Empire and Rebellion

by Snake Staff

50: The First Hunt (II)

Luna couldn’t help but gasp a little as Darth Vader, bereft of any apparent means of survival, simply leapt from the edge of the now-hovering gunship. They were hundreds of feet above the vast forest, undoubtedly thousands from the planet’s true surface, but apparently that meant nothing to the Sith Lord. Nor, evidently, to the twelve commandos accompanying them. The white-armored men simply leapt right out the opened door after their master, heedless of the obvious dangers. The last man paused at the edge and glanced briefly at the alicorn.

“Eh,” he shrugged a little apologetically. “You get used to it.”

Then he sprang right out the door.

Luna paused, cursed her nonfunctional wings, and looked out the doorway at the rapidly-shrinking dots that were the Imperials. She gritted her teeth, took and deep breath, and leapt.

The air whipped madly against her armor as she plummeted, almost painfully cold against her exposed wings. The sheer force of drag seemed like it could pluck them clean at any moment, or rip her flowing mane from her head. But pain was something she was used to by now, pain fed her anger. Now regretting keeping her growing collection of lightsabers under her wings, she folded them tightly into the sides of her armor.

Far below, the princess could make out the black and white dots that were her supposed comrades approaching the treeline with uncomfortable swiftness. A small part of Luna hoped Vader had overestimated himself and would simply be dashed to pieces against the woshyr branches, but the larger portion told her to tuck her body in as much as possible to avoid drag. She even called on the Force a bit, hastening her descent and bringing the rearmost Imperials into better view.

Her cynical outlook was vindicated a moment later by a surge of dark side energy. Below, a portion of a tree branch directly in the path of the black dot shattered as though hit with some godlike hammer, punching a hole into the leafy canopy. A targeting reticle in her helmet’s right eyepiece immediately zeroed in on it, but she dismissed that with a blink. She didn’t need a computer to tell her how to aim.

Ahead of her the Imperial Commandos were vanishing into the hole that Vader had made. Concentrating on her frustration, her anger, and her hatred for the man in black and all he stood for, Luna seized her own body and none too gently threw it at the opening. Sunlight was virtually cut in half the moment she crossed passed the treetops. Her helmet’s eyepieces swiftly moved to compensate, but she wasn’t paying attention to them. Instead, her mind was locked onto the mighty nexus of dark power below her, plummeting fast and unleashing pulses of raw destructive force on anything unlucky enough to be in the way. She kept her metaphysical gaze on him, following the ripples he left in the dark side.

The alicorn plunged thousands of feet into the forest, the light growing dimmer and dimmer the whole way. Ahead of her, commandos began firing their jet packs, little blue pinpricks of light against the enshrouding darkness. Luna wrapped herself in bubble of invisible energies as she fell, sensing her descent beginning to slow against increased air resistance. She redoubled her efforts, drawing on memories of pain and rage, and felt herself slow even more.

Then, abruptly, it was over.

Luna hit the ground roughly, the cushion of Force energy she had created bursting against the sheer speed of her impact. Branches and leaves and soil flew in all directions at the miniature thunderclap. It felt, for an instant, as though she was being crushed between two vast elemental forces far beyond her comprehension.

And then the moment passed, and the panting, sweating princess looked up from the miniature crater of her own creation. From above she could see the flare of slowly-descending jet packs and the soft blue t-visors of the commandos. But there was no sunlight to be seen, not even the faintest pinprick from the hole so far above them. She could hear a slight patter of bits of wood raining down around her. And she could hear Vader’s breath.

As Luna rose, and the commandos touched down, she turned her helmeted gaze on the Sith Lord. Darth Vader simply stood where he was, all but invisible to the naked eye in the darkness. His own helmet was focused outwards and away from her, at something only he seemed to be able to see. If his efforts had done anything to drain his own energy, he gave no sign of it.

“Come,” he said, the moment the last trooper touched down. “There is work to be done.”

