28 ABY
Ossus
Adega system
The white shining light of the moon was slowly suppressed by the darkness that swept over the environment.
Above a resurgent class star destroyer blotted out the moon's rays. It's specialised electronic warfare suite laying out extensive jamming to all sensors and communications in the entire system.
From its port and starboard hangars, Imperial Dropship Transports flew out and descended down to the planet below.
Below, the gaggle of students left the solitary temple to see what had darkened the world around them, a few ignited their lightsabers.
Without their teacher present, the student's fate would be in their own hands. They waited at the top of the grand steps as the gunships touched down.
Filing out of the ships, the black armoured troops formed up. The red visors on their clone wars era airborne helmets lit up the night.
Two of the squads split, each taking different directions and circling around the temple complex. The rest began advancing up the steps towards the group of learners.
They stepped back as the troopers crested the steps, stopping.
Silence reigned.
The officer, if his shoulder pauldron was anything to judge by, stepped forward, triggering the holodisk in his hand.
A projection of the lead student surrounded the darkened area in a low blue light.
"Solo. You're coming with us." He dictated.
"He's not going anywhere!" Another student protested, to which an array of long rifles were levelled at him.
The lead student drew his blue lightsaber. "I'm not going anywhere." Ben Solo vowed. The other students drew their blades likewise.
The group of troopers stepped aside to make a gap, which was quickly followed by a squad of new generation Magnaguards.
They stepped through, igniting their electro staffs. The droids quickly separated, picking their targets and engaging.
The droids moved with a deadly, preprogrammed efficiency, landing incapacitating blows on their targets, allowing the surrounding troopers to take the unconscious students, placing force-dampening binders on them.
Ben Solo met his metallic opponent blow-for-blow, before baiting in another strike. Side stepping, he deactivated his saber, allowing the droid's staff to sail by, as he reignited his saber, slicing the magnaguard in two, through its computational core.
Looking around, he realised he was alone, surrounded by the troopers.
"Most impressive." The officer commented, striding forwards, kicking up an electro staff into his waiting hands, his rifle long since stowed.
"But let's see how you fare against a real opponent." He lunged forwards, the purple lightning crackling by his cheek as he dodged.
Solo feinted a strike, but was countered, again being stuck on the defensive.
"Weak." The trooper insulted.
Ben felt himself growing angrier at his inability to land a strike, for he had been so praised within the temple for his duelling skills.
Ben growled as he was again batted backwards. Swinging upwards from a low position.
The trooper stepped back, slamming the hilt of the lightsaber upwards, before spinning his staff and jamming the crackling tip into his stomach.
He yowled in pain, before the staff was spun again making contact with his chin, smacking his head sideways.
Disoriented, he stumbled backwards into the circle of troopers, where a rifle butt quickly made contact with his head, sending him crumpling to the floor, unconscious.
A pair of binders was slapped on him, and he was dragged down the steps towards the gunships, as the ancient temple was ignited by the dark troopers.
Leaving behind the raging inferno, the dropships returned to the overhead star destroyer, which promptly jumped out of the system, returning to the mystery of the unknown regions.
Hosnian Prime
New Republic Intelligence Bureau
"And I'm telling you something was going on!" Golb near shouted at his colleagues.
"Yeah yeah believe what you want Golb, all of these discrepancies probably just arose from how quickly the empire collapsed." Krohl replied.
"Probably! Even you don't know for sure!" Golb replied heatedly. "Entire planets worths of refugees do not go missing with more tonnage of material than many systems have ever seen!"
Krohl groaned. "Stars, Golb. We've all seen the reports."
"Do you think Kuat Drive Yards would've fought so hard against the release of information if they didn't have something to hide?" Golb argued.
Krohl buried his head in his hands.
"The home fleet saw a super star destroyer flee, with half a battlegroup's worth of star destroyers, none of which were seen again!" Golb continued.
"Just shut up Golb. Lunch is over anyways." Krohl said, standing up and returning his tray to the droid.
Unfortunately for Krohl's ears, he shared a cubicle with the avid conspiracy theorist.
"Kriff's sake." Krohl swore.
"What now?" Golb asked.
"Another cultist movement." Krohl answered.
"Where abouts too?"
"Korriban."
Golb grunted. "Popular these days."
Hosnian Prime
New Republic Senate Building
Committee Wing.
"Have there been any further findings of these so called discrepancies?" Senator Kale asked.
"The more we look, the more findings we uncover. They're small, but the closer you look the more the cracks begin to show." An intelligence officer replied.
"And these findings consist of?" Senator Celeik asked.
"Mostly material and refugee's vanishing from bureaucratic records, and towards the end of the war, a number of well experienced and capable officers disappearing, though it's hard to tell whether they truly disappeared or were killed in battle." The officer replied.
