This takes place more than 70 years after the Battle of Yavin. The New Republic has fallen to two rival Imperial factions and the galaxy is thrown into war again until a wormhole is discovered by one faction and is forced to retreat into the newly discovered galaxy. They explore and conquer the galaxy over the next few years. This is the story about a routine patrol of a forest planet. Please keep in mind this is my first fanfic and I have little experience with this kind of writing.

"Patrol 1194 disembarking from hangar. Entering atmosphere in 20 seconds. Inertial compensators at full power. Entering atmosphere in 10. Repulsorlifts fully functional. Entering atmosphere in 5…4…3…2…brace for impact…now. Clearing exosphere…mesosphere…stratosphere. Entering troposphere. Landing zone in sight. Patrol out."

"Good luck down there. Corrupter out."

The lander set down in the only clearing to be seen in this part of the dense jungle. Trees the size of Corellian high rises made finding a good landing zone nearly impossible. PT-523 looked at his comrades as he felt the ship jolt to a stop. This was supposed to be a routine scouting mission, but something didn't feel right about this planet. He knew there should be no doubts in his mind, and as he looked at the calm, almost bored, faces around him, he realized he was just being foolish.

The probe droids had found next to nothing other than trees. As for life signs, they found minimal wildlife and no obvious signs of sentient beings. It seemed the worst that could happen on the surface was a nasty bug bite, and that was unlikely with their armor on.

The rear hatch opened and the stormtroopers piled out with haste and set up a perimeter in short order. The scout troopers unloaded the speeder bikes from the transport and prepared to begin their exploration. The past hour had been uneventful, unless you count a scout tipping his bike. His mind at ease, PT-523 got his squad ready to venture into the dark jungle.

The fourteen men fanned out into a loose wedge formation with PT-523 taking point. The thick Horusian tree canopy blocked out almost all the light, and would have made it difficult for a New Republic trooper, but stormtroopers are better equipped. "Switch to light enhancement," PT-523 ordered, his voice filtered and mechanical sounding over their helmet comlinks.

PT-345 heard a sound to his left and lifted his carbine in its direction. He looked around for a moment and decided it was probably just a small animal. He heard another sound from the left, louder this time. The trooper stopped entirely. PT-523 looked back and noticed 345 searching intently for the source of the sound.

"See something Laert?"

The startled trooper shrugged his shoulders. "I heard something over there. Probably just a lizard or something."

"Then let's get moving."

The squad began their trek through the vegetation again. The next four hours were more boring than the first hour on the planet, offering nothing more than darkness and wet plants.

Snap.

They all heard it this time. They all turned to see what is was, carbines ready. Something big. Something near. It was certainly no lizard.

Something whistled through the air from the other direction, hitting the tree next to PT-927's head.

An arrow.

Another missile caught 243 in the face. His comrades rushed to his side to make sure he was OK. He was fine, but his eyepiece was cracked.

More arrows began whizzing around their heads from all directions. "Return fire!" 523 yelled to his men.

Red blaster bolts flashed from their carbines into the woods. They had no idea where the hostiles were or what they were, but that didn't stop them from fighting back. The barrage of arrows stopped almost immediately. The locals seemed to have been scared away.

523 called the incident in to base camp and they headed back to the safety of the transport.

ST-206 zipped through a narrow path in the jungle on his speeder bike. ST-572 was right behind him on his own bike. They had spent the past few hours scanning for any signs of intelligent life.

This isn't what he had in mind when he joined the Army.

"Hey, Kes, pull over. I have to use the little trooper's room."

Kes smiled and pulled back on the throttle. "Hurry up, Pax. We still have a few more kilometers to cover before we head back to camp."

"Yeah, yeah, always in a hurry." Pax stepped behind a large tree and worked his armor part way off.

Kes heard his partner grunt and fall. "Pax? You OK?"

