A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away:

STAR WARS

JEDI TREASURE HUNTERS

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Star Wars or any of the affiliated characters. Certain characters within are of my own creation.

Chapter One

It had been far too long since he felt the exciting thrill of battle. The man smiled a warm smile like he was reuniting with an old friend. The hilt felt perfectly balanced in his experienced hand. He flicked the switch, the snap hiss of a yellow blade sprung out of the handle. Taking a deep breath he let the force flow through him just as several battle droids, pre-Empire models, came marching into the room blasters drawn, set to kill. He let the energy fill his being just as the first wave let loose the deadly bolts of red light.

He flicked his wrist effortlessly sending the plasma charged light back at their respective owners. Loud clangs issued and they fell down. He took a Force-enhanced leap and landed behind the next wave bring the blade around at stomach level slicing the next six in half at the torso.

A buzzing sound filled his ears. Another wave and his connection with the Force increased, he felt like he was loosing himself in the connection. At the same time his body felt suddenly weakend. He speed up his attack he didn't want to leave himself unguarded. He jumped up to a secluded ledge and shut down his light saber. When I make it back to the Temple I'll ask Luke what he thinks could be the problem.

Then a white haze took his vision.

A short red headed woman pulled a disk out of a computer and tapped her astromech on the top of its dome. "Come on Mud." She said as normally as she could. Several CORSEC officers strode by the little holonet café. This made her apprehensive. Being a slicer wasn't a good trade to be in on the planet of Corellia. CORSEC Officers were always looking for good slicers to put to work. To try and prevent exactly what she was doing. Hacking into government files and their bank accounts trying to get safe passage off of this god-forsaken rock. She would hack into an account here and there steal several credits then log out and play on the holonet for a while as to not arouse suspicion. Her R2 unit Mud, as she called him, though the droid really didn't have a sex, she preferred to think of it as a him. Rolled around behind her stealthily erasing her tracks and sending secret slicing programs back to his hidden secondary memory. It still twittered a question off to her. She sighed, "Yes Mud we are going home." She had stolen several hundred credits today and had enough to get her safe passage off world. Though she wouldn't leave her R2 unit behind, he cost her a nice amount of credits back before the YuzongVan invasion. And he had been with her ever since. A constant companion. Her blue eyes looked at the cross light as it turned green. She started to cross with Mud behind her whistling a song she often heard lewd men tell one another in cantinas. I'll have to purge that. She thought as she opened the door to her apartment building. She went to her mail box and opened it. Took out the bill and put it under her arm along with her portable terminal. She watched Mud go into the elevator and held it open for her. The Twilek who was standing in there frowned at the R2 unit. It whistled at her, asking her if she wanted to go up the elevator. She smiled at it, Such a thoughtful little machine. Then walked into the elevator. She mouthed Sorry to the other occupant which seemed to ease his expression from annoyance to naturalness. The door opened and she and Mud made their way to their apartment. The door slid open as soon as she reached it and closed as soon as Mud was halfway through the door. The droid let out a very long and angry beep as his frame was pinned against the archway. "I see you have been pissing off the apartment computer again." She laughed opening the door manually. He rolled though then gave the doorway an abrupt beep which she took as nark off.

She removed her shirt tossing it on the couch and then sunk into her oversized armchair, curling up. Mud went to the kitchen then returned a few minuets later with a bottle of purified water. She smiled, "Thanks." Then drank it. After she finished it she slowly started to drift off into sleep.

Half-way across the galaxy, the young Jedi awoke with a start. He was back. Now lets see if he could make it back to the transport before he blanked out again. He jumped down into the clearing and then saw two metallic balls folded up on the ground. He looked at them for only a split second then they started to uncurl. He realized exactly what they were in an instant ignited his light saber then sliced one in half, he flicked his wrist swinging his arm around to get the other one but it was too late as it had already put its shield up. He took a breath pulled on the Force then started running, faster than anything alive could. The droid's guns started firing and tracked behind him. Luckily it's targeting sensors were too slow and the bolts only bored harmlessly into the stone wall. By the time the droid realized that the target was no longer in the room with it, he was already running up the elevator shaft to the roof of the building, his cargo safely stored in his backpack.

He saw a moon in the sky and then pulled all the Force energy he could and increased his speed.

If someone had been standing on the roof opposite of his they would have seen a black object fly out of the hole on the roof and then land with a very loud crack as the ceiling gave under the pressure of said object hitting its surface.

