Hey everyone! I got another chapter for your. I think it is relatively short chapter compared to some of my other chapters, but I hope you enjoy it.

Fanfic-Reader-88: We'll see what the Imperials have up their sleeves. For you other point: Alpha Females.

Challenge King: I hope this chapter is satisfying. I think I pack a lot in a short chapter.

Rating T: Sci-fi Violence

Chapter 8: Massacre of Panthatar

Emperor's Office
Imperial Palace
Palace District, Coruscant

Nevel stood up from behind his desk and shouted enraged at the holographic image of Admiral Daniels and Lord Vega being projected from the center of his desk, "You let her escape?!"

Daniels held an impassive expression as he was glad he was on the other side of the galactic core… because hearing the Emperor's annoying screeching was bad enough having to hear it face to face.

The Admiral calmly replied, "Yes Emperor. We determined that she was meeting up with representatives from one of the powers in the Unknown Regions. From the various reports, we determined that the 'rescuers' were human, so we're assuming that it is the Federation that she was intending to contact. It seems the most logical as well since they are clearly a proto-form of the Old Republic and share similar ideology with the Rebellion."

"That doesn't explain why you would let her escape."

"We want them to successfully negotiate with one another into some alliance."

The short, petty man of an emperor impatiently hissed out, "Why?"

"It would show just how dangerousness the Rebel Alliance is to the Empire: they're willing to consort with the barbarians in trying to overthrow the New Order. Just imagine what the Imperial Ministry of Propaganda could do with such information. The people are already terrified of the aliens of 'the unknown' and this will feed right into their feelings."

Nevel sat down leaned back in his chair and contemplated the Admiral's words then wickedly smiled, "Yes, yes… it would humiliate the senators voicing their support for the Rebels." He turned slightly in his chair away from the holographic projection and rested his elbows on the armrests and fingertips together to form a triangular arc with his hands to sit in quiet contemplation for a few moments.

The pair several tens thousands of light-years silently waited in mild frustration for the Emperor to make a decision.

Nevel finally spoke, "Very well, give them the opportunity to make an alliance and make sure you have enough evidence of it for the Propaganda Ministry. Take your entire Death Squadron to the Unknown Regions in pursuit if necessary. You have complete autonomy from the fleet commanders there to operate as you see fit."

Daniels nodded his head. "Yes my Emperor."

The Emperor turned off the holonet projector then looked up at the blonde sitting on the other side of the table. He mumbled in mild irritation, "It's a good plan, but…"

Sam Puckett sat on the other side of the desk and gave him a wicked smile. She teasingly commented, "But you don't want to let her go. Let her make the deal then… I'll find your princess and bring her back to you… for the right price."

Panthatar
Outer Rim Territory
Stardate 2267.162 (June 11, 2267)

The tauntaun, a white furred omnivorous reptomammal, labored for breath as it stood still on the tundra with a whipping snow drift surrounding him. He wanted to run as fast as possible to the nearest shelter, but his handler commanded him to remain in place as she scanned the horizon with her electronic binoculars.

The heavily clothed female scanned the horizon in a desperate attempt to find her quarry. She blew out a relieved breath through the clothe wrapping her lower face once she spotted the dark dot against the snow. She swung the binoculars down to her right hip then softly kicked the animal to get him charging.

The animal galloped on his two hind legs to reach the target and get his blood flowing in order to not freeze to death. The pair stopped just feet in front of the prone body face down in the snow. The rider quickly jumped off the animal and tried her best to run to the fallen individual. She reached the body, sending a silent pray to the Alderaan Lord that she was not too late. She pulled off the cloth over her mouth to reveal the lovely features of a blonde, rolled the body over and started shouting, "Trina! Trina! Wake up!"

The brunette mumbled, "Jubaron, I got to go to Jubaron…"

Melanie Puckett had no idea why the starfighter pilot was mumbling about and at the moment, didn't care as they weren't too far away from freezing to death. Unfortunately, for them, the tauntaun fell over dead, finally overwhelmed from the cold.

"Sithspit," she cursed, but had not time to complain. She grabbed the brunette by her armpits and started dragging her to the fallen animal. She dropped her just a few feet away then pulled off the silver cylinder from the young woman's utility built.

She pressed the activation stud and the blue beam activated from the lightsaber. She turned to the dead animal and swiped the blade over the stomach. A sizzling sound followed the tip of the blade slicing into the animal followed by the guts falling out. The lovely blonde snorted out in disgust, "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside."

