The Word of the Empress
Spike sliced through a droid with his second saber, before deflecting a shot back along its path and sending the laser slamming into another droid, destroying its head, before turning to face another clutch.
Sprinting forward, Spike threw both Lightsabers at once, before diving into a roll, avoiding the fire now he had no weapons to defend himself. As he did, his Lightsabers flew through the air, easily cutting through the droids, before returning to Spikes outstretched claws as he finished his roll and got back to his feet, checking to see if anything had survived.
Setting his sights on the final droid, Spike pulled it closer with a flick of his claw, sending it skidding along the floor. Lashing out with his foot, he caught the droid in the chest and propelled it upwards just in time to meet his Lightsabers as they arced down, slicing through it in two neat lines.
Panting hard, Spike surveyed the amount of droid parts that were around him, counting at least seven heads, before he cast his eyes over to the ray-shielded observation deck where Solaris was standing. Usually, this place was saved for live fire weapon tests before they were mounted on the ships at Fireshots dry-dock facilities, but occasionally, Solaris managed to get hold of it for training of her own.
Grunting in discomfort, Spike made his way over to the door, opening it and making his way towards the observation deck. His back was still feeling odd, although now it was more like a constant ache rather than a burst of heat like it had first been. He had several theories about what could be causing it, but until he got around to going to the medical lab for proper analysis, theories were all he had, nothing tangible.
Turning a corner, Spike almost walked straight into Solaris as she walked the opposite way from him. Looking at his master, he cracked a smile, which was returned in kind.
“Not bad Spike, although you’re still being sloppy with your offhand, keep it up like your primary, and you’ll do fine.” She noted, walking off and bidding Spike to follow her, which he did, falling in beside her.
It had been close to three months since he had crafted his second Lightsaber in commemoration of his ‘baptism in fire’, as Solaris called it. Since then, he had been making sure to squeeze in training at every opportunity, determined to make sure he could use his second weapon as well as his first. He was far from perfect either, something he accepted as a natural part of being a student, but he wasn’t bad either.
Other than his skill in combat, and his growing knowledge of the force, Spike had been noticing much more physical changes in his body, to be honest it would have been hard not to. Firstly, he had grown, both upwards and in stature. No longer was he looking up at Solaris all the time, and he could now look her in the eye on her own level, despite being a decade and a half younger than her. That, and with the regime he had been doing, he had increased his muscle mass by a good proportion, being able to beat Solaris in a physical competition, although it still took all his effort, and when it came to skills, he was left in the dust.
“You know Spike, I still can’t get over your growth spurt. Weren’t you like, two or three feet when you came to the temple?” Solaris asked with a slight chuckle.
“Yep, I was a titch alright master.” Spike nodded. “Grown more in the past months than I did in years back home. Got a few ideas why, but no real idea, as with most things about dragons.”
“Tell me.” She asked, the possibility of hearing his theory peaking her interest.
“Well,” Spike began, thinking about how best to phrase it outside of his own head. “when I was in Ponyville, all the other ponies were roughly four feet tall. There were some exceptions like Big Mac, but he was an anomaly. Now Twilight once mentioned that it was a personal belief of hers that all creatures in Equestria and beyond its borders had magic of some sort. Earth Ponies can make plants grow quicker and farm better, while Pegasi can manipulate the weather. Other than in Unicorns and Alicorns, and to an extent dragon fire, this magic is passive and we have no control over it. Because seeing a full grown dragon, or even a six foot one, would scare the locals, my magic kept my size in check, which explains why the dragons I met on the migration were so much bigger than me and mistook me for a baby even though they were only a few years older than me.”
“Well, that sounds like it took a lot of thought.” Solaris nodded, running though Spikes reasoning in her own head. “So why do you think you’re growing now?”
“Well, now people would be afraid to see a tall alien, my body can take the limiters off and grow properly.” Spike explained. “Either that, or because of the lack of magic here, maybe it just stopped anyway.”
“That sounds plausible.” Solaris nodded. “How big do you dragons usually get?”
“Big.” Spike said simply. “Like, bigger than a small starship big.”
“That could be a problem.” Solaris pointed out.
“Tell me about it.” Spike smiled. “I’m still trying to figure out what to do about it.”
