//------------------------------// // HIH Part4:Assassinations attempts can be dangerous for your health. // Story: The change of a Sith lord. // by Imperator45 //------------------------------// "I'm sorry master, I didn't want it to go that far, but...You let me no choice." "Don't you worry about that my young apprentice, I’m happy that you defeated me. I don't know if i could have lived with your blood on my hands." "I don't know if I’ll be able to live with your death by my own hands." "You can, and you will. You are made to shine Kallig, I’m sure that one day, the Sith will have prosper under you, not before...But never forget that my dear apprentice...Sith always betray and get betrayed...But for now, hold me, hold me like a son holds his dying mother". -Darth Zash on her deathbed to her apprentice after one last attempt to kill him. - - Imperial station "HONOR" "No, not you...Not you two! Kallig the Second was actually lying on the filthy ground of his station , in a dark hallway, and Imperial controlled space.While he was trying to heal his light-stabbed side, he could only look at his attacker...His two attackers. "I'm sorry my master...But I’m sure that the galaxy will only be better without you. "The Kalleesh had his double lightsaber in his left hand and turned it off. "Xalek...How could you..." "I didn't want to do it, Lord Imperius, but in the name of peace...You must die." "Ashara Zavros..."His first true apprentice just stood by the side of the second one and kept watching him. The counselor didn't feel like moving, he just stood there on the ground, hurt to the core of his heart...Not only by thephysical wound caused by the lightsaber, but by the betrayal of his two closest apprentices... Apprentices that he considered close friends... Like...Like a sort of family. "Why?"-The Sith finally regained enough of his strength to get up while holding his wounded flank-"Why?" "Why what? " Responded the Kaleesh in a teasing tone. "Why this betrayal?"Kallig coughed some blood saying that. "I don't think that you would like the answer." "Shut up!!!-as Kallig roared, he finished to healing his wound, it’s still hurt but it was now bearable. -I am maybe not your master anymore, but still i am a member of the dark council, and as a member of it, I am ordering you to give me an answer...Right now! The two traitors looked at each other, when their eyes met they nodded at the same time. "Master."-Responded Ashara.-"No,Kallig...You let me to continue to act as a Jedi, so I kept thinking like one, and for that I am truly grateful...But you see, the Force talked to me. It wants the light side to win, it wants ...Peace." The togruta took a few steps toward him, her hand on her lightsaber clinging on her belt. "And you, you are against peace. You may be following the light side but still...You’re bringing war into this galaxy." Kallig while trying to get up was shocked by her explanation. "Me, bringing war?""What this nonsense is she talking about? The Sith empire and the Galactic Republic have been at war years before I got transferred to Korriban as an Sith acolyte...Years before my birth." But Ashara brought out the answers to his unspoken question. "Yes, even if it's true that you didn't start this war, it is true that without you the Sith Empire would have been defeated at least two years ago, and so it would have ended this war, but the dark council and especially you fought well enough to inspire every imperials citizens , making their will to fight shine even brighter than before, because of you..Kallig , the victory of the Sith Empire is possible, meaning that this war will continue like this for decades at least, and as one of the galactic guardian of peace, I cannot accept that this galaxy will still be at war, it is my duty to act to protect it."-She grabbed her own lightsaber and ignited it, a blue blade came to life beside of her. -"And if that mean killing you, then I shall do it." The stare Imperius gave to her would have been enough to kill anyone else who hadn't followed his training. "And you..."-he turned toward Xalek,-"are you fighting in the name of peace too?" The kaleesh smiled and gave a small laugh, like if it was the most absurd reason. "No, but if I do kill you, then I will get your place at the Dark council, and everything that belonged to you, will be mine." At the end of his sentence; the warrior took out his double lightsaber igniting it again. To this display Kallig sighed heavily. "It look like I have no other choices but to fight and kill them." The right hand of Kallig got toward his belt to grab his own lightsaber, but when the hand got to the wanted place, it found nothing. "What, where is-?"Kallig's surprise began to melt as nervousness began to grow to replace it, having to fight his two best apprentice would be normally hard, but now with a lightsaber gone, his probability of victory dropped greatly. "Are you looking for that?" His eyes got up to saw the Kaleesh showing the weapon in his left hand. "That's why he attacked me there, to get my saber so I’m defenceless... That’s what they must think, but I’m not a vulgar warrior thinking only with his saber...I'm a damn inquisitor, I use the bend of the force for my own desire." Electricity began to form in both of his hands in a intent to send them a very powerful arc of lightning. "Just a few seconds and then I will be able to-"But something else