Chapter 50
(Bogden System, Several Hours Later, Bogden)
"I really, really have a bad feeling about this Leia!" Luke whined for the one-millionth time and caused his twin to roll her eyes and shove her hand over his mouth.
"Will you stop worrying Luke! You agreed we had to help, and we both know we were gonna go nuts being up in that ship any longer doing nothing." Luke mumbled out a reply and again Leia rolled her eyes and removed her mouth but placed a 'shushing,' finger to her lips.
"Sure, sure, but I didn't say trick your Noghri guard, and smuggle ourselves onto a transport like this." Luke rebuffed as he Leia and Shira too all hung on an upper landing, cramped on top a metal supply hold on a very massive transport. Below them were gathering a platoon of Stormtroopers of the 501st reserves heading down, with three AT-ST's walking loudly into the transport as well with an officer directing them into formation to get ready and disembark the transport and attack at once. The transport was minutes from leaving and Leia felt her adrenaline pumping ever more at the mere idea of being caught, or if her poor Noghri guard showed up on her and took her kicking back to her quarters.
"No you didn't offer up a counter solution or plan Skywalker. Besides your sister has a more..'tactical' mind then you do farm boy."
"Hey! I got a tactical mind...when it's needed. Besides I've never been in a battle you know!" Shira commented very matter-of-factly, and snickered at Luke's retort. While Leia noted the transports massive doors begin to close on them and the men get ready to lift off. "Oh, and quit calling me Skywalker, you know my father says he doesn't want that brought up. I don't know why-"
"Because Anakin Skywalker was one of the greatest Jedi of the Old Republic Luke. Obviously something, or a mix of things happened to make him what he is." Leia chided quickly without looking to Luke who she sensed to be depressed at the notion, and he sighed.
"You really shouldn't bring u lord Vader's past. Master never wants to talk about himself, and when he does he usually gets quite violent." Shira added with a knowing tone for a girl her age, and Luke snapped to her. "Then stop with the Skywalker stuff for now!"
"Shh! Quite down Luke you wanna get caught?!" The red head immediately retorted and Luke stuttered or attempted to stutter out a quip, but failed and instead just groaned and went quiet with his face going a bit red at embarrassment, and at the fact Shira always knew how to press his buttons.
"Oh for the love of...Luke, Shira, both of you quiet down or we're in deep poodoo!" Leia commanded and all three fell to the ground even lower than before as it was Leia's voice that drew the attention of a lower but nearby trooper who looked up quizzically before shrugging and returning to looking forward. Shira and Luke sent a glare to Leia who smiled sweetly and the other two now shared a roll of their eyes, and the three went silent as they felt the transport take off from the hanger floor and burst forward and had Leia clutching the side of the wall for support at the shakiness of the transport as the men below and the walkers neared the departure ramp.
"Oh man...I really don't like this." Luke finally added and Leia only cast him a glance before continuing to watch and wait as they pierced the atmosphere a bit shakily.
"Don't worry Luke, I'll make sure you're safe and sound." Shira giggled and Luke only groaned again and Leia finally smiled very faintly at the little exchange. The ship shuddered some more before the elevation notably dropped and Leia felt her body mildly almost lift were it not for the ship's artificial gravity kick in hard as the troopers mildly lurched forward and the walkers steadied themselves as they swayed. The troopers all clutched their blasters to their armored chests and readied as the ship no doubt began its final descent and a loud shrill alarm rung through the ship seemingly warning the troops just that. Leia could sense the anxiety flowing off them all in waves, but also a sense of calm that came with being in lord Vader's legion, Vader's Fist.
"Alright here's how I see it. They run off and down the ramp with those AT-ST's covering them. They will all be too concerned with not getting flayed alive by Moff troops or crushed by their own walker to turn and see three teens get off the ship they were just on. We bank right and climb off the ramp and get moving to clear position to get our bearings and formulate an overall plan. A more well defined one that is." Shira added with a small smirk toward Leia who frowned a bit, but quickly shoved her annoyance aside and nodded and fully agreeing with Shira. Luke just looked between them and nodded when he sensed they agreed. Shira smirked, obviously having a good time herself and she unclasped her single saber hilt from her belt and rose to one knee overlooking the troopers below and looked ready to pounce like a ravenous Kath hound or Nexu. Luke numbly followed suit and held his saber hilt low and lazily, while Leia took the curved hilt her father had given her and marveled quickly and one last time at its design and fineness before holding it close to her chest.
'Okay...keep calm, and trust in the Force. I can do this!' Leia said to herself and let out a breath as her two companions were varying in their feelings. Luke seemed unsure, sick even, while Shira looked like a kid in a candy store. The ship lurched and shook and after the noise from that quickly faded explosions, tremors that rocked the ship, and the sounds of endless blaster fire, and walker, or possibly tank fire exploded just outside. With a last weary look from Luke, the three teens watched the massive ramp drop and immediately the sounds grew intensively more loud, and the walker moved firing into unseen enemy positions with the troops moving forward and blasting with some huddling behind the walkers and firing from behind its legs and from the protection of the metal beast.
"Come on!" Shira called and jumped down to the floor and Leia saw Luke groan and follow her, and Leia thus followed him and Shira down. They fell onto the metal flooring beneath them and Leia became momentarily transfixed by the sight of the Stormtroopers firing off into the distance directly before them where she found several similarly clad troopers firing back at them and she quickly ducked down low as two or three trooper bolts flew at her head and hit the back wall of the transport behind her, and she looked back with wide eye, as she shrieked a little from the jolt of a hand grabbing her arm and yanking her away. She turned to see Luke holding and pulling her toward the edge of the landing ramp as the walkers ahead of them fired a spray of fire into the Moff lines and Leia felt her stomach tighten when the resonating deaths of a dozen or so troopers dying hit her.
