Chapter 41
Chaos Wars:
The Imperial Civil War
"The Galactic Empire has just recently cut off all communications with both the Imperium and the Alliance, the superior officials at my end are getting very trigger happy about this"
Robyn Vallace to Luke Skywalker
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The Jedi temple of Ossus had changed since before the start of the Chaos wars, its surrounding courtyards and outer perimeter was dotted with dozen of flak cannons, Air-Defence towers, ground to air turbolaser batteries and Ion cannons, the entire region where the temple was located was safely protected by not just a planetary shield but a smaller deflector shield as well. A small flotilla of star destroyers and frigates defended the planet from any threats from space and a full battalion of the Jedi's own newly reborn Antarian Rangers stood guard against any possible threats.
A stream of countermeasures that many prominent Jedi masters thought were unnecessary but the Inquisition/Jedi Order representative, Inquisitor Robyn Vallace had insisted upon it and had also been the one to ask the senate for a reincarnation of the Jedi Orders legendary Antarian Rangers, a small Jedi backed army who were first commissioned during the Sith wars and were known to exist up to the Clone wars where most of their number were lost in the battles of that time, to both fight beside the Jedi as well as acting as their bodyguards and defenders on the battlefield. Once they had been commissioned thousands of applicants from both the civilian populations and the military signed up to protect and fight beside the guardians of the GA.
As Inquisitor Vallace walked down the majestic corridors of the new Jedi temple, exchanging salutes with Antarian Rangers and slight bows with passing by Jedi she had realised that she had come to see this place as like a second home. The temple was as much similar to an academy as it was holy ground with young force-sensitive students and younglings numbering in the hundreds learning the ways of the force from instructors and teachers including diplomacy, lightsabre training, healing, basic force usage, galactic history, piloting and combat strategy.
She was walking down the main learning wing now looking for someone in particular, the founder of this order and the Grand Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker whom she heard from a few Jedi that he was teaching a group of advanced student's lightsabre forms. She found him in a large scale classroom, walking among the children who ranged from human to several different xeno races, wearing large pilot helmets with tainted visors and wielding training lightsabres.
"Feel the force flow through you, ignore all of the distractions and clear your mind" Luke said as he walked among their number, watching as they calmly and precisely intercepted stun bolts from hovering spherical training drones "That's good, your all doing well"
Master Skywalker
Come in Inquisitor Luke beckoned to her psychically, his attention still on the practising younglings.
I don't mean to intrude
It's quite alright
Hesitantly the Inquisitor entered the room at a brisk walk and coming up beside the towering, sandy haired Grand master began whispering the reason for her visit "My apologies for the intrusion but I require your opinion about something"
"Such as?"
"The Galactic Empire has just recently cut off all communications with both the Imperium and the Alliance, the superior officials at my end are getting very trigger happy about this" she said as she passed him a datapad, which was showing several streaming reports between Imperial commanders and admirals "I hacked into the Imperial communications system to see what is happening and I don't like it"
"I know" Luke replied before bringing his attention back to his class "May I have your attention for a moment little ones!"
As one the twenty plus students within the classroom turned off their training sabres and moved to take of their helmets, some tucking them under their arms while others simply held them limply in their hands. The Inquisitor was both surprised and worried about the Grand Masters sudden address of the students in the middle of her explaining of such a volatile situation.
Master Skywalker she asked telepathically, her psychic voice straining to keep calm what are you doing?
Luke turned to her and flashed a lopsided grin before replying to her question, but not through any psychic form of communication.
"Teaching" he replied, drawing a stream of giggles and chuckles from the students, it was only then that the Inquisitor found that the children heard her psychic communication and quickly found her checks taking on a shade of red "It appears that we have a small problem that requires your sharp minds"
Go on Inquisitor; slot the data chip into the holo-table in the centre
Are you sure about this Robyn asked They are only children
Who are training to one day become Jedi knights Luke reminded and as such need to learn about the affairs and problems of the big, bad galaxy…especially in times like these
"Now children" Luke began as the Inquisitor slotted the data-chip into the holo-table and pushed several runes allowing a full map of the territories of the Imperial Remnant to appear before them, the eight main sector of the Remnant were blanketed blue with another six sectors which they took from the Yuuzhan Vong during their entering the Yuuzhan Vong wars blanketed green "As you all know this is the Imperial Remnant, a nation located in the Outer-rim and one of the Alliances most prominent and powerful members. I wish for you all to solve a riddle for me, is that alright?"
