(I in no way claim any kind of ownership of Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, Sins of a Solar Empire, or anything in this story originating from other franchises.)
Star Wars
Alternate Universe B
Rise of the Imperial Alliance
Prologue
How It All Began
I tried to warn them. I tried to tell them, but they would not listen. Like so many I'd known back home, they hear, but they do not listen. Even more tragic was the fact that they were Jedi – they were supposed to see more than what normal sentients did. Blinded by the Dark Side, indeed. Pah! Idiots! One does not need the Force to see what goes on around you! Yet they never saw their doom coming until it was right on top of them, the hand of death at their throat. I tried to warn them. Tried to open their eyes, but they insisted they could not be blindsided. It became their undoing.
I was once a Jedi, true. I had been found amongst ash and radioactive fire. The Jedi "sensed a disturbance in the Force", followed it to it's source, and found me, half-buried in ash and soot, touched by radiation, and yet... still alive. You're probably thinking, "You turned into a ghoul, didn't you?" Under different circumstances, perhaps I would have. But no, this was not Fallout. I am not a ghoul. What the radiation diddo was make me, for lack of a better description, immortal. I know not why or how, but it did. Regardless, the Jedi pulled me from the ashes and tended to me, nursed me back to health. I was in no condition or position to disagree – what choice did I have? And for the first time in my life, my view of the stars was unfettered. It was the first time I'd sailed among them, but it wouldn't be the last. I left the ashes of my home world a refugee. Years later, I'd return a scavenger of sorts. But we'll get to that later.
The Jedi took me to Coruscant. Soon as I could walk again, they took me straight to the Jedi Council. It wasn't until a few years had passed that they told me it was because they sensed I had a connection to the Force they had not felt before. They seemed... edgy about it. Uneasy. I thought it was just a byproduct of god-only-knows how many hours of radiation and carbon monoxide poisoning that should have killed me. Regardless, they put me through some tests, and I just coasted my way though them. Not like I expected to pass. I knew of the Jedi, sure – but to live their life? Fuck no. I'd rather not. But, against all odds, somehow... I passed their tests. I was just as shocked as they were – a young adult of 27 would pass their tests to be trained as a Jedi? Almost unheard of. And even though I had a tendency to speak my mind with the softness of a hammer, they stuck me in their training classes. Not exactly what I was expecting, given my abrasive attitude. But something told me they wanted me around, abrasive demeanor and blunt opinions included. And I tested that several times. Not once did they want to get rid of me. But they refused to tell me why. Kept saying some nonsense about an anomaly in the Force centered around me. And if there was one thing I despised about the Jedi, it's when they kept me in the dark.
Yet, despite all this, one of the Padawans took an interest in me – a girl who would later define my life. Her name was Amy – Amy Jorgen. A young anthropomorphic tiger with long, blonde hair and the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. What got my attention was, her immortality stemmed from the use of what I could only term as nanotechnology in her bloodstream. She and I sparred in the training room one day, and it was a match that ended in a draw – a first for the both of us. She had never dueled another student to a draw, and I had never ended a duel with another student in a draw. And the incident gained us both some degree of clout. From what I heard, she began to do better in her lessons; and other students began to see me less as the elitist and more as someone approachable, though I still fail to see how. In both our cases, we saw the other as the catalyst that brought us such good fortune. We met one evening in our downtime, and almost immediately hit it off. I showed her some of my hobbies, and she instantly took a liking to them. We became good friends. Separately, of course, we both passed our trials, and met up again to celebrate. She spoke of us taking on missions together. I was unsure if it would be a good idea, but accepted her offer.
Then the troubles began. Not between Amy and I, but in the galaxy at large. It started with the trouble on Naboo. Neither Amy nor I were there, but from what we hear, it was bad. Trade Federation blockaded the planet, didn't let anything through. Didn't stop a pair of Jedi, some security personnel, a few pilots, and the Queen and her handmaidens from getting off-world. Long story short, they made it to Coruscant, but not before picking up a boy that would later reshape the galaxy – in every sense of the term.
His name was Anakin Skywalker.
