@Macavity116 (In-game, I deliberately timed my invasion to coincide with the passage of the Crisis Resolution against the Ma’Karan protectors so that I would then Proclaim the Galactic Imperium and use my influence as Custodian to pass that early as soon as Directive 67 was complete).
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Chapter Sixty-Eight: Moeder and Akkano
Former Ozkox Sector space, Phlegethos V Mining Facility and Foundries....
Darth Moeder looked out upon the rivers of lava that blazed beyond the shielding of the Phelgethos V Mining Facility, where one of the last pockets of Separatist leadership had tried to hide themselves, her eyes themselves a hellish yellow thanks to the power of the Dark Side.
She had slaughtered them without remorse. Even though they posed no challenge or threat to her, the thrill of unrestrained power was unlike anything she had ever known as a Jedi. And with their deaths, the galaxy was one step closer to lasting peace and order.
But that was not the only reason why she was here.
Akkano and Opalwan were hiding in this corner of the galaxy. And by butchering the Separatists here, she was sure to draw their attention.
And sure enough, Akkano showed herself before long. She looked extremely uncomfortable on the infernal planet, though the heat hardly seemed to faze Moeder now.
’St... Starfly? Is that really you?” Akkano asked, frowning.
“You once called me that, yes,” Darth Moeder replied, turning to face her old apprentice. “I’ve been looking for you, Akkano."
“Is it true?” she asked. “Did you-"
“I did what I had to do,” Darth Moder said brusquely, shoving her concerns aside. “The Jedi betrayed the Republic. But it’s over now. The Jedi. The Separatists. The War. Even the Republic itself. But you, Akkano! You were never as lost as all the other Jedi were, and I more than anyone know the power that lies within you.” She reached out with a taloned hand. “Join me, Akkano, and I shall resume your training, and help you realize your true strength!"
“In the Dark Side?!” Akkano protested.
“It is natural to fear what you do not yet understand, Akkano,” Moeder replied. “The Chancellor... the Empress taught me many things. But what I also know is that I am more powerful than her. When time comes, I can overthrow her, and you can help me bring order to the galaxy! Never again will we see these destructive conflicts tear it apart!"
“So it’s true...” Akkano said, visibly crestfallen. “You really have changed, Starfly. You’re going down a path that I can’t follow. But you can still-"
“Don’t lecture me, Akkano!” Moeder snarled. “Don’t you see? You think you’re trying to save me, with your misguided Jedi ways, but I’m the one trying to save you! If you will not open yourself to learning the ways of the Dark Side, then the Empress will command me to destroy you, before we are ready to take our rightful places as the rulers of the galaxy, Master and Apprentice once more!"
Then, Moeder saw Opalwan come into view behind Akkano.
“So, Opalwan really did manage to turn you against me!” Fury filled the Sith Lady. “I was foolish to try to show compassion to a Jedi. You brought out my old weakness, Akkano! And for that, I shall destroy you myself!"
The Dark Side of the Force gripped Akkano’s throat, like a vise trying to crush it.
“Let her go, A’Nikori!” Opalwan shouted.
“As you wish, my old ‘Master’,” Darth Moeder sneered, releasing Akkano from her telekinetic grip.
The aquatic Jedi collapsed on the floor in a heap, though Opalwan could see that she was still breathing, though weakly.
“I’m surprised that Master Yodex isn’t here as well to join our reunion,’ Moeder said, walking over toward Opalwan and prodding Akkano with her foot. “Though I suppose he’s trying to sneak in and challenge the Empress. But he’s almost as much of a fossil as you are, Opalwan. A fossil of an era that has finally closed on the galaxy. Don’t you see what I’ve accomplished? I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security, to my new Imperium!"
“Your new Imperium?” Opalwan asked incredulously.
“Don’t make me kill you, Opalwan... for old time’s sake,” Moeder replied. “Perhaps I’m still too soft after all. But go find some out sort of crystal cave, out of the way, and meditate... you’d like that, wouldn’t you? But Akkano is mine. She may resist at first, but I will make her see the truth of the Force, just as the Empress has shown me. I AM her Master, and she is MY apprentice. And if she comes to hate me after this... then that will make it all the easier for her to awaken to her true powers."
“A’Nikori, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy! You have become the very evil you once swore to destroy! And I will not let it destroy Akkano as it has destroyed you!"
“If you’re not with me, Opalwan, then you’re my enemy,” Moeder said, glaring at him with cold fury that was only barely held back from erupting into an inferno like their surroundings.
“Darkness and light exist within each of us,” Opalwan replied. “But you have given yourself to your Empress’s lies, and so you have fallen into the darkness entirely! And so, for who you once were, I will do what I must, A’Nikori."
He ignited his lightsaber.
“You will try, old fossil,” Moeder sneered, activating her own.
And their blades clashed.
Light and Dark.
Friend against friend.
Master versus apprentice.
And the fate of the galaxy in the balance.
Darth Moeder looked out upon the rivers of lava that blazed beyond the shielding of the Phelgethos V Mining Facility, where one of the last pockets of Separatist leadership had tried to hide themselves, her eyes themselves a hellish yellow thanks to the power of the Dark Side.
She had slaughtered them without remorse. Even though they posed no challenge or threat to her, the thrill of unrestrained power was unlike anything she had ever known as a Jedi. And with their deaths, the galaxy was one step closer to lasting peace and order.
But that was not the only reason why she was here.
Akkano and Opalwan were hiding in this corner of the galaxy. And by butchering the Separatists here, she was sure to draw their attention.
And sure enough, Akkano showed herself before long. She looked extremely uncomfortable on the infernal planet, though the heat hardly seemed to faze Moeder now.
