CHAPTER SIX
Emperor Palpatine looks about the ruins with a slight smirk on his face. It's as if the creatures did him a favor, giving him some much-needed exercise. He then hears a voice of a stormtrooper, riddled with nervousness and a slight studder.
"E-E-Excuse me, m-my lord…y-your cane—". The black cane just leaves the trooper's hands into Palpatine's hand as if someone used invisible string.
"Thank you for looking after it," says Palpatine. He then walks over to where his stormtroopers have collected the dead and wounded. Everyone stops and bows their heads. "What is our status?"
Dzukya responds. "My lord, we have seventy-five are dead, twenty-five missing. Captain Verlund is unconscious due to a detonator blast nearby. The medic said the Captain will be out for a while." Palpatine stands in silence just for a moment, quickly processing what just happened. He then looks around.
"Where's the 1st Sergeant?" Palpatine sees Dzukya with a slight hesitation.
"He's amongst the missing, my lord."
Palpatine's lips get tight, he's a little annoyed. His eyes slowly scan the troops, waving his cane at them like a strict schoolmaster back and forth. "Then who's in charge?" Olyone has come from the group, standing beside Dzukya when Palpatine poses the question.
Both sergeants quickly look at each other. "Both Sgt. Dzukya and I are the only ones left, my lord," answers Olyone. Palpatine slowly raises his cane and places the end of it on Olyone's chest plate. She quickly looks over at Dzukya, then back at the Emperor, nodding her head. He then walks over to where the medics are treating the wounded, Verlund specifically.
Then without warning, the pauldron leaps off Verlund into Palpatine's hand. Olyone watches as Palpatine eyes return back to her, his pale face showing not one hint of emotion. The pauldron leaves his hands, smacks into Olyone's chest plate. He doesn't even stop; he just walks past her.
"I want a report on our status immediately. We have much to discuss."
"Yes, my lord," replies Olyone nervously. She then looks down at the orange pauldron, remembering what their CO said before she and Dzukya left the Pestilence. 'Do I have what it takes?' Olyone looks over her shoulder as the Emperor walks further away from her, surrounded by his Imperial Guard and Death Troopers.
Dzukya watches as she removes her helmet and fastens on the pauldron. She feels the symbolic weight of it, realizing she is now the person that would throw someone like her in the brig.
"What are your orders…ma'am?" asks Dzukya. Olyone can hear the wisecrack tone in his question. She's actually glad to hear it, some glimmer of good news amongst the bad. She puts her helmet back on.
"Don't call me that, I work for a living…and I'm still a Sergeant". Olyone looks at what's around her and gives Dzukya a list of things that she needs. "Dzukya?"
"Yeah?"
"I need this done as of yesterday!"
Dark clouds roll in and open up over the Leviathan crash site. Pvt. Lenck looks up and feels a big rain drop land directly on his forehead. He slowly looks around, seeing the black soil becoming muddy…again. I survived a crash for this. I wish I was still unconscious! The young flametrooper replaces the dressing of an injured trooper at the makeshift field hospital. The hospital lies under the Leviathan, a perfect spot to be shielded from the heavy rain.
As soon as Lenck finishes with the new dressing, he makes his way over to the ship's doctor.
"Pvt. Wiks dressing is replaced, and Sgt. Jalee's head laceration doesn't show any sign of infection, sir."
The doctor is surprised. "Good job, private. I'm quite surprised a flametrooper knows his way around bumps, cuts and bruises."
"My mother is a nurse, sir. This is not my first time with stuff like this," replies Lenck. The private looks over and sees two people arguing several feet away. Lenck slightly leans towards the doctor.
"Do they always argue like that?" The doctor doesn't even look up, he just continues looking over another injured trooper.
"The ship's engineers? Yup. They were already there when I transferred to the Pestilence six years ago." The doctor casually looks up and shakes his head. "The only thing that has changed from then till now is that they're older."
Lenck nods his head and looks back over to the ongoing disagreement. The private decides to walk over; it's not like he has anything better to with his time. He overcomes the feeling of being a one-trick orbak and continues on. The closer the flametrooper gets, the more of the argument is revealed. Unfortunately, the way the back and forth is going, there seems to be no end in sight.
"Please remind me how having the ship's locator beacon fixed and working a bad thing, Vhel?"
Ranzik Vhel, the Pestilence's Chief Engineer slowly runs his hand through his salt and pepper hair, jaw clenched with tension. He's not one to suffer fools but Sil Lanore, his Assistant Engineer presents a very valid question.
Vhel sighs. "You left out one detail: the damn beacon is only running at half power. Now that wouldn't be a big deal but the storms here on this blasted rock are messing with the beacon's signal!"
