| Author |
Topic:
The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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FTeik
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/25/05 12:30pm
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Sorry to have kept you waiting, but as somebody has said a long time ago: "The holidays are over."
This is the first part of the long awaited duel. In best ROTJ-tradition i mixed it up with a small space-battle.
Hope you enjoy it.
The Colliding of Empires
Banquett-hall inside the ImperialPalace
The preparations for the coming duel were quickly made. Part of those preparations was to mark an area inside the banquett-hall, where the fight would take place as well as the organisation of protective clothing, that would also signal, when one of the opponents had scored a hit. Already here the first difficulties arose.
The protective clothing included trousers, vests, gloves and face-masks of gray-white fabric. When hit with the tip or the blade of the weapon the spot in question would turn red and also emit a beeping sound. The problem was, that Darth Vader had taken of his black cloak to put on the vest, but was unable or unwilling to wear the rest. Atlan had simply shrugged and declared, that in that case he would wear the vest and the gloves, but nothing more, too, what caused Rhodan to throw an only half-played look of desperation towards the ceiling. To ensure equal conditions, Vader took off his black gloves (thus showing his mechanical right hand) and put on the grey-white ones.
Another problem had been to decide how victory was achived. Did hits on legs and arms count, since they impeded the ability to fight or only hits against the rump, where the hit could be clearly recognized and would probabely be lethal in a "real" fight? Darth Vader and Atlan finally agreed, that the first to make five hits would be the victor, with a hit against the vest counting as one point, a hit against a glove as a half one. The only other way to decide the match was to declare defeat by the loser.
After that both of the two opponents moved to their side of the field, where Perry Rhodan was waiting for Atlan and emperor Palpatine was waiting for Darth Vader.
----
Space above the planet Bakura
Pter Thanas cursed silently. His forces were simply to small to be able to protect Bakura. After the destruction of the "Malice" the imperials had hurried to integrate their remaining Carrack-Cruiser and gunships into the defense-net formed by the patrol-craft and TIEs of the local garrison. The entire net covered only one small section of the planet below him, so the enemy could move around them, if he wanted to, but what else could Thanas do? Already the forces available to him were to weak, splitting them up would only worsen the situation. As far as the Commander was able to tell, the only option left to him was to present himself as a bait to the invaders, who certainly weren´t stupid enough to try to land their troops on the planetary surface with his forces still intact and to hope, that he could slow them down long enough for the "Blackhawk" to arrive.
Where in the five circles of the dornean hell was that blasted Stardestroyer anyway?
Thanas gritted his teeth. If the "Blackhawk" didn´t come in time, he and his men would die this way or the other. The almost sudden acceptance of this simple fact caused the Commander to reconsider his options. If survival was no longer an option then Thanas and the people serving under him would have totally different possibilities open to them.
"Oh yes." the Imperial Commander thought, while looking at the invading ships of the Ssi-Ruu. "I´m not finished with you."
----
Banquett-hall inside the ImperialPalace
Perry Rhodan couldn´t hide the look of concern on his face.
"Once again Atlan, this is madness. Just say so and i´ll stop this."
"To late, my friend." answered Atlan with a small smile. "If i back out now, we would lose face." The smile turned into a grin. "Sometimes you just have to take a risk." The ten-thousand year old arkonid was truly looking forward to this.
"Even the best can fall to an accident." Rhodan hesitated for a moment, knowing very well, that what he was going to ask from his friend would open the door for exactely that. "I don´t want to make this more difficult for you than necessary, but try to make sure, that you don´t embarass Lord Vader to much. We´re here to make new friends and not new enemies. Especially over something like this duel."
"You expect me to hold back and still win?" Atlan tried to confirm. "Your faith in my abilities is flattering."
This time it was Rhodan, who smiled. "There is a reason you are excluded from the championships at home. During your ten-thousand years on our world you learned to use almost every weapon, that has a tip or a blade. Not to mention your mastership of Dagor. Given your experience every possible opponent must have a lot of luck or another kind of advantage to have a chance against you."
"Exactely." confirmed Atlan. "And because of that, i wouldn´t be so sure in your place, that i will win this fight."
That caused the smile to vanish from Perry Rhodan´s face. "What do you mean, Atlan?"
"Something i picked up during that assassination-attempt on Tholaris VI. When that man tried to shoot us, Lord Vader reacted very fast. Too fast, if you ask me. You and i were faster, but we were forewarned by Kasom. If not, I doubt even you would have been able to react as quick as Lord Vader, if you had been surprised. And we already know, that Lord Vader has extraordinary abilities."
"And you want to know, if those extraordinary abilities include precognition." it wasn´t a question, it was a statement by Rhodan. Considering this, there would be no need for Atlan to hold back.
"Among other things, yes." confirmed the Lordadmiral of the USO, searching in the face of his friend, if Perry Rhodan would come to the same conclusions as he.
"You know," said the Grandadministrator slowly "if Lord Vader is a man, who believes in fair-play, he won´t use his precognitive ability against a man, who doesn´t have the same advantage."
"If he is a man, who believes in fair-play. And if he is able to NOT use them at all. AND if i don´t put him under to much pressure so he forgets all good intentions."
"You also want to know, how he reacts under stress." continued Perry Rhodan the chain-of- thought of his friend. "You´re afraid, that the imperials could become an enemy and you want to know more about the character of one of their leading people."
"Exactly. For my taste Palpatine agreed way to quickly to this duel for the nice guy he pretends to be, what - together with other things we already know - turns this friendly welcome into nothing more than a facade."
The two most powerful men of the milkyway-galaxy looked over to the emperor of an entire galaxy and his underling, who signaled to be ready to begin.
"Here we go." muttered Rhodan, his face grim.
---
Space above the planet Bakura
Senior Captain Iv´ris whistled satisfied. Finally the enemy had retreated. The price the Ssi-Ruu had paid had been high enough. For a brief moment he wondered about the determination, with which his opponent was defending this insignificant appearing outpost. Could it be, that there was something valuable stored on the surface of the planet? Or perhaps something, that could be dangerous to the Ssi-Ruu? Iv´ris didn´t know, but considering the damage this enemy had caused to his task-force the Ssi-Ruu needed every piece of information they could get. They had lost to much already to retreat now with empty hands.
Looking at his display the SeniorCaptain decided about his tactic and then gave his orders.
"Cruisers and Assaultships in pulk-formation at the front. Gunships are ordered to cover our rear, since they are to weak to resist the weapons of our enemy. Sent in the first wave of battledroids."
---
Banquett-hall inside the ImperialPalace
"I hope i don´t have to remind you, that retention can be a virtue, Lord Vader." it sounded like a suggestion, but the Dark Lord of the Sith knew, that it was actually an order.
"You want me to prolong this farce, my master?" he asked.
The suggestion alone was enough to fuel his anger. Darth Vader was enraged, because he felt, that he had manouvered himself into a trap. If he fought with all his skill, with all his power and not holding back he would defeat Atlan in less than a minute. About that Darth Vader had no doubt. It would sent a nice warning to some of the more ambitious people of the imperial court. Nobody challenged the Dark Lord and remained unpunished. Hadn´t that been his original intention? To punish Rhodan and Atlan for something Vader had percieved as arrogance? But now the Arkonid was going to back up his claim and that made it difficult for Vader to be angry at the man himself. Atlan and Rhodan were brave men and skilled fighters, that much they had shown on Tholaris VI. Alone that made them different from 99% of the other people inside this hall and now his duel with one of them would provide the assembled scum with entertainment. Worse, he was either losing face, if the battle lasted long enough or he would offend people he wanted as his allies.
