Union of the Empires greatest Warriors (Thrawn, Vader)

The tension mounts...

 

Yes. Slowly, but steadily things move towards a climax.

I have a feeling a battle is close to come.

See you.

 

Close, but we still have a little bit to wait.



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors



The Canus-class-frigate ?Shadow? dropped out of hyperspace on the opposite site of Yavin Prime. Three-hundred-sixty meters long, hundred-eighty meters wide at the aft end, sixty meters wide at the bow, the ship was dagger-shaped, with two layers of terraces, where the command-section of the ship lay atop a barrel-shaped tower, that emerged from the ceiling of the first terrace and was connected to the second, neck-like one. While longer than an old light cruiser of the Carrack-Class the wedge-shaped ship built by the Therilias-Autarcy was slightly less voluminous, than the more boxy ships once produced by Damorian Manufactoring.

Less than a minute later the ?Shadow? jumped back to hyperspace only to drop out of the faster-than-light-realm a second later, this time behind the gas-giant Yavin IV. For a brief moment the ion-engines of the dark ship became activated, their white-blue exhausts lightening up the darkness of space, then they were deactivated again. Driven only by its own momentum and the gravitational forces of the gas-giant and its moons the frigate swung in a wide arc towards the habitable satellite of the jovian planet, that housed the Jedi-Academy. If the ship was to be discovered now, it would not be because of its drive-trail.

On the bridge of the ship Qui Vader, number six of the clones and nominally in charge of the special mission, that had brought them here, turned from the transparisteel-windows to his mirror-image sitting in the command-chair.

?An excellent course, Devas. I couldn´t have done it better.?

Devas, number three in their common ancestry-line, simply raised an eye-brow. ?I´m flattered.? he stated sardonically. Nothing indicated, that he was also concentrating on hiding the entire ship and its crew from the force-senses of their enemies. Qui and his peers had no idea how far the Jedi were looking out or if they even thought it necessary to do so, but Qui and his ?brothers? thought it better to be safe, than sorry. Always cool-calculating Devas even more, than anybody else. At the same time number three had plotted the jump, that had brought the ?Shadow? into the Yavin-System and also the course they were following now. The men at the helm of the Canus-frigate only had to follow the detailed orders given to them. In an emergency Devas was even able to transmit command from the varios stations of the bridge to the consoles of his command-chair.

?I really mean it, Devas.? responded Qui calm. In the eyes of six, three was the clone most controlled next to Two, while the rest of the Vader-clones allowed their temper to show sometimes. Sometimes Qui wondered, if this was because Two and Devas were the oldest of them aside from Mitthraw and had therefore been forced to live under the watchful eye of their leader a lot longer, than the rest of them, or if they had simply gotten more from their ?other? parent.

The fact, that Devas seemed to be nowhere more at home, than in the command-chair on the bridge of a capital ship seemed to support the second possibility.

?We share the same DNA, got the same mind-imprints, went through the same training, so how can it be, that we are that different?? wondered Qui. Perhaps Mitthraw´s suspicions, that Paar had turned traitor and was following his own plans weren´t as ridicilous as Qui had thought the first time, when their leader had voiced his concerns.

?And i meant no offense.? answered Devas. They all acted very careful around each other most of the time. The relationship between the thirteen beings created from a body-sample of one of the most feared man of the galaxy wasn´t an easy one. One of their kind had nearly been the doom of the galaxy, but now there were thirteen of them. Of course, over time their personalities had started to develop into different directions, but at the same time they were still similar enough to feel uncomfortable around each other. Between such powerful and ambitious beings like the clones of Darth Vad

 

Internal divisions are mounting I see.

 

Let's hope they will not become the next stroke of fortune which will enable the New Republic (of Rebels) to survive.

Btw FTeik: Do you have a plan written or do you write on the fly?

 

I have a rough lay-out of how i want the story to be and what should be in each post.

The details appear while writting.