Lanore's eyes move about: He's thinking of possible solutions. "What about the probes? The thrusters on those things should be able to shoot through this maelstrom of a storm." Sadly, any idea that he presents to Vhel is immediately shot down.
"No can do," replies Vhel. "The room to program the probes' flight path was destroyed when we crashed here. Without guidance the probes that still work will just go anywhere they damn please…even back at us!" Both engineers go right back to arguing when Lenck looks away to see if there's anything better to watch. The arguing fades in Lenck's mind the more he looks around the crash site. Just then his eyes lock on to it: a couple of death troopers standing next to black casing that looks a little over six feet tall.
"E-Excuse me?" yells Lenck. Both engineers stop with the back and forth and look at the private. "Sorry, but I have an idea." As Lenck begins to talk, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, one of those bugs sits atop of a peak. It looks down, quickly scans the crash site below. The creature looks around for a few more seconds before hightailing it out of there.
It's been awhile since the bugs' immediate retreat. Olyone walks around to every stormtrooper that stands watch around the makeshift basecamp among the ruins. She lifts the morale of some, gives helpful ammo saving tips to others, and gives swift kicks in the rear to those who need it. 'The days of point, shoot and kill were much easier than this!' That thought swirls in her mind as she finishes her round and meets up with Dzukya.
He quickly hands over a datapad with a somewhat smirk on his face. "Here's everything that you asked for, especially the last part," says Dzukya.
Olyone watches as he walks away to attend to other business. She looks away and focuses on Palpatine at a distance. She takes a deep breath and makes her wayover to where he's standing.'My Lord, here's my report offering.' No, no! You're not presenting fatted portions of meat you just slaughtered!'
Her thoughts go back and forth on how to address the Emperor, when she arrives behind him. Palpatine is talking with the lead Death trooper and a Shadow trooper; he stops midway and slightly turns his head over his shoulder.
"Ah, yes - an updated sit-rep from Sergeant…'Olyone', yes?"
"Yes, my lord," she replies. Olyone watches as Palpatine motions for everyone to leave him, except his Imperial Guard. She quickly notices that the shadow trooper is looking directly at her: it's the same one that saved her life from that bug during the end of the skirmish. The trooper doesn't say a word while slowly walking away from her. It's almost if the trooper wants the sergeant to pay attention. She looks at the trooper's silver lenses, wondering who's the person behind him. The Shadow trooper engages the cloaking device and disappears from view.
"The report, Sergeant?"
Palpatine's question snaps Olyone's gaze from the shadow trooper back onto him. "Uh-uhm, my apologies, my lord. I had groups go out and do a sweep of the ruins: They found nothing of those bugs. The samples you requested have been collected by the droids—"
"What else, Sergeant?" interrupts Palpatine. Olyone can tell by his tone that he wants to get to the 'good part'.
"This, my lord." Olyone hands over the datapad to him, and she quickly scrolls down to the end of the report. The sergeant watches as Palpatine reads it, then starts nodding his head.
"I see." He hands the datapad back to Olyone. "Acid for blood."
"It explains the cause of the suffering to our injured and the damage to our armor. It's a hell of a defense mechanism, my lord."
Palpatine slowly looks about Olyone and sees it acid-pitted marks scattered on the Sergeant's chest plate and forearms. A couple of those acid marks are evident on her blaster as well. "So, what is your—" The Emperor stops mid-sentence. "Ah…yes, I feel it…your anger, Sergeant." He closes his eyes and saviors Olyone's raw emotion like a predator that gets that first taste of a prey's blood. "Use your anger, Sergeant…it will give you power."
Olyone's breathing gets a bit deeper and quicker, then she takes off her helmet. She looks at Palpatine's eyes and vice versa. A smile appears on his pale, heavily scarred face.
"What do you want to do?" asks Palpatine.
Olyone's mind races through all that has happened since leaving the Pestilence. She clenches her fist when the flashback of the ISB officer beating the crap out of her comes fresh in her mind. A small tear comes down her cheek. "Those bugs…I want to kill them all!"
"Then why don't we?" says Palpatine.
That phrase is all Olyone wants to hear. She quickly wipes the tear off her face and quickly puts her helmet back on. "Sir, you saw those bugs just upped and disappeared. We don't have any clue of where to find them."
Once again, another smile appears on Palpatine's face: he hears that echo again. "Yes, we do. Are you willing to follow an old man?"
Olyone quickly gets on her helmet's commlink and orders everyone to her location.
Dzukya responds back. "What about the injured?"
"Get them back that burial chamber. When that is done, place detonators in the tunnel and cave it in."
