34 ABY - Crait System
2214 Hours - Crait Outpost (The Resistance)
Leia did not like the idea of sending out her forces against the battering ram cannon in what amounted to a doomed enterprise, but she desperately needed all the time those brave soldiers could buy for the distress signals to get through. Ever since the First Order managed to track the Resistance fleet through Hyperspace, the latter organization limited its plans to contingencies aimed at mere survival, and not the immediate rebirth of the Rebel Alliance many of her followers expected in the aftermath of the New Republic's destruction.
"General, comm interference is clearing up, the distress signals should reach our allies soon", said lieutenant Ko Connix, formally an operations officer for the Resistance's Starfighters. She, along with several other dedicated soldiers, had tried to usurp command of the Resistance flagship from Admiral Holdo, but Leia could not truly begrudge her for playing a role in the mutiny. No one, least of all the general, was immune to fear, particularly when the stakes where so high, and the situation so desperate.
The former princess of Alderaan felt her thoughts wander to Luke, wishing he could be here in this her darkest hour. Rey was yet to return from her mission to locate the last of the Jedi, and consequently, Leia had never felt so alone. Even during imprisonment on Bespine, she somehow knew that Luke would come to the rescue. This time, she genuinely feared Luke would not come, and with Han and so many of her friends and colleges gone...
Leia calmed her nerves with a simple meditation technique Luke had shown her in happier times. She breathed in, out, and for a few moments, set aside the sounds of the battle outside, set aside her sight, set aside what she could feel, and allowed her presence to reach out to the quietness of empty space, but found that it was not as empty to the force as she supposed.
Her mind recoiled, suspecting that this was some foul scheme of Snoke's, but as she probed the force, she felt no ill intent, only feelings of pain, sadness, and loss. Leia allowed her presence to touch and try to sooth this unknown entity with her own age long experience and peace with the feelings tearing the other apart. The entity retreated in surprise at this contact, but did not let go of their newly formed bond altogether.
"Lieutenant, can you see any anomaly on the sensors, anything at all?" Leia asked, though her mind protested against the pursuit of such idle fantasies. In her heart however, Leia knew that there was more to this mystery than she could ever imagine.
Connix seemed startled by the general's request, what could possibly appear on the sensors except the First Order fleet? "Nothing, general, only the enemy's Star Destroyers", she said, much to Leia's disappointment, but then, she quickly added "Wait…there are more ships out there, profiles suggest a large corvette force. Hold on, they are broadcasting an interrogator IFF signal; ASB-AOA-NDA. I don't know any code like that in the Resistance or the First Order".
Neither did Leia, or any one of the other Resistance officers, who were well versed in the current codes of their movement and those captured from the enemy.
"It is a Republic code", said C3PO, causing several heads to turn towards the droid in surprise, much to its embarrassment. "I am fluent in over six million forms of communication. This was a code used by the Old Republic's Judicial Forces prior to the Clone Wars, where it was then replaced by…"
"Of course", said Leia, cutting off the rest of the history lesson "It is the initials of some of the lyrics in the Old Republic's anthem, All Stars Burn as One".
Only one or two other individuals seemed to recognize the title, but most, particularly the younger generation, did not. "How come I've never heard of it?" asked Connix.
Leia seemed slightly abashed at the challenge, "When the New Republic was formed, many of us wanted to restore the anthem, but with the war still going on, it never seemed important enough to discuss. After the war, it became a political issue; the Populists did not want it because some of the lyrics seemed to support collective state cohesiveness over individual system autonomy, and the Centrists never wanted anything to do with the Old Republic to begin with".
Commander Larma D'Acy, one of the few whom had recognized the anthem, decided to raise the immediate military implications of the transmission "I doubt it is a First Order ruse, they have us trapped and pinned down with no immediate capacity to escape. Chances are these ships are survivors of the Republic Navy, but wanted a subtle way to communicate their allegiance without immediately alerting the First Order".
Leia outwardly nodded, for this seemed like a reasonable theory. "Can you contact those ships?"
"Yes, we can contact them at any time, but we will get the best results if we identify our communication as friendly, or they might get dismissed as background communications or a hostile hacking attempt. The computer can emulate their simple encryption and conformation signal patterns, but I do need the base reply code to get passed their IFF challenge", said Connix.
Leia smiled, recalling the lyrics of the tune sang by her biological mother as an expression of sadness, but this time, with the joy the original authors must have envisioned.
"Try; REP-HAS-COM".
2221 Hours – Republic Flagship Megalodon
"Where is that protocol droid?" inquired admiral Dodonna, for what was the fifth time in so many minutes. She was a patient commander, but demanded punctuality from her soldiers. That same expectation obviously applied to droids, but no one could even hazard a guess at the machine's location. The discovery that her fleet had ended up in the Crait system, well behind enemy lines, did not improve her mood one bit.
