Shadows of Sembla

CHAPTER VIII: ALLY

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:24:47 -0400

As he was about to proceed away from the gruesome sight at the Grand Fountain, Doan heard footfalls and crept into an alley off the side of the main street. He peeked around the corner and saw two clone troopers patrolling around the main circle. No…wait…not just any old clone…Galactic Marines. They appeared to be chatting with one another, but Doan could not hear what they were saying. He was not sure he wanted to know.

After several minutes of patrolling the main square, the Marines turned onto a side street branching off to the west. Good, thought Doan, considering he needed to go east to get to the spaceport and possibly get off the planet. He began to creep down the alley. Suddenly, he heard a voice: “Psssssst,” it whispered, “in here!” The voice was coming from a cantina the right side of the alley. Doan shrugged and decided to go with it; and entered the cantina. A young male Vurk, perhaps 16 years of age, was cowering in his tattered clothes. “What do you think you’re doing, are you batty? They will catch you!” he rasped, emphasizing the word “catch”. He then noticed the lightsaber hanging from Tanogo’s belt. “You’re a…a…Jedi?” he said. “Yes,” Doan responded coldly. “DON’T HURT ME!” he screeched, and ran to the corner. “Why would I hurt you?” Doan asked, not paying much attention to the boy. Grungy cantina, Doan thought to himself as he looked around. The bar itself was pretty nice, though. It was more fancy than the rest of the place, bronzium plating with inscriptions in the old Semblan language the Vurks had spoken before adopting Galactic Basic Standard as their main form of communication. “Because you’re a….Jedi! Aren’t you with…them?” he spat. “Them?” “The clones?” ”Not anymore, kid. They shot at me. I sense that it happened all across the galaxy to every other Jedi, too. I think I was lucky to live.” “Oh,” he replied. “Do you want offworld?”

“ASAP.”

CHAPTER VII: RUIN

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:45:39 -0400

It was in ruins. Ash carpeted the road. Smoke filled the air. Buildings were in shreds, and some were still in the first phases of collapsation. Doan gritted his teeth as he walked past the flag of Sembla: a mellow orange and green toned piece of cloth with the crest of the world, four red-orange stars and a design similar to that of the Hutt kajidics, but yellow instead of brown, and sideways. And simpler, with less design to it. It also contained elements similar to the emblem of the Mandalorian Crusaders. The flag was supposed to be a welcoming symbol in the city, in the center of the square, sprouting out of the Grand Fountain and high atop a gleaming golden pole. But it no longer conveyed this message of well-being. It was tattered. Torn. Ripped beyond repair. Only parts were visible. It was horrid. All of it. The golden luster was even scratched off of the pole. And the water in the fountain was no longer blue and pristine, as clear as the day it had first been imported from Mon Calamari. No. Now, it was murky and filled with dirt and debris. Even the fountain itself was in a poor state. Chunks of the elaborate Coruscanti marble were missing or laying in the piles of ash on the ground. And that wasn’t the worst of it. The most heinous part was yet to come. A small Vurk child lay across the threshold of the Grand Fountain. She had an enormous gash in her side and was covered in blood.

And on her chest was the Republic Emblem. The bendu. Crudely spray painted on.

CHAPTER VI: UTAVURK

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:28:32 -0400

Doan reached Utavurk within a few hours of leaving the camp. The city was located in a deep valley. He decided to leave the speeder bike behind a rock formation on top of the descending point into the valley. But as he neared the mid-size urban sprawl that was just about the only one on the planet, he noticed something. Something bad.

It was on fire.

He broke into a run as he descended into the valley. With the Force to guide him and give him speed, he was there within minutes. He entered through the city’s northern gates. He remembered coming to the city for food and supplies with his grandfather when he was very young. Doan was barely accepted into the order, he was just a month short of the age limit for a Youngling. So unlike most members of the Order, Doan could actually recall bits and pieces of his past. He remembered the good smells of the vendor’s food, the many people out and about in the streets, buying and selling; and other children running and playing games. It had had a very warming feeling. Doan could understand why the spaceport was renamed after the old name for Sembla. Sembla was named Utavurk before the Republic, when it was part of Xim the Despot’s Conquests. When the planet was renamed Sembla, they renamed the capital to keep some of the old charm. Charm. Yes. Utavurk was a very charming city. But there was nothing charming about what Doan Tanogo saw.

