The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

Wedge could hear Wes Janson curse.

The imperials had recognized that Rogue-squadron and a squadron of A-Wings were on their heels and had split their forces.

The bombers stayed in their course towards the weak armed freighters while the Interceptors had turned around to face the star-fighters of the rebels.

Then they were there and the dance of destruction started.

--------------------------------------

Moff Darkol was cursing too.

Twice his "hit-and-run"-tactic had been sucessful, one Nebulon-B had been destroyed, another one heavily damaged and unable to continue the fight.

Futhtermore his forces had managed to destroy one of the assault-frigate-turned dreadnoughts.

But during the third run a number of salvos had hit the Strike-cruiser and the modular construction of the ship proofed now to be fatal.

Entire sections of the ship were severed from each other and didn´t react anymore to the signals from the bridge.

Helpless the imperials aboard the station had to watch, how the tumbling Strike-Cruiser drifted through space and, ramming a Nebulon-Frigate of the rebels, died the death of fire.

Darkol offered the 2´,112 men of the crew of the Cruiser a last salute and turned again towards the tactical hologramm.

The Carracks had managed to destroy another of the assalt-frigates, but they had payed a high price.

Only one ship was left.

Darkol knew that the Carrack had no chance against the remaining ten rebel-ships, but surrender was no option.

"Signal the Lancers to leave the last X-Wings to our Tie-Fighters and to support the Carrack.

It was a calculated risk, but against the superior numbers of X-Wings the Lancers had already shifted the balance in favor of the Ties.

The Moff was aware that the Lancers with their twenty quad-lasers, designed against star-fighters wouldn´t have a chance against the Turbolasers of the Rebel-ships, but they could buy them time.

If only reinforcements would arrive.

Darkol didn´t liked it one bit to sacrifice all those young men and women, not if they should serve at one of the best guarded imperial outposts of the rim territories. Best guardfed as long as base and stores were protected by Stardestroyers.

The fight would soon be over no matter the outcome.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

Wedge Antilles made a grim face while his laser-cannons destroyed a Tie-Bomber.

The imperial Interceptors have had no chances against the Rogues, all twelche fighters of their squadron had been destroyed.

But they had managed to destroy two of Wedges X-Wings and four A-Wings and to gave the Bombers enough time to attack the freighters.

Compared to other star-fighters the Tie-Bombers might have been slow and agile as a brick, against the even more slow freighters they had been as fast as pod-racers compared to banthas.

When the rebels finally reached the freighters, already eight of the original twenty-five ships had been destroyed, before the X-Wings arrived to the rescue.

------------------------------------

On the bridge of the "Mon Cal" Commander Syllkar was tempted to scream in impotent rage and frustration.

The defense-platforms had cost the rebels much, as well as the tactics of the enemy-commander.
They had already lost one Mon Calamari-Cruiser, two assault-frigates and three Nebulon-Bs. Further a significant number of fighters and most important of all, time.

The "Mon Cal" was put out of the battle for a unknown period of time, but the engineers were working on it.

Perhaps most important were the losses among the freighters, thought Syllkar, but because of their narrow time-frame it had been necessary to jump with the entire fleet directly.

The defenders of ORD Friggas were fighting with a doggedness normaly found seldom among imperials, but according to what Syllkar knew about Moff Darkol and the inhabitans of ORD Friggas it made sense.

He would fight to the bitter end, too, of his family and his children would have lived on the planet. In some way it seemed to be perverted by the imperials to take the own women and children as hostages, but in any chase it was a rather strong motivation.

"Sir", came the report from the technicians.

"What is it ?", asked Syllkar.

"Shields are again working with 80 percent performance, as well as the damaged Turbolasers."

"Exellent", the rebel-commander breathed with relief. "Then let us finish this fight once and for all. THe boarding parties shall ready themself."

---------------------------------------

"Sir, the rebel-cruiser has its shields working again and moves towards the battle zone."

Where in the same moment another Lancer had been destroyed.

Mowet Darkol rubbed his forehead. This has it been.

In short time boarding parties would enter his station, his storehouses, robb his weapons and supplies and he would never see them again.

But no, that was wrong. He would see them again. He would see them again used by the rebels against imperial installastions, against imperial soldiers and citicens.

And that he couldn´t allow. Not if he could provide it.

Inside he prepared to fulfill his last duty, when he suddenly had an idea.

Perhaps the war fought with weapons he had lost, but perhaps he could achieve victory against the rebels on another front. At least a victory of propaganda.

He gave a wink to a female Officer.

"Lieutenant, would you please come to me ?", turning to another officer he said.

"Initiate the countdown for selfdestruction in fivteen minutes if the order isn´t given manuel. Silent countdown. And give the signal to evacuate the station."

Turning to the comm.

"Captain, please prepare for the sending of an unencrypted signal. On all Frequencies.

Whats your name, Lieutenant ?"

"Eris, Sir, Mirina Eris."

"Pleased to meet you", answered Darko friendly.

Then he smashed his fist into Eris face. After that he ript her uniform partly apart and slapped her again.

Finally he grapped her at the shoulder and forced her to sit down at the hyper-comm.

"Arghhh, what wasch thaattt about????", protested the woman.

