Chapter 1: Unseen Predator

"Everything is quiet in sector Gamma One-dash-Two," the surveillance officer called out from his screen.

"Good," the commanding officer said. He was by no means small in stature, and he was a major, as indicated by the red star-burst rank piece on his color. The major pushed a small lever on his chair which swung it to the right, towards the greenish skinned petty officer, "Continue on to Gamma One-dash-Three."

"Right away sir," the officer said, returning to the console, then said in a side murmur to the soldier at the controls, "Not that it is going to do any good."

"Aye," the silver-golden skinned Diosk said with a slow nod of his head, pushing a button to send the scanner over to the sector in question.

"If you need me," the major said, standing from his chair, "I'll be in my quarters. I'll be catching up on those letters my family sent me yesterday."

"Very good sir," the petty officer said, then he waited until the Major was gone to voice his other piece of mind, "You know, we are on one of the most boring posts in the Galaxy. This Alderaan Shards hasn't seen action in five years, since Thrawn's incursion. We are merely five light-years from Coruscant, the most heavily armed place in the galaxy. Why should we stay here? We should be helping mop up the Empire for crying out loud!"

"They'll never let you go," an enlisted man called out from the side of the room, where he was fixing a screen with the map of the sector on it, "You'd probably soil your pants sir."

"Quiet Hefty," he snapped, pointing a long warning finger at him, "But really, I haven't seen combat since I joined the Republic military after Coruscant fell back in 7 ABY. I really want to get in some action before my time runs up next year."

"You have never fought the Imperials," the Diosk said, his voice going quiet, "Nor have you seen the destruction of your home world. Diosk was a peaceful place. We had never even harmed one another ever since the awakening seven centuries ago. Then came the Empire. I am one of only three survivors, and the only reason we survived was we were seventy-five light-years away on Corellia, doing transaction with the House of Iblis."

"If I may be so bold sir," the soldier said from his work, setting down a tool to grab a wrench, "The Imperials didn't hold this galaxy for so long for nothing. They are highly trained. Even now, with so much of their territory lost, what is left is pure durasteel."

"I understand that soldier. And, I am sorry that I can't fully comprehend your loss Diosk," the petty officer said, looking at the screen, "but, why are you fighting in this war? Don't you want to live out your life in peace and repopulate your species? Sounds logical even to my unenlightened mind."

"It would have been possible had not all the women of my race died out," Diosk sighed.

"Can you not breed with other species?" his comrade asked, to which he received a shake from the Diosks' head.

"I shudder at the thought," he replied, and indeed, his whole body vibrated for a second, "That's a moral sin of the highest order. And even that wasn't the case, we are not genetically compatible with other races. So, we are all dead men anyways."

Even as he turned away from the unpleasant thought, there was a suddenly bleep on the scanners. At first the Diosk did not realize it, but the second bleep brought him to his senses. He looked really closely at it, and saw a third bleep, and for half a second, he saw a red narrow triangular shape on the scanners. Then, it vanished entirely.

"Hmm," he muttered to himself, "That's odd."

The petty officer, sitting now on the back of the swivel chair behind him, called out, "What's up?"

"For a couple seconds I saw a ship on our radar," he said, tapping on the radar screen, "then suddenly it vanished."

"It's probably nothing," the man said.

"I swear it was there," the alien said, holding the palms of his hands up in exasperation.

"It might have been a sensor ghost," the petty officer replied, "Stuff like that happens, especially so close to the hyperspace lanes into the Core. Don't worry about it. Everything will be fine."

Most of the power on the station was off, with the lights dimmed to a dark nothing. The only things running were some wall lights that shown a very faint illumination in the darkness. The scanners were also running, showing and glowing blue in the darkness.

Out of the four man garrison assigned to this post, only the Bothan remained awake. His fur seemed to block the light from the systems to any eyes that might be watching. The bothan had just come back with a mug of liquids, and he had barely sat down. He took a sip out of his steaming cup and recoiled as the heat scolded his lips and tongue.

Kriff! he angrily thought to himself as he blew on the liquid Why do humans have to make things so scolding hot?

There was a thump, soft but distinct in the darkness. The Bothan didn't take much notice to it beyond calling out, "You won't scare me tonight Jartm. Your pranks won't work on me."

