Hey folks, Grubkiller here.
Here's part 2 of this story
Enjoy.
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Rogue Shadow, in orbit above Mustafar.
Built by Sienar Fleet Systems, the Rogue Shadow's design was based on the Scimitar, Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator. It also shared certain design elements with other Imperial craft, such as the Eta-2 interceptor and the starfighters of the TIE series. Designed and built in secret, all of the personnel and droids involved in the Rogue Shadow's construction were killed, thus ensuring their silence, while the causes of their deaths were described as "industrial accidents" and street crimes.
The Rogue Shadow boasted an advanced hyperdrive, cutting-edge sensory arrays, a fully functional medical bay, crew quarters, a workshop and a meditation chamber that could double as a training room. It also had the fastest sublight drives in the Imperial Navy. In addition to these high tech features, the Rogue Shadow was outfitted with an experimental cloaking device that enabled the vessel to hide from even the most powerful scanners for short periods of time. Its cloaking technology was powered by a rare stygium crystal, a form of lightsaber crystal from the Dreighton Nebula that could warp perceptions around it.
Its sub-light engines surged with smooth acceleration as its new pilot deftly manipulated the controls. The apprentice watched her closely as she worked, assessing her qualifications as well as her... other qualities. Of the pilots he had worked with so far, none had been women. She was barely his age and very beautiful with it, but in the pilot's seat she was a consummate professional. Confident and precise, she moved as though she had been born in a cockpit.
Once he was certain that he and PROXY were in safe hands, he turned his attention to the details of his mission.
"PROXY, give me the target."
The droid who had been his sole continuous companion for most of his life was sitting in a jump seat at the rear of the cockpit, strapped carefully in place. Familiar distortions played across his metal features as he activated the holoprojectors that made him unique. The appearance of a hardened human warrior took form. Dressed in the familiar brown of the hated Jedi, along with some silver armor plates, he possessed high cheekbones and a strong, broken nose. His eyes were deeply recessed and revealed none of his thoughts.
"According to official Imperial records," PROXY said in a deep, commanding voice that was nothing like his own, "Jedi Master Rahm Kota was a respected general in the Clone Wars."
"The Clone Wars?" Juno half turned at the controls as she prepared the ship for its jump through hyperspace, with a serious expression on her face. "You're hunting Jedi."
The apprentice hadn't realized she was paying attention. "I bring Darth Vader's enemies to justice," he told her. "And now so do you." Before she could initiate a full-on discussion about it, apprentice said, "Go on, PROXY."
"Of course. Master Kota was a military genius, but did not believe that the clone soldiers were fit for battle. Instead he relied on a unit of his own personally trained troopers. A militia of mercenaries, volunteers, and even former POWs from Separatist space. It's the only thing that kept him from being executed when the Emperor discovered the Jedi's plot against the Republic."
Juno nodded. "So, there were no clones in his squad to bring him to justice, once Order 66 was issued."
"Exactly, Captain Eclipse. And after Order 66, he vanished. Imperial records actually claim he's dead."
The hologram faded and PROXY returned to normal.
Juno still appeared more interested in the mission then plotting the hyperspace jump. "So why come out of hiding and attack the Empire now?"
The apprentice had been considering that very question himself. "Kota wants to be found."
"Then we are walking into a trap." She looked from the apprentice to PROXY and back again. "How many pilots have you lost before me?"
"Seven."
"Oh, excellent." She flipped a switch on the Rogue Shadow's complicated console. "Coordinates for Nar Shadda are locked. Prepare for light speed."
The apprentice braced himself as the stars ahead turned into streaks and the familiar unreal tunnel opened up around the ship. With a well-tuned whine, the Rogue Shadow and its passengers rocketed into hyperspace.
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Liberation, former Republic star destroyer, operating in the Y'Toub system.
Nar Shadda.
The Smuggler's Moon. The Vertical City.
Or even Little Coruscant: most of the former Republic officers serving under General Kota had never been here before, but they had learned as much as they could from history holos. Its criminal classes and extensive underground networks were famous across the galaxy, with lowlifes by the tens of thousands flocking there in search of ill-gotten fortunes. Although dwarfed by the noisome Nal Hutta, the large planet it orbited, it outshone every other world in the Y'Toub system in every conceivable spectrum. Dozens of different species called it home.
