Call Out Post

[faithfulson]

Call out post for Luke Skywalker, of varying canon and AU varieties. Fancier top coming later.

Replies to Legacy's Imperial Luke may also come from fl1138.

Don't be afraid to ask for a top level!

Comments

[loyal_soldier]

[I have no idea what to put here but I am down for whatever]

[faithfulson]

The Executor was a ridiculously huge ship, which was appropriate, considering who's flag ship it was now after the... unfortunate passing of General Tagge. It was large enough to house a ridiculous number of personnel and troops, which was why 622 and the rest of his squad ended up on the ship as well.

In a ship so large, one would think it impossible to run into the same person twice outside of one's own troop, but somehow 622 was managing it. The first time he got to see the kid, because he looked far too young to be much older than twenty, he was wearing civilian clothes, speaking intently with a blonde lieutenant in a docking bay that was on 622's patrol route. Considering how plainly he was dressed and how wildly out of regulation his hair was, he was easy to dismiss, especially as he pulled up the hood of his cloak after he was finished talking and headed into a waiting shuttle.

The second time, he was racing through the halls to get to a docking bay, nearly bowling him over in the process. This time, he was dressed in pilot's gear (though the front flap was left open), carrying his helmet (breach of protocol), and there was still that damn hair. He glanced back at 622, out of regulation hair flopping in his eyes as he tossed a, "Sorry!" at him before disappearing around the corner.

The latest time, he was sitting on top of a pod in an empty simulation hall, his legs swinging back and forth like a little kid. He was preoccupied with a datapad, his flight suit finally buttoned properly, but there was still that hair.

He seemed to realize he was being watched after a moment, and he glanced up from his pad, bright blue eyes immediately falling on 622.

"Hello, trooper," he greeted amicably. "Can I help you?"

[loyal_soldier]

Garrisoning on a capital ship was wildly different from what he was used to. He'd attempted to tell himself it was just like any other base, just not tied to a location. But that meant until it was time to breach and board, or load onto a transport and ship out, there was... nothing. Just thousands of fellow Imperials.

Some felt that was reason enough to relax, ignore regulation, or get caught up in politics. That was the other reason Stormtroopers were aboard. With the strength of their ideological training, they kept the rest of the Navy from losing their edge. The Empire was a magnificently daring and complex endeavor, but it wouldn't stay that way without dedication.

Some days, that meant arresting those who'd fallen to criminal behavior. Others, you literally ran into pilots flouting uniform regulations. And then other days you found out no one had done anything about it yet.

He caught himself wishing he was back on a planetside posting, and quashed the thought immediately. "What's your designation, pilot?" His voice was clipped and no-nonsense, not so much requesting information as expecting it be given.

[faithfulson]

The kid raised an eyebrow at that, looking entirely too amused by 622... essentially doing his job. He didn't even bother trying to hide the smile on his face as he tipped his datapad down, revealing he was looking over the data of other pilots.

"FL-One-One-Three-Eight," he replied mildly. "You?"

[jadus]

[Same as above but creepier]

[faithfulson]

There were only two dark siders that Luke knew of that held no loyalty to the Emperor. Of course, his father was one of them, and the other was Maul. The former was in the process of teaching him everything he could, and he appreciated every moment he had with him. The later was too preoccupied with his sister to give him the time of day, and he was fairly sure the Zabrak hated him anyway. The problem with them both, however, was while they didn't support the Emperor, they also both learned from him.

He needed someone that didn't.

Which led him to this creepy place: a dark pit in the middle of the darkest pit of the galaxy. It took some time to figure out this place even existed, pouring over the books and resources at his disposal at Mustafar. His father had cautioned against going out to this place, but curiosity had won out, and he took a shuttle and DV-2 to... whatever this was.

DV leaned close to the cave that they stood before, booping softly.

"Yeah, it... feels as creepy as it looks," Luke replied, shuffling closer to the entrance. He let out a breath, before stretching out his senses, trying to find a presence that might be the lost Sith Lord he was looking for.

[jadus]

He had read the signs, seen the inevitable diminution. Could he rule such a galaxy? Perhaps. But it would break him to try, and he would not permit this. Remaining in the shadows too would be pointless. Instead, he would travel to a most secluded vault, hidden on a planet deep within the Stygian Caldera, the dense and treacherous nebula that had once protected the Sith Empire.

He left final gifts to his most faithful, and then sealed himself in, alone. His armor joined with the machines within. Cold, stinging fumes hissed into his mask, and every breath came slower. His heart beat twenty times in a minute.

Twelve.
Two.

None.

