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12.82% Star Wars An Empire Divided / Chapter 5: Kraytia Zarin

Chapter 5: Kraytia Zarin

The transmission ended with Rax and Tobias 'promising' not to get involved with one another's plans. It seemed that Rax had no real use for Tobias as he wasn't going to accept Rax as a leader, and on top of that didn't seem to want to follow with the cause of the other remnants.

Iden and Del were staring at the man almost speechless. The Queen and Korro were also bewildered, rather curious and afraid of what was going on.

'What did he mean by thinning the herd?' Were the thoughts which trailed off the top of the Inferno Squad leader, Iden Versio's, mind. Did this mean her father was going to get purged? She had an immediate worry crossing over her face. The frown was the most prominent. Her mother was dead, died four years ago, believing she was a traitor to not only the Empire but also her father.

It turned out she was a traitor, who betrayed her father above anyone else. Her mother died hating her, curing her. Now she had come to believe that her father would be dying, doing the same? The thought made her heart throb negatively. Instinctively placing a hand over her chest.

"Garrick Versio," Tobias Rune immediately stated as he looked at the woman who killed her teammate during their infiltration of the Dreamers. "Hero of Vardos will refuse extraction."

Iden looked at him, the frown still quite a sight on her face. "I will rescue my father from his fate," she asserted with confidence that this man, Tobias Rune, wouldn't object against this.

"You really don't have to," Rune said in response to this with a mused tone, a glint in his eye.

"I implore you, Grand Moff Rune, allow me to do so." She immediately stood up, the frown had turned into an indifferent confidence as if she didn't care what he said to deter her. Looming over the man who could snap her neck before she could even draw her pistol, she kept a stance of dominance and vigor.

"No, I literally mean, you don't have to." he yawned with a light chuckle seeing her getting worked up. He gently reached out a hand for her to take, she blinked a few times as she looked at the gloved hand before resting her hand in it. Curious of what he was going to do.

Suddenly her head jolted back, he shared a vision with her. She saw herself in third person. "Admiral! The Empire's time has come! You don't have to go down with it." Her own voice echoed in her mind space as she watched this playthrough.

"This is a rescue attempt... I politely decline." Garrick responded to her plead for him to come with her and escape the destruction of the Star Destroyer.

"We have to go now!"

"Rax expects me to leave too. This is where I belong. I gave my life to this Empire. Fought to keep it strong. It's hard to believe that this is all that's left..." A Nebula Class Frigate smashed into the hull, the two found themselves briefly embracing one another, but her father slowly released his hand from hers as it slid down her forearm.

She could tell the confrontation was coming to an end when he took several steps back, facing her as he did so. "You saw the Empire's weakness and refused to let it consume you. It made you stronger. That's why you're leaving here without me....You deserve to live in peace. Go. Survive. Live." He declined his life, believing he had no privilege to continue living on as his merit was now meaningless.

It wasn't exactly a heartfelt goodbye, but it seemed he was telling her to do what she always done. To survive. For some that could be considered a way for a tough military man with a military family, to say 'I love you.'

Iden lifted her hand from the Moff's and returned to realtime. It had only been a few seconds, while to her it had been several minutes. Her eyes were glossy, yet she didn't allow a single tear to escape. With foggy vision, she sat back down as she flexed her jaw in thought.

"The Galactic Empire at its height held twenty five thousand individual Star Destroyers under its command. This does not include the various other vessels in its service, your father will lose everything if he remains under Rax's command. If he wants to renew his strength for the Empire," Grand Moff Rune gave the woman a soft gaze, one which she didn't recognize. It was unlike the dark looks he had given her when she had first arrived. It was different from the indifference she had been given soon after. It was different from his chaotic change in demeanor when Del made his appearance. "You will be eventually be sent on a disavowed mission to, forcefully, extract him."

"As for now Inferno Squad, you are being granted a new member of your team."

"Sir?" Both Del and Iden stared at the man for a few moments until they felt, no, they heard someone walk in from one of the side rooms attached to the office. Something, someone, Leia hadn't even detected earlier.

A young girl about five foot one walked into the room. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit which was just a little bit too big. She appeared to be around the ripe age of sixteen. Her eyes were ice blue, and her hair was a cloudy snow white. It was thick and cut short into a pixie. She had pale skin and a slender almost malnutritioned frame, yet she was gilded with fatty cheeks and a babyface.

In the place of her eyebrows were four varied sizes of dot tattoos over each eye. They were a navy blue, making them very prominent features on her face. Her eyes alone, which were a pale icy tone, appeared animalistic in demeanor. As if she had once been feral, as if she could be attacked at any moment by anyone she didn't recognize as friend or foe.

Versio scrutinized the teenager with her eyes before narrowing her sights on a cylinder at the child's waist. She paused at the flat silver cylinder with black plastic buttresses. It was a lightsaber hilt.

