<font color="green">
...transmitting coordinates

processing

approaching destination...</font>


The voice came blasting through the comm unit. "Are we @#%$ there yet?"

"N-No not yet Commander- I mean Grand Moff Zell." The junior crewman said nervously.

"Zell will do Smithers.." The older man said apathetically.

"But my name's.." The comm unit was cut off before he was able to answer... Bryant. The young man's head slumped into his chest as he continued to go about his duties feeling as if he'd just failed the most important test he'd ever completed.

He definitely wasn't the same old Zell. Curt, abrasive, profane.. but most of all... unhappy, these were words to describe the new Zell. In many ways he'd changed.. but soon.. very soon.. he would be back in his element.. perhaps then the Zell of old would emerge from the ashes as the hero he recognized only now in his dreams.

The scene is black. In the distance, we can see the twinkling of a few far-off stars. All is still.

Then ever so slowly the view shifts, and a lone planet comes into view.


Space...the final frontier.....

The planet is backlit by its star, and we cannot see any features. The view continues to shift, until we are looking around the other side of the planet.


A brilliant flash darts across our vision as the system’s star comes out of hiding, almost blinding us.



...these are the voyages of the starship Hyfarian....


The mighty shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer comes around the planet, blocking out the sun and speeding towards us.


......her five year mission: to explore strange new worlds...


The view fades and changes, as powerful orchestral music swells up beneath us. We are now chasing a comet, the Star Destroyer hot on our heels.


..to seek out new life and new civilisations....

There is another planet now, this time orbited by half a dozen space stations and countless small ships, all flying about like worker bees, performing a beautifully choreographed dance of light and motion.


...to boldly go where no man has gone be-


The music stops, abruptly. Our view changes; a quick, sharp cut this time, not the gentle fade we saw earlier.

There is a man sitting behind a desk. He wears a neatly pressed suit and tie, his face clean-shaven and his hair in the latest Coruscanti fashion. He looks directly at us, and begins to speak.


“We interrupt this episode of ‘Intrepid Imperial Explorers’ to bring the loyal Imperial citizens of the galaxy this breaking news.”

The camera angle changes, and the man turns to face us again.


“In an INS exclusive report the Empire has declared another victory over the traitorous Caspian Gas Conglomerate. In a press conference just moments ago Grand Moff Zell, one of the key figures behind the campaign against the Caspians, announced that the terrorist outpost of Manchun in the Lambda sector has fallen to the might of the Imperial navy.

“This news was accompanied by several holos of the aftermath of the battle.”



The view changes, and we are once again in space. Only this time it is not empty, nor beautiful. The desolate hulks of spaceships, once glorious, list lazily about our vision. We see cruisers and mighty battleships, support craft and fighters alike all strewn in a vast field of metallic debris. Many bear the Caspian logo.

The fighting here had been furious, but it is obvious that the Caspians could not stand up to the Imperial fleet.

There are a number of small salvage vessels moving through the destruction, carefully picking their way around the larger wrecks in search of survivors or any important equipment they might find. Their movements are jerky, uncoordinated. But they are uninteresting, and soon our attention shifts.


We are coming up on a ship, now. Its bow is broken, and we can clearly see coolant leaking out into space. There are scattered remnants of its outer hull drifting aimlessly nearby. With a jolt of disgust, we realise that one of these is a human torso.



The view fades, and we are back in the studio.


“As you will remember, the Empire declared a campaign against the Caspian Gas Conglomerate shortly after the success of the Battle of Muscave. A thorough investigation made previous to the liberation of Muscave found that during the war on the so-called ‘Galactic Coalition’ of Terrorists, Caspian, who at the time controlled the planet and had a lucrative contract with the Empire, had been illegally shipping valuable tibbana and cassana gas to the ‘Coalition’ at elevated prices.


“How they thought they could get away with it...well, I guess some people can be led to do some crazy things for money. Some really crazy things...

“Well, to for all those loyal Imperial citizens out there, we’ll be broadcasting a feature on the Caspian Campaign at 1850 tonight. Don’t miss it,” the man says with a smile. “Until then, this was an INS exclusive breaking news broadcast. I’m Tyco Teschel.

