Heart of Darkness
Cka3ka
Act 1.3: The Past Returns
Earlier… As the events on Shaddaa unfolded…Fifteen Imperial Class star destroyers and their assorted escorts—Victory Class SDs, Interdictors, strike frigates, and corvettes—jumped into the remote unnamed system in the Mid Rim. Darth Vader stood on the bridge of the Avenger. Reports of insurrections by mid-rim and outer-rim worlds were growing daily and the Emperor had assigned him the task of putting down these uprisings. This suited him perfectly. He was now in command of a fleet that he planned to use his and his daughter's advantage when the time was right. The Death Squadron as they were now known had proceeded to crush rebellion after rebellion over the last few months. Fear ruled the galaxy and he was the spearhead of that image.
At this moment, Vader's fleet wasn't pursuing any Rebels or inspiring terror throughout the galaxy. They were, instead, performing a civil service. There were reports of pirate attacks near the Van Sluis system and, since that system housed a vital Imperial shipyard, Vader had decided to intercede personally.
"Lord Vader," saluted an officer in his mid thirties as he nervously approached the Dark Lord.
"Yes, Commander Avor. What is it?" replied Vader coldly. This particular commander did not please Vader in the least. He had been recently transferred over to his flag ship on the bequest of one Admiral Martio Batch. Vader was quite sure that he was a spy of some sort. There was going to be another one of his fatal temper tantrums soon enough.
"We have detected ion emissions coming from near the third planet of the this system. It might be anything, but…"
Vader ignored the officer's hesitant recommendations and searched his own feelings. The Force, as usual, answered him. "Tell Major Fel to take his squadron and flush our quarry out from behind the moon. The Capitol ships are to flank from the other side."
"As you wish my Lord," stutteredAvor as he quickly backed away and passed along the Sith Lord's orders. Within minutes, Fel's Tiefighters were hurtling through the void towards their appointed positions and the other ships were moving towards the far side of the moon.
As they rounded the moon, Vader saw Fel's squadron engaging three clone war era cruisers. Numerous Z-95 headhunter fighters were in space battling the Imperial fighter pilots, but such riff raff posed little threat to Fel's elite squadrons. Methodically, the Tie's picked off one pirate after another. There was no doubt that the fighters were frantically buying time for the larger ships to hyperspace out. Not that it would avail them at all as his interdictors were now in place. Still, such staunch resistance from pirates was a rarity. There was something else at work here.
"Captain Piett," said Vader softly to his new flag captain. Piett was a rising star in the Imperial military. He had scored highly on his exams and had graduated first in his class at tactical command. As a commander he had performed admirably as a captain of smaller vessels. Unfortunately, he had made many enemies in the seniority dominated Navy. There was no doubt that his assignment to Vader's flagship was seen as a way to get rid of him. Vader's perchance to fatally terminate his Captains was well known. Only a select few had survived their tour of duty under Vader's command. "I want those ships captured. These are no ordinary pirates."
"As you command, my Lord," answered Piett automatically. He gave a pointed look at his officers and they busily got to work.
The Imperial Navy was efficient and while not exactly enthusiastic about their work they were competent enough in general. Vader's fleet was made of the best of the Navy and those who served under him certainly had more motivation to succeed than others that served under other commanders. Vader watched in approval as the star destroyers began to spread out to cut off all escape vectors of the cruisers. The tie fighters and lighter ships poured fire to batter down the enemy shields and only after a brief firefight two of the cruisers were battered but intact hulks. Another was caught in a tractor field after being disabled by multiple ion blasts.
"I will personally greet our guests, Captain. Prepare my fighter."
"Of course my lord."
Vader flew his Tie fighter smoothly into the hanger of the disabled Clone War era cruiser. A company of storm troopers had preceded him over onto the ship and there was a raging firefight onboard as he stepped out of his fighter. The fight died abruptly as Vader joined the fray. Pirates, human and otherwise, died to a gleaming red blade wherever Vader passed. The storm troopers led by the Vader stormed the bridge shortly after. The Captain of the ship found death preferable to capture and several other officers attempted to force a fatal confrontation, but Vader easily used the Force to subdue the men non-lethally.
"I want to know who is responsible for this ship, Colonel," ordered Vader to the officer in charge. "Find out and report to me immediately."
