605. The Heist - Trychon

Raezyr grimaced internally as he heard yet another blast ricochet off his shields. He glanced down at his monitor and saw that his shields were holding, if only for a short while longer. The frigate that was bearing down was making a quick pass at them, but was already angling away to protect itself with its shields down. [i]Cowards.[/i] He thought to himself.

"Dengar!" He called back towards the airlock. "How secure is that seal? We need to start making some moves here... I'm sick of being a squatting dewback!"

He didn't get an answer back for nearly a minute and was about to yell again when Dengar sat down next to him. "Alright boss, the seal is set. Nothing short of a direct hit or two will tear us apart before we're ready now."

"Good. Did you set up the electronic link?"

Dengar nodded. "They're working on the systems from over there though... they know what they're doing... it will be a few minutes before they have navigational control up though. Need Atmo first so they can get out of those suits and move around."

Raezyr opened up the customized program Trychon had made for him for this mission. The first button right there in front of him was to tie the main controls of the shuttle to his own controls. "I don't need their computers up and running... I just need to link their engines to fire with ours."

Dengar seemed surprised. "I thought Trychon was the computer guy."

"Yeah, but I know ships." He could have done it without Trychon's program actually... but this was quicker and easier. Also, he would need the program to ensure the shuttle was properly prepared in a few minutes anyway.

Without so much as a warning to the others, Raezyr pulled hard on his steering yoke, sending the two ships on a sharp twisting dive away from the frigate in tandem. After only one minute, they were clear of any major threats. The fighters and freighters were keeping the Republic fighters fairly busy, and Trychon was going toe to toe with the other capitol ship.

It shouldn't be much longer before they were ready to seal the hole and head out on their own, the Sith thought to himself. He briefly considered heading through the makeshift docking seal and speeding things up but thought better of it and simply commed through to get an update.

"Zanz here... we're working on it. They must have initiated some additional security prior to having the hull breach. They must have assumed we were going to board, whether or not they could have foreseen our method. We'll get it... we just don't know how long."

Taking his concentration off of the piloting controls for a moment, Raezyr shook his head, frustrated at thier lack of progress. He had to give it to Trychon though. It was unclear whether the difficulties they'd run into were secretly expected, or if his brother was just extremely thorough in his preparation... but he'd had a plan for this as well. After scrolling through some of the options he'd been given, he found the one he was looking for and hit the button.

The comm came alive again. "Hang on... something's happening." There was a slight pause. "We're in. Checking the systems now."

Raezyr growled when the comm remained silent for another minute. "AND?"

"We're golden. Send Dengar back to help seal up and we'll be good to go in roughly five. Alert the fleet... I'm headed back to meet up with Dengar."

Raezyr waved a hand to dismiss Dengar, and then started the other program his brother had told him he would need to.

Dengar stopped in the doorway. "What was that you just did?"

Raezyr turned, slightly surprised and perturbed at the question as well as the fact that he stopped to ask it. "It was.... Just a program to reset the IFF signal and that sort of thing. Don't worry about it... get your job done!"

The Mandalorian left without another word, but he left behind a distinct impression of disbelief and worry.

---------------------

Trychon acknowledged the message from his brother stating that the final phase was underway and would be completed within minutes. He held onto his captain's chair as the ship shook yet again. He was getting constant updates on his screen, and his crew seemed to take the cue that he didn't need them filling him in on every detail. They were working out very well for not having run this ship before, and working in unison with relative silence most of the time.

He loved the quiet. It was really allowing him to oversee the entire battle as well as what was happening with his ship. He couldn't keep from grinning as he watched closely, the indicators between his own ship and the Hammerhead it was locked in battle with.

It was cutting it very close. Their shields were at fifty percent and his were down to only thirty, but their shields were dropping more rapidly now. The ability to provide targets for the advanced computers on board and let them handle the precision was paying off, and his opponent was losing gun emplacements. They had already rolled once to bring more guns to bear, and couldn't really afford the maneuver again. They also couldn't do what he was about to do.

A few taps on his pad set a few alarms off on the bridge. Delki spoke up. "We've lost life support systems on ninety percent of the ship!"

"Correction." Trychon calmly pointed out. "I've diverted power to our shields. We aren't using those systems and if we have to sleep on the bridge tonight, so be it."

Either everyone agreed with his logic, or they knew better than to argue against it anyway. Everyone was on the bridge, there really [i]was[i] no reason to keep that and a few other systems running. He'd reduce the shields on the rest of the ship if they weren't protecting his guns as well. This was his last skifter in the deck... and it [i]should[/i] work to tip the end of the battle in his favor.

As he watched the numbers slowly reflect his hopes over the next several minutes, he nearly lost track of time.

"Command to all ships! We have a go! Everything is good, find a vector and get out of here."

Trychon waved all of his crew members to continue on as he just stared at his screen.

"Control 1! You need to come about. You can't win that battle, and the frigate is turning around to help finish you off. We have ships that need to be picked up. If you don't turn around this SECOND, I will kill you myself."

"Well, that wouldn't end well..." He nodded to his crew before hitting the comm button. "As ordered, Command."

He got up from his chair and walked over to the display to watch the Hammerhead that would have looked so good painted on his chair... slip away.

[i]Next time.[/i]

604. The Heist - Raezyr

Jester One rolled hard to port and banked back the other way so hard the inertial dampeners had a hard time compensating. He could feel the centrifugal force begin crushing him into the jumpseat for that brief moment. He could change the settings on those if he wished, but he actually liked those moments although they made it hard to breath sometimes. It kept him from getting too comfortable in the cockpit of his fighter.

Technically it wasn't his fighter. It still belonged to the Republic Galactic Fighter Corps, but he defected with it. Defected wasn't the right word, but it was the word he chose to use. Desertion made it sound like cowardice, and really it had taken a lot of guts to do what he did.

Jester pulled back hard on the stick and decelerated, bringing the fighter into a tight loop and dropping right in behind the two fighters on his tail. His first maneuver had effectively broken their missile lock and now the hunted became the hunter. The cross-hatch on his HUD view dropped neatly over the first target and he squeezed the trigger. Red darts lanced out and pierced the hull, turning the fighter into a ball of fire and slag. "Die, Republic scum," he mumbled to no one but himself.

Every ship he shot down was just one more little piece of payback for his family and friends. Years ago, his home system had decided they no longer wanted to be a part of the Republic. He had been a kid at the time, and hadn't paid attention to politics much. Next thing he knew the Galactic Republic was landing troops on his homeworld to "quell the insurrection."

