User:Rupert Havok/sandbox/Shadowstone Affair

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This article is about the famous battle. For the actual starship on which the battle occurred, see Shadowstone.

The Shadowstone Affair
Galactic Civil War
Purported flight-path of the ISD Shadowstone to the Beta system.
Date	Year 4 Day 273
Location	Beta system
Result	Decisive Falleen victory · ISD Shadowstone captured
Belligerents
Falleen Federation Rebel Alliance	Galactic Empire Order of the Sith
Commanders and Leaders
Lord Commander Squall Chitose King Eldrik Kuraine Moff Vir Calder (defector) Keir Santage	Director Siather Det'aan Dark Lord Adric Simms Emperor Greyson Uebles Commodore Vladimir Edinton†
Strength
? Y-Wings ? Battle-droids Libra (battle station) Dreadnaught-class Cruisers 1 GR-75 Medium Transport	1 Imperial Star Destroyer 763 defenders in total total includes: 2 Sith Lords 1 Gand officer 3 senior officers 360 stormtroopers 40 engineers 40 mechanics 317 extra crewmen
Casualties and Losses
Minimal casualties Xarius Tylger† (saboteur) Doug the Battledroid†	760 killed TIE Bomber squadron (captured)

WORK-IN-PROGRESS... Writing article... Everything on this page is in flux, disorganized, and riddled with errors...

The Shadowstone Affair, also known as Operation Shadowstone by Falleen historians, refers to the theft and seizure of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Shadowstone circa Year 4 Day 273. The theft was orchestrated by a high-ranking defector, Moff Vir Calder, with the collusion of King Eldrik Kuraine of the Falleen Federation. Plotting to defect months in advance, Calder requisitioned hundreds of Battle Droids and strategically positioned them aboard the vessel prior to its scheduled departure for maneuvers. Shortly before entering hyperspace, Calder altered the flightpath of the Shadowstone to emerge in the Beta system, far behind enemy lines, and then instructed the droids to attack the skeleton crew of Imperial loyalists. While this attack occurred, multiple Falleen raiding parties boarded the vessel via the hangar bay with more battle droids. These boarding parties were led by Lord Commander Squall Chitose of the Falleen Army, as well as Finn Setanta, Ralgarrch, and Keir Santage. The last remaining holdout of Imperial loyalists rallied at the bridge, but were quickly overwhelmed by the combined forces of Chitose and Santage.

Notable incidents in this battle included the wookiee Ralgarrch squeezing into a turbo-lift maintenance shaft to chase the more nimble Siather during her attempts at escape, Keir Santage accidentally tossing an extra grenade into a fray resulting in damage to his own battle droids, and the martyrdom of Doug the Battledroid. Santage also rescued an injured female Imperial officer [Ed: This might be either Jamilla Nasgar or Tivrusky?] from a bacta tank; however, it is unclear what happened to her after she escaped with him.

Towards the end of the battle, Xarius Tylger — an Imperial double-agent — attempted to destroy the vessel with explosives. However, Xarius's droids were equipped with slave commands by Kuraine, and he took direct control to of them to attack Xarius. A wounded Tylger initiated the command codes to the explosives he had smuggled aboard to destroy the ship. Chitose was nearby and saved the ship by disarming the bombs and shooting Tylger in the face.

Following the vessel's capture, the attackers celebrated. Adam Flynn baked cookies in the Shadowstone's mess hall. After their revelries, most of the boarding party egressed via the Shadowstone's docking ring to a connected GR-75 Medium Transport.

Moff Calder presented the Shadowstone to King Kuraine who, in turn, gifted the vessel to Hapan officer Alex Tylger. It is rumored that Roan Axios was gifted the ship by King Tylger. As a result of the capture of the Shadowstone, the Galactic Empire attacked the Fallen Federation's stronghold at Beta. Some of the Falleen personnel and hired mercenaries who participated in the boarding action would later become the nucleus of the Outer Rim Territories pirate outfit known as Eidola.

Article Outline (delete later)

Sections

1. Prelude
2. Kuraine's Plot/Conspiracy
3. Theft and Flight (Flight of the Shadowstone to the Beta system, Imperial crew realizes Moff Calder's treachery)
4. Assault and Capture (ISD tractored by Libra battle station, assault team and droids enter, Siather sneaks aboard, etc.)
5. The Last Stand / The Final Withdrawal (final defense of bridge by Imperial NPCs role-played by Uebles; Squall and Keir personally led droids to capture bridge)
6. Defenders Retreat (two Sith portal in, set explosives on reactor core, and portal out with Siather)
7. Aftermath

Quotes

"Our esteemed Moff Calder has sided with the enemy... Whichever enemy those ships belong to. Weaponry, open fire on the attackers! Engineering, start to jam their comm systems. Seal all blast doors, send out a distress signal, and lock down this ship!"

— Commodore Vladimir Edinton, ISD Shadowstones First Officer - Year 4 Day 273

Rough Draft (to be rewritten and condensed)

Prelude

Moff Vir Calder

The origins of The Shadowstone Affair can be traced to the political intrigue and shifting allegiances within King Tholin Dur'aak's Falleen kingdom. Circa Year 3 Day 324, Dur'aak wearied of the Falleen crown and ceded most of his burdensome responsibilities as sovereign to his trusted aides Prince Jace Meridan and Lord Senechal Aves Larkin. Unfortunately, Larkin's hitherto unknown ties to Prince Qel Dar's Black Sun crime syndicate and his wife Acria's much-publicized adultery forced him to resign in shame; thus, Meridan became the principal administrator of Falleen affairs. Upon conducting a review of royal accounts, Meridan informed Dur'aak that the dwindling coffers of the Falleen kingdom forced the royal court to take drastic measures to save the Federation. Several weeks later, on Year 4 Day 72, Dur'aak abdicated in favor of Eldrik Kuraine, the energetic and prosperous Director of Astralwerks Engineering. Dur'aak privately hoped that Kuraine's vast personal fortune would increase the financial stability of the impoverished Federation. During this transitional period, Meridan assumed the day-to-day operations of Astralwerks Engineering which became a nationalized subsidiary of the Falleen kingdom.

Upon gaining the Falleen throne, Kuraine reevaluated the foreign policies of his predecessor and chose to shift the strategic balance of intergalactic relations. He abruptly allied with Davvyk Lysander's ragtag Rebel Alliance. This decision polarized the Federation citizenry into pro-Alliance and anti-Empire parties. It was this polarization that likely motivated Meridan to conspire with Lord Dur'aak to murder Kuraine and to attempt to return the Federation to its former neutrality. According to recording crystals and salvaged holodiaries, Meridan was a skilled operative of Falleen Military Intelligence but, concurrently, a double-agent for the Galactic Empire. Despite the Imperial occupation of the Falleen homeworld, Meridan did not consider the Empire to be his mortal enemy. His perspective was that, if he needed to befriend an enemy to secure the liberation of his people, he would do so. Meridan and his blood-brother Tholin Dur'aak viewed themselves and the original Tri-Star Alliance — consisting of the Hapes Consortium, the New Anzat Order and the Falleen Federation — as a third power-bloc beholden to neither the Imperials nor the Rebels.

While Dur'aak and Meridan conspired to murder Kuraine and to restore the diplomatic balance to the Falleen kingdom, Kuraine began envisioning a grand scheme to forever etch the name of the Falleen kingdom in the annals of history and, in the process, to humiliate the Galactic Empire. He wished to steal an Imperial Star Destroyer and then repurpose the stolen vessel as his personal flagship. To this end, Kuraine opened backdoor channels with Moff Vir Calder, a disaffected individual within Emperor Greyson Uebles' high command. Calder had served as Director of Imperial Research & Development for many years, but the recent coup d'etat launched by Uebles, Vodo Bonias, and their Sith cadres against the former Emperor J. Charon had shaken in his faith in the New Order. He wished to defect in such a contemptuous fashion that would humiliate Uebles' empire and to create a severe blow to organizational morale.

Kuraine's Conspiracy

For weeks in advance, Kuraine's motley band of soldiers and hired mercenaries analyzed the precise method in which to assault the ISD Shadowstone.

