Sibling Rivalry-A continuation of OS Chapter 17

[Reservist Foley]

10 ~ Jansen
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Sibling Rivalry

The holo-video flashed brightly as the Victory Star Destroyer Doom exploded blinding the cameras watching the battlefield. After the initial explosion, it started falling apart and spreading apart across the vacuum of space. As the image became clear again, the leftover fighters could be seen trying to fight for their life, before they were destroyed as well. Fleet Admiral Polanski’s forces were victorious even under the surprising attack.

“End the feed.”

“Roger Admiral.” A bridge member responded.

“Tell me Commander Klan, Commodore Flass. What did you think of the situation?” High Admiral Polusk Orssk asked his two top advicers.

“Our Needler Reconnaissance Craft was undetected by Polanski’s forces, so they still don’t know about us. Their forces are now in dis-array and they just lost their flagship.” Commander Damak Klan evaluated.

“Also, their Army is split up and spread apart between their shipyard, and two ships the ISD Nemesis and VSD Warhammer. It will allow for a relatively occupation of any we secure.” Commodore Trevic Flass continued. “I belive it is the perfect time to return to the inner galaxy.”

“Agreed.” Klan confirmed.

“Very good. I was hoping you’d think that way. Send a message to Grand Moff Lewno. Tell him we’re ready to bring the Empire under his powerful grip and begin to unite the Empire.” Orssk ordered. “Our first step is to get recruitment up. We will put a psychological pressure on Polanski’s men and bring them to our side. After we have crippled Polanski, we will move on to the next breakaway Imperial Group. We’ll show them our power and bring them to our ranks. Then we can take on the Rebel Alliance and take back the galaxy. We’ll start by taking the Chimeara from the thieves and take it before it can be brought back to Polanski. I think I know where the Rebels have brought it. It’s the only probable place that a ship that understaffed can go. Polanski or his men will figure it out quickly too so we need to move fast. Set a course for sector 14-53-25-7. We should be there in a few hours. So prepare your men. Get a move on Commander, Commodore.”

“Yes sir! Both said in unison.”

*****
Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Mitchell was sitting in the shipyard command room studying the holo-recordings of the last few days, trying to find any sign of sabotage. His communicator started ringing, taking him away form his work.

“Hello”
“MITCHELL!!!” General Jansen’s voice yelled through the communicator “Set your troops to high alert. Vek’din the Butcher is loose and could be anywhere, including the shipyard.”

“WHAT???” Mitchell shouted

“As you know he’s highly dangerous, and is to be handled with extreme caution. Try to capture him if at all possible, but take him out if he proves troublesome. I’m taking off in with Wedge in the Nemesis. I need to let Vortagh know what’s going on.”

“Yes, Sir. I’ll start looking around right away.”

“I hope you don’t find him. I’d rather him still be hiding aboard the Nemesis. Anyway, I’ll keep in touch with you.” Jansen said in farewell.

“Captain Nexant, have all our patrols get ready. We’re going to screen this entire station and find Vek’din. Are your men ready to leave?” Mitchell asked Nexant.

“Yes Colonel.” Nexant replied.

“We’re looking for this man.” Mitchell handed him a display card with Vek’din’s picture on it. “Try to capture him, but kill if necessary”

Taking the picture, Nexant studied the man. “Big guy” He commented.

“And extremely dangerous. If we’re lucky, Jansen says he might be somewhere else.”

“Ok, Sir. I’ll send out Viper and combine Demon with Hornet.”

“Hornet’s here?”

“Yes. Jansen wanted to leave a bigger garrison than what 2nd Brigade has alone.”

“Fine with me. Let’s just get this over with.”

*****

Commodore Vortagh stood on the bridge of the Warhammer, staring out into the space beyond the view port. The Victory Star Destroyer had just finished capturing a couple of platforms and was waiting to talk with the Nemesis, which had just jumped into the area. Vortagh was thinking about where the lost Imperial Star Destroyer Chimera had disappeared to. This was a stop for it, and Vortagh could only think of one place that it could go. The surrounding areas were in Imperial Space, except for a small area nearby that was neutral territory. The thieves could take it there and have it refueled and prepped for a longer voyage.
“Sir, the Nemesis is hailing us.” A bridge officer reported.

“Put them through.” Vortagh instructed. A moment later a hologram of Captain Wedge came up. “Vortagh here.”

“Ok, do you have a game plan, Vortagh?”

