Chapter Fourteen: Hunter of the Shadows is Rising...

[Fel]

Outer Sectors Chapter 14: Hunter of the Shadows is Rising...

"I'm afraid my decision is final, Mr. MAR." Wedge was not happy.

"Yes, sir." MAR sighed. New TIE Advanced fighters - and no opportunity to use them yet.

Well -- it was the fault of the Nemesis pilots. The ship had taken quite a beating in finishing off the pirates. It was only logical that the ship would need repairs. But MAR wanted to go out anyway, with Psi Squadron, just to do something. After all... they were TIE Advanced... they had hyperdrives, and as such were not tied to the mothership.

MAR wasn't happy. But he knew just what to do...

==========

"Commander, I've got something." Muscat was on the bridge, monitoring a few displays.

La Forge had a feeing it could be an interesting find. "Listening, Mr. Muscat."

"I've got convoy ships on my screen here -- rebel ones."

"I like what you see, Mr. Muscat." La Forge came to check it out. "I'd better go get Vortagh. He'd be upset if he missed this."

"It'll be a blue milk run to take a look at them," Muscat interrupted.

"You know how Vortagh gets when he misses out on the action."

"Even if there's no real action to speak of?"

"How many missions has Admiral Fel sent us on that end in some sort of trap?"

Muscat had to think about that one. "Well, we can't prove he's doing it knowingly, you know."

"You didn't answer the question."

"A lot, sir."

"Right!" La Forge had a predatory grin on. "Which means this one might be a trap, too, if past incidents are any indication of the future. And you know how Vortagh likes to be here when the trap is sprung."

"I'm on my way to the hangar..." Muscat resigned himself to his fate.

"And wake the good Captain on your way!" La Forge shouted after him.

==========

Jansen stared at the dark figure once agian. Now he was loose on a world, albeit uninhabited. A half-dozen troopers kept watch on him, but Jansen knew that even two dozen of them wouldn't be able to stop the dark one if he wanted to escape or fight.

But this man had honour once. The General hoped that he still did. It might be the only thing preventing him from trying to kill them all.

Jansen checked his scanners again. The holocron fragment wasn't far away, but... it was moving! Somebody else had picked it up! "Major Mitchell, I need a scout report, NOW." Jansen was not amused.

"Was just about to call you, sir. Rebels are here. I think they followed us..."

"And how did they get the holocron piece before us?"

"Either they were looking for it, sir, or dumb luck," Mitchell hoped it was the latter.

"For our sakes, we had better hope it's dumb luck. Otherwise they've probably got a head start on collecting pieces of it." Jagged Fel gave his opinion.

"Well, no matter - we had better get moving. Hop to it, gentlemen. The holocron isn't going to put itself together."

"Aye, sir." Mitchell replied, followed by an identical reply from Jagged.

Jansen walked towards his troopers keeping watch on the former Emperor's Hand... Their leader approached the General and saluted. "Sir, what can we help with?"

Jansen returned the salute. "You can't imagine how important it is to keep your eyes on him. He's more dangerous than any of us may yet realize."

==========

MAR presented his work to Admiral Fel. "What do you think, sir?"

Fel looked over the simulations he had created. "Rogue squadron? *Rogue* Squadron? Why does every simulation ever created have Rogue squadron as the target?!?"

Not quite the reaction MAR had been looking for. "I guess I'll change it to Red Squadron."

"Not any better. Use your imagination..."

"Iceberg squadron?"

"There, you see? How hard was that?" Fel was picky about simulations. The office of tactical co-ordination appreciated it. Usually.

"Fix up the names and it will be ready to go. I'm impressed, MAR."

"Thank you, sir! Very glad to hear it."

==========

Fleet Admiral Polanski walked through the empty corridors of the Star Destroyer. ISD-II, to be precise. The Chimaera herself - the flagship of the Empire.

Panels lay all over the floor, and he deftly avoided them or stepped on them on his way up. The bridge had been repressurized, and he was headed there. Still no turbolifts, however, so he was moving up by emergency ladders almost exclusively.

Some ways away a repair crew could be heard working. Ugnaughts, or some other species. Polanski wasn't sure which, but they were not speaking basic.

He turned the corner and opened the hatch. The steps up to the bridge. He climbed the three metres easily and stepped back into chaos. The bridge was still a mess. The consoles had all been unmounted and moved about to allow access to the esternal hull panels.

The commission plaque was missing. The last time he'd seen it, it was on the emergency bridge, where La Forge had carried it. But it wasn't there. It wasn't in La Forge's quarters. It wasn't on the bridge. Where had it gone?

[Fel]

Mission Assignments:

Imperial Army: ERS109-GB.
Epsilon Squadron: ERS110-XvT.
Psi & Gimel Squadron: ERS111-XWA.
Iota / Zeta: I do not have your missions yet -- Commodore Zwibble has made them this week and I don't have them to upload yet. I will keep you informed.

[Fel]

The Warhammer Missions are up!

ERS112-TIE is for Iota
ERS113-XWA is for Zeta

Happy flying!

[Fel]

Lastly: The OS Map was updated about 1.5 weeks ago.