EPISODE II
Chapter 13: The Weapon
Several hours have passed since the vetoing of the HoloNet Security Act and the subsequent impeachment of Senator Bal Mophula over said bill. In a private chamber without security cameras inside the Galactic Alliance military base on Coruscant, Zolph Vaelor discussed what he learned from Arcidus with General Ven Choi, Luke Skywalker and Grein.
"So what is it you wish to tell us that you wouldn't want being leaked out to any spies?" General Choi asked Vaelor.
"The information I got comes from Arcidus, and not only would word of secret meetings with the Valkoran cause some public panic, it would lead to the Valkoran altering their plans since they would know that we know about their secret weapon." Zolph explained.
"Did he tell you anything about this secret weapon?"
"Nothing except that it exists. He and the rest of the Valkoran are just as much in the dark as we are and only Valkor knows about it. That's why it's a secret, he says."
Luke responded. "I've dealt with some superweapons before the Valkoran War, some of them less creative than others, but if there's anything they all have in common, they're usually built by a team of engineers, otherwise they'd take thousands of years to build. Surely, someone else in the Empire would know about it."
Zolph then looked to Grein. "Do you know anything about secret Valkoran weapons from a thousand or so years back, Grei?"
"No." She answered with a slight bit of hesitation in her voice.
"I can sense your reluctance, Grein." Choi told her. "If you know anything, please tell us."
"The only thing I know Valkor was keeping secret was my sister's fate. I don't know if she has the potential to be a weapon or if she's still alive."
Zolph then came up with an idea. "If it's the conventional type of superweapon, I might want to talk with Machinus. He's the Valkoran's lead tech expert."
"If that's the case, I've got a lead." Choi responded. "My agents report that Valkoran are amounting for an attack on Christophsis in a few days, and many of the Valkoran leaders will be present there, including Machinus."
Luke then asked Zolph, "Anyone else you feel should know about this threat beforehand?"
"Just Hiriss and Besh Squad. We should prepare a defense force that includes a planetary ion cannon, but we tell no one else about a secret weapon until we see it."
"Very well. Commander Moraana and Besh Squad shall do some investigation in Valkoran space while we make preparations on Christophsis. Dismissed." Choi concluded the discussion and everyone left the chamber.
One week later, the Alliance had fully prepared their defense force in the capital city of Chaleydonia – or Crystal City as it's known to others - on the crystalline world of Christophsis, where several similar cities were built into and around the large turquoise crystal formations. Meanwhile, the Valkoran attack force had stationed itself in another nearby city.
On one of the roads suspended above the surface next to the Crystal City gate, General Choi briefed Zolph on what he needed to do.
"I've received a report from Moraana. That weapon we're up against is a warship using a weaponized version of the artificial gravity generators usually found on starships."
"Doesn't sound like a weapon of mass destruction." Zolph commented. "But I can give them points for originality."
"They could potentially use it to immobilize our infantry, vehicles and missiles. Not to mention structures falling victim to gravitational collapse."
"Oh right. Still, a weapon like that clearly would have had a team of engineers working on it, hence why I suggested talking with Machinus."
An Alliance trooper then alerted Choi over comlink. "General! The Valks are marching towards us! They've got a few transports, walkers and tanks coming our way!"
"Understood, Sergeant. Continue with the lookout." Choi ended the transmission before turning his attention back to Zolph. "I have a plan. You head into the Valkoran staging ground and find Machinus while the forward advance is preoccupied with my forces."
"Got it, and be ready if that weapon shows up." Zolph replied.
"Don't worry. Hiriss, Boltz and Spectre have performed a bit of sabotage on the weapon beforehand, so we shouldn't have much trouble. May the Force be with you, Vaelor."
Fifteen minutes later, the Valkoran forces made it to the city gates. The Tuk'ata-class fighter tanks moved in first as Alliance soldiers and T4-B battle tanks fired rockets at them. Meanwhile, the Spearhead transports unloaded their infantry – including Valkoran leaders Juganak and Armogeist -, who marched alongside the Gundark walkers and Rancor tanks for cover.
While the Alliance and Valkoran fought with each other, Zolph sped through the skirmish on a speeder bike and headed towards the smaller city of Agatanea.
