Galactic Conquest: The Rise of the Imperials

[Jae Onasi]

Nothing says 'guerrilla fighter' more than using legumes in battle...

 

While this is a good fic, you have to keep in mind that this is science fiction. It's a known fact that sci-fi must use the metric system.

 

You know, I nearly spewed Diet Pepsi all over my laptop at the legumes thing....

 

RC, your battle scenes continue to be uniformly good, I can 'see' all the action you describe. I caught a couple spelling things, but that's an easy fix. Looking forward to seeing where this goes next.

[ForceFightWMe12]

^

I'm with Jae. Your battles a very well done, and easy to follow. Kudos to you

 

Obi's back, Obi's back, Obi's back!

 

Keep up the good work, RC From what I can see, nothing except the occasional spelling or grammar error (lol, beans ) Great job!

[Hallucination]

You know, I nearly spewed Diet Pepsi all over my laptop at the legumes thing....

Thank you, that's what I'm here for. Soon I shall win the Funniest Ahtonaut of the Year Award... Muahahaha

[RC-1162]

^^^

not if i can help it

thanks for the comments ForceFight, and everyone else too, ill get the next chapter up tomorrow or the day after, i have to figure a few things out as yet.

[RC-1162]

TEN

 

Obi Wan waved his hand in front of the Imperial Pilot, reaching out with the Force and touching his mind.

“You want to tell me what the Empire will do next,” he said in a commanding tone.

“I…want…the Empire will call a full retreat and begin work on their new TIEs.” The pilot replied soberly.

“Which are…?” Obi Wan asked.

“The TIE Bomber. They will use them in an invasion of Corellia.”

“Where is the fleet positioned now?” Obi Wan demanded.

“I don’t know”

Obi Wan reached deeper into the Imperial’s mind.

“Where?”

“They…they are just outside the Hoth Asteroid Belt, using the resources found among the rocks to power their productions.”

“Thank you,” Obi Wan said cheerfully and let go of his prisoner’s mind. The trooper immediately slumped down onto the chair behind him, exhausted.

Obi Wan turned back to Wedge,

“Well, Wedge, you’ve got your target. I would suggest a swift hit-and-run mission.”

“Of course, Master Kenobi, I…”

“Please,” Obi Wan interrupted. “Call me Obi Wan.”

“Sure, Obi Wan,” said Wedge. “Anyway, as I was saying, I had already taken the opportunity to prepare our strike team. We would appreciate it if you joined us in the battle.”

“What? You mean like in a fighter? No thank you, Wedge, flying is for droids, and overly excited youth.”

“Well,” Wedge said, a bit disappointed. “If you change your mind, let me know.”

“Of course, in the meantime, I’ll supervise from the main base comm. room.”

Wedge nodded and departed to his fellow strike-mates to deliver the target and plan of action.

**********************************************

An asteroid hurtled past the automated mining apparatus, nearly smashing it to pieces. It crashed into another piece of rock the same size and fragmented instantly, leaving behind shards of sharp metal ore and rock. Admiral Ben Dylan of the Imperial fleet shook his head slightly.

*This is dangerous. I don’t know why the Emperor didn’t have these machines programmed with artificial intelligence.* he thought.

He heard dull footsteps approaching and instantly knew who it was; he turned,

“Lord Vader,” he greeted with his head bowed in respect.

“What is your progress, Admiral?” the deep voice replied.

“We have already begun construction of the TIE Bomber prototype,” the Admiral said confidently. “In three days, it shall be ready for testing. If it is a success, we hope to begin mass-production within the week.”

Vader was silent for a minute and then he replied with a tone of satisfaction,

“Good work, Admiral. Keep up the progress and the Emperor might commend you soon.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” was the reply.

Vader left the bridge of the Cruiser and went to his Chambers to meditate. As the Admiral turned back to the chaos outside, however, the milk curdled.

“Admiral, we are picking up a squadron of Rebel vehicles on our scanners,” a junior technician reported. “They are approaching fast.”

“What!?” the Admiral exclaimed. “How did they find us?”

