星战正史小说《西斯尊主》简介:EP3五年之后维德已经有多强

xjtxp

首先说下我不知道这文发在影视区是否合适，但是感觉星战小说的剧情简介发到文史区也很诡异，而我又不想发到外野去……如果版主觉得不合适就删除吧，麻烦不要挪区就是了 = =
愿意的话此帖可以转


说明1：
《西斯尊主》这本小说果壳已经引进，今后将出版中文版，译者是3DM的半神巫妖。

说明2：
《西斯尊主》与电影同样属于2014年4月底星战重启之后的正史（或称统一正史/新正史）作品，按照官方自己下的定义所有正史作品之间都是完全没有冲突的同一世界同等剧情级别作品。


说明3：
在2014年4月底官方重启之前，正传角色远胜前传的科普我在爱撕衣发过：

《星球大战》：有多少光看电影特效，而错误的认为正传武力强于前传？
http://bbs.saraba1st.com/2b/thread-832703-1-1.html

如今这是要说明，正传角色武力远胜前传角色这个1977年EP4电影上映前的1976年第一本官方小说里就已经存在的设定，在重启后不但仍然存在《西斯尊主》还把这一设定的差距比旧正史时代进一步拉大了。








星战正史小说《西斯尊主》简介:EP3五年之后维德已经有多强



你想要看原力隔空拉掷摧毁大型飞船？这本小说里有。
你想看用原力推杀死一群外骨骼能防御爆能枪的怪兽？这本小说有。
你想看维德长期维持超自然的速度如同鬼魅一般的屠宰无双？这本小说还是有。



另外，虽然这本小说被称为荒野求生记也确实最主要的看点是爵爷与帕皇俩人的无双，不过里面的人际关系帝国情况以及阴谋设计角色心理描写等都很有意思。





再说一次：
《西斯尊主》小说属于正史（或者说新正史/统一正史），按照官方的定义这本小说是属于跟电影同一世界完全同等级别完全没有冲突的作品




此文内容为1——3楼，5——11楼
4楼有他人插楼，11楼有个我觉得对于多数人应该影响不大的EP7电影剧透相关
如果对内容感兴趣可以等着买果壳出版的中文小说或直接买英文原版

xjtxp

《西斯尊主》发生在EP3五年之后


开篇：


Vader completed his meditation and opened his eyes. His pale, flame-savaged face stared back at him from out of the reflective black transparisteel of his pressurized meditation chamber. Without the neural connection to his armor, he was conscious of the stumps of his legs, the ruin of his arms, the perpetual pain in his flesh. He welcomed it. Pain fed his hate, and hate fed his strength. Once, as a Jedi, he had meditated to find peace. Now he meditated to sharpen the edges of his anger.

He stared at his reflection a long time. His injuries had deformed his body, left it broken, but they'd perfected his spirit, strengthening his connection to the Force. Suffering had birthed insight.

An automated metal arm held the armor's helmet and faceplate over his head, a doom soon to descend. The eyes of the faceplate, which intimidated so many, were no peer to his unmasked eyes. From within a sea of scars, his gaze simmered with controlled, harnessed fury. The secondary respirator, still attached to him, always attached to him, masked the ruins of his mouth, and the sound of his breathing echoed off the walls.

Drawing on the Force, he activated the automated arm. It descended and the helmet and faceplate wrapped his head in metal and plasteel, the shell in which he existed. He welcomed the spikes of pain when the helmet's neural needles stabbed into the flesh of his skull and the base of his spine, unifying his body, mind, and armor to form an interconnected unit.

When man and machine were one, he no longer felt the absence of his legs or arms, the pain of his flesh, but the hate remained, and the rage still burned. Those, he never relinquished, and he never felt more connected to the Force than when his fury burned.

With an effort of will, he commanded the onboard computer to link the primary respirator to the secondary, and to seal the helmet at the neck, encasing him fully. He was home.

Once, he'd found the armor hateful, foreign, but now he knew better. He realized that he'd always been fated to wear it, just as the Jedi had always been fated to betray their principles. He'd always been fated to face Obi-Wan and fail on Mustafar-and in failing, learn.

The armor separated him from the galaxy, from everyone, made him singular, freed him from the needs of the flesh, the concerns of the body that once had plagued him, and allowed him to focus solely on his relationship to the Force.

It terrified others, he knew, and that pleased him. Their terror was a tool he used to accomplish his ends. Yoda once had told him that fear led to hate and hate to suffering. But Yoda had been wrong. Fear was a tool used by the strong to cow the weak. Hate was the font of true strength. Suffering was not the result of the rule of the strong over the weak, order was. By its very existence, the Force mandated the rule of the strong over the weak; the Force mandated order. The Jedi had never seen that, and so they'd misunderstood the Force and been destroyed. But Vader's Master saw it. Vader saw it. And so they were strong. And so they ruled.

He rose, his breathing loud in his ears, loud in the chamber, his image huge and dark on the reflective wall.

A wave of his gauntleted hand and a mental command rendered the walls of his ovate meditation chamber transparent instead of reflective. The chamber sat in the center of his private quarters aboard the Perilous. He looked out and up through the large viewport that opened out onto the galaxy and its numberless worlds and stars.

It was his duty to rule them all. He saw that now. It was the manifest will of the Force. Existence without proper rule was chaos, disorder, suboptimal. The Force-invisible but ubiquitous-bent toward order and was the tool through which order could and must be imposed, but not through harmony, not through peaceful coexistence. That had been the approach of the Jedi, a foolish, failed approach that only fomented more disorder. Vader and his Master imposed order the only way it could be imposed, the way the Force required that it be imposed, through conquest, by forcing the disorder to submit to the order, by bending the weak to the will of the strong.

The history of Jedi influence in the galaxy was a history of disorder and the sporadic wars disorder bred. The history of the Empire would be one of enforced peace, of imposed order.





维德在冥想中的一段旁白式的独白，爵爷在这里称凭借穆斯塔法与欧比万一战被人棍+煤球的痛苦产生的憎恨所带来的怒意，自己与原力的联系变得前所未有的紧密。










哦，这里说一句，如果当初官方想把EP3官方小说纳入新正史的计划真的得以实施，这段恐怕就有了冲突。
因为EP3官方小说对于被被人棍+煤球的阿纳金描写如下：






“………




“不……不，这不可能！”

你爱她。你会永远爱她。你永远不会想让她死。

永远不会。

但是你记得……

你记得全部的经过。

你记得那条毒龙，你让维德从你的心底升起，杀死了那条龙。你记得维德血液中冷酷的毒液。你记得维德炼狱般的怒火，黑暗的仇恨，扼住她的喉咙，让她的嘴不再吐露谎言——

如晴天霹雳一般，你忽然醒悟，根本没有什么毒龙。没有维德。只有你。只有阿纳金?天行者。

那其实都是你一个人。现在也是。

只有你。

是你干的。

是你杀了她。

你杀了她，因为最终，当你本可以救她的时候，当你本可以与她远走高飞的时候，当你本可以想着她的时候，你想的只是自己……

在这一痛苦的瞬间，你终于看清了黑暗面的圈套，看清了西斯最终的残酷——

因为现在，你能拥有的，只有你自己。

狂怒，咆哮，你呼唤原力，想摧毁那个毁了你的阴影，但是你已今非昔比，你只是半具机器，你就像是失明的画家，失聪的作曲家，你记得力量的源泉所在，但你无法触及，一切已成回忆，你徒有毁灭世界的愤怒，却只能碾碎你身边的机器人、医疗设备，还有束缚你的手术台，最终，你无法碰到那个黑影半分。


最终，你甚至不愿碰他。





最终，那个黑影是你的唯一。以为这个黑影理解你，宽恕你，召唤你——



——《西斯的复仇》电影小说

………
”








这EP3官方小说这段话（大概也得加上青少年版EP3小说里皇帝的思考）其实是旧正史设定里维德刚被半机械化后确实实力减弱不如之前，但随后力量提高迅速到了正传时期远胜前传的设定来源。



但是新正史作品里，至少目前没有维德因为被人棍+煤球而力量减弱的说法，反而有诸如《西斯尊主》里这类维德有可能直接就因为此战的怒意而不减反增的说明。
当然其实如果没有小说里这些维德一度减弱的对话，冲EP3最后维德那记怒吼有人觉得他更强了也不是多难理解吧？





小知识

重启后已经不属于正史的EP3电影小说当年不但是依据卢卡斯剧本创作，且经过卢卡斯本人的几乎逐句审核修改：

Though I did not personally watch him do it, I received from LFL a Word document of Revenge of the Sith with Mr Lucas' edits, which was distinct from the edits I'd already gotten from Sue Rostoni and Howard Roffman and the rest of the LFL crew, and this document was edited in such a detailed fashion that even individual words had been struck off and his preferred replacements inserted, as well as some passages wholly excised and some dialogue replaced with the dialogue from the screenplay. If that's not line-editing, I don't know what is.

What's in that book is there because Mr. Lucas wanted it to be there. What's not in that book is not there because Mr. Lucas wanted it gone.





然后，从《西斯尊主》里维德这两段独白能够看出：


It was his duty to rule them all. He saw that now. It was the manifest will of the Force. Existence without proper rule was chaos, disorder, suboptimal. The Force-invisible but ubiquitous-bent toward order and was the tool through which order could and must be imposed, but not through harmony, not through peaceful coexistence. That had been the approach of the Jedi, a foolish, failed approach that only fomented more disorder. Vader and his Master imposed order the only way it could be imposed, the way the Force required that it be imposed, through conquest, by forcing the disorder to submit to the order, by bending the weak to the will of the strong.

The history of Jedi influence in the galaxy was a history of disorder and the sporadic wars disorder bred. The history of the Empire would be one of enforced peace, of imposed order.


爵爷是相信帝国能够以强权高压解决混乱与战争，带给整个星系执行与和平的。

跟旧正史拥护帝国的军方政治家的信念差异不大。










此时传来了消息帝国在小亚加(Yaga Minor)的造船厂被一批帝国口中的恐怖份子（袭击者自认为是自由战士）袭击，袭击者的领导么……一位熟人，TCW第一季里提列克母星赖洛思（Ryloth）曾与温杜等人一起并肩作战的抵抗战士首领查姆·辛杜拉(Cham Syndulla)——也就是《义军崛起（Rebels）》里赫拉·辛杜拉（Hera Syndulla)的父亲。




查姆·辛杜拉

在共和国转变成帝国后，本来就不爽旧共和国的赖洛思抵抗组织面对帝国的高压统治与掠夺开始激烈反抗，在之前的共和国议员如今的帝国议员奥恩·弗里·塔（Orn Free Taa）算是不支持抵抗运动但也敷衍帝国要求帮助强化赖洛思的含糊立场下，以及一位赖洛思帝国上校（关于这位下面再介绍）的暗中帮助下，赖洛思抵抗运动发展很快。






呃，有人想不起奥恩·弗里·塔是谁么？



奥恩·弗里·塔

TCW里这位肥胖的提列克议员。
这位是自己的利益第一，赖洛思星球与民众的利益第二，帝国的利益第三



* * *



The lights from the bridge computers blinked or didn't as dictated by the pulse of the ship and the gestures of the ragtag skeleton crew of freedom fighters who staffed the stations. Cham stood behind the helm and looked alternately from the viewscreen to the scanner as he mentally recited the words he'd long ago etched on the stone of his mind so that he could, as needed, read them and be reminded:

Not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter. Not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter.

Cham had fought for his people and Ryloth for almost a standard decade. He'd fought for a free Ryloth when the Republic had tried to annex it, and he fought now for a free Ryloth against the Empire that was trying to strip it bare.

A free Ryloth.

The phrase, the concept, was the polestar around which his existence would forever turn.

Because Ryloth was not free.

As Cham had feared back during the Clone Wars, one well-intentioned occupier of Ryloth had given way to another, less well-intentioned occupier, and a Republic had, through the alchemy of ambition, been transformed into an Empire.

An Imperial protectorate, they called Ryloth. On Imperial star charts Cham's homeworld was listed as "free and independent," but the words could only be used that way with irony, else meaning was turned on its head.

Because Ryloth was not free.

Orn Free Taa, Ryloth's obese representative to the lickspittle, ceremonial Imperial Senate, validated the otherwise absurd Imperial claims through his treasonous acquiescence to them. But then Ryloth had no shortage of Imperial collaborators, or those willing to lay supine before stormtroopers.

And so...Ryloth was not free.

But it would be one day. Cham would see to it. Over the years, he'd recruited and trained hundreds of like-minded people, most but not all of them Twi'leks. He'd cultivated friendly contacts and informants across Ryloth's system, established hidden bases, hoarded materiel. Over the years, he'd **ned and executed raid after raid against the Imperials, cautious and precise raids, true, but effective, nevertheless. Dozens of dead Imperials gave mute testimony to the growing effectiveness of the Free Ryloth movement.

Not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter.

He put a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the helm, felt the tension in the clenched muscles of her shoulder. Like most of the crew, like Cham, she was a Twi'lek, and Cham doubted she'd ever flown anything larger than a little gorge hopper, certainly nothing like the armed freighter she steered now.

"Just hold her steady, helm," Cham said. "We won't need anything fancy out of you."

Standing behind Cham, Isval added, "We hope."

The helm exhaled and nodded. Her lekku, the twin head-tails that extended down from the back of her head to her shoulders, relaxed slightly to signify relief. "Aye, sir. Nothing fancy."

Isval stepped beside Cham, her eyes on the viewscreen.

"Where are they?" she grumbled, the darkening blue of her skin and the agitated squirm of her lekku a reflection of her irritation. "It's been days and no word."

Isval always grumbled. She was perpetually restless, a wanderer trapped in a cage only she could see, pacing the confines over and over, forever testing the strength of the bars. She reminded him of his daughter, Hera, whom he missed deeply when he allowed himself such moments. Cham valued Isval's need for constant motion, for constant action. They were the perfect counterpoints to each other: her rash, him deliberate; her practical, him principled.

"Peace, Isval," he said softly. He'd often said the same thing to Hera.

He held his hands, sweaty with stress despite his calm tone, clasped behind his back. He eyed the bridge data display. Almost time. "They're not late, not yet. And if they'd failed, we'd have had word by now."

Her retort came fast. "If they'd succeeded, we'd have had word by now, too. Wouldn't we?"

Cham shook his head, his lekku swaying. "No, not necessarily. They'd run silent. Pok knows better than to risk comm chatter. He'd need to skim a gas giant to refuel, too. And he might have needed to shake pursuit. They had a lot of space to cover."

"He would've sent word, though, something," she insisted. "They could have blown up the ship during the hijack attempt. They could all be dead. Or worse."

She said the words too loudly, and the heads of several of the crew came up from their work, looks of concern on their faces.

"They could, but they're not." He put his hand on her shoulder. "Peace, Isval. Peace."

She grimaced and swallowed hard, as if trying to rid herself of a bad taste. She pulled away from him and started to pace anew. "Peace. There's peace only for the dead."

Cham smiled. "Then let's stick with war for at least a bit longer, eh?"

His words stopped her in her pacing and elicited one of her half smiles, and a half smile was as close as Isval ever got to the real thing. He had only a vague idea of what had been done to her when she'd been enslaved, but he had a firm sense that it must have been awful. She'd come a long way.

"Back to it, people," he ordered. "Stay sharp."

Silence soon filled all the empty space on the bridge. Hope hung suspended in the quiet-fragile, brittle, ready to be shattered with the wrong word. The relentless gravity of waiting drew eyes constantly to the data display that showed the time. But still nothing.

Cham had stashed the freighter in the rings of one of the system's gas giants. Metal ore in the rock chunks that made up the rings would hide the ship from any scans.

"Helm, take us above the **e of the rings," Cham said.

Even in an off-the-chart system, it was a risk to put the freighter outside the shelter of the **et's rings. The ship's credentials wouldn't hold up to a full Imperial query, and Imperial probes and scouts were everywhere, as the Emperor tried to firm up his grip on the galaxy and quell any hot spots. If they were noticed they'd have to run.

"Magnify screen when we're clear."

Even magnified, the screen would show far less than long-range sensors, but Cham needed to see for himself, not stare at readouts.

Isval paced beside him.

The ship shifted up, out of the bands of ice and rock, and the magnified image on the screen showed the outer system, where a single, distant **etoid of uninhabited rock orbited the system's dim star, and countless stars beyond blinked in the dark. A nebula light-years away to starboard painted a slice of space the color of blood.

Cham stared at the screen as if he could pull his comrades through hyperspace by sheer force of will. Assuming they'd even been able to jump. The whole operation had been a huge risk, but Cham had thought it worthwhile to secure more heavy weapons and force the Empire to divert some resources away from Ryloth. Too, he'd wanted to make a stronger statement, send an unmistakable message that at least some of the Twi'leks of Ryloth would not quietly accept Imperial rule. He'd wanted to be the spark that started a fire across the galaxy.

"Come on, Pok," he whispered, the involuntary twitch of his lekku betraying his stress. He'd known Pok for years and called him friend.

Isval muttered under her breath, a steady flood of Twi'lek exp**es.

Cham watched the data display as the appointed time arrived and passed, taking the hopes of the crew with it. Heavy sighs and slack lekku all around.

"Patience, people," Cham said softly. "We wait. We keep waiting until we know."

"We wait," Isval affirmed with a nod. She paced the deck, staring at the viewscreen as if daring it to keep showing her something she didn't want to see.

The moments stretched. The crew shifted in their seats, shared surreptitious looks of disappointment. Cham had to work to unclench his jaw.

The engineer on scan duty broke the spell.

"I've got something!" she said.

Cham and Isval fairly sprinted over to the scanner. All eyes watched them.

"It's a ship," the engineer said.

A satisfied, relieved rustle moved through the bridge crew. Cham could almost hear the smiles. He eyed the readout.

"That's an Imperial transport," he said.

"That's our Imperial transport," Isval said.

A few members of the bridge crew gave a muted cheer.

"Stay on station, people," Cham said, but he could not shake his grin.

"Coming through now," the engineer said. "It's them, sir. It's them! They're hailing us."

"On speaker," Cham said. "Meanwhile, alert the off-load team. We'll want to get those weapons aboard and destroy that ship as soon as-"

A crackle of static and then Pok's strained voice. "Get clear of here right now! Just go!"

"Pok?" Cham said, as the crew's elation shifted to concern. "Pok, what is it?"

"It's Vader, Cham. Get out of here now! We thought we'd lost the pursuit. We've been jumping through systems to throw them off. I'd thought we'd lost them, but they're still on us! Go, Cham!"

The engineer looked up at Cham, her lavender skin flushing to dark blue at the cheeks. "There are more ships coming out of hyperspace, sir. More than a dozen, all small." Her voice tightened as she said, "V-wings probably. Maybe interceptors."

Cham and Isval cursed as one.

"Get on station, people!" Cham ordered.



* * *


查姆他们意图夺取小亚加造船厂的帝国军方物资，然后这次行动被爵爷用来祭刀：




达斯·维德利用自己盔甲的防真空功能与原力从宇宙空间破入执行此次行动的反抗战士飞船，随后开始宰杀：




"She's running on inertia now, sir," said the squadron commander. "When the Perilous arrives, she can tractor the transport into one of her bays."

"I have no intention of leaving the hijackers aboard the ship that long," Vader said. He knew the hijackers would try to blow the ship, and there were enough weapons in the cargo bay to do just that. "I'm going to board her."

"Sir, the docking clamp on that ship is too damaged, and there's no landing bay," said the squadron commander.

"I am aware of that, Commander," Vader said.

The sole remaining gun bubble-operated by one of the hijackers-swung around and opened fire on Vader's ship. Still using the Force to guide him, Vader slung his ship side to side, up and down, staying just ahead of the blasterfire as he headed straight for the bubble. He could see the gunner inside the transparent canopy, feel his presence, insignificant and small, through the web of the Force.

"Sir...," the commander said as the V-wing squadron circled back around, but Vader did not acknowledge him.

Vader hit a switch and depressurized the interceptor's cockpit, his armor shielding him from the vacuum. Then, as he neared the transport's midline, still swinging his ship left and right to dodge the incoming fire, he selected a spot on the transport adjacent to the gun bubble and, using the Force, took a firm mental hold on it.

His interceptor streaked toward the gun bubble, aimed directly at it. Content with the trajectory, he unstrapped himself, overrode the interceptor's safeties, threw open the cockpit hatch, and ejected into space.

Immediately he was spinning in the zero-g, the ship and stars alternating positions with rapidity. Yet he kept his mental hold on the air-lock handle, and his armor, sealed and pressurized, sustained him in the vacuum. The respirator was loud in his ears.

His ship slammed into the gun bubble and the transport, the inability of the vacuum to transmit sound causing the collision to occur in eerie silence. Fire flared for a moment, but only a moment before the vacuum extinguished it. Chunks of debris exploded outward into space and the transport lurched.



* * *



A great boom sounded through the connection. Alarms wailed, and Pok's bridge exploded in a cacophony of competing conversations.

"Pok, what just happened?" Cham asked. "Are you all right?"

"We had a collision. We're all right. Get me status on the damage," Pok said to someone on his bridge. "Get someone over there now."



* * *



"Sir! Sir!" the squadron commander called, his voice frantic in Vader's helmet comm. "Lord Vader! What's happening, sir?"

Vader's voice was calm. "I'm docking with the transport, Commander."

Using the Force, Vader stopped his rotation and reeled himself in toward the large, jagged, smoking hole his interceptor had torn in the transport's hull. Loose hoses and electrical lines dangled from the edges of the opening, leaking gases and shooting sparks into space. A portion of his ship's wing had survived the impact and was lodged in the bulkhead. The rest had been vaporized on impact.

Vader pulled himself through the destruction until he stood in the remains of a depressurized corridor. Chunks of metal and electronics littered the torn deck, the whole of it smoking from the heat of impact. The V-wings buzzed past the transport, visible through the hole in the bulkhead.

"Sir?" said the squadron commander.

"All is under control, Commander," Vader said.

Several members of the fighter squadron whispered awed oaths into their comms.

"Maintain comm discipline," the squadron leader barked, though Vader could hear the disbelief in his tone, too. "My lord...there are dozens of hijackers aboard that transport."

"Not for much longer, Commander," Vader said. "You are on escort duty now. I will notify you if anything else is required."

A pause, then, "Of course, sir."

The transport's automatic safeties had sealed off the corridor with a blast door, but he knew the codes to override them. He strode through the ruin and entered the code. The huge door slid open, and pressurized air from the hall beyond poured out with a hiss. He stepped through and resealed the door behind him. A few more taps on a wall comp and he'd repressurized the hall. The shrill sound of the transport's hull-breach alarm wailed from wall speakers.

A hatch on the far side of the hall slid open to reveal a purple-skinned Twi'lek man in makeshift armor. Seeing Vader, the Twi'lek's head-tails twitched, his eyes widened in surprise, and he grabbed for the blaster at his belt. By the time the Twi'lek had the blaster drawn and the trigger pulled, Vader had his lightsaber in hand and ignited. He deflected the blaster shot into the wall, raised his off hand, and with it reached out with the Force. He made a pincer motion with his two fingers, using the Force to squeeze closed the Twi'lek's trachea.

The Twi'lek pawed frantically at his throat as Vader's power lifted him off the deck, but to his credit he held on to his weapon, and gagging, dying, he managed to aim and fire his blaster at Vader again and again. Vader simply held his grip on the alien's throat while casually deflecting the blasts into the bulkhead with his lightsaber. Then, not wanting to waste time, he moved his raised hand left and then right, using the Force to smash the Twi'lek into the bulkhead. The impacts shattered bone, and Vader let the body fall to the deck. A voice carried over a comlink on the Twi'lek's belt.

"Tymo! Tymo! What is going on there? Do you copy? Can you hear me?"

Vader deactivated his lightsaber, picked up the comlink, opened the channel, and let the sound of his respirator carry over the connection.

"Who is that?"

Vader answered only with his breathing.

"Tymo, is that you? Are you all right?"

"I'm coming for you now," Vader said.

