The Stage is Set
Treen Tsi confidently strode down the busy streets of Couruscant. People of different genders, races, and home worlds parted around him to provide him space. Despite the normal cut of his clothing, his presence was still dominating. His long black hair and widows peak that reached to the center of his forehead, along with the unrelieved black he was clad in and the way he walked that minded others of a predator caused them to stay clear. He stopped in front of a small shop. He didn't bother to read the sign. Whatever it said didn't matter, he knew who ran the shop, and what kind of store it was.
A woman bumped into seemingly by accident. Treen felt his pockets, he was missing his comlink. He smiled, he'd been hoping for some fun today.
He looked at the woman, she was walking casually without a care in her head, it seemed. The Sith stalked up behind her, and carefully shoved her into a nearby alley. No one noticed, or maybe no one cared. This far down on Coruscant it was probably a common occurrence.
"Give it back, now," he growled.
The girl looked terrified, or maybe it was surprise, or maybe just a look of wide-eyed innocence. Her eyes were the only part of her face that wasn't covered in dirt so it was hard to tell. "Why, I don't know what you're talking about." I guess it was innocence.
"My comlink, give it back, now." He drew his vibro-blade and powered it on. There was no mistaking it now, that was fear.
"H-here!" she dug it out of a pocket and tossed to him. Treen took a moment to inspect the comlink, then pocketed it. "Good choice," he said as he put away the now powered down weapon and strode away.
The woman dusted herself off, a useless action, and smiled. He had been so concerned with his comlink he hadn't noticed the missing credits.
"May I help you, sir?" a protocol droid asked.
"Is Garen Vorelas here?" the human asked.
"I'm sorry, sir." the droid responded with an annoying voice that seemed common to all protocol droids. "I'm afraid that I cannot help you. Perhaps you have the wrong store?"
"I've got the right store. I want to talk to him about a special import." Treen replied.
A man walked out of a backroom. He was wearing a dark green hat on his head and black pants with a white shirt and a dark green vest. "It's alright, I'm expecting him."
"Yes, sir," the droid made a small bow and stepped to the side. Treen followed the man to an office at the back of the store.
Garen closed the door behind them, and walked around to sit at his desk. "Whyren's Reserve?" he offered a cup. "I am not Corellian, but I do enjoy it."
"No. Thank you," said Treen.
"Well then," Garen sipped the beverage. "what is this rare item you wanted me to find?"
Treen gave him a datacard. Garen took the card gingerly and inserted it into a datapad. For a few moments he glanced at the display. "You do realize," he began. "that I can't legally sell this to you fully operational, even if I could find it." He gazed at his potential customer.
Treen chuckled. "Are you telling me that all of your deals are… legitimate?"
Garen affected an expression of total innocence. "I purchase and sell information and merchandise for an agreed upon price and there is rarely renegotiation. I would consider that legitimate. What do you want this," he motioned with the datapad. "for?"
"Let's just say I collect that type of antique. And I would appreciate it if it was in as close to original condition as possible. I have faith in your abilities to find it for me."
The smuggler looked at the boy sitting in front of him. He really was little more than a boy, he couldn't have been more than sixteen, seventeen maybe, but that was unlikely. "I can find it. I cannot guarantee what condition it is in."
"How much will this cost?"
Garen typed a few keystrokes into his computer terminal. The smuggler turned his monitor to face Treen. He dug into his pocket, and when he found his credits missing he muttered a curse. "I will have that for you when it comes in."
Treen pulled a single credit from his pocket, almost an insult. "Fair enough." Replied Garen before the youth stood and left.
Lorania was about three-dozen paces from her X-wing starfighter with her lightsaber ignited. Two spherical probes floated in the air, firing stun bolts at her. She quickly deflected each oncoming assault with her lightsaber leaving a faint violet haze lingering in the air. Two strait hours of this and anyone would be tired. She tapped the remote on her belt and the probes returned to their place in her fighter. She followed them. Where is my master? He disappeared months ago and hasn't made contact yet. What happened? Am I no longer worthy of his teaching? A sudden pain flared inside her head and her visions blanked, she could see nothing. Nothing, except the image of a man dressed in Sith robes with his hood obscuring his face from view.
"YOU WILL COME, SITH." The voice boomed inside her skull, making her want to scream, but she couldn't. "I HAVE SUMMONED YOU AND SO YOU WILL COME. YOU WILL COME." She fell to the ground, sweating more now than she had after her lightsaber practice. The sun was low in the sky, it had been just after morning when she had finished her practice. The days were short on this moon, but not that short. She strode with purpose to her X-wing; she knew where she had to go.
