Child of the Shadows

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Chapter 1
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"We have a visual sir," the lieutenant reported. "The asteroid is just ahead."
"Excellent," Grand Admiral Thrawn said. "If reports are correct, then Mount Tantiss isn't the only place the Emperor stashed one of his Jedi playthings." His red eyes glowed as the Corellian Corvette drew closer to the asteroid. He would have preferred to use the Chimera for this recovery operation, but did not wish to damage one of his precious Star Destroyers. They were in short supply these days, thanks to those trecherous Rebels and the Hapans, and losing even one would be a major blow to his cause.
Deep in The Graveyard, one of the asteroids that was formerly part of the planet Alderaan spun in a different direction than all the others. According to the information he had recovered, the Emperor had imprisoned one of his Dark Jedi here for showing sympathy for the Rebels, until he could deal with her correctly. And while the Emperor was no more, Thrawn would release this Dark Jedi, and return her to Imperial service.
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But one thing that neither Thrawn nor the Emperor had known was that this particular asteroid had been part of the Alderaanian surface. While the flowing grass and creatures were of course long gone, a piece of Alderaan survived still inside it. And as its sensors picked up the approaching Imperial ship, it pulsed out a heavily encrypted message to Coruscant, as well as a few locations that had been stored in memory as Rebel listening posts. Without waiting for a reply, it activated a beacon that flooded the surrounding systems, calling its subordinates home.
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"Grand Admiral?" one of the ensigns spoke up nervously. "I've detected a broadband transmissions. Very strong, very specialized, and very heavily encrypted. It's..." he trailed off, and looked up in wonder. "It's an Alderaanian code."
This caused Grand Admiral Thrawn to look up. 'Alderaanian?' he wondered, his lightning-fast brain attempting to piece together all the informaiton he remembered. 'I know the Rebellion recovered the fabled defender of this system between Yavin and Derra IV. Could there be others?' A growl developed deep in his throat. "Reverse course lieutenant!" he commanded. "Mark this asteroid in the databanks, because we'll be back for it later. Shield's up!"
The lieutenant didn't waste time with questions, trusting Grand Admiral Thrawn's military genius. The ship had managed to wheel around about sixty degrees, when suddenly the sensor readings lit up, and a warning klaxon sounded.
"Two unknown ships are incoming!" an ensign reported. "Preliminary data does not match them with any ship encountered during the Emperor's reign, but they're both broadcasting Alderaanian IFF codes, and both of them are charging weapons!"
Thrawn muttered a Chiss curse, and whirled to Palleon. "Raise the cloak. We'll have to navigate by previous sensor logs. But if these two are here, chances are that reinforcements aren't too terribly far behind."
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The droid crew of the Courage and Fidelity could only record sensor data as their target suddenly phased into nothingness. Their sensors swept the system, and detecting no other allies, settled in to wait, still hovering protectively over the asteroid.

 

Cool! Good start! Hope to see more soon!

 

very interesting beginning.

 

knock, knock, anyone there??