HUGE NOTE, PLEASE READ: It seems alerts are not working, again, and I am no longer receiving chapter alerts, review alerts, or any type of alerts. I can still check my reviews by going to the stories review page so keep 'em coming, anyone else having the damn same problem? This is really starting to tick me off, this happened already, last month I believe, when I was typing Unknown Son 1 or the beginning of 2. And I'm not ignoring you if I don't reply to your reviews, or if you Private Message me and I don't return its because my alerts are not working! Thank you, also the only reason I post this chapter so early is to tell you this.

Since alerts are not working for me they probably are not for you so here is a quick review reply.

doreenthatshot: Yes Kallisto and Callista do sound a bit alike, I never intended it to be that way, Kallisto was simply a name I found on an internet site that I needed for the character.

Chapter 18: The Game Begins

The Knight Hammer was a beautiful weapon. Sleek and black like a dagger of death. Let all run in fear of it. It was a mammoth giant, worth twenty times that of a regular star destroyer, Imperial Class. It was so enormously big that half of it was commanded by auto command systems in which the techs on the bridge could program in commands, such as fire the auto starboard turbo lasers or something. Its bridge was big too. The crew pits were the size of a regular star destroyers time three. Everything was controlled there, it was like the giant brain of this monster.

If that was the case then Mara stood looking out of the head's eyes, with the brain cells working busily behind her. Crappy metaphor she thought. She stared over the vast ship, like a black city of turbo lasers, ion cannons and other weaponry. Daala approached her from behind.

"Magnificent, isn't she?" Daala asked with passion, gazing across the ship herself.

"Yes. We'll pound the hell out of those traitors with this." Mara replied.

"Indeed we will. Sooner than you might think too. Our plans are finalized Mara, we're ready to move."

Mara turned around, her hair flipped into her face like fire. She was supposed to be notified of every single little step of progress! She had put in the request for it in the council of captains and everyone unanimously agreed.

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Mara asked loudly. "I am supposed to be informed on everything! Everything! What moron forgot to pass the info along to me? I swear I'll rip his heart out!"

"You didn't get the information? Strange. Kallisto was assigned to tell you."

The feeling came back, the one she had when Alecto had first suggested Kallisto was a spy. As much as Mara didn't want to believe it this further proved her point, like in the meeting room when Kallisto pressed something on her shoulder. A bug.

"Never mind it then." Mara said quickly. "I'll talk to her later. Fill me in then."

"Certainly. Vice Admiral Kratas has assumed control of the Gorgon. He will be taking it along with nine other ships to the Death star and destroy it. A few hours after Kratas and his attack group jump to hyperspace we'll go to Coruscant and launch our attack. That way Vader will probably have sent all his ships to investigate the Death Star. We'll jam his communications when we exit hyperspace. By then Kratas will have destroyed the Death Star and be on his way to help us."

"A well conceived plan." Mara said. "While Vader's cronies investigate the Death Star we attack Coruscant and jam the communications so Vader cant send a distress call, and when word reaches his reinforcements he'll already be dead. A lot should convert to our side then and those that don't we will kill, correct?"

"Yes." Daala replied nodding. She looked down at the comm officer.

"Yes Admiral?"

"Patch me in on the ship-to-ship comm channel. It is time to begin."

"Yes Admiral." The man replied, and began rerouting channels and getting everything working. A thought crossed Mara's mind. Did everyone always have to say "Yes Admiral"? Couldn't they mix it up a bit, like "Right away Admiral", or "It will be done oh great Admiral Daala"? While Mara was contemplating this Daala stepped in front of the officer microphone.

"This is Admiral Daala." Daala said. Her voice boomed throughout every ship in the fleet. "The time has come. Now we launch our final attack on Coruscant. Vice Admiral Kratas, jump to hyperspace when ready. Admiral Pellaeon, report to the Knight Hammer bridge at once. We will be jumping into hyperspace approximately an hour after Vice Admiral Kratas does, we must prepare now. Commence formation plan delta. That is all."

"It has begun." Mara said.

"Yes." Admiral Daala replied. "In an hour Mara, we will go."

"I heard you. Now I'm going to go have chat with Kallisto."

"Kick her once for me. I am so tired of her organic cigarras."

XxX

"Get out of here Nigel!" Mara commanded loudly as she stormed into her quarters, Kallisto was examining her smart disc and Nigel was drinking a non alcoholic beverage. At the sound of Mara's voice he spilled it all over himself.

"Damn it woman!" He cried. "You expect me to leave with this crap all over me?!"

