The Emperor and his pet Sith are dead, but the Empire lives on, and the newly formed Republic is desperate for the materials needed to fight those that remain. Princess Leia, seeking wealthy, powerful allies to drag into the never-ending war and to find a new home after her first was destroyed for rebelling against the rightful government, contacts The Hapes consortium, a cluster of sixty-three high-tech worlds that have wisely chosen to remain neutral through this horrible war. Sadly, the Queen Mother's greed gets the better of her, and she decides to assist the Republic if Leia were to marry her son, Crown Prince Isolder.
When the scrouge of Zsinj Han Solo hears the news of Leia's impending wedding, he does what all low-life Nerf herders do he kidnaps Princess Leia and heads to the planet of Dathomir that he believes he won in a card game.
Fearing the greedy queen's reaction to Han's rash move, Luke Skywalker forms an unlikely alliance with Prince Isolder to track down the runaways. The Crown Prince discovers upon arriving that Zsinj's forces have been guarding a dark world to protect the galaxy from the dangers of the dark side Force witches. Through the bumbling heroes' dumb luck, they managed to destroy the dark side witches, heavily damage the Iron Fist, and kill Warlord Zsinj. Now with hundreds of Hapan ships in orbit and only 30 Imperial ships on the other side, Tanya, daughter of Zsinj, must think of a way to save her forces and escape the system.
High Orbit over Dathomir
8 ABY 1 minute following the Death of Warlord Zsinj
Aboard the Hapan warship Song of War
Captain Astarta
After closing the commlink and hearing the standing orders from Prince Isolder, Captain Astarta turned back to the Display Screen to watch the Super Star destroyer Iron Fist's slow death and spoke. "You all heard the prince's orders that only unconditional surrender is allowed. All other ships are to be disabled and destroyed.
As She spoke, the crew sent up a massive cheer for being part of destroying one of the most dangerous warlords in the galaxy along with a superstar destroyer. Then the comms officer said, "Captain Astarta, we have an unencrypted message to all forces in the system from the Star destroyer Faithless requesting a Ceasefire. They claim they have crucial information for the fleet and speak for the Imperial Fleet." Astarta thought for a second, then said, "Comms inform the fleet to stop firing but keep the weapons hot and load more pulse mass generators to fire just in case they are trying to buy time. Maybe they might all still surrender." The Comms Officer replied, "Understood, Captain informing the fleet and putting the holo call on the tac display for you." After a second, the holo display changed; instead of showing the fleet positions and the Hapan and Imperial ships, the display changed to a young blonde-haired woman wearing the uniform of an Imperial Captain.
Astarta looked at the hologram and spoke, "This is Captain Astarta of the Song of War and leader of the Hapan Battle fleet, and before you try to think of a way out of this Imperial, Prince Isolder has already given the order that we will only accept unconditional surrender so power down your ships and prepare to be boarded or be destroyed." The Imperial Captain Tilted her head as if listening to a crew member off-screen, then spoke. "Well, your Prince may have said that, but hopefully, you can think for yourself, captain, when I offer you a much better deal. Let the Imperial Fleet retreat from this mudball of a planet, or I might have to detonate the Coruscant Killer bomb on My Late Father's Ship, destroying Dathomir, most likely your prince, and a good chunk of both our fleets." Captain Astarta blanked for a second and responded, "You better start explaining right now, Imp, or I will be sure to focus fire on The Faithless and turn you to slag."
At this point, the Imperial Captain smiled, if you could call that rictus grin a smile, and spoke again. "Well, Captain, I can explain both concisely and simply. You See, I am Tanya Zsinj, daughter, of Former Warlord Zsinj, who your fleet and prince just killed, but you would rather know about the bomb, wouldn't you? To make a long story short, my dear departed father wanted a bomb for his raptor commandos but not just any bomb. He wanted a bomb that could annihilate any fleet in space and even had the power to destroy Coruscant itself. Well, the bomb was finished earlier than his expectations, and wanting to surprise him for his birthday, I placed it on his Ship, The Iron Fist, which your fleet was just pounding with Proton torpedoes. Luckily for all of us, the bomb has not yet detonated on the ship, or you would be explaining to your Queen Mother how you got her son and his fiancée killed instead." Astarta took a deep breath and forced the rage that called for this bitch's head that dared to threaten her prince and replied to Tanya. "As I am under direct orders of Crown Prince Isolder, I will need to allow him into the holo call if that is acceptable?"
The Imperial nodded and replied, "That is acceptable. I will wait for the call if you allow us to evacuate the Iron Fist, The shipyard, and other damaged Imperial ships."
