"Once you start down
the dark path, forever
will it dominate your
Destiny."
Jedi Master Yoda
circa 25 Imperial Date.
Chapter Six
The black dagger form of a mammoth warship hurled itself from hyperspace. Stretching out for over twelve kilometres the Super Star Destroyer Executor had arrived in the Penoria System.
Penoria was a binary system with only one true planet. It had once been settled by miners working for the old Trade Federation but had long since been abandoned when its supply of raw materials had been exhausted. It was therefore an excellent place for the Empire to establish a top secret research and development facility.
Already in the system were dozens of other Imperial vessels. Frigates and cruisers, troop transports and resupply vessels. Ten of the old Victory-Class Star Destroyers and Five Imperial-Class Star Destroyers surrounded a vast ring more than two hundred kilometres in diameter, the key to the entire endeavour.
Lord Vader cared about none of these things, rather his attention was focused on the other Super Star Destroyer that orbited with that fleet.
"Contact the Lusankya," Vader ordered, hiding his anger, "Have Lord Krell report to me immediately."
Vader turned to leave the bridge and walked quickly to his quarters. Anger boiled over him again the moment the door closed behind him within his quarters. Without thinking he smashed the small table near the entrance with the Force.
How dare the Emperor give Krell the only other Super Star Destroyer in the galaxy. The fool Krell would now believe he was as great as the Sith Lord himself.
The Dark Lord of the Sith left his quarters and walked the corridors to his practice room. Within these walls he battled specially equipped war droids of his own design. This would be the place were he would receive Lord Krell.
Vader did not have to wait long.
The blast doors to the practice room opened, the light from the corridor spilled into the dim room. Standing within the doorway was a tall, powerful looking man in early middle age. He wore black armour over his chest and a long, brown, flowing cape over his shoulders. The clasp for the cape was of gold and the design for the clasp was of Sith sun.
Without a word Lord Krell drew and ignited his light sabre, challenging the Dark Lord to a duel. Lord Vader in turn drew his lightsabre and drew deeply on the force.
Stepping into the room Krell jumped quickly into action throwing himself into the air to land behind the Dark Lord. Vader responded quickly parrying several quick thrusts by his opponent and attacking with a powerful slashing attack. The red glow of their blades crossed over and over again as each sought some advantage over the other.
Krell remained on the offensive, trying to outdo the older Vader with rapid thrusts quick parries. Vader repulsed yet another of Krell's attacks and decided he was tired of the game. Not caring what kind of damage he did to the younger man, Vader sent arcs of Force lightning into Krell's chest and throwing him into the nearest bulkhead.
Full of loathing for the creature laying on the deck beneath him Vader spoke for the first time since Krell had entered the room.
"Be mindful," he said, "I sense danger on the other side of the conduit. There is greater power there then meets the eye.
"Do not let your passions take control of you. Anger unfocused is useless."
"Yes, My Lord," the humbled Krell replied, also speaking for the first time in Vader's presence, "It will be as you say."
In orbit around the planet ships began to mobilize. The Ring station activated its space folding technology and brought it to full power. Imperial warships began entering the conduit it created and emerged ready to conquer a new galaxy.
________________
Andromeda drifted silently in her orbit around Castalia. The blue world spun slowly beneath them as Dylan made his report.
"Captain Meduk seems to be very agreeable to the exchange we offered," Dylan reported, "Sensor and Comm. technology for Slipstream drive."
Fremont looked impassively at the data presented to him.
"You did good work Captain," the minister for defence told him, "Did you get a sense for there ships tactical capabilities?"
"They are very impressive," Dylan told him, "The power readings for the corvette we're going to convert is almost as high as the Andromeda herself. The ship they refer to as a Star Destroyer has energy weapons in the gigatons range as far as power.
"They are the single most powerful ships I have ever seen."
"Mr. Harper is collecting the materials we need to convert this corvette into a slip capable ship. It will take time, but he is confident we can do it."
"Do you still consider these Imperials a threat Captain?"
"They are harsh," Dylan responded carefully, "And their military is powerful, but I don't get the sense from Captain Meduk that they are a threat to the Commonwealth."
"One more thing Captain," Fremont told him, "The Than Hegemony has caught wind of the incident at Kafreion and are asking questions. We don't want them interfering in our negotiations Captain. Do you understand."
"Yes," Dylan responded, "I think I do."
Dylan was still chewing on that last exchange with Fremont when Tyr entered his office unannounced.
"What is it Tyr?" Dylan asked distractedly.