“Yes I do. I’ve studied the area, and I’ve concluded that the Chimera has left for the Neutral pocket in between Imperial and Rebel space.” Vortagh gave out his analysis. “I just hope that they’ll take some time being there.”

“Where do you think they are?”

“It’s an abandoned little space base. The neutrals would be to alerted if an ISD just appeared out of nowhere. So I think that they occupied a desolate base and are using it.”

“I see.”

“I’ll send you the coordinates.”

*****

Army Lieutenant Glendon was leading his company up the corridors of the Nemesis. They were hunting for Vek’din and had no idea how they would find him. The engines made it almost impossible to hear anything, and the lights dimmed occasionally from the engines making so much vibrations that it played with the circuitry. If they were lucky they’d find Vek’din and be able to handcuff him in his sleep. If they were fortunate they’d only lose a few people in the process. Lance Corporal Burton paused a minute.

“Sir, I saw something move down the hallway to our right.” he whispered.

“Right, everyone get behind me.” Glendon ordered. He stepped into the side hall and started moving down. He paused when he heard shuffling coming around the corner. He drew his rifle and got ready to pounce on target. “Check your angles.” he whispered. Taking a breath, Glendon jumped into the next hall and landed on the ground just as the lights went out.

*****

“Where’s our power?” Wedge asked as the emergency batteries kicked in.

“We don’t know. All our systems were running fine. It just stopped running.” Commander Tapio Laithlis reported.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Wedge said in a baffled tone. “I bet it’s our saboteur. We have a team in the power and engine area. Have them check it out.”

“Right, Sir.”

“Do we have communication?”

“Let me check… Yes we do.”

“Ok, open a channel to the Warhammer.” Wedge ordered.

A miniature Vortagh appeared before him.

“What is it Wedge?”

“We had another incident. We need to get the situation under control. Go ahead without us, we need to find the Chimera. We’ll be OK.”

“OK, we were just about to leave. Good luck with whatever’s going wrong.” Vortagh said.

“I will.” Wedge replied closing the link. He looked up and saw the Warhammer leaving and jumping into hyperspace.

*****

“Sir, we’ll be out of hyperspace in ten minutes.”

“Very good.” Orssk replied. He pressed a button that would let him talk to Commander Klan in the hanger bay. “Commander, are your squadrons ready?”

“Yes, Admiral. We’re ready for anything.” Klan replied.

“Good. We’ll be at our target in ten minutes. I want your fighters to play an important role in this operation. I want a pair of squadrons on each ship. And two on the Sword Edge. We need our ships in tact and we can replace our fighters easily enough.”

“Of course Admiral. My men know the routine.”

“Good.” Orssk said as he cut the link. “Get me Captain Carst.”

An onscreen image of Carst appeared. “Yes, Admiral?”

“I have a special assignment for you, Captain.” Orssk instructed. “You have been provided with a voice and image replicator. You are to leave the group when we exit hyperspace and proceed on to these coordinates.” Orssk pressed a button, sending the files. “Once there you will disable the docked ship Nemesis, and disable it. If it is not there, destroy the two platforms orbiting the shipyard. Do not attack the shipyard. I want Polanski in one piece.”

“Very good, Sir.” Carst acknowledged and disappeared from the view screen.

“Admiral, why don’t we want to kill Polanski?” Commodore Flass asked.

“Because, we don’t want to martyr him. For our plan to steal his ranks from him to work, we must embarrass him and make him look incompetent. If he dies, it will just strengthen his men’s loyalty. No, Polanski must live till we’re ready to attack the Rebellion. Then we can dispose of him in any way we see fit.” Orssk explained.

“I understand, Sir.”

“Sir, thirty seconds till real space” A bridge tech threw in.

*****

Vortagh exited the turbo lift in a rush. No one had warned him that they had arrived so quickly.

“WHY DIDN’T ANYONE INFORM ME WE WERE HERE SOONER?” he shouted in a peeved tone. Vortagh had a premonition earlier that this was a bad day, and he didn’t want it to start here. Looking out the view port, Vortagh could see a small rebel fleet amongst an old outpost. In the middle of it all was the Chimera.

“There she is. Vortagh grinned. “Prepare for battle stations. Mop up these pathetic Rebels. What is the status on the Chimera?”

“She’s in a perfect state, Sir. Just as we left it. There’s a skeleton crew, and the only functioning systems are life support, communications, and engines.” The rest will take a warming up to work.” Laithlis informed.