"Come one Leia move your feet! Get out of the way of fire!" Luke called and she finally snapped out of her stupor and took off passing Luke even and the blonde boy found himself groaning at the sudden quickness of his sister and chased after her and Shira who was beyond them ramp, on the soil of Bogden and running away from the battle.
"Get over here! I swear you both are slower than a Hutt in mud!" Shira declared annoyed, as the twins made it to her as they all ducked behind a large set of random rocks, where some bodies surrounded, the smell of rot filled the air, smoke mingled with the smell of burning metal filled the air and it made Leia doubly sick.
The sound of explosions and their vibrations rocked the three men calling out and yelling orders, or screaming their death cries filled the air as screaming TIE's flew overhead, with AA fire rapidly bursting loud and live from beyond into the air as transports fell to the surface as well. The sounds of walkers moving forward and all around went through the air and tank blasts or rocket explosions followed. It was all a grand sight worthy of awe, it was the sight of war.
"Alright so game plan anyone?" Luke spoke up and Shira nodded before peering over the rock and found about thirty Moff troops advancing toward the ship they landed in with three flying up and away with dirt flying with them as an AT-ST fired on them and walked forward as the troop transport took off back into the air and beyond.
"Looks like the Moffs are kinda just running around and blasting everyone. Like a Gizka with its head cut off really."
"Charming." Leia added and Shira ignored the princess.
"Seems to me it would be best if we alleviate the strain on our friendlies. Go in lightsaber swinging is my idea. Either of you got a better one?" Shira asked with a defiant look toward the twins, and Luke shrugged and immediately shook his head. While Leia looked thoughtful for a moment and peered over the rock himself. A friendly walker was firing at a tree line, a small patch of maybe ten rotted burnt and nearly devoid of green tree line and from the right she watched as three canon projectiles from some sort of shoulder mounted cannon hit the walkers head and impacted and split metal with a crack and twist that sent the walker falling to its own left and rocked the ground beneath, and oddly enough Leia found herself bristling in anger, and the Force whipped around her. She quickly suppressed it, and looked back to Shira and Luke, who also peered around the rock to the right.
"No complaints from me today Shira. How about you Luke?" The boy looked to the two girls beside him and shrugged. Obviously little fight in him though he still looked a bit unsure about the whole thing, but Leia tossed it all up to naivety on his part. Force, she too had naivety about battle, but she had at least probably seen more than Luke had of war at least.
"Nope...I guess. I'll follow your leads." Luke responded aloud after continued awkward silence and nudged to the girls as extra assurance.
"Great! Now I can show off my skills to master!" Shira laughed with a wide and toothy grin. Leia again found the girl a year her younger, twelve to be exact, quite oddly enjoying herself. Then again her father was Darth Vader, and she had a twin brother, raised in the Outer-Rim by moisture farmers, while she lived in a palace on Alderaan, and also dear daddy Vader is really Anakin Skywalker, so, Leia couldn't really call someone odd, or weird with real superiority, and so just left Shira as she was. She was at the least...fun.
"Alright on thr-"
"Now!" Shira cut Leia off and jumped over the rock activating her crimson training saber, with its power at the max and lethal and she ran at the forward group of troopers, and Luke jumped up with wide eyed shock, before Leia smacked his chest.
"Come on!"
"Okay, okay, can everyone just stop running into battle like crazed Rancor's though?!" Luke called snatching his saber up and activating the red beam of his own as he called on everything Starkiller helped teach him and that which his father aided him in, allowing the Force to flow through his body, fill him with its presence and power and heighten every sense.
Leia activated her crimson saber, herself hopping around the rock and pulling the very comfortable feeling curved hilt to her hand and allowing the crimson saber beam to activate once more, and she like her brother gave herself to the Force as she had been taught. She knew she was no master of the Force or even of a saber, but she would do her best to actually do something other than sit on a big ship in space as people died.
Shira reached a platoon of enemy troopers first and with the Force aiding in her speed, and with wild abandon unbecoming of a twelve year old and eyes of green blotched with a glowering yellow she sprung into the air above them, and angled her saber down bringing it down and through a trooper in the chest. Falling with him she she jumped back up and spun a hard right to left slash across another trooper, spinning round to slam the saber into another who cried and fell back with his blaster falling with him. She grinned and practically cartwheeled away as a troop of four fired on her, and she landed on one knee with saber held forward and used the Force to block a bout of fire, as one trooper suddenly yelled in terror and pain as a saber pierced him from behind. Turning to face the new enemy they were shocked still to see a young boy, blonde hair, and blue eyes, with a frown on his face, as he was noticeably disturbed by the life he had just taken.
As Luke reeled back from his first kill and watched the body fall limp he felt his adrenaline peak and his hands began shaking as he felt sicker than ever. The troops made to fire on him, but flew back and away in a heap of groans and pain as Shira sent them flying with the Force.
"Snap out of it Luke!"
"I...I never killed anyone before... I hadn't thought that part through when we came down here." He intoned numbly still looking at the one dead trooper among millions. Shira ran up and grabbed his arm and yanked him toward her, and both of them fell back slightly and fell entirely when a walker fired near to them. They fell and groaned and felt the wind knocked collectively from them, as Shira jumped to her knee in a crouch as Luke sat up as troopers fired on enemy troopers, and Luke attempted to find Leia but couldn't see her, but he did sense her though.
