Jedi Insurgency 196

The chamber of the Infinite Engine throbbed like the heart of a dying god.

Colossal conduits arced from the floor to ceiling, funneling rivers of crackling electricity into a large metallic machine at the chamber’s core. The air reeked of ozone and ancient dust. Power hummed through the very fabric of the universe, promising untapped potential. 

Darth Vader stood at the edge of that radiance full of longing, and a burning need for conquest. 

It was his. The Infinite Engine would obey him, and no other. 

Crimson blade ignited, he regarded the two who had stepped forth to oppose him. 

“Skywalker.” Asajj Ventress purred, the urge to murder sang through the Force upon the utterance of her words. 

Sev'rance Tann, meanwhile, silently stood next to the Dathomiri with her arms crossed. 

Vader slowly marched toward them, like a spectre of doom, once he struck, it would be swift, and merciless. His cloak fluttered in the wind, due to the hole the women had blown into the side of the building as he made his approach. 

Ventress ignited twin crimson blades with twin snaps of fury. Tann inclined her head slightly, Vader made note of a Sith amulet glinting at her throat like a malignant star.

“You will leave. Or you will join the corpses beneath my feet.” Vader heavily stated between mechanical rasps. 

The faint echoes of countless Ongree deaths were still fresh in the Force, and colored the air with a thick malaise, further compounding the weight of his words. It was so heavy, an almost metaphysical aura pressed down upon the two women. 

“We prefer you beneath ours.” Ventress sweetly smiled. 

Tann said nothing, her thumb brushed the amulet, and it shone a bright, ruby color. 

A second later, four identical copies of the blue skinned Chiss shimmered into existence. Each and every copy was a perfect reflection of her posture, aura, and malice. Five Chiss women regarded him with identical, predatory calm. Five red blades ignited in elegant unison.

Vader sensed danger from these phantoms. That any one of them could harm him as much as the real thing. Although he had not had much time to study the ways of the Sith, his Master had been most generous in granting him access to ancient texts. He surmised that what he was witnessing at this moment, was-much like his mechu-deru-an offshoot of Sith Sorcery. 

Vader’s respirator deepened, and he darkly chuckled at the sight before him. 

“Petty tricks shall not save you. Witness, the true powah of the Darkside.” 

The floor exploded beneath him as he moved, his mechu-deru enhanced prosthetics exerted a force beyond anything that the most advanced cyborgs or droids could accomplish. 

Vader crossed the distance in a blur, his opening strike was not elegant, it was brutally efficient, it was a simple, brutal diagonal slash. 

His blade descended like a falling star, an attack that a Tann phantom parried with a technique straight out of Makashi. Curving her wrist, Tann utilized minimal motion to bat the saber sway, making it graze past her hair by a an inch. Vader shifted mid-strike, driving his shoulder forward with crushing strength. The phantom burst apart in a scatter of light, easily dissipated by the Dark Lord's bulk. 

The remaining four versions of Tann attacked in synchronization. 

A master of Makashi-much like her master, Count Dooku-the red beams came down in elegant lines, thrusts and angled cuts. Each sweep, stab, or parry was measured, calculated. 

Vader snarled as he recognized the form that had perpetually perplexed him for five long years. Phantom pain assailed his mechanical arm as he recalled the gift that Dooku had bestowed upon him. Imagining the scene of when he had decapitated that wretched old man, he channeled his fury into his next strikes. 

His Form V skills of Djem So came down like hammers, meeting Tann's refined fencers style with the ferocity of a man unbound. Sparks cascaded across the chamber as crimson met crimson. The illusions Tann had created held blades just as dangerous as any lightsaber, poking a hole in his cloak, narrowly missing a piece of his armor in the back. 

Ducking forward, a thrumming blade bypassed his helmet by less than an inch. His saber batted aside another, whilst he lashed out suddenly with a fist. 

He seized one by the throat, and crushed it into stardust. The remaining Tann seized the opening, and flourishing her blade left, went right. Twisting his hips, Vader angled himself in such a way, that he took a glancing blow on his shoulder pauldron. 

“Augh!” Vader roared as smoke rose from his armor. 

Holding out a hand, he attempted to choke the Tann that had struck him through the Force. However, the amulet shined ruby red once more, and he felt his powers slip off her like oil on grease. 

During this brief distraction, Ventress had chosen to make her presence known. A wraith shrieked into existence, and flew towards him.  It was translucent and white, with wide sharp  claws raking across his chestplate.

Vader staggered half a step as the spirit tore at him. Although it touched his chestplate, it dealt no physical harm…however, he felt his presence in the Force weaken by a fair amount! As if his power had been siphoned! 

