In transit to the Battle of Coruscant
Once again in his chambers, Kach sat at his desk looking at a holoprojector, digging through it’s archives. The right messages was there, still available for replay. Emotion rose up deep inside of Kach as he saw the record.
Kach’s eyes burned with a hatred for Zell. “That fucker…” he started. He was alone in the room. There was no one here to hear the fierce emotion in his voice.
Kach clicked a button and the form of Grand Admiral Azrael Zell appeared in front of him as it started to play.
“Moff Zell,” he heard himself say almost regally, “It’s an honor to hear from you.”
Zell got down straight to business. “You Fucker, I forbade you to reenter the protectorate under pain of death, is that clear? I’ve heard about your fleets little forays in and they need to stop right now. Is that mother frucking clear?” Zell’s voice was full of anger and rage. From what Kach wasn’t certain, but the recent Yaga Minor attacks may have been part of it.
Kach looked at Zell with a steely gaze that would fortunately not transmit over the holonet, but his voice made it clear what his feelings about the orders were. “Yes, sir, it is” he said, filled with rage. His head lowered in defeat.
“Don’t you get pissy with me Thorton. You know we need the fleets…”
Kach cut him off. “Did you just call me pissy, you son of a bitch?” Kach asked, no longer bothering to hide his own anger. “You’ve doomed millions of Imperial citizens with your decision already, and doubtlessly more. Our little forays served to break up major pickets of Reaver ships to prevent them from attacking with maximum effect against our worlds, damn it. You know damn well we can beat them in battle. We could retake the protectorate in a week. Instead they’re in our protectorate doing who knows what. Some sources say they are
eating our goddamned citizens. What the fuck do you expect me to do?”
“You little son of a bitch” Zell said. “You know I could have you shot?”
Kach lowered his voice and calmed himself while Zell glared at him. The old Grand Admiral did not take kindly to people disrespecting him, though he honestly didn’t give a damn about their opinions on him. “Would Kaine have me shot, you fucker?” Kach said, purposely bringing up Zell’s old superior and protégé. “No, because he’d have known what I’m doing was right. I may be an insubordinate bastard, but I’m a
damned good insubordinate bastard and I’m
your insubordinate bastard.”
Zell’s voice lowered with Kach’s. You’re walking a fine line, Thorton. If your ships go back into that protectorate I will have you arrested and tried for treasonous conduct. Is that clear?
Thorton lowered his head in defeat. An act, but Zell couldn’t tell. “Yes. It is,” he said slowly.
“Good. Then get the fuck off of here. I don’t want to hear anything more about your fleet entering Reaver space without express orders. Is that clear?”
“Yes, it is.”
* * *
The Past
Kach opened his eyes to the sound of his datapad beeping.
What the hell he thought.
It’s 3 AM ship time. The Datapad should have delayed all dispatches to him until morning. Reluctantly he opened it. To find a priority message from the leader of COMPNOR, Tracta. He entered the password to reveal the highly encrypted message and it laid itself out before him:
Be Advised: Reports of Park Krakens death have been greatly exaggerated.
* * *
He can be used. Do you know how to control him.
* * *
Yes. There is one thing.
* * *
What is it?
* * *
His Family
* * *
Do you know where they are?
* * *
Yes
* * *
The Present
After viewing the message, the leadership cadre on the
Stormhawl was silent for a moment as the implications of having found the message sunk in. Their families, like the families of the crews, had all been left behind during the forced evacuation of the protectorate. Until now, however, no one had had the proof necessary to show that Zell and not Thorton was at fault though his high ranking subordinates knew. But now all the crews of the Borderland protectorate would find out.
The broadcast is about to begin now, Kach said, looking at his wrist Chrono. And sure enough, the voice of Admiral Zell began echoing through the corridors of the ship.
“After he is finished, I will speak.”
* * *
“That conversation took place several days ago,” Kach said, standing on the Bridge’s primary holopad to address the crew. “As you can see, Grand Moff Azarell Zell has proven himself to be completely negligent of Imperial citizens, including your families now trapped in Reaver space. At any time we could have stopped the Reavers at the beginning, our battle records showed clearly that we were superior in battle. But instead he allowed them in and gave them the foothold they needed. And on top of that during the early days of the withdrawal he had his men arrest me at gun point and then his commanders withdrew my
entire goddamned fleet from the Borderland because he was convinced I was slowing it down to stall for time, not even bothering to dispatch ships to cover the evacuations of our worlds, causing even more needless deaths that way.”
