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Origin: The Rising (Chapter 7)

B

Barfing Ogres

Type 4 Chi-To Best Tank
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Version History:
1.1: Removed unnecessary text, added table of contents, removed Herobrine.
1.2: Removed the Masochists Prologue.

What's up internet, I'm fine thank you for asking!

This is my first not god awful fic and also the first one I will let see the light of the internet so there you have it. Some background information on it, this entire thing is based on a multi-crossover dream that I had, and I must say, I still haven't the slightest idea what I was smoking, but you never know. Tangent, sorry, but there you go.


Here are some links for some other background info on the multiple universes:
Important Introductory Backstory Number 1: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki
Important Introductory Backstory Number 2: Dark Sector - Dark Sector Wiki


Now for the rating:

Intense Violence
Blood and Gore
Strong Language
Alcohol and Drug Reference
Sexual Themes
Poop Jokes


Me: Shut up! Poop Jokes are still funny!

Everyone Else: No they're not, that's crap!

Me: -_-



So, without further adieu, I present my first presentable fic:


Table of Contents:

Part 1: Raid
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

The Appendixes: Part 1
From the Office of Dr. Jeff Altig

Part 2: Sinnoh
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
​




Origin: The Rising​



Here is the reformatted prologue as per popular demand:
Prologue:

Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith felt very pleased with himself. Everything was moving on schedule as he had orchestrated.

The galaxy was at war; a war that was possibly the largest that the galaxy had ever seen. His army of Sith soldiers was winning against the futile resistance the Galactic Republic called an army.

There was little to no chance of victory not being an inevitability and Revan felt that this conquest would succeed, but a wise Jedi Master once told him, always have a contingency plan. Thus, the plan was to create a new army from the same source that made the current one, the Star Forge.

This army however was not created to combat the Republic, but instead be put into carbon freeze and wake up when there was need of them in the event that the conquest of the galaxy currently taking place did not last as long as Darth Revan envisioned. Thirteen army infantry corps, half of the entire Sith Empire’s army forces were drafted or cloned, briefed, trained, put into carbon freeze, then hidden on the backwater worlds of Knirdos Prime, Eccifo VII, and the single moon of Faltun; Faaltos, all with an accompanying droid division, an armored division, and the 22nd Defense Fleet.

The true Sith were the real enemy, for they had seduced Revan and his friend Malak into being the vanguard of their inevitable assault. He planned not only to stop them, but to utterly defeat them and prove that he was superior to them in every way imaginable.

He recalled the confrontation before their meeting like it was just yesterday. Marching up the steps of the citadel in Kaas city, the Dark Side had been made a permanent stench on the planet Dromund Kaas.

As a Jedi, it repulsed Revan and Malak to the highest imaginable degree. The darkness that surrounded that place was quite simply the foulest experience he had endured. Dark Jedi of all types sought to take their heads and gain a measure of prestige with the Sith Emperor who ruled them every day for as long as they could remember. Alas, those poor soul’s efforts were in vain as the Jedi cut them down with even more savagery than any Mandalorian who fell at their feet.

Then Revan made the decision to open the door to the citadel.

Malak collapsed from the sheer darkness and hatred that erupted from the throne of the Sith Emperor. Revan too was caught off guard by the sheer presence of the Dark Side that corrupted the place. They knew their duty, defeat the Sith Emperor and end his threat to the Republic once and for all. As one, after taking a minute to let Malak recover, they marched forth into the abyss expressing their sheer force of will to take down the enemy and balance the force again.

The two did not emerge the same. Now they were Sith and better for it. Revan would prepare the galaxy for their coming. The reckoning would be coming soon, and nothing short of the will of the Force would be able to stop it.

***

It was too late.

The Technocyte Virus had been released, and Hayden Tenno had been too slow to stop it.

The CIA operative sank down to his knees in the mud of Lasria and began to weep as the storm which had been accumulating final shed its bulk. The droplets did nothing however to stop his moans and sobs from traveling through the otherwise quiet landscape’s surprisingly serene air.

That is when the screams started happening.

Those who weren’t already infected by the virus now began to feel its effects as it infested them and transformed them into vicious and mindless monsters.

It was a funny thing fate. Here Hayden knelt weeping under the cover of a thunderstorm infected with the virus and the knowledge that he would live with it coursing through his veins, and yet he felt more helpless than any other savage on this God forsaken Earth.

The man continued to despise himself in some form of self-pity, but then he heard a voice. There was one problem, it wasn’t human anymore.

Hayden stopped with the self-beating that he was administering to himself, leapt up and scanned for what abomination surely was seeking his flesh. Glaive drawn and his armor put on, he reverted back to what he knew, getting the hell out of dodge.

The first creature leapt at him and he sliced its pulsating and corrupted yellow rotting head right off of the bloated body. The decapitated corpse flew right over his shoulder and sat writhing in the mud until the liquid that gave it life ceased flowing out of its neck, turning the earth underneath it sickly and foul neon brown.

Hayden turned around and saw more. Perfect. He threw the Glaive into the horde of infested nightmares and watched with twisted delight as the throwing disk passed through no less than ten of them. They withered and died and began to sink into the mud before disappearing completely.

The remainder of the beasts continued to charge until the Glaive came right back and ended their suffering too.

Hayden had developed his skill at catching the thing during his time in the sad little Soviet satellite nation, so he enjoyed touching the blade as it raced back to him only for him to redirect it into his arm again.

If there was one thing that he learned during his time here, it was that the infested never ceased attacking once they found a target; thus Hayden ran to the hills. He made it, but only to discover that the virus had slaughtered no less than a hundred people who lived in the small village at its summit. He broke down again and began sobbing at the devastation and knowing that it would only grow worse.

Then he saw a light. It was small and dim at first. Then it began expanding into a swirling blue vortex that began drawing small items into its unknown depths. Hayden was in a state of shock, for he had no idea what to make of the strange occurrence, and for that matter he had no idea why the infested had not chased him here yet. All he knew was that there was something calming about the slowly expanding and swirling blue disk, as though he was losing years for the better, and becoming his old naïve self again.

Without any thought about it, Hayden stepped into it armor and all and passed into oblivion.

***

Dialga, the temporal Pokémon gazed with a great deal of sadness upon the tortured and twisted landscape before it.

It was not normally the curious type, but it had decided one day to go back to the time of the beginning and discover its own origins.

There were few with the ability to recall their own birth, and fewer still to have the ability to go back and see it.

Arceus, the alpha Pokémon had advised against it and at the same time knew it was historically inevitable that Dialga would go back. Dialga didn’t listen, but now it knew what its creator had meant by saying only sadness and death existed back then.

It was shocked to see what Arceus and by extension, all other Pokémon had originated from. These foul and corrupt mutations of humans had no sense of a soul that it could sense. But the lump of awful abominations that were Arceus originally was simply terrifying.

Even though it was technically an immortal being, Dialga quivered in horror and disgust. The “egg” that existed in the nothingness was technically correct, but it had no idea the nothingness had referred to the absence of all order and civilization and the “egg” was a pulsating brown and yellow thing made of the bodies of the fallen humans.

And yet, Dialga saw hope. Not all had succumbed to the disease that was now as common as the oxygen in the air. One human in a suit of some kind of carbon weave armor, clearly infected, but not savage and mutated like the rest sprinted away from the horrors of the old Earth with a kind of vigor that it had only seen in a select few humans.

Clearly the man needed help, so in defiance of its traditional behavior, it attacked the abominations.

The rain must have not permitted him to hear, and the mud must have absorbed the intense vibrations, for when the Roar of Time went off the man didn’t even look back.

The man reached the village where Dialga had originally come out of its portal. Dialga gazed at him in secret as he fell into the muck and began to cry.

It knew what it would do to atone for the deeds of the evil humans that released the didease onto the world. Dialga opened the portal in front of the man and as it had predicted, the man with a slight sense of hope and calm, entered.

Yes, it thought, not all in this time should need to suffer.

With its conscience cleansed and its curiosity satisfied, Dialga, while dumbfounded and horrified about the origin of all Pokémon, entered the portal knowing that the man it had saved would find a better life tens of thousands of years in the future when the Earth has recovered from the vile beginning. Even Arceus agreed to that.

Hope you have enjoyed so far! More to come.
 
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Re: Origin: The Rising

If you don't mind, I have some suggestions. But first, I will say that your writing is good. However, I think it would benefit from reformatting of the text. It's a bit hard to read when it's presented as large chunks of text.
For me, it was also a bit difficult to follow the story because of the multi-universe nature of it.

Are you going to include dialogue in future updates? I think dialogue might help the readers to become more familiar with this world, and I think it might also make it easier to bring this multi-universe world together.
 
Re: Origin: The Rising

It seems interesting, but It's hard to read, mainly since the text is a big chunk. A good Idea is to switch to a new paragraph when the subject changes. I had the same problem in my own fanfic, but I have corrected it, and it feels a lot clearer to me. A lot of text squished together makes it more of a strain to read.
 
Re: Origin: The Rising

Here are responses to your reviews:

@farewell, friend: Thank you for reading! Regarding formatting, yeah I see the issue. It did not look like such a wall in Microsoft Word, but it is also the only section in the entire fic written like that. To make it easier, I'll make a reformatted version. As for dialogue, you should have seen it before I even read all of the academy articles in the writer's block. The entire section was barely 300 words and the entire written part of the fic was about 10 pages now going on 40. At this point and during the upcoming first part, it is mostly internal dialogue. Part 2 is where that starts to get rectified. Now the whole multi-verse part will be somewhat confusing for now. As the fic progresses, I'll be trying my best to explain the backstory which will be especially notable during chapter 2 of part 1, as that entire thing is a flashback to what happened previously. For now, I'd recommend reading into the links provided starting at the plot sections. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy what is to come!

@Me Gusta: Thank you for reading too! As I stated earlier, the intro is the only section written in that format and I must say it looked damn sexy in Word, but that did not transfer so I'll be reformatting that soon. I'll likely keep up the original for those people who are masochists but whatever. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you'll enjoy what is to follow!

Chapter 1 will likely go up coinciding with the intro reformatting.
 
Chapter 1

Version History:
1.1: Re spaced paragraphs and broke up the larger block of text. Reformatted the dialogue. Minor textual edits. Removed Herobrine.
1.2: More respacing of paragraphs. Minor textual edits. Removed Herobrine.


And in the left corner, we have a sub in a tub! Now with fanfare.
Otherwise, enjoy the beginning of Origin: The Rising

Anyone who has been to a Jersey Mike's will know what that means. Maybe...


Part the First:

Raid​


Chapter the First:

Tyber Zann, criminal mastermind and tactical genius of the Zann Consortium, stepped out of the prototype BL-10 shuttle craft and clutched the BlasTech DC-23M blaster rifle in his hands tightly. It wasn’t as if fear was new to him, but the fact that this was a ground operation made this a lot more personal.

Chico squad and Ronto squad had entered the forty year old structure that Tyber was interested in and confirmed it as being secure… for now. This structure, seemingly a small abandoned military bunker on the evacuated world of Qutub was according to the data aboard the Eclipse, the largest of the deceased Emperor Palpatine’s vaults of immense wealth.

Qutub was a peaceful lie. The planet was quarantined due to reports of a massive solar flare that would cook the planet until it was well done. It is quite amazing all the damage that could be done from a single computer. With that, the neighbor of Geonosis known for its vast rolling plains and crystal clear oceans was evacuated and the Galactic Empire had a free outpost among the outer rim worlds.



Just over three standard weeks ago, the Alliance to Restore the Republic, more commonly referred to as the Rebel Alliance, or simply the Rebels destroyed the second Death Star and killed the Emperor himself and his iron fist, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military, Darth Vader over the forest moon of Endor.

