The Adventures of Rickon and Osha Chapter 3
Plot Outline
Chapter 3's main purpose is to introduce Mara Taral's henchmen. Her henchmen consist of several Star Wars rogue types and a platoon of elite Stormtroopers. Mara's transport is a Sentinel-class landing ship, which appears in the Star Wars Legends. She later rendezvous with Big Joe who gets his reward but ends up asking for too much. For this story, I have decided to include some classic elements from Star Wars including clones, Stormtroopers, and aliens. According to Wookieepedia, one squad of Stormtroopers consists of nine men and a platoon consists of four squads, making 36 men. Mara's Stormtroopers are intended to be Shadow stormtroopers, a specialist type of Stormtroopers who wear black armor. The whole business about the "Children of the Jedi" was borrowed from the new Disney TV series Star Wars Rebels. Please note, I don't own any of these characters and concepts except Mara Taral and her henchmen, and the Imperial name for the Game of Thrones world: Planet 455 4647. I imagined that this would be the code name that Imperial cartographers would have given to a remote and uncharted world in the heart of the Unknown Regions. This chapter is told from the point of view of Mara Taral.
Story: Mara Taral's POV
The Sentinel-classlanding ship dived into Planet 4554647's atmosphere like a hawk-bat, a winged reptilian creature native to the galactic capital of Coruscant. Mara's landing ship Stalker was a specially-modified landing ship that was equipped with a prototype cloaking device, enabling the starship to "disappear" and sneak under the radar. It was also painted black, Mara's favourite colour. The Sentinel-class landing ship was one of the many products offered to the Galactic Empire by Sienar Fleet Systems, the manufacturer of the Empire's TIE fighters, the staple starfighters of the Imperial Navy, and the Lambda-class shuttle, the navy's main utility transport. Like its small cousin the Lambda-class shuttle, the Sentinel-class landing ship had two retractable wings and a large dorsal fin. When not in flight mode, the wings rested on the top dorsal fin, formed a triangle. The landing ship was capable of carrying a maximum of 75 troops and was mainly used to land troops on planets and space stations during military assaults. However, due to the top secret nature of this mission, the Stalker only carried a small skeletal landing force. Due to Planet 4554647's remoteness, it was imperative that the Imperials not expose their presence to the local Westerosi. This was a covert black operation that would officially be denied by the Imperial authorities.
As the Stalker approached the continent of Westeros, Mara entered the transport hold to brief her henchmen. Mara had four henchmen, who served as her personal body guards and fellow hunters. The reptilian Trandoshan Corrsk was a former bounty hunter who had served the Separatists during the Clone Wars before switching sides. As a Trandoshan, Corrsk was a big-built reptilian humanoid who resembled a tailless bipedal crocodile. Like a lizard, he was capable of generating lost limbs and body parts. More recently, Corrsk had been used to hunt down runaway Wookiee slaves and insurrectionists. He had a penchant for keeping the pelts of his targets as grisly souvenirs. Taral's second henchman was the furry Bothan Mer'slya, a former Bothan Spynet intelligence officer-turned Imperial Intelligence agent. Bothans were a furry, mammalian species who had a reputation for being master politicians and spies. Prior to working for the Empire, Mer'slya had been the Bothan Spynet station chief on the Core World of Alsakan. He had betrayed his colleagues and their spy ring for three million Credits. In addition, Taral also had two modified IG-100 Magna Guards, named IG-164 and IG-165. These two droids were relics of the Clone Wars and had formerly served General Grievous, the infamous Separatist military commander. Under Taral, the two droids were programmed with all known Jedi lightsaber combat techniques and were armed with lightsabers. Taral had specially picked her henchmen for their ruthlessness, viciousness, and cunningness. Together with her gang, Mara had hunted down and killed many Jedi, Separatists and Rebels. Their actions had gained them a fearsome reputation throughout the Empire.
