"Oh shit."
Din looked up at the schematic on the holo table in horror, the brutality of the situation hitting him in the face.
NAME: N/A
Weapon Description: This weapon launches copious amounts of ash and sulfur into the stratosphere, essentially forcing a volcanic winter
Objective: With multiple uses of this weapon across the surface of a planet, the empire will take control of it, and slowly return to its former glory
"Hey... What the hell is that?" Asked the green-haired boy, his voice trembling slightly in fear. The empire had made bold claims that they would be back before, and were quickly dealt with. But this... This actually felt real. He turned his head upwards to his father, watching with as much horror as he was feeling. Izuku wanted to throw up. He had heard the horror stories of the empire, and he wanted none of it.
Din took a deep breath and finally broke the silence. "We... we have to stop them." He hated this feeling of dread, he hadn't felt this since he was a child, and he'd be damned if he would let his nightmares become reality.
"Oh, you may try," Said a smug voice behind them. Syko was not a noteworthy person at first glance. He stood at 5'8, had beige skin, and brown, crew-cut hair. His only feature of note was his mutton chop beard, connecting on his chin, but not his upper lip. Din and Izuku quickly drew their blasters, their eyes darting to the newcomer, and fired at him. but the man quickly drew a lightsaber and deflected the bolts. The man smirked, looking at them hauntingly.
"A Jedi?" Whispered Din in disbelief.
"Oh, no." Said Syko as he chuckled "I could never be that scum..."
"Yeah you're garbage" Izuku quickly quipped back. Syko bristled, his facial features contorting in anger, Izuku's comment seemingly infuriating him, as he charged at them, he swiped the blade with practiced ease. Izuku quickly drew his vibroblade and parried, stumbling back from the amount of force behind the Syko's swing. He noticed that his blade was chipped, and his face morphed into one of concern. He was under the impression that beskar was impenetrable, even to a lightsaber. They would have to be more careful than they thought. Din sprung into action, putting his wrist forward, and wrapped Syko with his wire, which he quickly cut through. Syko chuckled.
"Is that all you have, Mandalorian?" Asked Syko, his face taking on an evil smile. Din turned to Izuku. "Kid, go, I'll take him." Izuku was about to protest, but recognized the no-nonsense tone Din was using in his voice, and chose otherwise. He turned, and ran out of the room, knowing not to disobey his father's orders in situations like these. "Smart" Syko said, looking directly at Din. "I would have killed him." Din grit his teeth, his jaw starting to hurt by the amount of pressure being used by it. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the man before him with pure anger, hidden by his mask.
"Oh? Mad, are we?" Syko loved goading his opponents. It doubled, or even tripled the satisfaction he got once he killed them. Really, they were like stupid fish, falling for traps so easily like this, and Din was no exception. He sprung forward with the boost from his jetpack, rapidly gaining speed, and cocked his fist back, ready to bash the smugness out of the asshole's face. Syko's eyebrows raised in surprise at the sudden burst of speed, quickly bringing his saber up, and swiped at Din, who was forced to halt his attack to parry with his forearms, the beskar plating being the only thing saving him from getting his limbs chopped off.
He considered reaching for a blaster but quickly dismissed that thought, It wouldn't work, and it would probably only hurt himself. Syko swung his blade, Din weaving out of its path, the hot beam of light nearly hitting his unarmored neck. Din threw a right hook which was easily caught by Syko, twisting Din's arm and pulling him down, kicking him away. Din rolled on the floor and hit a wall, quickly getting back on his feet. He watched as Syko slowly approached him, his mind running a mile a minute trying to figure out something. He quickly checked for his hidden wrist-mounted blade, and moved, putting as much force as he could into his foot and kicked the lightsaber from Syko's hands.