As the pair continued to converse, Spike realised that they were about to pass the medical ward, and stopped abruptly, almost causing a Republic fleet trooper to walk into his back.
“What is it Spike?” Solaris asked, looking at him quizzically.
“Oh, I want to try and sort out a theory in my mind, but I need a couple of scans to do it. Do you need me now, or should I catch up with you later master?” He asked.
“No, nothing pressing at the moment.” Solaris said after a brief moment to think. “I’ll wait for you to finish and you can tell me your findings on the way to the hanger.”
Grinning, Spike darted inside, quickly conversing with the medical officers inside, before lying down on the diagnostics table as a scanner passed over him. Lying perfectly still, Spike waited for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes, before finally the arm stopped moving and the medical officer nodded that he could get up.
Grabbing the readout, Spike scanned through it, his eyes darting over the screen, and his brow scrunching up more and more as he read on. Finally finishing, Spike nodded his thanks to the staff, before walking out of the room, meeting up with Solaris again.
“Well? What did you find?” She asked, peering over to look at the dataslate.
“I’m…well, I’m growing wings.” He said weakly.
“Say that again, I think I had something stuck in my ear.” She laughed, scratching her ear to emphasis the point. “Did you say wings?”
“It seems likely, either that or my backs just dying.” Spike laughed weakly, still trying to take in the new information. “If you look at this scan, you can clearly see that something is forming just beneath the skin. It’s small at the moment, but given their position…”
“What- How!” She asked in confusion. “How is that even possible? You’re joking. You’re joking right? I know you’re you and all, with your freakily fast growth speed and all, but growing wings? One does not simply grow wings.”
“Like you said, creatures don’t usually double their height in under a year.” Spike countered.
“Explain it then, how does it work?” Solaris asked.
“Same principle as before I guess.” He shrugged. “I had no need of them before, so I didn’t have them. Now there’s no ambient magic to stop them from growing, I guess the process has started already. I just hope if I am right, that they don’t take as long as my growth spurt has, or is I guess, still ongoing.”
“Why not?” Solaris asked.
Spike didn’t even try to keep the whining tone out of his voice.
“Because it hurts. It feels like something is trying to push out from inside my body. If this discomfort is anything what it is like to be pregnant, I now sympathize much more with Mrs. Cake. If I’m correct, and I have no other theories so for now I’m going on the assumption I am, the wings have already begun to form in a tiny capacity, but need to break through my hide. Considering the fact that they only showed up as a tiny blip on the scans, and they’ve been forming for months, they could take ages to come through, and if they keep getting more painful, well. Oh and plus, I’ll get some really bug ugly lumps on my back before they grow through, which sucks.”
At this, Solaris burst out laughing.
“Oh, that’s rich.” She said in between snorts. “You could be growing an entire new part of your anatomy, and you’re worried about your looks? Only you Spike, Only you.”
“But darling.” Spike began, putting on his best Rarity impression. “The bulges will look so uncouth, how will I continue to look this fabulous with those things on my back?”
Placing his hand to his forehead, Spike pretended to swoon, falling backwards towards Solaris, before hitting the floor as his master let him drop, grinning down at him as he lay on the floor.
“You, Mr Spike, are a drama queen.” She said with a smirk, before beginning to walk off down the corridor. Grumbling to himself that she hadn’t caught him, Spike pushed himself up and followed her, quickly catching her up.
***
Two Weeks Later
***
Spike shifted uneasily as he stood on the bridge of Fireshot station, scratching around the top of a breastplate he had taken to wearing recently. His back was still acting up, and he was almost certain now that his prior hunch had been correct. Instead of waiting for the bumps to start showing however, he had decided to do something about it, and had forged this breastplate. It covered the top half of his torso, starting just below his ribs and ending at the top of his ridge cage. The important part of the armour however, was the rear of it, the metal bulging out just enough to make it simply look thick, but actually being hollow inside, giving the tiny bumps that had already started to form space to grow.
Only a handful of the crew, and by extension anyone in the galaxy, knew about the real reason he was wearing it, most notably Solaris and Loas, who had walked in on him while he was running more test on his back and wanted to know what he was doing.
“Spike? Master Solaris wants to see you. She’s in the briefing room.” Came the voice of Loas as the pilot poked his head around the corner.
