Starkiller reporting – mission failed. Chapter 1 – Crash-landing.
This story is a request made by Rubberman2025. Thank you very much for making this request, it means so very much to me. This is a crossover between star wars and digimon (again). Main hero – Starkiller (Galen Marek). Alright. Here goes nothing.
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… A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away… a lone starship was making its way through the deep voids of space. For many days it was flying towards its destination – an uninhabited planet somewhere in the Outer Rims of the galaxy. The ship was called "The Rogue Shadow", it was not your average transport ship. It was special, unique. A pinnacle in its class, it was built in complete secrecy, and all who constructed it perished in accidents or street crimes to ensure their silence. Its purpose was to allow traveling covertly throughout the galaxy.
Its owner was something special as well. His name was not registered anywhere in the imperial logs, and there were very few who knew who he was and lived to tell the tale. To those few who knew of his existence he was known as Starkiller. That was not his real name, but people like him do not have names, or history, for safety reasons. Starkiller was an assassin. But not just any assassin, his targets were very specific.
He was trained to hunt down and kill Jedi, or anyone who was Force – sensitive and dangerous to the Empire. Jedi were tough targets, conventional weapons didn't work at them. In order to comprehend such target Starkiller was trained in their ways, but no one other than Lord Vader. Yes, Starkiller also was a Force-sensitive, but the one loyal to the Empire and Lord Vader personally.
The other two who knew him were his pilot, Juno Eclipse, and his droid companion, PROXY. Juno was a remarkable pilot, she was hand-picked to be Starkiller's pilot. PROXY was special as well. PROXY was equipped with advanced hologram technology that, when coupled with his built-in servos, would allow him to change appearance and adopt a wide range of disguises. He could also present messages: he would turn holographically into the sender, and the sender would say the message. Also, when Starkiller wanted information on an individual, PROXY would turn into that person and access databases to confirm his/her identity.
Juno, however, was not present at the ship this time. Starkiller was tasked to undertake the task with only his droid accompanying him. The task was to eliminate a rogue Jedi who was hiding on the planet below. Perhaps he thought that no one would come searching for him here, on a deserted planet, protected by a dense asteroid field which was all that remained of the planet's moon…
"Master, master, are you alright?" the static-filled voice of his droid companion managed to get Starkiller out of his trance. It seemed that from time to time he was losing touch with reality, concentrating on his thoughts.
"I am alright." Starkiller replied shortly. This mission was pretty average to him – go, find, kill the Jedi, leave no witnesses. And it began as all his missions began – by a contact from his master via PROXY…
… "What is thy bidding, my master?" Starkiller inquired, kneeling before the holographic image of his master. Large black figure, covered with a cloak, with a sinister-looking helmet covering the scarred face - that image Starkiller remembered with fear, it was what came for him long, long ago, destroyed his life, and then rebuilt it again… The image of his master always seemed to make everything look darker in the room, haunting.
"There is a disturbance … in the Force. It must be … silenced. The coordinates are transferred to your navycomputer as we speak. I do not need to remind you the price of failure." His master's low, grim voice, jammed by the respiratory systems, was giving chills to anyone, but Starkiller learned to live with that.
"As you command, my lord." Starkiller replied as the image of his master disappeared into particles, making PROXY reappear again in its standard droid appearance.
"I hate being him." The droid commented as he regained his appearance again. That was the phrase he used every time after turning from being Vader.
"I think he doesn't like it either. Not much fun being encased in a shell and be kept alive by it. C'mon, we've got a job to do…" Starkiller grumped as he left the chamber, with his droid close behind…
… Starkiller was repeating this scene again and again in his head, for no good reason, with the sole purpose of killing time. But this time of boredom came to an end as they approached the asteroid field surrounding the planet.
It was quite dense. Thousands of small moving asteroids were posing danger to any ship that would dare sneaking through it, and most certainly tare to shreds any unskilled pilot. Fortunately, Starkiller was skilled in flying a ship on his own, and was more than capable of flying through the stony blockade.
