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Limbo/Purgatory Debris field, Dark Side of the Moon
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Finnigan Incite believed it was an awful time to be focusing on the Dark Side. His Master, however, thought differently. In the year since he had become her apprentice, Vala Ren's was the only opinion in their working relationship that ever truly mattered in their exploration of the Force.
They were both kneeling on the floor of the life pod facing one another. Finnigan had never seen any more than her yellow eyes on the other side of the vision slit in her sallet-styled helmet. The Supreme Leader of the First Order was almost as much of a mystery to her apprentice as she was to anyone else in the Confederacy of Earth Nations and, maybe, even the First Order.
Finnigan heard the life pod creak as it slowly drifted through the debris field. Every few minutes something would collide and bounce off the side of container. Each time it sent a chill down Finnigan's spine. He had never been into space before this and he had hoped his first time would have been aboard one of the CEN's new ships or a luxury model Rhino Beetle Shuttle and certainly not this rickety life pod they had pulled up from the submerged wreck of the Wilderness. The thing still reeked of brine and sea weed.
"I can feel your fear, apprentice." Vala Ren announced. "You must learn to harness it and turn it into a strength if you are to one day face the Jedi."
"But, Master, the Jedi have long moved away from Mars to their new home elsewhere in the Empire, where ever that may be. Wouldn't this attack be better left to the SeALs?" Finnigan asked. It was hard to concentrate in zero-G. The novelty was too much for Finnigan's vast curiosity.
"The Confederate troopers will play their part. As to the Jedi's presence, they may have left this hollow world you call Mars but they won't be gone for long. With the destruction of the Empire's ships here and Admiral Jethran's slaughter of their fleet at Nal Kuat they will soon realize the shroud of the Dark Side has fallen and that we are among them. We must be ready for the inevitable battle with our ancient foes." Vala Ren explained.
Finnigan didn't know how much of Vala Ren he could take seriously. The whole idea of ancient warring Force users fighting like samurai clans was an odd concept to wrap his head around. Vala Ren had trained him to feel the emotions coming off people and she could hardly conceal the rage that circled her every time she mentioned the Jedi. Finnigan just had a difficult time hating a group he had never met before.
"Well, if I do run into one I will be ready." Finnigan boasted. He had undergone an intense martial arts training program under Vala Ren's tutelage and had learned to defeat Kendo, Judo and Ninjitsu masters through the use of the Force.
"Your fighting skills still need improvement. Remember your opponents will be able to counter your Force abilities with the infernal light side. And let's not forget they will have lightsabers." Vala Ren reminded him. He looked down at the weapons attached to her hip belt. They were made from phrik, which Ren had explained was lightsaber resistant. She had scoured the mysterious cargo she guarded zealously in her mansion in Confederate Center and found enough cortosis to shape a bladed quarter staff for Finnigan. When he had told her he'd rather have cortosis bullets she smacked him on the back of the head, called him a fool and made him do a hand stand for six hours.
"These lightsabers of theirs sound indomitable. Perhaps it would be just as well to avoid Jedi until the war has already been decided in our favor. Don't you think it would have been better for me to stay on Earth and pull the strings of the Guardians of the Whills as they guided the Confederacy through cultural influence and spiritual advice? And then there's your duties as the First Order's Supreme Leader. . ."
"Do not lecture me on my duties, boy. I will not be confined to an office."
"All I'm saying is we have soldiers for this. Jethran and Crisis sent their best special forces all the way to Palpatine Prime to take out the Empress. Surely our commandos are sufficiently trained to take down the shield generator." Finnigan suggested. He tried to take an even tone with Ren. He had paid the price once too often in the past when he had pushed her for answers she was not willing to offer. But it was answers that he most yearned for if he was ever to understand his connection to the Force.
"The Earth troopers are needed for another purpose. It is no longer enough to be a Knight of Ren. I must embrace the true power of the Sith. Only I can take down the shield generator."
"But . . ." Finnigan started.
"But, nothing. A devotee of the Dark Side does not wait to strike when the iron is hot, but instead makes the iron hot by striking. Learn this lesson well. We, who venerate the ways of the Sith, are creatures of action while the Jedi embody reaction. We attack. Not them."
"Yes, master." The time for argument had passed. It was too late to go back now. They were already in the midst of the critical mission. A mission that would determine the fate of the war.