He crushed the communicator in his fist, reignited his lightsaber, stepped over the dead Twi'lek, and strode into the corridor beyond.



CHAPTER TWO



Cham and Isval shared a look of alarm. They'd heard the communication through the open channel. They knew the sound of the respirator.

"Was that...?" Isval asked.

"Vader," Cham said. "Had to be. Pok?"

"I agree," Pok said. "That had to be Vader."

They knew Vader by reputation.

Silence weighed heavy on the bridge.

"What do we know?" Cham asked Isval in a whisper.

She shook her head, her lekku squirming in agitation. "Not much. Second- and thirdhand stories. I've heard that the regular officers hate him, but the Stormtrooper Corps almost worships him."

"How did he get aboard Pok's ship?"

Isval shrugged. She wasn't pacing. A bad sign. "They say he can do things no being should be able to do. Everyone is terrified of him. This is bad, Cham."

"I know." Cham's eyes followed hers to the viewscreen. They couldn't see the hijacked freighter, of course, but Cham could imagine it in his mind's eye. And now he imagined Vader aboard it.

"Situation, Pok."

For a moment, Pok didn't answer. Perhaps his attention was on something else, then, "Engines are dead, Cham. Weapons are destroyed. We're...boarded somehow. You heard."

"How'd he board?" Cham asked. "Is he alone?"

"I don't know," Pok said, then to someone on the bridge, he added, "I need that information now," then, "Cham, there are twenty-six of us here. We can fight. Make them pay, at least."

"Pok...," Cham began, but Pok spared him the need to say it.

"Don't worry. We won't be taken. My crew knew the risks when they volunteered for this. Unfortunately I can't self-destruct with the engines offline, but I've got a team of my best on the way to the cargo hold. We can use the weapons there as a fail-safe...What? Hold, Cham." Some background chatter that Cham could not make out, then Pok's voice: "Well, raise them. Raise them right now."

A pause, then someone in the background said, "They're not responding, Pok."

Cham muted the comm and said to his engineer, "Keep us hidden and tell me instantly if any of those V-wings so much as heads in our direction."

Cham knew V-wings had little in the way of long-distance sensors, but he had moved the freighter to the edge of the rings. Even the V-wings would pick it up if they got close enough.

"Yes, sir," the engineer said. "They look like they're holding formation around the weapons transport."

"We can't just let him kill himself," Isval said to Cham, her voice tense. "Let's get out there and help them. We can fight our way out."

"They're dead in space," Cham said, and instantly regretted his choice of words.

"Cham-"

Cham ignored her and unmuted the connection. "Pok?"

Pok cleared his throat. His bridge was quiet. "I've lost the team I sent to the hold, Cham. I don't know what...they're not answering their comms. Vader must have intercepted them."

Cham clenched a fist but kept his calm. "Understood."

Isval spoke through clenched teeth, slow for emphasis. "We should help them."

Cham muted the connection and whirled on her, the thread of his patience finally snapping.

"Help them how, Isval? They're without engines and surrounded! Even if we could destroy every V-wing, and you know we can't, it would take time to get them from their ship to ours. There's a Star Destroyer on the way, and some...man is aboard who managed single-handedly to wipe out a group of Pok's best people!"

She held her ground in the face of his outburst. The rest of the crew buried their faces in their stations.

"Vader's not a man," she said tightly. "Not from what I've heard."

"Yes, he is," Cham said, loud enough for the entire bridge crew to hear him. "He has to be. But there's nothing we can do to help that won't end with all of us dead, too. Pok knows it; they all know it. And we all know it." He sagged and looked back at the viewscreen. "We don't like it, but we all know it."

Pok's voice came over the comm. "Cham is right, everyone. We knew the risks. We took them willingly."

Cham cursed. He thought he'd muted the connection. "Pok, I'm sorry." Emotion choked his voice. "I thought..."

"I know," Pok said, and chuckled-actually chuckled. "Is that Isval over there?"

"It is, Pok," she said.

"Still blowing in like a sandstorm, I see," Pok said. "That's good. I'm glad we got to say good-bye. You keep Cham on course, all right? He's too damn principled for his own good."

"It doesn't have to be good-bye," Isval said, and stared at Cham.

"It does and it is. We'll see if we can't kill this Vader first, though. I've got an ambush set up..."

Someone on Pok's bridge crew said, "Blasterfire in the main corridor off the bridge, sir."

For a moment no one spoke on either bridge. Long moments passed. Then there was some talk on Pok's bridge in the background. Cham could not make it out.

"Situation?" Pok asked someone in his bridge crew.

"No one is answering the comm," came the reply.

"How can-There were eight men waiting for him! What is going on out there?"

"Bridge lift is coming up!" another member of Pok's crew said.

Pok spoke into the comm, his breathing audible over the connection, as if he was leaning in close. "Cham, we'll kill Vader and blow the ship. No one will get taken alive."

"Pok...," Cham began.

"It's been an honor," Pok said. "Keep up the fight. All of you."

Someone on Poks bridge shouted, "For a free Ryloth!" and the rest of the bridge crew echoed the cry.

Isval was gripping Cham's arm so hard his hand was growing numb. He stared at the open comm as if it held some secret meaning, some hidden thing he could discern that would save Pok and everyone else. But there was nothing.

The rest of his crew sat in silence at their stations, heads down, listening.

"It's opening!" said someone on Pok's bridge.

A burst of blasterfire carried across the connection, but only for a moment before falling silent.

"There's no one," said a voice. "The lift's empty."

"Check it," Pok ordered. "He's still aboard somewhere-"

A sizzle and hum sounded, shouts, a thump, repeated blasterfire, a prolonged thrum, rising and falling, a series of shouts and screams.

"Pok!" Isval cried. "Pok!"

Cham cursed.

"What's happening over there?" Isval asked. "What's that sound?"

The rising thrum dredged memories from the back of Cham's mind.

"It's a lightsaber," he said. The sound of the blade had been seared into his head during the Clone Wars, when Jedi had wielded them: Jedi doing things, like Vader, that no ordinary being could do. But there were no more Jedi and there was no more Republic. There was only Vader, and the Empire.

Another thump, then another. More alarmed shouts. Only two or three blasters were firing, and in the relative quiet another sound came over the comm: breathing, loud, as though amplified through a speaker or respirator. Vader's breathing.

"What is that? Is that Vader?" Isval asked, her own breath coming rapidly. Cham hurriedly muted the connection on his end.

More shouts, the crash of something heavy, and still the hum of the lightsaber, rising and falling.

"For Ryloth!" Pok shouted, and the sound of rapid blasterfire filled the comm.

The hum of the lightsaber rose and fell, and Cham imagined Vader deflecting the blaster shots with the blade. He'd seen it before. Abruptly the shots stopped. A strangled gasp came over the comm: Pok, choking.

"He's strangling him!" Isval said.

The choking went on for seconds that felt like hours, Vader's amplified breathing the counterpoint to Pok's dying gasps. Cham knew he should cut the connection, but he couldn't. Cutting it would feel like abandoning Pok a second time.

"Tell me what I want to know," said a deep voice, Vader's voice. "And your death will be easier."

They heard a pained gasp and a deep inhalation, followed by Pok cursing Vader in Twi'leki.

"Very well," Vader said.

Pok gagged again, gasped, and went silent. Then a thump sounded, something heavy but soft falling to the deck.

Isval screamed a curse. Cham's heart was a hammer on his ribs, but he said nothing. There was nothing to be said. The only sound was Vader's breathing carrying over the comm.

"Cut if off, Cham!" Isval said.

Cham stared at the comm, open but muted on Cham's end. Vader's breathing grew louder, as if he had picked up the comm to study it or hold it close to his face. The breathing. The breathing.

"Cut it, Cham!" Isval said.

Cham realized he was holding his breath. He seemed unable to breathe.

There was only Vader's respiration, regular as a pendulum. Loud. Ominous.

Cham finally got ahold of himself and exhaled, thinking of Pok, the awful gasps that had been the last sounds his friend had made.

"Your allies are dead," Vader said, and the words made Cham wince.

Isval slammed her hand on the comm, cutting it short.

Silence.

"Cham, we should go," she said. "Right now."



从通讯里见证了维德如同鬼魅一般出现并屠宰了了执行行动那艘飞船里全部抵抗组织战士后，另一艘飞船的查姆等人逃离。

xjtxp

随后皇帝就此次事件召见了奥恩·弗里·塔，在这之前有一段维德回忆与皇帝关于西斯二人法则关系的有趣描写对话：



The Emperor sat on the throne in silence, seemingly lost in thought. But Vader, standing behind the throne, knew better. His Master was never lost in thought. The Emperor's thinking ranged over time and distance in a way not even Vader fully understood, allowing him to anticipate and ** for contingencies that others did not recognize. Vader hoped to learn the technique one day, provided he didn't kill his Master first.

Soon after destroying the Jedi, the Emperor had told Vader that he would one day be tempted to kill him. He'd said that the relationship between Sith apprentice and Master was symbiotic but in a delicate balance. An apprentice owed his Master loyalty. A Master owed his apprentice knowledge and must show only strength. But the obligations were reciprocal and contingent. Should either fail in his obligation, it was the duty of the other to destroy him. The Force required it.

Since before the Clone Wars, Vader's Master had never shown anything but strength, and so Vader intended to show nothing but loyalty. In that way, their mutual rule was secure.

Perhaps Vader would attempt to kill his Master one day. Sith apprentices ordinarily did. They must, if they were trained well. An apprentice was unquestioningly loyal until the moment he wasn't. Both Master and apprentice knew this.

"But our relationship is different, Master," Vader had said then.

"Perhaps," his Master had said. "Perhaps."

Or maybe self-delusion was part of the training a Master instilled in an apprentice.




随后皇帝对奥恩·弗里·塔表示介于目前赖洛思抵抗组织的破坏，奥恩·弗里·塔将与皇帝本人和维德一起乘维德当时的旗舰Perilous前往赖洛思进行访问，并且调查抵抗活动。
维德明白皇帝的用意是以他俩做诱饵，但不明白皇帝为啥这样麻烦，并对皇帝表示怀疑赖洛思高层有反叛支持者不如宁枉勿纵直接杀光奥恩跟他所有助手，但皇帝表示这样治标不治本认为赖洛思内部支持叛乱的势力超出这个范围。随后皇帝指示维德给赖洛思帝国总督Delian Mors发送奥恩访问赖洛思的消息，但暂时隐去自己与维德陪同的相关。


此时查姆与抵抗组织成员Isval（一名女性抵抗战士，她喜欢查姆到死前才说出口，查姆喜欢她到她死也没说出口）从以往的情报源收到皇帝与维德跟奥里一起回赖洛思消息，为了向帝国传递征服赖洛思代价高昂得不偿失的信号，经过激烈争论后他们同意袭击维德旗舰Perilous——一艘帝国级歼星舰。



随后查姆联系了赖洛思帝国方面暗中支持抵抗势力的Belkor Dray上校（事实上他是赖洛思帝国方面的二号人物），在隐瞒皇帝与维德同乘Perilous的情况下要求他帮助攻击Perilous。


这里说下Belkor Dray上校为何热衷支持抵抗运动：
Belkor为人正直善良品格高尚不满帝国对于赖洛思的掠夺与压榨不惜一切帮助赖洛思人民反抗——以上纯属梦话。
前面已经说了，赖洛思的帝国总督是一名女性Delian Mors。这位女士的性取向是百合（也是新正史里第一名女同），在她配偶死后她很消沉外加觉得赖洛思穷乡僻壤当土皇帝都没意思，所以不想管事找了个她开始觉得易于控制的Belkor上校掌管实权，自己宅到赖洛思最大的卫星上去过沉迷吸食香料。
而Belkor上校一心想往上爬，于是跟抵抗组织联手想把赖洛思折腾得局势混乱以显得上司无能，最终想自己上位掌权。


最初Belkor不同意帮助袭击Perilous，但在查姆拿出全息影像装置，显示Belkor参与抵抗组织会议提供他们帝国军队的情况协助袭击香料开采工厂等一批视频资料后，面对只提到奥恩隐瞒了皇帝与维德同乘的查姆威逼Belkor妥协，同意全力帮助。





最终在Belkor用总督的权限代码全力协助下，查姆设好了陷阱等待Perilous的到来。




前往赖洛思的Perilous上，又出现了一段很有意思的维德与海军关系的描写：


* * *



Vader and the Emperor strode onto the central tier of the Perilous's bridge. Royal Guards followed and took flanking positions at the main lift behind them. Crew members scurried around or sat at their stations, all of them about the business of preparing a hyperspace jump for one of the Empire's most sophisticated, powerful starships. Captain Luitt stood near them, but kept a few paces of deck between them. He avoided looking directly at Vader, his discomfort with Vader's presence palpable.

The captain turned to the Emperor, whose face was shrouded in the shadow of his hood. "I trust everything went well aboard the Defiance, my lord."

"Hyperdrive is online and course is set, sir," the helm called, and the information was echoed up to Luitt.

"I'd be honored if you'd give the order, my lord," said Luitt.

"Oh, no, Captain," the Emperor said, waving a hand. "I'm a political leader, not a military one. Proceed as you would normally."

"Engage the hyperdrive," the captain called, and the command caused a ripple of activity to flow along the bridge crew.

Vader felt the faint thrum in the deck as the Perilous's powerful hyperdrive engaged. Stars and the black of space disappeared, replaced by the blue churn of hyperspace.

"En route to Ryloth," called the helm.

"Dim the view," Luitt ordered, and the transparisteel darkened until hyperspace was no longer visible. He turned to the Emperor. "My lord, if you and Lord Vader would prefer to retire to your quarters, I will let you know the instant we arrive in Ryloth's system."

"I think we will remain on the bridge for now, Captain," the Emperor said.

"Very good, sir," said Luitt, pursing his lips under his bristly gray mustache. "It won't be long."

The captain moved off, looking over the shoulders of his crew, issuing orders, and otherwise staying away from Vader. The bridge crew settled into its rhythm.

"I think you make him uncomfortable, Lord Vader," said the Emperor.

Vader made most of the naval officers he encountered uncomfortable. To them, he was a towering dark figure outside their chain of command who had emerged from nowhere and possessed powers they did not understand.

"His discomfort is useful to me," Vader said.

"Underlings should always be uncomfortable in the presence of their superiors," said the Emperor. "Don't you agree?"

Vader understood the question behind the question and answered accordingly. "Yes, my Master."

"Good."



大部分帝国海军军官不喜欢爵爷

这时爵爷头上一没高级星区总督二没元帅，是帝国二号人物——旧正史里高级星区总督不止一个而海军元帅有十多个，他们与爵爷实权差不多虽然名义上比爵爷略低。新正史里目前只有一个高级星区总督与一个帝国陆军元帅，不过高级星区总督被设定为权力在维德之上，陆军元帅至少一度权力高于维德。



这里说一句，旧正史里维德跟帝国方面关系设定：

在1976年最初的EP4官方小说里，设定是帝国普通士兵对于维德如避瘟神，爵爷下个命令他们抢着去干——为了尽可能远离爵爷。

但是后期旧正史里关系逐渐变成高层很不喜欢维德，但维德跟他一起行动的基层士兵佩服崇拜他。《西斯尊主》里爵爷是类似于这种设计，虽然……不久后的《塔金》里爵爷出现拿手下泄愤的糟糕习惯╮(╯3╰)╭
到了某位TCW黑+阿纳金维德黑负责的漫威编剧负责的新正史漫画里，EP4后的官方正史漫画爵爷更是心黑缺德到了推出一帮手下给自己挡枪的地步，算是回归了旧正史EP4官方小说设定。



当Perilous行至赖洛思星系边缘后，查姆等人准备的第一波埋伏出现——一批被安装了推进装置的矿石小行星撞击帝国级。
随后被反抗组织获得并且针对袭击帝国级改装过的一系列克隆人战争存货，从用小行星携带的大批星雷到几百架的秃鹫机器人相继亮相。


在旗舰受到小行星跟改装星雷创伤与威胁的情况下，爵爷驾驶战机到宇宙空间去玩打飞机。
然后此时原力造诣比前传大增的爵爷已经不只是简单的用原力预知感知作弊了，而是直接用原力破坏秃鹫乃至最后被激怒后用原力一击即可秒拆数十架秃鹫：



Vader accelerated and flew directly toward a cloud of them, using his free hand to focus his use of the Force as he approached. A gesture, an exercise of will, and he slammed several of the free-floating buzz droids into one another, where they exploded, clearing his way. He locked on to another vulture droid before it could reach the Perilous, followed it as it veered left, then right, fired, and turned it to a cloud of flames.

As he'd expected, the vulture droids fired as they approached the Star Destroyer, but they did not reduce speed to increase maneuverability. Instead they stayed at maximum acceleration, obviously intending to crash into the ship and release their cargo. Vader destroyed another, then another. But he couldn't get them all, and the surviving vultures slammed into the ship at full speed.



………

With an effort of will and a slight gesture, he tore open the belly compartment of three vultures. The tiny, explosive buzz droids they held poured out into space. Many of the trailing vulture droids, unable to dodge, collided with the scattered buzz droids, and explosions turned dozens of vulture droids and buzz droids to debris.

Vader took hold of another vulture droid's belly and tore it open, then another. Clouds of buzz droids filled space with countless small explosions, wreaking havoc on the vulture droid swarm. Vader flew through and past them, still dodging blasterfire. He wheeled hard about and pursued them as the surviving vulture droids-perhaps only a score-made their way toward the Perilous.


（不过也是这种针对性改装品种的秃鹫机动性差，而且载有蜂鸣机器人炸弹的特点被维德用来取巧）




此时得知Perilous遭到袭击的消息，赖洛思总督Moff Mors此时已经得知皇帝与维德在旗舰上的消息并很惊恐的告知Belkor Dray上校，惊恐的Belkor闻讯后质问查姆，查姆承认并表示你已经在参与其中只能帮我杀掉皇帝与维德。





维德打完飞机回到旗舰，还没有发现旗舰被潜入之前已经大怒指责提列克议员奥恩手下有叛徒，因此想宰了对方但被皇帝阻止：


Vader's growing anger kept him company as the lift rose toward the bridge. The doors slid open to the sights and sounds of a ship in crisis. The ashen-faced crew went about their business professionally, the air filled with the hum of comm chatter and the occasional shouted order. Damage reports came in from all over the Star Destroyer and were relayed to appropriate duty stations in urgent voices, their recitations filling the air with tales of death and fire. Luitt moved among the stations, taking reports, issuing orders, trying to retake control of the situation. A member of the crew ran past Vader and hurried onto the lift.

The Emperor remained where he had been, standing on the central raised tier of the bridge. Orn Free Taa stood near him, staring down into the crew pits and tilting his head to see the various viewscreens there.

Eyes turned to Vader as he walked toward the central tier. Without breaking stride, he used the Force to take hold of Orn Free Taa. He lifted the obese Twi'lek from the floor and hung him in the air before the Emperor. Taa, wide-eyed, his many chins trembling, pawed at his throat and gasped for air. Vader took care not to kill him...yet.

"Lord Vader returns," the Emperor said. "You seem displeased, old friend."

Vader released his hold on Taa, and the Twi'lek fell hard to the deck. Vader stepped to the Emperor's side, looming over the prone Taa. He pointed a finger at the Twi'lek.

"There's a traitor on your staff, Senator. And that traitor is responsible for what has transpired here."

The words seemed to so shock Taa that he could muster no reply. He massaged his throat and scurried back a bit from Vader.

"What is this now?" Luitt asked, taking the corrugated stairs two at a time from a lower deck. "This alien scum is a traitor?"

Grunting, breathing heavily, Taa struggled to his feet. His eyes went from Luitt, to Vader, to the Emperor, pleading.

"Not him, no," the Emperor said. "But one or more members of his staff."

"My Emperor," Taa said, his voice rough from Vader's Force choke, "Lord Vader, I had no idea. If I had..." He sniffed, stood up straight. "I vow to find the traitors behind this foul attack and-"

"Oh, I believe you," the Emperor said dismissively. "But that hardly mitigates your fault, Senator. You had a traitor on your staff and were ignorant of it."

The Emperor signaled the Royal Guards, and they stepped to the senator's side.

Taa's chins quivered. He looked as though he might weep. His squinty eyes flicked from the guards to Vader to the Emperor. "My Emperor, if only you could..."

To Luitt, the Emperor said, "Restrict all of the senator's staff to their quarters and deny them access to communications equipment or computer terminals. Present this as ordinary practice in situations of this kind. Lord Vader will interrogate them when we reach Ryloth."

Vader looked forward to the opportunity.

The Emperor turned back to Taa. "Senator, I trust I can count on your assistance in all things Ryloth for the foreseeable future? With the spice and slave trade, and the Free Ryloth movement? Harsher measures may be required to quell the difficulties on your **et. I think if my orders came out of your mouth, the people would accept them more readily. Do you agree?"

"Of...of course, my Emperor," Taa said.

"In the meantime, I trust you'll remain here with Lord Vader and me? It's fascinating to watch broken things get pieced back together."

Taa didn't bother to respond.



皇帝表示介于如今的错误奥恩应该会主动帮助强化帝国对于赖洛思的统治吧，死里逃生的奥恩忙不迭的应允。





然而爵爷打完了飞机，但反抗战士真正破坏帝国级的一招却不是外部袭击。
可能约有百名（不确定）抵抗组织成员伪装成维修人员在歼星舰受损后登录Perilous，分散起来开始从内部制造破坏歼星舰：

* * *



"Captain," called the bridge communications officer, and something in his tone drew Vader's attention. "Sir, we're getting reports of a firefight on Deck Seventeen, and some explosions in Bay Twelve forward."

"A firefight?" Luitt asked. "How can we have a firefight?"

The comm officer put his hand to his earpiece, nodding, then said, "Sir, it's one of the repair crews. Twi'leks. The explosions, too, appear to be intentionally set. I have reports of multiple additional casualties. Security teams are en route."

Vader saw it then. The attack by the droid fighters, as bad as it had been, had been a ruse, or only half the **. The Free Ryloth movement was more resourceful than either he or the Emperor had imagined.

"Tell your security teams to kill every Ryloth repair team on board," he said, the words silencing the bridge crew. He turned and strode for the lift.

Luitt called after him. "Lord Vader, there are almost a hundred teams aboard! My Emperor?"

"One hundred teams seems a manageable number," the Emperor said, his eyes not on the captain but on Vader.

"Give the order, Captain," Vader said. "Kill them all."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

The lift doors closed before Vader's face. He headed for Deck 17.



* * *















等爵爷发现超空间引擎被破坏，旗舰即将毁灭后狂怒，一边通知帝国军方弃舰一边猎杀剩余的抵抗组织成员：






Isval shoved her team toward the narrow hatch that led to the docked ship-an escort boat, she saw. Eshgo would be able to fly it.

"Go! Go!"

Drim stumbled and fell. Isval helped him up, and as she did she glanced back the way they'd come. She could not halt a gasp. Far down the corridor, she saw Vader leap down from a walkway ten meters above the deck. He hit the ground in a crouch, the red line of what could only be his lightsaber clutched in his fist.

"Come on, Isval!" Faylin said, tugging her shirt.

"That's him," Isval said, her voice robotic.

Faylin pulled her shirt. "Him who? It's time to go, Isval!"

But Isval thought of Pok, and had no intention of leaving. She'd gotten her team out. Her work was done.

"Get aboard and get it fired up," she said to Faylin. "Go now."

"Isval...," Eshgo said.

"Get it fired up!" she said, and drew her blasters.

Vader was forty meters from her. He stood up straight, towering over the crew near him. He was looking right at her, his lightsaber held at his side, and she could feel the weight of his regard pressing against her like a punch. He exploded into motion, moving toward her at preternatural speed, his strides devouring the deck space between them. Crew scrambled out of the way at his approach, his dark form knifing through them.

She raised her blasters and took aim, shooting as fast as she could pull the triggers, scribing the air between them with lines of red energy. Vader didn't slow his sprint and his lightsaber was a blur as he came on, deflecting her shots in all directions. A few came back at her. One hit the pallet and sent tools skittering along the deck. Another scorched the bulkhead beside her, but still she fired.