He had been conscripted in the following occupation and sent to the Academy where he endured his time quietly until the time was right to defect. He knew he would be unable to return home, so instead he struck out on his own, taking small bits of revenge in his own way and sending the profits back home to his loved ones.

He'd spent many years doing just that when this opportunity came along. He had already been payed a hefty sum up front for this mission, as had anyone who signed on with their own ship, and there was the promise of much more if the mission was successful. He didn't expect to live through this mission, but it didn't really matter, he'd already sent his sign on bonus home, and should the mission prove successful his share should set his family for life.

Unfortunately things hadn't been going their way. The opposing fighter force had been double what was expected, and while Control had apparently implemented some sort of contingency plan that caused one of the hammer heads to go crazy, there was still an attack frigate bearing down on them.

The frigate wasn't as big as a hammerhead and they carried no fighters, but they were bristled with guns. Most fighter pilots would turn and run when forced to go against one, but Jester wasn't most fighter pilots.

His comm crackled to life, "Jester One, Mole. We're going to have company!"

"We copy you, Mole," the Jester replied. He had already been formulating a plan and they had one pass at best to complete it. "Two, Five, Six, form up on me. Target their shield generators. They should be located just behind the dorsal fin."

"Leader, this is Five, you want us to attack that thing?" the other pilot questioned.

"Just do as you're ordered and take your lead from me," the leader of the fighter pilots replied. He adjusted his targeting computer for the spot on the ship where he knew the generators were located and increased his throttle.

As expected, the frigate began firing everything they had at the four incoming fighters. It was heavy and a couple of times the laser beams splashed across his shields, causing them to momentarily light up, but he kept his fighter moving side to side, waggling his way in and none of the hits were direct enough to do more than superficial damage.

His small force wasn't so skilled, or nearly as lucky. All three were taken out quickly, emphasizing the reason most pilots dreaded these small attack capital ships. Jester pulled up and broke off his run. He needed at least two ships for this, or it would never be successful, and he doubted they'd get a second pass at this.

"Command, this is Jester Leader," he said, dialing in the command channel. "I need one more fighter over here, and right now, preferably the best one you have left. Otherwise you better get your big guns over here."

-------

"Jester Four, Command," came the call over Mannix' comm. "Your wing is gone and you're flying solo anyway, drop the sortie and form up on Jester One as fast as possible."

Mannix didn't question the order. He'd taken out four enemy fighters single handedly and led three more into the waiting cross-hairs of gunships and freighters. Now they were sending him over to support Raezyr and the rest of the insertion team.

He checked his scopes as he jammed the accelerator to full throttle. To his surprise, there was only one fighter over there standing in between Mole and the attack frigate. Something began to nag at the back of his mind. Something about fighters and attack frigates. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He dismissed the thought as a distraction and pulled into position on Jester Leader's wing.

----------

Jester Leader gave Jester Four the same orders he had given the others, and this time his wing man managed to stay in one piece. Jester loosed his torpedos. The struck home and weakened the shields. He watched his scopes as Four's torpedos closed in... and missed their mark.

"Sorry about that Leader, I'll hit it on the next pass," came a kid's voice over the comm.

"Forget it kid, there is no next run. They know our strategy now. They know we know where their generators are. They're not going to mess around with us and let us at it again," Jester replied, but he was also planning.

There was one shot left, but he had to turn back now in mid run. He began banking and was about to Order Four to stay close to the Mole, and protect it at all costs when he noticed Jester Four was already making the same turn he was. In fact he must have started making the turn sooner because Four was already ahead of him.

"Four, what are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed!" Jester yelled at the kid.

"I'm going back to finish the job," came the reply.

Jester swore under his breath and pulled back hard on the stick and jammed the throttle forward, and felt himself being crushed into his jumpseat as he tried to catch the young pilot. "I suppose it's not going to do any good to order you out, is it?"

"Nope, sorry One," Jester Four said flatly.

The older pilot smiled to himself and for the moment regretted his decision to not get to know any of the other pilots before the mission started. He figured there'd be enough time for that if he survived this mission, but this kid reminded him of himself when he was younger: eager, daring, and a feeling of invincibility... with a touch of stupidity thrown in for good measure.

His ultra fast turn had taken him wide, and while his own fighter was faster, it was still taking some time to catch up. Suddenly his scoped lit up with new blips: the frigate had just launched numerous torpedoes and missiles at Jester Four.

"Four, this is One, break off!"

"Negative, One. This is my screw up, and I'm going to fix it." The kid said with a note of determination in his voice.

Jester watched as the missiles were closing in on their target, and noticed the frigate had launched a second salvo aimed at him as well. By his calculations, neither of them were going to be close enough to get accurate shots on their target generator before both ships were vaporized.

It suddenly dawned on Jester what the only clear course of action was, and he altered his course just slightly.

-------------

Raezyr watched the scopes intently as the fate of his own part of this mission rested heavily on those two remaining fighters. He knew Mannix was one of them, and as much as he had hoped that the kid would live through this, it was quite apparent that this was it for the kid. All that was left was the hope that he'd finish taking those generators out before he died.

Suddenly he noticed Jester One change his vector. He was no longer headed to make second pass as was Mannix, but had taken a trajectory which would put him on a collision course with Mannix. The Sith reached for the comm, about to warn the young Taxl monk and then looked more closely at the screen. "What in the name of the Sith is he doing?" he whispered to himself.

Suddenly Jester One's spacecraft swooped in on Mannix' tail. He held that position for the briefest of moments, then veered away. As if by magic, the torpedoes turned and followed their new target. Three seconds later, they connected.

-------

Mannix loosed two more torpedoes, and this time they connected. The explosion rocked the frigate and it's shields glowed briefly before coming down. He was still in shock and awe of what had just happened. Moments ago he had prepared himself to fire as he took his last breath, and now the defenseless frigate was veering off.

Although it was still going to pass near the Jet Razor, and most likely attack in passing, it was no longer on a direct attack route. His job now was was to harass and harry the frigate, doing as much damage as he could.

Later there would be plenty of time to think about Jester.

603. The Heist - Raezyr and Trychon

The wookie sitting in the co-pilot's chair on board the Muurian Interstellar light frieghter let out a long wail.

"Rub it in will ya?" the human female in the captain's chair replied sarcastically. Jahayne Kryll, captain of the Wayward Damsel, had already decided that signing on with Dianna Kingsdoom had been a fool-hardy thing to do. She didn't need Ryykarro giving her the, "I told you so," speech right in the middle of a battle.

