Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a good Christmas and a pleasant new year. We're still here, still doing this, I am not abandoning this story any time soon! I'll admit updates have slowed down due to holiday stuff but I'm hoping to speed up again after this. This is the beginning of a new... arc? Well anyways, I've done some serious planning and I have a good idea as to what I want to do with this story, at least for the immediate future (which was part of the reason why Chapter 4 took so long to make). I have some stuff planned, stuff I think you'll all really like, but for now... here's Displaced: Chapter 5:
"What's this.. a sword?" Ezra asked, weighing the hilt in his hand caution visible in his voice.
He examined the weapon he'd been given, it looked similar to a vibroblade, and fortunately for Ezra, the blade was similar enough to a lightsaber that he could apply most of his technique to it without difficulty.
"It's a Vibrosword," the Guard captain responded, he was standing in the sparring area with a sword of his own, the others stood guard behind him, force pikes in hand, "it's like a vibroblade, but bigger, it uses microscopic sonic vibrations to enhance the cutting power, it has the cutting power of a lightsaber, and can slice through armour, flesh and bone effortlessly. We found these in a storage room, a stash recovered from a smuggler crack-down, figured you could use them, since you're used to fighting with Lightsabers." One of the guardsmen moved forward into the training circle, Force Pike resting on his shoulder.
"You sure you want to give me a weapon this deadly?"
"I think I'll be fine." The guardsman raised his weapon and held it in a two hand grip, the tip pointed towards Ezra. "Don't worry, I have my Force Pike set to stun, it'll hurt, but you won't die."
"Why are you doing this anyway?" Ezra asked, holding his sword at the ready, steadying his feet.
"To prove that that incident in the storage room was a fluke, Jedi" the Guard sneered, "you made a mockery of the Royal Guard, the Emperor's finest, and we're going to settle the score."
Ezra activated his sword, the weapon hummed in his hands as he gripped the hilt, assuming a defensive stance, usually he fought more aggressively, but he wasn't about to take any chances with what he could only assume were the Emperor's best fighters.
"Ready when you are."
The guard approached him slowly, Force Pike at the ready, the low whirr of their weapons was the only sound that could be heard. Ezra and the Guard stood there for a few solid seconds, the blank, crimson face betraying no emotion.
With a suddenness that caught Ezra by surprise, the guard suddenly pushed his pike forward, lunging at Ezra. Ezra responded with the reflexes of a Jedi, countering the blow with his sword and attacking back. Ezra went on the offensive, making sure to prevent the Guard from initiating a counter-attack, the Guard blocked all of his attacks effortlessly, but was put on the defensive, on his back foot and backed into a corner.
Ezra couldn't believe it, it looked like the "Emperor's finest" weren't so great after all, the Guard was staggering, his footing was loose and he was beginning to lose his composure.
Ezra's thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt, when the guard completely changed stance, gripping the base of the pike with both hands, and whacking his vibroblade with enough force to knock it right out of his hands.
"What the-" Ezra muttered, startled by the sudden change of the Guard, his staggering was gone, his stance was perfectly aligned, and with the grace and speed of an apex predator the guard thrust his pike straight into Ezra's chest.
If the pike was at it's higher settings, that would've been the end of Ezra right there and then, the pike would've gone straight through his chest and impaled him, ending the Jedi, but fortunately the Guards had no intention of killing him, for now.
It still hurt though.
Ezra recoiled from the shock, the physical force of the pike hitting his chest, as well as the agonising electrical shock caused him to stumble and fall back onto the ground, curling up slightly, and clutching his chest as the current passing through him caused him to shake and his muscles twitched.
"Some Jedi you are," the Guard sneered in derision, "was that it? Really? That stance you had was so laughably off I could've taken you out in one hit," the guard jabbed Ezra with the Pike once again, causing him to recoil and audibly gasp, "but I decided to play along, see what you did, and... no, you're not very good."
Ezra, his convulsions finally stopping, began to pick himself up off the floor, before the guard pinned him down again, his pike slamming into Ezra's back and as his chest slammed against the floor, Ezra audibly screamed as his limbs convulsed and failed in vain. The Guard stepped back, and Ezra was finally allowed to stand up uninterrupted.
