//------------------------------// // Enter Jedi [R] // Story: Unlimited Power // by DarkZonker //------------------------------// The Republic is in full swing! Five years after the Battle of Naboo, Chancellor Palpatine has reigned in the Senate making it much more effective, but under the surface it has become even more corrupt than before. For the past five years Obi-wan Kenobi has trained Anakin Skywalker in the ways of the Force, trying to mold him into the Chosen One he needs to be. Two warring factions have requested Jedi assistance to mediate a peace treaty on a world on the edge of Republic space. The Jedi Council has sent two jedi pairs to assist in the negotiations but other parties have different plans… Anakin sat in the republic cruiser’s astromech bay as it sped through hyperspace, tinkering with with the tool arms of a blue astromech. Fixing things or droids always helped him focus before a mission. He reached into his tool box, not finding anything he looked up only to see his friend, Tru Veld. He had a smug look on his face as he held a hydrospanner just out of Anakin’s reach. Tru twirled the tool in his hands as he inspected Anakin’s work on the astromech. “Anakin, if you wanted to overclock it’s processor, all you had to do was remove this right here,” He reached into the droid and swiftly removed a circuit board. “There, now it’ll run even better than before,” Tru said, spinning the hydrospanner. “Yeah, it will,” Anakin was always amazed by his friend’s technological prowess. “I’ve been working on this droid for the past hour, how’d you know to do that, Tru?” “I found a manual a year or so back.” Tru said very matter-of-factly. Tru’s ability to photographically memorize anything he read often helped Anakin whenever he was stuck on a droid. No matter how much he tinkered, Tru could always find out what was wrong before Anakin. Anakin waved it off. “How far away are we from this planet? You must have come down here for some other reason than to bother me,” He flashed his friend a smile. “We’re coming out of hyperspace soon. Master Obi-Wan told me to tell you to gather your things,” Tru recited. “Well, it’s about time. I was about to die of boredom in here,” Tru turned and left with a smirk leaving Anakin to put back all of his tools. Anakin went to his quarters and grabbed all of his necessary gear. He hooked his lightsaber onto his belt, stocked his protein cube stash but really hoping that he wouldn’t have to eat any, and put on his cloak. Anakin made his way to the cockpit where his master, Tru, and Tru’s master, Ry-Gaul, all were. The door opened with a hiss and Anakin walked inside to see Ry-Gaul in the pilot seat, Obi-Wan in the co-pilot’s and Tru in the passenger’s seat behind them. Anakin sat down in an open seat next to Tru and clipped the crash webbing in. “Ah, Anakin. How nice of you to join us,” Obi-Wan said, his Coruscanti accent bounced musically in the cabin. Some would say that it was an upper class accent, but Anakin knew his master better than some rich snob. “Welcome to Barungana. Now like Master Yoda said, our mission is to delegate peace treaties between the native Barun and a group of human colonists. So no causing trouble, we don’t need an intergalactic incident on our hands,” He stared daggers at the young boys behind him. “Since when have we ever caused an incident? We’ve never caused any problems right Tru?” Anakin winked, signalling Tru to take the lead. “Well ... there was that one time wh-” Tru began, not seeing Anakin. “Anyway,” Anakin drew out the word. “You don’t have to worry about us, Master.” “Good, because we’re entering their territory now.” Anakin looked past Obi-Wan to the blue-white-green marble floating in space. It didn’t look like anything bad could happen there but from far enough away, anything looks perfect. He looked at Tru, who was also admiring the planet with a glint of adventure in his eyes. Anakin turned his gaze back to Barungana knowing that with each new planet he visited, there was always a new adventure. The Jedi starship cut through the cloud layer like butter. Anakin could see a dense jungle as far as the eye could see. As they neared the colony, Anakin could pick out the small Prefab huts and shelters surrounding the medium sized spaceport that was mainly used for supply shipments. The Jedi touched down and the landing ramp lowered with a hiss. The Jedi walked down, padawans following behind their respective masters. an oppressive, humid heat pressed down on Anakin like a garbage processor after the cool, sterile atmosphere of the ship  A large group of humans stood a distance away from the ship but at the sight of the Jedi, a portly man with slicked back, black hair and a golden sash across his belly came to greet them. He was followed by two nervous looking aides who moved with small shuffling steps. “No need to thank us, mister Mayor. We are only doing as the Force wills,” Obi-Wan bowed in return followed by