[h1][u]The Imperial Shuttle[/u][/h1][color=silver]Hordes of Death Gliders swarmed toward the shuttle. The shuttle's escort ships went out to meet them... and slaughtered the incoming fighters. No fewer than four ships moved into position around the shuttle, some from either hyperspace, some conventionally. Many of those ships deployed their own fighters. Sensors were a tangled mess of unidentified ship markers.

A frigate-sized craft contacted them:
[table=bordered][row][cell]I am Captain Frye of the USS Creed from the United Federation of Planets. We cannot act as your shield forever. I suggest lowering your shields and allowing us to beam you aboard our ship.[/cell][/row][/table]'[i]Lower our shields? In the middle of battle? Madness!'[/i] Captain Bonma thought. "Focus on point defense! I want those fighters dead!"

That, at least, was going well; between the four ships and their fighter-escorts, Captain Bonma felt as safe as a practically-unarmed transport shuttle could in the middle of a pitched battlespace. The shuttle had even scored a kill on an enemy fighter. As the fireball dissipated, a strange, almost organic ship hailed the shuttle.

[table=bordered][row][cell]“A jump point vortex will be opening to your starboard. Make haste into it and you will be clear of the battle, try to avoid the edge.”[/cell][/row][/table]Either stay in the middle of a firefight or evacuate? That wasn't a hard call; whatever a "jump point vortex" was, it had to be better than here. If the shuttle's hyperdrive was functional, Bonma wouldn't even be here right now.
"Do it," ordered Captain Bonma. He spared a glance at the Emperor, who remained quiet for now.
"Enemy frigate, low on our six, closing," the sensors officer reported. A black ovoid decloaked behind the shuttle. The enemy Al'kesh's shields were flared orange as allied capital ships started to target it.

The shuttle shook; something started making an eerie, high-pitched howl. Emperor Palpatine stood, readying himself.

"Our shields are down. Engines disa-"[/color]
[hr]
[color=Orchid][u][h1]Anubis' Mothership[/h1][/u][/color][color=lavender]
Marnon could hear Anubis' shout of rage all the way from the third auxilliary control room. The room was deserted; even in battle, it wasn't important enough to guard. All essential functions were overriden by the Pel'tak (bridge), and if the Mothership was ever so damaged that the third auxilliary was needed, the mothership would probably be doomed.

Whatever Anubis had wanted from the alien shuttle, he clearly wasn't going to get it now; according to the sensors, one of the enemy ships had destroyed the shuttle. If that wasn't enough, the debris was instantly swallowed up by some sort of vortex. An Al'kesh and a few Death Gliders, still burning hard for the shuttle, made it into the vortex, too.

This was new. Nothing quite made Anubis this angry except for, perhaps, SG-1, but Marnon didn't recognize any of these ships. The Tok'Ra high council had to know about this. There was a slight problem, however, in that Anubis was losing. When Anubis lost, he tended to get a bit killy. Given how little time there'd been to supply the Mothership, and Marnon being undercover as the minor Goa'uld in charge of logistics, he was concerned.

Blowing his cover would be a drastic step, but in the last five minutes alone, a fleet of unkown ships had just challenged Anubis and started slaughtering Death Gliders. He turned back to the abandoned computer terminal, spoofed a maintenence cycle on the secondary comms array, and sent a message to the fleet of enemy ships.
[/color]
[table=bordered][row][cell][color=lavender][text only]
I am a Tok'ra agent aboard Anubis' mothership requesting extraction. Sensors detect no ring platforms on your ships and all of Anubis' fighters have been deployed. Please advise. This channel will remain secure for the next five minutes.[/color][/cell][/row][/table]
[color=orange][h3][u]Pel'tak[/u][/h3][/color][color=papayawhip]Fire burned in Anubis' soul. How dare they? Had they no sense of self-preservation? The newcomers would feel his wrath.

"Apparently they don't understand the galactic power structure. Pick one of their ships and teach by example," he ordered.
"Yes, my lord," his Second Prime responded.

