Salanda Royal Palace

[Jalua Solast]

Jalua walked into the entrance of the palace, the walls had been constructed and the gate was being assembled before her. Soldiers of the Royal Guard had already been assigned to patrol the grounds and mainly keep an eye on the construction, making sure nothing got in the way. Within minutes of her arrival, two shuttles full of soldiers arrived to make sure the area was completely fortified. A small part of the palace had recently been completed, and the plans for the room was on a table with several architects studying it closely. Jalua quietly walked to their backs and tip-toed to look over their shoulders at the plans. It seemed like this room would be part of the palace kitchens, connected to a small garden where some of the food would be grown. Walking out before gaining attention and needless details from the architects, Jalua approached a Colonel who seemed to be monitoring the activity here. He saluted when she approached, but she waved it off even quicker. "Do you know when the palace shall be completed?" she asked in a rather friendly manner, more informal and relaxed than the Colonel would have undoubtedly seen of her before. "Five to Six Days, Ma'am" the Colonel answered correctly. Nodding her head slightly in approval, Jalua walked yet again to another part of the palace grounds. One of the shuttles which had delivered the troops had remained behind, and also had symbols she recognised from over the last few days. It was the Royal Shuttle, designed for luxury and a large view of it's surroundings. Armoured internally and with plates designed to match the shuttle's hull, the vessel would be hard to destroy if attacked. "Captain, tell the Colonel that the wall near the kitchen complex is undefended" Jalua ordered, knowing that he would blindly follow the command without a second thought. She didn't like having people who did what they were told around her, she preferred people who could think on their feet. Walking aboard, Jalua entered the cockpit where a pilot was drinking out of a hip-flask. "Don't mention a word to the Captain or guards. Take me to the Sovereign Hotel". The pilot was stunned for a moment, first for having the new leader speak to him in person, but also for being caught drinking on duty. Something which would no doubt have him sentenced for attempted murder if discovered by his superiors. Jalua took a seat in the back of the shuttle and watched the ramp begin the close, with the Captain and the Royal Guard desperately racing to try and get on board. Jalua smiled and waved good bye until the ramp blocked view of their running. With the shuttle now silently cruising over the Palace Walls and towards the construction yard of a city, Jalua found herself quite relaxed and free.

Continued...

[Delona Baisk]

Delona lifted up the metal plating above her head. Hanging onto the metal ladder frame in front of her, she peered above to see the floor of a grand reception hall. It seemed to encompass a large amount of space and a couple of people in dark robes could be seen doing various activities. Delona lowered the plate back down again before being detected, unknowingly to her however, someone was very nearby.

Down the corridor leading out of the grand hall, turning right, then left, then into a sealed room was the Empress. She was currently meditating but her senses had encompassed a large area of the palace. She was breathing in the life of others and blowing out fresh relaxing strength into the force. It was not Delona who was being noticed, but a robed man who had heard some noise from behind him. This was generally suspicious in a place like this, the grand hall echoed with every footstep, so for something to sound like it came from the centre of the hall was very odd indeed. That is when the Empress finally focused in upon Delona herself, hiding underneath the floor. This simple probe would be enough to alert Delona to the Empress' presence, although not enough to know that she had been discovered. Jalua herself had her strength in reading people, generally in the force and without. Now Delona's plans to gain a reletively stealthy kill would be denied, now a fully-fledged Force User was hunting the hunter.

[Jalua Solast]

Jalua walked into the hall and placed her foot on the metal platform which looked deceivingly like part of the marble floor. Sure enough, the platform attempted to rise again but Jalua's foot gave a much heavier weight than expected. Once the effort to raise this plate had been exhausted, Jalua ripped it out completely with the force, stunning all of the Lords in the hall, who promptly exited. Out came Delona, hovering in mid air with her spine in a delicate hold. Jalua smiled at her captive and wondered why it was such an easy capture, surely even with her Jedi training, this would have resulted in a rather exciting fight. Oh well she suddenly decided, although she found the chances had swapped to side because suddenly her grip on Delona's spine faded and this Dark Jedi suddenly had a brightly crimson lightsaber ignited. "Ooohh, just what i need. Someone to crush" Jalua whispered in delight, before igniting her own purple bladed lightsaber.

[Dan Zorko]

Dan's CAMELOT gunship landed outside the palace, and Dan disembarked with 4 Reapers. He looked around, confused. "Where is everyone..." he muttered. His Reapers, though they didn't show it, were very worried. The palace of a royal would have guards outside. The door was even open, as if everyone fled. Dan beckoned, and the group went inside, the Reapers with their MORDRED rifles held in their hands. Entering the hall, Dan spotted what appeared to be Jalua and a dark jedi. "Jalua!" yelled Dan. All four of his Reapers immedietly started calling for reinforcements from the Embassy, and lifted their rifles towards the Dark Jedi.

