"Captain, deploy all A-wing and X-wing class fighters. " said commander Alat. "All ships, this Is Commander Alat of the Queens Blade. Deploy all A-wing and X-wing fighters, prep our bombers and prepare the drop ships. We are about to begin our assault on the Empires Chosen." The New Republic fleet engaged full thrusters and powered up their main and auxiliary shields. The battle was imminent. All X-wing and A-wing fighters had been deployed and were surrounding the larger cruisers. Some small ships went ahead of the main convoy. The Empires Chosen fleet would soon be in sight.

***

"General Corvus, we have completed the excavation and are in the process of retrieving the Artefact." Advised the captain from the planets surface.

"Finally" replied Corvus, "No more mishaps!"

"Understood Sir".

Just as Corvus sat back on his command chair to relax his pilot shouted in shock, "General Corvus!"

"What now!?" Corvus shot back.

"Scanners are detecting multiple cruisers and a lot of starfighters! It's the New Republic!" warned the pilot.

General Corvus jumped to the main console "All ships, this is General Corvus from the Hammerhead! Every able body get to battle stations! Republic attack imminent! Activate shields and deploy interceptors!" He ordered.

"Captain! Engage shields and prime main cannons!" Corvus commanded. "All ground forces, this is Corvus! The New Republic are here! Assume defensive positions and prepare to defend the dig site! I will NOT lose this Artefact to anyone! Especially the New Republic!"

"Everyone! Open fire!" shouted commander Alat. The whole New Republic fleet began firing on the Hammerhead with their turbo lasers as the starfighters engaged the attacking interceptors. The sky was lit up with blue and green laser fire and blinding flashes of light as interceptors and republic starfighters were being blasted apart.

"All X-wing and A-Wing fighters, keep on those interceptors! Captain, dispatch the bombers, we need to take out the shield generators of those assault cruisers. Our weapons are having no effect of the hammerhead and we cannot get close enough to disable its shields while those two assault cruisers are operational!" Ordered ALat.

Corvus' fleet of cruisers had now started retaliating with their own auto lasers. "Dispatch our bombers! Take out that guardian class cruiser! It is sending dropships onto Korriban!" shouted Corvus. "Interceptors, protect the bombers!". The Hammerheads bombers left the hanger and headed towards the Guardian transport ship. The X-wing and A-wing fighters were obliterating the interceptors guarding the assault cruisers. The Republic had the best pilots in the galaxy so in a straight fight between starfighters the Republic would win. But they were so focussed on the interceptors that they didn't notice the bombers heading towards the guardian transport ship and by the time the republic realised the ships were to close to be targeted by the turbo lasers.

"Assault Cruisers, fire all Ion cannons at that guardian frigate!" ordered Corvus. On his command they blasted the ion cannons and landed direct hits on the Guardian frigate, completely disabling its shields just as the bombers were arriving.

"Commander, we have bombers incoming! We have no shields!" shouted the commander of the Guardian frigate. That was the last thing he said as the bombers dropped their full payload onto the Guardian frigate and in a blinding flash of light the cruiser exploded.

"Starfighters - Destroy those dam Assault cruisers before those ion cannons recharge or this battle wont last long!" commanded Alat.

The republic starfighters were no match for the assault cruiser defences but it was enough of a distraction for the Y-wing bombers to get through and disable the shields of the first cruiser.

"Fire the particle beam at that assault cruiser!" shouted Alat. There was a massive beam of blue energy from the Queens blade and it hit the first assault cruiser and blew it out of the battle. Without shields none of those cruisers could withstand that weapon.

The Republics second guardian ship had managed to send all of its dropships to Korriban. Most of them got through but there were some destroyed by the anti-air defences.

The Republic would not win this fight. They had underestimated the Empires Chosen and sent too small a fleet to combat them. However the Empires Chosen had also suffered heavy Losses.

On the ground, the Chosen walkers had destroyed a lot of the dropships before the troops could escape as they had landed too close to their defences but a few batallions of troops managed to get themselves into defensive positions on the ground but were being pinned down by fire from the shock troopers.

Both sides were struggling to get the upper hand and regardless of who won this fight, both sides will have suffered devastating losses and it would be a massive blow to both. But their struggle was just about to get a lot worse.

"Commander Alat, another cruiser has just dropped out of Hyperspace" said the Captain.

Alat was shocked when he looked at the scanner. "Captain, scan that ship. It's huge!" exclaimed Alat, "Who is it?".

