NationStates Jolt Archive

Rear Admiral Chris Bielski could not help but snicker as he looked at his datapad. More specifically, the calendar therein. I have two weeks left of my little 'administrative leave.' I can't believe how weak the government is. How easily it is swindled. A smile crossed his face, for the Ministry of Defense had paid more than $1.7 trillion for his training and supplies.

Of course, he no longer considered himself a "rear" admiral. And he had better things to do with his time than resume his former job as Director of the Arms Sales Approval Ministry (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9824981&postcount=210). He considered this job the most boring work that could be had, the position straight from some eternal hell.

But no more shall I be so marginalized. For the weakness of the government shall soon be exposed for all to see. No longer am I some bureaucrat with a single meaningless star. I am Darth Ebolus.

He nodded approvingly at his little platoon of Imperial Storm Executioners. His own personal clones. The seventy-two clones who had sworn fealty to him, and would 'dissappear' dissenters, if Darth Ebolus didn't get to them first. All for less than a million credits, and they weren't even his, for they were paid for by the Ministry of Defence.

Ebolus allowed himself a snicker at the gullibility of his government before ordering his personal death squad to follow him to the waiting transport ship back to Evil Woody Thoughts. Another wry smile crossed his face. I will need a loyal military to accomplish what I need done. Let the purges begin.

*one day later*

A nondescript transport dropped out of hyperspace in White Diamond system, and wasted no time in transmitting IFF and various other highly encrypted, highly classified codes that most transports of that class should not be transmitting. Which of course indicated that transport's true importance.

A few minutes later, the transport was ordered to dock at Golan Platform #4. Her skipper wasted no time in setting the proper course. Darth Ebolus walked onto the bridge to observe the ship's arrival at "home." Of course, it would quickly be his ship to do with as he willed, but he pushed that thought from his mind. Such things would come in due time. He couldn't be that obvious...yet.

As the transport neared the docking bay, she received a new transmission. "Rear Admiral C. Bielski, we will greet you with the proper reception committee, which will involve transport to the Star Destroyer Dominion."

Darth Ebolus' ears perked up. The Dominion was the first Star Destroyer to lumber away from the White Diamond Drive Yards, and as such, represented a coveted and prestegious position. Damn, this is gonna be easier than I thought.

*minutes later*

Ebolus' transport glided into the docking bay and gently set itself down. As the landing ramp deployed, a small honor guard, led by Chief of Staff Douglass IV, met the craft.

Douglass IV was suprised to find not someone in an admiral's uniform disembark, but rather, someone wearing a Jedi robe, followed by two columns of what looked like stormtroopers. A brief but visible look of shock crossed his face, then quickly disappeared as he regained his composure.

As Darth Ebolus approached, Douglass found himself feeling rather diminuitive, in a way he had never experienced before. Yes, Admiral Bielski had always been taller than anyone else this high in the officer corps, but Douglass never remembered being this frightened by a member of his own officer corps.

Ebolus sensed that his meeting party was rife with fear, and filed that thought away, for he had pleasantries to motion through. He approached the Chief of Staff and bowed lightly, for custom dictated a bow instead of the military salute used by other nations in such situations.

Douglass IV returned the bow. "Rear Admiral Bielski, greetings. You will be most pleased to learn that you have been reassigned to command the Immortal-class Star Destroyer Dominion, and you will be placed in command of the Home Defense Fleet. You will also appear before a promotion board in one months' time."

Though Darth Ebolus hated his former name, he would have to deal with it for now. "Thank you, Admiral Douglass. I wish to transfer to my new post as soon as possible. Please dispatch a transport capable of handling...my personal honor guard."

"We will ready such a transport immediately. In the meantime, you will need to be debriefed on events that occured in your absence. This way, please."

Ebolus motioned for his clones to stay and guard the transport for now and followed the Chief of Staff. It was too early to deal with him, but his time would come.

*a little over one hour later*

A modified Corellian Corvette emerged from Golan Defence Platform #4, with Darth Ebolus and his "honor guard" bound for the Dominion, a few lightminutes away on the outskirts of the system.

Lord Ebolus found himself growing impatient at the vessel's apparent lack of progress to its destination. He walked from the troop quarters to the bridge, where he found some lowly captian, whose name he had never heard, at the helm.

"Yield the controls to me." Ebolus' voice had some sort of sinister clarity to it.

"But, sir, that is not standard operating procedure!"

The lowly, insubordinate captain nearly gagged on that last word. He tried to ask what was going on, but found himself choking and unable to speak. In a matter of seconds, his trachea collapsed, and he found himself extremely dizzy...