Ryyki had been opposed to signing on from the start. He always had been able to smell trouble from a parsec away. The problem was that the Ibarrian carrot dangling at the end of her nose had been too much to pass up. She should have listened to the big, hairy wookie but it was too late now.

Ryykarro growled at Jahayne.

"I get it, okay? Just lock in the axillary power and angle that rear deflector screen. I don't think I've ever seen this many fighters before... not when they were shooting at me, at least!" Jahayne said, trying to change the subject to the matter at hand.

She had met Dianna a few times in the past and liked and admired her. Secretly, she sort of aspired to be her, to own and run her own operation, but things had never gone quite like she had planned. Unexpected repairs to her ship or falling prices at the wrong time had cut into her profit margins, meaning that instead of making some real money, all she ended up doing was covering her expenses and just getting by.

She had two things going for her though: her ship, and her best friend and co-pilot, Ryyki. While she sometimes cursed the ship for breaking down on her, she owned it free and clear and it was more than most people in her position can say.

The sound of a crash somewhere in the back of the ship brought her out of her momentary reverie. My life's not flashing before my eyes just yet... she thought to herself as she yelled unnecessarily at the Wookiee sitting next to her. "What was that? Oh forget it... I know you don't know either."

Her ship was one of the few freighters in the whole group that was fast enough to even think about venturing into a dogfight with republic starfighters. There was two others that had that duty. They hadn't been fast enough after all.

She managed to make it out of the the dangerous zone with another fighter chalked up to her score. That made five, which if she was in a regular military, would mark her as an ace. She didn't feel the accolade should really matter anyway, as she had the so called luxury of pulling out of the firefight and waiting for an opportunity to attempt a strike. She felt for the fighter pilots who had to stick it out in the middle of the fray. They must have nerves of steel. "Alright buddy, lets hang here just long enough for you to check out the engine. Go!"

She watched over the battle closely while she tried to ignore the sounds of equipment and parts being tossed in the engine room mixed with her first mate's howling. She cursed silently as she saw an opportunity to take off after a target, but was unable until Ryykarro came and strapped in.

It wasn't long before he did, informing her with a few quick grunts that it was their motivator. "Oh well, at least it's not something we'll need until we're ready to get out of here." She replied, hoping that the loss of fighters would at least mean that they could get a birth on the capital ship Dianna called 'The Stalker.'

They got back closer to the action. The hardest part about the tactic they had been instructed to use was deciding just how close to get to the sortie. Small, one-man fighters twisted and rolled in a relatively small area, locked in a deadly dance, while the freighters cruised around the edges, picking targets of opportunity like Dobvarian wolves circling a herd of styrrians.

The point was to provide support for the fighters yet not send the larger, less-maneuverable ships directly against the smaller, faster ships. Their own forces would assist in this tactic by leading any pursuit they couldn't shake out to the freighters and into their line of fire.

Rykkarro pointed to the sensor screen and grunted. The two watched as three Republic craft were being led in their direction.

"Oh boy, fresh meat. Let's get ready, Rykki," Jahayne said to her wookie companion. She could worry about the non-functioning motivator later.

"Get ready to give me full power... wait for it... NOW!" she yelled and the hairy co-pilot flipped several switches on the console in front of him.

Suddenly the third of the three Republic fighters veered off-course and away from pursuit of the Jester unit who was leading the targets in. Jahayne knew she should break course as well, but that fighter wouldn't be leading them out here if he didn't need help.

Rykkarro must have been reading her mind and let her know he thought it was a bad idea. "I know what I'm doing. If that third target begins to head this way, shift some power to the aft screens," she ordered. She sure hoped she really did know what she was doing.

Jahayne pulled the Wayward Damsel in behind her new targets and immediately started her auto-guns firing. Her targeting computer had received an upgrade and had so far performed remarkably well on auto-fire.

The wookie gave a long howl, and Jahayne looked at the screen. Just as she had dreaded, that third fighter had turned and come back. It had just been waiting for her to commit to her action on the other two Republic fighters. "Damn it! Shunt some power to the aft gun and..."

Her voice trailed off as warning alarms began sounding all over the cockpit of the small freighter. They were target-lock warnings.

A more agile ship might be able to evade the missiles or break the lock, and a bigger ship might be able to take the hits, but her own ship was neither large nor agile.

"Switch all power to the rear deflector screens and angle those babies to 45 degrees!" Jahayne yelled although she needn't have bothered as her friend was already doing it. She watched as two dots streaked across her screen toward the dot that represented the Damsel. They had at best 2 minutes until impact.

She looked over at the best friend she'd ever known. "We can't take both hits, Rykki."

-----------------

Dianna Kingsdoom watched the battle from the monitors on the bridge of her own ship. She was concentrating most of her firepower onto that second hammer-head, but she getting constant updates on all aspects from her well trained bridge crew.

"Captain, we just lost another freighter," said one of the crewman.

"Which one?"

"The Wayward Damsel, ma'am."

She said nothing for a moment. "Keep concentrating all your firing on that second hammer-head." She hadn't known Jahayne Kryll or Rykkarro very well, but she had liked them anyway and had been excited when they signed on. She had hoped they'd be a big asset, not only on this mission but in the future as well.

The losses were beginning to pile up fast. She opened the private link to the Jet Razor. "Raez, we can't do this much longer. We're losing too many people," she said quietly so her crew couldn't overhear.

"Babe," came the whispered reply, "I know that. We're trying to hurry over here, but to make matters worse, I've got that frigate bearing down on me..."

602. The Heist - Trychon

Earlier...

Dianna sat quietly in her chair aboard the Icy Steed awaiting their exit from hyperspace. She desperately wanted to give them all another speech to encourage them... or remind them that the group's safety had to come above all else, but she had already gone over most of that with them already. She hadn't pushed the latter point on them too hard despite Zanz's requests for a few reasons. Mainly because they were still pirates on a risky mission and that mindset wasn't necessarily conducive to a higher survival rate, but also because the group would be in dire straights if they walked away from this without the payoff, as she'd confided her lover the previous night.

Zanz told her that if the situation looked impossible, it probably was. He didn't leave her alone until she promised to withdraw if it seemed that way. She finally made him the promise, but she kept to herself that her view of impossible was likely a bit different. She would seldom disagree with her second in command about such a vital issue, but they needed this to work that badly.

As the lines of hyperspace receded she watched in silence, prepared to make any commands necessary. Her crew was accustomed to making their own adjustments, leaving her to concentrate on the scope of the mission as a whole. It wasn't long before the shuttle appeared and Raezyr set after it, calling for the attack group to follow suit. She crossed her fingers that the support for the shuttle would be delayed, even for a handful of minutes.

