Empire
by Warringer
Chapter 5
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"Wait a minute," Hiraku said and held up his hands as he stood up.
He glared at the holographic representation of Admiral Ryan, who was still on Shabazza.
"Run this by me again..."
Ryan had a strange smile on her face as she repeated what she had said.
"Apparently we are a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Sir."
He continued to glare at her. He was the President of the Commonwealth for gods sake, first he had the Galactic War break out, than the Commonwealth essentially being destroyed and had to bug out with Earth and 25 billion people, most of them refugees, into another universe. Now it turned out that this universe was the Star Wars universe? It would do wonders for him trying to run for the office a second time.
"Proof?"
Ryan had a smug look on her face before a display appeared next to her, showing the Star Destroyer which had currently a Conquerer hanging beneath it. There were also the displays of a Lambda class shuttle and the still recognizable wreckage of a TIE.
"We are currently boarding the SD to get any information when we are. Several of our... uhm... Warsies think that we are somewhere in the time line between pre A New Hope to post The Empire Strikes Back."
Hikaru sighed and turned around, walking towards the large windowpane of The Office. He was silent for several moments as he looked over the large floating platform of Atlantis and the smaller towers of the city. Down in the ocean, he could see several of the Subs cruising at the surface, while even further out a glistening string went up into the sky towards a large shadow that was very visible against he light of day, much like the more than ten thousand Dyson Trees that orbited Earth in various orbits.
"So we have possibly worry about a Death Star."
"Not if we manage to keep quiet and keep ourselves out of the whole thing."
There was another silence, that was broken by Merlins voice.
"I fear that is not possible, Ma'am."
Hikaru didn't turn back around.
"What makes you say that?"
Merlin's voice sighed.
"The observer effect, sir. Our presence alone is changing the universe already. If we are really in the Star Wars universe, the sudden appearance of more than 25 billion sources of life energy are bound to send, to paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi... 'A disturbance through the force'."
Hikaru frowned and breathed in deep. This could be bad.
"So basically the Emperor can have sensed our arrival."
"That is correct, sir."
He closed his eyes. He had to worry about yet another one with access to Weapons of Planetary Destruction. The dictator of a galactic Empire, the Galactic Empire, this time.
He looked up into the sky towards the large artificial shadow in the sky and the glittering strand going towards it.
There was only one difference to the Shadows and the Vorlons. Right now they had the ability to destroy these WPDs, once and for all, preventing them to be used. Sure the Rebels would be able to destroy both Death Stars, but only after the first one had destroyed a whole planet.
But now that wasn't too sure. While the presence of the Star Destroyer was pretty much by chance, the possibility of Palpatine sensing the appearance of a whole planet through the Force, could get him to investigate and discover a planet he might think was worth conquering or to be destroyed with a Death Star.
He breathed in again. There were too many 'buts'. He needed some useful informations before he could even think of getting the Staff together and make plans.
"Hoo boy," he suddenly heard Ryan say and turned around to look at her." We now know who was in that shuttle. Things are bound to get interesting."
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Admiral Danna crossed his arms on his back as he looked at the holographic projection of the space around the ship. Currently they were all positioned around the large ship High Command had called a 'Star Destroyer'. Shields were activated in case one of the turrets would come back online and shoot. Only when the Marines were in complete control over the ship, they would completely deactivate the shields.
The sound of a door opening behind him caused him to turn around and smile a little at the two very humanoid persons entering the bridge. It was surprising that these two were looking so human. From the way they were sweating and moving sowhat tiredly, they seemed to be used to a similar environment as humans. Ferrons were living under higher gravitation and a higher temperature compared to Earth after all.
One of them was, so it seemed at least, male. He was a little smaller than the humans he was used to, but considering that humans came in more than one size, it wasn't that strange. From what he could tell the man was Caucasian, with a stubble of hair in his face. The other one was an Asian looking woman.
"Admiral Ban Danna," he said and held out his hand in an Earthern custom." Welcome aboard of Red Palace."
"Kyle Katarn," the man said and shook the offered hand," my friend Jan Ors."
Danna nodded.
"Sir," he was interrupted before he could say much more." The Fantômas is leaving slipstream. They are ready to tow the 'Star Destroyer' into their docking bay and bring it to Clarke."
Danna turned slightly and nodded towards the technician. He gave a short mental command over his implant towards the bridges computer and the holographic display changed to show the Fantômas moving towards the 'Star Destroyer'.
ICS Fantômas was one of three surviving Hiigara class vessels. It was true that other ships could have towed the Star Destroyer towards Earth, but a Hiigara could get additional troops onto the ship while in transit.
"Good, as soon as the Star Destroyer is docked with the Fantômas we are leaving," he said." I doubt that we are going to find much in the gravitational system of this gas giant that would be of much interest until the Red Dwarf or other miners can make it here."
"Yes, sir."
Danna turned back around and smiled at the two humanoids again.
