Having watched both trilogies again lately, with my favorite tracks of all six scores loaded on my playlist, I began formulating ideas for an SW fic. I haven't done one in quite a long time, and the last one was pretty silly in conception (crossover with FFVII and Chrono Trigger, to be exact). But this is a more serious fic in intent.
Tonight I got the opening prologue done, and the opening crawl. After all, what would a Star Wars story be without an opening crawl?
Enjoy!
Episode 1
A Forlorn Hope
The time of the Galactic Republic has come to an end. Through treachery and deceit the Dark Lords of the Sith have seized control of the galaxy and embarked on a brutal campaign against the Jedi Order.
The Sith Lord Darth Vader, former Jedi Anakin Skywalker, leads the forces of the new Galactic Empire across the galaxy in pursuit of the surviving Jedi, determined to destroy them all.
On the distant Rim planet of Balturrel, as the Clone Army moves to overwhelm them, Jedi Master Qui-Xi Lao and Apprentice Silas Torson continue a desperate plan to preserve the Jedi Order, and with it a hope of saving the Galaxy...
Prologue
In the silence of the brightly colored, moon-lit forest of Balturrel, they marched forth. A battalion of well-trained, battle-honed Clonetroopers of the newly-christened Empire, veterans of many battles in the Rim against the crumbling Confederacy. A6 Juggernaut vehicles rumbled ahead, clearing away the trees and brush and paving a clear road to the target of the troops.
In the middle of this forest, built into a hillside, was an inactive base of the Seperatists, run entirely by droids. The Juggernauts cleared the path and the troops began to filter in. Their leader, Commander Solom, watched from a Juggernaut control deck. Before him a holonet came alive and presented him with a blue-tinted figure, that of the Emperor's personal lieutenant; the helmeted Darth Vader. "Commander Solom, do you have anything further to report?"
"We've found the droid base, Lord Vader. If the locals' stories are correct, the Jedi have taken refuge within..."
"Find and eliminate them, Commander. And if you find no sign of them, you are to punish those who have wasted our time."
"Yes, my Lord." Solom waited for Vader to end the call before leaving to personally lead his troops into the facility.
The Clonetroopers spread around inside, platoon by platoon then squad by squad, searching every corner. The inner chambers were illuminated, the first confirmation that the base was still occupied.
A squad from Platoon B was the first to notice the robed figure standing at the opening to what appeared to be the control center. He called out to his comrades, so they turned and raised their rifles in unison at the man with graying black hair and beard. A split second before they could fire they heard the familiar sound of a lightsaber flashing to life. The blade shined green in the man's hand, and the deftly sent back every blaster shot, killing one clone and then another before an outstretched hand sent them all flying backward, their guns flying out of their grasp and the impact knocking them unconscious.
Jedi Master Qui-Xi Lao took in a breath, turning off his lightsaber for the moment, and felt the currents of the Force move and shift about him. He could see the Clonetroopers' methodical advance through the base and knew that soon they would be coming down on him. "Any luck, Silas?"
A head poked out from under one of the control stations in the nearby command room, a young man with dark hair to his neck and blue eyes. "Some, Master," Silas Torson replied. "I need more time."
"I am afraid time is running quite low for us, my apprentice," the older man replied. A sensation brought him to ignite his lightsaber again. More Clonetroopers appeared around the corner of the central hall, and with concentration Qui-Xi threw them backward. "We're going to have an entire battalion coming down on our heads."
"I'm working as fast as I can, Master," Silas replied, intent on his labor once again.
Qui-Xi reached out with the Force toward one of the fallen Clonetroopers, yanking a thermal detonator off of his belt and activating it before throwing it at and around the corner. An explosion made the entire facility rumble, a gamble that ensured they'd be swamped within minutes, but at least giving them a minute or so of calm. "Silas?"
"I think I have it!" The twenty-three year old Padawan connected a circuit and light filled the console previously dark. He sat up from the floor and pressed a couple keys on the board.
The display lit up, and showed a likeness of various models of battle-droids lighting up. The base lit up entirely on the inside. A monitor, showing the outside, depicted a hanger opening and tank droids pouring out, firing on the unprepared Clone forces.
"I never thought I would be thankful to be surrounded by battle droids," Qui-Xi remarked in a moment of humor. Around the base the droids were emerging from secured compartments and drawing the Clonetroopers into skirmishes. "Come!"
Silas ignited his blue lightsaber and followed his master toward the back of the facility, and to the hanger there.
Their path became a literal gauntlet. Silas followed Qui-Xi's lead in moving around the combatants when possible, and neither paid much attention to actually defeating attackers, an impressive feat given that both Clonetroopers and battle droids were trying to kill them. The movements of his lightsaber were fluid, Silas allowing his feelings to guide his arms as blaster bolts were deflected one by one along the way, his beating heart slowly growing more louder than the heaving of his chest or the buzz of his weapon.
It was on the opposite end of the hillside that the hanger was located. Qui-Xi shouted for Silas to get their craft ready.while he held off a small squad of Clonetroopers that had followed them. Silas didn't look back to watch as his master moved swiftly, lightsaber twirling and slashing, cutting through their pursuers in the near blink of an eye with nothing but a few singes from near misses to show for their efforts against him.
Silas had focused his attention on the ARC-170 heavy starfighter in the hanger bay where they'd left it. Out of proton torpedoes they wouldn't be able to get far in it if they were met by heavy resistance in space, but the fighter was refueled thanks to the reserves of the droid base, and every bit they traveled brought them closer to the rendezvous Qui-Xi had arranged.
Already waiting in the assigned socket was a bleeping, warbling astromech droid, known to Silas as R2-Z5 or "Zeefive". "Launch checks done already, I see," Silas remarked while settling himself into the cockpit. The fighter was designed for a crew of three normally, not counting an astrodroid, so Z5 was left with the additional duty of using the rear guns if it was ever necessary. "Master, we're ready!"
Qui-Xi sprinted over and leapt into the pilot seat, with Silas as co-pilot. They strapped in as the cockpit closed over them. A press of a button activated the hanger door and as it slid open the engines of the ARC-170 fired. Under the careful guidance of Qui-Xi the fighter moved into the night air and toward orbit.
"Master, picking up interceptors," Silas remarked. "They've coming around the planet and will be in firing range within a minute."
"Zeefive, prepare the rear deflectors and boost engine power. Begin calculating hyperspace course for Gantoon."
"Gantoon?" Silas asked. "I thought we were heading for Lumin Prime?"
"We are," Qui-Xi replied. "But I have something to pick up on Gantoon. New transportation. Now eyes front, Silas."
Silas directed his attention to the Eta-2 interceptors moving in on them. "They're still gaining Master. Twenty seconds to firing range...." Silas watched the distance tick down and counted it as well. Even a few seconds before they were in effective range laser fire erupted from the attacking fighters.
Qui-Xi performed a quick roll and accelerated "upward". Laser fire followed them, and a couple shots grazed them. "Deflectors are still working," Silas reported, a bit of sweat coming to his forehead. A warning indicator came up on his screen. "Master, ion cannon fire!" If their deflectors failed and they were hit by one, they would be completely doomed....
"Well done, Zeefive," Qui-Xi said aloud. He steadied the craft and his hand went to the hyperdrive control.
Behind them, two interceptors fired their ion cannons dead on target, but it was too late; the ARC-170 disappeared in an instant. They turned away and the flight leader began reporting the situation.
Last edited by Steve on 2008-05-22 05:58pm, edited 3 times in total.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
The planet Gantoon was one colony of many in the Rim Sectors, inhabited by a variety of species and led by a corrupt Governor ruling from the spaceport city of Gal Durap. Occupied briefly by the Seperatists during the War, the only loyalties the planet held was to the wealth of its leaders, who had not yet declared for the new Empire (though they certainly wouldn't refuse to much longer).
The definite signs of this came after Qui-Xi and Silas had put down in the spaceport, with R2-Z5 following. As they walked through the spaceport's bazaar, surrounded by the sounds of merchants and customers haggling over prices, they spied fliers put up offering rewards for informing the Empire about Jedi. "We will have to make our stay here brief," Qui-Xi whispered to Silas.
"Of course, Master." Silas kept a hand on Z5's dome to make sure he didn't wander off. "What are we going to be doing?"
"I have arranged to be given a ship, but first I will sell our fighter to the local cartel." Qui-Xi started up the marble steps of the grandiose building before them, at the end of the market, the headquarters of the Outer Rim Merchant Consortium Compared to the rest of the lane it stood out magnificantly, perhaps too much so given how it had been built with funds gleaned from bribery and government largesse. "Wait outside," he commanded, leaving Silas and Z5 at the door.
Inside he made his way to the security desk and asked to see one of the bureaucrats in the Consortium's shipping department. The droid directed him to the third floor. Inside he found a Togruta male dressed in fair but not rich clothing. He grinned, showing off his sharp teeth, and remarked, "Ah, I am Mortu Ka, what can I do for you? Come to ask for escort, yes?"
"No, I came with a business offer." Qui-Xi pulled a small holographic emitter out of his pocket and pressed a key, displaying his ship. "It is almost brand new and has no battle damage to speak of. I believe it would be quite useful to your company."
"Yes.... ARC-170 heavy fighter... very good." Mortu looked over the display. "I can give you.... eighty thousand credits?"
"This fighter is worth well over a hundred thousand," Qui-Xi replied.
"New, yes. And I do not have the authorization to pay out that much." Mortu returned to his desk. "I can give you eighty-five thousand."
"A hundred thousand." Qui-Xi put the emitter up.
"I cannot," Mortu insisted.
"Then I'm sure the Hutts will."
A displeased look came across Mortu's face. He seemed to be in thought, but got out of his seat when Qui-Xi went toward the door. "Ah! Please, let us be reasonable. I can give you ninety thousand, but that is literally the highest I can go."
After a moment's delay, as if to consider, Qui-Xi finally gave an assenting nod. "Very well. Bring the credits with you to Bay 38 and I will show you the fighter."
"I will see you at sunset," the bureaucrat replied, a wide grin on his face.
Silas was standing and waiting when he noticed commotion and felt fear and anger resonate through the Force. They came from different sources, and he could see a Human man accosting a young cyan-skinned Twi'lek girl nearby. He was pulling on her arm, dragging the ragged-clothed girl out of the marketplace. Feeling ill intent from the man, and sympathetic to the girl's terror, Silas moved toward them. Behind him Z5 made a warbling sound of dissent, prompting Silas to look back and say, "Don't worry, I'll handle this." When he got up he noticed that the man he was going to stare down was quite a bit taller than he imagined, almost Wookiee-sized it seemed....
Nevertheless, Silas put a hand on the man's arm. He turned and looked down at Silas, a look of bewilderment on his face. "What do you want?" he barked.
"The young lady doesn't seem to want to come with you," Silas said calmly.
"Well, that's too bad. She owes money to me, and I've found a way to get it back," he replied, a sinister tone in his voice.
The girl quivered, and in her fear Silas could see the man's intention of selling her to the Hutts. His right hand slipped down toward his belt, and to the lightsaber hidden there....
But Master Qui-Xi had made it clear that they were not to reveal themselves, and the posters around them had confirmed the wisdom of that. Silas brought his left hand up and reached through the Force into the giant's mind. "You do not want to sell this girl," he said softly, but firmly.
The man's grip on her seemed to weaken. "I don't want to sell the girl," he repeated.
"She doesn't owe you that much, really," Silas continued, overpowering the will of his target. "You're going to write it off and move on to other things."
He repeated that in a low mutter that was mostly incomprehensible and finally let go of her. She looked, wide-eyed, at Silas as he finished the matter off, "You're not going to sell girls into slavery to cover debts anymore. It's really bad form, and the Hutts cheat you on the amount anyway."
The man lumbered off, and the young girl focused her look at Silas. He smiled at her. "You should watch whom you do business with. There are many bad men out here."
"I'll keep that in mind," she answered. "You are?"
"Silas."
"Diya Suun," the girl said back. "I'll see you around!" Waving, she ran off.
Silas watched her go and was distracted for a crucial moment, causing him to be slightly startled when Qui-Xi's hand came down on his shoulder. He looked up at his teacher and had his turn to quiver a little at Qui-Xi's stern "I am disappointed" gaze. "Yes, Master?"
