Contributed by : Duke
- Chapter 1 -
This is not good, Admiral Braxton thinks to himself, The Imperials are reinforcing their frontal lines and are regrouping. "All wing commanders, call in starfighters. Picket line, get farther away from the support line. Support line full throttle. Cut into the enemies' lines. Mon Cal Cruisers, follow the support line at half speed. Now!"
"Yes sir," calls in all the commanders. Rubbing his chin for good luck, Braxton thinks again, This is not good. But then again, recently nothing has been gone well. With their defeat at Rantine, the New Republic had lost many of their powerful ships. His 7th Battle Group of the Core has also lost most of its ships in their last few engagements. But right now at Trito IV, it doesn't seem as if any of his ships will get out.
"Sir!" the sensor chief calls, "The support lines have only bent the Imps' lines-they're holding."
"Pull back, now!" Braxton barks, "Don't let our boys get knocked around anymore. Right when the support line has moved out of our path, all cruisers full speed at that line. We have to break it!"
"Aye, sir." the communications chief says, "The captains have all acknowledged the orders."
As the outdated, but large MC90 and other capital ships charge toward the Imperial forward line, the sensor chief calls out, "Sir, large hyperspace masses detected coming in system!"
"This better be good news," Braxton mutters, "Well what are they?"
"Yeah! They're ours sir! 1 Republic-class Star Destroyer and 2 Warrior-class Gunships coming in system now!" the chief responds. On his command console, Admiral Braxton sees the face of his old friend, Commodore Yeake Wilkins.
"Yeake, you old dog! What took you so long?" Braxton demands kindly.
"Well Admiral-----" the transmission is cut of by another image on the screen.
"This is Line Captain Mikel of the 3rd Imperial Battle Squadron. You may have won this time Admiral. But we shall meet again on the battlefield." The transmission is cut and the Imperial Fleet winks out into hyperspace.
"Did you see the look on ol'Mikel's face when you came in, Yeake? It was great!" Braxton says, laughing. "It looked like a Rugroa beast losing his prey!!"
"Yeah," Commodore Wilkins says, cracking up, "his transmission was broadcast to all the New Republic ships. I'll bet the whole fleet saw it."
Rex Braxton's smile fades, "So, Yeake, I heard about Tomana. I'm sorry-"
"No need to be," Yeake whispers, smile turning to frown, "she died honorably. Tomana would have had no regrets."
"How's Juna taking it?" Braxton asks, with a worried look.
"Oh, she's at the age to understand. She cries sometimes, but I know she'll live. Anyway," Yeake starts, smile returning, "I'm not only here to brag about old war stories Rex. The Senate has been disbanded due to its ineffectiveness."
Dropping his mouth wide open, Braxton exclaims, "What?!"
"Yeah, just like the Old Republic except it was voluntary-the Senate agreed. The New Republic is going to be governed by a smaller council made up of some of the better ex-Senators. Jaina Organa Solo, Mon Mothma, Leia Organa Solo, Borsk Fei'lya are some of them."
"But that's like the original Provisional Council."
"Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be like. It seems the New Republic's getting militarized like in the Rebellion days. High Command has been reinstated. Since Ackbar died, Admiral Xanthar has been made Fleet Command. General Page commands the SpecForces and NRI is still with Cracken. Now there's one thing that I needed to call favors from people on Coruscant to find out about. High Command has opened a new branch called New Republic Special Intelligence Operations-NRI boys call 'em the 'Shadow Agency', but my sources tell me they used to be the fabled Alpha Blue. I couldn't even found out what they do. Pretty spooky, huh?"
"Are you serious? That's mighty top secret if you, with all your contacts, could only find out its name and not what it does."
"Yep. The Empire's on the move and we have to stop them. This Special Intelligence Operations group better be good because---" Yeake is cut off by the voice of an ensign.
"Admiral, we are coming out of hyperspace. Coruscant dead ahead."
"Well Yeake," Braxton says, "we'll just have to do what we do and hope for the best."