Star Wars: Crimson Commander

Chapter One: The New War

Locke Terroz:
6 ABY, Empty Space - Outer Rim

The monstrous dagger shaped Super Star Destroyer, the Imperial Fist, floats silently though the emptiness of space with a large fleet joining it. Aboard it is a tall middle aged man, wearing a crisp green-grey naval uniform and a rank plaque the identifies him as a Grand Moff. Several holo cameras float around the man, trying getting several different angles of his speech about to air.

"Grand Moff Locke, are you sure you want to do this?", a advisor blurts out. "The New Republic and other warlords will have our coordinates, and will send fleets to attack and destroy us."
"You doubt my plans, advisor? I will have you imprisoned for treason. No. Killed for treason. This pitiful New Republic wouldn't dare strike me, they know I have the Imperial Fist under my command. They would lose more then we would in any attempt.", Locke responds while signaling to two nearby Stormtroopers. "Take this traitor away and throw him out a airlock. He shall be an example to what we do to traitors and doubters."
"P-please sir! I d-didn't mean that! Please! No!", the advisor yells while being dragged out of the bridge. After the doors out of the bridge shut and the screams of the advisor become muffled and distant, Locke turns back to the rest of the gathered officers.
"Now, does anyone else have anything to say?", Locke rhetorically says with a scowl. "Good. Now let's begin..."
The Grand Moff straightens and nods over to a nearby comm officer who starts to air the live speech about to start throughout the galaxy.

"War...", Locke begins. "War can simply be defined as a conflict between two sides. The Old Republic against the Sith Empire, the Republic against the Separatists, and the Empire against the Rebellion. But now, now the once glorious Empire that strived for peace and security is diminishing, and the corrupt New Republic has taken its place. We fought for peace and freedom, but we let these terrorists win against us. But this war is not over, it's far from over. Your task is simple for most of you; you will still fight in the name of the Emperor, and now you also will fight in the name of me. And we shall continue to fight, in the name of our late Emperor, in the name of the galaxy! We shall not fall again to these traitors! We shall reclaim the galaxy, for peace, for security, for the Emperor! The New Republic shall fall!", Locke could hear muffled cheering throughout the Super Star Destroyer before it died down soon after. "We will be the saviors of this Empire, so join me in my quest to bring back the security and safety that our galaxy once had. Join us, join the Emperor's Will and fight against this corrupt New Republic! Come to these coordinates and enlist in our new order!", the Moff finally says before the transmission ends. Screens throughout the galaxy go dark for a second, but soon after the "Imperial March" starts playing and coordinates slide across the now black screens.

"Grand Moff, we successfully reached hundreds of systems. Most of the speech even made it to Coruscant before being shut down.", Locke's admiral, Donovan Valentine, gleefully said. "By our estimates, enlisters from the Outer Rim should be here within a few hours and the ones from the Mid Rim and the Core should be here within a few days."
"Excellent. Alert me when the first recruits arrive, I shall be in my quarters until then.", the Moff said while leaving the bridge.

Recruits. Most of them will be men and women who have never been to an imperial academy. Hell, there would even be aliens. The thought of untrained humans and aliens disgusted Locke, almost as much as the thought of joining the rebellion. Most would be smugglers seeking glory or escape from the NR. Yes, there would be some imperial personal, maybe a ISD or two, but nothing significant. Now there was only one thing left to do, wait.

Locke's quarters weren't like any other imperial commander's of his rank. There were no elegant tables or chairs, no expensive alcohol, no ancient artifacts, and almost no personal items. The only items he had was his conducting baton, a large stack of paper and pencils (which was very rare to find aboard any ship), and a small photo in a wooden frame (wood was another rarity in the emptiness of space), and several instruments in the corner.

Locke grabbed a pencil and sheet of paper before looked over at the small photo. He stared at the photo with a scowl for what seemed like a long time before letting his heavy blanket of anger to be replaced by something else. Sadness. He gingerly touched the the scar on his forehead while reaching for the photo. He looked down for a second and saw a wetness on the paper he grabbed. A tear. He snatched up the small picture on the desk and shoved it into a nearby drawer. There is no time for tears, Locke thought, crying over the dead is useless. It won't complete anything.

The Moff quickly composed himself and returned to the paper lying on the desk in front of him and got to work. Writing and composing songs always helped him relax and pass the time by. He was once the great director of the Royal Imperial Band, Marching Band, and Orchestra. He was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, musicians in the galaxy. There was perhaps only one other man still alive who had better musical talents Locke's good friend, Director Ithar Lahn of the Royal Imperial Choir, but even that was debatable.

Before he knew it four and a half hours had passed by and Locke had wrote almost a whole composition for a combined band and orchestra.

Perhaps I'll gather a small group, he thought, there must be hundreds of musicians in my fleet. He was about to reach for his datapad to check for anyone with any significant musical talent before he received a call on his comlink. "Grand Moff Locke", Admiral Valentine urgently said from the com. "Ships are starting to arrive now. But... we also have a problem, and you're need on the bridge, sir."
Locke didn't say anything for a second, then responded. "A problem? What kind of problem Admiral?"
"They came, sir, the New Republic..."