Author's Note: So, there were several annoyances that came up when I thought the chapter was officially picked through with a fine toothed comb, but that wasn't the case. I'd thrown several virtual sharp pointy objects at my heart's affection and had to somehow revive him when I realized the goofs were mine. It's good... my better half is fine and I'm... eating crow. Tastes like chicken, I suppose. So this is the FINAL time I'm updating this damn chapter and for chapter 3, Donz and I are gonna scrutinize the damn thing within an inch of its life before I post it. It's almost practically done but I won't post it for a week or so until I know it's fine. So... read on and let us know what you think! (PS: I'm going to kill something if I have to do one more thing to either chapter 1 or 2...)
EPISODE IV - CHAPTER TWO
K'natara was seething and very hot. Every twenty or so minutes she would curse about the ungodly heat on Tatooine and Starkiller was ready to kill her. The only problem about that was he'd been yet able to get the better of her in a duel. She was strong in the Force and very skilled for a young woman in her early twenties. But he'd always been interested in where she and her counterpart had come from and why there was this sudden resurgence of Sith.
The two Force users were travelling together on a speeder and they worked to track the humans and droids that had slipped away while they were battling it out. Tara demanded the assassin come with her because it was he who fouled up her mission and caused the group to slip away. Since her assassin droid, HK-79, had been utterly obliterated by Starkiller he was now her navigator and assistant, whether he liked it or not. Starkiller wasn't thrilled and had his own concerns about deviating off his own mission to Tatooine.
"If Vader wants something done, then he should get off his ass and do it himself," Tara debated as they sped across the dunes. "My own master had me doing all of his dirty work and eventually I got tired of it. That and another one of his apprentices killed him before the Dark Council."
The young man listened to what the woman was saying. He'd only learned a little about what the Dark Council was and as far as he knew, they all but disappeared entirely millennia ago. If Tara's master had died in front of the Dark Council, then she seemed incredibly displaced in time. It made his head spin but he tried to understand. If she was delusional and decided to fit herself into history just to make a joke, then he thought it a rather clever way to learn history.
"How did you learn all of that?" he asked. Tara kept her eyes forward as they raced onwards.
"I lived it." She took a hard left to avoid running into one of the native wildlife and just managed to keep a decent speed to outrun the lizard looking creature. Starkiller held on since the speeder wasn't designed to have two passengers. He squeezed the seat with his knees and held a little more tightly to the woman's waist. The scent of her hair tickled his nose and made him think of the scent - it was clean and sweet-smelling, like fruit.
His mind wandered at the memory of first meeting her and the other Sith woman, Nathrrya. Darth Vader had sent him to spy on the two women and find out where they came from. It wasn't until well after that Vader learned of their origins from the Emperor directly. Regardless, Starkiller enjoyed the mission and got to meet Tara for the time and, like every encounter afterwards, had his rear end handed to him like a royal dinner.
On and off for the last six months Tara and Starkiller had been continuously running into one another on various missions. Most of the time he's doing one thing and she is contradicting his mission with something of her own. Usually her very presence causes things to go wrong for him because she's so bold. He was trained to be stealthy, to use the shadows to hide and manipulate the Force through them for his own ends. When Tara came into the picture, she was flashy - always wearing revealing clothes brightly colored green and teal - and she brandished her sabers in such a way that she laid waste to anyone around. The woman abhorred the idea of leaving witnesses or survivors.
"The only reason I haven't killed you is because I don't want to have to kill Vader."
He remembered those words from a month ago. By the way she said it was clear to him that the secret was out that he was Vader's apprentice. Neither she nor Nathrrya seemed to care about that or pay any attention to the Rule of Two, which Vader was in blatant disregard of to begin with. In his mind she only said that because she would end up defeating his master. With her age, agility and skills it didn't cross his mind that Vader could possibly take her on and not survive. One thing he did notice is that the overall resurgence of Force users, in general, was taking a new hold on the galaxy. They were younger and much harder to control. Even he had his moments.
Tara suddenly stopped the speeder they were on and looked around. Something felt very strange to her and she dismounted, pushing Starkiller's arms off of her. She took a few paces away from the speeder and pulled out her binoculars again, putting them to her eyes and looked out among the never-ending sea of sand. She felt the unmistakable sensation of lost life. Someone - two people, actually - had died recently and the Force shook with it. When her eyes landed on billowing smoke off in the distance towards the west she knew where she needed to go.