It wasn't to be the case though, as the Unity appeared moments later, and with another Hammerhead and a frigate in tow. She closed her eyes and fought with herself for only seconds. She looked up to see her entire bridge staring at her. She keyed her comm after letting out a heartfelt sigh. "Command to Control 1 and Mole 1. This mission is a scratch. We can't do this. Huttspit! Let's show them our hyperdrives and meet up elsewhere."

She watched her sensor panel as her small fleet began to execute her command, save two. The Jet Razor remained on the attack, and the Sith Stalker remained where it was. She stared at the screen in disbelief. Zanz had been right... the two Sith were suicidal in their goals.

She was about to reiterate the command when the Stalker responded. "Control 1 to Command - Sorry about the delay. This was certainly unexpected and less than optimal, but it was always a possibility. We have contingencies."

-------

Dianna breathed a sigh of short lived relief. It was all she had time for, as there was too much to do. The mole team had managed to breach the hull of their target, but the Republic's attack frigate was bearing in on them. The fighters were holding their own thanks to the unexpected support of the freighters, but they were on their own for now, as support fire was as dangerous as it was helpful in the middle of a dogfight.

She was about to order the freighters in to support the mole team and the Stalker, when the hammerhead Trychon had referred to as 'The Unity' began to launch its remaining fighters. Wampa meat. She thought to herself. She wouldn't admit it to his face, but thanks to whatever it was Trychon had done, they had been doing really well considering the unexpected odds. That was at an end now, it seemed.

"Command to all freighter support - We have more incoming fighters. Take out as many as you can before they get into the dogfight. After they're in the heat of it, break off and coordinate with Mole 1 and Control 1 to take on the big boys. We'll need all the help we can get!" She got up from her chair and began pacing.

"Alright guys... we need to go in and put ourselves in between that frigate and our aurodium. Don't worry for now about getting in position for targets of value... the fighter support is doing that. We need to keep the shuttle in one piece at all costs!" Not to mention the Jet Razor. She couldn't let her emotions get in the way of her command, but she also couldn't be positive that wasn't exactly what she was doing now.

It didn't take long before they were getting hammered for being an extra shield for the shuttle and the Jet Razor. She sat back down and pounded the comm. She was probably going to need her control panel repaired before this was all over. "Command to insertion team - I don't mean to push, but we need to hurry up a bit here!"

Almost as if on cue, alarms started to blare that The Unity was nearing firing range. They only had a minute or two left before they were all in very big trouble.

She didn't expect what happened next. Trychon's voice came over the comm, to nobody in particular that she could figure out. "Come on... Come ON!"

She was about to ask him to clarify when his pleas were answered. "Captain..." A voice spoke from somewhere over by the weapon controls. "The hammerhead... the one closing in... just shut down entirely. I can't explain it."

"Maybe when we're done here, we can get an explanation. For now, thank the Force or whatever you believe in... and make another run on that frigate." She looked down at her instruments and held herself back from taking and holding a deep breath. "Take us through their firing path one last time."

601. The Heist - Trychon

Spickolly worked diligently at his multiple consoles. A 'vibrojack' as he referred it was a malignant slicer program that took complete control of a system. He'd never heard or dealt with one that took control of an entire Republic ship before, but there were certain advantages that it presented him. The main functionality of this ship or any one like it in the Republic was preserved on a hard-coded computer core, which could not be altered. The Captain's codes were among the few preserved functions of the ship.

Using it, he would be able to shut the system down entirely and reinitialize it with only the core functions active. It would limit the ship's higher functions, including all major computer aided activities such as targeting and aided piloting, but it was better than the situation as it was. He chuckled to himself, knowing that the Captain didn't have to give him his code. He'd figured it out some time ago, but he didn't intend to let on to that.

He took a deep breath and initiated the shut down. He watched carefully as code crossed his screen to make sure that things went as he'd planned them. Nothing seemed amiss though, as it shouldn't. Within a minute, the ship was regaining power and core functionality.

He keyed his comm and got ahold of the Captain. "Heh. Alright, man... you're all set. You have to do without much computer power, but at least you're not blastin' your friends no more, am I right? Huhuh."

Spickolly heard the Moklam's taking a slow breath on the other side of the comm connection. The Captain often did that when he was trying to control his temper, and Spickolly had noticed it often. "No, Mr. Spickolly... that really isn't enough. I appreciate the fact that I am no longer going to be court martialed for destroying allied ships, however I'm likely to receive the same end if we're unable to effectively stop this madness that's going on right in front of me. We need our computers. Do you understand? Did you find the problem? I need you to remove it and get my ship working!"

The civilian slicer shook his head emphatically against the idea, despite the fact that nobody could see him do so. "Oh, heh, heh. I really don't recommend we do that, Mr. Captain. This program is like that other one... you know dude... the one we thought we'd zapped? It doesn't seem to follow any normal protocols, like the dude who made it taught himself how to cut programs from scratch. Heh heh. That's unreal. I can find the program and shut it off... but I don't want to just make it mad again."

Moklam's reply was short. He knew it had to be the Sith. That only made it that much more important that his ship get involved in the unfolding battle and quickly. "Do. Your. Job!"

Spickolly sighed. "Ok, dude. You're the bossman, bossman."

Using the information he'd pulled prior to resetting the computers on the vessel, he found the rogue program and cut in some gibberish code that should serve to break it and loop it on itself, hoping that it was a safer bet then trying to delete it entirely. After several minutes of this, satisfied that he'd given it his best effort, he began logging into the reboot again using the Captain's code.

His comm was beeping incessantly, with the Captain berating him for taking so long. He didn't feel like explaining that it was quicker the first time because he'd already entered the Captain's own overrides multiple times before contacting him, so he merely didn't answer.

When he was ready, he contacted the bridge and told them to prepare. He entered the codes one last time, and the system was online complete with targeting, sensors and all of its normal functions. Spickolly held his breath.

------------

On the bridge, Captain Moklam slammed his personal comm down, hopeful he was done with it for the day.

"All hands prepare to engage! Launch the remainder of our fighters for Hoth's sake, and communicate with the other ships to return to formation. We're done playing here! It's time to show those Sith bastards that the Republic is not to be trifled with!"

He surveyed the sensor data running across his personal screen. Their fighters had taken heavy losses with the support of the freighters in the enemy group. They still had a small numerical advantage, and the support was losing its effectiveness with the dogfight at full tilt. With the rest of the Unity's fighter support added, the advantage would be theirs once again.

