This is a story, based on a character sketch for a Star Wars tabletop RPG. The scenario is"what if Luke and Leia did not happen to be the main characters?". The time frame is BBY -4. FANFICTION on a character sketch, gotta love it! Enjoy or do not Enjoy, but do not Try to enjoy.
Shanev
1.8 BBY
"Asawa Ko, there is one small thing I must do before I leave to get clearance." Jannma replied trembling with energy "And no, JUST SLEEPING cuddling with you is enough so it is not that." With that she looked around her eyes feel on Shay who looked envious, but they did not find the one she sought. Could she still be in her berth where she held appointments? She started to get up to drag Jahn away from his discomfort when Jahn stopped her, laser focused on something he had to do.
"Jannma, since you will become part of my command staff, I want you to meet my team. Ranger Senior Chief Deloan" he pointed to the battle armor Nautilon, ""Chief James Weaver" he pointed to a Kiffar "Squadron Commander Kae'Shan" he pointed to the Twi'Lekk "Top Gun Shay Linn, those two girls and my technical commander Ashla Ti help my images in the brain become reality, BTW the suit worked as advertised as did the battle armor." Then he pointed to a pair of twin Cereans Didi and Kiki comms, slicer what not and the key to my success of late." Jahn held out a crystal on a choker "This is a Kasha crystal" and he tied it to Jannma's neck "It is special in that it helps mental focus. Without it and the works they have created, well I would have been dead many times over." To which the whole table did the "aw" "no way" "great kid" mutter. "I like that with the exceptions of Kae and Shay they are all humble." To the crew's laughter and more revelry. Jannma thanked them all individually and when she got to Shay she noticed she was the second Zeltron she had met that night.
"If you ever tire of him, or simply want a threesome or walk on the wild side, I'm available." Shay whispered and ducked the slap to Kae's peal of laughter.
"Not nice!" Jannma huffed and hurried her man away from the festivities.
"I do not like Shay, she seems.." Jannma began as Jahn twisted her around.
"Shay admires you, is envious of you and believes you are the luckiest girl in the universe." He punctuated with a kiss "Besides she is a Zeltron, they are just plain sluts, all of them. They have pheromones that can make almost anyone their play toy. They are not, monogamous, ever. And… " he drew out "She also is Force sensitive but it is completely beyond my wisdom or talents to train her, for that matter maybe anyone else's." he let her think on this "I will keep her closest because if she ever breaks toward the dark side, it could be as nasty as my half sister Soransa or Soransa's pedophilic father Soran."
"He is the one in red you killed with your diskblade, the one who tried to turn me." Jannma asked to Jahn's nod.
"He is particularly skilled at seduction, making a woman believe they can fix the man with only their love and thus provide a path to the darkside for many Force sensitives." A new voice joined the conversation and Jahn's jaw dropped to the floor.
"Jahn meet.." Jannma began.
"Dr. Hai Lii Weaver I presume?" as he pronounced the syllables distinctly and the old woman nodded. "Mom?" she nodded again.
"It is wonderful to see the kind and rich spirit my son has become. I understand you are trying to turn Soransa to the Light. You may just succeed, but not on your own." And she typed into her datapad something. "There, that gives you a fighting chance."
"How so?" the two looked and asked.
"I see my children as being paired with Bernals, just wondering which Bernal gets which daughter first, you were right about Shay, she is the middle child." And she started walking "My weakness for men like that aged me and I fell to the dark side for a while. Shay, though I gave her away immediately after her birth on Zeltron during my escape from Soran, saved me. Or partially until I met Petre. He made me whole, I learned what Agape and Asawa meant." She looked sad but firm "I have made six attempts to turn Soransa since I left and just, went back to what I do best, being Dr. Weaver. Petre understood as you know, because he is a big family man." All three stared at each other.
"I liked the speech, saw it given in sign language, you two do complete each other like my Asawa Ko did me but, I must consent to something before Jannma leaves."
"What? Jahn asked confused.
"She has one request of me, and I one of her. We must have our answers." She smiled before stating flatly "Jannma and I will share my room after we walk you to hers." Jahn smiled and his eyes glazed.
