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

That was a excellent palpy post...

 

Another great post! When can we expect the next one?

 

Thank you all !!!

And the next post will be at the weekend.

 

goody

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part IV

Han Solo was returning from the main hangar towards his quaters on the "Home One".

Since there would be no attack on the second DeathStar and the rebellion would need some time to recover from the losses of their fleet at ORD Friggas, perhaps he and Leia would find some time to explore their relationship, before the whole business of the war would get them back in its ugly clutches.

No war, no duties of a rebel-leader, no Wookiee looking over his shoulders, no Tatooine farmboy turned wannebe-Jedi, just he himself with the woman he loved at a romantic candlelight-dinner, some excellent wine, ... .

Han Solo was forced to acknowledge a problem. Where, by the Sith, could he get some wine in this ragtag fleet ? Well, General or not General, Han still thought of himself as the king of the smugglers, so he would find a way. Even if he had to ask Lando.

With this thoughts in his mind Han walked through the corridor where his and his friends quaters were located, when suddenly the door to Lukes cabin hissed open and an obviously confused Leia stormed out, nearly knocking him to the floor, not even recognozing he was there, closely followed by a concerned looking Luke Skywalker.

"Leia, please ... ."

"I won´t listen to you", she shouted back.

"Leia ... ."

"LEAVE ME ALONE."

With that the princess vanished in her own cabin, while Han was staring at the closed door. Although the entire scene hadn´t lasted longer than a few seconds he had seen the tears on Leias face. Confused and angered he turned to Luke.

"What was this all about, kiddo", Han asked with a growl.

His former fears of something going on between the Princess and the Jedi-Knight suddenly returned. Once he would have found them childish and laughable, but then he had been another man. But now, accepting how much he loved Leia, Han asked himself what to do if he should loose her.

"I just told her something important about her past", answered Luke after a few moments.

"The past, ehh. And why should she be this upset ?" Han wanted an answer and he wanted it now.

"Perhaps because she doesn´t like it", growled Luke back in frustration. He hadn´t imagined his talk with his sister to end this way.

"Why don´t you enlighten me", demanded Han. "Listen kid, i don´t need to know what happened between you and Leia during the time i was frozen, i don´t even want to know, but i don´t want her to get hurt.

Do you understand ?

I might be a scoundrel not good enough for a princess, but i care for Leia and everybody who wants to hurt her, will have to do it over my dead body. Have i made myself clear ? Best friends or not ... "

"Would you please shut up. Just for a moment. Just listen to me." Although Luke hadn´t thought it possible Han Solo became quite.

The young Jedi-Knight had been a bit surprised at the implications of his friends accusations, but on the other side became aware that he should have excepted something like that. After all it had been his, well ..., puppy-love for Leia that had brought him and Han into the rebel-alliance. Not to forget that he and Han had been in competition for the love of the princess. Luke knew there were people who thought him to be a better match for Leia, then the smuggler Han Solo. He shuddered at the thought what could have happened between him and Leia, now that he knew about their true relationship.

"I assure you, you have no reason for your fears. There is nothing, absolutly nothing going on between me and Leia. Alone the very thought is ridicilous. I just can´t tell you whats going on, since it would influence your relationship. You have a right to know, but i have no right to tell you. That belongs to Leia. Please have a little faith."

Han thought about this for a moment, before he decided to drop the issue. For now.

"Very well", he said. He looked at the door of Leias cabin. "Perhaps i should ask her then."

"I doubt that is wise at this point of time", stated Luke sadly. "But it would be good if its you in her current state to of

 

Update at the weekend.

 

Hip, hip, ... sooner than expected an update.
Have fun, all you fans out there.


The Colliding of Empires - Part IV

Leia Organa was sitting in a seat in front of a window, glaring out at the stars, while tears streaked down her cheeks.

Nobody, who had ever witnessed the princess in some of the worst moments of her life would have recognized the strong leader of the rebel-alliance in the small bundle of misery sitting in the comfortable chair.