Ry-Gaul, Tru, and Anakin. “I am Obi-Wan Kenobi and this is my padawan learner, Anakin Skywalker. My quiet friend here is Master Ry-Gaul and his padawan learner, Tru Veld. We would very much like to end the hostilities here as soon as possible.” “Of course, of course. I am pleased that the senate has responded so quickly, I would have expected to get a response after this mess was over and too many lives had been lost,” Cervean responded, indicating with a wave of his hand for the Jedi to follow. Obi-Wan quickly fell into a pace next to the mayor, his fellow Jedi closely behind. “And even then I would not have expected them to send Jedi! Most people on Barungana, including my aides here, think that you are myths.” Obi-wan chuckled. “I am not surprised, many beings have never seen a Jedi in their entire lives. The senate, as well as the Jedi, want to stop this conflict quickly, especially before it gets too bloody.” “Well, at least we have the same goals in mind. After the Barun’s started attacking our convoys and outskirt villages for no reason, we had no choice but to fight back. Unfortunately, things have gotten out of hand. I’m just glad they agreed to some kind of peace talks.” “As am I, Mayor. When are the talks going to be held?” “They are scheduled for two days from no--,” A red blaster bolt hit Cervean’s head cutting him off and burning a charred, black hole deep into his brain. He crumpled into a heap onto the ground. The Jedi ignited their lightsabers and collapsed into a tight circle where no angle could escape their sight. Someone from the crowd screamed and suddenly they all bolted in different directions. More blaster bolts screamed down at the civilians randomly. Anakin saw the blaster bolts coming from the roof outside of the landing port. Some of the bolts were directed at the Jedi, which were all deftly deflected at the ground. A missile roared from somewhere outside of Anakin’s vision. A hand grabbed Anakin’s hood and pulled him to the ground. Anakin watched as the missile impacted the fuselage of their ship and erupt in a massive, fiery explosion. The shockwave knocked the wind out of Anakin and he saw spots in his vision. Anakin shook the cobwebs from his mind as he shakily stood up. He saw his master and friend farther back following his lead, but Ry-Gaul was still on the ground. Anakin’s stopped breathing as he saw Ry-Gaul sprawled out on the permacrete behind him. He must have taken the shockwave for me, Anakin thought, awestruck. Anakin knelt down next to Ry-Gaul and pressed his fingers to the taller man’s neck. The steady beat reassured him and stood back up in time to see an armored being jetpack down from the roof pulling two blaster pistols from hip holsters. Obi-wan and Tru had already ignited their lightsabers, which cast a green and crimson hue on Anakin and Ry-Gaul, and deflected the unending stream of red that sped towards them. Anakin flipped Ry-Gaul onto his back elevated his head. Ry-Gaul’s eyes slowly opened to the sight of a worried Anakin and dozens of red blaster bolts flying overhead. A blood red bolt flew by Anakin’s head, close enough to feel the heat wash over the top of his head and smell a bit of burnt hair. Anakin ducked as more bolts flew where he used to be. He knelt next to Ry-Gaul and cupped the master’s face with his hands, looking into his eyes. His eyes were focusing and he seemed alert, that was enough for Anakin. With a snap-hiss, Anakin ignited his lightsaber and stood shoulder to shoulder with Obi-wan and Tru. Together, the three of them pushed towards the onslaught of blaster bolts. Anakin felt a hint of fear coming from the mercenary as they started to close in on him. Anakin felt the Force tug at him. He looked to the right, on the edge of the spaceport hangar in the rafters was thin being holding a long, thick rifle. He reached out and pulled, the being falling with a scream that echoed in the empty chamber and uselessly firing his rifle in reflex at the ground. Anakin saw the burning wreckage of the ship that brought them here and felt a little sad. All that work on that droid and its destroyed, he thought. He heard a blaster discharge behind him and spun around, catching the bolt that was meant for the back of his head. The bolt ricocheting back into the being that fired it. More beings flowed from the entrance to the spaceport firing their decades old blasters at the Jedi. Most of the shots went wide but the few that were even close were deflected by Anakin and a recovering Ry-Gaul. “Master, there are more of them,” shouted Anakin over the roar of blasters, fire and lightsabers. “We have to fall back and regroup,” Obi-Wan shouted back. “There’s a service entrance to your right,” Anakin took a quick look at the small door imbedded in the wall, “If you can open it, we can get out of here and contact the Council for reinforcements,” Anakin nodded as he bolted to the door, deflecting the ever increasing amount of blaster bolts in the air. He