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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Saga - OT "For the Glory..." (OC - ISD returns to find the Empire defeated)

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction- Before, Saga, and Beyond' started by Kalio_Dynkos, Oct 2, 2017.

  1. Kalio_Dynkos

    Kalio_Dynkos Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 17, 2004
    Author(s): Kalio_Dynkos
    Timeframe: Events immediately after the end of ROTJ
    Characters: The crew of the HMS Imperial Star Destroyer Glory
    Summary:
    The Imperial Star Destroyer Glory was presumed lost 8 years ago during a routine mission into the Unknown Region. With the Galactic Civil War still a few years away, expansion was on the horizon. A sudden malfunction in the Hyperdrive sent the crew deep into uncharted space. A cascade failure killed the hyperdrive.

    The crew decided to make the slow crawl back to known space on sub-light, avoiding the unique spacial phenomena of the Region. The Glory did everything they could to return to their Empire that had written them off.

    With numerous adventures behind them, and a third of the crew dead, the Glory finally made it home. What they didn't expect was that the Empire that was strong and building a Death Star, had both forgotten them and been defeated after a five-year Galactic Civil War.

    With the Imperial Remnant licking its wounds under Grand Admiral Sloane, and the New Republic rebuilding the Galaxy in its image, the crew of the Glory would have to decide after 8 years, what really was home now?


    ******
    Prologue

    The aged Captain Mach Peel tugged at each side of his mustache as he looked into the mirror in his office. He'd been young once. He'd also shaved once, though it would be hard to tell under the brown and white beard he now sported.

    When they'd first been lost, Mach had tried to keep military discipline. After a few years, though, as the Glory became their home and there was no chance of Imperial contact, he'd been more lax with his appearance. Looking into the mirror, he'd also have to admit he'd been lax about his weight, too. A definite paunch was forming.

    Granted, Mach was nearly 73 years old. He's certainly wasn't a young man. He was well old enough to have the right to let himself go, he’d tell himself regularly.

    Out here, it hadn’t been easy either. Imperial Star Destroyers kept enough food stores for two years. They've been improvising meals for a long time. He'd allowed himself the luxury of indigenous comfort foods whenever he could find them. In their eight year trek across the Unknown Regions, they had made friends that had shown them some amazing things - food, culture, and technology.

    They'd also made just as many enemies, and lost more men than both groups combined.

    Mach rubbed at his beard as he walked away from the mirror.

    He'd been many things in his life - father, husband, decorated Republic Captain during the Clone Wars. Now, though, he was savior, hero, and redeemer. The man that brought the Glory back from the edges of oblivion.

    They had left Kuat Drive Yards a new ship, fresh off the line and brimming with possibilities. Then, that all changed. The hyperdrive had malfunctioned just two days into the mission, taking them dangerously close to a gravity well that ripped them out of Hyperspace. The only thing that had saved them from getting sucked into a black hole was ejecting the hyperdrive and riding the shockwave out from beyond the gravity well.

    Imperial Star Destroyers were hulking, lumbering ships - perfect for instilling order and peace in the Galaxy, but notoriously ungainly. Even if they had Hyperdrive, the ship’s trash had to be jettisoned before each jump, just to make it light enough to make it. Entire planets didn’t consume the amount of energy that the Glory did. Add that to exploring the unique perils of the Unknown Regions, and it was a miracle they had survived.

    His own appearance hadn’t been the only thing to change. Through the conflicts they’d faced, the battles they’d fought, and the unique spacial disturbances they’d encountered, the ship was very different.

    Conference rooms where now arboretums. Repair droid were now farm droids. Technology from the wreckage of enemies had been fused with the Glory when possible, and augmented if they couldn’t. The Glory was much less an Imperial Star Destroyer. It was a well-armed, battered life raft that doubled as an entire world for the nearly 25,000 inhabitants.

    But, even that would change.

    They were nearly home. Tactical showed that they were just hours from what was presumed to be Known Space along the Outer Rim.

    *****
    “Still nothing,” Commander Giliad Silt asked, leaning over the Comm Station.

    “No, sir. Though, HoloNet transmissions may not be strong enough to reach this region.”

    Giliad leaned further in, inspecting the controls.

