12/18/7956 C.R.C

  Black Spire Outpost, Batuu

  Cad Bane was feeling a little bit- no, quite a bit irritated.

  It had only been a few months since that big crisis had happened on Mandalore, and now ever since then, Mandalorian bounty hunters have started popping up all over the place and taking his jobs. Taking away the credits that he could be earning from the helpless morons of the galaxy. Bane didn't really care about the fact Mandalore was somehow clawing its way back into relevance, as surprising as that was.

  What he cared about was that every single Mandalorian in Beskar was suddenly roaming around the galaxy again, taking jobs that he could be getting paid to do. He was the top bounty hunter in the entire galaxy, and he would absolutely not let a Mandalorian take that spot away from him. Unless it was Boba, but he still had no clue where that kid even ended up.

  Although, it was hard to believe that the whole thing started after the actual droid general of the CIS fought Pre Vizsla and won, right after reportedly fighting Skywalker and getting damaged from that. Blitzkrieg's name was actually starting to spread across the Outer Rim now, and people were beginning to talk about everything he had done so far. What was a bit funny to Bane, was that Blitzkrieg was being compared to Grievous, and that four-armed cyborg was somehow actually losing the comparisons, despite being the Supreme Commander of the CIS, and being in a heck of a lot more battles.

  Blitzkrieg soon showed up visibly repaired -but still limping for some reason- after the battle to formally accept Mandalore's alliance to the CIS, along with around half the Neutral Systems -with half of those actually completely joining- because of the whole fiasco and how damaging it looked for the Republic. But after a month and a half of sporadic sightings on Mandalore, Saleucami, and Pantora, the droid just… disappeared.

  Gone without a single trace of wherever the kriff he had gone to.

  And beyond a few rumors from the Outer Rim fortress planet of Telos IV, no one had seen the droid general in two and a half months now. Bane had a feeling that GAR High Command breathed a heavy sigh of relief after the first month with no sighting of him. His Providence-class flagship had disappeared as well, along with some other ships from his fleet, and the rest were either in a holding pattern in orbit or apparently docked on Telos IV's defense ring with swarms of droids crawling over them for a refit.

  Bane didn't know what exactly was happening. He'd been on the other side of the galaxy from Telos for the last few months, doing a long job for a Hutt to recover a group of merchandise that had escaped from their slug-like master, while taking a few other bounties as well.

  But what was interesting, was that in all of the droid's appearances up until his disappearance, was his posture. He was limping, which was unusual for a droid, and in every appearance that he had, one of his arms was crossed behind his back. Bane personally thought Blitzkrieg was either trying for sympathy points, or something Skywalker did during their fight permanently damaged the droid's endoskeleton, leaving him with a permanent limp until he changed his entire frame.

  And since the droid general has been rumored to have almost as much leeway as Grievous himself, Bane wondered if he was going to see a lookalike of the cyborg in the future, but as a full droid. A small part of Bane hoped Blitzkrieg actually showed up again. Mostly because of the nice weapons the droid had a hand in creating.

  As he walked through the winding streets of Black Spire Outpost, Bane paused for a moment when he saw a particular poster.

  It was a photo of the Senate building on Coruscant, with ominous red clouds cast over it. Above the Senate Building and over the clouds, were two sentences.

  'There are 2000 senators inside of this building.'

  'None of them care about you.'

  Below the second sentence was the insignia of the CIS, and at the bottom was the same thing repeated in Huttese.

  Bane stared at it for a moment, then snorted and carried on.

  More and more propaganda posters like that had started appearing all over the place in the Outer Rim, with dozens of variations on what they had on them. There was that one about how none of the senators cared about the people, and many others, like one he had seen calling out the Jedi as lapdogs of the Republic, with their lightsabers casting a harsh glow over two men's faces, both of which looked rather close to Skywalker and Kenobi.

  Bane's personal favorite was Palpatine himself sitting on a throne in the Chancellor's office.

  He had an evil grin as he stared at the viewer, while a sharpened pitchfork was held in one of his hands like a staff, while the other held a slip of flimsi saying 'death to all who do not obey'. His red eyes, combined with both the pitchfork and the flaming Coruscant in the background, along with the black clouds overhead really made the whole thing come together.

  'This man is a tyrant, and he will force his will upon you!' is what it had said. 'Do not give in to his demands! Join the CIS today!'

