Commenor system

Celestial Throne station.

Grey Paladins level

12 BBY, 3 months later

"So you're saying you don't have enough people, Mister Grey?" I asked the leader of the Paladins, a bit amused.

"Well, two million Paladins seems a large number, but we can barely cover the larger planets and hyperroutes. And the droids aren't really helping, except as decoys and distractions. I would be happier with a billion clone troopers." the clone of Falon Grey replied, his voice a bit tired.

Hmmm. He was working himself too hard, trying to oversee every single operation, and the training of new recruits and the budget and everything else.

"Well, I did consider a cloning program, for many jobs, including the paladin program. But as you have already experienced, we would have a caste of slaves, and depend on them for security. Didn't end that well for the Jedi, did it?" I mused with an inner frown.

"Yeah...I didn't mean it like that, Emperor. I just want competent Paladins. And the miraluka recruits are not. The droids are even worse. I have to rely on what Fett clones have survived, and the few Gand or Sanctuary recruits. And even those aren't exactly competent..." X2 complained, as went through the Paladin databanks, and compared dossiers.

Top 100 in all the scores were the former ARC troopers that became Mandalorians and a few VSS agents detached to the Paladins for actual combat experience.

"I will ask, maybe more Sanctuary or Zeison Sha adepts will decide to join the Paladins. But, don't expect miracles, X2. The job will only get harder, and the rewards for a job well done..."

"More work. I know this, Emperor Pef. The galaxy is a mess, with deep rooted hatreds and a thousand cults taking advantage of every force-sensitive they convert to claim miracles..." he explained, pointing at the latest such problem.

"Well, my personal opinion on every type of cult is simple. I consider all priests from any cult either fanatic or corrupt. In the end, it's only a matter of practically. Political power, the laws and weapons are mine to have and to delegate. If any cult infringes on the domain of the government, then they shall suffer the consequences. Their personal beliefs in whatever god or ethic are irrelevant." I explained with a sterner voice.

This comment was partially directed at his second in command, the original Fallon Grey, a former Jedi Knight. He looked at me a bit surprised, as if separating beliefs from government was something new or original.

"But, those cults are preaching unspeakable things, and instigating revolts against the Empire. How can they be irrelevant?" Mister Grey asked naively.

"It doesn't matter what they say or how loud they yell, unless it's at night and they wake people up, Mister Grey. I only care about their actions, if they dare to act.

Stupidity and credulity are the basic rights of any sentients, and there will always be those who take advantage.

Your duties are to enforce the Empire laws, not to debate dogmas and creeds with 20 million species and beliefs. Extortion is a crime, kidnapping is a crime, slavery and mental coercion even worse crimes. Target the criminals, and expose the lawbreakers to the Empire justice." I replied with another inner sigh.

I had my assassins going about and exterminating the most dangerous cults anyway, those with access to weapons and political power. The rest were easy enough to just keep watch over.

"But they keep hiding behind local customs and their autonomy rights. We can't just arrest someone for taking children into their temples..." X2 explained with a frown. Huh, that's exactly your job.

"The Empire laws are not a matter of choice, my Paladins. It is the exact opposite, in fact. These cults propose themselves as paragons of virtue and still extort populations of their money or children. Your job is to intervene and protect the citizens, from any such lawbreakers. The only exception from this are my agents, be they from Office Assassinorum, or the Intelligence or other army and navy employees, who were specifically exempt from some laws in the execution of their orders. The same as the Paladins are exempt, when in the service of the Empire. If any such customs are contrary to the law, too bad for them." I said with a level tone, then punched the sky for a second, before teleporting away.

And back on Centerpoint, where a few of my Voices had gathered in their own little conclave.

"Hello ladies. And Ray. You're not a Voice, I think..." I said with an amused voice.

"The Tsil want to test the light on the Mnggal. If a controlled experiment can be achieved, perhaps on a single individual..." my Tsil crystal maid replied without any telepathic stories.

So, something changed...somewhere. Gah, dealing with alien minds was difficult anyway.

