Servants of the Empire
Old Enemies
by JCE1985
Time Period: 10 A.B.Y.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, unoriginal character property of Lucasfilm, etc, etc...
Dramatis Personae:
With the Empire:
Arkyn Medor, Dark Side Elite (Human male)
Tel Vynkar, Dark Side Elite (Human male)
Loam Redge, Inquisitor (unknown)
M.XI-LO6 "Lox", Bodyguard (Mark-XI-Executioner)
IC-3557/56 "Jex", Commander 7./926th Fast Inquisitorial Response/Strike Taskforce (FIRST)-Platoon (Human male)
Liron Gar, Moff – Dolkar Sector (Human male)
LeFey Gordon, Vice-Admiral (Human male)
Aurelia Glermin, Civilian (Human female)
Jaios Caybasi, Imperial Intelligence Lieutenant (Human male)
--
With the Rebellion:
Boc Seclam, Council triumvir (Twi'lek male)
Tailamur, Council triumvir (Stenax male)
Iran Kalamar, Council triumvir (Human male)
Nextor, Jedi Representative (FLTCH-droid)
Irenez, Navy Representative (Human female)
Trybokk, Army Representative (Wookiee male)
Tav Breil'lya, Intelligence Representative (Bothan male)
Djerok, Apprentice (Human male)
"Farmgirl", Trainee (Human female)
Brewker, Pilot (Duros male)
Qixoni, Protocol droid (HK-50 protocol driod)
In our life, we always asked ourselves: "What if...?" We don't know the exact answer. We can only speculate. In a galaxy, far far away, here's the same question: "What if...?"
What, if the Empire did win at Endor? What, if the rebellion had been crushed? What if Luke Skywalker had chosen the dark side? What, if the Emperor would still rule the galaxy? What would have happened?
Some events would take place, untouched by this event. Think of the Ssi-ruuk invasion, the Yevethan rebellion or even of a giant armada of brutal invaders, en route to this galaxy.
Some events never would have happened. Think of all the warlords, all the darksiders and politicians and their intrigues. Think of all the chaos.
What would happen to the people of this galay. They would live their lifes. Not under a republic, but under an Empire.
Let this be the stories of some of these people. They have to find their places in the galaxy. High, on the top of the throne or six feet under. They have utheir/u destinies, they all make utheir/u decisions, but in the end, they're all loyal servants of the empire...
Cyphar – Dolkar Sector
Some kilometres away from a small village
Deep night
He ran through the woods. The others were close behind him. He could hear their footsteps, he heard their weapons as they fired red energy bolts in his direction, he felt their presences in the force. He did not look back, he didn't have to. He knew what was happening.
He turned his concentration towards the area which was in front of him: With one step to the other the woods vanished and turned into a wide meadow. The sky was clear and a single bright full moon was right in front of him in the sky, filling the whole scenario in a light blue colour. Only lonely trees and bushed interrupted the otherwise infinity valley of nature.
He used the force and accelerated his speed to an inhuman level and headed towards one of these trees. He knew he couldn't escape them now. They were too close. He had to face them now and terminate them. With one large, force-empowered jump he moved himself up to the top of the tree, became one with the darkness and waited.
Then they came. Twenty soldiers in black Scout Trooper armor and black coats, wielding modified Stormtrooper One blaster rifles. One soldier in black Stormtrooper armor and a long inquisitor-robe – their leader. No visible weapons, but he was sure he had some. And ten skeleton-shaped silhouettes – Phase-I Dark Troopers.
They left the woods in a standard search pattern and approached his tree. He did not hear what they said, but he felt their emotions. Frustration. Their target had escaped – but not for long. They would find the traitor and eliminate him. Then they were directly in front of his tree. The one in the Stormtrooper Armor put out a silver, paddle-shaped scanner and activated it. Just after a blink of an eye after he directed his men to the top of the tree, a dark figure made double-loop-jump off the tree's top and the sound of a cold blue lightsaber filled the air. Before the troopers could aim their blasters at him, he had already beheaded one droid and when he landed turned fast around him and cut two troopers above their hips.
It was a ghostly scene: Matching with the blue moonlight that illuminated the scene, a blue sword cut with an enormous speed through black human bodies. No scream was heard. Every noise was absorbed by the stealth filters of their helmets. No blaster was fired. The man with the lightsaber was to fast to be aimed. Every one of them was trained to handle force-user, but this one here was better than anything they have ever encountered. The leader, the one in the Stormtrooper armor, engaged him with two vibroswords, he was a master of the Jar'Kai-style, but he failed, too. When he hit the ground, the last thing he saw was how the last droid got cut into pieces.
