Saga The Sol Hope V3

AN: And here we are yet again. This is the third version of this fic...oy...that being said, this is a story where Earth is in the Unknown Regions. The short history is this:

The Roswell crash was a Duros freighter, that was recovered and rebuilt. Using this tech (after going through a ST like WWIII) Earth started to form a nation in the Unknown Regions. Eventually they came into conflict with the Chiss. After that war, they eventually became allies, and watched the Empire form warily. The story itself picks up a couple months before ANH.

The timeline (complete one) is in my crossover thread, Combining the Universes. But enough about that...here's the actual story:
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Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

4 months BBY~
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The planet Arcadia, the first colony of Earth, and main military base for the Sol Confederacy, sat in orbit of the star Alpha Centuari. The people who lived on the blue-green orb were peacefully going about their lives. Despite being the main military base it was not readily noticeable to the average civilian…and they certainly weren't complaining about it. Even after a century of colonization there was nowhere near the population of Earth yet.

So a lot of the military bases could be placed in the country. It was from one these bases that one Liza Fisher was graduating from the Confederacy military academy after five years of extensive training.

"Man it is so nice to be out of there…I never thought I would be so happy to leave any place in my life." Liza thought.

As she walked towards the tram that would take her to the docks to take over command of her new ship, the newly minted Commander thought back on her life up to this point…

Liza had a fairly normal life…for a Colonial that is. With the main power base still on Earth, even a colony as old and well regarded as Arcadia was still considered second class. It was inevitable something like that would happen, but it still made it much more difficult to move up in life. Liza had been well off in that regard, with both of her parents serving in the Confederacy Armed Forces, her father in the Army and her mother in the Navy. They had both retired before she was born, but Liza had been raised on stories of them fighting off Vaggari incursions.

Needless to say, that made the young women want to join the Defense Force herself, but it had been fun trying to decide between the Army or Navy. In the end, Liza had decided on the Navy for one simple reason, she wasn't big enough for the Army. The Confederacy Army had very strict recruitment requirements, among them that you had to be at least 5'8" to join up. At only a little over 5'2", Liza was too short and petite to join. So she had gone with plan B and joined the Navy.

Once there, she had gone through the toughest years of her young life, her parents hadn't been joking when they said boot camp was the hardest thing they had ever done. It had been a living nightmare, and Liza was not eager to have to go through that again. She hadn't even made any real friends while there, since her standoffish attitude precluded that…and left her in trouble with the drill sergeants more often than not.

But in the end it had been worth it, she had eventually got out of that pit and into officer training at Arcadia's equivalent to West Point. Once there, Liza had a somewhat meteoric rise to the top five percent of her class, and she had kept that, despite being constantly looked down upon by her classmates who were generally wealthy, unlike Liza herself, who had to pay for everything, since her parents didn't have the money to support her.
But still it had all been worth it…

"Liza Fisher! This is your stop, space dock 24!" the conductor on the hover tram yelled, knocking Liza out of her reminiscing.

"Yes sir!" Liza yelled back, pushing some of her red bangs out of her face and departing the tram to see her new command.

And it was an impressive sight, the dark green hull glistening in the early morning light. Here she was…the first of the refit Cestus class Frigates…CSS Allegiance, and she was Liza's ship now. As the young commander walked up to it, she could see shuttles going back and forth between the ships small hanger and the dock, transferring supplies for its first cruise in years. They were joined by hundreds of people milling about, loading and unloading supplies. All in all, it looked like some omnipotent being had kicked over an ants nest and they were trying to put it back together. Liza smiled at the sight; soon this would be her crew.

Unsurprisingly though, there was only a small group of officers meeting Liza, since the Allegiance had a small crew.

"Hello ma'am, you must be Commander Fisher correct?" a man only slightly older than Liza herself asked, while flashing a quick salute.

"Yes I am, I'm guessing you're my XO Lieutenant Harding right?" Liza asked, returning the salute.

