Requiem

Requiem is the third installment in the Reclamation Era Series written by Aidan Hunter

## The Story

I watched him fall from the observatory. Plummeting thousands of feet to the ground level. His dead body immediately swarmed by hundreds of infected. Gone. I’ve only known him for like a week, but it’s felt like a millennia. He had the Force. Was it something he always knew he had, or did he just discover it? I will never know now. Focus Vrei, Focus! Okay. I looked around, immediately realizing we need to retreat, asap. We lost, the battle, the war. Up above, I see our warships crashing to the ground, around I see my troops being slaughtered. There is no escape. I did the one thing I could think of. I turned around, and started to run, as fast as I can. Closer and closer to the edge, where the lower depths of the city are.

Almost there, blaster fire pinpointing me. I see the edge, just about there. JUMP.

I fell for an eternity. In reality it was like two seconds though. I landed on a commuter ship, opened the door, and through the driver out. Off I sped. Away from the battle. Away from my colleagues. I have to live with the burden that I left in my soldiers’ most important time of need, but there isn’t anything else I could’ve done.

I flew for a long time, almost across the planet. I stopped at a bar and sat down. No signs of Authority or Yuuzhan Vong troops, and nobody suspicious looking inside. I sat down next to a hooded old man sitting at the counter. I was sipping my booze when the man said, “You are not from around here, are you?” This startled me, but I decided to not blast him on the spot.

“No, I was born and raised on Teth.”

“Were you know?” The man laughed, “My father was a part of a great battle on Teth during The Clone Wars. He was part of a team meant to rescue the great Jabba the Hutt’s son….Rotta.”

Another old cook.

“Really? That is interesting.”

“Yes quite so. But what is even more interesting is the fact that you are lying about where you are from. Why would you lie to an old man, much less an old beggar? What have you to hide?”

Who does this man think he is.

“I am not at liberty to say. My very presence is not welcomed on Coruscant.”

The man looked at me.

“Well, that I believe. Please Vrei come with me.”

How in the hell did this man know my name?!

Screw it. I followed the man. He led me to a small ship, and we sped off in silence towards  the Alderaan Memorial. We actually landed right next to it. The man walked up to the foot of the building and pressed his hand on the wall. We sunk into the ground. We arrived into this massive room. Inside it, hundreds of people working. Ships being built, weaponry being forged.

“Tell me Vrei, have you heard of the Jedi.”

What does this have to do with anything?

“Yes I have, they existed a hundred years ago and had a connection to the Force.”

“Yes, yes they did. They were very prominent in their day. Then the execution of Order 66 ended the prosperity, and the majority of them perished. Now our Galaxy faces an even bigger threat, Operation ShadowStick. I know who you are Vrei Advaltine, Director of the Insurrection.”

I whipped out my pistol and pointed it at the man’s head.

“I have had a crazy day sir, I do not want to scar your head with a hole. Tell me how you know who I am.”

The man smiled.

“Please Vrei I do not want to get you flustered. You will holster the gun, and calm down.”

I looked at him with confusion. Then he said it again: “I said, you will holster the gun, and calm down.” Without hesitation, I point the gun in its holster, and didn’t dare to retrieve it again. Slowly, I calmed down.

“There we are Vrei! I will explain everything in due time. As you know, Coruscant is jam packed with orbital defenses, known as the Iron Dome. The defenses are connected to a central hub deep in the bowels of the planet. We also discovered something else located in the central hub...The Space Gate. We all know where the Yuuzhan Vong came from, Lehon. The Authority moved their space gate into Coruscant, so they can form their armada. We blow the central hub, the whole system topples over.”

“Can I just ask one question?”

“Knock yourself out Vrei”

“What is your name?”

The man paused for a moment as if pondering his life’s choices.

“My name….is Luke Skywalker.”

Vrei stared at him blankly.

“As in The Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi Knight?”

“Jedi Master.”

“How are you still alive?”

“That is not important, what is important is destroying the central hub.”

“Okay, say we do all of this, and we cripple The Authority and Yuuzhan Vong’s defenses, what about the Knightfall Virus?”

Skywalker looked at me and said, “Our only hopes on conquering the Knightfall Virus is to destroy Onimi, the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong. If we cut the head off the snake, maybe it will all die too.”

“Wait wait wait,” began Vrei, “Do you still have a lightsaber?”

Luke sighed, and whipped out a forearm length metal rod. He pressed a button and a green beam of energy emerged from the hilt.

“This is not important, we know what a Jedi has and can do.”

Luke led me to a planning room of some sorts, with a diagram elevated in the air.

