Hey everyone! This is the first fan fiction that I have ever written, so please have mercy on me! Hopefully y'all like it! I do not own Star Wars, but the characters within this story are of my own creation. I have based this off prior knowledge of the Star Wars movies. However, I have not read into any of the legends or other backstories within the Star Wars universe. So please, sit back, grab a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy!
Chapter One: The Hologram
A large commotion and shouting.
That's what Lev woke up to that morning.
Although it was not uncommon to have shouting outside of his chambers, it had been ten days since the last time it had occurred.
Thoughts started to travel through his mind as to what could possibly be going on this early in the morning that required his immediate attention. Something must have happened while he was asleep, he quickly thought to himself.
He opened his eyes, making a deep exhale as he put his hands on his face to try and wipe the exhaustion away. His eyes drifted over to the clock next to his bed, 4:30 a.m. This was definitely going to be a long day, he could already tell.
Slowly, he got up with heavy feet and started for the door. As he reached it, he stood there for several moments, trying to wake himself up further before having to deal with the person at his entryway. Without looking at the control panel next to the door, he swiped his hand over the sensor which caused the heavy door to open with a loud rush.
"What is it this time?" Lev growled with an annoyed tone in his voice as he looked down at the messenger.
It was the same messenger which always came to his chamber door. A small teenage boy, no older than fourteen, who was trying his best to make a name for himself within the Third Dynasty. He was the son of a prominent Lieutenant Colonel, and had aspirations of becoming just like his father. Nonetheless, people always have to start at the bottom and work their way up if they wanted to succeed in life. So there was the young boy, finely dressed in his black and gray uniform with his silky dark brown hair slicked back, looking up at one of the most feared people in the galaxy.
"The Archduke wishes to speak to you, Count Soumrak. " The messenger said to Lev while a large lump started to fill his throat, trying not to make contact with the nearly naked-man who was in front of him.
Lev looked down to notice he had forgotten to put on his robe, and was wearing nothing but his underwear.
It was the first time he made this type of error.
Lev tried his best to hide his embarrassment as his cheeks and ears started to heat up.
Great.
He had a reputation that he needed to upheld, and he was caught in his undergarments. This was definitely going to spread around the destroyer like wildfire among the staff.
"Fine, tell him I will be there shortly. And I'm sorry for looking indecent in front of you."
The messenger nodded, turned on his heels, and began to walk away while Lev waved the door closed.
Why the Archduke insisted on sending a messenger to his door whenever something pressing happened was beyond Lev's immediate understanding.
Lev thought it would be much easier to send him a message over the communication system which was housed in his chambers. But of course, the Archduke was always more than willing to help those who wanted to succeed within the Third Dynasty.
With a grunt, Lev headed over to the refresher, where he looked into the mirror and saw the dark circles under his light blue eyes. By now, he expected the dark circles to be there each morning when he woke up. He hadn't gotten a decent nights sleep in over two years, and it was always showing on his face.
Too many things plagued his mind at night that he hoped would one day disappear.
He splashed some cold water over his mug to try and wake himself up before heading over to his drawers to select something to wear. It was his normal attire: black robes, with a tint of burgundy in the background of his cape, and black boots. His tunic fit tight around his body as his robes layed semi loosely against his figure.
Before heading out the door, he put on his signature mask to conceal his identity, straightened himself up, and proceeded to open the door.
He walked down the corridors of the ship with pride. Whenever he came into contact with fellow officers and troopers, they saluted him. Each time he was saluted, Lev felt a little more accomplished.
By now, Lev had been apart of the dark side for over fifteen years, and had developed a reputation within not only the Third Dynasty, but the galaxy as well.
Count Soumrak, the title he had been given once he became a member of the dark side.
Only a few people within his life knew his actual identity, and he tried his best to conceal it from public view on a daily basis. Wearing the mask gave him a feeling of security. A type of security that he did not have while he was growing up.
Before long, he made it into the Archduke's control room aboard the destroyer affectionately known as the Sovereignty.
Lev was immediately hit by the tenseness which surrounded his master.
Something terrible had happened while he was asleep.
The Archduke was sitting on the throne, in his normal attire which consisted of dark burgundy colored robes, with traces of amber which created elaborate designs up the sleeves and onto the hood which laid down on his back, completely exposing his face to his apprentice.
His master was more than happy to show his face to the world, and even in his older age, he still had a sense of charm about him which Lev could never fully comprehend.
In his youth, the Archduke had a reputation as a ladies man, a complete womanizer, or at least that was what the rumors had said. For decades he lived up to this title, until he finally found someone who seemed to fill the gap which was missing within his heart, and they had been with each other ever since. Just several years ago, they welcomed their first child into the world, a little girl. Now, at the ripe age of forty-nine, his nonchalant charm was still ever so present.
