Chapter Text
The 15th Brother watched as the woman panted as blood trickled down her face, which was illuminated in yellow by the glow of a lightsaber. She was surrounded by a horde of Trandoshans, and at her feet lay dozens that she had already slain. Suddenly he was grabbed by an unseen force and carried away as the horde charged the woman.
Then the scene faded, and was quickly replaced by another, of a burning jungle. So vivid that he could hear the crackling of the burning trees and could even feel the heat coming off of them.
The 15th Brother found himself unable to control his own body as it began to run deeper into the jungle. He wasn’t sure where he was going, he just knew it was important that he got there. In the distance a house grew closer and closer. When he reached it, he slipped in through a back door with a familiarity that he didn’t understand.
The house was a wreck, where the front door should have been, instead was a gaping hole. On the floor crawled the man wearing a distinctive brown robe. Looming over the man was the dark figure, wielding a red lightsaber. The dark figure extended its arm, and the man levitated off the floor. Lifted up by an invisible force concentrated around the man’s neck. The man struggled to breath but was able to open his mouth to answer a question. For whatever reason, the 15th Brother was unable to hear whatever words the two exchanged. He was suddenly filled with an inexplicable and desperate need to protect the man and reached out with the force. The dark figure’s lightsaber flew out of its hand and landed in his own hands. He noticed then that they were those of a young child.
The dark figure turned towards him while still telekinetically holding up the man, who frantically chocked out a single word that this time the 15th Brother was able to hear.
“Run,” the man implored, then the dark figure closed its hand into a fist crushing the man’s windpipe.
The 15th Brother woke up in a cold sweat; these same dreams had haunted him for years. He wasn’t sure what they meant and also didn’t know who the man or the woman were that showed up prominently in them. Part of his mind was certain they were important, but anytime he tried to recall more details about them, it gave him a painful headache.
He contemplated going back to sleep, but his commlink started beeping, which killed that idea.
He got out of bed, grabbed the device, and activated it, “This is the 15th Brother, what is it,” trying his best not to sound groggy.
“Report to the audience chamber for assignment,” the mechanical voice on the other end answered.
The 15th Brother quickly got dressed in the outfit that had been provided to him when he first was transferred to the group. Below the rest of the outfit was a gray long sleeved shirt with a red line on the sleeves, and black pants. His torso and shoulders were encased in black armor; the lower torso was made of plates that almost looked like ribs. Connected to the rest of the armor was a combat skirt slit at his hip that went down to his boots and had a red interior. Vambraces protected his forearms, and gloves covered his hands the fingers fitted with claws.
He clipped the lightsaber that had also been provided to him onto his belt and grabbed his helmet. He stared into the red t-visor for a moment before he placed it upon his head. Fully prepared he left the room and began to make his way to the chamber deep within the fortress.
As he walked the halls, he wondered what the fortress had been like back in its glory days, given now it was just a pale shadow. As the number of surviving Jedi dwindled, as well as the growing attrition of inquisitors, let alone the multiple infiltrations, and the decommissioning of the few remaining purge troopers, the fortress’s importance had steadily fallen. The latest blow to the organization was the loss of the Grand Inquisitor, with most of the other surviving inquisitors gunning to replace him.
Finally he reached the hall outside the audience chamber, he hadn't been an inquisitor long, so this would be the first time he met the elusive master of the organization. He didn’t know much about them either aside from being called Lord Vader and that they were remarkably close to the Emperor.
He steeled himself as best as he could and entered the room. There was an elevated platform on the other side of the room, with stairs leading up to it. On the walls surrounding the platform were windows of various shapes, revealing underwater scenery beyond them. He then noticed a throne at the back of the platform, an occupied one. He quickly knelt, whoever sat in the throne was making the room colder simply by being present, that was how strong in the dark side they were. He also could hear that they had a distinctive and consistent mechanical breath.
“Rise inquisitor,” they ordered in a deep mechanical male voice.
The 15th Brother got to his feet and looked upon his new master, and a shudder came over him. Lord Vader was unmistakably the dark figure that had haunted his dreams all these years. He wasn’t sure if Vader could feel his fear, if Vader could, he made no sign of acknowledging it.
“It is time to face your first true test; reports indicate that insurgents intend to imminently launch an attack on an important imperial shipyard,” Vader interrupted his thought process by saying.
The 15th Brother thought about questioning how this attack was relevant for jedi hunters, but figured that wasn’t a wise idea.
Vader continued the briefing, “According to the reports these insurgents are led by a Jedi, destroy them all. You are to leave at once.”
The 15th Brother bowed and responded, “As you wish, my master,” then turned and left the room.
He headed straight for the hanger but was still reeling from the revelation that Vader had some connection to his dreams. He buried these doubts for now, determined to focus on his mission, he needed to prove himself. He passed numerous stormtroopers as he walked, most were guarding doors and rooms or patrolling.