Out of a source of inner strenght Leia had always managed to hide any signs of weakness if faced with the enemy.

She didn´t break down when tortured on the first Death Star.

She hadn´t broken down, when she had been forced to witness the destruction of her homeworld.

She hadn´t broken down, when Han Solo, the love of her live, had been tortured on Bespin and been frozen into carbonite.

Simply because she would have never allowed her enemies even a small victory.

All those cruel, uncarring beings, all of them with exchangable faces in their greed for power, their sadistic souls, ... .

Beings she had nothing in commen with.

Or so she had thought.

After the destruction of Alderaan, Leia had put every fiber of her being into the service to the rebel-alliance.

She never thought if she did it out of vengeance or simply to ensure that no other worlds were destroyed but the tyranny of the empire, if she fought for herself because she had nothing left or for justice and the freedom of the people of the galaxy.

But although she had tried her very best to make the alliance her new family, somehow she had stayed alone, if not for Luke, Han and Chewbacca.

And now she had to deal with the knowledge that she still had a family.

Luke being her brother hadn´t been a problem, she had always felt connected to him, loved him in the way of an older sister, although she had known that he had wanted more.
Those feelings were now explained and at last the constant competition between Han and Luke for her attention had been resolved in a way that allowed both men to save face.

While this was the rational part, her heart had been overjoyed to have a relative, a long lost brother. It had been as if a gap had been closed, a whole in her heart vanished. If only ...

If only the joy hadn´t been overshadowed by the knowledge of the being of her father.

Darth Vader.

Out of all the billion trillion human males in the galaxy the man she hated like nobody else.

Leia couldn´t have been more shocked if Luke had told her, that she was the long lost daughter of Palpatine.

But while she had met the emperor once or twice, and she always remembered those occasions with a cold shudder running down her spine, for Leia the ultimate embodiement of the imperial tyranny had always been Vader.

After all she had witnessed Vader in action more than once.

Unfortanatly there was no crisis to be solved, no battle coming to be prepared for, no enemy around, forcing her to hold up a facade of cold control, forcing her to show no weakness, the princess had all the time in the world to concentrate on the very fact of her heritage. Nothing else was there to catch her attention.

And because of that Leia was now sitting in a chair, wheeping in silence.

Only accompanied by the Stars.

Only accompanied by the knowledge about her father.

Darth Vader.

A man who had robbed countless worlds of their freedom, a man who had killed billions of beings.
A man who stood by when her innocent homeworld had been destroyed by the first DeathStar, who had tortured her, who had tortured Han ... .

A man feared and hated in the entire alliance, no wonder after all he had done to their worlds, after hunting them without mercy through the entire galaxy.

Hated and feared just like Leia would be, if anybody was going to know about her real father. She could almost listen the voices say:

"How can we trust her, she is HIS daughter ?"
"How do we know, that she isn´t going to trait us to her father ?"

Leia sometimes thought that over the last years only

 

While i managed two updates on my two other fanfics from Friday to Sunday, i managed only one update at this story.

Sorry.

Despite that i hope you will enjoy this single piece of Leias misery.

 

Waiting for more FTeik!

 

Update at the weekend.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part IV

Han had entered the cabin of the princess, still worried.

His concerns increased dramatically when he found her on her knees in front of the toilet-bowl.

"Leia. Damn, what has happened to you ?"

"Ha...han ... ?", Leias voice sounded as weak as Han had never heard her before.

Immediatly he bent down to grap her shoulders. Carefully he tried to lift her up.

Leia wished for a hole to hide in. Why out of all people had it to be Han to find her ?

Sweet, gentle Han, who hid his heart of gold behind a rough facade. How could she face him after all Vader ... her father had done to him ?

Still worried Han helped Leia to set back on the floor.

Noticing the tears and the dirt on her face he wet a towel and cleaned the features of the princess gently.

