[Star Wars] Ars Moriendi - Imperial Navy Ship

Ars Moriendi - Chapter 3 Reunion

Chapter 3-  Reunion

The second shuttle was heading towards the small village far from the Planetary capital and Imperial city of Valentia. The lambda shuttle made a quiet descent on a small field and despite the low profile Captain Alexis Antares tried to keep, a small crowd of villagers had formed.

He instructed his stormtroopers to be lax and commanded them not to follow him and stay close to the shuttle as he exited down the ramp.

As he neared the ramp the village local chief approached him with fervor as he signaled his stormtroopers to allow the village chief to approach, as they were in the act of blocking him.

"Welcome Commander" The Village chief enthusiastically greeted. "We don't get many Imperial Visitors away from the Capital City, What brings you here?"

"Oh, I'm on vacation and I came here in a personal capacity." Captain Alexis explained.

"So kind of you to grace us with your presence Commander, uhm? Your names sir? " Asked the village chief

"Captain Alexis Artanes, Commander of the Ars Moriendi." He said glowing with pride.

"Alex? Is that you? You Alex? I barely recognized you." Said the Village chief sparkling in disbelief "I'm Tandor Ree, you only studied in the Academy and you already forgot about me?" Ree himself wasn't able to recognize Alex right away, the Rebellious aura he always had was somewhat muted and Alex in the clean-cut uniform was a complete antithesis to the carefree attitude he knew Alex for. Ree approached Alex and gave him a hug. Alex was like a lost Son to Ree and after Alex was sent to the Inner Rim to study for the Imperial Navy academy his nephew Ciena Ree was all he had to busy his long afternoons. Like Alex, Ciena has taken a great interest in going to the academy after her encounter with Grand Moff Tarkin months ago. Ciena was able to talk to the Moff when she and her friends sneaked into an Imperial Hanger to look at a Lambda Shuttle during Tarkin's visit to Valentia and there Ciena decided that she wanted to join the Imperial Navy. Ree chuckled and lead Alex to his house, they had a long catch-up talk to do and Ree was excited to let Ciena meet Alex.

"Oh, Uncle Ree, I'm sorry I was not able to recognize you right away, You've grown older than I imagined." Said Alex jokingly, he was fighting off Ree's grasp while he was being dragged to Ree's abode, he didn't want to let his stormtroopers see a personal side of him and when he looked back at his shuttle his Stormtroopers understood and pretended not to see and busied themselves in settling down and mingling with the locals.

Before Alex could settle down Ree's House his nephew Ciena Ree came dashing towards him with an elated smile. Ciena bombarded him with questions regarding his life in the Academy, about his Ship and the Imperial Navy and Alex was all too happy to answer all of her questions. Alex was swelling with pride with all the attention that he forgot to ask about his father, the real reason for his visit, and the cause of the mysterious redirection of the Ars Moriendi to Jelucan. He decided that his father could wait, he probably already knew about the news of his visit, his father had the knack of knowing things ahead of time and figuring out what others were thinking.

"My ship is a lot smaller than an Imperial I class Destroyer about half the size." Alex gestured to Ciane who was vividly imagining the scale of the mighty ship. He was amazed how Ciane at nine years was so fixated with the Imperial Navy, he thought she would make a fine Starship commander one day probably even outranking him. He chuckled at the thought.

"So, how many Pirate frigates can the Victory Class Destroyer take on?" Ciane asked with pure curiosity. "Do you have your own Lambda Shuttle?" Ciane bombarded Alex with questions, as soon as He was done answering one another questions would shoot up, Their conversation droned on into the night and Alex was not aware of the time until Verine Ree, Ciane's mother had to drag Ciane home.

After Ciane was taken home by her mother much to her dismay Alex had a small chat with Tandor Ree before heading out to his own home. He remembered the small dirt strewn path leading to his house dearly, he reminisced the days during his boyhood when he used to walk the same path with his friends pretending to be soldiers in a mock battle and how his parents shouting at him when he returned too late from school and all covered in bruises because he had been playing too rough.

He made his parent's life miserable for being rebellious and stubborn, he would always sneak out early from class to go play in the fields with his friends or skip chores to go climbing in the mountains but at the end of the day his father would always found out as if reading his thoughts like an open book but now he was no longer coming home after a day of rebelling his parents, today he was finally coming home filled with pride for fulfilling a promise he made to his parents. 

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We'll be uploading chapter 4 around wednesday,

hope you enjoy the read