"Hm, are you under the impression that was my only method of fighting scum like you?" The words came out of the general's mouth like venom, looking at Din with narrow eyes. They started exchanging blows, Din now gaining the upper hand, having to not worry about his limbs getting chopped off. Din grabbed Syko's arm and flew up with his jetpack, hastily putting his foot up to his stomach and slamming him against the ceiling. Syko's head hit the ceiling his vision momentarily blurring before returning to its normal state. He crash-landed, but quickly got back on his feet, ready to face Din again. The Mandalorian went in with a right hook, Syko leaning back to dodge the hook with ease. But that was what din wanted. As his fist flew past his neck, his hidden blade extracted, the tip grazing the general's jugular.
Syko's eyes widened as he touched his neck. Had he been an inch closer, his throat would have been slit open. His eyes narrowed, trying to think of a way to gain the upper hand. He rolled out of the way of a bolt, and chose to run instead. With all the energy he could muster, he ran towards the door, frantically heading out. Din ran after him before pausing momentarily, his eyes noticing the forgotten about lightsaber, lying on the ground, ready to be picked up. Din hesitated, looking at the lightsaber, then back at the door, then back at the lightsaber again, unable to decide what to do. He walked up to the cylinder, picking it up and putting it in between his hip and belt, and ran out in search of Syko. He stopped as he hit an intersection. By now, stormtroopers, and even some purge troopers had found him. He looked behind him, seeing the Black and white-clad men following him, and randomly picked a direction.
He knew he lost Syko, his main priority right now was finding Izuku and the rest.
Vadue and Kirishima kept running, a mob of stormtroopers trailing about 30 seconds behind them. They froze as they ran into a cafeteria, a good amount of stormtroopers already in there. They looked back, and saw the rest of the troopers approaching. "shit... what are we gonna do?" said vadue, his cool demeanor now breaking, a nervous expression overtaking his features. Kirishima didn't respond, instead examined the room. "Vadue... see those cameras?" Vadue looked where Kirishima told him to. "Can you take them out?" Vadue reluctantly nodded and fired at the cameras, hitting every single one, surprising even himself with his accuracy. The stormtroopers in the cafeteria immediately rose out of their seats, guns drawn and pointed at the pair, having now realized that they were the imposters they had gotten word about.
Kirishima clutched his wrist with his left hand. He pointed it forward, ready to flick his middle finger. The stormtroopers paused, looking at him in confusion. The redheaded boy was mentally preparing himself for the amount of pain this was going to put on his finger. He took a deep breath and gathered as much energy as he could in it. He flicked his finger, forming a sonic boom as the blast tore at the bodies of the troopers in front of him, and blew a massive hole in the wall, bursting through several corridors before exposing the outside world to them.
The warm air suddenly felt cold. Everyone in the room was frozen in shock, watching the destruction before them. Kirishima looked down at his hand, mortified at what he had done. Vadue looked at him, unable to pick his jaw up from the floor. He shook his head and started shooting at the troopers, ducking behind a fallen table. Kirishima snapped out, still really shaken up, and followed, rolling behind the table next to vadue. He clutched his finger in pain, as tears threatened to spill down his eyes. He drew his blaster, leaned over the table, and shot a few shots, but as he saw the dead bodies slumped back, and clutched his chest. He took sharp breaths, his eyes wide. He could hear his heartbeat loudly in his ears.
"Yo, dude, snap out of it! You can't just freeze up like that" Said Vadue, a hint of desperation in his voice. Kirishima tried to regain control of his nerves, shaking his head as he felt bolts colliding with his cover. He was still mortified, but could at the very least move. He was too focused on calming himself down, and he completely missed the grenade next to him. In the span of a second looked he at vadue, the dark-skinned boy having already taken cover a few meters out then back at the grenade. He used his hardening quirk to its limits, and braced himself. A booming sound pierced his eardrums, the only thing he could hear being the super loud ringing. He was flung back, slamming face first into a wall, and dropped limp, the only signal he was still alive was the slow, shallow breaths making his chest rise ever so slightly.
Izuku parried a blow from a purge trooper's electric staff with his vibroblade, pushing the man backward, making him fall flat onto his butt. The man quickly got up and charged at the green-haired boy. Izuku rolled out of the way of a barrage of bolts fired by another purge trooper. They quickly gained on him, and he jumped, twirling in the air, performing a split kick, hitting them both square in the temple. They stumbled back, but their helmets absorbed most of the impact, so they sprung back up to action. Izuku extended his wire, wrapping it around the trooper with the electric staff, and slammed him against a wall with a good amount of force, managing to form a dent in it from the man's head.
