A NEW FIGHT

Prolog

The Empire's war machine was in ruins after the loss of 2 planets, Balmorra was lost to the republic, Hoth was not lost but the empire was on full retreat from the planet.

Across the galaxy was the imperial army spread thin, their lines was barely holding and reinforcements was something the generals only could wish for, even the Dark council had sent reports to all the fronts about reinforcements was running low due to their front on the planet Makeb.

Makeb was the new war zone for the imperial military, even thou the planet was on imperial hands, the republic was putting up a fight for the planet.

Chapter 1

The news

On Korriban was the dark lord Sunztu sitting in his office, the office was placed on the top floor of the sith academy on korriban, the office was a big square room with two terminals on the left side of the room, on the right side was a couple of chairs standing for guests who was waiting could sit in. right in front of the door to the office was a table standing for officer meetings with Sunztu and allied lords, in the back end of the room was his own desk, with access to the terminals on Korriban and all the information from the empire he needed, right behind him was a series of lockers with body armor, ropes and other things he or his men was needing.

He was looking over the reports when it knocked on the door to the office, he raised his head and looked to the door, he was then looking to the desk again when it knocked again, he then yelled enter, he kept his eyes peeled on the door as Ventrees his 2nd in command entered the room, she looked like she had seen a ghost, and she was never afraid of anything but something had made her scared, she went by the first table in the room and went over to Sunztu's desk and look at the darth, Sunztu was a Zabrak in his last part of 20's, he was sitting in what some would call his battle armor, but little did they know that the armor both was for war and for important meetings, the armor had belonged to his father, a total black armor.

Ventrees looked at Sunztu and opened her mouth slowly "The grand moff have called he want to talk to you ASAP" Sunztu just looked at Ventrees and looked back to the reports "cant he wait till I'm done reading?" Ventrees looked at him with wide peeled eyes and shacked her head, "he have been calling for the past 2 hours and he says it's about the Empires safety" Sunztu looked to the holo beside him and saw it was ringing, he pressed the button on the site of the holo to answer the call, looked at the figure appearing on the holo. The figure was a human male around his 50s all over his face he had battle scares. "this is Grand Moff Kegan, Darth Sunztu I'm asking you to travel to one of our lost planets to check the deaths of 10.000 imperial troops and 20.000 dead republic troops" Sunztu looked with disbelieve on the Moff "check up on 20.000 dead republics you must be insane" his answer was to the Moff's request, The Moff was smiling at the answer "I'm afraid that I'm not that insane my lord, this request comes from the dark council itself" Sunztu looked at the Moff and nodded fast, "I leave if they think I'm the best suited for it, just a thing, what planet should I travel to?" he asked the Moff, the Moff looked around and then answered Balmorra.

Chapter 2

The beginning

Sunztu was looking inside the lockers behind his desk, and was cursing the dark council to hell and back, Ventrees who was still in the office remained silent, she wouldn't want to make Sunztu more mad than he already was, Sunztu then turned around and looked at Ventrees, "what are you still doing here?" he asked She looked at him and saw his mask laying on the desk in front of her, "just wanted to remind you to bring your mask" she said and tried to smile, Sunztu saw the small attempt on a smile and started laughing, Ventress just looked at him and turned around walked to the door, Sunztu looked at her back, "where are you going?" he asked, "I'm going for the library" she answered while she looked at the door. "You're coming with me" Sunztu's only reply was.

Ventrees turned around and look at Sunztu, with disbelieve in her eyes "I'm doing what, you can't be serious" she replied back in a mad tone towards Sunztu. Sunztu picked up his mask and took it on as he turned around from the desk, and looked at Ventrees, "you heard me, you are coming with me to Balmorra, and I want you to make contact to Broker and his men, and tell them to meet us there" Ventrees just looked and nodded at the order Sunztu gave, and then quickly left the room to make the calls for Broker.

