Be Ready, Be Proud, Be Vigilant
SUBMITTED BY:
CP Starbug / SCS-CO / VSD VigilantIntroduction
The cold night air blew across the frozen plains, rustling amongst the stiff grasses that had succumbed to the ice. The twin moons of Contika shone down casting eerie shadows that reached out from the trees like daemons reaching for a defenceless child. In the far distance of the plain stood a large shield generator, a massive dish spanning about 200 metres across, it stood nearly 400 metres high. At its base was a small grey compound with several of the infamous white armoured storm troopers standing on sentry duty. Kriss Slander lay in the settling dew, his clothes were all camouflaged to match the fields, but they were also soaked right through now because of his need to lay low.
Kriss pulled up his micro binoculars to his eyes; he looked across at the compound, where the storm troopers still valiantly patrolled. He scanned around and saw the two other guerrillas moving into place for their strike on the shield generator. The Contika rebel’s had been fighting for independence from the Empire for the last four years, they were a small minority on a planet that supported the Empire, but they knew that to do damage to the Empire would help the New Republic to finally come and liberate them.
Kriss looked at his watch, the time had come for him to move forward another five hundred metres. The attack itself was going to be short, the moving into place was going to take another three hours, but that didn’t matter. Even if they got held up they still had six hours of darkness to get within striking distance. Another cold breeze blew across Kriss, it sent shivers up his back as he began to creep forward, using his arms to pull himself towards the shield generator.
Kriss finished his crawl, with five minutes to spare. So he waited again, looking across at the target, mentally preparing himself for the attack. The idea was simple, sneak up, gun down the guards, rush in, place the explosives and get out. The rebels had worked at this plan for the last year, observing the shifts, plotting when the generator crews had birthdays. It had all carefully been planned and now it was in action. This night was the commander’s birthday; they would have a grand drinking spree and return drunk to their quarters. After which they would strike, just after the guard shifts had swapped.
Yet again his time arrived to move forward and he did again, silently and swiftly he crept across the field. He was now able to see the officers stumbling to their quarters, all completely drunk and being helped there by the storm troopers. Kriss settled back into the grass, not daring to make a sound. The storm troopers returned to their posts as Kriss looked on watching the other two in the strike team crawled forward. Their movements kept them low to the terrain, they avoided the watchful the eyes of the storm troopers guarding the dish.
Eventually Kriss had crawled all the way to within one hundred metres of the generator. He was in range to strike; all he waited for was the other members to get into position. He glanced across and saw the other members of his team readying themselves for the attack. Kriss noticed a green glare falling across the land; he looked up towards the night sky and saw a light green dot heading towards the generator. Kriss watched it curiously, he had never seen it before, but when he realised what it was he ran.
The green bolt smashed into the shield generator, ripping into it without remorse, it violently tore it apart. Shards of metal and a huge cloud of dirt ripped up into the air, flying in every conservable direction. Kriss dived to the ground as several large chunks of the generator flew over his head. He felt heat from the explosion surge through him then dissipate. Someone from in orbit had fired upon the generator; someone was coming to liberate him.
Be Ready
Space wasn’t exactly a huge commodity, unless you lived onboard a Victory Star Destroyer, such as Captain Starbug did. His quarters were reasonably small, even despite him being the captain of the ship. The VSD Vigilant was his ship, and it was a Victory Destroyer, the newest model though, but even that didn’t improve the space he had in his quarters. Looking outside his view port with his black, alien, bug like eyes he gazed into a different space, one which there was plenty of space, the endless black void of space.
Captain Starbug sat down behind his desk and began to look over recent training drill reports from the various sections of the Vigilant’s crew. Most indicated that the crew was performing within Imperial regulations. Which was good enough if you came across a standard situation. But the captain had learnt to expect the unexpected, especially being the captain of a Star Destroyer. He had learnt many lessons, and one was that the standard situations that they practised for never existed in the real world of combat. They were designed to make cadets feel safe in their jobs, but they only made the over confident.
