The sensors upon the Hand of Truth could hardly portray the finding as anything but bad luck. Cross-references from the time period around the Battle of Naboo were drawn upon; compared to scanning references from just minutes ago. It seemed that in the years gone, someone had indeed improved Naboo's defenses. Of course, that was a slight problem. In fact, that was a rather large problem. Being spotted, of course, would matter little. They had no markings at present to identify them with Novak and they had committed no hostile action.

The primary bridge crew, consisting of upgraded versions (at least brain-wise) of A-series assassin droids alongside modified B2 and B3 droids, analyzed the pair of small craft that had rather unfortunately spotted them. No malice came into the decision to fire upon either craft, but before a lock-and-fire command could be given, it was halted. The sudden increase in communication from on-planet to off-planet seemed extremely ominous. To be taken into account was that the Hand of Truth's starfighter compliment was practically nonexistent, having been removed to make room for additional heavy assault and artillery droids.

If Naboo did indeed possess significant amounts of snubfighters, it could mean a disaster for the ship, which was far from designed to handle large amounts of smaller craft. Perhaps it had been a mistake to attempt to snatch populace from a world that was Mid Rim and well-known, not to mention being a member of the New Republic. Then again, the last time droids and the C.I.S. had paid a visit to Naboo, things had been considerably more calm and laid back. Times tended to change all peoples though. This necessitated a change of plans before the New Republic came to investigate too closely. The engines upon the vessel suddenly reversed, slowing it and bringing it to a dead stop well outside the range of any planetary-based weapons, leaving it drifting towards the night-side of the planet.

With the Mid Rim so well occupied, it was deemed, at least by logic circuits that had some sense in them, that the Outer Rim would be the primary source to search. A list of possible planets were then scanned through. Alphabetically, Acherin came up as the first planet, and was just as quickly discarded. The events at Acherin with the New Republic and various private armies would not be conducive towards achieving the goals Novak had wished. Althir, the second planet, was examined and discarded as well. It did not seem likely that life would be found there; at least life that would be acceptable to the beings of Colla IV. Apatros was considered, having been the home of Darth Bane, but the odds of there still being a mine upon the planet were small indeed.

Aquilaris was far too small for the numbers they would need to withdraw from a planet, and it seemed preferable to remove as large a grouping as possible at a time to be more expedient. Aralia, in the Andron system, was home to many of the Ranat race. The Ranats were deemed close enough as a humanoid species to begin gathering for the Colicoids. Engaging the engines, the Hand of Truth began to slowly accelerate, turning to point towards an outbound vector. Naboo was placed upon an 'unacceptable' list of worlds. The list of unacceptable worlds would be considered for armed pacification at a later date.

Added (23 Apr 2009, 3:54 Pm)
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The Hand of Truth broke hyperspace, reverting to real space like a malevolent dagger, which, in a sense, it was. Home to the Ranat species, or at least larger amounts of them, Aralia was home to a large amusement park, which seemed to sit well in amongst Aralia's jungle terrain. The Ranat race had been listed as living everywhere from the steppes to the jungles to the mountains, giving the operators in charge of the vessel a wide range from which to pluck their unsuspecting living cargo. Not being part of the New Republic, it seemed unlikely that any help would come soon if someone got off a message. If worse came to worse, the plan was to simply blast the living areas where humans inhabited near the amusement park, then land and snatch up as many Ranats as possible. That, however, was the backup plan.

In the primary form, it would be a simple droid excursion of snatch-and-grab, which was the intention as the various transports were loaded up in preparation of descending to the surface.

Added (26 Apr 2009, 5:31 Pm)
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A trio of C-9979 landing craft descended towards the surface from the Hand of Truth, disgorged like malevolent flies from a nest. The general consensus was that it would be easy to stun quite a few of them and load them onto the ship for transport. As such, the droid commanders had forgone loading the crafts with MTT and AAT support craft (which were in limited supply in Novak's army as well. The majority had been aimed for supporting more powerful units than the B1 variant), preferring instead to save space for the small creatures who would become unwilling passengers.

