Imperial Research Facility 'Arc Hammer'
Undisclosed Location

The massive construct that linger over the world designated only by its Imperial Survey Number - XX1550-A - was not so much a ship as it was a station.

A station of enourmous proportions.

Yuri Katarn stood on the bridge of the station, his arms folded behind his back in the anicent manner of starship commanders.

A true commander, then.

He thought with only a hint of a smile. Command of a warfleet was not what Yuri Katarn would have choosen for his life, given the option.

But destiny - and the Empire - had a way of seeing that even those dreams did not always come true. Or, more accurately perhaps, remain true.

Yuri Katarn had been called up for duty in the months following the Wrath epidemic, when the Empire was drastically short on good officers and needed every chance it could get to regain the initiative.

Since that time, he had been reassigned to a place he felt at home: command of the Research Facility Arc Hammer. The station had been responsible for recreating the Dark Trooper project, long thought lost by the Imperial High Command. And coutless other technological developments, like the Disruptor Batteries and equipment that allowed the Empire's new Dictator Communications Vessels to penetrate even the most powerful enemy jamming measures.

But now...

Yuri looked down at the crumpled sheet of flimsi in his hand. The orders could not have been more clear - but he was loath to reenter a war. Even in such an indirect role as this.

But, there was little for it. The orders had come all the way from the top - Admiral Bhindi Drayson.

Only the Grand Marshall or the Regent could over ride them now - and there was no reason they would. Even less reason, he knew, to ask them.

The orders would serve the greater good.

"Sir?" A young officer asked hesitantly from behind, and Yuri realised that the man had been standing there for some time. Working up the courage to approach, perhaps?

"Lieutenant Grument?" The man stepped forward, into the light that was generated by the sun's reflection on the dull brown world below. Other than that, the room was dark.

"Captain Wing reports that the Arc Hammer is ready to deploy."

Yuri nodded slowly. Since the orders had been recieved, the teams that normally constructed experimental technologies for the Empire had been modifying the facility is small ways. Gearing her shields for more efficiency, ensuring all of her guns were still working properly, and prepping the vessel for war.

"Look at that, Lieutenant." Yuri said, indicating the dead planet below them and the expanse of stars that went further than the eye could hope to see.

"It's beuatiful, Sir. But Captain Wing needs your orders to begin operations."

Yuri nodded again. He and the Liueteant both knew the consequences of the actions they were about to take. Night was fast falling on the side of the world they orbited, the light receeding from the deck where the two men stood.

Forshadowing, perhaps, the role that the Arc Hammer would soon be fullfilling?

"Very well, Lieutenant. Operation Dark Storm is a go."

The words came more easily than he expected. Grument turned to go, giving once last look out at the stars and the world below.

"It is neccessary, Sir."

Then he was gone, leaving Yuri alone to contemplate what was about to descend on the galaxy.

Coalition Space
Holonet Rely Station XX-23 Alpha

The pods reverted to hyperspace on their own. The droid brains that controlled them from within were among the most complex in the galaxy.

They locked on immediatly to the small relay station that was their target. Immediatly, light sublight thrusters kicked in and they made their way towards the free-floating structures.

Most had been built during the brief reign of the New Republic, some decades ago. And while the terrorists had mantained them, they were still old. Faulty.

Their owners had not seen fit to replace them, and so the droids' jobs were easier than they may have been otherwise.

The first pod smashed headlong into the side of the stucture, the reinforced Phrik armour blowing a hole through which vacuum began to enter.

From the pod emerged the most terrifying military unit available to the Empire - over three meters tall and two wide, a towering black goliath.

A Dark Trooper.

The lead droid moved forward, his arm-mounted missile launcher raising quickly to let two of the devices blow down a wall that stood between him and the centre of the station.

The structutre was undefended. Its civilian occupants did not bother to put up a fight - they simply fled towards escape pods and ships as fast as they were able.

Within ten minutes, it was all over. The station stopped transmisitting, and the Dark Troopers returned to their hyperspace pods.

Fifteen minutes after that, the station exploded.

The Coalition would think that Holonet Relay Station XX-23 Alpha had suffered a malfunction, and assign a ship to service it.

By that time, it would be to late.

Far to late.





Imperial Space
The Arc Hammer

The reports continued to scroll across Yuri Katarn's desk. One after another, holonet relay points across Coalition, Tholatin, and Sovereignity space were being disabled and destroyed.

"It is done, then." Liutenant Grumet said quietly.

Yuri smiled.

"No," he said, looking out across the stars. "It is only just beginning."

Night was falling across the galaxy. The first indication of problems had arisen when regularly scheduled programs transmitted by the Coalition and ORS holonets had begun to fail.

Technical problems were suspected with the recieving and transmitting equipment, and so the destruction of the relay stations had gone unnoticed thus far.

"Contact the offices of INS." Yuri ordered quietly, watching the holodisplay that showed the status of the various holonet relays. "They may wish to run a story on this."