Another wraith phased through his back, making him stagger in place. The apparition was like a cursed being, attacking his mind. 

A brief nightmare assailed him, and for a second, he relieved the visions of Padmé's death. Of the pain, and fire of Obi-Wan's betrayal. 

Hatred snapped him out of the illusion. 

“Poor little Annie!” Ventress cackled like a mad witch, and leapt at him. Form IV acrobatics propelled her over his head. Her twin sabers scissored down, aiming for his neck. 

Enraged, Vader caught both blades on a single angled guard. The impact cratered the durasteel beneath his boots, yet he was not to be denied his revenge. How dare this bantha bait invoke those memories, how dare she! Vader then drove forward, headbutting her viciously. The sound of bone cracking echoed in the chamber, and Ventress flipped over, holding her forehead as blood dripped down. 

Snarling, the Dathomiri witch didn't say a word as green lightning erupted from her free hand.

He raised a lightsaber to meet the oncoming storm, and channeled all his might into resisting the attack. The air warped with foul smells, and he pressed forth with his aura with every fiber of his being. 

The chamber flashed emerald, and the nearby Infinite Engine shook with undisguised pleasure as the Darkside grew thick in the air.  

Vader roared his defiance, and took one heavy step forward. His boot stomped an imprint on the durasteel floor. Then another step. Ventress now, had swapped to two hands, and was pressing forward with everything she had. 

“I will not be denied!” Vader declared as he closed the distance. 

The lightning was so close now, it crawled over his armor, affecting circuits and servos. Systems screamed warnings as they began to overload due to the stress. Vader raised his left hand and crushed the oncoming lightning in his fist, dispersing it in a concussive burst of Force energy that hurled Ventress into a column.

The wraiths had launched an attack at Vader’s back the very second that the Force Lightning no longer threatened them. Vader shredded a wraith with his saber into a fine white mist, only for it to form back together seconds later. Furrowing his brow, he realized that the reason why they had not attacked his exposed flank during the clash with Ventress, was because they feared the Force! 

Closing a hand at the other oncoming wraith, a cold aura spread from him, and he imagined choking it. The wraith seemed to know what was going on, and howled at him with maniacal laughter as its claws drew near. 

“Weakling.” Vader uttered. 

He was not choking the air from the wraith, nor was he crushing its windpipe. He was crushing its very being, its conceptual form within the Force! The white, mist-like translucent wraith that was about to reach him began to bubble, and dissipate like steam sucked out of a vent! 

Before he could turn his attention to the other wraith. Tann and her remaining two clones circled him again, her blades weaving a cage of murder around him. One pressed high, one low, the last feinted then stepped back. Each move was executed with perfect synchronization, as if they shared one hive mind. 

Vader slightly slowed down. Deliberately leaving himself open, he laid a trap, letting his opponents think he had become fatigued. 

He recognized the rhythm being used against him. Dooku’s familiar cadence and arrogance were rife in this Chiss's technique. It had taken a moment to fully analyze the minor differences in her style, but now…now it was time to show this ignorant woman why mindlessly copying others without forming your own style was the death of a duelist! 

Vader stepped into this combined attack deliberately, countering as he had before. Each attack of his was full of brutal parries, and overwhelming pressure.

The Tann on his right couldn't keep up. Vader surged, driving through her guard, and slicing her in half from top to bottom. Then, reversing his grip, he battered aside the oncoming stab, and gripped her with a bone crushing grab. 

“So this is the real one.” He menacingly taunted. 

As Vader watched her attempt to maintain her dignity despite having the life choked out of her, he recorded it all through his lens with perverse pleasure. 

Tann's sudden bloody smile was the prelude to a warning in the Force. Her amulet flashed ruby red once more, and this time, a powerful cylindrical beam shot forth nearly pointblank. 

With no time to dodge, his chest was pierced, and a meaty hole exploded out of his back. When he went to stab her, Ventress had returned, and used a Force Pull, taking Tann out of his clutches. 

Breath wheezing, Vader felt blood gushing out of a one inch sized hole near his clavicle. A mechanical lung had been pierced, and for a second, he felt his vision fading before rage took him. Channeling mechu-deru, he rearranged pieces of his suit, barely managing to repair the lung, and ever so slightly covering the wound. Yet this was a patchwork job, and the damage-while not life threatening-was incredibly serious. 

“Your plan worked, sister.” Ventress scowled in displeasure. 

“If I didn't know better, I'd say that was worry in your voice.” Tann simply stated, rubbing her sore neck. 

