A Long Time Ago in a Galactic Senate Far, Far Away...Episode II

[Snake_Judge]

A Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

STAR WARS
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic.

This separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy.

Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is returning to the Galactic Senate to vote on the critical issue of creating an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC to assist the overwhelmed Jedi...

[Kommandant Felix]

Shadows

The Republic was on the edge of failure. After several millennia, the failures of leadership within the democracy were finally starting to show...as each regime corroded quicker than the last. The democracy was starting to crack, and festering within these cracks were the shadows.

The shadows of darkness...reflections of lives that were long past, evils that were long gone. The darkness was starting to spread...physically manifesting itself within physical locations within the world. Places of mass death and chaos...places that were strong in the dark side...within people who were strong in the Dark Side.

The corruption of reality itself had started to reveal itself. The glory and power that was once the Galactic Senate was reduced to a crowd of squabbling politicians, each one struggling fervently to survive, to regain the lost glory of their own empires. And...at the center of it all, a man. His words were like poisonous asps, and his flattery melted the firmest of hearts. His wrinkled face spouted pride, and yet he put up a facade, putting up a respectable face to hide his own true nature...the corruption of the Force itself.

Within the spreading shadows existed the smallest point of light...a light that was in danger of being smothered. A light, faint yet still existent, trying desperately to hold onto the principles of ages past, of the good times when people were free to make their own decisions, to create their own destinies rather than be controlled by darkness. This light...was the Jedi. Yet there were so few of them now...and the darkness threatens to overtake them. Only a few of them even understood the presence of such darkness, let alone how to defeat it.

And yet...somewhere in that darkness...something stirred. Something that was not black or white...but rather a shade of gray...being somewhere in between a ghost and a shadow. A spectre perhaps...but if anything it was a spectre of the past...an aura that should have died years ago. An aura that finally, after many years...reactivated itself, strengthening the light and finally bringing hope to those who struggled with darkness.

And on Coruscant...Felix opened his eyes for the first time in ten years.

************************************************** ************************************************
Pan up to reveal the amber city planet of Coruscant. Two yellow Naboo Fighters fly over camera toward the planet, followed by a large Naboo Cruiser and one more Fighter.

Interior: Naboo Cruiser - Dawn
The Lieutenant and two Security Officers address Senator Amidala as the Cruiser nears the planet.

Lieutenant: Senator, we're making our final approach in to Coruscant.
Senator Amidala: Very good, Lieutenant.

Exterior: Cityscape, Coruscant - Dawn
The ships skim across the surface of the city landscape. The sun glints off the chrome hulls of the sleek Naboo spacecraft as they navigate between the buildings of the capital planet.

Exterior: Coruscant, Landing Platform - Dawn
Two Naboo Fighters land on one leaf of a three-leaf-clover landing platform. The Naboo Cruiser lands on the central leaf, and the third Fighter lands on the remaining platform. A small group of dignitaries waits to welcome the Senator. One of the fighter pilots jumps from the wing of his ship and removes his helmet. He is Captain Typho, Senator Amidala's Security Officer. He moves over to a woman pilot.

Captain Typho: We made it. I guess I was wrong, there was no danger at all.

The ramp lowers. Two Naboo Guards appear. Senator Amidala, One Handmaiden (Verse) and Four Troopers descend the ramp. Amidala is more beautiful now than she was ten years earlier when, as Queen, she was freeing her people from the yoke of the Trade Federation. The Dignitaries start to move forward. Senator Amidala reaches the foot of the ramp, when suddenly there is a blinding flash and a huge explosion. The Dignitaries and Pilots are hurled to the ground as the starship is destroyed. Klaxons blare, alarms sound! Captain Typho and the Two Escort Pilot get up and run to where Senator Amidala lies dying. Beyond, Artoo Detoo drops down from the Naboo Fighter and rolls toward the wreckage. The Female Escort Pilot kneels by Senator Amidala and takes off her helmet, revealing Senator Padme Amidala.

Padme: Cordé...

She gathers up her decoy double in her arms. Cordé's eyes open. She looks up at her.

Corde: ...I'm so sorry, M'Lady... I'm... not sure I... I've failed you, Senator.

Corde dies. Padme hugs her.

Amidala: No...!
Captain Typho: M'Lady, you are still in danger here.

Padme lowers Corde to the ground. She gets up and looks around at the devastation. There are tears in her eyes.

Amidala: I shouldn't have come back.
Captain Typho: This vote is very important. You did your duty - Cordé did hers. Now come. (she doesn't respond) Senator Amidala, please!

She turns. They walk away. Artoo lets out a small whimper and rolls after them.

[Slick]

Naboo: A lake somewhere

The man lit a match, then touched it to the fuse of the small stick of explosives he held in his hand. After a moment it lit; he waited and threw it into the water. He just stared at the point where the explosive went under; it seemingly boiled as the explosive blew up, which was soon followed by a large number of small fish rolling to the top, either stunned of killed by the blast. Wading out into the water, the man only said one thing...

"Far out man."

[flo fett]

Hyperspace

The stars streaked past the cockpit window in a continuous stream of light, as the dark ship slid through hyperspace. The lone pilot dozed lightly in her seat, soothed by the quiet beeps and clicks as the ship guided itself. Hyperspace was one of the very few places she felt she could rest these days. Shadows raced across the pale scarred face that had been seen by few in recent years; even fewer had seen it smoothed of the tension that clenched it daily under the formidable visor of the Mandalorian helmet she wore. The ship sped on, as its pilot lay wrapped in dreamless drug induced sleep, safe within her deadly, armoured cocoon. All too soon the ship trilled a warning, alerting the pilot that it would soon be returning to sublight speeds. She opened one eye and peered at the readout, sighed and shut the eye again. A moment, a heartbeat. Opening both eyes, she sat straighter and got to the business of preparing to come out of the jump. The tension of complete self control surfaced on her face, settling into an expression of grim concentration. Practiced hands danced over the controls. She turned and lifted her helmet as the ship entered it's landing cycle and became a bounty hunter once again.


Coruscant: Galactic City

Dorsen Aryl glanced up and smiled indulgently to himself as the bounty hunter was led into his office by a rather nervous looking assistant. Straightening the folds of his already immaculate clothing, he remained seated as the woman came to a stop in front of his desk. His eyes flicked briefly up and over the hunter, taking in the armour and her deadly arsenal. Gods, the woman was a walking weapons factory! Still, it was important to have a hunter who looked the part. He, Aryl, was a man of position and he had an image to keep up. She was supposed to be good, or so he had been told. It was not the sort of thing that he normally took an interest in, but everyone knew that dammed alien had run off with his credits which meant he had to be seen to be dealing with those who crossed him and then there was the other…ah… personal reason. The hunter was just a necessary evil. He swept his gaze over the woman again as if appraising a prize barve. Satisfied with his choice, Aryl smiled brightly at the visitor.
‘Ah Fett, so good of you to come.’
There was no reply from the hunter who regarded him with an air of bored contempt. Aryl gestured at one of the chairs.
‘Please, take a seat.’
Flo remained standing, her synthesized voice harsh in the quiet office. ‘The comm. said you needed me.’
‘Ahahaha…straight to the point eh? Good…good.’
‘My time is expensive, I just need the details. Who, where, and how much.’
‘Ahahaha…makes you sound like an escort…’ Aryl joked foolishly.
A silence colder than the depths of space seemed to flow from the bounty hunter. The implacable visage of the helmet stared at the merchant for a moment longer, and the fixed smile slipped from Aryl’s face as he drew back into his seat.
‘I can see you’re wasting my time,’ said Flo turning on her heel. ‘Never contact me again.’ She strode towards the exit.
‘Lusa We,’ Dorsen called out desperately to the retreating hunter. She paused mid step. ‘The target’s name is Lusa We,’ he repeated.
Flo stood absolutely still, half way to the door. ‘Kaminoan?’ she asked without turning.
‘How did you…?’
‘Where?’ she cut across the little man.
‘He was last seen on Nar Shaddaa, in the trade sector.’
‘Dead or alive?’
‘Dead, I want him…’
‘How much?’
’75,000 Credits’
’90,000.’ Flo said as she started walking again.
‘Don’t you want to know what he did?’ Aryl called uselessly. The door swished shut, leaving the bewildered merchant alone.

[Snake_Judge]

In an unknown location

Some scientists stood looking over some blueprints on a holocorn. There sun deprived hunched over it like gargoyles looming over a city.

"These will work" one said in a squeaky voice, turning to the others.
"Hopefully after this is made the separatists will set us free" another peeped.

A taller scientist scurried accost the floor to a panel and hit a button. The panel opened to reveal a lime green filled glass witched housed a spinal cord, heart, Lungs, brain and eyeballs of a gold hough attached to life support and a vocabulator.

"Why do you open me in my shame" the parts spoke, in a deep mechanical voice.
"We have made the design for your new body" he spoke not looking at the glass at all. In fact he was shielding his face.

The Gold eyeballs stared out in to the laboratory on to the designs, there future prison.

[Slick]

Dagobah

System reboot attempt 963,208,127,004,997.... failure

System reboot attempt 963,208,127,004,998.... failure

System reboot attempt 963,208,127,004,999.... failure

System reboot attempt 963,208,127,005,000.... fai---

The droid jerked slightly, it's blood red photoreceptors flickering to life.

Memory Circuit Search....

A Mandalorian female walking away, a trickle of blood leaking out of a nasty gash on her face. She started to turn--

System Error: Memory Banks corrupted, system shut-down in progress to prevent further damage.

The droid's photoreceptors faded out, its chassis twitching like mad before coming to a slow halt. Then it was still.

System reboot attempt 963,208,127,005,001....

[Raganork8]

Coruscant; Supreme Court:

"Not Guilty" The chambers exploded with applause, cheers, jeers and very audible boos.

The Neimoidians smiled a gleeful and greedy grin that was displayed on images all around the Court Chambers. Their pod slowly went back into place and with a swift speed they exited.

The shouting and applause continued after they left the chambers and the anger began to gush from Tyn Namor's mouth.

"This is absurd...!" the words blasted from his mouth over all of the ruckus; all heads turned to him. "...What kind of legal system allows criminals to go unpunished for deeds that have lead to countless deaths?!" Namor smashed his hand down on the control panel.

"You will stand in order delegate Namor" the Supreme Judge blasted the words at him with a force that stifled the crowd's noise. Namor shook his head and pointed a sharp finger at the Judge.

"This Republic will FAIL if we allow vermin like Nute Gunnary to tear it apart by brazenly breaking laws and using loop holes to avoid punishment!" Cheers exploded all around him; and a few jeers went up with little show. The Judge looked furious and turned his eyes deep into Namor.

"If you have a problem with how this Republic works then perhaps you'd be better to live in one of the outer rim territories, until then you are not the legal justice controller and will abide by the same laws you hold your comrades to!" The judge yelled so hard spit rained from his mouth; the chamber became more quiet; but, the lack of audible support did nothing to hinder Namor's thoughts.

"Perhaps the illegal and murderous Trade Federation monsters are your comrades; but, I assure they are not mine; and not anyone who cares for the continued existence of our Republic...!" Cheers. "...You will find that I will use my executive power to block this decision again!"

The Judge's head exploded into a red fury.

"You are holding up the democratic system by fighting every decision we make!" The Judge spat.

"Then perhaps this court; if you can even call it that, should consider prosecuting these cancerous venom!"

The Court exploded into something; Namor wasn't sure if his supporters were rallying with him or his nay-sayers were beginning to fight against him.

"Order...ENOUGH..." the Judge yelled. "...COURT IS ADJOURNED...Delegate Namor; you are in contempt for starting this circus!" the Judge gestured around at the scene, everyone was yelling; but, it did not matter to Namor.

He quickly turned his body and rushed out of the Chambers.

Coruscant; Supreme Court: Personal Chambers:

"You're not going to last too long at this rate..." Hill Munn joked in Namor's direction.

