<< >>

Don't Fear the Eyes of the Dark Lord...

Admiral Fel stepped off his shuttle, the SHU Keisari, into the hangar bay of the Chimaera. The smell of blaster fire was everywhere. The hangar bay was chaos even still. Wounded stormtroopers were being evacuated to the shuttles, amid much shouting, screaming, comm chatter, and even some blaster fire was audible still.

Behind him came La Forge, nervous and eager as ever. More army troops came along as well, as well as some mechanics and other technical people. Theyíd be getting the Chimaera running again. Hopefully.

General Jansen and Brigadier Jagged Fel were already in the hangar. Flanked by a number of stormtroopers with an array of weaponry, they approached the shuttle. General Jansen was about to let out a smart remark like "So glad you could join us after weíve shot all the enemies," but before he could get two words out, he was cut off.

"Took you long enough!"

A womanís voice. The command staff and the troops all turned.

An Imperial uniform. An Imperial Intelligence uniform.

Agent Starlit.

"How did you get here?!?" Jansen was rather distressed.

"Iíve been aboard since the ship left the Yaga Minor shipyard," she calmly said. "There were four shuttles on the pad and I simply took one up to the Chimaera under their noses."

Jagged Fel could confirm that. "I took the third of the remaining shuttles. And Commodore Zwibble did point out that one was unaccounted for..."

"Right," she continued. "And once I was aboard, it was easy to hide myself here. A Star Destroyer is awfully big if you donít know where to look." She chuckled. "And from the looks of these clowns, half of them have never seen a Star Destroyer before, nevermind spent any time on one."

Jansen noticed that Admiral Fel was smiling widely. "You knew about this, didnít you?"

"Oh no," Fel replied, "not until we got that encoded message, at least. Thatís how we got here."

"You two had some sort of code worked out beforehand?" La Forge asked.

"Letís just say we think enough alike to know," Fel said with a wink.

Jansen interrupted, still a bit annoyed. "Letís quit stalling, hmmm? The leader of this band has locked himself up top in the command tower. We can try to force the door."

"Not a good idea," Fel said. "If Vekídin is up there, then heíll just use his powers to confuse whomever has the pummel and it could end up a terrible mess. We need to outthink him, not try to defeat him by force."

"Right," Jansen said.

La Forge opened a channel to Commodore Vortagh aboard the Warhammer and Wedge on the Nemesis. "Any advice for dealing with this Vekídin character, Commodore?"

"The more of you there are, the harder he has to concentrate to be effective," Vortaghís voice fltered over the comm. "I suggest two groups: One small and one large. Heíll have trouble taking on both at the same time, if you can do it right."

"So noted, Commodore." Fel hijacked the conversation. "I want you to cover the escape, so to speak, so we can get out of here in one piece. Felís attention turned to Wedge. "Wedge, I need you to rig up the Nemesis to get the Chimaera out of here by force if necessary."

Vortaghís "Aye sir" came in the middle of the conversation with Wedge, who gave a short response upon receiving the orders.

Jansen shot everyone a look. They were wasting time.

"Right, letís get going," La Forge said.

"Iíll lead the second group," Jansen said. "When we arrive, heíll have nowhere to run."

"Sounds good," Jagged Fel said. "Letís roll!"

Several decks higher, the smaller group of Fel, Starlit, La Forge, and Jagged Fel had run into the sealed doors. No manual override code La Forge could enter was effective, even though it was his ship.

"Okay, now what?" La Forge was out of ideas. "Admiral, you want to try any?"

"Let me," Starlit said, and she punched in what must have been an Imperial Intelligence override code. The ship was at the mercy of any sufficiently ranked intelligence agent, no doubt. The doors opened.

Jagged signaled with his comm. Jansenís force would be moving in after a seven minute delay. The four headed through the corridor and into the access tubes leading up to the very top decks of the ship.

Four minutes had elapsed. Jansenís force would be on its way soon. The four emerged on the bridge deck, but behind the actual bridge itself. Jagged Fel primed his blaster.

Fel motioned to Starlit. She moved off in another direction. Jagged held back behind La Forge, who was behind Fel.

The bridge doors opened. A tall, dominating figure was at the forward viewport. Vekídin.

"Vekídin," Fel said, in his calmest voice. "We meet at last."

He turned, and it was immediately clear just how much taller he was than the Admiral. "I know who you are."

"That saves me the introductions, then," Fel said. La Forge wondered if he was crazy. Staring down a madman like that, with such a voice.

"You are all fools," Vekídin said. "The armies I can raise are limitless. All that I need to do is warp the mind of their leader, and they will follow."

"Is that how you got the crew to steal this ship, then?" Fel said.

"Steal?!? No! It is mine by right!" The anger was obvious, and the pulse through the Force from it caused everyone in the room to feel dizzy for a moment. Vekídin paused, pleased with his own show of power. "All these vessels belong to me. I am the successor of the Emperor!"

"Emperor Palpatine had you locked up. Donít kid yourself."