Izuku heard a booming noise, his head instantly snapping to its direction. 'Kirishima!' He thought in panic. He had seen what 100% of one for all looked like
-Flashback-
Izuku found himself watching the UA sports festival. He had managed to swipe a phone when he went through a particularly busy street. Watching the festival brought him a sense of nostalgia. He and his parents would have an entire salad bowl filled with all sorts of candies and snacks, ranging from chips to M&Ms while watching it. He remembered how his dad had cheered that his par-something had hit when the dark-skinned girl with bunny ears had won the tournament.
He quickly rid himself of those thoughts, he had not to think about the past too much. He watched as the redhead kid from the UCJ was fighting the other redhead, well, half redhead, kid. He was blown away at the sheer amount of power a single flick of his finger had created
-Flashback end-
He had to get there fast. He launched himself with his jetpack, plunging his vibroblade into the man's neck. The all-black-clad man staggered back, blood pouring out of his neck, staining Izuku's shiny green armor. He was about to fly away, when, in a last-ditch effort, the other purge trooper weakly threw his staff, managing to hit Izuju's jetpack. Izuku cursed as he spun around and shot the man point blank in the face, and booked it to where the blast happened
Soon after, he heard a second, albeit much quieter explosion, which made him fear even more.
He ran down the hallway, his mind set on getting there as fast as possible. After running for a good 2 minutes, he was suddenly stopped, being lifted into the air by a droid. The droid was humanoid, painted in all black. It had lanky limbs, the symbol of the empire painted on its shoulders, and a small head, in comparison to the rest of its body.
Izuku struggled, plunging the vibroblade inside of the droid but could only slightly pierce it. He could work with that. Before he could do anything else, the droid slammed him down on the ground, making shards of metal and dirt fly up as he made a dent in it. He slowly rose to his feet but couldn't get room to breathe as the droid pounced on him immediately, throwing a backhanded swipe to his head. Izuku ducked, and kicked the droid off its feet.
The droid quickly fell on all fours and Izuku, without skipping a beat, tried to cut its head off with the vibroblade. He made it halfway through, when the droid's arm lunged out and shoved him against the wall, roughly. The droid walked up to him ready to crush his skull. Izuku hastily reached for a stun grenade and threw it in front of him. Unfortunately, he was still in the stun grenades' radius, so along with the droid, he was too caught in the blast. His body shook, electricity coursing through his veins, and fell limp and slowly lifted himself up. He looked at the droid, its eyes light now dimmed, and shook his head, continuing running, albeit with a level of difficulty. That would wear off in a few minutes so he didn't worry about it
Vadue was holding off pretty well on his own, he only took one shot and that was to his left hand, his non-dominant one. He was stuck fighting another purge trooper on his own. The purge troopers were quickly gaining on him, and he was slowly losing control. As he dodged a swing of an electric staff, another one entered his field of vision, and rapidly moved towards his face.
He was going to die.
The staff struck true, the sound of electricity sparks ringing in his ears. But he didn't feel any pain. he thought it was just the adrenaline pumping through his body, and he was about to feel it any moment now. But he didn't. He hesitantly opened his eyes, expecting to be met with charred skin. He stared in disbelief as Kirishima was kneeling in front of him, red sparks dancing around him, and... was his skin jagged? His arms crossed in an X shape, panting heavily. Kirishima didn't waiver, instead, he used 5% of OfA launching a kick to the purge trooper's head and sending him sprawling back. Kirishima helped Vadue to his feet, the pair now standing back to back
"Yo strong dude, can you fire any more of those big ass blasts?"
Kirishima hesitated. "Every time I use that I break my finger..."
Vadue looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised in disbelief "You what?"
"I can use it to a lesser scale though" He responded, pointing to the purge trooper's body.
