A New Galaxy

Chapter 1: The Worm Hole and A New World

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Name: A-29 ‘Steele’

Designation: Advanced Recon Commando

Rank: Commander

Current Location: Onboard Venator-class Cruiser

Mission: Investigate possible Seperatist Activity near Outer Rim territories

Current Location: Hyperspace towards Outer Rim Territories onboard Venator-class cruiser

The single cruiser was in hyperspace, seeing nothing but blue lines streaking past the ship. Clones moving about to do their tasks necessary to keep the ship running and being on constant watch in case anything happened. At the front of the bridge stood an Arc Trooper, the only Advanced Recon Commando assigned to the ship along with the more common clones. The Phase II armor on this ARC trooper was a standard white but was covered with grey lines to signify a difference compared to the others.

“Sir, we are coming out of hyperspace,” a fellow clone reported

“Good,” the Arc Trooper simply replied

“Uh sir? There is a problem, we have a worm hole coming up as well,”

“Can we go around it?”

“No sir, that and something is going on in the hanger. Sledge is at it again,” the clone sighed

“Very well, see if we can get out of hyperspace sooner to avoid the worm hole,” the Arc Trooper replied

“Yes sir,”

The Arc Trooper took the elevator down to the hanger as he could see most of the clones around him were busy with their work but he could see on the far side of the hanger, which much to his disdain, was another clone trooper with an AT-RT driver helmet yelling at his fellow brothers. The AT-RT driver was ranting at another clone who just held his hands up in defense as a wrench was pushed upon his chest in a threatening gesture.

“What have I told you?! DO NOT MESS WITH MY MACHINES!!” the driver yelled

“Stand down Sledge, we have gone over this a hundred times,” the Arc Trooper came in with his hands behind his back

“I know Steele but I can’t help that I get angry seeing another destroyed vehicle, just for me to fix it and then let it get blown up again,” the clone sighed

“Listen, the sooner the war is over, the less the equipment gets blown up. Now get back to work and fix up those AT-RT’s!” Steele ordered

“Yes sir,” Sledge muttered getting on a ladder to access the AT-RT controls

Steele walked away only to find another clone that thankfully didn’t annoy the Arc Trooper, Viper. Viper was another Arc Trooper like Steele, with a mix of green and red markings on his armor with an strict guideline on fighting, but he was generally the silent one to only give orders with his hand motions. His shots were precise, fast and the Arc had extensive training in Echani hand to hand combat which gave him his nickname. Currently, the Arc Trooper was cleaning his DC-17 sniper rifle which was odd as only Clone Commandos carried those. The Arc looked up from his gun and just gave a head motion to indicate ‘what’s up’ without saying words.

“As you were,” Steele said not wanting to waste time as Viper just shrugged and went back to cleaning the sniper rifle

Steele went back into the elevator to notice that he wasn’t alone in there, next to him was another clone. This clone yet again was another Arc assigned to Steele, his blue markings indicated he was a lieutenant and some scratch marks on his armor indicated he had some experience in the battle field.

“Going up sir?” the Arc asked

“Yes,” Steele simply nodded to the fellow Arc, who nodded and the elevator doors closed as the elevator began to make its way up

The elevator went up quietly as the two more advanced clones stood in silence, a very strong silence. Nothing was exchanged between the two troopers until the lieutenant finally said something.

“So, what are we going to do sir? If I may ask of course,”

“We are on a reconnaissance mission to the Outer Rim Territories, what was your designation?” Steele answered

“A-99, everyone calls me Shock sir, specialized in electronics and so forth,” the lieutenant saluted his superior officer

“Well Shock, you and I are going to get along just fine,” Steele nodded as the elevator finally stopped at the bridge

The two specialized troopers came onto the bridge as one of the ships officers went up to Steele with a worried face.

“Bad news sir, the worm hole is sucking us in. We can’t go around it,” the officer stated

“Alright, tell the crew to brace for impact,” Steele nodded without a second to think as this was going to be a rough ride

The alarm came on as red lights were shining overhead and the other clone troopers knew only two things. One, the Seperatists were about to attack their ship or two, they were going to crash. Either way, the clones escaped the hanger and went towards designated zones to be ready for either attack or crashing.

Steele looked out of the ship as it came out of hyperspace and the worm hole was right in front of them, glowing in a pinkish color and swirling. The ship rumbled a little as it was being tugged into the hole with great force but Steele had ordered the crew that there was no going back now, they had to go in. If they died, well, that’s one less cruiser and a whole lot of troopers less for the Republic.