Events moved quickly, then – Palpatine replaced Valorum as Supreme Chancellor, the queen returned to Naboo, and she, with the Jedi that accompanied her, the security personnel, and the Gungans, of all people, opened a can of whoop-ass for the Trade Federation, sent them packing. Most everyone else celebrated that – Amy and I didn't. We felt something else in the Force. Something was out-of-place, and neither of us liked Palpatine. Then again, we never liked politicians in the first place, so what the fuck did we know? That was the Council's logic, anyway. So we went about our usual affairs, and then, some years later, trouble sprang up again with the rise of what would eventually become known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Amy and I saw things were getting worse, and for once, we tried together to convince the Jedi Council something was wrong. They insisted they knew of it already, and when we pointed fingers at Palpatine – who we both sensed something off about – we got hit with the same bullshit. For a time, we gave up on that. Their attention was on Anakin Skywalker – understandable, but still irritating. So Amy and I went about our typical affairs as best we could. It was in this time that she and I, in secret, built what we eventually called the JX70A1 TIE Marauder. But that name came later. A lot later. At the time, we just called it the Marauder. Just after, however, war broke out. There had been a massive battle at Geonosis, and it started a just-as-massive war. Amy and I both served in the war. Amazing, but at the same time, not surprising, that the Council never caught whiff of what our relationship was becoming. But, at the time, we didn't see it, either. We learned to use more than lightsabers – we began using guns, too, as "uncivilized" as it was so some Jedi. What did we care? Guns were tools to achieve our objectives, like our lightsabers.
It was near the close of the war that things took an ugly turn. Palpatine had been in office far longer than he should have, diplomacy was thrown out the window, and while we were grateful not to be in the spotlight, the credit for Jedi or Jedi-lead actions had always gone to the Republic's army – even ones we had seen ourselves to be because of Jedi. Amy and I got the distinct impression Palpatine was behind it, and he was discrediting the Jedi. While it was true that Jedi are selfless, and do not seek credit for what they've done like anyone else would, the utter lack of recognition troubled us. One last time, we tried to convince the council to look closer at Palpatine. This time, they acted – but it only ended in disaster. They sent Anakin to look into it, and we both knew he was close to Palpatine. That was when we became convinced the Jedi were headed to a very bad place – and Amy and I wanted no part in that. So we made preparations to leave.
But, as we found out, we decided to leave one night too late...
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Two Jedi were packing their things into emitters in their armor that had been crafted by one of them many years prior. One was a blonde-haired Tigress, the other a human male with brown hair and color-changing eyes.
"We have to hurry, Jason – I can feel the dark side much stronger, now," the tigress said.
"I know, I know," Jason replied as he wiped down a wall with a rag soaked in a chemical solution. "But you know as well as I do, Amy, we cannot leave a trail." He finished wiping one wall.
"Like the Separatists are gonna look for finger prints in here," Amy scoffed.
"It's not the separatists I'm worried about, it's that maniac, Palpatine, and the near-infinite resources at his command – I don't want him to know we were in here," Jason countered. "At this point, we need to be ghosts. If we go somewhere, we don't leave behind anything that can identify us."
"Tie the loose ends, I get it," Amy said. In the brief pause, they both heard distant footfalls consistent with a marching formation. They both rushed to to the window and saw marching formations of blue-striped Clone Troopers.
The five-oh-first legion, headed up by Anakin Skywalker himself. Jason felt a sudden chill, and picked up a pair of macrobinoculars to look out at Anakin. His face, though partially obscured by the hood, wore a look of murderous intent. Putting that together with the fact that his lightsaber was in hand, and not clipped to his belt, and the fact that he had the Republic's most elite fighting unit marching behind him, he came to a startling realization:
Things just went from worse to dire, and they were out of time.
"We gotta go," he told Amy.
"My sentiments exactly," Amy agreed. They both hit a button on their respective gauntlets, and were armored up in an instant with reinforced Clone armor painted steel black, minus the helmets. They both materialized their weapon of choice – a Mandalorian Assault Rifle for Jason, and a Baragwin Assault Gun for Amy, both heavily modified and loaded with their custom-converted Disruptor ammunition – and looked to each other.
"Stay with me?" Jason asked.
"Until the very end, be it bitter or sweet," Amy responded. They both moved outside, and began heading for whatever exit they could find. They had gone no more than thirty paces outside the dorm they'd been sharing when they heard a sudden commotion, followed by laser fire.
