The attack group of Admiral Trail, sat dormant in hyperspace just above the world of Foless, waiting for any signs of imperial shipping. "Sir! Our scanners have picked up what seems to be a convoy of ships that just dropped out of hyperspace on the other side of Foless." The radar officer shouted. "There isn't any hyperspace lane leading out from our position. Turn on the jammer and drop out of hyperspace. Put the entire fleet on high alert." He ordered for the entire fleet.

"Sir, our scanners have picked up a massive ship along with three smaller ships exiting hyperspace on the other side of the planet." An imperial officer told his captain. "Order the fleet to raise alertness level to medium." Was the simple reply. 

"Launch a pair of X-wings to scout out ahead." Sigil ordered. His comms officer nodded as he picked up and dialed the frequency of the control tower. Two X-wings exited the hangar of the massive ship and headed for the other side of the planet. "Tell the fighter to go at full speed then to shutdown all systems so as to not be picked up by scanners. Their own hand wrist comm shouldn't trigger the empire." He ordered calmly as he saw the X-wings exit the hangar of the 'Scutum'. The X-wings executed the orders without any problems as they got out of visual range and off the scanners of his destroyer. 

"Sir two more significantly smaller signals appeared for a brief moment before disappearing." The radar technician reported. "Do not inconvenience me with bugs in the software lieutenant." The captain said dismissively. 

"Sir the X-wings are reporting back." Said his comms officer. "Transfer to the terminal lieutenant." He ordered. "On it." He said. The terminal beeped seconds later and Sigil activated it. "Admiral. We have spotted five Arquitens class-light cruisers and a Venator-class star destroyer escorting a convoy of four class 4 container transports." The flight leader reported. 'A surprise to be sure but an unpleasant one at that.' He thought. "Maintain radio silence flight leader." He said. The flight leader and his wing man fell back into silence without uttering a single word. "Prepare to launch all available fighters and transform the bombers to the rear of the fleet and warm up the ion cannons in particular and raise deflector shields." He commanded. The two clone wars era fleets approached each other as the signals became more and more clear. The imperial fleet finally crossed over and could barely see the prow of the 'Scutum'. "Sir it appears to be a Recusant-class destroyer of the larger variant." The radar officer informed. "Raise alert level to maximum and prepare to launch all bombers and four escort squadrons." The imperial captain ordered. 

Sigil took a meditative state and began entering battle meditation to better direct his task force and increase his visual strength by summoning projections of three Munificent class frigates through the force for intimidation purposes.

Both fleets finally were visible to each other. "Lieutenant! Your reports missed three ships!" The admiral demanded an explanation. "Sir our scanners only picked up four signals! They must have cloaking on them!" He scrambled a response. "Call for aid!" The captain ordered. "We can't sir! They have a jammer!" The comms officer informed. "So be it!" He said bitterly. "Launch all the fighters on the Venator and direct them towards the fleet and all other fighters, put them on escort duty!" He ordred.

Sigil could feel as the hanger doors of the venator opened and from it came hundreds of fighters. But his grip on the fleet was firm as he directed it to launch all fighters in a defensive formation and open up with laser cannons and flak batteries. The sheer number of fighters was vast however and his 8 squadrons were hard pressed to keep this up yet they didn't lose morale. The super heavy turbolaser opened up on the venator while the long range ion cannons targeted the fleet convoy to force the escort fleet to stay back with the slowly more disabled convoy. 

"Sir we can't break through their fighter screen!" The control tower reported. "Order bombers to make a suicide run on the bridge!" He demanded in frustration. 

The Admiral directed his bombers away from the fleet to loop back on their flank. A lone bomber however broke through the screen of fighter, lasers and flaks and made a run on the ship. The imperial Admiral hadn't accounted for the shield however as the bombers crashed into the deflector shield as his foe had diverted power away from the hangers and life support to the shield while his own was getting critical.