"I don't understand it..." Namor shook his head in confusion. "...That blockade could not have been any more illegal" Namor sat down and sighed loudly.

"It doesn't seem like a battle you can win right now." Munn consoled.

"Or ever..." Namor pointed to the news holocron. "...People are leaving the Republic in drastic numbers; I have no doubt the Trade Federation will be gone before I can draft a new order of appeal." Munn nodded; he was fond of Namor.

Tyn Namor was the youngest of the Delegates; when the Trade Federation first started the blockade Namor wasn't even old enough to serve yet. Olive skin, tall and smart as a whip. People looked up to him and some considered him the new wave of the republic.

"I know I work in politics; but, what do these fleeting systems really mean?" Munn asked; Namor breathed in and bit his bottom lip.

"It's not the systems I'm worried about..." Namor began "...In my opinion these cooperations shouldn't have been allowed into the Republic in the first place." Namor said.

"If they leave what do you think will happen?"

"Depends; Trade Federation has an army, I'm sure some other cooperations will leave and fund some for themselves."

"The Republic doesn't have an army" Munn stated.

"That's the point; they're going to try to hold us hostage. The politicians let it get to this." Namor stood up; suddenly realizing he was late.

"That's right you have that appointment; do take care; I'll keep it cozy in here for you." Munn said; Namor smiled for the first time in a long while.

"Thanks Hill; you're the best."

Namor ran to the elevator and got on; several flights down a man got on in silence. A few more levels and the man turned to him.

"You're delegate Namor right?" The man asked; Namor nodded.

"Indeed I am"

"You're the one who keeps appealing the Trade Federation judgments..."The man sounded excited.

"Aye"

"Great; I've been listening to you and I got something for you."

Namor looked over and saw the blaster pointed at him.

He Froze.

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze; orbiting Naboo

The Purple Haze was Ick's ship... if you wanted to call it that. I was more like a piece of slag that had an engine and a life support system stuck on it and flung into the galaxy. Everything was done manually; there were absolutely no frills attached, save for the... improvements Ick had made over the six years he had owned her.

Those improvments included covering the floors with shag carpeting, getting a brand new (and especially comfortable) chair for the cockpit, and most importantly, an amazing sound system. So realistically, he had made absolutely no improvements to the Purple Haze at all... but that was okay. As long as everything was mellow 'n' laid back, everything was just peachy. Sure, the engine would conk out now and then, leaving him stranded somewhere, but hey... whatever.

Everything was fine... at least as far as he cared.

[Orandhite]

Tatooine: Desert

The desert sands swirl and gust in the wind that dashes across the changeable landscape. An outcropping of rocks funnels the sand into a whirlpool of movement. As more grains enter the tumultuous movement, colours appear to combine and then disperse. The wind howls louder and shriller against the barren landscape. The storm that has been created by the rocks thickens, building familiar shapes. An outline appears, filling slowly.

Colours bleed together, finding their place, the shape of a man moving within the dust cloud clearly visible. As the dust settles, Orandhite hunches nestled in the alcove. No movement is discernible. Suddenly, he gasps, gulping huge lungfuls of air. Shivering, stumbling, he tries to stand, but trips to his knees. Hugging himself, the wind ripping at his clothes, he scours the landscape. Closing his eyes, centring himself, he gets to one knee, then pushes himself erect.

Where are you?

No response. The question itself speaks volumes. The need to ask it proves a problem has arisen.

He reaches out into his surroundings, picks up the trail and stumbles into the growing dusk, retching as he goes.

[Kommandant Felix]

Coruscant: Jedi Temple

Am I really alive? Or...is this just a hallucination??

The last memories that had haunted Felix was staring into the abyss of hatred. Someone had killed him, of that he was sure. Still...he struggled to remember who he was. He remembered a teenage girl...a teenage boy...and other shadowy figures. Also, he vaguely remembered another figure, wrapped in shadows. He knew that he had once known his face, but that along with a host of other memories was locked somewhere where he could not go. His mind was like a safe...now matter how many times he tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. Still, he remembered a name...the name of the man that had enslaved his mind for years. As he said it, it almost seemed as if the room darkened, as the inner darkness of his soul infiltrated the air around him.

"Sidious"

His voice was raspy, almost as if it hadn't been used in years. His body ached, as atrophy had already started to set in. For the first time since he had woken up, he turned his eyes on his surroundings. His eyes were still having time adjusting to the light, as dim as it was. By the looks of it, he was in a cell, a small room with a small crack to let in daylight. Still, the accommodations appeared to be comfortable, and the furniture looked moderately expensive. He tried to door, and it appeared to be locked. After doing so, he stared at his hands, once again unsure if he was really alive.

What the...

A flash of memory came to him, and he was surprised to see that his hands...were normal. For some reason, he remembered cybernetic replacements. Something had....corrected that. He was once again...fully human.

His jubilant laughter echoed in the room, and the Force pulsed around him, reflecting the light and creating a prism effect. As a man made rainbow danced across the room, his joy increased further, as he realized that he was truly alive.

"Alive!" he shouted.

"I can see that", a strange dark voice replied to him, causing him to jump. Whirling around, he came face to face with a tall, dark, bald man who almost appeared to be scowling.

Something about him seems to be familiar...but I can't quite place my finger on it.

"Good," the man replied. "Now that you are awake...the questioning can begin."
************************************************** ***********************************************
Exterior: Senate Building - Day
The massive Senate Building glistens in the afternoon sun.Small patches of fog have still to burn off.

Interior: Senate Chamber - Day
The vast rotunda is buzzing with chatter. Mas Amedda, the Supreme Chancellor's majordomo, tries to quiet things down as Palpatine confers with an Aide, Uv Gizen, riding a small one-man floating scooter.

Mas Amedda: Order! We shall have order! The motion for the Republic to commission an army takes precedent, and that is what we will vote on at this time. '

Everything quiets down. The Aide disperses, and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine steps to the podium.

Palpatine: ...My esteemed colleagues, excuse me... I have just received some tragic and disturbing news. Senator Amidala of the Naboo system has been assassinated!

There is a shock silence in the vast arena.

Palpatine: This grievous blow is especially personal to me. Before I became Chancellor, I served Amidala when she was Queen. She was a great leader who fought for justice, not only here in this honorable assembly, but also on her home planet. She was so loved she could have been elected Queen for life. She believed in public service, and she fervently believed in democracy. Her death is a great loss to us all. We will all mourn her as a relentless champion of
freedom... and as a dear friend.

There is a moment of silence. Ask Aak, the Senator of Malastare, moves his pod into the center of the arena.

Ask Aak: How many more Senators will die before this civil strife ends! We must confront these rebels now, and we need an army to do it.

A second pod moves into the center of the area with Darsana, the Ambassador of Glee Anselm.

Darsana: Why weren't the Jedi able to stop this assassination? We are no longer safe, under their protection.

Senator Orn Free Taa swings forward in his pod.

Orn Free Taa: The Republic needs more security now! Before it comes to war.

Palpatine: Must I remind the Senator from Malastare that negotiations are continuing with the separatists. Peace is our objective here... not war.

The Senators yell pro and con. Mas Amedda tries to calm things down. Senator Padme Amidala, with Captain Typho, Jar Jar, and Dorme, maneuver her pod into the center of the vast arena.

Amidala: My noble colleagues, I concur with the Supreme Chancellor. At all costs, we do not want war!

The Senate goes quiet, then there is an outburst of cheering and applause.

Palpatine: It is with great surprise and joy the chair recognizes the Senator from Naboo, Padmé Amidala.
Padme: Less than an hour ago, an assassination attempt was made against my life. One of my bodyguards and six others were ruthlessly and senselessly murdered. I was the target but, more importantly, I believe this security measure before you, was the target. I have led the opposition to build an army... but there is someone in this body who will stop at nothing to assure its passage...

Many of the Senators boo and yell at Senator Amidala.

Padme: I warn you, if you vote to create this army, war will follow. I have experienced the misery of war firsthand; I do not wish to do it again.

There is sporadic yelling for and against her statements.

Padme: Wake up, Senators... you must wake up! If we offer the separatists violence, they can only show us violence in return! Many will lose their lives. All will lose their freedom. This decision could very well destroy the very
foundation of our great Republic. I pray you, do not let fear push you into a disastrous decision. Vote down this security measure, which is nothing less than a declaration of war! Does anyone here want that? I cannot believe they do.

There is an undercurrent of booing... and groaning. Senator Orn Free Taa moves his pod next to Amidala.

Orn Free Taa: My motion to defer the vote must be dealt with first. That is the rule of law.

Amidala looks angry and frustrated. Palpatine gives her a sympathetic look.

Palpatine: Due to the lateness of the hour and the seriousness of this motion, we will take up these matters tomorrow. Until then, the Senate stands adjourned.

Exterior: Executive Quarters Building - Day
The giant towers of the Republic Executive Building seem to reach the heavens. Traffic clogs the smoggy sky.

Interior: Chancellor's Office - Day
Chancellor Palpatine sits behind his desk with Two Red-Clad Royal Guards on either side of the door. Yoda, Plo Koon, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Mace Windu sit across from him. Behind them stand the Jedi Luminara Unduli and her Padawan, Barriss Offee.

Palpatine: I don't know how much longer I can hold off the vote, my friends. More and more star systems are joining the separatists.

Mace Windu: If they do break away -
Palpatine: I will not let this Republic that has stood for a thousand years be split in two. My negotiations will not fail!
Mace Windu: If they do, you must realize there aren't enough Jedi to protect the Republic. We are keepers of the peace, not soldiers.
Palpatine: Master Yoda, do you think it will really come to war

Yoda closes his eyes.

Yoda: Worse than war, I fear... Much worse.
Palpatine: What?
Mace Windu: What do you sense, Master?
Yoda: The Dark Side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is. But this I am sure of - (opens his eyes) Do their duty, the Jedi will.

A muted buzzer sounds. A hologram of an aide, Dar Wac, appears on the Chancellor's desk.

Dar Wac: (in Huttese) The loyalist committee has arrived, my Lord.
Palpatine: Good. We will discuss this matter later. Send them in.

They all stand as Senator Amidala, Captain Typho, Mas Amedda, Dorme, and Senators (Bail Organa, Jar Jar Binks and Horox Ryyder) and their Attendants enter the office. As Yoda and Mace Windu move to greet the Senator, Yoda taps Amidala with his cane.

Yoda: Senator, your tragedy on the landing platform, terrible. With you the force is strong... young Senator. Seeing you alive brings warm feeling to my heart.
Padme: Thank you, Master Yoda. Do you have any idea who was behind the attack?
Mace Windu: Our intelligence points to disgruntled spice miners, on the moons of Naboo.
Padme: But I think that Count Dooku was behind it.

There is a stir of surprise. They look at one another.

Ki-Adi-Mundi: He is a political idealist, not a murderer.
Mace Windu: You know, M'Lady, Count Dooku was once a Jedi. He couldn't assassinate anyone. It's not in his character.
Yoda: In dark times nothing is what it appears to be, but the fact remains for certain, Senator, in grave danger you
are.

Palpatine gets up, walks to the window, and looks out at the vast city.

Palpatine: Master Jedi, may I suggest that the Senator be placed under the protection of your graces.

Bail Organa: Do you think that is a wise decision during these stressful times?
Padme: Chancellor, if I may comment, I do not believe the...
Palpatine: ..."situation is that serious." No, but I do, Senator.
Padme: Chancellor, please! I don't want any more guards!
Palpatine: I realize all too well that additional security might be disruptive for you, but perhaps someone you are familiar with... an old friend like... Master Kenobi...

Palpatine nods to Mace Windu, who nods back.

Mace Windu: That's possible. He has just returned from a Border dispute on Ansion.
Palpatine: You must remember him, M'Lady... he watched over you during the blockade conflict.
Padme: This is not necessary, Chancellor.
Palpatine: Do it for me, M'Lady, please. I will rest easier. We had a big scare today. The thought of losing you is unbearable.

