Rage Against The Dark Ch 14

Good evening!

Even though work was hell, this chapter just flowed during lunch.

Also, writing update Soon(TM) cause I had a thing I wanted to mention on the last writing update but kinda sorta forgot cause I was really tired when I wrote it.

But that's neither here nor there. Here is chapter 14. It's a bit more laid back as a chapter, but those are important after big climactic battles.

I will say though, no, the role of the Malevolence is not over. There will be unforeseen consequences. They just won't be immediate.

Without further ado. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

=][=

It would be fair to say that I hadn’t taken the confiscation of the Malevolence with the grace and serenity expected of a Jedi.

Worse was the fact that, as I had tunnel visioned quite strongly on getting the thing fixed, I’d only used the Stamp on the hypermatter reactor and hyperspace core. Saving the droid brain for last, more specifically, for when I eventually got around to working on that system.

With the arrival of the paper pushers with their army of engineers for the Malevolence’s transport, I’d lost the excuse to dismantle two thirds of the bridge in order to get to said droid brain and apply the stamp to it. Meaning that, if it came to it, I could only sell two thirds of the ship.

Because I was dumb.

Suffice to say, this had left me rather frustrated. And with Anakin closer than within a few dozen light-years, I couldn’t exactly work through my frustration in a healthy, fun, and productive way, like fucking my harem of beautiful girls into a proper puddle like they deserved.

So instead I channeled said frustration into something else productive.

The training lightsaber I’d constructed out of modified spare parts swept through the air, lifting a clone up by the back of the knees before arcing around and gently touching his neck while he was still airborne, the trooper gave off a choked cry and fell bonelessly. I swept the saber through a defensive flourish, tossing the low-power bolts back at the clones who’d shot them, and ducking to dodge three of them and cause three friendly casualties among the squad I had jumped in the middle of.

Without extending a hand, I caught one of the troopers up in my telekinetic grip, then held him between me and the next squad of troopers as they opened fire, his body spasming as he was peppered by dozens of low-powered shots.

I drew my own borrowed blaster pistol and sent ten shots back at them, each shot striking each of the ten clones in that squad in the head, marking a kill. Finally dropping Jumper who dropped to the deck and groaned a piteous. “That one was mean, Commander.”

“Hush hush.” I said, tapping the side of his helmet with my boot. “The dead don’t talk.”

“This corpse apologizes. Sir.”

“Apology accepted.”

The next squad had a better idea with Brick jumping at me while brandishing two ‘thermal detonators’ the training grenades would only flash and emit an annoyingly loud noise.

I caught him midair, then held him upside down over his squad, all of whom scattered. Those who scattered out of cover caught a training bolt to the back, those that jumped out and shot at me had their bolts returned to sender. Brick’s ‘detonation’ killed the last three of them.

I let Brick fall on a heap, stretched my neck, then tossed the training saber behind me and guided it to smack Pips on top of his bucket, sending him twitching to the floor.

And like that, the wargame ended.

I deactivated my training saber. “Brick, I’m not fond of the sacrifice play, but you have to do what you have to do. I can respect it, it could have worked. So, what did you do wrong?”

“Jumped, sir?” He asked.

I telekinetically bonked him on top of the helmet. “You did it as an opening act. Leading to you being used as artillery against your own squad. To have any chance of working, you should have waited until the rest of your squad engaged me to provide a distraction.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pips.” I said, turning to the last clone who had removed his bucket and was trying to get his short but thoroughly frazzled hair under control. “Playing dead was inspired. In an environment as chaotic as battle that could well have worked. Your mistake was waiting until the battle was ‘over’ in hopes I’d drop my guard. Once the battle is over is when a Force User will have the easiest time hearing a warning from the Force. Your ploy could have worked, but you should have done so while I was engaged to have any chance of success.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

I motioned with my arms to encompass the rest of the platoon. “Now, the rest of you, can any of you tell me the one blatant mistake each and every single one of you committed?”

My boys looked at each other before venturing a few answers.

“We were too defensive?”

“No, we were too aggressive.”

“Our teamwork was lacking, sir.”

“We need to practice more CQC.”

“Friendly fire? Once you got among us some of us definitely shot each other.”

