"Our great and magnanimous Emperor (may he live forever) has freed us - deplorable and undeserving wretches that we are - from the unforgiving yoke of Jedi tyranny. May we all strive daily to imitate his stalwart nobility, honor, and wisdom, and to always be mindful of his love and sacrifice for us, lest we abuse his gifts of freedom and happiness, which he alone has given us. Let us thank him by working hard for the Empire. Indeed, we ought all to say with ardent fervor: 'I will work harder!' Make this your motto, and you will succeed in all you do, and you will make the Emperor proud."
-Pollux Hax, in a speech to students at a graduation ceremony
The Tale of Sheev Palpatine, or the Emperor's Tale
ORDER 67 Part IV
The room was finished. One of the technicians went up to the Emperor, who stood in the center of the room admiring the work. The others were packing up their tool sets or sitting and drinking water out of disposable plastic cups.
"Everything's up and running. We'll be loading up our things and leaving in a minute," the technician said.
"You did a marvelous job," the Emperor said, glancing from wall to ceiling to wall.
"We try, your Excellency."
"Hush. Take pride in your work."
"Yes, your Excellency."
"And I've already transferred the eighty thousand credits to your account, per our agreement."
"Thank you, your Excellency."
The Emperor moved to one of the blue glass walls and put a pale bony hand on it. The wall softly hummed under his hand and felt warm. Behind the blue glass was a mess of tangled wires and layers of plastic green circuit cards and giant roaring pieces of hardware. But that was all hidden and soundproofed, and from this side of the wall there was just the blue glass, four walls and a ceiling of it. The glass glowed, and it was like being inside an aquarium, or like being surrounded by stained glass windows lit on all sides by the sun. The only thing that gave the allusion away was the door. It was open, and outside were the regal halls of the Imperial Annex Building along with all their various stone colors and textures.
"And you said it was voice activated?" the Emperor said, and he glanced back at the technician.
The technician nodded. "It'll only respond to your voice too."
"How do I turn it on?"
"Say on."
"On."
Suddenly the walls flared bright like blue lightning and the room made a brief deep whine. The walls began to recede into a blue watery distance, it seemed, and shrank away to blackness, and now a forest appeared, in three dimensions and in colors produced to the final pebble and vein in the tree bark. The ceiling above them became a deep night sky dappled in countless tiny stars, and in the far, far distance was the flickering tangerine of a small fire, and shadowy figures stooped around it quietly.
"This must be Kashyyyk," the Emperor mused, observing the trees with the width and height of the modern skyscraper. "And those creatures over there must be Wookies." He referred to the shadows surrounding the fire.
"Kashyyyk is the default setting," said the technician.
"Amusing."
"Wait a moment."
The hidden sensory machinery was beginning to blow a soft cool breeze at them, and it carried in it the odors of the forest. There was the fresh rain smell of a hidden lake, the damp earth smell and cool leafy smell of the ground, the gray musky smell of the wood of the trees, and the faint mulch smell of animals. And now the sounds: the chirping of crickets and chattering of frogs, the rustling of leaves, the scurrying of a small rodent somewhere in the grass.
"Why don't the Wookies see us?" the Emperor observed.
"You mean our camera droid? All our camera droids are cloaked."
"And this is happening live on Kashyyyk, right now?"
"More or less. There's a thirty second delay in real time feedback. A lot of sensory data being transmitted a very, very long way. And the delay is longer or shorter depending on how far away the planet is."
"How do I change the planet I'm seeing?"
"Say the name of the planet you want to see."
"Mustafar," the Emperor said, and suddenly the forest shrank away and they were standing amid black brittle earth and red molten rivers and green toxic fumes. The Emperor felt himself sweating. "Tatooine," he said, and they were surrounded by sweeping yellow dunes, and above was an endless blue sky hot like fire, and two suns hung directly overhead so that their shadows were just small dark pools around their feet. Nearby was the dry cracking skeleton of some great beast.
"You have access to two hundred and thirty three worlds. We'll be building and shipping more camera droids at the end of the year, and of course all updates are free of charge."
"Did you synchronize the room to my personal camera droid?"
