Mandalore's Open Orbit

Aboard the Brightflame, a Keldabe-class vessel in orbit above the city the class of ship had been named for, the Brightflame's comm officer's eyes went wide as saucers. Being of Mon Calamari extraction, that was some feat. Gathering herself, she called out to the Commodore.

Ma'am. Incoming transmission. Appears to be Yuuzhan Vong in origin.

Commodore Kryze cut off her conversation with the ensign she'd been speaking with, turned, and came over to Aihda's station.

It can't be. Where's it coming from? Reaching the station she looked over the data.
According to the reading it was coming from a ship, just a single vessel, but inside the Mandalore system.

No. She breathed, still unable to believe it. The Yuuzhan Vong, here. Mandalore had been visited by the Yuuzhan Vong before, and it wasn't an experience any people would care to repeat. She knew she had to confirm something of this magnitude before she raised a general alarm, but she wasn't going to do nothing, either.

We need to confirm this. Mark the location for our fighters to check it out. Kryze reached across the lieutenant commander and pressed a key to open a channel to the hangar deck. Squadron. Scramble. Those two words sent adrenaline rushing through the veins of the dozen bes'uliik pilots who heard them. In less than a minute, the entire squadron had space beneath them, moving away from the formation at high speed.

Twelve sleek black bes'uliik fighters of Clan Australis raced out of Mandalore's gravity well, outbound at their best speed to get a look at the inbound ship.

Kryze also sent a coded warning to Kaine and the other command level officers of the Clan, including the offworld bases. She could go clan-wide with this, Kaine would expect her to. That way if it was a false alarm there was no need to bother the other Clans. Australis prided itself on not only providing timely information, but accurate information.

Outbound at their maximum speed, the twelve fighters would soon be approaching close enough to the Yuuzhan Vong vessel to get a proper sensor reading. Each pilot was professional, focused on his task, though the fact they might soon be engaging with the hated enemy was in the back of each of their minds.

The bes'uliik fighter had come online after the great war with the extragalactic invaders, and each pilot was interested to see how it stood up against the vaunted coralskipper. Assuming the vongese hadn't come up with anything new, not something they were known for, this time it would be the Mandalorians flying the unfamiliar craft, knowing what the Yuuzhan Vong Yorik-et was capable of,
and the crab boys not knowing what the Mandos' shiny new toys could do.

The Fighters - Approaching Ipy'minen

The squadron leader of the flight of bes'uliike brought his formation directly in at the cruiser-analog. On his display, the ship's silhouette resolved just briefly before his display went insane, with contacts all over, then none, then all over again.
He swore in disgust and hit his comm on the squadron frequency, knowing the fleet would be monitoring.

They've got some sort of jamming. Craft is definitely Yuuzhan Vong, cruiser size.

Outside, he saw the telltale specks separate from the larger craft and appended his statement.
They've deployed coralskippers. Get the word out. We're going in. Squadron, on me. We'll hit the big ship then split by wingpairs. FOR MANDALORE!

Following his own command, he threw his fighter into a looping roll to avoid any incoming fire and jinked left and right to make targeting as difficult as possible. The other eleven pilots did their best to match the maneuver. Each pilot targeted manually and launched a pair of concussion missiles at the cruiser, twelve pairs of exhaust streaked away, even as six pairs of fighters broke in a different vector away from the launch point and made to engage the coralskippers.

Twenty four concussion missiles each bored in on a manually targeted trajectory aimed at twelve different points along the cruiser-analog's hull spaced from bow to stern.

The Fleet - Mandalore's Orbit

On the bridge of Brightflame, Commodore Kryze had ordered the comm feed from the squadron put on the overhead.

"Get the word out. We're going in. Squadron, on me. We'll hit the big ship then split by wingpairs. FOR MANDALORE!"

With that, the Commodore's doubts were erased. War, it was. Kryze signalled the overhead feed to be cut and turned to her adjutant. Her voice was as grim as her crew had ever heard it.

