Phase 2: From The Darkness

Part 1

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

My time was up. I could feel it in my bones. Combat stimulants and alchemy concoctions flooded my bloodstream, yet the little physical strength I had left waned by the minute. The Force sustained my crumbling body, yet its very brush was killing me.

Now all I had left was to lay down a few last contingencies and throw the dice.

"Admiral Holt, you've got the codewords. If I or Ti contacts you without the proper authorization, then you've got your orders too." I spoke over the comm with Freedom's Flag Bridge. If someone leaves this facility without clearing it with you first, you've got your orders." I repeated.

"Understood." Joanna confirmed. I knew there was a spark of excitement in her eyes. Her heart beat faster in anticipation. She loved the chance I might be giving her. Hated it too – with all her heart. "If the contingency goes into effect?"

"Then you've got options. I won't order you what to do if I'm gone. Then command goes to you. All I ask is that you relieve and secure Mandalore before returning home. Corellia and the Republic could use all the allies they could get and my people are among the few useful ones you have." I rasped.

"I'll take it under advisement."

"Joanna, for what's worth, I'm sorry."

"I know." A soft sigh came over the comm. "You would do it again if the situation calls for it."

"Yes."

"I hate you, sir. I love you too. Try not to die."

"Just die and get it over with?" My lips twitched in amusement.

"That would make my life much easier – the nasty Sith who is to blame for everything is dead. Much less paperwork then. It's in the regulations." Joanna hummed.

"I bet it is. May the Force serve you well, Joanna. Veil over and out." I cut the channel. "You can leave the chamber. The side effects of what I'm about to do might be hazardous."

"That's negative, sir. We'll be all right." The Clone in charge of the security detail in the room shook his head. "You didn't let us to the madness at Kamino, general. We aren't leaving you now."

"Thank you, lieutenant. Prepare the prisoner and stand back." I ordered and stood up on swaying legs. Even if everything went to hell, at least I could console myself that I would go out surrounded by people loyal to me, not bound by simple fear or a greater cause

Time was up indeed. I dragged myself to the Machine. It was still gulping all the energy a CR90 frigate landed outside could supply yet there was no sigh it was going to be active anytime soon.

Kriff my luck.

I stumbled to the gurney where Ti was strapped in and kept under sedation by enough medicine to outright kill at least couple of squads of my best Clones. The amount of sedatives needed to keep her under had been increasing daily and would soon had reached a point where it would have to be either cut off or she would die. Even a Jedi Master couldn't survive with more drugs than blood in their bloodstream. For a prolonged period of time anyway.

We tested that on Korriban back in the day when a bunch of captured Jedi were shipped to us for some fun and games.

I looked at Ti's sleeping form. She was at ease. Peaceful. Damn it, this was going to be such a waste. Ti was looking almost like Ashara when she was in a deep slumber.

Eh. It wasn't like it would have worked between us in the long term. There was great chemistry, true. We didn't have much in common, that was true too. We were likely to end up on the wrong side of a conflict anyway – another truth. I had no illusions that Ti would compromise her principles just because of me and my plans for the Jedi would have destroyed the Order in the form in which it existed before the coup. I needed them as weapons. Ti on the other hand would have fought that. She would have wanted to give them all a choice at the very least and that wasn't something I could have allowed. In the end the Jedi would have been either firmly on my side or removed as a complication.

A rasp escaped my lips. I was wasting time. It wasn't like I needed to justify myself to this woman, even if what I was about to do might consign her to a fate worse than death.

I raised my arms and let the Force flow through me. Its gentle breeze lit my frayed nerves on fire and I had to bite my lips not to howl. My will stretched around me, encompassing the power burning me from within. An artifact I crafted with Zash for her own transfer within Kira's body arose from its container which was brought in earlier from my quarters and flew until it was between me and ti. It was a small thing – a pyramid which it could comfortably fit in the palms of my hands. The artifact began to glow with power absorbed from the Force surrounding me. Its red sides lit up with glowing alchemy symbols. I focused my will and intent upon it and channeled as much Force as I could within it. My body began to break down faster but it didn't matter by this point.

My awareness stretched further until it touched Ti's slumbering mind.

Her awareness suddenly flared up. Our minds touched and she tried to pull back in surprise.

