NationStates Jolt Archive

The Clans had been well aware, for several centuries even, that their resource worlds were slowly deteriorating. Metal was becoming scarce to find, spare parts were rare, and the necessary fuel to power their DropShips was starting to run low. The Clans had had an emergency Councel meeting, and the highest ranking commanders and elders were called forth on an astounding discovery made by the Scientist caste that would allow the Clans to expand their territory. What had been presented to them was the revelation of star-travel - and coordinated assaults.

Now, the fleets at the command of each of the Survivor Clans were being mustered. The once dormant ships of the ancient Star League fleets had been called to action, and each ship had been refitted for this task at hand. The first combined fleet in over a thousand years had been created.

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"Warriors! Line up!"

The words of the Star Colonel Aemelia commanded the respect of every Mechwarrior in the room, and they were quick to follow her order. Once every single warrior was at her beck and call, she began pacing, inspecting those at her command. Two full Trinaries of Heavy and Assault warriors, each of whom had taken careful bids as to what they would use on their powerful Mechs.

"Alright, you maggots, listen up! We are going to be the second wave that follows after the initial invasion forces commanded by the Jade Falcon and Nova Cat forces," she announced, still pacing before her troops. "Once they have managed to establish a foothold, we will be deployed out to their frontlines to bolster their battle strength. You are to do nothing more than provide them support until they have been routed or thoroughly destroyed. Once either of those possibilities have occured, you will be tasked with holding what territory has been gained until the freebirth soldiers have landed their tanks and soldiers. As soon as they move into their defensive positions, you will be released to venture out against the hostiles that will most likely be present." She stopped her pacing, and she faced her troops. "Are their any questions?" When none of the warriors had made any attempt to do such a thing, she shouted out her unit's mantra.

"If you think kill, you will kill!"
"If we think kill, we will kill!"
"If you have a boot, you will crush your enemy!"
"If we have a boot, we will crush our enemy!"
"If you have a hand, you strangle your enemy!"
"If we have a hand, we strangle our enemy!"
"If you have a club, you bludgeon your attacker!"
"If we have a club, we bludgeon our attacker!"
"If you have a knife, you stab your foe!"
"If we have a knife, we stab our foe!"
"If you have a gun, you shoot it!"
"If we have a gun, we shoot it!"
"If you have a tank, you roll it over the opposing ranks!"
"If we have a tank, we roll it over the opposing ranks!"
"If you have an aerofighter, you bomb them!"
"If we have an aerofighter, we bomb them!"
"If you have a Mech, you win!"
"If we have a Mech, we win!"
"You are always the victor!"
"We are always the victor!"
"We the blood is spilled, the bloodname is earned!"
"When the blood is spilled, the bloodname is earned!"
"We are the Clans!"
"We are the Clans!"
__________________________________________________________

Minutes later, several ships began deploying from the surface of Strana Mechty, each maneuvering to get into formation with the invasion fleet in orbit. They flew towards the front of the fleet, past the fifty massive six kilometer Star League Warships, and they began to form a massive circle, moving into a synchronous formation that was positioned in exact points from one another.

At exactly 0830 hours, each of the ships took turns firing a missile into the center of the circle. As each missile reached the center of the circle, the onboard computers would bring them all to a halt, clustering two hundred missiles, each easily the size of an ICBM, next to each other. As the final act, the flagship of the fleet, the Alexander Kerensky, posiitoned itself several thousand kilometers in front of the clustered missiles. Its main dorsal Hyper PPC began to charge, slowly, but surely, and after seven minutes and fifty two seconds, released its deadly projectile. The projectile streaked towards the clustered missiles, coming within five hundred meters before the missiles exploded, revealing themselves to be several hundred gigaton nuclear warheads. As the energy projectile smacked into the deadly force of the nuclear explosions, the second explosion occured.

The second explosion's blinding light would easily be visible across the galaxy (after some time, of course), and after the light itself dissipated, there, before the fleet, would be a swirling vortex. This would be their means of travel. Slowly, the fleet of fifty warships and two hundred fifty JumpShips flew into the vortex, each dematerializing as they got closer until each ship had been completely swallowed by the vortex.
____________________________________________________

Minutes later, a swirling vortex would expand near the outter edge of Coredian controlled space within the Caligula system. Unbeknownst to them, something was traveling through this vortex, and what was worse was these visitors' intentions.

Caligula

An unusual planet in an unusual system. It was a mining colony, but not just any mining colony, for the binary system was quite a sight to behold. One of the stars, Cali A was a normal yellow main sequence star, quite common in this galaxy. But it wasn't a happy star. Oh no, for it's companion was a thief. It's companion was a devourer of stars, a blackness beyond the ink of space. The companion, Cali B, was a black hole. One wonders what a colony was doing on a planet bathed in the intense radiation of a black hole's accretion disk, and then one wonders whether the inhabitants, Coredians all, were crazy as a result of all the radiation bathing the planet.

Amidst the strong radiation of the black hole, elements of the Fifth Fleet, consisting of an Immortal-class Star Destroyer, two Defender-class Star Destroyers, three Artillery Star Destroyers, 5 MC-90 Missile Cruisers, 3 Victory II Star Destroyers, 2 Nova-Class Destroyers, 3 Katana-Class Medium Cruisers, 2 Mako Star Destroyers, and 2 Wolfpacks were only able to detect the incursion because FEDBED was powerful enough to relay the sensor data into the ships. Even so, they would have to fight visually for this theater, as the sensors were all but fucked by the radiation.

Commodore Gary Oakson looked over what sensor data was available when the enemy ships entered the system via a wormhole of some type, and it didn't look promising. It was two to one odds on ships alone, but he did believe that just as his sensors were fucked, so were that of the enemy's. He also had the home ground advantage, as well as several powerful Golan III and superlaser stations to bring in assistance, but what he really needed was the rest of the Fifth Fleet. "All right folks! Looks like we're outnumbered, but we have the home ground advantages! We shall not let the enemy pass! Notify the High Command of this and prepare for battle! Dump power into sensor data! We need to get a reading of their formations!"

What was so important that the Fifth Fleet had a quarter of it's presence in such a wretched area? Well, the black hole was a harvest for the spacetime knots needed to build repulsorlifts, inertial compensators, and tractor beams, not to mention hypermatter to fuel starships. Destroying the facilities whirling around Cali B will be a significant setback for the Coredian infrastructure as a whole and might well cripple its ability to wage war as it isn't easy to build factories strong enough to withstand the radiation. For that reason, when FEDBED detected the incursion, it contacted Admiral Jack Easton, commander of the Fifth Fleet, and the go-to guy for protecting Coredia's far-flung systems. He was also deluged with the assistance for help from the planetary governor.

"Wait--what? You're telling me that someone's trying to take out Caligula? In what force? Damn. What do we have there? Ah, good. Can they hold the line until the Sovereign or Deinochyus gets there? Aight. I'll be there." The Admiral slammed the comlink reciever down on his desk and sighed. "Damn, can Coredia ever get a break?"

He only hoped that the Commodore would be able to hold off the enemy long enough for him to get there personally. But first, he would have to notify High Command of this, and picked up the com again. "Admiral Easton dialing Jurai High Command..."

Within minutes of the wormhole's creation, the entire fleet had poured out expecting to be able to see. Unfortunately, no sooner had they entered system, their sensors practically blew up in their faces as thousands of ghost readings flared all over them. The fleet, while not in total chaos, was in danger, because they couldn't see what was coming towards them...yet...

"By Kerensky, where are we?!" the captain of the Alexander Kerensky demanded.

"I...I do not know, sir," came the reply from navigations. "The stars all look different in comparison to our star charts."

"Is the wormhole still stable?" The captain was tense, but remained calm.

"Aff, sir," replied navigations.

"Good," replied the captain, relaxing. "Send a HyperPulse transmission back through the hole and inform the Councel that we have arrived in an unknown location. Send them pictures of the current star patterns, and tell them to have the scientists figure out where we are."

"Aff, sir," replied the navigations station.

"Sir, Jade Falcon forces have announced that they are going to deploy a DropShip to scout the area," announced the comms station. "They are deploying the ship to a peculiar star system that we picked up on our long range sensors before the star in question began interfering with our fleet's electronics."

"Bloody freebirths," muttered the captain. "Alright. Tell them to keep us informed of their findings."

"Aff, sir," replied the comms station.
_____________________________________________________

Within minutes, a single Hrothgar-class DropShip deployed from a JumpShip marked by the insignia of Jade Falcon, and the DropShip began its course towards the peculiar star system. Once it had cleared the fleet, it activated its burst-jump drive, and the DropShip zoomed towards the uncharted star system.

"Sir, sensor recalibration is complete." A sensor officer said to the Commodore.

"Very well. Refresh screens." The Commodore ordered.

The long-range sensors weren't exactly 100%, but they were now strong enough to determine enemy formation and visual sightings were just now being recorded.

"They look vaguely Woodian..." The Commodore mused.

"If that's so, sir, we should expect similar tactics." His XO answered.

"I know. I recall the last time the Woodians decimated this fleet. Well, we should play it smart. Disperse the fleet so that they won't be able to use tractor beams on us. We should make good use of our allies' tactics against them. This Immortal does have 60 PPC cannons to draw the enemy's ire from, after all."

"Indeed, sir. Might I also recommend judicious application of the superlaser stations?"

"Of course. But we must draw them in if we're to do this right."

"Sir, a small ship has just jumped from their FTL."

"I see. Hail them. We must have the time to get our fleet into position." The Commodore said.

"Unknown ship, this is the Coredian Interstellar Defense Force Immortal Star Destroyer Velociraptor II, commanding officer Commodore Gary Oakson. State your intentions immediately or prepare to be destroyed!"

The lone DropShip would be unable to pick up the transmission, however, as it was stuck in its burst-jump up until it reached some two million kilometers from the Coredian fleet where it would appear in a short, blinding light. The DropShip immediately changed its vector, redirecting thrust until it was 'perpendicular' to the Coredian fleet. It would then stop, using only vernier thrusters to make minor corrections in its stationary 'orbit.'

"What in Kerensky's name are those things?" asked the pilot as he stared out the main view port of the cockpit.

"...the hell if I know," replied the navigations officer, who had been the one to pick up the stable blips on their sensors. "Send a burst transmission with some pictures back to the flagship."

"Aff...," replied the pilot, and soon, he was lost to the terminal in front of him, taking several still photos that were then compiled into a single file. Once finished, he would activate their micro-pulse generator, and the files would be sent in a contained energy stream back to the fleet. To the Coredians, however, it would appear only as an energy flux coming from the main reactor.

_________________________________________________________

Less than a few seconds later, the Alexander Kerensky received a transmission from the Jade Falcon flagship Eagle's Talon with the same message sent to them by the recon DropShip. The captain scanned over the images supplied, and each time he went to the next picture, his face became that of tension and a slight touch of fear.

"These are nothing like what we had in our data banks," he muttered. He was using a private comm channel to speak with the other captains of the warships, and they, too, were going through the same images with the same thoughts in mind.

"How should we proceed?" The captain of the Lion's Pride was a Nova Cat, and like all Nova Cats, they always had a tendency to sound nervous or very concerned.

"I say we attack!" The voice of Falconer Captain Julia was that of confidence as she said those words.

"We all understand that the Jade Falcon Clan wishes to commence with the invasion," came the voice of Captain Michelle, a member of the Ghost Bear Clan. "However, we have never seen these ships before. It is highly likely that we have come across a civilization that is either not a former Star League asset, or these are Star League vessels of a type that we have never seen before."

"He is right," replied the voice of the Alexander Kerensky's captain. "However, from what these pictures show me, it seems that these ships had detected our entry. Look at picture three nine." At this point, each of the captains was now looking at a full picture of the opposing fleet, and it showed the captains what the formations of the ships were. "What does that look to you all?"

The comm channel was silent for several seconds, and soon, each of the captains was muttering the same thing. "Battle formations..."

"Exactly," stated the Wolf Captain.

"Then we should greet them in the fires of combat!" Julia's voice was gungho, and you could hear in the background on her end that many of her own officers were in full agreement.

"We all know that Jade Falcon wishes to do battle," replied the Wolf Captain, obviously frustrated. He sighed, and then spoke up. "What of those of the Star Adder?"

After a few seconds, a stone-cold feminine voice spoke over the channel. "Let us see what these potential opponents present." The response was an obviously calculated response, and the Wolf Captain's face was that of sorrow.

"Alright," he finally said. "Begin preparations for a full-scale attack. Begin charging the Hyper PPCs. Once we come out of our jump, pick a target and fire on them at full charge. Do not give them a chance to retaliate."

"Aff," was the unified response he received.

________________________________________________________

In a few short minutes after the communique between the captains, the entire fleet began moving. The ships criss-crossed as they began to form full battle formations, and the dorsal main cannons on the Star League Warships were beginning to brim with an eerie blue light. DropShips were deploying off the JumpShips they had been assigned to as the JumpShips were preparing for their secondary duty as carriers. The ships, while only a kilometer and a half shorter than the Star League Warships, were basically just a giant cargo ship with only a few Mech-class extended range large lasers. After many years, the Clans had decided to reformat these ships with a secondary duty, and as such, their carrier status was thus created. Each of the two hundred fifty JumpShips carried a fighter compliment of nearly seven hundred of the newly released Darket Interceptors. Fast, agile, and easily capable of flying circles around the older fighters, these fighters had proved during the Interclan Wars that numbers in space mattered more than power when it came to aerofighters.

Soon, the formation was prepared, and the Star League Warships would be the club across the head as the entire fleet, which now comprised of the fifty warships, the two hundred fifty JumpShip carriers, and the now reveal fifteen hundred DropShips (sans one, as one of them was already sitting in front of the Coredian fleet), began to move forward. Within seconds, the entire fleet entered jumpspace, traveling the short distance between the wormhole and the Coredian fleet in the span of a few seconds.

As the fleet exited jumpspace, they would greet the Coredian fleet with a full, head-on barrage of Hyper PPC bolts, each shot easily capable of encompassing a pair of Corellian Corvettes and incinerating them outright. Following the H-PPC barrage, the warships opened fire with their large-caliber two-barrel gauss cannons, PPC emplacements, and extended range large laser batteries, all the while charging straight into the enemy fleet's ranks, their immense size dwarfing their opponents.

The JumpShips soon began deploying their fighter compliments, and soon, these swarms rushed forth to engage any opposing counterparts that tried to enage the capital ships. At the same exact time, the DropShips rushed forward, using their allies' sudden attack to their advantage. Their main objective was to get their precious cargo of warriors onto the planet's surface, and any enemy ships brazen enough to attack them would be greeted by the twenty defensive large lasers of each DropShip.

All in all, while the attack was rushed and basically unprepared, these warriors were confident that this clusterfuck maneuver would throw their opponents off-kilter.

The lone DropShip would be unable to pick up the transmission, however, as it was stuck in its burst-jump up until it reached some two million kilometers from the Coredian fleet where it would appear in a short, blinding light. The DropShip immediately changed its vector, redirecting thrust until it was 'perpendicular' to the Coredian fleet. It would then stop, using only vernier thrusters to make minor corrections in its stationary 'orbit.'

"What in Kerensky's name are those things?" asked the pilot as he stared out the main view port of the cockpit.

"...the hell if I know," replied the navigations officer, who had been the one to pick up the stable blips on their sensors. "Send a burst transmission with some pictures back to the flagship."

"Aff...," replied the pilot, and soon, he was lost to the terminal in front of him, taking several still photos that were then compiled into a single file. Once finished, he would activate their micro-pulse generator, and the files would be sent in a contained energy stream back to the fleet. To the Coredians, however, it would appear only as an energy flux coming from the main reactor.
"Sir, energy flux coming from the Dropship's reactor." The sensor operator noted. "They're not responding to hails."

"Ah. I see. An energy flux...or perhaps a micropulse generator that's discerning our position for a stable fix on our position? Especially as they're not responding to our hails." The Commodore asked politely. Yes, the Woodians taught them a lot of the same technology as this race seems to have. Oh, if only they were here to get some laughs!

The sensor operator gulped as he rewinded and expanded the signature, "Uh...I see, sir."

"Good. Now..." The Commodore said as the FEDBED sensors detected the enemy ships making a microjump. "Dodge."

If it was ten years ago, the Star Destroyer and other ships would have used their powerful but ponderous engines to try and move out of the field of fire. Hell, the word wouldn't have the meaning it does now! But now, with the Inertia Drive in place as the main engine of the Coredian Navy, it was a simple matter of doing what the Commodore ordered. When the Clan ships came in with their Hyper PPC cannons, the fleet responded in a most unusual fashion, especially thanks to the earlier order about dispersing so that they don't get smashed.

They lept to either side of the firing arcs without any turning or pitching whatsoever. The few ships that did get smashed with the PPC cannons had their shields flared sharply, but the first layer was capable of absorbing that energy and redirecting them into the ships' systems, namely shields and weapons. Between the dodging and the Molecular Shields, very few damage reports were sent to the Velociraptor II, and those that were were relatively mild.

The next thing that happened was a bit more conventional.

"The Katana cruisers will take out the enemy Dropships. They should be fast and agile enough to take them out with little retaliation. They may employ the Jump Drive as they will. The Wolfpacks, Victories and Mako Star Destroyers will deal with the enemy swarms with sweep pattern stutterfire. The Nova Cruisers will use their Beamcannons upon the enemy carriers. The Artillery Star Destroyers and superlaser stations will fire at the bigger ships." Rumbling occurred as the shields flared, interrupting the Captain.

Sweep Pattern Stutterfire was a rapid-fire method of assault used to take out swarms of enemy fighters. It lowered the power ratings of the ships' weapons but increased their rate of fire in the process, shooting in a sweeping pattern to take enemies out in droves. It's the high-tech equivalent of putting up a massive flak of fire against fighters in Old Earth World War II and the ships were well optimized for such an assault.

"Missile Cruisers, stand by to fire first missile swarm volley upon the carriers and Dropships! Velociraptor, Defenders and Golans, engage the lead ships with a full Alpha Strike! FIRE!" The Commodore roared, even as the superlasers from the Artillery Star Destroyers and the superlaser stations scattered around the system laid a bead on the six-kilometer behemoths and let loose with devastating blue or green streams of destructive composite beam energy in a deadly crossfire. There were three Artilleries and seven Stations for defense.

The Defender Star Destroyers and Golan III defense stations let loose with devastating blows of turbolasers, ion cannons and missiles, while the Immortal...oh the Immortal (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8714167&postcount=2) was a sight to behold. Each one of its sixty PPC cannons let loose with potent blasts of deep blue glowing streams of powerful ionized particles upon the leading elements of the enemy, while one hundred and twenty heavy turbolasers and heavy ion cannons each delivered a furious assault upon the enemy's leading ship. That's not all, for the twelve Naval Gauss Rifles the Immortal Star Destroyer carried delivered a powerful KE punch of their own as the trailing elements of the Alpha Strike.

And finally... "Missile Star Cruisers...FIRE!"

If the Immortal was the Future-tech equivalent of an Iowa Battleship, the MC-90s were the FT equivalent of the submarine or Tico cruiser. Only better, with massive missile massacre swarms rushing out for the enemy carriers, while antistarfighter missiles equally struck down the Dropships.

And then, only then, did the capital ships deploy their starfighters to counter the enemy starfighters. XJ7-Wings, YJ5-Wings, A4-Wings, B2-wings, and E3-Wings roared out of the various hangar bays, supplemented by a huge swarm of tiny, nimble, and deadly drone fighters. Numbers were hard to tell, but there were at least ten thousand from the Immortal alone. Of the alphabet fighters, there were about five hundred fighters in the game, each one with shields and a good working knowledge of anti-swarm tactics, thanks to the Empire. The X-wings, A-wings and E-wings went out to support the larger Wolfpacks (one corvette, four gunships per 'pack, each pack counts as one ship for beaucratic purposes.), Victories and Makos agains the enemy starfighters while the B-wings and Y-wings hung back in defensive formations to take out the enemies that survived the onslaught.

For a ship count of twenty five, the Coredian Navy was devastating indeed...

OOC: "Numbers were hard to tell, but there were at least ten thousand from the Immortal alone."

Just what are these drones exactly? As the designer of the Immortal, I doubt that a single ship could hold that many. It only holds 216 fighters, after all.

Also, tag for future involvement. My military has been itching for contact with the Clanners for quite a while now.

Damn freebirths... thought the Wolf Captain as he watched the enemies quite literally side step their attack. Not only that, but no sooner had they done so, several high-powered beams streaked forth between their opponents. Of the salvo of fire dealt by the super laser stations, five of the massive Star League Warships were skewered, causing them to fall apart as internal systems exploded until, finally, their main reactors breached, and the massive explosions that ensued next engulfed many of their allies as well.

The Alpha Strike from the Coredian flagship impacted the Alexander Kerensky. However, they were going to get their own suprise as the same ship that they attacked moved in closer into a near broadside.

"Are the weapons ready?!" The Wolf Captain was on his feet, moving around the bridge even as the ship rocked from the force of the unprecedented attack by the Immortal

"Aff, si-!"

"Then get this ship right alongside theirs' and fire them now!" The Wolf Captain's voice was that of rage. He had known something was not right, and this had just proven that he was right about his intuition.

The Alexander Kerensky soon maneuvered itself along the port side of the Immortal, its own main guns still firing. However, the next thing would be a surprise. As the ship got into position, hundreds of guns folded onto the outter hull. Each gun resembled a massive gatling gun, and the Coredians were about to figure out just what they were.

The guns then turned to face the Coredian ship, and, within seconds, they revealed themselves to be a double-edged sword. These guns were a modification to the original design, which had been normal heavy-caliber gauss cannons. These 'miniguns' were a combination of both a Heavy PPC and a Heavy Gauss Rifle. However, the way they fired was even more interesting. As the cylinder rotated, two attached firing mechanisms would fire at the same time, one firing the heavy PPC, the other firing the Heavy Gauss Rifle. This one-two-punch would come in the form of 1400 rounds a minute, and from several hundred guns at once, no ship's shields and armour would hold up long against it.

The battle enfolding beyond this was laughable, at best. The Clan ships put up a valiant effort, trading fire with their Coredian counterparts. Already, many of the JumpShips were sinking as their weak hulls collapsed under the strain of damage. Still, they pushed on, some of them charging and attempting to ram their assailants while in their death throes.

The DropShips, however, were fairing better than their larger counterparts as they streaked towards the planets. While they still lost many of their number, they fought back voraciously with each loss, some even over-heating their guns for a time as they did so. The Darkets also fought back with just as much vigour, braving the 'flak' fire they received as they forced the opposing fighters to fight while risking their lives under friendly fire. The Darkets particularly favoured using their smart recognition missiles as they would chase down their targets even as their employers switched to different targets to engage. With a numerical advantage of roughly one hundred fifty thousand plus, it was obvious that this fighter battle was one-sided in favour of the Clanners.

OOC: "Numbers were hard to tell, but there were at least ten thousand from the Immortal alone."

Just what are these drones exactly? As the designer of the Immortal, I doubt that a single ship could hold that many. It only holds 216 fighters, after all.

Also, tag for future involvement. My military has been itching for contact with the Clanners for quite a while now.

((You're welcome to be. Consider this a formal challenge to a Trial of Possession.:cool: ))

OOC: "Numbers were hard to tell, but there were at least ten thousand from the Immortal alone."

Just what are these drones exactly? As the designer of the Immortal, I doubt that a single ship could hold that many. It only holds 216 fighters, after all.

Also, tag for future involvement. My military has been itching for contact with the Clanners for quite a while now.
OOC: Bleh. Thanks for reminding me. It's ten thousand across the Caligula fleet. These guys are tiny, only about two meters, and carry dual rapid-fire laser cannons, and have a droid brain loaded the latest combat packages while their sensor packages are linked through the capital ships and each other, giving the droid version of a Jedi battle meld. They're our answer to enemy swarms, although we aren't quite as good at swarming as others are. *saunters off to create a dedicated carrier class for the drones.*

Damn freebirths... thought the Wolf Captain as he watched the enemies quite literally side step their attack. Not only that, but no sooner had they done so, several high-powered beams streaked forth between their opponents. Of the salvo of fire dealt by the super laser stations, five of the massive Star League Warships were skewered, causing them to fall apart as internal systems exploded until, finally, their main reactors breached, and the massive explosions that ensued next engulfed many of their allies as well.
The superlasers were seemingly pleased with their first assault and cycled for another. Once they completed the cycling, they aimed again and fired.

The Alpha Strike from the Coredian flagship impacted the Alexander Kerensky. However, they were going to get their own suprise as the same ship that they attacked moved in closer into a near broadside.

"Are the weapons ready?!" The Wolf Captain was on his feet, moving around the bridge even as the ship rocked from the force of the unprecedented attack by the Immortal

"Aff, si-!"

"Then get this ship right alongside theirs' and fire them now!" The Wolf Captain's voice was that of rage. He had known something was not right, and this had just proven that he was right about his intuition.

The Alexander Kerensky soon maneuvered itself along the port side of the Immortal, its own main guns still firing. However, the next thing would be a surprise. As the ship got into position, hundreds of guns folded onto the outter hull. Each gun resembled a massive gatling gun, and the Coredians were about to figure out just what they were.

The guns then turned to face the Coredian ship, and, within seconds, they revealed themselves to be a double-edged sword. These guns were a modification to the original design, which had been normal heavy-caliber gauss cannons. These 'miniguns' were a combination of both a Heavy PPC and a Heavy Gauss Rifle. However, the way they fired was even more interesting. As the cylinder rotated, two attached firing mechanisms would fire at the same time, one firing the heavy PPC, the other firing the Heavy Gauss Rifle. This one-two-punch would come in the form of 1400 rounds a minute, and from several hundred guns at once, no ship's shields and armour would hold up long against it.
"Nice toys. Too bad they aren't as useful as they think." The Commodore quipped as the ship rumbled under the assault were impacted by the heavy PPC and gauss rounds. Funny thing was, the Heavy PPC blows were absorbed by the Molecular Shielding the Immortal employed, the energy redirected into the ray/particle shields underneath the Molecular Shields, giving them staying power that will prove to be a challenge to even a Super Star Destroyer. Or so the Commodore hoped. Still, there was damage reported on several decks, as the rounds that manage to get past carved into the hull, blowing holes into them.

"We lost several turbolasers, two PPCs and three port sections." Damage control reported.

"Seal off the damaged portions!" The Commodore cooly snapped. "Draw all weapons power into one of the PPCs aimed at the enemy battleship. We'll sacrifice that one, then fire a broadside at the weakened section!"

"Yes, sir!"

The weapons fire slacked off for a seemingly unknown reason. The enemy might think they hit a vital spot or something. Then, one of the PPCs glowed extremely bright and hot as the weapons power was redirected into the one cannon. Then...it literally exploded with deep blue ionized energy, powerful enough to damage and/or disable a Super Star Destroyer (the Empire's Obliterator was damaged in this manner) and blew up in the process, shaking the ship some more. The weapons fire remained low for a few moments, then resumed directing all available weapons on the broadside into the weakened section, hoping to compound the damage from the Super-PPC blow.

The battle enfolding beyond this was laughable, at best. The Clan ships put up a valiant effort, trading fire with their Coredian counterparts. Already, many of the JumpShips were sinking as their weak hulls collapsed under the strain of damage. Still, they pushed on, some of them charging and attempting to ram their assailants while in their death throes.
The six beamcannons from the Nova Destroyers (http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/Coredia/Nova1.jpg) carved the enemy up like Thanksgiving turkey as they flew like oversized fighters sweeping through the enemy ranks, while the missile cruisers continued to light off salvo after salvo of nukes, antimatter, proton, concussion and Shattermissiles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12972617&postcount=2). A Victory Star Destroyer decided it would be a good idea to unleash its beamlasers upon the Jumpships, further slicing up the enemy like a well-done dinner.

The DropShips, however, were fairing better than their larger counterparts as they streaked towards the planets. While they still lost many of their number, they fought back voraciously with each loss, some even over-heating their guns for a time as they did so. The Darkets also fought back with just as much vigour, braving the 'flak' fire they received as they forced the opposing fighters to fight while risking their lives under friendly fire. The Darkets particularly favoured using their smart recognition missiles as they would chase down their targets even as their employers switched to different targets to engage. With a numerical advantage of roughly one hundred fifty thousand plus, it was obvious that this fighter battle was one-sided in favour of the Clanners.
The beamlasers on the Makos, Victories and Defenders were also well-placed to strike at the enemy swarms, sweeping through the sky and blowing up whatever they touch. Each of the Star Destroyer classes (except for the Immortal, damn it!) had 8 of the devastating weapons, two for each side (dorsal, ventral, starboard, port), each of the beams sweeping across the sky, swatting down the enemy fighters like gnats. That was in addition to the stutterfire mode that the normal turbolasers, ion cannons and laser cannons unleashed on the enemy.

The three Katana (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Daedalus_class_battlecruiser_orbits_Atlantis.jpg)-class Medium Cruisers had two beamlasers each as well as heavy laser cannons, light turbolasers and missile racks, and they sweeped through the Dropship ranks, dodging fire and carving the enemy up or just blowing them up with their laser cannons.

Meanwhile, as the enemy grew closer to the planets, orbital stations lit off with crisscrossing bolts of red and green turbolasers as well as lighting off with concussion and proton missiles, not to mention the defense shields (no planetary shield) that was activated over Caligula's cities and major refineries. The Dropships shall not pass!

