Chapter 52

(Star Destroyer Exactor, Bridge)

Hundreds of vessels ranging from the mighty Stardestroyers' and similar dreadnaughts to the smaller corvettes and simple gunboats were now ready and awaiting lord Vader to give the command to launch a quick Hyperspace jump to Dubrava. The dark lord felt a rush of excitement long thought dead to him, as he imagined what was about to take place above the not so distant world before him and his grand armada.

'For once rebels and dissenters will be of some use to me, and the galaxy.' Vader thought as contempt for these types of arrogant, and ignorant beings raged within him. For far too long had he hated rebels, their holier-than-thou and hypocritical actions, which in hindsight, caused nothing but slight, but bitter nuisance to the Emperor and Vader himself. Now, however, because of Kuns dealings, and blackmail, leaders from all across the galaxy had moronically gathered to Dubrava with the foolish hope of uniting under a single banner against the Empire. 'How pathetic.' Vader seethed. He, in all honesty could not comprehend how Kun pulled this off. He could not contemplate how hundreds, or maybe even thousands of people who have hidden from his sight and Imperial networks for years could so stupidly come together to a single point in the galaxy on one world. The threat of enemy attack was far too great for Vader to ever even consider doing something like this rebel gathering within the Empire. Only Coruscant was viable for such a gathering and even then Vader would have security operating at triple capacity with ten times more forces available than normal.

Vader shook his head ever so slightly in disgust. Frankly he could care less about the deaths of these fools, and they utterly disgusted the dark lord. "My lord." Captain Piett greeted with a deep bow.

"What is it captain?" Vader responded without budging an inch; as usual. The captain said clearing his throat, "All vessels have reported green status for launch, my lord. All fighter and bomber squadron pilots are ready and waiting the command to disembark as per ordered lord Vader." The Sith lord nodded. "Very good captain. Ensure you signal the fleet on my order." Piett again bowed deeply, "Of course lord Vader." Then turned on his heel and made for the communications terminal.

The dark lord remained firmly planted where he was, staring out the Exactors viewport. 'The time is here. Just mere moments now.' Vader coolly thought as his heart was beating with more anticipation than he had felt in years. The time for action was indeed soon, and the fate of trillions hung in the balance.

(Dubrava, Planet Surface, Northern Hemisphere.)

The encampment continued to bustle with activity as soldiers from all across the galaxy, from all races, and sentient backgrounds intermingled and shared stories, and scars with one another. This was a momentous occasion in all galactic history! Thousands of hard working and "good," people were here to finally come together and destroy the dictatorship that was the Galactic Empire of Emperor Palpatine.

There were tents set about the area as soldiers eagerly awaited the arrival of more influential and popular figures. Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis. More would come surely, and everyone was excited. Everyone except for the leaders whom were convening in a makeshift meeting hall; which in all actuality was a larger tent with all the leaders jam-packed into it.

Ryl Terr, of the Freedom and Unity front looked about the crowded tent. He could see all manners of people here all of them hoping that at any moment a com message would come through heralding the coming of Bail Organa. However, the problem Ryl saw, and so did everyone else, was that Bail was a no show. 'In fact he's a no show, no caller, no anything.' Ryl thought to himself with a mild sense of eerie tingling up his spine.

As he was looking around the tent of "representatives," he could just sense it in the air. Everyone else was just as worried if not scared out of their minds as he is. Even the wannabe dictator Forsho looked like he was about to run out the tent any second and leave as fast as he could. Mon Mothma was a no show, Garem Bel Iblis, also a no show. There was literally no one here from the upper echelons of the Imperial senate or veterans of the Republic days. Everyone here was contacted by Bail Organa in one way or another, and he explicitly said, dictated even that leaders should come together here on Dubrava for a special meeting, a congress of sorts. "This is insane." He said to no one in particular. From where he sat Ryl felt almost a nausea induced panic flow over, and off him. He would never claim to be a smart man or even just a knowing man, but Ryl did think himself smarter than this. Braver too, but yet here on Dubrava among fellow freedom fighters from across space, he felt weak and afraid. For if Bail didn't show, and if he intended not to show…what will show itself?