He walked over the limbs and dead bodies of what had been a platoon of inquisitorial commandos. Too many lives had been wasted, in a war that should not have been fought. But mistakes had been made and now it was upon him and his allies to correct these mistakes and end this war. Again, he looked at the bodies. "Mindless drones", he mumbled. He took a comlink out of his pocket and contacted his allies. There was a great mess to be cleaned up.
Chapter 1: Call of Duty
Byss – Deep Core
Emperor's Citadel – Panorama-room
Morning
The room was seed-shaped and completely black. One wall was a giant window which allowed a wide view over the cityscape of Byss, while the other wall had a door and several computer-terminals. The only other furniture was some sofas, arranged for private talks as well as relaxing time while enjoying the view.
As if this view could ever be enjoyable, he thought. His name was Arkyn Medor, he was one of the Dark Side Elite warriors of the Empire. It seemed like an eternity for him since he had left his homeworld and was taken to Dromund Kass to train in the arts of the dark side. The training was hard, many of his classmates did not survive the training, but now he was here. He mastered everything the instructors confronted him and became one of the best. He was selected to be a Dark Side Elite. Not a Royal Guard, a Prophet, Inquisitor or something else. No. He was now an elite warrior of the Empire.
He arrived at Byss two weeks ago and, aside from getting settled in, he had nothing to do but to found out that the rumours about Byss had been true. The whole planet was a nexus of the dark side. The weak, which lived here, were drained out by the immense concentration of darkness and even the atmosphere of the planet was a polluted green-blue layer of the dark side. When he looked into the empty faces and eyes of the servant girls every morning he knew that it didn't always need a Death Star to kill a planet.
Whenever he had the opportunity, he left the citadel and went to the docking tower incognito. It was a place full of live and activity, because most of the spacers did not stay long enough to be affected by the dark side effects permanently, so the discos and clubs were always worth a visit. There he could be a normal youth like he been on Kidriff 5, in the time before the visit of the Inquisitors. But then again, the dirty and drugged quarters were only a shadow of the bright streets of the Tobaskin Sector.
Normally, Elites were chosen to go on a mission by one of the seven Executors, who lead the cadre, but there had been no big crisis that had required the help of a rookie. So, like every morning he laid in one of the sofas with a datapad in his hands and watched the sick green sky of Byss while reading the Empire's news. The real news, he thought. One of the advantages is, when you belong to the Empire's inner circle that you don't have to worry about public propaganda. You know about all the problems, because you're here to solve them.
His eyes flew over the headlines:
-Yevethan uprising: Star Destroyer Dragon's Breath lost at Doornik-207 (more)
-Former imperial senator Atarkin Bode executed for treason (more)
-Grand Admiral Pitta launches new campaign against Ssi-Ruuvi-Imperium (more)
-Gotal uprising: Enslavement begins (more)
-Corporate Sector: Weapon factory taken over by Imperial Munitions (more)
-Rebel cell destroyed on Garqi (more)
-…
Nothing new. He read similar reports all the time during his two weeks. After the victory at Endor six years ago the Empire was victorious at all fronts, just some little rebellion here and there, but nothing coordinated or dangerous.
The door opened behind him and he felt a known presence enter the room. Tel Vynkar, a fellow Elite. Like Medor, Vynkar was a new Elite, but he had been on Byss for a year already. He was also one of the first person Medor had met on Byss and someone he considered to be his friend. He didn't know how Vynkar saw their relation, because he was difficult to value due to his outbursts of rage he often had. But Medor was sometimes able to calm him down before he went berserk and due to the fact he was still alive he thought that Vynkar did at least respect him a little bit.
"So, Arkyn, what's new in the empire?" he asked.
"See it for yourself!" Medor replied and tossed the pad with force over in Vynkar's hands.
He flew over the lines and his face got bored. "A little rebellion here, a small genocide there. Man, can't this galaxy live in peace?"
"Must be all these aliens. They're like little spoiled brats, they quarrel about everything. And if someone has something the other one hasn't, it's time for a little war", he said and meant it. The empire had brought stability and order to a galaxy of corruption and chaos. He didn't understand why, but some people yearned back to the days of the Old Republic.
"I still wonder how the Republic could have survived for such a long time", Vynkar said.
"I don't know. Maybe it was already dead. A fouled rotten body filled with maggots and parasites."
"Whatever. And if it wasn't for all these non-humans, we wouldn't have a job."
