Above the world of Druckenwell....

The space above the planet of Druckenwell expanded and rippled, signifying a ship emerging from hyperspace. It was indeed an ship, an Imperial warship to be exact. Measuring in at three hundred fifty meters long, the Carrack class cruiser Exodus exited it's journey through hyperspace above the planet. The ship bristled with heavy turbolaser and ion cannons, and sported an advanced array of sensors, communications gear, and docking collars to which were attached scout ships, and attached to the rear of the ship was a cloaking device, part of the last fleet upgrade currently underway. Right now the ship was on shakedown cruise through the Corellian Run, and was stopping off at the world due to a fluctuation in the hyperspace engines. Even though Druckenwell was outside of Imperial authority, it still had flourished without the need for Imperial rule, developing well after the attack and invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong, and the planet's subsequent liberation after the Vong were forced to retreat. The planet had redeveloped well, with a better balance between it's worker populace, and the wealthy patrons that ran the place. Most of the civilian workers labored in the manufacturing plants now while droids handled the actual mining of the planet's wealthy array of metals and ore. Sheet durasteel was the planet's main export, and of course food was it's main import. The station had several large docking stations, as well as two Golan II Defense platforms orbiting the planet. Druckenwell also maintained a small space navy, consisting of one large mon calamari cruiser purchased from the scrap yards after the collapse of the New Republic and refitted, along with perhaps a dozen support ships, no larger than the Exodus, and a few squadrons of old Imperial starfighters. Today's actions would see a interesting shift in the planet's history.

"Imperial carrack class cruiser, identify yourself." said a voice over the ship's comm.

The capitan of the Exodus, a shorty burly man by the name of Giles, proceeded to the communications station to answer.

"This is Captian Giles of the Imperial Mk II Carrack Cruiser Exodus." he replied curtly.

"Captian Giles, please state the purpose of your visit." replied the planetery authority officer.

"Our hyperdrive engines are malfunctioning, and we are requesting the use of a dockyard in order to effect repairs to it." said the capitan.

"Please stay in your current path and do not deviate. We will reply to your offer shortly." said the P.S.A.

"Well, that was interesting." said the capitan out loud as the transmission was cut.

A moment passed, and then, "Capitan Giles, may I inquire as to whether or not you will need an additional ship to arrive with necessary replacement parts?" asked the planetery security chief.

"Yes. We have already sent a holo message requesting that a bulk cruiser from Corellia carrying the required parts meet us here." said the capitan.

"Very well, you will be assigned to docking berth 1-88-A. One of our corvettes will come out shortly and escort you and your ship in. And welcome to Druckenwell." said the planetery chief.

With that, the transmission was cut, and the capitan let out a sigh of relief. Then he noticed the corvette coming out from the orbit of the planet, a Marauder class vessel, very old in design, although this one looked either like it was recently rebuilt, or just came out of the shipyards. Capitan Giles did note a shipyard in orbit of the planet, mainly used for civilian traffic, where he could see bulk freighters under construction and pleasure yachts, although he did note that on the far side of the shipyard there was the skeleton of a Corona class Frigate under construction. Their destination was a civilian loading dock located nearest to their area. Once they had reached it, the Corvette broke away to resume it's normal duties, and the Carrack class cruiser prepared to dock with the station. They began to de-accelerate, when the chief engineer yelled out.

"Captian, I am reading massive power surges in the engine compartment." said the engineer.

"Deactivate the reactor." said the capitan in response.

"I can't sir, nothing back of section twenty works. The power levels are reaching the critical stage." yelled the engineer in response.

The capitan walked over to the comm station.

"All non-essiental crew, abandon ship, repeat, abandon ship." said the capitan.

"This means all of us as well while the engineers attempt to fix this problem. To the escape pods, hurry." said the capitan, running down the walkway to the crew pods. Getting into one, he ejected the pod, and soared away from the ship. He watched the receding lines of the carrack cruiser, when suddenly it exploded violently, the reactor having reached critical stages, and it took the nearby docking station down with it. Then his pod changed course from the planet, having been grabbed by the tractor beam of the same corvette that had escorted his ship in first place when they had arrived. Other pods were being brought into the bay as well. The capitan gulped, and hoped that there weren't civilians on that station, that it was unoccupied, but this time the captian would not be so lucky.