As he went past the training dojo, his thoughts wandered to the closest thing he had to friend in the fortress. However he didn’t have time to stop for a quick match as much as he wanted to.
He finally reached the top of the fortress where the hanger was and had to survey the plethora of ships present to find his. There were a few Imperial Troop Transports, and a few Lamda shuttles, one in particular had a central position within the hanger, which led him to believe it was Vader’s shuttle. He also saw the Scythe, one of the inquisitors dedicated ships, but that was for group missions. Attached to the ceiling were racks with TIE fighters docked to them. In the corner there was a launch pad for probe droids with hyperdrive pods to get them across the galaxy.
Then his eyes settled on the ships set aside for solo missions, his being among them. Like the other inquisitors he’d been provided with an experimental TIE fighter, one equipped with a hyperdrive and shields. Another oddity for these TIE fighters was that the s-foils could fold in when parked. He was able to figure out which was his by the number printed to the right of the viewport.
He pressed a button and the hatch at the top of the ship popped open. One of the technicians grabbed a ladder and placed it against the ship. The 15th Brother climbed up the ladder and lowered himself into the cockpit.
He got comfortable in the seat and started flipping switches and pressing buttons to power up the ship. It hummed to life as more and more electronics were turned on. As he prepped the ship for takeoff, he looked around the rest of the hanger. He watched some of the TIE pilots that belonged to the garrison milling around. He had to admit; he liked how the flight suit looked and hoped someday he could get a chance to wear one.
The preparations complete he grasped the controls and pulled the ship up off the hangar floor. He slowly flew it out of the hangar, only briefly stopping and hovering for the mandatory scan before he fully left the hangar and started climbing.
The fortress got smaller and smaller below him as he shot for orbit. Once in space, he realized Vader had never actually told him which shipyard was being attacked or even which planet to go to. Luckily as he fiddled with the navigation computer, he discovered that the coordinates had been pre-programmed before he left.
So he punched them in and entered hyperspace, destination Nar Shadda.
Juno groaned when her chronometer started going off, waking her from her sleep. She hit the snooze button and then rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling of her room for a few minutes. It was 0500, so she technically still had an hour before she actually needed to be up. But she hadn’t gotten this far by putting in the same amount of effort as a normal soldier, she’d done it by exceeding her peers. Or at least that was how things were before, now she wasn’t sure if it was still worth it.
She hadn’t completely fallen off her routine of taking a jog in the morning, but she just wasn’t feeling up to it this particular morning. So instead when she rolled out of bed she headed straight for the refresher to take a shower. At least being “promoted” to leader of one of the shipyard’s TIE fighter squadrons had some perks.
After her shower she put on her dress uniform, making sure to affix her captain rank pin. She never really cared for the uniform and had always preferred a flight suit. But her squad wasn’t scheduled for any training, and she wasn’t doing any test piloting.
So instead she went to the mess hall to eat breakfast and mingle with the other pilots. Well attempt to mingle, her transfer was recent enough that she wasn’t fully accepted by the others. It also didn’t help that some were aware that she had previously served with an elite squadron before her reassignment. So some suspected she had somehow displeased the higher ups, and they wouldn’t gain anything from being friendly with her.
Her assumption ended up correct, she ended up at a table eating alone. At least the squad listened to her when they were in their fighters, respecting the chain of command. But she missed the comradery she felt back in her previous squad. Though she also couldn’t help but notice that none of them had reached out since her departure.
She hadn’t felt this alone in a long time, not to mention it was obvious this post was meant to be an unofficial end to her career. She was able to keep a brave face on, but the truth was that she was utterly lost.
To help bury these feelings she went to her squadron’s hangar to tinker with her fighter. There was only so much one could do with the basic TIE fighter, given it was meant to be mass produced and as simple as possible. Still she had been able to make small improvements, such as getting a slightly faster speed and quicker start up. She hoped to someday tinker with a larger or more sophisticated ship, more options for modification.
She had taken off her jacket and slung it over the back of the chair in her TIE’s cockpit. She hadn’t actually pulled her tie off of the rack it was attached to, mainly because that would involve making a formal request to move it to the hangar floor. And as much as part of her wanted to because it would allow her to mess with her ship more, she didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
The TIEs faced towards the magnetic shield that separated the inside of the hangar from the vacuum of space. Because of this Juno was able to see when a Venator-class Star Destroyer suddenly jumped into the system. At first, she was confused, as Venator’s had been phased out of service years ago. But then she noticed it had the old Republic colors rather than the Imperial gray. She didn’t have time to react before it opened fire on the facility. The klaxons started wailing and one of the officers over the intercoms ordered the facility to battle stations.