But the men and women of the Liberation, a heavily modified Jedi cruiser with extra armor plating and more gun emplacements, were not here for this wretched hive of scum and villainy. Rather, they were here for what orbited it.
A massive Tie-fighter factory.
These factories were constructed throughout the galaxy to maintain and build up the Empire's massive war machine and typically hung in low orbit above a planet. They were owned and operated by Sienar Fleet Systems, though ultimate ownership laid with the Empire.
Destroying this facility would weaken the Empire's already precarious position in the Outer Rim, and allow the oppressed people to rise up and take up arms.
So Captain Shack, an aging man with a stern beard to go along with his grizzled features, watched as his aging warship hammered away at the Imperial frigates and Golan defense platforms that protected the stations.
The deck shook below him as the Liberation's main battery cut loose with a powerful broadside, which caused orange and red explosions to blossom on the hulls of two Arquitens-class light cruisers that were on either side of the ship. As the two frigates spun out of control, four proton torpedoes cut through the vacuum-less void to slam into a Golan defense platform.
As the modified Venator made short work of the factory's small defense fleet, swarms of Z-95 Headhunters engaged in dogfights with Imperial Tie Fighters all around the station, while Y-Wing bombers hammered the factory's point-defense guns, clearing the way for more of Kota's men to board the station.
But suddenly, a new ship jumped out of hyperspace right over the bridge viewport and rocketed towards the station.
"What the hell was that?" The captain called out.
"We don't know sir. But we can't pick it up on our scopes. It must have a cloaking device."
"Send word to General Kota, immediately. We gotta let him know what's coming."
Tie Fighter factory, command center.
"Blast them!"
"Get to cover!"
"Hold the Line!"
Red and blue blaster bolts crisscrossed back and forth down the corridor that led to the factory's command deck. A squad of Imperial Stormtroopers were protecting the bulkhead door, desperately trying to hold off the Insurgent invaders.
But one by one, the troopers fell to Insurgent fire, as well as, thanks to a green lightsaber, there own.
"Sir, we can't hold this position much longer, we don't have enough men!" One trooper shouted over the sound of blaster fire.
"Just keep firing! If we lose the command center, then our forces lose contact with one another, and this situation gets worse in a hurry!" The squad leader shouted.
The remaining troopers kept firing.
But that's when the Jedi leading the charge used the force to throw a large object down the corridor.
"Oh Stang!" One trooper exclaimed just before the object crushed them against the bulkhead door, which it smashed through.
Everyone in the command center looked up in horror as the Jedi, a human male wearing a combination of Jedi robes and light combat armor, jumped through the demolished door and just started hacking away at the Imperial troopers inside. He was followed by a squadron of Spec Ops Insurgents, who rushed in and blasted everyone in the command center. Most of the Imperial crewmen were killed while still in their seats.
Kota finished off the last trooper by slashing at his torso. The trooper screamed and fell to his knees. That's when Kota walked passed him and swung his blade into a reverse grip before he plunged it into the severely injured trooper, who gave one final scream of pain before dying. That's when Kota withdrew his blade, causing the trooper to collapse to the deck.
When the command center was cleared, the militia troopers gathered around Kota, awaiting his orders.
"Lock down the command center and get that hologram projector up and running," Kota ordered.
"Yes sir, " one trooper said before he ran off.
Kota then turned to his other officers. "Tell all squads to fan out and funnel any opposition towards us".
"Right away, General."
Kota then turned to the hologram of the demolitions team. "Explosive charges on levels two, five, and twelve, just like we planned".
"Aye Sir," the demo-team's leader said as he snapped off a salute, before his holo-image disappeared.
"General Kota," a voice said from behind Kota. He turned around to see a hologram of Captain Shack. He was next to a hologram of a ship of some kind. "Sir, he's here".
Kota studied the hologram of the ship that was coming in.
"I've finally drawn you out of hiding," Kota said under his breath.
"Shall I divert a squadron of fighters to intercept that ship, General?" Shack asked.