For years now Starbug had worked within the system to get the training situations changed, but that had all but failed. The Imperial Academy hadn’t listened to him, but he knew that they would have to sooner or later. An electronic beep came from his door, the captain looked up. "Enter." He said with little enthusiasm. The door slid open, hissing as it did and in stepped Lieutenant Commander Talon Calcyon, his first officer. Calcyon saluted and Starbug returned it. "What is it commander?" The captain asked impatiently. Calcyon hesitated briefly, "Sir, we’ve just received word from the planet Contika. It appears that an Imperial vessel fired on them and their shield generator was knocked out. I suspect that a rebel force is probably following to invade the planet." The commander said. The captain simply put down the reports calmly and looked up. "Commander, not all is what it seems. Your assumption that there is a rebel invasion force on the way is a logical one, but that given that these Imperials are working with the rebels. I suggest we set course for Yaga Minor and intercept the lead transports which are about to assault there." The captain said and Calcyon looked completely blank. "You must be joking sir!" Starbug looked Calcyon straight in the eye, "No need to worry Commander, I know what I’m doing."
The VSD Vigilant shot off into hyperspace and the star lines around it spun then blurred. The bridge of the Vigilant was full of activity, ensigns scrambled from post to post, organising the ship for the up coming battle. Captain Starbug sat in his plush chair watching the organised chaos in the bridge. Calcyon came up beside him and looked nervously around. "Sir, I’m still not sure about this, it is a great risk you are taking." He warned cautiously. The captain simply watched the bridge while giving his response, "Commander, you must really have more faith in my judgements." He said calmly as always. Then the star lines faded, and Calcyon had faith.
Already two transports were heading towards Yaga Minor when the Vigilant had come out of hyperspace and a third one had just arrived out of hyperspace. Captain Starbug quickly ordered both Epsilon and Eta squadrons to launch. And with the TIE Fighter’s usual dull roar they shot out into space and raced towards the rebel transports.
In a matter of minutes it was all over, the rebel transports had been destroyed, and the Vigilant was off into hyperspace again. Calcyon now had a new faith in his captain, one he had not had for sometime, not since they death of the Emperor. Now Calcyon felt a new era coming one, ever since Grand Admiral Daemon had taken over command of the Empire, things had been going up. Most rebel attacks had been repulsed easily. And it was nearly time for the Empire to strike back…
Be Proud
Kriss stood up from the field and looked at the burning hulk of the shield generator. It was a creator, now only a few small fires burned in the centre of it. Kriss looked around and saw the other two members of the strike team were coming walking towards him, looking just as stunned as he did. "Hey Kriss, what in Jabba’s name did you think that was?" One of them asked, obviously aiming to get straight to the point. "Some sort of orbital gun I think, by the colour I’m judging it’s an Imperial weapon too." Kriss said bluntly. The other member just looked shocked, not saying a word. By now first light was starting to come, and they all figured that it wouldn’t be too long until the Imperial’s were swarming over this place. Quietly and stealthily all three of them disappeared into the early morning dawn.
They arrived at a small-concealed cave within a couple of hours. It was in a small rocky area with several high placed vantage points, from which to see enemies approaching from either land or air. The trio crept to the door, and Kriss entered a code that slowly opened it. The other two nervously kept their eyes open for trouble, but none came, so they slipped silently into the cave.
The cave was dimly lit, the air was moist and water dripped from an unseen source. Kriss and his companions edged forward cautiously, their blaster rifles at the ready around every corner. After five minutes of this cat and mouse they reached a corner where a bright light shone from around its bend. The trio relaxed and calmly walked forward and around the corner. Yet another door was in their way, so yet again Kriss went up to it and typed in yet another code. And as before, the door slid open and the trio slipped through it into the main resistance complex.
The VSD Vigilant slid out of hyperspace and into the Contika system, where only a day before an Imperial ship had fired on the planet and destroyed its shield generator. The deep greens and blues of Contika lay before the Vigilant. Captain Starbug stood at the front of the bridge looking out over the small planet. Calcyon watched the captain, it seemed as though his thoughts were lost to the cosmos. Starbug smiled to himself as he turned around to face Calcyon who was standing on the far side of the bridge. "You would of thought they’d choose a more interesting planet wouldn’t you?" He asked, though it was a rhetorical question. Calcyon nodded in agreement. Starbug now laughed to himself as if he had just cracked some private joke with himself. He came walking up to Calcyon and gave an evil grin, Starbug’s black eyes made it look sadistic, "Commander, ensure that our squadrons are ready to launch at a moments notice. I want nothing to come on or off that planet." He ordered, his voice deadly serious, his face like a joke.