She turned to look to Trina as she continued mumbling about going to Jubaron. She deactivated the plasma blade then started dragging the brunette again and stuffed her inside as commented, "He may smell bad, but he'll keep you warm enough until I can get the emergency shelter up."

Medical Ward
Echo Base
Panthatar
Outer Rim Territory
Federation Stardate 2267.163 (June 12, 2267)

Trina opened her eyes then immediately closed them as they were flooded by harsh light and liquid trying to fill them. The bright light of her surroundings shined through her eyelids and the liquid slightly stung. She could sense that she was floating in some sort of liquid and started waving her arms and legs through it, noticing the lack of apparent clothing but the next moment she felt an upward pull on her.

The starfighter pilot frowned and laid sitting up in her medical bed as she dried her hair after her third washing as she wanted every bit of bacta residue out of her hair.

Melanie laughed as she walked by the resting starfighter pilot, "You're looking good."

Trina pulled the towel away from her hair to drop in her medical gown covered lap and wore a smug expression on her face as she playfully snapped, "I always look good."

The blonde shook her head as she had a seat at the wall towards the foot of the bed.

Another voice called out as she entered the room, "You had us pretty terrified running out like that."

Trina turned her head to look at the apparent twin to the Princess, her handmaiden and bodyguard: Shelby Marx. She sarcastically answered, "Sorry, but I had to check out that meteorite. How was I supposed to know one of those monster creatures was going to ambush me?"

Shelby shook her head and blew out a breath. She hated being the one that basically had to baby-sit Trina while Tori was gone.

"So how long have I been out?"

The blonde spoke up, "About a day."

"A day?" She blew out a breath and shook her head. She looked back to Shelby and asked, "Has anyone heard from Tori?"

Melanie took a shallow breath then regretfully answered for the brunette, "No."

Trina shook her head in disgust. "I can't believe she'd personally go." She looked to Shelby and snapped, "That's what you're for."

The young woman with an identical appearance to the princess returned with a deep frown. "You know Tori, stubborn as a nerf. She wouldn't let me go in her place—I didn't want her to go at all. I think we should just let the Imperials bleed themselves dry with this 'Federation' and the other powers on that side of the galaxy. Nevel and Nora want to try to conquer the other side of the galaxy in a year, I say we let them and break their backs in the process."

Melanie quickly pointed out, "And how many people would die in the process of dragging out the war further?"

"I'm not going to weep over dead Skynauts and all those other traitors that stayed to be with the Imperial Navy and Army to impose their 'New Order' on us. How many of us here are deserters? I care about our people first. I'm sorry that they may have to suffer, but I don't want to trade one of you to save any of them. I won't make that trade."

Melanie was about to respond to the sentiment, but the intercom blared, "Commander Marx, please report to CnC. Commander Marx, please report to CnC."

The bodyguard blew out a breath and palmed her forehead. She muttered, "Duty calls." She pointed to Trina and stated, "Get better, that's an order."

"We're both commanders!"

Shelby stopped at the doorway and looked over her shoulder. "I have time in rank far longer than you, so you do have to listen to what I say—and Tori told me to make sure you behave." She laughed and exited before Trina could get the last word.

Trina folded her arms under her chest and annoyingly whispered, "Clones…"

Melanie rolled her eyes. "She's just looking out for you and she's not a clone."

"I'm not a child—I'm older than them!"

"True, but they care about you… like if you were their sister."

"Then they should be treating me as the older sister and listening to me."

The attractive rebel regretfully smiled as she answered with an equally regretful tone, "I wished it worked that way…"

Trina was surprisingly sensitive to her fellow soldier and dropped the conversation as to wear it was leading. She hesitantly glanced to the blonde and cautiously asked, "Mel, have you ever heard of the Jubaron system?"

Melanie took a surprised breath at the turn in the conversation and answered, "Jubaron? No, other than you repeatedly were mumbling about it when I found you."

"I ah… before you found me, I had a vision while I was out there—after the wampa. I think it was a vision through the Force of Sikowitz."

"A 'Force vision'?"

"Yeah, it was Sikowitz and he told me that I needed to go to the Jubaron system and meet with a Jedi Master Nug Nug. He'd complete my training."

"Nug Nug? It sounds like it's something that I would put in my coco."

Trina frowned and gave her a cold eye. "This isn't funny Mel. I need to find him. I need to finish my training."

The blonde held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I know how important that Jedi mysticism is for you."

If it was possible, the brunette gave her an even colder stare.

Melanie raised a finger and quickly defended herself, "Mysticism in the correct description for your faith."

