CHAPTER XV
The last few days had been a smashing success for Sen. Zyr.
Zyr had used his smear campaign at every corner of the galaxy, revealing President Organa's parentage and using fear-mongering to create sympathies for a war with the Hosnian System. While not everyone fully believed the stories, everyone knew of the recent uprising of the Sith Imperialists at Hosnian Prime, and the fact that President Organa had not been seen in a while but was rumored to have gone there recently seemed to back up his claim. Zyr gave many campaign speeches, and he seemed more and more likely to win. Zyr would be the very first Chiss president that the galaxy had ever had.
As for Veep, the droid was immediately plugged into the virus machine on Zyr's office, to be given a full memory wipe. After being unplugged, Veep certainly was a lot less talkative.
Zyr was planning his big speech in his office, and muttered to himself:
"Looks like I'm going to beat this, and all without the help of that snot-nosed Kylo Ren. The first thing I'm going to do as president is tell him off."
"I was thinking, sir," Veep said, rolling into the office, "Why wait until after the election? Why not now?"
"What?" Zyr snapped.
"You know how rash and unstable he is. If you tell him off once you become president, he's likely to try and assassinate you, maybe stage a coup. But if you tell him off now, with the election in full swing and so much support against the Sith, any attempt he would make will fail, and it will just help your victory even more."
Zyr smiled. The idea of telling Ren off now excited him, even if it went again against his better judgment.
"But-I don't want him Force-choking me-"
"Don't speak to him live. I can send him a recorded hologram for you; he will take that as the ultimate insult."
"Yes," Zyr said, "Alright, get ready to record. I know exactly what I want to tell him."
And far off in the Hosnian System, as Kylo Ren sat in his Star Destroyer, continuing to monitor Hosnian Prime day in and day out, trying to track down that girl, Darth Cullen suddenly approached him.
"Master, you have a new transmission from the senator."
"Doesn't that idiot ever tire out of things to say?" Ren said, but then went to the transmission room. Sure enough, a hologram of Zyr was transmitted in front of him.
"Hello, Ren," the senator sneered at him, "Don't bother trying to choke me; this is a recording."
Ren had been able to tell his right away; this hologram had been pre-recorded and there was no one to sense in front of him.
"I'm sending this to tell you that I found the VP-unit you were supposed to find, and have put his data to good use. It looks like I will be winning this election on my own. So, my friend, I no longer have any need for your services, and will look forward to having you killed like the insolent coward you are."
Ren was taken aback by this, but the recording went on.
"You think you're so powerful, just because you can use the Force and murder people with it? That just makes you a thug. And your precious idol, Darth Vader, was nothing more than a thug either, though at least he had some sense of military strategy. No, it's people like me, people who can't use the Force, who are the real conquerors. Because we survive on our brains. I've outsmarted you, Ren, both as a strategist and as a leader. And now, let it be war between us!"
And the transmission ended. Before Kylo Ren had a moment to react to this insult, the entire system went down; the Star Destroyer was suddenly losing course.
"Master!" cried Darth Cullen as he ran into the room, "There was a virus in that transmission! It's overriding all our systems! The Finalizer is losing power!"
Ren reached out and began choking Cullen.
"How? How can one simple hologram have a virus that powerful?"
Cullen struggled to breathe, but was able to get out.
"It was-deeply encoded in-the transmission-no computer-could have detected it-"
Ren let go of Cullen and ran through the Star Destroyer, wielding his lighstsaber in fury!
Back on Csilla, Zyr waited impatiently. Veep had been plugged into the office's computer and had broadcast the recorded message out to Ren.
"Was it successful?" Zyr asked.
"Affirmative," Veep said, then was unplugged and rolled away.
Zyr was happy-until his aides started running into his office.
"Sir, all the systems are down!"
"What? How is that possible-"
And suddenly, all his computers began to explode! Zyr was knocked over as his office was exploding in ruins.
In all the chaos, no one noticed Veep slowly rolling out of the burning office and towards safety, for Veep was the only one who knew exactly what was going on.
When Veep had been plugged into the virus machine, the memory wipe had not worked. Zyr and his aides had forgotten that Veep was a much newer model. Instead, Veep had uploaded the virus program off the machine, and since then had coyly pretended to have had its memory erased, showing no signs of any data.
And now, in a cunning act of sabotage, Veep had used Zyr's hologram transmission as a way to trick everyone, simultaneously sending the memory wipe virus out to both Ren's Star Destroyer and to Zyr's entire office, making sure to override every single system until they short-circuited. As Zyr's office was going up in explosions, Veep merrily rolled right out the front door and onto the icy-terrains of Csilla. He was happy to have gotten revenge on both his captors, and would have to make due on this icy planet for the time being.
And far off, as the Finalizer had lost all power and was starting to fall out of orbit, the Sith Imperialists ran into escape pods. Kylo Ren was enraged that this Star Destroyer, which had been his home for a while now, was being taken out like this, only to now float forever in the vacuum of space.
He entered his tie-fighter; if he was going to go out, he was going to go in style. He flew out of the sinking Star Destroyer and towards Hosnian Prime. Yes, he'd get his revenge on Zyr, but first he was going to settle his business on the planet's surface and kill Skywalker and the girl!