[Delona Baisk]

Delona spun around to face the people entering the room but almost immediately was forced to raise both of her hands grasping her lightsaber over her head until the lightsaber was pointing directly down her spine. Jalua's lightsaber cut into the blade just a millisecond too late. Jalua walked backward to gain some more distance before Delona began to turn and run at the Empress. A fierce clash of lightsabers begun with both force users slashing wildly at each other but being made to defend themselves each time. It seemed that nobody could get the upper hand, although both were beginning to realize the need for their specific skills to come into effect. Delona used the force to quickly create a small block of energy and sent it into Jalua's chest. It cracked a rib easily and sent her a few steps backward, but because of having to rapidly defend herself, Delona hadn't been able to pack the punch she wanted. At this point, Jalua had a little bit more distance and tried to connect with Delona's mind. This failed but the recoil from Delona placed her off guard for a moment and Jalua decided to charge into a terrifying assault. Jalua was hitting Delona's lightsaber at least twice a second, never letting up with Delona becoming more and more desperate to fend off the lightning fast attacks. Finally, Jalua had become so near to Delona that she raised her foot against Delona's thigh and then proceeded to cut off Delona's right wrist and make a small stab to her opposite leg. Delona was knelled on the marble floor, spilling blood fast. Jalua stood over her captive and raised her lightsaber to her neck. "Too easy" Jalua muttered, attempting to humiliate her new pet. This tactic didn't work however, because during this time, Delona formed in her mind a huge charge of force energy which she then released through her remaining hand towards Jalua. This caused the Empress to twirl back through the air, but upon landing gracefully, her lightsaber slashed from bottom left to upper right, slicing Delona's throat. With Delona being stunned from the loss of her wrist and now blood leaking from her throat, she began to suffocate. Jalua knelled before Delona and placed her hand in a crushing hold against her neck. At first Delona attempted to fight back, but soon realized that the grip was allowing air down her windpipe once more. "You can take an Honorable death or see what becomes of you in my service" Jalua whispered into Delona's ear, giving no weakness in her voice. The only thing which bothered Jalua now was the blood staining her hand. In reply, Delona attempted to speak but found her voice box had been cut cleanly in half, causing her to only gasp in fright. Smiling wickedly, Jalua used her remaining hand to trigger her personnel alarm and sure enough, alarms around the palace began blazing and soldiers began rushing in from every possible entrance, even snipers who had obviously been in some kind of shelter built into the roof was now aiming down their scopes at the people below, dangling delicately from elasticated ropes.

"Get this woman a medic" Jalua shouted with a sense of calmness in her tone. Sure enough, there was several medics who had arrived with the soldiers and they began holding Delona's throat in place and called in heavier equipment to help. Jalua stood when they took over, and walked to Dan and his reapers. She at first raised her hand to shake his, but realizing the amount of blood, shrugged carelessly and smiled. "Good to see you again, friend. Seems like we've disturbed the changing of the guard" she chuckled with a delight which didn't seem right for her look at all. With blood on her hands and a rib now being treated by a medic while she stood, Jalua was now back to her calm self. "I didn't know you were coming" Jalua stated, but also implied the question of why Dan was here at all. This bugged Jalua, she didn't know that he had arrived on the planet.

Meanwhile, Delona was being carried on a stretcher by two medics, on a quick pace towards what was the emergency medical transport flown in from the city's specialist surgical station.

[Dan Zorko]

Dan stared at the blood on Jalua's hand for a second, before dismissing it and turned his eyes back up to hers. "I came here to monitor the situation on Ruria with you, and I figured that it would be easier to coordinate fleets between us and Hammond if we were together. I arrived a while ago, and landed at the Embassy. I hailed the Palace, but got no response, came to investigate, found the door open, and ended up here to find you being attacked by Dark Jedi. Just where are your gaurds?"

[Jalua Solast]

"They are here" Jalua simply replied, but from the now slippy marble it proved she could somewhat look after herself. "Sometimes guards are unnecessary and I'd rather them be training than protecting me when there's no need. This intruder simply went through our sewer system and attempted to enter the palace, a Lord detected the intruder and i sensed them both, so i dealt with it". Jalua paused for a moment went Dan spoke about Ruuria. "I haven't had chance to see what fleets i have available to send. Besides, we've also spotted a Republic convoy along our border. Might not sound like much but the Republic keeps away most of the time, and unusual containers crashing into the atmospheres of several planets have been noted". Jalua decided to simplify the matter down so that the full depth of the decisions being taken could be understood. "Admiral, we are preparing for an invasion. We expect a full Republic Battlegroup to enter our territory at some point within the next couple of days, i have most of my fleets now recalled into our territory to provide an extra layer of defence".