The fighters and Wolfpacks didn't fare so well, with the enemy swarm decimating the ranks, no matter how well they fought. Even so, several of the fighters, Jedi and Shinobi all, racked up kill after kill as they employed the Force to their assistance, dodging when they should have died and firing when they should have missed, even using the Force offensively when the opportunity presented itself. There were too few in number for the Jedi to use their Battle Meld skill, but they still kept up morale with their mere presence.

It was a devastating battle for both sides. The Coredian capital ships were slowly getting overwhelmed by the sheer number and size of the enemy, but they'd be damned if they didn't take down as many as they could with them!

The unprecedented super shot PPC blast caught the Wolf Captain off guard, and as the Coredian ship renewed its efforts into the weakened section of the hull, the Captain began to laugh maniacly.

"Now these are true opponents!" His voice was that of utter delight as he watched the Super Laser Stations blow away another four of the Star League Warships. "Helm! Bring the ship around! Inform fire control to begin powering the Hyper PPC once more! Aim the shot right at their battlestations! In the meantime, have all main guns redirect their fire onto our worthy freebirth opponents!"

"Aff!" The response to the orders was quick, and the ship began to turn to its port side, acting as if it was going to ram a corner of the Star Destroyer. However, no sooner had it turned did the larger capital ship gauss cannons begin firing into the rear port section of the Coredian flagship. Three minutes into the maneuver, the Hyper PPC was brought to bear, firing on one of the Super Laser Stations at sixty percent power. While not as destructive as a full charge, it would still provide one helluva punch. The side guns still provided their own high velocity barrages, still hoping to knock down the shields and be able to penetrate into the armour.

The Eagle's Talon soon joined the battle against the Coredian flagship, bringing itself up to the starboard side of the ship. Its starboard hatches opened up, revealing the basic heavy gauss cannons that were standard on all Star League Warships. Soon, those began firing onto Star Destroyer, although not with as many rounds per minute, only topping out at five hundred rounds per minute. Still, the larger caliber and higher yield warheads would provide more than enough punch to strain their opponent. Onboard the ship, Falconer Captain Julia was screaming with rage and delight as she continued to order her men to keep up their assault.

The other Star League warships continued to trade shots with both the Coredian fleet and the space stations in orbit over Caligula, their main cannons and broadside cannons being used to their full potential while the occasional Hyper PPC was fired either at the space stations or the planet's own self defenses. The tenacity of these defenders only furthered to fuel the Clanners' desire to win as they fought with renewed vigour, pressing their attack harder than before.

However, the fleet was still not without losses. The JumpShip carriers were taking a beating, many of them sinking under the strain of so much damage. Still, they fought with the same renewed vigour, charging forward alongside their larger battleworthy cousins, taking shots at damn near any enemy they could see.

The fighters kept up their assault, keeping the enemy fighters and corvettes at bay, all the while trying to protect their battered DropShips that pressed forward towards the planet, many beginning to actually enter the planet's upper atmosphere.

"Lead, you have a bandit on your tail."

"Aff, turning hard."

"Three, two bandits at point zero eight, moving to assist."

The comms chatter filled the ears of the Galaxy Commander in charge of them. He banked as a laser bolt nearly struck his cockpit, all the while trying to maintain a lock on the X-Wing he was chasing. He opened up on the fighter with his meson guns, their high rate of fire creating the illusion of an energy stream. As he watched the fighter bank out of his line of fire, he was nearly caught by an out-of-control Darket that had been sent spiraling out of control by what seemed like an invisible force. He banked at the last second, the poor Darket slamming into one of its brethren. The Galaxy Commander cursed as he broke off from his target.

"All fighters, prepare for attack pattern alpha six niner," he announced over the comms. "Focus all efforts against the enemy starships harrassing our DropShips on my mark."

As he received the confirmations from each of the Star Commanders under him, he gunned his afterburners as he charged against the DropShips' harrassers. "Mark!"

In almost perfect unison, the entire fighter force broke off the enemy fighters and Wolfpacks, charging with their afterburners at the Katanas at full speed. Their meson guns created a blanket of fire that was near-impossible to see through, and those that had missiles used them against the cruisers. Their fire would be a considerable strain against them, and the fighters would maintain their assault until the cruisers either turned tail and rain or capitulated under the attack. Still, even as they attacked the Katanas, the fighters would engage any enemy fighters that chased them down.

The DropShip, however, were beginning their assault on the planet, now concentrating on finding LZs and clearing them out with their lasers. Soon, the planetary defenses would be swarmed by the Clanners ground assault forces. Onboard one of the DropShips, Star Colonel Amelia sat within the confines of her Timber Wolf (http://sarna.net/wiki/Timber_Wolf_%28Mad_Cat%29), the Mech translating the rocking of the DropShip into somewhat controled nudges as the Mech's neurohelmet synched with her sense of balance.

It will not be long, she thought. Soon, I will rightfully earn my bloodname, and soon, I shall become the most reknowned warrior in Clan Wolf.

The unprecedented super shot PPC blast caught the Wolf Captain off guard, and as the Coredian ship renewed its efforts into the weakened section of the hull, the Captain began to laugh maniacly.

"Now these are true opponents!" His voice was that of utter delight as he watched the Super Laser Stations blow away another four of the Star League Warships. "Helm! Bring the ship around! Inform fire control to begin powering the Hyper PPC once more! Aim the shot right at their battlestations! In the meantime, have all main guns redirect their fire onto our worthy freebirth opponents!"

"Aff!" The response to the orders was quick, and the ship began to turn to its port side, acting as if it was going to ram a corner of the Star Destroyer. However, no sooner had it turned did the larger capital ship gauss cannons begin firing into the rear port section of the Coredian flagship. Three minutes into the maneuver, the Hyper PPC was brought to bear, firing on one of the Super Laser Stations at sixty percent power. While not as destructive as a full charge, it would still provide one helluva punch. The side guns still provided their own high velocity barrages, still hoping to knock down the shields and be able to penetrate into the armour.
Even at sixty percent, the Hyper PPC shot was enough to disable the one superlaser station that was targeted, but there were still six more to go, each one barraging into the enemy ranks, not to mention the three Artillery Star Destroyers.

Meanwhile, aboard the Velociraptor II...

"Sir, they're turning on the superlasers!"

"I can see that! Keep in line with the weakened section! Aim another broadside into the breach!" The Admiral ordered. The Star Destroyer compiled, using its inertia engines to keep up with the enemy's turning rate and launched another furious broadside into the enemy weak point while its shields started to weaken due to the enemy's superior might. Still, if they could just burn through the hole into something vital...

The Eagle's Talon soon joined the battle against the Coredian flagship, bringing itself up to the starboard side of the ship. Its starboard hatches opened up, revealing the basic heavy gauss cannons that were standard on all Star League Warships. Soon, those began firing onto Star Destroyer, although not with as many rounds per minute, only topping out at five hundred rounds per minute. Still, the larger caliber and higher yield warheads would provide more than enough punch to strain their opponent. Onboard the ship, Falconer Captain Julia was screaming with rage and delight as she continued to order her men to keep up their assault.
Suddenly, the Star Destroyer rocked, throwing people off their feet and spacing several more decks on the starboard side.

"Grr. Someone back us up! We can't fight two six-klick ships at the same time!" The Commordore, bleeding from a cut above his right eye, yelled to anyone who would hear.

A Defender answered the call, and created a further surprise for the enemy. For instead of throwing themselves conventionally at the enemy, the small Star Destroyer disappeared in a white flash of Cherenkov radiation, reappearing in another flash in between the two ships and unleashed a furious Alpha Strike upon the Eagle's Talon with its bow pointed at the enemy, while weaker than the Immortal, it still slashed at the enemy with its beamlasers and barraged it with ion cannons and turbolasers, allowing the Immortal to turn aside and bring its full fury upon the enemy flagship. Such a brave captain deserves commendation!

The other Star League warships continued to trade shots with both the Coredian fleet and the space stations in orbit over Caligula, their main cannons and broadside cannons being used to their full potential while the occasional Hyper PPC was fired either at the space stations or the planet's own self defenses. The tenacity of these defenders only furthered to fuel the Clanners' desire to win as they fought with renewed vigour, pressing their attack harder than before.

However, the fleet was still not without losses. The JumpShip carriers were taking a beating, many of them sinking under the strain of so much damage. Still, they fought with the same renewed vigour, charging forward alongside their larger battleworthy cousins, taking shots at damn near any enemy they could see.
The enemy could see more flashes of Cherenkov radiation as the rest of the fleet followed suit after that first Defender, popping behind the enemy ranks to unleash hell on their sterns. It was the first real use of the Tactical Jump Drive and it looks like it was implemented with great success! The High Command would feel a warm fuzzy feeling that they've done something right when they met the Colonies. Still, they were few in number and the enemy many...

The fighters kept up their assault, keeping the enemy fighters and corvettes at bay, all the while trying to protect their battered DropShips that pressed forward towards the planet, many beginning to actually enter the planet's upper atmosphere.

"Lead, you have a bandit on your tail."

"Aff, turning hard."

"Three, two bandits at point zero eight, moving to assist."

The comms chatter filled the ears of the Galaxy Commander in charge of them. He banked as a laser bolt nearly struck his cockpit, all the while trying to maintain a lock on the X-Wing he was chasing. He opened up on the fighter with his meson guns, their high rate of fire creating the illusion of an energy stream. As he watched the fighter bank out of his line of fire, he was nearly caught by an out-of-control Darket that had been sent spiraling out of control by what seemed like an invisible force. He banked at the last second, the poor Darket slamming into one of its brethren. The Galaxy Commander cursed as he broke off from his target.
Jedi Knight Bailey Kipper breathed hard after using the Force to throw off the enemy starfighter commander, but it wasn't over yet, not by a long shot. The Jedi cut his engines, whirled on a dime and made a bead for the Galaxy Commander, blazing away with his laser cannons.

"All fighters, prepare for attack pattern alpha six niner," he announced over the comms. "Focus all efforts against the enemy starships harrassing our DropShips on my mark."

As he received the confirmations from each of the Star Commanders under him, he gunned his afterburners as he charged against the DropShips' harrassers. "Mark!"

In almost perfect unison, the entire fighter force broke off the enemy fighters and Wolfpacks, charging with their afterburners at the Katanas at full speed. Their meson guns created a blanket of fire that was near-impossible to see through, and those that had missiles used them against the cruisers. Their fire would be a considerable strain against them, and the fighters would maintain their assault until the cruisers either turned tail and rain or capitulated under the attack. Still, even as they attacked the Katanas, the fighters would engage any enemy fighters that chased them down.
The commander of the Katanas noted the fighters bearing down upon them and smirked. The Katanas, too were recently fitted with the new Drives and they also took advantage of them, blinking away and reappearing in such a way that they're firing within the enemy fighter ranks, slashing everywhere and decimating the enemy forces. Unfortunately, that left the Dropships to the orbitial defenses alone to deal with the numerous Dropships...

The DropShip, however, were beginning their assault on the planet, now concentrating on finding LZs and clearing them out with their lasers. Soon, the planetary defenses would be swarmed by the Clanners ground assault forces. Onboard one of the DropShips, Star Colonel Amelia sat within the confines of her Timber Wolf (http://sarna.net/wiki/Timber_Wolf_%28Mad_Cat%29), the Mech translating the rocking of the DropShip into somewhat controled nudges as the Mech's neurohelmet synched with her sense of balance.

It will not be long, she thought. Soon, I will rightfully earn my bloodname, and soon, I shall become the most reknowned warrior in Clan Wolf.
The Mining Colony of Caligula didn't have much in the way of ground defenses, being a colony and not a major world, but what they did have was potent enough on their own, although the bigger 'mechs will be trouble until the reinforcements arrive with heavy ground forces of their own.

Spider and Scorpion Zoids, unmanned but deadly against infantry and light mechanized forces, dug into preplanned positions and waited to ambush their enemies, while the garrison took out their hovertanks and prepared for enemy incursions as best they could while the civilians rushed into bunkers and dug-in cave shelters. The heaviest armarments were stationary, anti-vehicle and anti-personnel turbolaser cannons coming online and scanning the horizons for enemy Mechs. Meanwhile, the anti-air defenses did their best to take down the dropships, with deadly red spears of light lighting up the sky against the backdrop of the beautiful but deadly black hole watching the proceedings with an eternally watchful eye...

Falconer Captain Julia screamed with glee as the ship was rocked by the Alpha strike from the Defender. In return, she ordered that the ship prepare their own counter-Alpha strike, and after a five second lull in the ships firing pattern, every gun on the starboard side of the Eagle's Talon opened up on the same spot on the Defender, hoping to break its shield with the strain of kinetic energy fire long enough so that they could bring their heavier PPCs into play.

In the meantime, the Alexander Kerensky made a full boost towards the planet, still broadsiding the Star Destroyer that had the gall to chase them down.

"Sir! That ship is still coming after us! Backwards!" Suddenly, the comms officer began receiving reports from the rest of the fleet about the enemy's Jump maneuver. "Sir! The enemy! They jumped behind the entire fleet!"

"Aff! I know! Order a full rush to the planet's surface! Inform all landing forces to prepare for hard-drop! Have the JumpShips form a blockade to keep the enemy from chasing after us! I want this done five minutes ago!"

"Aff!"

In unison, the entire fleet began rushing the planet. The ships, who were the original targets, were forgotten as the Warships, having lost three more ships to the Super Lasers, now focused their attention on the Super Lasers, opening up with every weapon in their fowards arsenals. In the meantime, the JumpShips switched to broadside maneuvers, bringing to bear their pulse laser batteries and their medium laser banks. Those ships that had support Mechs, mostly of the Yeoman heavy chassis, also deployed their support long range missile Mechs, giving the enemy fleet more to worry about in the form of guided missiles.

The Galaxy Commander's fighter gave off warning klaxons as the Jedi peeled in behind him. Banking hard, he performed a full one hundred eighty degree turn with just his verniers, having cut his engines for the split second necessary. The momentum from his engines still carried him along the path he had been on. He didn't care if he went down in the process. This fighter was becoming a royal nuissance to him, and he fought back by deploying both of his missiles at the Jedi before hitting his after burners and propelling himself up and over his assailant just as his shields were about to give way.

The fighters now returned to their original directive of engaging the Coredian corvette and fighter formations, renewing their assault with a ferocity unseen by any military. Each Coredian fighter was engaged by nearly ten times its number as the still-near-hundred thousand plus fighters focused their attention on their counterparts.

Meanwhile, the DropShips had touched down on their chosen beach heads, and hundreds of armoured infantry, tanks, and dozens of Mechs began their assault on the Coredian planetary defenses. The most common mechs found for each weight class follows. For lights, the Fire Moth (http://sarna.net/wiki/Fire_Moth_%28Dasher%29) and the Adder (http://sarna.net/wiki/Adder_%28Puma%29) provided the fast attackers and raiders necessary to take out the anti-orbital defense weapons. For mediums, the Storm Crow (http://sarna.net/wiki/Stormcrow_%28Ryoken%29), the Uziel (http://sarna.net/wiki/Uziel), and the Nova (http://sarna.net/wiki/Nova_%28Black_Hawk%29) provided the necessary fire support for their lighter cousins, defending them with a frightening ferocity. For Heavies, Mad Dogs (http://sarna.net/wiki/Mad_Dog_(Vulture)), Timber Wolves (http://sarna.net/wiki/Timber_Wolf_(Mad_Cat)), and Warhammers (http://sarna.net/wiki/Warhammer) provided the necessary fire support, engaging tanks and any defending Mechs they could grab into their sights. Finally, for the Assaults, the powerful Dire Wolf (http://sarna.net/wiki/Dire_Wolf_(Daishi)) chassis dominated the field, providing long-range fire support to its smaller brethren, assisted by the Executioner (http://sarna.net/wiki/Executioner_(Gladiator)) chassis and the Warhawk (http://sarna.net/wiki/Warhawk_(Masakari)) chassis with a few rare Mad Cats (http://sarna.net/wiki/Mad_Cat_Mk_II) appearing, their size difference between their smaller cousins and themselves singling them out.

Star Colonel Amelia's Timber Wolf tundled forth, her Star consisting of one other Timber Wolf and three Mad Dogs. Each building that looked like it had a communications array or looked like it would fire on them suffering a fiery death from her Star's lasers. Her Star was being supported by two other Stars, one with four Warhammers and a Timber Wolf, the other with four Dire Wolves and a Mad Cat.

"Keep your eyes peeled, everyone," ordered Amelia. "We do not know what the enemy's ground forces have, so we must take every precaution lest we be ambushed."

"Aff, lead," was the response she received from her Trinary as they trundled forth towards their objective, the large city about one hundred kilometers away. They could see the city's theatre shield from where they were, and the silohouette of the city could be seen inside.

((So, you've got Mech references. Now for Infantry and Tank references. I couldn't find an actual tank in the BT Wiki, although I know that a few exist, so I'm going to use this as my main tank (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/M808_Scorpion_MBT), this as my light recon vehicle (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Warthog), and this (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Hornet) and this (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Sparrowhawk) as my close air support gunships. These (http://sarna.net/wiki/Elemental_Battle_Armor) are my Elementals.))

Falconer Captain Julia screamed with glee as the ship was rocked by the Alpha strike from the Defender. In return, she ordered that the ship prepare their own counter-Alpha strike, and after a five second lull in the ships firing pattern, every gun on the starboard side of the Eagle's Talon opened up on the same spot on the Defender, hoping to break its shield with the strain of kinetic energy fire long enough so that they could bring their heavier PPCs into play.
Unfortunately, Captain Julia seems to have forgotten about the fleet's ability to dodge like a madman, allowing the Defender to sideswipe the enemy's guns. It still continued to barrage the enemy with Alpha Strike after Alpha Strike, even as it maneuvered swiftly to dodge and avoid enemy fire. It would have been funny if it wasn't so serious...

In the meantime, the Alexander Kerensky made a full boost towards the planet, still broadsiding the Star Destroyer that had the gall to chase them down.

"Sir! That ship is still coming after us! Backwards!" Suddenly, the comms officer began receiving reports from the rest of the fleet about the enemy's Jump maneuver. "Sir! The enemy! They jumped behind the entire fleet!"

"Aff! I know! Order a full rush to the planet's surface! Inform all landing forces to prepare for hard-drop! Have the JumpShips form a blockade to keep the enemy from chasing after us! I want this done five minutes ago!"

"Aff!"
The Star Destroyer's weird tactics must have unnerved the commander, but it wouldn't be so as it swiftly turned around and continued to launch salvo after salvo of its main cannons into the Alexander Kerensky. Then, the Admiral decided to risk a second Super-PPC blast, sacrificing one of the forward batteries instead. Once more, a super-powerful blast of PPC energy smashed towards the Kerensky and once more the Immortal Star Destroyer waited to recycle its weapons before launching another round of salvo fire...

In unison, the entire fleet began rushing the planet. The ships, who were the original targets, were forgotten as the Warships, having lost three more ships to the Super Lasers, now focused their attention on the Super Lasers, opening up with every weapon in their fowards arsenals. In the meantime, the JumpShips switched to broadside maneuvers, bringing to bear their pulse laser batteries and their medium laser banks. Those ships that had support Mechs, mostly of the Yeoman heavy chassis, also deployed their support long range missile Mechs, giving the enemy fleet more to worry about in the form of guided missiles.
The Coredian Star Destroyers followed suit with great acceleration, aiming for the sterns of the enemy ships with their heavy turbolasers and beamlaser cannons, among other weapons. They also maintained their shield levels for the most part with their Molecular shields absorbing the laser energy, allowing them to stand up to the guided missile launches. It will take more than this to deal with ten+ ships all gunning for them!

The Galaxy Commander's fighter gave off warning klaxons as the Jedi peeled in behind him. Banking hard, he performed a full one hundred eighty degree turn with just his verniers, having cut his engines for the split second necessary. The momentum from his engines still carried him along the path he had been on. He didn't care if he went down in the process. This fighter was becoming a royal nuissance to him, and he fought back by deploying both of his missiles at the Jedi before hitting his after burners and propelling himself up and over his assailant just as his shields were about to give way.
The Jedi sensed the missiles launching before his astromech could squeal out a warning and shot one down while the other was barrel-rolled off course to strike elsewhere, while the Jedi himself spun around to pursue the Commander, firing his laser cannons again.

The fighters now returned to their original directive of engaging the Coredian corvette and fighter formations, renewing their assault with a ferocity unseen by any military. Each Coredian fighter was engaged by nearly ten times its number as the still-near-hundred thousand plus fighters focused their attention on their counterparts.
This was a most serious problem, for even the Jedi cannot fight off such huge numbers of fighters, and it showed as fighter after fighter went down to enemy forces. Even the drone fighters, a swarm of their own, could not hope to defeat forces of this caliber, and though they lasted longer due to their small size, they too died out. As a result, two gunships died to the onslaught and two were mission-killed as a matter of course. It wasn't looking good for the defending fighters...

Meanwhile, the DropShips had touched down on their chosen beach heads, and hundreds of armoured infantry, tanks, and dozens of Mechs began their assault on the Coredian planetary defenses. The most common mechs found for each weight class follows. For lights, the Fire Moth (http://sarna.net/wiki/Fire_Moth_%28Dasher%29) and the Adder (http://sarna.net/wiki/Adder_%28Puma%29) provided the fast attackers and raiders necessary to take out the anti-orbital defense weapons. For mediums, the Storm Crow (http://sarna.net/wiki/Stormcrow_%28Ryoken%29), the Uziel (http://sarna.net/wiki/Uziel), and the Nova (http://sarna.net/wiki/Nova_%28Black_Hawk%29) provided the necessary fire support for their lighter cousins, defending them with a frightening ferocity. For Heavies, Mad Dogs (http://sarna.net/wiki/Mad_Dog_(Vulture)), Timber Wolves (http://sarna.net/wiki/Timber_Wolf_(Mad_Cat)), and Warhammers (http://sarna.net/wiki/Warhammer) provided the necessary fire support, engaging tanks and any defending Mechs they could grab into their sights. Finally, for the Assaults, the powerful Dire Wolf (http://sarna.net/wiki/Dire_Wolf_(Daishi)) chassis dominated the field, providing long-range fire support to its smaller brethren, assisted by the Executioner (http://sarna.net/wiki/Executioner_(Gladiator)) chassis and the Warhawk (http://sarna.net/wiki/Warhawk_(Masakari)) chassis with a few rare Mad Cats (http://sarna.net/wiki/Mad_Cat_Mk_II) appearing, their size difference between their smaller cousins and themselves singling them out.

Star Colonel Amelia's Timber Wolf tundled forth, her Star consisting of one other Timber Wolf and three Mad Dogs. Each building that looked like it had a communications array or looked like it would fire on them suffering a fiery death from her Star's lasers. Her Star was being supported by two other Stars, one with four Warhammers and a Timber Wolf, the other with four Dire Wolves and a Mad Cat.

"Keep your eyes peeled, everyone," ordered Amelia. "We do not know what the enemy's ground forces have, so we must take every precaution lest we be ambushed."

"Aff, lead," was the response she received from her Trinary as they trundled forth towards their objective, the large city about one hundred kilometers away. They could see the city's theatre shield from where they were, and the silohouette of the city could be seen inside.

((So, you've got Mech references. Now for Infantry and Tank references. I couldn't find an actual tank in the BT Wiki, although I know that a few exist, so I'm going to use this as my main tank (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/M808_Scorpion_MBT), this as my light recon vehicle (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Warthog), and this as my close air support gunships (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Hornet). These (http://sarna.net/wiki/Elemental_Battle_Armor) are my Elementals.))
The city closest to the Star Colonel was known as Hades for a rather obvious reason, and it was also the only one worthy of being called a city in the political sense on this rock, for all the other places were pretty much refinery towns. It was a rather lucky break for the Star Colonel, for if she could capture the planetary governor, Caligula will fall and the Coredians will have all that harder a time to retake the planet. As it was, the defending forces threw everything they could at the enemy, from tactical nuclear missiles and seismic bombs to turbolaser bolts to tanks and the ambushes. Mines were laid out to deal with the enemy forces, but it's likely the heavy mechs will just step on them without issue. Still, they had to try something...

At least the Spiders and Scorpions were doing their job, ambushing whenever a mech or tank came too close and shooting the hell out of the cockpits with fang and tail-mounted cannons, and laying to waste ranks of Elementals and recon vessels with their antipersonnel cannons. The Scorpions also had powerful pincers that could be use to grab opponents and crush them. But in the end, there were only so many tanks and Zoids to go around and pretty soon, the city might well be taken. Even so, the defenders had tenacity and a deep unwillingness to give up, even if it meant death. You can thank years of Imperial invasion for that!

The Eagle's Talon still fought on, however, never relenting as it began to engage the Defender with its larger weapons cache. Kinetic energy weapons streamed off shot after shot, desparately trying to strike the Defender in hopes of slowing it down. In the meantime, the rest of the fleet had achieved a level orbit, the ventral sections of the Warships facing the planet and opening up, releasing ten more DropShips each to descend upon the planet. As soon as those DropShips were released, the fleet returned its attention back to the enemy fleet, starting off their renewed assault by charging their Hyper PPCs and throwing out a barrage. That barrage was soon followed by an intense, continuous barrage of gauss cannons.
______________________________________________________________

The Alexander Kerensky was rocked hard by the charged PPC shot, and the crew was knocked around on the bridge. The Wolf Captain had been knocked off his feet, sprawling across the floor.

"Damage report!" His voice was of frustrated anger as he stood back up.

"Hull integrity is failing! Multiple hull breaches are being reported around engineering! They are also reporting a possible core overload!" The tactical officer's voice was frantic as he listed off the problems.

"Begin evacuation procedures of the ship! Everyone is to reach a DropShip or an escape pod immediately!"

"But si-!"

"That is an order, filth!"

Soon, evacuation procedures were being made as the hundreds of crew members sought out a means of escape. The Coredians would soon see little pops of air as hundreds of escape pods blasted out of tubes in the sides of the ship, and they would soon be greeted by the sight of ten DropShips exiting the underside of the ship. The DropShips would provide the necessary covering fire as the escape pods descended towards the surface of the planet, and they, too would follow slowly. However, no sooner had they departed from the ship, several sections of the hull erupted into blasts of flame, and within a few short moments, the entire ship's mid-section exploded, sheering the ship in half. The Alexander Kerensky was no more.

The JumpShips still provided a distraction as they blasted away at the Coredian fleet, unrelenting in their quest to eliminate them, never knowing that their shots were doing absolutely nothing to penetrate the shields. Soon, however, they would be joined by the DropShips on planet ascending from the planet, having completed their task, and they, too, joined the fight, blasting away with their laser banks in an effort to slow the Coredian counter-assault.

The Galaxy Commander banked hard again, barely evading a lethal direct hit to his fueselage as he barreled into another turn, trying to shake off the annoying Jedi.

"I have one on me. Requested backup."

"Aff, lead. We have him."

Soon, seven Darkets peeled onto the Jedi's tail, each of them opening up with their meson guns as they tried to force the Jedi off their leader's six.
______________________________________________________________

On the planet, Star Colonel Amelia's Trinary had come up against a number of those annoying Zoids. She stepped back as one of the Spiders sent a barrage her way, and she felt the force of the hit rock her Mech hard. She responded in kind, skewering the annoyance with a blast from her left-arm large laser.

"Blasted filthborn," she cursed as another Zoid, a scorpion-type, latched onto her Mech's leg, trying to crush it in its grasp. It would soon fail in its endeavour as a concentrated pulse laser barrage from a friendly Mad Dog blasted it to pieces.

"Thanks," said the Colonel.

"Aff," was the response she received. No casualties had been taken by this heavy Trinary, and they continued on their march towards Hades.

A few kilometers ahead, they engaged a light amount of enemy tanks, and the Mechs soon dispatched them, leaving the Coredian tanks as nothing but a pile of slag. Some fifty kilometers out, the Colonel called the Trinary to a halt.

"Why do we not advance?" The leader of the Assault Star stepped up next to the Colonel.

"Look," she said, using her Mech's arm to point out the ensuing battle in front of them. "Our forces are being pushed back. They do not have the necessary firepower to penetrate the shield."

"Then let us join them so that we may bring it down," responded the Assault lead.

"Neg," Amelia responded. "Three, can you analyze the shield?"

"Aff, lead."

"Why do you wait, Amelia?!" The voice of the Assault lead was of anxious frustration. "Are you afraid tha-"

The Assault lead soon shut up as Amelia turned and raised her Mech's right arm, pointing the barrel of her large laser directly at his cockpit.

"Are you questioning me, freeborn?! Quiaff?!" Her voice sent the calculated dare at him. After a moment, the Assault lead stepped back.

"Neg, Star Colonel," he responded.

Amelia smirked, knowing full well he could not see her, and she simply turned back to face the city before them. She squinted as she looked at the city, making note of the several turbolaser towers just inside the shield. The ones opposite of them had been eliminated in short order earlier, the entire Trinary having used their LRMs to successfully create a missile barrage that brought them down.

"Colonel," came the voice of her number three. "I have something, although I am not quite sure what it is..."

"Elaborate," she responded.

"It seems, from what I have observed, that energy projectiles do not actually damage the shield itself."

"What do you mean?"

"I cannot be certain," he continued. "But I believe that energy weapons feed the shield's power source."

"Are you certain of this?"

"Possib-"

"Are you certain?!"

