Empire and Rebellion

by Snake Staff

49: The First Hunt (I)

When the Starry Night emerged from hyperspace in the Kashyyyk system, Luna found a planet under siege. From the light cruiser’s bridge, the alicorn stared out at a force of no less than seventeen Star Destroyers of the Venator, Victory, and Imperial-class lines, twice that number of Vindicator and Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers, dozens of smaller cruisers and troopships, and, perhaps most importantly, a pair of Immobilizer-418 Interdictor cruisers ready to deny a ship hyperspace at a moment’s notice. Those ships not directly hanging above the Wookiee homeworld were clustered about Vader’s flagship, the Devastator. Fighters of all stripes soared this way and that, wings of bombers descended into the atmosphere for attack runs.

“This,” Luna thought, “is why Twilight is a fool.”

This mighty armada represented only a small fraction of the might of the Empire’s war machine, yet by itself it would smash any world that dared oppose Palpatine’s will and burn it to molten slag. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Imperial troops could be deployed from these ships, armed with the weaponry to take any city or set fire to a continent. And yet, on a galactic scale, this force barely registered at all. Every ship could spontaneously explode right now and only Vader’s loss would mean anything to the Galactic Empire.

Trying to resist this from the outside? Madness.

The alicorn tore her gaze away from the awe-inspiring fleet and the doomed world at the sound of chiming. The bridge’s communications officer was at his console, now flashing with an incoming hail. He looked up at Luna, who simply nodded.

“Inquisitor,” came the voice of an officer she didn’t recognize. “Lord Vader is pleased by your timely arrival and bids you to attend him aboard the Devastator without delay.”

“Tell him I am on my way,” she answered, keeping the resentment out of her voice with some effort.

“Very good my lady.”

---

“The Wookiees of Kashyyyk have long been a troublesome race,” Darth Vader informed her.

The two stood in a darkened, private chamber illuminated only by the holographic projection of the planet below. Or more accurately Vader stood and Luna, not having gotten permission to stand, awkwardly knelt while trying to observe Sith Lord’s briefing. The Sith holocron she’d gone through so much to get to was set on a plinth in a side alcove, accepted without comment and seemingly forgotten already.

“Since the earliest days of the New Order, they have resisted the Emperor’s will,” the cyborg continued. “With long established ties to the Jedi, they are believed to have assisted in the escape of Yoda and afterwards to have knowingly offered safe haven to fugitives from the Order. I eliminated them years ago, but that was not the end of it. Their world is well-suited to guerilla war, the vast wroshyr forests offering protection from our aircraft and countless places to hide. For years various groups have waged hit and run battles against Imperial forces, and in the last several weeks the situation has grown markedly worse.”

“Why not simply burn the forests?” Luna risked asking.

“Because our goal is enslavement, not annihilation. Moff Tarkin requires skilled laborers with great strength for his special project, which these creatures are well-suited for. Scouring the forests with turbolasers would kill off the population altogether. We must break their will to fight, but their bodies are still of use to us.” The hologram switched to a recording of a pitched battle between Stormtroopers and the massive, hairy natives. “Since my arrival the 501^st has won several key victories and killed thousands, yet these beasts continue to resist with surprising vigor. But recently we have identified the source of this contagion.”

The image shifted again, this time settling of the form of a green-skinned humanoid female with distinctive robes and swirling facial tattoos about her eyes.

“Jelee Almar,” Vader identified her. “Once a Knight and healer of the Jedi Order, vanished after the Clone Wars and not seen again until now. We believe her presence inspires the Wookiees, deceiving them into believing that the Force fights with them. It is also possible she may have some skill with battle meditation.”

A rare Force ability Luna had only heard of from Dooku, battle meditation sapped the morale of one’s enemies and boosted the coordination and unity of allies. Few had any talent for it, fewer still could do it on anything more than a localized scale.

“More likely that she simply serves as a symbol to them, a guttering light of hope in a time of darkness ascendant. A light that we,” he clenched his fist, “will snuff out.”

“How may I serve?” the princess asked.

“We have located what we believe to be her current base camp, deep in the lowest levels of the jungle.” Vader said. “An elite strike team is being formed to cut the head from this serpent. You will accompany me on this mission. And you will claim her head for the Empire. Alone. It should not prove too troublesome for one who has faced a Sith Lord.”

