The Elrood & Kathol Ruse

The Empire's efforts to discredit the New Republic by taking the Elrood and Kathol sectors posing as New Republic soldiers. Using everything in their limited arsenal to appear as terrorists and smearing the New Republic as much as possible to sow discontent and make those areas appeal to their Empire for absorption into the whole.

Rear Admiral Clearwater left the fleet in the capable hands of his first officer, now Commodore. Clearwater leaves to assume the role of Grand Admiral of the Pentastar Alignment, Koornach Cluster and the holdings of Warlord Zinj (Dathomir and the nearby system).

The Commodore's first orders of business are to move the fleet away from the Lanthrym system and ask for volunteers to sow discontent in the surrounding systems, posing as New Republic Terrorists. Only a few volunteer for the suicide mission, three. A 16 year old SA Youth Group, Special Tactic Commando, an Imperial Starfighter Pilot who survived a previous scouting mission against all odds and an Imperial Assault Trooper fresh out of the academy.

They were dispatched on a freighter and they left Lanthrym for the Bodrin system. Doing some initial scouting in space and then landed at the unsecured starport. A dorid dropped by to take payment for their week's stay and realized that, one they were in a military scout ship, two upon the cargo door opening also noticed that they were armed to the teeth and possessed more than one Rebel Trooper helmet and three saw instant potential in their craft.

The Protocol droid, who was clearly a droid and not so human in aesthetics informed them that he had interested parties who would like to take their ship off their hands in exchange for 3 ships. A Ghtroc 720, a YT-1300 and an XT-3100. The Ghtroc turned out to be an issue as the droid test fired its double guns, blowing a hole in the starport perimeter fence and detonating several low income houses roughly a kilometer away. Thus he took them to the YT-1300 and a broken up Z-10 Seeker instead. Finally bringing them to the XT-3100, where he said "the ship is your's you simply have to kill the current owners" which, after a harrowing firefight and near evisceration by Defel... They succeeded.

Our budding terrorists then jumped a drunk Imperial Naval quartet, deftly killing all of them and blowing up some prime housing in the entertainment district. They then masqueraded as the Imperial Naval troopers and took a shuttle from the Imperial Garrison on world to the first defense platform in orbit. They disabled it's repulsors and station keeping thrusters on one side while maxing the effect on the others. Once Gravity had the station it fell to the planet where it slammed into a large residential district many miles outside the city, detonating in a thermonuclear explosion and thus vaporizing said community. Imperial agents were on site, almost immediately to contain the radiation spill.

The then took a couple armed shuttles and fighters to the next station rigging proton torpedo warheads in the main ammunition magazine on the station, taking the next shuttle off if it they triggered the mechanism and the station split in half, this time much of the debris burned up on re-entery; however many districts on the western hemisphere were showered by fist sized debris that caused massive damage to at least 3 cities.

They were discovered after they vented the shuttle's 9 passengers into the air some 30,000 feet above the ground, dealt with the the pilot and co-pilot and then proceeded to dodge incoming turbolaser fire from the garrison. At which point they decided to find a place to land, choosing the most logical of landing strips their masterful pilot chose to land in the midst of a Fund Raising Festival outside a childrens hospital. After skipping on the ground and smearing countless dozens of people all over the parking lot they came to rest at the foot of a large repulsor wheel. They ditched right before a proton torpedo blew the shuttle into atoms and detonated the repulsor wheel throwing its occupants, literally, hundreds of meters in all directions to their untimely deaths.

After a clean get away they and making certain to close on the deal with the sneaky and unsettlingly coldly efficient droid, they left world with troop movements and data on system defenses, 5 million credits from a sale of drugs to the local crime lords (found in a hidden compartment on the YT-1300) and a newly rebuilt Z-10 seeker.

Upon their return the Commodore was largely speechless. Not entirely understanding how three random academy graduates could have caused such a series of atrocities and so much damage. He requested that they not file any formal reports as the operation was "off the books".

However, the Commodore thought to himself, "This is going to be a helluva lot easier than I thought... I will send those three commandos on all the missions. God help the Imperials here, they don't stand a chance."

Then without a word to anyone but the repair crews "I want you to give their ship, the XT-3100 they commandeered an BOSS registred name. "Call it the Abandon All Hope and place the Initials on the hull A.A.H."

Next time, on Imperial Declassified Shadow Operations we will delve into more of their adventures and exploits.

I think since we have everyone riled up, we should hit the Star Destroyers. One or both.