"Aff, lead," came the nervous response of 'Three'. "I also made note that, using my telescopic view, I could see enemy vehicles passing through the shield itself."

"Really?" Amelia's voice was coy as she smirked. "Well, then, I guess we shall just have to do the same. Move out."

"Aff, lead."

The Trinary then proceeded, and soon, they would be joined by a full cluster of combat vehicles and another full cluster of light Mechs and Elementals. It would be explained to them the observations, and they would fall in line behind the larger Mechs for protection as they moved fowards every so slowly. It wouldn't be long before the city of Hades would truly live up to its name.

The Eagle's Talon still fought on, however, never relenting as it began to engage the Defender with its larger weapons cache. Kinetic energy weapons streamed off shot after shot, desparately trying to strike the Defender in hopes of slowing it down. In the meantime, the rest of the fleet had achieved a level orbit, the ventral sections of the Warships facing the planet and opening up, releasing ten more DropShips each to descend upon the planet. As soon as those DropShips were released, the fleet returned its attention back to the enemy fleet, starting off their renewed assault by charging their Hyper PPCs and throwing out a barrage. That barrage was soon followed by an intense, continuous barrage of gauss cannons.
The lone Defender was getting damaged with every hit, but it wasn't about to give up, oh no! It continued to barrage the enemy ship with mighty torrents of energy fire, while the Coredian fleet continued to take on a ship count larger than their own.

Suddenly, concentrated H-PPC fire turned a MC-90 into slag, causing the first casualty of the day. Nevertheless, the fleet fought on, concentrating firepower on one Warship at a time...

______________________________________________________________

The Alexander Kerensky was rocked hard by the charged PPC shot, and the crew was knocked around on the bridge. The Wolf Captain had been knocked off his feet, sprawling across the floor.

"Damage report!" His voice was of frustrated anger as he stood back up.

"Hull integrity is failing! Multiple hull breaches are being reported around engineering! They are also reporting a possible core overload!" The tactical officer's voice was frantic as he listed off the problems.

"Begin evacuation procedures of the ship! Everyone is to reach a DropShip or an escape pod immediately!"

"But si-!"

"That is an order, filth!"

Soon, evacuation procedures were being made as the hundreds of crew members sought out a means of escape. The Coredians would soon see little pops of air as hundreds of escape pods blasted out of tubes in the sides of the ship, and they would soon be greeted by the sight of ten DropShips exiting the underside of the ship. The DropShips would provide the necessary covering fire as the escape pods descended towards the surface of the planet, and they, too would follow slowly. However, no sooner had they departed from the ship, several sections of the hull erupted into blasts of flame, and within a few short moments, the entire ship's mid-section exploded, sheering the ship in half. The Alexander Kerensky was no more.

The JumpShips still provided a distraction as they blasted away at the Coredian fleet, unrelenting in their quest to eliminate them, never knowing that their shots were doing absolutely nothing to penetrate the shields. Soon, however, they would be joined by the DropShips on planet ascending from the planet, having completed their task, and they, too, joined the fight, blasting away with their laser banks in an effort to slow the Coredian counter-assault.
"Yeah!" The crew of the Immortal Star Destroyer cheered as what appeared to be the flagship blew apart under the assault. For a ship 1/3 the size of a Warship, size mattered not.

"Save your cheers for later!" The Commodore yelled at the crew. "Helm, come about! We shall support the Shieldbearer against that second warship!"

With a swiftness that seemed more frigate than battleship, the bow of the Star Destroyer pointed at the Eagle's Talon and unleashed its fury with salvo after salvo of energy and projectile fire into the enemy, backing up its smaller cousin with big-brother style firepower.

The Galaxy Commander banked hard again, barely evading a lethal direct hit to his fueselage as he barreled into another turn, trying to shake off the annoying Jedi.

"I have one on me. Requested backup."

"Aff, lead. We have him."

Soon, seven Darkets peeled onto the Jedi's tail, each of them opening up with their meson guns as they tried to force the Jedi off their leader's six.
"Seven bogeys. I need some help here!" The Jedi juked this way and that, trying to shake off the enemy while keeping in sight of the enemy starfighter commander.

Four of his wingmates came to the rescue, blazing away with their laser cannons and shooting off a proton torpedoe each. With the enemy occupied with the wingmates, the Jedi Knight sought a bead on the enemy commander and pulled the trigger...

______________________________________________________________

On the planet, Star Colonel Amelia's Trinary had come up against a number of those annoying Zoids. She stepped back as one of the Spiders sent a barrage her way, and she felt the force of the hit rock her Mech hard. She responded in kind, skewering the annoyance with a blast from her left-arm large laser.

"Blasted filthborn," she cursed as another Zoid, a scorpion-type, latched onto her Mech's leg, trying to crush it in its grasp. It would soon fail in its endeavour as a concentrated pulse laser barrage from a friendly Mad Dog blasted it to pieces.

"Thanks," said the Colonel.

"Aff," was the response she received. No casualties had been taken by this heavy Trinary, and they continued on their march towards Hades.

A few kilometers ahead, they engaged a light amount of enemy tanks, and the Mechs soon dispatched them, leaving the Coredian tanks as nothing but a pile of slag. Some fifty kilometers out, the Colonel called the Trinary to a halt.

"Why do we not advance?" The leader of the Assault Star stepped up next to the Colonel.

"Look," she said, using her Mech's arm to point out the ensuing battle in front of them. "Our forces are being pushed back. They do not have the necessary firepower to penetrate the shield."

"Then let us join them so that we may bring it down," responded the Assault lead.

"Neg," Amelia responded. "Three, can you analyze the shield?"

"Aff, lead."

"Why do you wait, Amelia?!" The voice of the Assault lead was of anxious frustration. "Are you afraid tha-"

The Assault lead soon shut up as Amelia turned and raised her Mech's right arm, pointing the barrel of her large laser directly at his cockpit.

"Are you questioning me, freeborn?! Quiaff?!" Her voice sent the calculated dare at him. After a moment, the Assault lead stepped back.

"Neg, Star Colonel," he responded.

Amelia smirked, knowing full well he could not see her, and she simply turned back to face the city before them. She squinted as she looked at the city, making note of the several turbolaser towers just inside the shield. The ones opposite of them had been eliminated in short order earlier, the entire Trinary having used their LRMs to successfully create a missile barrage that brought them down.

"Colonel," came the voice of her number three. "I have something, although I am not quite sure what it is..."

"Elaborate," she responded.

"It seems, from what I have observed, that energy projectiles do not actually damage the shield itself."

"What do you mean?"

"I cannot be certain," he continued. "But I believe that energy weapons feed the shield's power source."

"Are you certain of this?"

"Possib-"

"Are you certain?!"

"Aff, lead," came the nervous response of 'Three'. "I also made note that, using my telescopic view, I could see enemy vehicles passing through the shield itself."

"Really?" Amelia's voice was coy as she smirked. "Well, then, I guess we shall just have to do the same. Move out."

"Aff, lead."

The Trinary then proceeded, and soon, they would be joined by a full cluster of combat vehicles and another full cluster of light Mechs and Elementals. It would be explained to them the observations, and they would fall in line behind the larger Mechs for protection as they moved fowards every so slowly. It wouldn't be long before the city of Hades would truly live up to its name.
The Coredian Colonel in charge of the ground defenses, a woman named Meridan, knew they were in big trouble once the enemy realized that they could pass through the shield like AT-ATs do. Still, she knew that they were in for a surprise when the enemy forces entered. In the outer defensive lines, there was a series of seismic charges (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Void-7_seismic_charge) that were buried, each one with the ability to cut down many foes with their planar shockwaves propagating outward from ground zero. She would wait until the bulk of the enemy forces entered the shields, then detonate the shockwave. Meanwhile, ordinary mines would slow down the enemy forces as much as they could, as well as buried Zoids and men with RPGs and blaster cannons on speeders.

In any case, she and her staff knew that they were likely to die, and prepared to give the enemy a very "welcoming" reception in the form of deadly urban warfare tactics...

"Welcome to Hades, my friends." She smirked as the holomap gave the enemy presences. "Welcome to Hades."

In the frenzy of battle, the arrival of a Star* of Knossos (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8733879&postcount=10)-class destroyer escorts and a single Immortal** (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8714167&postcount=2) Star Destroyer might not have seemed like a big deal. However, Admiral Aidan knew better. He knew that these particular Clanners had already had an opportunity to engage an Immortal.

For maybe a second and a half, he observed the battle. No fire had yet come his way, but he expected that to change quite soon. He was surprised that there had been no batchall to precede the battle, but it would have mystified the Coredians anyway. The Coredians, after all, only truly learned of Woodian 'Mechs two years ago...and now they found those 'Mechs engaging them on the ground...much older ones, but ones upon which Woodian engineers had based their own designs nonetheless.

I suppose I had better submit batchall, Aidan thought to himself, still unnoticed. He contemplated how best to include the Coredians, for he knew they would not stop firing if he alone engaged the Clanners.

As he ordered his captains to raise full shields and charge weapons, he made a holorecording of his challenge, not completely sure what communications device would be receiving it. Star League-era ships, were, after all, much older than Woodian ones; the only Star League-era ships in Woodian possession were DropShips, and even those were being refitted with more advanced technology. Probably best to challenge in several different formats.

He spoke into a camera recorder so small it could barely be seen, adjusting his rank of Admiral to make it fit into the Clan military rank system as best he could. However, the traditional Woodian system and that used by the Clans was not congruent; theoretically his Woodian rank could translate to a Galaxy Commander amongst the Clans, but he had only bid and brought a total of six ships from Jurai, excluding CoreWorlds, the ships of which were not under his command. That put his current command responsibilities more in line with those of a Star Commander or possibly Star Captain. He chose to err on the side of using the rank corresponding to that which he had with him. Besides, doing so might lure the enemy into an underestimation.

"I am Star Captain Aidan of the nation of Evil Woody Thoughts, ally to CoreWorlds. What forces attack the Coredian possession of Caligula?"

Let the bidding begin, Admiral Aidan thought to himself as he sent the transmission in several forms, ranging from a full hologram of his six-foot-six-inch figure to a decidedly low-tech radio voice broadcast.

The import of finally meeting the Clans, origin of quite a few of Evil Woody Thoughts' military traditions, not to mention, ironically (through third parties) technology, in battle, had not quite yet struck the Admiral, nor his crew. Though every Woodian knew not to make the mistake of underestimating them.

*OOC for benefit of CW: 1 Star=five units.
**The original version of the Immortal did not have the shielding CW has alluded to that partially or completely, depending on circumstances, redirects incoming energy fire into energy for the ship to use. However shield generators are easily refitted so I will grant CW the benefit of the doubt. (I missed that earlier.) My inbound Immortal has not been so refitted, but that does not mean that its shields will be easy to breach...Woodian commanders frequently perform power-routing tricks that push their ships well past statistical redlines.

Within a few seconds of the transmission being played, a transmission was immediately sent back from the Eagle's Talon. It was a visual of a Captain's face, and she looked obviously unpleased. She looked relatively young, almost twenty seven years of age.

"We are the Survivor Clans, heirs to the Star League, children of Nicholas Kerensky and his father, Alexander Kerensky," she stated in a harsh voice. The image flickered for a moment for what was possibly a direct hit to the ship, and then it stablized. "I am Falconer Captain Julia of Clan Jade Falcon, Captain of the Eagle's Talon, the Flagship of Jade Falcon. State your purpose for being here or be destroyed, freebirth."
___________________________________________________________

The Eagle's Talon continued to fight on, sending volley after volley of gauss cannon fire into its path everytime it maneuvered using its inertia drive system. The gauss cannons weren't running out of ammo anytime soon, so they kept up their liberal amount of weapons fire. However, the source of the brief loss of communication to the Woodian fleet was the entrance of the Coredian Immortal. With the advent of a new ship engaging them, the Eagle's Talon brought to bear its larger gauss cannons, aiming these three-barreled behemoths at their new opponent and firing without mercy.

The fleet continued on with their unrelenting assault, their armoured bulkheads receiving no more than superficial damage now that they had taken the superlasers out of commission. They brought to bear every weapon they had upon the smaller Coredian fleet, using their H-PPCs at full strength with each shot. In the meantime, the JumpShips had pulled closer to the Warships, using their larger brethren as extra firepower as they, too, brought to bear their own laser banks at full power. Their support Mechs were being resupplied with more missiles at this time, and it would be a few minutes before they could bring their own weapons to bear. Until then, the fleet just held out as best they could, their backs to the up against the planet. The DropShips from the planet were soon charging into the ranks of the Coredian fleet, trying to act as an annoying distraction. Their laser banks offered blast after blast, trying desparately to draw the enemy's attention away from their larger starships.

The seven fighters were caught off guard by the enemy response to tailing the Jedi, and they broke off their pursuit as they engaged their own harrassers. The Galaxy Commander cursed as he banked hard to avoid a damaged drone. However, his worries returned to the Jedi as several laser blasts passed by, a couple hitting his rear shield and causing them to flair.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" The Galaxy Commander weaved in and out of the laser fire, rolling as a shot passed right underneath his left wing. At the final second, however, he cut the engines and hit full reverse, flipping his fighter backwards and sending it tumbling back towards the Jedi, the final, fatal laser blast from the Jedi narrowly missing a direct hit on his cockpit as he made this maneuver. He prayed to the Founder that this would throw the Jedi off his tail finally as he prepared his afterburners for a full-power boost away from the Jedi who plagued him. Maybe he could lead him to the planet's surface...?
__________________________________________________________

The initial blast from a seismic charge threw Amelia's Trinary to the ground, their own sense of balance that was being translated into their 'Mechs via their neurohelmet unable to compensate for the force of the blast. Still, Mechs were different from their Imperial cousins (the sore excuses for Mechs that they were), and they could easily stand back up from a fall. That is just what they did as they watched the other Mechs of similar weight class copy them, practically standing up in unison. It was a frightening sight to behold as these massive Lords of war continued on. Those light and medium Mechs that had survived initially charged before their larger cousins, their lasers and PPCs firing at any enemy forces that tried to flee back into the city. They were joined by the immense swarm of Elementals who tore apart enemy infantry with ease, simple blasters and even their heavier squad automatic weapon types unable to penetrate the armour of these mighty warriors. They would kill without mercy, entering into close combat with the same ferocity as the Space Marines of Chronosia, resembling them only through their size. Tanks and light recon vehicles, however, charged past the Elementals and into the city, charging towards the shield generator within the confines of the city, attempting to take it intact per their recent battle orders.

Meanwhile, Amelia had turned on her Mech's voice amplifier, taunting, jeering, and cursing at the Coredian forces as she marched towards the city with her Trinary. Her fellow Mechwarriors joined in the taunting and cursing, blasting away the enemy Zoids with ease, their armour taking little damage from their harrassers.

"Come, O ye filthborn scum!" Amelia's left arm large laser streamed forth, catching a Spider zoid in mid-jump and sending it reeling back in the direction it had come. "Bring forth those who would bring worthy challenges to our warriors, or are there none among ye who have the courage?!"

Her Mech stomped forth amongst the wreckage and dead of both sides of the battle, passing several of her own lighter counterparts on the field that had been forced to eject or were completely obliterated by enemy Zoids. Without warning, her Mech's vision was clouded as an RPG exploded just underneath her cockpit. Once it was cleared, she saw several infantry running for cover, but they were too slow as her under-slung machineguns (underneath the large lasers in her arms) cut them down in a flurry of 15mm slugs.

"Cowards! You would resort to the use of hiding?!" She stomped on towards the city. Around her, her Trinary had spread out, their lasers and PPCs cutting down enemy combat vehicles. Behind them, a column of tank clusters was moving in. It suddenly exploded as a large group of Zoids erupted from the ground, sending the tanks flying. The remaining tanks tried desparately to fight back, but their cannons couldn't fire back fast enough. However, help was on the way as the Assault Star turned around and opened up on them. The Zoids fled the deadly onslaught of lasers, autocannons, and missiles as they numbers were cut down. Amelia scoffed in disgust.

"Filthborn whores! Come out from your hiding places and show true strength by facing us in combat!" She stopped just on the edge of the city, her Trinary positioning themselves so that they would each enter separate streets at the same time. It would take some time, so she waited until she was given the confirmations from her fellow Mechwarriors before giving the order to advance. "Prepare yourselves for your inevitable death, swines!"

The Eagle's Talon continued to fight on, sending volley after volley of gauss cannon fire into its path everytime it maneuvered using its inertia drive system. The gauss cannons weren't running out of ammo anytime soon, so they kept up their liberal amount of weapons fire. However, the source of the brief loss of communication to the Woodian fleet was the entrance of the Coredian Immortal. With the advent of a new ship engaging them, the Eagle's Talon brought to bear its larger gauss cannons, aiming these three-barreled behemoths at their new opponent and firing without mercy.
The Defender and the Immortal continued to pound the enemy flagship even as the Woodians entered the scene. The Defender Star Destroyer, for all of its nimbleness was getting weakened and it didn't help that the gauss cannons did what the energy weapons could not, and that is batter down the shields bit by bit. Even so, the two Star Destroyers fought with the Immortal with everything they had, targeting the weapons systems most of all and trying to find a weak point in this ship's oversized armor.

The fleet continued on with their unrelenting assault, their armoured bulkheads receiving no more than superficial damage now that they had taken the superlasers out of commission. They brought to bear every weapon they had upon the smaller Coredian fleet, using their H-PPCs at full strength with each shot. In the meantime, the JumpShips had pulled closer to the Warships, using their larger brethren as extra firepower as they, too, brought to bear their own laser banks at full power. Their support Mechs were being resupplied with more missiles at this time, and it would be a few minutes before they could bring their own weapons to bear. Until then, the fleet just held out as best they could, their backs to the up against the planet. The DropShips from the planet were soon charging into the ranks of the Coredian fleet, trying to act as an annoying distraction. Their laser banks offered blast after blast, trying desparately to draw the enemy's attention away from their larger starships.
Almost as soon as the Woodians arrived, the Black Fleet appeared around the Woodians. All ninety ships powered up their weapons and shields (no, they don't have the molecular shielding, but they do have Kythonized armor) and made ready to support their brothers of the Velociraptor II battlefleet.

Admiral Achilles looked over the holoscanners and split his navy into task forces to support the falling Fifth Fleet elements and take the enemy apart piece by piece. He saw that they outnumbered the enemy almost two to one, but he knew that that was no guarantee of victory. As his Artillery Star Destroyers started firing their main superlaser cannons and the Elite Star Destroyer Ankylosaur started barraging the nearest Warship with a power that easily matched the Immortal Star Destroyer that already killed one Warship and is fighting another, he recieved a battle report from the Commodore, acknowledged it all, and ordered his beamlasers (3 on each side as opposed to two for an ordinary ISD class) to start carving out said Warship's weapons emplacements.

In the meantime, two other capital ships, an Artillery SD and another Missile Cruiser was mission-killed while a Defender was on its way to destruction...

The seven fighters were caught off guard by the enemy response to tailing the Jedi, and they broke off their pursuit as they engaged their own harrassers. The Galaxy Commander cursed as he banked hard to avoid a damaged drone. However, his worries returned to the Jedi as several laser blasts passed by, a couple hitting his rear shield and causing them to flair.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" The Galaxy Commander weaved in and out of the laser fire, rolling as a shot passed right underneath his left wing. At the final second, however, he cut the engines and hit full reverse, flipping his fighter backwards and sending it tumbling back towards the Jedi, the final, fatal laser blast from the Jedi narrowly missing a direct hit on his cockpit as he made this maneuver. He prayed to the Founder that this would throw the Jedi off his tail finally as he prepared his afterburners for a full-power boost away from the Jedi who plagued him. Maybe he could lead him to the planet's surface...?
Unfortunately for the Commander, Bailey Kipper was relentless, smoothly dodging the enemy commander's desperate move and spun 180 degrees, noting that the Commander was burning for the planet. He ordered his fighter after the enemy, punching his own afterburners and trying to blast him before he reached planetside...

__________________________________________________________

The initial blast from a seismic charge threw Amelia's Trinary to the ground, their own sense of balance that was being translated into their 'Mechs via their neurohelmet unable to compensate for the force of the blast. Still, Mechs were different from their Imperial cousins (the sore excuses for Mechs that they were), and they could easily stand back up from a fall. That is just what they did as they watched the other Mechs of similar weight class copy them, practically standing up in unison. It was a frightening sight to behold as these massive Lords of war continued on. Those light and medium Mechs that had survived initially charged before their larger cousins, their lasers and PPCs firing at any enemy forces that tried to flee back into the city. They were joined by the immense swarm of Elementals who tore apart enemy infantry with ease, simple blasters and even their heavier squad automatic weapon types unable to penetrate the armour of these mighty warriors. They would kill without mercy, entering into close combat with the same ferocity as the Space Marines of Chronosia, resembling them only through their size. Tanks and light recon vehicles, however, charged past the Elementals and into the city, charging towards the shield generator within the confines of the city, attempting to take it intact per their recent battle orders.

Meanwhile, Amelia had turned on her Mech's voice amplifier, taunting, jeering, and cursing at the Coredian forces as she marched towards the city with her Trinary. Her fellow Mechwarriors joined in the taunting and cursing, blasting away the enemy Zoids with ease, their armour taking little damage from their harrassers.

"Come, O ye filthborn scum!" Amelia's left arm large laser streamed forth, catching a Spider zoid in mid-jump and sending it reeling back in the direction it had come. "Bring forth those who would bring worthy challenges to our warriors, or are there none among ye who have the courage?!"

Her Mech stomped forth amongst the wreckage and dead of both sides of the battle, passing several of her own lighter counterparts on the field that had been forced to eject or were completely obliterated by enemy Zoids. Without warning, her Mech's vision was clouded as an RPG exploded just underneath her cockpit. Once it was cleared, she saw several infantry running for cover, but they were too slow as her under-slung machineguns (underneath the large lasers in her arms) cut them down in a flurry of 15mm slugs.

"Cowards! You would resort to the use of hiding?!" She stomped on towards the city. Around her, her Trinary had spread out, their lasers and PPCs cutting down enemy combat vehicles. Behind them, a column of tank clusters was moving in. It suddenly exploded as a large group of Zoids erupted from the ground, sending the tanks flying. The remaining tanks tried desparately to fight back, but their cannons couldn't fire back fast enough. However, help was on the way as the Assault Star turned around and opened up on them. The Zoids fled the deadly onslaught of lasers, autocannons, and missiles as they numbers were cut down. Amelia scoffed in disgust.

"Filthborn whores! Come out from your hiding places and show true strength by facing us in combat!" She stopped just on the edge of the city, her Trinary positioning themselves so that they would each enter separate streets at the same time. It would take some time, so she waited until she was given the confirmations from her fellow Mechwarriors before giving the order to advance. "Prepare yourselves for your inevitable death, swines!"
In the shadows of an alleyway, a pack of predators awaited. They were not quite Zoids, but creatures born of Godulan make. They were Cougars, three meters tall at the shoulder, and several more from snout to tail. Many may consider them light mechs but the powerful laser cannons and missiles hidden deep within their hides, their feline agility bordering on prescience, and their Razorclaws and teeth made them a potent foe for even an enemy Mech. It's no wonder that soldiers of the Marine Mechanized Divisions liked to ride their larger brethren, Sabercats, but these beasts are not meant to be ridden, at least not by normals.

The Battlemechs' entry into the city triggered an unseen signal. Whenever possible, the Coredian soldiers used the home ground advantages and lessons learned from the Woodian civil war to hit the enemy mechs not simply from the front, but in the back as well. They consider us cowards. Well, they shall see how cowardly we are as the garrison used hit-and fade attacks to harrass the enemy, always trying to sneak from behind and launch their RPGs or blasters then quickly ducking into an alleyway. The Cougars were no different, using their feline grace and their dark hides to give the lighter enemy mechs the nightmare of their lives, sometimes just shooting and fading before they could retaliate, and sometimes leaping upon the enemy, slashing or biting at weapons, clawing to get at the fleshy insides of the cockpits.

The leader of the Cougars, a veteran of many battles by the name of Valkar, stalked the leader of the enemy mechs as she stomped her way through the city. He growled softly, as if scoffing at her attempts at Dun Moch, the formal term for taunts against Coredian psyche. He followed her with golden eyes, waiting patiently for the time to strike. When she entered the city, he will move, and he will strike. But until that time, he will wait...

Within a few seconds of the transmission being played, a transmission was immediately sent back from the Eagle's Talon. It was a visual of a Captain's face, and she looked obviously unpleased. She looked relatively young, almost twenty seven years of age.

"We are the Survivor Clans, heirs to the Star League, children of Nicholas Kerensky and his father, Alexander Kerensky," she stated in a harsh voice. The image flickered for a moment for what was possibly a direct hit to the ship, and then it stablized. "I am Falconer Captain Julia of Clan Jade Falcon, Captain of the Eagle's Talon, the Flagship of Jade Falcon. State your purpose for being here or be destroyed, freebirth."

Aidan did not flinch as he sent his reply, this time a similar transmission in nature to what had originated from the Eagle's Talon. "My purpose is simple, and likely mutual with that of the Clans: Find a way to resolve this issue with minimal attrition meat grinders. To that end, I bid myself, unarmed, in one-on-one combat with your designated representative."

The reply was sent over an open channel, with the Coredians able to listen in. Of course, he knew that his freebirth allies would not be too happy...

"You what?!" Admiral Achilles yelled at Admiral Aidan even as battle raged all around them. "Is this not our system you're trying to bid?!"

There was dead silence on the comms. The entire bridge crew on the Eagle's Talon was stunned for words. How could a freebirth - a foreigner - understand the rights of batchall? It also seemed that the entire fleet and ground forces had been caught off-guard by this communique, because all battle chatter had ceased on the Clan's side of the battle.

Within fifteen short seconds, the entire invasion force had stopped fighting. Tanks stopped in their tracks, Elementals halted their death blows, Mechs stopped their furious assault. Hell, even the Eagle's Talon had stopped firing, as well as all the other ships. Fighters turned away from battle, and even the Galaxy Commander had disengaged his run for the planet. On the planet, Amelia was struck for words. Her Mech stood completely idle as she tried to register what Aidan had said. Still, she would be the first to open a communique on a wide-band frequency.

"And what do you, a freebirth foreigner, understand of the right of batchall?" Amelia kept cool as she said these words. She knew she'd be reprimanded later for interrupting a higher-echelon commander's communication, but it didn't matter. Amelia was Wolf, Julia was Jade Falcon. Amelia would simply invoke surkai later, mostly, and simply, because she did not feel that Jade Falcon warriors were worthy enough opponents. Still, at this point, Amelia's focus was more on this foreigner who had bid his own life against the Clan.

"You what?!" Admiral Achilles yelled at Admiral Aidan even as battle raged all around them. "Is this not our system you're trying to bid?!"

There was dead silence on the comms. The entire bridge crew on the Eagle's Talon was stunned for words. How could a freebirth - a foreigner - understand the rights of batchall? It also seemed that the entire fleet and ground forces had been caught off-guard by this communique, because all battle chatter had ceased on the Clan's side of the battle.

Within fifteen short seconds, the entire invasion force had stopped fighting. Tanks stopped in their tracks, Elementals halted their death blows, Mechs stopped their furious assault. Hell, even the Eagle's Talon had stopped firing, as well as all the other ships. Fighters turned away from battle, and even the Galaxy Commander had disengaged his run for the planet. On the planet, Amelia was struck for words. Her Mech stood completely idle as she tried to register what Aidan had said. Still, she would be the first to open a communique on a wide-band frequency.

"And what do you, a freebirth foreigner, understand of the right of batchall?" Amelia kept cool as she said these words. She knew she'd be reprimanded later for interrupting a higher-echelon commander's communication, but it didn't matter. Amelia was Wolf, Julia was Jade Falcon. Amelia would simply invoke surkai later, mostly, and simply, because she did not feel that Jade Falcon warriors were worthy enough opponents. Still, at this point, Amelia's focus was more on this foreigner who had bid his own life against the Clan.

The Coredians, as could be expected, were pissed. Though Aidan derived a sadistic sort of satisfaction by pissing off the freebirth Coredians (despite the fact that he was freeborn as well, even if he received far better training than would a freeborn amongst the Clans), the sudden silence from the Clanners' guns was probably even more satisfying. For at least a few seconds, it was almost like watching this battle on the Holonet and hitting the PAUSE button before heading to the refrigerator for drink. And even if everything was about to go to hell, he was currently buying time for Coredian shields to recharge. Perhaps something the freebirth Coredians did not realize...not to mention that a one-on-one duel was far preferable to this situation going to hell.

Of course, Aidan had just thrust himself into the middle of this mess with his bid, and the thought of refrigerators or drink dared not crossed his mind. He had angry Coredians and confused Clanners to worry about, it seems.

"Star Captain" Aidan (his insignia, that of an admiral, was foreign to the Clanners; he had adjusted his rank to fit within their system as a courtesy to them) did not display a hint of his satisfaction outwardly, however. Instead, he addressed Admiral Achilles of CoreWorlds by full life-size hologram, on open-band frequency so the Clanners could listen in. If what he had in mind worked, it would not matter.

The two-meter hologram projected a voice nearly as cold as Vader's as it spoke to the freebirth Admiral, as if discussing a bounty on a criminal's head. "The Government of Evil Woody Thoughts will reimburse the Coredian Government should Caligula change hands. Of course, you may also register your dissatisfaction via similar methods." Aidan certainly didn't mind the idea of fighting three people in the same day (earlier bidding for the honor of coming to Caligula in the first place had turned violent).

