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Rise up from the Grave
"Sir, I'm seeing something strange here."
"What is it, crewman?" The supervisor in the Warhammer's sensor control was quick to assume it was an anomaly of some sort.
"Well, sir, I thought I saw a strange power spike in engineering, and then it suddenly dropped off."
"Maybe engineering is running some tests of some sort?"
"Sir, on the hyperdrive?" The crewman was genuinely puzzled.
"I don't make it my business to explain what those guys in engineering do. I'm not paid well enough for that."
"Very well, sir. I'll make a note of this in the lo-" The crewman left off as both he and his supervisor clutched their temples for a moment. "It's nothing," the crewman said. "Not even worth noting."
The supervisor behind him was mouthing the words at the exact same time...
La Forge looked beyond the shipyard and saw the pointed white dagger of an Imperial Star Destroyer beyond it. The Chimaera. The Chimaera, repaired, rebuilt, risen, reborn. The Warhammer had arrived last night, along with the Nemesis. After a transfer of some supplies and personnel, the Nemesis had gone out on a patrol of the system. But the other ISD in the system was all La Forge could think of.
La Forge knew it was his decisions that lead to the ship's damage and near-destruction. And now the admiralty was going to give it to him... give him the flagship of the fleet. He secretly wondered if they were nuts.
But he had earned it in his career with the Empire. Not as illustrious or varied as the careers of some other officers, but his record was very good and he was the logical candidate for Senior Fleet Officer. Senior Fleet Officer...
A post Vortagh had once held. "La Forge, stop drooling already."
Vortagh's words had awoken La Forge from his rapture. "Uh.... sorry...."
"If you spend all your time drooling while you're on board her you'll never make it out of space dock."
"I won't do that," La Forge said.
"Sure you won't... because eventually they'll throw the ship out of spacedock if it sits there long enough!" Everybody was giving La Forge a hard time. The joys of being promoted...
La Forge exited from the shuttle and stepped onto the Chimaera's hangar deck. Admiral Fel had called for ceremonies at 18:30 that day, so La Forge had a few more hours... he decided to take the time and board the Chimaera. Get things ready.
He pulled up a display and asked for a full status report of ship systems. Everything was perfectly normal save one thing: Cargo bay three was far, far below standard ship temperature. He decided to investigate.
He wandered up through the decks, admiring how shiny and clean everything was. No mess anywhere, nothing. The rebuild crew had done a great job. As he reached the cargo bay and opened the doors, he was immediately hit by the cold air. Looking inside, he saw... Ice. Ice with lines. And goals. A Hockey Rink. Just like the one Fel had put in on the Nemesis all those years ago. La Forge laughed. It was a funny prank. Even if he was on the receiving end.
He walked back to his old quarters. Empty. Completely empty. The only reason he could think of for that was that somebody had moved all of his things.
There were two possible explanations... The first that his things had been moved to Calder's former quarters. The second that somebody was playing a nasty prank on him. Fel and Syrtaras had once pulled a prank on then CL Nendesal where they took everything out of his office and moved it into cargo bay one, exactly as it had been laid out in the office. But Fel had already gotten away with one prank on La Forge... would he have done two?
La Forge headed over to Calder's former quarters. There he found all of his things, neatly boxed and stacked. So it wasn't a prank, at least. He'd come back to all of this later... But something caught his eye. A thick, stuffed envelope on Calde- his desk. The envelope said simply "La Forge", in Calder's handwriting. He quickly opened it. He pulled out the letter and dug the thicker object out. As soon as his hands grasped it, he knew what it was. A rank indicator plaque. He checked. It had been Calder's RIP for years, and now it was his.
Or at least, would be after the ceremony tonight.
La Forge put that down and unfolded the letter from Calder.
"Dear La Forge," it began...
...
La Forge folded up the letter and pocketed it. He took the RIP with him and headed back for the shuttle.
The sheer number of people gathering in the shipyard's makeshift "party room" was nearly astounding. Dinner had been served at about 19:15, but there were drinks and appetizers out on the floor beforehand. Now that everyone had eaten, it was time for the speeches. Dessert would be on its way soon.
