4

4

The planet of Ingra had a very special meaning for Isel. It was his home planet, where he had been raised until he joined the fleet. Ever since its occupation, Ingra had been firmly in Imperial control. But now the world covered with thick forests had allied itself with the hated New Republic. And for that Isel would destroy them.

Isel had been raised in a small farm in the eastern continent of the planet, outside of the planet’s capital. His family had grown a native type of vegetable for generations, but Isel’s heart had been set on traveling the stars and not in working the tired old land. He had had a fierce fight with his father the night he had left for the Academy, and Isel still bore a grudge against his father. He would be more than glad to blow the planet to pieces for that.

Isel’s watery purple eyes shone as all of the Star Destroyer’s weapons were brought to bear on the traitorous planet. He could feel sweat forming from the excitement and briefly took off his hat to dry the sweat on his brow and in his silver hair. Bysal looked at his commander. Bysal was also from Ingra, but from the eastern continent. Each continent of Ingra had humanoids that varied in eye and hair color. Those from the western continent had steel gray eyes and black hair, it was a uniform trait throughout the continent as though they had all been cloned. Because of their different traits, a kind of prejudice kept the western and eastern continents from fully cooperating. Yet Bysal felt no kind of prejudice against his commander, in Bysal’s mind he no longer had any alliegence to Ingra only to the deceased Emperor and the Imperial Navy.

Bysal knew that he had nothing left on Ingra. His parents were dead, his wife and child had moved across the galaxy to Correllia. But he hated to think about the vast landscapes of tall pines burning. But the traitors had to pay for their crimes. Bysal looked out a window and down at the green-blue planet.

Isel savored the moment and then stood. He walked across the bridge, checking each crew pit for readiness. Finally he reached the gunner’s pit. To everyone’s surprise Isel climbed into the pit and stood next to the young conscript. Isel moved the ensign aside and personally aimed the turbolaser batteries.

“You may now fire,” Isel said as he climbed out of the pit and stood with his hands folded behind his back and looking out a window. All of the turbolaser batteries opened fire and began pelting the planet with deadly green bolts. The planet had no shield and each burst rocked the planet with more force than a large earthquake. Isel’s home went in the first barrage. His elderly parents were incinerated before they knew what was happening.

It was Doomsday for the people of Ingra. There was no escape. The trees were vaporized and the cities were annihalated. Those that could flee underground were trapped by huge rocks and by lava rivers opened by the attack. Both continents of the planet were devastated. It would take years, if ever for the planet to be able to support life again. The Star Destroyer’s turbolasers were drained of energy and Isel looked at the now-blackened world. He knew that that was a demonstration of what one Star Destroyer could do against helpless, defenseless planets.

Bysal looked upon his world and saw where once green vegetation had shown, there were only brown and black areas highlighted by dense white clouds. The planet looked dead, but Bysal could see that the ice caps had not been hit, nor had the scattered islands in the seas between the continents been destroyed by the attack. There were still a few people on the planet and with them was the hope that Ingra could thrive once more.

A special meeting of the New Republic’s Council had been called. A freighter arriving at Ingra had lived only long enough to report that the planet was destroyed and that there was a Star Destroyer in orbit. General Bel Iblis watched the meeting from the bridge of the Calamari cruiser Freedom. Bel Iblis couldn’t figure out how the attacks were related. It wasn’t like the Imperials to just cause random carnage. They usually had a specific target for a specific purpose. But these attacks made little sense, unless they were just trying to intimidate the New Republic. And that was why the meeting had been called. Something had to be done, but the New Republic had so few resources after fending off Grand Admiral Thrawn’s forces. Capital ships like the Freedom were in short supply.

Mon Mothma called the meeting to order and then the Council was brought up to date on the attacks by Admiral Ackbar. “Several freighters were attacked by a Star Destroyer, then our space station near the Outer Rims was destroyed, a relief convoy to Argoon was slaughtered, and the peaceful world of Ingra was decimated by a Star Destroyer. Though we have no proof, we believe that the Star Destroyer is the same in all attacks. We have no information on the name of the ship or its captain. Though these attacks appear random, I believe that they are part of a complex campaign to intimidate and disrupt our government,” Ackbar’s gravelly Calamarian voice said.

