Blood of the Forgotten/Ch11

Palpatine was alive . They thought he had died on Coruscant only days after the Empire’s birth, but it took seven years for his second incarnation to rise, within Bane Station. The incarnation was made by the Kaminoans to look in his likeness, and the Force sensitivity was so overwhelming that the small lowering in his sensitivity was almost immeasurable. His form was old and the cloak he’d worn over him - which had been shown when he was attacked in his office - was gone.

“Lady Ismaren,” the reborn Palpatine said, stepping out from the vat. He referred to Roganda Ismaren, one of his youngest apprentices. Ismaren stepped towards him, as he called a robe to himself. “Get Lumiya, and the Grand Inquisitor. We have much to discuss.” He looked around the medbay, and it was silent. The station would be an integral part of the future, once the false Emperor had been deposed. It was a surprise that Vader had betrayed him so quickly, but he had planned for every possible outcome.

Palpatine, or as they would refer to him, Lord Sidious, left the medbay and walked to the hallway, pulling his hood over his head. All the workers on the space station could not know of his true identity as Palpatine - as far as they knew, that man had died of “old age.” They ignored him, as they did all those with the robes, for they were loyal to the Sith. He turned to look into one room filled with his artifact collection, he had it moved from Coruscant to here right after he announced to the Senate the reorganization of the Republic to his Empire.

Within were countless artifacts of importance to Jedi and Sith alike. He had no use for them yet, but the Force called to him - there would be a great war, in greater proportions than the Clone Wars and the war stirring between the rebels and the Empire. He continued down the hallway to the main meeting room, where Offee and the Grand Inquisitor sat. The Grand Inquisitor stood up at attention instinctively, and Palpatine motioned for him to sit back down.

“Lord Sidious,” he said, aghast, “I… I didn’t know that you were still alive,”

“Then this is a surprise,” Palpatine replied, and sat at the end of the table. “We have plenty of things to discuss. The old order, Bane ’s order, must die soon enough, and we will use the rebel uprising as a distraction for us. But there is another, even <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">more <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> pressing issue, and that is something hidden in the Unknown Regions.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Ryiah’edqa was a beautiful city, flanked by a massive mountain range, and in front lay a river and a grassland than covered much of Vivonah. And for seven years, Akett and Ahsoka had lived within it, in one of its illustrious apartments. When their small ship was captured by the Indonai Fleet, they’d been allowed an audience with the Highlord of the Arcane Order, and officially the Phothi of the Indonai, the Vivonahi word for <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">emperor <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Initially, Ahsoka was worried. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Another <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Emperor? This one ruling for a much larger time, and almost <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">all <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> of the Unknown Regions - up to the Drawo Nebula? She was surprised that they had not attacked the Republic at any time during its history, but the Highlord’s reasoning was: there was no real point in wasting their time. They, apparently, had a bigger problem to deal with.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Highlord had never come in contact with real Jedi before, he also revealed. So they were ‘honorary members’ of the Arcane Order. After seven years, they’d learned quite a lot of the Force they would’ve never known from the Jedi. After seven years, they’d glown closer to each other. The Highlord had noticed that, and had gone to her, and she’d given away the secret the two had been hiding from the Imperium.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“We’ve already received plenty of information regarding the Alliance to Restore the Republic, as they are calling themselves. The scouts have given me information regarding an atrocity in which the capital of the planet Alderaan was razed to the ground.” Ahsoka shuddered at Injisfel Ehlamma’s words, words of the Highlord. He’d also given them the secretive information of his true identity, while many just called him the Highlord or the Phothi. He was giving a public address to the people of the city, and Ahsoka watched from the window of her apartment. “We fear that this Galactic Empire could turn to us next, as we are a great threat to their tyrannical domination.” He paused, and looked skyward at the massive capital ship, the <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Glacis <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">, which had a massive cannon on its bottom. The engines were huge, and Injisfel had told them that it was incredibly fast in hyperspace. “We may need to use force to free the galaxy that we have scarcely ventured to.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Akett put his palm on Ahsoka’s shoulder, as he walked to the window. She leaned to the side as he wrapped his arm around her neck.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“It looks like our mission succeeded.” she said, and Akett smiled and nodded, but his mind was focused on something he’d felt earlier that day. Some sort of awakening.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Something that eternally scared him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Chiss Ascendancy was the second-largest of the conglomerates in the Unknown Regions, and they had a good relationship with their Indonai neighbors, despite their more scientific approach to life, compared to the religious ways of the Indonai. Many of the largest classes of ships were loaned from the Chiss to the Indonai, and the two were wary of the Galactic Empire’s conquests, and their way of governing. And as such, it was the Chiss who sent out one of their own, Mitth’raw’nuruodo, Thrawn to the Imperials, to obtain information about the Empire. He’d regularly sent out transmissions to the Ascendancy, information about the Emperor and the Grand Moff, Ardus Kaine.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Chiss considered themselves master scientists and engineers, and the capital world of Csilla was evidence of this, it held many great technological advancements unseen to the wider galaxy. And still, there were ways to bypass this.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Palpatine smiled. He knew of the Chiss - but was still unaware of the Indonai - and he knew that they were a threat. But, in order for his visions of a future under horrid creatures from far away to never come to fruition, he had to align himself with them. It seemed like the invasion of whoever those creatures were was decades away, but he always had to prepare. He watched out of a viewport in Bane Station, as a fleet of Star Destroyers converged around Byss, and the construction of something <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">great <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> began. Something that could return him his galaxy, and keep it his galaxy.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:700;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">12 years after the formation of the Galactic Empire, above Ythar

