Sand Wars - A Dune / Star Wars Crossover (updated 05/09)

I'm reposting this crossover, now that I've got enough time to work on the story ; I'll be posting once or twice a week (more often if I can) so the unfolding of the story risks not to be very fast.

Anyways I had a great time in the planning of this story, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it

**
BOOK ONE - A NEW HOPE
**

I am the anchor of two multitudes.

The thought was striking the old woman to the core, as she was readying herself for the upcoming ceremony she would be leading. And, in fact, the sentence was a truthful one : the Reverend Mother was the spiritual anchor of a Fremen tribe as well as the physical anchor of the memories of those who had come before her - the Second Memory, an alley of mirrors filled with the reflections of persons long dead and yet still alive, inhabiting the mind of the woman who had chosen to host them.
We Reverend Mothers may be privileged, but we have to carry a heavy burden.
Is it weariness I am sensing, Ramallo ? a voice from the Second Memory asked.
Yes, I am tired. And I long for a woman who could carry us altogether. None of the tribe is willing to follow my teachings, now that Khalehla failed the test. Fremen do not fear death, but they are afraid of this kind of death.
Perhaps Fremen have grown a little too Fremenish and the Reverend Mother saw a grinning face with her Second Sight. They regard this death for what it is : a result of failure. We do not like failures.
You know as well as I do that the girl was ready for this test.
We have failed nonetheless. I don't know what caused her fall. Perhaps it has to do with the awakening of her own Second Sight ; she may have drowned into the pond of her ancestry's memories. History had always been her passion. Our warnings may not have been enough.
Yes, this may have happened. But she was so disciplined !
The tribe is waiting, daughter. The time for mourning has passed ; now is the time for planning.
I am a servant to the Fremen.

The old woman stood, using a stick to prevent herself from falling. She was a wrinkled and shrivelled ancient woman, dressed in a black gown with hood thrown back to reveal the tight knot of grey hair and a stringy neck. Wisdom could be read in her deep blue eyes, that of a woman who had lived long past a century and had memories from several more millennia. Her voice was rasping, but it was still strong enough to be heard across the wide cavern where more than twenty thousand Fremen were massed.

'We are the people of Misr !' she boomed. 'Since our Sunni ancestors fled from Nilotic al-Ourouba, we have known flight and death. The young go on that our people shall not die.'
'Bi-lal kaifa' intoned the crowd.
'Our ancestors fought for the right to survive.'
'We honor their fight.'
'We went into exile, and God sent us to Arrakis for our final test.'
'Our journey has ended.'
'God created Arrakis to train the faithful.'
'We accept the trial.'
'God told us to wait for the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World.'
'They will bring us freedom.'
'A Bene Gesserit chosen by God will stand by His side, and her protégés will lead us to true freedom.'
'Bi-lal Kaifa.'
'There shall be pain and death, and the water of our lives will run down the sands.'
'They are the price of freedom.'
'But in the end we shall shatter our bonds, and the faithful will spread the word of God across the Galaxy that had hunted them down.'
'That is the will of God.'

Silence fell down in the room, and a tall, robed man stood, facing the crowd. He had a thin nose and a full-lipped mouth in a glistening black beard ; topping these features were two deep blue eyes with no whites, which was typical of the Fremen, a testimony to the saturation of their blood by the spice melange. The man was Stilgar, uncle of Liet-Kynes and leader of the tribe assembled in front of him.

'The Harkonnen have just received word that their rule over Arrakis will cease twenty years from now ! When the time has passed they will be replaced by another Great

 

offes a sushibeer - OK I'm interested !

the Admiral

 

UP! Post more, please!




...and a mango.

 

How many mangos do you give me for another post Liz ?

 

Hay Ban, it is an interesting beginning. I'm in and I hope to see anoter post soon.

 

well, since I already know what's happening next...


...and a mango.

 

You may be in for a surprise, Liz, there's some good chance that the next post is a brand new one

 

And here it comes (though it's pretty short).
Enjoy !

**

"What was the start of all this ?
When did the cogs of fate begin to turn ?
Perhaps it is impossible to grasp that answer now,
From deep within the flow of time...