That same week taking advantage of the utter chaos coming from their deaths, the largest Zann Consortium fleet ever assembled hyperspaced to Kuat, the prime shipbuilding center of the Galactic Empire with one objective in mind; the Eclipse class Star Dreadnaught that lay half constructed in orbit.

Tyber planned to blitzkrieg through the Kuati defenses and swiftly capture the Eclipse for its immense amount of tactical military and economic information lying onboard.

The Rebellion however sought to destroy it. Coming in at almost the exact same time, the fleet present at Endor jumped into Kuati space and entered a temporary alliance with the Consortium only to be betrayed when they realized Tyber’s true motives. Upon the defeat of the Rebel leader, Han Solo, a massive Imperial task force entered the system led by an Executor class Star Dreadnaught, the Annihilator.

The Consortium won the battle, but at the cost of half their fleet. Admitting that the Empire and the Rebellion would never allow Tyber to keep the prize, he abandoned it just outside of Kuati space.



Now they were here. Tyber motioned to Urai Fenn, his Taltorai Lieutenant who nodded back, and they entered the structure.

It was primarily ferrocrete with durasteel reinforcement bars. Tyber noted that something like this would never be able to stand after a blast from a TC-8 plasma pulse cannon mounted on MZ-8 pulse cannon tanks. It would just become a molten relic of the past which in part was his plan.

As the two friends walked through, being that they were the only two people ever to receive that title from the other, they took notice of blaster scoring on the wall of the Old Republican era bunker, likely over 25 years old based on how long ago the original invasion took place.

Even though the Clone Wars were still a major lesson for all of the Empire’s new recruits, Tyber was still befuddled as to why the Confederacy of Independent Systems had interested in Qutub to begin with. Granted the planet did have an abnormal amount of Isotope 5, but Qutub’s moons had even more than the planet did, and better yet, there were no people there to interfere with mining operations. Tyber still remembered laughing hysterically with the rest of the academy students upon viewing some of the holo footage of just how amusingly the CIS was kicked off the planet by the Republic’s small garrison. He had since forgotten what the lesson for showing the footage and learning about the battle was but it hardly mattered now since the Empire was crumbling.


Tyber and Urai came across Chico and Ronto squads aiming their DC-23M blaster rifles at a blast door. Unlike the rest of the facility, this looked much newer by comparison, and it was clearly Imperial in nature.

Urai moved to the corridor that they had just come through and put his back to the wall, covering the soldiers’ rear. The soldiers didn’t need any other orders, nor would they take them verbally; nobody knew if there were any listening devices.

They had prepared to deal with defenses like these, so Ronto squad snapped off the barrels of their rifles and put on new ones holding instead of a blaster, but a grenade launcher. The grenades they were using were designed to be used against doors like these, carrying a Zann Consortium special, a deep drilling bore charge which would tunnel into the door and explode smack dab in the middle to tear a hole in it.

It wasn't exactly stealthy, but better than to try and kick it down.

Twelve grenade launchers aimed at the door while six blasters still aimed at it and the other six aimed down the corridor that Urai was eyeing like a hawkbat, blades ready. Tyber then made the appropriate hand sign and with the discipline of a silent drill squad, Ronto fired at the door.

The twelve grenades burrowed about twelve centimeters deep and exploded. The door opened up like a flower and took some of the floor and ceiling with it. Silently, the Consortium soldiers stormed the unnaturally clean and white corridor beyond and found a not wholly unanticipated surprise.

Mark 1 Dark troopers don’t have much armor, nor do they have a ranged weapon. Instead, they carry a vibrosword and shield into battle with deadly effectiveness.

Three of these droid troopers charged the Consortium soldiers and were gunned down by twenty five streams of blue blaster fire.

Surprise was no longer on their side, so there was no reason for the soldiers to remain stealthy. Tyber then started barking orders, “Squads, split up, search the rooms for anything of value, and eliminate any other defenses!” He looked at Urai and then didn’t say anything, for he knew what they would do next.

Comm checks then started coming in from the squad leaders confirming more Dark Trooper kills and rooms confirmed to have vaults in them.

Tyber and Urai however activated their cloaking fields and went straight down the corridor. Their objective was the facilities computer system which according to the salvaged data lay in the main chamber of each vault complex. Continuing down the hallway, they took a left into the second to last door and moved onward.

More Dark Troopers were coming down the corridor to engage the soldiers, but being experts in stealth, they simply passed right by the two invisible intruders. Continuing down the corridor, they came upon another blast door, this one significantly smaller than the main entrance and having a control panel. Urai simply slid a security spike into the data port and it opened.

Passing through the door, Tyber and Urai found what they were looking for, the central computer system. Urai took out a computer spike and slid it into the data port while Tyber pre-aimed down the hall to discourage any Dark Troopers that noticed the intrusion.

Urai began typing rapidly to get past the security firewalls and shut down the security systems, which despite guarding the Emperor’s haul was surprisingly primitive in design and function. Urai continued to type in code the spike then delivered into the system eventually smashing through the last computer defenses. He grunted with success and shut off all the security doors.

Unfortunately, the program controlling the droids was harder to crack being composed of self-replicating code that threatened to erase all its data if something was done wrong, and now about half of the remaining droids bore down on the small room in a form of self-defense.

Tyber with the grace and skill of a Mandalorian super-commando began firing into the oncoming horde. Six droids went down followed by another four and an empty power pack. Tyber swapped barrels and magazines to the repeating blaster configuration in three seconds, about half the time the droids needed to reach the pair, then proceeded to continue firing. Unlike the standard blaster configuration, the repeater held a massive power pack in the shape of a small drum which held 120 blaster bolts worth of tibana gas.

Tyber continued to mow down droids with five to six bolt bursts. Even so, they just kept coming. Being only one man, Tyber could only hold them off for so long, but being 24 men, the two squads fared much better and came to help. The last of the Dark Troopers fell to 25 streams of blaster fire and the squads then continued to clear rooms as they had before. Urai then stated, “Droid defenses are down, be advised that there may be other droids separate from the main network.”

Tyber was then happy, genuinely happy for what felt like the first time since as a child. The information on the Eclipse gave him more of a shock than a feeling of happiness, but it was Urai who noticed in a matter of seconds.

“Feeling pleased with ourselves are we?”

“Why yes I am Urai, and you should be too.”

Urai actually did, though he was much more subtle with any emotions that weren't anger or contempt.

That was when the squads reported all rooms being secure; the facility was theirs.

Oh yes, Tyber did feel very pleased indeed.

Hope you all enjoy, more to come!
 
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Re: Origin: The Rising

Good and interesting premise for sure. The grammar and technical stuff is good as well, but spacing of paragraphs would be ideal. Start a new paragraph more often to give the readers eyes a chance to rest. The huge blocks of text can be a bit daunting. Also, perhaps work on the prose. A lot of the text is a bit matter-of-fact, although that can be a good thing.

Overall, I enjoyed the story so far though. I think Tyber is intriguing.
 
Chapter 2

Version History:
1.1: Re spaced paragraphs. Minor textual edits. Re formatted dialogue in standard FanFic convention. Removed Herobrine.
1.2: Additional paragraph respacing. More minor textual edits. Edited dialogue. Removed Herobrine.

Hello again internet! I sincerely hope you all enjoy chapter 2 and also encourage you to read the authors note for amusing little trivia bits revolving around this piece of the fic.

Author's Note:
This piece has gone though editing hell for your viewing pleasure, namely about 6 months of it which is when I finished the first draft of it. The final paragraph has remained unchanged in all that time and took exactly 4:06 to write.

This chapter is based upon the final mission of the campaign for the RTS (Real Time Strategy) video game Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption Expansion and for the most part details my most recent playthrough.

Many of the details of the game like the original dialogue have been edited for the sake of readability and increased epicness, namely unit counts, arguably the most important part about the previously mentioned game.

This chapter is not indicative of standard chapter length and is actually about double what I have.

Lastly, if you guys can decipher the 20+ veiled stupid jokes, puns, and internet references, than you win life and get nachos from heaven.

Chapter the Second:


CT-90/2010, aka, Blur was a gunnery officer aboard the Cardan class Heavy Defense Station, Birth Right. Birth Right and its two sister stations, Damascus and Assassin’s Bane were assigned to guard the relatively secret project, Eclipse. It certainly eclipsed the station’s views of the rest of the shipyards.

Blur however cared nothing of the Emperor’s little toy, all he wanted was a nice quiet life running a small farm, maybe on an abandoned world like Qutub, but that wouldn’t happen since clones didn’t get retirement or even a voice. Conversely, he was content with his posting being at the most peaceful place in the galaxy, Kuat.

It was when Blur heard the Red Alert and saw the flashing lights that he grew marginally worried, but not overly concerned. He posed a question to the other gunnery officers in Assault Concussion Missile battery ISU-145, “Who has their heads so far up their shebs that they’d attack Kuat?”

“Beats me Blur’ika, but let’s give these fat ugly fierfeks a massive Imperial welcome!” said the battery leader, Tsarre CT-12/1941.

The rest of the gunnery officers yelled, “Hooah!”

That mood quickly changed when they saw the first Aggressor class Destroyer come from hyperspace. It darkened even further when the transmission came in saying that the Emperor and Darth Vader were dead from some unknown Admiral named Pellaeon. Worse still, a Rebel fleet jumped in too. Needless to say, Blur knew it was going to be a very miserable day to be an Imperial.

***

Tyber Zann stood aboard the bridge of the Merciless, the Aggressor class Destroyer he took for a flagship. He gazed upon the Eclipse for the second time and still only felt awe and blinded by the power it represented. The naval personnel onboard the bridge simply stared gaping at the 17.5 kilometer long Star Dreadnaught. Tyber just found it amusing. That was until he saw the Millennium Falcon.

Han Solo opened up a communications channel with Tyber, “Alright Zann, what are you doing here?”

“Solo, I’ve heard of the victory at Endor, and I was hoping that I could help in destroying this thing.”

“What do you care about this ship?”

“Like you, the Empire made a powerful enemy, and I’m simply doing what it is that enemies do, shoot them first.”

There was about a minute of silence.

“Alright, I’ll hold you to your word for now, but the moment something goes fishy, you’ll have a blaster shoved in your face before you can say ‘He shot first.’”

“It is truly such a nice privilege to see you too Solo.”

Tyber thought there couldn’t be better timing. Now he could cripple both of his sworn enemies in one smooth stroke. He signaled the rest of the fleet to move in; thirteen Aggressor class Destroyers, five Kedalbe class Battleships, twenty six Vengeance class Frigates, forty five Interceptor-IV class Frigates, twenty Crusader class Gunships, three Tartan Patrol Cruisers from the Consortium’s early days dropped out of hyperspace. The larger ships then started contributing their own fighters and bombers giving around 400 of the small ships.

Tyber looked at the enemy resistance on his console: three Cardan class Heavy Defense Stations, twenty Imperial 1 class Star Destroyers, six Imperial 2 class Star Destroyers, fifty six Victory 1 class Star Destroyers, fourteen Victory 2 class Star Destroyers, twenty seven Acclamator 2 class Assault Ships, one Immobilizer class Interdictor frigate, thirty three Tartan class Patrol Cruisers, over 800 TIE type craft were arranged in a rough phalanx. The fleet was rapidly closing ranks to form a tight defensive line along the Cardan’s perimeter.

Not very great odds but with the Rebels swayed, he thought this would be a cake walk with the right tactics. Even so, the Rebel fleet was still small by comparison: just ten MC-80 class Star Cruisers, nineteen MK-2 Assault Frigates, twenty four MK-1 Assault Frigates, thirty Nebulon-B class escort frigates, twelve CR-90 corvettes, sixteen DP-20 corvettes, a number of Gallofree Medium Trasports, and 200 or so fighter and bomber craft.