’St... Starfly? Is that really you?” Akkano asked, frowning.
“You once called me that, yes,” Darth Moeder replied, turning to face her old apprentice. “I’ve been looking for you, Akkano."
“Is it true?” she asked. “Did you-"
“I did what I had to do,” Darth Moder said brusquely, shoving her concerns aside. “The Jedi betrayed the Republic. But it’s over now. The Jedi. The Separatists. The War. Even the Republic itself. But you, Akkano! You were never as lost as all the other Jedi were, and I more than anyone know the power that lies within you.” She reached out with a taloned hand. “Join me, Akkano, and I shall resume your training, and help you realize your true strength!"
“In the Dark Side?!” Akkano protested.
“It is natural to fear what you do not yet understand, Akkano,” Moeder replied. “The Chancellor... the Empress taught me many things. But what I also know is that I am more powerful than her. When time comes, I can overthrow her, and you can help me bring order to the galaxy! Never again will we see these destructive conflicts tear it apart!"
“So it’s true...” Akkano said, visibly crestfallen. “You really have changed, Starfly. You’re going down a path that I can’t follow. But you can still-"
“Don’t lecture me, Akkano!” Moeder snarled. “Don’t you see? You think you’re trying to save me, with your misguided Jedi ways, but I’m the one trying to save you! If you will not open yourself to learning the ways of the Dark Side, then the Empress will command me to destroy you, before we are ready to take our rightful places as the rulers of the galaxy, Master and Apprentice once more!"
Then, Moeder saw Opalwan come into view behind Akkano.
“So, Opalwan really did manage to turn you against me!” Fury filled the Sith Lady. “I was foolish to try to show compassion to a Jedi. You brought out my old weakness, Akkano! And for that, I shall destroy you myself!"
The Dark Side of the Force gripped Akkano’s throat, like a vise trying to crush it.
“Let her go, A’Nikori!” Opalwan shouted.
“As you wish, my old ‘Master’,” Darth Moeder sneered, releasing Akkano from her telekinetic grip.
The aquatic Jedi collapsed on the floor in a heap, though Opalwan could see that she was still breathing, though weakly.
“I’m surprised that Master Yodex isn’t here as well to join our reunion,’ Moeder said, walking over toward Opalwan and prodding Akkano with her foot. “Though I suppose he’s trying to sneak in and challenge the Empress. But he’s almost as much of a fossil as you are, Opalwan. A fossil of an era that has finally closed on the galaxy. Don’t you see what I’ve accomplished? I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security, to my new Imperium!"
“Your new Imperium?” Opalwan asked incredulously.
“Don’t make me kill you, Opalwan... for old time’s sake,” Moeder replied. “Perhaps I’m still too soft after all. But go find some out sort of crystal cave, out of the way, and meditate... you’d like that, wouldn’t you? But Akkano is mine. She may resist at first, but I will make her see the truth of the Force, just as the Empress has shown me. I AM her Master, and she is MY apprentice. And if she comes to hate me after this... then that will make it all the easier for her to awaken to her true powers."
“A’Nikori, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy! You have become the very evil you once swore to destroy! And I will not let it destroy Akkano as it has destroyed you!"
“If you’re not with me, Opalwan, then you’re my enemy,” Moeder said, glaring at him with cold fury that was only barely held back from erupting into an inferno like their surroundings.
“Darkness and light exist within each of us,” Opalwan replied. “But you have given yourself to your Empress’s lies, and so you have fallen into the darkness entirely! And so, for who you once were, I will do what I must, A’Nikori."
He ignited his lightsaber.
“You will try, old fossil,” Moeder sneered, activating her own.
And their blades clashed.
Light and Dark.
Friend against friend.
Master versus apprentice.
And the fate of the galaxy in the balance.
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Moeder is getting practice for her We Can Rule Together speech that she'll give to her offspring later, I see.
"Darkness and light exist within each of us" is a way better comeback than "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" since it isn't an inherent contradiction. Nice job there.
Is Yodex attacking the new Empress?
"Darkness and light exist within each of us" is a way better comeback than "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" since it isn't an inherent contradiction. Nice job there.
Is Yodex attacking the new Empress?
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(Yes, I intentionally wanted to avoid the infamous ‘Obi-Wan is a Sith Lord because he also dealt in absolutes’, so I came up with an alternative. I’m glad you like it!)
(Yes, Yodex is currently attacking Eerabik at the Senate Chambers.)
(As for the name of the lava planet that is the site of Moeder and Opalwan’s duel, Mustafar didn’t make sense in this case, as the was the base planet of Grievous’ Droid Army in this campaign, which was long since taken over by a Republic-aligned faction. So I made up a planet with a name based on Phlegethon, the River of Fire in the Greek Underworld, to reinforce the hellish symbolism of the world.)
(Yes, Yodex is currently attacking Eerabik at the Senate Chambers.)
(As for the name of the lava planet that is the site of Moeder and Opalwan’s duel, Mustafar didn’t make sense in this case, as the was the base planet of Grievous’ Droid Army in this campaign, which was long since taken over by a Republic-aligned faction. So I made up a planet with a name based on Phlegethon, the River of Fire in the Greek Underworld, to reinforce the hellish symbolism of the world.)
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Chapter Sixty-Nine: Battle of the Heroes, and the Duel of the Fates
Opalwan fought with Darth Moeder, his fallen apprentice, the former A’Nikori Starflier, their blades clashing as their duel made its way inside the facility’s control center. Moeder was relentless, empowered with the fury of the Dark Side, yet Opalwan’s blade intercepted every blow like an impenetrable wall. While grief might have threatened to drown him, Opalwan was first and foremost a Jedi, and that meant there were times that one simply had to let go and trust the Force to guide him, as he was doing now, letting himself become an extension of its will against the Darkness.
