This takes place afte the newest Star Wars book. It involves all characters and will be novel length when finished.
Rated PG for some action. More later... heh
The Clone Wars II
Star Wars
The Emperor's Clone
Josh A. Litten
Prologue
"NO!" it said with a hot explosion of anger. The voice was harsh, but old and dry in its texture. "NONONO!!!"
A tall figure in a dark cloak stepped over the bodies of his victims. The explosion of anger had not been controlled. The man grimaced. He must learn a better way to control his powers before he faced Skywalker again. He turned around as he strode through the doorway and turned off the holoprojector.
"So," he thought, "that old buffoon has given in to New Republic aggression, has he? Very well...very well, indeed... It is time to pay a visit to my dear friend. No. On second thought, I won't. Thraawn is ready. He will come with me to our neighboring galaxy. Together, we will plan. The Empire will not lay dormant for long. And when it rises again in ten years, Pelleon will fall first, and in his place, my servant will rise. The joys of command are too much."
He snickered and then laughed a high-pitched, deadly cackle as the servants around him put plugs in their ears and continued work. It was not unusual for their master to break off into insanity every once in a while. The galaxy did not stop for his mindlessness. There was work to be done.
The man finished his insane laugh with a smile from ear to ear. He snapped at the nearest officer, "Plot a course to Station Beta. There, we will conduct our research openly, away from the Rebel's prying eyes. No one will stop us there, except perhaps my old nemesis. No, Shedao Shai wouldn't dare. Even as formidable as he may be, he wouldn't dare. No. Never."
The young officer nodded to an even younger Ensign working at the main control station. "Yes sir," the Ensign replied nervously. He tapped a few buttons and regulated a switch, all the time making careful calculations and timed adjustments. The Emperor could be very cruel when angry. He looked up to see bodies being carried out of the Emperor's throne room. Very cruel...
1
Han Solo stood before a large monument made out of a strong marble with etchings of time worn into it. Many had stood before it, but none as much as Han. It stood as a symbol, but in Han's heart, it was a friend. It brought back memories of his old smuggling days. How grand it would be to have him back again. He sighed, as the thought grew heavy in his heart. He choked back a lump in his throat and whispered, "I'm back, buddy. I said I would be. Nobody's here but me right now, so we can talk. Yeah, I miss you, Chewbacca. It's been four, long years without you, pal. While they haven't been exactly boring, it hasn't been the same since you...since you..."
"Died?"
Han turned around and greeted his wife with a strong hug full of love. "Leia? How did you know I'd be here? I told you I was going..."
"Ship shopping with Lando. Yes, I know. Lando just stopped by the house. He said you all were going ship shopping tomorrow. I figured the rest out easily. The kids will be wanting to see us at their graduation next week."
By "the kids" she meant Jacen and Jaina. Anakin still needed training, and besides, Luke had seen an unusual amount of force energy coming from him, and he wanted to personally see to his advanced training. Who knows? Han began to curl his small beard around his finger thoughtfully. Maybe he'll be as powerful as that loony Emperor had said.
Years ago, before Anakin was born, Emperor Palpatine had returned and sought out Luke and Leia. He had told Leia her child would be extremely powerful, and then he attempted to touch the child in the womb and was shocked by a great force. Several had tried to capture the child during his years of infancy, but everyone had failed. Fate? Or maybe it was something greater, the power of the Force.
"What's wrong, my love?" Leia asked, crinkling her brow in a questioning glare.
"It's just, we...I've never been able to really bond with the kids because of this and that. The Imperial War took forever to win. New super-weapons were always popping up, or maybe a lost fleet, or some new Imperial project. Anyway, it's never stopped. And after the peace finally came, the Yuuzhan Vong arrived and changed everything. Chewbacca, too..." He choked on a lump again and turned back to his wife. He had been staring at his old friend's grave again. "It's been too much. I just hope our kids have it better. Maybe their children won't leave so early. Perhaps they'll spend time together."
Leia looked hurt. "We've been good for them. They wouldn't be the way they are if not for us. Luke..."