And i would hardly call the disagreement between Chim and Qui to be internal discord, a different point of view from two different personalities, but nothing more.

Considering, that the New Republic REALLY never managed to achive victory on its own, discord among their enemies might once again be their only chance, but don´t worry, i´ll have a lot more surprises in store for you (for example, why do you think i introduced Knerwn?).

 

Updated "The tale of Darth Vader´s Son" and there should be an update of "The Colliding of Empires" on thursday.

See you.

 

Expect an update on sunday. Sorry for the delay, but hey, i have a life to live.

 

F? R/L = good but to much exposure can make you addicted to it

 

I´m really sorry and i give you my humblest apologize, but i had a small crash-down of my PC and the entire last update was lost.

I was that upset, that it took a week to get the nerve back to write this part again.

Once again my apologize and a big THANK YOU for your patience.



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors


The "Shadow" entered an geostationary orbit above the surface of Yavin IV. This way the threehundred-sixty meter long ship was able to move with the rotation of the moon and stayed over the same place as long as its commander wished to do so.

Less than five minutes later one of the two ventral hangarbays opened and the assault-shuttle was launched. Moving with the rotation of the moon below the blocky, but well-armed and highly manouverable vessel descended into the atmosphere and then even lower until its metal belly nearly touched the tips of the trees.

Chim and Qui, the two leading men of the enterprise hoped to stay out of the arcs of possible enemy-sensors with their low altitude.

They had also dropped the speed of their vessel enough as to not break the sound-barrier. Moving with a speed that low would mean, that they would need several hours and Qui Vader would have gotten bored, if he hadn´t been forced to blend out their presence in the force like Devas had done (and was still doing) for the "Shadow".

Of course they could have flown against the moons rotation, their own movement and the rotation of Yavin IV would have brought them and the academy together much sooner, but as much as they wanted to give away their presence by breaking the sound-barrier the clones of Darth Vader didn´t wanted to be revealed by an unfortunate ray of light being reflected from their shuttles hull (although the paint was light-absorbing) and so they had decided to move in a way, that would put the sun in their back. Like their other "parent" probabely would have said: "Details. Always be aware of details."

As far as Qui was concerned they had done everything humanly possible to avoid detection, perhaps with exception of using a cloaking-device, but while cloaking-technology was know and available in the Terilias-Autarcy it usually wasn´t used aboard ships as small as the shuttle. To integrate one into the ships systems would have taken more time, than the clones were willing to lose. So no cloak.

Number Six resisted the urge to yawn. They would be in the air for several hours, but less than one had passed until Qui was forced to realize, that being the clone of one of the most powerful force-users of all times could have disadvantages, too.

For example being able to cloak his presence in the force including shuttle and men aboard on a subconscious level after less than twenty minutes. And now he became bored.

That could be dangerous.

Glancing to the side, where the pilot was watching the controls, Qui activated the internal cameras, something he immediately regretted, when the inside of the main passenger-cabin became visible. The thirty-six men of their platoon were sitting in their seats, eyes closed, their backs straight and their heads up. Their hands were resting on their knees. Qui knew, that the men had entered a meditative trance, a physical condition, where their bodies conserved energy and the mind rested. And while the results of such a trance would be the same as six hours of deep, recovering sleep, the snipping of a finger would be enough to waken the men fully aware of their surroundings.

Qui sighed. After decades, if not centuries or millenia of supervision, research, tries and errors and successes the scientists, trainers and teachers of the people of the Terilias-Autarcy had developed physical and psychical training and education into an artform, allowing the citicens of their growing empire to function with maximum efficency for the benefit of themself and the benefit of the state. Another edge this race of humans had over the other beings of the galaxy. But somehow they had forgotten to deal with the problem of being bored or so it seemed to Numbe

 

I´m really sorry and i give you my humblest apologize, but i had a small crash-down of my PC and the entire last update was lost.
===========================================
Bad but nothing to be sorry about. It's not like you wanted it to crash

===========================================
I was that upset, that it took a week to get the nerve back to write this part again.
===========================================
Don't be. Have faith in your capabilities. I do.