"Now, Lieutenant, you´ll plea for help with this text. Please try to make it look like real" interrupted Darkol the woman, while he gave her a data-padd with a text he had prepared.

Eris read the text and smiled despite

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

"Sir, we are recieving another signal from the battle-zone. This time unencrypted."

Perry Rhodan and Atlan turned both to the communications-officer.

"What are you waiting for ?", asked Rhodan. "On screen."

One moment later the image of a beaten and abused looking woman became visibel on a section of the huge, the entire central of the "Inferno" with its diametre of 120 metres encirceling screen.

othing was to hear.

"A human ?", asked Rhodan in surprise.

"In every case similiar to humans", corrected Atlan. "Communications, why is there no sound."

"One moment, please. We first have to adapt the foreign signals to our systems. The visual transmission has a thre-dimensional component and, ... now the message should be audible."

Suddenly the desperate pleas for help became audible. As it seemed the woman was already repeating her message.

"... repeat, ORD Friggas is under attack by terrotists of the Alliance.

Please, who ever is out there, you have to help us.

We are a civil port and on the surface of the planet more than twenty million helpless civilians are living, mainly women and children.

They will be all slaughtered if no miracle happens and the Alliance follows its usual way of operations and terminates every witnesses.

Help from the empire will be to late and our orbital defences are destroyed."

The womans body shook violently and tears dropped down her eyes.

"My poor Wilhuff is already dead and my children will be next if ..."

The transmission flickered, then the screen went black, showing again the merciless blackness of space.

No men in the central of the "Dantes Inferno", had been untouched by those please for help, with grim faces the terrans looked at the command-centre.

At least since the war with the Uleb the SolarEmpire knew no mercy for terrorists because of the following reasons:

After the defeat of the Uleb many worlds had been tempted to leave the SolarEmpire to stay independent and free from the influence of the capitol world on their own.

Rhodan who had known how strong the desire for freedom and independence could be, had convinced the Parliament of the SolarEmpire to allow those worlds to leave to provide a possible civil war.

With gritted teeth the Parliament had accepted. The only condition connected to the acceptance of the sezession of those worlds had been, that a clear majority of the inhabitans made clear by a democratic election, that they really wanted to leave the empire peacefully.

When on some of those worlds those elections vowed surprisinly for a stay in the SolarEmpire some fractions of sezessionists who thought to knew better turned into terrorist groups.

Their violent actions costed millions of citicens their lives and those who supported and worked honest for a peaceful sezzion their credibility and public sympathy.

The SolarEmpire stayed united because of this but for Perry Rhodan these events concluded a personel catastrophe.

During one of those assaults Perry Rhodans wife Mory and their daughter Suzan were killed.

The public outrage and reactions over the personal tragedy of the man, who had safed the earth countless times, who had lead humanity to the stars, the man everyone want to identify himself with and looked up to had been unmatched to everything in the past five centuries of terran history.

Rhodans son-in-law Geoffrey Waringer had been broken after those events. The eccentric scientist who had once been one of the most brilliant minds of the empire and whos inventiones had helped to defeat the Uleb, had never recovered from this loss.

Mory Rhodan-Abros cellactivatoe was now carried by her son Michael.

Atlan watched his friend and recognized his determination to act.

In the next moment it showered orders.

"Battle-alarm for all stations. Commodore bring us to the system. Pilots for Lighning-Jets make yourself ready to launch. Activate transform-cannons and activate HO-Shields as soon as we leave linear-space.

Execute."

-----------------

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

Wedge Antilles nearly jumped throught the transparisteel- window of his cockpit, when he heard the unencrypted emergency-call from the imperials.

If the empire was smart they would use it to cause great damage to the Alliance.

Although he didn´t liked it he had to admit that on many worlds, especially the important core worlds, the Rebel-Alliance was still viewed as organization of terrorists, nothing better than commen criminals.

At least the boarding paries were finally on their way.

As soon as they had their hard-earned pray collected they could leave.

Antilles nodded his head.

What has seemed to be a simple raid in the briefing had turned into a incredible hard battle with huge losses.

The leader of Rogue-Squadron made a mental note for future briefings to make clear the danger-potential of Golan-Defense-platforms, the importance of those of those stations had been significantly underestimated by the rebels, when suddenly hell broke out.

-----------------------------------------

The Lightning-Jets were ready to launch, as well as the corvettes.

Every man was wearing his battle-suit, only the helmets were still opened.

The HO-Shields activated, all Transform-cannons ready to fire the "Dantes Inferno" entered the normal universe.

------------------------------------------

Mowet Darkol was sitting in his command-chair, waiting for as many rebel-commandos as possible to board the supply-depots, to destroy them with as many rebels as possible, when it happened.

Suddenly out of nowhere a ship emerged and was already attacking the fleet of the rebels.

But what a ship.

Darkol had never seen a construction like this before.

A huge sphere with a thick, ringlike belt around its equator and two smaller belts over and under the one in the midle, where thrusters of incredible power had to be, because the ship accelerated faster than anything Darkol had ever seen.

At first the Moff suspected it to be a new design of rebel-ship, but gave up this thought the next moment.

Darkol activated the scanners and sensors of the station and transmitted them to the displayes around his seat.

The incoming informations caused him to catch his breath with silent admiration.

