Two years have passed since the end of the Second Galactic Civil War, which saw to the death of the GALACTIC FEDERATION OF FREE ALLIANCE'S despotic ruler, Darth Caedus, better known as Jacen Solo to his former friends and family.
In his wake, Caedus left a government in turmoil from the war that he perpetuated, leaving former Imperial Admiral NATASI DAALA to heal the wounds that the Galactic Alliance suffered under Caedus's oppressive regime.
In that time, Daala rebuilt the Alliance's power base to the form that it once knew prior to the Second Galactic Civil War, increasing her public popularity as a result. However, her seeming benevolence only paves the way for the FATE OF THE JEDI.
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Coruscant
Over the mighty capital of the Galactic Alliance, Coruscant, a world known for its constantly migrating population that ranged from the hundreds of billions, a small, inconspicuous HWK-290 received only minimal attention from Coruscant Orbital Control. The pilot cooperated with the perfunctory routines that followed from Control, and then he started his ship's descent through Coruscant's atmosphere with barely anymore attention. He soon vanished into the sea of space vessels that traveled to and from the city world before he headed for The Works.
An ancient district of Coruscant that very few in the galaxy knew of, The Works were inundated with abandoned buildings, factories, and countless other structures that had been all but destroyed by the terraforming of the invasive Yuuzhan Vong nearly a decade and a half earlier. What structures that weren't utterly devastated and completely leveled were coated in yorik coral and Vongformed-foliage that made The Works appear as some kind of jungle hell.
The population here was incredibly sparse, to say the least, and everyone who lived in The Works was all but a vagrant. While Alliance underground forces used this sector as a staging area against the Vong while Coruscant was called Yuuzhan'tar, The Works never received any attention from the Galactic Alliance after they retook Coruscant from the Vong. Hence, that was why The Works were allowed to languish in this unnatural wilderness.
And that made this the perfect place for the HWK-290 to deliver its package, free from any mass attention or suspicion.
The freighter landed inside the docking bay of the LiMerge Power Building, one of the many structures that survived the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion Coruscant and their subsequent Vongforming of the planet. From the outside, the LiMerge Building appeared to be in even worse shape than it had been just a century before, when it had been used by the scheming Senator Palpatine as a base to carry out his diabolical plans for galactic domination. Vongformed vegetation coated the LiMerge Building's exterior just like many other structures throughout The Works, which would make someone believe that it was just as dead and abandoned inside, like all the other structures in this sector.
But inside, the LiMerge Building was alive. Perhaps not bustling with activity, but it was definitely being used by people working for one of the most powerful people in the galaxy today. And it was in this barely-living building's docking bay that the HWK-290 docked before the pilot began cycling the shutdown sequence.
A few minutes later, the freighter's boarding ramp lowered to touch the docking bay's deck. Seconds later, the pilot, a male Trandoshan, began walking down the ramp, a hovercart that he pushed preceding him. On the cart was an unconscious male Duros, dressed in the robes of a Jedi, with a transparent dome separating the flat-faced alien from the rest of the world.
The Trandoshan, Bossk, slowly approached the three people who waited for him: a female Givin in a pristine white lab coat, which evidently made her some kind of scientist, Bossk thought, and two light-skinned, brawny human male guards standing beside and a little ways behind her.
Bossk sized the two men up as he approached, coolly regarding their stoic expressions that were meant to intimidate him; the Trandoshan stifled a chuckle at the artificial threat that those stares gave him. He figured that if he wanted, or if he thought it was necessary for any reason otherwise, he could take both of them down together in five seconds flat.
And that was even if they did bear the crests of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances military on the shoulders of their uniforms.
Once Bossk stopped before the Givin and the guards, the alien scientist regarded the unconscious Duros on the cart with what could only be described as objective neutrality; like a biologist - which was what Bossk suspected she was, just by instinct - looking at some bacteria on a petri dish. After a few seconds of regarding the unconscious Duros, she looked to the side of the hovercart, where she saw the alien's vital signs that told her that the unconscious Jedi Knight was indeed alive.