Astarta paused, then replied, "That is acceptable for all stations, not the Iron Fist. We don't want you smuggling the bomb out."
Tanya snapped back, "Fine, but then you will have to perform the evacuation of the Iron Fist and treat the crew properly as prisoners of war."
"That is acceptable now. Excuse me; I will be working to have the prince join the Call." Astarta Gestured at her Comms officer to mute the call and place it on hold. "All right, Crew, first things first. All ships that can seed the area with more pulse mass generators will do that now, so we have more time if this is a ruse to buy time for the generators we seeded to run out. Lt. Naster, get Prince Isolder patched into the comms. We will need him to make the final decision." Two minutes passed before Prince Isolder and Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and surprisingly enough, Han Solo appeared before Astarta.
Bowing to her Prince, Astarta spoke, "My Prince, I bring you an update on the current situation." Isolder replied, "I assume it will explain why both sides have stopped fighting, and the Imperials are abandoning their shipyard and other doomed vessels while ignoring the Iron Fist." Over the next two minutes, Astarta explained the situation to the group, whose smiles dropped off their faces individually. "Fine, let us talk to this Imperial. Put us on the call." Gesturing to her comms officer, the calls were combined and unmuted so that all parties could hear and see each other.
Millennium Falcon
Crown Prince Isolder
As the Holo Table onboard, the Falcon was patched through to the Faithless and the Song of War. Isolder cursed his luck that though the fighting had stopped, the battle seemed to move in a much more dangerous and complicated direction. He saw his faithful guard and the Imperial captain when the calls connected.
Tanya was the first to speak, "Ah, you must be Prince Isolder. I was talking about a cease-fire between my forces and yours. We will leave the system immediately if you allow us to depart and pick up our fellow Imperials. I will then personally inform all Imperials of the Zsinj empire that Dathomir was lost, and there is no point in fighting over this shitty mud ball of a planet anymore. If you want to deal with the force witches, I wish you the best of luck."
Han Solo was the first to break the silence after Tanya spoke, "You must have some big ones to suggest that with a straight face Imp. There is no way you are telling the truth right now."
"I assure you, Mr. Solo, I do not have balls; therefore, I cannot have big ones, as you most crudely put and I am talking to Prince Isolder, not some washed-up smuggler who kidnapped a princess and took her to a complete crap hole of a planet almost getting her killed and finally topping it off by killing my father so hold your tongue while the adults are talking you, temperamental child."
After the outburst, Tanya took a second to recompose herself and spoke. "Now, Prince Isolder, as you know, there is a bomb onboard the Iron Fist that will destroy Dathomir and a good portion of the surrounding fleets, including the vessel you are currently on. So, in the spirit of M.A.D. You let my forces depart the system; we will not detonate the bomb and even allow you to keep the remains of the Iron Fist. How does that sound to you?"
To go from complete victory to even, at best, a pyrrhic victory made all the pain over the last few weeks even worse for Isolder, but if he didn't act, it would lead to an even worse situation for his people. He couldn't do that to them. At least getting the Superstar Destroyer and shipyard was a decent consolation prize instead of losing his fleet.
As he opens his mouth to speak to Tanya and agree to her demands, Luke interrupts him and says, "You are lying about the bomb Tanya; there is no bomb onboard the Iron Fist. You were never planning to kill your father."
Tanya steps back and immediately replies, "What are you talking about, Jedi? Of course, I had a bomb on board the Iron Fist that could destroy a planet and my father's ship. He was standing in the way of my rise of power this whole time."
As Tanya makes this point, Luke shakes his head and replies, "Maybe at first you could have convinced me of that, but after Han stuck his foot in his mouth, I realized the truth if you wanted your father dead, you wouldn't have reacted to Han the way you did. You are not acting like someone planning to kill her father, but a daughter who lost her father and is terrified that the forces arrayed against her are planning to kill her afterward, so she is grasping for straws to buy time. If you surrender now, I promise you and your men will not be tortured or silenced, and the trial will be fair. I promise you this as A Jedi Knight. Do not let your father's deeds force you down this path; it will only lead you to regret and to suffer."
As Luke was beseeching Tanya to surrender herself and the rest of the imperial forces, Prince Isolder using his personal commlink, sent a message to Astarta to power up the weapons and seed the area with more pulse mass generators so that once the battle recommenced, the ships would have time to pull close to the imperial ships again before they could escape.
After Luke's heartfelt plea, Tanya looked back and replied, "Well, Mr. Skywalker, while I respect what you have done and to offer me a chance for surrender and guarantee of my safety even though I don't think you could truly do that I will say this. Your forces think this was a desperate ploy to allow my forces to escape, but when you said that the bomb is on the Iron Fist is a lie; that is true, but that is because the bomb is not on the Iron Fist. I must say I would rather not have to use it all. Oh well."
