Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! Good day to everyone else!
Okay, this more or less takes place during the second chapter after the scene from Bail's POV in the Senate.
Just a quick note, Vader isn't in his iconic suit in this.
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Lord Darth Vader walked through the part of the Imperial Palace that housed the military planning areas of the Empire.
Things had been going well for the past three years. His daughter was doing as well as any child could in her position. He was worried that the bombing of the building that they had been living in had upset her but so far she seemed unfazed, probably because they both had been away at the time and there was no significant damage to their apartment.
It had been a tedious day and he was looking forward to relaxing and playing with his daughter.
He paused and checked the datapad with his schedule and smiled. He was free to return to his temporary quarters where his little angel was waiting.
As he was heading back to his quarters, his datapad beeped. Sighing he retrieved it and scowled. His Master wanted him to go to the Western Hangar and greet Ambassador Ryja Roes from Merica.
He was a soldier, not a diplomat.
But to ignore a command from Lord Sidious was dangerous, especially for him.
Vader reached the Western Hangar in record time and waited.
Something felt wrong.
Vader searched the currents of the Force for answers but they weren't forthcoming.
Finally a ship flew into the hangar and the plank lowered.
He watched a female descend from the ship with a few guards
Vader decided that the female was Ryja Roes since the others with her were male.
"Welcome to Coruscant, Madam." He began. "The heart of the Galactic Empire"
Ryja Roes just nodded curtly at him.
He was now unnerved.
Most beings either cowered in his presence or tried to get into his good graces by doing some bootlicking or asking how his daughter was.
The Force was warning him but he couldn't be sure what it was trying to tell him.
Suddenly he sensed danger and malice.
Somewhere in the Palace there was a series of dull rumbles followed shortly by the blaring of alarms. Vader turned his head and Felt for the cause of the trouble. On the other side of the Palace, possibly near one of the civilian entrances one or more bombs had gone off.
The Force was full of fear, pain and death.
He Felt fear radiate from Ryja and her guards at the sound of the alarms but oddly he also Felt satisfaction.
He barely had time to call the Force to him before the ship that the Mericans had come on exploded into a fiery ball, sending metal flying everywhere.
Vader was thrown through the air and slammed hard against something.
He could hear more alarms blaring along with a couple more explosions. It was brilliant he admitted to himself as he tried to flip onto his back but found that his right cybernetic foot was crushed and his left leg was damaged and pinned under large pile of debris. Set off a decoy explosion to draw the attention of security and emergency personnel to one location far from your real target then detonate one at your real target. The personnel would be torn between two targets and maximum damage could be done.
The question was why would the Mericans risk the wrath of the Empire by attempting to murder him? They were a small system that was known for living simply and not causing trouble for anyone. Perhaps a rebel group had captured the delegation and replaced them.
By the amount of smoke in the air he guessed that there were fires burning in different parts of the hangar. He was reminded of Mustafar.
Reaching out with the Force, he disengaged his damaged cybernetic legs from the stumps of his legs. Grimacing in pain he flipped himself over and using his forearms started to pull himself across the wrecked hangar floor.
His head was pounding and his vision was blurry most likely because something was running into his eyes. Pausing he carefully inspected his head and face with both hands and found bumps, bruises and what felt like several good sized gashes.
Vader hissed in pain and annoyance as he brought his hands back down and could clearly see blood and something else covering his gloves.
He had to get out of there before he passed out from his injuries but he already knew he wouldn't make it and soon he felt himself fall.
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She was drawing on the floor when she heard and faintly felt a series of explosions followed by alarms blaring through the Imperial Palace where she and her father were staying since their old home had been damaged in an attack a few weeks ago.
She couldn't understand why beings would try to hurt her and her father.
Malakah had told her that there were beings that didn't like her father. They hated him so much that they were willing to kill anyone that got in their way. She couldn't understand why anyone would hate her father and had told him so. Malakah had simply told her that one day she would understand.
It was the same thing Nani told her a lot.