At the head table, the command staff of the Nemesis and the Warhammer were all present: Fleet Admiral Polanski in his dress uniform and his wife Jennifer in an evening gown; Wedge was sitting on the other side of Polanski and was there with a woman that La Forge did not recognize; Soon-to-be promoted La Forge was sitting with his full medal display this evening; beside him sat Laithlis and his petite brunette girlfriend; Captain Vortagh was there with Commodore Zwibble, both in full dress uniform. Beside them sat General Jansen and his wife, and IDMR head Jagged Fel. And near the end of the table was Starlit, in her Imperial Intelligence uniform, and next to her, closest to the podium, sat the master of ceremonies for the evening: Admiral Tiberius Fel. Fel wore a slightly nonstandard dress uniform; his was black like that of Starlit, only it was cut in the style of a naval officer.
The head table had been recalled at 19:00 so that all might be present for this evening's festivities.
Admiral Fel took to the podium. "Officers of the Empire," he began. "Officers of the Empire..." he repeated himself a little louder, and the room came to order. "Tonight we are here to celebrate the return of our flagship, the ISD Chimaera, and the promotion of her newest captain: Michael La Forge!
The room applauded and La Forge blushed a little. Out of the viewport behind the head table, the Chimaera was fully lit and seemed almost too white, since the ship had not moved since its latest paint job. Spotlights from the shipyard illuminated the dagger-shaped vessel, making the effect more pronounced.
"But before we get to that, there is another promotion to take care of tonight... Captain Vortagh will need to allocate all of his time to the Tactical Co-Ordinator position... Thusly he will be promoted to the rank of Commodore! He will still serve on the VSD Warhammer, of course, but as her flag officer rather than her captain. Congratulations to the Commodore!"
Vortagh reached under the table and pulled out a much larger RIP... one belonging to a Grand Moff. The audience cheered even louder than before, but he switched it out for his real Commodore rank plaque before Fel could notice.
"But the main event of this evening is regarding the Senior Fleet Officer... It is my privilege as the leader of the Imperial Navy to promote Mr. La Forge to the rank of Line Captain, and bestow upon him the responsibilities, duties, and privileges thereof. Though this is Mr. La Forge's first official command, he has shown himself capable of acting in command capacity... but we will overlook that incident involving the Rebel shipyard. This time."
The room laughed, some nervously and some genuinely. La Forge took out the RIP he had recovered from his office on the Chimaera and pinned it to his chest. Fleet Admiral Polanski handed him the necessary rank cylinders to complete the meaning.
Fel continued: "He follows in the footsteps of several officers who have had lengthy and successful careers... Captain Rhys, Captain Junon, Captain Vortagh, Captain Calder, and others reaching back into the history that very few of us would remember... Indeed, the post of Senior Fleet Officer is and always has been something sought after by many...
Fel looked over to La Forge and saw him wearing the new RIP. "It seems Mr. La Forge has jumped the gun and had himself a new RIP made. I suppose normally the control systems in the uniform depots would not allow that. But seeing as Mr. La Forge has re-written many many control systems over the past years... it wouldn't surprise me if he could convince it to replicate a Grand Moff's uniform.
"But that is another thing to celebrate tonight. It is also my pleasure to reward the newly minted captain for all his work in Imperial Administration... And so..." Fel reached under the podium and pulled out a rather large medal. "... I hereby bestow upon Captain La Forge the Legion of Palpatine medal - the highest honour any officer can hope to achieve in his or her career. Come here, Mr. La Forge."
La Forge got up and walked over to Fel, unable to keep from smiling. Fel pinned the medal on his chest to the sound of much applause. La Forge returned to his seat and saw a rather large cake being wheeled into the centre of the room.
Fel started talking again. "You may notice the cake in the centre of the room is strangely rectangular... That's right, we have a cake shaped like a sandbox." He paused to let the laughter diminish. "The sides of the cake are held in by painted wood, and that's real sand sprinkled about the surrounding table... try not to let it get in the cake." Everyone was smiling or chuckling. "For added realism, on the top, for decorations are miniature shovels and buckets made of duraplast -- they're not edible, so please don't try. And, of course, there are a few little AT-AT and TIE fighter figurines in the cake. You are welcome to keep them if you like. But before we get too far into that... Mr. La Forge is due to make a speech."