What by the black bones of the emperor could have caused this breakdown of the woman he loved ?

Leia was strong, stronger than any other person Han had ever met, so what was wrong with her now ?

After he had cleaned her face and dried it with a second towel he helped her up. On trembling legs she moved inside the main room of her quaters where she dropped in a seat.

Uncomfortable silence filled the room, while Leia stared into nothingness, until Han could no longer stand it. Taking a deep breath he blurted out.

"Okay, Leia, what the hell is wrong ?"

Leia tried to look at him but turned away as soon as their eyes met. Despite the brief contact Han could see the grief and pain in Leias eyes.

Something had hurt her. Hurt her very much.

It seemed he would have to have a very serious talk with Luke after that.

Finally Leia stuttered.

"I ... i can´t tell you."

Han surpressed a sigh. He had expected something like that. He knelt down beside her and took her small hand in his.

"Hey, ... your highness. Its me", he said gently. "The nerfherder, scoundrel and nice guy whom you told at Bespin that you love him." He started to massage her fingers. "The guy who until now wasn´t able to give it back." He kissed the tips of her fingers. "I want you to know that i love you."

Unfortunatly Leia wasn´t in the mood for nice words.

Every other time she would have been glad to hear them, but not now.

Now she felt filthy and soiled. Leia didn´t realized that her loathing of Vader already reflected on herself. Han didn´t knew who she was. How should he ? If he knew about her heritage he wouldn´t have said those words. And if she allowed him to continue wouldn´t he later blame her for deceiving him, when he found out ? She had to tell him.

But not now. When she felt strong enough to do so. Not now.

Han felt her withdrawel and somehow he was disappointed. He wanted her to know that he cared for her, that she could trust him. He even had admitted that he loved her. And now he had watch her withdraw from him.

"Please Han, i can´t tell you."

"You can not or you want not ?", asked Han.

"I can´t. Do you understand. I can´t. I need some time to sort things out."

Uh, uh. That sounded bad. From what Han Solo knew about women,"I need some time" normaly meant eternity and the end of the relationship.

Again his fears of loosing her rose inside his heart. He never had felt so helpless and he didn´t liked it at all. When he felt helpless he usally became angry and he knew that it wouldn´t help him now.

"Fine", he stated, his voice more harsh than he wanted it to sound. "I thought you loved me, that you were ready to trust me. But if you want to bury this, whatever it is, inside you don´t let me stop you."

"Please Han. I will tell you. When i´m ready. But now i want some time alone." Leia was to tired to argue any longer and all she wanted to do was rest, to escape the cruel reality a little longer.

"Alright", Han stood up and walked towards the door. If he loved her or not, her stubborness drove him crazy. "You know where to find me."

And with that he was gone.

 

Update as soon as i have written it.

 

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The Colliding of Empires - Part V

Darth Vader had returned to the "Executor" and soon after he had arrived, the huge commandship with its reduced escorts, he had ordered to let one of the Stardestroyers behind to guard the now defence-less outpost ORD Frigges, and their new guests aboard the "Dantes Inferno" had jumped to lightspeed.

It would take five hours for them to arrive at Tholaris. Time he could use to think about his meeting with those strangers.

So Darth Vader was sitting in his meditation chamber, his helmet and the mask were removed from his head and the spherical room was filled with the artifical atmosphere he was able to breath without technical help.

Vaders blue eyes bore into the small mirror inside the chamber, he viewed his bold head and the scars that covered his skull as well as the sick-looking grey-white skin that hadn´t been touched by the sun for two decades.

Although he knew how he looked his eyes returned always to the image provided by the mirror and he took an almost masochistic pleasure from it.

It reminded him of what he had lost, renewed the hate that fueled him, when he started to get soft, brought back the anger he, Darth Vader needed to survive.

In some way it was an irony.

