RPlog:The Mikassa Incident

 The Imperial-class Mark II Star Destroyer\, Conqueror\, flew through hyperspace alongside its escorts\, which included the Victory-class Mark II Star Destroyer Nemesis\, the INTC Opressor\, a Carrack-class cruiser\, a Loronar Strike Cruiser\, and several smaller craft. Their destination was Mikassa\, to attack the rebel naval station in orbit and demolish it. The attack would have to be quick and decisive. Knock the CDU fleet out of the system and proceed with their plan. If the CDU\, and the New Republic\, as they were expected to come\, regrouped and attacked too soon\, the Imperials may well be caught behind enemy lines. After a long voyage\, the Imperial Task Force finally arrived in Mikassa\, the Conqueror at the front of the formation. "Attention rebel forces. This is Admiral Danik Kreldin of the Imperial Task Force. Surrender and throw down your arms\, and we will show you mercy. Failure to comply will be met with your destruction. This rebellion is useless\, and you will only lose your lives." That transmission was sent over the primary communications channel\, although Danik knew they wouldn't surrender. Still\, it was worth a shot. Starfighters began to appear from below the two Star Destroyers as the Imperial fleet panned out. The gravity well on the Oppressor came to life soon after\, sealing off the system in a certain radius.  In the distance looms the frontier outpost of Mikassa\, if 'looms' is a verb that can be assigned to the sparsely developed blob of jungle with minimal space infrasructure. A mote of silver floating over the verdant planet indicates the Navy station\, while another indicates the civilian highport.

Sensor sweeps would indicate that initial intelligence about this sector was pretty much spot-on. A half-squadron of light warships\, though the purported flagship\, the light cruiser CMS Breslau is nowhere to be seen\, and a Carrack and a DSV type hull are nestled into orbit with a pair of CDU Navy frigates near the station.

CDU forces are immediately called to action stations\, and the reply comes from the station to the Imperial flagship\, "Imperial warships\, you are trespassing on the soveriegn space of the Caspian Democratic Union. You have no authority here. Shut down your grav-wells and clear our space immediately."

 Axel\, having recieved a temporary commission from the CDU Navy and no longer a simple privateer leans back in the captain's seat of his personal command ship\, The Purgatory. As Danik comes over the comm system with his surrender statement\, Axel only smiles. He'd faced this man several times in space before. "Helmsman\, open comms to the Imps\," he says with a grin.

 comes over the communications channels\,  The smuggler turned leader pauses for a brief moment before continuing. 

With that said\, the odd looking near-human orders his crew into combat positions. A lance of Z-100 Centurion fighters launch from the hangar of the Carrack as do another lance of skipray blastboats. "If they want war\, they now have war."

 "Very well then\," came Admiral Kreldins's reply\, surprised to hear Axel's voice. "This is Imperial territory and we will liberate it. And not even you will stop us\, Vichten. Time to settled our score." With that\, the public comm. line ended\, and a new one was established with fighter command. "This is Admiral Kreldin. Launch the attack\, you know your respected targets."  Lieutenant Darenak Alesis lead his Scimitar Squadron Darksword from the ISD II. His sensors showed lots of activity\, but he was only interested in one thing. He commed his squad "Alright\, Darkswords. Our target is their fleet. Set up your runs in pairs\, missiles then lasers. If it gets too hot\, break the attack and get some help\, we don't need to lose anyone today." His comrades clicked in their affirmations as the squadron broke into pairs\, eight Scimitars in all. All eight bombers began to head out to the fleet\, and prepared to attack.

 The Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II\, The Conqueror Starts its engines and Starts to approach The Enemy Targets\, the seems having no difficulty or problems\, The Conqueror starts moving slowly twards the Purgatory. The Imperial Pilot inside starts speaking\, "This is the Conqueror\, Raising Shields and charging weapons. Dont Hasistate to Retreat and take cover from the Conqueror. The Conqueror will be attacking the Purgatory. That is all."