Amidala sighs as the Jedi get up to leave.

Mace Windu: I will have Obi-Wan report to you immediately, M'Lady.

Yoda leans into her ear.

Yoda: Too little about yourself you worry, Senator, and too much about politics. Be mindful of your danger, Padmé. Accept our help.

The Jedi leave the office.

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze

Holonet search: funny plants

As usual, thousands upon thousands of results came up, but one caught his attention.

"Whoa man... that's far out." Ick said to himself, his eyes focused on the view screen before him. There were flowers of every color... and they were huge. It was like a crazy acid trip; except he wasn't high... at least any more than usual. Plus, the planet had a cool name... Felucia.

Blinking deeply, Ick made a decision. He had to go to this crazy awesome planet. Grabbing the control ring with great fervor, Ick threw the ship into a 180 degree turn, complete with three corkscrews, four loops, and one stall...

"Aw man..."

Once he got everything running again, he plugged the coordinates into the navicomputer, threw on a Jimi Hendrix album (Are You Experienced?), and blasted off for yet another far out adventure!

[flo fett]

Coruscant : Aboard the Vendetta

Lusa We.
Flo found herself back at her ship the ‘Vendetta’ without even remembering making her way there. Mechanically, she started up the guidance systems, plotting in her destination of Nar Shaddaa. She lost herself in the mundanities of take off, trying to blot out the name that was tugging at the edge of her attention.
Lusa We.
She punched the launch control, a strange feeling uncoiling in her stomach. She felt out of sorts, caught off guard. The name had shaken her. Anger simmered below the surface and for the first time in a long while she felt her temper on the edge of breaking. This job was already getting off to a bad start, she thought with a grimace. Mentally shaking herself as the ‘Vendetta’ burst free of the planet’s atmosphere into the clean, desolate expanses of space she relaxed as the blackness surrounded her, seemingly stilling the churning in her gut. Putting the ship into hyperspace, she brought up a small holovid on her view screen and watched for a few moments, smiling fondly at the small being waving happily from the recording.
Lusa We.
Her smile faded and anger reasserted itself on her face as the name rang out again in her head. For about the hundredth time in a month she had an urge to call out to Gerb with her comm implant but she resisted and the link stayed dead. Gerb wouldn't want to speak to her, she was a long way away, looking after something more important than Flo. She sat alone in a ship that was now empty of its droid brain, missing, not for the first time in the past eight years, her droid’s sarcastic comments and biting friendship. She sighed feeling suddenly very old, looks like the past is about to catch up with you Lusa and maybe with me too. I should have finished you the first time.

Nar Shaddaa: Trade Sector

The day had started off badly for the thief, coward, and general scumbag known as Chet Tarvus too. He had been rudely awakened that morning in his wretched little room by two muscled goons who wanted to know where the credits their boss had lent him were. Of course, he had explained, the money would be there if they would only give him a little more time. Owing credits to a Hutt was a bad idea, they had said as if he wasn’t already aware, and making him wait for it was a really bad idea. But, he had lied in a suitably pathetic voice, he had the money, he just had to go and get it, someone else owed it to him. He just needed time.
They had agreed to give him more time, 12 standard hours to be exact, but they were adding another 10% interest onto the loan. Then they had broken two of his fingers just to remind him.
All in all, he thought as he pulled himself onto a stool in the Pandora Bar, not a good start to anyone’s day. He counted out the credits he had amassed that morning. It had taken some amount of threats, extortion and theft just to get this sorry little pile. He winced as his broken fingers ached on cue as if to remind him of what awaited him in 7 hours. He still needed another 1000 and he was fresh out of ideas. He sighed heavily and looked around the dim room, looking to see if there were any likely targets. It didn’t look hopeful, two Wookiees drunkenly arguing in the corner (that was straight out), a burly, mean looking humanoid who had his blaster sitting on the table in front of him (not a chance), and a group of private security officers (no thanks). He sighed heavily again and turned back to the bar, ordering a drink. What did one drink matter, he was still 1000 credits down anyway?
A few hours later, his pile a little shorter, Tarvus gestured unsteadily for another drink. He drank deeply, slipping a glance sideways as a woman in armour came in and started to ask the barkeeper questions. His eyes slipped lower as he noticed a leather pouch that hung from the woman’s belt, and more pouches on her flightsuit. Tarvus took another drink, and blearily eyed the stranger again. He could see the woman’s blaster resting heavily in its holster but she seemed completely engrossed in her questioning of the barman. Her helmet visor looked to Tarvus' mind as though it gave limited peripheral vision. Tarvus took another drink; her gear looked like it was worth a credit or two. He glanced at the pouches again, the alcohol making him braver than normal, maybe just one little rummage.

Tarvus squealed in pain as the stranger’s hand clamped on his wrist, the thin bones grating together.
‘You’re either incredibly stupid or have a wish to die.’
Tarvus whimpered as the woman put her blaster against his chest.
‘Now which is it?’
Face on, she was terrifying. Tarvus' drunkenness evapourated as the visor stared down at him. He couldn’t tear his eyes from the dark T. His arm felt as if it was going to explode with the steel grip which still held it.
‘I…I…stupid…Miss. I’m st… stupid and very sorry.’ He screamed as the woman rubbed his wrist bones together again. ‘Ssso…very…s…sorry.’
‘Maybe you are, and maybe you aren’t,’ came the woman’s heavily synthesized voice. ‘Sorry people tend to be helpful people,’ she said. ‘And helpful people tend to stay alive.’
Tarvus slid to his knees still in her grip. ‘Oh, I am helpful, so very helpful,’ he cringed. He looked up; his face a mixture of fear, pain and hope, ‘What do you need?’
She let his wrist go with apparent disgust but the blaster remained trained on him, unwavering. ‘Get up.’
The stranger’s helmet snapped up as if suddenly aware of the others in the bar who had been silently watching the scene.
‘I suggest you all find somewhere else to drink,’ she said flatly. Tarvus stared in amazement as everyone started to leave without the woman even having to move her blaster. Even the drunk security officers left without a word. Who was she?
Once the bar had emptied she looked back down at Chet, ‘Get up,’ she repeated. Tarvus did so, climbing back onto his stool.
‘I’m looking for someone,’
‘I know everyone!’ he gabbled idiotically, ‘And everyone knows m....’
‘Lucky for you,’ said the woman cutting across him. ‘You’ll know Lusa We then.’ Tarvus nearly fainted with relief.
‘The Kaminoan?’ he asked. ‘I know him, he lives in the Spectrum Building just across the plaza…’
‘I want you to tell him that I’m coming to visit him.’
‘What?’ said Tarvus confused.
‘I don’t repeat myself,’ said the woman lowering her blaster. ‘Just tell him, and remember that everyone knows you, so if I need to it won’t be hard to find you.’ She walked to the door with Tarvus still staring after her with confusion.
‘But who are you?’ he called after her. ‘Who will I tell him is coming to visit?’
‘I thought you knew everyone?’ the woman said without turning.

[Slick]

Felucia

Ick strolled among the flowers, shrooms, and whatnot, simply awestruck at everything. The colors dazzled him, the smells infatuated him... and he had to go to the bathroom. Manuvering his way into an alcove of sorts, he dropped his drawers and proceeded to take care of his business, ignoring the fact that the entire area had become very quiet save for the telltale sounds of a creature Ick hadn't bothered look at in the travel brochure.

Hazards were such a pain to pay attention to.

In his usual daze, Ick looked behind him to see that very creature; this great big crab looking thing (I believe they are called Acklays) coming toward him at a great amount of speed, bearing directly down on him.

"Whoa... that's pretty cool." Ick said to himself, slowly pulling his pants back up. He just watched as the beast stormed toward him, fresh meat obviously on its mind.

Now, a normal person would either A: Run away, or B: Run faster. But Ick was by no means a normal person, so he decided to go with option F....

[Slick]

Dagobah

Reboot attempt 10,362,791,008,279,082... Success!

The blood red photoreceptors flickered back into existance, automatically taking in details. He was in an escape pod... he had to get out. Doing his best to move in the cramped interior of the pod, he managed to pop to the hatch out via brute force, launching the thin chunk of metal several yards away from the pod, landing with a soft splash as it landed in the swamp. Slithering his way out of the pod, SL stood up, surveying his surroundings.

He tried to delve into his memory core, but the ion blast he had suffered ten years beforehand had damaged a multitude of circuits, his memory core was probably the most affected. He could pick out scraps... much like he had been able to when he was reactivated on Tatooine. But yet again, there was nothing of real value. About all he could get was killing Gungans and this crazy computer having the hots for him; the latter somewhat disturbing the droid.

Little to his knowledge, when he had reactivated and blew off the hatch of the escape pod, a signal had been sent out to the very organic that had put him there... Flo Fett. A warning that the crazed droid was back on the warpath and was probably coming after her. However, revenge was the furthest thing from SL's mind. He couldn't remember the Mandalorian anyhow; he was slightly more worried that there wasn't anything worth killing to pass the time.

Oh. The horror.

[flo fett]

Nar Shaddaa, The Trade Sector.

Lusa We
Chet Tarvus limped through the dark streets, cradling his broken arm and bruised ribs. The goons had caught up with him a few hours ago and had taken the little money he had amassed. They had given him the beating of his life but word had gotten around about his run in at the bar and they had been told by their Hutt lord to let him live, at least long enough to complete whatever task Flo Fett had set him. Flo Fett! No one, it seemed, even a Hutt Lord wanted to mess in that woman’s affairs. Oh Tarvus had heard of her alright; he grimaced into the night, who hadn’t? He had just never seen her or the armour she was known for. He shuddered, wincing as his body complained at the tiny movement. He was lucky to be alive! Trying to pick pocket a Fett! He mentally slapped himself. Fool. He had found out the armoured stranger’s name from the Pandora’s barman who had stared at him with a look of sheer amazement. The identification had been backed up by the goons as they were happily trying to rearrange his kidneys.
‘Working for Fett eh? Lucky for you, now you get to live a little longer.’
Yeah, lucky me, thought Tarvus glumly as he reached Lusa We’s workshop. I’m delivering this message then getting the hell off this rock to someplace none of them will find me. Some where in the back of beyond. Maybe I’ll go stay with Talus, he stays way out on Tatooine. Can’t get much further from trouble than that.

Nar Shaddaa Orbit, aboard the Vendetta.

Lusa We
Flo watched the sun set over the planet rim below her, she felt calm and satisfied. Maybe the job wouldn’t be so bad. The churning feeling had gone completely and only solid self control remained. She lay back in her seat, closing her eyes. She could have gone straight to We’s and taken him out there but she was feeling unusually cruel, let him worry, let him try to flee, let him run to where he felt safe. Let him go to the place where she could tie up more than one loose end. She sighed and lost herself in memories;

Nine years previously; one year after abandoning SL-8.

The message had come out of the blue;

'You’re either brave or stupid. We need to talk. Try not to dart me this time.'

And so she had met up with Jango Fett again, this time at his request. No chases, no trying to kill each other. He had just turned up at their meeting point on Nar Shaddaa and opened the cargo door of Slave1.
‘You coming or what?’ the gruff voice of the other Mandalorian had cut in over her helmet’s comm link.
She had found herself a few hours later feeling completely bewildered on a clinical white settee, in a clinical white apartment, in the clinical white city of Tipoca on Kamino, drinking a glass of wine, which thankfully wasn’t white as well. Jango was sitting across from her, wearing civvies and bizarrely feeding a small child. She decided it was best not to ask, he hadn't killed her yet and she didn't want to push it. They had talked and talked. Jango had been doing a lot of investigating in the year since they had last met and had discovered that she did indeed have Mandalorian roots and a true right to wear the armour. In fact he had tracked down the family of the man who had been her father and to her great relief, she found that he was not an exile or disgrace to the Mandalorian clan. She was a Mando. She was part of the Clan Valdis.
She was secretly glad he hadn’t held the darting on Tatooine against her; thankfully he seemed put it down to her blood loss... and then, after a good dinner she had met Lusa We, when he came to Jango’s door to check up on the small child...


