WROTE ALL OF THIS WITHIN THE LAST THREE DAYS. IT WAS NEVER A CHAPTER ON THE OTHER TWO TIMES. I HAD THIS STORY OUT. IT IS COMPLETELY NEW, SO HOPEFULLY, YOU LIKE MY INTRODUCTION TO A SPECIAL SQUADRON OF CLONES FROM LEGENDS AND A LOOK AT CHRISTENS ARRIVAL TO ODESSEN.
THREE DAYS LATER
ODESSEN FOURTH BASE
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
A sith acolyte and a regal officer of the Empire's forty-fifth battalion on the alpha fleet woke up and prepared for another day of waiting for the sith to come to the planet. They had decided to meet up within the outside barracks in the morning None of them seemed particularly rested. A look of agitation was on Quinta's face. The woman felt tormented as if a war was raging inside.
"Qinta, are you alright? You look flushed and torn down." The Commander asked his friend and leader for their city, it wasn't a bad deal to be in the likes of the most powerful sith on the planet currently.
"The Force… It's almost... how do I put this? It's like it's in turmoil. I can't understand it well, BUT Something big is going to happen, and that is all i know." She said in a worried tone. The sense of unease spread to the non-force users.
"Well, that's a great start to another day in the empire." Kristan stated. His usual joking attitude was gone, Gredar shot him a glare as if to say, 'No Shit.' He saw it and shrugged.
'I think I may have the answer your looking for Lady Takia." An Engineer who had overhead them spoke out. They turned to him with frustrated and surprised looks. His tone was dead serious as they all looked to the datapad in his hand.
"Well...What the Kriff is going on!?" Hugo said to him with a raised voice, obviously impatient to hear what the entire planet was moving around and getting ready for their Emperor, an Emperor they were supposed to meet the Empire here a few weeks ago.
"Seem's like the Emperor who Gathered, enslaved all of this Empire is...Dead. Darth Bane was destroyed by the Relic Slave as well called him."
"WHAT!" Lana all but screamed
"Yeah... it seems that we have a New Emperor, and we haven't even been afloat for two decades" the man looked embarrassed at having to tell them.
"Well, I'm not following some weak slave," she all but sneered at him. The. The group knew she was just pissed everyone; everyone within the Empire knew the Slave hated their Emperor.
"Lady Taika, I understand your...predicament with not wanting to follow the New Emperor..."
"SLAVE," she butted in, making all of them scowl at her for such disrespect.
"But from what our scouts that went to the Sith homeworld, it seems the Slave destroyed a third of the entire planet... in some kind of force repulse," he spoke clearly, his brown eyes never leaving the now shocked yellow eyes of Lady Qinta Takia.
"T-T-That's That's impossible," she stuttered out. She was reeling from the information she had just been given her sith masters had been on Korriban.
"HOLY, the Sla- I mean Emperor destroyed the entire planet!" Hugo exclaimed.
"No, he obliterated a third of the planet, life is still possible, but the Force is nonexistent when you step into the affected area as if he stripped it away. What I'm trying to say, Lady Takia, is that he is much more powerful than your Darth Bane. I would keep that opinion of the Emperor to yourself since he is coming here later today. Now that I am already talking to you, I have been ordered by the Supreme Commander to put in the communications of the planet for every Force adept at being present in the capital within the hour." with that proclamation, the Engineer continued on to the communications room within the building, leaving a stunned group within the Empire, on the planet tens of thousands of the same conversations were happening.
SIX HOURS LATER.
Christen was woken up after a ten-hour nap. It seemed they were a few minutes from exiting hyperspace if nothing went wrong. He quickly got all his armor and weapons equipped and left his personal chambers. He stalked his way to the bridge of the ship. When the doors opened, christen was surprised to find over forty HK and TY model droids running around. When they acknowledged him, they all spoke in their robotic voices.
"My, Lord."
He didn't say anything back and simply walked to his throne and sat upon it. A TY droid started counting down from five, and soon christen felt the familiar shutter along with the blue and white swirling ending as they entered real space.
"My lord, we are picking up a sector fleet above the planet's northern region," to say, christen was flabbergasted at the thousands of ships that were above the planet's orbit. They were all of his designs. The flagship seemed to be pitch black. The only color he saw was the bright blue of hanger ray shields. The vessels were forked, the indents comprising the hangar bay's entrances. There were ten destroyer class ships beneath the flash chip and four battleships above the Vessal outer edges.
The planet of Odessen looked completely different from when he was there last. It was most likely because he could feel hundreds of millions of life forms within nine clusters on the planet's floor.
The planet itself looked the same, lush green continents, amid large oceans, the oceans, lakes, and rivers covered nearly half the planet, the continents were all connected in some way, except for one which was all alone, surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean between it and any other piece of land.
"My Lord, we are being Hailed by the Fleet. They have also sent out two fighters. They will be on us within a few minutes" christen was growing irritated by the second.
"Sent them to my thone comm," he said as he made sure he looked menacing enough.
"Identified vessel, please give your chain code!" the voice sounded arrogant and self-serving, not the welcome he was looking for.
"As Emperor, I doubt giving a chain code is necessary. If you truly don't realize what ship this is, then I'm already disappointed in my own Empire."
He growled.
"HOw Dar-ahhhh," the man started to shout, then the comm went dead for a few seconds.
"Your Highness, I Apologise on behalf of the Punishment Sectoral fleet, and my own Apology as Supreme Commander Doth Qyss of this sector for that crew members offensive actions, he is currently being thrown into the base's prison" christens scowl soon turned to a gaping mouth at the Voice. It confirmed the name of a slave he met two years into being enslaved, the true Mandalorian Doth Qyss.
"DOTH! what the hell are you doing here? I thought that bastard executed you!" christen exclaimed, and to his shock, the other man simply chuckled.