 	For ensign Deyal Huxlo\, the idea of war seemed intensely frightening\, although he understood that it was now his duty. To really be pitted against death itself had seemed relatively remote\, up until the order had actually come to scramble. Perhaps he had only been ignoring it as a matter of taste\; the signs were definitely there\, and Deyal had known it all along. Now just as distant as the possibility of combat had seemed beforehand\, a voice came over the radio\, reminding the pilots of their target. But Deyal could hardly hear them. Indeed\, he hardly even felt the rumble of his engines\, and the heavy beat present in his heart as he immersed himself in his thoughts\, leaving his only awareness of the situation unfolding to make sure he didn't fall out of formation as his fighter emerged from the mettalic depths of the star destroyer that had carried him to his fate. While he knew that he would have to pay more attention as the battle was joined\, at least he could have this brief moment to caress his feelings\, to let the emotion of his first battle carry him through. As long as the fear managed to subside\, at least.

 The Tie Interceptor War Shrike 5 piloted by Slash Starts it's engines and prepairs to take off\, War SHrike 5 begins to fall in line behind his fellow fighers\, to Slash\, the thought of his first combat istuation leavs him strangle detached\, praying to whatever god would hear him\, because he followed none\, he began to manuver twords the impending fleet.

 With the rebel refusal to surrender\, the battle begun. To make matters worse for Kreldin\, his old-time nemesis Axel Vichten was as well. Well\, it would surely be an interesting fight. Danik left the bridge of the Conqueror after he gave his orders and proceeded to the hangar bay\, slipping his gloves and helmet on as he rode the turbolift down to his future. He would arrive in combat behind his men\, but that was fine. They knew what they were doing and didn't need him holding their hand. Climbing the ladder to get into his fighter's cockpit\, Danik sat down in the seat and prepared the twin ion engines. All systems were go. War Shrike 1 deattached itself from the claw that held it above the fighter bay. Then the fighter dropped through the fighter bay hangar\, into the blackness of space\, and accelerated forward to catch up with the rest of War Shrike squadron.

The Imperial Fleet\, however\, continued its advance towards Axel's fleet and the rebel navy. The INTC Oppressor stayed behind\, of course\; its goal was merely to keep the rebels here\, and not get involved in the actual combat. The Conqueror and Nemesis\, however\, advanced forward towards the Purgatory\, with its Strike and Marauder cruisers in tow. Their helmsmen were making sure to mind the mine field set up in the system\, as the damage that could be wrought by the mines was too much to bear. Finally\, the initial shots began\; the Nemesis\, bearing its starboard side to the purgatory\, unleashed a barrage of starboard concussion missiles towards the Purgatory. The Marauder and Strike\, however\, moved around the two main Star Destroyers as they broke off from them. They switched targets\, moving towards the naval station instead.

  Webb, on CS-6433 says, "Evacuation drills have been commonplace at Mikassa Station ever since the declaration of annexation. Non-essential personnel and dependants are quickly marshalled aboard the assault landing ship CMS Reannon Calder and any other available transports as the Imperial attack force inexorably closes upon Mikassa. If one didn't know better\, one would think that they knew this attack was coming\, though perhaps predicting that the Empire would attack a CDU outpost would rank as a thoroughly anticlimactic prediction in the annals of Military Intelligence.

The station disgorges its squadrons of starfighters\, which slide into position to screen the evacuation transports. And one by one the ships slip their moorings and make underway\, CMS Reannon Calder on point\, with the frigates taking flank guard.

The Imperial starfighters would invariably make contact first\, passing harmlessly through the minefield designed to keep larger ships at bay\, threat warning indicators lighting up with search and fire control sensors of weapons intent on sweeping the Imperial craft from the skies. The evacuation force is making for the far side of Mikassa with Captain Vichten and Purgatory on rear-guard when the first shots are fired. As long-range fire begins between the warships\, the lead elements of the Imperial starfighters come under attack from CDU Navy Z-100's and A-Wings\, slashing through the Imperial formations with lasers blazing. The Z-100's take the bulk of the fighting being better protected and heavily armed\, made with fighting long odds against imperial fighters\, with the A-Wings waiting to pounce opportunistically on unattended bombers."