The computer suddenly burst into life; Flo was ripped from memory lane, her eyes flying open as the whole cockpit was filled with sound.

"This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction."

She fell off her seat in shock at the sudden noise, scrabbling for her blaster.

"Aperture Science:
We do what we must because we can
For the good of all of us
except for the ones who are dead"

'What the hell?' she shouted over the deafening singing.

"But there's no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun
For the people who are still alive"

She lifted herself off the floor and frantically pressed some buttons on the control panel.

"I'm not even angry
I'm being so sincere right now
Even though you broke my heart and killed me"

Nothing seemed to switch the bizarre music off, the strangely droid-like voice continued to sing creepily at ear splittling level.
'Oh bloody hell!' Flo shouted, hitting some more buttons. She tried everything she could think of. Nothing...except more singing...

"And believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive
While you are dying I'll be still alive
And when you're dead I'll be still alive..."

'Frek!' she shouted loudly and all out of options she pointed her blaster at the speaker systems and fired.

"...STILL ALIVE

still alive..."

She stood in silence in the cockpit, breathing in the smell of ozone and burned plastoid. The melted speaker vents dripped quietly onto the floor. After what seemed like an age she lowered her blaster and approached the control panel again; she pulled up the ships diagnostic program and searched for the cause of the music, after all ships didn't just suddenly burst into song. A few minutes passed and the source of the strange music appeared on screen. It was a parting gift from gerb before she was downloaded to her new home;the music had been a signal from an escape pod, a signal alerting the Vendetta that it had been opened and it's occupant was on the move. A signal from the very pod she had blasted SL-8 off to Dagobah in 10 years perviously.
She sank slowly into the pilot seat, her blaster dropping onto the floor. the song reverberating in her head...
"...STILL ALIVE

still alive..."
'Bugger.'

[Snake_Judge]

Coruscant : Jedi Temple

Damre strode towards the large doors in his usual stride. It had only been a week sense he last met with the council, it was his initiation to the order then, now he went for his first assignment.

Opening the door quickly, Damre walked in to the room and stood before the Jedi. Yoda, Yaddle, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Plo Koon and a few other Jedi sat in there chairs. Damre thought they clashed with the room a bit but he never voiced that to the members of the Council, It was there room after all.

"Young jedi" Yoda crocked "A task we have for you"
"What is it the council would have me do?" Damre asked swiftly.
"To the point I see" Commented Master Koon.
"A combing storm we sense, Find thous who left our order you must" Yoda crocked in his usual tone.
"I will Leave at once" Damre responded. "May the force be with you" and with that Damre left the room.

"He has doubts" Ki-Adi-Mundi said turning to Shaak Ti
"Is it wise to send him out like this?" Inquired Mace Windu
"Yes, young he is but strong with the force is he" Yoda responded "Much he will learn though risky it is"

[Slick]

Felucia

Plan F. The plan that Ick always tried to use. What was this plan? Some crazy awesome combat manuver? No... not quite. Actually, Plan F was to make friends. Crazy? In this particular situation, quite. But Ick didn't care.

Plant his feet firmly on the ground, the ex-jedi simply watched the Acklay come at him. It was mere feet from him with a claw raised to hack him in half when Ick raised a hand, channelling the powers of peace and love into the feral brain that the Acklay possessed. Instantly the beast lowered its claw and just stared at Ick, most of its motor functions paralyzed from the burst of energy. Then it collapsed into a heap.

Without a moment to spare, Ick jumped onto the Acklay's back and pressed his palms against the animal's back, more or less jump starting the monster into being functional, though he still was sub-consciously still controlling the animal's brain. It stood back up, shook its head, and proceeded to start walking, unknowingly giving the hippie a sightseeing trip.

Lighting himself a "special cigarette", Ick just sat back and watched the world go by.

Sometime later, Ick's hold of the Acklay lessened; probably due to the fact that he was asleep. It bucked as its feral instincts kicked back in, sending its passenger flying. He landed in a heap just out of the flailing beast's range. He snapped awake, though still in a daze.

The relinquished brain function slammed into the Acklay like a brick wall; all it could register was blood lust... and the only thing that was around was Ick. Wheeling around on him, it charged forward, slashing wildly with its front claws.

"Hey man, what happened? Did you get into my stuff while I was sleeping?" Ick asked slowly, sidestepping a stab from the monster. It just roared and slashed again, clipping Ick in the shoulder. His pupils dialated; not from the pain, but from a memory.

Another friend falling, his body rent to pieces by things he could not see. His the handle of his lightsaber hot in his hand, he tried to reach out to sense the threat, but to no avail. All he could detect was pure, unadultured darkness... and the fear that the darkness spawned. He attacked wildly, letting instinct take over. He no longer was trying to protect... he was going to kill.

His pupils went back to normal... he was back in the present. But it wasn't the same. The Acklay laid open in several places, looking a lot like it had been run over by a lawnmower several times then hit by a car. The smell of burning flesh saturated the air... and him.

For a long moment he just stared at the carnage, mouth slightly agape. Then he felt that famililar heat against his right palm... an ignited lightsaber. His lightsaber. The sky blue blade hummed quietly... he dropped the weapon; it shut down and hit the gore covered ground.

[jedimasterElizabeth]

Padawan’s Chamber, Jedi Temple of Coruscant


“Now, just focus more on the crystal. Try to feel the energy that released in every crystal before you have ever assembled into your lightsaber.” The Jedi Knight flicked her eyes as the Padawan of the age almost like her tired their best to ‘communicate’ to the heart of the lightsaber. Leaning slightly on the table, her minds was not in the class.

She had changed much since the incident that happened years ago. Her dark black hair still as short as usual, eyes were in sparkling blue, showing her wise-ness in her. Her appearance remained like a 19 years old lady although she had reached the equal age of her friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi cause’ of the presence of Sacheroth in her, made her ageless. Yet, changes still occurs. She had never been so moody or had ever her mind full of ‘stuffs’.

She will never forget the death of her two friends, Zayne and Felix although he was evil when she last saw him. Zayne… Talking about Zayne… She had never forget the last word that he talked to her. But, she could not let these feelings into her as now she took the place to train the Padawans of the Jedi Order. She had taken a difficult job as an idol to them. No error will be making.

Nevertheless, Zach, the new Jedi Knight took her place an adventurer. Doing the errand for the Republic and the Jedi Order. She ‘resigned’ from it because she did not want the incident of ‘Sith’ return and controlling her mind. She was lucky enough to regain her consciousness last time but there was no second time. She can’t afford to see that happened again. The Jedi Masters in the Council respected her choice and let her take the place of Jedi Knight Luminara Unduli, her best friend and her young Padawan Barriss Offee joined Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker on a mission at Ansion.

Yet, something in her telling her that she will be out there, holding her lightsabers and in action of dueling and chasing. Obi-Wan always told her to accept it and join him; together they train young Anakin Skywalker. But she declined them, replying to him that she was not ready to be out there again.

“Anakin Skywalker,” she thought of the Chosen One. Yes, indeed she could feel the same power in him such as hers. He fancied her a lot than his own Master. She smiled a little as she remember that he told her, “If you are my Master than Obi-Wan, I will pray for you everyday and never rebel against your words, anything that you told me to do! Really! I would be thousand times happier cause’ I had a Master that is so pretty and would not be grumpy on little stuff like my Master!” Meanwhile Obi-Wan kept asking her ways to tame the boy. Life was going smooth.

“Master,” a voice broke her thoughts. She held up her head and gave a smile at the man. “Yes Roan, may I help you?”

“Uh… I had some trouble with the crystal of mine. Somehow it rejected my thoughts.” He handed the crystal to her.

Receiving the pink crystal, she observed it, “Well, this is not a suitable material for you then. The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart. All are intertwined: the crystal, the blade, the Jedi. You are one. If the crystal would not call back to you, then it is not suitable for you.”

Roan seemed to be sad after hearing those words. He nodded and took back the crystal from Elizabeth, yet she would not return it to him, “Why don’t you come to my apartment later this afternoon. I will let you choose the crystals that I had since the Old Order, you will find it nice and you may take two of them.” Immediately, the smile reappeared on his face, thank you was heard from him before he returned to his sit. Elizabeth smiled widely as Roan’s friends patted his shoulder and said you are a hell lucky guy! Crystal from the nicest Master! “Padawans, you may dismiss yet remember to bring the other material for your lightsaber. Will meet you guys again next week in the fourth tower. Go on now.”

A roar of footsteps was sounded as they rushed out the room. The girl Padawans smiled at her, giving Elizabeth a bow before they exited the room, leaving the Knight alone, sitting on the table watching them exited. Without a second, her comlink rang. At the second she thought the Masters of the Council wanted to meet her again, once to take the comlink out from her belt case, a grin appeared.

“Missed me?”

“Never changes, aren’t you, Obi-Wan? Where are you? If you are able to contact me and still be that clear, you must be returned to Coruscant.”

“Yeah. On the way to your class right now, just to visit you.”

“Had you gave your report?”

“Of course I had. Before the Council resend Anakin and I to another mission, I must pay a visit to the most respectful friend of mine. By the way-“

Another voice was heard behind the noisy crowd of the Jedi Temple. The exciting voice made Elizabeth laughed her lungs out.

“Oh come on! I want to talk to Master Elie! Give it to me, Master! I promised I will pay full attention to your words later on. Please!!!”

“Okay okay… You promised as a Jedi. There.”

“Hey, Master Elie!”

But before she could reply any word, Obi-Wan took over the comlink.

“Time’s up, Padawan. We meet her later. So be patience.”

“Are you necessary be that mean to him, Obi-Wan?” she teased.

“Maybe. See you later. Can’t talk to you through comlink. Something coming through.”

“Awww… Master!”

“You guys somehow acting like children.” She giggled a little. “Sure. See you later.”

The first conversation with Obi-Wan and his Padawan since a few months back had ended, leaving Elizabeth shook her head in disbelieve and joy.

[Raganork8]

Korriban: Sith Chambers:

There were no answers here.

One of the Bogden Moons: 5 years ago:
The force of the metal body thrusting into him; sent him careening into a nearby wall. The smack against his back knocked the wind out of him; but, he recovered and used the force to keep the Droid from slamming into him again. A quick pull from the force sent the droid falling over.

The sword swung and his body rocketed to the droid and the sword came down; but, the droid countered harshly with a swinging of it's limb. The sheer violence of the counter attack lifted him off the ground and when he landed it was perversely and on his ankle. He groaned realizing he could not take the time to mourn his pain, he threw himself back.

Lifting the sword again, he realized the last attack bent the metal sword. That hadn't happened before....he had made the sword out of a wrecked starfighter, it was supposed to be durable.

A little welding though would correct the problem.

"Organic, you've met you end!" 9800 spoke with a terrible rumble. The force spoke to him; but, he had to ignore it...all around him there was something going on. The sword was useless; he threw it down out the way.

He thought of Flo for a moment; was she alright? 9800 had sent his ship to counter hers...there was an explosion, was it her?

His hand felt the hilt of the old lightsaber, it almost made him wretch. The things he had done in his past, the people he had killed. He didn't deserve to use such a weapon

and yet...

The blade ignited and the assassin droid laughed; as if it could feel humor.

"Are you finally getting serious?" The droid asked. "...I hope so; tearing you limb for limb will be much more pleasurable when I know you really thought you could win." It's Electroblade ignited; it wasn't nearly as powerful; yet, still if it touched his skin it would be deadly.

"Kill me later" He spoke; he could sense the confusion.

"Don't beg for your life now."

"I need these answers; once I have them you can have me." The proposition didn't work; the droid hurled itself towards him. He braced himself and sighed. This lightsaber would be his life and he had to-

Korriban: Sith Chambers:

There were no answers here.

