"What The Hell?"
Author: CdnJAGScribe
E-mail: cdnjagscribe
Rating: M
Classification: SW/JAG crossover
Spoilers:
Summary: Harm, Mac, Meg, Animal, Lia and others have to figure out how to repel an invasion that they had never foreseen in their wildest imaginations and will it take a Jedi and their arcane arts to give Terrans a fighting chance of survival. Animal/Lia; Harm/Meg, Mac/Mic and Luke/Mara.
DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Star Wars characters belong to Disney and are the brainchild of George Lucas with the exception of Mara Jade who is the brainchild of the great Timothy Zahn. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.
Author's Note: I never particularly like to utilize cross-overs as two different shows and timelines never seem to mesh well. However…having seen several SW fics that seem to be written well enough. I'm still trying to reconcile a "long time ago in a galaxy far far away with it matching up to current time Earth. But if you can put all logic aside, well…here goes.
Star Destroyer Dominance, somewhere outside the Sol System, interstellar space
"Admiral, our sensors are picking up a deep-space probe, sir." One of the techs at his station hailed Admiral Drevan Kell. "It doesn't appear to be a Rebel probe."
"New life, is it? Ensign Vret?" The admiral inclined his head over the walkway of the Star Destroyer bridge. "What have you got for me?"
"I don't know, sir."
The admiral raised an eyebrow, "Then I suggest that you find out where it has originated from."
"But sir, if it has a self-destruct?"
"This solar system isn't advanced enough for this but put it in a containment force field for now." The admiral replied resolutely. The Emperor had given him orders to search the Unknown Regions of space and he was going to do so. If not he would be replaced by the Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader himself and that was something that he didn't intend to happen.
The ensign nodded and the lieutenant beside him yelled. "Lock tractor beam on the probe! Now!"
The Star Destroyer emitted a blue beam of light that enfolded the probe in its glow and dragged it towards the yawning open bay of the Star Destroyer. "Sir, we've retrieved the probe, sir and it appears to be rather primitive, sir."
"Well, we can certainly find out exactly who sent out this probe. Yet another world to claim for the glory of the Empire." Admiral Kell declared with finality.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, 0830hrs
"Jay, we've got a problem here. The signal from Voyager's been cut." Lorne Mellick stood up and waved Jay Reynolds over to the monitor. "I've got nothing here. The signal was clear one minute, gone the next." The two physicists exchanged looks of worry.
"Do you think that it could have collided with a stray asteroid?" Jay asked
Lorne shook his head. "There would have been transient signals picked up that would appear to be like static before the signal cutout. It almost seemed as though someone reached in and turned it off."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jay asked as he fastened a gimlet stare at his colleague.
"The Tsoukalos Theorem?" Lorne answered. "When all explainable theories have been debunked..."
"It's gotta be ALIENS!" They both finished, their faces paling.
"Shit, we gotta notify someone." Lorne said.
The Pentagon, Washington DC. 0855 hrs.
Admiral Toshio "Animal" Nakamura's day was starting off absolutely crap. Budget cuts by the President of the United States; sequestration, more base closures. Twenty two trillion in national debt and climbing but that debt was the President's problem; not his. Nakamura's job as the CNO and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was to ensure that the United States had the best military force in the world and that involved a lot of lobbying for more equipment. His Chief of Staff was someone he'd plucked from right under the Judge Advocate General's nose about ten years earlier as a budding Rear Admiral and had groomed him into the three star that he was now. Vice-Admiral Harmon Rabb Jr. ran Animal's office like a well-oiled machine. Vice-Admiral Meg Austin-Rabb took over as the Chief of Naval Intelligence and that office kept Animal well-informed as to what foreign countries were doing that could affect his Navy and how they fought their battles. She was always present to brief the JCS on all matters and today was no different.
That was until a frantic Captain rushed into the JCS meeting and promptly blew all their well-honed plans to hell with a simple "NASA lost contact with Voyager 1". That was a worst case scenario.
Everything from propulsion malfunction to asteroid hit was argued back and forth before communications with JPL was established and the reality began to sink in. Something was out there and that something did not appear to be friendly if it grabbed up their space probe. Animal slammed the gavel down hard enough on the table surface to leave a deep indentation on the table top making everyone in the room jump about a foot out of their chairs and waited resolutely for the faces of those still chattering like magpies to be silent and turn to look at him.
"I move to inform the President." Animal's taciturn voice echoed through the now silent room. Silent nods essayed around the table. "It could potentially be something big." He paused for a moment silently gauging the reaction of his Joint Chiefs. "...and I have no doubt that it will change the course of history."
