This is my revisement of Chapter one. Hope you like it better than the first.
High Admiral Sian Labrith stood on the deck of his Star Destroyer II, The Velocity II, his arms crossed, staring ahead out into Anexes' space. All of his other Admirals were off duty for the time being, except for his second-in-command, Admiral Anthony Arden of the fastest Star Destroyer in the galaxy, The Stallion. Although not visible from his vantage point, The Stallion was on Velocity II's left, idle, the Star Destroyer creeping extremely slowly through space with Velocity II.
It was strange to Sian though, that Rebel activity in the galaxy was at an all time low. There was no way that the Rebellion had been defeated, but it's not like they need to be attacking Anexes anyway. The quiet spooked him, and everything thing around him was quiet; even the crewmen had fallen silent. For a moment, Sian wished for a Rebel attack to stir things up a bit, to break the eerie silence.
Sian, not wishing to be silent any longer, swirled around and left for his private quarters to speak with Arden, who at the moment, was probably playing some sort of betting game with his second-in-command on board Stallion. On his way to his quarters, Sian obtained a strange, eerie feeling that something terrible was about to occur. He brushed it away without a second thought on the matter.
FOOP. The door to his quarters slid open quickly, revealing a tidy room consisting of a comfortable bed, a very large desk, a COM radio and a view of the starboard side of The Velocity II. Not to mention his own personal laser cannon for when he was unable to make it to the bridge and command the ship. He had yet to use it.
Now standing over the COM radio, he picked up the transmitter. "Admiral Arden, do you copy?"
Immediately, Arden's deep voice responded him, "I copy Admiral Sian. What can I do for you?"
Sian cleared his throat and took a seat near his desk. "Nothing much. The silence is starting to creep me out," he stated friendly. "I just needed to talk to a friend," he added with a smile.
Arden chuckled at the mere thought of his life long friend, his superior officer, wishing to chat with him while drifiting over a planet. "Sure thing Sian. I know what you mean. It's a ghost town over here too. Lyle didn't even want to bet on some sport with me and you know how he is with gambling."
It was true. Kelly Lyle, second-in-command of The Stallion loved to gamble, mostly because he won all the time. His luck astounded some and frustrated others, which included Sian and all of the other Admirals in the fleet, aside from Arden ofcourse. He gambled almost as much as Lyle, without the amazing luck. Sian himself was a terrible gambler, but a master tactician. Somehow, the two didn't seem to mix for him.
"I see. It's very eerie on my own bridge. Everyone has stopped talking and the computers even seemed to be quiet, though I knew they weren't."
There was a long pause as Arden spoke to Lyle, who had just entered the room. "Sorry about that. Lyle's here. Says he wants to make a wager with you."
Sian sighed, but he held an amused smile. "Alright, let 'em at me."
In a flash, Lyle had taken over the COM radio. "Alright Admiral Sian, I'll bet you ten thousand credits that all day today, we won't see a blink of action, or even an enemy ship. Whaddaya say?"
"You're on, Lyle. But don't get mad at me if any Rebels decide to come bumping along," Sian replied, walking over to the laser cannon and sitting in its seat.
Lyle scoffed. "You wish that would happen, but you know it won't."
Sian didn't want to believe that, but it was true. He honestly didn't expect even an X-wing to appear. Ever since the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire had been madly chasing the Rebels throughout the galaxy, hell-bent on their annihilation. But for a good year now, the Rebel leaders had kept themselves hidden from the Empire's attempts at their deaths. Then something caught Sian's eye after two minutes of silence from Arden and Lyle.
"My god... I've got three MC-80s hyperspacing in! Get to your stations you two, Sian over and out." With the final sentance, Sian jumped up and stormed out of his quarters, the alarm in the ship now blaring through the halls. Men rushed past crazily to man their guns.