"The High Command of the Interstellar Commonwealth would like to invite you to come aboard Shabazza," he than said, trying to ignore that both were looking behind him and at the hologram that showed how the large Star Destroyer was loaded into the internal bay of Fantômas.
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Alex tapped one of his claws on the deck making a pinging noise as he glared at the Imperial officer in front of him. The officer was sweating bullets and tried to keep his cool as the repiloid glared at him. He was failing through and every little movement of Alex was making him twitch.
Next to both, Sam had put his rifle on his back, and hit the computer that was part of the bulkhead next to the large air lock to the bridge. There was a short scream of pain and a sizzling noise as Alex and the office looked over to him.
"God damn," Sam cursed and glared at the offending and now destroyed computer display.
The display was carved in and sparking. It also quite nicely explained why Sam was cursing and shaking his hand.
He noticed that Alex was looking at him.
"What?"
Alex just shook his head.
"So much for a silent entry..."
Sam gave him a glare and began to let his hands search through the inner pockets of his trench coat like over garment that was part of their uniform.
"Like we really had any chance for that," he shot back." The locked the bridge from the inside and locked everyone out. Including our friend."
The office continued to sweat and looked about ready to crap his pants. Considering that his pants were still open and they had encountered him in front of a toilet, that was going to be difficult.
Sam shook his head again and grabbed one of his nightsticks and poked the officer into his side.
"I know you," he shot back and herded the officer around corner." You always like to make a noisy entry."
Sam grinned like a child that just got his first airsoft gun as he pulled a thin roll of something that liked like thick gray duct tape out of a pocket.
"Oh come on, I'm not that bad."
"You are."
Sam shrugged and began to use the tape to outline a large door on the air lock twice and than pressed his finger into the rather soft material at three places before jumping back and diving behind the corner.
Immediately there after a loud explosion came from around the corner and several rather massive blocks of metal flew down the corridor.
Alex glared at Sam who was laying on the ground.
"You used a double load, didn't you."
It was more of a statement than a question.
"I did, so sue me," Sam answered." I got no idea how thick that airlock was. Could have been thicker."
Alex grumbled something as Sam looked towards the Imperial officer as he got up from the ground.
"Meh, fainted. Weakling."
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Hiraku closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep. Than he turned back around from the large window pane and looked at Marcus Swanson, his Minister of Defense, and the hologram of Admiral Sally Ryan, the current head of the Space Naval Forces. The other members of the Joint Chiefs were thee in the flesh. Admiral Mirak Dalar of the Wet Naval Forces, General D'Kor of the Army and General Juri Dunokow of the Air Force.
"We remain on DEFCON 2," he declared." We don't know how much our knowledge of the Star Wars Galaxy is consistent with the reality. For all we know they could have send a FTL message to their base and we are about to face an Imperial fleet attacking us. Or worse a Superweapon."
The Joint Chiefs and Swanson nodded.
"I would recommend to put all orbital facilities to Alert State Omega," Swanson noted." From what the technicians of the AODI-5 installations told me, they will need at least a year to fully go over all systems and repair them. The Transfer took more out of them than we thought it would. And it seems as if the AODI-4, the Mk III GODs and the remaining Victories and Ancients were damaged by some sort of Quantum Interferrence from the transfer. It seems that the projectors of all Quantum based weapons need to be adapted to this universes quantum physics."
Ryan raised an eyebrow.
"Slipstream and shields seem to work," she noted.
"But they are not using principles that pretty much bend the rules as much as the Quantum weapons."
Hikaru looked surprised.
"I didn't knew that you where Quantum Physichist."
Swanson chuckles a little.
"I'm not, but that was the answer I got when I asked the same question."
Hikaru nodded again.
"What about the Tyrannic? When is Fantômas going to deliver her to Clarke?"
"About an hour, sir," Ryan answered." The 501st is currently mopping up the last Stormies after the Guardians have taken the bridge of the ship."
"Good."
"I also asked if the Fantômas could get there faster."
Everyone looked at Ryan with a questioning look on their faces. Ryan sighed in annoyance.
"People from the TIT and the TNI are snooping around here and bugging everyone if they couldn't get on that SD earlier. It's annoying..."
That got a chuckle out of everyone. Hikaru shook his head with a smile.
"Next thing," he said." How are we going to approach the Rebel Alliance?"
"We should try to not get too much involved with them," surprisingly came from Dunokow." The Alliance is going to win and we should make sure they do, but the New Republic makes the old UN look like a kindergarten in comparasion. Like the Old Republic and the Empire they are lacking a clear competitor as a nation. They may be a democratic government, but they are going to be very ineffective."
By now he noticed that everyone pretty much stared at him.
"I am a fan of Star Wars and the novels of Timopthy Zann," he clearified with a shrug.
Hikaru chuckles a little.
"In that case, do you have any more suggestions?"
Dunokow nodded.
"We should take a look into Uncharted Space as soon as possible. We chould get into contact with the Chiss and maybe Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn might be an Imperial, but he is a brilliant head and a good man. I'd rather have him on our side."