"Shit," Jason cursed, "Energize shields – looks like we fight our way out!" Amy wordlessly acknowledged, and they both energized shields and moved at a quickened pace.
"With these outfits, we may not have to," Amy suggested.
"Doubt they'll see us as one of theirs," Jason said.
"Worth a shot," Amy commented.
They moved along one of the catwalks, and if they looked over the edge, they'd see Jedi fighting Clone Troopers. They continued on that catwalk to it's end, where they ran into a fire team of Clone NCOs. Wearing black armor, and neither of them looking like Jango Fett, the clones fired on them as soon as they saw them. With no cover on the catwalk, the both of them took the hits – which, thankfully, glanced off their shields.
"Get them!" the lead NCO shouted. Jason and Amy both raised their weapons and fired, nailing two of the clones immediately, and the other two scampered for cover. Amy nailed one as he went, and he fell over the edge.
"Told you," Jason jested.
"Shut up," Amy growled.
It was then that the two cast a glance at the battle below. "No way in hell are we gonna get through that – our shields won't last long enough with that much fire," Jason responded. He paused to blast the last clone who poked his head out from behind a support pillar.
"Can we gather a strike team, punch a hole to get through?" Amy suggested.
"No time – and no one else in this place uses guns, much less knows how to. But we have to get out of here," Jason stated. They moved for an upper catwalk, blasting a pair of clones that spotted them and started shooting.
"It's a fair bet they have the exits blocked," Amy shouted over the gunfire. She paused to put a burst into a clone who strayed from cover. "How do we get the fuck out of here?"
"We take a transport – fly out!" Jason shouted back.
"They'll have those locked down, too!" Amy discounted Jason's suggestion.
"But not as heavily as the exits – we can get through the clones at the hangar, then hijack a transport!" Jason countered.
"Are you kidding? Those things aren't hyperspace-capable!" Amy exclaimed.
"They don't need to be – we just need to take one to the Marauder!" Jason responded, then subsequently blasted a clone officer. Amy went quiet, then spoke again when the battle they were in came to an end.
"Any chance we could take our Jedi friends with us?" she asked.
"Even if there were, we wouldn't have enough room for them," Jason responded. He turned to Amy. "I don't like it any more than you do, but we cannot burden ourselves with others – if we want to slip under the radar, it has to be just us. More than that, we'd attract attention."
"But we might find their skills-" Amy started.
"Their skills will keep them alive – when the time is right, we can link up with any who survived and strike back. Right now, we need to get low and stay there until we get a sign," Jason cut her off. "Besides, you know and I know none of our friends are in here – we warned them to stay away. When they hear the Temple has fallen, they'll know to get the hell outta dodge."
"But how will they know?" Amy queried.
"Leave that to me," Jason said. "For now, we have to get the hell out of here." Amy wordlessly acknowledged Jason, and they resumed course. Moving almost at a dead run, they shot dead any clone that saw them. It was as they reached the hangar that they encountered something in direct contrast with the rest of the temple. The clones spotted Jason and Amy, but the officer of the group shouted,
"Stand down! All of you, stand down!"
"Sir, we are under orders to-" one private began.
"Goddamn it, stand down!" the officer shouted. Jason immediately knew who this was. The officer took off his helmet and looked to Jason. "You're lucky it was me who bumped into you, Jason – the others won't be so cordial."
"No shit," Jason scoffed. "I half-expected you to blast me on the spot, Gomez!"
"Thank god you removed my squad's chips for examination," Gomez said. "This is why we had them implanted. But enough of that – you gotta get out of here. I don't know where you're going, and I don't wanna know; just clear out of here and I'll pretend I never even saw you."
"A shame it's come to this, Gomez – but we both do what we have to," Amy commented. She and Jason both boarded a transport, and strapped in. Jason looked to Gomez one last time.
"Take care, old friend," Jason told him before they took off. They shot out of the hangar, into the night sky, and were away before any more clones could get in their way. But their escape wasn't finished; they still had to get through any clone forces in the surrounding area, get to the Marauder, and escape from Coruscant.
It was what would be done after that which was Amy's next question. "So... we get through whatever enemy forces remain, get to the Marauder, and get the hell off Coruscant. What then?"