"You know what? Honestly I'm starting to think the Mag-Locks were a bit excessive, we should've just rushed and impaled you the moment we stepped in." The Guard's voice took on an amusing tone, much to Ezra's chagrin, "I overestimated you, Master Jedi," he called Ezra with a mocking tone, "My apologies. Now, shall we go again?"
"Wait, what?" Ezra asked, startled, "you beat me, we're even now..."
"True, but like we said, we're also bored, and angry, and without any clear orders from the Emperor," the Guard sneered, "now let's go."
With no other choice, Ezra fought the Guard again, and again, and again, until he lost count of the rounds, he fought in a rotation of the three Guards, each one of them taking turns making a mockery of the Jedi's skills. Each time, Ezra lost miserably. Each time, his failure was punished with an agonising electrical shock.
"You thought you were anything compared to us?" The captain explained, spectating as Ezra dueled with one of the other Guards, "Our training process was brutal. We dueled endlessly, eternally competing with each other for the honour to serve the Emperor over a bottomless pit. If we lost our footing or got knocked over the edge, that was the end. One day, the Emperor himself came, he picked out one of us, supposedly the best, and told him to spar against Lord Vader himself. Vader dispatched his opponent with ease, sliced off his hand and threw him into the pit while barely breaking a sweat. It was a lesson to the rest of us that there was always more to learn. When the time came for us to finally finish our training, we were split into pairs of two, handed double-bladed vibroswords and forced to fight to the death, the winners joined the Royal Guard, the losers died." Ezra was listening, but didn't respond, too busy fighting the other guard. He'd grown to hate their voices, their sole humanising trait underneath the masks was also the most grating. "It taught us the price of failure was death, and it culled the weak, leaving only the strongest of us worthy to serve His Majesty..."
Without warning, the Guard whacked his Force Pike into Ezra's leg from behind, causing him to wince and lose his footing, falling to the ground, again.
"No fair!" He struggled to say through the pain, rolling slightly onto his stomach to face the Captain.
"Since when does Street-rat Rebel Scum like you fight fair?" The Guard asked in response, his partner stepping back as the captain moved to the side of the training circle to look down at Ezra. "We were trained to perfection, in the most brutal and unforgiving environment imaginable. You, on the other hand, were trained by a failed Padawan on board a pile of Corellian junk."
"Hey!" Ezra snapped, taking offense at the sudden insult of his dead master, and staggering up to match that blank expressionless gaze, he was usually calmer than this, but the humiliation and pain was beginning to wear him down, "Don't you dare talk about Kanan that way..."
"You ever think maybe 'Kanan' wasn't the best teacher?" The Guard asked, Ezra stopped and thought. Kanan was a good teacher, he never would've doubted that, he had instilled the code of the Jedi in Ezra like nobody else could have, and Ezra was grateful to that. But if he was being entirely honest, Kanan was never a lightsaber master, competent yes, but even he had struggled against the likes of Vader and Maul.
"He took down the Grand Inquisitor!"
"The Inquisitors?" The Guard Captain said with an amused chuckle, "Vader's attack dogs? The Inquisitors were a failed experiment of the Emperor, he wanted to make an unstoppable army of Force Users, but instead they only turned out to be poor Vader knock-offs. So he handed them off to Vader when he got bored of them, so that the Dark Lord could use them for his dirty work, to hunt down the force sensitive kids and Order 66 survivors like you and your late master not worth his time. I hate to break it to you kid, but beating an Inquisitor is not an impressive feat, no self-respecting warrior should be using those idiotic spinning lightsabers."
That's not true, Ezra thought, he'd gotten into plenty of lightsaber fights. Sure Kanan had beaten the Grand Inquisitor but he'd beaten the Fifth and Eighth Brothers and the Seventh Sister… with the help of Kanan, Ahsoka and Darth Maul.
He'd held his own against Vader on Malachor… for about a minute before Ahsoka had to save him.
He'd fought Darth Maul, right? No… no he hadn't, it was Obi-Wan who took him down. Wait, there was Rukh, right? Actually no, he'd force pushed him off a cliff and used the wolves against him…
Wait… oh no, Ezra thought, oh no...
