Perseus' Fleet
Hyperspace
En route to Dxun, Onderon System.
The blue light of hyperspace baked the bridge in a low blue sheen, as the fleet stampeded through the New Republic. Solace and Di Angelo stood rigidly, having never seen the Grand Marshall so tense. The blue light reflected off his eyes, giving them a deadly shine.
"How long until we reach Dxun." The grave voice of their superior officer cut through the bustle of the bridge.
"Exiting lightspeed in fifteen minutes sir." An ensign reported, looking up skittishly from one of the control pits on the bridge.
"Ready all pilots. I want every fighter we have airborne within a minute of us entering the system. Cycle all turbolasers while in lightspeed. I want a platoon of stormtroopers down on the surface, have The Old Guard ready the detachment and escort them there. Their main goal is securing the shuttle and evacuating it, if unable to, secure its cargo and destroy the ship. Solace, go with." He ordered, Nico could've sworn that he hadn't seen Perseus blink in ten minutes.
Up and down the ship, the alarms for battle stations replaced those which had called for general quarters, as the lower decks of the ships exploded with activity, as weapon systems were cycled, and reactor power diverted to begin charging their laser banks and preparing the weapon cooling systems.
Within the barracks, Perseus' personal stormtrooper legion, The Iron Legion, readied their weapons and checked their newly issued, regenerated stormtrooper armour, which featured better durability and survival rates after a direct shot. This came with a more angular and harsher looked, a detachment from the typically rounded fashion of the armour of the Empire. A further detachment from the original style was the glowing red optics of the helmet, which would pierce through the dark, and were purposely chosen for their intimidation factor.
Alpha platoon marched through the depths of the ship, reaching the main ventral hangar, they boarded the waiting dropships, the hatches sealing shut.
On the bridge, pre-engagement reports were filtering through.
"Gunnery equipment cycled sir."
"Fighter command is ready sir."
"Alpha platoon are ready sir.
"Escorts are ready sir."
The array of reports were shouted from the control pits as the fleet dropped out of hyperspace, directly opposing a new republic battle group.
The well disciplined imperial crews were quick off the mark, and turbolaser shots filled the space between the fleets as the new republic were caught off guard.
In the Hangar, Solace felt the lurch as his shuttle joined the hordes of tie fighters leaving the hangars, joining the group of landing craft as they descended towards the surface.
Blaster fire splintered trees in the jungle. Leia peeked over and fired a shot of her own, smirking as one of the red robed individuals collapsed.
Another contingent of soldiers landed behind them, and new republic fatigues filled the forest, as the blaster fire intensified between the two sides.
Overheard, a tie fighter screeched as a transport was blotted out, blown to pieces by the offending fighter.
Ahead, behind the shuttle, imperial dropships landed troops. A hail of precise blaster fire ripped through the jungle as new republic soldiers fell in droves to accurate killing shots, whilst the sharp angled armour of next generation imperial infantry stalked through the forest.
Looking over, she saw a brave soldier run to the cultist shuttle, emerging a moment later with a flight recorder. The cylindrical device was thrown back towards friendly lines as a red blaster bolt found its mark in his neck.
Landing at the lieutenants feet, he grabbed it and made for one of the shuttles, Leia quick to follow. They lifted off and stayed low through the atmosphere, before pulling up, making sure to clear the active flight zone.
Black squadron was quick to form up, as they made their way to an exit point from the system.
"A small shuttle and escort has escaped from the surface sir. They just left the system." A shakily announced report filled the bridge, before the sound returned to the low echo of turbolaser fire was again the only audible sound.
"What is the status of the situation on the ground." He asked, voice steely.
Nico leaned forward and opened a comm channel to Solace on the ground.
"Last of the rebel resistance has been exterminated sir. We have secured the sith eternal shuttle." Solace spoke.
"Did the rebels manage to take anything?" Perseus interrogated.
"The sergeant believes the flight recorder has been stolen sir, the rebels are believed to have made off with it."
Nico heard the leather of the grand Marshall's glove clench.
"Secure everything onboard the shuttle and bring it to my ship. Execute the cultists and destroy their ship." Perseus ordered.
The orders clearly shook Solace, but he did well to hide it. "..Yes sir." Came the late response, as the communication cut.
Looking out the viewport, Nico watched as the leading ship of the fleet capitulated to overwhelming fire, as it began to sink into the gravity well of the planet whilst its superstructure was ripped apart.
All around, the remainder of the new republic battle group began to break apart and be decimated by the imperial fleet.
"The last of the Rebels are being exterminated now sir. Fighter groups are beginning to return to their ships." A deckhand reported.
"Good. Let's return to friendly space as soon as we can. It appears I need to have words with the Supreme Leader."