"So true…"
The door opened again, but this time Arkyn hardly felt the entering presence. It was a broken soul, more dead than alive.
"Forgive me, Masters, but…", a soft and weak voice begun.
"How dare you not to kneel in my presence?" Vynkar screamed in an outburst of anger. He turned around and pointed his hand towards a young human girl. The servant girl had just entered the room and was still more than five metres away from him, but he grappled her throat with the force and her bare feet found themselves suddenly lifted more than half a metre off the ground. The datapad she had hold in her hands landed with a metallic sound on the ground and her hands went to her throat, trying in a futile afford to remove the invisible grasp.
Here we go again… Medor thought. He sighed. "Do you have to?"
"Please", she coughed, "I… won't…"
"She is a worthless slave", Vynkar thundered. He turned around towards Arkyn, but the girl was still in the air, begging for her life. "If she doesn't know how to show her respect to a higher being, she must die!"
"And you really need to learn to control yourself", Arkyn said. He was still lying on the sofa and had his view turned to the big panorama window.
"Don't lecture me! Rage and anger are the source of our power!"
"No!" Arkyn interrupted. "Our source is the Dark Side. And we gain our power through darkness. Deep darkness and control!" At least I do. "When you relay on your anger, you're nothing more than a mindless berserker. And that job is already taken by the Chrysalides!"
"You think so?" Vynkar's voice suddenly was free of all the rage. It was normal, like it was before the girl had entered the room. Behind him, the poor child fell on the ground, still coughing but released from the iron grip and now trying to regain her breath.
"Yep. Think about it. Now let's see what going on." He used the force and the pad of the girl flew into his hand. He read it.
"Tell me! What is it?" Vynkar asked like a young impatient schoolboy.
"It seems we're going on a mission!"
"Great! Finally the galaxy will face its most dangerous warrior!"
"And its greatest ego."
"Funny. When do we leave?"
"ASAP. Slave! Let our ships be prepared!"
The girl was hardly able to walk, but fear can sometimes be very encouraging. "It… (cough)… shall be… done, Master."
Slowly, bowed, nearly crawling, she left the room, almost happy to get away from those creeping creatures.
"Okay, I'm packing." Vynkar said. "Where do we go?"
Medor got up and handed the pad over to his friend while he headed towards the door. "See it for yourself. You're gonna like it!"
Vynkar looked at the datapad. "Wonderful", he mumbled. "Prakith."
End of Chapter 1
Author's Notes:
So this is the first chapter of my first fanfic. I hope you enjoyed it and like to read on! If you feel like it, feel free to leave a review.
As you might have noticed, this story takes place in an alternative universe. The main point is that the Emperor's trap at Endor worked. Luke Skywalker chose the dark side and killed his father and the main fleet of the Rebellion has been destroyed. Now, six years later, the story takes place.
Cyphar is a world in the middle rim. Although the name exists in original canon, the descriotion, as well as the sector name and all the other planets in the sector are my own invention.
The black armored Storm- and Scouttroopers are a special branch of the Inquistorius: They are recruited from every branch of the military an have skills that can be useful against lightsaber-wielding force-users... But not always successfully. They investigate 'rogue force-user phenomenons' and decide, if an inquisitor is needed.
Phase-I Dark Trooper are combat droids of skeltal appearance equipped with shield and vibro-blades, designed for melee combat.
The Emperor's Citadel on Byss was first seen in Dark Empire I. Since the Emperor is aktiv on Coruscant, other individuals use it at the moment, although they know who the true master is.
About the headlines in Arkyn's newspad:
--In the original timeline the Yevethans initiated a revolt against the Empire a few months after Endor, because the Empire retreated towards the Deep Core. In my timeline, the revolt took place a few years later and the Yevethans never truly expelld the Empire. Now the Koornacht Cluster is the place of a guerillia war.
--The Ssi-ruuvi-Imperium invaded the planet of Bakura around the same time as the Battle if Endor. The governor had sent a call for help to the Emperor, but he had cut a deal with the reptilian aliens: They got a few human colonies and the Empire would gain access to the 'entechment'-technology. In the original timeline, the Rebels responded to the call for help and defended Bakura together with the local Imperial Fleet.
In my timeline, the Ssi-ruuk invaded Bakura and pushed forward along the Shiritoku Spur until they reached the Imperial world of Timora. Fed up with the aliens, the Empire is now busy cleaning up its own mess.
--Imperial Munitions is a holding company of the Empire. Besides producing military equipment, the company also takes over other companies or production facilities who show not enough loyalty towards the Empire.
Prakith is the headquarter world of the Inquistorius.
