Never to Return

2000 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Nine years after Episode IV – A New Hope

There was a flash like a lightning strike, the shockwave of the explosion tearing through the streets of Amagad City like the hand of an unknown god. Windows splintered and walls buckled, vehicles were flipped over like toys and the plasticrete of the wide streets melted under the onslaught.

Glann Cipple watched in silence.

Another vessel tried to make a run on the fortress but anti-assault cannons unfolded from the roof and blasted it into oblivion. Chunks of ablative hull armour slammed into the building, already pockmarked by bomb impact and laser shot. The cannon then took out two TIE fighters, the wings shattering like glass as the spherical cockpits expanded in superheated balls of fire, the debris falling like meteors in the fortress grounds. The gunboat following the fighters fired a single shot and the cannon on the roof exploded. Dust and concrete fell from the ceiling of Glann’s office.

Carlonian Feese stepped forward.

   “Defences are almost all gone,” he said, his voice deep and husky behind his mask and yet still recognisable as the slurred speech of a Mon Calamari. “It’s time to go.”

The sky over Amagad City was dark – not from the time of day or bad weather but from the smoke that poured from the shattered city. Buildings lay in ruin, the populations fleeing in their ships or in ground vehicles to get away from the epicentre of the devastation. The fires that burned were higher than the buildings that still stood, feeding from the filth and corruption that had infested the city over the years. In the distance, far away by the Starport, something exploded with a brilliant flash of pyrotechnics.

Not many vessels were over the city but every now and then a craft would shoot from the smoke that hung over the rubble. They would burst from the darkness like a knife through a death shroud and leap towards the fortress. Small white lights, concussion warheads, Feese had told him, illuminated the cloud briefly before destroying another section of the city. TIE’s, Imperial Blastboats, and freighters of varying sizes. Two enemies against the might of Glann Cipple.

The battle wasn’t being fought over the city. If there had been no smoke over the city Glann and Feese would have seen flashes of light in high orbit as dozens of ships fought a pitched battle over an ultimate prize.

The Heed. In orbit was the Heed. It was a huge vessel, capable of enough firepower to destroy a capital starship with one shot from its Janos Jewel powered primary weapon. It was deactivated, the jewel within not connected to the systems of the vessel. It was held in orbit by four huge tractor beam generators. It had taken Glann years of clues and research to finally find the ship and longer to secure a Janos Jewel big enough to power it. Over time he had recovered and rebuilt the spacecraft.

When the vessel was almost finished he had decided to move his next part of his plan into operation. He had the single most powerful weapon of destruction in the sector in his hands and he knew exactly what he needed to do. At first he had considered targeting his enemies and removing them with a single shot but this idea had soon dwindled as he had realised that simply executing his rivals wasn’t enough. He wanted them under his power. So he considered a new plan.

He would exchange the weapon. He would hand it over to a power that was in desperate need of new equipment and an advantage over enemies. Who better than the Empire? It had been defeated, had been scattered to the corners of explored space by the Rebel Alliance, now the New Republic, and required something to secure a sector of space. Glann would give them the Heed, and with it the Setnin Sector. In return they would give him a position of supreme power and he would finally have what he had always wanted. The sector would be his.

As it should be.

He knew that with greatness came sacrifice and that he would have to not only exchange the Heed but he would have to give up his old life. He couldn’t depend on those closest to him for he knew their hearts and opinions and knew that they would never agree to him selling out to the remnants of the Empire.

First of all, he would have Goah Galletti sent to a far-off planet where he would be killed. Goah detested Imperials and, with his ever-growing madness and his quick temper, Glann wasn’t going to take the risk. He had made that a condition of the hand over; the Empire would have to supply men and materials to get rid of the troublesome clone.

Then Melm would have to be removed. He was tough and loyal but ultimately honourable. He had done many things that were less than honest; but not even he would stand for this treachery.

Jan Lomona, Ryath Centaur and Luschia   Arkensaw would be next. They were his top operatives who all held a certain amount of hatred for the Empire, although Centaur was the exception as he was ex-Imperial. Glann had even considered asking his aid but Ryath’s loyalty to his friends would outweigh his passion for the Empire. Another risk not worth taking.