The crew in the corridor panicked, scrambling in all directions. An officer got in Vader's way, slowing his approach for a moment, and Vader tossed him aside with his free hand as if the man weighed no more than a child.

"Isval!" Eshgo said from behind her.

Vader was twenty meters and closing.

She was shouting, firing, but her shots could not get past the line of his lightsaber. She didn't understand how it was possible, until her own words came back to her: Vader was not a man.

But she refused to stop, she couldn't.

"For Pok!" she shouted with each shot. "For Pok!"

Six minutes said the computer. Vader closed to ten meters. She fired again and again and again, screaming. Blaster shots from somewhere else in the corridor pinged off the bulkhead-stormtroopers, maybe.

Strong arms wrapped her from behind, picked her up off the deck-Eshgo.

"Stop!" she yelled, trying to twist her body in his grasp so she could keep firing. "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving your life!" he said, and carried her through the docking port door as blasterfire slammed into the jambs.

The moment he got her on the other side, he set her down, punched a button, and the huge hatch slid closed. She turned, teeth gritted, and caught a last glimpse of Vader before the door blocked her view-still rushing toward them, blade in hand, cape flowing out behind him.

She reached for the control panel, thinking to hit the button to reopen the hatch, but Eshgo shot the panel with a blaster.

She whirled on him, her fists clenched around her blasters, standing on her tiptoes to put her nose to his.

"You had no right-"

"You saw what I saw! He's not going down to blasterfire, Isval! He'd have cut you in half!"

As if to make the point, the energized blade of Vader's lightsaber burst through the hatch, just missing Eshgo's abdomen. They bounded back out of reach as the heat from the weapon started to redden the metal.

They stared at each other for a moment, breathing into each other's faces.

"You're right," she said, slumping. "I know you're right. But don't disobey an order again. Come on."

They piled into the escort boat. Drim already had the engines online. He gave way to Eshgo, who took the pilot's seat while Isval strapped into the copilot's chair.

"Who or what was that?" Faylin said.

"Vader," Isval said. "Vader."

Faylin cursed and Isval could only agree.

"Disengaging docking clamp," Eshgo said, and the boat floated free of the doomed Star Destroyer. "We're away. And there's Ryloth."

As the ship swung around, Isval looked out the viewport. Ryloth loomed large against the dark of space. The Perilous had covered an enormous amount of distance while they'd been aboard. The Star Destroyer would burn up overlooking the **et the Empire cruelly oppressed. Isval thought it appropriate.

Hundreds of escape pods and a mix of other ships, including a few dozen V-wings, dotted space around the Perilous. Some would land on the nearest moon. Some would land on Ryloth. And some would not get clear in time. The blast radius of the Perilous would be huge, given the detonation's provenance in the hyperdrive.

"Not too far," she said to Eshgo.

"What? We have to get far-"

"Do as I say," she said, and he didn't dare disobey her again.

She needed to get Cham on the comm.



* * *



Vader had lost the saboteurs.

The computer announced six minutes remaining.

Vader deactivated his lightsaber, drew on the Force, and hurried for the Emperor's shuttle in the forward landing bay. The corridors were emptying rapidly as the last of the crew evacuated. By the time he reached the shuttle bay, he was moving through a ghost ship.

Fires still burned here and there in the bay. The Emperor's shuttle sat on its pad, the engines already primed, and Vader sprinted up the gang**k to find his Master calm and seated in the passenger area of the ship, flanked by the red-robed and armored members of the Royal Guard. His Master touched a button on his chair.

"You may launch," the Emperor said to the pilot, and the shuttle immediately lifted off. "Sit down, old friend," he said to Vader.

"Senator Taa?" Vader asked.

The Emperor made a dismissive gesture. "Oh, I'm sure he's waddled himself to safety somehow. Rats always find their way off sinking ships."



* * *




对于喜欢比较武力的人来说，这本小说很重要的一点就是——显示出EP3五年之后的爵爷一点也不慢，能够长时间用原力加速维持超自然的运动速度。

razielzyc

也就是说以后我们可以期待 天元突破一般的战斗场面么。

xjtxp

此时上了贼船干脆一不做二不休的Belkor Dray诱骗Delian Mors总督前去现场参与救援皇帝与维德，同时设计袭击总督导致她的飞船坠毁



CHAPTER TEN



The comm overhead crackled and Breehld, Mors's pilot, said, "Ma'am, uh, I've just received word." A long pause that Mors did not like. "The Perilous is gone."

Mors rose from her seat. "What do you mean 'gone'?"

A pause, then, "Apparently she's been destroyed, ma'am. Between the orbit of the first moon and Ryloth. That's the word I received from Ryloth Control."

Mors sagged back into her seat and swallowed hard. To her knowledge, an Imperial Star Destroyer had never before been destroyed. And now one had, above the **et she was administering, by a rebel movement that she was supposed to suppress.

Whatever had been left of her career before today had been blown to bits with the Perilous.

Though her shuttle was on the other side of the **et, she looked out the viewport half expecting to see parts of the Star Destroyer floating out there. She couldn't quite fathom how things had gotten to this point.

Yes, she could. She'd trusted Belkor too much. She'd relied on the man and been let down.

With her comlink she raised Belkor.

"Ma'am, I'm managing a lot down here at the moment." The colonel's voice sounded high-pitched and stressed over the connection.

Mors sputtered. "You're managing a lot? You?"

"The Perilous is gone, ma'am. But Vader and the Emperor escaped. There are many survivors, in fact. I've instructed your pilot to-"

"You what?"

"-to divert and assist in rescuing the Emperor and Lord Vader."

"Why isn't the area already filled with V-wings and rescue ships? What are you doing down there, Belkor?"

"Ma'am, we have limited ships, and getting them too close to the Perilous before her explosion seemed imprudent. I'm launching them now."

A headache began in Mors's left temple, a spike of pain she hadn't felt since the days she'd actually cared about her job. She held the comlink up to her mouth and spoke through gritted teeth.

"You are to do nothing more, Colonel, without first consulting me. Is that understood?"

A pause, then, "Yes, ma'am."

"You will answer to me for all of your failures the moment I set foot on Ryloth. Is that understood?"

A very long pause, then, "Yes, ma'am."

Mors cut the link, seething. She'd been too hands-off for years, letting Belkor run amok on Ryloth. She needed to at least give the appearance of running things. An investigation would be coming. Punishment would be coming.

Mors's sole chance at redeeming the situation, at least partially, was to find and bring the Emperor and Lord Vader safely to Ryloth's surface. If she did, perhaps she could maintain her station. She could put the blame for her inability to suppress the Free Ryloth movement on Belkor, blame the promising but underperforming officer for the missteps that had led to the destruction of a Star Destroyer. Mors would be held accountable for being a bad judge of character, a bit too willing to overlook the flaws in a subordinate, but perhaps she could skirt the worst of it.

She had no other course. To Breehld, she said, "Get us around the **et as fast you can, Breehld."

"Aye, ma'am."

The shuttle accelerated to full, speeding around Ryloth, chasing the ruins of the Perilous.



* * *





………



* * *



Mors looked out the viewport and gasped when she saw the scope of the destruction. Chunks of metal, some larger than her shuttle, floated everywhere. Escape pods and even V-wings without power floated free among the debris.

"Where are the rescue ships?" Mors asked herself. "Damn you, Belkor."

Debris spattered the ship's hull.

Breehld's voice came over the comm. "Ships incoming, ma'am."

"The rescue ships? How many?"

"No, ma'am. Scan is strange. I think they're old droid tri-fighters?"

"They're what? Never mind. Do you have the Emperor's shuttle?"

"Have it on the scanner, ma'am."

"Hail them."

"Very good-Wait...Ma'am, there's an escort boat coming at us on an attack vector."

Mors figured if the rebels had vultures and tri-fighters, they might also have repurposed Imperial escort ships.

"Take evasive action," she said. She threw herself in a seat but fumbled the straps.

Breehld, no doubt assuming she was strapped, slammed the ship hard to port. Mors was flung across the cabin and crashed hard into the bulkhead, knocking the wind from her.



* * *


………

An impact rocked the shuttle, throwing Mors hard against the bulkhead, driving the breath from her lungs. Alarms wailed. She lifted herself to all fours, breathing hard.

"Breehld," she said, but he didn't respond. "Status."

Breehld was presumably too engaged in maneuvering the ship to answer. The shuttle swung hard down and up. Red lines streaked past the starboard portholes. Another impact struck the rear of the ship; a secondary explosion followed, larger than the impact, one or more engines going up. The lights died in the cabin and the ship bucked, flinging Mors around the cabin. She hit her head hard against one of the cabin's chairs. She gasped with pain and her vision blurred. Blood poured from her opened scalp and into her eyes.

"Breehld! Breehld!"

Smoke leaked into the cabin from somewhere, stinging her eyes. The alarms seemed to be growing fainter-either that or she was fading. She pawed at the chair, surprised to see blood on her hand, and tried to pull herself up. Whoever was shooting at them would be coming around for another pass. She didn't know if the deflectors were still operating. If not...

Dizziness allowed her to rise only partially before she sagged back to the deck.

"Breehld," she said, her voice sounding oddly distant.

The engines went offline and the ship went hard right and down. The smoke thickened. The lights went out entirely. Coughing, gagging, losing consciousness, she realized they were going down. She wondered what had happened to the backup power.





维德在弃舰时与Isval等人隔着宇宙空间遭遇，本来想直接掐死对方但因为皇帝的备用穿梭机不灵活遭遇撞击，Isval死里逃生。



在穿梭机遭遇撞击迫降时，维德一边操控降落想起了欧比万帕德梅阿索卡等人，最终在赖洛思星球迫降。
此时逃生梭上生还者是：皇帝一只，爵爷一只，红衣皇家卫兵两只（其实本来还有个重伤的卫兵，被皇帝下令卫兵打死）



随后，Belkor想着要保证皇帝维德总督都死掉，反抗组织想着杀皇帝与维德，双方一起干扰破坏了赖洛思星球星球通讯。
反抗组织使用两艘大型提列克武装货船到逃生梭坠落地点追杀皇帝与维德。










* * *



The generator hummed to life and the dish on the portable communications array started to turn as it sought an uplink.

"We'll have a connection in moments, Lord Vader," the captain of the Royal Guard said.

"Use the Emperor's personal frequency. Arrange for immediate-"

Vader sensed it before he could see it. He looked sharply at his Master, saw him staring up at the sky, at two rapidly approaching lights descending from altitude-ships, Vader knew. Perhaps they'd seen the fire.

"Ships incoming, my lords," said one of the Royal Guards. He held field magnifiers to his helmet's lenses. "Not Imperial. A pair of Twi'lek freighters, I think. Should I fire a flare, my lords?"

"I don't think that will be necessary," the Emperor said with a hard smile.

The ships closed the distance rapidly, their clunky, disk-shaped silhouettes coming into clear focus as they neared.

Vader activated his lightsaber and stepped in front of his Master.



* * *



…………




* * *



The freighters completed a slow flyover, then turned and headed back toward the campsite. As they did, they accelerated and descended at a flat angle.

"I think perhaps they've seen what they wanted to see," the Emperor observed.

Noses down, the freighters began firing from blaster cannons mounted on the top and bottom of the ships, long red lines that exited the ship in superheated pulses. Trees one hundred meters from Vader and the Emperor exploded into splinters under the onslaught, and the lines cut a rapid path along the clearing toward them, putting a patchwork of smoking holes in the earth, closing in on Vader.

One with the Force, Vader held his ground and tensed for impact. Then he exploded into motion, his lightsaber humming as he spun it rapidly left and right, deflecting the powerful blaster shots off into the forest, shattering still more trees, destroying the tents, but sparing the communications array. The kinetic energy from the shots drove him backward, his boots putting furrows in the soft soil.

The Royal Guards, momentarily taken by surprise, recovered enough to **t blaster rifles against their shoulders. They fired at the freighters as the large ships sped over and past them, but the personal weapons did no harm to the shielded and armored ships.

"We should take cover in the trees, my lords!" said the captain.

"I think not," the Emperor said softly, watching the ships wheel about.

"They will come in lower this time," Vader said.

"I believe you're correct," the Emperor said. He removed his robe, took the elaborately crafted hilt of his lightsaber in hand, and ignited the blade.

Vader looked on in surprise. He seldom saw his Master so publicly demonstrate his power. And he understood what it meant, of course. There must be no survivors who could bear witness. Only the Royal Guards could be allowed to live-only they could be trusted never to reveal what they'd seen, or even to talk about it among themselves.

The freighters completed their turn and accelerated back toward the clearing, their engines screaming in the otherwise quiet air. The Royal Guards shifted position to stand before the Emperor, partially shielding him with their bodies, and fired as rapidly as they could at the oncoming ships. They hit the ships again and again, but the tiny bolts did no damage.

Vader sank more deeply into the Force. Beside him, he felt his Master's power gather. He reveled in the moment, in the combined pool of their collective, unadulterated might.

The freighters opened fire, writing thick lines of plasma onto the air. The shots churned the ground, destroyed trees, heated the air of the clearing; one slammed into the chest of a Royal Guard and vaporized all of him save for his helmet.

Lost in the Force, Vader anticipated the shots that would have hit him, saw the appropriate angles of impact and deflection, and used the rapid spinning of his lightsaber to turn first one, then a second, and then a third shot not into the tree line but back at the ships, the heat and energy of the blaster shots driving him backward, warming the hilt of his weapon, a heat he could feel even through his glove. His Master did the same with his lightsaber, the graceful arcs of its red line weaving a protective shield around him and turning the second ship's shots back at it. Both ships tried to turn out of the way of the redirected shots, one turning hard left, the other hard right, but they only exposed their underbellies and engines to the deflected bolts.

Engines exploded into flame and spit smoke. His Master raised his hands, forming one into a claw emitting jagged bolts of Force lightning that connected him for a moment to the ship. Vader imagined the interior of the craft lit up with the bolts of his Master's power, the pilots screaming and writhing in pain as the dark side seared their flesh. The Emperor clenched his other hand, taking a mental hold on the ship with the Force. Vader, too, lifted a hand and reached out with the Force toward the other ship.

Vader enmeshed himself in the Force, in his seething, ever-present wrath, and used it to take hold of the freighter and drive the entire ship toward the ground. He grunted with the effort, his respirator increasing his rate of breathing to account for the exertion.

The ship, its damaged engines unable to compensate enough against the downward push of Vader's power, went nose-down and streaked into the ground. Vader imagined the screams of the pilots as they watched the forest race toward them. The ship disappeared behind the tree line and exploded into a fireball that reached above the forest's canopy and caused the ground to vibrate. A cloud of black smoke rose into the darkening sky. A second boom sounded behind him, his Master having driven the second ship into the ground the same way. The forest went silent for a moment in the wake of the explosions, with only Vader's breathing to disrupt the quiet, before the howls and chirps and squeals of Ryloth's fauna returned. Vader, his Master, and the two Royal Guards stood untouched amid the smoking craters of blasterfire that pockmarked the terrain. The Royal Guards gazed at Vader, at his Master, and Vader imagined the looks of wonder they must have under their helmets. They knew the Emperor had power, though Vader doubted they'd ever seen it so nakedly displayed.

"You," Vader said to the nearest.

"Sergeant Deez, my lord," said the guard, and bowed his head.

"Check the wreckage of those ships, Sergeant Deez. If there are any survivors, bring them to me."

"Yes, Lord Vader," Deez said. He slung his blaster rifle and sprinted off into the forest.

To the captain, Vader said, "Get on the communications array. Contact our forces."

His Master put a hand on Vader's armored shoulder, the power in his touch a palpable weight.

"It seems the traitors found us," the Emperor said. "It appears you were right, Lord Vader. We're being hunted."

"I offer again that I think we should move from this place," Vader said.

"I agree, my friend."

The captain of the Royal Guards, attempting to activate the communications array, called, "My lords, I can't get a signal. It doesn't make sense. The **etwide network would have to be down for there to be dead air like this."

Vader strode over to the array, listened to the intermittent bursts of static, and understood the implications right away.

"It's jammed," he said. He turned to his Master. "More of them will be coming."

His Master chuckled. "It appears, then, that the hunt is just beginning."

Before long, Sergeant Deez returned and reported no survivors. Vader had expected as much. But he also expected he'd get another chance, and soon, to take one of the rebels alive.



* * *



面对武装货船的远距离炮击，维德进行防御。
随后皇帝首次出展示了自己远胜当年EP3时期的原力造诣，皇帝与维德联手维德在皇帝原力闪电攻击的帮助下将其中一艘武装货船拉掷扔在地下导致飞船爆炸摧毁，皇帝则独立对另一艘武装货船如法炮制。

再说一遍：
这可不是义军里俩判官拉的那小玩意

xjtxp

随后维德的思维中再次闪现出杜库、温杜、帕德梅、欧比万被自己屠杀的绝地幼徒等的影像和声音，帕尔帕廷也发现了这点。
此时周围地动山摇，至少数百只Lylek怪兽包围的四人




Lylek怪兽的旧正史形象见下面的图：








新正史设定中这玩意的甲壳外骨骼能够抵挡爆能枪攻击——旧正史没这设定，数百这玩意来到爵爷与帕皇的无双正式开始：




Vader sensed it, a hostile, hungry wave coursing toward them through the thick forest. The Royal Guards broke through the tree line at a full run, blaster rifles hanging from their hands. The sergeant had lost his helmet, and his eyes were wide and white in the mask of his tattoos. The ground vibrated slightly, and the foliage behind them shook as whatever was in pursuit charged hard after them. The captain stumbled as he ran but managed to keep his feet. He waved for Vader and the Emperor to retreat.

"Run, my lords!" the captain shouted, his voice muffled by his helmet. "We need a more defensible position!"

"Defensible from what?" Vader asked, igniting his lightsaber.

"Lyleks, my lord! More than-"

Vader heard them then, the insectoid clicking and hissing of Ryloth's apex predator carried on the wind. From the sound he judged there to be a dozen or so of the huge creatures, all tearing through the forest and closing fast.

"Lyleks," the Emperor said. "Interesting."

"My lords!" the captain said as he reached them, gasping. "They'll be on us in moments! We should move!"

Deez aimed his blaster rifle back at the trees. "Seconds only, Captain," he said tensely.

Vader activated his saber and took position beside the Emperor. Seeing this, the sergeant and the captain stood near the Emperor, too, rifles ready. They didn't have long to wait.

The lyleks burst through the trees, huge insectoid creatures that bounding over logs, the pair of tentacles near their mandibles squirming. Seeing Vader, the Emperor, and the guards, they hissed and rushed forward.

The guards fired, their rifles writing red streaks in the air. The bolts struck the lyleks but bounced off their carapaces, deflecting into the trees.

Vader raised his hand, seized one of the leading lyleks with the Force, and flung it sideways into the trees. It struck a tree trunk as thick around as a man, and its ridged, spiked carapace cracked open, leaving it squirming helplessly at the base of the tree.

Beside Vader, his Master gestured with both hands and jagged lines of Force lightning shot forth, striking two of the foremost lyleks, lifting the creatures from the ground and driving them backward, tumbling, hissing, screaming in agony, dying.

When his Master ended the lightning, he drew his lightsaber and he and Vader moved forward as one, each protecting the other as they twisted and spun out of the way of the lyleks' tentacles and snapping mandibles, slashing and severing legs, tentacles, heads. In moments the forest was still and Vader and his Master stood back-to-back in the midst of the carnage. Both deactivated their weapons. The sergeant and the captain simply stared at them, their blaster rifles hanging uselessly from their gloved hands.

The Emperor cocked his head, as though hearing something from far away. "There are more."

Alerted, Vader attuned himself to the Force. He felt them coming.

"Many more," his Master said.

"This terrain is poor for a stand against so many, Master," Vader said, feeling the lylek horde draw closer. A rushing sound came from the forest, like an incoming tide. "There are hundreds," he added, hearing the snapping of limbs, the hisses of the lyleks, the insectoid chittering. "At least."

"Agreed," the Emperor said absently, his voice as calm as still water. "Let's find a more suitable spot to face these creatures, Captain."

The captain sagged with relief. "Yes, my lord. Follow me." To Deez, he said, "Take the rear, Sergeant."

With that the captain turned and bolted through the forest, leaping logs and skirting tree trunks. Vader deactivated his lightsaber, and he and his Master kept pace. Vader noticed that the forest had quieted around them. There was only his breathing and the distant clicking and chittering of the pursuing horde, the snapping of wood, the low rumble of the lyleks' collective tread. They were gaining.

"I don't see any of them yet," Deez said.

"They're still coming," Vader said. He presumed the lyleks could smell them somehow, or had a keen sense of hearing, or used some other sense to hunt.

The four men broke into a clearing covered in low grass and brush and dashed across it. The exhausted breathing of the Royal Guards now sounded as loud to Vader as his respirator. He still felt the lyleks behind them, their numbers growing as their bloodlust drew more of their kind. He imagined a horde could clear the fauna from a few square miles of forest.

"Hurry, my lords!" the captain said.

They'd almost crossed the clearing by the time the lyleks broke through the tree line behind them.

"There they are!" Deez said.

Vader spared a glance back to see that two score lyleks at least had burst out of the trees, a clicking wall of spiked exoskeletons, tentacles, and mammoth jaws. More followed, more, the horde boiling out of the trees. They clambered over one another in their hunger, a tangle of limbs and claws and clicks.

The creatures saw them right away, of course, and uttered a collective hiss and eager clicking. Their thick limbs and great weight threw up chunks of soil and dirt as they lumbered across the clearing. The four men reached the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing and plunged once more into the tangle of trunks and roots.

"Look for a cliff or a tunnel," Vader said calmly. "A place where we can channel their attack."

"They're closing!" Deez cried, looking back. He fired behind him with his blaster rifle. "Shots bounce off the carapaces!"

The Emperor gestured with a free hand, using the Force to topple trees. They fell into the horde, crushing lyleks, knocking down other trees that crushed still more. The survivors clambered over the dead without pausing, continuing their frenetic pursuit.

The captain drew one of the grenades he carried, activated it, and tossed it behind them at the horde. It exploded a couple of seconds later, the boom reverberating through the forest, toppling another tree, and causing shrieks of pain among the lyleks.

"Go right, Captain," the Emperor said. "One hundred meters from here there is a tunnel."

The captain did not question, though Vader wondered how his Master knew. The captain angled right as the lyleks closed from behind, their huge bodies snapping trees as they came. The distance between the four men and the horde shrank, and both guards fired their rifles one-handed as they ran, the shots blowing off parts of tree trunks and striking lyleks but not slowing the overall advance of the horde.

They reached a steep ravine and the guards started down the side, stumbling and grabbing at roots to stay upright as they descended. Vader and the Emperor leapt down from the top. A creek bisected the ravine; the opposite side was a steep wall of rocks and tree roots and soil that extended as far as they could see to the left and right. The lyleks were still coming.

"Where, my Emperor?" the captain asked. "I don't see a tunnel anywhere."

The lead lyleks from the horde poured over the side of the ravine, long limbs digging into the soil, tentacles grabbing at branches and roots as they scrambled down.

Vader activated his lightsaber and stood beside the Emperor, eyeing the side of the ravine for the tunnel. Meanwhile the captain and Deez shot at everything that moved, their blasterfire lighting up the darkness. Lyleks hissed and chittered.

"Heads!" Deez exclaimed as he fired. "A head shot puts them down!"

More lyleks came over the side, more, until they looked like a seething avalanche tumbling down the hill.

"There!" Vader said, finally spotting the opening, a dark oval low on the face of the valley wall, perhaps two meters tall, and partially blocked by exposed tree roots as thick as an arm.

"Go, Sergeant," the captain said to Deez as they all backpedaled quickly toward the tunnel entrance. "Then the Emperor, then Lord Vader. I bring up the rear. Go!"

The lyleks rolled toward them, clambering over one another as they came, the pedipalps at either side of their large mouths waving spasmodically, as if already shoveling flesh into their jaws. Half a dozen lylek carcasses hung in the roots along the side of the ravine, but the rest kept coming.