HIS allies. Not the empires allies, not the allies of Palpatine - HIS. He had "found" them, initiated the first contact and together they had saved five million lives. That had to count for something.
Deep, very deep inside himself, where he should be save from the prying senses of his master Darth Vader felt the pride about his actions at Tholaris. It had been the right thing to do. Not because the people saved were loyal subjects of the state or valuable workforce or because of the propaganda-value, but because they were people with lifes and hopes and dreams. Hadn´t that been the reason, why he had started to support Palpatine all those years ago? That a strong and wise man could make the galaxy a better place? How naive he had been. Now he knew better, in more than twenty years of service and recognizing Palpatine´s nature for what it truly was he had grown to hate his master. Hated and feared him, while looking at Rhodan and Atlan showed him, that things could be done in a different way. He wanted to hate them for it, but he also knew, that he just projected his own hate at himself at them. Why couldn´t he have been more honest to himself all those years ago? Then, when he still had a choice about the path laying in front of him?
But it was to late. To late to go back and change things, that were already done. Only the future mattered - his future, where no place was for Palpatine. Soon, very soon his master would realize how good an appreciate he had been. Yes, Darth Vader was really looking forward to this.
"I don´t want our guests to think to much about your abilities." Palpatine explained. "I think they are more insidious, than you think them to be."
"As especially you should know." thought Vader darkly. Still the thought made him pause. What if his master was right and those extragalactic strangers had a different agenda than the obvious one with this duel? The Sith didn´t have a monopol on the arts of deception, treachery and hypocrisy after all.
"We will see." he stated dryly and lifted his sword to signal his opponent, that he was ready.
---
Space above the planet Bakura
The defense-net conceived by Pter Thanas lacked elegance, but had the advantage to be simple. Again he had split up his forces, this time in four groups. GroupOne was formed by the Dominant, GroupTwo by his two remaining gunships. Group Three and Four consisted each of three of the systems-patrol-crafts. Each group was supported by a squadron of TIE-fighters. Together the four groups formed the bottom of a pyramid, which pointed towards Bakura with the imperial garrison forming the tip. Part of each prefabricated garrisons defenses were three turrets of heavy double-turbolaser-cannons, similar in size to those of an Imperial Stardestroyer. Those three turrets were the key to Pter Thanas new strategy, since those heavy turrets were much stronger, than the weapons of his ships. The Commander expected the alien invaders to keep their forces together after the losses he had inflicted upon them, he wanted to provoke them to attempt to crush the imperials one after the other.
If they attacked in a large pulk the planet-based weapons would open fire and - so hoped Thanas - split up the wall of enemy-ships. If everything went alright Thanas ships should be able to exploit the resulting confusion. If the alien invaders started to attack one of his four groups, the other three should be able to harrass them, especially, if the formation of the invaders was broken up. It was possible, that even the TIEs would be able to cause some damage. Considering the performance of the droid-starfighters of the enemy the hopes of Commander Thanas weren´t too high on that.
Yet he had to take, what he could get.
And if nothing of this worked, at least the enemy would be forced to kill the imperials one after the other.
And that should slow him down long enough for this corroded Stardestroyer and its rotten captain to appear.
---
Banquett-hall inside the ImperialPalace
Atlan and Darth Vader were facing each other.
The Lordadmiral of the USO carried his sword, whichs narrow blade and basket at the grip made it more of an epee, in the left hand, while his right hand formed a fist and was lightely pressed against his hip. His left foot formed a parallel line with his swordarm, while the right foot was set back and angled away from the body. Basically the classic position. All in all the arkonid projected an aura of calm self-confidence.
Vader mirrored the stance of his opponent, but it looked less elegant, than that of Atlan. The duel hadn´t even begun and already the extragalactic visitor had scored a point. Since most people used their right hand, Atlan´s use of the left was odd. And from observation of the man Darth Vader had assumed, that he would use the right hand. Had he observed wrong? Or thought Atlan so highly of his skills, that he was using his left hand? And what did it matter in the end, since Vader should be able to predict every move the other man made? Just, that he didn´t wanted to use that ability. At least not now.
The two tall men lifted the epees to greet each other and then went back into position.
A small move and the tip of Atlan´s sword hit Vader´s blade, starting the duel.
Duels with swords one man against another one were either very short, because one opponent was better, than the other one or they lasted very long, because both opponents were equally skilled and - if they were very experienced - had to wait for one combatant making the mistake, which was usually the last one, too. If the duel was a life-or-death-situation one of the combatants might also be willing to risk an injury, if it meant to achive the death of the enemy. This couldn´t be done in a fight on the battlefield, because after the defeat of one enemy, the next was usually already waiting, but a duel wasn´t a fight on the battlefield.
As soon as the fight started Darth Vader made a straight launge against the torso of Atlan, which was quickly forced into another direction by a small, but powerful push of Atlan´s blade against Vader´s. Vader missed Atlan´s right side and with a small twist of his hand the arkonid brought his blade down on Vader´s glove.
A beep signaled the first half-point for the Lordadmiral.
"Tsktsktsk." made the Lordadmiral. "I hope i didn´t surprise you, Lord Vader."
Vader tensed. Somehow he had thought better of the arkonid, than to mock him. At the same time he felt the anger rise inside him. He had expected his opponent to make a step backwards and then deflect his blade. Most swordfighters would have done this - it looked better, was less dangerous and prevented bodycontact, something not allowed in most championships. But what was forbidden in sport wasn´t forbidden in a duel and most fighters tended to forget this little detail. Obviously Atlan didn´t thought in the confining rules of campionships and Vader´s respect for his opponent grew. With that he realized, that Atlan hadn´t simply mocked him, but attempted to provoke him to lose his calm.
"A lucky hit, nothing more." he stated and then attacked again, only to have his strike being parried again. Only this time Vader had been more careful and Atlan only hit the blade of the Dark Lord short above the basket.
"I´m sorry, Lordadmiral, but that only works once."
"So you admit, that it wasn´t a lucky hit the first time?" taunted Atlan, who let down a series of short, quick strikes aimed at Vader´s hand and wrist the Dark Lord was barely able to deflect.
---
Space above the planet Bakura
The first wave of battledroids of the Ssi-Ruu resembled a swarm of angry bees, when they descended into the lower orbit of the planet Bakura, where the imperials were waiting.
SeniorCaptain Iv´ris vertical eyelids opened and closed in rapid movement. The three meter tall sauropod could smell the trap laid out for him. The enemy commander had split up his forces in four groups, three of them consisting of pairs of equal-sized ships, while the remaining large cruiser, that had caused so much damage was alone. A pitiful number of small fighters was distributed around those four corners of a rectangle.
"Hold back." he signaled the ships of his fleet. "We will only use the battledroids and see what happens. Have them attack the two ships opposite of the large cruiser."
Iv´ris wasn´t willing to take a risk. 250 swarm-class-battledroids should be enough to deal with their two small targets and their escorts. He briefly wondered, how the other five ships of the defenders would react.