His hands twitching, Ezra once again struggled to his feet, as his head processed the Guard's harsh words, a sobering realisation soon overwhelmed his mind:
This was the first time he'd ever gotten into a serious duel on his own. He'd had some skirmishes before, sure, but he'd never actually gone up against a serious opponent. The closest he'd ever gotten to a serious duel was with Vader on Malachor, and even then Vader had cast him aside with barely any effort. He was no match for Darth Maul, and even most Inquisitors had overpowered him. He was beginning to realise how much he'd come to relied on Kanan, and to a lesser extent Ahsoka.
The thought... honestly kind of horrified him, he was beginning to realise he wasn't as prepared to continue on without Kanan as he thought he was. His first serious duel was a disaster, the only reason he was still alive right now was because those Force Pikes were set to stun, if the Guards had wanted to kill him there, he would've been powerless to stop them.
"Anyways, we're done here, thanks for breaking up the monotony, if you ever want to have another round I'd be happy to go again whenever. Or we'll find you." The Guard Captain said nonchalantly.
Ezra dropped the sword and limped out of the training room turning in the direction of the Med-Bay, he had a lot of things he needed to think about…
"Well that went better than expected," one of the Guards said once Ezra had gone, "Felt good to see him knocked down a peg. We're still going to kill him, right?"
"The Emperor said to bring his corpse back to Coruscant, and that's what we're going to do." The guards circled together.
"If we don't, I don't think he'll tolerate our failure too well. But for now we need to keep him alive, he's our only chance of making a return." The Captain explained.
"Assuming we do leave this 'Ascendancy' alive," The other Guard scoffed.
"What do you mean?"
"This entire situation, it doesn't sit well with me. The Grand Admiral, I don't trust him. He pops out from the Unknown Regions, joins the Empire, rises through the ranks, and now we're working with a Rebel and a Jedi and we're headed straight back to his home."
"What are you saying?"
"I don't know, I'm just saying I don't trust the Admiral, or any of these 'Chiss' for that matter..."
"Then we will deal with it when the time comes." The captain replied, picking up Ezra's blade and shutting it off in a clenched fist. "And if it is treason, his rank won't save him or the Jedi, not from us."
Thrawn stood at the holo-projector, deep in thought. Commodore Faro stood beside him, holograms the Captains of the other ships stood in a circle lining the projector. The circle was broken by Gilad Pellaeon standing between them and listening in on the conversation:
"The Bellicose's Hyperdrive is working just fine, Admiral" Captain Aban said, "but the coolant leak we sustained at Lothal is finally starting to catch up with us, we can continue jumping, but with our depleted coolant there's a serious risk of the engines overheating and failing."
"And with your engines failing you will no doubt be easy prey for the Far Outsiders..." Thrawn grimaced.
"We'll need to continue at a reduced speed, to lower the risk of the Bellicose's engines breaking," Pellaeon said, "and we'll need to find some way of replenishing the ships coolant supply."
"Sir, with all due respect, we can't afford to slow down" Captain Telan of the Inexorable chimed in, reluctance creeping into his voice, "I say if the Bellicose continues to be a hindrance we just leave the ship behind. Or at the very worst scuttle her."
"What!?" Captain Aban said angrily, clearly offended by the suggestion, "You can't be suggesting we just abandon an entire ship out here!"
"Yes we can!" Telan said, turning to the Grand Admiral, "if these Far Outsiders of yours are as dangerous as you say they are we can't afford the risk of them catching up to us!"
"So that's it!? You're just going to leave it here!?" Aban yelled angrily, lashing out from his dire circumstances.
"Oh come on now, Aban, we can either lose one Star Destroyer, or we can-"
"Both of you! Be Quiet!" Pellaeon yelled, his thunderous voice silencing the feuding Captains instantly, "Captain Aban, Captain Telan, both of you are Officers of the Imperial Navy! And I expect you to act as such!" His eyes glared at them, furious in his disappointment, "It turns my stomach to see two Captains of the Empire bicker in such a manner!"
Pellaeon cleared his throat, calming down now that he had their attention, he had no need to regain his composure as he had never lost it. Captain Telan and Captain Aban were both frozen with fear, not daring to anger Pellaeon again. "I will not see Captains of the Imperial Navy turn on each other like a pack of Slice Hounds, is that clear?"
Telan gulped, "But Sir..."
"We will not be leaving the Bellicose, Captain Telan. Is, that, clear?" Pellaeon said, his voice calm, but firm.
"Yes Sir." Telan said, backing down.
