Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars
4
Darth Vader, the newly christened Dark Lord of the Sith stood on the bridge of the Exactor. He had given Clone Commander Carhac an hour to find the Jedi on board the station. If not, Vader would destroy the station and be done with it. He surveyed the station through the viewport. A wretched place. But, it was the Jedi he was interested in. He would go in after them himself, but he was still not recovered after his fight with Master Tsui Choi, Bultar Swan and their confederates. He watched as the Revenge, the other new Imperator class Star Destroyer went around to face the station head on. The Jedi inside would soon be destroyed. And then Vader could go back to his purpose: finding and killing Obi Wan Kenobi.
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No sooner were the words out of the man's mouth when a man who had been passing looked at the little group.
"Did you say you were a Jedi?" he asked greedily.
"No." Shaak Ti lied.
"You did! Boys! This is the Jedi they want! Let's open up!"
Shaak Ti grimaced.
"I believe the words 'oh' and 'bugger' come in around now."
The mercs opened fire. There were twelve of them, and Shaak Ti didn't have time to fight. If the clones heard…
The Jedi began to deflect the shots back at their owners, as the security guards led the way forward. Thugs were coming from all angles, left, right and centre, all with the clear purpose of saving Rogue Station and earning a nice reward in the process.
"Master, we cant keep this up!" Serra shouted as she blocked two shots from hitting Zett.
"I agree. Offensive tactics!"
She sprang at the first leader and sliced right through him. She then kicked out, knocking the next two in line to the floor. She then force pushed another two as they came from an alcove.
"How many are there?" Dyren asked in amazement.
"An entire station?" Whie suggested as he killed another thug.
"Master Jedi! This way!" the security men shouted.
She shrugged and sliced a Duros in half, then fought her way over. She looked at the odds facing them. Thirty six thugs, and counting. Not good odds. She entered the lift with the others and sighed in relief as the door shut.
"They'll be waiting for you at the other end. Be ready." The leader said.
Shaak Ti sighed. She looked at her charges in concern. They weren't ready for this. In fact, aside from Serra, she was probably the only one who could really hold her own in a fight. Dyren was just too new. She pursed her lips in anxiety. She had already failed Scout. She would not fail the others.
The door flew open, and they were met by a storm of blasterfire. Shaak Ti leapt out of the car, and sliced through the first two thugs. She could hear the others parrying bolts behind her as she led the way up the corridor, slicing apart mercs like dolls. Limbs and body parts flew everywhere as her blue lightsaber cut into her attackers. She kicked one man in the throat, and then used the Force to wrench down a light. The men were trapped underneath as she sliced her way through her enemies. They reached the end of the corridor.
"It's a dead end!" Shaak Ti yelled.
The lead man thudded his shoulder against the wall, and a door opened. The room beyond was filled with thugs. And at the end of the room was a Hutt.
"Grobba."
Shaak Ti entered the room, the others following behind her.
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Carhac smiled. The thugs on the station would do their job for them. He established a link with Lord Vader.
"Lord Vader."
"Yes Commander?" the Sith's deep voice came over the comm.
"The station is in a riot. Many thugs are trying to intercept the Jedi, but are failing."
Vader was silent for a minute.
"Commander, a Jedi must always help the innocent. I have changed my mind. We will destroy Rogue Station anyway. As they run past you, kill them all."
Carhac smiled at the thought of such slaughter.
"With pleasure sir."
"Do you know who the Jedi is?"
Carhac nodded.
"No other than Jedi Council member Shaak Ti."
Vader was taken aback.
"Then good luck to you commander. You'll need it."
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Vader established a connection with Coruscant, the centre of Galactic Government, now renamed Imperial Centre in honour of the new Galactic Empire.
But it was his master that Vader wanted to speak to.
The connection yielded a blue face with two vestigial horns.
"Lord Vader." Mas Amedda said respectfully.
"Amedda. Put me on to the Emperor please."
"He is busy Lord Vader."