    “How about encrypted Imperial stations? Our codes may be old, but there should be somebody out there.”

    “Negative. Nothing yet.”

    “Alright keep trying and let me know. We’re almost home gentlemen.”

    *****
    […tribution…exact…jus…people…Repu...]

    The transmission fizzed for another moment before going silent.

    “See if you can boost the signal,” Captain Peel said, placing his hand behind his back.

    They’d been traveling in Known Space for nearly an hour, and still had not made contact. The Outer Rim Node of the HoloNet was broadcasting, but the signal wasn’t strong enough.

    “No go, sir. We’ve lost it,” said Commander Silt.

    Anticipation was palpable. So close to home, the men and women aboard were already planning their first meal, who they would see first, what they would do when their feet touched home planets, and how they planned to live the rest of their life.

    For Mach, it was retirement back to Coruscant to be with his wife and grandkids. He’d given enough of his life to Peace and Order.

    “Captain, request permission to take the Phage,” asked Silt.

    The Lamdba-class shuttle was one of the few Hyperdrive capable ships still on board. Though it was always a possibility to take a few out of the Unknown Regions, safe Hyperspace travel was impossible through the area without calculations into the unchartered space. One wrong move and you can end up jumping right into a star or a planet. They'd all decided to stick together until the end.

    “Very well, Commander. Go tell the Empire we’re home.”

    “Aye, sir. I’ll return with a welcome party.”
     
  2. Cowgirl Jedi 1701

    Cowgirl Jedi 1701 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2016
    This is interesting. Looks like the folks on this ship will have some tough choices to make soon.
     
    Kalio_Dynkos likes this.
  3. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    This is a fascinating premise! The crew of the Glory is in for a real shock; I wonder how they'll respond. Are their families even still alive? Or do their families believe them to be dead? Clever of them to adapt the ship by putting in hydroponics and a means of subsistence.

    Was it the first Death Star under construction, or the second? Great start, Kalio_Dynkos!
     
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  4. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    This is a good start and an interesting insight into the lives of (now) former Imperials just kind of wanting to return home now--wherever that may be, of course, as a great uncertainty lies ahead of them it seems.
     
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  5. Kalio_Dynkos

    Kalio_Dynkos Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 17, 2004
    Thanks! It would have been the first Death Star. Thanks again for the kind words. :)

    Thanks! Yes, indeed.

    Thanks for the kind words. :)
     
  6. Kalio_Dynkos

    Kalio_Dynkos Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 17, 2004
    Chapter 1

    [His Imperial Majesty's Imperial Class Star Destroyer
    Mission Status : Active
    Position: Unknown Regions
    Captain Mach Peel

    Log Status.....pending]


    There are stars that burn for millennia upon millennia. Unnoticed except by those that either study the skies or rely on the power from the star's core and gravity to directly affect their survival. To most people, it's just a twinkling spot of light among untold other twinkling spots of light. There is nothing remarkable to set one off from another, except where the imagination allows for creation of constellations.

    Captain Mach Peel had been staring out into those skies for eight years, seeing unfamiliar stars and unfamiliar faces. He hadn't seen the warmth of his wife's smile for so long. He had a few holos that he'd stored away of his family, but at some point memory fades and you begin to wonder how much you're imagining and how much is real.

    He'd never given her the best of his life, but they'd remained close despite his long assignments. Through the great Clone War, she had worried over him. When it had finally ended, and the Empire emerged, he'd promised to come home. But it seemed like the service needed him then more than ever. The Clone War had been a fight against treachery, villainy and disorder. The Separatists were terrorists. They'd created super weapons, they'd destroyed whole civilizations and tore the unity of the Galaxy asunder.

    In the early days of the Empire, it was clear the scars had run deep. Most were hopeful and patriotism was high. He'd promised a year to the service, to see to the navy under its new leadership. After three years, he told her it was just one more. It seemed his crew and this generation needed the sagicity of a generation that hadn't know so many non-human species as the enemy.

    Going on this last mission, to explore the edges of the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions was supposed to be the final mission that brought him home. After decades of keeping the peace, he would get back to what brought him into space in the first place - exploration. The Empire was young, and thriving.