“We will now return you to your regularly scheduled viewing.”


The camera angle changes, and we are now looking at a wide shot of the studio, slowly pulling out. As the set begins to fade, several words come into focus in bold, plain letters in the centre of the screen. They stay for a few seconds after the studio disappears, and then wink out.



[center]Long Live The Empire

Zell sat there on his large leather chair which he sunk into comfortably. With just the tap of a finger the chair slowly turned to the left and a holoprojection appeared in front of him which depicted a Dark Trooper slowly rotating 360°.

"Right..." He paused for a moment looking at the projection before him. "So then I take it you've perfected the glitches in the Stage II model?" Zell asked as he slowly rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Yes of course. We're currently attempting to perfect the enhanced shields on the mass-production model but all is going according to schedule sir." The unseen man said through the comm unit.

"Excellent work Nixtel." Zell said with a growing grin across his face. "Is the prototype ready for testing?"

"Yes Zell, we'll begin initial tests once you've given us the green light-"

Nixtel said but just then another voice broke through the Comm unit, that of a young woman. "Zell.. Chau Ming is in position and awaits your orders."

"Thank you Miraz, prepare for my rendezvous with Chau Ming." Zell said quickly and returned to his business with Nixtel.

"All appears to be going well Nixtel, hold off on the initial tests until I return, I'd like to see this with my own two eyes."

"Yes sir. We'll have everything ready for your return." Nixtel said enthusiastically.

"Excellent." Zell said as he cut the transmission.

Zell sat there as the holoprojection faded from bluish light into darkness and the panorama of space unfolded before his eyes. He crossed his arms across his chest as he sat there watching as various shuttles and fighters zipped across space performing their various duties. The gas giant Muscave set off far in the distance. It was peaceful. It always was.

He looked down towards the ground off into nothing and a small smile played across his lips. And then he looked back out through the transparisteel window which stretched from floor to ceiling and nearly encompassed him completely. He felt like he was at home again. The calm before the storm. No big-mouthed bureaucrats, no whining politicians. Just soldiers. Soldiers ready to lay down their lives for their ideals. Then if even for just a moment, Zell remembered what is was like to be alive.

Tulok missed the Pandemonium II. It had been a staple of his life for so long, that to lose it had been like a limb being severed, suddenly, and in a blink being gone forever. He tried not to think about it, about the day that the Imperial fleet had faced defeat at Bastion. The day when his crew were savagely murdered, and when he had barely escaped his doomed ship with his life. He had led his ship into battle, and in the confusion and destruction of conflict, he had made a fatal error. In his own mind, Tulok was directly responsible for the deaths of all the men and women under his command that day.

Despite this, immediately following the Battle of Bastion he had been promoted.

Line Captain Tulok left the observation bridge of the Horme and strode down a narrow, well-lit side corridor that led to the forward briefing room. There was a team of maintenance techs working on an access panel on one side of the corridor, but despite that Tulok was alone.

Tulok had been surprised at the promotion, especially as it came directly after his failure at Bastion. But he had accepted, nonetheless, and was surprised to find himself soon in command of a small Imperial taskforce, headed by the Horme. In reality it made sense, though. Most of the Empire’s best commanders had been at Bastion, and a fair number of them had died. What follow was a void in competent commanders with serious experience, although thanks to the Imperial salvage crews, shipyard workers, and technicians, ship production was soon back to a decent level.

He squeezed past the techs, continued down the corridor for a few more seconds, and pressed a small panel sunken into the wall at waist height.

However, Tulok suspected that General Ming probably had more than a little to do with him receiving a promotion and a command after Bastion. In his own mind, Tulok thought that he would probably be demoted and assigned to a nowhere backwater for the rest of his career. It was quite a shock when he received the memo.

Not that he did not want the promotion, or was ungrateful for it. On the contrary, he’d been looking forward to it for a long time. But the feeling had been wrong.