===========================================
Once again my apologize and a big THANK YOU for your patience
===========================================
Patience is a virtue and it has its rewards. Like this update to this tale. Bit short but understandable so.
It feels like you are setting the situation for a post-war civil ... dispute. I vote for Lordaq. Not that you take votes but still

 

It was well worth the wait.

 

I have faith in my abilities.

Problem was i wanted to use a baseball-bat on my PC.

Updated the "Tale of Darth Vader´s Son".

 

Updated the "The Colliding of Empires"-Story.

 

Alright, i´ve been playing nice long enough. Time to take the gloves of.



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors


On Yavin IV dawn was still twenty minutes away when the assault-team finally reached the Jedi-Academy.

While the soldiers of their platoon tried to stay covered by bushes and trees Chim and Qui dropped to the ground and crawled to the edge of the landing field opposite from the hangar-entrance, where the rebel-alliance had once housed its starfighters almost twenty years ago.

"Can you see anything?" asked Qui, his voice dropped to a whisper.

"No guards, no sensors, no animals." answered Chim, who was looking through a binocular. "This carelessness is impossible to believe."

"They don´t expect anybody to be crazy enough to attack them." whispered Qui back. "The last one who attacked their precious academy was thrown out of the star-system including his fleet of star destroyers."

"I still find it hard to believe, that somebody like Admiral Pellaeon participated in such an ill-planned and poorly executed attack. One has to wonder, if the man ever heard of orbital bombardement and especially of a BaseDeltaZero before." muttered Chim.

"The imperials thought, that the psychological effects on NewRepublic-morale would outweigh the inherent setbacks of an inconsequent executed bombardement. Perfectely in line with Tarkin´s doctrine of rule by fear of force instead of rule of force itself. And Daala, for all her faults, could be very convincing."

"When it comes to Jedi, one shouldn´t waste time with mindgames. I´m with Mitthraw´s approach on that."

"And what is Mitthraw´s approach in that matter?" asked Qui.

"That death is the solution for every problem. No man, no problem." Chim hesitated for a moment. "Are you ready?"

Qui was already holstering a rucksack filled with explosives. "Never, if not now." he answered.

"Remember, thirty minutes after the destruction of the shield-generator Devas will start to bombard the great pyramid. In that time you´ll have to deploy the bombs on the top-levels of the great temple and find our missing brother. Be careful and don´t run into more Jedi than you can handle."

"If the explosion of the shield-generator and Devas burning the jungle around them doesn´t draw the attention of the Jedi elsewhere, that is exactely, what i´m going to do." answered Qui with a smirk. Then he turned away from his brother and only seconds later he had vanished.

Chim took the binoculars again to look at the great temple. There was still nothing that indicated, that their presence had been noticed. "To easy to be real." thought the clone of Darth Vader. But what else could he do?

"Alright, men. Spread out." His voice-activated com relayed the order to his soldiers to take their positions. And while he couldn´t see them with his eyes still turned towards the huge artificial structure of the great pyramid, he knew, that his men would spread out until they would form a semi-circle around the once improvised landing-field and the Jedi-Academy on its other side. They would set up their heavy repeating blasters and their mortars and grenade-launchers, putting the stasis-boxes to the side until it was time to release their contents, while four of the remaining twenty troopers would climb into the trees, armed with sharpshooter-rifles. The other sixteen men in airtrooper-suits would wait for the dance to begin, when the Jedi were forced to come out of the building, either because they wanted to know, what had destroyed their shield-generator or because the bombs laid by Qui would sooner or later cause the pyramid to collapse over their heads.