 The Purgatory raises it's shields after it's fighters and blastboats scream out of the hangar bay. The four Centurion fighters have no CDU markings\, nor do the four Skiprays. All are painted gloss black and all move at faster than normal speeds into a defensive stance around the minefield\, wanting to try and force enemy forces into the dangerous space mines. Axel commands his own ship\, the Purgatory\, to power up it's weapons and shields\, sending primary weapons power to the tractor beams instead of twenty laser cannons.  Apparently\, Axel is sending this out more to the individual pilots than the Imperial command. <Many people will lose their lives today\, members of both sides. I understand the Imperial way of winning by attrition alone\, but your pilots should not be only a statistic. Every one of them has a soul.> Before Axel could continue\, a barrage of missiles is launched in his direction. The heavily modified Carrack jumps forward\, moving away from a few of the missiles\, but by no means missing the brunt of the attack. Shields take the majority of the damage\, though there are a few spots where the hull gets scorched a bit. Still though\, the armor and shields of the light battle cruiser remain intact. They had seen more abuse in the past in the infamous attack on Bothawui. "Dammit\," Axel exclaims to his bridgecrew. He immediately wanted to be out in the thick of the attack\, flying his trusty skipray\, the Boomstick. "Hold positions men\, if we're gonna survive this\, we're going to have to use the ship's power to it's utmost advantage. Gunners\, work your magic." The Tractor beams of the Purgatory come to life. Five beams emit\, pushing instead of pulling on several of the CDU Space mines in orbit\, hurdling them towards the enemy destroyers as best they can. There is no chance for pinpoint accuracy here\, but with the immense size of the destroyer\, accuracy isn't needed.

<SPACE> The Scimitars started a run towards the evacuation ships. Each attacker weaving just slightly out of formation to dodge incoming fire was all that was needed. The cargo and transport ships began to grow in his view\, becoming large quickly. Darkswords\, acquire locks and fire at will. Break after the first attack into your pairs and begin your runs from random vectors\, dont become predictable with your attacks. Several clicks acknowledged his order. A red reticle appeared in his field of vision and he commed his co-pilot One missile away. He held his trigger for a short burst of laser fire as he watched 8 concussion missiles and just as many lines of laser fire streak off towards the smaller capitol ships.

<SPACE> The Conqueror\, The Flagship of the Attacking Group Turns its triangle shaped forward and targets the Purgatory\, The Star Destroyer's Shields Are Raised and Weapons are Ready to Fire\, The Young Ensign standing on Bridge of The Destroyer is proud of himself. The Inframous Star Destroyer Starts fireing its Forward Turbolasers to Purgatory. Dealing Damage to The shields of the Target.

<SPACE> 	As the shooting began\, the senses that training had honed to perfection in most Imperial pilots kicked in. Deyal felt nothing as Axel's plea came to him\, knowing that it was only a dirty trick so that he could be shot in the back as he fled. Or worse\, so that he could live long enough to be courtmartialed. So knowing that he might well die in the attempt\, Deyal readily accepts a chaotic order from his squadron's commander to make an effort to protect the bombers. Though the average TIE fighter is little to no match against the speed of an A-Wing\, and even the Z-100's still hounding them\, nothing could save these men now. Nothing but a miracle\, or a well placed blaster shot to the A-Wings\, so that they could be free to deal with the fighters still on their tail. To the ensign's right\, the now-disorderly squadron lost another one of it's fighters to the efforts of the Z-100's\, leaving Deyal more than a little concerned about his own safety\, but the A-Wings were just within distance now. And while not in unison\, the whole squadron seemed to open up with their blasters\, pausing only to attempt to dodge shots coming towards them.