His mind persisted. It was almost free of his body, almost what it should be, but the cold still touched it as well, slowing his thoughts to the scale of decades. The galaxy seemed to roiled with life and pain and fear, shimmering with ceaseless change. At first, it was overwhelming.

But there were patterns. He could not yet describe their form nor predict their course. They were intriguing. And he had so much time to study them.

He was oblivious to the smaller, briefer things around him. He stared unblinking through three and a half thousand years. His presence in the Force seemed to almost have melded with the land itself, his presence had so thoroughly tainted it over the centuries. But he remained at its center, deathly still yet somehow living.

No one had found him since his servants had departed, and so undisturbed his meditation could persist for centuries more. He was not yet cognizant of the mind seeking his.

[faithfulson]

DV let out another faint boop, and Luke couldn't help but swallow nervously. Nothing in this place felt... okay; in fact, everything felt downright unsettling, and there wasn't any one thing he could pinpoint that said, "Here's the Sith Lord you're looking for." This wasn't going to be easy at all, was it?

"I'm going in," he finally said after a moment, and DV downright screeched at that. "What? It's fine. You can wait by the ship if you're scared."

Luke entered the cave, just as something in the dark surroundings let out an inhuman noise. DV let out a whine, before hurrying after his master. Luke didn't pay him much attention, however; he was too busy stretching his senses out, trying to pin down just where that Sith Lord's consciousness actually was.

Pull yourself together!

[faithfulson]

Just. Breathe.

Luke had to keep telling himself that as he put everything he could into flying the Windsor, ducking and weaving around the laser fire that was lighting up the night sky as he punched his way toward space. At this rate he was going to have to make the jump to hyperspace before he even breached the atmosphere, but he wasn't about to do that; not with the reason he was in the middle of this madness in the condition he was in.

He flinched when he felt a spike of pain stab through the Force, forcing out a breath, forcing himself to focus on what he was doing. Still, he half turned, tossing back a question he had a feeling he already knew the answer to.

"Are you all right?"

[nouskaiananki]

It's probably not as reassuring, as much as it is profoundly disturbing, to see Darth Vader partly self flung into a heap, partly propped up in a join of the ship, lightsaber tucked under his right thigh, left leg - what was left of it - hooked at the knee over the other part of his right leg while hydraulic fluid seeped into the cloth of his suit. One gauntlet was ripped open, the mechalimb inside exposed as a very sickening stench of rot and death leaks around the ragged pieces of his suit were he'd shoved the piece of gauntlet.

"In truth, I've been in worse shape." There's less volume to his augmented voice than normal, a faint hiss that isn't normally there with the ventilator.

[faithfulson]

"That is far from reassuring."

He was usually more respectful to his father than that, even when he was doing something profoundly stupid. Force knew he cared for the man, one of the few people in the galaxy that could say that with a straight face, but stars, he could be so reckless!

A tremor went through the ship, and he turned back around, focusing on flying again. DV-2 already had the navicomputer primed and ready for the jump to hyperspace, he just needed to get there through the swarm of pirates that thought it was a good idea to try and corner them. He blasted one out of the sky that thought he could try and flank him, before rolling the ship, trying to shake the one behind them as it fired.

"Don't worry, I'll get you to Mustafar so Aphra can yell at you in no time," he said through gritted teeth.

[nouskaiananki]

There is another hiss from the ventilator and a flattened wheeze. The former a hint of more serious trouble than he's willing to admit, the latter mostly suppressed laugh, which Luke is one of the very few to ever hear.

'Reckless' was probably the closest he had to something so completely consistent in terms of personality. While it does (often) come back to bite him, he generally makes it out more or less ok, save the duel which landed him in this suit to begin with. And really, he'd been less concerned with himself and more with making sure Luke wasn't harmed. Had he been. Well.

The tremor caused him to slide and he had to quickly reach for something in order to stop himself from sliding completely supine, but the rolling maneuver, while wise, still left him sliding because Luke was the only one of them safety strapped in. Between his own reflexes and assistance with the Force, Vader managed to swing himself against the base of the pilot's chair, and he snags the harness to hold on. But his right leg did go sliding and he was more focusing on keeping his lightsaber. He pulled himself up, grabbed Luke's own belt and tucked it in. "Hold onto that. And try to not cause my mechanical issues to also become biological ones."

"Otherwise she's likely yell at you." Mostly because he was not a great patient at the best of times.

So. Ever.

you know what time it is

[lothal]

It'd been some time since the Eleventh Brother assisted Vader on a mission. When he was younger, he was mostly kept away from anyone in charge, with Third Brother handling any instructions from the Grand Inquisitor. While Vader allowed his existence, his master wasn't interested in testing just how much he allowed it. As frustrated as he'd been as an initiate, he understood now why such measures had been in place. After all, he certainly wanted to speak up at their debriefing about how Vader's squadron had been the reason the Jedi managed to escape. But he knew better now.

