The enemy's attack that appeared before the Boss's HUD nearly cost him his life.
A clawed limb rose in the air, ready to cleave through the Katarn-class breastplate armor and reach vital organs.
The length of the vibroblades, styled as claws, allowed for that.
And the commander of Delta Squad had not the slightest doubt that the enemy could penetrate both his shield, his armor, and his undersuit to achieve its goal.
The enemy fighter was far too straightforward.
The Boss raised his DC-17 in front of him, taking the blow on the weapon.
His trusty blaster, which had never failed the commando, shattered into several uneven pieces.
Next came a strike from the masked enemy's elbow, aimed not at the face.
The unknown opponent was far too well-trained for that — only an idiot or a show-off would strike a helmet.
The blow was aimed at the throat.
Crossing his arms, the Boss blocked the strike — which would have led to a slow and agonizing death — with a stiff guard, then drove his knee into the enemy's side.
But the unknown soldier seemed to dissolve, and the Boss nearly pitched forward, meeting no resistance.
He had barely regained his balance when a volley of claws flew at his HUD in an upward strike.
With both hands, he grabbed the enemy's wrist, ducked down, slipped between the opponent's arm and body, and wrenched the arm upward, applying a joint lock...
And immediately took a roundhouse kick to the head that sent him crashing to the floor.
Absorbing the inertia, the Boss rolled to the side, avoiding a strike from another opponent who intended to finish off the commando clone with a straight thrust to the chest.
But the Delta commander knew this maneuver too well to become a passive victim.
If the invisible fighter had been wielding a classic combat blade, one could say he was operating by the Kaminoan training manual for the Grand Army of the Republic's commando clones.
But this maneuver, like the others he had encountered, had been adapted by the enemy fighters for their vibroblade-claws.
He rolled under the enemy's legs, took a kick to the face that he blocked again, but immediately drove his left fist into the opponent's popliteal fossa.
Ignoring the claw strike across his backpack — which shredded the pack but not his back — the Boss brought the enemy to the floor, then, shielding himself with his arm from the opponent's left leg kick, put force into a blow that many "civilized warriors" would call low, dirty, immoral, "unmanly," and other nonsense.
Mandalorians didn't care how to hit, where to hit, or who to hit — the important thing was to hit and win.
Either you or you.
But the strike to the enemy's groin never achieved the desired result.
The Boss's fist met only a metal plate.
Instead of the enemy's pained gasps, he experienced the unpleasant sensation of contacting a solid object himself.
Claws slashed across his helmet on the backswing and would surely have diagonal-slashed his face, but the commando pulled back in time.
Rolling away again, he sprang to his feet, simultaneously discarding the now-encumbering remains of what had been part of his equipment — the backpack was no longer of any value.
If anything inside it had survived the enemy's blow, it was only extra ammunition stored either above or below the damage marks.
Only luck had spared the Boss the unpleasant burning sensation on his back that would have escalated into a massive detonation of tibanna, mara, and power cells.
He swept the room with his gaze, taking a couple of steps back and readying himself for battle.
Scorch, Fixer, and Thirty-Third stood as an unbreakable wall beside the bleeding stormtrooper.
He was a few meters from his men, who had also shifted to hand-to-hand combat — the "invisibles" had quickly deprived the commandos of their ranged weapons, as if knowing how lethal each of their configurations was.
Well-trained creatures.
Starkiller lunged like a wild beast in all directions before his opponent, wielding his crimson lightsaber blades like plasma circular saws.
He blocked golden energy beams, carved through segmented enemy claws, and was still trying to properly fry the multi-legged droid abomination attacking him with Force Lightning.
It seemed to be working.
The blade built into his gauntlet — long since replaced from a standard-issue vibroblade to a beskar one — slid from its housing with a soft ring; his left hand now held a most dangerous weapon.
His right hand grasped a standard-issue combat knife of beskar like it belonged there.
The Boss parried a lunge from the left with his beskar blade and counterattacked with the obsidian one — and the enemy vanished again.
