Star Wars: Subtitle TBD

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Prologue

This remote sector of space contains a small planet capable of sustaining life.  The blue-green orb is the only habitable planet among the system of six planets orbiting a small yellow star.  The planet has two small moons that revolve every 25 standard days.  The moons orbit nearly opposite of each other, causing chaotic weather and an odd tidal motion on the seas of the planet below.  The planet is far beyond what Galactic Cartographers call The Outer Rim Territories.  The indigenous life is made up of creatures who have adapted by evolution to the violent weather and tidal forces.  With the exception of a few smuggling operations, and some despots avoiding the laws of their homeworlds, the planet has not had much intelligent life remain for too long.  Too far away from Galactic Shipping lanes, and deemed too inhospitable for sustaining a permanent settlement, this planet is rarely an entry on Galactic Cartographic logs.  At best it would be a remote vacation spot for the adventurous type, or hunter.  The Galactic Logs list the planet as LDP-389-B3.  The rare nickname amongst the historians is “Lonesome Shadow”.  The topography of the planet is made up mostly of one large ocean peppered with thousands of varying sized islands, and typical sized polar caps made up of water and methane ice.  Storms litter the planet, and from space the lightning storms create a visual glittering image to all who witness them from space.  Scattered volcanos erupt, which add to the static electricity present in the atmosphere. An asteroid field within the solar system containing this planet will occasionally lose gravitational hold on the orbital ring, and collide with the small planet.  Typically when these asteroids begin the collision course they tend to be broken into much smaller meteoroids that cause minimal damage to the surface.  It is an ideal world to study, but again, far too remote to be considered.

Chapter One

The TIE/sh-hdm Shuttlecraft races across space, twisting and turning.  One of its sublight ion drives is sputtering in and out of operational standards, causing a lurching forward motion of travel.  Lances of green-yellow turbolaser fire streak in a spread pattern close to, and occasionally striking the small craft.  With each blow, the shuttle is spun about, and the pilot manages to avoid the next volley of laser fire, only to run into a next volley.  Following in a deliberate path is an aging Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer of the Imperial Remnant.  One of the three main engines is completely out of commission, but it maintains its determined course in pursuit of the shuttle. The turbolaser embankments are only at fifty percent, but they are still lethal for a vessel the size of the shuttle.  One of these embankments unleash another volley of concentrated turbolaser fire, which strike the starboard angled solar array fin.  The hit spins the shuttle out of control, sending it left.  The pilot cannot get control of the craft quick enough to avoid a single shot from the Destroyer’s forward ion cannon.  Blue lightning wraps around the TIE craft, and the twin ion engines shut down immediately, rendering the craft dead in space.  The Star Destroyer makes an overhead approach and engages the shuttle with a tractor beam, pulling the small black and grey craft to its large ventral landing bay beneath the ship.  This is a well-known “engage and capture” method used for decades. Once a tractor beam has a good lock on a vessel, there are only the rare instances of escape.  Once the shuttle has been brought inside the magnetic field containment zone, the tractor beam disengages, and four small internal tractor beams place the shuttle on a small pad within the landing bay.

Two additional Star Destroyers appear at opposite sixty degree angles forward of the main ship.  They had maintained forward perimeter points, on the off chance that the small TIE Shuttle could evade the main attack of the command ship.  As the command vessel passes between the two companion ships, the additional Destroyers come about to eventually match course with the lead capital ship and come into formation.  The trio drifts on for a few moments more, then they all jettison their garbage holds into space from the rear cargo ports on the spines of the conning towers.  A few moments later the ships adjust and verify course vectors to match each other, then the three ships’ hyperdrive banks activate and glow a bright blue-white until all three disappear into hyperspace from this sector of the galaxy.

Mere moments later, a bright point of light appears in the space previously occupied by the Star Destroyers, and a ship appears out of hyperspace.  It is a relic of a long ago age.  The 195 meter Marauder Class Corvette dates back to the Old Republic and the Clone Wars.  Small and swift, the class was used for patrol and law enforcement.  Several factions have used the vessel, but its intended use was phased out for better ships and technology that were created during the rule of the Galactic Empire.  By appearance, this particular vessel shows signs of decades of modifications and repairs.  In its prime, these ships were a typical light gray with an emblem of the individual factions or governments these ships would represent.  This particular corvette is a matte black with no markings and limited lighting.  The lacking of reflective surface facets on this ship made it very difficult to detect visually.  Even the engine banks are modifications, as the original drives have been replaced.  Instead of the standard blue emission ion banks, the modification allowed for improved power, and low-visibility, deep-red emitting, ion array.  The Marauder circled the region then went on a straight course that matched the last vector of the three Star Destroyers that had been here several minutes before.  Thirty seconds after entering the region it vanished into hyperspace again, leaving the sector of space as quiet and empty as it had been for most of its relative existence.