Aidan did not allow the freebirth to reply before redirecting his attention to other matters. A shame that the warrior does not identify herself. A 'MechWarrior perhaps. He checked the transmission origin and found that, sure enough, it came from a 'Mech. I think she just cut off her superior? Great, the Galaxy Commander is probably somewhat pissed off right now. As if being amongst freebirth would not be enough to do that. The "Star Captain" briefly contemplated revealing these thoughts to the warrior who refused to identify herself, but decided mostly against it. However, perhaps a subtle two-word hint could slip past her shock and remind her to identify herself...

"Unidentified 'MechWarrior." Aidan's voice carried a somewhat calmer tone, a telling indication that he thought a bit more of a Clan warrior who had refused, intentionally or not, to identify herself than he did of a Coredian admiral, whom even he might have called freebirth. "In contrast to the freebirth Coredian military, I understand that the Clans abhor needless attrition. This philosophy is shared by the military of Evil Woody Thoughts. I further understand that the right of batchall allows such attrition to be avoided, as opposing commanders bid only the minimum necessary forces they believe will defeat the other, before battle, placing a smaller proportion of the entire military at risk, and thus preserving scarce resources. Exceeding a bid with reinforcements not bid is considered extremely dishonorable. Furthermore, I am fully aware that I have bid my own life with the fate of this system in the balance. Have I adequately addressed your question?"

About as concise a summary of batchall as could be had, Aidan thought to himself. And the freeborn had yet to use a single contraction. Something for Amelia to think about, no doubt.

As the enemy's guns stopped, so, oddly, did that of the Coredians. The crew of the various ships wanted to continue the fight, but some of the commanders had some measure of honor and at least the shields were able to recharge now. The Cougar watching Amelia moved into a crouching position, his tail swishing as he listened to the banter.

"Putting the fate of an entire system on a one-on-one duel..." Admiral Achilles shook his head. "Your government better reinburse us well, 'Star Captain' Aidan. This is an important mining colony."

It's clear the Woodian and Clan style of fighting flew in the face of the Coredian style, especially with the high stakes involved. It also smacked of the Jedi, with whom he didn't exactly see eye to eye.

"'Star Captain' Aidan." A voice crackled through an intercom. "Jedi Knight Bailey Kipper. As a representative of the Jedi Order, it is my request that I 'bid' myself for the fate this system as well. It is as much a Coredian matter as it is Woodian."

Yet another voice crackled through the coms. "Jounin Rock Lee shall second this bid."

Admiral Achilles sighed. Two members of the Order concurring. The Woodians have stoked a sense of Jedi honor. "Very well. We shall hear you out."

The Clanners were silent once more. However, this silence was short-lived as entire ships went into an uproar. Had they found another Clan? Had they found a nation formerly a Clan? Were they Inner Sphere scum? Where they former Star League? All these questions were raised as every ship and soldier began debating over this. However, only Amelia stood without question, and her Trinary had formed around her. They stood quietly amongst themselves, pondering on these turn of events.

"So what do we do now?" The Assault Lead was asking the question to his superior.

"I say that we should meet these newcomers," said another Assault pilot.

"But they are freebirths," said a Heavy pilot.

"You do not know that," stated another Heavy pilot.

"Enough," came the voice of Amelia. "I have made a decision. Report to the untouched town two hundred kilometers South of this one."

"Aff, lead," the Trinary reported, falling out towards the untouched town. It was small, and it would provide them with a place to think and to meet these newcomers. Finally after a few minutes, Amelia sent a transmission back on the wideband frequency.

"Attention Star Captain Aidan," she began. "There is a small town two hundred kilometers South of the capital city of this planet. If you wish to speak more, do it in person there." She was about to click off the comms when she added. "You may even learn my name." With that, the transmission was cut, and she began her trek to the town.

Soon, several Hrothgar DropShips began moving as they went to retrieve the commanders of the invasion forces. Amongst those being retrieved, Falconer Captain Julia would be attending this councel, and she would also make Amelia pay for her insult. More to be worried about, the Wolf Captain would be there as he was transported via light recon vehicle, and he, too, was not happy with Amelia, but more for a different reason than her trespass...

"Furthermore, Star Captain, need I remind you that this is a Coredian system and you are here as support? As such, you have no bidding rights to the system." Knight Bailey said over the comlink, drawing on what he knew of Woodian culture. "Therefore, I demand a Trial of Greviance so that responsibility of this system, whatever the outcome of the Trial of Possession to come, remains with us. Will you accept?"

"Your challenge to a Trial of Grievance is accepted, Knight Bailey. As you have also bid your willingness to fight in a Trial of Possession, let the winner of this Trial of Grievance fight the Clan representative in the forthcoming Trial of Possession," Star Captain Aidan replied cooly.

The Clanners paid no heed to the freebirths as they made their way to the meeting site. Their personal Trials against one another were their own business. The fact that they knew of such Trials and used them just as liberally as the Clans caused many of their ranks to feel sick to their stomach. Others, however, were convinced that this Star Captain Aidan and those of his nation to be their possible long-lost relatives. Only time would tell on that matter, and at this point, it didn't actually matter. What mattered was obtaining this planet for Clan use. It was obvious that this world had not been cleaned of its resources, and other scans had shown there to be some type of space station to be in orbit near the star. The Clans were very intrigued by this, and pictures sent back to the scientist caste had them hypothesizing that the space station was a star matter refinery, although they could not be certain.

On planet, the Trinary had taken a few hours to arrive at the designated town. Upon their arrival, they were met by others of their kind, and several members of the tech caste immediately went to work on the 'Mechs. Amelia had just disembarked from her Timber Wolf and was walking towards a large fabricated building when she was cut off by a group of Falconers. She stood her ground as she observed the sixteen warriors surrounding her. She clenched one of her fists, ready to strike if it be necessary. However, the Falconers parted, and Falconer Captain Julia stepped into the circle.

"Your insults will no longer be tolerated, surat," stated Julia.

"Would you have me perform Surkai?" Amelia was smug.

"I would if I did not already know that you are a dishonorable freebirth," retorted the Falconer. "I demand an honour duel! To the death!" The crowd around the two females roared in approval.

"An honour duel," echoed Amelia. "Fine then, after this ordeal has been-"

"No," Julia interupted. "Here! Now! Unarmed! To the death!" The crowd roared once more.

Amelia sighed. "Then draw the Circle of Equals."

That was easy to do as it was to say, and the sixteen Falconers spread out, allowing the combatants the necessary room for them to perform their battle ritual. The two females stood at a distance from one another, awaiting the signal to being their battle. Once it was given, everything happened within the blink of an eye.

It took less than point five seconds, but within that instant, Amelia had cleared the distance between herself and behind Amelia, a good ten feet, and had slammed her elbow into the Falconer's neck. There was an audible snap as the Falconer's body was instantaneously limp. The roaring of the surrounding crowd suddenly stopped. The crowd stood there in shocked awe. None of the Falconers could believe what they saw, but everyone knew it was true.

"St-St-Star Colonel Amelia is the victor," came the nervous voice of the trial mediator.

Amelia said not a word after the end. She merely continued on her way, stepping out of the Circle and walking towards the massive meeting building which had been put up by the Clans. It would be obvious to Aidan that a face was missing, but he would not know why until much later, and possibly even after the Trial.

"Very well. Hand to hand, no weapons." The Jedi replied to the Admiral. "The terrain will be right where we land."

Without further ado, the Jedi Knight descended onto the the town of Tartarus and awaited Aidan...

The Admiral-turned-Star Captain switched to a closed comm. The Clanners did not need to be bothered with mundane details of a duel between two freeborns, that he knew.

"A Jedi never truly bids to fight unarmed. You have completely sidestepped that issue, forceborn," Aidan replied in an icy voice, somewhat glad the Clans now couldn't hear. "You have not completed your bid."

The Admiral-turned-Star Captain switched to a closed comm. The Clanners did not need to be bothered with mundane details of a duel between two freeborns, that he knew.

"A Jedi never truly bids to fight unarmed. You have completely sidestepped that issue, forceborn," Aidan replied in an icy voice, somewhat glad the Clans now couldn't hear. "You have not completed your bid."
"You fear my powers, knave?" Bailey replied in an equally cool voice. "You cannot compete without handicapping a Knight, it seems. It would be only right to tie up your hands as well."

"Very well, surat forcebirth," Aidan replied, his voice getting even colder. "I assume that is a bid to use any Force-augmentation you wish. Immobilize me and tear my trachea in a thousand different directions. Send a million volts through my body. Admiral Riordan somehow survived it. Freeze my brain and trick me into sepukku. Stop my heart and rupture my lungs. Crush every bone in my body. Bring down a cliff face upon my head. You simply make it clear that you cannot hope--or are afraid--to fight 'unarmed' without these abilities, forcefilth. I suppose you cannot fight without your lightsaber, either. Nor do I care."

Meanwhile, Aidan did not bother with shuttles. He walked to the transporter equipment on the bridge, and transported himself to the planetary surface without escort, beyond a single person to witness the duel and retransmit feed to the ship, lest the forcefilth get ideas about killing the witness as well. He would worry about such things later. For now, the Clans had lost interest in him.

Bailey Kipper sighed as he landed near where Aidan transported and stepped down from the fighter. He muttered to himself. "What is it with these people?"

Fine, if the Admiral thinks Jedi cannot fight unarmed without the Force, then so be it. The Force was his ally.

Calmly and without preamble, Bailey stepped forth in front of the Admiral. He moved into a right forward stance (with the right foot in front and the left behind) with his right hand up as if beckoning him and his left hand on his side, balled into a fist. Without further ado, the Jedi waited...

As Bailey stepped out of the fighter, Aidan recalled various ways to reduce the enemy advantage of precognition and mind-reading, since the filthy forcebirth had failed to bid away use of the Force. The first: Advance planning tends to give your moves away. The second: Do not commit in advance to feints; just do them. The third: Try not to think at all.

Therefore, Aidan simply waited, his back almost against a building, close enough to it that a Force-shove into it would have almost no effect, despite the fact that it had steel walls. In contrast to the Jedi, he took a neutral stance, not wishing to give the slightest clue away.

He did not care that no Circle of Equals had been drawn. For all he cared, this should be a fight to the death--no matter where it took them. Unfortunately, the observer called them on it. "The two of you have not defined a Circle of Equals," a voice nearly as cold as Aidan's reverberated throughout the air.

"City limits," Aidan snapped. If the forcefilth refused to forgo Force-augmentation, Aidan would be damned if he would allow said forcefilth to win without even touching him.

"Very well. Begin."

Aidan knew better than to charge a forcefilth. Instead, he waited...

As Aidan waited for a movement, so did Bailey. The two men prepared to wait for aeons, neither one willing to make the first move. After all, it has been drilled into the Jedi's skull to never make the first move until you're absolutely sure it would be the enemy's last moment, for it would be your first mistake. Unfortunately, this guy looks like he's willing to wait all day for the Jedi to make a mistake. So be it, it will be a test of endurance and patience.

Aidan simply counted the seconds as he waited for the forcefilth to actually do something. Thirty-five...forty...forty-five...fifty...fifty-five...sixty...

His counting was cut off by the harsh voice of the observer. "Sixty seconds have elapsed with neither side moving," the voice announced. "As a result, both combatants must declare a draw and rebid the Trial."

Aidan continued waiting. Surely the forcefilth would at least say something now.

Bailey simply smiled. "A draw, then. I rebid to allow for ranged combat, infantry only. The 'Circle of Equals' remains the same. You are in agreement?"

"You must bid specifically what ranged weapons you will use," the observer told Bailey.

Meanwhile, Aidan was getting ideas. "Ranged combat? Very well, then I bid the use of a Woodian Elemental suit, which bears a flamethrower, a Streak Short-Range Missile-2 system, and a small pulse laser. It also carries active shielding and will accelerate my movements. Bid whatever you wish, forcefilth." It was a fairly heavy bid, but considering the forcefilth's earlier recalcitrance and the likelihood of him bidding his lightsaber, Aidan didn't mind. He simply wanted the annoying pest out of his way...

OOC note to Skagura: Woodian Elemental suits are far different from Clan Elemental suits. These differences will become more evident soon.

"Quite an arsenal. I will bid my blue lightsaber, A-20 Blaster rifle with a grenade launcher, a personal power shield and of course, the use of the Force to counter the augmentation of the power armor." Bailey Kipper said.

As the two men began their second bid, they'd probably come to realize that a group had begun to amass around them. The Clans had taken interest in these two warriors, and at this point, the entire group was laughing.

"Fifty on the taller freebirth," called out an Elemental.

"Seventy five on the short one," called out a Falconer.

"One fifty on the tall man!"

Bets continued to abound as these Clanners began taking this Trial as a joke. None of them believed that either of these freeborn foreigners would put of a decent fight, but they'd just have to wait and see.

"The equipment I bid is aboard my ship," Aidan replied to Bailey. Noticing the Clan warriors that had gathered around, he looked at the forcefilth and added, "If I do not return within fifteen minutes, feel free to encourage the Clanners to execute me by firing squad for cowardice. I am sure they will have no problem terminating a freeborn."

The two-meter-tall freeborn then seemed to disappear as a ship-borne transporter device took him. He then wasted no time getting from the bridge of the orbiting Immortal Star Destroyer to his own nearby private quarters. He then began the seven-or-so-minute process of putting the extremely rare, custom-fitted, jet-black combat armor on.

He took an extra few seconds to check his neurohelmet, without incident, and test-fired his pulse laser once against a hermetically-sealed wall. His armor's active shielding absorbed the bounced-back blast without a problem. The SSRM system seemed fine, as did the flamethrower; his private quarters wasn't the best place to test those.

Aidan emerged from private quarters and wasted no time getting to the transporter room to get himself back down to the Trial site again.

He had allowed fifteen minutes to reappear, but instead, he rematerialized in front of those present after twelve. The jet-black armor, complete with 'Mech-grade armored spikes on outer arms and head, rematerialized and then seemed to jog to where Bailey was, though truth be told Aidan was only walking. The powered armor also boosted Aidan's height to seven feet even, a couple of inches taller if one counted the spikes protruding from his head. The mock laughter of the Clanners present did not seem to deter him.

He refrained from testing his weapons, preferring not to reveal their precise locations just yet. Instead, he waited for the surat forceborn...and the all-important word: "Begin."

Unlike the power armored Aidan, Knight Bailey had a more modest set of equipment. As suggested, he retrieved his lightsaber and his blaster rifle, slapped an Enchani-designed power shield on his wrist and prepared to go all out. As the word 'begin' was said, a blue forcefield appeared around the Jedi's body, a slight tang of ozone reached his nose and then the shield shimmered into invisibility.

This time, the Jedi wasted no time firing a series of rapid-fire blaster bolts at the power armored dude and moved into some cover.

The Clans laughed at the sight of the ridiculous-looking Elemental armour, as it stood head and shoulders shorter than the average Elemental. What amused them even further was the beginning display from the Jedi as he immediately presented himself as a coward by not charging the Elemental. However, at this point, they did not understand the complexities of the Force, so they had decided more to laugh at Aidan than at Bailey. Using battlearmour against a warrior who didn't? Absurdly amusing to them as it was, it seemed dishonourable.

"Surat forcefilth!" Aidan's face, though not visible through the armor, registered disgust at the cowardice of his opponent as his opening shots splattered across his shields. "Oh, come ye forcefilth, and prove your worthiness of the so-called title, 'Combat Knight!' If combat-trained forcefilth run at the first hint of battle...I did you a favor by bidding the Trial of Possession! If you truly represent the forcebirth Jedi whores, the Clans now will think they can take the Jedi Temple with a single Point! O forcefilth scum, display the courage to FIGHT!"

Aidan did not care that the Clanners laughed at him just as much as, if not more than, they did at Bailey. The Woodians had good reason to consider use of the Force an 'augmentation,' much in the same vein as battle armor; unfortunately, if Bailey simply ran from combat, the Clanners would never have the chance to see why this was so. The battlearmor only (roughly speaking) brought Aidan's reflexes to parity with those of a well-trained Jedi. A very annoyed Aidan walked around the cover that the forcefilth had hidden in.

With nary a thought, Aidan ignited his flamethrower and sprayed the cover that Bailey was hiding in, saturating it in fire. "Forcefilth swine! Show the Clanners your abilities! Bring down buildings upon my head! Suffocate me even if from where you stand! Oh, I forgot, you are not standing...the first thing you did upon the beginning of this Trial was HIDE IN DISHONOR!"

The flamethrower licked at the cover, melting it with ease. Then, the fire began to curl around the Jedi Knight and was thrown back right at the Elemental armor in the form of a large fireball.

"You think a Jedi cares about what other warriors think?" Bailey lectured sternly as grenades were launched after the fireball. "You think me a coward, when it is you who hide behind heavy armor whereas I am only in cloth and mithril? I think not. Do not consider yourself honorable until you have won, Sithspawn!"

Rocks began to rise and throw themselves at Aidan. "The Force is not one to be trifled with, Sithspawn. I could bring you to your knees with a gesture. I could work my way into your brain and rupture an artery. I have far more options to choose from than you, you who have only mundane items to kill me with."

He began to focus his feet with the Force...

Ah, there we go. At least he now tells the Clans why I might bid armor against him. Aidan smirked inside of his suit as his right wrist flicked ever so slightly, blue flashes of light from his right-arm pulse laser met first the grenades in midair, then the few rocks that still came his way after the premature grenade detonations. The fireballs lit up the ground between the two combatants, yet did not do much more than singe away at Aidan's shield, which easily handled the comparatively dispersed (compared to, say, a turbolaser) heat from the fireball that the forcefilth projected back at him. The few rocks that made it through simply bounced harmlessly off his battle armor.

After the fireballs, as well as Aidan's own heat warnings, dispersed somewhat, Aidan fired his pulse laser directly at the wall behind which the forcefilth still hid. The base of the wall started to melt, and the wall collapsed outward, revealing the surat forcebirth.

"The coward is revealed!" Aidan fired his pulse laser in six-shot staccato bursts, each of which took only about three quarters of a second, flicking his wrist ever so slightly so that each burst would hit six different sections of the forcebirth's body. He would have fired more or less continuously were it not for the harsh realities of heat management. However, even the Clans, who earlier mocked his suit, would have to notice that the pulse laser fired significantly faster than their technology allowed...and seemed to dissipate heat more efficiently, too...

Rolling out into the open now that his cover was destroyed, the Jedi Knight shifted his rifle to one hand and ignited his blue lightsaber, deflecting the pulse lasers and moving at speeds that could only be described as blurs to keep the enemy from getting a good lock on him. Meanwhile, his return fire of combined blaster bolts and grenades as well as assorted rocks more or less whittled away at the enemy's shields. And to top it all, he moved toward the interior of the city, thinking about a plan to get rid of the damned Woodian...

More grenades detonated in midair, taking a few chunks of rocks with them, as Aidan continued to use his pulse laser for point defense as required. If only the damned rocks could actually hit Aidan, they might actually do something. But very few made it as far as his shield, and said shield was quite good at absorbing blunt impacts. Bullets might have been at least somewhat effective in wearing it down, the occasional blaster bolt did.

Then the forcefilth fled toward the center of the city, periodically turning around to fire. Aidan shot down a couple more grenades, wondering if this forcefilth had any concept of ammo conservation. He hadn't fired a single missile yet; there was no point in firing without full lock, not that an SSRM launcher would want to fire blind anyway.

He took a couple of seconds to let heat dissipate to zero and his shield to recharge to full before pursuing the forcefilth further. Unfortunately for said forcefilth, he realized that he had suggested bringing down a building upon his head earlier. Though the neurohelmet could provide some warning of changes in brain activity (in other words, solid evidence of a Jedi mind hack), and thus assist in mental defense somewhat, Aidan deliberately refused to plan ahead that far lest the forcefilth read his mind.

He continued to pursue the Jedi, firing blue spears of light as point-defense as needed, and firing at the forcebirth himself as lulls and heat consideration allowed. He wondered if the little vermin would ever run out of grenades...

Grenade ammo getting low, and having only one clip of grenades left, the Jedi decide that now would be a good time to conserve the grenades as the sithspawn is too good to shoot head-on. He remained throwing blaster bolts at the enemy, then disappeared into the city. He would use the terrain to his advantage and develop a trap for the Admiral, a trap that would hopefully kill him.

Aidan increased his pace to keep a following distance of around a hundred meters or so. The shots from the forcefilth's blaster rifle were more an annoyance than anything else; even the forcefilth would have to actually turn around and face him if he wanted any sort of suppression or covering fire, much less to take down his shield and actually do any meaningful damage.

The Clanners' laughter at the sight of one freebirth running, and another chasing him, but not outright closing on him, keeping a very wide berth for a lightsaber in a situation where a typical Clan warrior would have charged in and ended up with four amputated limbs. Aidan did not mind the jeers; said jeers simply meant that he would have to order the "redeployment" of one of the Woodian Jedi who previously served in the Woodian military to demonstrate why underbidding against a forcefilth was usually not a good idea. But that was for a later time...

He continued tracking the forcefilth's turns, making sure to keep him within range of his SSRM's active targeting system. Even if it couldn't get a lock, it still had some use in detecting him if he ducked behind a building, even if only for a couple of seconds. He suspected the forcefilth was taking his earlier hint, but went along with it for now...

Deeper and deeper the Jedi went, into the center of the town. He then stopped in an alleyway between two buildings and jumped up towards the roofs to gain some height over the Admiral. From there, he began expanding his Force-awareness as wide as he could, feeling the cracks in every bit of the roof under him, the wind blowing through the city from an incoming storm, even the Admiral's heart that beat fast yet strong. From here, he sank into the Force and prepared not to think, but to act. To allow the Force to completely guide his actions, whatever may come of it...

Aidan saw the forcefilth atop what looked to be a warehouse building and instantly became suspicious. He continued running, but took a ninety-degree turn before reaching the buildings, giving them a wide berth. However, he did keep his attention fixated upon the forcefilth.

An intermittent beep audible only inside Aidan's neurohelmet became a steady hum. Two missiles launched from Aidan's thigh...and before they had so much as travelled a meter, Aidan's pulse laser opened fire, as his wrist, imperceptibly, flicked somewhat randomly, just enough to ensure that the forcefilth had multiple things to worry about. As the forcefilth had to block the pulse laser volley, the missiles flanked him, one going right and one going left, both of them having perfect lock, not on the Jedi himself...but on the hilt of his lightsaber.

And then a second pair of missiles fired.

The Combat Knight allowed the Force to act through him, and it acted. The first set of missiles stopped in midair. The lightsaber flashed, deflecting the bolts right back at the foe. Then the missiles moved, back towards the enemy, just as the second set were stopped as well...

Aidan moved a single step as the forcefilth flashed his lightsaber. The reflected pulse laser blasts all landed a step away from him.

As for the four missiles, the forcefilth only managed a temporary diversion. Aidan still had perfect lock, which meant that the missiles, thinking they had missed their target, turned around yet again, still homing in on the lightsaber hilt.

Aidan added another two missiles for the Jedi to worry about, as he fired another burst of pulse laser fire, eight rounds a second. Then, locking onto the building upon which the forcefilth stood, Aidan launched yet another two...that streaked across the ground at an altitude of less than a meter.

Eight missiles in the air, six of them homing in on the forcefilth's lightsaber, and the pulse laser to worry about...Aidan was very clearly in no mood to suffer traps today...

He checked his ammo count. Sixteen left. He refused to let his lock break.

With eight missiles that are now in the air and the pulse lasers continuing to make the Jedi's life a living hell even though the shield did well in reflecting them, the Force pulsed through him again, and he disappeared with a slight pop of air displacement, only to reappear on another roof...

OOC: Unless each post is supposed to represent a couple hundredths of a second (probably impossible with reference to the pulse laser fire), time for those missiles to start detonating. Unlike fighters, they just don't stay in the air indefinitely. Especially short range ones.

------------------

Unfortunately for the forcefilth, it didn't take Aidan long to realize the forcefilth had moved. He simply redirected his pulse laser fire, along with the missile tracking, to the Jedi's new location. The missiles simply followed.

The four missiles originally fired, the short-range missiles that they were, ran out of propellant and had to coast to their destination. Gravity kept the original four from actually striking the lightsaber they were actually locked on to, but they *did* slam into the wall supporting the roof that the forcefilth happened to be standing upon. The wall exploded in a giant fireball, throwing shrapnel a hundred meters into the air. The four other missiles, following less than a tenth of a second behind, also impacted on the roof, thanks to the Jedi teleporting when he should have either thrown his lightsaber (the missiles would have tracked that instead of him) or detonated the missiles. While even the SSRMs could not compensate for the collapsing roof within a few meters of their target without passing and turning around, they hit only a few feet short of the forcebirth, resulting in another massive explosion...

A nice brilliant explosion occurred, obscuring the Jedi and collapsing the roof of the building and destroying the interior of the grocery store. Is this the end for the Jedi Knight Bailey Kipper?

Not a chance as Admiral Aidan realized when Bailey popped behind him and stabbed forward...

Aidan, his senses enhanced by raw adrenaline, heard a couple of gravel pebbles kick up behind him. It helped, too, that his powered armor worked in conjunction with his brainwaves, bringing his reaction time to rough parity with a forcefilth. Otherwise, he was dead now.

He turned around, only to see the forcefilth lunging at him. He stepped backwards and looked straight at...the ground.

The two missiles traveled all of five feet before striking the pavement, causing an intersection-consuming fireball. Aidan was ejected more than a hundred meters, over a couple of buildings, and his back hit the grass hard. His front shield had collapsed, though it now was recharging, and shrapnel from the explosion had pockmarked his front armor with little dents.

He knew he had broken ribs, but he did not care. The Trial must finish. He forced himself to get up, as quickly as a motorcyclist who just survived a collision forces himself to get the hell off the road. The extent of his injuries beyond that, he did not know.

One thing he did know: The fight had yet to go out of him...

The next thing Bailey Kipper knew, he was under a hell of a lot of rubble, having been thrown just as far by the force of the explosion. By virtue of the shield and the Force, he managed to survive the injuries, but he was definitely injured. Broken ribs that made it hard to breathe, legs that wouldn't move right, and cuts and scratches everywhere, he looked a sorry state. He was also barely conscious, which is a major problem considering he won't be able to fight, much less defend himself in such a shape. It appears that this duel is soon going to draw to a close...

Aidan still didn't know the full extent of his injuries as he staggered towards the intersection. He would easily survive if treated for his injuries right now, but alas, there was a Trial to finish. The enemy had not been pronounced dead, submitted, or outside the Circle of Equals.

Thus, it had to be finished.

Observers of the Trial of Grievance watched as he swaggered towards the site of the explosion. Some civilian observer asked if he needed help. "No, the Trial must first end," he rasped back.

He arrived at the intersection where the explosion had taken place, trying to figure out where the forcefilth went. He found the impact crater of the two missiles, and then laboriously remembered the forcefilth's last position relative to it. His brain seemed to take forever to figure out the physics of where the forcefilth's body might have been ejected, but Aidan nonetheless proceeded in the direction opposite where the explosion had thrown him. He continued, not knowing if he would find his enemy dead, unconscious, or alive.

Bailey Kipper finally awoke after what seemed like an eternity. Checking himself out, he knew he was in trouble when he felt pain shooting up from his legs. He sighed. There was only one thing left he could do, or else he will lose this fight. Another Jedi would have balked and preferred to lose, but not a Combat Knight. Not when the fate of this colony was at stake. He weighed the ramifications of his next actions and decided it was an acceptable risk. What was one man's feelings on the matter when it came to his people, after all?

So he reached out with the Force, searching for the life signature of Admiral Aidan. Finding it, he decided to do one last assault, completely with the Force.

Remember the broken building? There were pieces everywhere, pieces that were large enough to do harm even to an Elemental. It will put great strain on the Jedi, especially in his condition, but hey, at least he won't go out like a chump. The Force was his ally, even unto the end...

An iron girder shakily rose into the air, and then flew at the Admiral...

Aidan heard the sound of metal scraping as it lifted up behind him. He turned around.

He saw the damned thing floating up in the air and knew the damned forcefilth was still alive. As it shot at him, he dove, stomach down, on the ground, as if seeking refuge from a coming tornado. He took advantage of the 'Mech-armor-grade metal spikes along the outside of his arms, digging one arm's spikes into the ground to make it more difficult for the forcefilth to lift him up, while retaining the use of the other arm for leverage should he need to move. The girder only scored a glancing hit, skipping off his shield like a rock skipping off water. Had Aidan not dove, he would have been trapped underneath it, but nay, the forcefilth was denied. To Aidan, it felt like someone tapped his foot on his back, but nothing more...

The iron girder then rose again to trap the admiral on the ground, as the Jedi Force-saw what had happened from his vantage point, then a large chunk of duracrete followed as well.

More metal scraping noises. Aidan pivoted about his arm to turn around.

The girder came lower this time, but Aidan used his free arm to catapult himself into a barrel roll. He heard the durasteel hit a streetpole on its way up, and rolled back against the iron as the durasteel crashed into where he had rolled to evade the iron girder.

There was enough clearance to get the hell out. Adrenaline forced him up, and he was aided by the myomer musculature of the armor itself. He managed to sprint for a few seconds before diving again. Diving, so that he could evade the forcefilth's next present.

From his new position, he heard the slightest groan, from right about where the forcefilth should be. Or at least he thought he did. Impossible to be sure. Nevertheless, it was evident that the forcefilth was tracking his position via Force mysticism anyway, so his position was already revealed.