“Thanks.” Spike smiled, turning and walking towards the cocky pilot, smiling as he followed on behind her.
“So how’s the back?” He asked, tapping on the dark metal plate. “That things looks brutal by the way. Could you not have made it look a bit, I don’t know, less intimidating?”
“Hey. I made this myself.” Spike said in mock indignation.
“Yeah, it shows.” Loas laughed. “I thought you said you forged your own saber. How can you be this bad with forging a single metal plate?”
“Forging stuff that has to fit perfectly sucks.” Spike muttered.
“Ah well. You heard the recent news about Empress Teta?” Loas asked, his face taking on a more serious tone.
“No, why?” Spike asked in interest.
“I’m sure Solaris is going to explain it.” Loas said, stopping outside the briefing room door.
“See you around?” Spike asked as he opened the door, looking at the man expectantly.
“I’m sure you will.” Loas smiled, before turning and leaving Spike to walk into the room on his own, catching sight of the only other occupant of the room.
“Spike. It is good that you are here.” Solaris said, casting her eyes over her Padawan. “Have you heard of Ulic Qel-Droma, and the rest of the Qel-Droma family?”
“Of course. Aren’t they investigating rumours around Empress Teta?” Spike asked.
“They were.” Solaris nodded. “Until recently it was part of the Republic. Now however, the Krath holy crusade has overrun the planet, placing it firmly under Krath control.”
“We’ve got to get it back.” Spike said instantly.
“It’s not that simple. However, Ulic’s brother Cay, Numi Sunrider and Tott Doneeta have a plan in motion. Ulic is in deep cover on the planet, but they are getting worried about his proximity to the dark side, and want to pull him out. That’s where we come in. They need extra pilots close at hand to help their plan, so we’re going in.” Solaris explained. “We will be briefed fully when we get there, but for now, we need to get moving. The plan can’t wait forever, and if we’re not there then they’ll be forced to go without us.”
“When do we leave?” Spike asked, scratching at the collar of his armour to alleviate some of the itch from it rubbing against his skin.
“Right now actually, I was waiting on you.” Solaris said. “We’ll go to the hanger, take with us two wings of Fighters and be off.”
“Which wings would those be?” Spike asked in interest.
“Umm…” Solaris said, looking down at a datapad. “Red wing will fly under my command, and you will be leading Green wing.”
Spike smiled at that, he knew who flew in Green wing, and he couldn’t wait to see if Loas was all he had cracked himself up to be.
***
“Green wing, check in and form up on my six and lock S-foils for transit.” Spike ordered over the comm, opening a secure channel to the six fighters following him.
“Green 1, standing by Green leader.” Came the voice of Loas over the comm.
“Green 2 standing by.”
“Green 3 ready.”
“Green 4, ready on your mark sir.”
“Green 5 standing ready.”
“Green 6 checking in.”
“Green wing checked in master, all formed and ready to jump.” Spike said, switching to his masters channel.
“Good. Red wing is ready to make the jump. On my mark…mark.” Came the voice of Solaris, speaking on the open channel.
Nodding, Spike pushed the lever forward, propelling his ship past the speed of light and jumping to Hyperspace, his wing following closely behind him.
It was not a long jump, Sunrider’s fleet was waiting in a system that was not too far away from Fireshot station, and was along a well-used hyperspace lane, but all the same, it was highly turbulent, more so than his other flights.
Nevertheless, the ships all exited hyperspace safely, quickly reorganising themselves on the two Jedi that were to be leading them. Ahead of the two wings was a small fleet, consisting solely of an old, antiquated carrier and a few escorts. Spike did not know why they would have something so small to attack a planet, when just a space station necessitated more than this.
“Spike, transmit to the fleet that we have arrived with the reinforcements as requested and get us a dock.” Solaris ordered.
Nodding to himself, Spike turned a dial to the channel of the carrier, before speaking into the headset.
“Republic carrier, this Jedi Padawan Spike, Green leader, with me is Master Solaris, Red leader. We are requesting docking birth be made available for fourteen S-100 class fighters.”
“We read you Green leader.” Came the reply after a moment of static. “Jedi Knight Sunrider has been expecting both of you, please proceed to the aft portside hanger of the ship, it has been prepared for your arrival.”
