Uncle Sam Goram

[Slade Zambrano]

The Xo'xaan Star Destroyer touched down on good old fashioned imperial soil, of course it didn't belong to the imperial remnant but it was fellow imperial non the less that belonged to a emperor Akio, at least that was what slade had heard. But Slade was here with his teacher [member="Corvinus Palpatine"] to rally some imperials to their cause, they would do what the good old fashioned republic did to recruit their soldiers. Offer them a pay check, a free college education they'd never get, and promise them they wouldn't go off to fight the One Sith. It was almost funny when you thought about it, but either way Slade was a devil with a silver tongue and he could get these people to join the cause of imperialism. The ramp of the Xo'xaan began to lower and as they said you always put your best foot forward when dealing with new people.

Elite stormtroopers began to step out of the ship in perfect rows of ten, an entire formation of them marching in perfect time with one another their heels striking the durasteel deck like thunder ringing off the mountains. They had landed outside of a small city that they would start their recruitment drive, word was this place was home to the research and development of a doctor krasnican, a woman who had a few interesting products and treatments the imperials could use. So as each stormtrooper collected around the base of the ship with their DC-18s in hand, an isle was cleared for the main event. And that of course was the Grand Moff and his new student Slade.

The two stepped out and Slade waved to the crowd of people who had gathered to stare in awe at the might of the remnant. But with a cigarette in his mouth Slade spoke to Corvinus softly and under his breath.

"Could please explain to me why we are in the space boonies." he said as he took a drag on his cigarette and flicked some ash into the wind.

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

[member="Slade Zambrano"]

Corvinus had given a small wave to the crowds gathering around them and then immediately tucked his arms back under his cape. "One day the Empire will sprawl the galaxy, Slade. Especially here where they have not forgotten the peace and order that the Empire can provide." Brushing past his apprentice, Corvinus motioned for the Stormtroopers to follow in his shadow.

"Now come along child, there is work to be done"

The pair of Imperial Knights had a long day ahead of them. They had brought along a heavy team of Imperial Recruitment Officers and stormtroopers to commandeer the city's recreation center and begin recruitment; meanwhile they would need to take this group of troopers and begin taking every military asset that wasn't nailed down. That had to wait until they got the heavy lifters ground side.

Of course they hadn't warned the Atrisian government that they had come to take what was rightful the Empire's. They felt no need to. The Atrisian government was in disarray as far the Remnant knew and by new Imperial Decree, the Military had full authorization to reclaim Imperial assets without warning or hesitation. If the Atrisian government wished to get in the way they would have two choices; align themselves with the true Imperials or be marked as traitors under Imperial law. There was only one penalty for that....

 

[Slade Zambrano]

[member="Corvinus Palpatine"]

"Cause imperialism worked so well for Crina." Slade said under his breath as he took a long drag of his cigarette and exhaled white smoke from his nostrils.

Flicking some ash Slade didn't bother wearing the imperial knight armor, well not that he could even if he wanted to. He had not earned it as Corvinus liked to say, and to an extent he was right. Slade was mostly good for information on his father, maybe a ground operation or two but that's it. He was still learning from his teacher which he did not feel comfortable calling master due to obvious sexual implications and reasons. But all of that business aside slade followed Corvinus and kept his cigarette in his mouth and his fine silk suit tucked in the soft breeze of the Atrisian wind. The planet really was beautiful and it had a lot of life, he remembered spending a summer here as a child. Never even told his dad he left, when he returned his father didn't even ask where he was. Just carried on with his whores and cults.

Even with his daddy issues slade did like this planet despite it being in the space boonies. So he looked over to his teacher and spoke softly to the man, not a tone of weakness but one of discretion.

"So what work is there? Recruit some of these sheeple into becoming a stormtrooper, a pawn. Take what's theirs for whatever reason." Slade said as he took another drag and kept walking with Corvinus

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

[member="Slade Zambrano"]

Corvinus took a long breath, his hallow eyes falling on Slade. There was something about this boy that Corvinus recognized when he looked at him. The way the anger seeped from his skin like a pungent sweat, a smell that brought back long caged memories for Palpatine. "Your family name will do you no good here, Slade. If you truly believe that the wretched heritage you've inherited from your father makes you better than these people, then you are significantly more lost than I first imagined."