If the sensor-readings were true the huge sphere alone had a diamtre of 2,5 kilometres. Adding the wide of its main belt with 350 metres the objects greatest diametre had to be 3,200 metres.

3,200 metres and the ship was accelerating with 720 km/sec/sec. Darkol asked himself what kind of constitution living beings had to have to survive such accelerations or what kind of compensators had to protect them.

Then an escort-frigate of the rebels exploded, then a second and a third one.

With a lump in his throat Darkol recognized that the power-output of the explosions was around 2,000 gigatons worth of TNT (or his imperial equivilent).

The most powerful cannons of imperial warships, with exeption of the superlasers reached power-outputs of only 150 gigatons of TNT.

Then he recognized the flickering of the holo-comm.

-----------------------------------------

"Launch Lightning-Jets immediatly. Squadrons DIL-1 to DIL-5 (Dantes Inferno-Lightnings 1 to 5).

Gunnery-control permission to fire as you wish.

Sensors, try to get as many information about them as possible: weapons, shields, drives and so on.

And connect me with the attacked station."

------------------------------------------

In impotent rage Wedge Antilles had to watch how the new-comers destroyed the entire rebel-fleet in a matter of moments.

His first thought had been: A Death Star. The imperials have a new Death Star.

The huge spherical object covered in the green glow of countless Turbolaser-blasts could be nothing else.

Then he regained his logical thinking.

The new arrived ship was bigger than any imperial ship Wedge had ever encountered, but still significantly smaller (and faster) than the mobile space station which Wedge had helped to destroy only three years ago.

And

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

"Order the Lightnings to use only their Impuls-cannons, i would prefer it, if we manage to capture at least one of them."

Rhodan switched angered to gunnery-control.

"Gunnery-control, you´ve been ordered only to use calibers up to 2,000 gigatons.

You were supposed to damage them, not to destroy."

"I´m sorry Sir", came the answer from gunnery-control. "But the ships of the hostile forces had only ordinary matter- and energy - shielding, and were weakend.
Before anybody of us could react, the ships were already destroyed."

"I understand", stated Rhodan with unnatural calmness.

In many ways Transform-cannons worked like a transmitter. You enter a set of coordinates, usually the position of an enemy starship, the bomb gets dematterialisized, sent through hyper-space in zero-time and would rematerializise in the same moment at the target-coordinates and explode.

Should a rematerialization be impossible, perhaps because of a protective shield around the target, the bomb wouldn´t return to the coordinates of origin, but would explode at the last possible point on a straight line between its point of origin, the Transform-cannon and her target-coordinates, the enemy-ship.

Normally this point was outside the protective shields of the enemy.

The advantage was clear: Eighter the Transform-bomb exploded aboard the enemy-ship or it released its energies into the enemies shields.

The naughty thing about this was the following:

Because of the partly five-dimensional nature of the Transform-cannon, that sended the bomb through hyper-space, ordinary energy- and matter - shields of four-dimensional nature offered no protection against the Transform-cannon.

This had been the undoing of the rebel-ships, whichs shields had been designed to protect against dozens of torpedos and countless plasma-beams of Turbolasers and Ion-Cannons at the same time, but that never left the normal universe.

The Transform-cannons aboard the "Dantes Inferno" had a reach of twelfe million kilometres and a maximal calibre of 4,000 gigatons.

Rhodan shook his head.

"A slaughter, a damned slaughter, what we caused."

"Don´t blame the men", warned Atlan. "They were just doing their job as good as possible."

"Yes, but how ? That was no battle it has been a massacre."

"This is the best ship of our fleet, with the best of the best as crew, our most modern arms and shields.

Such an outcome was predictible."

"Yes, but not if we had reduced our fire-power to its half."

Perry Rhodan seemed still unable to believe it.

At that moment came the report from the communications-central.

"Sir, we have made a connection to the station."

"On screen", ordered Atlan.

 

Yeah, Post number 30 and its only me and akhun (thank you pal, but where are you ?).

Anyway.

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

It was only moments before Wedges X-Wing would made the jump to hyper-space.

"Wedege", sounded the voice of Wes "Hobbie", Janson in his helmet. "Wedge, there is one of them in your neck."

Out of reflex Wedge turned his head, than he let his X-Wing drop.

Without success, the hostile fighter came closer and closer.

"I can´t escape him."

"Don´t worry, i´ll be there in a moment."

Wedges X-Wing rooked and Wedge was shacken in his seat. His R2-Unit screamed and pointed out the obvious.

He had been hit.

"Forget it, Hobbie", he said with a calmness that surprised him himself, when his fighter was hit a second time, this time at his drive-system."

"Wedge, I ... ."

"Wes, leave ! There is nothing you can do and HighCommand has to know about this. Please."

Trhough the transparisteel-window of his cockpit Wedge could see how three of the alien star-fighters moved towards his damaged X-Wing, shielded by the same green bubbles like their mother-ship.

Thats it, he thought. Every period of luck is one day over.

Unwillingly he closed his eyes, but to his great surprise the final shot never came and the star-fighters moved above him away.

They know i can´t escape them, thought Wedge grim.

Then his astromech piped and the translation on the small screen inside his cockpit caused Wedges blood to freeze.

Somewhere there was a hole and he was loosing oxigen.

Instead of dieing in a great bang he would now slowly and painful suffocate.