"Sir, our shield is about to fail!" An officer reported. "Then be it. Direct all power to the engines and charge the rebel flagship!" He ordered. His crew, disoriented by the effects from battle meditation, obliged and charged the Venator forwards. Sensing the insanity, Sigil had his bombers finally charge the lone Venator from the rear with proton bombs. The disorganized crew was too slow to react to the organized yet constantly shifting formation and the bombers managed a successful run that blew up the old star destroyer without losses on his side. The Tie fighters losing even more morale and became even less organized as they either made suicidal one man charges or fled back to the Arquitens for defence. Sensing this, he ordered for all fighters and bombers to land. Once all were landed, he exited battle meditation. Once out of his trance, he was exhausted as he gasped for breath. It was very taxing on his body yet his iron will stopped pushing his body beyond its limits for better or for worse. 

His crew recovered after a minute from the shock and his bridge crew turned to him. "Send the leading ship a demand of unconditional surrender, otherwise they'd be boarded." He said. 

The request was sent and he waited for his foe to contemplate their decision. "Sir, they have surrendered. What is our next course of action?" His communications officer asked. "Have the cargo ships be taken over by the onboard battle droids." He replied. "Understood." He replied. 

No less than five minutes later, several transports left his ship and departed for the ships while his own ship got closer to the escort fleet. "Get me a lock on the command ship and prepare a squad of troopers." he ordered, exiting the command bridge and heading towards the docking hatch. He was joined on the way by a squad of troops at his behest. 

At the entrance of the docking tube, were a squad of embarked stormtroopers standing unarmed with the captain of the ship standing for him. He moved forwards and extended his hand. The guy who he assumed was an admiral took his hand and shook. "Admiral Sigil Trail. Alliance navy." He greeted. "Supervisor lieutenant Herman Tuska. Imperial security bureau." He greeted back rather respectfully. "Supervisor lieutenant Tuska, you are under arrest." He declared. Tuska put his badge and pistol in the hand of the Admiral and put his hands forward as if waiting for cuffs. But as the highest ranking person, he was to be treated with respect. Two of the guards accompanying Sigil, took him inside the ship to the small detention block onboard the 'Scutum'. 

As to the rest of the troops and sailors, they stood at attention. Truly honorable men and women that deserve to be shall be treated with honor in return. He gathered all crews in the hanger and also broadcasted it to the rest to the fleet. "You all are honorable warriors! As such I shall give you an offer to join the alliance! Your talents aren't served for honorable purposes with the empire that blew up Alderaan without justification! Who's with me?!" He stated. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" Were the chants of the men aboard the Arquitens and through the broadcast on other ships as well.

"You won't be disappointed and as a sign of your allegiance, discard the helmets! Show you are actually a person! Not a mindless automaton!" He ordered the new crew. The stormtroopers all discarded their helmets. He had noted the Alderaanian accent of the Supervisor Lieutenant and Turns out the rest of the crew had Alderaanian accents as well. He estimated that they didn't defect because of the Venator Admiral keeping them in place, seeing as his entire wing of fighters could kill them all. 

Sigil reached for his wrist com and contacted his comms officer "Lieutenant Qishik, contact all other attack groups barring Mynock and order them to the rendezvous point. Also tell the droids to get the transports running. When done, take us to the rendezvous." He ordered. "Yes sir." Qishik replied.

Happy with the results of his battle, Sigil returned to the Scutum and directed his fleet to hyperspace. They had enough supplies to campaign for months to come and by taking out two task forces, death squadron would be alerted and an end to this doomed offensive be brought about. The less they lose the better.

Inside the ship, he headed to the detention block where the Supervisor and rear Admiral were being kept. He headed for the Supervisor however. It had struck as an oddity that a Supervisor from the ISB would be attached to a cargo convoy and he wanted answers. He, along with two troopers, entered the supervisor's room. 

