Part II

Kevin watched as the waves of hyperspace left him as he entered the system Darklord had intsructed him to. The coordinates put the site out into the Unknown Regions, near the border of the Emperor’s Hammer. Suddenly Kevin’s comm system lit up. "Attention to pilot, you are cleared to land. Submit your craft to control of our tractor beam and we’ll guide you in." Kevin nodded. "Agreed." The Babylon shaked as Kevin let go of control, but soon it was being guided. Kevin couldn’t see a ship at first, but as his eyes adjusted he began to see the outline of a ship…a type he’d never seen before. "Cloaking System." Kevin said with disgust. He had never liked the idea of hiding from the enemy, better to fight up front. Soon the Babylon had landed and Kevin jumped out of the cockpit. The only person there was Darklord, in uniform. "Colonel in the Emperor’s Hammer eh?" Darklord nodded. "You knew that." Kevin sighed. "You didn’t tell me this was a EH operation." Darklord shook his head. "It’s not, but it’s getting EH support. I was supposed to be here to make sure it stayed what the EH wanted it to be." Kevin raised a eyebrow. "Are you?" Darklord laughed. "With those unambitious people? Forget it." Kevin gave a half smile. As he looked around he noticed how old and decrepped the docking bay was. "What’s with this bay, don’t have anything better?" Darklord smiled. "Oh no, this is just a storage area…I had you land here because you won’t be needing this anymore."

"So Kevin just got up and left?" Master asked as Narm gave his account of the story. Narm nodded. Argon Viper and Master had noticed the ship gone and detected the distress call Narm had sent out once his ship was made inoperational. They used a transport still on the base and picked him up. "He left us this information though…" Narm said, putting the data crystal Kevin had thrown at Narm before he left. Argon Viper picked it up and loaded it up. "What is it?" Master asked. Viper sighed. "Looks like a lot of things…give me time to study this, why don’t you two see what can be done about the TIE Defender of Narm’s?" The two nodded and headed off, leaving Viper to study the file Kevin had left them.

"You remember, the Babylon was just a prototype for a more powerful system." Kevin nodded as the two walked down the hallway. Darklord was leading Kevin to what he had called a "surprise". "You were more for manuverability than the Babylon System though, you wanted the System eradicated…I prefered the bigger weaponary and keeping the Babylon System…that plus budget costs meant the ship was never finished." Darklord nodded. "Your loyalty to the Babylon System is impressive, but it’s outdated due to sheer manuverability…as for power, it’s unneeded, a waste to-" "have that much there." Kevin interrupted. "Yes, I remember the age old argument.." Darklord nodded. "Well, plans for your ship were never made, so I choose a different path…" Darklord opened the door and Kevin was greeted with the sight of a new starfighter. It had the cockpit of a T/I, probably similar or identical to the Babylon, but as for the rest had 4 of the thinest poles Kevin had ever seen sticking out of it. "It’s a new kind of metal…incredibly light but very durable…the metal has stood up in many tests, probably stood up against more than you’ll ever use it for. It’s like constantly using the Babylon system, gives you incredible manuverability." Kevin nodded. "Has it been tested?" Darklord shook his head. "No, it’s been waiting for you. We still have to prep it up and take care of a few things with it, but for now you rest, we’ll take care of that, and when you wake up the Babylon II will be ready for you to pilot."