Just by looking around her she saw a few spires crawling from out of the sand. She recognized them from her last trip to Tatooine as moisture captures. There had to be a moisture farm nearby and part of her realized that the nearest farm was probably raided by the pirate scum that liked to make their home on the planet, or the indigenous Sand People decided to attack the locals. Either way, people died and there was smoke and there was a possibility that she could find clues to the missing droids she was now after.
It took about ten minutes to make it to the destination. The smell of burning metal, wood and oil tickled her nose and made her sinuses hurt. Her eyes scanned the scene around her as she watched the farm crumble. Starkiller had taken to her side and the two of them started to rummage through the debris, hopefully finding the droids she had seen earlier.
"What is so urgent about these droids?" he asked, kicking aside a large smoldering platform. He looked down and froze for a quick second. There were two skeletal bodies under the fallen wall. They were badly burned, but he could tell just by the shape that was one female and the other was male. Tara came up to him and also looked down on the corpses.
"It's suspected that rebels hid the Death Star plans on one or both of the droids," she said, almost absently. "I'm under orders to retrieve them and return them to Lord Therin so we can get the plans and stop the rebels from making an attack."
Something about the way she spoke while looking at the two dead humans caught Starkiller's attention. He looked at her and frowned, wondering what had gotten into her. "Is that remorse?"
Tara's jaw clenched and she glared at him. For a brief second her green eyes flashed yellow with the Force and Starkiller felt it constrict around his chest, but he was gone in an instant. The woman beside him took a shaky breath in and let it out. She didn't feel any better, regardless of the breathing tricks Nathrrya had taught her to help.
"My parents died the same way."
She turned abruptly and that was the indication that the conversation was done.
"This is Lord Synge to the Accuser," she said into her communicator. There was some static but no response. "Damn it, Piett, answer me!"
"This is Captain Piett," the man said. "Report?"
"I was momentarily distracted but I think I found a destination point for the droids we're searching for. The place is utterly demolished…" -she looked around and frowned- "and I want to say that Stormtroopers did this but I can't be certain. It would defeat our purpose. Either way, there is no sign of either droid in the debris and the sand is too disturbed to determine directionality if they escaped. Orders?"
There was more static as the voice changed to that of Lord Therin. "Keep on it. Track those goddamned droids. I want them found, Synge."
The communicator shut off suddenly and Tara frowned. Something was very amiss aboard the ship to have Nathrrya that annoyed and frustrated. She sounded like she was barely keeping it together and Tara only hoped there was a ship to return to once she tracked and retrieved the droids and the plans.
"Tara, here."
The Sith woman looked towards Starkiller and went to his side. He was crouching down and looking at something closely in the sand. She bent down and looked as well and took in the patterns of the sand waves. One was a shuffling set of prints and the other was a tri-roller pattern. They matched the description of the droids she was looking for. Off in the distance she saw something else and walked over to it. She found another set of prints that were humanoid.
It led out into the dune sea and towards the rocky ledges where Sand People tended to dwell. She groaned inwardly but knew she was on the right track. She looked to Starkiller.
"Wanna kill some locals?"
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Nathrrya stalked onto the bridge, unable to stop thinking about Princess Leia. The young woman was clearly Force-sensitive and as she was a senator, how was it that Vader and the Emperor both missed her? What was driving the Sith to distraction was how familiar Leia's force presence felt.
Nathrrya stopped dead, her eyes going wide with shock. Living Force! She thought, Leia is related to Vader that's why she feels so familiar. The Sith couldn't see Vader having relations with a woman forced or otherwise, not with that damned suit he had to wear. But Leia was in her late teens if not a little older and she knew Vader hadn't always been in that suit, not that the Dark Lord talked about much if ever. So the idea of Vader having a family wasn't that outlandish. But that still left a slew of questions that needed answering.
Oh, Force, why me? Nathrrya thought as she rubbed her forehead with one hand. The Force tingled around her, whatever the Sith would discover in her investigations would change things dramatically. It was Captain Piett clearing his throat and wordlessly handing her a datapad with their new orders that pulled the Sith back to the present.