"Raised them. He alone taught them the Force. He taught them morals; he bonded with them, not us. Don't you see, Leia?"
"Han, what you don't see is that to continue the Jedi Order, they had to be taken early. They would have been trained earlier if not for my intervention. I told Luke we needed more time with them. That since we are their parents, we wanted more time. Luke says," Leia stopped. Luke's comment had stung without meaning to. Leia had tried several times to learn the ways of the Force, but her diplomatic duties always held her back. Even now, she represented the New Republic's Intelligence in the Senate. She had always been too busy. "Luke says in the Old Republic, children were taken before they were eight. Older children, teenagers, and especially adults are very hard to train. I guess I proved that."
Her face lowered, and she bit her lip. Han pushed her chin up and came so close to her they touched noses. He gave her his most charming smile, as he spoke, "You didn't fail, Leia. You just use your jedi abilities differently. You use them to work out galactic problems. Just because you can't do as well with a lightsaber or haven't learned how to use telekinesis or any of those things doesn't mean you failed. Remember, I love you."
Leia smiled slowly and uttered the traditional words, "I know."
Han smiled again while he said, "Good, and tell the kids we'll be there, both of us. And to top it all off, we'll get there early to surprise them."
"Jaina won't be there too early. Rogue Squadron's consuming all her time. She quit to finish training as a jedi, and then rejoined. Gavin welcomed her back very willingly. She should be there just before the graduation, though. She said very clearly, 'I wouldn't miss it for the galaxy!' Rogue Squadron's keeping her busy, alright. There's been a lot of pirating going on lately. They all seem to have one buyer in the end, too. Some guy named Sidious. Might be nothing. Then again, it could be something big. We'll know soon. Luke says he and Anakin are going to investigate it."
Han's smile faded somewhat. Things like that almost always went big in the end. And he wasn't so sure the bounty hunters and Hutts had forgotten about him yet. For what Leia, he, and Luke did to Jabba on Tattoine, the Hutts on Nal Hutta had put a price on his head, and Leia's. And if Jaina was going up against space pirates... Well, they may have extended the family headhunters' price to the kids, too.
Leia frowned at him again. "You still upset?"
Han put on a false smile and slid his arm around his wife's waist. "No, nothing at all, your worship. Nothing at all."
"Sticks? This is Rogue Leader. Bogeys coming in at point oh-four-nine-nine."
"I got 'em, Rogue Leader," Jaina smiled. The other pilots of Roue Squadron called her 'Sticks' because not only did she have the X-Wing control stick, but she also had her lightsaber, which they jokingly referred to as a second stick.
"Be careful, Sticks," Gavin, Rogue Leader, cautioned.
The aforementioned bogeys were simply uglies, put together by a few good mechanics in the pirating business. Rogue Squadron was currently at Dantooine, where there was supposedly some new pirating gang meeting being held. But, meeting or not, they had been ambushed, and this called for another hostile act.
Jaina pulled her stick sharply left and nearly grazed the tip of an X-Tie, an X-wing with the wings of Tie Fighters. She then looped around I the vacuum of space and pulled the trigger, all the time feeling the force pull her in the directions she had to go.
She wished she wasn't there, fighting a war with the scum of the universe. She wanted to be at the Academy, where the graduation would be held in a week. She wanted to be with her family and friends. After seeing may wars, where people had violently and meaninglessly died, she had grown tired of the fight, but why was she worrying about that now? Hers, and her flight's lives were on the line.
And what was she doing calling the space pirates and smugglers scum? Her own father had been a spice smuggler before he joined the rebellion. She had no right to judge others by a few actions, but she had to look at all. The ones to come, previous events, and the current battle all had to be considered.
Suddenly, after she pulled out of the range of fire of yet another Tie-Wing, she saw something behind her. Some strange craft was tailing her! She tried to loop around, but she couldn't seem to move. Then she looked at her astromech's display screen. Only now did she hear its screams.
A tractor beam had her held in place, but from where?
"Sparky? What's going on? Who's got me locked?"
The words appeared slowly as if Sparky himself couldn't believe the answer. She bet he couldn't. The small, strange craft had her locked, and it had just fired. She shuddered and readied for impact. The shots continued to come. Systems were failing all around her.