But, for a certainty, back then,
We loved so many, yet hated so much,
We hurt others and were hurt ourselves...

Yet even then, we ran like the wind,
Whilst our laughter echoed,
Under cerulean skies..."

- from "Songs of Arrakis" ; attributed to Anakin Skywalker

**

It was a warm night at Castle Caladan, and the pile of stone that had served the Atreides family as home for twenty-six generations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired before a change in the weather. A young woman had just been let in by the side door down the vaulted passage by Paul's room, and she was allowed to peer in at him while he lay in his bed.
By the half-light of a suspensor lamp, dimmed and hanging near the floor, the awakened boy could see a sleek female shape at the door, that of Lady Jessica, his mother. She stood still for a moment, watching over what she believed to be her son's sleep ; and then she turned and left, and Paul heard the soft thump of the door.
She was probably asking herself whether I'm having another vision tonight the boy thought. She always seems to be waiting for some sign when I tell her about my dreams. What is she hoping that they might reveal, save for a few more reasons not to feel happy about the future ?
Paul kept brooding on this idea for some time, but he could not guess what his mother sought, and he fell asleep.

Soon he was dreaming again, and Paul could tell that it was yet another vision, which he would remember upon awakening. He always remembered the dreams that were predictions.
He dreamt of a passageway under the rock of a dry, desolate world ; silent people all around him were moving in the dim light of glowglobes.
The man leading their group stopped at a yellow rock wall ; he pressed an outcropping, and the wall swung silently away from him, opening along an irregular crack. He led the way through past a dark honeycomb lattice that directed a cool wash of air across Paul when he passed it. He turned a questioning stare at an elfin-faced girl next to him, and his insides squirmed as they so often did when he dreamt of her. I shall know this girl and love her he thought amidst the haze of his dream.
He had just asked the girl a question, but she hushed him in return, and they soon passed through another rock door with latticework above it ; and the door closed behind them.
At the head of the troop, the glowglobe in the leader's hands dropped below the level of the heads in front of Paul. Presently he felt steps beneath his feet, curving down to the left. There was silence all around him, save for the noise of their steps and breaths, some of which were soft and some others louder, some irregular aand some almost mechanically regular.
Ahead of Paul, a sandy-haired young man was tugging something on his belt, visibly anxious, as though the pressure of silence rasped his nerves with its urgency. Paul thought the nervousness of the youg man to be a bad omen ; he had seen him in other dreams, and had discovered that the youth had a knack to spot trouble before it happened.
The steps ended, and the group found themselves in front of another door. Someone nearby was breathing ludly, and a faint crimson light was coming through the threshold. Paul leant forward to peer through the door, but all he could see where shadows in which he soon drowned...

He soon found himself experiencing another vision. This time he was in the main hall of a mansion that bore the scorches left by a recent battle that had taken within its walls ; a mansion he somehow knew his men had conquered.
The guards at the entrance stepped aside and formed a corridor of lances.
There came a murmurous swish of garments and the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, whom Paul had never met yet knew he had just defeated in the vision, led his people into the hall. His red

 

Up !

 

hmm... //runs back to the old board to check, decides not to midway

nice post!



...and a mango.

 

Thanks !

 

just a little niggle, nothing personal or anything.

in the world of dune it's not 'god', it's 'shai hallud', or somthing similar.

just thought you should know.

 

Thanks for the feedback
Anyways the first two "God" words come straight from the original Dune novel, they also sounded a bit awkward to me but I kept them nevertheless.

 

Oh good post.

I just updated quickie.

 

Thanks JF !

Upping this, I'm working on another new post that'll introduce two other main characters.

Anyway feel free to comment this or even bash me because I messed everything up, that's the point with the writing of this story, I'm trying to build a consistent, complex plot and I'd like to write it not too awfully in English (my English is far from perfect, you'll have noticed I guess )

 

Ok, I started reading this the first time you posted this. Is the time frame going to be the same in this version? I am looking forward to more.

 

The story still begins at the same time (one year before ANH and Dune), but I've revised the already existing posts and I'm adding some new material, and replacing a few existing posts (my plot bunny has changed a lot since I left the boards last year).