"Asawa Ko, you do know I requested you to change commands before Lt. Jia Ji decided you were her own personal killing machine to be paired with Drado. Why do you think I felt that way? And why is it important for you to leave here now?" the two women looked at him one cross one thankful.
"Does he do that often?" Dr. Weaver asked Jannma. "You should know how I feel about cheating!" Jannma started giggling hard and near uncontrollably…. Infectiously….
"The Well" hehe haha "All over!" Janma got into a belly laugh "Yes they were Asawa!"
With a little chuckle Dr Weaver asked "Care to explain son?" and he shook his head.
"He may be somewhat tired Dr. I do not blame him as he faced many dark forces, probably planned the key points of the assault." And she rubbed his shoulders as his eyes glazed again. They took him to Jannma's room and he went to sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. The two women looked at him, each with their own form of caring before they shut the hatch and left for Dr. Weaver's room. Where they sat and faced each other for an hour after entering.
"I guess we have much to discuss." Dr Weaver began.
"I guess that could be said but, I would prefer it begin in the morning so if you have much to discuss, I suggest you get up early." Jannma ended before reaching a trance of rest.
Jahn got up shortly after he felt the women in his life were asleep or occupied. He made his way down to his fleet. And started diagnostics and stretching out into the Force to verify whether the equipment they depended on to keep them safe would be ready. Jahn went to unpack the spares and groaned. Remembering he made the choice of no space spared for repulsorlifts and shut his babies up before jogging to ops in this dark of night.
The door to the ops center would not open for him as he was not key personnel. So he knocked, and again, and then he took out his staff and knocked again. He checked with the Force for life signs, they were there. Jannma Ko I need you here he projected his location and felt her scramble to get to the command center. She came swinging around a corner and over to the door. She pushed the open buttons and the door would not open.
"This has never happened before, I know inside they actually hit a button to let people in and out but the codes green light the process." She stepped back puzzled.
"All purpose master key time." Jahn said igniting one end of the lightstaff and cutting the door out of the wall "What? Its easier to fix this way!" he said to her look. She moved the section of wall in the Force and entered the ops and noticed all were asleep. A shared look…. Ventilation! Jannma then hit the base wide claxon while Jahn used the same energies in the Force he would use to rouse himself to stimulate the peoples in Ops.
Lt. Per Diton was the first to wake and Jahn sent mental calls to his entire crew to get to the ships immediately. Jannma called her brother and Dr. Weaver in for reinforcements.
"What is the problem?" She asked as she arrived. Jannma pointed at the drowsy personnel.
"I need your analysis and an anti-doping agent 25 minutes ago. Kiki and Didi of Jahn's crew ran up and moving half asleep personnel warmed up ops and rebooted the computers as a massive change in pressure occurred backwashing the entire ventilation system.
"That's Jahn?" Dr. Weaver said with an disbelief on her face.
"That's our young man! Hopefully he has a plan. For the sensor net once back up, showed two hyperspace flights on different vectors converging on Shanev.
Jahn dropped his wind when he felt what was wrong. Then he and Darrin got all the supplies in and managed to get the cannibalized BB-2B with its spare parts needed to repair it under shelter so Darrin could fix it.
"It is modular and color coded, a three fingered Rodian could fix it. Good luck!" and Darrin called a mechanic over who was fully awake no less.
"Ash status!"
"Long range scans show hyperspace activity in 5 minutes, no idea who but there is definitely a what!"
"Did battle damage stats show any base generators surviving" Jahn looked at the two tow missiles and a crate of grenades.
"Affirm, Target bravo, 150 klicks."
"Ash, get us there we need to make a new daisy cutter." Then her turned to James and Del "Unpack the TERS (Triple Ejection RackS) and get the tools for wingtip mounts out we are going to use proposed operation slingshot."
"Boss, we have not had a successful test with dummy loads, what makes you think it will work with live ammo?" Ash asked.
"Just let our crew know what we are going to do. And be glad the Empire and DBA do not drop flights out of hyperspace so close to a gravity well."
"Smugglers are the best pilots!" Shay shouted over coms.
"Ash! did you just broadwave me?" Jahn asked.
"Saves all of us time" Kae agreed "Besides you need hotpants covering your ass as you load." She finished with laughter in her voice.
"Wooo! And I FEEL GOOD TODAY!" Shay screamed. Jahn just smacked his head.
