Shine a Light on It

[Yularen Nova]

The Imperial Bloc Treaty between the First Order and the Sith Empire had brought many Galactic Alliance worlds to heel. While small rebellions sprouted up once in a blue moon, few worlds held the infrastructure or the spirit to field any sort of true resistance. Those that felt they could, at least in the Sith Imperial Bloc, were defended by task forces. In the case of Corellia they had been lorded over by Task Force Socorro, a flotilla of powerful Sith warships, including a massive battlecruiser, several times larger than anything the Corellians could afford at the time.

It pained him to think of it this way, but the New Republic did come to their rescue. Something had gone wrong in the chain of command within the Task Force. There were plenty of rumors, but the result was the same. Despite orders to return to Sith Space, they remained. In fact, they'd convinced other Sith vessels on their way to their back to Sith Space to remain and had amassed a large fleet in Corellia's orbit. When the New Republic came however...Much of the Sith fleet had been destroyed, save for Task Force Socorro. The captain of the Frozen Hand was cunning, and he'd used the sacrifice of his men to his advantage, fleeing the system. It had been months since Corellian High Command had seen or heard anything of them...

But feelers in the Kerel System had tipped them off. The captain of the Frozen Hand was getting sloppy, and with a new fleet of ships, Corellia was back on its feet and ready to put these criminals to death.

Yularen's eyes narrowed at the holochess display in his quarters aboard the CDF Ascendant Justice. What was displayed didn't match reports...In fact, it could be something even worse than he expected....

 

[Sienna Vekarr]

The Absolute Victory dropped out of Hyperspace in the Kerel System. It was actually more accurate to say they had been ripped out of hyperspace by an interdictor field. Alarms blared in the backup bridge as displays began activating to give a the crew a visual feed of the space around them. Several other badly damaged Resurgent-Class battlecruisers were ripped out beside them, the event sparking new fires, adding to the chaos on each ship.

"What the hell was that?!" Sienna demanded.

"Interdiction field Ma'am. We're detecting a large collection of ships."

"Those bastards chased us out here...? How did they get here before us for an ambush...?"

"They aren't Ssi-Ruu Ma'am...They're Correllian." The room became silent again save for the now lowered volume of the claxons. "They have their weapons trained on us." Sienna could hear the worry in the officer's voice. If they had been at full strength and didn't have ships full of civilians they could easily take on the fleet. But the way they were? Her eyes scanned the room.

"Make sure our ships stand down...Get me a transmission to the Corellian flagship."

 

[Yularen Nova]

"Sir, the lead ship is hailing us."

When Yularen had woken up this morning he had expected a fierce battle that would have seen the end of the Task Force Socorro. Victory would have been his and he would have returned home with yet another commendation, bringing him closer to his goal of Grand Admiral. Instead what their nets had caught was a bounty of a different sort. Resurgents, several of them, had been caught in their trap. They were incredible damaged and no where near combat ready. Why had they been all the way out here? He'd heard they were collapsing under the invading Ssi-Ruu...Did that mean the damn lizards were expanding that quickly to the core?

"Put her on," he muttered. A young woman appeared before him as a hologram. State of the art in every way she came in clearly despite her own apparent difficulties. She seemed to be shouting but no audio came through and the hologram itself was partially in color but with a heavy blue tint.

"Can we clean it up?"

"We can try." Finally the holgram stabilized and the audio came through.

"-Civilians." Came the voice.

 

[Sienna Vekarr]

The transmission was going through but something had damaged the holoprojector itself. The techs were hard at work and when the signal was given she began to speak to the hologram of the Quarth man in the hologram. She swallowed hard and tried her best smile.

"This is the First Order Vessel Absolute Victory," the irony of her situation was not lost on her, "We're fleeing the Ssi-ruu invasion and we have civilians! We're surrendering and seeking asylum. Please, help us. We will cooperate with whatever demands you have."