Xeen wrote:I think since we have everyone riled up, we should hit the Star Destroyers. One or both.

Find them and you can have the Commodore order the strike or find them and infiltrate them and kill their captains as heroes or disable them, your choice. I think taking out one or both star destroyers as three heroes would make you guys legendary...

Have to pick another system to fly into and check out, first tho.

If I remember correctly, didn't we requisition some sort of stealth craft we could use to get close enough to board and sabotage the star destroyers? I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure we found something like that.

Feyd Rautha wrote:If I remember correctly, didn't we requisition some sort of stealth craft we could use to get close enough to board and sabotage the star destroyers? I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure we found something like that.

You guys got that freighter from the Talon Mercenaries, the ones you killed. It's the XT-3100, not a true stealth ship but it might do the trick. Otherwise, you are Imperials, no reason why you can't just walk on board during a troop exchange or something less direct.

The ship is pretty stealthy, even more so at range. Just keep that in mind, not to mention, it's pretty hard to fly between the shields of a Star Destroyer and not be incinerated unless you are a jedi or a god sensor operator/amazing pilot (you need both, simultaneously).

Glad to see you online

Yeah, we are not good enough to use the stealth ship like our main characters could.

Im going to vote getting aboard one of the Imperial SD's by the easy methods. Of course getting off the damn things will be trickier.

I would say get onboard and kill the bridge crew. Just murder everyone and walk out. Dont do anything tricky or complicated after that. Except escape lol.

Don't forget to choose a group name and leave the calling card on the SD bridge (even if you write it in blood on one of the whitewashed walls

It will add more gravity to their plight and signal that events have spiralled out of control.

I have a couple more adventures planned for you guys.

A rough list of objectives:
1. Hit 2 more worlds and launch terrorist attacks
2. Locate the Imperial I Star Destroyer, kill the warlord on the bridge
3. Locate the minor warlord in the system and kill him
4. Locate the Imperial II and kill the warlord on its bridge (this will either be hard or easy depending upon the route you take = Personal Glory or Fleet Action)

***Galactic News Flash***

Unconfirmed, yet disturbing reports are trickling out of Elrood as of late.  Allegedly, the New Republic is waging war against the remnants of the Empire in the style and type of tactics that they are well renowned for, terrorist attacks, resembling the tactics of some of their more overt Spec Ops groups like the group of bandits led by the Outlaw known as Platt O'Keefe.

The New Republic's official statement:
We forcibly disbanded all Spec Ops groups after the Battle of Endor.  All those who engaged in this type of terror tactic were prosecuted for war crimes at the highest level.  While some remain at large, they are being actively hunted and will be brought to justice.  

We are saddened by the plight of our fellow citizens in the Elrood Sector and as a result we will be sending in a task force to help mitigate and prevent these attacks, as well as, to clear any doubt as to our involvement in these actions.  We expect our forces to arrive there within the week after the official mustering of forces and outfitting of the task force has been completed.  We will be sending in 2 New Majestic Cruisers, 1 Defender Star Destroyer, and a myriad of support vessels openly flying the banner of the New Republic.  We expect that this terrorist threat will be eliminated and the Elrood sector will be under our protection thereafter.

Official Imperial Response:  
From an official statement issued directly from a press conference with Empress Tarkin:
We see this as yet another ruse wrapped in the guise of New Republic Greed.  This is another misdirection with their only desire to culminate in the seizing of yet another sovereign Independent State.  Elrood has made no issue or call for aid from the New Republic, in fact, they are currently in talks with the Empire for a possible alliance.

Official Elrood Protectorate Response:

These attacks are most disturbing and we have witnessed first hand the level and fanaticism with which they have been carried out.  This is no doubt some disgruntled militaristic sect which the New Republic supposedly cast out of their ranks.  We have issued them no call for aid and are, indeed, in talks with the Empire at the moment.  Should the New Republic arrive at our doorstep we can see this as nothing more than an act of warfare and will have no choice but to immediately move to re-form with our former Imperialistic ties.  While we had no desire to be formed under any banner other than our own, this may yet be something we must do in order to ensure our safety.

Until such time as the New Republic decides to intervene, we will continue to hold our territory and will fire upon anything even remotely resembling a New Republic Task force.  We have empowered local and galactic bounty hunters as well as local constabulary forces to hunt these terrorists down and kill them.  Yes, we said kill.  We demand blood for the blood they have spilt.

Oh please, show up with those ships... they will become imperial property quickly lol.