"Do laundry." Mara hissed back.

"How about you—"

"Nigel don't start! I am madder than a gundark without a mate, if you don't shut up the so help me I will shoot you!"

"Where?" Nigel asked as if weighing the pros and cons of getting shot in certain places.

"You'll never be able to have children, lets just say, and you could potentially die."

"Goodbye." Nigel said quickly leaping out of the room.

Once the door had closed behind him and the room was completely sealed away from the rest of the ship Kallisto stood up.

"So what is—"

But she never finished her sentence as Mara rammed her into the wall. Her smart disc clattered to the floor and she coughed as Mara pressed her elbow against her neck.

"What the hell is—"

"Shut up." Mara snapped, slapping her. "Amateur."

"What did you just call me?" Kallisto coughed.

"You think you're going to get away with it?"

"Away with what? Get your damn arm off my neck!"

Mara took her arm off Kallisto's neck and instead wrapped a hand around it.

"Don't play stupid with me! I know you're passing intel and information to Vader or somebody!" Mara yelled shaking with rage.

"What proof do you have?"

"None, but I swear by the Force if you do anything to incriminate yourself I will kill you on the spot with your own stupid Frisbee!"

"It's a smart disc."

"Smarter than you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have no idea!" Mara screamed. "Stop frustrating me! I swear Kallisto, if anyone dies any ship explodes, Vader is tipped off and I have any halfway concrete evidence pointing to you I will gut you like an animal. I'll give you a sedative that paralyzes you so you can feel and see what is happening to you but you can't cry out. I'll dunk you in a damn vat of acid!"

"That's—that's all good and fine but could you take your cold hands off my neck?!"

Mara released Kallisto and she feel to the floor, coughing. Her sharp eyes snapped up at Mara. Both were sweating and looked so furious that no one should have a hard time believing that if Nigel entered the room Mara would pull out her blaster, holstered on her arm, and shoot him. No words spoken.

Kallisto's eyes were shining.

"You do that." She said. "You just try to find evidence that I'm some sort of traitor. But if you try and kill me I swear you'll be dead before you can even touch a weapon."

"Then our confrontation will be interesting."

"If dying interests you."

XxX

Moff Jerjerrod of the Death Star stood on his command bridge, gazing out of the only deep triangular window within its walls. He took a deep breath, feeling the awesome power of this death machine around him.

"Moff Jerjerrod sir!" an officer piped up.

"Yes officer?"

"I read ten signals ready to come out of hyperspace."

Jerjerrod turned and walked beside the officer. Indeed ten signals were going to come out of hyperspace, ETA twenty seconds.

"Let's see what we have here then." Jerjerrod said going back to the viewport. Just then ten full sized Imperial star destroyers broke out of hyperspace.

"Sir ten—"

"I know what they are!" Jerjerrod snapped. "Did Admiral Piett send any notice of their coming?"

"No sir." an officer replied.

"Then somebody better tell me just what the hell is going on!"

"Incoming transmission sir!"

"Reroute it to the viewing screen."

Jerjerrod turned to his left, where a massive viewing screen was embedded in the wall, the same shape as the viewport. It was velvet black, but then there was a flash of static and an image of a man in a vice admirals uniform appeared.

"Hello Grand Moff Jerjerrod." The man said. "I am Vice Admiral Kratas."

"You're who?"

"Sir!" An alarmed officer cried. "An attack wing of TIE interceptors is headed for the Death Star—oh my god! The star destroyers are opening fire on out guard!"

Jerjerrod felt his eyes grow wide. Ten Imperial star destroyers were engaging his five star destroyer guard! This was an attack… by other Imperials.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing?!" Shouted Jerjerrod at Kratas.

"I am Vice Admiral Kratas, in service of Admiral Daala. I am here to kill you and the Death Star." Kratas said simply, and his image vanished.

"Sir, they're jamming our communications!"

Jerjerrod said nothing but ran back to the viewport, just in time to see one of his guard ships bridge towers explode, it began heading downwards in space, pieces of its hull exploding off as its still running engines propelled it. They were in trouble.

XxX

Gorgon Bridge

"Vice Admiral Kratas sir." An officer addressed

"Yes?" Kratas asked, hands clasped behind his back and gazing out the viewport as one of the Death Star's guard died. A smile came to his face, it was good to be back in action.

"They bypassed out communications jam."

"Already?"

"And they sent out a distress call."

"Excellent, by the time reinforcements arrive we'll already be at Coruscant, you don't think they knew our jam was to easy to bypass?"

"No sir."

