A/N: Thank you to all of those that fav/followed/reviewed.
The Chimera
The Maw Installation
Outer Rim
Captain Gilad Pellaeon stood in the lower hanger waiting for the Grand Inquisitor's Z-95 Head Hunter to arrive. To say that Pellaeon was anxious would be an understatement. He was still not one hundred percent sure on the reasons why the Empire was so interested in the Sol system. He completely understood the reasons on why to invade the galaxy through the portal, but he was not sure on why they were only interested in Earth.
"Captain, the Grand Inquisitor has just arrived out of Hyperspace." One of the hangar officers reported to Pellaeon. Nodding, Gilad walked forward towards the Hangar bay to wait for her Z-Wing to land.
It was a minute later before Gilad was starring at the gray and white plated Z-95 that had landed meters in front of him. Gilad only had to wait for another moment before the narrow cockpit raised and a woman wearing a standard issue Imperial pilot's uniform jumped out, helmet under her arm, and her fiery red hair flowing around her shoulders. She glanced around her surroundings, only stopping once she laid eyes on Gilad.
Walking forward, the Grand Inquisitor pushed past the Imperial Engineers that were trying to move the Z-95 over to an adjacent hanger.
When she approached, Gilad stood straight at attention and introduced himself, "Captain Pellaeon of the ISD Chimera II."
"Captain, I was expecting the Grand Admiral to be here." The Grand Inquisitor said, though she didn't seem to be annoyed or angry at Thrawn not meeting her, she sounded curious to the change in protocol.
"Yes, Grand Admiral Thrawn sends his regrets, but he thought that he should oversee the final preparations for our departure. He thought that you would understand." Gilad explained.
"I don't disagree with his decision, I just figured from the stories I have heard about the Grand Admiral that he would stick to the book." The Inquisitor said as Gilad led her to the turbo lifts.
"When it comes to Grand Admiral Thrawn… he tends to throw the book out." Gilad said hesitantly, trying to find a way to phrase everything.
"Understood, and I haven't formally introduced myself, my name is Mara Jade, Grand Inquisitor to Lord Vader and the Emperor's Hand." Inquisitor Jade humbly said, her voice showing no arrogance, at least when compared to the few key advisers that Gilad has come across that worked closely with the Emperor.
After a brief awkward moment of silence, the turbolifts halted and the sliding door opened revealing the busy command bridge of the Chimera II.
Stepping out of the small cylinder, Gilad led Mara Jade to Thrawn, who was standing at the front of the bridge, surrounded by several officers.
"Grand Admiral, I'm pleased to introduce Grand Inquisitor Jade." Gilad said, making the entire bridge go silent as they all looked at the young red head. A lot of the bridge officers starred in surprise, Gilad assumed because of her attire, wearing only simple Imperial flight suit. Or at the fact that she is a ranking female officer which is hard to come bye in the Imperial Navy.
"Ah, Inquisitor Jade, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, I assume that you have read my reports on what we have found so far?" Thrawn asked the red head.
"Yes, it was a long flight, but the enhanced individuals on Earth is not the reason why the Emperor has sent me, I have my own mission to carry out in Emperor Palpatine's name." Mara said, turning on her inner loyalty bit that Gilad has heard from every politician and person who has every been or wanted to get in the Emperor's good graces, Gilad would be lying if he had said he hadn't used the same loyalty bit every once in a while, especially when he is on Coruscant.
"Well we are about to depart, Captain, send the signal, have final safety checks done and prepare to depart through the Event Horizon." Thrawn ordered, walking towards the back of the bridge.
"Ensign contact all ships and prepare for the jump." Gilad ordered.
"Yes Captain."
It was another minute before all sixteen ships had checked in, giving the green light to proceed.
"Grand Admiral, all ships are checked in and awaiting your order." Gilad said, turning back to face the Chiss.
Thrawn nodded in approval and Gilad gave the order. "All ships jump at sub-light speed at position point-O-ninety and cut off on count twenty."
The Ensign relayed Gilad's orders as he felt the all too familiar feel of the hyperdrive spinning up, and for a brief moment the stars transformed into the familiar tunnel of blue and white before they were thrown back into 'real' space.