... and a mango. ( @ Liz)

 

Ooooo, very cool! B) I love the new addition. Paul's vision was excellent and I'm looking forward to more!

This is one of my favorite stories and I'm thrilled that you are continuing it! Will there be another post this weekend? Please??

 

UP!!!



...and a mango. ( right back at ya)

 

Hope there is more soon.

 

I intended to post on sunday evening but I did not finish writing my post then, for reasons clearly indicated in my sig'. I'll be writing the rest of it tonight and it should be online tomorrow, but if you want to take a sneak peak at that post you can find the beginning of it here.

I'll be posting old material for the few posts after this one, but there's a good chance I'll be inserting other brand new posts (you'll see why tomorrow )

Thanks to you all !



... and even more confusion

 

I think I started reading this before. It's very intriguing so far!
I'm about halfway through Dune Messiah. I'd forgotten how mentally exhausting all the political intrigue is.

*Jadis*

 

Okay, time for the first bad guys to appear on stage
There's a link at the beginning of this post to a short fic of mine I have reposted for the occasion, as it fits neatly into the frame of this crossover and allows me to give a bit of background to this story, as well as to give you a hint to guess a plot twist yet to come.
I don't know yet if I'll write other "background posts" for this crossover, so all comments about that idea and the "Undelivered" story are welcome
I'm also introducing an(other) AU in this post. You will easily see whom it is about

**

What is the extent of the powers a person like Emperor Palpatine can wield ? That is a question we of the Million Worlds wish we never had to ask ourselves.

- from 'An essay on the nature of the Force' by Princess Irulan

**

As he was sitting in his private office in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, the old man who ruled an Empire was absent-mindedly listening to the drip-drip-drip of the rain drumming on the windowsill, his thoughts wandering on the facts he had just discovered reading the reports that had landed on his desk that grey morning.
There had been good news as well as less good ones, but no news worth worrying much. And still the old Emperor felt that something was wrong, something that was within his grasp, but still out of his reach.
And Emperor Palpatine was too experienced in the ways of the Force to dismiss his feelings.

The old man turned his chair and moved it closer to the window, his fingers flying over the controls of the throne-like seat with the ease born from a long-time habit of using that device. He could easily have moved the heavy chair with the Force if he had wanted to, but the Emperor was no man to use the Force when he had nothing to gain in its use. Drawing upon the Force too often risked attracting the attention of people to the fact he was actually capable to wield the Force and would have been in direct contradiction with the ideals he and his propaganda services put forward, that the Force was a tool of Evil.
How ironical that I could make such a statement without actually lying. And how ironical that I did not even have to use one single Force-power against any Jedi to wipe their order out.
He sneered at that thought.
Yes, the Jedi order was almost extinct. Only a handful of them still existed. Scattered, forced into hiding, unable to prevent the Sith from putting the last of them to death one at a time. Only a few days ago he had read a report from Darth Vader, signaling him the death of a Jedi whom he had found on Tatooine.
Perhaps the Emperor would have his faithful executor tell him the tale of the death of the Jedi. Knowing the many ways the Dark Lord employed to kill, it was bound to be an enjoyable story.
The old Sith brought back to his memory the list of what few Jedi remained to kill. First came the names of a handful of Knights. But they were almost nothing, and certainly not able to challenge the power of the Empire. Nor could they challenge the power of Darth Vader, were they to face him.
Children the Emperor thought. And children that may yet fall prey to the Dark Side, whose lives might be worth a little more than their deaths. As for their masters... Well, two of them are still alive, but the third has died now. And I hardly see how the remaining two could become a thorn in my side. Old Kenobi will never be able to turn back my apprentice from the Dark Side, and Yoda might even be dead, for all I could guess. It has been more than ten years since I last felt his presence ; and I have not seen him in any of my visions either...
But then, why am I feeling like there is trouble brooding somewhere ?

The Emperor opened himself to the Force for a moment.
But no vision came, and he returned his attention to the here-and-now.
He stood, and he took a few steps that brought him close to his window. He focused his attention on the sights below, where he could see the brooding activity of his p

 

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Oh man that Palpitine is so cruel, I cannot believe that he gave Mara her fathers lightsaber. That was just plain wrong. Good post though.