There were a few more answers before I raised a hand. “Good points, all of you. The 501st is lucky to have you, as not one of you had an answer without merit. You were too defensive some moments, too aggressive at others, I disrupted your teamwork and you never recovered, etc etc. That said, none of you came upon the correct answer.”

They swelled at the praise, then subsequently hunched down when they learned of their failure.

“Any final guesses?” I asked, pacing slowly back and forth, making sure I turned my head to encompass all of the boys as I spoke. “No? Okay, answer me this. Why weren’t you using your weapons correctly to engage me?”

They blinked and looked at each other. “Sir?”

“It’s not a trick question, trooper. Why were none of your weapons used correctly?”

Pips raised his hand. “But sir, they’re blasters, we used them for blasting!”

There were some murmurs of agreement.

“Soldier, put the bucket back on.” I said in somber tones.

“Sir!” He said, and slipped his helmet on.

I then smacked him on top of the helmet with a loud telekinetic ‘whap!’

“Your blasters are tools!” I snarled, making them flinch. “They are tools that can be used for numerous varied purposes! You can use them to hold flimsiplas down! To open a ration can! To boil water! They’re a hammer to break a lock! A baton to bring someone unarmored into compliance! They’re a magnifier so you can study things without getting closer to them! Why, you can even shoot things with them! They are a versatile tool and you will start thinking of them as such! Do I make myself clear, Torrent!”

Over fifty voices roared back. “Sir, yes sir!”

“The way you used your blasters during this wargame?” I continued. “They were a tool for me to send your bolts back at you and make things easier on myself! Now, one among you explain to me, how could you have used your blasters in such a way that I would not have been able to do this!?”

They all looked at each other, unsure.

I rolled my eyes. “Pips!”

The trooper in question stood at attention. “Sir!”

“Shoot me with a stunner!” I ordered.

His blaster rifle came up in a smooth, almost liquid motion, his thumb flicked the switch to stun mode and his finger squeezed the trigger, from order to stun blast flying, less than two seconds had passed.

I drew my lightsaber and slashed the blue bolt out of the air. The energy dissipating around me. Leaving Pips wholly untouched.

I saw the illuminator simultaneously come online behind fifty pairs of eyes.

“That is why I told you to think about what would be the most effective tactics for dealing with a Force User before starting this Wargame!” I shouted. “Because if you hope to one day support me in taking on a Force User, rather than needing my protection from them, then you need to think about your kit, and what you can do to make yourselves useful! You are inherently at a disadvantage against Force Users, you cannot take one on using standard practices! The meat between your ears is your most effective weapon, I expect you to use it! Do I make myself clear, Torrent!?

“Good! We will repeat this Wargame in a week’s time, deployments permitting. I expect you to make that one difficult for me! Am I understood!?”

“Good! Dismissed!” I said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have flimsiwork to get to.”

The platoon all saluted me as I left, not dropping it when I waved for them to be at ease.

That was the last batch of Torrent Company to put through the first iteration of the Most Effective Tactics Available against a Force User course (META-FU for short) that I was putting Torrent through.

Separating them into batches implied that I wanted each platoon to work ‘individually,’ so far none of them had caught on to the fact that that was a test. If none of them began to share intel and ideas as a company on how to take me down, I was going to punish the lot of them and hammer it into their heads that if they were tackling a Force User, I expected them to cheat.

Once we got past the ‘fight a Force User’ seminar, I’d get them started on the ‘detect and counter Infiltration by a Force User’ seminar.

There was no way whatsoever this could possibly ever blow up in my face or carry any negative repercussions.

None whatsoever.

I left my armor in the armory, Poots would go over it later when he was finished with the sets of armor for my future ultra-badass clone special forces squad. Name still pending.

I sighed and made my way to my office in the Resolute, Iris’ smaller desk squeezed in beside mine. I’d told her she could just use my desk but she insisted it wasn’t appropriate.

“The personnel transfer form came back; we’ll pick them up in a few days when we stop at Coruscant for some refit and R&R.” She said, setting down a set of flimsiplas sheets on top of her desk. She then set down a stack. “Here is the list of provisions for the 501st for your oversight. And here is the list of what was actually procured of the equipment you requested.”