"Ensign, report." Thrawn ordered.
"All ships are reporting green, no damages. We are clear to make the jump to the Eviscerator's position at the Sol System." The Ensign reported.
"So ordered." Thrawn replied coolly.
Gilad felt the shudder of the Chimera II underneath him as it lurched forward into hyperspace. Once again, the tunnel of blue and white encircled the Star Destroyer as it cruised for about an hour before exiting hyperspace. Leaving the Seventh Fleet next to the Earth's moon in the Sol System.
"All ships accounted for Admiral." The Ensign spoke up.
"Good, contact the Eviscerator." Thrawn ordered.
Seconds later Gilad, Mara, and Thrawn were looking at Admiral Versio. "Grand Admiral, glad to see that you managed to make it through the vortex unscathed." Versio commented, it was hard for Gilad to detect any trace of sarcasm in his comments. Gilad would always appreciate how competent Versio is, especially towards his commanding officers, most Imperial officers would simply ignore or underestimate Thrawn's abilities to lead simply because he isn't human, but Versio had always shown great respect towards the Grand Admiral, at least in his presence.
"Yes, all our ships have managed to make it through, but the reason why I have contacted you is because there has been a change in plans. I have already briefed the other commanding officers, but our primary mission still stands, turn Earth into a regional command post and capture the enhanced individuals, but the Emperor has sent the Grand Inquisitor to search for a powerful weapon that could end the Rebellion, we are to make sure that she succeeds in this endeavor." Thrawn explained with Versio nodding along.
"Understood Grand Admiral. I would also like to add that I have secured a meeting with majority of the world leaders and/or their representatives in the regional city of Geneva on the European Continent. I would caution you on some of the countries that will be attending, a few of them tried to destroy my cruiser with nuclear weapons, we of course knocked them out before they left the atmosphere, but I would still advise caution." Versio explained.
Thrawn seemed to ponder Versio's suggestion but shook his head. "Though I would like to end this with little bloodshed, it is doubtful that these humans would surrender so lightly, they need to have a bigger push." Thrawn stated, pulling up a holographic image of Earth. "Who Admiral launched the nuclear missiles at you?" Thrawn asked Versio.
"The trajectories projected that they came from the United States of America, the country that Commander Versio led the capture mission on." Versio explained. Thrawn lit up a large portion of the Western Hemisphere on his holomap.
"Captain, contact the cruisers Anaxes and Suppressor, tell them to get into firing range of Cheyenne Mountain, and fire on the military complex there." Thrawn ordered.
Gilad nodded and went to key the orders in for the Arquitens class cruisers.
"What's so important about Cheyenne Mountain?" Mara asked the Grand Admiral.
"That is where they coordinate their missile strikes from." Thrawn explained.
"And the civilians that live on the mountain?" Mara added.
"The region is scarce of civilian population, but what is lost is well within an acceptable margin." Thrawn simply stated.
"Will two Arquitens be enough to level an underground bunker that is beneath a mountain?" Mara asked.
"Of course not, but it will force the locals to launch another attack, and with that we can determine where each of their missile launch facilities are at." Thrawn explained, walking away from the monitor and heading towards the transparent steel windows that lined the Star Destroyer's command bridge.
The Situation Room
The White House
Washington D.C., United States of America
President Elizabeth McCord sat at the head of the table in the Situation Room underneath the White House starring at images of the two space cruisers shelling the facility at Cheyenne Mountain.
"Madam President, all targets are locked, ICBM launchers are hot and ready for your order to fire." Her Secretary of Defense spoke up, somehow calmly.
"Why are they firing on us, we agreed to their terms to meet in Geneva?" Secretary of State Ross asked, his frown covered by his white mustache.
"What are the chances of success that we knock out those cruisers? And where the Hell is Stark and the Avengers?" Elizabeth yelled, not wanting to launch another batch of nukes above American air space.
"Technically Stark and the Avengers cannot get involved without the approval of the UNSC, and sense all the members of the Security Council are prisoners of war. He legally cannot get involved." Ross explained.