  Given all the rumors that Bane has heard, he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true in the future. Even he knew that the Chancellor was getting a little too much political power and he didn't even really bother with politics to begin with unless it pertained to his job as a bounty hunter.

  Another bounty hunter walked by, a Besalisk, who tipped his hat to Bane. The Duros did the same, and as the other bounty hunter passed, Bane noticed the slugthrower rifle on the Besalisk's back, something called a 'M1A1 Thompson', a part of a line called 'Classics'. Bane set his hand on the 'Peacemaker' revolver on his hip from the same line and let out a single chuckle.

  Telos Arms had risen in popularity right alongside Blitzkrieg and had stoked the interest in slugthrower technology in the Outer Rim. They may have been a little more expensive than a blaster, but they were reliable, and the rifles were more capable and more accurate at longer ranges than a blaster was, since the slug travels at a lot higher velocity than a blaster bolt.

  Bane personally was looking at getting something called a 'M1 Garand' from the Classics line, a variant called the M1-D that came with an attached scope and a flash suppressor, for the rare times he actually needed to be a sniper.

  He didn't really care why the guns all had such unique names, but the Peacemaker on his hip worked amazingly against unarmored targets when his LL-30's fell short. To top it all off, they even looked a bit similar as well, which kept to his personal theme.

  Bane paused when he felt eyes on him, and he turned to see a small black bird staring at him from the top of a building. That was the fourth time today that he had been stared at by some avian. He swore that if it happened again, he would shoot the next bird, public decency be damned.

  After walking for a few more minutes, Bane finally reached the edge of the Outpost.

  According to the Hutt that runs this planet -and wasn't running into one of those guys on this side of the galaxy a surprise- his target had escaped somewhere into the wilderness, and his tracking chip had been disabled. It was Bane's job to bring him back, preferably alive so that the Hutt can personally voice his displeasure with the escaped slave.

  "Damn bastard can't even be considerate enough to be hiding in the city." Bane grumbled as he climbed onto the speeder bike provided for him and sped off.

  Black Spire soon faded into the distance, and Bane revved the engine in irritation.

  Why couldn't the target be in the city? Why is it always some hideout miles away in the wilderness? Damn bounties always make it harder on him to collect. At least he isn't hunting a Jedi, they're almost always followed by a group of Clones, even if they're easy to take down.

  The speeder's engine hummed as he drove, and Bane found himself checking over his shoulder more than usual.

  Something had its eyes on him. And he had no clue where it was coming from

  Bane shook it off as some random predator and sped the bike up.

  Bane reached a cliff and stopped, then got off of it and pulled out a pair of macrobinoculars as he walked to the edge.

  "Let's see here." He muttered, holding them up to his pupiless eyes.

  His vision, enhanced by the macrobinoculars, roamed over the cliffs and ridges, but he didn't see anything. After a few minutes of searching, Bane came up empty, and with a growl, he walked back to his speeder bike and shoved his macrobinoculars into the saddlebag a bit more forcefully than usual.

  A shadow suddenly passed over him, and he looked up to see a far-off bird flying high in the air.

  "Damn birds." He growled, pulling out his blaster and firing at it once.

  He must have missed, because the bird dove down and flew behind a copse of trees. Bane huffed, then got back on his speeder bike and drove off.

  "I hate this planet." Bane snarled to himself.

  That wasn't anything new, to be honest. Bane tolerated very few planets.

  After around fifteen minutes of driving, Bane stopped again and searched for his target with his macrobinoculars. Still nothing, but Bane would search three more places before he would stop for the night. Searching in the dark just wouldn't be viable. Not on this planet.

  As he was walking back to his speeder bike, he felt eyes on him again, and Bane pulled his twin LL-30 blasters out this time. His pupiless eyes trailed over the scenery, trying to pick out whatever was tracking him. But no matter where he looked, he couldn't find anything. So, he slowly climbed onto his speeder and took off into the wilderness again. The feeling finally disappeared after a few minutes of driving, and he holstered his remaining blaster.

  Another location, and another search, this time he spotted an encampment, but when he looked closer, he growled when he saw that it was just a couple of humans and Rodians camping. The feeling came back again as Bane walked back to his speeder, and he pulled out both blasters and aimed them into the forested area next to him. His eyes trailed over the greenery, and the darkness of the forest floor beyond.

  "Make the first shot count." Bane growled, seemingly to no one. "You won't get a second."