He watched as the other ships went on after the largest enemy ship in attack formation, and ignored the incoming complaints from their respective Captains. He didn't blame them, but now was not the time. He took another deep breath as he continued to watch his orders executed. It was time to teach the Sith a lesson.

He could nearly feel the veins in his forehead returning to normal from their bulged state. He was going to take care of this problem once and for all. He didn't need the Jedi's help to rid the galaxy of this scum. They'd bit off more than they could chew this time.

Then he screamed as he watched his controls start to flicker again.

600. The Heist - Raezyr

"Captain, we'll be exiting hyperspace in a few minutes," an ensign from the navigation section on the bridge of the Unity said. Captain Wash Moklam acknowledged the notification with a nod and moved to the window of the bridge and looked out. The mottled blue of hyperspace was surreal and even after years of seeing it, it made him feel a bit like the young ensign on his first hyperspace jump that he had been so many years ago at the Academy.

"Keep sharp, folks," Moklam called to his bridge crew. "This is a brief stop. We'll reorient ourselves and make the next leg of the jump." This far outside the disc of the Galaxy, he really didn't expect any problems. No one in the Galaxy outside the four ships in the small task force and Republic Navy High Command knew their route and current location, and the chances of running into someone accidentally in extra-galactic space was astronomical.

The mottled blue melded into elongated starlines which coalesced into pinpoints of light. "-Day! May Day! We are under under attack!" The transmission on the emergency frequency filled the bridge and caused almost everyone to jump.

"Sensors: What's going on out there?" Moklam yelled as he ran for his command chair. He hit the comm button on his control panel still standing up. "Hangar Control: Launch all fighters NOW!" the captain ordered.

Moklam swung around the control panel and slid into his command chair, watching as the the data began streaming across the screens. This is impossible! he thought to himself. "Shields up! Fire Control: Identify targets and fire at will!"

He looked at the sensors readouts, one Corellian corvette, gun ships, light frieghters and ten, maybe a dozen fighters. They were in formation and already on the attack. This was too organized to be an accident, but it was also a fairly puny attack force for an ambush.

He noted the fighters were just beginning to launch from both the Unity and the other hammer-head, the Arcus Fire, while the attack frigate Bogan Charge began speeding toward the shuttle carrying the precious aurodium shipment.

Suddenly the lights on the bridge flickered, as did all the monitor screens. When they came back up, Moklam noted his was blank. "What just happened? Someone give me a report."

Everyone on the bridge was scrambling, but no one was speaking. Moklam stood to his feet. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" he demanded as technical jibberish began rolling down his screen.

"Sir," his first officer began then paused for a long moment. "Sir, it appears to be some sort of sytem reboot and diagnostic test."

Moklam was furious. His gaze drifted to the view port and he went white at what he say there. From what he could see, it appeared that his beloved ship had begun a lazy roll. To make matters worse, every gun on his ship was firing. Both the Arcus Fire and the Bogan Charge had broken off their attacks to take evasive maneuvers.

"Comm: Get me direct communication with the other ships in our fleet," the captain yelled. His mind was numb. Never in his experience had something like this ever happened to anyone in the Fleet. "And someone tell me what in Sith's name is happening!"

Suddenly his personal communicator on his belt began beeping. Moklam looked at who dared call him in the middle of this disaster, and after seeing who was on the other end, he had the urge to throw the piece of equipment at the bulkhead. Instead, he clicked it on. "Mr. Spickolly. Now is not the best time," Moklam said tersely, putting heavy emphasis on the 'not.'

"Heh, heh, heh," the civilian programmer laughed. "I can totally tell, your sir-ness, but if you'll just bear with me a millisec."

"I don't have time for nonsense," the captain spat. "What is it that you want?"

"We just got hit by a vibro-jack, Admiral," Geoffry Spickolly said, as if that should mean something to Moklam.

The starship captain was so furious with the slicer that the civilian's incorrect use of rank didn't even register. Moklam's words came out cold and slow. "What in the name of all that is holy is a 'vibro-jack?'"

"Huh, huh, huh, oh man," Spickolly said. "That's a little term I invented. There's choppers out there that will tell you they came up with it, but that's a straight up lie, dude. I'll tell you what..."

Moklam couldn't stand it anymore. Pirates were out there attacking his charge, his ship was going into total system reboot and diagnostics, and here was this idiot, rambling on about words he made up. "Damn you Spickolly! I don't give a frack about your technical linguistics! Can you fix it?" He screamed into the comm. A few of the officers looked up. They knew their commanding officer was fiery, but that was beyond anything they had seen from him.

Spickolly however, was un-phased. "Oh totally, bro. I need your password. Gimme that and I can get you manual control back in a few moments. It's gonna talk a bit longer to get things back to shiny and stuff, but with your password-"

Moklam interrupted the slicer once again, gave the man his password and clicked the comm off. When this is over, Moklam thought to himself, I'm going to stuff him in an airlock myself.

599. Sith Hunt Part Two - Raezyr

The foot and speeder traffic around them was business as usual in the Blue Sector of Coronet, capital city of Corellia. The building itself wasn't much to look at, but at the moment it was all they had to go on.

Two days ago, Jedi Knights Nal Talla and Ataraxiav'a'lajean, or Val to his his friends, had arrived on Corellia in their respective fighters. Normally, long hyperspace flights were not possible in small snub-fighters due to hours, sometimes days, spent in hyperspace. Jedi however, were able to put themselves into a coma like meditation for hours at a time and pull themselves out of it again at a pre-determined time.

Once they had reached the Corellian System, they had immediately contacted CorSec and identified themselves and their mission. It took several hours to reach anyone who seemed to have the authority to authorize them to look into the "training accident" which had occurred just days before. CorSec was notorious for being very independent and they loathed any interference from the outside, either by they Republic, or the Jedi Order.

By time they had landed, and made their way to the Corellian Security Force Headquarters, they had finally received permission and the begrudging cooperation to look into the matter, and they got the feeling that if lightsabers had not been involved, that it would have taken direct intervention from the Jedi Council on Coruscant to obtain the access to the reports and files.

The two Jedi scanned hours of surveillance tapes from various businesses and strategically placed CorSec cameras, starting from the incident which had garnered the attention of the Jedi, and eventually pieced together the Sith's travels throughout the city.