Vader, not unaccustomed to political wrangling, snarled, and raised his hand. Amedda's hand went to his throat as he tried to figure out why he couldn't breathe properly.
"Put me onto the Emperor."
Amedda, struggling for air nodded, and Vader released him of the Force choke. His master's face appeared the next minute.
Emperor Palpatine was the ultimate ruler of the galaxy, and was also the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. He had engineered the plot that had brought about the downfall of democracy, the Republic and the Jedi Order, putting the galaxy back into Sith control for the fist time in one thousand years. His face was disfigured, a relic of his battle with Mace Windu, with hideous scarring as evil yellow eyes. His face was covered with a cowl and he looked impatient.
"My master."
"Lord Vader. What is it? Is it your injuries?"
"No master. I'm at Rogue Station. There's a Jedi on board it."
Sidious rolled his eyes.
"Lord Vader, I've already told you that the Jedi are of no threat to us anymore. Their order is scattered, divided and leaderless. They cant harm us now. And if you called just to tell me you had found a Jedi, I will not be very pleased."
Vader kept his anger in check. Palpatine could say all he wanted about the Jedi not being able to threaten the Empire, but Vader would only believe him when all the Jedi were dead.
"This Jedi could be a threat."
"How is he different from any other Jedi Lord Vader?" Palpatine asked impatiently.
Vader knew the Emperor was humouring him.
"It's a woman for a start."
Palpatine was growing angry now.
"Don't play smart Vader."
"And she's a Council member."
That changed the Emperor's tune.
"What?"
Vader realised too late what he had done. There were only two women on the Council at the time of the Great Jedi Purge. One was confirmed dead with Order 66. It had been Vader's job to destroy the other. He hadn't told his master that Shaak Ti had escaped him.
"Shaak Ti…escaped during Operation Knightfall."
"WHAT?"
"And now she's here."
"I will deal with this later Lord Vader. If she's on that station, destroy it!"
"Yes my master."
Vader signed off before he got into anymore trouble.
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Shaak Ti walked up to the Hutt.
"Master Jedi." He sneered.
"Master Ti!"
Shaak Ti turned to be hugged by Scout.
"I thought you wouldn't come." The girl said softly.
"Of course we would dear. I wasn't going to let you go without a fight."
Scout turned to Whie and he hugged her tightly. Shaak Ti faced the Hutt.
"As you haven't harmed her, I assume you wanted to talk to me."
"Very observant. I have gone to great lengths to get you here."
"And why did you want to get me here?"
"Two reasons. One I wanted to see what your plans were for these Dark Times. The second, I wanted you to help me stop the impeding Imperial attack on this station, which is my kingdom."
"Well, I haven't decided what to do yet, so that answers your first question. And as to the second, why should I help you, when you've had your thugs try and attack me ever since I arrived?"
The Hutt moved out from the shadows. He was small and slight, but a sickly yellow colour, unlike most Hutts. His Majordomo wasn't the traditional Twi'lek but a large, shadowy Defel.
Shaak Ti suddenly noticed how many thugs were in this room. Bothans, Duros, Sullastans, Quarren, Gamorreans, Weequay, Klatoonians and other species all armed to the teeth all surrounded the small party of Jedi. If things went tits up, things would go down hill very fast indeed.
"My kingdom matters the most to me. If I do not stop the Empire, I will suffer what you have: a loss of power and influence and then hitting rock bottom. And I do not want that to happen. Seeing it happen to Jedi scum is quite enough."
Shaak Ti narrowed her eyes in intense dislike of this Hutt who had made life very difficult since they had arrived here.
"Well, I'm here now. But you have no choice of stopping the Empire. You heard the announcement. Unless we're given up in the next fifty minutes, they destroy the station."
Then, fifty minutes too early, a turbolaser blast hit the station.
"Scum!" Grobba yelled.
Shaak Ti looked outside to see the two wedge shaped Star Destroyers letting loose with their green lasers.
"Tell the Empire to hold off the attack! And get that Jedi!"