“Good. Let’s go get our ship back.”

“SIR!!! I have new ships on the scope. It looks like a large fleet. It looks like… My God!!!!” A bridge crew shouted.

“Vortagh looked out into space and saw the massive shape of a Super Star Destroyer.

*****
Captain Chu led his central team to an area that had a no camera coverage. They were searching the core of the shipyard and had to. There was a good chance that Vek'din was in here. It was an ideal place to hide. No one came down here and the core interfered with all forms of visual and audio communication. This was a serious situaution too. Viper Company was new, but Chu was not. He knew exactly what they were looking for. The butcher was not one to be triffled with. They had to be careful with all the equipment that was around. It would cause problems if they hit an important computer console. Chu found the catwalks that led to the core itself. Above Lieutenant Foley shouted down from the upper floor.

"We're ready to move, Sir. On your command."

"OK, lets take a look around." Chu replied.

Chu started moving forward. He kept his eyes on all the hallways, corners, dark spots and other areas that could be used in ambush. Chu was about halfway down the catwalk soneome screamed behind him. He turned to see one of his men fall over the catwalk.

"AMBUSH!!!!!" Chu shouted. "Don't take cover, get to the other end. MOVE IT!"

As Chu finished giving directions he started taking off. He heard another shout and a trooper from Foley's group fell and hit his head on the lower catwalk with a thud. Chu looked forward and jumped off the catwalk, and pushed himself up against the closest wall.

*****

Fleet Admiral Sirus Polnaski decided that he better get something to eat. He was getting very hungry and would have trouble thinking if he didn’t get something to fill his stomach. Everyone was working so he should have the mess hall to himself. The only people in there would be the cooks. Entering, Polanski found the empty room quiet. There was the normal humming of machinery, but it wasn’t right. Polanski walked up to the kitchen counter and found nothing.

“Why are these guys not at their stations” Polanski thought, when he found no staff. Walking around the counter, he entered the kitchen itself. Nothing was missing, or out of place. Nothing except the people he paid to keep the food ready. Figuring they were in the break room, Polanski walked up to the open door. No one was inside so Polanski turned around to find something else to do, only to walk into a large dark figure that came out of nowhere.


“VEK---” Polanski started to shout the man’s name, but was cut off as the man grabbed him by the throat.

“You ruined my life, Sirus. If it weren’t for you I’d be running worlds. I’d have power. I’d have respect. But no… You and your little band of friends had to interfere and ruin my dreams and get me imprisoned. You ruined my life. Now I will take yours.”

The large dark figure began to apply pressure to Polanski’s throat. Ignoring his natural reflex to clutch his throat, Polanski reached for his pocket and pulled out a small vibro blade and thrust it up into Vek’din’s belly. He gave a scream and dropped Polanski to the ground. When Polanski looked up, he was long gone. Polanski picked up his comm-link and called Mitchell.

*****

Glendon turned his flashlight on and looked where his target should be. Seeing nothing he looked around. He heard something shaking below him and saw a small young man in a technician uniform cowering below him.

“GET UP!!!” Glendon shouted. “THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA AT THE MOMENT. NO ONE SHOULD BE DOWN HERE WITHOUT CAPTAIN WEDGE’S PERMISSION!!!”

“I-I-I-I-” was all the young man could muster.

“Get up, you’re in some deep trouble.” Glendon scolded him as he brought the man to his feet and started marching him off. “You’re going to tell me and Captain Wedge exactly what you were doing down there.”

*****

Vortagh stared at the scene in front of him. The Rebel Fleet began to engage the vastly superior fleet of Star Destroyers. The unknown Imperial Vessels began to cut the Rebel ships to shreds. The eight ISDs and four VSDs began to circle the area, pursuing various ships, and securing the area. The SSD just plowed through the middle. The Chimera started warming up its engines and started to take off. It didn’t go very far, as it slowed down and finally stopped. The SSD was right on top of it and had captured it in its tractor beams. Letting loose a hail of laser fire the SSD started to disable the ship.

“SIR!!! We have a Vic and an Destroyer right on top of us. They’ll be within firing range in seconds.” A crewman shouted.

“Call our fighters back. We’re getting out of here.” Vortagh ordered. “Prepare for a blind hyperspace jump.”

*****

“Prepare for hyperspace. Change our identification and ready the rest of our disguise” Captain Carst ordered.