Anakin Skywalker, his weak, old self, a man long dead in Vaders opinion, had had a healthy body and the looks of a hero, a god, while Darth Vader, the strong and powerful dark Lord of the Sith, feared by everybody, was a cripple dependend on a portable respirator and other machines.

One day he would be able to heal himself, to restore his body from the ashes of the fires that had burned him, that he was sure about.

The fact that with the looks of Anakin Skywalker perhaps other parts of the dead man would return didn´t bother him.

After all what mattered names ?

Darth Vaders thoughts returned to the present, after all names were used to describe things and that brought him to the "Dantes Inferno".

For a short moment he wondered who Dante had been and what was it about an inferno related to the man, but put the question as useless beside.

The crew of the ship and especially its commander were much more interesting.

As interesting as his thoughts and his odd behaiviour he now tried to analyze.

What in the name of the great Sith-Masters of Korriban had caused him to talk about his treacherous wife with those strangers.

Anakin Skywalker´s wife, a small voice inside his head reminded him.

For Darth Vader the meeting aboard the "Dantes Inferno" had been a totally new experience.

The people aboard had treated and viewed him like an equal. Ever since he had become the man with the mask there had been no equals for him. As a Sith-Lord everybody else was inferior to him, save his Master the Emperor. And since the Emperor was the Master he wasn´t an equal eighter.

To be a Sith-Apprentice was a lonely life.

But since when did he care about loneliness ?

Since Bespin.

Bespin had been a disappointment for the dark Lord of the Sith.

He had expected Luke to join him as soon as he had revealed his identity. The longing of an orphaned boy for a father combined with the offer of unmatched power should have been enough to convince his son - yes his son - to join him.

He would have claimed the son of Skywalker and turned him into his own, finally eradicating everything what was left of the man.

But Luke had rejected him.

Instead of deciding to life and to side with his father the boy had turned away from him and tried to commit suicide.

The same way his angel had turned away from him all those years ago.

Vader still didn´t knew what lies Obi-Wan had told first his wife and then his son, he didn´t even care, since all that mattered was that they had seperated him from his Padme all those years ago and now his son.

Well, the old man had always been good with words, but he was dead, the Old Republic crushed and the Jedi extinct.

They had brought order back to the galaxy, unified the millions of worlds among a single banner.

Wasn´t th

 

I can't wait till the visitors and the Emperor meet!

 

Up !

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part V

They met in one of the wardrooms.

Wardroom was perhaps the wrong word, since the philosophy of the Solar Fleet demanded as little barriers between officers and crewers of its ships. A logical consequence in an age of space-travel, where even the most ordinary crew-members had to be specialists in at least three different fields. There was no longer a gap between brains, the officers, and brawns, the crew. Besides that it was good for the moral aboard.

But since this room was one of the smaller messhalls and occupied by nearly the entire leadership of the expedition, the term wardroom was fitting.

Rhodan sat at the top of the desk. Along the left side were Atlan, Tolot, Gucky and Arno Kalup. On the right side Ther Khein, John Marshall, Dr. Alfons Keller from sick-bay and Dr. Vandrash Margatbuttragh from the astrometric section of the "Dantes Inferno" were seated.

On the opposite end of the desk sat Takor Kasom.

Before the titanic ertruser a huge bowl of salad was positioned, next to a literglas with fruitjuice. In his hands the enviroment-adapted man was holding a huge piece of meat of what he took a huge bite every few seconds.

"I think we can start now", stated Rhodan, looking at Kasom. "Mr. Kasom, am i wrong or is this the half of an ox you are holding in your hands."

"You are right, this is the backhalf of an ox, Sir. Excellent beef.", answered Kasom.

Gucky looked desperatly at the ceiling. "Heavens help us. This guy is worse than his father. The old Melbar Kasom was satisfied with the barbequed quater of such an animal."

"My apologize. But i got hurt on my last mission and lost some weight in sickbay and i have still to get back in shape. Back home an ertruser of my size with less than eighthundred kilograms bodyweight is a case for the medics."