Ventrees went to the room across the hall way from Sunztu's office to make the call to Broker, the time went past with no answer from him until he went through on the holo, "Broker here, what's the matter?" he asked when he picked up his holo, Ventrees looked at the old agent in the holo and thought to herself what Sunztu would with that old man, "Sunztu wants you and your team on Balmorra ASAP" she replied to him, Broker looked back at the Holo and smiled, "I hoped he would sent something our way, but why Balmorra" Ventrees was about to fall over while looking at Broker, he was a Rattataki a male in his early 40s, he had tattoos from his forehead to his chin and had jewels on his forehead, he even was bold as most of the males from his spices was. She looked at him still when she replied "something with an investigation of some dead troopers on both sides" Broker looked at the Holo and then looked around the room he was sitting in, a dark and with few things, the only thing there was, was a bed a small table and weapons that would make the imperial army look like a kinder garden, he then looked back to the holo "I doubt it's just an investigation op if he is Bringing us for it, but we will be there when he arrives" Broker said before he turned off his holo and rose up from his seat and took the holo with him and called his men.

Chapter 3

The Spec-ops

After Broker had called his men to prepare for the journey to Balmorra, was he now looking at his weapons, a few dozen pistols, a few sniper rifles of all calibers, and enough assault rifles to bring a minor army o it knees, he looked besides his guns and rifles and looked at all of his hardware he have pick up through the years, body armors, stealth suits, and a few different grenades, he picked up a few EMPs and looked at his most beloved armor, a black and red armor, the mask for the armor had only a hole to his eyes else there were no sign of holes in it, he picked up his armor and started to get dressed, he took his belt as the last thing and clicked it on around his waist.

It began knocking on his door, he looked to the door and picked up a pistol and placed himself next to the door, he then turned off all the light in his apartment and waited for the door to be opened, but the door didn't open, it knocked on the door again this time with bigger force than the first time, Broker looked at the door and reached for the door spy next to him and tried to look out of the door, but he couldn't see who was knocking, but he knew from past experience that he shouldn't open the door unless he could see who or how many was by the door, he looked to the window at the other side of the room and saw shadow walk pass it, he kept staring at the window expecting what or who ever walked past the window to burst through it, Broker looked to the table and looked to the grenades on it, he wanted to grab a grenade and throw it through the window to make sure he scared of who it was who was on the other side, but in the same time how should he then keep an eye on the door to make sure no one entered the room.

The window blew up and a flash bang flew through the window, Broker quickly turned around facing the wall behind him and kneeled down not to be blinded by the flash from the grenade, the flash bang exploded and the door beside him was kicked open, 4 people stormed through the door and 3 others from the window, Broker looked to the door as it was kicked in and fired his gun against the first person who entered the room ad killed the man instantly, Broker quickly rose up and started to fire his gun against the door and killed the 3 remaining men who stormed the door, he then turned around facing the window and slide to the table in front of him and knocked it over for cover, he just made it in time before a rain of fire entered the room, the wall behind him were covered with holes from heavy blaster fire, Broker looked calmly to his side and thought of reaching his blaster rifle to return the fire when it suddenly stopped, and he could hear a voice from the window "surrender and drop your weapons, we have you surrounded" Broker didn't regencies the voice, but he knew the only ones who would be bold enough to attack him in his own apartment were mercenaries, and take their equipment in mind they were not your normal mercs who hunted the low life criminals.

Broker peaked out from the table and answered the man "surrounded? How can I be surrounded when 4 of your people lays inhere dead?" the merc's only reply was a new rain of fire from the window, but Broker had bought some time for himself and had picked up a couple of grenades and his blaster rifle, he threw the grenades and rose up and fired against the merc's In the window, he heard the screams when the grenades blew up, after the explosion he went over to the window and checked the body's, when he reached the body's he smiled "Sunztu you asshole, buying merc's to test me? A lot of wasted creds for you" he turned around still smiling and picked up a back full of rifles, guns and grenades and left his apartment on his way to the space port.

Chapter 4

The meeting

Outside of the sith academy were the statues of the old sith lords overlooking the academy grounds as they had done for thousands of years before, it felt like they were looking straight down on Ventrees as she was walking a few meters away from Sunztu, she had a chilling feeling like the statues were looking straight through her and saw what she was thinking or even feeling, she looked up in the sky and used one of her hands covering her eyes from the bright sun above them. Ventrees a human sith lord in her mid-20's, she had dark brown eyes and a black hair, she wasn't much younger than Sunztu, but yet felt she like he was much older than the 27 years he had under him. When she looked at the statues above her came her first meeting with Sunztu back from her memories.