He carefully considered his next words. Though he knew that the crews were completely loyal to him and the Borderland fleet because they represented their lost homes, wealth and families and they now had proof that the man in charge of the Empire had caused all their loss unnecessarily
and on top of that COMPNOR and it’s internal security division was on his side, what he was about to declare was treason even if it was a necessary treason and some objection might come up.
“As you know, we are about to undertake a mission of great importance above Coruscant, which is under siege by the same alien attackers that seized Yaga Minor and losing, thanks to his inept leadership. Inept leadership that has, since the disappearance of His Majesty Hyfe” – he purposely invoked Hyfe’s name here to associate this action with the old, legitimate regime – “has caused numerous rebellions, the expansion of a growing alien threat, the establishment of Reaverspace and,” he paused briefly for effect, “the abandonment of our homes and worlds and families.”
“I have discussed the situation with the senior fleet leadership of the Borderland Protectorate along with your captains and Senior Officers and the consensus is unanimous. We do not care who takes his place, but Azrael Zell must go and we will do our part to see it through and we ask the same of you. After the battle we will be entering orbit above Coruscant and taking appropriate action.
“The Empire expects every citizen to do his or her duty today. All the honor in the Empire for standing up to this treasonous Moff to reassert the New Order is your reward."
***
The Present
Kach looked down at the tactical display on his flagship’s bridge. Next to him half a dozen Rear Admirals plus the Captain – the standard senior officer cadre on a ship this size – looked at it as well at the anomaly taking place near Coruscant space. Over the past ten minutes the number of sensor-blocking anomalies in the channel had cleared until the tactical situation across the system was somewhat visible from that angle and messages could be freely transmitted from the Borderland fleet to the planet using scout ships as relays.
“So the messages were true,” Thorton remarked. “I didn’t think Zell would have the balls for something like this.”
The ship’s Captain shook her head disbelievingly. “There’s no way, Admiral Thorton. Evacuating Coruscant even partially is impossible. He wants to get essential units, war material and leaders, out while civil defense units die in the streets holding off this invasion and maintaining order. But if those units fall apart,” she hesitated and choked up “I don’t even want to think about what would happen.”
The thought of mass chaos on Imperial Center was a lot to take in. For 25,000 years the planet had been the center of the galaxy, of the Old Republic and then the Empire. If the civil defenses slipped and mass rioting happened – an unlikely but very real possibly - the likelihood of anything more than a small segment of the planet recovering was remotely slim and it was almost certain the capital would never recover.
“Don’t, then.” Kach said emotionlessly. “The biggest question here is is this: Is this a trap? Obviously these aliens, whoever they are, have allowed the Empire to open up the gaps in it’s defenses over Coruscant in order to open up the evacuation corridor and have even been generous enough to clear the corridor of Wormholes for them. Anyone who’s read Sun Tzu knows the best way to crush an enemy is to give him one channel of false hope so he doesn’t fight to the last, then mercilessly crush that channel when he tries to take advantage of it, and that’s what’s going on here. It has to be. They’ve shown no mercy in the past. Why would they show it here?”
One of the junior Admirals in the circle spoke up, a Rear-Admiral. “The losses they’ve sustained are too heavy to continue. Yes they’re taking the planet, but they’ve lost two tons of warship for every ton the Empire has lost. Those losses can’t be sustained against a planet with defenses like Imperial Center. They want the Empire to take this channel and leave so they can have their victory?”
That was Thorton’s first thought too, but he hadn’t bothered to bring it up. The estimates about the tonnage-lost ratios for both sides was true and the alien foes might simply be tiring of battle, but in his opinion it was too simple for such a complicated enemy.