"I told you we were to keep a low profile," he said lowly. "And I taught you better in the use of influencing minds."
"He was going to sell that poor girl, Master, I couldn't stand by and do nothing. It's not the Jedi way."
With a sigh and a nod, Qui-Xi acquiesced on the point, replying, "Yes, that is true, Silas. But these are dark and dangerous times. The future of the Jedi Order rests on us, we must remain focused on that. Remember that even the kindest act of charity can have deadly consequences." Pointing toward the spaceport, he added, "Now come, we have much work to do."
Mortu left his office early, heading by the bank to pick up the new Imperial credits, when he heard a commotion in the bazaar. He went over to see what it was, and found security and forensic droids begin to gather around a large figure prone on the ground. Nearby a merchant looked at the body and made a laughing sound. "When you promise pretty Twi'lek girls to Hutt agents and fail to deliver, that happens," he said. "Good riddance."
"What, he let a girl get away from him?" Mortu asked. "A being of that size?"
"Someone stopped him. A young man, not very old," the merchant replied.
Another bazaar vendor, a Bothan, spoke up. "It was a Jedi, using a mind-trick on the poor guy."
"What, you crazy? There's no Jedi within twenty parsecs of here!"
The two began to argue, while Mortu got to thinking. A new starfighter, being offered to him by an older man in traveling robes wandering about Gal Durap without a blaster hanging from his hip? "Tell me, how old was this so-called 'Jedi'? Was he Human?" Mortu asked the Bothan.
"Like I said, young. A Human. After he let the girl go an older guy came up and took him and their astro droid away."
"Graying dark hair, red traveling cloak?"
"Yeah."
Mortu grinned widely. He headed on to the bank to get the money, for appearances of course, but while he was there he would have to make a few.... calls. Local bounty hunters were plentiful, and the Empire's promised financial rewards large.
The few ships loitering around the Balturrel system moved away and tried to avoid attention when they saw the mighty Exactor come out of hyperspace. The new Star Destroyer, Imperator-class, cruised toward orbit over the planet.
On the bridge, the blue-tinted figure of Commander Cade was visible to various assembled officers while the new commander briefed Darth Vader on the escape of the Jedi through the droid stratagem. Vader would have killed Commander Solom immediately if he had survived the fiasco, but for the moment there was no suitable target for his rage.
The signals officer got his attention. "Lord Vader, we're getting a message relayed to us from Sector Command. They say it's from Gantoon."
"Show me."
The recoorded image of a Togruta appeared. "I am Mortu Ka. I would like to report to the Empire the presence of at least two Jedi at Gal Durap Spaceport here on Gantoon. I will try to detain them until you can arrive."
"Captain Doss, take us away from Balturrel," Vader ordered immediately, shutting off the message. This was not the only tips he'd heard before, of course, but the Force told him it was not a lie and he had to act swiftly. "I wish to be at Gantoon immediately."
"Yes, Lord Vader," was the reply.
Turning away from the planet before them, Vader watched silently as his ship went to lightspeed. This part of the hunt would soon be at an end....
Qui-Xi and Silas returned to the spaceport and headed to Bay 40 first. When they got there Silas looked on in interest at the YT-series freighter present. A figure walked up, a male Mirialan dressed in traveling clothes, who extended his arms and smiled at the two. "Qui-Xi, my old friend!"
"Gumi." Smiling as well, Qui-Xi embraced his friend. "You have come a long way from the Temple, my friend."
"As have you, Master Qui-Xi," Gumi Safiss remarked. He looked to Silas. "And you must be the Padawan. Awfully big for one. I guess you were about to get Knighted before...." Gumi broke off, not quite wanting to explore the end of that sentence. "Anyway, Qui-Xi, just as you asked... A YT-1300, with a new hyperdrive and increased storage. She's got a Class 1 hyperdrive. Couldn't find a .5 for her."
"If you wait a bit, Gumi, I can provide you compensation," Qui-Xi said. "I will be going across the terminal to Bay 38 soon to sell the fighter we came here in."
"Qui-Xi, you needn't offer me anything. I may have not been taken as a Padawan and allowed to stay with the Order, but in my heart I'm still a Jedi. And after you sent me those messages..." Gumi nodded slightly. "I couldn't turn away. I could feel it, the Force telling me you were right. That the Order was threatened. The Lightrunner is your's, Qui-Xi, no questions asked, no credits required."
"Thank you, old friend," Qui-Xi replied. "I will leave my droid and apprentice here to help you finish the pre-flight checkups. Would you like to accompany us to Lumin?"
"No, that'll be fine. I've got business here on Gantoon."
Qui-Xi nodded and left. Silas watched him head out of the bay and turned to Gumi. "You knew Master Qui-Xi?"
"We were younglings of the same age," Gumi replied. "Together until he was taken away by Master Dooku as an apprentice when he was ten."
"But you were not taken?" Silas asked.
"No, Padawan. As a Mirialan I must be trained by a Mirialan Master, and there were none to take me." Smiling sadly. "So I got sent off to join the Exploration Corps. Been out here on the Rim since. Now..." He looked back. "How good are you with tools?"
It was heartening for Qui-Xi to see his childhood friend again. It reminded him of an older, kinder era, a happier time when the Jedi Order seemed strong and the Republic secure. Before the nightmares began.
They had plagued him for years. The other Masters had declined to see them as more than apprehension brought on by Qui-Xi's friendship with his former master, the late Count Dooku, and Dooku's complaints at that time about corruption and incompetence. Dooku himself had simply warned Qui-Xi to be ready should things take a turn for the worst.... and later ironically would help bring about that very turn.
Even then it had been fairly clear to Qui-Xi that the nightmares of the Temple burning, of Jedi being slaughtered by armored troops they were leading, had been warnings from the Force. The clarity of that belief grew with the nightmares, intensified by the shroud of the Dark Side that clouded the vision of all Jedi, even - Qui-Xi had sensed - Grand Master Yoda himself.
Now his nightmares had come true. The Republic had become the Empire, and across the galaxy surviving Jedi were being hunted down and murdered without mercy or remorse. Silas had been nearly killed when they escaped their own clonetroopers on Katomedi, their survival hard-fought and ensured there, and since then it had been a game of cat-and-mouse out toward the Rim, skipping world to world in the fighter that now sat in Bay 38.
There was movement at the entrance. Qui-Xi turned and faced Mortu, who entered flanked by two tall hulking Skrillings. He had a case with him, presumably containing the credits, but Qui-Xi sensed betrayal from him. He remained calm, not moving. "Mortu, I take it those are my credits?"
"No, they're not." Mortu walked forward. "You see, these are the credits I'm giving the bounty hunters to take you down so I can turn you over to the Empire, Jedi."
Mortu looked a bit to the right, but Qui-Xi already sensed the springing of the trap. A couple of Gran, three more Skrillings, a male Twi'lek.... a local band of bounty hunters and mercenaries. "You should have kept to our bargain, Mortu," Qui-Xi remarked calmly.
"Try and stun him if you can, but if you have to kill...." Mortu grunted hard when Qui-Xi knocked him into the adjacent wall with the Force. His lightsaber ignited and deflected blaster bolts from the two Skrillings. He turned quickly enough to stop the Twi'lek's shots before diving for cover and rolling under the starfighter.
His feelings became strong and insisted he move, and so he did.... and mere seconds an explosion blew up debris where he'd been laying. The other Skrilling were at the upper deck of the bay, carrying rocket launchers. He reached out with the Force and jammed the mechanism of one, forcing the bounty hunter to toss the weapon away. It landed on the other end of the bay near the Twi'lek and a Gran, exploding before they could dive for cover.
Qui-Xi twisted around, deflecting more blaster fire and taking one of the Skrillings down.... and almost a moment too late he jumped again to avoid another rocket. The concussive force smacked him into a wall and he barely recovered in time to jump again. In mid-air swung his saber, deflecting more shots, and quickly regained his bearing. Given a moment's opening he was able to deflect a blaster bolt into the remaining Gran, knocking him down.
While he was deflecting more shots Qui-Xi was forced to jump to avoid a rocket. Landing on top of the ARC-170 he began to reach out with the Force and attack the rocket-bearing hunters. But before he could finish the moment's concentration needed, a lucky shot got through his defensive technique and grazed his left shoulder. His concentration disrupted by the hot pain of seared skin, Qui-Xi instinctively leapt again. A rocket was fired at him as he flew in mid-air. A split second before it would have hit him, he lashed out with the Force and sent it flying upward into the sky, where it blew apart.
Gumi got up with a start when he saw Silas turn away from what he was working on. "Master Qui-Xi is in trouble!" the young man shouted. He shed his traveling cloak and ignited his blue lightsaber, heading for the exit ramp.
Looking back at his work, Gumi redoubled his efforts to get the ship ready, sensing himself that a change of personal plans was in order.
As Silas sprinted across the terminal, he ran contrary to the crowds that were fleeing from the sounds of explosion, lightsaber active. He was so intent on rescuing his mentor that he didn't notice the one pair of eyes that did fix on him.
Diya Suun's day since being rescued from a trip to a Hutt cargo ship had been spent at the spaceport, watching ships coming and going and dreaming of what it'd be like to leave Gantoon in her own spaceship, her hands on the controls. She was already familiar with so many models as it was since some of the Bay technicians let her run odd errands if they had the spare money, and a few even let her watch them do their job and taught her pointers on spaceship maintainance.
She'd been walking around, admiring ships around Bay 30 when she heard the first sounds of blaster fire, and curiosity overcame any fear in her. She ran toward the source and noticed the only other person running toward Bay 38. When she recognized Silas, and saw the lightsaber in his hand, her smile crossed her face. To her, the Jedi were heroes.
She followed Silas toward the entrance of Bay 38. She'd seen the ARC-170 in there already and marveled at the machine, wishing she could see it in action with S-foils out. But when she looked in she was treated to a new sight. Nearby was a Gran and a Twi'lek, clearly dead, and in the middle of the bay another Jedi was swinging a green lightsaber around at blaster bolts, then jumping to avoid a rocket. Silas noticed the rocket launcher too, but was soon occupied repelling blaster fire as well.
Seized by a sudden impulse to help her rescuer, Diya pulled a blaster pistol out of the dead Gran's belt. She turned and fired at a trio of Skrillings. She managed one hit, out of pure luck it seemed, because every shot afterward missed badly. And she saw them level their guns at her...
Which, of course, was a mistake. An understandable one, as the bounty hunters were responding to a new opponent, but that meant taking their eyes off of the Jedi. Silas' hand extended and the two still standing slammed into each other.
Freed from blaster fire, Qui-Xi had turned his attention to the remaining rocket launchers. He reached out with the Force and grabbed the devices, pulling them and their owners to ground level. He jumped at them, lightsaber up, and sliced an arm off each to ensure they couldn't use the devices. Breathing heavily and favoring his left shoulder, he nodded at Silas, who picked up the case of credits. It was at this time he noticed Diya. "And you are?"
"Diya?" Silas recognized her immediately. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard the explosion and came to check it out." Diya put the blaster between her waist and the shorts she was wearing. "Thank you again, Silas."
"It's we who should be thanking you, you did a very brave thing."
"Come along, Silas," Qui-Xi said, heading out the exit. "We have to be going now, the local garrison will be reacting shortly."
With a nod Silas followed Qui-Xi... and Diya followed him. "Wait!" she cried out, following them all the way to Bay 40. "Please take me with you!"
Silas stopped and looked back. Qui-Xi followed suit a moment later. "Where we are going," he said, "is no place for a young girl. I won't jeopardize your life."
"Gal Durap is jeopardy enough," Diya shot back. "I'll... I'll make myself useful! That's a YT-1300, right? I've seen every corner of one of those, I'm sure I can help you keep her in order!"
"Odds are that if you were to come with us, you would die," Qui-Xi warned, still unwilling to see her come.
"And if I stay, I'll end up dead in the street somewhere, or shipped off to dance for the pleasure of a fat Hutt," she retorted. "I want to come with you."
Qui-Xi went to speak but stopped when he saw Silas' look. "I believe we should bring her, Master. It is the will of the Force," Silas said.