“Brace for impact!!” Steele yelled as the ship went into the worm hole and immediately, it felt as if the ship went into another hyperspace jump but much quicker, with the surrounding worm hole going around the ship as a pink vortex

Faster and faster they went through the worm hole as multiple lights flashed and the crew was blinded, some laying down to avoid the light and others just turning their back from the light to maintain the ships operations. The whole experience only lasted a minute as suddenly, the Republic Cruiser came out of the worm hole right over a planet and its moon.

“Crew check,” Steele said as the other crew members just mumbled

“No one dead sir, some mild bumps at most. Everyone else is fine, some equipment tipped over but nothing serious. The ship also hasn’t suffered anything except…..” an officer was reporting

“Except what?”

“The hyperdrive overloaded and has to be replaced. Sadly, there is no spares and the spare equipment isn’t enough. We are going to need some other components to make an entirely new hyperdrive and also….the worm hole closed,”

“Thank you officer, as you were. Navigator, where are we?” Steele questioned a fellow trooper overlooking the galaxy map

“Not sure sir, wherever we are, we overshot the Outer Rim by a long shot. We are off the map and without that worm hole, we aren’t going home without getting lost,” the navigator sighed

“As you were trooper,” Steele nodded before another officer spoke up

“Sir, ships scans have indicated that the planet below is inhabited. Some Equine species sir and there seems to be cities and towns below as well.”

“Are they friendly?” Steele asked

“Not sure sir, it seems there is a castle so we can assume it has a monarchy as a government. Doesn’t seem to have any droids around and no Seperatist vessels are detected anywhere close to here. Possibly, this planet has not even heard of the Republic, but that is a hypothesis,” the officer answered

“A hypothesis we are going to test, order an LAAT ready and I want eight troopers with me.” Steele ordered as he went to the elevator to go into the hanger

“Yes sir,”

Steele went to the hanger as there was eight other troopers, all covered in gray or black markings along with jet packs on their backs. They waited for the ARC Trooper as they boarded a prepped LAAT and when Steele got on the gunship, a trooper handed him a blaster rifle which he took with a nod. The LAAT left the hanger as the nose of the ship split in half to allow ships to exit the multiple hangers, going towards the planet’s surface. The LAAT received no attack as it entered the atmosphere of the planet and soon could see a forest, the current time was about the evening and slowly going towards the night.

“Land in the nearest clearing pilot!” Steele yelled so the pilot could hear

The LAAT landed in the a clearing in the forest, no more than a mile away from a town, thankfully everyone was going to sleep or inside so they did not see a flying ship just land. The troopers left their ship and moved into the forest, towards the town as they remained quiet as much as possible. The forest was dark as the atmosphere was slowly losing its light but they could see some lights ahead as it was obviously the town.

“Sir, what are your orders?” one of the troopers asked as they aimed their weapons in caution for anyone who could see them

“We need to know if these people are Seperatists without revealing our location. Stealth and blasters for stun,” Steele said as each trooper set their blaster for stun, the lowest setting of power for the DC-15S blaster rifle

“Sir, there are hardly any of these inhabitants around, they must all be asleep. I suggest jetpacking all the way to that train and hitching a ride to that castle over there,” Jumper, a clone with a love for flying with a jetpack, stated

“Jumper, Cutter, Blip and Jek, you’re with me. The rest of you, find the tallest vantage point and keep us informed on movement,” Steele said to the clone troopers as they all nodded and the four named troopers joined Steele as their jetpacks propelled them to the train

Elsewhere

The Canterlot Royal Observatory was one of Luna’s favorite places to look at her stars and see any constellations that formed. There were so many to name off but it saddened her that she was one of very few who even enjoyed her night. This time however, she looked at the sleeping town of Ponyville as night set, via Luna’s power to raise the moon.

Who was Luna? Well, if you told that to her face then you would instantly regret that. Luna was an Alicorn, a pony with both wings and a horn, colored in a very dark blue to the point of black, though not black. Her eyes were a soft, teal blue, if you don’t know what teal is, then just think blue. Luna stood at probably one and a half or close to two meters tall, just a foot or foot and a half shorter than a fully sized human male, if we average at six feet tall. Luna wore her royal regalia and her side near her rear had a marking of the moon, a crescent moon in fact surrounded by the dark night, no, not Batman Dark Knight, dark night as in the night you batman lovers. She had a flowing blue mane that probably would hook you in and make you think you would love to touch it, no touching for you.

“Ah Ponyville, such a humble and quiet little place that has a special place in…..my heart,” Luna said slowly as she giggled to herself that she was getting the hang of modernizing her language skills after 1000 years of not staying in touch with the world

Then she saw five blue lights from a far distance that seemed to go on the train, this caused the lunar princess to raise a brow and wonder, did fireflies ever turn blue? Surely if they did, there would be a new species by now and Twilight Sparkle to document them or else go crazy. Luna looked at her telescope, just to be handy at times when she wanted a closer look of the town because she wasn’t spying on anyone, to notice that there were faintly some white armored beings on top of the train. From her distance, they looked small but Luna knew that they must be bigger and in fact, they had to be, but what was more amazing was their armor and the fact they were bipedal.

