1st Republic Volunteer Corps Main Operating Base
Classified Location
Leia sat in the captains chair in the bridge as the Tantive IV dropped back into realspace. The wet, grassy planet below was to be her new posting for the foreseeable future. Almost immediately, the communications unit lit up with a hail, of which the chief comms officer answered.
"Attention CR90 Corvette, you are in a restricted system, leave immediately. This is your first and only warning."
Leia watched out the central viewport as two X-wings approached them.
"Attention flight controller, this is the Tantive IV, we have orders to meet you from chancellor Mothma, transmitting clearance codes now." Was the officer's response, maintaining a crisp tone of formality.
"Codes received, please follow wing commander Dameron in." Was the response, whilst a black painted X-wing took position in front of her, guiding the corvette down to the planet below.
The rolling green hills reminded for of Naboo, and soon the ship touched down within a small airbase on the planet's surface. She was greeted at the bottom of the ramp by what she presumed to be the base commander, escorted by a handful of soldiers.
"General." He saluted.
"Commander." She greeted, "Why don't you get me up to speed on this posting."
"Yes general, right this way." He returned, leading her along the airstrip and into a sunken building, covered by turf to avoid detection.
They soon settled around a holotable, in a chamber which reminded her of Yavin, all those years ago.
"Despite what both the official new republic stance is, and cleared reports say; the empire is not defeated." The commander began. "Whilst the senate committee had been briefed as to missing material and populace, the reality is far more extensive."
"Why was this information not shared with the imperial affairs committee?" Leia questioned.
"We have reason to believe whatever shadow the empire casts is still alive, and actively subversing us. This week Senator Terrik was found dead." The briefing continued.
"I heard, supposed suicide?" Leia replied.
"That's what the holonet will tell you." The commander replied. Still images flashed up of the trashed apartment she owned, and the body of the deceased senator.
"The criminal investigation brought alight many facts which have brought that verdict into question. For example, an act of suicide would've hardly warranted the upturning of the couch, or the destruction of the duraglass window, one specifically designed to prevent high powered blaster bolts from penetrating."
A new set of images flicked up. "If the senator had intended to commit suicide why not use the medicine she had been prescribed to overdose, use the blaster she kept in her nightstand, or if she was so insistent on falling, why not use the landing platform to jump from?"
Leia looked over the images of the can of pills and the sleek blaster. "So we suspect foul play?"
"We are nearly certain. We also found a crushed holocommunicator on the floor, capable of transmitting on micro frequencies that we are unable to trace, and on the body, the wrists displayed signs of tight restraints being present, alongside loose hairs which were clearly a result of being pulled."
"You said wrist restraints?" Leia asked.
"Indeed, whilst the markings present on the wrists are suggestive of the imperial make, a destroyed set was found three blocks away."
"How did they end up three blocks away?" She asked.
"The working theory is they detached mid fall, from simulating weather conditions and the fall, this is almost certain." The base commander explained.
Leia stepped back, taking the information in.
"This is the only case?" She asked.
"Far from it Ma'am."
"It's operational?"
"Partly sir, many of its operational processes are still a mystery, however upon inputting our ship schematics the station has activated." Solace replied. From their position aboard the bridge, they could see the near derelict station currently sapping the energy of the remote star they were circling.
"Obviously, the station is not operating at a capacity which matches the mythical rates documented over thirty thousand years ago, as apparently a potent force wielder is required at the helm of station to guide the creation process." Solace explained further.
"This pad you have, you can read it?" Apollyon asked.
Solace looked from his superior down the clone of him. "No, however we do have a team dedicated to translating the ancient rakaatan to readable basic. Currently we have a team working on it, the only readable part of this display is the progress bar." He angled the pad to show the pair.
"Its nearly done?" Apollyon questioned, seeing the bar rapidly approaching completion.
"It would appear so."
A flash of light emerged from the belly of the station, all present raised an arm to shield their eyes from the blinding lumination. After a moment, the gradually readjusted to the normal lighting, looking out over the starforge.
"Well, the station didn't detonate." Solace deadpanned.
"Sorry, detonate?"
"Uh, yes sir, our scientists thought it a possibility." Solace answered.
"Anyways." Apollyon said, rubbing his eyes. "It appears we are one more star destroyer richer."
The trio of officers looked out into space seeing a pristine resurgent class star destroyer floating towards them, a golden light cast over one side whereas the rest of the light was absorbed by the black hole, of which existed in tandem with the class G star the Starforge was harvesting from.
