Science Fiction Battle: Paul Atreides (Dune) vs The Mule (Foundation)

For the first battle of my literature-themed season, let's pit two psychic galactic conquerors and iconic sci-fi characters in a battle to the death! Paul Atreides, the Duke who became a Messiah and an Emperor! Versus... The Mule, a mutant psychic who became the destroyer of the Foundation!

Who... is... DEADLIEST?!

Paul Atreides

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death which brings total obliteration. I will face my fear, and let is pass over and through me." - Paul Atreides

Born to the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica and Duke Leto Atreides, Paul Atreides was himself raised through most of his younger life as a noble. He was born on the planet Calidan, were he trained in the arts of nobles. By the time he turned 15, he was met by the reverend mother of the Bene Gesserit, who subjected him to the Gom Jabbar test, learning he had an unnatural reaction to it, with her believing Paul to potentially being the Kwisatz Haderach.

Not long after, he and his family went to the planet Arakkis. Here, Paul first came into contact with the spice known as melange. Paul began to have deadly accurate premonitions of the future, and then from there think through how he would get to that point. But as he only started to figure out these visions, his family's palace was attacked by the former lords of Arakkis, the Harkonnens. Nearly his whole family was butchered, with him and his mother one of the few to escape by running into the desert.

Years later, a preacher among the native Freman of Dune known as Muad'dib would come into prominence. This preacher had accurate visions of the future and calculated how people could make it that way. This preacher was himself Paul Atreides, and he was progressively rallying the Freman for a Jihad against the Harkonnens. He would eventually initiate this rebellion, leading the Freman into battle upon the backs of the great sandworms. He eventually took over the planet and held the entire galactic empire hostage by cutting off the supplies of spice to the galaxy. Following a victory over the last Harkonnen, Feyd-Rautha, in single combat, Paul took the crown as emperor of the Known Galaxy, dubbing himself the god emperor of Dune. Paul's dynasty would eventually crumble, however, with him going mad himself from all the events that happened in his life.

Weapons

• Crysknife: A type of bone knife made from the teeth of the giant sandworms. This blade was deadly, being able to hack through flesh and bone like razors. While only made from bones, the blade was extremely strong and comparable to steel in quality due to the strength of the worms teeth. The knife was over 20 cm long and could also be tipped with a fast-acting poison.
• Holtzman Shield: A unique type of energy-based body armor or force field that covered Paul in a protective layer against most projectile weapons. The shield worked by stopping fast-moving projectiles and rendering them inert before they could make contact with the user. The shield was so successful that they nearly made long range tactics obsolete in the world of Dune.

Powers and Abilities

• Bene Gesserit Powers: As the only male Bene Gesserit, Paul had the ability to use several of the powerful Bene Gesserit abilities. These abilities were Petit Perception, the Weirding Way, and The Voice.
  • Petit Perception allowed Paul a much greater sense for emotions and beliefs, along with a greater sense for whether an opponent was carrying specific weapons. It also functioned as a sort of danger sense that allowed Paul to detect if someone was lying, read body language, and see through disguises and shapeshifting.
  • Weirding Way is the main outward method of Prana Bindu. By using the techniques to move the body, the user could move in such a way that some saw them as using short range teleportation while at close ranges.
  • The Voice was a strange technique based around modifying the users tone and intonation in just the right way that Paul could influence an opponent to do anything he commanded. While Paul was new to the ability, struggling to use it as effectively as a full Bene Gesserit, he had shown enough skill with it to influence Harkonnen soldiers. By the time of Dune: Messiah, Paul mastered the Voice to be able to defeat high-ranking Bene Gesserit, the toughest of Sardaukers, and even manipulate a crowd of Fremen.
• Mentat Powers: Paul had the powers of a Mentat, meaning his brain had calculation powers of a super computer. This allowed Paul to very quickly assess a situation and come up with the best action to make. He could calculate the probability of certain actions to determine the least risky choice, along with figuring out the odds success for certain actions. However, do note that mentat powers could be affected by emotions.
• Kwisatz Hadrach: As the “Chosen One”, Paul had an ability that no others could truly use. This power was that of future seeing. As of the age of 15, Paul had dreams of the future, with this varying from simply seeing a specific person, to seeing the specifics of how certain technologies he hadn’t interacted with before worked (he learned how to put on a stillsuit after seeing the Fremen wear them in his dreams). After arriving on Arrakis, Paul’s powers increased as he was in contact with the spice, allowing him to sense the future while still awake but with much greater clarity. He's powerful enough to predict an assassination attempt against him, and see potential timelines.
• Martial Arts: Paul was professionally trained through much of his youth by Gurney Halleck, giving him greatly developed abilities in unarmed and bladed combat. His swordsmanship was highly advanced, with Paul being able to contend with Halleck at the age of 15 in a duel, with the two coming to a stalemate. This training was done primarily with bladed weapons, with Paul favoring knives and short swords, though his talents also extended to longer weapons like rapiers. And while not his primary focus, Paul was a skilled unarmed fight, being able to mix in punches and kicks into his knife sequences. The duke once killed someone by kicking him in the solar plexus.

