The Crimson Emperor/Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3. A CRIMSON EMPIRE IS BORN.

That was the last of them.

Carnor Jax followed the assemblage of warlords into the meeting room aboard Tsoss Beacon. The last of the warlords, a man called Malfkla Yzu, was the most recent arrival and joined them in the station's hangar before they headed down to the meeting room. Their conference room was a small grey metal-walled area with plain walls. It may have been the meeting room for the scientists who were working at this research station, and now served Jax's purpose. The center of the room contained a large black meeting table, the kind found aboard the Death Stars and many ships of the Imperial Fleet.

After the last of the warlords sat down, the former Guardsman headed over to the front of the table. But as he did so, Jax noticed a couple of officers standing off to the side. An older gentleman with greying hair and a woman with brown hair. The woman had an admiral's rank insignia on her uniform. Jax found that surprising, as there were no female admirals that he knew of in the Navy. But then again, it was a vast Empire after all. The man had the insignia of a vice admiral. Jax gazed over them through the Force. The man was feeling a bit nervous and hopeful at the same time. The woman felt hopeful, but with another emotion being the main one. Ambition.

Good, he thought. If this goes well, I'll gain potential candidates to replace Wessel. Jax cleared his throat and began speaking.

"I have gathered you here to come to an agreement. End your petty conflicts and unite, so we can defeat the New Republic and reestablish Imperial dominance over the galaxy. Your past betrayal of the Empire will be 'forgotten' if we succeed."

An old-looking grey-haired man in an admiral's uniform scoffed. "Our betrayal of what? A regime that would collapse anyway? And how has the war against the New Republic been going for you?"

Jax felt a bit frustrated but did not let any of that show. Not that it mattered, his Royal Guard helmet blocked his face.

"A government that would not have collapsed if not for your betrayal. You might as well have declared your loyalty to the Rebellion."

"That's funny, I have fought against the Rebels at Coruscant and was one of the ones to take back the capital from them under the reborn Emperor," the admiral replied.

Another one spoke up. "And then handed it back to them by attacking your allies, Teradoc."

"Allies? They were practically ready to pull the trigger on me as soon as the last New Republic soldier fell," replied Teradoc. "Surely you remember that, Harrsk, you were there. And took part in the civil war, as I remember."

The second admiral, Harrsk, began rising from his seat. "That doesn't–"

"Shut up!" said Jax, raising his voice to be heard over the growing murmurs. "The point is that this kind of thing needs to stop."

"Alright, I think this is not work," said a different man, one who kind of looked like Grand Moff Tarkin and whose uniform was covered in medals. "I'm leaving."

He began to stand up and walk towards the door, which quickly shut. A clicking sound could be heard as it locked. Jax had programmed the doors to shut and lock from a control panel on the conference table, and they would not open for three standard hours. They had that much time to discuss this. If they could not come to an agreement, he would have to resort to. . . more persuasive methods.

"Those doors are locked and will not opened for three hours. We have that long to settle this. Sit down, no one is leaving," Jax told the Tarkin look-alike.

The man glared at the former Royal Guardsman for a moment before walking back to his seat. With that out of the way, the meeting continued. They continued talking but these frequently gave way to arguments and Jax had to separate a couple of warlords occasionally.

But he did manage to learn the identities of the female admiral and the vice admiral. They were Natasi Daala, a former protege of Grand Moff Tarkin and the manager of the secret Maw Installation, and Gilad Pellaeon, a former protege of Grand Admiral Thrawn. They had the opportunity to talk briefly among themselves while the warlords were arguing. Daala served Admiral Harrsk's faction for a while, while Pellaeon worked for Teradoc. Both had convinced their respective leaders to listen to Jax's message when they heard it. They all were Imperial loyalists and wanted to reunite the Empire, but they had to do something to get these warlords to agree.

Jax checked the timer, seeing that he only had about five minutes left before the doors opened again. The warlords were yelling at each other again. This time, it was "Superior General" Sander Delvardus (the Tarkin look-alike) and Admiral Harrsk. The former Royal Guardsman decided that he had enough. He looked over at Pellaeon and Daala, who both stepped back behind his seat, in one of the corners of the room.

Carnor Jax sighed. "I've had enough of this."

Those were the code words. Second later, the air in several spots on the sides of the conference table, near the walls, began to change color and shape. At first the warlords did not notice, but the ones who were not involved in the conversation did.

Finally, it was done and the warlords noticed. A pair of shadow stormtroopers stood behind each of the warlords' seats. They wore special black stormtrooper armor that allowed them to become invisible, cloaking armor. Jax himself had served as one of these so-called "blackhole stormtroopers" years ago, before he was selected for Royal Guard training. The former head of Imperial Intelligence, Lord Cronal, showed him the benefits of having shadow stormtroopers.