Their strike team had assembled in two life pods that had been reclaimed from the wrecked Wilderness in the Indian Ocean and restored to working order. Vala Ren had insisted that she and Finnigan occupy one of the life pods while a SEAL platoon from Space Force occupied the other one. Several Confederate officers, like Finnigan himself, had questioned why the Youth Leader of the Guardians of the Whills needed to accompany the mission, but after a single meeting with Vala Ren they had left, if not satisfied, then petrified of ever questioning the Supreme Leader again.
The small infiltration team had left a small airbase in Kansas along with several large wings of space-borne fighters launched to attack the two Star Destroyers approaching the moon. Their life pods had been carefully attached to the backs of two Y3 bombers who had gone in with the 3rd wave of attacks on the two ships. Seeing one of the Star Destroyers spinning out of control and spilling thousands of sailors and life pods out into space, the Y3s had detached their critical cargo amongst the struggling Imperial sailors. The fighters and bombers of the Earth attack were given strict orders not to attack life pods nor the rescue ships that were picking up survivors lest they accidently strike one of the infiltration team's two pods.
The timing of the attack was critical. Weak signals from deep space had indicated that Admiral Jethran had successfully struck at the Empire's largest Naval base and shipyards. The far larger portion of the First Order Fleet and the greatly expanded Confederate Space Force were now hidden outside of the Solar System awaiting the signal that Vala Ren's team had been successful. Once the shield was down. Mars would fall. And then the hated Empire would fall right after it.
"For now concentrate on making the small into the large. We must be noticed by those rescue ships." Vala Ren commanded. Finnigan could figure out when he was being silenced. He closed his eyes and soaked in the fear felt by the drifting sailors around them. He focused his mind on images of balloons being inflated and marbles growing into basketballs.
A dark shape passed over the life pod, cutting off much of the light that was coming in from the plexiglass window. Finnigan opened his eyes and looked towards the window.
"You may look." Vala Ren granted. Finnigan pushed off the seat he was in and drifted to the solo window in the life pod. His jaw dropped as he watched a large spaceship hover to a stop over their container. The Imperial ship looked to be about the size of a Revenge corvette and already had dozens of life pods fastened to it hull.
"What is it?" Finnigan asked.
"I do not know the ships of the false empire. Their like haven't been seen since the Galactic Civil War thirty years ago. Some type of frigate or cruiser for all I know. It matters little." Vala Ren didn't even bother to look at the spaceship outside.
Large gripper claw devices extended from the starship and clamped onto their life pod. Finnigan felt the life pod shake as the ship began to draw it in. A trio of cylindrical robots on rolling legs scurried over the ship's hull. They contained tool appendages inside their drum-like torsos which pulled along thick metal cables which they used to secure the life pods to the starship. Finnigan watched in fascination as they worked. Their round heads swiveled towards each other and blinked little lights as if they were in communication with one another. Finnigan wondered if they could talk like a 'Chappie' robot back on Earth. Not that Chappies ever had anything interesting to say.
It took them another hour before the hull was covered in life pods from the wrecked Star Destroyers. The Imperial rescue ship turned away from the debris field revealing the amount of damage the attack had leveled on the Imperial warships. Both of the humongous Star Destroyers had been shattered with their lifeless hulls completely smashed and set adrift. Three more of the smaller rescue ships continued to dart back and forth across the battlefield picking up survivors of the attack. Space Force's fighters and bombers had returned to Earth and the moon for refueling and rearming. They would be needed again, and soon.
The ship picked up speed and headed away from Earth, Just as Vala Ren had said it would. The red world of Mars soon loomed ahead of them. Finnigan sucked in a deep breath. No Earthling had stepped on Mars since the First Lady attended the Empress's wedding here eleven years ago. Finnigan couldn't remember the details of what had happened, some sort of defection or kidnapping, but the Earth was never welcomed back.
A visible blue hue hung over the red planet. It took Finnigan several minutes to realize that it must be the planetary shield that Mars possessed. The ship turned and started heading towards a circular space station in orbit over the Imperial world. The wheel station operated as a sort of aperture which formed an opening for the rescue ship to pass through.
"We are through." Vala Ren announced without having to look outside. The Dark Side had told her so.
"Yes, master." Finnigan watched as the sky went from black to a strange violet hue. So different from Earth's blue skies, he thought, but still beautiful. A massive mountain rose on the horizon. That single mountain was larger than any mountain range he had ever seen on Earth, and he had been to the Andes and the Himalayas. That mountain must be Olympus Mons, he figured, the large shield volcano was the second largest mountain in the solar system and, like all things on Mars, was the rightful property of the Confederacy. The ship sailed over a massive canyon that put the Grand Canyon back home to shame. A spiraling waterfall cascaded down from a power plant on one end of it. The pockmarked and cratered red plains soon turned into another canyon, this one filled with towering skyscrapers and thousands of buildings. A city bisected by a blue ribbon of the Yos River.
