Approximately four years earlier, Twin Suns Repair Station, Outer Rim Territories
"I can't get a clear shot, stop jerking us around!"
"I thought you were supposed to be good Imperial." Emkay said touchily.
Garin ground his teeth, together, swiveling his turret around and squeezing the firing studs, blowing away another TIE.
"Ace, if you're short one droid after this I apologize."
"No," Ace said, the smile on his face was audible, "don't shoot him, he's like family."
Another TIE burst into space dust as it crossed Garin's firing arc, he looked down at the sensors it was quiet for the time being, at least in their little slice of space. The battle was still raging; the Imperial task force had turned out to be an Escort Carrier being escorted by a trio of Nebulon B and B2 frigates with a single Strike cruiser, it was nothing that the Knight couldn't outfight, but she was still in dock, much to the compound amusement and annoyance of most of his wing. They were amused that the paint job was being finished before the ship went into combat, and were annoyed for the same reason. A few of his pilots had even asked if he was insane, considering what he'd been doing with Hades these past months, it was quite possible he was just that. Hades had thus far been doing a fine job of keeping the enemy fighters from the station and the ships berthed there, it had been an interesting show of faith on Ace's customers' parts when they'd opted to stay docked at the station within the protective shield and weapons platforms instead of fleeing. It made Garin wonder if the Azzameen business had to deal with this kind of thing regularly.
Certainly his pilots seemed combat trained, they'd been acquitting themselves well as far as he could see, with only three losses to the Imperial force's two dozen so far, the lack-luster performance of the current Imperial pilot caused a great deal of worry for him; it meant that training standards were lagging and that the Republic would be gaining ground rapidly from this point on if the performance given by the pilots was reflected on all aspects of the Imperial war machine.
"All this trouble for a single unit," Emkya was muttering, "you'd think the Imperials could find something better to do."
"I'm more worried about what they are doing than what they might do Emkay." Ace responded, "get us back in the fight."
"I can't wait, here I come Imperial scum, prepare to eat vacuum!" Emkay said, sounding all too delighted for a droid.
"Ace, what did you do to that thing when you bought it?"
"Don't look at me, my sister is the one that did most of the modifications on him; and even she isn't sure how he got so trigger happy."
"Great," Garin said shaking his head and watching as the Otana turned back towards the fight. "We're in the hands of a droid with anger management issues."
"I heard that," Emkay responded.
"I swear you two fight more than my brother and sister," Ace said with a chuckle.
"Imperial fighters coming at us," Emkay said hungrily, "get ready!"
Garin rolled his turret over to face the fore of the Otana where the incoming fighters would be coming from, his targeting sensor showed him the nearest TIE approaching rapidly and he began to lead before the fighter even cleared the horizon of the transport's hull, his shots tore into the starboard solar panel and threw it into an aimless spiral into space. Its wingmates came on strong, but their attacks glanced off the Otana's illegal shielding and the dual quads manned by Ace and Garin tore them to pieces, leaving only a handful of survivors to make a second pass, and they quickly peeled away and drew out of range rather than facing the deadly cannon fire again. Garin would have tried again, but to be fair, he'd have been flying a Defender.
"Garin, this is Ace, we've got help."
"That bulk cruiser of yours in system?"
"Yeah, and their fighters made the jump with them so we just got a new squadron."
"Well," Emkay said disagreeably, "we hardly needed them; I thought we'd been doing rather well."
"Show some gratitude droid, more help is never a bad thing." Garin said searching for his next target as a bomber vanished under his guns.
"Speaking of help, your ship is clearing dock."
"Can you patch me through?"
Emkay went quiet, "Emkay?" Ace said reproachfully. "Oh alright, I just wanted to see if I could crack their networks."
"Don't," Garin said, "our barriers will eat you alive. Iriana?"
"Here sir, the Knight has cleared dock, paint intact." This last part she added with a rather annoyed tone. "We're moving to engage the enemy."
Garin checked his targeting data; Diamond and Mantis had already knocked out one of the Neb-Bs and were engaging the other B and the B2.
"If you can, engage that Escort Carrier, if we drive off their base ship we might be able to get them to surrender."
"Surrender sir?"
"Would you want to keep fighting when your way home had just jumped and left you to burn?"
"Point taken, I'll see what we can do, we may have to go through that Strike first."
The Knight's engines flared and the heavy cruiser plowed forwards into the barrage from the medium cruiser, shrugging off the turbolaser fire and returning with its own fusillade of cannon fire. Blue and green energy bolts reached out and laced the Strike's shields as it returned fire with its own guns in an attempt to slow the larger cruiser down.
"Garin, your people seem to have scared them, the fighters are bugging out." Ace called out, Garin checked his sensors and confirmed that the TIEs were withdrawing towards their capital ships.
"Iriana, cease operations and stand down."
