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Arrivals Platform (Imperial Palace: Imperial City)
An ovular metal platform juts out from the massive gray-green rock
pyramid that is home to the Imperial Palace, the tallest building on
Coruscant. Imperial guards in blood red robes and armor flank the
entrance to the Grand Corridor.
On either end of the platform stand heavy cannons that are manned
around the clock by Imperial personnel.
The great sprawl of Imperial City spreads out below and to the
horizon.
A squad of crimson-garbed Imperial guards, tall, masked and armed with
force pikes, escorts the shriveled, black-robed form of Emperor
Palpatine. Hundreds of Imperial officers, stormtroopers and pilots
have assembled on the arrivals platform to hear the Emperor's remarks
in the wake of Lord Darth Vader's demise. The Imperial guards lead
Palpatine toward a raised platform with a microphone, circled by
holocam bots.
Dylar quickly exit one of the newly arrived Imperial transports. After
a short moment the large Darktrooper waves for his group to follow him
to their assigned positions, quickly making his way there himself.
Telal follows after Dylar and the others quickly, marching in
formation with the rest of the 10th towards their assigned location.
Davis flanks Dylar, moving with rigid precision. He makes no effort to
herd anyone - it's expected that they'll follow. They're supposed to
be the next to best best, after all.
Janmes exits the transport and takes up a position just slightly to
the left of the assembled Stormtroopers of the 10th. He stands
straight with his hands behind his back, ready for the coming
ceremony.
Gelidus follows directly behind Davis, moving to the assigned position
without comment, though a careful observer would note that his
features look a bit conflicted.
Looper follows out behind the rest of the troopers. He moves to where
he needs to be without conflict or delay. He looks rather indiferent
for the time being.
Rushii's eyes are locked on Palpatine's hooded figure as she moves,
though the officer somehow manages not to move out of step despite her
inattention to the formation. She walks just ahead of Janmes, to the
left of the rest of the 10th, every movement precise to give formality
and honor to this ceremony.
Palpatine uses a walking stick to stabilize himself as he struggles up
the steps of the platform, followed by his guards. Stooped over, pasty
and gnarled-looking, the Emperor leans the staff against the podium
and stares out at the assembled Imperials. He gnashes his yellowed
teeth, clutching the sides of the lecturn with his pale hands. "We
gather today to remember a loyal servant of the Galactic Empire. A
protector of our values and ideals. Selfless in his pursuit of this
government's interests. In the interests of humanity. Lord Darth
Vader." He tilts his head slightly. "I had suspected a day such as
this would come. The outlanders. The aliens. Those who oppose us; who
would throw down our way of life and replace it with their own selfish
dogma. Now, my friends, the Galactic Empire is motivated to make clear
to all who would stand against us that to do so is folly. Resistance
is futile. Rebellion is insignificant." He regards the crowd through
gleaming yellow eyes. "Starting today, we make clear, in no uncertain
terms, that the Empire will give no quarter to terrorists and
insurrectionists. Starting today, we take the fight to them. Starting
today, we build a brighter tomorrow for the Galactic Empire."
Taqion, your typical stormtrooper, exits the transport and hastily
moves along with the group and falls into rank. There is an E-11
blaster rifle slung over one of his shoulders.
Dylar once finally in position Dylar quickly comes to attention. The
Darktrooper stands out amongst the see of white like a sore thumb, his
armor not only being gray, but also the fact that he towers over most
everyone else here. Despite all this, he stil remains at a rigid
attention and listens carefully to what Palpatine has to say.
"The first taste of the Empire's new purifying fire of justice will
come this hour to the world of Ryloth, homeworld of the Twi'leks," the
Emperor hisses. "A Twi'lek murdered Lord Vader. Let his people pay the
ultimate price for this assassination. Let the galaxy see that giving
quarter to a *Jedi* is to become a traitor to the Empire. And to
become a traitor to the Empire costs dearly." Palpatine bows his head
slightly, then concludes: "I rely on you, my loyal subjects, servants
of the Empire, to seek out traitors and bring them to justice. And to
hunt down to the last these evil Jedi. And destroy them. Utterly."
With that, the Emperor reaches for his walking stick, makes his way
toward the steps, and then proceeds toward the palace, escorted by his
crimson-robed guards.
Telal smiles ever so slightly at Palpatines words as he continues to
stand in attention, his eyes focused upon their leader.