"Its about the Empire," Tyr responded, "And the lies of omission you have been feeding them. You did not tell them the old Commonwealth had fallen did you? You let them believe that we had over one million worlds backing us.
"That is a dangerous game, Captain Hunt. One you should be very careful how you play. If the Nietzschean Prides discover these Imperials before they discover the truth themselves, the likely result will be a violent confrontation. One we would very likely lose."
"Your right Tyr," Dylan responded, his attention now fully focused on Tyr, "I didn't tell them. I let them believe that we held a major position of power in the known worlds and that we were the dominate power in this galaxy.
"Why, you ask. Because we need them focused on us so they don't go seeking out the Nietzscheans, or Kalderans or anyone else who can give them what they want."
Tyr consider his response for a moment.
"Be cautious Dylan." he advised, "I have the sense that as far as games go, this Empire is a sore loser."
Exiting slipstream once again on the fringes of the Cheops system, Andromeda returned alone to the Imperial base there. In orbit around the planet a much larger Imperial force had entered the system. Two smaller wedge shaped craft, Star Destroyers of some kind by the looks of them flanked the Starhammer. The same to fragile looking frigates remained but they had been joined by ten more bulky looking cruisers of similar size. There were six bulbous but deadly looking craft, larger then the frigates but still smaller then the Star Destroyers.
On the planets surface Andromeda's sensors reported thousands of people most of them appeared to be soldiers as well as what looked to be transport vessels.
"That's not good," Dylan said quietly.
"Its an invasion fleet," Trance breathed.
"Let's not jump to any conclusions," Beka said, "Maybe this qualifies as a friendly gesture on there side of the universe."
"Not likely," Harper quipped.
"Mr. Harper, is your team ready," Dylan asked?"
"Yeah, everything is we need to start is packed in the Maru and ready to go," Harper told him.
"Good," Dylan replied, "Get everything ready and prepare to depart. I want you to poke around and try to find out what is going on."
Harper left command to carry out his orders. Just as he was leaving the Starhammer hailed the Andromeda.
"Captain Hunt," Meduk began, "I have directed the corvette 'Running' to prepare for your team. They may begin when they are ready.
"Also Captain, I am afraid we are not prepared to install our hyperwave transceivers aboard your ship, nor our sensor technology. It has proven difficult to attain the parts we need to do this properly and our technicians are not certain how best to proceed."
"We understand," Dylan lied firmly, "It will take some time to install the Slipstream systems into your ship anyway. We are prepared to wait."
"Excellent Captain," Meduk replied, "I am certain it will not be long."
__________________________
The transmission ended and Captain Meduk was not pleased.
"I don't like this Commander," Meduk said to her first officer, "We had an arrangement and we have been ordered to renege on that agreement. And now the Emperor is sending a new mission Commander to take my position."
"It does seem very clear that the Emperor has decided to conquer this galaxy and take slipstream drive from the Commonwealth," Kelar replied, "He is sending one of the new Super Star Destroyers to take command. That ship, the Lusankya will be arriving in a few days."
"It lacks honour Dayvid," Meduk told him, "We should not be involved in this."
"We are Imperial Officers," Kelar responded, "We will be involved in what we are ordered to be involved in."
Meduk nodded her head in agreement. She would perform her duty, it was all she could do.
___________________
Harper stood in the engineering section of the Imperial corvette Running, studying technical documents, the ships engineer standing close behind.
"Okay," Harper began, "the first thing will need to do is increase the ships manoeuvrability by like 600% and tie that all into a central pilot station. We'll also have to add slip runners to open the portal into slipstream and we need to find out if your hypermatter is compatible with the system or if we're going to need large amounts of exotic matter."
"600%?" the engineer asked in shock.
"At least," Harper told him, "Travelling through slipstream ain't like dusting crops, you need precise control or else you could be lost or more likely destroyed. Besides you need an organic pilot to guide the craft through slipstream. No computer can do it."
"Really," the engineer replied.
Harper tried his best to answer all the questions the engineer was tossing at him but it was made more difficult when Beka contacted him.
"Harper, we're leaving," she said, "stay there and behave yourself but work slowly. We'll be back in a couple of days."
He continued to answer the questions, but a bad feeling settled into the pit of his stomach and wasn't about to leave.
Andromeda had travelled to Sinti in order to present its new data to the Commonwealth government as a whole. The build up of Imperial forces is distressing and the danger of giving them slipstream drive was becoming evident.
"I recommend," Dylan stated at the end of his report, "That the High Guard be placed at its highest state of readiness and fully mobilize in preparation for war against the Galactic Empire."