"I understand", finished Rhodan the discussion. The ertrusers abilities to eat and their need for food had become legendary in the Milkyway-Galaxy.

It was the downside of the medal to belong to the strongest and biggest people of human origin.

Only oxtorner were stronger than the giants from a world with a gravity of 3,4 g, but those people needed more special nutrients.

And exactly this was the reason, that, despite their great fighting abilities, their incredible strenght and incredible fast reflexes outside the ertrusian system defence forces not a single crew of a ship, not in the Solar Fleet and not in Atlans USO, consisted only of humans from ertrus.

Such a ship would have needed a fleet of support-freighters.

"As you all know we are here to discuss the recent events. We have made contact with a represant of the main power in this galaxy.

A power that calls itself the "Galactic Empire". According to Lord Darth Vaders words it contains several million worlds under its rule. Thats a damned big political unit we have to deal with.

First of all, does anybody think that they might become a danger to us ?", started Rhodan the discussion.

"I don´t think so", started Atlan. "If its true what Vader told us, this Empire exists for perhaps thirty years and is the successor of some kind of Republic that has ruled this galaxy for millenias.

From that we can make some conclusions.

First of all there might have been local conflicts, but no major wars for centuries thanks to a lack of opponents, since this republic increased until it collapsed under its own weight."

"Why do you believe, that there were no major opponents ?", asked Keller.

"Simple. A war is a problem at best, but normally ends as a total disaster for both sides. But it causes beings to work together, who wouldn´t acknowledge the existence of each other in peacetimes.

War forces governments to mobilize all reserves and it creates an atmosphere of", Atlan hesitated for a moment, "well, of live, of aggression, of awakeness. All efforts are put against the outside enemy.

Believe me it was this way in the war of the Arkon Empire against the Maahks."

Everybody shuddered at the mention of this conflict

 

Unfortunatly i managed only to write updates for my two other stories "Union of the Empires greatest Warriors" and "The Tale of Darth Vaders son", so you still have to be a little patient.

Enjoy the other posts.

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part V

Five dagger-like ships and a huge sphere dropped out of Hyperspace at the edge of the system of ... . The one mile long Imperator-Class Stardestroyers "Tyrannic", "Devastator", "Avenger" and "Chimera", the eleven mile long "Executor" and the "Dantes Inferno" with a diameter of two and a half kilometer.

"Inform the captains of our escorts and the "Dantes Inferno" to come aboard the "Executor" for a meeting", ordered Darth Vader. "We´ll have to discuss the best solution for an evacuation."

The Sith-Lord didn´t said that he wanted to met this time with the strangers on "his" ground, not to mention that he had now the opportunity to watch one of their smaller crafts in action. He wondered how his own officers would react to Rhodan and his alien companions.

Darth Vader wasn´t to be disappointed. While he ignored the arriving shuttles from the other Stardestroyers he focussed his gaze on the upper ring above the huge roll where the thrusters of the "Dantes Inferno" were located. A rectangular gate had opened and out shot a disklike small ship. It had a diameter of thirty meters and was twelve meters high, what made it bigger than the "Millenium Falcon". Considering the size of the ring were its hangar was located, the "Dantes Inferno" carried several hundreds of those ships. Despite its size it moved with the manouverability of a small starfighter and with speeds and velocities far superior than any fighter in the empires and the rebels arsenal.

Vader couldn´t wait to get his hands on it, if he ever get the chance.

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

"Well, here we are", stated Atlan, looking out of the dome of armoured troplon that covered the small bridge of the Space-Jet, allowing a 360-degree view of the space around the small ship.

"What do you think, how big is this hangarbay", mused Rhodan, who piloted the Space-Jet. Contrary to prior flights and travels both leading men of the expedition were this time on the way.