Forty seven pre-arranged battle formations and plans had been formed by Tyber and his chief Admirals over the last few months. In a situation where the enemy is heavily hunkered down with superior forces, he resorts to battle formation Indigo; translation: the main portion of the fleet creates a delta formation while the remaining third sit in the center. The fleet then charges and spears the defensive line with the main formation moving to plow through any rear elements before circling back to destroy the main line being distracted by the formerly protected group.

This plan however requires an almost brainwashed sort of soldier taking orders without question, without which the formation might break and the enemies instead pour into friendly lines.

Tyber initiated the battle formation and the fleet began to move into position. They were disciplined and loyal, so he didn’t have any reason to fret about there being any rebellious captains.

The Merciless naturally took up the lead ship, and was flanked on port, starboard, and aft by three of the Kedalbes.

The Rebels however had simply rushed the Imperial line while the Consortium fleet moved into its position. Surprisingly they weren’t getting their bungholes ripped open by Imperial captains ravenous for revenge, but rather they were the ones doing the bunghole ripping.

Tyber then opened a line to all ships under his command and uttered one word, “Charge!”

As if they were Reek cavalry riders in space, the Consortium fleet flew straight at one of the Cardans firing every weapon emplacement they had once in optimal range. The mega charged shots from the Merciless were quite a spectacle to behold as a blue/white ion pulse shot from the top of the twin barrels while a pulsing green plasma shot erupted from the lower of the twin barrels.

Both shots smacked the Cardan in the face bringing down its shields and destroying its communications towers.

***

A far different vessel had also entered the battle, a small RZ-52 shuttle transporting the best Marines and Droideka MKIIs the Consortium had trained. This transport would move far away from any actual fighting and sneak its way to the Eclipse with the intent of latching onto the command tower and capturing the bridge, and superlaser if they could.

From the starboard side view ports the Marines watched in grim silence as they saw flak knocking out fighters and the hulks of burning ships falling swiftly into Kuat’s atmosphere. The droidekas being droids simply stood waiting for the ship to land and open its cargo hatch to exit the craft and eliminate any initial resistance offered on the Eclipse.

A stray TIE Fighter, seemingly almost destroyed discovered the small transport as it passed by one of the Cardans and promptly started putting laser cannon shots into the shuttles aft. The rear gunner then began firing back, but even heavily damaged, the TIE evaded all of the shots. Just when the transports pilot yelled, “Prepare for an atmospheric breach,” a squad of StarVipers swooped in and knocked out the TIE.

Every marine in the Consortium had a tremendous respect for their fleet brethren, but for this group of soldiers, that event practically made them bow down and worship the fighter pilots of that squad as though they were gods.

***

StarViper squadron, Nexu was the first to break through the Imperial lines and to their great surprise and relief suffered absolutely no casualties. They zipped through a small shipyard and began engaging TIE Fighters to cover the run of Skipray Blastboat squadron Acklay on an Acclamator behind the main defensive line.

One of the TIEs managed to escape and found the transport which was the entire mission’s ace in the hole. Nexu broke contact with the TIEs temporarily and promptly destroyed it before he could reciprocate the actions performed on his squad. Resuming their mini-campaign, the remaining TIEs were destroyed in a matter of seconds and created a window of opportunity for Acklay squad.

***

Acklay squad flew into the gap and engaged their proton torpedo targeting computers. The Acclamator 2 Assault Ship while not Imperial Star Destroyer large was still significant in size, looming like a fortress in their view screens.

Acklay Leader then broke comm silence, “Squad, we only have one run before we need to divert, so let’s make this one count.” One by one, the other eleven members of the squad confirmed this new directive.

Point defense laser cannon flak began to detonate around the squad. That was also when the Acclamator decided to fire a salvo from its turbolaser batteries. Acklay broke formation to evade, but several of the shots came way to close for comfort.

Acklay leader then ordered, “Fire torpedoes on my mark!” Again, the other members of the squad acknowledged the new order. Acklay leader continued evading flak and tubolaser shots until the distance was two kilometers.

“Mark!” The Skipray’s gunner fired and two torpedoes belched from the tubes on the port and starboard side of the craft. Pretty soon after, twenty four proton torpedoes streaked through space and found their mark. Ray shielding on even a ship as large as an Acclamator was unable to stop the unique Consortium proton torpedoes.

Three of the torpedoes exploded in the Acclamator’s own proton torpedo tubes detonating those in the magazines. Another three found the concussion missile tubes and accomplished the same thing. Five destroyed the command bridge and the accompanying tower. Three others detonated most of the main turbolaser banks. Five other torpedoes created a giant hole in the center of the ship exposing the internal components and systems. The remaining six flew into the new found gaps and made the reactor go critical. The Acclamator belched flame and split in half after the reactor exploded flinging both pieces far away.

One unlucky Victory 1 class Star Destroyer took the bow section of the ship and was crushed by the kinetic energy with both spinning and falling into Kuat’s atmosphere barely missing a Vengeance class Frigate, the Sturdy.

***

Captain Traylor Nes’ik saw the plummeting mass of the Victory cruiser and shouted, “Brace for impact!” No such impact occurred, but the mass came down a mere 200 meters from the Sturdy’s bow itself, an almost unprecedented distance in space.

Relieved by being rid of one threat, but not all, he resumed tactical command. His opponent was a wily Victory 2 class Star Destroyer, and the two vessels had been exchanging fire before the other Victory cruiser interrupted their fun. Nes’ik said, “T1 through M6 turbolasers, fire once he exposes himself. Mass drivers, reload and charge up the capacitors. Send 50% power to the engines and maneuver to behind that space dock, let’s see if we can get some shots in on his aft.”

Bridge officers acknowledged and issued the orders to their subordinates. The Sturdy swiftly streaked through the open space and reached its destination unopposed. A Tartan Patrol Cruiser however tried his luck and devoted all his power to weapons hoping to penetrate the shield-less Vengeance’s armor. A couple shots from the turbolasers with line of sight quickly destroyed the impatient ship as if they were clubbing baby Nerfs.

Nes’ik issued the same order again with more emphasis since the crew was clearly distracted by said Nerfs, “Move around the dock, get up in his rear.”

The Sturdy moved around the space dock and found their quarry, and unfortunately also facing them directly. “All batteries open fire!” and so they did.

Mass driver slugs fired from the triple barrels of each of the four mass driver cannons, shattering through ray shielding and punching holes in the Victory cruiser’s deck plating. Turbolaser fire from each ship also probed weak spots and subsequently found them detonating ammunition stores. The upper starboard side mass driver took a hit in the barrel, so when it next fired it detonated and took both cannons with it. Heavy turbolaser fire managed to destroy the shield generator protecting the main bridge of the Victory. A turbolaser shot from the Vengeance though impacted the bridge of the Victory and passed through the other side creating a massive hole which certainly killed all its officers. The Victory listed and collided into the space dock snapping off one of its arms and which flung off all of the ships then being constructed underneath it.

That was when the closest Cardan detonated in a flash of blinding white light with pieces of semi-molten metal flying out in all directions.

What came next was a milestone in galactic history for ages to come, the moment when everyone in the galaxy knew of the power acquired by the Zann Consortium.

***

“Fortress Alpha Ten!” That was all marine commander Tralzik van Bernron said in a special communication directly to the Merciless. Translation: the shuttle has landed on the Eclipse and we are heading to the bridge. Tyber would then broadcast an order to all other ships in the area signifying that they go and guard the Eclipse while the superlaser takes out any ships larger than a corvette. In this regard, Han Solo and the Rebels knew they had been betrayed when they saw the remains of the Consortium fleet move with all speed to the Eclipse.

“You almost had me convinced Zann. Almost.”

“What can I say Solo, you’d never let me keep the ship, so instead I’ll have to kill you.”

“Run those lips all you want, it won’t save you.”

“Solo, you and I both know that I am hard to kill. So Emperor’s Black Bones help me you are the one who will die!”

“Well then I’ll see you in hell!”

“Which one is more dead, the one who’s there first, or the one who follows him eh?” Tyber heard what sounded like a facepalm over the comm and then decided to cut contact.

Meanwhile, van Bernron and the three squads he was leading moved down the corridors with full intent of capturing the two hard targets. “Split up, half of the Droidekas come with me and Hunter to the bridge, the rest of you go with Teeth to secure the superlaser, copy?” “Aye commander!” and just like that, they split.

Hunter’s Droidekas rolled through the halls and killed the one technician they saw, cowering in a corner likely praying for his life. The bridge ended up only being a hundred meters away from the shuttle down a straight corridor, so it wasn’t too hard to find. Upon entry, it was empty save for a couple of data pads and a spilled cup of caf indicating that the place had just been evacuated.

The commander felt very off in this ship. There was something about how the dark grey and black bulkheads illuminated only by dim red emergency lights that made him feel as though the ship was alive and ready to eat him. He noted the uneasiness and tucked it away; fear is natural, an early warning system, use it to your best ability and it’ll keep you alive.

van Bernron then moved to what appeared to be the main console and started conjuring up schematics to relay to Teeth squad. There was no security in the system, more reason for him to feel anything but safe. He pulled up the information Tyber wanted and pulled it aside so that it would be ready when he came aboard for his inevitable inspection.

The coordinates for the superlaser firing station finished being summoned from the depths of the computer system, and the commander sent them off to Teeth. Blaster fire from a Droideka began to echo from the corridor, so he left his two technologically savvy men in the bridge to their work and joined the fight outside the bridge. Sorry Teeth, he thought, looks like you’ll be having company soon.

***

IG-88, a droid bounty hunter then under the Zann Consortium’s employ, had been assigned as a slicer to get through any security guarding the superlaser aboard the Eclipse. Teeth squad’s CO, a lieutenant named Roon Ofod told him to get through the door, then return to his ship and rejoin the space battle. Accomplishing his work in little under a minute, he clanked back to the IG-2000.

Ofod and his team secured the room and found it to be empty save for one computer console. As if the Emperor wanted to stroke his ego, he had a sign welded to the bulkhead above it saying “ReblZ SuK” in poorly drawn black marker. Ofod was a skilled slicer, and would be the best in the Consortium if not for the hiring of IG-88. Even so, he knew an easy hack job when he saw one.

Teeth knew their job, protect the one at the console and by extension, the longevity of the superlaser. Ofod broke through the pitifully inadequate firewall and began finding targets to destroy with the weapon. The targets were ones pre-selected by Tyber as being priority one; mostly capital ships like Imperial Star Destroyers and MC-80 Mon Calamari class Cruisers.

Ofod opened up a comm channel with Tyber, “The Eclipse is ready to fire on your order.” Tyber didn’t respond for a few seconds, likely because he was issuing orders on his ship. When he did speak he said only two words, “Good… execute.” Ofod didn’t need telling twice, so he found the closest ship from his targeting spree and pressed the big red button on the console.

***

Commander Reca Skirata, CO of the Crusader Gunship Kyorimut, was about to pounce on a group of TIE Bombers from behind a dry dock when a terrifying green laser beam erupted from the bow of the Eclipse and vaporized both the TIEs and an MC-80 Star Cruiser that they were about to attack. Utter shock flowed through him and all who had just seen that blast. Reca stood there for another moment before regaining his senses and seeing another few squads of TIEs.

“Fire everything!” Point defense lasers shot down proton torpedoes and concussion missiles fired by the TIE Bombers. Laser cannons on their swift turning mounts kept up with TIE Interceptors trying their luck in flanking and subsequently shot them all down.

Reca felt piercing pain for every pilot that was just shot down; those clones had no more voice than his father did until he had deserted from the army almost twenty three years ago due to his injuries suffered on Gaftikar. He was proud to be the son of Fi Skirata, but even more so, he was proud of being able to defend his home of Mandalore from the Imperial oppressors.

The Zann Consortium had only a small presence on the planet at first, but it was clear from the get go they were not friends with Palpatine. They had entered a contract with MandalMotors and Mandal Hypernautics where both of his parents worked, and began providing Mandalore with an almost unprecedented amount of credits which were put to use designing planetary defenses under the nose of the Imperial garrison.