This, however, served to further infuriate Darth Moeder, and she wasted no time in channeling it into still more power.
“You don’t even allow yourself to feel, not even in a time like this!” Moeder snarled as she redoubled her assault. “This is exactly why the Jedi are hopeless! You’ve reduced yourself to an automaton, no different than the droids we once fought during the war! You don’t have the real passion that it takes to seize victory! And what did our ‘bond’ mean to you if you can throw it away so easily, my former Master?"
Opalwan faltered for a moment, shaken by Modeler’s words and the hint of his former apprentice contained within that last line, and the Sith Lady drove him back, pressing him against one of the control panels.
“You’ve let yourself grow weak, Master”, Moeder shouted as she reached out in a way that would have seemed like she was trying to throttle Opalwan, if he was an organic being. But since he was a lithoid, she was actually trying to physically crush the crystals that made up his body, while her lightsaber pressed his blade impotently to the side.
“Perhaps so, but your anger blinds you,” Opalwan replied calmly.
“What are you going on about?!” Moeder demanded as hairline cracks started to form across parts of Opalwan’s crystal surface.
“This ‘old fossil’ still has some tricks,” Opalwan said as he used the Force to momentarily reverse the polarity of the magnets that helped control Moeder’s mechanical wing, momentarily loosening her grip on her lightsaber and allowing Opalwan to swing upward with his own.
Moeder barely managed to regain control of her wing to intercept Opalwan’s surprise strike and get her other wing out of the way before it could be severed, but this meant giving up the leverage she had on him. Using the Force to enhance his speed, Opalwan rolled out of the way, and Modeler’s enraged counterattack instead came down upon the control panel, disabling the shields protecting the facility from the rivers of lava below.
Meanwhile, Grand Master Yodex Grogem, the leader of what remained of the Jedi Order, locked blades with the newly coronated Galactic Empress Eerabik, also known as the Dark Lady of the Sith, Darth Vidia, in her office on Courscant.
“You’re far too late, my little green friend,” the Empress sneered. “Nothing can challenge the reign of the Sith now. Not you, nor that fading lump of rock that you sent after my new apprentice, Darth Moeder. The Jedi are over! The Republic is finished! It is my Galactic Imperium now!"
“Not if something to say about it, I have. Your reign it may be, but at an end it is, and not short enough your rule was."
The Empress laughed. “Oh, Master Grogem, you have so little idea of how much our power differs, that it verges on comedy. You Jedi spent millennia training to refight the last war against the Sith, but unlike you, we evolved, we changed, we grew stronger and weakened the Republic that you served from within! And as your Order continued to cling to the Republic’s rot, it took in the contaigon as well! I am the culmination of all the Sith who have come before me, the very embodiment of the unlimited power of the Dark Side itself! And what are you then? A slimy, wrinkled, frog-thing, stuck in the past, ready to be consigned to the dust heap of history along with the rest of your fallen Order!"
“Stuck in the past we were, yes,” Yodex admitted, as he launched an acrobatic series of strikes, which the Empress easily parried with her own blade. “But build a new hope for the future, we will. The light of a single star, hold back the darkness it can. And the Dark Side consumes you from within, it does, Darth Vidia. In the end, sustain you, it cannot. The folly of the Sith, that is. Reach out for eternity, you do, but hollow yourself out, and destroy what you seek."
“We will soon be beyond any such petty limitations,” the Empress replied, unleashing a barrage of Force lightning that Yodex intercepted in his palm before turning it back on her, forcing the Empress to block it with her blade. “With Darth Moeder at my side, and years to strengthen her in the Dark Side, I will have the perfect vessel to pour my essence into when this body fails! She, or rather, I will then reign as the Second Galactic Empress - Empress Starflier! And once I have taken her as my vessel, I shall be even more powerful than ever before!”
“Then not all powerful, are you now? But what then?” Yodex asked. “Keep stealing bodies, will you, Vidia, even as your spirit continues to decay? Live forever, no being is meant to. Pass in to the Force, we all must. But only oblivion, in the end, you will find."
Cold fury settled across the Empress’s twisted face.
“You speak of how we must all pass into the Force... then so be it, Jedi! You first!”
Huge chunks of debris, ripped off the walls of the Senatorial chamber that the platform they had been fighting on had risen into during their duel, pelted Yodex. He managed to avoid most of them, but got hit in the side by one of them, sending him flying. But the Empress was right behind him, and wasted no time in blasting him with an excruciating stream of Force Lightning in the side while his concentration was momentarily disrupted.
“Now, Yodex, you little green freak...” the Empress taunted, standing above him, as wisps of smoke rose from his flesh. “You will die... along with the last remnants of the Jedi."
Force lighting once again burned into the ancient Jedi master, searing away his very life essence. But despite the agonizing pain, Yodex was not afraid, and looked up defiantly at the Empress.
“There is no Death, Empress. There is only the Force. But find you may that your plans already gone astray, they have today."
“What are you babbling about?!” Darth Vidia demanded. “You and the Jedi are powerless before me!"
“More power than you will ever know, we still have,” Yodex replied. “Endures, so hope does."
And then, Yodex’s body simply vanished into thin air, leaving only an empty pile of aged and charred robes behind.
Unable to comprehend what had just happened, the Empress furiously kept firing her lightning at the robes, setting them ablaze, as if doing so could somehow eradicate whatever remained of the Jedi Grand Master, who had to be hiding through some sort of trick. But she was rewarded with nothing but the echo of a ghostly chuckle, which sounded infuriatingly like Yodex’s voice, before it vanished, as if it had merely been her paranoid mind playing tricks on her.
