Space Marine in Star Wars (Warhammer X Star Wars) Chapter 150 150: 146. The Bait Is Cast

=== Raxor ===

Raxor drifted in the warm suspension of the bacta tank, weightless, suspended between waking and dreams. The gentle hum of dicae instrunts filled the chamber with their steady reassuring rhythm. It was the sound of healing, of rest hard-earned after the cataclysm on Mortis. His massive fra hung supported by cables, his armor stripped away, his mind finally allowed to ease into silence. For the first ti in what felt like months, the Salamander slept without the scent of burning prothium or daemon blood in his lungs.

And then, without warning, the darkness behind his eyes trembled, parting like thin cloth drawn aside by unseen hands.

A vision pressed into him.

Not a dream. Sothing… weightier. Sothing that touched the edges of prophecy.

He stood, or rather, was, on a cliff overlooking a vast ruined city. Twilight bled across its shattered skyline, painting broken towers and toppled spires in long, mournful gold. The wind tugged at his tabard, carrying the faint scent of ash and sothing older, sothing sacred. He looked down at his own hands, and they were no longer subrged in bacta. They were armored again, cracked with battle, trembling faintly as if the very air here pressed with strange gravity.

Then he saw them.

Two figures stood ahead, waiting at the cliff's edge.

A young man and a young woman. No older than fifteen or sixteen. Their silhouettes were slender, but there was an unmistakable strength in how they stood, an echo of destiny in their stillness. They were twins, unmistakably so, sharing the sa sharp cheekbones, the sa posture, the sa storm-quiet aura.

And their eyes… Emperor protect him, their eyes were gold.

Like the burning heart of a star. Raxor had seen psykers ignite suns of power, seen daemons scream in the light of Imperial faith, but he had never seen eyes like those. Eyes that watched him with both rcy and judgnt. Eyes that seed to know him more intimately than he knew himself.

He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Could only stare.

The girl stepped forward first, not quite smiling, not quite solemn, her expression bearing a serenity far too old for her youthful face. The boy beside her lifted his chin slightly, eting Raxor's gaze.

The ruined city stretched endlessly beneath them, yet the twins seed untouched by the devastation, as if they were the promise that sothing greater would rise from its ashes.

Raxor tried to speak, but no sound ca. His throat locked. His mind spun with questions. Who are you? How do you stand in my dreams? Why do your eyes see directly into my soul?

But the answer ca not in words.

Only in his feelings did he find the truth.

These two will shape fate. The greatest choice of his life will hinge upon them. And when the mont cos, he would know.

The boy's hand lifted, a slow motion that seed to ripple reality around its edges. The girl narrowed her golden eyes gently, as if urging patience, urging faith. His heart hamred. His mouth opened to ask sothing, ask anything…

But the vision shattered like glass struck by a hamr.

Raxor jolted awake, thrashing in the bacta suspension as alarms blared. His eyes were wide, staring into nothing, but the images burned behind them remained sharp and vivid, etched into the fabric of his mind.

He had no na for the boy or the girl. No understanding of the ruined city. No reason why his gene-forged soul trembled at the sight of them.

But he knew without doubt, without question, that they were real. That he would one day stand before them not as a dream, but in the flesh.

And when that mont arrived… everything he was, everything he believed, everything he fought for would be weighed in the balance.

Raxor closed his eyes again, chest rising slowly in the bacta fluid. He did not fear destiny. He never had. But for the first ti in a long while, he felt its hand touch him directly, just as it had touched both his brothers.

=== Padmé ===

Padmé woke with a soft, startled breath, her heart thudding once before settling. The apartnt was dark, lit only by the pale glow of Coruscant's endless traffic flowing past the windows like liquid starlight. She pushed herself up on her elbows, brushing a few loose strands of hair from her face just as the door to their bedroom hissed open.

Anakin stepped inside, shoulders slumped, robes heavy with dust and the lingering scent of burning wood. Even in the dimness she could see the exhaustion etched into him, the tension in his jaw, the stiffness in how he moved, the shadows under his eyes deeper than ever. She rose slowly from the bed, her hand unconsciously sliding to her abdon as she stood; though she was only a few months along, her balance had already begun to shift in subtle ways.