---
Banquett-hall inside the ImperialPalace
The blades of the two opponents were confined to a very small area of space and Darth Vader was forced to face the second bad surprise this evening: Atlan fought less like a swordfighter, but more like a fencer and Vader hadn´t faced a real living fencer since his last fight with Count Dooku. Aside from that the arkonid seemed to be unwilling to feel intimidated by Vader´s massive frame and reach, since he didn´t tried to keep Vader at a distance and consequentely went for the close mensur. One sudden twist of his hand and Atlan had forced Vader´s blade towards the floor, while the tip of his own sword drove into Vader´s bodyvest.
BEEP!!!
This time an enraged grunt escaped Vader´s mask, his force-precognition had warned him about this move of his opponent, but Atlan had executed his strike to quickly for Vader to transform the necessary parry from thought into movement. No matter how powerful in the force Vader was, his movements were still bound to the limits of the physical world, he could exceed those limits, stretch them out, but completely ignoring them he could not.
"Ups." made Atlan. "That was my second hit, if i´m not mistaken."
The arkonid sounded relaxed and in total control, but on the inside he was sweating and desperately trying to remain calm. Already this duel was demanding all of his skill and the Lordadmiral of the USO knew, that he couldn´t afford to make a mistake. Until now Atlan had succeeded with his approach, his little mind-game with using the left hand had thrown Vader out of balance and his assumption, that Vader was used to opponents, who tried to keep him at a distance had proven to be correct, too. His degree in arkonid cosmopsychology made tenthousand years ago was still useful, Atlan thought grimly.
On the other hand the Lordadmiral was forced to realize, that Vader truly was an amazing swordsman, ninty percent of all swordsmen Atlan had ever met or fought during his long life the Dark Lord would have already defeated. Against an opponent like this he couldn´t afford a single mistake and the usual approach in such a situation - aiming for hands and legs, while tiring your opponent down - was of limited use thanks to the cybernetic nature of Vader´s body.
It was however time to come up with new tricks and perhaps he could throw Vader out of concept again, if he tried exactely this.
"Really, Lord Vader. You should declare defeat, before i embarrass you more." Atlan stated in an almost bored voice.
Behind his mask Vader´s eyes turned into slits. He couldn´t pierce the mindshields of his opponent and the arkonid keept his emotions carefully guarded. His inability to read Atlan had proven to be a bigger obstacle, than expected and deep inside he wondered how dependant he had been on this ability in the past. After all his strongest opponents then had been Jedi-Knights and Masters, people he had once belonged to and had known from the inside out. Additionally to this, to reach his or her full potential a Jedi had to open himself to force, had to allow it to flow through him and with that he had also opened himself to the prying senses and means of influence of force-sensitive opponents. It was hardly their fault, for the Jedi had thought the Sith to be extinct for over thousand years and ordinary beings hadn´t mattered in their equitation. Most Jedi Vader had encountered had failed to realize, that the Sith were immune to their ability to predict their opponents movements or to influence their minds, an ability, that had allowed the Jedi to prevail in battle against countless others, but non-force-sensitive enemies. In most cases they hadn´t even noticed, that their usual tactics were used against them until it was to late. The Jedi simply hadn´t been used to opponents, who could read their actions as well as they did, most of them hadn´t even been able to accept, that the Sith could influence the minds of the Jedi, could cloud their intentions better than the Jedi did.
"Fallen the shroud of the dark side has." hadn´t those been Yoda´s words? The Jedi might have heard those words of their greatest master, but only few had understood them.
Darth Vader wondered, if he was in a similar situation now. He couldn´t read the mind of his opponent, only his movements, when they were already under way, but that should be enough. Didn´t he train regulary against droids, programmed with hundreds of fighting styles, each one stronger, thougher and faster, than an ordinary human? And didn´t he defeat them on a regular basis? But he wasn´t facing a droid, he was facing a living, sentient and obviously very clever and experienced being.
"We will see, who will be the embarrassed one when this is over." he hissed and then attacked again.
---
Space above the planet Bakura
Pter Thanas smashed his fists in impotent rage against the sides of his command-chair. The enemy hadn´t taken the bait the imperial Commander had laid out for him. Or, to be more precise, he had taken the bait, but was unwilling to risk his capital ships. The Corellian Gunships and the SystemsPatrolCraft of the defenders might be much more powerful than their opponents, but against such large numbers of incredible small fighters they would be turned to dust sooner or later. Prior to that, while the imperials had still fought in open space, they had been able to use their superior acceleration to evade the fire of the enemies big ships and the enemies battledroids hadn´t been able to hit them long enough with concentrated volleys of laserfire. Now they had lost that advantage, had trapped themself between the planet and the hostile fleet. Each attempt of one of his groups of ships to get the advantage in speed and manouverability back would mean, that they either moved in the firing-arc of the planetary turbolasers and risked getting cought by friendly fire or they moved away from the other imperial ships, what meant, that those would be unable to help them, if the enemy, who wasn´t restricted in his movements, decided to attack them.
"I must be getting old." Thanas thought with a tired sigh. In his better days he wouldn´t have made such a mistake. He also wasn´t willing to grant himself the excuse of being distracted by the prospect of near death. Every soldier, who was unable to bear THAT, was in the wrong profession.
"How many droids has the enemy left?" he asked his sensor-officer, knowing, that it was time for a last strike. The empire never surrendered.
"Aside from those already attacking, six-hundred." reported the young Junior-Lieutenant. "They´re forming two more groups."
"Their position?"
"Left and above, but slightly behind their pulk of capital ships."
"None of them inside their main formation?"
"No, Sir."
Pter Thanas took a deep breath.
"Alright. I want all available energy, every pico-joule either in our bow-shields or in our weapons. We´re attacking them with full thrust, guns blazing." He let his eyes wander above his bridge-crew, tried to memorize everyone of them. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a pleasure and an honour to serve with you." The imperial Commander hesitated for a brief second, but then gave his last order.
"Attack."
And while the "Dominant" was accelerating strong enough for Pter Thanas to feel the pressure, to feel the Gravos coming through, while the pulk of ovoid hostile ships grew larger and larger, while the dark void of space was filled with the green light of turbolaser-fire, Pter Thanas almost didn´t hear the liberating scream of his sensor-officer.
"Hyperspace-exist in vector two-twelve. More than thirty contacts. Sir, it is the "Blackhawk."
-----signature-----
My first completet story: Pride's Prize: http://boards.theforce.net/message.aspx?topic=22758760 "In the Battle of Coruscant alone, hundreds of millions of battle droids saw action on the ground and in space. " Insider #86 - The story of General Grievous
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Tribun
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
2/7/05 10:20am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Do us all a favor and let Vader show this arrogant guy that there is no monpoly on swordfighting.
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Spike2002
Title: FF-UK RSA
Arena Manager
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
2/9/05 9:43am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Agreed. Let Vader show him who is the real master.
And I can't wait for the Ssi-Ruuk-Star Destroyer battle.
-----signature-----
"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke  I agree with halibut  Master to Louis_Skywalker  Proud Recipient of the Golden Elegos™ 
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FTeik
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Nov '00
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Date Posted:
2/20/05 9:02am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Naw, that is not nice of you. Of course we all like Vader as this invincible engine of doom, but is this really the case?
I wish i had Bob Brown's comments on Vader's performance in the movies available. He is not as good, as we think him to be. However, to save the honor of SW i put some constraining factors into this duel, that have nothing to do with his real abilities.