“The shaft that leads down to the central hub is directly underneath the Kaiser’s tower. The elevator can only hold ten people at a time, so we are going to make five trips. The other fifty people, provided that we still have 100 people left alive, will defend the elevator at all costs. Now Vrei I know what you must be thinking: ‘The tower is impenetrable.’ You are wrong. Your late friend Damien made it to the top. We must trust in the Force.”

Vrei looked at Luke astounded.

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but you have the Force, I don’t. How can I trust in something I have no power in?”

Luke looked at me and smiled.

“Sorry, you remind me of a pupil of mine. Her name was Vrei also, but spelled Rey. She was the the best padawan of mine.”

Luke looked off into the distance, his eyes tearing up.

“You too have a connection to the Force.

I have a connection to the Force? Bullshit.

“I’m sorry Mr. Skywalker I just can’t believe that.”

He chuckled.

“Please Vrei, call me Luke. Furthermore, I was just like you, not believing I had a connection to the Force, but I did, and you do too. Get some rest now, you just fought one of the fiercest battles this Galaxy has ever seen about two hours ago. You need to sleep.”

Vrei nodded her head, and left the room.

A tall creature emerged from the darkness, and yelled in some foreign language.

“I know… I know Chewie,” replied Luke, “She reminds me of Han and Rey, but we can’t dwell on that, we have an empire to topple, an alien race to destroy, and a infectious disease to stop. I need to rest.”

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

I woke up to a massive carpet lumbering over me. The thing growled at me, and took me by the arm. He then dragged me to the control room where Luke was standing over me.

“That’s enough, thank you Chewie.”

The thing called Chewie growled and left the room.

I got up a little angered by my assault, but I still had questions.

“Just out of curiosity, who relayed you all this info about the space gate?”

Luke looked at me and said, “The late Commander Alsten Gabbett. Before your friend Damien ripped him in two, he was fighting off the Executive Orders that took control of his mind. Each time he broke free, he contacted a liaison who contacted me. And here we are!”

Luke Chewbacca and I walked to a community drop ship.

“This will be used to escort us to the Kaiser’s tower.” said Luke, “Now obviously, all of us know what happened there two days ago, so The Authority will be on high alert. In fact, they have locked down the entire Senate District, so we will need to move with haste to get there.”

One hundred people boarded the drop ship. I watched the walls in front of us open up, revealing a massive tunnel, curved upward, leading to the surface. We rushed to the surface and popped upward, joining the never-ending traffic above.

We raced along the lanes of traffic for about twenty minutes. I always found it insane how the ships just rush by each other, going hundreds of miles per hour, without hitting each other. No sense of direction. Coruscant always amazed me. I have only been here one other time, and I was always fascinated by the height of the buildings. Thousands of feet tall, it’s an engineering marvel. I always wanted to live here as opposed to Vardos, where I am from. When we visited Coruscant I fell in love with it immediately. The hustle and bustle, the endless city, and of course the amount of people!

Luke tapped me on my shoulder, awaking me from my trance, and pointed towards Authority Square. Much of the Senate District was consumed by smoke and remains of starships. I could only imagine the amount of civilian deaths that were a result of our actions. The Kaiser’s building was still standing, with the glass to the observatory still broken. As we got closer we saw blaster fire around the edges of the square shooting towards the center at a large mass of people. Then I realized they weren’t people. They were infected with the Knightfall Virus.

“So,” Luke began, “That down there may be a problem. We have to get inside the Kaiser’s building and take the elevator to sub-level 67. To do that, we have to get past the Authority soldiers, and the infected. Not to mention the Yuuzhan-Vong that are probably scattered around.”

Above the Square sat an Authority capital ship. Suddenly I had an amazing idea.

“Wait!” I exclaimed, “Authority cruisers and capital ships turn their shields off when in atmosphere. So, what if we maybe launch this ship at full speed into the Bridge?”

Luke looked at me blankly. It wasn’t a bad idea. Maybe some of us would get injured, or killed. But, if we assume control of the cruiser, we own the Square.

Luke looked at me as if he read my mind.

“That idea is so stupid it might just work. Say we crash into the bridge and fifteen people die, of the 85 remaining, we could use the firepower of the ship to break through the surface of Coruscant and destroy the Space Gate!”

He turned to Chewbacca.

“Chewie, I want you up in the Bridge commanding our troops. I trust you the most.”

Chewbacca growled in a reluctant agreement.

~~

We were about a mile away. Nothing about that scene changed. The Authority didn’t seem to notice us. The pilot ordered all of the troops including us to assemble in the cargo bay. He knew his life was about to end. When we were all settled. The pilot gave us a ten second warning.

