New Threat: Chapter One: The "Democracy"

Sergeant Argyus Vebb hated space travel. Many opted to simply take long-distance sleep stim packs for long voyages across the stars, but Argyus had never successfully used a stimulus package. Something about going into a near death state just rubbed his mind the wrong way and so he routinely slept the old fashioned way. Of course being ready and able had its advantages, especially now. A harsh beeping had woke Argyus and he eagerly sought the source so he could turn it off.

The small space did not bode well with the soldier's frame, but he had learned to adapt, and easily swung out of his bunk and onto the cold metallic floor. He cursed himself for not thinking to put on socks before he had moved, but now the beeping was getting annoying and he moved quickly to locate the source. Life aboard the Fey'lya had slowed to a crawl lately. The small patrol ship had a crew of eight and rountinely patrolled multiple New Republic worlds to scout for increased Imperial activity along the New Republic's border with the Imperial Remnant. The ship was nimble and fast, but had almost no weaponry whatsoever, exactly what Argyus had hoped to avoid after being assigned to the 21st Fleet.

"Only two years in the New Republic military and you have already gotten yourself blacklisted. Smooth, Vebb," his superior officer had told him before assigning him to his newest crap detail. Its not that what the Fey'lya did was not dangerous. It was that when the danger came Argyus would not be able to do anything but sit there like a good soldiers and watch to see if some fresh out of the academy pilot could cut it against a hardened Imperial TIE pilot. Argyus pushed the thoughts away when he managed to find the thing that had been causing him so much trouble. The standard New Republic shipboard comm unit's incessant beeping finally ceased as the soldier accessed the console. "Now what," he muttered to himself. He entered in his access code and located what had started the alert.

The text flowing across the screen sank whatever hopes Argyus had off falling back into his slumber.

'Priority Alert One. New Republic Star Destroyer "Democracy" broadcasting on emergency comm channel from the Japrael System. Life support down. Engines crippled. Hull integrity failing. Unknown enemy signatures dropped in on top of us. Need assistance.'

Argyus quickly viewed the message once more, scanning every word, making sure he was not wrong. The transmission was seven hours old and had no follow up whatsoever. He immediately turned on the alert alarm and began waking up the other crewmates. He started a diagnostic before finding their exact location, while dropping out of hyperspace. Soon enough he located the Fey'lya's position, just entering the Mid Rim territories. Argyus immediately queued the distress signal for when they entered the range of the nearest Holonet receiver and then checked on the status of his shipmates.

Everybody was in their positions with some slightly heightened pulses typical of the time before beginning a mission. Routing the chamber camera to monitor three, he checked to make sure there was not anything externally wrong with the ship. His eyes lingered over one of the proton torpedo bays and then quickly set back to work. A distress call wasn't uncommon for the Fey'lya, but most would always come from worlds along the border with the Imperial Remnant. Never a New Republic Star Destroyer, that kind of thing just did not happen regularly. He prayed that another, larger ship had happened across the Democracy earlier and had assisted, but he knew deep down that such thoughts were fruitless. For a New Republic Star Destroyer to have to send out a distress call, the situation would have to be pretty grim, given that most were in small convoys of at least four to five frigates. No, the Democracy had run into trouble and Argyus prepared himself for the worse as he began plotting the hyperspace coordinates that would bring the ship to the Japrael System.