    Yet, now, Mach stood staring at a blinking screen nearly a decade later, and he had no idea what to do. How does someone start a log like this?

    Mach pushed back his chair, and pinched at the bridge of his nose. The worst part of looking into those unfamiliar stars had been the knowledge that the stars of his home system were buried among them. He just couldn't see them. They'd been a silent beacon, his stars. But what was there was gone.

    The Empire was gone. The emperor was presumed dead. The fleet had its tail between their collective legs. Anarchists held the Core and were promoting their mass destruction of a space station over Endor. Countless lives had been lost.

    Crawling their way back to Known Space for nearly a decade had been a mission of hope. Hope that they would see their families, that they would get back to their lives, and finally be home. But what is home, when your stars have gone out?

    Mach pushed himself up unsteadily.

    Destroyed. Defeated. Conquered. Liberated. New.

    The Galaxy had not only forgotten them, it moved on without them. The HIM ISD Glory was a ship out of time. Gone at the time of hope and exploration, and returned at ground zero of a whole new order, a new Galaxy.

    Mach turned toward the window to the black with its twinkling stars, more unfamiliar now than they had been. How was he supposed to tell the crew that he had promised to bring home, that they didn't have one to return to? What had come of their families? Their dreams would become nightmares.

    His first officer had just returned, carrying the recording of the "New Republic" broadcast on all Holonet stations. At present, just the crew of the shuttle and the captain were aware of the news.

    Mach didn't know how'd he tell the rest of the 25,000 souls on board, and what they would decide to do. For now, staying in the Unknown Regions, prepping the ship was the best thing to do. He'd have to say something in the morning. They'd want to know why they weren't trudging triumphantly toward the Empire, why the stars weren't moving.

    They'd become even more unknown than they had before.
     
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  7. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    "The Galaxy had not only forgotten them, it moved on without them." This has got to be saddest line in this chapter. The feeling that everything you had once known has changed and moved on. A tough time for Capt. Mach as well, having to break the news to everyone else on board and who knows what their reactions will be?
     
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  8. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    Wow, what a great update! You have to sympathize for Captain Peel; in fact, in a way, this is a Rip Van Winkle story. How he and his crew react, what they do... were any of them from Alderaan?

    In some cases, literally!
     
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  9. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Good, well thought out, first part.

    Unfortunately, comes on the heels of another writer exploring the same concept; so I am unable to engage with this as much as it deserves.

    I don't often review multiple chapters in a story, but I might make time in my schedule to catch Captain Mach's face when someone asks what happened to the backup Class 15 hyperdrive that ISDs have.

    8/10
     
  10. PlanetSmasher

    PlanetSmasher Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 14, 2017
    In your prolog, the last line, "Aye, Sir. I'll return with a welcome party." I was expecting, in the next chapter, a fleet of rebel starships to be chasing after the Phage as it fled back to the Glory. I see that Commander Silt was smarter than that, but I would have liked to have seen something like, for example, the Phage's crew, disembarking the shuttle in the Glory's hanger bay in abject misery, ignoring the questions the hanger bay crew asked as they walked to their debrief (This was just an example: to make the reader say Uh, oh! What's eating them?).

    I'm definitely hooked, but I hope for longer chapters. Chapter one was more like the beginning of a chapter (I'm greedy. Sorry.) Anyway, I look forward to more. I know that you have already advanced the plot to the point where he's trying to figure out how to break the news to the crew and complement, but I would have liked to have seen his meeting with his command staff. I would have liked to have seen their despair, their feelings of defeat or near defeat, their anger at the... Something in the galaxy is to blame for their predicament! And then the options they came up with, for the captain to choose from, for what to do next.

    Please understand I'm not trying to tell you how to write your story. I'm trying to say that I would have liked to have seen more details. I would have liked to have seen what happened between the time Commander Silt came back and the time the captain sat in his state room trying to decide how to break the news to his crew and complement.

    In the end, I look forward to more. This is very intriguing. I want to see what the captain and crew ultimately decide in how to deal with their situation, and I look forward to their adventures and hardships as they act on their decision.
     
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  11. Kalio_Dynkos

    Kalio_Dynkos Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 17, 2004
    Thanks man. It's somewhere else? I'd love to read that to see that I avoid their stuff. :p