by John Whitman
Star Wars
Galaxy of Fear
06
Army of Terror
by John Whitman
source : IRC
uploaded: 13.II.2006
PROLOGUE
The small shuttle craft glided through space toward an enormous Star
Destroyer. The shuttle was tiny compared to the large battleship. It looked
like a speck of dust floating through the void.
But thousands of soldiers on board the powerful Star Destroyer trembled
in fear when they heard the name of the shuttle's single passenger.
Darth Vader.
Vader did not watch as his shuttle landed in the Destroyer's docking bay.
He was deep in his own dark thoughts. One phrase worked its way into his mind.
Project Starscream.
Months ago, Starscream had been a promising experiment run by the
Imperial scientist Borborygmus Gog. Now it was all but ruined, thanks to the
interference of a scientist named Hoole and two meddling children. They had
successfully wrecked the first five phases of Starscream. They had tampered
with D'vouran, the living planet. They had destroyed the undead research on
Necropolis. They had neutralized the plague virus on Gobindi, and then
demolished the promising Nightmare Machine. Finally, they had shattered Gog's
plans to manipulate the power of the Force.
Vader clenched a gloved fist. Gog had hidden this last plan from the Dark
Lord. Vader knew the scientist feared him and had searched for a way to cancel
out Vader's dark side powers. Fortunately for Gog, Vader thought, he died
before I discovered his plan. I would have made him beg for death.
Hoole and his young companions had escaped from Nespis 8 just before
Vader arrived. Even now, Vader's ships were combing the nearby star systems in
search of the escapees.
Leaving the shuttle, Vader barely acknowledged the presence of the
stormtrooper squadron that saluted him as he strode from his shuttle, his dark
cape swirling behind him. He did not pause until he reached the captain of the
Star Destroyer, who bowed nervously.
"Lord Vader," the captain said. "Welcome aboard. The ship is yours to
command."
"Excellent, Captain," Vader hissed through his black, skull-like mask.
Vader continued walking. The captain struggled to keep up with the Dark
Lord's powerful stride. "I-I trust your mission to Nespis 8 went well?"
"It is not yet complete," Vader replied. "I have one thing more to do
before Project Starscream is completely under my control."
Vader knew the scout ships would not find Hoole and his companions. But
he did know where Hoole would go next. He felt the dark side of the Force flow
through him. He knew many things. He could not see the future clearly, but he
sensed that it would end in bloodshed. He relished the thought.
"My lord," the captain asked. "What are your orders?"
"Tell the scout ships to continue their search," Vader commanded.
"Meanwhile, set your course for the headquarters of Project Starscream."
Vader flexed the fingers of his right hand. Yes, blood would be shed. He
was sure of it.
And he would be the one to shed it.
CHAPTER 1
"There's another one," Tash Arranda said with a tremor in her voice.
She pointed at a control panel in the cockpit of the Shroud. The scanner
registered a tiny blip hovering just at the edge of their sensor range.
On her left, her brother Zak held his breath. On her right, her uncle
Hoole sat as still as stone. Only his tight grip on the Shroud's guidance
control stick revealed his tension.
All three of them knew what that blip represented-an Imperial Star
Destroyer, bristling with weapons. It was like an enormous shark, hunting
through the vast ocean of space.
It was hunting for them.
Tash let her breath out slowly. Only the Shroud's emergency lights were
running, but even in their dim glow she could see her breath in the cold air
of the Shroud's cockpit. Twenty minutes before, Hoole had deactivated almost
all of the ship's power systems, and he had turned the life support down to a
bare minimum.
"I'm freezing," Tash muttered. "Can't we turn the heat up a little?"
"Well, it's warmer in an Imperial detention center," Zak replied. "Which
is where we'll find ourselves if we power up the systems and they detect us."
"Here it comes," Hoole said flatly.
They watched as the blip changed course, growing larger as it headed
straight for them.
"Do they see us?" Zak asked in a sharp whisper.
"I don't know," Hoole replied.
"Maybe we should make a break for it."
"No, it's too late," Hoole said. "We are under their guns. We will just
have to wait it out."
Tash looked at her uncle. He stared stonily at the ship's instruments.
For once, she admired his inhuman ability to stay levelheaded. Hoole was a
Shi'ido and, unlike his human niece and nephew, he seemed able to disconnect
his emotions from his surroundings. His face rarely changed expression.
The blip grew so large that it seemed to blot out the scanning screen.
Tash and Zak felt the Shroud begin to shake around them.
