Tour 8 - Operation: Stupefy
Written by: Adam Fene, Rebel Squadron's Retribution Fleet

-- Prologue

I had returned to the Retribution Fleet, now a wing. Memories of what I once commanded came back to me. Some horrible, others precious that I would never forget.

Licah had stepped down to do more immediate affairs somewhere else in the chain of command of the Rebel Squadrons, and I found myself commanding Retribution again.

Now I was a Rear Admiral, with more stories to tell and more experienced gained. I experienced new adventures and quests in the galaxy before I found myself coming back, but I think those are better left unthought of as I try to focus on immediate tasks at hand.

I did not like some of the major changes undergone in Retribution, its reduction in size, the fact that I would have less control of it now than I had ever had. This was a small price to pay for my happiness however, and I was overjoyed to be back where I felt most comfortable.

I arrived back on the RSSD Mark-2 Prometheus a few days ago. My head was already swimming among problems that plagued the fleet and even the Prometheus itself as Star Destroyers are always hard to maintain.

The last time I saw the Prometheus, she had undergone her radical changes from a Mark-1 beaten old ship from the battle at Morba, to the now spotloss seemingly invincable Mark-2. This fact was farthest from my mind as I read the latest reports of my duties though, and what my new task at hand was.

I would be skirting near the Unknown regions soon, patrolling a border far from that of the Rebel Squadron's territory. The wing was going to meet up with the Redemption Fleet Flagship before we headed out, the VSD Mark-2 'Peril'. The area to be patrolled was so far out that the New Republic had no other choice than to send a Task Force out of the Rebel Squadrons to investigate.

They were old reports of robbery, and other crimes usually commited by over zealous pilots in search of great riches where they think they could never get caught. However, there were many more disturbing reports that ships that strayed too far into the unknown regions just.. became lost. I found it hard to believe.

Both New Republic and Imperial ships had been lost. Dozens in fact, that disturbed me the most. I had guessed it is also what disturbed the New Republic military when they lost one of their MC80's, 'Exposition'. She wasn't much of a powerful ship, but should have been powerful enough to ward off small forces like pirates.

It occured to me that pirates should have been scared off at just the sight of it. It wasn't normal for small groups of mercinaries or other resiliant groups to go attacking large Military ships like an MC80.

These were tomorrow's worries though, as I drifted away in my sleep. I was tired, tired of thinking so much. Perhaps I was being paranoid, as I had just recently returned to command Retribution. I didn't want to throw them into the same fate from when I had earlier commanded. The lost lives, that great undoable damage.

Something happened when I started to dream though. I heard songs, like soft humming in my ears. I drifted farther into the spell, and was taken farther into my dream. The darkness gave way to something round like a ball, and it grew larger as I approached it. It started to show its true form, a planet or moon.

Not an ordinary one, however. It had odd characteristics. I thought it was actually a moon at first, but it was too huge to be one. It didn't orbit anything except its star. The surface looked almost yellow, it had that faint hue of a color. Barely enough to distinguish. It had no real atmosphere, except an occasional cloud that would suddenly come from out of nowhere.

They were red clouds, they looked like streaks of paint accross a canvas against this planet. Moon. Whatever it was. You could see lightening flash every so often, which actually relieved me in a way, since I knew that at least this was natural and could relate to it. I wondered if it did have an atmosphere and I just couldn't see it.

The humming had grown slightly louder, and I could see the face of one of the beings that inhabited the world. His skin was rough, but otherwise human looking. Like the planet, it had a slight yellow tint to his skin. I noticed that the being wasn't really breathing though, he was like a statue staring at me.

This statue suddenly moved, looking up towards the sky. All I could see now was the stars in the sky, that streaking cloud of lightening overhead. Then suddenly I heard him say very clearly: "Stay Away."

Immediately I woke up! My heart pounded, and my hair was full of sweat. "What in all the force, was THAT?!" I thought it was just a bad dream, but usually dreams came from things you'd already seen and done, maybe exaggerated slightly.

I'd never seen a planet like that though. In fact I'd never seen a humanoid species like that before either. It baffled me, I wondered if it existed somewhere, which brought me to my next course of action. Could I find it in my databanks?

They were the most up to date as I requested, as these facts were vital on missions I had no idea where I was going, to the part of the galaxy I'd never been before. I rushed over to my desk, and started looking through the records.

Hours passed, my search empty. "This is ridiculous." I told myself. I didn't believe much in the force, let alone other strange..things..that could explain my dream. It happened though, however, and finally I gave up my search to return to bed.

I made sure I recorded everything I could remember about the dream. The planet, that man, the way he didn't breath or speak.. Even the starfilled sky that I saw at the end. There were things in it not of this realm.

I started to sleep again, figuring I would dream new dreams, and I would be calm the next time I would awake. The only thing said in that dream, "Stay Away".

It felt like more of a threat, than a warning. Small shivers went through me, but again I called it ridiculous to myself. I was thinking about it too much, letting it intimidate me. This was not the kind of person I was, I didn't scare that easily.

I didn't think I did. Suddenly I tapped my bedside comm. "Captain?"

A slight pause, and Captain Vedik answered. "Yes Admiral?"

"How far are we from the rendezvous point?" My anxiety, I admitted, was getting the better of me. I could hear him start to harrass the helmsman Lt. Kask.

"Three hours, Admiral." Vedik's calm cool voice was reasruring. Maybe that's the reason I was actually bugging him.

"Is there anything else, Sir?" Vedik's patient voice was enough to ease my tension and anxiety, he really was the material of a flagship officer. Professional and more importantly calm, with that crisp and old Imperial accent he had.

I waited a moment before answering, asking myself the same question. "No, thank you Captain. Keep her on schedule."

I felt bad saying that, as if I were trying to mock him. I had to cover my latest insecurity though, I didn't want people thinking I was nervous about anything. People don't like to see Admiral's nervous. It made everyone else nervous, especially on a isolated ship like the Prometheus. I wanted confidence to remain as strong as it had been the past few days when I had arrived.

"Yes Admiral." The comm chirped and the connection closed, as did my eyes. In the morning we would be with the Redemption Fleet's flagship, along with the Sentinel Task Force. I didn't have anything to worry about until after that, I knew.

Within moments I was sleeping, dreaming what I usually dreampt about. A tall frosty mug of ale, in a bar where everyone knew me and threw fits at people who were drunkenly stupid, falling onto tables and the like. "Sweet Dreams" a voice told me.