Firmus Piett watched Lord Therin's mood change from the distracted to something much darker that promised bodily harm to anyone who said or did the wrong thing. He was reminded when she had first taken command of the Accuser. None of the crew knew what to make of having a female Sith in command much less the fact there were two of them. They had all been nervous in the extreme, not long after they had taken part in an operation against some rebel ships and during the battle escape pods had been lurched from the rebel ships the gunnery officer had asked for permission to fire on the pods as it was standard practice.
Lord Therin gave the man a look that should have killed him. "Not on my ship it's not." She had then turned to him her eyes yellow "Captain, make it clear to the other imperial ships, any that engage in such blatant war crimes, their captain and the one responsible are to be brought before me, is that understood?"
Unfortunately several imperial ships didn't heed the warning and everyone in the task force saw firsthand what happens when a Sith Lord loses their temper. It had taken weeks in dry-dock to repair the damage the bridge had suffered as a result. From what Piett could recall, Vader had been somewhat amused by the whole incident.
Piett was brought out of his musings by Nathrrya using some very unladylike language as she crushed the data pad to a quarter of its size before it was sent hurtling across the bridge to bury itself in the bulkhead next to the main blast doors. To his credit, the stormtrooper that was standing guard only centimetres from the impact point didn't so much as flinch.
"This is Lord Synge to the Accuser," they heard Tara's voice come over the comm. "Damn it, Piett, answer me!"
Firmus rolled his eyes, the impatience of youth, he thought. "This is Captain Piett, report?"
"I was momentarily distracted but I think I found a destination point for the droids we're searching for. The place is utterly demolished…" -there was a slight puuse- "...and I want to say that Stormtroopers did this but I can't be certain. It would defeat our purpose. Either way, there is no sign of either droid in the debris and the sand is too disturbed to determine directionality if they escaped. Orders?"
Piett checked the deployment of their ground forces while Nathrrya took over talking to Tara.
"Keep on it. Track those goddamned droids. I want them found, Synge." Despite her best efforts Nathrrya knew she couldn't hide how livid she was. Not after the Emperor's latest orders. She was sure he was trying to drive her as insane as he was.
The Captain turned back shaking his head. "We've got troops in Mos Espa, Mos Eisley and Anchorhead but there are none near any of the moisture farms."
Using a Jedi calming technique, Nathrrya managed to keep her temper under control, if only just. Thank you cousin, she thought. "That's strange why someone would go to the trouble of making it seem like stormtroopers attacked a moisture farm?"
Piett raised an eyebrow, a moment ago Nathrrya was on the verge of losing her temper but she seemed to have it under control, for now. "Unknown, my lord." The captain consulted the terminal in front of him. "The farm is listed as belonging to Owen and Beru Lars and they have a nephew, Luke Skywalker, oddly there is no record of who his real parents are or what happened to them."
That got the Sith Lord's attention. "Find them. I don't care how and the Hutts can lump it. If they start to complain too much about Imperial troops, threaten them with orbital bombardment. As long as the Hutts stay out of Imperial business I don't care what they do."
"At once, my lord!"
Nathrrya nodded, turning, and stalked off the bridge and headed to one of the training rooms as she still needed to work her aggression out. The thought of having to take orders from Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was enough to make her sick.
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"Ow... what happened?" Luke moaned rubbing his head.
"Rest easy, son, you've had a busy day." Old Ben said as he helped the boy to sit up. "You're fortunate you're still in one piece."
"Ben? Ben Kenobi! Boy, am I glad to see you!" Luke cried on seeing the old man.
"The Jundland wastes are not to be traveled lightly. Tell me young Luke, what brings you out this far?"
"Oh, this little droid!" Luke said pointing to R2-D2. "I think he's searching for his former master... I've never seen such devotion in a droid before... there seems to be no stopping him. He claims to be the property of an Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is he a relative of yours? Do you know who he's talking about?"
Ben sat down on a large bolder as he pondered on what to say for a moment, scratching his scruffy beard. "Obi-Wan Kenobi... Obi-Wan? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time... a long time."
"I think my uncle knew him. He said he was dead."
Ben scoffed at that. "Oh, he's not dead, not... not yet." How much longer he remained in the land of the living was another question.
"You know him!" Luke was excited by this news.