Ventress rolled her eyes, and then pointed a saber at Vader. “Let us finish this.” .

Ventress’s remaining wraith clawed at his spirit, shrieking in Dathomiri tongues. 

Ventress herself descended again, twin sabers a cyclone of Form II's clean stabs fused with Ataru's lightness. She drove him back step by punishing step.

He blocked high, then low. He wished to eviscerate her, but was forced to swipe the wraith apart, temporarily relieving some pressure. At the same time, a blade from the remaining Chiss phantom pierced his thigh plating whilst he was distracted. 

With a roar that shook the chamber, Vader released a Force wave.

The blast obliterated consoles, shattered conduits, and sent both Ventress & Tann hurtling across the room. Neither the phantom, nor the wraith could withstand the blast, and were crushed underneath his might. 

Bright lights flickered as the Infinite Engine was showered with debris, and collapsing pillars of durasteel. 

Ventress staggered upright with a scowl. Green lightning danced between her finger tips. Meanwhile, Tann stood by her side, whispering in the Sith tongue, and channeling dark emotions into the amulet. 

Vader pushed himself upright, and silently regarded the twin disaster stars. His cape smoked, and was cut to pieces. One eye lens was cracked, and the hole in his chest slowly oozed thick red blood. Each and every movement had been painful due to his burns, and now that pain had become exacerbated. 

Good. 

Let the pain fuel your rage. 

The students of Dooku advanced together.

Lightning struck forth whilst Tann split into five once more, moving to flank him on all sides. 

Vader became a fortress. Recalling the times he had been shocked, he warped the area around him, and held his position with a cool calm.

Tann's phantoms lunged from his left and right. He sucked in a painfilled breath, closed his eyes, and then grabbed upon the oncoming lighting. Deliberately electrocuting himself, he redirected the bolts through his body, and at Tann in a surprise maneuver. 

“You are not Dooku,” He growled as each of the phantoms disappeared as fast as they had arrived. He then moved exactly as he had when he cut the old man's arms off, ignoring the smoke coming off his armor, or the damage the lightning had wrought to his suit's systems. 

Tann grinned as her Form II transitioned into Form V, surprising him as she matched him blow for blow. She was silent, never once revealing her next move, yet that arrogance persisted! 

Her saber caught his damaged shoulder, forcing his lightsaber wielding hand to go limp. Although he could manipulate it through the auspices of mechu-deru, it had lost 30% of its speed! His systems constantly warned him of a rapid decline in energy reserves, whilst Ventress’s lightning blasted him in the back once more, tearing at his essence.

For a moment, darkness filled his vision. Death awaited him. In that second, that small spot in time where defeat was all but a certainty…the Infinite Engine pulsed behind him, vast and waiting.

It hungered, it demanded sacrifice. 

On the precipice of defeat, Vader was momentarily saved as an explosion rocked the skyscraper. The upper half of the megastructure vanished in a chain of white-hot detonations. Transparisteel and duracrete atomized outward in a rolling shockwave as explosives planted by the 501st tore the structure open to the sky. Their mission had finally been completed, and it couldn't come at a more crucial moment! 

Wind howled into the chamber as Nar Shaddaa’s neon skyline burned beyond the jagged rim of the ruin.

LAAT gunships roared overhead, and began blasting at the pair of women, forcing them away from the Dark Lord. 

Tens of thousands of Imperial clone troopers poured through breach points and jumped off their rides. Blaster fire streaked forth in a suffocating, overwhelming volume. 

The men of the 501st did not hesitate to rescue their liege lord, and willingly tossed themselves into the meat grinder to buy their master time. 

Ventress cut down the first wave in a storm of spinning crimson. Her twin blades sheared through plastoid and flesh with savage efficiency. Green lightning forked outward, reducing a platoon to charred silhouettes in seconds. Her ring flashed emerald green, and a trio of wraiths shrieked as they tore into troopers, phasing through armor to rip out life-force in screaming handfuls.

Tann did not allow the sudden emergence of troops to phase her. Her amulet flared, and two phantoms erupted again and advanced in perfect formation, sabers weaving through the swarm of clones like they were flies to be swatted away. She stepped through the chaos untouched, shuffling through clone casualties into her lightsaber like pieces on a dejarik board.

Each second spent here was worth a dozen clone lives. Vader's survival had been paid for with a thousand gallons of loyal blood. 

Standing still, smoke still curled where the electricity had shocked him. His arm still hung limp, and a yellow eye peaked through a cracked lens. His posture was hunched, like a man who had taken a beating, yet refused to bow down. 

An officer approached him, and saluted. 