Finnigan clenched his hands angrily into fists. Earth once had cities this large. That was before the coming of the Empire.
The ship came in over the city. The skies over the metropolis were filled with organized lines of flying cars like something out of a Jetsons' cartoon. Finnigan recognized dozens of the Empire's TIE Fighters patrolling over the city, what Grand Master Stoen and President Harris's generation would have called 'H' fighters. The ship hovered down across a large landing zone, with dozens of emergency vehicles scattered around its perimeter. People and aliens were scrambling around preparing for a massive influx of wounded from the battle.
There was a light thud as the rescue vessel set down. The cables wrapped around the life pod creaked as gravity returned. Vala Ren rose to her feet and faced the hatch. Over her shoulder she spoke to Finnigan. "Be ready, apprentice. We will be surrounded by our enemies. They will be exactly where we want them."
There was a popping noise from the other side of the hatch and Finnigan sensed that someone was fiddling with the locking mechanism to their life pod. The door slowly swung open with a grinding creak to reveal a revolting alien. The wide-eyed extraterrestrial looked to be the result of a walrus mating with a human.
The Walrus-Man squinted as he looked into the darkened life pod. "You swabbies sure are lucky. May the stinkin' Earthers rot in Boboqueequee for this."
The alien was immediately pulled upwards off of his feet. He reached for his neck as an invisible force grabbed him by the throat. With an audible pop his spine snapped. His corpse was pulled into the life pod and slammed into the rear wall. Vala Ren glared down at the body, "You first."
Finnigan had expected to see people die on this mission. It was no Youth Group field trip to the local Museum of the Confederacy. But to be confronted with it so suddenly and quickly gave him hesitation. He reminded himself that this was all for the greater good, and that sometimes the greater good required getting one's hands dirty.
The Knight of Ren and her apprentice jumped down to the ground from their salvage transport. The landing pad was chaotic, filled with rescue crews and robots climbing the sides of the rescue vessel to open life pods packed with wounded and shocked sailors that were adding to the growing crowd. Luckily it did not appear as if anyone saw their altercation with the walrus-man alien. Finnigan waved a hand over his shoulder and used the Dark Side to close the hatch and break its lock mechanism.
Vala Ren ignored the bedlam created by the Imperial rescue workers and stared up towards the side of the ship that had delivered them to Mars. After a few seconds she pointed at a life pod towards the top of the spacecraft. "Open it."
"Yes, master." Finnigan looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him and a girl dressed as a Dominatrix mixed with the Black Knight standing among the rescue efforts. He focused on the life pod and in his mind imagined opening a Coke can. The hatch popped open.
Out stepped Lieutenant Iglesias and Ensign Honchar crouched and at the ready. They were dressed in CIA issued mock-ups of what was believed to be the current style of Imperial Naval uniforms and caps. They looked like the professional killers that they were. The Space Force SEALs were some of the best commandos in the Confederate Armed Forces. The Special Forces operators climbed down the side of the craft followed by the fourteen other men in their strike team. The other SEALs were dressed much like their officers but were wearing additional olive-grey ponchos that concealed a hidden array of deadly weapons and explosives.
Iglesias and Honchar stepped in front of Vala Ren and nodded instead of saluting. The Knight of Ren did nothing but turn and start to make her way through the growing mob of emergency service workers gathering on the scene. Their first objective was to find the Hydian Hovertrain Terminal.
Finnigan noticed the odd stares they were drawing as the strike team pushed its way through the crowd. He stepped to Vala Ren's side. "Master, we are attracting some undue attention. Wouldn't it be better if we split up?"
"I need these Earthlings nearby for the final part of our mission." Vala Ren replied. Finnigan silently hoped that part of the mission wasn't necessary.
"The final part of our mission doesn't include our trip to the train station." Finnigan suggested.
Vala Ren met the gaze of an alien medic who looked like she was half fox and half human, but was completely shocked at the Supreme Leader's appearance. "Perhaps, you're correct, apprentice. Lieutenant!"
Lieutenant Iglesias stepped forward. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Do you and your men have your Fulcrum maps of the city?" The Knight of Ren asked.
"Yes, ma'am. We've already pinpointed our current location as the Amidala City Intergalactic Spaceport about two klicks north of the Yos River." Iglesias reported, which was much more than Finnigan knew about the place. Their initial landing point had been unknown before they departed Earth.