---

Former Jedi Knight Jelee Almar knelt in a small hut built into the exposed roots of one of the titanic woshyr trees. At her feet, spread out on a rough mat, was a large, brown-furred Wookiee by the name of Keshirrro. A veteran of the Clone Wars and an intensely devoted father, he had been fighting since almost the first hour that Imperial ships had touched down. Along with countless thousands of other Wookiees, he had fallen back into the jungles to strike back at the Imperial troops occupying Kashyyyk’s tree cities. But a recent skirmish with Stormtroopers had left him badly injured, and so his comrades had brought him here.

The Mirialan sighed. She wanted nothing to do with war, not anymore. The Clone Wars, and what followed, had seen to that. All she had hoped to do was find a quiet place to bury herself in and meditate. The darkest sublevels of Kashyyyk’s forests had seemed the perfect locale, uninhabited and far from the Empire. But war had followed her here all the same. And she couldn’t turn away from a being in need.

Clearing her mind and closing her eyes, Jelee reached out with one green-skinned hand. Life, though vicious, was abundant in this place, and the Force was strong. The light side, though now eclipsed, was still present. She reached out into that vast ocean of energy, tapping into but a small portion. The Jedi simply willed Keshirrro’s cells to multiply, and that they did, at an exponential rate. Bathed in the soft, benevolent glow surrounding her thin fingers, the Wookiee’s charred flesh began to knit. His low moans of pain began to die away as minutes ticked, replaced by the slow, steady breathing of sleep.

At last, Jelee lowered her hand and wiped a few beads of sweat from her brow. Once the art had taxed her severely, and to mend such grievous wounds would have left her bereft of energy for hours. The Clone Wars had seen to that, delivering a never-ending tide of wounded clone soldiers for her to practice her skills and refine her technique on. Right up until her own former patients had turned their guns on her.

She shook her head with a grimace to clear away the traumatic memory, then turned and walked past the two other Wookiees occupying the hut, and strode out into the darkness outside. It was cool out here, no sunlight having touched this earth for a hundred generations or more. The only light came from the torches the natives had lit to scare away predators from this small, secret collection of huts. One of many thousands of such nameless settlements dotted across the planet, it gave these people a tiny refuge against the rapacious Imperial slavers and a place from which to strike back.

Jelee had visited many of those hidden villages during her time on Kashyyyk, drawn by the lingering vestiges of Jedi compassion. These people had endured so much, lost homes and family and friends to Imperial treachery after the Clone Wars, that she could not in good conscience simply bury herself and ignore their pain. And so she travelled from place to place, granting what healing she could where it was possible, and doing her best to soothe the minds of those too far gone. Occasionally she had even raised her lightsaber in their defense. But she was no military leader. Not any longer. Never again.

She sighed again, more wearily this time. It seemed a hopeless effort, for there were far more wounded than she could ever hope to reach in time even if they all lay in one vast medical facility waiting for her. The Empire’s war against Kashyyyk continued unabated, hundreds of thousands of Wookiees dragged off in chains or gunned down like animals. Their cities were occupied and the space above teemed with Imperial warships. Even the light side of the Force itself seemed muted, distant, as if permanently cast into an ever-growing shadow. Yet, for all that, she was determined to shine what little light she could.

“But no more,” boomed a synthetic bass voice.

Jelee whirled around, eyes wide. Her heart skipped a beat, as a distinct mechanical breathing that no Jedi could fail recognize seemed to rise up out of nowhere. From the endless gloom into the feeble torchlight stepped a figure out of nightmare. Towering over the Jedi, on eye level with the Wookiees, his suddenly-revealed presence in the Force seemed a vast, smothering, hungry shadow stretching forth to devour them all. The implacable, soulless mechanical face regarded her impassively.

One of the Wookiee sentries howled an alarm, raised his bowcaster, and fired a shot. Vader didn’t even take his gaze from Jelee, he simply stretched out a gloved hand and absorbed the shot harmlessly. Then he clenched his fist, and she heard the sound of a massive neck snapping like brittle twig.

“No, wait!” the Mirialan threw out her hand. “I know why you’re here!”

Vader said nothing.

“I know what you want, Sith,” she fell to one knee, head low. “I surrender. Take me and do what you want. Just leave these people be, they’re innocents. Merely refugees. There are children here, Lord Vader.”