No answer. The nervous trooper drew his pistol and walked cautiously towards his friend. He came around the tree and found Pax leaning against the tree with an arrow in his unprotected lower back. Another arrow flew out from the woods, struck his left forearm, and bounced off his armor.

"Sith spit!" He dove behind the tree as two more missiles whipped past him. He looked to see who was shooting at him and saw nothing. He clicked his comlink on and tuned into the command frequency. "This is ST-206. My partner is injured and needs assistance. There are hostiles in the woods; I don't know how many. My coordinates are—"

PT-523 looked at the blood on the ground. He knew this was the death place of a pair of scout troopers. Two speeder bikes sat where the doomed men had left them. The bikes appeared undamaged, but there was a considerable amount of blood on opposite sides of a nearby tree and arrows in its trunk. The bodies were gone and no discernible trails left the area. The locals definitely got to them. 523 called in the coordinates and told his men to set up a perimeter.

He looked closely at the ground on the opposite side of the arrows on the tree. He noticed parts of the white armor worn by the troopers. Arrows didn't kill this one. Whatever killed him had to be strong to break through the armor.

Drip. Drip.

523 looked up into the tree and found one of the scouts hanging six meters above the ground. The side of his helmet had been crushed in by a blunt object and blood dripped from the hole in his skull.

"Son of a Sith. A lizard definitely didn't do this."

Snap.

It dropped down on 927, crushing him under its weight. All their heads whipped around to face the creature. They all fired practically at once, killing the savage instantly. A two-meter tall, scaly-skinned creature with a meter long tail lay strewn over its victim. It reminded him of a Trandoshan.

"So a lizard did do it," PT-271 retorted, trying to lighten the mood.

523 checked 927's pulse and found nothing. "Command, this is PT-523. I have a man down."

A deafening roar came from his left. "Sir, watch out!"

He turned around just in time to see a large object rush towards his face.

PT-523 woke up with a splitting headache. He had to pull his smashed helmet off. He checked to see if his nose was broken.

"Mother of Palpatine!" It was definately broken and bleeding profusely. Other than his head, he seemed all right. He looked around to get a bearing on where he was and what was going on. It was hard to see without the light enhancement, but his eyes became used to the dark. His fears on the lander had been well founded.

The mangled bodies of his squad mates were strewn about him with several of the locals' bodies mixed among them. Most had been clubbed or hit by arrows in the cracks of their armor, but some had a suffered a different fate. Five stormtroopers had been blasted away from a small crater. An arrow had probably struck one of the thermal detonators on a trooper's back. Roughly five meters from the charred circle were the blackened remains of the soldier whose detonator exploded.

523 counted eleven of his men dead and seven lizards. Where were the other two? He managed to pull the comlink out of his helmet, but it was slightly damaged. He managed to get it working and set it to the squad frequency. "This is PT-523, does anyone read me?"

"Sir? Is th-- ---- you?"

"Laert? Who else made it out?"

"-ust Flux, sir, and --- pretty shaken --. ----- are you?"

"I'm at the…scene."

"I'll get ---- to send ---- help to ---. Hold o-."

"Thanks." He cut the comlink off, picked up a carbine, and sat against a tree. He had to move to the other side so he couldn't see the corpses of his men. Within ten minutes, a pair of scouts showed up with an extra speeder bike and some bacta patches.

When he got back to camp, he was given a warm welcome from his remaining squad mates. Flux had a bacta patch on his side where an arrow had clipped him and Laert appeared unscathed.

"Wow, sir, looks like they got you good," Laert chuckled.

"Good to see you again. I thought Laert would have to take command of the squad," Flux said.

"Aaahh!" Everyone looked to see who screamed and saw a trooper being dragged into the bushes.

"Open fire!" screamed Colonel Roleb. Several carbines flashed to life, red bolts darting into the foliage. "Cease Fire!" Nothing happened. "You four, check it out." ordered Roleb. The stormtroopers moved into the jungle a couple meters. Everyone in the camp waited anxiously with carbines pointed in all directions, including PT-523.