What a cruel place the universe was.

 

Just to see my stories together on top.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

For a moment Wes Janson was tempted to turn around and to try to save his friend, but a look on his tactical display thought him better.

Some of the hostile star-fighters had already passed Wedges X-wing and were now moving towards him, forcing him away from his friend.

Wes gritted his teeth and accelerated away.

It was possible that they, whoever they were, would get him too.

Perhaps he would soon accompany Wedge in an imperial interrogation cell.

At this very moment his R2-Unit announced that they had reached the necessary speed for the jump to hyper-space and the course had been programmed.

Wes pressed a button and from one moment to the other he and his Star-fighter vanished out of the normal universe.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

"...can you understand me ? Here speaks Perry Rhodan aboard the "Dantes Inferno" from the SolarEmpire.

To the commander of the orbital station.

Please answer."

Moff Darkol took his time, to bring order into his thoughts, while he watched the image of the man who had claimed to be the commander of the titanic ship.

A tall man with broad shoulders.

Shortcutted brownblonde hair above a lean face with a high forehead.

But most impressive were the grey eyes.

They emitted intelligence and awareness, without being hostile.

Darkol got the impression to face a man who had seen more things in his live than many other humans and despite that hasn´t stopped to be astonished by the miracles of the universe.

Rhodan was wearing a kind of chest-armour of bluegrey colour above a darkblue uniform, but no weapons.

Countless questions were shooting through Darkols head.

He had never heard of a SolarEmpire. Where did the strangers came from ? What did they want ? Were they a danger to the empire ?

He would never know the answers if he didn´t made contact.

Mowet Darkol activated the comm-unit.

--------------------------------------

"Communications, are you sure that they recieve our transmissions ?", asked Rhodan towards the Comm-Central.

"Absolutly. We have adapted our systems to those of the foreigners. And we use a simple laser-beam for the transmission."

"Then they should recieve our message", stated Atlan.

"Perhaps they don´t know what to do with us", speculated Ther Khein.

In this moment the "Dantes Inferno" got a first answer.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part II

"This is Mowet Darkol, Moff of ORD Friggas and its connected sector."

Rhodan watched the stranger. Darkol was a lean man in a steelgrey uniform.

The soft features of his oval face were in direct contrast to his stiff bearing, something that seemed to be comman among human soldiers everywhere in the universe.

Although looking quite young, Darkol looked tired and haggard. Rhodan remembered that the man had just fought a battle.

"Greetings Moff. My name is Perry Rhodan and i´m the commander of this exploration-enterprise.

Do you need help or medical support ?"

Darkol smiled thinly.

"Thank you, but that won´t be neccesary. Contrary to our defence-installations our medical facilities are undamaged.

May i ask who you are and what you are doing in this sector of space ? I never heard of you or a SolarEmpire."

Although the Moff tried to sound friendly his eyes showed mistrust and caution.

"As i said we are on an exploration-journey and we are from another galaxy. We didn´t intended to become involved in battles."

Now it was Rhodans voice that sounded questioning.

"Under normal circumstances it wouldn´t have happened. But here in the outer rim territories the rebels become more and more couragous. During the last two years their sneaky attacks have increased dramatically."

During this explenation Rhodans eyes had became slits. First terrorists and now rebels.

"Excuse me, Moff Darkol, but we thought to deal with terrorists. Are those rebels in an uprising against your government ?"

Darkol pressed his lips to a thin line.

"A semantic mistake of me, please excuse. Its a longer story.

Why don´t you come with some of your crew aboard so we can learn to know each other better and i can answer all your questions ?"

Rhodan thought about this.

"Allow me to discuss your suggestion with my command-stuff. I´ll give my answer in five minutes."

"Agreed."

Rhodan deactivated the link and looked questioningly from Atlan to Ther Khein.

"Well, gentlemen. What do you think about our host ?"

"He seems not to fell very comfortable in his skin", mused Ther Khein.

"I have a similiar impression", stated Atlan. "Darkol looks like a wolfe who has eaten chalk."

"With a battle-ship like the "Inferno" at his door and destroyed defence-installations he has every reason to.
You think under other circumstances he would have been less frienly ?"

"Perhaps."

Atlan turned his head to the small couch, that looked totally wrong inside the command-room of the "Inferno", were a small being was sitting and eating at a carrot.

"Whats your impression, Gucky ?"

The Ilt, who had been surprisingly quite during the last hours, swallowed the rests of the carrot and showed his grand gnawingtooth.

"Darkol is honest with us, at least from his personel point of view. He´s an exellent soldier and a good administrator, who has the backup and trust of his superiors and he knows that.

Under normal circumstances he would show more self-confidence, if not arrogance.

On the other hand you have frightened him a lot and at the moment he has no means to confirm his authority towards us."

"You think he is that friendly, because at the moment he lacks fire-power."

"You can explain it that way. Despite that he would prefer to win us as allies for his government, because you and the "Inferno" have impresed him a lot."

"So there is no danger if we follow his invitation ?" asked Rhodan.

"No imediate danger. Of course Darkol wants to make sure that we don´t take measures against him.

After all, as long as there are people from us on his station we can´t open fire on him."

"Then we shall visit him", deceided Rhodan. "Is there anything else ? You´ve been very quite since we entered this galaxy."