Ben smiled. "Well of course, of course I know him. He's me!" the old man said tapping his chest. "I haven't gone by the name Obi-Wan since oh, before you were born."
Luke wasn't sure how to take this development. "Then the droid does belong to you."
"Don't seem to remember ever owning a droid. Very interesting..." Ben mused, he may have never owed the droid but he had known the person who had. The last time Ben had seen the little blue and white astromech was twenty years before.
Ben suddenly looked up at the overhanging cliffs but it wasn't just the return of the Tusken Raiders that had him worried. He had felt a strong spike in the Dark Side form the Sith on the orbiting ship. It was clear they were unhappy about something.
"I think we better get indoors. The Sandpeople are easily startled but they will soon be back and in greater numbers."
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Tara liked to consider herself a decent tracker for what she was trained for. Baras, in her youth, was tough on her in regards to the find-and-conquer missions he made her do. A lot of her targets were hard to find, causing her to have to become friendly with bounty hunters to hone those skills. Between being able to track the physical and sense the natural through the Force, she'd become something to be reckoned with. Many Sith assassins back in the day could never match her capabilities, for someone who had only been about twenty standard years old.
The Sith woman waved her green and black saber to deflect incoming blaster fire from the hostile sand people. While she and Starkiller were tracing the steps of the wayward droids, the inept apprentice triggered a sand trap, causing about thirteen hunters to spring forward from the sand to attack them. She cut down the last one and it squealed in its last moment of life. She huffed and turned her attention to her... him. She seethed.
"Damn it, man!" she said, deactivating her sabers and returning them to her utility belt. "I'm a marauder, not a juggernaut!"
Starkiller put his sabers away and walked up to her, a very displeased look on his face, but there was a playful glint in his eyes. He smirked at her. "You're just sore because I killed more than you."
"I'm not counting! I'm trying to stay alive so I can complete my mission and get the hell off this Force forsaken planet. I hated it then and I hate it now. Come on!" She turned on her heel and stalked off in the direction of the footprints they had found. "And don't step on any more traps, Sparkle Star..."
He cursed. "I don't sparkle!"
The man looked after her before he fell into step behind her as she walked. He kept his eyes on her shoulders and wiggled his nose as a gentle wind blew the fruity smell towards him. The longer he was with her the more he seemed to like that scent and was beginning to really associate it with her. She didn't seem much like a typical girly-girl but she certainly was confident in her femininity. Her outfit was slinky and revealing and it both kept her invisible because she blended with most groups, but also made her stick out like a sore thumb when aboard any of the Imperial ships. it made a lot of the Imperial officers and ensigns rather uncomfortable.
"Will you quit looking at my ass?"
"It's not an easy thing to do," he said, angling his head to get a better look. "There's really no ass to see."
Without warning a fist tackled his gut and he doubled over, the pain wracking through his abdomen and down through his legs. The wind was knocked out of his lungs and he choked.
"Spast!" he coughed out. "What the hell, woman!?"
"What? That was a love tap. Keep that up and I'll take you right here in the sand." When she removed her hand from his gut he lost his balance and fell to his hands and knees. For good measure, Tara kicked him while he was down and he fell over onto his side. She put her foot squarely on his chest and he got a good look at the bare skin of her leg. Up close made it look smoother than from a distance and he grinned at her.
"I like a woman in charge," he said. He grabbed her knee with both of his hands and tossed her down to the ground beside him. He rolled and managed to pin her down. He grabbed her wrists and trapped them above her head, making her chestpiece stretch across her torso. "But I like being on top."
She glared at him, narrowing her eyes. It was a steely look. "You're one bold son of a bantha, Sparkle Star."
Hearing the offensive name ticked the man off. He frowned and squeezed his hands around the woman's wrists and her glared evaporated. She hissed at the pressure and it felt like her one wrist was about to pop. He leaned down extremely close to her face and she suddenly felt very different around Vader's apprentice. "Call me that again, and I'll make sure I take you."
There were so many connotations in that sentence. Tara was certainly stronger than Starkiller but she had to respect him for being a man to a degree. While she had trouble with authority and with people who acted high and mighty, she was learning respect and when to give it. Starkiller had his moments.
"Get off."
The sheer intention from the woman almost made him move, but he stayed put. Part of him made him move his face closer to hers, his own intent was to kiss her. Why, he couldn't say or fathom. It felt right. But she turned her head and closed her eyes.