Alanna awoke from her sleep and yawned. She was ready for another day of Jedi training. She stepped to the window and looked out. There were supposed to be new students arriving next week, but sometimes there were a few early ones. She looked out and saw the jungle, the animals, a clearing around the temple, and Galen stripped to the waist doing one-handed pushups. She sighed, when she went to sleep the night before, he was going through forms with his lightsaber in that spot. She shook her head and went to her closet to get dressed. He claimed that he did rest, but apparently he waited until no one could see him.
Dressed, Alanna walked out of her quarters and into the dining hall down passageway. When she stepped in, the hall was empty except for her friend Anakin Solo. "Hello," she said.
He nodded and made a small wave with his hand, his mouth was full. "Where is everybody?"
Anakin swallowed. "Master Luke said he had to meet with the other instructors, so we have a free day. Most of the other students, minus the really young ones, still haven't come back yet," Alanna nodded. A free day and all Galen does is train.
"Well, I gotta go," said Anakin as he stuffed the last of his food into his mouth and downed a half full glass of whatever it was he was drinking. "I told Galen I'd do a practice dual with him today." Anakin ran out of the dining hall.
Alanna sighed. Sometimes she wondered how any woman managed to put up with a man when they were all so hard to understand. She went to find the one student left that wasn't already occupied, Myra.
Alanna walked down the hall, trying to come up with something fun to do that day, without much success. There weren't even enough people to play a game of sabacc, well, there was but Galen didn't count. He's too busy training to play a game of anything.
"Myra," she called softly as she knocked on her friend's door. Well, they weren't exactly friends, Myra didn't have too many of those, but they certainly weren't enemies. Alanna opened the door slowly. Myra was sitting at her desk with her head down, asleep. Her computer was still on. Alanna sighed and left Myra to her sleep. So much for fun.
"Rouge six, seven. These guys are tough, wanna try that thing we were talking about?" Shey Klen'lya only had to wait half a second for a response.
"Alright seven, I'll take point."
"Roger that."
Two X-wings immediately did a snap roll to port as the alarm sounded for a nearly acquired targeting lock. The second snubfighter turned around full and fired each of her four lasers in succession. The opposing Z-295 Headhunter dived to avoid the laser fire. As that happened, the first X-wing's wingman was being pummeled by the other Headhunter. One blast grazed her and a trail of smoke followed her fighter until the lack of oxygen extinguished the flames. The first X-wing fired two proton torpedoes at its opponent. The Z-295 of course, avoided this by crossing trails with his ally, something they had done before in this conflict. They would try to confuse the torpedoes until they exploded harmlessly away from them. But that was what they had counted on, this time the first Headhunter ran into the torpedo that was lying dead in space that Rouge seven had place there. The Headhunter was destroyed in a brilliant explosion.
"We got him!" proclaimed six joyously. Their celebration was short live however when the computer screamed of a targeting lock. Six pulled up, and straight into the torpedoes she had fired a moment ago. That left just seven. She wasn't in it for long though, her targeting lock warning screamed right before everything went dark. The cockpit canopy rose and Shey took off her helmet and jumped out of the simulator. "Ok," she said as she dropped to the floor and saw her fellow members of Rouge Squadron. Not all of them had flown in that sim, but her flight had. "What two pilots can shoot down a whole flight of Rouge squadron taking only one casualty?" She noticed one of the pilots she was flying against, she didn't recognize him. But the other one she recognized rather well. His name was Wedge.
Ok everyone, I was gonna make this chapter longer and a bit longer, but I decided to go ahead and post it since ff.net deleted my announcement. Sorry I didn't include more of the character submissions, but I plan to include the others soon. If I didn't get back to you on a character submission then don't worry, I'll be using your char in the fic. There was only one submission I didn't use and I told that person about it. If you want to submit a character and you still want to, it's not too late. But the farther along the story gets, the less likely it is I can incorporate a new character, so send them soon. You can either leave your char info in a review (I want lots of reviews by the way, character submission or otherwise) or send it to me at archangelguilo@yahoo.com . the minimum information is:
Name: (character name)
Force Ability: (how strong in the force your character is at the beginning of the fic)
Force Potential: (how strong in the force your char could be when maxed out)
Jedi: (trainee, knight, sith, etc)
Home world: (planet they are from)
Gender: (male/female)
Age: (I don't really care, as long as its realistic)
Height: (see age)
Eyes: (see Hair:)
Hair: (see Eyes:)
Race: (Twi'lek, Sullustian, Vor, Gotal, etc.)
Equipment: (note: you don't have to include a lightsaber, this is starting eq. Everyone who is a Jedi will get a lightsaber eventually, and probably a cooler one if they don't start out with one)
Ship(s): (like X-wing, Deathseed, Z-295 Headhunter (one I made up, a pretty nice fighter))
Credits: (don't care, but please don't say none, almost everyone does)
Personality: (be very specific or I'll have to guess and it may not turn out how you imagined at all)
E-mail: (something like thisaddressisntreal@nowhere.gone)
That's about all. Ja ne!