---

Qui Vader reached the base of the huge antenna, that projected the Jedi-Academy´s deflector-shield into the upper levels of Yavin IV´s atmosphere. Using a meter-thick cable as cover he crawled towards the massive and very modern looking powerplant, that formed a stark contrast to the sight of the ancient pyramid. Attached to the large bank of reactors was a small, closed control-station. It was here, where he dis

 

Wow. That was great.

 

a greatly more fitting end than getting a meteor on the head. great work f!

 

I dunno, having a moon kill Chewie shows him to be quite badass.

 

Don´t know if having the walking carpet being killed by a sharp-shooter is a fitting end, but i needed a reason to take Han out of the picture for some time and besides that, i was in the mood to kill somebody.

And while an entire moon might be overkill to eliminate somebody, it was something different for once.

 

Expect an update soon.

 

DON´T ASK.

Just enjoy the update.



Union of the Empire´s greatest Warriors



Qui Vader had already reached the top of the pyramid, when the shield-generator exploded. The tall man almost lost his stand, when the entire building of the Jedi-Academy trembled. Satisfied, that the explosion would make it impossible for the Jedi to leave their temple on this side and knowing, that he and the rest of the assault-team would now have the full attention of their opponents, he was tempted to drop the cloak he had created to conceal his presence in the force.

It would feel so good to feel the force flow through him again, to feel the strong pulses of the dark side of the force, the agressiveness and cold determination of Chim and his men. Even sweeter, than the agressiveness would be the fear and confusion coming from inside the pyramid. Well, the fear and confusion would soon grow to terror and panic as soon as he would jump among them like a Krayt-Dragon would jump among a herd of Banthas.

But Qui had to wait before he could reveal himself. He and Chim wanted the Jedi to be outside the pyramid, to trap the Jedi in the open, in the fields of fire of their weapon-teams and to give the Number Six of the Vader-clones the opportunity to search the Praxeum for their missing brother. No, for now only Chim would reveal himself to the senses of the Jedi.

Eager to do his part of the mission Qui hurried from the edge of the temple-ceiling to the centre of the square surface, where a small, cubic structure roofed the stairs, that lead down inside the building.

He had almost reached the entrance to the cubicle, when suddenly an elderly looking male appeared from behind the structure.

---

Streen had spent the night atop of the Jedi-Praxeum, meditating.

The former gas prospector had been a loner for most of his life and even joining the new order of Jedi formed by Luke Skywalker hadn´t changed most of the habits Streen had developed during this part of his life. Often he sought the peace and freedom of his mind in solitude and, like a tribute to his past, he sought it close to the sky.

This time however a feeling of wrongness had woken him from his meditations and even before he was able to reach out with his senses a huge explosion caused the entire pyramid to tremble.

And at the same moment a dark presence entered the horizon of Streen´s perception. It came from outside the pyramid and from below. From the jungle-side of the landing-field in front of the temple.

Rising to his feet and reaching for his lightsaber Streen walked over to the roofed stairs. He had barely went around the cubicle, when to his great surprise a man appeared behind it.

A man he hadn´t been able to detect before.

There was only one possible explenation for this.

This man was a force-user and he was somehow cloaking himself.

What suggested, that his intentions were not the best.

An idea, that was supported by the man reaching for his lightsaber.

---

Without slowing down Qui Vader dropped his satchel.

In one fluid motion he had taken his lightsaber from his belt, activated the crimson blade of energy and lifted it over his left shoulder for his first strike.

---

Streen came to a halt. The man facing him was tall, very tall and with a muscular build. His once black clothes were spotted with green and grey, what suggested, that the man had come through the jungle and then climbed up the outside of the huge pyramid. That was all the former gas prospector was able to think before he had to parry the first strike of his opponent.

---

The buzzing sound of the lightsabers and the smell of ozone filled the air, when the weapons of the two men clashed. Qui Vader´s strike had come straight from above and Streen had barely been able to block the powerful blow. He could feel how his opponent increased the pressure, pushing Streen´s blade down against its owners body with his own. The former gas prospector freed himself from the interlook of the lightsabers by taking a step back. The next moment Qui V

 

Then i won't ask
And i did thanks

Now i don't want to sound to demanding but still... MORE

 

That was a good chapter. Can't wait to see the resolution of the attack on the Temple.