"Please…" she said quietly. "Just… get off."
That was not the Lord Synge Starkiller was familiar with. The woman beneath him was just… a woman. He stopped what he was doing and watched her for a few baffling moments… and then he got up and pulled her to her feet. He watched her wipe herself clean of the sand and then start moving forward, once again on the hunt.
After long minutes of silence he had to ask her: "How can you be so skinny?"
He did notice her figure was thin, not extremely curvy but she didn't look malnourished. He'd seen her eat and still couldn't believe she could gain any weight.
"My metabolism is faster than most for a Sith warrior," she said, seemingly not averse to answering that question. But her voice was flat like she wasn't really interested in talking… not after what just occurred between them. At least she wasn't yelling at him. "I use the Force so much it pulls energy from my body, so I burn more energy. I actually eat a lot and can't seem to gain any weight, unless I don't use the Force at all."
"I've never heard of that before."
Tara glanced back at him before turning her attention to the ground once more. "No one has. I'm apparently an abnormal specimen. At least that's what my former master called me."
Starkiller's interest perked at mention of her master. "Who was your master?"
Tara sucked in a breath of hot air and she tensed. Talking about her former master was not something she was interested in, though she could understand Starkiller's want for the information. Her master was long dead since her friend, Nathrrya, saw to it personally. Either way, it was not a comfortable subject and she wasn't thrilled about having to answer it.
"His name was Darth Baras. Back in the day he was a great Sith visionary with an extremely twisted mind-set. He had one of the largest spy networks the galaxy had ever seen and he was good at manipulating events from the shadows due to this.
"He was also power-hungry, paranoid and a right coward. Reminds me a lot of Palpy, except Baras was ten times heavier and bounced when he hit the ground."
Starkiller was shocked at the amount of animosity in her voice about someone who sounded like a great Sith warrior. His eyebrow furrowed in confusion. "Why do you hate him so, if he was so great, then?"
Tara stopped abruptly and turned to him, making Starkiller almost run into her. Her pale green eyes bore into his own and he got the sense of immeasurable pain and suffering through the look she gave him.
"I killed a lot of good friends under his orders," she said. "I bloodied my hands on scores of people, innocent and otherwise. When he ordered the death of Lord Therin, I refused, so he sent her lover instead. She could have killed him but she didn't and when I saw her mercy I broke free of his influence. I don't idolize that man. You shouldn't either. Now let's go... the trail is getting cold and I need to find these droids."
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By the time the Tatooine suns made it to the opposite horizon and had begun to set, the shadows grew, the air became cooler and more inhabitants of the planet were coming out to terrorize the two Sith as they continued their search. Tara and Starkiller trudged onward through the dune sea until they came to a ridge of rocky slopes and a valley where a number of sand people seem to use as a primary thoroughfare. The two were able to avoid most of them.
Because of the constant use of the valley they weren't able to continue tracking the movements of the droids they had been tracking for the better part of twelve standard hours. Tara thought about reporting up to Nathrrya or Captain Piett but she wasn't sure what the deal was with her friend and thought it best to leave her alone until she had good news or something to actually report.
"Hey, come look at this!"
Tara stood from her crouched position on a large boulder and followed the voice over to where Starkiller was looking through the opening in the wall of the valley. Together they entered into it and found the inner bowel of the cave to be carved and made into a living space. The grey walls were moist and it was damp and cool within the cave itself. It was a comfortable living space with only the barest necessities needed for a single person to survive. Both Tara and Starkiller rummaged through what was there but came up with nothing.
"Do you feel that?" he asked her. Tara looked around, turning slowly on the spot.
"Yeah, I do."
She took a breath and found a chair nearby. She pulled it into a corner and sat on it, facing the majority of the cavern and the entrance point. Starkiller looked at her confused but she held up her hand to silence him. She sat and straightened herself and closed her eyes. She concentrated on the sensation of the Force that seemed to be flowing within the cavern. A Force user had lived here for a long time and his essence permeated the place.
Tara attuned herself to the signature of the Force user. Concentrating on the ebb and flow of the power she allowed it to come into her. Carefully she picked the memories that were instilled in the energy waves. She opened her eyes to a grey and white world with a gold edge. It was an old trick she learned while on Voss. She was able to separate herself from her physical form and, like normal, she got up and walked around while her body remained perfectly seated.