That was the million credit question not only on his mind, but indeed it was a thought that plagued all that were around him. It was only mere moments now that he and all with him would know, and at least they would know before the end.

(Alderaan, Crevasse City)

Indiscernible flashes of green, red, and blue sped past his left and right. While those that met his way were hurriedly deflected by his dual crimson lightsabers. Viathan was in bad straits as his wounds from Aldera City began to sting with every move he made, and he was making plenty just trying to dodge the slew of blaster fire directed at him. 'Apparently having red lightsabers makes you a prime target. Go figure.'

Viathan thought with sarcastic humor. Though it did nothing to help his situation.

Inhaling deeply he used the force to dash forward in a blur and caught a mal-dressed rebel by surprise as the soldier found himself face to face with a saber wielding boy. Viathan left him no time to counter and plunged his saber into the mans chest before lunging around and catching two of his friends of guard as well and promptly behead them all in one fell swoop.

Finally exhaling Viathan looked about himself attempting to "collect," himself. He noted his surroundings as he noticed billowing smoke nearly everywhere across from him in the other sector of Crevasse. Plumes of smoke were constantly rising from lower levels on his side, and he had lost almost all his troopers of which now joined many other bodies strewn about the city streets. Bits and pieces, parts were everywhere from what Viathan believed to be civilian and military forces alike. The last of his troopers were now either taking a separate route towards lieutenant Veers, or dead somewhere.

Viathan, hearing his comlink blare, swiped it up from his belt and activated it. A small image of General Gerrel materialized, and Viathan noted the generals much more serious demeanor and un-smiling face. "What is it general? I'm a bit busy down here." Viathan declared as explosions and the screams of blaster fire continued unabated in the background.

"Forgive me sir, but I must report that rebel forces are advancing even further into the industrial sector and I am receiving reports from across the city that communications have been re-established by them, and they may have possibility to send and receive messages off world, sir." Viathan sighed deeply. "I see." Was all he could muster up to say. 'Kriffing rebels!' Viathan seethed to himself as he forced himself not to explode into anger. Not now anyways.

"Very well General. I want you to issue an immediate containment protocol to the fleet and all forces planet side. Under my jurisdiction I want heavily populated sectors of enemy forces, or perceived areas of them leveled via orbital bombardment." Seemingly with no emotion Viathan ordered as a cold rage took over him. The general made no immediate response however.

"Very well sir, I however must inform you that directing orbital strikes in a city such as Crevasse will cause massive structural damage and will inevitably cause collateral damage on all sides of this fighting."

Viathan nodded to himself. "Irrelevant general. These rebels have shown themselves to willingly hide amongst civilians and are therefore responsible for their deaths. They can change their fate through surrender, however, that's unlikely at this point and time." he stated gloomily. "If these rebels are not brutally subjugated immediately we will have an even bigger problem, and I will not have these rebels re-establish a "beachhead," on Alderaan general." Viathan declared firmly to Gerrels holoimage.

The general bowed forward ever so slightly. "As you wish sir, I will contact the fleet immediately. Gerrel out!"

Without delay Viathan re-clipped his comlink and quickly began running deeper into the second level of Crevasse. The city smelt of fire and death as he made his way forward and passed bodies of all types he could smell burning flesh and it was a horrendous smell indeed. Viathan had to admit he had never been in a more death ridden place while people were still dying, before. Only Dantooine came close, and that was still minor by comparison. Viathan kept running kept moving, he used every once of the force he could and bound his way forward. He passed several skirmish zones and promptly kept moving or killing any foolish rebel in his way. All the while Viathan tried hard to ignore the sickening raw pain reverberating though the force. He had never been around so much chaos and death at this magnitude, and the force was practically screaming in what he could only describe as his head. It however felt like he could sense in every cell of his body, every particle around him seemed to be yelling in utter, unbridled pain, and Viathan couldn't help but think about how he was the one causing it. Wasn't he?

"I didn't start shooting first!" He said to himself aloud as he passed over a fallen pillar. "I'm not the one hiding among civilians like rats in a kriffing sewer!" He seethed loudly as he came to a stop in what looked to be an open market. It too was littered with bodies. However, there was before him no stormtroopers, but a dozen or more rebel men scavenging his troopers bodies for blasters and whatever else they felt like.

