WARRIOR'S KNIGHT
Coauthored by rareID, author of For Better or Worse and other great stuff
1 – Talons of War
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
"Far from it, apprentice," Moff Kilran's blue-lined projection uttered. "The Black Talon is the only ship within interception range of our target. We will not get another opportunity to recover their Imperial passenger, and Captain Orzik remains uncooperative. We need you to hijack the ship you're on."
Elsa seethed as she contemplated the utter futility of such a plan. She stood in one of the Black Talon's passenger cabins, receiving a message she didn't want from a droid she did not expect. It was true, then; the Imperial Army's Moffs were known for their rank and not their intelligence. "The Black Talon is a Gage-class transport ship without the standard complement of Imperial weaponry," she responded. "A direct assault on any Republic vessel, let alone a Thranta-class corvette, will be disastrous for everyone onboard, discounting the deaths of the crew when I fight my way to the bridge."
"If the hijacking of our ship worries you," the transmitting droid chimed in, "I can assure you; the deaths of all crew aboard this ship will be strategically unimportant."
"The Imperial passenger aboard the Brentaal Star is of great importance," Kilran continued. "I will not have the passenger fall into Republic custody. Interception, and the neutralization of this passenger, is of utmost necessity."
"And what if I say no?" Elsa retorted, folding her hands. "All you sent was this En-ar Ohtwo droid to convey the message, after all."
"Then everyone aboard the Black Talon, including you, apprentice, will have disobeyed a direct order from a Grand Moff." She resented the smug look that appeared on Kilran's face. "I'm sure I can convince Darth Hans to forgive a little bit of tardiness on your end. If not, then I assure you, your ship will never reach port."
Bastard.
"The captain has already disobeyed my order to attack," Kilran says. "Now that you're there, apprentice, you should be able to convince him of the error of his ways. Deal with him as you see fit. Good luck."
En-ar Ohtwo terminated the transmission, leaving Elsa to seethe at the impossible task given to her, her fingers fidgeting with the battle armor she wore. When Darth Hans had ordered her to travel to Dromund Kaas and the Black Talon had offered her a quicker transport there, this was not what she'd had in mind. This was absurd. Hijack the transport she was on and overthrow the bridge crew simply to attack a well-equipped, likely well-protected corvette?
"I will lead the way to the bridge," En-ar Ohtwo continued, droid voice devoid of emotion. "Once the hijacking is complete and Captain Orzik is dealt with, we may proceed to the Brentaal Star."
"I don't suppose the Moff is giving either of us a choice," Elsa fumed as she turned on her heel and stormed out.
"I was not programmed with a fear or self-preservation module," was the droid's reply.
Elsa turned as she exited the small, claustrophobic grey room into the similarly colored metal corridor. Her eyes narrowed. The command deck entry hatch to the bridge was now obstructed by a laser gate, with a contingent of soldiers standing guard, led by the lieutenant she'd met earlier during boarding. Evidently the captain was fully aware of what he'd done, and was taking precautions to protect the ship against Imperial retaliation.
Looks like the both of us are in a pickle. The thought is through her head before she can catch it, a traitorous spiral of logic antithetical to her Sith teachings. Elsa shook her head, banishing it to the recesses of her mind.
She approached the blockade a step at a time, eying the red beams behind the group of soldiers. The movement did not go unnoticed by its defenders. "Halt!" the lieutenant called out. "This is a restricted area – Captain Orzik's command. You'll have to leave immediately."
"We must proceed to the bridge immediately," En-ar Ohtwo reiterated, much to Elsa's annoyance. "Our window to intercept is closing."
The man's response was shaky and shifty all at once. "I'm ordered to treat any approach toward the bridge as an attack," the lieutenant said. "Remove your droid and yourself from the premises now!"
"Sorry, lieutenant," Elsa said, drawing her lightsaber with a little more hesitation than she should have, "but this is for the greater good."
His eyes widened as he realised what was happening. "Blasters out!" the lieutenant managed to say, "Attack! Attac—!"
Elsa leapt towards the lieutenant, sailing through the air and kicking him into the path of the lasers behind him. The concentrated beams sliced through his armor like butter, eviscerating both him and the control remote he carried, shorting out the gate. Elsa raised her flaring red lightsaber, blade deflecting incoming blaster fire as she continued her assault, slashing and hacking away until the soldiers lay in heaps all around her.