"Im impressed Solace, do we have tugs on hand?" Perseus asked.
"No need sir, the starforge models have been fitted with advance slave circuits to allow the shipyard supervisors to guide them directly from end of production into position." Solace explained.
Apollyon put his hand up to stop him, "Won't slave circuits leave them susceptible to enemies managing to take control of the ships?"
Perseus cocked a silver brow in interest.
"Ordinarily, yes." Solace returned, "However, between me and Admiral Chase, we've encoded the slave circuits to use Rakaatan, rather than basic, so in the case that our cipher's are broken, they have to again break ciphers in a near forgotten language."
"Excellent work Admiral Solace, the Emperor will be proud of you."
"Will be proud sir?" The blonde questioned.
"Follow me Will."
The last weeks in the 1st Republic Volunteer group's base had been filled with briefings to bring the now General Organa-Solo up to speed with the information that was withheld from the public.
From the various suspicious activities in the border regions, to monitoring of various political hardline and paramilitary groups.
"So you're saying that the recent mid space crash of intelligence officers wasn't a purrgil incident?" Leia asked.
"No, their transport was found with traces of carbon scoring, and the body of the purrgil wasn't damaged enough to match what we've seen from other incidents." The investigative officer replied. "Furthermore, the second ship in the incident site definitively was blown to pieces. I don't find the fact that the officers that were killed were investigating the empire a coincidence."
"Do we know where they're operating from?" Leia asked.
"All we know is that they are coming from the unknown regions. It's no secret the emperor held an interest there. Established listening posts catch a ship entering the known galaxy every so often."
"Any particular focal points?"
"The Maynar system seems to the most active." The officer replied, he went to speak again before the holotable lit up with a warning. "A shuttle just came onto our radar, we managed to get a ping on it's beacon."
"Then lets get going. Fetch me a squad of soldiers and a fighter wing." Leia ordered.
The scramble alarm sounded, and Leia quickly met with a squad of ground troops as they boarded a shuttle. Around them, pilots scrambled to their X-wings as their ground crews fuelled them and completed their checks alongside the onboard astromechs.
Within ten minutes, the ships had departed the surface and were heading to orbit.
"Do we have an update as to where the mystery shuttle is headed?" Leia asked.
A comms officer turned to her, "The shuttle has just entered orbit over Dxun, in the Onderon system maam."
"Set course."
One standard hour later, the group of ships dropped into hyperspace, over the jungle moon. As they approached, an alarm in the cockpit started beeping.
"We've been detected, looks like a distress signal is being broadcast from the surface, not on any recognised channel." The pilot of the shuttle briefed.
"Contact the nearest naval group. I want this system quarantined." Leia ordered.
"Closest group is a star defender and escort, the Lady Lothal, ma'am, they've acknowledged our call and are responding."
"A group of that size might take too long to get here." She replied sombrely.
The door to the conference chamber opened, Perseus immediately recognised Di Angelo burst through, an array of troopers quickly dogpiled him.
"Sir!" He called frantically, from under the heavy stack of plastoid armoured troops.
Perseus waver the troopers off. "Get him up, whatever it is must be urgent to break into our proceedings, captain."
Di Angelo smoothened out his uniform before he addressed Perseus and the wider high command he had interrupted.
"We intercepted a distress call from Dxun, a sith eternal shuttle has been intercepted by new republic forces, contact report of a fighter wing and a transport ship, likely with troops aboard." He rattled off.
Perseus slammed his fist on the table, causing a number of officers to jump in surprise, the Grand Marshall was near renowned for not expressing emotions.
"Chase." He called.
The blonde admiral was present at the table, and snapped to attention. "Sir."
"Take Apollyon and a battle group to Ilum, blockade the system. No Sith Eternal vessel leaves the system, detain any that arrive." He barked.
Leaving no time for titles, she rose and darted out the room, Apollyon hot on her heels.
"Solace, is the labyrinth ready?"
"If needed, we are able to use it for quick movement, yes sir." Was the confident reply.
"Notify labyrinth control to begin the travel procedure." Was the order. "And ready my fleet. You and Di Angelo are with me."
The two officers quickly fell in behind him as he marched towards the elevator to the surface. All the time Di Angelo was nervously fiddling with his gloved fingers whilst Solace was making an array of comm calls to relay the rapid orders.
As the trio arrived on the surface of the military moon of Erebus, a shuttle touched down on the VIP pad ahead of them, engines still running.