"Don't do that on a karking battlefield Luke! You trying to get yourself killed? I know killing your first time is difficult, but you gotta get over it if you wanna survive! That is the purest form of the dark side, survival by any means y'know." Luke tilted his head up to her, and she could see he was unconvinced, and through the Force he suddenly found himself feeling all the deaths around him.
"I never really use the dark side Shira. I didn't really think the 'killing,' part of war through okay! Call me an ignorant farm boy all you want, but that felt really, really bad." Luke declared and held his head as the Force began overwhelming him with death and echoes.
"Oh...wow...this hurts..." Luke blurted out in slow and sickly tones, and Shira looked to him, her crimson hair whipping her face, and she softened some.
"You need to block that all out Luke. The Force is powerful with you, and frankly...you may be a little to open y'know? Block it out, and you should feel better."
"How do you do that?"
"Uh...um...try thinking, no wait, focusing on something, a once presence. Focus on my Force signature, and mine alone, block out all others." Luke nodded. Even as war and battle raged around them both they together attempted to calm Luke as the Force called out to both of them. Luke focused in on Shira and found her presence to be very secretive, dark, and mysterious, and hidden well.
"You are quite secretive aren't ya?" Luke cracked a thin smile and Shira raised a humored brow and smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, well there are some secrets I'd prefer I keep from you prince Vader." She winked and Luke again found some mirth and rose to a crouch along with Shira and they faced one another.
"Thanks Shira...I think I feel a little better now." Luke added a smile to hopefully sell what he said, and the Force was quieting down now. The deaths, screams, projected thoughts of rage, anger, hatred, sadness, and unspeakable fear were quieting as he focused on Shira alone whose presence was oddly soothing in its secretive nature and calm, cool, collected projection of shades of darkness and impenetrable gray.
Luke smiled and Shira patted his shoulder, but then he looked around with a sudden reemerging thought.
"Uh...have you seen Leia anywhere?" Shira furrowed her brow and looked around confused. "No, no I have not... Uh oh..." Luke jumped up and looked around and only found Imperials and Moffs blasting each other down all around them in pockets with explosions falling all around them.
"Wait. I think I sense something."
"What?"
"A very, very angry twin out there in the field, but I think she's taking it out on the Moffs." Luke intoned with a very thin ghost of a smile and Shira giggled.
"Come on then. Best not leave Leia to all the fun eh?" Shira giggled more and Luke only shook his head and followed after nodding. Both of them activated their crimson sabers once again and made their way on foot to where Luke sensed his sister to presently be.
"Where the kriff are those two?!" Leia cried aloud weaving her saber through the air with liquid precision and flow to it, the crimson beam waving through the air in a blur as she curved it and snapped it from every possible side of herself sending bolts flying off and away. Atop her lessons in the Makashi form which aided and allowed her the precise liquid motions with swift and calculated ease, but with this she had learned the Shien form, and its focus on blaster deflection allowed her to blend it with her Makashi with blasters she found and with the Force guiding her she found every single bolt flying away from her. She was happy she had decided to no wear any cloak down t the planet as the fast movements she thought would cause her clothing to become a weakness and trip her up. She had a simple tight fitting matching pair of white shirt and jeans with simplicity being her safest bet of course.
She twirled around and slammed a bolt into her saber which flew back into the head of an enemy trooper, before she rolled to her right with wide eyes when another enemy trooper fired a heavy repeater at her and sent streams of deadly bolts flying her way. Leia couldn't quite remember how she got separated from Luke and Shira. Only that one second they were charging the Moff lines together, and the next she was going right they sorta went left, and to her center was a small half-circle of mobile defense platform that Moff troops were using to fire at her with repeaters, and even a cannon here and there. She was beginning to regret this whole idea some. She had now killed about four men and she found her heart racing a mile a moment, and oddly was cool, and calm as she realized he just ended the lives of a few men, but she had no time to focus and reflect with war waging all around her. The Force was calling to her, and guiding her actions. She felt it course through her like never before and invigorating her.
A bolt flew passed her left shoulder and she sucked in a breath as she dived away again, and rolled into a kneeled position and brought her saber up high quickly to block another bolt that flew off. The squad ahead of her got brave and moved out of their cover and fired on her with endless succession, and she began to struggle to keep the bolts flying away and at bay. Her adrenaline pumped faster as the Force screamed at her very being of danger, and with pure instinct she flung her left hand back and forward and the squad flew back with screams of terror, and the cover they were using also flew up and away. She spun her saber and brought it down low and let loose a breath as she turned around to see anymore enemies around her, and saw random troops running about, each indistinguishable from the other, but the Force, it alone was her ally. It let her sense off these men loyalties, and it was an odd thing really. The troops to her left running past a few rotten and downed trees through muddy soil and a destroyed AT-ST were Imperial loyalists, the 501st, and those to her right running at those troopers and forming behind some barricades and with three AT-ST's forming up were Moffs. Their thoughts were loud, brimming with fear, and desperation, as they aimed down their sights on what were essential her troopers, and allies.