(Sorry)

"I trust I don't have to tell you why you were summoned here?" asked Park Kraken to his guest.

"No sir, you sure don't. I've seen the news holovids myself, and I must say, they are most disturbing." said the Commodore.

"Indeed. An recently refitted Carrack class cruiser blows up without any warning whatsoever, as it's approaching a spacedock, and kills not only a portion of it's crew but also a good many civilians in the process. It sounds like just the kind of actions the GLF undertake." said the Admiral.

"Those were indeed my very thoughts on the matter, Admiral. What with the massive refit underway of the older Imperial vessels, it is very possible that a terroist slipped onto the vessel and planted a bomb." replied the Commodore.

"But, I wonder if that is really the case," said the Admiral, stroking his goatee thoughtfully, "There has been recent rumors that the Galatic Coalition is making moves outside their territory." said the Admiral. He heard a sharp intake of breath from the Commodore, before he responded.

"Sir, if that is true, if they were behind the bombing, then it puts a whole new spin on things. If one delved deeply enough into that possibility," said the Commodore, trailing off for several seconds, "Then it could be that the Coalition is attempting to set it up to where Druckenwell sees the incident as an Imperial attack, and looks to the Coalition for help. The Coalition would then set in and save the day, and in the process gain a valuable planet along the Corellian Trade Spine."

"Interesting line of thought, Commodore. If we are to assume that to be true, then what could it mean? I see one of two interesting possibilities, if not both." said the Admiral.

"I think I know where you are going with this. A first possibility would be that they want to establish a link from Tynna to Leritor and Ando." said the Commodore.

"Yes, and a second, more dark possibility, is that once that is accomplished, they will deploy Interdictors along the trade spine to cut off travel to the Imperial worlds located away from the core, namely Falleen, Rodia, Tatooine, Roon, Rishi, and Kamino." said the Admiral.

"But if that was the case, then they would most likely launch a military campaign to capture the worlds. And by the time Imperial forces finally fought through the defenses of Tynna, their most likely location of setting up the mines, then the worlds would have already fallen." said the Commodore.

"Exactly," replied the Admiral, "Which is why we must handle this situation with much care. We could just go in and take Druckenwell by force, but I'd rather that not be the case. No, with the holovids watching this situation very carefully, I am assigning you personally to this mission. You will go to the planet, and launch an investigation into the incident, to coincide with the one already underway most likely by the planetery authorities."

"Very well Admiral, when shall I depart?" asked the Commodore.

"Right now." the Admiral said with a smile on his lips.



The Victory Mark V Star Destroyer Red Harvest reverted from hyperspace near the planet of Druckenwell. Immediatly the communications board lit up with a line from the planetery officials. A brief conversation was held, in which the planetery authorities put the Star Destroyer on hold. On board, Commodore Brand was nervous. If it were up to him, he would have just blasted the enemy and be done with it.

In low orbit of the planet of Druckenwell....

One Lambda class shuttle dropped from the hangar bay of the Victory class Star Destroyer, and deployed it's wings. The shuttle, named Carrion, engaged it's drive engines, propelling the ship torwards it's destination, an orbiting space defense platform that was in overall control of Druckenwell's defenses. There Commodore Brand, the shuttle's sole passenger, would meet with one of the higher ranking individuals in charge of the investigation into the mysterious explosion that had destroyed the Carrack Cruiser Exodus, and had also taken out a nearby docking station filled with civilians.

