Emperor's Triumph: End of the Rebellion/Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Revelations

Imperial Palace, Coruscant, 10 ABY

Luke.

There it was again.

The Jedi was immersed with a strong feeling through the Force. As he closed his eyes, an image of a green and blue orb appeared in Luke's mind. A planet. Did not look like a familiar one, though. Suddenly, the planet shrunk to a small size as the view stretch out. A cluster of bright stars. The Deep Core, he thought. A planet in the Deep Core. Luke had been getting that vision several times over the last few days.

"Skywalker?"

Luke's eyes quickly flipped open. Oh, that's right. He was a at a meeting in the Imperial Palace. Everyone in the room was staring at the Jedi Master.

"I am sorry, I was just thinking. What were you saying?" Luke asked.

Lando Calrissian's voice cut in. "Well before you started day dreaming, we were discussing an interesting development on the front lines."

"Yes?"

"For some reason, the Imperial fleet has largely abandoned it's holdings in the Rim worlds. It has been retreating to a currently unknown location."

"Isn't that good for us?"

Leia cut in. "Maybe if we knew where they were all going. I don't like this."

"Well, wherever or for what, they left, and our forces have begun moving into their former territory," stated General Garm Bel Iblis.

"Agreed," murmured Admiral Ackbar, sitting next to Luke.

Thinking about his earlier vision, Luke closed his eyes again. ''What does it mean? Go to this planet?'' He pondered. Again, he could not think of any possible planets it could be. He had never been to the Deep Core. Luke opened his eyes.

"—Intelligence get on it." Calrissian was saying.

"If that is all, may I leave? I have something to attend to." Luke asked.

Mon Mothma nodded from the chair at the head of the table. Han, Lando, and Leia looked at him with looks of curiosity.

"Thank you."

Luke got up and left the meeting room. He had to find out what that vision meant and what planet that was. It was just nagging at him. Turning down a different hallway, Luke headed to a nearby turbolift. Entering, he selected a high level, home to the Emperor's library. He had never been there before, but heard that it had a vast collection of knowledge contained within. If the planet was of any importance, he may find information there.

The turbolift reached the level, and the metal doors slid open. The Jedi Master stepped out into a dusty, rarely used hallway. Since the New Republic conquered Coruscant, there had been no reason for anyone to come to the Emperor's private library. But he had one know. The library itself was just as dusty and old looking as the hallway that led up to it. Luke walked in, and looked around the long rows of shelves. Then he noticed what he needed: a computer table.

Sitting down, Luke turned on the machine. Hopefully it still worked. The screen turned bright as an affirmative. Good, he thought. After several minutes of searching through files, Luke found a map of the galaxy in the system. All of the known planets in the galaxy (well, all of the known ones as of the time of the system's last update) were listed here. Luke zoomed into the Deep Core section of the map, and began browsing different planets, looking at the pictures of each one.

And a few minutes later, he got it: an orb of green and blue, like the one in his vision. Luke quickly looked over the database's basic information on the planet. The world was called Byss. Grid coordinate K-11.

And that was it.

Like stared at the screen for a few moments. Selecting other sections, it turned out that there was almost no information on Byss in the Emperor's database. The Emperor's database. If a world had such little information on it, it must be important someway. He remembered the Force visions, showing him Byss. Something must be there. Something important.

Getting up, Luke took out his comm link.

"Military docking bay, this is Master Skywalker. I need an X-wing prepped and ready to launch as soon as possible." Luke said to the operator.

After hearing an acknowledgement, he put the comm link away. Luke needed to investigate this matter. But now he had to tell this Leia and Han.

Emperor's Citadel, Byss

The spires and skyscrapers of the Emperor's ruling city looked impressive from the Citadel. Combined with the traffic of air speeders and other vehicles, it almost looked like Coruscant. Vill Goir had only been to the galactic capital once, when he was training under Palpatine before the Battle of Endor. After that, he did as he was told in that situation: go to Byss. The Dark Side Adept's train of thought was broken by a voice from behind him.

"Goir, most of them are over in the conference room. Let's go." Executor Sedriss QL told him.

The Adept looked over at him and nodded, then followed the Executor to the conference room. Looking around, Goir noticed that it was full of officers, all getting to their seats. Sedriss sat down at the end of the table. Goir, as his adjutant, took a seat by him, on his right.

"Preparations for Operation Shadow Hand are going well, I presume?" The Executor asked.

Serik Adasca stood up. An Imperial admiral who fought during the Galactic Civil War and maintained several TIE Defender facilities, Adasca was one of the six officers promoted to Grand Admiral by the Emperor. So far, he has lived up to the legendary rank.

"Yes, sir. The Imperial Navy has been recalled to Byss, where we will regroup, and make final preparations for the offensive." The Grand Admiral stated.

"Very well. How are the ground troops?"

A man in a general's uniform stood up.

"Sir, the Imperial Army and Stormtrooper Corps have units ready to supplement the forces already aboard the fleet's ships."

"Good, General Tehrir. And the special units as well?" The Executor smiled.

"Indeed, sir."

He then sat down.

"As the Emperor predicted, the New Republic is sending much of it's fleet out into the Rim, into the territories that we left recently," said a man near the other end of the table. Goir remembered he was Grand Admiral Fendrilon Magellan. "And as you predicted, it appears they have no suspicions of Byss being the destination of the Imperial fleet."

The Executor nodded. Grand Admiral Magellan was a fleet admiral with years of experience. Palpatine had given him the honorary title of "Warlord of the Empire". Back in the day, it meant a lot, but since the Endor debacle, all rogue Imperial officers were referred to as "warlords", and thus it had negative connotations now. Nonetheless, those who achieved it were proud to have done so.

Another man, also in a Grand Admiral's uniform, spoke up.

Melek Raquoran was a former ace pilot who had reached the rank of admiral in a Deep Core reserve fleet, if Goir remembered correctly. Now he was among the Grand Admirals, due to his skill in both piloting and fighter tactics.

"A problem, though."

"Yes?" Sedriss looked at him.

"Keeping track of the warlords and keeping them from turning on each other during the campaign may be difficult." The Grand Admiral said.

"I understand, but there are solutions we have come up with. Dark Side Elites will oversee campaigns and keep them from going rogue."

Another Grand Admiral began speaking.

"I think we need to have the warlords just executed when the come here. We can go without those treasonous scum!" Grand Admiral Varesk Kalder exclaimed.

Admiral Kalder briefly was the commander of the Imperial Navy several years ago, the one that served under the Imperial Ruling Council after the death of the Emperor. For his loyalty and organizational skills, Palpatine made him one of the Grand Admirals.

"I like your idea, personally, but the Emperor disagrees." Sedriss replied.

Kaldor looked disappointed.

The Executor looked over to Grand Admirals Sulev Vondar and Jaro Kejik.

"Grand Admiral Vondar, the Emperor has placed you in command of the Byss defense fleet. Grand Admiral Kejik, you are in command of the Deep Core Imperial Fleet."

The two admirals merely nodded. Vondar was a veteran of the Clone Wars, having fought as a Republic Navy crewman. He was a life long naval officer, and was quite skilled in tactics and strategy. Kejik was a former scientist and officer in the Imperial Department of Military Research.

"Now, if that is all, we will see each other in about a day, when the offensive begins. Dismissed!" The Executor ordered.

The officers got out of their seats, and proceeded to the door to leave the room. Soon, only Goir and Sedriss remained. The Executor turned to him.

"Call Captain Xaron and tell him to get the Eclipse prepared."

"Understood."