She wiped a sheen of sweat off her brow and brought her curved saber to her ready position low and by her right side, and moved toward the Moff troops, her own bodily instincts yelling at her to run, but her ability to sense the Force assuring her. The troops turned on her and fired at he the second they saw her. She hurriedly blocked the first bolt wave and quickly rolled aside behind another large boulder and heard the bolts singe and hit the other face of it, and she growled as she held her curved saber closely. She flung around the boulder and with pure instinct in the Force blocked more oncoming fire with troopers firing on her including an EVO squad. Recalling that she had been told by two masters now, Viathan, and her father through Luke and himself to release her anger, Leia felt confident that in battle anger was essential and as such she howled and brought her saber to her side and raced forward and dodged, bobbed and weaved through blaster fire and felt the fright in the men before her as she came upon them with a right foot slammed into the soil beneath she lunged up and brought her saber down and in a split second of realization saw a trooper, in an unreal slow like motion split into two down the center of his body, and her heart had never beat so hard as it did now. She felt a sharp thrill go up her spine and went rigid before sneering and swinging elegantly but hard right in a full circle and cleaved across a trooper, before ducking low, and swinging back around and impaled another trooper, and felt herself lose herself to the Force, and the raw intensity of the dark side as it whispered to her and flowed through her very core. Throwing her left hand toward the EVO troops a massive wave emanated from her and the air almost seemed to crack like thunder as the troops were lifted clear from the ground and flew back screaming as ammo boxes, downed and dead bodies, and even rotted trees flew with the live, soon to be dead troops.
Shaking herself from that little use of raw power, Leia turned to see three troopers aiming down at her and she went momentarily wide eyed as they were just a couple feet from her and her adrenaline spiked. Raising her saber the troops made to fire, but then Leia watched one trooper clutch at his throat and began gagging and gurgling in a nauseating manner. The other two turned and one was similarly stunned and fell limp with a blade sticking from his back into his spine. Before she knew what hit her Leia fell to the ground and felt a body atop hers, and she squirmed and yelped when it happened jarring her, as she watched the final trooper turn and fire at her direction, when from over her ran a gray and shorter than the normal body in a tunic, as it slammed an open-palmed hit into the trooper, and with great speed the other hand produced another blade and brought it down into the falling trooper and hastened his fall to the soil beneath, dead.
Leia wiped dirt from her face and adjusted herself some from underneath the person atop her and found herself coming face to face with one of her dear sweet, and supposedly none the wiser Noghri guards, Cahrir to be exact which had to mean...
"Kohr, mind getting off me? We're still in a battle zone!" The Noghri jumped off her and stood behind her as she came back to a stand and brushed dirt off herself.
"Many apologies mistress, but you were in imminent danger. You should not have left the safety of the ship along with young master Luke and the female student of our lord Vader." Kohr chastised like a worried mother, and Leia rolled her eyes as the battle raged all around them, but they seemed to be safe where they were for now.
"He is right mistress. Our lord has made us your guardians, and we would not dare be in remiss of our duties. Though I commend your attempts to try and hide your leaving of the Exactor."
"Didn't exactly throw you two off did we?" Leia retorted with an annoyed sigh to Cahrir who nonchalantly pulled his blades from the dead troopers.
"After the Tatooine incident where you escaped our surveillance, we made sure to not be so lax in our tracking of your position. We followed you in the same transport."
"But I didn't see you...neither did the troopers!"
"That is the desired position we wanted mistress." Kohr added, and Leia mentally smacked herself. 'Of course no one saw them, they're shadowing you, you moron.' She berated and allowed her shoulders to slump, but quickly snapped into her politician mode, and she imagined how her father...well how both her fathers would have spoken to a subordinate.
"Well then, care to tell me where the both of you were when Shira ran into battle with master Luke chasing after her like a band of crazed animals?" The Noghri glanced to one another and craned their necks confusedly.
"We too had to slip passed the main battle mistress." Cahrir spoke up, and Kohr nodded.
"Our main prerogative is to protect you mistress. We made sure to watch over you, but did not wish to interfere with your battle. Until it went badly of course."
"Since when does protecting me entitle you to take liberties and let me fight on an open war field of battle?" Leia immediately retorted. The Noghri again glanced to one another.
"We are to protect you, yes mistress, but you were wielding a saber, and displaying your powers. We did not desire to interfere and possibly be caught in your attack, and not only that but-"
"But we felt it good for you to perhaps experience battle some as well." Kohr completed Cahrir's statement, and the Noghri nodded. Leia cocked a brow and placed her hands on her hips, one of her hands holding her deactivated saber.
"So you thought that you would protect your mistress and let her partake in a deadly battle that surely could have killed me at some point while you sat by and watched? Quite the odd prerogative you two have. My father would not be pleased if you let me die for my own sake would he?" The Noghri frowned and their faces looked a bit hilarious.
"Quite displeased indeed mistress, we...should have thought differently perhaps?" Kohr offered in a probing tone, and Leia smiled.
"Yes you should have. Now in order to properly defend your mistress you will follow me wherever I go, and not attempt to make me or my brother, or even lady Brie return to the Exactor. You two will make excellent guards, and maybe even soldiers. Or...you could leave me here, because I won't go back to the Exactor, and find my father, your lord Vader and tell him you left me on a battlefield all alone with no one watching over me."
Once more the Noghri exchanged glances and both bowed their heads to her.
"We would be remiss in our duties to you mistress to leave you and your brother, and ally alone on the field of battle. Especially since the soldiers who follow your father, the lord Vader, would not know you to be an ally, and they too could cause issue." Leia frowned there, and realized that the legions under Vader's control wouldn't know she and Luke were allies, even if they caught them fighting Moff troopers.
"Well...that's a good point too I guess."
"Indeed mistress. You may lead the way to do as you please. We shall follow, protect and obey." Cahrir bowed followed by Kohr and she nodded, and looked around them and noted that the fighting was carried off further to their left and away from the landing zones where her fathers troops had unloaded, and Leia assumed that the Moffs were being, luckily, pushed back.
