My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
Previously on : The SSD Executor under the command of Lord Vader is hunting Jedi in the unknown space, when an anomaly in the force draws the Dark Lord to the strange world. El-Hazard is a world in conflict between the Free kingdom Alliance and the Bugrom Empire under the leadership of the sinister Katsuhiko Jinnai, while the kingdoms are led by the twin princesses Fatora and Rune. The arrival of the Galactic Empire sets in motion a chain of events that will be felt for the millennia.
A.N: Minor changes to cannon such as Vader having SSD Executor earlier than in the canon.
Warnings: Rated R for adult content, explicit scenes will be marked as such.
Chapter 2: The day El Hazard stopped (II)
Another guard slumped as three holes in rapid succession were burned through him. Then another one got caught by a thermal detonator and few streets past a patrol walked into an ambush with an excellent view of a sniper. This whole invasion was going far smoother than anyone would have predicted.
Clone Sergeant CT-8188 "Fume" sneered as he kicked a corpse out of his way and motioned the two light tanks to continue to sweep the streets clear of hostiles. Shouldering his smoking DC-15S the white clad soldier looked around the deserted square, that once had housed a water fountain and a market. The stalls were smoking and cracking with dying fire as the ruined statue still continued to spill water. It was a damn shame.
However, this world had attacked the pride of Imperial Navy- the personal flagship of Lord Vader and for that this world would have no mercy. The brass had instructed to clear out the city of hostiles and capture the seats of government and that's what he was about to do. Out of the corner of his eye he could spy children looking at him with fear from a window above. From what he had heard the Supreme Commander had delayed the order of orbital bombardment in favour of a land operation.
"Move along troopers" he barked as they started marching, blasters ready, fingers on the triggers "Commander Appo gave us our orders to secure the area around the weapon and there's still quite the trek so get the kriff moving!"
After all, despite the technological differences it was not wise for a trooper to get arrogant. He had heard enough stories of overconfident troopers brought low by a primitive, despite their superior training. He was better than that and had made it wherever he went that the men he served with knew it too.
The ruined streets and sparse firefights were all they encountered on their trek to their new designated post. The newer troopers joked among themselves as they marched between the tanks while Fume had tapped into the direct officer comms and kept updated on the situation as the fighting died down.
Pockets of resistance still remained but were rapidly shrinking due to light vehicles that now were deployed to intimidate the native population. This was one of the easiest invasions in which he had ever participated in and now was the chief cause of his worries. In all of his years the Clone Sergeant had honed his gut feeling that had saved him multiple times against the bugs in Geonosis, then the clankers all over the galaxy. A light scar still remained on his neck as he had narrowly evaded the blade of one of Dooku's assassins sent after Skywalker. This was too easy, there had to be some hook or hidden enemy lay in wait.
The closer they approached the tower under the superweapon, his comms were overcome by static and only in the distance blaster fire could be heard. All he heard right now was the calm squall of the enormous river coiling around the capitol of these peoples.
"It feels wrong" he said in the comm and raised his hand in the air to halt the entourage "There were at least three other squads supposed to secure the location beforehand…"
"Troopers" he addressed the men before him "Who has received sharpshooter training? Step forward"
Three troopers stepped forward, only difference between them, the small azure markings on their white pauldrons.
"Alright," he beckoned his brothers to gather around him "Here's the target" he pointed at the map on his handheld holographic display. "The other squads were to arrive at these locations, which means that there's a possibility that the natives have something nasty up their sleeves"
"I" he pointed at his brothers "Want you three to take other three troopers and make nests half a click from the target zone. You are to inform me once you get there and await my orders and my orders only" Fume looked at the men through his visor. Three other troopers, none of which he knew that well volunteered and walked beside the snipers who were setting up their DC-15 modifications and rechecking their supplies.
"Sir, yes sir!" they didn't salute or even look up , but that was fine as at this moment the formalities weren't necessary.