Argon Viper entered the docking bay to see Narm and Master playing some sabacc. "Weren’t you two going to work on the fighter." Master shook his head. "It’s a goner, Kevin completley roasted it in all the right places, that thing will never fly again. It’d be easier to get a new starfighter." Narm sighed. He hadn’t even had the ship long and it was already totaled. "Well, I have some…even worse news. I know why the attack on us was so heavy." The two threw down their cards and turned to Argon Viper. "Well, don’t just stand there being cryptic!" Master yelled at Viper. "Tell us!" Viper shook his head and sighed. "In a quadrant of space, near the Emperor’s Hammer and former Intruder Wing territory, there was a project going on, probably sponsered by the Emperor’s Hammer, though I’m sure this is turning out into something they didn’t plan on. A group of Imperials, quite mixed, have spent the last 7 years working on a device similar to the power of the Death Star…the problem is, they couldn’t reproduce the effects in so little of space. So they began to build small pods that would come together and shoot out the beam…now according to tests, it still isn’t powerful enough to destory a planet, but it’ll wipe out all life on it leaving either none or a very small number of survivors." Narm sighed. "That’s wonderful and all, I mean cool, new super weapon, no wonder Kevin joined, but it dosen’t explain why he left us behind, or why the attack on Erebria was so harsh, or even if or why they were responsible!" Viper gave Narm a look that told him to be patient. "Now, the New Republic got word of something brewing up…however data was a bit scetchy…it was either two sectors…one was Erebria Prime, another was damn well close to it. So…it looks like the organzation sent a Dark Jedi, definetly Darklord, to take out the Rebel Admiral, then convince the ship that he was the Admiral, and to lead them to Erebria Prime so they could evacuate to the secondary base quickly, more close to EH space." Master slammed his fists. "So we were just some decoy for a Dark Ops mission?! Man…I’ve heard of this being done but…didn’t relize how much it sucks until now!" Narm looked at Master harshely. "It sucks?! That’s your ONLY opinion?!" Master looked at Narm "What can we do? It was for the betterment of the cause, the New Order. They told us about this in the academy. Don’t you see? This is why Kevin left." Narm shook his head. "No, it’s not that simple. Don’t you remember what Viper said? ‘Supported by the EH, but probably even they don’t know what it’s doing now.’ That means they’re Renegades, and we’ve learned the extent of what Renegades will do. I’m guessing that they don’t want to destory just the New Republic, they want the entire galaxy, both Rebel and Imperial." Master raised a eyebrow. "That’s a rather big assumption from a small report." Argon Viper shook his head. "I have to agree with Narm…from what I’ve read which is a much more personal account, this could be just it. They were described out to be Renegades by their own standards." Master shook his head. "Then why did Kevin join them? He would know better than anyone!" Narm sighed. "I don’t know what our masked leader is thinking, but it dosen’t matter now. Viper, we do have the coordinates for the base, correct?" Viper nodded. "What are the defenses?" Narm asked. Viper shrugged. "Minimal, they just evacuated back here. I would doubt they had anything, it’s too industrial. Maybe a fighter or two…the fear isn’t what they have there, it’s what they could bring, and they are near Emperor’s Hammer space now." Narm nodded. "That won’t be a problem, this will be a quick mission." Master raised a eyebrow and looked at Narm "You got a plan? Care to share?" Narm smilied. "Simple, EH dosen’t know the full plan. So we’ll head in there, cause a rukus, force the EH to come in. They’ll probably get the idea and they should do the battle for us. All you two have to do is make some explosions and take out any fighters near you." Viper and Master nodded. "What about you?" Viper asked. Narm looked at where the Babylon had once been. "I’ll take the transport and head into the station…I’ll try to get the plans in the event that the EH attack does fail…or we do. Cover me until I get in there, after that don’t worry about it, got it?" The two nodded, and soon they began to bored their respective ships. It would only be a matter of time before they reached the new destination where the fragile remains of the Intruder Wing would battle once again…

As the ships left hypserspace Narm was quick to orders. "Viper, cover me, Instigator, be ready to grab any ships that come out." The two responded and Narm continued on his path. If Kevin’s info was exact as it was supposed to, he should be right on top of it…Suddenly Narm relized he was less that .006 clicks to the station. He cut his engines and looked for the nearest doors, found them and fired away until they blew open. He entered into the docking bay and fired at a few guards and controllers. Once the area was cleared he jumped out of the ship and began on his mission.

Daklord entered Kevin’s room and laughed. "Do you ever take that mask off?" Kevin looked at Darklord. "Do I ever stop thinking about the deaths I’m responsible for?" Darklord shook his head. "Your pilots have come. They’re attempting to make quite a mess." "Did you send your fighters?" Darklord laughed. "This is a incredible secretive place that just finished evacuating, we don’t even have fighters.: Darklord gave a evil smile "…except yours." Kevin sighed. "I’ll do it."

Master and Argon Viper were having the easiest mission of their life. They just flew around, if they saw something that looked useful they blew it up. "Hey, Instigator to Viper, looks like we got a ship approaching." Master reported to Argon Viper. "Details unknown…I don’t like the looks of this." Before the two could do anything, a ship sped by them and turned around to face them. The two were in shock. "This is the Babylon II to approaching ships, you are ordered to restrain yourself." Master could hear a sigh. "Master and Viper, just retreat. I can guarentee you your chances are nil in this one." Master shook his head. "You must have changed! The Kevin I knew taught me to never retreat…no, you’re not the Kevin I used to know!" With that Master sped off and began to attack Kevin, but the Babylon II moved right out of it’s way as if it was nothing. Before Master could turn around he was already feeling fire against him. "It can’t be?! Roatating lasers?" Argon Viper nodded. "From what Narm told me about the Babylon, it had two sticks, one for moving, one for weapons…this new model just takes the basic concept to extremes." Argon Viper went to attack, but Kevin just moved out of the way, throwing laser blasts at him constantely, and continued to do so even after Viper was passed him. "We’ll have to combine our attacks for this one, go for both sides to disable his extra abilities. The two of them went to attack, but Kevin just manuevered around, first going for Master, but reversing cannons when Viper came behind then turning to attack Master as Viper dodged. Master cursed. This was not good…