“All done, Captain. We’re ready to go.”

“Let’s make this a glorious day.’ Carst said. “Make the jump.”

*****

“Launch all fighters. Encircle the area, and bring the Sword Edge down on the Chimera. I don’t want her damaged. Just disabled.” Orssk instructed.

“Sir, we have a ship on our port. It’s a VSD calling itself the Warhammer.”

“Damn. Send a couple ships after it. Commander Klan, cause as much damage as possible to the Warhammer.”

“Roger that Admiral, we’re moving in.” Klan replied.

*****

“Iota, set shields to full aft and dump the rest into the engines” Lieutenant Commander James Muscat ordered. “And hurry up, we’ve got to get out of here.”

“Roger that. We’ve got a bunch of interceptors on our teail” Ensign First Class Codey Alex shouted.

“Steel, think you can help us?” Muscat shouted to Zeta’s squadron leader.

“Sure, we’re coming in” Steel replied.

Muscat pulled the squad into a formation and blocked the view of the TIE Advanced from their view. At the last minutes Muscat dived and Zeta tore into the pursuing interceptors shredding them to pieces.

“Your tails are clear. Wait, we have a some more coming in.” Steel announced.

“Roger, take care of our 6, we need to get out of here fast, we weren’t equipped for dog fighting today” Muscat said.

The TIE interceptors flew into the rear of Zeta and tore up a few of them. As Zeta recovered though, they managed to destroy most of them. One of them was weaving in and out of the laser fire and taking impossible accurate bursts into his opponents and making ace fighter pilots look like novices.

“IOTA, we need help with these guys, come in guns blaring!!!” Steel shouted.

*****

Second Lieutenant John Foley creeped along a wall. They were now in the core of the shipyards power plant. Something was in here too. It had already picked off a few troops. His group and Captain Chu’s group were separated by a floor and the reactor core prevented communication. Foley came up to the first hallway and peeked around it. Seeing nothing, he continued past it. Once on the other side, he looked to watch his men move across. Looking down the hallway again, Foley thought he saw movement. Out of the darkness a super speed bolt flew out and slammed into a trooper’s head.

“FIRE FIRE!!!” Foley shouted’ Liquidate whatever’s down there!” Foley began charging down the hall with his men behind him. While running down, Foley fell on a rusty floor vent and went crashing through. He went through the vent on the next floor as well and crashed to the sub-level of the core. Foley blacked out a second and then got up looking around and his new surroundings.

*****

Captain Chu was only a level lower than Foley’s group. He heard the shouting and fire from above.

“Come on, we’re heading up to the next level” Chu said as he climbed a service ladder. He got to the top and made sure the area was clear. As the rest of the group got up, he looked down to see who was left. The last man got on the ladder and started climbing. Just as he started though, a fast figure jumped out of the shadows and grabbed him and pulled him back. A blood curdling scream was heard, and then a sickening snap echoed through the halls. Wasting no time, Chu reached for his belt and threw a grenade down the ladder.
*****

Army Lieutenant Felth and his company were securing the main forum. They had just gotten he recall message and moved to give protection to the commanding staff and techs that were all about the shipyard. They had to protect the area alone, since Viper Company was unreachable and searching for Vek’din in vain. After Polanski’s attack, everyone was now on high alert, no longer doubting the dangers of a single man. Inspecting his men, Felth was proud of them. He knew they’d be able to take care of this problem and bring the station to relief from this monster of a man that was proving to be a problem.

*****

Captain Carst ordered the “Warhammer” out of hyperspace. It came up on the shipyard and was ready to commence it’s operation.

“Is the image and voice duplicator ready?” Carst asked.

“Yes, Captain.” A tech replied.

“Hail the shipyard.” he ordered.

“Commodore Vortagh, what are you doing back already? Have you located he Chimera?” Polanski asked over the transmitter.

“No, we were unable to find it.” Carst informed. “Our ship suffered more sabotage and was unable to continue, we barley made it back.”

“Very well. It should only take at most a couple of hours to fix you up, though it depends on what they did to you this time.” Polanski said “Pull up to the yard and we’ll get ready to fix you up.”

“Very well, Sir. We’ll take care of that right away.” Carst said. After the link was cut, he looked towards the shipyard. Nemesis was not there. “Head at full speed towards the platforms. And prepare for strafing.”