stopped Kallig action. Pain "Pain in my back." The dark lord fell again to the floor, his lightning disappearing before he could even launch them out on his attacker. "It hu-hurt so much, what happened?"Kallig tried to focus his force on his back to heal his second wound. "A good shot, aren't I?" At that voice a hot fury spread throughout the inquisitor’s mind and body. "No... Not him too." The inquisitor turned around and looked straight at the new foe’s eyes. "Andronikos revel." The former pirate was standing a few feet behind him, a blaster rifle in his hand still fuming from the shot. "Well, wasn't that a good shot?"As he kept advancing with his rifle pointed straight to his former employer face, he noticed the furious stare that the latter send to him. "What with the stare, got angry? You’re sad? Wouldn’t surprise me. Always been such a wreck...Well I guess it's normal...For a sith." And so, with a sly smile, the pirate pointed his blaster rifle toward the Sith lord's head. "Wh-" "Shut up with your why! I’m tired of this, the Empire, the Siths ,  and most of all: this damn war. Ashara got me a deal with the republicans, If I kill you they will get me a new identity, She and I will be able to live our dream again! Sound pretty good to me, no? "Yeah" said Kallig while getting up again- "It would seem like the perfect plan...If you do manage to get out alive you b***ard. "Little Sith?" At the rough voice the mentioned Sith turned and saw his salvation. "Khem val!" Kallig managed to start walking toward the dashade. "He must have felt my pain through our link,and came here to help me." As Kallig took another step toward his longtime follower when Ashara projected force on him, making him fall for a third time. "Gnaaah!"-Kallig began to crawl toward Khem val- "Help me! "he held his hand out so the monster could grab him, but...The Sith and the Dashade's eyes met and for the almighty Darth Imperius , it wasn't a good thing. Since he freed him from his millenary jail, the link between Kallig and Khem Val had never stopped to grow stronger. They could feel what the other felt, hear and see the other one thought. And that's exactly what happened, Kallig heard out what his first companion was thinking. "Weak!" That's what the shadow killer mind cried out. "You are not worthy to be my master anymore."Khem Val then gave powerful kick in the ribs of his former master projecting him a few yards away, his head meeting the hard durasteel walls. To those word, for the first time in his life since he became an acolyte on Korriban, him, Lord Kallig II, Darth Imperius, member of the Dark council and Holder of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge of the Sith empire, felt fear...The real tetanizing fear. "I'm scared... I need help." As Imperius began to crawl he saw the faces of the betrayer’s looking down at him, one emotion could be felt through them. Disgust. They were disgusted by him. "No, not like this, the Empire is in danger, I must protect it." The hero of the empire slowly got up to faced them and even if tension, nervousness, and fury were racing through his whole shaking and sweaty body, he charged his arms with electricity, ready to fight till the end, but however the day had still more surprise for him. "My lord, take cover!" A movement got Kallig’s attention, it took him less than one second to understand it and jump to his right to take cover from a grenade thrown away by an Imperial guard. That guard has been patrolling like every day since he got transferred to this space station, and just like every day, he has changed his itinerary, it was a standard procedure inside almost every station of the empire, if the enemy succeeded into hacking the security system and found the route used by the guards, it could be a big danger for a station crew. That's the reason why the traitors had attacker a few minutes ago, because at the same hours from the day from before, the footage the same guard was at the opposite location of the space station, the hadn't thought that he would be there at the time during the overthrow attempt. And so the guard got cautious when he has heard the fighting sound on his way toward the meeting room hallway, and very surprised when he saw the man whose he had vowed to obey getting attacked by people respected by the empire. But he was ready to act to protect his Lord...and furthermore he was armed. By luck his enemies took some time to understand it. Baom!!! The explosion didn't kill them, Andronikos took cover behind Khem who’s had a skin hard enough to protect both, Ashara Zavros and Xalek were wounded a little but could still fight. "My lord this way!Quick!" Kallig didn't hesitate and ranthrough the middle of the traitor’s line and managed to pass (and took his lightsaber back while giving a punch into the kaleesh’s face) and reached his faithful soldier. "My lord go away; I’ll slow them down." Just after saying his sentence, the soldier kneeled and fired up with his blaster rifle. "For IMPERIUS!" The warcry of the soldier was full of force as he was ready to kill for his lord. However, the ex-crew members got back into their positions and Andronikos leveled his sniper rifle and shouted the soldier right into the chest, leaving a small hole right into it. Imperius himself felt the death of his guard but even if it saddened him, he couldn't mourn or take revenge, he was in a weakened state