“That is irrelevant at the moment, Admiral,” answered his aide. “Our goal now is to protect the Cruiser and the machinery.”

“Send out all available TIEs, immediately!” Dylan ordered.

*************************************

Sitting in his craft, hurtling along at Sublight 5, Wedge and his group cracked their knuckles with anticipation. About 3 dozen TIEs poured out of the Hangars on the Cruiser. Wedge’s group split up and half of them went in to deal with the TIEs.

[RC-1162]

Statement: The master requires feedback. Give it up or be terminated, meatbags!

[RC-1162]

ok, maybe i'll ask politely this time. Can i please have some good comments?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ELEVEN

 

Wedge’s attack force consisting only of 20 ships, one would think that the TIEs would be having the advantage. However, the Rebels were throwing everything they had at the Imperials and gaining the edge.

“Red 19 and 20, destroy the mining machines, they are crucial to this setup, then try to do some damage to the Cruiser.” Wedge called. Two ships from the group headed for the Cruiser broke off and fired upon the mining apparatuses. They blew up in seconds and the X-Wings crossed back and proceeded with their second order. However, as they went along, a TIE which was hit by another X-Wing came careening out of control towards the duet. Red 20 managed to go into a suicide dive and pull up, but Red 19 strafed right instead. The TIE collided hard with the X-Wing and it was the strength of the new alloy on the hull that kept it from disintegrating. However, Red 19 lost control of his throttle and it zoomed ahead at maximum speed. He wrestled with the controls, trying to avoid hitting anything. The Hoth Asteroid Belt proved too much for him; as he jerked his ship hard to the left, a speeding piece of rock hit his ship head on. The Rebels were now one ship short.

“Red Lead,” Red 20 called into his mike. “Jake’s ship was hit by an asteroid. He’s…gone.”

Wedge, about to begin a strafing run on the Cruiser, aborted his run and shouted,

“WHAT?! He’s an excellent pilot. We all are. How did he just smash into a rock?”

“An out-of-control TIE immobilized his throttle controls.”

Wedge swore loudly. Things were becoming too real.

“Keep going,” he announced. “Give them hell for Jake.”

The Rebels now began fighting with a new life. They coordinated strategy and worked in pairs or groups of 3 and destroyed several components of the Cruiser. As they were preparing to deal the fatal blow, however, another Imperial Cruiser materialized in front of them and a new wave of TIEs burst forth.

***************************************************************

Admiral Dylan was seriously contemplating suicide when good news, or so he thought, came from one of his techs:

“Admiral, a new Imperial-class Cruiser has appeared in Sector Alpha-Two-Gamma. They are sending reinforcements.”

For a moment, Dylan joined in the cheers of the crew, then suspicion hit him.

“How did they know we were under attack? We never sent out any distress signal.” He wondered aloud. Just then, the ship rocked with the force of another explosion.

“What's going on?” Dylan yelled. “The Rebel ships are all on our visual field.”

“It seems you were right, Admiral,” replied his Aide. “The new TIEs are attacking us.”

“What?! Treachery! Murder! Who dared betray the Emperor?”

“They are the ships captured above Bespin, Admiral.”

Dylan really wanted to throw himself out of an airlock now. The very fact that Vader had not come charging to the deck for an explanation was a wonder to behold.

“We’ve no choice, send all available power to the engines and make a jump, NOW!” The Admiral ordered.

The lights went out as all the power was rerouted to the hyperdrive and sublight engines. The only illumination was from the flickering computer panels. Slowly, the ship began to move. It charged ahead, out of the Asteroid Field, straining its engines to the limit. As soon as they were clear, the Cruiser shot ahead into Hyperspace.

****************************************************************

The moment the new Cruiser popped up, Wedge’s heart suck, but it rose up again immediately when his comm. cracked to life.

“Hello, Wedge. Enjoying the party?”

“Obi Wan!” Wedge replied, half-awed. “How did you get one of those?”

“Later, Wedge, We’ve a bigger problem here. I’ve sent out the TIEs we captured to help you out.”

“Call them back, Master Kenobi,” came a voice. It was Red 3. “They’ve started their engines. If I’m right about them wanting to jump to Hyperspace, we’d better stand clear.”