Davis smiles, raising a fist and cheering as the Emperor departs. This
isn't the first time he's heard a speech like this, and it probably
won't be the last, but it still manages to get him riled. Give the man
a blaster rifle, and he might try to conquer the universe alone.
Meanwhile, near Ryloth...
Hangar Bay (Flight Deck: Hrathi-Class Dreadnaught)
Flickering magnetic containment fields and heavy blast doors protect
the massive open ports on the side of the ship. When closed, the doors
look like any other part of the ship's hull, but when opened, it looks
like a gaping wound has opened in the side of the vessel. The hangar
bay is massive, looking to be able to fit five of the Djalin-class
Cruisers in berthing slips. Each cruiser has it's own port, which it
stays facing, ready to move out at a moment's notice. The 24 fighters
are also contained in this bay, sitting on racks in front of the
cruiser berths, also looking ready to be scrambled. The flight line is
a constant buzz of activity, with the ships being maintained or
overhauled by the zealous crewmen who take care of them.
Through the opening in the hangar bay, the golden orb of Ryloth
shimmers in the distance. And then, with a significant white-blue
flash, a large vessel of some kind materializes out of hyperspace.
About the size of a small moon, bisected by a trench, with a circular
depression in the upper hemisphere. It rotates as it slows on approach
to Ryloth.
Nee'luk arrives from the aft corridor, the Jedi moving very slowly
into the bay. He does not look well, with his features drawn and taut
with obvious exhaustion. If anything, he looks quite ill, though his
movements are still nearly flawlessly graceful. Two lightsabers are
clipped at his hips: One, his own white saber, and the second, the
late Darth Vader's weapon
The J'rathi Shipleader makes its way down the corridor into the hangar
bay, reaching the open space just in time to see the flash that
leaves, in its wake, what appears to be a small moon. If Djalin hadn't
just seen it appear, it might think it a feature of the system.
"Preparations ready?"
Bryn enters into the hangar bay of the modified J'rathi ship, waving
its arms at its sides. It waves to the rebels gathered there, and
produces... a box of candy, for Praloth, to whom it attempts to
deliver presently, making a beeline toward the busy general.
Praloth nods a bit to Djalin. "Sure, things are pretty ready. We can
leave at yer convenience.." he says, but his voice trails off as he
looks out of the hangar bay and into space. "What th' fuck is that?
One of yers? Big..." he says, taking several steps towards the opening
to try to get a better look.
Gleaming beams of green energy lance out from emitters along the
perimeter of the circular depression in the upper hemisphere of the
moon-sized battle station. They meet at a single point, and from that
apex the singular salvo sizzles inexorably toward the storm-tossed
Twi'lek homeworld. When the energy beam strikes the planet, Ryloth
erupts instantly. Core shattered, continents ripped apart, mountains
torn free, deserts scattered on the cosmic winds. A glittering
shockwave pulses outward and fades. Bits of the planet roll toward the
J'rathi vessel.
"Nice... anatomy, this Ryloth has," Bryn says, tilting its head to one
side as it stares in awe out the magnalock hangar bay, all but
dropping Praloth's box of candies. "Does it always do that?"
Cooper stares out of the hangar bay doors, at the large deatht hingy
and it's target. He slowly steps towards the opening, his mouth
hanging open, and his face displaying shock, "What the hell?! It
just...destroyed that planet! Nothing can do that!"
"NO!" The Jedi bellows as Ryloth erupts into shattered pieces, his
footsteps carrying him straight towards the Mag-Con field. It appears
he has recognized his homeworld, his face an absolute mask of anguish
and anger, both oddities on the Knight's normally-calm features.
Uncaring of where he runs, the Knight trips over a hose and lands,
sprawled, hand outstretched towards the planet as if to try and stop
its rapid expansion. As it becomes obvious he can do nothing, the hand
falls, graspingat air.
The battle station turns slowly, the destructive disc turning toward
the dreadnaught.
"I'm guessing... no..." Bryn says, glancing about at the other people
on the deck. "We should never have left J'rath..." it says, adding a
little vibrato to the end of its alto-voiced sentence, backing up
slowly and finally turning to run to wherever Jin be, letting its box
of candies drop to the deck, and scatter. "Okay, so, uh. Shipleader,
it's, ah... it's turning toward us. That's not good?"