“Ten...nine...eight….”

My heart was racing.

“Seven...six...five….”

Still racing.

“Four...three...two….”

Here we go.

“One… may the Force be with you.”

We zoomed ultra-fast. It felt like we were travelling through hyperspace. Within three seconds we were over the square. Then a split second later, I heard a loud explosion. Glass shattering. I felt and saw the ship crunch around us, the metal it’s made of twisting and contorting in ships it’s not supposed to. I looked up only to be greeted by a pylon cracking me in the face.

I woke up to sounds of gunfire and yelling. My vision was blurred. I looked to my left to see Luke impale someone with his lightsaber. He hoisted four people up in the air, using the Force, and flung them into a wall. Then, bolts of yellow lightning erupted from his hand, stunning the remaining soldiers around.

He turned around to face me.

“Good to see you awake Vrei. How’s your head?”

I felt my head. It was oozing blood, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t control.

“I’m fine,” I said.

I walked out of the wreckage of our ship to face even more wreckage on the Bridge. The whole left side of the Bridge was a mess of steel beams, glass, controls, and bodies. The right side of the Bridge had minimal damage.

“We’re lucky we didn’t hit the right side of the Bridge,” said Luke. “If we did, we would’ve hit the gun controls.”

Chewbacca appeared out of nowhere and began literally barking orders. The soldiers were somehow able to understand him. The all got into seats, and began to assume the controls.

“Warm up the starboard cannons.”

All the cannons on the right side of the cruiser began to hum, I turned around to watch it all unfold. A soldier at the head of the ship tilted the control wheel towards the right. The whole ship began to tilt right with it.

“You better hang on to something,” told Luke.

The ship kept tilting until the starboard guns were able to get a clear shot at the square below.

“Fire!”

White bolts of pure energy began to explode out of the cannons. They made such a satisfying sounds. The ground below seemed non-existent at this point. It was just a massive cloud of black smoke.

“Cease fire!”

The smoke cleared. A massive gaping hole was present. At the bottom of the hole, was a huge cavern. Deep in the bottom of the cavern was a massive circular object. In the middle of the object was a pulsating blue substance. Hundreds of creatures were pouring out of the substance.

Luke did not take this opportunity lightly.

“Sarge, order your men to activate the super-cannon on board this vessel.”

The Sergeant ordered a group of soldiers in the rear of the ship to activate their computers. On the big screen, which was half broken, a target appeared. That target, the Space Gate.

“Sarge you may fire when ready.”

It can’t be this easy. Why isn’t The Authority attacking back?

The cannon began to spin, electric bolts started to crackle and pop. Then, a massive beam of white energy unleashed out of the ship. All of a sudden, the entire cruiser was shoved. The cruiser began to flip upside down as it fell to the ground.The beam of energy shifted from the hole to the Kaiser building, then up into the sky. We were rushing to the ground.

“Sarge! We need to get out of Coruscant!” yelled Luke. The hyperspace controls were still intact. The Sergeant jumped out of his seat and ran to the controls. He punched in random coordinates and pulled down the handle.

Just as we were picking up insane speeds, an enemy cruiser appeared and scraped alongside the ship, damaging much of it. Everything stretched out and off we went.

We were immediately thrown against the wall. The sight of the wreckage in the Bridge had a hole in it. It was pretty small, the radius was about the size of my pinky, however it was catastrophic. The sergeant was pulled against the wreckage. He was being stretched along the wall by the hole. Then the he began to get sucked through the hole.

We all watched in horror as his guts began to come through his mouth, his eyes pop out of his head, and his whole body shrink through the hole in an instant.

Out of hyperspace erupted our ship. I was immediately thrown forward as a result of the ship’s sudden stop. Luke winced in pain. He then got up.

“We need to get off this ship. There are escape pods on Flight Deck R. We should get going.”

