Star Wars: Sailors of the Unknown Reaches(Continuation1) "Lord Vader." Admiral Piett approached the Dark Lord of the Sith. "We have entered orbit around Earth." Darth Vader turned to him, and Piett felt fear. The servant of the Emperor was known to be short-tempered at moments, even hearing good news. "Excellent, Admiral." This was not one of those times. "Slave I should rendezvous with the Executor in 20 minutes time." "Keep me informed." Vader turned to leave the bridge, "I will be in my meditation chamber if I am needed." "Yes, Lord Vader." The communications officer turned to him, and Vader's head snapped around again. "There is a strong Force presence on the planet." He intoned. The comunications officer looked confused, but started to talk. "Admiral, we are receiving a transmission from the planet, it seems that Rogue Squadron is at a restaurant there. Also one Commander John." "Admiral." Vader again called Piett's attention. "Send a squadron of TIE Bombers and AT-ATs to attack that establishment and level it." "Yes, m'lord." Piett answered, and turned to his tactical officer. "You heard Lord Vader, scramble Beta Squadron and Blizzard force." "Yes sir." The officer answered and complied. Finally, Piett thought, we have them! ------------------- The Usual Restaurant was almost empty for a Saturday night. The customers John knew were Koneko, Lina Inverse, Rann-kun, and Wataru. He had been getting some suspicious looks from Wataru, but otherwise, there had been no problems. Rann had fallen asleep at a table, Lina was talking to another patron,and Koneko was talking to him. A few minutes ago, he'd seen Wataru speak into his hand, but Wataru, as well as the other customers, were not all that stable at times. Then SHE entered, bells jingling. She was a perfect female. Several of the males shouted, many rushed over to her. Pathetic, John thought, even though they know she's an android. She isn't a bad friend, but I wouldn't want her as a mate. "John..." "In a minute, Koneko, I have something to talk to Nuku about." "Hmph." she huffed, but let him go. After the mass around her had swirled to almost nothing, he approached her. "Hello Nuku..." "FRIEND JOHN!" She jumped on him and hugged him, and out of the cormer of his eye he saw half of Rogue Squadron go for their blasters, the others conversing with some of the more outgoing personalities in the UR. "Don-UMPH..." Geez, she was smothering him. He hoped her android body could take blaster discharges... Then Wedge waved his Squadron to stand down, apparently aware of what was going on, if not fully. When he finally pried her off, he introduced her to the squadron. "...and this is Wes." He finished off. "All these new friends here to see Nuku sing?" The android asked quizically, but also proudly. "Yep," He glanced behind him, sensing and seeing confusion in the ranks of the squadron. "Oh, and I'd also like you to meet Commander Wedge Antilles, survivor of the Death Star run." It was the first time John had ever seen Wedge actually blush, not just a pink blush, but a deep red, beet-color. "Friend Wedge? What is Death Star?" Suddenly, he felt a ripple in the Force, at the same time there was a frantic beeping from outside. John recognized it as his R2 unit's warning cry. "'Scuse me, be right back!" He rushed out and into a forest clearing near the UR, to his blue-striped X-Wing and blue-and-black astromech. "What's the matter Mindreap?" The droid sputtered and beeped and "ahooga"'d until John climbed into the cockpit and turned on his translator, Mindreap could be incomprehensible at times. The screen started to read: ::TIEs. Walkers. Problems!:: Yes, problems and trouble. "What type of TIE? Fighter, Bomber, Advanced, or Interceptor?" Probably Bombers. ::Double-hulled Bombers:: Big trouble. "What's their target?" As if he didn't already know. ::Usual Restaurant:: "Thanks, Mindreap, warn the other astromechs if they don't know yet." The screen flashed, Mindreap had more to tell him. This time he didn't use the screen. With a series of beeps and whirrs, he told John some more bad news. "Death Squadron's orbiting the planet..." This was incredible trouble. "Mindreap, get the other astromechs to get control of their X-Wings syst-" The droid cut him off with a single hoot. Jamming. "So we're on our own." He wasn't about to sacrifice his X-wing, though it could take a few of the bombers, one could fire off a lucky shot. "Stay here Mindreap." He jumped from the cockpit and jogged back to the UR. Koneko was waitng. "What's wrong?" He sensed her feelings of confusion and panic, it wasn't like him to rush out. "A lot of things, but right now we have to evacuate the Usual Restaurant in the face of a bombing run." ------------------------ Mina was incredibly worried, Luna hadn't waken up yet. Chris and the others went to see Mrs. Tsukino about what had happened before