Cooper's frown deepends, "Uh. I think it saw us. We need to leave! If
it can do -that- to a -planet-!" He pauses, "We also need to tell the
others! It's huge, too! I don't think we'd be able to destroy it with
just one of these ships." He glances around nervously.
Praloth shakes his head, and as the planet explodes. "Well.. least it
was a quick death.." he mutters, still blinking a few times. "I don't
know. But I don't want to see what it can do to this ship."
The shipleader stiffens, it's clear skin immediatly flushed with a
rush of blood and the tensing as adrenaline hits muscles. The J'rathi
defense advisor knows more about firepower than its colleague, and
it's huge eyes grow possibly even larger at that sight. "Get the Jedi
away from the field," it orders. "No, not good. Very not good. We
never should have left. What isn't it? Our shields can't take that.
Our pulse cannons can't match that. They could do damage, but... We
should run." Djalin turns towards Praloth. "Could it follow us? If we
ran to the nebula..."
Savossk slowly folds his arms across his chest as his eyes take in the
massive sight. His head shakes slowly in disappointment, but
unsurprisingly, he remains completely silent.
"It would follow us home! We can't go home!" Bryn shouts, slumping to
the deck, looking as if it would cry, its clear eyelids shutting over
its large optical orbs. "Is... if it's not yours," Bryn says, looking
up, "And it's not ours... I thought you said Star Destroyers were the
best the Empire had?" Bryn says this last bit with a slight twinge of
accusation.
TIE fighters begin to spill from launch bays along the equatorial
trench of the Death Star, angling off in squadrons toward the J'rathi
vessel. They appear to be several minutes distant, but closing in a
deadly swarm.
"It looks Imperial. Sorta." Cooper says, still staring out the
opening, "I don't know if it's fast enough to follow us or now, but
with that size, it can't be too fast." He looks towards Bryn, "This is
the first I've seen this, or even heard of it! Now you see how the
Empire truely is. First thing we need to do is get away, do a zig-zag
course to...anywhere, empty space, or anything, away from here. Maybe
we'll lose them." He watches the TIEs come out, "Yep. Imperial. Those
are their fighters, we need to leave -NOW-!"
Praloth shakes his head at Djalin. "I don't know, but you're wasting
too much time in talking. Whatever we do, needs to be done now!" he
growls. "Get this ship moving, on a random course for now, then change
courses and head to J'ra later." he looks to Cooper and Savossk. "Get
the Jedi off of here, and use the shuttle to get to Tatooine or
somewhere. Use random jump points to throw off any pursuers, the
shuttle's ready. I'm gonna go with the J'rathi. Something needs to be
done about this." he nods a bit. "We have a good distance from it, if
it has any fighters, the Shuttle should be able to get to hyperspace
before something gets a fix on them."
A glistening stream of tears falls from the Jedi's single organic eye
as he slowly pushes himself to his feet. His voice, broken, finally
appears. "Why Ryloth? Of all the worlds in the galaxy, why mine?!" Not
the calm acceptance of a Jedi Knight, exactly, but something close.
"-That- is the best the Empire has. I've seen it work before, it
destroyed the prison world the Empire held myself and my apprentices
on. We must flee. Use short jumps to make a difficult-to-follow trail,
but yes, you must flee home. No vessel in the former Republic can
stand against that thing's power. Perhaps J'rathi ingenuity has a
chance." Bitterness is the flavor of the day for the Twi'lek's words,
even as his voice becomes more clear, the tears slowly coming to an
end. Even as they stop dripping, they leave a glistening trail down
one side of his face. "Now, J'rathi, you see Imperial justice. This is
what they do to even imagined threats. We must flee, or we will all
die."
Cooper nods at Praloth, "I know of a few places we can go. And I need
to tell my friends about this." He starts towards the shuttle, "I'll
fly it, unless someone thinks they can do a better job." He looks at
Djalin, pausing, as if asking for approval.
The threat to its ship, and its homeworld, is enough to panic Djalin
just long enough that it actually stands there listening to everyone
instead of ordering the ship into hyperspace. "Shuttle has no weapons.
We jump to a random point, unload them here. Won't risk dropping
shields, nor waiting for them to get clear. Not with that here." It
turns and moves purposefully for the corridor that will take it to the
command deck. "We flee. Now!" It orders to the general area, comm
pickups spreading these words throughout the ship.