"It happened again."
"What happened again, my Master?" Lev stressed while walking closer to the throne before taking a knee on the ground.
"Last night, there were four troopers found on Couresaunt with identical wounds to the others who have been previously killed. This is starting to get out of hand. You need to find the person and or person's responsible. No more messing around Lev. You need to end this once and for all."
Annoyance filled the Archduke's tone while he began to grit his teeth together.
Over the last several months, he had started to become impatient with his apprentice when it came to the matter.
In this span of time, forty names were placed on the list of the deceased, all of which had identical wound patterns as the four troopers.
The search for the individual and or individuals had been going on for so long, that it was hard to keep track of all of the information. There were no damning results which pointed to a potential suspect and or suspects.
"I understand… But Master, my sources have been trying to find the person and or person's responsible for two years, and we still don't know who or what they are. There just is not enough evidence to find the person's involved," Lev emphasized with slight concern in his deep-muffled voice.
"Do you doubt the assignment that has been placed in front of you? If so, I could always assign a different individual to take up the task. Perhaps someone within the intelligence sector. Someone who is actually accredited for this type of job. Creator knows they could probably do better than you have at finding the person and or person's responsible" the Archduke snarled while his eyes pierced into the visor of Lev's mask.
Lev felt a bit uneasy and clasped his hands together behind his back to hold his composure while bowing his head before looking back up at his master.
"No, Master. Not at all. I'm sorry. I'll do my best to try and find the person and or person's responsible for these attacks."
Lev got up from the ground, and bowed, before he turned around on his heels to leave the gloomy control room.
"Wait, there is one thing which will hopefully aide you in your search, Count Soumrak"
Lev stopped in his tracks, turned around, went back to the Archduke and nodded.
"Yes, Master?"
"When the attack occurred last night, there was a security droid which recorded the entire incident. We were able to obtain a partial profile of the individual involved. I will send the information to your chambers for you to assess."
While he was speaking, the Archduke's annoyed tone changed to one which was much more pleasant in nature. Deep down, he knew that Lev would finally find the person responsible for the attacks.
"That is wonderful news, thank you Master," Lev stated before bowing and turning back around to head towards his chambers.
When Lev got back to his suite, he took off his helmet and set it down in its usual position, on a pedestal next to the doorway.
From there, he headed into the kitchen and grabbed some breakfast that had been prepared for him by some of his servants.
His breakfast was usually the same everyday and consisted of several pastries and a protein shake. Each of the pastries were filled with different jams which were beginning to ooze out of the flaky crusts.
Lev filled with a little bit of excitement as he loaded them onto his plate.
He hated to admit it, but he could most certainly eat better.
Although, none of it showed through the immense muscles that covered his body, so he was not entirely concerned about it. He would end up burning off those calories later in the day during his training sessions.
After putting the pastries onto his plate, he walked back to the living room, sat down on one of the couches, and placed the protein shake on a side table next to him.
One by one, he started to eat the decadent pastries.
A little while later, his faithful droid came into the room, making a ruckus like he always does. The droid spewed out several high beeps and squeals while rocking back and forth.
"Good morning to you too ZT-967," Lev said while chuckling a little.
ZT-967 was like a typical ZT unit, but Lev modified the little droid to his liking.
The small droid let out several more beeps before starting to play the security tape through a hologram and onto the floor in front of where Lev was sitting on the couch.
The hologram started with a young woman walking out of what looked like a pretty typical bar early in the morning. From what Lev could tell, it was definitely on Coruscant. As soon as she walked out of the bar, she was immediately followed by a group of four male troopers. Although the troopers were not in their armour, they still had their distinctive haircuts which made them stand out in any type of crowd they were in. She looked over her shoulder before speeding up a little bit while making a small fist with her right hand, obviously starting to become agitated by their presence. She continued to try and create distance between herself and the four troopers.
Lev continued to eat his breakfast, while occasionally taking a sip on some of his protein shake.
The men closed in on her, and began to grab her arms while she tried her best to break away from their grip. They began to speak some words between them, which unfortunately were not picked up by the droid. Nevertheless, she tried to resist the men and soon she was forced into an alleyway. The droid's camera started to zoom into the people, noticing that there was a fairly large dispute going on. In a matter of moments, one of the men tried to grab her shirt. In response, the girl which was dwarfed next to each of these men slowly moved closer to the one, in an attempt to look more intimidating, before spitting directly into his face. Right away, the ginger trooper slapped her right across the face before he tried to reach back down at her shirt. Immediately, the aura around them began to change.
