Note: This story is set 3000 years before Episode IV. It does not follow the canon timeline in order to have more creative leeway.
Summary: Ten years have passed since a Sith insurrection was put down. The war was however hard won and both the Republic and the Jedi Order have been gravely weakened. Facing separatists who seek to tear down the Republic, they are forced to rely on mercenaries. Among them is Adam Ko, a smuggler tasked with bringing the necessary artifacts for a superweapon that could change everything...
Star Wars
The Anointed One
Ten years after the insurrection of the Sith and the second Force War, the Galaxy seems to be once again at the brink of war. Weakened by the conflict and unable to make a full recovery, the Galactic Republic and its authority are questioned by the Committee of Independent States.
The Jedi Order is in tatters, with many of its knights having been killed in the Force War and many more having fallen to the dark side. With limited Jedi assistance available, the Republic now relies on mercenaries to aid it in its suppression of separatists.
Among them is a renowned smuggler who has been hired to smuggle precious goods outside the separatist planet of Anthora. Having taken the goods with him, the smuggler and his droid partner are making their way to the docks…
Chapter 1 – Crystals of Anthora
"Hurry!" the thirty-one years old man said. "It will not take long for them to find out that the crystals are missing."
"Yes, Master. I am moving as fast as I can," the droid replied with its buzzing voice.
The man was Adam Ko. He was tall and slightly muscular, with shaggy brown hair, brown eyes and a vibroblade scar on his right cheek. He was wearing black shirt and trousers and a dark blue jacket. The droid was HK-71. It stood at about two and half meters tall and it was painted in a dusty grey color. It was an old assassin – protocol droid Adam had uncovered in a junkyard. A friend of his repaired it. Although its protocol functions were fully restored, its fighting abilities were rather limited. Nevertheless, it could prove useful, hence becoming Adam's partner.
Adam and HK rushed through the crowded urban streets of Haja, Anthora's capital. It was the largest spaceport in the planet and as such it was full of merchants, pilots and other space travelers. Its cantinas were crowded with people and so was the street marketplace. The two partners could hear all kinds of languages from different species. The noise could be overwhelming, especially to those who were not used to being in such overcrowded places. Adam had grown up in such urban places however and knew how to blend in.
"A turn to left," he said as he hurried forward, "and… we are at dockyard 51."
HK pressed some buttons on a computer panel and the gate to the dock platform opened, revealing their ship. The ship, called the 'Hawk' was actually more of a shuttle. It had been stolen by Adam after his own vessel had been the victim of a robbery. It had three wings: one tall, dorsal stabilizer that remained stationary, and two lower wings that would extend during flight and fold upward for landing. The shuttle was mounted with two forward-facing double laser cannons.
"Come on," Adam said. "Move."
As the two of them walked to the ship, a squad of four men walked into the dock platform. Three of them were wearing blue full body plate armors and were armed with laser blasters while the fourth was wearing a white officers' uniform and a matching cap, indicating his commanding rank.
"Stop right there," the commander said.
Adam smiled and approached the officer. "What can I do for you, sir?"
While Adam was putting up a friendly face, HK had his hand ready to pull his blaster if things became heated.
"There are some problems with your docking license," the commander replied. "I need to check up things. No need to worry. It is standard procedure."
"You can check my vessel, sir. I can also bring you my ID card to check it out if you wish."
The officer smiled. He seemed a lot less tense now that the man was cooperating with him. "That would be good. Bring me the card." He then turned to his men and instructed them to search the Hawk.
Adam motioned HK to bring the ID card. As an experienced smuggler, he had many such forged papers in order to fool authorities when needed. Most of those were forged by Zach, a tech guy working for the Exchange crime syndicate. HK brought one such ID and presented it to the officer. The man inspected it closely and could not find any irregularities.
"Seems fine to me," he said. "If the search comes up with nothing, you will be clear to go."
Adam was relaxed. He had no reason to worry. The crystals he had stolen were on him while the only irregular cargoes on the ship were some forged papers and guns hid beneath a panel floor that could not be easily detected.
A moment later the three soldiers walked out of the smuggler ship. One of them stated, "Nothing irregular sir."
The officer put on a smile. "I apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice journey."
Adam laughed. "No need to worry. You are just doing your job. Have a nice day too."
As soon as the soldiers left the platform, Adam and HK rushed to the Hawk. Adam sat on the pilot's seat while HK sat on the co-pilot's after first setting some coordinates on the ship's computer panel.
Adam turned on a radio frequency that allowed him to eavesdrop what the authorities of Anthora were communicating. "Attention! Crystals missing! Theft at L.J.H. Laboratories! Stop any suspicious vessels from leaving!"
"Seems like they found out…" Adam said.
"Took them long enough, Master. One would have thought that with all the resources they have at their disposal, that they would have prevented the robbery in the first place."
"Don't be so harsh on them… they aren't the first governmental authorities to be fooled by us. Plus, I have surprise for them."
Adam smirked. He took a small round metallic device from his pocket which had a red button on it and pressed it. A few seconds later, a loud sound could be heard. On the horizon, they could see smoke all the way from the center of the city. It clouded the sky.
"Counter-terrorist units! Medical authorities! Alert! Terrorist attack! Governor's office!" could be heard from the frequency.
Adam had ensured that a bomb was placed there a week ago. HK had visited the governor's office as a protocol droid assistant: the original protocol droid that was to be delivered to the office had been disabled and sent to the junkyard. HK hid the bomb and left. The bomb lay there until the right time would come.
"That should keep them busy!" Adam chuckled. He pulled a lever, pressed some buttons and the Hawk took off.