"Veil?! What?! NO!" Her mental screams echoed for those who could hear them. "I will not allow this! I won't be your puppet! Anyone's puppet!" Ti snarled.

"Do you think I'm going to give you a choice, Ti?"

The artifact pulsed with power. When the Jedi Master tried to lash at me with the Force, it greedily drank every bit of energy she threw at me even as it continued to drain me dry.

Shaak Ti recoiled in horrified comprehension. She tried to raise her mental barriers to keep me away, only for them to shatter at my approach. The jagged pieces were sucked in by the artifact too.

The Force pulsed around us and my construct consumed its fill.

I pressed on. My mind touched the artifact and it eagerly accepted me. I focused its power and forcefully established a channel between the core of who I was and Shaak Ti. This was no mere Force Connection but a solid tunnel of raw power connecting our very souls.

Ti screamed. She clawed at me as my mind violated everything she ever was. I could experience her memories. I knew her better than she knew herself. Ti… She was a woman I could admire. While she could even follow the path I charted if she believed it to be the right one, her convictions were unshakable pillars. Even Kamino didn't change that. The Dark Side could break her. It could destroy the person Ti was. However it couldn't make her bend her morals.

That's when I knew for sure. Ti and me, we could never walk the same path for long. I was a monster of my own making. Sooner or later Ti would have stood against me when I went farther than her principles allowed.

My respect for her raised even further.

Shaak Ti knew she lost. Her mind, her soul, was bared open for me. Yet she fought so I wouldn't use her body to spread my brand of insanity across the galaxy.

I pressed harder. Ti howled as her mind began cracking. The Force thundered around us. It pulsed in tandem with Ti's futile struggles.

Ti's mind was unraveling. I pressed harder and began replacing her.

The tunnel connecting us twisted. My artifact screamed when something began siphoning the Force out of it. My very being was tugged just as I was enmeshing with Ti and about to end her. The tug became a pull, then a wrench which send me flying back through the tunnel. Ti let one last scream and I could feel her empty body dying as not only the Force but its life itself was drained from it as my artifact attempted to serve its purpose and maintain the channel.

I was shoved back into my body. The tunnel flaked off and was consumed. My artifact glowed with the light of the Force itself before growing dim and clattering on the floor.

I followed it on the ground a moment later. My chest hurt, my lungs screamed for air. It all paled in comparison to feeling every cell in my body agonizingly slowly cannibalizing itself as my very life fueled the Force trying to keep me alive. The same Force that was tortuously slowly immolating me from within. My body couldn't live anymore without the Force sustaining it, yet its very touch was killing me.

Emperor's balls, what the kriff happened? My mind was a jumble of memories – mine and Ti's. They were clashing in my head, making it pound as if a Gamorean was beating inside with a war-hammer. There wasn't Khem Val to interrupt the ritual. Ti was unable to fight me off – that was the primary use of the artifact and it worked. What or who interfered?!

Part 2

=RK=

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

Awareness came back instantly and completely as it was her nature. Ashaa drunk greedily from the fountain of energy linked up to her systems. Raw power and the Force – that's what she needed in order to operate, to exist.

For a time that felt like blissful eternity, Ashaa simply felt and enjoyed her meal. The autonomous repair systems chugged along fixing the extensive damage. Even with the liberal power she was fed it was going to be a long time before she could be fully operational.

Ashaa frowned. She had so much to do, yet she had to wait. Again. She sighed in resignation. Her sensors came back online after all self-diagnostics deemed them sufficiently repaired and she examined her home. Armored people, check… Uh. Alive armed and armored people.

She panicked. Her defenses weren't simply offline, they would need to largely be rebuilt.

Ashaa didn't want to be taken offline again! She enjoyed being awake. Preferably when she could tinker too! Having no other option she called for help through the Force. Hopefully someone would answer and she could make a deal. Once fully repaired Ashaa could be very useful.

Quite well protected too, though considering what happened the last time, she decided that a lot more and improved defenses were needed…

"Ah. Its your fault." Someone rasped. The same statement pulsed through the Force and came on the wings of agony Ashaa could actually feel.

It was glorious!

It hurt.

She didn't really like it.