*****

Admiral Polanski stared at the Warhammer as it moved by. Vortagh wasn’t himself for some reason, though Polanski couldn’t isolate what that was. The Warhammer started moving above the first platform that was orbiting the shipyard. Polanski looked over as an officer tripped and fell to the floor. When he looked back, his jaw dropped. The Warhammer had vaporized most of the first platform, and the second one was ready to explode.

“Sir, the Warhammer is hailing us.” An officer informed.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS VORTAGH? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” Polanski screamed into his microphone.

“I’m sorry Admiral, but I have found a more powerful group of Imperials to join. They will bring order to the galaxy in a way you could not. He will come after you Admiral. And I WILL help him, though not for him, but for the Empire. He can pull the Empire together where you can not. I ask you, Sirus. Join High Admiral Orssk and you will be rewarded and known, if not you---” The communication ended as Polanski removed his blaster and shot the hologram stand.

*****

“Damn It!” Vortagh grumbled. “Zeta, Iota, we need to lose these destroyers. We’re jumping randomly. Hyper out yourself and meet us at the Gem Nebula.”

“Roger that, Sir. You get the ship out of here. We’ll be ok.” Steel replied.

“Thanks guys, I’ll remember this.” Vortagh said. He turned towards the bridge. “Enter hyperspace.” The view port turned into a streak of stars before turning into a cyclone of light. Sitting down in his chair Vortagh ordered the ship out of hyperspace. “Set course for the Gem Nebula. And re-enter hyperspace. I’ll be in my quarters”

Vortagh reached his room and got down on his cot.

“They had a Super Star Destroyer” Vortagh groaned to himself. “How do we fight that?”

*****

Damak Klan sliced through another TIE Advanced, moved on to another and destroyed it. A gunship came into his crosshairs and then disappeared in a large explosion. He was in heaven. This was what he lived for. Outnumbered and outgunned, against much more advanced craft. He loved the game. His fun came from such impossible situations. Destroying a swarm of enemy fighters was what he loved. Soon his reinforcements would be in to turn his fun into a joke, but he’d enjoy this while he could. Bringing his sights up on another gunboat, he fired. His lasers tried to catch up to the fighter, but it could not catch the ship as it went into hyperspace.

“DAMNIT!!!” Klan shouted.

*****

“OK, Tell us how you sabotaged the ship.” Glendon barked into the young man’s face.

“O-OK. Just don’t hurt me” The kid said.

Studying the kid, Glendon raised an eyebrow. “How old are you anyway?” Glendon asked.

“Sixteen, Sir.” The boy stammered.

“Are you doing this on your own will?”

“No, Sir. The New Republic forced me to do this for them. They figured it’d be easy for an unaffiliated child to not be brought under suspect. They have my parents hostage and won’t let them go until I finished doing the sabotage.”

“Look, kid. I can’t muster any forces to save your parents, but we can’t let you sabotage the ship. However, if you tell us what you’ve been doing, I’ll see to it you get off easier than you would. I promise.” Glendon said holding the kid on the shoulders.

“O-Ok. I-I-I guess I’ll help.” The kid said.

“Good, let’s go talk to the Captain.”

*****

Sitting in the communications room onboard the Nemesis, Jansen saw a message that just got in. He opened the message and a voice message came in.

“General, we have found and engaged Vek’din, but he’s escaped us. We need you to get back here, and help us hunt him down. We don’t have the recourses to do it ourselves.” Mitchell’s hologram said.

“This is not good” Jansen said to himself as he ran out the door to the bridge.

Admiral Fel and Captain Wedge were on the bridge talking casually. The young boy had gotten their repairs done almost instantly, and they were discussing what to do next. When Jansen go to them they looked up.

“Fel, we need to get back to the shipyard NOW” Jansen said sternly.

“What? Why? What’s the problem?” Wedge asked.

“It’s Vek’din. He’s onboard the station, and causing trouble. We need to get to him and stop him.” Jansen said.

“Set our course back to the shipyard.” Wedge ordered. “NOW MOVE MOVE MOVE”

*****
Foley wandered around the sub-level of the core. His only light was from his small flashlight. He smelled something rotten and looked around. He saw in a corner the remains of some poor technician that was killed quite some time ago. The corpse looked like it was half-eaten too. He saw more bodies as he turned the corner.