I picked up the three stacks of flimsi. “Okay good, anything pertaining to the men I need to be informed of?”

“Minor disciplinary measures.” Iris said, setting down a fourth stack of flimsi. “Taken care of by the NCOs without issue. I’ve kept abreast of them and I honestly don’t think you need to bother with them. Oh! Aegis and Charlotte should have everything ready for that funeral service you wanted to hold for the boys.”

I grunted. “Good, set a date, I need to write up a speech.”

“Want me to do it?” She asked.

I blinked and looked down at her.

She tilted her head with a smile. “I was going to inherit a kingdom, you know? Speech writing was among the more advanced courses I had to take.”

I hummed, mulling that over in my head. “Maybe in the future, but not for this. I want the boys to know that the words I say during such a important event come from me, and I want that to come across, you know?”

She smiled warmly, her cheeks gaining a dusting of fetching pink. “Absolutely.”

Force grant me patience because if you grant me luck I will ruin this girl.

The Force laughed amusedly at my thwarted libido.

With a growl, I telekinetically pulled the youthful elf to me, she barely got to squeak in surprise before I claimed her lips, her arms and legs instinctively wrapped around me as her teeth parted and her tongue licked at mine in tantalizing invitation. An invitation I took full advantage of as I drank deep of the sweetness of the girl in my arms.

Funnily enough, the Force aided in the dampening of the emotions we radiated, extending the time I could make out with my little hentai elf. But far too soon the hated and familiar warning from Information Defense had me growling and forcing myself to stop and break the kiss, a string of saliva connecting our tongues before it parted.

“We need to find some way to mask things so we can go further.” She murmured, her hand gently cradling my stiff package over my pants, nearly making me snap and bend her over my desk, damn the consequences.

“I’m working on it.” I growled, biting the tip of one of her pointed ears, making her hiss. Unfortunately, the only things I’d found so far were vague references. I’d probably need to spend some time in the restricted section of the Jedi Archives to find anything of use.

“Work faster.” She whimpered, her small, soft hand squeezing just hard enough for me to feel her fingers through my pants. “I need you inside me.”

I growled and set her cute tight ass on her desk, leaning down with the full intention to put my head up her skirt and tear her panties off with my teeth, when the Force warned me not to.

When Anakin walked into my office without knocking, he found me leaning back on my chair, sitting behind my desk as I lazily read the piles of reports that Iris had compiled for me, Iris herself working diligently, sitting prim, proper, and without a single hair out of place.

“You done beating up the Clones for now?” He asked, not shutting the door behind him.

“Yeah, currently dealing with flimsiwork.” I lowered the sheet just enough to give him a deadpan stare over its edge. “Your flimsiwork, that you initially foisted off on Rex.”

At least he had the humility to look embarrassed.

Sure, I foisted most of it off on Iris. But she was literally mine, trained for this exact kind of work, and she was being compensated with a salary by the Republic for the work she put into the smooth running of the 501st as my secretary and aide.

In fact, all my girls were receiving a wage thanks to the various jobs they filled out as aides, combat pilot, and medic.

Being able to cut through ninety-five percent of the bureaucratic red tape by flashing a lightsaber was a godsend.

Anakin cleared his throat. “Right, well, I wanted to go over what you’ll be doing in the Jedi Temple, now that we’ll spend a few rotations at Coruscant.”

I groaned. “Do I have to?”

Anakin blinked. “What, you don’t like returning to the Temple?”

“Nope.” I said easily. Flipping the sheet I was reading and scowling, not pleased that my request for two tons of assorted standard droid components had been denied. I was going to have to get creative if I wanted to make the armory droid I had in my head for Torrent. “Since I was six years old, I’ve spent as much time as I could out of the Temple, slumming it through Coruscant. It’s how I met the girls, if you’ll recall.”

Anakin grunted. “Well, you’ll have to spend most of your stay at the Temple. I’ll be busy.”

“Grooooaaaaaaan.” I said, then groaned for good measure.

“Staying at the Temple won’t kill you.” Anakin snorted.

“What will you be doing?” I asked, my only balm being that with me in the same planet, the answer to that question was not going to be his wife.

Only fair that the guy constantly cock blocking me got cock blocked right back.