"yeah... I'm sorry, My Lord, but it was either betray your trust and give him everything we worked on or have my entire clan assassinated. As someone who knows Mandalorians, you can understand how far my honor was pushed," Doth explained. His voice indeed sounded regretful, and christen could and lies within the Force.
"Well. I can't say I'm not happy to hear your voice, so by the looks of it ill be having to prove myself to a fraction of MY own Empire?" he questioned. He was miffed about it. Still, he was also looking forward to the battles.
"It is a small minority of the Empire, sir, just the crowd that actually followed the Sith to a pinpoint," he explained lightly, not trying to piss off his new Emperor, even if they were old friends.
"Hmm, well then I will just have to have an arena set up and weed out these pests by letting them have a go at me," he quipped, the frustration of being a father to a new empire and a load of teenagers needed to be let out.
"I will coordinate an arena to be built, sir, but I will let you know what meetings will be happing this afternoon; we have a busy day, My lord," Doth was treading lightly, but even he was annoyed while waiting for his Emperor.
"I'm sure, ill meet you outside the ramp of the ship, I'm hoping," he said with an edge to his tone.
"I'm afraid not, you will be met by... the remanents of the Sith council, so I guess your first battle will happen shortly, I'm afraid, but don't worry, the majority of the Empire could care less if you kill them or even ensla... I-I mean to keep them alive, I will be meeting with you to talk about the fleets and troops" the Mandalorian almost slipped up, and he even felt a slight caress of invisible fingers when he mentioned enslavement.
"That will be entertaining, to say the least. Well, then I will see you soon, Supreme commander Qyss."
christen swore he heard a chuckle from the man before he ended the communication and turned towards the Hk piot droid in front of the navigation screen. "HK-P51 find that location that Doth just sent us, make sure we get there as soon as possible" the droid looked towards the screen and started pouring over the data as it spoke.
"Statment: As you wish, We will be landing on the northern side. There are currently several bases that seem to be of the same design all over the planet eastern continent, these Meatbags are very impressive with their fortifications" christen was impressed that the designs were enough that it impressed the HK models, no doubt one of his own designs stolen forms him by Bane.
Soon after flying over hundreds of miles of forest and mountain terrain, christen could pick up the shape of a giant plateau. It was directly underneath a star destroyer that looked to be of a three-pointed fork design. The orange and red colors of the underbelly clear for him to make out.
The plateau was surrounded by tall, dense forests, coupled with a high mountain range that overlooked the base itself. Though christen could see smoke trails, he could tell it was well-inhabited undeath the trees. The base itself had to be ten stories tall. On the longest side, he guessed it was around fifty kilometers. Compared to the shortest side of the base, which looked approximately forty-five kilometers, it formed a weird polygon shape.
That's not what caught Christen's attention, though. That was the perfect square cavity that seemed to be around twenty-five kilometers on its sides and approximately fifteen kilometers deep. These bases were definitely not here when he was here for his training.
As the ship got closer, christen could only gape as he saw millions of people running about in the Cavity.
On the mouth of Cavity was a spectacular sight. The entire area comprised of mostly filled docking bay's, dockyards for freighters, and even a dozen shipyards that seemed to be teeming with life.
On one side of the Cavity were three gigantic shipyards that seemed to be working on multiple cruiser class vessels.
The southern side seemed to be a simple storage dock. Another thing caught his attention: the hundreds of giant generators surrounding a majority of the shipyards. From their design, christen could tell they were used for powering the repulser lifts so that ships can safely land from orbit down to the bottom of the Cavity.
The final side of the Cavity was one giant shipyard, including the entire height of the wall. it was currently working on what seemed to be an almost finished flagship
and he could even recognize it as a flagship design he created after combining the sith empire dreadnought designs with a mon cal warship.
This cruiser has excellent firepower speed, and handling for its size has excellent shielding and fighter capacity. Improved hyperdrives, heavy shieling, and a powerful stygium stealth shield, along with thousands of powerful turbo laser lasers along with just over a thousand ion cannons. Missiles and torpedo launchers w have been augmented with warhead and Hypermatter launchers. A giant behemoth is well over twenty-five times bigger than the sith Empire class 2 Battlecruiser. If it was exactly built like he had it designed, then christen be confident The flagship could carry about 50 corvette class vessels. The craft was guided in and out of the hangar via tractor beam emitters placed around the hull.
The vessel would also be equipped with the advanced Battle Analysis Computer designed by one Doth Qyss. The computer displayed a detailed holographic simulation of a battle in progress. It assisted the naval commanders by suggesting strategies and attack maneuvers based on the current status of both the allied and enemy fleets.
A Grand flagship, but he knew it wasn't his. He was sure of it by what Adrmial Zero had told him, and by what the data pads said, his flagship should still be under construction at the star forge.
The droids finally got down to the Docking Bay on the west side of the structure, it overlooked the large flagship shipyard, he also noticed saw it was close to what seemed like a large elevator, he also saw eery single being turn to look at his ship, he could pick out a group of fifteen black-cloaked figures waiting for him, they stood right where the ramp would drop,
Christen licked his lips inside his helmet in anticipation. He turned to the HK Commander droid in charge of the HK troops.
"HK-C57 activate a troop of HK-68 attack models, along with another troop of HK-72 tank class droids. send them to the hanger bay, I will relay with them shortly, I want you to warn them that they are to not shoot the... meatbags who attempt to kill me unless I ask them to intervene" he was already out of his throne and moving toward the exit when the droid replied
"Distressed Statement: Oh, Master, why do you have to be so cruel? Could they violently kill at least one meatbag? This limitation irks my assassination protocols of my predecessors, Master." christen smirked at the droids sass.
"No HK, but you can kill anyone who even attempts to touch the ship besides the droids aboard," and with that, christen left the bridge. It took him a few moments to get to the hanger bay on the first floor. He already saw the forty droids arguing amongst themselves on how it was or wasn't fair that they couldn't kill any meatbags.