"I didn't come down here to sit around and watch troopers kill one another. I came down here to actually do something, and that means it's the front lines for all three of us, and we should definitely look for Luke and Shira along the way. I will show Vader, uh, I mean father that I can handle myself, and so can Luke and Shira. Sitting out a war just doesn't sit well with me at all." The Noghri bowed again and didn't respond and so Leia nodded happily enough and moved to her left toward the booming and screaming in the distance. All the while thinking to herself that she Luke and Shira all got into some poodoo they really weren't ready for, despite her bluster.
(Koobi System, Savareen Sector, Outer-Rim Territories, Nelvaan)
Orbiting the world of Nelvaan was an entire URM droid armada with an additional eighteen Mon-Calamari warships, but they were being ordered to split their forces and go aid in the Mon-Calamari sector front, and Kast and his armada sweeping through the Spadja Sector. Leaving nothing but droid maintained vessels. One of those ships was one of the Providence class ships designated now as the Hollow-Soul and it was being escorted by four Munificent classes, and from the main hanger of the Hollow-Soul was at that very moment, departing a one singular Sheathipede-class shuttle, and on either side of it was a most important looking escort of two Vulture droids.
The shuttle banked low toward the world and the Vultures followed in escort. Inside the atmosphere, one could see pillars of smoke rising across the world, the local Imperial garrison, still loyal to Coruscant had enlisted the support of the locals. The Nelvaanians as they were called. The world, once an artificial ice age due to the machinations of the CIS before her, was now shrouded in smoke and the clanking stomp of the droid armies once more made the world tremble with a new banner flying high over their heads. The URM flag, a simple thing really, the old Republic symbol with the Aurebesh letters for URM in front of the symbol, it brought an odd feeling to old Confederates, but it made no difference to Kellia. The Clone Wars was a stupid war, and old timers from both the Republic and Confederacy were fighting alongside one another, but the organic armies could matter less to Kellia, droids, they were all she needed.
Inside the shuttle, Kellia sat and waited to land, her blue hued cloak wrapped around her form, and hood up with head hung as she delved into the Force, and felt the screams and echoes of those who had died here, and the fear and anger that resonated across the surface, in times past and in the present. Upon the world had descended over a million and a half droids of varying models and types, not including armor. She had recently subjugated Gellefon, and had a pack of the local gellbeasts tear the local governor live before the holonet. A most gruesome sight indeed, that had her ignoring thirteen calls from an assortment of URM council members. Tythe, and Ruhe also signed their loyalties to the URM following very brief negotiations in which the old CIS loyalists made no demands but to join. Well Tythe was all but a dead world but it was a URM dead world now nonetheless.
Her recently made temporary command ship the Hollow-Soul was a Providence class sent to her fleet following a naval engagement with Moff forces in the void of space between Tythe and Nelvaan. Kellia used this ship as she had all her previous ships, as tools. Nothing more, nothing less. All previous and likely following military commanders who made one ship their command center, their flagship, and held onto it as if it were their child was moronic to her. Ships were ships, and this one was no different, but it was useful, and hers for now.
Nonetheless, Kellia had come to Nelvaan to take care of some nasty business that was necessary while it would be no doubt bloody, but that came with the job description, and if ones stomach was not prepared that was not her fault, it was theirs and thus that is why no bleeding hearts would be among her forces in this operation. No, just droids.
"Any good plan needs a testing ground, and what better place than a world once saved by the Chosen One? I hope before the end he sees his 'success' turned but into another failure, like the rest of your life Vader." Kellia spat aloud and stood as she sensed the shuttle near its landing point.
The shuttle came low to the main URM base where an army of all manner of droid units surrounded the pad and base and watched the shuttle land. All of them intelligent enough to know when their commanding unit, or officer was coming before them, and approaching the pad was the one organic commander on the planet left, one Kellia knew could handle a little blood letting. A deeply anti-Imperial and thus Moff hating as well, Weequay by the name of Sosux Ber. He was wearing a long cloak, and had a simple cloth over his mouth and he looked oddly terrifying with a set of blasters at his waist in a belt, and black gloves on his hands as he was flanked by two massive B2's on either side of himself.
The shuttle came in low and hovered over the landing pad as the Vultures took off without the shuttle up back toward the fleet and the landing leg-like extensions came down onto the pad. The ramp extended seamlessly and from the ramp came a blue cloaked Kellia, her brown eyes, for once free of yellow blotches surveyed her surroundings and fell onto Sosux who bowed ever slightly at the waist as she approached and she waved his bow away as all her lovely droids stood silently and watched her near the Weequay.
"Greetings commander. May I say I was pleased when I received information that Nelvaan had fallen with a loss of but a hundred-thousand droid units. A trumped victory for us if ever there was one. After all droids are easily rebuilt."
"Indeed they are madam Commander. The droid assault here caught the local garrison off guard. They didn't seem to get the memo that URM forces were moving through this sector rapidly and that they were in the way to the next." The hoarse voice natural of a Weequay didn't bother Kellia, Ber was a capable sort apparently. Another gem Vorum found through contacts who hated Imps with a passion and that worked just fine for her. He motioned in a sweeping manner for her to follow him off the landing pad and toward the base set up by the droids with a whole army surrounding them.
"The garrison was devastated, and the barracks, and base was destroyed through an orbital bombardment and turned into slag as ordered."
"Good." Kellia nodded.
"The locals however were quick to join the Empire who has oppressed them for years upon our arrival. It makes me sick." Ber spat onto the ground in obvious hatred of such an action and Kellia nodded, and gave a mock sigh.
"It is because these primitives only remember the Clone Wars and how the CIS before us treated them like experiments. They should have been properly educated that we are not the CIS, and just because we use the same droids that does not make us them or their successors in a sense, but as stated they are primitives. You know...it's funny..." Kellia mused and looked into the distance.
