Chapter 2

(Imperial Stardestroyer, Exactor, stationary above 'Daluuj')

It had been several hours now and Vader had retreated to his personal quarters aboard the Exactor. The execution of the Dubrava attack had been flawless! Everything Vader could have hoped to happen, happened. It was a glorious day, but not just for the Empire, but for himself as well! After the attack and the mop up, Vader had ordered the fleet of over five-hundred vessels relocate to the Imperial outpost world of Daluuj for a moments reprieve before setting course for Coruscant. Vader was all around pleased with the events of the day to say the least.

Vader had to also admit that Kun did well in pandering to the senate and the Emperor while he pandered to the fear mongering fools that were spread across the galaxy insuring everyone was always fearful of him. They would play their part in telling all just how brutal Vader had been in eradicating the rebels that numbered approximately four-thousand-five-hundred, forces in all on the planet, and in space their was a pathetic number of skeleton forces manning the rebel fleet.

'Had these rebels even thought of attacking the Empire, and managed to actually unite it wouldn't have mattered in the least. Poor numbers, poor skill, poor fleets! What a waste of time and resources!'

The dark lord seethed as he again allowed the darkness to overtake him.

However he let it calm as he now stood before a holoprojector and awaited his coconspirator to answer his transmission. Vader had taken extra special precautions to assure his channels were secure, but really; who would be foolish enough to tempt fate and listen in on the Supreme Commander of all the Empire?

Vader did not waste anymore time contemplating as Exar Kuns holoimage materialized and the fellow dark lord sure seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Lord Kun. I do hope that you're enjoying yourself." Vader intoned, hoping it conveyed to the Sith lord that Vader was not in a "good mood" at the moment.

Kun however just laughed it off. "Indeed I am lord Vader. I'm afraid that your transmission has torn me away from a most interesting conversation with a man named Armand Isard. I do believe he was trying to decipher my intentions though." The dark lord retorted in what Vader thought was sarcastic mirth, but he did not like these games. Though Vader did find it interesting that Kun spoke with the Imperial director at a level.

"Let's not play anymore games today Kun. I am growing more and more impatient as we advance on with our plan." Vader declared in his normal deep monotone. "Despite the obvious successes we have achieved in a relatively short amount of time I want the Emperor gone, and now! For far too long has he plagued me and this galaxy with his megalomania and power crazed 'antics;' it is only right that we seize power as soon as possible!" Vader declared and Kun quickly grew serious and his smile and mirth suddenly faded.

"Vader you know as well as I that we cannot under any circumstance deviate from the planned course. To do so would be suicide for the both of us!" Exar reminded him in a lower tone.

Vader assumed it was because Kun had torn himself away from the Imperial gathering to an empty room, or perhaps even a balcony.

"Now listen to me lord Vader. I understand your anger, and I can relate to your frustrations, but the deal is as it stands on my end or you can make your move now and I can seize all the power for myself when the Emperor is rid of you!" Kun said with all mirth wiped from his expression and tone. It was now laced with unbridled seriousness.

"Now the deal is that we work together for as long as it takes to destroy his reputation, his powerbase, his loyalists, and his very state of mind, and then ultimately him. After that we can settle all matters concerning each other, and the Empire, but until then we have much work still needing done, and if you cant control yourself all of this has been for absolutely nothing!" Exar declared as he boldly talked down to the menacing Darth Vader.

Vader stood with crossed arms and made no visible sign of relenting, but then again, Kun was hard pressed to notice any physical alterations from a man like Vader.

"Keep your belittling tones to a minimum Kun. I will not be used as a puppet in this affair and remember we are 'partners,' I am not the lesser of two equals. For too long have I been tossed between masters, and I will not be made a slave by you as well Kun. Remember that before you factor in your little games and schemes." Vader reminded without a raised voice, but Kun felt the subtle threat loud and clear, and just had to smirk.

"Of course lord Vader. No insult was intended I assure you." Exar replied as he allowed his seriousness to wind down some.

"You know they say patience is a virtue my lord Vader. We will soon be in a state of war and I do hope you will be aiding me in our push to eradicate all enemies of the state during these troubled times."

Vader relaxed himself as well, and allowed his hands to clasp his belt in a stationary stance that was common of the dark lord.

"Patience is a virtue," the dark lord repeated. "Indeed I suppose it is when you have to wait four-thousand year to even breath air again." Vader verbally jabbed his ally; who in return nodded with a smirk.