"No captain. I want your ships to keep up the pressure outside," Kota said. Shack nodded and gave a salute before his hologram disappeared.
Kota looked around to the men inside the command center.
"Lower the containment field on hanger twelve," Kota said. "And tell our men to get into position."
"Yes, General." The soldier said before he left the room to join the men in the hanger. It was time to hunt down a Sith.
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Rogue Shadow, Y'Toub system, en route to Tie-fighter construction facility.
As the Rogue Shadow approached Nar Shadda, the apprentice couldn't hide a contemptuous sneer. Notorious for changing allegiances, the criminal capital was currently courting Imperial favor by inviting - or at least tolerating - the presence of a new TIE fighter manufacturing facility in its upper atmosphere. He could imagine the reasoning behind it: more money and resources flowing into the system; a new source of 'legitimate' jobs for those few who required them; an influx of potentially corrupt officials to bribe. Sad for the locals, then, that the facility was staffed entirely by humans, with security maintained by Imperial navy troopers, and a full battalion of Imperial Stormtroopers.
The sneer became a frown as the apprentice remembered Lord Vader's words: Leave no witnesses. He was more uncertain about that than he was about facing his first fugitive Jedi. Although his Master spoke of confronting the Emperor and taking over in his stead, the apprentice felt no disloyalty to the many troopers and officers working steadfastly in Imperial Service. If they broke no laws or hatched no plots against his Master, he had no gripe with them. But now, for the first time, he would have to act against those whose only error would be to cross his path. Was this a test, he wondered, to see how far he would go in pursuit of his destiny? If so, he swore not to disappoint his Master. He would obey orders and follow his instincts. He would not fail.
The starfighter facility was much larger than it had seemed from a distance, looking like a stack of round plates hanging high above the Smuggler's Moon. What he had assumed were lights flashing across its irregular surface turned out to be explosions when viewed from close up.
A heavily modified Venator-class Star Destroyer, a relic of the Clone Wars much like Starkiller's target, and a pair of CR90 anti-fighter corvettes, along with several dozen fighters and bombers made short work of the small Imperial task force and defense satellites that protected the station, and were laying siege to the station, and the TIE fighters that were flying out of it once they were finished being built.
Vast balls of yellow-hot gas erupted at irregular intervals from shattered viewports, weakened bulkheads, and burst access tubes.
"The shipyard's sustained heavy damage," Juno said matter-of-factly as she looked for a place to dock.
"I can see that." The apprentice peered with her. Former general Rahm Kota had obviously been busy. "Get us closer."
The Rogue Shadow wove gracefully between warships, dogfights, and gouts of flame and debris that spewed from the hull of the station. The apprentice was forced to admire Juno's deft hand at the controls. The only tension she showed as the ship rocked and slewed was in her jaw. It was clenched tight.
"Over there," he said, pointing. "That looks like an open hanger."
She nodded tightly. "It's defended."
"We don't have the time to talk to security." Or to explain that he was forbidden to let anyone know who they were. "Come in hot. Let me handle the defenses."
With well-practiced moves of his own, he activated the ship's weapons systems and took a bead on the cannon emplacements protecting the open hanger. He waited until automated targeting had registered their presence and they swiveled to take aim at the Rogue Shadow. Then, with two precise shots, he destroyed the emplacements and thus cleared the way for a landing.
Juno didn't waste any time. The starfighter streaked into the hanger and settled onto a flatspace clear of debris. As thrusters brought the Rogue Shadow to a halt, the apprentice was already out of his seat.
"I will slice into the mainframe and guide you through the infrastructure," Juno said, slipping a commset over her right ear. "Your friend here can help me."
Starkiller didn't dissuade her, although he knew her efforts would be mostly unnecessary. He could already feel the presence of the Jedi radiating through the facility like a bright light after a snowstorm. Kota wanted to be found, all right.
"Just keep the ship safe," he told her, " and be ready to leave when I get back. We might need to move quickly."
"That is my speciallty," she said through the comlink on his wrist as he glided through the ship to the exit ramp, which was fully extended before he arrived. He smelled smoke and spilled blood in the air. That and the faint stench of Jedi made his heart quicken. His eyes narrowed. He took a running jump out of the ship.
