Chapter One
"Imperial troops have entered the base!" blared across the speaker throughout the facility on Polis Massa.
Deep within the facility, Senator Leia Young of Alderaan frantically attempted to extract the data on the computer to a disc.
"Senator, we need to leave now!" Raymus Antilles told her.
"No!" she yelled. "The data in this computer is of critical importance to the Alliance. If the Empire finds it, we'll never get it back!"
"But if you die here, the Alliance will lose all hope!" Antilles told her. "We have to leave!"
"Just a moment…" Leia said. She put the blank disc into the computer.
"Freeze!" A platoon of Imperial stormtroopers all had their blasters pointed at the Senator. "Give us the Death Star plans, and we might let you live."
Leia changed the destination of the data as she said "If you'd just wait for me to transfer it to a disc, I'll give it to you." After some time, she gave the disc to the stormtrooper.
"Come with us." The stormtrooper said. The platoon led Leia and Captain Antilles to the hangar where the attack had originated from.
"This doesn't look good." Antilles said. "Not only do they have the plans, but do you realize how much danger Senator Organa will be in when the Empire learns you're a part of the Alliance?"
"They don't have the plans." Leia assured him. "I beamed them aboard the Tantive. And I also called in some back-up along with it."
"I hope this plan of yours works." Antilles said.
Several minutes later, Darth Vader's shuttle landed on Polis Massa. When he stepped off his shuttle, he looked around at the bodies of the Rebels from the battle that had ensued minutes ago.
"Did you secure the plans?" Vader asked Commander Bow, who had led the attack.
"No, sir." Bow replied. "The plans were not here. Perhaps the Emperor will find them on Bothawui when he-"
"The Emperor has already returned from Bothawui." Vader informed the commander. "He did not find any plans for the Death Star in the hands of the Bothans. The only other place the plans would be is in this base."
"Sir, we've searched the entire facility. There couldn't have been-" Commander Bow's sentence was cut off when he suddenly felt his throat locking up.
"You have failed me for the last time, Commander." Vader told him as he finished choking Bow with the Force. As Bow's body fell to the ground, Vader turned to the stormtrooper who had just arrived. "Did you find anything, trooper?"
"No, sir." the stormtrooper told him. "However, several transmissions were sent to a CR70 corvette orbiting the planet. They were sent from Rebel Officers. Also, the CR70 was identified as the Tantive IV, the consular ship of the planet Alderaan."
"Did they say where they are going?" Vader asked.
"The Rebel Officers asked Senator Leia Young to go to Tatooine." the stormtrooper said. "They said that they'd found 'what she was looking for' on the planet."
"Send an Interdictor fleet there immediately." Vader ordered. "We'll need to stop them."
Vader stepped onto the command bridge of the Star Destroyer Devastator. They had already left hyperspace and were close to the Rebel rendezvous point and the Interdictor fleet.
"Lord Vader!" an engineer called out. "The Interdictor fleet has been attacked by the Black Sun Pirates!"
Vader singed with anger. The Black Sun had proven their disloyalty to the Empire time and again, and this was no different. "Wipe them out." he said. "All of them."
Several standard hours after leaving Polis Massa, Blue Squadron dropped into realspace above the surface above Tatooine.
"Tantive IV, this is Blue Squadron." Rayce Farrel, a pilot for Blue Squadron said. "We'll do a quick scan of the sector before you come in." Rayce locked the S-Foils of his X-Wing into attack position. After several minutes of searching, another Blue Squadron pilot, Nom Carver, noticed something strange.
"It's quiet." he said. "Too quiet. Didn't Intel report heavy pilot activity?"
"You're right, Nom." Rayce said. "Keep your eyes open." This left Rayce confused. The Black Sun wanted nothing short of total galactic power. Giving up even one system wasn't like them. The Alliance hadn't destroyed the pirates in this sector. If the Empire had taken control, they'd have attacked already. It just didn't add up. After a thorough search, they'd found nothing.
"Tantive IV, this is Blue Squadron." Nom said. "You're cleared to come in."
From inside the camouflage of the nebulas nearby the rendezvous point, Darth Vader watched as a CR70 Corellian Corvette dropped into realspace.
"Wait until the Senator confirms the transmission before we attack." Vader said.
After about two minutes, an engineer reported "Lord Vader, we have confirmation."
"Interdictors, activate the gravity well generators." Vader ordered. "Everyone else, after the Corellian Corvette."
As the first shot in the battle was fired, a Mon Calamari Cruiser dropped into realspace as if on cue.
To be continued…