Normaly the usual chain of events was like the following:

Perry Rhodan, most important and valuable man of the entire SolarEmpire was going to lead an away-team into the most dangerous situations. Of course he let normal missions and outside insertions lead by one of his officers, but the unusual, and because of this most dangerous walks he prefered to direct himself. His curiousity demanded it from him and he simply felt oblieged to proof that nobody was unreplacable not even he.

Countless battles and traps he had walked in hadn´t changed that attitude one bit.

The knowledge that their most surperior leader wasn´t himself to good to risk his life and to do the dirty work, had earned Rhodan the admiration and respect of countless generations of groundtroops and naval-crews from the very beginning of the SolarEmpire. It was simply part of who he was and part of his legend.

So everytime before he started he had a heated argument with Atlan, who insisted for Rhodan to stay aboard, but usually Atlan lost the argument and Rhodan went on with his mission, while Atlan stayed behind, ready for the rescue should that become necessary.

Usually it didn´t take long for the dung to hit the exhaust and then it was Atlans part to save the day with blazing guns.

But this time they had both left the safty of their ship and the protection of its powerful weapons and shields. Accompanied were the two "great old ones" of the Milkyway by Takor Kasom, Dr. Vandrash Margatbuttragh, Ras Tschubai and Gucky.

Tschubai belonged like Gucky to the Mutant-Corps, he was even the fourth member of this group when the Mutant-Corps had been founded in the early seventies of the 20th century. Like most mutants Ras Tschubai had only one psionic ability, he was a teleporter what meant that he was able to change his position over a distance of 100,000 kilometers alone with the power of his mind and he was able to carry objects and other persons with him.

Contrary to the that the mousebeaver Gucky was a teleporter, a telecinet and a telepath, which meant he was able to read

 

A Colliding of Empires - Part V

Commander Pellaeon, first officer of the Stardestroyer Chimera looked curious towards the diskshaped ship, those terrans had used to come aboard the "Executor".

Besides the older officer stood several other Commanders and Captains of the "Executors" escorts.
They were waiting for Admiral Piett to lead them and their guests to one of the conference-rooms.

Pellaeon represented the Chimera in the coming meeting, because Captain Vrodl was lying down in sick-bay with the Corellian-Flu.

Under normal circumstances Pellaeon had no problems with replacing his captain, but this was a meeting with Darth Vader himself.

For a short moment he wondered if the nervousness of the other officers was due to their fear of raising the Dark Lords wrath or because of the strange ship that had accompanied the Executor. It had been an awesome sight to see this huge sphere move with the speed and elegance of a much smaller, less massive ship.

Pellaeon wondered how those terrans looked. He wasn´t to be disappointed, although the entrance was very different from what he was used to see from imperial technology.

The diskshaped ship was resting on six telescope-like legs that had been extracted from its hull, its ventral side perhaps three meters above the ground. Instead of a hatch opening and being lowered to the ground a broad tube was sinking towards the floor, like the barrel of a turbolift.

A few seconds passed until a tall figure emerged from the retangular opening of the tube and Pellaeon had to surpress the impulse to gawk at the tall figure. The man was bigger than a wookiee and much more massive. With exeption of a broad comb-like stripe of hair his skull was bald. Aristocratic features softened the brutal image only slightly. If not for the black uniform and the broad utility belt with modern looking tools and devices, the man could have belonged to a past long forgotten.
Without the uniform Pellaeon would have thought the man to be a bounty-hunter.

Next was a tall man, with grey eyes and short-cutted blond hair, who was wearing a simple dark-blue uniform over his muscular form, that seemed to be made out of a single piece of some artificial fabric.
A light space-suit suspected Pellaeon, but useless without a helmet and a tornistor for oxygen. For a short moment he wondered about the thick collar, but hadn´t time to think about it when the third man appeared.

"By the rotten bones of Grand Moff Tarkin", muttered one of the other captains. "Exactly what we needed. Darth Vaders long lost twin brother."

The clothing of this man was indeed very similiar to Lord Vaders suit with exeption of the mask of course. But the golden-red eyes of the hard, handsome face that was framed by long, white-blond hair were intimidating and aweinspiring in their own way.