"Alright, Guy's I'm guessing you have been updating on your commands," he asked with amusement clearly evident. Even though they were droids, it seemed he put too much of his sass into his TY models and had never seen a problem with HK's odd personalities. The lead droid, a black and orange cortosis, and Phrik plated HK-68 attack model, the droid answered his questions.
"Statement: I am so sad I can't kill any meat bags, master," he whined, and the other droids seemed to agree. A loud chuckle left christens mouth as he unclipped two of his lightsabers and twirled them around in his hand. He took a deep breath as he used the Force to activate the ramp to drop.
"that's true unless they have a lot of back-ups, and by the size of the crowd, I have no doubt you will have your fun," he exclaimed to the now giddy forty-some droids.
A loud hiss sounded throughout the hanger as the metallic ramp slowly dropped to the metal floor of the docking bay. Christen could already see his ship had garnered a crowd of thousands, and in the front of his ramp were fifteen sith wannabes. He could guess they were a band of several different species. The droids tensed up instantly and took out their Mandalorian-styled assault blastor's
The ramp had barely hit the floor before the lead sith, a beautiful green and blonde-haired Human. However, she seemed to have the looks of a torguta on height, the blue-tinted skin, and her large eyes. Her eyes, of course, had been corrupted by the dark side. She already stepped foot on his ramp as she yelled out in spite and anger.
"A slave dare's to take the RIGHTFUL place of A SITH!" she spits towards him as she continued her rant.
"You would tear down our order to ashes, for you to be so foolish as to think you can just take control on the SITH empire, it seems Darth Bane's little pet is nothing more than a brute, all your genius is gone...MY Lord... and soon you will die," he exclaimed. Only a few hundred fellow men behind her cheered her on. The sith were trembling for the fight to start.
Christen simply smirked at these beautiful hybrids' courage. If she could be taken out quickly, he might be able to convert her afterwords.
"Droids... kill everyone who cheered these pathetic sith on while they disrespected your Master, leave the sith to me" he used the Force to create a loud echo to crash through the base. He wanted everyone to hear his proclamations; within seconds, the droids were up in the air, flying towards their targets. The rest of the men even refused them passage back into the crown. They created a barrier so that the droids would know who to kill. Close to seven hundred men were now cattled into an HK and TY killing arena.
The sith refused to move. They simply stared down at one another until christen broke the sounds of screaming and cheering from his Empire. The sounds of blaster fire from the traitors and his droids filled the air.
"Oh dear, What did I get myself into" the sith all threw back their hoods and back away from the ramp.
As he walked towards them, he saw there were three male humans, three females also. Two male and one female torguta, a pair of zeltron males, a female red-skinned Twi'lek, an oddly tall male bothan, and a group of two male and one female Mirialans and a...red-skinned rodian. When he got to the bottom, the ramp quickly withdrew itself. As soon as it closed, two turrets from the side opened fire on the crowd of traitors. The most never took their eyes off him.
They smirked at his proclamation as if he was finished.
"killing you will be such fun. I have touched the Force unlike anyone else. My power is incalculable to you." within a second, christen ignited his Lava lightsabers and slashed through the zeltron male who stood next to the Blonde hybrid, his body sliding to the ground in four pieces. He ripped his elbow into her temple. She crumpled to the ground and was pushed away from the fight by the Rodian.
The sith hesitated at the sight of his speed and killing powerless. The air around him began to swirl with the amount of energy the Force was putting out. His aura was blinding to them.
Small bits of force lighting was beginning to shoot out of his gauntlets and lightsabers. The sith began to feel like the air around them was becoming statically charged.
One of the torguta males got shocked, and his cloaked arm began smoking as he fell back screaming in pain. Before any of them could charge him with their lightsabers, christen struck the group of three male humans to his left with a massive burst of orange force lightning. The smell of burning flesh and plasma filled the sith's nostrils. The burst was so powerful that the floor where the lightning was thrown was melting.
Only then was he hounded with twelve lightsabers, using the Force to call His other two sabers to interlock with the ones in his hands.
Keeping one staff above his right shoulder as he kept the other near his left hip, he took their blows for a few seconds before he found himself back-peddling, his armored fore moving so fast the sith were having trouble keeping up, they tried penetrating his orange wall of blocking strikes, it seemed at throw he would throw their own moves back at them, the zeltron thought using the Force to keep him balanced was instantly counteracted by the armored beast and his arms were so cut off at the elbow, he didn't even have time to scream before the beast slashed a saber through his neck and chest.
One of the Mirialan males tried to run. Still, he was simply cut down when the armored man force jumped through the four lightsabers that were in his way. To the sith, the man seemed to bat them away like they were nothing. The sith felt as though they were moving in water when they clashed blades with him.
Christen was giggling while he slashed all four lightsabers through the fleeing Mirialan, his body falling into dozens of charred sizzling pieces of flesh. He turned and saw the remaining twelve remaining Sith charge him; he could feel their fear spiking higher the hatred they felt for him.
He took a quick glance at the chaos behind him. He saw at least a dozen of his droids strew about; the remaining ones seemed to be on a killing frenzy with a combination of blasters, bombs, and blades. There were hundreds of bodies lying around. Even the loyal personnel of his Empire were blasting the remaining couple hundred traitors. They tried to escape his remaining droids.
Turning his attention back to the sith, he met them head-on as the injured torguta male was the first to engage him. He had even pulled out a shoot lightsabers. The sith held it in his injured palm. He was trying to close the distance to find a weak point in his armor.
Christen saw this maneuver, and with an elegant twist of his left staff, he batted it away before cupping under the man's wrist and cutting the man's arm off. His move was made within a fraction of a second. The sith could barely feel the pain before he was Force pushed into the Phantom's lower hull, his skull and brain matter splashing across the smooth black metal.
