[Star Wars] Shadows of the Force

[Roromi 417]

“What is thy bidding my lord?” 

Quinten kept a straight face as he kept his gaze aimed towards the robed feet of the most powerful man in the galaxy. For a long moment there was silence, as the Emperor simply stared at the loyal subject. Yet despite the mundane pause, Quinten felt a cold shiver run up his spine as tactile as if someone had ran their finger to do it. It was a preposterous notion given that it was just him and the Emperor in the former chancellors office. 

“Lieutenant Voide…” The emperor pronounced his name so precisely that it would have made anyone perk at attention. The ruler slowly paced around the kneeled officer, “As you can well imagine this has been a turbulent time for the galaxy…” 

Quinten dared to look up only to see the emperor peering out the window towards the city beyond. “I want you to perform at tasks that will have you answering to no one else but me. I will give you full leeway to pursue the manner with any resources you see fit.” The Emperor paused and slowly turned around to study the officer who in turn averted his gaze once more. Quinten could almost feel the Emperors pleasure at such deference. “I want you to go into the Jedi Temple and begin a search for a powerful artifact. The Jedi were notorious for their scheming secrets.” The emperor added bitterly as he distracted himself for a brief moment, “Once you can determine the location of the artifact you will dispatch a task force to accompany you to obtain it.”

“It will be done at once my lord.” Quinten breathlessly replied. The Echani tensed his muscles to stand but remained as poised as a statue, not daring to fully move until released. Again the Emperor took a long moment as if studying the officer somehow. “Good… Good.” 

——

The Echani ISB agent strode out of the senate building in his white uniform top and black hat and slacks clearly identifying his rank and positions in the newly christened Galactic Empire. The white of the uniform matched well with his bleached white hair and nearly equally pale skin. There were not nearly as many Echani in the galaxy compared to humans but they were related close enough. 

His strides were long and confident, and with a practiced ease he raised a gloved hand to study the data pad he had been issued. He was soon sitting in the seat of a speeder and motioned for the clone trooper to take him immediately to the former Jedi Temple. He silently studied the data pad, the Emperor was not exaggerating as he had clearly been given access to deploy any number of troops to any location Quinten could think of at that moment. His data pad pulsed with numbers and graphics showing him the precise moment of all the military forces on Coroscant at that moment. 

A more audacious officer would have likely immediately confiscated one of the orbiting Venators immediately to serve as their new flagship but Quinten was more practical than his numerous comrades. “Perhaps that is why the Emperor chose me for this task?” He mused quietly as he punched in a few new commands. He was still trying to piece the whole ordeal out. While Quinten was fiercely loyal to his leader, he felt it odd that he would be given such a personal mission when the Emperor had likely any other number of confidants at his whim. “There has to be a reason he chose me…” he muttered as he looked up to see the looming temple approach. 

——

As the speeder came to a landing pad it was immediately greeted by a squad of clone troopers etched with blue markings. Quinten exited the speeder and dismissed the driver along with the vehicle. As he approached the troopers they all cautiously raised their rifles to aim at the unknown officer. “Relax troopers.” Quinten calmly announced, “I’m on direct orders from the Emperor, my name is Lieutenant Quinten Voide of the Imperial Security Bureau.” He stood up straight and crossed his hands behind his back along with the data pad. He stood patiently while the troopers seemed to confirm his claim. The one with his hand to his helmet was talking blinding to someone else when they finally nodded, “Our apologies sir, we’re on special orders as well! You’ve been given permission to enter, please alert anyone on station if you need assistance.” 

Quinten offered a tight smile and nodded, “Thank you trooper. Just so you know I’m expecting a commando squad to be meeting me here shortly, I hope you will afford them the same access I have been given when they arrive.” 

“It will be done sir!” The trooper announced as he snapped to a salute. The notion made Quinten smile further and he returned the gesture before moving past the guards. 

The structure itself was quite fascinating, and despite himself the ISB agent found himself marveling at the architecture. He had to wonder how many non Jedi such as himself had ever set foot in the formally holy site. 