Trina rolled her eyes at the highly educated Alderaanian girl. "And you don't believe your Alderaan Lord talks to you?"

Melanie gave a half hearted smile. "I talk to Him; I just never heard an answer back like you do through 'The Force'." She continued with a reassuring smile, "Okay, you need to see this Nug Nug, but what can you do? You just can't take off, especially while Tori is gone. Shelby would kill you."

Trina shook her head and let her irritation out through a short breath.

"Why doesn't Sikowitz just train you instead of remain in hiding? We could use him."

"I don't understand the man. He was never all there—well he used to be when he still had his hair, but I trust him. If he thinks I should go find this Nug Nug, then I need to go find Nug Nug."

Melanie got up from her seat and walked over to have a seat on the edge of the foot of the bed. She gave Trina a reassuring pat on one of her legs and stated in a supportive tone, "Listen, just wait until Tori gets back with happy news that she made contact with the Federation and I'm sure she'll let you go check out this Nug Nug guy. You know she really can't say no to you—you'll bug her until you get your way," she finished with a laugh.

The brunette starfighter pilot pulled her arms tighter around her and put on a placated smile in at least tabling the discussion for the moment. She looked to one of the medical droids and curtly asked, "Could I get something to eat?"

Melanie cracked a smile and raised a hand. She spoke to the droid, "You keep doing what you were doing." She looked to Trina as she finished, "I'll get you something to eat."

Trina grumbled out, "Thanks."

CnC
Echo Base

Shelby quickly entered the command center and the other personnel quickly stepped out of her path so she could make her way over to the General Dickers and a sensor operator in front of a large viewscreen. "Yes General?"

He waved towards the screen and stated in a terse tone, "We have a group of signals approaching: an Imperial fleet. Vega's found us. They'll be here in less than an hour."

Shelby immediately frowned at the news, but the general quickly continued before she could speak, "We've raised the theater shield and given the order to evacuate. We're getting as much of our equipment stored as possible."

"So those Imperial probes gave us away before we could destroy them?"

Dickers ignored her rhetorical question and answered in a grim tone, "Now we have to hold them off long enough to get off the planet."

"They're going to brute force their way past our defenses and try to hit the shield generator."

He slightly cocked his head to the side and retorted, "Then I guess Rogue Squadron is going to have to live up to its reputation and buy us time to get everyone out." He looked down to the operator and ordered, "Scramble all pilots to their fighters."

Medical Ward

The blonde walked back into the ward with a tray with a hot meal, but stopped and shouted in mild is belief as she watched Trina zip up her flight suit and prepare to leave, "What do you think you're doing?"

Trina blew out a breath. "Getting dressed so I can get to my fighter. What does it look like I'm doing? Did you miss the call of all pilots to their stations?"

"I heard the evacuation order, but you should be grabbing a bed on the Sundered Heart and strapping in for the ride. You just survived a Wampa nearly tearing your face off!"

Trina looked to a mirror and saw how her face was clear of any sign of claw marks and smugly pointed out, "Yes I did, but my face is fine and I need to get out there. You need to get on the ship or you might get left behind. There are so many of you, no one would notice if you got left behind."

The sweet blonde sat the tray down on a small table then crossed her arms and frowned at the self-centered brunette. "I'm not a clone. I'm the original."

Trina chuckled as she passed her friend out of the ward, "And we know that how?"

Melanie shook her head and clenched her jaw tightly. "Almost as irritating as Sam," she whispered in nearly a cursed as she turned and followed her out.

In the fighter hanger, pilots were quickly gathering around Shelby next to a Z-95 Headhunter giving an impromptu briefing. "All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports."

One of the pilots leaning against a wing tipped laser canon spoke up incredulously, "Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?"

She turned to him and patiently explained, "The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure any enemy ships will be out of your flight path. When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood? Good luck."

The sharpness of her tone cut off any further questions while one of the deck commanders shouted, "Alright, everybody to your stations! Let's go!"

The pilots broke to make their way to their fighters while Shelby dashed back to the command center.

ISD Avenger
Imperial II-class Star Destroyer

Captain Gerold Arnpeg was furious as he stood on the bridge despite the fact that he was about to put his foot on the neck of the Rebel Alliance and perhaps in the rebellion before the day out.

Admiral Daniels was personally hunting down the princess and if the scuttlebutt filtering out from the rest of the squadron was correct, he had already captured the troublemaking former senator. He had wanted to bring her to justice, but he'd have to settle with demolishing the Rebel Alliance's secret base and hopefully capture Tori's apparent twin and bodyguard, Shelby Marx. The assignment wouldn't be as enjoyable as capturing the princess, but it would have to be an acceptable substitute. He comforted himself with the fact that he could have some fun with the doppelganger.