But since we are at it, may i ask, what you think of Vader as a character? Is he a power-hungry being, confidant to replace Palpatine one day or a defeated person, who made on bad decision to much?
-----signature-----
My first completet story: Pride's Prize: http://boards.theforce.net/message.aspx?topic=22758760 "In the Battle of Coruscant alone, hundreds of millions of battle droids saw action on the ground and in space. " Insider #86 - The story of General Grievous
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Omar_Hawk
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Apr '05
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Date Posted:
4/25/05 11:18pm
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Hey,
hurry up, I'm waiting for more!
BTW Isn't Michael Rhodan missed for nearly 1000 years after the battle against the Uleb in the central system of the Uleb.
Great Story so far.
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FTeik
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Nov '00
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Date Posted:
4/27/05 4:45am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Welcome, Omar_Hawk.
May i ask about the whereabouts of Sherlock? 
I should have the next part ready on Sunday (but don't rely on it).
Mike Rhodan was "lost" for 1,000 years after the final battle against the Uleb, but for THIS story he survived and was't left back (i already explained this at the beginning). This story also "differs" from the official PR-timeline in the regard, that the SI stayed united.
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My first completet story: Pride's Prize: http://boards.theforce.net/message.aspx?topic=22758760 "In the Battle of Coruscant alone, hundreds of millions of battle droids saw action on the ground and in space. " Insider #86 - The story of General Grievous
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Omar_Hawk
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Apr '05
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Date Posted:
4/27/05 10:05am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Hi Fteik,
sherlock is fine. He's got 2 robots for breakfeast. Now I go "gassi" with him.
But your story is great, so it doesn't matter that you are some kind of creative with some detail about the history of the perryverse.
By the way, I allowed myself to post a link to your story in the official perry-rhodan-forum.
per aspera ad astra
Omar Hawk
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FTeik
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Nov '00
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Date Posted:
4/27/05 12:49pm
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
- Date Edited:
4/27/05 1:13pm (3 edits total)
Edited By:
FTeik
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Thank you, Omar, good propaganda is always appreciated.
Now i hope, i won't get into trouble with PabelMoewig for using their characters.
Edit: Hab grad im PR-Forum nachgesehn, dummerweise nehmen die dort zur Zeit keine Registrierungen an. Könntest du bitte "Ahnungslos" ein paar S-Zentranten oder die Endlose Armada unter die Nase reiben. Danke.
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My first completet story: Pride's Prize: http://boards.theforce.net/message.aspx?topic=22758760 "In the Battle of Coruscant alone, hundreds of millions of battle droids saw action on the ground and in space. " Insider #86 - The story of General Grievous
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Omar_Hawk
Registered:
Apr '05
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Date Posted:
4/27/05 11:29pm
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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I don't think that you get trouble.
There are a lot of PR-FanFics out there and you have inidcated clearly who owns the right of the characters of PR.
Oh, I don't want to discuss with those guardians of purity. I think you have those guys everywhere in PR, in SW, in Star Dreck and so on.
I think shattner once said a true statement to those guys: "Get a real life!".
In the end it's all about fun. And your story is fun.
So at least me have no problem when you are some kind of creative with the "facts".
But now i don't want to keep you from finishing the update for sunday. ;-)
Per aspera ad astra
Omar Hawk
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Omar_Hawk
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Apr '05
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Date Posted:
5/8/05 3:04pm
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
- Date Edited:
5/8/05 3:05pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Omar_Hawk
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Oh, I forgot to ask which sunday you will update ;-)
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FTeik
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
5/12/05 8:36am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
- Date Edited:
5/12/05 8:37am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
FTeik
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Just wanted to tell you, that i've updated a new chapter to "The tale of Darth Vader's Son".
I wanted to post an update to this story already last sunday and the sword-fighting-scenes were done then, but the scenes of the spacebattle showed to be more difficult to write, than expected.
So please have some patience with me. 
-----signature-----
My first completet story: Pride's Prize: http://boards.theforce.net/message.aspx?topic=22758760 "In the Battle of Coruscant alone, hundreds of millions of battle droids saw action on the ground and in space. " Insider #86 - The story of General Grievous
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Barbarossa_Rotbart
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/18/05 3:53am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Please continue to write. I am dying to read the next part.
-----signature-----
"Holy crap! The jawa has a gun!"
Brendon Frines (Jedi knight in training): "Hilfe! Die wollen den Osterhasen klonen!"
Never underestimate a Wookiee, especially if he is much more intelligent than a Rodian merc.
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Omar_Hawk
Registered:
Apr '05
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Date Posted:
5/20/05 12:26am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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No problem. I will wait. BTW your story about Darth Vaders Son is also great.
Another question. Do the PR-Ships your described have SERT-Control? I think in that time it was already a common technology in the Perryverse.
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FTeik
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
5/29/05 9:30am
Subject:
RE: The Colliding of Empires: A Star Wars / Perry-Rhodan-Crossover AU
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Finally.
Update-time. Almost twenty pages of text. I hope you enjoy it.
@OmarHawk: No, at this point of time the only thing SERT-controlled is the Paladin. For this story and, IIRC, in the official PR-Universe, too.
The Colliding of Empires
Banquett-hall inside the Imperial Palace
BEEEP,BEEEP!!!
The annoying sound, that marked TWO hits by Atlan cut like a knife into Darth Vader's ears.
Once again his opponent had managed to deceive him. The arkonid had lead the duel with two and a half point when Vader had scored his first hit. After that he had forced the white-haired man with the golden-red eyes into a defensive stance and pushed his advantage. Anybody less experienced than Vader wouldn't have noticed that Atlan was exhausted, but the signs had been there. The arkonid had spent his fuel and was trying to hide it. Now confidant, that he would win their duel Darth Vader had increased the pressure, had forced Atlan back again and again. Almost casually Vader had scored his second point and the best thing had been, that Atlan had stopped mocking him.
And now that.
Careless after the long time he had been able to dominate their duel and after his last success, a small opening had appeared in Vader's defense. It had been there for only a brief moment, but it had been enough for Atlan, who suddenly came back to life. A twist to the side, a quick strike with his sword to the right and Vader had been wide open to attack. One hit against the broad chest - beep - and with the swing back another hit against the glove - beep - and Atlan was leading their competition with four to two.
"Ooops." said the arkonid. "Seems i fell asleep for the last ten minutes." Making two steps backwards he made a polite bow to Darth Vader. "My apologies, Lord Vader. It won't happen again."
Under his mask the man, who had once been Anakin Skywalker gritted his teeth. He was to angry to curse. Who was this man, that he dared to mock him this way? And how had he been able to fool him? That the arkonid had lured him into a false sense of safety was now obvious.
Over the years Darth Vader had been fighting a lot of people, but the majority of those clashes had been of a different nature, prolonged dejarik-matches of politics or military matters, rarely an open fight with the lightsaber. Of course there had been the occasional Jedi-Knight, who had survived the initial purge, but the majority of beings Darth Vader had fought had been training-droids. Droids much stronger and faster, than the ordinary human. Droids programmed with hundreds of armed and unarmed combat-styles. But despite their advantages droids were lacking. They went straight for the kill, didn't came up with complex strategies, their planning was limited to one minute into the future, as were the feints and ruses they performed and they certainly didn't offer their opponents opportunities to make a hit.
