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At last, the Splinter had crossed the Outer Rim and was slowly making its way towards Elysia when in the Central Processing Room on Hael the MD-13 stopped tracking Tirahn’s Engager for the moment and began analyzing the data coming in from forward Sith space sensor arrays that had spotted the Splinter racing through the Outer Rim Markers. The MD-13 made incredible calculations but could not determine the contents of the probe com carrier shaped like a missile. It definitely was of Bothan design, but unlike any other of their known devices. The MD-13 quickly interlinked with K-LOK which immediately reported the strange intruder to Dark Master Lord Rexor along with its current heading at speed- Elysia. The Dark Master ordered that Graven Industries Boss Hexor be contacted at once and personally confirm that the Bothan Foxxer had been destroyed just a short while ago. After a moment of silence, Hexor came through the com link and stated boldly, “Yes Master, the Ravens destroyed the Bothan ship. It was confirmed visually.” Hexor relaxed after stating the facts plainly to the Dark Master who harshly responded, “then WHY is an unknown Bothan probe com carrier headed straight for Elysia?!” The Graven Industries boss then got nervous and asked the Dark Master to wait for a short time until he could question the test pilots. Lord Rexor replied, “you have three minutes.” Exactly three minutes later Hexor was back on the com link and with the utmost regret stated that, “one of my test pilots sighted a launch from the Foxxer prior to its destruction but that it looked like a missile mis-fire… so he let it go.” Sweat poured from Hexor’s head as he loosened the collar on his factory uniform. Enraged once again, Lord Rexor ordered Hexor to find that same test pilot and have him executed at once. He also ordered that several Ravens be launched immediately to reach the object before it headed too far out of range. The clever Bothan spy that perished must have tried to outwit us by launching a probe carrier. He had intended to warn the Whills. So, the information concerning the Slayer must have been downloaded into the probe carrier prior to its launch. But the Bothan died in vain. The Ravens will shoot it down as the Slayer’s secret remains hidden for now… At Ruhra, where Graven Industries was located, Boss Hexor personally escorted the errant test pilot that let the Bothan device through the Outer Rim to a position right in front of one of the Raven’s big T-Packs. He asked the test pilot to check out the gun’s flash shroud. As the pilot approached to inspect the gun, Hexor climbed up onboard the Raven and reaching into the cockpit, armed the gun and then smiled as he fired a burst that blew the pilot apart in a shower of blood and flesh. The hanger was a mess… The other test pilots were shocked, but Boss Hexor only climbed down and told them to, “get back to work and clean up this mess” before dispatching five fresh Ravens to intercept the Bothan probe com carrier. The Ravens powered up and raced into the sky for the second time today. Hexor warned the selected pilots that the price of failure would be great, “so get it right this time“! But as soon as the Ravens were detected by the Splinter, it started to automatically perform its function with precision and would reveal the true meaning of its name. The Raven pilots came to within visual range and tried to image-lock their target, but the Splinter suddenly came apart and dispersed twenty-four sub hypercom carrier units! The Raven test pilots could not acquire a target lock as the splinters were one-fifth the size of a Nexia missile and could not be targeted accurately. The shocked test pilots tried in vain to shoot them down with their T-Packs but the splinters split up into two groups: twelve units heading forward towards the Inner Rim in a widening arc while the other twelve headed in different directions bound for the Outer Rim and along the trade routes. As this disturbing development unfolded, Lord Rexor ordered that the Ravens destroy them all- at once! But the Ravens lacked the range and already the ultra-dense solid-fuel hypercom carrier thrusters were pushing the splinters out past the Outer Rim. The Ravens had no choice but to turn back. Even as they did, some of the hypercom carriers started transmitting coded data which the MD-13 immediately started processing. It was laborious and time consuming as the coded data was garbled and constantly phase shifting. Of the twelve nearest the Outer Rim, seven units were relaying information at once. The MD-13 was trying to sort through the encoded messages hoping to find a transmission pattern but there was none to be found. The hypercom carriers started and ended transmissions repeatedly at random. When the MD-13 first isolated and decoded one of the transmissions it was nothing more than pre-monitored and pre-recorded Sith sensor array data-meaningless. The MD-13 deduced that the vast majority of these devices were decoys with false information; nevertheless the MD-13 HAD to isolate and decode every transmission to find the true one. The machine had been defeated as the twelve heading beyond the Outer Rim remained silent and no Sith starship could reach them. LORD Rexor was furious that the Bothans had succeeded yet again in warning the Whills. But it is of no consequence. The Slayer