Fleet Composition:
Interdictor Class Star Destroyer (Sienar Fleet Systems, Classic) (1, Special Task Command Ship for mission, meant to prevent fleets that jump in from jumping back out)
Interdictor Class Cruiser (Classic) (1, Support Vessel, one going to be used to pull a thrawn gambit on other side of Dressel Solar System)
Leviathan of Sev Tok (Central Command Ship, commanded by
Lyssa Io
)
House Io Star Destroyer (2, primary attack Vessels)
Basic Battle Cruiser (2, primary long range attack/carrier vessels.)
Sarka Class Frigate (2, Primary Skirmish Ships)
All ships fully stocked with these fighters:
Nuetralizer TIE Model 1
Nuetralizer TIE Bomber Model 1
The Ancient Interdiction Cruiser finally came out of its hiding spot from behind Dressel's sun, It's crew of Modified B1's, each as Intelligent as a Fett Clone Trooper making its way slowly towards the combat theater of the SJC.
It gave no sign of attacking at first, other than to turn on its interdiction field.
Once it did, that's when the
real problems started.
It was a Thrawn Gambit, a decent sized fleet jumped from a nearby system, all ships that had only been glimpsed at from afar.
The Leviathan of Sev Tok, a gargantuan, distinctly squid-like Battle Cruiser bristling with exotic weaponry, was at the front of the fleet. Two smaller, more conventional designed Battle Cruisers flanked the mighty vessel, a House Io Star Destroyer above and below the Leviathan.
The Leviathan of Sev Tok scanned the fleet for damage as it approached. It detected a number of ships that had been wounded.
Without so much as a transmission, they opened fire, The Leviathan, and The House Destroyers all launching an Alpha Strike attack on the most damaged vessels, such as The Apollo, but maintained their distance, while the Ancient Interdictor Cruiser moved slightly ahead, releasing it's compliment of Nuetralizer TIE's, both the regular fighters and the bombers. The Sarka Class Frigates and the Interdictor Destroyer also released their compliments of these fighters.
The Battle Cruisers, on the other hand, lowered their thermal shields to begin firing not just their electric Turbolasers, but their Energy Torpedos as well upon one of their carriers, The Etherial...
There were very few actual life Forms in any of these ships. The TIE's they deployed were smaller than normal, yet possessed the intelligence of an organic Pilot, rather than be a mindless drone. The Fighters would be used to harass the smaller ships...
That the infamous warship that had shot down The Maw's vessel over Rhand was here at all suggested Xiphos had taken a direct interest in the events on Dressel...
...or perhaps she was just here to slaughter SJC Jedi wherever they gathered, along with any who would fight beside them. It was hard to tell. Xiphos had developed an unpredictable reputation, like her army. The innate savagery of any stratagem was part of it, always.
Xiphos had warned them to expect her in a long ago warning, sent as a kick them while they are down moment after The Maw sacked Coruscant.
It seemed she was bent on keeping that promise at every opportunity.
House Io
embodied the concept of "It's Personal."
A signal was sent to the Asteroid field, and the Squadrons of Nuetralizer TIE's that had hidden there sent a burst transmission to one of the Seismic Charges.
The Leviathan's computer mind had analyzed a pattern of Asteroid drift that, with juuuuusssst the right application of physics would create a billiards like effect.
A select charge was detonated in the field, and the destructive act sent small to medium sized asteroids flying out of the fields themselves...followed by more detonation in the field, close to ships trying to pull away that built on the cascading effect of rock conducting exodus from an ocean of it.
Small to Medium pieces, with the occasional large pieces of Asteroid drifted at an increased speed to the pulling away ships, the TIE's flying out of the drifting rocks at the same time on a dead on sprint towards the vessels, targeting their hull weapons in bird flock like formation that would hopefully make them harder to hit as they approached.
However, the absolute
hatred The House as a whole possessed for the SJC was manifested in a single word, transmitted by the Leviathan to the command vessels.
"DIE."
Meanwhile...
While the Jedi dealt With The Life Form, Talisa and one of the Black Knights had made their way deeper into the interior of the ship, encountering more Bodies. One Black Knight had stayed behind to cause havoc to the outside forces.
"Begin preliminary skirmishes with The Jedi once they reach the interior..." Talia ordered, knowing that time was of the essence as she kept going deeper into the ship, trying to find whatever could restore power.
The battle had begun, but she was deeply concerned for her family, and made every effort to coordinate movements both on the interior and exterior...
Talisa had not felt such a level of responsibility in a while. She had an agitated look to her as she found a strange but large door with odd engravings. She touched it, and a wall, slid open, revealing an emergency power Generator.
Outside, hidden point defense cannons and some Turbolasers on the hull of the ancient derelict swung into place from concealed ports. She watched with interest as a Targeting Computer spring up on a wall panel, weapon sensors detecting gunships heading to orbit.
Talisa, of course, immediately punched in ancient command prompts to fire at them...