Narm was having similar problems. He pounded on the computer and cursed. No layouts, no plans, nothing. And the guards were right on him. As he heard laser blasts he began to run. He was hoping to find a docking bay, but he figured he’d better go for the least likely to run into guards. The way he was going now seemed pretty abaonded and old, possibly a storage area or a industrial area. Both had possibilities. Narm entered a large area and was pleasently surprised at what he found. Not only a abandonded docking center, but the Babylon, all parked and ready to go. Narm quickly went to climb into the ship. He checked the controls. All seemed in working order. He had never gotten to fly it for real but…there was a first for everything. "It’s for Kevin’s own good." Narm said as he began to blast his way out of the ship.

Viper fixed his shields again, but it was obvious he was getting low. It wouldn’t be much longer till Kevin had both him and Master gone. Viper’s heart sank when he noticed a ship was approaching, a little help for Kevin to finish the battle quickly. He was surprised when he heard the voice come on the comm system. "This is the Babylon. Unidentified ship, stop your attack on my comrades now or I will fire!" At this moment, Kevin couldn’t help but smile. "Babylon, this is the Babylon II. Nice to see you have a real ship ths time, perhaps our battle will be a bit different this time around." Narm cringed. Kevin had a new ship, a more advanced Babylon. But he still could handle him, and Master and Viper were near death. "Master Viper, stand down, return to base. I’ll take care of it from here." Master instantely protested. "Narm! You can’t handle him alone! You don’t know what the Babylon II’s like!" Kevin smilied "If it gets you home, I’ll disable the rotating lasers to only rotate as much as the Babylon. If he uses the Babylon System, it’ll be a fair fight." Narm nodded. "You heard him, I’ll be fine, now get out of here!" Viper and Master didn’t have much of a choice, their ships were too damaged to make much diffrence. "Come home Narm, we’ll be waiting." With that the Instigator and the Viper entered hyperspace. "Now Kevin, we correct yoru mistake of coming here!"

The Leader watched, smiling. "Now this is intresting…"

Narm engadged the Babylon system on the Babylon. He could instanetley fell the force of the system, and he began to propell himself at Kevin. The Babylon II doged, but Narm was quick to return the manuever and attack thanks to the Babylon system. Kevin managed to manuever around Narm and take a few shots off to counterattack, but Narm managed to doge most of them and came around firing. Kevin manuvered threw the shots and accelereated off, only to come back firing right down Narm’s throat. Kevin turned almost immedietly and cut speed to get right behind Narm, but Narm knew what he was planning and did the same. Both of the pilots were face to face for all of a second before they both fired at each other at point-blank range. The recoil threw off both ships, but Kevin quickly recovered and head after Narm. Narm was new to the Babylon system and couldn’t recover as quickly, so by the time he did Kevin was firing right at him. Narm tried to manuever but he wasn’t fast enough and Kevin managed to cause serious damage. "Narm, this is Kevin. You’ve proven you’re powerful in a starfighter, especially the Babylon. You have nothing to gain by dying here, head home now." The voice Narm heard seemed very personal, more personal than he had ever heard from the masked Fleet Commander. "No Kevin, I will gain the knowledge that I died for a cause, a cause you’ve abandonded!" Narm turned and accelerated at Kevin with all his rage and anger. Right before he hit the Babylon II though, his ship stopped and paused. Narm couldn’t understand why the controls weren’t working. "You’ve forgotten Narm, I had the Babylon rigged for autopilot. You haven’t changed the access number for those codes yet. Your mistake." Narm pounded the controls as his ship moved away and began to enter hyperspace. "NO!!!!!!" he screamed as his ship entered the waves of hyperspace.