***

"General Corvus, an unknown vessel has just appeared on our scanners!" warned a Hammerhead technician.

"I can see that!" snapped Corvus "It is very difficult to miss! That is more like a battle station than a cruiser! Its definitely not Republic origin. Where is it from?"

"Ermmm, General, according to our scanners this is a Sith Dreadnought!" said the Hammerheads pilot.

"Impossible... All ships, concentrate firepower on that unknown vessel!" shouted Corvus in desperation as all interceptors and cruisers opened fire on the Pathfinder.

***

"Commander Alat, our scanners identify that ship as the Pathfinder, an ancient Sith battleship!" said the captain.

"It cant be, all the Sith were eradicated... Everyone, destroy that battleship. It is of Sith origin. They obviously don't realise that they are not supposed to exist anymore!" shouted Alat.

Both sides starfighters began to close in on the Pathfinder as every cruiser battered it with laser fire and ion blasts. The Queens blade fired its particle beam and scored a direct hit but it looked to be completely ineffective. "What... that weapon didn't even scratch that ship. Why isn't it retailiating?" wondered Alat.

The Pathfinder just remained stationary as if assessing the battlefield... or stalking its prey.

***

"Lord Scath, shield depletion minimal, even from the beam fired by that Republic cruiser. Our shields appear to be... impenetrable almost".

"Very good. All plasma turrets fire on the Chosen medical Frigate and send out the starfighters" commanded Scath.

"Yes my lord" said the pilot as all gunners targeted the medical ship. As they did, Luna ran the command code for the X-02 fighters and soon they were departing the hanger. Because they were machines their accuracy was pinpoint and their flight skills were difficult to match as they engaged the enemy starfighters and taking them down in rapid succession.

"FIRE!" ordered Scath as the gunners launched plasma rounds at the Chosen medical frigate. The barrage of plasma bolts was relentless and did not stop until the frigate exploded.

"General Corvus? Your orders? We have just lost the medical frigate!" shouted the panicked pilot.

"Keep firing, with everything we have!" ordered corvus.

"Commander Alat, that ship just took out the chosen medical frigate in seconds! That firepower is immense!" shouted the captain.

"Keep firing on that ship its shields cannot last forever!" replied Alat.

"Comander we have lost nearly all of our starfighters, as have the Chosen. I count two of the Sith starfighters destroyed. We cannot match this. We need to retreat!" advised the captain.

"No! We fight!" snapped Alat.

"Luna, recall the starfighters. Its time we test this force cannon." Ordered Scath.

"Yes my Lord" she replied as she closed the command code and the droids returned to the hanger of the Pathfinder as Darth Scath sat on the control chair for the force cannon and began to activate its firing sequence.

"Alat, their starfighters are retreating..." the pilot pointed out.

"Why? They had the upper hand... Keep firing!" he replied.

The force cannon was ready to fire. Darth Scath shouted "Witness the power of the Sith!"as he engaged the firing procedure for the force cannon. "Firing Force cannon!" as he released the energy from the ships superweapon.

There was a huge beam of continual dark energy came blasting out of the Pathfinders front cannon. It landed a direct hit on the Queen's blade and Scathing kept the beam focussed on it as it started sucking the life from around it. The Republic flagship started erupting with explosions all over the hull, then the engines exploded. The beam from the force cannon was creating a vortex and the longer it remained focussed on its target, the bigger the vortex got. The Queens blade was lost as it continued to be engulfed by flames as the ship eventually exploded. The explosion, however, caused the vortex to pull with exasperating force and it was dragging every ship around it into the explosion. The remaining Republic ships started to break apart as the vortex was tearing bits off them. Eventually the vortex got so strong that every Republic ship in proximity was pulled in and destroyed. The vortex cannon was deadly and the Galaxy would soon know it.

"Get us out of here!" shouted Corvus "Signal the retreat. Korriban is lost but I will not lose this fleet today! Not like this!"

Lord Scath smiled under his mask as he watched his opposition turn tail and flee. They were no match for the Pathfinder.

"That was a taste of our power" said Scath "once we get closer to Korriban I will take a shuttle with you Luna and your squad. We will have the droids on ready if we need them but I think that we should be able to clear up whats left on Korriban ourselves." Said Scath. "The power of that force cannon does not match my own. Head to Korriban!".

Scath, Luna and four sith soldiers headed down to the ships hanger to prepare for departure to Korriban. If this was a test for Darth Scath he was not about to fail.