Marine General and Commandant of the Marine Corps Edward S. Butler nodded than gravelly-voiced a comment. "If it's what the JCS doesn't want to admit...could be imminent, how exactly are we supposed to defend against this menace? It's definitely going to be worse than fighting the Russians." Animal didn't bother telling him what he thought about the situation; his mind already had jumped to worst-case scenario..
"I do not want a panic situation." Animal replied as he looked over at the rest of the Joint Chiefs as well as the Joint Staff; "Until such time as the President is informed and moves to broadcast the news to a national audience, I want this to be considered in the highest possible classification. Nothing leaves this room until the President himself decides that he is going to make this news public. Am I understood?" the threat was unspoken but clear.
"Yes sir!" The generals and admirals around the table nodded as well as those three stars and staff members present at the meeting.
When the meeting broke up about five minutes later, he notified his staff, VADM Harmon Rabb Jr. via cellular phone to meet him at the limousine which was to head directly to the White House to notify the President of the United States. "Vice-Admiral Rabb…" Upon hanging up he then turned to VADM Meg Austin-Rabb, Chief of Naval Intelligence, to follow him. "Meg, I want you to notify the President as to what information has been gathered on this and I want NASA on the phone. I have a feeling that this is going to get very ugly, very fast." He shook his head solemnly. "I never thought that I'd live to see the day when that weird-haired kook on TV was right."
Meg nodded her head, knowing that the admiral was referring to Dr. Tsoukalos who seemed to be of the opinion that aliens were the cause of every conspiracy under the sun.
Star Destroyer Dominance, somewhere outside the Sol System, interstellar space
"Commander Relan, have you inspected the probe?" Admiral Kell asked as he peered over the shell of the deep-space probe.
"Yes, sir. It appears that there were two gold discs with etchings inscribed on them. We have no idea as to what sort of etchings were on there as it appears to be a rather primitive language, but it did show that the aliens of that planet from which the probe originated from appear to be similar in physiology to us." Commander Relan replied as he casually scratched his high olive-drab collar of his uniform.
"I suggest that you find some way to decipher the etchings and provide me with a full-report, Commander, or the Emperor will be very displeased. He is wanting to find new worlds from which will give us enough resources to defeat the Rebel Alliance. The vast fleet is not enough as the Rebels are using hit and run tactics in order to subvert our dominance over the sector. Is that clear, Commander." Admiral Kell was not desirous to use threats but occasionally, unless prodded, the Imperial Navy required such tactics to encourage cooperation from its members. Commander Relan paled as the implied threat sank in. "…and though Lord Vader is more than tied up with locating Skywalker, I believe that he would be quite willing to visit the Unknown Regions to increase morale with the assurances that the Emperor is not ignoring our Fleet."
"Why was I not informed of this?" The ringing voice questioning them startled both Kell and Relan as they looked to see a dark-robed man approach. Shivers went down the spine of the two Imperial officers as they viewed the yellow and red-rimmed eyes that met their gaze.
"Inquisitor Malic"
"Where there is a world, there are those who are Force-Strong." The dark undertones of the Sith Inquisitor chilled the two officers to the bone. "The Emperor wishes that there is to be no one left alive who can pose a threat to his reign." He raised a hand subtly to Commander Relan who felt subtle unseen claws against his trachea. "Commander, as the Admiral has said, you will find out from where this craft has come or you will answer to me. I do not condone failure." Commander Relan slumped, panting heavily as the unseen claws released him, his eyes, full of fear, gazing up at the Sith Inquisitor. "I suggest that you get started." Relan did not bother wasting time in responding but started scanning the probe with his handheld scanner.
The Sith Inquisitor in response whirled around, his dark robes flowing behind him and stalked out of the cargo bay.
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. 0930hrs
"President McLean. Chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff here to see you." The White House aide informed President Randal Evans McLean." who had succeeded the previous President. A Democrat, President McLean had won a narrow election against a widely popular Republican, formerly a businessman who was seeking a second term in the White House, but the American people had come to their senses and decided that one term was enough.
"Admiral Nakamura, VADMs Rabb, how are you?" President McLean turned to the Asian-American four-star admiral who walked into the Oval Office accompanied by two tall vice-admirals, a male and female.
"Sir. We have a situation." The four word sentence chilled McLean to the bone. We have a situation was code for the shit is hitting the fan.