“You’re right,” agreed Obi Wan.

There was a brief silence as he gave the order through a separate comm. and the Rebel-TIEs pulled up and returned to their ship. Sure enough, Red 3’s hunch was right, the Cruiser had just enough power left and they had used it to flee. If there were any ships next to it at the time, they would have been torn apart.

“Let them go, we don’t have time to waste,” ordered Obi Wan. The Rebel X-Wings obediently docked on the captured Imperial Cruiser and it too jumped into Hyperspace, leaving behind a vast amount of wreckage to join the Hoth Asteroid Belt.

[Renegade Puma]

Really good solid chapters RC! Very well written and easy to visualize. Also very fun to read. Just too short. Keep up the great work anyway though!

[RC-1162]

ah, well, im in 9th grade and the workload for the CBSE syllabus is like...man! i hardly have enough time to spare, but ill keep updating, thanks for the comments.

[Hallucination]

^I thought you were in grade eight.

[RC-1162]

ninth started on April 4th

[RC-1162]

I WANT COMMENTS!!!

--------------------

TWELVE

 

“Okay,” Wedge said as he descended from his starfighter. “Can you explain now how you got this ship?”

 

“Obviously, we…” began Obi Wan.

 

“…Captured it, I know. My question is *how* you managed to do that.”

 

“As you know, the Alliance is engaged on a broad scale; we received a distress message from New Agamar just as you left for Hoth, so we hightailed it there and slapped then hard.” Obi Wan explained as the rest of Wedge’s squad fell in step behind them. “Though, I won’t say it was easy. We took heavy losses on our side and unfortunately, lost Agamar in the process.”

 

“What?” Wedge said.

 

“The Imperials pulled a trick on us. Just as we arrived, they had another ship join them from the other side of the planet and transports carried Infantry units to the surface. By the time our battle’s tide had turned, we received a transmission demanding our immediate withdrawal or else one of the Agamar colonies would be vaporized.”

 

“Right, so you lost the planet.” Wedge confirmed. “How did you get the ship then?”

 

“We paid them back,” Obi Wan replied with a grin. “Just as we were about to leave, I ordered the captured TIEs out. They embarked from the port bay so that nobody could see them and doubled back after flying towards the planet’s atmosphere to make it appear as if they were a relief force. They stormed the Cruiser by force and captured the Bridge. Once done, the ship was ours, though, once again with heavy losses.”

 

“Right, do what’s our next plan of action?” Wedge asked.

 

“Right now we’ll lick our wounds and catch our breaths. If the Imperials strike again, we have to be at full alert.”

 

Wedge nodded and they parted ways as the pilots headed for their quarters.

*********************************************************************

“You may rise,” said Darth Vader. Ben Dylan rose, relieved that Vader did not dispose of him as he had done with others.

 

“I am terribly sorry once again, My Lord, but we were not prepared for such an assault.” He explained once again.

 

“You have learned your lesson, Admiral, do not fail me again.”

 

Dylan suddenly felt a sort of seizure in his chest. For a second, he could not draw breath, but it suddenly passed just as it descended.

 

“Yes, My Lord. Do I have any further orders?”

 

“As a matter of fact, you do.” Vader replied. “You will go to Sullust and set up a base among the volcanic plateaus.”

 

Vader handed Dylan a datapad.

 

“All the information you need is in there. You are dismissed, Admiral.”

 

Dylan bowed and said,

“Yes, My Lord.”

*********************************************************************

Space rippled and the Crusher, Dylan’s new command ship, appeared in front of the blue-red planet of Sullust. He gave the order and thousands of Lambda-class and cargo shuttles erupted from the bay. 5 hours after touchdown, work began on the Imperial transponders required to power such a base.

*********************************************************************

The hologram vanished and Mon Mothma turned to Dodonna.

 

“They have begun work on a new base on Sullust,” she reported.

 

“Let them be, Sullust is a far out planet and building the base itself will take a long time. Once it is active, we will place it under scrutiny of the Bothans.”

 

“I agree,” Mon Mothma said. “However, we must not be flippant about this, I suggest we keep an eye on them just to be safe.”