Of the 100 people at the start of the mission, only seven of us remained. Chewbacca rounded up the other four people and we made way for the elevator. We approached the back of the bridge where the elevator was. The doors were smashed in. Luke raised his hand and swiftly motioned his arm in the air, like a hot knife cutting through Bantha butter. The elevator doors flung open making a grinding sound. I peered into the shaft and saw a ladder along the side. The seven of us began climbing down the ladder to the depths below.

~~~~~~~~

“I want to find the body of the force user Damien Antilles. It must be our main priority.”

It’s been two days since the events, and I have never been this angry before. Somehow, a rag-tag band of Insurrectionists managed to penetrate the Iron Dome and attack us. It didn’t matter though. They have been dealt with. My people are scavenging the site looking for the body, while also dealing with the Knightfall virus. The people that have called Yuuzhan’tar their home must feel like they are safe...at least until the real storm begins.

I began to grow impatient. The scavengers were taking too long. I decided to find the body myself. I walked towards the observatory window, and with one jump, launched myself into the air. In what felt like an instant, I crashed into the ground with the force of a missile.  Out of the rubble I came with anger in my eyes.

“Commander, what is status of finding the body?”

“Onimi, my liege, we have been unable to find the body. There is just...too much rubble and debris…”

I walked towards him, staring him straight in the eyes. What a pitiful way to live. A human.  I turned around and with a wave of a hand, hoisted a hundred bodies into the air, while simultaneously hoisted debris from the crashed ship.

“Warriors!” I exclaimed. “We are searching for a human with no legs and an Insurrection uniform. He plummeted from my observatory so I am not sure what state his body would be in. Also, the Infected swarmed his body when he fell. For all we know he could be a pile of guts. I need his remnants though. Find them.”

Using the Force, I moved the bodies towards the ever-growing pile of dead bodies. Then, I launched the debris of the ship into the air, so far that they flew outside the atmosphere and into orbit. The Force is so easy to maneuver in this galaxy. It is different to the Rishi Cluster, where the Force only flows through select individuals.

“My liege, I believe I have found the body.”

I walked over to the Vong who said it. I took a size up of the body, and it wasn’t in good shape. The legs were missing, and so was his right forearm, and his left arm. His chest cavity was ripped open with many vital organs missing. His jaw was completely ripped off his face, leaving a bloody mess as a mouth. He had one eye missing, and the right side of his head was caved in. I hoisted him up into the air, and returned to the tower.

I entered the elevator and proceeded downward. The doors opened unto a massive cavern which housed the Space Gate. I walked towards it, with the body of Damien Antilles floating beside me.

“Shimrra, please activate the Space Gate.”

Shimrra, my second in command, respectfully obliged. The portal began to whirl and out poured dozens of my kin. Suddenly above, I heard a rumble and explosion above.

All of a sudden, the roof of the cavern exploded off and in pour a massive beam of pure kyber. It then began to veer upward, striking my tower. I watched one of my ships ram into another, the one firing the weapon. And then both ships were gone, jumping into hyperspace.

Oh fuck. Because they jumped in atmosphere, the result was a shockwave larger than I’ve ever seen race out of the sky and towards the ground. Using the Force, I defended the Space Gate from ultimate destruction. The shockwave bounced off my force field and towards the city. While still controlling my force field I ushered my warriors and Shimrra into the portal. Then, I entered myself, while still holding the forcefield in tact.

My world was changed from the pit on Yuuzhan’tar to the fiery planet of Vong’tar. I dropped the body of Antilles onto the ground and turned to Shimrra.

“We must start the revival process immediately.”

“But sir, he looks too far gone.”

“Nonsense, this human has the power to be even more powerful than I.”

“Very well.”

Shimrra held out his hand. Out of the fiery depths of the ground below rose a pillar. On top of the pillar was a totem. The totem of Revival. Shimrra took the totem off the pillar, and placed it on the body. The totem liquified in the chest cavity and then filled the whole hole. The body then began to grow limbs so black that it seemed like they were sucking the light out of the room. The head began to reshape itself into a human skull again. The body of Damien Antilles became whole once more.

Onimi walked towards the body and knelt beside it. He pressed his hand to its chest and utter one word...awaken.

The body opened it’s eyes. The color  was a deep shade of blue. The being stood up.

“You are reborn my child,” said Onimi, “You are the savior of the Yuuzhan Vong. Beings across the galaxy will fear your name. Requies.”

Requies stared at Onimi and nodded.

“Requies you will lead the Knightfall army across the galaxy, claiming the souls of its dwellers for the army. Soon you shall bring peace and balance to galaxy.”

Requies knelt before Onimi and bowed his head.

“Requies you have a power like no other. You can bend the Force at your will, leveling anything in your path.”

Onimi looked down at Requies and smiled.

“I have one more gift for you.”

Onimi opened the palm of his hand and a hilt of a sword materialized in it.

“This, my child, is the darksaber. It is the weapon of conquerors.”

Onimi handed it to Requies. Requies activates the weapon. Out pops a energized blade. Unlike the lightsaber, the darksaber is curved at the tip and is as dark as space. It sucks light out from around it.

Requies began waving it around. It was a natural talent for Requies. Then, in one swift move, Requies turned and stabbed Shimrra, who was standing dumbfounded. Shimrra looked down at his bleeding wound, and up at the soulless blue eyes of Requies, before sinking to the floor. Requies looked down at the limp dead body of Shimrra, and raised his hand. Shimrra’s body began to twitch. The dead body of Shimrra stood up, and opened its eyes. Blue.

Onimi smiled at what he witnessed.

“Come Requies, let us bring peace.”

Together Onimi, Requies, and Shimrra walked through the Space Gate back to Coruscant.

