't know how you manage to be so cheerful with this lot Zantha" Sergeant Tarvid sitting to her side, dressed like her in civilian garb with some light combat gear rather than their Aegis Guard or ESS uniforms, said as soon as the comms were disengaged. She gave a shrug back to the human, sitting back into the jump seat after engaging the automatic systems and guide lines sent by the spaceport below.

"Eh, I'm a naturally cheerful person Gunthar, been my loving husband an' all that"

The human gave a snort of amusement at that, though, like herself, he remained watchful of the sensor displays in case their cover was blown. Took the worst of the nervousness and stress she found, the easy banter with her squad-mate "Then when am I gettin' some of that lovin eh?"

"Probably never"

"Oh, so I've a chance eh?"

Zup groaned "Ugh, me and my stupid mouth"

"I could suggest a few uses with that..."

She glared at him "Finish that sentence and I'll punch you, and you won't wake up"

Tavid huffed "Your no fun"

"And you're a sleemo who I can trash in close quarters combat remember..." she retorted with a grin, causing the human to huff again in irritation before she nodded at the displays "Now...they've got a decent setup in-system"

"Uh-huh, more than their supposed to, but not enough stop a serious attack. Looks like planet-side is heavily fortified, but the space side is a bit weak to my eye..."

Tavid might be a sleemo, with a big mouth, but he was good at what he did as they discussed the passive scans as well as making to watch for the system defence fleet. They, and an unknown number of others, had been sent out to map out potential targets and dangers ahead of the Fleet with some of the vessels they'd captured earlier during the offensive to link up with Eriadu based kriffers. Zup didn't like them much, too many human supremacists in the ORSF, but being in the ESS, now the Republic Aegis Guard, outweighed such minor things between the life-style and the credits. The Six Directors, and the Captain-General in particular, was big into loyalty and rewarding it after all.

The Siskeen system was ripe to attack, though less beneficial for a raid; but the Stormcrow wanted to hit Seppie depot-systems; and this place was clearly gearing up to be one. So they'd slip in, trade their cargo, have a few drinks and speak at the Cantina before preparing to depart and transmitting a series of pre-arranged codes with an encrypted data package to a system even they weren't to know the location of. Bosses wanted everything that could be found out about systems in their path, and then someone above her pay-grade would make a decision on what happened next...

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