Josh rolled off to the side just as he hit the spot on the roof and the air pressure collapsed causing the roof to cave in where he had impacted it. He rolled until he hit the landing gear of his X-Wing. Then he folded around it and laid there breathing for several minuets as a wave of pain washed over him from the bottom of his feet up to his stomach. He concentrated on the Force and willed himself to climb the ladder to his cockpit.

As soon as he had buckled the belt around his torso the systems came online and his R2 unit twittered its concern to him.

"Just get us back to Yardarm." He gasped sitting back as the R2 unit piloted the ship back through the stratosphere to the Corvette in orbit.

The X-Wing touched down in the cargo-bay that had been converted to service snub fighters. The other fighters in the hanger sat silently their systems on standby. When the cargo door finally and the atmosphere had reasserted itself two people came running into the hanger. One rushed a portable staircase to the side of the craft and opened the cockpit. Josh looked up at him through weary eyes and a smile spread across his face. "I got it." He said weakly then passed out.

She slowly roused from sleep as Mud prodded her with his grabber arm. He whistled several times in different pitches then he emitted a high pitched shrill that caused her to jerk away into a upright sitting position a hold out blaster in her hand pointed at the source of the shrill whistle. She focused her eyes and saw Mud backing up slowly. Her voice was thick with sleep as she looked bleary eyed at the little droid. "What do ya, think your doing?" She let the gun slip back into her hold out sleeve and began to settle back into her chair as she heard the knocking sound coming from the door.

Her brain shifted gears slowly as she stood up and made her way to the door. "Who is it?" She asked as nonchalant as possible. "It is a friend, please let me in there isn't much time." Replied the voice urgently, something about it made her feel almost at ease with the thought of letting a complete stranger into her home, almost.

She grabbed her long sleeved shirt off of the back of the couch and pulled it on so that it covered her blaster and let it retract back into the sleeve once again but kept her hand ready just incase.

She tapped the control, a tall man; in his late 40's from what she could tell was standing there. His short cut silver beard and hair gave her the impression of a man with a long military career. He had a straight face, which did not betray his emotion but the urgency of his voice was not lost on her, "We must get you out of here to safety." Said the man as his cloak parted and showed he wore a plain fighter jock flight suit beneath his coarse brown traveling robes. She noticed the cylinder hanging from his belt, which kicked her brain into high gear, "You're a Jedi?" She asked abruptly as the door slide closed behind him. "Yes, Jedi Master Corran Horn at your service Miss. Regal. Now we are in a bit of a hurry." He said waiting for her to move. She did not.

Corran, smiling, asked "Were my words not clear?" He knew he was being rude but Master Skywalker said she might be a hard person to persuade. "What kind of a hurry are we in?" She asked walking toward Mud with the intention of hitting the hidden flash panel on his back side that would release a stun-grenade. He, just kept smiling and this began to annoy her. "The kind of hurry one is in when CORSEC is three minuets away from blockading your front door." His words were soft spoken, but hit hard as somewhere in her mind, she could feel he was right. A series of alarming beeps issued from Mud to confirm this as he had hacked into the HOLONET of the building.

He looked at the brown and white droid, "Your R2 is pretty quick on the uptake." The droid made a nodding motion.

"Okay." She said picking up her portable terminal and stuffing it into her bag. "But I'm not leaving my droid behind." She tapped his head and motioned toward the door. Corran's smile widened, "I wouldn't dream of it. In case we get separated there is a freighter waiting at the Eastern spaceport called, HAPPY-DRAGON. There you will find another Jedi knight named Janice. Now put on this robe and follow me." He tossed her a robe from beneath his cloak and pulled the hood up. He walked through the door briskly and made his way toward the elevator.

"We got a message about twenty minuets ago." Said the tall dark haired man. The female looked from the medical droid to him. "It will still be a while before his treatment is completed. I don't want to go into battle with out him." She was referring to Josh, the Jedi Knight responsible for getting that holocron back to them safely.

The deep blue eyes of the Captain looked toward the BACTA tank with reguard to its occupant. "Yes, I am also weary of going into battle one pilot short, but we really don't have a choice. The Master's Skywalker's made it clear that since we are only a twenty minuet jump away from Corellia that we should be ready for a fight while extracting the target. Jedi Taza expressed his confidence that we could pull it off no problem."

The woman nodded with a smirk, "Mike would say that wouldn't he?" She mused turning toward him. "Begin prepping the crew for battle and tell the tech to make sure that our fighter's are ready for launch. I get the feeling that we are going to be in for a bit of a fight."