But today he was not so certain of it. He had a so-called "gut feeling" ever since the beginning of the mission. But he knew, as a Force adept, that there were no such things as "gut feelings", there is only the Force. And the Force was warning him of the danger that might lie ahead.
"PROXY, activate scanners, cloaking devise, and keep our ion emissions to a minimum. Angle the deflector shields to the front." Starkiller gave the commands to his droid who was operating the systems.
"Do you expect trouble, master?" the droid inquired.
"I always expect trouble. This asteroid field is a perfect spot for a hidden pirate base. I do not want to fly right into their jaws…" its master replied as they both waited for scan to complete. In less than a minute a quick scan of the surrounding area was complete.
"The scan shows no sign of any activity within the field, master… Hmm, that's odd…" PROXY commented with a degree of amazement as it analyzed the data input.
"What is it?" Starkiller replied as he approached the view screen.
"It seems that many asteroids have a gas layer around them. The gas is very explosive, a sudden ion discharge or a stray blaster shot and the whole field might explode. It is unlikely that pirates have a base within the field, the risk of being blown to smithereens is just too high, and we all know that pirate raiding ships are usually badly maintained." The droid replied. And it had a point – no one in decent mind would do such a thing.
"Could the Force be mistaking about this one? Hmm… Very well, let's proceed forward, very carefully…" Starkiller ordered and returned to his pilot seat. Unseen to scanners and naked eye, the "Rogue shadow" entered the field, elegantly dodging and weaving, avoiding collision with asteroids…
… But the Force is never wrong. And if you think it may be wrong, you better double-check your own position again. Because nothing is certain. The ship went inside, masked from all conventional methods of detecting it. All, except one.
Since the Great Jedi Purge many of the surviving Jedi went into exile, hiding from imperial operatives searching for them. Some, constantly hounded, decided not to run, but to fight for their lives. The one Starkiller was sent after was one such case…
The scan showed nothing in the asteroid field, because nothing out there was emanating energy or heat signatures. Because with all systems offline nothing can emanate any. And the disturbance in the Force was caused not by a mere accident, but was a part of a plan… A plan to lure anyone who was sent to investigate into the asteroid field.
Among asteroids, hidden from scanners and prying eyes, there was another ship drifting, lifeless… almost lifeless. An old ARC-170, that goes way back to the clone wars. It was an old, but effective ship, and was equipped with a hyperdrive.
Inside there were three people. The only one worth of our attention was a relatively old man as a pilot. His face had many scars, and was covered by a white beard. He looked like a Jedi, and he was a Jedi … long ago. Now, his passionless serenity of a true Jedi was replaced by hate and lust for vengeance, it's fires were burning bright.
"Err, are you sure the assassin is here?" one of co-pilots inquired.
"Yes, I can feel him in the Force. He masks his presence well, but not well enough to hide the power he possesses. Today the Emperor will lose one of his powerful servants… But let's wait. Let him go deeper into the asteroid field, so that he would not have any chances of escaping the blast…" the ex-Jedi replied as they waited for their victim…
… "The Jedi… He is here … somewhere. I can feel his presence." Starkiller said dimly after closing his eyes and trying to concentrate. He tried to feel a more precise location of his target, yet he failed to do so so far.
"Well that is good, master. The sooner you find him and dispatch him, the sooner we can get out of here." The droid replied while still monitoring the ship's movements.
"Yet… I sense … hate. He knows we are coming, but … how?" Starkiller posed a question to himself.
"Well, master, if you can sense his presence, I can only assume that he can sense you as well… But rest assured, master, if I, even with my most advanced lightsaber-combat techniques, failed with all of my attempts of completing my primary function, then an exile, whose skills were weakened without practice, won't stand a chance against you." PROXY encouraged his master, yet without much effect.
"I really hope so, but something just tells me things will not go according to plan…"
… "He-he-he, congratulations, everything goes according to plan, gentlemen. Now all we have to do is to close the trap. Activate all the systems and calculate the course for a hyperspace jump." The Jedi ordered his pilots, as he enjoyed anticipation. In less than a minute all systems were back online.
