Empire of Ashes: Fear

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Empire of Ashes: Fear
EmpireofAshesFearCover.png
Author: Francesca Pallopides
Series: Empire of Ashes
Length: 104k words (259 pages)
Source: AO3
Publication Date: August 27, 2024
Timeline Placement: 4 ABY to 5 ABY
Canon Tier: F
Preceding: Following:
Prophets of the Dark Side Hour of Judgment

Empire of Ashes: Fear is a fan fiction novel by author Francesca Pallopides and the first book of the Empire of Ashes Trilogy. It was first published on AO³ on August 27, 2024. The novel is set between 4 ABY and 5 ABY, shortly after the Battle of Endor, with a prologue set in 3 ABY, just after the Battle of Hoth. It takes place concurrently with and after the Rogue Squadron comic series, the Jedi Prince series, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, and Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, as well as Hour of Judgment.

Synopsis

Author's summary

The Battle of Endor is over. The Emperor is dead―or is he? All over the crumbling Empire, warships are vanishing mysteriously, as if an unseen hand were pulling them away. The Emperor's darkest associates feel the pull in the Force―but not all of them are happy about it. While the Rebellion grows into the New Republic, a shadowy battle is fought behind the scenes.

Sarcev Quest, once the Emperor's right-hand man, enlists the help of the ambitious Royal Guardsman Carnor Jax in a desperate plan to keep the galaxy from falling back under Palpatine's sway. To succeed, they must outmaneuver not just Ysanne Isard, who rules Imperial Center with a spider's grip, but all the members of the Emperor's dark side elite who were startled out of hiding by his return―and perhaps most frighteningly, the Prophets of the Dark Side who predicted Palpatine’s death at Endor and seem to know everything that happens well before it does. From HoloNet propaganda to shapeshifter shenanigans, from the underlevels of Coruscant to the Citadel spire on Byss, the deadly game picks up momentum until it threatens to grind everyone involved into dust.[1]

Plot summary

3 ABY

In 3 ABY, Zak and Tash Arranda have just escaped the Imperial assault on Hoth together with their uncle Mammon Hoole when they receive a distress call from a drifting ship. The Keefe's Needle, crewed by Melia Keefe and her children Lora and Pameen, was supposed to be heading Coreward from Pedducis Chorios, but ended up in the Hoth system as a result of erratic hyperspace jumps. When the Arrandas' droid DV-9 investigates the ship, it turns out the Keefe family had been infected by drochs, which eventually killed them. They had set out for the Deep Core after winning tickets to Byss, Palpatine's "paradise planet," in the Imperial Lottery. Planning to assume their identity and go to Byss to unravel the secrets of this planet for the Rebel Alliance, the Arrandas and Hoole sterilize the Keefe's Needle and go aboard.

4 ABY

Eight months after the Battle of Endor, Palpatine awakes in a clone tank on Byss. Filled with anger, he steps out onto the highest terrace of his Citadel, looking out at the galaxy and vowing to consume it. Many of his servants feel his return through the Force: Sarcev Quest on Coruscant closes his mind to him and hurries to find out who else knows; he encounters Carnor Jax, who has felt it too, and Sate Pestage's clone, who is oblivious. On a skyhook above Imperial City, Ambassador Sa-Di of Pendari, feels Palpatine's touch and hurries to schedule a journey to Byss. In the city of Doolis on Caprioril, Mara Jade is recovering from her duel with Lumiya when she hears the Emperor's last command to kill Luke Skywalker in her head with renewed fury. Luke Skywalker himself does not notice the tremor in the Force, because he is sleeping under the influence of soporifics administered by R2-D2 in the Woolamander temple on Yavin IV. On Nam Chorios, Beldorion the Hutt realizes Palpatine is still alive, which means that Seti Ashgad's plot to poison Byss with drochs has failed. On Byss, Zak and Tash Arranda watch the lightning around the Citadel from the city below, ignorant of the Citadel's purpose and surrounded by playing children and other parents. Near the Denarii Nova, Grand Admiral Ishin-Il-Raz hears the Emperor's call in his head but mistakes it for a trick; desperate to escape the voice, he orders Captain Harmuz to take the Emperor's Disciple between the twin stars of the Denarii Nova. Aboard the Super Star Destroyer Intimidator in the shipyards above N'zoth, the Black Fleet's commander Jian Paret receives a summons from Challer on Coruscant to bring the Black Fleet there, simultaneously with a plea from Grand Admiral Peccati Syn to reinforce him at Kashyyyk; but before he can react to either summons, a Ubiqtorate agent named Orvar Krei relays new orders from Palpatine to bring the Black Fleet into the Deep Core instead. At Kashyyyk, Grand Admiral Syn reassures his crew that Paret and Treuten Teradoc are coming to their aid, but the Prophetess Merili, coming out of a vision of Palpatine's future Dark Empire, tells him they are lying and then physically disappears. Within Ennix Devian's planetoid, Arden Lyn is distracted enough by the Emperor's mental touch that Devian cuts off her artificial arm while sparring; but while her lover Durrei intercedes, Lyn is secretly satisfied that Devian did not notice the Emperor's return. On Coruscant, meanwhile, Ars Dangor is sleeping and ignorant of those events.