"Yes that's true lord Vader, but in the context that we're speaking in we have so much more to lose. Yet so much more to gain so long as we just stay the course." Exar insisted.

"Once we establish to the military command that the Emperor is nothing but a withered old fool lost in the old days; once we wither his command of Imperial loyalist subjects and WE become the faces of the Empire. Then we gain public acknowledgment for our actions against all threats at all levels then and only then my dear lord Vader; will we be the true victors, and the Emperor will be made irrelevant."

Kun finally rested his case to an ever silent, and watchful Vader.

"Indeed." Was all Vader said at first. "This plan can; and on my side at least, will come to fruition Kun. It would however be more than an assured thing if I were to be healed!" Vader finally allowed a burst of anger to shine through as he grew ever more impatient with Kun and his promises of healing his broken body.

Kun through up a hand in a sign of mock defeat. "Of course lord Vader, of course. I will attend to your 'broken,' body in due time, and I assure you I have found that easiest way in doing so." The other dark lord informed Vader in a evasive manner. To that Vader cocked a brow under his helmet.

"What do you mean by that Kun?" Exar merely grinned.

"Ah, my lord Vader I so wish I could tell you what I meant but alas, I cannot." Exar said with a chuckle to which Vader sneered; of course Kun didn't see it.

"Care to explain why?" Vader asked as his distorted voice grew louder with annoyance.

Kun on the other hand shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry Vader I can't. let's just say that I will one day tell you, and on that day you will realize the depths of your masters ignorance, and the extent of your betrayal by the Jedi Order." Again Kun evasively spoke, but this time Vader scowled to himself. 'My betrayal?'

"I told you hardly anything about my past Kun, and I did not mention any betrayal." Vader with rising anger retorted.

"Indeed lord Vader? Oh yes that's right you weren't really up for talking when our partnership first began." Kun said sarcastically. "Yes lord Vader I have hear of your past, your crimes, and all that you once were. I do not care for this trivial information nor do I intend to ever speak of your matters with or without you around. Just know that I now have the ability to heal you without question, and once we are together again, and I obtain a certain piece to your genetic puzzle. I will heal you lord Vader, and then you will have your pride, and power returned." Kun promised with a smirk. "Then we will put the Emperor under out heels….together yes?" To that Vader calmed himself with an unheard sigh; knowing that Kun wasn't going to say anymore on his secrets annoyed the dark lord, but he had learned to let Kun play his little games of intrigue.

"Very well Kun. I will follow your lead, for now…" Vader trailed off and Kun laughed.

"Excellent!" Was all Kun could say in reply, but sadly for him Vader had more important things to say.

"We are not done yet Kun. I did not call simply to protest our course of action and speed of said course." Kun nodded after he had stopped laughing like an idiot, and signaled for Vader to go on.

"Vellam has sent a secured communication, and has reported that his first assembled fleet is awaiting the 'go ahead' outside of the Bestine system. The attack will commence in several hours time, and by then I will be making my way back to Imperial Center." Vader informed as he began to pace in a small circle in front of the holoprojector.

"In the course of several hours; out of the over one-hundred sectors within the Outer Rim only the Braxant, Mandalore, Nuiri, Seswenna, and Moddell sectors will remain in Imperial hands." Vader informed as Kun raised both brows in astonishment, but Vader gave him no time to retort.

"In a matter of days out of at least one-hundred-fifty-two Mid Rim sectors we will maintain control of maybe twenty to twenty-five." Again Kun raised both his brows. 'Apparently you didn't look to see how many sectors were in the galaxy Kun.' Vader thought in exasperation.

"Of the approximate one-hundred-fourteen sectors of the Expansion region we will maintain command of over sixty, and the Inner Rim will be nearly all ours save for five sectors on the cusp of the Expansion Region." Vader concluded. To which Kun stood for a moment in stunned silence.

"Well, that is indeed quite allot of territory we are entrusting to this Nox Vellam of yours." Exar said putting a hand to his chin in thought. "Are you sure we can trust this man?" he asked to which Vader stopped his pacing and looked at Kun through his visor.

"I believe we can. He has no ambitions of his own, an were it not for me I do believe he could have lived and died a simple Moff with no desire of a higher office. Which of course makes him an excellent choice to throw the Emperor off his scent." The dark lord concluded.