 

“Done and done,” Dodonna replied.

[Renegade Puma]

Good chapter RC. Here is a comment for ya! If Obi and Vader don't have a duel in this one, then I am going to kick your butt! How's that for a comment? Anyway, keep up the solid work.

[RC-1162]

yeah, you and what army?

ok, RP, ill try to get Obi Wan in somewhere, but i wasnt planning on it, so ill give it to ya in the next story . but ill try.

[RC-1162]

okay, my longest chapter yet: 1178 words, so please give me some decent comments.

--------------------------------

THIRTEEN

 

Dylan gathered his commanding officers in the already completed control room, a week after the main landing, to discuss strategy.

 

“Our tactics have been too predictable and open in the past few campaigns,” he said. “The Rebels have superior tacticians and the Bothan Spy network on their side. I have put forth this point to Emperor Palpatine and he has agreed to train his best recon troopers for the same job on our side.

 

“We will divide our attack into three divisions. The four Victory class Star Destroyers that are completed will depart carrying how much ever TIEs they can hold. They will be closely followed by two Imperial Star Destroyers moving in on a separate target. These fleets will be a diversionary two-pronged attack. While the Rebels deal with them, we will make a main assault on Kuat, the engineering colony. Once Kuat is secured, the factories on the planet will churn out TIEs and Star Destroyers by the numbers.

 

“The diversionary forces’ main objective will be to keep the Rebels occupied long enough for us to secure Kuat.”

 

“Admiral Dylan,” called out a senior officer from the back.

 

“Yes, Commander Janus?”

 

“What’s to keep the Rebels from abandoning the diversionary forces while the main attack is in progress?”

 

“We have jamming satellites that will prevent all but Imperial-encrypted messages to be received or delivered by the planet.” Dylan said.

 

He looked around, expecting further hands to come up in doubt. When none came, he proceeded,

 

“Any more questions?” he asked; none came.

 

“Very well, we shall proceed with the battle plan…”

***********************************************************************

“Dodonna paced up and down on the bridge of the Mon Calamari star cruiser donated to them by the Calamarians to aid in the war effort. His aide, a calm and cool Twilek, named Jalen, came up to him and spoke in perfect Basic.

 

“What’s troubling you, sir?” he asked softly.

 

“The Imps have been quiet for too long,” said Dodonna. “The Bothans cannot come up with anything other than the fact that they seem to be retreating and consolidating their forces. We know full well that the Imperials have always used brute force instead of advanced strategy. They never consolidate their forces. It is unnerving.”

 

“There is a first time for everything, sir” Jalen replied. “The best we can do is to keep our eyes and ears open and be prepared.”

 

Dodonna nodded and allowed Jalen to usher him to his quarters.

***********************************************************************

Rain fell heavily on the cooler parts of Sullust, that is, on the wide open plains. And that was where the forward flank of the Imperial base was established. And that was also where Tard’orm’aonas, a Chiss native, was headed. On paper and to public knowledge, the Bothans were strictly consisting only of the natives of Bothawui. However, they were glad to use whatever resources were available to them and the glowing-eyed Chiss was one of their elites.

 

Slowly, he sneaked up to the outer perimeter. He took a glance at the fence, which was hissing and glowing in the rain. He drew closer cautiously and scrutinized the mesh. It was a laser fence, crisscrossing to appear like a standard force-field fence and superheating the drops of rain falling on it, causing the hisses and the erratic glowing of the fence. He shook his head softly, the Chiss race was more than prepared for things like this. He looked up and estimated the height of the fence to be around 5 meters. He took a few steps back and suddenly ran up to the fence. At the last possible moment, he jumped up and did a subtle somersault gracefully and landed with a soft splash on the other side. The fence cleared, he carefully made his way to the main building, staying aware for any mines or trip lasers. He reached the wall of the flank without any complications. Drawing his blaster, he popped the hatch and jumped into the control room. The Stormtrooper Sergeant inside was clearly not expecting any assault as his blaster sat in the wall mount across the room and he was lounging on his seat.

