He had made His declarations for me, His one commandment. My path to salvation, my path to damnation.
Squeeze Lirka, he had said, squeeze every world till they run dry. They are ripe fruit, ready to burst, squeeze, and drink from the nectar of a thousand worlds.
At least…I think that's what he said.
The brand burns, the haze of my mind grows. Battlefields a-thousand blend to a mere hundred. The killing is one endless stream of bloodshed, how many lives have I ended? How many more will I take?
I remember his words now.
Keep what I will, the freedom to derive my pleasures from whatever morsels of plunder I desire. Freedom. A leash dropped, flailing in the wind. He knows who I am, He knows who He commands. He loves and He hates, but he has given me the freedom to be me!
For I am Lirka Ka, Lash of the Kainate, Slavemaster General, Chosen envoy of the Butcher-King, the Guiding Hand of an Eternal Mother for all the foul and wretched creatures that have fallen through the cracks! And I am free! My Kin has deemed it so, to set me loose, to ravage, to plunder, to loot, to do what this Empire is too weak to do!
I gaze out at distant stars once again, everything our dominion does not touch, free reign for me and my murderers. Free reign to take and to kill and to devour for no other reason than because we can! Because we are strong! But in transparisteel, I see more than the stars. I see Her. I wonder what she would think of me now, think of what the monster who stole her name has done.
I see her eyes in the glass, they judge me.
I'm tired of being judged.
What right does a dead woman have to scorn me!? I am Lirka Ka now! She is not! Yet in the haze I see it again, I see her memories, I see her dreams, I see her ambitions.
I see her die.
She is buried in the Petranaki Arena. Geonosis. We once called that place home.
No.
She called that place home, I have no home. This warship, this is all I know. The Sith is all I know. But they are not home. They are not a refuge, they are a place of shadowy daggers waiting to stab me in the back! Another place to be judged! A dominion riddled with petty tyrants and would-be Lords that want to make me into something else, to force the transience of the Dark upon me to mold me into what they deem acceptable!
What they deem suitable!
I see her in the glass, she hates me. She weeps for me. She mourns what her name has become. A petty murderer, worthless scum, judging me! Judging me for following her ambitions, judging me for taking the throne on lost Thustra, judging me for taking her father's head from his neck! Tyrant, she screams! Fascist, she cries! Faker, liar, trickster, monster, freak, abomination! She judges, and judges, and judges!
The Jedi judge me!
The Sith judge me!
The Empire judges me!
The Alliance judges me!
It takes a single punch, the glass cracks. I am judged no more.
I am alone, with nothing but the Dark, and Carnifex…nay. Kaine. They fill my head, and I am free. They do not judge me. They do not shackle me. They let me be what I want to be. They empower me, they reward me, they love me, they adore me.
But in the fractures, cracked across the screen like the webs of fate. I can still see it, I can still see her eyes. I turn away, I can not bear to look any longer. But I am Lirka Ka, and my resolve is not so easily broken.
The warfleet will make way to Geonosis.
And I will never be judged by specters again.
Squeeze Lirka, he had said, squeeze every world till they run dry. They are ripe fruit, ready to burst, squeeze, and drink from the nectar of a thousand worlds.
At least…I think that's what he said.
The brand burns, the haze of my mind grows. Battlefields a-thousand blend to a mere hundred. The killing is one endless stream of bloodshed, how many lives have I ended? How many more will I take?
I remember his words now.
Keep what I will, the freedom to derive my pleasures from whatever morsels of plunder I desire. Freedom. A leash dropped, flailing in the wind. He knows who I am, He knows who He commands. He loves and He hates, but he has given me the freedom to be me!
For I am Lirka Ka, Lash of the Kainate, Slavemaster General, Chosen envoy of the Butcher-King, the Guiding Hand of an Eternal Mother for all the foul and wretched creatures that have fallen through the cracks! And I am free! My Kin has deemed it so, to set me loose, to ravage, to plunder, to loot, to do what this Empire is too weak to do!
I gaze out at distant stars once again, everything our dominion does not touch, free reign for me and my murderers. Free reign to take and to kill and to devour for no other reason than because we can! Because we are strong! But in transparisteel, I see more than the stars. I see Her. I wonder what she would think of me now, think of what the monster who stole her name has done.
I see her eyes in the glass, they judge me.
I'm tired of being judged.
What right does a dead woman have to scorn me!? I am Lirka Ka now! She is not! Yet in the haze I see it again, I see her memories, I see her dreams, I see her ambitions.
I see her die.
She is buried in the Petranaki Arena. Geonosis. We once called that place home.
No.
She called that place home, I have no home. This warship, this is all I know. The Sith is all I know. But they are not home. They are not a refuge, they are a place of shadowy daggers waiting to stab me in the back! Another place to be judged! A dominion riddled with petty tyrants and would-be Lords that want to make me into something else, to force the transience of the Dark upon me to mold me into what they deem acceptable!
What they deem suitable!
I see her in the glass, she hates me. She weeps for me. She mourns what her name has become. A petty murderer, worthless scum, judging me! Judging me for following her ambitions, judging me for taking the throne on lost Thustra, judging me for taking her father's head from his neck! Tyrant, she screams! Fascist, she cries! Faker, liar, trickster, monster, freak, abomination! She judges, and judges, and judges!
The Jedi judge me!
The Sith judge me!
The Empire judges me!
The Alliance judges me!
It takes a single punch, the glass cracks. I am judged no more.
I am alone, with nothing but the Dark, and Carnifex…nay. Kaine. They fill my head, and I am free. They do not judge me. They do not shackle me. They let me be what I want to be. They empower me, they reward me, they love me, they adore me.
But in the fractures, cracked across the screen like the webs of fate. I can still see it, I can still see her eyes. I turn away, I can not bear to look any longer. But I am Lirka Ka, and my resolve is not so easily broken.
The warfleet will make way to Geonosis.
And I will never be judged by specters again.