"Yes ma'am, if you'll follow me I can give you a quick tour so you can get to know the Allegiance." Harding said, heading back up the boarding ramp.

Liza nodded to herself and followed her new XO into the frigate.
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Confederacy/Chiss Border Zone

Unknown Regions

4 months BBY~
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Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nurudodo, better known to the Galaxy at large as Thrawn, was finally returning home. He had been exiled all those years ago for the Outbound Flight fiasco and nearly starting a new war between the Confederacy and his own people the Chiss. He had never been able to grasp why his people couldn't understand the threat that letting Outbound Flight go represented.

But they were so eager to keep the Confederacy happy that they would take the word of one of their Captains over the word of one of their own people. But after years of exile someone had stumbled upon Thrawn who actually listened to him…the Galactic Empire.

So here he was, in command of a fleet of three Imperial-Class Star Destroyers, with a handful of smaller ships providing escort, finally going home.

"Unknown ships, this is Sol Confederacy border station 23, stop and identify yourselves or you will be fired upon." Said a broadcast from a small satellite hovering around a planet that Thrawn was getting supplies from.

Thrawn just gave a small hand gesture to his tactical officer, who proceeded to destroy the annoying Confederacy base. The Emperor wouldn't be happy about possibly starting a war, but Thrawn was too smart for that. He had used a Vaggari ship that had been captured recently to destroy the base. So if the Confederacy found the wreckage they would see damage from Vaggari, not Imperial, weapons. With that out of the way, the Imperial fleet gathered supplies before continuing on its way to Chiss space, only stopping to make sure no survivors or recordings of their fleet was left in the system.
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Cssila System

Chiss Ascendancy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Cssila

A few days later~
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After a few more days' travel, Thrawn's fleet was now in orbit of the Chiss homeworld. Even with the navigational problems of the Unknown Regions slowing his fleet down, Thrawn had still arrived before most of the Chiss Navy could.
A Chiss fleet did surround his small fleet, but Thrawn's people weren't stupid they knew they didn't have the firepower to handle the rogue Admiral's fleet.

"This is Admiral Mitth'raw'nurudodo of the Galactic Empire. I request an audience with the High Council." Thrawn said.

"So you finally found people who would listen to your crazy ramblings eh Thrawn? The Empire isn't recognized by the Chiss Ascendancy…why should we grant you an audience?" was the reply, not even using Thrawn's real name.

"Simple, I have enough firepower to wipe you and your fleet off the face of the Galaxy. I would rather not have to fight my own people though. So just get the Council together and we can avoid bloodshed." Thrawn shot back.

After a few minutes, most likely spent figuring out where the rest of the Navy was, and how powerful Thrawn's ships actually were, a tense reply came back from the planet, "Fine, you will have an audience with the Council. Don't do anything stupid traitor."

"Acknowledged, you made the correct decision." Thrawn said.

"Don't waste your breath, don't think we don't know about the Empire. You are a traitor to your people Thrawn, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot." The man on the other end said before cutting the link.

Thrawn just shook his head…did no one except Palpatine actually believe him?

"Prep my shuttle. And let the honor guard know to bring their weapons, we aren't welcome here." Thrawn told his Captain, before leaving the bridge.

After a short ride to the surface, Thrawn and his guard were escorted to the High Council Chamber.

There the heads of the Five Families met them. Thrawn could tell right off that they weren't happy to see him.

"What brought you back from your exile Thrawn? And in command of an Imperial Fleet no less." One of them asked.

"Yes, what could possibly be so important that the Empire gave you a fleet to come home with?" another one asked.

"My esteemed collogues…you already know what would bring me back…the Far Outsiders." Thrawn answered.

The leaders of the Chiss people just shook their heads at that.

"We have already had this discussion before you were exiled Thrawn. Even if these 'Far Outsiders' have the forces you say they do, we have more than enough power with the Confederacy to handle them. All we have seen of their forces wasn't very powerful and that was years ago." The head of the Third Family said.