Novak's droid forces did include some B1 variants of droids. Fortunately, perhaps, these were smaller in number to their larger cousins. The B1 series was relegated to guard posts and, of course, manning certain types of vehicles (such as the MTT and AAT), yet it had seemed wiser to save them for such a role and allow the B2 and B3 variants to do this work. It did help that, in past times, it had been illegal for Ranats to be armed or supplied with weaponry. Nonetheless, it could only be assumed that pest control teams sent here previously (and who had met their end) had had their weapons appropriated by the smaller creatures.

The trio of transports descended onto a rather grassy plain that was out in the open, settling for some few long minutes before the ramps descended, allowing the droids to emerge. There had been four hundred per transport; an extremely small number, but when figured against the simple Ranat, they became quite a force to deal with. Marching out across the plain in formation, they stopped and waited. Rodent curiosity was rather intense, so odds were good that if they stood and waited, they would be investigated shortly enough.

Added (27 Apr 2009, 1:15 Am)
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Now as most people may know, rodents of any kind are a curious, mischievous species who happen to be attracted to shiny objects. Over the years, Ranats had been subjected to many forms of alien hunters coming to eradicate them from the planet. As any semi-sentient form of life does when threatened, they had systematically destroyed these beings and stashed away whatever gear was salvageable, primarily because they were a scavenger species and that Ranats simply adored shiny objects. Placing a practically new droid army in the middle of a field, all lined up and motionless as if deactivated, was therefore one of the better traps possible.

It was several hours before the first Ranat scout poked his head out of a burrow and cautiously sniffed the air, checking for any scent of danger. The smell of metal was not unfamiliar to the Ranat race, yet it would still be another thirty minutes of watching and waiting before the furry oversized rodent emerged fully, still testing the proverbial waters. When it became obvious (at least to the scout) that the giant metal walking things were seemingly inactive, he scurried down amongst them, tapping here and there with his claws. After minutes of investigation, the Ranat emitted a high squeaking noise that called a flood of other Ranats from their camouflaged burrows within the field.

Squeaking and chirping happily, for it seemed they had found a odd, if welcome, collection of extremely shiny scrap, the rodent race clambered all about the droids, scrabbling away on the metal humanoids. It was a good sized Ranat nest that had been picked out via thermal imaging from orbit, and there were nearly a good thousand Ranats gathered about the droids. It was a simple game of drawing out one's target by offering them a tasty morsel. In the end, it was less of a capture operation than it was a turkey shoot.

Working as a whole, the B2 and B3 droids targeted the Ranats closest to them and cut loose with a withering hail of blaster fire set for stun and concussion grenades designed to disorient and incapacitate. The poor Ranat hive didn't quite know what hit them. Too startled to fight back, all they could do when taken by such surprise was to scurry about, trying to find their way back to the main burrow hole that was now obscured by blasts of coherent light and explosions, as well as droids stalking back and forth amongst the confusion.

Some of the Ranats, lucky perhaps, managed to escape back to their hive. The majority, eight-hundred and sixty-two, were bound and carried back to the waiting transports by the droids. All in all, it was a successful catch. It was little over two hours later when the transports were full of unwilling passengers, and the droids were stowed away, when the landing craft fired up their engines and returned to the blackness of space and then to the durasteel hanger of the Hand of Truth. The vessel commander, programmed to cover traces and institute misdirection whenever possible, used the vessel's sub-orbital position to his advantage.and turned the ship's turbolasers on the once-pleasant plain, reducing the underground hive to a smoldering wreckage. It was far from subtle, but it could always be blamed on Remnant forces.

With their tracks covered, the ship turned out-system, heading for its next destination.