[Dan Zorko]

Dan frowned. "Then I fear that they will use a pincer attack to spread us out... The 2nd Support fleet, the 3rd Capital ship attack squad, and the 7th Enforcement fleet are at Ruuria at the momment... Meaning Lok is a bit more vulnerable... Sithspawn, I'm going to have to pull at least one of them back... Anyways, I'll send the 6th Special Forces to help defend Salanda until your reinforcements arrive. Your family, of all people, know what they can do, so you shold have at least some protection until your fleets return. I'll send elements of the 8th Scouting Forve to search for the Republic fleet in your territory. And I think I am going to stay for the next few days, if that's alright with you?""

[John Hammond]

A hologram of Hammond appeared as Dan was beginning to speak. He heard the pirate talk about retreating his fleets, and he spoke out as Dan finished,
"Mr. Zorko, please don't call back your fleets from Ruuria. My fleets will provide any support required at Salanda, wich means that you can redirect your 6th to Lok. At any rate, my strategists and I have already drafted a counterattack, which I believe will prove more than effective."

[Dan Zorko]

Dan sighed. "Look Hammond, I'm sorry but the BMP is not as big as the Remnant. At any rate, I'd prefer to have the 6th to here. I don't want to see the daughter of Galor Iram to die needlessely in battle. And please keep in mind, it's you that got him killed last time... And if you are able to send fleets to Salanda to face the Republic, why do you need my fleets to help assault Ruuria? Anyways, as I said, we aren't as big. If the Republic attacks Lok I'm going to need all fleets to defend it. I think I may have to call back a fleet or two soon. I suggest you reinforce your fleets with more ships just in case."

[Jalua Solast]

Jalua sighed at the constant reasoning and interrupted the two leaders. "Look, why don't we just put them into a situation they can't avoid? I've studied enough battles to know that if the enemy is going to strike at an unknown location, you stop them. Let's give them either the perfect place to attack, Gyndine in my territory being my choice since it's on hyperspace crossroads, or we try to assault a large republic stronghold and hope that whoever this illusive Admiral is, that they take notice". Jalua let this sink in for a moment, while looking around at the activity in the hall. She continued a few seconds later. "Gyndine's seperation from the Republic sparked a lot of debate in the Senate, and the Republic Military will always end up pleasing the Senate. Being an excellent strategic position in influence and trade, the Republic would be very tempted to win it back by force and gain the approval of the Senate, who at this moment are no doubt having traitorous thoughts at every session".

It made sense, Gyndine also boasted shipyard's which the Republic will have missed considerably. Furthermore, several entire star systems had either declared independence, joined the Coalition or attempted to ally themselves with one of the Republic's enemies. If the Republic forced the planet back into their hands, many of these same star systems would show no sign of resistance. Not only that, but Gyndine was a local territory which could have a fleet arrive to support it within a couple of hours from anywhere in Coalition Territory, apart from the distant outposts.

[Dan Zorko]

Dan thought about it. "I have a few Interdictors. If we set them up in key positions around the planet, we can effectively trap them while we pick them off. I agree with the Empress, we we should trap them there. Hammond, I'll need to withdraw the 3rd Capital Ship Attack squad, but I'll keep the other 2 fleets there. I may need you to send a few Interdictors to work with mine to set up a big enough field to trap them completely."

Dan turned to look at Jalua. "Empress, this is your call. Do we trap them there, in a mass group, fight them head on, and leave some planets undefended? Or defend them all and wait for them to spread out a bit and come to us?"

[John Hammond]

Hammond smiled as Jalua spoke out. He had had to try very hard not to answer Zorko's remark about Iram, and he had been about to remind him that it had been him who had recklessly turned off his battle systems in the middle of battle, causing him to take thousands of more casualties. No wonder he needed those fleets: The pirate was brave, but no strategist.
"Empress, yours are wise words. If Gyndine is to be the base, I will provide enough ships to assure its protection. Furthermore, I have a plan that will work perfectly with this... distraction. As for your ships, Zorko, they were there to ensure the capture of some very important prisoners. Nevertheless, I will make-do with what I have.

[Dan Zorko]

Dan shrugged. "As you will have to. I'm going to need those ships if we're taking on a NR battlefleet head on."

[John Hammond]

Hammond smiled broadly.
"There is a reason, you know, why I was asleep in cryostasis for millenia. I will provide a battlegroup to support your ships."

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