He would've headed back to his quarters, maybe complained with the other Inquisitors, except... he felt something. That strange shiver down his spine that came from being in the presence of another Force sensitive. And when he tracked down that feeling, it came not from his siblings, but from a pilot at the other end of the hallway.

Eleventh Brother reached out with the Force, intending to take control of the other's body and hold them in place.

"Wait up," he called with a casual tone that sounded strange through the filter of his helmet.

Awwww yeeee

[fl1138]

The current mission was rough, probably one of the toughest ones he'd had to put up with so far, and it was all because of the Inquisitor presence. It was the usual "Rebel" hunting, though their group's idea of Rebel hunting was different. There were plenty of pirates that waved the Rebellion firebird, claiming themselves freedom fighters while looting worlds. It was the best way they could "bring down Rebels" while maintaining the relationships they were trying to build.

But then the Inquisitor showed up, insisting on catching a Jedi that had arisen within the ranks of the Rebellion. He knew who that meant, as did Lord Vader, and their usual game of "Rebel hunting" became real, while not actually harming anyone. That meant he had to trade his usual ship for a normal TIE fighter to match the rest of his squad and play a good pilot while making sure they didn't actually capture the Jedi.

Because like hell Luke Skywalker was letting an Inquisitor get his hands on his sister.

Unfortunately, he was forgetting about himself in that whole mess, which was why he was letting his guard down while wearing his helmet, softly talking to his droid as he headed toward the ready room ("Yes, I'm fine. Yes, you can have an oil bath when this is all over."). He felt the tug of the Force, but absently shrugged it off, for a moment thinking his father was getting his attention.

He was very wrong.

"Kriff..." he muttered under his breath. "DV, stand by."

A worried boop answered him over his headset com as he turned toward the Inquisitor.

"Can I help you, sir?" he asked, carefully keeping up appearances, even though he technically already blew it.

[lothal]

Well, that was interesting. He shouldn't be able to turn at all, and yet here he was, acting like nothing had happened. Considering what Eleventh Brother had sensed, it wasn't entirely surprising, but it raised more questions.

"Sir?" he smirked beneath his helmet as he approached. Maybe he should be grateful, considering how the others still called him "baby brother" no matter how many years had passed.

"I'm just curious, I guess. I mean, he has to know what you are, right?"

[fl1138]

Luke frowned to himself; he knew he should be more on his guard, playing it safer than this, but at the same time, it didn't feel necessary. He remembered his father's words, of course; he always took what he said to heart, but...

Be wary the Inquisitorius, my son. They are loyal to the Emperor; you will find no allies among them.

...they couldn't be all bad, right? Frustratingly, he couldn't tell if the Force was trying to nudge him, to quietly tell him of course they couldn't, or if it was just his own hopeful naivete talking.

"I'm sorry, sir?" he asked, continuing to play dumb for now, just to see where it led.

[survivalthroughhate]

[Maul had come to Tatooine to die. Maybe not consciously, but at the end of the day, what else was he to do? His life had been wasted on anger and hate, trying to gather power he wouldn't even know what to do with, not even when he'd had it. But the problem with trying to pick a lightsaber fight with Obi-Wan when he was half-dead after trekking through a hot desert and dehydrated is that he immediately passed out before things could even start.

His old foe had a bleeding heart and couldn't leave him there to die, so Maul had been nursed back to health by someone he hated more than anything else. He kept meaning to kill him when he got strong enough, he just.....didn't. Eventually, that hate had become something like companionship, so Maul had found his own home out in the desert, close enough if he really wanted to talk to anyone, which he rarely did. He'd come to Tatooine to die, but maybe, he'd found the scraps of a life instead.

It was on one of the sporadic trips to visit Obi-Wan (who he still promised he'd get around to killing one of these days) he'd first encountered the boy. He could immediately sense the Light within him, strong and blinding, but Luke seemed completely unaware of his own Force sensitivity. Despite the fact Maul was taciturn and grumpy company at the best of times, Luke seemed to enjoy his presence, and would visit him from time to time. When he felt like it, Maul would occasionally talk of the Force, or battles he had been in.

Maul was busy repairing an old speeder outside when the boy arrived. He pulled back his hood, which was shading him from the suns. One had to wonder about the wisdom of wearing an all-black outfit on a desert planet with two suns. Maybe that's why he was so irritable all the time.]

And what excuse did you give your uncle this time?