He was not responded to, much to his annoyance. Humans were jerks and idiots in his opinion. They cared more about a good prank then seriousness. And when you try to call them out, they act as if they didn't hear you. Made him angry to no end.

Then, his ears picked up multiple feet, trying to walk as silent as the grave. His highly sensative ears could pick up twelve distinct feet, which in the dark and his enhanced hearing, seemed to ricochet off the walls like the battering rams of hell. What the kriff is going on?

But he heard the discipline, the continued rythm of steps. Republic troops did not sound that way when they walked. Only one type of soldiers did so.

He felt his way to his blaster on his side, and slowly stood, pulling it out of the leather holster. The flap of the holster silently flopped back down, which he usually was annoyed about. But, he was a veteran of Endor and the mission to retrieve the plans for the Second Death Star. He was a soldier, of the Elite Commando Force, and these Imperials were dealing with the wrong garrison.

He turned on his comlink and tapped the voice piece three times and after a second, there was two taps in return. The Diosk was also up. The major and the petty officer were themselves not part of the Elite Commandos, but, they were good people by nature. The Diosk would ensure they would wake up, indeed, it was good that Diosks had no need for sleep, but entered a meditation phase when needing to regenerate their bodies.

He tapped and scratched the top of the comlink, a signal of intruders, then rapidly tapped it twelve times. In return came three clicks, that said 'that's not good.' He tapped then slid his finger across the mouthpiece, the signal that he would take out a couple of the intruders. There was a slight crackle that came from it; their comlinks were being jammed.

Three persons were deviating from the main group, who were branching off in four directions. Two were heading for the garrison quarters, and the other for the generators. The last group was heading his direction, as his ears could tell. He sidestepped across the room, and backed against a closet. He opened the door quietly and closed the door behind him.

Three heavy boots could now be heard, walking into the room. After a second, he could hear laughter. "Fools," one of the Imperials said, "They left their control room abandoned. These rebels are sloppy."

"Silence!" another soldier hissed, "These rebels didn't abandon this room."

"What?" the other one asked.

"They used this same tactic at Nal Shadda," the other, probably an officer said, "They hide in plain sight, camouflaging themselves. Those blasted Bothans are good."

"You're right sir," another voice said, "The scanners pick up traces of someone being here recently. Barely a minute ago."

There was silence now, and the three men started to quietly hunt around the room. Had they not spoken, they wouldn't have had been so easy targets. But, they were mistaken. One of them approached the closet, and he tapped on the door with the barrel of his gun. He slowly opened the door, but he had barely opened it when the Bothan struck.

He fired a shot, which caught the Imperial square in the mask of his helmet, and as he fell, the other Imperials turned and began to rack the closet with laser fire. But the Bothan was already out. He grabbed the larger Imperial, held him up as a shield, and charged across the room, using the body to ward off the bolts. The Imperial he was after fired so rapidly, that he ran out of energy before the Bothan struck, and throwing the body aside, grabbed the Imperial by the head and turned his head, breaking his neck.

The other Imperial had dived behind the control chair, using it to shield himself from the Bothan. The Bothan fired a couple shots, pinning him down, but he also had to dive behind a table when the Imperial jumped up and sprayed the wall where he had been standing.

Now on his hands and knees, he could look under the other table, and he could see the feet of the man, who was popping off a few more rounds. What the kriff am I doing? He took out a thermal detonator and threw it at the Imperial. The Imperial seeing the detonator roll towards him, rolled to the floor, firing away as he rolled. But, now that he was out in the open, and a single blast took him out, striking him in the back.

The fool didn't even realize I didn't set the detonator, he said, and pushing himself out from under the table stood. He ran over to his unactivated dentonator, hearing laser fire now in the corridor, signaling that his comrades were awake and defending the base. He ran out of the room, and almost ran into two Imperials that were huddled behind a crate. They were too busy shooting down the hall to react to the Both that shot them in the back of the head execution style. The Bothan dropped to one knee, checked his ammo, and prepared to move on down the hallway, and continue the assault from behind.

But, he heard a snap-hiss of a lightsaber and the last thing he would hear was a cold voice hiss, "Long Live the Empire."