“They were quite tasty” A hissing voice said behind Foley. “Now you will join them”

Foley drew his blaster and spun, only to have a small yet heavy body slam into him and throw him to the floor. Tumbling to the ground, Foley got up again and recovered his weapon. He saw no sign of his attacker. Moving forward, Foley heard something to his left, and turned as a large metallic bolt slammed into his arm. Making him drop the blaster. The bolt went right through his arm and pinned him to the wall. Foley reached out and pulled the bolt out. Looking up, Foley saw a small, bald, gray skinned creature rush up to him and reach out for his throat. The small creature was powerful and lifted him of his feet.

*****

Felth was getting the area even more and more strategically placed and secure. It’d take an overwhelming force to get in here, so one man shouldn’t be able to get in. Happy with his set up, he went off to sit down and go over his reports.

*****

The Nemesis pulled out of hyperspace right a ship identifying itself as the Warhammer jumped. Looking around, Admiral Fel could see the remains of the destroyed platforms and spare TIE Fighters.

“Admiral Polanski, what happened?” Fel asked

“We were attacked by the Warhammer.” Polanski replied.

“What?” Wedge jumped in.

“It’s true, we’ll have to consider Vortagh a traitor for the time being. We may also have a new rival. He said something about a ‘Superior Imperial Force’” Polanski debriefed.

“That’s not important right now, Sir.” Jansen butted in. “We need to find and take down Vek’din.”

“He almost killed me, so I agree. He knows his way around the station somehow, and we need to stop him before he does anything… more dangerous.”

“Are you OK, Sir?” Jansen asked.

“Yes, I’m fine, but he’s causing lot of trouble.”

“Our first priority will be to garrison the shipyard. Take this ship in, Wedge.” Fel ordered.

“Sorry for butting in , but I have more complications. “ Mitchell interjected. “We have no contact with a company and the other one is stretched thin. We need a lot of men. Can you spare them, General?”

“Of course, that’s why I came. We’re going to flood this base with soldiers if we have to. I don’t want Vek’din escaping again.” Jansen ranted.

“We’ve docked” Wedge informed. “We can unload the troops now.”

“Good, Let’s go find get our butcher.”

*****

Muscat and his squadron pulled out of hyperspace. They were all together thanks to the slave rigging he used in the hyper drive.

“Ok, guys. Lets take a quick status check. Then we can move on.” Muscat said. “It looks like the slave network froze up. We’ll have to restart our computers. It will take a good bit of time. Can you keep us covered, Steel?” Muscat asked

“Of course. We’ll take care of ya.”

“Thanks. Ok, restart the computers boys.”

After a few minutes, Muscat’s computer warning system went off. He looked behind him and saw a squadron of TIE advance come in. They were off a bit, but they’d be on them quickly. A minute later an ISD came in behind them. It was even further off, but I was launching TIE Interceptors that would catch up to them in no time.

“Great.” Muscat murmured.

*****

Brigadier General Jagged Fel marched down to the command center. Following him was Army Lieutenant Colonel Tsai Branet. Their job was to work with Mitchell and hunt down Vek’din. At the room’s opening, Mitchell exited and greeted them.

“Hey guys, thanks for helping out.” Mitchell greeted. “This is turning into a real fiasco.”

“No problem. Together we can hunt this guy down.”

“He’s going after Polanski, that’s for sure, and he’ll probably go after those who helped capture him.” Mitchell informed.

“OK, so that means he’ll be targeting Polanski, Jansen, Admiral Fel, Commodore Zwibble, you Mitchell, and myself.” Jagged said.

“Well we can bet he’ll be putting his tactics into going after us.” Mitchell said.

“Let’s go get this guy” Branet said.

*****

Captain Chu started heading down into the sub-levels. It had to be where their attacker was. Chu had linked up with Foley’s group and learned what happened. Moving down, they all put their headlamps on and began moving down the tunnel.

“You smell that?” Someone said from behind. Chu hushed them and moved forward. He heard something around the corner and saw a large amount of mutilated bodies sprawled about the floor. Chu heard a large scream and that brought him to action.

“MOVE!!!” Chu shouted. He was followed by Viper Company around the corner. Chu raised his blaster and aimed at a creature that was holding Second Lieutenant Foley by the throat. Foley had a large amount of scratches and gashes on his chest, and arms. His face had some slashes too. “DROP HIM!!” Chu yelled. The alien moved with lightning speed and dangled Foley over one of the many bottomless pits that was common in Imperial installations. “DON’T YOU DARE!!!” Chu yelled. The creature hissed at them

“Shoot me and your friend dies” It taunted. Foley used this moment of distraction to grab the bolt pistol from the creature’s hands and pushed it against it’s chest and fired. Foley held onto it and managed to hold himself until someone grabbed him and pulled him up. Foley curled up on the cold ground and fell unconscious from the blood loss.