The Mule

"The game’s over, and I’d like to tell you a story. It’s a weakness of mine – I want people to understand me. I call myself the Mule – but not because of my strength – obviously–" - The Mule

The Mule was a powerful mentalic mutant, warlord, and conqueror who posed the greatest threat to the Seldon Plan. His acute telepathic ability to modify the emotions of human beings derailed one of the basic assumptions of Hari Seldon's psychohistory - that, in general, the responses of human populations to given stimuli will remain the same. The Mule was born on the mentalic planet Gaia within Sayshell Sector in 268 FE, where he was regarded as a criminal for his willingness to use his mental powers to manipulate people. By some means he managed to escape the planet at a young age and use the innate powers of its inhabitants against the Galaxy.

Motivated by awareness of his abnormal appearance and hatred against the galaxy, the Mule used his extensive powers to rise to power: first conquering a pirate's asteroid base in 293 FE, an industrialist later gave him control of a planet. From there he managed to take over the planet Kalgan by converting the then warlord of Kalgan in 295 FE. This gave him the possibility of conquering the First Foundation, but he needed allies for this, so he decided to disguise himself as a clown, claiming to be his own jester, in order to seek the agents the Foundation would sent to investigate him. This allowed him to meet Han Pritcher, but the first to encounter him were Toran and Bayta Darell, whom he encountered and joined in their travels in 296 FE. This, at the same time, allowed him to have Kalgan declare war on the First Foundation, conquering both it and the Independent Traders' planets. His attempts to find the Second Foundation through manipulation of Ebling Mis, though, ended up being stymied in the last second thanks to Bayta, who had realized who he was and killed Mis before he could speak up.

During the following years, the Mule continued to use his power to sweep aside the last remnants of the Galactic Empire centered around Neotrantor and forging the Union of Worlds, styling himself First Citizen of the Union. However, his plans to create a new Empire were kept in check by his fear of the Second Foundation, which led him to organizing multiple expeditions to seek it. The sixth expedition of 301 FE, led by Bail Channis (who turns out to be a Second Foundation agent), appears to be successful, but in fact it is all a trap created by the First Speaker of the Second Foundation, who defeats the Mule and alters his mind, making end his quest and spend the last years of his life as a benevolent dictator, eventually dying a premature death resulting from his mutation.

Weapons

• Visi-Sonar: A seemingly ordinary musical instrument that once belonged to psychologist Ebling Mis. The Visi-Sonar is in fact a powerful mental weapon that, once played, could manipulate people. In the hands of the Mule, the instrument could create illusions of different shapes and colors, bend people's emotions, and brainwash people's minds. The weapon could also kill: The Mule once used it to kill Prince Dragonbert by playing a terrifying tune that filled the prince with overwhelming terror.