"What?" Dzukya's voice almost jumps an octave higher. "You'll be blocking our only way of getting outta here!" Olyone takes a moment to let what Dzukya said sink in. She then responds.
"I'm blocking the bugs getting out of here as well…blow that tunnel, Diric." He slowly nods his head but the feeling of uncertainty swirls in the Sergeant's body.
Dzukya is able to get the injured up and moving back to the burial chamber quicker that he expected. 'No bugs to slow us down…good,' he thinks. That fact is annoying him like a sprained ankle that won't fully heal. Any seasoned stormtrooper knows that the perfect time to attack one's enemy is when moving the injured. In this case: nothing. Not a surprise attack, not a straggler disobeying orders.
The last of the injured is helped to the burial chamber, Dzukya looks about the room wondering if his mortality will come to an end today. He's interrupted when a voice calls out.
"Hey, Sergeant!"
Dzukya looks and sees the person who said it: a stormtrooper with half of his face burned from wasting one of the bugs. The medic just injected him with a shot of pain meds, not before the trooper said, "You g-give those…damn bugs hell!"
The rest of the injured troops cheer in response or with a raised fist. Dzukya nods once as he leaves, heading back down the tunnel. He walks at a faster pace, as that stormtrooper's words have given him further fuel to see this through. He's about to reach the other side of the tunnel, he sees a few stormtroopers standing there waiting for him. Without breaking stride, the sergeant quickly nods his head and they quickly place detonators at the mouth of the tunnel.
"Detonators are set and waiting to blow, sir," says one stormtrooper.
Dzukya orders everyone to rendezvous back with the rest of the company. Their eyes are peeled, looking for any surprises from the bugs as they run from street to street. None cross their path as they make it back to the company. Olyone turns, seeing a somewhat heavy-breathing Dzukya walking up to her. She then sees him a pull out a switch and presses the button.
BOOM…BOOM…BOOM…BOOM! A rumble of a cave-in goes for a few seconds then stops. Every trooper has their blaster rifle charged waiting for any bug attack as the silence slowly comes back…nothing happens.
"The tunnel has been sealed. Where to?" says Dzukya.
Olyone looks over to Palpatine. "Your orders, sir?"
Both sergeants see a creepy smile slowly appear on the Emperor's face. "Follow me," he says.
As they head through the ruins following the Emperor, Dzukya leans over and whispers to Olyone.
"Why do I feel like we're the rodents, following his joyful lead to—"
"Our impending doom? Yeah," replies Olyone. "You want to tell him that?"
Dzukya offers silence in response. He just keeps is head on a swivel, looking for bugs to kill. Eventually, the remainder of the 332nd have followed Palpatine to the other side of the ruins.
A very high wall is what stands before them, stretching from one end to the other. Olyone sees the black goo covering every nook and cranny of this wall, then looks over at the Emperor.
"My lord, they searched this area already, it's a dead end. If there was a path around here, I would've been told." She watches as Palpatine raises in hands in front of him. Without any warning, waves of lightning emanate from his pale, maligned hands and hit the wall directly, multiple times. Olyone quickly shields her eyes and looks away. A few minutes have passed when she decides to open her eyes again.
"Wha—?" Palpatine's 'trick' has unearthed two tunnels side by side.
"A dead end, Sergeant?" says Palpatine. He doesn't wait for Olyone to retort, just begins to walk into the left tunnel with his Imperial guards. Olyone quickly looks over her shoulder gives out the order, splitting the company in half. One half goes with her and the Emperor while the other half follows Sgt. Dzukya into the other tunnel. She leaves some words of wisdom for every trooper.
"I'm feeling we're headed into the belly of the beast. So, stay fierce, stay alive. No 'hero' crap, got it?" Everyone nods their heads in reply. She then looks over at Dzukya. "You good?"
"Well I could use a stiff drink and a little…". Dzukya takes his finger and rubs his helmet in the area his nose would be. Olyone doesn't even respond, she just motions everyone to head in. 'Just like him to make a wisecrack at a time like this.'
Just like before everyone slowly walks into the tunnels with their lights illuminating the way amongst the darkness. Heart rates and pulses go a little higher the further down the tunnels they go. The heat and humidity increase almost with every step. As Olyone follows Palpatine, she listens to the occasional chatter between to the two groups. She gets on her helmet comm and orders chatter to be kept to a minimum. Every step is carefully placed to not make a sound. They sweep their lights all over the tunnels, exposing the black goo that sticks everywhere. Olyone's eyes focus back on the Emperor once again. Dzukya's words of heading into impending doom still swish around in her head. She then realizes something right then: 'Whatever power can make a person shoot lightning from their hands, can somehow direct that person anywhere!'