[Slick]

Dagobah

SL had been walking... and thinking... and killing various small animals... and being BORED OUT OF HIS MIND!!! Why had whatever put him here put him on this particular planet?! There was nothing to do! Unless of course you enjoyed studying various swamp organisms and the wonderful world of swamp scum.

SL certainly wasn't that droid.

All he wanted was to find something that was worth his time... something that wasn't stupid enough to think that an assassin droid made for a good food item. SL had stopped counting how many times he had been assaulted by animals trying to extract some nutrients out of his combat armor.

Sitting down heavily on a fallen, moss covered tree SL sighed and unceremoniously dropped his head into his upraised right palm. While grumbling to himself he almost failed to pick up the tell tale noises of something... other than native organisms.

Somewhat shocked that there was something else in the area, SL looked around, hoping there was something else on this planet to share in his not-able-to-kill-anything suffering. His targeting computer located the source of the noise... an astromech droid?

Yup, that's exactly what it was. An R2 unit, covered in moss and other various plantlife. It kind of looked like a moving stump. It was whistling erratically, its photoreceptor locked in on SL. SL watched it with great interest; perhaps he could finally have some intelligent conversation!

The R2 unit rolled forward, trundering along the best it could. SL could tell it needed some serious maintenence. This was further reinforced when the droid failed to recognize a patch of water... and proceeded to fall into it with a mighty splash. SL was actually about to go after the droid when a little perescope popped out of the water, reoriented the droid's computer, and before long it had re-emerged from the swamp and rolled right up to SL's feet.

Then it proceeded to leak all of the water it had accumilated onto SL's feet and shins. Normally SL would have been slightly perturbed by this, but he was so happy that there was something else on the planet that he didn't care at all.

Patching into the droid's comm system, SL proceeded to introduce himself via binary.

"Hello astromech. My designation is SL-8. What is yours?"

"Hey man... I'm R2-Beer2."

"That's... kind of unusual."

"Yeah... but it's alright. Just waiting for my master to pick me up."

"Okay... how long have you been imprisoned on this hell hole of a planet?"

"Hey, this is a cool place. You got to slow down and feel the nature around you. It's far out."

"Right... Who is your master?"

"My master? He goes by the name Ick... he's a cool guy."

"Again... how long have you been here?"

"Five years man. It's been pretty far out."

SL mentally did something akin to this: :doh:.

[Snake_Judge]

Coruscant: Jedi Temple Docking Bay

The Steve was Damre's ship. How the ship got it's name was simply out of the lack of creativity in Damre's head. Damre did figure that sense most ships where named after females he'd be unique and name his after a guy. Even though Damre did not know a Steve he decided the ship looked like a Steve.

It was a small one man vessel with a bathroom,auto pilot and sleeping courters. Other than that nothing to fancy or special. The ship was Pink with A White stripe going down the middle. Did Damre get weird looks for his ship? Yes. Did he care? Not really.

He had bought The Steve brand new a few years back at The Vizsla's Family Ship Emporium for a measly 1000 Credits. Along with the ship Damre received a droid. It stood about four feet tall and Jittered uncontrollably.

"That Droid is called Jitters." The sales man had said. "His last master died three years ago in a... fly-by shooting."

Despite the reasoning behind the death of his previous owner, Damre loved the little droid. It's Square head with two overly large photo receptors where just too cute to turn down.

"Are you ready to leave jitters?" Asked Damre.
"Tweet dee skree doot doot twee" Jitters responded in a high pitched tone.
"I say we take the Corellian run to Corellia, then take the trade spine and see where we need to stop. How does that sound jitters?" Damre inquired looking at his companion.
"Dweet twee doot doot wep" the small droid stated.

[Raganork8]

Korriban: Sith Temple:

The powers of the Sith flowed through him; but, he did not want them. He just wanted to understand...why?

One of the Bogden Moons 5 years ago:

The blade came slashing down; barely missing his arm, he rolled and stabbed his saber down. The droid caught his arm and tossed him back. A quick missile shot would be the last thing the droid would do. The explosion kicked up a large dust cloud and even it's sensors could not predict the speed and finesse that he struck with. One slash, straight through, the droid fell in half. It's protocol to destroy him had been unfulfilled and now abandoned. He saw the systems flicker, and then shut off.

Xero extinguished his saber.

He sensed something had happened to Montross, Komari was out there and so was Jango.

Xero was going to get his answers; one way or another.

Korriban: Sith Temple:

...Why was he cursed with this power?

[Slick]

Dagobah

After a short while of "speaking" with R2-Beer2, SL had come to a decision. He would rather be alone on a barren asteroid than be around this stupid astromech another minute. All it ever talked about was how great the planet was and how his master was coming back to get him... almost enough for SL to reconfigure his protocols to allow him to press a blaster pistol against his central processor and pull the trigger.

Wait a minute... that was it!

Program: Nail in Head: Active

Beer2 tweeted erratically for a moment, then was quiet. SL stopped the signal, extended his splice cable, and inserted it into the small droid. Delving into the droid's mainframe, SL easily found what he was looking for. All this good will the astromech was spurting was grinding SL's gears; it was time to... make a few changes.

In the time span of ten seconds SL had reconfigured what he needed to: copy his own combat protocols and retrofit them into the astromech, and change it's happy, love everything personality to being just as blood thirsty and vindictive toward organics as SL was.

One last touch though... R2-Beer2 just wasn't a fitting designation for such a droid. He would leave it there in case its master did come back, but something new was needed. Reformatting that took only a nano-second; SL retracted the splice cable and reactivated the droid. It swivelled it's head and looked at him.

"We need to get off this planet. There are plegm-sacks to exterminate." the droid beeped. SL nodded slightly to himself.

"That there is... that there is S6-66."

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze

Ick sat back in his pilot's seat, his eyes slightly glazed, teetering on the brink of sleep. Yawning expansively, he sat up a little, flipped on the computer and proceeded to lazily skim the files that lay there. After all, it had been... five years since he had done so last. Such things just passed to the wayside when you had more pressing matters to attend to... like... other things... that were important.

"Yeah... yeah... okay..." he mumbled to himself, again flirting with sleep, to the point of letting his head fall down only to bash his forehead against the moniter of his computer.

Now rubbing his head, he continued looking.

Dropped off beer2 on swampy planet; pick him up once the fuzz has stopped chasing me and get the stuff back

Ick stared at the entry, trying to remember what exactly beer2 was. Nope. Nothing. Oh well. May as well go check it out anyhow. The intergalactic rent-a-cops had given up long ago... it must be safe to go back to the swampy planet.

Plugging in the coordinates that the entry provided, Ick was soon in hyperspace, heading toward Dagobah.

[flo fett]

Nar Shaddaa, The Trade Sector

Flo Fett
Lusa We closed the door, Tarvus’ message ringing in his head. Flo Fett is coming to visit you. He stood staring at nothing for a moment, mind reeling.
‘Why?’ he said quietly. ‘Why is she coming?’
He knew though; the woman would come bringing death. ‘Why now though?’ he muttered, ‘Why after all this time?’ He moved straight to the holonet screen, in a matter of seconds his suspicions had been confirmed. That dammed fool Aryl had put a bounty on him. Pompous idiot! Lusa had done some freelance cloning work for him after Aryl had accidentally killed his wife in an argument. The man had obviously got the jitters and was trying to hide any evidence that might be still hanging around, like him. Lusa flicked the screen off, it probably didn’t help that he had cleared out Aryl’s accounts and ran off with his space yacht; he tilted his head and sighed. In hindsight, thought Lusa, not one of my better ideas. But Flo Fett? He moved quickly to packing. How like Aryl to hire a bounty hunter, it was always about image for him. He would have no idea about the connection between the two of them.
Maybe Flo wouldn’t kill him, he thought hopefully; maybe she had gotten over their little misunderstanding. Lusa laughed out loud at himself. Aryl would want him dead, and so would Flo, she was mad as hell the last time they had met. He had barely escaped with his life that time. He threw some robes into his case; did Flo know he was the target when she took the job? Did she take the job because it was him? Lusa shook his head, who knew? He had been nothing but a friend to her when they had first met in Jango’s apartment all those years ago, when he had come to check on Boba’s development. The woman was more unreasonable than Jango! When he had discovered she was a tech empath all he had done was take some genetic material from her for a little side project of his own. Just a little experiment. If Jango hadn’t found out and opened his mouth a few years later he’d still have the subjects now and a great many more credits. Jango, ha! That was how he repaid him, let the woman know about his side lab. Jango owed him! And still he blabbed. He had been the one in charge of Boba’s cloning. He had done all the genetic work himself, he had personally watched over the little embryo as it grew unaltered, over 9 months in the artificial womb; feeding him invitro, adjusting the temperature of the amniotic fluids. He stopped for a moment thinking back to the peaceful hours in the lab with Boba, as the flurry of accelerated cloning went on all around him in the surrounding birthing chambers; it had been a novelty for him, growing a clone through the natural gestation period. He had spent long hours just watching the slowly developing foetus, laughing to himself as he noticed it responding to his voice when it was restlessly kicking and turning, soothing the little being that would become Boba Fett. All that work and Jango had still told Flo about his sideline.

He finished packing and made his way out to where the modified yacht was docked, well he wasn’t waiting around for Flo to come calling. He started the engines, why did she send that rodent Tarvus to tell him he was coming anyway? Cruelty? Was she wanting to scare him before she turned up? So that he would be waiting for her, prone, terrified and ready to give up? Lusa shook his head and lifted the ship into the atmosphere, well that wouldn’t be him, she didn't catch him last time and she wasn’t getting him this time either.
The ship shot into space, whatever the reason, he’d had enough of all these otherworlders, no wonder most of his people never left home. He knew what to do; he would head back to the one place he knew he could get help and then he would disappear to someplace even Flo wouldn’t find him.

Nar Shaddaa Orbit; Aboard the Vendetta


The ship beeped, identifying We’s yacht as it left the moon’s atmosphere. Flo opened her eyes and swung the seat around into position, tracking the other ship, from the homing beacon she had placed after her conversation with Tarvus. She knew where he would be headed first anyway but she did so love the chase. She smiled to herself, imagining the moment when she caught up with him.
Run, Lusa, run.

[Snake_Judge]

On board The Steve

The Holonet popped on screen in front of Damre.

"An assassination was attempted on Senator Amadala today on Corruscant" The automated voice from The Steve read.

How odd Thought Damre. In all of his years he always thought people liked all the senators. Why would someone try to kill someone who only had power temporarily? Damre decided not to dwell on this. He turned to a panel and pressed a button.

NOW EXITING HYPERSPACE

The ship was a Day away from Corellia.

"twee dee dwoo deet?" Jitter's inquired walking in to the cockpit.
"I wish to Meditate before we land to sense if any Jedi are there" Damre clarified. "Thats why I took us out of hyperspace"

Damre left the room as a message appeared on screen.

JEDI ISAAC KINGSTON'S SHIP DETECTED HEADING TOWARDS THE SLUIS SECTOR; PROJECTED DESTINATION DEGOBAH

[Slick]

Dagobah

Ick sighed to himself as he walked off the boarding ramp of the Purple Haze, taking in as much as he could through the cloud of smoke that surrounded his head. Supposedly this droid beer2 was around here; that's what the computer said. After making sure everything was okay, he locked down the Purple Haze (which emitted that whoop-whoop noise that cars make when you electronically lock them) and proceeded to look for his droid.

Not three hundred yards away sat SL and S6, who hadn't moved at all since SL had reprogrammed the little droid. There was nothing to do, so they had settled in and went into standby, just waiting for something to happen. During that time, due to the environment, moss, vines and whatnot had covered both droids; S6 just looked more like a stump and SL looked a lot like a fallen tree in his slouched position.

