Mark the Trails of Moths Chapter Six
Main Theme- Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie
The princess drives madly on the moon's dusty surface. She hails the crew of the downed ship as she weaves the vehicle away from the insects' lasers. She keeps hailing, more concerned about them than herself or the life of her beastly guard. Finally, the crew regains consciousness and returns fire upon their inhuman foes, destroying most of them in a shower of sparks.
"What is this?" Tohm asks as he tears his good eye from the viewscreen to look at Hux. Eos keeps both his eyes on the screen.
"Star Fleet. It's the only show I could think that was kid-friendly but wouldn't put him to sleep." Hux replies as he opens the doors to a rust-colored closet. There are suits of armor that look like they belonged in a dark fantasy holo. Hux kneels and pulls out a medium-sized box from the closet's floor.
"What's in the box?"
"Armor from when I was about his age." He pushes the plasticine lid back and shows a pile of bizarrely-shaped armor pieces including a helmet with a clear visor that reminds him of a glitterfly's wings.
"You weren't kidding. What kind of armor is it? It's not Mandalorian battle armor."
"No, it's not." He gives a small chuckle. "This is chitin. Some insect race made this armor ages ago, but they died out. However, this armor is resistant to all forms of energy, including blasterfire. Which makes it perfect for a child learning the ropes of war."
"The helmet looks like a target."
"It's like the armor and it enhances the wearer's vision. Again, perfect for a child who hasn't developed accuracy."
"Are you expecting him to fire a blaster? To fight?" Tohm asks incredulously.
"He might have to."
"He's a child."
"So was I." Hux taps on the armor's breastplate. He pushes the pieces aside and pulls out a black bodysuit.
"Eos." Hux simply says, and the new child leaves behind his show of living dolls. He still wears the blanket he stole and holds the bloodied fabric in his right fist. Tohm now notices that the fabric is wrapped around the Stormtroopers' plaques like a grim little bow.
"It might be a little long on you, but it should fit and it'll be better than the musty blanket." Hux holds out the bodysuit made for a child soldier. Eos plucks it from the outstretched hand and then speeds out of the room like a tumble bunny.
"Do you have child-sized weapons for him too?" Tohm lets a bit of sarcasm out, but Hux takes him seriously.
"I've got daggers, throwing knives, and a micro blaster that he should be able to use. Once he's trained."
"He was just a toddler an hour ago! He can't be taught how to use all of these weapons in such a short amount of time!" It will take a standard week for the ship to get to Coruscant. The same can be said for Gentis's fleet. There are no well-tread trade routes like the Corellian Run.
"Does Gentis have a full fleet?" Hux asks as though he read his mind, but Tohm is fairly certain that the good half of his face is incapable of hiding emotion.
"He's down one ship." Unless the Warlock can use his magic to hold it together. I doubt that.
"Hmm. It wouldn't be easy for Gentis to move his entire fleet all the way to Coruscant. It would raises suspicions amongst the other fleets, especially with the Grand Admirals."
"The Grand Admirals are on Coruscant." Tohm remembers seeing that when writing up his morning report for Gentis.
"That's another reason he wouldn't show up to Coruscant in full force. He'd probably only bring a couple of ships, make it look like he's there delivering something important but secretive. Like a recently confiscated bioweapon."
"A bioweapon? Why that?"
"Let's say he has something like the Blue Shadow Virus. It leaks onto Coruscant. Such a leak would eliminate the Grand Admirals, the Emperor, and the Senate; both his military and political threats would be gone, and no one on Coruscant would be able to question his authority since most would be dead. Though that depends on the range of the bioweapon. It would at least wipe out all those on the surface." Hux rubs his chin thoughtfully.
"Pfassk!" I'm an idiot! He probably had the scientists cook him up a bioweapon for some highly-classified Imperial research!
"Then, he'd have Tarkin and the Moffs to deal with, but he might luck out and Tarkin could be on Coruscant. Besides, the Moffs are ineffectual as a fighting force without Tarkin there to whip them. The Moffs without Tarkin would be directionless and turn into warlords, and then Gentis would have a justifiable reason to get rid of them." Hux huffs dismissively.
"And there's no way this ship could hail the other fleets?"
"Even if that was possible, do you think they would take the hail of a teacher from an academy and a lieutenant?"
"No, they wouldn't." Eos reappears in the black bodysuit; the plaques are still in his right fist. "Unless you have Vader's codes and Vader himself, they will not give you the time of day."
"Well, looks like infiltration is the only thing we can do. Let's hope we pick the right route." Hux says and turns to the task of getting the armor on Eos.
"I'll make sure of that." Eos promises.
Vader makes his way through the halls filled with headless corpses of Stormtroopers and the plasticine shrapnel of their exploded helmets. Very few of Gentis's officers are part of the kill count if only due to their proximity of the minor explosions; many of them sport the visor glass that lacerated their brains. He does not find the child nor the troopers he assigned to guard him. Yet, he feels that the child is off the ship, be it through an escape pod or in the clutches of Gentis. He knows that they shall meet again.
He passes through the carnage and finds a nearly pristine Docking Control Room. He looks out the window and sees the hangar nearly empty. The hulking AT-ATs remain, but there are no TIEs or shuttles to be had. He checks through the ship log for anything and comes across one going under repairs: a Sentinel landing craft with a malfunctioning navicomputer.
It would have to do until he could acquire a speedier craft.
And he didn't need the computer, the Force will guide him to Gentis.
Author's Comments- Here is the link:
Here is an image of chitin armor and I'm not sure if it exists in New Canon, but it's listed in Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Weapons & Technology: a href=" . /starwars/images/4/43/Chitinarmor_ /revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20060808183630"Link/a
Star Fleet is the English version of X-Bomber, and it's brought me so much joy. It's a show about the crew of the X-Bomber having to fight the Imperial Alliance led by the Imperial Master, but he sub-contracts his evil-doing through Commander Makara who verbally abuses her henchman. There's also a princess named Lamia who is the key to F-01, some kind of superweapon that will save Earth or help the Imperial Alliance conquer the universe, and she has a bodyguard that looks like a Yeti named Kirara. At some point, X-Bomber has a mecha. The show itself borrows a lot of elements from Star Wars and Star Trek, while using the same marionette animatronics as Thunderbirds. It's also by Go Nagai who created Devilman and a bunch of other anime/manga; so far, it feels like his most conventional anime just done in an unconventional medium. It's streaming on Amazon Prime.
Anyways, next chapter should be getting back to Armitage and Palpatine, a little break before some action.