The captain's blaster rifle dropped one with a shot to the head, then another, but the creatures just kept pounding forward. Ten or more had reached the ravine's bottom and clambered wildly toward the men, tentacles squirming, jaws working.

Vader raised a hand, fell into the Force, and loosed a blast of power that slammed into the lyleks on the ravine's floor, driving them backward, partially back up the ravine's side, and into those that came behind, turning the creatures' advance into a chaotic scramble of limbs and agitated clicking. They tore at one another in their frustrated frenzy.

Deez ducked into the darkness of the tunnel, followed by the Emperor, followed by Vader, who deactivated his lightsaber, and finally by the captain, who backed in, still firing as he retreated. The tunnel, as black as pitch, went back only a meter before opening into a large cavern that had openings to the left and right and center.

"The hillside must be honeycombed with these!" Deez said.

"Keep going!" the captain said over his shoulder, still firing out through the mouth of the tunnel. "Move, move!"

"No," Vader said, reigniting his lightsaber. "This is where we stand."

There was movement in the growth at the tunnel's mouth, and then a lylek lurched through, snapping roots, all teeth and hisses, only half a meter from the captain. Vader pushed the captain aside, bounded forward, and drove the blade of his lightsaber into the creature's mouth and out the top of its head. The huge carcass collapsed. Behind it, dozens more lyleks scrambled to get in around their fallen fellow. Vader bowed his head, raised his hand, and loosed a blast of power, eliciting squeals of pain and sending the lyleks flying backward.

"Back away," the Emperor commanded, and Vader and the captain fell back.

The Emperor gestured casually, and the tunnel's ceiling came down in a shower of rock and dirt. The sound of frustrated hisses and roars carried through the rubble. The four men stood in the light of Vader's lightsaber. He deactivated it, casting them in darkness. The captain turned on his helmet lights.

"Listen," Deez said, cocking his head. "I think something is down there." He nodded at the left-hand tunnel.

Vader reached out with the Force, felt the lyleks coming at them down the side tunnel.

"You're correct, Sergeant," he said.

"We shouldn't make our stand here, my lords," said the captain. "They'll be coming at us from both directions."

The lyleks were getting closer, their clicks and hisses growing louder. Deez pulled one of the grenades he carried. Vader grabbed him by the wrist to stop him.

"You could collapse the tunnels," he said.

Deez looked embarrassed. "Right. Of course, Lord Vader."

"Please, my Emperor," said the captain, gesturing down the central tunnel.

"He's right, Master," said Vader. "We should continue."

xjtxp

面对大批Lylek怪兽的出现，皇帝与维德开始转进——真是转进

他们转进到了Lylek怪兽挖掘的巢穴里——这巢穴的范围有十几公里，开始进行屠杀行动：





"Agreed," the Emperor said, and they turned and hurried into the winding central tunnel, which sloped downward, widening as they went. They'd covered maybe two hundred meters, moving ever deeper underground, when they heard the first sounds of the lyleks' pursuit coming from behind them. Rock formations dotted the floor and thick clumps of crystal hung from the ceiling of the tunnel, but there was nothing that would have made for a defensible pocket. The chitters and hisses bounced off the stone, seeming to race ahead of them.

"They're faster than us in this terrain," Deez said. "We're going to have to turn and fight."

As the lyleks closed on them, the tunnel seemed to hum under the force of their tread. Soon Vader could hear the clatter of their exoskeletons as they ran over the stone.

"They are almost upon us," he said. The captain fell back, taking station with Deez at the rear, between the Emperor and the horde. Vader ignited his lightsaber to provide at least some additional light.

"Here they come!" the captain said, and started firing wild one-handed shots over his shoulder.

"I see them!" said Deez, and started firing, too.

Lyleks squealed and hissed.

"You may use your grenades," Vader said. The cavern was wide enough to endure the blast without collapsing.

Both guards immediately activated and tossed grenades; five seconds later the tunnel behind them reverberated with the sound of the explosions, lylek screams, and the rumble of falling stone. The blast wave roared from the confines of the tunnel. Vader and the Emperor used the Force to deflect the bulk of the wave from them, but the power of it drove the two Royal Guards face-first into the floor, their armor scraping along the stone.

Vader turned and used the Force to lift both guards to their feet. Deez was bleeding from the nose and looked stunned.

"We won't slow for you again," Vader said. "The horde is still coming."

As if to make his point, the sounds of the pursuing lyleks rose up from behind, clicking, hisses, and squeals.

Vader took position beside his Master as the four of them continued down the tunnel. He sought a place where they could stop and hold their ground, but the tunnel went on and on, not narrowing, with its downward slope diving ever deeper into the **et.

Drawing on the Force as he ran, he gestured at the ceiling and took hold of several large chunks of crystal stalactites. He rocked them loose with his power, then let them dangle there, waiting for the vibration of the passing horde to cause them to fall.

The tunnel wound left and right as they descended, but Vader saw no side tunnels. Just the single tube continuing to burrow into Ryloth's crust.

From behind came the boom of falling rock-the crystals Vader had loosened-and the squeals of crushed lyleks. Yet still they came, the horde seemingly unbreakable. And they were still closing.

At the end of a long, sloped straightaway, Vader let the rest of the group run on while he stopped to look back. His helmet reflected the meager light projected by his lightsaber and he saw the horde enter the far end of the tunnel, an ocean of legs, tentacles, and mandibles, saw them scrabble over and around the stalagmites that dotted the floor. The beat of their armored, pointed legs put small pits in the stone. Some of them clambered along the walls like giant arachnids, coating the surface of the tunnel behind them. Their tentacles waved as they scurried, jaws working as if already masticating flesh. Vader could not escape the feeling that he was being steered, perhaps by the lyleks, or perhaps by his Master.

He fell deeply into the Force and loosed a wave of power from his outstretched hand that filled the circumference of the tunnel. The blast slammed into the charging horde, cracking exoskeletons, shattering stalagmites, and driving a score or more of the lyleks in the lead backward in a shower of broken bodies and broken stone. They squealed and chittered and flailed, and the lyleks following after scrambled over the fallen and wounded, their eyes fixed on Vader.

Vader was prepared to meet them all, slaughter every one of them then and there, but his Master's voice from up the tunnel pulled him around.

"Come, Lord Vader!"

He deactivated his lightsaber, turned, and hurried forward, using the Force to augment his speed and catch up with the other three.

"What happened?" Deez asked, but Vader ignored him. When he reached his Master's side, he voiced his thoughts.

"Yes," the Emperor agreed. "The beasts are herding us-unintentionally, I think."

"Herding us to where?" Vader asked.

"We'll soon know," the Emperor said. "I think we should prepare ourselves."

They hustled through the tunnel, which had finally started to narrow.

"There's light ahead," the captain said. "Look!"

Vader saw it, a dim, green glow coming through a circular opening about a meter and a half in diameter. Soon the tunnel gave way to a large cavern thirty meters across, a hemispherical cyst in the **et. They stood in the opening, five meters up on the wall of the cyst. Clusters of glowing crystal sprouted from the walls and floor-the source of the ambient light.

Hundreds of lyleks milled about on the floor of the cyst, all of them tending what Vader assumed to be the queen of the colony, a lylek with a bloated abdomen three times the size of the rest. Large, gray, leathery-looking sacs adhered to the walls in clumps of ten or twenty here and there-egg sacs. A dozen or more tunnel openings dotted the walls and ceiling, all of them about the same size as that in which the four men stood. For a moment no one spoke, and the only sound in the tunnel was the labored breathing of the guards and Vader's respirator.

The queen lylek noticed them then. She swung her huge head in their direction, fixed her eyes on them, and hissed in alarm, the sound bouncing off the walls of the cavern, echoing. The rest of the lyleks in the cavern turned toward them, too, their movement causing a collective clicking. They hissed as one, their tentacles squirming in agitation. Down the tunnel behind the men, the pursuing lyleks continued to close.

"And now we know to where we were being herded," the Emperor said.

Vader turned to Deez and the captain. "You two are to hold as long as you can here."

The captain stiffened. "We will stay with our Emperor."

"Do as Lord Vader commands," the Emperor said.

"What are you going to do then?" Deez asked while he and the captain took grenades in hand, activated them, and waited for the pursuing lyleks to appear.

"We're going kill them all," Vader said, igniting his lightsaber.

The Emperor cackled, drew his own lightsaber, and activated the red blade.



此时Belkor的精神开始逐渐陷入疯狂
Delian Mors则开始找寻皇帝






在地下巢穴，皇帝与维德（哦，还有那俩皇家卫队）VS数百外骨骼能够抵挡爆能枪的Lylek怪兽的战斗在进行：



混战中在皇帝被Lylek怪兽群扑时维德一度升起盼望帕尔帕廷死在这里自己统治银河的念头，但念头转瞬即逝赶去救援，不过实际上不需要皇帝自己直接用原力将群扑上来的怪兽炸得粉碎，而且看起来除了衣服碎头发乱身上脏外毫发无损。

随后皇帝问维德可有盼望自己刚才死在这里，维德承认有，但只要一小会。随后俩人继续屠杀怪兽群，此时Lylek怪兽的女王被激怒杀出：



Vader enveloped himself in the Force, let it saturate him, and through it magnified and channeled his omnipresent rage and hate. Beside him the Emperor, too, unbridled his power and sank into the Force. As one they leapt down from the mouth of the tunnel.

The moment they hit the floor the lyleks swarmed forward, hundreds of them, a wave of spiked limbs and clicking mandibles. They raised their upper bodies as they charged, freeing themselves to use their spiked front legs like spears. They climbed over one another in their eagerness to kill and feed.

Vader extended a gloved hand and loosed a blast of power that blew apart two of the lyleks rushing toward him, showering those behind with gore and chunks of carapace. At the same time, his Master unleashed a destructive wave of power that cast three of the huge creatures backward and into the wall, cracking exoskeletons and leaving them broken, twitching, dying.

Vader rushed forward, blade held high. He ducked a tentacle, sidestepped the stab of a spiked leg, and with a crosscut severed the head from a lylek as it lunged at him. Crushing the skull under his boot, he used the Force to propel the headless carcass into a trio of the creatures behind it, turning them into a knot of legs and tentacles and chittering.

Feeling danger behind, he spun and lopped off the two front legs of another lylek that was poised to impale him through the back. He leapt atop its flailing, skittering body, riding it for a time while his blade slashed and stabbed at its fellows. He ended the creature's squeals of pain by driving his blade down and through its abdomen.

Bounding off its back, he rushed among the seething mass of lyleks, heedless now of their stabbing limbs and biting teeth, his lightsaber severing legs, tentacles, heads, mandibles, covering the floor in ichor-soaked body parts. Impacts from the tentacles and legs and hulking bodies barely moved him. None penetrated his armor, and what little pain they managed to inflict could not surpass the pain he carried always within him.

A spiked leg caught him squarely, slammed hard into his side, and drove him sideways into the tentacles of another lylek, which immediately wrapped around his legs and lifted him upside down from the floor.

While he hung there, another lylek lunged forward, mouth open wide as though to snap off his head. He drove his lightsaber into its open mouth and out the back of its head, and it fell dead to the floor. The creature holding him drew him toward its own mouth, but he simply bent at the waist and severed the tentacle holding him. He flipped in midair as he fell, landed on his feet, spun, and severed the forelegs from a lylek before him. It collapsed, screeching and spraying ichor from the stumps, its huge body thumping into him in its pained spasms. The impact of its bulk knocked him backward, but he rode the motion into a spinning crosscut that bisected another lylek's head. He'd killed dozens, a score or more, yet still they kept coming, the press of them restricting his movement, buffeting him, spiked legs slamming into the floor all around him.

Roaring, he dodged and jumped and spun through them, his blade slashing and stabbing, until a blow from a tentacle caught him flush in the chest and sent him careening backward. The creature that had struck him followed up, tentacles grasping, jaws clicking, the spears of its forelegs raised high. Meanwhile the spiked leg from another lylek slammed into his back. His armor prevented the limb from skewering him, but the impact drove him back toward the charging lylek.

Stumbling, Vader nevertheless held out a hand, channeled the Force, and loosed a blast of power that slammed the charging creature five meters backward into the wall. Wanting a moment to gather himself and check on his Master, he jumped high above the teeming mass of lyleks to a ledge five meters up on the wall, using the Force to augment his leap. The creatures he had just escaped gnashed their mandibles, waved their tentacles, and tried to climb over one another in their frustration as they scrabbled at the side of the wall.

From above, back near the tunnel mouth, Vader heard the shouts of the guards and the rapid whumps of repeated blasterfire. An explosion boomed-a grenade-causing the walls to vibrate.

Vader called on the Force, leapt, and propelled himself up to the mouth of the tunnel. Deez and the captain had both taken a knee, blaster rifles **ted on their shoulders as they fired into the lyleks trying to advance down the tunnel toward them. Vader casually loosed a blast of power down the tunnel mouth, destroying the leading lyleks and pushing half a dozen more backward.

Seeing Vader, the captain shouted, "Where is the Emperor?" Deez just kept firing.

Vader turned and looked down to the floor below, where his Master, surrounded by a dozen or more lyleks, was spinning, whirling, leaping, his lightsaber moving so fast it blurred. He looked tiny amid their bulk but moved with preternatural speed, his blade stabbing and slashing and severing. He was laughing, the familiar cackle somehow audible above the sounds of the horde.

But then a score or more of lyleks lurched at him at once from all sides, leaping and climbing over one another, their tentacles a squirming net, their claws slashing, their massive chitinous bodies blocking him from Vader's view.

A thought flashed through Vader's mind, a stray thought, just for a moment: his Master dead, Vader ruling the Empire, the galaxy, unconstrained by the leash of an old man...

He killed the thought, leapt from the mouth of the tunnel, flipped in midair, and landed hard atop one of the lyleks. It bucked, tentacles squirming. He drove his blade down through its back and out its abdomen, killing it.

Tentacles reached for him from the left and right, and a third lylek reared up over its dead kin to get at him, but he vaulted from the carcass on which he stood and onto the back of another lylek a meter away. Again he drove his lightsaber down and through it.

"Master!" he shouted, still unable to see the Emperor in the press of the creatures.

A blast of power from somewhere under the throng of creatures drove four lyleks ten meters into the air, their bodies shattered by the force of the impact, limbs and tentacles showering down in a macabre rain. His Master stood in the center of the circle of surviving lyleks, his hair mussed, his robe torn, his lightsaber in hand, but otherwise seemingly unharmed.

Vader leapt down to his Master's side. They took position back-to-back.

"Master," Vader said.

"Lord Vader," his Master responded, and chuckled. "Enjoyable, no? Did you consider allowing me to die to realize your own ambitions?"

Vader didn't even attempt to lie. "I did, but only for a moment."

"Good," his Master said. "Very good."

As if on command, the lyleks surged toward them from all sides. As one, Vader and his Master channeled the Force and unleashed blasts of power that slammed into the advancing creatures, shattering several and casting six or seven hard against the walls. Still the lyleks came on, chittering and grasping and slashing.

Vader and his Master stood back-to-back in the center of the press, their lightsabers murderous red lines that lylek limbs and tentacles and bodies could not pass. The carcasses piled up around them, a mountain of the dead, and still they came on. Soon both of them were covered in gore, lost in the Force, in their unbridled ability to kill.

Vader sensed a new danger a moment before it materialized: a lylek from somewhere in the rear of the surviving mass sprang high over the others toward him and his Master, chittering, the spikes of its legs aimed forward as though to impale. Vader answered the creature's leap with a Force-augmented leap of his own, wielding his lightsaber in a two-handed grip, intercepting the creature in midair, and cutting it in two with the red streak of his blade.

He landed atop a dead lylek and immediately bounded back to his Master's side. He hit the floor in a crouch, expecting to be swarmed by the remaining lyleks, but instead found them backing away from him. He soon saw why-they were making way for the approach of the queen.

"You perceived the smaller danger but not the larger," his Master said. "Here it is now."



* * *






此时查姆?辛杜拉等人搜寻皇帝与维德，看到了皇帝与维德在面对至少数百Lylek怪兽包围转进前是屠杀到了什么情况：




* * *



The quiet of the forest unnerved Isval. It seemed the lylek horde had stripped it of life, or that all the creatures in it were waiting in pensive silence for whatever terrible thing might come next. The swath the lyleks had cut through the terrain would have struck her as impossible had she not seen it for herself. Uprooted trees, shattered trunks, undergrowth pounded into the dirt. And yet she knew that within a month it would be overgrown and gone, as if nothing had ever happened.

There were lessons in that, she thought.

She and Cham hustled along beside Goll, who covered ground rapidly with the path so easy to follow. Goll's team trailed them, the sound of their bouncing gear and equipment loud in the quiet. Chewing up the kilometers gave Isval time to consider the endgame.

"What do we expect to find here?" Isval asked Cham. "Bodies?"

Cham shrugged, looked to Goll.

"If the lyleks caught them, there won't be anything left of the bodies," Goll said. "But there will be signs of a feeding frenzy. That'll tell us all we need to know."

The thought of Vader and the Emperor being torn apart by a hungry pack of Ryloth's chief predatory animal seemed fitting somehow. Still, Isval had seen the things Vader could do-things that no one should have been able to do.

"And if there was no feeding frenzy?" she asked. "If they escaped?"

"No one escapes on foot," Goll said.

Isval was not so sure.

Within the half hour they found the first of the lylek carcasses. The huge body lay in the undergrowth, its head missing. Isval eyed the body, which seemed all edges and spikes and points, covered in a dry, chitinous exoskeleton that looked like weathered stone and was probably sturdier than armor. Its tentacles were rubbery lengths thicker around than her arm.

"Blaster shot," Goll said, examining the stump of the lylek's neck. "See the charring? 'Bout the only way a blaster brings one of these down."

"If they killed the entire horde, could you pick the trail back up?" Cham asked.

Goll looked at him in disbelief. "Cham, killing one lylek is one thing. Maybe just a lucky shot. But wiping out a horde with a blaster while on foot? That's like trying to kill a sandstorm. It's a force of nature. It'll consume you and barely know you're there."

"Could you pick the trail back up, Goll?"

"I...yes, I think. Lot of variables, of course, but-"

"Good," Cham said.

Soon they found more carcasses, all of them headshot.

"Getting closer," Goll said softly. "Stay sharp."

They came to the edge of a ravine, and all three of them stopped cold. They looked down into it for a long time, staring in shocked silence. Goll broke the quiet with a soft curse.

Dozens of lylek carcasses lay scattered about the bottom and walls of the ravine. A number of them headshot, but some other force had destroyed the rest. Legs were broken and twisted, exoskeletons shattered and cracked. One carcass lay half buried in the hillside on the opposite side of the ravine. Goll surveyed the scene, the usual furrow back in his brow.

"The horde didn't come out of the ravine," he said. "Lyleks nest underground. This must be an entry point." He didn't sound certain to Isval. "Probably a lot of holes leading down to the nest all along that side of the ravine. But I don't..."

"Was there a feeding frenzy here?" Cham asked.

Isval knew the answer before Goll said it.

"I don't...no, I don't think so," he said. "Come on."

Isval hesitated a moment as a mental image formed in her brain of lyleks bubbling up out of holes in the ground, trapping them in the bottom of the ravine.

"Stay up here and cover the approaches," she said to Goll's people, who lined the edge of the ravine, staring down in wonder.

"Stay sharp," Goll ordered them, and started down the side of the ravine, using what remained of the undergrowth to keep his footing as he descended. Cham and Isval followed.

The creek that once ran through the ravine had been churned into a paste of mud ichor by the lylek horde. Eyeing the carcasses of the dead, Isval could not imagine what Vader and the Emperor had done to break apart the lyleks so thoroughly.

"Grenades?" Goll asked, though Isval saw no sign of charring or burning.

"Must be something we haven't seen," Cham said.

"These are apex predators," Goll said in disbelief. "We fortify our cities out of fear of facing a handful of these. And this group of four, facing a horde on foot? These are apex predators," he repeated.

Vader is the apex predator, Isval thought but didn't dare say aloud.

Goll studied the churned dirt around what appeared to be a collapsed tunnel entrance. A massive tangle of tree roots and the hind end of a lylek stuck out of the rubble, the rest of it buried under the collapse.

"A lot of activity around this tunnel," Goll said, studying the ground. "Like they were trying to get at something in there. Probably Vader and his group retreated into this tunnel, then collapsed it behind them to cut off pursuit." He backed off, looking up, left, and right. "There will be a lot of other tunnels nearby that lead down into the nest. The whole hill is probably riddled with them, going down a long way. They wouldn't have escaped by collapsing this tunnel. The lyleks would have come at them from another tunnel."

"You're telling us Vader is underground?" Cham said.

"I'm telling you he went underground," Goll said. "Probably the rest of the horde did, too."

"What remains of it," Isval said, looking at the carcasses.

"If they come out," Cham asked, "will they have to come out here?"

"That's a big if, Cham."

"But if they do?" Isval persisted.

Goll shook his head. "I've seen computer models of lylek nests. They're labyrinthine. There are scores of entry and exit points. If the Emperor and Vader somehow manage to stay alive down there, they could come out anywhere within, say, a ten-kilometer radius of here. Sorry, Cham. I think we just lost them."

Cham's skin darkened, a sign of his frustration. Isval was clenching a fist.

Cham activated his comlink. "Kallon, Faylin, we think Vader and the Emperor are underground. They may come up anywhere within a fifteen-kilometer radius of our current location. Get up in the air and start a scan. You find anything at all, sound off immediately."

"If there are any ships out here, they could detect us," Kallon told him.

"I know," Cham said. "But do it."

After Kallon and Faylin acknowledged the order, Cham took the encrypted comlink he used with Belkor and repeated the same thing. Isval could only hear Cham's half of the conversation.

"They could be, Belkor, but I doubt it." Cham looked at the many dead lyleks, the collapsed tunnel. "You're not seeing what I'm seeing here. Just get up in the air and scan. I know. Just do it." He cut the connection.

"They could already be out and on the move, Cham," Goll pointed out. "That ten-klick estimate is just an estimate."

"I realize that," Cham said, and cleared his throat. "Options? What else do we have?"

Goll shrugged.

"We could go down after them," Isval offered.

"That is not an option," Goll said.

"We don't have gear for that, and it's too dangerous," Cham said.

"None of us would come out," Goll said. "I guarantee that."

Isval's irritation with the situation boiled over into anger at Goll. "Are you also guaranteeing that Vader won't come out, then? That they're dead down there?"

Goll put his hands on his hips, looked around at all the dead lyleks, and shook his head. "Not after seeing this, no. I don't know what could kill them, if not this."

His admission deflated the bubble of Isval's anger.

Goll looked up at the sky through the openings in the forest's thick canopy. "Wind's bringing rain. Smell it?"

As if on cue, thunder rumbled.

"What kind of men are we after here, Cham?" Goll asked. "This is like nothing I've ever seen, or even heard of."

Cham just shook his head, lekku waving. Isval had only the one answer, and she still wouldn't say it out loud.

Apex predators. That's what kind of men they were after.



* * *





现在让我们鼓掌欢迎，本书里维德跟皇帝面对的最强对手——Lylek女王出场


Vader and the Emperor stood in the shadow of the queen's towering form. Her respiration was audible in the sudden lull, loud and wet. Each of her six legs was a meter and a half in circumference, and the spikes they ended in looked like sword blades. Her squirming tentacles-four instead of two-were ten meters long, as thick as a man's waist, and ended in glistening points of chitin that leaked some kind of ichor, or perhaps poison. Her mouth could easily bite a person in half.

She advanced slowly, tentacles squirming, the ends of her legs striking the ground with a clipped, staccato rhythm. She lowered her head and hissed as she came on. Her mandibles worked the empty air.

Vader's Master wore the same knowing half smile he seemed always to wear. "Shall we begin, Lord Vader?"

Vader answered only with the sound of his breathing.