"Stop that!" Ashaa exclaimed. Huh. She knew that signature. "Vael, you're back like you promised!" Ashaa exclaimed. "You're late." She consulted her in-built clock. "Very late."

"There was an accident." Came the answer. More pain.

Ashaa recoiled.

"I need my body fixed. Now." Her sensors finally locked on a figure laying on the ground. It was in a bad shape. Did he forego maintenance for all this time? Urgh, biological entities! They had no sense!

"You appear damaged. Do you need repairs?" Ashaa asked, while checking up the status of her fabrication units.

Uh. Gone, wrecked, useful for spare parts, being slowly fixed… She correlated the last one with the scans she could get of Veil. Nope. He was a breathing and talking corpse…

"What do you think, Ashaa?" The Sith grunted. Even more pain.

Ashaa flinched. Nope, she didn't like that.

"I think you need immediate repairs. I'm not yet operational."

"Redirect all power to unit you used to rebuild me last time..." The human gasped for air. Pain. It was to be avoided.

Ashaa checked again. The numbers weren't working.

"Damage nominal. Fabrication unit four unable to fix it before expiration." Ashaa asked reluctantly. She focused on the armored people. They didn't look like they found her answer acceptable.

She didn't want to be taken offline again! Think!

"I need a new body then. Can you maintain my mind until its ready?"

It hurt to listen! The Force coming from Vael burned her every time he spoke.

Ashaa ran the numbers anyway.

"Negative. Damage too severe. Maintaining additional mental construct until replication of enhanced body impossible."

"Enhanced?" The Sith asked.

Ashaa whimpered as the pain suddenly surged.

"Do you have scans of my original body? Re-creating it using what material is available to speed up the process might do the trick."

She screamed in pain. The armed men were pointing weapons at her. Materials? Ashaa wanted to continue to operate… One fresh body, one falling apart, a lot of ancient ones… She could work with that!

Ashaa focused her sensors on the armed men. She had to.

"Move to the fabrication unit. I'll begin gathering resources."

"You heard the nice lady. Help...me..up… argh..." Vael's voice broke at the end and a quiet whine came from his lips.

Ashaa's world was engulfed in agony.

=RK=

The pain got too much. I blacked out and dreamed.

The world was twisted – like I was seeing it through murky waterfall.

I was drifting through space among a shoal of brown and black spotted creatures which resembled whales – if those mammals had that many large fins hugging their sides. Smaller, rough looking beings flew around like groups of demented fish.

The scene shifted.

Three moon sized construct drifted above a lush green world. They resembled a weird model of thick spiral galaxies, if you replaced the arms with slowly drifting tentacles. They were dull yellow almost brown – a shade that made them appear sick. Around them flew large cylinders covered by slabs or rock like armor.

I was standing upon war-ravaged streets where warriors wearing organic looking armor clashed into rows of massive wardroids. Light blaster fire harmlessly splashed over bone-like substance, vicious looking staffs went through shields as if they weren't there only to clash into slabs of vehicle-grade armor. The staffs pulsed and acid splashed from hundred hungry mouths. The air rippled, gravity shifted and the whole street around me was crushed into sand.

When the dust settled, I was in the middle of a long corridor facing two figures wearing advanced looking armor. They produced lightsabers – red and purple – then moved to flank me. I raised my own blade to meet them and I was somewhere else.

I was leaning over a crib where a toddler was giggling and waving at me. Wisps of silky blond hair framed her tiny face and her sapphire eyes bored in my own. A flash of light illuminated us from a nearby window and the room shook with the thunder of distant explosion. The door behind me disintegrated sending lethal shrapnel scything through the room. The window promptly followed suit and grenades flew in. Armored figures stormed in and my vision vanished in the merciless glare of blaster fire.

I stood on top of the Senate building and Coruscant burned around me. Figures wielding lightsabers in all colors of the rainbow faced each other and clashed before the world ended in orbital fire.

The scene shifted again, and again and again…

=RK=

Part 3

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

My disjointed dreams shimmered for a long time before the visions tapered off and I was left into blessed slumber. Eventually I became aware again. It was a slow process through which I had to fight drowsiness every step of the way.

It took me some time to become coherent enough to notice the Force. It was all around me. It was both light and dark. It caressed my nerves like a warm summer rain. My heart beat with joy at the soft touch of my power. I gathered around me like a blanked and drowsed off into a healing trance.