Plotting months in advance to steal the Shadowstone, Calder — with Kuraine's guidance — had decided to utilize overwhelming numbers of slave-controlled battle droids to subdue the Imperial skeleton crew. To accomplish this plan, Calder first needed to purchase and to requisition the battle droids which were Imperial-only assets. As such, he applied for authorization from the Imperial throne. Given the large number of battle droids that Calder requisitioned, Emperor Uebles became suspicious. When he probed Calder's stated reasons for such a large complement of automated droids, Calder replied with flimsy excuses. At this point, the Imperial High Command became concerned Calder was planning to defect.

Meanwhile, Kuraine's motley band of soldiers and mercenaries analyzed for weeks in advance the precise method in which to assault the Shadowstone. A plan was devised by Squall Chitose — commander of the Falleen Army — and freelancer Keir Santage based on the earlier theft of the Star Galleon in Year 4 known as Operation Big Score. Essentially, their plan was to capture key areas of the starship to prevent sabotage and to set-up a significant resistance. These areas included the bridge, the engineering area, and the armory. This plan was adapted to the Shadowstone on a larger scale, bypassing areas that were of little concern until after the ship was firmly in their possession. The culmination of their battle-plan was a combined assault on the bridge by Santage and Chitose.

Flight of the Shadowstone

Prior to the ISD Shadowstone's scheduled departure, Moff Vir Calder garrisoned squads of dormant battle droids throughout the vessel.

By Year 4 Day 273, the best laid schemes of mice and men had been set in motion. Having boarded the ISD Shadowstone, Moff Calder gave the order to enter hyperspace and to rendezvous with the Imperial starfleet massing outside the Beta system for the upcoming battle. Unbeknownst to the Shadowstones loyal crew, Calder already had altered the ship's hyperspace coordinates to ensure the vessel would exit hyperspace nearly adjacent to the colossal Libra battle station and thus would be immediately surrounded by enemy forces.

The ISD Shadowstone exited hyperspace in the Beta system, an area awash with asteroids and strewn with charred derelicts. Observing the ship's arrival, the Libra battle station of the Falleen Federation initialized their tractor beams. As the Imperial officers gazed outside the bridge viewport of the Shadowstone, they observed a sizable amount of unidentified starships rapidly approaching them. Realizing their precarious situation, the gunnery officer verbally petitioned Moff Calder to allow him to open fire, but Calder ordered him to stand down. Abruptly, the Imperial command crew felt a shudder as multiple tractor beams locked onto the Star Destroyer from the nearby Libra space station.

The Imperial officers dispatched a distress signal across the Imperial Holonet. An officer pressed a rectangular button and the red alert instantly sounded aboard the ship. The security crew ran to cover all access corridors that a boarding party might enter through. Small teams of troopers ran to cover key areas of the ship — the bridge, engineering, armory, and docking bay. They consisted of twenty men. Everyone else guarded the entrances. Emergency klaxons sounded. Crews rushed back to seek refuge in their quarters and in the mess area. Although nervous, they were overconfident that stormtroopers garrisoned aboard the vessel would repel any hostile boarding parties.

Droid Insurrection

On the bridge of the Shadowstone, Commodore Vladimir Edinton — the First Officer — noticed that Moff Calder had retreated to a corner of the bridge and surrounded himself behind a row of battle droids. Despite repeated pleas from bridge officers, Calder now remained motionless and silent. Edinton quickly collected his fellow bridge officers and addressed them in hushed tones: "Calder has not given the order to fire upon the attackers. Treachery is afoot. Order stormtroopers to seize our commander." Immediately, Edinton moved to take cover behind a command console. He had dealt with this kind of situation before as the commander of another ship, but he never expected a lordly Moff to commit such treachery. He yanked his DH-17 blaster pistol from its holster, readied his comlink in his hand, and then sought safety behind the phalanx of nearby stormtroopers on the bridge.

"This is a global communication throughout our ship," Edinton spoke into the comlink, "Our esteemed Moff Calder has sided with the enemy; at least, whichever enemy those approaching ships represent. Weaponry, fire on their shield quads! Engineering, start to hack major systems and take control of com-systems, blast doors, and propulsion. Send out a distress call to Coruscant informing them of the situation!" Edinton barked various orders to his troops as he moved about. "Lock this ship down. We must be prepared. There are a number of droids around but their command functions are set to defensive mode. Do not attack them. Only attack moving targets!" With that the Commodore his blaster and fired upon the droids surrounding the defector.

Observing Edinton's sudden defiance, Calder instantly activated his personal energy shield. A glowing silver bubble enveloped his person. Powered by an energy pack strapped to his waist beneath his uniform, it was a modified droideka deflector shield developed by the Galactic Empire to minimize ground casualties. Milliseconds later, Calder activated the battle droids garrisoned board the starship using his wrist comlink. With a sudden flurry of robotic movement, the previously inert droids now opened fire on the Imperial officers in the bridge. Chaos erupted. Below decks, garrisoned battle droids likewise began mobilizing and randomly attacking Imperial crewman. Calder knew these droids would not be enough to secure the ship, but it would provide a critical distraction while the Falleen boarding parties assaulted the docking bay. Time was on his side.

Situated on the Engineering Deck, Chief Engineer Tarthos Ventiri received a communique from First Officer Vladimir. Obeying his training, he did not hesitate to follow Vladimir's orders. He instructed all the engineers to hack the computer system of the Star Destroyer in order to regain control: "I want all docking ports locked down, close the docking bay, and secure all blast doors." After assigning orders, he took out a crate. From the crate he drew restraining bolts and distributed them to the people under his command — five to each specifically.

Being in the company of stormtroopers assigned to the bridge, Fenix Stormguard was astounded by the treachery of Moff Calder. Regardless, he took his X-95 blaster rifle and fired it at any battle droid around the Moff that he could. Ordering all hundred-and-twenty of his men under his command to attack as well. In the ensuing chaos, ten super battle droids (SBD) were destroyed, but fifty-three stormtroopers were killed. During this time, Imperial engineers locked down every docking point and secured vital rooms.

The Shadowstone unleashed a barrage of turbo-laser fire upon the Libras bow quadrant of shields. Meanwhile, on the bridge, First officer Vladimir Edinton cursed as he shot a second time at one of the droids. As other droids returned fire, a pair of stormtroopers unceremoniously grabbed him by the arms and dragged him behind the cover of one of the auxiliary consoles. When his initial rage cooled down, he just nodded to the troopers that covered him. He then carefully went down to the port bridge-pit where some of the bridge crew had dug-in, firing on the droids with their blaster pistols, and covering the vital personnel that couldn't leave their stations.

Edinton activated his comlink and received reports from all decks that temporarily were still under Imperial control. Then he turned to Lieutenant Commander Aleksei Stahl, the Shadowstone's Tactical Officer: "Stahl, keep firing on the space station. Get us away from it and we might have a chance to escape into hyperspace. You have free hands to do it, just do it!"

Edinton frantically entered the code that patched him through to all stations aboard the vessel: "All stations... Evacuate all non-vital areas. Upon evacuation, seal them off and shut them down. Off-duty technical personnel, report to engineering. All other personnel, report to the arsenal to receive arms. Send a security detail to the bridge, we are under attack. Equip yourselves with heavy weapons and hurry. Bridge out!"

With combat and chaos around him, Edinton was interrupted by the beeping of his comlink. Hastily, he opened the audio-only channel, turning pale when he realized who was contacting him. With a grim face he listened to Emperor Uebles's voice from far away Coruscant. Uebles informed Edinton to hold out as long as possible. He and his bodyguard Adric Simms would intervene in the combat using a Force wormhole to portal to the ISD Shadowstone's lower decks. There they would attempt to sabotage the ship by planting explosives on the reactor core. Edinton quickly acknowledged the order and returned to the fighting.

On the bridge, Tactical Officer Aleksei Stahl radiated an icy calmness as he replaced the Fire Control operator. The first salvo was inadequately prepared and executed. He glanced at the young officer, "Ten demerits, Ensign." Without further ado, Stahl's fingers flew over the large and complicated Fire Control terminal, vulgarly nicknamed the "Organ" by the crew. He scanned the sensor readings and the data from the tactical computer, quickly making decisions, and giving orders to the gunners and engineers.

"Engineering, reroute some of the energy of life support and the non-essential systems to the weapons to increase the recharge of the turbolasers. I also need you to reverse the polarity of our own tractor beams to use them to push us away. All ion cannons, target the stations bow. Primary targets are the tractor emitters, I'm transmitting your coordinates. On my mark... Fire! Turbolaser batteries, as soon as you are recharged, fire at the same targets. Fire at will."