He sat down in his chair; intertwined the fingers of his left hand in his right and asked solemnly. "What exactly is the situation?" He was not going to like what he heard next.
"NASA lost all communications with Voyager One. There were no transmissions that indicated a collision with an object. The scientists are stating that the signals just cut off as if the probe was turned off completely. No communication with the probe has been re-established. If it is what we are thinking, this is going to turn into a nasty situation." The CJCS stated.
"In that regards, sir." The female vice-admiral said. "We can only assume that there is something out there that has picked up the probe and is examining it or they are headed in our direction." Well, that was direct as both male admirals looked over at the female admiral. Subtlety was not Meg's strong suit.
"How many weeks do we have?" President McLean asked, twisting his fingers as he contemplated what could potentially be the ruin of his presidency. If he did nothing then he would be known as the President who allowed extra-terrestrials control of the entire planet. There were some days that it didn't pay to be the Leader of the Free World.
Emperor's Throne Room, Coruscant, 2 years after the Battle of Yavin
"My Hand, I have been in communication with Inquisitor Malic." The Emperor gazed upon Mara Jade with calculating eyes as he tapped his gnarled cane on the floor of the throne room. He paused for a long moment before he continued, his voice reedy yet threatening. "He says that he has picked up a probe from an unknown planet. You are to meet with him in the Unknown Regions aboard the Dominance and find out more information from him. Then you will seek out this planet and find out more about it. They will wait for you just outside of the Sol System. Admiral Kell was at least that useful." He fastened his yellow eyed gaze on Mara, "Mara, find out what is there…and report back to me."
"Your Will is my command." Mara knelt down on one knee in front of her Master.
"Very good…my Hand." A cackle broke from his twisted lips as Mara bowed and retreated from his throne room.
Rebel Headquarters, Garqi Seven, Garqi System, Outer Rim.
Mon Mothma looked at Leia Organa. "Alliance Intelligence has indicated that the Imperials have launched a fleet into the Unknown Regions. Our agents don't know exactly what the Imperials are looking for, but if they find something there, we need to find out how it will affect us. But the Alliance doesn't have enough ships to explore the Unknown Regions."
Leia knew exactly what the leader of the Alliance was asking her to do and what irritated Leia was that she never would approach her directly and outright ask her; she would hint around the topic and Leia would have to offer. Mon Mothma wanted Han and Chewie to go out there and find out what was going on and if he was going, Leia was going, for kriff sake and so would Luke.
"We need resources." Mon Mothma said. "And with the Empire's recent push against us on all fronts, we are sorely lacking for resources. Every ship that we have in the Alliance Fleet is on patrol searching for the Empire's recon units and we can't spare an exploration ship at all."
"I'll ask Han, but I can't guarantee anything."
"Well…if that is all that you can do." Mon Mothma sighed, running a hand through her ginger hair. It seemed as though she had aged from her time as a senator with the stress of running a Rebellion and being a wanted traitor against the Empire. Leia excused herself from Mon Mothma's presence and retreated to go find Han.
Millenium Falcon, Hangar Bay aboard Home One.
"Are they kidding me?" Han asked incredulously, throwing up his hands in frustration. "She wants me to risk my ship flying out into uncharted territory?"
"It's not uncharted, We just follow the trail that the Imperials left us." Leia tried to explain it to Han who snorted sarcastically.
"Oh…so we're going to follow the Imps?" Han wanted to throw a hydrospanner at something but resisted the urge "Listen Princess, what the hell happens if they decide that they're going to backtrack and we run straight into them with the Falcon. I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on spending the rest of my life doing hard time in the Spice Mines of Kessel."
"No…they'll probably just execute you." Leia snarked back at him.
"Oh, great, even better." Han said then waved to Chewie who was trying to fix something that had jostled loose on the Falcon. "Hey, Furball, come down here and explain to her Highnessness that we'd be better off asking Jabba the Hutt for resources than following the Imps on some quirky journey to the Unknown Regions and getting lost or even worse getting captured by the Imps." He threw a mocking look back at Leia.
"Hey, Han, need some help?" Luke inquired cheerfully.
"Yeah, Princess over here is giving me a headache. You mind diverting her attention for a bit while I help this Fuzzball get these inertial dampers secured?" Han said as Chewie roared an insult back at Han with great volume and gave him what appeared to be a Wookiee hand gesture that roughly translated to Go kriff yourself. "And…no…I'm not planning on doing this at all…" he pointed at Leia.
