Nightmare of the Empire

Chapter 1 – The Warblade

Chapter Start

Above Korriban

Naruto sighed in relaxation as he gazed out the windscreen of an Imperial assault shuttle. His yellow pupils surveying the planet of Korriban; home of the infamous Sith Academy and his final destination. The journey from Ziost to Korriban had been a long one.

As the ship exited the Dreadnought, he thought his life up until now. How it all began.

Flashback

"Look Naru, did you see that?" An excited voice of a 10 year old asked.

"Yes, Vaylin. Just like that." A younger Naruto said as he helped Vaylin Tirell, his princess, slowly go through her training katas. One might wonder why he was helping a princess. Well Naruto was the son of Kushina, the head of the Scions, and Minato, a prominent member of the Knights of Zakuul. His parents were personal friends with Senya Tirall, a member of the Immortal Emperor's personal guard, and his wife. Thus, he had certain privileges that others did not. Like being able to interact and play with the Emperor's children. Arcann did not like him at all. Thexan was okay with him, but it was Vaylin he was closest with.

"Let's try a simple Force Push. Like this," Naruto showed her as he gave a weak Force Push on a suit of armor hanging from a tree. It swung back and forth. He waited until it stopped swinging and turned to his friend.

"Now, you try, Vay." Naruto said, using her pet nickname.

Vaylin tried to use a Force Push was unsuccessful. She tried again and nothing happened. After three more times, she was getting angry and screamed at the top of her lungs, unleashing a Force Wave that blew Naruto into a tree.

Vaylin, realizing what she had done, rushed over to him. "Naruto, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-I-I Don't, She stammered.

"Vaylin, I'm okay. I'm okay," Naruto reassured her. He pulled himself up and pulled her into a hug.

"Vaylin, listen. Nobody is automatically good at this when they first start." Naruto whispered as he pulled her into a hug.

"But, I don't understand. I've been using the Force my entire life. Why can't I use a simple Force Push!?" She demanded, frustrated that she couldn't do it.

"Vaylin, I know that me and Thexan make it look so easy, but it wasn't easy for us. It took me time to learn how to do it. Here, let me show you." Naruto said.

Naruto unbound himself from his friend and closed his eyes, staying perfectly still as he said, "I feel the force around me. In the trees, in the grass, in the water, in me. I feel it, and I concentrate." Naruto held out his hands as visible force energy gather in his hands.

"And I tell myself that the only limitations that I have are the ones I place on myself. And then I aim it and release!" Naruto said as he sent the blast of Fore Energy at the a tree. The moment it hit the tree, it shattered into a thousand pieces, making Vaylin stare in awe.

"Now, try it like I did." Naruto said, and Vaylin closed her eyes. She concentrated, feeling the Force within her. She gathered the energy in her hands, and was happy that the Force energy was visible. She then aimed it a tree and released the energy, with it hitting and breaking a tree.

Vaylin smiled as she finally got it.

"Very good, Vaylin. Very Good," He complimented her. He honestly hoped she would always be the sweet innocent girl who was his friend.

Flashback end

Naruto was brought out of his musing as they broke through the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, when they turned 13, Vaylin officially started training with the Knights of Zakuul. Naruto had tried to tell Senya that she needed to ease Vaylin into this, but Senya did not listen. And a few weeks into her training, she got frustrated and accidently killed the guards she was training with. Something that her father saw. Not long after, his parents died, and Valkorion took the excuse to exile him. Naruto never knew why. He wasn't even allowed to say goodbye to Vaylin.

The two knights sent with him had orders to kill him. They tried to after entering the Outer Rim. Unfortunately for them, they did not count on the fact that Naruto was skilled enough to take them easily. He killed them.

He considered going back but he had been exiled. He needed to gain power, strength, a power base. He needed to become so powerful that he could go back and save Vaylin from whatever was Valkorion was doing to her on Nathema. He could sense her pain.

He had to choose between Jedi and Sith. It was obvious which one he had to join. He chose to join the Sith. To do so, he had to be careful and insert himself into the Sith Empire. It was easier than he thought. Naruto hacked into Imperial Databases and made all the necessary changes to make him the secret son of two recently deceased Sith Lords. Which allowed him to enter the Training Facilities on Ziost. A special privilege allowed for those born in the Empire. To better prepare themselves for the Trials on Korriban.

Naruto trained for 4 years. Lightsaber dueling, force abilities, warfare, politics, History of the Empire and the Sith Order, Imperial Culture. Naruto pushed himself to his limits. He absorbed all the knowledge he learned.

He also found himself liking the Empire. He considered it better than Zakuul, at any rate.

The acolyte felt the shuttle land and stood to leave. Two soldiers, one male and one female, also rose ready to escort him to the academy.

Once the ramp had descended Naruto stepped off the shuttle and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the harsh sunlight. After walking a few paces, he turned to the soldiers behind him and dismissed them with a wave of his hand, they bowed and left. Naruto then continued inside the hangar and was greeted by a dark skinned middle aged human male.