"We did. It was tricky, but we did it."
"How do I activate it?"
"Say your name."
The Emperor gave a final glance at the Tatooine desert. There was the faint sound of sand people shouting in the far distance, and then the shouts faded. Not even the wind was stirring. "Palpatine," the Emperor said dryly.
The desert shrank away to a tiny blue and yellow dot and then everything was black. Then the blackness revived to colored life, and they were standing in the middle of a prison.
"By the stars," a man muttered.
The prison was huge, as large as a hundred coliseums, and on the walls were countless prison cells. The entire place was made completely of metal, and everywhere above them clones in white and red armor stood on hovering metal platforms.
"What is this place?" another man said.
The sensory machinery kicked in, and they smelled antiseptic sanitation chemicals and that sharp oily smell that metal has. The prison was pin drop quiet.
"How long is the feedback delay if this footage is being captured here on Coruscant?
the Emperor asked.
"Instant. It would have to be virtually instant," the chief technician answered, staring wide-eyed at the metal coffin they now found themselves in. "I've never seen anything as big as this," he added weakly.
"Only select personnel know about this place. Now stay, would you? If you do, you'll watch history in the making."
"What do you mean?" a man said.
"Stay, and you'll see."
The men all stayed, gazing at every inch of the photo real prison. The Emperor noticed the door to the room was still open, and he could still see the tiled floor and stone columns outside. It was like a rectangular portal standing there in the middle of the prison, and it ruined the immersion of the room.
"If you decide to stay, one of you close that door, would you?"
A man quietly shut the door.
'
Warden Fox ran down the list of names on his electric tablet. J-286: terminated. J-287: terminated. J-288: incarcerated. J-289: terminated. He stood on a hovering platform within the walls of the Iron Crater, and with him on the same platform stood Commander Cody, commander of the 501st Legion and second in command to Darth Vader. Fox busily read through his list, and Cody watched as Imperial Police were bringing prisoners in by the dozens. They were all Jedi, freshly captured from the Siege of Budestia, and they were the last Jedi to be captured by the Empire. The Jedi Purge was over. Every Jedi had been killed or was in the Iron Crater wearing striped pajamas.
"It's over. I can't believe it's over," Cody said.
"Don't, because it's not," Fox said.
"What do you mean? All the Jedi are dead or captured. We can finally have peace now. For the first time in ten years, we can finally have peace, and I survived a whole war to see it."
"There are a few outliers."
"What. Are you saying we missed some?"
"Officially, no."
"Unofficially?"
They watched a Jedi screaming and bucking and flailing her legs as clones threw her into a cell.
"If there are any left, we'll find them. It's inevitable," Cody said.
Fox nodded.
More and more Jedi were being placed in cells. A clone on a hovering platform approached the two clone commanders. He saluted.
"Warden," he said. He turned to Cody and maintained his pose. "Commander."
"Go ahead," Fox said.
The clone dropped his hand, but he kept his rigid, perfectly straight posture, like a good clone. "We are at maximum capacity, sir. What do we do with the rest of the Jedi?"
"Put them on the ground floor."
"Without a cell?"
"They won't go anywhere. Just make sure they stay cuffed."
"Yes sir."
The clone made one last salute and drifted off on his platform. Cody crossed his arms and observed the clones at work.
"I've got to hand it to you. This place is really something."
"It serves its purpose."
Cody thought for a moment.
"Do you ever think about how we're the only ones left?" he said.
"What do you mean?" said Fox, half attentively. He was reading through his list again.
"Rex, Gree, Wolfe, they're all gone. Bly's gone to the Immortals and is basically gone too. It's just us now."
Fox lowered his tablet. What Cody said was true. Every major clone commander who had served in the Clone Wars was gone. It was just Cody, objectively the greatest warrior to have ever served in the Clone Army, and Fox, the Red Death. The rest of the military was a Kaminoan ocean of nameless clones, even to Fox. A primordial sea of white helmets. He couldn't name a single man under his command. He pondered hard, but "The galaxy has changed" was all he said.