The queen exploded into motion and so, too, did Vader and the Emperor. A tentacle lashed at Vader and he leapt over it, sidestepping a second tentacle, and chopped down with his blade. He missed as the queen snapped the tentacle back, his blade putting a charred furrow in the stone of the floor. He leapt high over her, flipping at the apex of his trajectory, and as he descended he took his blade in a two-handed grip and pointed it downward to impale her.

She lurched sidewise and lashed out with a tentacle, which struck him squarely and knocked him to the floor. She turned as though to advance on him, but his Master sprang before her, jumping, twirling, and ducking under the rapid swings of her tentacles and the spikes of her legs. His lightsaber slashed rapidly at every opening, striking the tentacles but scarring them only, not severing them.

The queen lunged toward his Master and he flipped backward, landing a few paces away. Vader jumped to his feet, spinning out of the way of her attempt to stab him with the chitinous spike at the end of one of her tentacles. He found himself face-to-face with five lyleks, all of them hissing, tentacles squirming. He stabbed one through the head, back-flipped high over another, hit the ground, and severed its rear legs.

To his right his Master gestured and, with the Force, lifted two of the lyleks from the floor. Vader and his Master exchanged no words, but each knew precisely what the other intended. With a casual throwing motion, the Emperor flung the two lyleks in Vader's direction, their legs and tentacles squirming, bellies exposed. Slashing and turning a rapid spin, Vader bisected both of them; the four gory pieces that remained fell to the floor in a heap.

From above, blaster shots slammed into the lylek that remained before him, with several shots bouncing off its carapace before one finally caught it in the head and put it down. Vader glanced up to see Deez kneeling in the tunnel's mouth, blaster rifle lowered, firing down into the melee.

Vader reflexively slashed with his lightsaber as another lylek scrabbled toward him. The blade took off the legs and left the creature squealing and spasming. He saw his Master dodging the rapid, repeated strikes of the queen's tentacles. The Emperor twisted and spun and leapt, slashing with his lightsaber where he could, and where the blade bit into the thick tentacles it opened black gashes that leaked a thick ichor. The pain seemed only to make her angrier.

Vader leapt high and landed at his Master's side. The queen roared and loosed a flurry of strikes. Working in tandem, they parried her blows, counterstruck, opened dozens of holes in her tentacles, their blades spinning blurs before them. Her very bulk slowly pushed them backward, and from time to time they had to turn their attention to a lylek that rushed them or tried to jump them from the side. Moving almost as one, the two Sith Lords turned and spun around an unspoken central point, parrying, slashing, killing. Frustrated, the queen rushed toward them with surprising speed. Her huge body slammed into them both, knocking them backward. Quick as a lightning strike, she struck with snapping mandibles...

The Emperor fell flat to the floor to avoid the bite and she slammed her legs down at him like so many pikes, each blow chipping the stone of the floor. He rolled and spun underneath the mountain of her body while Vader slashed at her tentacles, the ichor from her many wounds spraying in all directions. She was trying simply to smash his Master with her mass, but Vader perceived her intent, raised a hand, and held her up, straining, grunting for the fraction of a moment that it took for his Master to roll out from under her. And then they were at her again, their blades humming and cutting. She hissed, wounded tentacles flailing, legs stomping, and bounded backward in a crouch.

"Emperor!" Deez shouted from above, and fired at the queen as rapidly as he could pull the trigger.

The shots bounced off her carapace and ricocheted wildly around the chamber. Vader used his lightsaber to deflect one into the face of the lylek nearest him, killing it. Beside him, his Master split the head of a lylek that lunged at him. Vader decided to finish matters.

"Master," he said, and nothing more.

"Go," the Emperor said.

Vader sprinted forward and leapt high. The moment he reached the apex of his jump, his Master seized him with the Force and flung him the rest of the way so that he landed atop the queen's back.

Immediately she bucked, tentacles flailing, and he drove his lightsaber down into her back. To his surprise, the blade only bit partially and then slipped to the side. She screamed and hissed with agony. He grasped it two-handed again, preparing another blow, but she reared up hard, bucking, and flung him to the floor. He landed near his Master, who grabbed him by the arm and heaved him to his feet with uncanny strength.

She whirled around at them and whipped her tentacles at Vader and his Master, following with a lunge forward and a vicious bite at Vader. They sidestepped her attacks, once more falling into their usual rhythm, and crosscut at her head with their lightsabers. Both blades struck home. The Emperor tore a long gash in the armored exoskeleton of her head, and Vader destroyed one eye. She shrieked and reared backward, eye socket leaking gore, tentacles whipping wildly. Deez continued to pour down fire at her, but the shots appeared to do her little or no harm. Still, the distress of their queen drove the remaining lyleks into a frenzy, and they charged from all sides.

Vader bounded backward, leapt high up on the wall, and hung with one hand from a narrow ledge, his boots **ted on the stone. He'd assumed his Master would do the same, but he hadn't. Instead, his Master stood in the center of a crowd of the creatures, spinning, whirling, slashing, killing. Deez diverted his fire from the wounded queen to the lyleks attacking the Emperor, but the frenetic motion of the combat prevented him from aiming accurately, and his shots bounced off their carapaces in all directions.

The queen recovered enough to survey the scene and her eye fell on Vader, perched as he was on the wall, seemingly vulnerable, and she lurched toward him, shrieking. She pushed through the lyleks around her, her tentacles squirming wildly, grasping for him. Her remaining eye fixed on him and her mouth opened wide in a prolonged hiss.

Below, an explosion of Force lightning shredded a handful of lyleks and left his Master standing in the center of a circle of charred, dead creatures. He made eye contact with Vader, nodding, and Vader knew to hold his position as the queen closed.

His Master raised both hands and sent a storm of Force lightning into the queen, enmeshing her in sizzling blue lines. She screamed and spasmed in agony, her mandibles parting wide to reveal the rows of her teeth as the lightning tore at her carapace and the organs underneath, burning her inside and out.

Vader acted quickly. Drawing on the Force, he leapt off the wall straight at her head. Despite her pain, she managed to snatch him out of midair with a tentacle, seizing him around the waist and squeezing. His armor creaked under the strain and he shouted with pain but, as ever, let the pain draw him deeper into the Force.

She lifted him high and jerked him toward her slashed face, the ruin of her eye, her mouth opened wide to hiss, exactly as he'd anticipated.

"Finish her!" his Master shouted.

He threw his lightsaber at her open mouth, guiding it with the Force, causing it to spin as rapidly as a rotor as it flew into her gullet. She gagged, recoiled, one good eye wide with pain and confusion, as Vader maintained his mental hold on his spinning blade, cutting her apart from the inside out. Desperately, instinctively, she drove the spiked, poisoned tip of another tentacle at his chest.

Enmeshed in the Force, he caught the spike in his gauntleted fist and stopped it before it reached his armor. He grunted with pain, with exertion, the thick, muscular appendage of the giant creature straining against his Force-fueled strength. He was the stronger, and stared into her face as his lightsaber tore through her innards and his Master's lightning charred her flesh.

She screamed again in a final burst of agony, and the hulking remains of her body collapsed to the floor, taking Vader, clutched now in a limp tentacle, with her. He hit the floor in a crouch along with the bulk of her carcass, shook off the tentacle, and recalled his lightsaber to his hand. The blade cut through her carcass and returned to his hand, slick with fluid.

The remaining lyleks shrieked and chittered, tentacles and legs jerking wildly. Deez continued to blast at them.

Vader met the eyes of his Master, standing five meters away, and both nodded. Immersed in the Force, they set about slaughtering the remaining lyleks. The lines of their lightsabers rose and fell, rose and fell, and the confused, stunned beasts barely defended themselves. Soon the floor was carpeted in carcasses, and Vader and his Master were the only living things standing amid the carnage.

His Master's cackle filled the silence. Both deactivated their blades.

"Well done, my friend," the Emperor said.

Back up in the tunnel, Deez used the high-tensile cable integrated into his belt to rappel down the wall. He picked his way through the slaughter, obviously trying and failing to control the expression of awe on his face, until he stood before Vader and the Emperor. He took a knee, his fist to his chest.

"My Emperor."

"The captain?" Vader asked.

"Killed by one of the creatures, Lord Vader," Deez said as he stood. "His body is...not recoverable."

To Vader, the Emperor's mind seemed to be elsewhere. He may have heard Deez or not; Vader could not tell.


最终皇帝与维德杀死了Lylek女王以及所有出现在他们面前的Lylek怪兽，一名皇家卫队成员——那名克隆兵丧生




"I think we should leave this place before it starts to stink," the Emperor said finally. "This is the way to the surface, I'm quite sure."

Together, Vader, the Emperor, and Deez moved quickly through the tunnels, ever upward, back toward the surface. They stayed alert for lyleks, but the tunnels were empty. The entire nest must have been annihilated.

"The creatures struggled when the queen died. When the head is removed, the body must soon die," the Emperor commented.

Vader said nothing, merely looked at his Master.

"Do you not see? That's why we're hunted, Lord Vader. The rebels hope to cut the head from the Empire."

"Of course," Vader said. It was unlike his Master to state something so obvious except with a purpose. "And?"

His Master adorned his face with his usual half smile. "Many things are that way, even some relationships. If the head is removed, the body cannot exist alone. The relationship is complementary, almost symbiotic."

Vader understood his point then. "Yes, Master."

The roll of thunder reverberating through the stone told them they were nearing the surface. The tunnel they traversed gradually narrowed until they could move only single-file. Deez led, and Vader came last.

Ahead, Vader saw that the tunnel was blocked. He could hear the sound of dripping water and falling rain from behind the blockage. Deez climbed amid the rubble, trying to peer through it.

"We're right at the end," he said. "I can see the outside through a crack in this rockfall. Probably a rockslide caused by the rain. We'll need to clear it, my lords."

Vader and the Emperor stepped around Deez, faced the tons of rock and dirt, and both felt deeply into the Force. As one, they raised their hands, summoned their collective power, and loosed a sudden blast that was more powerful than a grenade. Rock and dirt exploded outward, no doubt traveling high into the night sky.

Beyond, they could see the trunks of trees and falling rain.

"It's clear, Sergeant," said the Emperor with a smile.



* * *

随后发现他们预计用来离开的通道口被山体滑坡堵上，爵爷与皇帝用原力直接炸开成吨的岩石与泥土

xjtxp

* * *



Vader, the Emperor, and Deez walked out of the tunnel and into the forest. Thunder boomed and a hard rain fell, causing the leaves above them to rustle.

"Which direction, my lords?" Deez asked.

Before either of them could answer, a green-skinned Twi'lek girl, perhaps in late adolescence, emerged from the underbrush. She wore a weathered rain parka and had a long-barreled, Clone Wars-era blaster pistol on her hip. Field gear stuck out of her backpack. The end of a carved wooden tube, almost like a musical instrument, stuck out of the pack, too. Seeing Vader and the Emperor and Deez, her big eyes widened and her lekku twitched, but to her credit she didn't run.

Deez started to level his rifle but Vader grabbed the guard's arm, halting him. That seemed to put the girl a bit less on edge, though she looked ready to bolt if she needed to. Vader sensed more curiosity in the girl than fear.

"Who are you?" Deez asked.

"Who are you?" the girl responded, her accent so thick that Vader found it hard to understand her at first. "What are you doing out here? Are you lost?"

The girl apparently did not recognize the Emperor or his companions. She must have been from one of the remote settlements that were known to dot Ryloth's wilderness.

"Come here, girl," the Emperor said, putting the power of the Force into his command.

Unable to resist, the girl walked out of the tree line until she stood, small and vulnerable, before him.

With preternatural speed the Emperor drew, ignited, and slashed at the girl with his lightsaber, but Vader had sensed his Master's intent and moved with greater speed, igniting his own blade and intercepting his Master's blow before it could land.

The girl, under the sway of the Emperor's power, seemed scarcely to notice the danger. She simply stood there, staring vacantly, her face aglow in the red light of the crossed blades.

The Emperor's mouth twisted in a snarl, and Vader felt his power gathering.

Behind Vader, Deez raised his rifle and aimed it at Vader's back, but Vader stretched his free hand back and unleashed a blast of power that lifted the guardsman from his feet and flung him into the trees. Branches cracked audibly under the impact of Deez's body.

Vader and his Master stared at each other across the sizzling glow of their crossed blades.

"Has it come to this?" his Master said. He sounded calm, almost resigned, but not at all surprised.

The tone surprised Vader. "Forgive me, Master," he said, and deactivated his blade. "I think the girl can be of use to us."

"Do you?" the Emperor asked softly.

"There must be a village nearby," Vader said. "If they have a ship..."

Deez climbed to his feet and staggered out of the brush, groaning. He leveled his blaster rifle uncertainly at Vader, looking to the Emperor for a directive.

His Master's scowl lingered for a moment before twisting into a half smile that didn't reach his eyes. He gestured at Deez to stand down, his eyes never leaving Vader's faceplate.

"I agree. She can be of use to us."

The Emperor looked at his blade, at Vader, pursed his lips, and deactivated the weapon. To the girl he said, "Is your village nearby?"

The Twi'lek, still under the influence of the Emperor's power and with an unblinking, faraway look in her eye, nodded. "It's not far. I was out checking hunting traps and heard a boom. I thought it was a rockslide and came to look. I saw you from the trees."

"And what did you think when you saw us?" the Emperor asked.

The girl's brow creased, as if she didn't understand. "Think? I assumed you were lost, that maybe you'd crashed. Strangers are uncommon out here. You'll be welcomed at the village, though. It's custom."

His Master smiled. "That's nice to hear. How many of you are there?"

"Thirty-seven," the girl said. "But Naria's with child, so it will soon be thirty-eight."

"Indeed," said the Emperor. He looked at Vader curiously.

"Master?" Vader asked, but the Emperor ignored him.

"Maybe you have some news of what's happening in the cities?" the girl asked.

"Maybe we do," the Emperor said. "Do you have a ship in your village?"

The girl shook her head. "No, no ship. Not even a working communicator. We lost it last year and haven't been able to get another in trade. But we have food and warmth and songs."

The Emperor smiled. "Very good. Take us to your village."

Without another word, the girl turned and led them through the forest.

Vader figured the girl's village must have been founded by slaves who'd escaped from one of Ryloth's mines, or by refugees displaced long ago during the Clone Wars. Many such villages existed on Ryloth, and many of those had little or no contact with the outside world. The Empire knew of the settlements, of course, sometimes disbanding them and "relocating" the people to labor camps if slave labor was needed somewhere, but generally the Empire left them alone. The girl's village had no ship and no communicator, though, so it would be of little use to Vader and his Master except as a way-stop. Still, there might be something there they could use.

"What's your name, girl?" the Emperor asked her as they picked their way through the trees.

"Drua," the girl said. She looked at Deez. "What's your name? And why do you wear that...suit?"

Deez seemed momentarily taken aback by the question before saying, "My name is Sergeant, and it's my honor to wear this armor."

The Emperor diverted the conversation. "So you're out here on your own, Drua?"

"Of course! I know the forest as well as any." She looked up through a hole in the forest's canopy. "The rain is going to end within the hour."

"Where are your parents?" the Emperor asked, and Vader thought it an odd question to come from his Master.

The girl did not turn back to face them, and her voice fell a bit when she said, "My mother died two winters back. I didn't know my father."

"Not unlike you, apprentice," the Emperor said quietly.

The words dredged Vader's memory. He flashed for a moment on his mother, a slave; flashed, too, on the Tusken Raiders who'd killed her, on the satisfying moments when he killed them, all of them, every one of them.

"You live alone, then?" the Emperor asked.

"Of course not! I live with my grandfather," Drua said.

"Well," said the Emperor. "We will try not to be too much of an imposition."



* * *



离开巢穴后皇帝与维德遇到一名提列克少女，皇帝随之用原力控心将之操控欲一剑砍之灭口，但维德感应到皇帝意图后后发先至的以更快的速度截住了皇帝这一剑（虽然皇帝砍个少女也不会用全速就是了）。
然后皇帝面对截住自己光剑的维德平静的表示已经到了师徒对决的时候了么？然后维德解释自己认为可以利用这少女所在村子的资源，看有没有飞船之类。（被皇帝控心的少女没有这一幕的记忆）
随后皇帝同意，在途中皇帝询问到少女母亲已经死亡且不知道自己父亲是谁时，对维德说他跟这女孩相像。


* * *



The wind carried a soft, irritating buzz from somewhere ahead. To Vader it sounded vaguely insectoid. The buzzing rose and fell with the velocity of the wind.

The sound seemed to put Deez on alarm. He held his rifle at the ready, looking hard at the trees around them, as if anticipating an attack.

Drua looked puzzled, then amused by his reaction. "There's nothing to fear. Those are lylek tubes. The sound keeps them away. Irritates their brains. My grandfather says its gives them a headache so they don't come around."

"A sound keeps lyleks away?" the Emperor said. "How very interesting."

"Oh, it wouldn't keep one of them away if it was determined," Drua said. "Grandpa says it just steers them in another direction. Why walk into a headache, right?"

The ground rose as Drua led them through the trees. Large boulders and rock piles dotted the landscape here and there, getting more frequent as they went. The buzzing sound grew louder and they soon saw the cause. Curved wooden tubes about as long as a human man's arm hung from the trees, swaying in the wind. Holes of various sizes and at various places had been bored into them. When the wind blew through the holes, the tubes emitted the irritating buzz. Looking at them all hanging there, Vader was reminded of gallows.

"Puts one's teeth on edge," the Emperor said. "What if the wind dies down, Drua? Won't lyleks come then?"

Drua looked at him as if he were ridiculous. "There's always wind. And if we have to, we can run. We have a fortified place we can hide."

"I see," the Emperor said.

Soon the forest gave way to jagged hills of piled earth and rock. They picked their way through those until the ground fell away before them and they found themselves looking down on an enormous, steep-walled rock quarry. Two large tunnels opened near the base of the quarry on the side opposite them, dark holes, like the **et opening its mouth in a scream. Vader assumed them to be old mine shafts, and probably one of them was the fortified place Drua had mentioned.

Drua's village clustered near one of the tunnels: thirty to forty single-story structures made of stacked stone and tree-limb beams, with roofs of stretched hide and bark. Raised gardens covered a sizable area of the quarry's bottom near the village. Vader saw no livestock.

Torches burned along the walls of the quarry in two places, the flames dancing in the rain, marking a serpentine path along the steep walls. Torches burned at the bottom of the quarry, too, at the edges of the village. Vader could see Twi'leks moving about among the buildings. From a distance they looked like shadows, or ghosts.

As he watched, a fire sprang to life in a common area and half a dozen Twi'leks gathered around it, ordinary people doing ordinary things. Music carried up from the quarry, the sounds of a woodwind and then a lilting, haunting female voice.

"That's Mala singing the Dirge of Valaunt," Drua said.

"A dirge?" the Emperor said. "How very quaint. Drua, does the village have computers? Any vehicles at all?"

Drua smiled and shook her head. "No, nothing like that. We live simply." She patted the blaster at her hip. "We make exception for some things, of course, but the Elders say that too much technology makes us slaves all over again. We have our ways and they serve us well."

She led them along the lip of the quarry until they reached the torchlit path that snaked down to the bottom. "Mind your steps," she said. "The way is treacherous."

The Emperor chuckled softly at that.

They picked their way down the side of the quarry, Vader and the Emperor as sure-footed as Drua, Deez nearly slipping from time to time.

At the bottom, a Twi'lek man, muscular, green-skinned, and armed with a blaster pistol, met them. A carved wooden whistle hung from a lanyard around his neck. He looked with mild suspicion on Vader, the Emperor, and Deez.

"Narmn, it's all right," Drua said. "I found these lost souls in the forest. This is Sergeant and..." She trailed off, perhaps realizing for the first time that she'd never gotten the names of the other two.

The Emperor said, "My name is Krataa, and this"-he gestured at Vader-"is Irluuk."

Narmn's eyes narrowed but he bowed, his lekku shifting slightly, and said, "Krataa and Irluuk and Sergeant, you are here, and because you are here, you are welcome."

"That is most gracious of you," the Emperor said.

Narmn and Drua led them along the quarry's floor toward the warmth and light of the village. Narmn put the whistle to his lips as they walked and blew a series of notes that Vader assumed indicated the arrival of strangers. The Dirge of Valaunt trailed off.

"I'm going to run ahead and gather Grandfather," Drua said, and, after a nod from Narmn, she sprinted off.

"Gather everyone," the Emperor called after her. "I look forward to meeting them."

Meanwhile, more and more Twi'leks emerged from the buildings and congregated at the village's edge, more shadows, more ghosts, all of them apparently waiting to greet the strangers, Krataa and Irluuk and Sergeant.

Other than the Emperor, only Vader knew the false names were ancient Sith words that meant "death" and "fate."


来到村庄，皇帝跟自己与维德起了俩古西斯语假名。

帕尔帕廷的古西斯语假名——Krataa，意思是死亡（Death）
维德的古西斯语假名——Irluuk，意思是命运（Fate）






维德用古西斯语问皇帝是否打算杀死村庄所有人，皇帝表示自己没有计划这种事，但他们会死的，从维德救下那个少女开始就注定了爵爷杀死村庄所有人。
爵爷不明所以，皇帝表示你会明白的

Smiles and looks of wonder greeted Vader, the Emperor, and Deez as Narmn led them into the village proper. The modest homes recalled to Vader the kind of home he'd had on Tatooine, long ago.

The Emperor smiled and nodded, returning greetings and thanking the Twi'leks for their hospitality. Vader said nothing, though he was aware that both his suit and Deez's armor were the subject of many whispered questions and pointed fingers. The Twi'leks crowded around them, interested in the strangers. Deez interposed himself as best he could between the Emperor and the villagers.

"Keep some distance," he said to the Twi'leks, a bit harshly.

"It's fine, Sergeant," the Emperor said. "It doesn't matter. Does it, Irluuk?"

Vader answered with a question of his own, speaking in an old Sith tongue, so only the Emperor would understand him. "You ** to kill them, Master?"

"I ** no such thing, apprentice," the Emperor returned in the same language, never losing his smile. "But they will die anyway. You killed them all the moment you spared that girl."

"I don't understand," Vader said.

"You will. Patience, my friend."



此时维德在修复村庄原有的一个破损通讯仪器，而Belkor派遣搜寻的一批V-wing战机飞行员遭遇女总督被女总督说服相信Belkor叛变。

此时Belkor精神已经不正常到跟尸体对话。


维德修好通讯仪器后，赖洛思星球的通讯已经部分被修复，皇帝下令联络女总督。维德质疑女总督的忠诚，皇帝表示女总督的忠诚方面没问题：


"It appears communication is back up," the Emperor said, then to Deez, "Sergeant, if you wouldn't mind, please transmit a hail on the Moff's secure frequency."

"And if the Moff is the traitor?" Vader asked.

The Emperor chuckled. "Delian Mors is many things, Lord Vader, lazy, hedonistic, nihilistic, but she is not and never will be a traitor to the Empire. And after today's events, I suspect that she will begin correcting her weaknesses. Proceed, Sergeant."


此时反抗组织与Belkor都发现皇帝与维德的位置，反抗组织犹豫周围提列克村民对于是否攻击一时难以下决定




Belkor则在飞船里直接下令空中火力攻击村庄，此时收到女总督的通讯：

* * *



Belkor watched his scan as his ships flew in toward the village. He saw them come into scanner range, flying low and fast over the trees. In a few seconds they'd scorch the earth. He couldn't stop grinning. He felt like he should caper, but the cockpit had no room for it. Instead he danced a little in his seat.

And then he noticed something odd on the scan: two additional ships, a transport and a shuttle.

"What are those?" he asked. "Those shouldn't be there, Ophim."

He hailed the wing leader. "Meensa, I'm seeing two ships accompanying your wing. Identify them."

No response.

"Meensa, identify those ships."

A hole opened in Belkor's stomach, a hollow space that started to expand and fill with doubt. "What's going on here?"

He hailed the transport and received no response, so he tried the shuttle. That vessel responded, and when he heard the voice on the other end he had trouble breathing for a moment.

"Hello, Belkor," said Mors.




