been awhile since i managed to post anything on here. it's probably a little rushed to be posting this right off the bat, but i need the moral boost right now. anyway, i hope to actually be able to finish this story and that it's actually to my liking. i've been dying to write a good Star Wars fic for a long time. anyway, hope yall enjoy this little prologue now!
"Maddie! I'm home!" Madelyn Stodel looked up from the stove she was using as she heard her brothers voice, the powered door swishing shut behind him. he was well built, mostly from his work, albeit thin man, the pair rarely eating more than what they needed to survive. His hair was usually buzzed off, so it had no chance of being caught up in the machines he worked on. Though, at the moment, it was starting to get some length back, it's black color starkly apparent against his lightly tanned skin.
The pair shared a small home on a moon called Thacarro, orbiting a large gas giant in the Strion system. As far as the galaxy at large went, it was as much of a backwater as a backwater system could be. Though the system had twelve planets, only this moon was even remotely habitable by any standard. What it did have, was a thriving mining community spread around the system, and a slowly growing industrial center on this moon. The small town they lived at was almost entirely industrial workers for a nearby Rhydonium fuel refinement plant, and it's small spaceport. This made it a small backwater town, on a backwater planet, in a backwater system. To say the town was boring, was an understatement to an extreme.
"Hey Gareth! I've got dinner cooking, how was work?" she let her attention return to the food she was preparing them.
"Haz lost his arm. machine took it clean off." He spoke almost blandly, the sound of him dropping into one of the chairs in the small building reaching her ears. Injuries were scarily common at the refinery, not much effort being placed on worker safety, so it was not unusual for people to be injured there. The refinery he worked at was actually the same one their father had worked at for many years, eventually losing his life when a barrel of Rydonium he had been moving exploded. Their mother had already passed away by then, leaving the pair to fend for themselves, and stuck on the world.
"What about you? I hope work wasn't too hectic last night?"
"No more than the usual a few strange patrons, but nothing more. Least I didn't have anyone trying to pull me off stage again." Madelyn spoke as the night before ran through her mind, most of the faces she had seen no more than a blur. Before the company their father worked for had moved him, and consequently, their family, out to Thacarro, Madelyn had been learning to be a professional dancer. As such, she ended up taking a job at a local cantina as an 'exotic' dancer. Which usually entailed entertaining drunk refinery workers and the occasional freighter crew by dancing around on a small stage in less than modest attire. She already had several bad encounters with men wanting 'private' dances, though, thankfully for her, the cantina's security usually showed those patrons the fallacies in that line of thought.
"Any interestingly strange?"
"Not really. I mean, I guess. There was a group that hung around for a few hours that didn't actually drink anything. I think they were part of a freighter crew, just there to relax a little. Just odd that they weren't vocal, not even with each other." She shrugged as she remembered the small group, remembering the way they seemed to be watching the room around them, along with the odd silence they had. Even with they left the building, it was with a simple nod between the group of humans, just before they all left out different doors and at different times. Something she honestly hadn't thought about until just now.
"that's always good to hear Maddie!"
"Yeah. I work again tonight though, so fingers crossed that luck holds out, right?" she finally pulled the food from the stove, plating the simple stir-fry before moving to the table. Before she could set the plate down though, a series of loud bangs on their door made her jump, her heart skipping several beats.
"Open up! This is an Imperial Inspection squad!" the electronically amplified voice chilled her to the bone, sounding almost lifeless through the door.
"I got it, just stay here." Her brother quickly stood from the table, crossing back to the door in moments as she set the plates down on the table.
When he reached the door, her brother gently pressed the switch to open it, already speaking. "How ca-" his voice froze, the reason for it being the blaster muzzle leveled in his face. Just outside the door, a Stormtrooper stood, his white armor glistening slightly in the evening light. Several others could be seen beyond him, all with their short carbines at the ready.
"Outside, now!" the stormtrooper shouted that at her brother, the amplified voice even eerier without the door between them.
"What? No! what cause do you have to be forcing someone out of their home!?" her brother retorted immediately with that, taking a step back from the doorway.
"I said, outside, now! that was not a suggestion bottom feeder!" the trooper shouted that out as he advanced into the room, weapon still raised and poised to fire.
Her brother back stepped a little more, now being abreast with a decaying clone wars era rifle their father had kept in case of pirates or others would be attackers, Gareth suddenly lunging for the weapon. He never reached it though, as a brilliant flash filled the small room as the Stormtrooper fired a single red bolt into her brother's chest. The bolt ripped clean through him, filling the home with the stench of burning flesh, before exploding against the prefabricated walls of the building.
Madelyn let out a startled shriek, her eyes wide as she watched her brother fall to the ground, his body not moving at all, not even the gentle rise and fall of his chest.
"You there, outside, now! Move it!" the Stormtrooper shouting again drew her attention, finding the still smoking muzzle of the troopers carbine pointed at her now.
Despite the order the trooper gave her, she found herself frozen in place, her muscles trembling. Her eyes fervently bouncing between the smoking corpse that had just been her brother moments ago, and the smoking blaster that had ended his life.
"I said move!" the trooper suddenly stepped forward, Madelyn only getting a quick flash of motion in her vision before the grip of the weapon was being slammed into her cheek. She cried out in shock again, finding herself on the ground without much of a clue as to when she got there, everything after the strike being nothing but a blank memory. There was a coppery taste in her mouth, the entire left side of her jaw ached from the impact. On instinct alone, he reached up and touched the side of her face, her hand coming away with hot red liquid on it.