The scientist looked back up at Bossk, never losing that cold expression of hers. "How long does he have before he wakes up?" the Givin inquired, her tone just as cold and dead as the rest of her facial and bodily expressions.
Bossk shrugged nonchalantly. "I'd give it about a couple hours."
The Givin regarded Bossk for a few more silent, imperceptible moments before taking out a datapad from one of the pockets of her coat. She then tapped on the 'pad a few times before she looked back at the Trandoshan.
"Thank you for your services, Mister Bossk," the Givin stated, never losing that cold, dead tone. "The credits that you have asked for are now in your personal bank account."
Bossk sniffed. "I'll believe it when I see it. 'Til then, have a good... whatever you're gonna do to him, Doc." He gestured a sloppy wave, accompanied by a smile characteristic of his reptile-based species, before he abruptly turned away and headed back to his ship.
Before the HWK-290 began powering back on a few minutes later, the Givin and her guards were already turning away from the ship. The hovercart with the unconscious Duros Jedi was being pushed along by one of the guards as he, his colleague, and the scientist headed for the exit of the docking bay.
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Imperial Palace
Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala, currently running through reports on her datapad in her office, was stopped by the ringing of her personal commlink in her pocket. She set the 'pad down and opened up the channel after making a quick check to make sure that it was secure from any monitoring devices elsewhere.
"Yes?" Daala asked.
"Chief Daala, this is Doctor Ragon," the dead feminine voice on the the other end replied. "I have good news. Is there any chance that you can make it to the LiMerge Power Building at The Works in the next few hours?"
"Tell me what the news is first," Daala demanded.
"We've perfected the serum, ma'am," Ragon answered.
Daala's eyes widened with the smile that wasn't there before. "That is some good news," she affirmed simply. "Very well, I'll be there in a few hours." She then cut off the connection, replaced the commlink in her pocket, and then she activated her office comm. "Wynn?"
"Yes, ma'am?" the dull, masculine voice on the other end asked.
"Cancel my appointment with Senator Reloake," Daala commanded. "I have a personal errand to run."
"Very well, Chief Daala," the voice of Daala's Chief of Staff Wynn Dorvan responded evenly. The man was never one to question his superior's authority unless she directly asked for his advice; Daala liked that. It was always good to know that someone would know their place in the hierarchy of government.
She smiled. "I know I could count on you," Daala said before signing off from Dorvan. She wasted no more time before standing up and leaving her office in an instant.
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The sliding door of Dr. Ragon's laboratory opened up before Daala and the retinue of guards behind her. Without losing momentum from her brisk walk, she proceeded to approach the Givin scientist, who was now staring at the entrapped Duros Jedi before her.
Jedi Knight Qwallo Mode was manically thrashing about in the transparisteel cage, making incoherent screams as he bounced back and forth and side to side all throughout his tiny prison. Outside and next to his cage was an ysalamari lounging comfortably on the simulation of one of the trees of its homeworld of Myrkr.
"As you can see, Chief Daala," Ragon said, "the ysalamari is repressing Jedi Mode's ability to access the Force, so that he won't be able to break out and pose a danger to everybody here, obviously. But, of course, that's not what's driving him crazy."
"That serum you perfected is," Daala concluded with a deviant smile as she looked at Ragon.
The Givin nodded in pride. "I do my best."
Daala then looked back at the raging Qwallo Mode, her smiling fading slightly. "So what's he thinking right now?"
"Oh, that everybody around him is a Sith imposter of the person they're inhabiting," Ragon informed her. "And he has no further desire than to kill everyone he comes across." Her ghostly expression became inquisitive. "Would you like me to gas him now, so he can-"
"Not yet," Daala cut her off as she reached into the pocket containing her commlink. "Not for some time."
Once she had the commlink out and activated, Daala made a call. "Hello?" the voice on the other end inquired.
"Is this Captain Harfard of the Coruscant Security Force?" Daala asked.
"Yes, ma'am, what can I do for you?"
"Captain Harfard, this is Chief of State Natasi Daala. I need you to put out an arrest warrant for Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker."