He fired his pulse laser at the forcefilth...

The pulse laser zipped right above the so-called Force-filth and he knew that there wasn't much he could do before the guy decided to go-all out again. So, drawing again on the Force, the Jedi pulled on another couple large clumps of duracrete, making them arc like artillery to smash on the Admiral.

Next, he picked up another iron girder and maneuvered it lengthwise so that the Admiral would really have to work to get around it, and hurled that at him very low to the ground, knee height, really. If the Admiral jumped, there was a nice present waiting for him in the form of his lightsaber impaling him. If the Admiral tried to roll out of the way, some part of the girder would always hit him hard, and to top it all the Jedi would have an easier time of grabbing the guy and tossing him into the nearest building as hard as his telekinesis would allow him, from which he would follow the Admiral's suggesting of bringing the building down on him.

Aidan's mind sharpened.

Perhaps it was a surge in adrenaline (from, admittedly, already high levels). Perhaps it was something like the warm, fuzzy feeling soldiers fighting through a Russian winter back in twentieth-century Terra felt, right before their death, like one final swig of vodka. Perhaps because the filthbirth was actually (gasp!) fighting now, and for the first time, the Clan observers could see with their own eyes why a bid of armor against a forcefilth might be warranted. Perhaps (though this idea wouldn't go over well with the Clans, and thus it was definitely a good thing that no one spoke it) it was because of Aidan's namesake; the Jade Falcon legend of the Star Colonel Aidan Pryde was known in Evil Woody Thoughts; and occasionally firstborn babies would be named after him...and Aidan possessed some unspeakable need to prove himself worthy of the name.

Whatever it was, Aidan remained defiant of the forcefilth's attempts to kill him.

He had heard the two clumps of duracrete drag on something before being launched, and rolled over such that he could look up. Sure enough, he saw the two nearly halfway through their trajectory...and he also saw an iron girder being lifted, lengthwise, presumably to prevent him from evading it.

He rolled, lengthwise (his body parallel to the girder) towards the forcefilth. He had only accomplished two and a half rolls before the two duracrete blocks the forcefilth had used as artillery crashed on the ground--about ten feet short of his new location.

Aidan's eyes now faced the forcefilth even as time seemed to stand still. He then saw the lightsaber flash and be thrown, presumably to forestall a jump attempt. Aidan waited, his left arm crunched into the ground, in the middle of the road, laying on his stomach now, his head turned such that he could see the lightsaber's point of origin. He made sure to lay as low as possible, so low, in fact, that his entire suit remained just below knee height. Even so, he kept his attention on the lightsaber, not daring to look away from it, even for a hundredth of a second.

A split second later, the iron girder clipped the two duracrete chunks. Sparks flew as the duracrete chunks were pushed forward by the impact; the road surface slowed the uneven blocks that were more like pumice than anything wheeled significantly. The blocks nudged Aidan slightly, but by the time they got to him, they weren't going fast enough to do anything more than make him feel like someone had shoved a piece of furniture into his side at walking speed. Painful, yes, injurious, not really. The iron girder, on the other hand, bounced up from clipping the duracrete blocks, above Aidan, and clanged to the road beyond him, its inertia carrying it further down for a second or so. Even as the girder overshot him, the lightsaber whizzed overhead to impale him on a jump attempt...and the beeping he had had more important things to worry about, and thus didn't notice, became a steady hum.

He did a half-roll, such that his SSRM launcher faced straight up, and launched. The missiles--fired at point-blank as had been those fired at the intersection--instantly veered for the hilt.

Whether the missiles struck the lightsaber or the duracrete behind him, Aidan could not be sure. Even if they hit the duracrete, they would have struck so close, within inches, that anything except for the best of the best lightsabers, such as Master Whitfield's mithril-hilted one, forged from a single block of mithril with no welding, or Travis Masaki's half-sentient one, would have been blown apart by the force of the explosion. Was Bailey, a mere "Combat Knight," who ran away as a coward at this Trial's opening, in possession of such an elite lightsaber? Was he worthy of making, or even carrying, such a lightsaber? Aidan hoped the answer was no. Even in the unlikely event the answer was yes, it would almost certainly take the forcefilth at least a couple precious seconds to find the lightsaber, knocked out of its flightpath, and call it back.

Had Aidan been standing, the explosion would have killed him this time--its origin was only about ten feet away. But nay, as he kept close to the ground (there is indeed a reason why one should keep as close to the ground as possible in the event of a tornado or similar disturbance), the force from the blast came from above at an angle that all it could do was shove him hard to the ground, burn off his back shield and blacken the back armor/pockmark it with shrapnel, and, by the laws of physics, shove him away from the explosion. Aidan felt pain unlike the first time, but he was not dead yet; neither was his determination to defeat the forcefilth scum. If neither combatant survived, and this Trial of Grievance ended in a rare draw, and the Trial of Possession had to be rebid, because both challengers be dead, so be it. Not even his armor had prevented six cracked (not crushed--cracked, big difference) vertabrae from the explosion, but he plunged his left arm into the ground to hold himself in the middle of the road, away from buildings, nonetheless.

And now, all of the above having taken place in a very few short seconds, now was the time to deal with the forcefilth. Aidan aimed his pulse laser at the point of origin of the lightsaber throw--below where he had earlier shot right over the forcefilth's head--very carefully. Then he fired...a full burst.

The lightsaber was destroyed, but no matter. When the Admiral started blasting at the point of origin of the lightsaber, he made a simple mistake, for the lightsaber was several meters from the Jedi himself and thus the lasers hit nothing important. While the sithspawn fired his burst, a girder was pulled towards the admiral, then another right behind. Then a heavy rainstorm of smaller pieces and even miscellaneous items were thrown at the Admiral, as if a barrage of smaller caliber artillery fire were launched at the Admiral's location. Intermixed with the smaller chunks of duracrete and miscellaneous equipment were larger chunks of 'crete and steel, deliberately thrown as to give a more limited area for Aidan to dodge and thus give the Jedi a chance to defeat him once and for all. Not to mention a few large pieces aimed for the Admiral himself.

Aidan snuck a quick glance behind him and saw lightsaber debris, as well as charred duracrete. The lightsaber debris meant that he could now close on the forcefilth...

...who was apparently still alive. Cursed coward!

Aidan saw the cloud of debris, much of it very large and dangerous debris that could crush him, coming for him and made a flash decision that he stood a better chance dispersing it than he did of dodging it. If the missiles could disperse a lightsaber, they could probably disperse this too. He could tell by the increasing density of said debris that the forcefilth was growing more desperate. His ears still ringing a bit from the explosion that had decommissioned the forcefilth's primary weapon, he partially rolled over, and fired another pair of missiles at one of the girders in the debris cloud, staying close to the ground.

The pretty explosion threw him down again, and slightly towards the forcefilth. The force of said explosion also conveniently dispersed the debris, all of which had been headed for him, into a multitude of directions. He rolled to dodge one chunk of duracrete that still managed to come his way, and again to dodge a couple of incoming projectiles from the other direction.

Before the forcefilth could raise more projectiles, he got up and sprinted a couple of steps, diving again before the forcefilth could concentrate enough to lift him up. He dug in his armored spikes on one of his arms into the road to make such a task more difficult, as a safety precaution. And he listened...and heard the forcefilth breathing.

He was close. Very close.

Indeed, the Jedi could sense that the sithspawn was close to him. But that also puts him close to the source of all that debris, the store that was now in pieces just a dozen meters away. Two things happened as the Jedi focused like he never focused before. The first, was that the debris that was scattered by the explosion were recalled and tossed at Aidan and forced to 'stick' on Aidan to decrease his ability to move, especially the now-bent girders. The second was that the rest of the store seemed have been picked up and thrown at the Admiral. A horde of large and small pieces from the store slammed (well, slammed isn't quite right. More like given a hard thrust more or less point-blank so that the KE is as high as possible when the debris hit him) towards the admiral, in such numbers that even with the missiles, the Admiral likely couldn't hope to deflect or dodge them all.

It may or may not have the effect of finally dislodging the sithspawn so that Bailey could throw him, along with the debris, into the nearest building. Headfirst. If even that didn't work, he would simply have to do the last resort and start directly mucking with the Admiral's suit, starting with the pulse laser...

I must kill him. Now. Aidan realized that the forcefilth simply had too much debris to be able to throw at him, and that he would not be able to advance to melee range with the forcefilth curiously sticking debris on him to clog up what maneuverability he had left injured, with pain shooting up his spine.

The forcefilth's breathing betrayed his location, far more accurately than his moaning from fifty meters away or his earlier lightsaber throw. Aidan stood, defiantly, in the face of the incoming debris. Ironically, the larger pieces of debris stuck to Aidan's armor provided some additional protection against the smaller projectiles whizzing around and bouncing off of it.

His flamethrower, long unused, now ignited to provide suppressive fire for what was coming, as well as to suck all the oxygen out of the debris that physically more or less trapped the Jedi. Heat was a complete non-issue at the moment, so he further fired his pulse laser into the debris right above the forcefilth's head.

Then came the two missiles, fired from point-blank range, distance no greater than when Aidan had blown up the intersection, straight at the forcefilth, the entire alpha-strike executed within a quarter second. The two SSRMs exploded only about five meters away, blasting the debris off of Aidan's armor--and blasting Aidan high into the air. He landed on a rooftop, more ribs breaking and vertebrae cracking. He was lucky to maintain even the slightest consciousness; yet he was semi-aware, a testament to the armor that he had bid.

Whether or not the forcefilth had survived or not, he did not know. He tried to get up but even his power armor had seen its limits. All he was able to do was crawl, using the spikes of his armor to keep from falling off the roof. At least if the forcefilth collapsed the building, he would be on top of the rubble, not crushed beneath it...

As the fight continued on, the laughter and the jeering had turned into a full-fledged cheering section as the warriors stood divided on who they wished to see die first. The cheering as at a loud roar at this point, and the only sounds that could drown them out was the crashing sounds, explosions, and stacatto laser fire that seemed to happen quite often. By this point, many more Clanners had joined the crowd, and it seemed like this event had been turned into the superbowl of Trials (although without the devoted fanbase).

In the crowd, Amelia stood by, silent as she watched the two combatants give it their all. She was impressed more by the Elemental than she was by this 'Forcefilth' that the Elemental had spoken of. She could already sense a lot of power coming from the 'Forcefilth', although the source of the power was a mystery to her as it did not 'smell' like magic, nor like ki. Still, it was the Elemental, the one without the power, that caught her interest more as he fought without the augmentation of supernatural abilities.

Several meters away, the Wolf Captain was observing this battle as well. His thoughts were just the same as Amelia's, and he, too, wanted to see how this battle would turn out.

Unfortunately for the Admiral, the Jedi managed to survive by virtue of being under so much debris that it acted as a shield against the explosion. Even so, it was rather hot for comfort and it took all the Jedi's skill in Force absorption to get rid of the worst of the heat. That done, he sighed and searched for the enemy life signature again. Finding it on a rooftop, he delivered another present to the Admiral. Then, he knew what he must do, even if it was with great reluctance. He focused all his might on the Admiral himself, willing his heart to stop. He shakily raised one hand as if feeling the heart in his hand. Then closed it tightly, with much reluctance. He held it tight until the beating stopped. Until the life fled from the Admiral's body. Until victory was completely assured for this Trial...

OOC: CW, I *TOLD* you what you must do...

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Aidan's heart stopped, alright. Had he not been wearing the power armor, he would have died. However, as the power armor was designed to work in any environment (including zero-atmosphere conditions, and had it been modded with jump jets, zero-gravity as well), it contained certain life-support measures that Aidan had never thought he would be using here. He had expected to die by a swipe of the Jedi's lightsaber or be crushed under a building the so-called "Jedi" brought on top of him.

They were MEANT for inhospitable atmospheres. But they functioned anyway.

Ironic that he calls me a sithspawn, Aidan thought as his brain oxygen levels started to decline.

"Ow!" he said aloud as his own suit gave him a little electric shock, his first expression of pain in this entire battle--pain that also helped greatly to eliminate the haze of looming unconsciousness. The suit's computers, observing Aidan's vitals and thinking that he was having a heart attack, defibrillated it. Additionally, his helmet started making an extremely low--almost imperceptible--humming noise as it activated machinery to filter pure oxygen out of the air. With Aidan's next (labored) breath, pure oxygen found its way into his bloodstream, clearing the lull from the drop in oxygen to the brain a few seconds earlier.

The heart started beating on its own again, a weak pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. Then stopped as the will of the forcefilth willed it to. Then Aidan was shocked again as the defibrillator intervened once again. It seemed to be a classic case of the age-old fight between nature wishing death, yet machine preventing it. Indeed, no less than fourteen such defibrillations occurred in the first minute Bailey had his fist closed, trying to stop Aidan's heart.

Meanwhile, skin-absorb-able liquid stimulants oozed out from somewhere in the suit. Seconds later, they were absorbed into the skin, and then into the bloodstream. After about thirty more seconds, his pulse, previously held up by the defibrillator, started strengthening on its own, and by now the forcefilth was probably figuring out that the suit had life support capable of keeping him alive through a heart stoppage, at least for a while.

Aidan moved. He knew where the forcefilth was. He was probably too injured by that explosion to move, or trapped and Force-powers were his last resort. His left arm reached in front of him, then plunged the armored spikes that ran on the outside of it into the roof of the building. The right arm followed an identical procedure as he moved across the roof of the building almost like a mountain climber.

He jumped off the building onto a wide avenue, beginning the process of closing with the forcefilth AGAIN...

Before, the Jedi was reluctant to kill the forceblind. Now, he was just getting irritated at the fact that he magically survived a heart attack induced by the Force. It seems that he would have to be more decisive in his fatal blows. Well, if that's what it took...

The Admiral stopped short of hitting the ground, hoisted up by the Jedi's powers of telekinesis. Bailey's hand opened wide, as if to encompass the Admiral's body. Then he closed it in a fist, with the resulting action being that the Admiral was caught in one of the most devastating techniques known to the Order, one rarely used even among the Combat Knights. The Admiral's body, armor and all, was squeezed under the vice grip of the Force Crush, the terrifying pressure sure to be fatal this time, and then left to drop on the ground.

Let's see the Admiral survive that!

Before, the Jedi was reluctant to kill the forceblind. Now, he was just getting irritated at the fact that he magically survived a heart attack induced by the Force. It seems that he would have to be more decisive in his fatal blows. Well, if that's what it took...

The Admiral stopped short of hitting the ground, hoisted up by the Jedi's powers of telekinesis. Bailey's hand opened wide, as if to encompass the Admiral's body. Then he closed it in a fist, with the resulting action being that the Admiral was caught in one of the most devastating techniques known to the Order, one rarely used even among the Combat Knights. The Admiral's body, armor and all, was squeezed under the vice grip of the Force Crush, the terrifying pressure sure to be fatal this time, and then left to drop on the ground.

Let's see the Admiral survive that!

As Bailey's fist closed, loud popping, snapping, and crushing noises emanated from within the armor. Even Bailey, fifty or so meters away and buried under debris, could hear it. All two hundred and six bones of Aidan's body then snapped, and some of them snapped again, and again, as Bailey, in his frustration, ground them as hard as he could...

Just as Aidan realized that he was being Force-crushed, his life getting sucked out of him, his skull imploded, and his brain oozed out all over his neurohelmet. The lungs collapsed, and filled with his blood, even as some of the blood began to cook off and blacken from the dark side technique that Bailey had failed to forego during the bidding process, even when Aidan had bluntly challenged him to crush him. Of course, not like the Clanners knew that--Aidan had switched to private channels to spare them the misery of having to listen to freebirths bid a Trial of Grievance--but the fight itself would no doubt have piqued their curiosity about what had happened...

Aidan's eight remaining missiles, utilizing a mini-ammo-ejection system similar to those in 'Mechs, ejected themselves from the suit, in order to prevent an internal ammo explosion. It was then, after Aidan's entire body had become nothing more than a putrid mix of half-boiling bodily fluids, now black and thick, with a piece of bone sticking out here and there, that the suit itself started to collapse. Aidan's extremities were spared from the boiling part, however they still remained mush as literally every bone in his body was broken at least once.

Bailey's fist clenched tighter. The suit's chest and back armor imploded first, then Aidan's neck (long since destroyed, but the suit served as a kind of exoskeleton) visibly snapped, and seemed to fall into his chest. Black ooze of bodily fluid burst out of the armor's now-busted seams, almost like a low-pressure explosion of sorts.

The Woodian observer/mediator of the duel simply watched as some of the ooze splattered in front of them. As he observed Aidan's gruesome end, he recited, verbatim, Bailey's rebid. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13108659&postcount=39).

"I have seen this type of attack before, and it does fall within the Force-usage component of Bailey's bid," he ruled. "Therefore, I pronounce Bailey winner of this Trial of Grievance. He is now obligated to fight, one-on-one, against a representative from the assembled Clans, per previous bid, in a Trial of Possession for this system as soon as he is able."

A medical team transported down from the orbiting Immortal Star Destroyer. They quickly removed one of the "feet" of the suit, as the lower extremities seemed to be the most intact part--the Force crush had concentrated most on the upper body, for obvious reasons. They quickly and efficiently performed a biopsy on Aidan's toe, obtaining a genegift should Evil Woody Thoughts ever adopt anything close to a Clan-style system of genetic engineering for the military.

One of the medics stayed behind for a moment, as if trying to figure out exactly what to do with the remains. The others went to find Bailey, and even removed the rubble on top of him. What followed, however, was most decidedly not a compliment, as medical personnel bidding on the shortest time possible to treat a patient was completely unknown. Until now.

Five medics looked down upon Bailey. "I bid that I can have him ready for the Trial of Possession in seven hours," one of them said coldly, as if bidding what ''Mechs to use in combat.

"I bid six."

"Five hours," a third one replied.

"Four and a half."

"Four." By now, four of the five had bid.

"Three and a half." The fifth one spoke up. After the others acknowledged this as the lowest bid that they thought possible, the fifth medic spoke coldly to the Jedi. "Shut up, Jedi. You had better cooperate, Jedi, because I bid three and a half hours to treat you. I stay not a minute longer. We are honor-bound to restore your condition enough to fight the Trial of Possession, but that does not mean we like it one bit."

Bailey didn't hear the comments for he felt extremely sick after using the Force Crush. It wasn't a technique to be used lightly and it showed, with Bailey vomiting on one of the medics' shoes before falling into blessed (or was it cursed?) unconsciousness.

The Clans were in an uproar at the upsetting loss of the Elemental, but at this point, it didn't matter. As the Clanners began arguing amongst themselves, the Wolf Captain and Amelia both stepped out into the circle, walking towards where the clustered medics were. The Wolf Captain kept his mouth shut, viewing the shattered body of the Jedi with curiousity. Amelia, however, addressed the Medics first.

"Why do you bid on this freebirth's length of treatment?" Her voice was callous, cold. She kept a straight, stern face as she asked the question. "He is the victor. It is obligation that binds the losing side to tend to his healing, yet you seem to hold him in contempt." For obvious reasons. She finished the sentence silently to herself.

"I bid three hours and fifteen minutes." The voice was that of the Wolf Captain. Amelia was so stunned, she turned around and stared at her superior like he was a bloody madman.

The Clans were in an uproar at the upsetting loss of the Elemental, but at this point, it didn't matter. As the Clanners began arguing amongst themselves, the Wolf Captain and Amelia both stepped out into the circle, walking towards where the clustered medics were. The Wolf Captain kept his mouth shut, viewing the shattered body of the Jedi with curiousity. Amelia, however, addressed the Medics first.

"Why do you bid on this freebirth's length of treatment?" Her voice was callous, cold. She kept a straight, stern face as she asked the question. "He is the victor. It is obligation that binds the losing side to tend to his healing, yet you seem to hold him in contempt." For obvious reasons. She finished the sentence silently to herself.

"Evil Woody Thoughts recently concluded a civil war in which the enemy massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in exactly that manner, never mind that six hundred ninety-four million people were either slaughtered in other ways or are listed as missing and presumed dead. While technically Bailey's bid allowed for the tactic, the reason why we would scorn it should be manifestly evident," one of the medics replied.

"I bid three hours and fifteen minutes." The voice was that of the Wolf Captain. Amelia was so stunned, she turned around and stared at her superior like he was a bloody madman.

"I bid two hours, forty minutes to treat him," the second medic replied.

Amelia shook her head as she finally acknowledged that her superior was merely playing games with these medics. She had turned and acknowledged the medic's response as to why they were bidding on the Jedi's life, and she merely turned on her heal and marched off. Meanwhile...

"I bid two hours and twenty minutes," replied the Wolf Captain.

"I bid two hours even," The second medic cut his bid further.

"Then I concede," replied the Wolf Captain. "Well bartered and done. Inform me once this filth is out of recovery." He spat to the side of the debris, and then turned on his heel to hurriedly catch up with Amelia. Once he was with her, he talked in a hush voice to her.

"It seems that there are others with otherworldly abilities in this universe, quiaff?" he asked.

"Aff," was Amelia's only reply.

"What are we going to do then?" The Wolf Captain did not sound worried, but Amelia knew he was.

"Just leave that to me," she replied. She grinned evily as she said this, and the two walked towards their meeting building to await any other dignitaries from the Coredians and the Woodians.

OOC: CW told me the Jedi's injuries, can provide logs if needed lulz.

-----------------------

"Get me a flamethrower, a seven-by-four or larger stainless steel plate, a timer, and a class-D medpack," the medic who had "won" the bid to treat the forcefilth barked coldly. As those around him returned confused looks in regards to the flamethrower request, he added "Quick sterilization."

The timer was perhaps the easiest to obtain; the other three items materialized more or less simultaneously in the other medics' hands, courtesy of the Immortal Star Destroyer's transporter room.

"Begin," one of the other medics said as he set the timer that had appeared in his hand for two hours exactly, counting down.

The medic who had boldly bid only two hours to treat the forcebirth wasted no time. He immediately utilized the flamethrower, blasting an intersection with scathing heat to instantly flash-kill any nasty pathogens there. Flamers were a rather...blunt...method of sterilization...but it worked! Moreover, the non-flammable asphalt surface of the intersection ensured that the fires went out almost as soon as the flamethrower was switched off.

Next, the medic opened the suitcase-sized first aid kit beamed down from the orbiting ship's sickbay, and extracted some hand sanitizer and a bottle of what was euphemistically called "flash sanitizer," a substance similar to hand sanitizer but meant to be dumped over an entire body. He would need it soon. He also placed the stainless steel plate in the middle of the sterilized ground, as well as extracting an insulating sheet from the medkit and placing it as "bedding," to make sure that the Jedi's back didn't get burned by that really hot asphalt.

The medic returned to the forcebirth, hand sanitizer in hand. Next, he did the Heimlich maneuver on the unconscious Jedi, to clear his esophagus of any vomit-related obstructions. Now was the time to use that hand sanitizer: a quick use of it got rid of the vomit that ended up on the medic's hands. The medic followed by dumping half the "flash sanitizer" over the Jedi's body, turning it over, and repeating the process.

This done, he carried the forceborn down to the "hospital bed" he had just prepared for him, and put on gloves from the medkit.

The medic checked the timer. All that done in three minutes (Don't ever mess with a Woodian combat medic--they make the rest of the Woodian military look like the Coredian Senate by comparison). Now, it was time to diagnose and operate.

He took out a portable X-ray machine, a bit bigger than a standard blaster, from the medkit, then waved it over a couple times over the Jedi's body like a security screener wanding someone who set off a metal detector. Early on, the medic had to be most concerned with finding broken bones, because Woodian liquid bone and sealant took an hour, or half of the bid treatment time, to set. Other injuries could be dealt with while the bone sealant was setting, but for now the medic simply made sure he didn't miss a spot with the X-ray, and it was also useful for finding a few other things that would need dealing with.

The medic found nine broken ribs and a cracked vertebrae. The vertebrae would be easiest to deal with, so he turned his patient on his back, checking the timer immediately thereafter. Six minutes elapsed. "Damn, I think I might have overbid...meh, the liqui-bone takes an hour to set properly," he muttered to himself (though if anyone was standing particularly closely, they might overhear it), while extracting a scalpel for the fun part...incisions! The medic cut a small incision over the cracked vertebrae, grabbed a tube of "liqui-bone," and put it over the crack in the Jedi's vertebrae like it was toothpaste, except for the little process of getting the small amount of sealant into the actual crack in the bone. The medic wiped off the excess, injected an antiseptic and a bit of nanobacta, fluid similar to that of a bacta tank but meant for first aid, and thus capable of healing localized wounds in minutes instead of days due to more efficient delivery, into the site, and sealed the wound he had opened.

Glove-changing time! The medic cleaned all other wounds and lacerations he found (in spite of his ruthless efficiency, he did check thoroughly), and cleaned them with some antiseptic and nanobacta injections. He also opened three similar incisions in the corresponding number of places where ribs were cracked on the backside, set the bones, applied the bone sealant that was basically a skeletal super-glue that would harden to the same hardness of actual bone in about an hour, and cleaned *those* incisions as well.

He checked the timer once again as he carefully flipped the patient over to his front side, in such a manner that his setting bones were not disturbed. Twenty-four minutes elapsed since the timer had started, and this medic was already halfway ready to bring him back to consciousness, leaving both Coredians and Clanners alike to wonder just how Woodian combat medics are trained! Operations that took hours to perform in civilian hospitals, this person was doing in mere minutes! (Of course, neither Coredian nor Clanner probably wanted to know how much practice this particular medic had during the civil war, either...)

With the patient now ready to have his front injuries treated, the medic changed gloves once again, before opening six incisions in his body, corresponding with six more broken ribs that needed to be set. One by one, the medic set the bone, applied the bone sealant, injected antiseptics/nanobacta, and made sure that it had just started to harden before moving to the next, each rib taking a bit under two minutes to treat. After finishing the last rib, the medic then treated his other visible injuries, such as lacerations and blunt-force injuries, sealing wounds and applying the proper medicines to heal them yesterday.

The medic, having now treated all visible injuries, now changed gloves again and snuck a glance at the timer. Sixty-two minutes elapsed, and the last rib crack had been closed at forty-two minutes. Now came the time to rehydrate the alleged Jedi and revive him to consciousness...

It took the combat medic only a couple of minutes to set up an IV drip for a water/nutrient solution to rehydrate the Jedi and bring such fun things as blood sugar, electrolytes, and whatnot into balance. He propped the drip up on a little collapsible stand for just that purpose contained in the medkit.

He injected a small dose of caffeine for stimulant; he didn't want TOO much stimulant, lest the Jedi move too much while his skeleton was still setting, but he wanted him to be able to wake up, too. Then, the medic used smelling salts to awaken the Jedi...

After the Jedi regained consciousness, the medic briefed him, rather bluntly, on the situation. "I have repaired your broken bones, but the bone sealant will take another forty minutes to fully set. For the time being, do not move as it still needs to set and you have an IV needle in you. I bid two hours to treat you, of which..." the medic glanced at the timer... "fifty-two minutes remain. I treat you not a minute longer--no cushy outpatient stuff for you. If you have any remaining injuries that I have missed, it is advised that you say so now."

-----------------

OOC: Remaining injuries, if any, are probably going to be mental or psychosomatic (i.e. mental issues causing physical symptoms) in nature. Of course the nanobacta was just injected, but it is doing its job and besides, the Jedi will probably sense what's already been treated.

Meanwhile, while the "Jedi" receives his medical treatment...

Aboard the Star Destroyer, crews immediately knew that there remained no Woodian here with sufficient authority to do any diplomatic stuff with the Clans. Or CoreWorlds for that matter. While the Clans might appreciate the services of that medic planetside, the fact remained that any kind of diplomacy lie somewhat outside that medic's realm (perhaps a fortunate fact for Coredians).

Therefore, the highest-ranking subordinates present decided to notify Admiral Makaryk of the situation. They sent a secure transmission to the Woodian fleet in orbit over Jurai, appraising the Admiral that Aidan had bid the Clans into a one-on-one Trial of Possession, and gotten killed in a Trial of Grievance over it.

Admiral Makaryk, somewhat bored, left the cloaked section of the fleet and deployed ground forces at Jurai, but decided to come on over for a nice little chat with the Clans.

No sooner had the medic restored the alleged Jedi Bailey to consciousness than the rest of the Woodian fleet arrived.

Two Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyers, modified slightly to be equipped with the more-demanding-than-usual-turbolasers weapons systems employed by the Woodian Navy, most notably having a couple hundred turbolaser and ion cannon emplacements removed in favor of the particle projector cannon, something the Colonials had never seen and something the Coredians had first seen in combat during the ruinous Woodian Civil War little more than a year ago. Those super-capital ships also had been equipped with about twenty Gauss rifles each...

The seven-kilometer-long Megodolon, Huntaerian Towerless Super Star Destroyer, disabled, taken as isorla (spoils of war) during the Battle of Konoha, re-assembled, repaired, and refitted.

Twelve first-generation Immortal Star Destroyers. A pity that the second generation prototype managed to overload what was to be its most deadly weapon, necessitating time-consuming repairs. Nevertheless, the first generation already had developed quite a reputation. If ever Coredians had divulged their experiences with Immortals to the Colonials in whatever casual conversation came up, said colonials knew that having twelve of them right there was a Very Good Thing.

