//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Voracity 
// Story: Star Wars: The Dark Vector 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

A familiar sight occurred high above Equestria; a not-so familiar place for such an occurrence. An Imperial Star Destroyer chased a Rebel Blockade Runner through space inside Equestria's orbit. The larger ship exchanged laser fire with the smaller ship, lighting up the space between them with red and green bolts. They were two shapes playing a deadly game of laser tag in the dark, a massive triangular metal wedge relentlessly pursuing a tiny, blocky corvette. The two vessels continued this exchange as they flew over the planet, just in orbit.

One of the green bolts from the Imperial Star Destroyer Voracity struck the center of the Blockade Runner, causing an explosion on its hull. The smaller ship's engines shutdown. The giant, gray Imperial triangle cast a shadow over the Rebel vessel as it closed in. Using its tractor beam, it pulled the blockade runner into the hangar on its underside like a predator sucking helpless prey into its maw. It clamped down on the tiny ship as it entered its hangar, followed by a TIE Boarder latching onto its airlock.

On the inside of the Rebel ship, sparks sprayed from the airlock. Stormtroopers cut through the door from the other side, burning through the hatch with plasma torches. The door exploded, stormtroopers opened fire through the opening and stormed the interior of the ship. Again, all a very familiar sight, something common throughout the galaxy.

But this time, no one fired back at them. The stormtroopers breached the door, stormed into the narrow access corridor of the ship but no Rebels returned fire. There were none there. The hallway was empty.

The first stormtrooper through the breach activated his commlink. "Sergeant Tee-en-two-five-nine to Voracity control. Breach successful, immediate vicinity clear. No enemy contacts."

"Say again, two-five-nine; that was no contacts?"

"Yes, sir. The access hall to the airlock is clear. No sign of the enemy." A small amount of heightened concern was in his voice. He kept his rifle raised, scanning the corridor, as did his fellow stormtroopers. There could be any number of Rebels hiding, waiting to catch them off guard, or booby traps.

There was a pause on the comms. "Understood. They might be hiding, two-five-nine, stay alert. We're sending squad two to your position; sweep the ship and detain anyone you find, report anything suspicious. We'll have a scanning crew on standby."

"Copy control, commencing sweep," he said. Along with his squad mates, the stormtrooper searched every room in the ship. The interior of the Correllian corvette was composed of long, sterile-white hallways that connected to small and large compartments. These larger rooms were mostly in between the two primary corridors that ran the length of the ship, connected to both from the middle for easy access. Branching off these main corridors and compartments were smaller rooms and sections, the mess hall, crew quarters, storage closets and other parts of the ship. All standard for Rebel vessels, nothing out of the ordinary.

Except they didn't find any Rebels. The ship was empty from stem to stern, from the bridge to the engineering section The ship's systems were still active; lights and terminals still on. The navigational computer had the present course, the helm and all the controls on the bridge were working just... no one was at them. No one was there.

TN-259 continued with his squad to check the final section of the ship: the escape pods. The escape pod bays were in the middle modular section of the ship underneath its four laser cannon batteries. He noticed strangely the laser cannons themselves were programmed for automatic fire. The escape pods hadn't been jettisoned but all were primed to go. Four red lights glowed above the hatches to the escape pods indicating they were locked in their stations. They were ready to be used but no one was here to use them. This entire operation was beginning to make him feel more and more uncomfortable by the moment.

"Two-five-nine to control, we've reached the escape pods. They're all still in their berths, still no sign of enemy contacts."

"Anything at all?"

"Negative Voracity," he responded. "They might've sent us on a wild bantha chase, used the corvette as a drone."

Another pause on the comms. "We're looking into that now, Sergeant. We're sending the scanning crew in now to find exactly what they might be hiding, hold your position until they make it to you."

"Copy control, Two-five-nine out." He switched off his comms and relaxed, exactly what you were never supposed to do in enemy territory. His squad all did the same, taking the opportunity to get a little bit comfortable before the scanners- 'Box Boys' as they were called, got there.

"You ever seen this before, sarge?" TN-264 asked, gesturing to the entire ship. "One of these things being empty?"

"Not when it was just shooting at you," 259 said, leaning on the doorway from the hall to the escape pods.

"Heh. Where or where did the crew go?" 264 asked, chuckling. He looked over at his superior. "I think this might be my first ghost ship. Spoooooky, heheheh."

The sergeant chuckled himself. "Maybe those containers in the cargo bay we saw had booze in them. Might be able to take a few with us."

264 was suddenly excited. The other stormtroopers instantly perked up. The prospect of every enlisted man's favorite thing: booze, was tempting to all of them. "You really think control will let us?"