"Anakin?" she whispered, concern softening her voice.

He didn't speak at first. He simply crossed the room and sat heavily on the edge of the bed, elbows resting on his knees, head bowed as if the weight of the day threatened to crush him entirely. Padmé moved to his side, her nightgown brushing his arm as she lowered herself next to him.

"How is Ahsoka?" she asked gently.

For a mont he didn't answer. Then he exhaled, long and weary, and lifted his eyes to hers. "She'll be alright," he murmured. "The dics say she just needs rest. The injuries were… bad, but she's strong." His voice cracked slightly, barely audible.

Padmé's hand found his shoulder, squeezing with quiet reassurance. Anakin leaned into her touch as if only now rembering he was allowed to breathe.

She shifted closer, letting her head rest against him. His arm ca around her instinctively, pulling her into the warmth of his side. After a mont, he slid his other hand to her stomach, gentle, reverent, the way he always did, as if touching a miracle he hadn't quite convinced himself was real.

Padmé covered his hand with her own, thumb brushing over his knuckles. "I had the strangest dream," she whispered, her voice faintly trembling with a fear she couldn't fully na. "About the children."

Anakin's gaze sharpened, concern rising. "What did you see?"

She swallowed, trying to steady herself. "The twins… they were older. Teenagers, maybe. They were standing on a cliff, looking over the ruins of so great city. I couldn't place where, but it felt ancient. Devastated." She paused, breath hitching. "But they weren't alone."

Anakin's brows drew together. "Who else was there?"

Behind her eyes, the dream flickered again, two silhouettes outlined by a dying sun, the wind whipping through their hair, and towering behind them like a shadow of fate itself…

"A giant," she said softly. "A figure in armor. Green armor. It looked like… one of the Astartes. One of the Imperium." She hesitated, then finally spoke the worry gnawing at her. "I think it was Raxor."

Anakin's jaw tightened. For a mont, anger flared across his face. Padmé felt his hand tense against her stomach.

"I'm scared, Ani," she breathed, voice trembling despite her effort to keep it steady. "I'm scared that sohow… in so future… our children will end up in the Imperium's care. That they'll be taken from us and raised by warriors who know nothing but war."

Anakin reacted imdiately. His other arm wrapped fully around her, pulling her against him with protective urgency. He pressed a kiss to her temple, fierce and quiet.

"No," he murmured, voice low and unwavering. "Padmé… I will never let anything like that happen. Not to them. Not to you. I swear it." His hand spread across her abdon, as if shielding the twins within from an entire galaxy. "Our children will grow up safe. With us. I'll see to it, no matter what it takes."

Padmé breathed out shakily, leaning into him until there was no space between them at all. His warmth soaked into her, easing the cold edge of fear. "Promise ," she whispered.

He cupped her cheek, turning her face toward his. "I promise," he said, not as a Jedi, not as the Chosen One, but as a man who would burn down the galaxy to protect the two small lives he hadn't yet t.

The tension in her body finally eased. She rested her head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Slowly, they lay back down together, his arms still wrapped around her, their fingers intertwined over the gentle rise of her stomach.

And even though sleep ca slowly, they drifted into it holding each other tightly, each silently praying that the dream was nothing more than just that.

A dream.

=== Naless Jedi Temple Guard ===

Under the pale glow of the Temple's night-lamps, the corridors stretched long and silent, every polished stone and towering column wrapped in that deep stillness that only ca when thousands of Jedi slept. A lone Temple Guard moved through the quiet corridor, his mask blank, expressionless, reflecting only the faintest shimr of passing light. His footsteps were soft, almost asured to the heartbeat, he walked the routine he had been walking for years, one that had beco so monotonous it seed carved into him as surely as the armor he wore.

But tonight, his steps slowed.

Tonight, a whisper in his ear, through his concealed comm.

"Proceed."

The word was quiet, brittle, nothing more than a breath of command, yet it shifted sothing in him like a lock turning. For a heartbeat, he paused near one of the tall windows overlooking the city.

He turned away.

His patrol route carried him toward the southern wing, but halfway down the hall he broke pattern. A subtle deviation to the left, where a small corridor seldom used at this hour, one that most assud led to storage. But he knew better. The hidden terminal tucked away behind a durasteel door was old, rarely accessed, and perfect.