She saw Starkiller watching her spectral image, utterly amazed, as Tara looked around. The memories showed her an elderly man with a white beard and kind blue eyes. He was conversing with a younger man, no older than eighteen, but she could barely hear what they were saying.
But she saw the two droids she had been looking for. She moved her spectral image closer to the old man and concentrated hard on his lips, trying to read them. As the two humans spoke she was able to get the words off the younger man.
She snapped back into her human body and she jumped up, startling the other Sith. She pulled out her communicator and turned it to the right frequency.
"This is Lord Synge to the Accuser," she said. "The droids are being taken to Mos Espa. They are accompanied by two males, one older with white hair and a beard, the other a younger man, sandy blond hair and blue eyes. One of them is a Force user - they're attempting to depart the planet. I'm on my way now."
She cut off the communicator and indicated for Starkiller to follow. The two rushed out of the cavern and hurried back the way they came to get to Tara's speeder. Without stopping the two mounted and took off in a dash towards the mentioned space port city.
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In the city of Mos Eisley, it was swarming with Imperial Stormtroopers and it was clear they were looking for something or someone. The locals didn't want to know any more than that. Owen and Beru Lars exchanged concerned glances as they hadn't been expecting this large of a presence, only the regular planetary garrison. They had soon learned there was a Star Destroyer in orbit and that's where the bulk of the extra Stormtroopers had come from. The two moisture farmers hoped that Old Ben's plan worked.
As they walked, Owen saw someone point in their direction and watched as a squad of four Stormtroopers briskly walked over to them. The one in the lead addressed them. "Owen and Beru Lars?"
The old farmer nodded slowly. "Yes, what can I do for you, sir?"
"It's more a case of what you can do for Lord Therin, sir." The lead trooper replied.
"Lord Therin?" Beru was alarmed at hearing mention of the woman's name. She put her hand on her husband's arm. "Sir, we're simple moisture farmers. What could she possibly need us for?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am," the trooper replied with an apologetic tone. "My orders were simply to locate the two of you and bring you before Lord Therin aboard the Accuser. Whatever she needs to see you for or why is way above my pay grade."
Owen sighed, taking his wife's hand. He squared his shoulders and looked at the Stormtrooper right in the face. "Very well... lead the way."
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The one trooper led Owen and Beru through the hallways of the Accuser once they made it to the ship. They arrived at Lord Therin's private office, which was located off the main bridge.
"My Lord, we have the two moisture farmers here you wished to see." The trooper ushered the two into the office and Nathrrya stood to greet them. She had a small but friendly smile on her face when she saw her guests. "Very good, Corporal. You're dismissed."
"Yes my Lord!" The trooper saluted his commanding officer as he and his small squad turned and left, leaving the Lars with the Sith woman.
Nathrrya indicated two chairs for her guest and they inched towards them, their eyes not one leaving her. In Nathrrya's mind he understood why these people would be wary of her. Had she been a non-Force user she would feel the same way. Once they were seated Nathrrya punched a few buttons on the computer console before her and a holovid started up.
"What the two of you are going to see is a little… unpleasant. But please bear with me." She activated the holo projector and the white light took on the visual of a squad of scout troopers that had been sent to the Lars' farm. Captain Piett had used his initiative to gather this information for Lord Therin and she found it very interesting, indeed. The farm was destroyed and the footage she played was from the cameras that were installed on squad troopers helms.
It took several minutes for the footage to finish playing and Beru gasped when she saw the skeletal remains, charred and completely indistinguishable. Nathrrya eyed the two.
"When I saw this," she said, sitting down, "I was intrigued. I asked, 'Why would someone go to so much trouble to attack your farm, make it seem like an Imperial attack, and make it seem like the two of you perished in it?' Let's face it, I know full well I had no ground forces anywhere near any of the moisture farms… least of all yours."
She watched the couple as both looked down or away from her. She could tell they were scared but before either of them could answer, her comm unit beeped, indicating an incoming call. She pressed the button. "Yes, Captain… what is it?"