[@Thecrash20]Anubis' Mothership unleashed a hailstorm of plasma fireballs at [i]The Liberator[/i]. The onslaught was continuous and unending; stray shots caught Death Gliders and enemy fighters alike.

[@Matuas][@eemmtt]The Death Gliders were starting to thin. Clearly the enemy would win fighter superiority, but Anubis' loyal Jaffa would take out their fair share. Anubis redirected the Gliders from the Imperial Shuttle to attacking the two smaller enemy vessels - the Adenn and the Myth. The Death Gliders completely ignored enemy fighters, aiming to die honorably.

"My lord," his Second Prime said. "Just before the shuttle was destroyed, we detected an energy stream from it to an enemy ship."

If it weren't beneath him, Anubis would have sighed with relief.

"Order the Al'kesh to disable its shields, and transport a contingent of Jaffa aboard with a tracking beacon."
"There's too much interference from enemy signals, My Lord. We need to move closer."
"Then make it so."

[@Burning Kitty]Two more Al'kesh decloaked on either side of the [i]Creed[/i]'s Alpha section, opening fire with the underside turreted dual staff cannons. Bright blue plasma charges (powerful bombs) followed.[/color]
[hr]
[h1][u]Hyperspace Vortex[/u][/h1][color=orange][u][h3]Al'kesh[/h3][/u][/color][color=papayawhip][@Dnafein]The Al'kesh's shields flickered; something in the vortex was causing a gradual, slow depletion of its shields. Two Death Gliders had also made it into the vortex. With such a pleasantly limited number of options, the Jaffa manning the ships chose to fight with honor. The Al'kesh fired volleys at the Ahel with its underbelly turret, trying to maneuver to stay behind the Ahel. The Death Gliders did their best to serve as a distraction, performing strafing runs against the Ahel.[/color]
[u][h3]The Imperial Shuttle Cockpit[/h3][/u][color=silver]Captain Bonma heard a quiet hissing sound. His forehead was wet, and something was digging into his back. Outside the viewscreen was a swirling mass of red and black. Behind him, the cockpit's cieling had crashed into a twisted mass of friction-welded metal. The seal was incomplete; precious air was leaking. The comms officer was bent unnaturally over a console, pale. There was no trace of the Emperor. As the cockpit tumbled uncontrollably, he could see a strange, almost organic, ship fighting a small frigate and two fighters. There was nothing for it.

[@Dnafein]He toggled the two switches necessary to enable the emergency distress beacon. It went off once and then the console sparked violently, singing his uniform.

Like a gift from a higher power, his flask drifted down into his lap.[/color]
[hr]
[color=lightcyan][h1][u]USS Creed, Alpha Section, Brig[/u][/h1][/color][color=ddffff][@Burning Kitty]The strange tingling sensation faded. Palpatine was looking at two guards. He could sense two Imperial Officers with him, and knew there were eight guards. He couldn't sense the guards. They were droids, or something close to it. [i]'Betrayal, already,'[/i] Palpatine thought. 

He drew a deep breath, closing his eyes, ignoring whatever the guards were saying. They were insignificant.

This situation was insignificant.

He had not risen to power only to allow his fate to end here.

Deep within himself, he found the reserve of bright, burning hatred, pure and more powerful than any force he'd ever known, cultivated by his master. His master, who had taught him mastery over the power of raw emotion, until Palpatine's mastery had exceeded his master's, proven by his master's death. And Palpatine's master had done the same to [i]his[/i] master, and so on, all the way back to the first Force user's pathetic, faltering steps into the light of true power. Palpatine channeled his anger, reaching out, making the Force obey him. 

Darth Sidious let the breath go, his eyes opening as his lightsaber engaged. Immediately, he raised it in a block, deflecting phaser fire at another guard. The two imperial officers went for their weapons as well. One was immediately hit by phaser fire; the other got off a single shot at one of the guards before he, too, was hit. Before the full force of guards could attack Palpatine, he Force Pushed a few of them into a wall.

He was alone, surrounded, on an enemy ship. His reactions were slower than normal - predicting droids was hard.

He was [i]pissed[/i].[/color]