Pellaeon cleared his throat. As Fleet Liaison he had had to settle more than one petty argument between Captains, and he was beginning to understand why exactly Thrawn had given him the position. While he was a recent addition to the Seventh Fleet, his navy career extended all the way back to the Clone Wars, and Pellaeon commanded an aura of respect and authority few other Imperial personnel did, it was obvious the Grand Admiral had decided said aura would be integral to holding the Seventh Fleet together through it's long journey to the Chiss Ascendancy.
"Then we shall bring forth the proposals from the Bellicose engineers." Thrawn continued. "Captain Pellaeon please continue the briefing."
"Yes sir ,our current supplies have managed to maintain our ships immediate repairs but with the issue of the Bellicose's engines it is recommended we begin searching for the necessary materials to try synthesizing the coolant, our best options would be to begin sending out probe droids immediately. Searching the nearby systems and keeping the fleet in the vicinity until the probes have completed their survey, we should also have the TIE Defender Squadrons on standby for launch to investigate their reports, and we may need them for further observation. I would not like to risk these assets Admiral, but considering the situation we should utilize everything at our disposal to keep the Bellicose in service."
"Agreed Captain. We shall begin making arrangements immediately. Convene in three standard hours." Thrawn signaled a tech and they keyed the information to the other ships. "All of you are dismissed," Thrawn ordered, "Except for you, Captain Pellaeon, I would like to have a word with you and Commodore Faro."
Thrawn, Faro and Pellaeon waited for a moment while the other captains ended transmission. Now only the Grand Admiral, Faro and Pellaeon were left in the conference room.
"What is it you wanted Sir?" Faro asked.
Thrawn's face held a grave look, "as you are both no doubt aware, Far Outsider ships have been tracking us since we arrived in the Unknown Regions..." It was something Faro didn't like to think about, but they were indeed still being stalked by the mysterious bioships. The biological terrors were still following them constantly from the sidelines. Faro still felt uneasy whenever the sensors picked up one lurking just out of view. Part of her wanted these mysterious creatures to just attack already and get it over with.
"I have been studying the Fleet's behaviour, and it is most unorthodox for the Far Outsiders."
"Is it? I'm sorry Sir, I don't really know how exactly these Far Outsiders are supposed to act."
"The Far Outsiders are creatures that crave battle, they are a highly aggressive species that revel in combat, and yet they have refused to engage us at any point. Time and time again, they have refused to fight us directly, instead they simply observe us with a passive curiosity..."
"Clearly it's some kind of outlier," Pellaeon suggested, "Somebody who's smarter than his ilk, a Far Outsider clever enough to not fight an unidentified fleet without knowing what it can do."
"Correct, Captain Pellaeon, and unfortunately I think I may know who exactly this outlier is..." The look on Thrawn's face told Faro and Pellaeon just how serious this situation was, "...I believe we are being tracked by the Voidlord."
"The 'Voidlord', Sir?" Pellaeon asked.
"He is a notorious pirate, infamous even among his own kind, his armada has done battle with all the powers of the Unknown Regions, and the Chiss have clashed with him on multiple occasions..." he explained, his forehead creased in thought.
"So this 'Voidlord', he's not like the other Far Outsiders?" Faro asked.
"He is intelligent, patient, calculating and cunning. He has no desire for conquest, only destruction and death concern him. He does not subjugate planets or build empires, him and his fleet simply burn worlds, robbing them of their wealth and razing what's left to the ground."
"And now this creature is hunting us like animals..." Pellaeon muttered, disgusted that this creature would view an Imperial Fleet in such a condescending manner.
"You seem very familiar with this 'Voidlord', Admiral," Faro pointed out, "This sounds like more than just textbook encounters."
The Grand Admiral breathed in, "I encountered him myself once. It was many years ago, when I was a Junior Officer within the Expansionary Defence Force..." Thrawn trailed off, looking as if he was recalling unpleasant memories.
"Every planet within his sights he has laid waste to, and although he has been unable to penetrate the dense fortifications on the border of the Ascendancy his fleets are an ever present threat. He is a constant looming presence, both to the Chiss and to anybody else unfortunate enough to stand in his sights. I have seen what he is capable of first hand. The Voidlord is not to be underestimated, we must proceed with utmost caution..."
"Well then we should reach the Ascendancy as soon as possible, Sir." Pellaeon said.