* * *


………

* * *



Belkor opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, but words seemed unwilling to abandon his teeth. He was flushed, sweating. Finally he stammered, "Moff?"

"You tried to kill me, Belkor. And you killed hundreds of your fellows."

"No, no," Belkor said. "This is all a misunderstanding. I was-"

"Do not insult me further, Colonel," Mors snapped. "And don't do yourself any more dishonor by pleading your innocence. I know everything that you did. You have to pay."

Emotions boiled over in Belkor, anger, despair, hatred-he wasn't even sure he had a name for the rush of feeling. Instead he screamed into the comm, spraying it with spittle. "Pay? What about you? You should pay, too, you fraud! You should pay for your negligence, your laziness, for your drug use, for your slaves, for your own treachery against the Empire! I was a traitor today! You have been a traitor your entire career! You should pay, too, Mors!"

"I will pay," Mors said. "I am paying. But I'm not covered in blood, Belkor. You are."

Belkor looked over at Ophim's bruise-colored corpse, the gaping head wound he'd put there. He nodded in resignation. He was covered in blood. Realizing it, acknowledging it, he suddenly felt boneless, like he was made only of liquid. He sagged in his seat, the weight of the day too much.

"Because of that," Mors said. "You have to pay more than me."

To his enormous surprise, Belkor felt more relieved than anything. He did need to pay. He did.

"What are you going to do, then, Moff?" he asked, his voice little more than a whisper. "Turn me over to the ISB? To Vader?"

"No, Belkor. I'm not going to turn you over to the Security Bureau or Vader."

One of the V-wings diverted slightly from the rest of the group and blazed toward the recon ship on an attack vector.

Belkor nodded and sighed. He didn't even think of running. It would have been pointless anyway. A recon ship had no chance of evading a V-wing.

"No, you couldn't turn me over to them, could you?" he said. "I might tell them things you don't want them to know."

"It's all over, Colonel," Mors said.

Thank goodness, Belkor thought.

"Good-bye," Mors said.

The V-wing closed. Belkor's comp blared an alarm when the V-wing gained a weapons lock.

He took his hands off the stick and sat back in his seat. He looked over at Ophim's corpse. "I'm sorry, Ophim."

His computer screeched a warning that the V-wing's weapons were active. Belkor closed his eyes. His world exploded in fire.



* * *


Belkor先是试图辩解，被不惜一顾的戳穿后激烈指责女总督的沉迷香料懒惰不作为才是对帝国的背叛，女总督对他承认这是自己的责任但表示："I am paying. But I'm not covered in blood, Belkor. You are."
随后Belkor请求不要将自己交给帝安局或维德，女总督因为不想他透露自己的种种情况下令在空中击毁他的飞船，Belkor上校死亡


The V-wings screamed through the sky overhead without firing a shot at the village.

"Where did those other ships come from?" Isval asked, firing down at the transport and shuttle that had landed to either side of Goll's team and puked stormtroopers.

The quarry's floor was alight with blasterfire. Shouts carried up through the night air. Goll's people were trapped, pinned down.

She saw Vader bound out of the village at a run, lightsaber in hand.

"See him?" she said.

"See him," Goll and Cham said.

They fired by turns at Vader, at the stormtroopers. Someone from the quarry's bottom returned fire, the shots pinging off the stone and sending Isval and Goll back from the edge for a moment. Cham just kept firing, his jaw set, his eyes fixed.

"They're cut off!" Goll shouted, returning to the lip to fire. "We have to get down there or extract them. Get Faylin and the shuttle over here."

"She'll never make it through the V-wings," Isval said, and Cham knew she was right.

The men on the quarry's floor were dead, or soon would be.

Cham resolved to hurt the Empire as best he could before he died.

"Everything on Vader," he said. "Focus on him."

The three of them poured fire down on the dark shadow and the glowing red line he carried.



* * *



Mors watched through the cockpit viewport-impervious to small-arms fire-as soldiers on both sides shouted orders, fired their blasters, and died. The Twi'leks dropped to their bellies or knees and divided into two groups, each firing in a different direction, while the stormtroopers ran toward them in a crouch, firing as they came. Twi'leks screamed and died. Stormtroopers hit by blaster bolts flew backward or spun to the ground, their armor blackened by fire. Mors sat in her seat and watched it all unfold. It could-and would-end only one way. The Twi'leks were surrounded.

She looked up, saw the V-wings turning sharply to come back in on an attack vector. They must have found something along the top of the quarry at which to shoot.

Movement outside the ship caught her eye, and when she saw the source, it caught her breath.

Lord Vader strode heedlessly through the crossfire, cape flowing out behind him, his lightsaber cutting the air before him, deflecting dozens of blaster shots back at the Twi'leks, killing one, another, another. He did it all almost casually, as though his mind was on other things. The black lenses of his helmet were fixed upward, at the rim of the quarry.

As Mors watched, Vader exploded into motion, moving at a preternatural speed that left her mouth hanging open stupidly. Vader was heading directly for the side of the quarry, which was too steep for an ordinary man to scale. But Mors knew she wasn't looking at an ordinary man.

"Who is that?" the pilot asked softly as both of them leaned in their seats to follow Vader's progress. "Is that..."

Mors nodded. "Darth Vader," she said, and pitied the person or persons upon whom Vader had fixed his gaze.



* * *


随后帝国空中与地面军队+维德毫无悬念的屠宰了反抗组织聚集起来的战士


这里本书再一次强调，维德的速度之快是  preternatural  




















此时Isval提到赫拉让查让人强行把查姆架上飞船逃跑，自己拖住维德：





"Get out of here," she said to Goll and Cham.

She looked down past Vader to the floor of the quarry. The firefight was already slowing. Goll's fighters were dying or dead. She could hear the V-wings streaking back toward them.

"Get out of here!" she said. "Now!"

Cham seemed not to hear her. He was firing rapidly at Vader, his teeth clenched, his skin flushed.

"Goll, get him out of here!"

She turned and looked back to see the V-wings bearing down on them. Goll followed her gaze, turned, and saw the ships incoming.

"Come on, Cham!" Goll said, grabbing him by the shoulder.

"I'm not leaving! You go!"

Vader leapt up again, again. His eyes were fixed upward, on Isval, on Cham.

"Go, damn it!" Isval shouted. "You have a daughter, Cham! Think of Hera! Take him, Goll! Remember our deal! Go!"

She stood up, making herself plain to Vader.

"What are you doing?" Cham exclaimed. "Get down, Isval!"

She turned and smiled at him, not a half smile, a full one. "I'm thinking through an exit. I love you, Cham. Now get out of here!"

And with that, before Cham could say anything, she ran along the lip of the quarry away from them, firing at Vader with both blasters as she went.

"Isval!" Cham called after her, but she ignored him. He loved her, too. He had for years.

"Do you remember me?" Isval shouted down to Vader, still firing at him. "Do you? I saw you on the Perilous before I blew it to hell!"





话说这俩都爱对方，结果到Isval死查姆都没说出口，而百合女总督居然活到结局真是让我不爽

xjtxp

查姆打算继续反抗帝国


* * *



Cham opened his eyes. He was in a ship, Faylin's ship. He felt it go airborne as he left Isval behind, as he left everything behind.

"No," he muttered, but it was done. She was gone. Everything was gone.

He stared at the bulkhead, not really seeing it, not really seeing anything.

"What happened?" Faylin called back from the cockpit. "Where is everyone? What happened, Goll?"

"Just fly the damn ship, Faylin," Goll said. "Cham? You all right? Are you hit?"

"Are they dead?" Faylin asked. "Is everyone dead?"

"Fly the ship, human!" Goll snapped.

"They are dead," Cham said, his voice dull and gray. "Everyone is dead. The movement is dead."

Isval was dead.

"Don't say that," Faylin said, shaking her head. "Don't. That's not right. We're still here. We're still here."

"Stay on top of the trees, Faylin," Goll said. "With the comm back up, this area will be crawling with Imperial ships soon."

She didn't say anything but did as Goll asked.

"What are we?" Cham said. "What are we, Faylin? A swarm of insects trying to sting a rancor."

"You're not thinking clearly," Goll said. "That's grief talking. I've seen it before."

"Have you?" Cham snapped at him. "Have you really?"

"She was my friend, too, Cham," Goll said.

But she'd been more to Cham than a friend, and all of it had gone unsaid until the end. "You shouldn't have listened to her," he said to Goll.

"Of course I should've. And you know it. You have to carry this forward, Cham. You're the only one who can. She knew that. That's why she delayed Vader. You know that."

Cham did know it. On some level, in some way, he knew she was right.

"What do we do now, Goll?" Faylin asked. "Where am I even going?"

Goll stared at Cham. "Cham? What are we doing next?"

Cham thought of all he'd lost that day-not just Isval, but the many others. He thought of the men and women he'd lose in the coming days, when the Empire put Ryloth under its heel and questioned every suspected rebel they could find. He knew it would never end. Ryloth was just another obstacle to the Emperor and his **s. Tomorrow another world would be ground to dust. Then another. The Empire was a machine, and its gears would just keep turning, grinding away at freedom until there was none left in the galaxy.

Someone had to keep fighting against that. Someone had to make them pay for that, for Isval, for every life they took in their fixation on order and control.

Cham could not quit. He could never quit. He'd just paid the dearest price he could imagine. The Empire could do nothing more to him. He'd fight, fight them forever and without remorse and without pity and without quitting. Ever.

"We get as many of our people clear of the system as quickly as we can," he said. "Then we get out of here. Kallon should've already started the withdrawal. Then..."

He paused, and Isval's face appeared in his mind's eye, her fierce eyes, her smile, not a half smile but a full smile, the one he'd keep close to him forever. His eyes welled, but his conviction didn't waver.

"Then what?" asked Faylin.

"Then we fight, Faylin. We damn well keep fighting."

**s would come later. For now, the resolve to carry on the fight was enough.

Goll grinned and thumped him on his shoulder hard enough to hurt. "You heard the man! We fight!"



* * *



Isval之死与维德屠杀全部村民：



* * *



Isval came back to consciousness on her knees, her wrists behind her, bound with some kind of restraint. Stormtroopers called out orders to one another; they moved through the quarry shooting any of the Free Ryloth troops that still survived. She was the only one they were taking prisoner, it seemed. She imagined herself being subjected to interrogation by Vader and tried not to think too hard about it. The fact that she didn't see Cham anywhere gave her hope. She told herself he'd gotten away. She'd thought through an exit-his.

The Emperor stood before her, an old man in dark robes, his jaw hard, his eyes as sharp as knives. Beside him stood Darth Vader, looming and dark. Stormtroopers stood in a loose ring behind him, their white armor ghostly in dark. A Royal Guard stood just behind the Emperor, his helmet gone, his face inked with tattoos, the whole of him covered in grime.

"She fears I will turn her over to the ISB," the Emperor said to Vader, his voice surprisingly gentle. "There are far worse things than that, my dear."

"I don't fear you at all," she said.

"I think that's true," he said. "I should've expected nothing else. But you also understand very little."

Isval stuck out her chin. "I understand the Empire lost a Star Destroyer and hundreds of troops today. You lost them. To us."

"True," he said, the frustrating hint of smile lurking in his words. "Very true. You know what I've lost, but do you know what I've gained? Have you considered that?"

"You've gained nothing!" she said contemptuously. "You barely escaped with your life."

"Oh, my life was never in danger, dear girl. But since you seem unable to understand what actually happened here, I will tell you. Everything that happened today happened only because I allowed it to. True, your sorry little movement struck its blow, but it did so too soon, before the time was ripe and before it was mature enough to pose a serious threat. And now it's exhausted itself and will grow into nothing. What's left of it after today, do you think?"

Hearing an echo of Cham's words come from the mouth of the Emperor was too much.

"Shut up," she said, looking away and hating herself for the tears that welled in her eyes. "You don't know what you're talking about."

Cham was left, she told herself. He, at least, was left.

"Ah, she begins to see now," the Emperor said. "Perhaps you thought the events today would spark a rebellion? Ah, you did." He laughed contemptuously, the sound gouging itself into Isval's brain. "That was never going to happen, my dear. Your little movement was a candle that I encouraged you to light and now...it has gone out, igniting nothing." He knelt and looked her in the face. His eyes were as empty as a corpse's. "Nothing." He stood, looking down on her. "Lord Vader."

Behind him, towering and dark, Vader ignited his lightsaber. Isval heard her death in the sizzle of its blade. The tears in her eyes dried, replaced by defiance, by anger, by hope kindled in the knowledge that Cham, at least, had escaped, that the fire of rebellion had not gone out because he carried it.

She stared up at Vader, unafraid. "I hate you and everything you stand for," she said. "But when I murdered, I murdered out of love."

Vader raised his blade, his breathing loud and steady. When he spoke, his voice was as deep and hollow as a funeral gong.

"I know precisely what you mean," he said, and slashed.



* * *



Her decapitated body fell at Vader's feet. He deactivated his blade.

"There's work for that yet, my friend," the Emperor said, nodding at the hilt of Vader's blade.

"Master?"

"The villagers, Lord Vader. Drua and her people. We can't allow so many witnesses to live. I'll wait for you here."

Vader looked from his Master to the dark mouth of the mine inside of which Drua and the rest of the villagers had fled. He felt the Emperor's eyes on him, the intensity of the gaze, the weight of his expectations, and Vader knew that the day's events had been only half about depleting a rebel movement before it could grow. They had also, as Vader had suspected, been about testing him, forcing him to face the ghosts of his past and exorcise them forever and fully. He saw that more clearly now; saw, too, that his Master was right to administer the test. It also explained why his Master had shown so little of his true power throughout the day. Perhaps he'd wanted Vader to rely on himself to overcome the challenges they'd faced. Or perhaps he'd wanted to seem weaker than he was, to draw out any treacherous ambitions Vader may have held.

"I hear and I obey, Master," Vader said.

He ignited his lightsaber and strode toward the cave, his mind drifting back to another day, a day when he strode into the Jedi Temple filled with nothing but younglings. He'd slaughtered them then, and he would slaughter the Twi'leks now.

His Master's laughter followed him into the cave, and it lingered in his mind, louder even than the screams of the Twi'leks as they began to die by his blade.

When it was done, he returned to his Master's side.

"Well done, old friend," Darth Sidious said. He wiped his hands, as if to clean them of dirt. "And now let's move on to more important things."




皇帝在Isval死前向其说明，自己刻意放任了赖洛思抵抗运动，使得他们在远没有真正成才成熟到足以威胁帝国前就全面攻击超越自己能力的目标，最终遭到毁灭——嗯，听着挺像旧正史大能乱放里皇帝弄巧成拙的某计划缩小版233

话说即使新正史EP6皇帝也是像这本小说的扩大版一样，面对相对弱小的敌人拿自己当饵，结果在恩多玩脱了233


Isval死前与维德对话挺凄美。


维德最后屠杀村民前的独白里说过，这本书皇帝没有尽全力。（话说帕皇没少到绝地圣殿下那座远古西斯神殿冥想研究）


然后关于那位让我很不爽居然活到结局的百合女总督在后续短篇小说《Mercy Mission》里出场，被皇帝警告这次算她缓刑但必须加倍用心盯着赖洛思任何事件的她终于一改之前懒散情况全面投入工作，然后赫拉这部小说里完成了一次药品走私活动——帝国对于有此类功能的药品是免费提供的，但是想获得此类药品必须登记，以此保证帝国全面掌控赖洛思信息方便控制管理与掠夺。因此赖洛思有不少提列克人不想被帝国获取信息，因此无法得到帝国的免费药物。

xjtxp

另外再说两点《西斯尊主》不久后发生的新正史小说《塔金》（也是EP3五年之后）里提及的皇帝与维德的原力相关表现：




皇帝与维德能够依靠原力跨越光年对话


Screed and Motti traded worried glances.

In the summit of the Palace spire, Sidious sat back into his chair, folding his arms across his chest as sinuous currents of the dark side played through him, and as if he meant to contain them.

"Have you puzzled out what is happening, droid?" he asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty," 11-4D said, simultaneous with a further update from the junior officer.

"Sirs, we have confirmation that the holovid is being transmitted by the Carrion Spike."

Sidious swiveled toward the tinted windows, behind which the sky above and Coruscant below were the color of ash. Narrowing his gaze, he reached out for Darth Vader, whom he sensed was observing the holovid, as well.

Yes, Lord Vader, Sidious sent through the Force, you shall have your starfighter.











皇帝在清除绝地后，将绝地圣殿改建为帝国宫，原因是绝地圣殿之下封印着一座他当初从自己师父达斯·普雷格斯口中得知的远古西斯神殿。
按照皇帝自己的看法 (官方对此上观点态度是可能正确,但无法确定)：

正是这座西斯神殿散发出的原力黑暗面力量突破千年封印腐蚀蒙蔽了绝地,蒙蔽绝地的原力感知影响了绝地的思维判断。这座西斯神殿的污染腐蚀之于绝地覆灭于66号命令的影响,有如自己一个西斯尊主坐上旧共和国议长的位子之于旧共和国转变成帝国的影响一般。





Sidious said.

The droid bowed its head. “I will, Your Majesty.”

The two of them were in Sidious’s lair, a small rock-walled enclosure beneath the deepest of the Palace’s several sublevels that had once been an ancient Sith shrine. That the Jedi had raised their Temple over the shrine had for a thousand years been one of the most closely guarded secrets of those Sith Lords who had perpetuated and implemented the revenge strategy of the Jedi Order’s founders. Even the most powerful of Dark Side Adepts believed that shrines of the sort existed only on Sith worlds remote from Coruscant, and even the most powerful of the Jedi believed that the power inherent in the shrine had been neutralized and successfully capped. In truth, that power had seeped upward and outward since its entombment, infiltrating the hallways and rooms above, and weakening the Jedi Order much as the Sith Masters themselves had secretly infiltrated the corridors of political power and toppled the Republic.

Save for Sidious, no sentient being in close to five thousand years had set foot in the shrine. The room’s excavation and restoration had been carried out by machines under the supervision of 11-4D. Even Vader was unaware of the shrine’s existence. But it was here that they would one day work together the way Sidious and Plagueis had to coax from the dark side its final secrets. In the intervening years he had actually come to appreciate Plagueis for the **ner and prophet he had been. Such perilous machinations required two Sith, one to serve as bait for the dark side, the other to be the vessel. Success would grant them the power to harness the full powers of the dark side, and allow them to rule for ten thousand years.


………


Standing alone at the summit of the Palace spire, the Emperor narrowed his eyes as he gazed out on Coruscant, spread below him like a stage set. The sky was clearing after a cleansing of the Federal District by weather control, and the skyscrapers and towering monads shone like new. The power of the dark side coursed through him like a transfusion of unsullied blood.

Out there were people who wished him dead, others who envied his station, and still others who wished merely to be close enough to him to sate themselves on the crumbs he brushed aside. The thought of it was almost enough to transform his disgust to sadness for the plight of the ordinary. But the wretched practices of the Republic endured: corruption, decadence, the lust for prestige. A penthouse in an elite building, a position that opened doors anywhere in the Core, collections of priceless art, the finest foods, the most able servants … He never had need for any of it, even when a senator, even when Supreme Chancellor, and had subscribed to luxury only to satisfy juvenile fantasies and, of course, because it was expected of him. Now he had only the dark side to answer to, and the dark side had an appetite for extravagance of a different sort.

A plot had been foiled, a distraction laid to rest. Needless energy had been expended, and resources wasted. Eventually the dark side would grant him infallible foresight, but until such time future events would remain just out of clear sight, clouded by possibilities and the unremitting swirlings of the Force. He had made himself lord of all he surveyed, but he had much to learn. Actions meant to topple him from his lofty perch wouldn’t end with the successful containment of this most recent fiasco. But he would deal with any who chose to challenge him with the same precision he had applied to exterminating the Jedi. And he would not allow himself to be sidetracked from his goal of unlocking the secrets many of the Sith Masters before him had sought: the means to harness the powers of the dark side to reshape reality itself; in effect, to fashion a universe of his own creation. Not mere immortality of the sort Plagueis had lusted after, but influence of the ultimate sort.

As his Empire swelled, bringing more and more of the outer systems into its fold, so too would his power unfurl, until every being in the galaxy was held captive in his dark embrace.





利用这座远古西斯神殿修炼钻研原力的帕尔帕廷认为，随着自己原力造诣的提高将来不仅能够永生不死，更能够改写现实重塑宇宙，最终掌控整个宇宙成为有如神祗的存在。





            好了，回头说下这小说里维德的武力






先回忆一下旧正史

基本上旧正史里临近正传的维德是：

1.原力造诣远超当年前传阿纳金，光剑格斗技术与原力使用技巧均胜过当年被人棍+煤球前


2.机械身体力量也远比当年前传阿纳金大。


3.防御力远胜当年前传阿纳金，机械身体抗打击能力绝非肉身能比。


4.速度短时间内依靠原力加速能够远超前传自己，但似乎缺乏将这种速度长时间维持的能力。


5.机械身体的维德，确实不如当年被人棍+煤球前灵活。（这个有旧正史小说明确提及，并且说这种设计是为了防止维德依赖机械而刻意选择的）


综合实力虽然远胜前传，但有些方面确实比前传有欠缺




而从《西斯尊主》看，新正史EP3五年之后的的维德是：

1.原力造诣远超当年前传阿纳金，光剑格斗技术与原力使用技巧均胜过当年被人棍+煤球前——能够在太空一击秒掉数十架改装版秃鹫，能够在皇帝原力闪电攻击协助下远距离拉掷摧毁大型武装飞船，能够用原力推杀死多头外骨骼能够防御爆能枪的Lylek怪兽，以及屠杀反抗者与Lylek怪兽时的光剑格斗表现

2.机械身体力量也远比当年前传阿纳金大。

3.防御力远胜当年前传阿纳金，机械身体抗打击能力绝非肉身能比。

4.原力加速下可以长期维持被称为 超自然（preternatural） 的高速运动，没有旧正史似乎只能短时间胜过被人棍+煤球前的缺陷。

5.机械身体的维德，同样看不出明显的不灵活状况。


也就是说《西斯尊主》在保留前3点的同时，4、5点的缺陷已经至少是很大程度上被拟补（如果不是已经被完全拟补甚至全面超越当年的话）然后，最重要的一点是——《西斯尊主》只是EP3的五年之后。


几个月前这本小说出版后国外跟国内看小说的人纷纷表示被这本小说里爵爷的速度给震惊了


这本小说与《塔金》里被封印数千年远古西斯神殿以及皇帝想成神的描写意味着，皇帝与维德正传远胜前传的旧设定不但被新正史完全继承，而且是被进一步强化了。

xjtxp

最后说一句上面的文跟EP7电影相关
提醒——此处有对于大多数不研究设定的人来说应该影响不大的EP7电影剧透






















Sidious said.

The droid bowed its head. “I will, Your Majesty.”

The two of them were in Sidious’s lair, a small rock-walled enclosure beneath the deepest of the Palace’s several sublevels that had once been an ancient Sith shrine. That the Jedi had raised their Temple over the shrine had for a thousand years been one of the most closely guarded secrets of those Sith Lords who had perpetuated and implemented the revenge strategy of the Jedi Order’s founders. Even the most powerful of Dark Side Adepts believed that shrines of the sort existed only on Sith worlds remote from Coruscant, and even the most powerful of the Jedi believed that the power inherent in the shrine had been neutralized and successfully capped. In truth, that power had seeped upward and outward since its entombment, infiltrating the hallways and rooms above, and weakening the Jedi Order much as the Sith Masters themselves had secretly infiltrated the corridors of political power and toppled the Republic.

Save for Sidious, no sentient being in close to five thousand years had set foot in the shrine. The room’s excavation and restoration had been carried out by machines under the supervision of 11-4D. Even Vader was unaware of the shrine’s existence. But it was here that they would one day work together the way Sidious and Plagueis had to coax from the dark side its final secrets. In the intervening years he had actually come to appreciate Plagueis for the **ner and prophet he had been. Such perilous machinations required two Sith, one to serve as bait for the dark side, the other to be the vessel. Success would grant them the power to harness the full powers of the dark side, and allow them to rule for ten thousand years.