His lightsaber was lit before he hit the deck, ready to deflect the shots fired his way by the contingent of troopers sent to investigate their landing. The Force guided his arm.
It rushed through him like wine down the neck of a bottle, joyous with release and the promise of more to come. His blade drew glowing lines through the air, casting energy bolts back at the troopers who'd fired them, sending them sprawling in a shower of sparks.
A dozen open-helmeted men and women in blue and silver combat uniforms - Kota's insurgents, he presumed - came down the hanger's primary access corridor, sealing the blast door behind them. Baring his teeth, he ran to meet them, eager to take the offensive. Their rifles were no match for the power of the Force. A single, powerful push scattered them like dolls. One he blasted with lightning. A second he choked until all consciousness fled. A third he swept up and pounded against the nearest bulkhead. The rest he dismembered with graceful aggression, ignoring their cries of fear and pain.
The blast door opened, and both insurgents and Imperials retreated through it.
"All Imperial squads maintain offensive stance," blared a voice over the intercom. "All squads maintain offensive stance!"
Starkiller grinned and followed his welcoming committee up the corridor.
"Can you hear me?" Juno asked through the comlink.
"Yes." He replied as he swung his lightsaber through more limbs and batted away more blaster bolts back to their origin point.
"Reports are showing that Kota's forces have stormed the command center."
"Then that's where I'm headed." He stepped over the bodies and followed her directions to the letter.
Her calm voice guided him level by level up a huge chasm leading to the top of the facility.
A squadron of TIE fighters were buzzing around, trying to help the Imperial forces retake the Flight Control Tower in the center, as Insurgents tried to hold it with a captured AT-ST walker. Militia Elites armed with Rocket launchers and Z-6 Rotary guns managed to shoot down two Imperial fighters. One crashed into one of the several bridges connecting the Tower to several parts of the station, while the other crashed into the Rebel-controlled AT-ST, demolishing both.
Once Starkiller was out of Juno's sight, he didn't have to worry about her asking questions about his harsh treatment of their supposed comrades. Lord Vader could fill her in on that point later, if he thought it necessary. For now Kota was the most important thing.
"The intruders may try using TIE fighter assembly lines as cover," she said. "And I am picking up explosives on my scanners. Be careful."
He assured her he would, even as he snuck into the Flight Control tower, and dodged a trap laid by Kota's insurgents at the top of a turbo lift shaft. The voice over the station's intercom became progressively more alarmed.
"Threat status upgraded. Eliminate all unauthorized personnel."
"Unnecessary force is authorized."
"All K-Level squads report in!"
"Reinforce local security stations immediately!"
The walls shook from an explosion so close, it must have buckled every bulkhead on that level. Always, Starkiller kept in mind Juno's echoing of his own observation: We are walking into a trap. Except he was doing the walking while she sat in the ship, safe from BlasTech E-11 rifles and the insurgents ragtag weapons.
"Another stormtrooper squadron has reached Hanger Twelve," Juno informed. "It looks like we will have some help in retaking the facility."
"The station is not our concern."
"But Imperial High Command will be quite upset if the TIE assembly lines are damaged-"
"I don't answer to High Command. Now cut the chatter. I'm trying to concentrate."
On the floor of a massive star-fighter assembly rig, the apprentice stopped with his head raised and his lightsaber cocked. A prickling in the back of his neck warned him of a new threat just as pile of black and red barrels exploded to his right, sending bits of TIE fighter in all directions. He deflected the main force of the explosions, but was still stung by tiny pieces of shrapnel down the back of his right hand.
"Give up!" The insurgents shouted. "We have the factory!"
"What is he?" Called another to one of his fellows. "Some kind of Shadow Guard, or Inquisitor?"
"Doesn't matter. Blast him!"
Anger rose up in the apprentice, pure and clean, sweeping all other concerns aside. He vaulted a stack of detached solar gather panels and sent a stream of machine parts raining down on the source of the weapons fire.
Screams sounded over the crashing of metal. Kota's men scattered from behind the TIE cockpits they had been using as shelter. Some fired shots at him, employing a range of weaponry that displayed either a lack of organization or restricted resources, or both. Starkiller deflected every shot with controlled fury and poured his rage into retaliation. He felt no need to hold back. Those disloyal to the Empire deserved everything they got.