Thirty-six Knossos destroyers, some of which had been built only a month ago, replacements for ships destroyed in the ruinous civil war, to provide point defense support, mainly, and capital support as the tactical situation allowed.

Admiral Makaryk sent a rather short and blunt transmission. "This is Galaxy Commander Makaryk of Evil Woody Thoughts here, to answer any questions..."

(OOC: Above includes the six ships already at Caligula...cut/pasted from another thread out of time constraints. Will also crosspost departure from Jurai later.)

The Jedi was forcibly interrupted from his sleep to listen to the medic. He definitely could feel the bones setting as if they were nothing but putty being hardened. He felt the cold hatred of the medics and figured he knew why, for Force Crush was often considered a Dark attack. "I will thank you, then, to leave me in peace to perform a healing trance."

Meanwhile, the Jounin Rock Lee had descended onto the planet to take over the proceedings now that Bailey Kipper was out for the count. The Jounin noted the slab of flesh and armor that was once the Admiral and shook his head. "My, reminds me of Gaara's Desert Funeral...My old student is not going to be well for some time, I would wager. They fought well with great youthful vigor, nevertheless."

He also noted the cold yet efficient medical treatment of Kipper and felt that the medic has seen quite too much. While many would have thought him a little too clinical, it was likely the medic had seen too many victims of Force Crush, considering what had occurred during the Woodian Civil War. Understandable, for a medic is only human after all.

As the Jounin approached the meeting area, people would notice an odd sight. Take a guy wearing green spandex and a cloak bearing the symbol of the Leaf that denoted him as a member of the Jounin Elite, one of the top twelve ninjas in Konoha, add a huge unibrow and bowl-cut hair, and you got Rock Lee.

Said Bushy Brows sauntered into the meeting hall, confident that whatever happens next will turn out for the best...

The medic was about to leave the Jedi to heal himself when Rock Lee approached.

"I hope you can bid under the fifty-one minutes remaining that I bid to treat him," the medic said to the Jounin coldly and clinically. "Otherwise I cannot honorably release him to you, as responsibility for his healing still lies with me."

"I am no healer, my medical friend. Nevertheless, forty-five minutes says he recovers or I will do ten laps around this town, on handstands." Rock Lee said, folding his arms.

"Then why are you here?" the medic asked the Jounin, continuing his clinical voice.

"Then why are you here?" the medic asked the Jounin, continuing his clinical voice.
"Forty four minutes and fifty seconds." The Jounin reminded the medic of his bid. "I have come to see the results of this duel for myself, and to bid myself against the Star Colonel, seeing as Bailey here will be out for the count for a while. Even if he is physically healed, I know that he will have other issues. Issues that cannot be healed even within such a short timeframe."

"Forty four minutes and fifty seconds." The Jounin reminded the medic of his bid. "I have come to see the results of this duel for myself, and to bid myself against the Star Colonel, seeing as Bailey here will be out for the count for a while. Even if he is physically healed, I know that he will have other issues. Issues that cannot be healed even within such a short timeframe."

The medic laughed out loud. "Perhaps he should have only done the challenge to the Trial of Grievance, rather than bidding himself against the Clans and then challenging Aidan," the medic explained. "As it is...he has locked himself into a bid...one that the Clanners will expect him to perform, even if it means waiting for a longer period of time."

He paused for a moment before adding, "I have treated all known physical injuries, and he refuses additional attention. There is now little I can do other than wait for his bones to set."

The medic laughed out loud. "Perhaps he should have only done the challenge to the Trial of Grievance, rather than bidding himself against the Clans and then challenging Aidan," the medic explained. "As it is...he has locked himself into a bid...one that the Clanners will expect him to perform, even if it means waiting for a longer period of time."
"I see." Rock Lee quirked a smile. "Would another Trial be sufficent in unlocking his bid?"


He paused for a moment before adding, "I have treated all known physical injuries, and he refuses additional attention. There is now little I can do other than wait for his bones to set."
Nodding, the Jounin simply waited for the Combat Knight to revive.

"I see." Rock Lee quirked a smile. "Would another Trial be sufficent in unlocking his bid?"

"Unknown. As a medic, I am not quite as familiar with bidding protocol in such unusual circumstances as others within the Woodian military. However, a Trial of Position to determine the combatant in the forthcoming Trial of Possession might be conceivable. Advise that you ask either Star Colonel Amelia or the Wolf Captain, though you do so at your own risk," the medic gave a wry smile (OMG he smiled!) as he said this.

OOC: Has the Wolf Captain ever been referred to by name in this thread?

"Unknown. As a medic, I am not quite as familiar with bidding protocol in such unusual circumstances as others within the Woodian military. However, a Trial of Position to determine the combatant in the forthcoming Trial of Possession might be conceivable. Advise that you ask either Star Colonel Amelia or the Wolf Captain, though you do so at your own risk," the medic gave a wry smile (OMG he smiled!) as he said this.

OOC: Has the Wolf Captain ever been referred to by name in this thread?
"That I will do. For now...we wait."

And so they waited. Right at forty five minutes, Bailey Kipper stirred, and opened his eyes. "Sensei?"

Rock Lee grinned. "Feel better?"

"Well, could be worse." Bailey still felt sickened by the Force Crush, but wasn't as bad as before. "Damn, what a battle. I hated to resort to such tactics."

"Mmm. We'll talk later. First, we still have Star Colonel Amelia to deal with."

"Oh, right. Still not at 100%, though." Bailey replied.

"Might have an idea about that. Can he get up now?" Rock Lee asked the medic.

OOC: Going after "scariest medical personnel in NS.":D

----------------

As Rock Lee and the filthy Jedi bantered, the medic noticed one weapon-wielding, pissed-off person coming, no doubt for the forcefilth. Still, the forcefilth was under his protection, if only for another three minutes.

Apparently Rock Lee didn't even notice and Bailey was too darn busy thinking of his own condition to even notice. The medic discreetly grabbed a scalpel, and read the oncoming irate's insignia. A corporal freebirth. Time for me to teach him a lesson.

The would-be assailant produced a blaster, which, before either the Jounin or Jedi noticed, the medic had already kicked out of his hand with such a powerful kick that it knocked the bandit scum over. "Do not interfere with my obligations, freebirth scum," the medic said even more coldly than the voice with which he had spoken to the Jedi earlier, even as the medic slit the still-conscious assailant's throat with the scalpel. Just for good measure, the scalpel was then shoved into both of his eyes, so that the scum now spent his last few seconds trying to find his eyes instead of defending himself.

Meanwhile, the medic kicked him over, and did a spinal tap, seemingly just to practice, while the assailant bled to death in front of him. "Yes, you may go now," he said clinically to the Jedi as if nothing had just happened, and removing that IV that he had used to rehydrate the Jedi after the Trial of Grievance as he said it.

He then sent a courier to the Wolf Captain to let him know that Bailey was released from his custody.

Rock Lee, who could have easily stopped the idiot, was a bit surprised at the medic's speed as he helped Bailey up. However, Bailey looked a bit frightened of the medic's wrath, considering that he just helped the Combat Knight a few moments before. "Goes to show you should never mess with a medic's patient."

"I agree. My thanks to you, medic." Rock Lee said as he escorted the Jedi to Amelia's meeting area.

Within the fabricated building, several dozen Clan officers sat in what looked like a mockery of the ancient United Nations councel chamber. At the head of the entire councel chamber, the five commanders sat, with Star Colonel Amelia standing next to her superior officer. Beside them were the four other superiors, each a representative of their respective Clan. From left to right, there were as follows.

From the Jade Falcon Clan, to replace the recently deceased Star Captain Julia, Star Captain Markus Roshak. He was a fairly large man, some believing him to be half-Elemental, although this has not been proven officially.

From the Nova Cat Clan, Star Captain Mika Rose sat to the right of the Wolf Captain. She was a petite woman and was considered one of the most beautiful women in the Clans. However, her petite size belittled her ferocity as she was also well known as having the highest kill record in her Clan for Mech-to-Mech combat.

In the center, the head of the councel, there was Wolf Captain Jaime Kerensky, the man responsible for the harrassment of Caligulan Fleet's flagship. He was a stern looking man and one of the oldest surviving warriors of his Clan. He was also the Genefather of Star Colonel Amelia, although neither of them knew this fact.

Continuing on, the representative of the Ghost Bear Clan was Star Captain Bret Jorgensen. He was a young warrior, the youngest of the commanders in charge at the age of nineteen. He had been part of only a few battles with the Battle of Caligula being his first major campaign. However, it had been his ship who had slain the Coredian MC-90 missile frigate.

The final representative from Star Adder was a surprise. He was the fighter pilot who had engaged Bailey Kipper in orbit, Galaxy Commander Alec Cannon. He was the most notorious fighter pilot in all of the Clans, having single-handedly taken down an entire Trinary's worth of pirate fighter craft by himself on sheer skill alone with barely enough fuel to return to his DropShip.

These five warriors were the elite of the elite, each of them tasked with this campaign of expansion specifically for their skill sets. Still, they were unaware of where they were, and they were more concerned as to the location of this system in relation to their home systems. For now, it was time to wait on their 'guests.'
_________________________________________________

Outside, a group of Clanners had been staring in awe at the methodic brutality of the medic who had bid to save Bailey Kipper's life. Never in their life had they seen such perfection, and they were quick to swarm the medic with praise, practically forgetting the fact that the medic was a freebirth foreigner.

"Simply amazing!"

"What you just did...that was genius!"

Several other compliments were followed, and the medic would soon find himself being dragged off to a tent nearby where several Clanners had camped out to await the beginning of the Trial.
_____________________________________________________

Unfortunately for Makaryk, no one would respond to him as there was no one monitoring the comms. Granted, this was very unClan like, it was to be expected. Never in the history of the Clans since the Inner Sphere invasion and the Great Refusal had such a Trial of Possession ever been performed.

Within the fabricated building, several dozen Clan officers sat in what looked like a mockery of the ancient United Nations councel chamber. At the head of the entire councel chamber, the five commanders sat, with Star Colonel Amelia standing next to her superior officer. Beside them were the four other superiors, each a representative of their respective Clan. From left to right, there were as follows.

From the Jade Falcon Clan, to replace the recently deceased Star Captain Julia, Star Captain Markus Roshak. He was a fairly large man, some believing him to be half-Elemental, although this has not been proven officially.

From the Nova Cat Clan, Star Captain Mika Rose sat to the right of the Wolf Captain. She was a petite woman and was considered one of the most beautiful women in the Clans. However, her petite size belittled her ferocity as she was also well known as having the highest kill record in her Clan for Mech-to-Mech combat.

In the center, the head of the councel, there was Wolf Captain Jaime Kerensky, the man responsible for the harrassment of Caligulan Fleet's flagship. He was a stern looking man and one of the oldest surviving warriors of his Clan. He was also the Genefather of Star Colonel Amelia, although neither of them knew this fact.

Continuing on, the representative of the Ghost Bear Clan was Star Captain Bret Jorgensen. He was a young warrior, the youngest of the commanders in charge at the age of nineteen. He had been part of only a few battles with the Battle of Caligula being his first major campaign. However, it had been his ship who had slain the Coredian MC-90 missile frigate.

The final representative from Star Adder was a surprise. He was the fighter pilot who had engaged Bailey Kipper in orbit, Galaxy Commander Alec Cannon. He was the most notorious fighter pilot in all of the Clans, having single-handedly taken down an entire Trinary's worth of pirate fighter craft by himself on sheer skill alone with barely enough fuel to return to his DropShip.

These five warriors were the elite of the elite, each of them tasked with this campaign of expansion specifically for their skill sets. Still, they were unaware of where they were, and they were more concerned as to the location of this system in relation to their home systems. For now, it was time to wait on their 'guests.'

A courier bearing a message for the Wolf Captain Jaime Kerensky showed up at the temporary building where the meeting was being held at. His nervousness failed to show on his face as he told the guard, "I come with a message for the Wolf Captain concerning Bailey's discharge from medical treatment."
_________________________________________________

Outside, a group of Clanners had been staring in awe at the methodic brutality of the medic who had bid to save Bailey Kipper's life. Never in their life had they seen such perfection, and they were quick to swarm the medic with praise, practically forgetting the fact that the medic was a freebirth foreigner.

"Simply amazing!"

"What you just did...that was genius!"

Several other compliments were followed, and the medic would soon find himself being dragged off to a tent nearby where several Clanners had camped out to await the beginning of the Trial.

"Neg," the medic protested in his clinical voice of doom as the Clan warriors attempted to drag him off. "I have not yet packaged his organs for use in the Coredian hospital system. I have decided that this criminal shall become an organ donor. This procedure should take five to ten minutes, whereupon I will go."

The medic then treated the Clanners present to even more brutality, brutality that upstaged even his previous treatment. He kicked his specimen, still alive and bleeding from his slit throat, such that the specimen now lie on his back.

He cut a long, gaping incision down the specimen's chest and abdomen, as the specimen's eyes widened in horror. With his slit throat, he could not vocalize the utter terror registering in his brain. The medic first removed, packaged, and sealed organs such as the liver, stomach, and pancreas, and then as the specimen bled far more heavily than before and would die in a matter of seconds, removed and packaged his heart and lungs, much to the delight of the Clans. At this point, the medic pronounced the would-be assailant dead...and proceeded to extract bone marrow immediately thereafter.

The medic then washed his hands, gave the vacuum-sealed organs to one of the other medics who had bid too high, signed a chain-of-custody form, and was on his way, knowing that if other Clanners not present wondered why a foreigner would be hanging out with trueborn Clanners, he had plenty of witnesses to testify of his worthiness for such honor.
_____________________________________________________

Unfortunately for Makaryk, no one would respond to him as there was no one monitoring the comms. Granted, this was very unClan like, it was to be expected. Never in the history of the Clans since the Inner Sphere invasion and the Great Refusal had such a Trial of Possession ever been performed.

Admiral (aka Galaxy Commander) Makaryk waited for exactly a half hour before deciding to draw a little attention to himself. "Fire a single, standard PPC shot across and ten meters above the bow of one of the Clan warships," he ordered. Meanwhile, while his gunners aimed one of the vessel's PPCs, Admiral Makaryk prepared a recorded transmission.

The gunners fired across the bow of one of the Clanner warships as ordered, their aim off the "ten meters above" target by only four centimeters. Not bad for freeborns. Immediately thereafter, a transmission found its way to the ship.

"Ahem. This is Galaxy Commander Makaryk of Evil Woody Thoughts. For the last half hour, I have sent you transmissions of my presence, but to no avail. Apparently, I must resort to more drastic measures to get your attention..."

OOC: The transcripts in this post are collated from relevant earlier IC posts in this RP.

------------------------------

Aboard the Immortal Star Destroyer that Aidan had arrived on, the crew listened to the tapes of the bidding between Aidan and Bailey--after Aidan had closed the channel to spare the Clans the vagaries of two freeborns bidding a Trial of Grievance against each other. In light of observed Clan reaction to both the Trial itself and the treatment performed by the medic afterwards, a reasonable argument could be made that the Clans might indeed be interested in this information after all, as it had quite obviously affected the outcome of the Trial. Indeed, the fact that Aidan, seeing the Jedi's recalcitrance at being challenged to fight outside the Force, had attempted some variant of reductio ad absurdum on the Jedi's bid--challenging the Jedi that if he bid to retain any use of the Force he so desired, he retained use its darkest aspects--a reprehensible thought to any Jedi, and one that certainly deprived the Jedi's victory of any honor by his own ethical standards.

The commanding officer of the ship looked over the transcript once again as the bridge crew argued over it:

BAILEY: "Very well. Hand to hand, no weapons. The terrain will be right where we land."
*AIDAN switches to closed comm
AIDAN: "A Jedi never truly bids to fight unarmed. You have completely sidestepped that issue, forceborn. You have not completed your bid."
BAILEY: "You fear my powers, knave? You cannot compete without handicapping a Knight, it seems. It would be only right to tie up your hands as well."
AIDAN: "Very well, surat forcebirth. I assume that is a bid to use any Force-augmentation you wish. Immobilize me and tear my trachea in a thousand different directions. Send a million volts through my body. Admiral Riordan somehow survived it. Freeze my brain and trick me into sepukku. Stop my heart and rupture my lungs. Crush every bone in my body. Bring down a cliff face upon my head. You simply make it clear that you cannot hope--or are afraid--to fight 'unarmed' without these abilities, forcefilth. I suppose you cannot fight without your lightsaber, either. Nor do I care."
BAILEY (mutters): "What is it with these people?"
*BAILEY cuts transmission

The crew of the vessel had argued over Aidan's last words and their relation to and bearing upon the Trial of Grievance for the last twenty minutes. Specifically, the part where Aidan all but dared Bailey to "tear my trachea in a thousand different directions," "rupture my lungs," and to "crush every bone in my body." Most crewmembers did not think it was a coincidence how the Trial of Grievance had ended...

"We forward this information to Admiral Makaryk," the commanding officer ordered. "He will decide what to do with it."

The Admiral/Galaxy Commander now had something more to think about while awaiting a response from the Clans, as *he* read the transcript with interest...

A courier bearing a message for the Wolf Captain Jaime Kerensky showed up at the temporary building where the meeting was being held at. His nervousness failed to show on his face as he told the guard, "I come with a message for the Wolf Captain concerning Bailey's discharge from medical treatment."
Meanwhile, Bailey and Rock Lee arrived at the temporary building for the meeting just after the courier and waited to enter.

The guard outside the fabri-structure looked over the three who wished entrance. Noting that one of them was the Coredian who had succeeded in his Trial of Grievance, he waved all three inside. "You may see the War Councel now."
____________________________________

The shot sliced just in front of one of the Star League Ships, and said ship returned the favour kindly, firing its own PPC shot across the bow of Makaryk's ship.

"None of our men on board this ship are qualified to speak on our leaders' behalf," was the reply. "If you wish to speak with our leaders, it is very obvious where they are located. Go to the field of Hrothgars. There you shall find them."
_____________________________________

The Clanners jovially brought their new-found companion into the mess structure, much to their bewildered comrade's shock. Several shouted obsenities at the medic, but they were soon hushed by the leader of the pack who described in full detail what had transpired. Many of the Clanners listened with anticipation, and many had shouted in the favour of the medic. Once the story was finished, a thorough toasted, and soaking, ensued as the medic was practically adopted by the Warrior Caste.

The guard outside the fabri-structure looked over the three who wished entrance. Noting that one of them was the Coredian who had succeeded in his Trial of Grievance, he waved all three inside. "You may see the War Councel now."

The courier bowed as he went inside to see the Wolf Captain. As he entered the room where the War Council was meeting, he bowed and stated his business...

"I have news for the Wolf Captain, per his request. The Jedi Bailey was released from treatment at one hour, fifty nine minutes, thirty two seconds. That is all."
____________________________________

The shot sliced just in front of one of the Star League Ships, and said ship returned the favour kindly, firing its own PPC shot across the bow of Makaryk's ship.

"None of our men on board this ship are qualified to speak on our leaders' behalf," was the reply. "If you wish to speak with our leaders, it is very obvious where they are located. Go to the field of Hrothgars. There you shall find them."

"Aff," Admiral/Galaxy Commander Makaryk replied. "Also, you have no doubt heard of the Trial of Grievance fought planetside? I have the transcript of the bidding that occurred after Aidan closed comm, presumably to spare trueborn Clanners from the vagrancies of two freeborns bidding on their Trial. Subsequent events have led me to believe that the Clans may be interested in these records after all."

He then transmitted the transcript of the closed-channel bidding, along with vocal recordings. Interesting indeed...

Admiral Makaryk then transported down to the planetary surface, near the Hrothgars. No doubt Clanners would fail to recognize his uniform and get curious.
_____________________________________

The Clanners jovially brought their new-found companion into the mess structure, much to their bewildered comrade's shock. Several shouted obsenities at the medic, but they were soon hushed by the leader of the pack who described in full detail what had transpired. Many of the Clanners listened with anticipation, and many had shouted in the favour of the medic. Once the story was finished, a thorough toasted, and soaking, ensued as the medic was practically adopted by the Warrior Caste.

The medic, having been unofficially adopted into the Clan's Warrior Caste, did not take very long to find the 200-proof alcohol...

The councel listened quietly to the courier. Once he was finished, Jaime addressed him.

"Your job is complete. You may leave." He waved his hand for the courier to exit.
___________________

As Makaryk arrived, several Clanners watched him closely. They spoke not a word, unsure whether that he was freebirth or not. His cool, stern demeanor kept them thinking as they waited for him to make a move or say something directed at any one of them.
___________________

There was roaring and cheering in the tent as the Clanners made sure the medic was thoroughly drunk. They no longer thought of this man as a freebirth foreigner, but one who had proven that not all freebirths were stupid and with ill constitution. Nay, this medic had proven that to be untrue of his own person.

Rock Lee entered with Bailey Kipper after the courier left. Now it was time to pop the question.

"Before we get started, I understand that you have a Trial of Possession forthcoming for Bailey Kipper here, now that he has won the right from Aidan. I would like to request that before the Trial begins, a Trial of Position between him and me be conducted in order for me to take his place." Rock Lee said. "The winner will face the Clan representative for the Trial of Possession."

The councel listened quietly to the courier. Once he was finished, Jaime addressed him.

"Your job is complete. You may leave." He waved his hand for the courier to exit.

The courier bowed respectfully but did not linger, leaving only a few seconds later.
___________________

As Makaryk arrived, several Clanners watched him closely. They spoke not a word, unsure whether that he was freebirth or not. His cool, stern demeanor kept them thinking as they waited for him to make a move or say something directed at any one of them.

Nor did the Admiral/Galaxy Commander directly approach the Clanners present, as he decided to wait for them to approach him. However, that did not mean that he was idle--he still walked with purpose.

The Clanners observed him conferring with those medics who had lost the bid to treat Bailey. Overheard snatches of conversation included, "His genegift is taken, quiaff?," followed by the affirmative response, as well as orders.

Only moments later, he knelt beside Aidan's body, or what remained of it, with a scalpel appropriated from one of the medics who had lost the earlier bidding. A warrior of Makaryk's stature could easily order that this be done and walk away--but his silence so far to the Clanners on the ground belied why he was so respected in the Woodian military: He led by example.

He did not order techs to perform calculations that he routinely calculated himself.

He did not order gunners to hit that which his own hand operating the weapon could not hit.

He did not order subordinates to do any deed that would dishonor him if he himself did it.

He did not order any number of medics (or even laborers) to clear the squishy, blackened goo with assorted bone fragments stuck to a shell of powered armor, the glop that was the remnants of Aidan, from the road. Instead, he knelt down and scraped the thick black ooze that used to be his blood from the armor itself, six or so inches at a time.

The only words he had spoken since arriving on the planet itself were a quick ascertaining of the status of Aidan's genegift, and a request to borrow a scalpel. Instead, without a further word being spoken, the medics watched their commander for but a few seconds, then joined in cleaning up the mess and separating the remains, such that Aidan could be properly honored without parasites dishonoring his physical remains.

He asked nothing of those under his command that he would not give of himself.

The War Councel was silent for but a brief few moments before they began to converse amongst themselves. They spoke not in one dialect, but five separate dialects. They spoke, in order from left to right, Latin (Markus), Norse (Mika), Gaelic (Jaime), Greek (Bret), and Aramaic (Alec) in accordance with their respective Clans' ancient bloodlines and history.

"I do not support their request," said Bret.

"Nor do I," said Alec, supporting the younger Commander.

"I do not see why we should not grant them their request," stated Markus. "It is perfectly reasonable."

"I agree with Captain Markus," came the quiet voice of Mika.

"It is because this man was not directly involved with the bidding process that we do not allow him this request," replied Bret. "If the freebirth wishes to appoint this other to fight for him, then I will agree, but a Trial of Position would slow down this process. We can not waste more time."

"But if they do fight, it would give us more time to prepare for-" Mika was cut off.

"For what?" Alec stared straight at Mika. "What would we have to prepare for?"

"A possible blind sight attack," she finished. "These freebirths cannot be trusted to have honour."

"Which is precisely why we do not allow them this request," Bret continued. "Should we allow this, it may buy them some time to prepare for this sneak attack."

"Enough," came the stern voice of Jaime. "By my vote, I shall finish this debate."

Jaime cleared his throat, and then, in perfect basic, announced the decision.

"By a vote of three to two, we hereby deny this request," he said. "Such is the word of the Councel. We have already allowed one insult to our culture to pass between two foreign freebirths. We shall have no more." Jaime then tapped his knuckles on the table in front of him, signaling for Amelia to step forward and directly next to him.

"It has been previously decided that our Trial representative for possession of this planet and the entire system will be Star Colonel Amelia," he continued. "Furthermore, until an audience representative from your apparent allies, these 'Woodians' as we have come to call them, has arrived, the Trial shall be postponed. I suggest that you find someone in their upper echelons to be present, or this Trial and this tenuous cease-fire that we have with your nation shall be nulled." Jaime's face showed no sign of trying to mislead either Lee or Bailey. He was dead serious.
_____________________________________

The Clanners watched Makaryk and the medics clean up the Elemental, and several stood by and watched. One of the Clanners, very religious and regarding this sight as a respect to the dead, recited a passage of The Rememberance. He spoke of a warrior who had fought side-by-side with another warrior for many years, a warrior who had formed a bond with this other warrior. So strong was this bond, that many believed the pair to be sibs. They were always with one another in battle and at home. One day, the second warrior was called to a far away battle where his skills would be needed. The first warrior, however, was not called for such, and watched his brother-in-arms leave to fight for his Clan's glory. Such time passed, and the first warrior was called to the battle sight to help find survivors and collect salvage. Whilst the first warrior was searching for survivors, he found his brother's Mech in a crumpled heap, although much intact. Elated, he crawled across the wrecked Mech to find his friend. Found him he did, but he found his brother dead, the second warrior's face contorted with rage, as if he were still fighting the battle in which he had lost. The first warrior did no weep, nor did he cry out in anguish, for it was not Clan-like. Instead, he removed his friend from the cockpit of the Mech, and he carried him back to their Clan's home. The second warrior's body was then allowed to contribute its gene to the genepool of the Clan, forever recording the warrior in the genetic history of the Clan.

The Clanner finished the passage, and in perfect unison, every Clanner present who had listened to the passage chanted one word.

"Seyla."

The War Councel was silent for but a brief few moments before they began to converse amongst themselves. They spoke not in one dialect, but five separate dialects. They spoke, in order from left to right, Latin (Markus), Norse (Mika), Gaelic (Jaime), Greek (Bret), and Aramaic (Alec) in accordance with their respective Clans' ancient bloodlines and history.

"I do not support their request," said Bret.

"Nor do I," said Alec, supporting the younger Commander.

"I do not see why we should not grant them their request," stated Markus. "It is perfectly reasonable."

"I agree with Captain Markus," came the quiet voice of Mika.

"It is because this man was not directly involved with the bidding process that we do not allow him this request," replied Bret. "If the freebirth wishes to appoint this other to fight for him, then I will agree, but a Trial of Position would slow down this process. We can not waste more time."

"But if they do fight, it would give us more time to prepare for-" Mika was cut off.

"For what?" Alec stared straight at Mika. "What would we have to prepare for?"

"A possible blind sight attack," she finished. "These freebirths cannot be trusted to have honour."

"Which is precisely why we do not allow them this request," Bret continued. "Should we allow this, it may buy them some time to prepare for this sneak attack."

"Enough," came the stern voice of Jaime. "By my vote, I shall finish this debate."

Jaime cleared his throat, and then, in perfect basic, announced the decision.

"By a vote of three to two, we hereby deny this request," he said. "Such is the word of the Councel. We have already allowed one insult to our culture to pass between two foreign freebirths. We shall have no more." Jaime then tapped his knuckles on the table in front of him, signaling for Amelia to step forward and directly next to him.

"It has been previously decided that our Trial representative for possession of this planet and the entire system will be Star Colonel Amelia," he continued. "Furthermore, until an audience representative from your apparent allies, these 'Woodians' as we have come to call them, has arrived, the Trial shall be postponed. I suggest that you find someone in their upper echelons to be present, or this Trial and this tenuous cease-fire that we have with your nation shall be nulled." Jaime's face showed no sign of trying to mislead either Lee or Bailey. He was dead serious.
Bailey and Lee weren't surprised by their rejection although still disheartened. After all, it seems they regard Coredians as nothing more than second-hand citizens be assimiliated into Clan culture, something that would be resisted of course. Also, it'd be a blow to Coredian morale should Bailey lose. The Woodians had better compensate their allies well.

"Very well. We shall accept your decision. But we also shall contact a representative of the Coredian High Council to view the Trial along with the Woodian representative. Only they could decide the fate of this system or authorize a change of hands should it be required. Our laws demand that. We won't begin the Trial until the representative arrives." Rock Lee said, in a tone that brooked no argument and left the council with the Combat Knight. It may be a slap to the Clans' face, but oh well. They'd simply have to deal with the holdup.

=====

In space, the mighty Fifth Fleet, complete with the Star Battleship Sovereign and the Elite Star Destroyer Deinochyus reverted to realspace, ready to attack the enemy and deliver retribution upon the enemy that dared to attack their home system. But before Admiral Jack Easton could order the main superlaser cannon of the Sovereign to fire, he noted that there was a distinct lack of combat. Especially from the Third Fleet or the Woodians.

"Hector, could you please explain to me what is happening?" Admiral Easton asked sharply over secure channels.