[Owen Lars had made it clear in no uncertain terms that if he found Luke hanging around the crazy old Zabrak again, he was going to ground the boy and possibly shoot Maul with a blaster.]

[faithfulson]

[ Luke looked tired as he pulled his speeder to a stop next to the old clunker Maul was working on, tossing him a lopsided grin. He pulled himself up out of the landspeeder, pulling out a small package, before settling on the hood of his vehicle. ]

I didn't. [ He grinned, before shrugging sheepishly. ] I was working on the south ridge, but our ancient Treadwell droid finally died, and the vaporator was being stubborn, so I went to Anchorhead. I just happened to swing by here on the way back.

[ Luke shrugged again, offering Maul the package. ]

I snuck out some of that drink you like from the back of Fixer's shop, by the way.

[survivalthroughhate]

That is very sneaky and underhanded. Good job.

[Maul was the bad influence every teenager needs in their life, let's be real. He set down the tools he was using and stood up.

There was a grumble that might have included a thank you somewhere in there as he took the package. Maul, for all his gruffness, was rather touched that there was anyone left in the galaxy who gave a damn about him. Obi-Wan was one and Luke, surprisingly, was the other. This was the real reason he let the kid hang about even if he acted like he couldn't care less whether Luke visited or not.]

Come on in. You must be hungry after all that.

[Maul may not have been able to cook well but his food was at least a step above the usual passable fare that an old bachelor would have been able to produce.]

Sith!Leia

[faithfulson]

There wasn't enough words in Galactic Basic to describe how grateful Luke was to be off the Death Star -- or rather, the Orbital Battle Station that he wasn't supposed to know was supposed to be some kind of platform of death. It hadn't fired while he was on board -- something about a "test shot" being scheduled, then promptly cancelled. He wasn't sure, but still... he had felt the anticipation roil through the station like a virus, making the very floor feel like it was trembling under his feet. For a moment, he almost saw it, the cry of thousands echoing as a rift was torn wide open in the galaxy... and then the moment passed, and everything returned to the way it had been.

The order to depart had come suddenly afterward, but Luke wasn't going to question it even if it would have been proper to, more than happy to load up his fighter and move out into the troop transport area of the ship.

"Hey, Luke," his best friend, Teak, hissed softly once the ship had gone off into hyperspace. "I heard a guy say his friend saw that prisoner we snatched after Scarif on board."

Luke rolled his eyes, even though they couldn't be seen under the bulbous confines of his flight helmet. Friend of a friend of a friend... he was about to reprimand him for just automatically buying into things like that, when he found himself pausing, glancing toward the back of the ship. He wasn't sure about prisoners, but now that things were quiet and they were away from the Death Star... something felt different. It wasn't something bad necessarily, just... something familiar, like an old friend he hadn't seen for years was on board.

"Hey. Hyperspace to Luke. Come in, please, you're drifting off course."

Luke waved Teak off, getting up from his seat and leaving the area. He knew he wasn't supposed to do that, but Black One hadn't stopped him, so he took that as a sign he had to find the source of whatever that feeling was.

[vaderstrueheir]

She'd been given the choice, she could return home to celebrate her victory, and it was hers, and Vader would return at some future date to collect her for training. Or, she could simply remain where she was, a prisoner for now, and her training could begin immediately.

As far as she was concerned, it hadn't even been a question. If there was a reason she was so angry all the time, and if it was something that could give her the power to do and take what she wanted? Of course she was going to stay, of course she was going to learn anything and everything she could. Certainly her parents would mourn her, they'd have to believe she was still a prisoner, or had been killed.

But they were safe. Alderaan was safe, because it was hers and the likes of Wilhuff Tarkin weren't going to take it from her. There had been a brief moment, standing on the deck, when she'd been afraid that Vader wouldn't keep to his end of the bargain, but he had.

There was someone coming. She hadn't heard them, not really, there was just that sense of a presence, the same kind of niggling familiarity she'd had with Vader, though it definitely wasn't him, not as solid a presence, which just puzzled her even more. She shifted, swinging herself around to sit upright, facing the door, watching intently to see if she could determine when it was going to open before it did.

[faithfulson]

Luke hesitated as he followed his instincts further into the ship, to where they would keep prisoners if they were transporting them. He definitely shouldn't be here, and he was certain if he got caught, he would end up in one of those cells for disobeying orders. That feeling wouldn't leave him alone though, his barely just learned sense in the Force telling him that he needed to be here, right here, right now.

His hand reached out, and he felt almost like he was tugged along, to a door, its panel immediately flying open at his touch, though he wasn't sure why it would. Shouldn't that have been locked? How could he have opened it?