He turned and stood up slightly to glance over the central gangway, "Helm... Nasgar! Full speed aft! Clamp down the throttle. Overheat the engines if you must, but I want full pull against the enemy tractors! Ion salvo, concentrate on the enemy tractor emitters and divert energy to increase the recharge rate of our batteries. We must weaken their tractor grip with full engine power!"

On the bridge, Fenix Stormguard realized that his position was untenable. He continued to shoot at the droids, ordered his men to slowly retreat behind cover and to concentrate their fire on individual droids, always two or three troopers targeting one. He heard Commodore Vladimir's order to send an additional security detachment to the bridge and prepared for a purely defensive fight until his reinforcements arrived.

Chief Engineer Tarthos Ventiri, on the Engineering Deck, finished his first tasks while calmly reporting to the bridge. Upon receiving orders and requests, he did not hesitate. His experienced worked like a well-oiled clockwork. He ordered a team of technicians to work on the tractor beams. Another team under his assistant rounded up all available personnel they could find, equip them with restraining bolts, and go off to shut down any yet inactive droid they could find. A third team descended to the life support level using the internal maintenance ducts and service tunnels to ensure that life support could not be deactivated by anyone; thus, severing the command circuits from outside and welding down all accesses. Ventiri turned to help with the hacking with a grim dedication. Then he had prepared the self-destruct mechanism... One could never know.

On the bridge, Flight Lieutenant Jamilla Nasgar, the ship's helmsman, cast an irritated glance at Stahl for ordering the obvious. She was already on it. Her eyes were glued to the readings she received from the sensor ops and she was experimenting at low settings to check out the response times of their enemies' tractor crew and the possible limits of their adaptability. Satisfied, she entered the complicated vectors and thrust ratios she had calculated during her preparations, throwing in a slight random factor the enemy computers would have trouble dealing with for a while. Grimacing, she thought that the enemy surely wouldn't have anticipated how important Chief Gorion's little virtual Sabacc program — stored away in the mainframe for the wee hours of uneventful watches — could become.

The sequence she entered executed a nasty acceleration pattern and she hoped the inertial dampeners would not fail or everyone and everything on the ship would end as a thin layer of red stains on the bulkheads. Of course, for only a very short time, as the bulkheads would be ground to dust with the rest of the ship only moments later. The ship would experience a g-forces in excess of five hundred units. The Shadowstone would accelerate towards the station for a second and a half, then fire all maneuver thrusters to the left, the right and the right again, before moving backwards with two-thirds thrust, stop half a second to finally accelerate away with a hundred-and-twenty percent thrust for full five seconds. The random factor would further disturb the enemy crews and to the very least this should fry some of their tractors if it didn't fry themselves first. With only a very short moment of hesitation she triggered her pre-programmed flight sequence... programmed and executed evasive pattern.

Somewhere on Deck 10, Technical NC: Chief Petty Officer Hull motioned his men to wait silently as he looked around the corner. He saw no movement but waited for a moment longer just to be sure. This reminded him of his time with the Navy Troopers, before they where replaced with the stormtroopers and his technical skill bought him a nice spot away from the worst heat of battle. But he was back smack in the middle and now he was quite thankful for the training he had received, even if it netted him this little suicide mission... Damn Commander Ventiri and his good memory.

He waved his men to follow him as he rounded the corner and then skulked to the bulkhead that led into the main droid hold. He used his tools to override the shutdown and manually opened the heavy door with the assistance of two others. He glanced inside, ready to slam the bulkhead shut at the first glimpse of movement. When nothing happened, he pulled out the first restraining bolt and told his men to follow him. With a little luck they could turn some of the enemies' weapons against them and use restraining bolts on droids to reprogram them.

At the computer mainframe on the Engineering Deck, Technical Officer Lt. Edward "Critical Ed" Tivrusky's fingers moved over her terminal like colibri wings, so quick that they seemed a blur. Her carefree smirk was a facade. While as she truly enjoyed the challenge of her current task, she was highly concentrated. Her military career was just an accident. After a hack into the local Navy bases comp system on her homeworld went awry, she had only two options: Twenty years of conscripted service or ten years in the spice mines of Kessel. The choice wasn't that hard after all. But she was a slicer in her heart and finally she could do some serious slicing again, even with the blessing of her superiors. Life could be ironic sometimes.

While other engineers wrested for system control from the traitorous Moff Calder, Ed's task was a more difficult and devious one. Step by step she was removing all accesses the former Moff had on the ship. To do this she had to fight the very same computer that she had maintained for nearly a year now, best her own security measures and little traps. She was good back then, she had to admit that. Just good that she always left loopholes, and backdoors, like any good slicer would do. Thus she deleted files, altered others, rebooted whole sections of the comp back to factory settings; all the while she was redoing or sabotaging any enemy hacking she could find. Meanwhile two Ensigns where busy researching specifications and scanning handbooks for her. If she just could get hold of a few liters of any seriously decaffeinated beverage, she would be in slicer heaven... Hacking Main-Comp to counter any enemy hacking attempts and deleting Calder's access permissions.

Thirty droids were destroyed and the remainder of Fenix Stormguard's hundred-and-twenty stormtroopers were dead... [...] the stomping of feet from further down the corridor as a few men drag the 1st officer away...

[...]

The Last Stand

In smoke-filled corridors, the battle droids controlled by Kuraine and Calder overwhelmed the stormtroopers, as well as executed all prisoners.

By this time, the Fallen Federation's boarding parties had secured most of the Star Destroyers. Squall Chitose and Keir Santage spear-headed the Falleen Federation's assault to seize the bridge of the Star Destroyer.

But as Vladimir hewed his way, he became aware that all about him his men were falling, overcome by the masses of battle droids. "Treason!" he shouted suddenly. "Treason! Treason!" he cried again, even as he fired his last shot, releasing his heart's anguish in one breath, crushing the predicament of his life into a word. None of his Imperial officers remained at his side. A dozen laser bolts smashed through his torso. In the midst of his foes, alone, he fell lifeless to the bridge floor, leaving the prized ship in the hands of Moff Calder and King Kuraine.

[...]

[All of the people above died. Then the Sith portaled in.]

Siather

[NOTE: Siather's story must be chopped up. The bridge had not yet fallen when she boarded the Shadowstone.]

As the Falleen and Rebel corsairs cut a bloody swath through the parasteel innards of the Shadowstone, an unnoticed vessel lurked several kilometers away from the battle: The YT-510 Retaliation piloted by a Gand female known as Siather Det'aan. Although most of the galaxy believed Det'aan to be an innocuous Gand spacer, she secretly held the position of Director of the Imperial Security Bureau. For the previous month, she tracked the Shadowstone using a homing beacon at the behest of the Imperial High Command who suspected Moff Calder of imminent treachery.

In the dimly-lit cockpit of her battered (Ed: YT-510) freighter, the Gand spacer analyzed the readouts from her tactical computer. The readouts indicated that tractor beams emitting from the Libra battle station had latched onto a Imperial Star Destroyer bearing the identification transponder Shadowstone. The readouts also indicated an armada of Falleen ships had surrounded the vessel. Strangely, no distress call had been sent by the Shadowstone.

Det'aan brought the YT-510 Retaliation closer to the ISD Shadowstone, now swarmed by enemy ships of all sizes and firmly tractored by the nearby Libra battle station. The Gand pilot analyzed the stiuation. Unaware of Calder's defection and his theft of the Shadowstone, Siather was puzzled why the Star Destroyer had exited hyperspace in the middle of nowhere and, more importantly, why the vessel wasn't putting up a fight. She surmised a treachery or mutiny had occurred and transmitted a distress call to Coruscant.

Her YT-510 slipped through the screen of starfighters and capital ships swarming around the besieged Star Destroyer. She cruised at about three quarters impulse so as not to draw attention. Det'aan transmitted codes that would allow her vessel to enter the Star Destroyer's hangar bay. She considered hailing the bridge of the Star Destroyer but decided against it. It was wiser to keep an element of surprise in the event the enemy was monitoring the bridge's sub-space communication frequencies.