"Good." Vala Ren pointed to a skyscraping tower in the distance. "That must be the legendary Tarkin Tower. According to Fulcrum the station servicing the power districts in the Xanthe Terra Highlands was within a few blocks of that location. Meet us there in two hours, Lieutenant."
Lieutenant Iglesias flashed a short series of hand signals to his SEALs. Within seconds each man had separated from the group and faded into the crowd at the landing pad. Finnigan had some worries that he would make it to the train station on time but he had no doubts that each of the trained commandos would.
"Master, should we . . ."
"Go, apprentice. Do not be distracted by our enemies. Focus on the small and blend in." Vala Ren ordered.
"Yes, master." Finnigan replied. Vala Ren never bothered with farewells and simply pushed her way through the crowd as she moved off in the direction of the distant tower.
Well I better get to walking, Finnigan told himself. He was a 1st Class citizen of the CEN and hadn't walked more than a few kilometers on a paved track his whole life. Well, he had no idea what an Imperial taxi or Uber even looked like or even how to hail one. Good thing he had been issued some army boots before this mission, he thought. Then, putting one foot in front of the other he exited the landing pad and got out of the rescue workers' way.
Amidala City was like nothing he had ever witnessed before. He'd seen plenty of repulsar craft back in Confederate Center but the sheer abundance of civilian vehicles of both land and air types was almost overwhelming. He couldn't tell the difference between the citizen classes either, everyone seemed to look like one another along every social strata. Around every corner a new alien species greeted Finnigan. They moved about as equals to humans, many of them in military uniforms and on a few occasions holding hands or walking arm and arm with human companions. Over the past decade, back in Confederate Center, Confederates would be scandalized to even be seen with lower classes, let alone be romantically involved with one. Finnigan didn't feel revolted by the idea, but instead found himself . . . curious.
Outside of the large spaceport, Finnigan was confronted by a packed traffic jam. Drivers leaned on their horns and shouted off curses at one another. Finnigan at first assumed it had to do with the rescue efforts at the spaceport but soon realized its true cause. At the next intersection, several large trucks were parked along the side of one street and Stormtroopers filled the roadway. They were directing traffic through a roadblock and searching vehicles. Some of them were erecting a large sandbag fortification with a fierce looking machine gun phaser on the top of it. Finnigan looked to the nearby rooftops and noticed more Stormtroopers installing anti-aircraft guns atop several buildings. Electrical workers were busy taking down street lamps in preparation for night-time black outs and huge flood lights were being positioned around the Martian metropolis.
Fear and confusion were everywhere evident, a result of the twin attacks on Palpatine Prime and Nal Kuat. As Finnigan passed people on the street the word of the destruction of the two Star Destroyers protecting Mars was rapidly spreading across the city. There were long lines of Imperial citizens outside of nearly every shop and store, caused by a rush of panic buying, especially foodstuffs and bags of what looked to be the enemy's version of toilet paper. It looked as if the Imperials were already anticipating rationing and shortages in their mad hoarding of consumer goods. When Finnigan looked over his shoulder at a block of stores he had just passed it looked as if a high wind had blown the shops clean.
Along another block was a long line of men and women about Finnigan's age. It took him several blocks of following the line to realize they were waiting their turn at a Navy and Army recruitment center. If things worked out as Vala Ren had planned these people would never have the chance to wear an Imperial uniform.
Finnigan reached a large open square that rested between a large palace and the massive edifice of Tarkin Tower. He could see many Stormtroopers and a pair of their two-legged walkers guarding the building and redirected himself to give it a wide berth. Two towering holographic display screens were mounted on the building's edging the square, both of which were broadcasting competing news' broadcasts for the Empire's HoloNews services. On one of the holograms was the gargantuan image of Empress Phasma in her Naval uniform, with her meager 2nd Lieutenant rank cubes, addressing the Imperial House of Commons on Palpatine Prime detailing the attack on Nal Kuat. The other image was footage of fallen First Order commandos killed in an attempt on the Empress's life. It cut away to an interview with an alien Senator who was angrily demanding an investigation into the conduct of the Board of Admirals and asking how they could have allowed this to happen.
Finnigan smiled. It had happened because the Empire had grown soft and let their guard down. And now the Earth and their new allies the First Order were going to take advantage of their complicity.