<SPACE> Tie Interceptor Pilot Slash falls in line behind his compatriot Deyal Huxlo and tightened his grip on the joystick as he remembered his pilot training\, but he is shocked out of his daydream by the first shots of the battle\, he realized that this was no simulation\, he would be ending lives and someone might be taking his\, he contemplates leaving the empire and all the unnecessary bloodshed and fighting\, but only for half a second\, his training kicks in and all thoughts of desertion leave his mind\, this was his life and no traitorous rebels would ever have the skill to take this pilot out\, or so he believed\, he rearranged his helmet and held his breath as he passed the point of no return and let loose a volley of blaster shots as the quickly advancing z-100s begin their attack\, he ten fires a round of blaster shots in the general direction of the A-Wings attacking the Scimitar Bombers hoping to draw their attention long enough for Deyal to deal damage but quickly returns his attention to the z-100s\, dodges their first attack and unleashes his own aimed at the closest z-100.

<SPACE>	The Carrack and Strike cruisers, yet affected by the battle, approached closer to the naval station, taking a longer route due to the mine field. The two Star Destroyers, however, break off from each other as the mines fly towards them. Two mines slam into the Conqueror's shields, with one more hitting the Nemesis. The shields on both behemoths flicker, but hold. After launching its initial bomardment on the Purgatory, the Nemesis breaks off from the Conqueror and turns to face the CDU vessels that were fleeing from the battle field. Engaging its engines at full speed, the Nemesis accelerated forward to intercept the CDU naval vessels. The Conqueror, however, remained to oppose the Purgatory, opening up with a full fore bombardment with its heavy turbolaser batteries as another mine slams into her.

Admiral Kreldin, however, in the cockpit of War Shrike 1, moves foward to join the fray. Admist the mine field, Kreldin weaves around mines, his aims set on an enemy A-wing assaulting the bombers. The targeting retical moved over the vessel on his HUD, a series of lasers streaking outward from the blasters towards his intended target in hopes of giving the bombers a clear way towards the escaping CDU vessels.

<SPACE> The shields of the Purgatory take another beating\, this time from turbolasers as well. Axel gives the command to change tactics to his 'Plan B'. Turbolasers and Laser cannons alike come alive\, firing at fighters mostly\, knowing that the weapons will have little effect against the hulls of the Destroyers. The gloss black Centurions and Skiprays are moving at the speed of the CDU A-Wings\, some even faster. Their shields glowing a bright blue as laser shots glance off. As they maneuver through the minefield that is now in some form of motion\, they launch missile and torpedo alike towards the Imperial bombers\, leaving the CDU forces to deal with the enemy TIE's. Immediately\, Axel wishes he had responded with more fighters and more capital ships. "Order the Fighters to focus on the enemy bombers\, send my skiprays to deal with the Conqueror. It might be like throwing rocks at a hovertank\, but we've got to do something. Tell them to target their communications and sensor arrays. If nothing else\, we'll blind them." Axel gives the commands and immediately the communications officers get to work\, sending out encoded messages to the various ships in the group. Slowly\, the gloss black blastboats pull away from their Centurion wingmen and make their way through the minefield towards the I2SD Conqueror. The itch was alive in the man\, and Axel wanted nothing more than to climb into the cockpit of a smaller ship and face them in a more man to man fashion. His duties kept him here though. He was in a command position now\, something hard to do when focusing on the controls and weaponsights of a smaller craft.

<SPACE> Being at the head of the attack rather quickly starts to feel like a dubious honor. It's fortunate for the Imperials that they have the edge of numbers\, for this just doesn't compare to attacking ad-hoc rebel forces. Training and experience shows in the actions of the CDU fleet. Sloppy mistakes to take advantage of are fewer. The point defense fire from the transports tracks faster and more accurately than would come from Rebel or even Imperial ships. It's the control and coordination that is the killer\, the product of well-drilled gunners and a very efficient system of designating and handing off targets between the ships of the fleet.

The vicinity of the evacuation transports is a very hot place to be\, with bombers attempting to make their runs encountering all manner of difficulty. Often the choice amounts to aborting the run or dying\, and some invariably die\, pounced upon by opportunistic starfighters\, clawed out of space by high-speed laser turrets aboard the escorts\, or blown apart by missiles. For pilots in the old fashioned 'eyeball' TIEs\, life is hectic\, for even attempting to lock up a Z-100 from directly behind tends to yield attack by the Z-100's screams.

