Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’ll be honest—there was a moment where I wasn’t sure what his answer was going to be. It could’ve gone either way.
Again, this is what made things exciting.
But half a second later, there he went, drawing his lightsaber and launching himself at said homicidally broody alien queen in what I would describe as a decidedly aggressive manner.
Vader launches himself at the Geonosian queen, drawing his lightsaber.
GEONOSIAN QUEEN:
You! Why are you here? Has the Emperor not taken enough from the Geonosians with your bombs?
DARTH VADER:
No.
APHRA (narration):
Oh man. Of course the Empire had something to do with this planet dying—maybe that’s why Vader’d had such a…reaction to the place.
But this was the kind of Darth Vader action I’d been hoping for. He sliced through the air with his lightsaber, severing her connection to the factory she’d been using as a womb.
And then the Dark Lord and the Geonosian queen faced off against each other, his hand raised—doing one of those magical-type Force things again. The Geonosian queen may have possessed sharp teeth and have a buncha killer winged robots at her disposal, but she definitely did not have magical-type Force things! How was she possibly going to respond?
GEONOSIAN QUEEN:
Stop them! They’ve ruined our past—they can’t destroy our future!
Children—stop him!
A battalion of winged battle droids descends, surrounding Vader.
APHRA (narration):
Oh. That’s how. Call upon your army of winged battle droids, always does the trick.
But let’s not forget, Vader and I had our own army…of two.
APHRA:
Triple-Zero, Beetee: Now!
Beetee lets loose with another fiery blast, directly into the queen’s chamber.
APHRA:
Good job, boys. You know, some people have asked me: Why would a droid need a flamethrower? I always say…Why not?
Now deploying the location beacon to… oh no.
APHRA (narration):
We had a problem. So I did what any top-tier adventurer would do…I jumped into the queen’s chamber.
Yes, into the pit filled with fire, exploding mutant droids, and one determined Dark Lord facing off against an increasingly furious alien about to be robbed of her precious brood.
What could go wrong?
APHRA:
Lord Vader!
I can’t get the location beacon to the roof. The thrusters have gone.
Can you…
APHRA (narration):
I didn’t even have to complete that sentence. Lord Vader used yet another Force thing—and with the simple lift of a finger, he sent the location beacon careening all the way up to the roof of the queen’s lair.
APHRA:
Of course you can. You’re Darth Vader. And now I can call my ship.
Aphra to Ark Angel. Barrage to location—now!