"We'll need to find a safe haven to lay low for a while," Jason responded.
"How long a while?" Amy asked.
"Until we can plan our next course of action," Jason answered. "And we need to keep an eye on broadcasts, HoloNet, anything that would tell us just what the fuck happened back there."
"The Force might also have some answers," Amy suggested.
"I was thinking that, too," Jason agreed, "But our focus now is to get out of sight." He veered toward a landing pad.
"Why are we landing?" Amy queried.
"Because these things can be tracked," Jason replied. "We can't take it directly to the Marauder, because then they'll know we escaped. They'd be looking for us."
"If we take the Marauder off-world, they'll still know," Amy said.
"First, no one knows we built it; second, they won't know we took it off-world if they don't know it left," Jason explained.
"How are we gonna manage that?" Amy inquired.
"One of the systems I included alongside the weapon systems and shields was a cloaking device," Jason responded. "Don't ask – not now." They landed the vehicle and dashed off the landing pad before anyone could investigate, vanishing into the street below. They dashed from one alley to the next, across poorly-lit streets, and contrary to the harrowing escape from the temple, they avoided gunfights with clone soldiers they came across – which were surprisingly rare. When they reached the abandoned hangar their ship was kept in, Jason leaned his face on the retinal scanner while putting his hand on the palm scanner and spoke, "Access Code: Black Viking." The computer beeped, the scanners all beeped softly, and the door slid open.
"What's a Viking?" Amy asked.
"Long story, not enough time; come on," Jason responded. They both entered the hangar and immediately were greeted by the sight of their ship. It had an oval-shaped fuselage, with sturdy wing supports supporting wave-shaped wings and similarly-shaped nacelles that assisted in hyperspace travel – two on the dorsal-aft surface of the fuselage, and one on the outer edges of both wings. They immediately boarded the ship, with Amy commenting,
"Thank the Force we packed this thing before we packed up our stuff at the temple."
"I wanted to be able to get out of here fast," Jason said as he settled into the pilot's seat. Amy settled into the copilot's seat above and strapped in.
"It's now or never, Jason – let's hit it," she said. Jason tightened his seat straps, and brought the craft to life, his hands dancing along the controls like an android's. The craft's twin ion engines roared to life, the boarding hatch closed and sealed, and Jason triggered a command that engaged the craft's cloaking device as it rose. The ship shimmered and vanished, and then turned counter-clockwise to face the hangar exit, which opened on remote command from Amy, and Jason hit the accelerator, and the ship shot out of the hangar, and he pointed the Marauder upward, beginning their ascent.
"Standard frequency?" Amy asked.
"No – coded alpha," Jason said. "We don't want the enemy to pick up on the message." Amy set to work sending out the coded message to their colleagues.
"So... where to now?" she asked as she worked.
"As I said before, we need to drop out of sight," Jason replied. "And I know just the place."
Amy looked down from her station at Jason's, and saw their destination. "Belsavis?" she queried.
"Specifically, it's an uninhabited tropical rift – a place the Republic forces never went. I cleared out a space there during my tutelage with Master Antares, and decided to use the place as a safe house," Jason explained. "It's the last place the Sith would ever look, and between the prison colony on the other side of the planet and the local wildlife, it's so rife with life that it'd make tracking a Force-user near impossible."
"Well, that's better than my idea to go to Nar Shaddaa," Amy remarked.
"Yeah, fuck no," Jason chuckled.
"Ever had anyone there living with you?" Amy asked.
"You'd be the first to live there with me," Jason admitted. "And only the second person ever to see the place."
"Master Antares?" Amy asked.
"He was the first to see it other than me – and he took that secret to his grave," Jason responded. "Separatists killed him with some sort of biological agent."
"So no one else will know where this place is," Amy surmised. "Clever."
"And from there, we will be able to plan our next move," Jason concluded. "Without fear of being discovered. I also have included many mechanisms to further hide the place from prying eyes." He finished his calculations and they sped off into hyperspace.
"So it begins," Amy chuckled, a hint of militancy in her tone. Jason just smiled. She was becoming just like him – had been ever since they met. But he felt this... this was gonna be the start of a very long mission...