Star Wars - First Blood

Star Wars
A Different Shade of Evil
First Blood

The swirling blue of hyperspace gave way a little earlier than expected, dumping the Imperial Star Destroyer Striker and its escorts into real-space.
On the bridge of the Striker, the ship's captain; an older human male with grey hair and a bushy moustache looked askance at his first officer.
"That was too soon" he remarked, his tone curious.
As his first officer nodded in agreement, a third man approached. Like so many aboard this ship, he stood 1.8 metres tall with a strong build, impeccably kept black hair and a skin tone a little darker than the captain's. His youthful feautures held a strength of conviction and a confidence beyond that of a normal recruit. He was a clone of the Mandalorian Bounty Hunter known as Kad Arrek, and probably quite fresh, though he had a Lieutenant's rank insignia.
"Captain Jarens, sir" the clone said, saluting, "We have reached the Sernpidal system. Sensors show some kind of anomoly"
As the clone spoke, he touched a comlink that was attached to his right ear, no doubt the source of his information.
"Confirmed, sir" he went on, still listening as further reports came to him, "At first glance it appears to be an asteroid cloud. There shouldn't be one in this system, sir... gravitational readings are all over the place... scans show the planet Sernpidal is experiencing... sir, they say one of the planet's moons is falling out of orbit. Estimate impact in a matter of minutes"

Captain Jarens' first instinct was to assume that the clones were getting inaccurate readings. He quickly started to make his way forward towards the viewports at the front of the bridge. Perhaps his own eyes would tell him something more. As ridiculous as that line of reasoning was, his first officer and the clone Lieutenant flanked him.
Through the viewport they could see what appeared to be a cloud of asteroids... no, too regular to be asteroids. An unnameable dread surfaced from the old man's mind.
"Gravitational readings" he muttered, trying to remember why he should feel that dread.
It came to him a handful of moments later as several of the 'asteroids' abruptly changed course.
He had just remembered the briefing on the extra-galactic invasion force. It had seemed prepostrous that such a thing was even possible, and yet the Empress and her Grand Admirals had been so certain. And if every one of those rocks contained...
"Stars' End" he gasped, and his blood ran cold.

The Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrayed above Sernpidal was enormous; over two hundred capital ships, ranging from the size of the two Lancer class Frigates that were the Striker's escort to nearly twice the size of the Star Destroyer. A third of that fleet was now moving towards the Imperials, picking up speed...

On the bridge of the Striker, Captain Jarens was already in motion, barking orders to the crew pits on either side of him.
"Full about! Raise shields! Prepare for hyperspace jump! Return to Origin! Weapons ready now!"
"Sir, we have a problem with that" the Lieutenant reported, again touching the comlink in his ear, "Gravity fluctuation are increasing, sir. We can't make a clean jump. It looks like the hostiles are powering up an interdictor"
That was a problem.
Captain Jarens let out a groan of frustration. The Empire had to be warned. If they couldn't get back to the rest of their fleet group, they had to sound the alarm.
"Lieutenant, send a message to the admiral immediately. Inform him of what we have discovered. I don't plan on us dying here, but in case we don't make it, that message must be sent"
The Lieutenant nodded once, then turned away and began to relay the order. Like all clones, he did not question his superior.

"Sir!" someone shouted franticly from the port-side crew pit, "We have enemies ahead of us now! A third of the original group micro-jumped to cut us off!"
That made matters that much worse. Seventy ahead, seventy behind, and only two frigates for escort; frigates optimised to take out fighters.
"All weapons stand by!" the Captain ordered, feeling oddly calm now. It was strange how the utter certainty of his demise could do that. No anxiety, no regrets, just a determination to take as many of the enemy down with him as he could.
"They must know we can't jump through that" he reasoned, "Least of all with all those gravity fluctuations. Keep transmitting, no matter what happens. Have the Lancers do the same. We have to hope that message gets through, and we have to try to blast our way through after it"

Golden fire started to pour forth from the Yuuzhan Vong ships. It streaked across the void and splashed against the Imperials' shields, lighting them up with blue disruption static as they struggled to keep the deadly energy away from the ships.
Green lances of return fire erupted from Striker's forward batteries. Most of them were caught and compressed into singularities long before they reached their intended targets, though one got through, burning a deep pit into the side of one that looked like some kind of sea creature.
The Imperials forged onwards, and behind them Sernpidal died. Its smaller moon hit the planet's capital with incredible force, shattering both and exposing the molten core of the planet to space.
Moments later, the third portion of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet started to move, heading in a different direction entirely.