Added (27 Apr 2009, 3:57 Pm)
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Aaris III was home to the Aaris civilization, a rather unattractive blend of reptilian-humanoids who had, at some point in the past, managed to wipe themselves nearly out, at least according to the galactic database, over an odd sort of plaque that had contained strange powers. Sadly, the plaque had vanished out of time and mind. The unfortunate Aaris, however, had not completely vanished. Instead, according to those same records, they were now a reclusive underground species whose intelligence was likely greater than that of the Ranat species. This meant that they wouldn't likely come out to stare at a regiment of lined-up and shiny droids. As such, a solution was found, though it didn't take into account the fact that Aaris III would serve as an exemplary base for operations at a later date.

Now, the Hand of Truth possessed twelve quad-turbolaser turrets rated at two-hundred gigatons of power per battery. This vessel was, if given enough time, quite capable of executing a Base Delta Zero of its own accord, which was what was going to occur in part here. There was little fear of discovery, seeing as how Aaris had been off the map trade and strategically speaking since 8 ABY when the ill-fated Imperial excursion had found the lost plaque and then proceeded to get rid of it. The aim here was to drive the Aaris to one sector of the planet by destroying the top surface. With all in one area, they would be easier to capture.

To this end, the vessel descended to a sub-orbital level and commenced firing.

Added (03 May 2009, 9:52 Am)
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Aaris III burned, its once-clear skies darkened by the acrid clouds of smoke that boiled upwards within its atmosphere. Entire swaths of lush jungle were aflame, and many more sections were glassed from the indiscriminate firing. The Hand of Truth had spared no effort to drive the remaining peoples towards the southern hemisphere, at least from the path they followed. It was by no means the entirety of the planet, or even a good-sized section. They simply cut a swath here and there before launching transports. This time, it was hoped, the inhabitants would have been so confused and terrified by the attack that they would blunder headlong into the waiting mouths of the trappers. Electrified nets, capable of being tossed practically by any droid with hands, as well as weapons set to stun were the primary loadout of this excursion. It was not yet time for the transports to land though. Instead, they hovered above, watching the vessel unleash its deadly barrage over and over again until at last, it heaved its bulk spacewards, allowing the transports to settle near an unblemished watering hole that should be in the path of any fleeing the destruction.

Added (08 May 2009, 6:22 Pm)
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The life-sign monitors aboard the C-9979 landing craft were advanced enough to tell when they were being approached. They could differentiate between differing masses of living beings, estimate shape, size and number. In this case, they were utterly overwhelmed and outdone by the sheer number of living beings rushing in their direction. Everything and its sister and family was running like hell to escape the fire that had been set to many swaths of the jungle world and was now burning merrily out of control. It was a complete waste of resources and life, yet droids could have cared less if they were guarding a palace or burning a world.

In the jungle clearing, which was roughly a mile and a half square and not quite clear, though with less trees than the rest of the area (in times past, and Imperial deforestation had occurred here with intent to create a small prefab base), the droids waited, blasters raised, in ranked formation. The rush broke the clearing with little warning. Along with the Aaris civilization, Aaris III was home to multiple types of life found all about. By firing the jungle, creatures alongside sentient and semi-sentient beings were forced to flee for their safety. The initial rush was made up of practically half the conceivable animals land-wise. Big and small and in-between were making a mad rush for land that was further south. The transports and the lines of droids were simple obstacles in the way. When the living mass emerged, it took less than zero-point-zero-zero-three seconds for the droids to register that the charging species were not the Aaris they'd come for and register charging animals as a threat. Less than a millisecond later they opened fire, not with stun beams, but to kill. The wild charge changed into a bloodbath.

The cries and bellows of wounded and dying creatures echoed and resounded through the jungle, punctuated by explosions and the whine of blaster fire. The droids worked their weapons back and forth across the line, and broken and bleeding bodies began to pile up. The wave still pushed forwards as other creatures climbed over the dead and dying in an attempt to reach safety. With the fire driving them from behind, the droids ahead were less of a worry, those some creatures were beginning to falter. At last, the guns on-board the transports opened up. The immense blasts threw bodies and chunks left and right, and the differed creatures at last broke and turned their run to the side, unable to continue against the overwhelming barrage. Watching the various living beings run past (many of them the reptilian Aaris race), the droids simply waited. Eventually, the flood of living beings dried up. This attempt had been a debacle. There was a large, several meter high pile of bodies that stretched a good half-mile across the clearing. The Colicoids wanted living beings though, which these were not.