"Yes master Skywalker" the children all said in unison, their little eyes examining the map very closely.
"Good now from information that Inquisitor Vallace has gathered we have found that several small cases of rioting and rebellions have suddenly sprouted on a dozen planets located on the six galactic sectors that the Remnant took from the Yuuzhan Vong during the last Great War, why do you think this is?"
"Master" one youngling, a red-skinned female Twi'lek who looked barely ten asked, sticking up her hand.
"Yes Sal'aan" Luke said "What do you think?"
"Could these cases of civil unrest be because of unhappy populations" she asked rather timidly "I mean…well…almost everyone knows of the tyranny the Empire put the galaxy through under the Sith emperor"
"That is a good answer Sal'aan" Luke replied much to the Inquisitors surprise "And if it was during a time of peace then I would probably make the same assumption, but as you all know a war has begun between the nations of the Coalition and the Forces of Chaos in the Shiritoku Spur"
"And the empire now is much different than the empire then Sally" another youngling added.
"So maybe these cases of civil unrest and rebellion could be put into motion under the Chaos forces influence" a human boy ventured.
"Well said Cloud"
"Then why doesn't the empire ask for help instead of trying to keep it secret?" a young Zeltron male asked.
"Because it would make them look weak to their allies" another, a human girl with long raven black hair replied with a playful smirk "You can be so naïve at times"
Luke chuckled as the younglings continued to debate before silencing them with a raised palm "Very well done…Now all of you back to your lightsabre practise, I'll be back in a moment"
As the children returned to their practise Luke and Robyn exited through the door and stopped in the lead corridor "Sometimes in order to see through things you need the open minded approach of a learning child" he explained before the Inquisitor could ask the question "And I feel that they are right on the matter, how Chaos agents have gotten that far away from the main battle in such a short span of time I have no idea"
"It has indeed been done quicker than previously thought" Vallace replied "Should I contact the Coalition High Council?"
"I sense that they already now" Luke said "And I also know that with the likes of the Moff Council and the Imperial Admiralty they will want to take care of this on their own" he pondered about this for a moment before turning back to the young woman "But tell them anyway, just to be on the safe side"
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The Moff council, the ruling body of the Imperial Remnant without an Emperor had been quick to react to the sudden loss of the planet Arden III and after consolidating with Supreme Commander Gilad Pallaeon sent a full superiority fleet, designated Night Squadron to retake the trading hub. The squadron was made of ten star destroyers of the Imperial II-class, with a small cluster of Nebulon-B Frigates and Tartan-class Gunboats, all protecting a small cluster of three Acclaimator-class Assault ships, within the hulls of the assault ships was a small invasion force made of a full division of five thousand Imperial Regulars, a legion of stormtroopers and a small armoured corps of assault and artillery walkers.
As the fleet exited hyperspace they were immediately brought under fire by the five Imperial star destroyers of the Arden Defence forces, the destroyers once light grey hulls were now engraved with black swirling runes and markings. The ships of Night Squadron formed up into a wedge and charged the defending fleet, taking long range turbolaser fire from the traitor ships and ramming through their lines. A Nebulon-B took a direct hit to its central walkway, severing it and leaving the bridge and engine compartments floating in space, the front star destroyer took the brunt of the bombardment but with the close proximity of its support ships adding their own shield power to their mothership the shields held.
Once through the star destroyers and their escorts fired every available weapon battery upon the traitor vessels, hundreds of lances of green and ice blue light sliced out from the cluster of warships and collided with the shields of the enemy warships, one by one the shields of the traitor destroyers shattered and their hulls began taking the brunt of the bombardment. One by one they either started to drift out of their tattered formation, trailing smoke and debris or died outright, exploding in an amazing bloom of fire and debris.
With the defensive fleet gone the star destroyers of Night Squadron took up positions orbiting the planet, blockading it and not allowing anything in or out, from the hangers teams of LAAT gunships descended down towards the planet under the protective orbital bombardment of the star destroyers, their mission was to prepare the way for the main force which would land by the kilometre long troop ships.
The gunships, each packed with a squad of specially trained stormtroopers and a Dark Trooper dived into the upper atmosphere of the planet, looking to any groundside surveyors like a hundred small meteors breaking through the flaming atmosphere and punching holes through the clouds. Their target was a large military and aerial base located twenty kilometres away from the planets capital city.