Serena left this morning. "Come on Luna..." Artemis was on the verge of breaking down. "Wake up!" Please, let her live, please! Mina thought, she doesn't deserve to die! ------------------------ Luna was dreaming. Her head swirled with nightmares about the bounty hunter, him taking Serena and Terra, but one light shone through the blackness. He wore a uniform unfamiliar to her, his hair was blond, and his eyes were green. "Don't worry..." He seemed to tell her, "Serena will be fine..." And through all the pain and suffering she was going through, Luna felt peace. ------------------------ Vader sat alone in his meditaton chamber. It had life-support capability, but he didn't remove his armor. He would be leaving soon and better he had it on. This is going well, he thought, perhaps the dark side will win it's war. The he thought of Luke. the boy was incredibly powerful, but the power had not reached the suface yet. If only he turned him before... The comm beeped. He answered it. "Yes, Admiral Piett, I know he has docked, I will meet you in docking bay 5, and then we will collect our prize." He shut the link. Strange, he felt 3 presences aboard Fett's ship...who else could he have? He stood and walked from the chamber, the door shutting with a hiss behind him. -------------------------- Mikal Frederic was sitting at Blue Squadron's encampment on Earth's moon. Being second in command isn't bad, he thought, I get to do nothing. Being on the payroll of the Alliance wasn't bad either, he and the rest of the squadron didn't belong to the Alliance per se. They were drawn into it by John, an Imperial traitor, as most of them had been. What he had done was challenge them to space combat one-by-one, until he defeated them all, and then their honor code as smugglers had made them join him. Looking back, Mikal smiled, the plan was good, and their commander was devious as the day he had recruited them. Suddenly a shout came over the his personal comm-link, it was Thomagelo and his wingman Antoni Fontian. The Sullustan and Twi'lek were close friends, and had been for several years. "What is it Search Team 1?" "Sir, you'd better come have a look." Fontian intoned. He was a killer for suspense. Mikal sighed, no use arguing. "I'll be right there." He stood, grabbed a life-support mask, left the oxygen rich area of the encampment, and walked the mile to where Fontian and Thomagelo were searching. When he got there he was stunned. There were ruins of a majestic palace as well as a surrounding city. On the side away from the sun? "What do you suppose they are?" Thomagelo babbled in Sullustan, Fontian translated, and twitched one of his brain tails, or lekku as they were called in Twi'lek. "He doesn't know, but they are very old. According to our instruments, about 70 thousand years if not more." Mikal was dumbfounded. "But we have no records of any civilization here. And this moon should never have been able to support life!" Antoni pondered. "Remember, we're the first ones to leave our galaxy and get to this one. And maybe it was capable of sustaining life back then." Apparently he knew Mikal was not convinced. "70 thousand years IS a long time." Mikal considered calling John about this, but he had asked not to be disturbed unless it was a matter of life or death. "Continue searching. Tell me if you find anything else." He gave the 2 a military nod and started to return to base camp. His comm-link rang again, this time it was their scanner officer. "SIR! We have company! 4 Star Destroyers have just been picked up on scanners!" Mikal felt himself go cold, and not just from the climate here either. "What class?" "It's coming in now...3 Imperial-class, and 1 Super-class!" Again, Mikal felt his temperature drop. That sounded like the complement of Death Squadron, which meant Darth Vader himself was here... "Do we have an ID on the Super-class?" "Unfortunately, sir, yes." Mikal waited, "...and it is?" "The Executor. We have also identified the Impstars as the Tyrant, Stalker, and Avenger." his tone was dire. Now he had to contact the commander. "Send a comm message to Commander John's X-wing." He ordered the officer. "I don't think that's necessary sir." "Why not?" "Because a squadron of dupes and Imperial walkers just shuttled down to the planet." "WHAT?! GET THAT MESSAGE TO HIM!" "I can't sir, they're sending a jamming signal out on all non-Imperial frequencies between space and Earth." Mikal sighed. John was on his own. He hoped he could pull off a miracle. ------------------------ When John and Koneko re-entered the UR, Cat-Girl was already on stage ready to perform. Rann was still asleep, Lina had stopped talking and started stuffing down whatever dessert was the special for tonight, and Wedge was waiting for John. As Antilles pulled John aside to ask what was going on, Koneko approached her red-haired friend and told her about