Powers and Abilities

• Psychic Abilities: The Mule was born to a "mentalic" planet named Gaia. As such, he was born with psychic abilities that he used to take control of people. Not only that, but he could also make people completely loyal, remove a person's memory, drive people insane, induce crippling depression, and make his controlled subjects resistant to other telepathic attacks. Even Bail Channis, one of the most powerful telepaths of his time from the Second Foundation -- a land built upon social sciences and where people had psychic abilities -- was defeated by the Mule in battle.
  • That being said, he was not mentally invincible. During the final battle, a combination of despair and trickery made the Mule vulnerable to the First Speaker, resulting in the latter mindwiping the Mule and turning him docile.
• Manipulative Powers: Complimenting the Mule's psychic powers was his skills in tactics and strategy, and general talent in scheming and trickery. With his cunning, the Mule took over whole communities and planets, such as the Pirate Asteroid, Kalgan, and even the First Foundation. He conquered so many planets that he founded an empire called the Union of Worlds, which encompassed a third of the known galaxy. He nearly destroyed the Second Foundation by pretending to be a literal clown to fool Bayta and Toran Darell, spies that were sent to actually stop him. He nearly succeeded until Bayta figured out his true identity at the last minute.
• Unpredictability: An ability unique to the Mule was his general unpredictability. In a world like Foundation where science and technology had reached an apex to the point that anything, including the smallest of events, could be calculated and predicted, no one had seemingly been able to foresee the rise of the Mule. Even the legendary psychohistorian Hari Seldon, the creator of psychohistory, failed to predict him (although he did mention that a great civil war would happen, which people claimed to have been the Mule's conquest).
  • Many characters in the books, including psychics, scientists, and generals, noted the Mule's dangerous unpredictability, and each had their own theories. The general consensus was that the Mule managed to do all of this due to his anomalous nature. No one would have predicted that an insignificant disabled and mutilated mutant would one day nearly conquer the galaxy.

X-Factors

• Physicality

Although Paul began as a meek young man with an unimpressive physique, years of training and combat would transform him into a formidable fighter. He had shown the skills to survive in worlds both filled with water and sand, respectively. And he could hold his own in duels and combat against Fremen, Harkonnen and the Sardauker.

The Mule, unfortunately, wasn't as skilled. He had been noted, including by himself, to be frail and physically weak. Although he could take being beaten just fine, he's no fighter, and had to rely on his wits to win. The guy was so sickly that he had a short lifespan.

• Training

Paul had accumulated a plethora of training. As a member of the Atreidis Clan and a duke nonetheless, he gained training from generals and soldiers like Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho. His mother, Lady Jessica, a Bene Gessirit, trained Paul to be a formidable psychic. Finally, under the Fremen, Paul became a skilled guerrilla warrior capable of taking down more advanced enemies.

The Mule, once again, had no such advantages. He was born on Gaia, a planet known for their psychics and may or may not have been a hive planet. However, nobody knew if he had trained in said planet or anywhere else. It seemed, for the most part, that he was self-trained, with his hatred of the world as his main driving force.

• Experience

Both characters were some of the greatest galactic conquerors in sci-fi history. Paul had a tough life spanning a military career conquering Arrakis, defeating the Harkonnen, and eventually becoming the Emperor of the Galaxy. His rise to power was slow and tragic. That being said, most of his combat experience was centered around conquering the Fremen, the Harkonnen, and the Empire and its mentat elements like the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Tleilaxu Society.

The Mule meanwhile, had quite the military career even with his short lifespan. He was a warlord who led vast armies and fought virtually every dangerous opponent that the world threw at him, from pirates, telepaths, spies, warlords, capitalists, psychologists and scientists. He conquered planet after planet, manipulating or killing their leaders, and eventually formed his own empire that spanned a third of the known galaxy. Above all else, he took on the First and Second Foundations, the most advanced and most powerful nations of his time -- destroying one and nearly conquering the other.

Notes

• To make the battle neutral, Paul Atreidis and the Mule will be transported to an unknown planet by an unknown individual. This planet has semi-advanced technology with weapons and vehicles not too dissimilar to 21st century Earth. They will be forced to destroy each other, and is free to take over the planet to be able to do so.
• Both characters will only have knowledge of each other's names, not their weapons, powers, or histories.
• For this battle, I'll be using Paul during Dune: Messiah and The Mule during the Second Foundation. Both warriors will not have the armies and technology of their empires to help them. They will also only have their most basic and iconic weapons.
• Credits go to Lunathemoon's Paul Atreides vs Luke Skywalker for info on Paul. Thank you. Also, for more information on their powers, check their respect threads here and here.