The catastrophe, as it was labelled by the media outlets on planet, was being blamed unofficially on a suicide bomber, sent by the remnants of the terroist organization GLF to exact revenge on the Empire. Currently the death tollls stood at fifty Imperial mechanical personnel and two hundred fifty citizens of the Druckenwell cruise lines. The DCL had been slowly spiraling downwards, Imperial domination of the nearby trade spine reducing much of their potential passenger buisness. Imperial patrols containing Constrainer class Pickets detaining ships in checkpoints to search for contraband hadn't helped either. Buisness was on the decline, which equated to being unprofitable to the Druckenwell Authorities, hence why the cruiser, a potentially dangerous problem, was given clearence to dock with the station, which in their eyes, was expendable should something happen.

But something had happened, and the station had been destroyed, along all the civilians on it being killed. This was a killing blow for the cruiselines, which had been under pressure from the goverment for weeks to give up and fold in, thus releasing it's workers for other better paying jobs, and opening the door for a possible goverment buisness to be erected in it's place. This placed a good motive for the goverment to had engineered the cruiser's destruction, although the likeliness wasn't very high. In all respects though the goverment could still be blamed for the deaths of the civilians, and would be a useful motive should the Empire decide to come in and take the planet for themselves. Druckenwell was ideally situated on the core route, and while the Empire previously did not want possessin of the planet, indeed, it still doesn't particulary want Druckenwell to become a member planet, it most certainly did not want the planet to fall into the hands of other goverments hell bent on bringing down or causing trade disruption to the Empire, and one of those goverments that was taking a increased interest in this area was the Galatic Coalition. There had been military breifings of an altercation of some kind taking place out at the Roche Asteriod Field, an attempt by the Coalition to peacefully cut the Empire in two along that particular trade spine. The Empire's job here was to investigate a possible threat to that stability along this particular trade spine.

The shuttle was now docking with the station, and Brand's thoughts turned from reflection to present. Unbuclking himself from his seat harness, he stood up straight, and gave himself a once over, to ensure that his uniform and equipment were in proper order. Then, he walked to the shuttle's entrance, just as the ramp began to lower. He proceeded down the ramp as soon as it hit the floor, and there he found a four man crew awaiting him. Two of them were naval troopers, one was a naval capitan, and the final was a chief deputy of investigations, agent Fromson. The naval troopers proceeded to take up positions around them and escorted him and the others to the main office, where the main meeting was to take place.

Meanwhile, aboard the Red Harvest.....

"Sir, we are picking up a high number of energy signatures from the main military station. From what I can tell, profiles suggest four medium captial ships and forty eight starfighters." said the sensors officer.

"Keep a close eye on them Lieutenant, and inform me if they come against us. Communications, send a signal to the Commodore informing him of this development." said the capitan in charge of the ship until the Commodore's return.

"Sir, I cannot get through to the Admiral. There is a strong jamming field in place, being emanated from the station. Recent scans indicated it came online at the same time as the launch of the warships from the main station." reported communications officer.

"Shizt....," thought the capitan, "Alright, I want full shields up, and deploy Alpha and Gamma Squadrons. I don't like what has developed, and we are going in to get the Commodore out, whether or not the authorities want him to go. Guns, bring your weapons online. Sensors, I want enemy warship identification as of yesterday."

A series of light rumbles were felt on the deck beneath his feet. Moments later the twenty four TIE Interceptors Mark III belonging to Alpha and Gamma squadrons began to appear, forming up into protective flights of four each around the Star Destroyer. A faint humming noise was heard a moment later, and then the shields came online. Finally, movement down below on the hull caught the capitan's attention, as gun batteries came to life and turned, cranking their guns up and down, plotting firing solutions to the presumed hostile warships now coming in their general direction.

"Sir, oncoming warships identified. Four, repeat, four Belarus class Medium Cruisers. Twenty Four, repeat, Twenty Four X-wing class Star Fighters. Twelve, repeat, Twelve, A-wing class Interceptors. Twelve, repeat, Twelve B-wing class Assault Bombers. The capital ships have formed into a Delta Line, and the starfighters have formed into trios." reported the sensors officer.

