The blue and white whirling portal of hyperspace danced in front of the transparisteel view port in bridge of the executor. Vader stood arms crossed starring out at the endless portal swirling and moving so rapidly. A memory came to the front of his mind; but it wasn't his own it was skywalkers. Every now and then a moment or instance would trigger déjà vu for Vader and one of skywalkers memories would claw its way into the synapses of his mind. He was usually able to fight them off but he was stooped to far into pre battle meditation to fight. The particular memory was of his first time on a starship or any ship for that matter. Anakin had left Tatooine, his home planet for the first time in his whole life. Master Quigon Jin had rescued him from the horrid life he led before of slave to Watto a nasty toydarian Junker. As excited as the little boy was he also felt great feelings of anguish and pain as his mother had to stay since Watto was only willing to let one go free. The feelings that plagued young Anakin were soon over taken as the excitement and wonder he felt watching the pilot punch coordinates into the navi computer and the stars elongated as the ship zoomed off at unimaginable speed. It had been so many years since that day and that boy was dead and gone replace by the enormous emotionless cyborg that served a greater and darker master.
The engines shifted and there was an ever so slight pull that only a few could detect as the ship dropped out of hyperspace into orbit around Akiva. The blue and white portal was replaces by the blue green and brown world of Akiva hanging in the darkness of space. Several more imperial craft blinked into existence as they came out of hyperspace along side Lord Vader's ship. The Emperor had not instructed Vader on the size of the force he was to take to Akiva, so he decided to show the most force he could possibly muster on such short notice; a fact that none would know by looking at his fleet. Along with his ship he had two other star destroyers- the Malevolent and the Revengence- as well as two light cruisers. He was going to do all he could to crush the rebellion and find the blasted jedi. Vader heard the click of boots against the metal floor behind, he turned to meet the messenger he expected by now.
"My Lord we have arrived at akiva and are preparing our troops for ground assault" Admiral Krotan stated to Vader "But it appears that the rebels have acquired three decommissioned separatist battle ship and are positioned in a blockade formation over our landing zone"
Krotan was a middle aged man; he was mostly bald with as circular head. The only hair he had was some short white stubble on the lower back, even though his eye brows were still relatively dark. Bags of skin rested under his eyes that went from the outer parts of his sockets to the bridge of his slightly larger than average nose. Vader had respect for the admiral because of his cunning strategic view points and his strict obedience to the sith lord.
"What class ships are they Admiral?" Vader questioned turning to the view port
"There appears to be two light destroyers and one dreadnought class ship sir" admiral Krotan read form the data pad an officer handed him "shall I move the curriers to attack position?"
"No, prepare to launch fighters squadron and 12" Vader ordered as he turned and headed for the lifts located in the back of the bridge
A quizzical look fell over the face of Krotan "But sir they are old ships we could easily destroy them from here with our star destroyers"
Vader didn't break stride he only replied "No I want to send the jedi a message" he entered the and the doors hissed shut
The door to the hanger zoomed open as Vader approached; the noise of pilots and engineers rushing about filled his mostly silent corridor. Vader loved to fly; it was the only thing he and Skywalker had in common. He was the best and most ruthless pilot in the entire empire, he trusted no one but himself the carry out this mission. He was going to burn the Jedi's rebellion starting with his fleet. Many of the engines on the suspended tie fighters hummed to life as the pilots began their pre flight checks. The tie fighters were not the best ships but they did their jobs and Vader thought only truly great pilot could make terrible ship into an unstoppable weapon. As most of the empire switched away from republic era ships and tech Vader held on to only a few reliable artifacts. One of those artifacts was his ETA-2 interceptor, it was significantly better than the new tie fighters in almost every way. The purely black starfighter contrasted to the silver floor it rested on below the suspended ties with the cockpit open and he droid lowered in. He approached the fighter and removed the cape that draped down his back dropping it to the floor. He sat down in the cockpit and tapped a yellow button to lower the hatch; he readied for takeoff by checking all important systems all the non essential systems he left to his black astromech R3-V9. As Vader was finishing his checks info began to stream across the two data screens attached to each side of the cockpit. The scans from the ship were completed, only a hand full of life forms were onboard is what the early scan said but more extensive ones showed nearly a hundred battle droids of varying types. Vader thought battle droids only as fodder compared to the power of the force he wielded.
With checks finally completed Vader flipped a switch and the engines roared to life. He began to take off when his comms came to life.
