The Returning Knight: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 25: Maiden Voyage

The Voyager departed from her dock yard following a full refit and overhaul of the ship as per the orders of Inquisitor Kharna. 

She was sitting in the command chair of the vessel, meditating to guide the ship through hyperspace to the Hapes cluster. Vader had also attached two squads of Noghri death commandos to the Voyager.

Her Captain, a young man named 'Taer Antioch' gave the order for the jump and stared out of the windows of the Voyager's bridge as the stars streaked past and into hyperspace.

The journey took six days before it was over. She had decided not to drop half a lightyear away from the Nantuker system seeing as that is where she sensed him. On an interception course with the Liberator.

The Voyager released her modified Lambda class shuttles and the Gozanti class cruiser around the Hapes system itself to gather intelligence on naval and royal communications. Their movements shall not go unnoticed.

Voyager krept through the outer system but stopped mid-way through it. Revan prefered a fighter surprise attack rather than a direct engagement.

She waited and waited until she could sense Sigil's presence nearby when it suddenly went blank. 'Where the hell did he go to?' She thought to herself.

"Do a full sweep of the area, I want every object within a thousand kilometers accounted for." She ordered, knowing that if she could sense Sigil, he could also sense her in return and she didn't trust that he would play nice.

Her crew conducted sweep after sweep and fighter scouting missions to no avail. He was a slippery opponent yet he couldn't escape the system with the broken hyperdrives as documented by the gunners of the Executor.

"My lady, a group of three objects detected." The radar officer informed. "Size?" She questioned. "One is around six hundred meters while the other two are at the three hundred meter bullpark." He replied. "Captain, have the ship's port side face this incoming threat and keep the interceptors at the ready." She ordered. "Yes mam." He replied.

The crew of the Voyager was on high alert. They were potentially stuck in a three way battle and they couldn't let the Hapans in particular escape so as to not alert the wider government so they wouldn't declare war on both factions. Even with her ships surrounding the system, she wouldn't risk it. 

All the unnecessary systems were turned off so as to not give off too much of a signature in the blackness of space. The only light in the bridge was that of the radar which she monitored personally along with her officer.

Boosting her senses with the force, all that came was blackness behind so large of asteroids in that belt that they blocked off sunlight, leaving them in even darker space.

From about ten thousand kilometers away, in the inner part of the star system, a Hapan task force made of one Hapan battle dragon and two Nova class cruisers approached the lone Venator. 

"Status report." Captain Poruna of the battle dragon. "Captain, we have so far detected a ship over a kilometer long idling in the asteroid belt, ten thousand kilometers away. Should we inform the rest of navy command?" Her radar technician inquired.

"That wouldn't be necessary, move forwards for the kill. Estimated arrival time?" She asked. "About six hours Captain." Her pilot informed. "Have all crews ready for battle five hours from now. That Acclamator is no longer the first priority." She told her comms officer to which the other woman nodded. 

Indeed they had engaged with the Liberator earlier who had decided to use the Nantuker home star as a gravity slingshot to escape the area. The hapans couldn't risk such a maneuver with more fragile hulls and shields.