"Sir, several Republic transports are heading towards the orbiting shipyards. Shall we test out the Star Destroyer IV model?" the recognizable face of Admiral Welsh said to Darth Zen.

            "Captain, I want nothing destroyed. Have our ships reel them in with a tractor beam, take the crew as prisoners, sort out the supplies, as we can use them, and bring the commanders of the ships to me." Zen said to the Admiral.

            "Yes, my lord."

            The holo-projector shut off and Zen picked Grand Admiral Pelleaon by his collar. Gilad Pelleaon was in his nineties, but the miracles of technology had kept him alive, commanding the Imperial fleet. He had been head of the fleet for almost forty years, and the Empire had been quite great under his command.

The old, grayed Imperial commander had seen many evil, the Emperor, Vader… but Darth Zen seemed the most imposing. The dark brown cloak and the hood covering the thing's face reminded him of a hellish Emperor. His eyes glowed yellow under the cloak, and faded green skin of Zen's face poked out. Pelleaon was bloody and beaten down from Zen's hideous interrogation.

            "Admiral, I will give you one more chance to join the New Empire and spare your life."

            "Kill me, I am of old age. You are losing a great commander." Pelleaon said, spitting at Zen. The saliva was redirected by Zen's force powers across the room and onto the floor.

            "You do not deserve to command a ship with the Imperial seal." Zen pulled out his lightsaber and ignited it. The orange glow filled the darkly lit room. Zen pulled off his hood and revealed the face of a Falleen with a scar across his left eye. Zen stabbed his lightsaber into the old man, and the man shriveled down instantly, bloodied and dead.

            Zen put on a twisted, sadistic smile. Your son is next, and then the Empire will be mine.

*           *           *

            "Commodore Jacksone. This is Flight Officer Jim Bogaan of Green Squadron, wingman of Green Leader. Green Leader has been lost… There was an attack by energy-shielded TIE fighters with an Imperial coded transmission, I will be back in several minutes…"

            The hologram then showed nothing. Ren Jacksone, a Commodore of the New Republic Navy, was a high-ranked commander with a lousy assignment. He couldn't believe his ears as Green Two spoke of shielded TIE fighters.

            "That's preposterous!" Jacksone said to the officers surrounding him on the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate's bridge.

            "Sir, we're getting Green Two on scanners." an officer said, pressing several buttons.

            "Turn on the commlink channel," Jacksone ordered. The face of Bogaan in his helmet appeared on the holoprojector. "Flight Officer, are you sure of what you saw?"

            "I am positive sir, I have scanner records on my fighter. Shall I send them coded?" Bogaan asked.

            "No send them decoded, Flight Officer," Jacksone sarcastically snapped back. His annoyance with this job was really showing through. His eyes widened as he saw the sensor scan appear on the holoprojector. He watched as two ships- definitely with ray shields- approached into the X-Wing's range. Their shape immediately recognized them as TIE interceptors- the standard of most Imperial ships. The shield's energy reading was tremendous.

"This is most likely a pirate fleet with stolen, modified ships, Flight Officer," Jacksone said, unbelieving Bogaan.

            "No sir, this was sending of an Imperial signal. I am sure of it, sir. It was a new one that Pelleaon had sent to Coruscant so we could identify his fleet. I watched on my scanners-"

            "Enough," Jacksone ordered. No one knows those Imperial signals but Imperials. Pirates would have had to have a capital ship full of code-breakers for days to crack that transmission.

            "Commodore, do I have permission to speak?" Bogaan said as his fighter landed into the docking bay.

            "Yes, Flight Officer."

            "Despite his old age and many life-support systems, I believe Gilad Pelleaon is trying to take over the galaxy."

            "Bring the coordinates of that sector to me. We'll have our… if you can call it a fleet… investigate that area. Send an immediate red alert signal to Coruscant, Major." he said to another officer. A hologram of a New Republic official appeared.

            "Commodore Jacksone, your ship is on routine check. Why are you sending me a red alert message? I do not have time for-"

            Jacksone gave the official a cold, hard stare from his captain's chair. "We're having quite a disturbance out here. Imperial transmissions came from shielded TIE fighters that attacked two of our ships." Jacksone looked at the official again, and the official's eyes jumped open.