"Apologetic Statement: The captain apologizes for the delay admiral; the protocol unit assigned to the Megalodon experienced an unfortunate accident involving a malfunctioning power coupling earlier this evening. Consequently, this unit was reassigned from the recreation area to facilitate communications and terminate hostilities with your esteemed guest", announced the droid.
Admiral Dodonna had never seen a droid quite like it, whereas most tended towards utilitarian builds designed to perform a specific task and rarely any other, this model seemed to be almost custom made, boasting a war droid's armoured plating and finesse with the advanced vocabulator and interactive systems of a protocol droid. Though she was curious to learn how such a presumably expensive machine ended up in her fleet, the admiral had far more important matters to consider. "Very well, proceed to the guest quarters".
The admiral and the droid joined the marine force and intelligence officers in the aforementioned area, a simply furnished wing designed to accommodate civilians, such as the Wookie, in relative comfort beyond the reach of military operations and on-board systems. The former of the two officers might well have danced with joy at the sight of the droid, signalling the end of his attempt at understanding the guest's language with knowledge based on a tourist phrase book. Before the "interrogation" could resume, the admiral's personal communicator indicated an incoming message: "Admiral, we have received a transmission from the habitable planet in this system, they appear to be a paramilitary organization affiliated with New Republic", said the captain.
"Patch me up while I take the lift back to the bridge. Hail the Harbinger and ask general Hux to listen in on this conversation", answered Dodonna, referring to both a fellow Hammerhead Class Cruiser and the Republic Army's expeditionary force commander. The admiral was in many ways politically naïve, and preferred to stay out of the Republic's internal squabbles. The general on the other hand was a veteran of both war senate.
The admiral and the marine force commander left the guest quarters, leaving the interrogation of the Wookie in the hands of the protocol droid and the intelligence officer. The communications officer on the bridge patched through the admiral and the general to her conversation with the paramilitaries.
"This is Admiral Dodonna, commander of this fleet. Who am I speaking to?"
The line blurred, indicating the interference was still very bad, but the para's probably possessed a powerful planetary communication array that was able to break through the interference through sheer signal strength. "This is General Leia Organa of the Resistance".
The admiral flinched at the appropriation of such a senior military rank, but this thought did not change her perceptions. The civilian resistance against the Sith had been left to its own devices with hardly any Republic support. The admiral therefore did not think it fair to fault them for their choice of command titles, "General Organa, understand that while I am authorized to coordinate military operations with private military organizations in support of the war effort, my forces cannot engage in any activity of a factional nature", said the admiral.
"I can work with that admiral, but you must hurry; there's an enemy fleet out there almost within firing range of your ships, and my forces will not last long against their ground assault".
Dodonna had hoped that the Sith Empire would crumble to infighting in the two months since the death of Malak and the destruction of the Star Forge, but evidently, a new Sith Master had taken over. Star Forge or no; the Sith Armada remained numerically superior to the Republic Navy. Now was not the time to make such inquiries however, for once battle was joined, every second counted "Understood, we will take the necessary countermeasures against the Sith fleet and launch an extraction mission to your location. Admiral Dodonna out", she said, cutting off an unspoken but urgent question regarding her choice of designation for the enemy force. "General, please issue a fleet wide red alert, and have all ships attempt to determine the enemy location", said the admiral to the general still listening in on her channel. Dodonna could have issued the same orders to her captain but preferred to use the opportunity to operate through her nominal second in command and thereby generate a minimal amount of fuss from the former's colleges while she wasn't on the bridge.
"I don't understand, what is New Republic?" Asked Major Tiron, the marine force commander, who could not help but hear the conversation as the two officers made their way to the elevator.
The admiral pressed the button for the Bridge section, while the marine selected the armoury level with the intention of equipping his men for the imminent battle. Instead of the admiral, the general came through the channel with a readily available description in brief of the paramilitary organization; "It is a political organization that believes the Republic should employ more decisive means to support our expansion into the outer rim territories. Prior to the Mandalorian wars, the organization fought a covert war against the Mandalorians in the outer rim. It toyed with supporting the Sith Empire in the beginning of The War, but once Telos was bombed; they re-joined our side and did what they could to kick start the resistance in the occupied territories".
The admiral nodded her agreement, but had other questions in mind "General, what can you tell me about the Organa family? I know they where big shots on Taris and the Exchange, but not much else".
Instead of an answer to this question, the Megalodon's captain came in through the communicator with great urgency; "Admiral, the enemy force is probing our location with laser fire! Brace for impact!
Hours 2230 – Star Destroyer Harbinger (First Order)
"Cease Fire at once!" demanded admiral Peavey as he entered the command bridge of the Resurgent Class Star Destroyer Harbinger, accompanied by his own command staff and several Stormtroopers.