The group quickly boarded and craft lifted off whilst the ramp was still closing, flying faster than protocol allowed to meet up with the trio of rapidly rotating star destroyers, who were aligning with their plotted jump vectors now.
As the shuttle touched down in the hangar, Di Angelo felt the capital ship blast into light speed. He struggled to keep up with the lightning pace of Jackson as he stormed through the ship to the bridge.
He rounded the corner to the main bridge to find Perseus stood looking out the viewing screen, Solace to his right.
The ship dropped into realspace with a thud, the jump exit being a bit messy due to the massively hasty and urgent movement orders.
They again arrived in the system with the star forge, however this time turned to the sun's sister black hole, where a station not too dissimilar to the one found at the old gateway system by Maynar was resting.
"Set destination for the closest exit point to the Onderon system." Perseus ordered, as the command pits aboard the bridge burst into action.
"Di Angelo." He heard his name called, and he straightened unconsciously. "Do we have any paramilitary units on Onderon?"
He thought for a moment, his eyes flickering before he answered. "Yes sir, a group of activists that are being trained by specialist officers."
"Order them to attack New Republic installations and critical infrastructure, maximum discretion." Was the stony order.
He quickly complied, turning to the communications suite and officers in the corner of the bridge to ensure the orders were transmitted over the secret communication links.
Solace watched as the fleet aligned in single file, before jumping to light speed into the stabilised black hole. The fabric of space tore around them, the usual blue corridor of hyperspace was instead a dark blood red among a chocking blanket of darkness. The ship juddered for the trip, an estimated timer of twenty minutes given until arrival. A timeframe previously thought near impossible when traversing a major portion of the galaxy.
"Get us on the ground, immediately." Leia ordered.
The shuttle powered towards the surface, as the soldiers with them readied their blasters for what was clearly an oncoming battle.
They were up and on the ramp as the ship touched down, a trail of elite operatives stormed through the jungle to intercept the mystery presence on the jungled moon.
Before long a blaster sounded, and the troops scattered to cover. The shooter, identified as a red robed and armoured individual, a light blaster carbine in-hand.
One of the republic fire teams suppressed the shooter whilst another team advanced, closing the distance.
More blaster bolts were fired as more of the mystery contacts made themselves known and engaged with the specialist soldiers.
Leia huddled down behind a tree with the other officer. "Where are those reinforcements?"
"In hyperspace now general". Was the nervous reply, as a nearby branch was blown into splinters following a blaster bolt hitting it.
"Is there any other groups we can signal too? What about the retainer garrison on Onderon?" She demanded.
The officer pulled out his holopad and fiddled around with it, before a confused expression overwrote his face. "The communications hub on Onderon has gone offline, and I cant make short wave communication with the garrison."
The red vortex of labyrinth travel gave way to a blinding light, as the bridge staff held their arms over their eyes, the fleet arrived back into the known galaxy, powering away from the centre of the black hole. Jackson was the first to recover, straightening and looking out the viewport to check nothing was immediately amiss. "Have the other ships check in, plot a course to the onderon system. Double time! Our secrecy is at stake here." He ordered. All around him, bridge staff worked with a fervour that Solace had never seen.
To their left, The Old Guard checked in, their right, The Order. Both ships reported no damage. Their ship, The Imperial Wrath, boasted the best equipment of the three, it's hallways and equipment still bore the hallmark of system that were salvaged from the super star destroyer he had recovered from his expedition into the falling empire. The fleet powered away from the event horizon of the black hole, before their engines flaired and they jumped to lightspeed, leaving behind a lone black hole, and a small civilian barge, which the fleet had failed to detect.
On the surface of Dxun, comm static soon gave way to communications traffic of a new republic naval group as it entered the system. The group's capital ship, a star defender class, was a Mon Calamari built capital ship, that was based off the framework of the old MC80 built capital ship of the civil war era.
"General Organa-Solo, this is the Lady Lothal reporting as ordered." Came the communication.
"Divide your fleet, have a portion secure the city on Onderon, the rest, secure orbit and the surface." She ordered, as she looked up through the clear sky to see the fleet hanging in over them, already deploying their group of X-wings. As she did, a second fleet of sickeningly recognizable dagger shaped ships emerged dropped in from lightspeed, immediately, turbolasers filled orbit.
Their communicator squawked again, "Theres an Imperial Fleet here!"
AN: Wow he's not dead.
Yeah just about. Work has been busy and such which has prevented me from writing much.
Stay safe
-Dudududueheheh