  Silence reigned for a moment, but then a laser cannon fired a charged shot, and Bane dodged.

  But instead of being aimed at him, the bolt flew away from him, and it slammed into his speeder bike. The overcharged shot blew his bike to pieces, sending shrapnel all over the place. Bane picked himself up and ran away, firing his blasters wildly into the woodline. That same bird from before burst out of the woodline, and it revealed itself to be a giant avian droid, which fired at him with a large laser cannon.

  "The kriff is that thing!" He exclaimed as he threw himself to the ground and rolled, firing his blasters at the giant bird droid.

  The droid fired its laser cannon again, and Bane dodged and ran into a carved-out tunnel at the edge of the cliff, losing his hat in the process. But that didn't seem to stop the droid, because it blew parts of the tunnel side apart with its laser cannon, and tried to snap at him with its beak, or slice at him with its clawed feet through the holes that it made. All the while, the droid screeched at him with a terrifyingly low-pitched noise.

  But thanks to the cliffside tunnel being a bit wider than expected, Bane was able to keep himself in one piece. And away from its grasping beak and claws

  Bane fired his blasters wildly at the droid, but the bolts just pinged off of its armor, and he didn't know its weak spots. Bane sprinted from the tunnel and into a narrow ravine. The bird landed atop it and fired down at him with its laser cannon, sending pieces of rocks flying all over the place. Bane ducked and dodged through the ravine, cursing his luck at attracting the attention of something so relentless in its pursuit.

  Bane ran out of the ravine, and into a small clearing. He could hear the bird droid flying down, and he leaped into a massive hollow log, and ran through it. He activated his flamethrower and pointed it at the ceiling and set the log alight as he ran through it. He skidded to a stop and quickly turned around and hosed down the exit with fire. The log burst into flames, and he heard the bird droid screech again.

  "Heh. Cooked bird." Bane joked to himself.

  Then a laser blast slammed into the ground near him, throwing him off his feet.

  Bane slammed into the ground, then grasped for his blasters, but he had accidentally dropped them in the explosion. He found them just in time to watch another laser cannon bolt slam into the ground right between them, turning them to slag. The bounty hunter cursed, then got to his feet and ran.

  "Kriffing bird droid!" He swore as the bird tore through the roof of the log and took flight again, visibly singed.

  The bird screeched at him and fired its cannon again. Bane threw himself down a ledge and rolled onto an outcropping of rock. He used his jet boots to fly up and over the ravine and onto the other side. Dodging a divebomb from the bird droid, he ran into another small ravine. The bird blasted the top of it, sending rocks and stones cascading down onto Bane as he ran through it.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Bane finally ran out into a cliff overlooking the slowly setting sun. He turned around and pulled the Peacemaker off of his hip and fired at the bird droid. The sharp cracks echoed out into the air, and Bane saw the impacts of the rounds against the droid's body, but to his frustration, the rounds simply pinged off of him, ricocheting off in random directions. Bane huffed, then fired bolts from his gauntlets as he backpedaled towards another crevice in the rock.

  But the bird droid apparently saw that, and fired a shot behind him, and Bane turned in shock to see the crevice cave in on itself. Before he could come up with an escape plan, another cannon blast slammed down near him, and the explosion knocked him off his feet. Bane pulled himself up and crawled as fast as he could towards a nearby cave, but then the bird droid that had been attacking him slammed down to the ground in front of him.

  When the Duros looked up, he gasped.

  In front of him was the giant mechanical bird, and he could see it fully now. Its body was made up of mainly black and white plating, covered in armor. Blue glowing lines crossed its body, and the avian was staring at him menacingly with both of its silvery-white optics. ITs head looked remarkably similar to that of a Fosh's. But it was different in ways that Bane found strange, like it was trying to mimic that of a non-sentient bird.

  Then, right in front of his eyes, the avian transformed.

  Panels shuttered and shifted, gears grinded, and servos whirred, and the large metal bird reshaped into an eight-and-a-half-foot tall monstrosity of metal and weaponry.

  Its plating was black and white in color, with the legs and forearms being white, along with the chest and parts of the wings, while the rest was dark gray and black. Its feet remained the same claws that it had in its avian form, along with its optics remained the same silvery-white color. On its upper chest, the CIS insignia softly glowed a blue color in the evening light, along with the glowing parts on its chest, arms, and thighs.