and pursued by some killers that he himself had formed, for now running was the best idea to stay alive...he just hoped that his others servants were more loyal than that. - - Control room of the space station "Hey look at that. "A lieutenant told his fellow soldier who joined him and the two of them looked to one of the many monitors of this room. " Hey, there are fights inside the area 2-9."Remarked the second man. "Isn't it where Lord Kallig is located? "The officer’s voice seemed to get a little nervous, after all, if there was a sith fighting here, then bad news would come. "I don't know, I suppose, " He got to another control panel and shouted through the intercom: "Beware, contact in the sector 2-9, ask for the strike team 4 to that location for containing the-" "Hey look at this!" The enseigne looked to where his superior told him so and fear grabbed him. "Je-Jedis!" "Yes, at least twelves of them, and twenty or so a republican Special Forces action team." "But where are they coming from? Every ship docked inside this station are controlled and they couldn't have been inside one of them no?" The highest ranked looked to the screen controls and took notice of something. "Look over there. Dock 80-4." His fellow imperial looked to the desired screen. "Yes, they are coming from that ship, the ... Smuggling one?" "Who had accepted this ship into the bay?" The two officers looked on the data a few seconds before finding a name. "Ashara...Zavros..."The youngest hesitated on what to do next, but his senior reacted quickly. "...Call all the strike team we have; and tell the 935th and the 938th Company to get ready for some fight, and put every head officer in safety into the security bloc 1.1...We will show to those democracy lovers what happen to those who dare to defy the Empire and lord Imperius." - - "How can it be possible? Republicans, republicans every which way inside my very own space station...How come? " Kallig hadn't stopped running for the last ten minutes. At first, he wanted to reach a guard station to gather some help to defeat the traitors, but all he found was four imperial corps and some Durasteel coming from a former security droid with two Jedi standing in the room. Even wounded he still managed to defeat them but soon after encountered another squad of enemies’ soldier. "Come on, Jedis and Special republican force on my station, it will cost a lot to those who planned this." The dark lord still managed to shock down the squad and continued his journey to reach a safe place. - - It seemed that luck wasn't on Kallig side today as he never ceased to encounter enemies again and again. "It's true that's it's pretty annoying to have to fight them off, but what is really annoying me is that they are slowing me down.And Khem val is after me, and with that damn link uniting the two of us he knows my current location, and if they catch me up, at one versus four warriors trained by me, my chance is of 40% or less. I really do need to find help." "Sorry but you will not have it, weakling." The sound of this voice made Kallig turned around just in time to block Xalek's lightsaber. "So there you are, you shame to the Empire." "Shame?  On the contrary am doing what any good Sith should do. I’m betraying my master." "The worst part is, I think he's right."Kallig thought bitterly. Kallig gave him a punch in the chest making him fall, and as he was ready finish him a blue blade coming from a lightsaber stopped his own. As Ashara Zavros blocked her former master Khem Val charged him with all his might. "What a big ass. " The Inquisitor sent a quick and small lightning arc straight to the Dashade’s face blinding him. "Aaaaaaah."As the shadow killer roared in pain Xalex tried to stab Kallig but he evaded him. The Sith master took a guard position and waited for their next attack. But they didn't move, instead they too took defensive position. "Why aren't they charging? They seem to want to keep distance with me, but why would they-" Kallig suddenly realized why he did this and put the blade of his saber in a way to protect his chest and his head from the expert shots of Andronikos Revel. "Take that you sucker of a sith! "The last comment fueled a little more anger which already ran at full speed throughout his body. "Oh, you will regret that." Kallig pointed his left hand before him and a hand of black smoke shot toward his enemies. "Beware he is trying to poison us with the force. "Shouted Xalek. "Leave it to me." Ashara took a step forward, turned off her lightsaber then sent a wave of force destroying the black mist. "Here, he isn't a str-acgck" Ashara saw a red blade made of light preying her torso., and just a second after, the face of her former master appeared right before her. He grabbed her as she felled on the floor, delicately posing her on it, and as life quitted her, she could hear the last words that she would be hearing in this life: " Sleep well now ...Ashara..." That sentence brought one last smile on her face then, she became one with the force. - - Andronikos and Khem Vall stood shocked as they saw their former lord kill their ally in their quest against him. Almost one full minute after that, Imperius levelled up his head, and there, the accomplices could perfectly see the stare that he was giving to them. A cold stare, full of hatred, of wrath and fury, those two shiny blue eyes kept looking at them for some