The talk was long and mostly fruitful. The First Order ships would be boarded and ranking officers like herself would be inprisoned aboard the Corellian vessels. Non-essential crew, which included the Stormtroopers and security personnel, as well as the civilians were to be locked down in the hangars. The ships would be run by skeleton crews for navigation purposes only and Corellian personnel would handle part of the load for critical systems and navigation. Corellian Shocktroopers boarded and acted as guards to make sure these demands were met.

It was a raw deal. No ifs ands or buts about it, but even if the First Order was falling, she still had a duty to these people at the least.

 

[Yularen Nova]

The process was a long one. Shorter than a space battle would have been for sure but without the constant action and fear of death tickling the base of his spine things felt as if they were moving in slow motion. Prison transports from Corellia arrived within the hour along with backup in case this was an ambush waiting to be sprung. Yularen himself had flown to the Absolute Victory, the self-proclaimed flagship of the small fleet of broken vessels.

It was his first time aboard a Resurgent-Class battlecruiser. Flanked on both sides by Shocktroopers Yularen inspected the halls and hangars and bridge before making his way back to the hangar where the prisoners were being transported. From afar he spotted the young woman who had contacted him and remembered she'd never given her name nor rank. He was sure Corellian Intelligence would get that information soon enough once they were back in the Corellian System but for now....He would introduce himself.

Moving swiftly to the transport he paused the CorSec Trooper overseeing the transfer.

"You there," he said, placing a large hand on the smaller woman's shoulder, "We haven't been properly introduced. I am Fleet Admiral Yularen Nova of the Corellian Defense Force. You are the one that hailed us to begin with correct?"

 

[Sienna Vekarr]

Sienna nodded to the large Quarth before shrugging his hand off of her shoulder.

"I am...Was, Commander Sienna Vekar and I was the most senior officer on my vessel. " The Quarth man looked at her, arching a brow. Quarth were surprisingly human in their expresions she noted. This was her first time meeting one in person.

"Commander...That's a low rank to be commanding a battlecruiser in the First Order isn't it? Especially as many as were following your orders here." Sienna's eyes dropped to her bloodied boots and her face flushed red in shame. She was sure that on the other vessels there were higher ranking officers but she hadn't told them that the Commodore was dead and had essentially broken First Order law by impersonating a higher ranked officer.

"Its good you care about your people, its a good quality to have in a naval commander." A compliment? Her face flushed even more.

But did any of that matter if she had saved thousands? She thought the trade off was better, even if they were now all prisoners. The Quarth grunted and nodded to the Corellian Trooper who started the line moving again, giving her a light shove towards the dark interior of the prison ship.

 

[Sienna Vekarr]

​

Corellian System - Several Hours Later

She'd never been to the Corellian System, but she'd always heard the Corellian Shipyards were a sight to see. Nobody had said anything about the sight of the Corellian armada.

As she and the other prisoners moved through the corridors of the massive Golan Star Fortress she couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight of the massive vessels entering and leaving the system, patrolling in orbit, and performing routine checks. She felt her self slow was shoved by a CorSec Trooper to keep her in step. Pain from her braced leg shot through her hip and she winced. She was in a prisoner's garb now, all gray jumpsuit.

"Get a move on!" Shouted one of the CorSec Troopers.

The planet was surprisingly well defended, especially for a New Republic world. Speaking of, she had yet to see a single New Republic vessel since she'd arrived and they looked like they were arming, quickly. In the distance she spotted the vessel that had stopped them and started this journey and wondered how the civilians were doing now. She walked, absently in thought for what felt like ages before the whole group was stopped and she bumped into the CorSec Trooper who was leading the group of prisoners to further processing. The troopers saluted and when she peaked around the trooper's shoulder she saw who to. A man walked towards them with purpose, flanked by two New CorSec Troopers. A Corellian Bloodstripe ran up his pant leg and a Corellian Admiralty pauldron adorned his shoulder, but his uniform was obviously New Republic.