Capitan Tabit gritted his teeth. The numbers were too even, maybe even in the enemy's favour, to his liking. He had two other squadrons in reserve, one bomber squadron, and one elite TIE Defender squadron. He was holding these in reserve for right now, in case something came up that would require their attention. It was clear by now that the enemies attention was hostile. Then, the A-wings and B-wings surged ahead of the battlegroup, coming upon them at full speed. The captian's knuckles ground together, before he issued an order.

"Hangar Boss, release Squadron Gamma to engage and destroy enemy incoming Interceptors and Bombers. Send with them three flight of squadron Alpha. Keep the other two flights of Squadron Alpha in reserve." ordered the capitan.

In the space around the destroyer, four flights of TIE Interceptors, sixteen in total, peeled away from the Victory Star Destroyer, and headed torwards the enemy starfighter squadrons incoming. The incoming fighters kept in their formations, but their aim shifted from the destroyer torwards the fighter formations incoming....

Back aboard the station

They were walking through the main corridor now, when the naval captian recieved an order of some sort through his comlink. He nodded once, said something back into the comlink, then raised his right hand, bringing the entourage to a stop. The Commodore was about to make a inquiry as to why they were stopping, when he suddenly noticed that the rifles belonging to the two naval troopers were suddenly pointed at him. Before he could open his mouth, they both fired, the blue stun bolts hammering him into the ground, into unconsciousness.

Some one hundred kilometers distant from the main space station....

The four Belarus class cruisers came on at medium speed, then slowed as they approached the Star Destroyer. Then, there formation shifted. The three most portside cruisers formed into a wedge, and the fourth cruiser slipped behind them and increased distance from them. It was then noticed that a number of pods and towers were evident on this one compared to the other three. The fighter formations stayed the same, with the oncoming missile squadrons, and the snubfighters staying behind as a screen. The four flights of TIE Interceptors stood a steady course, and when the range clicked down to two point five kilometers, torpedoes flashed from both sides. After firing their torpedoes, the Interceptors broke off to avoid being hit by the missiles launched by the A-wings. Somewhat suprised that these TIE Interceptors, the latest variants, carried torpedoes, the A-wings were caught off guard and slow to break. Six A-wings and two B-wings flashed into balls of incadascent flames as torpedoes impacted against them, more than evening the odds for the TIEs as they came on. The Interceptors broke up into individual pairs, while the remaining enemy fighters broke into groups of three A-wings, three A-wings, three B-wings, three B-wings, and four B-wings respectivley. The group of four broke away from the enemy fighters and headed torwards the Red Harvest.

The captian let them close to within firing distance, then when they did in fact began to fire torpedoes, he ordered the two forward anti-torpedo stations to interdict and destroy the incoming warheads. Chaff projectors fired their canisters into the paths of the incoming warheads, proximity detectors in them causing the canisters to burst, filling the warhead's paths with reflective particles and sensor decoys. Half of the warheads either careened off course or detonated. Next it was the turn of the rapid fire cannons to whittle down the number of torpedoes even further. Four torpedoes out of thirty two fired survived to slam into the shields, reducing their power to approximatley fifty percent in the forward ridgeline. The shield operator's hands flew over a flurry of switches, re-distrubiting power from the other shields to even out the totals. The B-wings then came to an opposite paralleling course to that of the destroyer, seeking to slip in behind it, and use their ion cannons to damage the bridge controls and engines. The weapons officer glanced up at the capitan, who merely nodded in response. The officer spoke into his mic. Moments later, four weapons emplacements along the rear section of the portside centerline became active, tracking the B-wings projected course, then opened fire. The advanced triple barrel gattling laser cannons lanced out at the B-wings, shredding their shields, and peppering the hulls with laser holes where vital components weren't located at. Where they were, small explosions took place. Three B-wings were destroyed outright, another spiraled off course to explode a few moments later, the pilot and gunner managing to eject safelty. A lambda shuttle was deployed from the destroyer to pick them up.

