Slayer
Posted: 2003-08-11 01:29pm
Here is a short introductionary story for an WEG Star Wars P&P RPG session that I wrote a long time ago in High School. I call it Slayer.
The light emitting from hyperspace embraced the entire bridge in a warm glow, but that was not something that Takkael gave much thought, he had after all experienced hundreds of hyperspace jumps.
For once though he stood staring into the blue light that flickered outside of the transparisteel windows, the bridge crew had noticed this earlier and had become as quiet as mice. This was not any behaviour usual to the Captain. But why was he here? “Why?” he asked softly in a whisper that none of the bridge crew picked up.
Oh he knew why he was here, he was responding to a distress call from an Imperial planet only two hours away from where he was monitoring space traffic in the middle of a space lane, but he did not know why he was here. He had after all graduated from the Imperial academy at Carida at the top ten percent of the class, and he was married to an admirals daughter, a smile made his face come somewhat alive when he thought of his lovely wife Rikea and all the moments they had shared, the smile vanished though as he continued to ponder.
He had as far as he could tell, not got into any arguments against anyone important, to be honest he had hardly got into any serious arguments against anyone, he had after all been known during his time at the academy as a very easy going fellow that most liked. But then what could it be? Could he be too young as a Captain? No, though still very young as a starship captain, it was not unheard of captains at his age.
He was interrupted in his thinking process by the sound of footsteps that stopped behind him followed by a small cough. Slowly turning around his eyes came upon a maybe ten year older and a bit leaner man then himself, in an Imperial Naval uniform.
“Yes what is it commander?”
“We are five minutes away from the navpoint out of hyperspace, Captain.”
Takkael took a deep breath, “Very well Commander, I take it that Commander Eran is standing by to launch his squadrons?”
He hardly noticed the Commanders slight nod before he went on,”and that the gunnery crews are at their posts? Instruct Commander Eran to launch the first squadron the minute we drop out of hyperspace and to take up a standard escort pattern, while the recon flight is to make haste and attempt to either make contact with possible hostile forces, or to asses’ damages at the planet.”
The Commander gave a slight nod “Yes Captain.” Made an about face and strode of to give the instructions to the fighter squadrons.
“A fine commander” Takkeal thought to himself as he watched the commanders back, “I still have not figured out why Iheeran has been passed over for promotion.”
With a lurch the ship came out of hyperspace, and the warm glow vanished and was replaced by a big blue and green orb surrounded by the black nothingness that was space.
“Scanners!” He barked out.
A young lieutenant with a red blotched face looked at the screen “Uuh, Sir, we are picking up some signals of debris in orbit, but no traces of any enemy vessels within range.”
Frowning slightly Takkael turned to his second in command “Commander Iheeran, any communications from the surface?”
Without turning his head Iheeran responded “No Sir.”
Not that I expected otherwise, Takkael thought to himself.
Iheeran went on, “First squadron is away just now, Sir.” Followed half a minute by, “Recon flight is away as well, Captain.”
Twelve TIE fighters took up an escort formation around the warship, while four other TIE´s rushed towards the planet.
Iheeran turned to face the Captain, “Captain, we are receiving initial scan data from the recons, apparently the ComSats are blown to pieces. That can explain the lack of communication with the surface as well as the debris in orbit, Captain.”
Takkael nodded slowly “Take us in closer Commander, there appears to be nothing to be afraid of here.” Some of the bridge crew smiled slightly at that.
The blue and green ball, began to slowly grow until it filled the entire bridge windows.
“Sir, the recons have contact with Imperial forces on the ground, do you want me to patch it through, Captain?” Commander Iheeran asked calmly.
“Make it so, Commander.” Takkael replied and began to walk to the comstation at the back to the bridge.
The viewscreen at the comstation was filled with static, but soon enough the static was replaced by a human wearing an Imperial Army uniform, with a Generals insignia.