………


Standing alone at the summit of the Palace spire, the Emperor narrowed his eyes as he gazed out on Coruscant, spread below him like a stage set. The sky was clearing after a cleansing of the Federal District by weather control, and the skyscrapers and towering monads shone like new. The power of the dark side coursed through him like a transfusion of unsullied blood.

Out there were people who wished him dead, others who envied his station, and still others who wished merely to be close enough to him to sate themselves on the crumbs he brushed aside. The thought of it was almost enough to transform his disgust to sadness for the plight of the ordinary. But the wretched practices of the Republic endured: corruption, decadence, the lust for prestige. A penthouse in an elite building, a position that opened doors anywhere in the Core, collections of priceless art, the finest foods, the most able servants … He never had need for any of it, even when a senator, even when Supreme Chancellor, and had subscribed to luxury only to satisfy juvenile fantasies and, of course, because it was expected of him. Now he had only the dark side to answer to, and the dark side had an appetite for extravagance of a different sort.

A plot had been foiled, a distraction laid to rest. Needless energy had been expended, and resources wasted. Eventually the dark side would grant him infallible foresight, but until such time future events would remain just out of clear sight, clouded by possibilities and the unremitting swirlings of the Force. He had made himself lord of all he surveyed, but he had much to learn. Actions meant to topple him from his lofty perch wouldn’t end with the successful containment of this most recent fiasco. But he would deal with any who chose to challenge him with the same precision he had applied to exterminating the Jedi. And he would not allow himself to be sidetracked from his goal of unlocking the secrets many of the Sith Masters before him had sought: the means to harness the powers of the dark side to reshape reality itself; in effect, to fashion a universe of his own creation. Not mere immortality of the sort Plagueis had lusted after, but influence of the ultimate sort.

As his Empire swelled, bringing more and more of the outer systems into its fold, so too would his power unfurl, until every being in the galaxy was held captive in his dark embrace.



——正史小说《塔金》























………




………




——EP7官方小说（前两段小说与电影内容台词完全没有差别,第三段小说跟电影对话有无增减不敢肯定）



正史官方小说《塔金》设定里提到绝地圣殿下封印的那座被帕尔帕廷掌握的让帕尔帕廷觉得自己能够最终成神的远古西斯神殿，而EP7电影跟小说里三次提及卢克在找寻历史上第一座远古绝地圣殿，以上两者间有没有呼应可以自己感觉






—此文END—

woshenc

帕皇不是玩脱，是卢克有主角光环啊233

avarice

那为啥电影里的表现那么挫B

Nidhoggr

xjtxp 发表于 2016-1-2 16:26
虽然正传受限年代与技术，但细节里体现原力造诣远胜前传的方面一点也不少好么？

维德EP5的隔屏幕锁喉，跟 ...

就电影表现来看……前传那帮人的剑术肯定退步了

xjtxp

Nidhoggr 发表于 2016-1-2 22:12
就电影表现来看……前传那帮人的剑术肯定退步了

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XNDczMDkyNzY0/v.swf


正传剑术指导以及部分维德打斗戏的替身都是鲍勃·安德森(Bob Anderson)，而日光灯管舞的前传么
虽然摩尔演员实际剑术——哦不，是棍术的水平挺高

ad2015.1

星战电影的动作场面能有动画版帕皇只身去曼达洛教育摩尔和他兄弟那么酷炫就好了。

还有阿纳金在EP3时期到底有多强？开场砍了杜库，结尾跟人品王大战300回合后被削人棍（虽然有地形加成）……动画版更是连构陷自己爱徒的绝地学徒都搞不定。

----发送自 Meizu MX4,Android 5.0.1

葵

ad2015.1 发表于 2016-1-3 11:48
星战电影的动作场面能有动画版帕皇只身去曼达洛教育摩尔和他兄弟那么酷炫就好了。

还有阿纳金在EP3时期到 ...

原来动画版动作场面很酷炫么？求几集打的爽的地址开开眼～

Nidhoggr

ad2015.1 发表于 2016-1-3 11:48
星战电影的动作场面能有动画版帕皇只身去曼达洛教育摩尔和他兄弟那么酷炫就好了。

还有阿纳金在EP3时期到 ...

貌似有人说官方设定，开场阿纳金之所以能砍杜库，是以为人品王已经消弱了大半杜库的力量……我没看出来

葵

迪克猪仔 发表于 2016-1-3 13:56
[http://www.bilibili.com/video/av459735/]

15：30开始…… 风骚帕帕庭教训小徒弟…… ...

谢过～

ギナ

话说原力释放还算正史不？

xjtxp

ad2015.1 发表于 2016-1-3 11:48
星战电影的动作场面能有动画版帕皇只身去曼达洛教育摩尔和他兄弟那么酷炫就好了。

还有阿纳金在EP3时期到 ...

那位Barris是正式的绝地武士，根本就不是学徒。
EP2电影里她参与了竞技场之战，而且凭实力生存了下来。
就算TCW动画也能看出她没有学徒辫

TCW动画她的问题根本不是第五季最后跟阿纳金的交手，事实上第五季最后她与阿纳金交手时的实力才是即贴合电影设定又接近小说与漫画设定的。

问题是TCW开始为了发展剧情脑抽的把她做成了像跟阿索卡一个辈分的（TCW早期把武力也给明显降了），但其实不是——按小说漫画不是按TCW里没有学徒辩的建模不是按电影也不是。
她是正式的绝地，在TCW之前的官方里她跟阿纳金一起出任务时那性格对阿纳金都是攻属性的存在。

arctichan

ギナ 发表于 2016-1-3 19:01
话说原力释放还算正史不？

非但不是正史。

甚至已经是被封印的黑历史了。

xjtxp

Nidhoggr 发表于 2016-1-3 13:05
貌似有人说官方设定，开场阿纳金之所以能砍杜库，是以为人品王已经消弱了大半杜库的力量……我没看出来[s ...

那个是当初按剧本创造且经卢卡斯本人几乎逐句审核修改的EP3小说中提到的。



那战杜库被帕尔帕廷忽悠，原计划就是让让阿纳金成为此战英雄——虽然结果跟杜库预想不同。

我们来看下杜库跟阿纳金欧比万动手时是什么心态






交手前杜库与帕尔帕廷的对话：




“

………



杜库伯爵带着厌恶，冷冷地注视着克诺比和天行者的蓝色全息图，他们在电梯井里上下乱窜，被毁灭机器人追进追出，就像上演着一场荒唐可笑的闹剧。

“被他俘虏，”他慢慢地，若有所思地说道，像是在自言自语，“将是一件难堪的事情。”

回答他的那个声音是如此熟悉，有时只有这个声音才能真正道出他的心声。“是你可以容忍的难堪，泰拉纳斯大人。毕竟他是现今最强大的绝地，不是吗？难道我们没有让全银河系的人都认同这一点吗？”

“没错，师父，没错。”杜库又叹口气。今天他回想起自己八十三年生命中的时时刻刻，“扮演邪恶一方如此之久……十分辛苦，师父。我正期待着被光荣地囚禁。”

在狱中，他可以舒适地退于战争之外；在狱中，他终于认识到分离主义运动对银河系文明犯下了多么深重的罪孽，从此痛改前非，弃绝之前效忠的事业，他名誉毫发无损，以正直的、理想主义的光辉形象投入新政府。

新政府……

这是他们多年来注定的命运。

一个廉洁、纯粹、直截了当的政府：不像他所鄙夷的共和国，没有人再会争先恐后地讨好那些无知草民和劣等种族。他尽职的政府将是权威的化身。

人类的权威。

独立星系联邦的主要力量由内莫迪亚人（Neimoidian）、斯卡科人（Skakoan）、夸润人（Quarren）、阿奎利什人（Aqualish）、缪恩人（Muun）、戈萨姆人（Gossam）、塞默思人（Sy Myrthian）、库里瓦人（Koorivar）和吉奥诺西斯人组成。这绝不是偶然的。战争结束后，他要彻底推翻这些异种，夺回他们手中的一切，并把他们占有的星系和财富交给唯一可以信赖的人。

人类。

杜库会尽职于人类的帝国。

他会竭尽全力，如同这是他与生俱来的使命。他会粉碎整个绝地武士团然后将之重建：不再受那些腐败、自恋、自称政治家的卑鄙小人束缚，为混乱不堪的银河系带去的真正的权威与和平。

这个武士团不会谈判，不会调解。

这个武士团只会执行。

绝地武士团的幸存者将组成西斯军队。

帝国的铁拳。

这副铁拳将成为超越任何绝地噩梦的力量。绝地并不是银河系中唯一的原力使用者；从哈普斯（Hapes）到哈伦卡尔（Haruun Kal），从基弗（Kiffu）到达索米尔（Dathomir），具备强大原力的人类和类人种族很久以来一直拒绝献出他们的孩子，不让他们受绝地终身劳役的约束。他们，不会如此拒绝西斯军队。

他们别无选择。

杜库皱着眉，俯视着影像。克诺比和天行者继续上演着闹剧，他们又乘上一台不听使唤的涡轮电梯——很可能是格里弗斯正玩弄着电梯控制器——而倒霉的战斗机器人继续穷追不舍。

这实在，太……

不体面了。

“师父，我建议是否再给克诺比最后一次机会？对建立帝国的政治合法性来说，有他这样正直的绝地支持，将是非常宝贵的。”

“啊，是啊。克诺比。”他师父的声音和蔼起来，“你一直对克诺比很有兴趣，不错吧？”

“不错。他的师父是我的学徒；某种意义上他可算是我的孙辈——”

“他年纪太大。被灌输的太多。被绝地的错误认识彻底毒害了。我们在吉奥诺西斯就已经证实了这一点，不是吗？在他心目中，他只为原力本身服务；怀有这样的信念，必然对现实视而不见。”

杜库叹气。反正他已经宣布过一次这位绝地大师的死刑了，这对他来讲应当不是难事。“的确如此；我很庆幸自己没有抱着这种幻想白费力气。”

“克诺比必须死。今天。死于你手。他的死可能是最终将天行者牢牢缚住，永远为我所用的关键所在。”

杜库懂得：恩师的死不仅能让天行者已经不稳的情绪天平倾向黑暗的深渊，更能除去天行者成功转化的最大障碍。只要克诺比还活着，天行者就永远不会安于西斯阵营；克诺比对绝地价值观的坚定信念，会蒙蔽天行者的视线，桎梏这个年轻人的真正力量。

尽管如此，杜库仍然有所保留。这一切来得太快；西迪厄斯是否考虑清楚了这次行动对各方面的影响？“但我必须提出疑问，我的师父：天行者真是我们要找的那个人吗？”

“他很强大。甚至可能比我更强。”

“正因为如此，”杜库沉思着说，“我若是杀掉他，岂不更好。”

“你这么肯定能做到？”

“师父。不合规矩，散漫无序的力量又有何用？这个男孩过于危险，他连自己都控制不了。而那条机械手臂——”杜库嘴边浮现出轻蔑的神情。“令人作呕。”

“那么也许你当初就不该砍掉他的手臂。”

“嗯，作为绅士理应学会如何单手决斗。”杜库不在乎地挥挥手。“他甚至不再是纯粹的人类。像格里弗斯这种人，使用生化机器人装置还可以原谅；他以前就是怪物，加装机械部件完全是一种进步。可是，将机器人和人类混在一起？简直可怕至极。品位差到极点。我们怎可沦落到与他为盟？”

“我很荣幸”——他师父的声音更加和蔼——“有一位自认能够指导我的徒弟。”

杜库抬起半边眉毛。“我冒犯您了，师父。”他以他惯有的优雅说道，“我只是陈述己见，不是与您争辩。完全不是。”

“对我们的目的而言，天行者的手臂使他成了更完美的人选。他为和平与正义作出的牺牲，在此留下了永远的标记。他余生都将在众人的瞩目中佩戴这块英雄的徽章，没有人会质疑他的荣誉、英勇和正直。他就是完美的。完美。唯一存在的问题是，他能否跨越绝地教条人为给他划定的界线。这正是今天这次行动需要解决的，伯爵大人。”

杜库无可争辩。黑暗尊主西迪厄斯不仅将杜库带入了超出他想像的力量领域，而且还是一位极其精明的政客，他操纵政治场的强大能力，甚至可以让原力黑暗面的力量相形见绌。常言道：当原力关上一扇舱门时，就会打开一扇舷窗……而在过去十三个标准年中，每扇微启的舷窗外，都能看到一位西斯黑暗尊主抓住窗缘，向内觊觎，算计着怎样才能钻进来。

要想改进他师父的计划，几乎是不可能的；他不得不承认，自己那个让克诺比代替天行者的主意，只是出于一种错误的感伤。天行者几乎确定无疑就是他们所要的人。

他应该是；达斯·西迪厄斯花了多年时间来培养他。

今天的考验，将彻底证明这一点。

他毫不怀疑天行者会倒向黑暗。杜库知道，这不仅是针对天行者的考验；尽管西迪厄斯从未点明，但杜库确信自己也同样面临考验。今日的成功，会让师父知道他有能力继承衣钵：在接下来的战斗进行到尾声时，他会像西迪厄斯指引自己那样，将天行者引入黑暗面辉煌灿烂的殿堂。

他从没考虑过失败。他怎么会失败？

“可是——请原谅我的疑问，师父。克诺比一旦倒在我的剑下，您确信天行者会听命于我？不可否认，在他的履历上找不到任何惯于服从命令的纪录。”

“天行者的力量带来的不只是简单的服从。它能带来创造力，也带来运气；我们根本不用像指导格里弗斯那样为他费心。甚至绝地委员会那群目光短浅的人，也看清了这一点；连他们都知道，不再告诉他如何去做，只告诉他该做什么。然后他会自己解决。他一向如此。”

杜库点头。自从西迪厄斯向他揭示这个宏伟计划的精妙之处后，杜库第一次放松自己，想象着最后的结局。

在英勇地擒获杜库伯爵后，阿纳金·天行者将成为无与伦比的英雄：共和国历史上，或许是绝地武士团历史上，最伟大的英雄人物。失去与自己手足情深的搭档，将给整个故事增添一点适当的悲剧色彩，他接受全息网采访时说的每一句话，也因伤感而更有分量，他将谴责议会腐败，对战事支持不力，他将婉转的——没错，非常婉转，而且是不情愿地，影射绝地武士团的腐败，也对战事拖延负有责任。

他将宣布成立一个新的原力战士团体。

他将成为西斯大军完美的将领。

杜库不禁敬畏地摇摇头。回想起几天前，绝地似乎就要发觉，甚至毁掉他和他师父的一切安排。但他从来都不该惧怕。他的师父从未失败。他也永远不会失败。他就是无敌的化身。

当你把敌人当作朋友时，你怎么可能击败他？

而现在，他师父只需绝妙地一击，绝地武士团就会像埃思隆蜥吞食自己尾巴一般，自取灭亡。*

就在今日。就在此时。

欧比万·克诺比的死将带来共和国的末日。

今天将见证帝国的诞生。

“泰拉纳斯？你感觉如何？”

“我……”杜库意识到自己的视线有些迷茫，“很好，我的师父。感觉非常好。今天即是最后一幕，是整出剧最宏伟的高潮——是您数十年努力登峰造极的成果……我认为自己有些激动了。”

“调整你的心态，泰拉纳斯。克诺比和天行者快到门口了。扮好你的角色，我的徒弟，银河系将是我们的。”

杜库直起身来，第一次直视师父的双眼。

达斯·西迪厄斯，西斯黑暗尊主，正坐在将军椅中，手腕和脚踝被紧紧铐住。

杜库向他鞠了一躬。“谢谢议长。”

纳布的帕尔帕廷，共和国的最高议长回答道，“退下。他们来了。”


………
”



随后杜库对格里弗斯的反应：

“

………


在另一部涡轮电梯舱里，杜库注视着全息影像中的克诺比和天行者从门口的高台上警惕地走下弧形阶梯，慢慢向将军室中央的开阔地移动，他们走得很慢，以便在舰体摇晃时立稳身体。几枚鱼雷击中了战舰，舰体剧烈抖动起来，灯光又一次熄灭了；每当能量被从生命维持系统转移到损伤控制系统时，照明总是最先被牺牲的。

“大人。”格里弗斯将军在舰内通讯器中的声音听上去十分焦虑。“我舰受损严重。百分之三十的自动武器系统已失效，超光速飞行能力也将不保。”

杜库冷静地点了点头，他正皱着眉看着全息影像中两个蓝色透明的人形小心翼翼地向帕尔帕廷迂回前进。“命令舰队全体撤退，将军，准备进入超空间。待我解决了绝地武士，就去舰桥与你汇合。”

“遵命，大人。格里弗斯通话完毕。”

“的确完了，你这令人恶心的怪物，”杜库对着已经关闭的通讯器暗自嘟囔道。“你的运气和时间都快耗完了。”

他把通讯器扔到一边，丝毫没有理会它碰到甲板时发出的声响。他不再需要这玩意儿了。只要他一安全“被捕”并逃脱，就让它连同格里弗斯，连同他那些讨厌的机器保镖，连同这艘战舰一起毁灭吧。

他对身边两个高大的超级战斗机器人点头示意。其中一个打开了电梯门，然后它们走出电梯，分立两侧警戒。



………

”





然后小说里三人那战的剧情比电影长：


“

………


“请出剑吧，绅士们。我们不要在议长面前乱作一团。”

欧比万以阿塔鲁剑法*（Ataro）的双手预备姿势持剑：这是奎冈的风格，也是尤达的风格。他干脆地打开光剑，仿佛空气中划过一道闪电。“这回你逃不了了，杜库。”

“逃？拜托。”杜库露出他那惯用的微笑。“你们何以认为我的整个行动是为了逃跑呢？数小时前我就可以带着议长离开这个星系。但我等待你们二位前来尝试营救，是因为我有更好的安排。”

天行者以希恩剑法（Shien）的预备姿势持剑：带着黑色手套的耐钢机械手与肩头齐平，剑刃向上、向外倾斜。“这不仅仅是尝试。”

“但离成功还差了一点。”

杜库用一种显耀的姿势把斗篷向右肩后方甩开，露出右手——懒懒地指了指仍然站在高台上的两台超级战斗机器人。“拜托，绅士们。难道我必须下令让机器人开火吗？那会搞得一团糟，爆能枪可是不长眼的。对我们三个当然不算什么危险，不过我可不愿看到议长受任何伤害。”

克诺比以一种近乎催眠的优雅动作，缓慢地向他移动，就好像浮在一块隐形的反重力板上一样。“为什么我觉得你言不由衷？”

在桌子另一边，天行者向杜库侧面迂回。“而你对在吉奥诺西斯星上的欠下的血债却无动于衷。”

“啊。”杜库的笑容更加明显。“阿米达拉议员还好吗？”

“不许——”天行者在原力中呈现的雷雨团突然涌起一股新的能量。“不许你提她的名字。”

杜库毫不理会。他对这小子的私人问题没有兴趣；他对天行者乱糟糟的私人生活早有耳闻。“我对帕尔帕廷议长并无恶意，傻小子。他不是军人也不是间谍，跟你和你的同伴恰恰相反。只是他选择带领一个腐朽的共和国反抗我为改革而做出的努力，这实在是历史的不幸。”

“是你为毁灭而做出的努力。”

“议长只是平民。而你和克诺比将军属于合法的军事目标。现在选择权在你们手里：是想做俘虏——”他稍稍一用原力，光剑在一瞬间飞入他的掌心，鲜红的剑刃指向侧下方。“——还是想做死尸。”

“真是太巧了，”克诺比在回答时不忘继续跟进，使伯爵正好被夹在天行者和他之间。“你也面临着同样的选择。”

杜库镇定自若地分别看了两人一下。他举剑行了一个马卡希式（Makashi）的致敬礼，然后把剑重新甩向下方。“别以为你们二对一就能占到什么便宜。”

“噢，我们明白，”天行者说。“因为你们也是两个人。”

杜库险些没能控制住惊骇的表情。

“或者我该说，你们曾经是两个人，”年轻的绝地武士继续说。“你的同伴西迪厄斯的日子也不好过；我们已经在整个银河系中展开大搜捕。说不定他现在已经落网了。”

“真的吗？”杜库松了一口气。他现在非常非常想对帕尔帕廷使个眼色，不过他当然不能那么做。“你们可真走运。”

就是这么简单，他想。干掉克诺比，让天行者孤军奋战。之后，就是一点点诱使天行者变得狂暴起来，最终打破绝地的矜持，揭示出西斯的无穷力量。

然后就轮到西迪厄斯尊主出场了。

“投降吧。”克诺比的声音低沉，像是在下最后通牒。“这是你最后的机会。”

杜库扬起眉毛。“我恐怕不需要什么机会，除非你们的口袋里正藏着尤达大师。”

原力在他们三人之间激烈碰撞，战舰在涡轮激光炮的新一波轰击下震颤不已，杜库感到时机已到。他快速向身侧虚瞟一眼——这是在假装分神，诱引对手进攻——

三人同时启动。



随着战舰的震颤，赤色烟云已从阿纳金的脊柱蔓延至他的四肢和头部。当杜库向身侧轻轻一瞟时，只分神了一霎那的功夫，阿纳金便迫不及待地发起进攻。

他飞身上前，光剑以致命的角度挑向前方。

欧比万从另一边起跳，两人配合得天衣无缝——他们在半空中相遇，而西斯尊主却消失不见了。

阿纳金一抬头，刚好瞥见杜库那兰克兽皮制成的靴底向他的面部踢来，打得他一个趔趄跌向地面；他运用原力，轻松地平衡身体，稳稳落地，重新向激战的方向冲去。鲜红色和天蓝色光剑碰撞在一起，发出耀眼的光芒。杜库逼得欧比万步步后退，以一连串快速多变、眼花缭乱的剑法打乱了欧比万的防御，招招直逼他心脏刺去。

阿纳金冲向杜库身后——伯爵半转过身，一手优雅地单手压剑，顶住欧比万的进攻，另一只手随意挥了挥。会议桌旁的座椅纷纷升空，冲着阿纳金的头横飞过来。他不屑一顾地挥剑把第一把椅子砍成两半，可第二把击中了他的膝盖，紧接着第三把猛击在肩膀上，把他撞倒在地。

他内心一声大吼，也用原力举起了几把椅子——可整张会议桌已经把他撞飞出去，摔到了身后的墙上。他的光剑从手中滑落，在桌面上弹了几下，最后掉到桌子另一头的地上。

整个过程中，杜库就好像根本没有注意到他似的。

阿纳金被卡在那里动弹不得，气喘吁吁，暗暗吃惊。他想，如果再这样下去，我可真要发狂了。



杜库正轻而易举地抵挡着克诺比雨点般的一阵阵进攻，突然感到一股原力把会议桌从墙上推开，飞速朝他背后抛来；他连忙起跳做了一个后滚翻，勉强躲过了脊柱被砸断的厄运。

“嗬，”他轻轻笑出声来。“这孩子可真令人刮目相看。”

他着地时正好落在直冲向他的年轻人面前。年轻人心急火燎，手中没有武器，紧跟在他推过来的桌子后面，颜面通红。

“我比上次强大了一倍！”

啊，杜库心想。如此羸弱而自负。西迪厄斯会好好调教他的。不过在那之前——

天行者的光剑呼啸着飞回手中，重新打开，并在同一时刻向他劈来。“上次交手以后我的力量增长了一倍——”

“好极了。”杜库利索地闪向一边，挥剑向阿纳金的腿砍去，但天行者冲过杜库身前时，用剑抵住这一击，紧接着又把剑甩到脑后挡开杜库瞄向他后颈部的攻击——不过他这次鲁莽的进攻挡住了克诺比的进攻路线，绝地大师只得从他头顶上翻过。

杜库举剑径直向其劈去。

克诺比在空中转向，同时砍向那鲜红的剑刃，杜库再次闪向一边，这回是克诺比挡了天行者的道。

“真是的，”杜库说，“太不幸了。”

