//------------------------------// // The Jedi Council // Story: The Dragon and the Force // by FenrisianBrony //------------------------------// The ship shuddered as it came out of Hyperspace, lights flashing on almost immediately as he was hailed, the ships sensors picking up weapons turning towards it and locking on. “Attention unidentified vessel, this is the Swiftsure of the Coruscant home fleet. Power down your weapons and shields and transmit verification codes. Failure to do so will result in your boarding and or destruction.” Came a voice over the radio. “Swiftsure this is Jedi knight Spike of the Jedi order. I am requesting my flight path to be cleared and access granted to the surface.” Spike replied, flicking a few switches above his head. “Please identify your vessel by name and provide proof of identity.” The man responded. “I don’t have any proof on me, and the ship is more of a recent acquire thing than my own vessel.” “Standby, sending boarding team over.” The man said, before the radio link went dead. Sighing, Spike heaved himself out of the command chair, careful to avoid the pool of blood as he made his way towards the airlock. He wondered what this boarding crew would think of him when they actually saw him, or for that matter how they would know he was a Jedi. None of the Jedi he knew got covered in copious amounts of Mandalorian blood, and considering the fact that Lightsabers could in theory be stolen, it probably wouldn’t cut it just to show them those. Maybe demonstrate a bit of the force? He didn’t have to wait long, as a ship slowly approached the outer airlock on the ship, a docking tube extending outwards, clamping onto the ship with a shudder. Pressing a few buttons, Spike opened the door, allowing a squad of heavily armed soldiers to run into the ship, their guns pointing straight at Spike. Spike chuckled as he looked at the rifles, they were relatively small sized compared to what the Mandalorians used. Five seconds, he’d be able to get half the squad, maybe take a couple of shots to the back where he knew he could survive them. Two more seconds, and he’d be surrounded by corpses. Shit, when the hell had he started to think of a situation like that? “Jenk, take his weapons.” One of the soldiers ordered. “You, don’t move.” “Put a hand on those and it will be the last time you have hands.” Spike growled. “I am, was, the Jedi in charge of the 59th Republic Recovery Force, the Vipers, returning from a long overdue deployment. Put me in contact with republic high command or the Jedi temple, then get the hell out of my way.” “Forgive me for not believing you, master Jedi.” The leading soldier said sarcastically. “I’ve never seen a Jedi that gets comes into system covered in blood.” “How many people who are trying to get onto Coruscant come in covered in blood.” Spike spat back. “I’m here because I need to be here, and I don’t have enough time or resources to wash it off.” “I think he’s telling the truth.” One of the soldiers said slowly. “Sure he is.” The leader smirked. “Whatever.” Spike muttered, finally losing patience. “I am a Jedi, you know me, and you’re going to tell your commanders to clear me a path to the temple. Now.” He said, waving his hand subtly. “Master Jedi, I am sorry, I didn’t recognise you. I’ll arrange for you ship to be cleared for approach.” The leader said, before turning around and placing a finger to his ear. “What just happened?” One of the soldiers asked. “I believe he just changed his mind. Now get off my ship.” Spike snapped, taking a step forward and watching as they stepped back into the docking tube. “Bye.” He slammed his fist into a button, sliding the airlock closed with a sharp hiss. “Attention Spike.” A voice came over the radio as Spike sat back down in the command chair. “You re cleared to land. Sorry for the inconvenience sir.” “It’s fine, but don’t stop me again.” Spike replied. *** The ship spluttered slightly as it entered the atmosphere of the planet, the engines struggling as they sought to find the last scraps of fuel in the reserve tanks. Apparently, the Mandalorians had been in the process of refuelling the ship when Desolation had taken it, and it was only by divine intervention that he had actually managed to make it to the planet and stay in the air long enough to land at the temple before dying. It wasn’t the cleanest landing, but any one you could walk away from was good enough for Spike. “Nice junk heap.” A security guard laughed as Spike walked down the ramp. “I recently came into it.” Spike muttered. “Leave it alone or fill it up with fuel and move it to storage.” “I think we may have a problem with storing a ship with a Mandalorian symbol painted on it.” The guard replied, pointing at the front. Following his finger, Spike realised this was the first time he had actually seen the ship from the outside, and he couldn’t say he was disappointed. It was large, not quite a destroyer, but easily corvette sized, which was odd considering the fact that he could operate the ship on his own. It would be easier with others, but still. It was long, a brand new design from any he had seen during the Great Sith War, the three turrets pointing menacingly out at the landing pad. What did draw his eye was the symbol on it, the same one that was on all Mandalorian ship. Spike hated it. “Paint over it.” Spike offered. “Actually, scratch that, is there anywhere can put it into dry dock?” “Not my area of concern.” The guard said bluntly. “Find out. Right now I need to see the council, just make sure it doesn’t get scrapped.” Spike grunted, before pushing past the guard, ignoring his cries of protest. Spike cut a wide path through the temple, the doors sliding open to his biometrics as if he had been here for the past few years. He wondered briefly how long his biometrics would stay in the temple as he got into the lift, another Jedi looking at him in horror. “Are…are you alright?” He asked slowly. “Why wouldn’t I be?” Spike asked, looking down at the human. “So…that’s not yours then?” He continued. “The blood? No.” Spike shook his head. “Outer Rim’s a violent place.” “The Outer Rim?” The man asked in confusion. “There aren’t supposed to be any Jedi out there. Not after…” He trailed off. “After what?” “The ship carrying Spike went missing.” He said slowly, realisation dawning on his face. “Not everyone died.” Spike muttered. “Spike?” The man asked in amazement. “Who are you that doesn’t know your own order?” Spike chuckled. “Padawan Stratmum.” He said in what only could sound like reverence. “Who’s you Master? And for that matter where is your Master?” “Jedi Knight Tarhal is away