Vader left the Colonel to his task and began to explore the ship alone. Something in the Force whispered that there was a cargo of great importance here. He wandered to the general cargo holds only to find that they had been jettisoned of whatever the ship had been carrying. He walked through examining the room, but the vacuum of space had erased any evidence of what had been here. He continued through the decks until he found a sealed hanger. He sensed that there were living presences on the other side. Igniting his light saber he thrust it into the metallic door and reached for the Dark Side. Using the Force he slowly melted the blast door like Qui-gon had years before him. Unlike, his master's master, Vader wasn't interrupted by any Droidekas. The door cracked and fragmented before him and he stepped through to the sight of dozens of children aged from infancy to their teens before him. There were screams and cries at the sight of him, but Vader ignored them enraptured by the sight of chains and slave collars on the children. He didn't quite feel pity or anger at the sight of slaves. Slavery didn't bother a Sith Lord and he certainly had been party of enslaving many himself—including the Wookies of Kashyyk. Yet something stirred in him. Perhaps it was the sight of a young blonde 10 year old boy sitting quietly in the corner with a slave collar on and dead eyes. Vader immediately banished Anakin's weakness to the recesses of his mind.
"Child," boomed Vader in his deep voice towards one of the older teenage boys. "Where are you from?"
The short brown haired boy shied away from him in fear and did not answer.
"Is it a difficult question?" quizzed Vader.
"He's from Triffis," answered a slightly younger grey eyed boy.
"And the rest of you?" asked Vader.
"Some of us are from Arbra, and some from Zolan. I'm from Naboo. My mom was working at the consulate forPooja Nabierre."
Naboo. The planet named ripped through him. Padme's and Palpatine's homeworld in the Mid-rim.POOJA NABIERRE? Anakin's memories screamed through Vader's mind.Pooja was theyoungest daughter of Sobal Nabierre, Padme's elder sister. She had beenthree or fourwhen the events of the Clone Wars had taken place. He had met her once when he and Padme had been able to steal a moment together on Naboo. He remembered Sobal teasing Padme about her handsome Jedi. Little did she know that they were already married.Pooja had been a cute little girl then. It seemed that she had entered into the public sphere now.
"You were taken by force?" continued Vader suppressing an image of a young twenty something Padme that welled up as he thought to picture whatPooja looked like so many years later. "Yes… most of us at least. Our families were attacked and stunned. We woke up and found ourselves here. They took the adults somewhere else."
Sounds of booted feet could be heard running towards them through the hallway. The young boy stepped back in shock and then Vader saw his eyes light up. He didn't need to turn around to know that Stormtroopers were assembling in ranks behind him.
"Were the adults alive when they were taken away?" asked Vader.
"Mom was crying when they dragged her out," said the boy angrily through gritted angry teeth. "I tried to get them to stop, but they just prodded me with tasers."
"Most unusual," thought Vader aloud. The boy's storycertainly perked up his interest in these slavers. "WasPooja Nabierre taken with the others?"
"I think so," answered the boy hesitantly.
Vader nodded. "Enough for now. I will see to it that you are fed and taken care of. "Turning to the troopers, he said, "Round up these children and come with me."
"What about our families?" cried the boy as Vader turned to leave.
"If your families are alive, you shall be returned to them. If not you will be taken care of. Now come."
The children, escorted by Storm troopers, followed Vader across several decks. Vader spoke briefly several times into his communicator with his senior officers, but otherwise did nothing besides lead the group back to the hanger. There, the pirate prisoners were lined up and forced to their knees by their guards.
"Lord Vader," greeted Captain Piett. "We've reports from the other vessels. They were all successfully captured but there are no signs of any slaves on those ships. It seems that they were escorts for this one. However, some of our slicers have already deduced that there are more slaves. This ship was just one of many. We will need more time to find out where the other ships are."
"See to these children first, Captain," replied Vader. "If these crewmen know anything, be assured that they will share it with me. Continue to search the other ships. The slave holds are well disguised."
"As you wish my Lord."Piett was usually nervous around him, though he hid it well. This time Vader noticed that there was a quiet anger simmering in his Commander. Not all in the Empire approved of slavery.