"I will meet you on the bridge," En-ar Ohtwo said, running away from her and the corpses strewn at her feet. "Forces on board are not briefed to treat me as a threat, but you've already established yourself as one."
Elsa resisted the urge to obliterate the droid's circuits as she concentrated on the next wave of Imperial reinforcements, loathing at the purge she was undertaking.
The nearest group of soldiers had come running around the corner. Without hesitation Elsa lunged, channeling her Marka Ragnos teachings as she surged toward her enemies, her red blade a whirlwind of movement as she cut down her enemies. Blaster fire and lightsaber alike scarred the metal flooring and bulkheads of the Black Talon's corridors.
All these men and women were trained to stand by their duty, but were now dying because of conflicting orders. Elsa felt the rage course through her veins, powering her through the worst of the blaster fire, ducking and slashing through blaster and armor alike, the screams of her victims leaving her unfazed. The irony that their injustice would only quicken their deaths did not escape the Sith acolyte.
Another airlock hissed as its doors slammed open, revealing a trio of soldiers, rifles blazing as they came through. Elsa trained for encounters like this, advancing in spite of the suppressive fire; her red blade cutting through first soldier's armor like butter. She did her best to ignore his death throes as she flicked the blade out of the corpse, ducking and swinging her outstretched legs to trip the nearest soldier, slashing upward to slice his body with her weapon. His corpse had barely hit the floor before Elsa leapt upon the last soldier, slicing his helmeted head off with a single blow.
"Intruder!" an officer down the hallway yelled as she recovered, re-entering the corridor when another wave of soldiers came to reinforce their position. "Take her down now!"
Elsa hurled the lightsaber at her newest threat and broke into a sprint, the Sith weapon spinning through the air and slicing straight through the officer, cauterizing both ends of his body, leaving two clean human halves. Force-pulling the hilt back into her hand, she reignited the blade as she twirled, deflecting blaster bolts back at her aggressors with deadly precision, red slashes filling the air.
Four more had fallen to her attacks before she turned to the battle droid that had emerged out of the corridor, the automaton's back-mounted missile launcher firing off twin projectiles. Elsa leapt over their projectiles, ignoring the blast of heat from behind her as she reached through the Force and lifted the droid into the air. She crushed its blasters and launcher in a display of sparks and smoke as she cleaved straight through the metal hunk with a single stroke, inhaling the smell of heated metal as she stepped past the glowing halves of what was once the battle droid. Its blasters' dying throes mangled the wall in front of them.
Elsa strode into the main hallway, the entrance to the bridge dead ahead of her, where a final group of guards were bringing their blaster rifles to bear. Whirling her blade she lunged into the air, knocking aside stray laser bolts as she somersaulted and slammed into the middle of the group, red Force energy flaring around her impact zone, knocking away the guards into bulkheads and bridge consoles.
Red saber at her side, Elsa centered her sights on the captain, who stood on the bridge's elevated navigation area. She strode forward towards him, paying little heed to the bridge personnel around her cowering and scrambling away in fear.
Elsa sucked in a breath as she ascended the steps.
It had been a quick and brutal push to the bridge, no more than five minutes of combat. Elsa wasn't sure to be impressed with her brutality or disgusted with her efficiency. Killing her Sith rivals on Korriban hadn't fazed her in the slightest because they all knew what they were getting into. These people she'd just slaughtered, butchered; they weren't, hadn't been, asking for it.
But then again, Elsa thinks, what kind of orders did you expect from the Butcher of Coruscant himself?
"Captain Orzik?" Elsa said, taking her place beside En-ar Ohtwo.
"That's me," the captain said. Elsa noted the way his lips trembled as he spoke, his boots quavering just a tad, but his fear was evident enough through the Force if it wasn't already in person. "I'm captain of the Black Talon."
"Bridge forces have been neutralized, and no other forces are on route," En-ar Ohtwo reported. "Captain Orzik, by order of Grand Moff Rycus Kilran, you are ordered to hand over command of your vessel to Sith apprentice Elsa Qwi'lor, upon which you will face summary execution—"
"Belay that," Elsa said, her gaze never wavering from the captain's as she flexed her shoulders under her battle armor. "That won't be necessary. I'm sure the captain is remorseful for his actions."