The fourth man again looked ordinary, despite being nearly two meters tall. This man was a non-white, whose hair and skin were very dark, if not completly black. He wore the same uniform as the man with the dark-blond hair.

Same went for the fifth man, who wore the same uniform. His skin had a light-brown complexion and he had a beard.

The terrans looked casually around inside the hangar, over the lines of assembled stormtroopers, towards the ceiling were Tie-fighters were hanging and towards the shuttles that had brought the officers of the "Executors" escorts aboard.

After a short moment the five humanoids started to move towards the imperial officers.

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

"Wow, what a mess of thoughts", stated Gucky, who had already probed the minds of the waiting imperials.

The terrans were ready to leave their ship.

"Its very impolite to spy into the minds of others", stated Atlan.

"But the informations i gain are quite useful", chuckled the mousebeaver. "If i´m allowed to ... ."

"No", interrupted Rhodan. "We already discussed this. You won´t accompany us to the meeting. I´ll expect from you to stay aboard the Space-Jet and to help us out if necessary.

Concentrate on my thoughts only

 

Please post more as soon as you can!

 

The Colliding of Empires

Admiral Piett glanced nervously around.

At the head of the large conference-table Darth Vader had taken place.

The dark Lord was sitting in the chair with the highest back as to underline his superiority. Piett was sitting to his right, the other imperial captains and Commander Pellaeon were positioned like wings at their left and right side, forming a halfcircle.

Opposite to Vader and Piett Perry Rhodan and Atlan had taken place, flanked by their companions.

The Admiral had been surprised that the more ordinary looking Rhodan was in charge and not the impressive figure of the Arkonide, but when Piett had for the first time seen the eyes of Perry Rhodan that had changed.

Eyes that showed a depth, a wisdom, a power of the will Piett had never encountered before.

He glanced uncomfortably to the tall figure of the man who had been introduced as Major Kasom.

The presence of the man had caused a small embarressment for the imperials, since no chair available could carry the weight of the Ertruser, eighthundred kilograms, was it to believe. Now Kasom was standing behind his companions, the massive arms crossed over his broad chest.

Piett wondered how Vader reacted to a man whose physical apperence dwarfed his own that much. If not for the knowledge of Vaders mental powers, the dark Lord would have already lost much of his dreadful presence.

Most beings unconsciously equal size with power and the imperials were no exeption.

They even used this fact to their advantage in the design of their military, might it be in a Stardestroyer, a Walker or their stormtroopers.

However, at this particular opportunity, the advantage was on the side of their guests.

Rhodan and Atlan were of equal height with 1,90 meters, Ras Tschubai measured two meters and even the astronom introduced as Dr. Vandrash Margatbuttragh was taller than six feet. Fortunatly they were all sitting in their chairs now.

"Now that we are all here, we can finally start to discuss how to deal with the situation at hand", opened Darth Vader the briefing. "To make it short we have less than thirty-five hours to evacuate five million beings."

"Do we even have the facilities to house them all", asked the Captain of the Avenger.

"I think that would depend on the frame of time they have to stay aboard", answered Piett. "After all we don´t have to give every person his or her own quaters, we can shelter them in the messhalls, corridors and even the shipdepots."

"If we do that, we´ll have a hell of a security-problem", stated the Captain of the Devastator.

"Use your stormtroopers to guard sensitive areas", ordered Darth Vader. "But until then, we have other things to worry about."

"About what frame of time are we actually speaking ?", asked Pellaeon. "How long have these people to stay aboard, till we can drop them on another world ?"

"The closest habitale planet would be Carvas VI, thirty lightyears away. The calculations for the jump will take longer than the jump itself. However Carvas VI isn´t inhabited and we need a world with medical facilities and other things to host five million people. This excludes the majority of outer rim worlds. Madrag V would be a good choice. The planet has a population of eight trillion beings and is twentythousand lightyears away. A jump would take three days considering the navigational conditions we would have to face in this region of space."