“This is Captain Takkael of the Victory Class Mark Two Star Destroyer Slayer responding to a distress call from this system, I take it that you are in command here General.”
“That is correct Captain, I am Governor-General Jaowen, and I wish to file an initial report.” The human on the screen replied.
“Very well, General.”
“Approximately two standard hours and thirty minutes ago we were attacked by two squadrons of starfighters bearing the insignias of the Rebel scum. We believe they had approached our planet in the sensor shadow of one of our moons, the strike was swift and one of their squadrons first took out our orbital ComSats, though we did manage to get an message out, and then the rebel squadron went on to take out both the reactor for our planetary shield as well as our Ion Cannon with a couple of proton-torpedoes. The second rebel squadron strafed our fighter bases and knocked out our two TIE squadrons while they were still on the ground. Both fighter squadrons proceeded to fly CAP, while seven transports landed near some of our manufacturing facilities, we are still assessing the losses there, they loaded their transports with materials and left orbit about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Have you identified the starfighters or the squadrons General?”
“One of the Squadrons was of the older Y-Wings, while the other, the one that strafed our fighter bases was the newer X-wings, we have been unable to distinguish any squadron markings as of yet, Captain.”
X-Wings ….I have seen the specs on those, they have an advantage on our TIE´s...... and it was an X-Wing that took out the Death Star.
“Did you inflict any losses on the Rebel starfighters, General?”
The Generals face took up a sore twist “No Captain, I don’t think we even managed to damage any of them. Their attack came to fast, Captain. We had no chance to organize our defence before it was already knocked out.”
“It sounds to me, General, that their raid was carefully planed.”
“It was, they knew exactly our response time for the TIE´s, they knew where our generators were placed and more importantly they seemed to know your response time, Captain.”
“How can you tell that, General?”
“Our scanners showed that the last transport was only half full when it left, and there were plenty of materiel left that they could have stowed onto the ship.”
But we were in the empty space, no planetoids or even systems nearby. We didn’t even sight any other ships for two days before the distress call came, by the Emperor how could they have known where we were? They might have a spy on my ship!
The light emitting from hyperspace embraced the entire bridge in a warm glow, but that was not something that Takkael gave much thought, he had after all experienced hundreds of hyperspace jumps.
For once though he stood staring into the blue light that flickered outside of the transparisteel windows, the bridge crew had noticed this earlier and had become as quiet as mice. This was not any behaviour usual to the Captain. But why was he here? “Why?” he asked softly in a whisper that none of the bridge crew picked up.
Oh he knew why he was here, he was responding to a distress call from an Imperial planet only two hours away from where he was monitoring space traffic in the middle of a space lane, but he did not know why he was here. He had after all graduated from the Imperial academy at Carida at the top ten percent of the class, and he was married to an admirals daughter, a smile made his face come somewhat alive when he thought of his lovely wife Rikea and all the moments they had shared, the smile vanished though as he continued to ponder.
He had as far as he could tell, not got into any arguments against anyone important, to be honest he had hardly got into any serious arguments against anyone, he had after all been known during his time at the academy as a very easy going fellow that most liked. But then what could it be? Could he be too young as a Captain? No, though still very young as a starship captain, it was not unheard of captains at his age.
He was interrupted in his thinking process by the sound of footsteps that stopped behind him followed by a small cough. Slowly turning around his eyes came upon a maybe ten year older and a bit leaner man then himself, in an Imperial Naval uniform.
“Yes what is it commander?”
“We are five minutes away from the navpoint out of hyperspace, Captain.”
Takkael took a deep breath, “Very well Commander, I take it that Commander Eran is standing by to launch his squadrons?”
He hardly noticed the Commanders slight nod before he went on,”and that the gunnery crews are at their posts? Instruct Commander Eran to launch the first squadron the minute we drop out of hyperspace and to take up a standard escort pattern, while the recon flight is to make haste and attempt to either make contact with possible hostile forces, or to asses’ damages at the planet.”