5 ABY

In his throne room on Byss, Palpatine declares his intention to let the fragmenting Empire die. He tells Sate Pestage and Jeng Droga that he will need adepts to serve as extensions of his will for the continuance of his Great Work, and instructs Mas Amedda to bring him Umak Leth, Doctor Eloy, and Sigit Ranth, in order to build more superweapons for the sake of unprecedented destruction and mass death. On Coruscant, Sigit Ranth is introducing Stinna Draesinge Sha to the Church of the Dark Side when Mahd Windcaller, an initiate in the Church, informs him he has been summoned to Kuat in order to help make the damaged Eclipse hyperspaceworthy. In the meantime, Papatine contacts Cronal via hologram, asking him about Jerec's plans and the holoshows Cronal has been producing in collaboration with Mahd Windcaller's media empire. These holoshows include Luke Skywalker and the Jedi's Revenge as well as the Jedi Prince series, both of which, Cronal argues, are meant to impress upon the public that any successors to Palpatine would be inadequate, thus preparing the way for Palpatine's eventual return. Palpatine is skeptical, but thinks he has Cronal under control. He then calls up his Constable of Homunculi, Borborygmus Gog, to inform him that one of his early experiments, Triclops, had managed to father a son, Ken (played in the Jedi Prince series by a holo simulation of the young Garik Loran). Palpatine tasks Gog with creating another clone of him that is capable of reproduction, and sends Gog's handler Mammon Hoole to retrieve Ken, announcing that he intends to reclaim the galaxy within a year.

On Coruscant, Sarcev Quest and Carnor Jax are getting drunk together, trying to scramble their minds so Palpatine won't be able to read their intentions. To get lasting power over the Empire, they realize they first need to remove the Prophets of the Dark Side, particularly Cronal and Kadann. Quest suggests that Jax involve his secret master, Lumiya, in the attempt to kill Kadann. Ysanne Isard, meanwhile, thinks she is continuing Palpatine's work in keeping the Empire together, but Palpatine, watching from Byss, is frustrated by her timidity. Palpatine welcomes Sigit Ranth to the Citadel by letting him watch as he blasts three Imperial soldiers with Force lightning. Only one of the soldiers survives the barrage; Palpatine names him Baddon Fass.

On Dagobah, Ken is studying at Dagobah Tech, an educational institute within the New Republic's DRAPAC facility on Mount Yoda. He encounters a girl claiming to be Tash Arranda and shows her around the facility, telling her how much he feels left behind by Luke Skywalker and his friends. The girl insinuates that the New Republic might be keeping him sequestered out of embarrassment, because of the popular holodrama series The Jedi Prince, which is loosely based on Ken's adventures. She takes Ken away from Mount Yoda aboard the Shroud, promising to help him find his father, Triclops. En route to Yavin IV, Ken watches The Jedi Prince and is infuriated by it. On Yavin IV, they learn that Triclops and Kadann fled the planet in a cobbled-together spacecraft. They track the pair to Krylon, where "Tash" acquires a tracking fob that leads them to Space Station Scardia, the headquarters of the false Prophets of the Dark Side. On the way there, however, Ken discovers that "Tash" is actually Mammon Hoole, the shapeshifter.