The audience cheered some more and the staff began slicing the cake. Fel returned to his seat as La Forge took to the podium.
Out the viewport behind him, the Chimaera began ever so slightly to move. Almost impossible to notice, but it was moving.
"Thank you, Admiral Fel, thank you!" La Forge was elated and it showed.
The Chimaera was moving faster now, and some people in the audience were starting to notice.
"First of all, I didn't have to get the RIP made... this one was Calder's. And it was a shock that he left it for me in his... I should say my... office."
The crowd was murmuring now, and Fel was wondering what was going on. He turned and looked at the Chimaera and thought he saw it moving. He whispered the question to Starlit and she nodded. Commodores Vortagh and Zwibble were coming to the same realization.
"... and so, it is truly an honour to continue the proud tradition..." La Forge continued on, oblivious.
Fel, Vortagh, and Zwibble had tipped everyone off at the head table by now. Laithlis had slipped away from the table, signalling dock control asking what was going on.
"... I am sure that Captain Calder would be very proud, were he here today. I truly feel that I owe him..." La Forge was noticing an unsettled audience but couldn't understand why.
Most of the people from the High Command table were moving about now. The crowd was getting very tense, not knowing what was going on, and they were now openly talking amongst themselves.
La Forge was getting quite upset, and he turned to the High Command table to get them to help him restore some order, but most everyone was gone, on their commlink, or looking really busy. La Forge couldn't figure out what was going on until he turned and looked out the viewport.
The blue engine glare of an Imperial Star Destroyer was the first thing that caught his eye. His Star Destroyer. What was the Chimaera doing? He turned, looking for Fel, hoping this was an elaborate prank.
Fel was already running for the shuttlepad. This could _NOT_ be a prank. La Forge used every single curse word he knew.
Vortagh shouted at La Forge. "Get over here, you fool! To the shuttlepad!"
La Forge opened his mouth to shout something back.
"Don't even bother! Start running!" Vortagh pushed his way through the throng of army officers on his way to the exit. Army command was trying to maintain some semblance of control, but it wasn't an easy task.
Fel and Wedge had already made it out to the shuttlepad. Laithlis was not far behind and he jumped onto the shuttle as the landing ramp retracted and the shuttle was already headed for the hangar doors.
Vortagh reached his shuttle and began the emergency power-up sequence. The dumbfounded La Forge was still stumbling his way over when he got a healthy shove from behind from Commodore Zwibble. The shove brought La Forge back to reality fairly quickly, and soon he was running at full speed.
Admiral Fel's shuttle was already away, out the hangar doors and the magcon field, streaking away at top speed.
Vortagh's shuttle was ready, engines ready to go to 100%. La Forge hopped on and Vortagh engaged the engines; the backwash knocked over a bunch of officers caught unprepared.
"Wait a minute, we should only go 10%!" La Forge protested.
"True engineers know that the zeros don't count!" Vortagh countered as the shuttle turned towards the Warhammer at full throttle.
Jagged Fel took General Jansen by the hand and helped him up from the deck floor. As he did so the flow of army officers headed for the last remaining shuttle in the bay. Jagged helped the General in despite the disorientation and ringing in his ears from the noise the last shuttle had made. The last few army officers piled in and Jagged and Jansen slipped through the crowd to the cockpit.
Muscat rapped on the hull of the shuttle. "Let Iota on!" He said over the commlink. "Somebody's got to fly those GUNs!"
Jansen moved back to the cargo hold and ordered half the army officers off to make room for Iota. The mass confusion was only worsening. "I think we're all here," sent Jansen over his commlink. "To the Warhammer!" Jansen said.
Jagged followed the same procedure as Vortagh. Zeros didn't count, after all.
With all the shuttles gone, Commodore Zwibble and Fleet Admiral Polanski were the officers left in charge and trying to bring some semblance of order. Things were smashed, overturned, and generally a mess everywhere. There had been four shuttles on the pad... One had headed to the Nemesis and two to the Warhammer... but what had happened to the fourth?
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