Chapter 2: Coreward, Post Haste.

39:3 GrS

Above Naboo, Chommell Sector

Imperial-I class Star Destroyer: Adamant

It seemed like that after the Grand Vizier's message got through to the ship, the floodgates were opened. Suddenly Imperial comms were beginning to buckle under the pressure as every high ranking anybody in the Empire started...well, panicking. Moffs reporting previous pacificed planets rising up in spontaneous revolts, much like here at Naboo. The hierarchy of the military was in total flux, as dozens of powerful men woke up to a galaxy where they had no direct superior to report to, and had virtual free reign. It also didn't help that we were picking up scattered reports of inter-service rivalry flaring up, with the Navy and the Army bickering among each other and the Corps still processing just who exactly they operated under. So yeah, galaxy wide methods of communication were starting to get bogged down for the average person.

But I wasn't an average person, I was an Inquisitor. We had our own personal comms that ran independent of the military system. So messages on that channel came through more clearly. Not to say the Inquisitorius wasn't having its own crisis at the moment: the two direct heads of our organization just died. The Grand Inquisitor, Ja'ce Yiaso, had issued a recall to all Inquisitors to return to the Imperial Center. Probably to help him combat the ever jealous sister organizations the Inquisitorius jockeyed against for the Emperor's favor: Prophets of the Dark Side and the Dark Side Adepts. There were also messages of whole batches of senior High Inquisitors and Chief Inquisitors, like the ones who had been actual Jedi, going dark. Could be related to Byss, or some power move among the higher ups.

Oh I hadn't forgotten about Palpatine's little bolt hole in the Deep Core, it had been a part of that nugget of precious knowledge that I had guarded against all mental intrusions during the regular torture/training sessions of my days as an Apprentice Inquisitor. Facts of the matter was that I couldn't do much about Byss with my current abilities. Curiously, the various reports and messages made little mention of Prakith, home of the Citadel Inquisitorius and the academy of our group.

After listening to the most recent message, I grabbed a datapad and did some number crunching. Putting the known Inquisitors who were listed as being deployed or off-world on one list and those who were stationed at Prakith as of the last report from there. Most of the Brothers and Sisters had been given missions by Vader or Palpatine, like myself, in the wake of the renewed Alliance offensive after Yavin, and there was a noticeable uptick in senior members being deployed deeper in the Deep Core. So if I was right, then there were only a handful of apprentices and one or two of the newer Inquisitors who had been granted their rank in the months before now.

A hungry grin stretched across my face. Now this was an opportunity practically being handed to me on a silver platter. The Citadel was rich in knowledge for me to take all for myself: the leftovers of the Jedi fighting techniques that the senior Inquisitors had hoarded to themselves and more arcane Force lore that I could only dream of. I was only taught Form I, Shii Cho, during my lightsaber and the most basic of magic.

Such was the lot of us Inquisitors who were trained after the first decade or so of the Empire's existence, when the appearance of even a Jedi Padawan became a rarity. So the training the second generation Inquisitorius was scaled back. We were sent into the dark side, taught how to wield the Force to a degree, and drilled relentlessly in Form I until we could perform all 50 katas of the form flawlessly and on command. Anything else we had to get from begging for scraps to our seniors. I had refused to debase myself so, but my peers hadn't had as much self respect. They were never taught enough to surpass their new mentors but they were given scraps of the Forms. Mainly this devolved into them using a bastardized version of Form V, Vader's Form. I found myself liking Form I and focused on refining my use of it.

Still there wasn't much I could do when I remained here in the Mid-Rim, and I'd much rather avoid the coming power grabs, at least until I could make myself a player in them. That meant it was time to make for the Core, and to do that I needed to make sure my ship would follow my orders.

Reading myself in my armor, I took a direct lift to the Stormtrooper Quarters, which was located deep in the bowels of the star destroyer, after having a little talk with Captain Masal. The good captain, who didn't have that many prospects to begin with, had effectively hitched his wagon to mine and had taken the news that we were going to the Core with open acceptedness. Here's hoping that the stormtroopers fall in line as well, I'd hate to have to make a point with troopers I had spent two years refining.

Strangely the common areas were completely empty when I arrived at them, and I couldn't sense any individual people in the sleeping rooms. There was a great blob of people in what I would vaguely define as a drill hall, although the troopers doubtlessly had a proper name for it. I allowed my senses to guide me through the unfamiliar terrain towards that glowing zone of people.

I entered the hall straight through the front doors, which slid open when I neared them. Inside, I was met with quite the sight. Stormtroopers, my stormtroopers, standing at attention in one singular massed block of white.. All twenty-five hundred that made up the 666th Stormtrooper Battalion. At the very front of the massed formation stood the ranking captains, distinctive by their orange pauldrons, and in front of the captains was Commander Atten with his own red pauldron.

"Regiment! Attention!" Atten barked out. The thunderous echo of the men stamping their feet together and bringing their E-11s against their chest plates.

"My Lord, the Regiment stands ready to swear itself to you." Atten continued, his freaking helmet preventing me from seeing if he was pulling some kind of joke. The Force whispered to me that he was being entirely truthful however.

"I believe a bit more detail is necessary first Commander." I eventually offered, keeping my tone neutral as to not offer offense.

"Sir yes sir. You, having been appointed by the Emperor to lead us, are thereby the direct successor to the Emperor in authority over us sir. It's a clear cut and dry matter sir." Atten quickly elaborated.

So this was how the chips were falling then eh? Stormtroopers had been programmed, literally due to the flash training portions as their academies, and instilled with the utmost loyalty of the Emperor. That fanatical part of them obviously didn't just go away after his death, so they, at least I think, made the move to attach their loyalty to a new leader. And the most convenient leader to be found just happened to be whoever they were already following the commands of, that being me in the case of the 666th. Goes a long way in explaining the upcoming fracturing of the Corp into the various commands of the warlords.