Initiate the Borleias protocol. Despite the gravity of the order, the adjutant didn't hesitate and fairly ran to his console and began sending transmissions to every Clan and outpost of the Mandalorian Assembly. The Yuuzhan Vong had come again.

Kryze turned to the bridge crew. The ship had gone to Red Alert at the order of her XO, saving Kryze the time wasted in giving that order. Set a course out of the gravity well. Plot a fleet microjump to the intruder's vector, optimum screen formation please. Doomhammer is to hold position.

That order would have the six Lancer frigates arrayed in front of the two Keldabe battleships on the outbound vector, allowing them to protect the larger vessels from starfighters with their combined fire. The single battleship left behind was to defend the world in case this was just the opening feint in a larger assault.

With the ships on high alert, the eight vessels powered out of the gravity well of the planet, and by the time they were clear, the navigation staff had calculated the microjump to the Yuuzhan Vong's position. They would emerge within seconds, just outside weapons range of the enemy ship. As soon as the ships were clear of Mandalore's mass shadow, all eight jumped to hyperspace for the instant it would take to transit to the outer system.

They emerged as they had entered, six frigates arrayed in two rows above and below each other in front of the two larger ships. With shields up and weapons powered, they moved in toward the enemy.

==MandalMotor Shipyards SL==
<106 PP; O7 Sector, Mandalore>

Coming in from opposite side of the system from the small skirmish, the cluster of Imperium ships were not in any danger. They did, however keep a careful eye on their sensors to ensure the fight wouldn't head their way. The small fleet was an even dozen of the humongous factory template Lucrehulks. Each had the manufacturing capabilities of a massive industrial complex, with the added benefit of being able to move to where they were need. Following these were another five Lucrehulks, though these were the basic cargo templates. Like all Imperium Lucrehulks, all seventeen of the ships lacked the central sphere module. Flying in formation about the Bulk Haulers, 10 of the Crusader Corvettes provided the defense for the convoy. The original plan for them had been as gifts & sales to various clans in system to help build ties & help improve those same clans. But on arriving, they were rerouted to the growing shipyard area. More cargo ships were already in route with additional resources, but the few they they had with them would make a good start.

There was an unspoken assent of all those serving aboard the Ipy’minen. The fighters would be soon within range and the battle would commence. Suus would not deny to himself that he enjoyed the thrill of combat, the struggle for dominance, but now it was tempered with a newfound respect for life, his own and that of other forms of life. Through Ipy’minen, he could see the fighters and he looked at these, no longer as infidels, but as those that had not yet realized their calling, had yet to aspire to their full potential or seek the True Form.

However, their righteous quest would not be stopped, not by indifference nor by weapons. They were fully authorized to strike down those who would dare to attack them - such was the way of the gods, the galaxy and, therefore, the Yuuzhan Vong. Now, though, he must be even more cunning than in former wars - he must seek to keep his crew alive, while minimizing the number of attackers he destroyed. Suus couldn’t help but relish the new challenge. There was a pleasing...efficiency in preserving life that simply destroying it had lacked.

Suus touched Ipy’minen’te mind, and that of the others also linked to her, listening as they described how the fighters approached, the missiles arcing toward them, where they anticipated they would hit and Suus showed her what he willed and she complied. The Suuv Ban D’Krid backed away from the system, the polarity of the dovin basal reversing to push her away from the planet and oncoming fighters. Her Yaret’Kor cannons swelled with molten slag before spewing the fiery rocks forth. Simultaneously, the coralskippers fired their cannons. As the balls of magma entered the gravity rip generated by the dovin basals, they were ejected by the gravity wave and spread in a rapidly expanding cone directly in front of Ipy’minen. The cannons fired again and again, forming a tsunami of flaming debris between Ipy’minen and trajectories of the missiles and the fighters.

Some missiles exploded in the unexpected meteor shower, while the rest closed the distance, exhaust trails receding then vanishing completely. The Suuv Ban D’Krid continued to retreat, with its guardian coralskippers swarming over it. It would seem that the dovin basals had swallowed the missiles whole and crusier had thankfully escaped completely unmolested from the attack.