噢，他们真是精力充沛，又是蹦又是跳，几乎是胡乱地进攻，把座椅砍得七零八落，然后用原力把碎片到处乱抛。而杜库继续有条不紊地与他们灵活周旋，他所能做的就是尽力不要大笑出来。

应对他们那直白得令人沮丧的战术，就是这么简单；两人之中，天行者速度更快，就像一只抽搐的鹰蝠一样窜来窜去——他们想用左右夹击的战术从两边同时进攻——而克诺比则保持一种希乔剑法（Shii-Cho）的节奏，不紧不慢地像个伐木机器人，步步为营，笨拙但依然顽固地试图一点点把杜库逼到角落里。

反观杜库，他要做的就是左右迂回——再加上时不时从对手头上跳过——这样他就能轮流对付他们二人，而不必以一当二。他觉得在他们以往的经历中，他们这种战术或许称得上行之有效；很显然这种战术风格是在两人合作对付大批敌军的过程中形成的。但他们还未做好联合对付一个会使用原力的对手的准备，特别是像杜库这么强大的对手；相反，他一向单打独斗。让两个绝地磕磕绊绊、相互阻碍，他感到游刃有余，甚至轻松得可笑。

他们甚至不会想到他对战斗的掌控强到什么程度。因为他们是按绝地的训练教条来战斗的，放开所有欲望，让原力流遍全身，他们根本就没希望对抗杜库高超的西斯武艺。自从上次在吉奥诺西斯星被打败后，他们还是毫无长进。

他们让原力指导自己。而杜库则在指导原力。

他把他们的一次次进攻引向自己可以轻易挡开的方向，又一次次地用黑暗力量敏捷地回刺，一点点破坏绝地的阵脚，打乱绝地们对时机的把握。他本可以轻而易举地杀掉他们两个，就像那个叫摩尔的怪物解决黑日集团的一帮维戈一样。

可是，按计划他只能杀死其中一个，而这场愚蠢的闹剧已经演得有些拖沓，更别说让人疲倦了。听命于他的黑暗原力毕竟有限，而他本人毕竟也年事已高了。

他突然向克诺比腹部刺去，绝地大师抬剑挡住，两人相对而立，双剑相抵，剑刃距对方喉颈仅有一掌之遥。“你动作太慢了，克诺比。你的意图太明显。你得再加把劲。”

克诺比愉快地眨了一下眼，算是对这句忠告的回答。

“乐意从命，”绝地武士说着，忽然跃过杜库头顶上方，其速度之快，仿若从人间蒸发一般。

而在本应是克诺比胸部的位置，现出天行者那一道急如闪电的蓝色光刃，直取杜库的心脏。

情急之下一侧身才让他避过了胸口上那致命一击，而织甲斗篷上则留下一道焦痕。

杜库一惊，怎么回事？

他一个空翻跳到会议桌上，想暂时脱离战斗调整一下情绪——刚才确实是太悬了——可他的双脚碰到桌面时，克诺比就已经在那儿等着他了，挥剑防御的速度快得不可思议，令杜库甚至不敢进攻；他朝克诺比脸前虚晃一剑，然后伏下身来了一个扫堂腿——

可克诺比轻松一跃躲过了这一击，而且不知从何处突然出现的天行者差点一剑削去了他的那只脚。这一剑砍在桌子上，桌子垮了，于是西斯尊主很不体面地摔在了地上。

这可不像事先计划的那样。

天行者紧跟着又猛砍一剑，力量极大，以致于在抵挡这一下冲击时，杜库被压得伸不直手臂。他一个后滚翻刚刚站稳脚跟——克诺比的光剑就已经向他的脖子飞过来。情急之下的隔挡，配合着一个后扫腿踢中克诺比的大腿，才为他赢得了起跳的宝贵时间，当他在一边落地时——

天行者又已经等在那儿了。

天行者高举光剑向下砍杀，第一下，杜库凭借本能挡下。第二下，他拿剑的手腕开始支撑不住了。第三下，他的红色剑刃被顶回来，灼伤了自己肩膀，他不得不选择后退。

杜库脸色苍白。事情怎么会到这种地步？

天行者继续进攻，毫不留情，异常凶猛，好似一只配备了光剑的毁灭者机器人：不断开火，步步紧逼。杜库已经尽可能地快速后撤；而天行者总是在上方压制着他。他的呼吸变得急促而困难起来。他不再费力抵挡天行者的砍杀，只是用剑把它们推向一边；他无法与天行者在力量上针锋相对——这个孩子不仅能调动强大的原力，光是他的蛮力也大得令人咋舌——

此时杜库才明白，他被耍了。

天行者最初希恩剑法的预备姿势和阿塔鲁剑法都是幌子；这孩子用的是德杰姆·索剑法（Djem So），而且是杜库多年来见过的用得最好的人。他自己那优雅的马卡希剑法无法使出足够的力量与德杰姆·索剑法直接抗衡。更何况他在同时面对两个对手。

是改变战术的时候了。

他伏下身，又一次用扫堂腿——德杰姆·索剑法的弱点在于缺乏机动性——这一下狠狠踢中了天行者的皮靴，年轻的绝地武士失去平衡，这给了杜库跳开的时机——

但克诺比那舞动着的蓝色光剑又一次出现在他面前。

杜库觉得戏该收场了。

杀戮时刻到了。

克诺比过去的师父奎冈·金，也是杜库自己教出的学徒；杜库曾和奎冈练剑数千次，他深谙阿塔鲁剑法的各种弱点，以及它那荒唐可笑的跳跃动作。他连连向克诺比的双腿刺去，想迫使这个绝地大师跳起来从他头上翻过，这样杜库就可以沿脊椎，把他从肾脏到肩胛骨，齐齐斩成两半——这种情景，这种计划，在杜库头脑中清晰地闪现着，他几乎没有注意到克诺比双脚都没怎么移动就抵挡住了他的每一下进攻，他异常冷静，身体充分保持平衡，挥剑恰到好处，轻而易举地防守，而后敏捷地回刺，速度快过加罗尔幽灵蝰（Garollian ghost viper）的舌头。当杜库感到天行者重新爬起来，又一次从后面向他冲来时，他终于认出了克诺比刚才那令人眩目的防守套路。直到此时，他才明白克诺比的阿塔鲁和希-乔剑法也是诱敌之计。

克诺比已经成了一位索雷苏剑法（Soresu）的专家。

杜库突然觉得一种出乎意料的不祥之感正向他袭来……

他的这场闹剧，出于无法解释的原因，瞬间从滑稽变得严肃起来，并且正在向恐怖的方向发展。就像窗外，垂死的战舰绽放着巨大的火球，一个念头突然在杜库脑中炸响：这一对绝地鼠辈已经成为了十足的危险人物。

这些小丑可能——仅仅是可能——真的会打败他。

不能继续冒险了；即使是他的师父也会同意这一点。西迪厄斯尊主可以制定新计划，这远比招收新徒容易得多。

他深吸一口气，再次调动遍布宇宙的原力；随着他的手腕微微一抖，这股力量轻轻一抽，克诺比向后飞了出去，重重地撞在墙上，但杜库没有时间庆祝。

天行者正全力向他进攻。

耀眼的蓝色光剑在激烈地舞动，阿纳金的每一次上手劈砍，对杜库来说都如陨石坠地一般，以不可阻挡的气势撼动着他的防御；西斯尊主无论怎样充分运用原力，却也只有招架之功，而天行者——

天行者越来越强大——

杜库每次格挡耗费的气力，都超过了他抛出克诺比时所用的力；每次格挡都让他感觉如同衰老了十岁一般。

他决定再次改变策略。

他不再试图还击。随着原力不断消耗，他的六感开始衰退，他的意识渐渐回归肉体，并被局限在头颅内，他只能勉强感知房间内周围事物的轮廓；他隐约感到身后是台阶，台阶尽头是入口处的高台。他一步步退到高台上，占据了制高点，但天行者毫无疲惫，依旧攻势凌厉。

那蓝色的剑刃无处不在，越来越快地闪动着，飞舞着，最后杜库只能透过一片电光构成的云霭观察周围，他看到克诺比又回到了画面中：凭借猛烈爆发的原力，他就像射出的鱼雷一样紧跟着天行者跃上台阶。杜库觉得在这种十万火急的情况下，一个绅士要耍赖也是情有可原的。

“卫兵！”他冲着仍然立正站在大门两侧的超级战斗机器人大喊。“开火！”

两台机器人立刻抬起手臂，冲向前方。它们手臂上装配的重型爆能枪迸射一道道能量束；天行者转身挥剑，把所有光束都挡了回去。光束打在机器人光亮的外装甲上，第二次反弹。高能粒子束呼啸着，以令人眩目的速度在室内乱飞。

克诺比跑上高台，只一剑就结果了两台机器人。还没等这堆破铜烂铁落地，杜库就开始反击，他一个旋转侧踢正中天行者腹部；他引爆最后一波黑暗力量，顺势转身以闪电般的速度使出一记后扫腿，脚跟正中克诺比的下巴，发出咔的一声，听上去就像一支巨型口径的射弹枪猛烈开火。绝地大师被踹下台阶。他的脖子好像断了。

干得很好，不是吗？

不过这还不够。

当克诺比那软绵绵的身体还在半空中滚落时，杜库就用原力送出一股汹涌的能量。克诺比突然像即将击中目标的导弹一样加速坠落。绝地大师几乎垂直砸到地面，又顺势滑行，砰的一声闷响撞在墙上。墙上的水沫永凝土（hydrofoamed permacrete）被震塌，压在他身上。

杜库有一种说不出的满足感。

现在，再来对付天行者——

他也只想到这儿，因为当他的注意力回到年轻的绝地身上时，眼前的视线已经被向他面部飞来的靴底完全遮住，这一踢的速度几近极限速度*。

他眼前顿时一片花白，很快背后又挨了一下，是他撞到了高台边缘的栏杆上，接着他感到天旋地转，向天花板跌去。这当然只是他的错觉：因为他已翻过栏杆，倒栽下去。他的手脚都已不听使唤。原力似乎远在天边，呼之不应，这一切真是令他颜面尽失。

他勉强召唤出最后一波黑暗力量来减轻这足以致残的撞击。

原力托住他，减缓了冲撞，使他站稳脚跟。

他掸了掸身上的灰尘，高傲地注视着高台上的天行者，他也正向下看着他——正像战斗开始前杜库所做的那样；杜库无法再对视下去，这种位置互换令他莫名其妙地感到一阵不安。

这莫非是命运使然？

看着天行者站在杜库刚刚站过的地方……就像是在回忆一个他从未经历过的梦境……

他把这些想法抛到一边，再次运用他所掌握的那种足以使自己无敌的知识，打开一条通往原力的通道。力量流遍他的全身，年龄带给他的负担亦不复存在。

他举起光剑，向天行者招招手。

天行者跳下高台。即便在他下落的一瞬间，杜库也能感到两人之间原力的奔流中出现了一股漩涡。他终于明白了。

他终于明白天行者为什么会变强，为什么沉默寡言，为什么会成为一部战斗机器。他明白了为什么西迪厄斯长久以来对这孩子保持着如此强烈的兴趣。

天行者是块天生的材料。

他的心是一座热核反应炉，正在灼蚀着绝地戒律筑成的防火墙。原力在他紧握的双拳中熊熊燃烧。不知不觉，他已经是半个西斯了。

这孩子拥有愤怒的天赋。

即便是此刻，他还是在竭力控制自己；即便是在他跳到杜库身侧如狂风暴雨般展开进攻时，即便是在他逼得杜库且战且退时，杜库仍能感觉到天行者正用意念的铁幕压制着心中的怒火：一层因不可遏制的恐惧而愈加坚定的铁幕。

恐惧，杜库暗忖，他恐惧的是自己。他恐惧的是一旦让这个热核反应炉达到超临界状态而可能发生的后果。

杜库一个侧闪，躲过一记上手劈砍，接着迅速后撤。“我感到你内心充满恐惧。你已经被恐惧吞噬了。好一个‘无畏英雄’。你是个骗子，天行者。你只是个凭空炫耀的毛小子。”

他的剑好似一根咄咄逼人的手指，指向年轻的绝地。“你不会这么大了还怕黑吧？”

天行者又一次向他扑来，这回杜库轻松招架下来。二人几乎贴着对方，光剑闪动，令人目不暇接，可天行者已经失去了他的优势：一句简单的嘲讽就足以把他的注意力从赢得战斗转移到控制感情上。他越是愤怒，就越是恐惧，而恐惧反过来又助长了他的愤怒；有句谚语说得好，如果科雷利亚多足虫思考它该如何迈步，它便不会走路了。

杜库让自己放松下来；他终于又感到了那久违了的戏耍对手的冲动。他和天行者腾转挪移，跳起一支死亡之舞。不管是何种快乐，只要有机会就该及时享受。

这时，出于某种原因，西迪厄斯决定出面干涉。

“不要惧怕你的感觉，阿纳金，利用它！”他用帕尔帕廷的声音叫道。“点燃你的怒火。集中你所有的愤怒，他便不是你的对手。愤怒是你的武器。进攻！进攻！杀死他！”

杜库呆呆地想，杀死我？

他和天行者最后一次停了下来，剑刃相抵，两人的目光穿过相互交叉，嗞嗞作响的红蓝光束互相凝视，这一刻，杜库感到彷徨与震惊，他不知西迪厄斯是否还神志清醒。他难道不知道自己在对天行者说什么吗？

他到底站在哪一边？

穿过交叉的剑刃，他在天行者眼中看到了地狱，一种令他恶心的预感幽然而生，他已经知道了这个问题的答案。

背叛正是西斯之道。

………

”











阿纳金VS杜库时是这种情况的



1.最开始双方交手前，杜库就是选择先杀欧比万，所以优先攻击欧比万
（否则他把优先目标定阿纳金身上，阿纳金基本也得趴下）。


2.第二阶段，是阿纳金和欧比万使用假剑型误导杜库，这时杜库明显占上风。


3.第三阶段，是阿纳金和欧比万使用假剑型误导生效，杜库感到吃力。

（电影里同时没有2、3点的表现）

4.第四部分的加粗文字，打晕欧比万是杜库调集自己能调动的最后一波强黑暗原力攻击。

因为优先攻击目标是欧比万，所以对阿纳金只是一脚踹飞（阿纳金被杜库当球替飞这段，看电影更直观），把最后一波强黑暗原力攻击用在欧比万身上。

结果欧比万丧失战斗力，但杜库自己因为打晕欧比万消耗过度，体力跟不上。
被阿纳金从地上爬起来一脚回踹踢飞：

“…………


还没等这堆破铜烂铁落地，杜库就开始反击，他一个旋转侧踢正中天行者腹部；他引爆最后一波黑暗力量，顺势转身以闪电般的速度使出一记后扫腿，脚跟正中克诺比的下巴，发出咔的一声，听上去就像一支巨型口径的射弹枪猛烈开火。绝地大师被踹下台阶。他的脖子好像断了。

…………


他眼前顿时一片花白，很快背后又挨了一下，是他撞到了高台边缘的栏杆上，接着他感到天旋地转，向天花板跌去。这当然只是他的错觉：因为他已翻过栏杆，倒栽下去。他的手脚都已不听使唤。原力似乎远在天边，呼之不应，这一切真是令他颜面尽失。

他勉强召唤出最后一波黑暗力量来减轻这足以致残的撞击。

…………”

（打飞欧比万这段跟电影有些区别，电影里杜库对欧比万不是用踹的。
我觉得原因主要是电影里杜库的打斗场面，其演员李爵爷坚持要求全部自己来不用替身，他这岁数的人可能也做不了这么连贯的飞踢？











5.接着第五阶段，杜库因为打晕欧比万的消耗，对付阿纳金一度吃力。
但靠语言挑唆的心理战术，杜库又再次占了上风：

“
………

杜库一个侧闪，躲过一记上手劈砍，接着迅速后撤。“我感到你内心充满恐惧。你已经被恐惧吞噬了。好一个‘无畏英雄’。你是个骗子，天行者。你只是个凭空炫耀的毛小子。”

他的剑好似一根咄咄逼人的手指，指向年轻的绝地。“你不会这么大了还怕黑吧？”

天行者又一次向他扑来，这回杜库轻松招架下来。二人几乎贴着对方，光剑闪动，令人目不暇接，可天行者已经失去了他的优势：一句简单的嘲讽就足以把他的注意力从赢得战斗转移到控制感情上。他越是愤怒，就越是恐惧，而恐惧反过来又助长了他的愤怒；有句谚语说得好，如果科雷利亚多足虫思考它该如何迈步，它便不会走路了。

杜库让自己放松下来；他终于又感到了那久违了的戏耍对手的冲动。他和天行者腾转挪移，跳起一支死亡之舞。不管是何种快乐，只要有机会就该及时享受。


………
”

直到帕尔帕廷背叛杜库，出言拆杜库的台，这时这场戏的一切就没意义了。






这一战里，杜库是打算先杀欧比万，再引诱阿纳金堕落，随后假意被擒投降。
交手时阿纳金会比欧比万撑得久，首先是因为杜库没有优先攻击他。
到杜库打晕欧比万后，杜库因为打晕欧比万消耗过度，最后才给被帕尔帕听挑唆起黑暗面的阿纳金捡了便宜。

@Nidhoggr

xjtxp

ad2015.1 发表于 2016-1-3 11:48
星战电影的动作场面能有动画版帕皇只身去曼达洛教育摩尔和他兄弟那么酷炫就好了。

还有阿纳金在EP3时期到 ...

阿纳金VS杜库那场见楼上，至于跟欧比万那战不是欧比万开始一直让着他的话，阿纳金早就输了：


“
………


　剑刃相交，他们的动作一模一样。上千小时的光剑对练后，他们对彼此的了解，比兄弟更亲，比情人更近；他们珠联璧合。

　　每一回合，欧比万都在退让。这是他的方式。他知道，如果杀死阿纳金，他的心也会烧成灰烬。

………
”

此战欧比万开始一直是对徒弟留手——别吐槽这描写基情，我当初就说EP3电影小说能当清水耽美文看



然后记得电影里有个情节，欧比万手里有光剑阿纳金没有不？
那个情节的过程是：

“

………

　　欧比万只剩一计可用，它只有一次成功的机会——

　　但这是非常好的计策。

　　毕竟，用在格里弗斯身上的时候，此计效果甚好……

　　他抽动一只手指，通过原力反转阿纳金机械手中电子驱动器的极性。

　　耐钢手指弹开，松开了光剑。
　　欧比万伸手。阿纳金的光剑在空中旋转，轻弹进他的手中。他把两剑交叉在胸前。“傲慢自负，这是过分强大的缺陷。”

　　“你在犹豫，”阿纳金说：“这是怜悯的缺陷——”

　　“这不是怜悯，”欧比万伤感地说：“这是对生命的尊敬。甚至是你的生命。我尊敬你，以前的你。”

　　他叹息道：“我很惋惜，你没有成为你应该成为的那个人。”

　　阿纳金咆哮着扑向他，同时用原力和他身体的力量再次把欧比万撞到墙上。他的手用惊人的巨大力量抓住欧比万的手腕，迫使他张开双臂。“我非常讨厌你的说教！”

　　黑暗力量全力施加在阿纳金的抓紧的双手上。

　　欧比万感觉前臂的骨骼开始弯曲，有旁弯性骨折的趋势，很快就会完全折断。

噢，他想。噢，这可不妙。


………

”

本来夺下光剑后欧比万直接开双剑模式，阿纳金空手情况下那战早完了，因为留手出现电影里那一幕



然后阿纳金被人棍不是运气造成的地型问题，而欧比万的原力战势之前已经算计到了战况发展——欧比万与原力的联系很特殊，原力对他的某些加成就是以看似人品运气的形式体现的：


“

………

　　他的希望。他的恐惧。他对绝地武士团的责任，他对奎冈的承诺，他对阿纳金的失职。他放开了光剑。

　　阿纳金吃了一惊，本能地松开了原力抓握，松开一只手去够欧比万的光剑；就在那一瞬间，欧比万挣脱了他的另一只手，并用原力迅速抓住自己的光剑，沿前臂反转，如此一来，他不仅敏捷地挡住了阿纳金雷霆般过肩下劈，还将光剑引向一边，切开了身后的墙壁。阿纳金接着猛刺，欧比万把他的剑引向另一侧的墙壁，挑起两支剑刃，越过自己头顶画了个圆，然后，他借着阿纳金下一次劈砍的力量，顺势穿过墙壁，来到浓烟滚滚，火山灰飘舞的室外。

　　阿纳金紧随其后，持续进攻；欧比万再次退却，沿着高悬在熔岩湖黑砂岸上方的一条狭窄的阳台走道后退。

　　在他身后，穆斯塔法发出低沉的死亡之音，不远，就在熔岩河中的某个地方。欧比万引着阿纳金朝那个方向退去。

　　他确定，那是他们要一起去的地方。

………”



正常情况下EP3阿纳金大概跟欧比万差不多
但EP3最终战阿纳金那种心态，欧比万不手下留情的话打十次能削他十次






当然这小说如今也不是正史了，不过这小说当初不仅是依据剧本创作，并且还是经过卢卡斯本人几乎逐句审核修改后才在电影上映前出版的：



Though I did not personally watch him do it, I received from LFL a Word document of Revenge of the Sith with Mr Lucas' edits, which was distinct from the edits I'd already gotten from Sue Rostoni and Howard Roffman and the rest of the LFL crew, and this document was edited in such a detailed fashion that even individual words had been struck off and his preferred replacements inserted, as well as some passages wholly excised and some dialogue replaced with the dialogue from the screenplay. If that's not line-editing, I don't know what is.

What's in that book is there because Mr. Lucas wanted it to be there. What's not in that book is not there because Mr. Lucas wanted it gone.

Realplayer

所以说电影里面的弱鸟MOD是编剧没胆吗……正传三部受限于当时特效就算了，前传三部比正传弱也算了，新系列摧枯拉朽还是没有吧？

xjtxp

Realplayer 发表于 2016-1-4 03:10
所以说电影里面的弱鸟MOD是编剧没胆吗……正传三部受限于当时特效就算了，前传三部比正传弱也算了，新系列 ...

从官方艺术图典看EP7女主原设定曾经是这水平，在宇宙空间剑斩歼星舰……然后这设计被废弃了

在这时的早期原设定里，实际电影里叫做Rey的女主的名字是Kira

Realplayer

xjtxp 发表于 2016-1-4 03:17
从官方艺术图典看EP7女主原设定曾经是这水平，在宇宙空间剑斩歼星舰……然后这设计被废弃了
...

这光剑得有多长能划穿星舰船板……

ad2015

@xjtxp

现在书店里的那一套六本的星战正传+前传的小说怎样？看了几家书店，都没有能试读的。

绵羊头

ad2015 发表于 2016-1-4 09:29
@xjtxp

现在书店里的那一套六本的星战正传+前传的小说怎样？看了几家书店，都没有能试读的。  ...

是童趣出的那版吗

绵羊头

ad2015 发表于 2016-1-4 09:29
@xjtxp

现在书店里的那一套六本的星战正传+前传的小说怎样？看了几家书店，都没有能试读的。  ...

是童趣出的那版吗

xjtxp

ad2015 发表于 2016-1-4 09:29
@xjtxp

现在书店里的那一套六本的星战正传+前传的小说怎样？看了几家书店，都没有能试读的。  ...

你是说作者分别是帕特丽夏·C.弗雷德和赖德·温德姆，译者是张锷的这版本？
这版本是青少年版，跟我在上面贴的成年版内容不一样，你如果感兴趣买也未尝不可有些对电影内容的填坑只有这版本有，不过相比下我推荐成年版。

cyberalogo

最近还在看那个达斯维达的美漫，说的是死星被爆后他大权旁落，秘密准备东山再起的故事，里面提到的那些量产型异端打手，不知道后来还有没有提及过。

SpikeCold

玩过原力释放就该知道了吧，starkiller就能捏爆钛战机，还能空中让导弹转向。

RP王最多也就隔空取物拿个剑柄

这得差多少？