"You are quite young still, my apprentice, to deciper the will of the Force," was the stern reply. But Qui-Xi's tone softened. "Very well, you may come with us..."
"Diya Suun, Master Jedi," the girl replied cheerfully. "Pleased to meet you."
"I am Qui-Xi Lao. My apprentice is Silas Torson." Feeling a ripple in the Force, a warning of impending danger, Qui-Xi motioned toward the Lightrunner. "I believe it is time we departed."
With an enthusiastic grin, Diya ran to the ramp to get into the ship. As she did, Silas suddenly asked, "How old are you anyway?"
"Twenty!", she called back. But after she saw the disbelieving looks on the Jedi duo's faces, she sighed. "Okay, sixteen. And a half."
Qui-Xi sighed deeply.
The garrison's squadron had just deployed their ARC-170s and Eta-2s when the Lightrunner lifted off. From the cockpit of the ship, Gumi piloted her straight, Qui-Xi beside him as co-pilot, and Silas ran the navcomp. At the rear of the cockpit Diya looked on, a wide grin on her face. Both Jedi, as well as Gumi, could sense her joy at the sight of stars. "Interceptors, Gumi," Qui-Xi remarked. "Can you outfly them?"
"In this thing I could outfly Master Yoda," Gumi cackled, making evasives to throw off the ARC-170s especially, and their proton torpedoes.
"Doesn't this thing have laser cannons?" Diya asked. "We can fight them!"
Silas looked at the girl while Gumi cackled. "Um, the laser cannons were one of the things we were still fixing up when we had to run. Besides..."
"Besides... I sense a dangerous presence in the Force, drawing closer," Qui-Xi added. "We must flee now. Silas?"
"Course set for Lumin Prime, Master, as soon as Gumi's ready."
Qui-Xi looked to his old friend, and the Mirialan steadied the ship and reached for the hyperdrive control. "Here we go!"
Diya stared, wide-eyed, as the stars seemed to elongate.... and the ship shot off into hyperspace.
The Gal Durep Spaceport was closed down and swarming with Imperial troops when the shuttle from the Exactor descended, its wings swinging upward to fit into Bay 50. When the door opened, the local garrison commander saluted the tall dark-clad figure that came out. Before the commander and his local troops was Mortu Ka. The Togruta began to actually tremble in the presence of the Dark Lord Vader. "Lord... Lord Vader... I've...."
"Quiet. Where are the Jedi?"
"Gone, My Lord," the local commander said. "The merchant hired local bounty hunters to attack them. The Jedi defeated them and fled."
Vader looked to Mortu Ka, who whimpered at the cold lifeless gaze of Vader's mask. "Lord Vader, I...." His eyes widened, and in a panic he reached for his throat. He could no longer breathe from the invisible force crushing his windpipe.
"I do not tolerate such stupidity. I require an apology."
"So... sorry.... Lord... please... spa...."
Mortu's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he died in Vader's invisible grasp. Vader released the body and allowed it to collapse lifelessly. Mortu let out a death rattle a moment before Vader dismissively waved his hand. "Get rid of it. Kill the surviving bounty hunters as well. And get me the port records. I want to confirm the ship that was taken and the planned course."
"Immediately, Lord Vader."
As Vader returned to his shuttle to be flown back to the Exactor, he sensed a Jedi plot afoot. Perhaps the failure on Gantoon would prove to net him a bigger prize after all.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin (1937-2008)
"Have some of you Americans actually seen Football? Of course there are 0-0 draws but that doesn't make them any less exciting." -Dr Roberts, with quite possibly the dumbest thing ever said in 10 years of SDNet.
You don't fight the Jedi to slow them down! You have to bargain with them, try and haggle down the price and look the fighter over like its being sold by a Hutt.
I have to wonder if that girl joining the party will be worth it. And seriously Steve, did you let KotOR into your mind when you were writing this? Two references in this chapter cannot be accidental.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
Vehrec wrote:You don't fight the Jedi to slow them down! You have to bargain with them, try and haggle down the price and look the fighter over like its being sold by a Hutt.
I have to wonder if that girl joining the party will be worth it. And seriously Steve, did you let KotOR into your mind when you were writing this? Two references in this chapter cannot be accidental.
I've never played KotOR before, though I read up on it after starting the chapter.
The only reference I get is Diya and Mission, and frankly Diya was initially meant to be an unnamed beneficiary of Silas' charity, never to be seen again. But I was asked to keep her in.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
In KotOR 2 the law of unintended consequences to random acts of kindness is also demonstrated, although it was much more forced than it was here. Muggers beating up the bum you just gave spare change to and all that.
And in my opinion, teenage Twi'leks are dangerously close to being played out.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
Lumin Prime was a brighter, nicer looking planet than Gantoon. The air was clearer, the skies cluttered with speeders, and the buildings pristine, as if someone had taken a slice off of Coruscant and put it on Lumin.
From the cockpit of the Lightrunner, Diya stared in wild-eyed fascination at the city they were flying over. Noticing her look, Gumi looked back for a moment and said, "Never seen anything like this, huh? Unlike Gantoon, Lumin isn't just a run-down dump too close to Hutt space. It's one of the most important ports in this sector."
"I've never been off Gantoon in my life before," Diya answered him.
"Well, you'll not be going back now. Though I'll tell you, Lumin is much safer. So safe that half the population goes around without blasters." Gumi laughed aloud. He kept his hand on the flight controls, bringing the Lightrunner over a smaller spaceport outside of Lumin City.
In the cabin compartment of the ship, Silas was seated before Qui-Xi, on the receiving end of a lecture from his teacher. "What is the purpose of using the Force to influence minds, Silas?"
"To resolve situations peacefully," he answered.
"When should it be used?"
"As a last resort, of course."
"And how far?" Qui-Xi's look was stern.
"Only as far as necessary to resolve the problem," Silas answered softly, knowing he had broken that last rule.
"But you went further. Why?"
"Because, Master, what that man was doing was wrong," Silas said defensively.
"So you decided to force him to stop?"
"To try, Master. I figured that over time my influence on him would wane." Silas felt something from his Master, and wondered what he missed. And he could see Qui-Xi knew he was unaware of whatever the ultimate end was of this exchange.
"And by going too far, Silas, you caused that man's death." Seeing his apprentice's stunned reaction, Qui-Xi nodded. "Yes. I felt his death through the Force. I felt his fear and bewilderment as he could not give an answer to his contact on why he was not finding girls to sell. I felt his terror as the blaster was pointed at him, and then the darkness of death. I take it you did not?"
Silas thought carefully. He could not recall feeling any disturbances in the Force at that time, and so he had to shake his head. "No, Master."
A stern smile crossed his Master's face. "An interesting admission, my Padawan, when you have asserted that it was the will of the Force itself to bring young Diya with us to possible doom."
"I do not exaggerate on that account, Master. I truly felt as if the Force were urging me to bring her," Silas answered.
"Did you? Or perhaps you wished to believe it was the Force. Tell me, Silas, why you believe this girl should come? She is not a Jedi, and she does not have the talent in the Force to ever become one. Why should she share our peril?"
"Her life was already filled with peril, Master. And though she has no power over the Force, her heart is light and pure. Surely someone worthy of being saved from her eventual fate in the streets of Gal Durep."
Qui-Xi pondered his apprentice's reply, but before he could answer he felt the ship land. He stood and looked to Silas to do the same. Diya emerged from the cockpit first. "Where are we going?" she asked amiably. "I wouldn't mind seeing the city."
"You shall be staying here, young lady," Qui-Xi said, and upon seeing her expression and sensing her intended defiance, he added, "I have relented to bringing you aboard, but I will not bend on this matter. You will remain and aid Gumi in finishing preperations for the Lightrunner, as well as loading the supplies we will be returning with."
"Awww....." Diya's whine ended when she saw the look on the Jedi Master's face. But she smiled a bit at Silas, who gave her a sympathetic look. "Okay."
Now Gumi emerged from the cockpit. "We're set down, Qui-Xi, right where you wanted. So, what next?"
"Silas and I will be going into the city to arrange the supplies I desire with our newfound supply of credits," Qui-Xi answered. "And then I hope to make a rendezvous with other survivors."
"Good luck with that, Qui-Xi. I doubt there are many left." Gumi extended a hand. "I'll be here if you need me."
"Thank you, old friend." Qui-Xi looked to Silas. "Come, Silas, we must be going. I sense that we have not gained the time we hoped for."
Nodding, Silas followed his Master off of the ship.
With the two Jedi gone, Diya looked to the taller Mirialan and asked, "Can you teach me to fly the Lightrunner, Gumi?"
A broad grin crossed Gumi's face. "Sure, in time, kid. But first, I teach you how to keep her flying." He motioned to a toolbox. "A good pilot knows how to keep his or her ship in top shape, after all. And with Z5 to help us, we should be done with this in no time."
On the bridge of the Exactor, the officers went about their daily tasks hoping to avoid the notice of the sinister Vader as he stared silently into space. But one of those officers was now required to report to him, and the man was clearly apprehensive as he approached the Dark Lord. "Lord Vader, we have finished examining the records from Gal Durep and our interceptor force. We believe that the Jedi have traveled to Lumin Prime."
"Are you certain?" Vader asked.
The officer tried to put on a brave face, aware that failure would easily lead to death. "Yes, Lord Vader, I am as certain as I can be."
Sensing the man's fear, Vader remarked, "Then you had better hope that your certainty does not become failure, Lieutenant. Have Captain Doss set course to Lumin Prime immediately."
"Yes, my Lord."
Vader turned away immediately and began looking out into the stars, watching as the Exactor made the jump to lightspeed.
It had taken some time to make all the visits to the right businesses, but soon Silas and Qui-Xi were in a rented speeder moving through Lumin City, their supplies being sent by droid-operated speeders for loading onto the Lightrunner.
They arrived at a building in the outskirts of Lumin City and Qui-Xi led Silas to the loft. They found it empty and unfurnished. Qui-Xi nonchalantly sat in the middle as Silas walked around the room. "Do you think any of the others got your message, Master?" he finally asked.
"I do not know. But we should be patient and wait."
Uncomforted by his Master's words, Silas continued moving about the room. "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered silently.
Ignoring the discomfort of his pupil, Qui-Xi breathed in carefully and cleared his mind, relaxing his mind for meditation, to allow clear vision through the Force.
As he cleared his mind, a thought came through his mind of the last time he had been in the loft....
Twelve Years Ago
The pirates had been no match for a Jedi Knight of that age, though few of them were familiar enough with Jedi to do the wise thing and run. With determination and finesse Qui-Xi Lao, Jedi Knight on permanent assignment to the Rim, sliced through his adversaries, killing only when necessary and using the force to disable and incapacitate his foes.
At the end of the fight, as one turned to shoot him, the blaster flew out of the pirate's hand. He looked at his open hand quizzically until he was thrown to the floor, unconscious, by a powerful push through the Force. Qui-Xi stood toward the fallen form of the pirate, lightsaber at the ready, but he lowered it as a familiar presence came to him. He bowed politely at the dark-clad figure that entered. "Master Dooku, it has been a long time."
Count Dooku gave a nod to his former Padawan. "Qui-Xi, I am happy to see you are well, old apprentice."
"I have heard about what happened to Qui-Gon Jinn," Qui-Xi remarked sadly. "I am sorry, Master. I know he was the better apprentice and that his loss was a great blow to you."
"Do not put yourself down so harshly," Dooku said in reprimand. "Like Qui-Gon, you have cut your own path as a practitioner of the Force. That you have been exiled out here on the Rim for all these years, I regret. It was a necessity at the time to prevent the Council from expelling you from the Order..."
"I understand that, Master Dooku..."
"Please, you may call me Count now. I am no longer in the Order, as you well know," Dooku remarked. "Tell me, Qui-Xi, what were you told of Qui-Gon's death?"
"That he perished in thwarting the Trade Federation occupation of Naboo," Qui-Xi replied. As he spoke to Dooku, he felt something unsettling within his former teacher, as well as a sense of dread through the Force. "Why do you ask?"