But then, Darth Vidia suddenly realized the depths of her peril and her folly. No matter how much Jedi nonsense Yodex had rambled on about, he had said something that was true! Across the galaxy, Vidia sensed a terrible premonition that somehow, Darth Moeder was about to lose her duel against Opalwan! Should Moeder fall, what would happen to the perfect vessel for the Sith and her own immortality that she had spent so long cultivating?!
Filled with a sudden panic that she could never quite recall feeling before, Vidia dashed to her shuttle, along with a medical team that she summoned, giving only terse orders to the Clone Troopers she encountered on the way to thoroughly search the Senate Chambers for Yodex, and to if necessary blow up the building to make absolutely sure that he was truly dead.
“Set our course to Phlegethos V,” the Empress ordered breathlessly. “We have no time to waste."
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Chapter Seventy - Immolation and Rebirth
As the main mining facility began to collapse into the lava around them, Moeder and Opalwan were forced to head outside, navigating floating mining platforms as their duel continued across the infernal lake.
“I failed you, A’Nikori,” Opalwan admitted as their blades clashed once more. “I have truly failed you."
“You’ve only failed yourself!” Darth Moeder shouted back. “I made my choices! I destroyed A’Nikori Starflier because she was too weak to do what needed to be done, not you! This is who I truly am, beneath the lies of the Jedi!”
“I still do not believe that,” Opalwan replied. “Those are lies that the Chancellor... your new Empress told you to seduce you to the Dark Side. You must still know, deep down, that your Empress Eerabik is evil!”
“From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” Moeder snapped back.
Opalwan wanted to bang his head against a wall in exasperation. “If you truly believe that, then you are lost!"
“Enough talking, my old friend,” Moeder said. “For much longer do you think you can keep this up? You’re already tiring! Just let me finish you off and put you out of your misery!"
“I cannot do that,” Opalwan said sadly. “If you will not see reason, the task falls to me to put you out of yours, for your own good, and that of the galaxy."
Moeder leaped onto his platform, trying to drive him off, but they had drawn close to the shore of the molten lake. Using the Force to let him fly further than his heavy, crystalline body would normally allow, Opalwan leapt onto the ashen bank, which rose above the inferno below.
“It’s over, A’Nikori,” Opalwan called out, using his apprentice’s old name for what might be the last time. “I have the high ground!”
“Excuse me?” Darth Moeder sneered. “Have you truly gone senile in your final moments? Are you forgetting which of us can fly? You won’t have a chance to underestimate my power again! This is the end for you, my old Master! For the high ground is truly mine!"
With that, Darth Moeder flew high up into the air and then dove downward with blinding speed, single-mindedly aiming for a decisive, hate-fueled strike.
In that moment, Opalwan did the only thing he could do.
He let go, entrusting himself to the Force even more fully than he had done back in the control center, briefly becoming not just an extension of its will, but an avatar of the light itself, shining amid the darkness that even now tried to choke it out of the galaxy.
Empowered by the Dark Side, Moeder was faster than Opalwan had ever seen before.
But blinded by her own hatred, Moeder was a fraction of a second too slow to recognize the danger that she faced.
The radiant blue plasma of Opalwan’s blade, now seemingly the manifested divinity of the Force itself, cut through her wings, causing Moeder to lose control of her flight and drop her own lightsaber, before descending to sever the Sith Lady’s lower body.
And so Darth Moeder fell in a ruined heap upon the fiery shore, somehow still clinging to life, as if through her hatred alone, but in pain like she had never felt before.
The sight was difficult for Opalwan to watch, but he could not avert his eyes from what he had done, and all of his sorrow now came flooding out.
“A’Nikori... you were the chosen one! You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"
“I HATE YOU!!!!” Darth Moeder screeched, trying to crawl up the slope after him with the stumps of her wings, in spite of her injuries, like a being possessed.
But then the heat of the fiery lake just below her ignited Moeder’s robes, and them Moeder herself, flames lapping hungrily at her flesh.
This was even more agonizing for Opalwan to watch, seeing his former apprentice in such a state, no matter how necessary it had been.
“You were like a sister to me, A’Nikori! I loved you!” Opalwan cried out to her.
“LIAR!” the ablaze Moder shouted back, her voice becoming raspy as her airways burned. “YOU MOCK ME AS YOU STAND THERE GLOATING! OR PERHAPS YOU DARE PITY ME? I WILL KILL YOU, EVEN IF IT’s THE LAST THING I DO!"
For a moment, Opalwan considered heading down the slope to Moeder, as a final act of mercy to his fallen apprentice. But then, he heard a familiar voice in his mind, offering words of warning.
“Delay her for a time, I did, but the Empress arrives, Opalwan. My body, I have lost, but joined the Force, I have. Little time left, there is. Survive you and Akanno must."
Looking down at Modeler’s burning form one last time, Opalwan knew that he had to let go one last time.
Terrible as her injuries were, Moeder would almost certainly die a horrible death, alone, upon the shore in a short time. But by any rights, she should have been long past dead already. If she somehow survived, she would undoubtedly return to wreak a terrible vengeance upon the galaxy, and would never stop pursuing him.
But that was out of his hands now. It was entirely up to the will of the Force, inscrutable as it could be.
And it was also the will of the Force that prompted him to call Moeder/A'Nikori’s former lightsaber to his hand. He did not understand why in that moment, but he somehow sensed that it was important that he do so.
With that, he turned, and headed to rescue Akkano before the Empress could arrive.