Det'aan inside with her vessel. Pursued by enemy ships into the hangar, the ISD fired it's forward turbolasers at her pursuers, dealing massive amounts of damage to their shields. Siather set down her YT-510 in the Docking Bay and powered the agile freighter down to a standby mode. She ran out of the cockpit and into the rear section. She looked at the two motionless droids, both in a recharge mode hooked up to the ship's power generator.

Siather activated two droids: a Super Battle Droid and a Destroyer Droid. She tapped a nearby panel and the wall opened revealing a hidden arsenal of weaponry. Siather strapped on her stormtrooper armor, grabbed a breath mask, and a stormtrooper helmet. She tucked the mask into the helmet and pulled both on. She grabbed a belt from the rack. Arrayed in front of her were many weapons of all types. She opened the holsters on her belt and stuffed a pair of DL-18 into one set, a pair of TB-1a in another, and a pair of scout blasters.

Siather strapped on a heavy backpack and grabbed a variety of items from the tray in front of her. She stuffed it into the pack and onto her belt. She looked at the larger weapons and grinned to herself. She grabbed the T-21 Heavy Repeating Blaster and inspected it before putting it in her pack and snatched an E-11 Blaster Rifle off the racks. After equipping herself, she ordered the droids to the top of the docking ramp smacking the panel to lower it both droids having orders to fire if fired upon.

Siather gazed down the ramp and commanded the droids to advance. Tightening her grip on her E-11, she gingerly followed them down. As she reached the bottom of the ramp, she studied the Docking Bay. The Destroyer Droid powered up its shields and clanked into the bay, scanning carefully for hostiles. She realized that a contingent of infantry and droids had just departed. The place was in disarray. It was possible that a sentry stayed behind to keep an eye out. Siather looked at the carnage left behind and stared at it for a moment trying to judge the number of the attackers. Flanked by the two droids, she reached the end of the Docking Bay.

Scrutinizing the blast points on the Docking Bay's floor, Det'aan deduced that a sizable force of battle droids had assaulted the area. They had just passed through moments before as the turbolift was currently ascending. Siather spotted the scomp access. She ordered the Destroyer droid to cover her. The Super Battle Droid returned to cover her. She stepped up to it, pulled out her code cylinders, and plugged them into it. She searched the archives for access to the internal security systems including cameras and automated defenses looking to bring them online.

At this moment, masses of battle droids moved towards the bridge led by Squall Chitose and Keir Santage. She hurriedly tapped commands into her access terminal attempting to seal the blast doors to the bridge. She glanced over at the turbolift which was coming back down. Although security cameras indicated the lift was empty, she ordered her droids to cover it just in case. She continued tapping commands into the access terminal and glanced at the Super Battle Droid, comparing it to the droids she sees on the screen. She ordered it to plug into the access terminal to receive new programming instructions.

Det'aan attempted to repair the ship's internal comm system in order to transmit at a low frequency to the Super Battle Droid while at the same time disconnecting some cables on the droids left leg joint to make it appear damaged as she waited for the lift to get down. She noticed via the security camera that the bridge was under fire.

During this time, the Imperial defector, Moff Vir Calder, had many battle droids and was winning that fight over a meager amount of stormtroopers. Observing via the camera, Siather noticed that there was a large group of men, women, and droids alike in another Docking Bay. They were stealing the Sentinel-class landing craft. Apparently, several Imperials on one of the shuttles sacrificed themselves in an explosion that destroyed many droids and injured Prince Jace Meridan. [This indicates Meridan was part of the boarding party. If Meridan was a double-agent as Tholin suggests, he likely planted those bombs himself.]

She noticed another cadre of humans, aliens, and droids advancing to engineering. When the attackers captured that vital area, all would be lost. She observed via a security camera that Xarius Tylger — unseen by his Falleen comrades — was planting explosives. Xarius was a Black Sun saboteur and was carrying out his mission to destroy the ship in order to prevent its capture by Kuraine.

Using the terminal, Det'aan sealed the blast doors to all entrances to the bridge. Siather frowned as she witnessed the teams make their way to the Engineering Bay and typed in commands to seal all access to that area as well. She saw the empty lift arrive and tapped in commands to the Droid that established a comm connection with it through the ships internal comm system. She pulled up a map of the internal structure of the ship and stepped onto the lift ordering both droids to do the same.

She noticed more events unfold via the security cameras. An Imperial prisoner had been executed. A red-headed female crewman [Ed: is this NPC Jamilla Nasgar?] had surrendered but a commissioned officer of the Falleen military named Mark Hornet executed the young woman with a blaster shot. Siather closed all doors leading to Engineering. She discovered that someone else was closing doors on the ship, but she did not know who [Ed: Likely Kuraine in an effort to trap Xarius]. Apparently other Imperials were doing their best to repel the invaders. Before she logged off from the computer terminal, a status report informed her that Reactor One (of Two) was functioning at 75%. Cooling systems had been damaged in an explosion. If those systems failed, the reactor would jettison and Reactor Two would activated. The droids followed her orders and boarded the turbolift alongside her. They traveled to the middle deck.

Det'aan rode the lift up and ordered both droids to power up to full combat readiness. She leveled her E-11 on the door, waiting to possibly shoot whatever may lurk beyond the door. Siather pulled herself to the left wall of the lift. She ordered the Destroyer Droid forward so any fire that came through would strike it's shields. She ordered it to be ready to fire. The turbolift doors opened and immediately she saw no one, but heard plenty of clamor down the corridor as there were literally swarms of droids and Federation troops. She heard them trying to break through various doors and such.

Siather promptly flipped the switch to the "Hold Lift" setting. She commanded the droids to remain where they were. She agilely ducked out of the lift. She glanced in both directions as she hurried into the room she knew to be the General Quarters. She peeked out to her left, trying to determine what might be between her and the Weapons Control or Flight Control rooms. She kept as silent as possible as she moved keeping her E-11 ready to fire. The muted alert lights began flashing, and Siather could hear the sound of the klaxons baying faintly outside the room and she ducked inside. She wished her stormtrooper armor wasn't white. In the distance, she could hear voices to the left of the turbolift. [This would be either the Forward Mid-Deck Corridor or Aft Mid-Deck Corridor. This indicates Xarius planted his bombs on the Middle Deck, likely in one of the vital rooms.]

Meanwhile, Eldrik Kuraine monitored the video feeds of the security cameras in the control room of the Libra battle station. He descried Xarius Tylger was planting explosives. Deducing Xarius' traitorous intentions, Kuraine used his comlink and instructed the battle droids to kill him. Hiding nearby, Det'aan heard several droids repeatedly confirm Kuraine's order aloud: "Kill Xarius." Seconds later, the battle droids opened fire, and a fusillade of laser bolts sizzled through the ventilated air. Mortally wounded, Xarius crumpled to the floor; the detonator still clutched in his hands. Still determined to complete his mission, Xarius pressed the detonator and activated the planted bombs. Rushing forward from the droids, Chitose shot Xarius in the face and seized the detonator device. With only seconds to spare, Chitose disarmed Xarius' bombs before they detonated.

Hidden less than a dozen meters away from these events, Siather realized that — unless she moved swiftly — she would be surrounded by the attackers. Using the remote cameras, Kuraine had now pin-pointed her location and, via comlink, ordered his forces to converge on her position. Det'aan heard the footsteps of Federation troops and battle droids tramping in her direction. Sprinting out of the room and across the corridor with her two droids in tow, Det'aan hastily dashed to the turbolift. As she reached the turbolift, laser bolts sizzled towards her from Chitose and his droids.

Just as the lift doors hissed shut, a laser bolt struck the cooling system above Det'aan's head and white foam sprayed from the fire-retardant system. She took a gush of thick white foam full in the face. The turbolift became ankle-deep in foam, and spurts of anti-incendiary gas made it nearly impossible to see. The racket of sirens and warning hooters deafened her. The foam burned her eyes and skin. Luckily, the rest of her body was covered in armor. Her droids were covered as well.

The foam-drenched turbolift stopped at the Detention Level. There were some Imperials on the ground, most of whom were dead. A few were wounded or unconscious. Two prisoners were alive. However, they were restrained by stun cuffs and sedated. Det'aan glanced into the Detention Level and pulled the "Hold Lift" switch. The droids exited the lift. Following them, she checked the Imperial corpses for any equipment she might utilize as well as ensuring the prisoners were secured in their holding cells. Siather moved to the security console in the room and checked for scomp access. She instructed the droids to cover the turbolift as she worked.