Several years earlier

She remembered she had landed on the Korriban and was told a young man was waiting for her; she had had a feeling of something special would happen when she was on her way to the academy, their she looked at the statues as well but back then were she more afraid rather than in awe of them, she had the same creepy feeling back then.

When She reached the ramp to the sith academy were she looking at the sith's in the front of the academy who was standing on top of the ramps, but non off them were looking as the description told her, she could feel the panic as if she was getting late to the most important meeting of her life, when her legs started to shake came a voice from behind of her "hey there young one, how can I help you?" she didn't turn around or didn't even try to look in the way of the voice, she was certain that it was either not the man she was supposed to meet or just some of the students who was playing tricks with her, the voice came again this time right in front of her, she realized she was looking straight into a pitch black chest plate covered with scratches and small holes, she suddenly gave a small scream when the shock appeared in her head and she stepped back a few feet's from the man in front of her, she were shacking from her toes to her hair, but she still tried to look further up from the chest plate which her eyes was fixed on since the man had appeared in front of her, she rose her eyes up to the to the man's neck and saw the starting shape of a mask, and followed the mask u to what was supposed to be eyes, the holes to the eyes was just as pitch black as the chest plate, ad she felt like the man's eyes were looking straight through her mind and body, she thought to herself there would be no way of hiding that you are afraid, he just see it instantly and will do god knows what to you at the same instant she had stopped with her thought the man in front of her removed his mask and looked at her with a pair of yellow eyes with a red iris around the pupil, the man kept staring at her until he suddenly bursted out in laughter, you could hear the laughter loud and clear from the top of the ramp where the other sith lords were standing, but they didn't pay attention to the man's laughter. Ventrees looked at the man and didn't see anything to laugh about, she was scared shit lees and she was afraid of whatever he would or could do to her if she showed it, "don't be afraid I won't bite" said the man in front of her, "my name is Sunztu by the way, I didn't have the time to introduce myself before you screamed up like you had seen a ghost or something else that was worth screaming of" Sunztu was still looking at her with eyes that felt like h tried to see inside her head, she looked down to the ground right in front of his feet and answered "my… na…name is Ventrees my lord" Sunztu looked at her and smiled for himself "well Ventrees instead of you glaring at the grass grow I suggest we go inside and gets introduced properly" Ventrees looked up at Sunztu blushing all over her face, but he was already on his way up the ramp to the academy, and she had to run to catch up with him, she looked at his back and suddenly felt safe in his presence.

Present time

Ventrees looked at the back of Sunztu and felt the same way as she did all those years back, she smiled and looked up to the statues again before she entered the shuttle of Korriban and whispered "thank you and may we meet again"

The shuttle door closed behind her and the shuttle took of to a waiting carrier above Korriban, ready to take them to Balmorra.

Chapter 5

The arrival

On the carrier were all the personal making the last preparations for the ride to Balmorra, the carrier itself looked like any other big battle ship from the imperial navy, 3 flight decks, 5 decks for the armed forces and whoever taking a ride on it, but there was a thing that stood out from all the other ships, this ship was a prototype made for one purpose only, it's missions were all out war, didn't matter if it was space or on land the battle was, this ship could level an entire planet, just by a blink of an eye, its arsenal was the biggest in the fleets history, over 100 big cannons 1000 small LMGs and over a million rockets and its fighter capacity unknown.

Nearly 100.000 man was on the ship to operate everything, among them were Gannicus, a human sith lord, he had just reach 20 2 weeks before the order came from the top that he had to go with the carrier code named Torro, Gannicus was made 2nd in command on the ship by orders from the dark council and by suggestion from Sunztu, But Ganni wasn't a man made for leadership so he always kept in the back when the commanding officers were on inspections, Ganni stood on the Flight deck and watched as the pilots and mechanics were making the last preparations for the takeoff, he looked around them and imagined that the way they were walking and running around each other, was how ants would do it, he smiled to himself before he went into an elevator that would take him to the bridge for the last assignments before Sunztu would arrive with Ventrees.