Air raid klaxons followed the broadcasts as an announcement cut across both news channels. THE CONFEDERACY OF EARTH NATIONS HAS ATTACKED THE FLEET. ALL WORLDS OF THE EMPIRE ARE TO PREPARE DEFENSE AND TREAT ANY EARTH INCURSION AS HOSTILE. UNKNOWN RAIDERS AT NAL KUAT BELIEVED TO HAVE ATTACKED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EARTH FORCES. HEAVY CASUALTIES ASSUMED IN BATTLE NEAR LUNA.
Well, everything is on the table now, Finnigan thought. Of course, these Imperials on Mars might think they're pretty safe behind their shield. They don't know how wrong they are.
Despite every sign in town being in aurebesh, Finnigan had little trouble following the little map provided by the Fulcrum source and soon found the Western Hoverline Terminal just beyond the Tarkin Tower. There were guards in green, knee-length cloaks and helmets and masks that covered their faces at the gate to the terminal scanning passengers for signs of trouble. Finnigan mingled with the crowd entering the station and avoided their investigative gazes.
There were TV monitors hanging from the ceiling of the terminal showing more news footage, including footage of the two Star Destroyers ravaged by Space Force, the news anchor on the TV was announcing a 2000 curfew for the whole planet of Mars.
The tall alien next to the Earthling looked to be some sort of walking Hammerhead shark. To Finnigan's surprise it spoke to him out of a pair of mouths located on the sides of its neck. "Can you believe this poodoo? After yesterday's Nal Kuat attack I thought Mars would be the safest place in the Empire. Now the Earthlings have taken out our ships. I bet they snuck saboteurs aboard them like they did in the last war. Only the kriffing Earthlings would be so sneaky, right?"
Finnigan flashed his famous smile at the grotesque hammerhead. "You can say that again, brother. Earthlings are the worst scum in the Galaxy."
He excused himself from the strange alien and boarded a passenger car where several of Lieutenant Iglesias's SEALs had already taken seats. Through the windows in the rear of the car, Finnigan could see several more of the strike team blending in with the passengers. The last one to board was Vala Ren. Finnigan and the SEALs attempted to avoid eye contact with the Knight of Ren, but her fearsome armor drew the attention of every Imperial and alien in the car. Vala Ren didn't take a seat but instead stood at the front of the car and held onto a rung for balance. She appeared to be studying the armored car ahead of theirs, which Finnigan could see was full of Stormtroopers.
With a small lurch, the train left the station. No one had told Finnigan what to expect about the train. He assumed it floated about on repulsars like every other Imperial vehicle. Instead, it hugged a central rail that was raised a hundred meters into the air by a line pf pylons. Finnigan looked out of his window and was surprised to see another train, matching his own, riding upside-down underneath his own transport.
The tracked double-decker train hurled out onto a Martian plain which was no doubt dubbed with some kind of Latin name the Empire had stolen from Earth, just like everything else on this world. It stopped in several towns along the way, each time disgorging more and more of the passengers. Finnigan watched as Stormtroopers arrived at several of the stations and started searching the passengers leaving the train. Security measures were falling too late to save them, Finnigan maliciously thought.
The PA station announced the last stop as some podunk farm town named Mos Eisner, where the last of the civilians debarked from the train. The train stayed idle at the train station for over fifteen minutes. The pause worried Finnigan. Nearly a million soldiers and sailors were waiting just outside of the system for word that the Martian shield had dropped. Even Vala Ren looked uneasy and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. Despite the chilly Martian air coming in through the windows, Finnigan started to sweat.
Outside on the platform a pair of Stormtroopers chatted with an officer who offered them both a cigarette. One of them accepted and removed his helmet and took a drag. They seemed to laugh at some shared joke. Finnigan noticed they weren't run of the mill troopers but wore large white, fur coats over their armor and comically over-sized boots. He ducked down whenever one of them turned their heads toward the civilian cars. Eventually, the coated Stormtroopers saluted the officer and reboarded one of the armored troop cars ahead of theirs. Finnigan breathed a sigh of relief as the train started moving again.
According to Fulcrum the next stop for this particular train was a secluded military compound that housed the generators for the Martian planetary shield.
The train barreled across green farmland that quickly turned to the red landscape Finnigan usually associated with Mars. He was pressed back into his seat as the train started to climb a steep grade heading into the Xanthe Terra Highlands.
The door linking the civilian cars to the troop carriers suddenly slid open, and into the car stepped two of the strange Stormtroopers. Vala Ren stood in their way blocking the center aisle. They raised their phasers and aimed them at the Knight of Ren.
"All of you, hands up! Who are you? What are you doing back here?"