 

Two shots later, Tard’orm’aonas, or Dorma, to give his core-name, was hacking into the Imperial Information Grid. Several unimportant personnel logs flashed by; Dorma skipped them and executed the command to call up the battle action sequences. He inserted a data cylinder into the receptacle and downloaded all the Imperial logistics. Digging deeper, he reached the strategy analysis of the next battle. He realized the Imperials were much more organized this time around and that unnerved him a bit. He drew out his comlink and, after making sure that the scrambler was on, spoke into it.

 

“R5,” he began, referring to his astromech droid that he had left on his shuttle. “Prep the ship for take off.”

 

He received a beep in affirmation and switched off his comlink, satisfied. He carefully went back to the fence and, using the same tactic that he had used to get in, jumped out. He plodded through the heavy rain to where his shuttle was parked. He walked up the entry ramp, shivering slightly. He made his way to the cockpit and received a shock. His R5 unit lay in pieces on the floor; seeing this, he immediately knew that he had been compromised. He opened his shuttle comlink to make his report to the Bothans.

 

Behind him, in the cargo hold, two Stormtroopers quietly made their way to the cockpit. Dorma whirled around in the middle of his recital. He raised his blaster but the Imperials were too fast for him. He hoped the Rebels would figure out that they had to remain alert 110%. His last thought was that he had given his best to the Army he believed in.

***********************************************************************

Commander Tryan, the Commander in charge of the base on Sullust, listened to his troops attentively. A good Commander always listened to each and every thing his units told him, and evaluated it seriously, and Tryan was far better than just good. He glanced at the Chiss corpse lying in the wet body bag and shuddered slightly.

 

“What did he manage to reveal?” he asked the Troopers

 

“Nothing much, sir,” one of them replied, his synthesized voice seemingly loud in the small debriefing room. “We believe that nothing about the plan was revealed.”

 

He slipped his fingers into his supply belt and produced a small data cylinder.

“We found this on him. I don’t believe it was uploaded to the Bothans after he copied it from out Info Grid.”

 

“Bothans?” Tryan asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

 

One of the Troopers pointed at a small insignia beside the Rebel Alliance logo: The Bothan Spynet.

 

Tryan cursed softly. If the Bothans were here, that meant that the Alliance also knew that they were here.

 

“No matter,” he said. “You have done well, keep this up and a promotion will be heading your way for sure.”

 

The troopers acknowledged his compliment with a nod, turned in unison and marched out of the room.

[Diego Varen]

I've read the first two Chapters and they're good. Once I read all of it (Which I will), I shall read your next two parts.

 

On another note, when you click the link for Galactic Conquest, it always shows a Happy New Year Thread.

[RC-1162]

[bEEEEP]! thanks pottsie. i put p=(blah blah) instead of t=(blah blah) and thanks for the comments

[Renegade Puma]

A great chapter RC. It was a bit longer, so I enjoyed it that much more. Your story is starting to get a little bit deeper, so I like that also. You write things so that they are very easy to read and visualize. I can only wish I could do the same in my fic. Sometimes I feel that I can't write what I am thinking or trying to say. You however seem to have a real nack for it. Keep up the wonderful work.

[RC-1162]

thanks, RP, sometimes what i do if such a thing happens is that i take a sheet of paper and list all the points that come to my head, then i improvise in word. try it and you'll get it. it helps a lot.

im still working on the Obi-Vader duel, but dont kill me if i dont put it in this story, k?

[Renegade Puma]

I won't kill you for not having a vader-obi duel in this story. But I might have to sick Linduu on you. Hmmm... or even worse, Jasra!

 

Anway, hope to see more soon.

[RC-1162]

you mean you will sic someone on me . what you said means you'll make someone puke on me

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOURTEEN

 

Dodonna shook his head again. The darkness of the bridge just made him sleepy and he could hear the strong temptation calling from his quarters. Part of him just wanted to fall in the nearest chair and drop off, but he kept going with his will power, and the occasional cup of Stimcaf. He filled another cup and sipped the steaming liquid silently. The other crew members were also on full alert, but with their flashing consoles, sleep was hard to come their way. For a moment, Dodonna envied them, not responsible for anything other than observing the radar, or sending communication signals, or controlling the engines. But the moment passed, and he realized every person was useful to the army. If a soldier quit, the Army was one short, and that one soldier could have made a difference. He was still in the middle of his revere when the klaxon went off. He was so startled; he spilled half his cup of Stimcaf onto himself.