"For the record," Orzik replied, trying to stop himself from shaking, "I'd like to take full responsibility. I'm sure you know what I've done. The crew were merely following my orders."
The fear emanating from the surrounding officers was palpable. If not for her Sith conditioning, Elsa might have had the pity pangs bite harder into her. "That is my understanding," she replied, deactivating her lightsaber and reattaching it to her belt, much to the relief of the crew surrounding their confrontation. "And I assure you, I have no intention for further bloodshed so long as my hand is not forced. We need to work together, captain. It's not just Moff Kilran that needs your help here."
Understanding emerged in Orzik's eyes. "I see, my lord," the captain said slowly. "It appears you're as much a victim of this as I am."
The acolyte smiled, harsh and bitter; as good as a direct answer as she's willing to give. "I intend to execute the Moff's mission to the best of my ability," Elsa said, "but to do that I'm also going to need your help. I promise you, no one else has to or will die today. But we need to intercept that ship. You know what Kilran does to traitors."
Orzik sighed, looking downward as he weighed his options, but it wasn't long before he turned to his navigations officer, resigned to his fate. "Navigations, retrieve the coordinates from the En-Ar Ohtwo droid," he ordered, his lips forming a thin line. "Reroute to the Brentaal Star."
Elsa had known the mission was going to be dangerous, but as the the Black Talon emerged from its hyperspace jump, the Brentaal Star's guns, damaged as they appeared to be, opened fire on them. "Evasive maneuvers!" Orzik yelled as the first wave of ordnance slammed into their ship's hull, sending shockwaves reverberating through the deck. "And someone get me a damage report! Now!"
"How long can we last like this?" Elsa asked, recovering from the shocks on the bridge as she gazed through the bridge windows at the Republic gunship, its ship cannons blasting away at the Talon's hull.
"Not long, my lord," the captain replied as he pulled up schematics on his console to assess ship systems. "The corvette we're engaging might be damaged, but initial scans indicate their weaponry remains sufficient to destroy our transport. We'll have to—"
"Sir!" a systems officer reported from her seat, whirling around to another part of her circular console. "We're getting a Republic hail on our comm channels. It's… it's not the Brentaal Star."
Her eyes narrowed. "Put it through," Elsa said, double checking the officer's display to ensure it wasn't a mistake.. "I don't like where this is going."
The blue holoprojector flickered to life, and Elsa knew the figure that materialized before them; it was unmistakable. "This is Jedi Master Satele Shan hailing unidentified Imperial vessel."
You have got to be fucking kidding me, she thought. The Satele Shan? The Jedi from Alderaan that beat the crap out of Darth Malgus?
"Is that—?" the systems officer began. "Is that really—"
"It is," Satele replied. "I am asking you to call off hostilities while you still can."
"I'm willing to negotiate, Master Satele," Elsa spoke.
"I'm glad there are some Imperials that still see reason," came the Jedi Grandmaster's reply, but it was tinged with a threatening undertone. Not even Moff Rycan could have foreseen this. The interference of a Republic war hero, not to mention their most dangerous one by far, would complicate things more than somewhat. "I just crippled three Imperial dreadnoughts in an Imperial ambush a few systems away. I sent the Brentaal Star ahead of the fleet for repairs, but it remains under my protection," Satele went on. "I don't want to destroy your ship. The peace between Republic and Empire is tenuous as it is."
"I completely agree, Grandmaster," Elsa said. "We simply require an Imperial prisoner aboard that ship."
"The general is a crucial Republic asset now," Satele refutes. "You and I both know that I cannot turn him over just like that."
General? Surely Satele had slipped up and hadn't intended to reveal that bit of information. "Then we're at an impasse," Elsa replied
The holographic miniature folded her arms and stared downward briefly, conflicted. "Sith, I would ask you to carefully weigh the consequences of your actions," Satele said. "If you undertake this course of action and attack, I promise you will be destroyed; the Brentaal Star and its defenders can hold you long enough for us to arrive."
