A Life Not His Own: Chapter 3

Anakin balls his hand into a fist, listening to the crackle of leather. He walks back and forth a few times, still getting his body used to the comforting weight of the armor and steelweave cape. The slight modifications made to the armor ensure that it fits him better since he lacks his grandfather’s height. He can feel the burn scars on his face twist painfully as he smiles. Turning his attention from his fist back to the list of materials he has at his disposal, he can feel his smile grow even larger.

He punches in a command, issuing an order to activate a thousand units of the phase II Dark Troopers.

A porter droid appears at the doorway of his chamber. “Milord, were your plans to stay with us overnight?”

“No. Is the Scimitar available?”

“Yes Milord.”

Anakin grins once more, as he stands and walks from the room, heading towards the hanger. Once he arrives, he cannot help but smile at the starship which sits in the middle of the bay, highlighted by floodlights. In something approaching awe, he walks around the ship, admiring her smooth, simple lines, dagger-shaped bows, and the spherical multi-level module for equipment, cockpit and living quarters. According to the records, this ship is over fifty years old, but her design and performance profiles indicate that she is still able to out-fly almost anything running today. Plus there are the other technological toys which make this ship such a find.

But even beyond the sheer engineering beauty which this ship is, there is something more fundamental, something darker, about her which calls to him. The Scimitar beckons him to board her, promising freedom and adventure.

It is a call which Anakin happily accepts.

He boards the egress hatch located immediately underneath the twin ion engines.

He sits at the pilot’s station, entering coordinates into the navicomputer, and picks up the datapad from beside him. He glances at the description of the planet Lorrd once more, nodding his head. According to latest reports, the Vong have taken it and set up another training facility. He considers it the perfect place to kill Vong at.

He finishes his pre-flight checks, and sends power to the engines. Their thrum is comforting, and resonates in his chest. He powers up the repulsors, and slowly directs the ship from the hanger. As soon as he clears the magfield, he points the nose towards space, and pushes the throttle down.

With a scream of the ion engines, the Scimitar erupts from atmosphere, and with a flicker of pseudo-motion falls into hyperspace. Hours later, Anakin drops the ship out of hyperspace and takes up orbit around the planet Lorrd.

He flicks a switch, activating the cloaking device, and turns on the sensors. He reaches out through the lambent in his lightsaber and feels the Vong on the planet beneath him. Then he stretches out with the Force, and feels the humans left behind, some exhibiting the flickering Force presence of Vong slaves, while others feel whole and alive, and seeking vengeance. One of the humans shines brighter in the Force. More alive, more there than the others. He focuses on that Force presence for a moment, and nods his head, already coming up with an idea.

Smiling once again, he lands the Scimitar in a wooded area, outside of the largest Vong settlement on the planet. He calmly walks towards the back of the ship, and walks down the egress ramp. With steady steps he begins the hike towards the settlement.

The rhythmic, mechanical breathing acts as a paging device for the warriors.

The first one appears from the underbrush, announcing his presence with the leathery flap of a thud bug. Anakin turns that way, igniting his saber and catching the bug on its blade.

The warrior advances, his amphistaff undulating in his arms. With a roar, the warrior stomps forward, a charge, with his weapon rigid and aimed at Anakin.

Anakin watches as the warrior rushes towards him, and stretches out with the smallest amount of the Force, hardening the air in front of him, bonding the molecules together through force of will until they become as hard as transparisteel.

Then the warrior runs into that invisible wall, and Anakin laughs at the confusion on the warriors face. With another touch of the Force, he pushes his body to the incredible speeds available to him, and appears next to the still stunned warrior. With a smile, he shoves his saber into the underarm of the warrior, slicing through his armor’s gills and stabbing deep into the warrior’s body.

Then extinguishing his saber, he stalks forward, listening to his lambent as more warriors advance on his position.

-------------------------------------------------

Nen Yim and her initiate Sooh Sunq stand at attention as the small yorik coral vessel lands in the Baanu Miir’s primary docking area. An ancient creature slowly debarks from the small craft, and hobbles his way to the two shapers. In disgust, Nen Yim looks at the new Master, noting the dying implants, including the shaper’s hands which appear fully dead. It takes all of her self-control to not stare openly with her mouth hanging open in disgust.

The elderly shaper, hobbles towards them, stopping around two meters from them. “I am Kae Kwaad.”

Nen Yim and Sooh genuflect their headdresses. “I am Adept Nen Yim, and this is your initiate Sooh Sunq.”

Kae turns his eyes on her, and Nen Yim once again has to force her face to remain impassive, to not show a reaction to her emotions at his appearance. His eyes are clouded by the madness and dementia of old age, and his implants appear to be dying and rotting on and within him. “Yim, Yim. I do not like that name. I will decide on a new one for you later. For now, take me to the shaper’s grashal.”

Soon they arrive at the shaper’s quarters, and the old man looks around the room, the madness fading slightly from his eyes. After a moment, the old man looks once more at Nen Yim. “We shall shape now. Access the Qang Qahsa, and get the protocols on the grutchins.”

“Grutchins?”

“Yes! Of course the grutchins! We shall make a perfect grutchin, the grutchin which exists in Yun Yuuzhan’s mind!”