what was going on. "They're going to WHAT?!" She was caught on a mouthful of whatever pastry she was eating and spit it out. "Bomb the UR, as well as shell it!" Her tone was frightened. Wedge had talked to Nuku, and taken the stage over. He spoke. "Attention, we have just recieved word on a plot to destroy the Usual Restaurant, you must evacuate immediately!" "If we evacuated every time we uncovered a plot to destroy the place, we'd never be here!" Wataru yelled back. John took the microphone. "Apparently, some very nasty people have parked over our heads and plan to bomb and shell this place with some very high-tech vehicles." This caused several of the patrons to get up and leave. All of the customers Koneko knew stayed. "Yeah?" Wataru retorted. "How do we know you're not lying?" "Simple." John said. Suddenly, a faint droning was heard through the UR. "That is the sound of Twin Ion Engines. Bringing Bombers equipped with Proton Bombs, which will annihilate anything in their way." The rest of the non-regulars left. Only Wataru, Koneko, Lina, Nuku, Rann(Still asleep), Wedge, John, and Rogue Squadron remained. "When before did TIEs bother us?" Wataru started again. "Maybe it's these ALLIANCE heroes that attracted them here?" What was Wataru doing? Koneko wondered. For all she knew, John had come several times before, and there was never a problem. "Wataru, what are you talking about?" Lina commented "Yes friend Wataru, what?" Nuku added. The droning became increasingly louder. John started: "Maybe we should get out of here?" Koneko seconded the motion: "I agree, I don't want to end up atom-scattered." Everyone filed out, Rogue Squadron, John, Wedge, Koneko, Lina, Nuku and Wataru. But Rann slept on... ---------------------------- Serena awakened when there was a pull on her bonds, she wanted to ask who it was, but remembered whatever Boba Fett had put over her mouth. She heard his computer voice. "Your ankle manacles are undone, but don't try anything funny." She looked around, seeing Terra beside her made her feel better, but not much. Fett spoke again. "Get moving out of the cargo hold. We meet your buyers when you do." His last words had a hint of irony to them, even with the computer distortion. Serena and Terra moved out of the ship, into the biggest room they had ever been in. It held strange ships, several men dressed in uniforms, and...STORMTROOPERS? Serena thought she was losing it, this WASN'T Star Wars! But it was, she recognized the next person she saw immediately: Darth Vader. Terra spoke. "This can't be happening..." Serena heard Vader's breathing device pant once, and then he spoke. "But indeed it is. I am Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and servant to His Lordship the Emperor. I welcome you to the Executor docking bay 5. You are now my prisoners." Serena then heard Fett speak up. "Not yet they're not. Where's the my reward?" Vader motioned to one of the officers surrounding them, and he came forward with an electronic pad, as well as several jewels and monetary pieces Serena didn't recognize. "First things first. I brought back 2 captives. That entitles me to TWICE the reward I was promised. Which brings the total to 600,000 credits." Vader's face was unseen beneath his mask, but obviously he was displeased with this turn if events. When he spoke his voice showed his feeling. "Very well bounty hunter Fett. You shall have the extra 300,000 credits..." He motioned again to the officer and another large diamondlike jewel was brought to Fett. Fett nodded his armored head. "Good. In my ship." The officer scurried off to put the jewels in Fett's ship. Vader breathed again. "But now, bounty hunter Fett, I offer 100,000 credits to destroy the Alliance encampment on the far side of his planet's moon." Serena felt her stomach drop. Far side? That was where the palace of the Moon Kingdom once stood! She tried desperately to talk, and Vader must have noticed. He flicked his index and middle finers. and the device on her lips was removed instantly. "Y-you can't! That's where..." "Your home once was? I know all about you Princess Serena, and the Emperor does as well. Don't worry, your precious ruins won't be destroyed, the base is one of your miles away from them." Serena felt momentary relief, but realized the danger she was in. If Vader wanted, he could simply choke the life out of her. But who was this squadron? "I'll take it." Fett said. "Good." He motioned to one of the officers, the one with the most blue-and-red squares on his chest, and wheezed. "Admiral, order Captain Lennox to position the Tyrant to intercept any starfighters trying to leave the moon." The man nodded and left the docking bay thorugh the nearest exit. Terra leaned close to Serena and whispered. "We are in deeeep trouble..." Serena could only nubmly nod her head. --------------------------------------------