Det'aan verified the prisoners were secure. The captives groaned from the excruciating pain of the electrified stun cuffs. Siather found a scomp access link, but the access level was not of a higher authority than the earlier aft hangar one. Meanwhile, her droids covered the turbolift. As she tested her access into the scomp link, the turbolift door pinged as if it had been remotely summoned. Fortunately, as Siather had jammed the "Hold Lift" button, the lift remained stationary. [Obviously, Falleen party called elevator, but it didn't work.]

In the last hour of the Shadowstone's capture, Siather Det'aan, an ISB agent, hid in various rooms to avoid the battle droids patrolling the corridors.

Det'aan would not have an escape route unless she moved soon. Siather used the scomp access to attempt to take control over the turbolift. She would release the lock and send the lift plummeting to the bottom of the shaft. She checked the status of the security cameras and realized the enemy had sliced into such a low-level computer system. Using the terminal, Siather supplied false imagery into the security cameras in order to deceive them. At this moment aboard the Libra battle station, Kuraine accessed the camera feeds. One feed clearly showed Det'aan accessing a computer terminal in the Detention Level. Kuraine revealed her new location to his boarding parties.

Her attempts to summon the turbolift failed. The lift went to where it was called. There was no other way in or out. The unconscious Imperials had awakened while the wounded ones had bled to death. One of the prisoners woke up and screamed gibberish, which woke the other prisoner from his catatonic state. He too screamed nonsense.

Det'aan's live feed from the security cameras was cut by [someone in the enemy. Kuraine?]. Siather cursed aloud in anger and then glanced at the people who had regained consciousness. "Get into that armor and arm yourselves with those E-11s," she ordered. She tossed her own E-11 to the odd man out and proceeded to the turbolift door attempting to pull it open. "Get over here and help me," Siather yelled at the newly-equipped troopers.

Five men strapped on the armor and helped her with opening the door. She opened the door and saw smooth sides of a long pieces of magnetized metal on the left and the right. Across from her was an access ladder going up and down. She peered down and saw the shaft was a long way down.

The turbolift shaft went down many stories, more than Det'aan expected; the lift car was far below in the dimness. There were access rungs on one side. Siather noticed the lights snapped off and the room was plummeted into darkness. It was difficult to see. Whoever had taken away her access to the computer terminal also had cut power to the overhead lights. Det'aan assessed the ladder. She leaped across the yawning shaft to the metal ladder. The ladder was intended for use to exit stalled turbolifts. Siather turned her attention to the troopers with her and drew a single TB-1a ionization blaster from her belt. She tossed the weapon to the nearest trooper and drew another for herself. She glanced at them, "Follow my lead."

Det'aan aimed her blaster up the shaft and fired. The trooper did likewise. She retrieved the blasters from him and holstered them both looking at the troopers and then her droids. She set the droids to move to the end of the cell block and fire at the doors on the cells of the two rampaging prisoners as soon as they received the order from her comm. The non-human Director of ISB [Siather was Director of the Imperial Security Bureau?] then focused on the armored men before taking a running jump at the ladder in the shaft and indicating they should do the same.

She hurdled the distance and caught onto the ladder. The troopers fired the ion weapons and their E-11s at the oncoming turbolift. The lift slowed by their laser fire, but didn't stop. The lift halted and the Falleen raiding party fired upon the troopers. Siather heard many shots and the agonized screams of troopers as they fell.

She received a comm message from an encrypted ISB channel and heard the sibilant voice of Emperor Uebles: "Sith One for ISB One. We've arrived. Meet us at the reactor bay for pickup." She realized that it would be difficult to reach the reactor core. Mentally reviewing the Star Destroyer's layout in her head, she believed the location of Uebles in relation to her was on a lower deck, likely past Security Checkpoint Alpha in the Solar Ionization Reactor Room.

Det'aan sighed as the troopers fell to their own incompetence. She climbed down the turbolift shaft as speedily as she could. She searched for an exit from the shaft as well as attempting to pry the shaft door open while receiving the message. She keyed her comm to that frequency and encryption algorithm, "ISB One to Sith One... Understood. En-route now."

Ralgarrch, a Wookiee warrior, attempted to squeeze into a turbolift shaft to chase after the more nimble Siather Det'aan, an Imperial operative.

[At this point, this is when Ralgarrch likely attempted to pursue Det'aan down the shaft as described in other histories of the battle.]

Det'aan keyed her comm to connect to her two droids in order to check their status. Her message went through as she travel down the shaft. She keyed in her droids frequency, but received no response. She assumed the droids were now disabled or destroyed. She reached the next lift and found a manual ramp. She pressed the open button next to the ladder. The lift opened and, out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed nineteen Super Battle Droids primed for combat.

Siather grabbed the "Hold Lift" switch and pulled it out before, keying her comm back to the secure ISB channel whispering into it: "ISB One to Sith One, I've a group of droids between myself and your location. I'm going to engage them but I will need assistance."

In a moment of improvisational genius, Det'aan drew her TB-1a and set it to overload before tossing it out towards the enemy super battle droids. She drew her T-21 and stepped out just enough to open fire on the droid formation. The blast door opened a bit. The overloaded ion weapon exploded, destroying two Super Battle Droids and injuring another two. Det'aan was immediately hit by two shots, which were absorbed by her armor, while another volley of shots missed wildly. She made a quick shot and clipped one of the injured droids. The droid took the hit and kept standing, but then malfunctioned.

Half of the remaining droids advanced on her while the other half were busy doing something else. [What? Simms?] Siather took aim at the nearest droid and fired before ducking into the lift upon hearing Darth Knyte.

Uebles and Simms

[Portal aboard immediately after. Although they succeeded in rescuing Siather and in detonating their explosives, the ship was not destroyed and the vessel was captured by the Falleen Federation. Their presence was never noticed by the Falleen raiding party as they were dealing with Xarius Tylger's betrayal.]

The large chamber with the high ceiling was nearly empty and plunged in darkness. The only light source came from a holo-projector that displayed the interior schematics of the ISD Shadowstone. Two shadowy figures, Emperor Greyson Uebles and Adric Simms (a.k.a. "Darth Knyte"), were clad in matte black armor with featureless helmets and partially covered by ebony robes stood in the middle of the chamber. They had checked their equipment and now ended their preparations with a quiet moment of meditation. The act of meditation itself at least was quiet, something that could not be said about the mantras an images that filled their heads — blood, pain and fury mdash; that was the fuel that powered the Dark Side and these two sentient beings standing there had long ago united their souls with the Dark Side.

They nodded to each other; nothing further needed to be said. It was time to act. One of them reached out with his mind, exploring unseen paths only the initiates of the Force knew existed. His mind ripped open the very fabric of space time and pulled it towards himself. This was the Way of the Sith mdash; Control, Domination, Force. A swirling vortex of energy appeared like a gaping wound in the universe. A numbing cascade of red and purple light that didn't illuminate but only deepened the writhing shadows around them. Strange energy currents crackled like chain-lightning across the floor, walls, and ceiling, even over their armor. Sparks and electric discharges followed their steps.

Without hesitation, the two Sith figures entered through the Force wormhole to instantly cover a distance that crossed a galaxy with only one step. They materialized on the ISD Shadowstone's lower deck in front of its main reactor. Erstwhile, an impulsive young Sith named Draco Creed who belatedly arrived to the meditation chamber was sadly left behind by the two older Sith when they entered the wormhole. Immediately one of them activated his wrist-comlink using the encrypted Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) frequency and transmitted a coded message: "Sith One for ISB One. We have arrived. Meet us at the reactor bay for pickup."

As soon as he stepped out of the Force vortex, Adric Simms a.k.a. "Darth Knyte" ignited his hand-built lightsaber and its red energy beam bathed the surrounding area in a crimson glow. Simms prepared for retaliation from the enemy and stood closely near Uebles, flanking the Emperor.

Immediately upon their entry, the two Sith destroyed all holo-cameras in the lower deck with a simple thought. The blast doors behind them were closed, magnetically sealed, and locked. They sensed a Light Jedi on-board somewhere and another Light Jedi presence that was very powerful. They also felt that there was an extremely powerful presence but the presence itself was not physical, but more ethereal.

