[A/N: Sorry for the delay, I hit another patch of writer's block. Enjoy!]
6
Admiral Karath stepped gingerly over the body of a dead alien, most likely a member of the security forces on the space station. As he cleared the obstacle, he gazed into the face of the humanoid. Blue-skinned and bald, the dead man had a ridge running vertically along his face, bisecting it. He shook his head, equally a dismissive gesture and a disgusted one, he turned his attention to the waves of Stormtroopers filing past him, joining in the search for any astronavigation data the station held.
In what would have been deemed a mistake committed by a first-year Cadet at the Imperial Academy, he had ordered his fleet to make a blind jump into hyperspace, albeit a short one. The three Star Destroyers had survived the jump with no damage, but his Interdictor cruiser had not fared as well. The jump had put her directly into the path of a large cruiser orbiting the station they had found almost by chance. The two ships had collided, and while the smaller foreign cruiser had been destroyed, the Star Crusher survived, though her starboard gravity well projectors had sustained significant damage. While the port generators were still functional, this severely reduced the effectiveness of the cruiser, since any ships trapped by the Interdictor would be able to escape a smaller gravity well more quickly.
The Admiral gave a look out the viewport, watching debris from one of the enemy ships drift across the profile of the crippled Interdictor. It was a portion of the saucer-like hull shared by most of these so-called "Federation" vessels. The strange vessels were armed with equally anomalous weaponry. Whereas Imperial weaponry relied on coherent light energy, the sensor data Hammer of Dawn gathered during their earlier engagements suggested that these so-called "phasers" relied on particle-based energy, though the sensors were unable to specify what kind of particle. Karath had dismissed these armaments, finding turbolasers much more effective and satisfying. Their torpedo weaponry however, was fascinating to him. Quantities of antimatter was detected in the warheads that had managed to weaken his Star Destroyer's shields. The Admiral pitied these Federation types, antimatter weaponry had much more destructive capabilities than what they were using. He began to wonder if the Empire could adapt that technology for his own use. But for the moment, he had more pressing questions that needed answering.
"Commander," he called out without turning away from the window. The rapid footfall of leather boots behind him signaled the hasty approach of the officer he had summoned. The reflection of the smaller man appeared in the window beside his own shortly thereafter.
"Y-yes, Admiral? How may I be of assistance?" The commander asked, clearly not expecting the Admiral to be overseeing the search personally. Karath shot a passing glance to his right, still not turning to face his lesser directly. Of course, due to his scarred right eye, he couldn't actually see the man, but that was hardly the point. The gesture was one of dominance and intimidation, and it seemed to have the desired effect.
"Report. What have you been able to pull from the computer core?" He turned on his heel away from the window, moving toward a bank of terminals. The younger man jogged slightly to keep up with the Admiral's long stride. As the pair reached the computer station, he examined the control panel.
"Well, Admiral, while the inhabitants of this galaxy seem to share a verbal language with us… The problem lies in their written language. It is far different than Aurebesh. We are having difficulty deciphering the characters." The Commander punched up a random command on the console, and a string of text displayed on the screen. And Karath confirmed his junior officer's statement. He was unable to read the sentences.
"Are any of the human personnel still alive?" Karath asked, the distant sounds of blaster fire echoing through the base.
"Several. Plus, a small number of non-humans. Their languages differ vastly from our own, but I received word that one of the human crew has surrendered their translation matrices. No small amount of coercion was required, but we are now able to communicate with the aliens."
Karath frowned, the thought of having to interact further with non-humans sending a faint shudder down his spine. He, like most of the Empire's commissioned officers, shared a strong distaste for alien life. The Emperor's propaganda had imprinted this prejudice on him and many others long ago, and it was what made him so successful in the Imperial Navy. His lack of compassion toward non-humans prevented him from losing sight of whatever goal he was seeking. Countless alien colonies had fallen prey to his merciless hunt for the Rebellion, mere obstacles in his path he was more than eager to remove.
"And the star charts?" Karath asked.
"Those are proving more difficult to obtain. They seem bound by a 'prime directive' that refuses the right to technology to outsiders." The Commander tapped away on a datapad, searching for more useful intel, rambling in the Admiral's ear until he held up his left hand to silence the babbling officer.
His right hand wrapped itself around the ornate grip of the custom Verpine shatter gun tucked away in the holster on his hip. A prize from one of his early victories following the rise of the Empire, it originally belonged to a high-ranking Republic officer, whose name had long since been forgotten. While not standard Imperial-issue, and despite being made by the insectoid-like Verpine race, he treasured the pistol for its ability to inflict gruesome wounds.
"Commander, have your teams bring all the survivors here. I would like to interrogate them personally." He removed the pistol from its holster, and he checked the magazine of small pellets that were accelerated to high velocities, causing massive damage to organic tissue.
"Y-yes, Admiral. Right away."
"And Commander," he added, motioning with the barrel of the gun to the blue-skinned body he had stepped over on his way into the room, "I'd like to start with another one of those. If possible."