"Denied for now, dear maid. The Mnggal is potentially much more dangerous than the droch, and we do not have strategic counter-measures yet, should this action provoke it. I'm almost certain that even remote individuals are connected to the main body in some way, either through the Force or with technological means. And if that world had a Gree gate, the Mngall could use it to spread anywhere." I replied with a bit of concern.

Didn't happen for at least 140 years in the other future, so it shouldn't happen now either.

Proof that whatever the thing was, it wasn't a hegemonizing swarm like the Vong, but a more subtle design, aimed at something specific, possibly the Celestials. The histories never said how the Rakata had defeated them, and it certainly wasn't with ships. Just the Centerpoint station could have destroyed a million ships easily, or not as easy, depending how inventive the user was.

I had my own theory how they did it, with a nanomachine AI infused with the Force, similar to the nanobots I found on Tatooine, since the Mnggal operated in a similar way, attacking the brain of its target first.

I could try to rely on technopathy, and attempt to subvert the grey goo. Only problem was, what if the thing was stronger than me?

"You're thinking of going yourself, aren't you Pef?" Wialu asked rhetorically. I wasn't hiding my partitions from her, not most of them anyway.

"It's not worth the risk, for now. We'll make the general location and danger of the thing available to our officials and designate it as Gamma threat. As long as no one goes to poke it, it will keep for a hundred years. But meanwhile, we have the Vong and our southern friends to deal with. It's going to be epic!" I proclaimed with fake hope.

Even in the most optimistic simulations, there could be trillions of deaths, and billions already, on the worlds already conquered by the Vong in the north.

Droids and Explorers were searching for the north passage though the hyperspace barrier, trying to map it and allow us knowledge of a choke point to engage the Vong before they dispersed the main fleets into the galaxy.

That was the Thermopylae plan and had the best possible outcome, if it succeeded. Only Navy crew would die in that fight,

and fewer citizens deaths from invasions, orbital moon drops, or bioweapons.

Actually, let's test something.

"I'm sending orders to our fake miners in the Bimmiel system to start deploying several types of explosives, including seismic charges in the asteroid fields. About one hundred to one real asteroids and Vong ships." I explained out loud while doing exactly that.

I had a hunch that seismic charges would damage the Vong ships much more than energy weapons would.

And waiting...boom. Concussion explosives did little, only rupturing the Vong starfighters, while the diamond-boron warheads pulverized the fighters and holed the Vong frigates. But the real surprise...

Hundreds of small Vong ships were sliced into bits by the planar shockwaves of the seismic weapons, while their equivalent of a Mountain, called Kor Chokktook a few heavy blows and lost a dozen of its spires to every charge that hit them.

Barely damaged the thick armor, leaving deep gouges, but it sure rattled everything inside.

My estimates of their capital ships bioarmor durability went up a magnitude, while the frigate classes seemed easier to smash than an iron asteroid of the same size.

Anyway, seems I found the perfect payload for the assault missiles of tomorrow. The Seismic charge was much better for most ship-to-ship action than concussion payloads of the same dimensions.

Of course, a thousand times more expensive than concussion explosives as well, half of that due to rarity, the other half due to the minerals and precision work required to manufacture them.

Now the Vong were stirred into action, launching more fighters to attack the miners, while the larger ships accelerated upwards, above the asteroid belt. Hmmm. Good spacial senses then, though unsure if only this commander or all their officers were as competent.

The fake miners started running away, calling on the Empire Navy to help, on all frequencies.

'Go ahead Admiral. Show me what your Manta dreadnaught can do' I sent through the hypernet relay to Natasi Daala Greyshade.

Her own battlegroup, which was on a 'shake down cruise' following the newest refit jumped to the rescue, a dozen corvettes acting to 'save' the miners, while her dreadnaught and its Hammers and Nebula escorts opened fire on the Vong dreadnaught.

As expected, turbolasers had little effect, while masers and plasma projectors did twice as good. Ion weapons were 99% ineffective, only the byproduct of ionized plasma scorching the bioarmor, very little.