But that was in the past. The troopers were now pointing their blaster rifles at the startled warlords. Jax stood up from his seat.

"You have sixty second to come up with an agreement and end your arguments, or my men will end your lives," he said.

The warlords first looked around nervously at each other, all yelling had stopped.

''Six, seven, eight. . . ''

Some of them began to speak up, but oddly, not about finding an agreement.

"You can't do this to us!" said Teradoc, with a sound of pleading in his voice.

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty

Finally, Teradoc looked at Harrsk, but both men just glared at each other, not knowing what to do.

Twenty-five, twenty-six, twen-ah, to hell with this!

Jax held up his fist and pointed his thumb down. The stormtrooper commander nodded. The troopers gave off several shots at the warlord they were standing behind, gunning them down. The warlords did not even have a chance to say any last minute insults or pleas for mercy before the precise shots found their targets. All thirteen of them either fell to the ground or onto the conference table. Jax turned to look at Pellaeon and Daala.

"I think we have reached an agreement. A unanimous one."

As the meeting went on aboard Tsoss Beacon, General Wessel joined Captain Harmon aboard the Emperor's Revenge. They stood silently on the bridge of the Star Destroyer. Wessel hoped that his superior–his Emperor–would get them to see reason and unite. But whatever his plan was, the general knew that Carnor Jax would not walk away from this empty-handed. Captain Harmon shifted his weight nearby as they stood.

"A credit for your thoughts, general?"

Wessel looked over at him. "I just hope that they finished this meeting soon. One way or another."

Harmon nodded. "Agreed."

"Were you part of the conspiracy against Emperor Palpatine?" Wessel asked the navy man.

"Not initially," he said as he shook his head. "But I supported it after seeing the World Devastators in action on Dac. That was just insane."

The general had never seen them, but he read the reports. He nodded. As he stood there, Wessel realized the irony in the name of their flagship. The Emperor's Revenge. And they had betrayed the Emperor, ultimately.

Well, at least soon the New Republic will be feeling his revenge, the general thought. Suddenly, his commlink started making a beeping sound.

"I need to see to this," Wessel excused himself from Captain Harmon, who nodded in reply.

He walked a few meters away and activated his commlink. "General Wessel. Who is this?"

"Lieutenant Blim reporting, sir."

Jax's right hand man was calling in from Coruscant. Good. "I take it you infiltrated the Palace?"

"Indeed, sir, and I have some urgent information that needs to be delivered to the Emperor at once."

Wessel stiffened. "And what is that?"

"I was standing near the New Republic Admiralty and overheard a conversation. They've noticed the meeting in the Deep Core and are sending a task force there."

The general's eyes went wide. "Yes, thank you for the report. Contact me if there is anything else."

Blim muttered an affirmative as Wessel shut off the commlink and put it back in his pocket. He walked over to the captain, who turned to look at the general as he approached.

"We've got a problem."

Jax, Pellaeon, Daala, and his stormtroopers were aboard his shuttle and preparing to take off when they got the call. Daala and Pellaeon had sent messages of what happened to the warlords' fleet commanders and showed them footage of the warlords dying form the station's holo-cameras. They then ordered them to come here for instructions on what to do next. Many of these commanders replied and said they were complying with the order. They should have quite a large fleet assembled here soon.

But in the meantime, as the shuttle took off and headed towards the Revenge, the former Guardsman answered the commlink. "Yes?"

"This is General Wessel, my lord. Lieutenant Blim got back to me with some important information," the voice at the other end said.

Jax sat up straighter. "And that would be?"

Then Wessel told him what Blim had reported. Jax looked over at Daala and Pellaeon, who were sitting in the back seats of the cockpit, while Jax and the pilot occupied the front seats.

"How long do you think until the warlords' fleets get here?" he asked them.

They looked at each other for a moment before Daala answered. "Probably twenty minutes or so. Why?"

"Well, I hope you're right, because my source on Coruscant tells me that we're about to have trouble."

Admiral Ackbar stood on the bridge of his flagship, the MC90 Star Cruiser Defiance. It was one of their newest and most advanced ships, having proved itself in action against the reborn Emperor Palpatine's forces. Now it was once again hunting the Empire, but this time, a different Emperor. Ackbar hoped that whatever fleet may have gathered at the coordinates that the scout gave them was not too large for their task force to handle.

It had the Mon Karren, an MC80a Star Cruiser, the Mon Delindo, a ship of the same class, the Tedevium, a Nebulon-B escort frigate, and several squadrons of X-wing fighters, Y-wing fighters, B-wings bombers, and A-wing interceptors. Hopefully that will be enough, Ackbar thought.

They left hyperspace upon reaching their destination. ..

. . . in front of a whole fleet of Star Destroyers.

--> Next chapter --> <-- Previous chapter <--