Western Mountain Regions - Aeotheran

Late Afternoon

“Jurdan,” Mactire whispered, “we’ve got a problem.”

Jurdan crawled on his belly like a serpent making his way to the hill where Mactire lay. He peeked his head gingerly over the ridge. The area was crawling with pirates. He had not seen so many pirates since his time defending Ohmen from the countless attacks when he served as team leader of Shadow Guard.

“How should we go about this sir?” Mactire said asking for orders.

“Lilith, circle around and take Mactire, Malik, and Alpha Squad to their left flank.” He ordered. “Scarlet, you take Locke, Aul, and Beta Squad to their right flank. Erik, Charlie Squad and I will head right up their throats. Have those gunships ready for attack. Once we remove the anti-air emplacements we will need them to strike quickly and stop those ships from leaving the surface. If we can’t catch them here and now then we give them the opportunity to try again.” Jurdan said as he sat up facing his comrades. “For Shar Dakhan!”

Jurdan watched as his assets made their way into position for the attack. When all parties were ready he signaled the attack with two clicks of his comm unit. Everyone rose quickly to their feet and charged the Flaming Gizka forces. They were waiting for the attack and began firing wildly into the groups. They tried to take out as many of Dakhan’s troops as they could.

Jurdan deflected a couple of blaster bolts easily back at the pirate scum who tried to kill him. The reflected plasma hit him square in the forehead. It left a burn mark where it had hit. Other pirates were going down left and right, while more reinforced them. Why were they pushing so hard? Jurdan looked around and saw a couple of anti-air guns still active. Then he received a message over the comm.

“Jurdan! The sky!” Scarlet yelled through the link. Jurdan looked high and saw that the Gizka’s were running. They had been distracting the House forces to allow them time to get off the ground.

“Jurdan to gunships, Captain bring in the ships and take out those pirates now!” Jurdan ordered.

“Sir, the AA guns?” The Captain questioned.

“Do you want that to be your last sentence before I kill you myself?” Jurdan threatened.

“No sir we are moving in.”

The LAATs moved in quickly to overtake the pirate vessels. They managed to get a couple of shots off before two more gunships were shot down by AA fire. Jurdan ran as quickly as he could and sliced the power conduits connecting the firing mechanism to the triggers on the nearest AA gun. The gunner squeezed the triggers as if nothing happened. He couldn’t believe that he lost power. That look in his eyes when he died was that of sheer amazement and simultaneous fear. One of the remaining gunships attacked the remaining AA emplacement and it blew into a brilliant fiery explosion.

The LAATs turned their attention to the pirate vessels just in time to see the last one lift off the ground and begin the ascent to space. The lead gunner launched a pair of missiles directed at the engines of the closest transport. They landed direct hits and watched as the engines flickered and died. The ship fell to the surface once again. Jurdan ordered prisoners to be taken but as they moved in on the transport it exploded. They didn’t want to be capture.

“Jurdan to Pride of Dakhan. Enemy forces are heading out of the atmosphere. Track them as soon as they come into your sensor range. Let’s track them back to their base of operations.” Jurdan ordered via comlink.

He received an acknowledgement hail and left them to their work. The pirates would not be the winners this day.

Orbit of Kanjar VII

Moon Base Vaknir - Flaming Gizka Headquarters

Bulig’nar Trak watched the hangar bay as his ships returned from Naga Sadow space. He had been collecting Kyber crystals so that he could barter with warlords and politicians so that they would look the other way on his raids. His aspirations spread further than simply raiding worlds for precious gems. He was slowly building his resources for the big score. He had plans to steal an Imperial Star Destroyer from a minor warlord in the neighboring sector.

A few of the ships were missing as he watched them land. He knew that the Sadowans would put up a fight if they caught onto the mining operation. They had been mining the location for months without anyone knowing any different. They had finally been found out. Knowing what was in store for him, Trak ordered that the base begin preparations for evacuation just in case they were somehow followed.

He had been caught with his pants down before, not again.

Pride of Dakhan

Bridge

“Sir, we have tracked the ships to a moon in orbit of Kanjar VII. They weren’t too worried about being tracked apparently.” The Captain said.

“Weren’t worried or had no reason to worry.” Jurdan asked the rhetorical question.

Jurdan stood near the windows of the bridge peering into the nothingness of space. The pirates had outdone them this time, but not again. They would not escape a second time.

News

Well the first half of the month is down and we are waiting for some fiction verification for those medals to be awarded. Submissions were the lowest I've seen for a competition I have run before. I know people have lots of stuff to do and that real life is sometimes a drag. I would like to ask for a few more submissions for the second half of the month guys. New comps start in about 40 minutes from the time of this report.

We have some easy things for the second half of the month. The continuation of the Hots or More gaming, there is a timed puzzle similar to those of the MAA, and another graphics competition.

These are meant to be fun and to encourage some training for similar events that might occur during the Great Jedi War in July. Take advantage of them guys. If you have questions or want to suggest something for the future please let me know as I'm always available.... Unless I'm sleeping :-p

Let's get out there and have fun, and remember, the winner gets to help pick the next house prompt and help write the beginning fiction as well.