"I will not be able to arrive to Bestine in good time due to my fleet being en-route to Coruscant, and therefore it is up to you to set the Emperors commands on our required course. Vellam will not simply start attacking system after system. Instead I have ordered him to make demands of the Emperor after he seizes control of Bestine. That will give me time to reenter normal space and receive the command to attack. It will also give you and my master time to plan the next course of action."

Vader finally ended his long well thought over course of action. To which Exar nodded along and looked as if he was thinking to himself.

"Good, very good indeed." Kun said after a moment longer of silence. "All will go according to plan Vader do not worry yourself." He finally said sarcastically, and Vader rolled his eyes for the first time in a long while at his allies constant attitude towards serious matters.

"I will keep the Emperor from blowing a power coupling." He said with a grin. "You just make sure you send Admiral Refflet back to Alderaan, and when the order comes you get Nox away from Bestine, and get over there and get this war started." Kun subtly demanded his counterpart; who let it slide for the moment even though he did get annoyed by it.

"Now if you excuse me my lord Vader I must return to this quaint little gala. If I am gone too much longer I think that Isard fellow might grow suspicious of me. I will speak with you in due time. Kun out." Without another word he ended the transmission and Vader felt slightly put off by the other dark lord, but did not choose to dwell on it for the time being. There were far bigger things to worry about, and Vader would be sure not a thing would go off course.

For his destiny; his own chosen destiny depended upon everything falling into place just right. He would see that it all did.

(Dubrava, Surface of the World, Several Hours After Attack)

Kellia stood silently and unmoving where she stood. A cloak she wore covering he whole body and a hood over her head. She didn't want to be seen, or looked upon. She wanted to look dark, menacing maybe, but definitely a figure you wouldn't approach willingly.

She had seen it from orbit but being on the worlds surface was a whole other story. From the space above Kellia had exited hyperspace, and was greeted with a world entirely alight with exposed molten crust, rising dust into the atmosphere, and plasma burns covering at the least a sixth of the worlds surface.

The force to her felt darkened, and lessened for what had occurred here. Almost empty, but more of an empty feeling of loss rather than actual death itself.

Not only had the Empire snuffed away thousands of people she may have very well known, but they uncaringly slaughtered thousands of Dubravan civilians: men, women, and children, and Kellia felt their deaths echo through the force.

She stood at the bank of a marshy lake, and straight ahead of her lay the tropical usual looking swamps of Dubrava, but just several miles beyond there was a rising cloud of dust and debris. There were fires burning, Dubravans dead and even still dying. The stench of death, the rotting of corpses was already beginning to permeate the air. She could feel nothing in this moment, but a rising rage.

'Kriffing idiots! I knew this was too sudden, too out of nowhere!' She seethed as she knelt down and looked over a dead body that was close to her. She did not know how it had gotten here, but it was just a Dubravan. 'Probably just got out of there and died due to smoke inhalation.' She guessed as she stood and began slowly walking along the bank of the lake, looking for more; if any, bodies.

She had landed after looking the planet over and was immediately met by Dubravans clamoring towards her. Some in fear and wanting off world as soon as possible, and others wanting to kill her for simply being from off world, and not a Dubravan. She had to display her lightsaber and swing it around a bit but soon everyone got out of her way.

"What a useless mess." She said aloud still moving in slow strides and took in the damage in the near distance. She rolled her eyes. "As opposed to a useful mess." She retorted to herself.

Kellia had noticed that every Dubravan had one of two looks upon their green faces. It was either one of sadness and fear, or one of anger and hatred. Some directed at her, but through the force she could sense their will to hurt and inflict pain upon those who were responsible for this. The Empire, and that slime known as Bail Organa.

She spat at the thought of his name. She had seen the senate broadcast when she touched down, and felt sick. 'Politicians, and there backstabbing ways will always prevail over a sense of decency I suppose. Which is why they all must pay the equal punishment for an equally terrible crime!' She couldn't control the hatred she felt. The rage and nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her to retaliate. To kill, maim, murder, and impart upon the galaxy a sense of fairness. 'Death for death done to another I say! No more of this nonsensical halfway war! No more being the morally superior! We are dying and they are partying!'

She thought with clenched fists at her sides. The dark side ever whispering in her ear to just let her rage loose. To do something, to anyone, and she couldn't allow herself do something like that not to these people not here of all places in the galaxy So she walked on hoping that her anger would dull in time.