Minutes later, Zolph had made it into the Valkoran staging area in Agatanea, where several Behemoth-class landing barges and Sigma-class shuttles were docked. There were very few Valkoran forces pointing their guns at him, as Maesterus was also waiting with his lightsaber ignited and wings spread out.
Zolph received a telepathic message from Maesterus. "Well, what are you waiting for? Attack!"
Zolph complied, got off his swoop bike and ignited his lightsaber, only for Maesterus to lift him up into the air with the Force and toss him towards the window of a nearby building's topmost floor before firing a few of his bone spikes along his path.
As Zolph crashed through the window and watched the spikes pierce into the ceiling of the room he landed in, he saw someone standing in front of him he hadn't seen for a few months: a pale-skinned Human-Twi'lek hybrid of Dathomiri origin with cybernetic lekku.
"Hi!" She said enthusiastically as she looked at him.
"That's quite a greeting to someone just thrown up into a twenty-story high window, Neur." Zolph said as he got up on his feet. "You're not angry at me for accidentally breaking your head-tails like your surrogate father is, are you?"
"Why would you think that? I never get angry."
"Except when they do break, you can be pretty terrifying."
Neur then gave a saddened look. "Really? Some of the other troops tell me that too. If so, I'm very sorry."
"Hey, it's not your fault. Machinus told me about your past and how Masochus keeps sabotaging them. Speaking of Machinus, is he here with you?"
"Well, duh! He's always with me when I leave home, and he's always making sure I have a babysitter when he goes out on his own. Of course he's here!"
"I need to talk with him."
"I figured as such." A mechanical voice echoed in the room and both Zolph and Neur looked to see Machinus at the top of a small stairwell. The mechanical former Nautolan spoke to Neur. "Neur, can you please give our guest some space?"
"Aw! But he just got here!"
"Yes, but through a window. He's not here to play with you."
Neur sighed with disappointment. "Okay."
"Anyway, I would assume you've come to ask me about something I've invented recently?" Machinus asked Zolph.
"Yeah, did you invent an artificial gravity controller, except not for the inside of a ship?"
"So you learned about that? Yes, I invented that."
"Ah, so you did invent a superweapon!"
"Superweapon?! Where did you get that idea?!"
"It could be used to immobilize our ground forces and aircraft and collapse structures."
"I invented that to aid our troops on planets with less favorable gravitational force. Besides, using at as a weapon would be foolhardy. I haven't even invented portable gravity control shields yet!"
Zolph then received a transmission from Grein on his comlink. "Zolph, an unfamiliar warship has entered Christophsis's atmosphere. If you're inside a building, you might want to look outside."
Zolph, Machinus and Neur rushed towards the window to see a new Valkoran warship design – about the size of a Fury-class corvette and equipped with a large wheel-like device – in the sky lower itself towards the planet's surface.
"What's the gravity controller doing here?!" Machinus exclaimed. "I haven't even finished it yet!"
The wheel – the gravity controller itself – started spinning, causing all troops and vehicles within a miles-wide radius to collapse on the ground and any nearby aircraft to violently plummet to the ground – both Alliance and Valkoran – while it bombarded them with turbolaser fire. Even rockets fired from shoulder-mounted launchers didn't fly very far before hitting the ground and killing their senders.
Zolph, Machinus and Neur were also affected by the device, pulling them down to the floor while the building they were inside slowly collapsed around them.
"Cid?! Why am I feeling heavy?!" Neur panicked to Machinus.
"It's that ship with the spinning thing outside, Neur, and you're not the only one feeling it." Machinus told her. "Try not to struggle unless you want to get ripped apart by your own mass. Still, what the hell was Valkor thinking sending an incomplete invention here?!"
"Perhaps he got really bitter and decided to unleash his secret weapon."
"Oh, this is about that? Someone told you about that and how even the rest of the Empire's in the dark about it? I hate to break it to you, but the gravity controller's development has been public knowledge for months now. Whatever this secret weapon Valkor spoke of is, it's not the gravity controller. He's keeping it a secret even from me."
"Then that means he sent this weapon as a decoy."