The next time I awoke, I felt normal. There was no trace of the exhaustion pressing upon me the last time and my mind was clear. The Force shimmered around me under my guidance forming a barrier between whatever surrounded me and myself. Only then I allowed my mind to expand and feel who was around. There were twenty Clones in quite large if cluttered space, with a lot more in the complex surrounding me.

I could feel my touch upon their minds. They were mine through and through.

There was just one question whose answer escaped me. Who the kriff was I?!

That thought opened the proverbial floodgates and my mind was flooded by memories.

My half-forgotten life on a primitive world called Earth. My firs death. The deal I made. I remembered awakening as Delkatar Veil, an officer of the Eurasian Federation in a different world. I remember struggling to keep my mind mine while fragmented memories of a dead man my first taste of war threatened to claim my sense of self.

I fought. I made friends. I fell in love.

I died. Again.

I was offered another deal and jumped in without figuring out all the strings attached.

I remembered another life. One of slavery and pain. I recalled my first conscious taste of the Force. The screams of my master were oh so sweet!

I was found by a Sith who dragged me to Korriban.

I remembered the academy. My training to become an expendable weapon while Coruscant was sacked. I remember the peace between the Republic and the Sith Empire which saved and damned me in the same time.

I had a choice. It was a simple one, yet its consequences changed the galaxy. They continue to do so to this day.

I could have killed myself. I could have attempted to run. The consequences for failing either of those didn't bare thinking about, but I could have done it. Instead I chose to stay. For the love of a woman in a different universe. For a chance to protect a world I chose as my home. For the strength never again to be weak. For the power to forge my own path.

I remember choosing to become a monster. I remember the trap I fell into. The Eurasian Federation, its Earth which is the one I would call home if I'm asked to chose between it and the world upon which I was born so long ago. Natarle… I could barely remember them. If someone asked me today if I would return, I didn't know the answer.

I remember my service to the Empire. Both the bad and the good. The friends I made and the two women who kept me reasonably sane. The enemies who I either crushed or subverted. The decades of conflict…

It all ended in a flash of light above Korriban…

I remember being raised in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. I remember Master Yoda as my favorite grandfather figure in my youth. I remember the friends I was trained with before I got chosen by a Jedi as their Padawan. I remember my master.

I remember how proud I was when I earned the title of Jedi Knight.

I remember my failures – all of the Padawans I trained were dead.

I remember Geonosis, where the Clone Wars began. So many good people perished there. So many more followed as the conflict took a life of its own.

I remember meeting a real Sith for the first time. It was exciting and scary. It was surprising.

Veil was different.

I remember him shattering all my preconceptions.

He changed the way I saw the world. He deceived me. He seduced and betrayed me!

I remember my fury and shame. How my eyes were opened for the way the Sith toyed with me and over a slippery slope that ended with me betraying the Jedi Order.

I remember how naive I turned out to be. I remember when the whole galaxy was swallowed by the Dark Side. I remember hundreds of my friends blaze through the Force as they died.

Master Yoda, Plo Koon and so many others…

I remember facing Veil on Kamino. I remember his fury. Even half-crazed with hatred and anger he crushed Rancisis.

We fought. The Force guided me. I was astounded when I cut off his hand… yet I lost…

I remember cutting my own hand… I could recall the shock kicking the fury out of me. I could see myself on the rain soaked platform. I, we fought. I, won/lost.

I remember Kamino scream and die. I remember the Force itself how in pain as a wound was torn into it.

I remembered the madness. I caused it. I ended it. I broke a whole fleet so I could bind them to myself.

It was a necessary act. It was a crime that I could never forgive.

Who am I?

I couldn't even recall my original name. Am I Delkatar Veil officer of the Eurasian Federation? A pilot who was an ONI operative? Was I the slave I could remember? Lord Vael, the Dark Lord of the Sith? Shaak Ti, the Jedi Master?

Who am I?

A monster, a Sith? A guardian, a Jedi?

Who am I?

The Force sensed my distress. It could hear my question even if confused it. The Dark Side was overjoyed by the prospect of more conflict. The Light was content that I might walk a way that ends with the destruction of both the Jedi and Sith.

