Qi'ra stared at her beeping console. A transmission was coming in, from her syndicate's secret base on the planet Morag. She pressed a button and a blue hologram of one of her henchmen: a Weequay male named Rueben, appeared. He looked tired and out of breath, panting heavily. He was also bleeding from his left arm. "Milady, our base is under attack!" he cried.
"What?! By who?" Qi'ra asked.
"By the minions of Asmodeus: the bladed ones!" Rueben cried.
"What?!" Qi'ra cried in shock and surprise.
"They've overpowered us, milady," Rueben cried. "We need reinforcements! AAAARRRGH!" There was a sudden flourish of movement, and next moment Rueben lay dead on the floor, his head severed from his neck.
Qi'ra caught a glimpse of a huge, scaly creature in the hologram before the connection was lost and the hologram vanished.
For several moments, Qi'ra was too stunned to move.
Then, Inu rushed in, holding a heavily beeping transmitter. "Milady, we're receiving distress signals from several of our bases in the Outer Rim! They're being attacked!"
"By who?" asked Qi'ra, though she feared she already knew the answer.
"It appears to be the bladed minions of Asmodeus," Inu said. "They've taken out our bases on Dexus, Vanqor and Kijimi!"
"How did they know where the bases were?!" Qi'ra asked.
"We don't know, milady," Inu said.
Qi'ra sat down. She was shocked. She had heard of Asmodeus: a mysterious warlord who ruled over the Hork-Bajir; a powerful race of fierce reptilian beings with deadly blades all over their bodies. For three months, Asmodeus and his minions had been attacking the operations of the other crime syndicates in the galaxy: the Hutt Clan, the Black Sun, the Pyke Syndicate, and the Zygerrian Slave Empire. But in all that time he had not attacked Crimson Dawn. She assumed that was because they were keeping a low profile, but it seemed Asmodeus had noticed them at last and decided to target them. It appeared that Asmodeus was now waging war on ALL criminals.
Over the next several hours, Qi'ra got more and more reports of more and more of her ships and bases being attacked and destroyed by Asmodeus's forces. From what she heard, Asmodeus's forces possessed only three different kinds of ships: a type of bug-shaped starfighter, an axe-shaped light cruiser, and a manta-ray-shaped frigate. None of these ships were particularly large by intergalactic standards: apparently none of them reached or surpassed a length of three-hundred-and-twenty meters. Nevertheless, the Asmodeus ships were very fast, very heavily armed, and very strongly armored, and there seemed to be a lot of them. Furthermore, they had had the element of surprise, striking when it was least expected. The Hork-Bajir warriors were stronger, faster and more agile than any of Crimson Dawn's soldiers. And none of the ships Crimson Dawn possessed were as big or powerful as a Star Destroyer. Because of all this, there were very few survivors, if any at all, of any of the attacks.
Finally, Qi'ra decided to take direct action. If Asmodeus and his minions had found most of their stationary bases, maybe he could find The First Light too. And her second most important base. She needed to move the ship again, and quickly. She needed to re-rally Crimson Dawn, to regroup and keep them organized in the wake of these attacks.
"Inu, send encrypted messages to any remaining ships of ours," she commanded her right-hand man. "Tell them to meet me at Geonosis."
"Geonosis, milady?" Inu asked.
"Yes, Geonosis," Qi'ra affirmed. Geonosis was a desert planet in the far Outer Rim of the galaxy. Home to the bug-like Geonosians, who specialized in designing and building formidable weapons and battle droids, Geonosis had been where the Empire had built the first Death Star. After its structure was mostly complete, the Empire had wiped out the Geonosians to keep the Death Star's existence secret until it was ready to be unleashed. After the Empire had been defeated, some remaining Imperials had gone to Geonosis in an attempt to restart any remaining droid factories in hopes of building their own droid army to regain their power. But Crimson Dawn had got there first. Under Qi'ra's orders, several dozen Crimson Dawn members had taken over an old, but massive and still functional droid factory that was most conveniently deep underground and thus undetectable to most scanners. Qi'ra's followers had been using this factory to build her an army of battle droids. This operation was top secret: not even Qi'ra's lieutenants knew about it. Not only that, but Qi'ra had ordered the factory to build for her army not the weak, spindly B1 droids that had made up the bulk of the late Separatist army, but the larger, stronger, more heavily armed, more strongly armored, and thus more tactically sound B2 Super battle droids. Qi'ra had hoped to gather new resources from other planets to further strength her new droid army, until both her mechanical and her flesh and blood forces were strong enough to take on both the Imperial remnants and the New Republic. But with the unprecedented attacks from Asmodeus's forces, a change of plan was called for. From what she had heard, Geonosis had not been attacked and almost no one went there these days, so it was a good place for Crimson Dawn to regroup in secret. And she needed to be sure the factory was still safe.