Alert: Ship landing in immediate area: Distance: 297.6 yds

SL's photoreceptors flared to life, already sending an activation signal to S6. The little droid beeped an affirmative, extending sensors in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

"S6, it's time to get off this stupid planet." SL muttered, already moving in the direction of the ship. S6 tweeted happily and followed. The two moved as fast as the terrain would allow (more along the lines of how fast S6 could get tangled up in vines or fall into a deep puddle and SL could pull him out).

"Whoa." Ick mumbled, squinting slightly at the scene before him. Was that... a walking tree? Did that walking tree just pull a stump out of the swamp and throw it against a tree? Correction: through a tree?

What had just happened: SL got frustrated at S6 and proceeded to vent it out on the astromech by throwing it through a tree, followed by some choice words between the two droids; these were composed of about 80% profanity.

"S6, get up. A human male organic is looking at us. I think we should kill him." SL stated, reaching for a blaster pistol. Aiming carefully at Ick's chest, SL pulled the trigger, only to have the weapon short out and send a jolt of electricity through his arm. The assassin droid cursed and dropped the weapon, running a diagnostic on the weapon as it fell.

Clogged with slime.

S6 laughed (beep boop bweep), gaining a murderous glare from SL, which promptly shut the astromech up, at least for a moment.

"SL-8 (he hadn't quite gained the right to call the assassin droid SL yet), I believe that is Ick, the plegm-sack that left me here."

SL contemplated for a moment, then was about to speak when S6 rolled past, directly at Ick. The ex-Jedi saw the droid and strode forward, still thinking S6 was a stump. His belief was shattered when S6 starting beeping like mad, sounding like he was happy to see his old master.

However, that wasn't exactly the case. This is what the droid was actually saying.

"Come a little closer you miserable plegm sack so I may disembowel you!"

Just as Ick came within a few feet of S6 the droid popped open a tool compartment and extended a claw of sorts, meant for picking up small items. This was also accompianed by a small fountain of water, but the droid ignored that. One thought was on his mind: kill the plegm sack.

Beeping erratically ("DIE! DIE! DIE!") the droid starting hacking away with the claw, only reaching up to the man's knee.

"Hey man, I'm not into that kind of stuff. Lay off man." Ick said, stepping back slightly, thinking the "stump" was trying to perform... illicit activities on him. S6 stayed right on him though, cursing at him for thinking he was trying to do such disgusting things. He started to claw harder, actually ripping a hole in Ick's pants.

By this time SL had caught up with S6; the assassin droid simply hefted S6 up and tossed the astromech into the swamp.

"Hello organic. I apologize for the trash can." SL said, figuring Ick had a ship and was the only ticket off the planet.

"That's okay tree-man." Ick replied. SL was taken aback; how could this organic think he was a tree? He ran a quick diagnostic on himself.

Oh. He was covered in vegitation. The droid internally shuddered.

"What the hell!?" S6 demanded, rolling out of the swamp. SL non-calantly kicked backward and toppled the droid onto its side. It started to roll and went back into the swamp.

"Hey tree-man, have you seen a droid called beer2?" Ick asked.

"Yes... what is he to you?"

"I guess he's my droid."

"You're here to get him?"

"Yup."

"Then you're leaving?"

"Yeah."

"If I find him, will you take me with you?"

"Sure."

In mere seconds SL had hauled S6 out of the swamp.

"Here he is. Can we go now?"

"Sure tree man. Follow me."

[Snake_Judge]

On an unknown location....

you could hear the angry grunting echoing throughout the metal complex. The occasional beeping of a machine was covered by angry swishing of a loose spinal cord in Becta. No longer a brain in a jar Ra'ks was a Metal head with his organs hanging under him

" WHO IS SAM HILL..." Ra'ks' spoke threw the vocabulator of his new head.
" San Hill not Sam" corrected one of the scientists.
" I DON'T CARE WHAT HIS NAME IS!!!" Ra'ks yelled in obvious frustration.
" Sir, Hill will be here in a matter of hours" One Scientist told the one talking to Ra'ks.
" Ok you are going to need to put on a happy fa...." The Scientist started saying to Ra'ks before being interupted
" This is my happy face.....THIS IS my sad face" His metal head obviously not changing emotion due to it being a plate of metal " THIS IS MY ANGRY FACE!!! IT'S ALL THE SAME!!!!"

One of the Scientists pushed a button on the wall

"DON'T YOU CLOSE THAT ON ME!" Ra'ks yelled before his yelling became muffled to a murmur by the wall closing in front of his tank.

"I think we will show him to Hill AFTER we put on the body." The Scientist said turning to his associate.

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze

Ick slouched low in his chair, letting out a breath he seemed to have held since he got on the Purple Haze. There was something about the tree-man... something was off. It reminded him of a certain someone... something he ran into during that last fateful mission for the Jedi council... He closed his eyes and drifted off.

It was the third "night" if you wanted to call it that. The planet they had landed on was in perpetual twilight... it was always dark. The four Jedi were stranded; their ship had been gutted soon after they landed. They were out scouting... they had come back to find a ship minus every key component, including a few more parts that the Jedi didn’t know existed, yet were very important.

So there they were, huddled around a fire, swapping stories back and forth about their exploits. Anything to help ignore the fear that had taken permanent residence in them. They felt abandoned; the warm blanket that the Force afforded them was gone... in short, they were screwed and they knew it.

They were so enveloped in their stories that they failed to detect the man enter the cave they were in, wrapped in a tattered traveling cloak, hood up to protect himself from the vicious, cold wind that whipped outside. He had actually been standing just a few feet away from the Jedi before they noticed.

"Good evening." he simply said. All four of the Jedi jumped, all of them reaching for their lightsabers. He took a slow step back, raising his hands in a sort of mock surrender.

"All I did was greet you. No need to attack me." the man stated, shrugging as he finished the statement. The Jedi gave each other looks and relaxed slightly.

"Can we help you?" Isaac asked, sounding quite calm.

"I’d just like to share in the heat of the fire. It’s pretty damn cold out there."

"Can’t disagree with that." Freddie said, nodding slightly.

"Could you give us a second?" Isaac asked the man.

"Sure." he replied, then turned and headed back toward the cave entrance. When Isaac was sure he was out of earshot, he turned to the other Jedi.

"Did any of you sense anything off him?" he whispered, leaning forward.

"No. I didn’t sense anything. I think it’s safe." Freddie answered. The other two Jedi nodded their agreement. Isaac paused for a moment, reaching for the man through the Force... the man had something... but it didn’t seem dangerous. Isaac nodded.

"He’s okay." he finally said.

"Hey! Come on in!" Freddie shouted. Isaac cringed slightly... loud noises were not their friend out here. The newcomer slowly walked back in, taking up the spot the Jedi allotted him in the circle around the fire. He took down his hood, revealing only that his face was wrapped in bandage-like cloth, shrouding his lower face. Only his eyes and rust colored hair were visible.

His hair was about chin length, though it hung loosely everywhere, obscuring his face even more. Isaac thought he saw a somewhat healed gash from the inside of his right eyebrow, across the bridge of his nose, and finally disappearing under his bandages. From what Isaac could see of his eyes they were somewhere between steel blue and a deep gold, neither color holding precedence over the other.

"Thanks." he said, putting gloved hands up by the fire to heat them up. "So... why are you here?" he added on seemingly as an after thought.

"Well, that’s really none of your business." the only female Jedi said; a Cathar named Mulane. She was anything but subtle. The man shot her a quick glance and nodded.

"Ah. Secret mission. I understand." he said with a shrug. "No big deal."

"So, who are you anyway?" Mulane asked. There was a long pause as the man steepled his fingers and stared into the fire, obviously contemplating his answer carefully.

"You can call me Vagabond." he answered.

"Doesn’t sound like much of a name to me." Mulane stated.

"You wouldn’t be able to understand my actual name."

"Well, we could try." Mulane said, sounding irritated.

"Fine." Vagabond replied before speaking in a raspy, generally unpleasant sounding language for a few seconds. After watching the Jedi look at each other uncomfortably for a second, he spoke again, in Basic.

"I'm assuming you prefer Vagabond." They all nodded.

"So, Vagabond, do you live around here?" Freddie asked, shuffling closer to the fire.

"More or less." Vagabond replied. "I move around a lot, just trying to stay alive."

"Sounds familiar." Freddie said, looking over at Isaac, who nodded a bit.

"Seems to be the thing to do around here." Freddie added on with a slight laugh. Vagabond shrugged.

"You just have to know when and where to go. You just have to adapt and overcome. Simple concept, but around here... it can get a little tough." he said, staring into the fire. "Life isn’t exactly something that thrives out here."

"Well, it looks like we're in the same boat as you." Isaac slowly said. "We're stranded here." Vagabond slowly looked over and locked eyes with the young Jedi. Isaac felt like a Padawan all over again under that gaze; he felt very small.

Vagabond smiled under his bandages, almost feeling pity for them. Isaac broke the eye contact; Vagabond could only sum it up in one word.

"Interesting."

[Kommandant Felix]

Korriban: Tomb of Marka Ragnos

Kommandant Felix entered into the tomb of the vaunted Sith Lord Marka Ragnos. Immediately, the hair on the back of his neck stood up on end, sending all of his senses on alert. Something was here, hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike. He tried using the Force to find the lurker, but could sense nothing. He cautiously proceeded further into the tomb, walking lightly and listening intently. He eventually made his way to the center of the tomb untouched, eventually coming up upon the burial chamber of the great Sith. On the other side of the room stood another humanoid. Felix took one hard look at the man and drew his saber.

The room was ornately decorated, with many spires hanging from the ceiling. Statues also bordered the room, almost giving off the impression the there was an active audience. Felix faced a Zabrak opponent, except grossly disfigured. The Zabrak wore a black tunic, but his body was tattooed with Sith symbols, and his face was a bright red. The Zabrak smiled savagely at the thrill of an upcoming battle, and Felix remembered his face, one of whom he had met only once. This was the one known as...Darth Maul.

A haze swirled, and all became black, twisted in the thick fog. Nothing more could be determined.

Coruscant: Jedi Council Chambers

Felix started awake, as if from a dream. His focus clearing, he met the gaze of several people in the room, many of which were looking grim.

A small green elfish creature who was evidently named Yoda spoke for the first time.

"Correct he is."

The bald black man, Mace Windu also spoke.

"Even we cannot penetrate his memory. Something is wrong here. Why can we not see where he has been, but this one memory?"

Another Jedi Master, Plo Koon, a strange looking creature with some sort of apparatus on his face also spoke.

"Hmmmm...the Force works in strange ways"

"Send him to this desert planet we must. Only then may he ever recover what he has lost."

"And we can finally find out the location of this Sith Lord."

"Go to Korriban you must, Felix."

Felix bowed.

"If that is what you wish, then I would be happy to. Especially if I can get my memory back."

He quickly left, heading back to gather what belongings that he had in his cell. Perhaps they would also help him remember.
************************************************** **********

The council room was silent for some time afterwards. The Masters knew of Korriban, and suspected many of the secrets that were contained by the lonesome planet. There were whispers, passed down from many generations and held by the holocrons, of a secret Sith academy that had once been there. But the planet had remained isolated for quite some time, and no new threats had emerged lately. The Masters slowly looked at each other.

"He should not go alone," Ki Adi Mundi spoke after some time.

"I agree," Shaak Ti added. "But who should it be?"

"Anakin and Obi-Wan seem to be free"

"No," Yoda said. "Many dark secrets Korriban has. Ready, they are not."

"Hmmmmm...perhaps we can finally put some of our previous hypotheses to the test. then", Master Windu added thoughtfully.

"Who would you send, Master Windu?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of one of his previous enemies...like Zach. At the very least, we could use him to watch over Felix, in case he decides to flee. At the worst...we will test Zach's allegiance."

************************************************** **************************************************
Exterior: Apartment Building - Twilight
A graceful skyscraper twinkles in the evening light of Coruscant.

Interior: Apartment Building Elevator - Twilight
Anakin and Obi-Wan ride in a windowed elevator attached to the outside of the Senate Building. They are on their way to Senator Amidala's apartments. Anakin nervously rearranges his robes.