Bursting into the bridge, there was a hive of activity that made Sian feel more relaxed. An Ensign approached him. "Sir, we've picked up three MC-80 Mon Calamari cruisers on our starboard side, ten corvettes on our port side and a massive array of fighters heading straight for us at our bow consisting of X-wings, B-wings and A-wing," he reported quickly.
"Understood, open the hangar bay doors and have our fighters engage theirs. Focus all fire on the corvettes until the MC-80s are in range, but keep pulling away from them, always towards the corvettes. We can take them easily, but the three MC-80s will tear us to shreds." The MC-80s were still quite a ways off, the fighters and bombers had closed the gap dangerously and the corvettes were now making their way towards Velocity II.
In a matter of seconds, swarms of TIE fighters from both Star Destroyers bolted past Velocity II's bridge to engage the Rebel fighters. Stallion rushed past Velocity II with the help of its six engines, three over the standard, straight at the corvettes. Velocity II was right behind her, the starboard now to the fighters and the stern to the MC-80s that had begun moving up.
According to the battle map, the TIEs had begun to blow up the B-wings, but the X and A-wings had stayed the course towards Velocity II and The Stallion. "Their tactic troubles me, Admiral Arden. They're sending their fighters to ultimate doom against our anti-fighter lasers, but they're also letting their bombers be destroyed, therefore nullifying their uses for their fighters. Theres something going on here."
Arden didn't respond, but Sian knew he was pondering the same thing.
"Sir! We're getting a transmition from the Rebel MC-80s," a young crewmen reported.
"I'll allow it." Sian approached the hologram of a Rebel Fleet Admiral, his arms behind his back. He looked much like himself.
"This is the MC-80 Mon Calamari cruiser Liberation. Surrender your ships or be destroyed!" The young Admiral stated boldly.
Sian seemed to consider it for a moment, and then shut off the hologram. "Denied," he muttered.
BOOM. An explosion from The Stallion made a deafening explosion, and rocked The Velocity II. The bombers had broken through; Three out of six of Stallion's engines were destroyed. "GET THOSE BOMBERS!" Sian commanded as anti-fighter lasers attempted to destroy the B-wings.
"Admiral Sian, where the hell did our TIEs go?" Arden questioned, fear obvious in his voice.
"I don't know, Admiral. Just hold tight, and keep the course." Arden did as he was told, staying the course against the approaching corvettes. "Oh my god. The bombers are coming around for another pass at his engines," Sian said aloud. "Take them out!"
It was to late. The B-wings torpedos smashed into The Stallion's engines, knocking out the remaining three, rendering motion for the ship impossible. This, however, did not stop The Stallion from destroying three out of the ten passing corvettes. Velocity II destroyed five.
"Turn this ship around, towards the fighters." Sian wanted to know why his TIEs had suddenly been destroyed. When he saw, his mouth hung open. Twenty Corellian corvettes had entered the system and had torn through the TIEs.
"Admiral Sian, get out of here! Theres nothing you can do now. If you stay, we'll both die! Atleast if you escape, you can keep the fleet going!" Arden's voice came in on the COM station next to him.
"Arden..." He whispered. "I can't leave you here to die."
"Please don't argue with me sir, just please get our of here while there is still any escape left to make." Arden replied sternly.
"Understood," Sian said almost unaudible. "Crew, set your hyperspace coordinates for Coruscant and call the rest of the fleet in from vacation."
Arden spoke again. "Thank you Sian. Good luck."
Sian fought back tears, but laughed slightly. "Ya know... I think that ship is cursed. I'm so sorry... so, so sorry."
"Don't be. Just get out of here."
Sian didn't respond back; he only fell backwards and inhaled deeply. He couldn't see The Stallion any longer from their vantage point. In seconds, the stars seemed to stretch as The Velocity II entered hyperspace, leaving The Stallion, the fastest Star Destroyer in the galaxy and Admiral Anthony "Tony" Arden, High Admiral Sian's best friend, to the fate of the Rebel Alliance.
