A/N: REVIEW! REVIEW!
Outside the Devastator's view port, the Empire's primary shipyards lay in ruins. It would take months to bring it back to full capability, not to mention to construct new Star Destroyers to replace those lost. The only good news was that the dockworkers had survived-little else had. The rebels had just scored their first major victory against the Empire.
Rage, anger and hatred coursed through every vein in Darth Vader's body. His fleet had shot out of hyperspace mere seconds after the rebels had vanished-only to find this disaster. But below the blind anger that gave him purpose, below the emotions that held him captive to the dark side was the fear. The rebels had a Star Destroyer in their possession.
Guerilla warfare was often the best strategy in a war-you would make strategic strikes against a major enemy, then retreat back to your secret base. However, since the ultimate goal of war was power, and power required large amounts of facilities which simply could not be hidden, the side who currently had it did not have that option-which meant that the side fighting the guerilla campaign knew were the enemy was, but the other side didn't.
But when the side with the power discovered where the side fighting the guerilla campaign was, they obviously had the advantage. For that reason, you kept your forces mobile, and therefore you couldn't construct factories or shipyards with which to build weapons. That meant that you had to steal them, which limited your options to small vessels, keeping the damage that you could do to a minimum.
But now the rebels had somehow managed to acquire an Imperial asset with vast amounts of firepower. They could now quite possibly completely wipe out smaller Imperial garrisons. It was a disaster.
"My Lord?"
Vader turned. "Yes, Captain?"
Vevel tried not to swallow. The life expectancy of an Imperial officer shortened considerably when they were delivering bad news. "My Lord, we have completed our preliminary assessment of the damage done during the terrorist attack."
"And?"
"The shipyards are a total loss. It will take at least a year, probably more, to make them functional again.
"The ships under construction there were also destroyed. It will take another year to reconstruct them after the shipyards have been repaired. In addition, the Saber and the Merciless are total losses, along with their crews and fighter complements, and their ground forces. In addition, we lost all five of the Golans and fully a hundred TIE fighters. We estimate the number of human lives lost as at least thirty thousand."
Behind the helmet, Vader's face was a twisted mask of rage. He could no more have prevented this than he could bring his wife back from the dead, but the Emperor would see it all as his fault.