Word always travelled quickly throughout the galaxy, and news of an imperial fleet operating within the new republic spread like wildfire.
Within the day an emergency session of the new republic senate had been called; which had promptly devolved into a shouting match.
Again, the vice chair slammed their staff into the terrace, finally bringing about silence within the chamber.
"Senator Kuat, you had a question?"
The senate pod in question floated towards the centre of the chamber. "Myself and I believe many of my colleagues within the senate would like to know what action the administration is taking to counter this threat?"
"I find it appalling that an entire imperial fleet has made it so deep within the galaxy"!
Support was immediately clear, as a loud crowing started from many senators within the chamber, as Amadeus Kuat finished his question.
Mon Mothma rose herself to answer the question, and the holonews tv droids flew around in front of her to get a good view of her response.
"As you may have noticed, we have no members of the defence committee present. They are all currently working to track down the imperial fleet." She began, leaning on the hand rail for support.
"Tracking down? So we are unsure as to where the this mystery fleet is?" A senator called out, leaving the sitting chancellor to silently curse herself for her slipup.
"The New Republic Navy has my confidence in finding this Imperial Menace that continues to attempt to stifle the growth of our new Republic." She doubled down.
"The New Republic Navy has already been defeated, how do you expect us to trust in a force that has so easily been defeated?" Another unknown senator shouted, delving the chamber into chaos again.
With the shouting in the chamber ramping up to eleven, Mothma and her staff retreated from the dais and into the executive wing. She sagged down into her chair within her office, her head burying itself in her hands.
Leia returned to a base in utter chaos.
Where she had rushed off with a fighter wing and a collection of troop transports, she had returned with only half her fighters.
The speed at which an Imperial Fleet had appeared in orbit to recover whatever asset they had been had been on the surface was astounding, and the sheer brutality and force they displayed was another factor.
This was not a rogue imperial warlord with a shoddily maintained fleet and a lacklustre number of tie fighters.
This was a covert threat that had now made itself known, and had dealt a blow to the New Republic.
Touching down, she was quick to march into the command centre, the data drive captured from the shuttle in hand.
Miraculously, the drive was not encrypted. In what must have been a breach of a multitude of regulations, Leia had the drive plugged in to the central terminal, so the analysts could start working quicker.
She watched as data was picked apart, the informational systems gutted to see what could be of use to the Resistance.
The first to be decoded was the navigational computer, which showed the shuttle's flight history. It appeared that they had previously frequented old sith temples, and other mythological locations.
As journey logs were discovered, it seemed that they had always begun and ended their trip at the Jeddah system, before jumping to an unknown set of coordinates, which by preliminary calculations, would plot them in wild space, far beyond any charted location in the known galaxy.
"Are we able to cross reference this with any intercepted communications from those star destroyers?"
"While we are able to collect fragments of contact between each destroyer and their fighter compliments, the transmissions between the capital ships were heavily encrypted ma'am." A technician reported.
"Is there any information which we can use?" Leia asked.
"Not from this, though there is something you may want to see." A clerk said nervously.
The general waved him up and he showed her his data pad.
"What is this? What am I looking at?" Leia asked.
"It's a chat forum on the holonet, this particular one has been exploding recently, look at this video."
The video played, from what she could tell, it was of a science ship studying a black hole. Instrument readings were visible too, and an alert sounded as all of them spiked, whilst the black hole shuddered in space.
The vortex bubbled, before a sea of red lightning arced from the centre of it, and then ejected an imperial fleet from it's core.
The instruments again lit up as various communications were intercepted between the three capital ships, before they jumped out of the system.
"This video is real?" She asked.
"So far no one in the galaxy has been able to prove it as a fake, and it's dated a few couple standard hours after we detected the shuttle." The technician responded.
"The communications, can we study them from this?"
"No need, this clip has been seen by every corner of the galaxy, the most credible theory is that the communications are in encrypted rakaatan."
"Rakaatan?" She questioned.
"An ancient race of beings which ruled the galaxy, maybe thirty thousand years ago?" Another staffer replied.
"Use the cipher against the transmissions we have between the capital ships." She ordered, watching as the room huddled around one terminal as a cryptographer applied the cipher listed on the holonet.
A moment passed as it was pieced together, before a translated message was readable. Standard intra ship imperial contact, which had been observed dozens of times during the galactic civil war.
The room stood in shock at the luck that had just crossed them.
"Get me in contact with the chief of the grand communications array on coruscant." She ordered.
A hustle of panic followed before a connection was established. Recognising the general, the chief saluted, and assured orders.
"I want you to scan all communications on all frequencies that are encrypted, and apply the cipher I am sending you to all of them. For any that are decrypted, inform me immediately."
In orbit above Ilum, tension was increasing to mount.