"At last, you've arrived. Good, there is much to do, and every moment is critical." he said. "I am Overseer Tremel and I will be administering your trials, like I have for several decades to ensure that only the very strongest join the ranks of the Sith."

"You need not worry Overseer, I shall not disappoint you" Naruto replied coolly.

Tremel nodded. "Good. You are here and ahead of schedule because of me. I expect you to obey." Naruto nodded but thought that he would only obey the overseer as long as he could help him to become Sith, then after that he would be nothing to the blonde haired acolyte.

Tremel continued on, "You face your trials and you serve me. In return, I shall make you the most powerful acolyte here."

"You had better make sure of that, overseer."

Ignoring this Tremel continued "The trials themselves are challenging enough. But they are not the greatest threat that you will face. There is an acolyte here called Vemrin, he is your rival and he will try to kill you. We must prepare you."

Naruto replied, "Let him try. I'll destroy him."

"With my guidance, someday you shall crush all of your enemy's. That practice sword you arrived with is insufficient. You need a more dominating weapon. In the tomb of Ajunta Pall there is an ancient armory, where I placed a strong Sith Warblade from the Great Hyperspace War an hour ago. It awaits you there. Once you have retrieved it, return to my chambers in the academy building." Tremel said.

Naruto nodded and turned to leave, however before he could the overseer called out to him, "Be mindful of the Klor Slugs, they have been the end of many an acolyte." As the acolyte left the hangar he called back to Tremel "If they lack the instinct to avoid me, I shall feed them their heads!"

Naruto came out of the landing into the area around the tomb. To make sure, he politely asked one of the nearby soldiers, who pointed him to the entrance of the tomb…which was blocked by giant worms with abnormally large teeth.

'K'lor Slugs,' Naruto thought, having read up on them. The k'lor Slug was a large worm-like creature that possessed a serpentine body propelled by many dangerously-edged legs. The mouth was a gaping circular maw filled with concentric rings of teeth. K'lor slugs were carnivorous hunters, possessing keen olfactory and visual senses in addition to a deadly venom. For reproduction, the creatures could lay more than 300 eggs in a single birthing period. When hatched, the young k'lor'slug was immediately ravenous for food. One on it's own was not particularly threatening to one like himself. It's when there are 8 to 100 swarming you; that's when K'lor slugs become a problem.

But anyway, he strode up to them confidently, pulled out his training vibrosword and readying it. The K'lor slugs rushed at his all at once, but with a single swipe, he decapitated all of them. One popped out of the ground behind him, but Naruto stabbed behind him, piercing the k'lor slug and killing it. Scoffing, he pulled his weapon out and entered the tomb and continued down the steps.

He came upon a group of soldiers. The one without a helmet turned around and addressed him. "Excuse me acolyte, Sergeant Cormun, fifth infantry company, Korriban Regiment. Can I…Can I talk with you?"

"Speak freely, Sergeant." Naruto said.

"Of course." He bowed. "You're the acolyte that Overseer Tremel brought in special right?"

"That's correct. Why do you ask?" Naruto said.

"I apologize for disrupting your trial, Sir. But my men and I need help from those that can do things I can't. I'm here commanding a hard-target operation to the deal with the recent K'lor slug infestation of this tomb. They're…horrific. Mouths bigger than a mans head."

"The damn k'lor slugs breed so fast there's no way to wipe them out with conventional methods. So we started targeting their egg chambers. They went insane! We managed to get explosives to all of the egg chambers, but the k'lor slugs were all over us before we could detonate them. And before you ask, we cannot detonate them remotely because the walls are so thick that they interfere with the signal."

"You need someone who can draw the slugs attention away from the men and detonate them manually." Naruto mused. "And that person is me. We'll need to work together, Sergeant. I assure you, I prefer to see our great Empire's resources used for much better purposes than pest control."

"I will attack the K'lor Slugs straight down the middle, gaining their attention and manually detonating the charges. You and your men will barricade yourselves at the entrance and lay down covering fire from the flanks. Sound Good?"

"Of course! Just don't underestimate the k'lor slugs, sir. They're smarter than they look." Cormun exclaimed excitedly and began barking out orders. "Men! Pack up and move the wounded to the medical post for evacuation, then gather back here! We've got a Sith leading us now!"

Naruto strode forward when the men were ready, vibrosword ready. The soldiers were behind. "Lets begin, gentlemen." He said. He needed to deal with the slugs in the hallway before he could lead the men down the steps to the main hatchery.

He Force Leapt at the giant one, chopping it completely in half. He turned to the three young K'lor Slugs before unleashing a Force Scream that tore their flesh off, stunning them before he sliced them in half. The soldiers quickly destroyed the few eggs in the hallway, then set themselves up in the hall, establishing a barricade.

Naruto rushed down the middle. Slicing through the slugs with ease. He sliced, ducked, punched, kicked and stabbed his way through the hordes of K'lor slugs protecting the hatchery while the soldiers shot what they could. Once they thinned the numbers out, Naruto press the button to detonate the charges and Force Sped behind the barricade as the explosion blew up the hatchery.