So far, so good: no new encounters with the bugs. Just then, a bunch of static breaks up communication directed to Olyone.
"Come again?"
"I said *************".
The increased heat and humidity do not simmer down Olyone's anger one bit as static continues to disrupt communications. "I said come again? I can't hear you!" Just then, a stormtrooper from her group alerts the Sergeant to something: multiple contacts heading their way, closing fast. At the same time, a message finally gets through.
"Ma'am, we've come to a huge open area of eggs…and some of them are beginning to open. What are your orders?"
Olyone takes a quick look at her motion sensor and sees numerous dots approaching on her position. "Kill them all". Everyone in her group can hear the sounds of blasters, flamethrowers and detonators go off in the other tunnel.
The oncoming sound of the bugs coming to finish off what they started hasn't been ignored either. While everyone gets ready to throw down, Olyone walks along Palpatine's side. She sees him ignite both of his lightsabers; the red crimson blades give off a weird light that seems to match the current mood. A smile appears on the Emperor's face again, then takes off at the bugs with blinding speed. She quickly looks back at the group.
"Unleash Hell!"
Darth Vader, in his personal TIE Advanced fighter, is on the outskirts of known space on the hunt. "Come out, little one," Vader says as he slowly moves about the asteroid field. He checks his instruments in front of him: nothing. All he sees amongst the starry blackness of space is floating rocks.
"You shut off your systems…Impressive."
Vader is about to reach out in the Force when what he is seeking finally reveals itself. A T-65 X-Wing pops out from behind an asteroid some distance away, coming at the Sith Lord with increasing speed. Vader sees the fighter's s-foils are locked in attack position. Without hesitation, he brings his TIE fighter to attack speed as well. Both craft are hurtling towards each other, closing the gap. The R3 unit screams at the X-wing pilot as the speed gets faster and faster.
"I know it's a bad idea. If you have any other suggestions in the next few seconds, I'll be glad to listen!"
Vader's instrument panel starts blaring: 'Warning, collision imminent! Warning, collision imminent!'
'Is this your plan? So be it!' thinks Vader as his fingers firmly stay on the controls. He's about to end another rebel pilot's life when he feels it: a strong tremor in the Force.
"Master…" is all he says as he breaks off the head-on attack with the X-wing at the last second. The Sith Lord quickly sends out a communication, a miniature Imperial officer appears encased in blue light.
"Yes, Lord Vader?"
"Adm. Ozzel, take the Executor and meet me at these coordinates at once!"
"It shall be done, my lord." The Admiral gives a quick bow before communications ends. With that, the TIE fighter jumps into hyperspace.
The pilot of the X-wing just sits there, stunned at what just happened. The R3 unit gives off a few low beeps.
"What changed his mind? I have no idea." The pilot slowly exhales, tries to calm down. 'What made that damn imp break off?'
Just then the astromech interrupts, the hyperdrive is operational.
"Good, R3…let's get outta here." The X-wing, riddled with laser fire, retracts the s-foils. The stars become streaks on light and enters hyperspace. The pilot hopes to never see that particular TIE fighter ever again.
Rear Adm. Sabol stands in the bridge of the Eclipse, looking through the black emptiness of space. A couple star destroyers were sent out to the last known position of the Leviathan before it disappeared off their scopes. She bites down on her lower lip, because her gut screaming: something's wrong!
The flag officer quickly looks over to Communications. "Any updates from Inflictor or Vehement?"
"No, ma'am, no—". The Eclipse's scopes start blaring right then. Sabol knows the tone of that alarm really well: something is coming out of hyperspace.
"Is it one of ours?" she asks.
A technician quickly takes a look at their scopes. "Yes, ma'am…three of them. One of them is…", the technician gulps, "the Executor."
'Vader, dammit!' Sabol's gut is screaming a little bit louder; any more issues and her stomach may actually burst due to the tension. Even with the ongoing storm happening inside, she doesn't let one particle of it come out for anyone to see. The communications officer tells the Admiral that there's a communique from Vader is coming.
"Put it through." Vader's image quickly appears on the holoprojector, encased in blue. "Lord Vader—"
"The Emperor is in danger, Rear Admiral, and here is where we must go," interrupts Darth Vader. There on the star charts appears the location. Seeing this brings shock to Sabol's face but she has no time for the how and why.
"Understood, my lord. I will send these coordinates to Vehement and Inflictor to meet us there."
Darth Vader tells Sabol that another four star destroyers are coming their way as well. The Flag officer doesn't ask why, nor object. She just complies, she knows that an admiral's life means nothing to Vader. In a matter of seconds, all the ships enter hyperspace.
