Chapter 81
Emperor Palpatine, the Sith lord who came closer than any other Sith to completing the mission of the Sith and taking over the galaxy, was intently watching the battle between the Empire's fleet and the Stealth ships. It might have been the most entertaining battle that could feed the darkest side of a Sith lord, with the deaths of so many, but not for Palpatine. He was on the edge of his seat, but he wasn't sure why.
He was uneasy but it wasn't the fight that worried him, that was a way of life for him. He was perfectly safe in the first Deathstar, which was almost complete. Palpatine had sacrificed the second Deathstar while it was just bare bones to draw out the rebels, he knew the plans for the Deathstar had been intercepted and did a quick swap to save the better Deathstar. Now he was sure he was safe on his throne inside the fully operational Deathstar but he still worried.
It felt wrong somehow, something was on the tip of his mind. The force wasn't clear on why he was feeling this new worry but his gut was turning around and making awkward jumps every time a stealth ship revealed itself or caused an Empire's battleship to crash in plasmic flames. Palpatine was worried, and yet Palpatine couldn't understand why he was worried. If he wasn't scared for his life then what other thing could cause his body to react like this? He was nowhere near the battle and had devoted every spare ship to attacking the cluster of stealth ships.
Tactically, it wasn't the best move to wipe out his enemy but something caused him to throw everything he had at these stealth ships even though he knew it was a bad war move. Palpatine would have even moved the Deathstar into position if it was ready to travel through subspace.
The image Palpatine was watching of the battle fizzled out to be replaced with an officer decorated with badges and symbols that even Palpatine didn't know.
"Emperor.." the officer clicked his boots together and slightly bowed to Palpatine.
"What is it..." Palpatine was annoyed at an officer directly making contact with him
"Emperor." began the officer.
"Get on with it..." Palpatine annoyance was quickly turning into a rage at being interrupted at this important time.
"....There are reports of undisclosed hyperspace travel points openings.....many undisclosed hyperspace openings." explained the officer.
Palpatine had moved the Deathstar into an asteroid field to take advantage of the resources and protection. It had taken a lot of time just to move the weapon where it wouldn't be noticed. There were also very few hyperspace routes that led here, which meant he was able to place warships throughout each hyperspace exit. But thanks to his panic, those ships no longer protected the routes.
"Have a contingent of Tie fights scout the area.." Palpatine began to say.
"....MMM" The officer hummed under his breath.
Palpatine was momently stunned at the interruption but his rage began to boil and he raised his hand to choke the life out of the officer. Before that could happen, by instinct, the officer blurted out his message to save his life.
"The hyperspace routes exits are undocumented and there are hundreds of ships leaving" spurted the officer.
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Palpatine raised from his throne "Why didn't you tell me immediately..."
The poor officer was damned if you do, damned if you don't. He was hoping that there was a way to report this bad news softly and keep his life but judging the way the Emperor was gritting his teeth, there was no way to protect himself, and to answer the unasked question the officer's neck twisted in place.
"Where in the Chaos or The Void is Vader" gritted Palpatine
Palpatine wanted to recall all the Empire's battleships to protect himself but there was a deeper stronger feeling that told him he must continue the attack on the stealth ships.
The viewer screen showed the Rebels burst through the hyperspace exit unmolested thanks to Palpatine removing the ships that would have defended the routes.
The Rebels attacked quickly. Thankfully the defence of the Death Star was top-notch and active, whoever took over from the last officer knew to bring the shields up ready for a fight. The barrage of focus fire from the Rebels caused little damage as the energy washed over the Deathstar and distributed across the whole moon-sized shield.
As a counter, thousands, if not tens of thousands of Tie fighters entered the battle and supported the Death Star.
A single Tie fighter was nothing compared to a battlecruiser but just like how elephants will run from a horde of bees, a battlecruiser will find its end if not supported. X wings flew to the rescue and started to gun the Tie fighters down.
Palpatine smacked his lips together as he felt the fear and pain of death floating towards him, and yet, despite the overwhelming numbers of Tie fighters and the superior defence of the Death Star offering him undienable protection he felt exposed. It was then many Tie fighters exploded.
The dirty Rebels had ejected hundreds of thousands of tons of scrap and trash from their cargo holds, they were taking full advantage that the Tie fighters didn't have shield deflectors. High-speed vehicles slapping into small metal pieces caused the ships to be shredded. X wings had their own defection shields and could bait Tie fighters into their deaths safe in the knowledge the small floating pieces of metal wouldn't do a thing to them.
Palpatine didn't care if everyone was killed but he did care about himself, with his battleships engaged with the stealth ships across the other side of the galaxy and his Tie fighters running into scrap and killing themselves, Palpatine was running out of meat shields.
The Death Star wasn't just a fortress that was only there to protect Palpatine, but a killing machine that would wipe out planets. This were no differences when it came to a target, the Deathstar released its power.
A single powerful line of hyper-condensed energy shot from the Deathstar and destroyed two battlecruisers and clipped a third, numerous X wings and Tie fighters also met their end. These deaths caused Palpatine to shiver with delight, he was only disappointed that the Rebels had spaced themselves out and the massive super weapon could only do so much with a single shot.
"Good, good.." said Palpatine as he rubbed his hands together
The Rebels didn't falter and continued their barrage of focus firing hoping that they could open up a way to the DeathStar. The Rebels were winning the fight between the Tie fighters but they couldn't breach the DeathStar.
A second shot from the Death Star caused a further three battleships to be lost.
Palpatine was having a wonderful time. The number one pastime of the Sith was collecting power but they also enjoyed picking on the weak and crushing their enemies, this was it. There was no way for the Rebels to reach him and it was only a matter of time before all of Palpatines enemies would be turned to dust. Even the sneaky stealth ships and Grove Collection would soon meet their end with a swift attack.
Palpatine could feel the despair coming from the Rebels, it brought him joy, until a new hyperspace exit opened up and out poured.....nothing. Time went by and the hyperspace exit didn't close and the Rebel's mood increased from no hope to excitement. Something was happening but none of his officers seemed to know what was going on.
"What's going on here" muttered Palpatine
"That, my dear friend is the counter to a super weapon able to destroy planets" answered a mysterious voice
Palpatine jumped on the spot and twisted around with his lightsaber drawn "Who are you"
Out of the shadows, a dangerous figure stepped out clad in black armour. At first, Palpatine might have mistaken this person for Darth Vader but there weren't the usual emotions of hate coming off his mind, instead, it was calm and Palpatine was having trouble reading him.
"I'm a representative of the Grove Collection, you can call me Bee" The sound of a lightsaber extended to reveal an orange light ready to combat with Palpatine's red.