Meanwhile outside, something unexpected happened. The gravity-controller ship started falling apart and compressing in on itself before the device stopped functioning. The ship then crashed onto the ground and gravity turned back to normal.
"Is it over?" Neur asked.
"Yes." Machinus answered her.
"Thata girl, Hiriss." Zolph said to himself.
"Vaelor, can you explain what happened to my ship? I remember completing its personal gravity shield." Machinus asked with a tone of puzzlement as he got back up on his clawed feet.
"Another Jedi and an elite squad of troopers sabotaged it before it got here. And would you consider this the least climactic disposal of a superweapon in galactic history?" Zolph asked as he got back up.
"Probably, but there may be less climactic examples out there. For future reference, I will not reinvent this thing, and I think artificial gravity technology should only be used for the interiors of starships and space stations." Machinus then clinched one of his mechanical fists in anger. "Still, what does Valkor seek to gain out of sacrificing some of my engineers?"
Zolph objected. "But we're the ones who-!"
"We're still at war, Vaelor. You thought it was the secret weapon and you took necessary actions to counteract it, so I can't blame you even if you were mistaken."
Machinus's internal comlink then activated, receiving a message from Maesterus.
"Mach, Valkor's shuttle is here."
"Damn!" Machinus yelled before turning his attention to Zolph. "Vaelor, you and the Alliance have to get off this planet! Now!"
"Why?"
Neur, with an apparent look of terror on her face, warned Zolph. "That monster's coming!"
"What monster?"
Machinus answered him. "Emperor Valkor."
Zolph then began to sense a Forceless presence approaching, one much more intense than any of the Archfiends he's fought. "Oh scrag. But if he's here like you say, this might finally be our chance to eliminate him."
"Don't be a fool, Vaelor! He's not like any of the Archfiends you killed before! He'll make a meal out of you! Literally!"
Zolph headed towards the turbolift. "I might not get another chance for a while." Zolph told him before entering the turbolift and taking it to the bottom floor.
"Siiiiiigh." Machinus said with annoyance - since he no longer had lungs to make an actual sigh - before activating his internal comlink again to alert Maesterus. "Sef. Your descendant's being an idiot again. He's planning to engage Valkor."
"Understood. Maesterus out." The transmission ended.
"Cid, I'm scared." Neur told Machinus with a tone of worry.
"It's okay, Neur. I'm scared too." He then hugged her in attempt to comfort her, even if he was no longer flesh and blood. "If Valkor's come all the way here from Ockla Prime, then something terrible is probably going to happen. The last time he left the capital was Alpheridies."
Once Zolph exited the building, he noticed a previously-unseen model of shuttle touching down on the surface – a lot more sinister-looking than the Sigma-class shuttles he was used to seeing. As he approached the shuttle as it landed, the battle between the Alliance and the Valkoran briefly ceased before they started firing at each other again.
A group of soldiers led by General Choi caught up to Zolph.
"Well, it looks like our secret superweapon has been disabled, but what is with that shuttle?" Choi asked Zolph.
"Bad news, General: the gravity controller was not the superweapon our contact told me about. And I have a bad feeling that something worse is coming our way, as that shuttle belongs to their Emperor."
"I sense it too, Vaelor. We must be cautious."
The shuttle's boarding ramp opened up and descending from the ramp were four strange-looking guards dressed in black robes and armor. Judging by their body proportions and the design of their masks, Zolph concluded they weren't human or near-human.
Followed by the guards was another black-cloaked figure with a cumbersome mask.
"We meet at last, Vaelor." The figure greeted Zolph.
"Judging by the unique shuttle design and the really weird bodyguards, I take it you're Valkor?" Zolph asked him.
"Yes."
Zolph scoffed. "Looks like the Emperor got off his throne again and decided to do his own dirty work once more."
"Sometimes, I just feel like exploring the greater universe."
Zolph then ignited his lightsaber, prompting the nearby Valkoran forces to point their guns towards him and Valkor's bodyguards to unsheath their swords in their Emperor's defense.
"Hold fire, my subjects." Valkor commanded them. "If he wants to challenge me, then by all means, let him do so." Valkor then revealed both of his clawed hands from under his cloak.