Reca joined with them about a year ago thanks to clan Skirata having a Crusader made for the clan. He was one of sixteen representatives of the most powerful clans on Mandalore and was only in it to represent the clan and make sure the Consortium lived by their end of the bargain to remove the Imperial presence from the planet. So far they were living by that promise.

Reca scolded himself for the mental tangent and proceeded to look down at his tactical display and saw an Imperial Star Destroyer vanish after being hit by the superlaser. He didn’t trust that amount of firepower in the hands of an almost random grunt, but he wasn’t there to complain, only to kick ass and drink the blood of his enemies. Considering that those enemies were in the high Kuat atmosphere and were mostly clones, he was less than inclined to go out and fetch it.

Another Star Destroyer blew up and unlike the others; this one was less than two klicks away. The shock wave expanded like a sphere and rocked all the ships within a five klick radius. The Kyorimut groaned as the overpressure wave passed through the ship. A couple bolts flew out of their sockets and clattered down onto the deck.

War is hell. There was nothing glorious about it. That being said, the location the Kyorimut was in was like a combination of all the seven Corellian hells. Three DP-20 corvettes were firing concussion missiles at the ship along the port side. A trio of Acclamators were along the underside of the vessel but thankfully ignoring it. Lastly, the Millennium Falcon entered the vicinity and opened up with its massive quad laser cannons.

Reca was losing patience. “Fire all batteries on that freighter. Comms, let Merciless know the Falcon is over here and that we need back up. Let any ships in the area know that we have multiple gunships on our ass and we need them gone yesterday. What are you, Hutts, get moving!” Lieutenant Ralroost, the Bothan communication officer, complied.

An Interceptor IV, the Two for Flinching responded almost immediately and fired four concussion missiles at one of the DP-20s. The gunship spiraled as its engine block took a hit and then drifted into space a dead ship leaking coolant and lubricants. The two turbolaser banks on the Interceptor caught the other two gunships off guard as well.

One tried to feed its engines all the power it could but ended up accelerating into a repair dock and detonated on impact. The other vessel was overpowered by the turbolasers and broke up into three pieces along the seams of the modular component sockets.

An Aggressor, the Unpredictable entered the fray responding to the distress call and fired off its mega cannons into the closest Acclamator. The ship exploded and sent shrapnel flying every direction. The other Acclamators concentrated on the new comer and managed to disable its cannons leaving only two turbolaser banks. It was clear that the Unpredicatble wouldn’t make it, so its captain flew straight at the ships and activated its self-destruct. The three ships became a second sun for an instant, and then there was nothing.

The Millennium Falcon however was unharmed. Nevertheless, the Kyorimut continued to send laser cannon fire down range. The Two for Flinching now finished dealing with the gunships fired all of its remaining concussion missiles in one massive salvo and caught the Rebel flagship right in the gut. The Falcon was defeated, but before a final blow could be dealt, the Falcon jumped into hyperspace and escaped. Victory seemed inevitable, but then retribution came in the form of Kuat’s iron fist.

***

The Annihilator, an Executor class Star Dreadnaught entered the combat zone with three Imperial Star Destroyers as an escort. The ship entered in such a way that it was highlighted by the local sun, and if it weren’t the enemy, than many would have called it beautiful. Tyber Zann however thought it was anything but beautiful at this particular moment. The superlaser aboard the Eclipse fired again and one of the escort Star Destroyers vanished in an instant.

It was only a matter of time before all osik hit the fan, “The superlaser has malfunctioned! We need time to repair it!” came the voice of Lieutenant Roon Ofod. Tyber was now in full panic mode, he had lost his trump card and a full quarter of the fleet had either been destroyed, disabled, or had retreated to the secret space station near the Maw to undergo major repairs.

“Comm issue a general order, all remaining ships are to guard the Eclipse while the superlaser undergoes repairs! Any vessels too damaged to fight are to retreat back to the Maw,” Tyber ordered. Communication officer Ell Haallouf, a Twi’lek relayed the message fleet wide. Tyber looked through the viewport and was grateful to see only a few ships jumping back to the Maw. All others were forming a defensive phalanx and were denying the Empire their target. Another saving grace was that all of the Kedalbe battleships were reporting 100% effective, and they needed to be too for the task ahead of the fleet.

One of the remaining Imperial Star Destoyers charged at the line and found himself under a concentrated capital ship bombardment. It disintegrated under the intense fire, but the Executor was a different story. As it waddled forth, the 500 plus turbolasers and ion cannons fired and destroyed a couple Interceptors in a single volley.

The eight remaining Aggressors fired their mega-cannons and the combined salvo brought the Executor’s shields down to half. All of the Skipray Blastboats began a bombing run while their StarViper friends engaged the numerous fighters coming at them and distracted the point defense gunners. Concussion missiles and proton torpedoes firing from the Annihilator were mostly intercepted by well-timed uses of the Crusader gunships point defense systems, but some got through and knocked out ten of the gunships severely limiting the fleet’s defenses.

Tyber ordered all ships to bombard the Executor and saw its shields finally come down. Battle formation Grand Slam was initiated. The remaining Interceptors gunned their engines and started to flank the massive warship. The ship's commander was an Admiral named Gaarn, and he was anything but incompetent, so seven of the small warships succumbed to its fire while the rest dove to the belly of the beast where major guns were much less common.

Turbolasers began to fire on the Executor’s underside, but many were simply absorbed by the armor of the behemoth. When it became apparent conventional attack wouldn’t work, the Interceptors concentrated on the hangar and sufficiently disabled it from launching or accepting ships before continuing to the engines and the reactor core far to the aft of the ship.

Several of the main weapon banks were destroyed by the Skipray squadrons, but enough remained to destroy a Kedalbe after a direct hit to its reactor core. A couple of the Vengeance frigates went into stealth mode and joined the Interceptors in their flanking maneuver. Among them was the heavily damaged Sturdy.

Once the majority of the chemical leaks and fires had been halted, the crew in the damaged sections evacuated to the rest of the ship and the entire remaining starboard block was ejected, making the ship stealth worthy again.

Mass driver fire direct on the Annihilator’s main bridge was an unpleasant occurrence for it, but the secondary bridge located inside the hull was not harmed so easily. The Executor would not go down like her namesake, the Executor, for this ship was not caught in a gravity well.

The Aggressors cannons had recharged and another single second bombardment targeted the Annihilator. At the lead of the formation was the set of supercharged shots fired by the Merciless. They drilled into the section weakened by the bombing run of the Skiprays and snapped off a solid five kilometer chunk of the bow. Even this heavily damaged, the fight was proceeding very poorly as more ships continued to fall around the Merciless. Tyber wondered if this was the end.

***

“Superlaser repaired! Firing on the flagship!” Roon Ofod was yelling when he discovered the problem was an intentionally sabotaged power circuit. A quick replacement was installed, the culprit executed with a blaster bolt to the face, and he sprinted back to the gunnery station.

It took him a solid minute to get back to the room at a full sprint. He didn’t have any targeting data on an Executor class Star Dreadnought so he had to manually aim the massive cannon. He commed commander van Bernron to move the ship seven degrees port. van Bernron knew it was their only chance so he managed to activate the maneuvering thrusters and succeeded in moving the ship while snapping the construction scaffolding attaching the Eclipse to the dry docks.

Ofod had only one shot, so he made certain it was worth it. He moved the joystick on the console until the reticule on the display was firmly aimed at the Executor. With the grace of a grunt, he slapped down on the red button which fired the cannon. The massive green bolt of energy sheared through the Annihilator and ended the second battle of Kuat with a bang.

Hope you all enjoyed and see you some other time!
 
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Chapter 3

Version History:
1.1: Minor textual edits. Did not remove Herobrine.

Well its been a long time since I have posted last here. The fic is technically on Chapter 9 right now, but all that is going through editing hell before I'd even consider putting it here.

Anyway, Chapter 3 is a short one but hopefully it will explain a bit more about the personalities of our criminal mastermind, his avian lieutenant, and formally introduce my twisted sense of humor.

Props to anybody who can unveil my hidden jokes and obscure pop culture references.
Chapter the 3rd:


Captain Ofod exited the BL-10 shuttle craft and strolled without a care in the world into the Qutub military bunker.

A number of slaves were coming out hauling priceless works of art, weapon prototypes, and a number of artifacts with a history that would have confounded even Darth Vader would he have cared enough to learn about them. As they passed him, they gave stares that could shoot daggers if only their aim wasn’t so bad; at least until the neural re-programmer set in and wiped all thoughts of him from their minds.

Ofod didn’t care. All he wanted was to do his job, which to no great surprise of those who heard of him was slicing.

It took about five minutes and several detours to evade the massive amounts of slaves constantly coming and going, but he finally arrived at the cathedral like central server room.

A slave who looked like a pixilated rectangle person dressed in blue and turquoise with peculiar white eyes held a piece of artwork with only one hand before Tyber Zann.

Tyber was busy trying to gauge the approximate value of the very impressive painting which depicted a bunch of human sized insectoids and spiraling towers on what appeared to be the former Alderaan.

Urai Fenn was not so pre-occupied though, and not wanting to disrupt his friend’s fun decided to just get the assignment briefed and over with.

Urai motioned the Defiler over to the computer console he stood by. Ofod didn’t hesitate, not wanting to displease the people who dragged him out of hell itself.

“We have managed to hack into every file in this data base save for one. I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on this, but be wary, it uses self-erasing replication code.”

“I won’t fail you Lord Fenn.” With that, Ofod set to work.

Ofod liked a challenge as much as the next guy. This Imperial firewall though gave him a very thorough if quick work out.

He decided simply to probe the security and see what it did. The small little program he sent to knock on the front door was given the equivalent of a flaming enema followed by a volley of nuclear flash bang grenades and topped off with a scalping.

The next program did the same thing, except from the back door. Again, the firewall tore it to shreds in a similarly amusing manner.

The third probe was different because rather than descend down to the firewall, this one coaxed it out by imitating a “sector smasher”, the common name for an astromech droid’s hacking software. The firewall raised itself up several levels of code in order to attack the “threat” before it could begin to bypass the security. Instead, what it found was a tiny imitation program.

“Gotcha.” Ofod’s trump card, an infestation special that was written by him plowed to where the Imperial firewall had temporarily vacated when it moved to intercept the imitation. Unable to move back to protect its’ cache and most certainly be corrupted from the inside out, the firewall attempted to send a deletion command into the data storage unit. The imitation program intercepted it and was deleted instead. For the firewall, it was too late. The infestation special detached part of itself to occupy the guardian slot while the rest overwhelmed the firewall by infecting it with self-destruction software.

The entire ordeal had lasted about 30 seconds. To Ofod, it had felt like 30 seconds, which wasn’t at all surprising. “Let’s see what is so special about this file.”

He opened it up and found a galactic map. It wasn’t like any he had ever seen before for most of the sectors were missing. There were around 150 scattered around the entire galaxy, but about 50 were solidly in the unknown regions.

“Interesting,” Ofod muttered to himself.

“Lord Fenn, I’m through, and I know what they were guarding with that impressive firewall.”

“And, what do we have?”

“A galactic map. It has about 150 sectors that look like they aren’t present in any map we currently possess. 50 in the unknown regions, about 50 in the mid-rim, and the rest are scattered in the core and outer-rim.”

“Show me.”

“Aye.”

Urai gazed upon the find. Ofod had indeed found a miracle. The symbol in the upper portion of the map was the crest for the Imperial Department of Military Research.

Urai politely took over the console and told Ofod to go see if Tyber needed any assistance.

All of the data suggested the highlighted sectors were quarantined for various purposes. Most of the sector names were foreign to Urai, but among them he recognized five.