Only when the last was buried under a small mountain of titanium alloy hull plates and reactor shielding did he examine in more detail the equipment they had been carrying. As well as their motley weapons and somewhat mismatched armor, the fighters had brought explosive timer packs and had clearly been setting such charges elsewhere on the level. He'd best hurry, he told himself, before the whole facility went up in flames.
No sooner was this thought complete than another shockwave rolled through the structure, much stronger than the last. He barely kept his footing on the heaving deck as TIE fighter and body parts tumbled around him. Juno was shouting something at him, but it was a moment before he could hear her over the blaring of the intercom.
"-the stabilizers or the repulsor engines - can't tell - not good at all."
"What's that?" he asked. "Repeat."
"Kota's men have hit the facility where it hurts," she summarized. "Finish up soon, or we're going into the skylanes with it."
"Right." The deck was still moving underfoot as he made his way out of the assembly area, blocking the path behind him with a pile of ejector seats and unmounted ion engines. "Where did you say this control center was?"
Juno guided him through the quaking facility. Anyone unlucky enough to get in his way was unceremoniously pushed aside by telekinesis. Doors buckled shut and weapons mysteriously jammed. He didn't have time to play games anymore.
"Any available squadrons," blared the intercom, "defend the security stations at once!" Then: "They're breaching the security stations!" And finally: "Command bridge to all squadrons, we need your assista-"
The final broadcast ended with a rasp of blaster fire. Then relative peace.
Ambient gravity was noticeably lighter by the time he reached the doors that Juno assured him led to the control center. That meant the entire facility was falling at a faster rate than he cared to think about.
He could feel the Jedi's presence nearby.
With a gesture of his finger, the heavy blast doors slid open. Beyond lay a room identical to hundreds in the galaxy: cold and metallic, with red display screens keeping staff updated on the facility's status. A long, elevated walkway led to a command post where General Rahm Kota stood with his back to the door, in a gesture deliberate in its confidence and contempt. He hadn't even drawn his lightsaber, which hung diagonally across his shoulder blades in a custom-made sheath. A brown cloak hung from two metal shoulder pads that only added to the physical presence of the man. He was a warrior with every breath and wore his battle scars with pride.
Starkiller had been ready to attack, but now he felt a brief moment of hesitation. This wasn't what he had expected. Jedi were soft from a life of privilege, outdated, spent. He hadn't expected a soldier.
Kota's voice, when he spoke, was deep and commanding, as it had been during PROXY's impersonation of him. He turned around, and upon seeing the apprentice looked visibly surprised.
"A boy?" With one blindingly fast movement, the lightsaber was in his hand and lit. "After all these months of attacking Imperial targets, Vader sends a boy to fight me?"
Grim and silent, the apprentice adopted a fighting crouch. So the trap had been directed not at him but at his Master. If Kota was disappointed, the apprentice swore that this would be the last emotion Kota ever felt.
He raised his left hand and with the power of the dark side unleashed a bolt of Sith lightning at the renegade Jedi.
Kota only laughed. Raising his left hand in a move that was a mirror image of Starkiller's own, Kota sent the lightning arcing back to its source. The energy struck both of them, hurling them apart.
Starkiller broke off the attempt, blinking smoke away from his eyes. His anger intensified. He was the first to his feet and running as soon as his boots touched the deck. He felt completely weightless, yet full of momentum, like a hurled spear. His red blade cut a blur through the air, aimed hard at Kota's throat.
The Jedi general ducked and swept his green lightsaber up and down in a lazy attempt to catch him as he went by. That was a move Starkiller had long ago learned to avoid by tucking his head down closer to his center of gravity and rolling in midair, then kicking himself back at his opponent off the nearest wall. This time he pushed telekinetically as he came, attempting to knock Kota's feet out from under him before bringing his blade to bear.
Again, however, Kota deflected his Force energies back at him. Again they were pushed apart. More cautiously the apprentice circled him, slicing chairs to pieces as he walked and sending the glowing fragments at his enemy's head. Anger made him eager to attack, but he knew better than to give in to it. He hadn't been humiliated. He had successfully tested Kota's defenses. Now that he knew a direct attack would probably fail, he had to find another way to get closer to the man. Or to make the Jedi come to him.