~~~~~~~~~~

We reached Flight Deck R after a ten minute descent on the ladder. There were only two functional escape pods. We piled into them and launched from the deck. We thrusted the pods away from the cruiser to get a better view of our surroundings.

Luke asked one of the soldiers what planet we were at. The planetary databank on the pod registered nothing.

However, in the distance we saw three spacecraft emerging from the debris of the cruiser. They didn’t look like Authority or Yuuzhan Vong ships.

“Jettisoned escape pods, you are trespassing a restricted system. State the reasons for your arrival.”

Luke activated the comms and replied, “We are members of the Insurrection, we have just escaped Coruscant, and randomly jumped to hyperspace. We have no idea where we are.”

The foreign comms fell silent. Luke and Chewie exchanged a glance. Then the nearest ship activated their tractor beam and reeled us in.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Inside the hangar of the ship we were greeted with soldiers in strange armor pointing blasters at us. Luke looked at them and smiled.

“You will lower the blasters and take me to your leader.”

The soldiers obliged and led us to the command bridge.

We made it to the top of the bridge and were greeted with twenty more soldiers pointing weapons at us. At the head of the bridge was a man about six feet tall. He had a white caped draped on his right shoulder. Mounted on his back was a jetpack. He was completely covered in armor up to his neck. The man walked over to us.

“Now I’ve seen it all. A woman, a wookie and a Jedi fucking Knight. I thought the lot of you were extinct now with the destruction of the Jedi Order twice. Especially the Wookie. I saw Kashyyyk and there’s nothing fucking left.”

Chewbacca grew agitated and grabbed the nearest soldier, putting him in a choke hold.

“Whoa whoa whoa pal take it easy.” said the man, “Let’s all start off on the right foot. My name is Raylen Eros, commander of the Mandalorian army. These are my guards, my ships, and my planet. Now, who might you be?”

Luke did not hesitate in replying, “My name is Luke Skywalker, the Wookie is Chewbacca, and the woman is Vrei Advaltine, leader of the Insurrection.”

“Leader of the Insurrection?!” Raylen started to laugh. “You fuckers got slaughtered on Coruscant. Holy shit it was a massacre! I watched it through a hologram.”

Vrei replied, “I barely escaped, we jumped from the planet on this cruiser we hijacked.”

Raylen started laughing even harder.

“You fucks are the ones that jumped to hyperspace in orbit?! Guys I hate to burst your bubble, but you literally destroyed half the planet’s surface because of that. There’s nothing left but charred fucking remains. Here here I’ll cut the chatter and I’ll tell you my problem. Knightfall. That shit’s everywhere. It’s infected our entire moon of Concordia. The fucks are all dead walking over there. We are doing our very best at keeping it away from Mandalore, but we are struggling. I’m sure the rest of the galaxy isn’t faring any better. There’s no cure. No one know’s what the fuck it is.”

“I do.” chimed Luke. “It is a biological weapon engineered by the Yuuzhan Vong and the Authority to destroy every sentient being in this galaxy. The Kaiser was never actually the leader of the Authority, he was the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong. His name is Onimi and he wants to cleanse the galaxy of anything impure.”

Raylen stared at him. “Damn, that’s some deep fucking shit we’re in then isn’t it. Good thing Mandalore will be fine. Nobody’s penetrating our force fields. Come, let me take you to the surface where you’ll meet our leader and where you’ll be safe.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onimi stormed out of the pit where the Space Gate lie. He looked around him to see the complete destruction of Galactic City around him. The nearest buildings were on the horizon and were burning. Everything from here to there was a flat pile of debris and shrapnel.

The only signs of his people were his ships in the sky. The Authority has officially collapsed. A dropship came to escort him and Requis to the capital ship. On the bridge the Vong were going crazy about what happened.

“Warriors! There is nothing to hide about what has just happened. The human Insurrection destroyed Yuuzhan’tar, and we must repay them. Do we know where they went?”

“Yes my liege the ship jumped to a planet called Mandalore. I ran the planet through our databases and it turns out that the Authority made a deal with Mandalore to keep it neutral. The only planet in the galaxy not affiliated with either the Coalition or The Authority.”

“Very well,” Onimi replied, “Set course for Mandalore, we are going to bring a full scale assault on the Insurrection remnants and the Mandalorians for harboring them.”