"The Jedi order, once a bastion for good, and helping people, would have easily called these Nelvaanians 'pathetic lifeforms.' It was something of a saying to be laughed at by my fellow Jedi. Even when we ourselves had Jedi from all races, and sentient forms, they all looked at other beings, likely those of rare stock to leave their home planets and call them pathetic. What am I, if not the next stage of such idealism? The Jedi, despite what I think of their fate, were becoming something of a pathetic and hypocritical establishment. They should have seen their self superiority would only lead to death and hatred. This is their failing, not mine, and not ours." Ber harrumphed in an agreeing manner and they made it to a building where next to it was a ray-shielded fence where inside was a vast courtyard of over a few hundred it seemed Imperial troopers, and Kellia sneered when she caught a few old and graying Clone Wars clones.
"Eyes are wasted on this rabble madam. They should be put to the blaster!"
"Who says they will not be?" The Weequays mouth opened ever so slightly and he tilted his head to the side, his mess of hair tied together falling as well.
"Madam?"
"It is not too hard to deduce now my friend, that this visit is not to merely congratulate you and inspect the field of victory is it not? But is it not too a bit suspicious that all organics but you and myself have been made to leave for other fronts of this damn war?"
"You mean, there is another purpose then? Good, I like ulterior motives when the idea is to my liking ma'am." Ber snickered with a smirk crossing his wrinkled face and Kellia nodded.
"Tell me, who commanded the attack on this world, that so easily forced the men, these 'soldiers,' to surrender in time?" Ber smirked wider and banked his head to their right over his shoulder, and both turned and Kellia went a little wide eyed, as she had not spotted the thing before. Standing behind them and looking absolutely glorious was a droid she had only heard of and thought gone by now.
"A B3 Ultra-Battle Droid!"
"Yes, B3-4Z as he is designated. The local field command B1 designed droid was blown away in a transport ambush in a ridge region, this B3 had been part of the fleet when it was activated and reactivated when the battle operations were uploaded into all the droids. It was part of the transport unit, and when the commanding droid fell, it had a hidden field command protocol installed in its systems. Kriff all if I know why and how, but it did the job. Took command of all active droid forces in the convoy and bloodied the enemy forces so bad they fell back, and all those who were not dead and left behind were executed by this beast himself. I was impressed enough and put him to work, and sent him to the front. Scared the natives so bad they ran howling like stray pups, and the Imps didn't appreciate the devastation either. As you can see some gave up, and I had to personally stop this thing from killing them when they did."
Kellia nodded numbly as she approached the glistening and massive droid as it watched her, and she threw her hood off, and stood more before the behemoth.
"Tell me B3 unit, why did you kill all downed enemy troops who posed no threat to active RM forces?" The thing almost seemed confused, though it wasn't for sure or possibly not capable for a droid, but Kellia still received that impression.
"Mission parameters dictated all enemy forces be liquidated from this world. Liquidation itself comes with certain secondary directives as according to programming mistress-commander." The droid had a deep and foreboding voice rumbling from its vocabulator, and Kellia smiled up to it.
"So you are one of those droid models that follows orders to the utmost literal meaning?"
"There is no other way to follow orders mistress-commander."
"And your taking command of other droid units on your own accord without commands?" B3-4Z paused and seemed to process the question in full.
"It is within my protocols to take command of allied forces should active commanding unit be out of commission. This protocol was added years prior to this engagement mistress-commander. If actions were in active opposition to your will and that of chain of command, this unit will willingly submit to deactivation for failure to comply." Kellia smiled and shook her head. Droids certainly were different than organic troopers, and for that she found herself more and more liking these mechanical war machines.
"Oh not at all B3-4Z. I am only surprised, but pleasantly so that you could do that, and actually, I'm ordering right now that after we leave this...pathetic life form infested world you will have a tactical, and small self-awareness package uploaded into your core, and you will be made a full droid general. See to it Ber." The Weequay nodded, and seemed approving, and 4Z didn't make any obvious pleased movements or sounds, but Kellia looked forward to seeing this droid struggle to comprehend certain minute emotions and ideas through the self-awareness package, as for now, she would use him as is, and especially so for this operation she had in mind.
"You are hereby fully under my command B3-4Z, and from here on out, above all others you will make my commands top priority, make this command a protocol."
"Yes mistress-commander." Fourzee responded. Kellia nodded and motioned for the behemoth to follow her and Ber as the Weequay motioned over toward an open command platform being maintained by several commander B1 units at computer consoles dutifully and with single mindedness, carrying out their tasks. The stomps of the B3 Ultra were following them, and Kellia noted that the other gathered droids began forming into their blocks, and assigned platoons. Usually three columns, of ten B1 droids led by a single B2 droid for each column, so three B2's in total.
The two climbed the command platform and Fourzee stayed on the soil and awaited further instruction as Ber motioned her to the holoprojector, and Kellia nodded approvingly. On it was a representation of Nelvaan, all of it was under URM command, and though it was hard to see, all deployed droid platoons, and regiments were displayed on the projection. From above several million droids were now planet-side atop the original deployment. A totality of ten-million, and they were being sent to specified positions by Kellia's command.
"So whatcha have in mind ma'am? I'm hoping it is as gruesome as I'm imagining in me head. If you don't mind my boldness."
"Your enthusiasm is noted Ber. To put things simple for you without giving away too much details, I have Kast and his little team of misguided glory hounds attacking the Moffs in a mad dash toward the Mandalorian Sector. That sector is key for a few reasons. Not only is it a suitable gateway into the galactic-northern sectors of the Mid-Rim and eventually allow for a pincer into the core, but the Mandalorians must finally be humbled for all time." Ber cocked one of his alien brows, and also inclined his head questioningly.