The Mercenary B1 Droids were giving the SJC team hell, firing Non Stop with both rockets and DC-15S Carbines, and were doing their best to keep them pinned while the upgraded Phase 1 troopers closed like locusts on the weakest in the SJC team, trying to slice them up and force the Jedi present to act, which would put them in harm's way for the blasters the B1's used. Others had formed a make shift gun nest on a hill and were firing a medium sized repeater trying to cover the Dark Troopers.
But it was when the
Black Knight arrived on scene that things got bad.
Walls of flaming snakes and smoke filled small pockets in which the Black Knight would dart around, seemingly melting into a disappearing as soon as a Jedi Knight got near, trying to sense him through the smoke, but unable to, due to his Force Dead Nature.
The Black Knight appeared out of a wall of smoke, Katana gripped with both hands.
"Surrender!" The Jedi ordered.
"Make me." The Black Knight sneered.
The Knight unleashed a VERY powerful Force Push...and the Knight was barely swayed from his position, stumbling back only a few inches. The Black Knight struck at the Jedi Knight and their blades flashed violently against each other, and the Knight grew concerned, realizing he was not an ordinary Warrior, his reflexes were Jedi-Like, intuitive. Honed. His Sinister golden menpo mask reflected the peaceful, unworried expression of the Jedi.
He summoned nearby debris to fling it at him and buy time. The Black Knight then did something that should have been impossible. He made smoke leak out of his armor, conforming to his body entirely. The debris passed clean through the smoke-figure, only for the smoke to dissipate, revealing an unharmed Black Knight. (Andrea's Visage: 70 XP)
The Jedi held his blue blade in a guard.
"I'll admit...it's a neat trick..." the Jedi said. "But that's all it is. A trick."
"
Are you so certain?" The Black Knight asked menacingly.
The Jedi frowned. "You find false strength in deception. But my might is the might of the light. Your abilities are insignificant next to the power of the Force."
"Perhaps. But what about in comparison to just your own, personal power?" The Black Knight questioned tauntingly. "If there is one thing my master taught me that I took to heart, it was when to recognize overconfidence. You can boast about it's power IF you kill me."
"There is no need for this to end in blood. Xiphos is using you, using the Refugees as a weapon, fashioning you into something you were never meant to be. Xiphos has nothing but death and slavery to the Dark Side to offer. We gave the refugees an actual haven, where they can start their lives anew, where they can recover from their pain and loss."
"You bribed them with food and minimal shelter and pity parties. Hooray for you..." The Black Knight sneered. "You banked on the idea that most of them wouldn't have the energy to mentally question your Order's role in their ruin. A master stroke. In that, and only that, your Order has my admiration for such shrewd, cold calculus in its ability to predict most of the refugees would be nice, submissive cattle, begging from the hands of the very people who screwed them over to begin with, because they were too devastated, and too dependant on one of the only places left to run."
"Your Master, or perhaps just your pain, has
warped your understanding, your perception of history." The Jedi argued. "Our response was not perfect. No response to a tragedy of such a scale could
ever be perfect. But we saved lives. We tried to save as many as we could, and we did a damn good job of it. You and the refugees who joined you were in a minority that could
never have been satisfied no matter
what we might have said or did. You were too vengeful and too violent. Trapped by your past, using it as a justification to become as bad as the people who took away your old life, whatever it was."
The Jedi was given pause.
"Perhaps it is for the best that Xiphos drew the more violent dissidents to her." he added thoughtfully. "Their thinking might have become an infection that would have spread amongst the other Refugees. I know I certainly wouldn't have wanted to try and get through to someone who couldn't or
wouldn't move on. You'd have agitated for genocide against the Bryn'adul, or any of the others, really."
"And they would have deserved it. They deserve it now."
"If you and the refugees who flocked to Xiphos just because she gave you license to be your worst possible version of yourselves cannot be bothered to rise above the level of your enemies, than frankly, you
don't deserve
any sympathy." The Jedi Knight insisted, angling his blade.
"People came to us because they want to believe the Galaxy can be better,
should be better than it is. They want to believe in sanity. In civilization. That there
can be justice. It boggles the mind, how the vast majority of Refugees can show you the truth, the path you should have taken. The Path of Honor and remaining good, and still you refuse to see it. Where is your integrity? Where is your sense of justice that
isn't intermingled with vengeance?"
"Typical Jedi reasoning. Always wanting to be better than your enemies, even if it leads to even worse tragedy and failure." The Black Knight snorted, bringing his blade to guard also, anticipating the next clash.
"Does being better than your enemies, does having
Integrity, mean you obey like cattle when you're ordered by the government to stay in your little temple, when
everybody and their mother could have told you it was a trap?" The Black Knight asked. "Was it
Integrity that prevented any Jedi from being on my world when the Bryn'adul came, too busy prosecuting their war with the Sith? Oh yes, I know all about your
Integrity..." The Black Knight snarled, gripping his sword so tight the knuckles had gone white under his gauntlets. "I was a nobody. A short order cook. I died when I saw them murder my children. I ended up in your refugee camps, had to deal with dozens of bastards just like you, all with that same smug, self assurance. You know what I think your insistence on Integrity really is?"
The Jedi rolled his eyes. "No but I'm sure you're about to tell me."
