Chapter Two: Planning Operation Annoyance and Explorations
Harry, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Damien had released their apprentices for the day, so they could discuss the latest moves the Rebellion made against the Empire without having four curious Padawans around. The Padawans had taken advantage of this unexpected freedom and had gone exploring in the jungle, after promising not to stray too far and taking locator equipment with them so if they got lost then their masters could find them. Harry smirked as he looked at Anakin; the other Jedi Master had not quite got the purple streaks out of his hair from where Tamsin had pranked him a week ago. Anakin returned the smirk with a glare and leaned back, grumbling about Potters and their ability to find trouble anywhere.
"Now, what are we going to do about the shipyards?" Obi-Wan said, effectively drawing Harry and Anakin out of their musing. Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Send someone to infiltrate the yards and put the ships out of commission?"
His companions looked thoughtful before nodding. When no other ideas came forward, Harry remarked, "We don't necessarily need to go after the shipyards. How effective do you think Palpatine is going to be if he's made a fool of?"
"Not very but what did you have in mind?" Damien asked. Harry smirked, his eyes lighting up in a way that made the other three Jedi groan. That look signaled a crazy Harry Potter plan that would be near impossible to pull off but would work brilliantly nevertheless.
"I was thinking he doesn't spend all day in his office. How about someone sneaks into his office and plants various pranks round the place, designed to go off at the most embarrassing times for him? Such as he's holding a meeting in the Senate and he suddenly turns into a chicken or something."
The serious nature of the meeting was broken as the Jedi collapsed in laughter at the image. Harry grinned and almost broke several ribs from laughing when Damien wiped his eyes and suggested, "Or have a spell set to a specific action, whenever he mentions certain words."
"Which word and which action?" Harry enquired. Damien grinned and replied, "Uncontrollable diarrhea whenever he mentions the words Imperial or Empire."
"He, he'd be on the toilet all day" Anakin choked out. Obi-Wan reappeared from under the table, where he'd fallen in a fit of laughter and put in his opinion. "Or he could sing the praises of the Rebellion and the Jedi as well. Have them be alternating so he doesn't know which one will happen."
"What other pranks should we set up?" Anakin smirked. Harry grinned. "We can use the pranks on the shipyards as well; we could always steal several and use them in our arsenal."
This drew approval from his co-conspirators and the talk turned from pranks to the intelligence net that was being set up by the Intelligence Division. "How are our Imperial spies working out?" Harry asked. He didn't normally get involved with that side of things but since James was one of the coordinators he was interested.
Obi-Wan shrugged. "Slowly but steadily. We're getting information on ship and troop movements, as well as Senate information from Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. We have more allies in the Senate than we thought. Many worlds are not happy with the measures that the Emperor is trying to push through, your idea about getting to the non human worlds before the Empire did was a good one Harry, and we have a lot of allies which include the Wookies, who are most unhappy that their cubs are being taken as slaves."
Harry winced; angering Wookies was never a good thing. "That's good to hear. Getting back to our plan to annoy the hell out of the Empire, what about attacking their funds? Knight Sheija is a genius when it comes to electronics; get her to drain the funds out of the Emperor's accounts into ours. There's no reason that we shouldn't benefit from his money."
Anakin nodded approvingly, but Obi-Wan and Damien frowned. "Won't that be suspicious, I mean the trail can be followed" Damien said. Harry frowned back and replied, "Trust me, it will be very difficult to follow if we deposit a few hundred thousand credits here and there in different dummy accounts that seem to be Imperial related. Knight Sheija is the best I've ever seen at this sort of thing; many in the Intelligence Division aren't as good. She'll be able to hide the money trail successfully, and the Emperor will have other things to occupy his attention, other than following his missing money. By the time he gets round to it, we'll have spent a good deal of it, and it will all go towards ruining his reputation."
His friends all nodded their approval of the ideas and began making plans to implement them soon. The Rebellion had been slowly gathering strength and allies on various worlds, including some Imperial troops that weren't happy about the situation. Harry walked out of the room, needing some fresh air. He'd spent the past week making plans as well as training Leia, and he was desperately in need of some relaxation time for a few hours at least. Transforming into Goldshadow he flew up above the trees and reveled in the feeling of flying by himself once more. Smirking, the Jedi Master decided to follow his bond with Leia, wanting to see what she, Tamsin, Luke and Gareth had got up to. After a bit of circling though, he decided to go back to the Temple, the Padawans could take care of themselves well enough and they had their comlinks if something happened.
The Padawans in question had had a good time exploring the jungle and had come upon an old building which resembled the Temple only it was carved out of obsidian. The two girls shivered, not liking the feeling that the building gave them, while the two boys were looking forward to exploring it. Luke also felt somewhat uneasy but he was keen to explore anyway. Gareth felt no such unease, and as he was the oldest, albeit only by a year, he led them all into the building.
The four immediately drew small glow rods to light their path so they didn't stumble on anything. Carvings on the walls drew their attention, carvings which looked very old and writing that was incomprehensible to the Padawans.
"Let's go Gareth, its cold in here and I don't like what I'm feeling" Tamsin said. She was a highly sensitive empath and she didn't like the feelings that were emanating from the whole building. Gareth snorted. "You're just worried that we'll get in trouble Tamsin. We were allowed to go exploring, we're not doing any harm here, just relax would you." Tamsin looked at Leia who shrugged and followed Luke and Gareth further into the building. They stopped when they reached a vast open room, with an altar at the front of the room. Luke, Leia and Tamsin hung back, choosing to examine the carvings rather than venture near the altar. The feeling of unease, of lingering menace was clearer in this room than any others, and it appeared to be coming from the altar. Gareth however, was intrigued and went closer, looking at the altar from every angle. Finally he noticed where his friends were standing and scowled.
"I suppose you want to go back home" he snapped, his anger rising more easily than it had before. Damien had taught him to control his temper, and as such the incidents that had happened before, with his uncontrolled outbursts, were now almost non existent. Thus the fact that his temper was rising faster, and out of proportion to his true feelings confused him. He shook his head and moved away from the altar, feeling his momentary burst of anger subside. When he reached the other three they all left the strange building, three of them never wanting to return, and one wanting to return to figure out the strange mystery of why the altar affected him in that way.
Behind them, a dark spirit smiled cruelly to itself, Gareth had potential and the spirit wanted to unlock it and bend the Padawan to his will.
When the four Padawans finally entered the Jedi Temple once more, they were met by their worried masters. After a round of "Where in all the nine levels of hell were you?" and "We were about to send out search parties, do you not know how to use comlinks?" they were herded off to dinner, and after that they headed to bed, not because they were in trouble but because they were tired from their explorations. Gareth decided to keep his strange experience in the black Temple-like building to himself for the moment; he would tell his master when he had solved the mystery himself. This was an unwise decision on his part, but as he was only ten years old it was understandable. The results would not be apparent for several years to come.
Author Note
Thank you to everyone who sent in ideas for how to annoy the Emperor. I will get more in depth with that with the next few chapters; this one was just setting things up. Watch out for Gareth's little mystery to resurface, there was a point to that. Those of you who read the New Jedi Order series will probably know what I'm referring too with that black Temple like building and the dark spirit.
May the Force be with you
Padawan Lynne