is invincible and impervious to any form of attack. Hael’s MD-13 had ensured that when IT designed the Mega Destroyer. Meanwhile, Tirahn’s D.A.S. Engager was experiencing technical malfunctions with her starboard Hessa Maxpulsar engine. The engine thruster was mis-firing and to compensate the engine was slowly powered down before the ship’s CCN (Central Control Network) tried a twenty second max-burn to clear out any impurities inside the thruster. The parasitic engine infiltrator was interfering with the thruster’s exhaust and as the engine powered down the stealth parasite paused transmission, loosening its grapplers to move into a better concealed position. But with a sudden burst of maximum thrust the parasite lost its grip and almost flew out of the thruster, barely clinging onto the variable nozzle at its tip. The parasite was losing its grip, so it started to burst transmit with increased frequency. But this was an critical error that the Engager’s CCN had picked up. Tirahn suddenly found that her weapons grid had activated automatically as the tracking transmissions were now being picked up by the Sledgehammer missiles in the ship’s main weapons bay. At normal speed and thrust the intermittent tracking transmission was not picked up, but when the engine powered down suddenly the Sledgehammer’s active sensors came online. Automatically, the transmitting parasite was viewed as a threat and a Sledgehammer auto-launched itself. Unknown to Tirahn, the light jumper modulator became disengaged and was separated from all control systems once the obsidian shell formed a protective ball barrier around the secret system in an attempt to protect it from destruction anytime the ship’s CCN went into auto-combat. Tirahn was in a state of confusion and wildly turned her ship back away from Kytana. The MD-13 back on Hael resumed tracking of Engager and as it plotted the ship’s new change in direction and speed, it also was processing the new coordinates unaware that the Engager was wandering off far away from where Dark Lord Kalore was hiding. In fact, Tirahn was about to cross into another uncharted sector of space beyond the Outer Rim. The Sledgehammer had launched and turned in a wide arc to approach from behind in an aft striking position. The small parasitic target barely was clinging to the starboard engine thruster. Tirahn was terrified at what she believed was a terrible malfunction with the ship’s CCN… but it was too late, the Sledgehammer had acquired her with its techtrallic self-homing system and was locked onto the Engager’s starboard wing engine. Even as Tirahn increased power to the ship’s IFF transponder the missile would not disengage. Tirahn was now at full burn trying to outrace the missile and was way off course. She tried in vain to use the light jumper but a DISENGAGED warning alert flasher lit up her control console. Using verbal command authority she ordered a light jump back to Kreiga but the CCN denied her request. Spotting another uncharted world, Tirahn frantically plunged into its atmosphere as the Sledgehammer reached the parasite and detonated, knocking the parasite loose while crippling the starboard Hessa which came apart and was ripped from the starboard wing. With this, the entire light jumper and hyper drive unit ball barrier blew explosive bolts and separated from the burning star fighter. Warning alarms sounded in the Engager’s cockpit as Tirahn had no choice but to make an emergency ejection at 20,000 feet. Grabbing the emergency escape handles above her head, she pulled them down hard activating the separator unit before raising them back up with force. This blew away the floor panels and launched her entire cockpit separation unit downwards out of the smoking craft as a Halo-chute deployed and braking micro-thrusters fired, slowing her rapid descent even as Engager hit the large valley below with a tremendous explosion- the Gravitons detonating along with the last Sledgehammer and all remaining T-Pack ammo. Back on Hael, the MD-13 continued to pick up the intensified tracking transmissions of the parasite sensor that had crashed to the ground as well. As the MD-13 went through the star charts internally it plotted a course for the uncharted world. Interlinking to K-LOK the MD-13 reported the location of the two traitors- an uncharted world beyond the Outer Rim in the farthest sector outside the Rim Markers: SECTOR S-4, FINAL CO-ORDINATES 743.2541.0347.9. The Dark Master was well pleased. At last, the traitors had been found. I will have my revenge. The traitors had run, but they couldn’t hide. Lord Rexor immediately ordered his two new Abadon-Class destroyers Black Heart and Dark Fury to lead a military strike force to the uncharted world. All of the new Black Ravens plus fifty armed bulk carriers filled with 50,000 Kyries were to proceed at once to the unknown world and capture Dark Lord Kalore alive if possible. Little did Lord Rexor know how wrong he was concerning Lord Kalore’s true location as Tirahn’s ejector separation unit brake thrusters engaged for landing. Tirahn was already releasing the restraints and clad in her Kyrie Shadow suit, jumped off the separator unit as it hit the valley floor with a thud. Tirahn had no idea where she was. She was on TaBora, uncharted home world of the galaxy’s most notorious terrorist- Bassam Omenga.
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