"I am activating cloak device, Master."
This device allowed a ship to weaken the signal it was sending, making it harder to be picked up by sensors of other ships. While this would not work well in the case of even average sized ships, the Hawk was a small ship and this made it far easier to go undetected. Even then, there were no guarantees that this would fully work but Adam was confident of the trick's success due to the high traffic from and out of Anthora. With so many ships, it wouldn't be hard to go unnoticed.
The Hawk had left the planet's atmosphere and was in space. It was speeding forward. All around it were ships going in and out of the planet while some separatist capital-class ships with their heavy laser cannons were monitoring the traffic.
"All ships leaving or entering Anthora have to stop their movement at once and send immediately their data to us. Non-compliance means you will be shot down."
"Hope our gamble pays off…" Adam stated as he pressed a lever to go into hyperspace.
"Do not worry, Master. They are too stupid to catch us."
"I sure hope so!"
With the lever pressed, the ship immediately went into hyperspace, leaving behind Anthora.
"Yeeha!"Adam shouted. "We made it! The capital ships did not notice us!"
"I would have preferred if we have seen a little more action though Master. We simply planted a bomb and then sneaked into a lab. We did not shoot someone, did not kick someone's ass, we did not even have some space fight. It was a little boring."
Adam relaxed on his seat and let out a deep breath. "I, for once, am happy that everything worked out just fine without having to risk some in foolish firefight."
"Destination reached in four hours," the ship's computer announced.
"The Republic will pay lots of cash for those crystals," HK said. "We can at least pay Lerdoch's debt away."
"Yup! Who would've thought four tiny crystals would pay so much?"
Those bright green crystals were actually the Ksaber Crystals. They were a special kind of crystals found only in certain underground regions of Anthora. They were extremely rare and those that were stolen were deliberately modified by the laboratories with several altering drugs. On their own, they were not useful but they could potentially provide huge firepower capabilities for a new weapon device developed by the Republic. The vast amount of energy inside them, if properly released, would be enough to decimate an entire planet.
Adam closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall asleep. He hadn't slept for almost thirty hours.
"Great! Now I have to sit all by myself…." HK complained.
Space was like a dark curtain, contrasting with blacks and yellows, and the occasional white, which was shaped as a circle and sometimes a crescent. Thousands of bright stars and planets dotted that curtain in an intricate pattern. Suddenly, a menacing shadow overshadowed one of the smaller planets. It was the shadow of a Capital-Class Republic Cruiser traveling in space. It had a bulbous center section, with gun batteries covering the front, sides and stern and a command tower on the dorsal side. Its engines emitted a sound like the singing of whales. It was the only sound that could be heard in the silent and empty coldness of space.
Two men and a woman were discussing in a bright white office room. The two men were Joshua Fromes and Alec Conte. Alec was forty-five years old. Tall, muscular with slightly grey hair and mustache, he was the admiral of the cruiser. He was wearing a uniform which consisted of a double-breasted tunic with a round collar and matching trousers, a pair of black boots, a belt and a command cap.
Joshua, who was just twenty-two years old, was a Jedi Knight. He was tall, slim, with blue eyes, an aquiline nose, long black hair, short beard with thin, neatly trimmed sides and a delicate and most beautiful face. He was wearing a long brown robe. The woman, Iris Shen was also tall and beautiful, having a pale complexion that was complimented by her fiery red lips, her rosy cheeks and her gem like eyes that shone like the clear and piercing light of the moon. She too was a Jedi Knight, at the same age as Joshua, and wore a Jedi brown robe.
Joshua and Iris were on a mission by the Jedi Council to escort the crystals to Coruscant.
"Adam should be coming any time now," Alec said. "Once he is here, we are at once to leave for Coruscant."
"Do you trust this Adam guy?" Joshua asked. "He is a smuggler after all. He could sell the crystals to the exchange or some other scumbags."
"I've known Adam for two years," Alec replied. "We fought together at El Zhang."
"I thought he was a smuggler…" Joshua couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice. He was genuinely astonished by this mention. The battle of El Zhang was one of the most famous battles after the end of the second Force War.
With the Republic still struggling to recover from that destructive conflict with the Sith, the first signs of armed resistance appeared. The Alliance of Lions, a precursor of the Committee of Independent States, supported a short-lived revolt at the planet of Dantooine, attacking the Republic outpost of El Zhang, which was critically undermanned. The heroic resistance of the Republic troopers allowed the outpost to hold on until Republic reinforcements arrived and put down the secessionists.
"Well… he did not offer his services voluntarily," Alec replied. "He was jailed for trying to smuggle some precious artifacts from our outpost. When the rebels attacked us, we needed as many men as we could get. So we struck a deal with most prisoners, Adam among them, to let them free in exchange for aiding us. Adam agreed and proved himself to be a great warrior. I even offered him a position in the Republic military but he refused."
"Still… I don't think it's wise to trust such a guy."
"Adam may be rogue but he is smart and knows not to make foolish mistakes. The crystals on their own aren't really that useful. Only as parts of XLC-82 are they of real value and only the Republic has this machinery. We are the only ones who know how it can be constructed, so it will be useless to others. Adam knows this. He can only sell the crystals to us."
"I don't think he will betray us," Iris intervened. All this time she had been silently hearing as she wasn't much of the talking type. "Still, relying on a smuggler for such an important mission does show that the Republic is not at its best…"
Alec sighed. "The war with the Sith has cost us too much unfortunately. The Republic is vast but old and ailing. Infrastructure has been destroyed, the galactic economy disturbed, faith in the political system shaken. We will have a hard time surviving this crisis… This weapon may be our only chance!"