His first officer, Merl, nervously approached him and stuttered out, "They erected a theater shield that can deflect any bombardment."

Gerold turned and snapped at his subordinate, "How did they—you jumped us out too close to the system!"

The larger officer shouted in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry! I thought the element of surprise would be better! Catch them off guard before they could prepare."

He motioned a hand in disgust then ordered, "Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy field then deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off the system."

Merl quickly nodded then turned to find General Veers to relay the orders.

ISD Tyrant
In orbit of Panthatar

One of the star destroyers of the majority of the Death Squadron took up it's assigned position to blockade the planet and capture any escaping Rebel ship.

One of the nameless, faceless subordinate officers approached the end of the command walkway and informed his captain, "Sir, we're picking up a contact approaching from the planet."

The captain put on a confident smile and commented, "Good, our first catch of the day."

CnC
Echo Base
Panthatar

General Dickers and Shelby stood behind one of the fire control operators as she stared at her display of the orbiting contact that hand been designated an Imperial Star Destroyer. She spoke into her headset in a near mechanical voice, "Stand by, Ion Control...Fire."

One of the medium transports with her two Z-95 Headhunter escorts flew passed the gap in the theater shield and broke the atmosphere, heading straight for the delta shaped vessel. The star destroyer was ready to catch the transport in several tractor beams.

However, the heavy ion-cannon stationed on the surface fired orange ionizing bolts through the atmosphere, pass the transport and fighters and towards the Tyrant. The bolts hit the vessel and electrical sparks arced all across her hull as the captain had not bothered giving the order to raise the vessel's shields. The ship immediately listed to starboard and towards the planet as her systems started overloading and shorting out from the ionizing energy running through her superstructure.

The transports and fighters flew past the disabled destroyer and moments later jumped into hyperspace.

ISD Tyrant

The captain desperately shouted, "Switch to backups and stabilize the ship before we plow into the planet!" His crew desperately scurried about to try to carry out his order as they tried rebooting the systems that hadn't outright fried from the overload of charged particles.

Echo Base
Panthatar

"The first transport is away! The first transport is away!"

The announcement throughout the base sent a cheer from the rest of the scrambling personnel trying to get to their transports or fighters.

Additional pilot scrambled to their Z-95s and BTL-B Y-wings to take off with the transports and for the battle to come. Trina was one of them as she finished putting on her helmet. She dodged several technicians with sharp remarks of them getting out of her way. She reached the ladder to her cockpit of her heavily modified Z-95 while her astromech droid, R2-D2, was already in the socket at the back of the fighter and readying for them to take off. He made a series of impatient beeps.

"Hold your circuits!" she shouted as she secured herself into her seat. She mumbled, "I wish Tori had taken you with her."

He responded with a fairly rude series of whines.

She shook her head while the canopy closed and secured into place. "Oh shut up and get through the final flight checks."

The droid responded in such a way that one thought he told her to go do something anatomically impossible to herself.

First Trench Line
Echo Base
Panthatar

Three Imperial AT-AT walkers slowly made their approach towards the base in a V-formation, followed by two additional walkers side-by-side to bring up the rear. Flanking the heavy walkers were several AT-STs, better known as 'Chicken Walkers' to provide support and protection of the larger walkers' relative weak spots.

The Rebel troops in the trenches knew they were no match for the walkers. They didn't have heavy enough artillery to punch through the heavy armor or any mechanized units to counter the lumbering giants and everyone expected it to be a one-sided slaughter. The Imperials certainly expected it to be one when they cut loose with their firepower.

They didn't know how correct they were in their assessments especially in their lack of foresight in bringing mechanized anti-aircraft units with them.

Screaming over head of the entrenched rebels, a flight of heavily modified Z-95 Headhunters flew over their heads.

In the lead fighter, Trina spoke in a crisp voice, "Rogue Squadron, lock S-Foils in attack position. Watch your fire and the theater shield ceiling!"

The next moment, the wings opened up into an 'X' shape, the circular engine blocks splitting into half circles.

The walkers started immediately firing at the fighters, but the nimble snubfighters broke formation to rise above their ability to lift the walkers' heads to target and to their flanks, however, not before several fired off concussion missiles.

