Meeting in the Maze

Supreme Commander Alor

Supreme Commander Marix sat in his office within the Military Annexation Zone Headquarters, reading over the reports from the ships of the 24th Fleet. The 24th Fleet was on loan to the Mages, and had been pulled from its active duty to be repaired from the skirmish it had been involved with.

"Two craft destroyed...one needs repairs...countless fighters to replace," Lord Marix muttered to himself. He rarely talked to himself, but this just slipped out.

He was feeling slightly better since his meeting with the Grand Mage almost a week ago. He had slept much of the 3 days spent in hyperspace on the 4 day trip, awakening only to eat, visit the refresher, and check with the Captain of the craft. Looking up at the chrono, he shook his head and went back to reading the different reports.
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

High Mage Serratus was approaching the MAZ in his cruiser, the Space Dragon. He was to meet with the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sith Lord Marix. Before he was called to the service of the Mages, Serratus had been a member of the Armed Forces, it was during his time with them he had learned the skill of Battle Meditation, which had come in handy at Aeron. Serratus radioed in to the Armed Forces.

"This is High Mage Serratus of the Order of Sith Mages. Requesting clearance to the MAZ Headquarters for a meeting with the Supreme Commander."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

Klaxons blared within the MAZHQ Command Center, a highly secure battle operations room, when the modified black and gold Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor exited hyperspace.

"Sir it reads as the Space Dragon. It's registered to the High Mage."

"Have the Lord Vader move into position and pick it up with tractor beams. Have a squad ready in the secure hangar. I want all other ships cleared out."

Now transmitting to the Space Dragon, "Hold your course. Let go of helm control. You will be guided in. Announce any weapons, cargo, contraband, and other now."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus had been expecting tight security and was considerably less armed than usual.

"I have one lightsaber, one datapad and one comlink. My skin is also armour but I haven't really gottena round to removing that."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

The tractor beams guided the ship into the smaller secondary hangar of the Lord Vader, with a full platoon of troopers waiting, just in case something was not as it seemed.

The High Mage was transferred into a shuttle and conveyed down to the surface of the planet. The shuttle landed at the MAZ HQ, and the High Mage was made to sign a security disclosure, to make sure that whatever he happened to see remained that way.

"High Mage Serratus." A feminine voice came from behind him as he stood in the hangar. "I am Colonel Ranov'la, I will bring you to the Supreme Commander."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded to the Colonel.

"Lead the way."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

The Colonel led the High Mage through the corridors, turbo lifts, and security check points that led to the Supreme Commander's office within the MAZHQ. She purposely took random turns, just to confuse the High Mage. Even though he was on the same side, technically, there was no point in not taking precautions.

When she arrived at the Supreme Commander's office, he waved her hand to open the door, and waited for Serratus to enter.

"Ah. High Mage Serratus. Here about the materials on the 24th Fleet are you?" The Supreme Commander said.
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus bowed to the Supreme Commander upon entering and nodded in response to the querie.

"Yes Lord Marix. I believe that the Grand Mage already gave you the report on the incident over Aeron."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"Yes he did. I hope he is recovering from his insomnia. If you have anything to add to his report, I'm sure after this meeting of ours, a Military Intelligence officer would be glad to go over the battle with you, for your personal view and memories.

"But now onto business. Do you have a list of the items you need and the ships they were on with you?"
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

The High Mage nodded and extracted a datapad.

"With the obvious exception of the Silent Fury, only four of our major ships suffered serious damage, them being the Shadowspear, the Emperor's Eye, Bane of Ignorance and An Lámh In Uachtar. I take full and personal responsibility for the Bane of Ignorance and An Lámh In Uachtar, as they were sent to find me after my assault on the enemy flagship."

Serratus paused as he scanned the datapad.

"The Shadowspear lost both of its DBY-827s and three of its shield generators took heavy hits. Also, some sharpshooting ace over in Fahr's fleet shot a blast straight down one of its proton torpedo tubes and destroyed all sixteen loaded torpedos, caused quite a bit of structural damage."

He moved down to the damage report on the Emperor's Eye.

"Then on the Emperor's Eye, we lost an engine, we're not actually sure whether it was caused by laser fire, overloading or a malfunction. Also one of the quadlasers and its battery were completely fried, some sort of incendiary, I've never seen anything like it, the fire was hot enough to melt the quadlaser and burn all the way down to the battery."

He continued to scroll.

"Next we have the Bane of Ignorance. Same thing happened here with that incendiary, lost five this time though, due to proximity to the enemy fleet, also two engines fried and a shield generator gone."

He reached the bottom of the damage report.

"Finally An Lámh In Uachtar lost two more turbolasers to their incendiary. And one shield generator again."

Serratus passed the datapad to the Supreme Commander.