And if a unit of stormtroopers decided to offer you their loyalty, you'd have to be a fool to refuse it.

"Then I am prepared to accept the Regiment's oath Commander." I told him. Atten then led the 666th through the Stormtrooper Pledge, the creed and oath each trooper swore at their graduation. The Pledge was modified in that it removed mention of the Emperor, instead being replaced with 'The Inquisitor'. After the thunderous recital ended, it fell to me to finish the Pledge by accepting their loyalty, so I decided to do it with some amplomb. Although it was probably best to use a real name instead of my Inquisitorius title of the Ninth Brother.

Did I have a 'real' name though? My memories of my life before the Inquisitorius were fuzzy at best, and non-existent most of the time. A deliberate move to further tie us to the service of Palpatine. At least that was the most logical reason I had decided over the years. Or I was wrong and it was just another part of the torture they liked to put us apprentices through. Regardless, I needed a name. It would be a victory that would break one of the chains' Palpatine had bound to me.

Suddenly, the Force engulfed me in a vision. One that lasted for all of a second, but a vision nonetheless. I heard a name whisper to me and was shone in what looked like an alley. Well a Force given name is as good as any.

I addressed my troops. "I, Lord Inquisitor Andorak Lokar, do accept your pledge of fealty to me on this day. May the strength of your loyalty echo throughout the galaxy and may it never falter. Furthermore, I will tell you this: Our war against the Rebellion is not over. They may like to think we are defeated, believe that we will crumble before them." Snap-hiss went my saber as I ignited one of the blades and raised it over my head. "But let them come I say. We've defeated every rebel force that has dared to face us, and I'd hate to break a record as illustrious as ours. What do you say?"

Their bloodthirsty roar was all the answer I needed.

Now it was probably the time to depart from dear Naboo, I'd hate for Moff Panaka to take a disliking to us. The man was notorious for being a control freak based on the rumors I'd heard in the past two years, the kind who liked to know the purpose of every ship that entered into his mini-kingdom. Guess we'd finish our refueling elsewhere.

39:3:15 GrS

Malastare, Dustig Sector.

Bridge of the ISD Adamant

Our refueling at Malastare had gone as planned this time, no spontaneous planetary insurrections to be put down at the moment. Not sure I would have bothered if that was the case actually, the planet was basically worthless except for it being on the Hydian Way, the super-hyperlane that would allow the Adamant a straight shot back to the Core and from there it'd be a breeze to head for Prakith.

Yet it appears that fate was dedicated to making sure I had an interesting time getting back to the Core. Just as the Adamant was about to jump to hyperspace, we had been hailed by three Imperial ships, newly arrived in the system. This trio of ships, Victory II-class Star Destroyers, had gotten out while the getting was good, and were on their way to regroup in the Core per the orders of Prestage. The lead Victory II had hailed us with a challenge, demanding that we proclaim our allegiances. The captain's face when I showed up on the screen and demanded the exact same thing back to him was very amusing. He had good reason to be...worried too. People who went around accusing members of the Inquisitorius of treason against the Empire didn't tend to fare well.

"Once again, my most sincerest apologies Lord Inquisitor. I had no idea that the Adamant was under your command." The first captain continued his groveling to me, with his two fellows providing silent support. This has been going on for a couple minutes now, and don't get me wrong, I like some good pathetic groveling but it gets boring if it goes on too long.

"That is quite enough captain. I accept your actions as the honest mistake they were." I raised a gloved hand to get my point across. It was hard to emote properly with the full get-up on. Strangely the action made the captain flinch and go pale. "I assume your two compatriots are equally apologetic?"

The two silent captains were very quick to jump in and swear up and down how sorry they were. Good.

"Since that has now been adequately resolved for the time. Why don't you explain your reasoning for abandoning your station?"

They brought some interesting news: It appeared one of the 'great' warlords had wasted no time in getting to work in the wake of Endor. Admiral Sander Delvardus had begun taking control of the Eriadu sector and the sectors around it, with the tacit support of the Eriadu elite, proclaiming the burgeoning area the Eriadu Authority. Any ships that had refused to fall in line, or had more loyalty to the government at Imperial Center were being driven out or boarded and seized. Turns out this trio had a mix of low opinions towards Delvardus, personal loyalty to the Empire, and a plain dislike of the Rim; and had broken ranks to make the journey to the Core. They had been trying to group up with other Imperial loyalists along the way, hence the stop at Malastare.

Well luckily for them, I was the living embodiment of a loyal Imperial and anyone who says otherwise will receive a summary beheading via lightsaber. Since I was also the ranking officer, I decided to fold the three Victory-IIs into my command.

The Victory-class was well known for its ability to punch above its weight class and its superb hyperspace abilities, the drive being a Class 1.0 compared to the Imperial-class's 2.0. Although the Adamant was slightly faster than the average ISD I due to it being a Corellian Engineering Corporation subcontract.

The captains of said vessels had been happy to accept my command over them and it turns out that the vessels had full compliments of Army soldiers and even a company or two of Stormtroopers spread out among them. I had ordered that those Stormtroopers be reassigned to the Adamant.

Some more good news was that the Victory-IIs had managed to refuel before beginning the trip to the Core, so we didn't have to wait around at Malastare any longer.

As the signature blue and white tunnel of hyperspace engulfed the ship, I had the idle thought that I had enough troops under me that I could probably enact an Imperial version of Order 66 on my compatriots currently at the Citadel. But it was only an idle thought to be quickly dismissed.

It'd be so much more satisfying to deal with them personally.