"Honestly, there are fewer of them than I expected," Amir said.
"Yeah, it should be more than this," Seneir agreed. "Maybe you've got a lot of them sealed behind us. And the feint should've pulled a chunk away too."
Spice base.
Kain stood on a distant peak with macrobinoculars, watching countless fighters dogfight overhead. Down below, the base had already turned into a sea of fire. Beyond the planet's atmosphere, a massive cruiser hung in space, releasing its "children" like a hive—sending wave after wave to protect its property.
The Pyke fleet was even stronger than expected. Kain was a ship fanatic—one glance was enough to tell the fighters the Pykes were flying used the Empire's newest tech. Compared to TIEs, it was basically the same machine with a different skin.
The Pykes were definitely colluding with the Empire.
Kain sighed. When he first left the Empire, he'd still felt a faint trace of reluctance. Even though Amir had told him what the Empire did, being an Imperial soldier had been his childhood dream.
He was from Coruscant—raised in the Core Worlds' peace and prosperity. He'd mistaken that façade for the Empire's truth.
After leaving the military, he went to Tatooine with one goal: to see everything with his own eyes. To look carefully—like Amir said. Seeing is believing.
During this stretch, he traveled as a bounty hunter across several planets, visiting more than a dozen cities. Most of his time had been spent moving.
Now, watching this madness, he felt strangely calm.
Only half an hour had passed since the fighting began, and already more than a hundred people were dead. The terrifying part was that Kain couldn't see fear on their faces—only frenzy.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the base ahead. The spice here wasn't even top-grade, but if you grabbed a few kilograms—your remaining life would never again require living with your head on a swivel.
They were desperados. They'd trade their lives for money.
The people who actually valued life had fled the instant the Pykes arrived—including Boba Fett, someone Kain knew.
What remained was a true kill-or-be-killed battlefield.
Why fight like this?
Kain thought of Amir. When Amir got the spice base intel, there hadn't been a flicker of delight—only deep, weary resignation.
If the spice got stolen, where would it go?
Back into countless civilians' hands. A broken drifter. A father grinding himself down for his family. A kid with a future. They'd trade money, future, and life itself for illusions and dreams.
Kain didn't know if his decision this time was right.
"But it's better than doing nothing," he murmured. "These criminals had it coming."
He already knew what the galaxy looked like under Imperial rule. And by coincidence, not long ago, he'd met a group of people he found… interesting.
His road ahead was already decided.
On the far side of the corner, Pykes were closing in.
Amir drew his lightsaber—and pulled a metal sphere from his bag.
"What is that?" Seneir asked.
"A collector's edition," Amir said with a hint of nostalgia. "I modded it from the best thing I ever 'borrowed' out of an Imperial warehouse. Only one like it in the whole galaxy."
Seneir's eyes lit up. "You've got guts. You even raid Imperial warehouses?"
"They assigned me to move supplies," Amir said, rolling the sphere in his palm as he stepped toward the corner.
The next second, every light in the area snapped off. The world became absolute black.
"Open fire!"
The sudden darkness rattled the Pykes, but under shouted commands, they still fired in disciplined bursts toward Amir's corner. Dense red blaster bolts replaced the lights, washing the hall in a blood-red glow.
The firing continued for more than ten seconds. Then the blasters paused, and the room fell back into blackness.
No one noticed a metal sphere rolling fast down the corridor, slipping right into the center of the group.
That sphere became a death warrant.
The hall went eerily quiet—except for a rapid beeping.
Before anyone could react, a searing white flash filled their vision, followed by unbearable heat and a violent shockwave.
Under Amir's Force control, the blast detonated at the densest point in the crowd. Flesh and metal flew. Fire surged outward. Pykes who weren't killed outright screamed as they ran—spreading flame and pain to the comrades beside them.
Amir had already moved in.
The smoke, scattered firelight, and shifting shadows made the room a chaos of overlapping silhouettes—far more disorienting than simple darkness.
And in that chaos, Amir's lightsaber became a reaper's scythe.
With each ignition, shapes collapsed in the firelight. The blade went dark—and Amir vanished from sight again.
He stayed low, moving at full speed through the crowd. That was the only way to stay out of everyone's line of sight. Each time the saber snapped on, a few more enemies lost their lives.
This had become his home field.
Some Pykes at the edges finally realized how bad it was. They raised blasters and fired toward wherever the saber flared.
But Amir sensed it all.
In a confined space with bodies still packed tight, when Amir deflected blaster bolts he didn't even need to aim—he'd inevitably send shots into the Pykes' own people.
Second by second, the Pykes' numbers dropped.
The firelight weakened. Fewer and fewer shadows danced across the walls.
At last, a desperate voice cried from the darkness.
"I surrender! Don't kill me!"
Seneir stepped out from behind the corner, swallowed at the scorched stench in the air, and stared at the half-seen bodies on the floor under the dying firelight.
Lights came back on.
Fewer than ten Pykes remained. They'd thrown down their weapons and were kneeling at the far door, heads bowed, only daring to look up at Amir in terrified glances.
"You've changed, Amir," Seneir said. "Back then, you wouldn't kill. Not even if the target was truly evil."
"After the first shot, it gets easier," Amir said, walking toward the kneeling survivors. "By law and by conscience, these people deserve to die."
With the lights on, the scene looked even more like hell. Seneir had already recovered his usual sly grin.
"So… when did you get this strong?"
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STAR WARS: RELICS OF THE PAST
🌌⚔️ STAR WARS: RELICS OF THE PAST ⚔️🌌
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📢 THE FORCE CALLS AGAIN! 📢
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Ancient secrets, forgotten relics, Jedi echoes, and buried truths wait in the shadows of the galaxy.
✨ Some things were lost for a reason.⚔️ Some powers should never be awakened.🌌 And some stories begin long after history tried to erase them.
Follow the trail of ancient relics before the rest of the galaxy catches up.
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