But Opalwan did not cross paths with the Empress, even as she made her own way down to the shore with all possible haste.
“Your Majesty!” a clone trooper called out.
“She’s still alive!” the Empress said, letting out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding. “Bring the medical capsule, immediately!"
She bent down over Darth Moeder’s scorched form, examining it, and willing her daughter to live. Not out of any maternal instincts, of course. The damage was extensive, far too extensive in fact for Darth Moeder to serve as a suitable vessel for her powers now. But Moeder could be repurposed, and reconstructed into a most terrifying enforcer, if she could just survive for a while longer... Extensive cybernetics would no doubt be needed to replace those portions of her body that were now beyond repair, and those would in some ways blunt Moeder’s connection to the Force... but in other ways, the torment of her condition would nourish her growth in the Dark Side anew...
“You, as always, are mine, my daughter...” Eerabik said, stroking Moeder’s charred feathers in a twisted mockery of maternal affection.
Coruscant, Newly Renamed Empress Eerabik Surgical Reconstruction Center
Darth Vidia personally oversaw every step of the process. Charred flesh that was beyond use was excised. Cybernetic implants were installed and hardwired into Lady Moeder’s nervous system. Her lungs had been ruined, so mechanical pumps would breathe for her from now on...And all of it would be encased in a magnificent suit, designed to showcase the power and terror of the Sith.
Even in her daughter’s ruined state, the suit at least was glorious, protecting the greatest treasure of the Sith... save for her own power, of course.
And then, the mask that would forevermore serve as Darth Moeder’s fearsome visage to the galaxy, while providing a hermetically sealed environment in which she could survive, descended over her scarred face. Modeled after a plague doctor’s mask of old, it was a sign that all would wither next to the power of the Dark Side.
With a hiss, the mask locked itself into place, and then the reborn Darth Moeder took her first breaths with her new life-support suit.
Yes, this would do, Darth Vidia thought.
“Lady Moeder... can you hear me, daughter?” the Dark Lady of the Sith asked.
“Yes, my Mistress,” Darth Moeder replied, her now artificial voice sounding hollow.
“Then rise, Lady Moeder."
The platform elevated and turned around so that Moeder faced her Empress.
Everything came rushing back to Moeder, even through her new existence that was wracked with pain. She remembered the fight with Opalwan, burning on the shore of the lake of fire, and before that...
“Akkano... my old apprentice.... is she safe... is she alright?” she asked. She remembered hurting her in anger, and in the moment she had even wanted to do it, but now, if there was any chance...
Vidia looked at her reborn apprentice with disgust. Moeder was still clinging to her old Jedi ties? An unacceptable weakness for a Sith. Yet even they could be turned to further her growth in the Dark Side.
“Lady Moeder... it appears that in your anger, you killed her,” Darth Vidia lied. In truth, she hadn’t given Akkano a second thought in her rush to save her apprentice, and knew not if she truly lived or not... though she could not sense her presence, at the moment.
“I... couldn’t have... my apprentice was alive, I felt it! You liar!” Darth Moeder raged.
Unleashing her fury, machinery all around them began to crumple and implode.
But the Empress remained untouched.
For all of her raw power, Moeder suddenly realized that she could no longer touch the Force quite as she had used to. She remembered where it was and how to use it, but it was like she had gone blind, groping in the dark for it, or that she was a deafened composer, struggling to hear the notes that had once formed such a beautiful, clear melody to her.
And in the end, she did not truly want to touch the Empress with her all-destructive powers.
For after she had betrayed everyone else, the Empress was the only one she had left, the only person who could possibly understand her and help her through this all-encompassing pain that was now her life.
But Moeder realized one other thing.
She hadn’t destroyed A’Nikori’s weaknesses when she became Darth Moeder.
They had destroyed her.
And now, she would have to live with the consequences of that.
Forever.
“I failed you, A’Nikori,” Opalwan admitted as their blades clashed once more. “I have truly failed you."
“You’ve only failed yourself!” Darth Moeder shouted back. “I made my choices! I destroyed A’Nikori Starflier because she was too weak to do what needed to be done, not you! This is who I truly am, beneath the lies of the Jedi!”
“I still do not believe that,” Opalwan replied. “Those are lies that the Chancellor... your new Empress told you to seduce you to the Dark Side. You must still know, deep down, that your Empress Eerabik is evil!”
“From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” Moeder snapped back.
Opalwan wanted to bang his head against a wall in exasperation. “If you truly believe that, then you are lost!"
“Enough talking, my old friend,” Moeder said. “For much longer do you think you can keep this up? You’re already tiring! Just let me finish you off and put you out of your misery!"
“I cannot do that,” Opalwan said sadly. “If you will not see reason, the task falls to me to put you out of yours, for your own good, and that of the galaxy."
Moeder leaped onto his platform, trying to drive him off, but they had drawn close to the shore of the molten lake. Using the Force to let him fly further than his heavy, crystalline body would normally allow, Opalwan leapt onto the ashen bank, which rose above the inferno below.
“It’s over, A’Nikori,” Opalwan called out, using his apprentice’s old name for what might be the last time. “I have the high ground!”
“Excuse me?” Darth Moeder sneered. “Have you truly gone senile in your final moments? Are you forgetting which of us can fly? You won’t have a chance to underestimate my power again! This is the end for you, my old Master! For the high ground is truly mine!"
With that, Darth Moeder flew high up into the air and then dove downward with blinding speed, single-mindedly aiming for a decisive, hate-fueled strike.
In that moment, Opalwan did the only thing he could do.