The local gossipmongers would have to die. Grin and his associates would be a source of information to anyone trying to stop Glann and he worried at how Grin came across his information.

Then he would have his staff murdered. Although they were loyal they were liabilities to his plan and where he was going they could not follow. Their families would have to die, also. Yullm would have to die; he knew a lot about Glann’s operations and anyone who knew that could be a tool to possible future dissent.

In short, almost every employee he had would need to be killed. Every man, woman and being who had served him in some way or another and who may have been a threat would have to be eliminated. He had not really wanted to give the order, probably for nostalgic reasons and the thought that it all may go wrong, but was surprised at how easy the order had escaped his lips and at how easy he considered it would be to live with.

The only man who had died was Goah. Goah Galletti, hunted down like the animal he was and killed by Glann’s Imperial contacts.

Melm had escaped his wrath and, with the knowledge of what the gang lord was about to do, had gathered all his friends and hacked out a plan. Grin had been saved by Jan, Ryath and Luschia. Yullm had escaped; using a route he had created for himself years before in the consideration that such a thing as this could happen. Many of his employees had been killed in the purge of Glann’s fortress but many more had escaped. Glann’s lack of faith in his people had led him to utilise one being – Carlonian Feese. As good as Feese was, the tall order of assassination was almost impossibility. The threat to Glann remained, but at least he could make the hand-over and consolidate his power.

During all this Glann had never noticed the one thing he hadn’t properly considered during all his ministrations. His wife, Bella, had left the planet. She had taken their two daughters, Brea and Bessa, with her. He had always believed her beloved to him, had allowed her to speak her mind and live her own life, but her sudden departure had signalled her disloyalty. He would deal with her once the present crisis was over.

It was as the Star Destroyer Repressor arrived in orbit over Amagad to take the Heed that Melm and his small fleet of ships had attacked. He had gathered his friends and allies, mostly Glann’s old employees who had barely escaped his wrath, and they in turn had collected as many starships as possible, mainly stock light freighters. The swarm of vessels had dropped out of hyperspace as the Repressor had arrived. The battle had commenced.

Glann had heard the accusations of the Imperials over the comm. As far as he could tell, the Imperials had thought this some form of set-up of Glann’s doing. This was due in large to the fact that as the ships had attacked they had transmitted the Amagad Starport transponder frequency. Of course the Imperials would think that Glann had betrayed them! Of course they would start to bomb his city! So, as it was from particular points of view, it was Melm and his forces against the Empire and Glann, Glann against Melm and the Empire, the Empire against Glann. A very troublesome situation.

The battle had been raging for an hour. The city was almost flat; only the shielding and heavy defences of the fortress had kept it intact but even now it was under heavy fire as gaps in the cover had been exploited. There were virtually no beings left to man the defences, anyway, as they had either fled or been killed.

Feese took Glann’s shoulder.

   “Glann.”

There was no response from the gang lord as he stared out over his city. Even the thick plastiglass, the window to his world for so many years, had been cracked, letting in the foul odour of smoke and destruction. Feese wasn’t sure if the glaze on his employer’s eyes were from the emotion of the moment or the tendrils of smoke.

   “Glann, it’s time to go.”

Again no response. Glann Cipple, master of a self-created underworld empire now reduced to a smoking ruin, watched another tower of the city collapse and for the briefest second regretted all his past decisions.

He turned abruptly. “Let’s go.”

The two swinging doors to the office had already been blown clean from their auto hinges, the corridor outside filled with debris and bodies. They stepped over them and used the walls for support every time the building took a hit. Somewhere above them there was a huge crash and more debris showered from the ceiling. The sound of a heavy blaster cannon echoed through the walls and then abruptly ceased, followed by an explosion that collapsed the roof behind them.

The lift had been destroyed completely but Feese had berthed the Deadman’s Dream in the secret dock the floor below. He only hoped that the attacks hadn’t blocked the docking port or damaged his vessel. Glann’s unnecessary need to stand and watch his city torn apart had decreased their chances of survival. As they entered the stairwell there was another huge eruption close-by and part of the outer wall collapsed. Dark sky and flames were visible through the crack and then there was another explosion further below them. Something had crashed into the fortress.

