LOVE IN THE DARKNESS

A new beginning ….

Along with his new fleet of ships, Azazel was sent a new second in command. She was a major and her name was Aurra. She was a beautiful women, and full of energy and excitement. It reminded him of his dead wife. He had a good feeling about his new major, Aurra was a young only about 23 years old, and she had vibrant red hair. She was new to his fleet; he had transferred her from one of the last star destroyers he had been able to salvage from the battle of Endor. Their first encounter happened shortly after she had entered Azazel's command ship. She entered the room with a scared look on her face. She was nervous, she had never really been in the presence of a general and definitely not one of his stature. She saluted him and he welcomed her with a warm smile. He told her to tell the captain to set the hyper drive to the hoth system. And to round up his council of officers, for there was much to discuss. He then told her that as second in command she would stay on the bridge, and control the situation. Then jokingly he said that she could relax, and gave a chuckle. Aurra gave him a half smile and then stepped out to do her duties.

later on that day the general sat at his study, the nostalgia started to set in, his major reminded him so much of his wife he started thinking about the years they had spent together, but suddenly a surge of anger came over him, he crushed the data pad he was holding in his had, the rebellion would pay, if it was the last thing he did. Suddenly he heard the door open again and jumped out of this state, the dark side had taken control of him for a little while, but now had receded into him. It was the major again, she told him that everything was ready; he stood up and walked towards the meeting room, thanking her as he walked away. As he walked he sense Aurra staring at him while he walked down the hall way, he smiled to himself and walked on.

After the meeting the general went up to the bridge of his star destroyer, and sat in his chair on the bridge. He was deep in thought; the whole fleet was in hyper space jumping form Tatooine to Camino there he would execute his perfect plan. He thought of the glory the empire had been and how that would soon return. Suddenly he sensed somebody behind him, it was the major, she saluted him and he asked what she had for him. The major replied, "we are three days from arriving at the Camino system sir, we still haven't gotten a reply from the scouts and its been already several days, sir". The general replied, "yes it has hasn't it", he started to ponder for a second. Then he spoke to the major, "what do you make of it major?" The major replied, "Sir I don't think it is my place to say sir". The general laughed, "You don't have to be so official major, please now drop the sir thing, and only when in presence of other officers will you call me sir do you understand?" The major replied, "Yes si... general". Azazel once again laughed.

The major then spoke, "Well I think that we should wait for the scouts to contact us before doing anything". The general replied, "Yes I think you are right major, thank you for your opinion". the major walked off, the general remained at his seat, he felt something in the force, but wasn't sure if it was bad or good, he stared out of the bridge window, out to hyperspace, seeing the stars pass by...

Days later the fleet arrived at Camino and the plan was revealed. Azazel knew what was in Camino. He had been there when he was part of the Jedi order at the end of the clone wars. It was where the supply of clone troopers had come from. Now it was abandoned. "Lieutenant, get 5 storm transports ready and my armored shuttle, have conscan scan for a large platform in the central ocean, which should be the entrance to the underwater facilities. Oh and captain tell construction corps to be ready to build, as soon
as we secure the area, we should have the headquarters running in no time". "Yes sir", said the lieutenant. A captain came into the quarters too, "I want you to set up 3 of our prefab spaceports around the planet, this will be our home for a while I hope. Remember to set up the defense platforms too, I want the fleet refueled and repair in 48 hours. By then I should have the headquarters done too. Oh and tell the crew that we shall have fresh food, no more space junk cardboard for us", the general said chuckling as he went into his changing area to put on his sith cloak a present the long dead emperor had given him once. He knew they were still there, the cloners, they had served the Jedi well, but he did not know what their reaction would be after so many years. The empire had hit their planet hard, but the cloners did not know that he was from the empire. The general thought to himself what they don't know won't hurt them.

15 minutes later the transports were ready. The squad leaders were round up together chatting, the general was taking 5 squads with him, plus 4 special commandos dressed as Jedi's. He was wearing his tunic all black with a leather cape that wrapped around him, his head was hooded as to not show his face, and he was armed only with his lightsaber. He came close to the squad leaders, and told them that they would land on the cargo platform and would wait for his signal if he needed them. He would land at the main shuttle platform and go in first with his 4 troops; he expected no resistance but was cautious. A few minutes later the shuttle departed the flagship and headed down to the planet. The shuttles skimmed the rough water flying towards what looked like a space station floating on the water. The shuttles departed at this point, 5 heading to a huge landing platform in the east side, and one towards a small but elaborate platform on the west side, the shuttle slowly put down.

Azazel was the first out, and his 4 troopers followed. He walked towards the door, and they slid open, there to meet him was a Camino cloner, she was tall and white, same strange creature he had seen when he had been there as a boy, she lead them into a white room. There they waited and met Osbosa, he was the owner of the cloning facilities, and was very old. He asked, "tell me Jedi master, how our clone army is doing, do you need more clones? Remember if you need more, we will need more time to clone them". The general thought to himself, these creatures are very misinformed, if only they knew what had happened, all they knew is that the planet was bombed for some reason and soon left. It had been 2 decades since the last Jedi's were on the planet, and then he came to his senses. "Yes the clone army was wondrous sir, and we do not need more clones. What we need sir is this facility, if you wish we will pay you for it", he said in a menacing voice. "hmmmm..", Thought the Camino, "no I don't think I would like that master Jedi, we Camino like our privacy". "Really?" Said the general, as he pressed the COM link on his wrist communicator. Outside on the main platform the 5 squads of storm troopers came hurdling out, into the facility. As they did that, the four men with Azazel dropped their cloaks and pulled out their heavy blaster pistols, they were dressed in full imperial armor. The Camino in surprised backed against the wall. He was too scared to say anything. The general took off his hood and showed his face, he pulled out his lightsaber, and a red laser blade hummed right next to the Caminos face. "you are no Jedi, sir", said the Camino shaking with fear. "Oh yes I am", said the general, "I am just not like anyone you've seen. I am one of the last that remain. I tried to make things easy for you but no, you had to go and mess things up. Now to business, your facilities are mine, I claim this facility in the name of the empire. Oh don't worry sir", the general said to the Camino, "we'll take care of you". Commander, he said to one of his troopers, "take this vermin and his assistant to the holding area were the rest of them are, the Stormtroopers have round most of them up". The general sat on the Caminos chair, "set up my office here lieutenant", he said to the other trooper at his side. Then he took the COM link, "captain, you may send the construction corp down. We have lots of work to do; we must setup the underwater facilities and the underwater shipyard in 48 hours". The captain replied, "yes sir, and sir the platforms are set, the defense platforms are up too and the ships have started refueling". "Thank you captain", said the general. "one more thing captain, send my special research crew down on a transport shuttle, tell them to bring my new cloaking device with them, we shall need it to conceal the surface base. That will be all captain...", said the general.