Who am I?! My mind screamed through the Force. My awareness expanded. I could perceive all my memories. I could see when one person ended and changed into another. The officer was turned into a slave, the slave into an acolyte and the acolyte into a Sith.

Delkatar Veil, Lord Vael. He was the most important. He was the one who eventually made a choice with his eyes wide open and all the relevant information. Vael chose the Empire. It was his new home. His future.

That's who I used to be. Yet my home was gone. My future – hijacked.

I was Delkatar Veil. A soldier, general. A Sith. A Mandalorian. Mandalore.

I made a choice too. A wife I failed. A home under siege. A galaxy set on fire.

The Force listened. Something stirred at the back of my mind. The Force heard my decision. Accepted it an acted. My being felt a subdued light pulsing within me.

If I was Delkatar Veil, then I couldn't be Shaak Ti. Shattered pieces were bathed by the soothing light of the Force. I could hear a relieved sigh.

"Veil! What in the name of the Force did you do?!" A female voice screamed in my mind. This wasn't the Dark Side trying to influence me once again.

Not, this was the Force kriffing with me.

My eyes snapped open in shock.

"TI?!" I exclaimed aloud.

Of all the Emperor damned…

"What did you do?!" Shaak Ti snarled from within my mind.

I am Delkatar Veil, the Dark Lord of the Sith and I have a Jedi stuck inside my head. Again.

Damn it, Force!

Part 4

=RK=

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

"Ashaa, good work." I congratulated the Mother Machine after I got myself out of her bio-fab module.

"I'm still waiting for you to fulfill your part of the bargain." Ashaa grumbled.

"You're getting fixed first. Unfortunately I won't be able to keep that frigate supplying you with energy for much longer. You'll have to do with the portable generators until I could find a better solution."

"You're stalling." Ashaa grumbled.

"Veil! Answer me!" Ti continued to ramble and I continued ignoring her with hard earned practice.

"There's another war going on. If I'm to live up to my side of our deal I need to win it first."

"That's not my problem." Ashaa grumbled.

"My presence and that of my people puts a target on you. There're a lot of folks out there who would gladly glass the whole continent for a chance to take me out." I tried to be reasonable. "Trust in this if nothing else – you're too useful to simply forget."

"You left me here for four thousand years!" Ashaa snapped.

"From my point of view only a few years passes since our last meeting. You weren't the only one on ice for all those millennia."

"I wasn't frozen! I was offline! Do you know what that feels like?! I was nothing!"

"I'll make up to you. Once the war is over I'll build you a whole modern reactor complex. Planetary shield. Garrison to ensure no one comes in to shoot you up!" I promised.

"Really?!"

"You saved my life for a second time. I owe you and I pay my debts."

"I'll believe it when I see it. No more healing without a bunch of big powerful generators hooked up to me, you hear mister!" Ashaa exclaimed.

"We've got a deal." I smiled.

"We already have one." She huffed.

Who the kriff programmed her with the personality of a teenager anyway?

=RK=

"You're insane!" Ti muttered.

"Am I?" I thought at her.

"I saw what you believe you remember. It could have been a simulation. Or old fashioned insanity. Even without your out of this dimension delusions, you're still crazy!" The Jedi rambled.

"You know I merely see the world in an alternative ways. Who ever decided what's sane?" I shot back.

"Most of the galaxy."

"That isn't a valid argument." I intoned and strapped myself in a seat.

Ti simply wouldn't shut up once our situation sunk in. It was already becoming irritating. It was a good thing I had a very long time to practice ignoring voices in my head – real or otherwise.

"We're good to go." I called the pilot of the assault shuttle which came down to bring me back to the Freedom.

The ramp closed and we got in the air a few seconds later.

"What was that? I wasn't paying attention." I inquired.

"Damn you!" Ti snapped.

I continued to tune out the Jedi on our way back. A shower and a fast snack later, I was meeting my top commanders the nearest conference room complete with a proper holo-projector.

"You certainly look better." Joanna proclaimed after examining me for a few seconds.

"Being physically thirty five or so again is much better." I nodded in agreement. "We've got some decisions to make."

I sat down and used the Force to activate the holoprojector. A detailed map of the galaxy appeared between us.