The commander linked with his commandos.
The four of them formed a semicircle around the wounded man, covering each other's flanks and rear.
"What are these things?!" All trace of Scorch's cheerful nature seemed to have vanished from him.
Probably along with the obsidian blade he'd managed to drive straight into the ugly, nightmarish mask of one of the "invisibles" the one he'd managed to kill with a combat knife to the face.
But he hadn't had time to retrieve his weapon.
Instead, he held a sticky mine in his right hand.
Like Fixer and Thirty-Third, combat blades already protruded from their left gauntlets.
But Fixer held a blaster pistol in his free hand, and TNX — his beloved flamethrower, from which he periodically sprayed jets of fire ahead, driving the uninvited guests back.
A couple of times he even managed to set an enemy alight; they dropped their camouflage and retreated to deal with the flames — but then Fixer's shots caught them.
"I'd like to know," the Boss ground out. "They know everything I can use against them in advance."
"I noticed that too," Fixer agreed. "They were trained on a program similar to ours."
"I don't have that problem," THX-0333 said unexpectedly.
He had just swept his flamethrower aside as an "invisible" charged him out of the darkness, ready to cut through the incendiary tank with a sweeping overhead strike.
It turned out the "torcher" had been waiting for just that.
He deftly swept his arm aside, then drove the beskar blade from his gauntlet in a straight thrust through the center of the enemy's chest.
The Boss had never seen that maneuver before, but he filed it away.
He could no longer conveniently control the situation.
THX-0333 wasn't spraying everything around with his flamethrower for fun — it created visibility issues through the HUD.
His flames encircled the commandos' defensive position in several semicircles on the corridor floor, preventing the enemy from passing through the fire unnoticed.
But the Boss's opponent decided not to go on foot — instead, he attacked from above.
He vaulted over the fire barrier, striking with his claws at the commando's head area.
The Boss blocked the lunges with his beskar blade and drove the obsidian knife under the enemy's mask, right into the chin.
The knife tip pierced the head's tissues and entered the brain, killing the enemy.
Another opponent emerged from the darkness on the right, but the Boss, yanking out the obsidian blade, drove the new opponent back with a sweeping motion of his beskar weapon.
Seizing the moment the Boss was open, the enemy charged into hand-to-hand combat, ready to pierce the cuirass and the body beneath it with a precise strike.
"Down!"
The Boss crouched, shielding himself from the "invisible's" kick.
Flame flashed above his head — Fixer had discharged his blaster into the attacker's face, turning him into a lifeless lump of meat.
At the same moment, as the Boss and Fixer finished off one enemy, THX-0333 was repelling an attack of his own, and Scorch was left without flank cover.
One of the invisible enemies rushed at him.
Scorch blocked a sweeping double claw strike with his blade, then made a sharp lunge forward with his right hand.
Unexpectedly for Fixer, who was about to help him, the demolitions expert fell onto his right side, simultaneously kicking his enemy backward.
The Invisible, barely steady at the edge of the flames, dropped his gaze downward...
"Boom," said Scorch, pressing a button on his armor's vambrace.
The sticky mine worked exactly as intended.
Attached to the enemy's chest plate on the left during the right-handed strike, it hadn't been detected by the enemy quickly enough.
Though it wouldn't have helped him anyway — the adhesive substance wouldn't let the ordnance be torn from the surface.
A blinding flash, and the Invisible was blown to pieces, vaporizing most of his body and equipment.
"Check the trooper!" There was a brief lull, and the Boss gave the order to Scorch. "Fixer — to the terminal."
Oddly enough, the Boss didn't crack a joke but immediately positioned himself next to the undoubtedly heroic stormtrooper.
He froze for a moment, scanning him with his HUD.
Then he stood up and made a very eloquent head gesture.
At the same time, Fixer delivered his grim verdict on the control panel.
"We don't have the couple of hours it'd take to get this working."
The Invisibles had done their job.
Badly.