He let go, entrusting himself to the Force even more fully than he had done back in the control center, briefly becoming not just an extension of its will, but an avatar of the light itself, shining amid the darkness that even now tried to choke it out of the galaxy.
Empowered by the Dark Side, Moeder was faster than Opalwan had ever seen before.
But blinded by her own hatred, Moeder was a fraction of a second too slow to recognize the danger that she faced.
The radiant blue plasma of Opalwan’s blade, now seemingly the manifested divinity of the Force itself, cut through her wings, causing Moeder to lose control of her flight and drop her own lightsaber, before descending to sever the Sith Lady’s lower body.
And so Darth Moeder fell in a ruined heap upon the fiery shore, somehow still clinging to life, as if through her hatred alone, but in pain like she had never felt before.
The sight was difficult for Opalwan to watch, but he could not avert his eyes from what he had done, and all of his sorrow now came flooding out.
“A’Nikori... you were the chosen one! You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"
“I HATE YOU!!!!” Darth Moeder screeched, trying to crawl up the slope after him with the stumps of her wings, in spite of her injuries, like a being possessed.
But then the heat of the fiery lake just below her ignited Moeder’s robes, and them Moeder herself, flames lapping hungrily at her flesh.
This was even more agonizing for Opalwan to watch, seeing his former apprentice in such a state, no matter how necessary it had been.
“You were like a sister to me, A’Nikori! I loved you!” Opalwan cried out to her.
“LIAR!” the ablaze Moder shouted back, her voice becoming raspy as her airways burned. “YOU MOCK ME AS YOU STAND THERE GLOATING! OR PERHAPS YOU DARE PITY ME? I WILL KILL YOU, EVEN IF IT’s THE LAST THING I DO!"
For a moment, Opalwan considered heading down the slope to Moeder, as a final act of mercy to his fallen apprentice. But then, he heard a familiar voice in his mind, offering words of warning.
“Delay her for a time, I did, but the Empress arrives, Opalwan. My body, I have lost, but joined the Force, I have. Little time left, there is. Survive you and Akanno must."
Looking down at Modeler’s burning form one last time, Opalwan knew that he had to let go one last time.
Terrible as her injuries were, Moeder would almost certainly die a horrible death, alone, upon the shore in a short time. But by any rights, she should have been long past dead already. If she somehow survived, she would undoubtedly return to wreak a terrible vengeance upon the galaxy, and would never stop pursuing him.
But that was out of his hands now. It was entirely up to the will of the Force, inscrutable as it could be.
And it was also the will of the Force that prompted him to call Moeder/A'Nikori’s former lightsaber to his hand. He did not understand why in that moment, but he somehow sensed that it was important that he do so.
With that, he turned, and headed to rescue Akkano before the Empress could arrive.
But Opalwan did not cross paths with the Empress, even as she made her own way down to the shore with all possible haste.
“Your Majesty!” a clone trooper called out.
“She’s still alive!” the Empress said, letting out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding. “Bring the medical capsule, immediately!"
She bent down over Darth Moeder’s scorched form, examining it, and willing her daughter to live. Not out of any maternal instincts, of course. The damage was extensive, far too extensive in fact for Darth Moeder to serve as a suitable vessel for her powers now. But Moeder could be repurposed, and reconstructed into a most terrifying enforcer, if she could just survive for a while longer... Extensive cybernetics would no doubt be needed to replace those portions of her body that were now beyond repair, and those would in some ways blunt Moeder’s connection to the Force... but in other ways, the torment of her condition would nourish her growth in the Dark Side anew...
“You, as always, are mine, my daughter...” Eerabik said, stroking Moeder’s charred feathers in a twisted mockery of maternal affection.
Coruscant, Newly Renamed Empress Eerabik Surgical Reconstruction Center
Darth Vidia personally oversaw every step of the process. Charred flesh that was beyond use was excised. Cybernetic implants were installed and hardwired into Lady Moeder’s nervous system. Her lungs had been ruined, so mechanical pumps would breathe for her from now on...And all of it would be encased in a magnificent suit, designed to showcase the power and terror of the Sith.
Even in her daughter’s ruined state, the suit at least was glorious, protecting the greatest treasure of the Sith... save for her own power, of course.
And then, the mask that would forevermore serve as Darth Moeder’s fearsome visage to the galaxy, while providing a hermetically sealed environment in which she could survive, descended over her scarred face. Modeled after a plague doctor’s mask of old, it was a sign that all would wither next to the power of the Dark Side.
With a hiss, the mask locked itself into place, and then the reborn Darth Moeder took her first breaths with her new life-support suit.
Yes, this would do, Darth Vidia thought.
“Lady Moeder... can you hear me, daughter?” the Dark Lady of the Sith asked.
“Yes, my Mistress,” Darth Moeder replied, her now artificial voice sounding hollow.
“Then rise, Lady Moeder."
The platform elevated and turned around so that Moeder faced her Empress.
Everything came rushing back to Moeder, even through her new existence that was wracked with pain. She remembered the fight with Opalwan, burning on the shore of the lake of fire, and before that...
“Akkano... my old apprentice.... is she safe... is she alright?” she asked. She remembered hurting her in anger, and in the moment she had even wanted to do it, but now, if there was any chance...
Vidia looked at her reborn apprentice with disgust. Moeder was still clinging to her old Jedi ties? An unacceptable weakness for a Sith. Yet even they could be turned to further her growth in the Dark Side.
“Lady Moeder... it appears that in your anger, you killed her,” Darth Vidia lied. In truth, she hadn’t given Akkano a second thought in her rush to save her apprentice, and knew not if she truly lived or not... though she could not sense her presence, at the moment.
“I... couldn’t have... my apprentice was alive, I felt it! You liar!” Darth Moeder raged.