"Sir," her tone asked the question that her words did not.
"We're not here to slaughter our former fleet; we're here to defend a friend. If they're bugging out, let them."
"Yes sir, passing the order onto the squadrons now."
Hades and the defense fighters disengaged, the Imperials retrieved their fighters and then something happened that surprised Garin; they broadcast in the clear.
"This is Captain Demaris to unknown heavy cruiser, we stand down, I repeat we are ceasing hostilities, request a ceasefire to allow search and rescue operations."
"That's a new one," Ace said, sounding as surprised as Garin felt.
"Let them freeze in space," Emkay muttered, "they attacked us after all, and now they're begging for their lives. I say we space them."
"You would," Garin responded coolly, "Ace, it's your call."
"It's your cruiser."
"True, but this is your space, if you want Imperials lingering it's your call."
"I'm letting you stay aren't I?" Ace switched to an open broadcast, "Captain Demaris, this is Captain Ace Azzameen of the Republic and Co-Owner of Twin Suns Shipping, you are cleared for search and rescue, your fighters will remain aboard your ships and only shuttlecraft will be permitted to engage in the search."
"Thank you Captain Azzameen," Demaris responded, the relief in his voice evident. "We didn't sign up to be slaughtered by whatever you've got going here."
"Just some very special friends Captain, try cultivating a few sometime," Ace said quietly; Garin smiled, special friends indeed.
Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"Azzameen sounds almost as bad as you," Deana said with a scowl.
I shrugged, smiling at her annoyance "probably why we got along so well during that time."
"I can't believe you ordered your ship to remain in dock for a coat of paint."
"Most of my wing had the same reaction, yes, a few like Matrin and Kalan just rolled with laughter afterwards."
"One thing I'm curious about, you suffered no losses during that initial campaign, but after Endor you had to recoup your losses and pull in personnel from outside your normal channels. Didn't they feel at all out of place doing what they were doing?"
"Of course they did, especially whenever Isard managed to throw one of her nooses around our necks. Most of us didn't like the idea of fighting Imperials, after all until very recently we'd been Imperials. Almost all of us though, with the exception of a few, believed that what we were doing was of more service to the Empire than actually being under the control of power crazed Moffs and Admirals playing warlord."
"And those that didn't think that way?"
Her tone told me what she expected to hear, that I'd had them shot or thrown in the brig, or any number of equally unpleasant fates. "They stayed out of a sense of community and loyalty to the unit. We never lost anyone to desertion or difference of opinion."
She blinked, considering this for a moment before she continued. "That's…surprising."
"You were expecting a harsher hand I imagine."
Carefully she nodded agreement, I shrugged. "I wasn't some tyrannical despot, if someone wanted to leave then they were welcome to debark at our next stop. I made that very clear when we started our rogue cruises after Endor. I think peer pressure played a large part in why most stayed. With the exception of the new guys, who stayed because they'd never been part of anything like this before, those with misgivings stayed because we were family; and regardless of our differences in opinion, they weren't willing to leave that family. Especially in the midst of all the turmoil following Endor, Hades gave them, regardless of its mission, a place to call home."
"After that incident the Twin Suns repair yard you returned to your normal cruise routines?"
"Yes, we moved from place to place just like before and as time wore on Isard stopped coming after us, eventually her attacks ceased altogether. Either she realized we were too expensive to hunt, or simply ran out of resources to do so; I admit I'm not entirely sure which it was."
"So without her dogging your every move, what did you do?"
"Nothing changed; we helped to liberate over a dozen systems from local gangs, warlords, and crime syndicates in the years we operated in the Mid and Outer Rims."
"That many," she asked in surprise, I nodded. "I never realized you'd taken part in that many operations, though it explain why so many planetary and system governments were rising to power in those regions."
"We moved around fairly rapidly, approached local authorities, offered our services for a fee or supplies in return, and then eliminated whatever stood in our path before departing. A few governments tried to keep us on as the basis for their own fleet. I was offered to be made an Admiral on a few occasions."
"And yet you never took the offers."
"We weren't there to become what we were fighting, we wanted to eliminate the local oppressors; not become one ourselves. We never visited the same system twice as a rule; if they couldn't put themselves together after our intervention then it was their problem, not ours."
"You sound almost like some kind of noble mercenary." She said with a soft chuckle.
"Applying the holodramas to reality again Lieutenant?" I asked with an amused smile.
"It seems to fit you rather well." She countered, "something must have changed though, since around the time of the fall of Coruscant reports of your units activities dropped off."
"Coruscant fell to the Republic and I received the first message from my family I'd had since joining Hades...."
Approximately two years earlier, deep space aboard the cruiser Black Knight
"Gar, I hope you get this. I've been saving all this time to send this to you, ever since your last visit just before Endor. I was so happy for you then, it sounded like you'd found something you believed in; I know you joined the Empire to help support us, but you never could hide things from me very well. I know you felt cooped up and smothered here. I can't say I blame you, I even envied you for being able to escape."