"A shield to justify your
incompetence. An excuse to always have people who need your 'protection'." The Black Knight hissed, the pair starting to circle each other. "Constantly
responding to a crisis,
milking it for all it's worth, rather than just putting the bastards murdering whole planets down, that's
far more emotionally and politically satisfying for the Order, and the governments they protect than actually
ending a crisis decisively. For who would get to see you play
Hero if you crushed the enemy utterly, as was done to the Bryn'adul at Danuta? If you had taken the Maw half as seriously as you took Carnifex's dying empire,
which just came back to life and made the struggle of everyone who died in the Third Imperial Civil War to stop him completely and utterly for nothing, The Maw would never have gotten as far as Csilla. Yes you drew out the crisis alright. You drew it out so long trying to play
Hero, you ended up right back with the same problem Xiphos rebelled against the Jedi over." The Black Knight replied in total disgust and contempt. They were getting closer, about to strike.
"But whatever, right? I'm sure you're looking forward to at least
half a decade of
memorable adventures with your Padawan against the evil Sith Empire, no? The next flashy, terrible Dark Lord with some lost superweapon, who becomes a bigger and bigger problem because you lack the will to strike as viciously as they do.
Thousands, Millions just
begging you to save them from the problem you never
bother to truly correct. A problem that often starts out in YOUR RANKS! Loads of allies, all conveniently from worlds you're
tragically unable to protect in time, all united and standing proudly against the problem your Order deliberately keeps allowing to fester in order to stay relevant. If it were not for the constant threat of a Sith Empire reforming, I doubt you'd have even a tenth of the Public's trust or goodwill. I'm just on the side that refuses to let you repeat that pattern without making you
pay in blood, the way my family, the way everyone else has ever paid in the past ten years, just so the Order could continue to feel important."
In this, and only this seething bubble of hatred and cynicism that erupted from the Black Knight's lips was the Jedi rendered much more silent than he normally would have been. He offered no reply, feeling a sudden and discomforting lance of disquiet pierce him, trying to avoid the teeny, tiny kernal of truth in The Black Knight's criticism. It was gone as quickly as it arrived, but the fact he had felt it in himself
at all, that micro second of doubt at hearing the embittered words of a sworn enemy, in of itself disturbed him greatly.
Was The Black Knight, in some way,
right? Even if it was for the wrong reasons?
The Jedi forced himself to focus on the situation at hand. Whether the Black Knight had some
minor point or not, it was
moot. He was making his point with the blood of that Jedi's friends and comrades. He had to be stopped before he hurt others.
"We only did what we thought was right." The Jedi replied quietly, voice lacking his previous confidence and self assuredness, bordering on arrogance.
"That's all we have ever done. Your Master...and
you...expected too much from us. We are not infallible, nor are we all knowing. History has beaten that lesson into us enough times, and we have tried our best to learn from our mistakes. But we still make them. And yes, people still suffer. World's still die, and yes there is a lot of blood on our hands..."
The Jedi went into a Soresu ready.
"But the day we let the monster who destroyed the Silver Rest, killed all those younglings we were training because of some insane, decade long grudge that you happily indulge in tell us
our business? Then you can
have our Lightsabers, and
you can do the job since you clearly think you would be
so much better at it. That you wouldn't become as reviled, as vilified as we are. That people wouldn't come to the same conclusions about
you that you have about
us." The Jedi snapped.
The Black Knight struck with a series of vicious slashes he barely parked, somersaulting away from his foe.
"Even if your Master did have a point at all, it's been completely tainted by her willingness to shed the blood of even the most innocent among us. What Jedi could take her rantings seriously at this point? As far as we can tell, she's not even attacking us for any demonstrable military advantage, just pure spite."
More direct, crashing overhead attacks, that The Jedi was only able to parry via Force Speed. He leapt backward again, going back into a Soresu guard.
"And if that is the only thing that fuels you to take up arms against those you should fight alongside, to hate peace, to hate mercy, to punish instead of rehabilitate, to drive the knife in, even if it
dooms you as well. To consort with pure evil just to make sure
even one Jedi cannot sleep without one eye open, to extend the fist of wrath instead of the hand of forgiveness, to avenge a broken past instead of fighting to build a better future...than you are
worse than a Sith, in some ways. And
emptier. At least the Maw wants to create a new universe. All you want is to punish us for winning because you don't think we deserve it. All you're doing is chasing a sea animal that took a limb."
The Black Knight pointed his sword at him.
"The limb was my family..." The Black Knight seethed, boiling rage in his voice.
"For that last remark, and that alone, I'm gonna find one of your friends after this is over. I'm gonna kill them
slow, Jedi. So you can understand what it's li--"
"The Bryn'adul killed my world too. And my children." The Jedi said calmly. "I found peace in The Force.
The Black Knight was given pause for a moment. But only a moment.
"I'm not shedding tears for somebody who went running into the arms of the people who got his family killed. It just makes you a hostage in love with the Hostage Taker."
Their blades flashed against each other in a dance of death...
Matsu Ike
Liram Angellus
"The structure appears to be a habitat or some kind." 