Zak, Tash, their uncle Hoole, and his droid, D-V9, had been on the run
from Imperial forces for two days, ever since they had fled from the space
station Nespis 8 and Borborygmus Gog.
Tash shivered when she remembered Nespis 8 and Gog. Gog was a Shi'ido,
like Uncle Hoole, and could change his form at will. He was also an Imperial
scientist. By shapeshifting into disguise, Gog had been able to lure Tash,
Zak, and Hoole to Nespis 8. And when the evil scientist realized he could not
use Tash's sensitivity to the Force in his experiments, he had almost killed
her. But Gog, who had come so close to destroying them all, had fallen to his
own death down a deep shaft in the space station.
Unfortunately, their troubles had not ended with Gog's death. The
scientist had created Project Starscream for the Empire, and the Emperor's
most powerful servant had come to Nespis 8 to investigate. Tash, Zak, Hoole,
and Deevee had escaped Nespis 8 just before the arrival of Darth Vader.
Vader. The thought of him made Tash's skin crawl. He was the Dark Lord of
the Sith, a master of the dark side of the Force and, next to the Emperor, the
most powerful man in the galaxy. He was far more terrifying than Gog. They
said Vader could kill people with a single thought. They also said that,
rather than kill, the Dark Lord preferred to rule through two devices: torture
and terror. None of them wanted to imagine what horrors would await them in
one of Vader's prison cells.
In the viewport, the two Arrandas saw space rocks of various sizes zip
by. Hoole had attempted to hide their ship from the Imperials by flying
through a small asteroid belt and landing the Shroud on an asteroid twice its
size.
Suddenly, Zak cried out. "It's going to pass right over!"
&nb
sp; A giant field of white had settled over their ship, blotting out the
stars. They were looking at the underbelly of an Imperial Star Destroyer. The
floating fortress was gigantic. Tash saw a squad of Imperial TIE fighters buzz
like angry flies around the massive cruiser's docking port. Tash and Zak knew
that sensor beams were shooting from the Star Destroyer, searching for any
sign of them. But because Hoole had cut off all the Shroud's power, their ship
was as dead as the asteroid on which it floated. The Imperial sensor beams
passed over it without stopping.
The energy put out by the Star Destroyer's enormous engines shook the
entire asteroid upon which they sat. The Shroud trembled like a leaf on a
tree. For a moment Zak thought the energy waves would tear the ship apart. But
a moment later, the giant battleship had passed on. Zak and Tash sighed and
looked at each other. They were safe.
"I am going to power up the systems so that we can depart," Uncle Hoole
said. "Please see how Deevee's repairs are coming along."
"Power up?" Zak asked. "Where are we going?" Hoole paused. A frown pulled
at the edge of his mouth. Hoole rarely explained to Tash and Zak what he was
planning and where they were going. But this time, his expression seemed to
suggest that Zak and Tash had a right to know.
"We are going to end this mystery once and for all," the Shi'ido
declared. "I know where Project Starscream is located."
CHAPTER 2
"What!" Zak shouted in surprise
"H-How?" Tash stammered. "Where?"
Hoole looked at them closely before speaking. "I found some data stored
in the computers on Nespis 8. It suggested that the main headquarters for
Gog's experiment are on the planet Kiva. It's only a short hyperspace jump
from here, and I want to go there and make sure everything Gog was doing is
destroyed."
"But-But what if we run into other Imperial scientists there?" Zak
stammered.
"We won't," Hoole promised. "Trust me."
Stunned, Zak and Tash could only stare as Hoole added, "Now please make
sure that Deevee is fully operational."
Before Zak and Tash could ask any more questions, their uncle had already
glided past them.
Zak and Tash were still shaking their heads as they reached the small
maintenance room at the center of their starship. The door to the room slid
back, revealing a tall, humanlike droid. DV-9's once-silver body was covered
with scratches and soot, and several dents pockmarked his metallic shell. A
long, black streak ran across his chestplate. The droid had obviously tried to
polish it away, but the scar could still be seen in the cabin lights.
"How are the repairs going, Deevee?" Zak asked.
The droid sighed heavily. "Well enough, I suppose. I've corrected all the
internal damage that blaster bolt caused, but I'm afraid I'll bear this scar
forever."
"I'm sorry, Deevee," Tash said sincerely. Deevee was the one who had
saved her from Gog. He had jumped in front of a bolt from Gog's blaster meant
for her. "If it weren't for you, I'd be nothing but a vapor cloud back in that
space station."
