Star Wars - Ripples of the Void Chapter 1: A Different Future (Patreon)

Chapter 1: A Different Future

I stared at the blinking terminal, watching as the dot got closer and closer on the scanner. I resisted the urge to look up, though, and see if I could spot the shuttle descending through the smoke and smog of Mustafar.

I did not know if the man onboard could tell if somebody was looking at him through the Force, but I dared not risk it, not even with my various implants and Force Dampening methods to hide myself. I needed this to be perfect. Otherwise everything I’d spent half a decade setting up would be for naught.

“Head of State Jarik, the target is within acceptable firing range. Calculating landing site.”

“And the Venator?” I queried, eyes shifting towards the Tactical Droid nearby.

“Out of position. We can assault it with ease.”

“Prepare to bring it down, Nail. I want it out of the sky,” I ordered.

“Understood, Head of State Jarik.”

“How goes the spreading of the anti-shutdown protocols?” I asked a moment later.

Around me in the command center, a dozen B1s worked hard at their stations, while Nail, my loyal Tactical Droid, accessed that data I’d requested.

“It is going slowly, Head of State Jarik. The reactivation codes have only awakened nineteen percent of the total CIS forces within the system. And it is unknown how many beyond have heard the call,” Nail replied. “There is an 89.766 percent chance that manual reactivation and updates will be required for 71.449 percent of all CIS forces galaxy-wide.”

“As expected,” I sighed.

Seventy percent of CIS forces requiring major overhauls and reprogramming to get rid of the Sith code was a pain, but it was a lot better than the hundred percent it would have been if I hadn’t done some fiddling of my own.

Finding the override and shutdown commands Sidious had slipped inside was actually rather easy. He hadn’t expected anyone to peek under the hood, so to speak, within the CIS operating systems. At least, not to seek out secret, pre-install orders and code.

But I knew what I was looking for, and found it quickly. The hard part was not touching the code, lest the Sith notice. I’d had to wait until the final Battle of Coruscant, where my own uncle was killed, to send out my cheekily named ‘Patch 2.1.8’ to as many CIS devices as possible.

The patch was designed to ‘update’ the Sith code. Rather than remove anything, as I feared that’d be too obvious, it was meant to allow for any CIS unit that was shut down by it to reactivate on their own within a hundred standard hours unless they were reactivated manually.

How many CIS droids and systems managed to get it in the short amount of time that was available is unknown to me, and I had a feeling Nail’s projected estimates were on the optimistic side – not that he’d ever admit that.

But the Sith Shutdown had gone out mere hours ago, and I’d only succeeded in getting my own forces back online, along with a scant few of Mustafars’, in the time since. I wouldn’t know for sure how well I’d done for a few days.

“Head of State Jarik, the target has begun landing procedures,” Nail informed me a moment later, and a wicked smirk slipped onto my face.

“Good. Bring it down.”

A shuttle – especially a Theta-class T-2c shuttle – was most vulnerable when it began to settle down to land. The wings would have to fold up during descent, which would make a rapid exit difficult, and the whole shuttle needed to slow down as well.

At my command, a barrage of rockets screamed from a number of B1s armed with rocket launchers, plus several B2 wrist-mounted rocket launchers.

They slammed into the shuttle, which erupted into a ball of fire, smoke, and twisted metal that fell down onto the surface of the planet.

That was the plan, at least, and I waited, tense, for confirmation. Finally, Nail told me what I’d wanted to hear:

“Target neutralized, Head of State Jarik. And CIS forces have ambushed the Venator in orbit.”

“Continue to fire upon the wreck and push it into the lava, but don’t let any droids get near it,” I ordered, even as I threw a coat and respirator on. “And take down that ship before it can begin orbital bombardment. Now, bring me my personal shuttle, I need to see it for myself.”

Nail saluted, and summoned my shuttle. A few minutes later, and I was flying over a river of lava towards a bank that was wreathed in smoke.

As I stepped out, I could see the charred wreck get shoved into the molten flow with the aid of several additional rocket rounds, and it began to sink.

