Legend of The Sorai
A/N: so the question probably being asked now, is whom was the group that attacked Balsalvis. There are a few theories, I think a few people know. Heavily armed and dangerous. I can tell you though, that it's going to be a group that we would least think to do something. So the other question I'm guessing on your mind is how did Kestral get captured by Palpatine? Well that question won't be answered for a while, but I can tell you, that you will get to see Dragon do one of his avatar moves; not going to tell you just yet, but you'll figure it out soon.
Chapter 8: Revenged and Retributed
Tattoine
Army of Light, Main group
"This is preposterous!" roared Dragon standing before a small council, holograms of the other members of The Rogues, and Artemis's Command, "Why am I being forbid to go after Kestral, if she can be saved, then I should do it."
Everyone looked uncomfortable, even though Dragon was one of the power house of command, he wasn't in charge, everyone looked to Jack O'Neil, Artemis, and Holly for leadership, "You know why," said Jack sitting back, "Palpatine wants you to go after him, it's how he'll get you, whatever happened that brought Kestral to him, could easily happen to you."
"It would be foolish for you to try something like this," said Artemis sitting at his control chair, "You realize that you'd be going in alone, no backup, the Emperor goaded you, because he lost Balsalvis, this is how he operates, this is how he'll do it."
"I want to find out who took Balsalvis!" said Dragon, "I want them to explain their actions!"
"Dragon," said Tenchi from his line, "Think about this logically, that whoever attacked Balsalvis, maybe they don't want to ally with us; right now we haven't even introduced ourselves to the Rebel Alliance, with the exception of Han Solo, Chewie, Luke, Obi-wan, and the droids, three of which are off somewhere else, and Han and the kid took off after Tatooine was liberated, so realistically, they have no reason to contact us!"
Dragon fumed, but nodded, "You'll forgive my outburst, I need to go planetside to clear my mind, being on the ship here is bugging me."
Jack looked at everyone who nodded, "Acknowledged," said Jack, "That is permissible, check in every half hour, we don't know if the planet is entirely safe yet, though Mos Eiesly is, and the surrounding area, there may be enclaves who are waiting for word."
Dragon nodded, and took a sand robe and left to the transporter room, as soon as Dragon was out of hearing, Jack nodded to Mulch on board Holly's ship, who signaled two of his watchers to watch Dragon from afar.
On the ground, Dragon shrouded himself in the cloak and started walking out of the area, towards the Dune Sea, where he could think. He sensed the two watchers, and smiled inwardly, for his protection....right.
Things weren't supposed to be this way, Dragon thought he had seen everything clearly, back at the Sanatorium, but apparently not, apparently the Darkness wanted to drag this out, to punish him, one of the last of the Dragon out there, but the answer could not be found.
"I IMPORE THE STARS TO ANSWER ME!" he roared, "I WANT THE POWER!"
Suddenly energy started flowing around him, as something in his brain clicked, and he held out his hands, "I IMPORE THE STARS TO REMEMBER ME!" he chanted, "I IMPLORE THE STARS TO RETURN THE POWER!"
On board the Penelope (the Prototype Star Destroyer) Phoenix suddenly stood straight up, "I feel power unleashed," he said, opening his com, "This is Phoenix, any and all available units go planet side, power is welling!"
Dragon felt the power washing over and around him, it was reminding him of who he was. He was the Dragon. He was the Instrument. HE WAS THE POWER!
The energy stopped flowing, he had grown and enlarged, he had become what was needed. Phoenix was suddenly standing before him....actually he was looking down on Phoenix in his frail avatar human form, how pitiful.
"DRAGON!" shouted Phoenix mustering his strength, "DON'T DO THIS, THINK OF THE RAMIFICATIONS!"
Dragon laughed, "FOOLISH PHOENIX," he said, "THIS IS MY CONCERN NOW, THIS IS WHAT IS REQUIRED OF I IN ORDER TO FREE THE EVIL THAT IS COME, I AM THE HARBINGER OF LIGHT, I AM WHAT THE DARKNESS FEARS!!!!!!!"
Dragon's wings unfurled and he hurled himself upward. He was finally free, that human shell had made it impossible to think, Phoenix was older and yet he chose to not access his true potential, he chose not to embrace the power of the Phoenix. Space suddenly appeared around him, and he breathed fire around himself for a barrier and became Space worthy.
Phoenix stood disbelieving, he couldn't believe it. The astral form of Tyronis appeared beside Phoenix, "Scans show that a dragonoid being flying through the atmosphere into space."
"I saw it with mine own eyes Tyronis," said Pheonix, "Dragon's rage took over, and that surprises me."
"He loves Kestral," said Tyronis, "That's the obvious thing, but if the Emperor has her, then it could be a trap, which I believe it is."
"Where is the Air Force Command Group?" asked Phoenix.
"You mean the Star Gate group?" asked Tyronis, "They took the droids with the information on Project Death Star, along with the kid and the Jedi, they gave us the com frequency if we needed to contact them."
"Contact them," said Phoenix, "Inform them that Dragon went ballsy, see if they can find out who took Balsalvis, also, I have a scan from a couple of probes we dropped a few sectors back, we have a small battalion following us, five ships total."
"You have orders then?" asked Tyronis.
"Yes," said Phoenix who realized at this point he was in charge of the group now, at least the Tattooine group, "Move the fleet out towards Balsalvis, I'll have Artemis's ships remain cloaked here to deal with whoever is following us."