Anti-air fire from AD towers and flak cannons flared, filling the skies with red streams of lasfire and small clouds of destructive black smoke, several LAAT gunships were hit and turned into flaming fireballs of spinning metal and debris. The survivors straightened out and started performing strafing runs on the air base, destroying Tie fighters before they could even get off the ground and silencing Air defence batteries.
They all turned and while some continued their strafing runs others landed in relatively clear areas, unloading their stormtroopers and dark troopers. The monolithic battle-droids activated their jump-packs and flew high into the sky before falling back down to earth, their blast cannons firing continuous streams of blaster bolts, downing traitor stormtroopers and ex-Imperial regulars. This allowed the loyal stormtroopers to charge the bewildered and confused enemy and before long the entire air base was being fought over with traitors and loyalists mixed in everywhere.
The mission was to take the air base as intact as possible; making sure that the main hangers, runways and command structures suffered minimum damage. Within three hours of the battles commencing the base had been successfully wrestling from the traitors hands and in the main landing zone over half a dozen assault ships were landing and releasing their contingents of stormtroopers and more numerous Imperial regulars. The perimeter to the base was heavily fortified with anti-infantry and vehicle gun turrets, pill boxes and hastily put up barbed wire; the remnant had its beachhead.
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Luke knew that something was wrong the second he walked into his quarters, the very essence of the room seemed to have changed since the last time he was in it that morning, carefully he slowed his stride and unhooked the hilt of his lightsabre from his belt, thanking the force that his son was in the crèche at the other side of the temple.
He took a deep calming breath and centres himself in the currants of the force, expanding his senses and searching the entire length and breadth of the rooms within his chamber. The bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room and even the store where Mara kept her small collection of blasters and melee weapons that she had when she was still hand to the emperor. He found nothing, whoever it was they were hiding their presences very well. He strengthened his connection to the force, feeling out every corner and shadow for any sign of movement.
Sighing he centred himself again and released himself from his force trance, thinking that he was beginning to get paranoid he clipped his lightsabre back to his belt and took a few more calming steps into his home. Suddenly he spun on his heel, releasing a powerful force push. The individual was caught head on and thrown across the breadth of the main room, performing a backward somersault and landing in a crouch, whoever it was his or her features were hidden by a long tattered black cloak, the hood up over its head completely covering its face in shadows. Before Luke could launch another force strike the hooded assailant raised its hand palm up and spoke, its voice feminine.
"Wait please" she braced herself, ready to receive the next force attack from the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order but instead found that the attack never came. She opened her eyes and looked ahead, seeing that Skywalker had indeed stopped his attack and was now watching her, his ice blue eyes cold and calculated.
"I am here by the orders of my master to gain contact with the Grand Master of the Jedi Order" she said and to Luke's surprise she fell down to a knee and bowed deeply as if she was in the presence of royalty "My master wishes to meet with you"
"Really" Luke said as he stepped forward towards the kneeling individual "And who is your master to send someone infiltrating into the temple instead of asking for me personally"
"My master is someone that you know very well Master Skywalker" she replied "Will you accept his invitation for a meeting?"
He, so it wasn't Lumiya or any of her Dark Jedi subordinates "When does your master want me to meet him?"
"Outside of the Korriban system, tomorrow" she replied, still kneeling and head still bowed "He also wishes for Leia Organa, Han Solo, Jaina Solo, Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker to be in attendance"
The entire living Skywalker/Solo clan Luke realised as he towered over her "Why does he wish to meet my entire family?"
"He will not say" she replied "And he also says that he has information on a woman known as Mara-Jade Skywalker"
This took Luke back completely by surprise, information on his thought deceased wife, at that moment a stirring of hope formed within him, was Mara dead or not and if she wasn't he wanted to know where she was, so he could go and get her. He longed so much to hold her in his arms again, to hear her voice, to feel her skin. He was a lost soul in a massive galaxy without her. He knew that his son missed her just as much if not more, she was one of the most important people in his life and it nearly tore him apart when he asked him where his mommy was.
"What information do you have about my wife?"
"I am sorry master" she replied, sounding like she meant it with every fibre of her being "But he did not share that information with me"
"Very well I will meet with your master" Luke said "But it will be on my terms, understand?"
"He foresaw this and told me to say that he agrees" she replied "You may bring whatever or whomever you wish" she looked up at him and for the first time he saw her eyes, which were a deep, dark brown "Is there anything else that I can do?"