It might have had Kellia not stopped dead in her tracks and sneered at the sight before her. There was a young looking Dubravan male crouched over the body of yet another dead man and he was taking his belt, his blaster, and everything in his pockets.

Only this time it wasn't a Dubravan corpse. It was a corpse of a rebel soldier of some unknown group to Kellia. Nonetheless it was someone like her. A man who cam here in the hope of actually coming together to fight the Empire, and ending Palpatine once and for all. She quickly slammed her eyes shut and tried so very hard to stop her hands from shaking; as they balled up harder and even painfully into fists again. The rage was too much. It crawled up her spine and she gritted her teeth in a horrid feeling, heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, and jaw clenching rage.

Activating her cerulean saber she jumped forward and grabbed the Dubravans shirt collar and yanked him away from the corpse roughly. He let out a choking yelp as she lifted him into the air with strength one wouldn't associate with her slender frame unless one saw her without sleeves of course.

"I do believe you are robbing the body of a dead man." She pointed out the obvious as she bore her dark eyes into his all dark alien eyes. "have you no respect for the dead? Heck why not steal from they dying too while you're at it you little worm?!" She spat and lifted him up higher into the air and waved her saber in front of him.

"Wa..wait just a minute now!" The Dubravan managed to choke out. He pulled on her hand but found he could not budge her grip and she grew more angry by the second.

"I was se…sent to take remains of all soldiers!" He again choked. She cocked a brow but her sneer didn't waiver.

"So someone in your family sent you to do this? Or maybe just a gang of your idiot and worthless friends maybe?" He struggled in her grasp some more.

"N…no it was a, uh rebel! You know one of you guys!" He assumed of course considering this woman got so angry over him touching a rebel corpse. Luckily for him she let him go and he went tumbling to the marshy ground below, and immediately clutched his sore neck, and coughed violently.

"Alright you've bought yourself a moment. I suggest you spit out everything you know now before I gut you here and now." She warned leaning in closer to his face as he looked up at her in horrified shock.

"Okay, okay! Geez for a rebel; and a lady rebel at that, you sure are mean one." He grumbled as he stood up.

"I am a Jedi first and foremost." She stated with unemotional pride. "Plus I'm having a bad day in case you couldn't tell. Many people I knew are after either dead here in this marshy swamp, or burning in that hell off in the distance!" She said as she shut off her saber; venom in each word she spat out.

"Now again, talk or this day will end very badly for you. I'm not here to chit chat or play any games!"

He put his webbed hands up trying to calm her. "Okay I get it, I get it you're a very serious woman." She just glared daggers at his statement. He again put his hands up.

"I was instructed by some rebel guy to go around looking for dead soldiers and take their weapons and gear. See I wanted to be one of you guys, and ya'know fight the evil Empire and all that heroic stuff. Not really a good day to sign up I see." He said, and Kellia found him rather annoyingly naïve but didn't say anything.

"He told me and a couple other guys that these dead guys here didn't need anything where they were going and said he wanted everything rounded up so he could spread it among his new recruits. I guess when he got them. There were allot of others with him too. A few rebels got away in transports in the nick of time."

To that Kellia seemed surprised. 'So some managed to get away then. I should find this group, and get them off world quickly.' She thought to herself.

"Fine then. Want to prove your story then grave robber?" The Dubravan shook his head violently as she pointed her saber hilt at him.

"Good. Then you'll take me to these 'survivors.' We'll see if you just signed your death warrant or are telling the truth." He looked only slightly relieved.

"Alright then, so long as you don't stick me with the laser sword we're good." Kellia rolled her eyes and sighed.

"It's a lightsaber. Now move grave robber!" She demanded of him with a flick of her hand in a random direction.

"Okay, okay calm down! The name isn't grave robber either lady, it's Durbok!" She sneered in return.

"Kellia, now go, or else!" Durbok didn't bother saying anything. He just raised his hands in defeat yet again and quickly skirted past her and motioned for her to follow him.

She did so and they went on without talking. 'Little snake better be telling the truth or ill gut him before he can even blink!' Kellia thought as she re-clipped her saber under her dark cloak. It would be some time before they reached their destination, but it would be quite the surprise when they did.

Here's something special everyone. Two chapters at once! I will be pumping chapters out a little faster hopefully and I do hope you guys enjoy what is about to happen in my chronicles! Read and review please! :) Oh and welcome to part 2 in our journey!