“Minotaur’s? No, they seem too clean shaven and too organized,” Luna murmured to herself

“Spying on our subjects again sister?” a voice said behind Luna as Luna just rolled her eyes in annoyance before turning around to face her sister, a white alabaster alicorn with a flowing enteral mane of blue, green and slight pink, who also was much taller than her smaller sister probably two meters tall at least

“No Celestia, something just came up,” Luna drawled as Celestia just smiled as her sister would not share some secrets with her no matter how hard the taller alicorn, and also older, tried to pry information from her sister

“Alright, I’m going to bed,” Celestia yawned as she just left without staying much at all which delighted Luna as she looked back into the telescope to look at the armored bipedal creatures, but she was unaware of her sister coming up behind her with a smirk to bug her younger sister further

“Hm, well fit, most likely trained with a very good instructor and well-armed,” Luna said to herself as she observed Steele and his men approaching the castle by train but since Celestia did not see the soldiers, she just had a wry smile as she wanted to tease her very badly

“*gasp* Sister! You didn’t tell me you were looking into stallions!” Celestia exaggerated her emotions as Luna quickly jumped in shock and her face flushed in embarrassment, even though that wasn’t exactly what she was doing

“Sister!!” Luna yelled at her older sibling to nag her to not tease her like that

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Now I’m going to bed,” Celestia assured with a fit of giggles as Luna had a miniature thunderstorm of anger happening in her brain

“Two can play it at that game and it takes two to tango,” Luna muttered as she would get her sister back someday and with vengeance, double the embarrassment

Steele

“Can this thing go any faster?” Blip groaned as he laid on top of the train as the train took its sweet time moving down the tracks, nowhere as fast as any transport ship or rail line on Corusant

“The enemy will not suspect us even more if we take our time,” Cutter retorted as he sat down

“Cut the chatter, we don’t want to give away our position,” Steele ordered as the train slowly approached the large castle that hung on the side of a mountain, one well-placed rocket could probably take it down with ease

“I have to say sir, forgive me. Whoever designed that castle must be the worst architect in the galaxy,” Jumper commented

“Agreed,” Steele nodded as they just waited on the slow moving train to take them to their destination

"Commander, I'm seeing some movement within the train, keep your voices low," Steele's comlink rang with a trooper's voice

"Roger,"

The train continued to roll forward as slowly and surely, it was getting closer to this castle that the clones could see. What they didn't expect was a city practically right under it, but the contrast of this city with the town they had just came from was vast. This city was not as simple as the town, it had large buildings and much more design variation, most likely more expensive as well, along with some more color. The roads and floor were more clean and kept as quadruped like species were milling about. To the clones, this wasn't anything they had ever seen before and definitely not what they were expecting on a possible Seperatist planet.

"I don't think we're in the Outer Rim or anywhere near the galaxy we once knew," Cutter spoke as the thought of not just missing the Outer Rim but completely going away to another galaxy made these troopers uneasy, except for Steele

"Look at the bright side, there aren't any droids," Jumper shrugged as the castle was more than in reach of the clones now, and a station was coming up

One by one, the clones activated their jet packs and flew over to a large building's roof. The inhabitants under them were very unaware of flying bipedal clone troopers right above them as the troopers now looked upwards to the castle. It was mighty high, but they have heard of the 501st Legion climbing up a mountain with a garrison of droids on Teth. The clones knew what they had to do, and although they could use their jet packs, it wasn't the best option as it would attract more attention. That and the jet packs aren't meant for long term flying so the troopers had to ration their flights and only use them when necessary.

"Ascension cables," Steele said as each trooper took out their DC-15A and fired the underbarrel cable up towards the castle, the cables reaching the bottom of the castle and latching on tightly, with each trooper testing it by pulling it

Once secured and ready, the troopers than put their feet on the side of the mountain and began to climb up on their long ascent to the castle. Their movements were much more silent than their jetpacks and nobody could notice them in the night as they continued to climb up the mountain. Each trooper felt cautious and ready to fire their blaster if a droid just so happen to come out and look down at them, but there wasn't any droids. The only thing that came at them was some spit, that just so happen to land on Steele's helmet.

"Disgusting," Steele muttered as they continued upwards to the castle with the other clones holding their laughs

What they would find would shock them as it definitely wasn't what they expected. Once to the top, there was a quadruped mammal like creature waiting for them, alone and as if expecting their arrival. The troopers aimed immediately but Steele put a hand up to lower their weapons and they did so.

"I assume you are here for diplomacy," was all the quadruped said

Chapter End