The Ilt, who looked like the offspring between a mouse and a beaver immedialty more serious.

"Perry, something is wrong with this galaxy. I can´t put a finger on it and tell what it is, but somewhere in the backround it rushes very strong. A wave of

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

Sullust System

The conference-room aboard the huge flagship of the rebel-aliancewas filled to the top with humans and members of other species.

The leaders of countless groups of rebels, the tyrannical reign of the empire had spawned, had come together to discuss an attack which would decide the fate of the galaxy.

In one of the front rows around the central holo-projector Princess Leia, Han Solo, who was now fully recovered, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and the droids were seated.

"Han, is everything allright ?", asked the Princess the smuggler, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Don´t worry, sweetheart. Its just ... al those people around make me nervous.

Those rankmarks make me nervous. Damned i´m a captain and no general.

I bet Lando feels as uncomfortable as i.

Right, Lando ?"

"On the contrary, Han. I feel very well as respected person. And contrary to you it suites me."

Han glared at his friend.

"I see, your time as baron-administrator of Bespin has gone to your head creating illusions of grandeur." he told his friend acidly.

"I never thought it possible, too, but i would have never thought that i would look good in uniform. And if i can kick the empires butt as an added bonus ..."

"Yeah, lets hope we don´t break our foot, while doing it", murmered Han.

At this moment Luke stepped to his friends and was hugged by a smiling Leia.

"Luke, thanks to the force, you made it." She stepped back and viewed him.

Not that Leia Organa didn´t trusted Luke Skywalker.
But since the happenings at Bespin he had changed very much.
His boyish brightness was gone after his duel with Darth Vader as well as his aura of innocence.
He seemed to have grown-up, become more mature.
He emitted a certain deepness and even darkness.

When Leia thought about it now, he had made the impression of a person that had been traited by his best friend.

She wondered why she hadn´t recognized it during all the time, but she herself had been concerned with worry about Han.

And now again something had changed.
Whereever he had been, after he had seperated from his friends o´n Tatooine, he seemde to have solved that problem.

"Is everything alright ?", she asked, unwilingly using the same words with the Jedi-Knight as moments ago towards Han Solo.

"Ask me that anothertime", Luke answered with a small smile.

"Nice to see, you made it too", stated Han.

He would have never admitted it, but the easy way Luke and Leia acted around each other made Han a bit jealious.

It seemed as if Luke and Leia were parts of something bigger and Han admitted to himself that the two would made a wonderful couple.

On the one side Leia, the princess, on the other side the war-hero and Jedi-Knight Luke Skywalker.

Han himself was nothing more than a smuggler, a pirate and not even the rankmarks of a general would change that.

Han knew he had no right to suspect the two of anything, not after all his friends had riske to save him, but it still hurted to see the two togehter, even in a situation as innocent than this.

"I wouldn´t miss this for anything in the world.", Luke answered.

"Shhhhhh", stopped Leia the bickering between her two best friends. "Mon Mothma."

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

From one moment to the other the countless talks in the round conference-room stopped, when the inofficial leader of the rebel-alliance stepped into the centre.

Mon Mothma, a women in the middle of her years, had forged the rebel-alliance out of countless single-movements over the years, that had been founded on countless worlds against the empire.

There had been other leaders, but many of them had been killed during the destruction of Alderaan through the first Death Star.

At her sides stood Admiral Ackbar, a Mon Calamari, who would lead the fleet of the rebels, and General Crix Madine,a specialist for ground-attacks and covered operations, who had earned his promotions under the empire until he had defected to the alliance.

"My friends, members of the Alliance", started Mon Mothma to speak, "the empire has made a critical error, the moment to attack is there.

Our Bothan-spies have managed to locate the position of the new Death Star of the emperor.

Many Bothans lost their lives to bring this information to us."

Mon Mothma nodded her head and then let Admiral Ackbar continue.

The Admiral stepped foreward and activated the holo-projector in the centre of the room.

"As we can see the Death Star circels around the the forrest moon of Endor.

Although the empire is operating under top secret conditions, 60 % of the battle-station have been completed in a timeframe of a half year.

Because of this we have to attack as soon as possible, as long as the weapons and defence-systems aren´t fully operational.

At the very moment a task force of our ... .What is it ?"

The Mon Calamari turned to one of the entrances at the top, where a Rebel-officer from Gotal moved ruthlessly through the rows of the rebels, closly followed by Wes Janson.

Even without the force Luke Skywalker knew that something terrible had happened.

Wes face told that much.

The Gotal and Janson reached Ackbar and the three putted their heads togehter.

Finally Ackbar raised his head and looked over the assembled members of the alliance.

"Gentlebeings a frightening new development has occured. Return to your ships until the council has decided about our next steps."

Han, Luke and Leia exchanged questioning looks, then they stood up, togehter with the other members of the rebel-alliance, who left with loud murmers the conference-room.

"I wonder what has happened", murmered Han.

"We will know soon enough", stated Leia, when the small group moved towards Ackbar and Mon Mothma.

------------------------------------------

Bridge of the Executor

"Man battlestations, cannons ready to fire and prepare TIEs to launch.

Stardestroyers Avenger and Devastator are ordered to attack the enemy at the flanks.

