HERO OF THE EMPIRE
by ardavenport
"It won't work."
Darth Vader turned from the panicked navigator, technician and his Lieutenant to the Captain of the transport. She was beyond fear, her eyes glowing fanatically.
"I locked the controls. And the navi-comp. And the coms. The escape pods are gone. And that burning you smell is the main computer." Her lips trembled. "This ship is going down - - - aaaahhhh!"
Vader's Force grip lifted her up by her neck. Everyone cringed away from the woman dangling in mid air, except the clones. They stayed at the ready, their guns on the terrified transport bridge crew. But even as she choked, her golden eyes gleamed as brightly and joyful as any Sith, her red crest, stiff and high over the crown of her head, not with fear, but defiance.
Loosening his grip, just enough to let her gasp in air, Vader lowered her to the deck.
"Sargent!"
Sargent Tack, his white armor distinguished from the other clones only by his red shoulder pad stepped forward. "Sir!"
"Bring her family here. Now!"
"Sir!" Tack left with another trooper. Beyond the transparisteel view port, the curved tan-green horizon of the planet tilted with their decaying orbit. They were still high, still had some time. Vader angrily regretted his Master's insistence that 'appearances are important'. That the population of this world would accept their introduction to Imperial rule better if he arrived on a local transport. Even if he signaled his cruiser, beyond the other dust ring of the system, they couldn't arrive in time.
Tack returned, gloved hand clamped on the upper arm of the transport captain's mate, a male with dull grayish-brown plumage, angled downward on either side of his head. He at least knew how close he was to death and properly appreciated it. The other trooper dragged in a skinny, smaller version of the male, wearing a long, pink body tunic.
Vader ignited his saber, letting the blade grow slowly, until the tip was just under the adult male's chin.
"I suggest, captain, that you correct your course. Now." The saber tip flicked a black burn mark on the down of the male's cheek and he shrieked in pain, trying to get away from it, but Tack held him in place.
Captain Arik gasped out a constricted breath. "It can't be done. I made sure of that." Her eyes stayed on him, purposefully not looking her husband or son, keening for mercy. She was a fanatic.
With an angry snarl, Vader threw her back against a bulkhead. "Cover her!" he ordered. He went to the pilot's station. The old, chubby male navigator cringed back as far as he could go in his seat, his feathers down and flat in terror. The engineer hadn't moved from the open navi-comp panel since the captain had announced her sabotage.
Useless. They were useless.
"You! Out of the way!" The navigator fell to the deck out of his seat as he scrambled away. Vader pointed at the engineer.
"You. Get me an astromech. NOW."
She scrambled to comply.
"Go with her," he ordered to Lieutenant Twiller.
He turned back to the controls. No computers, no navigation. Half the indicators were red. The ship was unflyable . . . . at least, for a backwards, rim-world transport captain.
Vader took the pilot's seat and strapped himself in. He slapped off the warning buzzer. There was no life-support with the computer gone, but they could expect to either land of burn up entering the atmosphere long before that became a problem.
He clicked through the functions still left: gravity, lifters, magnetizers . . . No thrusters.
Stumbling footsteps on the deck plates behind him. The engineer returned. He turned as the lieutenant handed her over to a trooper. A squat, older R1 unit with black plastoid plates on its domed 'head' shrieked and trembled on it's two gray stubby legs.
"Here." He pointed to the deck next to him. "Access the pilot controls. Now." He had no patience for whatever anti-Imperial traits the ship's captain had programmed into it.
Still trembling, the R1 stumped forward; a side compartment popped open and its access link extended to the data terminal.
"Eeeem-zzzrrrchhhh Eeeet-eet-oop-oooop." It informed him that the main computer and the navi-comp were down.
"I KNOW that. I want control of the thrusters and shields routed to the pilot's controls. NOW."
The R1 swiveled it's dome back toward the data terminal.
"Tck-tck ooooooom-zzzt-fwwwwooooom-attt ssssss-eeeeep-ooom." It could only re-route the the forward thrusters and shields. Two panels at the controls went green. The R1 trembled.
"That will do. Shield on full. And route all remaining power to the forward thrusters."
"Zzzzzkkkk-tsuu-hooooh?"
"ALL remaining power to the forward thrusters."
"What? You can't land with just the forward thrusters!" The trooper tugged the engineer back. Lieutenant Twiller was sweating.
"No. YOU can't land with just the forward thrusters." Vader tapped the thruster controls and grasped the control sticks, his gloved fingers feeling the acceleration and deceleration buttons. Of course, the feel was not the same as with real hands. But the Force made up for that.