"My Lord," he said, "Lord Synge reported. She found a lead on the droids and tracked them to Mos Espa. They are in the company of a young man and an older gentleman and look to be seeking passage off world. She will apprehend the droids in about a standard half hour."
"Damn it, Piett," she said. "We're so close!" The woman looked at the two moisture farmers and frowned. Piett wasn't aware of the new orders she was directly given by the emperor himself. She let out a long litany of curses that made Beru blush in embarrassment as looked towards her husband. The man on the intercom described who she thought to be Old Ben and her nephew. A woman was never heard saying such words.
She hit the button on her intercom. "New orders, Captain. Recall our troops and make ready for lightspeed towards the Death Star. I'll inform Lord Synge myself. It'll be up to the planetary garrison to apprehend them, if they can manage it. And Piett… arrange guest quarters for the Lars."
There was a slight hesitation over the speaker. "My lord?" the captain asked curiously.
The Sith rolled her eyes. "The Lars are guests," she said, "and we shall treat them as such. Did you really think that I was going to toss them in the brig?"
"Understood, my lord!" Piett replied before the comm. shut off.
"So like Quinn, it's scary." Nathrrya said softly, even so the Lars heard her.
Next she got on to her personal comm. to contact Tara. "Lord Synge, this is Lord Therin."
"This is Lord Synge, Nat did you get my message?"
"Yes Tara I did, however you're not going to like what I'm about to say. Break off pursuit at once and return to the ship." Nathrrya told her friend.
There was a long moment of apparently stunned silence. Nathrrya could almost see Tara's blank stare before the storm.
"...What!?"
"Conflicting orders again," Nathrrya said. "The old prune on Coruscant has seen fit to turn us into a glorified shuttle service and that's not the worst of it. I'll tell you the rest once you're back aboard." Nathrrya heard a snort of amusement and knew it wasn't from Tara.
"Son of a Bantha! What is Palpy trying to do, sabotage his own empire?" Tara asked.
"It makes you wonder with some of the orders he's been giving lately and tell Sparkle Star he's on his own, whatever he's up to."
"Nerfwench." Starkiller said not hiding his dislike for the older Sith woman.
"That's 'Second-in-Command Nerfwench to you, buster. And I expect you to return Lord Synge in the same condition that you found her in, am I understood?"
"Yes."
Nathrrya was grinning "Yes... what?"
"Yes, my lord."
"That's better. We'll make a Sith out of you yet." With that Nathrrya shut off her comm. Link and looked to the shocked expressions on the Lars' faces with a beaming smile on her own. "He's so much fun to tease!"
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Tara was livid. She had obliterated her communicator and it was scattered at her feet in the sand as she and Starkiller stood about a hundred yards from the spaceport she reported she was going towards. She didn't know how she felt about the orders she just got but if she had any inkling about how Nathrrya felt then it was a given that she was just as pissed about the situation.
Palpatine was going to collapse the Empire. That was just the truth of it. She had been under his command for about six months and she and Nathrrya both could just tell that the whole galaxy was in ruins and there was just no stopping the dwindling spiral. Palpatine's sanity was wracking the galaxy left, right and center and Tara felt that he's going to go down hard and bring the galaxy with him in one final show of complete insanity. She looked over to Starkiller, who was still brooding about being called "Sparkle Star".
"I take back what I said," she told him. "Palpy is Baras reincarnated. He's sick, twisted and I bet you a million credits he has a network of spies . I'm not joking, if he sends any of his cronies against me or Nat, he's finished. And if your master knew what's good for him, he'd break free."
Starkiller looked at her dumbfounded. He then shook his head and grinned in disbelief. "I guess you know who my master is."
"It's not hard to figure out," she huffed. She got onto her speeder and started it up. "The spaceport it that way. Get your own shuttle back. I'm going back to my ship." She turned and sped off back the way they came almost fifteen hours later.
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Two standard hours of travelling and another half an hour in the air brought Tara into the docking bay of the Accuser. Once her ship was docked and in the hands of the maintenance crew she stalked off her ship through the hangar door and everyone got out of her way fast. Her eyes were sharp and some thought they glowed but she was only seething the Force around her and not through her eyes. Ensigns and troopers got out of her way as she hurried down the many passages until she made it to Nathrrya's private office. The door hissed open and then closed as soon as she was inside. She turned and slammed her hand down on the locking pad and the green light turned red. No one was going to disturb them.