slid into the door’s alcove and pulled off the keypad that was mounted on the wall. Tru ran in next, his lightsaber still ignited, providing cover for Anakin. Anakin stripped the wires and brushed them past each other as they erupted in a shower of sparks. “C’mon. C’mon, work you hunk of junk,” he muttered. Their masters stood next to Tru, completely blocking off the doorway with their width. Anakin took a moment and looked through their legs, and saw the growing number of beings that were taking cover behind the wreckage of their ship taking potshots at the Jedi. The armored one from before was leading the group firing practically the only accurate shots. Anakin turned back to his task at hand and repeatedly struck the wires together. The door beeped and the red light on the keypad turned green. “Let’s go,” He shouted as a bolt hit the wall next to him. The Jedi backed into the dark maintenance hallway and closed the door. Ry-Gaul touched the tip of his lightsaber to the seams of the door, The molten durasteel quickly welding the door to the frame. Frantic pounding on the door and some muffled yelling in a foreign language signaled the Jedi’s time to move. Motion sensors in the lighting above kept a steady light bearing down on the Jedi as they rounded corners blindly. After running for what felt like a sufficient amount of time, and not hearing anything other than the sounds of their own heavy breathing, the Jedi stopped. “What’s next, Master Obi-Wan?” Tru asked curiously as he peered down the dark corridor that they had just come from. “We have to contact the Council and the Senate, this situation has gotten too far out of control,” Obi-Wan looked down the direction they were heading, no lights, it was as black as night. A deep voice spoke up, “We split up. Obi-Wan, you take Anakin and find a way to contact the Council. Tru and I will stay and organize a defense with the locals.” Anakin had never heard Ry-Gaul speak before, the tall, imposing man had always prefered to stay quiet and only spoke when really needed. “Good idea, Ry-Gaul. You find a way into the colony proper, while Anakin and I find a ship.” Obi-Wan and Anakin flew down the hallway into another doorway. They opened the door to the sight of a large, blocky, dilapidated freighter. The pilot was kneeling with his arms behind his back, a blaster pointed at the back of his head by one of the beings that had attacked the spaceport. Another was looking through what appeared to be the ship’s manifest. This time Anakin was actually able to take a good look at them. The beings were roughly bipedal, their knees bent backwards. Their skin was a light green and their heads were bald. The hands that gripped the blasters had long multi-jointed fingers and their feet were club-like providing a solid support for the strange leg shape. “Are these the Barun’s, Master?” Anakin whispered. “Yes, though I am curious as to why they attacked when they wanted peace,” Obi-Wan said as he stroked his beard Anakin was curious as well, it just didn’t make sense. “Maybe these colonists have been stealing their land?” “I have a feeling that it was the armored one who led the attack. It is entirely possible that these Barun’s aren’t affiliated with the group that contacted the colonists,” Obi-Wan said ominously. Anakin nodded in understanding. It made sense that these being have been the ones behind the attacks that the mayor was talking about, and that the Barun’s as a whole wanted to let the colonists know that they weren’t behind it. The Barun ahead who has holding the manifest tore it in half and started yelling at the pilot in his native language, snapping Anakin out of his thinking. The pilot flinched and spoke back in the Barun language, Anakin could tell he was worried. The head Barun barked and order at the one with the blaster, gesturing at the pilot. The gunman talked back and shook his head, making the leader bristle with anger. The leader struck the gunman, then kicked the pilot over onto his face. He wriggled, trying to get up without the use of his arms and legs, which Anakin could see now that they were bound. The gunman held his face and Anakin could see his eyes harden from the door. The gunman pointed the gun at the pilot and readied his shot. Anakin shared a glance with Obi-Wan who nodded back. With a gesture, Obi-Wan used the Force to jerk the blaster out of the gunman’s hands, as Anakin burst out of the doorway igniting his lightsaber with a snap-hiss. The leader looked up in shock and backpedaled. He drew his own blaster and aimed at the pilot, pulling the trigger and ending the pilots life with a flash of red, then aiming at the quickly approaching Anakin and squeezing off four quick shots. Anakin redirected one of the shots at the gunman who had recovered his blaster, the shot hit him in the chest and with a short scream fell to the ground, unmoving. The other three shots Anakin batted back to the leader, who ducked under one but caught the