"Sparky! Try to get me a corner loop! I don't care how much power the starboard engines have left, boost them and turn me around!" she screamed in anger.
A soft, humble answered as he saw her view change rapidly. Now, fully facing the spacecraft she gasped. It was in the shape of a skull with bat wings giving it aerodynamic capabilities. The ship was obviously a two-man craft. The eyes each glimmered red and the nose spit out lasers. The mouth had to emit the missiles, or whatever this deadly ship held in its bowels. No larger than a Y-Wing in all, it seemed to glare back at her.
"Sparky, how much power do we have left?" she muttered.
The answer was not good. Nearly 84% of power was drained. She scrunched up her nose and concentrated on the force. Her mind flitted back to the coralskippers of the Yuuzhan Vong. There had to be a way to defeat it.
"Sparky, reroute all power into two proton torpedoes. Fire on my command. 3-2-1-Fire!" she yelled. Everything went black as her power failed, but she saw her two torpedoes heading straight for each eye. She tilted her head back and laughed. It had worked!
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something very unusual. The ship had slowed down her torpedoes considerably. In fact, the immense power in them seemed to be drained by the open mouth of the skull. She stared, open-mouthed as two bright red sparks flew out of the open mouth, right toward her torps! What were they thinking? Were the skull pilots only trying to get rid of her torpedoes? Finally, she realized as the skull's missiles hit her torps, vaporizing them, and continued for her. She had failed, were the last words she thought as Sparky screamed and the missiles flashed right in front of her. Jaina Solo was beaten.
Gavin Darklighter yelled into his Comm slowly, "Nine? How many are answering?"
The answer wasn't what he wanted to hear; "Two from my flight are left, counting me. Two Flight isn't answering. Wait," she snapped, "Two from Two flight is answering. From what I could make out, Sticks, Lapard, and Rusiim are down. Wait," again she paused, "Lapard and Rusiim now in. They require assistance. They say Sticks is static and they don't see her."
Gavin's heart sank. He whispered now, feeling like he had just eaten Rancor liver, "Tell them what's left of Rogue Flight will be there as soon as possible."
"Too late, Lead," a calm, cool, feminine voice said, "Nine's hit, and she's not responding."
"Rusiim, are you sure?"
"Positive, Lead," Rusiim said, her voice never wavering. Half-humans from Siool never displayed any sorrow through verbal usage, which was quite unsettling. Gavin's heart sank more. He wondered if that were even possible. His two flight leaders were gone, and this was supposed to be less than a routine mission. He stared out at the stars and wondered what Tycho or Wedge would do. They had been great commanders and had led Rogue Squadron to a place of honor not to be challenged. Gavin felt as if he was doing a less than honorable job of running the squadron right now. Suddenly, he reached up to his eyes, beneath his helmet and felt tears. He knew then, something big was about to rock the galaxy.
"Rogue Squadron, retreat," he choked on the last word, knowing this would cause the beginning of turmoil throughout not only the galaxy, but also his own heart.
"Negative, Lead," He heard a metallic voice say without expression. That would be Lapard, a wookie who used a language transmitter to speak.
"Why not, Four?"
"Engines won't get me farther than Gargi, I expect. Those skull things got me very well."
"Very well then, Squadron, basic retreat plan canceled. Go for Pacem Mountain on Dantooine. Find an outcropping and land. We'll meet at the peak," Again Gavin choked on his orders. It was hard to give up, and to lose half his Squadron, his special forces.
"Meet you there, Lead."
"Good-bye, sir."
"Until we meet again Rogue Leader."
"Good luck, Gavin."
"Happy landings, old friend," Gavin smiled as he heard Five's voice loud and clear on the Intercom. She had been with him since he reached command. Forge's chuckling mood was a front, to hide her real feelings and make Gavin feel better.
It had worked, slightly.
He clicked the thrusters, pulled back on the stick, and pulled a short lever to his right, and prepared to retreat and land. Retreat. Rogue Squadron was retreating. They had failed.