The arkonid however, had taken his time, changed his initial strategy and lured Darth Vader into a false sense of security. And the Dark Lord had fallen for it, because he had expected nothing else.
Darth Vader had to admit, that Atlan had performed a great act by appearing to cover his exhaustion - an exhaustion, that itself had been faked. The arkonid had even gone so far as to allow the Sithlord to dominate their duel for almost a quater of an hour. He had also willingly accepted to get hit, just to make Vader feel secure. The Dark Lord would have been impressed, even happy for discovering a worthy opponent after such a long time. Luke Skywalker didn't count, the boy had shown a lot of potential, but defeating him had been easy.
Not so this extra-galactic visitor.
And this extra-galactic origin, Vader realized, was one of the reasons Atlan put up such a good fight. He didn't know all the horror-stories about Vader circulating around, no matter if those stories were true or not, they were part of his reputation. And they had their effect on his opponents, if they were aware of them or not. Abandon all hope, if you're fighting Vader. Few exceptions aside, most had felt on a subconscious level, that they would lose and exactely that had happened.
A self-fullfilling prophecy.
Briefly Darth Vader wondered how many of his successes he owned to this psychological weakness. While he was well aware of it and counted on it in the political manouvers of the imperial court and the many feuds, he somehow had forgotten, that he also relied on it in melee-fights. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, since most opponents were so pathetic, that he simply didn't need it.
That thought angered him. It was also reason for concern. Was he really so used to his position of superiority, that he thought himself incapable of mistakes? Incapable of errors? Had he become that supercilious, that used to getting, what he wanted, that even a defeat was nothing but a small set-back in his mind? Was that the reason, that Palpatine was still emperor and Vader his lap-dog? Because he, Vader, took his time instead of challenging the walking corpse on the throne, because he thought the outcome to be certain this way or the other? Because he was convinced, that "everything was going according to plan"? He remembered the decline of the Jedi-Order he had witnessed, the arrogance, that had as much been a key to their destruction as the corruption in the senate. Self-satisfied, self-absorbed they had been and that had been their doom.
Could it be, that in less than thirty years the Sith had forgotten this special lecture of history?
In more than one way this duel against Atlan had become a wake-up-call, a cold shower and Darth Vader wished for a few hours of quiet and peace to meditate and contemplete about his sudden insights.
But his fight against the arkonid wasn't over and he still had some points to make.
Oh yes, Darth Vader would have been happy to find such a worthy opponent, but this opponent had also managed to embarass him and that was something Vader couldn't allow. Not in front of the rancor-pit, that masked itself as the ImperialCourt. Additional fuel to his ire was the memory of Palpatine's warning about the potentially insidious nature of their visitors - a warning he seemed to have ignored for the most part of his fight against Atlan. What would his Master think of him? As much as he wanted to deny it, Palpatine had still a dominating influence about his life and he, Darth Vader, had still to take this influence into consideration.
All those thoughts raced through Vader's brain during a nano-second as did the emotions accompanying the rational thoughts. Quickly the joy about an equal opponont was replaced by anger, anger for being embarrassed, anger at Palpatine, who controlled his life, anger at himself, that he allowed the walking corpse to dominate him that much. Anger at the wasteful and unnecessary thoughts he was having.
As always the man, who had once been Anakin Skywalker sought his hail not in thinking, but in action.
Opening himself and allowing the force to flow through him Darth Vader attacked again.
----
Space above Bakura
"Full power into frontal shields. Fire-control expect target-designations for your turbolaser-cannons. Order all ships to launch TIEs. Status of the enemy and our local forces. And get me a connection to Commander Thanas." Yaroff, Captain of the Star Destroyer of the Imperator-Class MarkII with the proud name "Blackhawk", bellowed.
Three holograms appeared in front of him. The first display to his left showed the status of his fleet, the "Blackhawk" at the top, then the Strike- and Carrack-Cruisers, then the Nebulon-B-frigates, the Lancers and finally, at the bottom, the CorellianCorvettes, the Gunships and the launched TIEs. The hologram to his right showed Bakura, its ImperialGarrison, the deflector-shield high above it and, forming the angles of a square the obvious remnants of the imperial defenders. Further out were the ships of the invading forces marked in an angry red, surrounded by less crimson clouds of fighters.
The hologram in the centre of Yaroff's vision showed all three groups, his battlesquadron, the invaders and the imperial defenders relative to each other. It wasn't much brilliance necessary on Yaroff's part to realize, that the defenders had taken a severe beating and that every second counted to bring them much needed relief.
"Alright, we go in. The "Blackhawk" first, supported by Lancers Aurek, Besh and Dorn. The Strikes and Carracks shall form pairs and attack in a pincer-formation, once we are through. Have them supported by the Corvettes. Gunships attack as a third group, while the Nebulons stay behind with the remaining Lancers. All ships accelerate on my mark."
Yaroff knew, that he was playing a dangerous game, if he charged with his most powerful unit heads first into an enemy he knew nothing about and who had two ships, that almost equaled his own in size and eight, who were close to a Victory-Class Star Destroyer in regards to volume. On the other side, while there was a lot of hostile tonnage out there, it didn't seemed to be worth much, since the imperial defenders were still there. Captain Yaroff was making a calculated risk, if he attacked and his adversaries were too strong the Star Destroyer was the ship with the best chances to survive. In that case his smaller ships had to abort the attack, but they wouldn't run into hostile fire to powerful for them.
Forming the centre of a triangle of Lancer-Class-frigates the "Blackhawk" raced towards the fleet of the invaders, who until now where hammering against the small number of defenders and the shield, that protected Bakura's capital Salis Da'ar, but it soon became obvious, that Yaroff's battlesquadron had been noticed. Firing one last full volley against the defending imperials the ovoid ships and their fighter-screen suddenly turned away from the theatre-shield and large swarms of enemy fighters changed course to met with the attacking Star Destroyer and his escorts.
Yaroff's eyes turned into slits, when he saw this. The captain of the "Blackhawk" didn't know, that the starfighters accelerating to meet with him were only drones, so he assumed them to be piloted by living beings. Only the most unscrupulous and cold-blooded commander would sent his pilots to their deaths like this. And not only was this enemy-commander unscrupulous, he was also a coward to retreat.
On the other side confirmed this behavior Yaroff's suspicions about the weakness of the ships of the enemy. If the invaders had have such a hard time to fight a number of Carracks and gunships and hadn't won after more than an hour, they certainly weren't eager to fight the much larger Strike-Cruisers and the "Blackhawk" herself.
A few moments later thousands of laser-blasts fired by hundreds of battle-droids impacted against the powerful shields of the Imperial Star Destroyer and the shields of the accompanying Lancer-Class Frigates, but their fire was to weak to penetrate through. A moment later it was the Imperials time to answer and the point-defense-cannons of the "Blackhawk" and the two-hundred-fourty laser-cannons of the three Lancers fired back. It was the first bad surprise for the newly arrived Imperials, that the small, pyramid-shaped fighters were equipted with shields powerful enough to withstand several shots. The second bad surprise was, that instead of moving towards open space the ships of the invaders vanished behind the horizon of Bakura. Obviously the enemy-commander, while being a coward, wasn't stupid.
"Captain, we have a connection to Commander Thanas."
A fourth hologram appeared in front of Yaroff.
"Commander Thanas." Yaroff greeted politely.