Tulok had always imagined a glorious battle against a cunning, competent opponent, which would end in a hard-won victory, and then a congratulation, well-deserved promotion and a salary increase. He would celebrate with friends, grieve for the dead lost in the battle, and climb another notch higher on the stairway to heaven.

But there had been no winners at Bastion. The Wrath virus had already seen to that. The survivors had been in ill spirits, there wasn’t enough money left in the budget to give him a substantial salary increase, and most of his friends were dead. Tulok didn’t feel that he’d earned the promotion.

Until now. Well, almost. Tulok had been briefed on the situation at Muscave by General Ming himself, and had been tasked as Ming’s executive officer. He was in de facto command of the small fleet the General had procured to carry out the pacification of the Caspians. The traitors, who would hopefully be cunning and competent.

He hoped that all would go well.

The door in front of him opened soundlessly.

“About fucking time.”

Tulok stood in the doorway, uncertain of what to do. He could see a man standing, obviously impatiently, at one end of the briefing room. General Ming sat at the table, a slight smile just leaving his face. He got up.

“Grand Moff Zell, let me introduce Line Captain Tulok of the Horme.” Zell? Oh my... Ming straightened his uniform absentmindedly and went on, this time addressing Tulok. “Captain, we felt it best to bypass protocol and not hold the formal introductions in the main hangar, this time. I trust that you are not offended?”

“Uh, no, sir,” Tulok said, thrown slightly by the rushed introductions and quickly scraping to find sure-footing again. He saluted the Grand Moff.

Zell snorted. Ming glanced sideways at him, then said. “Have a seat, Captain. Now that you’re here... Zell, would you like to begin?”

"Yes General Ming." Zell said as he nodded to him. "Thank you both for joining me and this operation on such short notice."

Zell stood there in front of the two men in the briefing room. The two men sat there at the opposite side of the table from Zell. The long table seemed too big for the occassion since it was just the three of them. Its glossy surface reflecting Line Captain Tulok's somewhat nervous face. Chau sat there intently having dealt with Grand Admiral Zell several times in the past before Zell's departure from the Imperial Navy.

Zell reached down and tapped a button on the table which illuminated a hologram of the planet Muscave to the left of the two men who automatically turned to view the projection which slowly rotated. Zell focused his attention to his right, his right arm extending out towards the hologram as he presented the situation.

"Tulok if I know Chau half as well as I believe I do, I'm sure he's briefed you on the situation forwards and backwards. At this point you probably know more about what we're doing here than I myself do." Zell said seriously.

"Yes sir, General Ming has personally briefed me on the situation." Tulok replied succinctly.

"Now the question we ask ourselves is, How do we go about dealing with these Caspian @#%$?" Zell paused for a moment to let both men cycle just a few possibilities through their collective minds before he continued. He began to pace back and forth along the long table. "I could easilly send Darth Yang in and he'd clear out the whole colony before they even knew they had an intruder. Or if I just wanted to scare them into submission I could send Maximus Tyranus over there to have a "diplomatic" meeting with the Caspian executives. After they were done shitting themselves the ones still standing would offer up their first born for even an ounce of leniency." Zell stoppd pacing and returned his attention to the two men opposite him.

Line Captain Tulok had a quizzical look on his face. He hadn't heard of Darth Yang or Maximus Tyranus but presumed them both to be Sith by what Zell had stated.

Zell continued. "But I'm not going to let Caspian off that easily. I want to send a message to the rest of the Galaxy. You DO NOT @#%$ with the Empire. We will deal with them like the traitors they are.. with extreme prejudice." Zell tapped another button on the table and the planet of Muscave disappeared bringing into focus the Caspian Mining Colony of Muscave which was widely referred to as Camcom for short. It appeared to be a large floating saucer set in the scattered clouds of the gas giant Muscave's atmosphere.

"This is going to be a somewhat unorthodox confrontation. Once we approach Muscave, Caspian will no doubt expect a full out confrontation.. which strangely enough is what they will get. However, no amount of preparation or planning will aid these Caspian traitors in any way. We've gone over our strategy repeatedly and given the defensive situation of the Caspians, we will be prepared for whatever it is they try and throw at us." Zell said pausing to let the information soak into the two younger minds.