They noticed ten super battle droids began to activate that were guarding the reactor core. Simms used Force push on the droids and moved over to the blast door to temporarily disable the mechanism so that no one could entered without blasting their way through. Invisible under his helmet, Uebles raised an eyebrow as he sensed the presence of an unknown Light Jedi nearby on another deck. His mission had just became more interesting than he had anticipated, and a cruel smile crossed his visage as he felt the hatred for the accursed Jedi wash over him. Casually igniting his double-bladed lightsaber, Uebles performed two sweeping cuts at two of the nearest droids as Simms hurled others off their feet. Glancing around, Uebles spotted the right places to plant his explosive charges.

Observing Simms moving towards the blast doors, Uebles made a quick halting gesture: "Stop. Leave the door open for the moment, so that Siather Det'aan has a chance to reach us." "As you wish," acknowledged Simms. Uebles paused as he awaited Siather's response on his comlink and then he growled again at his trusted companion, "Simms, you heard it. More tin cans outside the door. Please give Siather a hand so that she can break through. I'll handle the heaps of junks in here."

Dropping his well-cushioned satchel with the explosives, Uebles positioned himself to take care of the remaining droids as quickly as possible. He deftly annihilated two droids with his saber in one sweeping blow. The droids fell to the ground hard enough to knock three of them offline; this left five remaining on the same lower deck.

Getting up on unsteady metal feet, the droids shot at Uebles, but the emperor easily deflected four of their laser bolts and redirected them towards his assailants. The deflected bolts blew apart another two droids. Uebles made one last swing and destroyed another two droids. He could hear fighting outside the reactor core's chamber.

Simms nodded. He unlocked the blast door using an electronic lock breaker while still gripping his lightsaber firmly in another hand. He moved towards the droids that are between Siather and him. At this moment, Simms hissed into his wrist-comlink: "Siather, if you want to live, duck and get out of the way--"

Stepping over piles of charred droids, Uebles spied the last operational droid guarding the reactor core chamber. He effortlessly struck a sweeping blow, beheaded the hapless droid, and then glanced around. He saw Simms opening the blast door and heard the noise of combat filter through his helmet's audio sensors. When he saw another squad of droids outside the reactor core area, he growled with irritation — the rage that only just died down surging once more. Without hesitation, Uebles extended his hand and used the Force to violently ram one droid into another. He had to compel himself to stop. He knew Simms would handle this next wave of droids easily enough; meanwhile, he had other work to do. Uebles looked at his gauntled hands and realized they were trembling slightly from his anger. Breathing deeply he composed himself. With steadier hands, Uebles opened his satchel and started planting the first of the explosives on the Shadowstone's reactor core.

The remaining droids slowed their approach towards Siather and focused their attention towards the sudden appearance of Simms in the nearby doorway. The Sith assassin's rage exploded at the battle droids. He did not have time to waste on these mechanical gnats. In black fury, Simms sprinted towards the droids and slashed at them left and right while deflecting any laser shots fired back at their source.

With the last of the droids destroyed and Siather now safely in his party, Simms returned to the reactor core's chamber. He knew what needed to be done next. While Uebles planted the explosives, Simms concentrated and moved his hand in a circular arcane motion. The bridge of the ISD "Byden's Death" appeared in his mind. He knew it was located nearby in a system neighboring the Beta system. Simms concentrated harder. The shape of the reactor chamber seemed to be bending, folding in half. An energy vortex formed in front of Simms as electrical currents ringed the the vortex in circular motions. The vortex opened up and, through this unholy portal, the bridge of the ISD "Byden's Death" hazily appeared. Simms motioned to Emperor Uebles that there wasn't much time. Uebles and Siather had to hurry or else Simms would enter the wormhole alone. Simms was beginning to be involuntarily drawn into the swirling vortex. He desperately concentrated to keep it open. He fed on his rage to continue keeping control of the vast amount of dark energy. Finally, a reluctant Siather entered the vortex, followed by Emperor Uebles who had set the last of the explosive charges on the reactor core with a twenty-second delay. Simms then entered the vortex and the vortex vanished.

The three Imperials escaped the ISD Shadowstone via the Force wormhole and materialized on the bridge of ISD Byden's Death, a vessel located outside of the Beta system. Twenty seconds later, .... Boom! .... the reactor core of the ISD Shadowstone exploded. However, there was no way for Uebles, Simms, and Siather to determine if the ship itself was also destroyed [which it was not]. After arriving on the ISD "Byden's Death," Simms immediately entered a Lambda shuttle and departed for Coruscant. At the same time, he focused his energy on aggressive feelings and hate to regenerate his force pool.

Aftermath

Following the vessel's capture, the attackers celebrated. Adam Flynn baked cookies in the Shadowstone's mess hall. After their revelries, most of the boarding party egressed via the Shadowstone's docking ring to a connected GR-75 Medium Transport. Moff Calder presented the Shadowstone to King Kuraine who, in turn, gifted the vessel to Hapan officer Alex Tylger.

In reward for their services in capturing the Shadowstone, Keir Santage and Ralgarrch were awarded Falleen Citizenship. The proceedings took place at the Supreme Court where Santage and Ralgarrch swore fealty to King Kuraine and his victorious kingdom. Consequently, they were pronounced as citizens by the Lord Chancellor of Justice Ceud.

The grand larceny of the Shadowstone by Kuraine, Calder, and the Falleen forces greatly antagonized the Empire. In order to avenge the theft of the ISD Shadowstone, the Empire considered boldly striking at Falleen Prime itself. Dur'aak and Meridan believed the conquest of Falleen Prime — the jewel of the Doldur Sector — was entirely within the Empire's military capability. They agreed to collaborate with the Empire in order to avert such a disastrous outcome. As such, Dur'aak and Meridan provided the Empire with the exact coordinates of King Kuraine's new flagship, the Shadowstone, and with the security codes to disable his ever-present contingent of fearsome War Droids.

Meridan communicated these latter details to the Empire via encrypted sub-space transmissions. Throughout the ensuing plotting, Jace served as Tholin's clandestine liaison to Emperor Greyson Uebles and Warlord Vodo Bonias. As payment for his treachery, Jace asked Uebles that he be bequeathed all of Kuraine's property except for his credits. Once Kuraine was confirmed as dead, Jace promised to lower the defenses of the Libra station and allow Imperial forces to storm the bastion. While this occurred, Tholin was supposed to regain the Falleen crown.

Ultimately, the Empire succeeded in assassinating Kuraine aboard his flagship. However, the subsequent power-grab by Tholin and Jace spectacularly collapsed when their complicity with Uebles' Empire became known. As a result, Lord Ambassadress Mizuno Ryu of the Falleen Federation unexpectedly selected Lord Admiral Bisz Aldaris to succeed the murdered Kuraine instead of Tholin or Jace. Once the Empire realized that Jace and Tholin had failed in their attempt to seize control of the Falleen state, the Imperial High Command immediately deemed the two plotters as no longer useful and as expendable. Shortly thereafter, the Empire undertook the genocide of the Falleen population in the Beta system and attacked the Libra battle station. According to unverified reports, Jace died manning the defenses on Libra station against the overwhelming Imperial onslaught.

Random stuff (integrate into main article above)

Old bios

• Tazam Azam's old biography - http://web.archive.org/web/20030331024636/http://pub19.ezboard.com/froleplayingcentrefrm139.showMessage?topicID=4.topic
• Siather role-plays as a male? - http://web.archive.org/web/20010619190907/http://pub19.ezboard.com/froleplayingcentrefrm14.showMessage?topicID=307.topic

Imperial Archives

During the following era that Stanov was named the Provost General, the IMS Shadowstone, a Victory-class Star Destroyer, in the 2nd Assault Fleet was stolen by Imperials that broke off from the Empire. The loss of the VSD caused Naval High Command to strip the commander of the 2AF's position, and Stanov was promoted to Captain and became the Fleet Commander of the 2nd Assault Fleet. The 2nd Assault Fleet was called in to action against the Black Sun and Stanov lead the 2nd Assault Fleet in to the Battle of Beta, along with other forces of the Imperium's might - including a large force of Sith.

