To the Queen

Crowds and groups dissipated the closer they got to the Royal Palace of Theed. Both Mara Jade and Tobias gazed over the Royal Security Officers who were guarding the doors. Unlike before, the seemed more militant. They were armed with EE-4 carbine rifles.

Despite the fact that Tobias wanted to militize the inhabitants of Naboo against the Galactic Empire and possible future retaliatory invasions, he felt a little put off. "I feel like I'm walking through the streets of Israel," he muttered to himself, just loud enough for Mara Jade to hear. Though this was just his subconscious rambling which he didn't notice right away.

"Israel? Where's that?" She asked curiously looking over at him, moving her red hair out of her face as they reached the front doors and briefly stopped in their tracks.

Blinking a few times hearing her say the name of a country from Earth, he glanced over towards Mara Jade and chuckled. "Oh, right. Israel is a nation on a primitive planet I visited," He said as he dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

This was another thing which was not on his dossier. How did she not get this information when she was within the Empire? And why wasn't this primitive world under the control of the Empire since he visited it? Her eyes narrowed in on him, suspicious for a moment before they continued down their trail.

As they walked through the front doors, they were widely ignored by the front guards and generally left alone by the local politicians. They were quick to enter the throne room and stood before the Queen.

"Welcome Tobias Rune," Queen Sosha of Naboo's voice resonated through the room. It was an oddly politically correct tone she used, one which most of the Queens were known to use when they were in 'formal' occasions, like Amidala when she made speeches to the senate or spoke as Queen to the leaders of the Federation blockade.

Sosha's eyes gazed upon the girl which was standing beside the man. A slight tinge of what some may thing was Jealousy came over her, until she saw the lightsaber at her side. The 'jealousy' faded away, now assuming that this girl was just another student of his.

She related Mara Jade to Kraytia Zarin, a girl which she had met on board his super star destroyer. Her eyes scanned the room, but she couldn't see the little white haired female. So her attention came back to her future husband and Emperor.

Sio Bibble was present, though he no longer held the title of Governor. That was the title which belonged to Tobias as a Grand Moff, he was the Governor of Naboo and the rest of the Chommell system.

"It's a pleasure to be here, my Queen." His eyes squinted affectionately, before gazing over towards Sio Bibble who nodded to him.

Thanks to Tobias, Sio Bibble was his deputy Governor, which allowed him to take less reliability for the planet. He wanted the world to run as it always had. Though the one thing that Sio and him differed on, was the idea of militarization.

Yet Sio Bibble knew that it was needed to survive against the Imperial remnants who once had not one but two massive battle stations capable of destroying planets. He disliked the way the things were beneath the Empire and soon, Tobias would only be a fond memory. Panaka and Tobias were the only two 'good' Moffs under the Empire in his opinion. It's sad to see them both be gone from Naboo in such little time.

"The N2 Starfighters have been designed, manufactured and are ready to be placed in your hangars worldwide." He informed her with a light bow of the head. It was strange, he was going to be her Emperor, yet he was so modest to simply bow for her.

The N2 Nubian Starfighter was designed by the Imperium for the Naboo. Their design consisted of the typical appearance of a N1-series star fighter. However the weapons were much different and the deflector shields were much more powerful. The fighter came ready for its own built in class one hyperdrive, can house a pilot, aft gunner seat and had an astromech socket. There were four enhanced L-s9.3 laser cannons, more powerful than the typical TIE fighter.

The technology was on par with the First Order's thirty four years after the Battle of Yavin. This would allow them to be much faster, dangerous and maneuverable than their future and current enemies.

The Queen had seen this specifications when given the bill for militarization which had been given to Sio Bibble to look over by Tobias Rune.

"That's good news, it coincides with our steady recruitment of royal security force pilots. Thank you, Grand Moff Tobias Rune." She said with a quieting voice, her volume gradually lowering as she spoke.

...

Just as this meeting was going on, the Corvus came out of hyperspace within the planetary system of Naboo. Its cloaking field immediately lowering so it would be visible to passing ships.

Rae Sloane who was now on the bridge of the ship, was looking out the forward viewports. The first ship she noticed was the massive nineteen kilometer long Executor Class vessel which had been heavily modified. She knew what the ship was, who it belonged to.

It made its debut during the Battle of Endor, there was no way she would forget the sudden disappearance of it and its accompanying fleet. "The Guardian..." She uttered as she glanced over towards Inferno Squad. "So this Imperium, its headed by the Grand Moff of this oversector."

Unlike the man who died back on Akiva, this man here was a bonafide Grand Moff with multiple sectors under his thumb.