On the bridge were the admiral for the imperial navy and his officers talking with the ship's captain, the captain was a small and heavy man, in his mid- 50's, he had seen a lot of what the galaxy had to offer, the crew already liked him, and saw him as a father, Ganni entered the command room on the bridge, he looked around and saw nearly 50 men and women looking into monitors over the engines, cannons and shields, some of the men and women were running back and forth with reports to officers from the different decks, either with request of more equipment or that the decks were ready.

Ganni went over to a small table beside of the map section, here he saw a Chiss standing over some data pads and swearing, the Data pad's contained value info on Balmorra but there were no info on what had hit all those dead soldiers on the planet, the Chiss looked up when Ganni was right in front of him "hello sir" was the only reply the chiss came with before he turned his eyes to the data pad's again, Ganni looked at him and looked down on the data pad's "what is you name soldier?" the chiss looked up at Ganni and shacked his head "not soldier, agent if you don't mind, my name on the other hand is Chip" Ganni looked at Chip and smiled "of course agent Chip" Chip returned his eyes to the data pad's before Ganni stepped away from the table and over to the big map in the middle of the room, he looked at the map and wondered what they would find on Balmorra.

Behind Ganni came a voice "ATTENTION, COMMANDER ON DECK" everyone even the admiral stood as if the emperor just had entered the room, everyone looked at the man and the women in the door, "At ease gents" replied the man before he went over to the admiral, the admiral saluted the man and the woman "a pleasure to have you here Sunztu" and bowed his head to the man the woman beside Sunztu smiled a little, when she saw the admiral salute her master, the admiral quickly turn his gaze over to the woman and bowed his head as well "and a pleasure as well to have you here Ventrees" The admiral then stood up right as if he was ready for inspection.

Ventrees looked around on the bridge and was more in awe than curios over all the things and people who suddenly had stood as rank as they could when they entered the room, the gazed around on all the people and monitors and couldn't believe what she saw, it looked more like one of those ships Sunztu had told her about, than just a mare transport ship, to her did it look like they were preparing to go to another war, she looked back at Sunztu who was talking with admiral, Ventrees went over to Sunztu's side and waited as he had told her to do when they came onboard the ship, few minutes later bowed the admiral and left the ship, Sunztu was now the top of the command on the vessel and his first order was to take the ship to Balmorra, Ventrees smiled and felt a surge through her body of excitement, and the excitement of being in charge of something, since she was apprentice and lord under Sunztu had he put her as his 2nd in command when they took over the ship, she smiled to herself ad felt Sunztu's eyes gaze upon her before Sunztu turn around to the captain and gave the last order before take off

Chapter 6

The mysteries

Ventrees was sitting in her cabin; the cabin was small only room for a little disk by the back wall and a bed by the side of the room, the cabin had a few lockers, with only enough room for a robe and a few shoes or boots. Ventrees sad by the desk going over a few data pad's she had brought with her from Korriban to kill the time, she could have gone to the training room down the small hall outside her cabin, but of some reason were the data pad's drawing her in, one of the data pad's contained some classified marked notes about her master Sunztu, she laid the data pad she was holding in her hands when she saw the data pad with Sunztu's name on it, she picked it up and kept staring at it for a few minutes before she opened the files that was stored inside the data pad, a holo picture emerged from the data pad with Sunztu on it, Ventrees looked at the picture for some time but she couldn't see where it was taken, the only thing it showed was Sunztu trying to protect someone from something, she looked in the bottom of the picture and saw a name written, she remembered the name from her childhood but she wouldn't believe it, why would this be classified as top secret she thought to herself.

Ventrees laid the data pad away and looked for clues in one of the other pad's she had with her and found some Intel that brought light to her little mystery, "I have sent Sunztu to your part of kaas my old friend to help you get the attention of the local guards, to give you the support against the thugs that have harassed you and your family, regards …" The name was removed from the text as if someone tried to cover something up, But Ventrees regencies the man who was writing the text, it was Sunztu's old friend, but she couldn't really remember his name, and she knew who it was he was writing to, She looked up from the pad's and looked at the picture again, she noticed a little girl behind Sunztu who was hiding behind him, she threw the picture away and stormed to the door when a voice from the other side of the door called on her.