"Yes" Luke replied as he knelt down beside her "Stand up, I am not worthy of such…reverence" She nodded, hesitantly stood up and bowed deeply before turning to leave.
"Wait"
She stopped in her tracks just before she entered the shadows of the chamber and turned back to the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order. His ice blue eyes and tanned face had softened since they had started the conversation. Before Luke knew it she had vanished.
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The aerial base of Arden III was under heavy assault, columns of black armoured traitors came running towards the recently made loyalist lines, running under the protective fire of AT-AT walkers and older Armoured Assault Tanks (AAT). From the main line of defences anti-infantry and anti-vehicle bunkers fired streams of lasfire at the approaching army, cutting down lines of infantry and punching holes into walkers and tanks.
The skies surrounding the base had blackened not by the arrival of storm clouds or by the setting of the sun but by droves of old Tie fighters and Interceptors, diving down towards the ruined base and assaulting it with strafing runs of lasfire and proton torpedo barrages. The flak cannons and AD towers fired back, flashing crimson as they discharged bolts of energy into the skies, downing Ties left and right before being silenced by a successful strafing run.
Within the command tower Commander Downey of the 5th Division ducked as a trio of Tie fighters did an attack run on the control tower, shattering the windows and peppering control consoles and armoured soldiers with lasfire. He clambered back to his feet, surveyed the wrecked chamber before roughly grabbing the collar of an operator and pulling her within inches of his crimson coloured face.
"Where the hell is Night Squadron" he shouted angrily as an explosion ripped through the other side of the chamber, destroying more control consoles and consuming the operators in red fire "We need those Tie wings now!!!"
He unceremoniously threw the operator at the nearest control console and gave her a harsh glare "Contact Commander Tolvin, we need support now!!!"
In space a fresh set of explosions shook the entire superstructure of the star destroyer Forerunner, nearly throwing admiral Tolvin out of his captain's chair and almost throwing him out of the bridge deck into the crew pits below. His fleet had been taken completely by surprise by over twenty star destroyers, lead by a massive 8km long warship that he had never seen before, a massive vessel coloured black with hundreds of weapon emplacements and blade like protrusions sticking out of its armoured hull.
As the 8km long behemoth closed in on the remnants of the fleet, with three of the ten star destroyers making up Night Squadron either destroyed or crippled, its main batteries came online and fired, thick long lines of orange light ripped through the black heart of space, colliding with one of the last vanguard star destroyers, shattering its shields and punching massive holes into its hull plating, several moments later the star destroyer exploded, snapping it in two.
Moments after the destroyer was split in two every communications system on the Imperial loyalist fleet crackled to life, holo-screens turned on and the image of an Imperial officer, decked in the olive clothing and knee high black boots of an Imperial Admiral appeared, flanking him on either side were two massive armoured forms of soldiers that everyone had come to know as Chaos Space Marines, the colour of their armour and markings on their shoulder plates showing them as members of the Alpha Legion.
"This is a live broadcast to the Imperial Moff's at Bastion" the admiral stated as he brought himself up to his full height and clasped his hands behind his back "I am Admiral Kesselrig and I and the two fleet squadrons under my command have officially gone rogue. Too long have we served an Empire that has slowly began to rot under the weight of the greedy and arrogant Moff Council, too long have we taken a back seat to the events of the galaxy. As of now I and a quarter of the Imperial Starfleet am declaring a state of civil war within the Imperial Remnant, you can join us or you can die, your decision!"
"Sir that broadcast was posted over the entire holo-net" his second in command said, his face turning white as a sheet "The entire galaxy heard that!"
The Admiral could only slouch in his chair, his eyes starring out into the black void of space that was now filled with the small wedges of twenty Imperial star destroyers, all gone rogue, all declaring civil war. A quarter of the Imperial Starfleet was just over ten thousand warships, a force that could completely take the Imperial Remnant if the rest were unable to regroup in time"
"Order the troops on the surface to evacuate immediately" the admiral finally said "We'll hold this position for as long as we can"
On the ground the order was given to evacuate and evacuate the loyalist forces did, initiating tactical withdrawals. The front line was first to retreat, being offered cover fire by the second line, who then withdrew under the cover of the third. Before long every soldier of the 5th Division was retreating through the ruined structures of the air base with traitors hot on their heels, shooting dozens in the back with blaster fire. Tie squadrons came down in droves, peppering the air bases alleyways, killing dozens in continuous, endless attack waves.