Christen naturally put up both double-sided blades when he felt a warning in the Force. He was thankful as he was hit with a barrage of force lighting from the eleven sith. He simply soaked it all up, bidding his time till they grew tired. He only had to wait fifteen seconds before they ceased their fire. Christen barely gave them time to think before he threw his arms out in a T shape, the built-up lighting killing five of the sith in the blast. The others seemed to see what he was doing and put up force shields. The remaining eight seemed fine except for the screaming Rodian, who seemed to barely succeed in his shielding as half his body was completely charred.
"you know I expected more from the Sith That Bane always bragged about, but all I've seen is Watered down version of the Dark sides most powerful order," he taunted as he clashed with nine blades on his four. He twirled his blades to the right, throwing them off hi for a fraction of a second, but that was all he needed as a tall, slender human female leaped into the air, and with a roar, brought down her twin crimson blades in a downward slash, trying to cut christen between the collar bone.
Even if she got through, she would have been blocked by the beskar armor. Christen demonstrated for his Empire another quality that he developed over the years of battles and torture. Stepping away from the first slash attack and letting the red-haired human land, her blazing yellow eyes glaring at him, she tried sending a powerful slashing attack meant for his stomach. Still, her sabers were suddenly stopped by christens armored wrist, the beskar resisting the lightsaber's blade.
Before the other Sith could back her up and before the female sith could even comprehend what happened, christen thrust the back ends of his double-bladed lightsaber through her chest. He slashed through her left side as she crumpled to the ground. Christen had no time to notice his handy work as he was set upon with powerful slashes from the remaining sith.
He sent a powerful force push toward them when he got a chance. They were thrown only three meters back.
Christen takes a deep breath as he moves three of his lightsaber back to his belt and brings himself to the typical hands next to your right shoulder stance of form seven.
"Come on, children, let a true master in the force bring you back into her open arms." both parties ran at full speed towards each other, christen could see only three of the sith relied upon themselves in this fight. The others simply chewing off their hits.
Christen elegantly jumped over their heads and ignited another lightsaber in his open hand. He stabbed the bothan sith in the lower back, but he soon had to retract his blade as he needed to deflect seven oncoming attacks. Christen was moving little by little now, nimbly moving his feet around the sith as he lept all sabers off his weak points that lay in-between his armor plating. He soon got an opening after the injured bothan took too long to strike. He sent a force repulse through the air, giving him a few meters of space between the several Sith.. he sprinted towards the last of the human female sith. They were breathing heavily. Still, they stood their ground when he attacked.
But even then, they weren't prepared for the level of power, speed, and ferocity of Their Emperor was putting towards them. That wasn't even mentioning how he coordinated the time between his attack and the time the other sith would be at his back. His first few attacks were directed only to gage their defenses, when he was they were tested enough, he allowed them to think they could strike him, their three crimson lightsabers struck out and hit in between his thigh and chest plating, it wasn't long enough to burn through the light cortosis weaving, but it was long enough that he had time to maneuver his lightsabers to cut through the four limbs and followed up with a slash that decapitated the two female sith. He feigns to the left in time to miss two stabbing blades from slamming against his back, he batted the blades away from him as he hin aways from the attacking sith, he was again rushed by the remaining three males of the group, within a second their four blades were upon him, their desperate strikes warranted him to take out his remaining lightsabers, the weapons creating a burst of color on impact with the opposing sabers, the three male sith were twirling their lightsabers in a rhythmical aggression as christen could see the remaining two female sith catching their breath and looking at the battle with fear evident in their eyes.
Because of this distraction, christen was momentarily pushed on the defensive. He called his right staff to twirl counter wise just in time to protect a stab into the already melted cortosis in the opening between his chest and right thigh armor plates. Christen now had all three sith opened to his attacks as he batted away their blades and quickly brought his blade down n the injured bothan male,, his arm being cleaved off. Soon his head followed, only to be cut into more pieces by a missed strike from the remaining Mirialan male. Christen barely let the man register his mistake before his right lightsabers cut through his chest and then through the man's eye sockets, but not entirely cutting to the brain.
The man slumped to the floor as he groaned in pain, the wounds to his chest killing him.
Christen looked up and saw the remaining four sith trembling in fear a few dozen feet ahead of him. He could not see they were surrounded by at least eighteen of his droids. Many of them looked like they needed heavy repairs and beyond his droids were hundreds of bodies and parts of his droids strewn about. Beyond that was an endless sea of hundreds of thousands of personnel stationed on the base.
Christen took this time to take off his helmet. The hiss of the pressure sounded off loudly, his long black hair dangling down beyond his shoulders as sweat dripped from his brow. He stared intently at the pathetic sith.
"kneel!" he growled out. The female mirialan took to her knee the fastest. She looked down to the ground. He could feel waves of disappointment, fear, and shame. The other three seemed to simply gape at their Emperor's face, the crowd of onlookers around them giving audible gasps.
His strong jaw, semi-high cheekbones, but what took
their eyes away by the immense power emanating from their Emperor's lava orange eyes, it was as if they were smoking, they saw three jagged vertical scars running own his left eye down to below his lower lip.
Their Emperor stood there before them, a towering Wookie-sized man, glistening with beskar armor, emanating a power they had never even thought was possible.
The three sith except the Rodian kneeled in defeat. He looked at them in shock, betrayal. Christen could feel the man's anger rose to new heights in the Force. With an audible roar, the man force jumped to christen, attempting to slash him in half.
Christen simply tilted his head and smirked as he brought his hand out. Before the red Rodian could even be in the range of striking him, he sends a Surge of force lighting straight into the man's gaping mouth. Within a millisecond, the end head exploded, and the body was thrown into the crown, much to their displeasure. Still, they soon were silent when they saw their Emperor was looking around at them. They were filled with fear.
Christen saw his Empire was thoroughly frightened, he was going to call out to the sith but saw the female human stir from her place, it was the only one he knocked out, he left her with the Force roughly, a yelp emanated from her, but she soon fell silent when she saw the hundreds of dead empire personnel around her, along with the remains of the sith council, he even felt her try to get out from his grasp...cute.