"We push through to Starkiller," the Boss ordered, setting priorities.
Since the control panel was destroyed, there was no time to fix it, and staying at the gate was pointless — they had to break through forward.
Find a junction or a passage to other gates and try to open them to let the army in.
Otherwise, the Invisibles would kill them all.
Not to mention the larger enemy models.
Oddly enough, they reached Starkiller without incident.
The Invisibles had seemingly vanished somewhere or were hesitant to attack the four-man commando team, each covering the others' backs.
And the Boss liked this least of all.
Just as much as the hum he'd felt for the last few seconds.
"Something's happening," Fixer stated. "Sounds like a distant bombardment..."
"I don't think it's distant..."
TNK-0333 didn't finish.
A massive shockwave ripped the floor out from under the clone commandos' feet.
* * *
"We're dealing with an 'Imperial Terror Soldier' projector developed by the Imperial Department of Military Research," I said. "It's reasonable to assume this specific project was under the direct control of Darth Vader."
And, most obviously, with his direct participation.
But it's better not to mention the latter to those assembled.
Otherwise, the question of how I know this will arise.
The involvement of Terror Troopers in the hunt for Galen Marek's clone was never covered anywhere — not in Alliance intelligence reports, not in New Republic archives.
Not even the Ubiqtorate had data.
The Dark Apprentice, when I briefly asked him, simply stated that all those soldiers were destroyed during the attack on Kamino.
Boba Fett, who also had some involvement with this project (not as a developer, but as a commander of one of the units), confirmed Vader's words regarding his interaction with Darth Vader in the hunt for Juno Eclipse eleven years ago.
Dominion intelligence searched for where these soldiers could have been invented, but according to Vader, it was done on Kamino.
However, I hadn't accounted for the fact that the Dark Lord of the Sith could lie to his Dark Apprentice.
Though, it might not be that straightforward.
We could be dealing with prototypes developed here, with the final project completed on Kamino.
Or remnants Vader brought here after his release from captivity by Galen Marek's clone and Juno Eclipse.
During the debriefing after "visiting the Iceheart," Fett eventually said that after Vader's capture, he went to Dantuin, but found no one there — only an old Rebel base.
He searched for the Sith for a long time, but the Sith simply returned to the Empire on his own overnight.
It's a shame we couldn't capture Eclipse alive and find out what happened after their escape from Kamino to Dantuin, as was stated in the finale of the second part of the game The Force Unleashed.
And I have a bad feeling about how such constructs could have been built and how they connect to this place.
It's no accident I called this place a laboratory and proving ground.
The Imperial Department of Military Research was a governmental military research agency in the Galactic Empire, responsible for researching and developing military technologies such as equipment, small arms, facility components, and armed starships for the Imperial Armed Forces.
Moff Rebus, who created the weapons for the "Dark Trooper" line, General Rom Mohc, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, and Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin — all had close ties to the department.
Among the already known projects of the IDMR are both "Death Stars," the "Eye of Palpatine" and his "Orb," the inhabited spheres — one of which was mistaken by the Rebel Alliance after the Battle of Endor for a "Death Star III," and the second we took from Ennix Devian — the hypervelocity gun...
These are the objects we've already encountered in one way or another.
But my memory helpfully suggests they had many more such projects.
The "Death Star Prototype," currently locked in the Maw Cluster, the Galaxy Gun, the "Sun Crusher," the "World Devastator."
The Nightcloak, which could easily plunge a planet into darkness.
The self-guiding HMOR droids, capable of transmitting data on a ship's or other object's location across tens of thousands of light-years (it was thanks to one such that Darth Vader located the Rebel base on the surface of Yavin IV).
The Mark IV sentry droids, IT-O interrogator droids, human replica droids, shadow droids...
The latter are unmanned aerial vehicles with a human mind embedded instead of a navigation computer or artificial intelligence.
These were supposedly being built for Palpatine on Byss, but Ysanne couldn't confirm or deny this, which is bad — too dangerous a technology in the hands of someone with an excellent cloning laboratory.