"Target the large asteroid. It will set up a chain explosion that will blow the whole field to hell." Another command came.
"Arming proton torpedo…" the co-pilot replied…
… "I'm peaking up some strange energy signals from the outer layer of the asteroid field, master… Like some sort of a small spacecraft…" the droid said with a bit of amazement and worry in his voice. Starkiller's eyes widened when he heard that.
"It's a trap! We have been discovered. Deactivate the cloaking devise and transfer all power to engines and deflector fields! Get us out of here!" he almost screamed as he started to push various buttons to input commands on the control panel.
The ship, which just a moment ago was graciously drifting through the asteroids, was now feverishly rushing out, dodging and evading the incoming rocks, in a valiant attempt to escape the explosion. What was supposed to be an "easy mission", turned out to be a life-threatening experience. That's what you get for underestimating the enemy.
"Master, by my calculations the blast will reach us in 8.3 seconds!" PROXY sounded desperate. Even a droid, it didn't like the idea of permanent deactivation.
"We have no choice! Activate the hyper engines! This is our only chance of survival!" Starkiller almost shouted, as his forehead was covering with sweat. He could feel the heat and the destructive energy of the blast gaining on them.
"Jump into hyperspace without an approach vector or coordinates, and in the middle of an asteroid field?! This is madness, master!!!" PROXY panicked.
"Either that or we're Peragus, get it?! Now do it!" Starkiller growled back.
"Yes, master. It was nice knowing you…" the droid replied rather pessimistically as it pushed several buttons on the control panel and activated the hyperdrive. With a flash, they disappeared into the void, in a completely random direction…
… A jump into hyperspace without coordinates or an approach vector is something of a last resort, which is used when the only alternative to it is death. Even so, many choose the variant of quick death in an explosion than to be tossed to a completely unknown space and die from hunger or other gruesome causes. These include: flying into a star, another asteroid field, or a planet. If you're incredibly lucky, you may actually save your skin and reappear somewhere safe, but that's rarely.
… "Rogue Shadow", severely battered from their daring escape from the explosion, finally crawled out of hyperspace. They were out of luck, they ended up in the middle of nowhere, in an unknown system near an unknown planet, mostly covered with water. Caught by the planet's gravity, the ship started to enter the atmosphere.
"PROXY, do something! We are going to crash!" Starkiller shouted as the ship entered the atmosphere.
"I can't, master! The subspace engines went offline and I can't fix them!" the droid replied while continuing his vane attempts to resolve the situation.
Red from entering the atmosphere, the misguided ship was falling down at a frightening speed. More and more systems showed a nasty "Malfunction", the ship's control was lost, and the situation was getting worse by the minute.
"Aaaaaa!!! We're going to fall into the ocean!!! We're done for!" PROXY panicked, but still tried to maneuver with what was left functioning of the ship's controls. His master, however, did exactly the opposite. He resigned from the control board, and closed his eyes, concentrating.
"Master, what are you doing?" the droid inquired.
"Calm yourself…" Starkiller's voice sounded aloof, like he wasn't really here. And that was partially true…
… "Calm yourself… The Force binds all things… Both living, and artificial… Empty your mind, let the Force flow through you without resistance… Size matters not, with the Force everything is possible… Feel the ship around you… You can adjust its falling trajectory, making it land on solid ground, and keep it intact still…" a strange voice was telling Starkiller what to do. And he listened.
The ship suddenly started to change its falling direction, slowly, but it was evading the course that promised only death to the crew. Several systems were fixed by PROXY by that time, and with them the ship didn't land in an ocean, but instead it hit a thin, but long archipelago, which was separated by a sea from the continent…
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First chapter ready. And yes, I realize that Earth is millions of light years away from that galaxy, and that even with hyperdrive it would take many years and blah blah blah… To me it was either that or a giant portal thing. I considered the portal thing repetitive.