The militant prime wandered through his ship through a path he had wandered a thousand times aboard a ship that pre-dated much of the Empire's territory on this side of the galatic core. He was angry, old, and tired, when he took command of The Forsaken he promised himself that he would see real progress in the war before he died. This personal promise had haunted him more and more in the past few years with his advancing age, and he needed to fulfill it. Else he would be remembered as Boh-Dak the lazy or some such non-sense. He had made life for the empire difficult around the home system, sure, he had done nothing but maintain the status quo which only redoubled his resolve to make some real head way in the few years he had left before age claimed his life.

He stopped walking when he reached the vast hangar bay and looked out the huge blast resistant windows. He was in a pressure suit, the hangar was never pressurized because it was simply too vast and provided no aid to keep it pressurized. He stared out into the void, obsured by nebulae, when a thought struck him. The Mekhar, he almost shouted the name when he thought of it. They had been holding the Empire at bay for years far better than the Gargan ever had. The two xenos had clashed on a couple occasions, but the Gargan where always defeated when the two collided. It had been nearly 400 years since the two had clashed, a peace brokered due to the encroaching threat of humanity. He struck his comm-link to the bridge in his suit, "Find me a long range cruiser! and a few frigate escorts! muster them for extended travel."

The Militant walked back to the bridge while the forces where being assembled and supplied. He had pondered why the Gargan had never reached out to the Mekhar before, he really couldn't think of a reason... Well, other than the refusal of aid that spelled the doom of the last Grand Armada. Maybe that old grudge was it, he couldnt be sure but 308 years was a long time to hold a grudge. When he finally reached the bridge a small fleet had been assembled, long range ships designed to be on patrol for months at a time. He hailed each of the ships to relay their orders.

"captain, you are to take your fleet and make your way to Mekhar space, quietly if you can. You will not be found by Human patrols." Boh-Dak said "You will slip deep into Mekhar territory and broadcast an ambassador designation. You are there to meet with an official of theirs and make a deal."

"what deal is that sir?" says the cruiser captain

"Their shielding technology. They have been holding the humans at bay with it for hundreds of years. it must be a powerful we must have it" 

"and if they refuse?"

Boh-dak hesitated at this, he wasnt sure what he would do if they refused, it hadn't even occured to him. Surely they would aid anyone fighting with the empire, if not... "if not, we are pirates. Capture one of their vessels that use the shielding technology and return it to us. Our scientists will take it from there. But do not do this until you must! Capture is a last resort."

"of course Militant. I request a unit of Heavy Marines if this turns into a pirate operationg."

The Militant waived his had dismissively. "of course, but again, Piracy of the Mekhar is a last resort."

"Understood."

The Militant closed the communications link and observed the fleet, For an hour various shuttles ferried supplies to the readied fleet, ammunition, food, water, fuel. Everything they would need for months in space. The cruiser was even granted a pair of Light fighter drones to occupy its launch tubes. Then the fleet fires up their FTL drives, making careful jumps to evade commonly patrolled parts of space. Arriving only at lonely stars or is the heart of nebulae befor firing the drives again to creep a little closer to Mekhar space, mostly moving 'up' in relation to the galactic plane, hopefully exploiting the Human tendancy to work within a flat plane rather than a 3D map.

[hr]

Six Gargan battle suits stomped out from a cargo ship onto the concours of one of the smaller stations orbiting the planet. The Cargo ship was totally unmarked and was broadcasting a human distress signal, requesting emergency docking. Everything set to look like a routine Life support failure in system, and only drew the attention of a few security officers. The battle suits where follwed by two dozen battle droids, shoddy in make, several with exposed endoskeletons and wiring. The droids and battle suits opened up on any security or EOM forces on the concorse. The heavy rail rifles of the battle suits hammering security forces down in rapid sucessuion. The droids cutting them down with combined fire from many simple pulse lasers. Blast doors began to fall almost immediately, but it was an insignificant problem as one of the battle suits produced a heavy industrial cutter, one too heavy for most humans to carry let alone use, and began cutting through one of the walls near the door, leading to a different corridor than the one being heavily fortified with EOM forces. in a minute they had cut into an engineering tunnel, beraly large enough to allow the battle suits through. However, one of the battle suits and half the droids stayed behind covering the advance, keeping EOM forces pinned behind the doors with volleys of pulse laser and rail slugs. 

The EOM scrambled to harass the boarding party, but having a difficult time in the cramped spaces of the engineering tunnels, the battle suit bulk shrugging off most fire and returning the favor with punishing volleys of fire. It was a short trip but the Gargan boarding party found their objective, the massive chlorine tanks used to supply Gargan breathing apparatus. two of the battle suits had been cut down by EOM forces, including every droid they had brought but with their prize in sight they pushed the EOM back. A dozen satchel charges where placed around the tanks and on walls connecting to major areas of the station.

The charges where detonated with the Battle Suits in the room, killing the whole team, but releasing thousands of gallons of Chlorine into the station's atmosphere, being pumped  rapidly throughout the station. The security teams and commanders of the station had ample warning before the air became too toxic to breath but many did not. hundreds of civilians and any human too far from an enviro-suit all died of toxic exposure. Fully two thirds of the station population where killed and dozens of systems taking damage from being exposed to the oxidizing gas.