“Admiral, if that’s true then what can we do?” Leia asked from her chair.

“We must try to assertain what the Star Destroyer’s next move will be. There are numerous planets that could be reached in only a couple of days at light speed. At this point, I’ve sent most of our fleet to look for this ship. We do have some ships here that are ready to respond in a moment’s notice.” Bel Iblis watched the proceedings and wished that he could help in some way, but Mon Mothma had assigned building the station top priority. The general looked out the window at the station taking shape. An old Imperial station had been packed into containers and shipped to the area. Although the work was going well, it would take weeks for the station to be erected.

The Council praised Ackbar for his quick thinking and a vote assured Leia that the New Republic would not be intimidated by this rogue Imperial ship. Luke and Han waited outside and then walked Leia up towards her quarters.

“Pretty much everything is the same as it was. We’re still looking for the ship but we don’t have a clue as to what it’s up to. If we just knew where that ship was heading then we could get a trap ready,” Leia groaned.

“Are there any big gatherings or meetings in that area? Anything worth hitting?” Han asked. Luke thought to himself but knew that there was nothing that he could think of. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon.

“Not that I can think of,” Leia said. Luke separated from them and went to his quarters. He went and laid down on his bed, putting himself into a deep Jedi sleep.

During the sleep, Luke had a vision. He was standing in a desert. It seemed vaguely familiar, but Luke couldn’t quite place it. Then he felt the ground shake and an Imperial AT-AT Walker appeared. Someone was running towards him. As the person came closer Luke could tell that it was a woman. She dodged laser blasts and ran towards Luke. She was soon right in front of Luke and then he knew who the woman was. She was Mara Jade. Mara pulled her lightsaber from her belt and the blue blade glowed in the desert air. As she was incinerated by blaster fire, Luke saw her eyes looking at her.

It was then that Luke woke up and stretched out with his senses. He didn’t feel any disturbances in the Force, but then again Luke didn’t even know where Mara was. But wherever she was, Luke knew that she was in for trouble. Luke was ready to go to sleep again when Artoo beeped with concern from a corner, noticing that his master was uneasy.

“It was just a bad dream, I’m all right,” Luke said to the droid. Artoo didn’t sound convinced, but neither was Luke. But there was no reason to worry anyone until Luke could figure out what the strange dream had been telling him.

Luke climbed out of bed and put on his robe. He walked over to the window and looked at the lights of Imperial City. Traffic was still bustling, even though it was the middle of the night. Luke thought about the last time he had seen Mara. He had given her his old lightsaber on the roof of the palace. He wondered why, after over a month of her absence, he would start having dreams about her. This was one of the times that Luke wished that Ben Kenobi was still alive, or at least able to talk to Luke. He needed someone to talk to about this strange dream and the even stranger implications. But there was no one. Luke couldn’t barge in on Leia and Han to discuss his own petty problems. Neither could he talk to Chewie or the droids about something this deep. And Wedge, Lando, and his other friends were scattered throughout the galaxy.

That left Luke alone to contemplate the dream. Was he dreaming about her because deep inside he really loved her? Or was the dream a warning that she was in danger? Luke had no idea what it meant. He turned his back to the window and then put on some clothes. He left his quarters and hurried to the maintenance area to work on his battered fighter.

Wedge was finally enjoying a few hours of sleep when his comm beeped. Wedge thrashed around in the darkness until he found the object. “Antilles here. What’s going on?”

“Sir, we’ve got a problem. The recon patrol ran into some trouble, looks like pirates,” Janson replied.

“Who’s flying recon?”

“Two Y-Wings, I don’t know the pilots’ names. The captain wants us to launch as soon as we can.”

