Star Wars Storm Across the Galaxy (Preview 2)

Barriss Offee woke up in a state of shock with little memory of what had happened before. As she opened her eyes, she looked around. She was in a dark room, with red lights shining dimly from the ceiling. She struggled to move, but couldn’t. As she squirmed around, she realized that she was in a restraining chair. With her arms and legs completely immobilized. When she tried to use The Force to free herself from her motionless state, she felt a powerful electric shock surge throughout her body. As she screamed in pain from the shocks, she realized that the cuffs that were used to restrain her were Separatist era restraints designed to immobilize captured Jedi. As she sat in her tiny prison, she tried to meditate on what had happened before. As she meditated further, she began to recover partial fragments of her memory. She remembered her first exposure to the Dark Side. The Geonosian Brainworms she was infected with during the Clone Wars hypnotized her into tapping into the dark side, something she wouldn’t have done if she had free will. She started remembering even more, and suddenly recalled the role she played in bombing the hangar in the Jedi Temple. Very soon, she remembered when she murdered Letta Turmond, another key participant, to keep her silent just as she was about to reveal to Ahsoka Tano that Barriss was the main Bombardier. Then she was struck down harder when Ahsoka received the blame for her bombing the Jedi Temple, and not only allowed Ahsoka to take the blame, but also made sure that Ahsoka would receive the full blame by making her stumble into a crate of Nano-droids, similar to the ones that were used to bomb the temple. Barriss struggled to control her dark thoughts and memories, almost as if they were trying to take their hold on her. When she remembered when the Jedi Council decided to spare her to see if she was worthy of redemption, she recalled her experience on Felucia, when she was put on the Battlefield to try to heal wounded clone troopers. That was when Order 66 was enacted, and she was forced to watch Aayla Secura get gunned down by her own soldiers. Soldiers that she trusted with her life, but only to literally shoot her repeatedly in the back, even after she was already dead. “Why did they spare me, but want to condemn Ahsoka?” she thought to herself. As she wondered why, it soon became clear why the Council didn’t want to spare her. Because she was his apprentice. Because she was Skywalker’s apprentice. When Anakin confronted her and forced her to confess before the senate, He used his dark side and unleashed all his fury on Barriss. While Barriss only tapped into the dark side to keep up against the relentless attacks, Skywalker unleashed all his anger and hatred and forced her into submission. The council didn’t want to spare Ahsoka because they feared she would end up like Skywalker. And Barriss knew all too well what he had ultimately become. Very soon, memories of her duel on Kashyyyk against a dark and powerful figure began to reappear in her mind. “The fear, the anger, the hate. And the breathing…” she thought to herself. From the moment she began to duel the dark figure along Zing, her exiled Yuuzhan Vong companion, she knew that he was not an inquisitor, but a Sith Lord. And it became much worse when the Sith Lord was able to identify her as the one responsible for bombing the Jedi Temple. The shock and fear that the Sith Lord knew who she was drew her into trying to connect to the Sith Lord through the force, and soon wished she hadn’t. As she connected to the Sith Lord, she began to feel an increasingly familiar presence. And as she connected with him, she realized that this Sith Lord was once Anakin Skywalker himself. Finally, the emotions from her dark memories became so much that she stepped out of her meditative state, and opened her eyes. As she opened her eyes, she saw a dark and mysterious presence before her, holding his hand over her forehead, trying to force her to have those dark memories. As the dark presence saw her open her eyes, he took off his mask and revealed himself to Barriss. “Who are you?” Barriss thought to herself. “My name is Marek”, said the dark figure, “Galen Marek. To my Master, I am known as Starkiller, but to everyone else, I am Galen Marek”. “What do you want?” asked Barriss. “I want to show you something”, said Galen. Within moments, the door to her cell opened and two dark and mysterious figures stepped into the cell. “I believe you are familiar with them”, said Galen as the two figures removed their masks and revealed themselves. One of them was a Duros male and the other a Zygerrian female. “They are inquisitors. Similar to the one you faced on Tatooine”, said Galen, “They’re job is to locate and retrieve all force sensitive children in the Empire, and bring them to us”. “That I know”, said Barriss, “your other inquisitor tried to do the same, but didn’t get very far. So if you want me to reveal the location of this child, you won’t make me. I destroyed all evidence in the records on Tatooine that his home even exists. So without those deleted coordinates, you won’t find him”. Galen chuckled. “That’s not what you are here for Padawan”, said Galen, “these inquisitors have another task. They are tasked with destroying these ‘children of the force’ if they do not join us, along with any surviving Jedi that could train them”. “Why are you telling me this? You think I don’t know that?” asked Barriss. Galen stretched out his hand and used the force to free Barriss from her binders. “Come”, said Galen, “I want to show you something”. As Barriss stumbled to get up, she got a better view of her cell. Behind her, there was a medical container used for putting beings into Carbonite. She was literally carbon frozen for quite some