"Admiral." He stood up from his seat, ackglowleging the Admiral's presence. "Supervisor." He nodded in response. "Please take a seat." Tuska said, pointing to a seat in front of him. Both men took their seats. Once seated, Sigil initiated the conversation "You are Alderaanian." He didn't ask but stated. "Indeed." Tuska replied. "Why didn't you flee earlier?" He asked. "After the destruction of Alderaan, the imperial navy, attached non-Alderaanians to Alderaanian task forces to prevent defection." He explained, confirming his theory. "Why was an ISB officer attached to a fleet?" He pressed. "Although no longer loyal to the emperor, I have sworn an oath and I shall not break it." He replied. "I respect that. So will you join the alliance?" He questioned. "I stick by my oaths Admiral." He gave the same answer. "Until the emperor is dead, I am still gonna be under oath." He elaborated. "Have a nice day." He replied and walked out of the room to his quarters to give his report. 

"You really are a man of your words." Nox commented. "I am pleased that you think so." He responded. "Listen, I may not have intervened much in your personal life but the way you spoke to your sister just before the offensive, it was wrong." She reprimanded him. "There are more important matters at hand." He said, trying to defend his actions but knowing she was right. "What differentiates us from the empire is our openness about emotional bonding. Something you need to be reminded of." She continued. "What do you want from me? She is always off on assignments while I need to keep my crew alive. I don't have time to myself." He defended further. "Then request a leave. Else you truly will be lost." She suggested. "Maybe after I end this doomed offensive." He recommended. "I fear that it might be too late." She said. "The rest of the alliance just began the offensive. I can't leave at such a critical time." He replied. She just gave a silent sigh of disappointment.

Back in his quarters, he made contact with the Alliance high command to report. The terminal lit up with alliance members currently not in battle; those being Commander-in-chief Mothama, Commander Organa, Captain Antilles. "Commander-in-Chief. Comrades." He acknowledged. "Admiral Trial." Mon acknowledged with the rest nodding in acknowledgement. "Report please." Mothma commanded. "Gladly. I have staged a raid on an imperial convoy. The escorting fleet was quite strong. I'll give them that but they were beaten. The escorting fleet was made up of a Venator class star destroyer accompanied by four Arquitens class light cruisers. Turns out that the escort fleet was made up of Alderaanians bar the Venator. It was in place to keep them from defecting but once blown up, the rest surrendered without a fight. Strangely, they had an ISB Supervisor aboard." He reported. He could see a brief smile on Leia's face but his attention was garnered by Mon Motham "Admiral Trail! You were supposed to liberate worlds, not raid convoys!" She reprimanded. "I understand your frustration, Chief. But our supplies are too thin to support such an offensive so I had to gather them and in the process uncovered a mystery. Why would the ISB be involved with cargo shipping? There is something else at play." He insisted. "He does have a point, Chief." Leia said, defending his defiance of orders. "What happened to the Supervisor?" Mothma asked. "He is in custody. An honorable man who surrendered peacefully without resistance. But he maintains his oaths and won't reveal it." He explained. "If he is honorable as you say, then he shall be treated with honor in return." Mothma declared. "Before you go Admiral, we need reinforcements for our siege of Cardune." Leia requested. "Chief?" He looked at Mon. "You may reinforce the siege Admiral. Your Vanguard has done its primary objective and is available as reinforcements for all forces in need." She gave the greenlight. "Of course." He replied before turning off the terminal.

In the years he has known Bail and subsequently Leia, he had befriended both of them and assumed a mentor role in her life as Bail withdrew himself to Alderaan and away from the senate and she took his role. Mentor and prodigy shall break the imperial fortress on Roche together. Thinking about her made his heart ache as he remembered how he neglected Revan over his political and later military career. But it was too late to turn back now. Her presence was cold just like he was to her. It was his fault. He pushed those thoughts away as he made his way back to the bridge.

"Lieutenant Qishik, contact the rest of the vanguard, we are heading to Cardune to enforce a siege. Minus battle group Mynock of course. Their assignment could help me break the imperial navy." He ordered. "On it." He replied. "Attention vanguard battle groups! This is the Scutum! Head to Roche! I repeat head to Cardune!" Qishik yelled over his communicator. "Sir ,the fleet is ready and calculations are done." His navigational officer informed. "Do it." Came the order.