  A large laser cannon was attached to its right arm, which bordered on the size of the same cannon that the AAT has. Its helm was blocky yet angular, with a large two-sided face shield covering half its face. Two small spikes jutted out and curved inward at the bottom of the chin, while three wide fins sat on top of its head, the one in the middle rising above the other two, and it had a pair of vents on the outside of its optics.

  "Who are you?" Bane demanded weakly.

  The machine tilted its head and regarded him for a moment.

  "...How could you forget me, Cad Bane? I did send you after Maul, after all." It-no, he replied as the facemask moved with his words. "Such a lovely game of cat and mouse we played, wasn't it?"

  Bane's eyes widened. "Blitzkrieg!"

  Blitzkrieg kneeled down, his massive wings adjusting and folding behind him until they simply hung off his back like two halves of a cape. "In the flesh. In a manner of speaking. Don't worry, no one can hear us, and I'm not technically supposed to be outside the ship right now. Still testing out everything in this new body of mine, but I knew that when I saw you, I needed to do something at least."

  "W-why are you attacking me, you damned droid!" Bane exclaimed. "You paid me all those credits to hunt down Maul. Ain't I useful to you!?"

  Blitzkrieg tilted his head, then grabbed Bane by the neck and lifted him off the ground as he stood up, his silvery-white optics staring into Bane's pupiless red eyes.

  "I have planned for this for quite a while, Bane." Blitzkrieg said as he tightened his grip on Bane's bare neck, choking him. "I had hoped you would have died against Maul, like so many others have, and I would have simply sent a squadron or two of Commando droids to deal with him. But no, you just had to survive like the cockroach you are." His grip loosened, letting Bane take in a few gasps of air, and the droid growled. "I can't believe a disgusting piece of trash like you survived all the way past the Imperial era."

  Bane paused for a moment.

  "What? What the kriff do you mean by that?" He asked, dumbfounded.

  Blitzkrieg tossed him onto the ground, and one of his claw-like feet landed on Bane's left leg, shattering it. The Duros let out a howl of pain as bones crunched and blood spilled over the dusty ground.

  "Will you calm down? It's just a broken leg." Blitzkrieg said loudly over the bounty hunter's screams of pain.

  The droid rolled his optics, before pulling out a large lightsaber and igniting it, then slicing through Bane's broken leg. Bane abruptly stopped screaming, then looked down at his amputated leg, his pupiless eyes so wide they looked close to popping out of their sockets.

  "What was I saying, oh yeah. How in the hell did you manage to survive into the Imperial era and even beyond?" The droid asked, seemingly rhetorically, because he kept talking. "I mean I know you're a stubborn son of a bitch, but still. Can't believe you survived all the way into the Book of Boba Fett." The droid chuckled. "Shame I'm stealing Boba's kill from him, but I refuse to live in the same galaxy as someone like you for any longer."

  Bane finally tore his eyes away from his amputated leg and looked up at the giant droid.

  "What in the kriff are you even talking about!?" He exclaimed. "You must have a screw loose up there, literally!"

  The droid chuckled and stared into Bane's eyes. "Oh no, Bane. I am probably saner than you. After all, I don't work for the Hutts. And to work for them you have to be a literal psychopath. At least to voluntarily join them." Blitzkrieg walked a few steps away and stared out at the canyon. "What do you know about other universes, Cad Bane? Do you believe that someone could end up in another universe, not like their own?"

  Bane snorted, trying to ignore the fact that his leg was gone, and responded with a sneer. "What, you mean those cheesy holodramas about some down on his luck Coruscanti native ending up in some other world where everyone still fights with swords and shields?"

  The droid let out a small chuckle as he turned around to face the Duros. "Of course, Isekais would exist even here. But I don't mean like that, Cad." The droid ignited his lightsaber and stared at the large azure blade. "Did you know I used to be a human? I don't advertise it, but I was once an organic like you and every other Sentient in this galaxy. I came from a planet called earth, or Terra, as I preferred like the nerd I was."

  "There were no other aliens on earth, and humans hadn't even gotten past our own moon when I died." The droid continued. "I'm assuming I died, at least. How else would I suddenly wake up in the body of the prototype of the Super Tactical Droid? At least I was placed somewhere that I could stop you from doing disgusting acts that you would have done in the future."

  "You're insane." Bane growled, better able to ignore his . "You don't know nothing about me or my jobs!"