Chau was not quite as sure as Zell was about the Caspians not being a threat. There was no doubt in Chau's mind that they would defeat these Caspians with Imperial efficiency but it appeared to him that the Grand Moff was not giving them enough credit. But then again we were talking about Zell here, so the notion Chau had just barely perceived was gone without a second thought.

Zell looked at Chau and a grin crept across his lips. He raised his right hand and pointed at Chau as he spoke. "Amazing how I know what you're thinking before it even crosses your mind. I apologize, perhaps it's my eagerness to return to the command deck of a Star Destroyer that I underestimate our opponents." Chau smiled and nodded as Zell spoked. He was inwardly shocked that Zell could read him so easily but only for a moment.

"Rest assured Chau, and Tulok.." Zell said as he turned just slightly towards the Line Captain. "That I have gone through every single possibility and given the Caspians all the credit they deserve. Allow me to continue." Zell paused as both men nodded.

"As I was saying, this will be unorthodox in that our main target is this floating colony known as Camcom." Zell instructed as he pointed back at the hologram of the Caspian Mining Colony. "This is where we will find our most difficult task. Camcom houses all of the miners stationed at Muscave along with a decent complement of security. Not surprisingly, once Caspian was informed that we were aware of their covert dealings with the Coalition of Galactic Terrorists they increased their security ten fold."

Zell shook his head as he continued. "This was just an act of desperation and will not deter us from our goal. It's unfortunate though, it would have been easier to just keep Camcom intact instead of building our own Mining Colony later. Regardless, we will eliminate everyone who stands in our way and then blow their pathetic mining colony into a billion remnants of a company that once crossed the Empire." Zell said and concluded with a wide smile.

"Sounds pretty simple." Tulok added. "We take out their ships, enter the atmosphere, unload our troops onto Comcam, kill anything that breathes then blast the hell out of it until it's space dust." Tulok said matter of factly.

Zell paused for a moment processing a response. "Well I hadn't gone through all of that yet but.. yes I must say you've nailed it on the head."

Zell smiled as he felt as though they were all on the same page.

"Chau anything you'd like to add?" Zell asked as his eyebrows raised slightly.

"No Zell, I think everything's been covered.. long live the Empire..." Chau Ming said with a smile as the three men thought about how enjoyable it was going to be to squash the Caspian @#%$. Soon their operation would be a success and they would be constructing their own Imperial Mining Colony. The possibilities of what its new name would be ran through Zell's mind.

Zell's Ascension, Zell's Triumph, or possibly even... Zell's new home...

The meeting had gone well, Tulok seemed to be very perceptive which pleased Zell. The former Grand Admiral sat there on the edge of his bed reviewing a datapad on the planet Muscave. His casual clothing not a common site as his imperial uniform which he had been clothed in during the meeting was slung over his chair haphazardly in the center of his somewhat sizable quarters. He sat there in a plain white shirt and a pair of sweats which fit loosely.

Zell tossed the datapad on the night stand next to the bed and laid down resting his head on the pillow with his hands crossed behind his bed. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath just lying there relaxing.

"Access Muscave audio." Zell said as he lie there with eyes still closed.

<font color="green" size=1>ACCESSING AUDIO</font> Was heard as the audio file began to play. The monotone voice of what was no doubt a human female said.

<font color="green" size=1>MUSCAVE

Location, Coruscant System.

Planet Type, Gas Giant.

The planet Muscave has 21 moons and is home to no sentient life forms. The planet Muscave is most notable for the presence of naturally spin-sealed Tibanna gas which can be harvested for numerous uses. The planet has been settled only through small mining colonies which are there to harvest the valuable Tibanna gas.

AUDIO FILE COMPLETE</font>

It wasn't the first time that Zell had heard the recording but everytime he listened he was just as observant as if he had never heard it. "That's it..." He said to himself seemingly surprised that there was so little information on the planet Muscave.