When everyone realized the truth, Tanya, with a massive grin, held up a detonator and replied, "For what it is worth, I'm sorry it came to this." And her thumb depressed the trigger.
Center of Hapan Battle Fleet
Imperial Raider class III Corvette Reaver
Commander Josh Hoskins
10 minutes after the crippling of the Iron Fist
Commander Hoskins usually loved his job. He commanded one of Zsinj's upgraded stealth Corvettes. His ship was the command ship of Raptor 1, the most elite of elite commandos. He was there to make sure that they both got into any Republic system safely and when they called for exfil, he was always there, ready to pull their asses out of the fire. It is what he lived for, rushing blockades sneaking by defenses, and causing the most massive explosions while never being seen.
He was sitting in the middle of a Hapan battle fleet after dropping off a massive Ion bomb in the center of the fleet, hoping no one would run him over while running his engines at minimum power with everything besides life support, electronic warfare, and navigation disabled. One stray ship changing position would cause the death of his entire crew, and if he didn't get outside the blast radius in time, the Ion bomb would most likely seal his ship's fate just as much. Even the friendly imperial ships, should they survive, would be unable to pick up his ship if the ion bomb destroyed all the electronics.
He would need to trust that his Captain and possibly his new warlord, if Zsinj was dead, managed to keep the Hapans distracted long enough for his ship to escape the blast radius or, better yet, if they didn't have to use the bomb at all.
As he watched the viewscreen, the EW raised his head and said, "Commander, I am reading Hapan weapon systems coming online. They seem to be preparing to fire on the Imperial Fleet." Cursing his terrible luck, he turned to his Navigator. "Helm, how long until we are out of range of the Ion Bomb."
"Commander, we need another 30 seconds to clear the blast radius." As he began the countdown from 30, everyone held their breath, waiting to see if they would make it in time.
"25 seconds,
"20 Seconds,
"15 Seconds,
"10 Seconds,
"5 Seconds,
"4
"3
"2
"1
"Commander Detonation, The Ion Bomb, has detonated, and the EMP is spreading."
"Lieutenant, Full Power to engines bring everything back online. All Ahead Flank, get us back to the Imperial Fleet right now and bring up the Aft View Screen." The Commander Spoke. As the View Screen shifted from forward to aft, Hoskins watched as the all-encompassing EMP took out ship after ship of the Hapan fleet. This may not be as fun as performing daring exfiltrations for Raptor 1 it still managed to bring much satisfaction watching the fleet dominating the space battle so thoroughly crushed by something his tiny corvette pulled off. He just hoped Tanya would choose someone else to sneak into the center of a massive fleet next time. Once was plenty for him.
Iron Fist
6 minutes following the death of Warlord Zsinj and the crippling of the Iron Fist
Commander Jeveron Sorreson Engineer
After seeing the damage reports following the destruction of the main bridge and the pounding that the ship took before the shooting stopped, Sorreson thought that he was a dead man walking and regretted accepting his position of Eng onboard the Iron Fist. Now he was waiting for the other foot to drop while his men did everything to stop the spread of the damage and to get the backup shield online while also restoring communications to the rest of the Imperial fleet to figure out what was going on.
While deciding what sections to vent and where to send repair crews to keep the ship together, one of the bridge crew's survivors ran up to him from the secondary comm station. "Eng, we have restored minimum sensors and communications. You have a call from the captain of Judicator." As he nodded for the comms officer to continue, two crewmen dragged a comms unit from a lambda shuttle and plugged it into his holo table. At first, the hologram was not coming in correctly, but after some percussive maintenance, the captain of the Judicator came into focus. Once he realized he could be seen, he said, "This is Captain Tryanda of the Judicator Report. Who is in charge of the Iron Fist currently?"
Sorreson cleared his throat and spoke, "I am, sir Commander Jeveron Sorreson Engineer for the Iron Fist and highest ranking officer remaining. Are we going to surrender? What is the status of the fleet? Why did the Hapans stop firing on us?"
"Hold up. I don't have time to explain everything happening, but I need to know, can the Fist move on its own power, jump to hyperspace, and survive the trip?"
Sorreson paused and gaped at the man but, after a moment, got control of himself and replied, "Captain, currently, the hyperdrive and engines are operating at full capacity, but we lost navigation, and the backup was heavily damaged, not including that we would only have shields at 30 percent due to the damage the different shield generators took while hull integrity is sitting at 45percent."