Lev thought to himself, "There is absolutely no way in hell that this girl is the one causing all of the trouble-"
Before he could finish his thought, the young lady stopped the ginger trooper in his footsteps, his face beginning to contort in agnony. She moved closer to the trooper while looking up at him, a slight smile spreading across her lips. In her peripheral vision, she saw the other troopers turning around to try and escape the alleyway. The moment she noticed, each of the men's faces were a mixture of complete torment and horror as each of them fell to the ground.
Lev was able to notice that she did all of this without even moving a muscle, which left him in a slight awe. How was this even possible?
She started to move closer to the one who was giving her trouble from the very beginning and within the next second, he was laying on the ground next to his fellow troopers, completely motionless. Slowly, blood dripped out of their mouths, filling the alleyway with a small pool of glistening red. The girl started walking away from the alleyway, before looking back and somewhat admiring what she had just accomplished before she exited. The droid started to follow her, but she didn't take any notice. She continued to scurry along the street like a little womp rat, trying to look unrecognizable, and then disappeared within the crowd of people on the streets. Then the hologram ended.
Lev made a fist, suddenly filled with rage.
"A girl?! This was done by a little scrawny rat from the lower reaches of Coruscant?! All these years, these killings have been done by a measly little girl?!"
Filled with anger, he turned away from the hologram while making a fist. He could hear a vase on the other side of the room crack and then explode into what seemed to be a million pieces in every direction while his aggression heightened.
For the last two years, Lev had been trying to figure out who was doing this to the troopers, officers, and other high-ranking officials within the Third Dynasty.
It had been his mission to track down the person and or person's who were responsible, and all of this time, it had been a girl.
Not just any girl, but a girl from the filthy planet of Coruscant.
How did he never see it before?
If she possessed the force, how come he never sensed her presence at all?
There were so many questions which needed to be answered.
All of the thoughts racing through his conscious started to give Lev a headache, causing him to rub his temples.
The little droid let out several beeps of encouragement as he compiled all of the footage together, creating a composite sketch of the young woman, and projected it onto the ground.
Lev refused to turn around, which in turn caused the dark colored droid to let out a high pitched screech at him.
"What?!" Lev barked as he turned around.
He was stopped right in his tracks as he looked down at the face of the girl. However, she was not just a girl, but a woman.
From what he could tell, she could have not been more than twenty-one years old and was considerably shorter than himself.
She had dark brown hair, mixed with streaks of auburn. Her hair was woven into several braids on the side of her head, which then fell into one large braid that cascaded down the middle of her back.
She wore a typical outfit for a lower-dwellor of Coruscant which consisted of some dark colored pants, a white shirt, and a chocolate colored jacket which had traces of dark green in it.
What struck him the most was the color of her eyes: purple.
A bright lavender.
He had only seen a human with purple eyes a few times in his life, and the breath was nearly knocked out of him.
He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts that were seeping into his mind.
He had no idea why he was having this type of reaction towards the girl.
The little droid stopped the hologram and looked up at Lev, making a few beeps.
Lev nodded, "Go to the ship and start preparing for departure. We leave in an hour."
And with that, the droid buzzed off into the distance, making blissful little chirping noises of excitement.
Lev headed back into the bathroom, got undressed, and hopped into the refresher.
After several minutes, he got out, dried himself off, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
He headed over to the mirror, and started to wipe off some of the condensation. He looked at his hair and rubbed his face, feeling the stubble beneath his fingers. He decided to skip shaving for the day.
From there he put on the same clothes that he was wearing earlier, and did not bother with doing his hair, since he knew his helmet would end up ruining it anyway.
He stepped out of the bathroom to see one of his servant's, Samtri, who was currently cleaning up the mess Lev had made a few minutes prior.
"I wish you safe travels, Count Soumrak," stated Samtri with a wholesome smile, while brushing the pieces of broken pottery into the dustbin. "Would you like me to send some clothing and supplies to your ship?"
Lev shook his head, "There is no need for that Samtri. I will not be gone for long." And with that, Samtri nodded and went back to his cleaning.
Before leaving his chambers, Lev did a once over, making sure that he had the essentials that he would need on the mission.
Prior to leaving the room, he placed the helmet back on and looked in the mirror off to the side.
Once he made sure that everything was in order, he started to head towards his ship.
"This will definitely be interesting…" he thought to himself as he sat down in the pilot's seat while pressing several buttons on the control panel, and then finally pressing the ignition, causing the ship to roar to life.
Yay! You finished the first chapter! Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it! Thanks :)