"Indeed, Captain," Thrawn replied, "The Voidlord has refused to engage us so far, but it remains to be seen how long he will continue to do so."
"I'll deploy the probe droids right away," Faro said, changing the subject away from the mysterious pirate lord tailing them, "if this Voidlord is as dangerous as you say he is, then we need to get moving, now."
"And I'm going to get back to keeping the fleet from tearing itself apart, with your permission Admiral I will return shortly to continue the supply update. ".
"Very good captain. You are dismissed." Pellaeon nodded and left the conference room. "One more thing, Commodore." Thrawn said, "I would like you to consult the ships database and personnel files, I require certain key personnel in the fleet be reassigned for any outbound teams, those who know Sy Bisti and Minnisiat. are I would like to have them work putting these languages into our translator droids."
"Are these languages that important sir? We have yet to encounter something that isn't trying to kill us."
"They are trade languages utilised by some in the Unknown Regions. If we encounter creatures that speak these language it would be most beneficial if we could communicate with them." Thrawn keyed the monitor and began looking through the tech reports from the engineers. "As Captain Pellaeon said we will soon need all the resources we have at our disposal."
"I'll see what I can do, Sir." Faro said as she exited the projector room, her mind squarely focused on this so-called 'Voidlord'...
Oof, poor Ezra.
Some of you might be a little shocked by how weak Ezra is actually proven in the duel, but rest assured I did go back through all of Rebels and... yeah he's fairly low on the pecking order. The only really big one-on-one lightsaber duels within Rebels were Kanan Vs The Grand Inquisitor, Ahsoka Vs Vader and Obi-Wan Vs Maul, none of which included Ezra, he had fought Inquisitors but I can't really recall him beating any of them on his own. Closest he's gotten was that one fight with Rukh where he force-pushed him off a cliff and then threw wolves at him, and the Royal Guards as demonstrated here were a massive fluke. Ezra seems to survive mostly by fighting dirty, which makes sense considering his background and lends itself well to the type of hit-and-run guerrilla tactics the Rebellion employs, but it's not going to help him against the countless horrors of the Unknown Regions, and this fight with the guards was him learning that the hard way.
I'll be entirely honest, I absolutely hate the Inquisitors (hence the Royal Guard dismissing them as "Vader's attack dogs"), I liked the Grand Inquisitor but then he dies and every Inquisitor after him is just plain bad, the only saving grace really was Vader (and he was awesome to be fair. And dear GOD the spinning lightsabers, ugh, Dave I love you man but helicopter lightsabers? What were you thinking!? It was really stupid, and I don't imagine the Inquisitors are too high up in the Imperial Hierarchy, I doubt they see much action with Kanan, Ezra and Ahsoka being the only real Jedi (I use the term "Jedi" loosely in Ahsoka's case, also Obi-Wan and Yoda are in hiding and I doubt they'd have much trouble against these goons, Luke doesn't come along until later) active post Order 66. I can't really see Team Rocket doing much during the Dark Times other than hunting down Order 66 stragglers or finding force sensitive children while Vader (and maybe the Emperor's Hands if our Mouse overlords are generous) do the heavy lifting. Point is we have yet to see the Inquisitors win against an actually formidable opponent, and as much as I love Kanan I doubt even beating the Grand Inquisitor was much of an accomplishment. *Sigh*, I miss Jerec...
Oh yeah and the meeting. Yeah, remember the dreaded Voidlord? He's still a thing. Again, I don't want to say too much about him but I hope you all like him, he's an antagonist I've put a lot of thought into.
I'd also like to thank LBA_E_Ross again for not only editing and proofreading this chapter but also for recommending Crimson Empire, a Legends comic about the last of the Emperor's Royal Guards hunting down a traitor. It's really good overall and I highly recommend it, and it gave me a lot of valuable insight for writing the Royal Guard here (the Captain's monologue is a direct reference to events depicted in said comic), and honestly it's just a really good comic. It was also cool reading some SW material with some actual bite to it, some bite I'm hoping to add to Ascendancy now that we aren't constrained by Disney XD rating limitations.
I admit these past two chapters have been fairly slow, with not much happening. But I can assure you this is where the story picks up again. I've already started writing the next chapter and I'm very excited to share it with you all.
Until next time.