"Captain, that third group is ramping up for hyperspace. They must be planning on hitting another system"
The bucking of the deck beneath their feet made it hard to maintain purchase, but Captain Jarens was determined not to end up sprawling. Of course, the Lieutenant was doing an even better job of staying upright. His youth and conditioning worked in his favour compared to his commander.
"Lieutenant, we can't let them get away" Jarens declared, though the pounding they were taking made it obvious that they couldn't do much about it right now. "Launch all fighters. We can't jump, and we'll take more hostiles down with us if we launch now. Lieutenant, I want a TIE Scout to head after that third group with an escort flight. They're small and nimble enough to get clear of the enemy gravity field. They have to track the enemy's course and report it to the Admiral"
The Lieutenant nodded. "It will be done, sir"

As Striker and its escorts closed with the enemy group that had cut them off, the fighting intensified. The Lancers were finally in weapons range and could add their own fire to the battle. Though much was absorbed by voids, co-ordinating their attacks allowed the Imperials to blast a trio of corvette-sized rocks apart with relative ease. The addition of TIEs to the mix allowed them to bring down a frigate... and then it started going downhill.
The Yuuzhan Vong ships deployed their own fighters; an almost-impenetrable swarm of them. Worse still, their fighters moved and fought as one. The incredible synchronisation allowed by the Yammosk in one of the largest of the invaders' capital ships kept their coralskippers ahead of the Imperials' guns.
Worst of all, the pursuing forces entered weapons range and began to pour fire into the Imperial ships from behind.
Only four small ships were not embroiled in that maelstrom... a TIE Scout and its TIE Defender escort. They were streaking towards the third Yuuzhan Vong group...

The Striker's bridge was already filling with smoke; forcing the air scrubbers to work overtime.
A mighty blow to the ship pitched Captain Jarens to the deck along with the Lieutenant. Everything was shaking. Those damned fighters moved like they had one mind. They must have been remotes of some kind... like the old droid fighters.
"We need to knock out the control ship for those fighters!" he yelled, then started coughing from the smoke.
"Lieutenant?"
"Sir, none of our sensor stations can determine the source of the enemy communications. Weapons are still at full capacity but we're losing shields. Most of our fighters are pinned down. The scout is clear, sir, but our escort frigates are in worse shape than we are"
Jarens nodded gravely. "The transmission?" he asked.
"We're still transmitting, but with all this going on, it's impossible to tell if we're getting through, sir" the Lieutenant replied.
Another grave nod.
"Maintain fire" Jarens hissed, not bothering to get back to his feet. Dignity had given way to practicality. Until the smoke cleared, he would be better able to direct his men from the deck.
"Lieutenant, have gunners keep concentrating everything on one enemy ship at a time. Much as I'd like to take out the big one, we're more likely to be able to damage the support elements"

One Lancer blew apart, and then the second; overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fire being directed their way. The third group jumped to hyperspace, followed closely by the TIE Scout and its escort.
With almost none of its fighters left, Striker was alone and being picked apart. Another enemy frigate was blown apart under a hail of turbolasers but it was not enough. The Yuuzhan Vong were going to complete a massacre, and very soon.

The only crewmember alive on the Striker's bridge was Captain Jarens. He half rolled, half fell into the starboard crew pit where his fall was broken by the bodies of his men. A computer blow out had killed them, including the Duros helmsman; the only non-human in the crew. Dispassionately moving the Duros' body aside, Captain Jarens took the helm. He could still hear reports from other decks, thanks to the comlink that the Lieutenant had placed in his hand with his dying breath after taking the impact from falling debris that would've killed the Captain.
Shields were down. The hull was breached in dozens of places, and half the port-side weapons array was compromised. The starboard gunners were still in reasonable shape, and proved it by blowing apart a fourth enemy corvette.
"Good work, men" Jarens said, his voice filled with pride as he keyed in a new course, "Keep firing. We'll show them that the Empire will fight until its last breath"

The course that he was setting was to ram the largest enemy ship present; an off-white slab of rock with a ridge of coral spires on its dorsal hull. The slab was twice the length of the Striker and nearly three times as wide.
"Over-ride hyperdrive safety systems, authorisation Jarens 3-1-4-Omega"
This was it. The safeties were off. Captain Jarens knew that it was not safe to jump with so many gravity fluctuations. It might well be physically impossible, and the attempt would be more likely to destroy his ship than send it to hyperspace. All this he knew, but he had to try. Another enemy frigate flew apart. The port-side guns were all gone, and the starboard gunners under heavy fire themselves, but they were following his orders.
Impact was imminent. 8, 7, 6...
Captain Jarens activated shipwide comms and stood tall. 5, 4...
"Long live the Empire!" he roared, and saluted. 1...

Striker hit the Yuuzhan Vong ship at full sublight speed, shearing off four of the coral spires before it's momentum was halted.
A fraction of a second later, the Star Destroyer's hyperdrive engines flared once.
Both ships vanished in a burst of cronau radiation.
Three seconds later, halfway across the system, there was another burst. No Imperial Star Destroyer appeared there, and no Yuuzhan Vong dreadnaught... only wreckage. A torrent of wreckage came pouring out of hyperspace. The Yuuzhan Vong may have won the battle, but they had been given ample evidence that the war with the Empire would not be easy...