Viathan heaved in such rage that he didn't even know where it came from. He quickly grasped his two hilts and activated the crimson sabers. He then leapt forward so as to insure he placed himself directly before the whole group. 'I want you all to see me before the end.'

All the man jumped at the sight of Viathan and his two sabers. He stood to his full height with his black robes tightly wrapped about his body, and by that Viathan believed himself to look an imposing figure. What he couldn't see, but these men did was his sickly yellow tinged eyes. They spoke volumes to the menace of the man before them as they glowed and gave off a sense of evil none of these men were expecting to ever see.

All the men quickly darted for their blasters hanging around them on belts, or the more cautious ones whom were already holding their blasters immediately took aim at Viathan. With an unheard snarl he leapt forward again swiping one saber across one mans stomach and sliced through easier than a knife through butter. Then swept to his left and swung his right arm across decapitating another. He was being fired upon from nearly all directions around him now, and he twirled both sabers brilliantly as a professional light show deflecting them all, and sending the bolts careening to all directions.

Then with a force aided leap Viathan hurled himself upwards and came crashing down on another man, quickly putting both sabers through his chest before they hit the ground. Rolling back to a stand Viathan spun on his feet and immediately tossed one saber at three men standing too close together, and easily caused differentiating amounts of horrendously painful wounds to all of them.

He felt the adrenaline careening through his veins. He didn't know frankly where this rage and anger was coming from, but he couldn't care less in actuality. It made him feel…good.

There were four men remaining and as he pulled his one saber back tom him, two of them turned on their heels and ran. "Where are you idiots going!?" One man cried out as they turned and ran, he got no reply, and Viathan couldn't help the small breath of laughter from escaping him.

"It would seem they're running you imbecile." Viathan coolly retorted to the man who snapped his attention back to the threat in front of him.

"Well, I'm not dead yet, so give it your best shot Imperial scum!" He boldly retorted in kind.

"It would be my honest pleasure." Viathan replied as he then quickly made another dash at the man, before turning on his right and in a blink of an eye took his last companions life with a stab through the heart.

"DAMN YOU!" The man cried as he opened a rapid volley of green blaster bolts from a heavy repeating carbine.

Viathan leapt away from the immediate onslaught of bolts as the man tried to continue firing and redirect his aim causing much strain on his arms to move a violently shaking weapon. The young sith then quickly re-clipped a saber and sent a violently hard force push the rebels way and before the man could even go wide eyed, he flew off the ledge of Crevasse city; yelling all the way down into the abyss of the canyons bottom, but no one would hear him or help him. "Just another terrible casualty of battle." Viathan mockingly lamented as he looked over the edge, and clipped his final hilt.

Viathan then heard his comlink buzz with life again, and he snatched it from his belt immediately. "What?" He demanded roughly. "Oh, uh forgive me if I'm interrupting you sir, but we have a lock on your current position and I figured you had reached lieutenant Veers." Came the hurried reply of general Gerrel. "In fact I've not met up with him general. Why would you assume I have if you are tracking me?" Viathan asked as he looked around himself in a slight paranoid fashion.

"Ah yes, forgive me sir I had not realized it, but I see the problem now." The general chimed in. Viathan rolled his eyes and sighed. "Want to explain Gerrel?"

The general coughed in an obvious manner that just screamed embarrassment. "Yes well I had seen the data wrong; you see we cant see you directly because of the city's top level blocking our line of sight so we are using com channels as beacons." The general explained. "I had not looked at the part of the data that specified you were a level above the lieutenants immediate position. I apologize for the error sir, it wont happen again I assure you." Viathan couldn't put his finger on it but felt for some reason the general expected a harsh reprisal of some kind.

"It's fine general, no ham no foul as the saying is I believe." Viathan assured him. "However I will say I'm happy you told me that." The general was quiet for a moment. "Really sir, why?" he asked in confusion.