This cyborg before her was rumored to have spearheaded the sacking of the Jedi Temple. It was certain that he had killed Jedi more powerful than Jelee before. Even had she not known that, the sheer magnitude of this monster’s presence in the Force alone told her that she was no match for him. She was no coward, but there far more lives than her own in the balance here.

“I am well accustomed to killing children,” said Darth Vader, after a moment had passed. “Massacre them.”

“NO!” Jelee screamed, jumping to her feet even as blaster bolts began to fly from the darkness.

Red bolts fell first on the second sentry, his bowcaster barely managing to get a single shot off before he crumpled under the barrage. Jelee’s green lightsaber flared to life even as they began to impact on the small collection of huts and the Wookiees now emerging from them. Falling back on her training, the Jedi intercepted several blaster shots, turning most aside but opportunistically swatting one towards her best estimate of a shooter’s location. A cry of pain from an intimately familiar voice was her reward.

“Scatter!” she called out to the Wookiees, even while she tried to shield them. “He’s beyond any of you! Run for your lives!”

Some, wiser than others, did so. Some of those even made it, fleeing this way and that among the confusing tangle of roots and into the dubious safety of the darkness beyond. Some were gunned down before they had the chance, accurate shots slipping past the Jedi’s blade and burning through fur and flesh. And some, braver or more headstrong or simply tired of running, stood their ground with their own weaponry. In the omnipresent darkness, they lacked a clear target for it, save one.

Their last mistake.

Vader’s lightsaber ignited in a blaze of crimson energy. Blasterfire glanced off of it easily as the dark lord strode unhurriedly forwards. Several bolts found their way back to the very beings that had fired them, eliminating those unworthy of so much as tasting his blade. Though she knew it meant certain death, Jelee Almar raised her lightsaber and rushed to meet him.

“Inquisitor,” Vader barked. “Take her!”

Jelee barely had time to blink before a second crimson lightsaber roared to life, and another figure burst from the gloom. She fell back into the ingrained defensive patterns of Soresu as the red clashed against her green, rapid and precise. The Jedi gave ground before the assault, calling on the light to bolster her defense and reactions. This newcomer was an armless quadruped encased in deep blue armor, save for its equally blue wings and hair. It controlled the lightsaber with telekinesis, sticking close by but staying comfortably out of her blade’s reach. It seemed to be primarily relying on some variant of Makashi, if she was any judge.

But it wasn’t the being’s strange appearance or unusual fighting style that truly shocked the Jedi. It was the sheer, all-encompassing, mind-numbing hatred she should sense emanating from this being’s every pore. Why? What had she done to this creature to make it feel so? The quick offensive pressed Jelee back further and further with each passing second, but only half of her attention was on defending herself. The rest of her was stretching out, trying to get a feel for this creature’s mind.

“Why?” The onslaught was forcing her further and further from the Wookiee village, the torches were barely visible now. “Why are you doing this? Why are you working for him?”

There was no answer beyond a filtered growl and a redoubling of her bladework. The Jedi retreated yet further before the creature and its telekinetic lightstaber, quick thrusts from unusual angles affording her precious little time for a counterattack.

“You hate this… you hate the Empire,” Jelee breathed, batting off a swing meant for her face. “It doesn’t have to be like this!”

“You have no idea,” it spoke for the first time, voice filtered but obviously female. They were beyond sight of the village now, red and green blades the only source of light amidst the endless dark.

“Then tell me!” the Jedi leapt backwards, the Force propelling her outside the blade’s reach. “I am a healer. I can sense your pain. Your fears. You’re a wounded creature, aren’t you? In more ways than one.”

“As I said,” she growled, taking a step forward. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”

“I know how it feels to lose… everything.” She paused. “But lashing out isn’t the answer. The dark side isn’t the answer. It won’t bring you any peace. It won’t bring you any healing. It will only feed off of your pain and hatred until it consumes you completely. Like Vader.”

“You know nothing of what I feel.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to help that monster. I’m a healer, and not just for the flesh. I can help you.” Jelee reached out one green hand.

“Healer? Healer?!” her voiced hissed through the helmet. “Healer?! Does this village look healed to you? This world? This galaxy? Your Jedi Order was said to protect peace and justice in the galaxy. Where is peace and justice now?” Her red lightsaber brandished itself above her head. “You failed! All of you! You failed your Republic, you failed your Order, you failed your galaxy! And most of all…” Jelee could sense hatred, elemental and raw. “You have failed me.”