"Screw the Accords, we are under attack, get me Stark, or Rhodes, or really anyone who can fly or something that is more effective than what we are throwing at these guys!" Elizabeth yelled, slamming her fist on the table in frustration. As she saw several USAF fighter jets get destroyed by the weird looking 'H' fighters.
"Madam President, the Vice President has been safely evacuated to Mount Weatherly." The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs interrupted, as he hung up a phone that hung next to the large monitor showing the green flashes of lights that slammed into the mountain side in Colorado.
"We should think about doing the same, the White House is too much of a target." Jay Whitman, her Chief of Staff spoke up.
"No, I need Stark to handle this, Ross, get me a line to the facility in New York. I'll ask him myself if no one else has the balls to do it themselves!" Elizabeth yelled, frustrated at her cabinet.
"Give me a sec." Ross said and stood up and activated the STARK holoprojector that sat on the middle of the table.
"The President of the United States for Anthony Stark." Ross said into the device, leaving an uncomfortable silence as they waited for their call to go through.
"Please hold for Mr. Stark." A robotic like female voice spoke up.
"Did he just put me on hold?" Elizabeth asked, tapping her fingers loudly on the wooden table, when the loud ringing of the landline interrupted the silence.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs answered it, "Madam President, Cheyenne Mountain is officially locked down and sealed." He reported before hanging up the phone once again.
"So they're trapped down there?" Jay asked.
"Trapped underneath enough rock, concrete, and steel to keep even the Hulk out, they don't have anything that can break through that." Ross spoke up.
"Until they do." A new voice said, making everyone jump at the sudden intrusion of Tony Stark's holoprojector body on the other side of the room. "How can I be of service to the President of the United States or at least how can Iron Man be of service, that is the reason why you called, right? You need some fancy high-tech equipment to do what your WMDs can't?" Stark asked, a little to smug for Elizabeth's liking.
"In short yes, we need the Avengers." Elizabeth stated.
"Good, because War Machine, Vision, Agent Romanoff and I are already on a Quinjet heading that way… on pure coincidence of course." Stark said, adding the last bit as a sarcastic afterthought.
"Of course, I will have Secretary Ross send everything that we have on the invaders to you, and Stark, please keep some of their tech intact, we could use any intelligence they have." Elizabeth told Tony as he nodded.
"Well if that is all, I have some alien ass to kick… again. Stark out." And with that the holographic image of Tony Stark cut out and Elizabeth turned to the monitor with the only thought going through her mind is that of the fate of the world being held in Tony Stark's hands once more.
Avenger's Quinjet
Over Midwestern United States of America
Anthony 'Tony' Stark stood next to Natasha, Rhodey, and Vision as they quickly flew across the United States. Rhodey constantly looked over his weapon stats, Natasha was putting on a thruster pack, (Stark Industries patented), and Vision stood motionless.
Tony kept checking on Peter's status where he was recovering in the Avenger's Facility in Upstate New York. Physically the kid was fine no permanent damage done, but Tony didn't want to take the chance, especially since he had never seen any weapons like the ones used in the UN attack.
"Mr. Stark, we're in position to deploy, be warned, small attack craft have been deployed and defending the cruiser that has come in atmosphere." F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke up.
"You heard the lady, suit up!" Tony yelled, and he stepped into his armor. He felt the familiar comfortable sensation of the armor clenching around his body. A second later his mask covered his face and the inside of the dark mask was quickly replaced by his HUD.
Tony saw Rhodey activate his mask, and Natasha put on a transparent helmet with a built-in oxygen mask.
Tony walked over to the exit ramp and pressed a button on the wall to lower the ramp. When the ramp finally lowered Tony could see several of those 'H' shaped fighters chasing and shooting down USAF F-22s and F-35s that were attempting to punch through and attack the larger ship.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., what info do you have on that cruiser?" Tony asked his A.I. as he launched out of the Quinjet, with War Machine, Vision, and Widow following him.
"The craft is approximately 325 meters long and it has an armament of 8 laser-based weaponry." F.R.I.D.A.Y. explained, pulling up a closer look on the right side of Tony's HUD.