The MAC rounds and the proton beams however opened fire a minute later, while the Vong began firing globes of molten metal and plasma.

The Hammers did hole the Vong armor with every round, but with little effect, leaving hundreds of one meters holes, venting gas and blood.

The Manta's MAC rounds however, were ten meters in diameter and a kilometers wide semi-sphere on the Vong ship evaporated after taking about 50 hits, while two others organs were broken away, and left listing in vacuum, with fluids and bodies being expelled out by the huge decompression.

And then the proton beams started firing as the Vong ships began turning to run away.

Every beam burned through the armor in milliseconds, then began slicing away. In a minute, the huge Vong bio dreadnaught was chopped down into thin slices, about 50 centimeter in width, which was the distance between the twin barrels of the proton beam batteries.

I checked the shields of my ships for a comparative damage analysis. Each big weapon salvo from the Kor Chokk dreadnaught drained about one percent on the Nebula destroyer's shields, and less than a thousand of percent on the Hammer's.

The smaller weapons didn't even flicker the shields, so they were perhaps anti-fighter guns.

Huh, so in theory a Nebula V destroyer could take down a Vong dreadnaught on its own, if it focused its main proton batteries on the big ship and didn't take too much fire from other ships.

The Hammers II had ten batteries, so again, could in theory take down ten of the Vong ships of the same size at once.

A new era was starting in the galaxy, peace through superior firepower.

Yavin system

Yavin 4, Val'Arnos Jungle

I should have come here sooner, although I might not have been prepared to solve the difficult Force phenomenons surrounding Yavin.

Exar Kun left his spirit here, along with artifacts like the Golden Globe.

A tiny Jedi Master named Ikrit had placed himself in stasis to guard the 4 meter globe, as he hoped to free the souls of the Massassi younglings trapped in the soul snare by Exar Kun, and set himself to wait a long time for someone to help.

Nearly 400 years later he was still here, in stasis. Not really clever, but this was possibly something the Force wanted done, so I won't deny the Will of the Force its goals. Just not right away, I wanted to study and learn everything about this globe first.

Another marvelous invention, this Golden Globe , so similar in scope and function to the Mind Prison of the Rakata, and the essence draining ball of the Nightsisters, and even the Ordu Aspectu soul snares.

But that was less important, as I already had knowledge on how to drain souls, if necessary.

Exar Kun had left the globe protected by a Force barrier, tied to the globe in a rather complex pattern, much like the Rakata forcefield.

Finally, I knew how to build my own variant of a Force shield, using a modified soul snare to conduct the Force. Not exactly a holocron, and writing operating instructions for the device had to be done in latin, to invoke some kind of mystical ancient memetic superstition from the Force, and thus making it alchemy.

Overly complex and not easy to operate unless you built it yourself. But, it still contained the reflect ability, and a single powerful user's soul like Jarec or any dark jedi Master could power it for thousands of years.

"Mister Ikrit, wake up!. Hey little guy, time to go home..." I called out gently to the furry Jedi Master.

Seems I'm going to keep finding old jedi in stasis, as if I didn't found enough already.

At least he was the type who didn't use lightsabers, so there was hope for him.

"Hello stranger. Why did you wake me up?"

"I need your help, Mister Ikrit. You know the Wall of light ability, and we have the spirit of a Sith Lord called Exar Kun which needs to be defeated." I explained with an amused tone.

This Ikrit was never a good Jedi, no matter how hard Yoda had tried to brainwash him.

"Ah. That makes some sense then. I feel that he was the one who constructed this globe..." the tiny furry Master replied with a cute blink.

Man, he was really cute. I should keep him, on Sanctuary. The kids would love him.

"The spirit should be somewhere east of the ruins of the Sith Temple of Sacrifice. Come, take my hand, we'll teleport there and save some time" I replied in a happy mood. And beam us up, my Dart.

"What is this ship? It feels strange in the Force, almost alive..." Ikrit asked curious, looking around the Dart for clues.

"A friend of mine made it, using a hundred different force abilities. It's called the Dart." I said with a mild voice, as the ship located the required ruins and beamed us down again.