Lehon, also known as Rakata Prime was the home world of the now extinct Rakata, and the data base showed it classified at the highest levels. This one was being used as a shipyard and archeological research site. The list of ships that came from this place was staggering; twelve of the Empire’s Executor Dreadnoughts were built here. One was still under construction, but it already had a name, the Trinity. Urai moved the info to the side and made a mental note to tell Tyber about this massive case of piracy waiting to occur.

Another of the worlds was Malachor V, but that was less significant. All it had going for it was a top secret stormtrooper training center in the form of the entire cracked and crumbled planetoids that sat in close proximity to each other.

The next planet on the list was Dromund Kaas, though it had no Imperial presence on it. The planet was however under strict surveillance for any kind of force using rebellion that could throw balance out of whack for a prolonged period of time.

The fourth planet was Dathomir, but to Urai that was of no concern since he had already been there.

For the first time in a long while, Urai felt fear because the last planet of the ones he recognized was Taltora…

His home.

The same thing occurring on Dromund Kaas was happening there as well. His fear quickly turned into rage, rage at the Empire for desecrating his home planet’s solar system, rage at the things that they might have done to enslave his people, rage that there was nothing he could do to help them.

***

Roon Ofod waddled over to Tyber, but knowing what he was about to ask said, “Go help load the shuttle, but take only the saved data files, those we can’t afford to lose.”

The young slicer nodded and proceeded to the closest terminal and began stripping the system of all its information. As Tyber continued to appraise the various works of art that were presented to him, he noticed Urai seething over at the console.

“Enough dawdling, we have a limited window for when the Kedalbe gets here and we leave this rock.”

Tyber walked over to his friend and stood there for a second wondering what could possibly be making Urai so furious. He looked at the screen, saw the species inhabiting the planet Taltora and knew instantly.

Everyone else had left the bunker already, so they were the last out. He set his hand on Urai’s shoulder and said, “About time I did something for you for a change.”

Urai raised his bird like tear streaked head, and nodded in acknowledgement.

The pair left the building in silence and flew out on the BL-10.

Tyber pressed a detonator once in orbit and the Qutub bunker was lost to history.
 
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Chapter 4

Hello everybody! We have another chapter introducing itself today. Its even shorter than the last one, but then again its mostly setup.

Without further interruption, please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter the Fourth

The RZ-52 shuttle landed on Faaltos with nothing more than a whisper, for there was no air to spread sound vibrations on this grey and black rock.

Silri the Nightsister stepped out and observed the barren planetoid through the visor of her space suit.

Two Sith soldiers accompanied her in their suits. Silri waved her hand and the goons stopped following.

The dark side of the force bled out of this place like explosive cancer.

Silri had no trouble finding the last vault of soldiers; the massive blast door could be seen from space.

She carefully grabbed the Sith Holocron from her utility belt. The small red pyramid had led her to this place, and she was not about to miss the opportunity to exact revenge upon the fools that saw her as no more than a slave. Namely they were anyone Imperial as well as Tyber Zann and Urai Fenn.

She scanned the cliff side for the panel that would open up the massive vault. If it was like the first one she found, than she would insert the holocron into a slot shaped like a pyramid. There was just one problem; the door was about twenty kilometers across, large enough to house an entire fleet.

One of the soldiers observing her from the shuttle about ten meters back spoke, “The slot should be around the center ma’am.”

Silri merely growled in response. The soldier of course was right, for a brief five minute stroll along the side of the facility showed her the location of the panel.

She was breathing hard, her heart pounding in anticipation of this moment. This was what she waited for almost an entire year, this one moment when she could conquer the galaxy promised to her by Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith those 4000 years ago. This was her rising. This was her red storm, one that would sweep the galaxy off of its feet from the shadows, leaving all unaware until it was far too late.

Silri slid the holocron into the slot on the top. The panel didn’t do anything, nor did the blast door show any signs of opening.

Silri looked at the holocron and in a fit of rage; she screeched and smashed her fist down on top of it. The terminal then decided to show some form of life; red and blue lights blinking on and off. She pressed down on the holocron further and upon hearing a click twisted it clockwise.

The ground began to rumble and rocks along the cliff face started to fall down and shatter on impact. Massive groans transmitted through the ground and through Silri’s suit. At last the mammoth sized blast doors began to creak open.

Sliding down into the moon’s surface, rocks formerly supported by the shifting scenery resigned themselves to falling even faster than the elements would typically allow.

For twelve minutes she stood there waiting until the unnatural ceased occurring. When it did, she took a deep breath and gazed upon the glorious gift with which she was granted. Parked at the front of the formation of 300 capital ships was a Centurion class Battlecruiser.

It truly was a sight to behold for anyone who was a military historian. Ship designs not seen for thousands of years were sitting here collecting dust, and many more unique to the foundries of the Star Forge imbued with the dark side of the force could be seen as well.

At this point Silri’s only concern was retrofitting the ships, droids, and various assault vehicles with modern technology. She knew she could never return to the Zann Consortium again, but she still had allies in high places, and there was more than one place to find a labor force capable of the retrofits that she needed to make this army combat effective.

Silri marched with as much purpose as she could muster in the environment suit searching for the control room of the massive hangar.

One of the soldiers she had woken up mentioned that the fleet, armored and droid division were placed in cold storage, but would require the holocron to bring back out. Revan was very specific when he required the holocron to activate the service automaton which would do everything automatically.

The whole process would take at least one month to complete, give or take another two weeks caused by technological errors.

Silri had simply replied that it was of no concern; there was no rush when none among the living could predict a force this ancient.

She followed the wall and began ascending a stairwell. The air lock door she reached at the top was simple in design, so simple that she needed to manually crank a wheel to the left to unlock the door.

She swung it open, entered, clamped it shut again, and proceeded to rinse and repeat the process on the next door. The control room was small with room for what she guessed would be about 20 officers.

The view port overlooking the hangar gave her a most impressive view, certainly giving the ships more justice than the view from the ground. To the direct left of the main view port was another holocron receptacle which she filled with her gift from the sith.

Massive flood lamps began shining for the first time in four millennia. Droid racks protruded from the walls and their ancient cargo set to work. Silri knew her work was also just beginning.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed. There is only one more chapter before this first story arc reaches its conclusion and we get to see our first Pokemon!

As always, more to come and I'll see you next time.
 
Chapter 5

I'm updating faster than a chapter a month. Who am I and what have I done with me?

Pleasantries aside here is a disclaimer:
Nerd stuff! If you are not among the people who are willing to read all kinds of technical and engineering stuff, then just skip to the last two paragraphs for the actual plot. For those of you who may be wondering why as stated previously, these last two chapters are mostly set up. As the game would describe it, we are reading the descriptions of the units that we have just unlocked by advancing a tech level.

Still with me? Cool, enjoy!

When the order to evacuate Endor was given, many backwater Imperial worlds had their garrisons diverted to the formation of the warlord kingdoms.

Admiral Trueten Terradoc was the one to in his words; commandeer that which had no purpose any longer. With that, most of the operational fleet orbiting Lehon abandoned their post and joined the Greater Maldrood. Left in orbit were some freighters shuttling supplies and materials from one end of the ship yard to the other, and the newly finished Lancer Frigates which did not have the crew required to leave the system as required by Teradoc. He did not even consider the half constructed Trinity and left it there, but made a note that it would be useful as spare parts upon acquiring an Executor of his own.

So when the massive Consortium assault fleet entered the system expecting a fight, they received a complete and unconditional surrender. Most of the forces left, and those that stayed were mainly transport ships packed to the brim with slave construction workers to finish the incomplete vessels in orbit including the Trinity. The remainder of the ships were five Kedalbes, ten Vengeance frigates, and seven Crusaders; enough to ward off a stray imperial fleet returning to the planet.

Tyber had left the Merciless at Hypori and in this mission utilized the Radeon, the first Vengeance made by the Consortium.

He looked at the dreadnought locked in the dry dock and appreciated the irony of repeating the Kuat mission, but without the actual battle.

This Executor was definitely different from the Annihilator. Currently only the central section and the underside of the bow were completed, though the scaffolding outlining the ship’s frame displayed a much greater slope along both the top and the bottom creating both a taller profile and implying that the ship would finally take advantage of the dagger shape and fire all its cannons forward. The central block was hollowed out, which gave the appearance of a massive central hangar replacing the underside one. At least 80 protrusions came out of the ship along the starboard and port side trenches which looked like docking arms large enough to grasp a Praetor II class Battlecruiser.

To Tyber, the Trinity was looking like a heavily armed and armored mobile repair and refit station capable of out gunning a regular Executor and its support fleet. Therefore, it was invaluable to his fleet, mostly without dedicated support vessels and being located mostly in the outer rim. That would be something to take care of.

While the Trinity was the main prize here, there were numerous other ships under construction too, almost 400 capital ships of all types scattered around the massive ship yards. Nearby, he saw a grouping of twenty battlecruisers, mostly Praetor IIs, six Allegiance class ships, and four impressive Titan Command Ships. With this many vessels, he would need to ramp up the slave trade and recruitment drive just to get the minimum personnel, but not so much that he would make himself a bigger target than the currently shattered Empire.

Even so, the Kuat raid was still blasting all over the Holo-Net, but whoever was the Imperial in charge of it did an excellent job of making the Empire the victor with the Rebellion and Consortium utterly crippled. The people of Kuat knew otherwise though, after all they were at the center of it.

“Captain Yval, what is the status of the Trinity?” Tyber commed to the construction head he had brought along.

“She’s a beauty sir. If we have all the ‘men’ work twelve hour shifts, we can finish her in about a month. Half that if we don’t give them a break. Double it if we finish all the other ships in the yard at the same time.”

“Dead workers are of no use to me, begin the twelve hour shifts and don’t stop until we have collected all our prizes.”

“Affirmative sir, dreadnought first, all others second.”

Tyber giggled like an obese child with a 50 gallon bowl of chocolate pudding, one of the few tastes he and a generic Hutt would ever share.

The truth was that he despised the way dreadnoughts were used under the Empire; in fact during his time at the Imperial Academy, he had suggested redefining how they would be used. Rather than terror weapons, construct one for every 5,000-10,000 Star Destroyers in the navy and use them as spearheads for major assaults or put them over absolutely essential worlds as attack insurance.

In fact, one of the many things that he had in common with Thrawn, the admiral who had kicked him out of the academy was their hatred of superweapons. They took too much in terms of resources, crew, and money to be cost effective. The only place they differed was with dreadnoughts; Thrawn classifying them as superweapons and Tyber declaring them situational assets.

“Urai, you have the con.”

***

Tyber, swaggered on down to the hanger bay as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

He boarded his personal shuttle, a custom made ship from the assembly lines of Sullust that looked more or less like a flying hawkbat but named after something completely different, the Krayt. Swiftly activating the necessary systems, the crime lord lifted up from the deck and blasted out into the shipyard.

The custom ship had a large semi-spherical view port allowing for a great degree of vision, which in this case was absolutely essential for his personal inspection of the new additions to the fleet. Tyber slowed the ship down, placed it on autopilot, and proceeded to cruise through the field of the half made fleet.

The majority of them were support vessels, namely fuel tankers and resupply vessels, massive circular shaped cargo haulers which resembled the Lucrehulks used by the Trade Federation of old.

Tyber rapidly grew bored of seeing the supply side of the shipyards, so he accelerated past them without a moment’s thought and found himself surrounded by Victory… multiple Victorys as it turned out.

There were a few that had some notable differences like oversized cannons and the signature humps of gravity well generators, clearly prototypes.

There was the occasional Acclamator and Escort Carrier, but it was not long before the shuttle drifted into the land of giants.