time, and didn’t even know for how long. As she walked behind Galen, the two inquisitors walked behind her. “What do they want from me?” she thought to herself. As she walked along the dark and narrow corridors, she was led into a large room with an enormous window looking out into space. There, in the center of the window, she saw a planet that she recognized and knew all too well: Mirial. Her homeworld. As they walked into the room, the Duros inquisitor brought a small group of younglings with him and put his mask on. As the younglings walked closer, Barriss could sense that they were all force sensitive, and noticed that one of them, a young human female, had a lightsaber burn on her arm. Barriss tried to get closer to the girl to try to use her healing abilities on her, but the Zygerrian inquisitor drew her lightsaber between her and the little girl. “No, no”, said Galen, “we’ll have none of that”. “She’s hurt”, said Barriss, “if I could just have a chance to…”. Before Barriss could finish, Galen gave a hand sign to the Zygerrian inquisitor, and drew her lightsaber across her arm. Within moments, Barriss was on the ground, gripping her arm in pain. “If you’re going to kill me” said Barriss painfully, “just do it now. Just don’t hurt them”. “Oh no”, said Galen, “we’re not going to kill you. You’re too valuable for that”. Barriss looked up at Galen, and could sense his sinister plots. “For our Empire to stand”, said Galen, “we’ll need legions of inquisitors to maintain order for generations to come. And since most of our inquisitor lack any experience, you’re the perfect candidate”. That was when it became clear to Barriss, they didn’t capture her as a prisoner to interrogate or even as a bargaining chip to be used against the rebels. They wanted to turn her back to the dark side. “No”, said Barriss, “whatever you want from me, you won’t get it”. “We shall see”, said Galen. Galen then looked at the Zygerrian inquisitor who was standing behind the youngling Barriss tried to heal, and gave her a hand signal. The Zygerrian inquisitor complied, and ignited her lightsaber into the youngling’s back. The red blade striking through the youngling shined in Barriss’ blue eyes. She closed her eyes and then looked to Galen Marek, now with an angry yellow hue built up. “She was defenseless”, said Barriss as she pointed to the dead youngling. “That is the price one must pay for disobeying orders”, said Galen, “If you don’t join us, it won’t be you who suffers the consequences”. Barriss looked at Galen angrily, and soon noticed that her lightsaber was fixed to his belt. Using the force, she stretched out her hand and retrieved it. After getting her lightsaber back, she jumped towards the younglings and used the force to push the Zygerrian inquisitor away. Soon, both the Zygerrian and Duros inquisitor stood with their red gyroscopic lightsabers ready to charge, but Galen gave them a hand signal to hold back at the ready. “I would rather die than let you hurt any more of them” said Barriss as some of the younglings stood behind her in fear. “I guess if that’s how you want it”, said Galen, “then let’s play”. Immediately, Galen addressed some of the Imperial officers in the room. “Commander Motti, begin the firing sequence”. Barriss looked at Galen in a mixed state of confusion. “The emperor knew that he would face opposition when he enacted the Empire”, said Galen, “To preserve order, to make sure that an uprising didn’t try to appear, he had this station built. Well, actually the Separatists started construction, but the Emperor finished it. It is a weapon unlike any other, be prepared to witness its destructive power”. Barriss looked at Galen and then out to Mirial outside the window in fear, trying not to move away from the younglings she was trying to protect. “Commander Motti”, said Galen, “You may fire when ready”. Within moments, a bright flash of light appeared on the surface of the space station, and moved infinitely fast towards Mirial. Within seconds, a bright flash of light appeared on the surface of Mirial. After the light receded, Barriss looked out again, but this time, instead of seeing her beautiful, snow covered world, she saw nothing but a large mass of Asteroids, moving away from where Mirial once was. Barriss looked to Galen Marek, with her eyes yellow now instead of blue, and lunged furiously towards him with her lightsaber drawn. But before Barriss could get anywhere near him, the Duros inquisitor stepped between them and ignited his lightsaber. As Barriss and the Duros inquisitor dueled, Galen gave the Zygerrian inquisitor a hand signal to help the Duros, and slowly walked towards the younglings. As Barriss fought the Duros viciously, the Zygerrian inquisitor lunged towards Barriss with her lightsaber drawn, but before she could get anywhere near Barriss, Barriss used the force to push her hard into one of the computer monitors, and knocked her out. As she forced the Duros inquisitor to keep stepping back, she looked at Galen, who was now standing with the younglings with a pair of red bladed lightsabers ignited in his hands. Barriss used the force to push the Duros against a wall and lunged towards Galen. She had expected his level of skill with a lightsaber to be similar to that of the two inquisitors, but was gravely mistaken. Within moments, Galen struck both his lightsabers against Barriss and forced to keep stepping back. As Barriss struggled to keep up against his relentless attacks, the other two inquisitors recovered and re-engaged Barriss. As the two dark siders fought Barriss, Galen returned his attention to the younglings, and paced slowly towards them. Barriss kept her attention towards the two inquisitors, but when she saw Galen walking towards the younglings, she lost focus and was knocked out by the Zygerrian inquisitor.