"Lights." Zell said as he turned to his side still lying on the bed.

The lights slowly faded into black as all that could be seen was the scattering of stars that pierced through the void of space.

Sleep well Caspian because this night will be your last...

“Shunt all the power from generators two and four into the aft shields, now!” Lieutenant Keiber screamed, grabbing onto a handhold in the bulkhead as another volley of laser fire spat across the bow. The ship shook violently for a few seconds before the inertial compensators could catch up with the sudden movement.

“Done sir,” said the systems operator, trying to make his voice heard over the wailing alarms and groaning bulkhead without actually shouting himself. Keiber realised the futility of it, and promptly ordered the alarms turned off.

Another blast shook the fragile frame of the ship, almost throwing Keiber off his feet.

“Sir, we can’t stay on this trajectory for much longer,” said a crewmember. Ursul, Keiber thought. “We’re heading too close to those assault frigates; we’ll be cut to shreds!”

“No time for that now, Ursul,” Keiber said. “We’ve gotta make for that moonside flank, and try and get around behind them. General Hoight’s plan depends on a sizeable force taking advantage of those carriers.”

Keiber pointed to the tactical holo, which promptly fizzed out of life, along with half the lights on the bridge and a third of the localised gravity. A backup generator somewhere spluttered into life a few seconds later, restoring the necessary systems.

“You see, Captain Foresawk’s taskforce is drawing out their fighters here and here,” Keiber stabbed two stubby fingers into the TAC. “So that we can come around here and knock out those carriers, which should disable the fighters. We have to hold this course.”

Even as he said it, Keiber knew that it would be impossible. The Imperials were moving several of their frigates into line to intercept Keiber and the other handful of ships in his attack squad, and there was even now a small attack cruiser running parallel to their course, firing off volleys whenever it got the chance.

They weren’t going to last. Keiber zoomed out of the TAC, showing the larger battle. Imperial constrainers were positioned around all feasible exits to planetary system that were within running distance, or else the capitalist Caspians would have fled with their tails between their legs at the first sign of an Imperial ship in the system.

They got the drop on us, all right, Keiber thought, ruefully. On the TAC the attack cruiser that had been chasing them burst briefly into flames as its engines melted down. The shockwave was just one of many.

“So what do you want to do, sir?” Ursul asked, following Keiber’s thoughts by the expressions on his face.

Keiber paused for a minute, looked back up at the display, down at the smaller man, who was visibly sweating and had a bloody bandage tied around his upper arm. The smell of fizzled electronics filled the bridge from one of the workstations that had suffered some sort of equipment failure. A quarter of their vital systems weren’t working, and Keiber knew that it was worse throughout the rest of the ship, probably throughout the rest of the attack squad.

He sighed. “You’re right; we’ll never make it... but we’ve got to take out those carriers somehow, the General’s entire plan depends on it...” Another shot rocked the ship, forcing Keiber and Ursul to grab onto each other to stay standing.

“Alright, I’ve got an idea.” He walked quickly across to the comm station, dialling up the common frequency for his attack squad. He pinged the other commanders of the ships flying with him, and got a response within seconds from the Calpurt, the Isenhur, the Lambert, the...

The Isenhur exploded, and for a few seconds the comm band was filled with nothing but static.

“Damn it,” Keiber muttered. What hit them? He glanced up at the tactical holo, suddenly alarmed. Then quickly out the front viewport, then back at the holo.

“Shit! Brace for impact!” A volley of concussion missiles exploded like a brilliant diffused fireworks display against the shields protecting the command blister, knocking the ship slightly off course and causing several pipes running through a rear bulkhead to rupture and begin spilling coolant onto the deck.

Keiber hesitated only a second, and then began evacuating the bridge.

The former Grand Admiral Azrael Zell stood there watching the battle from his own quarters aboard the Horne. His face just centimeters from the viewport, his heart beating just a little faster than normal, his eyes wide with excitement. It had seemed like forever since Zell had seen battle, and although he wasn't on the bridge barking orders he was running things. Every once in a while the comm unit would relay a message from the bridge asking the best course of action. Although Line Captain Tulok surely valued the opinion of Azrael Zell, Zell knew this to be a professional courtesy given the lack of strategic vision needed to run an operation so small.

