Match 13877 Duncan Idaho vs. The Death Star vs. Shub-Niggurath

[Guest sithisson]

Contest Entry-May the Fourth be with You.

 

He had awaken once more from that memory fugue that tended to surround most gholas upon being impressed into service. Once more he knew that he was Duncan Idaho; one more was he sworn upon the house of Atreides to be loyal and do as they bid. Momentarily was he distracted upon learning whom his master was; that of Duke Leto II. Even upon this new awareness could he feel the mentat programming induced into his mind, his senses ever seeking out information to decipher the strangeness that surrounded this new found beginning.

 

Only of late had he heard rumors speaking of other Duncans, other gholas it seemed that had been cloned over and over again. He did not know yet what to think of such a thing. His loyalty battled with his sense of morality and so when word got out of an assignment to carry some cargo to a distant planet he had volunteered himself despite his Emperor's protests. All Duncan knew was that he needed to get away to clear his thoughts some.

 

The black hole that had opened up in route to his destination had been a surprised. Nothing the Guild star charts nor any of the Bene witches written relics talked of such a phenomenon here. Yet here it was and the small cargo ship he was piloting had been sucked into it with little warning.

As soon as his vessel had crest the other side he felt something pulling him away and toward something that looked at first to be some sort of metallic moon. His thoughts at once went to IX but no this was no technological haven but some sort of military outpost hovering in sheer space as he noted while being pulled closer. Nothing he did allowed him freedom from this traction and so with what time he had left he'd hid in a secret compartment to allow a chance to see who had captured him.

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The Imperial troopers did three clean sweeps of the ship that the tractor beam brought in. Nothing seemed to registered as a life form here although the strangeness of an unmanned unique craft such as this did nothing to avail their worry. Still as ordered they had stripped clean what they could and placed a small sentry unit of five around it just in case. No one knew if this was some Rebel trick or if it was just space junk but it was easier to be safe than sorry. No one wanted to explain this to Lord Vader if the situation got out of control.

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Duncan waited until the close was clear in the cabin above. He silently made his way about to find that they had placed guards about him. The little conversation the troops had spoken of confirmed this to indeed be some sort of installation and of the tractor beam had locked his ship here. His mentat functions clearly saw only one way to go. He had to shut down that beam somehow and escape before his presence was detected. Idaho was about to slip off the ship and around the guards when warning claxons began to go off.

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She was not amused. How dared this so called Dark Lord attempt to subvert the energy that surrounded one of her resting places in this universe.  This Vader had ventured on one of her planets and desecrated it with armed forces all in search of something called Sith artifacts for some master. The Old Ones were not toys to be pushed aside to poke at! How dare this simple morsel whom controlled an energy of which the users of this particular galaxy could only begin to contemplate. If she had been summoned, worshiped then he would have been granted all but now he and his would be given their final stay in the fleshy state of their bodies.

They had appeared without warning, 5,000 strong. Mi-go they had been called, Winged human sized fungi like creatures that worshiped Shub-Niggurath without question.  In time they might oppose the Elder Ones but for now they were pressed into their service and answered the call. Havoc ensued on the Death Star as they appeared out of shadows seeking any and all that dared to fight back with the goal one Darth Vader being the hunted.

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Duncan was not sure what those creatures were that he'd seen began an assault on those around him. He knew they were no friends of his current captors but neither did he think they were on his side either. Slipping free of his vessel he would begin a long trek into the unknown interior of this Star looking for a means to get his ship free from the tractor beam again and to escape in earnest.

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Battle conditions:

Duncan needs to get to a console to find the means to shut down the tractor beam ,do so, and then escape. He is armed with his sword, a vibro-knife, and anything he can get off Imperial hands as he makes his way down. He'd have to battle or avoid both the Mi-Go and Imperial forces to win.