"I'm not quite sure I follow. Sure Mandalorians are karking scum, and annoying, but what do we have to do with them? They usually follow whoever is biggest in the galaxy when it's most lucrative for them."
"Mandalorians have contributed more death in this galaxy than most, save for perhaps the Sith themselves and the Empire as an extension of tat ancient enemy. They were the template for the clones, and thus the Stormtroopers, they have committed genocide, and are a plight upon us all especially with many of their arrogant kind becoming petty mercenaries and bounty hunters. They think themselves beyond the greater galactic community. It is time they are humbled, and experience the folly of their ways Ber, and this will mean...liquidation of the Mandalorian sector, of all living assets."
"A liquidation ma'am? Let's not be coy, or play dumb ma'am, I ain't no bleeding heart, you mean genocide?"
"You could call it that. I prefer to call it a 'cleaning of house,' and this brutish society must and will fall, and I can assure you not a one will come to their aid. The Empire cares little for that sector and are busy fighting in the Tapani sector and building their border fleets along the Inner-Rim, Expansion Region border. The Moffs? They could care less about Mandalorian troubles, they will be easy pickings to say the very least." Kellia looked over the projection some more and Ber dumbly nodded along.
"Well, what does this have to do with Nelvaan then?"
"Plenty." She answered matter-of-factly, and turned to him.
"I need...well a testing ground for how we manage the Mandalorian sector, and some of the major worlds like Mandalore itself, Kuar, and Concord Dawn. Now Nelvaan maybe is not as populated as I would like, but it will suffice. Plus we have dwellings all across the world, similar to many minor Mandalorian worlds. We also have captured troops, and thinned out imprisoned enemies across the planet, and we have regiments moving out into place with some already there." She pointed to the droid forces from the camp moving toward a village not too far away, and Ber seemed to just note that the droids in the base were moving at all, and he made an 'ah,' and nodded.
"Just as gruesome as I hoped! These dirty Imperial allied dog people deserve what they get I say."
"You may be surprised or not dear commander, but long ago Darth Vader himself saved these pathetic life forms from certain destruction by the CIS. He will soon know what I think about his accomplishments as well through this undertaking."
"Sweetens the deal in my opinion." Ber laughed and being a Weequay it sounded rather ugly but Kellia ignored it and turned to insert a disk into the projector.
"Ten-million droid units with some supporting armor should suffice in liquidating Nelvaan of all Nelvaanians and Imperials. Afterwords this world will be nothing more than factory fuel. Strip it of all resources after we have stripped it of all life Ber."
"I'll see to it as soon as possible ma'am." Kellia nodded, and the projector showed her plans. Simulated army movements into the small villages and dwelling spots for the 'pathetic life forms,' the Nelvaanians, and also into territories intelligence noted that they were hiding in. Small forested areas, and caves.
"Orbital and aerial support will drive some of these creatures from hiding, and those dwellings left after this operation will be bombarded into non-existence. No trace of this culture will remain when I am through here. Nothing but the cold and unstoppable metal of the droid armies shall remain! Now we have but to christen this operation with first blood drawn."
"Your meaning?" Ber asked and Kellia snapped around and made off the ramp once more and approached Fourzee who angled to 'look' down at her. Ber quickly followed in tow with confusion hanging off him.
"This is your first command under my direct control Fourzee. Eliminate all organics besides myself and commander Ber upon this world as you can. Starting with our prisoners!"
"It will be done with ease mistress-commander." The droid responded and immediately stomped over to the ray-shielded prisoner hold and through unheard command by Fourzee two nearby standing droideka's followed him, and so did Kellia, and Ber. Ber looking a bit nervous despite his bravado, and Kellia smirking ever so slightly with yellow once more blotching her dark eyes.
The men in the prison hold all looked over at the massive droid as it neared their cell, and the hundreds of men instinctively backed up. As the forward ray-shield fell and Fourzee raised it's flamethrower, the men all scrambled back, one of them being bold, and perhaps naïve.
"What is this?! We're prisoners, we surrendered you karking droids!"
"This order comes from me dear idiot. Your lives as devoted Imperial are over. A new era comes, and the old falls, and cleaning house is never pretty. What's the saying? 'All is fair in love and war?' Well this is war, so I'm only being fair" Kellia announced crossing her arms and the men began to rabble and yell, as Fourzee closed in flanked by two droideka's who raised their blaster arms, and didn't bother with the shields. Fourzee raised his two smaller arms, used for rapid blaster firing as well, and with a heart pounding moments of anticipation by both Kellia and Ber, the crack of blaster fire came from Fourzee and three men fell. The droideka's opened fire in rapid and random spray and man after man fell. Each howling their deaths, or some silently falling over with their bodies singed and burned as their lives ended in a moments flash. The whirring and firing of the flamethrower set men ablaze and they ran as their flesh singed and bodies turned to crisp their shirts, their leggings, and their boots melting into their bodies as the pain had the camp ring with the sound of horrible screams and the Force too howled as the anger, and pain and fear spread across the camp. Ber watched on with captivated awe, and mild nausea, while Kellia watched on with a deep sense of apathy and sneered in disgust finally before snapping up her comlink.
"This is Commander Nelrain to the Hollow-Soul, initiate operation 'House-Cleanse,' at once. All droid units necessary are hereby activated. Only organics left alive are myself and commander Ber!" She commanded loudly and thus the liquidation of Nelvaan began.