A thin, barely noticeable smile crossed Ebolus' face as the thud of one collapsing prettyboy reached his ears.

He threw the body off of the captain's chair, and throttled up the sublight engines to near maximum. He didn't care about efficiency; he cared about reaching his command post. Another thought crossed his mind:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single death.

*one month later*

White Diamond Prime
Great Woody City
Ministry of Defence Headquarters

Lord Ebolus disembarked from his personal Lambda-class shuttle, along with the six of his clonetroopers that had proved...the most valuable. The six clonetroopers that had proven to be the best at rooting out traitors and disappearing them.

Ebolus suspected that there would be some more disappearing to do, as today was the day he was to report before his Promotion Board...

The Dark Lord walked confidently to a nondescript briefing room marked only by the characters "204B." Other officers and random bureaucrats seemed to be afraid of him, for his mere presence was enough to part hallway traffic, allowing him and his detachment of "bodyguards" to stroll through the middle while less-important beings waited off to the side. He allowed a sensor to scan his retina, and the door automatically slid open.

He found seven admirals, including Chief of Staff Douglass IV, waiting for him. After his detachment entered the room, the doors closed behind him. Ebolus flipped a couple of unseen switches with the Force to make sure they stayed that way.

The Chief of Staff initiated some procedural matters, such as bookkeeping. Ebolus impatiently rolled his eyes as he waited for the matter to be discussed to come up.

Finally, the discussion turned to "Rear Admiral Bielski's" performance evaluation. The seven other admirals in the room debated whether or not a sixty percent rise in readiness was worth the unexplained "desertion" of fifteen percent of the unit. Ebolus just sat there, not really taking part of the discussion, though obviously paying attention to it, letting his alleged superiors decide his fate...or so they thought.

After about a half hour of discussion, the other admirals voted on the proposed promotion to Vice Admiral. Chief of Staff Douglass IV collected the paper ballots cast and read the results out loud: 4-3 against.

Needless to say, Darth Ebolus was not pleased. He would have to fry himself some traitors today. After a brief "Force survey" of who had voted for what outcome, the small room suddenly became an electrical storm.

Blue bolts of energy, dark cracks in the Force, rendered the four officers who had voted against the promotion, including the Chief of Staff, inert, as dark smoke wafted from their corpses. The room reeked of burning flesh.

Lord Ebolus spoke for the first time of the meeting. "You will hold that vote again." The three remaining admirals were too paralyzed with fear to object, and handed Ebolus a 3-0 vote in favor of the promotion to Vice Admiral in short order.

Ebolus turned to his six clonetroopers. "Rewire this room to make recent events look like a freak electrical accident."

"Yessir." In perfect unison.

Ebolus could not help but smile as he used the darkest power of the Force to reach into the brains of the three "loyalists" and pry away any memory of what had just happened...

Darth Ebolus waited for his executioners to finish rigging the room's electrical wiring. "We shall return to the Dominion, where I will reassign you. The other three..." he motioned to the three admirals still alive, but unconscious because their minds had been slaved to the will of the Dark Side... "are now my puppets and will sign off on anything I will. There I will reassign you to other units. Purge them quickly." He paused. "We need to be ready to make our war soon."

The clonetroopers nodded. "Yessir."

*one month later*

Captain Nadinsczi approached Darth Ebolus, quite nervously, with a datapad in his hand. "Lord Ebolus, I have a news article you might be interested in."

Lord Ebolus turned to face the young captain. "Yes, Captain, what is it?" he asked in a half-condescending voice. Nadinsczi handed Ebolus the datapad.

"A reminder sir, that the annual military appropriation vote is in a week."

Ebolus took the datapad. "Thank you, Captain, you are dismissed."

Darth Ebolus took a moment to read the information contained in the datapad. The article included speculation that the Parliament was suspicious of the high desertion rates, and would move to cut defence spending. This cannot stand. The time is come. My clonetroopers better have followed their orders...

Ebolus went to his private quarters to contact his clonetrooper commanders. After a couple of attempts at raising the commander on comm, he answered.

"Lord Ebolus, this is Unit Number 580923. What is your bidding, master?"

"Is the remainder of the military purged?"

"At this point, we can only assure eighty-five percent loyalty, Lord."

"That is insufficient, for I need to move quickly before the meddlesome, weak Parliament intervenes. Purge the remainder immediately."

"Immediately, sir."

OOC: Yeah, I know, this thread could have been better had I invested more time in it, but trust me, my next RP will be worth it.:D