But weight has its advantages\, and the Imperial force has a lot of weight\, and CDU fighters are dying too\, mobbed by superior numbers. And the weight of the attack on the evacuation transports starts to overwhelm the CDU fire control\, and missile hits are scored\, one hitting CMS Reannon Calder\, and two piercing the skin of CMS Thresher.

As the Imperial forces draw up through the minefield to approach Mikassa station\, turbolaser and anti-shipping missiles rise up to meet them\, chasing the lead ships of the attack.

<SPACE> The Conqueror has taken a few hits becouse of The mines of the Enemy. The Commanding officer of the Conqueror A Black Suited Officer is standing at Bridge rainning orders to nav damage control and shield control. "Reinforce The Shields!\, Close us to The Purgatory\, Fire!" The Conqueror's Engines charges and The Imperial Star Destroyer starts to turn its Left side to Purgatory\, Starting Bombarding with The Turbolasers and Ion Cannons.

<SPACE> 	As the fire from the pursuing Z-100s becomes too intense\, Deyal swerves\, hoping to avoid further opportunities being made against him. Half of the squadron he belonged to no longer showed up on sensors\, undoubtably most of them were dead. And just as he thought he might get clear of the firefight to regroup\, one of the enemy fighters comes onto his tail as well\, with it's blasters blazing down upon him. Desperately\, he tried to break free of the pursuit\, but to no avail. And while the Z-100 had yet to hit him.. it seemed only to be a matter of time\, at this point\, before Deyal slipped up and paid with his very life.

<SPACE> The Carrack and Strike Cruisers finally reached the naval station\, only to be greeted with incoming from the station itself. The two Imperial vessels returned fire with their heavy turbolasers\; the Carrack began to spin around\, allowing for its fore\, starboard and portside weapons to open fire\, and then recharge as the other batteries open fire. The Strike\, on the other hand\, releases its own compliment of fighters which quickly group up and launch their attack on the station. The Carrack releases a small squadron of Scimitar bombers to bomb the station into submission.

Elsewhere\, across the battle field\, the Nemesis catches up to the CDU fleet and the dog fight that was ensuing\, in an attempt to assist the bombers and fighters that were taking a heavy beating. Concussion missiles are launched towards the Reannon Calder and the Thresher as the turbolaser batteries open fire on various targets\, including the Z-100s and A-wings that filled the void. The Conqueror\, meanwhile\, continued its assault on the Purgatory as the Skipray blastboats find their way towards her. With no fighter screen to protect against the blast boats\, a call is sent to ask for reinforcements to provide support for the Conqueror. <SPACE> The Purgatory\, having been a heavy target of the Imperials is finally losing it's massive shields. Blue and white flickerring of energy is rapidly fading into direct hits to the ship's armorred hull. "Dammit again!" Axel screams. "Damage reports\, now!" The enemy Ion cannons did a number on the Carrack's modified shield emitters. "All hands\, evasive maneuvers\, now." With commands given the Purgatory changes it's attack pattern. Axel knew he wouldn't win this fight\, too little here to defend with. The black Z-100's stay on the tail of the TIE fighters\, easily outrunning them\, though their maneuverability has sufferred a bit with the upgrades to their sublight engines. While faster than an a-wing\, they lack some of the maneuvering thrust\, having more diverted to pure forward momentum. The skibs keep up their assault on the Conqueror\, trying to blind the ship before they too are damaged to the point of needing to retreat. With much regret\, Axel makes a call\, after seeing the damage report\, knowing now that he'll lose weapons if he goes any longer. "Order the retreat. We'll fight back another day." The Purgatory\, with lightning speed\, diverts power from the weapons banks and towards the thrusters\, it too capable of matching the speed of an A-Wing\, though not the accelleration.

<SPACE> By now the beleaguered evacuation fleet has passed to the far side of Mikassa\, and is breaking orbit\, making for the edge of Mikassa's gravity well. The Oppressor's gravity well\, meanwhile\, is harder to escape... and the math isn't pretty. At this rate the evacuation force would be overwhelmed before it can escape. Having a V2SD drawing up on the six o'clock position doesn't make situation any prettier. At the head of the formation\, CMS Reannon Calder is exceedingly hard for Nemesis to target\, though Thresher is taking a beating.