Dooku frowned. "That they have not seen fit to warn you, Qui-Xi, is a bad sign as to how little faith the Order has in you even after your acts of penance. Qui-Gon was not claimed by the blaster of a battle-droid. He died in battle with a Sith Lord."
The news hit Qui-Xi like a thunderbolt. His head lowered and his mind thought back to those many dreadful dreams, when the Force showed him the growing strength of the Dark Side, the impending doom of the Jedi and the Republic. "Can it be? Have the Sith returned?"
"They have, Qui-Xi. And the Jedi Order is too busy playing politics to deal with that threat." Dooku walked around Qui-Xi, as if he were still the stern master to a youthful apprentice. "I remember your dreams, Qui-Xi. Your subconscious link to the future provided by the Force. Surely the danger has begun to clarify itself..."
"The Sith...."
"The Jedi Order is too close-minded to deal with this threat, Qui-Xi, and they are also too hidebound to overlook your innocent indiscretion. You will never be made a Master," Dooku said. "Come with me, Qui-Xi. Join me and together we can find a way to defeat the Sith and save the Republic."
Dooku's words moved through Qui-Xi's very heart. He had long been familiar with how badly he was viewed by the Council. Save for when they wished to see him he had been forbidden from returning to Coruscant, just as they had decreed then that he would not be permitted the rank of Master nor permitted to take an apprentice. They had not forgiven him yet, and often Qui-Xi feared they never would.
But there was something in Dooku that made Qui-Xi wary. He could feel a darkness within his former mentor, one born of bitterness and contempt toward his former colleagues. Something Qui-Xi could not reconcile himself too.
And additionally, some things had changed.
"I have been sent a message, lately, by Master Yoda," he said to Dooku. "The Jedi Council is going to permit me to take an apprentice from the older younglings, a very promising child."
"Ah, I see," Dooku said. Qui-Xi could sense some consternation from his old mentor. "Well, perhaps I misjudged them. It is good news, Qui-Xi. You have earned this chance." A thin smile came to Dooku's face. "Have they informed you of the child's name?"
"My Padawan is to be a Human child, Silas Torson."
At that, Dooku seemed to take an interest. "Silas... Torson, you say?" Dooku remarked. There seemed to be a bit of mirth there, and Qui-Xi could sense emotions of interest and amusement from his former Master. "I remember the boy from before I left the Council. Very energetic, a passionate child, skillful with droids and mechanical things. I'm sure you will serve each other well as Master and Padawan, Qui-Xi."
"Thank you, Count."
"And now, old friend, I will be going..." With that, Dooku slipped into the shadows, leaving Qui-Xi to call the authorities to collect the pirates.
The Present
Qui-Xi's meditation came to an end as he felt a presence in the Force grow close. Very close indeed, as the Jedi responsible was trying to hide from being sensed, Qui-Xi could feel.
He stood as the door to the loft opened. Silas turned with him to face the entering pair of arrivals.
There was a grin on the Jedi Master's face when he saw Tyva Nos Sirt enter with her apprentice, Zeala Del. Tyva was a Human woman about his age, slightly shorter with reddish brown hair and aqua-colored eyes, while the Human Zeala had been a youngling in the same creche as Silas, a blonde-haired girl with bright blue eyes and flowing hair pulled into a pony-tail. Both were wearing Jedi traveling robes and looked a bit fatigued, if alive. "Tyva, I am glad to see you and Zeala are alive," he remarked. Qui-Xi already knew much of Zeala through Silas, finding it perhaps fitting that a passionate and vigorous Jedi Knight like Tyva was entrusted to training a soft-spoken but skilled girl like Zeala.
"I feel the same for you," Tyva replied, while their apprentices exchanged warm hugs. "I'm afraid we're the only ones left, Qui-Xi, that I know of. We lost Master Rios and Pelgo Dal on Dantooine, and Master Rios' apprentice was claimed by a Clonetrooper ambush on Kelmar."
Qui-Xi bowed his head in sadness. "I have been unable to locate Master Yoda, though I have heard he is still alive, as is Obi-Wan Kenobi. But I have no idea where to search for them..."
"We may not have the time," Tyva answered. "The freighter captain who brought us here said that there was a new Star Destroyer in the sector. And there are no remaining Seperatist strongholds here, there is no reason for one to be here except...."
"To hunt us," Qui-Xi finished for her. "I have felt a dark presence in the Force drawing closer, but I cannot determine how close it is. At that strength, it can only be a Dark Lord of the Sith, and whoever it is, he or she has such power that I do not wish to be forced to fight our way out. I suggest we return to my new ship and prepare to depart."
Tyva nodded in agreement. The two older Jedi got the attention of their students, who were catching up with each other in the background, and together the foursome headed to Qui-Xi's speeder. Once they were moving, Tyva looked to him and said, "It is good to see you again, Qui-Xi. I.... never imagined we'd see each other again after I finished the Trials and...."
"You needn't speak on it, Tyva. I have missed you too."
"It broke my heart to hear they singled you out for punishment, it was as much my fault as your's," Tyva continued. "To make you spend ten years on the Outer Rim, far from Coruscant and with almost no support..."
"I found it an acceptable burden and a chance to refine my knowledge of the Force." Qui-Xi kept his eyes on the air lane they were traveling in, heading back for the spaceport.
In the rear seat, Silas and Zeala were looking at each other. "I see you have a new lightsaber," Silas said to Zeala, seeing it upon her belt. "Where did you get it?"
"It was a gift from Master Tyra," Zeala answered with a smile. "It has a rare crystal in it that gives it a purple color, a bit lighter than Master Windu's."
"You deserve it," he said to her. At the moment he didn't bother to hide his happiness at being reunited with Zeala. The two had been as close as younglings were permitted to get and for Silas that attachment had not waned in their years of seperation. He found Zeala's soft smiles infectious, her soft regal voice inspiring and supportive, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with benevolence and friendliness whenever he looked to him.
He could sense that she felt something like that, but at the moment could not know the full extent to which Zeala looked up to him and found him charming, funny, and confident.
In front of the two young apprentices, their masters looked at each other. Tyva softly remarked, "Does it remind you, Qui-Xi?"
"It does, Tyva," he answered with equal softness in his voice. "It does."
And then he felt the darkness and began to increase the speeder's throttle.
Gumi had finished securing the last bit of supplies with Diya's help when he felt it, very close and very malevolent. Raw anger and hatred, the Dark Side of the Force, which even his barely-trained senses could feel. He grabbed Diya by the arm and pulled her out of the cargo bay. "Hey!" she cried out. "What are you doing?"
"Zeefive, come here!", Gumi said, and the astromech droid followed. He pulled Diya to a corridor in the ship and reached down. With some muscle work he revealed that the floor was false, and underneath was a cargo space. "Get in."
"What? There's no..."
"No time to fight, Diya! You must trust me!" Gumi pushed her in. "You too, Zeefive." He gave the astromech droid a shove with the Force to ensure he got in. "No matter what you do, Diya, do not get out of this compartment. Wait for me or the Jedi to come for you."
He didn't wait for her to nod before putting the cover back on the smuggling compartment. With that done, Gumi went to the ramp of the ship just in time to hear a knock on it. He opened it up immediately and was confronted with a Clonetrooper. "Get off of the ship," the Clone soldier commanded.
With no reason to resist, Gumi stepped off, and immediately his ship was stormed by several Clonetroopers. "Please, I'm just traveling to the Outer Rim, I have no idea...."
"I sense the Force within you, Mirialan," a deep voice remarked. Gumi turned under the craft and froze at the sight of the tall figure in black, a life support helmet covering his entire head with a dark cloak partially over him. "I am looking for the Jedi who accompanied you."
"I carry no Jedi," Gumi insisted. "I was once a youngling, many decades ago. But I was not taken to be tra...." Suddenly he had no air with which to speak. Gumi felt toward his throat, barely able to breathe, and feeling the grip of the Dark Side around his air ways.
"This ship was the one that fled Gantoon with two Jedi aboard," Darth Vader said, his grip just loose enough so that his target would not die quickly. "I want to know where they are."
"Release him, Sith."
Vader slowly turned his way from the slowly dying Gumi and looked toward his shuttle. The two Clonetroopers he'd left beside it finished impacting on the ground. Near them were two figures, an older man and older woman, both human, and Vader knew them as Qui-Xi Lao and Tyva Nos Sirt. "If you surrender I will spare the Mirialan and whomever he is hiding on the ship."
"Your offer is rejected," Tyva said, drawing her lightsaber and igniting the blue blade. Qui-Xi followed suit with his green weapon, and in the fashion of the Makashi lightsaber technique, raised his weapon up to his face and made a little flourish with it.
"Then you will all die," Vader replied, after which his own lightsaber flashed to life.
And without Vader even looking back, the first thing he did with it was drive the crimson energy blade into Gumi's chest. As the former Jedi youngling fell, fatally wounded, Vader brought his blade up and advanced against his foes...
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Power and fury.... Qui-Xi sensed it rippling through the Force at every blow of Vader's lightsaber. The dark-clad Sith had none of the elegance or refinement that Dooku had possessed, that Qui-Xi himself sometimes showed in his dueling. It was raw overwhelming power, the Dark Side unleashed.
Vader was deceptively quick for his size, riposting Tyra's strikes while focusing upon Qui-Xi. An expert at Makashi and Niman, Qui-Xi nevertheless knew enough Soresu to endure the pounding, focusing upon his foe and keeping his lightsaber's movements short and swift, blocking every furious blow.
Tyra slipped between them, unleasing the Djem So form that her passion preferred, aggressive and strong. But that meant pitting her power against the Sith's, and Qui-Xi already knew that Vader was stronger in the Force than Tyra and perhaps even himself. He returned to Vader's attention with a few offensive Makashi attacks and began to again endure the onslaught of the powerful Sith.
Tyra might have come to his aid, but her attention was drawn by the troops who now came out of the Lightrunner. Switching to the anti-blaster Shien copy of her dueling form, she deflected the bolts back at her attackers expertly. She was aided moments later by Silas and Zeala, obeying their instructions to avoid Vader and slip into the ship from the other end of the landing bay. Their blue and purple lightsabers twisted and sliced through the clones, leaving them no opposition. Silas noticed Gumi and kneeled beside him, intent on taking the Mirialan into the ship. "No," Gumi said weakly, resisting and almost dead. "I am gone, Silas. Get into the ship and flee. You are.... the last hope... of the Jedi..." There was a death rattle next and the stout man became still.
Tears coming to his eyes, Silas obeyed the slain man's request and followed Zeala into the Lightrunner.
The Clonetroopers defeated, Tyva returned her focus to Vader as he battered Qui-Xi back toward the edge of the landing platform. If either fell a fatal drop to the ground below awaited, and if that was going to happen Tyva was going to see it was Vader who fell.
"I sense you have great power in the Force," Qui-Xi remarked. "And even for a Sith, your heart has grown cold with darkness and rage." He stopped a blow and reached out with the Force to throw Vader back and give him some room. Vader, however, resisted, and their lightsabers became locked as their free hands stretched up, unseen power conflicting between them. "Who were you before the Dark Side so fully claimed you?"
Qui-Xi didn't get a chance at an answer, as Vader's power overcame his experience. Qui-Xi was thrown back and was still recovering when Vader's attempt to attack him was offset by Tyra, who charged in and unleashed a flurry of strikes against Vader. Determination hardened her features and exertion showed in the sweat on her still-lovely face. He felt her desperation to protect him and the others from Vader, her willingness to take Vader over the edge with her if it came to it. He knew she was ready to die for him.
And that was something he could not allow.
She seemed to be driving Vader back for a moment from the pure fury of her attack, but that was deceptive. Without warning the body of one of the fallen Clonetroopers smacked into her, throwing her off-balance. Vader reached through the force and grabbed another of his fallen soldiers to toss at the Jedi Knight, throwing her closer to the edge.
Another clone body smacked into Vader a moment later and Qui-Xi was back on the attack afterward, using offensive maneuvers for several moments before returning to the defensive. This time he was more careful, not underestimating the strength of the Sith's fury, and yielded ground as he desired, pulling back toward the Lightrunner. He fed Vader's rage with feints and evasions, forcing the Sith to continue advancing on him, frustrating every attack. His intention was to then move away from it and give Tyra a clear path to the ship so that she might escape with their apprentices.