Meanwhile clones began transporting Jedi to the ground floor of the prison. It was wide and open like a great plain, and the entire floor was perfectly flat and bare durasteel. Around the two hundred Jedi were standing on the ground floor. Soon the clone from earlier returned.
"That's all the Jedi," the clone said.
"Then our work is done. As you were."
The prison was at overcapacity. Every cell contained an enemy of the Empire. There were Jedi, but also Separatists, Republic senators, university professors, bounty hunters, rebel guerillas, even citizens. Anyone who posed a threat to the Empire or had even spoke out against it was here. Some had only been suspected of harboring anti-Imperial sentiments, but that was enough. Some were simply arrested on the basis of having a university education, particularly in the liberal arts. Thus the Iron Crater was a big facility for a very big population.
Fox ran his fingers over one of the pistols holstered at his sides. "Did you hear about the vote in the Senate?" he said.
"That they're outing us?"
"Yeah."
"It's stupid. The Empire will be weak."
"That's what happens when you get a bunch of politicians who know nothing about military deciding on military."
"The senators are fools."
"So what do you think'll happen to us?"
"I don't know."
"Kill us?"
"Doubt it. Who's going to do it?"
"Our replacements."
"Good luck with that."
Fox chuckled at this, nodding in agreement. "Still," he said, "I don't understand why none of the other clones seem to care."
Cody lowered his head and spoke softly. "Have you noticed how the newer clones are different? They're different from our generation and I think the Kaminoans might have changed something in the cloning process."
"Yeah, I've noticed. They're more quiet. More robotic."
"Less human," Cody murmured.
Suddenly the men heard a long raspy bellow. Everyone in the prison heard it, and it echoed, and everyone was hushed, and the prisoners all looked out from their cells, especially the Jedi. The bellow came again, and it was like the sound of a violent blizzard muffled from behind a glass window. And the bellow faded, and it was followed by a bullwhip crack. The bellow returned, and then there was the pop. First the bellow, and pop. First the bellow. And pop.
Darth Vader, standing on a hovering platform. He was here at the Iron Crater, and he was not alone. Four Starkillers, the four who had survived the Siege of Budestia, accompanied him.
"It must be time," Fox said.
"Time for what?" Cody asked.
It was then that they heard a short electronic beeping. It was Fox's holoprojector. He raised it and turned it on, and there above the flat metal disk was the blue hologram of the Emperor in his shadowy cloak.
"My lord," Fox said.
"I see that all the Jedi have been locked away and that Vader has arrived."
"Yes sir."
"Then the time has come, hasn't it."
"I suppose it has. Awaiting your command."
"You know what to do."
Fox nodded. "Executing Order Sixty Seven."
The hologram dissipated, and Fox put away the holoprojector.
"Order Sixty Seven?" Cody wondered aloud.
Fox didn't acknowledge him. He waved and signaled to some clones. They moved each towards a prison cell.
"What's Order Sixty Seven?" Cody repeated.
"It's the end, Cody. This is the end of the Clone Wars. This is the end of our service to the Republic and to the Empire. It's the end of everything."
The clones were square in front of the prison cells now. They raised their guns. More and more clones begin lining up in front of prison cells. The prison was deafly quiet, and the air was tense.
"Ready!" shouted Fox. His voice bellowed deep like a rancor.
The clones all readied their rifles, and there were electric sounds from every rifle being set off safety. The Jedi on the prison floor watched up in helpless horror and anticipation, for there was nothing else they could do but watch. No clone was aiming his rifle at them.
"Aim!"
Darth Vader and the Starkillers were moving to the ground floor. Over a hundred Jedi stood and watched them near. They realized what was going to happen.
"Fire!"
And that was the end.
The Iron Crater erupted into a thundering barrage of blaster fire. It sounded like an electric rain pounding sheets of metal, and it was ceaseless. Now every clone was moving from prison cell to prison cell, and they fired at whoever was inside, and they fired multiple times, and then they moved along to the next.
Meanwhile Darth Vader and his Starkillers were on the ground floor. They activated their lightsabers, and there was an almost harmonious snap and hiss between them, and the five blades hummed and glared ominous red. They advanced towards the Jedi slowly like grim specters, and they slaughtered the Jedi where they stood on the prison floor.