GNS Articles

• http://www.swcombine.com/community/news/gnsarchive.php?display=2&postID=4034&category=20
• http://www.swcombine.com/community/news/gnsarchive.php?display=2&postID=23416&category=20
• http://www.swcombine.com/community/news/gnsarchive.php?display=2&postID=27267&category=20

Interview with Dreighton

In order for Calder to take over the "Shadowstone," Calder used large numbers of battle droids to subdue the loyal Imperial crew. The battle droids were actually purchased in preparation for the Battle of Beta and this is mostly how the Empire got wind of Calder's defection as he had to apply for the funds with the Imperial throne. As Calder desired to buy Imperial-only assets, he had to run this past Uebles in order to obtain authorization. Calder made flimsy excuses on why he needed the battle droids and the stormtroopers he had asked for, but it was one of the signs that gave his intention to defect away to Imperial High Command. (Vodo was inactive at this point.)

Messages from Alex Tylger

The Libra was part of the pre-Darkness space station system where people built stations in the HoloCom by adding modules and stats. Essentially it does not fit in to the system of stations as we know them now. When we switched to Darkness, we were eventually able to convert on stations to new types with modified stats and whatnot. If we want to retcon, we might want to just say Heavily Modified Golan II or something generic like Heavily Modified Defence Station.

Interview with Tholin

Jace Meridan and Tholin Dur'aak both participated in the capture of Shadowstone. Tholin Dur'aak was part of the space support fleet rather than the incursion party. Jace and Tholin had actually manufactured Moff Vir Calder's defection, although the capture of Shadowstone was purely of Kuraine's design. Their actions on the Shadowstone were an attempt to minimise FF casualties while sabotaging the attempt at capture - knowing it would be a severe escalation in the GE/FF conflict - something they wanted to avoid. Clearly this failed.

Messages from Squall

I believe that it turned out that Xarius was a black sun saboteur, but I can't remember. We caught wind of his betrayal and Kuraine instructed his droids to kill him. He was mortally wounded, but managed to activate the bombs. I was able to perform the killing blow on Xarius, shooting him in the face. Afterwards, I disarmed the bombs before they detonated.

Kuraine scammed Venom out of the Xenon. At the time, Kuraine and Venom were probably the two richest characters in the game, and longtime rivals. After Kuraine died, the Xenon and Shadowstone went to me. I, like a goddamned fool, put the ships into faction inventory. (At the time, characters acquiring their old assets wasn't really an issue, as not very many characters had died at that point). Essentially, Kuraine's new character Drax, asked me to put the ships into Malebranche's inventory so he could use it. Then he sold them for like two hundred bucks or something. I was pissed. The Xenon was probably even more lethal than the Shadowstone, and its high number of ion weapons made it an awesome pirate ship. I'd give both the SB-1 and the Tetan to have it back.

The earlier theft of the Star Galleon was known as Operation Big Score. Vincent Strife defected with a Star Galleon full of Imperial goods. Essentially, Squall's plan [for Big Score] was to capture key areas of the ship to prevent sabotage and set up a significant resistance. These areas included the bridge, the engineering area, and the armory. Squall led the attack, along with Asarya'katr and Finn Setanta. We used the same plan on the Shadowstone on a larger scale, bypassing areas that were of little concern until after the ship was firmly in our possession. Again, Keir Santage and myself raided the bridge.

--

"Squall wasn't yet Lord Commander of the FF Army, it was Trevelan. Was Squall awarded army leadership due to his service in capturing the Shadowstone?" I actually was the commander of the FF Army at the time. Trevelan actually replaced me as the FF Army commander after I was elevated to Lord Commander of the FF Military. I believe the stuff saying I replaced Trevelan was backwards. I became the Army commander as soon as Kuraine took over FF, replacing Mexxecuter.

"What was Keir's rank at the time of the mission?" Keir had no rank. He wasn't officially part of any branch of the FF government. He was brought on, technically, as a consultant. He obviously was very involved though, and acted in the capacity of a company commander. Technically he had no authority over anybody, nor I over him.

Keir's Ode to His NPC "Doug"

Lorem ipsum.

The beleaguered Imperial defenders were soon defeated by the battle droids, many of which had been purchased by Moff Calder using Imperial funds.

Doug the Battledroid was the martyr of the theft of the ISD Shadowstone. Given designation 009-42, he stood 42nd in line of Keir Santage's battle droids aboard the Libra Battlestation, while awaiting entry to the Star Destroyer. During the pitched battle, Doug was dressed in distinctly humanoid clothing. Doug lived at the DroidHaus where his wife and six children anxiously awaited his return back home. Despite his married status, there was always an aura of sexual tension between Doug and Keir.

There are twenty-one statues around the galaxy, erected to Doug's memory.

Turning quickly, and grabbing something off the nearest shelf, and tucking it out of view, Keir stepped to the door, and exited the storage room, reentering the hallway.

Reactivating the droids, he strode to the 42nd droid and took the parcel out from under his cape. "Here ya go" Keir grinned lopsided "Your very own set of informal clothing." Glancing at his chronometer to ensure he wasn't running *too* far behind the rest of the group, he quickly dressed the battledroid.

Stepping back again, he couldn't help but chuckle at the site of the droid's skeletal frame poking out from the sleeves and pants of the outfit, he looked absolutely ridiculous...but he could still fight, and that was all that mattered.

Throwing a hat over 009-42's head, he completed the image, and spoke again. "You'd better survive this fight Doug", he said, "You got a wife and 6 kids waiting for your safe return to the Droidhaus." The droid nodded its head "Roger, roger. Will survive impending battle." Keir laughed out loud, and punching the droid in the arm, caught himself, and returned to the front of the column. He held open the turbolift doors as his droids filed in, still in tight formation around him. "Now remember, we'll have friendlies coming up behind us on the turbolifts, so our backs are safe, no firing behind our wall."

With that, Keir tapped Doug on the shoulder lightly "So far so good my man, see that you make it through, this is your baptism by fire." "Roger, roger" was the only reply he got. Keir rolled his eyes and muttered a quick prayer for dumb non-sentients. Pausing for a moment to take stock of their situation, he afforded a glance around him, the other turbolift was up now, and firing on the stormtroopers as well, behind him lay a couple dozen destroyed droids. With horror, Keir noticed Doug was among them.

Narrowing his eyes and gritting his teeth he turned back into the fray and bellowed "Nîn daged dhaer!" and shifting his rifle to his left hand, tore a proton grenade off his belt, and cocking the arm mechanism for the 4 second delay, rolled it straight into the confused mass of stormtroopers in the middle of the room, while around him, his droids continued firing into the mass of black and white. Keir prepared to open the door, and let his droids march in. Now remember he hissed at them Any lifeforms present in there are to be considered enemy, and shot immediately. They replied with a terse, standard unquieted "Roger, Roger." Keir shot them an angry look as though to admonish them for being too loud, and made a hushing gesture. "Oh and boys..." Keir reminded them, hand resting on the doorpad "This one's for Doug". He hated droids...he was used to fighting alongside living creatures, the silent killing machine that was a battledroid removed all sancticity from the murder of crewmen aboard a ship.

Doug was different, he wasn't like the rest of them, he didn't know why, he'd never felt that close to a droid before...but when his eyes first fell upon Doug's magically sparkling photoreceptors, something happened, there was an instant connection that couldn't be explained. Keir bit his lip, and held back the tears, he loved that droid...and he never had a chance to express his real feelings, Doug had died never knowing how much Keir had wanted to throw him down and shag him, right there on the Libra when they'd first met. Keir winced, these memories were distracting him, he mustn't lose sight of the mission that still wasn't completed, there would be plenty of time later to miss Doug, for now he had to get down to the Docking Ring that connected the Galforee to the Star Destroyer. [Ed: It appears Keir entered with his droids into the ISD via Libra and then departed the ISD using a GR-75 Medium Transport.]