Shaak Ti sighed.
"I believe the term rhymes with 'clucking bell'."
Her lightsaber was in her hand in an instant, cleaving its way through three torsos. Serra's two blades sliced apart four attackers, while Dyren, the guards and the Padawans kept enemy blasterfire to a minimum. The Hutt was laughing as he watched the Jedi defend against the attacking thugs.
"I'll give three times everyone's else's pay to the one who kills that Jedi!" Grobba shouted.
The Defel bent in towards his ear.
"The Empire isn't stopping."
"Then get my ship ready launch you simpleton!"
Shaak Ti parried another two shots, then saw what was coming. A turbolaser blast had pierced the shield. And the one coming behind it would shatter the viewport. Grobba saw what was happening, slithered into a lift, and disappeared. Shaak Ti blanched in fear.
"Hold on!"
The bolt shattered the viewport and the air was sucked out with a whistling sound. The three guards went with it, while the Jedi hung on for dear life. Then Shaak Ti felt it. Carhac had started to murder innocents as they ran past him. Along with that, the Hutt's thugs through the station were attacking innocents too. Hundreds of thugs attacking all over the station, all trying in vain to stop the Imperial attack. Then, the station rocked violently. The Empire was going to destroy the station, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Shaak Ti could feel the people's fear as the bolts collided with the station, but it was her own situation that she was worried about. Then, she saw Grobba's hover platform. Using the force, she wrenched it towards the shattered viewport, temporarily blocking the air escape.
"Come!"
The Jedi team got out of the Hutt's den just before the platform was sucked outside too.
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Syron sighed as the station rocked.
"What do they think they're playing at? They gave us an hour to find the Jedi!"
"They must have got bored of waiting." Vella said.
They looked outside, to see the thugs firing at the fleeing people.
"What are they doing?" Ferra demanded.
"They're trying to draw the Jedi out." Teecee said as the station rocked again.
Ferra looked out of her grimy window to see people running for the hangars, but being gunned down by thugs and clones as they made their way there.
"This is butchery!" Vella said weakly.
The station rocked once again, blowing up several lights.
(Reckon they'll stop if the Jedi is given up?) Softy growled.
"No. They want to destroy the station." Teecee stated.
"Signal the Blade to get ready. We're leaving." Syron said.
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Shaak Ti sliced through another thug as yet another mob of them tried to catch them.
"Vader and Carhac knew this was coming. And Grobba knew how they would react. They've been manipulated into doing their work for them. And it's them who'll pay the price."
A blast knocked a massive chunk into the station, sending bodies flying outwards. The station didn't have much longer left. Another shot sent them all reeling.
"We don't have time to murder our way to the hangars! That's if there will be any hangars left by the time we get there!" Whie yelled.
Shaak Ti unleashed another Force shockwave, blasting the thugs away from them and ran down the corridor, to see people fleeing towards the exits of the station. Ships were beginning to leave, but none of them were full. Meaning that hundreds of people would die. All because Carhac was too lazy to do the job himself.
Scout watched in alarm as below them Carhac blasted apart an innocent family.
"Master!"
Shaak Ti never got to her in time, as another blaster bolt blew open a hole in the station window. Scout dropped down and attacked the clones. Shaak Ti followed, the others in tow. Carhac laughed as he shot down a small toddler. Shaak Ti blasted him with a Force push, and then turned to decapitate several clones. It was no use. Then another blast rocked the station. Firing off another force push, she led the others away from the clones and their carnage, heading towards the hangar levels. The station rocked, and then started to move. The orbital stabilisers were gone.
"Schutta." Shaak Ti swore.
They turned another corner to be overwhelmed by blaster fire. Thugs and clones had now joined together, despite the fact that the station was dying. The thugs still thought that the Empire would spare their homes if they got the Jedi. Another blast rocked them and sent them tumbling to the ground. This was not good. They needed to escape. Preferably in the next five minutes. Shaak Ti then looked up to see Syron and the others.