Another pulse through the Force. This time La Forge was more acutely aware of it. It was a sharper sort of pain than before. "He feared me, for I am more powerful than he ever was. That is why all of this is mine, and will be remade into my glorious Empire!"

Near the end of that sentence, Jagged took aim and...

Vekídinís eyes narrowed and he stepped towards Fel.

There were two dozen Vekídins all throughout the bridge, none of them in the place where Jagged had just been aiming. He fired at the place where Vekídin had been, and hit only the durasteel flooring.

Vekídin turned his full attention to Jagged Fel, bringing the urge to fire to the forefront of his mind. Jagged let loose with the trigger a few more times. La Forge was nearly clipped by errant fire, and he ducked back to try to get Jagged to stop firing.

Fel took the madmanís attention away from Jagged Fel. "What makes you heir to the Emperorís throne, Vekídin? Just the Force. You and I know thatís not what itís about."

The blaster fire ceased. La Forge hadnít needed to talk Jagged out of anything, just to break Vekídinís attention for a bit.

"No, of course it is more than that," Vekídin continued. "My Empire needs unity, a strong leader... Only I have the strength needed for the job. To wipe all dissent from the universe. Itís all in the mind. I can sense the dissent of and individual without any difficulty. I can command perfect loyalty with ease. It is easiest with human races and those that are very similar... but with time and patience, I can make them all do what I wish. And those that canít, I will have destroyed by my endless legions!"

"And those who know the Force? Who can resist your powers?"

"The Emperor has done most of that hard work for me. The number of Force users and Force-sensitives is so small that they can all be easily defeated. Those beyond the reach of my power will be made to kneel in the old-fashioned way... or they will be unable to do anything at all ever again."

"Now that I have taken back another of my vessels, those who are loyal to me, Emperor Vekídin, will rise to rule the galaxy alongside me! You are a smart man, Tiberius... If you join me, the righteous Emperor, you will be the executor of my will... the Vader to my Palpatine... The alternative is death."

Fel checked his chronometer. Jansenís forces would be on their way up now...

The chronometer check had not gotten past Vekídin. "Waiting for something, Admiral? Like..." he closed his eyes and turned his attention to the Force, searching the nearby areas of the ship. He found Jansenís contingent of troops, moving up the decks, converging on the bridge. His dark eyes sprung open. "Like reinforcements. Ah, you truly are fools indeed."

Vekídin smiled evilly. "Donít you think I can get the troops to all shoot one another? Are you all so backwards that you fail to realize my power?" He laughed and closed his eyes.

Fel stood his ground.

Below decks, one trooper opened fire on his neighbour. Disorder and chaos in the ranks. Jansenís forces were now trying to figure out what was going on. There was another shooting; Vekídin must have changed which trooper he was controlling.

Fel signaled back to La Forge. La Forge passed the signal on to Jagged, who took aim again. The same trick as before - he couldnít see which of the Vekídins was real, but there were fewer of them. His powers were clearly straining.

La Forge knew it was his opportunity to take action. If he charged Vekídin and broke his concentration, just for a minute, then Jagged would have a clear shot, and it would be over. La Forge ran.

Vekídin was not oblivious to this. He split his attention yet again to include La Forge. La Forge was overcome by dizziness and was not moving in a straight line.

Starlit took aim from the far size of the bridge.

Vekídinís anger was great. A fire burned behind his eyes... a fire of the most unnatural sort. "You have elected death, Admiral Fel? So be-"

Fel punched Vekídin as hard as he could.

Fel finally spoke. "Shut. Up!"

Vekídin collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Well, La Forge, there's something I have to tell you..." Vortagh began. "I will be stepping down, for the time being."

"What? Why?!?" La Forge was shocked.

"Vek'din, here," Vortagh said, as he tapped the stasis cell the stunned madman lay in. "I'm taking him back to Effetfal, where he can face justice."

"But..." La Forge couldn't believe it.

"No, he deserves to face the music for what he's done. And a swift excecution is far too good for him."

"You've got a point. Did you tell Admiral Fel?"

"I will, but I wanted to tell you first. There's something else I wanted you to do. We learned of a small facility that these guys have taken. Take the Warhammer and take it out, will you? Let's not leave them a good home in this region."

"Right. What about the Nemesis?" La Forge said, clearly disappointed.

"They'll be taking the Chimaera back to the shipyard. You'll meet up with them there."

La Forge still looked sad.

"Think of it this way. You'll always have Herr Kaffee around, even when I'm taking care of all of this." Vortagh had that mischievous sparkle in his eye.

La Forge laughed, weakly.

"I need to go tell Admiral Fel. Keeping Vek'din in statis is not a fun proposition at all. If we wakes up before we get there, we're all in trouble."

"I'll call Steel and Muscat."

"Oh, that's the other thing - Steel has asked to come with me."

"Bah," La Forge said. "Are you leaving me all alone here?"

"No, you get Muscat."

"Thank goodness for that..."

Previous Chapter

<< >>

Next Chapter