"And just like all those years ago, I say you are being ignorant…if they were such a weak force then why did the Emperor want to stop Outbound Flight from ever leaving for fear they would get it? This is a man with the power of the whole Galaxy and they worry him." Thrawn said, hoping his argument would work this time.

"You need more than that Thrawn. Why should we take the word of a man we've never met, and who took over the Republic to form an Empire? How do we know he isn't using you to gain our allegiance?" the head of the Fifth Family said.

Thrawn shook his head lightly, "What else do you expect me to say? The most I can offer you is an alliance with the Empire to fight them when they do come, though you will have to break from the Confederacy."

"And why would we join the Empire? Not to mention the fact that the Confederacy has been a good ally since the end of the last war, even going so far as to fight off Vaggari incursions while you were exiled. You are just reinforcing the decision to exile you in the first place Thrawn." The head of the First Family said.

"Sadly its obvious you still won't believe me…I have nothing more to say to you fools. The offer for an alliance is still open, though you are too set in your ways to take it." Thrawn said, standing to leave.

"Don't get your hopes up Thrawn. We won't take that offer up unless there actually is something to the Far Outsiders." The head of the Second Family shot back, as Thrawn left the room.

"Are you really going to give up that easily sir?" one of Thrawn's guards asked once they boarded the shuttle.

"Of course not. I already have people in place in both the government and Defense Fleet. They are ready to act if there is any sign of the Far Outsiders. Those fools won't stay neutral forever, eventually they will join the Empire, and the Confederacy will fall." Thrawn said, letting just a little bit of his grudge with the Confederacy show through.

His men nodded…they had heard what had happened between Thrawn and a Captain Smith of the Sol Confederacy. How the Chiss government had just stepped aside and let the Confederacy have its way with Outbound Flight. That was the main reason for Thrawn's later exile, that and the fact he
constantly tried to drive home the threat of the Far Outsiders and the need to launch preemptive strikes on enemies like the Vaggari.

Needless to say, that hadn't gone over well with his commanders, and it was only a matter of time until Thrawn was exiled. And after nearly a decade and a half stranded alone on an out of the way planet, the Empire found Thrawn.

And thus the position he was in now, a covert Grand Admiral, and in command of the Unknown Regions branch of the Imperial Starfleet. Though calling his group a 'fleet' was giving it too much credit, considering a Sector Group had more firepower.

But that was beside the point, since as soon as he reached his flagship Thrawn set a course back to Coruscant, to report the stubbornness of the Chiss Government to Palpatine.

Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

4 months BBY~
"It's nice to be home. I didn't get to come here nearly enough during training." Liza thought aloud.

"Well you should be happy ma'am. I certainly wish my family lived on Arcadia. But with Cestus being on the boondocks…" Harding said, seeing his commander off to her family's house.

"Oh don't worry Harding, you do know you can come in if you want, I'm sure my parents would love to meet you." Liza said, with a grin on her face.

"Oh I'm sure they would, but that wouldn't be proper, they don't even know who I am." Harding protested.

"Oh get over yourself Lieutenant, my parents won't care, just come in with me." Liza shot back, practically dragging her XO in over his frantic protests. "Hey Mom, Dad I'm home!"

After Liza yelled that, two identical heads of red hair stuck out into the hallway, "Liza! You're back!"

And with that, Liza's younger sister and brother came running at her.


"Whoa, be more gentle with her, she's probably still sore from running her new ship. Congratulations by the way dear." Liza's mother said, peaking around the corner in time to see her oldest daughter knocked to the ground by her squealing siblings, with a tall man standing on, obviously holding in a laugh.

"Okay Mom, we'll get off her." Tom Fisher said, pulling his sister Jane off of Liza.

