Another day had passed and still no signs of imperial presence on Dantooine. Several recon units of rebels had been sent out to the crash site in the grassy mountains, and the droids remains were destroyed completely from the force of impact when it apparently collided with a tree.
However, a second probe droid had made it's landing quite close to the abandoned village and caves the rebellion were currently using as a base of operations. The droid, managing to stay unnoticed, proceeded to scan the area; the imperial probe droids were extremely accurate and picky. Equipped with sampling claws, a radar, built in blaster, and long distance communication in an encrypted imperial format. As the day went on, the droid managed to escape into the caves of the rebel base, sending back all the information needed to the Empire's closest space station and star destroyers.
"Sir, probe droid T-8897 has picked up activity from the caves and the village on Dantooine; the power levels concede with what would be expected from power generators and equipment. The droid also reports finding a good amount of rebel soldiers in the area judging by their appearance. Though, it may just be an illegal smuggling base as well." A lower level imperial worker reported, walking towards Moff Tarkin on the bridge of his imperial star destroyer. Handing Tarkin photos and research data the droid acquired in holographic form, the senior grand moff looked over everything the droid had accumulated and nodded to the worker, handing the holodisk back to the light brown wearing operator with a nod. "Alert any nearby Star Destroyers and their fighter squadrons. I want the orbit of the planet over that village blocked off, destroy any ships that try to leave from that location. Also, activate the droids self destruct somewhere remote." He ordered, placing his hands behind his back.
"Yes sir," replied the worker, immediately returning to his work station to operate the droid via remote control into finishing it's tasks.
"I must report this to Lord Vader and see how he wishes to proceed." Tarkin muttered, walking away from the bridge of the star destroyer into the communication room a few halls away. Once inside the sleek black room, Tarkin activated the visual screen for a call to Darth Vader's quarters on Vjun. Sure enough, the blue static faded to gray and revealed the respirator mask of Vader.
"What is it, Tarkin? You've interrupted my meditation." Vader replied in aggravation, skipping any form of formal greeting. The Sith lord wanted to get down to business.
Tarkin ignored Vader's rude tone, clearing his throat with ease. "A probe droid found what could be a rebel base on Dantooine. The force there is sizable. There's a small chance it's just a smuggling port, but there's a large amount of rebel class equipment on the planet."
Vader seemed to take some interest in the situation.
"Did they notice the droid? And what actions did you take?" He replied.
"No, I had the droid self destruct in a remote area, and currently two Star Destroyers are on their way. They will be making sure no ships come or go from that area. We're waiting for your orders. If the probe droid and the data are correct, a force user of some kind is on the planet as well."
Vader pondered for a moment, the fact it could be a large rebel base was already interesting enough and called for his attention, but the fact a Jedi or just a force user in general was there aiding the enemy or smugglers made him even more certain this would require a personal touch.
"I shall arrive at once. The entire military force of both Star Destroyers are to be deployed at once under the command of which ever commander you choose. He will report to me upon my personal landing. Bombard their space port at once, as well as any landing pads or ships they have In orbit.. After that, wait for further orders." Vader stated, standing from his chair and briskly turning towards the exit of his sphere meditation room. Tarkin, knowing his orders, ended the transmission with a simple "Yes, lord Vader" and walked back towards the bridge of his Star Destroyer.
"Orders from Lord Vader himself," Tarkin announced as he returned. "Destroy their landing pads, orbital bombardment on anything they have ship wise." He repeated, the ship crew immediately acknowledged the order and began to prepare the turbo-laser turrets on the large dagger shaped capital ship to rain down hell on the rebels.
Ahsoka Tano was out in the mountains enjoying the little, but lovely, wildlife the planet had. It was just so wild, yet somehow... empty on this world. A beautiful orange sky and endless grassy plains for miles and miles. She sat there, mediating, drawing in the life of the surrounding area. Then it hit her.
Something terrible is about to happen.
Standing up, Ahsoka listened quietly until she heard loud explosions far off. Turning around and instinctively running towards the edge of the cliff, she saw a birds eye view of their base of operations. The landing pad which had stolen LAAT/I gunships and many, many different classes of ships such as Y-wings, X-wings, and V-wings were smashed, burning, and on fire. Looking upwards Ahsoka saw the cause of the sudden explosions and destruction...
Three Imperial Class star destroyers, all in the sky, hovering over the entire area. Rebel soldiers immediately acted upon the sudden Imperial attack and did their best to grab weapons to arm themselves quickly as possible. It wasn't long before Imperial gunships and landing ships came hurtling down from the sky in swarms, mowing down the rebels caught in the open with laser fire and turret beams.
"Oh no..." Ahsoka muttered, drawing both of her green colored sabers and racing towards her friends. In the distance the imperial landing ships made contact with the ground and swarms of stormtroopers of various classes came racing down the hills, filling the air with red blaster fire. With their only options of escape completely destroyed, almost half of their forces pinned in the open or gunned down, and a massive force of stormtroopers racing for them Ahsoka knew only one option.
"Retreat! Into the caves!" She yelled as loudly as possible, watching as a gunship raced towards her. Skillfully, she readied herself with her sabers, and when one of the beam turrets from the side of the attack ship fired Ahsoka deflected it right back into the Ships hill, cutting the thing right in two and causing it to explode as it hit the ground. Conveniently the smoke from the downed craft would cover most of their retreat. They didn't have long however.
Quickly, Ahsoka deflected any bolts of fire that came through the smoke at the rebels as they flooded into the caves. While a few were still shot before they could make it, a majority survived, and soon after Ahsoka was sure the remaining soldiers, at least as many as she could wait for, were inside the caves she turned and said "Quick, collapse the entrance. We don't need them following us. If we escape through the caves we can cover our tracks and have a chance at surviving." As per her orders, three rebels threw frag grenades at the cave entrance, causing rocks and boulders to fall from the ceiling and deny access to anyone else via that route.
Outside, the large forces of stormtroopers casually began to secure the area. Any remaining wounded rebel soldiers were shot while a few were taken as prisoner for Lord Vader to question if he wished. The external rebel equipment was also either destroyed, or looted, or both. After a bit of scouting, all of the troopers found that the power generator was somewhere inside the caves, and as such the rebels would be able to survive for a few days if left to their own devices.
"They'd never do this if there wasn't an exit point," a storm trooper speculated to another. "Well, we caught em off guard, here's hoping they dug their own grave." Another replied. Another storm trooper wearing a backpack and shoulder cauldron with blue 501'st markings on his armor approached and intercepted the conversation. "Lord Vader will be arriving in ten minutes. I want everyone ready for his arrival. That means I expect this entire area fully locked down, any remaining rebel equipment looted for Intel and then destroyed, and a general idea of that cave system. Let's not look like rookies, Vader obviously is gonna want those caves searched."
"Wouldn't it be easier to just bombard the entire cave system and crush the rebels that way?" A trooper asked.
"One would think," replied the commander, shaking his head. "However, those computers and data centers the rebels have hidden down there could be used to decrypt their messages we've intercepted, and could have even more Intel on other base locations and where they are getting their supplies and major funding from. We hit em hard with this one, Lord Vader would be furious If I had those caves destroyed along with all the evidence. We're doing it the hard way." He explained. The two stormtroopers stood and nodded in understanding before saluting and returning to their duties.
WRITER'S NOTES:
I apologize for the length of time it took to write this second chapter. I wrote the first some months ago. However, I have found time to write again and as such I have decided to finish this small fan fiction in the next two or three chapters. Read and review!