"I've been dying to meet you ever since I heard your name." Zolph told him. "And now that I've killed most of your Archfiends, you're the only thing left standing between me and the end of this war."
Valkor chuckled. "Quite an arrogant assumption, but I can sense fear and anger in your words. And are you sure killing me will end this war in your favor? I could become a martyr for my people, and your efforts will have been for nothing. But let's not waste time. Go ahead and make the first strike. I believe there are some people you wish to avenge that I can't seem to remember the names of…"
Zolph then lunged at him in anger just to have his blade blocked by one of Valkor's open claws.
"What?!" Zolph shouted.
"I'm sorry. Were you expecting me to use a lightsaber or similar weapon? Besides, you just fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book." Valkor then quickly stabbed Zolph in the stomach with his other claw before pulling it back out.
Valkor tried to slash at Zolph repeatedly while he tried to block his blows. However, Zolph was weakening thanks to the stab wound Valkor gave him earlier, and after enough rapid slashes, Zolph got his lightsaber knocked out of his hand and Valkor punched into his chest under his ribcage, grabbed around his heart and lightly squeezed it, causing Zolph to scream in agonizing pain.
"What are you waiting for?! Kill me already!" Zolph screamed.
"I could do that… but it wouldn't be as satisfying." Valkor then let go of Zolph's heart and pulled his claw out of Zolph's torso. "The presence of your bloodline has been such a thorn in my side for years now that just killing you wouldn't cut it. Instead, I have something special in store for you."
Valkor's red eyes illuminated in the slits in his mask, and two thin trails of Black Matter crawled from the bottom of his feet towards Zolph. Once the trails stopped crawling, two tentacles covered in eyes wrapped themselves around Zolph's arms and hardened, shackling him in place. Not even Zolph's strength-enhanced prosthetic arm could break him free thanks to already being weakened from the initial fight.
"Enough, Forceless scum!" General Choi suddenly demanded as he unsheathed his vibrosword and the rest of the Alliance soldiers raised their arms. "If you want to torture and kill Vaelor, you will go through us first."
"And who might you be, Kel Dor?" Valkor asked condescendingly.
"General Ven Choi, former Jedi initiate from the old Order."
"Really? You're not wielding a lightsaber, and do you know why the old Order fell?"
"I was only a youngling when it fell, so my experience is limited, and I know it fell because of influence from a Sith Lord rotting an already corrupt Republic from the inside. And I'd say you're rotting your own empire too."
"Do you really think you can defeat me? I just defeated a Jedi with more training than you ever had, old man."
"You're one to talk about my age considering you're millennia older than I am. And just because I'm mostly a tactician doesn't mean I haven't been training myself in other combat arts." Choi then drew his blaster pistol from its holster with his left hand and fired a direct hit into one of the slits on Valkor's mask, causing him to grunt in pain and causing what looked like visible damage inside it before it regenerated.
Valkor roared in anger, disconnected the Black Matter from his person, and tried to slash at Choi, who quickly either dodged them or parried them with his vibrosword.
"Come now, sweet emperor. Just because I've had very little training doesn't mean I can't fight like a Jedi." Choi slashed across Valkor's plated torso, causing him to bleed Black Matter.
"You've got a lot of spark for a specimen of your age, I'll give you that. However…" Valkor suddenly grabbed Choi's breath mask and tore it off, revealing his face underneath and making him desperately gasp for air. "You're still at a disadvantage in a galaxy filled mostly with oxygen-breathers."
In a high-pitched but inaudible voice, Choi tried to taunt Valkor back. "Yes, but we won't immediately explode in the vacuum of space."
"I'm sorry, what was that? I can't hear you with all that helium coming out of your lungs. I forgot that you Kel Dors need your masks to even talk clearly when away from Dorin." After Valkor produced a small black tongue in one of his mask's eye slits to lick around the opening, a larger mass of Black Matter came out from under his cloak and crawled towards Choi, wrapping a tentacle-like tongue around his body and lifting him above the ground before forming a large toothy maw around the roots of the tongue.
"Ven!" Zolph helplessly cried.
"The General's in trouble! Concentrate fire on the ugly Sithspawn!" A Bothan Alliance sergeant ordered his men.