"Thanks Fri. Hey Nat, see if you can board that thing, I want to try to get as much info on these guys as we can." Tony ordered Black Widow.
"Only if I can get some cover!" Widow shouted as she dodged an exploding missile.
"Fri, have the Quinjet run interference and distract the lasers on that cruiser." Tony ordered his A.I.
"Right away boss."
"Hey Vision, give me a hand with the second cruiser that's shelling the base from space." Tony ordered the android.
"On my way." Vision replied and flew upwards towards the second cruiser that wasn't visible from Tony's distance, but he could see the flashing green lights from the laser bombardment.
Launching himself upwards, it only took Tony a few seconds to break the sound barrier and he could start to see the outline of a similar cruiser that was blasting lasers down towards Earth.
"Tony, they have a fighter escort as well, I can handle them if you hit the cruiser." Vision said as a 'H' shaped fighter came throttling towards him.
"Yeah, give me a sec." Tony said as he dodged a torrent of green that flew past him along with the fighter.
"Oh no, come back here!" Tony shouted and followed the fighter as it attempted to get back around him. Before the fighter could maneuver behind him, Tony fired several repulsers beams that effectively destroyed what Tony assumed was the fighter's cockpit.
"Okay, now for the big one." Tony said to himself as he flew forward towards cruiser.
The surface cannons turned their attention towards him, but he could easily outmaneuver them as he launched his wrist rockets destroying both laser cannons.
Tony fired a volley of repulsers at the ship's superstructure, but they were absorbed by an energy shield.
"Well, that sucks." Tony muttered. "Vision, I'm going to need a little help, the damn thing is shielded, and I just used my rockets on the laser cannons." Tony said as he avoided another 'H' fighter.
"On my way." Vision responded and flew inside the ship. Tony chased after another fighter before he started to see blue and green fire erupt from the center of the ship. A few seconds later Vision flew out and the ship exploded.
"Well that worked." Tony said as he destroyed the last fighter.
"Uh, Stark…" Vision said starring past Tony.
"What?" Tony asked. "Oh."
Behind him, Tony saw over a dozen other ships that were in formation far out of flight range for him.
Most were similar to the cruiser that Vision had just destroyed, but the others were larger, at least 1,200 meters long that sat at a holding pattern.
"Uh, let's go and help the others before those guys decide to join the fight." Tony said to Vision who nodded in agreement and the two flew back into the atmosphere.
"Hey, Nat, you guys having any luck?" Tony asked.
"Can't talk right now." Nat yelled into comm.
Air battle over Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain
Colorado, United States of America
Natasha Romanoff also known as the Black Widow saw her opening in the side of the large cruiser when War Machine launched a missile into it. Lining herself with the hole, Natasha launched at full speed to squeeze through the hole in the wall.
Natasha landed not so gracefully but as she got up she saw a blue shield appear covering the hole and closing the vacuum that was created.
"Rhodey, I'm on the inside, my exit was cut off." Natasha said into the comm before pulling out her twin pistols and running along the hallway attempting to reach the command bridge or any other important room.
Sneaking through the steel gray plated ship, Natasha didn't come across any personal. Staying low Natasha came across a 'T' junction.
"Right or left?" Natasha asked herself.
"Hey, freeze!" A muffled voice yelled.
Turning around, Natasha saw two men wearing all white armor and caring what looked to be laser rifles.
"Uh, no thanks." Natasha said, and she shot the first man who stumbled backwards.
The second trooper ignored his comrade and fired his weapon at Natasha who ducked just in time as the red light flew over her head. She responded with two shots of her own, one in the chest and the other shattering the black eye glass on the trooper's right eye.
The trooper fell, blood oozing from his head wound.
"This is TK-4427, intruder on level three!" The trooper Natasha shot first yelled.
Running forward, Natasha shot him several times before he finally was killed. She quickly picked up one of the laser rifles and continued on her way.
Natasha kept running until she reached the end of the hallway, which led to a cylinder doorway, which she assumed to be some type of elevator.
Natasha pressed the top button, and waited for the elevator, at least that's what she hopped it was, to reach her floor.