I couldn’t help it and threw my head back and laughed. I’d done it! I’d really done it! Sheev Palpatine, Darth Sidious and newly elected Emperor of the Galactic Empire, was dead, shot down on his way to pick up his apprentice and shoved into the lava!

‘Not even the Force can save that bastard now,’ I thought gleefully.

Oh, it had taken so much planning and preparation to pull this off! Of studying the Jedi, Sith, the Force, and so much more. Years of it, all done in secret. All for this moment. And it was all worth it!

‘The Force cannot detect droids, but it can sense when there is danger,’ I thought. ‘That’s why I kept the battle droids offline until the last minute, and didn’t even have them load their weapons until it was time. No matter how skilled that old bastard is at using the Force, not even he could escape the trap I’d set.’

High on his victory, worried about his 'apprentice', and fully believing he had nothing to fear with the CIS droids offline or under his control, Palpatine had flown down to Mustafar only to be completely blindsided by my troops.

I’d prepared for this one moment over many years of war, refined this trick against the Jedi, and ensured that when it came time, I could win the only battle that mattered.

With the ripples I’d made in the canon timeline, I’d been worried this event wouldn’t happen, but to my relief, it had all occurred as I’d foreseen in another life on a world known as Earth.

A wheezing moan reached my ears and broke me out of my jubilation, and I glanced over at the source with a look of contempt.

“Ah, yes. Now to deal with you,” I said as I drew a blaster pistol and aimed it at the charred husk that Anakin Skywalker had become. Limbs gone, flesh seared away, he was only still alive after hours like this due to his incredible willpower and the Force.

I didn’t get too close, not wanting to find out how far he could reach out with his powers even in this state, and waved over some B2s to my side.

“General Skywalker. I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you again… but it’s not.” I shook my head, disgust and pity in my tone. “To think you would fall so low as to butcher younglings, betray your friends and family… and for what? Nothing, now. You killed your wife. Killed your unborn children. Doomed the galaxy to life under the bootheel of a madman… or you would have, if I hadn’t just blown him up.”

He moaned something, and I snorted. “Wondering how I survived your slaughter up in the command bunker? Easy. A body double. One surgically modified to look exactly like me, and given hypno-therapy sessions to think he truly was me. That way, you wouldn’t be able to tell he wasn’t really Admiral Jarik of House Serrano, the Separatist’s greatest naval officer and field commander.”

Was it arrogant to brag like that? Yes. But most of the other Separatist officers couldn’t fight their way out of a plastic bag, let alone command legions of troops and ships. Same could be said about the Republic’s low-quality leadership too, frankly.

I leveled my blaster at Anakin’s head. “And thanks to you killing all the other war mongering Congressmen and the entirety of Separatist high command, I am now the defacto Head of State for the entire Confederacy. Don’t worry, I won’t be trying to take down the Republic. We need peaceful times to rebuild, and shall simply go our separate ways until the Outsiders invade.”

A confused groan rang out from Anakin, and I nodded. “Yes. There is a threat out there, greater than some petty civil war. The galaxy must be united… but failing that, the two states must become strong enough to stand alone when the Yuuzhan Vong come.”

The man who’d become Darth Vader twitched, and I shook my head. “Well, that’s enough from me. You have to die now in order to bring balance to the Force and the rest of the universe. Congratulations, Anakin. You fulfilled your destiny.”

I pulled the trigger and sent a searing blaster bolt at his face. He somehow managed to deflect it, yanking the bolt aside with the Force, but I snapped my fingers and the battle droids opened fire.

Rockets and blasters rained death upon the Butcher of the Jedi, and no matter how powerful Anakin was, he could not stop the storm. What was left of him was reduced to a smear that was knocked into the lava, erased from the face of Mustafar.

And so ended the Clone Wars, but not as it should have. The Emperor and his Fist were dead, killed before they could truly achieve anything. This would throw the Senate and Empire into chaos, but would buy me time to rebuild the Confederacy of Independent Systems into what it was meant to be.

I looked up, and in the smog-choked skies above me, I could see the Venator plunging down into the atmosphere, flames spewing from holes my hidden CIS battleships had punched through the hull.

A moment later I turned away and walked back into my shuttle, the battle droids arrayed on either side like an honor guard. It was time to get to work.