Thresher keeps up fire\, turning to loose the last of her anti-shipping missiles at the Nemesis\, the big warheads resounding through the hull of hte Imperial ship at each strike. But Thresher takes more hits\, and is holed in more places\, on the loosing end of the gunnery duel\, and finally she falls from formation altogether\, spitting a flurry of escape pods towards the planet as she turns to take Nemesis head-on\, stalling her so to buy time for the rest of the task force.

The station might not be much\, but she is reasonably sturdy. Her lasers aren't as heavy as those on board an Imperial II SD\, but they're rather more accurate\, and the light ships on her flank would surely be taking punishment.

The mystery of CMS Breslau is meanwhile solved\, and quite abruptly. Having laid in wait in the further extents of the system\, listening to the battle unfold\, the veteran pirate-hunter has watched Oppressor become seperated from the Imperial line. Now her reactors spool up to full power\, charging her hyperspace engines\, and with a brilliant flash\, the light cruiser enters hyperspace on a vector directly for Oppressor\, letting the interdictor field bring her back to real-space without fear of overshooting. A born chaser\, Breslau's sublight drives flare to life\, fighters launching from her hangars as she bears down upon Oppressor.

<SPACE> The Imperial Star Destroyer Leaves to track Purgatory's Tail after moving a bit after it\, Turns its attention at Other Capital Ship. The Conqueror burns its back engines and The Ensign at its Bridge\, Rains orders from Place to place\, "Avoid the Fires from the Boats\, Chase the other capital ships. Damage Control Report!" Turns to Navigator\, "Carefull to the mines." He tells that and the Ship Crashes to another mine... The Ensign gets angry\, "Leave the controls to me you moron. Even a Gamorrean can fly better than you do!"

<SPACE> 	Although Deyal Huxlo was still but a young man\, his last few breaths weighed heavily on him as he reflected over how he'd lived. He imagined it must feel this way for old men\, laying in their beds\, knowing that death lay just around the corner. This war had nothing to do with him\, yet he was willingly giving his life for it\, and deep down Deyal wished he knew why. These people were obviously not Imperial citizens\, nor were they being abused by the so-called rebels that had taken over the system. As Deyal's mind faltered on the details\, so too did his training. Then it occured to him\, maybe it didn't matter at all. While he'd only lived a short life\, hadn't it been a full one? While he did join largely for educational benefits\, hoping to apply them elsewhere in his life after completing time with the Imperial military\, he realized he had but few regrets about his choices. And to think he had said to wait until after his service to marry his fiance\; Deyal half swore underneath his breath just thinking about that one mistake. The other half never came\, however\, as the Z-100 took advantage of his sloppy piloting\, and sent him to join the majority of his comrades.

<SPACE> The Conqueror's shields took a beating from the Skipray blastboats and the mines. Finally\, after too much harassment\, the shields to the Conqueror fell\, leaving the hull vulnerable to damage. Small explosions erupted along the hull as more missiles found their mark\, but\, to the Imperial's delight\, the blast boats pulled off. And so did the Purgatory. Victory was now in sight as the Conqueror accelerated forward to do battle with the CDU Navy as it attempts to flee.

The Nemesis\, however\, is less fortunate\; the Thresher\, realizing all hope was lost for the ship\, started a kamikaze run. The captain of the Nemesis shouted out orders for evasive manuevers. All turbolaser batteries had their attention directed to the Thresher\, blast after blast firing away at the Thresher. Even the Scimitar bombers that had been assailing the other CDU vessels took notice of this\, and devoted their full attention to the Thresher in an attempt to save the precious Nemesis. The deadly dog fight continued on\, however\, the pilots oblivious to the Nemesis' situation as they were too busy in a life or death struggle with their opponents.

The Oppressor was even less fortunate\; the INTC was not properly equipped to do battle with the CMS Breslau. A decision was made\, however\, and the Oppressor was ordered to retreat. The INTC turned full reverse\, its gravity well coming down as it fleed from the battle with the Breslau\, its aft turbolasers firing several shots off at the Breslau.