On Byss, Palpatine demonstrates to his servants, including T'iaz and K'uaz, that the deaths of naturally-grown sentients provide more dark-side energy than those of clones, though he has Gog present two Force-sensitive clones who might do better. Palpatine sends his servants out to glut themselves on souls and deliver them to him. Meanwhile on Coruscant, a meeting of the Ruling Council is interrupted when the fake Kadann broadcasts a holo message announcing his intention to take Coruscant. Ysanne Isard reassures Sarcev Quest that she has sent Grand Admiral Makati and a Dark Jedi named Azrakel to kill Kadann, and asks Quest to ensure that his old friend Sander Delvardus does not use the opportunity to attack Coruscant himself.

Unbeknownst to Isard but known to Quest, Carnor Jax and Lumiya are also hunting for Kadann. In order to baffle his foresight, they are seeking out Kadann's rivals and enemies at random and offering them to kill various stand-ins for Kadann. They approach King Nefta in his exile on Odacer-Faustin, who agrees to join them after making Carnor Jax drink Bosthirdan wine, which lets them exchange thoughts without anyone noticing. On Space Station Scardia, Ken wakes up locked in a closet aboard the Shroud. He is freed by Locor, an young apprentice of the fake Prophets of the Dark Side, and finds his father Triclops together with the fake Kadann and an imprisoned Hoole in the station's throne room. Hoole, taking the form of Tash again, tries to convince Ken to kill Kadann, while Triclops tells him he should not have come. The confrontation is interrupted by Grand Admiral Makati's announcement of his arrival, followed immediately by turbolaser bombardment of the station. Hoole, shapeshifting into a rancor, bites Triclops' head off just before Ken blacks out.

Sarcev Quest travels to meet Sander Delvardus in the Woostri system, accompanied by Shea Hublin, who deserted Delvardus when he threatened to attack Coruscant but considers returning if Delvardus changes his mind. Speaking to Delvardus alone aboard his Star Destroyer Brilliant, Quest finds out that Delvardus is desperately looking for a way to save the life of his comatose mistress, Seledra-Zin. Quest reveals to Delvardus that Palpatine is alive on Byss and convinces him to attack the New Republic instead of Coruscant, to deliberately lose a series of battles as an excuse to flee into the Deep Core, where Palpatine might help him save Seledra-Zin.

Aboard Lumiya's ship, Nefta kills a woman whom Lumiya has convinced she is Kadann. He tells Lumiya and Carnor Jax that the real Prophets are on Bosthirda. In the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, a droid pretending to be Kadann attacks Ysanne Isard and is shot by her guards. Above Space Station Scardia, Makati watches from his Star Destroyer Steadfast as Azrakel descends into the ruined throne room to kill the false Kadann. He receives a transmission from Lumiya informing him of the real Prophets' location. Azrakel brings Ken, who has survived the destruction thanks to the false Kadann's emergency force field, aboard Steadfast, where he instructs him in the dark side on the way to Bosthirda.

In their temple on Bosthirda, the Prophets are unsettled by Cronal's apparent death at Mindor. When Makati's fleet arrives in the Bosthirda system, Kadann gives the order to blow up the moon, despite a plea to the contrary by the Dreaming Vineyard, a sentient plant whose grapes intensify the Prophets' visions and allow them to communicate with the vine itself. Lumiya and Carnor Jax arrive aboard Revenant moments later and watch as Makati attacks the planet. Azrakel lands on the planet, with Ken stowing away on his ship, while the Vineyard repels the orbital bombardment by flinging the missiles back. When Azrakel leaps out of his ship to attack Kadann, the vines catch and immobilize him. Ken, still in the Scimitar, convinces the vine to let go of Azrakel. Azrakel reclaims his lightsaber from Kadann by grabbing it by the blade using the Glove of Darth Vader, which he retrieved from Scardia earlier. He beheads the Supreme Prophet, but Kadann bursts Azrakel's heart with the Force before he dies. Shortly after, Lumiya and Carnor Jax arrive, having killed off much of the vine using defoliant. Carnor Jax cuts off Azrakel's hand to retrieve the Glove of Darth Vader, and Lumiya offers Ken a role in the Empire, before the two head off to kill the rest of the Prophets. With his last breath, Azrakel tells Ken his true name: Qaga Lok. Ken then steals the Pacifier-class assault boat Lumiya and Jax arrived in and leaves the planet.