"Lord Vader all pilots are ready for launch" a voice stated, it was Krotan "shall I give the order or you"
"No" Vader ordered
"Excuse me my Lord?" Krotan asked not even trying to hide the worry in his voice
"I shall deploy first and alone" Vader stated as he his interceptor levitated "I will notify you when to release the fighters"
With all things in place Vader toggled speed controls to his control sticks and flung them forward. The small ship rocketed out of the hanger, its engines screaming as it went. As soon as he was outside Vader banked left and strafed across the bow of the executor. The little ship was far off version of its original version, Vader had upgraded with every advanced weapon system he was able to get his hands on. The ship was equipped with the most experimental tech in the empire; it had enough weapons to take down seven starships and all the fighters in between. The interceptor raced to engage the ship that hung in Akiva's atmosphere. Vaders plan was to disable the command ship before it had time to attack his fleet.
A debris field lay between Vader and his targets, some of it clone wars ships others part of the fleet that was destroyed by the rebels to take the world. Vader cared not for those who had been lost the remains actually shielded his attack better; the failure of the dead would now contribute to his victory. Vader turned on a dime several times to narrowly avoid collisions with massive ship parts but this was still easy flying for the master pilot. Vader flipped switches on his data screen to now scan the enemy shields they were still down as he suspected them to be. As the debris field ended and the interceptor flew into open space R3 activated all weapon systems and locked the s-foils into attack positions. Darth Vader toggled through blaster cannons, proton torpedoes, homing missiles and finally the one searched for Laser disruptors.
"Set disruptors at 100 percent capacity" Vader ordered the black astromech
The droid beeped and whirled in protest; stating that it would drain the energy reserves to nearly fifty percent
"I am aware of this but do as I said" Vader ordered again a slight rise in aggression in his tone at the droids doubt in his plan
The dark lord checked the scanners again the shields were still down; he had remained undetected as was the plan. Finally he reached the command dreadnought. It had definitely seen better day the ship was old even at the end of the clone wars; he could tell it had most likely been in service since the start. Vaders ship streaked past the command bridge doubting they even knew what he was much less where he was headed. As he strafed across the bow several sets of turbo laser came to life and slowly fired at him but they were to slow to even come close. With the shield lowered Vader toggled his data screens to the charging disruptors they were nearing eighty percent. With his distance closing the command coup that jutted up and out of the ship at the rear grew larger. That was his target; if he could hit it in just the right spot it would cause a chain reaction that would discombobulate the small fleet so Vader for could finish them off. The interceptor raced toward its intended destination as the disruptor reach one hundred. Now just mere meters away Vader pulled back on the control sticks the ship adjusted itself, now running along the neck of the command coup. R3 activated the targeting systems and the data screens switched to show the spot where the neck and the actual coup met. Vader flipped the covers of the firing switches on his sticks and pressed down both the buttons. As he did two long beams of green plasma shot out of the canons and hit the intended spot just right. The hit caused just the explosion lord Vader planned for, the fire and sheer force of the explosion shattered the transparisteel view ports. Though the fire was put out almost instantly by the vacuum of space it did not stop the chain reaction of explosion down the neck. Vader however was not able to revel in his victory; as soon as he reached the top of the coup he arched over and back down now traveling toward the exposed engines. The large over hang that had normally protected the engines was gone most likely due to modifications or such. But Vader cared not he seized the opportunity and fired all four of his proton torpedoes at them. With contact the explosion created was a purple and pink cloud that expanded to all directions. Vader flew right through it arching again to now fly across the under belly of the ship back toward the fleet. Now the cannons were significantly more active and blasted at the small ship but they continued to be to slow as Vader out maneuvered them easily even in his low power sate. As he cleared the ship and flipped back up right he pressed his comms button.
"Admiral Krotan launch all fighters" Vader ordered into the mic in his helmet
"At once lord Vader", a rather cheery response from Krotan. He most likely reveled in the success of Vader's plan
"And do not destroy the command ship only disable it further" Vader added, no response was needed for the second part
Almost as soon as Krotan replied dozens of the tie fighter poured out from both sides of the all three starships. They would make short work of the droid ships that amassed behind Vader. The droids raced as fast as they could to catch Vader's ship, normally he could out run them but the power lost in the attack was slowing him greatly. But the faster tie fighters charged toward them ready to wipe the separatist memory form the galaxy. They clashed in a beautiful mess of explosions as the ties shredded the droids to pieces. Vader did not engage he only returned to the executor.
As the gravlift doors slid open the noise of the bridge filled Darth Vader's listening devices. Ensigns ran back and forth delivering data from one section to another other directing fighters and repeating orders. Vader heard one person state that one of the destroyers was hit and the explosion caused it to be torn into two pieces; He was pleased with the performance of his forces. As he reached the view port to look at the battle a hover droid came in carrying his cape he left in the hanger, the droid clipped it back around his neck letting drop to flow over Vader's back. He looked out to see the command dreadnought falling back to the planet. The jedi on the surface- Kenobi- would soon receive his message; that the empire was not to be trifled with.