"Excellent, everything is proceeding well." Kratas said pleased. "Get Task Leader on comm., audio only."

"Yes sir."

Kratas waited as the bridge speakers crackled with static, and then the voice of a helmeted TIE pilot filtered through.

"Yes Vice Admiral?"

"Report Task Leader."

"We've got the interceptors in the trench, we're starting our attack run. No sign of enemy fighters, bomber wings proceeding the destroy turbo lasers." The Task Leader replied.

"Expect enemy TIE's, it won't take them long to figure it out."

"Wait…." The leader paused, a feeling of slight dread went through Kratas, Jerjerrod was responding far to quickly. "Wait—damn it! Evasive maneuvers, stay on targe—"

But the leaders life was cut short, he screamed loudly into the comm, and everything turned to static. Kratas bowed his head solemnly for the leader. The mood ended and he spoke to the comm officer.

"Patch me in to the bomber leader, audio only."

"Yes sir."

There were a few more bursts of static and another voice filtered through, disturbingly similar to the Task Leaders voice.

"Bomber leader here sir."

"Report, what's happening there?" Kratas asked.

"The damn Moff sent out a couple waves of TIE fighters."

"Are they neutralized?"

"No, we got several of them but there's still a lot flying around." The bomber leader replied.

Kratas nodded, not that the leader could actually see him. "Damage assessment?"

"We lost a couple bombers and several Interceptors, all minor re—"

And then the transmission erupted with a burst of static. Kratas glanced quizzically at the comm officer who was busy trying to get the leader back online. In his peripheral vision Kratas caught something that made him gasp. The Death Star's eight separate lasers began to glow just as two more guard star destroyers went down. Kratas watched in horror as the lasers connected above the middle of the dish, sending green lightning out everywhere. And then another laser was born out of the focus point, it flew away from its makers and crashed into the Hydra which was the only other one of Admiral Daala's original fleet that accompanied Kratas to the Death Star. The Hydra exploded into a brilliant cloud of superheated gases and fuel. Kratas tipped his hat to the fallen captain. Then he snapped back into reality.

"How the hell did they just do that?" Kratas asked alarmed.

"I don't know sir!" The tactical officer replied, equally as alarmed. "The laser is not supposed to be that accurate!"

Another guard ship exploded, one left."

"Send the order to pull back now!" Kratas cried. "We need to get out of range of that laser, let the TIE's handle it."

"Agreed sir." The tactical officer said with a high amount of anxiety choking up his voice.

XxX

On Death Star Command Deck

"Sir they're pulling back!" Cried an officer with a mixture of shock and happiness in his voice.

"Good," Jerjerrod replied. "Deal with those fighters."

"Yes sir."

And that's when it struck him, Jerjerrod. Shouldn't they know that the station had only one more shot? It took hours for the main reactor to build up enough power to release it in the blast, and they had released half of the power. But perhaps they did not know that, yet if they did why would they be pulling back. Most importantly why would they leave their fighters behind? Jerjerrod was forced to cease his pondering as an alarmed officer cried out.

"I am reading a very high proximity reading from the main reactor!"

"What?!" Jerjerrod cried running up to the officers screen. "There is no way for them to get through!"

"The fighters are pulling back!" Cried the tactical officer.

"By the Force…." Jerjerrod gasped.

"What is it sir?"

"They got it. They found a weakness. Evacuate immediately! Prepared my ship and—"

Those were the last words of Moff Jerjerrod as his great invincible Death Star exploded. What once was the ultimate power in the universe turned into nothing at all.

XxX

"Admiral." A tactical officer spoke.

"Yes, what is it?" Admiral Piett asked looking down at him from the bridge above the crew pit.

"I have several signals approaching, ready to exit hyperspace."

"Emperor Vader never notified me of anything."

"He doesn't command us anymore sir." The officer reminded. "He handed it over to Ravan."

"Right you are." Piett agreed. "Check the reports from Lord Ravan. Does it say anything about the arrival of more ships the guard Coruscant?"

"No sir." The tactical officer said.

Then it hit him. An attack, on Coruscant. Something was horribly and utterly wrong. The rebel alliance had been wiped out, there was no other force that could dare oppose the Empire. Piett found he was mistaken as nearly thirty Imperial class star destroyers, ten victory class, and three interdictors exited hyperspace. What hit him the most was the lead ship, a black mammoth super star destroyer. The Empire was at war again… with itself.

Ugh! I am not in my rhythm or something, this is just not up to my standards! I'll try doing better on the next one, I just don't feel like I am writing this well enough.