Meanwhile, it was a fairly even fight back at the main zone. The enemy fighters had quickly taken into account the new Interceptor model, and were probably the best the planet's defense force had to offer. Small suprise, but it didn't compare to the best several prominent planet's had to offer. The remaining six A-wings were destroyed within five minutes, and the remaining B-wings were taken out in sums of two and three every few minutes, their shields and hull proving toughter for the lasers to punch through and destroyed. In comparison, thanks to their minimal shields, the Interceptors lost three destroyed, and four damaged. It was decided to withdraw the damaged ones and one undamaged one, and re-organizing the two remaining flights into Gamma Squadron, leaving both Gamma and Alpha Squadrons at equal strength for the time being. The capitan decided it was time to finish the job. He ordered Beta and Delta Squadrons to deploy, and to head for the enemy cruiser to the rear, via a Marg Sabl enclosure technique. But to make a difference, the Red Harvest, along with Alpha and Gamma Squadrons escorting, would run ahead and engage the main enemy force while the bombers and defenders were making the long run around. The capitan nodded to the propulsion officer, who goosed the engines of the VSD to full power, bringing the ship to flank speed. The capitan turned to address the bridge crew of the upcoming engagement.

"All right, everybody listen up. I intend for this engagement to be a prominent lesson to the enemy goverment not to mess with the Empire. Therefore, we will destroy the enemy in one pass, and one pass only. Shields, re-distribute power to forward ridgeline, port, and starboard centerlines, taking power from dorsal line, and rear quarters. Guns, divide and conquer. Have your laser cannons and anti-missile stations help Alpha and Gamma Squadrons deal with the threat of the enemy snubfighters. Have your torpedo stations fire one-two punches to take out the enemy flanking Belarus cruisers. Finally, have your forward turbolasers crush the enemy lead cruiser. Ion cannons will participate where you feel they are needed the most. Hangar boss, be prepared to retrieve first the remaining Interceptors, then the defenders and bombers after they have dealt with the rear cruiser. Execute." ordered the capitan.

By this time the destroyer was near firing range to the enemy cruisers. A moment later, they reached effective firing range. All three of the enemy cruisers opened fire on the destroyer with their forward turbolaser and ion cannons. The destroyer returned fire, it's forward turbolaser batteries punching into the lead enemy cruiser. A few minutes later, it's bow shields collapsed, leaving the turbolaser bolts to drill into the ship's nose, destroying sensors, crew quarters, and weaponry emplacements. A few more minutes passed before the destroyer was riding low, preparing to pass under the cruiser's formation. At this point the fighters from both side headed out into the fray, and were punctuated by explosions and ion trails. The destroyer opened up with it's anti-starfighter laser batteries, helping the Interceptors with their daunting outnumbered task. The gun officer added his ion cannons to the starfighter's aide, disabling a few X-wings as well. Then, while passing under, the torpedo clusters to either side let loose with their warheads into the port and starboard flanking cruisers. Fifteen torpedoes collapsed shields on both cruisers, leaving the other fifteen torpedoes to slam into their hulls. The portside cruiser exploded into three sections, the starboard side one suffered a less severe explosion that merely changed it into a drifting charnel house. The turbolaser quickly finished demolishing the lead cruiser, leaving it to drift dead in space. Overall, forty escape pods were ejected, all of which were recovered.

Having seen the annihilation of it's comrades and the fighter escort, the remaining cruiser quickly surrendered and powered down before the defenders and bombers could reach it. Boarding craft quickly secured the surrender of the vessel, and a temporary crew was put aboard, the previous owners being sent back to the Red Harvest as prisoners of war to be locked up in the mass brig detainment centers. The remaining four interceptors of Alpha and Gamma Squadrons, as well as the defenders and bombers of Beta and Delta Squadrons, were swiftly recovered. The capitan opened a channel to the station.

"This is the capitan of the New Order destroyer Red Harvest. Your force has been defeated, and we stand ready to demolish your station, unless you immediatly release the Commodore and surrender to our forces." said the capitan. Now he just awaited a reply....

"Dammit it all!" yelled the chief of security forces for Druckenwell. He had just recieved the news of the fleet's defeat, and that the destroyer was ordering them to turn over the Commodore.