 

[Dracken Pryce]

​

When Pryce heard that several Resurgent-class Battlecruisers had been captured in the Corellian Sector he'd been skeptical. As far as Republic and Corellian reports were concerned the First Order was deep in its own war with the Ssi-ruu. Thousands of worlds had gone dark and even some Corellian Intelligence agents had stopped checking in, which mean things had been dire. What was a small fleet worth of Battlecruisers doing so far away from the war? Preliminary reports from the crews of the vessels said they were running from the Ssi-ruu, which the extensive damage to the ships supported, and that they were headed to Sith Imperial space on the opposite side of the Galaxy to seek asylum.

With most of the Corellian and Humbarine sectors in his care and his connections to the Corellian Navy he was alerted almost immediately and had reached out to Yularen. The Fleet Admiral had brought one prisoner to his attention, the one that had commanded the fleet despite being so young, Sienna Vekar. Yularen wanted her for Corellia, saw some sort of potential, but Pryce wanted to see for himself. He wasn't much older than she was, only a decade separated the two. Yet both had impressive naval records if hers was to be believed. She wasn't like most of the First Order officers he'd met. Staunch in her beliefs and seemingly indoctronated from a young age, her unwavering loyalty seemed to be fading.

Pryce and his escorts stopped in front of the group of prisoners and he motioned for Vekar to be removed from the group. She didn't fight it, and the group went on their way.

"Follow me," he said. It left a bad taste in his mouth, letting this First Order agent of death free, but if Corellian High Command saw her as an asset who was he to argue?

 

[Sienna Vekarr]

The man didn't introduce himself nor say why she was being singled out, but she followed orders. She always followed orders. The path they took was long and winding. The man continued to give her occasional glances, some sharp, some soft. She couldn't tell what was on his mind as she followed him and the two other troopers to the large office that she assumed was the Station Commander's office. It was dark and a single man sat at a centered desk. Dark skinned and bald, he was an imposing figure but seemed to hold no rank insignias that she could see.

"Thank you Admiral Pryce, your service to Corellia is always appreciated." The man that had brought her to the room saluted.

"Thank you Director Basali. I'll take my leave now." Before Basali could dismiss him the man was out of the room and it was just the two of them left. The man motioned for her to take a seat and she did so.

"Let me take care of those cuffs." He pressed a finger to a console and a side door opened, revealing a solder clad in black armor with a green faceplate. He was ominous and didn't speak but quickly walked over and unclasped the shock-cuffs. The cuffs had left a red welt around her wrists and she rubbed it to ease the pain.

"I'm sure you're curious why we brought you here today of all people." Sienna nodded, cautious to say anything that would see her shoved out the nearest airlock. "We, rather Yularen, was impressed with your record and the way you handled the situation. On his recommendation I wanted to offer you...A position within our organization." Sienna's eyes widened in surprise but she still said nothing.

"Times are changing in the Galaxy, I'm sorry for your loss in the First Order. But you survived. You alone maintained the safety of thousands of your comrades, and while some of them will be executed due to other crimes during the war with the Galactic Alliance..." he paused to catch her reaction. She tried to not give anything away but the way he spoke felt like he was gloating. She gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists on her lap, anger welling up inside her.

"Most of those you brought with you will be safe and either imprisoned or released along with the other Civilians you brought with you. Thousands. Its impressive to be frank. Join the Corellian Defense Force, more importantly I want you to join Corellian Naval Intelligence as one of our captains."

"I-" Basali raised a hand.

"You'd face trial first, and should you be found not guilty of any of the charges we'll be able to begin training right away. Found guilty and you serve a reduced sentence with the remainder in service to us. Deal?"

Sienna's eyes sparkled and a sly smirk inched its way across her lips which was mirrored by Basali. Sienna was a survivor, and while she yearned to be back with the First Order, she was no fool. Their days were done and gone. What else would she rather do? She had no answer, but she had the idea that if she refused she would be found guilty of some other outrageous charge and executed just like her peers that had likely refused a similar offer.

Basali reached out his hand to shake and Sienna took it.