Chalking it up to a waste of time, the droids re-boarded their craft and rejoined the Hand of Truth. The ship stayed in a suborbital period long enough to reduce the clearing to ash, covering their tracks, before leaving for elsewhere. The vessel jumped to hyperspace without incident. The demand the Colicoids wanted had to be met, after all.

Added (10 May 2009, 10:49 Pm)
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According to the current records, the Abrion Sector was home to over two-hundred agriworlds that had produced quite a bit of goods for the Empire. After the fall, the sector Moff had chosen to remain apart from both the Remnant and the New Republic, making his home on Tieos, which had a fully operational naval base in orbit. Now, a normal sector group contained roughly two-thousand four-hundred main combat vessels with an additional one-thousand six-hundred for support. If the numbers held true, then at least twenty-four of these vessels would be Imperial I-class star destroyers. However, these were far from normal times in the Empire and odds were quite good that some pieces had been captured, disabled, sold off or scrapped for parts. Nonetheless, it payed to keep a relatively low profile for the moment.

Abrion Major was roughly half an agricultural world and half city. It was likely that there would be some vessels in orbit, as well as a few ground bases that would likely cater to one or two TIE squadrons per base. To this end, the Hand of Truth ran in 'dark' mode when it exited on the fringe of the system in which Abrion Major resided. There was no way to tell what was what with simple passive scanning, so an active scan was commenced instead. It would give away the position, but running dark might well give them an element of surprise that could assist later on.

It seemed that Abrion Major was a hub of busy work today. A pair of Carrack light cruisers were stationed near each other above the northern pole of the planet. These were of little consequence at first glance. Trouble would come from the old, yet still reliable Dreadnaught heavy cruiser that in orbit. A single CR90 corvette was apparently docked with it. From the various ships, shuttles descended and ascended to and from the planet's surface. It was a safe bet that there would be quite a few squadrons of TIE fighters. Though the Hand of Truth carried one-hundred fifty-seven V-wing fighters, it did not seem as if it would be wise to engage in pitched battle. For the moment, they simply closed on the planet at half speed. Undoubtedly the forces had noticed them and were likely to begin hailing.

Added (18 May 2009, 11:31 Am)
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Time tended to change things, and these once-proud and snappy Imperial forces had become lax in a system that had seen no fighting and simple patrolling and showing off. As the Hand of Truth approached, opening its bays to allow the fighter swarm when the time began. The droids on the bridge had little need to speak aloud; they were all patched in to the ship's data-net which allowed for near-instantaneous communication. Thought became will became deed almost at the same time. The initial target was the Dreadnaught cruiser, with the CR90 designated as the secondary target. With both ships docked at present, their shields would be down. The initial 'lock-on' phase was not initiated until the startled voice of an older male, presumably the ship's captain, hailed the Hand of Truth.

The poor, poor man didn't want to break away from the CR90 and damage it with improper separation procedures as likely as not. That was going to cost him his vessel. With passive scanning already having the range, it was a simple matter to upload the data to the firing computers and fire the first salvo blind. Four proton torpedoes arced out and away from the Hand of Truth, which leaped to full speed towards the other vessels. Locking on target now as they came in range of the weapons batteries, the larger vessel fired with four of its quad turbolaser batteries on the CR90 while simultaneously launching a second salvo of proton torpedoes at the Dreadnaught.