“That’s need to know.” Anakin said haughtily.

“Having a searing rendezvous with a secret lover the Jedi Order doesn’t know about.” I said in a bored tone, not looking at Anakin, but seeing the blurry reflection of his face on a datapad on my desk was satisfying. “Goooot it.”

He recovered remarkably quickly and sarcastically said. “Har har har.”

I turned back to him with a grin and stuck out my tongue.

“You know, most Masters would not put up with this much cheek from their Padawan.” Anakin said haughtily.

“What’s that? You want me to make absolutely certain all the flimsiwork goes to you so it can be properly processed? I’m fine taking care of it Master Skywalker, but if you insist.”

“I’ve always though cheek was a sign of a strong spirit.” Anakin backpedaled smoothly and without shame. “As you were, we’ll have a spar or two at the Temple.”

“Goooot it.” I said. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

I used the Force to press the button to close the door behind him since he left it open.

I sighed explosively and leaned back.

That conversation had been made harrowing thanks to having to have it while sporting a raging boner.

Damn hentai elves and their slightly aphrodisiac bodily fluids.

A small pair of hands began kneading my shoulders, warm healing magic poured into me with every touch, making me melt under Iris’ ministrations. Being made to relax made me realize for the first time how tense I had been.

“You’re working too hard.” She chastised lightly. “It’s understandable, a leader must give of himself, or those he rules will suffer.”

I showed my masterful eloquence by mumbling. “Hrmftghplaaaaaaah.” As waves of warm relief traveled from my shoulders down my spine and up my neck into my brain.

“It doesn’t help that you’re the type to bottle everything up.” She continued, and I was at the point where I didn’t care what she said about me so long as she didn’t stop what she was doing. “That spares the men at the cost of yourself, Ry. This cannot continue.”

“Mmmrmph?”

“Indeed.” She said, leaning down and planting a chaste kiss on my cheek. “Normally, a King would be able to find time to relax, allow himself to unwind in the arms of his concubines, but that is as of yet denied us.”

Her hands stopped working their literal magic, leaving my back feeling like it was made from putty. She crossed her arms around my neck and rested her cheek on top of my head. “So you’re going to make time to spend it with us. Even if we cannot serve you in all the ways we want to. We can help you relax in other ways.”

I groaned. “But there’s just so much to take care of.”

Iris chuckled. “Unfortunately, even proper delegation will only take you so far. Even so, the current situation cannot continue. I’ll rework your schedule, fit some more free time into it.”

“I’m a grown-ass man, I can manage my own schedule.” I groused.

“What’s that?” Iris said in the exact tone of voice I’d used to threaten Anakin with paperwork. “You don’t want me to give you a massage ever again?”

“Don’t make me spank you.” I growled.

The little minx moved around my chair and with a small hop sat on my lap, my half-mast cock immediately jumping to making my pants feel a few sizes too small. She gave me a big grin before saying. “Don’t threaten me with a good time until you can deliver.”

With a growl, I used the Force to lock the door, then kissed the cheeky elf girl, swallowing her contented sigh. Fully intending to test how far I could push my Information Defense.

The Force’s mixed annoyance and amusement gave me a few seconds warning before my comms unit chirped.

I snatched it from my desk and barely stopped myself snarling. “Go ahead for Rylanor.”

Anakin’s voice answered. [Get to the bridge.]

His tone handily doused my libido. “On my way, what’s going on?”

[One of the watch stations guarding the hyperspace corridor to Kamino just fell silent.] Anakin said and cut the call.

Wonderful.

=][=

The watch station was a disappointment.

In a truly stunning display of ‘hurry the hell up and wait.’ We were in hyperspace for an hour before arriving at a system with nothing but leftover radiation to mark that there had been a Separatist Fleet parked in orbit.

We were the first to arrive, but a sizeable minority of the fleet was on its way. Kamino was far too important to allow it to fall. In three hours this system and the ones further down the hyperspace corridor to Kamino would be crawling with battlegroups. Had Grievous not retreated this could have turned into one of the biggest space battles of the Clone Wars.

“Sir! There are survivors from the station!” Said Blurb. “We’ve dispatched a bird for pickup!”