The Leader laughed as he watched the results of the battle. "Brilliant Kevin! Absolutley Brilliant!" Darklord just looked up at him, partially in disgust. "Now comes for the next phase, the EH?" Leader nodded. "They’ll be here soon, let’s make ready! And bring Kevin here, it’s been such a long time…"

Kevin jumped out of the Babylon II. As a ship, it was extremley manueverable and had the most intresting system Kevin had ever seen for weapons. It required the pilot to wear a special helemt, one with a computer screen inside, so you didn’t see the action firsthand persay. However this helemt allowed the pilot to shoot behind him because it would split into two screens if the pilot’s weapon target went out of the range of the ships’s screen. Absolutley essential for the Babylon II’s weapon system. "So Kevin, how did the Babylon II suit you?" Kevin shrugged. "It’s great for weaker craft but…in combat against superior forces, it’s no different than the Babylon. I only won because I’m the better pilot, had the ships been reveresed the outcome would have been the same with me as a winner, and it’s not because Narm’s a bad pilot, very far from." Darklord shook his head. "No, it’s your own fault for not using the lasers to their full extent that you had such a hard time with the Babylon." Kevin immedietly disagreed. "When the Babylon is using it’s Babylon system, it’ll manuever much faster than my lasers, it wouldn’t have done me any good." Darklord sighed. "Dosen’t matter, anyways I have someone you need to meet, follow me…"

Kevin was in complete disbelief when he saw who he was meeting. "Neil!!" Kevin yelled out. Probably the most quiet and most conserved of all of the Intruder Wing’s Command Staffers ever, Kevin was very surprised to see him leading a renegade group with a superweapon.

"Well hello Kevin…I wish you could have came sooner, but I guess all that talk about how I changed and did this will just have to wait…you see Darklord right there is about to turn on me before is wonderful Emperor’s Hammer’s flagship gets blown up…which should be arriving soon. Kevin turned and saw that Darklord’s lightsaber was drawn. "Kevin, this is what I really needed your help for. We must stop Neil, his plans are…insane!" Neil laughed, something Kevin had never heard before. "You’re just looking out for your group. But you Kevin…you remember the days! When the EH could go to hell in a handbasket and it wouldn’t matter! You know it was them that choose the location for the base…saying that if anything went wrong, we could use the IW as cover! And guess what! We did JUST that!" Neil pointed straight at Darklord. "It was HIM who pulled the trigger, you know this as well as I!" Kevin nodded, and pulled out his own lightsaber. Darklord was shocked. "Kevin, you can worry about this later, Neil is the bigger threat!" Kevin shook his head. "I can take care of him later and if I need to. I know what he’s said is true. Right now I can’t let anyone take this weapon, especially not the EH…and since they’re the especially, that’s who I turn on." Darklord looked at Kevin, feeling very betrayed. "We were friends, good friends, a time ago. Why now do you wish to kill me." Kevin looked at him, enraged. "
"You destroyed my group, turned to the people who we were once at war with and helped create this, THIS death-machine! And you still call yourself a friend?!?" Kevin charged at Darklord, attacking with 3 quick blows Darklord barely caught. Darklord was amazed at the intensity in Kevin’s eyes and he began to quickly attack, furiously. He noticed a crack had begun to form down Kevin’s mask. "Besides…" Kevin began to say cooly. "I always said I’d be a friend until my mask breaks.." With that Kevin launched away at attacks and Lee couldn’t stand them. As Kevin’s mask shattered he launched one attack at Darklord’s head, which he blocked, and then another right into his side, which he didn’t. As Darklord sank to the floor the now maskless Kevin caught him. "Kevin…I’m sorry…" Darklord managed to get out. "I made…serious…mistakes…now it’s up to you…stop him….stop him or my people will suffer the fate of the Intruder Wing." With that Darklord’s eyes rolled back and Kevin could feel it as his life ended. Kevin looked up at Neil. "And as for you…I believe what Darklord said was also true. So now it’s your turn." Neil looked at Kevin and laughed. "Unfortunetly, I’m not here." Neil’s body disappeared. "Quite safely hidden I assure you. You’ll have your chance at Courscant, but for now this is one thing that must happen. Until then Kevin!" With that Neil’s voice cut off and Kevin knew he didn’t have a lot of time.

The SSSD Soverign approached the small installation. "Installation, this is the SSSD Soverign coming to assist you. Please-" The Soverign was cut off as a large laser cut straight threw it and destroyed it.

Kevin watched the Soverign be destroyed from the small transport he had loaded the Babylon II onto and Darklord’s remains…he knew what had to be done next.

The three pilots of the Intruder Wing were sitting around a desk, wondering two questions…

"Had the Mission been successful?"

and…

"What has happened to Kevin and the Babylon II?"