The Imperial forces are hard pressed against creatures they have no information on. Consider each floor of the Death Star to have patrols of ten for Duncan to deal with and an equal amount of Imperial storm troopers, 5,000 in total augmented by petty officers and crew, to be in direct fights with the Mi-Go. They win if they both battle the creatures down and capture Duncan.

The Mi-go are to seek out Vader who is conspicuously absent in this invasion but is present in the inner chambers of the Death Star. They number 5,000 even and are scattering themselves throughout the installation while assaulting anything that gets in the way of their goal. Their numbers are high because Shub demands it. It matters little to the Old One if such might not be realistic even to their nature; all that matters is the chaos that it is. Their win naturally is if they find Vader and destroy the troops upon them. How Vader will take to them and what happens therein might be another story to be told in the future.

[Callisto]

Learn More About

Duncan Idaho

Read more about Duncan Idaho at Wikipedia

Official Site: Frank Herbert Links: Wikipedia Dune Wiki List of Dune characters

 

The Death Star

Read more about The Death Star at Wikipedia

Official Site: LucasFilm Ltd Links: Wikipedia Star Wars.com Star Destroyer.net

 

Shub-Niggurath

Read more about Shub-Niggurath at Wikipedia

Official Site: H.P. Lovecraft Links: Wikipedia Villains Wikia Yog-Sothoth

 

 

[Guest sithisson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go

 

Info on the Mi-Go for those not familiar with Lovecraft or the Mythos itself.

[Guest Dinsdale Piranha]

I don't think the Mi-go are tough enough to stand up to blaster fire or a light saber and would expect Vader and co. to beat them. I don't think anything less than the Death Star's main weapon would take out Shub-Niggurath, and it's possible not even that would (when Lovecraft talks about the ancient wars the Great Old Ones were involved in he says that stars were extinguished by their weapons.) Fortuantely, killing SN is not a victory condition.

 

Duncan is skilled and neither side has seen anything quite like his weapons. If the shield belt interacts with blaster fire like it does with a lasgun, this fight could take a very dramatic turn. 

 

I'd like to know about that before I vote. I'd also like to know how you'd like to see a vote recorded if two of the the contestants achieve their victory conditions. If the mi-go take the ship and Duncan escapes, how is that scored? If Lord Vader repluses the mi-go and Duncan escapes, same question.

[Guest sirmethos]

"If the shield belt interacts with blaster fire like it does with a lasgun, this fight could take a very dramatic turn."

 

It won't.

 

The interaction between the lasgun fire and the shields, is due to the nature of the shield, and the fact that the lasgun fires a continuous-wave laser beam.   Blasters fire blasts of plasma.

 

 

That said, is this Duncan Idaho from the original Dune, or is it one of the Ghola from the later books?

[Guest sithisson]

Well to the scoring my take would be whoever tends to be closer gets their victory conditions noted. So say the Mi-go and Duncan are the higher scores then the Death Star is taken and Duncan escapes. If Duncan is the lowest that would suggest the idea that the Mi-go destroyed caused plenty of havoc but are ending at a stalemate with Duncan trapped there; maybe even indoctrinate  into fighting for the Empire. 

 

@ Sirmethos it's one of the gholas but who've gotten his memories recently restored. I was going to initially use the original save unless I went to some of his earlier years I could not come up with a reasonable way for him to be off planet. That and the confused state they tend to have helps lead into a valid reason to get away for a little while. We are given to know that there are more gholas that were not fully fleshed out in the books and this is just one random one that got away from any major plot of Leto II or the books in general.

 

My initial idea was a battle of different fictional representations of planets with competitors from each. But this felt better in the long run to write since it's elements one does not really think to see interacting.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

USER RATINGS

patrickthekid gives it a grade of: B

Mercenaryblade gives it a grade of: A

Dinsdale Piranha gives it a grade of: B Fun idea. A little vagueness in the set up.

El Wookiee gives it a grade of: A

SCORE

Duncan Idaho: 4

The Death Star: 6

Shub-Niggurath: 9

FPA: 3.5