Chapter 9: The Battle For Dromund Kaas

(On the Bridge of the Executor)

Darth Vader stood on the bridge, watching hyperspace pass outside the ship. He was enroute to the Dromund Kaas system with the rest of Death Squadron to destroy the invaders that had attacked and taken the planet a few days prior. He did not care who these invaders were or why they had come. All he cared about was ending this threat quickly so he could continue his attempt to recruit his son Luke Skywalker to his side. Vader was still furious about his failure on Bespin and was anxious to try again. But these invaders had distracted him from his mission, and for that they would pay.

Admiral Piett walked up to Vader.

"My lord, we are approaching the Dromund Kaas system and will be exiting hyperspace momentary. All ships are currently in high alert."

"Very good Admiral." Vader replied. He ordered Piett to prepare his TIE Advanced. Vader was ready to go to battle...

Darth Imperius sat meditating. The past few days had been relatively quiet, which surprised him. He had expected some sort of retaliation from the Galactic Empire, but so far there had been silence. Suddenly Imperius sensed something. It was an enemy fleet coming towards them! Imperius quickly got up and ran to the bridge of the ship. Almost as soon as he stepped on one of the officers walked over to him.

"My lord, we are detecting a large enemy fleet emerging from hyperspace. What are your orders?"

"Get all personnel to battle stations. We are under attack!"

He watched as a large Imperial fleet came out of hyperspace. The Imperials immediately opened fire on the Sith Fleet. "Launch fighters." After a few minutes one of the officers walked up to Imperius.

"My lord, I have analyzed the enemy fleet. Although it is much larger than the one we destroyed they still only statistically have a 5% chance of victory. Their capital ship is only about half the size of the Emperor's Sword and has only three fourths it's firepower. Our victory seems inevitable."

Imperius nodded. Then he ordered all Gravestone-class warships fire their super-lasers on the capital ship. The battle continued for several hours with the Sith having the upper hand. Then an officer gave Imperius some strange reports.

"My lord, we are getting some strange reports. Fighter squadron 1-A reported a single enemy fighter single handedly destroying several fighter squadrons. Several of our warships have also reported similar occurrences. Most of them lost communications as soon as their transmissions ended."

Imperius thought to himself. Then he asked the officer to get him a ship. The officer responded:

"My lord, your personal ship has been upgraded. It is available to use, if you wish." Imperius nodded. Then walked down to the ship's hangar. There he was met by Darth Resilius and two others that would serve as crewmen. They got into Imperius's Fury-class Imperial interceptor, which had been rebuilt and upgraded to match the capabilities of the newer ships. They took off to confront the mysterious pilot that had been causing trouble with the Sith ships.

(Darth Vader P.O.V)

Vader flew through the battle in his TIE Advanced Fighter, easily cutting through enemy starfighters and frigates. Vader was in the middle of destroying one of the enemy ships when he felt something through the force. Looking to this right he could see an enemy starship approaching from the distance. Abandoning the ship he was destroying, Vader turned his TIE to face the incoming enemy.

Even from a distance Vader could feel the force coming from the ship's pilot.

"This must be one of the false sith my master told me about." Vader thought to himself. The two ships got in range of each other. They began to fight, weaving through the battle around them.

(Darth Imperius's P.O.V.)

Imperius could feel the dark side radiating from the enemy pilot. Just by being near him Imperius could feel the force was extremely powerful in this man, more powerful than Darth Vitiate himself. The man was also a very skilled pilot. Imperius was having a lot of trouble matching the pilot. The man made several successful runs on Imperius's ship before they were even able to fire back.

The two ships chased each other through the battle. Vader pulled his ship up and went over Imperius's ship. Then Vader did a dive straight down towards his enemy. Vader made several more hits and got behind the ship. Imperius countered by suddenly slowing down the speed of his ship and letting Vader set in front. Before Vader could react Darth Resilius was able to fire an ion blasts which disabled his shields. Resilus was able to get several more hits on Vader before he recovered, leaving it badly damaged.

(Darth Vader's P.O.V.)

Vader knew that if he was hit again his ship would be destroyed. He decided that it was too risky to stay in the battle. In an attempt to escape, Vader flew into a hole in the burning wreckage of a Imperial Star Destroyer. Imperius, who was following closely behind Vader, barely had enough time to pull up. The bottom of his ship scraped against the hull of the wreckage, badly damaging it. His ship damaged, Imperius decided to head back to the Emperor's Fury. Vader sensed his departure, but now he had another problem to deal with. The hole in the wreckage was getting narrower, making it impossible to turn around and come back the way he came. The TIE continued to get damaged as it went further into the wreckage. Luckily for Vader whatever had destroyed the ship had blasted all the way through, leaving a tunnel. Vader made it out of the wreckage but his TIE was on the verge of destruction. Even though he could barely control his damaged TIE, Vader managed to steer his ship towards the Executor.

Vader's damaged ship flew towards the Executor. When it was almost there Vader lost control of the speed. The ship began to speed up. Vader barely had any time to order the release of the force field to the hanger on the side of the ship. His TIE flew into the hanger at a high speed. Vader attempted to land the fighter on the floor and use the friction to stop the ship. The ship skidded across the metal floor of the hanger leaving a trail of sparks and hitting several unsuspecting stormtroopers and hanger personnel. The TIE hit the wall of the hangar and exploded. Several astonished stormtroopers and personnel watched as a piece of wreckage was thrown away from the wreckage and a badly injured Vader limped out of the wreckage. Half of his helmet was missing and large chunks of his suit had been torn off. One of his cybernetic arms was also missing and a part of his leg was mangled. But he was alive.

Vader made it to his pressurised personal chamber. He removed his cracked and beaten helmet and contacted Admiral Piett. Piett's look of shock at seeing Vader's scarred and burn face was quickly replaced by a expression of fear when Vader asked him for a status of the battle. He responded with a scared voice.

"My lord, we have been unable to destroy our enemy. Most of our attack fleet has been destroyed and the Executor has been severely damaged. I have given the order to retreat." Vader was furious. He had failed his master again.

"You are lucky that I have exhausted much of my strength keeping myself alive, Admiral." Vader said to Piett. "If you fail me again you will regret it."

"Yes my lord." Piett replied quickly before Vader ended the communication.

"My master will not be pleased." Vader thought to himself as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

(On the Bridge of the Empire's Fury)

Imperius watched as the surviving enemy ships jumped into hyperspace. He turned his admiral.

"Contact Emperor Finalus. Inform him of what has happened here and of our success." He smiled to himself. Now he was certain. No force could stand against the New Sith Empire.