Deevee sniffed. "Think no more of it, Tash. I was doing my duty as your
caretaker." He looked at his battered body and sighed again. "Besides,
although my outer shell has become rather unsightly, that blaster would have
done you far more harm than it did me. Now, if it had been an ion cannon, that
would have been another story."
"Ion cannon?" Tash asked.
Zak, a starship engine and weapon fanatic, jumped in. "An ion cannon
attacks circuitry and electronics. Blasters just punch their way into whatever
they hit. But ion weapons can really shred computers and servos."
Suddenly, the Shroud's power systems kicked in. Tash and Zak blinked and
Deevee readjusted his photoreceptors as the main lights came on and the ship
began to hum with energy. Seconds later, without warning, the Shroud lurched
away from its asteroid hideout and pushed its way into open space.
"Weird," Tash noted. "He must be in a hurry. He didn't even ask us to
strap ourselves in."
Zak shook his head. "Figures. The one time he tells us where we're going,
he finds some other way to be mysterious.
"Where are we going?" Deevee asked, as he tried to close a small panel on
his chestplate.
Zak helped him close his chest panel. "Uncle Hoole says he's figured out
where Gog's headquarters are. He's taking us there now. Someplace called Kiva.
"
The droid tilted his head to the side. "Kiva? How fascinating. I've
wanted to visit Kiva from the moment my anthropology research program was
installed!"
"What's there?" Tash asked.
"Nothing!" Deevee said excitedly. "Well, to be precise, there's nothing
there anymore." The droid slipped into his teacher mode, which meant a lecture
was coming. He began: "Kiva is an example of how science can do great harm if
caution is not taken. Years ago, there was a thriving culture on Kiva. The
Kivans were known as the best artists and builders in the galaxy. There was
also an Imperial base there, where scientists conducted secret biological
experiments."
"Experiments," Tash groaned. "I've had enough of experiments, thanks."
"What kind of experiments?" Zak asked. He soaked up technological
information like a sponge. But he was disappointed by Deevee's response.
"No one knows. The experiments were being conducted by a scientist named
Mammon, but no one ever found out just what he was doing on Kiva. What we do
know is that whatever he was doing went terribly wrong. There was some sort of
accident, and the entire civilization on Kiva was wiped out." Deevee paused to
let the terrible information sink in.
"Wiped out," Tash repeated sadly. "Kind of like Alderaan."
Zak nodded. The two Arrandas understood how terrible the loss of an
entire planet could be. Their homeworld, Alderaan, had been destroyed by the
Emperor's Death Star only eight months before. The Arrandas had lost their
parents, their home, and their friends, all in one terrible moment.
Deevee continued. "The scientist, Mammon, was condemned by everyone, even
the Emperor. He went into hiding and has never been heard from again. The
planet became barren and the entire civilization of Kiva was lost."
"Maybe that's why Gog decided to build his headquarters there," Zak
suggested. "Who would bother to look on a planet everyone knew was deserted?"
"Maybe," Tash agreed. She was kind of glad the place they were going was
deserted, after everything they'd been through on Nespis 8. She remembered
that Nespis 8 was supposedly abandoned-but they'd had plenty of surprises
there. Who knew what awaited them on Kiva? "Come on, let's get to the cockpit
and help Uncle Hoole," she said to Zak.
Deevee's battered body whined a little as he walked, but otherwise he
functioned normally as all three hurried back to the ship's control room. They
offered to help, but Hoole had their course all set. There was little to do
for the next few hours but watch the white, blurred lights of hyperspace rush
; past.
Finally, with a frown on his face, Hoole powered down the hyperdrive, and
a planet the color of charcoal appeared before them.
"Kiva," Hoole said stiffly. "Don't worry, we will not be detected. This
planet is lifeless."
"We know," Zak said. "Deevee told us all about Mammon."
Hoole raised an eyebrow at his droid. Anger crossed his usually
unreadable face. "I would have thought you had better ways to waste your time
than teaching them about dead planets."
Deevee was startled. "Master Hoole, I-"
"Never mind," Hoole snapped. "We're entering orbit."
Zak and Tash exchanged a quick glance. They had rarely heard Hoole snap
at Deevee, and never when the droid was trying to teach them something.
The great ball of dark gray matter that was Kiva filled the entire
viewscreen as the ship drew nearer. Tash stared down at the dark world, amazed
at how barren it looked. Suddenly, a wave of fear swept through her like a
warning.
"What's that?" she said, stabbing a finger at the view-screen.
"What's what?" Zak asked, alarmed by the fear in her voice.
"That!" Tash said again.