Out of the five thousand soldiers making up the loyalist division only an even thousand made it to the assault ships, who were taking a beating from continuous strafing runs, their shields held firm against the barrages however. The Imperials ran up the runways, leaving vital vehicles and equipment behind before the Acclaimators took to the skies, their anti-air laser turrets and turbolaser batteries firing furiously at the harassing Tie fighters.
The scene in orbit was not much better, Night Squadron had lost another two star destroyers since the order was given, including the Forerunner to a successful barrage of lance fire from the Chaos Grand Cruiser leading the traitor fleet. As the troop ships broke orbit one was caught between three traitor star destroyers, its shields fractured and its hull armour melting under the assault, turning it into a burning comet, plunging back down towards the planets surface. The tattered remnants of Night Squadron began their retreat from the planets orbit and jumped to hyperspace, but not without losing another star destroyer to combined turbolaser fire from the traitors.
The first battle of the Imperial Civil War had officially ended and a victory went to the Chaos backed rebels. The Moff's who were outraged by this betrayal recalled every loyal fleet squadron from the Imperial and Outer-rim territories. The fresh battle-group set to be transferred to the Chaos besieged Shiritoku Spur had been rerouted to Bastion along with several of the newly built Imperial III-class star destroyer fleet squadrons. Until this civil war was ended the Imperial Remnant was temporarily out of the war.
Similar rebellions had cropped up all over the galaxy, mostly in the Outer-rim and Colony regions but also further to the heart of the galaxy, smaller rebellions had been reported in the Corporate Sector, the Mid-rim, even in the Hapes Cluster. These were far less organised by the standards of the Imperial codetta and were easily brought under control, but not without rerouting fleets and troops to these trouble spots and slowing down the reinforcements to the Spur which was what the Forces of Chaos wanted.
Now was the time to strike with everything that the Warmaster had, now was the time to push the GADF and their corpse emperor allies all the way back to the core worlds and take the expanse for their own. He ordered that an armada of five thousand warships be gathered at B'Knos and prepare to take Kammia. Little did the Warmaster know was that the Imperium Crusade Fleet would reach the planet much sooner than previously thought, thanks to the Alliance hyperdrives that were installed they would arrive two days before the Chaos armada, thus evening the odds.
But the hyperdrives had not become the mainstay form of travel for the Imperium warships, they had kept their old warp drives as backups in case the hyperdrive systems started to malfunction, this meant that the old coordination systems and astropaths were still in use, working alongside those operating the hyperdrive equipment. Likewise several ships of the fleet, including the flagship Terran Fury, Lord Admiral Halcyons own ship which was just commissioned from the Martian shipyards four months ago, being armed with turbolance batteries and Ion cannons as well as the old lance and plasma cannons was a testament to what a hybrid warship of both Alliance and Imperium technology was capable of.
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"An impressive ship you got here Han" Luke said as he stood on the bridge of the newly out of retirement General Han Solo's command.
"Thanks kid" Han said as he sat rather uncomfortably in his command chair "But I think I'll never get used to sitting in this seat" the now middle-aged ex-Corellian smuggler had found himself once more in a rank of command, being in charge of the first of the New Republic's newest type of warship, named the Decisive-class Star Cruiser it was a vessel about 5km in length, its design similar to that of the ancient dagger like shape of the pre-Clone Wars era Venator-class star destroyer. The ship was designed primarily as a long range assault cruiser and starfighter carrier.
Along with Luke and Han on the bridge was his sister Leia Organa, who was standing beside her husbands chair, ruffling his greying hair, their children and his niece and nephew, Jaina and Jacen were busy catching up at the side of the star destroyer similar bridge with Tahiri Veila, whom had become as close to family as possible in the last few years.
As well as the Decisive-class Star Cruiser, which the ship was given the same name there were three new Imperial III-class Star Destroyers flanking them, the next generation of the class the Imperial III was 2km in length as opposed to its predecessors 1.6km, armed with new turbolance batteries as well as the standard issue turbolasers, plasma cannons, laser batteries and Ion cannons, plus connected to its spine was the long barrel of a beam cannon, a powerful anti-ship weapon similar to that of a Nova cannon, but not quite as powerful. It was also able to carry just over eight squadrons of starfighters in its hanger from Tie fighters to X-wings, Y-wings, B-wings and the newer V-wings.