The men cheered and hugged each other, relieved that the sacrifice of their fellow soldiers was not in vain. "That was astounding, sir!" Cormun exclaimed, "I believe I speak for all of us; thank you my lord for your assistance. We are in your debt." The men bowed in unison.

"You all deserve this victory." Naruto replied. "Now come, men! Let us continue cleansing the tomb of this filth!"

"Yes, sir!" The men clamored.

Thanks to the destruction of the main hatchery, the group of troopers plus one Sith had a much easier time in their search and destroy mission. Although a couple more men were lost due to well-placed ambushes by the slugs, the slugs themselves were quickly dispatched at an astonishing rate. Naruto, with the use of the Force, helped to locate any that were hidden and systematically destroyed them room by room. Eventually, they came across the corpse of another trooper. They would have ignored it and pushed on, but the wounds of which the man died from were much more specific: blaster fire.

Rummaging through his belongings, Sergeant Cormun pulled out a datapad. In it was an Imperial edict with instructions to wipe out any mercenaries attempting to steal Sith artifacts from the tomb. Upon hearing this, Naruto gritted his teeth in anger. This was the tomb of Ajunta Pall, the first Sith Lord! How dare this filth defile his sacred tomb!

Fortunately, it was not long before they stumbled upon a makeshift camp and suspicious looking individuals without Imperial markings on them.

"Same plan, men. Pick your targets and we will lead straight down the middle while the rest of you advance and provide a base of fire from the flanks. Try to capture a couple alive so we can figure out where the rest are. Kill the rest." Naruto said.

"You heard him, men! Forward! For the Empire!" Cormun roared. "OORAHH!" The troopers roared as they charged in formation, Naruto leading the front.

The mercenaries, were caught completely off guard. Thinking that the Imperials would be too busy battling the k'lor slug infestation, they left their perimeter lightly defended and without any lookouts. The skirmish barely lasted a minute, with all 20 looters dead, no causalities on the Imperial side, as Naruto cut through the foolish in droves.

"My Lord, we captured 3 of them." Cormun said as his men had three of them on their knees. 2 males and a female.

Naruto knelt down to the one in the middle. "Hello imbecile, do you know who I am?"

"Go to hell!" The looter screamed.

"Can't. You're already there. Now tell, where are the other looters?" Naruto said.

"I won't tell you!" He screamed.

"Normally I'd take my time, but me and my Imperial friends have been in here enough as it is. So, I'm gonna make this quick." Naruto said as he held his hand and made a choking motion to the female.

"You will tell me where the other looters are located or she dies." He ordered, Force Choking the female as she gasped for air.

"At the various tombs in Dreshdae, Kaniset and Vardin! Please don't hurt my lover!" The looter begged. Naruto stood up. He pulled out his vibroblade and sliced their throats open.

"What'd ya say we finish up these looters and then go our separate ways after this?" He addressed the men.

"Our mission will be complete after we deal with the looters, Sirs. We will also be sure to explain how valuable you both were to the success of our mission when I report to my lieutenant." Cormun said.

"Then let's remind these fools what happens when they desecrate holy ground! For the Empire!"

"OORAHH!" The troopers saluted as they made to finish them off. By the time they were down, all the looters and K'lor slugs were killed.

Naruto, now that all the tomb was empty of threats, looked around to find the war blade. He soon found a hall that had some robots in coffin's and a single warblade in a weapons rack. Naruto walked slowly down the hall, sensing for any threats. He inspected the warblade as he got closer.

It was a large weapon. A double bladed bastard sword, with the blade being nearly 8 inches wide and 36 inches in length. In the fuller of the blade were red markings in the ancient Sith Language, which said, 'There is only passion'. The hilt was not elegant, but it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to slay enemies. (Think the in game look for the Cartel Market Item "Ancient Sith Lord's Warblade" for appearance),

Naruto pulled it out. Despite being the same size as an ordinary vibrosword, it weighed almost 20 lbs. He gave it a few practice swings. He could use it well enough, though he would have to practice with it more. He would definitely keep this after his trials. He'd try to find another one, so he could train his Jar' Kai as well.

Naruto sheathed it at his hip and began walking away when he sensed danger. He jumped into the air, avoiding blaster fire that took out one of the 10 droids that were activated. Naruto flipped through the air and landing behind a second droid, chopping it in half down the middle. The other 8 aimed their blasters at him. Naruto switched to Shien and reflected their blaster bolts at them, taking out the droids.

Naruto figured it was a trap set by Tremel to make sure not just anybody picked the warblade up. Naruto left the room, eventually making his way out of the tomb and onto the surface, face to face with the Sith Academy.

Chapter end

I deleted the original iteration of this, originally the Wrath of the Empire. I decided I needed to rewrite the origins some. Cause it did not feel right to have the same origins as the Nox story.