The Deadman’s Dream exited the secret docking bay, the false wall having been blasted away as the mechanism for them had failed due to the extreme damage. The vessel itself was slightly damaged from falling debris but it was mainly cosmetic, burn marks and sheared hull plating by the cockpit.

It lifted into the sky and Glann forced himself not to look back at the city and his home. He stared straight ahead, watching the clouds approach and forcing the images of what lay behind him from his mind. If he had turned and looked he would have seen a crater-peppered city and a severely damaged fortress, which would then have been obscured by the layer of smoke as the vessel had punched through it. Feese set a course away from the worse section of the battle above them – there were now so many ships they filled the sky to the horizon. The Imperials had called in re-enforcements. The backup for the smuggler fleet had already arrived.

Now there were streaks of light and flashes against the darkening sky. Long lines of fire spread across the upper atmosphere as damaged vessels re-entered the atmosphere and burned brightly. There were plumes of explosions, glints of laser fire and impacts. Glann watched uninterested. They could kill each other for all he cared. He hoped they would.

It was then that he saw a larger glow than all the rest start to fill the sky. They had almost reached the edge of the inner atmosphere when an orange colour started to fill his vision out of the corner of his eye. He looked over with interest and then sat forward slowly, seeing that the sheer size of the falling object was burning the sky.

   “Feese?”

The assassin quickly checked readouts and then moved his vision back to the passive scanner. He was trying to avoid a plethora of ships in his flight path and he didn’t want his attention divided.

   “Feese, is that the Repressor?” Glann couldn’t make out the shape of the object, just that there was a black mass behind the falling flames.

Feese gave the readouts another glance and grimaced.

   “It’s the Heed,” he said in a low voice.

There were a few moments of silence as Glann watched the spectacle. He gave no signs of anger, or shock, or sadness, or any emotion of any kind.

   “I wonder where it will land?” he murmured as if to himself.

   “If the surface tractor beam generators holding it in orbit are still active, probably right on top of Amagad City,” Feese surmised with an equal lack of emotion. He was watching ahead and had to dip slightly to avoid the burning meteor-like approach of a destroyed freighter. As the Deadman’s Dream rose into the blackness of space, Glann watched the Heed approach what was left of his city.

The speed of the starships descent had been increased by the pull of the tractor generators. The glow around the wreckage was white-hot and a flash spread out from the mass as it connected with air. The friction increased the burning, leaving a long uneven trail of thick black across the planet like the stroke of an artists brush.

Feese leaned forward to activate the hyperdrive but Glann held up his hand.

   “Wait.”

The vessel continued down, down to its final resting place. Small white lights, chunks of the dying ship, flew from the sides of the craft and either accompanied it down or were left far behind, finding their own course to the surface.

Then it impacted the surface of the world. Glann stared as it slammed into the ocean just off the bay of Amagad, off the coast of the city itself. Glann watched, the violence of the impact reflected in his wide eyes.

The shockwave of the impact swept away the blanket of smoke over Amagad City and the clouds themselves. The atmosphere seemed to tremble as the impact flash-boiled tens of millions of litres of water, turning the rising column of smoke into a mix of black and white. A line of silver moved away from the eruption, a high wall of water pushed away by the severity of the strike.

Glann couldn’t see his city but he could imagine the devastation. The buildings shattered by the shockwave, then moments later swept away by the sea.

A black cover of ash and debris started to fill the atmosphere with frightening speed and Glann allowed himself a small smile.

If I can’t have it, no one will have it.

He turned back to Feese.

   “Go,” he whispered, and Glann Cipple left the Amagad System, never to return.

Never to Return

2000 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Nine years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Histories – An account of Glann Cipple’s final minutes as absolute master of Amagad City, and the final moments of his reign as leader of the Setnin Underworld.  Although he was to make an unsuccessful attempt in regaining his throne this was the last time he held sway over Setnin.  Told from Cipple’s point-of-view, this story doesn’t show the fight between Carlonian Feese and Goah Galletti aboard the Deadmans Dream just prior to the Heeds crash into the Bay of Amagad.

Cast of Characters

Glann Cipple

Carlonian Feese