"What's that? Are they bombs, Malakah?" she asked softly, afraid of another attack.
"I believe so my Lady," he replied.
Curious, she reached out with the Force like her father had been teaching her and she Felt the pain and deaths of those caught in the blasts.
She felt tears form in her eyes, upset and confused by the pointless deaths that just happened,
She looked at her drawing, wondering whether or not she was in the mood to continue when another series of explosions went off, shaking the room more than the previous ones. Malakah was immediately at her side and barking into his personal commlink telling everyone on her security detail to report in and asking questions. One by one different Noghri reported in telling Malakah what they knew.
Then through the Force she Felt a spike of distress from her father along with waves of pain. Without a second thought she bolted out of the suite without telling Malakah what was wrong.
Fear made her hurry down different corridors searching for the way to her father's side; racing passed a group of emergency personnel at one point.
Finally she reached the darkened entrance to what used to be a hangar reserved for dignitaries. Looking around she saw the twisted remains of a ship, crates and odd lumps but her father was nowhere in sight. Calming her frightened mind like he taught her to she looked around the ruined hangar before she Sensed his presence.
It didn't take her too long to find him lying face down on the floor, missing his fake legs and something red spreading out around him.
She knew instinctively that he needed to get out of the hangar; there were a lot of smoke and small fires burning in the hangar.
Without so much as a second thought, she snatched up his right hand and tried to drag him out of the hangar.
He was too heavy for her.
"Daddy, we need to get out of here!" She cried as she tried again to move him, getting ready to tap into the Force to give her more strength.
Suddenly she felt arms grab her and yank her upwards.
"Let me go!" She screamed as she kicked and punched the person holding her but was met with hard armor.
"Over here!" Her captor yelled as he hurried through the remains of the hangar. It was then that she realized that her captor was really Rex.
"Rex, Daddy's hurt!" she cried as she fought his grip.
"Let the Medics help him." Rex told her as he covered her with a cloak as they raced down a corridor passing a media droid.
She cried as she remembered how just a few days ago she had visited the Senate with her father and her fear that she would never go anywhere with him again; that he would leave her like her mother and the other had.
Once Rex entered her and her father's temp home he gently lowered her to the floor. "You need to stay here until security can clear the entire area of threats." With that he turned and left.
Slipping into a chair, she used the Force to call Paka to her. Fear swamped her and she hugged Paka tightly.
"I don't want to be alone." She sobbed.
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Vader watched almost dispassionately as medical droids worked on replacing his cybernetic legs with new ones since the old ones were now too badly damaged to go back on. It reminded him of what he had lost and had almost lost.
His former Master and friend had sliced off his real legs over three years ago on Mustafar along with his left arm before leaving him to die on the bank of a river of lava. It was also the day his beloved wife had died and for a week he believed that she had taken their child with her.
A cry of pain escaped him as one of the droids almost too roughly prepared his left cybernetic leg for connection.
"Stupid droid!" he snapped, resisting the urge to use the Force to destroy the thing for its carelessness.
"Perhaps we should wait for the wounds to heal somewhat before we continue." One of the droids commented.
"We have orders to have him ready to return to duty in three days." The head droid responded flatly.
A needle sank into his shoulder and the contents were released. During his last few visits the medical droids had given him various injections for the past year without explaining their purpose but he could guess what they were for: rebalancing his hormones. He still remembered his failed attempt to escape the Emperor and the consequences it had brought.
He had noticed that the effects of the injection the Emperor had given him had more or less vanished but now and then they had plagued him but if the punishment was ending perhaps he could take his little angel and disappear into the galaxy again.
She was old enough to follow orders and if need be he could send her on alone; Force be willing they would meet up at their destination together or they would never see each other for a long time.
Closing his eyes he used the Force to create a start point, making sure to cover the last few minutes of his thoughts before it was too late. While the droids finished their work he made sure everything was in place for what he hoped to accomplish.
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And no, the Mericans were not part of the plot. They are more or less content under the Empire.