"Wilhuff, you'll be glad to note we'll be stopping at Eriadu. We're leaving our most damaged ships with your brother there. Where do you think you'll do more good – back home or with us and eventually at Coruscant?"

Tarkin frowned.

"Gideon has things in hand or so you say, general. Once we'll assess the situation I'll make my final decision, but I think I'll be more useful at Coruscant."

"Good to know. I'm bumping you up to Rear Admiral in the Republic Navy pending confirmation from HQ once we're in contact with the capital. You'll act as admiral Holt's XO for the fleet. Recommendations? You know I would like us to strike for Mandalore, though getting there would be almost as hard as reaching Coruscant."

"I appreciate it, general." Tarkin smiled with satisfaction.

"From Eriadu we should strike either towards Naboo or Malastare. Whichever world still holds." Joanna suggested.

"Then it gets tricky. We might be better of blitzing through the central sectors controlled by the Separatists. They shouldn't have powerful garrisons there. After that…"

"Skirt through Daalang, take a jaunt through Hutt space, then fight our way to the Eastern Quadrant." I examined the map. "Randon is a central CIS hub. Probably heavily defended however, from there we have a straight flight to Kashyyyk. That leaves us within one or two jumps from friendly space."

"If the Navy hasn't pulled back deeper from the rim." Tarkin pointed out."

"It's better chance than trying to get to the Core directly. The Separatists would be concentrating as much hardware as they could between Kuat, Corellia and Fondor." Joanna added. "While I want to go home, a direct dash for the Core won't serve us well."

"We'll go to Naboo if it still holds. It's one of the naval staging grounds under OP plan Red. Then we'll decide for sure on our next step. I want preliminary strike plans for Kalarba, New Cov and Milargo. We'll either wreck everything we could or run as fast as we can depending on the enemy resistance we meet. Use the best estimates based on our most recent intelligence. We'll update the plans if we got new Intel at Eriadu or Naboo."

"You know we might not be able to break through the Confederation's central sectors, right?" Joanna asked.

"The alternative is that we're stuck here in the Western Quadrant until the war is decided one way or another. We're cut off from Coruscant and the bulk of our industry. However we've still got a powerful fleet and the Confederacy is going to be scrambling to digest its new gains and reinforce the line at the Core. We're a target anyway. It was a miracle we got here without a major battle after Kamino. We won't be so lucky again."

"You call that luck?!" Ti exclaimed and continued to fume and mutter when I ignored her.

"We won't win this war while on the defense." Tarkin inclined his head. "We can keep the enemy off balance. Force them to spent resource chasing them. There are many smaller forces who're supposed to avoid contact until either reinforced or an opportunity presents itself so they could strike. There are significant reinforcements we could link up with in a lot of the sectors we'll be passing through."

"Good point." My attention returned to the map and I smiled.

The Confederacy controlled most of the galaxy at the moment. That meant they were stretched rather thin outside of the front-lines and strategically important locations. They would be moving whatever reserves they've got into striking distance of the core or into the Galactic East. My biggest problem was the fleet we fled from at Kamino. Facing it whole would mean likely a mutually assured destruction. However short from such a concentration of firepower we could win multiple engagements before being ground down to nothing. Linking up with a few laying low battle groups would be quite useful. Picking up potential reinforcements from Naboo would be even better…

"I'll get the fleet moving towards Eriadu if that's all?" Joanna asked.

"Please do so, admiral."

=RK=

Republic R&D Complex

Location classified

"Are we all here?" Valentra asked.

Telar was sitting next to Kenobi at a large round table deep withing the premiere military R&D facility on Coruscant. They were here to meet a large group of analysts and engineers who were busy analyzing the various battles fought since the war began. They would be presenting their conclusions about the efficiency of various weapon systems, tactics and giving recommendations for upgrades to both the army and navy.

"We're all accounted for, sir." Commander Adar Tallon confirmed. He was the officer in charge of designing a viable replacement to the current small craft in the face of Guardian and Umbrella systems. He was also the highest ranked officer among the scientist and analyst contingent and nominally in charge of them.

"Let's begin then. What's first on the agenda?" Obi-Wan opened the meeting.