Human replica droids...
I don't have any serious information on this, besides general data obtained through cross-referencing.
Human replica droids were complex, high-tech artificial creations covered in synthetic skin and bio-fiber, designed to be nearly indistinguishable from humans.
Their construction was so similar to human anatomy that even high-quality medical scanners couldn't always identify them as inorganic, though they could distinguish some differences from a typical human.
Unlike real clones, a droid clone could be created in less than three months.
Such droids were programmed to think they were real humans, even possessing fabricated childhood memories.
And here's where it gets interesting.
The first to create artificial humans were... members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Their goal was to create controlled Rebel human-replica droids to replace Imperial officers.
Due to lack of funding, the project wasn't widespread, but I recall at least one aristocrat.
They did this because the real human was their financier, supposed to close a major deal to purchase a large number of X-wings for the Rebel Alliance, but died prematurely.
The Alliance, without thinking twice, created a replica.
Then Imperial Intelligence got hold of some data and continued developing the idea.
They created a human-replica droid named Guri, later purchased as an assassin by Prince Xizor of Black Sun for nine million credits.
More replicas were manufactured, but I only know about Guri, whose story intrigued me.
After Xizor's death over Coruscant, Guri found her creator and asked to have her assassination program memory wiped.
The procedure on the droid was successful, and Guri became a fully autonomous droid.
She is one of the assets the Dominion Intelligence is searching for.
The technology is valuable, interesting, and promising.
The Alliance also continued its experiments with human replicas — a year after the Battle of Endor, they created new prototypes.
But those turned out clumsy and inferior to the Empire's projects.
They were used in only a few missions, including one where a Leia Organa duplicate helped kill the future Emperor Trioculus.
The IDMR has created and will create more (since it resides with its secret archive on Byss, under the Emperor's warm wing) plenty of deadly weapons of total annihilation.
And what we're seeing on Egon-IX is just the tail of the comet.
We haven't even approached the core.
I don't have exact data on this project, but I do have fairly accurate descriptions from the Dark Apprentice, as well as from Boba Fett, who worked alongside the Terror Trooper squad.
In fact, the holograms currently displayed are provided by the bounty hunter's archive.
The Terror Trooper.
Terror Troopers were created as a result of clearly inhuman cyborg experiments.
It's no coincidence their masks closely resemble the late General of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Grievous, who was also a cyborg at the end of his life.
Fett, known for his collaboration with the Empire and regular employment by Darth Vader, claimed that despite his many contacts and informants across the galaxy, he first encountered them only during the hunt for Galen Marek's clone — until then, he hadn't even heard of such troops in Imperial service.
Considering their "hit-and-run" tactics and ability to wipe out entire units using advanced technology, I'm confident that if they had been used as intended, word of the Imperials having such units would have leaked into the galaxy much earlier.
If they had been deployed before those events.
Fett, hired to capture Galen Marek's clone, developed a plan with Vader to catch the duplicate.
For this, they needed to capture Juno Eclipse and deliver her directly to the Lord of the Sith — the emotionally unstable clone would obediently follow.
And so it happened.
Fett located Eclipse's ship, used Imperial Terror units to storm the vessel, slaughtered almost the entire crew standing between him and his target, captured the girl, and took her to Kamino.
Galen Marek's clone followed them, bringing the fleet the Rebels had at that time with him.
The attack on Kamino occurred, during which the clone learned much about himself, confronted his insane brethren, and defeated Vader.
The rest of the story about the flight to Dantuin is known.
"According to this data, the Terror Troopers have very specific weaponry," noted General Cain, who frowned more and more as he reviewed the information and Fett's holographic recordings. "A paralyzing blaster for neutralizing a target?"
"For capturing them alive," corrected Grodin Tierce. "It's a stun blaster. The Imperial Guard received similar ones for analogous purposes on their missions."
"They can also turn invisible," noted Pellaeon, pointing to one of the holographic images from Boba Fett's helmet cam, where a Terror Trooper vanished from sight.