About that moment he knew Tyra had sensed his intentions to sacrifice himself to save her and the others. She knew now that Qui-Xi considered victory impossible; the Sith they were facing was too powerful for the both of them. That all he could do was keep Vader's attention long enough to buy them time to escape.
She charged, lightsaber flashing in the air, and slammed herself into Vader. Vader hadn't been ready for such a bold, vigorous attack and was knocked over. Tyra motioned with her hand and at one of the docking bay lights, pulling with the Force until it began falling toward Vader. He reached up and took it with the Force as well, Tyva fighting him for control of the object.
"Go, Qui-Xi," Tyva said as the light fell toward Vader and began to stop. "You must go!"
"You cannot fight him!"
"Neither can you, but one of us can still escape!", she shouted, desperate exertion on her face. "You are the Master, I am just a Knight! If the Order is to be reborn, it needs you!"
"I will not...."
A grunt of rage sounded in the air. Vader's arm stretched out and the light fixture flew toward them. Tyva reached out and struck Qui-Xi with the Force, hard, throwing him up the ramp into the Lightrunner a moment before the fixture hit her. It threw her backward, landing on top of her waist and crushing her hips and pelvis. The agony was intense and drew a scream, but her determination and will could not be dissuaded. She reached out with her hand and her mind to grip the ramp control and pull it up. The ship's ramp entrance lifted and closed before Qui-Xi could react.
Her mind reached out to her apprentice, already sitting in the cockpit. It is time, Zeala. I am lost and it is time for you to go.
Zeala had slipped into the pilot's seat first while Silas did a final quick check of the hyperdrive and everything else. As she sat there she felt Tyra's agony and her insistance. She felt her teacher's affection for her, her desire to see Zeala grow into a skilled Jedi Knight. And she felt Tyra's knowledge of impending death. That nothing could be done to save her.
As Zeala's hand went to the ship controls to turn the engines on, tears began to stream down her eyes. Why was the word in her mind.
And at that she only sensed something peculiar from Tyra; calm and serenity. She was content, even perhaps a bit relieved. Go, sweet Zeala were the words that went through Zeala's mind, as if sent to her from Tyra, as she pulled the Lightrunner out of the atmosphere.
Suddenly air was stuck in Tyva's throat. A crushing force covered her neck and the Dark Side thundered around her. She sensed Vader's anger and looked up to see him looming over her. His hatred was suffocating, his rage terrifying...
As Tyva felt life painfully seep from her, her mind wandered back through her life. Her time as a youngling, as a Padawan, the death of her former Master Omis Kudu and the completion of her Padawan training under Qui-Xi just after he'd completed the Trials... Their time together in the Mid-Rim worlds....
The memories got more personal. Memories of long cold nights on barely hospitable worlds, only the warmth of each other to fight the chill. The forbidden intimacy they had fallen into, an intimacy that neither had ever renounced no matter what it had cost them.
She thought of the crying newborn boy that had been handed to her.... and then there was nothing. The bones in her neck shattered in the grip of Vader's rage and she died almost instantly.
Vader's lightsaber turned off but his rage was not as easily extinguished, now directed at the quickly-disappearing dot in the sky.
By the time Silas and Qui-Xi got to the cockpit, Zeala was sobbing. "Zeala, please," Qui-Xi said, his face having grown pale. He sensed that she had also sensed the sudden violence of Tyra's death, the crushing of her neck. His stomach was still turning painfully at the thought of that loss, so personal among the many of his Jedi comrades to have died in these past bloody months.
Zeala stood and Silas took her into his arms, letting her cry onto his shoulder. He held her tightly as she did, wanting her to feel his support.
But this moment ended when Qui-Xi said, "A Star Destroyer is coming around the planet. Silas, begin calculations for our jump to lightspeed."
Zeala moved away, still crying, allowing Silas to reach for the navcomp. He began crunching data. "Where are we going, Master?"
"Anywhere, Silas, just get us out of here," Qui-Xi remarked. A moment later the ship shook. "They're firing light batteries at us and launching fighters. If our deflectors go down they can lock us into a tractor beam."
Silas nodded and looked back to the navcomputer. His mind raced as he tried to decide the best place to hide but he simply could not think of one. They all seemed too dangerous too consider.
At that moment of indecision, a voice came to Silas' head, one from memory or elsewhere (at least if it was elsewhere it would not surprise him). An old voice speaking to him as a youngling, reminding him "Indecision and doubt, dangerous they are to a Jedi. Trust your feelings you must. Through them the Force speaks to you."
He let his feelings come to the forefront, he let them guide his fingers over the device as a course was punched in, a course... to nowhere he knew. A course dictated only by the Force itself through his hands. When the light showed it was completed, he said, "Course ready!"
Qui-Xi grabbed the hyperdrive control and pushed it forward. The stars elongated in the cockpit window and the jump to lightspeed was complete.
For a moment, the Jedi Master did not move. "Silas, please go make sure Diya is all right," he finally remarked.
Silas walked out with Zeala on his arm. Qui-Xi looked off into the vastness of hyperspace and, for the first time in a long time, allowed tears to flow from his eyes freely.
Silas led Zeala to a couch she could lay back upon. Losing Tyva had been a drain on her heart, he sensed, and what she needed now was rest. He sat beside her, holding her hand while she fell asleep.
For a time he just stood there, watching. A noise distracted him from this and he looked to see the floor of the hall pop up. The hand that emerged was clearly Diya's. With effort she pushed it enough to get through, after which she sat on the edge and looked toward him. "I felt the ship move, so I..." She saw the look on Silas' face and asked, "Where is everyone?"
"Master Qui-Xi is in the cockpit," Silas replied, "and this is Zeala."
"Where's Gumi?"
Silas bowed his head. "I'm afraid he was killed, Diya."
Diya's face fell. She slumped against the wall of the walkway and buried her face in her hands, beginning to weep.
From the other direction, Qui-Xi emerged from the hall leading to the cockpit. "Silas, what course did you enter?"
"I'm not sure, Master" Silas answered. "I let the Force guide me."
"Silas, I cannot disengage the hyperdrive to get our bearings," Qui-Xi revealed, returning to the pilot's seat to let his Padawan get to the computers. "The navigational computer's safety locks have activated."
"I... I don't understand." Silas sat down and began going through the navigational computer. "Something.... something is not right, Master. According to the computer, our hyperdrive speed has reached.... I never thought such a speed possible. We are going at a rating equivalent of point oh five past lightspeed. Ten times faster than the ship's hyperdrive is capable of."
"Could it be a computer error?"
"It could, Master, but if it isn't and we manually override the locks and try to disengage the hyperdrive, the stress of disengaging at this speed...."
"The stress would tear us apart," Qui-Xi finished for Silas. He sat in his chair, pondering. Through the Force he sensed that there was more to this than a computer glitch.... but what?" "If that speed is right, we will be in intergalactic space within hours..."
Silas looked back to the computer. "I'm projecting our course now, Master, using long-distance star charts..." After several seconds, he said, "If the speed is accurate, Master, and we continue on this course at this speed and with our current rate of fuel consumption, we will arrive at Galaxy LG-19 in seven weeks."
Qui-Xi turned away from his apprentice. He calmed his mind and tried to let his feelings come to the forefront, to reach out to the Force, to confirm the suspicions he held. His feelings told him to continue and accept what had happened, and by that confirming that his student's feelings were correct; that the hand of the Force had guided them to this... anomaly in hyperspace. "Go and rest, Silas," he said aloud. "We have a long flight ahead of us."
Ordinarily, the escape of the Lightrunner would have been accepted as an unavoidable failure on the part of Captain Doss and the Exactor. It was not their fault that the ship had made an abnormally and perhaps fatally swift jump to lightspeed, or that the smaller ship had maneuvered the planet in front of the Exactor.
But Vader was not in an ordinary mood. He was in a towering rage. And as a result, Captain Doss had gone to his death when coming to greet Vader. His remains - including a neck completely crushed by Vader's power - were now being prepared for disposal. His replacement had avoided Vader so far, a wise decision on his part.
In his cabin, Vader was resting and letting his anger simmer when the call came through that the Emperor was calling for him. Soon Palpatine appeared on Vader's large holonet projector, clad in his dark robes to hide a face disfigured by overuse of the Dark Side in battle with Mace Windu. "Lord Vader, Moff Kulihof has reported Jedi survivors in his Sector. I wish for you to go deal with them."
"There are still Jedi in this sector, my Emperor. I wish to continue pursuing them."
"Do not concern yourself with them, Lord Vader. They will be dealt with soon enough."
To hear that furthered Vader's anger. He had failed and now his master was forbidding him the chance to make good on that failure. But he had no other alternative at the moment. "Yes, my Master. I will proceed immediately."
"Excellent, Lord Vader. I look forward to seeing you return to Coruscant to continue your training." At that, Palpatine's image faded out.
As Vader gave the order for the new destination there was a brief moment when he considered the mental images that had come to Tyra Nos Sirt before her death. What she had revealed about her past, and Qui-Xi Lao's, had struck a chord in that part of Vader which remembered being Anakin Skywalker. Especially the part about having a child, when the wound of Padme's death and the death of their unborn baby remained.
But in the end all it did was remind him of what he had lost, and furthered the sensations of bitterness, rage, and loss in a soul that was growing increasingly dark and enthralled to the designs of Emperor Palpatine, the Dark Lord Sideous.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Yeah, sounds like they jumped through a wormhole. Even if their relativistic shielding holds, there's no guarantee they'll be in their own time when they come out on the other end.
So, an exiled Jedi, his padawan, a possible girlfriend, a twi'lek teenager and an astromech droid. I sense a disturbance in the Plot...
Vendetta wrote:Richard Gatling was a pioneer in US national healthcare. On discovering that most soldiers during the American Civil War were dying of disease rather than gunshots, he turned his mind to, rather than providing better sanitary conditions and medical care for troops, creating a machine to make sure they got shot faster.
Only the Emperor's guards remained when the human male entered the Imperial presence. Wearing a dark cloak over his shoulders, with a hood for his head, he knelt on a knee to Palpatine. "My Emperor, my teacher, what do you wish?"
"You have done well, student, in learning the ways of the Dark Side. And I sense," there was a grin on that withered old face, "that you desire the chance to prove yourself worthy of being my apprentice, and assuming the title of Sith Lord."
"Lord Vader was once mighty indeed, Majesty, but his injuries on Mustafar have left him weak. I will gladly do anything you wish to prove myself your proper apprentice."
"I know that well." Palpatine motioned for the student to stand. "Deig Mantas, you have earned the chance to prove yourself worthy of challenging Lord Vader for the right to be my apprentice. I have a mission for you."
"I shall do whatever you request, Majesty."
"A ship of Jedi have escaped into the Outer Rim, deep in the frontier space. Lord Vader has other more pressing matters to concern him, so I shall leave the task of locating these Jedi to you. If you can defeat them, do so, but I wish to know where they are and what they are doing; that is your primary purpose, Mantas. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Majesty. I shall do as you ask."
"A infiltrator is being provided to you. Do not report back to me until the Jedi Master Qui-Xi Lao and any others with him have been found. And if you were to bring me proof of his death at your hand, it will go far into ensuring your place as my next apprentice."
Deig stood, his eyes glistening with pride. "I will not fail you, my Master. The Jedi will be found and eliminated."
"Then go," Palpatine ordered. Watching his student leave, he grinned wickedly. Either Mantas would succeed and give him a second prospect now that Vader was so badly scarred, or he would die, thinning out another unworthy soul from the ranks of would-be Sith Lords.
Everyone had gathered around the table in the Lightrunner's passenger area. Diya was sitting on the floor in the corner beside R2-Z5 while Silas and Zeala sat together on the couch. Qui-Xi stood apart, in traditional Jedi robes sans the traveling cloak with hood, pacing about the room. "By the time we get to LG-19's major arm, our fuel cells will be severely depleted, and our stocks low," he said. "We will have to carefully portion our meals and water use during the trip." He looked to Diya. "You offered when you came aboard to help with maintainance, Diya Suun. Well, that is now your sole concern. You and Zeefive will inspect this ship daily, particularly our fuel and power reserves."