And inform Lord Vader."

The Sith-Lord had returned to his quaters, to force a few rebels into hyper-space was hardly something that was worthy of his attention, but now a new situation had occured.

Admiral Piett pulled nervously at his uniform, while he watched the tactical hologram, that showed a perfect image of the Friggas-System.

According to the incoming datas the Golan-Defense-Stations as well as the small defense-fleet lay in shambles.

ORD Friggas and the planet itself seemed to be undamaged, but one of the biggest ships Piett had ever seen glided with low velocities through the space between planet and orbital-station.

If he had to believe the sensors alone the sperical main body of the alian ship had a diametre of 2,5 kilometres and the Admiral thought the volume to be twelfe to fifteen times that of an Stardestroyer of the Imperator-class.

Of course there were ships in the imperial fleet that were bigger than the monster they were now facing, the Vengeance-Class with eleven kilometres or his own ship of the Executor-Class, eleven times as long as a Stardestroyer of the Imperator-Class, but all those ships shared the elegant, dagger-like design of imperial capital warships, that included practical, as well as asthetic and psychological tho

 

Simpy up.

 

Sorry, there is a mistake in the last post.

It has to be: ...Admiral Piett thought its volume to be around THIRTY to FOURTY times that of an Stardestroyer of the Imperator-CLass.

(Damn mathematics), hehehehe.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

"Sensors, what can you tell me about the new arrivals ?", asked Rhodan.

"The smaller ships seem to be an escort for the big cruiser, similiar to the maritim destroyers used on earth during the first and the second worldwar and the time after them.

They are 1,6 kilometres long with a maximum wide of 840 metres.

About there armament... . We counted 120 bigger cannons in batteries of two or four barrels and a higher number of smaller guns.

The big ship is 17,6 kilometres long and nearly 6 kilometres wide, with six to seven times our volume.

Sir, the way those ships are shaped its impossible that they have been buildt in a planetary shipyard, nor should they be able to manouver inside an atmosphere.

At the moment they are moving closer with a straight acceleration of 200 km/sec/sec."

"200 km/sec/sec", mused Atlan. "Impressive, but not very much, if compared with our ships."

"Indeed", stated Rhodan. "On the other hand it would be difficult to achieve higher accelerations with this kind of shape, without endangering the stability of the ship."

"In every case they are more elegant vessels than our fat lady here", explained Kasom, what earned him a bad look from Commodore Ther Khein.

The commander of the "Inferno" was very proud of his ship and viewed every bad remark about his ship as a personel insult.

Before he was able to answer to Kasoms remark, the ertruser already continued licking his lips.

"Somehow those ships remember me of pieces of pie with cream on the top", what caused several members of the command-crew to burst with laughter.

"You think everything to be asthetic, as long as it is somehow conected to food", mocked Rhodan. "In this regard you are truly your fathers son."

After that Rhodan opened a link to the ships positronic and asked if there were already results concerning the shields and weapons of the inhabitans of this new galaxy, but was only informed that he would have to wait.

Meanwhile Atlan, Kasom and Ther Khein argued further about the constructions of the imperial warships.

"In every case the flat, angular form has enourmous advantages for the firing arcs of their weapons", said Kasom. "An enemy infront would have to face every weapon. From above, down under and from the sides always the half number of weapons."

"Thats the case with the "Inferno" too", countered THer Khein. "No matter from wich side we are under attack an enemy would always have to deal with the half of our weapons.

Furthermore we are faster and more manouverable than those daggers. We have counted three huge thrusters for the smaller ships and thirteen for the big battleship.

We on the other side relay on a huge number of smaller thrusters what increases the performance, because we loose less of thrust.

If you want astethic, Kasom, buy yourself a pleasure-yacht, but no battleship."

At this moment another report from their sensor-central came in.

"The alien ships slow down at the very moment and we´ve discovered an encrypted communication between the station and the big cruiser.

"It looks like Moff Darkol is explaining our presence to his reinforcements", suspected Rhodan. "Lets wait what happens next."

A few moments later a new face showed up at the central chart-desk, a tall, fat looking man with small, piercing eyes, a bald head and blueveined, a bit sagging cheeks.

Over his darkblue, shipcombination he wore a white cloak.

This man was Professor Arno Kalup, the greatest scientist fo the SolarEmpire, the same man who had developed the terrastric linear-drive fivehundred years ago, that had replaced the old jump-drives used then.

Like the most of the important co-workers of Rhodan he had gotten one of twentyfive cellactivators and with that the relative, biological immortality.

Breating heavily he sat down in one of the contur-seats, that adapted quikly to Kalups bodyshape.

"Welcome in our little round", Rhodan greeted the scientist friendly.

Kalup glared grim at the grandadministrator, before he grunted.

 

up

 

The Coliding of Empires - Part III

The leadership of the Rebel-Alliance had occupied one of the smaller conference-rooms.

Mon Mothma, Doman Beruss, Borsk Fey´lya, Admiral Ackbar, General Madine, Leia Organa.

Furhter Luke Skywalker, Wes Janson and Han Solo.

Although the last two lacked the security-classificationof the others, it was Wes who reported the bad news and the records of events and Han Solo would be informed about everything this way or the other, eighter by Luke Skywalker or the Princess.