"According to Fett and Starkiller, the camouflage is only visual and helps bypass sensors," I said. "In Vader's service, Starkiller could sense them with the Force."
This was likely how Galen Marek's clone, Object 1138, managed to successfully counter the camouflaged enemies.
"Judging by the recordings, these soldiers can also use standard weapons, but they immediately switch to close combat," Tierce pointed to a holorecording where Terror Troopers easily killed Alliance soldiers aboard Eclipse's ship with their vibroblades. "Their agility is incredible..."
Indeed — most attacks from ordinary sentients, the Terror Troopers simply dodged.
Cybernetics?
Biological upgrade?
Natural abilities?
Unfortunately, impossible to say without an autopsy.
But one thing is certain — thanks to their equipment, weaponry, training, and abilities, such soldiers can be deployed into hostile environments to quickly eliminate targets without leaving a trace.
Reviewing the old and incoming holorecordings from the surface from the assault squad commanders, I noted several more features.
Externally, their battle suits were heavily modified versions of standard Imperial armor.
Apparently incorporating elements of Sith armor design, like those presented as uniforms in the game itself.
This is especially noticeable in the design of the helmet, clawed gloves, and boots.
A sort of "Easter egg" for those in the know.
As is the helmet of each Invisible, stylized after the late Grievous.
Honestly, the image is quite terrifying — especially when they appear out of thin air a meter or two from a soldier and immediately engage in close combat.
It's worth noting that their armor is multifunctional, heavily segmented, or completely absent in some places, which doesn't hinder movement at all.
This isn't just factory-standard equipment.
This is a custom order, created with a full understanding of the necessity of each element, each construct.
This can't be done in a year, two, a couple of years.
This is the result of long and painstaking development, experiments, trials and errors.
Every part is exactly where it belongs.
Everything the Terror Trooper needs is "at hand."
Any strike is dampened by one armor element or another, no movement catches the Terror Trooper's gear, not a single extraneous sound that could give them away.
These are definitely not prototypes.
These are fully tested, combat-proven, "production" models of super-soldiers designed for disorganization, destabilization, sabotage, and terror within the enemy's ranks and rear.
One could admire what's happening in this very place if it weren't for one "but."
These soldiers are acting against us.
And they aren't alone.
"Is that a version of the spider droid?" Pellaeon exclaimed, pointing to a small mechanical arthropod with a glowing yellow "body" that dropped onto our stormtroopers' heads.
"How can this be part of a sabotage and terror project?" General Cain wondered. "The light camouflage is terrible, no weapons, no cloaking screen, but the 'spider' chassis is indeed quite effective and mobile on any terrain."
The next second, contact with the troopers was lost, and I was already bringing up new information on the holographic projector.
This was how we worked — reviewing archives and fresh data, exchanging opinions, and sending recommendations via General Cain's command channel to the ground units.
Yes, it was a pity about the dying soldiers, but we simply had no choice.
We could not retreat.
We could not allow a single one of these fighters to escape, let alone get aboard the Guardian during takeoff and landing.
This was communicated to the surface.
EMP grenades and anti-droid weaponry, including disintegrators, were now dropped in shock-resistant containers, and the ships that had returned to the Guardian since the start of the ground troop deployment were moved to high orbit and set adrift.
Now was not the time (useless at close range and even less effective against the base's hull and construction materials, which absorbed or dispersed energy, leaving even the most powerful charges...
We could not allow the Galactic Alliance, already subjugating the Ash Worlds, to reach this laboratory and attempt to replicate the project for its own purposes.
None of the projects.
Because I was very interested in another project.
The very one that had been shown just before the communication with the stormtrooper unit was cut off.
"Before us is another part of the 'Imperial Terror Soldier' project," I explained, bringing up a new file for review.
It was exactly as Pellaeon and Cain had said.
A spider droid.
Medium-sized, glowing, with multiple — I think four in total — segmented legs.