Suddenly, there was screaming and blaster fire. One of the soldiers burst out of the forest running from the roars of angry locals but only got a few steps further before taking an arrow in the neck.

"Blast those Sith spawn into atoms!"

As soon as the colonel stopped talking, twenty lizards rushed into the camp. Dozens of carbines and six E-Webs opened up on the savages, cutting them in half with ease. A barrage of arrows flew from trees on all sides wounding several troopers. The soldiers began firing haphazardly into the woods, setting small fires in the brush. Two dozen more lizards charged the camp, dropping in droves. Arrows continued to pour out of the jungle and red bolts continued to pour into it.

Several savages flung out of the treetops swinging on vines and landing amongst the troopers. Rather than risk hitting their own men, most of the troopers pulled out their vibroblades. The lizards were strong and brutal, dealing out many casualties, but the stormtroopers were trained in hand-to-hand combat and dealt out many casualties themselves.

523 found himself in the heart of the battle, lizards dropping down all around him. At the last second, he saw one coming down right above him. He rolled to the right, hopped up, and pulled his vibroblade out. The savage charged him, club raised. 523 dodged left as the weapon fell where he had been, and stabbed at the reptile's side. It leapt back and swung its club in a series of wide arcs, forcing the trooper to duck and move back. 523 tried to block the club on the last swing, using both hands to strengthen his hold. The savage was too strong, easily pushing the blade away, but was thrown off by the sudden change in tactics. The trooper leapt forward and jabbed his vibroblade into the lizard's chest. The warrior fell over dead. 523 sheathed his blade and picked his carbine back up.

Despite their losses, the natives continued to send wave after wave of warriors and missiles into the fray. Roleb ran into the lander and dialed up the com frequency for the Corrupter, the Star Destroyer in orbit above them. "We need bombardment ten meters outside our perimeter now!"

"At that range we might hit your men."

"Just do it!" Twenty seconds later, green lines of light streaked out of the sky, falling precisely ten meters from the camp. The startled howls were drowned out by the booming blasts of the turbolasers striking the forest floor. The lizards finally decided to flee the overpowering force they opposed. The stormtroopers didn't stop firing until the last savage had disappeared from sight or fell dead.

Dozens of natives had fallen in the battle and many stormtroopers lay slain on the ground. Fifteen of their comrades were dead, excluding the scouts and 523's squad, and thirty-seven were wounded. The lander was full of groaning soldiers, one of which was Laert.

523 went to Laert's side, bringing him some rations and water.

"Looks like they got you good," Laert's superior joked.

The wounded man chuckled and coughed. "Yeah, those sons of Siths are pretty strong. Med-droid says it broke three ribs and punctured my spleen. That's the thing you don't need, right?"

"I think that's the one."

"Where's Flux? Did he make it?"

"He's dragging some dead lizards into the pyre. An arrow hit him right in the middle of his chest plate and shook him up for a moment, but he's perfectly fine."

"So are they going to set up a base here or what?"

"Looks like it. Another load of men are on their way down to relieve us and do the prep work for a settlement."

"Why did we come here?"

"What?"

"What does this planet have to offer us? Trees? We can get those on a thousand other worlds. Tell me, Jierd, why did we come here?"

"We have a responsibility to the Empire to--"

"Oh, don't give me that Imperial duty' speech again. Eleven of my friends are lying dead in those woods out there, and for what? To see what's out in the forest? I never cared that I was risking my life for the Empire three years ago, but that was different. I was fighting for my people then, but we left most of them behind when we fled to this galaxy. Did I have a choice in coming to this galaxy? No. Did I have a choice in coming to this planet? No. Did I want to do either? Not for all the credits in the galaxy."

Jierd patted his friend on the shoulder and walked down the ramp. He looked around and knew Laert was right. Several of his comrades were digging impromptu graves and chucking their fellows in. The lizards were just thrown onto a large bonfire.

Behold the Empire in all its glory.