His reverie was interrupted as he nearly tripped on something on the floor. Frowning he looked down to see a metallic cylinder casually dropped on the floor where it should not be. Peering around for the owner, Voide cautiously picked up the device and studied it closely. He wondered how it was that they Jedi could use such a device, especially when it felt like it would be horribly unbalanced. He fought the temptation to activate the weapon out of fear of alarming any nearby clones. Instead he leaned back down to replace the fallen weapon, then continued his walk. 

Within a few moments he was soon standing outside the grand library that the Jedi once relied on. Undoubtably there was great secrets housed in such a place. Just then Quinten’s comlink beeped and he reached down to acknowledge it, “Voide here.”

“Sir, this is CT-0079 reporting for orders. Zeta team is on site.” 

Placing a hand on the door, Quinten nodded more to himself as he opened the door and replied, “Understood CT-79, how about you and your team meet me in the library, no rush… we aren’t expecting a battle just yet, but I wanted to deploy you guys immediately so we can understand each other and what our mission is.” 

There was a pause from the clone leader before he replied, “Acknowledged sir,” there was an edge of surprise in the troopers voice, “me and the boys will head right over.” 

——

Munin bit his lip as he stood at attention along with the other members of Zeta Squad. They stood in front of their new leader. The ISB agent slowly and deliberately paced in front of the clones moving from Munin all the way down to Knives at the end of the line. 

Zeta squad was composed of 4 clone commandos, veterans of the recently concluded Clone Wars. They had all performed admirably doing many missions during the conflict. They all wore mostly black armor with only slight variations between the Katarn class specs. Munin himself wore a Kama along with his backpack, he really stood out because of his helmet, which was Katarn in detail, but was all white, contradicting the dark nature of his armor. Munin’s XO was a clone by the name of Dorlin, he wore all black armor as well and even wore a Kama like Munin. Dorlin was their explosives enthusiast as such he wore a pack brimming with enough explosives to level the library they were standing at. Senar was the team’s sniper, instead of a visible backpack he wore a cloak around his armor which made him seem more bulky than his brothers. He also had a non issue blaster holstered to his leg in leather and a sniper rifle that was definitely non standard as well. The only other distinguishing feature was the range finder attuned to the clone’s black helmet and the Jang eyes painted in red above the visor. The last member of their team was affectionately named Knives. Knives’ armor looked the most normal with the exception of various lengths of blades being strapped onto his armor at various points. He also didn’t carry the traditional DC17 the commandos were issued but rather a twin pair of blaster pistols affixed to his thigh armor. 

“Zeta Squad my name is Lieutenant Voide. We have been tasked with a vital mission from the emperor to secure secret Jedi artifacts that the order previously kept hidden from the Republic.” Voide paused then snapped his fingers, “remove your helmets troopers.” The clones complied and eyed Quinten cautiously. Voide’s mannerisms hovered somewhere between the posh, entitled attitude most new officers had and the sincerity that a good soldier would share with their comrades. 

Voide nodded his approval upon seeing the clone’s faces. He cleared his throat to continue, “You have all had the privilege of working together through an entire war to know each other… I envy you all and that brotherhood you wield.” He paused and narrowed his eyes in thought, “I can’t expect you all to accept me so readily… but I hope in time we can grow together as a team. That is why Munin will be my immediate second in command for this mission. I may call upon each of you for your input with situations as they may arise. You also have my permission to speak freely with me at any time. Our work is too important to be bogged down by protocol.” Quinten paused as he could see Knives already raising his hand to speak. “Please CT-8282 by all means!” He offered a hand out wide as if inviting the clone and the trooper smiled nervously, “Its’ Knives sir! I’m sure my brothers are thinking the same thing as me. What kind of artifact are we retrieving exactly?” 

Quinten smiled at the opportunity to explain their next task and he nodded. He tossed out a portable projector and in an instant the image of a Jedi Master was hovering in the room in front of everyone. “This is Jedi Master Ote Une. He was assigned a task down in 1313 during the events of Order 66. From my research here in the Jedi library I can safety say that he is the man we need to get to, in order to determine our next step.” He paced around the hologram and studied the faces of each clone as he described the mission. He paused and smiled, “You boys ready to goto the belly of Coruscant?”