Imperial Star Destroyers of all types were found here, mostly of the Kuati design, but a few he could recognize as contract jobs: three from Eriadu, characterized by a shorter bridge tower and a row of three triple ion cannons along the axis of the vessel; at least twenty of Correllian origin, displayed by a massively oversized engine block, replacing the standard three thrusters with fifteen; no less than ten from Bilbringi which were characterized by hyper elevated turrets in the rear allowing all guns to fire forward and slaved systems allowing for a crew of half the standard size; five from the ship yards of Rendili showing off additional hanger bays along the broadsides and wings used to hold additional turbolasers in addition to stabilizing it for atmospheric flight; and that is when Tyber began salivating. At the center of the formation of ISDs was a near complete Mandalorian engineered ISD.

This was widely known in the Imperial Navy as the pinnacle of the line. Visually, it looked not too much different from a standard one, but up close, the dark grey war paint surrounding the changes in hull elevation on both top and bottom became much more pronounced.

Massive yellow glowing engines provided much greater thrust allowing these ships to keep pace with even Correllian designs.

The armor plating was also notable in that it was much more sloped allowing it to bounce off more projectiles than normal. The armor was also reprioritized to cover more essential locations more adequately and dump it where it was not needed.

Mass drivers lined the sides of the ship in eight banks of five, and the original armament had been relocated around the ship to provide better firing coverage from all sides. Some of the turbolasers were sacrificed for point defense lasers used against both fighters and missiles.

Finally, the reactor bulge on the underside had been reduced to about half its size, representing the smaller and more power efficient reactor used by the ship to power its better weapons, engines, and shields.

Internally, the structure was honeycombed with an excessive amount of cross braces and internal support, which while expensive were capable of letting the ships survive 90% of their internal compartments being breached while still being able to function.

These were ships designed to take out a Praetor II single handedly. And all of this for the low, low price of seven times the cost of a standard ISD, which themselves were about 150 million credits.

For most Captains in the navy, Tyber not an exception, the ability to have one of these beauties under their command was a phenomenal social status symbol, and for good reason too; these ships had a record of at least a fifty to one K/D ratio regarding ships of similar size and armament. Thus, it was proof that the Mandalorians were just that much better.

Contemplating on all of this, Tyber grinned. Silri would have a great deal of osik to deal with once he found her. He had tried to be nice, in his strange cold and calculating and very dry sarcastic kind of way. Alas, she had disappeared the moment the Eclipse was abandoned, and it didn’t take a genius to understand that she wanted him and Urai to pay for letting Bossk get away with the holocron she seemed to love so badly. With that in mind, Tyber turned the ship around.

***

The Krayt scurried on back to the Radeon and landed in the small, well lit shuttle bay. Tyber had a lot of work to do, though considering what was going to happen it did not feel like work. He knew what would happen next. Come two months’ time, the hunt for Silri would commence and the liberation of Taltora would be underway. He will have finally repaid Urai a debt lasting almost ten years of devotion that only a friend could bestow.

And with that, the first arc has been completed. What will happen now that the prelude to war has drawn to a close?

I'm glad you asked. We are going to take a little journey over to the universe that we all know and love, the world of Pokemon!

Geoff Tenno would like to battle!
 
The Appendixes: Part 1

I think a pulled a muscle with all the back story and world building I crammed into this part.

Written in the style of an Academic Journal with a little more personal flair, I would like to formally introduce the lore behind part of the crossover.

Without any further adieu, The Appendixes: Part 1

From the Office of Dr. Jeff Altig, Head of the Department of Archaeology, Isaac University, Newton City, Eterna Province, Sinnoh​

On the Origin of Pokémon and their Influence on Human History​

When the UPN (United Pokémon Nations) pushed forth the action for the invasion of the Savage Lands, many citizens asked the question, why? The fabricated answers that have emerged as a result of interviews have said that, “It is for their own good.” Now there is a different question of whose good does this do? That is not so easily answered. To find the answer, an intense investigation on the Infestation has been conducted, and the origin of Pokémon may now finally come to the light. Human history has forever been intertwined with Pokémon and the Infestation, and the origin of such species has peculiar implications.

We begin with a basic overview of what is known about our home planet, the World of Pokémon. This 6 billion year old sphere of rock, metal, and water is home to some 4 billion humans, around 500 billion Pokémon of all kinds, and another 500 billion strong of lesser animals excluding insects. Most of these living beings occupy an area of the planet that encompasses three quarters of all landmass. The remaining portion is the Savage Lands, so aptly named due to the many monstrous creatures that inhabit it.

The Savage Lands were first discovered when explorers discovered the continent after getting lost in a fierce electrical storm which turned the sky over the area dark blue and pink. Upon landfall, the sailors were immediately attacked by creatures that appeared to be mutated humans, animals, and what were described as “pure-blood monsters.”

Since that fateful encounter, humans have blockaded the coastline of the entire continent to ensure that the Infested would not spread. It was not until late 1999 when air superiority fighter/bombers and main battle tanks became advanced enough to adequately protect convoys carrying scientists and researchers into the Savage Lands, when it was discovered Pokémon lived among these creatures in relative harmony. There was just one catch; some of these Pokémon had achieved complete sentience. They had developed all manner of basic infrastructure such as roads and towns, a free market economy that harbored basic industry, and even more stunning, were actively exploring lands foreign to them and establishing ever more signs of what humans consider to be basic civilization. While some of these scientists did perish in their line of research, or disappear altogether, they have shown us that as the saying goes, “Life will find a way.”

Indeed life found many ways to prosper. Neither Infestation, animal, or Pokémon, the Kaiju are colossal creatures that are hyper aggressive and take an obscenely long time to take down. These titans of the Savage Lands are the apex predators and dominant life forms of the region. Many of these creatures are in excess of being 300 feet in height. The sheer scale of these creatures has baffled scientists until one was killed after attacking the blockade in 2012.

To properly explain why the Kaiju are able to reach such epic proportions, one must consider that it is not a simple matter of upscaling a living being. Take a human for example. At an average of five feet and nine inches, every organ and bone is in a proper proportion. Modern day “giants” are known to experience extreme pain because their bones are unable to take the stress, and their organs are less efficient because they have to work harder to provide for more body mass. If a human was up scaled to reach a height of 300 feet, than the organs would implode because the tissue is not strong enough to keep them together and not collapse in on themselves due to the effects gravity has on such large objects. When the dead Kaiju was analyzed, the researchers found out that all of its tissue was laced with interlocking carbon fibers that supplied enough tension to keep everything from imploding. In a way, it was as though spider thread which is known to be one of the strongest materials relative to its size had been laced throughout the body.

The last matter to be addressed is that somehow, the Kaiju needs to feed on sufficient quantities of food to keep their massive bodies functioning. That fortunately enough is easier to answer. Massive fish that reside in the Savage Lands inland sea are hypothesized to be their main food source, although other large herbivores reminiscent of dinosaurs and extinct Pokémon are eaten by those creatures without access to the sea.

This is all good and well, but what does this have to do with the history of Pokémon and humans? Quite a lot actually.

This answer was found to lie in the hands of a religious warrior cult called the Tenno. The Tenno worship a deity they call “The Lotus” who gave them their “missions and orders” in a manner very similar to the commanding officer of a military operation. The Tenno are very strong and agile people who are capable of extensive feats of what is called parkour, and are capable of defending themselves from even such threats as an enraged Tyranitar with just their fists and feet. It is notable how widespread this pure physical talent is considering the cult contains an estimated 10,000 members across the world.

Tenno culture is passed down through bloodlines, not recruits, and was initially discovered due to documents through history detailing their involvement in such conflicts as the Crusades, the 30 Years War, the American and French Revolutions, the War of 1812, all three World Wars, the First Gulf War, and even up until the Kanto Civil War when the newly founded Johto Republic separated from the Kanto Empire 30 years ago. Such a deep history with warfare bears the impression that the Tenno are among the most skilled mercenaries in the world, all the while giving their proper respects to “The Lotus.”

Aside from the Tenno being connected with just about every major conflict to scorch the world, they have devoted a great deal of time to preserving the history of the world in the “Archive of Carolus Rex” found in their self-proclaimed capital of Stockholm which they rebuilt after the city was reduced to rubble in the Team Jurassic Disaster. As farfetched as the tale is, it is currently the only theory on the table that connects all the pieces together.

In the Tenno records (which “The Keeper” so graciously allowed the team access to), their founder and ancestor Hayden Tenno was infected by a disease called the Technocyte Virus which all Tenno now bear as a gift and curse, the ultimate symbol of balance and a topic of later note. Hayden Tenno’s mission had failed, and in an attempt to flee the Infestation that was a result of said mission encountered a portal conjured by nothing less than Dialga. The portal allegedly took him into the future where humanity was prosperous amidst the middle of a golden age of exploration and Sol had been renamed “Origin”. Humanity had defeated the Infestation and banished the remnants to what is referred to as “The Void.” (It is assumed this Void is the collective name of alternate universes which are in more or less the same vein as ours.)

Hayden Tenno bore many children and eventually went on a pilgrimage never to be seen again. His legacy lives on through the Tenno. Before his disappearance, he was allegedly approached by Dialga, the Pokémon that granted him a new life almost 80 years prior. As if to cleanse its conscience, Dialga unloaded to Hayden its origin story. All Pokémon are an evolution of the Infested, which has just recently been confirmed after DNA tests on both have shown uncanny similarities. By the will of Arceus, the first “Lephantis”, those humans pure of heart and soul who were claimed by the Infestation were allowed a new life. Mew was the first.

Pokémon and humanity alike prospered. It was a time of joy, adventure, and excitement. Alas it would not be long before a new force made itself known. The Orokin, a race of alien invaders conquered the “Origin” system in less than a week. It was a classic repeat of Columbus and the Native Americans. Arceus did not appreciate what it saw. As a result, it created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina to make a new universe inside the Void to escape the Orokin. Taking with them humans, animals, and every known Pokémon in existence, they brought them to a new “Origin”.

It wasn’t an exact copy as it served as the trio’s playground, where they could build and shape however they pleased. From this, the Kaiju were born, continents were shaped differently, the island of Japan in particular was scattered almost like a jigsaw puzzle, and the world was overall much more forested, but it retained the names of the locations of old Earth. This world became known by the name of its now dominant life forms, Pokémon. History repeated itself and humanity was left alone to evolve as it had for many long millennia.

Only a few Tenno made it to the portal. Those that did not fought. In the most deadly guerilla war humans ever waged, the Orokin sustained heavy losses and nearly lost all their gains. Despite the heavy resistance of the Tenno and other human groups, the Orokin emerged victorious. Now the rulers, the Orokin pilfered the system like locusts, taking all of its resources and converting “Origin” in their own image. In this haste, the Orokin discovered humanities ultimate secret.

When they opened a portal to the Void, they released the Infested once again. Appalled by the foul creatures, they began a system wide extermination and capture campaign of all with the Technocyte Virus in their veins. All Tenno bore the blood and as a result were banished to the Void which the Orokin now began to settle. The Orokin Towers served as prisons, forced labor camps, and execution chambers. All towers bore an AI called the neural sentry that served as a warden and was prone to a sadistic “glitch”. The Tenno were slaves, and humanity was forced to lick the boots of the Orokin to survive.

After three centuries of Orokin tyranny, an even darker threat emerged. The invaders attacked “Origin” and ruthlessly killed all they saw. These DNA based computers had somehow developed all on their own and were so departed from what humans would call even basic emotions and thoughts that they gained the ironic name, the Sentients. What made them even more special was their weapon of choice; organic robots were used by mechanical overlords as foot soldiers and cannon fodder. The Sentients were an almost perfect system conquering race. The more advanced that their enemies grew, the more said enemies were doomed to failure.

The Orokin, masters of biological engineering and creators of artificial intelligences were all but helpless. Then, they had a stroke of genius. The Orokin released the Infestation once again to serve as a distraction as they set about their real plan. They took the original suit of armor worn by Hayden Tenno, named Excalibur and began creating more. They mass produced these Warframes, created many other designs, and at long last, opened the gates of the Orokin Towers. In exchange for freedom, unlimited wealth, and power over lesser humans and Orokin, the Tenno would fight just as they did three centuries earlier. So they fought. The Tenno ripped the Sentients armada apart. Many Tenno were lost; Mirage, Limbo, and Valkyr to name a few. At long last, the enemy was defeated and banished from “Origin”. The Tenno returned home victorious, but they were not satisfied.

