(I made the graphic above and the title crawl on my own, as well as the lightsaber scene dividers. At the top of each chapter, there will be a playlist. In the comments will be a link to a YouTube track for the music. When you see the numbers in the text, that's when the music starts. If you see the ⊘ before a paragraph, it means Silence.)

Playlist:

❶ "Main Title and Attack on the Jakku Village"—The Force Awakens OST

⊘ Silence

❶ [Start music here if not watching the video in the link.] 

PROLOGUE

⊘ Grand Moff Randd narrowed his eyes at the wall of flames spewing from an auxiliary launch bay on the Death Star. His heart thumped, beating irregularly, while a fireball erupted from the thermal exhaust port on the space station's axis.

Images of his wife, children, and grandchildren battered his mind. Has it only been two rotations since the Emperor called me back to the fleet? Since he imprisoned my family at Wobani? 

Sweat glistened on Randd's brow as blue electricity sparked across the dish of the Death Star's superlaser. For one brief second, a white light flashed, mutating to snaking purple pulses enveloping the unfinished sphere in an eerie charge.

"All power to forward deflectors," Randd said from the bridge of the Star Destroyer Coercer.

Captain Deontah echoed the command to the officers. "All power to forward deflectors." The tall twenty-something captain smoothed her dark tunic and adjusted her cap while keeping eyes on her novice crew.

Good job controlling your fear, Deontah. Randd looked around the bridge at his crew. They're all too young. If the defeat at Yavin hadn't depleted our officer core, if Tarkin had reigned in his ego and used his brain for once, we wouldn't be promoting teens to lieutenants and ensigns to captains.

A white ring of gas erupted a mere moment before the Death Star incinerated into an orange fireball, annihilating snub fighters, shuttles, and even capital ships in its path. The detonation shook the bridge and tossed Randd against the bulkhead. His face drained as the inferno blasted a million lives into oblivion. 

He gulped down the churning bile as the orange blaze transformed to white. Debris caught in Endor's gravity hurtled toward the tiny moon and burned up in the atmosphere. Vader, the Emperor—they're gone. He glanced around the bridge, his pulse thumping in his ears.

Warnings from the pit crew came fast and frequent.

"Losing life support on decks one through twenty-eight, ma'am."

The aftershock rocked the Coercer.

"Fires reported in primary docking bay and medbay eight, Captain."

The smell of fear and the bustle of panic overwhelmed him. Who's left? Piett's gone. Sloane's there. The Star Destroyer Vigilance still beamed on his display. The Vehement and the Subjugator—damaged but maintaining life support.

His shoulders tensed as the weight of the Empire fell to his shoulders, the last surviving governor of this great enterprise. How will we—

An A-wing fighter zoomed past the bridge viewport. 

Two ensigns in the starboard pit cast worried gazes to each other. Lieutenant Heysla, a heavy-set human from Kuat, said to the pit crew, "Attend to your duties."

The lieutenant huffed as he rested his hands on his waist.

Assessing the damage, Randd turned to the viewport once more.

He twisted to the duty pit, a command on the tip of his tongue.

"Sir, the starboard stabilizers are not responding. Ship is approaching free-fall limits." Ensign Woodlawr's voice shook.

Randd swiveled his head to the young officer.

Heysla opened a channel to engineering. "Chief, what in blazes is going on? Get that stabilizer responding now."

A cacophony of shouts, alarms, and fire suppression units muffled the chief's response. "Lost our aft shields, sir. All personnel—"

The screen switched from engineering to a damage report. The rear quarter of the lower decks broke off with jagged edges, blown away by a Rebel frigate. 

Lieutenant Heysla's mouth dropped. "Captain, engineering's gone."

Deontah hurried to Heysla's display. Only the sweat glistening on her ebony brow and the incessant smoothing of her uniform betrayed her fear. The ship quaked once more, tossing the pit officers to the deck.

With a practiced tranquility amid chaos, the captain said, "Activate fire control systems. Shut the blast doors from section E-41 onward. Open all hatches in the affected compartments. Scramble auxiliary crews."

"Yes, ma'am!" Heysla turned back to his pit crew. "You heard the captain. Let's get those blast doors secured and open those hatches."

With widened eyes, Ensign Shartrem said, "But, sir, any survivors will be sucked into space."

Heysla growled while leaning over the frightened youth. "If I have to activate the controls myself, you will join them, Shartrem."

The ensign shuddered and returned to her station. "Yes, sir."

Randd's lip quivered when the hatches sealed. Too many good men. Too many. He slammed his fist against the bulkhead.

Deontah climbed out of the pit and joined Randd at the viewport. "Sir, the Rebels aren't retreating." She steadied herself against the bulkhead as yet another TIE fighter crashed onto the hull. "If we don't pull out soon, there won't be a fleet left. Permission to issue a retreat?"

As she spoke, an A-wing careened past the bridge and blasted fire. A TIE fighter pursued the snub fighter, but a B-wing came from behind and took him out in a ball of fire.

Small ships dodged between the capital ships—some on suicide runs, some on strafing passes. The Rebel squadrons milled throughout the Imperial fleet while the Calamari cruisers barraged the star destroyers at point-blank range.

The Coercer shuddered with each hit from the heavy guns, and klaxons sounded as yet another compartment lost hull integrity.

Randd drew his brows together and tapped his forefingers on his lips as he weighed his options. He looked around him at the squealing alerts. Some of the displays reported the Coercer's damage, while others showed the devastation to the rest of the fleet—too many star destroyers ghosted out as lost vessels.

He opened a communication channel to the entire fleet. He cleared his throat. "This is Grand Moff Randd. I am in command now. Disengage. All craft, retreat. Again, all craft, retreat. Transmitting rendezvous coordinates. Randd out."

Let's hope the fire didn't get to the hyperdrive motivators. The destroyer shuddered twice and then burst into hyperspace. He sighed as the blue streaks streamed past the viewport.

Long live the Empire.

Those vessels capable of lightspeed headed to the naval shipyards on Kuat. The others ... well, their crews would be much older by the time they reached home—if they ever did.

How will the Empire survive without an Emperor? His reflection stared at him in the bridge viewport. Then again, who says we need one

Did you know ... 

● Major plot points are typed in all caps in some of the title crawls of the Star Wars films.

● Grand Moff Randd was the highest-ranked surviving Imperial after the Battle of Endor.

● Hyperdrives were positioned deep in the center of star destroyers, not on the same deck as engineering.

● Are you lost? Not sure what's going on? Not a Star Wars fan but need to or want to read my book? Head to the end of this book and read the three appendices that summarize the original trilogy of films (complete with image strips). Do yourself a favor, though, skip the timeline at the end of this book until you're done reading the novel. You don't want spoilers. The cast list at the front should help you identify some of the characters, as well.

● Claudia Gray wrote an excellent Star Wars novel called Lost Stars that follows the Imperial POV from before the Battle of Yavin until the Battle of Jakku. (My favorite published Star Wars book [new canon].)

● Hitting the star (voting) and commenting are extremely important in the Wattpad algorithm—not to mention your author's heart. Please don't be a silent reader. Hit the star. React to the book as you read. I love reading comments.

● Save it to your library and a public reading list, too. Those actions will help it rank as well.

Tell me what you think ...

● Were you able to visualize the bridge of the Coercer as the damage hit?

● What emotions were you feeling as you read the scene?