That's when her eyes laid upon ship classes she had never seen before. Wedge shaped Star Destroyers without command towers and a sleek exterior. They were similar to reports of the Chiss Star Destroyers. Then they began to fade out of view, they were equipped with cloaking devices.

"So this is where all his spending went to. His Naval Forces and technological development projects." Rae Sloane looked over towards General Jylia Shale who entered the bridge. She didn't know whether or not she wanted to shoot the General or congratulate her. However she knew if she were to try and kill the General, she wouldn't leave this bridge alive.

In addition to that, they were practically holding her personal friend and pilot hostage. Morna Kee was unconscious in one of the few crew quarters on board the vessel. She was kept unconscious due to the force technique used by Kraytia.

"And other projects," a hologram of Admiral Versio appeared on a Mechno Chair which was following the general onto the bridge. His hands were clasped behind his back as he looked over Sloane.

"Admiral Versio."

"Grand Admiral Sloane."

They both called upon one another, they weren't enemies but it appeared they weren't friends either. At least not anymore if they ever had been in the past. They agreed on one thing however, they were loyal to the ideals of the Empire.

Seeing Admiral Versio was on the same side as this group of Remnants, she was growing more curious about this Grand Moff. He seemed to owell prepared, as if he had pulled all of this from his arse. It was as if he knew the Empire was going to fall and did nothing to prevent it.

That's when the Corvus began to pass the Moon known as Rori, revealing a three thousand meter long test bed that was in the shape of a star destroyer with rounded off edges. It had a divot in the front which had some sort of frontal energy weapon grafted onto it.

"What's that?" She asked as she pressed her hands down on the portview window sill. She stared at it, it looked like some form of super weapon. So much smaller than that of the Galactic Empire's Death Stars. Even the reactor was smaller than the battle stations despite the size of the vessel.

"That's the Imperium Testbed." Admiral Versio gave very little information pertaining to it, not saying much more. He held his hands folded behind his back.

"Sir! We're picking up hyperspace vectors opening to the North East of the system. What are your orders?" One of the Officers called out to the mechno-chair which projected the Admiral.

"Move into an observant position. The Grand Moff has signed off on a test run. Nothing better than to use the weapon on invaders. Standby."

A few minutes later Three Imperial-ll Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace. An Interdictor star destroyer activated its artificial gravity well, forcing them to stay. While also jamming their transmissions so they couldn't report what was going on, nor call for reinforcements if they had any.

"They're fellow Imperial, why are you going to fire on them?" Sloane asked as she looked over at them, raising a brow.

Versio shook his head, "They're not with the Imperium, and they're not under the command of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. Their goal is to invade Naboo." He informed her with a blatant attitude and raised one hand and then brought it down.

Suddenly Sloane found her eyes tied to the testbed as blue energy began to build up through the vessel. And then suddenly a continuous beam was emitted by the Imperium testbed. It was a megalaser, similar to that of the death star.

The weapon peeled back the hull of those star destroyers with ease, taking down their shields without minutes of contact and then the fleet was gone, dead. The wrecks were eerie looking, electronics sparking in space, gaping holes where the reactors had erupted and destroyed the interior and exteriors of the destroyers.

She couldn't believe her eyes. If he had several of these, there was no way he'd be able to fail in wiping out Gallius Rax. Was this the reason why he stood against the Empire as it was now, or was there another reason?

Seeing the thoughts written on her face, Kraytia snickered a bit and stood beside her. "It's because the Empire was a creation of the Sith. It treated its people as expendable cogs in a machine, rather than actual living breathing sentient beings."

Sloane nodded, she knew of how people had been disillusioned with the Empire because of this. At the same time those in high places also saw the citizenry as expendable, it was something that was inevitable in an authoritarian government.

"He wants to purge the Sith?"

"He wants to purge everything related to them. Their religion, their cults, their memories. The sith aren't inheritably evil persay, but the ones who had terrorized the galaxy... Are things he cannot stand." Kraytia spoke her mind on the thoughts of Tobias, his point of view. "He put an antimatter bomb on Moraband. It had three grams of Antimatter. Enough to destroy a planet."

Sloane gulped, it was illegal to use antimatter as a weapon as it was extremely destructive. One of the known weapons were antimatter pods and no one used them, not even the Empire. Though there had been reports where a destroyer was disintegrated with all hands lost by one.

"Did he detonate it?"

Kraytia shook her head at Sloane's question, "It's a trap for anyone who tries to enter the tombs."

Sloane slowly nodded hearing this. If anything it would probably be a trap for Sith cultists who go to the planet in search of artifacts. If that planet were to be destroyed, it would be a good thing. It would only lead to tip the scale of power out of balance.

After a few moments the Corvus would begin its way back on course, heading for the Guardian.