Subject: [FANFIC] Return of the Empire Date: 5 Dec 2001 15:02:06 -0800 From: tedmanonions@hotmail.com (Mr.T) Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars "Admiral, if I may be so bold, why are our ships running with double crews? The men are getting agitated, they need more room, more space to relax, and it's not good for morale with them all cooped up like this." Captain Sheppard questioned, "Patience captain, in a short time, all will be made clear." Stated Admiral Archbold, "Captain, set a course for these co-ordinates, send it to the whole fleet, inform me when we arrive." And with that the admiral left the bridge for his quarters. The quarters for an admiral are not one of the empire's failing qualities. They are massive and intricate rooms, capable of acting as a bridge, with all the consoles and displays on the real bridge. An Executor-class command ship had been designed with this in mind. Admiral Archbold strode into his quarters with a resigned sigh, captain Sheppard was right, he thought, but soon they would be there, wherever there was. He called up the information he had on the wormhole. It supposedly went to another galaxy, well, he would soon find out when the probes report, and it allowed for near instantaneous transport through it. It was far away from any populated systems and trade routes, however he wasn't going to take chances. That was why they had acquired the Orbital Night Cloak from one of Zsinji's lost laboratories. The fleet would deploy the cloak around the entrance to the wormhole, to hide it from any sensors and prying eyes. A light beeped on the admiral's desk. "Archbold here, what is it Captain?" "Sir, we've reached the coordinates you provided, there is an anomaly near, and sensors say it's a stable wormhole." "Thank you captain, I'll be up shortly." He then signed off, and wondered for the thousandth time if it was worth the risk. As he was approaching the bridge he went over all the plans he had laid out for his expansion. The plan involved several dozen ships of at least Victory-class standards. However, he had been able to acquire a much more modern and powerful fleet without much hassle. The freighters were another matter. It had taken him a few months to get them, and their cargoes ready, but they were well worth the wait. Each ship was over 20km long, and could carry several billion tons worth of cargo. 2 of the 6 ships carried a shipyard in a kit form, it would take about a month to set it up, but when completed could build almost any ship known to imperial technicians, they also carried the Kuat Drive Yards and Seinar Fleet Systems employees that would run the facility. Another of the ships carried a dozen Golan III platforms for defence of the shipyards and bases to be set up. The other 3 carried replacement parts and supplies needed for 10 years of operation without any hindrance to effectiveness. The other, seemingly insignificant civilian ships in his force carried other supplies, such as Tibanna Gas and other items such as the millions of droids needed to run the mining and farming facilities that were to be built up. The families of the crewers had come along, knowing that it was to be a long deployment, and to increase the population of the Empire in this new galaxy. As he entered the bridge silently Archbold studied his fleet. His flagship, the Executor-class Command ship Renown was his favourite; he had her modified in the slip. The major difference was that she was coated with several metres thick of sensor stealth armour, which would decrease her signature drastically. Another feature was that her weapons were of the Imperator- Mark II grade, and were nearly doubled in number, as well; she had 6 KDY W-165 planetary turbolasers. The other major difference was that she changed from having solar ionization reactors to having hyper-matter reactors that produced nearly thrice the power as the standard reactors did. Her escorts were a pair of Allegiance class Cruisers. Each was more powerful and heavily armed than an Imperator, but didn't carry the support ships that an Imperator carried. The next major ships were his Imperator II's, of which he had 12. Each ship was the flagship of its own task force, a force consisting of 2 Imperator mark I class destroyers and 4 Victory class destroyers. Each task force had 4 Carracks and 6 Lancers, for scouting and escorting purposes. He also had a pair of expensive yet highly useful Immobiliser 418- type Interdictor's that could capture an enemy fleet in space and prevent them from escaping. He had also managed to acquire nearly 300 Corellian Corvettes that would be useful for hit and run tactics and escorting. "Captain, ready the fleet to enter the wormhole, and deploy the night cloak, I don't want the hole discovered by anyone." "Yes sir." The Captain replied, "comm., signal the fleet, 'Prepare for departure', CAG, launch the satellites in the pre-planned pattern. When it's all deployed, signal the van to enter the wormhole, we will be entering it through divisions." A chorus of "Aye sir" rang throughout the bridge as Archbold sat down in his chair. On his tactical display, one ship after another disappeared as they entered the wormhole and soon the great lumbering brutes of the transports entered and the rear of the fleet entered leaving nothing that could possibly inform the rebels of the hole. CHAPTER 2 From the galaxy's rim where the wormhole ended the fleet scouted out an area of the quadrant that progressed towards the core of the galaxy. They hadn't established a base yet because the scouts hadn't found an area of space that was easily defendable, nor yet able to be concealed easily. "Admiral, one of the scouts has reported in, it seems to have found an ideal place, in the deep core. Shall I order a detailed scan of the area?" Sheppard requested. "By all means, do we have a hyperspace route mapped towards the area yet?" The admiral replied. "Not a detailed one as of yet, sir. The scouts are slowing down in their overall pace of