"I think I'll take my chances," Elsa said, the iron in her voice surprising both herself and the crew onboard. None of them were prepared for the resultant undertaking. "You have your orders, Master Satele, and unfortunately, I have mine." Which are to risk dying by your hands to avoid surely dying by Moff Kilran's.
"Then prepare to face a Jedi Master in combat," Satele replied, and Elsa could see the disapproval on her grainy, holographic features. "I urge you to seriously consider what that means."
The projection flickered away as Satele ended the transmission.
"Captain?" the systems officer piped up once more. "We're tracking one intermittent contact. On route to intercept us."
"Boarding party," the captain uttered. "Brentaal Star wants to take us out here and now. Get to your battle stations—"
"Captain," Elsa cut in, "allow me to handle to boarding party instead."
"With all due respect to your skill, my lord," Orzik said, "I'm not sure that's a risk we can take."
"It'll be worth it if I can use their shuttle to board their ship," Elsa explained. "Tell your men to let the ship pass. They'll know it's a trap but they'll be forced to investigate. After all, they don't know I'm onboard; only Satele Shan does."
She watched the captain swallow and awaited his response.
Sergeant Boran had volunteered with a small squadron of Republic soldiers, the best the Brentaal Star could spare, to assault the attacking ship. His orders were to neutralize the bridge crew aboard the attacking Imperial vessel and await reinforcements. Hails were already being sent to the Republic fleet they had departed not so long ago requesting backup, so all he had to do was get in, and hold the line.
It should have been an easy mission.
The last thing he'd expected as he disembarked from the Republic shuttle that had ferried him to the enemy warship was a red lightsaber flying across the hangar, slicing his S1-M0 medical droid cleanly in half. His corporal and private went down from the very same blaster bolts they had fired at their aggressor, and before Boran knew it a Sith apprentice was upon him, rendering his blaster worthless with a single stroke. He found himself on the wrong end of a thrumming red lightsaber.
"Tell the Brentaal Star that you've run into overwhelming force and are retreating back to their hangar," the Sith snarled. "That's not exactly a lie now, is it?"
Elsa left the sergeant's corpse on the floor of the shuttle. Death was a mercy; being captured by the Empire or trialed by the Republic was something the sergeant had expressly denounced, so she granted his last request. She only hoped it was as painless as she'd imagined decapitation to be.
The medical team onsite to receive the sergeant and his team were caught off-guard by the wave of Force that slammed into them, knocking them unconscious in an instant. The rest of the guards were quick to dispatch, and Elsa soon found her way deeper into the ship. Her first priority was to link up with the Black Talon, because the last thing she needed was to be blundering around in a hostile starship as fellow Imperials were bombarded into smithereens.
One more vanquished Republic squad led Elsa to an open-source console. Drawing a slicer spike from her belt she penetrated the console port and uploaded standard Imperial hacking protocols. It wasn't long before she'd established a secure link with her ship. "Receiving you loud and clear, Black Talon," she said.
"Similarly, my lord," came the reply of the droid. "One moment while I relay you to the bridge crew."
"Thank you, En-ar Ohtwo."
"My lord," Orzik said, his figure materializing atop the projector. " Republic standard-operating-procedure dictates that ship crews will not risk the VIP's safety when ship integrity is in jeopardy; given that they remain unaware of the Black Talon's arsenal and the extent of our attack, it is highly likely that they'll resort to readying the VIP for evacuation. I'm uploading a facial template of the VIP to your holocron now."
"So my best bet is to reach the escape pods?" Elsa asked.
"Precisely, my lord," Orzik said. Thranta-class warships have their escape pods situated near their secondary hangar. You'll have to fight your way through a few sections of the ship to get there. I've taken the liberty to upload ship schematic with a marked route to your destination."
"Thanks captain," Elsa replied. "If this goes well we can all get out of here with our lives."
The crew of the Brentaal Star was getting desperate, and Elsa took it as a sign that she was getting close to her target. They'd assigned what was probably their highest-ranking personnel, a Commander Ghulil as his dogtags indicated, to slow her down with a complement of battle droids. None had posed her any real threat, but she was beginning to feel the ache under her armour, her breathing more labored with every second. Amidst the motionless corpses and smoking metal heaps she sheathed her lightsaber and exited the cargo bay, sighting the entrance to the secondary hangar.
