Imperial Vaults II

"This is Admiral Versio," the communications rung in the helmets of the troopers planetside. "Your timer has started now. Imperial Reinforcements are being sent to Coruscant to make sure Amedda is secure within the Imperial Palace. You have Four to Six hours until you have no choice but to evacuate."

"Aye Sir," Del and Iden responded in unison as they were making their way over to the vaults.

Walking down several flights of stairs and entering unmarked corridors. The deeper they went, the less troopers there were. They came a stop however when they noticed that it looked abnormal.

Though Del himself knew exactly what was needed to open this door without explosives. "We need Kraytia..." He said as he recognized the type of locking mechanism. It was similar to the one on Pillio, except it was much older and seemed to be originated with the temple. As it followed a general scheme of architecture rather than some replacement door.

Iden placed two fingers on the side of her helmet as she paged with former Jedi. "Kraytia, report. We have encountered the Vault. We need your assistance."

For a good thirty minutes there was nothing but silence until suddenly there was a crackling over their communication system. "Understood." Was the only thing Kraytia said, but the sniffling could be heard. Her voice sounded like she had just been crying, screaming. Yet they hadn't heard anything of the sort due to how deep into the temple they had gone.

Within a few minutes she came around a corner, as if she knew exactly where she was going from the star. She came walking down the corridor with a sheepish expression on her face. Having made her teammates wait for her.

She didn't even try to laugh it off. She just had this stoic look on her face shortly after rejoining them and closed her eyes as she stood before the door to the vault.

She could feel the locking mechanism through the force. As she made a quick study of it, she reached both hands forward and began to reconfigure the lock. Within minutes the door began to shift and turn. The interior gears would churn and wobble. It was noisy, but the door was clearly beginning to open.

As the door slid open to the side, it would reveal several hundreds of Jedi Holocrons in their storage units. It was the Jedi Vault. On the ground were cases of unknown antiques and priceless artifacts of the past.

To Del this all looked useless, yet he had to feel as if this was just like the vault on Pillio. There were hundreds of Jedi related things here, if not thousands. Just what did their new leader want with the Jedi artifacts? Maybe it was the same reason their Emperor had them?

Licking her drying lips, Kraytia walked into the vault and began using the force to fill the various empty crates being brought in by the death troopers. She was stuffing all of the holocrons into the crates. This pretty much effectively eliminated the tediousness of pulling them out by hand. Plus a lot of them were pretty high up.

As each crate was filled up, the containers were closed and taken by groups of four. Two the carry, two the guard. They brought the crates out to the Imperial Dropship Transports.

Despite the speed and efficiency of the soldiers efforts to collect the crates and containers filled with Jedi artifacts and other priceless objects, it seemed that the Officers at the Temple were getting wary.

They still were not getting any calls from offplanet. Especially from Gallius Rax.

...

Thirty minutes later a heavily modified CR70 Corvette came out of hyperspace above the planet. It was the Sundered Heart, though its original captain was long dead for over four years, there was a different person commanding it.

On board was Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker who had returned from his various missions across the galaxy.

"So you're saying that the agents on Coruscant lost transmissions from the Imperials planetside?" Luke questioned his sister as the two stood on the bridge while it was piloted by New Republic officers.

"Yes, Luke..." Her eyes centered on the Star Destroyer which was located near one of the orbital habitat structures over the planet. She squinted her eyes slightly, compared to all of the other Star Destroyers, this one looked familiar. "Something's not right here."

Luke was staring at the planet as well, he felt something strange. "I feel... Another Jedi?" He was almost at a loss for words before turning his attention to his sister.

Leia was walking over to one of the sensor output terminals and looked over the transponder codes which was coming from the Attribution. "It's an Imperium ship."

"Imperium?" Luke asked, not having been informed of the splinter government which was born from the Remnants. He walked over to his sister and stared at the inverted Imperial emblem. It looked like it was a message, 'We are the Empire, a new, better Empire. Different from the Last.'

His eyes rested for a few moments before looking toward the planet again through the front viewport windows. He reached through the force, trying to see what was going on down on the planet surface.

Yoda's force ghost and a young girl with white hair and blue eyes were standing right outside of the Imperial Palace's Vault. Why was Yoda with this girl?

Both of the force users turned towards Luke's point of view, as they could sense him. Yoda tapped his cane silently, while Kraytia averted her gaze quickly.

Luke ended his force sight and looked to his sister. "There's a Jedi on the planet, helping Death Troopers loot an Imperial Vault within the Coruscant Jedi Temple." He turned around and made his way towards the hangar of the Sundered Heart.

"Luke, wait!" Leia called after him, but there was nothing she could do to stop him as he went at a light run.

As soon as he reached the Hangar, R2 made himself comfortable in the astromech socket, chirping cheerfully. "I know buddy, lets get back in one piece!" Jumping up into the cockpit as the droid opened the canopy for him. Luke would begin launching operations.

Moments Later, Leia Organa would be hailed by the Attribution moments before she had hailed it herself. This was a surprise as she assumed the electronic counter measures kept her hidden, but that wasn't the case.

"This is Admiral Versio current Commanding Officer of the Star Destroyer 'Attribution' of the Galactic Imperium, Sundered Heart, what is your designation?"

"This is Princess Leia Amidala-Skywalker Organa of the New Republic. Our agents have learned of a Imperial transmissions being jammed. We came to investigate." She responded without much hesitation, knowing very well what they were doing now thanks to her brother.