The committee of eight senators mumbled amongst themselves.
"And what of our last meeting, the star destroyers?" The committee lead, Senator Terrik of Fondor asked.
"We've committed to extensive tracing, and have reason to believe this was an organised cover up." The officer revealed, to the shock of the room.
"We have reports of star destroyers lost in battle, in battles which either never happened, or were too far away from the star destroyer for it to be present in."
A low muttering again reigned. "Do we have anything that else that could correlate?" Celeik asked.
"Around the same time, two Lucrehulk cargo haulers were requisitioned, but these remain in intact documents, so it's hard to know if they are directly connected." The officer responded.
"And I assume there is no progress on the missing data tapes from coruscant?" Celeik asked again.
"No Senator, it appears they were all pulled soon before the attack." The officer replied dutifully.
"Well I believe that settles todays meeting then." Senator Terrik announced. "Thank you all for attending."
One by one, the senators filed out of room, breaking out into hallway to talk amongst themselves. Terrik quickly made her way to the landing pad, boarding the shuttle to her apartment.
The ride was smooth, travelling through the air traffic lanes at a steady rate, the Hosnian sun shining through the viewport.
She was almost dozing off until she felt the bank right, a signal she knew meant they were nearing their arrival.
A moment later, the shuttle docked by the open platform of her landing pad, and she stepped out back into her apartment.
Taking a deep breath, she walked up the steps to the main atrium, standing by the wide floor to ceiling window which displayed the bustling skyline.
She slipped out the disc shaped holotransmitter from under the cushion and activated it. A cloaked figure appeared before her.
"Senator Terrik, reporting in." She spoke, steadily, as to not betray her fear.
"Report." Came the garbled, modulated voice.
"The committee is uncovering and focusing on more of the found records. I believe new republic intelligence is looking into the missing star destroyers. A Lucrehulk was mentioned too."
A moment of silence followed. "Continue." Was the sole response.
"A new paper trail has been found relating to missing refugees and raw materials." She followed up.
"Is that all?"
"Yes sir." She answered.
"You've done well Terrik." The mysterious voice congratulated her. "Though I must say, please do be more careful when trying to trace a holocall."
Her eyes widened at being caught so swiftly. Suddenly, there was a noise behind her. She turned to see there BX-Series commando droids drop from the rafters, two wielding compact blasters, the other, a wickedly long vibro blade.
She panicked, her heart seizing as they approached menacingly. She went to grab the hidden blaster pistol she kept stowed, but was quickly intercepted by the durasteel grip of a commando droid.
Panic enveloped her, as another grabbed her other arm, preventing her from flailing. Her hands were quickly restrained behind her and placed in binders, as she was kicked down to her knees.
The vibrosword wielding droid picked up the holodisc, reopening the communication, holding it in front of her.
"Now senator. You have been most useful in feeding us information." The smooth voice remarked. "Though that usefulness has apparently come to an end. Tell me, what did you hope to gain?"
"I-I don-" She could hardly form a sentence through her hyperventilating.
"Knowledge? To know the mysterious shadow people you serve?" The voice questioned.
She only stuttered incoherently.
"Well. I tire of unreliable assets." The figure vocalised, turning towards the droid he commanded. "Dispose of her."
Yes sir. The deep synthesised voice of the commando droid replied. It unsheathed its sword, and swung down.
The closed her eyes, expecting a death blow, what was instead showered by glass as the massive window was open, the wind immediately battering her.
She opened her eyes, confused, before the leading commando droid reached out, grabbing her hair and hauling her upwards.
She stumbled upwards, and her moment of misbalance was capitalised, as the droid hailed her forwards, sending her stumbling out the window, and falling down the two hundred stories to the steel floor of the surface layer of coruscant.
"Return to the safe house. Await further orders."
Heavy boot falls met the marbled flooring. He handed his code cylinder over to the stationed trooper, who inserted it into the wall port.
It twisted for a moment before it buzzed, opening the door. He stepped in, his black uniform blending in with the other officers in the room.
Heading it, gold lined his black uniform, grey hair hidden with the midnight toned hair accentuated the added colour.
The room bustling with other low ranking officers and officials. The blood red banners hung high, defining the little colour within the room.
"Di Angelo. Report." Came the gravelly voice.
"Terrik grew curious, attempted to trace the call. She's been disposed of." He reported diligently.
"Hm, a momentary setback. What did she have to say?" His superior again asked.
"The new republic Imperial affairs committee believe they are chasing what is now credible leads to both assets and personnel disappearing from the known galaxy towards the end of the war, in what they are believing is a deliberate cover up." He reported.