Vader turned to the captured crew members. He calmly ignited his light saber and then walked up and down the row of captured prisoners. He randomly selected two, one Twi'lek and one human. He lashed out like a viper. The first onelost his arm at the elbow. The second crewman was even less fortunate. Vader swept his saber down and followed through. The human screamed as he felt his legs seared off at the knees. The Twi'lek who had been in shock and simply looking at the stub of where his arm use to be also began screaming. Vader allowed them to cry and blubber for a while and then calmly ran his saber through them with methodical precision to silence them. He then turned to the remaining slavers.
"Enslaving Imperial civilians by force is illegal. You will answer my questions promptly and efficiently. If you do not, you will force me to make some more examples."
He calmly walked up and down the line looking at each of the slavers and tasting their fear. Something was amiss though; as afraid of him as they were, something else was also terrifying them. He stopped in front of a Durosian.
"Where was this cargo headed?" asked Vader in his deep baritone.
"Ylesia," lied the Durosian as it sweated.
Vader stood silent for a second. The lie was obvious. He didn't even need the Force to tell him that the Durosian had tried to deceive him. He reached out with the Force and seized the alien's windpipe. With a single hand he lifted the Alien up off the floor, and brought him close to his mask.
"I believe you just made your last mistake." He crushed the Durosian's windpipe with the Force and then flung him some ten feet across the hold. Two troopers marched up and dragged the dead corpse away.
Again Vader walked the line and this time he stopped in front of an older human. "Where was this cargo headed?" he repeated in the exact same inflection and tone as he did earlier.
The human sweated and licked his lips. "She'll kill us," he whispered softly. The man looked up at Vader's featureless mask and gulped. Vader would kill them too and probably more painfully. "Corporate sector, and other places in the outer rim," replied the slaver nervously.
Vader tasted the truth in his words. But as he did he felt something else, something horribly wrong. He had always been prone to visions. When he was young he dreamed of his mother being in danger. He had not acted and she had died in his arms. The Jedi had failed him. Then years later he had dreamed of his beloved wife dying in childbirth. He had vowed to not lose her as he had lost his mother and so had turned to the teachings of the Sith. The result had been the same. The Sith had failed him.
The vision swirled around him. He saw his daughter battling several vague figures. She could feel her scream in pain and then explosions. Without warning it vanished.
"Commander, I am returning to the ship now. Set course for Nar Shaddaa immediately," snapped Vader to Needa.
"Sir? Yes sir!" replied Needa quickly. Anyone could sense that something had suddenly startled Vader. Needa knew better than to push the Dark Lord.
The moment Vader landed his Tie fighter, he strode out at a brisk pace to the nearest communicator. He knew it was probably a mistake to make the call from an unsecured console but he didn't care. He had no time for a secure connection. His daughter was in danger and needed help. This time he would not let his loved one down.
He entered a code into the console and within seconds the face of a petite blonde woman appeared.
"Hello Uncle D?" asked Nura Tamri with a tight smile on her face. Vader could see by her body posture that she was shielding her communicator's screen from someone.
"Proceed to Nar Shaddaa immediately. Take whatever resources you need."
Tamri was silent for a split second. "I'll see to it, don't worry Uncle D," replied Nura as she hung up abruptly on him.
Vader was fully confident in the young woman's abilities and her understanding of what the situation entailed. She already knew that he would not contact her in such a manner unless it was the direst of emergencies. Vader knew that Tamri would depart immediately for Nar Shaddaa. In fact, she would probably be there before him as Alderaan was much closer to Hutt space than he was. He felt that time was of an essence. Anguish. It was a feeling that he had not experienced in many years; certainly not since he had accepted the teachings of the Sith. Now it coursed through every fiber of his being and he was helpless to do anything. His only hope was that he'd arrive there on time to prevent anything catastrophic from happening to his daughter.
Nar Shaddaa… the Present…
Leia hurt and she was exhausted. While she could deal with that, but what was about to cause her to flip out was that she was buried under tons of durasteel crates. By all accounts she should be dead, but once again the sheer power of her Force talent had saved her. She had been able to deflect one of the crates so that it shielded her from the other ones as they tumbled down onto the spot she had been.
"This sucks," sighed Leia as she took small shallow breaths and removed her mask. There was not a lot of air in the small pocket that she had created for herself. That and she needed to rest. She had used more Force energy than she had ever before against these two. Moreover, she was seriously injured. Moving hurt, breathing hurt, just about everything hurt.
"Mistress. Do you remain alive?" she heard a metallic voice boom from above. Her battle droid D4 had finally decided to come down off of the rafters and help.