That left him twelve troopers and two light tanks.
"Good luck soldiers" he and the rest of the troopers said their goodbyes and the response was just as he had expected. Rude, crude and honest
"Kriff you too!"
"You better pay me back for that Pazaak game!"
With these words the troopers left in different direction and the sergeant turned back to his remaining troopers.
"While boys set up their long rage solution at the towers, our job will be to find out who or what exactly is at fault and then put it down. For safety precaution one tank will deliver the message back to the base camp while the rest will proceed to the site and pronto." The troopers nodded and the tank already turned to proceed the way back they came.
"Treat this as it was Felucia all over again. I don't want any nasty surprises" every clone blanched at these words as they recalled the humid hellish jungle of that outer rim planet and the brothers they had lost to the clankers and the creatures dwelling within.
With that the troopers silently proceeded.
They crept across the silent streets, behind the tank, overturned every corpse and let drones check for landmines. Pressing against the walls of the narrow streets the troopers were on full alert as they neared their destination.
At the next intersection, they heard movement. Sweat dripped from Fume's brow as the tank immediately stopped and the soldiers immediately checked the alleyway, safety off only to find a toddler wandering the street.
"Kriff" the trooper beside Fume cursed as they turned safety on their blasters and looked at the shocked child, a girl that started crying at the sight of the admittedly scary men.
The trooper was ready to help the child, but the Sergeant held a hand on his comrade's chest. That trooper was young, but Fume knew of the horrifying acts the guerrillas and insurgents were capable of. Another reasons why fighting droids was easier than sentients, especially humanoids.
"She may be armed" he said slowly and took in the outfit of the litte girl. No backpack or otherwise oversized clothing that could mask belts of explosives, no other objects in her hands that could be explosives or poison vats.
"Fine, but be careful" he admitted begrudgingly and removed the hand from the other troopers breastplate.
He took off his helm and placed it on the ground, trying to show the little girl that he was the same as her. The child looked at the white armoured man in confussion and as he knelt down and stretched out his arms, the little girl waddled towards him. Grime and dust dirtied her face, while her little blue dress had holes, while small scrapes were on her knees.
"Come here" the gentle trooper beckoned with a step forward. Fume rolled his eyes as the little child waddled to the trooper, who picked her up gently and holstered his blaster, before taking his helm.
"What will you do with her?" Fume asked as the other trooper rocked the small human in his arms "I don't know, but keep her safe."
"How do you intend to do this as we embark on a dangerous mission?"
"…"
"Of course. Get her to the tank, trooper" he motioned to the vehicle one intersection away from them "After the mission is over you'll give her to back to a native woman. Is that clear?"
"Crystal, sir" the other clone said with some reluctance in his voice and whispered to the child ignoring his superior "Everything's gonna be fine kid, do you want to sit in the cool tank?" to emphasize he pointed at the vehicle and to his amusement the child mumbled "tank" and started giggling.
Fume shook his head and waited once the child was safely in the hands of the tanks driver, much to his chagrin.
"Thanks Fume" the trooper said and donned his helm once again. The older clone shook his head and motioned for others to move along.
Slowly, but surely they neared the area designated in their comms. Deadly silence that had dragged along them since their landing previously felt to be far away, now reigned supreme and the lull of waves felt to be closer than ever. This wasn't right, there weren't supposed any water where they were going, at least not in this scale. On their maps, the river was supposed to be at least half a click away from their target area.
His comm device beeped and immediately he halted the retinue.
"Chief, you'd better see this"
With shades of blue coming from the small handheld projector Fume was immediately stupefied at the scene playing before him. In the middle of a decimated town square he could spot wrecks of several tanks and walkers laying half submerged in flood that seemed to be held up at the edges of the square, as if felt to be held together by some otherworldly magic.
Yet CT-8188 was all too familiar with this magical power called Force.