Perfect because no one watched it.

He reached the door, glanced once down the hallway to ensure he was alone, then keyed in the code. It slid open without a sound. The chamber beyond was dim and narrow, holding only a dust-coated holostation, a chair that looked as if no one had sat in it in years, and the terminal he needed.

He stepped forward, cloak brushing the floor, and from beneath the layers of his armor produced a small black data-chip.

Another look over his shoulder.

He slid the chip into the terminal.

Instantly, faint symbols flickered to life across the holoscreen. He entered the activation sequence he had morized, each tap of his gloved fingers light.

A signal pinged outward into the void of space, ant for the monsters of the Imperium.

He didn't know its full purpose, as the Chancellor had not told him, and he had not asked. He only knew that this ssage was one move in a far larger ga, and that the Chancellor always played to win.

When the final data-burst uploaded, the console chid once before going dark again as if nothing had ever happened.

The Guard removed the chip, and slid it back into a compartnt in his armor, and stepped away. He spared the terminal no further glance. To linger would be suspicious.

When he exited the room, he resud his slow, steady patrol as though he had never broken from it.

The Jedi Temple Guard continued his rounds, silent and dutiful.

And Palpatine's plan ticked forward another step.

=== Bo-Katan ===

Bo-Katan stood hunched over a holomap of Tatooine's southern defensive grid, one gauntleted finger tracing the jagged canyon lines where the last pockets of Tusken Raiders had been burnt out only days prior. The command post around her humd with low conversation, datapads clicking, boots scraping against dusty durasteel flooring.

"Lady Kryze!" an officer called, his voice tight enough to snap.

Bo-Katan turned imdiately. The young Mandalorian tech, face pale, was waving her over to his terminal with a severity that made her heart spike. She crossed the room in long, sharp strides.

"What is it?" she demanded.

"We… uh… we intercepted a transmission." He swallowed. "Encrypted. Military-grade slicing protocols. But its origin code… it's from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant."

That alone made a cold knot form in her stomach. "Show ."

The ssage expanded in a holographic overlay. Lines of text, heavily scrambled, then resolved by the interceptor's decryption filters. The Chancellor's unmistakable signature was attached. Another, anonymous, marked only as JEDI—UNCONFIRD.

It was a ssage exchange between the two.

Bo-Katan began reading. And the longer she read, the more her expression hardened.

"—the Jedi refuse to comply, Chancellor. They won't return him. Vulkan is too powerful a symbol to relinquish."

"They must," Palpatine wrote back. "If the Imperium learns he is being hidden by the Jedi… we'll all burn for it. The Senate is already conspiring with them. They think keeping Vulkan weakens the Imperium, but it only seals our doom if we're discovered."

The ssages cut off abruptly, as if the transmission hadn't finished fully.

Her officers were watching her carefully now, sensing the rising tension in her posture.

"I transferred it to your personal terminal as requested." The Officer said, looking up at her.

"And copies?" She asked in return.

"None. Just the original on your device."

"Good."

Bo-Katan tapped her vambrace and triggered her encrypted link with the Regent's sub-access channel. "I'm going to see the Lady Regent imdiately." She said.

"Yes, Lady Kryze."

She slipped the holotablet under her arm and broke into a run, pushing past startled guards and aides as she vaulted down the ramp leading out of Command Post. The twin suns were rising outside, casting long orange blades of light across the sand-haunted courtyard. Sweat prickled along her brow as she sprinted, armor plates clattering in a rhythmic, determined cadence.

If the Imperium believed the Jedi were hiding Vulkan, if the Imperium thought the Republic was conspiring to weaken them…

"Co on… co on…" she muttered as she ran, breath tightening in her chest.

She cut a path through the central corridor of the Imperial enclave, startling passing servitors and Mandalorians led by their Astartes squad leaders as she surged past them.

Finally, she reached the towering adamantium doors to the Regent's office. The Terminator guards straightened imdiately as she approached.

"Commander Kryze," one greeted her. "Do you require—"

"I must speak with the Lady Regent imdiately, please step aside!

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