"Well, now that you have been thoroughly defeated like the pathetic worms the sith are, would you rather join me, or you could choose to die on your knees or your feet," he asked sarcastically. He felt the crowd hold their laughter back in fear they would enrage him.
The woman tried to stare him down, but looking into the pits of a molten core of the sun isn't easy, and that was what it was like for her.
He made sure of it.
Her shoulders slumped to their sides, and she dropped to her knees as he let his hold of her go.
"I-I-I will obey your wish...master," she let out the last part with a sob as it seemed he finally broke the last of the sith. He saw the injured bothan, red-skinned Twi'lek, and the mirialan still on their knees a few years behind him.
"I need eight of your droids HK-C57 to take those three into whatever brig this base has, follow the commands of the personnel...or at least try not to annoy them too much," he asked the droid, though it sounded like a joke his tone was not.
The three sith didn't even try to escape, as if christen took all their courage, passion, and strength from them. He turned his attention back to the Human in front of him. He walked closer to her, each step causing the sniffling woman to flinch. When he got close enough, he saw her hair had very intricate braided designs. He took her chin and tipped it up so that she was looking into his eyes once more.
"Now, I have a hectic schedule today, I have PLACES to be, PEOPLE to see, FLEETS to command, and an ORDER to revive, it would be prudent you can show me around this base without any incidents, or you can go to the brig on this base and never see the outside world again" he saw the anger in her eyes bubble up. Still, as soon as she remembered who stood in front of her, she slumped and spoke defeatedly.
"It will be my honor... Your Majesty" with that, he let her go and stepped back from her. She slowly stood up. When she stumbled her quickly used the Force to keep her upright, she sent a glance of gratitude at him
to christen looked around him. Well over eight hundred bodies were lying around the hundred-meter circle that was now present between his ship and the Empire's men. after the eight droids and the imprisoned sith seemingly disappeared in the crowd.
Christen's surviving security team was left with three undamaged HK-68's along with six damaged ones, coupled with the remaining four undamaged HK-78's along with seven damaged ones.
"OSI'KYR, well I told you, old friend, there would be a welcoming party" christen heard this proclamation to her right. The droids and, surprisingly, his new jedaii initiate reacted hostilely. this brought lots of uneasiness within the forces of the Empire
Christen would have as well if he didn't see the six-foot-seven tall, burly armored frame of his old friend. Now, his new Supreme Commander of his armed and naval forces Doth Qyss, the man's greying black hair shinned from the sun off the system.
"Stand down, Droids, he's an old friend" he left the side of his initiates side, and the two armored warriors walked towards each other.
The crowd thought another fight would be going down, that was until they both roughly grabbed each other's armored forearms in the typical Mandalorian greeting. The front dozen rows of personnel could even hear them laughing.
"Shab, what did those shabuir's do to you? You're a giant now. Your power has increased tremendously..." the Mandalorian asked in complete shock, looking christen up and down as if he was a specimen.
"Bane tried the ritual. It backfired on him but worked perfectly for me... well as perfectly as it could with having to destroy a third of a planet," christen replied with a sarcastic yet amused tone.
"I see you did not kill all of them, you even nabbed the One Lady Qinta Takia, AYE get back to your stations, you'll get your emperor when he decides you feel the need to" the Mandalorian gave him a surprise statement, christen even looked to his side at the now shy looking sith that just tried to kill him before, he then heard the Mandalorian yell at the stunned crowd of endless personnel simply watching their conversation. They all scurried away.
"Lady Takia, hmm... that means your master would have been on Korriban for my... after mission sessions, am I correct" he put no anger in his tone. He simply left it emotionless. but it had the effect he wanted
"M-M-ma-aster i-i-i..." she stammered out. He could feel through the Force that she thought she would be dying in the next few seconds.
He simply put his hand on her trembling shoulder. She stilled instantly as she looked into his eyes.
"I remember all who participated in my sessions. You are not one of them. A Master's failure should not be pushed onto their student. You fear I will kill you for your Master's actions... well, I'm here to disappoint you with the fact that I'm not BANE. You are an asset who can train future Jedaii. In time you will learn how useless the sith are to the True order of the Force." she looked uneasy about his proclamation. Still, she didn't say anything and simply nodded in acceptance.
He turned away from her and spoke to his old friend,
"to where will we go first, Old friend?" even though christen knew he was Emperor, he wasn't about to barge in here and think he knew everything about the place, even if he did design it.
"yes, we will be going to the great hall which resides within the oldest part of the base, a building that seemed to have been built sometime four thousand years ago, but you already know that my Lord," he quipped, and Christen knew precisely what he was talking about, the old alliance base that stood against the Eternal Empire.
"Well then, let's be off. I cant wait to see how Bane corrupted another one of my favorite planets," christen sarcastically responded as they were now walking to the nearby elevator.
"And My lord, I have to tell you that the Null Squad and Kal Skirita have accepted our offer" this surprised christen as it had only been a week since the order was made. Still, he was currently happy with his Empire so far. Christen simply nodded and continued walking in silence as he took in the base around him.
As they got into the lift, it became clear to him how damaged a few of his droids were. He doubted they would last a few more hours.
"Your HK droids from your personal ship seem to be much more advanced from the ones the empire use's" Christen knew it wasn't a question but rather a statement, christen and the former sith said nothing as they both looked around the base, millions of droids and sentients milling around like ants.
When they reached the top and christen saw the enlarged building in the alliance base spot, he exhaled in disappointment. It seemed as though Bane built an exact replica of the temples that lay within the valley of the dark lords. The temple seemed out of place as it was hugged on each side by tall trees. A long eight-speeder wide road was utterly packed with tens of thousands of droids and empire personnel. They passed dozens of sith lord statues. It irked christen, thankfully the crowd parted as they made their way to the temple entrance.