"Hey, you found your girl!" Syron exclaimed, as the fires started to spread.
The station was dying, and this was not the time for pleasantries.
"Master!"
The clones and thugs were firing at them again. The lightsabers were blurs as they deflected the shots back at their enemies.
"You're the Jedi?" Vella asked.
"Afraid so."
The smugglers whipped out their blasters and started firing at the thugs and clones. There was no time for this. The clones stopped firing at them and ran up the corridor, killing people as they fled.
"They're just murdering everyone!" Ferra yelled in fright.
Then a blaster bolt sliced through her chest, and she dropped to the floor.
"Ferra!" Syron yelled.
Shaak Ti turned to see Carhac standing behind them.
"you will pay for that."
With that Shaak Ti blasted him with a force push that sent him flying down the corridor.
Syron blinked tears out of his eyes, but Softy grabbed him.
(We need to go.)
"You need a lift?" Syron asked.
"Yes, we do."
"Then come with us." Vella said.
They led the way, thugs still firing at them, though most had now fled to their own ships. Outside ships of all sizes were flying away from the ailing station. There was then a massive explosion.
"What the?"
"That was the main reactor. We need to leave!" Teecee shouted.
That was it for the station. Turbolaser blasts kept coming but it was too late to do any more damage. The dirt covered and body littered corridors were now burning. Fires sprang up everywhere. Sparks flew out all over the place. Holes opened in the floor. They entered the hangar to find a Corellian Corvette by the name of Silver Blade.
"Let's go!"
Then the door was blown apart as a last squad of clones started firing.
"Get us out of here alive Softy!" Syron yelled as he entered the ship.
The Jedi deflected the shots and then entered their ride. The clones were then killed by a bout of fire from the ship's guns. Shaak Ti entered the bridge where Syron and Vella were lifting the ship out of the hangar.
The Star Destroyers fired one final round. The fuel cells exploded and the blast consumed the station.
"Woah!"
Syron then shot the ship forwards out of the hangar as the station collapsed into flame behind them. They looked as the burnt out hulk of Rogue Station suddenly detonated, spraying debris all over space.
"Grobba!" Vella snarled.
She was pointing to a Hutt cruiser, similar to a Sail Barge, backed up by two ships that looked life skiffs. Many ships were attacking the Star Destroyers to little avail.
Then, a voice cut across the comm.
"This is Darth Vader to all attacking forces. If you break off your attack now and attack that Corellian Corvette, I will personally pay you all for the losses you have suffered."
"Ah." Shaak Ti said as the small armada, backed up by the Star Destroyers headed straight for them.
"How hot are you?" Vella demanded as she gunned the engines.
turbolaser blasts filled the space around them, bolts of all colours. The ship shuddered as missiles were fired at them, as Syron wove the ship in and out of the attacks. A particuarly vicious blast hit the back of them, knocking them all off balance.
This was going to be the end unless they did something soon.
The ships were firing their lasers at the Corvette when Grobba cut through.
"Damn you Jedi witch! You made me lose Rogue Station! You will pay for this!"
"Go to hell!" Shaak Ti yelled.
Syron grimaced as the ships came too close for comfort. Arc 170s and V-wings sped up and down, taking potshits at the ship, causing a lot of damage when they hit.
"Can you get us out of here?"
"Just one more minute!"
A blast rocked the ship, and that was it. The Star Destroyers had closed in on them, and it was time to leave.
"Let's go!"
Syron pulled back the lever, and the ship shot into lightspeed.
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Vader watched as the last of the pirate ships leapt away into hyperspace. Carhac came up to him.
"We nearly had her Lord Vader."
"It's of little concern. She will go and find the darkest hole she can find, and then we'll help bury her there."
Shaak Ti's escaped for now. So, Vader is after her, and so is Commander Carhac. an evil git alright. Hope you like. Next chapter wont be long. By the way, Grobba's cruiser is basically Jabba's sail barge and its skiffs. Please review!