They had been excited to learn that all four of the Sith they were after had been here, but why they had come to one of the Core Planets and risked alerting the authorities remained a mystery. This stop didn't seem like their usual tactics where they purposely gained the attention of local authorities and then hung out just long enough to let the Jedi verify their presence. No, they had attempted to conceal their whereabouts and if security footage was to be believed, they would have maintained that secrecy if it had not been for that Zeltronian female, who had seemed to pick a fight with them.

They had also tracked the Sith back to one of the spaceports, but several ships arrivals and departures coincided with the appearance of the Sith and while it narrowed down the possibilities of which ship might be theirs, none of the ships matched the description of the one the Jedi were most familiar with.

In fact, after looking at all the evidence, the only place of interest seemed to be this apartment complex of which they now stood in front.

A murder had taken place in one of the apartments, and the time of death coincided with the time a passing CorSec air speeder had passed overhead, placing all four Sith in front of the building. While the local law enforcement officials had no reason to believe the incidents were related, both Nal and Val were sure they were connected.

They entered the building and went to the apartment. Things had been pretty much as they had been found. CorSec had chalked the mess up to a home invasion, but the strangling of the victim was something that was bothering Nal. "Strangling is too personal. No, da person who did dis knew da victim."

"I'm inclined to agree with you, Nal," her blue-skinned counterpart said. "I know you can feel the residual Dark Side energy as I can."

"Yes," the Nataulan female agreed. "But why? Who was dis middle-aged human woman, and why did dey want her dead?"

"That is the question, indeed." The Chiss Jedi paused while he pulled out his data pad and called up the case files that he had downloaded. "The only interesting thing to note about this woman was that she had done a short stretch of time in a prison colony for manslaughter." They both already had looked into the files and knew the general details. Apparently the woman had killed her husband. Her defense was that he had abused his oldest step-daughter and the girl had run away and disappeared.

After that, the woman had supposedly sent her younger daughter away to keep it from happening again, but when that girl had gone missing as well, the mother had assumed the worst and taken her vengeance upon the man in the form a blaster bolt between the eyes while he was sleeping.

"Wait, what were da ages of dose girls when dat happened," Nal asked, and Val showed her the data pad. On a hunch, she pulled out her own data pad and entered the names of the two girls. Within a few moments she found what she was looking for: "Anya Tachi. It says here dat years ago she was tested by da Jedi, but refused entry to da Order due to age and lack of ability."

"That's interesting, but it makes sense. The Sith numbers are so depleted they are probably accepting anyone who shows the slightest aptitude with the Force," Val surmised. "Now you have two of the four names though: Raezyr, and Anya Tachi."

"Yes, but I'd gladly trade der names if I could only bring dem to justice for what dey did to Nylan," Nal replied. She could still see her Twi'lekki friend lying on the ground, dying and she remembered her own feeling of helplessness as the blue-armored Sith stood above her, ready to take her life as well.

Val sensed where his counterparts feelings were going and brought her back to the present. "Nal, I don't think there's anything more we can learn here on Corellia," the big blue Jedi said, resting his hand on her forearm.

"We should probably share what we know about this Tachi girl with CorSec, report to Master Taisun, and then see about getting back to the Unity. They should be nearly finished with their mission," Val said. The female Nautolan nodded her head in agreement.

Something was eating at Val, though. A tugging in the Force telling him they were missing something. Not something here in Coronet or even on this planet, but something... elsewhere.

598. The Heist - Raezyr

"Control, Command One... what the hell just happened," Dianna asked over the comm. She watched as the republic capital ship began rolling in a lazy yaw and firing all guns in random directions. The second hammerhead and the attack frigate were both taking heavy friendly-fire. Not enough to seriously damage the other two Republic warships, but enough to cause them to take emergency evasive action, and temporarily removing all three ships from the battle.

"Just a little added insurance from long ago, but that's neither here nor there. Very shortly they'll recover. For the moment, all ships concentrate on those fighters. Let's even up the odds for our boys before the Unity can launch the remainder of their fighters," Trychon instructed.

Thirty fighters had launched from both capital ships before Trychon's diversionary tactic prevented more from launching, six more than originally expected. According to their original plan, all of their own freighters, gunships and the Stalker would have been tied up with the main capital ship, but for now they were free to fire on the Republic fighters for a few minutes, and the superior firepower of the pirate ships had an immediate impact. Without the support of the larger ships, Republic fighters were going down left and right.

Raezyr and his small fighter escort kept concentrating on their own portion of the misssion: subdue and board the cargo shuttle carrying the payload of aurodium.

"They're shields should have failed by now," Jester One called over the comm. "We've hit that sucker more times than I can count."

"Jester Leader, Mole One. That thing has highly upgraded shields for obvious reasons. Just keep firing those ion cannons. If we don't get it shut down soon, it'll make the jump to hyperspace," Raezyr replied to all the fighters with him.

"Taggart, divert some of our shield power to the ion cannons," Raezyr said, turning to his co-pilot. "Let's see if we can't increase our rate of fire."

"Divert our shield power?" Taggart asked. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Just shut up and do what you're told," Raezyr growled. People questioning his orders was beginning to grate his nerves.

With another barrage of ion fire from themselves and the specially equipped fighters, their prey suddenly went dead. "Dengar, NOW!" Raezyr ordered, and the ex-Mandalorian turned on the small tractor-beam used for towing or retrieving small objects. It wasn't much, but it prevented the shuttle from tumbling.

With his target steadied, Raezyr took careful aim and fired the specially designed plasma-cutter round, striking the shuttle's hull just behind the spacecraft's cabin. They watched as all the gases were expelled explosively, along with anything that wasn't securely tied down inside... including the occupants. "Zanz, Taggart, Dengar, get your enviro-suits on while I dock, and hang on."

Normally, when hijacking a spacecraft, standard procedure was to dock and use a slicer to bypass the target's security systems and keep the shuttle in one piece, but that could take a while. This time they didn't have that luxury.

"Command One, Control, this is Mole One," Raezyr called into the comm. "We have acquired the target. Insertion team will be making entry in moments."

"That's a good thing," Trychon called, and Dianna then echoed his sentiments.

"Tell them to hurry, Mole," she said. "Our delay tactic is at an end."

Raezyr took a moment to study his sensors and sure enough, the Unity, while still seemingly rolling out of control, was no longer firing at all. In minutes, they would most likely regain nav-control, and at any moment they would be launching the remainder of their fighters. The other two Republic warships had already maneuvered safely into new attack positions. The hammerhead had already begun firing upon the Stalker and the rest of the pirate ships, while the frigate was beginning to bear down on Mole One itself. "Gentlemen! I suggest you hurry," Raezyr called as the insertion team got ready to open the hatch. The Sith reached for the comm switch. "Jester One, Mole. We're going to have company!"