The Lotus, then the human ambassador to the Orokin saw a light in the dark. These heroes of the Orokin Empire had a chance to liberate humanity. After centuries of oppression, the Tenno had a chance. Not all humans saw the situation like she did.

The Corpus Conglomerate, the largest trading corporation in “Origin” was relieved to see their assets were safe and was quite content to return to life as it was under Orokin rule. The lower guardians, peasants who served in the Orokin military had been practically brainwashed to accept the Orokin Emperors as gods.

When the warriors, temple guardians, councilors, and saviors alike came to Mercury for the celebration, they stood waiting. On the command of the Lotus, the ceremony began. The event was captured in this poem written by an unknown author.

Ten Solemn Beats of the Naga Drums:
On the first, they were dressed in silk.
On the second, they were bathed in gold.
On the third, the hymns were sung.
On the fourth, their tales of war were immortalized.
On the fifth, the heads of their enemies were displayed.
On the sixth, the dead were mourned.
On the seventh, vengeance was sworn.
On the eighth, gun and blade was drawn.
On the ninth, the torrent of blood filled the stadium.
On the tenth, the empire fell silent forever.​

The traitorous Tenno finally had their vengeance. A dark age was cast over “Origin” when the civil war began. The Emperors’ highest guardians had just slain their masters and were now a hunted people. Some managed to escape into the Oort cloud and await the call of the Lotus. The records end when many Tenno flee back into the void and find themselves on a peculiar world ruled by Pokémon and the occasional human. These Tenno are the ones we see today in Stockholm and the Village of Orokin.

So what does this extensive account of the Savage Lands and the Tenno have to do with Pokémon origins and human history? After ten years of research and study, it has been confirmed that Pokémon are simply an evolution of the Infested, the victims of the Technocyte Virus. This same virus also infects modern day Tenno, so in a way they too are Pokémon.

The World of Pokémon, (until proven otherwise) is a copy of planet Earth which serves as an arc in a universe full of danger. So when UPN spokespeople say that the invasion of the Savage Lands is “For their own good,” they are correct in saying so. These people deserve better than to live as Infested forever, and the Tenno serve as a reminder of the cost that humanity pays for its continued existence among the stars.

This sucker only took a week to write and edit, so I feel pretty happy about how quick it happened.

Chapter 6 will likely go up before Sunday, so more to come!
 
Chapter 6

I said I'd have this up before Sunday, but that was just silly of me to think I can actually keep to a deadline.

We begin our adventure into the crossover in the middle of Geoff Tenno's excursion across the Sinnoh region.


Part the Second:

Sinnoh​

It had been a beautiful day in industrial Oreburgh City.

The dusk sun and sky seemed as though they had a smile on their face, if only because they were celebrating the Thundurus’s disappearance. It was evening, and everyone was glad that the previous evening’s thunderstorm had ceased. The damn Thundurus had apparently decided that it would spread its misery to the other regions too, so off it went from Unova to its people’s great relief; and to the suffering of Sinnoh’s people.

That did not stop young seventeen year old Geoff Tenno from issuing a challenge to Roark of the Oreburgh City Gym the previous evening.

For the past seven years, Geoff had been traveling the world of Pokémon partaking in their Pokémon League Tournaments and getting himself a great deal of experience and knowledge of what it is he wants to do in life.

His ultimate ambition was to become a Gym Leader, but not like the traditional type based ones that could be swept by one or two members of a team. Rather he wished to be one with a set strategy or theme that could be exploited instead. He had yet to decide what that would be, and at the moment, he could not care less about it, for he had a Gym battle to attend.

Recently, the Oreburgh Gym had been relocated to just above the city’s mines and it was a nice little walk up the gravel switchbacks that felt as though elegance was a byproduct of practicality. From the outside, it did not appear different from the other Gyms of the land, except that it was built into the side of a cliff.

Every Gym had the standard half-Pokèball emblazoned somewhere to meet the Pokémon League regulations, but this one had been made much more creatively than most others. Coal, emeralds, gold, and many other precious minerals, gems, and metals had been left in their place. The rock around them was carved and smoothed out to create contrast with the rest of the wall.

As much as Geoff was infatuated by the beauty that was the exterior of the Gym, he did not wish to keep Roark waiting. Thus the trainer walked in.

Roark did not live up to the expectation Geoff had anticipated. He waited patiently on the Gym’s central arena which was both exposed to the clear evening sky and bore marks of excessive soil replacement. Rather than an ancient battle scarred miner, Geoff discovered a forty-ish, strongly built man wearing a rust red hardhat that covered a set of brown hair which was greying at the temples.

Geoff knew the man raised rock types. Rather than be like the average run of the mill trainer, he would meet that ore fetish head on and give him a fight to remember.

“A new challenger approaches my rock hard domain, welcome. I assume you are the challenger from last evening’s e-mails yes? Unless that was the Thundurus fucking up my inbox, in which case I’d love to introduce it to Gigalith’s Smack Down,” Roark welcomed booming as he did so before grumbling like an old man at the mention of the prankster.

“The name’s Geoff, and yes that was both me and the Thundurus. The power outages forced me to send that ten times before I could confirm it was sent. Little electric asshole,” Geoff growled.

“All technical and Thundurus issues aside, is three on three good with you then Geoff?” the leader inquired.

While talking, the two had gradually drifted over to opposite sides of the gym.

“Let’s do it!” the young adult cried excitedly from the trainer box and sent out his first Pokémon.

A Tyrunt popped out of the red and white ball and automatically assumed a defensive posture. Roark smiled and sent out a Cranidos. The two fossil Pokémon stared each other down as only ancient enemies could. It was as though the past, present, and future walked into an alley, or a Gym’s arena, that is to say… tense.

“Tyrunt, Rock Tomb!” Geoff ordered. The small carnivore smashed the ground beneath it with its head and hit the resulting debris with its tail sending it into the air toward its opponent.

“Cranidos, Zen Headbutt it into oblivion!” the Gym Leader commanded and his fossil instantly obliterated the incoming meteor shower with its blue glowing skull. The small Pokémon continued its charge and was oncoming fast to the other side of the arena.

“Crunch!” The equally as intimidating Tyrunt charged as well and opened its jaw revealing a set of teeth as sharp as diamond. The rock types collided with each other and a stereotypical detonation of dust that nobody could explain occurred. It settled and the results were revealed.

Tyrunt had Cranidos’ head in its jaw which had ceased glowing blue. They were both unconscious. Simultaneous beams of red light came from opposite sides of the arena and enveloped the defeated fossils before withdrawing them.

Words were unnecessary as the combatants recognized worthy opponents in the other. They put their Pokè Balls back into their respective pouches and withdrew another set simultaneously.

“Go!” both cried and out came a Graveler and a Metang.

The pair in a very similar manner as the previous two Pokémon did simply glared at each other and made angry thoughts. The situation continued to be tense when both trainers waited for the other to make the first move. Geoff was the first after about a solid minute.

“Metal Claw!”

“Earthquake!”

Metang rushed at the enemy with blazing speed and the Graveler did not have time to set up its attack. The claws did not do as much damage as Geoff had hoped for, but Metang felt stronger than ever and attacked again more vigor than before. This time, Graveler was ready and it smashed its foot into the ground. The arena erupted in earthly power and it concentrated itself into a funnel striking Metang’s underside. The steel type shrieked in pain and grew furious. It continued to claw at the Graveler each time striking with more fury than the last.

The two Pokémon began to show signs of weakness. Each attack, strike, punch, and elemental form of energy came slower than the last time. It was a stale mate and both trainers knew it, so they began exploring unconventional methods. With that, Geoff began pacing inside his box.

“Metang, bring the ground out from under it!”

“Graveler, grab on to its arm!”

Metang used its psychic powers to pull the gravel out from underneath Graveler. It hung on to the psychic’s arm like the giant brown ball that it was. Metang struggled to hold both of their weights in the air, as it knew that the opponent would have it if it faltered down to the ground.

Graveler kept striking Metang with its extra arms and it finally gave way. The two toppled to the ground and Graveler wasted no time mounting its quarry. Rocks and fists of all types continued to pummel the helpless Pokémon until Geoff shouted, “Meteor Mash!”

Metang slammed its fist into the ground and shattered it. Graveler tumbled into the hole as Metang rocketed upward and was conscious just long enough to see a fist of blazing steel descending from the heavens come crashing down into its face.

Metang levitated out of the three meter wide hole and wobbled a little before becoming engulfed in a white light. Despite seeing evolution countless times, Roark and Geoff just stared like a pair of dumbstruck buffoons until a Metagross emerged from the light and stood proud for a moment like the majestic as fuck bestial supercomputer it was. Its legs buckled and it then collapsed.

Happy that his Pokémon had evolved, but saddened that it had fainted, Geoff drew his Quick Ball out and recalled the powerhouse.

“You are an impressive trainer, and as a Gym leader I applaud you and your Pokémon. This has been by far one of the best battles I’ve had to this date and I hope we can finish this with a bang! I’m a little surprised there have been two double knockouts though,” Roark declared to the entire Gym.

Geoff just smiled at the praise and drew a Great Ball from his third pouch. A Braviary burst into being and had the look of a creature wanting to scalp something, an experience that Geoff was reluctant in divulging to anybody. Onix popped from Roark’s end, and while the Gym Leader temporarily had a hybrid confused/disappointed face on due to the typing of their opponent, he shook it off once he remembered who he was facing.

“Bulk Up Braviary!” Geoff yelled from the trainer box.

The massive bird glowed blue for a second and then quivered in anticipation of utilizing its newfound power and endurance. Onix glared at the bird clearly likening it to easy prey and launched a small rock to knock it out of the air.

Braviary dodged the Smack Down with a great deal of grace and fell into a dive right into the rocky snake. Onix tried to burrow and dodge the Superpower attack, but its bulk was too much and it struck home. Onix shuddered and fell still to the floor.

Roark smiled and laughed heartily before recalling Onix. He walked on over to meet Geoff in the middle and handed him the Coal Badge. Now Geoff only required one more badge to participate in the Sinnoh League. If his luck was anything like it was in Hoenn or Kalos than he would be runner up in this year’s tournament… again. Still, he thoroughly enjoyed the competition and hoped to partake this year too.

Geoff said goodbye to Roark and strolled to the beat of his own footsteps all the way to the Pokémon Center.

His final and rather non-sequitur thought before rolling into a deep sleep in the room he had reserved was that at least there were no villainous teams trying to threaten the world and all life as they know it in some half assed attempt to make a new universe or some other bullshit like that.

Next time: disaster strikes and is promptly forgotten.
 
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Chapter 7

This is the last chapter to get put up before the awards. I've been posting these chapters at a frightening rate, so don't expect such a flurry again for a little while at least. That and I'm starting up another story that nobody will see until at least the new year.


It was morning in Oreburgh City when Geoff woke up from his lovely slumber as do most humans. It was however 4:27 AM when the rumbling started and just barely nudged the citizens of the town out of their beds and onto the floors of their houses.

Geoff, still waking up mumbled something along the lines of, “OMFG, STFU U POS!” Alas, what it really sounded like was anyone’s guess, but the point was still the same as Geoff was brutally awakened by the earthquake. A small red emergency light came down from a panel hidden in the ceiling and started blinking like a police vehicle in Lumiose City.

Continuing to mumble and not having any further clue as to what was happening Geoff finally opened his eyes as the rumbling came to a stop.

