Dorn: A Star Wars Story

24. Vanguard

I was sitting at my desk, head in my hands, maybe sleeping when my door hissed open and Freis ran in panting, "General!" I shouted and sat up in my seat, expecting the worst. "The Admiral is-!"

Before she could finish, Sevens shoved his way inside looking like he had seen a ghost. Saying that he looked distressed was an understatement. "Come with me. Now." He reached out and seized me by the wrist, dragging me from my place at my desk along with him as we hurried out of the room. I hadn't seen him that worked up in ages.

"What's going on?"

"We'll talk in my office. Too many ears." He practically slung me into the lift, and when the doors closed I saw him run a hand back through his hair. He kept bouncing between his feet as we watched the floor indicator slowly tick up before he spun and grabbed me by the shoulders, "We are being asked to commit the equivalent of high treason!" He hissed the words quietly enough that no one would hear, but the doors opened seconds later to reveal two very, very anxious officers who stared at me, widened their eyes, and stepped back away from the lift to let the doors close and just wait for the next one. Sevens paused briefly before turning to look back at me, "I love you and your devilish reputation."

"Hold on," I held up a hand and shook my head, "What do you mean?"

"Grand Admiral Sloane and High General Daala sent me and encrypted communique this morning and wanted me to rally a handful of the Old Guard." He stopped as the door opened on our floor and hurried out. I had to trot just to keep up with his frenzied pace. He opened the door and slammed it shut behind us. I watched him lock down every channel in and out of the room before looking up at me, "Dorn, they're leaving. And they want us to stay behind as their rearguard."

"Wait, what?" That was news. Big news. Scary news, if I was being honest considering that it would likely leave us in a pretty compromising situation should anyone start asking questions. "Why?"

"I have absolutely no idea, and that is why I'm panicking because we are not getting invited along," he threw himself down into his desk chair as he spoke and began fussing his lower lip with his teeth. "I worry that we will get branded as traitors and killed at best."

"You forgot the whole "torture them until they break" thing." I turned to the voice and saw Thesh stepping inside, which baffled me as to how he got in. he looked equally distressed and was followed by several more officers whose faces I also recognized from various Destroyers and operation I had been on throughout my days as a Stromtrooper. Peek wobbled in with Thesh and hurried over to my side as some of the old officers warily made their way over to the desk. 

Sevens stood up and looked them over before turning around and sealing the shutters over all of his windows and opening a holocall.

That was when we saw her.

High General Natasi Daala was a face from my past. She had been one of Tarkin's greatest successes, and for the short time I had been under her direct command in the Stormtrooper Corps, I hadn't felt safer and more viciously effective. Of course, that got her promoted quickly out of commanding regular Stormtroopers. She was a tall woman, imposing, and was one of the only officers I knew who could get away with wearing her hair long. She was brutally efficient, and I still had a sense of awe over her sheer command of a space.

"I understand that our time here is short, ladies and gentlemen, so I will get straight to the point," she began with all of the lack of pomp that I loved about her. "Grand Admiral Sloane and I are preparing to do something that will likely be considered high treason by anyone and everyone who does not understand the gravity of the situation, and we have asked the lot of your here today because we trust you."

"We're all ears, ma'am," one of the army officers spoke up behind me. I knew him from somewhere, but I wasn't sure from where. I do remember that he was over a few Stormtrooper legions, though, and I remember him being kriffing good at his job. The more I looked around, the more faces i knew, and the more faces I knew that became attached to competence. if I was there, that meant something.

"Palpatine discovered something in the Unknown Regions," she began again as a map projected between us and the towering holo of her. "We don't know what, but we do know that it made him very, very concerned. If it was making arguably the most powerful man in the galaxy nervous, then we should be, too. Sources within the Chiss Ascendancy have informed us that there have been interesting phenomena occurring in the fringes of Ascendancy space. Grand Admiral Sloane and I intend to take our fleet and chase what Palpatine was after to stop it before it gets the chance to strike at the Outer Rim and Core."

"That's all well and good, ma'am, but where do we come in?" Thesh inquire as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We are technically in your Fleets, after all."

"That is precisely where you come in." Sloane's voice came through the holo alongside Daala's image, and soon the Grand Admiral stepped into frame. She looked as noble and intimidating as I remember her being with her dark hair streaked with a swath of silver, but her visage looked troubled these days. "You cannot speak a word of this plan to Pryde, Ahuff. I know that he saved your life..."

"With all due respect, Grand Admiral," Thesh looked up at her image on the holo, "but I owe nothing to anyone except the Empire."

"And that loyalty is exactly why you all are here," Sloane nodded. "There are people like Brendol who are prideful and self-serving, people like his son that are too ambitious for their own good, and people like Pryde whose allegiances I don't particularly trust. Everyone  this room has shown to be Imperial loyalists in the purest sense of the word. Which is why we need you all to be our rearguard against the First Order and our vanguard in the event of an attack."

"And you're asking us to do something very risky on what is, in essence, a hunch," Sevens cut in, his worry still scrawled across his face.

"Can I count on you? Your father was a loyal Imperial, Rhan. I need people here that I can trust - who I know have the best interests of the Empire at heart - if our suspicions turn out to be correct."

"Of course, Grand Admiral," I saw Sevens furrow his brow, "but... I confess that I would much rather be coming with you."

"I know," she gave him an indulgent smile, "but I need people here who I can count on to be our defensive line should the worst come to pass. The Emperor felt something out there. Brendol isn't going to follow through, and someone needs to find out what it is and stop it, if necessary."

"Palpatine's motives must be questioned thoroughly following Operation Cinder," Daala nodded and clasped her hands behind her back, "and if there is something out there that even he feared, we need to be ready. More than ready."

"You all are Old Guard Imperials," Sloane looked between all of us, her brow furrowing and her own hands finding themselves clasped behind her back as well, "and I trust you all as much as anyone. General Ruana, Admiral Ahuff, I am counting on you to reinforce Admiral Kaine at every opportunity. You three have always worked well together."

"You were one of my Stormtroopers, Ruana," Daala nodded to me with a smirk, "and if anyone can help these ship jockeys hold the line, it's one of our finest."

Sloane chuckled, "Don't fail us now, gentlemen."

"Never, Admiral," I nodded, and I caught her smile again with a nod. 

"We need to go before we're missed. Good luck, and thank you."