"Man, if I had known that would happen I wouldn't have announced myself." Liza said, dusting off her dress uniform.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect your family to be like that ma'am, you're much more formal than that." Harding said, trying and failing to hide his amusement at the situation.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Lieutenant, come in the living room and take a seat, I need to find my father." Liza said, pointing her XO to a seat.

Once Harding sat on a couch, Liza set off to track down her parents, since her mother had walked off once the younger siblings had sat down. She eventually found her with Liza's father using an old barbeque grill out back, obviously cooking a welcome home meal.

"Oh hey Liza, congrats on graduating. Just give me a few minutes and the meal will be done." John Fisher said.

"You look nice in that uniform by the way honey. I think the look suits you." Mary Fisher added.

"Really? Thanks I guess, though this thing is such a pain to get on…why must the Navy make these things so uncomfortable?" Liza asked, absentmindedly running her hand through her shoulder length red hair.

Mary laughed at that, "Don't ask me dear, I hated those things myself. Though yours at least looks better than the one I had to put up with all those years ago."

Liza grimaced at that…her mother had shown her that monstrosity, in all its sickly green glory.
Thankfully her generation's uniform was a darker forest green. Though the thing was still extremely uncomfortable. But that was something that every military had to put up with, no matter where they were from.

"By the way Liza, who was that man, you're boyfriend or something?" Mary asked.

Liza sputtered on hearing that, "No! That's my XO Lieutenant Harding, he just drove me here and I offered to let him come in."

Mary just smiled at her daughter, "Okay dear, no need to freak out about it. Though you do need to get a boyfriend already."

Liza just continued to sputter and stare at her mother like she had just told her that her favorite pet had died.

Meanwhile~

"So your Liza's…XO, that is the right word, right?" Tom asked.

"Yes it is, and yes I am your sisters second in command." Harding answered.

"That's so cool! What do you do on that ship though?" Jane asked.

"Keep the thing running. Liza has too much on her plate as is, so I help keep the crew in line."
Harding answered, feeling a little out of his depth, he didn't have younger siblings, just older ones.

"That must not be easy. Our sister doesn't do a lot of work." Tom said, taking on a stage whisper for the last part.

Harding smiled at the young boy, "Don't be hard on your sister, she does more work than anyone else on the Allegiance now. I haven't seen such a hard worker in a while."

"Whatever you say Mr. Harding, but I still think she is lazy." Tom said.

"You just keep on thinking that." Harding said, ruffling the young boy's hair.

"Do you think we could get a tour of the ship sometime?" Jane asked.

"I don't see why not, but that would be up to your sister and parents, not me. But your sister won't care, she's too nice for that." Harding answered.

Said Commander was standing in the hallway, and blushed a little at that…she wasn't used to people complimenting her. But once she got that under control, Liza headed into the living room.

"Dinner's ready guys, just don't run Dad over getting the food." Liza said.

"Yes! We are so hungry right now, right Jane." Tom said.

"You got that right! Out of our way Liza!" Jane yelled, both twins running past their sister.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" Harding asked, with a bemused smile.

"Why bother? They didn't listen to me before I left for training, so why should they now?" Liza answered.

"Okay then, lead the way Commander, ladies first after all." Harding said, sticking his arm out.

"Oh a gentlemen are we? Good to see some people still are." Liza said, taking the proffered arm.
She then led him to the dining room, not noticing the slight blush on Harding's cheeks.

Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Earth

"So we lost contact with Station 23 eh? That's right on the border of Chiss Space isn't it?" Admiral James Smith asked.

"Yes sir, but we don't know who attacked it. It might have been either the Chiss or the Vaggari, we just don't know." The messenger answered.

"Okay then are their any ships nearby that aren't already engaged?" Smith asked.

"Yes sir, the Allegiance on Arcadia just finished refitting. And we have already had the Danube on its way there. There are other ships, but none of them have the new upgrades." The messenger replied.

"And we don't want to take the risk that this was the Empire, since our older ships can't fight them…makes sense. Okay, tell the High Command I'm going to head to Arcadia and take the Allegiance with me to investigate." Smith said.