"Captain." a tired and exhausted looking Thanas greeted back. "You arrived just in time. We wouldn't have been able to hold ourself against the enemy much longer."
"My apologies Commander, but we couldn't be here sooner. What can you tell me about our unknown invaders."
The hologram of Commander Thanas showed a grim smile. "Unfortunately not much. We have never seen their ships before, we don't know, what they want and they fight like amateurs. Assuming equal volume and tonnage of ships we should be superior at least six to one, but their fighters change the equatation a lot in their favour." Thanas hesitated for a moment. "Excuse me, the term fighter is misleading. We are dealing with droid-fighters, two meters small, very well armed with four laser-cannons and shields. Those blasted drones have destroyed or damaged three of my capital ships and they'll be a tough challange for your point-defense-gunners."
Drones. That explained a lot of things and Yaroff's estimation of the enemy-commander improved slightly. But the imperials still didn't knew, with whom they were dealing.
"Thank you Commander. You and your men certainly deserve a break and are in need of repairs. I'll leave my Nebulons and Corvettes back with you, while the rest of us will deal with our unknown friends. At the moment it looks as if they want to keep the planet between me and themself, but i will get them. Yaroff o.. ."
The Captain of the "Blackhawk" never finished his last sentence, because the alarm-klaxons of the mile-long Star Destroyer became alive again. From one moment to the other the calm and professional atmosphere on the bridge appeared to become frantic and confused.
"Sir, new contact on vector two-one, two million kilometers away." came the outcry from the sensor-station. Shape and energy-readings match those of our unknown invaders."
"How many contacts?" demanded Yaroff to know.
"Several hundreds. Gunships, light cruisers, those seven-hundred-fifty meter long heavy cruisers and ... ."
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"Three ships with a length of thousand-fivehundred meters. Volume-wise they are eight times as large as an ISD."
Deadly silence filled the bridge of the "Blackhawk". But only for a short moment, then Yaroff got his voice back. He turned to the hologram of Commander Thanas.
"You heard that, Commander." he asked calmly.
"Yes, Captain." the Commander managed to say. For a short moment it had looked as if everything would be over for him and his men, that they would survive. Obviously fate had different plans for them in store.
"Transmit all data you collected aboard the Corvette "DarkMirror" and sent them to our Sector-Groups headquater. Moff Tamin has to know about this, Commander. Yaroff out. Communications! A new communication to Moff Tamin's headquater and to Coruscant. Tell them, that Imperial Space is invaded by significant forces of unknown origin. Only a short message about the kind of ships the invaders use and their numbers. They'll get additional information from the data-package of the "DarkMirror". Now we have a battle to fight."
----
Banquett-hall inside Imperial Palace
Darth Sidious had watched the duel between his right-hand-man and this Atlan with great interest. Aside from its great value as entertainment, especially a mean to impress the assembled crowd of courtiers it allowed him a lot of insights into at least one of their visitors as well as into his apprentice. Fortunately the entire hall was monitored, so he would be able to study the reactions of everybody assembled in great detail at a later point of time. For now he didn't wanted to distribute his attention and concentrated on the duel.
And didn't like, what he saw.
Vader performed badly.
Of course he had ordered his apprentice to restrain himself, but that had meant to prolong the duel and not that Darth Vader should offer opportunities to his adversary. Few would have noticed those gaps in the defense of the Dark Lord and even fewer would have been able to exploit them, but they were there. The majority of swordmasters, who weren't sensitive to the force and even most Jedi would have never made it into this small circle, but a Sith Lord was measured by different standards.
Yet Atlan was able to met those standards.
Amazing.
As far as Palpatine could tell, nobody of these extragalactic visitors was even remotely strong in the force, so Atlan's performance was even more impressive, but Palpatine was still disappointed by his most powerful servant.
To his credit, Darth Vader was a far cry from what he once had been. The man feared by the entire galaxy was a cripple, trapped in a heavily armoured life-support-suit and considering this it was remarkable, what the former Anakin Skywalker was still able to do, but - to be honest - how had he ended in this condition?
By fighting his former Master, the cursed Obi-Wan Kenobi. Skywalker should have been warned to not underestimate the now dead Jedi-Knight. Kenobi had been able to kill Sidious first apprentice, Darth Maul. He had also killed Grievous, who had become an exceptional Jedi-Killer and Palpatine had had such grand plans for the good General. If Darth Sidious thought about it, this blasted Jedi had caused more damage to his plans, than anybody else.
Despite being younger, stronger and more powerful in the force Darth Vader had lost against his former Master. What other explenation was there besides arrogance and complacency? And - this thought worried Palpatine more, than any other - how much of this was due to his failures as a Master? Maul had made the same mistake and paid with his life for it. And didn't this also prove, that he, the Master of the Sith wasn't above making mistakes? A horrible thought and one he would contemplate more in the future. But for now he concentrated on the state of his apprentice.
Anakin Skywalkers arrogance as well as his hunger for power had been very useful in turning the former Jedi to the Dark Side, but that didn't mean, that those characteristics became eridicated once the turn was completed. And while the Sith believed, that a hunger for power was a good thing, complacency was not.
The more he thought about it Darth Sidious realized the dangerous combination of power-hunger and arrogance. His hunger for power would lead Vader to challenge him one day and his arrogance would make him believe, that he could win, while in reality it would be the cause for his downfall. But that didn't meant, that a potential uprising of his apprentice wouldn't cause harm to him and the empire. The damage caused by Grandadmiral Zaarin's coup not so long ago had been bad enough and only recentely the empire had finally recovered from the insurrection of one of its finest.
The attempt of a hostile take-over by Vader would be a lot worse.
It was really sad. Of all his apprentices Darth Vader had lasted the longest, had been the one, who had helped the Sith to finally ascent to the position, that was rightfully theirs and had been such a great disappointment at the same time. If not for his "accident" he would have been able to bring the Sith to even greater heights, since Vader would have been able to wield powers of the DarkSide without harm, that caused Palpatine's body to decay. So much potential. And such a waste.
Palpatine knew, that in many ways the force-concieved "ChosenOne" had been the lightside counterpart to his own darkness, a lot more powerful than him, but with his fall (not to the darkside, but into the lava) the continued devolopment of the Sith had taken a severe setback.
But where the father had failed, there was still the son.
Like his father before him Luke Skywalker had been an obstacle to Palpatine's plans more than once. First by destroying the first DeathStar, then with the role the wanne-be-Jedi played for the Rebel-Alliance. Not to mention the distraction the boy had become for Vader from his usual duties and the possibility, that father and son could unite their powers to defeat him. Until now the young Skywalker had survived every attempt by Palpatine's agents at his life, so he could be - as suggested by Vader - a powerful ally, if it was only possible to turn him.
And that, Palpatine thought, shouldn't be to different. Despite growing up among an entire order of Jedi-Knights and being surrounded by their teachings for more than ten years Palpatine had managed to turn Anakin Skywalker to the DarkSide, first by feeding the ego of the man, who had been young and easy to influence, then by upsetting Skywalker's faith into his surrogate-family and isolating him from them and finally by forcing him to make a choice from which there was no turning back.
The first two steps were already done. Luke Skywalker had become a hero with the Rebel-Alliance and he had been foolish enough to believe, that he could challenge his father with little to no training, what suggested a rather large ego. His faith into his teachers and companions as well as into the rightousness of the rebellion's cause must have also taken a hit by Vader's revelation at Bespin. So it should be possible to drive a wedge between the young Skywalker and his friends.