"Because; Gerrel, I can now get to Veers via shortcut." He said looking over the edge still. "Keep me posted on events general, Viathan out." He said quickly, not allowing Gerrel more time to talk before he shut the transmission down and re-clipped the comlink to his belt. 'This should be easy.' Viathan thought as he continued to look over the edge of Crevasse. This time however he was looking to see how far down level three was from where he stood.

He could hear large bursts of fire coming from below and only then realized it was the very recognizable sound of AT-ST fire. He breathed in deeply allowing the force to surround him in it's dark embrace, and before he could think it over anymore he leapt into the abyss of Crevasse city's canyon. The very canyon he just sent someone to their death in.

Every nerve and muscle within him tensed as he made this "leap of faith." He could feel the force all around him, and all the pain that screamed out from this city. It was pure adrenaline again coursing through him as he then opened his eyes and with all his power pushed himself with a massive force wave against the wall of the canyon and thus what he hoped would be the third level of Crevasse city.

With all the power he packed into the push Viathan went careening into a wall alright, but he didn't account how hard and how painful it could, or would be. So when he slammed into the wall he blanched as he smashed his back and felt incredible pain all along his back, and then fell face first to the ground beneath. It was all dark for just a moment before he opened his eyes and breathed in hard. 'Oh force…that was a really, REALLY, kriffing bad idea!' He breathed in a hard, raw, shallow breath as all the wind had been knocked out of him by slamming himself against metal walling.

He groaned loudly as he pushed himself up from the metal floor. The pain radiating all over him caused the whole area to spin and he swore he could hear ringing, but then again there were supposed to be AT-STs and even an AT-AT here firing wildly from what he could hear before.

"I'm never doing that again!" He declared as he stood up fully and opened his eyes hoping the world wasn't spinning anymore. Taking in his immediate surroundings Viathan again saw bodies littered all around. However there were definitely more dead Stormtroopers than rebels. He then realized there was nobody around him. No rebels, troopers, or civilians. He looked from side to side; noting his neck pain while doing so, and then saw it in the distance to his right. Men; at least twenty, all huddled behind rubble, and what looked like kiosks, firing rapidly at the opposite direction. What made Viathan slightly smirk however was the fact that these were no Stormtroopers, and who else could they be firing at?

"Okay, this was worth it after all." He declared as he "shook off," the pain and began darting from rubble piece to rubble piece getting closer and closer to their position. As he got closer he placed himself back against a jutting wall and used it to look around the corner. They were practically right next to him, and he noted that they were firing trooper E-11 blasters, and using all manner of Imperial hardware. They were shooting wildly and Viathan only saw sporadic fire returned, and he assumed no one was actually hitting each other. Then, suddenly, a massive blast slammed into their positions and he quickly slammed back against his wall, and then heard several men crying out in pain. On sounded like he was choking too. 'Probably his own blood.' He thought before looking out again. There was plenty of dust but he could tell the able rebels were already returning fire with what he thought were stolen imperial "MiniMag PTL" missile launchers. 'At least I know where Veers' detachment is.' Viathan thought happily as he grabbed his comlink and punched in the channel frequency of Veers.

"This is Veers." Was all the lieutenant said. "I'm going to be quick and quiet lieutenant." Viathan replied in a hushed tone. Although all the firing made it redundant he didn't want to take a chance. "I am behind the line of the rebels causing you, your men, and your walkers all your grief. Now I want you to tell your detachment to cease all firing the second we're done talking and I'll deal with this scum. Am I clear lieutenant?" Viathan asked very slowly as to make a point. "Crystal sir." Was all he said.

"Good, now on my mark I'm going to hang up on you. Alright, One…two…three." Without delay he hung up on the lieutenant, and swiped up his hilts, dashed from around his corner and into the fray of rebel troops he charged. He twirled in a blur and cut down three men in the rear, and slightly smirked as they friends drowned them out with their rapid firing. He slid forward with the force and slashed upwards with his right arm into a rebels back and essentially gutted him. With momentum on his side he then propelled himself to his left and into two men who just saw him, and he decapitated them and landed behind them with his saber coming into an X position. Sensing them he rolled to his right and twirled to meet a rebels blaster bolts and directed three at the mans chest taking him down. His eighth victim stood shocked and still he looked as if he were about to say something, and maybe even surrender on account of him dropping his blaster, but Viathan merely sneered and twirled one saber around before beheading another men. 'Makes no difference. You're dead either way, idiot.' He thought with revile, before looking about and noticing all of the rebels were indeed dead, allot from that massive blast earlier. So Viathan was content with the mop up.

