Forgotten Dreams, Lost Hopes and Vanished Salvation by Toasty McGrath
	The battle over Coruscant wasn’t going well. The Vong destroyers were eventually getting through the wall of starships and dropping landing craft. Admiral Sakon Gallagher watched in anger at the loss of so many over so few took place. He knew what would happen to the survivors on the planet after the battle. He also knew how many more would have had to face that fate if the New Republic didn’t defend Coruscant. Still, the harsh realization of the horror had pulled him out of concentration. A young lieutenant repeated a request for orders and Sakon jumped slightly, being pulled out of contemplation. They were on the bridge of the NRD Kenobi, the newest Star Destroyer in the fleet. It was also the flagship of the Sixth Battle Fleet of Coruscant. The Kenobi was named after a great Jedi Master who had initially trained Luke Skywalker and, although Luke asked him to keep it confidential, Darth Vader. Still, a history lesson for himself wouldn’t keep his fleet together. The Sixth Fleet had taken the most casualties of the battle, but also had the most kills. They were directly in the middle of the fray, and he regretted every order for reinforcements, condemning more lives to be sacrificed for the sake of civilians. Sakon barked an order to pull the forces out of quadrant Beta. He watched as a Triumph class picket ship made a suicide run on a destroyer analog. The Triumphs were the latest weapons in the navy, first coming into commission about two years ago. They were heavily armed, shielded, and they were fast. The main flaw, however, was their hull, which would collapse after a mild collision. Instead of fixing this problem, however, the builders decided to add extra escape pods to compensate. They looked like a blaster on it’s side, but they were oddly maneuverable. These attributes did nothing to save the crew of the now derelict ship. Flotsam was venting out of the primary engine room, and the captain was ordering his crew to abandon ship. He also managed to direct all remaining escape pods toward the destroyer, just to draw fire and distract the shield crews. A 500,000 credit fireworks show for the enemy, he thought. After the three-day battle, the Kenobi fleet gathered near the remains of Commenor, a planet that the Vong destroyed but couldn’t capture, and the home world of Sakon and Millions of others. When the fleet was coordinated, he ordered the jump into hyperspace. Every ship in the fleet that could hold multiple life forms was packed full of refugees. Only the bridge and vital rooms on the destroyer were off limits. The other destroyers in the fleet were the Imperial II Star Destroyer Steadfast, the Mon Calamari MC90n Halifax, and the Mon Calamari MC80a Maria. The Steadfast and the Halifax were both badly damaged and in need of repairs before they could fight in any major battles. There were also civilian vessels volunteering to handle refugees, but they could only hold so many. He even had his personal freighter filled to the brim, with only his pilot droid to keep order. He had been promised that his flagship, the Lusankya, would have been returned to his command by the time the Yuzhhan Vong arrived, but the repairs had apparently taken longer than expected. When the backup fleet arrived, they would have more supplies and transports to care for the civilians. A Hutt transport jumped out of hyperspace and hailed the Kenobi. A grisly translator aide showed up on the comm and bowed formally, as formally as a space pirate could. "On behalf of the mighty Borvo the Hutt, I greet you and offer our aid." Something inside Sakon was aching at the name, but he couldn‘t remember where he had heard it before. "This is the NRD Kenobi, state your business." "We simply wish to help. We noticed that you need transports for those refugees. Borvo would gladly accommodate safe quarters for them." "I thank you, please ask Borvo to dock with the corvette at these coordinates." The corvette’s engines has completely shut down earlier and they were sitting ducks in space. Sakon watched the large Hutt hauler dock with the damaged corvette and realized where he had heard the name "Borvo" before. His grandfather was a mercenary for the planet Nabob at the time of the Trade Federation invasion. He told Sakon about a Hutt slaver who took survivors from the attacks and would have sold them to slavers, had not the local resistance helped him stop the traitors. "Hutt transport, surrender your ship and you will not be harmed." "What is this? Do you not want our help?" "I know who your master is. You will surrender or be destroyed." The transport opened fire on the corvette. "Very well then, we’ll take hostages." All they could do was cooperate. The Hutt had considerable escort, and the Fleet’s remaining fighter complement was either damaged or in repairs. He watched as the transport jumped into the mass of stars that was the galaxy. The fighter bay was full of damaged fighters and many of the pilots weren’t as experienced as he would have hoped. But the situation called for drastic measures. "Listen up, pilots, we have a situation that’ll need precision. We’re going to send two four-man groups of fighters to recover the hostages. Red Group will fly the x-wings, and Blue Group will fly B-wings. Red will eliminate the fighters and assist Blue afterwards. The B-Wings are old, and they’ll probably draw fire. Blue group will disable the Hutt transport then help Red with the fighters. After the area is relatively secure, we’ll send in a shuttle of marines and try to rescue the hostages." The mission would most certainly end in the loss of most of the pilots, but they had no choice. As the squadrons approached the freighter, they were hailed with bribes, offers, and requests to defect. The pilots were ordered to disregard these, knowing where the enemies came from. Still, the opposing force was intimidating. As the first shots were fired, two of Borvo’s fighter’s took hits and crumbled. Surprisingly, the Mercs were considerably weak. Sakon thought that the Hutt would be able to afford better. After five minutes, the battle was as good as over, but not without costs. Of the four X-Wings, only one remained, there were two B-Wings remaining. The marine transport was an old Sentinel class shuttle, but it would have to do. After an eternity of waiting, the marines had retrieved all of the hostages. As they took off, however, the Hutt opened fire on the shuttle. It seemed Borvo didn’t agree with the terms of surrender. The fighters opened fire and the transport explodes into dancing ribbons of flotsam. Only one escape pod made it out, it’s engines were destroyed by the explosion, and scans indicated that is had only one large life form on board. "Sir, should we capture it?" a young pilot asked. "Negative, we have reports of a Vong fleet on it’s way to rendezvous with the Hutt. And besides, I doubt that command would be overly upset if we accidentally ‘missed’ one little escape pod..." As the team jumped out of the area, a Yuzhhan Vong cruiser entered the area. Sakon knew that the commander of that ship would not be happy with Borvo. A week later, the SSD Lusankya jumped to the coordinates of the fleet and was already loading supplies and taking in refugees. Sakon would transfer command to the Lusankya soon. He now was in command of the largest remaining fleet in the New Republic. At least, what used to be the New Republic.