The Voyager departed from her dock yard following a full refit and overhaul of the ship as per the orders of Inquisitor Kharna.
She was sitting in the command chair of the vessel, meditating to guide the ship through hyperspace to the Hapes cluster. Vader had also attached two squads of Noghri death commandos to the Voyager.
Her Captain, a young man named 'Taer Antioch' gave the order for the jump and stared out of the windows of the Voyager's bridge as the stars streaked past and into hyperspace.
The journey took six days before it was over. She had decided not to drop half a lightyear away from the Nantuker system seeing as that is where she sensed him. On an interception course with the Liberator.
The Voyager released her modified Lambda class shuttles and the Gozanti class cruiser around the Hapes system itself to gather intelligence on naval and royal communications. Their movements shall not go unnoticed.
Voyager krept through the outer system but stopped mid-way through it. Revan prefered a fighter surprise attack rather than a direct engagement.
She waited and waited until she could sense Sigil's presence nearby when it suddenly went blank. 'Where the hell did he go to?' She thought to herself.
"Do a full sweep of the area, I want every object within a thousand kilometers accounted for." She ordered, knowing that if she could sense Sigil, he could also sense her in return and she didn't trust that he would play nice.
Her crew conducted sweep after sweep and fighter scouting missions to no avail. He was a slippery opponent yet he couldn't escape the system with the broken hyperdrives as documented by the gunners of the Executor.
"My lady, a group of three objects detected." The radar officer informed. "Size?" She questioned. "One is around six hundred meters while the other two are at the three hundred meter bullpark." He replied. "Captain, have the ship's port side face this incoming threat and keep the interceptors at the ready." She ordered. "Yes mam." He replied.
The crew of the Voyager was on high alert. They were potentially stuck in a three way battle and they couldn't let the Hapans in particular escape so as to not alert the wider government so they wouldn't declare war on both factions. Even with her ships surrounding the system, she wouldn't risk it.
All the unnecessary systems were turned off so as to not give off too much of a signature in the blackness of space. The only light in the bridge was that of the radar which she monitored personally along with her officer.
Boosting her senses with the force, all that came was blackness behind so large of asteroids in that belt that they blocked off sunlight, leaving them in even darker space.
From about ten thousand kilometers away, in the inner part of the star system, a Hapan task force made of one Hapan battle dragon and two Nova class cruisers approached the lone Venator.
"Status report." Captain Poruna of the battle dragon. "Captain, we have so far detected a ship over a kilometer long idling in the asteroid belt, ten thousand kilometers away. Should we inform the rest of navy command?" Her radar technician inquired.
"That wouldn't be necessary, move forwards for the kill. Estimated arrival time?" She asked. "About six hours Captain." Her pilot informed. "Have all crews ready for battle five hours from now. That Acclamator is no longer the first priority." She told her comms officer to which the other woman nodded.
Indeed they had engaged with the Liberator earlier who had decided to use the Nantuker home star as a gravity slingshot to escape the area. The hapans couldn't risk such a maneuver with more fragile hulls and shields.
Sigil detected the presence of his sister nearby so he quicjly used force stealth that he learned from Satele's holocron. Shielding his prescense from all force sensitives.
"Sir, another ship has entered the system." The radar technician said. "Keep it. How far away?" He asked. "About six thousand kilometers. That is aside from the Hapans who are five thousand kilometers away." The man replied.
"Inform the navigation room to have us follow an arc motion movement. Away from the new arrival and around the Hapans rear. All unnecessary systems are to be shut down and power usage minimized." He ordered. Moving away from whatever imperial ship that was, guaranteed safety from their lacking scanners while looping around to crush the Hapan task force who seemingly abandoned him.
Over the course of five hours, the Hapan task force finally spotted a slight gray color that was idol as opposed to the asteroids. "That is the ship Captain." The radar officer confirmed.
"Can you determine ship class?" Captain Poruna asked. "Yes mam. It seems to be a clone wars era Venator class star destroyer although heavily modified." Her radar officer replied.
"Order all pilots to their stations but wait for my signal. Put the rest of the task force on high alert." She ordered. "Attention all pilots, get to your stations. I repeat all the pilots to their stations. Fleet alertness is being moved to maximum." The comms officer repeated.
The Hapans task force approached the Venator who dropped its disguise and pushed its power generators to the max, the hapans doing the same.
Once in sufficient range, the Voyager titled its nose up by 30° executing the marge sable maneuver. The Hapans however held off on their advance, not risking their fighters. For now, the only things exchanged were heavy turbo laser shots.
Captain Poruna, seeing she couldn't keep up slugging it out with the better armored Venator, decided one of her Nova class cruisers to fly under the Venator and surround her.
The cruiser was very fast but her Captain was caught off guard by a shining blue light that had formed on the ventral hanger of the ship. Horror struck the crew as they realized that the blue light belonged to a heavy artillery piece which blasted them with a single focused shot.