"So, what am I going to tell Mon if the Imps show up with more ships and resources and overwhelm us. That the Great Han Solo wasn't about to risk his ship so that we can find more allies to help us win this war faster?" Leia's voice was rising and Luke's eyes widened.
"Uh?" Luke asked, unsure if he was going to get his head bit off. "Where were you asking Han to go?" Leia turned around to fixate Luke with a gimlet stare which made Luke shut up.
"The Imperials are sending a fleet of six Star Destroyers to the Unknown Regions." Leia replied. "Mon Mothma can't spare any ships at the moment and she wants us to follow their trail to find out just what they're up to."
"She's crazy." Han volunteered helpfully which earned him a withering stare from Leia. "How long does she expect us to live on the Falcon. And if we go out into the Unknown Regions and beyond; how are we supposed to stock enough food for the trip if we aren't able to find a planet to replenish rations?" Han grumbled, "Damned politicians...they never think of the rational logistical...OW!" Han yelled in pain.
"Uh...sorry about that..." Leia smirked as a hydrospanner clattered to the ground away from Solo's foot.
"Well if we did do this..." Luke stated..."maybe we could find a new home...away from the Empire and the war; a refuge..." Constant fighting was wearing on him and he was wanting to find someplace where he could rest before throwing himself back into the fight.
Leia retorted acidly, "You're not thinking of abandoning the Alliance, are you?"
"No!" Luke said vehemently, "but this mission could be just the break we're looking for. In that it will give us a chance to explore rather than be constantly looking over our shoulder being chased by the Empire." He paused giving her a war-weary look. "I just need some time away from the constant battles; that's all..." He looked at the ground shuffling his feet, his face drawn with exhaustion. "I think we should do this for the Alliance. Maybe we will find resources."
Chewie growled loudly nodding his head and clapping Han on the back gesturing at Leia and Luke in an inclusive gesture.
"Oh alright but the next time the Kid lands in a nest of gundarks. I won't be the one pulling him out!" Han grumbled. "And you, fuzzball," he said pointing at Chewie, "...get the kriffing inertial dampers on right while I go scrounge up some supplies! I don't want to end up a smear when I come out of hyperspace in the Sol System." He shot both Leia and Luke a dark stare as he turned to walk out the hangar bay doors. Throwing a last invective over his shoulder, "And I'm about to give Mon a piece of my mind. Does that woman know we're going to spend a hundred twenty days in hyperspace just to catch up to the Imps?" Han's voice was still audible even as he disappeared down the corridor. Evidently he didn't get far as Luke winced.
"Oh oh thank the Maker, I found you, Captain Solo!" Threepio's querulous voice was heard emanating from the corridor, "I overheard that you, the Princess and Master Luke were going on a trip? You will most certainly need Artoo and myself on the trip. After all I am fluent in over six million forms of communication of sentient beings..." A steady stream of fading Huttese swear words cut off Threepio mid-sentence, accompanying the rest of Han's travel down the corridor. Leia and Luke looked at each other. This was going to be a fun trip. That was if only Luke could keep Han from ejecting Threepio out the Falcon's airlock while in hyperspace.
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. 1000hrs
Pres. McLean nodded as the news grew even more grave. "We have no idea what the aliens would want on our planet let alone what technological capabilities they have, Mr. President." Meg stated gauging the president's reaction. "As far as we know; there are two extremes: either they come in peace or they annihilate us."
"We don't know what kinds of weapons they'll hit us with if they prove to be hostile. If they hit us with energy weapons, we're toast." Animal winced as Harm interjected. "It's going to be a losing battle if they initiate hostilities."
"Is there no means of defense?" Pres. McLean asked.
"Pray that they're not hostile...Mr. President..." Animal said. "Until we have some idea of the type of weapons we're dealing with, we have absolutely no idea." There was no way to determine where the aliens were located as there were no means to scan the planets farther out in their solar system let alone any of the near planets. In effect they were planted on this earth blind, deaf and dumb to the goings on in the rest of the universe, mainly in terms of distances of communication. And with the arrival of an extra-galactic intruder into the solar system; that wasn't a great situation to be in.
It seemed as though President McLean was about to hyperventilate but after two deep breaths, he said; "so...Admiral Nakamura; what's your recommendation?"
"Prepare Operation Pinnacle, Mr. President .and keep your finger close to the launch button. But don't launch unless it's a last-ditch attempt to minimize losses; whatever we can do to prevent ourselves from utter annihilation."
"God save us all..." President McLean uttered. There were no other words to express what they all felt.