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Akett…” she whispered, feeling a pain almost unbearable, “ <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Akett <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">, you…”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The silhouette of him, or at least Ahsoka thought it was him, disappeared further to the distance. She saw the little starfighter he was in grow further in the distance. What the <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">hell <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> was he doing this to her for? They’d just defeated an Imperial battle group above Ythar, near the edge of Indonai space - and he’d said something about how there was something he needed to do alone. And so he’d taken the Indonai starfighter and said a cryptic location for his getaway: the planet beyond. It seemed insane, that he was just going to <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">leave <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> her here!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Do not worry for him, Tano,” Injisfel said, from behind her.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“You <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">let <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> him leave!” she lashed out, and Injisfel just shook his head.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I did nothing. He left on his own accord. And before you ask, I’m not telling you where he’s going, for I know the answer to his riddle. It’s safe there, at least for now, I believe,” Injisfel turned and left the hangar aboard the <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Nemara <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">, one of the largest battlecruisers in the Indonai fleet, second to the <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Glacis <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">. She stood there, a tear running down her cheek, before she took her personal ship, <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Anakin’s Legacy <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">, and went as far away from the Indonai as she could, and Injisfel didn’t even try to contact her. Nobody did.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">But… the problem was, she could never go back to Obi-Wan, or any of them. She’d failed them, she realized after so many years, she could’ve killed Anakin and ended this all, but of course she didn’t, because she was too weak. The <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Anakin’s Legacy <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> was a freighter, and the same G9 Rigger that was the <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Twilight <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">. She couldn't stop thinking about Anakin, and of course Padmé. She was still trapped in his grip, the Empire’s grip.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Ahsoka tried to find an Imperial broadcast as she made the first hyperspace stop, to the galactic ‘east’ of the edge of Indonai space. A dark gray planet appeared before her, Leme, the last Imperial outpost of the Unknown Regions, as most had been disabled in Operation Cloaked Sword, led by Injisfel. She found one of the broadcasts.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Today, we received word via a secretive Imperial leak that there is an ongoing conflict in the Unknown Regions. Details are sketchy, and the government has denied that anything of importance is occurring in the region, and associates it with recent rebel activities throughout the galaxy. Also in the news, the Empress has taken a trip to her home planet of Naboo with the Imperial Twins…

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Naboo. She needed to talk to Padmé.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:700;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">18 years after the formation of the Empire, Outer Rim Territories

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Total war.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">That’s what was coming. Gial Ackbar knew, for the next morning they would attack the secretive Imperial weapons base at Scarif, the Scarif Citadel. Their fleet was in position, in a nearby star system, and it was almost time. They’d received a transmission from a supposedly incredibly powerful Unknown Regions source, who called themselves the Indonai. Ackbar was there on Chandrila when these people announced their support of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and that they would attack the Empire at their full power.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:10pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Karma;color:#000000;font-weight:500;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Enter hyperspace at my command.”