“Lord Vader, the extraction route is secured! We must-” 

“I did not order a retreat, Captain.” Vader's deep voice stated with finality. 

The officer froze in place as he silently choked on the words, falling to his knees, he gasped his next words, begging for life: “P-please my Lord, surely there is some way I can serve you!” 

Behind Vader, the Infinite Engine pulsed.

It whispered again, sending a deep-seated hunger to his mind. 

“Perhaps you may serve a purpose yet, Captain.” Vader pushed him towards the waiting conveyor belt. 

“Thank you, Lord Vader for your magnanimity, but ah, if you could let me down?” The officer timidly replied. 

Vader released his hold. Before the man could offer his thanks, he was jolted forward, and fed to the machine. The officer's screams of horror were legendary, whilst the Infinite Engine purred in pleasure. 

More. Feed. Me MOAAAR!!!

Vader felt excitement in his veins, and extended his hand-not toward his enemies-but toward his soldiers.

“Ten thousand men, march inside there.” Vader commanded. 

The clones shared a glance with one another, but the orders were absolute. After a moment of hesitation-and even after one clone who resisted & was shot by his brothers for the effort-the brainwashed clone troopers followed their orders, and marched to their doom. 

Their cries sent a wave of perverse agony through the Darkside. All of Nar Shaddaa-a hive of the worst scum & villainy in the galaxy-a moon with a trillion+ sentients felt this exquisite torture pressed upon their psyches. 

The Infinite Engine thrummed like a doomsday machine. Sparks flew everywhere, and the sound of a million churning gears filled the air. 

As soon as the last sacrifice was fed to the machine, a torrent of scarlet power speared into Vader’s chest and flooded him. His failing systems surged. Burned circuitry reignited. Servos recalibrated. His reserves, which were guttering embers a second ago, had become an inferno.

Ancient schematics of knowledge entered his mind, and a new path to power seemed to enter his grasp. 

This new information merged with what he knew about mechu-deru, and combined it with his experiences regarding Force Lightning. Vader had researched his Master's signature technique, but due to his mechanical limitations, had failed at learning it. Every time he tried, his limbs would short-circuit. 

Now, however, whilst he couldn't wield lightning like his Master, or other Sith, this new method proved itself novel! It was a means so incredible, it might finally grant him the strength to become the sole ruling Sith in the galaxy! 

Pooling this conceptual knowledge together, he placed his mechanical hands together, and then blue lightning sprouted into being. Spreading his hands apart, a sphere of azure radiance enveloped him, crackling with deadly arcs of controlled Sith energy. The metal plating beneath his boots shuddered, and several nearby guns or other metal objects shivered in place as he grasped the nuances of this ability. 

Then, to the naked shock of Ventress & Tann, he rose into the sky. 

This act was not due to some advanced technology, repulsor lift, or tractor beam. No, this was due to Vader's newest unlocked power, courtesy of the Infinite Engine. He had grasped the fundamentals of electromagnetism. 

Vader ascended above the battlefield, cape unfurling like a shadowed banner. The orb of azure lightning encasing him distorted the air into a shimmering halo.

The floor buckled as plates of torn durasteel ripped free, rushing towards him. With a slow closing of his fist, the metal snapped inward.

Plates fused, and reformed and his damaged shoulder sealed under fresh armor. His lens was repaired, and the hole in his upper chest was replaced by a mechanical automata assembled and molded from simple pieces of durasteel on the spot. 

He hovered now in perfect stillness, sustained by invisible magnetic currents.

Below, the battlefield froze.

Blasters jammed as rifles twisted from clone hands and flew skyward, crushed into spheres midair. Gunships groaned as their hulls deformed, spiraling helplessly into surrounding towers. Entire sections of the skyscraper peeled away and reassembled in orbit around him like fragments of a newborn star. Then, they all pointed down. 

Ventress stared upward, teeth bared in furious disbelief. “What have you done?”

Tann’s expression shifted as a calculating gleam entered her eye. 

Vader lowered his gaze upon them.

“You sought to deny me my destiny.” Vader’s voice boomed, amplified through the Force. “You sought to make me kneel.”

He then extended both hands, causing the entire skyscraper to tremble as if it were held in the grasp of some nascent god. 

“This day belongs to Vader.”

~~~~~~

AN: Bro, some fucking how, Vader finds a way to become his own protagonist. Dude is so fucking cold! Palps probably shitting bricks, regretting he taught the Chosen One mechu-deru. Really goes to show how terrifying Anakin is. 

Ik we haven't seen Corvus in a while, and we'll go back to his POV, sorry about that. There were a lot of moving parts that needed to get resolved.