Corvinus shook his head, his eyes scanning the city ahead. The Atrisians weren't cheering, but they would silently bow to Corvinus and his entourage as they passed by. "Sith ideals of strength are juvenile and foolish. A man of the Empire is not judged on his power in the force or what position he holds in the military. He is judged by his devotion to the Empire's cause. His courage to fight for order and prosperity. An Imperial is judged by his actions for the Empire he serves."

Shooting an eye down to Slade, Corvinus spoke coldly as they entered the city. "Every one of these people will fight and die for me because I serve a higher calling. I serve the idea of a safe and secure society. A society in which the ones they love will be truly free to live soundly. You, however, you choose to love nothing and fight for nothing. That is why you are weak. Compared to the Stormtroopers are less than a pawn. A man who doesn't truly believe in an Imperial Society is no use to an Empire."

"I serve the Empire because I love everything that Imperial Society stands for and I know the galaxy will become greater for every action I take in service to that society. So tell me, student, do you love anything beside your own name?"

Palpatine posed the question to the Sith as a group of Imperial officers joined the crowds holding banners and signs that read "Join the Civil Reserves Today". You wouldn't find that name on any official Imperial Remnant documents because Corvinus had taken great care to make sure it stayed secret. He and Slade were here to gather technologies for the Empire, that much was true, but the forces were for his own personal missions in service to the Imperial Society he wished to form.

Every soldier gained from Atrisia would be placed under special command of Corvinus and the rest of the leadership wouldn't be the wiser. Even Slade was unaware of the true plan and he was taking part in it. After today, Corvinus will have begun the first step in ensuring that the Empire he was working for truly came to fruition.

 

[Slade Zambrano]

[member="Corvinus Palpatine"]
Slade didn't bother responding to Corvinus, he was just another man like his father. Someone who claimed to serve a higher power or some other stupid reason, but deep down he was looking after número uno. So slade continued on with his teacher and kept smoking his coffin nail, with him joining the imperial knights he had to give up actual drugs but tobacco and alcohol were still permitted in their ranks so he was going to smoke away.

"Whatever you say, you're the boss." Slade said as they passed through the crowd talking about sith ideals.

But then the topic of his name came up and Slade's hatred spiked up an aura of pure hatred for the name Zambrano. He loathed his name more than anything in the galaxy, he loathed his father and he wanted to kill him in the most painful and intimate of ways. But he wasn't here so there was no reason to get upset at the moment.

"It's a curse, something that I'm forced to live with for the rest of my life. I hate it and just about everything else. So excuse me if I seem cynical about everything but I didn't have the most bright and cheery childhoods." he said and took another drag on his cigarette as they moved through the city.

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

[member="Slade Zambrano"]

Corvinus sighed, digging his chin deep into his chest as he thought back to his own childhood. Slade's words were a painful key to so many things Corvinus had nearly forgotten. "Do not let your name control you, Slade." The usual frost encasing the old man's words had thawed. He wasn't speaking as Slade's teacher. Not anymore. "When I was your age, the name Palpatine was a blight on my very existence. It was a scourge on my soul that I couldn't escape and I hate my family for it. I hated everyone for it."

Corvinus glanced to his student, mannerisms still crisp and flawless; but the glow in hollowness in his eyes had disappeared. "My name cost me my family. It cost me my home. My name is the reason I am here to speak to you now. At first I thought it all a curse that I was force to bear. But the Remnant has freed me from my blindness and now I understand why I was born. Palpatine is a dead name in this era and it is my duty to restore it, not as a name of fear, but as a name synonymous with order. Peace. Security."

Turning his head back down the street, Corvinus watched as Imperial Officers scurried about setting up signs and registration terminals. "Superstition is for fools. Destiny is what you shape it to be. So, Zambrano, what is your destiny?"

 

[Slade Zambrano]

[member="Corvinus Palpatine"]

Slade listened for the first time in a long time, the man knew what it was like. To live in the shadow of a man who did terrible things, things that only a monster would do. It was something that they both shared in their daily lives, and slade could only imagine for how long this man had been doing this. He was in his eighties for force sakes, and slade was barely pushing his early twenties. So the man nodded and a piece of respect grew for Corvinus in him, someone who knew what it was like. Maybe that's why he had selected Slade as his apprentice. And there was a reason for it as well besides that, he had grown up with imperialism and he believed in it.