The hardwood room was mostly untouched, though several decorative pieces of china-ware had crashed to the floor and made a minefield between Geoff and anything he needed to reach. Naturally in his less than capable hangover like state, he stepped on several of the pieces each piercing his foot and causing him to howl like the bastard child of Heath Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker and an Arcanine. There were some other screams from the other rooms in the Pokémon Center, so he was not exactly an anomaly.

Geoff having endured what seemed to him like hell emerged pained, bleeding, and victorious back to his bed where he proceeded to remove the chunks of glass from his feet, sprayed the wounds with some disinfectant, and wrapped them up in gauze. Blessing or Well of Life would be too conspicuous to use.

Geoff, in pain yet calm packed his belongings. It wasn’t much: a backpack chock full of Pokémon supplies and basic toiletries; two small tarps, sleeping pad, and accompanying sleeping bag; and a small shoulder bag with food, water and a small camping stove; but it all served him well enough. He had been told to be prepared for most anything, but he admitted that there would be injuries regardless.

Items gathered, Geoff took a moment to sweep the fallen pieces of glass into a trash bin. He performed a final check to ensure he had not forgotten anything and discovered he had almost left behind his TM/HM case underneath the bed. He berated himself for his foolishness, but also acknowledged that this was the reason to sweep the room in the first place. Before departing, he inspected himself in the mirror to ensure nothing was astray.

Geoff was a very strongly built teen at about five eleven. His hair was a fair gold but also quite ruffled and did not go past his ears. His light brown skin appeared almost demonic in the flashing red light becoming a deep black every time the rotating light faced the other end of the room. It didn’t help that his hand me down BDU’s were dark grey and bore occasional red and blue patches which more or less made him appear like R.O.B. if he was a cop. The bandaging on his feet made his digital camouflage boots bulge slightly, but he would be able to walk or jog if required. Finally, the gauze on his left arm and hand was securely fastened.

Satisfied that nothing was missing, he put on a beanie and left the room.

***

Organized chaos is the only way to describe what was happening in the Pokémon Center. Nurses were sprinting everywhere to get medicine and supplies to care for the injured Pokémon. A doctor with only pink Ponyta pajama bottoms on rushed past Geoff ordering, “Get out of my way!” He sidestepped and the man disappeared around a corner.

Deciding that it was best to leave, he walked down to the crowded lobby avoiding the various medical personnel and patients until he was out of the door.

The early morning outside was a mess. Streetlights were toppled and dimming due to the presence of the brink of dawn, cracks were in the roadway spewing water and gas, and at least three of the cities older structures sustained intense damage as far as Geoff could see.

There were emergency personnel lining the streets making certain that people were evacuated from endangered structures and putting out fires where gas lines ruptured. Frankly, Geoff was amazed at the response time and by extension, impressed by it too. Over near an office complex, there were a group of Blastoise and Empoleon smothering a not so insignificant blaze. The nearby apartments saw many Alakazam and Gallade nudge away obstacles with brains and brawn for emergency personnel to get through and rescue the injured. A Rapidash mounted police captain was directing a group of officers to prevent any looting of nearby shops.

To Geoff, it was like watching ants after somebody kicked their hill, scurrying about with intense purpose to undo the damage done.

An officer in a dirty blue uniform approached Geoff. “Sir, you need to vacate the premises. Follow that line of people to the Under City evac shelter.” Geoff was not one to ignore authority and did as he was told.

Limping with the rest of the evacuees was sobering. Geoff had not really known what true suffering felt like until he saw that countless citizens had lost family, friends, other various loved ones, and all their belongings. Truly the mood was contagious and he began to mope with them despite not having the right to do so.

They proceeded like this for about two hours before Geoff noticed that the glow of the rising sun was no longer present. A thick layer of dark cloud cover hung over the city outskirts and appeared ready to let loose while fitting the mood of the people.

Pulling an umbrella out of his pack, Geoff managed to set up the simple device before the rain began to fall. It was a funny thing fate, after a successful Gym battle, he was forced to leave town somberly. It didn’t help that news reporters were lining the streets trying to get interviews from people who survived the quake. He overheard one of the unoccupied reporters as they told the story to the camera.

“At 4:27 this morning, a massive 6.9 earthquake struck much of southern Sinnoh and northern Johto. Here, in Oreburgh City, the damage is catastrophic and no less than five skyscrapers in downtown are in danger of collapsing. Emergency personnel have since issued a general evacuation of the city as a precaution for an aftershock. The speed with which these brave people and Pokémon are working is simply astounding as most of the town has been cleared in about two hours. Furthermore, if the pace keeps up, then the city will be clear of people before 10:00 AM. In other parts of the region, the damage is more severe, especially notable in Canalave City where most of it is already in ruins and thousands are still missing including Gym Leader Byron. People are urged to stay away from the cities not only to avoid clogging routes in and out, but also to avoid further devastation in the event of an aftershock. The Weather Institute in Hoenn has issued a statement as to why there was no warning for the quake citing that the only way it could have escaped their sensors is if it was caused by humans or Pokémon. Reporting from Duskhan borough in Oreburgh City, Jonathan Butler, JTV News, back to you Mohammed.”

As Geoff continued walking with the other refugees, he attempted to make sense of what it was that he had just heard.

An artificially induced earthquake? The only time something like that happened would be the Environment Crisis from 20 years ago when Groudon and Kyogre fought. Team Galactic blew up Lake Valor not long after during the Mt. Coronet Incident.

The possibilities of a Team Galactic resurgence genuinely disturbed Geoff if anything his mother had told him was true.

Team Flare did reactivate the Ultimate Weapon at the tail end of the Team’s Beautiful World Campaign, and that too resulted in an earthquake when the machine detonated, but their leader was buried in the rubble, so their involvment seemed unlikely.

Over the course of a few minutes Geoff considered the possibilities. The only things that southern Sinnoh and northern Johto had in common were ore deposits, with Oreburgh being the prime example.

Other than that the only other place of note was the Sinjoh ruins. The Sinjoh were just that, a ruin, nothing fancy there. Although they could be preferred as a testing ground for something less than legal.

When Geoff thought of that, his mind immediately went to Team Rocket.

While officially they had disbanded, many of its former members had gotten back together and formed an extensive underground crime network. Anything from Pokémon, to rare and contraband weapons, drugs, and even human trafficking was not below these splinter groups.

Though the most frightening thought Geoff had would be artificial absofusion, the process that Neo-Team Plasma had used to create the colored Kyurem during the Unova Freezing event two years after the Siege of the Unova League which itself occurred about eleven years ago.

Since then, many underground crime groups had tried to replicate the process with both horrifying and saddening results. OPET, the Organization for Pokémon’s Ethical Treatment which formed after the siege has since the freezing gone to United Pokémon Nations (UPN) rallying for international capital punishment of those involved in artificial absofusion due to the intense suffering of those unfortunate Pokémon. Their members have also declared an unofficial war on anybody with affiliation to a villainous team, especially Neo-Team Plasma.

Spearheading OPET is none other than Roon who was one of Team Plasma’s seven sages before being disbanded. In fact, it is in somewhat of the style of Team Plasma that the vigilantes operate, taking Pokémon from abusive trainers and owners and finding them a new home.

While Geoff was in his head considering possibilities often times far beyond what would be expected of him by a normal person, he almost walked into a yellow fence post and subsequently was brought out of the delusions.

Returning to reality, he observed that he was still among the refugees walking through the early morning rain. Nothing more of significance occurred until the massive gateway to the Under City shelter embraced the group of desperate people anxiously waiting for their lives to return to normal.

Next time: Geoff demands a flashback! What kind of flashback you ask? One completely irrelevant to the plot, that kind of flashback!
 
The dusk sun and sky seemed as though they had a smile on their face, if only because they were celebrating the Thundurus’s disappearance. It was evening, and everyone was glad that the previous evening’s thunderstorm had ceased. The damn Thundurus had apparently decided that it would spread its misery to the other regions too, so off it went from Unova to its people’s great relief; and to the suffering of Sinnoh’s people.
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You could just put "the dusk sky" since people should know the sun is part of the sky. Also, I'm interested to see where you'll go with Thundurus. That thing makes me mad in competitive battles, but I don't think I've ever seen it in fics before. I'd also like to mention that I read the first chapters for the fairground quiz, but I didn't feel confident reviewing because I don't know much about Star Wars at all. All I know is that it takes a lot of dedication and memorization/research to write something for that fandom.
His ultimate ambition was to become a Gym Leader, but not like the traditional type based ones that could be swept by one or two members of a team. Rather he wished to be one with a set strategy or theme that could be exploited instead. He had yet to decide what that would be, and at the moment, he could not care less about it, for he had a Gym battle to attend.
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I like non-specialized teams, so I like his goal. Also, it's kind-of sort-of unique to see a trainer want to be a gym leader rather than the champion. At any rate, this paragarph shows a lot of his personality, which I like.
Rather than an ancient battle scarred miner, Geoff discovered a forty-ish, strongly built man wearing a rust red hardhat that covered a set of brown hair which was greying at the temples.
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I'm not sure Roark looks THAT old!
As for the battle itself, it was a little on the short side, by the strategies were creative and the descriptions done well, so I can't complain too much. Two double knockouts seemed like an escape goat to have the battle done sooner, which was a bit disappointing, but it does make for an interesting battle for the characters themselves.
To Geoff, it was like watching ants after somebody kicked their hill, scurrying about with intense purpose to undo the damage done.
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Nice, amusing imagery here.
Since then, many underground crime groups had tried to replicate the process with both horrifying and saddening results. OPET, the Organization for Pokémon’s Ethical Treatment which formed after the siege has since the freezing gone to United Pokémon Nations (UPN) rallying for international capital punishment of those involved in artificial absofusion due to the intense suffering of those unfortunate Pokémon. Their members have also declared an unofficial war on anybody with affiliation to a villainous team, especially Neo-Team Plasma.
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This comment isn't particularly for just this paragraph. I just wanted to say that I like the organizations you're putting together. When I think about the pokemon where, I think there must be SO MUCH WORK that's put into keeping pokemon safe, tame, fed, unharmed, etc... I like that you're thinking about these sorts of things, too. Also like the mix of Hoenn/Johto/Sinnoh. Regions should mix just as well as countries in real life do.
I see you won't be updating as fast for a while, but I'll be interested to see what comes next.
 
Awards feedback!

This is clearly a very ambitious story, and you deserve huge kudos for trying to bring these worlds together. It is certainly no easy task, and you have made a good start and a great attempt.

I am going to address the problems first, because there are a number of things holding the story back from unlocking its full potential. Firstly, a lot of the settings were either underdescribed or their descriptions were completely rushed over. You have two richly defined worlds to work with, but the reader needs to get your vision of things. A lot of the Star Wars chapters were particularly lacking and it was hard to really picture what they looked like. The Oreburgh chapters were a step in the right direction, adding more flavour and your own touch of what the city looked like, and I hope you keep up those levels of description plus grow from there.

The main problem would be your style. Everything just felt very rushed, there was very little that was really built up or expanded upon. Outside of the wonderfully choreographed battle sequences, the story really just whizzes by. It affects your characters as we do not get a chance to really connect with them as a lot of information is just thrown out there to get it out of the way. One example would be in the prologue where Darth Raven’s backstory is covered in about two paragraphs: that is really not good enough. You need to slow down and draw out your characters, your settings and your plot, give everything time to breathe and time for your audience to connect with what you have created.

The best part of your story was the plot, which has a lot of different elements and it seems to be building up towards bringing the two worlds together, so I cannot wait to see what you do with that. However, I seriously think you need to take on my advice and make some serious improvements to how you describe and explain things. Don’t be afraid to make your chapters a bit long if you have to: I think most readers would prefer proper explanations and descriptions over a quick read. It may just be me, but that is my take on the matter. I hope it is useful, and please don’t be discouraged in the slightest: there is a lot of potential here for a great epic, there are strong signs of it in your battles, but it just needs an extra oomph to make it really hit home.
 
Please note: The thread is from 11 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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