 

“What’s going on?” he asked the comm. officer as he pressed a towel to his soaked shirt.

 

“We’ve received an emergency signal from Corellia. They’re under attack.”

 

“Right, give the signal for the crew to get ready. We leave in 30 minutes.” He turned to walk out of the bridge to find a change of clothes when the comm. officer called him back.

 

“Sir!” he called. “There’s another transmission incoming: the Imperials are attacking Bothawui too.”

 

Dodonna cursed. The Imperials were causing far too much trouble.

“Get Commander Jalen.” He ordered one of his guards.

 

“There is no need, Admiral,” Jalen said softly from behind. “I am here.”

Dodonna turned to him and spoke urgently.

 

“We have to organize ASAP. The Imperials are hitting two targets at once. Divide the fleet into two and take one unit to Corellia.”

Jalen nodded and brought up a logistics annex.

 

“Get more firepower to Bothawui. It is a key system as is its Spynet. Cause no damage whatsoever to the civilians.” Dodonna ordered.

 

Five minutes later, the troops were all reassigned and there was a hustle of activity. Dodonna took this time to excuse himself to his quarters and change.

 

Forty minutes after the first transmission was received, the Rebel fleet was whirring into gear.

 

Across half the Galaxy, so was the Imperial fleet.

*********************************************************************

The Commander in Chief of the Kuat Defense Forces was not prepared for the Star Destroyers that suddenly loomed in the sky above them. Because of this, by the time the fighters were finally scrambled, the fast and agile Kuat Drives Mach III ships, the TIE Bomber Squadron had already destroyed half of the city.

 

“Send a distress signal and put everyone on alert,” ordered the Commander, forcing his voice to remain calm with much effort.

 

“Red Alert signal has been issued, Commander,” replied the officer. “But the Imperials have a jamming net in place.”

 

The Commander lost his patience and stomped his feet.

“Send a quarter of the Fighters to knock that piece of wampa dung out of the sky.” He growled in annoyance.

 

“Signal sent, Commander,” replied the officer after a few minutes at the comm.

*********************************************************************

High above the planet of Kuat, the Mach IIIs were engaged in a full dogfight-only type of battle. TIEs and Mach IIIs blew up by the second. Amidst this carnage, nobody noticed the slick group of ships slipping away from the main fleet. They headed towards the moderately-sized, sharp-edge designed jamming satellite put out of harms way. It would not be that way for long. Hundreds of laser cannon blasts and three concussion missiles later, it really wasn’t that way.

 

“This is K15 Squad,” called the leader of the attack force. “The Jamming Sat is down, repeat, the Sat is down.”

*********************************************************************

Back on solid ground, the officer got to work transmitting the distress signal at least once every minute.

 

“This is the planet of Kuat, we are under Imperial attack, require emergency assistance immediately!”

[Diego Varen]

Even though I hadn't read many Chapters, that was a good Chapter.

[RC-1162]

thanks dude. maybe you'd like to read the rest?

[Diego Varen]

thanks dude. maybe you'd like to read the rest?

 

Sometime yeah.

[RC-1162]

i have changed to format of my chapters to make them easier to read, hope you enjoy it.

------------------------------------------------------

FIFTEEN

 

Dodonna was appalled. He had never seen such a weak attack force. Especially with which the Imperials were hoping to capture Corellia. He gave the order to scramble the fighters and sat in his seat on the bridge of his command ship. The Imperials were holding their own, but were steadily losing. He shook his head. Again, poor planning had lost a war for the Empire. As he sat, however, a nervous looking officer came up to him and spoke to him urgently.

 

“Sir, we have received a transmission from Kuat. It doesn’t look good.” He said, and handed Dodonna a filmsiplast readout of the transmission. Dodonna read it and swore to himself. Kuat was under attack by a large Imperial fleet. He remembered the report he had gotten from the Bothans: ‘Keep on full alert, the Imperials may use decoy attacks while focusing on a main goal elsewhere.’

