Admiral Duran Karath scowled as the two capital ships and the X-wings escorting them jumped to lightspeed, safely out of range of his fleet's turbolasers and fighter wings. The unanticipated arrival of a Rebel cruiser had thrown a hydrospanner into his all but assured victory over the Orion and her pathetic Captain Garrett. The second ship, bearing an IFF identifying it as the Valor, had interposed itself between Orion and his fleet, though almost assuredly by accident. It had deployed a single, mixed squadron of fighters, several of which he had never seen before. The strange, cross-shaped bombers packed considerable firepower, and appeared to have ion cannons much like the Y-wings he was quite familiar with. But the new ships also looked to have a slight edge in speed, and that made them more dangerous than Y-wings. The other three unidentified snubfighters looked like smooth wedges that carved through space like a knife through freshly baked Corellian rhyscate. The bombers and their escorts- with the strange new interceptors as their vanguard- had torn through his own fighter screens, and scored several direct hits on the Star Crusher, which was now listing to her portside, exposing her dorsal hull to the Hammer of Dawn's flank. Fire belched out of both the front and backside of the command tower, her turbolasers silent, and her gravity well projectors had long since stopped operating. He briefly shook his head in disgust, before turning his scarred eye towards his First Officer, a middle-aged Captain beginning to show signs of graying around his temples. His XO's stern expression wavered slightly at the visage of his superior's mutilated eye staring at him lifelessly.
"Captain, recall our remaining fighters. What is the status of the Star Crusher?" the Admiral asked, his voice laced with venom.
"Communications have been lost with the main bridge," the Captain replied, fighting to keep his voice firm and even. "Her interceptor squadron leader reports he is down to thirty-percent strength, and all gravity well projectors appear to have been destroyed. All signs point to the ship being lost." As the Captain finished his report, escape pods began launching out from all directions off the Interdictor cruiser's mangled hull.
"That... would seem to confirm your assessment, Captain." Admiral Karath turned back to the bridge window to face the dead starship.
"Indeed, sir," the other man said, moving up two paces to stand side by side with his commanding officer, accepting a datapad from an Ensign running up to meet him.
"Admiral, Nova reports that they have received distress calls from inside the Star Crusher. They are preparing rescue shuttles, and Vanquisher is moving to intercept and recover the escape pods and remaining interceptors."
Karath's scowl deepened. He slowly and methodically swept his head from one side of the viewport to the other, taking in the utter defeat the Federation and their Rebel allies had just delivered him. In all his years of command, he had never lost any ship bigger than a TIE bomber, and yet here he was, face-to-face with a dead Interdictor cruiser. The only such ship in existence. The Emperor would surely have him executed for squandering such a resource. His blood boiled as rage began to take over and bubble its way to the surface. But as his hand balled into a fist, threatening to slam itself into the transparisteel viewport, his anger subsided, and he laughed humorlessly to himself, and the fingers of his right hand loosened, and he ran them through his slicked jet-black hair. The failure was not on him, no. Star Crusher's Captain had been careless with her vessel, not once, but twice now. First, coming out of hyperspace directly in the path of another ship a day earlier, and then mere minutes ago by failing to deploy her interceptor squadron in time to repel the Rebel fighter attack. No, this failure rested squarely on Captain Mezzen's shoulders. And while he did not know for certain if she survived the destruction of her ship, he would make absolutely certain she would not live to fail him again.
"Belay those orders, Captain," he said, loud enough that the entire bridge crew stopped in the middle of their duties and turned to stare at the Admiral. "Come about. Signal all turbolasers and missile batteries. Prepare to open fire."
"Sir, the Rebels and their conspirators have fled," his first officer declared. "There are no targets in-system." Karath ignored him, turning on his heel, and striding down the command walkway towards the stairs leading to the portside crew pit.
"Order the Vanquisher and Nova to lock tractor beams on any and all escape pods, and fire on them as soon as they are in range." He barked out, all heads on the bridge following him as he strode purposefully across the deck, his boots clacking on the durasteel plating.
"Sir, we're to fire on our own escape pods?" the Captain asked, the horror barely hidden in his voice.
"Gunners, open fire on the remains of the Star Crusher once we are in range!" He now stood behind the chief gunnery officer, his hand resting on the back of the young Lieutenant's chair. The numbers on the display's rangefinder scrolled off, but the man held fire long after Karath noted they had come into optimum range.
"Lieutenant, you have your orders," Karath said calmly, though the Captain noticed the Admiral's hand move from the chair back to rest on the grip of his Verpine shatter pistol.
"S-sir..." the young man began, his voice and body trembling. "With respect... I d-didn't join the Empire to f-fire on my own p-p-people, sir." He said, not turning in his seat to face his superior. The Admiral merely smiled coldly. The man sitting in the chair in front of him was a relatively new addition to the crew, having only come aboard weeks earlier. Admiral Karath had dared to assume the rumors of his stern command and distaste for weakness had reached the young man's ears, yet here he was, defying the Admiral in front of his entire bridge staff. This defiance could not be tolerated of course, Karath would not hesitate to reinforce that fact. But weak, this young man was not. It took a great strength of will to oppose him this openly. Now, he would determine just how strong the boy's will actually was.
"I have friends on-" the gunnery officer continued, but then he froze mid-sentence. Amid the silence that had fallen over the bridge, the long rasp of metal against leather was audible as Admiral Karath slowly shucked the pistol from his holster. He pressed the muzzle firmly into the base of the man's neck, centered on his spine.