"Doth, tell your men to destroy the outside of this temple along with the statues. I want anything of the sith that isn't of any knowledge or history destroyed." the former sith tensed at his words but still held herself silent, but Christen could feel her anger.
"That will be possible. It will take a few thousand of the TY builder models to take care of that, should take a few weeks at the lastest" Christen saw Doth was already pressing his fingers onto his gauntlet computer, no doubt a design of the one he's wearing now since his Master took that design a few decades ago, or for the galaxy just eight months ago.
"Good...good, well then let us get this underway, ".he said as they just arrived at the entrance. Doth opened the door to the temple. Christen was greeted with a large hall filled with almost a thousand people dressed up pretentiously. However, he felt through the Force that they weren't selfish enough to act like the Empire and the Republic. They actually seemed ecstatic that he was here instead of Bane. They must have already heard of the battle that took place near his ship. It appeared that his Master took his designs for a confederacy-styled political stance along with the rules and freedoms of a republic. Combined with the militaristic view and attitude of an empire, Christen thought his Master hated the idea. Still, obviously, he was just mad he didn't think of it himself.
"HK-C57, stay with me and bring two tank and attack classes with you, send the rest back to my shop for repairs.
"STATMENT: of course, master, I will send the useless ones away for diagnostics," and with that, an argument between the droids started and ended within a few seconds before the Commander HK. The least damaged droids stood with them as christen saw the others walk stiffly back towards the elevator and ship.
"well, Lady Takia, it's time you learn to play politics since you will be trained to be the Emperor's hand" he ut a hand on her shoulder as she looked up to him with beaming eyes, yes...yes, this week would be very productive.
FIVE DAY'S EARLIER
Kamino
Null-11 looked at his Null brothers. There were six, the last surviving of the original twelve. The rest had died from the Kaminoans and their testings a mere five months ago.
Null-11 missed them. Especially Null-1. Null-1 had been his best friend.
It felt as if there was a void in his heart, as if the Kaminoans had gouged out a small piece with each of his brothers' deaths. He looked over to his left, Null-7 made a face at him, and he had to stifle a laugh.
"Shhh!" He shouted at his brother in a hushed voice. "You could get us in trouble!"
Null-7 smiled at him and cocked his head. "Oh no, it is not me. YOU are always in getting Us in trouble!" He grinned. Null-11 shook his head and allowed a slight snicker to escape his mouth. The Kaminoan scientist, Orun Wa, looked back at them angrily.
Since when was he satisfied with them? Had they been trying to annihilate them since they could remember? Null 11 thought. Even when our scores surpassed their expectations, they still did not approve of us. For what seemed like the billionth time in his short life, Null 11 swore he would do better. He was physically two in human years, four in clone, but still had the mind of someone in their early adulthood.
Today they were going to see some man named Doth Qyss. He must have been crucial if his father had ordered them to be taken to him.
Null 11 was curious about what he was like and what would he think of the Nulls? The very first clone batch? Null 11 hoped he would approve. None of the scientists or others agreed with the Nulls, all of them except Kal Skirata. They were deemed failures constantly.
Orun Wa turned a corner and waited briefly for the door to slide open, entering his graceful way that annoyed Null-11 and his brothers.
His thoughts were interrupted at the sight of a man in orange and red armor.
To his surprise, there was another man in Mandalorian armor. The one with sand-gold coloring removed his helmet and smiled down at the six clones. He had brown hair and blue eyes and looked stern but kind. Null-11 hoped that this was their template. He also noticed that he kept his weight on his right leg, bringing him to the conclusion that his left leg must have something wrong with it...this man was the Null squad's surrogate father. His attention was brought back to Orun Wa as she addressed the man in Orange and Red armor.
"Here is the batch you said your Emperor was interested in, though I do not know how you got a hold of our data banks. These are the Nulls." Orun Wa announced with a hint of annoyance, motioning gracefully to the clones lined up next to her.
The T-shaped visor looked them over carefully. "I thought there were twelve." His voice was synthesized, and therefore Null-11 could not make out any emotion that may have been in his voice.
"There were, but they did not survive their training." Orun Wa answered, but his father snorted, and to his surprise, even the strange Mandalorian grunted in disgust. "Training indeed." He muttered, loud enough for only Null-11 to hear him. Null-11 decided that he liked this man. It also seemed that his father knew him, but why did he keep this meeting from us until it was happening.
However, the man seemed to care about him and his brothers—definitely more than any Kaminoan.
Doth shifted and turned his visor onto Null-11, who held his breath, closing his eyes as he prayed that he would be accepted.
"What is wrong with them?" Doth asked even though he had read the reports, turning his attention onto the Kaminoan scientist.
"What do you ask?" Orun Wa asked slowly, tilting his head slightly.
"You called them Nulls. What is wrong with them?" Doth asked coolly.
Orun Wa bowed slightly. "They are highly intelligent, deviant, disturbed..." Orun Wa paused. "And uncommandable." The orange armored Mandalorian snorted again.
His father stood silent, though Null-11 could see he was trembling. What was going on?
"And how would you know that?, the reports I have read seem to say the opposite, they need the right Commander, and all you seem to be doing is stunting My Brother's growth instead of training them. The Emperor will not accept this!" He demanded with a slight of anger brimming beneath.
Orun Wa ignored him. "We have given them time to train with your Mamdalorion brother, but we deemed it that we are going to recondition them." He announced.
Null-11 froze. Reconditioning? That would mean-"
"Terminate?" Their mysterious visitor asked in shock.
His father put the hand on the Mandalorian shoulder, clearly calming him,
Null-7 reacted before anything else could be said or anyone could move. He cleared the distance between himself and the orange armored man, snatching the hold-out blaster from his holster, and tossed it toward Null-11 before the Mandalorian could react. Null-11 caught it and, without hesitation, turned it on the scientist.