Diya nodded tenatively. "Yes, Master Qui-Xi."
Turning his attention to the two Padawans seated together, Qui-Xi remarked, "As for you two.... I will resume your training, and when the time is right I will decide whether you have advanced to the level of skill to be Knights."
"Of course, Master."
Sighing deeply, Qui-Xi looked away for a moment. Everything that had happened, it was like being caught in a whirlwind that was still raging about, tossing him and his charges where it pleased. Who knew where it would end?
"We will also spend time monitoring the ship from the cockpit, alternating so that one of you may be trained while the other watches, then I will watch while you sleep."
"What of your rest?"
"I need none. Meditation during my cockpit watch will suffice," he answered, not entirely truthfully, but certain that he would not need further rest above that he was setting aside for himself. Standing at one end of the room from where he could look at them all "We have a long journey ahead of us, and this ship is quite small so space is limited. We must live together and work together to survive physically and mentally. If you have any problems, any fears, come to me and I shall do my best to help you with them. Now... I shall take my first turn in the pilot seat, and I suggest that you all get some rest."
The Infiltrator was silent as death as it left Lumin Prime. Unnoticed by the sensor grid of the system's traffic control, or by the Imperial cruiser moving by on patrol, it remained for a time in orbit.
From his cockpit Dieg Mantas checked to make sure his stores of supplies and fuel were full for what he expected to be a search lasting months. When this was confirmed he prepared to make his jump to lightspeed. But where?
As he was trained to do, Dieg felt out through the Force, letting it speak to him. His hand moved almost on its own as it inputed astrogation data into the nav computers before reaching over and engaging the hyperdrive.
For a time everything seemed normal. But Dieg soon noticed something amiss. The speed readings he was getting from the astrogation computer were incorrect, showing a speed far greater than any hyperdrive was known to be capable of. At first he reached for the control to disengage the hyperdrive. But as his hand gripped it he felt a small tremor within him, a resistance to his decision. Intuitively he knew that something bad would happen if he pulled the control and he released it.
Looking at the astrogation data he noticed that in a couple of months he would arrive in Galaxy LG-19. Two months, with just enough fuel and supplies to make it there.
Two long, lonely months into the unknown, from which he could possibly never return....
As Deig sat and mulled over this, he sensed opportunity. Not just if the Jedi he was hunting were on this route as well, as he sensed they were.... but a virgin galaxy where there might be no Sith. Instead of being, at best, the apprentice of a master he could never hope to defeat, he could be the Master himself. With an entire cadre of followers competing for the right to be his apprentice.
Darth Vindis had a nice ring to it....
The two months passed quicker than Diya had expected. Their eating might have been a little thin, especially near the end, but nearly every day she was occupied inspecting every nut and bolt of the Lightrunner, getting to know every system, doing on the fly maintainance with Zeefive to make sure that above all else the hyperdrive stayed on. Silas helped her at times, Zeala joining them once and a great while, as the two of them continued Jed training under Qui-Xi's watchful gaze.
If anything, the past months had helped Diya come to understand how the YT-1300 worked. She'd examined every system, knew how every nut and bolt worked. While examining her one day Qui-Xi had even stated he felt she had a natural affinity for that kind of work. While that was true, deep down Diya wished to be the pilot, not the mechanic.
Her main compatriot during the long journey was R2-Z5. She'd come to understand the astromech droid almost as well as Silas, who now often remarked that the droid seemed to have taken a liking to her.
Put together, it had been perhaps the best two months of her young life. There was no struggle for food and shelter. No worry about being sold to the Hutts. No worry of being killed in the streets by an irate food merchant she'd been forced to steal from or by some crook she looked at the wrong way. She was in the care of three noble Jedi, had a quirky astromech droid as a companion, and was getting to work with one of the most reliable spaceship designs to ever be built.
On about the sixty-third day of the voyage Diya went to the cockpit as she sometimes did, Qui-Xi seated quietly in his chair in meditative rest, and took the pilot's seat. She rested her hands on the sublight flight controls and imagined getting to fly the vessel around.
Behind her came a warbling sound, followed by a disapproving set bleeps and clicks. Looking back at the green-chromed droid, Diya replied, "Oh, Zeefive, don't worry, I won't touch anything important. I'm just daydreaming." After another warbling remark from the droid she added, "I won't wake Master Qui-Xi either."
"Yes, that would be pretty impossible at the moment," the meditating Jedi added.
Diya looked to him with a surprised expression which soon turned apprehensive. "Master Jedi? I.... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"You did not disturb me, Diya," Qui-Xi answered. He gave her a reassuring smile. "How are the others?"
"Sleeping comfortably." Diya pulled her legs up onto the seat, putting her arms around them to rest her chin on her knees. "Silas and Zeala seem really close."
Qui-Xi gave a nod at that. "They were younglings together. Just as Tyva, Gumi, and I were."
Diya looked to him. "I miss Gumi," she said sadly. "He was so nice, and he was going to make me his co-pilot."
"Yes, I can imagine." Looking at the young lady Qui-Xi saw the wisdom of his apprentice's desire to save her from the slaver and to bring her. For all that she had been through, the only feelings he had ever sensed from her were sadness and more benevolent feelings. Any anger from old memories was brief and joined by her regrets toward the people she'd known on the street. Fellow children, almost all less fortunate than she was now. "I see now that Silas was right to insist on bringing you aboard, Diya. It's not often a Master is proven wrong by his apprentice, but it is a good thing I believe."
"He looks up to you so greatly," Diya said. "You're everything to him. A teacher, a mentor, even a bit of a father."
Qui-Xi nodded softly at that. "Such are the sentiments that exist between the Padawan and the Knight or Master. I felt much the same way to my Master, Dooku, for many years."
"Dooku? Count Dooku?" Diya said with surprise. "He was your Master?"
"Yes, he took me as his new Padawan after completing the training of Qui-Gon Jinn." Qui-Xi looked off into hyperspace. "That he ended up falling to the Dark Side, and leading the Seperatists, was, is, a great sadness to me."
There was a melancholy silence for a time, then Diya spoke once more. "There was a time, as a child, that I wish I had been taken to become a Jedi. To get out of my parents' home and get to see Coruscant."
"It is a common dream among many, Diya. But the life of a Jedi is a harsh one." Qui-Xi sighed. "One that I have long believed to have been made too harsh by the rules of the Order. Use of the Force demands discipline, and they began to favor discipline before anything else. I wonder sometimes if the Order would have survived if it had been more tolerant and not become so secluded, so cloistered, from the rest of the Republic."
Before he could continue speaking, Qui-Xi was distracted when his eyes passed over the readouts from astrogation. "Diya, prepare to take us out of hyperspace," he said.
"Master?"
"We're back to normal speed," he said. "I want to drop out of hyperspace and take a star reading."
"So... we're almost to a planet then?" Diya pulled back on the control as she was asked, replacing the view of hyperspace in their cockpit with a field of black interstellar space.
"Perhaps. We are in a dense arm of the galaxy...." Qui-Xi turned his attention to the sensors looking for stars. "Now we must eliminate those systems that cannot bear life while looking for any signs of life. If we can find interstellar societies, so much the better...... there." He began pressing keys on the astrogation computer. "A cluster of stars, very close to one another, about fifty light years distant. I am detecting gravitational anomalies consistant with interplanetary drives."
"Gravity drives?"
"Yes, a very old and mostly unused technology for us.... which means this society may be primitive. But we shall see." Qui-Xi moved from the computer to his seat and brought the ship around. After orientating it right he pulled back on the hyperdrive.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Interplanetary gravity drives. . . can't say I recognize that tech offhand. Not very distinctive, and it may just be a generic Sci-fi society that isn't any kind of crossover.
Too bad the Jedi have a Sith Acolyte at their heels. Those guys are dangerous.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
Very good, a head start and one wonders how they will use it while remaining ignorant of their pursuer.
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
The Lightrunner slipped gracefully into orbit of a planet at the outer edge of one of the cluster systems, a pristine and untouched planet like those only seen in the Outer Rim of their home galaxy. From the cockpit Qui-Xi softly guided the Lightrunner around the planet once. "Seems uninhabited...." he remarked, but he knew it was not. He sensed life, sentient life, through the Force.
"Master, there," Zeala said from near the end of the cockpit. She pointed to an edge of the planet. Qui-Xi brought up a magnified holo-image and could also see the structures there, and small figures walking about in what was the early dawn.
"I shall put us down a distance from the town," Qui-Xi remarked. He banked the Lightrunner and brought it into the atmosphere, making another orbit around the planet before pulling in from the north. They could make out smaller structures around that town now, adjacent to wide open fields brimming with non-sentient life and crops. They flew toward a nearby mountain and landed near the foot of it, at a clearing before a wide forest. "We have arrived," he remarked to the others. A simple statement for a situation that was hardly simple...
Hours later the ramp of the Lightrunner lowered and the three Jedi emerged in traveling robes, hoods up. They began to walk calmly, but at a good and brisk pace, away from the ship. It took them quite a while of walking to get out of the forest and to plains with a single dirt road upon them. They followed the road awhile when sound came from behind them. "Hey!" a voice cried out, accompanied by the sound of animals grunting and stopping.
The Jedi looked back and saw a cart of some kind, with a man seated on the front holding the reins for a team of pulling animals. The animals were lean and muscular, one brown mottled with white and the other a more reddish brown. Their driver looked to be about Qui-Xi's age, wearing a large hat that kept the sun off his eyes and a brown colored jacket over white shirt, trousers a lighter shade of brown and a leather belt at his waist with a weapon holstered on the hip. "Don't think I've seen ya here 'bouts. You from offworld?"
For a moment they were taken aback that the stranger spoke Basic, but Qui-Xi rolled with this realization. "We are travelers, sir, looking to get into town."
"Eh, still a long way to go on foot." The man seemed to direct a smile at Zeala. "And that's an unfair bit of walkin' for such a pretty lady. I've got room in the cart on the way there for ya."
"We thank you for your charity," Qui-Xi remarked, nodding to the two. He got onto the front seat with the driver while Silas and Zeala jumped into the back of the cart. The seat was hard wood and not very comfortable. "You are a farmer?"
"Yep. Goin' to town for some things the homestead needs," the man answered. "You'll find good folk out here, not like the Inner worlds."
Qui-Xi smiled at that, mostly from memory. "I have spent most of my life on the frontiers, I understand such sentiments."
"That's interestin'. Though I conjure you folks aren't frontier-raised, not with talkin' like that."
"You could say that," Qui-Xi answered the man, not particularly interested in twisting any minds with a truth they'd not believe at the moment. "These are magnificant animals you have," he added.
"Yes, finest horses in the 'verse if you ask me," the farmer said. "Molly and Danny I call 'em, raised 'em from foals."
"They look quite strong and healthy. You take good care of them." As the conversation contined Qui-Xi allowed himself one glance back to check on his charges and see that they were settled in... as well as they could hope to be, anyway.
The ride was bumpy and made Silas' backside hurt quite a bit due to the roughness of the cart bed. The vehicle stank from what he supposed was use for hauling animals and other such things about, helping to craft an image of frank primitiveness that would have seemed out of place even on far out worlds from the home galaxy like Tatooine.
He saw Zeala looking ahead, her hood still over her head and covering her long yellow hair. "Not quite a speeder," he remarked to her. At that, she smiled and nodded, while Silas shifted closer to her. "You've come along a far way in your training."
"Thank you, Silas," she said in reply. "But you are still going to be the first of us to be made a Knight."
"Oh, I'm not so sure now. Master Qui-Xi is quite impressed with your control of the Force, Zeala, as am I."
"But you are the better duelist," was Zeala's reply. "I don't think I will ever meet your skill with a lightsaber."
"That's not all there is to being a Jedi, though, and I feel as if you farther ahead in those areas than I." Silas put an arm around her neck and on her shoulders. "Whatever happens, Zeala, I am here for you. I always will be."
The smile on her face seemed to change a little. Zeala shifted and laid her head upon Silas' shoulder, happy to hear him say that. Now that Tyva was gone, Silas was the only person left whom she had known or had any closeness to.
Sitting ahead of them, silent now, Qui-Xi sensed their emotions. A soft smile came to his face.
