What if....








"Reversion in 50 seconds!" came the hardened voice over Fleetcom.


"What's up Jiren's butt?" the grizzled engineer rasped out as he crawled out from under the station monitoring portside thrust ratios.


The Captain turned to the older man, a veteran of the famous battles that littered the Republic's rise out of the evil of the Empire.

"He hates teaming with the Empire even if the cause is for the greater good."

"That damned Fearson's had to go and build a Death Star.."

The Captain shrugged. "It was bound to happen sooner or later..I am just glad NR Intelligence found the bloody thing before it went operational."


"Who are the Imps sending?"


"Grand Admiral Hyfe... Vice Admiral Drakiss from the sketchy reports coming in over Fleetcom."

"The Grand Admiral himself.... Regent Exceron must think his throne secure on Bastion.." The Captain mused.

"Didn't your hear? According to the Empire, Bastion does not exist."

"What I wouldn't give to find it's location..." the other stated with a feral hint of greed.


"REVERSION IN 5....4....3.....2.....1..."


And the passing stars collected briefly to suddenly scatter across the Captain's field of vision. But the cosmic view was the farthest from his thoughts as he watched the gray orb hanging in the distance over the hidden base with the Hoth System.


"Raise shields... and reinitialize our targeting computers.."

"Imperials! Vector 342!"

The Captain watched the TAC display as holographic projections of the fleet manifest grew as the warships of the Empire entered the formation exiting hyperspace from their own origin vector.

The New Republic's fleet and the Empire were pretty evenly matched but those were not the only forces making up this temporary coalition. Those members were represented by the other scattered blips on the TAC display..everything pointed at Fearson's "diplomatic" station.


The Coalition was about to do a little negotiating of their own as the fleet prepared to engage.


"Signal from the Freedom. It's your father, sir. He says, good hunting.."

The Captain grinned, "Respond likewise. Alert the crew to prepare for combat!"


The New Republic warship Galactus banked with Jiren's Flagship.


"Captain Kaine! Enemy fighters incoming!"


Captain Simon Kaine flexed his hands and calmly ordered his own X-wing fighter squadrons launched.

Distant Past...


There was just too much work to do.


And not enough slaves to do it.. the wry thought passed through the mind of a man staring down at the commotion below.


The thought held a twinge of regret for that meant his clones would have to compensate and he needed every clone he could command at the moment.

"My Lord?" came a voice of one of many of the man's Admirals.
Ironically, there was no shortage of those..

The Admiral was gesturing outside as if to encompass the people outside. "Why are we tolerating this.. this insubordination?" The man stepped forward and continued to do so until the man at the window raised a slender hand cautioning the Admiral that he had come as close as he would.

The Admiral, through clenched teeth seethed. "Just give me a squadron and I will clear the causeway personally!"

The man's fanatical devotion was a sight to behold to the man at the massive arch window but, inevitably, a boring sight for he'd seen their like.

In abundance.

There was no need for subterfuge. Not anymore as his decades long designs finally had come to fruition.


And he was growing ever stronger...


Yet...

And yet the more power I possess the greater my disappointment in everything I see. It seemed, the greater his perceptions grew, the more undesirable sights he found.. sights he wanted to change.

Sights of such startlement as when he first realized just how many alien figures he and humanity resided among. It was a revelation that had shaken him as these "perceptions' moved him to view the encroachment creeping ever closer to dilluting humanity and it's hold on the future.

Not only humanity's but His as well.


There were too many aliens...


A situation that, as his perceptions grew ever sharper, became far too easy to fix.


At least before these 'rebellion', he mentally scoffed with contempt, stories began to be traded among the commoners.


"The public populous is entirely comprised of fools, Admiral Bek." The man, his aging eyes reflecting an iron-like strength of will, turned to the military man. "Remember that. The rebel mistake of pandering to these masses will be their eventual undoing."


The Emperor of the Galaxy moved away from the archway, immediately forgetting the protestors in the plaza. He knew why they were there and he knew what they wanted.

It was what he had seen in his mind's eye and, like sheep to the slaughter, they were already lining up.


Predictable.


He thought briefly to the noticeable absense of Lord Vader overseeing the final construction of the Death Star. This scab replacement hardly registered as alive when set against the indomitable will of his mechanical Sith Lord.