"Kriffin' Jedi" Fume snarled as he laid his eyes on the giant ball of clear water that was floating above the square, plates from durasteel forming a makeshift shield, to defend the Jedi witch in the middle.
"Trooper" he barked to the sharpshooter to the comm "Share your camera FOV with me, uplink code WS- 8888-Gamma'' there was a slight nod from the holoprojector and immediately the lenses from the helmet saw through the integrated ImTech scout goggles and up close the scene intimidated him much more than he thought to be possible as memories from the recent Clone Wars started to involuntary flash before his eyes.
It almost made him touch the cybernetic installed in the socket where his eye used to be.
However, no longer he was a" shiny" and instead of pondering the past immediately the thoughts went to how to kill the Jedi encased in the ball of liquid. Upon closer inspection Fume saw just what was transpiring inside the bubble of water. Despite the surrounding debris, the trooper saw it clear as day, a woman floating in the water.
Past the high speed spinning of the water he could see her holding onto what was body of a man, with water trying to heal his wounds. Shaking his head in dismissal Fume, continued to survey the battlefield. Shards of melting ice was still sticking out of the corpses of the troopers and the clone captain knew that it was a folly to attempt ground attack. He had seen enough Jedi cutting through swathes of droids and clones to attempt this.
"HQ, this is CT-8188 reporting in" he called into the holopad, before with sizzling blue light appeared the picture of one of the staff members on the mobile headquarters at the LZ
"Copy CT-8188. What is it?" came the nasally voice of the newly recruited officers straight out of the academy. These shinies weren't fit to even breathe the same room as the veterans of the Clone Wars, but Fume kept his cool. He knew that most of his men and the rest shared his opinions.
"I require a firing solution from the Executor" the blue silhouette of the young man was visibly shaken, before straightening out and doing a double take.
"And why by The Maker would I do that?!"
"Transmitting the coordinates and the footage"
Underneath his helmet the clone grinned as the soldier grew pale and hurriedly rushed out of the sight of the holoreceiver, rushing back with Commander Cody himself, now in the blank stormtrooper armour
"Commander Cody" Fume saluted the older clone, who returned his short salute and took of his own helmet, showing light signs of aging.
"Should we inform Lord Vader about this?" the captain asked and received denial in the form of shake of the head
"Negative, his Lordship is assaulting the enemy castle as we speak. I don't want to be on his bad side when he comes back. Rendezvous with your men and proceed towards mission objectives, we want to sweep the city clear before Lord Vader is finished in the palace. A firing solution will be ready in T minus 2 minutes"
"Sir, my men will need more time!" Fume protested, but the commander shook his head
"Negative, remember your orders trooper. Your boys should be fast enough for T minus 3 minutes to get back to you."
"Copy that sir, over." That was the moment he knew that it was time to recall his men from what was to be a death zone, curtesy of the Turbolaser batteries of the Super Star Destroyer.
Terminating the connection Fume commanded the rest to get on the tank, while clicking his commlink and firing quick orders for the snipers who were currently rappelling from the ruined clocktower with reckless abandon, despite their training no one wished to be caught in the middle of blast of a capital ship. Even if they were safely out of the blast radius.
The firing solution would be ready any second now, but the clone sergeant saw no sight of his men, grim realization came to his heart as he climbed into the tank. Once inside he offered one last prayer for his brave snipers and waited.
Across the city, where the last bastions of fighting still hadn't ceased, the twin princesses surveyed what was the end of their rule. In the Palace, Princess Rune Venus and Princess Fatora were having the most common type of discussion discovered between a pair of siblings- a heated row.
"Why did you have the Eye to try to them down? Did a thought not fit in your head that these aliens might have a technology more advanced than ours and the Eye could be destroyed?!"
"The Eye did destroy the Bugrom!" Fatora cut back, but Rune wasn't done yet, the promiscuous princess hadn't seen her sister like that since the Bugrom War.