"The Woodians have called a Trial of Possession over the system against what appears to be an offshoot of their culture, something called the Clans. By the way, I do not at all agree with this, Jack. Then the Jedi Bailey Kipper decided to have a Trial of Greviance to make sure that they don't get to do anything about that, and Bailey won the right to fight for possession himself. Force-Crushed Admiral Aidan into a pile of goop in the process. Now he's going to fight the Clan representative, of whom we know little."

"Damn. The Council's not going to like this. You realize that by their standards, we will have to give up the system if Kipper loses the trial?"

"That's why I hate this situation."

"Damned Woodians! We've got ninety ships in the Third, an extra two hundred plus in the Fifth, including the Sovereign which could easily change the course of the battle, and we settle ownership of a Coredian system in a one-on-one duel? Forgive me if I think it's completely and absolutely absurd! Where's the Woodian Commander?"

"Makaryk? He just arrived and is on the surface."

"Very well. I'm going to have to give him a talking-to." Admiral Easton growled.

"Sir, we've got a message incoming. From Jounin Rock Lee." A comms officer replied.

The Admiral sighed. "Put it on."

"Admiral? Rock Lee here. I would like to request that a representative of the High Council be present during the Trial."

"Any reason for this? We could do it ourselves, you know."

"I know, but it's twofold. We stall for time to figure out a strategy for dealing with the Trial and it helps Kipper to regain his strength. They denied a request that I take his place."

"Because of the fallout and psychological problems from the Force Crush?" The Admiral asked. Rock Lee replied in the affirmative. Admiral Easton stood back, drawing on his experience with Woodian culture to answer. "You know, I'm the closest thing to an expert in Woodian matters, considering I've known the Woodians ever since the civil war. Might have to talk this over with Makaryk, but I would assume that if Bailey demands you take his place, the Clans may have to honor that demand. After all, from what you say, he is the Coredian half of the Trial.."

"That might be an interesting idea." Rock Lee said.

"Now, I'm going to contact the High Council, and then I'm going to come down myself."

"Very well." With that, Rock Lee turned off the com.

=====

It was decided that the Jedi Master Lowbacca would go and attend to the Trial. The Field Marshal would have done it himself, but he was extremely busy in preparing the defenses of Jurai, so it was down to the rest of the Council. Lowbacca chose to go out to Caligula, not only to oversee the matter of Caligula's fate, but also the fact that Bailey Kipper -one of his subordinates in the Combat Knight Division- used the Force Crush meant that Lowbacca would have to discern the state of his mind and soul. He would be there to minister to the Knight and advise him on the proper course of action or meditation in order to help his soul heal, lest the Dark Side take hold.

It has been a while since he used his personal X-wing, but Lowbacca never forgot the old quirks of his fighter and smiled a Wookiee smile as he lept into hyperspace.

=====

Meanwhile, Bailey Kipper and Rock Lee went to speak with Admiral Makaryk on the matter of what Admiral Easton said...

Meanwhile, Bailey Kipper and Rock Lee went to speak with Admiral Makaryk on the matter of what Admiral Easton said...

The Admiral glanced up as the two as they approached. He scraped some more black gook off of Aidan's former Elemental suit before standing up to meet them, scalpel still in hand. His eyes bore straight into Bailey, as if Rock Lee did not even exist, as if Bailey was alone.

Like Aidan, Makaryk stood half a foot taller than Bailey, not that it mattered. He looked straight ahead, not even tilting his head down to make eye contact. The duo stopped before him, and every Woodian around knew the tension in the air.

Makaryk broke the silence first. "Leave my presence, SITH."

His eyes looked straight over Bailey, and ONLY Bailey, his voice left no room for dissent, and even the slightest objection would earn Bailey a hard slap across the face--and the Admiral was quick enough to pull it off against a Jedi--even if he could not be certain of the consequences afterwards. The last word hung in the air; the nearby medics that had been helping him clean the remains dropped their scalpels in utter shock. If the forcefilth Bailey did not leave, they knew another Trial would instantly ensue, and Makaryk would dispense with bidding entirely.

Makaryk's words struck Kipper like a physical blow. Anger welled up in Kipper. Anger at being called a Sith, shame at what he did to the piece of black goop that was Aidan, and a sick feeling of self-torment. Rock Lee placed a hand on Kipper's shoulder, a combination of reassurance and restraint.

"I will speak for you." The Jounin said. "Your presence will only hurt."

The Jedi nodded and left the Admiral's presence without a word, the proverbal black cloud beginning to settle over him.

"The Trial of Possession will begin as soon as you meet them and our High Council representative arrive. Star Colonel Amelia will be the Clan's champion." Rock Lee began, turning his attention to the Admiral. "Before that, I would suggest that I take the place of the Coredian who will represent Caligula in the Trial. The Clans denied the request, however, I do not think it is good for Bailey to fight for Caligula, considering that what he has done has crushed him as much as it crushed Aidan. Admiral Easton suggested that the Coredian champion of the Trial demand someone else, namely me, fight in his place. Would this still be possible?"

"Aff," Makaryk curtly stated. Not even his eyes moved to meet those of Rock Lee...his gaze of doom still cast upon the retreating forcefilth.

The Clans watched as Makaryk's words struck like a large laser to the cockpit of a light Mech. Some sneered at the shot, noticing that, by Makaryk's tone, the word 'Sith' was equivalent to calling a Trueborn a freebirth. Many of the Clanners averted their eyes, showing that even to look upon Bailey was like looking upon dishonour incarnate. Many moved out of his way so as not to touch him, as if his dishonour were a contagion.

"Very well. Admiral Easton will be arriving shortly and so will our representative. I will inform Bailey of this." Rock Lee said clinically.

As he went to Bailey, who seemed to have caught an invisible plague of dishonor from the Clan people, he noted a shuttle landing and then disgorging the Admiral of the Fifth Fleet, the man in charge of protecting this very system. The Admiral headed for Makaryk.

"Bailey. You may demand the right to choose me as your second." Rock Lee said.

Bailey didn't answer, waving his hand at the Clansmen and women. "Look at them. Treating me like an outcast. We are not their kind and yet it still makes me feel dirty."

"You did what was in your right to do under the circumstances, but you know how the Woodians suffered." Rock Lee said. "You know they won't take lightly to the Crush."

"Yeah, I know. Well, I guess it's up to you then as I go to meditate on my actions." Bailey said, then turned to the Clans. "Let it be known that I give up my right to fight in the Trial of Possession in favor of Jounin Rock Lee, who stands by my side. He instead will fight in my place. As this is the planet of the nation of Coredia, of whom I am a citizen, I demand this one condition of the challengers who seek to take this world from my nation! Take it or leave it!"

Meanwhile, Admiral Easton headed for Makaryk. He noticed the evil glares of all that stood aside for Bailey and shook his head. He then noticed the slab of meat that was Aidan and Makaryk, who looked like he wanted to kill the Jedi on the spot for what he did to Aidan. He shook his head, not liking the situation, but understanding it under the circumstances. He walked up to him. "Admiral, if I may speak with you, please."

In the meantime, the Jedi Master Lowbacca just reverted to realspace and began to descend onto the planet...

Meanwhile, Admiral Easton headed for Makaryk. He noticed the evil glares of all that stood aside for Bailey and shook his head. He then noticed the slab of meat that was Aidan and Makaryk, who looked like he wanted to kill the Jedi on the spot for what he did to Aidan. He shook his head, not liking the situation, but understanding it under the circumstances. He walked up to him. "Admiral, if I may speak with you, please."

In the meantime, the Jedi Master Lowbacca just reverted to realspace and began to descend onto the planet...

Admiral Makaryk wasn't in the mood to speak with the more incompetent Coredian officers, either--filthborn political appointees. The only admiral whom he would have volunteered to speak to at the moment would be Admiral Pellaeon, and even that would be a short conversation. And his answer was terribly and utterly blunt.

"Vultures and carrion wait just for us to have such a conversation, Admiral Easton, so that they may feast on Aidan's remains," Makaryk replied coldly. "Answer: Neg."

"I am sorry for your loss, but I must insist we speak." Admiral Easton said sharply. "I must convey my utmost protest in forcing us to initiate a one-on-one duel against the Clans for control of this system. I must hear an explanation for this decision, one that will satisfy me and my superiors."

The Jedi Master then landed on the makeshift Coredian base, and stepped down from his fighter. Soon, he will meet with the Woodian and Clan representatives, but first, he spoke with Coredian officers to get their firsthand accounts of what happened. Then he stepped into a tent, where Bailey Kipper was now meditating.

"Master Lowbacca." Bailey acknowledged the Wookiee.

"<Combat Knight Kipper. I have heard of your actions. I must say that I am disappointed.>" The Councilor rumbled. "<You should not have been provoked, but you should also not have risen to the bait.>"

"I know, Master. I most humbly apologize for failing my duty as a Jedi." Bailey said quietly.

"<You have shown remorse for your actions. That is good, but beware, for you are vulnerable to despair at this time, a pathway to the Dark Side. The Council has decided that you will be recalled for a psychological evaluation pending an investigation into the matter. For now, you are confined to quarters until further notice. From what I hear, the Woodians aren't pleased either and it would only cause friction if you go anywhere near them.>"

"Yes, Master." Bailey sighed.

"<Now, I will see this Trial for myself. Meditate and seek the Force's aid. I will return.>" The Wookiee said and the two Jedi bowed.

The Wookiee stepped out and headed for the Admirals, who are presumably still talking.

"I am sorry for your loss, but I must insist we speak." Admiral Easton said sharply. "I must convey my utmost protest in forcing us to initiate a one-on-one duel against the Clans for control of this system. I must hear an explanation for this decision, one that will satisfy me and my superiors."

"The explanation is that your military consists of incompetent, undisciplined, freebirth imbeciles, and would have been slaughtered by the disciplined fleets of the Clans. I have seen your military in action multiple times, and have yet to see a remote shred of competence. The bidding actually did you a favor by saving two fleets worth of equipment, and increased your chances of victory as now your forcefilth scum can do to Star Colonel Amelia exactly what he did to Aidan, quiaff?"

His tone grew angrier when he opened his mouth again about a second later. "You have your explanation, now leave before vultures and carrion feast upon Aidan's remains." Like before, his voice left no room for disagreement.

Makaryk then returned to the grisly task of cleaning Aidan's remains.

((At this point, all conversation is being done in each Clan's respective historical language. No outsider would understand at this point.))

"This Trial is pointless," stated Alec. "We should have just continued slaughtering them!"

"And where would that put us?" Mika stood toe-to-toe with Alec, dwarfed by the man by at least a head's height. "Who knows how many others we could have lost in this battle?! Agreeing to the Trial was in our best options!"

"But it is giving them time to prepare," Alec retorted. "Already I get the feeling that these so-called 'Coredians' are not going to live up to the honour that the 'Woodians' have shown!"

"You do not know that," said Mika. "For all we know, these Coredians could be the honourable ones and the Woodians could be the ones that lack it in all respects!"

"And if they did, do you really think they would have bid for a Trial rather than attempting to whipe us out?" Jaime had stepped forth to the two, pushing them apart to keep them from getting into a full-on confrontation, continuing on past them. He then turned and faced his comrades. "I believe we can trust the Woodians. They have shown that they have some common ancestry with us. I believe we should look into them, and maybe even possibly befriend them."

The other four commanders shouted in protest.

"You cannot be serious?!" Alec was the most outraged of the four. "To befriend foreigners?! That is not Clan like!"

"And nor was selling our forces as Mercenaries, but apparently Star Adder supported the idea one hundred percent." Amelia had spoken, stepping forth into this argument. "I agree with Commander Jaime. We should look into the Woodians more, but I do not agree we should jump to befriending them so quickly. We must learn more about them first, find where they come from. It could be that they have territory within the Inner Sphere."

"This is madness," said Bret.

"And madness is what we of the Maho and the Shinmei Castes handle best," replied Amelia. "Remember, several of us were appointed to oversee this operation, and it was decided so by the ilKhan for a reason."

Alec then stepped forth, attempted to intimidate Amelia. It failed, however, as Amelia stood her ground and stared straight into the eyes of Alec.

"Then I hope for your sake that you succeed in this Trial," said Alec. "Should you lose, it will be not only on your head, but the heads of both of your castes, magefilth."

Amelia growled at the insult, but instead of striking down Alec, she relaxed her hand, which had been gathering enough magic energy to incinerate Alec in a single blast. If she had lost her temper, she would have been within her right to beat down Alec, but at this point, it was not in her best interest. She'd already killed one valued commander. Another act of fratricide wasn't going to go well with anyone, particularly the Council of Magi. For now, all she could do was wait for the Trial to begin, and she decided to do so by walking outside, out to where Makaryk was taking care of Aidan's remains.

"The explanation is that your military consists of incompetent, undisciplined, freebirth imbeciles, and would have been slaughtered by the disciplined fleets of the Clans. I have seen your military in action multiple times, and have yet to see a remote shred of competence. The bidding actually did you a favor by saving two fleets worth of equipment, and increased your chances of victory as now your forcefilth scum can do to Star Colonel Amelia exactly what he did to Aidan, quiaff?"

His tone grew angrier when he opened his mouth again about a second later. "You have your explanation, now leave before vultures and carrion feast upon Aidan's remains." Like before, his voice left no room for disagreement.

Makaryk then returned to the grisly task of cleaning Aidan's remains.
"How dare you speak of your allies in that fashion!" Admiral Easton growled. "It is not your place to decide how we will fight the enemy, especially when a colony is at stake! I will make my protest through the appropriate channels to your government, but let it be known that if we lose this colony, it will be on your head. I truly hope you can make up for the loss. I really do."

Admiral Easton stormed off, barely acknowledging Master Lowbacca with a salute and headed back up to the Sovereign, grumbling about the Woodians all the way.

"<Admiral Makaryk. I have come to view the Trial of Possession for the right of the colony of Caligula.>" Lowbacca announced, translated by his EmTeeDee droid.

Meanwhile, Rock Lee prepared himself for the Trial to come. He decided he would use the standard ninja gear of kunai and shuriken, plus his nunchuks. He wouldn't use his (Green!1!) lightsaber, which he barely used anyway since his strength was often enough for his blows to break through stormtrooper armor with ease, and he wasn't fighting a Sith anyway.

"How dare you speak of your allies in that fashion!" Admiral Easton growled. "It is not your place to decide how we will fight the enemy, especially when a colony is at stake! I will make my protest through the appropriate channels to your government, but let it be known that if we lose this colony, it will be on your head. I truly hope you can make up for the loss. I really do."

Admiral Easton stormed off, barely acknowledging Master Lowbacca with a salute and headed back up to the Sovereign, grumbling about the Woodians all the way.

Admiral Makaryk was most pleased to dispense with the scum and returned to cleaning Aidan's remains.

"<Admiral Makaryk. I have come to view the Trial of Possession for the right of the colony of Caligula.>" Lowbacca announced, translated by his EmTeeDee droid.

"Good, have your representative crush Star Colonel Amelia's body in the same manner that Bailey crushed Aidan's, and all will be well," Makaryk snapped at Lowbacca, not even looking up at him. "You Coredians seem to have this incessant habit of interfering with my work." If Makaryk had so bruskly turned away Admiral Easton, in favor of clearing the mess that Bailey had created, did a Jedi Council member really have any reasonable expectation that he would suddenly want to chat?

"I would not make that so easy for the lousy filthborn. I already know that I am more than a match for this 'Bailey Kipper.'" Amelia stepped past the large Wookie, not even registering its existance as she walked to where Makaryk was and knelt next to him, a container in her left hand that she placed in front of her. She then proceeded to remove her own knife from its sheath, and then began scraping Aidan's remains into the container.

"I will petition to have this warrior's genetics interred into the Wolf Clan's gene pool," she said aloud for everyone to hear, including her brethren. Those Wolves who were present acknowledged the honour positively. "He proved himself honourable, and therefore has proved himself worthy of the Clans' recognition and respect." Her voice was soft as she spoke, showing complete sincerity.

"<Bailey Kipper will not duel you. He will instead be severely disciplined for his use of the Crush technique on Admiral Aidan. I believe he has called forth Jounin Rock Lee to fight in his stead.>" The Wookiee said, for the benefit of both people. Again, all was translated into Basic by his translator droid. "<I will await the Trial in my tent. Call me when it begins.>"

The Wookiee left the two to finish scraping up Aidan's remains and then headed for his tent to meditate.

Admiral Makaryk continued to scrape off Aidan's remains, aware of the Wookiee's unwelcome presence. Upon the arrival of the Star Colonel, his tone to the Wookiee became even more blunt. "Leave us." Makaryk was somewhat pleased when the Wookiee did.

As he too made use of the container that Amelia had brought, the shock of her words struck him. Not outwardly, for he was good at hiding emotions, but he knew very well that freeborns could not compete in Trials of Bloodright, much less foreign freeborns, and thus Aidan should have been completely and utterly ineligible for such honor.

"I thought freeborns were completely ineligible to have genetic material inserted into the gene pool, much less foreign freeborns?" Makaryk asked in a surprised, somewhat confused, yet respectful, tone. "Have the Clans ever accepted a foreign freeborn into the gene pools before?"

"Only once," she replied. "A man named Kell many millenia ago when our Clan was in exile. He was interred into our genepool after he showed great honour and heroism in fighting against the Jade Falcons of the time. He sacrificed himself to save our Clan from annihalation."

Amelia looked up at Makaryk, pausing in her assistance. "Like Kell, this warrior proved he was honourable in battle," she continued. "He understood the unnecessary loss of life of a major conflict, and it was his idea to perform the Trial of Possession to save both sides a tragic loss of life. He understood the concept of the preservation of life, and he acted upon it, showing no fear in the face of an enemy that he had common ancestry with."

Amelia paused in her speech, scraping a bit more of Aidan's remains into the container. "I know that his first name is Aidan, but may I ask what his bloodname or surname is?"

Makaryk took about a half second to consider the question. "His surname is Zhukov, and were his Elemental suit not so damaged, you would have been able to obtain it from there. I presume he withheld that information to prevent consternation amongst your warriors concerning a freeborn's use of a last name, something that Clan warriors have to earn through Trials of Bloodright."

Then as he scraped more black sludge off, another thought struck him. "The medics have already taken his genegift, from his toe, and have custody of it. His extremities seemed to be the only good place to take such a sample without the darkness polluting it."

"Then his surname shall be the name that is placed into our Bloodnames," she replied. After listening to Makaryk's second line, she replied once more. "Then I shall ask the medics to provide me with a sample of his genetics. However, that must wait for now."

Amelia then took a piece of cloth out of her pocket, using it to clean off her knife of the blackened remains of Aidan, and then neatly folded the cloth before placing it into the container. With that done, she placed a hand on Makaryk's shoulder.

"Come," she said. "The final Trial of Possession awaits, and I am sure you are eager to watch the Coredians suffer for their trespass."

"Aff," Makaryk replied, as he followed the Star Colonel to the venue of the Trial of Possession. "I look forward to watching justice be done upon him."

------------------------

Meanwhile, it was probably a good thing that no one had any breathalyser equipment around the Clan tents where warriors had invited him to party, as the medic had managed to spike his blood-alcohol concentration to .35. "If the Coredian forcefilth wins the Trial of Possession, I shall operate on him again...and I am even more ruthless when I am drunk!" the medic roared. A wonder that he could avoid using contractions, much less actually operate on someone, when this drunk, but he could. It would just be much more...painful...for his patient. Not even a Clanner would enjoy such a fate.

It was time. Master Lowbacca and Rock Lee were called out for the Trial. However, Bailey did not come out, as he has already dropped the idea of fighting Amelia like a hot potato. If they call, he will not come.

And time it was...

The entire War Council had moved outside of their building, standing at the edge of a large twenty meter in diameter circle with small wooden poles sticking out of the ground along the perimeter. They stood at five points around the circle, forming the classic five-point star made famous by their people.

Amelia walked forth towards the Circle of Equals through a parting crowd of Clanners. Once she reached the Circle, she stepped over the wooden poles, taking her first steps toward the center of the Circle. On her person, she wore a sheathed nodachi anti-cavalry war sword. The massive blade was exactly her height, with the hilt of the sword extending out to make the entire weapon a total of six feet in length.

Once she stood at her alotted starting point in the Circle, marked by a white line, she stopped, awaiting her opponent to step to a nearly identical line no more than five meters ahead of her. That was when Jaime spoke.

"I call the Coredian challenger to the Circle of Equals!" His voice was a roar above the buzz of the Clanners, and when he began spoking they quieted down. "May he step forth and represent his people in this Trial of Possession so that we may begin the bidding process!"

Rock Lee stepped forth into the Circle, noting the war sword with a neutral face. He was at a disadvantage with just his kunai and nunchuks, but he was confident his speed would overcome the sword's power and size.

As Rock Lee stepped into the arena, there was a murmur as the Clans noted that this wasn't Bailey Kipper. Amelia's face contorted in anger as she saw him come forth, and she was quick to voice her dissatisfaction.

"Did not the council decree that you were not to replace your original representative?!" Her voice was that of rage. However, she already knew why Bailey was not here. He had chosen to appoint a steward. She just wanted to hear it out of this freebirth's mouth for herself just so that she could bitch about it later.

Meanwhile, Admiral Makaryk watched from the front-row seats, and the drunken medic was not far away, ready to treat the Coredian filthbirth's injuries should he win. Said medic would treat Amelia too, should she request it after the duel, but he did not wish to subject honorable warriors to his drunken brutality, unless requested.

Neither one outwardly said anything. Makaryk satiated himself by thinking of all the fun the civilian government would have with CoreWorlds should Rock Lee actually win this Trial. Not that the Coredians deserved to keep this planet after what Bailey had pulled...

As Rock Lee stepped into the arena, there was a murmur as the Clans noted that this wasn't Bailey Kipper. Amelia's face contorted in anger as she saw him come forth, and she was quick to voice her dissatisfaction.

"Did not the council decree that you were not to replace your original representative?!" Her voice was that of rage. However, she already knew why Bailey was not here. He had chosen to appoint a steward. She just wanted to hear it out of this freebirth's mouth for herself just so that she could bitch about it later.
"Did you not hear what Bailey had decreed himself? He has appointed me in his stead as is his right as a Coredian, for he has dishonored himself before the eyes of his peers." Rock Lee replied calmly. "Will we bid or not?"

"Hmmph!" That was her only response to Lee's answer. When he asked of the bidding process, she lifted her nodachi up before her, holding it perpendicular to her own stance.

"I bid my war sword and the abilities taught to me by my masters," she stated loudly for all to hear. "What have you to bid, Coredian?"

"Hmmph!" That was her only response to Lee's answer. When he asked of the bidding process, she lifted her nodachi up before her, holding it perpendicular to her own stance.

"I bid my war sword and the abilities taught to me by my masters," she stated loudly for all to hear. "What have you to bid, Coredian?"
"I bid my kunai, shuriken, nunchuks and the techniques taught to me by Gai-sensei." He said, then flashed a blinding grin accompanied by a thumbs-up in respect of his sensei. Inwardly, though. I will have to expect the unexpected. I know next to nothing about these people...

The Clanners snickered at Lee's grin and thumbs-up, with only the War Coucil keeping straight faces. Amelia smirked at Lee, unsheathing her sword, and then stepped into her battle stance (http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/6457/maidguardianbysimplicithp3.jpg). Her feet were evenly placed, and her blade barely grazed the dirt they stood on.

"As mediator of this Trial of Possession," began Jaime, "I declare the Trial commenced! Begin!"

That was the word she was waiting for. Amelia quickly adjusted her weight, moving into a sprinting stance and raising her blade so that she held it parallel to her face, and within a split second, she was no longer visible to the average being. She appeared about a half meter behind Lee, her face shadowed by her hair.

"Shinmei school, special technique: Hyakuretsuoukazan!* (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinmeiryuu#Zan_.E6.96.AC_-_Slashing_Techniques)"

With the word uttered, Amelia swung the sword a full five-fourty, starting the slash from the point directly behind her (in which Lee was located), and bringing the sword all the way back around as she turned her whole body with the swing until it ended with her right arm extended out towards the edge of the circle. At the same time she made this move, hundreds of smaller, razor airbursts slashed vertically downwards, extending outward from the edge of the circle by at least two meters, showing that the technique was meant to encompass multiple enemies at once.

((*Fifth on list of "Zan 斬 - Slashing Techniques."))

She's quick. Lee noted as he tracked her behind him. But so am I!

When she began her swing, Lee was gone, missing the two-meter extension of the chakra (to him) infused air blades by inches. Now it was his turn. As the girl reached the end of her swing, he charged inwards at a speed faster than the average person could see and moved to strike at the hand carrying the nodachi with a powerful kick, adding a cry. "Konoha Shoufuu!"

Uwah?! How the hell?!

Amelia barely registered Lee as having moved, lifting her sword-hand so that the flat of the blade parried Lee's kick. He would hit solid steel and a solid defense as she lifted her free hand, showing her palm to Lee.

"Zankūshō! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinmeiryuu#Shou_.E6.8E.8C_-_Palm_Techniques)" A sudden flash of light, and a small ki bullet pulsed from her hand directly at Lee.

Around them, the crowd uttered a "Whoa" as the two combatants moved at inhuman speeds. The battle had only been going for about five seconds and already the crowd could tell that this was going to be one of those battles. The kind that were seen rarely within the Clans, so rarely, that they were only recorded into the Remembrance.

Lee merely smirked as he bounced off the sword in such a way that the ki bullet actually missed and then Lee used the momentum to lash out with a roundhouse kick into Amelia's face. "Konoha Senpuu!"

Coredian civilians and military personnel began pouring into the crowd, whistling and cheering as people learned that the Legendary Green Beast was fighting the Clan challenger. Unlike the previous fight, this one was actually worth watching!

Aemlia wasn't going to sit still for this. No sooner had Lee bounced off her nodachi, Amelia lifted up her hand, catching Lee's leg and yanking him back to the ground. This is when she revealed her second set of abilities.

"Arcturus Sparticus! Κενότητος αστράπσατω δε τεμετω! Δίος Τύκος (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_Negima#.CE.94.CE.B9.CE.BF.CF.82_.CE.A4.CF.85.CE.BA.CE.BF.CF.82_.28Axe_of_Lightning.29)!"

The resulting spell was blinding to all those around, and the smile Amelia gave as her spell emitted from her hand grasping Lee's leg seemed more demonic than human.

Rock Lee could never lift a rock to save his life, but he knew Lightning attacks when he saw it, knowing his Commander-in-Chief was a Master in the art. As lightning flickered around his body, he suddenly grinned at Amelia through his pain. He had two things going for him. Actually, three. He had the Power of Youth, he had undefeatable willpower and he's fought through the worst lightning Daniel Masaki ever threw at him. This was nothing but static electricity compared to the Lightning Master! The next thing Amelia knew, the end of Lee's nunchuks were zooming right for her face as Lee curled up to strike her, using her own strength on his leg against her as if she was helping him with situps. Said nunchuks were as heavy as the weights strapped to his legs, and yet he swung it with terrifying speed, making an audible *whistle* sound as it roared through the air...

Amelia was caught off guard, and the nunchuks made contact across her jaw, sending her reeling and flying a bit as she spun hard and fast to the ground. She was momentarily dazed as she tried to calculate in her mind what those nunchuks were made of. She'd been hit by nunchuks before, but these hurt a helluva lot more than the last ones that hit her, and right now, she had a really big opening...

Rock Lee wasted no time in taking the opportunity to take Amelia out of play while she was down. He grabbed her legs and began to spin around and around, building up momentum to throw her out of the Circle of Equals. Once he felt there was sufficient momentum to toss her out of the Circle, he then let go and watched her fly...

Amelia flew through the air, clearing the distance between Lee and the edge of the Circle in less than a few seconds. It seemed as though it would be over...

And then she jammed her sword down, catching the ground and tearing it open as she slowed herself down. Her foot touched down right at the edge of the Circle, having less than a whole foot to give her distance in respects to the out-of-bounds marker. She kneeled as she took a breath of relief, and then stood up. Her hair was in her face, shadowing her expression, which would soon be revealed as her hair parted to show a face of pure hatred and ferocity not even seen by the warriors of Chaos. She unjammed her sword from the ground, and she lifted it up in front of her, the blade aligned exactly with her nosebridge. Again, she disappeared to those around her, and reappeared two meters in front of Lee.

"Zanganken! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinmeiryuu#Ken_.E5.89.A3_-_Sword_Techniques)" Amelia furiously slashed her sword downwards as she performed her attack. The slash created a massive airwave thanks to the infused ki in her nodachi, and at less than a two-meters-distance, this attack would be difficult to dodge.

OOC: Ok, hold on. What did you just do there?

OOC: Ok, hold on. What did you just do there?

((Koku-shunpo is basically mid-air shunpo. She just uses the ki in her feet to propel herself off air...

The attack, however, is concentrated ki being released as a boulder-cleaving airwave.))

OOC: Going to have to call godmod there. Air doesn't have nearly enough volume and mass to allow her to do that, especially at the speed you're thinking of. I know we're both playing anime characters, but we have to follow *some* measure of physics here.

((Edited.))

Amelia flew through the air, clearing the distance between Lee and the edge of the Circle in less than a few seconds. It seemed as though it would be over...

And then she jammed her sword down, catching the ground and tearing it open as she slowed herself down. Her foot touched down right at the edge of the Circle, having less than a whole foot to give her distance in respects to the out-of-bounds marker. She kneeled as she took a breath of relief, and then stood up. Her hair was in her face, shadowing her expression, which would soon be revealed as her hair parted to show a face of pure hatred and ferocity not even seen by the warriors of Chaos. She unjammed her sword from the ground, and she lifted it up in front of her, the blade aligned exactly with her nosebridge. Again, she disappeared to those around her, and reappeared two meters in front of Lee.