Now, as the pair of enemy vessels were at an angular position, the first four 'dumb-fired' torpedoes would not strike as critically as they could have. The lack of shields, however, would spell disaster. The first two struck the main cargo hold, puncturing and detonating in an explosion that ripped open the bottom of the vessel in the bow and sent it spinning opposite the CR90. The quad turbolaser batteries at maximum range struck the CR90 amidships, destroying the dorsal turbolaser turret. Most of the damage came when the Dreadnaught's stern, pushed about from the atmosphere and explosions venting from the bow, struck the stern of the CR90, crunching propulsion systems and tangling the two vessels together. Now, with its broadside to the Hand of Truth, the next four torpedoes which had been locked on and already away impacted. One struck a turbolaser blister, destroying the weapon, while the other three impacted about the command deck and crew stations, tearing gaping holes in the already damaged bow. The combat had barely began, less than four minutes prior.

Though they had been slow at first, the enemy was responding. The CR90, it seemed, was content to panic and did little to help. The gunners on board the Dreadnaught who had survived opened fire.

Added (19 May 2009, 2:15 Pm)
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The starboard side of the Indomitable could bring seven quad laser cannons and five regular laser cannons and to bear on the Hand of Truth. The turbolaser batteries in the stern were incapable of locking on due to the tangle with the CR90, and the bow turbolasers were all but destroyed from the torpedo volley. Despite the ship being quite heavily damaged, the gunners on board could hardly miss at this range. It was unfortunate that the Hand of Truth had chosen this moment to disgorge its fighter compliment. Luckily, perhaps, the V-wing starfighter was equipped with shields, but the first four to emerge ran into a solid wall of laser fire that blew past their shields and turned them into rapidly expanding balls of gas.

The CR90 finally succeeded in freeing itself and was doing its best to limp away when the order was given to fire upon its engines. Turbolaser fire erupted from the Hand of Truth's batteries to strike the upper and middle array of engines and nearly tearing them from the vessel. With only the bottom set of engines functioning and those barely, the crew apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor, for shortly after, sensors picked up lifepods emerging and heading towards the planet's surface.

The Carrack cruisers finally entered the fray, striking at the larger vessel with ten heavy turbolasers and twenty ion cannons; a formidable amount. With the full compliment of V-wings out, the Hand of Truth turned its attention to the closest Carrack and began striking it with turbolaser fire while the other exchanged broadsides. The crippled old Indomitable was unable to truly trade blows now, for the full might of over one-hundred fifty V-wing fighters were attacking its unshielded hull with the cold, calculating and accurate fire of droid brains programmed to kill. Fires were begin to break out along its length.

The fun wasn't over, for the sensors screamed a warning of inbound ships from planetside: four squadrons of TIE fighters who had been sent as reinforcements.

Added (28 May 2009, 2:02 Pm)
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The nearest Carrack, coming onto the sensors as the Sun's Grip was the one that was being focused on primarily. The captain was relative smart though, which made it hard to pin him in one place. While the Hand of Truth was attempting to disable or destroy the ship, the second Carrack, identified as Needle, was circling around to bite at the stern and engines of the larger vessel. Between the two, they were wearing away the shields and soon they'd be gnawing at the hull. This called for a change in plans as the full compliment of V-wings back to hound the Needle. The Dreadnaught they'd been assault was all but dead in space, the only thing from preventing it from splitting in half were a few heavy spars along the top that held it together.

The V-wings, spreading out to avoid the turbolaser and ion cannon fire, were chased by forty-eight TIE fighters who came on firing at maximum range, each pilot hoping for a lucky shot. Sensors showed a further four squadrons rising from the atmosphere. The Hand of Truth had to crush this issue and quickly, lest they be overwhelmed by bad luck.

Added (31 May 2009, 4:21 Pm)
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It was a shame, really. The fact that the Hand of Truth had no tractor beam system was all that prevented the ship from snagging Novak a nice, relatively undamaged CR90 to add to his fleet. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The same could be said for the pair of ships hounding their larger cousin. The ending consensus was that both ships would be required to be taken out of action completely. By now, the aft shields of the Hand of Truth Were nearing three-quarter strength, while those in the front were down to one-quarter, having taken the pounding of more than one vessel. The Sun's Grip, despite its excellent captaincy had been unable to avoid the deadly accurate fire of droid gunners. It was an instant decision to run our four torpedoes on the enemy vessel, whose shields were already relatively low.