His sister paused, brushing her gold-brown hair out of her face, she seemed older than Garin remembered, worn, tired. She leaned forwards, "the Republic attacked and took Coruscant you probably know that already; we're all safe so don't try to fight your way through the Republic Fleet to save us or something." Her smile was knowingly gentle. "I know you'd do it too, so please don't. A lot of people are scared, unsure about what the new regime will bring." A wry, familiar, smile played across her face; "I hope you're still alive Gar, so much has happened and aside from the credits you used to wire us we haven't heard anything. When they stopped coming I worried that you'd been killed at Endor, its still unclear exactly what happened there, but I know that a large portion of our Fleet was there," hearing his sister refer to the Imperial Fleet as 'their fleet' brought a needed smile to his face, if only she could see him now.
"I just hope this reaches you, and you're alright, and…I love you little brother. I know you're an Imperial officer, but the war is over I think, even if the Empire and the warlords keep fighting, the Republic has won no matter how you look at it." She reached out a holographic hand towards Garin and he let the miniaturized hand rest in his palm as if it were actually there and not just a holo. "Come home soon Gar, we all miss you."
The holo ended and Garin leaned back in his desk chair, considering what his sister had said. He hadn't seen her since just after the Zaarin campaign, five years ago. He'd stopped making the regular credit payments to his family when he'd stopped getting regular payment chits. He bit his lip and let his mind wander back down various avenues of the past, recalling his childhood, the swoop and speeder races in the maze of the undercity. The close calls with the police, the thrill of winning and the smiles on his sister's and cousins' faces when he brought home those winnings; things had been…different.
"You miss them?"
He jumped as Daru slid her arms around his shoulders and in the same motion slid into his lap, kissing him softly. "How long have you been here?" He asked incredulously.
She smiled coyly at him, "long enough," her smile faltered. "You aren't mad at me are you? For listening I mean."
He snorted and shook his head, "no I suppose not, I want you to meet them eventually anyways, and there wasn't anything overly personal in the message."
She looked at him worriedly, "you haven't talked to them in what now, five or six years? Hearing from your family after all this time is a big deal Garin, don't tell me it isn't."
He smiled at her, "it isn't." She punched his chest, scowling. "Okay okay, yeah, it is a big deal. I can't believe she actually saved up her creds for that call, hypercom isn't cheap, especially on Coruscant."
The conversation might have continued, but his com buzzed, Daru leaned against him, breathing softly as he answered.
"Yes?"
"Garin," Toth said, he sounded shaken, "turn on the holonews, you've got to see this."
He flipped the holodisplay back on, Daru turned her head to watch as well; then both of them froze, dumbfounded as they watched an Executor-class super star destroyer rising from the cityscape of Coruscant climbing vertically towards the atmosphere.
"Oh space me," whispered Daru, her eyes bulging, "the repsorlift power to get that thing clear of the atmosphere is astronomical. What is the Republic doing? They'll kill thousands!"
Garin looked at the headline and caught his breath, "that's not the Republic, its Isard."
"What?"
He nodded at the display, tapping the headline and enlarging it: Infamous Lusankya prison discovered to be massive warship hidden beneath Imperial City; live footage of Lusankya's escape.
"Oh gods," Daru whispered, anyone who knew ISB knew about Lusankya, the only prisons in the galaxy that possessed as much infamy were the spice mines on Kessel and the Corporate Sector's detention blocks. No one though, had ever realized it was a ship, or that it had been hidden on Coruscant. As they watched, Lusankya blasted its way through the layered shields of the planet and proceeded into the upper atmosphere before finally making space, where it dropped the massive repulsor sled that had been attached to her keel, it fell back to the surface and Garin winced as he imagined the tens of thousands of people that would be killed by the impact, millions more would be injured, so densely packed was the population. The holonews continued to broadcast the Lusankya as it shot its way past the defense platforms around the planet's orbit before clearing the gravity well, blurring with pseudo-motion and leaping into hyperspace. Garin and Daru sat in silence and watched as the report turned to the devastation wreaked on Imperial City and the Republic's response to the disaster. The galaxy had just become a whole super star destroyer more complicated for them, especially if Isard was holding a grudge.
"Sir," Kindran's voice caused them both to jump.
"Yes, what is it Orlis?"
"I'm sorry to bother you, but we've just received a broad range holocom message."
He frowned, what was going on now? "Who is transmitting the message?"
"Warlord Zsinj sir, he says he knows about us, and would like to speak with our commander."
Garin's stomach clenched as he shook his head, "this just keeps getting better."
"Yes sir," Kindran responded tonelessly as Daru pressed against him and he wrapped his arms around her; the galaxy had just become two super star destroyers more complicated.