"If you weren't so busy trying to seduce the maids and being an utter glutton, you might have noticed that Katsuhiko Jinnai and Queen Diva are alive and well, if the debacle in Cretaria was of any indication! I have no doubt that he will assist us, but we have to hold the Palace until then." The blonde continued her accusations, but soon enough stopped of the pointlessness of the situation, the stress wouldn't be an enemy she would succumb to. Not till the end of their rule as bleak as things seemed right now.
"Fatora, where's Makoto and the rest?" Rune asked as she looked out of the window. Not even Jinnai's maniacal campaign had done such damage to the city. While the teenager had experienced the full malice of the Bugrom armies, their conquest had been remarkably clean, hitting only the infrastructure junctions and points of interest under the pretense of the brutal war machine, but these aliens acted like meat grinders, showing no empathy for her guardsmen and the history of the planet. From what she had witnessed, the white armoured aliens treated every obstacle as a living breathing foe, which meant it's destruction. She could see her city burning and the streets run red with the blood of her guardsmen. It tugged at her heartstrings, but she wouldn't be the helpless girl she was three years ago.
Fatora crossed her arms and pointed at the direction of the makeshift barricades blocking all, but the secret entrances to the Throne room " Fujisawa went to check up on Miz, stopping the crash of the Eye took a lot out of her, I doubt she will be of any use to the defence, Shayla and Afura are welding close entrances and are prepared to battle alongside Sir Londs and everyone else." This relieved the crown princess immensely and she allowed herself to sit down on the miniature throne in their room.
"What about ?" Rune asked and her sister used that time to arm herself with
"He has gone with Makoto and Nanami, to convince Jinnai"
"At least all is not lost, then, how long would it take them to arrive at the site of the former hive?"
"If they took the prototype and the Bugrom are near, I'd wager half a day at least. How will we hold on until then, sister?"
"I don't know sis, I don't know"
Fatora slumped against one of the cushions and hugged her knees. She hoped that Alielle was safe, now she missed her more than ever.
Suddenly the communication table buzzed alight and the princesses could hear Londs shouting. The guards in the room shook with terror as they all realised what was currently happening at the entrance of Roshtaria's palace.
Fatora rushed at the table "Londs, report! What's happening down there?" She almost shouted as the tell-tale sound of beamfire and explosions echoed through the background.
"Your Highness-" then it frazzled, and the table fell silent. This changed everything. They had breached the palace. There was no other choice but to run like vermin.
The two guards in the room looked at one another before they walked to a smooth face of a wall. Opening one of the many secret doors the two men ushered the girls within, closing the fake wall behind them. As soon as they were safe in the small passage, the girls heard sounds of door breaching and wails of their guardsmen. The princesses ran as fast as they could, daring not to look back.
Through the narrow passages and damp corridors, the two girls were only armed with the small arms pistols and their wits. Running on the very last vestiges of their stamina, the two took a right turn when the path branched. They hoped that their memory had been correct and they were now heading for the secret underwater hangar in the many branches of river of God and not the tomb of previous queens.
"If we survive this then I'm forsaking women and wine altogether!" Fatora cried out as she stepped into another puddle of water, feeling the wetness as it soaked through her previously dry feet.
"IF" Rune Venus glared at her sister "we survive this and everything returns to normal, you're going to spend the rest of your days in a monastery!"
"Oh sister, why art tho so cruel?" the brunette groaned as they took another turn, using the time to tell Rune a stupid joke, fully aware that it would do nothing to alleviate the stress of their unfavourable situation. In this carnage there was little she could do to help her sister or her nation, but for her people she'd have to remain strong and support her sister through it all.
Their rewards and struggles were rewarded soon enough when they came up heavy wooden door, that pushed aside revealed a spacious cavern glittering light from the stalactites hanging above, in the middle of the underground lake sat a grand yacht, sleek and royal without a doubt, but there the similarities ended between the usual craft used by the Royal family ended. Without white sails accustomed to, the craft seemed almost sinister with its black coat of paint and weapons platforms.