"Indeed, concerning news", stated Fey´lya after Wes Janson was finished.

"Concerning isn´t enough of an expression, desastrous fits it better", rumbled Solo.

"I´m not sure if i understand", said Mon Mothma. "Sure our task force was destroyed and as bad as that is, but the same would have happened, if a Stardestroyer had been there."

"I have to agree with Captain Solo", explained Ackbar. "Havn´t you seen how fast this ship has moved, despite its size, how manouverable it was ? Its weapons are totally unknown to us and their destructive power is bigger than everything i´ve ever seen before."

The Mon Calamari looked pale.

"Perhaps you should visit the Alderaan-System", countered Beruss, what caused Leia to shudder. Beruss noticed her mistake. "Please, excuse me, your highness."

"Your objection seems to be justified, Councillour", Luke Skywalker was now speaking. "But the first Death Star had more than eighty times the diametre of that ship and had been only an armed hull for the hypermatter-reactor and was coparable small, while ..., well you have seen the records yourself."

"I wonder who has buildt that ship and where ?", asked Madine.

"The empire of course, who else", snapped Fey´lya.

"I have to object. The design is totally alien. Neither the empire nor the old republic has ever buildt something similiar. The same goes for obviously for their weapons and shields."

"Of course. It should be obvious that its a totally new constructiondesign."

"And thats what i doubt. The technical challenges connected with such a huge construction are simple to big. You would have to invent the engineering of starships from the roots anew, that big are the differences.

Madine is right", explained Ackbar. "This is the product of a totally alien technology."

The following silence was touchable.

"You think its the technic of an unknown species.", asked Leia.

"Yes, i´m sure of that."

"Nice. And how did the imperials get their dirty claws on it ?", asked Han Solo.

"How ? Conquered. The empire conquers an average of twohundred worlds on a daily basis. The world where that ship was buildt would be among them."

"And thats something i doubt", contered Luke Skywalker Fey´lyas objection. "We all have seen how powerful this ship is. More powerful than even the ships of the empire. And there have to be more versions with the same technologie.

I doubt that the empire was capable to subject such beings.

Not with a commitment of resources we would have recognized."

"That still doesn´t explain where these aliens origin from and if they are allied with the empire ?", stated Han.

Crix Madine was strocking thoughtfully through his beard.
"Of course i´m not sure if it is important. But there were rumors at the imperial court about a high-ranking, non-human imperial commander in the unknown regions, who subjects those territories not only by force, but a network of allies too, under imperial control."

"Rumors. Nothing more. The empire would never ally itself with non-humans and a non-human commander in the imperial fleet..., really, General Madine, thats nothing but nonsence", refused Mon Mothma Madines argument.

"Yes, bur ... ."

"May i remind you, that the discrimination of non-humans is one of the reasons for the existence of this alliance ?"

It was clear that Mon Mothma was eager to finish this particular topic.

"But what if the empire has really found a new ally in the unknown regions ... ?"

"Will we have to deal with him sooner or later, anyway."

"But till the

 

Up.

 

At last. Now that I read everything I want to say that this story is fantastic!

I want more!

 

Thank you.

And up.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

"Dantes Inferno", in orbit around ORD Friggas

Again the face of Mowet Darkol appeared on one of the screens of the "Dantes Inferno".

"Well, Moff Darkol", he was greeted by Perry Rhodan, "I hope you convinced your reinforcements that we have no hostile intentions and that they can hold back."

"I have done so, indeed", confirmed the Moff, showing in no way, if Rhodans somehow inpolite behaivior has shook his contenous or not.

In every case, Rhodan had shown that the presence of the imperial reinforcements didn´t concern him. Should the imperials try to start hostilities, the shown confidence of the terrans would perhaps cause them to act more careful.

"My superior aboard the Executor is looking forward to meet with you personally to discuss the details of your presence in imperial space and our next steps", continued Moff Darkol. "If you prefer to stay aboard your ship, he agrees to meet you there."

Rhodan thought for a moment.

"We agree", he stated. "Please inform your superior we will expect him."

"Lord Vader will arrive in time", confirmed Moff Darkol and disconnected the communication.

Rhodan turned to his officers and friends.

"Your opinions, gentlemen."

"I advise to act very careful", stated Atlan, distrustful as always. "it makes me suspicious that they don´t want us to come to them. They seem to be very applied to make us feel save."

"Perhaps now that the battle is over they are more freindly and open-minded and want to make sure, that there are no difficulties", suggested Ther Khein.

"In every case it won´t hurt, if we take certain security-measures", continued Atlan, with an excusing glance to the Commodore." Whoever this Lord Vader is, he is eighter unimportant or very confident to be able to deal with every situation. I hope, i don´t have to remind you, how dangerous such guests have prooven to be in the past."

"The Lordadmiral is right", supported Takor Kasom the point of view of his superiour. "I suggest to accompanie this Lord Vader by a telepath to the command-room and to observe him the entire time.
Uncommon title for a fleetofficer, if i may say so.I expected an admiral or something similiar."

Rhodan grinned.

"I want to remind you that your superior, Major Kasom is a Lord himself. However the title Lord suggest more than a role as a military commander. In every case you thoughts, Major, agree with my suspiciouns.

We will greet this Lord Vader with all honours and the greatest degree of care."