"Commander Versio, I introduce you to my Apprentice. Kraytia Zarin, former Jedi Padawan who was placed inside a Stasis Casket and kept as a collection item by one of the 'Space Slugs' of the Hutt Cartel."

"Former Jedi?" Del asked sounding a bit unbalanced as the girl drew the saber hilt to her hand through the use of the force. "Definitely Jedi," he stated seeing the seamless use of the force.

Kraytia however despite her rather unorthodox, but comfortable, stance seemed to be completely ignorant of what was going on. It wasn't long before everyone in the room could hear the muffled sound of music emanating from her ears.

"Uh-huh, this my ship! All the girls stomp your feet like this!" The song she was listening to was one which was made canon by Lucasarts. Ain't No Hologram Girl. Apparently it was really popular with the younger generations. "A few times I've been around this track. And like that I'm gone and I'm lightning fast 'cause I ain't no hologram girl, I ain't no hologram girl!"

At least she wasn't doing the embarrassing dance that went along with it.

The Grand Moff gestured towards his ears, caught by the sudden motion of his hands, the Apprentice snapped to attention and removed the ear phones from her ears. "Imperium Shadow Disciple Kraytia Zarin, reporting for to–Duty!" She corrected herself from saying today, making it sound like she was saying 'toduty.'

Iden simply stared down at her for a few moments before glancing over towards the man who had placed a child into their ranks. "Sir, I'd like to pro–"

"You cannot protest this, Commander Versio." He responded with a blank smile across his lips.

Kraytia simply stared at the back of Iden's head for a few moments before glancing over towards the Grand Moff with a brow raised. "I'm joining this lady's squad?" She asked with a tilt of her head slightly, her voice sounding as if if she was pouting. It would appear that they mutually didn't want to work with one another?

"Yes, yes you are." Rune would responded with a blatant tone in which meant there should be no disobedience or objections to his decree.

She simply swallowed any hope of exchanging this order with another and placed the earphones in her ears once again. Letting herself go off into the world of music, comedically dancing around in place absently.

"Excuse my prudence Sir," Del pointed towards the girl who was now dancing around in place absently. "Where did your Hutt 'friend' find her?" He'd ask curious, wondering where a force sensitive, let alone a child Jedi could have been hiding up until now.

"The Old Republic base on the planet Orto Plutonia. Apparently after Order 66, which branded, falsely, the Jedi Generals of the Republic as traitors, she fled to the planet and built a stasis casket from spare parts and hid herself from the galaxy at large. She was found by rogue Pantoran scavengers and sold to Hutt Privateers."

Del blinked a few times, he heard of the planet of Pantora where these Pantorans came from. Apparently they had a pact with the Talz on Plutonia since the Clone Wars. Rogue Pantorans seemed to have broken that pact. That sector of space was widely ignored by the Empire's main expedition forces.

"So after losing everything, she closed herself in a casket?" Iden blinked a few times hearing this. A teen, a child teenager who had lost everything that had ever held any meaning to her, locked herself away from the world on a remote planet. Was she hoping to never wake up again?

The two other women looked over at the former Padawan who was absently dancing to her own music.

"The clone commando captain under her shot her Master in the back of the head, once to kill and then twice more for good measure. She slipped away on a cargo freighter before the planet was blockaded. to prevent anymore Jedi from escaping."

Sosha looked over at the Grand Moff, "How'd you get her to... Join your cause?"

"I promised to help rebirth of a Jedi Order based organization free of the Senate and Bureaucratic corruption. The Jedi were respected as objective meditators, successful ambassadors and peacekeepers. That all changed when they fell to the corruption, the same Corruption the Old Republic endoured, even far into its rebirth as the Galactic Empire. The New Order." He looked over towards Sosha with a small smile across his lips. He then gazed over towards Iden who seemed to have been listening in quite intently with Del doing the same.

"They are known as the Imperium's Shadow Order. Like the original Jedi Order they act as ambassadors and meditators. What makes them stand apart however, is that they are also Peacemakers and 'servants' of the New Empire." He stated which made them sound similar to that of the Inquisitors however they didn't have a malevolent function such as hunting and killing Jedi.

"How many of them are there?" Del asked as he knew the power of a single Jedi Knight having met Luke Skywalker on Pillio. Part of him was afraid of their powers, as he had been lead to believe Jedi were evil. Another part of him held high admiration.

"Kraytia is the first Disciple, I am considered its Headmaster. There are several initiates from my sectors Imperial Youth program on board who are being trained via proxy droids." This information didn't seem to be privileged, it was just being given out. If there would to be a leak, it seems he would be able to find out exactly who it was who gave out such information. As it would only be a select few who would know about it presently.

"I'm assuming Luke Skywalker isn't joining these Shadows?" Del asked, naming a self-proclaimed Jedi Knight who had been trained by Master Yoda of the Old Order.

"No, he's reconstructing the Jedi Order, but I've forseen his failure."


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