They released a barrage of blaster fire towards Valkor and the large Black Matter maw, but they were quickly killed by the Valkoran troopers in the vicinity.
"Any last words before you meet your fate, General?" Valkor taunted Choi. "By the way, you know how Jedi say you become one with the Force when you die? Well, I eat the living Force and it doesn't go anywhere else when I eat it."
Suddenly, Choi's mouth started foaming and his body went limp and cold.
"Suicide pill? A pity." The mouth and tongue then retracted back into the puddle, dropped General Choi's corpse and returned to Valkor. "They're not as delicious if they don't have any trace of the Force in them."
"You cannibal!" Zolph yelled at him in anger.
"Cannibal? Why do you people keep calling me that? It's not cannibalism if I'm eating someone of a different species." Valkor then looked back to Zolph, still restrained by the Forceless shackles. "Now where were we? And thank you for not bleeding to death."
Whatever Valkor had planned for Zolph, it didn't sound promising.
"So, Valk, how do you plan to torture me?" Zolph asked.
Valkor grabbed Zolph by the chin and put a slight cut below his eye. "You came to this giant gemstone to get rid of that superweapon one of my subjects leaked out, correct?"
Zolph was shocked, as apparently, he intended to let Arcidus leak the information of a secret weapon out. "Yeah, and I figured out that the gravity controller was only a decoy."
Valkor chuckled. "You caught on pretty quickly, and I'll bet you, your Alliance peons and my subjects are dying to know what this secret weapon is. If so, I'll go ahead and let you all in on something: the weapon is very close by." Valkor then called into his shuttle as if he were calling out a pet. "Mortaqa, you can come out now! Don't be shy!"
A thin, androgynous humanoid emerged from the shuttle, hard to tell what gender they were. Zolph presuming the figure was male, he wore a black, light armor vest with some red markings, a cloak with a hood over his head, five dark grey horns piercing through the hood in a fashion similar to a Zabrak's and an inhuman skull-like mask with four tusks protruding downward, one big eye socket centered between two smaller eye sockets and red lines coming down from them as if they were crying blood. In addition to carrying a pole mounted weapon that looked like a scythe with a compactable blade, he had very heavy, raspy breathing and did not speak.
"Wait, he's the secret weapon?!" Zolph asked with confusion.
"If you really want to keep a weapon secret, you don't have a team of engineers build it." Valkor explained before directing Mortaqa. "Mortaqa, excluding me, my subjects and that crippled runt over there, I want you to wipe this planet clean."
"What?! But you won't have a planet to rule if you kill everyone!" Zolph objected.
"And I mean everyone: the Alliance forces and the locals."
"Don't do it!"
Mortaqa then levitated a few inches off the ground and positioned his face up towards Christophsis's dark sky in a rather sudden puppet-like jerk. Zolph watched as several Alliance soldiers and Christophsian civilians nearby collapsed as if they were suffering cardiac arrest before a green essence – the living Force - was ripped from their bodies and they died. The separated living Force was then sucked into the central eye of Mortaqa's mask.
However, this wasn't just happening in Agatanea. Zolph felt it happening all over Christophsis, witnessing several starships in the planet's atmosphere suddenly come crashing into the surface and hearing millions of people screaming as their lives were suddenly snuffed out.
Everyone on Christophsis – except for Zolph and the Valkoran forces – was dead, and the planet had become a dead spot in the Force, much like the Forceless themselves. That Zolph was in the middle of it all just made it all the more painful for him.
With some tears in his eyes, Zolph questioned Valkor. "Why? Why did you let me live?"
"You're next, Vaelor."
"Then what was the point of that?! What do you have to gain from killing an entire planet?!"
"I wanted you to know how you were going to die first. It's not as fun when you don't see it coming."
Mortaqa then approached Zolph. He could sense the Force from him, but also a Forceless presence. He was clearly alive, but it was also as if he was perpetually dying, and Zolph could also sense great pain and sorrow in him. However, he couldn't read his mind due to some telepathic interference. Meanwhile, all around him, a lot of the Valkoran troops were clearly horrified by what just happened.