            "Impossible," he said reassuringly.

            "No. Don't give me that. My line of ships is orbiting the third planet in the Gamorr system, we've been out here for three weeks, and this is incredible. It is obvious that old man Pelleaon is trying to take over the New Republic. Your rank will go skyrocketing, your money will do the same, this is important!"

            A small bang rocked the ships. Beeps from control consoles went crazy, and the ship shook again.

            "We're under attack, sir!"

            "Coruscant, you better send someone out here if we don't make it!" the Commodore yelled as alarms began to screech. The hologram shut off.

            "Enemy report!" Commodore Jacksone demanded as he stood up, turning on the holoprojector, looking at the graph.

"Star Destroyers of an unknown type. They have thick armor, incredible shields…" his voice trailed off.

            "How many?" Jacksone said.

            "Sir, there's two Destroyers, two Carrack Cruisers and several small transports. Should I tell the fighters to launch?"

            My god! All we have is an escort frigate and three Corvettes! "Launch the fighters with Bogaan as their leader. Tell them to take out the shield generators of the Destroyers, we should at least take out one of them before we run away and take this back to Coruscant."

            Officers pressed buttons quicker than the eye could see. "Bogaan, get back in your fighter. You're the leader of Green Squadron. Target the Destroyer's shields! Now go, go, go!"

Bogaan heard it in his commlink instantly. He ran back to the fray of other pilots getting into their ships. His copilot R6-M7 beeped wildly as he practically dove into his X-Wing.

            "R6, are all systems go?" he asked, flicking the ignition switch. The droid beeped in a WHOO! fashion as the X-Wing shot out of the docking bay, with a squadron of X-Wings known as Green Squadron following right after him.

*           *           *

Admiral Seth Pelleaon, son of Gilad, was worried. As he watched from his personal Imperial Star Destroyer III, the Punisher, he knew he would never see his father again. He watched Bastion, the seat of the Imperial Remnant as the Destroyer orbited. He sighed. He had no idea what to do now. He was, after all, the highest ranking officer of any Imperial, but he had never had to deal with such a threat as the forces of the renegade Imperials that captured his father. The dark gray steel of the unknown Star Destroyers were superior to the Empire's ISD III model. And with his father gone, the Empire might not unify the way it had for so long.

            The possibility of another warlord era in the history of the Empire will not happen. It mustn't, for an era like this could end the Empire.

            Pelleaon watched from his command chair. The rest of the Empire's highest commanders were on the Punisher, inside of the conference room. He sighed as he got up from his command chair. "I am attending to business."

            He walked into the turbolift, and he pressed the deck and room number of the conference room. He breathed in heavily, thinking about what we was going to say. The turbolift delivered him right in front of the door. He walked in, and many Admirals and other high-ranking Imperial officials were sitting, chattering. They stopped as he sat down and began his speech.

"Hello, my fellow men. As you all know, it is a day of sorrow. My father, Gilad Pelleaon, is presumably dead at the hands of a renegade Imperial warlord. His Star Destroyers he brought to attack this ship are incredible and, as much as I hate to admit this, our new Imperial Star Destroyer III model has less firepower than these presumably modified cruisers."

            Pelleaon paused, seeing several alarmed facial expressions. "However, the Empire has been based upon the ruler of one. First it was Emperor Palpatine. Then it was Grand Admiral Thrawn. My father succeeded Thrawn, and now that my father is gone, we must use his orders for the commander.

            "I know you all are confused, but my father said when he passed, the commander of the Empire would be the highest ranking officer of the Navy. His request would have brought Grand Admiral Jimmeth to the Head of the Empire spot, but his death defending our great leader has brought the burden upon me, Admiral Pelleaon to become Head of the Empire of the Empire and head of the Imperial fleet. Tell me your thoughts."

            All Admiral Pelleaon heard was applause from the commanders. He heard cries of 'Hail Pelleaon!'. He couldn't help but smiling. He was the new Head of the Empire.