The door dinged and when it opened three of the white armored troopers were standing inside. They were clearly not expecting to see her when they stumbled to pull their weapons up. But before the could get a shot off, Natasha shot the closest one, and moved in to disarm the next guy and used the other trooper as a spring board to kick him into the side of the elevator. While he was struggling to get up Natasha landed behind the trooper that she disarmed and kicked him in the back of the knees making him fall on top of the other trooper and she quickly picked up a laser rifle and shot both of the struggling troopers.
"Hey, Nat, you guys having any luck?" Stark's voice asked through the comms, and before Natasha could answer another blast hit the elevator by another trio of armored soldiers running towards her.
"Can't talk right now!" Natasha yelled as the elevator closed.
The elevator went up quickly up to what she assumed to be the top floor, not that she could completely read the numbers, or any of the 'lettering' that was written on the panel.
The elevator door opened to reveal a large room, with giant glass windows and about six… humans? Who were wearing gray uniforms and working at computer stations.
"Put the weapon down!" A voice commanded, and suddenly Natasha was surrounded by five white armored troopers, who had come from both corners of the bridge.
Natasha raised her weapon but saw no possibilities that would get her out of this mess.
Sighing, Natasha lowered her weapon and put her hands over her head.
"You all should surrender why you have the chance." Natasha said, while she fumbled with her wrist comm, hoping that one of the others would get the message that she needed help.
A couple of the troopers looked at each other, confused at what she was saying.
Natasha heard the elevator ding, but didn't turn around, not wanting to turn her back to the troopers.
"You should really listen to the lady." An all too familiar voice said.
The troopers all turned to point their lasers at the new comer.
Laughing Natasha turned to see Steve Rogers standing in the elevator with an unconscious trooper at his feet.
The troopers that surrounded Natasha started to fire their weapons at Steve who blocked them with his shield. Kneeling to get out of the line of fire, Natasha reached into her belt and pulled out two electro discs and through them at the troopers' feet which stunned all of them.
The guys in gray each pulled out a laser pistol and started to shoot at Natasha and Steve.
They both took cover behind the wall next to the elevator.
"How the Hell did you get up here?" Natasha yelled to Steve.
"Seriously, you can't wait till after we get rid of these guys?" Steve asked, moving his head just in time to avoid a blast.
Natasha shrugged her shoulders, then she noticed the elevator was coming up.
"Incoming!" Natasha yelled and when the doors opened she shot the occupants inside. Two armored soldiers fell before they could even raise their weapons.
"This is starting to get annoying." Steve muttered and threw his shield which hit all six gray suited guys, knocking them out effectively.
"Now you do that?" Natasha asked sarcastically and ran up to one of the consoles.
"You know how to hack their stuff?" Steve asked running up beside her.
"Nope, but F.R.I.D.A.Y. can." Natasha said and attached a small circular device to the computer and waited for it to clone the hard drives of the system.
"So, how did you get here?" Natasha asked.
"T'Challa gave me a ride, Wanda and Bucky are here too." Steve said and pointed towards the mountain where Natasha saw a red barrier surrounding the mountain.
"Well why don't ya look at that." Natasha said and before she could continue a beep sounded and she picked up the hacking device.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., we need a pick up at the superstructure." Natasha said into the comm.
"Right away." The female A.I. said. The Quinjet appeared in front of the bridge and the rear hatch opened.
"I got this." Steve said and smashed his way through the glass and landed on the ramp. Natasha followed suit and landed next to the super soldier.
"Rhodey you're clear to blow that thing." Natasha said once she sat down in the pilot's seat and flew out of the way while Rhodey and two F-35s launched a barrage of missile's and other heavy ordinance puncturing the shields of the cruiser and a second later it exploded in a flash of brilliant blues and greens.
"You do know I legally have to arrest you, right?" Natasha told Steve who only smirked at the former Russian assassin.
"Yeah, good luck with that." Steve laughed and walked to the back of the Quinjet.
"How are you going to explain Barnes to Stark?" Natasha asked making Steve frown.
"Haven't really thought that through yet." Steve finally answered.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed, please review/fav/follow. Thank you.
May the force be with you cause there needs to be a Solo sequel.