"Who said I was going to ask them?" 259 said. "A couple of us will stay here for the scanning crew and the rest of us will-"

*Clang-clang, clang-clang-clang*

All five of them rose their rifles in the direction of the noise. "Set for stun," the sergeant ordered. "Chix, take point, Loq watch our exit."

"Copy."

The stormtroopers closed in. A banging noise came from one of the escape pods, specifically from inside it. "Two-five-nine to control, think we've got something. Standby." There was no response from control. The sergeant approached the pod where the noise seemed to be coming from. He looked through the viewport to try and see what was inside.

"You see anything?"

"There's something in there," he said. "Stand back, I'm gonna open it up."

*Bing-bong, bing-bong, BOONNNNNNNG* The display lights turned green. The escape pods launched. All of the escape pods launched on both sides of the ship, including the one that was in front of them.

"Control, we have an unauthorized escape pod launch. Recommend tractor beam snags them," Two-five-nine said into his comms. Only silence answered him. "Control, do you copy? Tee-en two-five-nine to control, do you read?"

There was a long silence and then finally, the comm crackled. But when he finally heard a voice, it wasn't control. "-ond Squad, we've got contact! We've got lots of hostile contact! They're coming out of the walls-they're everywhere!" The trooper's voice on the other line sounded panicked. But his voice wasn't the only one on the line, just the only one that was coherent: the other troopers sounded like they were screaming.

"Say again, Second Squad? Repeat, over!"

"AAHH- MY FACE! GET IT OFF ME, GET IT-AAAAHHHH-" A burst of static cutoff the second squad's communications.

The sergeant exchanged glances with the others. Even underneath their helmets, they could all tell they felt the same thing: fear. "Rifles up, set for full-auto!" he ordered. Through the hallway, they began to hear what sounded like a stampede. Like a herd of nerfs, the sound practically reverberated through the floor. They could almost feel whatever was coming through the soles of their boots.

"Charge and lock! Get ready!"

"Hi there!" A pair of metal arms grabbed TN-259 and TN-264.

"What the-?"

"For your safety, I must ask that you come with me immediately." The two stormtroopers were dragged into the last escape pod. They saw a brief glimpse of their squad mates firing at something, Loq turning around to fire in the opposite direction before the hatch closed. Before the light turned green above it, they thought they heard someone or something pounded on the other side of the hatch.

The Rebel corvette exploded in the belly of the Voracity. The blast was so powerful, it cut through the hull of the Star Destroyer, ripped through power conduits and destroyed whole decks of the massive ship. Explosions rippled through the ship as a chain reaction started in its reactor core. The bow of the Star Destroyer went dark, the shields on the craft were disabled and its massive engines sputtered and failed. The weight of the ship dragged it into Equestria's atmosphere, in moments, causing the Voracity to heat up with friction.

The ship's bridge crew tried valiantly to save their ship. But damage and the fire of reentry made that task impossible. The ship burned bright orange as it pierced the upper atmosphere. The bow, the part of the ship that had been damaged the most, broke off and smashed into the bridge, breaking it clean off. As the charred midsection of the craft tumbled through Equestria's skies, its reactor finally went critical and exploded.  The entire ship became nothing more than a shower of scorched and blackened bits, burning a trail of smoke all the way to Equestria's surface. Maybe a few pieces actually made their way to the ground but not a scrap was left to identify the once proud Voracity.

TN-259 and TN-264's escape pod entered Equestria's atmosphere on a different trajectory. They were able to watch as their ship came down through the viewports as their pod tumbled.

TN-264 peered out of the window intently. "You think any of the booze survived?"

The sergeant looked back at his last surviving fellow stormtrooper. Out of a crew complement of thousands including technicians, naval officers, gunners, specialists, marines and stormtroopers like them both, they were the only two to make it off their ship alive. The sergeant was a veteran of two tours with the Stormtrooper Corps. and had seen several boarding actions like that last one, though never one quite like this. His subordinate barely a foot or two away from him in the cramped space of the pod was a relatively new recruit, and he had just asked his squad leader if any of the Rebels' cargo, which may or may not have been alcohol of some kind, had survived. Their fellow crewmen of thousands had just been incinerated, their comrades and their ship destroyed in a single burning flash, and his biggest question was whether or not the booze was intact.

And the sergeant said back, "You know, I was wondering the exact same thing." But neither of them knew for sure as they descended to Equestria safely in their pod, along with one protocol droid who had for some reason rescued them.

As to the answer to their question, however, some of the Rebels' cargo had survived. Unfortunately, it wasn't booze.