The TIE fighter squadrons continue to close on the J'rathi vessel,
arming their weapons. Some of the fighters appear to be bombers,
equipped with torpedoes. Soon, they will be within missile range.
"Anywhere otherr than here or Coruscant iz fine." the Trandoshan says
quietly, to no one in particular. He also begins to head towards the
shuttle, a few meters behind Cooper.
"They're not getting any farther away!" Cooper exclaims, "We have to
jump. Now. I'll go ahead and power up the shuttle, charge the drives,
and all that. Just tell me when you're ready for us to launch.
Everything has to be quick!" He starts up the ramp into the shuttle.
And Cooper walks right into the door that refuses to open at the top
of the ramp. "Ow." he mutters, then looks out into the bay, "What's
the boarding code?!" he yells out.
Bryn crawls to its feet, walking slowly at first, and then breaking
into a run toward the hangar bay exit to follow after Jin up to the
command deck, so that the ship doesn't um. Blow up. It doesn't answer
Cooper, but continues to run; mostly because it doesn't know what the
boarding code is either.
The ship hums loudly as it enters into hyperspace.
Nee'luk simply shakes his head, turning towards the shuttle and slowly
moving towards it, not appearing to be in all that much of a rush. The
bitterness and anger has faded from his face, replaced now by a
shattered, subdued sadness. The momentary anger has revived him,
though, and he looks healthy again - for the moment.
The shipleader has already left for the command deck, but one of the
crew preparing the shuttle shrugs in response to Cooper's question.
"I'm pretty sure blowing off the door wouldn't be wise, so, anyone
have any idea how to open the dooor -without- damaging it?" Cooper
says, glancing around at the others in the bay.
Savossk shakes his head slowly, growling quietly, "I do not know." He
clenches his teeth together, losing his patience.
"I will open the shuttle." One hand extends as the Jedi speaks these
five words, fingers splayed as he directs the Force to bypass the
shuttle's lock and allow the hatch to open. Still, the Jedi seems
reluctant and almost ashamed of his action as he does this, the Force
gathering around his hand and then leaping to his will.
"Hmm. That works." Cooper says, peering at Luck. He turns, and tries
the door. It opens, and he looks back, "Don't know how you did
it...but let's get ready to go anyway." He dashes into the shuttle.
The Knight moves toward the shuttle's boarding ramp, pausing. "My
apprentice. We must... wait for her." A worried look appears on his
features, yet another deviance from the normal calm of the Jedi's
emotions.
Savossk calmly follows Cooper into the shuttle, his arms still folded
across his chest. He sends one last glance back to the hangar bay
before disappearing into the vessel.
And here she is. Heller hurries out of the main corridor, heading
towards the others. She seems relieved and happy to see her master,
~Master!~ Everyone else gets a brief nod but otherwise go
unacknowledged.
"That ship should not have followed us here," Djalin assures, walking
down the corridor to see that the shuttle's departure goes smoothly
and in a timely manner. "You can go. Find home. Or somewhere to hide."
Bryn enters into the hangar bay, ready to pull some tools out of one
of its myriad pockets and open up a ship's security console like a
sardine can... but the Force's already done that for it. It sees the
people heading into the dead Lord's shuttle, and shrugs, turning to
face the incoming Djalin.
"J'rathi, when the time comes, I will seek your world out. I will not
bring harm, but you may fear my arrival nonetheless." The Knight's
proclomation ends as he disappears into the shuttle, responding to
Heller in kind, ~Apprentice, hurry! We must flee~
Cooper pops his head out of the shuttle's hatch, "Anyone's who comin'
better hurry up and get onboard. The drives are charged, and we're
ready t' go." He looks at Bryn, "Time to launch yet?"
Heller nods, ~I hurry, master.~ And the apprentice does hurry. She
scampers after her master, onto the shuttle, still ignoring Bryn and
Djalin and pretty much anyone else; they take second place right now.
Bryn nods its clear head to Cooper, and shouts, "Make haste, opaque
one!" It seems to ignore Luck's comment until Djalin mentions it.
Turning to its colleague, it says, in a low voice, "I fear him
already. I'd rather he be far from us as possible."
"Don't worry 'bout the Jedi," Cooper says, "That was his homeworld you
just saw blow up." He glances in the shuttle, making sure everyone's
onboard, "Thanks for everything. Maybe we'll meet again someday." He
heads into the shuttle, ramp going up behind him. |