moment before that their holder turned around and ran away, he exited the room by the door, and just as his assassin were starting to follow him again, he turned around and sent a lightning bolt right to the control panel of the door, closing it. He could hear the insults coming from the other side of the doors, and he knew that it wouldn't stop them forever, so he started to walk again. "I do recognize this place, I am not far from the ship bay, there I will go right to the Unbroken, my soldiers mustn’t see me in this state..." As he walked away from death for one more time he tightened his grip around his former apprentice lightsaber. - - "My lord! Oh my...What happened?!" By seeing his master state, 2V-R8 quickly joined him and grabed him so he could help him to get into the space ship under the stare of two astrodroid. "You two, get the ship ready for departure…right now…" 2V ordered the two smaller droids who obeyed quickly. Seeing them get back into the ship 2V continued to walk while keeping his master up. It took them a few try to get inside the Unbroken. - - "My lords! What are your orders? " At 2V question, Imperius raised his head, he was actually laying on the bed of the medical bay, 2V had injected some kolto to heal his wound but they both knew that it would take several days for a complete healing, if not more. Kallig catches his breath before responding. "Activate the protocol 8.9-Retry, bring us to my space station “No doubt”, the fastest way possible." "Very well my lord," the droid got the ship control center-light speed in preparation of being activate. While that 2V managed to get the ship out of the station, Kallig took note of the two astrodroid waiting beside him. ""Hello you two...What are you doing here? Were you checking the ship?" The two-droid looked at each other before answering with the traditional sound. "No, that was another team my lord, our mission was to fix the new experiment to your ship." The sith acknowledged that by a nod before resting his head on the pillow, he lied like that for a few seconds before that his eyes shot wide open. "The new experiment?"- The tone of his voice surprised the two droids who were ready to go.-" What experiment? Are you talking about 7-05X2?" The droid on his left responded quickly. "Yes, of course my lord. What other experiment could we talk about?" The answers sent a chill through Kallig spine. "7-05X2, the Isotope 5 experiment ...The one we haven't tested at all." 2V's voice appeared into the intercom suddenly: "Activation of the lightspeed in 5...4...3" Hearing this the Sith quickly got up from the bed, push away the two astrodroid and run the fasted he could toward the cockpit. "2" "2V no! Abort the lightspeed! Abort it!" "1...Activation." Normally during the activation of a lightspeed, everyone in the ship must sit with a security belt because of the powerful speed used to travel, but Imperius was up and so he was projected against the wall behind him, making him lose consciousness. And so, it’s in a state of unconsciousness that he travelled in his ship, the Unbroken passed all his space station, planets, imperials territories, republicans one and even the border of the galaxy...And as this unstoppable ship continued his journey, they draw themselves closer to destiny…In a galaxy far, far away. - - Imperial controlled space Imperial station "HONOR" 8 minutes since the jump. "We-We surrender!" A Togruta captain dropped his weapon before the imperials soldiers, by seeing their leader actions, the squad of republicans choose to do the same, after all they knew that they were overwhelmed. Talos Dreillik, followed by at least thirty soldiers from the 935th company, stood before the republicans and talked back to their captain. "We do accept your surrender. " Talos then advanced right before the Togruta and right after that put the barrel of his gun right under his face and fired. The action was taken by surprise by the republican soldiers who stood frozen by fear as they watched their leader's corpse fall to the metallic ground. "Spread the words to your remaining comrades, the imperials aren’t without mercy to their enemy who surrender without fighting." After that the republicans were arrested by the imperials soldiers, Talos asked one lieutenant who stood beside him. "So, any more news?" "Well, sir, the floor 2 to 6 are safe the same for the 8th, only the 1st and the 7th are still a little dangerous because of some remaining jedi and soldiers that are there but we have sent sith to get them, so it should be ok soon..." "Good, good, " Talos Dreillik was pleased with this, the imperials had defeated the republican in a fastest way that he through they would have. But something else came into his mind. "But what about lord Imperius? Is he safe? "The scientist asked? "Well, mister Dreillik, the control room told us a few minutes ago, that his ship, the Unbroken has managed to get out from the space station, and is currently travelling at lightspeed." Talos nodded to show his acknowledgement of this information. "It seems that lord Imperius is safe and as managed to execute safely protocol Retry…He should be contacting us soon." But what Talos Drellik didn’t know was that he would have to wait a lot for the call coming from his master. End of Interlude: How it Happened: Part4: Assassinations attempts can be dangerous for your health. End of the first Interlude.