The ships almost seemed to dance in the emptiness of space as they dodged at just the right moment or sped up to avoid near disaster. The echoing shriek of the TIEs as they flew past Zell's quarters in perfect formation rung through his ears as his head moved tracking them as they chased their prey. And then just a moment later the bright green bolts exploded from the TIE's twin L-s1 laster cannons with perfect timing as the enemy ship errupted into a cloud of flames. Before the dust had even begun to settle the small formation of TIEs was already on to their next victim. Things were going well, not only on the mission, but for Zell personally. A smile remained on his face as his vision darted from one microcosm of the larger battle to another, an explosion here, a crashing starfighter there.

Zell had finally been emanated from obscurity.

It took just under two minutes for Keiber’s crew to relocate to the secondary bridge. On a ship of this size, however, the relief bridge was considerably smaller, and located close to the lower hull, with no viewports. Keiber noticed this as soon as he entered at a jog, flinging sweat from his forehead. The lighting was dim at best, the air muggy and damp.

Coupled with the confined space, lack of viewports, and loud echoing yells of the straining ion engines, it made for quite a claustrophobic work environment. Keiber hoped that his crew would be able to concentrate.

“Get to your stations, quick!” he yelled, projecting his voice over the sound of the engines.

People and creatures milled about for a second or two, then began discovering and booting up their workstations. Keiber motioned Ursul over, and punched in a quick combination on the ancient holoprojector set in the centre of the small space. The air above it flickered for a second, then an image of the immediate area around their ship resolved into focus, and slowly began drawing back.

Keiber looked around for his exec, remembered that he’d been killed just after the battle had commenced, and pulled Ursul closer to the holoimage. “Report,” he said.

Ursul looked confused for a second, then recognised the promotion for what it was and fetched a datapad from a nearby console. “Codes?” he asked.

Keiber leaned closer. “Alpha seventeen prime for general shipwide functions, Liue Zinark five for the overrides. Get it done.”

Ursul nodded, tapped in some numbers, and brought up a table of information, which he handed to Keiber. The ships captain glanced quickly over the data, muttered a quiet “damn,” and looked up at the TAC, handing the datapad back to Ursul. “We’ve lost the Calpurt,” the other said.

“Mmm...” Keiber made a noise to register the fact. He was almost knocked off his feet as the ship took another hit, lurching violently.

“Damage?” Ursul yelled, to the bridge in general. A twi’lek answered in the negative, stating it would be mostly superficial carbon scoring but no actual hull breach. All systems were operating as before.

“Hold this course,” Keiber ordered. He was trying to think fast, trying to stay on top of the constantly moving Imperial ships that were advancing towards him and the other ships. If Foresawk could hold those fighters off for just a bit longer, he might have a chance of getting past those frigates, and then...

Keiber hesitated. And then what?

His plan had been to make a mad dash past the frigates, straight through the middle of their formation, and hope that they wouldn’t fire for fear of hitting one another. But there was no hope of that now. The frigates were breaking up into a looser formation, covering more space between them and making it impossible to get past unscathed. And both the Isenhur and the Calpurt had been destroyed, which left only half a dozen ships in Keiber’s attack group.

The Lieutenant looked again at the hologram, bringing the image out to cover the entire battle. Everywhere, green and blue dots fought one another, darting in and around. Swarms of smaller specks, travelling in packs of twelve, hounded the larger dots, chasing them down in packs. Small red rings denoted explosions and shockwaves. There were a lot of red rings. There were also a lot of blue dots.

Keiber looked at his own small formation of six green dots, flying steadfast into the flank of a sea of blue. To his surprise and alarm, he saw that there were no other green dots nearby. He looked again at the formation that his attack force was flying into, glanced at the shield readings for his ships, and tried to keep his balance as another volley of laser fire rocked the ship.

