Story #5: Ownership
The TIE Reaper bounced along the gaseous clouds of the nebulae, inconstant pressure between hydrogen, helium and neon, argon and xenon warmed to differing rates by the two nearby suns made for a bumpy ride that sank nausea into Thirteenth Brothers stomach.
The orange hue of the vast cloud was equally unpleasant to his sight as he guided the ship to the small planetoid in the midst of the ocean of gas, the pilot in the main hold with his detachment of six purge troopers pouting.
Thirteenth always insisted on piloting himself, he could never fully trust the ranks of the Empire. The Soldiers of the Republic had turned swiftly on the Jedi they had worked so closely with, in time, he suspected, the Purge troopers would turn on the Inquisitors they currently served too – once all the Jedi – the prey - were gone after all what use had the Emperor for the hunters?
He always had a strong sense of danger ever since he was a…no he would not use those Jedi terms...it simply seemed ever since that
day his body had been possessed of endless waves of chilled fear, rising and falling like the tide, but never, ever ceasing.
The Planetoid approached and he had to decelerate, a bump every few seconds. The Nebulae and the planetoid itself was located at a Lagrange point between two stars mostly absent of any interest on the fringe of the Deep and Inner core.
Six days earlier a report from Twelfth Sister – or rather the current Twelfth Sister ,a dirty secret he had learned early was that while the name of the position remained, the occupant changed more frequently than one would like – had reported the pursuit of a suspected Jedi to this curious place.
Ever since then he had felt in his bones the stirring of peril had trickled up and down his spine in cold waves…only marginally less than the hazards of disobeying the Grand Inquisitor making him accept the task without question.
Failure, disobedience, all could land an Inquisitor in as much torment as any Jedi filth they might capture.
He picked up the transponder of the Sisters vessel and began his approach clenching down on the worry as he tightened his grip on the stick.
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“You three move in, the rest secure the entrance,” he ordered behind the rasping mask as the red and black clad troopers obeyed without question, DC-15A rifles humming with power, electro staffs or hammers on their backs.
There was no air on the planetoid, barely half standard gravity, all were in full EV outfits. The Sisters ships was undamaged but empty, beside it the wreckage of what must’ve been the suspects vessel, nearby was a cavernous entrance into the depth of the planetoid, the orange haze of the nebulae giving way to unlit black within, now pierced by the flash lights of the Purge Troopers helmets.
He followed behind reaching out to get any sense of the place as one trooper with a hand scanner interrupted his contemplations of isolation.
“Sir, the sonar imaging detects hard edged corners, evidence of architecture increasing further in.”
He made no reply, it was a silent and forgotten place this, perfect to hide…but lacking in resources, that must’ve been it, he deduced, the Jedi had to resupply, made a slip and was followed back here.
His boot crouched on something other than hard rock.
He lit his crimson blade for light seeing the familiar reflective sheen of a purge troopers phase II para trooper armour, gliding his weapon across the full body was laid out on the ground.
What was a trickle became a constant ice fist gripping his spine.
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The stone work was ancient, too smoothed by even the gentle erosion of the Noble gases to be anything but. If he had to guess this had been some kind of retreat, thought he absolute lack of anything resembling technology in the cavern made him wonder what species it was for that essentially breathed noble gases…or perhaps a species that did not require gas respiration at all…
An hour after landing they came to the rough centre of the mapped cavern network, there finally was the first life sign.
“It lied…it always lies to me…” the voice of Twelfth sister was distorted not just through her mask, but in her very consciousness.
“Said it would never leave me, never hurt me, protect me, but it did, it always does and keeps it’s promises,”
He stepped forward despite himself, fear could be turned to anger, to power, something he had never quite mastered.
“Sister why did you not report…”
“See it lied again!” She screamed standing from a ruined plinth, the scale of the architecture was outside humanoid proportions, troublingly large, as if built for a race larger than wookies.
“Maybe it’s jealous, each though they were the only one…but only this one is mine…mine…MINE!”
She suddenly leapt down from her seated position, wiry but strong in her half-starved state.
The Troopers aimed at her but he waved them down as he looked about the room with infrared and thermal sweeps on his helmet.
There was a dead cold body nearby of a nousarian, wrinkly leathery skin loose on the bones, the skull pierced by a cauterizing saber strike. He only now began to notice the horrendous writhing tentacle like engravings on the walls, how they curled unnaturally around tall being with haloed heads.
The ice of danger mixed with a sinking sense of desecration against unknown silent deities, this not a place he, no any humanoid should’ve stepped.
“Sister return with me to Nur, I’m sure the Grand Inquisitor will reward you for defeating the Jedi,”
“Ha…hahaha!” she laughed gleefully
“Children, nay infants of the younger gods, petty things,”
Her voice was not her own he realised, in her hand was something…something too big for her to hold properly sharp and blade like, but meant to be wielded by the giants that had forged this place.
This boded terminally ill, she was mad, why, how didn’t matter, only that he get out of here then blast the planetoid to pieces with his ship, Emperors black bones he might summon a Destroyer to do the job just to be sure.
“No…no…” she seemed to argue against his very thoughts
“I won’t lose it, you can’t make me!”
Without warning her saber lit in one hand while the other struggled to wield the heinous dagger or spade like object that seemed in its black green curves meant to scoop out with sharp puncture the soul of some cephalopod.
Purge troopers were, in most cases, cannon fodder at best to wear a force wielding opponent down. So they proved now against the zealous madness of the Sister.
Thirteenth held back allowing the engagement to drain the woman who must’ve been dehydrated and underfed after so many days in mad meditation over the cursed murals.
Finally the last of the troopers gasping for air helmet scarred open Thirteenth made his move.
His curved sabre followed through from his strong push trying to slam her into one of the abnormally sized pillar that were perhaps some kind of lectern for larger stranger beings.
To his terror the force push simply
slid around her or rather the gross device in her hand.
Yet it was that very device that now occupied his every attention, twisted and unclean as it was, he couldn’t help but feeling a desperate longing to possess it that encouraged his attacks. He struck fast and hard, the dank place lit only by the crimson glow of their blades as he felt repelled and attracted to the thing in equal measure.
He had to have it, it was promised to him – it could protect him, when Vader came to purge the Inquisition it would protect him, that was the promise, it wouldn’t lie it wouldn’t…
“Oh but it does!” Twelfth Sister sneered as their blade locked, Thirteenth using his greater weight to push down on her, the force pulsing in his arms to add strength.
“It always lies when it speaks the truth!” she snapped back and with deadly finesse deactivated her blade, Thirteenth fell forward and the dagger like thing stabbed through his armour straight into his ribs, the bone cleaved like so much bantha butter as the Force itself was eaten from his flesh into the thing.
The sensation of imminent danger, the tickle in his spine, the chill, the ice, that had been with him ever since Order 66 finally stopped as the abyss of ages took into its endlessly void embrace.
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