"We copy you, Mole," the squadron leader replied. "Two, Five, Six, form up on me. Target their shield generators. They should be located..."

Raezyr didn't listen to the fighter's battle tactics. Instead, he looked for Mannix' transponder signal and was glad to see it was still present. He also noted that the Republic fighters had taken heavy losses which was a very good thing, as the Unity's hangars suddenly began to spew it's eighteen remaining fighters.

597. The Heist - Trychon

Trychon stared out into the stars and thought to himself It's a beautiful day. Granted, he realized that weather was pretty irrelevant when in deep space, let alone hyperspace. He looked around at his small command crew. The Stalker by her very nature, did not need a large crew. In fact, for most basic missions it could do without one at all, and that was what set it apart. For a mission such as this one though, having a few more sentient minds (and one assassin droid) to help run it would greatly increase efficiency and deadliness. He could run the ship himself if all it needed to do was shoot down fighters and knock heads with other capital ships, but this mission called for so much more from the The Stalker and Trychon. Delki and Bleetz joined Shyrt, Reed, and the droid in making the command deck as populated as it'd been since Trychon and Raezyr captured it so long ago.

He was confident they were going to achieve their objectives today. He had to be. His new mysterious holocron mentor had told him that a true Sith master was able to increase the effectiveness and loyalty of entire armies with a 'projection' of sorts of their own views and goals. He was no Sith Master yet, and he could feel the predominant unease in their own armada of sorts. He could not blame them or somehow cause their doubts to go away. It didn't matter though. What he and his brother had set in motion was about to come to pass, and he was excited.

"Reverting to realspace in 10 seconds" The computer's voice called out over the comm. The crew watched as the planetary system came into view just as it had in their simulations. Dianna's voice came in next over the speakers. "Command to all hands. I'm going to go ahead and head off all the questions. No, the target is not here. We're here to refuel and head back out. At that point, Control 1 will send out the real coordinates of the target. It's a necessary precaution that I'm sure you all understand. I know we usually handle things openly in my crew, but this was a condition from our mission partners."

Trychon smiled at that. He knew that it was imperative that her crew trust her implicitly... and their trust in the Sith was less important. They didn't mind being a lightning rod of sorts for any doubts or issues from her crew. Everyone had their parts to play. In fact, getting under Zanz's skin was sometimes downright enjoyable.

Everyone was given a chance to record messages to be sent out on a delay, and everyone knew the basics of their mission. The specifics of where exactly they were going were not important to preparations, and could have ruined everything if it had somehow been leaked. Only Trychon, Raezyr, and Dianna knew where they were heading next. Traveling outside the galactic plane was highly rare, and that's exactly what their quarry was counting on. There was fewer dangers outside the plane... there was nothing at all actually. It was viewed as too risky simply because if a ship were to somehow lose power, there was a literal zero chance of anyone finding them.

That was also about the chances of someone happening in on a job like this without stumbling across the information somehow, as they had. Hopefully they would get their timing just right as well. They had enough time to refuel and get on their way... but arriving too early or too late was not an option.

--------------

After their refueling was done, and some of the crew got through grumbling about the false alarm on the first jump, they were on their way with the real final jump. Raezyr steeled his nerves and prepared for what was going to be a hectic few minutes. At least, they were only planning on a few minutes. With the half dozen small freighters and gunships, the dozen fighters, plus the Wraith], The Razor, The Stalker and Di's own freighter... they should be able to take down the Hammerhead cruizer Unity. The one problem was that they were already likely to take on some heavy losses with the two full squadrons that the Unity had.

Taking down the cruizer was a secondary objective. They were going to hit the shuttle hard and quick and try to get in and out without much in the way of losses. If their fighters were able to sustain without taking heavy losses, taking out the larger ship would be a luxury in that it would increase their likelyhood of remaining anonymous in the loss of a very large amount of credits.

They reverted to realspace and the Sith checked his instruments. The rest of the group was coming out of hyperspace right behind him, but there were no other ships there. He began his mental countdown. If the shuttle didn't show up in the next two minutes, they may have come in too early and given them enough time to see them and change their exit point.

It was hard not to hold his breath as the first minute passed by. Zanz grumbled from behind him about 'not liking it.' Raezyr ignored him entirely. He wasn't going to allow his own nerves to overreact to the annoying former soldier.

He silently breathed a sigh of relief as the shuttle appeared just outside their weapons range. He gunned his engines to full and hit his comm. "Mole one to all attack group - Target is in sight. Heading to intercept. Form up behind me as quick as possible. We have to hit them fast."

Zanz was looking at the instruments. "How do we know it's them?"

"Look, sublight for brains..." Raezyr growled "I know you want to see Trychon and I fail so you can wallow in your shallow victory, but it's time to get on board. Who else is going to be showing up right here, right now? Get over your issues and fall in line. Do your job and keep your mouth shut."

All appearances were that Zanz was about to do just that, when the alarms started to sound off. "That'll be the hammerhead." Taggart noted. Then his voice went up several decibel levels. "No, make that two hammerheads! There's a third ship there! Looks to be a frigate! We're humped!"

Dianna seemed to agree. "Command to Control 1 and Mole 1. This mission is a scratch. We can't do this. Huttspit! Let's show them our hyperdrives and meet up elsewhere."

Raezyr didn't know what to say to her, but he wasn't about to back down now. The Shuttle was in range and he began to open fire.

Zanz grabbed his shoulder. "Are you insane?! Do you want everyone to be slaughtered? You heard the command!"

Raezyr motioned for Taggart to take over the controls as he turned around and grabbed Zanz by the neck and slammed him into the wall. He was about to tear the man apart and explain that they may as well try to wait until the enemy was on them before turning and tucking their tails between their legs and running when Trychon's voice made him pause. "Control 1 to Command - Sorry about the delay. This was certainly unexpected and less than optimal, but it was always a possibility. We have contingencies."

"WHAT contingencies? You have an extra fleet?"

One of the freighters chimed in. "The hammerheads are starting to launch fighters..."

"Just give me a second, Command. Hang on..." Raezyr could practically visualize his brother tapping away on his datapad "There!"

Dengar was staring at the controls, dumbfounded. Taggart was bringing the ship around for another pass. "What did he do, Raezyr? Wait! One of the Hammerheads stopped launching fighters! It seems to be having some sort of a malfunction... it's picking up a yaw and starting a lazy spin.... and now it's firing randomly?"