 

“Give the signal to the rest of the fleet to break off and head to Kuat,” he ordered.

 

“They have also been sent this transmission, Admiral. Any further orders?” asked the officer.

 

Dodonna looked at the planet of Corellia, which was still surrounded by a cloud of Imperials.

“Make two capital ships here hold their position and provide support to Corellia,” he said. “Tell Commander Jalen to do the same, then take the rest of his fleet and go to Kuat. We need the shipyards of that planet. If the Imperials get a hold of it, we’ll never get it back.”

 

The officer nodded and rushed to the comm. to transmit the Admiral’s orders. Fifteen minutes later, the Imperials on Corellia were being mopped up by only two capital ships, while the rest of them raced to Kuat.

***********************************************************************

The Commander of the Kuat Defense Forces thought he had fought bravely. But when you looked at the end, he had lost, enough said. Hands on his head, he and the other security forces and army troopers were being herded into cells, in a large warehouse, built to accommodate engine parts.

 

“Secure the planet’s night side and maintain the TIEs on patrol duty.” Admiral Dylan ordered from the same command base that the Commander of the KDF had used.

“The jamming satellite was knocked out, thanks to your incompetence…” he said, looking at a Commander, who was the in-charge of the jamming satellite control. He was opening his mouth to protest, but Dylan carried on,

“…hence, we can assume that the Rebels were alerted and are on their way here.”

 

“Admiral,” said a young officer, “The Rebels have advanced military techniques. What’s to stop them from storming our TIE Squadrons and taking back Kuat?”

 

“Their big hearts and their soppy heads,” replied Dylan and laughed. The officer stood quiet, not understanding.

“Never mind,” said Dylan, still smiling. “You’ll see when the time comes.”

 

The officer nodded and headed off for his duty post. Dylan turned back to his other Generals and began discussing strategy.

***********************************************************************

The portion of the Rebel fleet under Dodonna tore through Hyperspace and dropped into the system of Kuat. Cloaking devices full on, the ships waited, hovering in space, for the remaining part of the fleet. Ten minutes later, 6 other ships had joined them, to add to Dononna’s 5.

 

Moving in unison, the fleet made their way to the planet of Kuat. As they moved, the Hangars on board opened up and X- and Y-Wings churned out, flying cover for the bigger warships. As they drew nearer, Dodonna saw a thick cloud of TIEs and two Star Destroyers waiting for them. They were too late. But they had to try.

 

He was about to give the signal to the snub fighters to attack when his comm. crackled to life.

 

“Good day, Admiral Dodonna,” came a cold, slow voice. “This is Admiral Ben Dylan of the Imperial fleet.”

 

“Why don’t you leave Kuat and pick on someone your own size?” Dodonna asked.

 

“Like you, perhaps?” came the reply. “In two weeks time, your fleet will be far, far lesser than ‘my own size’, as you put it.”

 

“What do you want? I thought you Imperials were all action and no talk.”

 

“Ah, that is where we have changed. You see, I grow tired of all this senseless killing.” Dodonna scoffed over the comm. and Dylan knew what it meant. “Disbelieve me if you will, but I do have a conscience of my own.”

 

“And yet, you put the lives of three planets at stake just to build up your fleet.” Dodonna countered.

 

“I realize that was a ruthless move on my part, but now that I have control over Kuat, I will give the signal to my troops at Bothawui and Corellia to withdraw; on one condititon.”

 

*Here we go,* Dodonna thought. “Name your terms.” he said

 

“You will order your fleet to pull off and return to your base, wherever it may be. You have twenty minutes to decide, exceeding which, my TIE fighters will get rid of you.”

 

“Does your conscience approve of giving threats?” Dodonna asked, desperately trying to think up a plan, but his brain had fused and was only enabling him to speak.

 

“No, Admiral,” Dylan replied calmly. “But it does approve of me trying to preserve the lives of my TIE pilots. You have twenty minutes.” The comm. went dead.