"Get up and move!" the trooper yanked her to her feet, shoving her toward the door.
She made no attempt to fight him either, simply letting the soldier guide her and several more townsfolk toward the town square as the sun began to set. By the time she got there the sun had fully set, and the aching in her face had developed into a fiery and pulsing pain. The town's small square was filled with what looked to be the grand majority of the towns population. Men, women, children, faces she knew, people she had never seen before, aliens, humans, it didn't seem to matter one bit who it was, all had been brought here, several stormtroopers with heavy packs connected to their large weapons surrounding the people clustered together. She didn't know much about weapons, but the weapons carried by those troopers looked like some sort of gas weapons, not typical blasters.
"Is this everyone sergeant?" an imperial officer, only evident as that by his grey cloth uniform rather than armor, was the one to say that, talking to a soldier who had an orange pauldron on his shoulder.
"We have one more team who hasn't reported in yet sir."
"Start preparing for the test then. Make sure the soldiers are fully prepared to use this… weapon. I will move to the shuttle and prepare the instruments."
Test? What kind of test could they be referring too? Madelyn gulped as she heard the officer speaking.
"Affirmative Sir. I will signal when the last squad reports in sir."
The officer nodded, starting to turn away when a loud ping ripped through the area, a vibrant red glow filling the area as a red bolt whipped out of the buildings. It struck one of the soldiers with the strange packs square in the head, the armor seeming to do nothing as the bolt ripped clean through. his body fell to the ground with a quiet thud, not even a twitch to the movement. Silence filled the air immediately after, most in attendance focused on the now dead stormtrooper, utterly shocked by the sudden event.
"We-We're und-!" the officer had begun to shout when several more bolts ripped away from the buildings, some blue, some red, targeting the soldiers with the packs first, followed by the regular stormtroopers with such precision and ferocity that the imperials never even got the chance to fully respond, only a handful managing to fire off bolts in the general direction of the shots. The officer had dived to the ground, covering his head as he cowered from the sudden and precise onslaught, his own pistol never even leaving it's holster.
The blaster fire suddenly ceased, just as fast as it had come, the sudden and utter silence beyond terrifying. One glance around her told her that not a single soul wanted to move, everyone plastered to the stone used to build the town square. A series of rapid foot falls drew her attention, seeing several figures begin moving into the square, slipping from the shadows between buildings as though they had been a part of the shadows themselves. The figures quickly became distinguishable as the street lights in the square illuminated them, to show each of them being clothed in similar splotchy camouflage. The similarities between individuals stopped there, however, as each one seemed to be carrying different weapons and equipment, from body army painted to match their camo, to helmets, hats, one of them even wearing a pack. Each one moved in a delibert and near identical pace, weapons up and scanning, two of the weapons trained on the imperial officer.
"Stay in the dirt Imp!" A female Twi'lek was one of the two aiming at the officer, her red skin seeming to pop in the light of the street lamps.
The soldier with her was human by Madelyn's best guess, wearing a simple cloth covered helmet that covered his ears and had an attached visor covering the top half of his face. The helmet reminded her of a pilot's helmet in many ways, though it had a flat block on the back that curved with the helmet, with a pair of wires running along the crest of the helmet to a blocky device with two flat lenses on the helmets forehead, the second wire running to the right corner of the visor.
"Akira, secure him, Toth, Quill, Barry, keep an eye out for any more imps, everyone else, round up the townsfolk and get them ready to move!" The soldier still aiming at the imperial officer's voice was calm and clear, piercing through the night with ease. He kept his weapon focused on the officer as his twilek team mate, yanked the officers blaster from it's holster, tossing it away, before pulling out a pair of binders, forcing the officers hands behind his back.
"Plex, Plex, Plex!" a shout rang out before the Twi'lek could finish binding the officer, followed immediately by a cracking whompf, Madelyn getting the faintest trace of a flash of light and pressure whipping over her just before a loud bang assaulted her ears. When she looked into the sky, a green smoke was ominously dispersion over the plaza, several blaster bolts ringing out.
"Son of a... RUN! EVERYONE, GET CLEAR!" The male soldier that had been steps away from her while aiming at the officer, grabbed her arm, tearing her to her feet before shoving her toward one of the streets into the plaza.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the officer try to roll over, one of his hands in the binders, dragging the twilek standing over him with him. The pair proceeded to grapple on the ground as people ran screaming from the area. She watched in horror as the green fog began to touch down in the center of the square, anyone found with in it screaming and coughing for a moment or two before collapsing to the ground, writing and convulsing as frothy liquid poured from their mouths. Within moments of the gas coming into contact with them, the people were dead. It didn't seem to matter one bit what race the people belonged to either, all being affected equally.
She had just reached the edge of the square when the gas spread to the twilek and officer who were still grappling for control of the blaster in the Twi'lek's hands. immediately, the Twilek was coughing and clawing at her throat, the blaster forgotten as a small yet agonized shriek ripped from her. With in moments, she had succumbed like the others, her body terrifyingly still. Meanwhile, the officer on top of her was screaming at the top of his lungs, trying to scrape the substance off of his clothes to no avail, but he didn't seem to be coughing or dying like the others had. His agonized wails followed her as she was pressed further out of the square, losing sight of the massacre shortly thereafter.