Thanks to these, the droid can move perfectly across decks, floors, walls, and ceilings.
Over uneven terrain, I imagine it would have no trouble moving either.
And, if Fett's records are to be believed, these legs easily pierce through light enemy armor.
Along with the body that armor protects, of course.
The Terror "Spider" Droid.
"The design is quite simple," noted Grodin Tierce.
The Terror Droids consisted of a convex, self-illuminating body with four clawed legs.
Dimensions — no more than a meter along any axis of three-dimensional space, making them difficult to spot.
And able to get anywhere.
Thanks to the articulation of their limbs, they can lower their bodies, meaning the volume of space they operate in is relatively small.
Consequently, they can be encountered, for example, in ventilation ducts, shafts, air conduits, maintenance tunnels, sewers — only the diameter of the opening or pipe matters.
From what we've seen, it's clear that this particular enemy has a single attack tactic.
Their favored method was to pounce on their enemies and cling to their torsos, attacking furiously at close range.
Sharp damaging elements were visible on the underside of the chassis, explaining the torso attack — the spider droid would lock onto the enemy, immobilize him, and deliver a piercing strike to the area of vital organs, then move to the next target.
As seen in the recordings, and as I remember from "gameplay," when damaged, the droids also fixed themselves in place and turned into contact mines.
Thus, they also destroyed or disabled our armored vehicles.
Effective, considering the production cost of such a droid... is hardly more than what's spent on training and equipping a soldier.
Possibly, the cost of manufacturing one is even lower than producing a buzz droid or a clone.
It remains a mystery why the Empire didn't put their production into full swing, but I think the answer will be found when we reach this base's central computer and get its memory banks.
Not "if we reach it," but "when we reach it."
Yes, the losses are heavy, the losses are, one might even say, terrible, but we are at war.
In war, sentients die for a higher purpose — to protect their loved ones, their interests, their state.
Hundreds of thousands die so that millions can live in safety.
That is precisely why the work of a military man should always be the litmus test of a society's health.
Where civil service and service in law enforcement are measured only by the yardstick of "salary bigger than everyone else's" that is perversion.
Ideologically loyal, properly motivated, principled sentients should serve the state.
And they need to be prepared from the cradle.
Forget what the "neighbors" might say.
Everyone has propaganda.
When you don't have it, the "neighbors" will use theirs, but against your state.
On the international, and especially the galactic, political stage, you cannot play "Tolstoy-style."
Someone slaps your cheek? Break their nose and jaw.
Beat you up? Maim them.
That's the only way you can make yourself feared and respected.
The weak are beaten.
The kind are perceived as weak.
The more you project your peacefulness, your good-naturedness into the surrounding space, the more you flirt with "fashionable cultural trends" the less you are taken seriously.
Strength must not only be within — it must be seen, it must be feared, it must be known, but not by everyone.
Potential enemies need to know that you have strength, and that there is strength you haven't shown yet.
But you will definitely demonstrate it if you are attacked.
Only the threat of one's own losses — financial, industrial, territorial, image-related, and so on — stops the "neighbors" from attacking you.
And if your goal isn't to lure the enemy onto your territory with your excuses and "fog of war" to destroy his army, as I contemplate in the plan against the Emperor, it's better to hit back for every slap.
Over time, they'll understand.
But until then, you have to strike while the enemy still has teeth.
I'm already liking the Imperial terror project.
Especially since, according to all available sources, these small droids can be shaken off with a high degree of success only by a Force user, and even then, not a weak one.
Excellent.
I need them.
Just like the Terror Troopers.
I need this base.
"All necessary weaponry has been delivered to the surface," Major General Cain reported, addressing me. "Sir, since we've already destroyed enemy forces similar to our droids, I request permission to send not stormtroopers, but our droids as the first breakthrough wave."
This will reduce casualties among the personnel of the 501st Corps.
We can always manufacture new droids — and faster than clones.
My oversight, of course.
"Proceed," I ordered, addressing the Major General.
The losses from storming this base would be enormous.