“Yes my liege.”

~~~
 The surface of Mandalore is a flat wasteland. The Mandalorians live in cities in climate controlled domes on the lifeless surface. The capital city Sundari was surrounded by a massive fleet of ships. Land troopers and walkers were patrolling the ground around the dome.
 “Nothing will penetrate our immense defenses!” Raylen said.

“Don’t be so sure,” Luke replied, “The Knightfall Virus is overwhelmingly powerful. If I were a betting man, I’d say we’ve already lost this war.”

“Well, you better fucking believe we aren’t going down without a fight.”

Luke looked at Vrei with a look that stung. Luke Skywalker, the man that killed Darth Vader and destroyed The Empire, the man that founded the Jedi Order, who trained the most powerful Jedi known to the galaxy, believed that there was no hope. There was no way we were going to fight the Yuuzhan Vong away.

We landed our ship at a docking bay outside of Sundari’s dome. An escort ship was waiting for us. Raylen led Chewbacca, Luke and I onboard and we set off towards the Sundari Palace. The buildings of Sundari are very different. Not like anything I’ve ever seen.  Blocks stacked on top of each other creating complex towers both above and below. In the distance I see the Royal Palace. Raylen looked towards us.

“Don’t worry, Queen Cynthia won’t kill you. You lot are our only hope of survival…whether you believe we’ll win.”

We arrived at the palace and were escorted by more Death Watch troops to the entrance.

“You’ll have to hand over your weapons to us. We know you won’t try anything, but it is for precautionary measures.”

Reluctantly I handed my blaster to the soldier next to me. Luke unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and handed it to Raylen. Making a fuss, Chewbacca shoved his crossbow into the arms of a female soldier.

“Ow you fucker,” the soldier said.

Chewbacca barked in rage and tried to swing at the soldier. Luke intervened.

“Easy Chewie these are our allies now. What is your name trooper?”

The soldier eyed Luke.

“My name is Dana Jaxx.”

“Dana, meet Chewbacca. Chewie, Dana.”

We proceed inside the palace. The inside was one massive room filled with columns and artwork. Much of the art was of a woman wearing blue. Under the art read the name Satine. At the back of room, a woman sitting in a throne. Surrounding her were impressive looking guards.

“Welcome travelers. I am Cynthia Crane Queen of Mandalore, Duchess of the Mandalore Sector, and protector of the Free People of Mandalore.”

Luke bowed before her. Not wanting to offend royalty, I followed.

“Your grace, I am Luke Skywalker, and these are my companions, Chewbacca of Kashyyyk, and Vrei Advaltine, Director of the Insurrection. Her home world is Vardos.”

Cynthia rose off her chair and walked down to us.

“Please Master Jedi stand. I find it amazing that I have the sole Jedi in the galaxy, a Wookiee, and the Director of the Insurrection standing before me today.”

“The pleasure is all ours,” Luke said.

Cynthia looked off into the distance seemingly brooding over what the galaxy has become.

“It is a shame what has happened to the Galaxy. I have lived through the most transitional period in the Galaxy’s history. From the Republic, to the Empire, the New Republic, and now the evil Authority run by the Yuuzhan Vong. Peace and diplomacy haven’t been seen in the Galaxy for over one hundred years. Now, what brings you to our fortress world?”

Raylen piped up. “Your grace, these are the beings that scorched Coruscant in an escape. They randomly jumped to our system.”

Cynthia looked troubled.

“Do you people realize the death toll of such a stunt.”

I decided it was my turn to talk.

“Yes we understand your grace. For the rest of my life, however short that may be, I have to live with the death of my army and the civilian deaths on Coruscant. However, out of the ashes of ruin comes hope. We hope to have sealed off the interspatial portal that the Yuuzhan Vong were using to arrive here. They cannot acquire anymore troops from their homeworld.”

“Yes there is a glimmer of light in these dark times. However we have a more pressing matter. Knightfall. Countless systems have gone dark from the Core to the Outer Rim. The loses are insurmountable. And now it has arrived at our doorstep. You must help us fend it off.”

“We will do what we can.” Luke stated.

Suddenly, a soldier came running through the entrance of the palace.

“Your excellency! Enemy war ships have broken through our blockade and are now breaking through towards the capital!”

“We must move quickly,” Cynthia said, “Master Jedi, please help us.”

“We will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Penetrating the Mandalorian blockade, the Yuuzhan Vong raced towards the planet’s surface with one destination in mind, Sundari. The Mandalorian ships were no match for the immense firepower of the Vong warships. One of the Mandalorian ships was hit, and began to fall towards the dome of the city. The ground troops were being scorched by the bombardment of the warships. Out of the capital ship, a small dropship flew towards the ground near the dome. Out of the dropship came Onimi and Requis, followed by the undead body of Shimrra.

“Requis the time has come. Let us claim Mandalore for the Knightfall.”

Requis walked over to the dead bodies of the ground troops. He raised his hands. The undead soldiers rose up, silently picking up their blasters and turned around, marching towards the dome. Overhead, the Mandalorian ship crashing through the dome causing immense heat and fire. The undead soldiers screeched and ran towards the opening in the dome.