Perhaps the captain had not expected the strike, or perhaps he had figured they would not fire with two enemies and several flights of TIEs inbound. Perhaps it was simple pride that kept him going. Regardless of reasoning, the four torpedoes at the range of which the ships were could hardly miss. The first torpedo killed the aft shields, allowing the second to penetrate and detonate directly upon the ionization reactor. The third struck amidships and the fourth nearly in the same spot. Unable to withstand such trauma, which was followed by a full force barrage from the turbolasers, the Sun's Grip exploded in space. The captain of the Needle, either wiser or more cowardly, abandoned his attack before the larger vessel could turn, heading out-system as fast as his vessel's engines could push

Added (01 Jun 2009, 3:03 Am)
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It just hadn't been a good day for Abrion Major or the sector governor for that matter. In a time when large ships didn't come easily unless one had a convenient shipyard or enough credits to keep shelling out, such ships were valuable. As it was, the TIE force of Abrion Major was fleeing back towards the safety of the planet, flashing past the ruins of the Dreadnought and the expanding ball of debris and gas that had once been a Carrack cruiser. Behind them and not quite gaining were a vengeful mass of V-wings and behind them, the deadly angular shape of the Hand of Truth was inbound towards the planet.

Added (04 Jun 2009, 11:44 Pm)
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With the TIE fighters to guide their path, the Hand of Truth approached the planet. What wasn't expected was the shot from the W-165 planetary turbolaser that impacted upon the bow shields, bringing them down to ten percent before the massive vessel could reinforce from the rear shields. Immediately the vessel executed a hard starboard turn, trying to take it out of the way of the fire. Who could have foreseen that the sector governor had placed a planetary turbolaser within the area of the planet's major city and military center? It was a good thing to do, yes, but it seemed that this day, the New Sith Order would not be preying upon the citizens of Abrion Major so easily.

Added (07 Jun 2009, 2:26 Am)
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Now, one might question a number of things that were going on. For example, what sort of idiot would plant a single massive turbolaser near a major city and leave the rest of the planet undefended? The answer was easy: the sector governor would. The man was shrewd in business and worked with an iron fist, but he was also a corpulent man who loved his exotic foods, extensive orgies and wasn't as military-minded as some. One could almost wonder how he had remained in power for so long. Nonetheless, his mistakes were about to be capitalized upon by the enterprising droids.

The CR90, damaged as it was, had still been under low power from its remaining engines when the crew abandoned it. Such was their haste for life and survival that they had unwisely departed without scuttling the vessel. With nobody at the controls, it had limped away from the planet. A small crew of B1 pilot droids had been dispatched in a shuttle to dock with it and see if the hyperdrive would last long enough to return it to Druckenwell for major repairs and modifications, thereby adding to Novak's own small fleet. He'd wanted a torpedo boat for a while, so it seemed a good idea.

The Hand of Truth, sporting minor damage and having severely lowered shields, had circled with its fighters to the night side of Abrion Major. Being an agriworld, the planet had plenty of farmers for the scooping up that didn't involve trying to take out a planetary turbolaser while skirmishing with TIE fighters. The plan was to land four of the transports quickly and scoop up as many people as possible before the reinforcements came, which was not likely to take too long. As such, the quartet of wide-winged carriers of droids swept down towards the unsuspecting farm communities below. When they landed, the droids would simply pour out, stunning man an beast alike. If it lived and was large enough to make a meal, it would be grabbed and dragged off into the waiting transports.

Added (06 Jul 2009, 7:41 Pm)
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The vents at Abrion Major unfolded without any further issue, allowing the droids to gain the cargo they needed. As such, the Colicoids were paid off and an alliance entered into, albeit one under the table. It was likely to prove to be a profitable one for all sides, allowing Novak to increase his army once the time came.