CHAPTER 3
Master Romdel, and his apprentice Venad, quietly made their way slowly down deck 4, each prepared to face the unexpected. Their silence was broken as the Everlasting shook as it crossed the hyperspace barrier. "Master Saliv, did you feel that?" "Yes, we must have entered hyperspace." The Jedi spoke calmly, so as to ease his Padawan's tension. "Breathe my young friend, if you don't inhale soon, it will make no difference whether or not you're inside or outside of the hull." Romdel's student then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry my Master, I let my emotions get the better of me." Grem exhaled. "No need to apologize, just remember to let your feelings guide you, not control you! "Yes my Master." He said contently, but still grateful for his teacher's wisdom inside. Then Grem's powerful resonating chamber, heard the steps of something getting close. "Master someone is coming towards us." His tension rose again, so much that Grem's three fingered hand grasped at the lightsabre, attached to his belt. Saliv grabbed his Padawan's arm before he could do anything rash, before he knew who was around the corner. "Chevacca, stop frightening my apprentice and show yourself." Master Chevacca stood down the hall, and then approached his fellow force users. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten anyone, but I needed to find you so I could inform you two of our current situation." This brought a look of confusion to the faces of both the Master and the Padawan. "You couldn't use the comm. system, or even the Force to contact us?" Romdel inquired. "If the intruder onboard were to overhear our plan there is no telling what trouble could arise!" This did not extinguish Saliv and Grem's confused looks. "Intruder?" the student questioned. "Yes." The Wookiee answered. "Master Skywalker believes someone has disguised them self as a Republic officer, and snuck onboard the Everlasting, in an attempt to keep us from completing our mission." Then the only human of the trio interrupted. "But who could do such a thing, let alone be capable of such a feat." And then he knew what his Padawan already did. "The Sith!" Grem filled with tension again, but this time he had it under his own control refusing to be overwhelmed by the emotions of fear. For this, Saliv was most proud of his student the most, not his sparring with the lightsabre, not his use of the Force but control of his passions. Saliv looked up to Chevacca "What are our orders?" "I'm to assist you in searching the ship, when we encounter the intruder we are to face him or her, and then investigate any possible sabotage he may have inflicted." And then it hit them, like a window opened during a snowstorm. They felt a dark presence emanating from. "Main Engineering!" Saliv shouted, and the Three Jedi bolted to the deck below.
Jiles knew it would be a matter of time before the Jedi would reach them. With his cloak lifted. He could sense them as easily as he let them sense him. Three on their way and two other's on the Bridge. This is too simple he thought. All I have to do is.He was cut off by the sound of not two, but three lightsabres piercing through the alloy of the entry hatch. Jiles had to work quicker or he might not be able to save his own hide this time. But that was difficult when there are three beings on the other side of the door carrying blue, yellow, and violet blades ready to run you through when they get in.
Try as they might the three Jedi warriors had not even made it half way through the door, even with their combined lightsabres. The engineering hatch was still too strong, to damage quickly. The door was made to withstand a hyperdrive explosion after all. But Chevacca, Saliv and his apprentice were not about to give up. A voice came over the comm. panel near the door outside the engineering room. It was the voice of Master Skywalker. "Saliv, Chevacca. Grem, have you encountered the Sith yet?" Grem being the closest to the panel tapped the control receiver. Master Saliv answered, knowing it would take a little too long to translate Chevacca's speech pattern. "We have discovered the Sith on the engineering deck, but he has managed to seal off the entry hatch. We are currently cutting through the door but its taking too much time, he could escape in one of the lifepods." "I've got that taken care of!" With that said Master Skywalker tapped a few controls on the console in front of him. Then tapped the comm. panel once again, routing the transmission to the Droid recharge station. "All astromechs activate!" then the droid station was filled with the lively sounds of the awakened astromechs even the sabotaged R2-D2. But all the beeps, and boops were cut off by their master's voice. "All astromechs, security procedure 12-beta-F, engage." Then as if their little lives depended on it the droids spun off to all the different levels of engineering some locking out access to the maintenance hatches, others shutting off all the control consoles, and some others even extracting their laser emitters and shooting at the villain. This lead Jiles to extract his weapon, and deflect the blasts, some of which actually hit a few of the droids, but when he realized that he might harm his booby-trapped droid, he knew he could do nothing more but rely on R2 too finish his dirty work. And I was looking forward to facing some Jedi. He thought to himself as he fled to a nearby lifepod on the lower level. A voice filled his head. Your time will come Oiket, you will face the Jedi soon but not today, understood! "Yes Master." He responded out loud as he released the switch which would gain him access to the closest lifepod. but Jiles was almost yielded by a small gold and green astromech blocking his path to freedom. He made quick work of the poor droid not even bothering to acknowledge the units existence. He just walked by the droid, took one swipe through the astromech, and then continued to step into the lifepod as the robot fell to the floor in two.