"Are we aware of the intelligence officers heading the operation?"
"Yes sir."
"Eliminate them. Our secrecy is vital" Came the order."
Di Angelo saluted, and turned to leave.
"And Di Angelo," his superior officer called. "See to it personally."
Slipping by new republic listening posts had been admittedly challenging, though the specially retrofitted electronic warfare Gozanti cruiser had been greatly beneficial at slipping by without raising the alarm.
Now they lay in wait for word from their spies, that the new republic intelligence officers would be departing from Hosnian Prime on their way back to Coruscant.
Aboard the old imperial spec interdictor cruiser, Lieutenant Di Angelo looked over at the small compliment of ships he had requisitioned for his operation.
His flagship, the cruiser, had been chosen for its smaller stature than the interdictor star destroyer. Accompanying him, was the Electronic Warfare Gozanti, and a further two normal spec gozantis carried under them two TIE interceptors and two TIE fighters.
The bridge was silent as they lay in wait, in deep space along a classified new republic hyperlane directly connecting the two ecumenopoli.
The silence was broken by the communications station, where a transmission was incoming. Nico walked over and accepted the incoming encrypted call.
"Report." He ordered.
The cloaked figure on the other end of the communication spoke. "The main contingent of officers has just left sir. I've placed a tracking device on the ship."
"Good work. Transmit the tracker information."
A buzz indicated the information had been received. Di Angelo then cut the transmission as he returned to standing at the main viewport.
The display below showed the progress of the new republic ship along the hyperlane.
"Our quarry is approaching. Initiate gravity wells, launch TIEs." Nic ordered.
Technicians began initiating the globed forms of the inbuilt gravity wells, the audible thrumming indicated their activity.
A minute later, a tear opened in realspace as a new republic bastardised lambda shuttle was ejected into reality, spinning haphazardly.
Whilst still in it's state of total loss of control, a single turbolaser fired, striking the cockpit of the craft, and breaching its hull.
The officers aboard the bridge watched as the cabin depressurised, the forms of both pilots and passengers being sucked out into the void.
"Launch probe droids to confirm our targets. Signal to the hauler for the second phase." He ordered.
A trio of viper probe droids launched into the vacuum, their blue holoscanners lighting up both pieces of debris and corpses.
A moment followed before a large freighter arrived, the form of an extraordinarily large purrgil behind it.
"Probes report a positive ID of the new republic officer sir." A deckhand reported.
"Excellent. Dump the purrgil's corpse, have the droids embed within it, and let us return." He ordered.
The cable stringing the organic behemoth was cut, and left to drift in space. It had been previously damaged to further sell the appearance of an inadvertent purrgil collision.
"Everything is set Lieutenant."
Di Angelo surveyed the scene, deeming it acceptable.
"And all the data tapes have been destroyed?" He asked.
"Yes sir, all reduced to fragments."
"Excellent, let's prepare to make the jump."
An alarm blared from one of the control pits. "Sir, we're interdicting another ship!" The gravity well command shouted, panicked.
"Disable the gravity wells!" He shouted back.
"It's too late!"
Nico turned to see realspace torn open once again, a new republic CR90 spun into the AO.
"Open fire all batteries!" Nico shouted.
The echo of green turbolaser fire filled the bridge, as it tore into the surprised corvette. It was mercifully soon that a shot hit the core of the ship, rupturing its superstructure and splitting it in two, space falling silent once again.
"Deactivate the gravity wells." Nico ordered coldly, not eager to make the same mistake.
"Lieutenant, the ship got out a small distress signal before we destroyed it." A deck officer reported.
"Order the freighter to haul the wreckage out of here. We are leaving. Set course for the rendezvous."
The interdictor and trio of gozanti's quickly jumped away, returning to link up with the wider expeditionary group that had ventured out from the safety of the unknown regions.
"Inform Erebus of the mission's success."
Wha bam.
Time skip and a half.
I am going to be rewriting the entire structure of the first order, and the new republic / first order war.
Yes, palpatine will still somehow return, however I do intend to actually explain it.
Right now, for those unable to extract overall plot, the first order is acting subversively against the new republic, with spies and other small sabotage set up to make their life a lot harder.
What is most important, is that they have to stay hidden. New republic ain't gonna chill knowing empire 2.0 is on their doorstep.
Gotta love some politics too. Still figuring out how to properly pull it off.
Reviews always welcome, big shoutout to Jojo perlia, I love getting ur reviews man.
I'm always open to suggestions, and I'm most active on combattombat's discord if you wanna hold a conversation.
PMs don't rlly work for me bc I'm mostly on the app for this, so good luck reaching me there.
Anywho, stay safe guys,
-Dududuehehhe.