There was silence. Null-11 could see the Orange and red armored man had a wester pistol already aimed at his midsection.
Null-11's hand trembled slightly, but his mind was determined.
"Stand down." Null-11 jerked around to look at orange and red armored Mandalorian. "Stand down, child ." He ordered softly, though anything else was lost in the synthesizer.
"He will not." Null-11 turned his attention back to the Kaminoan. "They are uncommandable." Orun Wa turned his attention onto the small clone that pointed the gun at his heart. "They are failures that your Mandalorian brother has failed to bring under the rules we put in place here."
Null-11's hand shook more as he set his jaw and aimed the gun. "Shoot him." Null-5 hissed.
Null-11 was ready when a soft voice caused him to hesitate. "Stop, child." Null-11 looked up at the gold-armored Mandalorian that he called Father. "Stand down...son. Give me the gun." The Mandalorian set his helmet down and began to approach slowly.
Null-11 watched him and stepped back and away. His father paused for a moment before continuing carefully toward him. "Come on, son. Do not do anything you will regret." He was next to him now, and Null-11 looked up into the clear blue eyes, his brown ones filling with tears.
"It is okay." The Mandalorian gently pulled the gun from Null-11's hand, holstering it back in the holster, passing a gauntleted hand over his black hair briefly before turning toward Orun Wa and his true Mandalorian brother.
"It seems you have been proven wrong, Kaminoan." He announced, not bothering to mask the contempt in his voice. "These boys are commendable. If you bothered to try, perhaps sense. My brother's Emperor has given you a large sum of resources. Cant you at least see to it that you give them special treatment." He looked down at the Nulls. "I would like to train them full time. With the resources the Emperor of Doth has given you, you can reverse their aging process and a few other tweaks. The Republic could perhaps use them as a special force squad. would that be agreeable to your Emperor, Hmm Doth?" He announced with a few seconds of silence before Doth spoke.
"The Emperor simply wanted a group from the Republic military within his grasp. The leaders of Kamino are already within our dept from a few designs we shared for a different type of cloning process. to be fair, Orun Wa, I can have you executed if you do not give these clones. In doing so, the wishes of the Emperor exactly what they need for the rest of their stay within the republic" the brutish Mandalorian declared to the shocked room. Kal wondered what had his friend had gotten himself into ever since he went missing a mere nine years ago.
The Nulls looked up between their father figure and Doth with hope in their eyes. They would now be indebted to the Mandalorian and, most importantly, an Emperor. They would be tied by honor on a grand scale.
Orun Wa frowned. "They are failures..." He started, but the Mandalorian cut him off.
"You said that they were intelligent. I've seen their scores, and from what Kal has given me. They exceed your expectations and are above average for the Empire. You have a control problem. That is why they are 'failures because they are independent." The Strange being did something Null Squad and even Kal never thought he would do. He turned and picked him up. Null-11 wrapped his arms around the Mandalorian's neck, burrowing his face into his shoulder, clutching his shoulders tightly as he tried to keep his tears in check, the man's armor felt cold and rough, yet it was smooth except for a few significant scratches here and there.
"I will have them trained as a black-ops squad. And I will have Kal here along with one of my Empire's newest TY and HK model droids train them, and they will show you that they are the best. With our serum, they will be fully grown men of age twenty and age naturally from then on," He announced.
Kal Skirata was overwhelmed. He only thought he would be getting a serum from his old friend when doth an old friend of his during the war contacted him out of the blue with an offer he couldn't refuse, and obviously, neither could the Kaminoans. The nulls should have been as grown as the rest of the clones, but they stopped growing when in a child's body.
The Kaminoan cocked his head. "Very well, Supreme commander Doth. Nevertheless, I warn you. They are an impossible task, and you will soon realize their worthlessness to your Empire, were it not for your Empire's gracious gifts id have you kicked out." he swiftly turned and left the room.
"Good, don't worry, he will not be alive for long now. That was a great turnout, Skirata. Here is your uh...child" Doth handed Null-11 to Kal. as he looked towards his gauntlet computer, soon all of them heard the door open once more. A bronze-plated and silver bipod-looking droids entered and walked towards Doth. Everyone noticed but said nothing about the leaking Kaminoan blood from the hands of the bronze-plated droids. They talked for a few seconds before deactivating.
"these droids will be giving all of some of our youth serum that our glorious Emperor wanted. You will take this serum. When that happens, they will then train you in the ways of the Empires ,military forces. Should you tell any republican personnel or any rank, especially a Jedi, you will be terminated... have a good day Kal, one of my guardsmen or I will contact you later with further instructions" and with that the strange man who now they owed their lives to, simply left the room as if what he did was entirely normal for him.
The gold-armored Mandalorian, Kal Skirata, looked down at the Nulls as his old friend up and disappeared, leaving only a datapad and comm unit and two menacing-looking droids in his stay.
He looked down at the child still in his arms. "Come ad." He ordered, leaving the room and turning down the hall.
They traveled into a section that the Nulls had been forbidden to go. However, when the Nulls hesitated to enter this area, Kal Skirata just turned and motioned them on. The Nulls decided to follow the man they saw as a father and had defended them for months. They followed him until he entered a room. "Here we are." He announced, setting Null-11 down. "This is our home now, my son's," Kal Skirata revealed to them.
Null-11 looked at his brothers and, as one, smiled up at the Mandalorian he had known since he was a month old.
Home.
Son's.
Words that they had never even dreamed of hearing in the same sentence before. Moreover, this was Home Indeed.
"kid's I know I have been with you a long time, but now with Doth and his...Empire, I have free reign over what you do, I could not act like the father I wanted to be to you, I could not even give you names...so Null-11.
How would you like to be called Ordo? He was a Mandalorian warrior."
"Are we Mandalorian warriors Now?"
"You bet. In every sense of the name." Kal looked as though he would cry
"I like that name." the tear-filled eyes of a child greeted him as they simply hugged each other.