"Hey Paco, what's the odds on it being food last night?" Ash asked to one of the Bombardier Navigators.
"1in 3, but its binary or tertiary sedative with highest prob…" he was cut off by Kae silencing his mike.
"K and D get that?"
"Yepo sure did!" one of them called back.
"Tell Doc W what to look for"
"If you guys EVER SPIN PACO UP AGAIN!" …. "Sorry I had to tail slap him AGAIN."
"Boy just goes on and on!"
"All awake? Sound off!" Jahn demanded and the smuggler crew suddenly got icewater in their veins as Intruder one through five sounded off with Ash calling "Puffy" ready but "Needing a Daisy". Before they all lifted off.
Jahn went over his plan with his crew on the quick hop.
"Del up top, James on TERS, move" and they three hit the ground running.
"First hyperspace exit, OH MY GAWD so that is what a Victory Cruiser looks like!" Kae sounded off "3,4,5 close that damn hanger before we have TIE soup up here!"
"Puffy to base 75% ready and pulling for black" Ash called "Prepare for bombardment!"
"One ground attack group away! Silly farts dropped that before TIES, BIG MISTAKE." Salvos firing for effect, 8 fighters away" Kae finished "lets get those ion cannons and tractor beams for Puffy."
"I have fighter interference, Chelly! Better not puke on MY weapons console!" Shay shouted "Using Sith Death Roll all guns! SHIN DE BO PUFFY!" Ash started firing the main guns at the cruiser.
"Status up there?" Ash called as they avoided return turbolaser bombardment.
"Second hyperspace reversion, yepo, here's the cavalry Woot woot a whole damn frigate!" Yelled Kae mockingly. "Guess they WANTED to be blowed up!"
In the bay James looked at Jahn breathing hard and slurping down one of his "Energy drinks Version 3" on his knees. He had saber cut the lines and used the Force to fly the generator on top of "Puffy" hooking it down best they could but all seven on Puffy knew, he was what was holding it. The rest just assembled the bomb. All this was broadcast to the ops center and they stood transfixed, all except Dr. Weaver.
"Fascinating, he bottled the Force and sugars as well!" she pointed at how the cans stopped glowing when consumed. "He took lightsaber powering to the next level, a biological one."
"I think my mother in law is a pain you know that?" Jannma looked at the sleepy Per Dita.
"I just hope he does not frag his Kasha Crystal again!" cried the twins in ops. "Well he did once!" they shrieked when looks came their way.
"Status on Darrin's expeditionary force?" Jannma called
"They should arrive with the slaves as soon as the 4 AT-AT land with whatever force they have in the shuttles." One twin called.
"This is going to be so close…" Jannma calmly fretted checking her gear making up her mind.
"DR. WEAVER! YOU HAVE OPS!"
"Why Warrior Jannma, you have been doing a fine job."
"I need to get to the end of the tunnel and make sure our forces can enter it, my best usage is there with you here as my replacement."
"Okay, we will coordinate from here." Dr. Weaver acquiesced.
Her view of the battle plan was quickly forgotten as she looked at the cargo bay where her son was saying a benediction and asking forgiveness from the Force for what he did to protect others with his two kneeling Ranger buddies, hand in hand.
Darrin got the BB-2B back together with ordinance loaded and powered it up pointing to the mechanic that helped him.
"Get in! Instructions are in basic, you have the wing guns! Just like a video game!"
"I am not a warrior! Just a mechanic!" the girl cried.
"You want to live through today?" and she nodded "Then you are a Diskblade Soldier!"
She got in and he shut the canopy and lifted off checking the handling of the craft before swooping off at treetop level to intercept the ground forces.
Puffy broke into space with a "Feet Black call" just after Intruder 4 called the last tractor beam neutralized and Intruder 3 the last ion cannon dead. Puffy surged forward with the Intruders looping around to pave the way right up toward the main command tower when it launched the "daisy cutter" on Ash's mark and rolling a break to port away from the coming explosion The frigate "Blade of Shastra" continued to pour on the turbolaser broadsides but it looked to be losing when the "daisy cutter" blew the entire back end and command deck off the cruiser.
"Intruder Flight, lets go support the ground troops." Jahn weakly called from all fours.