"What is your name, Lieutenant?" He asked.
"Kellen. Kellen Carsa, Admiral," the man whimpered. Tears began streaming down his face, and Karath could feel his shuddering breaths through the contact his weapon made with the man's flesh.
"Lieutenant Carsa- May I call you 'Kellen?'" he asked, bending slightly to his right and cocking his head to come just into the young man's peripheral vision. The Lieutenant shakily nodded, and Karath straightened back up. "Kellen, are you quite certain this is the path you choose to walk?" He flicked off the safety with his thumb, a sharp click echoing off the pristine ceilings and walls of the bridge. Several people flinched at the sound, but no one, not Lieutenant Carsa's comrades in the command pit, not Hammer of Dawn's First Officer, nor the Stormtroopers guarding the turboloft, made any attempt or suggestion to dissuade the Admiral from his course of action. Karath's gaze never wavered from the back of Kellen's head, as sweat dripped down the boy's neck and beaded around the muzzle of the pistol. He knew as well as everyone else on the bridge that anyone attempting to stop him would be gunned down by one of the Stormtroopers, or even by his own hand if he could react fast enough. He clenched his left hand into a fist, now the only outward sign of his anger, and then slowly let his fingers open back up. A few shaky breaths later, Kellen spoke up.
"Y-yes, sir. I have friends on the Star Crusher. I can't carry out your orders, sir." The young man closed his eyes, and let out a long breath. The Admiral's smile warmed, and after a moment that seemingly hung in the air for an eternity, he lowered the pistol from the man's neck. Everyone on the bridge exhaled at once, and Kellen let out a noise of mixed shock and relief, one shuddering inhale and a sharp exhale mixed with a sobbing sound.
"I must say, Kellen, I admire your conviction. A lesser man in your situation likely would have backpedaled on his morals in a pathetic attempt to spare himself a gruesome death." He casually inspected the pistol as he spoke. "Of course, if you had recanted your position, I'd have killed you anyway for being weak-willed. But your resolve has been noted. Most impressive."
"Th- Thank you, sir," Kellen said, his shoulders slumped in relief and his voice broke. Karath began to holster his weapon, but hesitated before replacing the pistol entirely. He wistfully looked up and to his left, as if in thought. The relieved crew on the bridge slowly started to tense back up, unsure of the events to follow.
"Still..." he said haphazardly. Then, without warning, Karath brought the Verpine shatter gun up again, plunged it into Kellen's shoulder, and fired. The sharp report of the pistol was muffled both by the youth's uniform and the crack of bone and flesh.Then, the only sounds that could be heard on the bridge were the poor man's bloodcurdling screams of agony. The Ensigns on either side of the gunnery station recoiled in horror, leaping from their chairs away from the fountain of blood erupting from the young man as he reacted to the assault. One of the junior officers keeled over and vomited on the deck, causing another crewman to also become violently ill. Blood and bone from Kellen's mangled shoulder sprayed his monitor and workstation, and he fell from his own chair, clutching uselessly at the grievous wound in his upper arm; his scapula, collarbone and upper humerus turned to pulp from the exotic weapon's shot.
"I think it best an example be made of you," he casually shook the gore from Kellen's wound off the muzzle of his weapon, and finally replaced it in his holster. He immediately signaled the Stormtroopers by the turbolift to collect the young man, now unconscious from shock.
"Take Lieutenant Carsa down to medical. Full bacta therapy. I want him to live to tell his tale. A reminder to future cadets of what failure to follow orders and a strong moral nav system will get you." The troopers nodded in understanding of Karath's orders, then hefted the man's unmoving form, blood staining their white armor as they dragged the Lieutenant away.
As the rest of the bridge crew looked on in horror, Karath sat down at Carsa's workstation, swiping blood away from the viewscreen with a cloth produced from a pocket in his black tunic. He called up the targeting data regarding the burning hulk that used to be his Interdictor cruiser.
"Proceed with my orders issued before the... 'disciplining' of Mr. Carsa," he commanded. His XO walked up beside him, clearing his throat.
"At once... Admiral." The Captain signaled the other gunners to return to their stations. A comms officer began to relay orders to the other two Star Destroyers.
"Sir, Vanquisher and Nova request confirmation of your orders." the Commander looked up from her comm station and to the Admiral for an acknowledgement. Karath's only response was to begin firing on the Star Crusher's corpse. Green turbolaser fire flared in the distance, visible through the viewports at the head of the bridge. Soon after, the other gunners followed suit. The first officer glanced at a sensor station nearby to observe the two Victory-class ships begin picking off escape pods as they were drawn in by the tractor beams.
"Captain Mezzen failed me in a way no one ever has before. She has been exposed for what she truly was: a weak link." Karath calmly explained as he rose from the chair, and strode casually away from the gunnery console.
"I will not suffer that kind of weakness to pass in my fleet. Now, or ever again," he added, turning in stride to bring his scarred eye to bear on his subordinate. As the rest of Hammer of Dawn's turbolasers reached maximum firepower, the bridge was bathed in frequent flashes of verdant light from the viewports. The shadows played over Admiral Karath's face, hiding his scarred eye beneath them for split seconds at a time, cutting a frightening visage, with the muffled thumps of laser batteries echoing in the distance.
"Is that clear?" He asked his First Officer.
"Perfectly, Admiral."
"Wonderful."