“My thanks. Spike out.” He said, switching back to Solaris. “We’ve got our hanger, aft portside.”
“Good. See you on board.” Solaris replied, before leading her wing towards the ship.
Allowing her and her wing to get closer to the ship and begin to land, Spike lead his own fighters towards the carrier, swooping inside and setting his ship down beside the Cyclone.
Clambering out of the ship, Spike ran over to his master, who was already making her way towards the door, while the other pilots began to organise the final checks on the fighters, making sure the torpedoes were loaded and the blasters charged and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Rushing though the ship, Spike passed by numerous crew as he followed Solaris, eventually reaching what Spike assumed was the bridge and passing through the door. Inside were a clutch of Jedi, all standing round an archaic planning table.
“Sunrider.” Solaris said, walking over to the table.
“Master Solaris.” Nomi bowed, the other Jedi following her lead as the master walked towards them. “I am honoured that you would lean your aid.”
“You needed starfighters and the pilots who know how to handle them. I have those, plus I have my Padawan.”
“Yes, I saw that you had an apprentice.” Cay said, looking over at Spike. “You as good in a fighter as your master?”
“Eh, no master.” Spike said with a smile. “Not at all.”
“I’m no master.” Cay laughed. “And don’t be sorry, we can’t all be as good as Solaris.”
“True there.” Solaris smiled. “Now, I believe you have a plan you want to inform me of.”
“Yes.” Sunrider said, looking back at the table. “We need to get Ulic off Empress Teta, else he’ll fall to the dark side, but we can’t just force him to come with us, meaning that Cay, Tott and I will have to be the ones to make contact. To do that however, we need to breech the Iron Citadel.”
“With a name like that, I doubt it will be easy.” Spike said with a chuckle.
“Correct.” Sunrider nodded. “We have already managed to get an alliance from the beast-riders to transport us to the upper floors, but they will need a diversion to get close.”
“And that’s where we come in?” Solaris nodded slowly. “Risky, but not impossible.”
“Exactly.” Cay replied. “From the looks of things on our last mission on the planet, that place will be swarming with CX-133s.”
“S-100s are better.” Solaris shot back. “And the Krath ships aren’t piloted by Jedi.”
“The bottom line is Solaris, can you do it?” Sunrider asked.
“So can I just run over the plan, make sure I’ve got it.” Solaris asked. “We drop out of hyperspace, deploy and launch towards the planet. While the three of you go on ahead to meet up with the beast riders, we create a diversion and give you the window to get in. After that, we keep pressing the attack until you come out with Ulic, then we high tail it out of there.”
“Pretty much, except for the fact that we will be deploying from here. This old rust bucket would give us away as soon as we entered the system. For this to work we need surprise.” Cay pointed out.
“Yeah, I can make that work.” Solaris nodded. “When do we leave?”
“Now actually, we would have gone sooner, but we needed more than the ten fighters we had. Now we’ve got your reinforcements, we can actually pull this off.” Tott said with a smile.
“Well then, I’ll see you in space.” Solaris smiled. “Come on Spike, lets show them how it’s done.”
“Right behind you master.” Spike nodded, following her back to the hanger.
***
“Green wing, you ready?” Spike asked, looking around his cockpit to look at the fighters all around him.
“We are Spike, ready to go on your mark.” Loas replied.
“Sunrider?” Spike asked.
“Ready. You have the vanguard Spike.” She replied.
“Very well. On my mark then. Ready….Mark.”
Pushing the lever forward again, Spike felt the ship jump forward, watching as the stars seemed to stretch out in front of him, as he jumped forward into hyperspace again.
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I just hope those wings don't decide to pop up in the middle of a fight or something. That would be both painful and really bad timing. And when are we going to see Spike is his fire breath in a real fight?
3796951
I know when the wings will pop up, whether that is a good time or not I will leave to you readers. As for his fire breath, soon, very soon, especially now he's come to grips with having to kill, he will be more liberal with his fire.
3795891
That's true at some points. Blue is guardian, green is consular and yellow is sentinel, but that is not always the case, and I fairly sure that it wasn't in practice until around the Mandalorian war. This is before that, so I think it works.
Thought he hasn't heard about her. Or did he mean he just hasn't heard any recent news?