Twelve Years Ago
"Confer upon you an apprentice the Council does."
Qui-Xi Lao stood silent in the midst of the leaders of the Jedi Order as Master Yoda spoke for them. "Long has your exile been, Qui-Xi Lao," the dimunitive Grand Master continued. "Sense I your advancement in knowledge of the Force, wisdom to overcome the past mistakes."
"You have served the Jedi and the Republic well in the Outer Rim." Now Mace Windu began to speak. "The Jedi Council has come to the conclusion that you have earned the chance to teach an apprentice, one of our selection. If you train him well, with no further breaches of the Code by yourself or by him, we will remove our restriction and permit you to be granted the title of Master."
Bowing his head in respect and acceptance, Qui-Xi said, "I accept this charge from the Council, Master Windu, Master Yoda, with the greatest humility and the strongest determination to prove my worthiness."
"As we would expect of you," Ki-Adi-Mundi stated.
"We look forward to seeing you fulfill the potential Master Dooku saw in you, Qui-Xi Lao. This meeting is now adjourned." And with Master Windu's proclaimation, the Council dispersed.
"Introduce you to your apprentice I will," Yoda said to Qui-Xi as they emerged from the Council room. Qui-Xi followed the Grand Master through the bowels of the Jedi Temple. "Great anxiety I sense in you, Qui-Xi. Speak to me you will?"
Qui-Xi drew in a sigh. "While I was on Lumin, Master Dooku came to see me, Master Yoda," he said to the old sage. "He told me that Qui-Gon Jinn was slain by a Sith Lord."
"He was," Yoda responded sadly.
"And if I may, what happened to this Sith?"
"Slain he was, in turn, by Master Qui-Gon's apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Do we know if he was the Master or the Apprentice of the Sith?"
"No." Yoda looked back to Qui-Xi as they moved along. "More to say, you do? More on your old teacher?"
Drawing in a sigh, Qui-Xi continued. "He attempted to persuade me that the Order would not forgive me, Master Yoda. He asked me to leave the Jedi and join him in seeking out and destroying the Sith."
Clearly sensing Qui-Xi's feelings, Yoda said, "And?"
"There was.... I don't know, Master Yoda, a bitterness about him. A sense of darkness and anger I found unsettling."
"Yes, sensed the same I did the day that Master Dooku left the Council." Yoda shook his head. "Suspicious and impatient Dooku has become. A tragedy for him and for the Order."
"What of my dreams, Master Yoda?" Qui-Xi followed Yoda onto stairs to bring them down toward the younglings' quarter of the Temple. "With every passing year they have grown worse. Perhaps the most vivid I have ever had them. The Jedi Temple in flames, an army marching in the streets of Coruscant, an entire planet destroyed by a weapon..."
"Dooku's pessimism in your dreams I sense. Be mindful of the truth in the Force you must." Yoda seemed to look away for a moment. "The Dark Side you both sense. Uncertainty, doubt, fear, these are not of the Jedi."
"And what about arrogance?" Qui-Xi asked. "If my feelings are correct, if these dreams are warnings from the Force, is it not arrogance to presume otherwise? Not without the slightest consideration?"
That drew a sigh. "Perhaps. Meditate on this I must. But now, your apprentice you must meet."
They entered one of the rooms in which the younglings were having a period of rest. Some worked on building their first lightsaber, others on studying the books and texts kept by the Jedi Order, while many also conversed. Yoda led Qui-Xi to one couple in the room, a young boy who was helping a blond-haired girl study lightsaber schematics. "Silas, arrived your new teacher has," Yoda said to the boy.
Both children looked up. The boy stood and bowed. "I am Silas Torson, Master Qui-Xi," he said. "I am honored to be your Padawan."
"I have heard much about you, young Silas," Qui-Xi remarked. "Master Yoda says great things about you. I forsee you becoming a great Jedi Knight one day."
"Thank you, Master." Silas turned to the girl. "Bye, Zeala!"
"Good luck, Silas!" the girl replied cheerfully. "May the Force be with you!"
Qui-Xi led his new apprentice away as Yoda and Zeala watched.
The Present
The cart rumbled past a growing number of buildings, homes on the outskirts of the town. "Spaceport's over yonder," the farmer said to Qui-Xi. "Mostly an old cow pasture, though, we just call it that 'cause the town doesn't want spaceships landing willy-nilly everywhere."
"Where in the town do you think we could find food? We are setting up a camp at the foot of the mountain to the north."
"Up in the mountain, eh? That's quiet land up there, nobody likes headin' that far out of town." When they got to the mainstream the farmer stopped his horses. "Okay, folks, that's as far as I can take you, got some things to pick up."
"We would be willing to help you if you have some spare money," Qui-Xi said as he slipped down.
"Sorry, I only got silver enough for the things I need and the missus wants. But if you're lookin' for work, I might suggest you look around town. Always places lookin' for a little extra labor that'll pay you some coin. Just stay away from the North end, Miles Tachnik and his boys like to sucker unsuspectin' folk into indentured work."
"Thank you, sir." Qui-Xi and his apprentices watched as the man rode off. "Well, I suspect we shall have to find work of some kind," he said to them in a low tone. "For now, I do not want you to use the Force in an obvious way."
"Yes, Master, we shall be discreet," Silas said.
With that said, Qui-Xi led them down the main street. It was unpaved and just as dusty as the road, most of the locals going about their way riding horses or walking. The dress was unfamiliar and very rugged looking. Upon passing what looked to be a tavern, Silas felt a tinge of defensiveness at seeing the number of eyes moving toward Zeala.
From a gaggle of men, a hand reached out and took Zeala's arm. "Hey, girl, lookin' for extra coin? Come and be real sweet...."
When an attempt to pull away didn't work for Zeala, Silas turned and moved beside her. "Sir, she's not interested, please let her go."
The drunken men laughed. One of them moved apart his vest a little to show a weapon holstered on his belt, much like the farmer's. "Boy, I conjure you best be movin' along and lettin' the little lady make her own decisions."
"Silas...." Zeala looked to him, and he knew to move away. After he did, she looked back at her accoster and brought a hand up. "I think I'm much too young for you, Sirs."
"Y'know, she's a bit young, maybe in a year or two boys," the one said to the other, letting Zeala go.
"Thank you. You might want to go rest now," she added turning away and rejoining Silas. "I was not sure I could affect them all if you were making them angry," she explained to them. "I understand you wished only to protect me."
"You are much better at that than I would have been," Silas confessed. "And...." He stopped speaking when he saw the smile on Zeala's face disappear, replaced by an anxious and concerned look. He could sense as well the darkness, a sudden increase in the feelings of rage moving through the Force around them.
As the two apprentices looked toward Qui-Xi, who was staring at the sky, they heard a loud roar and looked up themselves. Two spacecraft of moderate size, almost shuttles by the look of them, loomed overhead. Zip lines descended from them and figures were coming down the lines, dark-looking humanoid shapes. Cries came from the people in the street who noticed them, shouts for people to take cover and flee, and above all a single word that seemed to echo above all both in sound and in the horrified thoughts the three Jedi now felt rippling around them. Reavers!
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
I was starting to wonder when they ran into horses, but it makes sense now; Jedi in the Firefly verse! That should shake things up in interesting ways.
The rain it falls on all alike
Upon the just and unjust fella'
But more upon the just one for
The Unjust hath the Just's Umbrella
There was no longer a question of hiding their talents. The fear and terror of the people of the town were enough to tell the Jedi what monsters they were up against. Almost simultaneously their lightsabers ignited, and without a word Qui-Xi's commands were known to them; protect the people.
The wild, long-haired, scarred human figures roared wordlessly, spreading across the town and going after any human figure they saw. A gaggle of them, no more than four, bore down on Qui-Xi directly without even flinching at the brilliant green light in his hands. Qui-Xi's arms were a blur, his saber buzzing in the air and slicing through their mangled bodies with ease.
Through the screaming and general terror Qui-Xi identified a particular individual, an older man, fleeing frantically in the street with two of them chasing him. One lifted what looked to be a speargun to fire at the man. Qui-Xi's hand reached out and the two attackers went flying, allowing the man to escape into a building.
Zeala ended up in the position of defending the men who'd attempted to accost her earlier. The drunks could barely move and were easy prey for another handful of the attackers. Seeing the bladed weapons in their hands, Zeala brought up her lightsaber and focused on disarming them, cleaving their arms off at the elbow, wrist, whichever spot her purple blade touched.
The amazing thing was that this didn't stop them. They continued to lunge at her, and Zeala was taken aback at the pure ferocity and obliviousness to pain in the Reavers. Her lightsaber cleaved through the neck of one and in a return swipe cut through the chest of the second, the third having his legs removed above the knee. She turned her attention to the fourth, deftly removing its head as well, when a sharp pain went up her right leg. She screamed and looked down to see the limbless Reaver digging its teeth into her. Zeala lost her balance for a moment, just as another pair of the Reavers were turning their attention on her from hearing the scream.
They came, weapons raised, but were too slow to prevent Zeala's desperate push through the Force, flinging both of them back so hard they traveled a block in mid-air before crashing into a water trough, freeing the tied horses that were stuck to it. She turned back to the crippled enemy before her, its teeth drawing blood from her calf, and plunged her lightsaber into the back of its head. She was still forced to bend low and pull the jaw open enough to remove the creature's teeth from her bleeding flesh.
Hobbled by her wound, Zeala turned to different means of helping to fight the Reavers. Limping into the saloon and finding a seat, she began reaching out to the hordes of attackers and striking at them mentally through the Force, trying to subdue their limitless rage and aggression. She could not quench that fire, but it did let her slow them, force them to resist her and not focus on attacking townsfolk.
Silas was going through the attackers almost as fast as Qui-Xi was. His lightsaber remained a constant blue blur of motion, cleaving through flesh with the same ease it went through battle droid armor.
The people of the town were escaping into any building they could. There were large cracks sounding in the air, Silas being uncertain of what they were until he saw a Reaver attempting to climb into a window and being blasted back by a powerful force. Chemical-propellant weapons of a sort, something Silas had never seen before, but in the hands of competent townsfolk they at least gave a chance of keeping the Reavers out of their homes.
Slicing his way through an alley of Reavers attempting to slip into a defended building, he emerged onto another street to find a gaggle of Reavers tangling over a fallen figure, biting and cutting into him with weapons. Without thought Silas pushed against them with the Force, throwing them off the fallen man. A couple Reavers attempted to get between him and helpless man and were sliced apart effortlessly.
When Silas got to him he saw the figure was stuck with a needle of some form in the back of his neck and was clearly unable to move. He reached down and lifted the man up. He did not think of where to go next, he simply moved, and the wisdom of this was born out by the sight of a number of fallen Reavers in front of a building. There was a small gaggle still standing there, heedless of the gunfire from inside the building. Silas tossed them aside with ease and got up to the door.
Inside were a handful of men, each holding rifles of a sort, a couple reloading what they had. Though their clothing was no different from others Silas had seen in town, each had a metal star insignia on. "He has been injured!" Silas shouted, drawing attention.
"Bring him over here," one of the older men said. Silas did so and turned toward the door. "I shall try to get you breathing room," he remarked.
"Wait, son, what're you....?!" A couple pairs of eyes looked toward Silas when his lightsaber flashed to life once more and he charged out the door.
The voices of the surprised men inside were soon dimmed by the roaring of the savage Reavers. Silas took a breath and first dealt with the spearguns they were bringing up, yanking them away with the Force. When the crazed things charged him anyway, raising blades or their mere fists, Silas' lightsaber was ready for them. A storm of limbs was accompanied by the stench of scorched flesh, heads and arms flying and in a couple cases bodies sliced in half. Silas was not his Master's pupil with a saber, preferring strong and persistant attacks to Qui-Xi's masterful duelist technique.
The door to the saloon opened wide and Reavers began to enter. The bartender was the only man still in the room and not in the upper floors, and his gun erupted like thunder. Zeala had never seen such a weapon and was surprised at just how bloody it was, geysers of brain matter and blood erupting from the attackers. She got to her feet and for the moment gave up on trying to influence the dwindling numbers of Reavers. She brought her lightsaber up, turned it on, and her first swipe cut apart one at the waist. Keeping to the side to give her erstwhile ally a clean shot, every Reaver that got through between shots was killed by a swift swing through the chest or neck. This was terribly different for Zeala, used as she was to using her weapons on droids and not living beings, and only in the heat of the moment did her qualms about it remain quiet.