The Commander gave a slight nod “Yes Captain.” Made an about face and strode of to give the instructions to the fighter squadrons.
“A fine commander” Takkeal thought to himself as he watched the commanders back, “I still have not figured out why Iheeran has been passed over for promotion.”
With a lurch the ship came out of hyperspace, and the warm glow vanished and was replaced by a big blue and green orb surrounded by the black nothingness that was space.
“Scanners!” He barked out.
A young lieutenant with a red blotched face looked at the screen “Uuh, Sir, we are picking up some signals of debris in orbit, but no traces of any enemy vessels within range.”
Frowning slightly Takkael turned to his second in command “Commander Iheeran, any communications from the surface?”
Without turning his head Iheeran responded “No Sir.”
Not that I expected otherwise, Takkael thought to himself.
Iheeran went on, “First squadron is away just now, Sir.” Followed half a minute by, “Recon flight is away as well, Captain.”
Twelve TIE fighters took up an escort formation around the warship, while four other TIE´s rushed towards the planet.
Iheeran turned to face the Captain, “Captain, we are receiving initial scan data from the recons, apparently the ComSats are blown to pieces. That can explain the lack of communication with the surface as well as the debris in orbit, Captain.”
Takkael nodded slowly “Take us in closer Commander, there appears to be nothing to be afraid of here.” Some of the bridge crew smiled slightly at that.
The blue and green ball, began to slowly grow until it filled the entire bridge windows.
“Sir, the recons have contact with Imperial forces on the ground, do you want me to patch it through, Captain?” Commander Iheeran asked calmly.
“Make it so, Commander.” Takkael replied and began to walk to the comstation at the back to the bridge.
The viewscreen at the comstation was filled with static, but soon enough the static was replaced by a human wearing an Imperial Army uniform, with a Generals insignia.
“This is Captain Takkael of the Victory Class Mark Two Star Destroyer Slayer responding to a distress call from this system, I take it that you are in command here General.”
“That is correct Captain, I am Governor-General Jaowen, and I wish to file an initial report.” The human on the screen replied.
“Very well, General.”
“Approximately two standard hours and thirty minutes ago we were attacked by two squadrons of starfighters bearing the insignias of the Rebel scum. We believe they had approached our planet in the sensor shadow of one of our moons, the strike was swift and one of their squadrons first took out our orbital ComSats, though we did manage to get an message out, and then the rebel squadron went on to take out both the reactor for our planetary shield as well as our Ion Cannon with a couple of proton-torpedoes. The second rebel squadron strafed our fighter bases and knocked out our two TIE squadrons while they were still on the ground. Both fighter squadrons proceeded to fly CAP, while seven transports landed near some of our manufacturing facilities, we are still assessing the losses there, they loaded their transports with materials and left orbit about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Have you identified the starfighters or the squadrons General?”
“One of the Squadrons was of the older Y-Wings, while the other, the one that strafed our fighter bases was the newer X-wings, we have been unable to distinguish any squadron markings as of yet, Captain.”
X-Wings ….I have seen the specs on those, they have an advantage on our TIE´s...... and it was an X-Wing that took out the Death Star.
“Did you inflict any losses on the Rebel starfighters, General?”
The Generals face took up a sore twist “No Captain, I don’t think we even managed to damage any of them. Their attack came to fast, Captain. We had no chance to organize our defence before it was already knocked out.”
“It sounds to me, General, that their raid was carefully planed.”
“It was, they knew exactly our response time for the TIE´s, they knew where our generators were placed and more importantly they seemed to know your response time, Captain.”
“How can you tell that, General?”
“Our scanners showed that the last transport was only half full when it left, and there were plenty of materiel left that they could have stowed onto the ship.”
But we were in the empty space, no planetoids or even systems nearby. We didn’t even sight any other ships for two days before the distress call came, by the Emperor how could they have known where we were? They might have a spy on my ship!