~~~

Luke, Chewbacca, Raylen, Cynthia and I ran outside to see Sundari in flames. In the courtyard across the way. Hundreds of Mandalorians were being tackled by the undead. In the distance, the dome that covered Sundari was torn open, and in the skies were Yuuzhan Vong warships raining hell down below. Luke unhooked his lightsaber and activated it.

“Let’s finish this fight.”

Vrei, Chewbacca, Luke, and Dana Jaxx ran down towards the courtyard to fend off the undead. Cynthia turned to me.

“Raylen, under no circumstance must our guests leave the planet. If they succeed in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong and Knightfall Virus, they must be dealt accordingly.”

“Yes your grace.”

The four of us and much of Death Watch’s soldiers made a circle in the center of the courtyard. The undead surrounded us, but did not attack. In front of us, the surrounding undead parted, and three beings walked through, two Yuuzhan Vong, and a humanoid being. The being was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was as black as space, the light around was almost sucking into him.

Luke walked forward, igniting his lightsaber. The being waved his hand and thirty undead ran at Luke. Luke raised his hand and ten of them were swept into the air, clutching their throats. Five tried to pounce Luke but using the same hand pushed it in their direction. They stopped in their tracks, unable to move. The last of them ran turns him at immense speed but he was faster. Using his lightsaber, he gracefully cut through the last fifteen undead. Then he stared right at the two Yuuzhan Vong, and the undead that were trapped by the Force were thrown in their direction. The humanoid raised his hand, and a pulse came out of it, throwing the bodies away and knocking everyone to their feet. The tallest most intimidating Yuuzhan Vong walked forward.

“Quite a stunt Master Jedi. Your skills and talents in the Force are remarkable for a human.”

“Onimi, your invasion of this Galaxy is over. Surrender, or die.”

Onimi smiled and pointed a finger at Chewbacca. Chewbacca flew forward right into Onimi’s blade, penetrating his chest. Chewbacca cried out in pain. Onimi wrapped his hand around Chewbacca’s throat, choking him. Chewbacca went limp and collapsed to the floor.

“Master Skywalker, your efforts in vanquishing my army have been very impressive. However you must realize you have no power. I’d like you to meet someone.”

Onimi raised his hand and the dark being walked forward. In his hand was a black lightsaber unlike anything I’ve seen before.

“No fucking way,” Dana said, “He has the darksaber. The rightful artifact of Mandalore.”

“Humans!,” Onimi said, “I would like to introduce you to Requies. The last thing you will see before you die.”

Requies raised his hand. The limp body of Chewbacca began to twitch. Dana Jaxx gasped in astonishment. Chewbacca stood up and opened his eyes. They were bluer than anything I have ever seen. A deep color, but brighter that the normal eye. Chewbacca bent over and picked up his bowcaster. Zap zap zap zap zap. He fired five shots into Dana Jaxx. Dana Jaxx looked at the fifteen holes in her chest and then collapsed to the ground. Requies walked over to her body and placed his hand on her back. She got up, turned around, and opened her eyes. Blue. Onimi laughed.

“Requies finish them off. I have a galaxy to conquer.”

Requies pointed a finger at us and we were hoisted into the air. I felt my throat getting tighter and tighter. The air around me was getting stale. The ground around Requies began to crack. The nearby skyscrapers began to sway.

“Raylen we cannot allow this thing to conquer Mandalore We must activate Project X.”

“Your grace we have no idea if it is stable enough for atmospheric use.”

“We have no other option.”

Raylen pressed a button on his wrist.

“Command Code Delta-Beta-Venator. Activate Project X.”

About 50 meters from the dome of Sundari a sinkhole appeared. The ground began to quake in a pulsing matter. Black mist began to rise out of the hole and settle on the ground above. A great force came out of the hole, dragging everything inside.

The whole city of Sundari began to move towards the hole.

“Command Center! Activate the city anchors.”

The whole dome of Sundari became a full sphere. Anchors were shot down into the deep mantle of the planet. Sundari stopped moving. Everything not connected to the city however, did not.