3797002
It was meant to mean he hasn't heard the recent news, but I can see your point. I'll change it to make it clearer.
This is coming along great so far!
I do find it odd though that a Padawan gets to lead a squadron of fighters.
3797165
Ashoka does it in the clone wars cartoon series, so canonically they do. Remember, Jedi are seen as commanders for the Republic regardless of their rank in the actual Jedi order.
“What- How!” She asked in confusion. “How is that even possible? You’re joking. You’re joking right? I know you’re you and all, with your freakily fast growth speed and all, but growing wings? One does not simply grow wings.”
I see what you did there!
Is Exar Kun going to apear?
3797692
Short answer: Yes
Long Answer: He will eventually turn up, but due to his inexperience, Spike will not see much of him, and Exar Kun wouldn't bother much with him in return.
Well, this is interesting. We're already getting into the fall of Ulic and Exar Kun, and it won't be long before the Great Sith War starts. I'm really interested to see Spike's role in all of this and what will happen to Solaris.
Also, will Spike be talking with more characters? Maybe Vima, Thon, or even Kreia. If you want to do characters outside of Tales of the Jedi, maybe Spike could go into the Unknown Regions to search for his home and accidentally finds the Sith Empire... and I'm probably babbling on at this point.
Overall, good chapter, like what's going on (but I think Spike's a little young to be involved in battle just yet), and I can't wait to see more.
-W.S.
Should be "threw"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And by that point his current light sabers would become his toothpicks.
Still a force wielding full sized dragon would be rather ... powerful
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In any case I also wonder how good Loas really is.
I was just wandering if this was set before or after The Great Galactic War.
Really cool story, love this take on the setting. Keep up the good work.
3799497
Before. He's just about to see a battle that pretty much kicked off the Great Sith War
3800737 Sick
3798599
Spike has his role to play in this war, and others down the line. Character wise, the one with the most official Star Wars ones will probably be the next act, so a way off now.
As for his age,I am once again going to mention The Clones Wars cartoon and the fact that Ashoka Tano took part in a large scale battle with Anakin when she was fairly young on their first mission together.
3799454
Thanks for spotting that, all fixed now
3797834 Yeah that was waht i was thinking, much like Sunrider, he is not gona have much appearance this early in the story.
3796997 Yes, but there is one that will always be important due to how the crystal itself acts. That one being Purple. Reason being it reacts just as well to Light side force moves as Dark side. Due to this a purple lightsaber user tends to use force attacks from both Light and Dark sides of the force. As well they tend to be slightly more brutish than a regular Jedi. (Which I must say we have already seen.)
Oh damn and here we go! Oh and spike can live for hundreds if not a few millennia old so could it be possible that this story could branch out that long? I certainly hope so.
[quote“Ah well. You heard the recent news about Empress Teta?” Loas asked, his face taking on a more serious tone.]Empress Teta? YOU PIECE OF SHIT YOU DIDN'T SHOW TWILIGHTS FALL! NOW SPIKE HAS TO DEAL WITH IT AND.. GOD FUCK!!!
*finds out it's someone else* *nervously chuckles* Uh..sorry, don't kill me for my assumption.
Not bad Spike, although you’re still being sloppy with your offhand, keeping it up like your primary, and you’ll do fine
Now twilight once mentioned
and you’re worried about you’re looks
the metal bulging out just enough to it simply looked thick
I am honoured that you would lean your aid
1. Keep.
2. Forgot to capitalise.
3. Your.
4. Just enough to make it simply look thick.
5. Lend.
seeing as no one thought ahbout it yet....im gonna do it
i.imgur.com/GRtjvU9.jpg
No fainting couch for Spikey-Wikey
why am i having the feeling loas is going to die?
Why wouldn't spike learn the aerial fighting style when he grows wings
When I think of how Spike looks I picture him like this just as a Jedi:
http://pia-sama.deviantart.com/art/Spike-the-Dragon-Rogue-Diamond-Outfit-371604214
Into the Great Sith War we plunge, as Exar Kun comes from the Rim and Ulic-Qel-Droma begins his slide into the Dark Side. Glad to see Nomi Sunrider.
This bothers me. The russan reformation was during the time of darth bane. Not exhar kun