And once the boy was alone - well, Palpatine would be ready to welcome him with open arms and a new path to travel on.
A path they would travel together. The only question of importance remaining would be, if Vader would be able to accompany them.
Darth Sidious had been so lost in his musings about the bright, new future of the Sith, that he hadn't concentrated on the on-going duel. A sharp intaking of breath from the audience brought his thoughts back to the present.
----
Space above Bakura
Captain Iv'ris was glad, that his scent-tongues emerged from his nostrils and not from his mouth, like they did for some of the more animalistic relatives of the Sii-Ruu. Otherwise he would have bitten them off by accident.
The moment the alarm-pipes of his ship had started to whistle he had known, that he and the remains of his fleet were in trouble.
Thirty-three new contacts, so his ships were outnumbered.
Fourteen of those thirty-three belonged to the two kinds of ships he had fought for over an hour without being able to defeat them. And then his fleet had consisted of thirty ships.
Three of the new-comers were even larger, than the defenders the Sii-Ruu had been fighting until now, especially a huge wedge-shaped monstrosity. Iv'ris eyes widened and the tip of his tail started to ventilate in panic, when his sensors confirmed the lenght of the of the behemoth - thousand-sixhundred meters, hundred meters more, than the most modern and largest ships of the Sii-Ruu-fleet.
Volume-wise it was still a lot smaller, but Senior-Captain Iv'ris had learned the hard way, that the ships he was fighting carried a lot more power per cubicmeter, than his own. And that, if he liked the thought or not, left him with only one option.
"Sent all available battledroids on an interception-course with the new arrivals. Cruisers and gunships on course five-seven. Tangential to the planet."
"Sir, wouldn't it be better to accelerate for open space?" one of Iv'ris subordinate officers dared to ask. The Senior-Captain shot an angry glare at the man for the foolish question, but took the time to answer him. Perhaps his officers would learn something for the time, when they were commanding their own ships.
"No, it wouldn't. We would be in sight of their energy-weapons and - given the power of their smaller ships - a few shots from the large battleship will without a doubt destroy even our largest cruiser. They're also faster and their ships have higher acceleration, so they will catch up to us before we can make the jump to lightspeed. Moving around the planet we stay away from their weapons and use its gravitational pull to increase our own acceleration. Once we have reached the other hemisphere we can move towards open space and have enough speed to make the jump." Iv'ris made a small, sad whistle. "We'll return home without honour or prey, but we will return."
His subordinates couldn't hide their relief at the prospect of making it home alive. A return in shame was better, than no return at all.
At that moment the alarm-pipes whistled again, this time displaying a different harmony and when Iv'ris discovered the source his attitude changed.
Suddenly everything was open again.
----
Banquett-hall inside Imperial Palace
Perry Rhodan watched the duel with growing concern. While his faith in the abilities of Atlan was almost absolute, he was to old and experienced to NOT know the many things, that could go wrong. The first phase of the fight had been fairly balanced without one of the two opponents having a definite advantage, what had already been enough to convince Rhodan, that a healthy Darth Vader at the height of his abilities would be almost invincible.
Well, as long as he didn't allow his opponent to fool him.
The Grandadministrator himself had had the questionable pleasure of fighting the former emperor of Arkon in a personal and that not only once, but twice and knew what skilled and cunning adversary the tenthousand year old arkonid was. Their first encounter on the dead world of Hellgate Rhodan had only won because of his greater will-power and endurance, but only barely, their second fight Rhodan had clearly lost. Even after sixhundred years the first terran felt embarrassment at the memory of how easily Atlan had used his own pride and decency against him. After their first duel Atlan had become Rhodan's prisoner, but he hadn't stayed in terran custody for long. This had been sixty years after Rhodan had successfully convinced the hostile and vastly superior powers of the Milkyway-galaxy, that Terra and its population had been destroyed and the last thing he needed had been a tenthousand year old fossil from Arkon, that wanted to go home. When Atlan escaped a hunt over the entire starsystem had been started, a hunt in which the cunning fugative had managed to outsmart his hunters several times. But in the end Atlan had been localized inside a museum on the planet Venus and Perry Rhodan, eager to finally get his prisoner back, had personally rushed into the arkonids hiding-place. In his haste the Grandadministrator had unfortunately taken a blaster with him, that couldn't be set on stun, so when the two opponents had stood face to face Atlan had been able to force Perry Rhodan - for whom the entire affair had become personal since their first meeting - to either shoot him in the back or to fight him in a different way.
What had followed could have been right out of a bad holo-drama. The two men had used the exponats of the museum and fought with broadswords against each other, a battle, that had been over a lot quicker, than their first duel. In the end a disarmed and injured Grandadministrator had been laying on the ground and only the insight of Atlan, that it was already to late to escape had prevented worse.
So Perry Rhodan knew by experience, what the tenthousand year old was capable of and during the last sixhundred years this knowledge had only grown. But now it seemed, as if Atlan had found his master.
Oh, yes, the arkonid was leading the duel, had achived the majority of points so far, but how long had that taken? Twenty minutes? Half an hour? As awe-inspiring as the dance with the blades had been so far and as impossible as at seemed - the speed and ferocity with which Darth Vader kept up the pressure increased and how long would Atlan be able to hold himself against that? What new tricks and strategies not used over the last thirty minutes could he pull out of his sleeve?
Not many, decided Perry Rhodan.
Sooner or later Atlan would make a real mistake and considering the current speed the blades were moving with the consequences could be a really ugly injury. About the other possibilty - a lethal strike - Perry Rhodan didn't dare to think.
The question was, what should he do?
----
Space above Bakura
Aboard the bridge of the thousand-fivehundred meter long Hwi'Sa-Class-battleship, that served as his flagship Admiral Iv'pikis looked at his displays, watching the remains of Iv'ris flotila disappear behind the planetary horizon, while at the same time the ships of the defenders were changing course and formation to meet his fleet. Considering their vastly inferior numbers they shouldn't present much of a threat, but Iv'pikis still had the report of Iv'ris about the large discrepancies in reactor-output and firepower in mind. If the Senior-Captain had been correct - and Iv'pikus trusted the judgement of one of his most experienced commanders - even a Hwi'Sa would be hard pressed against the mile-long, dagger-shaped starship of the enemy.
Fortunately he had only one, while Iv'pikis had three of those not to mention hundreds of smaller support-units. "Not, that it would be good to lose to many of them." Iv'pikis thought. "His Potency will have my head on the tip of a force-pike, if his fleet gets wasted." Aloud he gave his orders. "Launch battledroids. We'll do the cone with the Hwi'Sas at the tip. Lets see, if we can encircle them."
His subordinates hurried to execute his orders.