Kal Skirata watched the six clones sleeping silently in every corner of his apartment. They were all so young and innocent-looking yet carried the air of Mandalorian warriors. The warrior's blood flowed through their veins.
The Mandalorian was lying in his bed, looking at them each in turn. Two stood out much more than the others Null-7 was quick and humorous, Null-11 was intelligent.
They were two in human years, but four in clone, due to the decelerated aging, but with the serum, His Mandalorian brother Doth gave him they would be fully grown twenty-year-old men by next week, it would take effect after forty-eight hours of being injected, he made sure the kids took it before bed.
'I am sure with me and the droids Doth gave him that they'll make the best soldiers this republic will ever see", The gold-armored Mandalorian thought silently to himself. He didn't know when the Empire would reveal itself but doth said the signs would be unmistakable.
ONE HOUR BEFORE CHRISTEN ARRIVES ON ODESSEN
KAMINO
ONE DAY AFTER SERUM COMPLETION
Jaing pulled off his helmet and ran a hand through his sweaty hair, breathing hard.
"Good work, boys." Kal Skirata moved among the six clones, slapping a few backs back and ruffling hair here. Jaingformerly known as Null-10 before his father renamed him, Jaing beamed as his father patted his shoulder affectionately, basking in the glow of his approval.
"Now, take a break and be back here at 1500. We have something important to discuss concerning the Empire and your first mission behind the Republic back."
The six Null-class ARC troopers snapped to attention and saluted in one movement. They chanted "Yes sir!" like the voice of a single man. Kal's weathered face broke into a grin. "Get out of here," he said, leading the way to the door with its single viewport.
A few hours later, within the pace they called home for the past week, Jaing looked up to see Kal coming through the door in a solemn manner. He instantly stood up in a salute. This causes the rest of Null Squad to do the same.
Alight Squad, I-I- do not know how to say this but you all are sons to me, My family, I would never want us to be split... but I have decided to tell you first" he was nervous, a laughable thought to Kal but here he was telling his sons a hard truth.
He truly hated these mercenary missions over the last couple of days. They were a waste of Kal Skirata and his boys' time.
While he could give them valuable training with the HK and TY droids, preparing them for the world, they were intended for. The Republic insisted that a mission would give them some "worldly" experience.
In the meantime, Doth had just contacted them. They were to hunt down a mole that the Empire had been tracking and bring him back to face justice. Kill two birds with one stone. They had told the TY Droid they would get on it right away even though Kal had done all he could to bite back the vicious retort that came to his mind.
Skirata had been personally recruited by Jango Fett and joined the Cuy'val Dar to train the Republic's Grand Army of clones. He had become instantly disgusted by the Kaminoan indifference and treatment of clone conditioning of the children who did not pass the tests and were culled.
Kal had met a group of six boys deemed "Nulls" because of what the Kaminoans saw as imperfect and had been secluded for termination. Null-11 and Null-7, later named by Skirata as Ordo and Mereel, came to their brothers' aid. Mereel swiped a gun that Skirata had hidden in his boot and threw it over to Ordo, who stood bravely in front of his brothers. He aimed the weapon wildly at everyone in the room. Kal could care less at what happened to the Kaminos in the room, but he didn't want to see any repercussions happen to the boy.
He took the six children under his wing after the Kaminoans had been forced to give them to him, entirely controlling the clones for the use of Doth's Emperor. Kal started by giving them each a name, developing their character, training, and personally instilling them with Mandalorian values. The droids doth gave him trained them to defend against lightsabers and Force-based attacks. For their sergeant's care and love and devotion, the Nulls had come to see Skirata as their "big" or father and only accepted orders from him. Others at the facility deemed them Skirata's personal army because of their loyalty to the sergeant. Call it what they wanted, Skirata made sure the Nulls were looked after.
The Nulls had been designed to be larger, even more significant than the Alpha-Class clones.
They were one of the first batches to be hatched and experimented with, coming out with more considerable muscle, extra strength, intelligence off the cart, and were highly cunning. Since the clones aged twice the standard rate as normal humans and coupled with the fact, it went reverse for the Nulls case. Before the serum, the six Nulls used to be biologically two though physically, even though they were eighteen. And now, after the serum, they stood a good head taller than Skirata, and he had armor specially designed to fit their larger bodies so they could maneuver better.
He took all six boys with him on this trip to hone their skills and work as a team. The mole had led them to Corellia's capital, Coronet, a bustling city of architecture, bazaars, and busy streets filled with all kinds of shuttles, ships, people, and aliens that varied in races.
"Kind of like a mini-Coruscant," Ordo observed.
Clad in their regulation GAR armor, except Skirata, who always wore his gold/rust colored Mandalorian beskar'gam, the group looked quite intimidating walking down the busy sidewalk. People and aliens alike eyed them and parted way.
"I could get used to this," Null-10 or known to his brothers as Jaing, nodded appreciatively as another group of humans made way for him and his brothers.
"Jaing, if a nerf bowed at your feet, you'd be happy," his brother Null-6 or Kom'rk teased. Kom'rk and Jaing were the jokers of the group. While all six of them had very different personalities, they all had one thing in common: a short fuse that Skirata had to watch and try and keep in check. They weren't called Nulls for nothing.
Jaing pushed Kom'rk on the shoulder, and soon a shoving match started until Skirata interrupted. "Gev!" He scolded, and the two instantly stopped. "Don't get too comfortable, boys," Kal warned. "Keep your eyes sharp. Jaing, Kom'rk, got a track on him yet?"
In the Empire's last report, there was the previous run-in with the piece of scum they were after. They had been able to throw a tracking device on him right before blasting off Coruscant. "Fifty yards ahead!" Jaing said, excitement clear in his voice.
"Oya, boys." Skirata continued forward
"let's get that, Osik, for THE EMPIRE," he finished and got a chant of approval.
"FOR THE EMPIRE!"