Mortaqa raised his right hand and Zolph suddenly felt as if something was trying to rip the Force from his body. However, Mortaqa failed and Zolph gasped for air.
"How disappointing." Valkor commented. "It looks like the living Force is too tightly connected to you. Oh well! There's more than one way to flay a man alive." He gave Mortaqa another command. "Mortaqa, decapitate him…slowly. I want him to feel his head coming off. But first, close the wounds I gave him so he doesn't bleed to death."
With a glimpse of fear in his eyes, Zolph watched as Mortaqa drew out her scythe-like weapon. The curved blade flipped forward and coated itself in purple laser energy. It was a lightsaber scythe.
As Mortaqa cauterized his wounds and he screamed in pain, Zolph saw Maesterus, Juganak, Armogeist, Machinus and Neur rush to the scene.
"Emperor Valkor! What is going on here?!" Maesterus objected before pointing at Mortaqa. "And who the hell is that?"
"Maesterus, you came just in time to witness Zolph Vaelor's execution. Mortaqa just finished closing up some wounds I gave him earlier."
"Mortaqa? Why do I sense that I know her?"
Juganak then joined in. "She feels familiar to me too."
"As well as I." Armogeist commented.
"Who's the creepy flat-chested lady with the laser sickle?" Neur asked Machinus.
"I honestly don't know, Neur." Machinus then asked the other three Valkoran leaders in an aside. "Seriously, can you three tell me who she is later? I haven't been able to sense things through the Force for three-thousand years now."
"Her?" Zolph asked himself, wondering if this woman was someone he should know.
"Yes, Vaelor. Mortaqa is a woman." Valkor answered him. "And it's the last thing you'll ever learn. Continue with the execution."
Mortaqa lightly pushed her lightscythe's blade next to the left side of Zolph's neck, causing him to scream in more pain.
Maesterus, realizing that Valkor's been aware of his treachery anyway, made a barely noticeable gesture that caused the Forceless tentacle shackle holding Zolph's right arm down to weaken, allowing Zolph to finally break free and Force push Mortaqa away from him.
"WHAT?!" Valkor shouted.
Zolph then broke the other bio-shackle to free his left arm and lunged at Valkor with a fully-charged punch from his mechanical arm, breaking off a piece of his mask.
Revealed underneath Valkor's mask was a blank robotic head module while writhing blobs of Black Matter acted as his face. Right now, the Black Matter produced an expression of anger.
"No wonder you have no empathy. You're not even an actual person." Zolph then used the Force to call his lightsaber back to his hand before fleeing from Agatanea on a swoop bike for Crystal City.
"WHAT ARE YOU WORMS WAITING FOR?! I WANT HIM TO SUFFER!" Valkor shouted to his men, who were still shaken by the recent genocide and somewhat hesitant to gun Zolph down. He then calmed down after his outburst and forcefully snatched a comlink from a nearby Valkoran trooper and activated it. "General Kosar! I want Vaelor eliminated, dead or alive! If you fail to comply, your wife and son will be my next meal!"
"Understood, my lord. Kosar out." The transmission ended.
Valkor then addressed his men before walking off somewhere. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some newborn competition to collect. The rest of you pull out."
As Zolph drove along the Christophsian roads, he observed the carnage caused from both the battle and the planetary annihilation. Even though it looked like everyone was dead, he could sense some life coming from Crystal City, one of them being a Force user. He was hoping it was Grein and not Masochus.
"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead…" Zolph repeated to himself.
As he approached the city, his swoop bike was suddenly shot down by a platoon of Valkoran troopers and Gundark walkers.
"Haven't you caused enough trouble for one day?!" Zolph asked them as he got up on his feet and activated his lightsaber.
"Zolph Vaelor." A voice echoed from the back. In the rear of the platoon, Zolph saw a Zabrak Valkoran general. "I am General Ilen Kosar. Emperor Valkor has ordered that you be captured or killed. Stand down and I can at least guarantee you a quick and merciful death at our hands."
"And why the hell would I just lie down to be slaughtered?!"
"If you were to be captured, Valkor would torture you before he executes you or worse, and that is not a fate I would wish even on my enemies."