So, after Inu contacted Qi'ra's lieutenants, Qi'ra typed in the coordinates, and a minute later, The First Light made the jump to hyperspace.
Qi'ra sat in her chair and watched as the beautiful blue-white of hyperspace swirled and sped around the ship's view window.
An hour later, The First Light came out of hyperspace.
"Milady, we have entered the Geonosis system," Inu told Qi'ra.
"Good," said Qi'ra. "Begin our approach to the planet."
"Yes, milady," said Inu with an obedient nod.
The First Light began making its approach towards the planet Geonosis. As they moved closer, Qi'ra couldn't help but feel a tiny prick of sadness. Geonosis looked like a lifeless brown rock. Qi'ra shook the feelings away. She had a meeting to supervise.
Several minutes later, fourteen other ships came out of hyperspace one by one. The ships varied in size: six of them were oval-shaped vessels about one hundred meters long, while five of the others were dagger-shaped ships three hundred meters long. Two of the other ships were in fact two-hundred-and-thirty meter long Imperial light cruisers: ones that had been commandeered by Crimson Dawn. The fourteenth ship was a cigar-shaped vessel that was much larger than the others: about five hundred meters long. All of the ships were painted partially red.
This was the fleet of Crimson Dawn.
Or at least what was left of it.
Crimson Dawn had once had dozens of ships. Most of the big ones had been destroyed by the Empire. During their time hiding from them, Crimson Dawn had scraped and clawed resources to build several new ships, and steal some other ones. Just a few days ago, their entire fleet had numbered up to thirty-six ships. But these fourteen were all that had responded to Qi'ra's call.
Qi'ra's hopes fell. The fleet she had managed to build had been reduced to fifteen ships, counting The First Light, which was the last yacht they had left.
The crime lady's console beeped again. She pressed a button and the holograms of her four other remaining lieutenants appeared. They were a human male named Finiren, a squid-like Quarren called Squidlake, a beautiful Togrutan female named Ashley, and a sleepy-looking Neimodian female named Mute Ginray.
Qi'ra was relieved to see Finiren, because that meant Crimson Dawn's base on Serenno was still intact.
"I suppose you all know why I've called you all here," Qi'ra said to her lieutenants.
They all nodded.
"Asmodeus," said Finiren.
"His minions have already taken out most of our bases and more than half of our ships," said Ginray.
"So I've heard," said Qi'ra grimly.
"What should we do?" asked Inu. "If this keeps up our plans could be compromised for good."
"Maybe we could ask the other syndicates for help?" suggested Ginray.
Qi'ra immediately shook her head. "No, the other syndicates cannot be trusted. Besides, it is very possible they are working with the Imperial remnants, which we seek to bring down. I doubt the other syndicates will help us."
"So, what are we going to do?" asked Ashley.
For a moment there was silence.
"We need to find out where Asmodeus lives," Qi'ra said at last. "Do any of you have any ideas where his base might be? Every warlord needs a seat of power."
Her lieutenants exchanged glances, but then they all shook their heads. "Not a clue," Squidlake said.
Qi'ra thought for a moment. Then, she gave her orders. "Send scout ships and probe droids to search for anything on the last known trajectory of Asmodeus's ships. Maybe that will provide us with some clue to Asmodeus's whereabouts. I will conduct an investigation myself. Do not return until you find a clue of any kind."
"Yes, milady," the lieutenants nodded obediently. The holograms vanished. And a several moments, most of the ships moved out. Some jumped into hyperspace, while others went to the far side of the Geonosis star system.
Qi'ra turned to Inu. "Inu, please leave me. I need time to think."
"Yes, milady," Inu nodded obediently and he left the bridge.
Qi'ra waited until she was sure no one was watching. Then, she typed in a special command into her console, sending a secret, encrypted transmission to the droid factory on Geonosis. A male Gotal answered her. "Yes, milady?" he asked in his baaing voice.
"How goes the production of my new army?" Qi'ra asked.
"The factory is operating at forty-five percent production capacity, milady. We have ten thousand super battle droids ready now, and many more on the way. Shall we continue the operation as planned?"
Qi'ra paused. Ten thousand super battle droids was not enough. She needed more time. "Very well," she said at last. "Continue the operation as planned. And tell no one," she added.
"Yes, milady," the Gotal said with an obedient nod.
The transmission ended.
Qi'ra then contacted Inu. "Inu, take us to the Morag system. We need to look for clues and keep moving. We need to find Asmodeus, and we need to make sure he doesn't find us first."
"Yes, milady," Inu said.
And thus, for the next few days, Crimson Dawn searched for any clues on the whereabouts of Asmodeus.