Ask Babysitting Ambassadors

[Edward Warwick]

A hum spread throughout the ship as the hyperdrive on the ‘Incomparable’ slowly spun down. It had been a relatively smooth transition from Imperial Space to the void above Saleucami, with only one stop needed to avoid a black hole drifting between the two. On-board the ship was Imperial Ambassador Etra Avrado, weirdly a distant relative of Edward’s and a member of another Tionese bloodline that stretched back over thousands of years. It was just that distant tie that made the Captain assign Edward to the Ambassador’s security detail down on the planet.

He didn’t mind too much, it was a chance to get away from four walls of steel and recycled air. “Ambassador, this way.” Edward said, signalling, holding his arm out and pointing towards the loading ramp for the shuttle, sat in the Incomparable’s hanger. The smartly dressed Imperial figure swiftly left the confines of the corridor and strutted across the landing area, Edward followed along with two aid’s and four armed guards. Looking up he spotted the two TIE fighters getting fueled and ready for take off to escort the shuttle down to the surface.

“Welcome aboard Ambassdor.” The shuttle’s Captain said, greeting him at the door before showing the man and the rest of the group their seats. Edward, like the guards, had seen the inside of these kinds of shuttles multiple times and needed no direction but they followed it politely, strapping themselves in as the shuttle began powering up its engines. “By sundown, Saleucami will swear fealty to the Empire and we will all be sipping cocktails in the afterparty.” Etra smiled, slapping his own knee as he spoke. This was going to be a long day, Edward thought.


@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

The newly promoted Captain Kellan Solari lowered himself through the ship’s access hatch and busied himself running through the pre-flight checks. The ritual was one of such familiarity that his hands drifted across the assortment of panels and data banks almost without his noticing. Levels were read, diagnostics confirmed, diodes winked green and by all accounts the TIE Fighter’s readiness was nominal. So why did he feel so uneasy?

His newly acquired rank had provided few of the benefits he had imagined it might have during his days as a lieutenant. Respect took the form of (mostly) good-natured ribbing by his comrades. Pay…well, suffice to say one didn’t enlist in the Imperial Navy for the pay. Opportunity? If babysitting ambassadors was one’s idea of opportunity, he supposed this qualified.

All told, all a captain’s rank had thus far brought him was an unwanted assignment, an extra set of rank badges on his insignia plaque and the quiet snickering of his peers behind his back. He caught sight of the shuttle he was assigned to escort flare its sublight engines. Control’s voice came through the comms, granting him permission for launch. He gave the ground crew a parting thumbs up and navigated the fighter out of The Incomparable’s busy hangar.

The familiar lurch of space was there to greet him as he left the Star Destroyer’s artificial gravity and swept out towards the gentle curvature of Saleucami’s outline.

“Theta One to Theta Two.” he said the comms. “Stay on my port and we’ll swing round and rendezvous on the shuttle’s six.”

“Copy that, Theta One.”

The voice filtered through his headset was his other source of unease. He was not overly fond of joint operations. Kellan allowed himself a glance out of her rear viewport at the patch of space where the Imperial Star Destroyer The Detente sat. Why Commander Darrow had opted to volunteer Kellan for VIP duty aboard someone else’s ship was anyone’s guess. But Kellan suspected it might have to do with the newly minted Captain in front of his name.

In any case, he found himself stationed aboard an unfamiliar ship with an unfamiliar wingman. It all added up to unneeded tension as far as he was concerned. But as the shuttle emerged and set a course toward the sheet of flaxen-colored atmosphere that masked Saleucami’s surface, the pilot quieted his internal grumblings and set his attention to the job at hand. The TIEs fell onto her wings and trailed her descent.

“Keep an eye on your scanners and stay sharp, Two.” he ordered. It was going to be a long day.

@Braden

 

[Edward Warwick]

A few clicks and chirps could be heard from the front of the shuttle as the Captain went through his last pre-flight checks. A moment later and a hum and buzz filtered through the ship, its engines coming to life. “Are we all ready?” He called out of the comms, knowing that none of us could actually reply, then with a light pull of the throttle and stick the shuttle pulled off the surface of the hanger. A small lurch in Edwards stomach as the shuttles' own artificial gravity slowly began to spin up as they neared the edge of the hanger. As they slipped past the Incomparable’s ray-fields it fully engaged leaving them less than a microsecond of zero G, before moving out into the vast nothingness of space.

