War is inevitable...
Deep Space, in the Abrion sector... Near the Scarif System.
(Try to imagine the Imperial Suite playing at the start)
The Chimaera, the Devastator, and the Seventh Fleet roared through the massive open space...
But within seconds their massive 1600 meter long hulls were blackened by a massive shadow... Commander Faro stood, staring out of the viewport in awe of the sight...
To her right, Ezra was kneeling down on the cold metal floor of the Star Destroyer, restrained... He was unable to escape, due to Vader's thoroughness on security... To his left, stood the massive Death Troopers, the same two that survived Atollon...
They were immune to mind tricks of Ezra's power level, and had their weapons ready to shoot the boy dead if needed... But the terror factor of the object in front of them was enough to stop him for quite some time...
In front of the fleet stood the massive spherical object that was the Empire's ultimate weapon... The Death Star... It had a massive hole on the northern hemisphere, where the weapon itself is supposed to be placed.
Thrawn and Vader, technical equals in rank, both stood next to the viewport... staring out of the transparisteel windows.
They were not impressed...
Vader strongly believed that the Death Star was truly insignificant next to the power of the Force... The ancient Sith texts, such as Sith holocrons, had documents thoroughly describing many of the Sith Order's more arcane powers... One of which was a perfect match with Thrawn's description of the creature on Atollon, the Bendu...
On the other hand, Thrawn believed that the Death Star was a complete waste... It would be more useful to use all of the materials, all of the doonium he worked to guard from the late Nightswan, to build a much larger, improved fleet. There was only one Death Star, and from its raw materials could've been used to make tens of thousands of warships...
The two elite commanders of the Empire were specifically instructed by the Emperor himself to work under Grand Moff Tarkin to protect the station... The Grand Moff did not have need of the two in the past, but has called every member of the Tarkin Initiative for an important meeting...
"Grand Admiral, Lord Vader... Our shuttle is ready..." Faro said, breaking the deep, unsettling silence...
"Place the prisoner in his special cell... The Royal Guards must stop any escape..." Vader said in his cold, mechanized voice... Followed by his signature heavy breathing.
The Royal Guards proceded to drag Ezra away... Faro stood at the viewpoint, now in command while Thrawn and Vader march to the shuttle.
When they finally arrived, the others were already in a heated discussion... But the arguing stopped when Vader entered the room.
There was Tarkin, Director Orson Callan Krennic, High General Casio Tagge, High Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, Grand Admiral Denetrius Zaarin, Chief Moradmin Bast, Chief Siward Kast, Director Armand Isard, and the very familiar face of Colonel Wullf Yularen...
"Welcome gentlemen, take a seat if you'd like..." Tarkin said, faking politeness.
Thrawn took his seat, but Vader did not. At every one of these meetings, Vader would hover around the seats menacingly. It was a very noticeable habit of Vader to inspire terror in his associates. Some of the few who did not fear him, such as Tarkin and Thrawn himself, had his complete respect.
"I have authorized production of the T65 X-Wings on the facility on Lothal... Once complete, the Death Star's complement of TIE/LN Space Superiority Starfighters will be be replaced by these heavier fighters. And the TIE/IN Interceptors will be phased out in favor of the TIE/D Defender." Grand Admiral Zaarin said, triumphantly. Thrawn and Tarkin were extremely wary of Zaarin. He not only despised Imperial doctrine of quantity over quality, but had a clear hunger for power. It was only a matter of time until he uses the TIE Defenders he's built in his factory, in deep space, to fight the Empire in an effort to gain the Imperial throne...
"I don't see the necessity of such an action. It would take millions of credits to replace all the fighters in this battlestation... A battlestation that is impenetrable to any Rebel attack." Motti gloated, he had faith in the Death Star... Too much faith.
"It is entirely possible that the Rebels will find a blind spot in our defenses! What I have observed is that this station utterly annihilates enemy capital ships. But the turbolasers are ineffective against Rebel starfighters!" Zaarin argued, clearly angered by Motti's statement.
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Tarkin yelled, "This bickering is pointless..."
"I am currently in the process of torturing the Rebel prisoner... A young Jedi that was part of the Lothal insurgency... If I can turn him to our cause, he may provide us with important information..." Lord Vader said... Again followed by his mechanical breathing.
"Our interrogation indicates that he does not know the exact coordinates of the main Rebel Base... That is information withheld from him, but we have an idea on current Rebel tactics..." Thrawn said, "They use single frigates to deploy strike craft and recon units... This means that their forces are spread thin due to the need for a carrier for their main attack force: the starfighters..." He continued, showing a hologram of the docking pylons of a EF76 Nebulon-B Frigate...
"Those designs are Imperial ships... They're manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards." Motti replied... "But we've heard reports of several dozen being stolen from Outer Rim outposts."
"Exactly, Admiral Motti... Due to the ships being our design, we know their weaknesses..." He then pointed at the central area of the ship, saying, "If this connecting spar is destroyed, the ship's atmosphere will be vented... The entire crew will be sucked into the vacuum of space..."
The others looked at Thrawn with understanding, seeing his logic once explained.
"But a very concerning factor is their widespread use of Incom designs, the same company that designed the X-Wings fighters Zaarin plans to use... The X-Wing is designed as a successor to the earlier Z-95 Headhunter... The Headhunter is the Rebellion's most ubiquitous starfighter, used by the largest Rebel cells... It is entirely possible that they plan on obtaining these fighters from the Incom scientists on Lothal..." Thrawn explained, his face showing no readable emotion...
"I will inform Governor Pryce of the possible Rebel attack..." Tarkin spoke up, the information presented to him sufficient to take action... "We must not let them gain a technological edge... Director Krennic, take care of your facility on Lothal, Lord Vader and Admiral Thrawn will assist you..."
Krennic looked at Tarkin, hiding anger. He thought he was in command, due to his position as Director of the Advanced Research Division of the Imperila Military... But this was the Tarkin Initiative after all...
Tarkin turned to look at the other commanders, who simply listened while the Admirals discussed the Rebellion, then turned back to Thrawn, Motti, and Zaarin...
"You are dismissed... We will meet again when there is important news about the Rebellion or this battlestation..."
They all stood up and left, except for Vader, Thrawn, and Tarkin... They sat down as they sent a transmission to Coruscant...
(Cue the Imperial suite again.)
The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, Chimaera.
Ezra was quickly losing hope... During the earlier mission to rescue Saw Gerrera on Geonosis, they thought that Klik-Klak's double circle was the gas canisters used to exterminate the Geonosians...
But they had it all wrong...
It was this... weapon the Empire was building... An indestructible battlestation with what seemed to be a slot for a massive gun... One that might destroy planets...
There was no way the Rebellion could beat that. And the Empire would surely use it on the Rebels.
But his face showed shock when he realized why Geonosis was so empty... The Geonosians built the station... Well, most of it. And when they finished, the Empire exterminated the population of Geonosis to get rid of any witnesses... Which means that they might do the same to him!
Notes:
- Thrawn is part of the Tarkin Initiative due to his command over a squad of Death Troopers. They're available only to the highest ranking Tarkin Initiative officers. This means that Thrawn is involved in the creation or protection of the Death Star.
- Nothing good is in store for Blueberry
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