Vala Ren simply outstretched her arms. The Darkside ripped both of the Imperial soldiers from their feet and with bone-breaking energy smashed them through opposing windows on both sides of the train. Finnigan only caught a glimpse of one of them smashing into a rock the train was passing.
"Lieutenant, hold this car. I expect we will have visitors shortly." Vala Ren told the commando leader. The SEALs threw off their ponchos to reveal that each of them carried a hidden arsenal. Four of them smashed out windows and pointed shoulder mounted ION Stingers at the sky. Another pair quickly assembled a heavy M134 minigun and mounted it on the back of the train.
"Apprentice, come with me. I'd like to have a word with the engineer." Vala Ren commanded Finnigan.
She didn't draw her weapons, though Finnigan nervously pulled out his quarter staff and held it at the ready. His master took the lead and entered the armored car ahead of their own.
A red alarm light flashed inside. All other illumination had been put out but the emergency light was enough to reveal the car was full of more fur-coated Stormtroopers. All of whom had their phasers pointed at Vala Ren as she entered. Somehow he knew, under her helmet, Vala Ren was smiling.
She advanced at a steady pace as they opened fire. Finnigan could feel the Darkside ripple and rage around the Supreme Leader as bolt after bolt were manipulated to miss their target.
He could feel the fear rising in the enemy as the walking nightmare advanced upon them. They slowly started to fall back. One of them opened the junction with the next armored car, the last one before the train's engine. One by one the handful of troopers slid back into the last car all the while pouring an unending steam of phaser fire at Finnigan's master.
One of them shouted to the others. "Fall back! Fall back."
It was too late. Vala Ren picked up the Stormtrooper next to the one shouting orders and hurled him like a spear into the enemy's formation, toppling over three hapless defenders.
The crush swept the retreat back towards the engine and allowed Vala Ren and Finnigan room enough to enter the forward car. Finnigan ducked behind Vala Ren as she force-bent a barrage away from herself.
The Knight of Ren extended her hand and pulled an armored panel from the wall. It ripped away from its housing in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. Vala Ren pulled it towards herself. It slammed into the back of a kneeling Stormtrooper's helmet, crushing it, before it reached the Force-user. Vala Ren stopped it in mid-air along her left side and utilized it as a shield to absorb the Stormtrooper's outpouring of phaser bolts.
With a scooping motion she jerked her right arm upwards. The closest trooper was slammed into the ceiling by the Dark side. Finnigan could hear his bones break through his armor.
With an angry growl, Vala Ren turned the shield panel horizontal to the floor. Then, with a flick of her wrist she propelled it like a missile down the length of the car, decapitating two of the defenders in the blink of an eye. Their bodies hit the floor at the same time as the Stormtrooper crushed against the ceiling did.
The next two Stormtroopers were kneeling and firing at Vala Ren as fast as they could squeeze the trigger. The Knight of Ren held both hands outwards and brought them together in a thunderous clap.
In doing so, she had force-gripped two more opposing panels from the walls and tore them free. As she crashed them together they crushed the two Stormtroopers as if they had been caught inside a trash compactor.
Vala Ren pulled the two large panels towards her, instantly arranging them like shields on her right and left fronts. Phaser bolts rattled into the metal barriers like angry hornets, showering the car in sparks from their impacts.
Hurling her hand backwards and then, as if she were imitating a baseball pitcher, flipped the right shield horizontally and rocketed it down the corridor. It knocked one trooper unconscious with a blow to his chest, but impaled another Stormtrooper against the wall of the car. All but the man's spine prevented him from becoming completely bisected.
"Sarge is down. She's advancing towards the engine." One of the last three soldiers shouted. They were steadily backing away towards a final blast door. Beyond it, Finnigan spotted two robots manning the controls of the train. If he didn't know any better the robots looked scared. Could a robot be scared, he wondered?
"We must seal the blast doors and stop her advance." The trooper told his comrades.
Just then Vala Ren made a sweeping motion with her right arm, the result of which caused all three phasers to be torn from the hands of the surviving Stormtroopers. They panicked and ran.
"Seal the blast door now!" One of the soldiers screamed as soon as they were in the engine compartment. Another trooper slammed his fist on the door controls next to the entrance.
As the door started to close slowly, by way of four armored doors rising from the entrance's corners, Vala Ren force grabbed the nearest trooper and started pulling him towards her. The trooper's boots shuffled quickly in a vain attempt to get a grip on the floor. Vala Ren's telekinetic grip had a grasp on his right forearm and the appendage was dragging him towards the quickly closing blast door.