Captain Starbug turned away and strolled off the bridge. Calcyon shrugged off the captain’s odd behaviour, he was quite used to it now. The commander walked over to an ensign who was idle at his console. "Ensign Maraki, I want you to run a scan over the planet’s surface, tell me if you find anything odd." He ordered. The ensign instantly came out of his idle state and got to work. Calcyon smiled, that was what he liked, seeing these Ensigns panic at being given an order. It seemed humorous to him that they were so inexperienced, despite what Thrawn did to the fleet. "Once an ensign, always an ensign." He said to himself as he walked off the deck.
Ensign Maraki sat watching the scan results come through. A young female ensign came down and sat next to him. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously. Ensign Maraki looked up at her. "Just running a scan that Calcyon ordered. Seems like a pointless punishment to me." He complained. She smiled at him as he gave a gloomy look. "Well just be proud you’ve been chosen to do that. I’ve got maintenance duty in the air ducts in fifteen minutes." She grimaced at the thought. Then a dark shadow fell over them both, it was that of Captain Starbug. "Both of you should be proud. You’re part of the Imperial Navy, not some ragtag outfit that’s trying to destroy the galaxy for the second time in a century. Now get back to work, the both of you!" He ordered.
Be Vigilant
Just as the captain turned Ensign Maraki looked up urgently at him. "Captain, I’ve found something." He said. Captain Starbug turned around with an annoyed look. "Ensign, there’s no use telling me that you have found something. Tell me what it is that you have found." He crossly commanded. The ensign turned back to face his console, "Well sir I’m not exactly sure what it is. Lieutenant Commander Calcyon had me run a scan of the surface of the planet, and I found this interesting little thing right here." He pointed to a reading on the screen proudly. "It appears to be some sort of underground tunnel system. The catch is it is full of electronics and jamming equipment. Catch is that the jamming equipment must have been disrupted itself during the attack on the shield generator." He claimed enthusiastically. The captain patted him on the shoulder. "Excellent work Ensign, your vigilance has done you well. There are no such Imperial complexes on Contika, so I am presuming this is a rebel one. Congratulations, Sub Lieutenant Maraki."
The shuttle from the Vigilant seemed to creep out very slowly, as if expecting to be attacked by a rancor at any moment. Its engines came to life and it flew quietly away from the underside of its mother ship. It travelled down to the surface, unescorted and unprotected. Inside, the Vigilant’s ISB officer, Lieutenant Boston and a group of stormtroopers prepared themselves for the landing. "Scans from the Vigilant indicate that there is a large underground complex in this area. It is unknown who exactly owns it, but the Captain is of the opinion that rebel forces own it. And it’s our job to clear it out." He briefed the stormtroopers. The shuttle touched down and the stormtroopers poured out into the fierce rain. Lieutenant Boston followed in his black ISB uniform. "Find me those rebels!" He called after the storm troopers who had already moved towards the entrance. One of them placed a detonator on it. They all backed off and detonated it, blasting the door open as they flooded inside the complex.
A few hours later it was all over. Kriss and his trio gave up their small resistance and they were marched out and taken up to the Vigilant. Lieutenant Boston took them down to the detention cells and began his interrogation. While Captain Starbug and Lieutenant Commander Calcyon kept their vigil on the bridge.
Captain Starbug glanced around, keeping the Vigilant at full alert. His nervousness seemed unusual for him, and Calcyon noticed it. "Sir, is something wrong?" He asked, trying to lure what ever it was out into the light. "This all seems a little wrong, perhaps a little too easy." Starbug replied, now strolling down to the front of the bridge and looking out over Contika. "Tell me Commander, why would any Imperial ship bother announcing their betrayal in such a way on such a pointless backwater planet?" Calcyon looked round blankly.
"I don’t really know sir."
"Neither do I, and that’s what bothers me."
Then the captain was answered. An Imperial Star Destroyer suddenly appeared out of hyperspace in high orbit of the planet. "What are the identification codes of that Star Destroyer?" Captain Starbug asked urgently. Calcyon ran to the nearest console, pushing the ensign at it aside. "Sir, it’s the ISD Raven, but what in all of Coruscant is it doing here?" Calcyon puzzled.
"Never mind that, launch all TIE fighters and have them attack it immediately. It’s the ship we’re looking for."
The captain watched in horror as the Raven unleashed several volleys of orbital fire down at the undefended planet. Then it turned and left into hyperspace. Captain Starbug turned and left the bridge in silence. Calcyon waited until he left before issuing the orders to the TIEs to return to the Vigilant. It had finally turned out that despite the vigilance of all the officers, the true targets of this mission had escaped, and now it was up to them to find them.