Suddenly, there was a flash as an explosion appeared amidships, coral fragments blossoming into space. Liquids trailed and froze immediately, streaming in the cruiser’s wake. Few of the coralskippers broke off and landed on the cruiser, shielding the breach directly with their dovin basals and were clearly attempting to staunch the wound.

“We have restored atmosphere to the spiral valve and shapers have been dispatched, Lord Commander. She will still fight and the Yun’o have been merciful.”

Suus growled in affirmation. He had come to the similar conclusion as his helmsman, and he felt her raw wounds, the girdle of tissues and bands of muscles torn, ripped with hundreds of fragments and perforated as the concussive impact ruptured capillaries. The ship stank of burning skin.

“Villip commander, I pray you have found a vector…”

“More ships approaching, in a headlong strike formation! Our cone of fire will engulf their ships...”

“I pray you have found us an exit vector!”

“Indeed. She will be able to make a brief step before returning.”

Thank the gods for small mercies...

Ipy’minen

Her entry vector had been unassuming, far from the planet and its traffic and now it had become the scene of a pitched battle, littered with the fragmenting carcasses of destroyed fighters and battle debris. The unassuming Yuuzhan Vong cruiser, and its escort was faced with overwhelming odds as the Mandalorians masses their defenses.

Within the Ipy’minen, the Yuuzhan Vong tenders fought desperately to pump glyhircc on the dovin basal arrays to keep them alert and moving smoothly, muscles burning and labouring to breathe through their gnulliths, in the darkness generated by the singularities that ripped away any nearby light. The team of shapers had reached the wound, where the concussion missile gored the ship. They cut away chunks of burnt skin and gelatinous slabs of meat, rolling out new sheets of fibers that melded on touch against the ruptures and sealed the weeping tubes shut. Grayish tissues began to turn red again.

The magma cannons had shifted away from blanket fire and were now acting as a point defense system, working in tandem with the dovin basals to deflect the brunt of the firepower directed at the ship. Ipy’minen’s craggy krahtine outer and rostrum was becoming progressively more pitted and burnt by the sheer volume of turbolaser fire.

Suus’ consciousness melded with his crew mates, seeing the carnage being repaired, the other tender’s fevered labours and the Yorik’kor gunners keeping the heated rock smoothly blasting at their threats. Ipy’minen masterfully guided each their personal battles, each becoming a seamless part of her operation, in step with her mind, marching to the beat of her immense heart.

How long could they manage to keep her enemies at bay? The preparations to escape to hyperspace were nearly complete but what of their mission? Had he mistaken Yun’Harla’te injunction? Suus mulled these questions as he unconsciously rolled a blaze bug between his fingers, it’s hot abdomen scalding his fingertips in a pleasantly distracting way.

His transmitter villip contorted to replace his face, that had been repeating his message, to an approximation of Commodore Kryze red-eyed visage:




Forefinger skin melted. Was this the answer that he sought?

“Halt!” Suus commanded and the Ipy’minen reluctantly slowed to a crawl. She knew already what he intended to do and the Suuv Ban D’krid was having none of it. The old war charger had tried not to strike up an engagement but now that it had kicked off, and the enemy was coming at her thick and fast, she intended to give it as good as she got it.

“What are you doing, Lord Commander? We must run or fight, but to show our belly spells death! Let us break through their ranks and board their ships - allow me to lead the charge. We have offered our sacrifice for their lives and now we will make them pay!”

Ah, Viez Kwaad, an intendant that knew followed the law and missed the spirit. Suus would have dearly loved to use the opportunity to point out there was no shame in sparing life, even though it stuck in the throat to do so, especially an old foe.

“Silence, Viez of domain Kwaad! Prepare the villip. Now hear this:

:: To the Supreme Overlords of the Man-da-lor’o: we accept your petition and will extend an immediate cease-fire. We will discuss the terms aboard our the Ipy’minen with your commander. ::

Ipy’minen shuddered as the tractor beams locked on, bringing her to dead stop. The low-powered dovin basals did not have the power to interfere with the tractor beams, but now allowed them to transmit their surrender clearly to all in the system.