Star Wars: Apprentice of the Jedi

Wrath

As the beautiful, orange sun began to set over Verdari, a planet in the outer rim territories, a star destroyer emerged from hyperspace. This star destroyer is a Resurgent-class star destroyer, more significant than the Imperial-class. Troop transports and scores of tie fighters began to leave the ship's hangers quickly and descend towards the planet's surface. Inside the command bridge, many of the officers watched as they began the bombardment, while others kept their eyes on the monitors.

"Sir, the transports have begun their descent." said a crew member.

"Good. Inform the Supreme Leader." a colonel replied.

"Yes, sir." the crew member nodded his head.

As the transports made their way to the surface, it was a very turbulent trip for the Stormtroopers. Red lights began to flash brightly inside the transports. But these troopers weren't afraid of anything. For many of them, it was their very first mission. Meanwhile, on the planet, two security droids slowly walked towards the town nearby. Verdari was a sparsely populated planet, with only a few small cities and settlements scattered throughout the vast expanse of wilderness. Many of the planet's inhabitants were farmers and hunters, earning a living from the land and the abundant wildlife that inhabits the forests. Despite its isolation, the planet had become a target for the First Order due to its strategic location and valuable resources. The planet's forests contained rare minerals and elements that were highly sought after by the First Order's military-industrial complex, and the planet's location on the outer rim made it a key entry point into the wider galaxy.

In the town, the local marshal sat at his desk in his office, cleaning his blaster. He got up and walked over to the entryway of his office and began to watch small children play in the street with rag dolls. One was dressed as Luke Skywalker, and the others were Imperial stormtroopers. As the marshal began to grin at their playful laughter, he heard a distress signal from the small monitor in his office. He walked over and looked at the monitor. The footage on the monitor showed intense blaster fire and explosions. One of the security droids began to speak over the intercom. Suddenly, the monitor showed that an explosion had hit and destroyed the two droids. The intercom immediately went silent. With a frightened look on his face, the marshal knew that the town was in grave danger. He ran to the middle of the street where the small children were playing.

"Everyone! Get inside! Now!"

The citizens of the city had no warning of an impending attack. People began to scream and yell for their loved ones. The marshal started running to his ship, parked in the nearby docking area. The drunken pirates and thugs aggressively pushed themselves out of the cantina to figure out what was going on.

"Take cover!" the marshal yelled as he ran.

Tie fighters screamed above the small town as they began their fiery barrage. The marshal found his ship, got up into the seat, and quickly turned on the systems to send a message to the New Republic. But before he could say anything over the comms, he looked up and saw a tie fighter that was heading straight towards the ship. He knew he only had seconds to get out. He jumped just in time as the tie fighter began firing. The marshal miraculously avoided the large blasts as he fell to the ground.

Structures around the town started to catch fire from the tie laser cannons, and Stormtroopers began firing on civilians. Billows of black smoke made the sky incredibly dark. The marshal went to the town square, found cover behind large meat containers, and began to fire back at the First Order stormtroopers. More and more stormtroopers came and fired back at the marshal to the point where they surrounded him.

As they began to surround the marshal, a single Flametrooper approached and used his D-93 incinerator to burn the marshal out. The marshal quickly dodged as he pointed his blaster to kill the Flametrooper—a sharp pain shot up through his spine. The marshal was shot from behind, forcing him to collapse. There was then a noise from a ship, which caused the stormtroopers to look up.

Injured on the ground, sweat trickling down his forehead, the marshal painfully looked up through the thick black smoke. A Xi-class shuttle began to land almost right over the town square.

"This way," a stormtrooper directed a mother towards other captured civilians.

"Where are my children?" the mother asked, tears streaming down her face as she held a tiny baby in her arms.

After the shuttle had landed, two Stormtroopers, an officer, and a colonel known as Colonel Kaplan departed the shuttle and walked over to the wounded marshal. The marshal glared at the colonel of the First Order, who stood before him with a smug expression on his face.

"You...you have no right to be here," the marshal growled. "This is our town, our home. You can't just come in here and take whatever you want."

The colonel chuckled. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, marshal. The First Order has every right to be here. We're here to protect you and your people, to ensure your safety and security."

The marshal snorted. "Protect us? From what?

The colonel's expression turned cold as he approached the marshal. "We're not here to negotiate. We're here to take what we need. And if you stand in our way, we'll be forced to take drastic measures."

The marshal tried to get the words out despite the pain from his wound. "I won't let you...do this. I won't let you destroy...our town, our way of life."

The colonel knelt in front of the marshal. "Look around you. Your town is destroyed." The colonel then aggressively grabbed the marshal's face.

The marshal screamed in pain.

"Your message will never reach the New Republic," Kaplan said, gnashing his teeth.

The colonel released the marshal and stood before him. The colonel then nodded to the Stormtroopers with a cruel glint in his eye.

"Take the children. Kill the rest."

The stormtroopers carried out the colonel's orders with ruthless efficiency. They grabbed any child they could find and forced them into waiting transports, ignoring their screams and tears. Meanwhile, the rest of the town's inhabitants were rounded up and herded into a central area, where stormtroopers with blasters at the ready surrounded them. The stormtroopers immediately opened fire, their blasters unleashing a deadly rain of energy bolts on the huddled group of civilians. Screams and cries filled the air as the massacre unfolded, with the First Order showing no mercy or remorse for the innocent lives they were taking.