"We're almost through Master" grunted Grem. His violet blade almost finishing his work on the engineering hatch. "Just a little more Padawan!" then with one last great push against his lightsabre's hilt they were down. Then Chevacca stood before the door, and with one swift kick, the door was no longer an obstacle and the three Jedi rushed through their new opening. Running past the wreckage of busted droids, and falling parts left by deflected laser fire. The Sith was nowhere in sight which meant he had found his way to a lifepod and unfortunately their instincts had been right. All they could find of the assailant, was an empty lifepod port. Saliv reached for the nearest comm. panel. "Yoda, Dorshe' can you hone in on the lifepod's homing beacon?" "Regretfully no" Master Oden answered. "The Sith warrior took it off line, before the pod exited hyperspace." "We have no way no way of finding the culprit, he's gone" Master Skywalker added. This upset the Jedi who tried so hard to apprehend the villain. "Why don't you three investigate the damage and make your way to the Bridge. We have another mission to complete, let the astromechs clean up the mess down there." He ended in a tone of empathy. "We will do our best, Saliv out." The warriors of light gathered themselves, taking joy in that no lives were lost today and they all began to search for any sign of malfunction. But little did they know that there was no sabotage conducted on the Everlasting, but instead on its most reliable droid R2-D2.
* * *
Jiles Oiket was satisfied with the over-all success of his mission, but he could do without the part were he is stuck in a lifepod, in the middle of empty space waiting for his colleagues to come rescue him. He then reached out with the Dark side, an was filled with rage at what he found. You can take the ship out of cloak now, I know you are there. He thought out through the Dark side while he looked out the view-port to his left. Just thought you would like a little more quality time to yourself, Jiles. That's all! He heard in the recess of his mind. Bretew, you had better uncloak that ship and tow me in or so help Me! I will call on every power I have too. Alright, alright! Give me a minute. At that moment, a large formidable, black ship appeared from the stars, not far from the lifepod. The ship was a solid structure, the wings were built into the body and arched forward almost in front of the main hull itself. Giving the ship a grim feeling of lifelessness, while also imitating some horrifying creature. A hanger door opened underneath the belly of the beast, and a tow-beam emitted from its dark core pulled the lifepod toward the creature, as if it were consuming some small wounded prey. The pod eventually found its way into the hanger, and as the bay doors closed behind it the tow-beam then extinguished. Jiles managed to force the Pod's upper hatch open, only to be greeted by the insolate Bretew. "Bumpy ride, Jiles?' he said with a satisfying smirk. "Shut-up! You excuse for a pile of Bantha poodoo" Jiles truthfully mocked. "Has the Master transmitted her orders yet?" he got to the point as he dropped from the top of the life saving shell. "Yes, she did" Bretew stated as if to truly say I know something you don't know! Jiles hated it when he acted like a child. "Well? What are the Master's orders?" he almost resorted to pulling out his sabre. Bretew finally answering his exasperated cohort. "We are to track the Jedi to their destination to the unknown-territory, once past the Mid-rim we are to Jam their transmitters, and then destroy their ship using your defected droid then we will. "Past the Mid-rim? But, by the Jedi's heading, they will be nowhere near the Unknown-territory until they go past the Outer-rim in that direction. Are you sure that those are the Master's orders. The stocky built Nikto handed him a portable view-panel so he could read that Master's orders, word-for-word. "Why would he want us to activate our droid agent when they are in the Mid-rim? And why when they reach this specific point?" "I have no Idea either Jiles, but at this rate the Jedi will be over those coordinates soon, so if we wish to please the Master then we best do as she demands. For