The bridge of Loyal Hound was filled with a certain amount of tension as it separated from the Talos Chariot and its accompanying X-wing escort. The Loyal Hound was a bigger and better-armed ship, but there was a certain amount of comfort that came with being part of a group. Different types of ships benefited from each other, covering for weaknesses like being slow but well-armed or fast and lightly shielded. IPVs were known for being on the slow side, and they also had vulnerable underbelly, as the majority of their weapons were built into the dorsal side of the vessel.

Still, they had a mission to complete, and with any luck, they would have a minor escort again soon.

The small group split as they hit the upper atmosphere of Forisa, the Chariot, and the X-Wings, heading directly for the main target. At the same time, the Hound diverted to drop off its cargo of super battle droids and commando droids, all of which were stoically standing in the back of the ship.

As the ship continued to descend, the comms officer reported that the Brick had, in fact, completed its mission and that it was on target to join them as an escort. The tension began to unwind slightly, only to click up and over what it had been when, in almost the same breath, he reported that the Chariot had spotted a flight of twenty-five incoming TIE fighters.

The captain of the Hound cursed, ordering his men to prepare to divert energy from the shields and weapons to the thrusters, so that they could return to the Chariot as quickly as possible. While the Chariot was a capable ship, and they were being escorted by six X-wings, twenty-five TIE fighters was too much for them to handle.

Just as the Brick pulled into formation with the much larger ship, sensors confirmed that the small fleet of TIE fighters had split up, ten of them heading out to engage the Hound while the remaining fifteen targeted the Chariot.

With the odds now significantly more even and no order to reconvene for aid, the captain of the Hound ordered the crew to continue on, letting the TIE fighter almost completely catch up before ordering a full stop.

The Hound slowed down so quickly that the inertial compensators struggled to maintain control of the ship's occupants, with several people and droids getting pulled from their chairs and onto the ground. Still, the move had worked, as many of the Imperial starfighters entered the range of the Hound's weapons without having time to think or divert around.

The opening barrage of the larger ships' weapons obliterated four of the TIE fighters before they could take evasive action. Two of those starfighters dove under the IPV, which would ordinarily be a large weak point in terms of weapon emplacements. Unfortunately for them, that was exactly where the Brick was waiting, its turret and forward-facing weapons obliterating both TIEs in seconds.

The remaining TIEs split off from each other, encircling the IPV. As they realized all of their backup was destroyed, both of them attempted to pull away and escape, potentially to regroup. The Brick chased after one, destroying it after a few seconds as the Rebel manning the turret took his time to aim while the IPV rotated on its long axis, realigning most of its weapons on the target. It barely survived the first salvo, its wing damaged and smoking before another shot obliterated it completely.

Immediately, the ship re-oriented towards its target and engaged its thrusters, burning atmo to arrive at its destination as soon as it could.

The destination was a large Imperial-run dockyard specifically built to repair and tend to the planet's defensive fleet. Currently, two IPVs were grounded, as well as a much larger Arquitens-class light cruiser. Surrounding the dock were several turbolaser turrets, security checkpoints, and a stormtrooper garrison.

Unfortunately for them, they were not prepared to be besieged by a larger ship, and with no shields to protect them, the buildings and weapon emplacements were quickly obliterated by the Loyal Hounds turbolaser fire. The ship barely dropped below seventy-five percent shields before they had utterly destroyed the dockyard's defenses. Once the target was softened and made defenseless by the ship, it began to descend, preparing to disgorge its payload.

"Someone tell the droids that this is their stop!" The captain shouted, the order making its way to the waiting droids.

Immediately they began disembarking, dropping the six or seven feet that remained between the bottom of the boarding ramp and the ground. The commando droids, led from the front by Boxi, simply rolled and absorbed the impact, efficiently handling the gap. The battle droids, however, often stumbled and had to be dragged out of the way to let their compatriots down. In total, it took a full minute and thirty seconds for the small droid force to leave the ship. Once they were clear, the Loyal Hound and Brick immediately lifted off and left the droid forces behind.

"BX-18, 19, and 20 take command of ten B2s and two slicer droids and lead an assault on IPV one," Boxi commanded, gesturing to the nearest patrol craft, nearly identical to the ship they had just lept from. "Prioritize slicer droids and commando survival to retain rendezvous coordinates and astronavigation information."

"Roger Roger," BX-18 confirmed, nodding and raising its weapon, both commandos falling in on either side of them, ten B2s following as they began traversing the smokey, wreck-filled dockyard.

Without needing to give a command, the rest of the commando and B2 droids fell in line behind Boxi, immediately spreading out. As they quickly moved toward the larger, three-hundred-meter-long ship, they encountered several injured or separated Imperial officers, engineers, and security. None of them lived long after the encounter, though there was a brief interrogation for the security and the officer that revealed the potential forces on board the Arquitens.

The robotic forces pushed to the ship, quickly taking two boarding ramps that ran along the keel line of the starship. Realizing the boarding ramps were by far the most likely ambush point, Boxi sent his B2 battle droids up the ramps, facing the ambush head-on. Meanwhile, the remaining seventeen commando droids ran around to the back end of the ship and used a pile of still partially burning wreckage to jump up to the large ship. Using a heavy laser cannon port to climb up along the side of the ship's exterior, they then hoisted the slicer droids with them using wire filament and mag clamps. Eventually, they arrived at an exterior hatch, an emergency exit designed for after the ship had crashed or was set to explode.

With a quick handful of slashes to the hinges and structural support of the hatch, Boxi placed several explosive charges, forming them into the newly carved cracks and seams of the hatch. Once placed and set, the droids quickly put some distance between them and the potent explosives.

