Planet: Earth/Chapter One

1 ABY, Outer Rim, Arkanis Sector “Incoming!” Explosions rocked the rebel IPV-1 patrol craft. It’s deflector shields were just barely holding together from the fire of the surrounding Imperial I Star Destroyers which were firing directly at the rebel convoy. They had been on patrol, and had run into an Imperial task force heading in the opposite direction. The captain Jak Tarkof, had just joined the rebellion months ago, and was steering wildly to avoid the main fire coming from the Star Destroyers. The crew of the craft, named the Gallofree, wasn’t happy about his steering, but at this point were willing to do anything to survive. “Rwooaaarr!” cried Rashtah, a wookiee gunner. “What now?” yelled Jak. “He says that he can’t hit anything with you making all those loops.” said Carda Touforon, the human navigator. “How can he miss? We’re surrounded,” replied Jak. “He should hit something no matter where he shoots.” “Look out for those turbolaser blasts! I don’t want to become a piece of space dust.” Yelled Chall Bastan, a human gunner. CC-1027, nicknamed Static, was a veteran of the Clone Wars, the communications officer of the ship. “Hey, Static,” shouted Jak. “Do we still have contact with command?” “We’ve lost it, sir. I can’t get any signal. I’ll work on it, but it’ll take some power from the engines.” “No, don’t. I don’t want to be traveling back home and get stuck at some Imperial base because of no engine power.” said Jak. “Where’s that Guardian-class that trapped us in here a couple of minutes ago?” “No sign of it sir,” said a lieutenant “Could you be more specific?” “The one with the big insignia.” “It’s not on our sensors, sir.” “Don’t talk to me about sensors. Remember what happened in the Nebula?” Right then, an explosion rocked the ship right behind the bridge. A piece of debris hit Jak square in the face. “Damage report, Damage report!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping that somebody would be able to hear him over the blaring alarms. Carda replied. “We have our missile launcher damaged, two of our engines destroyed, our communications system broken, a malfunctioning laser cannon, our aft shield generator, main navigation system, and fourteen    “ Static interrupted her. “Jak! Jak! We have been able to carve a path through the fleet of Destroyers. We can escape now!” Jak wasted no time. “Carda!” “Working on it, captain.” Static sent out a signal. “This is IPV-AB28. All ships, Scout Task Force ONT-55, Code Brown, retreat to point AS.4 for retreat to base one. Repeat, all ships, Code Brown, Code Brown. Retreat to Base One, Retreat to Base One!” ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— “Colonel Varmus! Colonel Varmus! The rebel ships have retreated to their base. Half of their force was destroyed.” “Good, Commander,” said Colonel Xamuel Varmus on the bridge of the Guardian-class light freighter. “Are all surviving rebel ships accounted for?” “Yes, sir. Should we continue attacking them from behind? Their only rearguard is a small IPV-1 transport named the Gallofree.” “Yes, commander. I give you authorization to begin chase.” On the bridge of the Guardian-class transport Obedience, Xamuel Varmus towered over the Imperial sergeant he was speaking to. “Colonel, the IPV-1 transport has locked onto a different course” said a lieutenant named Dartas. He was a kind lieutenant, and was often mistreated by his superiors. “Chase it. Get the other ships to stay on the path of the convoy. I want every ship destroyed.” “But sir, it would be a waste of time. It’s only one ship. There are billions of them. We could lose our entire force, and when we’d get to the nearest Imperial planet, they’d arrest us for not doing our duty and…” “...and what?” said Xamuel. “Do I have to remind you, lieutenant, whose command is this?” “But…” “Mine! I have told you a thousand times, I am your commander, and I give out your orders no matter what you think!” “Forgive me, Varmus” "Colonel Varmus to you! Now do it!” "As you wish sir." he sighed. He manipulated some controls, and the cruiser swung around and followed the transport into space. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————2012, Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico, United States of America, Earth —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States of America, Earth Cedar Falls Police Captain Mike Hayes was sitting on the hood of his police car, munching on a donut. It was past 2:00 AM, and his car had broken down, so he had nothing to do but wait until a towtruck arrived. He had decided to listen to some radio music. Right now some soft jazz music was playing. “Aaahh,” he said as he relaxed on the winshield. Suddenly, the radio erupted into static