And there it was the spirit of Exar Kun, 300 meters east, and wandering the surface of Yavin 4, bound to the planet by his own magic. So clever in some ways and so dumb in others...

"You sense him, my friend?" I asked curious, as the Kushiban Master's fluffy ears perked up and he turned east as well.

"I do now. But friend? I don't even know your name, or what you are..." the tiny thing replied with an amused tone.

"Pef Greyshade. Sentient crystal using a droid to walk around." I replied with a happy voice, while preparing counter-measures, should the spirit be awake or hostile.

"Well then, Mister Pef...you seem strong enough to banish the spirit by yourself...okay then, open your mind, picture the location of spirit in your mindscape, and draw from the light, and sever" the Jedi Master said softly, taking control of the partition I left open, and guiding me step by step.

Hey, this was a great way to learn force abilities! Sure, it involved mind control and a hive mind connection, plus enough force connection to bend the Force to your will...

A blue light prison appeared around the Sith spirit, and the Jedi Master kept adding more and more demands on my partition, using about a dozen abilities at once, and straining my life crystal as the ability grew in amplitude and depth, and kept growing. And growing.

Is this really necessary? I could sear the entire planet now, if you draw this strongly...

And Sever Force was really a trump card, which could possibly solve a few other problems...

And done. Once cut off from the Force, the spirit dissipated and vanished.

"You're not even tired, Mister Pef..." the tiny Jedi complained as he nearly fainted and I kept him afloat with telekinesis.

"Why would I be tired, you only used one partition and for half its maximum strength. I think you used too much anyway. That spirit was not that strong anyway..." I explained politely, as my Codex registered only 5000 points on its Force sensors.

"You don't understand. To sever someone completely, you need to be ten times stronger, by yourself or a group. And that spirit was about half strength as me. Which means the rest of the strength came from you, Mister Pef. Even if a disembodied spirit is half as strong as when it was alive, it still means you're stupidly strong..." the tiny Kushiban replied, while his fur changed color from white to a pale grey.

"Yep, I am reasonably strong. But as you showed us today, skill is more important. Well then, I'll let you rest, and get a meal and a bath. My maids are due to return when they had enough fun exploring, and this ship only has one jacuzzi tub." I answered with utmost seriousness.

One simply did not stand between Solana and her baths.

'You are learning, tolerated Emperor. But I am swimming with some of the Melodie on Yavin 8, so I'm good.' Solana whispered in the Voice bond.

Nam Chorios system, Pef Empire

Gamma class quarantine world

12 BBY, Next month

I used the vacation time on Yavin to study the Wall of light ability in detail, untill I felt confident I mastered the focusing and targeting solution, then worked with Ray to synchronize our resonance to work in concert.

"Balanced One, using self identity as a targeting exclusion will exterminate all lifeforms in the star system. The Tsil...are willing to try. If you agree to leave before we start. A planet wide Light will sear even your soul, and yourself might be extinguished. Unless you believe yourself stronger than all Tsil crystals combined?" Sunshine-seen-through-mist declared with a cloud of telepathic symbols, describing her own words, but much more clearly.

Hmmm, I might try it...

'And die like a fool, my love. The Wall of Light is not just photonic manipulation, and you should know better Pef. To affect souls, any force ability must be at least partly combined with the Cosmic Force. It will disconnect you again, even if you survive it, just like the Jedha crystals did.' Wialu whispered in the bond, with a tinge of worry.

Fine, I won't stay for the experiment then.

"Ray, you might die too. Would you like to be my Voice?" I asked my maid, with a sad image in mind, of a whole planet vanishing into an apocalyptic beam of light.

"Emperor Pef, go and save yourself. Or did you think Ray was idle and did not reverse-engineer the essence transfer ability, once Solanus showed me how it worked?" my Tsil maid replied with an amused thought-form.

Uh, that was...rather ingenious. And a bit worrying. I kinda hoped to maintain a loyalty check with it.

'And yet, Solanus thinks the Tsil will have a different role to play. Solana thinks her lover is much too young to deserve loyalty, from beings much older than himself...' my water maid replied with an admonishing tinge in her Voice.