Any criticism is welcome! Tell me what you thought!
Rated PG for some action. More later... heh
The Clone Wars II
Star Wars
The Emperor's Clone
Josh A. Litten
Prologue
"NO!" it said with a hot explosion of anger. The voice was harsh, but old and dry in its texture. "NONONO!!!"
A tall figure in a dark cloak stepped over the bodies of his victims. The explosion of anger had not been controlled. The man grimaced. He must learn a better way to control his powers before he faced Skywalker again. He turned around as he strode through the doorway and turned off the holoprojector.
"So," he thought, "that old buffoon has given in to New Republic aggression, has he? Very well...very well, indeed... It is time to pay a visit to my dear friend. No. On second thought, I won't. Thraawn is ready. He will come with me to our neighboring galaxy. Together, we will plan. The Empire will not lay dormant for long. And when it rises again in ten years, Pelleon will fall first, and in his place, my servant will rise. The joys of command are too much."
He snickered and then laughed a high-pitched, deadly cackle as the servants around him put plugs in their ears and continued work. It was not unusual for their master to break off into insanity every once in a while. The galaxy did not stop for his mindlessness. There was work to be done.
The man finished his insane laugh with a smile from ear to ear. He snapped at the nearest officer, "Plot a course to Station Beta. There, we will conduct our research openly, away from the Rebel's prying eyes. No one will stop us there, except perhaps my old nemesis. No, Shedao Shai wouldn't dare. Even as formidable as he may be, he wouldn't dare. No. Never."
The young officer nodded to an even younger Ensign working at the main control station. "Yes sir," the Ensign replied nervously. He tapped a few buttons and regulated a switch, all the time making careful calculations and timed adjustments. The Emperor could be very cruel when angry. He looked up to see bodies being carried out of the Emperor's throne room. Very cruel...
1
Han Solo stood before a large monument made out of a strong marble with etchings of time worn into it. Many had stood before it, but none as much as Han. It stood as a symbol, but in Han's heart, it was a friend. It brought back memories of his old smuggling days. How grand it would be to have him back again. He sighed, as the thought grew heavy in his heart. He choked back a lump in his throat and whispered, "I'm back, buddy. I said I would be. Nobody's here but me right now, so we can talk. Yeah, I miss you, Chewbacca. It's been four, long years without you, pal. While they haven't been exactly boring, it hasn't been the same since you...since you..."
"Died?"
Han turned around and greeted his wife with a strong hug full of love. "Leia? How did you know I'd be here? I told you I was going..."
"Ship shopping with Lando. Yes, I know. Lando just stopped by the house. He said you all were going ship shopping tomorrow. I figured the rest out easily. The kids will be wanting to see us at their graduation next week."
By "the kids" she meant Jacen and Jaina. Anakin still needed training, and besides, Luke had seen an unusual amount of force energy coming from him, and he wanted to personally see to his advanced training. Who knows? Han began to curl his small beard around his finger thoughtfully. Maybe he'll be as powerful as that loony Emperor had said.
Years ago, before Anakin was born, Emperor Palpatine had returned and sought out Luke and Leia. He had told Leia her child would be extremely powerful, and then he attempted to touch the child in the womb and was shocked by a great force. Several had tried to capture the child during his years of infancy, but everyone had failed. Fate? Or maybe it was something greater, the power of the Force.
"What's wrong, my love?" Leia asked, crinkling her brow in a questioning glare.
"It's just, we...I've never been able to really bond with the kids because of this and that. The Imperial War took forever to win. New super-weapons were always popping up, or maybe a lost fleet, or some new Imperial project. Anyway, it's never stopped. And after the peace finally came, the Yuuzhan Vong arrived and changed everything. Chewbacca, too..." He choked on a lump again and turned back to his wife. He had been staring at his old friend's grave again. "It's been too much. I just hope our kids have it better. Maybe their children won't leave so early. Perhaps they'll spend time together."
Leia looked hurt. "We've been good for them. They wouldn't be the way they are if not for us. Luke..."
"Raised them. He alone taught them the Force. He taught them morals; he bonded with them, not us. Don't you see, Leia?"