"Three days under the most extreme conditions would be bearable", explained Rhodan. "If necessary we lower the internal gravity and pile them above each other. This way the "Dantes Inferno" alone could carry", he paused for a moment, making some calculations in his head,"seventy million beings, although they would be as close to each other than the proverbial oilsardine."

"Hmmm, sardines", whispered Kasom with a dreamy gaze.

"That won´t be necessary Rhodan", stated Darth Vader. "We can easily distribute the people over our ships without putting them together like, what was it, oilsardines ?

The p

 

Expect an update at the weekend !!!

 

The Colliding of Empires - Part VI

THolaris IV was a gasgiant.

Normally Tibannagas was harvested from the chronospheres of stars, but it was found in the atmospheres of gasgiants, too.

And since there the harvest of the valuable ammunition for blasters and turbolasers was less dangerous it was less expansive.

Thanks to its purpose it should be no surprise that the empire tried to get and keep all facilities under its control that were able to produce Tibannagas.

And with a few exceptions the empire had been very sucessful with that.

Until a few months ago Bespin had been one of those exceptions.

But while Bespins Cloud City hadn´t only been a mining facility, but a tourists attraction and a gamblers paradise, too, the facility at Tholaris IV served only one purpose.

It lacked the elegant forms and light colours of Cloud City, that had imitated the style of the lost world of Alderaan, the facility here was only designed for mining operations.

Its lines were straight and sharp, its colours imperial grey and it showed to be build with nothing but utilitism in mind.

In other words the city flying in orbit around the gasgiant that was Tholaris IV was plain ugly.

Five million beings were living and working in the entire complex.

Pilots, harvesters, administrative personel, security-guards, their wifes and children, medics, teachers, technicians, shop-owners and bartenders, whores and dancers in the brothels, ...

And all their lives were now threatened by the star of Tholaris going nova in less than thirty-five hours.

But not if Darth Vader and his new allies had to say something in that matter.

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Commander Pellaeon watched with interest the long rows that had formed in front of the devices the terrans had called transmitters.

According to the explenations of the terrans they were the portable two-men version, circular platforms with a diameter of one and a half meter and a hight of fifty centimeters.
Three meter high gates of pure energy had formed above the platforms opening gate-ways to the receiving transmitter-stations aboard the imperial Stardestroyers and the "Dantes Inferno".

Alone here in this hall twenty of those devices had been positioned and another fourty of those transmitters were divided over the entire complex, on places that were easy accessable and where enough space was for the people to assemble.

They had been carried down from the "Dantes Inferno" with more of those Space-Jets and were now guarded and operated by the terrans, while stormtroopers, officer from the "Executor" and from the local authorities ordered the population around.

Every three seconds two people vanished through one of the transmitter-gates just to appear on the other side of those doorlike walls of energy aboard one of the big spaceships.

This made hundredandtwenty people every three seconds, twothousandfourhundred every minute, onehundredfourtyfourthousand every hour, four million threehundredtwentythousand people in the thirty hours they had still available.

Still not enough to save all of the five million people.

Because of this all of their smaller ships and shuttles were flying between the orbitatal facility and their capital ships, transporting people the old-fashioned way.

Alone the fivty hundred-meter cruisers of the terrans should be able to do the job, transporting thousand people on every flight and two hours time to take the people to evacuate aboard, fly to their big ships, to load them off and to return for the next load.

Pellaeon still had difficulties to believe what he had observed only moments ago.

The sphere-shaped ships of the terrans, with a diameter of hundred meters as big as a small hill, had landed on their twelve telescope-legs and taken of with no problem.

Few shipdesigns of comparable size in the empire were capable of that and somehow Pellaeon knew that even the big "Dantes Inferno" was able to land and to take of from a planet without any help.
For a short moment he wondered what affect this