She reached for the command console to open the door. Locked. She drew the slicer spike and jammed it in, probing the interface for a reaction. None. It must have been manually deactivated. Elsa drew her lightsaber and stabbed the point into the reinforced airlock, cutting downward through the thick metal. It turned out to be a lot tougher than she'd expected.
She felt the door weaken under her blade, using her other hand to channel the force to bend the melted metal apart, widening the hole in the reinforced seal bit by bit. She could hear the defenders on the other side.
"Go! While there's still time!"
"What about you?"
"I will face destiny. If it's to become one with the Force, then so be it. I fear death no longer."
Jedi? Elsa wonders, her eyes narrowed. She knew she was good, but she also knew her powers had limits. There was no way she could take on Alderaanian war hero Satele Shan, for instance. She'd need a better gauge of this Jedi's power, else everything could be in jeopardy—
Elsa shot a concentrated blast of Force energy to the now weakened door, blasting it apart from the sides.
Her opponent strode from to the center of the hangar, awaiting her arrival. Elsa walked past the cargo containers and unused machinery toward her opponent, trying to get a better look. It was a woman about her age, maybe a bit younger. Either way, the Jedi looked less experienced than her in every way, and, more importantly, very afraid.
She might as well have been Elsa's reflection. A light-aligned reflection.
"Move aside, padawan." The words came out of Elsa's mouth before she realized it. "I have no quarrel with you; I require the Imperial prisoner you harbor."
"I cannot do that, Sith," the padawan replied, lightsaber in hand and legs in a defensive stance, her voice tone both measured and forced. "I am sworn to defend the innocent, especially against your kind."
"The general is wanted by Imperial High Command," Elsa stated as she came to a stop before her opponent, "and I cannot let him fall into Republic hands."
"So I should just hand him over for you to kill him?" The padawan's incredulous undertone was unmistakable. "That would be an immoral stain on my conscience, one I could not possibly bear."
Elsa's lips curled into a snarl; the stress was getting to her, and she was running out of both time and patience. "And who are you to preach morality to me?" she asked.
The lightsaber ignited in the padawan's hand, its icy blue blade flaring to life as she brought her weapon to bear, clasping the hilt with both hands, gaze fixed on Elsa. "I am Yadira Ban, Padawan of the Jedi Order, and on my life, you can die here or retreat but you will go no further."
Elsa triggered her own weapon, twirling her blade with expert precision and drawing red patterns in the air around her. Her limbs tensed with anticipation, her irises narrowing as she awaited her aggressor's first move. "Take your best shot, Jedi," she snarled.
Yadira leapt at her with a ferocity Elsa hadn't seen in any of her fellow Sith acolytes. It's a display of force she hadn't expected from a Jedi, and Elsa barely had a split second to leap clear of the initial charge, rolling on impact in a desperate attempt to recover, only to see Yadira's leaping form once more. Elsa raised her red blade, parrying Yadira's downward swing and disengaging to deliver an attack of her own, whirling as she delivered a flurry of slashes that forced her aggressor to retreat. She realized how evenly matched they were as Yadira blocked a nasty swing with a single hand, before Force-blasting Elsa away and hurling the ice-blue blade straight towards her.
With an expert flick Elsa knocked the saber away, only for it to arc around through the air and back into the hands of its wielder, who had charged Elsa when she'd let her guard down. The Sith acolyte felt boots connect with her cheek, knocking her back and disorienting her, but even through the pain exploding through her face she caught sight of the flash of ice-blue, and she ducked in time before the weapon sliced through the air her head had just been. She could feel the heat from the blade singing her blonde hair as it swung over her. A well-aimed blast of Force allowed Elsa to knock Yadira back, giving Elsa the time to grit her teeth, relegate her pain to a memory and power on through.
"You fight well, Sith," came Yadira's voice from a few meters away as the padawan caught her breath. "A pity you're on the wrong side of this war."
"I could say the same for you," Elsa said as she readied her next attack, "but I didn't come here to talk. I'm taking the general."
"You won't succeed," Yadira replied. "I swear it."