Shaking his head continued, "We could jump, but we would need to slave our navigation to another ship, keep the Hapans from starting to fire on us again and get rid of their pulse mass generators. If we do more damage, the ship will tear itself apart by jumping to hyperspace."
Nodding, Tryanda said softly, "Good, that means her plan has a chance to work. Turning back to the Eng, he spoke, "That is much better news than I expected; Sorreson, I expect you to get the ship ready to jump in 7 minutes; slave your navicomputer to the Judicator. We will be leaving shortly. Step to it and remember if you are late, you will be held responsible, so better move fast." At that point, Tryanda cut the communication.
Everyone on the Secondary bridge held their breath until Sorreson spoke, "You heard the man. Get moving; we need to get ready for the jump. All sections that are not vital and still on fire are to be immediately vented. Redirect all power from any weapons still in operation and refocus the power to the shields we need to go now. The Fist might have lost this fight, but we will live to fight another day. NOW MOVE."
Immediately following the detonation of the Ion bomb
Millennium Falcon
Luke Skywalker
Watching Tanya press that switch was horrifying, but for a second, nothing happened, and Luke sighed in relief, which is when everything went wrong and the bomb detonated. From the center of the Hapan Fleet, which had been grouping farther away from the Fist following the threat, a massive ionic field began to spread in every direction. Every ship caught in its area died. Their IFFs were flashing one second, the next nothing. They were dead in space. Han immediately turned the falcon which had been heading for the Hapan fleet, around and brought the engines to full power to escape the ion field. Luckily the bomb was not as powerful as they thought. The field and blast stopped before the entire Hapan fleet was consumed by it. After the detonation, only 10 Hapan battle dragons, including the Song of War, managed to avoid being consumed by the blast. The imperial ships began to move following the detonation, including, most worrying of all, the Iron Fist. It was slow initially but continued to pick up speed along with the other star destroyer that the IFF labeled the Judicator. With the pulse mines destroyed, both ships quickly reached their needed point and jumped to hyperspace. At this point, the plan's architect spoke up, cutting through the silence, "Well, would you look at that? I guess the Iron Fist was still able to move after all."
She stood there looking at them while they came to terms with how doomed they were and how the tables had so wholly turned that you could probably launch a ship into orbit with the spin produced by it. "So now that regretful situation is over let's discuss the ceasefire we are working out." Luke and the rest of the Millennium Falcon felt their jaws drop when they realized that Tanya wouldn't force them to surrender or overwhelm their fleet and destroy them all. Luke was the first to reply, "What do you want then?"
Tanya replied, "That's easy, Mr. Skywalker. First, the Hapans, to prevent their fleet and personnel from being murdered, will promise that they will not assist the Republic in any way from attacking my Empire. Second, Prince Isolder and his forces will take custody of Dathomir and become the new wardens for the planet. Third You, Han Solo, And Leia Organa, for the period of 5 years, will not assist The Republic with any operations against my empire and will push that the republic sends an ambassador to make peace with my new empire. If you do not abide by these terms, my star destroyers will destroy all the working Hapan ships in the system and leave the rest of them to drift with no life support, where they will slowly suffocate because you were too bloodthirsty to agree to these terms. If you agree, you may use all the craft onboard the Dathomir shipyards and the shipyards themselves to rescue the crew of the Hapan vessels."
Luke realized that Isolder was grinding his teeth, and Han had opened his mouth to say something stupid, so before Han said something to make this situation even worse, Luke grabbed his shoulder and shook his head no. He then nodded to Isolder to speak.
Isolder, calmingly, replied to Tanya, "Why do this? You could destroy us and surprise the rest of the fleet when it arrives. Why are you offering these terms?" Tanya spoke, "That's simple, Crown Prince. Enough people have died here today, and I don't want to waste any more resources on wiping out your fleet. I detest this planet and will be glad to be gone while getting the Hapans not to support the republic may force the republic to the negotiating table while weakening my other enemies, that is all."
Isolder looked at Tanya and nodded, "Fine, we accept your terms. Now take your men and leave the system. We need to see about rescuing our crews." With that, Tanya cut the call, and all imperial ships began moving toward the system's edges to commence their hyperspace jumps. What had been a glorious victory and the decapitation strike of the most dangerous warlord of the galaxy may have just created an even worst threat to the Republic. Still, at least everyone had survived in the end. At the same time, they managed to destroy a significant dark side threat, thought Luke.
This is the first story I have written, and I was inspired to give it a shot thanks to l4oftheWEST, so I hope you enjoyed it; if not, let me know. Just for clarification for everyone I will be using the Legends timeline for this story there is no disney canon unless its one of the ships that got introduced that I might add in.