Chapter 19: The Ancient Warrior
39:6:12 GrS
Sanctuary of Ignato, Lettow, The Core Worlds
"An intriguing offer, Lord Ignato." That was all the reply I could manage at the moment, I desperately needed more time to ingest the offer that was just handed to me. What did he mean by knowledge?
"Precisely what I just said." The spectre said before pausing. "Did I say that incorrectly or in the wrong dialect? Galactic Common is such a strange language after all."
I understood that, so obviously Ignato wasn't speaking the wrong language, but it raised a very concerning point.
"And how does a ghost come to fluently speak modern Galactic Basic?" I asked, tightening my shields.
"Oh it's very simple. I just took the knowledge from you." The ghost might have been smiling as he spoke but lacking cheek muscles, and the outer layer of flesh below the nose, made it hard to tell.
"How?" I asked, mentally flailing as I looked around for any weak part in my mental defenses. I couldn't find any.
I felt a foreign presence move into my headspace then retreat. An obvious display of power.
"You've built passable walls and windows." Ignato intoned. I noticed that he had a strange, staccato way of speaking. He seemed to relish certain words at random and keep them in his mouth longer as a result. "But you've neglected to construct a roof and cellar to keep the elements out."
"Enough of the metaphors, I will repeat my offer for the second and last time: Become my student, Andorak Lorak, and I will grant you the knowledge you so fervently desire. The knowledge to become powerful, meaningful. The knowledge to be the master of your own fate." Spectral eyes shone gold with power as the Dark Side flexed in response to the lingering hand of an old master.
"And what would Ignato of Lettow require of me as payment for this tutelage?" I asked in a pseudo-formal way, and realized that my thumb was caressing the ignition button of my lightsaber. At least my instincts weren't so frayed by the appearance of living ancient history that my subconscious had forgotten the extreme amount of danger I had rushed into.
"Nothing but your full dedication to learning, scion of Alsakan."
"Forgive my rudeness oh old one but I find you would require nothing but a good work ethic as the payment for your teachings."
The armored ghost swayed from side to side. "You think I'm like the other dead-defiers you've learned about? Those that cling to the in between because they wish to remain a part of the physical world? In a way, I am. But I was also the first to make his soul remain beyond the physical death. They refined the process of staying into what you know from the foundation I laid."
Ignato raised his arms and began to float around the top of his burial mound. I quickly realized that he couldn't move beyond the boundary of the mound. He had remained beyond death but he was bound to a certain area by the ritual magicks that had raised him out of death.
"I merely exist and have limited powers in the force that I can exert from death. I would not be able to possess you if this encounter had occurred in the immediate aftermath of my return." He swung back to the apex of the burial mound, maintaining eye contact.
"You have little reason to trust, I am well aware of that and the reasons for the habit. So I will give you another reason beyond gratitude: I am looking for a final legacy to send out into the galaxy"
"You're dying?" I started. How could a force ghost die? The concept should be antithetical to the entire process.
But then I remembered that I was talking to someone who was the prototype of Force Ghosting.
"Fading actually." Ignato answered, then he gestured to the seemingly endless rows of glyphs engraved on the chamber's stonework. "Everything is broken down by time, even in a place such as this. If you hadn't arrived at this site when you did, then I would have continued my hibernation until I slipped away into true death. Like dying of old age."
He seemed disgusted by the concept and I had to admit I felt the same. No warrior should die peacefully, to do so was an insult to their training and sacrifices on the battlefield.
"You and your interaction with the yartock brought me back to cogency, probably for the last time. I would be a fool to not see the provision of the Bogan when presented. So you and I will both gain what we desire. And it will be a fruitful endeavor for the Bogan, so says Ignato of Lettow."
Ignato extended an armored gauntlet to me. "So I ask for a third and final time, Andorak Lorak of Alsakan and Prakith: will you enter into tutelage under me?"
It wasn't a real choice, I knew that, but it was at the very least nice to be asked. Because I was always going to say yes.
"I agree to become your student, Ignato of Lettow." I formally intoned, wondering if I was adopting more of the ghost's speech pattern or he was adopting more of mine. Ignato had slowly lost his staccato the more he had talked.
"Very good student." The ghost clapped his hands and I heard it, and the noise sounded like breaking glass. "Now, we will begin a review."
Into the burial chamber trundled a contraption of fossilized wood, its composite parts held together by electrical blue sinew. A training dummy. I brought my lightsaber up in a ready position but Ignato waved me off.
"Your modern method of armed combat is beyond my knowledge." Ignato informed me. "Here you will only learn the intricacies of the Force and power given to your natural body."
I reluctantly clipped my saber onto my waist. "You want me to punch that?" I pointed at the craggy and fossilized chest of the dummy.
"Not this time Tirones. Today you will show me your understanding of the abilities of the Force. Tomorrow I will begin to teach you the Teräs Käsi, the way of the steel hand. And what is before you is not a thing, it is a puppet controlled by the yartock of this temple."
The yartock, I realized he meant the poltergeist that had invaded my mind and caused me to lose control. The creature that had mocked the memories of my friends. And my new mentor -a strange concept to consider, especially one I had taken willingingly- had given me the gift of being able to wail on a physical embodiment of it.
Wonderful.
"It would be my pleasure, Mentor." I confidently stated, taking up a pseudo-wrestling stance.
"Use only the Force, Tirones" The ancient warrior commanded. Then at some unseen signal, We, myself and the possessed training dummy, lept at each other.
Then I found out that fossilized wood hit like a rancor. And was unnaturally durable. And I was left in some great amount of pain when it landed a hit. Just like old times.
