Oblivion

Rendez-vous point Alpha-Seven-Three
Somewhere behind enemy lines

A dozen or so Imperial supply vessels escorted by two skirmish lines surrounded a pair of wedge shaped vessels. The larger of the pair was the Imperial mark II class Star Destroyer Chimaera. The smaller was the Victory mark I class Star Destroyer Oblivion. Shuttles and zero-G crew zipped between the various destinations but the organized chaos was being dealt with by the second in command of the Chimaera to commendable levels.

Inside one of the larger briefing chambers of the Chimaera, assembled Captain Pellaeon, the majority of his staff including Lieutenant Valerius Morlenoth, their guests Captain Megalo Boxers and Commander Ezekyle Ivan, and a clearly understaffed command personnel of the VSD Oblivion. Before them was Admiral Severus Kol, who had pulled several strings in the Admiralty to rescind the suicide order to take and hold Krant for the Chimaera and instead convert it into a raiding line to harrass rebel positions in the outer rim. To this end, he was secretly sending supplies to the Star Destroyer on a regular basis.

This time, however, he sent reinforcements as well. Apparently, another Admiral also wished to thank Pellaeon for his recent works and had sent a gift of sorts over. Of course, there was a catch but nothing major. The VSD Oblivion was fresh out of the shipyards after extensive repair and most of the command crew had not been replaced. Unable to reinforce the men, it was up to the Chimaera to provide the extra manpower. Megalo Boxers looked gittery after hearing that a second Admiral was interested in the case of the loss of the Justicar,

"Captain, this is High Admiral Giganthor Boxers. I believe I have you to thank for my son's safe return."

The assembled crew saluted the second admiral in his appearance to which the man returned. Short cropped fair hair, bristling moustache and mutton chops to win contests, huge in stature next to Admiral Kol at a little over two meters in height and built to put professional bodybuilders to shame. His uniform bristled over his muscles that threatened to tear the uniform to shred at the seams. Captain Boxers was not at all happy with the circumstances.

"I will love to hear a debrief from my son in person once he returns to Imperial Centre, I have gotten the required authorisation to promote Commander Ezekyle Ivan to full Captain and appoint him as the new CO of the VSD Oblivion. I leave him to work out the details of his new command staff with Captain Pellaeon. Oblivion is to accompany the Chimaera and continue their mission. That is all."

The group saluted as Kol and Boxers dissappeared. Megalo Boxers on the other hand seemed like he had just received a death sentence. For the first time in the past four days, Valerius did not hear much as a whimper from the loud captain.

"Lieutenant Morlenoth."

Valerius turned as he was headed out of the briefing room to see Captain Ivan behind him headed his way in a brisk walk. Given the lack of space in these rooms, it did not take five seconds for the pair to walk out of the room together. The past few days had seen Valerius assigned to debrief, compile a report and generally interact with Ezekyle Ivan and Megalo Boxers. Alongside Ensign Julian Huskar, the four of them had recreated the events of that day and had reported yesterday to Captain Pellaeon. By then, Ivan and Morlenoth had established a somewhat professional cameraderie.

"What can I do for you, Captain?"

As they walked towards the officer's lounge within the Bridge tower, Ivan explained to the young lieutenant his wish to ask for a reassignment of Ensign Huskar. To this, Valerius had no qualms, Julian Huskar had not taken kindly to being shot by the Lieutenant's stun bolt but Ivan had determined he was taking the son of his former adjutant under his wing. What came next had never occured to Valerius and it had the effect of raising his eyebrow.

"You wish me to accompany you to the Oblivion as your second in command? But sir, I am just a Lieutenant with no real experience."

"Neither did I, Lieutenant Commander. Captain Pellaeon has already given the green light to this provided you agree and all promotions on the field are brevet to be confirmed later. We can return you to your original post once this expedition is over. We will be taking volunteers from the Junior officers here as well and I need you to sort through them to make sure we are not undermanning the Chimaera. Not that there will be that many volunteers who want to willingly be taken off an Imperial Star Destroyer. For the sake of your career, I would recommend you decline my offer, but I just wanted you to have first choice in this matter. I can use your talent to help me with the work of integrating the new and the old crew."

Valerius nodded as he thought the matter through. Short of suffering heavy casualties, his chances of promotions in the Chimaera was slim. On the other hand, he was being offered the second highest position in a smaller star destroyer if he accepted. He seemed to take the sudden promotion in stride. As a brevet captain, he could not place a second in command on equal terms with his current status as a former Commander. Thus the lower rank of Lt. Commander was issued in this case as a face saving feature.

"I accept your offer, Captain. I will see to it we get some men over as well."

Valerius looked up from his desk in a makeshift office he had borrowed for the purpose of screening through the volunteers. While he could have done it in his own quarters, or even at his new quarters at the Oblivion, he prefered to work in the Chimaera for the duration of the repairs and resupply that would take a few days. Usually it would have been over in a few hours at most but they had set up the rendez-vous point in a way to ensure they could flee at a moment's notice. This meant maintaining combat readiness for the majority of the crew and so they were left with a skeleton crew on the resupply front.

"And here I though you lot were joking when you presented your documents to MilProt for a transfer. Seriously, have you all gone senile while I was standing in the Bridge? Willingly transfering from the Chimaera?"

Sub-Lieutenant Johan Ashford, Second Lieutenants Olav Jeremiah, Strauss Radek, Karl Sturm and Julius Vladimir all made their way into the cramped office one after another. The five of them saluted their former colleague from the Imperial Academy, a salute Valerius stood to return.

"Nah, can't have you going off on your own adventure without us! Besides, chances are you and the new captain will get me and my boys down on the ground more often inside that smaller ship of yours than the old Captain Pelly will."

Abrasive and lacking in manners or protocols as always, Jeremiah was the heart and soul of the group. Unexpected actually, since he was the Stormtrooper corps representative. As a Second Lieutenant he had command of the newest platoon of Stormtrooopers, a total of four squads. For now, he was off duty and so he wore his black tunic with rank insignas. The other four men nodded in tacit approval of at least the content if not the tone of their blunt companion.

"I take it you all are bringing your command with you down this foolish move then?"

All of them nodded again. Valerius looked to MilProt, his Military Protocol Droid assistant for the duration of his tenure as second in command of the Oblivion, The M-3PO droid lost no time in doing the calculations before reaching a conclusion.

"This will bring the VSD Oblivion complement to full, Lieutenant Commander."

"Good. The shuttles leave from the secondary hangar at 0600 tomorrow morning. Gentlemen, I look forward to working with you all once more."

The six of them saluted and were dismissed without further ceremony. Valerius was left with writing up a report to Pellaeon why he had accepted nearly half the new recruits of that year for transfer to the Victory class Star Destroyer.