“Get him some life support bacta” Chu ordered. Chu kneeled down and examined the creature. He recognized it instantly as a Norghri

*****

“Sir, we’ve reached the Gem Nebula” someone shouted.

“Power down our systems. We will need to wait for our fighters to meet up with us.” Vortagh commented. “Get me a holo-recording of that strange fleet that attacked us.”

A holo-video came up and Vortagh leaned over to study it. The Warhammer came in and prepared to take back the Chimera. As it moved in, the mystery fleet came in. The SSD took up a ton of space as it charged its way over to the Chimera. The support ships moved around the Rebel Fleet. Two broke off to go after the Warhammer. Vortagh suddenly noticed another one break off and head towards empty space. It’s title read Red Dagger. Vortagh watched it with interest as it headed towards a random direction. The computer then changed its name to Warhammer. It’s identity was exactly that of the real Warhammer’s. Vortagh suddenly realized it wasn’t heading in a random direction. It was heading towards the shipyard. Then the ship jumped into hyperspace.

“Power up all systems, We need to get to the shipyards. Do we know where our fighters are?” Vortagh commanded.

“We do-”

“We’re picking them up on the way. Move it. I want to be out of here in five minutes.”

*****

Commodore Zwibble was keeping here Academy cadets in order. She felt it was a bad idea in the first place to have them attend the ceremony for the Chimera’s second maiden voyage. Now she had to take care of a bunch of whiney cadets. She noticed a bunch of them had gone into a room so she decided to figure out what they were doing. She opened the door to where they were and walked right into a body. It had carbon scorches on it and was still warm. Suddenly the closet opened and a droid came out carrying the last cadet. He was still alive and struggling.

The droid started spurting out verbal commands for itself “New target aquired. *ZZZZT* High priority. Eliminate Tar-” The droid stopped its speech completely as Zwibble shot off its head. Then she ran over to check on the cadet.

*****

“What’s going on?” Jansen asked the tech next to him.

“Sir we’ve got a large number of unknown assailants that came out of no where.”

“What. How’d they get on?”

“Sir, I’m getting reports that they are droids."

"How the hell did droids... Wait. See if our assembly lines are up and running."

"They are sir."

"Do we have any projects going on?"
"No, Sir. No scheduled tasks."

"Vek'din" Jansen growled.

"Are our lines holding up?" Jansen spoke into his comm link to Mitchell and Branet

"Yes, though the droids keep coming and coming."

"Good, keep holding. I'll try to bring reinforcements in."

Jansen then started studying a set of the shipyards blueprints.

*****

"OK guys, we're waiting for Jansen to send us some extra troops up. Let's hold these bucket heads off and-"

"Mitchell, Sir, are you there?"

"CHU!!! Where've you been?" Mitchell asked into his suddenly alive comm.

"We came across a little stow away and are sending him up through the service lifts. We're also sending up Lieutenant Foley. He needs medical attention right away."

"Ok, I copy. I have a new mission for you. Vek'din is aboard and has started using the assembly lines to create himself a small droid army. You're the closest to them You shouldn't have much trouble getting there. Destroy his ability to produce droids. We'll try to push them back and meet you up there, but don't count on it." Mitchell instructed.

"Roger. We're heading out now." Chu acknowledged.

*****

"How is the Chimera coming along, Commodore?" Admiral Orssk asked.

"It will be ready for service within the hour. It was basically ready to go. We just had to staff it."

"Good. We may then proceed to the next phase of our operation." Orrsk grinned. "Commander Klan, did we find the Warhammer's missing fighters? We can't leave any loose ends."

"Yes, Captian Horron is pursing them now. We don't know the location of the Warhammer though."

"The Vortagh Warhammer is fighter less and on the run from Polanski... or will be once he approaches him." Orssk commented. "Their closest world is Slon-Bass. Encode all transmissions and rally the fleet. We'll have a nice parade on the planet once we break it of its will. Hopefully it will surrender without a shot."

"Do you want our secondary fleet to join in, Sir?" Flass asked.

"Yes, we will overwhelm them."

"I'll prepare the fleet for you then, Admiral."

"Thank you. I'll be in my chambers"