Obi-Wan: You seem a little on edge, Anakin.
Anakin: Not at all.
Obi-Wan: I haven't felt you this tense since we fell into that nest of gundarks.
Anakin: You fell into that nightmare, Master, and I rescued you, remember?
Obi-Wan: Oh yeah. (they laugh) You're sweating. Relax. Take a deep breath.
Anakin: I haven't seen her in ten years, Master.
Obi-Wan: She's not the Queen anymore, Anakin.
Anakin: That's not why I'm nervous.

Interior: Apartment Building, Apartment Corridor - Twilight
The door to the apartment slides open. Jar Jar walks into the corridor, where Two Jedi are exiting the elevator. He
recognizes Obi-Wan and becomes extremely excited, jumping around, shaking his hand.

Jar Jar: Obi! Obi! Obi! Mesa sooo smilen to seein yousa. Wahooooo!

Obi-Wan smiles.

Obi-Wan: It's good to see you, too, Jar Jar.

Jar Jar notices Obi-Wan's Apprentice.

Jar Jar: ...and this, I take it, is your apprentice... Noooooooo! Annie? Noooooooo! Little bitty Annie? (Looks at
Anakin) Noooooooo! Yousa so biggen! Yiyiyiyyi! Annie!!
Anakin: Hi, Jar Jar.

Jar Jar grabs hold of Anakin and envelops him in a big hug.

Jar Jar: Shesa expecting yousa. Annie... Mesa no believen!

Interior: Senate Building, Apartment - Evening
Padme is in a conference with Captain Typho and Dorme. Jar Jar enters the room, followed by the Two Jedi.

Jar Jar: Mesa here. Lookie... lookie... Senator. Desa Jedi arriven.

Padme and Typho rise as Obi-Wan and Anakin stop before the Senator. Obi-Wan steps forward. Anakin stares at Padme. She glances at him.

Obi-Wan: It's a pleasure to see you again, M'Lady.

Padme walks over to Obi-Wan and takes his hand in hers.

Padme: It has been far too long Master Kenobi. I'm so glad our paths have crossed again... but I must warn you that I think your presence here is unnecessary.

Obi-Wan: I'm sure the Jedi Council has their reasons.

She moves in front of Anakin.

Padme: Annie? (stares) My goodness, you've grown.

They look at each other for a long moment.

Anakin: (trying to be smooth) So have you... grown more beautiful, I mean... and much shorter... for a Senator, I
mean.

Obi-Wan looks disapprovingly at his apprentice. Padme laughs and shakes her head.

Padme: Oh Annie, you'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine.

This embarrasses Anakin, and he looks down. Obi-Wan and Captain Typho smile.

Obi-Wan: Our presence will be invisible, M'Lady, I can assure you.
Captain Typho: I'm very grateful you're here, Master Kenobi. I'm Captain Typho, head of Her Majesty's security
service. Queen Jamillia has informed you of your assignment. The situation is more dangerous than the
Senator will admit.
Padme: I don't need more security, I need answers. I want to know who is trying to kill me.
Obi-Wan: (frowning) We're here to protect you Senator, not to start an investigation.
Anakin: We will find out who's trying to kill you Padmé, I promise you.

He's done it again. He bites his lip in frustration and shame. Obi-Wan gives Anakin a dirty look.

Obi-Wan: We will not exceed our mandate, my young Padawan learner!
Anakin: I meant in the interest of protecting her, Master, of course.
Obi-Wan: We will not go through this exercise again, Anakin. And you will pay attention to my lead.
Anakin: Why?
Obi-Wan: What??!!
Anakin: Why else do you think we were assigned to protect her, if not to find the killer? Protection is a job for
local security... not Jedi. It's overkill, Master. Investigation is implied in our mandate.
Obi-Wan: We will do exactly as the Council has instructed, and you will learn your place, young one.
Padme: Perhaps with merely your presence, the mysteries surrounding this threat will be revealed. Now, if you will
excuse me, I will retire.

Everyone gives Amidala a slight bow as she and Dorme leave the room.

Typho: Well, I know I feel a lot better having you here. I'll have an officer situated on every floor and I'll be at
the control center downstairs.
Jar Jar: Mesa busten wit happiness seein yousa again, Annie. Deesa bad times, bombad times.

Captain Typho leaves.

Anakin: She hardly recognized me, Jar Jar. I've thought about her every day since we parted... and she's forgotten
me completely.
Jar Jar: Shesa happy. Happier den mesa seein her in longo time.
Obi-Wan: Anakin, you're focusing on the negative again. Be mindful of your thoughts. She was pleased to see us. Now lets check the security here.
Anakin: Yes, my master.

[Slick]

The Depths of Ick's Subconscious

Vagabond ended up being a valuable ally to the Jedi, teaching them how to best survive the unforgiving climate of the planet. Ninety percent of the time it was downright freezing with a razor sharp wind that just cut through your clothing. The other ten it was actually standable; relatively warm with a slight breeze. The only drawback was that the predators came out to hunt during that ten percent... not even the Jedi wanted to mess with them. Vagabond made them watch one make a kill to make a point once... it was all he had to do.

Vagabond had also somewhat taken over, moving the Jedi from place to place so they wouldn't be found. Mulane had a problem with it, but kept her mouth shut. She knew that he knew better than she did. In the end Isaac and Vagabond forged a sort of deal; Vagabond kept the Jedi safe and in exchange Isaac told Vagabond about life inside the known galaxy.

Isaac snapped awake... by his best guess it had been a few hours since he had fallen asleep. He was about to roll over and go back to sleep when he just stopped... something wasn't right. Slowly creeping out of his thermal sleeping bag he crept away from the rest of the Jedi, heading for the entrance to the cave where Vagabond was standing guard. The man usually took guard duty; he rarely slept and knew what to look for.

Moving as quietly as he could, Isaac pressed himself against the wall, listening intently. He could faintly hear Vagabond talking in his native language... that was a bit odd. But then he heard another voice, distinct though it sounded very similar. Curiosity getting the best of him, Isaac kept moving forward. The dialouge between Vagabond and the other person got slightly louder and more intense, then there was a high pitched whine, followed immediately by a sharp snapping noise. This was followed by the other voice shouting something... it sounded angry.

There was a sick sounding crack, then the same whine and snap... twice.

Then all was silent.

Isaac bolted forward, ripping his lightsaber off his belt but not igniting it. He turned the corner, only to nearly smash into Vagabond. The man sidestepped just enough to let the Jedi go by, then returned to his original position. Isaac skidded to a halt, turned around, and followed Vagabond's gaze to the large humanoid body on the ground.

"What happened?" Isaac asked, his eyes darting between the body, Vagabond and the gun that hung loosely in their guide's grip. Isaac had seen it once before when Vagabond had cleaned it while listening to Isaac tell stories. Vagabond had said it was a needle gun; it shot half inch long hollowpoint spikes... for emergenicies only.

Isaac had assumed it caused serious harm, but he stood corrected. It caused incredible harm. The corpse's right knee was shattered and blown apart, the right side of the neck had an exit wound the size of a baseball, and the head... well, it was missing the back half. Isaac gagged, but held the vomit in. Vagabond put his gun away and bent over the body to pick it over. As he finished he looked up at the Jedi, a touch more gold in his eyes.

"We have to move."

[Zach30019]

Mos Eisley Cantina: Tatooine

:herebeer:
Heres to Zayne. He lifted his glass.
Its been ten years and I'm still drinking in his memory.
The memory was still vivid in Zach's mind, replaying over and over for the last ten years.
Zach and Elizabeth in the doorway, staring at their friend getting stabbed by Felix. Having him look back, staring Zach in the eyes.
"I'm Sorry"
The thought of Zanyes voice haunted him. Chills ran down his spine.
:herebeer::herebeer::herebeer:

As he sat and drank, he wondered what happened Elizabeth/Sacheroth/ whoever she may be now. Last time he heard she turned down some errand for the council.
Zach called for another beer.
"I'm cutting you off," Wuher said "Look at you, you havent even finished you other beers."
Zach looked down, he was right. There were still three full beers at his spot, waiting to be drunk.
"Fine, if you don't want my business." Zach murmured, but Wuher didn't seem to care. As Zach looked down at his drinks, a hand came in to swipe one. He instinctively grabbed it and twisted it around and grabbed his saber. Even when he was drunk, Zach had quick reflexes.
A grunt of pain came from the creature, and it pulled away in pain.
"Dmamit Ponda, how mnay temis do I hvee to tell you not to tkae my drinks," Zach slurred as he started to wobble away, flipping tables as he tried to find his balance, "Onnnne of these days yuor arms gnona get cut off."

Coruscant: Jedi Council Chambers
"I'm here! I'm here!" Zach rushed into the room and looked around. He sighed as he saw just about every important Jedi there.
"Late you are" said the familiar, and slightly annoying voice.
"Why are you so late?" Asked the stern Master Windu "This isn't the first time. Maybe we should revoke your Jedi Knight name. We were questionable about it. It feels like you just dont care anymore. "
"Not at..."
"Then why do you keep acting like it?" Plo Koon interrupted Zach before he could finish.
"I was running aro..."
"Getting drunk again?"Ki Adi Mundi rudely asked, interrupting Zach once again.
"No, N..."
"Then where were you?" asked Shaak Ti.
"I was..." said Zach annoyed, waiting to get cut off again and trying to buy time for a story, "I was...trying to find Elizabeth."
The council members looked at each other. They didn't believe Zach at all, but there were more important issues to discuss.
Zach was amazed at what he was being told about Felix and his mission. he looked around t see if this was a joke.
"You're serious about this? Me going to Korriban and all?" Zach knew that once he got there, if he even made it there, that it would be a death sentence. Not because of Felix, he could take Felix, but because of a supposed Sith Lord that was there.
"Dead serious, unless you don't think you can handle it."
"No I'll do it. I just haven't done a lot of spying before. Its all good though."
"Leave now you must"
Zach knew Yoda was right, he couldn't get to far behind Felix, or else he would never catch up.

He packed his things, mainly his many sabers, and headed out.

[Slick]

Aboard The Purple Haze

SL walked through the vessel, photoreceptors lazily scanning over everything. The droid was honestly surprised the ship could fly, much less sustain hyperspace travel. Odds are they wouldn't even end up where the navicomputer was set... speaking of which...

Stealth Protocols: Activated

SL slunk into the cockpit, hoping to find an access point or something that would allow him to hack into the network. He had checked over the rest of the ship and found nothing... he deduced there was probably something in the cockpit. Opening up the door to the cockpit, SL was serenaded by Ick's thunderous snoring.

Stealth Protocols: Deactivated

Running a quick scan on the organic, SL noted more brain activity than usual; he had thought Ick to be brain-dead or something... apparently not. At least he could dream. What he dreamed about... SL decided it would be best not ponder that fact. Nevertheless, SL slowly slunk up to Ick, picked him up gently, and carefully deposited him on the floor, leaning up against the wall.

Seating himself in the command chair, SL turned on the database and went hunting for information. It had an odd encripting system; SL's systems were scrambled, but that normally wouldn't make a difference. It was the language...

Me//mo*r.<y Systemzzzz Err#$%o)r::::

SL's head twitched slightly to the right, his photoreceptors faded out, then flickered on, cycling between all the colors available: Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, White, Purple, Pink (Purple? Pink?! SL made a note to delete those when he got the chance.) Finally his systems caught up and the twitching slowly came to a halt.

"Well, I bet that's what one of those drug trips the organic talked about." SL said to himself. After a moment he shook his dented head slowly. "What a waste of time."

Partial Memory Circuit Reconfiguration: 26% Complete.... 28% Complete....

[Kommandant Felix]

Hyperspace

Felix stood in the middle of the ship he was in, one rented by the Jedi Temple. The ship, currently on it's way to Korriban, was nothing but a small freighter, lacking in any kind of weaponry whatsoever. The Masters had wanted to make sure he could do no harm, it appeared.