Despite everything he put forth he did believe in law, order, and peace, he didn't want them to become the stereotypical bad guy who shook down market vendors and was promptly outsmarted by a brash young street rat. He wanted the citizens of imperial rule to be proud of the stormtrooper who crossed them on patrol, and to turn that street rat into the proper authorities for stealing. That was the true beauty of imperialism, safety and peace through law and order.

"You're right, I'm sorry sir. It's just been tough." slade said and bowed his head a bit as he flicked the butt of his cigarette away.

Holy crap, did they just have a breakthrough? Slade put on a soft little smile and he tapped his fingers on his lightsaber. The color of the blade was obviously red, but maybe it was time to make a change to something else. Red was cliche anyway.

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

[member="Slade Zambrano"]

Corvinus nearly pinched himself when the word "sir" came out of Slade's ever running mouth. He hadn't expected a breakthrough so early in his training. Then again, he had chosen Slade because he had saw much of himself in the troubled youth. Corvinus had done the same exact thing when he was younger, made a complete one-hundred eighty degree turn in his life and put his destiny on a new path. Even so, there was still a long way to go in the boy's training. He still had anger in him, it was brewing in the deep depths of his soul and it would not so easily be defeated.

"Do not feel sorry, Slade. Your only concern is to do better from hence forth and I will led you through the turmoil in between. I trust that you will make a fine Imperial in time"

Corvinus squeezed the boy's shoulder reassuringly as they passed the recruitment center where men and women were already signing up to serve. "We have a mission to do. Put this behind you, forward is our battle cry. Our information tells us that the Atrisian's have been working on a new device, one that can tip the tides of space engagements. We will seize their labs and take any technology they possess."

 

[Slade Zambrano]

[member="Corvinus Palpatine"]

"What is it they are working on?" Slade asked rather casually.

Whatever it was it had to be large in order to have palpatine himself come all the way out here to see what was going on, they could of recruited from any back water fringe world but it seemed the emperor took a strong liking to this one and not just for it's imperial ties. There was a great amount of technology here and it would seem that they would be taking a lot of it, besides it wasn't like the local government could stop them. They were imperials and they would have to share with their fellow man, it was the right thing to do in order to advance technology in this galaxy.

They had been at a stand still for years now when it came to technology, ships were smaller and it seemed that the universe around them wanted to see to it that they would remain on par and stuck in the dark ages. Slade wouldn't have that. So as the platoons of stormtroopers marched down the stairs they stopped in front of a large R&D building where the information was being stored.

"What's the plan teacher?" he asked to Corvinus as they came about to the entry.

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

[member="Slade Zambrano"]

"It is an array that can disrupt turbo laser fire, something that can give the Imperial Remnant the edge we need to overtake our enemies."

Corvinus paused outside the R&D facility, eyes scanning the front of the untouched building. Focusing on the force, Corvinus invisible tendrils into the structure ahead, feeling out every crevice and every doorway. There were people inside, ones intent on doing the Imperial Remnant harm and they were just lying in wait; though Corvinus couldn't pinpoint their exact locations.

"There are men with hostile intent beyond those doors, Slade" Corvinus noted to his apprentice before motioning for the Stormtroopers to take point into the facility. "The stormtroopers shall lead an assault through the front, I and you shall see what lies around the back."

 

[Slade Zambrano]

[member="Corvinus Palpatine"]

Slade nodded and reached into his coat, skipping the pack of cigarettes he grabbed the hilt of a lightsaber and took it in hand. If there was an assault to be done here he certainly felt better being by Palpatine's side. So the man kept his saber in hand and looked over to his teacher, he was afraid of what lay inside. He wasn't a Jedi and even though he was a sith the man could feel fear, he wasn't a very good fighter and some younglings knew more about the force than he did. But being at his Teacher's side steadied his nerves a bit.

"Let's go then, they will probably try to evacuate out the back. So let's be prepared for anyone who tries to come out with a blaster." slade said and stepped forward with his master to head towards the back.

A squad of stormtroopers accompanied them as they walked through the tight and damp alley, a scent of algae, rotting garbage, and medical waste filling their nostrils as they passed through it. This was the place alright, and one way or the other Slade was going to get this array or whatever the heck it was. They didn't have time for games and his attitude so he focused on the prize and hoped he didn't lock up in battle.

"Is there anything else I should know before we go in?" slade said as they rounded the corner and made their way to a pair of blast doors that were closed tight.