Unleashing her fury, machinery all around them began to crumple and implode.
But the Empress remained untouched.
For all of her raw power, Moeder suddenly realized that she could no longer touch the Force quite as she had used to. She remembered where it was and how to use it, but it was like she had gone blind, groping in the dark for it, or that she was a deafened composer, struggling to hear the notes that had once formed such a beautiful, clear melody to her.
And in the end, she did not truly want to touch the Empress with her all-destructive powers.
For after she had betrayed everyone else, the Empress was the only one she had left, the only person who could possibly understand her and help her through this all-encompassing pain that was now her life.
But Moeder realized one other thing.
She hadn’t destroyed A’Nikori’s weaknesses when she became Darth Moeder.
They had destroyed her.
And now, she would have to live with the consequences of that.
Forever.
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The circle is now complete. And we get to see that awesome Darth Moeder art again, too!
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Finale: A New Hope and the Rise of the Imperium
“Opalwan, how is young Akkano?” the spirit of the late Jedi Grandmaster, Yodex Grogem inquired, aboard a friendly vessel that they had switched onto after leaving the fiery hell of Phelgetthos V behind them.
“Her injuries at Moeder’s talons were severe, but she’s recovering in a medical bay modeled after one of the old Yuht Cryo Cores,” Opalwan replied. “The medical staff expect her to eventually make a full recovery."
“News most welcome, that is,” Yodex’s spirit replied. “Terrible it is, what we have lost. But prepare new hope for the future, we must. Teach you, I will, how to maintain your awareness within the Force, and live on within it, when your time comes, Opalwan. Forever elude the Empress, this technique will, for too prideful is she to ever by herself realize it. Thus, for a new generation preserve the knowledge and traditions of the Jedi, we will, what no comes no matter will."
“But who is there to train who could oppose the Empress and Moeder now?” Opalwan asked.
“Patience, Opalwan,” Yodex counseled. “Ascendant the Empress’s Imperium may be, but the Dark Side its own undoing tends to be. Create an opportunity for hope, our enemy herself will. Then find and nurture it, we must. Until then, into hiding we must go, until right, the time is."
“This is Darth Moeder,” Empress Eerabik announced to the assembled admirals of the Imperial Armada, with Grand Moff Jamshidi standing to their side. “Or, as you may address her, 'Lady Moeder’. Any commands from her are to be understood as carrying my own authority, and she will act to directly supervise military affairs in my stead when my attention is required elsewhere, or the usual command structures prove insufficient to the task."
The Empress paused, and spoke softly when she continued. “Yet I sense that some of you are not pleased with the New Order that we have established. Those are treasonous thoughts, when have finally put the chaos of the Clone Wars behind us, and are on the verge of conquering the decrepit Fallen Empires in the Unknown Regions once and for all. You would plunge us back into civil war, out of some misplaced sense of idealism, or loyalty to the old ways that had already crumbled beyond repair before I saved what remained of the Republic by reorganizing it into our glorious new Galactic Imperium. Thus, Lady Moeder is also here to ensure that everyone gathered here understands the consequences of disloyalty or incompetence. Neither shall have any place in my New Order. Darth Moeder, if you would."
“As you wish, my Mistress,” a mechanical voice intoned from under Moeder’s black armored suit.
At once, several admirals began choking, as if their windpipes were being crushed in an invisible fist. Moments later, they fell to the floor, dead.
Those that remained looked back and forth at each other, and fearfully at Moeder.
“As our new Empress and Lady Moeder have made abundantly clear, things will be done differently from now on,” Grand Moff Jamshidi said. “I suggest you all redouble your efforts and ensure that your loyalty to the Imperium is unimpeachable from this day forward. For Lady Moeder will not tolerate any excuses that you might make to her."
From Rothana now emerged a seemingly endless stream of new Imperial-class star Destroyers, an evolution of the Imperator class, which would enforce the Empress’s will across the galaxy, being omnipresent in a way that the Death Star could not.
The DAAR were the next ancient Empire to fall to the Galactic Imperium, smashed by Lady Moeder’s iron taloned-fist.
A new Imperial starfighter, the V-Wing Interceptor, made its debut at this battle, representing an evolution of Imperial military doctrine. More lightly armored but faster and more maneuverable than the Y-Wing or ARC-170 that had come before it, the V-Wing could be deployed in even greater numbers, an advantage the Imperium was eager to leverage in future iterations of the concept.
The forces of the Minnerian Remnant provided stiffer resistance to the Imperial Armada, destroying many aging Venators, but the Imperium’s advance was relentless, and they too were ground to dust by the gears of its war machine.
Soon, the only ancient empire that remained was the Dabulan Chroniclers, along the southern edge of the Galactic Core.
Darth Moeder personally led the assault upon the Dabulan’s worlds from her flagship, and even joined the fray in a starfighter customized according to her own specifications, an act that earned her no small amount of respect from the regular clones and enlisted soldiers in the Imperial Armada, even as the officers feared her.
And when it came time to invade the Dabulan’s vaunted Font of Knowledge, Moeder was right there alongside the Imperium’s frontline troops, her terrifying presence and powers causing the Dabulan’s ranks to break in fear.
It was almost as an afterthought that the Empress ordered the destruction of the Gray Tempest’s central factory. But it was no longer needed to frighten the galaxy into granting her still further powers. All it would serve as now was an unneeded disruptive element in the order that her Imperium would create.
A few last, random machine rebellions, desperate last gasps of the defeated Separatists trying to establish any kind of foothold again, had to be mopped after the fall of the Tempest, but they were ultimately without consequence.