With a vengeful bellow Elsa lunged, feeling the dark energy of the Force course through her veins as she channeled her rage, even as the serene Force-presence of Yadira flared when the padawan parried her attacks. Blow after blow sent sparks flying, Elsa's eyes straining from the blinding light of their weapons clashing over and over again, every clash sending jarring shockwaves through her gauntlets and bones. Every attack was met with a parry, every thrust dodged and counter-attacked within moments. It was chilling for them both to realize the battle could go either way.
Elsa backflipped over the path of another lightsaber thrown at her, landing upon a large cargo container. Unwilling to commit to a similar offensive tactic, she seized the stray crates scattered around the hangar bay with the Force and hurled them at her opponent, a barrage of heavy items that forced the padawan to move towards her. As Yadira leapt straight toward her opponent's position Elsa executed a backhand slash, but her opponent leaned under the swing of her blade midair and planted her feet on the container, targeting Elsa's unprotected side. A quick Force push from Elsa's free hand prevented Yadira's lightsaber from reaching its intended target. Elsa swung downward in the opposite direction, scoring a lucky hit on her opponent.
Yadira cried out in pain and backed away swiftly, her armor singed and the skin beneath seared. Elsa had struck Yadira's upper chest, the wound stretching to her blade arm.
"Give up, padawan," Elsa said. "We both know how this ends."
Her opponent spat, crimson blood splattering upon the container roof they stood upon. "It could . . . go either way . . . Sith," the padawan strained. "I . . . I could do this all day."
"Don't make me kill you," Elsa said, and realized she meant it a little more than she should have.
"There is no death, there is . . . the Force—!"
Yadira's unexpected charge left her words ringing in Elsa's ears as she found herself set upon by the padawan, now wielding the lightsaber in her other hand. She appeared less experienced with her off hand, but Elsa would be damned to underestimate a Jedi that was backed into a corner. Elsa feinted with a swing and elbowed Yadira in the nose, but the padawan countered by Force-pushing Elsa back and strucking the red lightsaber out of her hand. The disarmed Sith acolyte fell upon her back, eyes widening in shock
"This is the end for you, Sith," Yadira's voice rang straight and true. "Stand down, or face death by my blade. I promise I won't miss at this range."
Elsa crouched upon the hangar floor, legs poised to lunge, right arm outstretched as if ready to pull the lightsaber toward her. Yadira raised her sword arm, ready to throw. Their eyes narrowed at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.
It was Elsa that broke the stalemate. She lunged, yanking her weapon from where it lay, feeling the hilt carried upon the currents of the Force toward her palm.
Yadira hurled the lightsaber as Elsa closed the distance, the ice-blue edge spinning through the air straight towards the Sith's unprotected form.
But Elsa's play was an elaborate feint; at the last second she ceased her pull on her own weapon and reached forward with her blade arm. Her pupils narrowed to track the spin of Yadira's lightsaber in slow motion, and with inhuman precision she seized the Jedi weapon midair, landed, and plunged the weapon into its owner's chest before Yadira could process what happened.
Yadira's eyes reflected her own confusion and pain in a single instance as Elsa impaled her further. Her open mouth gave no sound, no gurgle, just a silent scream as her body bent forward, her arms grasping Elsa's shoulder guards. She barely mustered the strength to look up, and in her eyes Elsa saw the regret and the anguish in Yadira's grey pupils just before the light faded away from them, forever.
She was just like Elsa, the latter realized. Loyal, brave, and full of ingenuity; evidenced by the cortosis weave lightsaber hilt she'd made and the unique ice-blue crystal she'd sourced. She'd dedicated herself to the Jedi. Her whole life was ahead of her; yet to ascend to Jedi Knight and serve her people for god-knows-what reason, just like Elsa's future ascension to Sith lord. Then, at the crossroads of fate upon the ill-fated Brentaal Star, one of their paths were cut short, and the other would continue alone.
Elsa was the last to see Yadira Ban alive that day. She watched her corpse collapse as she deactivated the lightsaber, but not before she caught the prone form in her arms, gingerly lowering her body to the floor. Elsa was in a trance that she could not fathom nor rationalize; it could only have been the Force that compelled her to lay Yadira's head down, to reach out and close her still open eyes, to leave her in the peace of death that she deserved. The rage she had channeled within her faded, only to be replaced with anguish.