He felt the lethargic motions of his body and was at once amused by what he found. His first question was to wonder why he felt as he did but upon a more soul searching contemplation, he found the answer obvious.


Just like the appearance of his fanatical follower exhibited, he too felt himself.... bored.


He had reached the pinnacle of his achievements and, in the sunlight of supremacy, he found no more challenges.


Nothing moved him.


The crowds outside had found a brave voice but their sudden feeling of security was misplaced.


They were still thinking like a Republic. That they seek to hamper me with loopholes in law..


Emperor Palpatine let out a slow chuckle.


Fools! I AM the law!


It was a lesson that the population, it seemed, had yet to take to heart.


And so he had acted a few weeks before, when he ordered severe punishments to the families of known rebels. So far, the prisons were being filled at an astonishing rate as the politicians of the Empire began to take advantage of the situation to rid themselves of political enemies and ingratiate themselves into the Emperor's good graces.


They had no idea what was coming. The politicians who tried to enter Palpatine's inner circle.. actually, convincing themselves that there was a circle.., the Emperor was amused..these self satisfied Senators, who had familial connections within the military thought they could manipulate the Emperor while trying to befriend him.


They think their military connections will give them an edge..


He was prepared.

It had taken him a while to locate the right person to prod and set the right circumstances into motion to bring his will about... and the man had bitten.


In all fairness, there was no way the man could not bite down when Palpatine had such a firm grasp of the man's sensibilities.


If they could be called that..


Simply putting the man on the front lines of the New Order policies without being screened by Intelligence could not help but present Palpatine with the effect he wanted.

This Captain of a small cruiser... being held back from commanding one of the new Imperator Class Destroyers, which was a direct challenge to his wife's ambition, was only icing on the cake.

Overlooked promotion after promotion and confronted first hand with the Emperor's New Order Policies, the enslaving of problem races, the elimation of the more useless races, and the like...

.. it was an equation that provided the desired result soon enough.


The Captain was finally placed in one compromising situation too many. One which he could not ignore and he was forced to choose.


And choose he did.


He rebelled.


Oh, he had saved who he intended to save, but in so acting, he fell right into the Emperor's designs.


For it was at that instant of action, when the Captain was rebelling far out in space, that he addressed the Imperial Senate instituting harder measures in dealing with this rebellion, especially on the heals of a certain terrorist act that he himself had orchestrated.


That the severe punishment of imprisonment for those related to rebels was simply not enough to curb the spread of violence. Extreme times called for extreme members as these terrorists fought to undo everything they had worked for, undo everything they had fought for in the Clone Wars.


It was time they felt the teeth of the Empire.


It was time they felt the people's resolve to live in peace and in Order. The death penalty for the traitors was well and good but, unfortunately, the rebels simply acted that much more boldly. It was time for a more harsher measure. Something that would grab the rebel's attention and not let go.


Palpatine remembered the rush he felt, the exhilaration, when giving his next command. All first born children of proven traitors were to receive the death penalty for the sins of their parents.


There was a great outcry (led by Bale Organa) but the Emperor asked, in the face of this, how could the rebellion not die? He had assured them that the Senate held the power to ultimately veto the death penalties at will but it was time they viewed this threat as serious.

This seemed to be the "way out" most of the aliens could live with as they thought they had fitted around Palpatine the bonds of compromise. The law was ratified.


Truly, though, the Emperor knew the law would pass regardless of their wishes. That is what his clones were for. To see his wished carried out.


Everything had proceeded as he had foreseen until he sent his clones to arrest the Captain's wife upon hearing from the Military Command of the "treachery against the Empire" by this naval Captain out in the Mid Rim.

Unfortunately, the stormtroopers had found the home deserted and Palpatine had flown into a rage.


As he executed those stormtroopers for their failure, he knew he would have to put another plan into motion. Fortunately, he had an alternative...





*



Celeste Kaine had reached the transport, having seemed to avoid completely the confusion as the air traffic control for the personal cruisers went offline.


Both Mother and Son shouted in happiness as Kaine's father was waiting to meet the transport as it came into the Sotel Spaceport.


Their joy caused smiles from onlookers as they passed by.


And history as we know it..


..changed.