Long Live The Empire
The recall travelled through frequencies long believed dead, carrying the same command to scattered fleets, abandoned garrisons, and dark servants who had concealed their allegiance beneath another banner. The message was clear: Come home, the Emperor commands it. A directive that shook loyalists to their core, word from the Emperor himself, not seen since the Galaxy itself united against the Death Star III. Locked in combat with Jedi Master Romi Jade, the Emperor was thought lost when the superweapon was destroyed. Recognized chain codes passed between warships assembling in secret. Veterans returned to their stations, bringing fellow soldiers, their grievances, and their ambitions with them. The crimson imperial crest soon flew openly again, with transmissions carrying the Sith’ari’s will spreading across the Old Empire like wildfire.
Above Ord Mantell, Imperial Star Destroyers emerged in battle formation, their guns turning toward the defenses protecting the deepdock and Mantell City. On Ghorman, months of COMPNOR agitation reached their culmination as agents and armed proxies moved to overthrow the government and secure the resources needed to sustain the returning fleets. At Yinchorr, the Sepulchre carried the Dark Side Elite toward a sealed vault, an ancient relic, and unfinished business with those who had betrayed their oaths. Each operation would lay a foundation for the campaigns to come. The officers on the bridges, the soldiers in the landing craft, and the operatives awaiting their signal had answered the same summons. Together, they would give the galaxy reason to fear the Empire once more.
ORD MANTELL | FLEET COMBAT · STARFIGHTERS · GROUND ASSAULT
The Short-Range Hyperspace Radar systems were too slow to register the sudden arrival of the Empire. At the break of dawn, the first thing Ord Mantell’s provisional government over their skies was the shadow of an Imperial Star Destroyer crossing the Deepdock. More followed, Imperial III-class Star Destroyers emerging from hyperspace in formation, converging on Ord Mantell. Their batteries turned toward the planet before the local authorities could finish demanding identification. The answer soon came in coordinated volleys, defense emplacements systematically coming offline from their tactical displays as turbolasers opened fire. Emergency channels immediately began to fill intercepted comms with overlapping reports as Ord Mantell's defenders scrambled to meet what-seemed-to-be an invasion already underway.
The Empire had returned for its shipyards.
The orbital deepdock deemed essential to the repair and rebuilding of the Imperial Navy. Its repair facilities must survive the assault, along with the machinery and personnel needed to operate them. Boarding forces are ordered to seize its control centers while the fleet shatters defending warships.
Over Mantell City, TIE fighters descend through the clouds in a blitzkrieg. Utilizing lightning-fast swarm tactics, the Empire moves to quickly assume air superiority. Below, troop transports approach Mantell City under fighter escort. The skyhook rises above the city centre, its immense structure disappearing into the smoke gathering overhead. Around its foundations, local defense forces establish barricades and bring their weapons to bear on the approaching landing craft. The opening bombardment has fractured the planetary defenses, but it has not broken the soldiers holding the streets.
Secure the deepdock. Establish air superiority over Mantell City. Drive through the defenders and capture the skyhook intact. The Empire needs a port from which its campaign can sail.
The assault has begun. Man your stations.
GHORMAN | COMPNOR · POLITICAL INTRIGUE · INSURRECTION
By the time the first shots are fired, COMPNOR has been on Ghorman for months. Its influence having travelled through sympathetic broadcasters, private donations, and weapons shipments passed between intermediaries. Public anger for the vacuum left by the Galactic Alliance and the longing for order established by the Galactic Empire has found new willing sponsors. Opposition leaders who once struggled to fill a meeting hall now address crowds in the streets. Behind them stand men and women whose loyalty belongs to an Empire most of Ghorman believes gone.
Tonight, those investments come due.
Demonstrators converge on the government district as armed factions move among them. Within the ministries, officials discover that colleagues have stopped answering their calls. Security commanders receive contradictory instructions across the planetary networks, accusations of corruption and betrayal compete with appeals for calm amidst violent upheaval.
It’s a powder keg waiting to go off. COMPNOR's chosen successors wait for their moment to declare a new government, but must live long enough to do so. The current administration still commands loyal security forces, and the streets contain people pursuing causes no Imperial handler controls. A crowd can turn, an ally may hesitate, and an ambitious revolutionary may decide that Ghorman's future belongs to them alone.
Into that uncertainty, the Empire sends its best agents to bring the government down. Protect the figures prepared to replace it, confront those resisting the coup, and ensure that the victorious administration honours its commitments as angry mobs burn and loot the capital. Beneath Ghorman lie kalkite and other valuable resources; their passage to the Empire’s High Command must be secured by the incoming government that emerges. Across the galaxy, other factions will watch a government fall while its own citizens carry the banners.
Let them wonder who among their advisers has already received an offer.
YINCHORR | DARK SIDE ELITE · IMPERIAL RECLAMATION SERVICE · VAULT EXPEDITION
The summons came without a transmission. A cold tremor passes through the Force, touching the Dark Side Elite across the distances that separate them. For an instant, the weakened bond pulls taut. A familiar presence, like a suffocating miasma presses against those who can sense it from impossibly far away.
The Sith’ari calls to his followers.
No clear words follow the feeling, an impression that persists when the presence recedes.
Ibaris Varanin
speaks to the Dark Side Elite, informing them that the wait was now over. Yinchorr, and something waiting beneath its Royal Guard Academy, was in their grasp.Above the world, the Sepulchre arrives.
For generations, the Royal Guard Academy forged servants whose lives belonged to the throne. Beneath that facility lies a more recent addition: a vault commissioned for the Emperor after the fall of the Galactic Alliance. Within it rests the Oracle Stone of Chirikyât, an instrument fashioned by the Sith'ari himself. Through its visions, his servants may find the first indication of where he calls to them from and perhaps how to reach him. But the academy has not remained faithful, among those holding its grounds are Imperials who pledged themselves to rival Sith after the destruction of the Death Star III. They believed the Emperor gone, now they occupy the academy and stand between his chosen servants and the relic they have come to reclaim.
The Dark Side Elite will suffer no traitors, there will be no mercy.
Breach the academy. Hunt down the turncoats who hold it. Descend with the Imperial Reclamation Service into the vault and recover the Oracle Stone. Those who betrayed the throne are to receive no quarter, but beware.. the stone offers visions of possible futures, and the desire to believe them can become a prison of its own. Recovering it will require strength of will and a mastery of the Dark Side. Knowing which revelation to trust will demand more.
Somewhere beyond the reach of their senses, the Emperor has stirred.
Find the stone. Follow the vision. Find him.