Edward spotted a TIE fighter through the Shuttle’s windows as they formed up on the Ambassadors' transport. It was more of a show of force than necessary, Saleucami had invited the Empire to treat out of their own free will. But the Empire needed to show that Saleucami needed the Empire more than the Empire needed Saleucami, although the balance wasn’t as tipped as some would assume. The Incomparable had been purposefully pulled off border patrol just to bolster the small fleet that arrived above the planet, leaving a decent sized hole in the Imperial defence patterns. One that they arrival of the Salecuami and its vast industrial complex would easily cover a hundred times over in one cycle should they achieve their goal today.

“We are about to enter the atmosphere.” The Captain called out again seconds before the ships shields began to glow with the heat of the atmosphere colliding against it.

@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

The cadre of Imperial ships slid deftly from orbit into the dark indigo of the planet’s mesosphere. Solari had never visited Saleucami before, though he seemed to recall from his General Histories of the Outer Rim class at the Academy that it had historically enjoyed a reputation as a prominent trading hub in the region. Little wonder then that Imperial Command had deemed it strategically valuable. Still, he thought to himself as they slipped from the cover of cloud canvas and into the atmosphere proper, it’d be nice to lay eyes on it in person.

The parched and craggy surface of Saleucami fanned out beneath them, its semi-desert topography jagged and severe. The shuttle banked to port and Kellan followed. Up ahead, situated behind the crescent ridge of a tremendous crater, winked the distant lights of Taleucema, the planet’s largest city and primary spaceport. Nestled inside the broad hollow of the crater, Kellan could make out lush carpets of green encircling the urban center. From ridge to ridge, the entire geographical cavity was packed with forests and glens, growing starkly in contrast to the bleak, arid wastes beyond.

He dialed to the short-band frequency reserved for pilot-to-pilot communication.

“Alright, that’s the place.” he said, dropping the rigid formality required on broadband communications. “Kriff, I’m starving. Word is these guys are practically begging to join the Empire. Let’s hope there’s a welcome banquet that reflects that desire.”

“They might let a captain dine at the adults table.” Theta Two replied glumly. “Lieutenants probably get an MRE and a mug of blue milk.”

“Maybe. Eyes open.” Kellan responded tersely. “Switching back to Op-band. We’re beginning our approach.”

It was the same everywhere you went.

@Braden

 

[Kellan Solari]

The atmosphere of Saleucami warmed to a plush orange in anticipation of dusk, painting the interior of Kellan’s cockpit in pastels. He confirmed their approach vector and studied the desolate landscape below. The barren, mountainous topography was reminiscent of Ryloth, where as a youth he had spent untold hours exploring the countless dry lakes and slot canyons the world had to offer. The desert held its own version of beauty, the power of the natural world on display in its polished lines and primeval architecture. But even amongst such wonders, Kellan’s eyes had always drifted skyward and the boundless potential it held.

He saw the familiar lines of his father’s face.

Streaks of radiant light sliced the airspace before his viewport in phosphorescent bands, wrenching Kellan from his reverie. Laserfire! They were being fired on!

“Groundfire! Evasive action!” he barked into comms, rolling his TIE portside, a salvo of bolts whistling past his keel. Below, a steady stream of fire arcing upward from the interior of a shadowed gulch. Was this a trap? An ambush orchestrated by the Saleucami? Surely they couldn’t be so foolish! “Return to The Incomparable! Repeat, return to…”

The piercing cry of missile-lock alarms drowned out the remainder of his commands and he banked in time to catch sight of a torpedo racing up towards the fleeing shuttle. He swung his fighter toward the projectile and opened fire. His initial shots strayed wide but he adjusted and soon found his mark. The torpedo erupted into flame as he flung his TIE upward to avoid its fiery death.

Alarms blared anew but before Kellan could react, his own wing disintegrated into a blaze of flame as another missile struck true. The TIE’s interior flared red and readouts flashed urgently. There was no controlling the ship now. He pulled against inertia but the fighter corkscrewed into a death spiral. The shuttle spun into view and with a sickening realization, he knew a collision was an inevitability.

“Brace for impa..” Theta One slammed into the shuttle’s portside wing, shearing it neatly from the ship. As the shuttle entered its own tumbling descent, Captain Solari watched the surface of Saleucami grow through the cracked transparisteel of his viewport.

@Braden