Seizing the initiative, Revan ordered the Venator to launch two squadrons of Tie defenders. One to strike the top side and the other to strike the bottom of the battle dragon.
Two full squadrons of Tie defenders screamed as they surrounded the battle dragon and began starfing it. Poruna scrambled fighters and laser cannons to engage the nimble strikers.
The defenders were undeterred as under new orders, unleashed proton torpedoes and concussion missiles on the battle dragon until her shields were overloaded.
Just as the shields were at critical, Revan had the Venator reoriented herself and charged forwards. This charge managed to cripple the battle dragon and lined the Voyager's broadside to that of the remaining cruiser.
A cruiser, no matter how well built, was no match for a battleship. Suffering very greatly against broadsides. And broadsides are what they received. Loads of flaks and turbolasers blew up the lone cruiser in a very short time as it attempted a withdrawal.
The remains of the battle dragon were reeled in via tractor beams in preparation for boarding.
"Sir, the Hapans… they're gone." His Lieutenant informed. "Distance to the ship?" He asked his navigational officer. "Fifty minutes Admiral. They are hiding behind the asteroid but their battle showed us their location." His navigational officer said.
"Are they approaching?" He said, turning to his radar operator. "Yes sir, they are." The woman told him.
Finally he turned to his comms officer. "Lieutenant, have the tractor beam operators reel in a large asteroid and have it moved to our port side.". "Sir I don't understan-" "You don't have to understand, just follow." He said.
"My lady, we've detected another ship, this one around seven hundred meters in length." The radar operator of Voyager informed. "Has the battle dragon been boarded?" She asked turning to Taer. "Yes mam." He replied. "Then go in for an engagement." She ordered. "Thirty minutes until arrival." He informed.
"Sir, we have been spotted!" His Lieutenant panicked. "No need to. Have the operators lock on to an equally large asteroid to our starboard side but hold off on the reel." He informed. The lieutenant must have lost weight from the amount of sweat that was forming on his body from sheer horror.
The minutes ticked by as the Voyager approached the Liberator, hidden behind an asteroid yet didn't launch her fighters. It was a setup, a trap that she wouldn't fall for. Uet Revan couldn't be sure if that was his intention but it seemed the most logical seeing as he had used a technique to hide his presence.
"Fifty kilometers…49 kilometers and approaching very fast." The radar operator panicked. "Reel the starboard asteroid in." He ordered. "Sir, that is suicide!" Lieutenant 'Belgor' protested. "Inform the operators to reel it in." He said to his comms officer who obliged immediately.
He saw on the hologram as the asteroid neared and neared. "Severe the lock and divert all power to engines, we are done here." He ordered, facing his comms officer once more. The liberator rushed forwards at maximum speeds away from the two asteroids set for collision.
"Mam, that is the ship, right there." Her radar operator pointed towards the fleeing Accalamtor. Her senses in the force however tingled. "Nose dive!" She ordered immediately about fifteen kilometers from the asteroids. The Voyager dove steeply.
Everything that wasn't bolted down properly was sent flying as the inertial compensator and artificial gravity generator struggled to keep them in place.
Staring up, she saw one asteroid slam into the one in front of them and launch it forwards to where they were. But they weren't totally safe as fragments from the asteroid collision impacted the dorsal hanger and broke its mechanism. They would have to wait for repairs. Else risk being picked off by the Acclamator.
All Revan could do was stare as the Liberator flew away from her grasp. "Repair the hanger then pursue!" She seethed, stomping back to her quarters with the entire bridge crew holding their breath at what might come. Yet they all escaped the wrath of the dark side unharmed.
She stomped in, sealing the door behind her. She walked over to the holo projector and kneeled, collecting herself; she initiated contact with the emperor and waited for him to pick up.
"Lady Kharna, I presume you are here to report on your first engagement." Palpatine greeted with a grin. "Yes my lord. We were tricked and my brothe- Admiral Trial escaped my grasp." She said with a hardening expression, realizing that she shouldn't refer to him as her brother.
To her surprise his expression didn't change, still dawning that grin. "And how did he escape?" He questioned, eager for answers. "He tractor beamed an asteroid between us and set up another on his opposing side. Once we approached he reeled the second into the first. The collision knocked the first in our path. Luckily I was warned by the force and escaped but debree impacted and damaged our hanger fkkr." She reported.
Palpatine had a thoughtful expression on his face as he studied her words. "That is an interesting strategy." He admitted. "What of the world you were fighting over?" He asked. "He likely garrisoned it seeing as no patrols came for us." She replied.
"Should I take it?" She asked. "No." He began. "There is no point letting the Hapans know that we have encroached upon their space. We don't want Hapes. Just the Admiral." He reminded, ending the transmission and leaving her to ponder on her next move.