Suddenly Kota was moving, charging with astonishing speed behind a furious diversity of strokes. The apprentice retreated with lips pulled back over his teeth.
This is more like it!
Green and red energies clashed as he blocked blow after blow and still Kota kept coming, attempting to overwhelm him with sheer determination and speed. Starkiller went back several steps, then stopped. He drew his blade close around him, forming a tight defense. One that Kota couldn't penetrate.
Realizing this, the general backed off and tried a different style, unleashing several devastatingly swift strikes, which the apprentice parried, offering strikes of his own when Kota faltered.
The duel raged across the control center, which shook and rattled as the facility around it broke apart. Starkiller ignored everything - Juno's voice, the wildly changing gravity, the never-ending explosions, and the rising temperature of the floor beneath him - in order to concentrate solely on this one vital battle.
While Starkiller acknowledged that Kota was strong and clever in his own right, possessing many moves the darksider had never seen before, he was ultimately able to drive him back. Despite Kota's attempts to regain the offensive or force a mistake on the apprentice's part, he was quickly wearing out and taking hits In his desperation, Kota broke off from the duel momentarily.
Both duelists stared each other down, breathing heavily.
"You're stronger than I thought," Kota said, admitting that he had underestimated Starkiller. "I'll be sure to send your ashes back to you masters," Kota declared as he holstered his saber on his back. He then bent his knees and used his hands to channel the power of the force. That's when Starkiller nearly lost his balance as the command center began to vibrate and shake violently.
Kota was telekinetically seizing the entire command center structure. He ripped it from the facility.
"What are you doing?" Starkiller asked as the command center was sent plummeting into Nar Shaddaa's upper atmosphere.
"If I have to bring the facility down on both of our heads to stop you, then so be it," Kota declared. As the control center flipped over while plummeting, they resumed their duel.
However, Kota was unable to keep up his defense. The apprentice seized Kota in a telekinetic stranglehold and hurled a chunk of debris at him, which smashed Kota hard into the wall behind him. Keeping up his grip, Malgus bashed the hapless general against the floor then flung him against the ceiling, leaping up after him and physically assaulting him before blasting him back down. Kota hit the floor so hard he cracked the glass beneath him.
As Kota attempted to regain his feet, Malgus leapt at him and attacked. Kota managed to block, initiating a blade lock, which sizzled just millimeters from their faces.
Kota strained but couldn't force the red blade away. In his blue eyes the apprentice saw not cleansing hatred, but regret. Even at the end, Kota clung to his weak Jedi ways.
"Vader thinks"- the old man gasped-"he's turned you. But I can sense your future - and Vader isn't part of it!"
The apprentice urged the lightsabers even closer to Kota's face.
Sweat beated on the Jedi Master's forehead. "I sense - I sense only . . ." A look of shock and confusion passed over his face. "Me?"
Starkiller forced Kota's own saber down into his eyes.
And suddenly - as though in a vision from out of time, exactly the sort of vision the apprentice sought in the fire of his red blade - Kota's face became that of another man, a man with dark hair and strong features, features not dissimilar to his own.
The general cried out in pain - and in that cry the apprentice thought he heard a man shouting, "Run!"
He flinched away, blinking furiously, wondering if Kota in his desperate extremity had concocted some new insidious Jedi mind trick. But his head seemed clear of intrusion, and the general seemed to be thinking of anything but attack.
In agony, Kota sent out a wave of Force energy that shattered every viewport in the command center, dropping his lightsaber in the process. The apprentice was sent flying. A raging wind swept past them, sucking out the smoke and shrapnel of their duel. Kota, too, was sucked out and fell with a fading cry into the atmosphere below. Or had he leapt?
The apprentice let the gale drag him closer to the hole where the viewport had once been. Catching a bent stanchion with one hand, he carefully leaned out and looked down, lightsaber at the ready for any final deception.
Kota's body was already far below, spread-eagled and dwindling among the skylanes of the Vertical City. A large transport intersected his path; thenceforth his body was invisible. The apprentice imagined it being swatted like a bug on somebody's windshield.