Raezyr pulled Zanz away from the bulkhead long enough to slam him into it again. "We're not backing out. I have a job to do and so do you. You have no say in this mission until you're on that boat and on your way. I'm not even sure you're needed for that, so it's only really Di that's keeping me from ripping out your throat. Stay out of my way." He threw the helpless man onto the floor and resumed his seat.

"What... just happened?" Dengar asked quietly, as though he was afraid to address the Sith directly.

"That spasming hammerhead is the Unity. I thought Trych might have an ace in the hole left for them." He was smiling again as he took over control of his ship, and prepared to unload another salvo at their target.

596. The Heist - Raezyr

Taggart and Mannix sat on a couch in the lounge. There was a holo net program playing, but they weren't paying attention. Using models, hands and whatever else they could find, the Ace was showing the young pilot different maneuvers and tricks that he'd learned over the years.

"See, if they come at you from this vector, you pull what I like to call the double X cross-over," Taggart explained and then demonstrated the move, which involved two barrel rolls and an inverted loop.

"Okay, that makes sense, but isn't it disorienting?" Mannix asked.

"It is, especially away from any planets to reorient yourself. It's why a dog-fight in space is so much more instrument-reliant, you know kid?" the older pilot instructed. "Really at this point, you just need more time in the cockpit. I can only teach you so much, and you've learned just about everything I can teach you. The rest is practice and experience."

Taggart looked over at the only other occupants of the room. Zanz and Dengar were going over their insertion and hijacking plans once again. "Alright, enviro suits on, we breach the portal. Any survivors removed, once that's be done, you begin checking payload while I check for system restart..." Dengar, the ex-Mandalorian was saying when he was interrupted.

"You know, if you guys don't have it down by now, you may never have it down," Taggart said jokingly, and his protege giggled quietly.

"You'd do well to get your ass over here and pay attention, Tag," Zanz, Dianna's first mate said. "You're going to be with us and have to do a cold start on that shuttle, and you need to be just as familiar with this plan."

"Don't worry, if it's got a hyper-drive, I can pilot it," Taggart retorted. "Hell, even if it doesn't have a hyper-drive, I can pilot it. Of course, why anyone would want to bother flying something without a hyper-drive is beyond me," he chuckled.

Just then, Zanz noticed two figures walking in the corridor past the open lounge doors, and he jumped up. "Den, go over this with Tag whether he likes it or not. The kid can sit in too. Maybe he'll learn more than barrel rolls and hyper-drives."

"Will do, boss," Dengar replied.

Zanz trotted out the door and caught up with Trychon and Raezyr in the hall. "I want to talk to you two," he said as the two Sith turned to look at him.

"Make it brief, old man. We're busy," Raezyr said, staring the ex-Sith commando in the eye. He knew it was a challenge, and he also knew that Zanz would not step up to it. Not after their last confrontation in the hangar several weeks prior.

Zanz broke eye contact first, and looked at Trychon. "I'm telling you right now that if this doesn't go as planned, if I think for a moment that this crew is in over it's head, I'm pulling the plug. I'm not letting you wipe this crew out because of Sith greed. These people depend on me and I won't let them down. I swear to you, if I catch a whiff of betrayal from you two, I'll order a retreat."

Trychon and Raezyr glanced at each other briefly before the older brother replied. "Alright, you do that, Zanz," Trychon said with a condescending note in his voice.

"How do you know your information is accurate, Sith?" Zanz demanded, not bothering to hide his scorn.

"Oh, we just know," Trychon said. They both turned and continued down the corridor, rolling their eyes.

------------

"What's the big idea?" Tyr said testily.

The four Sith stood in Dianna's office, having requested it's use for a private meeting.

"What exactly are you talking about?" Trychon inquired.

"You're still mad about the command decision we made back on Corellia, aren't you?" Tyr asked. "That's why you didn't bother waiting for us to get here before starting that briefing. Maybe we had something to add. Did you stop and think about that?" Anya stood behind and to the side of Tyr, giving him an approving look.

Trychon thought for a moment, not about how he was going to respond, but about the inflection in Tyr's voice and the body language their two counter-parts were giving. Tyr was speaking as if he had rehearsed this, and while Trychon didn't doubt that his Sith brother had, Anya's demeanor was almost as if she were a conductor of an orchestra, or a director of a holo-drama, watching things unfold as she had coached.

"You made a decision in the heat of the moment. One you thought was for the best of us all," Trychon said, knowing full well it wasn't the truth, but he needed to knock the pedestal out from under them. "You can't be faulted for doing what you thought was right, no matter how bad the decision was."

Tyr started to interject, but Trychon continued. "As for the briefing, you may have had something to add, true, but timing is of the essence here, and we had no way of knowing when you would arrive. It's why we filled you in on the plan before we went to Corellia."

Trychon turned to leave, signifying the meeting was over. Raezyr began to follow, then turned back. "You two make sure your gear is ready and your ship is prepped. We leave at 0900 hours tomorrow morning."

The brothers walked out leaving Anya and Tyr standing there speechless. Tyr turned to her for council, but she could give none. For the first time in a long time, she felt like things were not going her way. She stormed out, wondering at what point she lost control of things.

Tyr stood there for a moment, then followed his lover out the door.

-----------

Raezyr's eyes snapped open and he almost called his lightsaber to his hand from the dresser across the room before he realized that the presence was a familiar one. The Sith could barely make out the silhouette of Dianna's lithe body in the darkness as she paced.

"Come back to bed, Di," Raezyr called sleepily.

"I can't sleep, baby," she replied quietly.

"What's the matter?"

"Raez, you know I trust you, right?" Dianna said, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. Raezyr sat up, reached over and rubbed her back reassuringly, saying nothing and waiting for the red-headed woman to continue. "It's just that I don't think you know how much I have riding on this operation.

"Your instructions were so last minute, that I've had to buy, beg, or borrow parts and ships from anywhere I could get them. I've called in every favor, every marker, every chit that anyone has ever owed me. I've even had to beg for favors in my father's name, just to get everything ready in time," she told him.

"And I didn't have a choice," she continued. "Business has been so bad lately. No jobs are coming in. If we don't do this, we'd have been ruined in a year.

"But here's my dilemma," she said, turning to look into her lover's eyes. "I'm now in debt to so many people, that if we don't come home with this money, I'll have to sell this base. Even then I don't know if it'll be enough to cover what I now owe."

Raezyr pulled the beautiful woman into bed and into his arms. "Di, we won't fail. I promise you." He kissed her deeply.