"No! No! No!" He shouted, realizing the peril he was in. His two comrades grabbed his free arm and torso and tried to pull him back from the closing danger, but it was too little, too late.
The blast doors closed around the soldier's upper arm and severed it, causing the arm to fall into the armored car, now solely occupied by the two burgeoning Sith.
Finnigan was thankful the firing had finely stopped and he could hear himself think. A phaser battle was much too uncivilized for his liking, he decided. Vala Ren must have noticed something on the severed appendage laying on the floor at her feet. She bent down and picked it up, causing Finnigan to resist the urge to puke his guts out.
There was some sort of wrist control attached to the arm. The Knight of Ren pulled it free and then dropped the useless body part back on the deck of the train. The device had several buttons, but Vala Ren must have been familiar with their use, as she pushed in a sequence which caused several lights on the device to activate. A second later the blast door snapped open.
Inside the engine compartment, the two troopers were working on their maimed brethren. Vala Ren pulled her morning star from her belt and swung it as she advanced to build up momentum.
One of the robots saw her coming. "Look out!"
It was too late. The Knight of Ren swung her deadly weapon in five bloody arcs. Within seconds Vala Ren and Finnigan were the only two still alive in the blood and gore-covered train engine.
Finnigan approached the controls. Ahead of the train, along the rails, was a small complex protected by a perimeter fence and bordered by its one railway siding. There were four giant generators arranged in a square around a central tower emitter that stood nearly thirty stories high and shot a beam of high energy into the atmosphere from its peak. Several guards and a handful of the furry Stormtroopers were pouring from the building and taking up positions facing the oncoming train, while a pair of small gunships hovered over the shield facility.
Vala Ren could decipher aurebesh much faster than Finnigan, who had little knack for the Imperial script. Finding what she was looking for she smashed her fist down on the emergency braking controls. Finnigan had to catch himself to prevent him from hurling into the front of the engine compartment as the train's forward inertia rapidly reduced to nothing.
"Follow me, apprentice." Vala Ren commanded. She released a latch and opened the right side engine door.
Immediately, they started taking fire from the complex's defenders as they exited the train. Vala Ren didn't even duck when she hit the ground. Instead, she just started running for the tower's entrance. Finnigan was expected to follow. He ducked and weaved to stay tight on his master's tail.
An explosion filled the air as one of the gunships suddenly blew apart. The other gunship banked away from its covering position as a pair of stinger missiles chased it away. They both struck the craft seconds later sending its burning hull down to crash into one of the shield generators.
A guard rose up and raised his phaser directly at Vala Ren and Finnigan. There was no way he could miss, Finnigan believed. Suddenly the man's head exploded. Finnigan looked to his rear to catch Ensign Honchar shifting targets with his sniper rifle. The SEALs were better trained than the generator defenders and were quickly clearing out the siding and first section of generators. They were certainly playing their part, the apprentice thought.
They reached the front security door, which Vala Ren violently ripped open. She then stepped aside and gestured for Finnigan to take the lead. "Now is your time, apprentice. Focus the anger of your entire world on the task at hand. Burn them as they once burned your world."
Finnigan cracked his neck as he stood in the doorway. He knew it was always going to come to this. The Dark Side was a powerful master and it demanded a steep price to reveal its secrets. If Finnigan was going to attain power then he would need to pay the pound of flesh. He had to kill.
Two Stormtroopers standing guard at the end of the entrance hall were the first to fall. Finnigan imagined his outstretched hands as vises around their necks. With little physical effort he used the Dark Side to lift them up off the floor so that their feet kicked wildly above the tiles. They dropped their weapons and grabbed at their throats in a futile attempt to save themselves.
For one of them it was over quickly as his neck snapped. Finnigan forgot to release the dead man as he fought to strangle the second soldier. He wasn't sure if he was applying enough pressure on the man's wind pipe or not. His anger turned to worry and then fear that he wasn't doing it right. Inadvertently, he never killed the guard, but had accidentally pinched off his carotid artery sending him into cardiac arrest. Sensing the heart stop, Finnigan dropped both of his victims into heaps on the floor.
Vala Ren laughed. It was the first time Finnigan had ever heard her do so and it sent chills down his spine. "Good. Good. You are becoming more powerful than you ever imagined." She pointed to the door ahead. "Now finish it."