Save for a few isolated star systems that remained to formally be claimed with Imperial outposts, the entire galaxy was now under the Imperium’s control. Maybe not personally under the Empress’s direct authority quite yet... many systems nominally retained internal self-governance, while recognizing the Empress’s ultimate authority on galactic affairs. But that was a relic of the Republic era that would be dismantled in time. Soon, they would all be subsumed and fully integrated into the Galactic Imperium.
Of course, there were also still small pockets of surviving Jedi, or would be-rebels that would crop up from time to time. But it was Moeder’s job to track them down, and crush their hopes whenever they appeared.
Yet in spite of the Imperium’s seeming stranglehold on the galaxy, not all was truly lost, and what Yodex had foreseen would indeed come to pass. Desperate to have a new vessel for her spirit, the Empress would eventually consent to the creation of an enhanced clone of Moeder, which her apprentice secretly hoped to turn against her and raise as her own daughter and apprentice. Yet through a change of heart on the part of the one tasked with transporting the clone from the Empress’s secret facilities to Moeder, it was instead brought to the remote desert world of Zynntooine, where Opalwan had gone into hiding.
This clone, or as it would be better known, ‘The Hatchling’, while born from the Empress’s dark bloodline, would ultimately prove to be her undoing, and light the way for Moeder’s future redemption.
But that is another story: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...aga-ii-rebellion-the-imperium-at-war.1523395/
And so the circle is once again complete... unless the Empress, eventually discovering and delving through through the astral rifts, seeks one last desperate attempt to avoid her fated defeat in that timeline, and those like it, by preventing them from ever coming to pass at all: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...al-planes-ironman-saga.1620224/#post-29348513
Nothing less than the utter conquest and rewriting of reality, across every possible multiverse, would suffice to ensure her immortal existence now.
FIN.
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Now THAT'S a villainous introduction! Terrifying.
Victory to the
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End-Game Scores and Stats
Victory Leaderboards at Campaign End
Top 13 Sectors at Endgame
Endgame Leaders (Selected)
Top 13 Sectors at Endgame
Endgame Leaders (Selected)
(After just shy of a year, I’m glad to finally be able to bring this AAR to a successful conclusion! My health and other circumstances in my life proved challenging during that timeframe, and I’m not fully behind them yet, but I am continuing to progress and endure them, with a good prognosis for the future. Hopefully, I will be able to work on bringing some of my other AARs to completion, or introduce some new ones, now that A Clone Wars Ironman Saga is finally finished. But as always, thanks for sticking with me, and thanks for reading!)
Congratulations on completing the Clone Wars! Hope you fully recover soon.
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@CBR JGWRR
(Thanks. I’ve actually been battling cancer since July 2023 (really, it was there by June 2023 at the latest, but I hadn’t quite identified it as such by then, so I hadn’t started to fight it yet). It had been in check since my initial surgery, but it came back early this summer to a pair of my lymph nodes, so I started chemotherapy a few weeks ago. I’m going to finish my second of four chemo rounds today, then have two weeks off before the third round starts in mid-August, with the last round occurring some time in September, if my blood tests show that I’m in good enough condition to stick to that schedule. So far at least, I’m tolerating the chemotherapy remarkably well, and my particular form of cancer has one of the highest successful rates for a good prognosis (~96% in my current stage of its progression), so I remain optimistic, and hope to bring more Stellaris stories to you soon).
(The flip side is that monitoring for my condition is something I will simply have to live with, likely for the rest of my life, since cancer can always come back, but with any luck, the chemo will eradicate the disease in my nodes and wherever else it might try to hide in my bloodstream. And I was able to catch it early last year, before it could turn into a more serious stage of cancer, while monitoring likewise caught it this year while it was just at the nearby lymph nodes, but before it could spread to a more vital area.)
(Thanks. I’ve actually been battling cancer since July 2023 (really, it was there by June 2023 at the latest, but I hadn’t quite identified it as such by then, so I hadn’t started to fight it yet). It had been in check since my initial surgery, but it came back early this summer to a pair of my lymph nodes, so I started chemotherapy a few weeks ago. I’m going to finish my second of four chemo rounds today, then have two weeks off before the third round starts in mid-August, with the last round occurring some time in September, if my blood tests show that I’m in good enough condition to stick to that schedule. So far at least, I’m tolerating the chemotherapy remarkably well, and my particular form of cancer has one of the highest successful rates for a good prognosis (~96% in my current stage of its progression), so I remain optimistic, and hope to bring more Stellaris stories to you soon).
(The flip side is that monitoring for my condition is something I will simply have to live with, likely for the rest of my life, since cancer can always come back, but with any luck, the chemo will eradicate the disease in my nodes and wherever else it might try to hide in my bloodstream. And I was able to catch it early last year, before it could turn into a more serious stage of cancer, while monitoring likewise caught it this year while it was just at the nearby lymph nodes, but before it could spread to a more vital area.)
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Sorry to learn this @Arithmetician, glad it has been detected and treated so early. All the best.
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Does Moeder know that Vidia intends to steal her body?
I loved Opalwan claiming that he had the high ground over an avian... and then actually enforcing it. The high ground means something to a wingless avian!
I loved that ending.
Congrats on seizing control over the galaxy!
I loved Opalwan claiming that he had the high ground over an avian... and then actually enforcing it. The high ground means something to a wingless avian!
I loved that ending.
Congrats on seizing control over the galaxy!
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@HistoryDude
(Moeder doesn’t know that as of the time of this AAR.)
(Glad that you enjoyed the AAR!)
(Moeder doesn’t know that as of the time of this AAR.)
(Glad that you enjoyed the AAR!)
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