Rise of the Red Eclipse
There is turmoil in the Galactic Empire after the death of Palpatine…a rising criminal warlord Tyber Zann has become one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, yet in a stunning turn of events one of his commanders made off to a new area beyond the outer rim with around half of Zann's fleet; We join them as they survey the last star system on their maps…
A ship exited into normal space behind a moon, winking in like a star, yet more like a dead comet as it looked like a ghost ship, nothing moving or working until it vanished from view in what appeared to be a ripple in the space around it.
"Open a channel and broadcast on any non-official frequencies in search of possible friendlies and make sure our stealth measures are operating at %100... We don't want whatever government is here to know that we're here..." Captain Nelson said quietly from his spot on the bridge, just forward of the command chair a few feet behind him.
Captain Nelson stood at roughly 6 feet tall with shoulder length brown hair as well as eyes of the same color and a scar running from his right temple to his right jaw line. Wearing an advanced suit of space-black armor and a small scowl, he was still annoyed at the string of 'surprises' that Zann had left him over the past year of hyperspace travel.
Meanwhile, barely a few million kilometers away, the Omega drifted slowly, navigation systems locked in. It continued to scan, and send out the occasional communications ping. The Omega was your average stealth ship with wavering outlines and panels to conceal whatever the user had hidden beneath, traveling for what had to be decades if not centuries just drifting along, until finally, one of the communications pings found its first target in a very long time...
"Isolate that signal; and transmit back our usual 'don't shoot us we come in peace' message." Nelson said before cutting the line and calmly issuing out orders, "Charge shields and scramble Red and Blue Wings to go check that ship out, something that big won't be a problem and if it is, then they should be able to han-" he started before the signal bounced back, cycling and repeating in dozens of languages until Basic came up, giving an emotionless robotic tone to the message.
"Your terms are accepted. I am the artificial intelligence Iz, and this is the ship Omega." the message droned. Nelson mulled this over for a moment, moving back to his chair and looking up at the screen.
"Patch me through directly, audio only; So you're an AI... Well Iz my crew was just wondering what the proper name of this system is, we've been running recon ops throughout the galaxy and this is one of the few uninhabited systems we've come across, save you. Any ideas?" Captain Nelson replied.
"I'm sorry to say, your guess is as good as mine. Many of my databases were corrupted during my time offline, and my star maps are out of date. Feel free to check for yourself." the voice replied over the blank screen. At his word, the Communications officer started sifting through the data and sending it directly up to the viewscreen making Nelson's eyes widen for a moment and a smirk to appear on his face.
"Looks like you're on some sort of special mission, interesting for an AI to be given such an important task without a military to back him up... Maybe my fleet can help." Nelson replied, "For the right price, that is."
"Price? Ah, you mean monetary reimbursement. That can be arranged by my government, I'm sure." Iz told Nelson. As he said this five Crusader Gunships, two Interceptor IV frigates and a Keldabe battle cruiser/carrier, the recon group traveling with Nelson for the past few days as the main fleet and convoy escort continued to drift in interstellar space, entered the system. The Keldabe took up the most space being the largest class of ship in the fleet; a fat "T" bristling with defense systems and weapons batteries with enough power to take out a Star Destroyer; the linear, angular Intercepters didn't use as much space but still more than the tiniest ships there, the Crusader Gunship Corvettes; basically as many anti-fighter/missile defenses that Nelson could fit onto a ship only a few dozen meters long.
"Then the ships of the Red Eclipse Pirates are willing to help. Now, I think it might be good if you dock with the Kindred Spirit so we can talk about what exactly this mission requires. We can talk about payment while you're aboard as well." Nelson replied giving an unseen smile. If the readings were right, this would be just what he needed to get everyone settled and starting over without too much hassle.
"Acceptable. Omega out." Iz said before cutting the transmission, leaving the Captain to his thoughts for a few seconds.
"Drop cloak but go back into stealth protocol once the Omega docks; Joshua, send him docking codes, let's get this show on the road." the Captain ordered as he saw the small stealth ship slowly power up and start moving towards them.