Finnigan charged. He ran past the two fallen enemy soldiers and threw his shoulder into the door, slamming it open. He found himself inside a large cavernous room filled with monumental machinery. The room was circular and had a door situated in each of the four principal directions. There was a central control station that could only be reached by thin walkways that radiated out of the central control station like spokes on a wheel. They were suspended over a pit that plummeted down nearly four hundred meters, while above them were great towers that housed the shield neutrino radiators.
When he burst into the room, the Earthling was confronted by three Stormtroopers standing on the skinny walkway in front of him. He saw them for what they were, obstacles in his path that needed to be removed.
Finnigan force-gripped the closest soldier and speared him backwards into the second one, causing both of them to plummet from the walkway. The furthest guard had quick reflexes and whipped off a shot at Finnigan's head. He barely sideswiped the bolt in time, and felt its heat singe his ear as it flashed past.
Finnigan charged onto the pathway directly towards the central control station. With a swipe of his arm the Dark Side brushed the third Stormtrooper off the pathway. He let out a blood-curdling scream as he fell into the pit.
At least two sharpshooters were stationed on pylons attached to the neutrino radiators and fired their phasers down on Finnigan as he sprinted across the walkway. It was only a hundred meter dash and with the Force on his side he covered the distance in only a dozen steps.
Finnigan pointed his fingers like a pistol at the guard stationed on the left pylon and telekinetically seized his phaser. He swung the Stormtrooper and his weapon about until he had turned it onto the guard on the right pylon. The Stormtrooper's weapon unloaded on his comrade, cutting him down. Finnigan flicked his wrist and yanked the left Stormtrooper from his perch, allowing him to fall towards his doom.
All that were left was one Stormtrooper on the connecting walkway to Finnigan's left and a Stormtrooper and technician in the central control station. The Stormtrooper on the flanking walkway fired shot after shot at Finnigan but couldn't gauge the young Sith's speed correctly.
Finnigan reached the control pod at the center of the room with a flying kick to the Stormtrooper there, sending him back into the technician. The man's helmet popped off and jumped into the air as he fell. Finnigan caught the headgear with both hands and turned towards the last Stormtrooper on the walkway.
The soldier shot two rapid-fire bolts, aimed at Finnigan's chest, but these were deflected by his comrade's helmet. With a mighty push, Finnigan hurled the helmet like a cannon ball at the trooper, knocking him from the path.
The room was cleared. Finnigan breathed heavy as he surveyed the damage he had caused. He looked down into the pit and saw eight distant bodies lying motionless far below. He had never felt such guilt nor such power.
"Well done, apprentice. Now step aside." Finnigan turned to see Vala Ren casually strolling towards him. Her arms crossed behind her back as if she didn't have a care in the world.
Finnigan did make room for his master on the central platform. When she arrived she bent at the knees and outstretched her arms. With a mighty tearing of metal the central control station was ripped from its housing and sent hurtling into the chasm below.
Sparks and streaks of electrical energy started to lash out across the upper portion of the shield housing. A door burst open at the far side of the room revealing ten Stormtroopers who, spotting Finnigan and Vala Ren at the central station, immediately charged the intruders.
The Imperial soldiers had a hundred meters to cross to reach the two Sith. It would prove to be much too far for them. Vala Ren reached out with the Dark Side and wrenched two of the neutrino radiator housings from the sides of the chamber. With a mighty pull she sent the entire contraption dropping into the abyss. It fell atop the Stormtroopers and shattered their walkway into a hundred pieces. There shouts of alarm and fear were snuffed out by a thousand tons of machinery.
The complex plummeted into darkness as the power failed. The smashed machinery in the pit below began to burn, providing Vala Ren and Finnigan enough illumination to vacate the chamber before the smoke overcame them.
They reached the outside of the smoking tower and were greeted by Lieutenant Iglesias and Ensign Honchar, who had just finished clearing the perimeter of the facility.
Finnigan's gaze turned and climbed up the tower. No longer did it spew energy into the sky. The purple atmosphere was a slightly darker shade of violet as the absence of shield energy suddenly allowed more ultraviolet light to strike Mars.
He squinted as dozens and then hundreds of small black dots started to appear in the sky. As they dropped out of hyperspace and started closing with the planet they revealed themselves as warships. Revenge Corvettes, Europe Frigates, Spielberg and Eiffel cruisers, Naruto light destroyers, and Magnificent-class freighters were piercing the upper atmosphere of Mars. From them spilled a swarm of Y3s, X1s, B1s and A1s of Space Force and the Confederate Army.
The Earth had returned. And this time they were here to stay.
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Up Next- Sticking the Landing
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