other two in the chest as well. He fell to the ground with a gasp and drew one final rattling breath, exhaling in a long wheeze. Anakin extinguished his lightsaber after a quick survey of the scene. Obi-Wan caught up to his padawan and knelt next to the pilot checking his pulse but from where Anakin was standing he could tell the pilot was dead, not many people can live through a blaster bolt to the heart. Obi-Wan stood up, closed his eyes and let out a heavy breath. He didn’t like it when beings had to die and even more when his padawan had to kill, but it was unchangeable he supposed. “Let’s go, we’ll use this ship to contact the Council. Somebody must have heard all of the noise we made,” He said sadly. The freighter was as disgusting inside as it was on the outside. Clearly, the pilot had been a grimy individual with grimy tastes. Anakin could see empty deathstick tubes and lines of spice in the living area, no doubt that the pilot was a smuggler. He entered the cockpit and swept the trash off of the switchboard. Anakin warmed up the engines in preparation for takeoff as Obi-Wan sat in the co-pilot’s seat tuning the comms. The blast doors for the hangar groaned, audible from the cockpit. The door sliding  upwards slowly into ceiling as long, green arms poked under with blasters. Anakin rapidly flipped switches as green lights lit up on the dashboard. A rumble echoed throughout the freighter followed by a high pitched whine. Good, there’s the engines, he thought. The blast door was halfway up and already the Baruns were pouring in en masse. blasterfire pinged off of the thick, blocky durasteel plates. Anakin had time but he knew there wasn’t too much left, they would probably start bringing more rocket launchers to deal with them. The repulsors came to life with a cough, lifting the freighter half a meter off of the ground in a split second. The landing gear groaned in protest as the weight of the freighter rested on them once more. With a sputter, the repulsors came on fully and lifted the behemoth of the ship slowly away from the crowd peppering the hull with small arms fire. As they hovered over the spaceport, Anakin watched as a sleek, severely modified, disk-shaped starship lifted off in the jungle. He powered up the sublight engines and flew as fast as he could out of the atmosphere. The nose-cone turned red as air was pushed out of the way. Anakin looked at the sensor screen, the starship was following right behind, rapidly closing in on cannonfire range. “Master, are we ready to send that message yet?” Anakin was feeling anxious. Getting into a firefight with that starship could only end badly, and being in a large, slow target didn’t help either, just thinking about it made Anakin’s hands sweat. “Almost. It just needs to be calibrated to our frequency,” Obi-Wan fervently worked on comm board. “And… there!” He exclaimed. “Masters, I’m afraid that we’ve encountered some troubles on Barungana. We’ve been-” The ship shook and the comm board’s lights immediately shut off. Anakin could hear the shriek of tearing metal above him. “Anakin, what just happened.” “Umm, our long range communications array seems to have been destroyed,” Anakin said after a quick glance at the damage report. “We’re going to have to jump to Coruscant,” Obi-Wan said determinately as he punched in the coordinates. A warning light started flashing. “Uh, that might be a little hard, Master. Sensors indicate three starships exiting hyperspace right in front of us,” Anakin’s hands started sweating more as he jerked the ship around sluggishly avoiding laser blasts. “This is a smuggler’s ship isn’t it?” Obi-Wan asked, his eyes lighting up with an idea. “Yeah, I assume so,” Anakin replied, his voice dripping with curiosity. “Don’t most smugglers have hideouts on unknown planets?” Obi-Wan continued. Anakin’s eyes lit up in realization. “Try to find a system with a special symbol next to it, Master. The loners usually need some kind of help,” It was times like this when Anakin was slightly glad that he had been a slave, other padawans didn’t have the same worldly experiences that he had, or at least hadn’t eavesdropped on talky freighter pilots for years like he had. The new arrivals didn’t waste any time assaulting the Jedi, making Anakin, as swiftly as he could, turn the boxy ship around. Another laser blast rocked the ship. Anakin glanced at diagnostics, which said that deflector shields were down to forty-eight percent in flashing red letters. With these guys on our tail, we’ll be stardust in no time, he thought. Suddenly, an idea sprang to Anakin’s mind. His eyes scoured the dashboard for the right button. Finally, he found it. It was a red button with a label above it in poor handwriting saying, Under no circumstances do you push this button. It had to be it. Anakin pressed the button and an alarm whooped in the cockpit. “Anakin! What did you do?” Obi-Wan demanded as he was nearly deafened by the speaker right next to