Nen Yim’s headdress twists in surprise. “But Master, what about the ship’s brain?”

A flap of the dead hand. “It matters not. The ship’s brain is dead. For now we shall shape!”

“But-”

“Enough!” Kae’s eyes flash. “I have spoken. Do not question me. Shape! We are shapers, and we must do so.” The old man cackles madly and whirls back around to face her. “I have thought of your new name, you shall be called Nen Tsup.”

Nen Yim cannot control her facial expression as the outrage and anger spread across her face. The insult inherrent in that name is too great. A tsup is the lowest form of slave, used merely for the physical pleasure of its master, and suffers the gravest of depravities.

The old shaper spins around, looking for something, and goes over and caresses the Qang Qahsa. “Now! Let us shape!”

---------------------------------------------------

Nelani Dinn crouches beside her squad mates. Silently they watch the armored monster as he calmly and methodically walks through the various Yuuzhan Vong warriors and intendents, killing them all without hesitation or mercy. His black armor tugs at a memory from her days in school, but it refuses to come.

She looks at the leader of their little group, an older man, who was with the Empire’s Storm Commandos during the Galactic Civil War. His normally white hair and pale skin appears even paler than usual. She presses her hand against his shoulder, and he turns towards her.

“Who is that?” she whispers.

He gives a barely perceptible shake of the head. “I don’t know, but he’s dressed as Darth Vader.”

Nelani quickly covers her mouth to keep the gasp from escaping. Even at fifteen she had heard stories about the Dark Lord of the Sith, and the horrors he perpetuated among the galaxy’s populace. That is the memory that was trying to come to her. She glances out the small window again, and re-evaluates her thinking.

If he can kill Vong so effortlessly, then maybe he’s not all bad.

Finally the dark form stops, the only sound that can be heard is his steady breathing and Nelani looks out the window once more to find the dark form staring at their hiding place.

She feels like he is staring at her.

Frowning, she glances back down towards the squad leader. “Taav? I-I think he’s coming this way.”

The old man’s eyes widen slightly and he looks out the window to see the armored man calmly walking towards their hiding spot, his lightsaber glowing purple in the afternoon sun.

He stops three meters from their bolt hole. “Come out. There are no more Vong here.”

Nelani glances at Taav, who gives another imperceptible shake of the head. She glances out the window at the man, and though the mask covers the face, and the cape hides his body language, she can feel his anger that they have not obeyed his wishes.

She jumps when he speaks again. “Come out now, or I’ll destroy that building.”

None of her squad moves, and she imagines a wave of rage rolling off of him. He stretches out his hand, and balls it into a fist. With a thunderous crashing sound, a section of the building crumbles in on itself, sliding to a large pile left of them.

“Last chance.”

She looks at Taav, and he catches her eye a brief shake of his head. She understands that he’s ordering her to remain where she is at. She looks out again, and sees the man raising his hand again. She is given the choice of exposing herself to possible death, or staying in the bolt hole and dying. She glances once more at Taav, her instincts telling her to move now. Nelani sighs, and then jumps out of the hiding hole, and walks out in front of the man. A second later, the three others in her squad joins her, and she can feel Taav staring daggers at her back.

He turns his mask slightly to look at each of them, and then focuses on Nelani. “You are fighting the Vong. This is good. But you can do so much more.”

Taav steps around her. “Who are you, and what do you mean so much more?”

The masked face turns towards Taav. “I am Lord Vader, and you are not the one I was talking to.”

“I am respo-erk!“

Vader holds his arm out, and Taav is lifted off the ground, and starts clutching at his throat. For a moment nothing happens, and then he drops to the ground in a heap. Vader looks down at him, and then speaks again, “I said I was not talking to you.”

He faces Nelani once more. “The Force is with you, come with me, let me train you, and we’ll fight and destroy the Yuuzhan Vong.”

Nelani does not speak, but just merely nods her head.

Vader looks her over once more. “What is your name?”

“N-Nelani Dinn.”

“Very good Nelani, you will come with me.”

“But I have responsibilities here, what about those?”

Vader stretches out his hand again, and Taav lifts from the ground. He once again balls his hand into a fist, and she hears a horrible cracking sound, quickly followed by a gurgling scream which she can hardly believe could come from a human’s throat. As she turns away from Vader, she notices him tighten his fist once more, and Taav’s screams suddenly cut off. Nelani faces Taav, horror on her face, as he falls from a meter in the air, crashing to the ground into a lifeless pile. She runs to his side, and touches his neck. When she is unable to find a pulse, she looks around for the others in her squad and doesn’t see them.

She closes his eyes, hiding the fear which was evident in them, even in death. She stands, and looks at Vader, the tears threatening to fall. “You killed him. Why?”

“He was holding you back, keeping you here. Now, will come with me, or do you still feel some responsibilities to those on this planet?”

Nelani looks down at Taav, then back up at Vader. “I-I’ll go with you.”

“Good. Follow me.”

Then he turns and begins to walk away. Nelani glances down at the crumpled lifeless form of her squad leader, the closest thing to a father she has had since the Vong invaded, since the Vong killed her real father. Then she glances towards Vader’s retreating back.

With a final moment of hesitation, Nelani follows.