Luke knew that this was Han Solo's newly commissioned taskforce, not scheduled for deployment for another month the foursome were planned to be used to ferry and escort the newly combat ready Clone Legions and their Jedi commanding officers across the galaxy.
"Are you sure about this Luke" Leia asked as she came up beside him, her long hair, still dark brown after all these years tied up into a braid and her soft brown eyes scanning her twin brother up and down.
"Whoever it was the messenger said that he had something important to discuss" Luke replied "Plus there is the information he has on Mara"
Leia nodded, she missed Mara just as much as anyone else close to her, the two women had been like sisters since she had married Luke nearly a decade ago and she wanted her alive as much as anyone else, but she knew that the chances of that were slim.
"It could be a trap Luke" she said finally, sighing tiredly as she said it "Something to lure the great Luke Skywalker out here"
"I know it may be a trap" Luke replied as he turned to face her, his mouth curling up into a humorous smile "But we've got four of the newest vessels built by the Alliance, both specially designed to fight against warships three times their size…we should be fine"
A buzz of alarms signalled that they were exiting hyperspace into the Korriban system, everyone ran to their stations while Han started barking orders in his usual gruff manor. The star lines returned to their normal specks of stars as the taskforce exited hyperspace. Korrban's tanned sphere hung in the starry darkness of space, a blatant reminder of the now four thousands years dead Sith Empire that nearly wiped out the Galactic Republic during the Jedi Civil War.
In orbit around the planet was the massive wedge of a Super Star Destroyer, Executer-class. As the cameras zoomed into the impressive craft everyone found that it adorned the same post-imperial markings of earlier warships of the type during the Galactic Civil War. Luke recognised it almost immediately; force knew he saw it more than enough during the Civil War. It was the Executer, or at least a star dreadnought that looked like it.
The comm. Units came to life with the crackle of static and a holographic form of an individual dressed in black robes which covered his or her entire body appeared before the group. She looked up, illuminating the shadows of her hood only for Luke to see that it was the same Twi'lek force-sensitive who had given the message to him just yesterday.
"My master will arrive to meet with you personally" she said before vanishing.
From the hanger bay of the star dreadnought came a Lambda-class Shuttle, flanked by a cluster of four ARC-170 starfighters, the shuttle approached their small taskforce at full sublight, its escorts keeping in a protective diamond formation around it. Sighing Luke turned to his family.
"Well shall we go down and see what this is about?"
"Right with you kid" Han replied as he rose from his captains chair and turned to a young officer dressed in a captains uniform "You have the bridge Captain Rouse"
"I'm right behind you Luke" Leia added as she put a hand on his shoulder.
"Count me in too Uncle Luke" Jaina replied, followed closely by both Jacen and Tahiri.
Luke nodded and smiled warmly before turning and leading his family out of the bridge and down towards the main hanger of the impressive Alliance cruiser. Once they got down Luke saw a full military greeting had been prepared for their as of yet still fairly unknown guests with a full company of GA Riflemen standing to attention in neatly kept columns, blaster rifles held tightly against their armoured chests.
The shuttle entered the hanger bay soon after with two of its fighter escorts entering with it. It landed where it was supposed to, its great wings folding up as it hovered into position and performed a near flawless one hundred and eighty degree turn before settling on the metal deck, its rear rampway opened, spewing white gas as it clamped down on the metal decking. First to march down the rampway in two lines was a squad of white armoured stormtroopers with markings of crimson and midnight blue decorated on their shining white armour. Next were two beings dressed in midnight blue robes, shadowing both their forms and their faces, they too stepped to the side.
Then there was the sound of heavy, mechanical breathing and the entire room felt like it chilled by several degrees. The riflemen fidgeted nervously in their column and Luke felt everyone involuntarily reaching for the triggers and activation switches of weapons. He put a stop to that by beginning to walk forward, not breaking his stride as a figure, dressed in familiar black armour with a long black cape draped around his shoulders descended the rampway, the clank of metallic boots making several of the less experienced soldiers in the welcoming columns jump.
He heard gasps of surprise and fear resound through the hanger, everyone from soldiers to officers to pilots had stopped what they were doing to look upon the man who had entered the hanger bay. His own family, Leia in particular looked to be in a state of shock as he stopped a couple of feet away from the armoured form of Darth Vader, the two black robed force-sensitive beings coming in and flanking him.
"Father" Luke greeted, trying not letting his surprise and shock show and failing miserably.
"Luke" Anakin Skywalker replied, his mask completely unreadable "You've grown"