Artemis's hologram appeared, "Order received," he said, "I can't get anything on them, I don't recognize the heat sig that they give off, it might be Federation, I know that the lead commander of the Star Gate fleet did say that a backup ship was called for when they faced off with Darth Vader, but it never showed up, I'm guessing it was them, they might be following us."
"I'd rather be cautious then dead," said Tyronis.
"Agreed," said Artemis/Phoenix.
Half an hour later the fleet disembarked, towards Balsalvis, Phoenix and Tyronis in command.
Artemis's ship's The Fowl Command and his small fleet, about five ships, all arrayed themselves around the system, cloaked, weapons hot. Butler and his sister commanded one ship, Holly's fleet had outbounded as well with the main fleet, but Mulch had command of one of the other ships. The other two were ships were commanded by the two cyborgs, who had changed their names to Lord Perth and Lady Swallow, weird names, but they seemed to know what they were doing. It was about half an hour after the fleet left that five ships and one cloaked one entered the system.
"All hands to battle stations," said Artemis, "all ships, move in, Tucker, hail the lead ship." Lieutenant Tucker, was a friend of Artemis's father, in fact most of the people were friends of the family, from their criminal empire days, mostly mercenaries, some were just people who wanted to make their own way in life.
"Sir," said Tucker, "They're hailing us, I think they've got scanners, probably tachyon."
"Answer then," said Artemis, who stood up, "This is Commander Artemis of The Fowl Command, Sub commander of the Army of Light, state your purpose and intentions for following us."
"This is Admiral Jean Luc Picard," said the man on the screen, "I am in command of a small fleet, we were drawn here because of an event in which we helped precipitate some 20 plus years ago, we were following you because we hoped you would lead us to Emperor Palpatine."
Artemis didn't completely trust the man, although he'd seen enough of Star Trek the show to realize that Picard was a man not to be trifled with, "How did you detect our cloak?"
"Your cloak is more advanced," said Picard, "But it leaks Neutrinos, all the ships in your command do, I'll send over my chief engineer to take a look at it, I'm guessing you're Artemis Fowl, from universe 119, where magic and humans still do exist, though in weird combinations, I'm guessing that your fairy friends gave you their cloak, which while it is impressive, they need to work on shielding tech."
Mulch appeared on screen, "That hurt," he said, "but you are right Admiral."
"Agreed," said Artemis, "all ships will stand down to yellow alert, though tell me Admiral, have you been paying attention to the news?"
"If you're referring to the capture of Lady Kestral, yes, however if you're asking if it was us who took out Balsalvis, no, it wasn't. Balsalvis was never really all that important when were here these 20 or so years ago, however it was situated close to Byss, which if the Emperor is residing there and using puppets to do his bidding, then he's going to be artfully shifty in how things are going now, knowing that someone or some group just took a planet like that."
"Agreed," said Artemis, "have your engineer do his best, and then lets get on our way, I want to go take down the emperor and face what needs to be done."
"Picard out."
It took an hour to go through all five ships and reroute some systems that the cloak couldn't compete with, but Captain LaForge knew what he was doing and got it done competently.
"This is Commander Artemis to the fleet," he said, "Picard's fleet is with us now, we will make our way to Balsalvis via a different route." Then to Tucker he said, "inform Command about this, and inform them of our idea about what the encrypted message holds, if we're right, then we need to be ready."
"Aye sir," said Tucker and went to the dispatch room.
It was half an hour later, when the Com started picking up reports of downed ships in 4 sectors, all within range of Byss, according to the reports, they were all Star Destroyers, 5 in each sector, part of patrol groups, patrolling the outer rim regions of Byss, making sure no one tried to take over the homeworld of the Emperor. These ships were part of the Trinian Fleet, however the main fleet was closer to the homeworld. Fleet Commander Suk Lian was not part of the outer defenses, and said "whoever did this, will pay, lives, while not innocent, were lost, they will be remembered." The Trinian Fleet was until today the Emperor's personal fleet, though after today, with the way the war between the Rebels and the Empire is going, the Emperor may be staying on Coruscant until all is settled and done with.
"Well we know where Dragon is," said Chronis appearing next to Artemis, astrally mind you, as Chronis was meditating.
"So he cuts a swathe around the outer rim," said Artemis, "Why though?"
Suddenly the view screen lit up as Picard came on the line, "I have orders from Phoenix," he said, "We are to head towards Byss, part of the fleet will meet us there, the other part is massing near Courascant, trying to figure out where Project Death Star is, you have been given command of the this fleet, with me as your second."
"I receive these orders and obey them," said Artemis.
Suddenly another transmission appeared, it was Mozenwrath, "This is Commander Mozenwrath, the ship we stole from the Imperials and that we now command, along with our small fleet will be joining you, Holly Short is accompanying us as well in her fleet, so it's not half an half, it's more like a third and the rest going to Courascant."
Artemis sighed, and looked at Chronis's astral form, "You knew?"
"not until you did," he said, "I'm just as up to date as the rest of the group is."
Artemis sighed, and put on all fleet, as he switched over to the other frequencies, "This is Commander Artemis," he said, "We are headed towards Byss, whether we find death or live there, is unknown, what we do know is that we are fighting for peace, justice and much more then us, so if we die, let's take a few down with us. Lock and Load people, it's hunting time."
End Chapter 8.