On Byss, Palpatine is furious when he feels Cronal's death, because Cronal was supposed to deliver Luke Skywalker's remote-controlled body to him. Palpatine remembers when Cronal and Sarcev Quest assisted him in deleting the memories of everyone on Coruscant who had witnessed the burial of the Executor II, reminiscent of Palpatine's own effort to delete the memory of the Jedi Order from the galaxy during Order 66. He tells Mas Amedda to order Jeng Droga to investigate the circumstances of Cronal's death. When Sate Pestage arrives to bring him the head of Triclops, which Hoole had sent to Byss to placate Palpatine over his failure to deliver Ken, Palpatine has a brief vision of an impending constriction of possible futures.

On Coruscant, Baddon Fass trains with Ambassador Sa-Di, chafing at waching him entertain his guests before Sa-Di takes him to crack a load-bearing pillar in the undercity, cracking the Calocour Ocean and causing mass death. Ysanne Isard has a contractor remove the cloning tanks from deep in the Imperial Palace to Lusankya and then flood the Emperor's secret chambers with duracrete, encasing the contractor in duracrete too.

Carnor Jax and Lumiya arrive on Byss together with Nefta. Lumiya hands the Glove of Darth Vader to Palpatine, who extracts Lord Kaan's amulet from it to complete the Kaan Heptad. Near Rhelg in the Sith Worlds, Urai Fen and his crew encounter Ken aboard the derelict ship he stole from Lumiya. They take him aboard and enlist him in their hunt for the Nightsister Silri, who has awakened the Carbonite Sith Army on the planet. In the ensuing fight, Fen is killed, but Ken cuts off Silri's arms with Fen's blades when Silri tells him she wants to make him her slave. When Fen's crew picks up Ken and the captured Silri, Ken calls himself Qaga Lok.

On Mount Yoda on Dagobah, Luke Skywalker arrives with Lorz Geptun in tow, who is just finishing the rewrite of his account of Skywalker's actions at Mindor. Realizing that Ken, Zak and the presumed Tash have all gone, Skywalker tells Daye Azur-Jamin he worries about having squandered Yoda's legacy. Shortly afterwards, Jeng Droga lands on top of the DRAPAC installation and starts cutting his way through it. Mammon Hoole, who has returned to Mount Yoda in his true form and is conversing with his old friend Arhul Hextrophon, thinks the attack must be aimed at him by a furious Palpatine. Skywalker orders the evacuation of the facility and prepares to face Jeng Droga, but Droga distracts him by poking out Azur-Jamin's left eye. Instead of fighting Skywalker, Droga plans to find out the truth about what happened at Mindor from Lorz Geptun, who finishes his rewrite just as Droga bursts into his room, pulls his knowledge regarding Mindor from his mind, and then kills him. Droga then cracks the foundations of the DRAPAC facility, which triggers an eruption of the volcanic Mount Yoda. Skywalker manages to escape with most key personnel from the facility, while Droga is stranded on Dagobah.

Sarcev Quest accompanies Delvardus' forces to the Sullust system, where he lands on an airless moon in a shuttle provided by Delvardus and loads up the gravitational field disruptors the Empire stored there after confiscating them. In deep space, Tyber Zann rendezvouses with Ken and the remnants of the crew he sent out to hunt Silri, but their location is betrayed to Warlord Zsinj by a crew member. Zsinj shoots Zann and offers Ken gainful employment.

On Coruscant, Imperial Intelligence agent Vaartsoon investigates seemingly random acts of destruction. He witnesses Baddon Fass toppling a skyscraper and reports his findings to Ysanne Isard and Sarcev Quest. On Isard's request, Quest asks ambassador Sa-Di if he knows anything about a darksider wreaking havoc on Coruscant. Sa-Di readily admits that Baddon Fass is his student and reassures Quest, who he assumes is working for Palpatine as well, that he will take Fass back to Byss momentarily. Sa-Di and Fass leave, and Quest narrowly escapes the programmed destruction of Sa-Di's skyhook.