his ears. “I opened the cargo doors,” Anakin said with a challenging smirk on his face. “We just need to buy some time. Trust me.” Obi-Wan nodded as Anakin took evasive maneuvers, his face feeling a little green. “I hate flying,” Obi-Wan muttered. Anakin looked at the sensors, one ship had collided with the debris from the cargo bay and had exploded into smithereens, damaging another ship close to it, while the others peeled off and went around it, buying the Jedi much needed time and distance. “Anakin, I have the coordinate all set for the smugglers den. Go to hyperspace when we are clear,” Obi-Wan said, not looking up from the keyboard as his fingers flew across the display. Anakin nodded and pushed the lever forward. The small pinpricks of light that indicated life light years away elongated into lines and turned to a swirl of blue.   “Hyperspace achieved, Master,” Anakin leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, all anxiety had washed away. He looked to his master who had an equally relieved look on his face. A light blinked into existence on the dashboard, Anakin immediately sat up straight and looked at the diagnostics screen. They were low on fuel barely enough to get to the star system the were headed towards let alone Coruscant. “What is it, Anakin,” Obi-Wan asked a look of worry flashed across his face. “We’re nearly out of fuel. We have just enough to get to where we’re headed. I hope there’s fuel at this guy’s base.” The planet was unremarkable, just another garden world. It had one moon, 3 continents, and a few oceans but the oddest thing was that it didn’t rotate on an axis, it appeared as though the star and the moon orbit the planet. “Master, there is something seriously wrong with this system.” “Yes, it would appear so. Let’s take a quick scan of the planet, I sense a disturbance in the Force.” The scan showed small settlements all over the planet, one was even located on a mountain! There were forests and mountains all across the planet and it didn’t appear as though there was advanced technology anywhere. “This is where he had his base. Seems really inconvenient with a native population,” questioned Anakin. “To each their own it seems,” said Obi-Wan as he stroked his beard. “He chose a planet that is very strong in the Force.” Anakin closed his eyes and extended his senses out to the planet. The intensity was akin to a blinding light in total darkness. Recoiling, Anakin pulled back his senses, but at the same time, he felt invigorated to be in the presence of such a place. Opening his eyes, Anakin saw the place in a new light. As he continued to look, the perfect surface was not as perfect as it once seemed. There were spots and speckles of darkness but it seemed to complement the light. Dark and light working together, in harmony. The sight and newfound knowledge left Anakin breathless. “Let’s go in for a closer look, eh Master?” Anakin asked, the wonder still prevalent in his voice. “How about here?” Obi-Wan pointed to a large mountain surrounded by plains with a waterfall feeding into a lake. There was a city embedded into the mountain and scans showed a considerable number of cave structure inside the mountain. Anakin brought the ship down carefully near the mountain’s peak. There was a large cave that was empty and was fairly hidden from the town below. The ship touched down with a creak of the landing gear and the tinkling of small metal shards littering the ground around it. Maybe now, Anakin thought, we won’t have to deal with the usual craziness. Just some simple repairs. In Canterlot Princess Luna walked down the hallway to the celestial balcony, her starry blue mane blowing in the ethereal wind. Flanked by two night guards, she passed the many murals and stained glass detailing the achievements of the pony race. The most recent detailing the feats of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. It was time to raise the moon and for her subjects to dream, her domain. Something felt wrong however, something she just couldn’t put her hoof on. Maybe her sister, Celestia, knew what it was. It was as good a place as any to start. Ahead was the balcony, and on it was Celestia. Just as tall and blindingly white as always, her own multicolored mane flowing in a non-existent wind. “A little late tonight, aren’t we? I lowered the sun a minute ago.” “Yes yes, it’s a bit of a walk from mine room,” Luna fidgeted uncomfortably, feeling a shiver pass through her spine. “Sister, tell me, have you felt anything different lately?” asked Luna quizzically. “I have felt something strange. Perhaps there is an imbalance in harmony?” “Impossible. There has not been an imbalance since Discord escaped.” “While it is not as drastic an imbalance as when Discord broke free from his prison, something is different nonetheless.” Luna rolled her eyes and preceded to raise the moon. Maybe Celly is right. I will have to look into it tomorrow. I’ll have to meditate on this tonight.