----
Banquett-hall inside Imperial Palace
While he tried to keep a firm stand Atlan moved his blade to the right in an attempt to force Darth Vader's epee away from him. Making a circular motion with his hand his opponent brought his blade to the inside of their small circle and now it was Atlan's weapon, that was pushed away. The Dark Lord didn't hesitate and pulled his blade leftwards, where the arkonid should be standing. Realizing, that he was going to be hit, if he stayed where he was and that it was to late to escape by stepping back Atlan jumped forward, escaping his opponents blade by making a pirouette along Darth Vader's arm. A dissappointed growl escaped the black mask, when suddenly the two men were facing away from each other and Atlan hurried to come to a stop and to swing his blade back, which had moved further away from Darth Vader by his circular movement. The arkonid was certain, that he could hit Vader's fencing vest from behind before his opponent would be able to turn around and that the duel would be over with this last point. But the last move obviously was the final straw on the camels back, because Vader didn't turn around or tried to get out of Atlan's reach, but jumped into the air. Summersaulting backwards over the head of the arkonid it was now Atlan, who had to turn around to met the next strike of his opponent in time.
Barely able to parry Darth Vader's attack for the first time the arkonid tried to keep the Dark Lord at a distance. Atlan would have never expected his opponent to make such a jump through the air and he had been cought of balance. Considering the heavy armor of Darth Vader Atlan was now certain, that the man he was fighting had made use of his extrasensory abilities.
"Seems we can add telecinetic powers to the list of Darth Vader's armory." the arkonid thought grimly. It wasn't a fair move against an opponent, who lacked those powers, but Atlan felt he couldn't complain. After all the armor also impeded Darth Vader's movements, live wasn't fair and hadn't exactly that been his intention? To push Vader to the limit of his patience, to stress him so much, that he would be driven over the edge and take of the satin gloves? "Congragulations, old boy, you achived your goal. Now how are you going to survive this?" the tenthousand year old asked himself in dry amusement.
"You know, Lord Vader," he said, trying to cause a break in his opponents advance, "i have never seen such a move in a swordfight before." He had to evade another strike. "You think you can show me how to do it, should the opportunity arise?"
"Don't count on it." Vader hissed without slowing down.
Another series of attack, parries and ripostes was exchanged, but then the Dark Lord managed to push Atlan's blade away, when the arkonid had a bad stand for a short moment. The successful Battutta left the tenthousand year old wide open to attack, stepping forward and attempting to hit the body of his opponent with the tip of his blade Darth Vader tried to exploit his advantage.
Unable to step away and with an epee pointing at his midsection Atlan twisted his body in a desperate move to the side. For a brief moment he looked like a bow with the line between his head and feet forming an imaginary string, while the centre of his torso was thirty centimeters away from it. At the same time the arkonid swung his blade back against his opponent, while Darth Vader's epee shot straight upwards. Atlan blade met with the upper arm of his adversary, but because of his bad standing and an imperfect execution of his stroke it was only a weak hit, that didn't penetrate the clothing. Darth Vader's move upwards was a different matter. While not as strong as a stroke from upside down it was still strong enough to cut into the unprotected skin of Atlan's temple.
A collective gasp escaped the throats of the assembled crowd, because for the first time in the long fight blood was flowing.
Suddenly realising, that he had wounded their guest Darth Vader hesitated. He was just about to take a step back and ask the arkonid, if he was willing to stop their duel, but neither the wound, nor the blood seemed to have left an impression with Atlan, because before the Dark Lord knew what had happened the tenthousand year old had brought his blade around and down on his gloved hand.
BEEP!!!
The blasted sound confirming, that his opponent had scored another half-point would have been enough to make Vader's blood boil, but it got even worse. Atlan had finally taken a step back and was now standing in a relaxed looking oktav-position. His voice was full of faked pity.
"Tsktsktsk, really, Lord Vader, that shouldn't have happened. A man like you shouldn't be scared by a little blood. Especially blood, that isn't his own."
To enraged to give a witty remark Darth Vader launched himself forward, letting a hail of swordstrokes go down on the arkonid, who barely managed to parry them, while he retreated. The two combatants had already left the marked area of the banquett-hall, sparks and tiny scales were flying from their epees and the crown of assembled courtiers had to make room for the two tall men and the deadly dance of their blades.
Now at the latest even the most imbecile member of the audience would have noticed, that the dynamic of the duel had changed dramatically. No longer a simple sport-like match with antiquated weapons, but a contest of wills between two very proud, if not arrogant, warriors. So far and going by points alone Atlan had demonstrated more skill, but now Darth Vader seemed to dominate their fight with an approach of brute force. Hundreds of eyes were trying to follow the movements of the two men, watching the duel of the two giants with fascinated horror and in awed silence, since the nature of this conflict was from outside their own, limited world.
Not so the terran visitors. Without conscious reasoning, almost by instinct, the members of the terran entourage distributed themself inside the banquett-hall to be ready to intervene on Atlan's behalf, should the need arise. But for now they held back.
----
Space above Bakura
"They're trying to encirle us." Captain Yaroff muttered.
"Sir?" his XO wondered.
"I said they're trying to encircle us." the Captain of the "Blackhawk" repeated.
"Are you sure, Captain? Because such a formation is better suited to breack up the wall of enemy-ships in a defending position. If they're trying to encircle us, they've certainly chosen the wrong formation."
"No, they didn't. We just arrived ourself and were in no wall-formation to breack up to begin with. Aside from that we have a lot less ships than them. But i think, that the Admiral on the other side is aware of our technological superiority. He knows, that the only ships with a real chance at fighting the "Blackhawk" without suffering to much damage are his three big hitters so he puts them at the front of his formation, while his weaker units are further away from our weapons. He invites us to attack him heads on and once we have done that he brings his escorts forward so they can fight us from the side or from the read. Like taking the inside out of a glove and putting it over us."
"I see." the XO of the "Blackhawk admitted. "We don't have enough ships for a classical interception-bowl, but why don't we form our own cone and breack through their formation?"
"In that case we would be inside of them and we would suddenly have their most powerful ships at our rear and that is something i'm trying to prevent."
"And if we evade them and attack from the flanks?"
"Basically the same, since they have so many ships. No, we either have to retreat or accept their invitation." Yaroff stated with surprising calm.
"Excuse me, Sir, you want to allow them to encircle us?"
"No. What we will do is meet them heads on. If we're lucky we can take out one of their large battleships before taking damage ourself. But as soon as they're trying to close their trap and their escorts are at the same level as their leading units we'll try to break through at their centre."
"A dared plan." Yaroff's XO commented.
"Dared? I would say desperate." the Captain of the Imperator-Class Star Destroyer commented. "But i can't come up with something better."
"We can still retreat."
"And let them have Bakura? No chance." It would have probabely been the sane thing to retreat, but Yaroff couldn't know, if his superiors would see it the same way. They were firmly convinced of the invincibility of the imperial forces, no matter the odds. And even if not, it would reflect badly on Yaroff, especially considering the turn to the worse his career had already taken. He would never get out of this force-forsaken sector at the rear end of the galaxy, if he now run with his tail behind his legs. Still Yaroff would have risked it: The wrath of his superiors and the consequences for his career.
But the Captain of the "Blackhawk" was also a proud soldier of the empire, a man, who believed in the state he was serving and the job he was doing. If they liked it or not, the inhabitants of Bakura were imperial citicens and the taxes from their hard earned money had bought his Star Destroyer and paid for his salary. He owed it to them to at least try to protect them as good as he could.
Putting all those negative thoughts the side he activated his com, that would connect him with the other ships of his battlesquadron to give his orders.
----
Banquett-hall inside the Imperial Palace
A screech of steel on steel, a disharmonic cling and Atlan's weapon was flying through the air. The tenthousand year old arkonid ducked through under a side-swing of his op | |