“I’ll be down in a minute. Have everyone in their fighters and warmed up by the time I get there,” Wedge said and then began running through the Diplomat’s corridors. Even though the pirates were away from the ship, the repair work was very delicate and even a few hits could damage something vital. Wedge ran into the ready room and threw on his gear. When he finally got to his fighter, he saw that the rest of the squadron was ready. The eleven X-Wings were powered up and ready to go, and Wedge was grateful that his R2 unit had already warmed up the ship’s engines.

The hangar bay opened and Wedge led his ships out into space. He put his throttle up to full and sped towards the pirate ships. The pirates were flying old Y-Wings and Headhunters, which were no match for his X-Wing. There were ten of the rogue vessels attacking the New Republic recon patrol. Both Y-Wings had taken several hits and were desperately trying to flee the battle. Wedge targeted one of the pirate ships with his torpedoes and fired when he got a lock.

Although there was a good chance that the torpedo wouldn’t hit anything, the torpedo would at least distract the enemy enough so that the Y-Wings would have a better chance to clear the area. Wedge turned his guns on and dove onto one of the pirate Y-Wings. He squeezed his trigger and sent laser bolts into the Y-Wing. The ship’s shields absorbed most of the hits, but Janson came in behind Wedge and sawed off one of the ship’s engines and sent it spinning into empty space. Even before that ship was dispatched Wedge was already on the tail of another.

Two Z95s were on his tail and Wedge had to quickly pull up and jink around to avoid them and their guns. He fired at one enemy craft and saw it explode. Then Wedge saw that one of the newer pilots, a youngster named Abery, was being jumped by two pirate starfighters. Wedge turned up his throttle and began firing at the attackers. Wedge flew past the ships and one broke off to follow him, leaving young Abery with much better odds. Wedge quickly banked to the left and was soon on the tail of the slower, less maneuverable fighter. He began shooting at the wallowing Y-Wing and cheered when it exploded. Abery formed up on Wedge’s wing and Wedge could see that the attackers were fleeing.

“Rogue Squadron, this is Recon Patrol. Thanks a bunch for saving our tails. Commands tells us to relay the message that the hyperdrive is repaired and you are to report back as soon as you are able,” the lead Y-Wing pilot said.

“Thanks Recon. We’re on our way,” Wedge answered and headed for the cruiser. Once the last X-Wing was in the bay and the hangar door closed, the space around Deysdon IV faded into starlines and the cruiser headed back towards Coruscant.

The container came out of hyperspace near the desert world of Tatooine. It’s hold opened and a probe droid was launched. The crew of the ship placed itself away from the planet so that the small ship was nearly unnoticeable and undetectable by any scanners on the planet, yet the container could still receive data from the droid. The droid landed in a sand dune near Mos Eisley. After digging itself out of the sand and moving around for a few seconds, the droid began to take its scanner readings.

The droid was nearly finished with its scanning when it heard a squeal come from behind it. Strange little creatures, Jawas, ran at the droid. The Jawa’s Sandcrawler was a half mile away, and the Jawas pulled out their equipment to disable the droid. Though the droid was useless to the populance of Tatooine, its basic componets could be used to repair other salvaged droids that could be sold. The droid sensed that the creatures were a threat and began firing at the Jawas.

One of the scavengers fell and the others backed off, not used to their prey fighting back. The droid moved away from the Jawas and continued to take its readings. Finally the droid finished sending the requested data to the container. It was about that time that tow of the Jawas fired their paralyzing guns at the droid. When the beams hit the droid exploded and the Jawas groaned in defeat, the probe was useless now.

The container relayed the information they had collected to the Star Destroyer Ravage. Bysal was given the message and he hurried to relay it to his commander. The ship was cruising at a leisurely speed towards Tatooine. Bysal rang the bell for Isel’s quarters and the door opened. Isel had just finished putting on his uniform and took the message. The news from the probe was very good. Mos Eisley wasn’t showing any heavy shipping traffic and best of all, the city was undefended.