Meanwhile\, the situation by the naval station was slowly but surely gaining in the Imperial's favor\; the shields on the two capital ships were more than enough to handle the station's weaponry\, for now\, at least. The Scimitar bombers and TIE Interceptors\, although losing fighters to the station's weaponry\, continued their attack runs on the station\, concentrating on the station's defenses and weaponry to soften the station up in prepartion for the boarding party. <SPACE> Thresher is a very wounded ship with a very wounded crew. Her Captain and first officer have given their lives for a grateful nation. Her command now falls to a young sub-lieutenant who has been put in the surreal position of realizing that it is perfectly rational for her to die here today with her ship. Her vacc-suit has sealed itself around a splinter Thresher's armor that had impaled her abdomen\, pinning her into her station. Shields are gone\, half of her sensor arrays dead\, and an ever-dwindling amount of her weapons respond. A concussion missile smashes through one of her thrusters laterally\, blowing it clean away in a hail of alloy. She almost makes it to Nemesis\, when her the shielding of her only remaining fusion reactor finally lets go catastrophically. One has to wonder if anyone was really still alive when Thresher was transformed into a white flash rivalling the intensity of Mikassa's sun.

Breslau swoops down upon Oppressor like an avenging angel\, her bow ion cannons hammering the ship. Missiles flash from Breslau's flanks\, homing on Oppressor\, and turbolaser turrets swivel to bear\, punishing the unattended interdictor. Z-105 bombers also harry the ship\, launching missiles against the massive bulges of the gravwell generators to make certain they don't come back up.

Between these two acts\, the safety of the transports are assured\, and one by one they flash into hyperspace.

And now Mikassa station is the focus of the Imperial assault\, her main batteries being silenced one by one as the Empire prepares to board her. Soon the bombers have cleared an approach through the point defense guns for the assault shuttles to land.

<SPACE> Five unfortunate Scimitar pilots meet their demise when the Thresher explodes. The enourmous explosion engulfs the bombers\, taking them with the Thresher. The Nemesis\, too\, does not escape unscarred\; the explosion rips the shields on the V2SD apart\, rocking the ship and its crew. Damage to the hull is done\, a portion of it ripped cleanly off. But she survives\, and lives to fight another day\, though it would require some repairs. And with the threat of a CDU counter-attack\, the Nemesis needed them quickly.

An engine on the aft portion of the Oppressor explodes as the CDU launch their aggressive attack. Explosions rip apart portions of the hull as the speed of the Oppressor slows down. The turbolaser firing ceases\, to perserve energy and to devote everything for escaping. One of the gravity well generators explodes in a fury\, rocking the Oppressor. Time was of the essence\; they could not make a calculated jump\, so the captain ordered for a split-second blind hyperspace jump to evade certain doom. As another explosion rips a portion of the ship's bow cleanly off\, the vessel disappears into hyperspace\, only to repear a second later well out of the reach of the Mikassa system and CDU space.

"Very well\," Danik said\, still in the cockpit of his TIE Interceptor. He had survived the battle\, downed two enemy craft\, and was now flying cover for the Scimitar bombers on their approach of the naval station. "Let them escape. Conqueror\, Nemesis\, set up defensive position around the naval station. Prepare the boarding party." Out from the hangar bay of the Conqueror came several transport ships\, each holding several squadrons of stormtroopers and Army infanty\, as well as some technicians and various equipment. The Navy would sweep the system of any stragglers and then\, once the boarding party had been inserted\, set up a defensive position in the system for the inevitable CDU counter-attack.

<SPACE> With the departure of Oppressor\, Breslau turns her bow towards Mikassa\, sensors sweeping\, searching for more opportunities to do damage... a lone Imperial ship out of position\, an opening on the assault transports. But the order for all ships to make their escape comes from Mikassa station\, and CMS Breslau\, her fighter group\, and the survivors of Mikassa station's fighter groups jump to lightspeed\, flashing out of existance in near unison.