"Han, what you don't see is that to continue the Jedi Order, they had to be taken early. They would have been trained earlier if not for my intervention. I told Luke we needed more time with them. That since we are their parents, we wanted more time. Luke says," Leia stopped. Luke's comment had stung without meaning to. Leia had tried several times to learn the ways of the Force, but her diplomatic duties always held her back. Even now, she represented the New Republic's Intelligence in the Senate. She had always been too busy. "Luke says in the Old Republic, children were taken before they were eight. Older children, teenagers, and especially adults are very hard to train. I guess I proved that."
Her face lowered, and she bit her lip. Han pushed her chin up and came so close to her they touched noses. He gave her his most charming smile, as he spoke, "You didn't fail, Leia. You just use your jedi abilities differently. You use them to work out galactic problems. Just because you can't do as well with a lightsaber or haven't learned how to use telekinesis or any of those things doesn't mean you failed. Remember, I love you."
Leia smiled slowly and uttered the traditional words, "I know."
Han smiled again while he said, "Good, and tell the kids we'll be there, both of us. And to top it all off, we'll get there early to surprise them."
"Jaina won't be there too early. Rogue Squadron's consuming all her time. She quit to finish training as a jedi, and then rejoined. Gavin welcomed her back very willingly. She should be there just before the graduation, though. She said very clearly, 'I wouldn't miss it for the galaxy!' Rogue Squadron's keeping her busy, alright. There's been a lot of pirating going on lately. They all seem to have one buyer in the end, too. Some guy named Sidious. Might be nothing. Then again, it could be something big. We'll know soon. Luke says he and Anakin are going to investigate it."
Han's smile faded somewhat. Things like that almost always went big in the end. And he wasn't so sure the bounty hunters and Hutts had forgotten about him yet. For what Leia, he, and Luke did to Jabba on Tattoine, the Hutts on Nal Hutta had put a price on his head, and Leia's. And if Jaina was going up against space pirates... Well, they may have extended the family headhunters' price to the kids, too.
Leia frowned at him again. "You still upset?"
Han put on a false smile and slid his arm around his wife's waist. "No, nothing at all, your worship. Nothing at all."
"Sticks? This is Rogue Leader. Bogeys coming in at point oh-four-nine-nine."
"I got 'em, Rogue Leader," Jaina smiled. The other pilots of Roue Squadron called her 'Sticks' because not only did she have the X-Wing control stick, but she also had her lightsaber, which they jokingly referred to as a second stick.
"Be careful, Sticks," Gavin, Rogue Leader, cautioned.
The aforementioned bogeys were simply uglies, put together by a few good mechanics in the pirating business. Rogue Squadron was currently at Dantooine, where there was supposedly some new pirating gang meeting being held. But, meeting or not, they had been ambushed, and this called for another hostile act.
Jaina pulled her stick sharply left and nearly grazed the tip of an X-Tie, an X-wing with the wings of Tie Fighters. She then looped around I the vacuum of space and pulled the trigger, all the time feeling the force pull her in the directions she had to go.
She wished she wasn't there, fighting a war with the scum of the universe. She wanted to be at the Academy, where the graduation would be held in a week. She wanted to be with her family and friends. After seeing may wars, where people had violently and meaninglessly died, she had grown tired of the fight, but why was she worrying about that now? Hers, and her flight's lives were on the line.
And what was she doing calling the space pirates and smugglers scum? Her own father had been a spice smuggler before he joined the rebellion. She had no right to judge others by a few actions, but she had to look at all. The ones to come, previous events, and the current battle all had to be considered.
Suddenly, after she pulled out of the range of fire of yet another Tie-Wing, she saw something behind her. Some strange craft was tailing her! She tried to loop around, but she couldn't seem to move. Then she looked at her astromech's display screen. Only now did she hear its screams.
A tractor beam had her held in place, but from where?
"Sparky? What's going on? Who's got me locked?"
The words appeared slowly as if Sparky himself couldn't believe the answer. She bet he couldn't. The small, strange craft had her locked, and it had just fired. She shuddered and readied for impact. The shots continued to come. Systems were failing all around her.