Besides her "Gang of Four", Mara also commanded thirty-six Stormtroopers. Unlike the Empire's standard white-armoured Stormtroopers, Mara's Stormtroopers wore special all-black armour which contained stygian triprimastic polymer, a mineral that was capable of deflecting laser blasts. With both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine's blessing, Mara had been allowed to raise her own independent force of Stormtroopers, who reported solely to her. None of these Stormtroopers were clones of the late Jango Fett, a former bounty hunter who had become the template for millions of clone soldiers who had played a decisive role in defeating Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems and facilitating the rise of Palpatine's New Order. Mara had personally handpicked her Stormtroopers from the prestigious Imperial Academy at Carida. In the years following the establishment of the Galactic Empire, most of Fett's clones had succumbed to cellular decomposition and accelerated ageing. Today, the Stormtrooper Corps was comprised mainly of natural-born human recruits, who were trained at a series of academies throughout the Empire. Anyway why invest billions of credits into cloning when there were billions of young men across the galaxy willing to fight and die for the Empire. Despite these changes, the Stormtrooper Corps still remained an overwhelmingly human and male establishment. There were only a handful of females and aliens in the ranks of the Stormtrooper due to the patriarchal and xenophobic policies of the Galactic Empire. Aliens were welcomed by the Empire as spies, collaborators, or slaves.
"Good morning, gentlemen," said Mara Taral, as she bent down to activate a holographic projector. "We will be descending into Westeros at approximately 0730 local time."
The holographic projector flickered before opening to display a 3D image of Planet 4554647, a swirling blue-green world with splotches of yellow and white. Mara tapped the continent of Westeros with her right thumb and index finger. The image of the swirling world was replaced by a 3D image of the continent of Westeros: a narrow landmass which resembled the cartoonish image of a hag with a hat. Mara then tapped the map to zoom in onto the northern part of the continent. After toying with the control panel, Mara managed to bring up a blurry photograph of Rickon, Osha, and Han Lee sitting down for dinner in the club. The photo was courtesy of "Big" Joe, one of Mara's agents on Planet 4554647.
She continued: "Operation Direwolf is now in action. Our mission is to locate and hunt down a certain Force-sensitive boy named Rickon Stark. This is part of the Emperor's programme of recruiting Children of the Force to the Empire's cause."
Using her lightsaber as an improvised laser pointer, Mara zeroed in on Rickon, who was seated in the inner rim of the table sandwiched between Osha on the right and Han Lee on the left. Rickon was chomping on a loaf of bread while Han Lee was sipping on a mug of wine. Osha was glaring at Han Lee while slicing a piece of beef with her knife.
"This is a hazy photo, can't we just zoom in any farther?," croaked Corrsk irritatingly
"Mi apologies, our local informant has itchy hands," replied Mara "Don't be too harsh on Joe, he comes from a primitive backwater."
"Is that little scrawny kid our target?," asked Mer'slya "Looks like he needs a haircut."
Mer'slya, Corrsk and several of the Stormtroopers sniggered.
"Based on what little intelligence that we have from our informant," said Mara Taral "Rickon has had no formal training in the Force. He's only a boy of seven and should be easy to subdue. There's only that woman protecting him plus his pet wolf. Their Jedi friend has left for parts unknown."
"So, do you want 'em dead or alive?," asked Corrsk "I prefer them dead because it's a good way for me to collect more Jagannath points for the Scorekeeper."
The Scorekeeper was the main deity of the Trandoshan species. She was said to exist beyond time and space. The Scorekeeper watched over Trandoshan hunters and awarded them Jagannath points for each kill. The need to collect more Jagannath points drove many Trandoshans to become bounty hunters, mercenaries, or assassins; a cultural practice which reinforced the species' blood thirsty reputation throughout the galaxy.
"No, I want Rickon alive," snapped Mara "No disintegrations period. I don't want a repeat of the mess that we made on Nar Shaddaa a month ago. However, you're free to do anything with that woman and that pet wolf of his."
A month ago, Mara had tracked down three Jedi fugitives to Nar Shaddaa, a seedy moon in Hutt Space that was covered entirely in urban sprawl. While they had succeeded in eliminating the Jedi, their military operation had also caused the unnecessary deaths of civilians and destroyed many buildings in the Neimoidian Sector. This black op had also incurred the wrath of the Hutt Grand Council, the governing body of the Hutt species. The Hutts were a species of giant slug-like creatures whom ran most of the crime cartels throughout the galaxy.