I see, maybe it was somewhat presumptuous to try and anchor all the major force-sensitive races to myself.

'Ok Dart, jump us out towards Jomark.'

And let's watch the lightshow with the spy satellites.

Slowly, the entire race of Tsil crystals which maintained a diffuse light over the whole surface of Nam Chorios began the link up together in a single hive mind focused by Ray, and then, a flash of Light strong enough to warm my crystal even a few light-years away, and in hyperspace.

The planet became a second sun in the photosensors of my satellites, and a Force nexus so powerful that anything even mildly force-sensitive, would feel anywhere in the galaxy.

My Avatar felt it like warm golden glow, basking him with radiance on Commenor, 30 thousands light years.

Lustrum felt it even stronger, on Orax, 80 thousand light years away. Then again, she was herself a crystal Shard, so it possibly affected crystals even more.

After 12 minutes, the glow began subsiding, and a few droid dropships from the quarantine fleet began approaching the planet, scanners and sensors at maximum.

Every single town and structure on the surface of Nam Chorios had vanished, and even water wells and the spaceport foundations had been sublimated.

Nothing alive remained on the planet, except the Tsil. The excluded themselves from the Wall of Light and simply erased everything else. One could never be certain if plants or animals were real or droch parasites masquerading.

Sure you could test one individual, or a certain animal. But an entire ecosystem meant trillions of different organisms, all potentially being infected by the droch.

Now, they were all dead. Microorganisms, insects, worms, plants, farm animals, everything.

Much like Emperor Vitiate did on Ziost, only using the light side of the force.

And this version seemed even stronger. There was no machinery remains, no ancient temples, no fossilized trees.

The entire balance in the galaxy slided a bit more towards the middle. Perhaps 1 percent, but possibly less. There were many more dark places in the galaxy after all.

'Culexus 0113, deploy to the surface via disposable recon drop pod, and restore communication with the Tsil.' I commanded after the force oscillations stopped. At least this time, they weren't painful in my chest.

'Roger, Droid Emperor. This unit will deploy in 38 seconds' the droid replied instantly over the hypernet relay.

'Dart, stop and turn around. Pick the farthest exit point available in the Nam Chorios system.'

This was the most interesting ability imbued into the Dart spaceship by Solanus. The AI pilot had mastered hyperspace navigation to a degree not possible for astromechs or sentient pilots.

It was called Instinctive Astrogation Control and requiered mastering hypermathematics and the ability to perform them at high speed and with perfect precision.

Not something I would entrust myself to with an organic pilot. Luckily the Dart was less organic than even me, even though it was an off-shoot of Solanus, in crystallized form. And I wouldn't call Solanus an organic being, except in the most vague of terms anyway.

And the next iteration of Solanus was going to be magnitudes stronger anyway, as the future Dyson spheres will contain the Core on the outer computronium layers, and Solanus as a huge inner ocean.

Balancing the organic and the synthetic again, and adding the Solanus' Force abilities in the mix, just to make sure.

The Core AI has already began technological transmutation for various types of matter states, creating Ardanium II , a synthesized form of Ardanium, which while a 10 times weaker in strength, was no longer a precious irreplaceable resource.

All our ships, from fighters to corvettes and frigates to Hammers, and even tanks and gunships will have Ardanium based reactors in the future, thus increasing their energy generation by 10 to 100 times depending on reactor volume.

Not as good as the natural product, but that was on much less supply, and only powered the Mountain II dreadnaughts, the Nebula V destroyers and the Titan V walkers.

Now I could afford to begin using organics for pilots on less armored war machines, and depend on shields to keep them safe.

Though possibly not on Biplanes and TIE fighters, which were too flimsy even with shields.

It was ground combat which caused most loses anyway, since combat droids were easily outmatched by various races and their clever tactics, unless you had overwhelming numerical superiority. Not always possible, although I tried.

Proton beams were too energy intesive and required massive reactors, but I had hope the now prototyping Heavy particle cannon would become the next main weapon of our tank units.