"Nat, I'm getting so pissed off with all of the yanking and tugging by that son of a bantha. Spast! Does Palpy know he's screwing his empire up? Or does he just not care? I swear, it's just like Baras all over again. If that's the case, I'm going to go and kill everyone on this ship right now."
"Tara, calm down. I know you're upset and I'm not so pleased about it either." Nathrrya sat back in her chair and sighed but said nothing more. Tara took a moment to breathe and calm herself down.
"Those droids... I know they have to be the ones with the Death Star schematics. Honestly, if that man and boy were part of the Alliance and I was pulled away from having to capture them, then good. Maybe they can destroy that abomination."
"That's what I'm hoping," Nathrrya confirmed, her eyes closed and her hands rubbing at her face. She felt exhausted. "Blast, I'm tired. I'm going to put you in charge for the next twelve hour shift. There's four hours left. Why don't you go eat, bathe and rest and take over on the Bridge so I can just... just... ugh."
The older Sith grimaced after a moment and then looked at her female companion. "Tara, I might as well tell you now. Palpy's orders are to take the Princess to the Death Star so Tarkin can interrogate her about the stolen schematics." Tara noticed that Nathrrya rolled her eyes at the idea of Tarkin trying anything out of the princess. The older Sith knew it wouldn't work. "The best part is I have to follow Tarkin's orders. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"
Tara gave her friend a sorrowful look. "I don't envy you. I'd end up killing him… along with the rest of the Death Star crew. Not to mention your own crew here on this ship. Thank the Force for Piett. He needs to be commended."
Nathrrya raised her eyebrows in agreement. She knew well enough that her crew didn't do well when Tara was in command of the Bridge while she was off duty for much needed, and deserved, rest and relaxation. Captain Piett was a star when it came to keeping the crew under control and there was a very low mortality rate when that was the case. But Tara was still learning to handle large groups of people. Her only incident of this was when she was on her way to Dromund Kaas from Korriban and she was aboard the Black Talon. Tara ended up killing the captain, otherwise she never got the chance to do those types of missions before their incident with Arcann. Nathrrya never acknowledged it, but she was Tara's unofficial master and she her unofficial apprentice.
Tara watched her friend for a moment but her mind still buzzed about the change of orders. "I need pie." She turned and left her friend alone.
There was a soft snort. "You always need pie."
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On the swamp world of Dagobah, Jedi Master Yoda opened his eyes after a long mediation session. He was sitting on an old tree root and off to the side was the spectre of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
"Change everything has," Yoda said. "Discovered the twins shall be."
"Then the Sith will win." Jinn responded.
Yoda closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. "Never said that, I did. Listening you were not. The future, always in motion it is. Change everything, the two ancient Sith will."
"But for good or ill?"
"Unknown that is. Vader's destiny no longer certain is. Wait we must."
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"Captain Quinn!"
Nathrrya was in a tizzy. She came barrelling out of her office onto the bridge of the Accuser. Captain Firmus Piett turned to his superior with a surprised look on his face. There was also a bit of confusion as he hadn't been aware of any name change.
"Excuse me, my lord?" he asked uncertain. At his query he saw the last thing he expected to see: Nathrrya burying her face into her hands and groaning a slew of Huttese curses. She took a moment and looked up at the man.
"I called you 'Captain Quinn', didn't I, Piett?"
"Er… yes, my lord. You did." He was silent for a moment. "Are you alright, my lord?"
"I'm more tired than I thought," she muttered, attempting to stifle a yawn. "You remind me of him, Piett…" -her eyes swept over the bridge- "...but this is not the place to have that conversation. Lord Synge is taking over the next shift. Set a course for the Death Star, maximum velocity, and don't let her kill anyone or have anyone give her a reason to." With that, she turned on her heel and left the bridge with a very baffled captain in her wake.
"What do you suppose that was about, Firmus?" Navigator Pressly asked as he came to stand alongside his friend.
"I don't know Charles." The Captain replied, scratching the side of his face. "We know almost nothing about her past."
"True." Pressly said. "If you remind her of this Captain Quinn the it has to be someone she's served with… or was an old flame, perhaps?"
The look that Piett gave his chief navigator said that the conversation was over, though it did make him wonder.