"I'm Force be damned alive. Now get me flipping out of here!" she yelled up.
"Certainly Mistress. But, allow me to remind you that swearing is…"
"SHUTUP D4 and get me out of here!" she cut him off with a shout.
She heard some movement above, and then one of the crates slowly moved up a fraction of a foot. It was just enough to allow her to crawl through, and she did so, ignoring her screaming muscles and the pain from her injuries. The minutes seemed like hours as she forced herself through the opening.
As she broke free, she collapsed panting and the pain coursed through her body. She hurt everywhere. She felt herself begin to blackout from it, but she struggled to retain consciousness. Slowly she forced back the pain and then hauled herself up onto her knees.
"Allow me to help, Mistress," said D4 as he took hold of her and lifted her onto his shoulder.
Leia relaxed as she wrapped one arm around the droid's neck. She had ridden him like this often when she was younger, but hadn't for years. She pulled off her mask so that she could get fresh air and then closed her eyes. "Let's get back to the flat D4. I'm going to go into a healing trance so don't go too fast."
"I will not allow the Mistress to come to harm," stated the droid matter of factly. He began to slowly walk towards the exit of the building. To all eyes, it seemed that a large droid was carrying a young girl out from the accident site. As they left several emergency vehicles were pulling up. The droid ignored them and walked past any workers who offered help without a word. No one stopped the dangerous looking droid. On Nar Shaddaa it was better to look the other way on such matters and the workers knew better than to ask dangerous questions. There would be a report and that would be the end of the matter.
Leia didn't know where they were. She was startled out of her trance by aggressive sounding voices. She opened her eyes to see several sentients standing in front of them. She didn't need to turn around to know that there were more behind them. As her mind cleared, she saw that there were armed beings with weapons trained on them above as well. This is not what I need right now, she thought angrily to herself. She didn't feel recuperated at all. She couldn't have been in her trance for very long and the dull pain in he arm and ribs told her that nothing had healed. It would take days for her bones to knit, but it was obvious that she didn't have days or even minutes.
"Hand over the bounty hunter right now droid. Or be destroyed," said a dark skinned man. Scars covered his face, and there was without a doubt that he was an experienced killer.
"Organic Sentients. Please move aside and allow passage. If you do not, I will be forced to dismember you."
Leia didn't like the situation. D4 was powerful but there were a lot of opponents and they were well armed. The alleyway was narrow and the men had planned their ambush carefully it seemed. They had cover behind various dumpsters and corners where she and D4 were wide in the open.
"You don't mess with Black Sun and get away with it. Destroy them!" shouted the man as he ducked behind a dumpster.
D4 opened fire faster than the man could move. His first burst annihilated the leader, but the Black Sun thugs had their orders already and they countered with a hail of blaster bolts. D4's personnel shield glowed red from the amount of energy that was being poured into it, but even though it wavered for a second, it held.
Leia clung to the droid as she felt D4 run forward. The half-droideka tore forward into the alleyway firing with precision that was impossible for any living being. The battle droid cut down three more thugs as he ran around a corner.
Ordinary gang members and thugs would have failed against the droid. They wouldn't have had the weaponry to stop a droideka. But Black Sun was wealthier than many planetary governments. They provided whatever weapons their agents needed. Ion bolts replaced blaster fire as the Black Sun men realized that blasters were ineffective.
D4 made it just far enough. He opened fire on a doorway and it exploded inwards. He leapt through it, and dumped Leia to a side. Turning, the droid unleashed another volley of blaster fire. It bought Leia some time to stumble away from her droid and look for some cover. She heard clinking and turned to see two ion grenades explode. Anger tore through her exhaustion as she saw electro-static energy course over D4's system. The droid stumbled and then went down. It fired off a few more haphazard blasts.
"Blue screening... blue screening… system failing…reinitiate… reinitiate…"
For the first time in her life, Leia felt fear. She reached for the Dark Side with her anger, but she was weakened. The Dark Side didn't respond to a call, or a plea. One had to demand the Dark Side serve. It had to be seized not cajoled. In her weakened state, Leia couldn't tap her full or even close to her full potential. She only had one weapon, and she knew she now had no choice. Defeat and death were close at hand, and exposure didn't matter now. She drew her light saber and waited in the darkness of the warehouse that D4 had thrust her into. Force users were not invincible, she knew. But if she were going to fall, she would take as many of these scumbags with her as she could.