"Well, we can't have this. Order all of our naval ships, on deployment and elsewhere, to rendezvous here," pointing to a location on the local starmap, "In preparation for assaulting that destroyer. I want it dead. As for our situation, release the commodore as requested, and we will transport him back to his ship. Prepare the media sources, I want something along the lines of, I don't know, Imperial transgression." said the chief to his aide. The aide nodded, and then scurried off to carry out his orders, leaving the chief to brood over the current situation.

* * *

"Report, sensors." said the captian of the Red Harvest as numerous activity caught their attention.

"Sir, a shuttle with a fighter escort has just left the station, and are heading our way. They say they have the Commodore, and request landing instructions. There are also numerous other craft launching, mainly smaller capital warships, gunboats, and starfighters. These other ships are all outbound on a single vector." reported the sensors officer.

"I don't like this. Communications, send a message to task force Aleph. Inform them of the current situation, and that we request their presence immediatly. And prepare this ship for combat. Hangar boss, what is the situation on our fighter squadrons?" asked the captian.

"Out of Alpha and Gamma Squadrons, we have fourteen TIE Interceptors and their pilots. We have organized them into Red flight, Green flight, and Blue flight, respectivley, the first one consisting of six Interceptors, the other two four each. And Beta and Gamma Squadrons are still at full strength." replied the hangar boss.

"Good. Go into standby alert. And deploy two companies of stormtroopers and a full medical staff to recieve the Commodore in the forward hangar bay. I will go myself to welcome the Commodore back and assess his current situation." said the capitan.

* * *

"Sir, incoming signal from the Red Harvest, Druckenwell location." said the communications officer of the Archangel class destroyer Ancheron.

"Transfer the message to my personal communications station." said the capitan. When the officer nodded, he leaned over, picking up a headset, and listened to what the captian had to say. When the message was finished, Captian Neevel sat up straight in his chair.

"Communications, direct a message to the rest of Task Force Aleph. Assemble for immediate depature, destination Druckenwell. Expect possible combat upon reversion." ordered the captian, who then turned to the navigator who merely nodded. The captian then settled slightly back into the chair, and waited.

The Archangel class star destroyer Ancheron glided through space. A mere day ago, a huge taskforce of ships had been assembled against the Victory class destroyer Red Harvest after it had annihilated a group of cruisers that the goverment had dispatched to be rid of the Imperial threat. However, when an Imperial fleet had showed up in the system, it had convinced the enemy flotilla to scatter. The Imperial fleet, consisting of a number of vessels, had moved to start attacking the orbital defense platforms, but an appeal had come from the governer of the planet's office. Diplomats, this time with armed escorts, had traveled down to the planet's surface. At this hour negotiations are still ongoing, however it appears that the planet is trying to join the Empire peacefully under a charter agreement, despite what had happened with the Commodore and the battle a number of days ago. The Imperial taskforce was still waiting near the planet, choosing to stay together and not deploy until it could be ensured that no hostile actions would be taken against them from the space stations and orbital defense platforms. In addition to the Liberty-class Frontline destroyer, there were three Imperator Mark V class destroyers in the force, along with eight heavy cruisers of various configuration, and twelve light and medium cruisers, along with thirty other support vessels. The TIE Starfighter complements alone reached into the upper hundreds. If negotiations went sour, the Imperial fleet would be in a good position to forcefully make the planet submit to Imperial law.

However, as it turned out later there was no need for an invasion. Several hours later the diplomats finished their talks, and Druckenwell would officially join the Imperial New Order as a chartered world, part of the Mid-Rim Protectorate. In return for this sudden peaceful allowance, the person(s) direclty responsible for the imprisonement would be turned over to the Imperial authorities for due punishment, and the goverment would pay due fines for the damage suffered by the Red Harvest and it's fighter complement, as well as other damages where deemed necessary, such as reparations to the families of the Imperial soldiers felled in battle. An occupation force would also be station around Druckenwell for one year, at which time a base of some sort will be established by then to serve the planet and it's citizens well in the future years to come.