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The following explosion barely vibrated the thick hell under their metal feet, even as the shockwave rocked them. It did, however, do its job, blasting the hatch open and exposing the interior of the ship. In groups of three, the commando droids dropped into the ship, clearing the outer hall they had found themselves in.

The interior of the ship was dark, dusty, and empty, with emergency light casting a very dull light along the walls. Quickly, they formed up, pushing through the hall and following Boxi's internal map. It wasn't perfect, especially because this ship had been upgraded and revitalized so many times during its service to the Republic and, after that, in the Empire. Luckily, with the combination of known information and what they had gotten from the few people they interrogated, they were able to make their way around pretty well.

They pushed through the ship, first heading to the crew area. There, they quickly eliminated a handful of security as they desperately tried to hide and fortify the lounge area. Unfortunately for them, there were multiple entrances to that lounge, meaning that Boxi ordered several of his droids to run around and attack from a different angle. The now flanked Imperials were wiped out in very short order after that.

Determined to take every advantage they could in clearing the vessel, Boxi led his team further into the warship, this time ambushing the ambushers, attacking the people blocking the onboarding ramps from behind, wiping them out quickly as they attempted to fight off the B2s. The larger droids had taken significant casualties but had served their purpose as a distraction. Now, as they continued to clear the large ship, they acted as shield walls and cannon fodder.

When the largest pockets of resistance were cleared, Boxi split up the remaining droids, four B2s and fourteen BXs. The first group, all four B2, and four BXs, would continue to clear, room by room, while the larger team moved to attack the bridge, claiming it for their own and allowing them to use the ship's sensors to find the remaining stowaways.

Boxi led the team to the bridge, prying open the turbolift shaft since the system had been physically disabled. They crawled up the interior of the shaft, leaving the slicer droids at the base where it was safe. Once they reached the bridge floor, they pried the turbolift door open, tossing a pair of stun grenades through the hole as blaster fire rushed through. Even as the explosive stunning device went off, the droids were diving into the bridge through the opening in the door. Some of the droids found cover while others sacrificed themselves to take down as many of the stormtroopers and other imperials that had been hiding there as they could.

The Imperials, stunned by the aggressiveness, were not prepared as the second wave dove from their cover and flanked them, finishing off any stragglers. Silence ran over the bridge, and for a long moment, the droids seemed to enjoy the quiet.

Then it was over, as Boxi made sure that the Imperials were, in fact, dead, double-tapping any that weren't. While he did that, the remaining five BX units carefully brought the slicer droids up to the bridge, the astromechs rushing to connect to the ship's mainframe. It didn't take long for them to restore minimum power and begin scanning the ship, allowing the second group to quickly eliminate any remaining forces.

In total, fifty-three imperials had been on board, and by the time twenty minutes had passed, all of them had been eliminated.

The slicer droids also established short-range communication with the IPV that the secondary group had attacked. Unsurprisingly, since that ship was significantly smaller, that group had succeeded as well, their droids in the process of clearing out any hidden programming and cutting through lockdown restrictions.

The droids on board the IPV reported thirty percent casualties due to an unexpected explosion as they attempted to board. The cargo bay was damaged, but the ship was nearly perfectly functional.

As the two slicer droids slowly cracked through the Imperial mainframe on board the Arquintens, they unlocked system by system, focusing first on the power. Not long after that, they cracked the shields, the captured IPV getting theirs online not long after that. As they were working their way through the weapons systems, one of the damaged but functional BX commandos pointed out the forward viewport.

"Incoming enemy starfighters!"

Boxi followed the damaged bot's gesture, spotting the incoming starfighter immediately. Unfortunately, with no weapons online, there was nothing he could do as they began to circle the dockyard.

"Receiving Broad spectrum comms message," one of the slicer droids whistled and bleeped out. "Response?"

"Focus on cracking the weapons," Boxi ordered.

Within moments of the message going out, the Imperial's patience wore through, and they began bombarding the ships with emerald green laser fire. The shield took the blasts easily, but they were officially on a timer, one marked by percentage points on their shields.

Point by point, the shields fell lower and lower, the IPVs falling much quicker than the Arquitens. Boxi had just about given up on getting both ships off the planet when the slicer droids finally whistled out that the ship's weapons were unlocked and ready to use.

Immediately, Boxi ran and jumped over the weapons console, landing in the seat and tapping the screen. The weapons, specifically the anti-starfighter weapons, spun and locked on, autofiring at full speed, unloading every joule they had.

Caught off guard by the sudden weapons fire, the TIE fighters bombarding the ships exploded immediately, followed by another three that were hanging back. Before they could even formulate a plan, however, the weapon systems of the boarded IPV activated, firing its own barrage and destroying a few more. Between the weapons systems of both ships, the TIE fighters didn't stand much of a chance and were soon destroyed. When the skies were clear, Boxi painted a new target, the third IPV. With no shields, the powerful turbolares mounted to the Arquinten's hull made quick work of the smaller ship, which detonated with a large explosion, rocking the dockyard and raining debris on both of the captured ships' shields.

Within ten minutes of fighting off the TIE fighters, the warning came through from the Talos Chariot that the mission was coming to an end and that the defense fleet was on its way back. The pair of ships waited patiently for the slicer droids to finally give them full control of the ship, listening to the messages as their Boss escaped with the help of the fleet. Finally, when the slicers were finished, Boxi gave the order to leave, the two ships pulling up off the planet's surface and heading for space. With the defense fleet engaging the secondary Rebel fleet, the two ships quickly slipped out of the planet's gravity well, making the jump to lightspeed right before the secondary fleet did the same.