The Grandadministrator opened a link to the quaters of the mutant-corps. One moment later the leader of the corps the australian John Marshall, telepath and leader of the mutant-corps answered.

"John, please alert the members of your team, we are expecting a guest. I would appreciate it, if you would welcome him and escort him to the command-centre."

Rhodan turned to Kasom.

"Major, you will take a good look at this Vader yourself and help Marshall if necessary, although i don´t expect difficulties. At last not now."

The giant from Ertrus nodded and left the command-centre.

"Sir, a shuttle has been launched from the big cruiser and is closing to our position."

For a short moment Rhodan, Atlan, Kalup and Ther Khein admired the elegant design of the three-winged vessel, before Rhodan again started to give orders.

"Commodore, make sure that a landing-place is cleared in one of the hangars. Preferably in another hangar as the one, where we are analysing the captured star-fighter."

Ther Khein grinned. "Already done, Sir."

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

From the bridge of the Executor, Admiral Piett watched, how the Lambda-class-shuttle with Lord Vader left the huge shape of the Executor behind and, becoming rapidly smaller in front of the background of space and the stars, moved closer towards the ship of the strangers.

To go aboard of a potentially hostile ship, alone and without bodyguards, not to mention an escort of TIEs, every ordinary, sane officer in the empire would never have dreamed about.

But Vader wasn´t an ordinary officer and if Moff Darkols a bit hysterical report was only true to the half, a fighter-escort wouldn´t be able help the Dark Lord eighter.

If there was one man capable of returning, should the strangers show themself to be hostile, this man was Darth Vader.

And if not,... .

Piett took a deep breath.

Other officers of the fleet would have prayed, that the Sith-Lord would never return, but Piett had served long enough under Vaders command to know, how the honour-code of the man worked.

Vader was severe, more severe than every other superior Piett had met during his career, but he was fair, too.

The Executor wasn´t the best ship in the entire imperial starfleet for nothing.

And the presence of the ship and its master on the battle-field had always secured victory for the empire.

 

I can't wait till you post more.

I wonder what happens when Perry mets Vader. Perry shouldn't underestimate Vader.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part III

Vader was sitting in one of the passenger seats of his shuttle and was watching images of the alien starship in every possible detail.

Under normal circumstances he would have used the time to meditate, to search for hints how to deal with the situation at hand. A Jedi would have searched for guidance through the force, had let himself been lead by the force, but as a Sith Vader wasn´t able to use this way.

It was he, who had the control, the one who deceided the way things had to go, not the force, the force was his servant.
And it was him alone who deceided his destiny.

As always he was on his own.

And so it came to be that Vader wasn´t meditating, but tried not to shift in his seat.
Vader would have never admitted it, but the situation exited him.
Being born in a galaxy-wide society with a history of over 25 millenia, grown up with a technique that had reached its physical limits in most areas, the chances to discover something realy new were very small.
Changes were normally only skin-deep, following the actual fashion or the political and publical needs and preferences.

But soon he would face strangers, beings originating from a totally different enviroment, with a different technique, which had followed totally different paths than that of his own civilization.

A technique that, if the reports of Moff Darkol were true, indicated a superiority of the strangers in weapon- and drivesystems, what should´t be to surprising if the strangers were really capable to travel the vast gaps between the galaxies. Even without the force Vader would have trusted the Moff in this regard, Darkol was a good observer, who didn´t tended to exaggerations.

There were few things left created by intelligent beings capable of impressing Darth Vader, the sizes and scales of the constructs and monuments of humans were insignificant compared to the power connected to the force.

But when Vader now watched the images of the "Dantes Inferno", the technician inside him awoke and suddenly he felt like the small boy, to whom everything in the world had been new and who discovered the world through the innocent eyes of a child.

A boy to whom his mothers embrances made sure that everything would be alright and that the world was beautiful, even if his entire world consisted of the slavequaters of Mos Espa at that time.

How he missed those times.

Vader gritted his teeth behind his mask, the time he had been a child was lost forever, had been part of another life, another mans existance, as well as the knowledge that a motherly embrance would cause everything bad to vanish.

He had grown since then, in knowledge as well as in power, more power then he ever had thought possible and he still hadn´t reached his limits.

The only limits he still had to conquer were the ones he imposed upon himself and those the emperor enforced on him.

Again he viewed the image of the strange ship.

---------------------------------------------

An untrained mind in military matters would have looked at the spherical design with the huge ring-like belt and would have probably said: "How ugly !"

And ugly the ship was. It lacked the deadly beauty of the dagger-like form of a Stardestroyer, the sharp elegance of the huge Executor. The alien ship was simply a huge ball, a sphere, an orb with a belt-like triple-roll around its equator.

But despite that the "Dantes Inferno" was elegant in another way. If a viewer for once forgot that the developers of the ship had forced the principle of utility to the top,
the huge ship Vaders shuttle was moving towards to was a masterpiece of ship-building.

Vader mused about everything alone the sight of the ship had told him about the abilities of the "Dantes Inferno".

First of all, an attacker would have to face always the half of all weapons. And because the thrusters of the sub-light-drive were placed in the main-roll, there were no dead angles a smart enemy could use to his advantage.
Obviously the beam of a thruster could be directed fo

 

Great!

I want more!