We can’t win... Keiber thought. It wasn’t a new thought; he’d known from the start that the battle was lost before it had even begun. He was trying to disable enough ships so that others could escape the system unhindered. So that others could live.

And what others? Who was he risking his life to help escape? The fatcat executives in charge of Caspian, that was who. the ones who had brought this whole mess down on Muscave in the first place.

Fuck ‘em.

Surrender was out of the question. There were too many aliens on board Keiber’s ship for him to live on afterwards with a clear conscious, knowing full well the way the Empire treated aliens. Continuing the fight would only result in his and his crews’ deaths. So that left only one option; run.

Keiber began searching the holo for the closest picket. He spotted it quickly, and noticed with relief that it was relatively undefended, if a fair distance away...

He turned to Ursul.

“We’ll die if we stay here, won’t we,” the exec said. Keiber only nodded. “The picket on the north sunside edge of the battle, its our best bet.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Keiber said, slightly surprised that Ursul had reached the same conclusions that he had. At least he wouldn’t have to waste time trying to convince the younger man to desert Caspian.

“Call the rest of the attack force,” Keiber ordered. “Tell them our intentions. Say that they’re welcome to stay and fight, but if they don’t want to die they can tag along. Navigation.”

“Yes, sir?”

“We’re leaving. I want the shortest jump from here to the next non-Imperial world, assuming that picket in the fourteenth grid section is going to be destroyed.” Keiber glanced at Ursul, who glanced back, nervously.

“Let’s go.”

Grand Moff Zell paced back and forth slowly, his hands clasped behind his back as he viewed the destruction from his personal quarters. He came to a stop peering through the transparisteel viewport. The Caspian forces were all but decimated in what seemed like moments. There was no way they could survive the sheer might of the Empire.

Zell was speaking to Line Captain Tulok as he stood there. "Zell, there's a solitary ship which has survived the attack." Zell had been following this ship throughout the duration of his conversation with Line Captain Tulok. "It appears that he's trying to make the jump to Hyperspace. If I might make a suggestion Zell?" The Captain inquired. A smirk crossed Azrael's face as he thought to himself.

If he's about to propose what I think he's going to then this Tulok deserves more credit than I've extended.

And then the suggestion came, "They're hitting our interdictor hard, we can keep them from entering Hyperspace..." The Line Captain was cut off abruptly by Zell.

"Perhaps you're forgetting that I was a Grand Admiral in this very military Line Captain?" Zell said making Tulok aware that he was aware of the possible courses of action.

"I apologize Grand Moff. I think it may be most beneficial to leave this solitary ship to its leave." Tulok concluded not sure how the Grand Moff would reply.

"Are you saying Line Captain Tulok that we should allow this traitor to escape the field of battle unimpeded?" Zell asked seeing what kind of reaction this would spur from the young Captain.

"Well.. uh... yes sir." Tulok replied but gained his composure quickly. "It will be beneficial for the Empire if this traitor is able to alert his comrades of the situation it will create a greater impact than merely viewing it on the Holonet. He'll go back and tell his superiors of how we laid waste to his fleet. By letting this one ship go we may scare Caspian into surrendering sir." Tulok said with complete confidence in his request.

Zell followed the ship as it fired volley after volley at the interdictor as it sped away from battle.

"Line Captain Tulok." Zell said in a monotone voice.

"Yes sir?" Tulok inquired curiously.

"Proceed with your desired course of action." Zell said as he cut the transmission. He didn't tell Tulok of how he would sing his praises to Imperial High Command or how he had confidence in the young man. He simply cut the transmission and watched as the lone Caspian vessel exited realspace and disappeared into hyperspace.

Zell pressed a button on the comm unit and began to speak, "Miraz, contact Simon, tell him we're coming home." He turned off the comm unit before she could respond knowing that the message would be relayed.

Azrael Zell stood there with a smile on his face as he witnessed the carnage that had taken place, the Imperial vessels had destroyed the feeble Caspian fleet without much effort. Muscave was under Imperial control... and Zell... Zell was becoming the man he once was without even knowing it...