Nodding to himself approvingly he shut off his sabers, clipped them, and strode towards the Imperial line. There were from his count at least thirty Stormtroopers; all of them standing around like unknowing idiots at the moment too. Besides them was Viathans real prize of the day four AT-STs and a magnificently massive AT-AT. That as Veers had stated looked like the tightest fit he had ever seen.

Before doing anything else Viathan noted that there was indeed three downed AT-STs laying in rubble piles. He swiped up his comlink, "Lieutenant, can you see me?" He asked.

"Yes sir I can. My detachment has taken some obvious damage, but we have not reached the critical margin of losses yet, and I can assure you we are ready and able to push forward on your command." The lieutenant without delay informed.

"Very good lieutenant. We are not far from the industrial zone I believe. We will reorganize here quickly and then advance. I have authorized all necessary protocols to limit rebel activity on Alderaan, and if necessary orbital bombardment will and can be authorized as well." Viathan declared loud enough for the troopers and Veers to hear. "Understood sir. We are awaiting your orders." Veers replied curtly, but without a hint of rudeness.

"Good, very good indeed." Viathan whispered to himself, as he then commed general Gerrel. "general I have reached lieutenant Veers' position, but I'm going to be working with barley any leeway. I need an update immediately." Viathan demanded before the general had time to greet.

"Of course sir, ground reports from the industrial zones indicate a massive overrun tactic is being attempted their. Rebel forces have taken heavy casualties, but are persistent in their suicidal rushes." The general took a breath. "You and the forces are on the right level, however, our scouts indicate the rebels have seized that portion of Crevasse in attempt to cut our garrisoned forces off." 'Of course they did.' Viathan thought with increasing agitation rising in him. "I have ordered a further two divisions of reserves be deployed from the fleet, but I cannot get them to your position for at least several hours as rebel pockets still remain on levels one and two, topside is cleared however." The general continued.

"Understood general." Viathan replied solemnly. He shook his head in utter frustration. 'Never easy is it? Well fine! If the universe wants to play hardball, I'll play it just as damn hard!' With renewed rage he declared to himself.

"Issue the first order of the emergency protocol general! I want level one leveled via orbital strike. Then I want those divisions transferred to the industrial zone by direct transport into the canyon. Order further tactical strikes by bomber squadrons on sectors of the city firing on any and all imperial ships that pass through the canyon!" Viathan took in another hurried breath. "If necessary, and I stress necessary, general, have the opposite side of the canyon city leveled from levels one through three to curb rebel activity, otherwise get that side under control as soon as possible, understood general?"

There was a pause before Gerrel answered. "Yes sir I understand completely and clearly." He paused again. "I will divert freed up forces from topside to the opposite side of Crevasse immediately and attempt to at least tie down forces there for you sir. I will however order the strikes if as you said sir, necessary." Viathan nodded. "very good Gerrel. Viathan, out." He snapped off his com and made his way over to an AT-ST rubble pile and sat himself on it. Every muscle in him burned, and all it did was fuel his rage. 'Kun taught me to use pain, but never to lessen it. Go figure.' He figured it was because pain fueled the dark side, and he in all honesty would be damned if he was going to weaken himself over a little pain.

'Any moment now I will prove myself. I wont have a repeat of Dantooine! No Jedi here to help these scum today!' So the teen boy sat there awaiting his signal to move forward. The rebels weren't going to know what hit them, and by the time they did Viathan would be upon them like…well like a great Leviathan beast, and then he would finally be worth his masters time. As is the mind of Viathan.


Okay...I'm not going to bother with an excuse today but will only say sorry for the long delay again, and hope someone is still hanging around to read. Tell me how it is, and HOPEFULLY I'll have another up soonish. Thanks everyone.