mapping as the area increases for them to chart as well as the large numbers of stellar anomalies that seem to fill this area." Pausing, Sheppard looked at the map on his repeater panel, before replying. "However, I shall order a few ships to concentrate on a path to the core." "Of course," Archbold replied. "Captain, inform me when we have more detailed information on the area." He replied as he turned to leave the bridge, 'about time too' he thought, the civilians were not used to being cooped up in small areas and were getting agitated, 'oh well, it will serve them to calm down and to focus on what's ahead' he mused to himself. Dominant, Carrack-class cruiser On the Carrack- class cruiser things were getting interesting. They had discovered the huge nebulae that covered almost the entire core of the galaxy. Captain Thelea was waiting for her scouts to report back. She had sent them off to find a safe entrance through the nebulae. "Captain, the TIE's have returned, they are transmitting data now." "Any thing to report about their findings?" Thelea asked, "None that the computers have been able to uncover, though it looks like the centre of it is empty space, with enough room to set up several shipyards." Her comm. Officer reported. "Send that to the admiral, and recover the scouts, we shall be entering the nebula soon." "Aye captain" was said by the CAG and comm. Officers. When all scouts had been recovered, she ordered a course for the nearest gap, which apparently was the safest with the least possibilities of flares happening. "Status?" "All systems are operational." The Comm. Scan operator replied. "Very well, as soon as were done send a report to the admiral, you have the bridge commander." "Yes sir" the commander replied. The vanguard dropped out of hyperspace a tenth of a light year away from the nebulae. The Imperator-II class star destroyer Gnisnal, flagship of the van, hailed the cruiser awaiting her, immediately they began a data transfer, mostly of star-charts. "Captain Thelea, congratulations on finding the place. I'm sure the admiral will approve." Commodore Karda offered, "Thank you sir, however, I'm sure it isn't needed." Thelea replied. "When shall the rest of the fleet arrive?" "In 4 days, the transports need much more time to get here. In the meanwhile we have orders to patrol the area and capture enemy ships." The Gnisnal's task force soon broke up and proceeded to explore the nearby star systems, in a hope for finding any trace of technologically advanced species. The Gnisnal herself soon hypered away to the wormhole for more intricate charts. Thelea soon found herself alone, save for the 1,091 others onboard her ship, when an indicator beep a warning. "What was that?" She demanded. "A sub-space distortion field, heading this way, at about 200c." A sensor officer replied. 'Odd' she thought, "What can you make of it?" "It seems to be a ship, warping space and sub-space together, making a distortion field." "Plot an intercept jump, and prepare weapons and jamming, I want that ship, and I want no transmissions from it." "Course laid in sir." "Engage." The Maquis ship had just shaken off the Cardassian patrol that had nearly caught them stealing supplies. It had taken several hours of wild changes in course and speed as well as some incentive tricks to finally lose them. When the rectangular starship appeared from nowhere at a tremendous speed, however, they were totally unprepared for the attack. Before the sensor personnel even had a time to shout a warning, the ship was blasted by blue lightning that came over in sheets from the alien vessel. Systems shorted out all over the ship, panels exploded killing crewmembers caught too near them. Engineering, which was a mess before hand trying to repair the core from the Cardassian attacks was made even worse by plasma conduits exploding and the containment of the core failing. The surviving crewers, those who were not near consoles on the ex-federation ship, stared at the sight in front of them. One small ship had completely disabled the maquis with one broadside, and was even now deploying shuttles. "We are so dead." The chief stated, "You got that right." Another replied. On board the imperial cruiser, things couldn't be better. The enemy ship hadn't even a chance. The ion cannons were deadly accurate. "Captain, the troopers report ready." "Launch the shuttles, stun the crew, we need prisoners." "Yes sir" the trooper at her side said, as he used his internal communications in his helmet to order the launching. As the shuttles neared, the crew was getting tense. They knew that they hadn't much time. They doubted it was Cardassian; the ship didn't look anything like it. "Everybody, prepare for boarders. Get the phasers handed out." The captain shouted through the still semi-operational comm. system as the first shuttle neared the bridge. "Squad, stun the crew, the fleeties want prisoners. Make it quick, we don't want any self-destructs going of or anything. We're entering on a bridge wing, so expect stiff resistance." The stormtroopers awaited the clang of the shuttle latching onto the ship with nervous apprehension. They didn't know how easy or hard it would be, but they were the best and were trained for it. As the shuttle latched on, the cutting torches started to make an entrance into the enemy. A brief on rush of air informed them that it was successful and they entered calmly, but quickly, so they wouldn't run into stiff resistance. As they stormed onto the bridge, a hail of orange beams met them, they quickly opened fire with their E-11's set on stun. When a trooper was hit by one of the beams, his armour plate in that section simply disappeared. He looked on in a stunned horror at his missing breastplate. "DF-845, get back on the shuttle, tell them to bring back repair droids." His sergeant ordered. The bridge was a mess. The exploding panels had left the bridge seriously damage, and if anything was to be done about the ship, it would need to be repaired. A pair of