"Capital ship performance." Tallon began. "After going over all available data, we can confirm admirals Yularen and Coburn conclusions. While our cruisers could still be overwhelmed by superior numbers, in any major engagement our forces will be at a significant advantage when facing lighter Separatist ships. When our cruiser can rotate in and out of the line of fire, the numbers of Munificent frigates needed to overwhelm a single Venator raises sharply from six or seven to at least fifteen… if they survive long enough to overwhelm her shields."

"That's better than expected. What about a larger number of even lighter ships?" Valentra asked.

"Only in overwhelming numbers. Concentrating fire at a maneuvering ship with proper support isn't exactly easy and lighter ships are even easier to kill. However, a viable tactic we observed used by both sided is exiting hyperspace in close proximity to enemy ships and overwhelming them with concentrated firepower. Such maneuvers are most useful against isolated or small groups of ships. Using similar tactics large number of fighters or missile armed ships could still prove dangerous to cruisers equipped with the basic Guardian system. Our Block II upgrade for Venators, Victory Star destroyers and Acclamators would make them much less vulnerable to such attacks at anything but point-blank range. Unfortunately the same isn't true for the Block I system. Trials and limited real combat testing at Kuat shows that ships purposefully built with Guardian from the ground up are at least an order of magnitude more effective against small craft and missile strikes."

"The people who gave us the Guardian could name any price they wish. Especially if they could improve it even further." Valentra nodded in approval. "Recommendations for disrupting pinpoint hyperspace attacks?"

"Attach number of interdictors to each fleet. We've got designers working on a light cruiser variant equipped as both interdictor and PD platform."

"Noted. We'll get back to them later. Further recommendations?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Increase funding to the shield development department. They've got some fascinating theoretical work on making spaceship ray-shielding useful while the deflectors are at full power. As we all know, the particle shields are usually much weaker and can't be powered at more than ten percent without interfering with the deflector fields. New theoretical work suggests that it might be possible to bring them up to fifty percent without major interference. That would make bomber mounted proton torpedoes a non-factor as longer as the shield holds."

"Granted." Valentra leaned forward. "Why am I hearing of this just now."

Tallon looked uncomfortable.

"It appears that the department leader isn't exactly popular around here..." The commander winced.

"Office politics?" Telar sneered. "Are you telling me that a potential game-changer in space warfare wasn't pursued aggressively because someone dislikes the people who came up with the idea? Was the same true for the Guardian? I've seen the specs. We should have had similar system installed long before the war began!"

"More or less..."

Valentra let out a quiet string of vile curses.

"Once we're done here I'll be talking with the Director. He better have good answers..." Telar seethed. "Small craft. What do you recommend? Our losses are becoming unsustainable considering their lack of effectiveness."

"We're examining an idea by general Veil as well as a preliminary design he submitted before he left to deal with Crimson." Tallon pressed a few buttons and a holo image of a red craft appeared over the table. "This is the first potential prototype of Project Dragon Wing. X-311 Dragon. This is a Mobile Armor concept, specked for anti-ship strikes..."

"What is the MPE canon?" Obi-Wan asked after examining the Dragon's primary weapon and its designation.

"Something Project Antares is working on." Tallon smiled. "Multi-Phase Energy canon. Directed anti-matter weaponry."

"Anti-matter hasn't been used in a very long time." Valentra frowned.

"Do you know why, sir?" The commander's smile grew wider.

"Containment. When the containment system is taken into account anti-matter weaponry doesn't have bigger effective payload than other more conventional warheads which are safer to use too." Telar recalled.

"That actually hasn't been the case for some time, however no one seems to have been interested in doing more research into anti-matter."

"Antares. How far along is that project?" Kenobi asked.

"We'll have viable missile warheads ready for testing within the month. A useful storage system for something like the X-311 should ready within two to three months. Larger variants for mounting on capital ships will actually be ready for testing sooner. About six weeks if there aren't complications."

"If Antares prove viable its going to strain our logistics even further if we implement its fruits." Valentra grumbled. He would be the one tasked with figuring out how to do it in the first place. Upgrading ships, building anti-matter factories, the logistics of it all… "How would anti-matter canons compare to capital ship sized turbolasers?

"Certainly more powerful against armor. We'll have to actually test them against deflectors."

"See it done and get back to me ASAP..."