Chapter 6 pt. 2

The solving

On the other side of the door was Sunztu standing and looking down the hallway to both sides, while he was knocking on the door to Ventrees's cabin "hey Ventrees come on out, you been in there for several hours" He started walking away from the door, down to the training room when the door opened and Ventrees looked at him, "what do you want?" she asked while she looked rather upset, Sunztu looked back at her "I wanted to train with you, teach you new things while we was here" Ventrees kept looking at him and nodded, she went out of the cabin and closed the door, after a few steps she stopped and turned around to her cabin and went into her room and picked up the data pa with Sunztu's name on it.

When she came back out of her cabin Sunztu was staring at her and tried to ask her what it was she wanted to get in such a hurry, when she asked him "what is this classified file on you?" She knew that she shouldn't ask such things but she was so curios and upset over it that she didn't care about the small rules Sunztu had made. Sunztu looked at her and down to the data pad in her hand "I don't know what you are talking about" he answered and smiled, Ventrees asked him again and again, then she suddenly changed the question "what is it that is on this data pad, which is so important that it has to be classified as top secret?" Sunztu looked at the data pad and then to the floor, "it's nothing you should worry about, just an old mission" he answered, but he knew Ventrees wouldn't buy that story so he expected a outburst of questions, but to his surprise the only question that came was "who is the little girl behind you on this picture?" Ventrees showed him the picture ad waited for an answer.

Sunztu looked at the picture for a while before he answered "if you have looked in that file you should already know who that little girl is" Sunztu turned around and started to walk off to the training room, Ventrees just looked at him walk off, she was surprised that was the only reaction he gave.

Sunztu turned around and "are you coming or shall I expect you to lock yourself inside of you cabin again to look in files you shouldn't be looking at?" Ventrees was shocked over this new reaction, she could see the fury in his eyes and the anger rise within him, and she stood still and just looked at him, "I want an answer… Master, to who the girl is on the picture" she answered his little comment, She waited for an outburst of anger and rage towards her, but it never came, she looked to the floor and then up and got shocked on how close Sunztu was gotten to her when she looked up, "you want to know who that little girl is? Fine, that little girl is you, happy?" He turned around and walked off again with his head low, Ventrees was left behind on the hallway, left with 1000 of questions on how and why and even when that picture was taken and why Sunztu was guarding her and from what. But she knew better than follow him just to ask those questions, he would kill her without hesitation if she asked now, she looked at the data pad and agreed with herself that to find the answers she had to read the entire file on what happened back then, she turned around and started to walk off to her cabin when Sunztu called "come one, we train then I answer whatever questions you have, deal?" Ventrees turned around and smiled and started to walk towards the training room.

Chapter 7

The Training

In the training room were Sunztu and Ventrees at each other's throats in the 2nd hour of training.

The training room itself was a big room with every kind of equipment a training room needed. Ventrees and Sunztu was training in sword skills, Sunztu knew Ventrees's skills with a sword but he wanted to push her even further, so far had he gone at her with the instinct of killing her, but she had blocked every strike he had thrown at her. Ventrees were looking for a weakness in Sunztu's defense as he had taught her, but to her it didn't seem like Sunztu had a weakness in his defense, he just stood there and looked at her with a smile on his lips, to Ventrees it looked like a smile of victory, but she wouldn't want to give him that pleasure now, she took a firm grip on her training blade and made ready to strike.

She started to move towards Sunztu, she quickly raised her blade above her head and aimed straight for Sunztu's head, her strike was heavy and filled with hate and anger, but her blade missed her target. Sunztu had blocked her strike against his head but only just, he lost his blade when he blocked her hit, and Ventrees's blade carried on down towards his chest.

Ventrees stepped back a few feet when she noticed the big scar on Sunztu's chest plate, she looked and prepared to apologies, but instead of hearing curses she heard laughter, Sunztu was laughing and smiling, as he was smiling and laughing he started to take of his upper rope to get to his chest plate.