As the first man leapt through the door, she tried to bring forth Force lightening. She failed… she was too tired. He fired at her, and she ignited her blade. Haphazardly, she deflected the bolt into the wall. She attempted to advance, but his companions joined the fray and seconds later multiple blaster bolts were streaming at her. She blocked and dodged the first blast. She knew that there was no way she could keep this up for more than a minute. With her remaining strength, she Force leapt out of the open and landed behind a large pile of some sort of components.
Trapped like a rat, she sighed to herself. So this is it…
Her eyes threatened to shut from exhaustion despite her situation. Again, she reached for the Dark Side and she found that she could not demand from it what she needed to. There has to be a way. And there was. As she felt herself slipping, she opened herself to the Force. She allowed the Force to flow into her. She submitted to it instead of demanding it to serve. Soothing energy filled her and she felt herself relax. It was bliss, different from when she held the Dark Side, but no less exhilarating. She clutched her saber, and breathed out deeply. She was still weak, but at least she had some hope.
She leapt out from behind her hiding place and charged. Blaster bolts headed her way and with a cry she deflected them back at the men who had fired them. She watched in glee as one of the men went down. She closed with the other and with a single smooth motion, she split the man in half. Sensing danger from behind, she turned and deflected several other shots, but to her dismay she saw that more than a dozen sentients had entered the warehouse. Worse, there were more men coming in.
Despair clutched at her. She couldn't fight that many, and she could feel the Force slowly seeping out of her from her last ditch attempt. Gripping her blade tightly, she prepared to go down fighting.
Leia's eyes widened as a knife suddenly protruded from one of her attackers throats from behind and as a flurry of blaster fire took down a few of other of the men in front of her. Gray shapes flowing in swift precise moves divided her attackers. NOGHRI! The realization coursed through her. What the heck were Noghri doing here? More blaster fire appeared from behind as what appeared to be mercenaries dashed through the door. She heard the boom of several explosions from outside. She watched in relief and dismay as the Noghri danced between the men who had her pinned down and cut them down as easily as Kaz had once cut down her enemies on Kuat.
Taking a deep breath, Leia attacked as well. She deflected several incoming bolts and she sliced the Black Sun scum that was firing at her in half. She took down one more man, and then realized that the fighting had stopped. Dozens of corpses lay all around her and she counted out three Noghri moving through the carnage towards here.
"Lady Vader," bowed one of the grey skinned aliens. "I am Rukr, this is Grishnakh and Erzakh."
"Thank you for your aid. My Father sent you?" asked Leia exhaustedly.
"Indeed he did," came a familiar female voice. Nura Tamri dressed in expensive Alderaanian robes stepped through the doorway. "Are you alright?"
"Not particularly," laughed Leia as she released the Force and collapsed to one knee panting. Leia noticed that she had grown her once short hair out. Leia could almost hate how beautiful her sister of her heart looked. Especially as she stood there in the entrance with a You owe me look on her face. "But at least I'm not dead."
"You better not be," said another familiar voice. A smile flitted across Leia's face as she saw Wrenga Jixton also walk through the door. For some reason she focused on his outfit. A pair of obviously expensive black leather boots, nice vest, and designer everything. She couldn't remember him ever being so fashionable. Then again, she couldn't ever remember being so happy to see him.
"Nice boots," she smirked as she took in his outfit. She was nearly delirious from exhaustion and her injuries.
Jixton frowned as he saw Leia's saber at her side, then sighed. He made a gesture to the Noghri and then walked towards his adopted cousin. He and Nura knelt and helped Leia to her feet. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah… I can…" The saber slipped from her hand in mid sentence as she collapsed. Ok maybe not.
"Come on, let's get you some Bacta treatment," said Jixton as he caught Leia as she began to sag to the floor. He tossed one of her arms around his neck and then picked her up gently.
"I think I better leave. Can you?" he asked hesitantly.
Nura nodded in understanding. "I can stomach it… but don't forget the droid."
"What would life be like without D4?" smirked Jix.
"Safer?"
The two spared a chuckle. Then Jixton, escorted by one of the Noghri's, slowly carried Leia out.
"Rukr," said Nura grimly. "We need to clean up here."
"Yes, Mistress," answered the Noghri. "It will be done."