Requies began to move towards the north end of the dome, causing him to release us. I collapsed to the floor, my blaster on the ground to the left of me. I look up to see Yuuzhan Vong warships being pulled out of atmosphere towards the north. All around me, Infected were flying in the same direction unable to resist the force of the pull.  Not knowing what’s going on, I grab my blaster and aim it at Requies, shooting him in the chest. Requis stares straight at the bolt, and it stops in mid air, not moving.

Luke and I fell back to the Palace to meet with Raylen and Cynthia.

“Duchess Crane, what is going on?!” Luke yelled.

“An undercover defense system known as Project X we Mandalorians have been working on for sometime now. We have engineered a vacuum that sucks everything around it in, and shoots it out at a random point in Space.”

Luke turned around to face the courtyard in shock. Requies was resisting the pull with great strength, pulling himself towards us.

“I have to finish this.” Luke says.

“Vrei stay back if you see me in trouble, take a shot at Requis while he’s distracted.”

Luke ignited his lightsaber and dashed towards Requies. Requies planted his feet and ignited the darksaber. Luke raised his lightsaber pointing it at Requies. Requies began to walk towards Luke swinging the darksaber violently. Then they both rushed each other, clashing blades. Each swing by Requies was met by a block of equal strength by Luke. They were moving so fast I could barely keep up with them. Requies went in for a stab, but Luke was quick on his feet dodging the attack with ease. Luke pointed his hand at Requies and yellow electricity flew out of his fingertips. Requies however, absorbed the electricity, and unloaded his own payload of lightning at Luke. Luke did not see this coming. It hit him with full on force, knocking him backwards towards the ledge of the platform.

Requies stood above him, silently gazing at his prey. Then he held the blade of the darksaber above Luke’s chest and pushed downward. Luke raised his hands in time to meet it halfway. The blade couldn’t make it passed his hands. It began to crack as if it was going to shatter. Not knowing how long Luke could keep this up, I point my blaster at Requies and fired seven shots, each one going clean through him. Requies dropped the darksaber, turned around and stared directly at me.

He then began running towards me as fast as he could. The area around him began to shake and crack. The courtyard began to collapse as he ran. Luke jumped up and began to run after him to tackle him.
 “Vrei…” Requies said. I was shocked. How the hell did this thing know my name?

“VREI!” Suddenly, Requies collapsed onto his knees right in front of me, looked up at me one final time holding his hand out for me to reach for it, then fell onto his face motionless. Luke ran over, ignited his lightsaber and cut the Requies’ head clean off. He looked up at Cynthia.

“Where’s Onimi?!”

“The Yuuzhan Vong warships that have surrounded the planet have been dealt with by Project X. Each one of them has been either destroyed or critically damaged. We do not know where Onimi is, however if he was on board a ship, we can presume that he died along with his army.”

“We CAN’T assume ANYTHING. If there is even the slightest chance he could be alive, we most search the galaxy for him.”

“Master Jedi please if I may--”

“No Cynthia. Vrei we must leave and finish this fight.”

Death Watch troopers surrounded us.

“I am afraid we cannot allow that to happen Master Jedi. You have done your part in the war.”

The Death Watch troopers surrounded Vrei and Luke. One of them approached Luke and took his lightsaber off his belt.

“If you kill me, then I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

Raylen Eros walked over to Luke, and pulled out a knife.

“NO!” Vrei screamed but it was too late. Raylen shoved the knife through Luke’s heart. Luke fell to his knees, looking up at Cynthia. From behind, Raylen put the knife to Luke’s throat and slit it. Blood pour out of the wound.  Luke closed his eyes, and collapsed on the ground. His body then simply disappearing under his cloak.

“Now Raylen kill the girl.”

Raylen walked over to Vrei, point a blaster at her head.

“You double crossing bastards. You will all pay for this you hear?! Your crimes will be dealt with in the most painful way you could every ima–”

Raylen fired the blasted and Vrei Advaltine fell to the ground.

Cynthia walked passed the bodies of Luke and Vrei towards the courtyard to meet the Mandalorian guard standing there.

“Luke Skywalker and Vrei Advaltine have been killed my liege.”

“Excellent,” the guard replied. The guard then morphed into Onimi, leader of the Yuuzhan Vong. My people have suffered great casualties, but I am confident in your ability to reclaim the galaxy on my behalf.”
 “I will do what I can.”

“With the death of Requies, the Knightfall Virus has been destroyed, with all host bodies dying, However, the galaxy is in a state of confusion and turmoil, the perfect time for the leader of a peaceful planet to rise up and form a new government without fail.

“I will do what I can to benefit the Yuuzhan Vong.”

“Yes Cynthia, yes you will.”