troopers was left behind as the squad systematically cleared out the deck and went lower towards the engineering section. Another shuttle made for the hangar. The squad it contained job was to secure the hangar so re-enforcements could be easily brought aboard. The bridge crew at first was a bit frightened by the sight of the white beasts that assaulted them, but quickly over came it and fired on them. They were rewarded by the sight of an enemy go down but the return fire was shocking. A ring of blue energy was released from each gun and when it hit one of the crew they would collapse, as if unconscious, which was exactly what happened to them. The crew then had binders put on them and were guarded by the troops. By the hangar, the crew had managed to get a force field in place. They were pretty confident that it would hold them off, at least until they got the power completely up and running again. "Squad alpha-3, there is a force field near your position. Do not use anything more powerful than an E-11, squad alpha-1 reported that they are enough to deal with all resistance." The controller on the cruiser Dominant said over their comm. frequency. "Copy that." The sergeant replied. The maquis were watching in horror as the enemy steadily shot at the field, which collapsed from a few shots. They were ready though and opened fire with phasers and disruptors at the armoured enemy. Steadily though, they were being knocked out as the troopers advanced and routed the pair of defenders left. "You two, after them, the rest of us will take the hangar." The sergeant said. As the pair went off down the corridor, the other 6 men headed in the direction of the hangar. As they were nearing their target they received constant updates as to their positions and those of the other 2 squads, which had entered the ship previously. "Ok, there it is, I doubt there'll be any resistance after what we've experienced, but be prepared. You two, cover the rest of us," the sergeant said as he pointed to two of his troops. As the troops blasted the doors open, the only person inside the hangar was a lone crewer, a one Ensign Jones, who tried vainly to fend of the white suited enemy. He was quickly knocked out by a stun blast from the troopers and collapsed on the floor. The squads computer expert got to work on the hangar doors while the rest went through the hangars looking for any more of the enemy. "Bingo! I got the doors working." The trooper stated. "Very well," then on another frequency, "the hangar is secured, opening doors now." On the squad frequency, "Everyone, turn the mag locks on your boots on, we don't know if the containment field is working." When the doors opened the unfortunate Jones was sucked out into the vacuum, as the containment field didn't activate in time. Jones greeted the approaching shuttle with a thud as his decompressed body hit the solar panel of the TIE Shuttle. The mopping up operations went well, what resistance there was easily beaten by the stormtroopers. The computer core, once translated was incredibly easy to decrypt, and they soon had a copy of the history of the quadrant and fairly accurate star charts for the region. Looking through the computer, they found the positions of several more 'maquis' vessels and soon captured or destroyed them, take far to many prisoners for her holds to carry. When the Dominant returned from her scouting patrol, she was quite surprised at the activity going on in the 'badlands' as the locals called it. "Sir, Captain Sheppard is hailing." A comm.'s officer reported. "Very well, on the aft receiver." She replied. As Sheppard shimmered into view, she was again reminded why she hated him so. "Captain Thelea, congratulations, your series of ships netted puts you in the lead. I am transmitting the data received by the other ships, I suspect you have the same for me?" He opened with. "Of course, transmitting now. Any new orders?" Thelea replied, with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. She was not expecting what she got though. "Your orders are to proceed to the following worlds and place hyperspace orbital sensor buoys there. When it is complete you shall receive new orders, most likely mapping ones." And with that Sheppard signed off. Renown The shipyard was starting to take shape. Already the Golan III's were set up in a double sphere surrounding the shipyard with 2 more guarding the only safe entrance into the deep core of the nebula where the shipyard was. On the bridge of the Executor-class Command Ship Renown, Admiral Archbold was peering over a display of the new galaxy, called the 'Milky Way' by its inhabitants, making new strategies in his head, playing over and over the possibilities that were there, especially with the humans, who could easily become members of the Empire, as soon as they were subjugated. He decided to send a pair of task forces into each of the quadrants in this galaxy, the extra crews taken off and going through simulations on the shipyard and Golan III's. Within 2 weeks of operation the shipyards had laid down 4 ISD II's, 2 Allegiance's as well as 6 what Rendilli were calling Victory III's, in actual fact Republic-class Star Destroyers. As well, they were building TIE Defenders and Missile Boats to replace the ageing TIE's throughout the fleet. They were preparing to build a pair of battlecruisers, newly designed by Lira Wessex, which would take over the roles of the Allegiances as escorts for the flagship, releasing them for roles as flagships of the van and rear sections of the fleet. They were 8.8km long and were a diminutive Executor in a barbed arrowhead shape. Each was nearly as powerful as a standard Executor, and was equally shielded. Already the corvettes had managed to map out nearly one quarter of the galaxy, the large numbers of them easily covering large distances, and had managed to locate several large power blocks, mostly centred around the humans, naturally. As a plan formed in his head, he called Sheppard in to work out the details.