"If you want to kill me, I'm not going down without a fight."
"Very well, then. At least you will be spared from Valkor's wrath." Kosar then gave an order to his men. "Attack!"
The troops tried to gun Zolph down as he cut them down one by one, but he was noticing that some of their shots were barely even hitting him, as if they were trying to miss on purpose. Even the mech drivers and gunners were missing their shots.
Further back in the crowd next to General Kosar, a sniper was hardly trying to hit Zolph, only firing a shot every five seconds, not even trying to get a headshot. A fellow soldier then noticed his compatriot's behavior and slapped him.
"Why the hell are you acting like a stormtrooper, Varson?! You're a better shot than that!" The soldier criticized the sniper.
"I'm sorry, Sergeant! I don't see any justice in killing him!"
"Then you are a traitor to the Valkoran Empire!" The sergeant raised his rifle, ready to gun Varson down, but Kosar quickly executed him with a blaster shot through his helmet.
"As long as I'm in charge of this squad, infighting is punishable by death! Am I clear?!" Kosar told the rest of the men. He then looked to Varson. "I take it you're unsettled by the massacre and disgusted with Valkor? I am too."
"Then why are you still fighting for him?"
"He's threatened to eat my wife and child if I don't." He then announced to his men, "If any of you are unwilling to fight, I won't hold it against you and will take personal responsibility for it."
"No, General! I won't abandon you when you have a family to attend to! Besides, I'd rather die fighting for you than live with the fact that I've been fighting in the name of a murderer."
"Very well, Varson, but if we survive this, don't beat yourself over it."
Eventually, Zolph cut his way through more of Kosar's forces and was face-to-face with the General himself. Kosar drew out his blaster pistol and fired a shot, but the shot just passed to the left of Zolph's head and the Jedi impaled the Zabrak through the chest.
"Well, Vaelor, looks like you get to keep your life." Kosar told him as he gasped for breath
"You didn't even try to hit me! Why?!" Zolph asked him.
"There are others I'd rather die for than to live to serve the Emperor. I have one last request: Please spare the rest of my men. Most of them didn't want anything to do with this." Kosar said with his last breath before collapsing to the ground.
Zolph looked to the remaining Valkoran soldiers and vehicles, including Private Varson. "You heard him. Get out of here." Most of the Valkoran soldiers and walkers retreated, but Varson was getting ready to fire a blaster pistol through his head before Zolph Force-pulled it out of his hands. "He told you to live, soldier, so don't waste this opportunity by taking your own life."
"But I've been fighting for-!"
"Then make up for it! Don't make the same mistake I almost made once." Zolph then handed Varson his blaster back and the soldier retreated as well.
However, the remaining soldiers pointed their weapons at Zolph.
"All right, boys, let's kill Vaelor, and then the deserters." One of the Valkor-fanatical soldiers ordered.
Before they could open fire, Grein suddenly jumped into the scene and swiftly decapitated the ordering trooper with her cross-guarded lightsaber. The rest of the Valkor loyalists were promptly killed by both Zolph and Grein shortly after.
Zolph was very relieved to see Grein. "You're…. you're alive!" Zolph then rushed over and hugged her while shedding some tears of joy.
"And so are you." Grein said, also shedding some tears.
Zolph suddenly collapsed on the ground, still weakened from the injuries Valkor gave him, but at least he wasn't bleeding to death anymore. Grein then noticed the recent lightsaber burn marks on his abdomen and on his neck.
"What happened to you?" She asked him.
"Valkor happened. The sadistic bastard punched through my chest and squeezed on my heart a little to torture me. He then tried to have this woman named Mortaqa slowly behead me with a lightsaber scythe after failing to rip the living Force out of me, and that was after making me experience Force backlash."
"So it really was you, Em. You're the only reason I'm still alive." Grein told herself.
"Wait. That was your sister?" Zolph asked as he lied down on the ground. "I didn't imagine that she would be so androgynous."
"What do you mean? My sister clearly looked like a woman growing up."
"It was hard to physically tell what gender she was. Aside from having her flesh completely obscured, wearing a mask that doesn't clearly suggest a human or near-human face underneath, and some psychic interference, she was both thin and flat-chested."