Ken is taken to Phindar by a team assembled by Zsinj, in a mission aimed at infiltrating the Ubiqtorate base in Phindar's Derida complex and steal their Renewal equipment. When Ken realizes they want to use him as a pawn, the team stuns him before he can lash out at them and keeps him unconscious until turning him over to the Ubiqtorate.

On Byss, Mas Amedda shows Palpatine and Sigit Ranth a hologram of the successful field test of the first World Devastator constructed by Umak Leth on the basis of Triclops' dreams. Palpatine explains that he plans to unleash self-replicating World Devastators to eat the galaxy bare, to be stopped only through a master control signal from Byss. He orders Ranth to bring him Stinna Draesinge Sha to help create the artificial intelligence for the Devastators, adding that he plans to reconquer the galaxy in a year.

Having made his way off Dagobah, Jeng Droga arrives at the Intergalactic Communications Center on Praesitlyn, where he accesses secret files to track the location of Cronal's escape shuttle. The escape shuttle is being piloted by Nick Rostu and Aeona Cantor, who are transporting Kar Vastor in a puddle of bacta in the back and are closing in on where Cronal is drifting in deep space encased in rock. When Jeng Droga catches up to them, he kills the unconscious Kar Vastor using the Force before demanding entry, telling Rostu and Cantor he is their best chance at getting revenge. After retrieving Cronal, Droga drops off Rostu and Cantor on Sernpidal and delivers Cronal to Byss.

In the Ubiqtorate base on Phindar, Ken is subjected to the Renewal procedure, but he destroys the equipment using the Force before being rendered unconscious by nerve gas. While the ranking officer considers what to do with him, the base's janitor calls in the Inquisitorius to take care of Ken. Ken is picked up, registered as "Candidate QL" in the Inquisitorius registry, and delivered to the Citadel Inquisitorius on Prakith after a series of handoffs. Sa-Di, traveling with Baddon Fass, then retrieves Ken from Prakith as a gift to Palpatine and brings him to Byss.

Delvardus' fleet arrives at Byss as well, as do Lumiya and Carnor Jax, the latter of whom undergoes a trial for acceptance into the cadre of Sovereign Protectors at the bottom of the Citadel. In his throne room, Palpatine receives Ken and challenges him to a fight; after a gruesome beatdown, Ken submits to Palpatine. Palpatine then distributes six of the seven amulets of the Kaan Heptad among his strongest followers: Cronal (encased in rock), Lumiya, T'iaz and K'uaz, Sa-Di, and Nefta. Pooling their powers, Palpatine reaches out to everyone in the galaxy who has ever touched the dark side of the Force. Among those are Beldorion, who attempts to kill Seti Ashgad for his plot to poison Byss; Roganda Ismaren, who immediately prepares to bring Nasdra Magrody and her son Irek to Byss; Sarcev Quest, who was conspiring with the President of the Department of Punishment to gather evidence against Ysanne Isard, but then desperately tries to reach Palpatine to warn him of Quest's own plans, startling Ederlathh Pallopides who is spying on him from behind the wall; Mara Jade, Arden Lyn, Hethrir, and A'Sharad Hett; and Carnor Jax, who begins to climb up the Citadel in order to warn Palpatine.

The armored shuttle Quest sent along with Delvardus approaches the twin stars of the Beshqek system, and the droids aboard use the gravitational field disruptors on the blue dwarf star to send it plunging into Beshqek. The resulting supernova sends stellar gases hurtling towards Byss, which Palpatine holds back by drawing on the powers of all darksiders under his control. To the inhabitants of Byss, including Zak and Tash Arranda, the spectacle looks like a light show, though Tash begins to notice that something is wrong. In the throne room, King Nefta helps Lumiya break loose from Palpatine's compulsion. Lumiya prepares to strike Palpatine down, but Ken attacks her, dislodging the amulet from her throat. Lumiya flees, and Palpatine dies, having narrowly contained the force of Beshqek's explosion.

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Sources

  1. ↑ https://archiveofourown.org/works/58502848/chapters/149037043
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