once Jiles heard Bretew make sense. So he raised his right arm in front of his chest and ripped back the sleeve of his now useless Republic uniform, to reveal his control collar. Jiles then tapped five simple bottons in an unexplainable patter to Bretew. "There, it is done." Jiles stated with a wicked smile. "Plot a parallel course to that of the Jedi's then transmit a message to the Master. Tell her that the saboteur's orders have been sent and that we are currently pursuing the Everlasting. Soon these Jedi will fall, and the Sith will claim victory in the name of Master Helzias." Bretew then typed down Jiles words on the panel and gave a sly chuckle. "He-he, he."
The five Jedi beings manned their respective stations aboard the Everlastings Bridge. Each with their own duties, Yoda at the Helm, Dorshe' at navigation, Chevacca ironically at the communications console. Saliv was running diagnostics over all the ship's system incase they over looked something the Sith left behind for the Jedi. While Grem oversaw the external sensors incase they should encounter anymore enemy forces. Unbeknownst to all of them that deep with in the bowels of the Jedi-cruiser all remaining astromech units lie in their recharge ports after their clean, and repair procedures in Main- engineering, except for R2-D2. The ever reliable droid, who had handed down the Skywalker for over two millennia, a true testament to dedication and commitment to Yoda's heritage, had been busy keeping up routine maintenance work. Having been upgraded so many times over the past Two-thousand years that even the little droid, with a big heart was surprised at his own commitment to such simple duties. But soon enough he would not be the same R2, which the Skywalker line had grown to love so much. The white and blue droid felt a surge a electricity overcome his circuits. Now controlled by the implanted object upon his silver dome, and he was no longer the lovable little droid, but instead an agent of darkness. With one mission, disable the Everlasting just before it passes over a forgotten solar system, so a task force of smugglers hired by the Sith could destroy the out numbered Jedi-vessel and no one else would know better. The droid had worked his way into the Hyperdrive control room. There he accessed the star-thrust control, and with one snip of the white wire near the primary fusion coil. The Everlasting was flung out of Hyperspace and sent into a violent tumble
Master Romdel, and his apprentice Venad, quietly made their way slowly down deck 4, each prepared to face the unexpected. Their silence was broken as the Everlasting shook as it crossed the hyperspace barrier. "Master Saliv, did you feel that?" "Yes, we must have entered hyperspace." The Jedi spoke calmly, so as to ease his Padawan's tension. "Breathe my young friend, if you don't inhale soon, it will make no difference whether or not you're inside or outside of the hull." Romdel's student then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry my Master, I let my emotions get the better of me." Grem exhaled. "No need to apologize, just remember to let your feelings guide you, not control you! "Yes my Master." He said contently, but still grateful for his teacher's wisdom inside. Then Grem's powerful resonating chamber, heard the steps of something getting close. "Master someone is coming towards us." His tension rose again, so much that Grem's three fingered hand grasped at the lightsabre, attached to his belt. Saliv grabbed his Padawan's arm before he could do anything rash, before he knew who was around the corner. "Chevacca, stop frightening my apprentice and show yourself." Master Chevacca stood down the hall, and then approached his fellow force users. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten anyone, but I needed to find you so I could inform you two of our current situation." This brought a look of confusion to the faces of both the Master and the Padawan. "You couldn't use the comm. system, or even the Force to contact us?" Romdel inquired. "If the intruder onboard were to overhear our plan there is no telling what trouble could arise!" This did not extinguish Saliv and Grem's confused looks. "Intruder?" the student questioned. "Yes." The Wookiee answered. "Master Skywalker believes someone has disguised them self as a Republic officer, and snuck onboard the Everlasting, in an attempt to keep us from completing our mission." Then the only human of the trio interrupted. "But who could do such a thing, let alone be capable of such a feat." And then he knew what his Padawan already did. "The Sith!" Grem filled with tension again, but this time he had it under his own control refusing to be overwhelmed by the emotions of fear. For this, Saliv was most proud of his student the most, not his sparring with the lightsabre, not his use of the Force but control of his passions. Saliv looked up to Chevacca "What are our orders?" "I'm to assist you in searching the ship, when we encounter the intruder we are to face him or her, and then investigate any possible sabotage he may have inflicted." And then it hit them, like a window opened during a snowstorm. They felt a dark presence emanating from. "Main Engineering!" Saliv shouted, and the Three Jedi bolted to the deck below.
Jiles knew it would be a matter of time before the Jedi would reach them. With his cloak lifted. He could sense them as easily as he let them sense him. Three on their way and two other's on the Bridge. This is too simple he thought. All I have to do is.He was cut off by the sound of not two, but three lightsabres piercing through the alloy of the entry hatch. Jiles had to work quicker or he might not be able to save his own hide this time. But that was difficult when there are three beings on the other side of the door carrying blue, yellow, and violet blades ready to run you through when they get in.
Try as they might the three Jedi warriors had not even made it half way through the door, even with their combined lightsabres. The engineering hatch was still too strong, to damage quickly. The door was made to withstand a hyperdrive explosion after all. But Chevacca, Saliv and his apprentice were not about to give up. A voice came over the comm. panel near the door outside the engineering room. It was the voice of Master Skywalker. "Saliv, Chevacca. Grem, have you encountered the Sith yet?" Grem being the closest to the panel tapped the control receiver. Master Saliv answered, knowing it would take a little too long to translate Chevacca's speech pattern. "We have discovered the Sith on the engineering deck, but he has managed to seal off the entry hatch. We are currently cutting through the door but its taking too much time, he could escape in one of the lifepods." "I've got that taken care of!" With that said Master Skywalker tapped a few controls on the console in front of him. Then tapped the comm. panel once again, routing the transmission to the Droid recharge station. "All astromechs activate!" then the droid station was filled with the lively sounds of the awakened astromechs even the sabotaged R2-D2. But all the beeps, and boops were cut off by their master's voice. "All astromechs, security procedure 12-beta-F, engage." Then as if their little lives depended on it the droids spun off to all the different levels of engineering some locking out access to the maintenance hatches, others shutting off all the control consoles, and some others even extracting their laser emitters and shooting at the villain. This lead Jiles to extract his weapon, and deflect the blasts, some of which actually hit a few of the droids, but when he realized that he might harm his booby-trapped droid, he knew he could do nothing more but rely on R2 too finish his dirty work. And I was looking forward to facing some Jedi. He thought to himself as he fled to a nearby lifepod on the lower level. A voice filled his head. Your time will come Oiket, you will face the Jedi soon but not today, understood! "Yes Master." He responded out loud as he released the switch which would gain him access to the closest lifepod. but Jiles was almost yielded by a small gold and green astromech blocking his path to freedom. He made quick work of the poor droid not even bothering to acknowledge the units existence. He just walked by the droid, took one swipe through the astromech, and then continued to step into the lifepod as the robot fell to the floor in two.