I nodded at the Communications Officer, absently wondering what had saddled him with so unfortunate a name. But ultimately put that out of mind as I waved at Anakin and Obi-Wan and headed for the hangar.

Asami watched me depart, I made sure Obi-Wan wasn’t looking and gave her a wink and a blown kiss right before the doors to the lift closed. The look on her face was priceless.

I would probably pay for that later. I had the feeling that for some incomprehensible reason, Obi-Wan thought I might be a bad influence on Asami.

Not feeling like being bothered, I input the code into the lift to give me priority use of the lift so I could reach the hangar without interruption. Was that a petty abuse of power?

Yes, yes it was.

Ask me if I care.

The lift dinged a few seconds before the door opened and I stepped out into the perpetually busy hangar, my and Charlotte’s fighters were nearby, clone engineers studying them in detail

I wasn’t worried, I’d filed a patent application using Anakin’s credentials and Obi-Wan’s stamp to give it priority to cut through the several years of red tape that the process usually took. If anyone wanted to produce the damn thing, I’d have to be paid royalties.

I spotted a LAAT-I, its engines winding down, Rex and Cody hopping out of it along with three Clones I hadn’t met.

I approached quietly and heard the tail end of Rex’s recruitment speech. “—use men like you on the 501st.”

Cody scoffed. “There you go again trying to keep all the promising recruits to yourself.”

Rex sniffed. “Well, if it weren’t for my Commander’s warning, we might not have been able to destroy the station in the first place.”

“That’s a low blow, Rex.” Cody said with mock anger as I brought my hood up to cover my head and cast a shadow over my face with a smirk. “How were you even able to figure out such a vague warning in the first place? ‘Bring two, no, bring several’? You think he could have told us that the station would be under attack, we would have brought a platoon at least.”

“Sorry to say, Commander Cody.” I said in my best ‘Professor X is disappointed in you’ voice. “That the Force does not work in so clear-cut a way.”

Both Rex and Cody snapped to attention and saluted me, making the three younger clones behind them snap to their own salute.

“At ease.” I said, stepping forward and drawing the hood of my cloak back because that got uncomfortably hot very quickly. “So the Force vaguely telling me to ‘bring several’ helped?”

Rex nodded. “Detonators, sir, due to lack of maintenance, a good number of them in the outpost’s armory were nonfunctional. If not for your warning, we might have had to detonate the charges that brought the building down manually.”

“Well good.” I said, giving the Force a thanks and a headpat. I certainly hadn’t remembered any outpost event so the Force deserved all the credit for the warning. I cast an eye at the three clones. “New recruits?”

“Sir!” Rex said with a nod. “They may be shinies, but they acquitted themselves well. Men! Introduce yourselves!”

The one to the left stood forward, his back ramrod straight. “CT-782, sir, though I prefer the name Hevy.”

The one in the middle spoke next. “CT-5555, though I go by Fives, sir.”

The last one was decidedly shyer when he said. “CT-1409. But uhh, I’m called Echo, sir.”

As I stared at them, I remembered Fives and Echo. Two lowly troopers who through merit and merit alone climbed the ranks all the way to Arc Trooper. In some respects outperforming the true Arc Troopers made by Kamino and trained personally by Jango Fett.

Up until now, I had been thinking that I’d need to pluck the best of Torrent to create my special forces squad, then spend a significant amount of time retraining them, getting them to forget bad habits, breaking them down and reforging them from the warriors that their years in the Clone Wars had made them into.

But with the three in front of me…Two who I knew held immense potential, one who without my intervention would likely have died far too young to ever realize his true potential. They were, for all intents and purposes, fresh off Kamino. Yes I’d still need to do some retraining, beat some bad habits out of them.

But these three? They could be the first of my finest warriors. These and others who give themselves to me. Like clay I could mold them, and in the furnace of war shall I forge them. In the greatest armor I could clad them and with the mightiest weapons arm them.

…

How did the rest go again?

Eh, fuck it.

“Captain Rex?” I said with a grin.

“Yes, Commander Rylanor?” Rex asked slowly.

“Give these three to me.” I said. “I have an idea.”

For some reason I felt fear and trepidation emanate from the Clones around me.

Except for Hevy.

He was excited.