“Well either way, we need to act,” he said. “If it’s an ambush and the enemy has more ships ready to attack the evacuating flotilla then we need to assist defending the evacuees. And if it’s not an ambush then we have a clear channel we can use to bring ships into battle. The evacuation channel lines up perfectly with the Fourth Reserve’s approach vector. We could slip the whole fleet in and win the battle if we wanted to, but for the second all I want is two battlegroups to jump in. The two battlegroups will redirect all outgoing traffic to the nearest planets that can take them in or to the Mid-Rim Protectorate, whichever is closer. More importantly they will look for anything suspicious. I don’t know exactly what to look for but they will know it when they see it. Anything Zell could use to get a message out. A diplomatic shuttle or something of that sort. Maybe a TIE Phantom. Once we’ve cleared the evacuation corridor we’ll bring in a bigger fleet but with the sky filled with shuttles and transports in that sector at the moment it’s not safe to bring in more than two battlegroups. Admiral Nepp,” – Admiral Nepp was the resident Executive Officer of the Fourth Reserve fleet stationed on the
Stormhawk to relay messages to the Fourth Reserve’s Commander – “get this done now. We’ve got to move quick.”
“And somebody send a message to Zell telling him we’re here. He can’t see us with all those wormholes even though we can see him, so it would be polite of us to let him know.”
***
Minutes Earlier
Kach keyed his datapad, slowly entering the message that would be sent out to Trachta, the head of COMPNOR, who was presumably still on Coruscant.
You have big friends in the sky. Get ready to move.
***
And so he did.
***
Upon arrival into the system the two battlegroups had spread out among the Imperial squadrons who were working hard to maintain order above the planet. They were barely as numerous as the force arriving to assist them, a sad testament to the strength of Coruscant’s remaining defenses because to muster these forces Coruscant Command had been forced to leave multiple sectors above the planet completely undefended. The ships, especially the dozen large Star Destroyers, were readily welcomed by Coruscant command, who had despaired of ever receiving assistance.
Though more vulnerable from their scattered positions it also gave the flotilla a broader view of the escaping vessels, allowing not one ship to escape without being scanned.
Despite all the fleets had been through in the past months moral was still high and the crews were committed to doing their duty to the Empire, especially now. “Do you reckon, Admiral, that we’re out here on a wild Vornskyr chase?” cooly asked one of the ship’s bridge crew, a weapons system technician. At the moment his skills weren’t in demand, with no enemies in sight or overzealous vessels attempting to blast their way through the corridor. The Admiral, Admiral Paisly of the always charmed by the former country-boy’s informal ways, even when speaking to a superior, smiled, chuckled and spoke softly back to him.
“I don’t think so, Vernon. You’re just not privy to the big picture. Follow me.” He turned toward the Sensor Officer on deck and walked over to the central Sensor Analysis pit, where a tactical situation display board showed all of the surrounding space. “Do you see that red area?”
“Yeah sir, I do,” Vernon said in his country boy accent.
“That’s an anomaly picked up by our Strategic Sensor Suite. We’re not sure exactly what’s there, though we’ve made a few guesses. It’s chugging along just outside the invasion corridor and it’s cloaked, so it’s almost certainly one of ours. And from the size it looks like a Shroud. The anomaly in question is 300m in diameter, which at this range gives an approximate ship size of only 125 to 150 meters.”
“And you want us to intercept that thing?” the subordinate asked, unsure about what action the Admiral was taking.
“Not quite,” Paisly replied. “The
Administrator, and ISD III from the other battlegroup, is en route now to intercept them along with the Interdictor
Constrainer. Each ship is escorted by six TIE Phantom IIs to provide support. We’ll spring our trap and find out exactly what they’re carrying – and exactly what it is – in a few minutes.
“And,” he added, his voice going steely, “what exactly it is Zell doesn’t want us to see.”
***
Not long after the above event on Coruscant…
The first reaction of the guard compliment in front of the Imperial Palace at the sight of the approaching troops was to raise weapons for an ID check. Yes they were heavily outnumbered – each entrance had only a platoon stationed at it, and there was at least a brigades worth of black-armored troops appearing outside – but with the commotion of the evacuation the appearance of extra Imperial infantry elements at the palace to assist was not an unsurprising – or unwelcome – sight. Leading the column was an obvious superior who was identical to the others save for blue armor rather than black.
“COMPNOR Internal Security Agent” he said in a forceful tone to the guards, holding up a badge for the guards to inspect. The squad at the door held their weapons at the ready in an ineffective gesture of standard protocol as two others inspected the credentials. Even if they wanted to deny access to the battalion of infantry they never would be able to. They looked very serious and ready for business.
“Your credentials pass, Major,” said the Guard Post Commander, a Lieutenant. “Is there anything we can do to help you?”
“Yes,” said the COMPNOR Major. “You can direct us to the throne room of Grand Admiral Zell. We’re a suicide security detail sent here to guard him by the director of COMPNOR himself.”
