Aftermath - SW Ric Taldrya
The freezing cold of space greeted him as his small ship leapt from the small planet. Its star speckled embrace seemed to wrap its arms around the old YT-1300 freighter as it headed to the coordinates that would line it up with the next leg of his journey. The twenty year old ship had defiantly seen better days as had the pilot who sat behind the controls.
Sith Warrior Ric Taldrya, late of clan Arcona, was headed home. It had been too long since he had seen his quarters on the Dungeon Ship Lichtor V and he was looking forward to it more than anything. This mission had marked his three thousand and fourth mission against enemy forces and he was tired. It was time for a vacation.
Ric thought about going home to Csilla, home world of his mothers’ people. He missed the rolling plains and deep valleys, the snow covered peaks near the settlement he had been raised in. Maybe he needed to recharge his batteries after the Vendetta and battle against the Akumvah. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do right now.
The navicomp beeped at him, letting him know that he had reached the hyperspace coordinates. He pulled the levers and activated the hyperdrive and the stars became streaks of light….
Beep…beep….beep…. beep…. Beep…..
The locator beacon sent out its signal over and over as it had for almost forty years. The Providence class battleship had hung motionless since the battle over the ice planet Mugeeto. It was the former home of the Intergalactic Banking Clan during the height of the Clone Wars and was the site of one of the last battles. It was said that the ghost of Ki-Adi-Mundi still roamed this world after he was killed by the Clone Troops he commanded during the battle.
Suddenly, the dish antenna swiveled towards the center of the galactic plane and Coruscant. Coruscant, the seat of galactic power, former home to both the Old Republic as well as the Galactic Empire that followed, it now served as the home of the so-called New Republic. Buried deep in the bowels of one of the many buildings that served as the Emperors private workshop, a small screen came to life and activated a failsafe code routine. It sent orders out to any and all surviving Separatist assets.
The computer systems that had lay dormant since the shut down order was transmitted from Mustafar so many years ago began to flicker and go into a start up sequence. Battledroids as well as all the service support droids picked up right where they left off, getting the ship ready for battle. They did not register the lack of any Republic battleships in the sector, nor did they even care. They had new orders now, ones that had been burned into them while at the foundries that had given them the spark of droid life.
All across the Outerrim, the same was playing out not only in hulking wrecks and abandoned ships, but also in hidden underground depots. War droids of all types were now activating.
Ric flew his YT on the last leg of his journey. This course correction would take him thru the Mugeeto system and then on to Aurora. From there he would find the Lichtor and get some sleep.
Ric sat back as the navicomp began to compute the vectors and time to take jump when he noticed a large shadow appear on his scanners. Ric sat up and punched in the IFF identifier to let him know who it was. He had only seen shadows this big during the height of the Civil War that saw the end of the Empire. The IFF came up and it showed as unrecognizable. He keyed in the recorder and decided to make a pass and try to identify them visually.
The YT leapt towards the fleet with a speed that its appearance belied. As he approached, the threat indicator began to scream at him. He watched as a dozen or two fighter type ships broke away from the main shadow and headed towards his ship. He swung the ship around and wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there. The fighters turned and maneuvered better than even the old TIE Fighters. The pilots had to have been really good, but there was something not right about it. He could not feel anything from them thru the force.
Ric felt missile impacts hit his ship. He checked the external cams and saw what looked like small droids scurrying around the hull. One extended a small saw and began to try and cut thru the hull. Another was trying to rip loose some control cables; seeing that, Ric decided that he had enough of them. Ric had made some modifications, for almost every occasion; luckily even this one.
Ric had come across Confederacy droids before, back in his days as a Mercenary in Wildspace. He had installed a new type of Ion generator that only affected the droids outside his ship. He flipped the switch that he never knew he’d ever need and watched as the droids dropped from his hull, dead and inactive.
His hull shook once more with the impacts of blaster fire. The Droid Fighters had closed to within range and began firing on him. He juked his ship; his pilot reflexes augmented by his Dark Jedi ability. The Droid fighters were so quick; they seemed to be able to use the force. It was an odd sensation to not be able to feel an opponent.
Ric was glad to hear the beep that his navicomp was now ready to activate the hyperdrive. It was getting a bit too crowded for him here.
With a pull on the levers, the stars once more pulled into lines before fading into a tunnel of light…
Droid armies began to move on hundreds of former Confederacy worlds as well as those that they had taken. Starships began to come out from various hiding places, having been carefully placed there by the newly declared Emperor. He must have forseen the fall of his Empire yet had lacked the vision of what would come after. The droids now attacked anywhere that they found any organized force. Most of the Empires ships had been destroyed and the newer ones had never had the beacons installed in them that would show them as friendly.
Waves and Waves of droids descended upon countless worlds. The arrow of the Trade Federation was now pointed towards Aurora and Eos. The forces of the Emperors Hammer would have a hard fight before them if they were to succeed. This was only the beginning…
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