An orderly gave a nod and retreated to track down the proper com codes. He returned minutes later with a secure holocom unit and the proper codes, written on a scrap of flimsi.

"Thank you." Yuri said as the orderly left.

The call was patched through via the still-functionining Imperial relay systems until it reached Imperial Centre. Yuri spoke for twenty minutes with the reporter, and then disconnected.

A minute later, the Arc Hammer jumped to hyperspace.

Captain Delandas's Apartment
0400 Hours

He waved his hand haphazardly at the direction of the incessant beeping, smashing his hand against the nightstand several times in the process. Somewhere over there his communicator was howling with a fury and he wanted nothing more than for it to shut up and let him go back to sleep.

Not that he could reach it. He had specifically placed it higher up on the nightstand so in these irritated moments he could not reach it and miss an important call.

Jamming his finger in the drawer caused him to bite his lip in mild pain - amplified by the fact that he was not fully awake. With a grumble he finally conceded to the annoying sound and rose from his bed, rubbing at his tired eyes.

Offering just a little stretch and one more angry grumble he reached over and grabbed the audio device, bringing it up to his ear. I'm still on Bespin time he spat out mentally, lamenting privately his reassignment.

While this job certainly paid more, was more prestigeous and offered him a wider variety of command...it actually required him to exhert a great deal of effort. Not that he wasn't ready to work for the Outer-Rim Sovereignty...but there was just so much that needed doing.

It was a difficult transition from sit in the bridge and tell people to slow down.

"Yes?" he asked into the transmitting part of the communications device.

"Sir," a feminine voice started, probably Lieutenant Kerry Ellenien, "I think you need to come down here, there's a problem."

A problem? What kind of problem could a space station in the middle of practically nowhere have?

"Problem, Lieutenant?" he echoed, annoyance obvious in his tone for no other reason than because he had to shrug off such precious sleep.

"Well yes sir, Commander Tieyr has requested your presence here," she continued.

Of course he did. Incompetent ass can't handle anything himself.

"What kind of problem is it?"

"Well...I'm not at liberty to say sir, at least not over such an insecure channel. I'm sorry sir."

"No...that's alright," he lied, wanting to strangle Tieyr for not just having her come out and say it. "I'll be down there in ten minutes."

"Yes sir."

Jaren hung up the communicator and sighed. He turned around and offered a quick glance at his sleeping wife before getting up to go get dressed.

<hr>

Jakar Space Station
0415 Hours

The doors to the command center opened with a slow hiss, and Captain Jaren Delandas entered while buttoning up the last few buttons on his coat. He looked up at the small staff about - there were six officers and twenty enlisted personnel.

Commander Tieyr greeted him with a salute when the captain got close, which he returned haphazardly.

"What's this 'emergecy' you needed to wake me up at four in the morning to tell me about Commander?" he stated more than asked, getting straight to the point. The way he said it it was as though to accentuate how little Jaren wanted to be here.

Tieyer seemed a bit nervous before the overbearing - and not a little overweight - commander. At first he opened his mout before quickly shutting it again as though discarding a thought from his mind.

Finally he seemed content and turned about to face a monitor before them.

"Well sir, three hours ago we stopped receiving messages from one of our holo-relay stations. We did not think much of it, but we sent a shuttle with a fighter escort to check it out - just in case," Tieyr explained, every now and again offering up a glance to his superior.

"When the patrol got there, all that was left was the black box, which we pulled in and have been watching over and over."

"Well what's on it?"

"Well um...well I think you should see for yourself sir," Tieyr finally said, motioning toward the holocom he'd set it up on.

Little twit, can never get to the point can you?

Begrudgingly the large commander moved into the black seat in front of the desk with the holoprojector. There he saw a replay of the pods, the people fleeing, the strange metallic suit of armor and the delayed explosion.

He looked up with mild concern to the commander, as though he held all the answers.

"What do you make of it sir?" Tieyr ventured to ask.

Swiveling the chair about, Jaren put his sausage-like fingers together tip to tip as he thought.

"I'm not entirely sure...what did you do about the disturbed HoloNet?"

"We just switched over to another system, we have hundreds of back ups, but this wasn't even a military station..."

And that was the biggest problem it seemed. Whoever these were, they were attacking civilians in civilian relay stations.

A terrorist act if there ever was one. Jaren wanted to pass it off as simple pirates trying to score a blow against the Sovereignty...but that suit of armor...

"Send this report to Intelligence, see if they can get something out of it...is fleet command still on stand by?"

"Yes sir."

"Good..."

Maybe Tieyr had done the right thing waking him up.



ooc: Bah, some stupid special feature keeps my Ralen account from posting in this - something about it having a limited amount of posts today.

This does not constitute as a Kiyar post, Kiyar has nothing to do with this. This is SUPPOSED to be as Ralen MeVere.