on a peace keeping mission on Corellia with Jedi Knight Corinna and Jedi Master Zule.” “Zule’s a masters?” Spike laughed. “Trust him to get there first.” “It is an honour to meet you. Tarhal and the others, they always speak highly of you.” “I’ll have to see you around some time when he comes back. It’s been far too long since I saw any of them.” Spike said, watching as the Padawan stepped out of the lift. “You have no idea how happy Tarhal will be.” He grinned as the doors slid shut, and the lift began its final ascent, allowing Spike to step out and walk towards the Council Chamber. He could already hear them talking, although he wasn’t really listening enough to hear what they were saying, nor did he really care. All he cared about was that enough of the council was in there that they could run a meeting, and if they could run a meeting, he could put his point across. The room went silent as Spike strode into the middle, staring at each of the Jedi masters as they looked back at him in shock. Some of them were outright disgusted by his state, but right now, Spike didn’t care. “Members of the High Council, I come with news from the Outer Rim.” He said, his voice echoing around the silent room. “Spike?” Master Atris said after a second, looking at the Dragon in shock. “But, you’re dead.” “I got better.” Spike quipped. “What happened?” Zez-Kai Ell asked, the old man leaning forward as he looked Spike over. “Mandalorians.” Spike said simply, spitting the word out as if it was dirty. “A small problem around Taris, but nothing the republic fleet can’t handle.” Atris replied. “You on the other hand are covered in blood and looking like some sort of savage.” “Excuse me for not being able to conform to normal standards of cleanliness,” Spike deadpanned, “but unlike you, I’ve been behind enemy lines for six, long, months. So don’t you tell me that the Mandalorian threat is small, because it bloody well isn’t.” “What did you see out there?” Zez-Kai Ell asked. “The last time I spoke to you you were about to investigate what had happened on Thresh.” “We found out what happened all right.” Spike nodded. “We jumped into orbit over Thresh and I sent down members of the Vipers to try and gather more information while I stayed with the ship and went to check the dark side of the planet. When we got there, we found a small ship and moved to intercept it, but we moved right into a trap.” “Why didn’t you go with the ground forces?” Master Kavar asked. “Advice from the late Captain Parn.” Spike muttered. “We were attacked by a type of ship I’ve never seen before and we were boarded. They weren’t acting like crusaders, to ordered. This was an army, well trained and well equipped.” “One ship hardly constitutes and army.” Atris scoffed. “The Mandalore was defeated years ago, they clans will never regain their power.” “I remember when the Mandalore fell Atris, I fought in that war when you were still a Knight, so don’t tell me what happened.” Spike snapped. “They have a new Mandalore, one who found the mask of the old one, and they have a lot more than one ship. There were thousands, the soldiers were armoured in standardised equipment, they were different. They aren’t crusaders anymore. They still call themselves the Neo-Crusaders, but they are an army.” “How did you escape then?” Master Lamar asked. “If they are an army as you said, how did they let you escape?” “By making a pact with the devil.” Spike muttered. “They didn’t know I was a Jedi so I took them by surprise. We managed to get back to our ship and get to Ranox, but we crashed. Only Parn and I survived, and she didn’t last long. That was six months ago. It took me six months to figure out how to get to the port and how to escape the planet to get back here. They aren’t just conquering planets and moving on anymore, they built mines on Ranox to supply their armies with blasters, they were dragging scrap away to build into new ships. In the Great Sith War they conquered and moved on, now they are consolidating their gains, soon they’ll be a threat to the republic itself, and make no mistake they intend to attack us.” “And what do you want the Jedi to do?” Atris asked suddenly. “What do you mean what do I want?” Spike asked disbelievingly. “You have brought us this, now what would you want to do to act upon it?” Atris reiterated. “I want to tell the Republic.” Spike said slowly, looking around at the Jedi Masters. “I want, no, we need to tell them and to launch a pre-emptive strike. The Mandalorians are strong but we’re stronger, we can beat them now before a war starts.” “The Republic does not start wars.” Kavar pointed out. “And the Jedi are not warriors.” “That would surprise me, we fought pretty well thirty years ago, and we lead men to their deaths in war. What were we then if not warriors?” “Peace keepers.” Kavar replied bluntly. “We do not start violence, and we do not preach it, but sometimes we cannot walk away from it.” “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Spike mumbled. “Do you remember the last war? Actually remember it?” “Of course, a war started because of the hubris of Jedi knights much like yourself, eager to march on the enemy.” Atris snapped. “Then you remember Coruscant of course.” Spike snapped back. “Oh no, wait. You don’t. You went with the fleet to Kemplex while I stayed here, on the ‘safe’ planet. We fought tooth and nail against the Sith and the Mandalorians, they ruined this world for years to come, and you want to give them a chance to do that again? We only beat them last time because they retreated through treachery. If they came to this planet with the will power to actually sack it, we could lose, and you’d allow that over some precious notion of neutrality?” “Be careful Spike. Others in the order already want to defy this council, do not become one of them.” Zez-Kai Ell warned. “We can’t just sit back and let this happen!” Spike shouted. “Spike is tired after his trying experiences in the Outer Rim.” Atris said, gesturing for a pair of temple guards to approach the Dragon. “Please escort him to somewhere he can sleep, and get him cleaned up, he looks like a savage.” “Get off me.” Spike growled, shrugging one of the guard’s hands off his shoulder, before looking around at the council in contempt. “I can sort myself out. Thank you for your time, council.” With that, Spike turned and left the chambers, ignoring the calls from behind him. Zez-Kai Ell had said that there were other Jedi who felt like he did. They would be willing to listen, and then, just maybe, he would be able to get the help he needed, and gain enough momentum to hit back at the Mandalorians.