The messenger nodded, and left the ship. And with that, Smith launched the Enterprise, heading for Arcadia.

Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia
"Well, looks like we have our first mission ma'am." Harding said, reading the message from the Enterprise, Admiral Smith's flagship.

"I wonder why one of our stations would go dark like that…I don't like it. The Chiss aren't stupid enough to attack us, even with a good chunk of our fleet down for the refits. But I wouldn't put it past the Vaggari from what my parents told me of them." Liza said, putting on her captain's hat.

Harding looked a little confused by Liza's words until he remembered what she told him at her parent's house. Both of them had fought the Vaggari Incursions about 27 years ago now.

"Yes ma'am. Neither would I, my parents had stories of the attack on Cestus from their great-great grandparents. So I know how brutal those 'people' are." Harding replied.

Liza nodded, "Yeah I know, come on Lieutenant, lets get this baby underway."

Harding nodded, and set about giving the crew its orders. And with that, the Allegiance launched on its first mission in years, the Frigate seeming to shake in anticipation.

Chiss/Confederacy Border Zone

Unknown Regions

4 months BBY
"Looks like the Danube beat us here sir." Liza informed Admiral Smith via hologram.

"Looks like it, I wouldn't put it past Ravensburg though, he always was fast." Smith replied.

"Yeah I've heard of his reputation sir. It's good to have him if whoever did this is still in the area though." Liza said, before cutting the link.

Smith then turned his attention to the debris field in front of him. It was obvious the station had been obliterated quickly, since it didn't call for help. The dagger shaped hull of the Danube was coasting through it, obviously looking for survivors or evidence of what had happened. Smith had to hand it to his subordinate, Edward Ravensburg could get where he needed to be faster than most Confederacy captains.

"Sir, you might want to see this," the sensor officer said.

"What is it son, did you find evidence of who did this?" Smith asked.

"Yes sir, and we have a match in the database for this type of weapons damage. It was the Vaggari sir." The officer said.

Smith's eyes widened on hearing that, the Vaggari had been oddly silent since the Outbound Flight Project came through this area and destroyed a good chunk of their fleet.

"Are you absolutely certain Ensign? We haven't heard anything from the Vaggari in years." Smith asked.

"Yes I am Admiral, though I wish I wasn't. There is no denying it, this was done by the Vaggari." The young officer replied.

Smith shook his head lightly, "Okay then, open a channel to the Allegiance and Danube, we need to start searching for the ships that did this. Make sure to send a message to Navy Command though, we might need them to get Chiss help, they know this area better than we do."

The communications officer nodded, and sent the messages. After a couple minutes, holograms of both Edward Ravensburg and Liza Fisher appeared over the holopads.

"You called sir?" Liza asked.

"Yes, what do you need Admiral, we need to continue searching the debris." Ravensburg said, his flame red eyes a little disconcerting to the Admiral.

"Yes well, we haven't found any survivors so there probably aren't any. We would have found them by now trust me. But we did find something you two need to know; the debris has signs of Vaggari weapons fire. We need to break off two of the ships to explore the area and see if they are still nearby." Smith said.

Both of the younger Captain's eyes widened a little bit.

"The Vaggari? Are you sure Admiral, my parents beat them back with the rest of the military years ago." Liza said.

"Yes I'm sure, I wish I wasn't trust me. Liza, your ship will stay here and continue looking for survivors or recordings. Edward, your with the Enterprise, lets go see if we can find the Vaggari." Smith ordered.

Both the Captains nodded, and cut the links, with the diamond shaped Allegiance taking the Danube's place in the debris. The two cruisers then jumped out, trying to track down the Vaggari who did this…not knowing that it was actually the Empire, and they had just left their weakest ship behind, with Thrawn's fleet not having left Chiss space yet…

 

Also...website is glitching so I'm sorry about the messed up line breaks...