"You do that, and I'll cover for you"
Kirishima nodded and sprung into action. He went from trooper to trooper, punching the lights out of every single one that was in his way. His morals didn't matter right now, only thing he cared about was surviving. Vadue was hidden behind another desk, picking up a few kills as he supported Kirishima from afar. The boy in question bashed yet another skull in, rolling off the body and looking at who was left. There were only two left, and they were smart enough to surrender. Just as that happened, they heard footsteps coming from the corridor. They all looked seeing Izuku run in.
Izuku assessed the situation, and he could only think of one thing.
"What the hell happened here?" He asked, his voice filled with confusion.
"Yo boy here got some uh... Interesting abilities..." Said Vadue, not really knowing how else to describe what he saw the redhead do.
Izuku looked at the bodies before him, then back at Kirishima "Holy shit... This was all you?" Asked Izuku in disbelief.
Kirishima looked uncomfortable, he hated what he did, and he was put on the spot about it "Y-Yeah..." Izuku looked at Kirishima with a newfound level of respect "Good shit bro..."
Suddenly, they heard rumbling, and they all stood at attention
'This place is like a maze' Thought Din distastefully. He felt like he made the same left turn for hours, only for the path to be slightly different. He checked room after room, trying to find something but was only met with boring offices or labs. He eventually reached a dead end, with a door at the end of the hallway. He walked in, his eyes scanning the room. the room was dark, the only thing illuminating it was the big pit of lava. Above it, was some sort of machine. The machine was big, easily thrice his size. It looked more like a chimney, with pipes running down into the lava. By the looks of it, this place was once a volcano. "This must be the weapon... I've got to"
"Stop it?" Said a voice. Din snapped his head toward it. He couldn't see them due to the darkness in the room. He fixed his eyes on the voice, widening as he realized who the voice belonged to. "YOU!" Exclaimed Din in disbelief, mixed with horror. Syko chuckled evilly. "You failed, Mandalorian. You. Failed." Said Syko, a crazed smile overtaking his face. "And who says I can't stop you?" Asked Din. "YOU CAN'T, THAT'S THE BEST PART" Exclaimed Syko. Din took a step back, repulsed by the man's craziness. "LONG. LIVE. THE EMPIRE" Syko pressed a button on the screen next to the cylinder, and the machine started to rumble.
A cold sense of dread overtook Din's body, his face turning paper white under his helmet. He watched as the machine pumped out ash at an alarming level. The machine extended high up in the sky, easily passing 100m.
"YOU FAILED, HAHAAHAHA" Syko yelled, delight evident in his voice.
Back in the village, everyone had stepped outside of their homes watching the ash rise. Din had explained the situation to the three, and they were all silent the trip back. Once they went out to the hangar, Vadue stopped. "Well... thanks for the help." He said the last part with a bit of venom in his voice, directing it at Din. He knew he tried his best, but he didn't care. His home will be destroyed because he was too slow.
"You're not coming?" Asked Izuku.
"No. I have my mother and my little sister here, I can't just leave them."
Izuku nodded. "Well... I hope to see you soon in the future..."
"Yeah... you guys are pretty cool." Vadue dapped each boy up, and turned to leave, putting an arm above his shoulder to wave them goodbye. The moment sucked. Everything about this sucked... But he wouldn't rest until the empire was gone. "I need to get better... stronger..."
Izuku and Kirishima watched the ash-littered sky of Kashyyyk as they flew out of the planet's atmosphere. The tension in the ship was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Eventually, Kirishima spoke up. "So... now what?"
I said 2 weeks and I deliver
Fun Fact: Originally I had Mirko going and following Izuku instead of Kirishima. I don't remember why, but I think shes a really cool character
Holy shit this is the most I've ever written, hope y'all like it, and I hope I met y'alls expectations
This marks the end of the empire attack arc. Now, I dunno what to do going forward, but I'll figure something out. I have a vague idea, but at the same time, I don't know how to connect it. anyway, like I said, I'll figure it out
And for the same reason the next chap might take longer to write (though y'all already used to that lmao)
PLEASE REVIEW. YOU DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH IT MOTIVATES ME TO WRITE