 

First, a great "uff", that i came this far. I hope things will get better and more fluent in the future.

Well, the heat is rising, but we still haven´t reached the melting-point.

Here is the next part.



Union of the Empires greatest Warrior´s



Mara Jade-Skywalker glared at the controls in front of her. Thanks to the combined efforts of herself and her husband the hyperdrive-motivator was working again. Not that she really had reason to complain, considering the condition the entire hyperdrive had been in. To tell the truth she had reason to be grateful, that the blasted thing was working at all. But to be thirteen hours behind shedule and moving with an otherwise ridicilous low speed of threehundred lightyears per hour were a constant reminder of her, their, misfortune so far. Possibly the worst thing was, that she felt betrayed by her precious ship.

Luke Skywalker, who could feel his wife´s internal termoil, placed his hand in a comforting gesture on her wrist.

"Relax, Mara. In one hour we´ll have reached Yavin IV and then you have all the time in the world to look after her."

"If the rigged motivator holds that long. We did a lot of improvisation and i really don´t want to know, how long it is going to hold. If the hyperdrive fails again, we´ll have to drift through space until we´re rescued by somebody else."

Luke showed Mara a grin. "Being stranded in space isn´t so bad. As far as i remember, i met my later wife at such an occasion."

That caused the redhead to poke her ellbow against the Jedi-Master´s ribs. "Well, you had an ambush by Thrawn as an excuse for being stranded, but think about how embarrassing it will be now. Aside from that, if i hadn´t found you with the force, you would have died." Mara supressed a shudder at the thought. Luke would have died and she would have never gotten the chance to know him, would have never become a part of his life and his family, would have stayed alone till her death.

"Well, i could live with the embarrassment as long as i would live." stated Luke. "And contrary to then, our com-unit is still working. And, for now, our hyperdrive is still working, too. We will make it."

"Yes, probabely." Mara rose from her seat. "But i´m still going to have a look at the motivator. Just to be sure."

"Do that." Luke Skywalker wasn´t sure, if Mara or he himself would be able to do anything, if something should go wrong now, but he understood the need of his wife to have a direct look at the things their life depanded on.

He watched her leave the cockpit and turned back towards the windows, trying to get comfortable in the seat again when it hit him.

---

Mara Jade-Skywalker had barely entered the passenger-compartment of the "Jade´s Fire" on her way to the engine-room, when she heard a painfilled moan from Luke and felt a wave of pain, desperation and urgency through the force from her husband.

Every thought about the hyperdrive-motivator vanished from her mind, when she turned around and hurried back into the cockpit, where she found Luke reaching for the controls, his face pale and covered in sweat.

"Luke, what are you doing?" she cried.

"Streen." croaked the Jedi-Master, trying to manipulate the controls of the hyperdrive.

"Streen? What is with Streen?" asked Mara, gripping her husbands wrists and trying to pull his hands away from the controls. "Have you gone mad? The hyperdrive will ... ."

"Streen is dead." shouted Luke Skywalker. "And the Jedi-Academy is under attack. My students. We have to get there immediately."

"Luke, calm down." answered Mara, desperately trying to talk some sense into Luke. Contrary to him, she had felt nothing, but she knew, that she didn´t have Luke´s sensitivity. Aside from that, Luke had been a lot closer to Streen, than Mara. " If we try to increase our speed now, we risk the hyperdrive-motivator to burn out. We will drop out of hyperspace and in that case we´ll never reach the Academy in time."

"A risk we have to take." Luke insisted stubbornly. "My friends are in danger. Jacen, my nephew,

 

Well that was a bombshell. What the hell happend? Why didn't he see her? Why didn't he sense his brother?