Battle

The night was intense, dragging over a black clean sheet with planes zipping across; guns blazing as if in a contest on who could burn brighter than the biggest stars. The land below fared no better, covered in a red hot ocean of blood, meat, and screaming men, topped with a coleslaw of burning metal from shells, vehicles and explosions.

Paul Atreides watched the whole carnage from a hill overlooking the battlefield. He felt no fear as this planet's primitive projectile weapons failed against his shield. It wouldn't be long before the battle tipped to his favor. His nemesis may have thought himself safe in this cozy little hidden area of his. But no one was ever safe, especially against an abomination who could see the future as clear as a shimmering Corinthian mirror.

"Hey... Hey..." a voice whispered in his head.

"You think you can win this? Do you even know where I am? Are you sure I am even here?"

Paul shook away the voice, trapping it in a little mental box, which he imprisoned in the cold lake of his unconscious. However, the box could not be held so easily. It broke free and sent a screeching, demonic, noise that burned itself into Paul's mind and created a momentary anguish that made the emperor fall to his knees. Such a mental attack was temporary; for the untrained, such an attack would end in destruction.

"You do not fool me, clown," Paul proclaimed. "Nor do you even scare me."

"Really, now..."

"No. But you should be scared of me."

The Emperor took a small entourage of highly-trained special operatives strapped to the top with the best military gear -- carbines, c4s, grenades, kevlar and all. He marched them down through the crowd of poor dying bastards. The group then came across a large dark cave that seemed to tunnel its way into Hell. Paul feared no Hell, nor other infernos, and he led his men bravely into the abyss.

An ambush took out a few of his men. But their bullets only glanced at Paul's shield. The Emperor then dashed towards his enemies and cut one, two, and three men with swipes from his crysknife. His remaining men finished off the ones left.

Paul and his men continued their journey. And there they saw light and a wet cavern. In the middle of that cavern was his enemy, the clown and the fool himself -- a beast named The Mule.

"I wouldn't lie, little prince, but you exceed my expectation," The Mule said. "In fact, you damn well surprised me."

"Apologies," replied Paul. "But I do not feel the same."

The Mule laughed at this jest, before continuing, "Power like ours and we can rule more than just worlds. We can rule beyond them. We should work together..."

Paul gave a little grin and said, "If your powers were even that strong, you will know what I think of ruling, and those I rule with. I prefer not to share."

"So be it," The Mule said before raising his Visi-Sonar, a strange-looking musical instrument with buttons on them. He then played a tune that echoed across the walls. Paul's men got intrigued by the sound, before their head floated into the clouds, and they all aimed their guns at their commander. Quickly, Paul used his own instrument, the so-called Voice, to make them put their guns down. Seeing his attempt was for naught, The Mule played a different, more menacing tune, that turned the soldiers's head into blenders, liquifying their brains.

Paul then ran towards The Mule, his knife on his side ready to slice the bastard's neck. But as if reading his own moves, The Mule danced to the left, dodging Paul's attack, before smacking the Emperor with his Visi-Sonar. However, Paul seemed to have anticipated this; he braced the attack and countered with a thrust, burying his knife unto The Mule's chest. But the figure disappeared; Paul was tricked with an illusion. Suddenly, a mad tune was played, far more powerful than what he had heard before. This one crippled him, pounded his head, brought down a supernova of suffering into his soul. Paul gritted his teeth and cried, while The Mule laughed and jeered.

"The little prince cannot handle a bit of fine art. Well then, let's turn it up a notch!"

Paul concentrated. He poured all his pain and bottled it up. He let it flow and leak and be redirected, passing through him. Finally, he found his quarry from all the noise. His knife touched flesh, and ripped it away like tearing thin cellophane. The Mule looked surprised; he got tagged hard and he fell to the ground deader than the hopes and dreams of a thousand dead civilizations. Paul then got up and went out, ready to finally clean this utter mess.

Expert's Opinion

Experts believed that Paul won due to his better training, power set, and the fact that he was no stranger to dirty political fighting. The Mule was a tough opponent but his skill set and training fell short to Paul's.