The ship bucked as he slowed its forward momentum. The thrusters had excellent response for a simple transport.
"What are you doing? Noooo!" The Captain's cry was abruptly cut off by the satisfying sound of a blaster rifle hitting the captain's skull. The crew members, mate and son cried out. Vader ignored them.
Their deceleration smoothed out. It would work. A faint reddish glow gathered on the forward ports, but did not intensify. He had control of their fall to the planet. It was almost too easy. He wished he had embraced the Dark Side sooner. The Clone Wars would have ended a year sooner than they did. Or even sooner.
Without the navi-comp, he had no direction for where to land. But he had the Force to guide him toward land and away from ocean and mountain.
The tension on the bridge rose with their decreasing altitude. Even the troopers were nervous, but they were bred not to flinch.
"Crash positions, please! I have to tell the passengers, the rest of the crew!"
Without looking back, Vader inclined his head toward the engineer's guard. The engineer's boots scrambled on the deck to the ship's com.
"Crash positions, crash positions, everyone to crash positions! Now!"
The ship shook, straining with the reentry, but she stayed level, his thumbs adjusting the thrusters with each jolt, each bump of turbulence easily anticipated.
The red glow faded. The horizon was no longer curved. They had made it into the atmosphere. The tan and brownish green surface resolved into hilly terrain. And a flat plain up ahead. The ship was a stone, rapidly gliding down to the surface on the currents of gravity, as visible to him through the Force as the turbulence. He tapped the thrusters, lessening their forward inertia and their glide became more of a plummet. The ground rushed at them closer, closer . . . .
Vader punched the lifters. They weren't designed to hold the ship up under these conditions, but they could cushion the impact to something survivable. He had crashed more than one ship in his time.
He put the thrusters on full at the first impact. The engineer and the Captain's son screamed. The transport violently jolted up, down, to the side, throwing up huge clumps of dirt and scraggly plants as it furrowed to a stop. Twiller, the troopers and crew and the R1 went flying. The hull strained and something aft clanged loudly. The blinking indicator on the controls told him the hyperdrive engine had broken off. But the rest of the transport stayed intact.
After one last mighty groan of metaloid . . . . . silence. Vader unstrapped and stood on the tilted deck. No power. Bracing himself on the navigator's station he punched the emergency beacon; it came to life, buzzing and blinking yellow, its self-contained batteries intact. The R1, its data access arm ripped off, moaned piteously where it had rolled onto its side by a bulkhead.
Lieutenant Twiller and the troopers struggled to their feet first, their blasters still on the crew. The Captain groaned. Yellow blood trickled down from the gash under her crest. She blinked, her mouth open, her eyes unfocused. Vader stood over her.
"No. Nooooooo. . . ." she moaned.
"As you can see. We have landed." Vader unclipped his lightsaber.
The blade pierced her eye as it activated through her skull. Her husband screamed. Vader flicked the saber off and the body dropped to the deck.
"Rebel scum." He turned away. If he had only embraced the Dark Side sooner, he could have ended the Clone Wars and prevented this persistent rebellion from taking hold.
The R1 moaned again and Vader paused. He bent down and lifted the droid upright. It could still be useful. It squealed in surprised and backed away from him.
"Sargent."
Tack snapped to attention.
"Have your men secure these people here. Come with me." He didn't even glance at the people cowering away from him as he led Lieutenant Twiller out.
[b]### ### ### ### ###[/b]
"You are a hero, my apprentice."
"I only dispatched one rebel, my Master." kneeling on the holo platform before the shadowy image of the Emperor, Vader kept his gaze lowered.
Palpatine chuckled, his face mostly concealed under his hood. "You saved the lives of hundreds of innocent people on the transport. The planet's governing council was most complimentary of your actions."
"Yes, my Master." The people who had spilled out of the transport onto the empty plain had looked at him with awe after the engineer and navigator told them about the captain's treachery. It made him uncomfortable and he was grateful for the black mask that concealed his scarred face.
"But perhaps after the captain's suicide attack, we should only use our ships for transport."
Palpatine frowned. "Hmmmmm, you may be right. I would not have expected any of these rebels to have such fortitude. But this incident has given us ample cause to 'help' these people resist rebel attacks like this." The emperor smiled. Another world to be added to the Empire.
"You have done well, my apprentice."
Vader bowed low. "Yes, my Master."
### ### END ### ###
Note: This story was first posted on tf.n on 12-Feb-2011.
Disclaimer: All characters and the Star Wars universe belong to George and Lucasfilm; I am just playing in their sandbox.