The leader walker, Blizzard One, carrying the invasion's commander General Veers, was immediately knocked out when the missile struck head-on to the head of the machine, obliterating it and shattering the rest of the walker. Durasteel remnants flew out as high speed shrapnel along with the mangled remains of three dozen snow-nauts. The machine's pair of mates shared the same fate when the penetrating missiles found their marks and turning them into collapsing wrecked hulks.

The other two walkers attempted to turn to have their rears towards one another to protect their backsides. The supporting scout walkers circled around to desperately turn to defend their larger brethren.

Unfortunately for all them, it was a futile effort. The larger walkers were far too slow for the regrouping fighters as the fighters rounded back around and pumped a concussion into their rears. The missiles penetrated the thinner armor and detonated inside, sending raining pieces of steel and human remains to rain down on the snow. The legs of the walkers remained intact and in a morbid display remained standing for a moment before tumbling over.

As the larger walkers were being slaughtered, the smaller ones were in range of Rebel artillery and it was heavy enough to easily knock out the leading walkers in glorious fashion. The further and smarter ones in the walkers quickly turned and ran as fast as they could back to the edge of the theater shield and to the safety of the Imperial transports and their air cover.

Rogue squadron was not that merciful as they made strafing runs with their laser canons, leaving the scout walkers smoldering wreckage in short order. Fortunately for their crews, after the first one was destroyed fleeing, they jumped out of the walkers and fled on foot in taking their chances in the cold. As much animosity the Rebels had for the Imperials, they wouldn't strafe them on foot.

The squadron of starfighters maintained air superiority around the edge of the theater shield while the Rebel troopers pulled back from their positions and into the base to load onto their transports.

Sundered Heart
CR70 Corellian Corvette
Echo Base Hanger

Melanie stood to the side of the airlock of the Corellian Corvette and waved the last of the Rebel personnel past her to step inside the ship.

Shelby shouted as she followed behind the last Rebel at the top of the mobile staircase, "Is that everyone?!"

The blonde glanced around the expansive hanger to see if she could spot anyone that could be left behind. "I think so. Every transport that's left so far has everyone accounted for. We're the last one out for any stragglers."

"Wait! Wait for me!"

Shelby looked over her shoulder and Melanie looked around her to see a gold colored protocol droid waving at them and waddling as quickly as possible to the ship. The brunette blew out an annoyed breath and slid down the rails of the staircase then ran towards the droid and shouted, "Come on you tin can or you're going to be a permanent resident!" She grabbed him by the elbow and tried to help him move a little faster. The pair awkwardly walked up the stairs and passed the airlock. Melanie slammed the door control and it quickly closed behind them.

As soon as the airlock closed, the corvette slowly lifted off the ground and pulled up its landing gear. The rumbling of the repulsorlift and engines shook the surrounding hanger, letting little bit of snow and ice crystals fall in the practically empty hanger as they were able to load all their equipment among the various transports. The ship slowly glided forward towards the large hanger door and once clearing it, she raised her shields and brought her bow up and soared through the atmosphere.

Trina glanced at her sensor display to see the last transport and the Sundered Heart leaving the base and heading for orbit. "Okay Rogues! Time to break off and join up for escort duty. Get your droids to start their hyperspace plots."

The Headhunters quickly caught up with the last medium transport and the Corellian Corvette to provide escort as the theater shield dropped.

Once they broke the atmosphere and into clear space where other Imperial ships were to cautious to try to intercept them as several ships had already been crippled after trying to take the Tyrant's place, Trina banked her Headhunter away from escorting the Sundered Heart. A rapid string of peeps and translated display on one of her screens showed her little astromech droid was not happy with the change in course. Trina calmly explained as she started typing in the coordinates that she had copied off the base's navigational computers from one of the computer terminals in the medical ward, "We're not meeting up with the others."

He started beeping more frantically for an explanation.

"I said we're not meeting up with the others and that's that!"

The astromech droid made series of beeps that sounded as he was cursing her back.

She chuckled as she shook her head. She was reminded why she loved the little droid: he would give her lip right back. "We'll be fine and meet back up with them in no time. I'm just running a little errand… I'm sure Shelby or Mel made sure not to leave C-Three-P-O behind."

He replied in more subdued tones as the starfighter's hyperdrive warmed up then jumped the fighter out of real space.

Author's Note: How one little battle would have changed if they had spared a few starfighters to use their heavy ordinance on the walkers. I made the Rebels just a little smarter. X-Wings and Y-Wings Bombers (emphasis on the word bombers) had proton torpedoes. Z-95s are earlier fighters that look very similar and are a precursor to the X-wing and they carried concussion missiles and from my understanding, those missiles were designed to be armor piercing. Thanks for reading.