“And if she is stronger than anticipated?”

“Then you will die,” the cyborg answered. “Report to the armory at once, we depart in two hours.”

---

It was obvious that these humans weren’t used to working with nonhumans at all, Luna reflected, much less quadrupeds. The deep black bodyglove they had initially shown her had proven to be ill-fitted and in need of serious and rapid size adjustments to enable her legs to move freely. The dark blue armor plates that they fitted over it had been marginally better, but they were poorly balanced and made her front section disproportionately heavy in their eagerness to protect her chest. It would have made flight awkward and ungainly at best, had her wings still been capable of as much.

Still, Vader’s gift did have its upsides. The helmet contained a full filtration system to protect her lungs from the many varieties of poisonous plants and creatures that wandered Kashyyyk’s jungles, as well as a full communications suite with an option to silence the external mouthpieces altogether for more privacy. It contained her broken horn completely though, so trying to use lightning with it on would only get her a face full of it. The eyepieces offered sight deep into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. The skintight bodyglove promised protection from contact poisons and annoying minor injuries. The armor itself was of good make, reasonably light for the protection it offered and resistant to blasterfire and blunt trauma. It left only her mane, tail, and wings exposed. Still, it was very different from any armor she’d worn before, and Luna wasn’t quite sure if she liked it or not. But going on this sudden mission without it would be a potentially fatal insult to Vader.

Perhaps, she wondered, seeing how she adapted to sudden and unexpected changes to her circumstances was itself part of the Sith’s test for her?

---

Not very long afterwards, the princess met the cyborg in one of the Star Destroyer’s many docking bay. Alongside Vader were a dozen men in white armor much heavier than standard with T-shaped visors glowing blue. Imperial Commandos, her helmet computer told her, and quite likely clones left over from the war. Guns and grenades were strapped across bandoliers and belts, while their backs featured twelve identical light packs with thrusters. Vader was outfitted as he always was, and had no such device.

Come to think of it, neither did she.

There wasn’t a word of explanation, of course. The moment she drew near, Vader simply turned and strode into the waiting gunship, and the commandos followed in a perfect lockstep. The princess suppressed a sigh, and then moved quickly to join them. To her complete lack of surprise, almost the moment that she stepped inside the doors slammed shut behind her and the engines whined as they fired up.

There were no seats in this craft, she noted as they lifted out of the hanger bay, only overhead straps a humanoid could hang on to. The commandos availed themselves of these during the brief flight through space, though Vader apparently saw no need. Luna couldn’t reach them, and her four legs afforded her plenty of balance anyway.

The transit became rougher, though no more talkative, as their gunship entered Kashyyk’s atmosphere. The gunship rattled around her, the commandos bumping into one another or the walls around them slightly. But soon this too ended, as reentry gave way inevitably to a more stable cruising speed. The minutes ticked by as the altitude dropped, still without a word being said. The alicorn began to wonder why the Empire hadn’t just built itself a droid army, since it seemed so determined to make sure that its organic soldiers behaved like them anyway.

“Pilot.” Darth Vader broke the silence without warning. “We have reached the drop zone. Commence unloading procedure.”

“Copy that,” came a voice from the cockpit.

The door beside Luna slid open, exposing them all to the howling winds outside. Vader’s cape and Luna’s mane whipped easily in the wind, but no matter. Looking down, she saw the legendary wroshyr forest with her own eyes for the first time. The data files did not do it justice. Directly below them grew a single massive tree that was easily the size of Coruscanti skyscraper if not taller, sprawling out in all directions in a lush field of green hundreds of feet across. The vast branches and leaves greedily soaked up all the sunlight, and even her eyes could not go down far before blackness consumed all things. And that was just one wroshyr tree. There were hundreds of them just in the area that she could make out, and they seemed to go… more or less forever in all directions. You could pack all of Equestria into these things and still have room for more.

Now she understood why the Empire had such a vast fleet here.

“Prepare to disembark,” Vader commanded.

Luna looked down, then back up again.

“Where are we to land?” she asked.

“Land?” one of the commandos seemed to snicker.