What we get from this mission — it's not a given it will quickly pay off.
And ahead lie Rothana and Kamino, which I need just as much.
I'd rather get more than necessary and set aside the "surplus" than not get enough at all.
"Captain Pellaeon," I addressed the Guardian's commander. "Get me the commanders of our forward regular fleet formations."
We'll have to bring the second echelon to the border.
I'll need the first one to capture the planets and their production facilities in the shortest possible time.
Well, then...
It won't be "quiet."
And this will clearly cause us some problems.
"New data from the forward squads, sir!" the communications officer reported. "A new type of enemy detected."
Another hologram appeared.
"What the hell is that?!" Maximilian Jurgen couldn't contain his emotions.
Understandable.
Son of a bitch...
They're all here.
The whole project.
Shit.
"General Cain," I addressed the ground force commander, hiding my emotions. "Land ALL droids on the surface. Even the reserves. Even the buzz droids. Captain Pellaeon — contact Colonel Niovi on Horn and Commodore Brandei in the Karthakk sector. We will need a large quantity of droids of all types upon the completion of this operation and for dispatch to the Silri Syndicate."
The losses in this battle will be far greater than I anticipated.
And I suspect that Rothana and Kamino, even after everything that's been done, won't come cheap either.
* * *
Pouring out all his fury in streams of electricity, Starkiller felt the life leaving those he attacked.
For a fraction of a second, he felt a paralyzing sense of guilt, but he dismissed it as useless.
The forced emotions from Galen Marek's memory had been bothering him ever since Thrawn declared that the callsign "Starkiller" belonged to the Dark Apprentice by right.
After all, he had surpassed Galen Marek, according to Darth Vader — hadn't he?
Strange that the Dark Lord of the Sith himself didn't do it — didn't hand over the legendary callsign.
Though there was an answer to that.
Vader didn't care.
The Dark Apprentice was just as expendable to him as all the other clones.
Just slightly better.
There was only one way for the Dark Apprentice to know for sure whether he was stronger than Marek's other clones.
By killing Object 1138.
And Grand Admiral Thrawn had promised them a meeting.
Based on what he had managed to learn about Thrawn from conversations with the Shadow Guards, the Grand Admiral kept his word.
Which meant he could be served.
His Force Vision probably hadn't deceived him.
Well, he'd test that in practice.
At the very least, Thrawn had managed to give him the opportunity to walk the same path as Object 1138.
He wondered — had Thrawn deliberately sent his forces against the targets of the "Imperial Terror Soldier" project or not?
Object 1138 had destroyed those droids, cyborgs, and bio-droids with (almost) effortless ease.
Starkiller was doing just as well so far.
Unlike the commandos rushing to his aid, he had reacted to the threat in time.
And he had used the situation to his advantage, inflicting considerable damage on the retreating terror troopers, killing three of them at once.
But a more serious enemy remained.
The one meant to cover the light forces' retreat so they could repel attacks in other passages.
Regaining his balance after destroying the first bio-droid, he ignited his lightsabers again.
Using Force lightning was effective, but it also drained his own strength.
His weapons blazed with red fire, just like the day he first received them from Darth Vader's hands.
The damage the complex had sustained — undoubtedly from an orbital strike — was visible throughout the corridor.
The lights kept flickering from on to off, from red to black, creating a surreal landscape full of smoke and sparks.
Shapes moved ahead of them, but at that moment it was impossible to tell whose side they were on.
But he had the Force with him, and Starkiller knew for certain that he now had only four combat-capable allies, who were just recovering from a brutal concussion.
Thrawn wouldn't harm his own soldiers, so there simply hadn't been any other option.
Which meant the complex was armored with refractory, ultra-durable materials not just at the entrance.
Starkiller sensed the enemy ahead and lunged forward, perceiving everything directly through the Force and therefore immune to the lack of light or visual distractions.
Nothing hindered his concentration — he had long stopped paying attention to the lighting and darkness around him.
The Force was with him.