About a minute later the Omega began the docking procedures, looking comparatively tiny next to the other ship and rightfully so. The Kindred Spirit was an Aggressor Class Star Destroyer, two mega-cannons the size of frigates at the front with multiple engine systems at the back all combining to make a ship a little over 1 kilometer long. Right off the assembly line, these ships were little more than space taking capital ship killers, but after being serviced and outfitted as a Flagship, she not only had hangar bays that the standard models lacked, but enough cargo space to carry a system's worth of loot, or an army capable of taking a capital city of a planet.
As soon as the hangar was secure Nelson walked down to the main hangar bay where a small looking stealth ship had just entered. He walked over to the robot getting out and shook one of his many hands, hesitating slightly in trying to figure out which one to take as well as give the robot a once over.
"7 feet even... two sets of two photoreceptors or the equivalent, probably a whole array of visual options... 6 arms, 2 weaponized and folded back... this thing is more than just a simple scout." Nelson thought as he shook the middle right arm and then motioned towards the hangar exit.
"Right this way Iz, don't mind the guards, they're just a little trigger happy after a rough escape we made yesterday." the Captain said, getting an affirmative nod from the AI who simply started walking, not waiting for his host to start.
"Interesting makeup..." Joshua said, mostly to himself, as he looked at the security feeds at the newcomer. The resident AI of the Kindred Spirit Joshua, was a successful first prototype to the AI that was being installed on all of the capital ships in the Red Eclipse fleet. A cybernetic mind much like a protocol droid, but instead of being put in the head of a droid unit, his 'body' was the ship. Most of the AIs were given a personality based off of the life of a deceased member of the Eclipse to make sure that they were never uniform in makeup and thus, a flaw in one could never be exploited in the others.
"Regardless, he should be useful, and the wealth of knowledge in his ship will come in handy." he finished as the door opened and he began taking orders once more.
After arriving on the bridge the holotable warmed up and displayed multiple star systems and their respective information as Nelson proceeded to explain their current situation.
"This is what we know so far; There are about 30 stars within our range from where we are now, that puts a total of systems that exist in this galaxy ranging in the hundreds if it's anything like home. Only about half of the systems we've scouted have inhabitants, some violent and some docile. We've also run across a few strange structures that don't match the architecture types of the factions we've discovered." the spacer said as Joshua brought up one of the buildings that they had seen.
"That... that is actually one of the Sites I am looking to reactivate, Captain." Iz replied while extending a finger towards the table which plugged into one of the many interface sockets.
"I'll need to ask how he could interface with our systems so quickly later..." Nelson thought as he hid his surprise and looked back at the table. Approximately 24 symbols appeared, scattered across the area. Each spot was marked with a different letter of the Greek alphabet as well as Aurebesh.
"That is where we are going." Iz said as the 24 planets gave a small pulse of light "Those are projects seeded by my government. I am to locate and recover these projects, preferably intact. As far as security goes, each project has a guard system in place if everything is still intact. Once we get close enough, I can broadcast the clearance codes. There may be additional resistance from other sources, but I have no information on that."
"Might as well start for Aurek and get the worst out of the way..." Nelson replied with a small nod. "We ran into another group of privateers there a week ago while on recon duty; with any luck we can take over their space station and land an invasion force on the planet. Lieutenant send orders to recall all fighters, set coordinates and tell our fleet the location of that base; I want three more Aggressors and two more Keldabes at that space station 5 minutes after we arrive. Tell the rest of the fleet to get ready to move all operations to Aurek and proceed with colonization."
"Colonization?" Iz asked, one of his four eyes getting slightly brighter.
"We left our galaxy to escape the troubles of it... I have hundreds of ships and thousands of men and women under my command right now. Most of them are refugees that just wanted a new life though, and we've had trouble choosing a suitable place to seed our culture... Might as well start with Aurek, er, Alpha to you." Nelson replied before giving a small sigh. "And now, if you'll excuse my being human, I'm going to grab some sack time before we start a war with a group of pirates." Nelson replied before turning and heading off of the bridge. Once he was gone, Joshua's avatar appeared on the table.
"Feel free to leave the Spirit if you want." he told Iz, "Your ship is being refueled so if you need to recharge in any way, you should be fine, just don't wake Captain Nelson unless someone is dying... he hasn't slept properly for days, and I fear that your little 'Reclamation Campaign' won't help that at all."