Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 15- Til We Meet Again

(July 28, 2041)

In the town square of New Callistan's capitol, a massive gathering is being held. Today is the day that the Hood is finally departing from New Callistan to resume her original mission in the Unknown Regions.

When the news had been flashed across New Callistan and among the crew, it had, as expected, caused a lot of sorrow amongst the crew and the Callistans. As expected, the news of the crew having to leave behind their new home and friends had been very difficult to deal with.

Pellaeon had had to record a message for the entire crew of the Hood, explaining what was happening, with the Hood leaving to resume its original mission. However, one thing he had made explicitly clear was that any crew member who had a family here on New Callistan would be free to stay behind on the planet with their family, though with the option of eventually being brought back to Earth if the Hood can find the way back to the known galaxy. At the same time, anyone who wanted to continue the mission who had a family would be able to bring their family along aboard the Hood.

Within 48 hours of the message going out, a full accounting of the crew and their intentions had been compiled. Of the around 14,000 crew of the Hood and 21,000 soldiers from the embarked Army units, around 2,300 crew and a thousand soldiers had decided to stay on New Callistan with their families. However, the rest of the crew who had families were cleared to bring their spouses and children aboard the ship. The spouses and older children would even help operate the ship during its travels by assisting with the easier, less specialized tasks aboard. Thankfully, with the number of crew and soldiers who had died during the battle with the Eclipse and the number of droids who had been destroyed in the battle or shut down since to make room, there was room enough for the families to come aboard.

For the last few days, the Hood and its crew and the people of New Callistan had been preparing for the Hood's departure. The Hood had been loaded up with food supplies to sustain the crew and the families for months. Any additional supplies needed were loaded aboard as the engineers worked triple time to get the final repairs to the hyperdrive completed and fully refuel the hyperdrive and the reactor. Now, the Hood is fully repaired. The only thing that could not be repaired was her communication systems. But she is fully mission capable and ready to resume her mission.

The crew and soldiers have all gathered in the capitol city to allow those who are going to bid goodbye to their comrades who are staying behind, and to allow the Callistans to bid goodbye to the crew of the Hood. The Callistans were very sorrowful to know that their saviors who had come to their rescue all those years ago and saved them from annihilation were finally leaving them.

In the main square, Admiral Pellaeon is watching the crewmen staying behind and their families exchanging goodbyes with those who were going. Many emotional handshakes and embraces are being exchanged, and there are definitely tears flowing. At the same time, Lord Sharlin and some of the Callistan leaders have also been making their way through the crowds of crewmen, bidding them all goodbye. In the streets surrounding the town square, more goodbyes are going on as well as civilians celebrating the Hood and its crew as a farewell gesture.

At last, Sharlin and his fellow leaders approach Pellaeon, who is standing on the steps of the Council Building with Ronen, Strickland, and Shevchenko. As Sharlin approaches them, Pellaeon can see genuine emotion on the face of the Callistan leader.

Sharlin comes to Pellaeon first of all. He reaches out and clasps Pellaeon on the shoulder, a gesture that Pellaeon returns. The two men smile at each other before Sharlin says, "Admiral Pellaeon, you have been a good friend for 16 years. We are eternally grateful for all you have done for our people. Whether you are able to return here one day or not, just know that you will always be a friend to us. We will miss you greatly, my friend."

"We will miss you as well, Lord Sharlin. We could not be more grateful for welcoming us to your homeworld and letting us live here for so long. We may not have survived without you and your people, Lord Sharlin. You will forever be friends to us, Sharlin," Pellaeon says, a smile on his face.

Sharlin then bids goodbye to the other three individuals. He then gestures to a Callistan male waiting at the edge of the steps. The Callistan lifts a large horn and begins blowing a series of notes on the horn, which had been previously agreed upon as the signal for the crewmen leaving aboard the Hood and their families to follow Pellaeon out of the city to board the battlecruiser. Pellaeon begins walking across the town square, with Ronen, Strickland, and Shevchenko accompanying they walk across the town square, the crewmen and their families finish their goodbyes to those staying behind and begin following their admiral out of the city.

The Hood is moored just outside the city, the battlecruiser having descended into the atmosphere, and positioned literal meters above the surface, with a massive boarding ramp used to offload troops deployed and extending down to the surface to allow the crew to board en masse much faster than shuttles bringing the crew up to the ship in small loads.

With the boarding ramp deployed, the crew and their families are able to board by the hundreds. With this benefit, the entire crew and their families are able to board the battlecruiser in a little over a half hour. Those crewmen with families show their spouses and children through the ship and direct them where they will be staying, as well as what areas of the ship they have to stay out of. As they are doing this, those crew who are unmarried or whose spouses are crew themselves who are settling their children are moving to their various stations to help get the ship ready to set off.

As the married crew are getting their families settled in, Pellaeon and his lieutenants have moved to the bridge. Most of the bridge crew is already in place, and are fully powering up and calibrating their systems for spaceflight while the reactor is warming up as the engineers are getting to work.

"Time to full readiness?" Pellaeon asks aloud.

Moorhouse, who has been on the bridge this entire time, overseeing efforts over the last few days to get the ship ready to go, turns to Pellaeon. "Admiral, 30 minutes to full readiness," he says.

"Understood," Pellaeon responds. Pellaeon then moves over to the holotable as the bridge crew continues getting ready to sail.

Pellaeon begins pulling up a series of maps with the holotable. When intelligence officers had gone through the Malevolence's data files, they had been able to retrieve a series of maps. Not only had these maps allowed them to begin rebuilding their own maps of the wider galaxy, but it allowed them to begin planning a route to Exegol. Sadly, some of the ship's maps had been lost in the crash, including maps that allow them to plan a direct route to Exegol and allow them to get straight home. However, there was enough data on the route to Exegol that they could combine it with the maps they had built themselves of the Unknown Regions during their voyage, and be able to get almost to Exegol, with only a small amount of manuel navigation and exploration needed to reach the planet. And once they found Exegol, they could begin putting together a map back to Known Space.

Pellaeon had also been reviewing any other intel they had gathered from the Malevolence. Unfortunately, they could not find much information about Exegol or whatever forces might be stationed there. However, what little intel they had been able to retrieve did indicate that the Malevolence was not the only ship that had come to Exegol and resided there. Pellaeon felt certain that whenever they finally found Exegol, they would almost certainly have a fight on their hands.

Pellaeon spends the next half hour examining the maps until Moorhouse finally calls out, "Admiral, we're ready to go!"

Pellaeon stands up and walks into the center of the bridge, all of the bridge crew looking at him. Pellaeon looks around at everyone for a moment before he says, "Alright, let's begin. Engines ahead one third, rudder 20 degrees to starboard. Begin climb to orbit."

The bridge crew begins following Pellaeon's orders. Within seconds, the ship's engines rev up and the ship begins to move forward before it slowly begin to gain altitude. It takes about an hour before the Hood finally slips free of the atmosphere and into orbit.

"Admiral, we are free of the atmosphere," a crewman calls out.

"COpy. Hard turn to port and prepare for hyperspace jump," Pellaeon calls out. The battlecruiser begins turning to port as several officers work to program the navicomputer. Within 30 seconds, the navigation officers have confirmed they are ready.

A second after, the hyperdrive officer calls out that the hyperdrive is ready. Pellaeon then orders, "Alright. Make the jump!"

Everyone looks out the viewport. Then, for the first time in 16 years, they see the stars ahead of them lengthen out before the Hood finally jumps to hyperspace, finally back on track to continue her original mission.

And, I'll end the chapter there.

So, the next chapter will be set during the search. We'll finally get to them finding Exegol in Chapter 17.

Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!