The next generation of Gauntlet V tanks will pack a punch, and have duranium armor and tracks, and powerful shields and reactors, comparable to current Baneblades, but 10 times faster.

And the Baneblades heavy tanks will become even stronger, doubling their speed and increase their durability and rate of fire ten times.

'Hello Pef. Our world is a desert now. But at least, we saved it from being thrown into a blackhole.' Ray sent as my droid reached the ground with a hypernet transceiver.

'Begin conducting tests my maid, and excavate any caves or formations that might have protected the droch from the light. I'm en route to help as well.' I sent back, as the Dart was approaching the hyperspace emergence window.

'We'll need droids and tractor beams and other tools, oh Balanced Emperor. Our telekinesis is much weaker than you expect...' Ray replied with a bit of amusement.

Right, only one droid so far. No problem, I had 100 Mountains loaded with 100 billion droids en route to Nam Chorios.

We'll scour the planet, and sift every single grain of sand, turn every rock and scrape the walls of every cave.

If a single droch survived, we'll repeat the Wall of Light...hmmm.

'Do it again my Tsil friends. But this time try to target only the droch. And use Sever too.' I sent back, since my ship was still about 20 minutes away.

Best make sure, before all my droids and nano-droids land. It be a pity to waste them due to impatience.

'And so you learn, tolerated Emperor. Solana was ready to make fun of you once you became trapped in your own quarantine' my wonderful Voice commented wisely.

'Gah, just say something, if you knew some droch escaped.'

'It was inevitable a few droch would escape. The Tsil are not executioners. Do not expect them to be as thorough as you would be.' Luxum added with a mild annoyance in her aura.

Most likely annoyed at me.

What, I just wanted....pain....So, that how it felt when an entire race was eliminated from the Force.

I made sure to memorize the feeling. I will need to feel this again, someday.

There were other races which needed complete extinction. In some cases, I will make a desert, and call it peace.

Manta battlegroup, Pef Navy fleet 112

Somewhere north of Birgis system

11 BBY

Natasi Daala Greyshade was worried. The Emperor has entrusted her an important task, to find and engage a Vong worldship and thus eliminate a major threat to the galaxy.

Her experience in the west, as well as many anti-piracy strikes and coordinating large fleets via her neural implant made her one of the best suited officers in the Pef Navy, for this task.

She had enormous firepower at her disposal, and an AI to help her. But still, she was worried.

Compared to everything she has faced till now, this battle would be the most unpredictable. The enemy disposition and strength were unknown.

Their numbers were simply 'large' and weapons abilities poorly understood, generally equivalated with 4 times stronger than the Galactic Empire's weapons, per ship size.

She felt she was being used as bait, if 50 capital ships and 1000 escorts could be considered bait by any other navy beside her own. Still, Natasi had an inlinking of the other Pef Navy fleets in the sector, and they were all at least 10 times larger.

Then again, she had the Manta. The dreadnaught was technically worth 5 fleets on its own.

"Are we bait, dear Will?" she asked in a soft whisper. The AI felt less as a subordinate, and more as a friend now, after years of campaigns over a quarter of a galaxy.

"I think the Emperor is doing his weird plans again, possibly testing you and me, as well as the new systems and weapons we had received. But most likely, our size is the clue. The Manta's large size would make the Vong warriors feel they have found a worthy enemy, and make them attack us frontally" the AI replied calmly.

Hmmm. As always, the Will thought of different aspects of their operation, considering details she would have never crossed her mind. Size?

Was a 50 kilometer ship worthy in the eyes of the Vong, with their 100 kilometer ships?

And if so, how would they react? Will they flee or hide, as they tried in the first skirmish near Bimmiel?

"Admiral, our gravitic sensors have picked up a cloaked ship, skimming the edges of our sensors" Ensign Tyron reported from his station.

"What size for the cloaking shadows, Ensign?" she asked with a bit of excitement.

"Roughly 200 meters, Admiral. It is very likely a Yorik-stronha spy ship. It is heading west-north-west, on a heading to Helska system" the man answered with a young voice.