Jannma stood ready for the AT-ATs hidden behind a tree and listening to the sound of the walkers. "They are moving slow and providing cover for the troops. Guess that means more blade work." As she grabbed a diskblade in each hand and waited until they felt close enough. She heard the distinctive BB-2B sound come from the warren and it rose to oppose the two Ties escorting the walkers.
"I am never Alone, because the Force is with me"
"I am never Defenseless because the Force is my Shield"
"I am never Helpless because the Force is my Tool" she repeated drawing up her strength.
Above her another large starship exploded, the second in a day, Jahn was successful again, but seriously weakened by the effort and lack of sleep. She felt this in a blink of an eye.
"My Asawa Ko gave me a chance to live again." And she darted out from a tree and sent her diskblades flying through the imperial stormtroopers before finding a place to watch and guide from cover. Unknowing to her a sniper blaster trained on her head and another on her back as the ISP agents who had been manning the ops center before, lined up their shots from differing angles, but before the black dressed figures could shoot, another pair, Shanev snipers, each took their heads off.
Darrin could not turn or shake the TIEs and they could not lock on with the crazy tail gunner trying to melt her wing cannons at them. He decided this was an attack spacecraft, it is what it does and he could end a few walkers with salvos from it. He made one broadside pass and the front two walkers dropped, squishing ½ a battalion before he made the turn to hit the rear two. They exploded hit from three angles, the two ties above him exploded as the rest of Intruder flight brought their guns to bear.
"Stephy!" he cried "You can quit shooting now! We're all friendlies." As some ARC-170 starfighters started strafing by.
"How can you tell?" Stephy asked nervously.
"The Force…." Darrin replied as he gained altitude trying to be able to form up.
"You know a radio on would help." Stephy chided as Darrin saw his error and turned on main battle control.
"Well done! Disaster averted." Called a voice he remembered from the past. "Rendevous at the beacon we just placed and lets get things sorted out. Ranger Squadron 1, you get the Honor of beginning the park."
"Thanks command I think we will, and I am pretty sure that if there is any fresh killed game, maybe from the crazy gunner in Intruder Six, we will eat that and sleep in our birds…. Puffy out."
"Why do they call that craft Puffy?" Steph asked.
"I asked that too, the answer is that is the smallest craft on record with a repeating turbolaser, when it grazes something it just goes "Puff" was the joke. And the ventral / dorsal quad cannons are no joke either."
"Wow, bet that would be a great bird."
"They all are, and all out of recycled scrap, complete teardown and rebuild, took them months." Darrin said proudly, yeah he liked the ships as well.
Notes, I do not own Lucas or Disney property, or even any Fanfic Property like that I borrowed Thieves World Style from Mechalich and have just injected the bare minimum so far. It is lazy yes, but the characters fit. I do not own them and receive no compensation for them, nor will accept any unless I become a screenwriter for them LOL.
I recently decided that the extended family of Jahn is adding some interesting twists so I expanded that character list for development.
I also took and basically modified some Tagalog terms to fit an isolated founders language. Gender terms are not differentiated too much. Asawa = spouse, ko= my, Kuya= brother, Ate =sister but drawing it out in a kooyaah or ahhtay is a greeting, like hey bro! in mixed company kuya seems to work and sometimes I screwed with spelling etc. Just adding a bit of texture. Mgabata = mga bata= children.
I have asked permission to use the "landscape" and some Characters from Mechalich, I have received approval. Mechalich owns them, not I. I broke his timeline for my own use in Xulin-Etch origins because it made better use here. I hope I can make these additions at least as good as a Thieves world Borrow. I used few Canon personalities so far, basically just two Maz Kanata and Zuvio. Check out the Tales from the Kalat Arm and The People's Armor here by Mechalich, they are quite awesome.
And lastly, since I did think Jedi were a bit stuck up, I believe the term is hidebound, rigid, unable to understand their own prophesy (This is what I am driving the story at, those that bring balance to the Force). I chose this Kalat Arm and Zeison Sha backstory for the character. It appealed to me, added conflict. I hope to make it a long long way bringing balance and up to date all the way to Rey-Finn and Kylo Ren. (except in my vision, those will be from different origins, hey, if Disney can scrap canon…which oddly is the metaphor of Jakku.)