It was clear that Snoke and his Sith Eternal did not appreciate their own military besieging them on their planet, and more than one cruiser had been snared within the tractor beams of the fleet.
The wide armada had been set out to cover all viable exits from the surface of the planet, and the sith below them had clearly been getting anxious, and a variety of communications and also been jammed.
Both Apollyon and Chase sat on the bridge of the lead star destroyer, The Restorer, while the many ships of the fleet panned out around them.
"Priority communication from the surface sirs, in an open channel." An ensign reported.
"Put it through." Chase ordered, straightening in preparation.
A hologram of Snoke appeared before the two commanding officers.
"Supreme Leader." Chase intoned.
The scarred and disfigured form of Snoke ignored the elder officer, and instead turned to Apollyon.
"What, is the meaning of this, blockade, boy." He rasped.
Apollyon, to his credit, met the supreme leader eye to eye, before answering. "The First Order is currently containing the rogue actions of the Sith Eternal, who's failure to sufficiently conceal, much less follow standard operating protocol is currently endangering our progress and secrecy."
Snoke leered at the response. "My acolytes are doing well enough. You forget your place in this, clone."
Apollyon glared at the hologram in anger before cutting it off. He turned to the gunnery control before barking out: "Identify the closest Sith Eternal target you find on that planet's surface and open fire."
The gunnery command officer blanched before looking up, "Sir?"
"Do not make me repeat myself commander." The young admiral returned lowly.
Wisely knowing a threat when he heard one, the officer turned to his subordinates and began issuing out the orders. A moment later, the echo of turbolasers filled the bridge, as the green bolts fell down to the surface, obliterating a temple which had been build on the snowy surface of the planet.
"Incoming transmission sir."
"Jam it." Was the harsh order from the younger officer. Chase stood back by the command holotable observing the boy and his temper.
"Ma'am, we have a positive location on the Imperial Fleet."
Leia looked over. "Are they heading for the imperial remnant territory?"
"No Ma'am. They appear to be headed towards the remains of Jeddah."
Leia thought for a moment. If the fleet was en route to the devastated system, then it confirmed the existence of a secret hyperspace route into the hidden imperial realm.
Midway through her thoughts a clerk entered the room. "General Organa, I have a report that has been flagged for your interest?"
"Give me a brief overview." She replied while analysing other material in front of her.
"There was a data traffic flag out up for any ships heading to the Jeddah system, one has flagged up, an old repurposed Lucrehulk, registered under the remnants of the Trade Federation."
Leia's head whipped up to look at the ensign. "More." She ordered.
The clerk fumbled with the datapad before expanding. "It's previous listed destinations included Kuat, Sullust, and a deep space SIENAR Systems facility."
"Have a nearby fleet intercept them and detain them, Scramble fighter bomber elements for a small covert strike attack."
All around her the base once again exploded into activity, as both Y wings and X wings began to lift off and make the jump to hyperspace of the interception coordinates.
Close behind, Leia followed in her own shuttle with Commander Dameron.
After a few standard hours in light speed, they arrived in an uncolonised system, where a small New Republic detachment had detained the giant hauler.
"Contact from the formation General, they say minimal crew on board, totalling at about fifteen persons. It appears the ship is mostly auto regulated."
"Arrest the crew and commandeer the ship. Requisition the majority of fighters and bombers from the intercept fleet, and load both their and our ships onboard the freighter, which we will use to launch a covert strike against these imperials." The general ordered.
An hour passed, while the logistics of moving roughly seventy star fighters took place, and before long, the hijacked Lucrehulk was on the move, following the path pre programmed in to the navicomputer.
Leia watched as the ship left the system, hoping their mission would succeed.
Aboard the bridge of the Lucrehulk, Commander Dameron stood nervously as the ship entered the Jeddah system.
At first glance, there was no active imperial presence, only what remained of their presence in the form of the shattered desert planet.
Though, before long the harrowing silhouette of an Imperial Star Destroyer emerged from behind one of the far moons.
As they moved towards it, the local alert beeped as an imperial fleet arrived, the trio of battle damaged star destroyers entered in perfect formation, and slowly began moving to the wild space direction of the system, and formed into a single file line to make the jump to a set of mystery coordinates.
As their hijacked Lucrehulk slipped into formation behind the three capital ships, they jumped, beaming coordinates to the freighter as they vanished into hyperspace.
The rebels input the coordinates sent to them, and braced as they entered into the familiar tunnel of light speed, heading into the unknown regions.
AN:
Wow nearly two months.
Don't really know what to say other than just struggled to write. Recently I've been using ChatGPT to bounce ideas off of, so I guess thank AI for inspiring me to write this chapter?
anywho, stay safe ppl :)
-Dudueheheh