"Zanganken! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinmeiryuu#Ken_.E5.89.A3_-_Sword_Techniques)" Amelia furiously slashed her sword downwards as she performed her attack. The slash created a massive airwave thanks to the infused ki in her nodachi, and at less than a two-meters-distance, this attack would be difficult to dodge.
Not over yet! Lee thought as he too disappeared to viewers, missing the airslash that gouged a nice crack in the rock. He then appeared behind Amelia and launched a series of nunchuk blows at her back and head.

Hmph! As to be expected.

Amelia was quick to react, able to track Lee as her eyes adjusted to the speed. She hadn't had to fight against an opponent who was as fast as her, or faster for that matter, in a long time. As Lee launched his first blow, it was quickly parried by her sword, and she side-stepped to avoid a second. As she side-stepped, she swung her sword low at Lee's shins, parrying a third blow at the same time she swung, losing little momentum in the swing.

As Amelia swung low, Lee hopped over the swing and launched a powerful kick towards her torso at the same time he swung his nunchuks at the head again...

(OOC: I only post this here, since my forces are faking an attack on every Coredian controlled world.)

The silence of the black of space soon erupted as fourteen small flashes of light appeared, outside of sensor range, in the blacked out portion behind the moon. It was a textbook move, the classic maneuver that any first year cadet would learn in the naval academy, and still they approached, eight stealthstars leading the charge, with six Raptors behind them.

The Radio was silent, as to avoid detection, as the small craft continued forward. They waited as they got closer to the moon’s defenses, each armed with it’s missiles, they got closer, like a snake in a bush, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. That moment would soon come, as they visually could see the moon’s light side approaching, they knew what they had to do.

Thrusters flashed, as the Stealthstars broke away with incredible agility away from the Raptors. Within a second, the Stealthstars turned Ninety Degrees and began their hard burn, to avoid the next phase, as missiles launched out of the raptors screaming into the night, it’s transponders, it’s enhanced energy signatures, it’s IDC codes of six Battlestars.

The Crews watched on Draidus, as six Mercury Class battlestars appeared, their signals and signatures coming from the decoy missiles ahead. One pilot thought to himself, someone is about to get pissed, as they spun up their FTL drives and jumped home.

(OOC: Would be little reason for me to post were it not for OG.)

The automated point-defense systems of the Star of Knossos destroyers that Aidan had originally brought with him cared not for the Trial of Possession raging on the planetary surface. Nor did they care for the atrocity that Bailey Kipper had committed against the nation of Evil Woody Thoughts, or the forthcoming political repercussions therein.

It cared only for what it was programmed to do. Programming that, incidentally, happened to have been activated before events on the planet below went sour.

Caligula's radiation only delayed the detection of twelve incursions, but for only so long.

INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.
INCURSION DETECTED.

The Woodians on board the Star of destroyers barely noticed as those twelve lines flashed across obscure computer screens, their attention fixated on seething outrage that Bailey deserved little more than having a Force-inhibitor forcibly implanted where he could not remove it, to strip him of the Force for the rest of his life.

TRACKING...

Twelve spears of light flashed out from the destroyer nearest the formation of incoming missiles. Twelve explosion blooms vanished as quickly as they formed. Only a few Woodians even noticed. As sensors registered the activation of corresponding FTL devices, they decided not to care.

Instead, they activated their onboard HPGs to break the atrocity, and the circumstances surrounding it, to the Woodian media. Not to mention the Trial of Possession currently in progress.

Amelia jumped back as the kick and the nunchuks came, taking barely a tap from the end of Lee's foot and feeling the air rush by her face as the nunchuks passed in front of her. She chose not to attack this time, stepping away from Lee as she raised her blade in front of her in a defensive posture. At this same point, she began to incant a spell in her mind, planning to surprise Lee when he tried to close the distance.

Arcturus Sparticus! Το συμβόλαιον διακονητω μοί, ο τύραννε φλογός!

((OOC Note: This spell will take a couple posts to recite, but that's because it's a very powerful spell. Get ready...))

She's up to something... Lee thought as she stepped back and went on the defensive. Not wanting to get caught in whatever she was planning, Lee decided he'd do well to keep moving. He zigged and zagged, running circles around the girl, and generally making it hard for her to track him...

It was true that Lee's constant movement was making it difficult for Amelia to track him, but what he didn't know was what was going to happen. All Amelia would do at this point is wait for him to make a move, and continue the spell's ritual incantion within her mind.

Επιγενηθήτω, φλόξ καθάρσεως, ρομφαία φλογίνη!

((Three more posts until fully charged.))

Lee then threw several kunai and shuriken at her as a distraction as he kept moving, then prepared another couple for when she moved out of their way. Should she try to block, however, they were thrown in such a way that even a Jedi would find it hard to block, being thrown towards all major targets of the body.

Lee's move was anticipated. However, the spread of kunai and where it was targeted made this more difficult for her. As the spread of kunai came at her, she jumped straight into the air, spinning her sword in a way meant to deflect multiple objects. She accomplished her objective, for the most part, although a pair of kunai struck her. One sliced open her left arm, continuing on its path as it dislodged due to its momentum. The second, however, lodged itself in her left shoulder. Amelia grunted at the second impact, spinning as she used its momentum to her advantage as she flew through the air, prepared for a second barrage.

Ρευσáντων πυρ καί θειον, α επέφλεγον Σόδομα...

As she launched herself into the air, Lee focused on her sword movements and launched a second barrage as gravity took control. This second barrage was in two steps. The first half of the barrage would aim for her torso and head and while she blocked them, a second portion would aim for her legs. With Lee's strength and speed behind each throw, a kunai or shuriken lodged into her body would likely tear into the muscles and blood vessels and possibly slow her down, especially if she was hit in the legs. Even a small amount would make a big difference considering Lee's speed.

And while all this was happening, Lee kept on moving.

Meanwhile...

Unfortunately for Bailey Kipper, Lowbacca, the Jedi more or less sent to oversee his mental health in the wake of his dark behavior, had other duties at the moment. Like observing the Trial of Possession and signing over Caligula to the Clans, if such be required.

And while some Woodians, including Admiral Makaryk and the drunken medic, were also watching such Trial, there were others who did not wish to observe, so upset were they over Bailey's conduct. That Bailey had appointed someone else to fight in his place did not matter. Bailey's conduct had tainted the entire duel over the fate of this system, as far as they were concerned...

-----------------------

Major Ehrell, in particular, was indifferent to the Coredians. That the Woodians had come to assist in the defense of Caligula no longer mattered. As far as he was concerned, the alliance between Evil Woody Thoughts and CoreWorlds was forfeit, all thanks to Bailey's fall. Probably a good thing that he stayed out of politics...

Nonetheless, he searched out Bailey, bearing a Gift for him, keeping his mind blank as he searched. No, he did not intend to kill him, or even to speak to him. All he wished to do was present him with the Gift.

He did not have to search long to find him, as he lingered in town to learn of the outcome of the duel. The Major walked up to where Bailey stood, with an object held in the center with his right hand, covered in black suede.

He set the object down in front of Bailey, avoiding eye contact. Nor did he speak to him...he just left.

As he turned around, a gust of wind lifted the suede off the object, revealing it. A tantō, twelve inches in length.

It had only one possible use...

Bailey just stared at the tanto, wondering why the Woodian gave him a long knife that's known for being mainly for committing suicide, if he remembered his weapons training. Then it hit him as he sensed the man's emotions. The guy wanted him to die. Scowling in disgust, Bailey picked up the knife and put it on his belt, then resumed watching the fight.

...αμαρτωλούς...

Lee's second move nearly caught Amelia off-guard. Unfortunately for Lee, ki and magic stem from two different sources, and using both at the same time doesn't impede either. As the kunai and shurikens were released, Amelia brought her knees up and bent her torso backwards, allowing the first volley to pass over her and barely graze her. The second volley would be greeted by a Shinmei technique as she continued downward and landed on the ground knees first with a whump!

"Jakuzankūsen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinmeiryuu#Sen_.E9.96.83_-_Flash_Techniques)!"

As she shouted those words, she slash her sword horizontally at a downwards angle in front of her, catching the second volley of kunai and shurikens with an air-blast meant to knock them away. Since she was in the middle of mentally reciting a spell, she couldn't access the other spells to defend her, as only one spell could've done that. For now, she just had to keep on the defensive, and hope that her previous wound wouldn't slow her down too much.

Great. I'm just gonna have to find out whatever she's planning. Lee thought as his second volley didn't do much damage. He was still moving around to present himself a hard target and kept his other kunai and shuriken in reserve.

...εις χουν θανάτου!

Amelia had now stood back up, her sword back to its original defensive posture, although she was one-handing it instead of two-handing it because of her injured shoulder. Still, she held it up with precision and strength, and while she had been breathing hard before, she had slowed her breathing, and there was a distant look of unmatchable resolve. There was no way she'd give up. Not now. It was unClan-like to do such a thing. Giving up was never acceptable.

Not ever.

Lee noticed the unmistakable glint in her eyes as he watched her return to the defensive. He understood at last what it meant. She was going to unleash something very powerful to ensure victory. Well, then, if she was going to go all-out, then so was he! He reached inwards towards the Gates that controlled the limits of the body...

Ουρανία Φλόγωσις!

She then disappeared, appearing seven meters above where she had been standing. Another shunpo, obviously.

Dilatio effectus!

As she thought those words, the spell she had conjured withdrew within her body, and she now focused on a second, quick spell to get her higher off the ground.

"Flet, ūne vente! Flāns Saltātiō Pulverea!"

The verbalized spell emitted from her sword hand as she reached out towards the ground, and in a sudden display of power, Amelia was launched further into the air, towering almost fifteen meters in the air as she hung there for a few seconds.

"Prepare to die, whorebirth!" Her words echoed amongst the now silent crowd as they began to step away from the Circle of Equals.

Lee used the few seconds that Amelia gave him to rip off the weights on his feet. They would only slow him down. He tossed them aside, and they rumbled the ground when they landed. Then he crouched as low as he could...and vanished.

"Mea virgra!"

At that command, Amelia's sword sheath flew from the ground where it had been discarded, landing in her hand with a snap. Concentrating, she put as much magic as she could to force it to propel itself towards the ground.

Emmitam!

Her sheath then began to glow as she released her spell.

"Double Ultimate Strike! Burning Shin Raikōken!"

As she plunged towards the ground, the air around her began to fill with insurmountable heat and static as she swung her blade just as she impacted the ground. The resulting explosion tore apart the Circle of Equals, sending rock and concrete soaring into the air and raising a dust cloud that blanketed everything within a few dozen meters. The impact also emitted a massive shockwave capable of knocking anyone caught by it away and out of the circle.

But where was Amelia...?

For that matter, where was Lee? When the explosion subsided, there was no sign of Lee. Either his body was gone or he was thrown out of the Circle of Equals. People began looking around for him and then...

Whew. A second later and I would be barbecue! Lee thought as he fell from high up in the air. When Lee vanished, it was to jump as high as he could to try and reach Amelia, but he had missed her while travelling upwards and subsequently was witness to an awesome display of power that could easily have matched Gaara. Now the only question remained was if Amelia was still standing as he landed...

As the dust settled, there seemed to be only slag from where the intense heat had melted the ground. Debris clattered all over the place as it fell from the air, pelting those unfortunate to get in its path. Many people had been thrown back, but amazingly, the five representatives were standing exactly where they had been at the beginning of the Trial with absolutely no damage done to them.

Veniant spīritūs āeriālēs fulgurientēs, cum fulgurātiōne flet tempestās austrīna! Jovis Tempestās Fulguriēns!

KRAKOOM!

From under the slag, a massive cyclone of scything wind and explosive electricity exploded forth, streaming towards Lee as he fell. With the effects of physics in play and with Lee unable to move as he fell, this attack was surely the end.

Lee barely put his arms up to block when he vanished in the resulting explosion of wind and electricity, and Master Lowbacca sighed as it was likely to be the end. But wait...what was this? A buildup of chakra...

"Haaaa! Gate Three, open!" A loud voice cried out and an explosion erupted from his very body, shaking off the wind and lightning like it was nothing. Lee's face was red as a beet and covered with pulsing veins as he slammed onto the ground with terrifying force, shaking the ground. Then the only sign that Lee had moved at all was the flicker he made when he rushed at Amelia and struck with a punch...

The punch came hard and swift, and Amelia felt several of her ribs shatter as she coughed up blood, but she had also barely pulled back and had managed to grab Lee's arm with her injured arm to prevent her from being sent flying. With her feet planted, she pulled Lee past her, using her good arm to throw an elbow strike towards Lee's neck.

"I'll die before I let you win, filth!"

The punch came hard and swift, and Amelia felt several of her ribs shatter as she coughed up blood, but she had also barely pulled back and had managed to grab Lee's arm with her injured arm to prevent her from being sent flying. With her feet planted, she pulled Lee past her, using her good arm to throw an elbow strike towards Lee's neck.

"I'll die before I let you win, filth!"
"If that is what you wish..." Lee replied solemnly as he blocked the elbow with his other hand and held it with a death-grip. Then, he rammed his knee into her chest as hard as he could...

Amelia's eyes bulged as she felt the hit literally force her organs to move, breaking many more of her ribs. She slumped to her knees, her eyes glazed over. She couldn't believe the power of the one she was fighting. She'd never met her match against anyone other than her own master, and for the first time, she contemplated her own death by her own hands after the end of this Trial.

Get up.

The words echoed in her mind.

Get. Up.

I don't want to.

Get up and fight.

It hurts.

GET UP!

Amelia then burst from her knees, her hand out-stretched and her fingers pointed forward towards Lee's face as if she believed her hand to be a sword stabbing at her foe. Her face was blank, but her eyes burned with an unseen fire within her.

"ENSIS EXSEQUENS!"

A blade of ice then shot out of her hand like a pile, sprouting forth to pierce Lee's skull through the face.

The ice pick stabbed at Lee's head, but to no avail. His head moved out of the way and then Lee grabbed her arm and threw her as hard as he could, attempting to toss her beyond the Circle of Equals again...

Amelia was picked up off the ground, but Lee would soon find out that he now had something attached to him. Amelia clung to Lee's arm like a leech, resisting his throw and landing on the ground by his side with a thump. She then thrust her head at his leg, chomping down on his thigh and tried to pull him down and pin him with the rest of her body.

Don't give up! Don't give up!

I won't!

Lee looked down on her with some trepidation and noted that she had bitten him on the leg. "What the--"

His immense strength kept him up against Amelia as he tried to shake her off. She was quite beautiful though, despite her injuries. Tenacious, too, and it reminded him of Sakura-san. It would be a shame to kill her outright. He settled for trying to knock her out by finding the appropriate pressure point and pressing hard...

Unfortunately for Lee, that pressure point sparked a knee-jerk reaction as she thrust a hand up to grab his balls with enough force to possibly pop one if he hadn't been in the state of using the Third Gate. Still, she would squeeze as hard as she could while she grabbed on to his other leg and pulled at his knee, trying to make him drop down to the ground.

Don't let go! Don't let go!

I won't!

Unfortunately for Lee, that pressure point sparked a knee-jerk reaction as she thrust a hand up to grab his balls with enough force to possibly pop one if he hadn't been in the state of using the Third Gate. Still, she would squeeze as hard as she could while she grabbed on to his other leg and pulled at his knee, trying to make him drop down to the ground.

Don't let go! Don't let go!

I won't!
Lee felt weird more than hurt when she grabbed him by the balls. Even through the pain, he managed to quip quite cheerfully, "You aren't by any chance married, are you?"

With that, he pressed harder on the pressure point as he stood strong against the girl's strength...

Amelia now let go of Lee's leg with her mouth, and then whipped her arm around, grasping Lee's arm as she grasped him tightly by the groin and stood up, holding him.

"How dare you talk of such a blasphemy!"

She then shifted her weight, trying to pile-drive Lee's head into the ground.

Lee lashed out with a hand, forcing a handstand to keep Amelia from piledriving his head in and kicked at her face.

The kick nailed Amelia square on the nose bridge, and it cracked audibly as she was sent reeling backwards, her nose exploding in blood. Her eyes watered as she tried to recover, shaking her head and wiping her face and eyes of blood and tears.

Don't lose focus! Don't lose focus!

I won't!

Now that Lee was free, he used his speed and disappeared, only reappearing to strike at various points of her body with a punch or kick. He was so fast that he was easily double what was needed to overcome the quickness of Gaara's telekinetic sand and then some. It was time to finish her off...

Amelia only recovered enough to see the attacks begin. Once they hit, she felt each and every one of them, reeling and doubling at each hit. She made many attempts to counter, but Lee's attacks were too fast. Was this the end?

I...I...I can...cannot...

Lee continued to pummel her with super-speed blows. He would stop only when she was unconscious and thus able to be tossed over the Circle of Equals without resistance...

Amelia's face was torn apart, her body bruised beyond human limit, her face unreckognisable. She no longer looked the same. At the start, she was a pillar of confidence, seemingly invincible. Now, her confidence was no longer present. However, an aura of unwillingness to surrender still surrounded her. A blow to her stomach doubled her over, and she slammed into the ground hard, face first. She quivered a few seconds before she reached out and grabbed Lee's leg, pulling weakly to try and stand up. Her grip, however, was still the same death grip she always had, and the possibility of her letting go of Lee's leg was rather far fetched.

Along the outer edges, the Clanners had become silent, watching Lee beat Amelia into the ground.

"Forgive me, but I must finish this." Lee said to her calmly as she grasped at his leg again. "It is for the sake of my country that I do this. I bear you no ill will."

With that, Lee turned his fist into a palm thrust, driving it into her back with incredible force...

The blow landed perfect. Amelia did not cry out. Her hand merely slumped to the ground with a thud, and there she lay still.

The Clanners were silent, eerily so. Not one of them spoke, and not one of them had an emotion or expression played out on their face. They merely stood there, looking at Lee and Amelia with neutral expressions. That was when Jaime spoke.

"Amelia of Clan Wolf is no longer capable of fighting," he said. "The victory is to Lee of the Core Worlds. This Trial of Possession is concluded."

Damnit, Amelia...

The Clanners then slowly began to disperse, each heading to their respective areas as the bulk of them began to pack up their camps, and they soon began to load up the DropShips. Only the War Council remained at the Circle, and they slowly converged on Lee, although not in a threatening way.

"Not many can best our Maho caste," said Jaime. "I would not relish this victory, however. The Maho caste will soon seek out your nation in vengeance, as is their way. Not even our Warrior caste has sway over their machinations. You would do best to keep an eye out for them, for they easily blend into the general populace of any nation."

The other four council members murmured in agreement with his words.

Damn Coredian bastards. Were it not for Aidan pissing them off, they would have two wrecked fleets and a few hundred thousand casualties. Yet they will take it for granted.

Admiral Makaryk stood up. His eyes bore straight into Rock Lee, even from thirty meters away. He stared down the Jedi filth, even from such distance, seriously contemplating demanding a Trial of Grievance over the manner in which his XO had been killed. The only problem was that Aidan's death left the Navy short of admirals. Two admirals killed in the course of a day would set the military command back to roughly the day after the civil war ended...that is to say, with a gutted command structure. Had the Admiral someone to take his place should he die (like, say, the now-dead Aidan), he would have demanded a Trial of Grievance on the spot...

He walked to a point one step short of the Circle of Equals, in a far more...displeased...manner than the Clans. His eyes gave away the fact that he wished CoreWorlds to pay for the forcefilth's earlier transgressions. His mind, cognizant that a duel against a Jedi Master was a risk that the Navy as a whole could now ill-afford to take, restrained him. At least for now.

-----------

White Diamond

"We interrupt our breaking news about the Kobal refugee crisis and nuclear disaster on the Coredian secondary capital of Konoha to bring you more breaking news from Caligula," frazzled news anchors on various news networks reported, more or less in unison. Amazing how yesterday could be so dead and today crammed in more breaking news than the day Master Whitfield defeated Darth Ebolus in a Trial of Annihilation. "Admiral Zhukov bid away an attack from the...you are hearing this right...Clans against the Coredian colony of Caligula, only to be Force-crushed by a Coredian 'Jedi.' Early reports indicate that Coredian defense forces were fully engaged against the Clans when Admiral Zhukov arrived, whereupon Zhukov bid himself against any Clan warrior in hand-to-hand combat, control of the planet to be decided by a Trial of Possession. Both Clans and Coredians stopped firing, apparently out of shock. Bailey Kipper, an alleged Jedi Knight, demanded a Trial of Grievance, asserting that Zhukov had no right to bid away a Coredian possession..."

"We are now receiving recordings of the bidding process...can we air those please?"

*some technician plays the recordings*

BAILEY: "Very well. Hand to hand, no weapons. The terrain will be right where we land."
*AIDAN switches to closed comm
AIDAN: "A Jedi never truly bids to fight unarmed. You have completely sidestepped that issue, forceborn. You have not completed your bid."
BAILEY: "You fear my powers, knave? You cannot compete without handicapping a Knight, it seems. It would be only right to tie up your hands as well."
AIDAN: "Very well, surat forcebirth. I assume that is a bid to use any Force-augmentation you wish. Immobilize me and tear my trachea in a thousand different directions. Send a million volts through my body. Admiral Riordan somehow survived it. Freeze my brain and trick me into sepukku. Stop my heart and rupture my lungs. Crush every bone in my body. Bring down a cliff face upon my head. You simply make it clear that you cannot hope--or are afraid--to fight 'unarmed' without these abilities, forcefilth. I suppose you cannot fight without your lightsaber, either. Nor do I care."
BAILEY (mutters): "What is it with these people?"
*BAILEY cuts transmission

"Apparently the Sithling refused to bid away even the darkest powers. Bailey proceeded to Force-crush Aidan when it became clear that Aidan might actually win the duel."

*plays footage of Admiral Makaryk cleaning Aidan's blackened corpse, along with the Clanner who had helped him*

"The Sith responsible then proceeded to appoint Jounin Rock Lee in his place to fight the Clan designee in the Trial of Possession," the anchor seethed. "Just in: Rock Lee certified victor. To summarize for those just tuning in: Admiral Zhukov bids a raging space battle down to hand to hand combat. Coredian Jedi demands Trial of Grievance. Coredian Jedi turns Sith and Force-crushes Aidan. CoreWorlds proceeds to keep Caligula system, at zero military cost, for which Admiral Zhukov is a martyr--Force-crushed for Coredian military expediency."

Unfortunately for the Coredian government, Woodian media first broke the news...and was broadcast live on the Holonet all over CoreWorlds. While not all Coredians watched the Woodian news media, enough did such that this was not going to stay quiet...

The Jedi around might have felt something if their senses paid attention. Like, say, an entire nation, already lured to the news networks by earlier events, hurling in disgust, in unison. And they thought the Woodian military was bad...

The blow landed perfect. Amelia did not cry out. Her hand merely slumped to the ground with a thud, and there she lay still.

The Clanners were silent, eerily so. Not one of them spoke, and not one of them had an emotion or expression played out on their face. They merely stood there, looking at Lee and Amelia with neutral expressions. That was when Jaime spoke.

"Amelia of Clan Wolf is no longer capable of fighting," he said. "The victory is to Lee of the Core Worlds. This Trial of Possession is concluded."

Damnit, Amelia...

The Clanners then slowly began to disperse, each heading to their respective areas as the bulk of them began to pack up their camps, and they soon began to load up the DropShips. Only the War Council remained at the Circle, and they slowly converged on Lee, although not in a threatening way.

"Not many can best our Maho caste," said Jaime. "I would not relish this victory, however. The Maho caste will soon seek out your nation in vengeance, as is their way. Not even our Warrior caste has sway over their machinations. You would do best to keep an eye out for them, for they easily blend into the general populace of any nation."

The other four council members murmured in agreement with his words.
"Wait." Lee panted as he relaxed from opening the Gates. The battle took a toll on his body. "Before you go, might I have an understanding as to why you invaded us? Perhaps...you might be interested in a deal."

=====

"<There is far greater honor among these people than in you.>" Lowbacca firmly said to Bailey. "<You will return to the Council to face judgement for your actions as they have cost greatly in our relations with the Woodians. Hand me your lightsaber.>"

Bailey glared at his superior before handing it over. "I do not understand, Master. Why must we bow and scrape to these fools? We do not need them."

The Wookiee's fur rippled and his growls took on a fierce tone. "<Hold your tongue, Kipper, lest I strip you of your title here and now. Beware, for you are stepping over the edge into the abyss.>"

The ex-Combat Knight wisely held his tongue.

There were very, very few times when Admiral Makaryk ran out of patience. This was one of them.

Still casting his gaze upon Rock Lee, he took the last step into the Circle of Equals used for the just-concluded Trial of Possession. He most certainly did not think that the Coredians should keep possession of this system...in fact, it would make good restitution for Bailey's crimes.

His eyes searched the venue for Bailey, and his protector, aider and abettor to Sith treachery, Lowbacca. Of course, because the Wookiee had just spoken to Bailey, and a Wookiee's distinctive voice carries quite easily, finding the pair in the crowd was not terribly difficult.

"I demand a Trial of Grievance to redress the crimes of the Sith among us," Admiral Makaryk bellowed in a voice that could have frozen a star. "Who among Coredians possesses the fortitude to defend their nation's honor from the treachery of the Sith?"

Meanwhile, the drunken medic advised the Clanners whom had invited him here of the Woodian Government's pending wrath, and invited them to watch live on the news...

"<There will be no more Trials today.>" Lowbacca rumbled in reply before a seething Bailey could retort, Em-Teedee translating for the benefit of the Woodian. "<The Council will determine the fate of one of our own.>"

"Thank you for clarifying that the Jedi Council gives aid and comfort to Sith," Admiral Makaryk accused; Lowbacca's response had him seething. To refuse a Trial of Grievance was an insult nearly as great as Bailey's transgression. "Whether through additional Trials or by act of the civilian government, I assure you, CoreWorlds WILL pay restitution for the treachery of the Sith."

Lowbacca sighed. This was worse than he thought. "<Your anger blinds you, my friend. Understandable considering what Darth Ebolus has done to you. We give no aid, nor comfort to one who has fallen. I do not protect him for the sake of protecting him. I do this to prevent more bloodshed and loss of life that would result from a Trial. Make no mistake, he will be punished.>"

Admiral Makaryk sighed as he realized that Lowbacca had boxed him into one of three options: shut up, fight Lowbacca, or order the orbiting Woodian Fleet to nuke Bailey from orbit. The latter was tempting, but collateral damage was probably unavoidable.

"I defer to the Parliament of Evil Woody Thoughts on the matter," he said in a tone of voice reminiscent of Darth Vader. "They are not as forgiving as I am."

OOC: New thread coming soon:D

"<Very well.>" Lowbacca said as the Knight committed to smoldering in his anger. "<You understand that whatever happens will chill our relations. It pains my heart to see allies at each other's throats.>"

OOC: New Thread Up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13185013#post13185013)

Having allowed Admiral Makaryk his 'temper tantrum', Jaime now spoke to Lee directly.

"A deal is intriguing," he replied. "However, our ruling Council of Khans are more likely to declare open war with the Core Worlds at this point. You may not have noticed, but we have been live-feeding the trial back to our homeworlds via the two-way wormhole that we came through. To put it lightly, the Khans are likely to have Amelia's head."

Jaime then turned his head to look at the crumpled heap known as Amelia. She was unconscious, completely unaware of what was going on right now. Shaking his head, he returned his gaze to Lee.

"Since my colleagues and I are the current ruling body within this area for our nation, I believe it is our decision that holds more sway at this point than the Khans." Jaime sighed, the next words coming out of his mouth with difficulty. "Beta Wolf Amelia is hereby your life-bondsman, Rock Lee. She is now your servant until 'death do you part'." The last part of that sentence was meant as a mockery to the concept of marriage, and it would sound pretty obvious to those who understood either concept of marriage or Clan life-bonding. "As such, you are now in charge of her well-being starting at the end of the Trial of Possession."

Bret then stepped forth and slapped a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Consider this an honour, freebirth. Not often do we allow those of your kind to take our people as bondmen, let alone life-bondsmen."

With those words and a dry laugh from the other four council members, all the members of the War Council, save Jaime, left to direct their men on the means of departing this world. Jaime, however, motioned to Master Lowbacca, Rock Lee, and Admiral Makaryk to follow him.

"I must speak with all three of you on the matters of the Maho caste," he said. He then looked upon Bailey. "You may come as well, for this concerns your future as much as it concerns the future of the nation your represent." Jaime then began to walk to the Council structure, which would still stand until Jaime ordered it taken down.

"<Then we shall speak. Bailey, come.>" Lowbacca said sternly. Like a whipped dog, the tainted Knight followed behind the Jedi Master, trying to ignore the jeers of the Woodians. Rock Lee followed, his mind still reeling at the idea of a life-bondsman in the form of Amelia. Although getting her to teach students her magical skills sounds like a good idea (it would definitely boost the skills of the Jedi Order, especially with shunpo and ken), he wasn't sure he'd like Amelia as a partner for life...eh, it might be interesting.

((I'm transferring the conversation between Jaime, Lee, Lowbacca, Makaryk, and Kipper to the other thread, which is where I'll continue storyline and such.))