From the Hollow-Soul above and an accompanying Lucrehulk designated the Folly, launched all HMP droid gunships they carried. These droid in and of themselves all descended into the atmosphere of the world, and broke off into predesignated coordinates across the world to drive horror and fear into the hearts of all life upon this world. As across the world another sight was unfolding.
Upon the village not too far from the main URM camp, a host of four-thousand droids were already surrounding the village, the natives angrily watching them, and feeling contempt for these droids. The orders came through and the commanding B1 battle droid inside an AAT with four other tanks surrounding it ordered the droids into columns to attack the village, and looked out over the village and its programming was satisfied when it saw no logical way for the Nelvaanians inside to escape.
"Open fire!" It commanded to the neighboring AAT tanks, and all five of them opened fire on the village with a loud crack that ripped the air. The Nelvaanians all ducked from the sudden crack and the heavy laser cannon fire slammed into small dwelling and hut and each one was blown away, and Nelvaanians were tossed into the air from the cannons, and howled their deaths. The females, the young, and the old, those who did not fight ran in a mad dash, the warriors, the taller and bulkier males, grabbed feebly at their sticks, their spears, and shields, and did not fully seem to yet understand the hopelessness of their position. The AAT's continued their fire, and the droids surrounding the village got their orders, and all forms of the droids, B1, B2, and droideka alike opened fire on the village. The red bolts flew into the village, and male, female, old and young, child and infant, all of these things were fired upon by the droids, and when the commander ceased AAT fire, all droid units moved into the village.
The males ran at the B2's who easily threw their arms to their sides and slammed back and threw the Nelvaanians aside. The droideka's rolled in and past the forward Nelvaanians and uncurled from their ball positions and activated their shields as they fired at the hiding and running females and children, as was their directives as the unfeeling and uncaring machines that they were. The B1's were doing better than unusual, and fired with great ease in swarms at the canine like race, and hit male after male warrior and their growls turned into whimpers and death cries as they fell over dead. The B2's stomped over and onto their corpses and fired bursts of fire into their bodies to assure of their deaths with cold efficiency.
As the village was pressed tighter and tighter by the advancing droids the B1's armed with thermal detonators entered into dwellings and homes unscathed by AAT fire, and threw the grenades in, and continued on moving through the village and firing even as homes blew clear apart behind them. There was not to be a one living thing left, and for this one village that was assured in a few hours time of picking off, and leveling the center. With a concentrated orbital bombardment by a Munificent-class frigate destroying any remains of the city and turning the soil beneath into burnt slag.
Like with any great plan there were some complications Villages across the world were not yet fully surrounded by droid forces. As the droids closed in and fired at those who remained behind and slaughtered them all, some ran away into open plains and fields but out of blaster range, and it was there that HMP gunships flew overhead and shadowed over the running figures, mostly females and children, and cut them off with low swooping passes. The gunships fired missiles, and laser cannon fire into the crowds, into the running figures, and the singular Nelvaanians running. Each one hit, each mark burnt and blown apart in gruesome sights not fit for the most stoned of heart. Children were blasted away and bolts leveled into their foreheads, were but one scene, as others were blasted away with missiles, and burnt with cannons. No droid could feel compassion, and no droid could feel at all. They were perfect killing machines for Nelrain's purposes.
In one village droids entered and killed all the Nelvaanians, and in others spider droids and dwarf-spider droids entered and blasted away home and Nelvaanian. Crab droids thrashed bodies about and stabbed them with massive mechanical foot. Hyena class droid bombers leveled entire villages, and HMP gunships burned small forests into husks filled with bodies of hidden soldiers of the Empire and Nelvaanians alike. While the dreaded B3 Ultra battle droid Fourzee entered into many villages across the planet in the three day liquidation and fired upon and slaughtered and directed the deaths of many Nelvaanians. The sight of the behemoth droid sent shivers into all its victims, and from this world would arise a new general in the URM military, a droid general, B3-4Z, and with its later installed upgrades it would come to menace the galaxy as a bastion of URM power, but on this world it would make its mark upon it and its mistress and commander, Kellia Nelrain.
For Nelvaan burned, and all organics besides the two URM commanders were made into husks, dead, and left into nothing. For the society, the species, the race, and the civilization upon Nelvaan ceased to exist from the end of the third day of the liquidation. Save for a very insignificant amount of Nelvaanians off world, the species ended that day, and add one mark to Nelrain's name. The end of the Nelvaanian species entire. It would be remembered as a great 'victory,' for the droid armies, and the URM, and Nelrain herself.
Authors Note: Okay a couple things... Number one! I intended this chapter to be longer, but I have had no will to write lately and this chapter has SOME development so hopefully some feedback will make me feel...I don't know enthusiastic to continue writing, which I fully intend to of course, I would never abandon a story. Number two, I have been on break from college, but HOLY CRAP you guys would not believe the bad college quarter I had over the winter, it was the main reason this chapter as limited as it is never got fully completed to what I wanted. So with that in mind, I would appreciate it if you guys reviewed my chapter, even if it is a limited review, and as always please POINT out my spelling failures, and literary shortcomings and help me improve myself and don't flame please, I never have nor ever will claim to be a good writer so the flaming is also another reason I stopped, and it accomplishes nothing. Please enjoy, and review, and I'll as ever answer any PM's...in time, and hope to hear from anyone still hopeful enough to still be reading this story. :p
PS: Another reason I honestly stopped writing is that I hate, HATE Disney as a corporation and as creators, and that hack who everyone loves Abrams, so the new movies have really been a nagging thought in the back of my mind. Please no one mention those movies, I will never, EVER acknowledge the continuity it will create and always hold the current Star Wars canon as MY canon, even if I am a dirty no good Fanfic writer. ;) Rant over!