"Hmmm, the boy's pet wolf will make a fine pelt for my collection," said Corrsk cheerfully.
"I'm sure it will," replied Mara "This will be your payment for your services."
Corrsk chuckled at the thought of killing the Human woman. His last kill had been a female Neimoidian Jedi during the "Incident on Nar Shaddaa." How she had put up a good fight and sliced off his left arm. However, that injury did not matter to the hardy Trandoshan since his species were capable of regenerating lost limbs within days.
"What about the Jedi?," asked IG-164 in a hoarse metallic voice "Must kill Jedi."
"The Jedi is our second concern," replied Mara "Our primary concern right now is the boy Rickon. Those were Lord Vader's orders. Anyway, we can always deal with the Jedi later.
Three hours later…
The Sentinel-class landing ship had landed beside a creek in the middle of a grass plain. While her men set up base beside a small lake, Mara entered into a nearby thicket to meet with her informant: "Big" Joe. Joe was a squat, barrel chested man with a surly face. He had greying hair and his sagging face was lined with unshaven stubble. His breath smelt of garlic and his body reeked to high heavens. They had been talking for about half an hour.
"I've sent you the information about the Wildling mother, boy, and their wolf" barked "Big" Joe "Plus the Jedi. Now I demand my reward."
"Here's, thirty dragons," said Mara, handing "Big" Joe a bag of gold coins "Now go buy yourself a windmill and live happily ever after."
"No, I demand one hundred dragons," shouted "Big" Joe "I won't settle for peanuts. I wanna renovate my rickety little tavern and turn it into the biggest building in town."
"How about fifty?," suggested Mara, her voice barely hiding her contempt for the greedy oaf. "Take it or leave it."
"No, I demand my full reward," bellowed "Big" Joe, his face smirking into a crooked smile. "You don't want me squealing about the presence of you and your spacefolk to my …"
Before "Big" Joe could finish his sentence, Mara had ignited her lightsaber and beheaded him with one stroke of her laser sword. The man's body dropped to the ground like a heavy sack of potatoes. Blood gushed out onto the ground like a spilled wine bag. The man's head landed a metre away, startling a pair of squirrels who were collecting acorns for the coming winter. Joe's decapitated head gurgled in shock and pain for a few seconds. There was a foul smell as the men's bowels emptied for the last time. Then all was silent as his dead, unknowing eyes gazed onto the forest floor.
That should keep the old blabber mouth shut up for good thought Mara. A smile smirked across her pale face. Some of his blood had splashed onto her face and black jumpsuit but Mara wiped it away with her handkerchief. While the Jedi were taught to respect life, the Sith and their Dark Side followers were taught that life was worthless and that killing was good for releasing some steam. She stepped down to pick up the deceased man's money bag and to empty his pockets of coins and other valuables. She also pried his wedding ring from his still warm hands. If his family and friends ever found his worthless corpse, they'll think that he encountered a particularly vicious robber. Given the fighting and rampant lawlessness in much of Westeros, people would think it was a Wildling robbery-and-ambush gone wrong.
Like all Dark Siders, Mara wielded a lightsaber, a weapon which consisted of an oblong metallic hilt and a plasma blade that was powered by a kyber crystal. Kyber crystals were Force-attuned crystals which grew on the ice planet of Illum. They were available in a myriad of colours including blue, red, green, yellow, and purple. While the Jedi wielded lightsabers spanning a wide spectrum of colours, the Sith and their Dark Side minions only used red-hued synthetic crystals. While Sith lightsaber blades were sharper and more powerful than their Jedi blades, they were also more volatile and prone to exploding if not constructed carefully.
Now, Mara thought, back to business. Through the Force, she had a rough idea of Rickon and Osha's whereabouts. They were heading east. Before he had died, "Big" Joe had mentioned that they were heading to a place called The Last Hearth. Having grown up in a cold part of Dathomir prior to joining the Jedi and then switching sides and joining the Sith, Mara was not bothered by the cold, gloomy climate. It was supposed to be summer on this world but winter was beginning to stir. The leaves around her were turning brown and the forest floor was covered by a carpet of brown leaves. Winter was coming to this world.