BIRTH OF A DARK HERO

-embracing revenge…

His chance at revenge came 2 weeks later; his task force confronted a rebel fleet of 3 ships. He ordered his men to their ships and off they went. The battle was a grueling one, it lasted 3 hours, but at the end 2 of the rebel capital ships were flaming wreckage, and the 3rd had been disabled. Azazel's squadron had lost only 3 fighters and had shot down 46 fighters, Cordell had shot down 8 and Azazel had gotten 10. He had avenged his commander's death. Back on the crusher they were congratulated and they all celebrated. That night Azazel and Cordell were called to the commander's quarters. They were told that a shuttle was waiting for them; they would be given more orders later.

They obeyed and headed to the docking bay. There they got on the shuttle and it quickly entered hyperspace. Hours later the shuttle emerged from hyper space in front of a huge fleet of 25 ships. They headed towards a superstar destroyer. They knew were they were; they were with the death fleet, Darth Vader's personal armada. On the Executor they met up with a colonel, who told them their new assignments. They were part of an elite tie squadron now, their name, Avenger squadron. They would fly the newest tie, the tie advanced. Azazel knew about this model but it wasn't finished when he left. He served as a tie avenger for 3 years with Cordell, they ascended rank as they flew missions and as the pilots before them were killed. Soon they had flown 100 missions and reached their 500th kill. Command and even Darth Vader himself recognized them for their achievement, not many pilots lasted this long. They decided that it would be wise to make them into imperial officers and stop them from being pilots; they couldn't risk losing such potential.

So one day they were called to Darth Vader's quarters. He personally gave them the news. Azazel because of his secondary training in ground assault would be sent to Carida again to train to be commander of the outer rim assault army. As for Cordell, he would go to Corsin to study to be a fleet officer and commander of a star destroyer. The friends sadly left each other.

On Carida Azazel's training started immediately, he was sent from the freezing polar ice caps, to human made desserts and simulators in the imperial academy. He was a great strategist and cool headed. His premonitions from the force gave him a great advantage, he graduated in 3 months and was assigned to the outer rim, to star destroyer Vengeance. There met the commander of vengeance, who he would be coordinating attacks with and was surprised to learn that in charge was commander Cordell. They agreed that together they would bring terror to the rebellion.

As time progress Azazel took over many worlds for the empire and decimated many rebel bases. He ascended in rank as fast as did Cordell. Soon they found themselves with the rank of general and admiral. Their force had grown from one star destroyer to 15, plus transport vessels, and their small assault force had grown to 5 armored divisions and 50 squadrons of storm troopers. They were very successful. It seemed nothing could stop them from bring terror. The dark side had grown in Azazel very too. He was not only a natural leader but a natural warrior. The dark side flowed through him; it enhanced his fighting abilities, made his lust for battle unquenchable. He was not a conventional general though. Unlike other imperial generals who hid in their armored transports behind the front line, he fought with his men, side by side. His men loved him for that and gave him their full loyalty. To the rebels he was a ruthless warrior that made even the most daring rebel cower in fear. He had had his vengeance on the rebels but wanted more. He felt pleasure in crushing them. It brought him pleasure and joy, but soon he would realize he was wrong, but it would cost him very much.

The task force was asked to subdue an uprising on Sluis Van. Rebels had taken control of the planet and were "harming the citizens". The task force was immediately deployed on its way. But this would be a very important battle, a very costly battle for the empire. When the task force came out of hyper space Azazel had was ready with his troops, he would attack with 10 armored divisions and 30 squadrons of troopers. He believed this was enough. As usual he would lead the attack in his modified at-at. When they got to the planet they were confronted with a fleet about the size of their own fleet. It seemed that the battle would be in space and on the ground. Azazel landed his troops and started to take ground, he had to fight for ever foot of land but he was advancing nicely. When he reached the capital city, he saw that the citizens instead of helping the empire were against it, and was angered very much. He suddenly felt something inside him, as if darkness took over his body. He decided that he would crush all who opposed, he sent for reinforcements and soon all his army was there. As his divisions pulled up, surrounding the city, he ordered them to open fire on the city, killing rebels, militia and citizens. The dark force ran through his veins, engulfing his very soul.

He lost many men, but soon Sluis van was void of citizens. Azazel had killed them all. Up in space Cordell had taken care of the rebel fleet, 2 out of the 15 ships had managed to get to hyper space but the rest had been destroyed. Cordell had only lost 3 ships.

After the victory the dark side left Azazel and a feeling of self awareness hit Azazel. What had he done! He had killed everyone and everything, the toll reached 4 million. His army had crushed everything in Sluis van; it was a waste land now, something not seen since the destruction of Alderaan. When Azazel returned to the vengeance and went to his quarters where he meditated. The dark and light force fought each other in his mind, clouding his feelings, tearing him apart from the inside. Every one in the galaxy had heard about the battle of Sluis van. It made all the holo news every where. The vengeance task force was nicknamed the plague. Azazel was named the butcher of Sluis. He was seen as a blood hungry warrior out of control, the empire loved him, but the rebels despised him, they wanted him dead.