The Harbinger's captain turned to face the admiral, an action that quickly told Peavey what had happened; the captain was quite old, older than Peavey, and judging by his sweat and panic-stricken face, the officer was reliving some past defeat to the rebellion. "Sensors indicate that these ships are Hammerhead corvettes, those things are fleet killers! One of them took out two Imperial Class ships; there is no telling what a fleet of them might do!"
The admiral had all the sympathy in the galaxy for what the captain was going through, but now was not the time for panic. "As of this hour, Captain Nyder stands relieved of command due to injuries sustained during battle with the enemies of the First Order. Stormtroopers escort the captain to the medical wing for treatment. Cease Fire and open a channel to Supreme Leader Ren". Announced Peavey, intending for these words to save the captain's reputation and prevent the New Blood from exploiting this incident. Once the captain was one, Peavey assumed command of the ship and ordered his officers to contact the rest of the fleet and restore the scattered fleet's formation and the chain of command.
The earlier request for a channel with the Supreme Leader took more doing, but eventually, the Star Destroyer was able to break through the interference. "Supreme Leader, one of our captains fired on a fleet of incoming unknown ships without orders, what are your instructions?"
Instead of the calm responsible voice of a commander in chief, Peavey was horrified to hear the voice of an over exited young man in a fit of rage. "Admiral, send out four squadrons of TIE, and blast those ships out of the sky!" ordered the Supreme Leader, letting the monitor slip for a moment to show a light freighter and two fighters of unknown design slaughtering the TIE Fighter detachment sent to support the ground forces. Any further orders from the Supreme Leader where not forthcoming, leaving the problem essentially up to the admiral's discretion.
"Sir, we are receiving a transmission from the unknown fleet", said the communications officer. The admiral completed arrangements for the TIE-Fighter sortie and nodded for the officer to patch through the message.
"Attention, this is Captain Zander of the Republic Navy; I have an urgent communique from General Hux".
The admiral felt his blood shoot through his ears, no, it could not possibly be…
"Who is this, what is your ship of origin?!"
"…This is Captain Rog Zander, of the RNS Harbinger. Am I speaking to the commanding officer of the Sith Fleet?"
Peavey could not believe the audacity of those rebels, first their little stunt with the X-Wing, now this latest outrage! "The illegal rebel entity referred to as the New Republic has been destroyed. This is Admiral Peavey of the First Order Navy, I demand that your ships cut off their Ion engines and prepare to be boarded, is that clear?!"
Several seconds passed before the so-called "Captain Peavey" answered.
"Please hold, I am waiting for General Hux…"
"No, I will not hold!" declared Peavey, "If you rebels insist on doing this damned silly thing, do not do it in this damned silly way! Open fire!"
The Star Destroyer resumed fire, but with sensor interference still high, the highly sensitive targeting systems reliant of the ship's systems were not finding their targets with any level of accuracy other than lucky chance.
The same could not be said of the enemy fleet's, whose own cannons immediately locked on the source of incoming fire and delivered precise if underpowered strikes against the Harbinger's shields. At first, the admiral did not think there was anything to get worried about, but after a few minutes of this standoff, the enemy fleet's fire converged on a single point where it was able to penetrate the shields.
Unfortunately, for admiral Peavey and his command staff at least, that point was the Harbinger's command bridge.
Note of the Amateur: For those not in the know, both the Old Republic and the First Order had ships called the Harbinger, I decided to add in more "things" with the same name to increase the potency of this situation beyond a mere standoff between two similarly named ships. I hope the title changes will clear up the confusion caused by this duplicity. Regarding Leia mentioning memories of her biological mother, my reasoning is that Leia specifically states that such memories exist in Return of the Jedi. Even though Revenge of the Sith contradicts this statement, I choose to favour the former.
November Edit: I changed the titles, some wording, and a bit of the dialogue spoken between Dodona and the general regarding the Organa family. Instead of existing as a royal family like it did in later years, I have decided to use a scrap of dialogue in Kotor to play around with the idea that the Organa family used to be a criminal family. It probably won't come up a lot, but if Kotor thought it interesting enough to put the idea there, I am willing to take it on too. The captain previously called Lex has been renamed Nyder to fix a continuity error created in chapter four. The lyrics of the Republic Anthem I wrote for the since removed datafiles will appear in chapter 5.
January Edit: Captain Peavey of the Republic Fleet is now named Captain Zander due to a decision to readapt chapter 3-4 to match my plan for a longer rather then shorter story. General Hux of the Republic fleet will remain so named because I have a way to make that name a believable possibility. One family name surviving four thousand years of history is quite a stretch, having two is just plain silly, as it was when I wrote it.
Thank you for your patronage,
A Lover of Nature.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. Disney, Lucas Film, and any organization empowered by them to that effect own the Star Wars title and its related products. Moreover, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.