The guard looked at the Major in a strange fashion, a mix between confusion and fear. He knew exactly how powerful and influential the bureau was. COMPNOR was in charge of internal security for the Empire, and was suggested by some to be more influential in some cases within the Empire than the Emperor himself. Anyone COMPNOR didn’t like had a habit of disappearing. “There’s been no requests for additional guards” the Lieutenant remarked, a foolish choice.
In the skys above dozens of COMPNOR shuttles settled down on the palace’s roofs as other battalions and brigades entered through surface entrances. Though the Imperial Palace did have a heavy troop presence it was nothing like this. In addition, these were COMPNORs new elite anti-terrorist units, who had spent months drilling in Imperial Palace, allegedly for the possible eventuality of a commando raid in the palace. Now they would put their extensive training to good use in securing the palace.
No one would be getting in our out.
***
The crew of Shroud K-384 probably didn’t suspect someone was on to them when the gravity well appeared outside, but without a doubt when they felt the tractor beam latch onto their location and begin pulling them into the cavernous hangar bay of the
Administrator they knew they had been caught by someone because they dropped their cloak and gunned their engines in a brief attempt to escape from their unknown pursuer before identifying it as an Imperial-III Star Destroyer from the Borderland Protectorate. The Star Destroyer’s directional jamming unit, used to prevent targeted craft from sending distress transmission, lit up the Shroud and cut off it’s transmission capabilities. Someone sent the Shroud a communiqué on a frequency that was temporarily unjammed for the sake of the message. At the first sign of a transmission to someone other than the Star Destroyer it would be filled once again with static and white noise: “This is a customs inspection. Heave to and prepare to be boarded.”
The Shroud was silent for a minute as it was drawn into the Star Destroyer’s docking bay. Finally the voice of a grizzle veteran spoke. “This is Captain Ahab of the K-384, let me speak to your Captain.” Without a moment’s wait the Captain of the
Administrator, who had been standing by ready for this, was on the comm. “Captain Piet here. Go ahead.”
“Captain, this is Captain Ahab of Shroud K-384 on a maximum clearance courier mission for His Regency Zell Himself. What is the meaning of this and how did you get our location?”
Captain Piet didn’t bother to mention the Star Destroyer’s Strategic Sensor Suite. With the outbreak of hostilities there hadn’t been time to outfit any ships outside the Borderland protectorate with the greatly augmented sensor package, and even those ships just barely. “We have reason to suspect men wanted by the Empire for high treason are on board and were provided your location and vectors by Coruscant High Command for inspection. It is of the
highest priority these dissidents be captured. The Regent himself ordered it. After a brief inspection and the arrest of any offending crew you will be free to continue on your way unmolested, Captain.”
“Captain, I emphasize the priority of this mission and respectfully request we be allowed to continue. Need I remind you of the rigorous moral qualifications necessary for Shroud crews? Our message is time essential. We cannot be delayed.”
“Your objections are noted, Captain. Prepare to be boarded. If you attempt to interfere with your inspection and arrests understand
you will be arrested too. Is that clear?”
There was silence on the other end of the line. Captain Ahab and the other crew of the shroud were in no position to object to any requests the Captain of the larger ship made.”
“Rodger,
Administrator, we are shutting down are engines, shields and weapons and preparing to be boarded.”
The
Administrator’s crew, in a true show of loyalty to their cause, immediately rounded up the Shroud’s crew and sent them to the Brig and sent the lone diplomatic message holocube on board to the
Administrator's captain.
***
Kach, when he saw the message, couldn't believe his eyes. It was exactly what he needed. Taking a brief break from his flagship's bridge, he entered his quarters and walked briskly to his comlink, entering a long-ago memorized code. After two rings someone picked up. "Do you need to buy some fusion beads?" A rough voice asked.
"I'd love to buy some fusion beads, and some Brokkoli too," he answered, giving the appropriate password that would have his contact bending over backwards to help him. "This is a friend of Jesh Tolli's. I need you to connect me to his slicer department immediately."
"Beff Pike":
Every time a nub grows up an icon dies.
So thanks, Kach - you killed David Carradine!
"Omnae":
"What? What? Where are the nipples?" enters Seth Vinda.
"NIF. But I will find them! I am god like that." Kach Thorton speaks up.