"Your designation has been verified. An X-Wing has been detected leaving the Sundered Heart. What is the pilot's designation?" Admiral Versio asked her a question, wanting to know who was going down towards the Imperial Palace, the former Jedi Temple, which acted as the seat of power for the Empire.

"Luke Amidala-Skywalker." Was the only response she gave, the Admiral Nodded.

"I shall inform Inferno Squad, their Shadow will greet him."

"...Shadow?" Leia asked with a brow raised looking at the man who was once their enemy who had burned worlds under the postmortem orders of Emperor Palpatine.

"There is a Former Jedi Padawan, named Kraytia Zarin, who is an Imperium Shadow. She was appropriated from a member of the Hutt Cartel's personal vaults." Admiral Versio gave the information he had been privy to by the Grand Moff of the Imperium.

Leia cringed slightly hearing his explanation, "Appropriated from a Hutt?" She was reminded of what happened earlier this year at Jabba's Palace. Where she had been enslaved by a hutt.

"She was inside of a Stasis casket, it could only be opened by the use of the force, According the Grand Moff, Tobias Rune." He glanced to the side slightly as a young Imperial officer handed the man a cup of tea. He took it from the officer and nodded his head to her so she'd go away.

Taking a sip as he looked at the Princess. It was hard to imagine that they weren't going to fight one another, let alone resume hostilities. personally if it was up to him, he would shoot her down. Yet it seemed she was one of the more reliant generals of the New Republic to uphold the Truce.

...

Meanwhile on the Jedi Temple side platform, Kraytia stood there watching as the Xwing flawlessly came down from the sky above and landed upon the unguarded entrance. Her eyes dully looked over the dirty blond who emerged from the open canopy.

"Master Jedi," Kraytia addressed him as if she herself hadn't been a Jedi prior. Her eyes looked over him, scrutinizing every move he made as he strode on over towards the young girl.

Luke Skywalker bowed his head respectfully to the youth and smiled, she was strong in the force. "It's a pleasure to meet another Jedi, one with so much promise." He said with confidence which empathically echoed in her direction.

Kraytia wiggled her nose slightly, "Former. The Jedi I knew are gone," her voice still sounded roughed up from the crying and screaming she had done earlier. She didn't seem to make eye contact with him at all. Instead she seemed to be looking at the unruly cityscape behind him.

Luke could feel the hurt, the anger, which was suppressed inside of her. He could feel what she had released earlier. While he could try to comfort her, he sensed that it would do little use.

"Then.. What are you now?" Luke Skywalker raised a brow slightly, staring at the girl, somewhat confused.

"I am a Shadow Disciple from the Imperium. Tobias Rune saved and recruited me from a Hutt's personal treasure room when I was stuck inside my own Stasis Casket." Kraytia scoffed at her own origin story, clearly uncomfortable about being in this boy's presence. Though he was biologically older than her, she was chronologically older than him.

Luke slowly nodded his head hearing her, believing she was doing some sort of honorbound servitude as she appeared to be an enchani. "He takes good care of you?" He asked curiously, watching as she would smile turning her head away from him, nodding slowly.

"All I can eat Louisiana Garlic Shrimp," Kraytia's mouth seemed like it was going to explode with saliva, sucking in the drool which escaped her lips as she was thinking about the food.

"What's Luisiana?" Luke asked with a few concurrent blinks, the word sounded foreign.

"I have no idea... But it's some sort of mild hot sauce. Really creamy and flavorful sauce..." Kraytia trailed on and on, talking about the foods the Grand Moff often made for her. The more he heard about it, the more Rune sounded like a doting or manipulative parent.

"So you're looting the Vaults?" He pointed a gloved hand towards the door to the temple, but didn't take a step forward. He knew it was crawling with Imperials from both sides. He even sensed some dead bodies which had been tossed off the side of the temple. This was an undercover operation.

Nodding slowly, she tilted her head looking up passed his head as if she was looking at his face or the top of his head. "Tobias said once the War is over, he is open to sharing the artifacts with your New Jedi Order on the planet Yashuvhu."

"Yashuvhu?" Luke didn't recall ever hearing of a planet named like that. It was either a planet in the Outer Rim, Wild space or Unknown Regions. "Where's that?"

"Chiss Space. The planet belongs to people whom call themselves Yashuvhi... They're descendants from Jedi who crash landed on the planet several millennia ago."

Hearing this Luke was speechless. This was where he was going to put all these artifacts? Knowing about this place, he could start his Jedi Order on a same remote world and have a large body of students. Though he also assumed the Shadows would have their own academy there.

Seeing his reaction, Kraytia almost giggled aloud. "If you wish to know more, go to the Naboo System within a month. Otherwise, Tobias will probably call upon you after the Civil War has ended."

Luke slowly nodded as he heard the dropship transports flying off into the distance back towards the Imperium Star Destroyer in orbit. There was only one coming towards them, apparently to come pick Kraytia up.

When the door opened as it came up close to the platform, both Luke and Del shared glances. The Imperial agent removed his helmet and squinted at the Jedi Knight.

"Good to see you again," Luke snickered seeing the Imperial, closing one eye. "I see you don't need help this time." He made a cheeky remark before he began walking towards the X-wing.

Del shook his head and laughed inwardly, catching Kraytia by the hand as she jumped off the side of the platform and into the passenger area of the dropship. "All containers accounted for. Ready to go."