Fox and Cody stood and watched, and Fox pressed a button on his bracer. A vacant hovering platform moved towards them, and Fox leapt to it and then used it to lower himself to the ground floor. He hopped off and joined Darth Vader and the Starkillers and slaughtered the Jedi with his dual TX-13s.
A desperate Jedi was somehow scaling the wall away from the carnage. Fox saw, and before he could react the Jedi was shot down. He fell screaming and hit the metal hard and died. Fox looked up and saw Cody looking down the sights of his rifle, and the barrel's end glowed blue and smoke faintly wafted up from it. Fox turned and kept shooting.
Soon everyone was dead. Every Jedi, Separatist, and potential rebel lay lifeless in the cells and on the great metal floor of the Iron Crater, and the place had hushed into a graveyard silence. The Empire had no more enemies. For the first time since the days of the Phantom Menace, the galaxy was at peace.
Fox hopped onto a hover platform and rejoined Cody. All the clones were leaving the prison, for there was nothing left to guard. Fox and Cody were leaving also when they suddenly heard more screaming.
The two men looked down and saw that Vader was killing the four Starkillers. The Starkillers were trying to defend themselves but were butchered one by one and they didn't stand a chance.
"Why is he killing them?" Cody asked.
Fox shrugged. "Outlived their usefulness, I guess."
Cody watched silently and said nothing more. They left the prison and entered an enemy free world.
'
The prison faded away, shrank into blackness. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, all of it hummed and became glowing blue glass again. Ant there stood the Emperor and the technicians he had hired. None of them said a thing.
"Today is the beginning of a new age, gentlemen. The terror of the Jedi is over at last. More than that. In a single stroke I have stuck down every enemy of the Empire to last child. You have all witnessed history," the Emperor said, and he smiled, and it was an evil smile. He dragged out his words, relished each one. "And now we have Peace." That final word settled on the men like dead falling leaves before a bleak long winter almost here.
"You killed them," muttered a man.
The Emperor's smile faded. "Yes," he said dryly. His face darkened. His eyes shone a venomous snake gold.
He went for the door and with a sway of his hand it opened. "Wait here," he ordered them. The men didn't budge, just sulked in a dismal ghostly quiet trying to make sense of what they had seen. The Emperor walked out and closed the door behind him. He was back in the hallways of the Imperial Annex Building. There were two Immortals guarding the door to either side. The Emperor turned to face them.
"Kill the men inside, and I want the room dismantled. No evidence," the Emperor said.
The guards nodded and vanished into the room of blue glass. There was screaming.
Meanwhile the Emperor roamed the desolate empty halls of etched stone and fine silk curtains and regal columns, and soon he was back in his office sitting at his desk. There was an electric tablet on his desk, and it was turned on and he saw he had received a message. He checked the message, and it was a list. The Emperor quietly skimmed through it. He stopped and grimaced.
In a moment he activated the holoprojector built into his desk, and it wasn't long before there above his desk was the blue hologram of Darth Vader, arms crossed and standing very still and erect.
"Did you receive Fox's list?" the Emperor said.
"Yes."
"I trust you've reviewed it."
"I have."
"You failed me, my apprentice."
"It is only twelve Jedi."
"And it only takes one to topple an Empire!" the Emperor spat. He calmed himself. "You will find and execute every Jedi on that list and bring me their lightsabers as proof. And you will do it alone. I will no longer give you military support, even from the Five Hundred and First Legion."
"Yes, my master."
The Emperor was reading through the list again. His face softened. "I'm sure you recognized many of the names on this list. Yoda doesn't surprise me. I personally found it interesting to read the name of the your old master. And I look forward to seeing his lightsaber on my desk especially."
"It will be done. I'll find every last one of them."
"You better."
The Emperor cut off the transmission. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. He stood and walked up to the panoramic window sweeping behind his desk. He gazed out at the silver skyscrapers of Coruscant. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the sky was pink and soft and blue, and the skyscrapers glinted with the first light of a golden day.