Everyone was young on this ship, although most were already veterans. Fighting on the western front produced veterans or gibberish madmen. And the younger ones adapted faster.

Again, the Vong were using a hyper route not yet discovered by the Exploration Corps, much like the Ssi-ruuvi did in the west.

"Findsman Licriit, can you confirm this heading?" Admiral Daala asked her Navigator, one of the rare Gand that came as a perk, doubling as a VSS escort. Marrying the Avatar had many perks, not just a big ship and her own fleet.

"You know we cannot sense the Vong directly, Honored Maid. But, there are traces of what should be flat real-space, and dangerless currents. I sense danger, and space particles being pushed away. Something bigger has passed through this nebula before. Perhaps a Vua'spar interdictor." the Gand Findsman replied after sniffing some gas from his pouch.

An interdictor ship? This meant a large fleet was nearby. Even the Vong used some kind of convention when deploying ships.

Interdictors meant they were fishing for prey, and that sufficient ships were nearby to capitalize on a caught ship, be it civilian or not.

The Praetorite Vong , the advance fleets already present in the galaxy, were getting bolder, often attacking anyone they thought had spotted them.

Jump to Helska or remain in the nebula and investigate more thoroughly?

"Will, what do you think?" she whispered again, although she already made her decision.

"Backtrace the interdictor ship's path. I think we have found our target" the AI replied with some amusement.

"Recon, deploy a Fade and twelve Orions east-south-east of our position. Capital ships will form up for a fleet scale microjump. Mountains, ready your starfighters. Hammers....just get ready. Escorts, prepare for combat." Natasi spoke gently on the tacnet.

Now she wished her fleet had a thousand Nebula V destroyers, not just 100 Nebula I and II. She did have 6 Mountains and 45 Hammers, more than enough for anything the Praetorite Vong should have, but in war nothing was certain.

And now waiting, while the recon elements backtracked the faint currents left in the gases of the nebula by the passing Vong ships. This was often, the hardest part.

Nerves would fray, and the unknown would erode morale and sour the mood.

Nothing she could do about it, not now.

One hour, three hours, six hours. How long...?

"HMS Stepping Stone reporting. We have found a yarn ball of ships, Admiral. At least a thousand. 44 Vong dreadnaughts, but no worldship present. Transmitting sensor data now" the Captain of the Fade frigate spoke in an excited voice as his ship arrived to the fleet's location. She opened the hologram, and began formulating an attack plan.

Damn it. Arranged like that, aptly put as a yarn ball, the Vong would be hard to ambush.

Alright then, a wall of fire it will be.

With two hand moves inside the tactical holomap, her own fleet began forming into a square, with the corvettes in a second layer, behind the capital ships.

They should help a little with the Vong fighters, although the Nebula destroyers should be enough.

When the Emperor built ships, they were a real wonder of firepower. Too bad these ships were old star destroyers of the Galactic Republic, only having a few maser batteries and no proton beams.

Still 10 times better than old Venators or Victory destroyers, but barely usable against the Vong. She only had 3 Nebula V destroyers, barely enough to anchor a single side. The upper side of the square in this case, considering how the Vong prefered to gain an upper angle on their enemies.

Admiral Daala tapped 'confirm' twice, and leaned back in her command chair.

"Manta fleet will prepare to jump on these coordinates, on the countdown mark. 100, 99.." The AI began speaking then, taking over the nav computers on every ship in the fleet, to ensure their formation and attack angle was correct.

If the Vong fleet hasn't moved significantly, they will achieve at least tactical positioning and perhaps some surprise.

Couldn't be sure of that anyway. For every spy ship they did detect, two others might have passed nearby undetected.

And jump. 4 hours at 3.0 hyperspeed. She could get some sleep, at least 3 hours. Maybe something to eat?

"At ease everyone. Rotate out and get some food." Natasi ordered as she rose from her command seat and left the CIC bridge.

Maybe she could place a holocom call, to her scoundrel of a husband. She might die in this battle, and never see his smile again...