“Then what are we-”

Luna turned back towards Vader – just in time to see him leap right off the gunship’s edge.

Comments

[GalacticTNT]

I can't wait to see Vader be even more of a badass!
I just picture it going like this...

[badninja]

I see that we are going into The Force Unleashed. I wonder how Luna will react to Starkiller?

[random reader]

Still going? Awesome! I think this is the longest run you've had with this story so far.

[Black Hoof]

The jedi will soon have a problem. And poor wookies...
If Vader gets Starkiller, I wonder what effect Luna will have on this.

[DullDragon2070]

The more Luna sees Vader in action, the more she’ll realize just how hard it will actually be to try and kill him.

8681373
8681398

There’s a good chance that if they find young Starkiller, Vader may order Luna to kill the child, as prove of her loyalty and commitment. If that happens, I’m anxious to see what the princess will do.

[Black Hoof]

8681482
Considering what Anakin did in the third episode, and the complete lack of pity Luna has shown for everyone around her so far, including Twilight herself, I'm afraid this might not be beyond her...

[DullDragon2070]

8681519
Sadly, at this point, I have to agree.

[the other sans]

The alicorn began to wonder why the Empire hadn’t just built itself a droid army, since it seemed so determined to make sure that its organic soldiers behaved like them anyway

Clearly she hasn't studied history past at least 50 years ago. She still has much to learn... Young Padawan.

[Snake Staff]

8681677
From Luna's experience droid armies are fearsome, remorseless, and unrelenting. After what happened to Canterlot, it's not really that surprising she would consider them to be extremely potent.

[ABitterPill]

Thank you once again for the continued updates.

Well Luna's got wings. Time to put them to use.

I am hoping this time at least, everything goes in Luna's favor without any consequences for her, because she's had a pretty crappy record so far.
Try to befriend Grievous, have to betray him because of Tarkin. Try to protect ponies from Grievous, gets her horn cut off. Try to protect ponies from Inquisitor Cia, gets abducted by Inquisitor Cia. Tries to stick by her moral code on Korriban, gets thrown out into the Valley of the Dark Lords. But in this instance she meets the spirit of Dooku, so, I guess that one breaks even? Then Luna and Twilight each are sent after Vader's artifacts at the same time. Twilight's group gets there ahead of her. Twilight and Luna have confrontation, Luna loses to stun blast. Only survives due to Twilight's soft nature. Luna tells her to stop hunting Vader's artifacts. Twilight doesn't listen.
Next we head to Corulag. Both Luna and Twilight are after Vader's artifacts again. Yet again Twilight gets an early lead. Twilight's hunt goes as well as can be expected, while Luna's is constantly mired by double-agents, unreasonable overconfidence/incompetence of the ISB on the planet, and general Xenophobia. Luna gets a lead on Twilight's location, said lead is sabotaged.
Luna FINALLY catches a break and gets the artifacts, but has to use them as bait for Maul. And yeah, she really did have to, because Vader's orders were: "You will track down my missing artifacts and discover who was behind their theft. Eliminate the perpetrators and bring the treasures to me.", so a confrontation with Maul one way or another was inevitable. But anyhow, she has to use them as bait to lure Maul out. The confrontation with Maul goes as well as can be expected, but then Luna's prize is snatched from under her and blown to bits. So Twilight effectively succeeds in her goal of keeping Vader's artifacts from him, while Luna is left with a single damaged holocron to return. Luna and Twilight get into another confrontation. Luna looks to win when Twilight pulls a force push and force pull out of her arse, burying Luna in rubble. And Twilight also got an unexpected Holocron out of it to teach her the Force. I don't count the deaths of "pointless ally/nameless minion" as mattering in this. Twilight loses her "friends", Luna loses her troops.

Why does everything seem to go more in Twilight's favor than Luna's? That's what's been bugging me for a while. I would really like Luna to have at least one nice, clearly, undeniable victory in this. The closest she's come thus far is killing Cia.

As an afterthought, I'm still waiting for Agent Kallus to catch up to Twilight. It's inevitable that there will be a confrontation at some point.

[Dustchu]

Hmm... I see talk of Starkiller in the comments, so I grow curious now...
Good show.

[Nightflight406]

8681520
Is it possible that Luna will become Starkiller?