At least the yartock didn't have a sadism subroutine.
39:6:18 GrS
Loyalist Front Lines, Ottabesk, The Deep Core
"For the New Order! Death to the Rebels! Charge!" An imperial officer, clad in his gray tunic, pants and peaked cap, vaulted over the lip of the trench into no-man's land. He was immediately shot down by rebel blaster fire. But he had done his job and the battalion of CompForce Assault troopers this officer had been leading loyally followed their dead leader's example. The wave of black and white troopers, the finest men of the New Order, charged toward the rebel positions with a mighty 'hurrah!'. The first, second and third ranks of CompForce troopers were gunned down by E-Web positions. But the fourth, fifth, and sixth ranks carried the charge home, using the adequate examples of their fallen comrades to bolster their already unbreakable belief in the ideals of the New Order and direct their reinforced rage at the traitors -those ideologically impure heathens!- so that they could kill the enemies of their beloved emperor all the quicker.
Alimari Chigor, CompForce Major General in command of all Loyalist forces on Ottabesk, observed this particular battalion with disinterested eyes. Her aides worked away on their terminals behind her. She set down the binocs she had been using and turned away from the battle to address the room.
"The name of the first officer?" She asked the room.
"Tycho Delstee, Ma'am."
"Yes him, make a mark on his file that he performed his duties to the New Order and the Emperor at the level expected of him." A high honor for a member of the Assault branch to be granted in her eyes.
"Estimated casualties so far?" She asked a man, who was hunched over his computer terminal, frantically punching numbers into it. A sheet of flimsiplast was spat out by the terminal, which the reedy aid brought to her.
"Twenty-five minimum percent casualties for all battalions taking part in this operation, General." He told her.
"Maximum?" She imperiously asked.
"No greater than forty-one percent if Assault can continue to meet performance expectations." The sound of the rebel artillery opening up on the advancing CompForce battalions could now be heard.
"Forty-five maximum if they don't get to the guns on schedule." The reedy aide amended his estimate.
Forty-five percent of a battalion dead? Alimari worked to conceal a smile. That was truly a testament to the immaculate leadership of Observ over their Assault brethren. She could feel that this operation would be a success for the believers of the New Order. Now the task to plan the followup offensive fell on her shoulders. But first.
"Send in the reserve battalions to reinforce the first wave when the artillery barrage weakens." She was referring to the elite Assault battalions of CompForce, the most valuable resource she had to spend in this war.
"It will be done, Major General Chigor." The colonel of this Observ unit saluted her as she exited the tent and reentered the planet of harsh sun and harsh winds that was called Ottabesk.
The CompForce battalion she had been observing was joined by six sister formations in a joint offensive against the traitor forces of Kosh Teradoc. Loyalist and Rebel forces had been trapped in brutal trench warfare for the colony world of Ottabesk for five galactic standard weeks now.
As she walked towards speeder she and her staff would take back to Agol, the capital city of Ottabesk and the Loyalist command center, Alimari did not flinch at the gusts of hot wind that buffeted her group. She put her faith on securedness of her inky black hair, which she had of course secured in a regulation bun under her peaked cap, and the benefits her naturally tanned skin gave her against the neat. She couldn't help but feel a smidge of sympathy towards the members of her staff that had paler skin tones.
The cries and shouts of loyal CompForce troopers, believers in the New Order one and all, were carried to her ears and Alimari's spirit was eased by their valor. For if the loyal followers of the New Order could survive the attempted purge by their long hated rivals, now enemies, in the Navy and Army, then they would be able to hold Ottabesk. They would be able to drive the rebels off this planet. They would retake the Deep Core that COMPNOR had spent so much time, credits and manpower on to build up a prosperous beacon of the New Order's ideology.
And then they would have the chance to execute every non-believer that had stood against, every man, woman and child that were ideologically impure. They would have the chance to exact punishment on every groundpounder and voidsailor that acted against them, the instruments of the great Palpatine's vision.
And Alimari Chigor would take great pleasure in making the condemned traitors watch as first their families, friends and acquaintances were purged for being associated with their disloyalty to the New Order. The thought brought her all the joy she needed to take her commitment to fight to the next level. The emperor's faithful would never falter under her guidance.
Far above her, the sky flashed green as another planetary bombardment broke against the shields of Ottabesk and Alimari thought that guiding the New Order's adherents would be a lot easier if those reinforcements High Command had promised would show up sooner rather than later.
She felt a certain excitement at the chance to be able to meet an Inquisitor, the ultimate personifications and enforcers of COMPNOR's ideals.
A/N: So another chapter done and a new character: Alimari Chigor, someone who I intend to join the duo of Andorak and Masal as the other side of the Empire: the fanatical side. COMPNOR is filled with nasty sons of bitches and the tactics the CompForce uses are right up their values - victory no matter the cost.
Brief explanation is that CompForce is made up of Observ( the political and ideological commissars of the Imperial Armed Forces that are attached to command units) and Assault (the expendable ground pounders embedded in the Imperial Army that see anything below a 50% casualty rate as a wonderful engagement.). Nobody in the Navy or the Army or the Stormtrooper Corps actually likes CompForce, so I think they would be the perfect scapegoat for warlords to rally their troops against. 'Join me and there will be more Compnor watching your every move!'.
And the mentorship under Ignato kicks off and I intend for this teaching time to focus on expanding Andorak's ability in the Force and his ideology particularly, something he was never given the chance to develop on Prakith beyond surviving at any cost. See you all next time, comments and criticism welcome as always.