The Dark Side.
The two massive figures he sensed ahead were bio-droids — heavy, lumbering combatants created under the same project as the terror troopers and terror droids.
Terror Biodroid.
Their weapons were giant manipulators armed with energy weapons, also capable of generating a gravitational push similar to a Force Push.
The Dark Apprentice had trained against machines from the terror soldier program, so he understood perfectly how to deal with them.
Right now, he was the tip of the spear.
Right now, he was Thrawn's unstoppable weapon.
Right now, he could prove just how perfect he was.
Particles of ash and soot swirled in short-lived eddies as Starkiller boldly ran toward the barricade, deflecting every shot fired at him back at whoever had fired it.
Some of the "cloakers" had stayed behind, covering the bio-droids as support forces.
No matter.
A trifle.
They were visible in the Force, and therefore destructible.
Distant gunfire echoed through the corridor, and to the left he sensed the presence of more living beings.
But their number was dwindling fast.
The enemy had turned to slaughter, and the base was blocking communications.
He couldn't warn them, couldn't help them.
He could only break through and strike from the rear.
Golden plasma smashed into his face, but Starkiller easily dodged the attack, sliding across the floor.
His lightsabers slashed through the bio-droid's lower limbs, and it toppled forward, unable to keep its massive bulk balanced.
Halting his slide, Starkiller hit the second bio-droid with a Force Push, forcing it onto the defensive.
But the same move gave him momentum, and the Dark Apprentice attacked the damaged bio-droid from behind.
Scorching jets of flame hit him in the face — the enemy had used its own thrusters, designed for rapid closing with any opponent.
But now the bio-droid was using them defensively.
Starkiller couldn't see anything with his own eyes, but he gathered all the Force's power into his hands and detonated the empty air.
Blue lightning slammed into the bio-droid's body, shorting its circuits and overloading its systems.
The thrusters died.
Two crimson lightsabers sank into the bio-droid's armored body with resistance — the hull was made of dense material.
Starkiller didn't know what specific metal was used, but he knew how to deal with it better than anyone.
He just needed to change the angle of entry, and then...
A stream of energy burst from under the bio-droid's gorget — the damaged power supply had found the shortest escape route.
The life inside the bio-droid faded.
Several blaster bolts slammed into the already dead body, which he reflexively deflected into the walls.
The permacrete absorbed the energy completely.
Starkiller raised his gaze toward the shooters — the four clone commandos didn't show a shred of embarrassment, not even for a moment.
They were doing what they had to do, what they were trained to do.
In that, they were alike.
"Don't get underfoot," Starkiller ordered, executing a backflip.
The second bio-droid, charging at him, drove its massive limbs into the body of its fallen comrade.
Starkiller was on its back.
The bio-droid tried to hit him with its thrusters, but the clone of Galen Marek was faster.
A double crimson slash of lightsabers — and the beheaded body of the second bio-droid crashed onto the permacrete floor with a boom.
Its ugly head landed with a clatter at the feet of the four commandos, whose leader calmly stopped its bouncing with his armored boot.
"What psychopath gave these droids and cyborgs General Grievous's face?" one commando with black markings on his armor asked with disgust, examining the head with its lifeless eyes.
"Darth Vader," Starkiller explained, leaping off the body and using the Force to seize three terror troopers lurking under concealment.
A sweep of his lightsaber — and the diced bodies fell at his feet, their limbs twitching helplessly, refusing to accept death.
"Psychotic bastard," the commander of the fourth special commando squad expressed his opinion of the fallen Jedi.
Starkiller didn't care what they thought.
Ahead, he sensed a multitude of living targets, determined to kill him and the other Dominion soldiers.
And he also felt the flame of the Dark Side of the Force flaring up inside him.
Through the massive bulkhead, three similar flames were blazing in the central corridor.
But only one, maybe two of them could compete with him at all.
Though not for long.
Because he was the best.
Shifting into Force Speed, Starkiller lunged forward, choosing his first victim for the coming harvest.