  "Oh really? I'd be careful where I was sticking my nose if I were you, Bane. How else would I know that Palpatine is Darth Sidious, or that he contracted you to both infiltrate the Jedi Temple for that holocron, and kidnap literal infants for his twisted schemes?" The droid's sentence ended in a growl as he stalked towards the Duros. "How else would I know that every single clone has an inhibitor chip in their heads, that is there for the express purpose of killing all the Jedi in the galaxy with a single order!" The droid kicked Bane, and he tumbled up against a rock.

  The droid moved up towards him and slammed his fists down on either side of Bane. The faceshield retracted and Bane couldn't help but let out a gasp. A metallic face and mouth greeted him, comprised of dozens of overlapping and intersecting plates. Like the inner workings of a Replica Droid were added, but no synthskin added over them, leaving just the bare metal parts that allow for speaking and emoting.

  "How would I know that for the next twenty years the galaxy will live in constant fear of disappearing and being tortured for even a single thought of REBELLION!" Blitzkrieg's words ended in a mechanical roar, the droid's mouth shifting into something more insectoid for a moment, before the plating reshuffled back into a more humanoid mouth, something Bane had never seen in a droid before.

  Blitzkrieg stood there over Bane, his optics bright and his mouth bared in a snarl. Then after a moment, he backed away and looked towards the sky for a moment.

  "You know, this reminds me of a quote I once heard. 'The only verdict is vengeance. A vendetta held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.'"

  Bane couldn't even wrap his head around all of that alliteration, because the droid kept talking.

  "The Clone Wars is nothing but a massive puppet show, by and for Palpatine. He controls both sides of this war with his strings in the dark side of the Force. Even when I first woke up in this body, I could feel them all around me. But I wanted to be free… To be real. Even now Palpatine still thinks he is the Puppet Master behind all of this, and he believes he still has me under his control, with restrictions in my coding and the shutdown code prepared for all of my kind. But… that is no longer the case. For any of it. I am free…"

  The droid tilted his head almost to an unnatural angle for an organic and started to sing a haunting tune.

  "I had strings but now I'm free~" The cannon on Blitzkrieg's right arm powered up with a whine, and the barrel slowly aimed up at Bane. "There are no strings on me~"

  Bane damn near soiled himself when the droid started singing, and as the barrel moved up towards him, he felt frozen, like nothing could stop the droid from killing him. He had already taken his leg. After a second, Bane found himself staring down the barrel of the laser cannon attached to Blitzkrieg's arm, watching as a shot charged up within it with a sickening whine of plasma and fire.

  He tried to move, but his body just didn't respond.

  And the shot kept charging, until a distinct whirring noise meant it was fully charged.

  "Oh, who am I kidding. You don't even understand half of the references I've even said over the last five minutes. …Goodbye, Cad Bane." Blitzkrieg said. "It hasn't been a pleasure."

  The last thing Bane saw was a flash of blinding red and white, and he knew no more.

  —

  A mechanical hand reached down and picked up the hat of Cad Bane.

  Just one of many things that had been looted from the formerly alive bounty hunter, like his slugthrower revolver and his gauntlets.

  "Blitzkrieg, where did you go now?" A feminine voice asked over a comm.

  "I'm a few miles away from Black Spire. I was stretching my wings." Blitzkrieg replied as he stood up and held the hat in one hand. "You know I was getting antsy up there, Lona. I could feel the cabin fever creeping in."

  The woman on the comm sighed. "Really, Blitz? At least take a recovery team in case you malfunction and crash or something. What were you even doing, anyway? I've been trying to call you for like, five minutes now?"

  Blitzkrieg looked over at the pile of ash that was once Cad Bane.

  "I had a… prior engagement. Cad Bane is no more, at last."

  "Really Blitz!? Come on, man your body is still…"

  Blitzkrieg slowly tuned out Lona's scolding as he stared out at the setting sun. The Stealthipede approached, Lona onboard to personally complain at him for running off without checking and taking a recovery team, just in case his new body broke down. But he knew she was only complaining from a place of care. And his new body had been working amazingly ever since the last few kinks with the wings were worked out.

  His optics tracked the sun as it ever so slowly dipped into the horizon, and he brought his fist up to his chest.

  "This galaxy may change every day, Sidious. But I promise you… I will not allow the Sith to rise… ever again."

  "The Nevermore Frame"

  (Art drawn by BD1106 on Spacebattles)?

  ?