Those questions were immediately expunged from his mind when he saw the "prisoner", if that was what she was. She was so small, that even the tiny cell looked enormous around her, wearing a dress so white it almost seemed to glow around her like a halo, and for a moment Luke was completely struck dumb, unable to speak.

Mandolorian - Meeting Dad's Old Coworkers

[faithfulson]

The cry had called out so loudly through the Force, that there was no way Luke could ignore it. He had, in fact, completely dropped everything he had been doing and immediately hopped into his X-wing, just barely remembering to plug Artoo into the droid socket. That call had cut out after a few minutes, but now that he had a presence to follow, he held onto it, easily feeling the stress and pain and fear and anger that was coming from the young mind. He tried to reach out as he followed those sensations out into the Outer Rim, past the point where it was safe for a member of the New Republic to be.

But there was no way he could ignore such a young, frightened mind.

The moment he located the Imperial ship, he could sense that something was... off. There was danger inside, yes, but of the living individuals within, only one of them posed a threat. Despite that... he felt it would be fine, and so he focused on hopping out of his ship, landing on the ground with ease, his cloak billowing out behind him.

He got so far as the hall, his lightsaber easily carving through the droids that opposed him, when he paused, glancing back the way he came. There was... someone else; someone new, with the Dark clinging to them, and he realized grimly that he wasn't the only one that heard the young one's cry for help.

Re: Mandolorian - Meeting Dad's Old Coworkers

[adarkergray]

The plan had seemed so deceptively simple when Jacob had come up with it: just acquire Grogu one way or another, take him back beyond the Kathol Rift, contact the Aing-Tii somehow, and send Grogu on his way to a better, safer life with them, one where he could develop a healthier relationship with the Force than either the Jedi or the Sith were capable of providing.

He had no idea why he hadn't stopped assuming by now that anything involving the Force could ever be simple.

The moment he dropped out of hyperspace, he could sense it - that presence, almost painfully Light, like a beacon in the Force; just the way it had felt in his Master's memories. For a moment, Jacob considered just turning around and leaving, telling Grand Admiral Thrawn he was back so soon because his excursion had been made redundant. But, even if he hadn't stopped assuming things could be simple where the Force was concerned, he had stopped assuming it was within his capacity to defy its will - and this was certainly nothing other than the will of the Force.

He pulled his TIE Defender in behind the X-Wing, and pushed his senses out through the Force as he jogged to catch up with Luke. His stomach lurched when he recognized the presence of the Darktroopers, but he quickly shoved away the memories threatening to drag him down, and then he reached out through the Force with more than just his senses. The memories that had been at risk of distracting him became a weapon instead - the fear, anger, and helplessness he'd felt in the face of the Separatist Droid Armies reaching forward across time to become something that was all sharp edges, ones that ripped apart the Darktroopers who hadn't already fallen to Skywalker's lightsaber.

Maybe it hadn't been the best way to announce his presence, but at least now they had a minute to talk. "Luke Skywalker?" he called, slowing his pace as he came into view. "I know what this looks like--" He was all too conscious of it now; his own presence in the Force, the ship he'd arrived in, the way the beard he'd grown out since Lord Vader's death might have softened his angular features but the contrast only drew more attention to the Sith yellow of his eyes, "--but I swear I have no intention of causing harm to anyone here. Combat droids are a different story, of course - if I never saw another one of them, it'd be too soon, but there's ten more up by the bridge." Despite that, and despite himself, he was seriously considering the possibility that maybe if he just kept talking, that'd postpone the moment when things inevitably went wrong. "...My name is Jacob Daniel, by the way. I'm one of Lord Vader's Inquisitors - the last surviving one, actually. Before that, though... I was a Jedi. And I think you and I have some things we need to discuss, once we finish cleaning up."

[faithfulson]

Luke had sensed that more of the droid troopers were coming up behind him, but he knew the presence that was coming toward him would be able to handle it. He stood there, waiting, his lightsaber to the side and the hood of his cloak low over his eyes as he watched the individual approach and ramble at him, giving him more information than he frankly needed to. His presence and intentions echoed in the Force, but he allowed him to get out what he wanted to say, standing there like he was much larger than he actually was -- tall and imposing, and very much a reflection of his father.

Even after he finished, Luke was silent for a moment, seeking guidance from the Force as to what the best option was. The man was clearly still marked by the Dark Side -- the eyes made that clear, though whether he still followed the ideals that Palpatine instilled in his father or not remained to be seen. What he didn't sense was ill intent -- not like the intent that was suddenly snuffed out on the bridge at least. He paused, glancing in that direction, before he finally nodded.

"So long as you don't mean to harm the youngling," he began, "I would not mind the help."