"Wow, isn't it cool?!" Fatora cheered as she almost skipped over to the craft intent on inspecting every nook and cranny of it, all peril and threat gone from her mind. Rune merely crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, trying to laugh at her sister's antics. However, the laughter didn't come, instead a hollow feeling reverberated in her chest, doubt surrounding her. She knew not what would come from it all and all she could do was hope.
As Rune Venus approached the craft for herself, she could hear the screams of her sister. Immediately the woman grabbed her beam pistol and ran towards the vehicle, fully intent on feeing her little sister from whoever dared to attack her.
"Fatora" the blonde princess called out as she ran up the ladder, gun ready to fight whoever had startled her. Yet as soon as she had stepped aboard on the craft, six insectoid arms of grabbed her, knocking the pistol from her grasp. Soon she heard the familiar chittering and clicking natural to Bugrom. Of all things today, had the bugs and their despicable leader really decided to make a move when the aliens were attacking. Were they stupid enough to attack when a much greater foe was looming over their heads? Had Jinnai been deposed? For when the earthling had led their hordes, their conquest had been rooted in logical, albeit unorthodox methods.
"Let me go!" she screamed and predictably the giant bugman just carried her inside the command bridge of the boat, where sat Fatora tied to a chair, it supposed that she was going to suffer the same fate.
"If you could not tie me up, that would be appreciated"
"Wozawoozawo?" the one holding her chirped to the violet bugrom standing two feet taller than the rest. Apparently the leader had something to say to that, it raised it's upmost arms and clacked as if shrugging.
"Woz"
After the single syllable the woman was let go and much to Fatora's chagrin, who was also gagged by a handkerchief, the bugs offered her one of the nice chairs, instead of the uncomfortable little wooden stool.
"So why are you here? I doubt taking us hostage will do you and your queen much good" Rune looked at the bugs who deftly had turned on the consoles and where conversing with one another in their strange tongue as a smaller bugrom, a messenger strain ,no doubt about it, carried a small round device.
With a subtle blue glow the device lit up in cold blue glow and Jinnai's smarmy grin was with what she was greeted with. She was almost glad that it was him.
"Princess I do hope Groucho and the rest were gentle. We do have an alien invasion to stop" the former friend of Makoto spoke, before being interrupted as someone entered the room in the middle of transmission. For a moment Jinnai looked surprised, but then his smile grew even wider and he ordered something unpronounceable in bugrom speech. The effect was unmistakeable as the bugs now were running across the bridge in chaos.
As the yacht started to move, deep rumbling could be heard and before her very eyes the black material turned into almost mirror shape to match the surroundings.
"Oh I forgot to mention" Jinnai said good naturedly "The aliens don't know about us, but we have to act fast before they will discover us. The very fate of El Hazard rests on my shoulders, isn't it exhilarating, princess? Hahahaha" The God-prophet laughed, before waving and turning off the transmission.
"I wouldn't say that" Rune bit her lip and watched as her city burned by the hands of alien invaders. She just hoped that Makoto and her friends were alright. They had lived through another invasion already and this time Jinnai was their ally. Whether or not it was a good thing would remain to be seen.
Far away from the yacht, that was approaching the outpost Tetra Gamma, deep within the planets crust in one of the hives a man was sitting in a poorly lit cell. His formerly white armour was laid out in front of him, without anything that could be used to escape, while metal handcuffs bit into his arms if he tried to break free.
Trooper-501-344753, Trent Syln knew he was in deep shit when the door opened and another batch of Pantorans entered, with their torture tools, followed by a small holotable.
He hoped that they would be done with him soon.
A.N: 'Tis a wrap. This chapter was very hard to write as it focussed on bunch of El Hazard characters I didn't really like, the fun part comes when Jinnai gets face to face with the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Have fun, be merry, marry, I don't care and see you soon !- Spook