"Are you familiar with this incendiary that keep turning up? It was almost like an incendiary laser, which makes no sense of course, because lasers burn to hot for fire to start. It's really quite odd."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"When the 24th Fleet was designated for non-Military use, an experimental development was tried out on it. Which would reduce the energy needed to run the lasers less than the normal Star Destroyer, which would increase the amount of energy available for your experiments and stasis-field generators for storage of materials, life forms, and more."

Pausing, the Supreme Commander waved his hand and an aide entered the room carrying a tray with two glasses on it, filled with water. He placed the two cups in front of the Supreme Commander and High Mage, and then departed. Taking a drink he continued.

"The experimental development has since been perfected and will be included with the refits and repairs made to the existing ships and also within the design of the replacement crafts."

Taking a blank data card from the stack in his desk drawer, he passed it over to Serratus. "Please copy that data onto this card for our records."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus snapped back his vizor and drank some water before carrying out the data transfer. He didn't comment on the fact that Marix had ignored the question about the incendiary device, he was sure the Supreme Commander had his reasons. Once the transfer was complete, he handed the data card back to Marix and took another sip of water.

"Is there any other business, Supreme Commander?"
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

[[The whole experimental development thing was meant to be the explanation for the incendiary.]]
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

((But why would us having experimental power sources mean the enemy's lasers acted like an incendiary?))
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

[[Oh. I thought you meant that your lasers were burning up within their casings on their own. I must have read that wrong.]]
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Once known as Darth Marix

Supreme Commander Alor

"Only the business of getting your supplies off of the ships from the 24th Fleet. In 5 minutes out shuttle will have arrived and we will head to the fleet. Is there anything else you would like to delve into, while we wait?"
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded.

"There most certainly is. How goes the search for Fahr? The foul loathesome creature escaped before I could blow him into fractions."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"That information cannot be revealed at the moment. But I'm sure you will find out when it has been declassified."

Standing up, Marix headed for the door.

"If we start walking now, we will reach the hangar by the time the shuttle arrives."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus rose and followed the Supreme Commander, keeping pace with them as they walked to the hangar.

"In that case, I'd like to ask you if you ever served with my father, Darth Grim. He was a Vice Admiral in the Navy before his death."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"I served with many during my younger years in the Navy. But I'm sure that a Vice Admiral's service record will not be that hard to compare to my own. I'll have MI check it out while we go over the 24th Fleet."

The hangar was still under construction, as the full capacity of the MAZHQ had yet to be reached, but was still operational. It was only a few moments until the shuttle arrived. Boarding, they were transported to the Venator-Class Star Destroyer. The Venator was a personal favorite of the Supreme Commander and was present through much of the MAZ Defensive Forces, mainly because of its fighter-prone abilities.

The Venator quickly headed off towards the location of the 24th Fleet. Marix headed to the data-interface library of the Star Destroyer. Connected with his own access to the MI Database, he began looking for Darth Grim.

"Do you happen to know his full name? Military records do not always use Darth titles."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded.

"Nathaniel Tagge. A Tepasi noble was well as a Sith."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"Nathaniel Tagge. He died in 67 ABY, so I had been in the Navy for an entire year as a Commodore. This was under Dark Lord Acrimonus' tenure as Supreme Commander, so the ranking systems were different. Your father's rank was actually a Commodore, but when I created the current ranking system, I had all previous servicemen and women's ranks converted as well."

Pausing, the Supreme Commander sifted through more of the data, his own memories being brought to the surface as he read through the latter moments of Darth Grim's career.

"He served aboard the First Fleet's Task Force 1 during an Operation known as Mercenary Downfall. He was my fleet liaison officer aboard the Bespin Sunset during that operation. When things went wrong in the mission, I was ordered onto the mercenary vessel and Darth Grim assumed command of the Task Force. When I returned, the Supreme Commander ordered Darth Grim onto another craft, to complete the task of hunting down the rest of the mercenary fleet."

Turning to face the High Mage, Lord Marix continued, "Your father died when the mercenaries commited suicide bombings upon the Carrack-Class Cruiser Duty and Honor. One of the fighters got past the bridge shields and destroyed it. From what reports make sense after that point, your father stayed behind to control the craft while the rest of the crew evacuated. Using the Force he directed the Cruiser into the mercenary vessel, destroying both."

Holding out his hand, Marix fulfilled the duties of being the Supreme Commander.

"I would like to thank you for your father's sacrifice. He saved his crew, and the Empire."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus took Marix's hand.

"I'm sure somewhere in the Force, my father is aware of your thanks, and grateful."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

[[That sig looks good. lol]]

"That he is. Do you wish to know more about his years in service? I can have our records sifted through and all the declassified information forwarded to your office."
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded.

"I would. I'm sure it would be a very interesting read."

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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.