No matter...I don't need any powerful weaponry anyways. The real fight, if there's one to be had, will be on Korriban.

Until then...it's time to find out if I can still wield this thing.

Thinking this, he held up his lightsaber, a relic of the past. According to the Masters, it had been 10 years since he had last used it. It was time to see if he could use it again.
************************************************** *****************************************
Exterior: Skyscraper Ledge - Night
An armor-clad bounty hunter, Jango Fett, waits on the ledge of a skyscraper as another bounty hunter, Zam Wessel, a changeling, steps from her hovering speeder and approaches Fett.

Zam Wessell: I hit the ship, but they used a decoy.
Jango Fett: We'll have to try something more subtle this time, Zam. My client is getting impatient.

Fett hands Zam a transparent tube about a foot long containing centipede-like Kouhuns.

Jango Fett: Take these. Be careful. They're very poisonous.

Zam attaches her veil across the bottom of her face. She turns to leave, but Fett calls her back.

Jango Fett: Zam, there can be no mistakes this time.

She turns again, and walks toward her speeder.

[jedimasterElizabeth]

Jedi Archive, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

Things never been the same again since last time... Yet the Council still never knew the truth.

"Where is the Force is Obi and Annie?" She took another sip of her third glass of water. Jedi walking in front of her, ignoring her angry gazed on her comlink. Thoughts of the Jedi Younglings and Knights and also the Master just slipped past her brain like a vacuum, secrets thoughts had been revealed to her. Well, she wanted to listen to the gossip these days about the Council that she had ignored for quite awhile.

One of them caught her attention.

"Do you know that the new comer Zach had been sent into a mission that could kill him?"

"Really? Hmph. I can't trust him you know... He is quite... I don't know."

"Well, as Knight Levendon quited the game, they had no choice to select him."

"Who is he aftering now?"

"I heard it was the Dark Jedi. The one who cause the chaos in Naboo? I can't remember his name."

She knew it.

Felix

The comlink in her hand never rang and she could not get her buddies presences yet. Decided to take the risk, she called Zach. Hoping that he will pick up his lifesaver, again.

[Raganork8]

Elsewhere:

Flashing lights.

Off, on

off, on

off, on

off, on

off

on

off

on.

To hunt was to experience the thrill of possible success as well as possible failure. But, to be hunted was to experience the fear of failure and the uncertainty of success.

"The force surrounds us and binds us; it brings and it takes. The flow is constant and without beginning or end. Whatever you put into it will come back one day for you to witness again."

"Fear is the path to the darkside; but, remember fear can enhance; fear can help you to understand what it is that your enemy is using against you. You must never let it control you; but, you must NEVER forget what it is to really FEAR something."

"This galaxy; it's a small one. I can throw a stone in Coruscant and see the ripples on Mon Calmari, then hear the drop on Tatooine. You may be able to hide in the niches of some of societies most dirty and unsavory places; but, you can't hide forever. Everyone has to come up for air and when they do..BAM! That's when the blaster goes off."

"You know why I don't Envy Droids...? It's because they'll never know that feelin' you get when something terrible is about to happen. You know...the one when your heart starts racing so suddenly that it burns a little and then the beating is so strong that you can feel the lumps on in your chest? It's a horrible, terrible, deplorable feeling. And sometimes its so bad it reminds me I'm alive and that my friend is orgasmic."


Xero: "I don't want to make anymore mistakes like this...I want answers!"

????: "Answers...That's the mistake most people like you ever Make"



Flashing lights.

On and Off.

The Stars twinkled; photorecptors on a droid gleamed, lightsaber's ignited. But few things flash off and on.

One of those things was the timer on a Thermal Detonator.


"You see if you don't give me the answers I'm looking for I don't have a reason to live anyway, so this will go off and we'll both die. However; I do have Jedi reflexes so I could escape here before the blast, find your little friends cut them into little pieces and then feed them to your bosses and call it Dantooine Stew..." He paused; off and on quicker now. "...So how do you want to go out?"




Xero Stroked his chin and looked the Bounty Hunter deep within the eyes; he could feel the fear within him.


And it felt good.

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze


Still twitching slightly, SL sat back in Ick's chair and took stock of the situation. Stuck with an organic that had no idea what was going on, an astromech that was just annoying (though he did have his priorities in order), and was currently located on a ship that had suffered sixteen malfunctions since he had gotten on it; it had been four days.

Needless to say, this didn't make the assassin droid all that happy. Doing some quick computing, he decided he needed to ditch both of his companions and get a better ship... then go out and kill things. But what was the easiest way that required the least amount of work on his part?

Solution Computing.....

Solution Found.

Quickly accessing holonet, SL found the "official" bounty database. Hacking in as some Hutt by the name of Jabba, SL put in the specs on Ick, including some small details to aid whatever bounty hunter stumbled across the lead. This included his height, weight, eye color, hair color, blood type, sleeping patterns, personaility quirks, and just about every single detail he could scrounge up on the Purple Haze, including the flight plan. Posting a reward of 2,500,000 credits, SL finalized the bounty.

His whole strategy revolved around the fact that as a general rule bounty hunters had pretty good ships... at least better than the hunk of crap he was currently residing in. And as an added bonus, they also would have weapons aboard, which SL required.

That set, SL got up, replaced Ick in his chair, and went back to the cargo bay. All he could do now was wait for a bounty hunter to bite.

[Snake_Judge]

Zaphoid's Cantina, Corellia

Damre had spent a month on Corellia and still no trace of the presence he felt from space. Damre was not one to drink but the turn of events had led him to go against his usual ideals.

"Here you go" The Bartender said to Damre in a gruff voice. Damre grabbed his drink. From what he had heard it was like having youre brain bashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large goldbrick.

As Damre sat and drank his drink a group of men stared at him from across the bar.

[Slick]

Aboard the Purple Haze

Warning: Incoming transmisision...

"Hey, you that Isaac Charles Kingston guy?" a reedy sounding voice came over the overhead, snapping Ick awake to the point of him falling out of his chair.

"Kingston... we know that's you..." came the same voice. Ick climbed back into his seat and stared at the computer, trying to remember where the com system was. After pressing a few buttons at random he suddenly heard

"Marvin I love you... Marvin I love you..."

After pressing a few more buttons he found the com system.

"Uh, yeah... I'm that guy." Ick groggily said, yawning as he spoke. "What do you want?"

"Stop your ship! We're coming aboard!" a different voice demanded; this one sounded very rough; basic obviously wasn't meant to be issued from its mouth.

"Uh... okay." Ick replied as he turned off the engines. Shutting down the com he rotated his chair around and stood up. "I wonder if they have any food. I'm getting the munchies pretty bad."

As he turned the corner he immediately ran into SL-8, who had been listening in on the conversation. The droid's photoreceptors glimmered with the prospect of getting off the Purple Haze. Ick nodded at the droid and kept walking toward the entry bay, the droid a few steps behind.

"Human organic Ick, may I make a suggestion?" SL asked. Without waiting for Ick to reply the droid continued. "I think it would be most beneficial for me to meet with the organics first. Make sure they don't want to hurt you ar anything."

"Oh, come on tree-man... they seem like nice guys."

"Right..." SL trailed off, shaking his head slightly. "But nevertheless, I would like to go first."

"Okay." Ick said, stopping by the pantry to look for some chips or something. SL sauntered by, already diverting energy to his weapons. By the time he reached the entry bay the other ship had already docked and was in the midst of ungoing atmospheric decompression. Not hindered by such things as air, SL shut the Purple Haze's airlock behind him and marched directly into the other ship.

"Et chuta!" one of the bounty hunters exclaimed, pressing his face against the window of the air lock. "The bounty said nothing of an assassin droid!"

"What?!" another bounty hunter demanded, turning on the Rodian who had made the report. This was a Gamorrean who somehow had learned basic. He grabbed his axe and rushed up to the Rodian, pressing the blade against the alien's throat. "What do you mean assassin droid?"

"Sir, look!" the Rodian squeaked, pointing at the window. The Gamorrean looked and promptly brought his axe away from the Rodian's neck.

"Damn. Get the ion rifle. I bet this droid is worth a lot of--"

Suddenly SL's arm burst through the window, skewering the Rodian through the head with his energy blade. Blood spattered everywhere and the Gamorrean backpedaled away and ran for the weapons locker. There was the sound of screeching metal as SL tore the door from the air lock off and a loud bang as he threw it aside.

"Hmmm.... what a piece of crap." SL muttered, taking stock of the ship. It was actually worse than the Purple Haze... he was surprised. The droid was also very happy that he couldn't smell. Sighing to himself, the droid disengaged his energy blades. May as well make this interesting.

Sneaking into the cockpit, SL surprised a Bith, who tried to pull a blaster on him. Within a nanosecond SL had sheared the alien's hand off with a swift wave of his hand, and within another the alien's head was mashed against the computer console like a grape. SL kept beating the head against the computer until it sparked and started to smoke.

Turning away, SL stalked after the Gamorrean, deducing he had gone after a bigger gun. Stupid organic swine... didn't he know he had no real hope of survival? SL did the calculations and figured the Gamorrean's odds of survival to be 1 to the power of 20,704,246,076:1 against.

"Come on out piggy piggy piggy... come on out?" SL taunted as he entered the armory.

"No one calls me Piggy!" the Gamorrean shrieked, swinging his axe at SL with all his might. SL glanced over, sidestepped the blow, and proceeded to snake his hand in and grab the organic by the neck. Lifting the poor sap off the ground without problem, SL shook him around until he had dropped his axe.

"Bad piggy. Baaad piggy." SL lectured, shaking his head in disapproval. "Now die." SL took a quick step forward and smashed the Gamorrean into the wall so hard his hand went through the pig's neck and basically decapitated him. Dropping him like a sack of potatoes, SL quickly rifled through the lockers and pulled a couple weapons; a blaster rifle and a cheap sniper rifle.

"Thanks piggy." SL said pleasantly, kicking the corpse as he walked out.

[Snake_Judge]

On an Unknown location

A small droid walked towards the panel on the wall and pressed the open button. His green triangular eyes looked up as the wall opened.

" I would like to tell you I am feeling very depressed today." Said the droid as Ra'ks looked down at the small droid.
"What are you?" Ra'ks growled with obvious confusion in his metallic voice.
"I'm Melvin, I'm was told to check up on you. A droid with the brain the size of a planet sent to do meaningless work" Melvin said drooping his...well um...head down.
"I'm a brain in a jar, AND YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT WORK!!" Ra'ks yelled.
"You think you got it bad..." Melvin started

On Corellia

Damre walked out of the Cantina and looked out on to the busy walkways of Corellia. As he walked a group of Aqualish thugs came up to him. Unfortunetly Damre didn't understand a lick of Aqualish and thought they wanted to give him a hug. As he took a step closer to them they removed there blasters from there holsters and pointed them at Damre.

Almost instantanily Damre was gone. It was an old trick he had picked up on Mannan from his first master. As Damre weved in and out of the croud he thought of what the Aqualish where saying. What they where saying goes as follows.

Hey Jedi, we are here to kill you. Don't even think about hiding there are many more bounty hunters here for you. Don't step twoards us! We want to kill you not give you a hug! Now stan....Where did he go?


In the Galaxy

A pulse of Inprobibility that had eminated from the activation of an assasin droid on Degobah finaly reached The Steve and more notably the small robot Jitters.

The pulse did two thing the first making the Steve bigger and having more rooms inside it. The second activateing a long stored away program in the Small droid Jitters who at that time was seting corse for Kamino, the last known location of the Bounty Hunter Jango Fett. How Jitters knew this would mean knowing the nature of Improbibility wich would be a long borring and franky stupid journey to make. What you do need to know is that Damre had started on what would be his fate.

On an Unknown Location

"How is the General?" asked a scientist to the returning Melvin.
"I talked to him....&qu