But he wasn't satisfied that the task was completed.
But he was profoundly disinclined to report failure to Darth Vader.
What to do?
"This place is going to tear itself apart at any moment!" came Juno's voice over the comlink. "Are you almost done here?"
"On my way." With a vehement look on his face and no triumph in his heart, he retreated from the viewport and headed for the door, pausing only to scoop up the fallen Jedi Master's lightsaber on the way out.
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Liberation, General Kota's flagship.
Captain Shack leaned over the holo-table in the cruiser's command center. He watched as parts of the construction facility began to fall to the surface, including the bridge superstructure at the top.
A communications ran up to the captain, before she snapped off a quick salute. "Captain, our remaining forces on the station confirm that General Kota was on the bridge just before it collapsed. But we've received no word from him or any of his squad. We've also lost contact with several squads inside the station."
The captain didn't respond immediately. He just watched as dogfights continued to rage outside of the station. Most of the Imperial frigates and defense platforms defending the station have been destroyed, reduced to flaming wrecks that would soon be claimed by Nar Shadda's atmosphere.
He then pressed a button on the holo-table. A hologram of a human male officer materialized in front of him. "Lieutenant, I want you to take our backup units and head for the station. Finish that facility off and evacuate our surviving men."
"Yes Sir."
Shack then turned to the helmsmen. "Helm, bring us about and head for the surface. I want to track down that falling debris and see if we can't find General Kota. And somebody get a shuttle ready to find him, and one fighter squadron to escort."
"Aye Aye, Sir!" Said one crew member as everyone started running around to complete their assignments.
"Belay that order, Captain." Said a distorted, computerized voice.
Captain Shack turned around and saw a holographic image appear behind him, on the holo-table. It was a hooded figure, but with no facial features visible. He knew what it was almost immediately.
"Fulcrum. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked.
"Your ground forces have taken heavy casualties, and your space forces are running low on fuel and ammo. You are to break off and return to base immediately." Fulcrum said.
"But the station is nearly destroyed, and all local Imperial space forces have been taken out. We can still-" Shack said before he was cut off.
"Out of the question. My superiors have put far too many resources into this operation, and we'd prefer not to risk anymore. Your cruiser is an asset that must not be lost."
Captain Shack was taken aback. "But what about General Kota? We lost his signal in the atmosphere."
"Don't worry about General Kota. I have already sent operatives to the surface to locate him."
Suddenly, an alarm started blaring around the bridge. "Captain, we've got enemy reinforcements coming out of hyperspace!" An ensign called out from his station. Shack looked out the viewport and saw a pair of Imperial Star Destroyers, and several escorts, exit hyperspace.
A silent dread blanketed across the bridge, as the crew witnessed the Imperial fleet advance towards them.
Captain Shack closed his eyes and allowed a sigh to leave his lips.
"Are you convinced yet, Captain?" Fulcrum said.
Shack turned back to the featureless hologram. "Very well. Bring us about and prepare to make the jump to hyperspace. Get our men off the station. Corvettes and fighters are to hold off those TIEs until our men are evacuated from the station."
As per the captain's orders, the Liberation made for the station and began to pick up the remnants of the assault force, while the lighter ships held off the fast-moving TIEs. When the order was given for all ships to withdraw, a flight of Y-wings flew in the direction of the Imperial fleet, and unleashed their proton torpedo payload, before swiftly breaking off back towards the Liberation.
The smaller Imperial ships performed evasive maneuvers, before the missiles detonated, destroying a few fighters.
When everyone was accounted for, the Liberation, its escorts, and any fighters still outside, jumped into hyperspace, without their General, and without completing their objective.
The Empire still reigned supreme over the sector.
But unbeknownst to anyone, a single unmarked shuttle flew towards the surface, heading for General Kota's last known location.
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Well folks, that was part 2
I hope that you all enjoyed. To anyone concerned that this was just going to be an exact copy of the Force Unleashed, I hope the SW: Rebels references made it clear that it wasn't.
I'm gonna get cracking on chapter 3, and have it out as soon as possible.
Anyway, until next time, this is Grubkiller, over and out.