I

PART ONE

Jedi Knight

Chapter One

Not a Jedi

I

No longer was he a Jedi.

It's what he kept telling himself as the memories slipped through his mind.

Not a Jedi.

His path was his and his alone. No council would tell him what to do. No master would choose his path for him. He was the master of his own fate. Rage and hate were his friends, they helped him battle those who were stronger than him and defeat those who would have him eradicated. An enemy to everyone.

This was the life Tyler Stargazer.

The solemn figure sat calmly atop the ruins of the old temple. It was here that he had chosen to leave the Jedi Order and it was here that he would make his home.

Tyler's abandonment of the order began when Mace Windu, his beloved master, and the man so like a father to him for seven long years, had left him behind. Left him behind at the order because he did not think he was strong enough, or wise enough, or whatever the case was. So Tyler left. The Jedi were a dying order anyway, it's what everyone on Coruscant was saying.

The man hunted by the good and the evil sat atop the Massassi Temple, not far from his Jedi starfighter. The walls of his mind were open and he listened to the forest bustling around him, locating his center. It was here on Yavin 4, a moon quite near his home planet, that he felt safe. But he sensed the evil within the great ziggurat on which he had perched himself—the soul of a great dark lord.

All of the sudden, something broke his concentration. His eyes flickered open to see a monstrous, deformed monster standing before him. Cursing, he flipped backwards as the monster stabbed a glowing red lightsaber down. Narrowly avoiding the red blade, he deftly sliced off the monster's head. Perhaps this place isn't as safe as I thought, Tyler thought to himself.

Hurrying to his blue starfighter, he shut the cockpit and activated the engines. "Alright, R5, bring us up to speed." The astro-droid beeped and whistled. The starfighter floated up into the air and then the engines flared to life, slinging the starfighter into the sky and away from the planet. Tyler sighed. "Just when I thought I was safe, I get attacked by some ugly deformed Massassi," Tyler murmured to himself.

R5 beeped understandingly. "No, you don't understand," said Tyler coolly. He quietly added, "No one understands." The starfighter drifted off. Tyler knew he needed fuel. "What's the nearest planet, R5?" R5 did a series of bleeps and whistles. "Cloud city? Hmm—never heard of it—Alright then. Set course for cloud city, said Tyler. He switched the starfighter to autopilot and relaxed, watching the stars pass by only absently, his mind far away.

What was he even doing out here? Why had he chosen this wretched life to lead? Death was not an option, but all he wanted was to be free, to be the ruler of his own fate. Why was fate so cruel? Did anyone really care about him, a man with no purpose left to his pathetic life?

A blaster bolt jerked him from his self-pitying.

Instantly he seized the controls and switched off the autopilot as R5 beeped off a warning squeal. "I see them," Tyler said. The sky alit with ion cannon fire as red bolts leapt past his perfectly painted, commandeered starfighter. Droid fighters were firing at him, thinking him a Jedi Knight. "Oh, no you don't!" the former Jedi cried. He ripped the starfighter backwards, sending it into a somersault that took him behind the two droids. "Gotcha," he murmured, his targeting computer locking on. The unused, dual laser cannons screamed to life, cutting both of the droids out of the sky simultaneously.

It was then that Tyler realized the battle raging around him. Clone battle ships were cutting through the skies. Republic attack cruisers slipped smoothly, giants in the battle of miniscule fighters. ARC-170s hummed as they spiraled through space, sending green laser bolts slicing at droids. "Starfighter 2270, do you copy?" A clone commander was trying to contact him over his radio.

Tyler switched the radio off and twirled away from a droid fighter, dodging around one of the clone battle ships as laser fire erupted behind him. His skills behind the cockpit unmatched by any droid, the droid unsuccessfully crashed into the republic attack cruiser, doing no harm to it, but exploding in smithereens itself. Tyler dove and wove through the plagued space. Lasers glanced off his starfighter, grazing his ship and making his spew foul curses. "Don't shoot my ship," he spat through gritted teeth.

But it was already too late. Blaster fire sounded and instantly Tyler felt the surge of his engines dying. R5 started beeping crazily. "I know, I know!" said Tyler. Cursing his luck, his ship plunged towards the cloudy planet. To his luck, a star freighter passed by far below. If he could get to it, he might survive. If he stayed in his fighter, he'd die indefinitely. Punching the trigger to the cockpit, Tyler leapt out, his body contorting as it was thrown about through the sky like a rag doll, ripping away his cloak.

Using the force, Tyler sent his body spinning down towards the freighter. If he missed the heavily armed clone transport, at least it'd be a long ride to his death. Steering himself, he came down right on time, grabbing the side door with one free hand. The man was amazed. He'd made it! He'd made it! The clones stared at him, stunned themselves.

"Help!" he demanded. Three clones grabbed him, two under the arm pits, the third around the stomach, and pulled him in. "Thank you," Tyler said, grabbing his lightsaber. "What's going on?"

"The Sepratists are attacking Cloud City, sir," said the clone. "If you don't mind me asking, sir, who are you?"

"That is irrelevant," Tyler said quickly. "Move to your positions. We attack the Sepratists!"