"Sparky! Try to get me a corner loop! I don't care how much power the starboard engines have left, boost them and turn me around!" she screamed in anger.
A soft, humble answered as he saw her view change rapidly. Now, fully facing the spacecraft she gasped. It was in the shape of a skull with bat wings giving it aerodynamic capabilities. The ship was obviously a two-man craft. The eyes each glimmered red and the nose spit out lasers. The mouth had to emit the missiles, or whatever this deadly ship held in its bowels. No larger than a Y-Wing in all, it seemed to glare back at her.
"Sparky, how much power do we have left?" she muttered.
The answer was not good. Nearly 84% of power was drained. She scrunched up her nose and concentrated on the force. Her mind flitted back to the coralskippers of the Yuuzhan Vong. There had to be a way to defeat it.
"Sparky, reroute all power into two proton torpedoes. Fire on my command. 3-2-1-Fire!" she yelled. Everything went black as her power failed, but she saw her two torpedoes heading straight for each eye. She tilted her head back and laughed. It had worked!
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something very unusual. The ship had slowed down her torpedoes considerably. In fact, the immense power in them seemed to be drained by the open mouth of the skull. She stared, open-mouthed as two bright red sparks flew out of the open mouth, right toward her torps! What were they thinking? Were the skull pilots only trying to get rid of her torpedoes? Finally, she realized as the skull's missiles hit her torps, vaporizing them, and continued for her. She had failed, were the last words she thought as Sparky screamed and the missiles flashed right in front of her. Jaina Solo was beaten.
Gavin Darklighter yelled into his Comm slowly, "Nine? How many are answering?"
The answer wasn't what he wanted to hear; "Two from my flight are left, counting me. Two Flight isn't answering. Wait," she snapped, "Two from Two flight is answering. From what I could make out, Sticks, Lapard, and Rusiim are down. Wait," again she paused, "Lapard and Rusiim now in. They require assistance. They say Sticks is static and they don't see her."
Gavin's heart sank. He whispered now, feeling like he had just eaten Rancor liver, "Tell them what's left of Rogue Flight will be there as soon as possible."
"Too late, Lead," a calm, cool, feminine voice said, "Nine's hit, and she's not responding."
"Rusiim, are you sure?"
"Positive, Lead," Rusiim said, her voice never wavering. Half-humans from Siool never displayed any sorrow through verbal usage, which was quite unsettling. Gavin's heart sank more. He wondered if that were even possible. His two flight leaders were gone, and this was supposed to be less than a routine mission. He stared out at the stars and wondered what Tycho or Wedge would do. They had been great commanders and had led Rogue Squadron to a place of honor not to be challenged. Gavin felt as if he was doing a less than honorable job of running the squadron right now. Suddenly, he reached up to his eyes, beneath his helmet and felt tears. He knew then, something big was about to rock the galaxy.
"Rogue Squadron, retreat," he choked on the last word, knowing this would cause the beginning of turmoil throughout not only the galaxy, but also his own heart.
"Negative, Lead," He heard a metallic voice say without expression. That would be Lapard, a wookie who used a language transmitter to speak.
"Why not, Four?"
"Engines won't get me farther than Gargi, I expect. Those skull things got me very well."
"Very well then, Squadron, basic retreat plan canceled. Go for Pacem Mountain on Dantooine. Find an outcropping and land. We'll meet at the peak," Again Gavin choked on his orders. It was hard to give up, and to lose half his Squadron, his special forces.
"Meet you there, Lead."
"Good-bye, sir."
"Until we meet again Rogue Leader."
"Good luck, Gavin."
"Happy landings, old friend," Gavin smiled as he heard Five's voice loud and clear on the Intercom. She had been with him since he reached command. Forge's chuckling mood was a front, to hide her real feelings and make Gavin feel better.
It had worked, slightly.
He clicked the thrusters, pulled back on the stick, and pulled a short lever to his right, and prepared to retreat and land. Retreat. Rogue Squadron was retreating. They had failed.
Any criticism is welcome! Tell me what you thought!