"Emilin wasn't flat-chested the last time I remember seeing her. Then that means… oh no…"
"I'm so sorry, Grein."
Not long after, R9-C4 rolled onto the scene, emitting a somber whistle that was very uncharacteristic of her. She was still covered in blood like she usually was after being in direct combat, but wasn't carrying around any trophies such as the still beating heart of a Valkoran trooper she killed.
"Master = Alive / Seefor = Relieved."
"I'm not in the mood for any of your disgusting trophies, Seefor, and I'm very serious this time." Zolph told her.
"Seefor + Trophy + Current Situation = Very poor taste. / Total Desolation = Not fun."
Zolph barely got up and patted Seefor on the head. "Ah, I never would have thought in a million years that you would be horrified by mass slaughter."
Moments a later, an Alliance shuttle touched down in Crystal City, and disembarking from it were Hiriss Moraana and Besh squad, who came to aid the campaign, but were too late. They noticed Zolph lying on the ground next to Grein and Seefor and rushed to them.
"Zolph!" Hiriss cried before kneeling next to his body. "Thank the Force you're alive!"
"You know I'm not that easy to get rid of, Hiriss." Zolph said with a weak smile on his face.
"But you look like you're barely hanging on."
"He's suffered some internal damage, including some to the heart and needs proper medical treatment." Grein told Patcher.
"I'm amazed he's still alive after that." Patcher handed Grein a med-pack. "I'll go back to the shuttle and get the emergency stretcher ready." The Nautolan medic then rushed back to the shuttle.
"Are there any other survivors?" Xadisall asked.
"I'm afraid not. That also includes General Choi." Zolph answered him while Grein provided first aid.
"No…" Spectre quietly uttered.
"What could have done this?" Boltz asked. "No superweapon could cause so much death with such precision."
"As hard-pressed as you may be to believe it, Boltz, the weapon in question is not something created by science."
"In light of what just happened, Boltz is willing to accept it."
"The weapon in question is a woman possessed by a Forceless Archfiend."
"How did General Choi die?" Xadisall asked. "Was he killed in the devastation too?"
"No." Zolph answered him. "Valkor killed him. He tore his mask off and then tried to eat him alive, but Ven took a cyanide pill before he could do so."
"However the Valks killed Christophsis, they will pay for it and General Choi." Bad Kitty swore.
"No. Not the Valkoran." Zolph told him.
"Then who?" Hiriss asked.
"Just Valkor himself. That thing shouldn't qualify as a sentient being."
Hours later at the Valkoran capital of Ockla Prime, Valkor, sitting in his throne room flanked by his strange bodyguards, received his mask fully repaired from his personal repair droid and put it back on his face.
As the droid headed for a nearby workshop for further duties, Maesterus entered the throne room.
"Did General Kosar do as I ordered?" Valkor asked him.
"He's dead sir." Maesterus answered him.
"Then bring his family here."
"Sir, in his defense, he died following your orders, and you only threatened his family to motivate him, and you can't further motivate or break a dead man. Besides, don't you think you've already hurt your public image enough today? Start executing civilians for personal pleasure and you'll start to look like Masochus."
"Very well, then. They get to live. However…" Valkor then removed his mask again in an attempt to unsettle Maesterus with his Black Matter covered face. "You have a lot of nerve to come back here and question me after you clearly undermined my attempt to execute Vaelor. You've finally exposed your treachery."
"Is there even any point in being subtle anymore? You already know that I know you know."
"If you're trying to confuse me, you're failing.
"I'm not trying to, and that clearly means you're confused."
Valkor growled with anger. "I've had to put up with your treachery for six years now! I could-!"
"Torture me? Kill me? I know you're not stupid enough to do either of those with the risk of turning me into a martyr. Add the fact that you've just committed the first planetary genocide in the history of the Valkoran Empire, you openly threatened to devour a man's family if he didn't follow orders, physically and psychologically tortured someone, and withheld the truth of Ze'emilin'asana's fate, you're already crossing a line, and that's a line you wouldn't want to go past any further."
"You win this round, Maesterus. But know that your possession immunity, your charisma and your cleverness are the only things keeping you alive right now."