Ventrees couldn't believe Sunztu was laughing over the blow he just had received, she knew she could have killed him if he hadn't blocked her hard blow, but to laugh didn't look like Sunztu after training, but what surprised her even more was that Sunztu now stood with his chest plate in his hands and was looking at it, she looked from the chest plate and up to where it once had been, she began to blush and smile for herself by the view she had.

Sunztu looked up from his chest plate, he was sweating all over his face and chest, he looked at Ventrees who was smiling towards him and he just returned the smile, he returned his gaze to the chest plate and didn't notice Ventrees getting closer and closer, he looked up at her and stared into her eyes, but didt say anything, he felt her hand on his hand.

Ventrees's head were full of voices, some were telling her what she was about to do was wrong, others told her to carry on, but those voices that told her to stop was soon talking deaf ears since the other voices now were screaming at Ventrees to carry on.

Ventrees had gotten guts to do what she wanted to do, she stood up on her toes and kissed Sunztu, but after a few seconds was Ventrees running to her cabin like the devil himself was after her, Sunztu was left behind in the training room and couldn't get his head around what just had happened, he just looked at the door to the room open and closing a few times before it was silent in the room.

Chapter 8

The Feelings

Ganni woke up from his sleep and looked around his cabin as if he had forgotten where he was, he sad up in his bed and turn around so his feet's touched the cold metal floor, he looked over at his desk to the mail he had gotten from both his parents on Nar Shaada and from his friend on the front on Ilum.

He heard some crying and cursing from the cabin next to his and rose up to get dressed, when he heard something heavy slam into the wall, he turned his head and looked for the place the object must have hit, but he couldn't see anything. He continued his dressing and stepped outside of his cabin and looked down the hall way on both side of his door before he went over to the cabin next to his.

He knocked on the door when he reached the cabin, the only answer he got was "go away Sunztu" he looked at the door and knocked again, and got the same answer, he was about to knock one more time when the door got opened.

Ventrees looked at the boy in front of her with her eyes filled with tears, she tried to clean her eyes with her sleeve, but it didn't help much. "Who are you? And what do you want?" she asked the boy in the door, "My name is Gannicus and I heard you inside of my cabin, anything wrong?" Ganni answered the question he just got; he remembered Ventrees from the bridge when she arrived with the man who he thought must have been Sunztu.

Ventrees looked at Ganni and shacked her head "nothing is wrong, I just had a bad training section with my master, that's all" she answered without believing her own words. Just before she turned around Ganni laid a hand on her shoulder and looked at her, "are you sure you are alright?" Ventrees looked at him for a few seconds before she nodded and turned around and closed the door behind her.

Ganni looked at the door "that's good to hear" he said more to himself before he walked off to the mess hall on the deck below the cabin deck.

Ventrees went over to her table and looked at the data pad's on her desk, she couldn't believe what she had done and then even to her own master, and yet she didn't even feel that Sunztu washer master anymore, he was more like a friend or now, in the light of her feelings, she began to doubt herself and her feelings, what if the feelings I have for him are real and not just something I imagine the same thought had ran on a wild rampage inside her head since she entered her cabin after the training.

She rose up from her chair and walked towards the door, she had made up her mind, she wanted to tell Sunztu how she felt even thou she had a feeling that he already knew, she opened the door and looked towards the training room and saw Sunztu walk out of the room, she was scared and relived in the same time by not have to run through the entire ship to find him, and on the other hand was she scared of his reaction to what she was about to tell him.

She walked towards Sunztu and when she reached him she took a deep breath and started "we need to talk Sunztu, there is something I like to tell you" she looked at him for a reaction and hoped for a decline, but Sunztu looked at her and answered as he always did "of course" Ventrees smiled by his answer and stepped closer to him ad placed her hands on his shoulders "what I want to tell you is this" she tried to calm her nerves before carrying on and took another deep breath. Sunztu kept on looking at her, and smiled "I know you do and trust me, you could just have told me in the training room instead of running of like that" Ventrees looked at him with surprise in her eyes "you know how I feel towards you and that I… I …" Sunztu kept on smiling and kissed her forehead "that you kissed me due to your feelings and that those feelings are love? Yes" Ventrees smiled and started to cry again, but not like before but more a happy crying.

Sunztu smiled and wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked into her eyes and returned the kiss from the training room.