CHAPTER V: DEPARTURE

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:16:00 -0500

With nearly every soul in the camp dead, Doan decided it was safe to rummage about through it. He came across several needed things: a GAR backpack filled with ration bars, a small first aid kit, and a fully operational 74-Z speeder bike. “Not too shabby,” he mused to himself. Tanogo put the medical kit in the bag with the rations and strapped it to his back. He climbed onto the speeder bike and zoomed away.

He was headed for the capital city.

Utavurk.

And he was going to get off Sembla.

Even if he had to kill for it.

CHAPTER IV: SLAVES

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:04:17 -0500

They were slaves. Bound by ropes, doing work. Bloody. Those who resisted where being beaten upon by the clone’s guns. Sometimes even those who did not. And at the front of them all were the two clones in his service he had secretly hoped would remain loyal to him. Sync and Lugjack. With rage flooding through him, Doan leaped off the cliff and into the horrific site. Most of the clones fired at him. And most of the clones died.

Doan Tanogo had killed almost an entire camp of clone troopers. Which, now, unbeknownst to him, were called stormtroopers. Lugjack was struck through the chest with Tanogo’s blue lightsaber blade and Sync was now being held to the ground with it. “Why, Sync!!! Why did you do it?!?” shouted Doan. In a weak; maybe even kind voice, Sync said, “It was just an order, sir.” And Sync died.

CHAPTER III: TRAIL

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:16:00 -0500

When the Jedi’s screams came to end, he began to realize something: the number of dead Vurks could not be all of them stationed at this base. So, where were the rest? Tanogo searched through the camp, ignoring the pleading screeches of the dying soldiers. He found footprints. Leading south. Determined to find the Vurks, he followed the prints. He came to a cliff. Fearing the worst, he peered over the edge. His eyes wanted to die for what they saw.

CHAPTER II: HATE

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:51:51 -0500

He buried her in a beautiful place. One that reminded him of his youth. In a meadow dotted with colorful flowers. He wept. He wept as he gazed into the Sertarian sun that gave Sembla its light. He wept out of sorrow. He wept out of depression. He wept out of rage. And in the rage was hate. Hate of the Sith. Hate of the clones and the droids and everything else. Hate of Palpatine above all. And in his weeping, he decided he would rally his native people against the clones. So he left her grave with a single white petal left on the stone.

Tanogo ran and sloshed through the swamps of his homeworld to get to his starfighter. He found it in a particularly wet bog about a parsec west of where they killed Zindra. It was useless. It looked like the clones had got to it. Blast marks and the lot. He even found the domed head of his favorite astromech droid, R2-L4. He added the severed head of another he cared about to the list of reasons why he would do the same to Palpatine. With no mode of transport, Doan walked. He walked for days through swamp after swamp, never encountering a soul. In four days he came to the Vurk Militia’s camp. Or what was left of it. Tents ablaze, blood everywhere. The dead and dying flopped about like ragdolls. Mostly Vurks. Some clones. Tanogo fell to his knees and screamed. It was too late.

At the very moment of the distraught Jedi’s scream, Palpatine declared the formation of the Galactic Empire on Coruscant. And the Purge began.

CHAPTER I: FLAMES

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:32:00 -0500

“Execute Order 66.”

“It will be done, my lord.”

Jedi Master Doan Tanogo was taken by surprise. One moment, he was killing droids. The next, his clones shot at him. He never really trusted those soldiers in white. Or the Supreme Chancellor. Now his visions had come true. As Doan beheaded his clone commander, Cresh, he had one sudden thought: Zindra.

Tanogo raced through the confusing three-way firefight between the clones, droids, and Vurks of the Semblan Militia, shouting out her name. “ZINDRA!!!!” He sensed her presence, a weak tremble in the Force, but it was there. It grew stronger as he came towards a burning building. In a partially-flaming hallway, he found the body of his Togruta Padawan, Zindra Aru-Wen. Her eyes were wide with shock and she had several blast marks on her body. And as Doan Tanogo cradled his deceased apprentice in the burn of the war, a new fire erupted in the Vurk’s eyes. Flames of revenge.

SHADOWS OF SEMBLA

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:19:26 -0500

By Sam Reitenour