Important Stuff

• The Capture of the Imperial Star Destroyer Shadowstone and the Defection of Imperial Moff Vir Calder to the Falleen Federation
• Operation: Shadowstone (Squall successfully raided the ISD Shadowstone bridge, along with Keir Santage. Then Squall saved the entirety of the operation by killing Xarius Tylger and defusing the bombs Xarius set to sabotage the operation)
• Vir Calder was Director of Research and Development under Emperors Piett, Connel, Mccarthur and Charon, becoming Moff of Fakir Sector during his appointment to R&D.
• Possibility: Did Calder defect on Year 4 Day 118?
• Year 3 Day 143: Emperor Charon appointed Vir Calder as Moff of the Fakir Sector. Calder was later succeeded as Moff of the Fakir Sector by Krovikan Sengir.
• Siather "Raptor" Det'aan was a Gand female and the non-human Director of the Imperial Security Bureau at the time of the Shadowstone Affair.
• An entire complement of TIE Bombers were stored aboard the Shadowstone and were later kept by the attackers as spoils of war.
• The space station from which the Falleen Federation boarded the Shadowstone was the Libra battlestation. Calder flew the ISD Shadowstone from Imperial space to the Falleen kingdom's stronghold of the Beta system. The Shadowstone was then tractored into the station and the Falleen boarding party then entered with a stream of battle droids which Calder had earlier purchased with Imperial funds.
• Squall wasn't yet Lord Commander of the FF Army, it was Trevelan. Was Squall awarded army leadership due to his service in capturing the Shadowstone? Squall actually was the commander of the FF Army at the time. Trevelan replaced him as the FF Army commander after Squall was elevated to Lord Commander of the FF Military. The records stating that Squall replaced Trevelan are backwards. Squall became the Army commander as soon as Kuraine took over FF, replacing Mexxecuter.
• What was Keir's rank at the time of the mission? Keir had no rank. He wasn't officially part of any branch of the FF government. He was brought on, technically, as a consultant. He obviously was very involved though, and acted in the capacity of a company commander. Technically he had no authority over anybody, nor Squall over him.
• New Holocron category for players: "Operation Shadowstone veterans"
• It appears Keir and others entered the ISD via Libra and then departed the ISD via docking ring to a GR-75 Medium Transport.
• It would appear that Kuraine's Falleen attackers used either battle droids stored in the hangar bay of the ISD or had battle droids in advance on the Libra station (as shown in Keir's story). In addition, there were battle droids stationed on the ISD Bridge guarding Moff Calder and these protected him when the Imperial crew realized he was defecting.

Schematics (Temporary... Ignore For Now... Must Re-Do)

To be re-created and re-sized in the future, but -- for now -- to help double-check events as they unfold in the Red Scenario logs.

Schematics of the ISD Shadowstone circa Year 4 graciously supplied by archivist Jennifer Dreighton and for usage in The Shadowstone Affair article.

• 

Redo Table

Leadership (Ignore For Now)

Falleen, Rebel, and Mercenary Assault — Leadership
Eldrik Kuraine King Falleen Federation	Vir Calder Moff Imperial Defector	Squall Chitose Lord Commander Falleen Boarding Party	Keir Santage ??? Falleen Boarding Party	Ralgarrch ??? Falleen Boarding Party	Tholin Dur'aak Prince Falleen Support Fleet	Ava'taar Vird'rnnaa ??? Rebel Alliance

Imperial Defense and Sith Operatives — Leadership
Siather Det'aan Director Imperial Security Bureau	Adric Simms Dark Jedi Master Sith Operative	Greyson Uebles Emperor Sith Operative	Vladimir Edinton † Commodore Shadowstone First Officer	Aleksei Stahl † Lieutenant Commander Shadowstone Tactical Officer	Tarthos Ventiri † Senior Lieutenant Shadowstone Chief Engineer	Jamilla Nasgar † Flight Lieutenant Shadowstone Helmsman

Personnel (Ignore for now)

Galactic Empire		Falleen Federation, Rebel Alliance, and Mercenaries
Imperial Navy ISD Shadowstone: Vir Calder, Moff (defector) Senior Officers Vladimir Edinton, First Officer † Aleksei Stahl, Tactical Officer † Tarthos Ventiri, Chief Engineer † Other Known Staff Jamilla Nasgar, Helmsman † Ed Tivrusky, Technical Officer † Skeleton Crew 360 stormtroopers 40 engineers 40 mechanics 317 extra crewmen	Order of the Sith via Force Worm-hole: Greyson Uebles, Dark Lord Adric Simms, Sith Master Draco Creed*, Sith Apprentice Imperial Security Bureau Siather Det'aan, Bureau Director	Space Assault Team Keir Santage Squall Chitose Finn Setanta Ralgarrch Bruce Spear Adam A Flynn Thrax Mincoul Metuki Ryuujin Darian Taldoshar Gailen Amon Khan Eric Adams Mark Hornet Kirek Delta 02 Edwacop Wiwem Jace Meridan Doug the Battledroid † Xarius Tylger † (traitor) Space Support Fleet Tholin Dur'aak, Support Role Jennos Ackbar, Support Role Airoria Celestian, Support Role Asarya'katr, Support Role Tazam Azam, Support Role (Y-Wing) Hovstad Stockmann, Support Role (defector)	Advisory Staff Eldrik Kuraine, King Ava'taar Vird'rnnaa, Advisor

* Note: Individual names denoted with an asterisk were slated to participate, but did not do so in the actual battle.

Imperial defenders

• Siather Det'aan (docked via personal ship and escaped via Force wormhole)
• Adric Simms, a.k.a. Darth Knyte (entered/departed via Force wormhole)
• Greyson Uebles, a.k.a. Darth Cypher (entered/departed via Force wormhole)

Other personnel

• Vir Calder, defecting Imperial Moff and an accomplice of Kuraine
• Hovstad Stockmann, defecting Falleen Federation member... a Gamorrean [NOTE: Given that he defected and no Imperial aboard the ship survived, he was likely flying a Y-Wing...]
• Draco Creed, an enthusiastic young Sith who was accidentally left out of the entire operation by Imperial High Command
• "Doug the Battledroid," an NPC droid which Keir wrote an entire story about

Falleen Awards

Many accolades and awards were granted in the Falleen Federation after the success of Operation: Shadowstone. Among them, Squall Chitose was granted the title of Warlord and elevated to the rank of Lord Commander of the Falleen Military. Zechs Darius was elevated to Lord Commander of the Falleen Civil Defense Force. Chitose's then-wife, Asarya'katr von Ismay, was granted the title of Duchess of Harravon.

All Falleen Federation participants were awarded the Operation: Shadowstone medal.

Imperial Ribbon for the battle [goes here]

Chronology

Doug, the faithful battle droid of Keir Santage, during happier times.

• Year 3 Day 213: Green Devil of Loronar Security is killed by Eldrik Kuraine, leader of Astralwerks Engineering.
• Year 4 Day 72: Tholin Dur'aak abdicates as king of the Falleen Federation. Eldrik Kuraine succeeds him.
• Year 4 Day 273: The stolen ISD Shadowstone is boarded by Falleen forces in the Beta system and its skeleton crew annihilated.
• Year 4 Day 304: Squall Chitose replaces Trevelan as Lord Commander of the Federation Armed Forces.
• Year 4 Day 323: Kuraine bestows Falleen citizenship upon Keir Santage and Ralgarrch in reward for capturing the Shadowstone.
• Year 4 Day 334: Emperor Uebles unveils a treaty between the Galactic Empire and Hapes Consortium.
• Year 4 Day 338: Grand Admiral Black Lodge declares that the Battle of Beta has begun.
• Year 4 Day 361: Three Sith — Adric Simms, Thraken Solo and Locus — undertake a plot to murder Eldrik Kuraine.
• Year 4 Day 362: King Eldrik Kuraine of the Falleen Federation is murdered by Sith assassins at Beta.
• Year 5 Day 12: Uebles publicly reveals the Imperial genocide of 1.2 billion Falleen in the Beta system.
• Year 5 Day 21: Lord Admiral Bisz Aldaris, commander of the Federation Navy, vows to avenge Kuraine's murder.

See also

Individuals

• Eldrik Kuraine
• Vodo Bonias
• Tholin Dur'aak
• Black Lodge
• Jace Meridan

Events

• Battle of Beta
• Battle of Berchest
• Galactic Hostage Crisis
• Black Sun Crisis
• Battle of Kashyyyk

Organizations

• Galactic Empire
• Falleen Federation
• Rebel Alliance
• Blue Sabre Transportation
• Loronar Security

Technology

• Libra Battle Station
• Victory Star Destroyer I
• Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing
• Super Star Destroyer
• Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser

Locations

• Beta system
• Cloud City
• Falleen Prime
• Hapes Cluster
• Kiffex