The Abiding Force: A Knight of the Empire (Star Wars)

1: A "Chance" Meeting

It was warm, pleasant even, as he strode the length of the causeway toward his chosen destination. The main thoroughfare of the upper city's administration sector was well-maintained, as was to be expected. Taris, the jewel of the mid-rim, glittered with the light of the setting star as night began its slow march across the opposing horizon. Soon, darkness would fall and his chance would be lost. He strode forward at a hastened pace, sparing only a moment to recall the old images that burned through his mind. How different the upper city was from what lay below, among the ruins of the old, where men like Jae Siddall dared to delve.

He felt distinctly out of place as he marched toward the meeting point. He'd grown up among such lofty heights, long ago when all was possible. He'd spent his life among the walls and towers of such worlds, so many of them disguising the scars of what was buried beneath them. There was much wealth to be found there, at the darkest depths of such places. Taris was no different, though he had to admit that the world belied a different sense than the others.

That, he suspected, would change. He had seen it long ago, when all had been clear and calm. Those days had passed like the fleeting warmth of a summer's breeze. Something had been forgotten. The Empire prospered, but darkness bit at its foundation, at the fringes of its control. There were whispers from the outlands, beyond the frontier where much had been lost during the dark age. Worlds reduced to hollow voids, drifting silently amongst dying stars.

He banished the thought, it was but rumor and superstition without evidence. Focus on the moment and trust in himself; that was his way. Shoj was ahead, moving along the balcony overlooks. She was liquid, flowing casually from one vantage to the next, the bolt-thrower disguised beneath her cloak.

Jae checked his PDS again, it was a nervous habit he could not shake. The units were prohibitively expensive, but utterly impenetrable when matched against conventional blasters that were ubiquitous throughout Imperial space. Shoj's weapon was the exception, a dual-shot bolt-thrower created with the sole purpose of countering such shields. These too were prohibitively expensive and difficult to employ correctly for most applications. The first shot cracked through the deflector bubble, scrambling the system and opening a hole that could be pierced by the second shot, fired nano-units later. They were known colloquially as Knightbane.

Precision in an Empire obsessed with general-application, Jae's specialty. His right hand lay upon the Vibroblade's hilt. His Kuatech blaster pistol just below that on the dual sheath. It had been many years since he had drawn either in true combat, though he had kept up his regimen. There had been a time when he would have stood in Shoj's place, muscle to an older warlord. How far he had come from the destitution of his Father's mistakes. Now, with his youth spent in purchase of his army, he stood poised to build again the house of Siddall.

There was one man who could decide his fate, the only man on Taris that Jae Siddall truly feared. As he leaned against the pillar looking down the pedway that led from Counsel house to the Kidann Fortress, he thought of his sister. She'd been gone a decade now, into the void without a trace. Jae often sought her presence in his meditations, but she was lost to him. He smiled as he remembered fondly the last time he had seen her. Her sons huddled close beneath the Venell pine that stood alone within the fortress garden.

Tae Kidann strode through the gate of the Counsel house as Jae's eyes found their focus again. The standard bearers surrounding him as the procession ambled their path toward the fortress. Jae swept his black hair back, tying it loosely behind him. He gripped the pommel of his blade tightly as the imposing personage of the Imperial Governor methodically marched toward him. He smirked as his eye fell on the boys that followed behind the man. Ben was tall and fair as he'd remembered, his head held high, scanning the surrounding streets.