“What?” The Mirialan blinked.

“I don’t need your pity, Jedi,” she spat the words. “What I need is power.”

Then she charged with a speed that should not have been possible. There were no more words passed between them, no proud boasts or offers of sympathy. For the next thirty or so seconds, there was only the frantic clash of twirling blades, green and red, amongst the endless gloom of Kashyyyk’s underworld.

And then, there was nothing at all.

---

Darth Vader stood amidst the smoking ruins of the small, nameless Wookiee village, lightsaber long since extinguished. Around him, his commandos handled the mop-up, going door to door to execute those too wounded to walk and setting fire to what homes were still standing. In truth, he felt nothing for these wretches. They were unworthy even of the least of his anger. No, his thoughts were elsewhere.

It wasn’t long before a figure returned to the edge of the torchlight – just as he’d known she would. With a slight grunt, she tossed something at him. It hit the ground long before it reached him, rolling through the ashes to come to a gradual halt at his feet.

The severed head of Jelee Almar, her last expression a mask of terror and pain.

“As you commanded,” Luna bowed her head. “My lord.”

“Well done.”

Comments

[Black Hoof]

Will there be any redemption for Luna? I’m starting to doubt she will ever come back to the light. She’s becoming an avatar of hatred and rage, just like the very one she hated the most. Grievous.

[TheResistance3]

Man, Luna just loves skipping across the Moral Event Horizon, doesn’t she...

[badninja]

I can hear every Jedi who hears her tail commenting on how she once again let the Dark Side consume her. I hope that somehow the Ponies find a way to drastically change the timeline so that their presence affects the whole flow of what was supposed to happen.

[ABitterPill]

8683241

I would point out even Vader was redeemed in the end.

[ABitterPill]

Thank you for the update.

Why is it Luna's wings don't work? I can't remember. It's not because of her horn, is it? That seems silly since Pegasi don't need horns for their wings to work. I figured she would have used her wings in the descent. Even the added air drag would have been beneficial right? Although I suppose the reason here is that she's been keeping all her lightsabers tucked under her wings... might need a better spot for them if airdrops are going to be a common thing.

[Black Hoof]

8683334
Unlike Grievous, which ended as a piece of smoking scrap.

[Snake Staff]

8683338
Because as mentioned way back on Korriban pony wings are too small to carry their bodies without magic, and Luna's is gone.

[Dustchu]

Man... Luna's slowly going down a route that won't be easy to turn back from.
i worry for her.

Good work as always.

[DullDragon2070]

Luna has officially killed her first Jedi.

[zimmerwald1915]

8683334
In a bullshit asspull sort of way, sure.

[ABitterPill]

8683377

I guess I misinterpreted it. When she lost her horn I figured she lost her ability to actively use magic like a unicorn would, but the magic was still in her body, simply not accessible via the horn. That losing a horn also removes an alicorn's ability to fly seems strange to me. They don't seem like intrinsically intertwined systems to me. Again because pegasi can fly without horns, and Alicorns are supposed to have the traits of all three races. *shrugs*
And I've always known without magic they can't fly due to small wingspan, but I figured in an airdrop situation they would at least allow her some mobility in the air and reduce her fall speed when needed. Though as I mentioned before I figured in this case she didn't open them due to keeping her lightsabers beneath them. All the more reason to have some other form of belt to attach them to. Hmm... I wonder if she added a green-bladed lightsaber to her collection? I am starting to see the parallels between her and Grievous grow.

[Black Hoof]

8683390
Not to forget how mortified she would feel if she ever manages to come back to the light side of the Force...

[the other sans]

was locked onto them mighty nexus of dark power
and unleashing pulse of raw destructive force on anything

1. The.
2. Pulses.

[Dustchu]

8683656
That'll be tough on her, I'm sure... damn, this is gonna hurt her worse than anyone else. Came back from the dark side once before, only to fall pray to it again.

[zimmerwald1915]

8683678
She seems anything but hurt right now. Rather, she is as she was meant to be, and it feels good.

[Prinz Van Planlos]

“What I need is power .”

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