Elsa would not hear her own cry of sheer agony, nor see the red Force energy rippling in currents all around her. She would not remember how, or why, she cried that day. All she would remember would be rising from her solemn vigil to complete her original mission, numbly cutting down the last of the guards that stood between her and her target, breaching the final door to the escape pod section of the ship.
The man that stood before her after her final bout of killing clutched at his wounded, bloodied stomach, but his face not a mask of fear but that of resignation. "You can put aside your weapon," he managed between deep breaths. "I won't try to run. Besides, I doubt I'd make it to an escape pod without my intestines spilling out."
"How were you hurt?" Neither of them expected those words to come spilling from Elsa's lips.
"Bombardment from your cruiser damaged critical components on the ship," the general said. "Some were explosive in nature."
Elsa realized just how little she understood about her mission. She didn't know why she'd murdered her way through a Republic cruiser. She didn't know why she had to murder a Jedi padawan. She didn't know who this man was and why she was ordered to neutralize him. "Why does Imperial Command want you this badly?" she asked.
"I was a general in the Imperial military service," the general replied. "Did they tell you that when they sent you here? Did they even know?"
Elsa's eyes narrowed, but she felt something in her heart twist and turn. "Why would you betray the Empire?" she questioned, her emotions already in turmoil but unable to prevent her from pressing on.
"If you knew what I knew, you'd understand." The general took a breath, managing to go on with great difficulty. "If you'd heard what both sides are planning, you wouldn't be so eager to restart this war."
"What are they planning?" she asked.
"They're building doomsday weapons; shields that envelop planets, missiles that darken suns," the general said. "Republic and Empire are planning to raze worlds – annihilate civilizations. It will be unlike anything the galaxy's seen since the Great Hyperspace War. And it's also too late to stop it – the so-called peace is already lost."
Elsa felt the feeling within her tighten further, threatening to crush her under its weight. More fighting and slaughter? Didn't Moff Kilran think the massacres on Coruscant were enough? Didn't anyone in Imperial Command or the Dark Council give a rakghoul's ass about the Treaty of Coruscant? Was the annihilation of Taris insufficient to satiate their bloodlust?
"If that's true," Elsa couldn't help but ask, "then why defect to the Republic?"
"There's no place for me in the Empire anymore." Another bout of coughing racked the general's body, but he recovered just enough to carry on. "I thought my last act might be able to even the odds – create a stalemate, but it doesn't seem to matter anymore."
He glanced upward at the sound of heavy boots upon metal flooring. Elsa didn't need to turn to know Imperial reinforcements had arrived. "Well, you have me then," the general went on. "Me, my stomach full of blood and my implant full of cybernetic secrets and stolen plans. What will you do?"
"My orders from the Moff were to kill you," Elsa said.
He caught the hint of doubt in her voice, even if the Imperial soldiers standing next to her didn't. "I don't suppose there's a place in the galaxy where I could truly hide from the Empire," he sighed, his grip on his stomach tightening. "Death would be a merciful fate."
"I'll make it painless," Elsa said, her mouth dry as she ignited the lightsaber in her hand. "It's the least you deserve."
He knelt before her, eyes closed, breathing labored but even. The strike was decisive, swift and precise; he wouldn't have felt a thing.
It was only when his head hit the ground did Elsa glance at the weapon she wielded; she'd thought it to be her own, but it wasn't. It was Yadira's ice blue lightsaber, humming with life in the absence of its true owner. And as Imperial soldiers cleaned up the mess and prepared to evacuate before Satele's fleet arrived, her victims' final words came to haunt her.
"I thought my last act might be able to even the odds ... but it doesn't seem to matter anymore."
"... stain on my conscience, one that I could not possibly bear."
The Black Talon soldiers. Republic soldiers, sergeants and commanders. A Jedi padawan. An Imperial defector. All dead, by her hand. And despite her teachings to be committed to the Sith ideals of strength without remorse and slaughter without fear, the turmoil she was experiencing was antithetical to the ideals she'd sworn to uphold. But she couldn't help it. The general was right.
If the guilt didn't crush Elsa today, the Empire would tomorrow. Either way, it didn't seem to matter anymore.