She reached out to the others. She sensed a sense of aggression and strength in Silas that was a mite unsettling, and through him she knew he'd found one of the less fortunate among the townsfolk. As for Qui-Xi....
The battle had gone on long enough, however short it'd been, Qui-Xi knew. There were still more attackers coming, as they sensed a true fight on hand. He could feel their blind rage and relish at the chance to spill blood, to bite and kill and do unspeakably cruel things to any living person they came across. It was not a natural sentiment, not something that even the most barbaric race on the Outer Rim could muster. A hunger for torture and slaughter that made Tusken Sand People from Tatooine look like meek children. Something had been done to make such beasts...
His lightsaber cleaved through attackers trying to get into what appeared to be a school, and with the street temporarily cleared Qui-Xi looked up and saw one of the ships coming overhead. He felt the pilot's sight come onto him, fingers tensing on the trigger of a harpoon gun.
Qui-Xi took off, running toward the craft. The harpoon fired at him and he jumped, rolling along the dusty road as it impacted behind him and caused a shower of dust. Back on his feet, Qui-Xi took a brief second to concentrate as the craft came overheard to make a pass and leapt upward with the power of the Force. His hand stretched out and gripped one of the descent lines just as more Reavers were coming down, and with his free hand he lashed out with his lightsaber and began slicing the other lines.
A Reaver came at him from a line on the opposite side, screaming and raising a curved blade of a sort. Qui-Xi shifted his body weight to the right, avoiding the lunge and twisting himself so that his right hand could swing, driving the lightsaber through the arm and neck of his attacker and severing his line in the process.
More were descending to face him, and Qui-Xi had other plans. He focused again and jumped upward, more like levitation than an actual jump, swinging his arm and slicing another Reaver apart hip to shoulder on his way up. He got to the open hatch and could sense about twenty more of the creatures still aboard. In these close quarters he ran some risk of being overwhelmed, but he had chosen his point of ascent carefully to be near the cockpit of the craft.
With an outstretched arm he flung the foremost Reavers back into the others, causing a couple to be impaled by their own comrades. With the precious seconds gained he switched attention to the cockpit and threw his lightsaber. His hand guided it, sending it straight through the heads of the pilots and back to him, just in time for him to whip around in the same movement and slice through the next rank of Reavers coming after him.
Qui-Xi jumped out of the craft as it began to spin out of control in the air, grabbing a rappel line and swinging himself toward a nearby building. A flash of green in the air was the last sight of a descending Reaver opposite him before Qui-Xi's lightsaber cut right through the creature's head at eye-level, removing his scalp. At the right moment Qui-Xi jumped off the rope and onto the roof of one of the town buildings. Getting back to his feet, he turned toward the pilotless ship and concentrated. His invisible grip took the ship and tossed it toward the other craft, busy as it was disgorging a final wave of attackers. The pilot of the other craft didn't see the threat at all and did nothing to move his ship out of the way, resulting in the pilotless vessel colliding with the other. The inertia of the vessel, with the aid of the Force through Qui-Xi's will, pressed them both out to the ocean beyond the town. They landed into the water and created a massive wave that swamped the coastline and some of the piers.
Few of the Reavers seemed to notice the loss of their transportation. Or rather, they didn't care. Qui-Xi could sense that in them; utter lack of caring toward the death of the others, or even of their own lack of an escape from this raid. All they cared about was their lust for brutality.
Reigniting his lightsaber, Qui-Xi jumped back down and rejoined the fray.
Zeala grimaced as the town doctor finished applying hydrogen peroxide to her bite wound and began to wrap it in a dressing. The graying woman had only two nurses, so after giving a reassuring smile to the young Jedi she moved on to another victim.
A growing pile of Reaver corpses - many of them in more than one piece thanks to the Jedi - was being placed near the spaceport. A flame was being stoked to consume them all, the quickest way to get rid of them since nobody was sure if the Reavers had any kind of disease, and the last thing anyone wanted was to have such a thing make them a Reaver as well.
Watching the doctor move on, Zeala got back to her feet and was almost immediately taken in a hug by Silas. "I'm sorry I wasn't...."
Before Silas could finish the apology Zeala put a finger on his lips. "You were doing what you had to do, as was I," she said. "It's just a bite, and I sense no danger from it. Whatever makes those people behave like that hasn't been passed on to me."
Silas sighed and held Zeala tightly. "I can't bear the thought of losing you," he said. "Not to them. Not after what I saw them doing to that poor girl..."
Her eyes lowered, Zeala looked over to the girl Silas spoke of, the girl he'd saved by cleaving apart her attackers. Her clothes had been ripped to shreds, and far from just being raped, her attackers had also been in the midst of flaying her alive. Half the skin from her chest, neck, and right arm was completely gone, as was a long bit from her right leg and foot. A couple toes had been completely severed. The girl had been mercifully doped up with anesthesia, but it was clear that the town had no means of helping her. "Those.... things.... how could they do that?" she said, shuddering. Some tears came to her eyes from imagining the unconscious figure's suffering.
Silas sensed Zeala's feelings and tightened his grip, his hand on the back of her head and holding her affectionally close.
"On behalf of the citizens of Mayfair, we give you our thanks, Mister...."
"Qui-Xi Lao," the Jedi answered, standing before the town's sheriff, Coughlin, and the mayor, a young woman with brown hair named Alston.
"If not for you, we'd have been slaughtered. Our whole town would be gone," Sheriff Coughlin said. The older man extended a hand and Qui-Xi, sensing his intent, clasped it. "You've saved so many lives, Mister Lao. I hope you'll consider stayin' in town, we'll help you with whatever you need."
"We are running low on supplies of food and water," Qui-Xi replied. "But I suspect your civilization has not attained hypermatter production."
"Hyperwha?"
"The fuel for our spacecraft," he replied. Looking at them sympathetically. "What I am about to tell you will sound fantastic and unbelievable, I am sure..."
"Considerin' what you did for us today," Alston remarked, "I'm ready to believe anything."
And so Qui-Xi filled them in on the basics, and watched their eyes widen as he explained what the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order had been, and what had happened. "Well... I can see why that'd be right hard to conjure," Coughlin said as Qui-Xi finished his explaination. "But I've seen what your boy was capable of, the young man who brought us Mr. Carlton, so I'll figure it's mostly the truth."
The Jedi nodded in response. And after a few moments, he decided to let his curiosity guide him. "What are these things? These Reavers? Their aggression and cruelty seems very artificial."
"Nobody's known for sure," Alston answered. "Most people don't live to talk about 'im. They're known for rapin' and slaughterin' settlements all along the outer worlds. Sayin' goes that if they catch you, they'll rape you to death, skin you alive, and wear your skin as clothing, and that if they do it in that order you'll be lucky."
"That trader that came in a bit back said something about the Alliance being responsible for 'em," Coughlin remarked.
"The Alliance?" Qui-Xi asked.
"They're just about rulers of the 'Verse as we know it," Coughlin answered. "The heirs of the old Anglo-Sino Alliance on Earth-that-was, rule the rest of the known System from Londinium and Sihnon. Some years back they came after the Independent worlds. We fought back hard but they got the better of us, took us over, though out this way you won't see much of 'em."
"And why would they create these 'Reavers'?"
"Ah, that's just a rumor." Alston gave the older man a look. "Could just be diehard Browncoats tryin' to stir things up, like the Dust Devils aren't enough."
"Rumor is, the Alliance tried to play around with some colony planet that failed, Miranda. They pumped the colonists' air supply with some weird chemical, was supposed to make 'em all peaceful like. But all it did was make 'em lay down and die, while a small bit of 'em did the exact opposite and became the Reavers," explained Coughlin. "Some recordin' hit the waves a bit back, a lady from the Alliance spellin' it out. We're so far out we didn't hear about it until a ship brought the news, but I conjure there's major problems for the Alliance closer in."
Qui-Xi considered the news carefully. It certainly didn't bode well, in a fashion, since such a government was not compatible with the Jedi Code and was definitely a threat to any attempts to rebuild the Order. Though to hear of a resistance to them...
"Anyway, it's a real shame to hear about what happened to Trina, such a sweet girl," Alston remarked.
"You mean the girl the Reavers attacked?" Qui-Xi asked.
"Yes. Doc says there's nothin' we can do for her, she'd have to go further in-system. There are folk out there who'd help her, especially with this whole mess about the Reavers comin' out, but we'd need a ship...."
"I may be able to take her a distance further in-system," Qui-Xi said, "but I do not know of my vessel has the fuel to make the return trip."
"You would, Mister Lao?" Alston looked at him earnestly. "We'd be obliged to you, sir. Trina's a well-loved girl here, taught the little ones at the school for Mr. Wannemaker. Everyone'll pitch in to help her get better, I know."
"I will need one of your horses to ride out to my vessel," Qui-Xi said. "And supplies for us all to be ready to be loaded as quickly as possible. If the girl is to have a chance, she must have medical attention swiftly."
"I'll go round the townsfolk up," Coughlin said.
"And follow me, Mister," Alston said, "I'll show you one of my horses, she's a good solid mare and will get you there fast...."
Terrified, agonized screams in English and Chinese echoed along the inner bulkheads of the Heavenly Grace, a transport vessel along the outer edge of the system. The Alliance-chartered ship was adrift in space, her electronics knocked out, and a Reaver vessel alongside as the occupants were being slaughtered as usual for Reavers.
Inside the engine room of the ship, Travis Mountcliffe was muttering to himself how this job went wacked. He'd been sent out to these Godforsaken gorram settlements to further investigate the Reavers, now that the Parliament was taking an interest with the Miranda secret brought out. The Opposition was crucifying the Government currently, though mostly over the fact that they'd used a "good" planet and good population for the test and not one of the Independent worlds (given the uniform dislike of the Independents among the Alliance's inner population) and there were rumors that the Prime Minister would be forced to resign.
Now he was about to get a closer look at the Reavers than he'd ever intended.
The screams from the other side of the bulkhead were chilling. Human beings being flayed alive, raped to death, the usual thing done by the savage space-dwellers as Travis had learned. Soon they'd be there for him and for the Sihnon-native engineer who was hurriedly trying to think of ways to blow the reactor or otherwise kill them quickly and not how the Reavers would prefer.
As they worked frantically, the screaming subsided, though the howling and snarling of the Reavers did not. But there was a forboding sense in the air, something Travis could not place. He'd always had that sixth sense, something that had helped him well in his intelligence field work, and it told him there was something dark going on. Something.... sinister.
Then the Reavers stopped their sounds. There was the faint sound of footsteps as Travis and the engineer looked at each other slowly, uncertainly. Had the Reavers given up? Had they decided to leave? Were the two of them the only survivors?
Suddenly the door flung open forcefully. A figure stood there, his black robes cut up a bit but not an actual bit of blood on him. His hand gripped the handle of a bright red blade, buzzing from it echoing in the engine room. He had a dark look on his face, and in the dim light Travis saw an unnatural, almost shining yellow tone to his eyes.
The engineer screamed in terror at the sight, and in mid-scream he was suddenly cutoff. HIs hands went to his throat, as if he was being choked by an invisible hand. He clawed at his own flesh, trying to free his airpipe from an unseen iron grip, but it was soon over and he fell dead.
But Travis was not scared. He sensed something in this figure, a dark power. And with all of the unfulfilled ambitions in his soul, he yearned for it. Even as he felt an iron grip close around his throat, at first blocking off all air, but then slacking just enough to keep him alive. He wanted that power, that immense power!
"I sense you are strong in the Force," the man said in a low, sinister tone. "I am Darth Vindis, and if you wish to live and to taste the power you desire, you will obey me without question."
Travis nodded at that. "I... I will...."
"Excellent. You will be my first acolyte, and if you are fortunate.... my first apprentice." Vindis released his grip on Travis. "Be proud, for while you are weak now, you will not be for long. For you are now a Sith."
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
