Dark Vengeance
SUBMITTED BY: SL Syrtaras / Epsilon 2-1 / VSD Vigilant
HOLONET REGISTRATION: <
Chapter 1
Slowly the mighty arrow-shaped hull of the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimara glided through the blackness of space. From the main hangar started a shuttle flanked by two TIE Interceptors. Its side wings opened and moved to the standard flight position. They were heading to the blue green ball beneath them; the planet Xygon.
"We are now entering the atmosphere", the pilot reported. "No atmospheric turbulence, as expected. We’ll reach the landing area in approximately half an hour." Although this was a routine report the pilot’s voice was not as calm as normally. He did not often have to fly officers of such a high rank.
The shuttle and its escort were flying across densely wooded, mountainous, and apparently completely uninhabited terrain; past snow covered mountains and through deep valleys with vast coniferous forests, but always just above the ground. The pilot had wondered all the time why he had to fly this complex course and why he had to stay near the ground all the time, but he trusted his superiors, and as the flight did not seem to contain any risks he tried to relax and get rid of his concerns.
In the passenger cabin of the shuttle, Line Captain Calorn felt, in contrast to the pilot, fantastic. He allowed himself one moment of grim pleasure. Now, finally! After Grand Admiral Thrawn had been murdered by his Noghri bodyguard and the second collapse of the Empire there had again been wretched retreat fights against the rebels. But fighting the rebels was not the worst; as they were the enemies it was normal to fight them, but after Thrawn’s death a couple of high ranking imperial officers all tried to bring the remnants of the Empire under their control and so imperial officers fought against each other. Calorn despised them. Those individuals only wanted personal power an glory and didn’t notice that they couldn’t do anything that way. Only working together and following the ideals of the New Order could be the way to defeat the rebels and restore law and order to the Galaxy.
But to achieve this, the Empire was in the need of a leader. Someone like the Emperor. Calorn smiled. Yes, the rebels would finally be defeated for the Emperor had returned. He did not know how the Emperor could have managed that, he was only figuring that it had to with the Dark Side of the Force. More important was: how could the leaders of the Rebellion compare to someone who had that kind of power over life and even death?
So the Empire again had a strong political leadership, and thus could unite the various imperial factions, and what was even more important, the military also had a new Supreme Commander, a tactical genius like the old Grand Admirals, so they could even begin to retake the worlds hold by the rebels. Calorn looked over to the seat of Grand Admiral Daemon. The spotless white uniform seemed to have a blue gleaming, an effect caused by the dim light in the passenger cabin. Shortly before, Daemon had only been one of the Navy‘s Vice Admirals, but that surely had to do with the fact that the Grand Admiral had spent most of his time in the Outer Rim territories and with his age. He was the youngest officer ever to be promoted to an Admiral’s rank. And now he was the thirteenth Grand Admiral and the Supreme Commander of all Imperial forces. It was soon after his resurrection that the Emperor had Daemon to come to his court and gave him that position. Calorn was absolutely sure that he deserved it. He smiled again. He himself had been a Lieutenant not a long time ago, but by working hard and doing his job perfectly all the time he earned the respect of the Grand Admiral. So he quickly advanced through the ranks and now he was the Captain of the Empire’s flagship.
Again he looked in the direction of Grand Admiral Daemon. What was this whole manoeuvre about? He had kept a great amount of secrecy about it and had not told anyone about the true goals of the mission. The official version was that the highest ranking officers were following an invitation of High General Prakon to discuss about co-operation plans, but Calorn had discovered some orders in the log which suggested that there was going on more.
"I assume you have some questions, Captain?" Grand Admiral Daemon’s cool voice cut through the silence of the room.
"Yes sir, indeed." Calorn said. "I had thought that this whole thing was only supposed to be a visit along with discussions about an alliance with the General, but why then the complicated course of the Shuttle and your recent order to compose a task force of the best Navy troopers?"
"Very good, Captain", Daemon said. "Apparently I couldn’t keep everything a secret before all of my officers." He smiled tightly. "But I’ll need a moment to explain, Captain. First of all: our ... visit. Intelligence has discovered that our so called High General is in fact a rather unimportant governor, who managed more by luck than mind to escape to this planet during the confusion after Thrawn’s death. After his arrival he claimed to be High General Prakon using faked data cards to convince the troops that he was their rightful commander."
"Seems as if they have believed him." Calorn answered. "And now he controls the planet. But why then..." he started. "...do we come to this place, waste our time and follow the invitation of this ... person?"
Daemon completed the sentence. "I have discovered that our famous General sits on something that would gain the Empire a major tactical advantage. Of course, he has no idea how important his planet is."
"The planet has no strategic meaning, it is completely isolated. It is even the only planet in this system! And to my knowledge it was uninhabited until the Empire established an outpost there."
"No, Captain, this isn’t entirely correct." Daemon straightened in his seat. "It was inhabited. During some studies of the archaeological excavations in this sector I discovered something: Approximately at the time of the Great Sith War this sector was populated by a highly civilised culture. They even had a higher developed technology than we have today, but as this part of the galaxy was unexplored at that time there wasn’t any contact, until a group of Dark Jedi came here. The alien civilisation didn’t know anything about the Force and so even their advantage in technology couldn’t save them. They were completely eliminated. Why they had never settled in other parts of the universe is unknown and it also isn’t important for us. The Sith Lords devastated the whole sector and as they didn’t know how to use the technology they destroyed it along with everything else. My studies, to stop boring you, revealed that Xygon was the capital of the civilisation and that deep beneath the surface is still some of the old equipment left."
"You didn‘t bore me, Admiral." Calorn stated.
"It’s alright, Captain. I know that archaeology is not quite the topic you are interested in and that you prefer devoting as much time to duty as possible. And that is good. What if all imperial officers were interested only in art?", Daemon answered.
"Thank you, sir." Calorn answered. "And what exactly do you expect to find on the planet?" Calorn asked after a few moments of thinking about the Grand Admiral’s words and what this mission would mean to the Empire.
"Patience Captain. I‘ll tell you when I will have found it."
"And what about the Shuttle course and the troopers?" Calorn wanted to know.
"It is quite simple: we’ll conquer the planet. I have studied the governor’s files well. He is a man who always wants to have everything under control. And he will surely watch the shuttle’s flight."
"And as this course appears as if we were trying to evade his sensors he will have an even closer look on us." Calorn said.
"Very good, Captain. This should act as a distraction, while the Chimaera in orbit will pass the magnetic pole of the planet and drop a troop transport, which will then sneak through the shields with a faked ID-signal. Then the troops will take out the shield generators."
"Why don’t we simply discuss an alliance? We could need a garrison like that on the planet" Calorn asked.
"The Emperor has returned, Captain." Daemon said, his voice icy cold now. "We are the rightful heir to the Empire. Others can serve the Empire, but there aren’t any official alliances any more. Especially not with individuals like our faked General. By the way, I am sure that the troops will defect to us if the truth about their commander is uncovered, what with the Chimaera in orbit ready to open fire on the planet. And after we have found what I am looking for" he added more softly, "we won’t be in such a desperate need of soldiers anymore." He sighed. "Captain. the final and complete destruction of the rebellion begins here and now!"
"Yes, sir" Calorn said feeling a pleasant shiver running down his neck…
To be continued…