"We're almost through Master" grunted Grem. His violet blade almost finishing his work on the engineering hatch. "Just a little more Padawan!" then with one last great push against his lightsabre's hilt they were down. Then Chevacca stood before the door, and with one swift kick, the door was no longer an obstacle and the three Jedi rushed through their new opening. Running past the wreckage of busted droids, and falling parts left by deflected laser fire. The Sith was nowhere in sight which meant he had found his way to a lifepod and unfortunately their instincts had been right. All they could find of the assailant, was an empty lifepod port. Saliv reached for the nearest comm. panel. "Yoda, Dorshe' can you hone in on the lifepod's homing beacon?" "Regretfully no" Master Oden answered. "The Sith warrior took it off line, before the pod exited hyperspace." "We have no way no way of finding the culprit, he's gone" Master Skywalker added. This upset the Jedi who tried so hard to apprehend the villain. "Why don't you three investigate the damage and make your way to the Bridge. We have another mission to complete, let the astromechs clean up the mess down there." He ended in a tone of empathy. "We will do our best, Saliv out." The warriors of light gathered themselves, taking joy in that no lives were lost today and they all began to search for any sign of malfunction. But little did they know that there was no sabotage conducted on the Everlasting, but instead on its most reliable droid R2-D2.
* * *
Jiles Oiket was satisfied with the over-all success of his mission, but he could do without the part were he is stuck in a lifepod, in the middle of empty space waiting for his colleagues to come rescue him. He then reached out with the Dark side, an was filled with rage at what he found. You can take the ship out of cloak now, I know you are there. He thought out through the Dark side while he looked out the view-port to his left. Just thought you would like a little more quality time to yourself, Jiles. That's all! He heard in the recess of his mind. Bretew, you had better uncloak that ship and tow me in or so help Me! I will call on every power I have too. Alright, alright! Give me a minute. At that moment, a large formidable, black ship appeared from the stars, not far from the lifepod. The ship was a solid structure, the wings were built into the body and arched forward almost in front of the main hull itself. Giving the ship a grim feeling of lifelessness, while also imitating some horrifying creature. A hanger door opened underneath the belly of the beast, and a tow-beam emitted from its dark core pulled the lifepod toward the creature, as if it were consuming some small wounded prey. The pod eventually found its way into the hanger, and as the bay doors closed behind it the tow-beam then extinguished. Jiles managed to force the Pod's upper hatch open, only to be greeted by the insolate Bretew. "Bumpy ride, Jiles?' he said with a satisfying smirk. "Shut-up! You excuse for a pile of Bantha poodoo" Jiles truthfully mocked. "Has the Master transmitted her orders yet?" he got to the point as he dropped from the top of the life saving shell. "Yes, she did" Bretew stated as if to truly say I know something you don't know! Jiles hated it when he acted like a child. "Well? What are the Master's orders?" he almost resorted to pulling out his sabre. Bretew finally answering his exasperated cohort. "We are to track the Jedi to their destination to the unknown-territory, once past the Mid-rim we are to Jam their transmitters, and then destroy their ship using your defected droid then we will. "Past the Mid-rim? But, by the Jedi's heading, they will be nowhere near the Unknown-territory until they go past the Outer-rim in that direction. Are you sure that those are the Master's orders. The stocky built Nikto handed him a portable view-panel so he could read that Master's orders, word-for-word. "Why would he want us to activate our droid agent when they are in the Mid-rim? And why when they reach this specific point?" "I have no Idea either Jiles, but at this rate the Jedi will be over those coordinates soon, so if we wish to please the Master then we best do as she demands. For once Jiles heard Bretew make sense. So he raised his right arm in front of his chest and ripped back the sleeve of his now useless Republic uniform, to reveal his control collar. Jiles then tapped five simple bottons in an unexplainable patter to Bretew. "There, it is done." Jiles stated with a wicked smile. "Plot a parallel course to that of the Jedi's then transmit a message to the Master. Tell her that the saboteur's orders have been sent and that we are currently pursuing the Everlasting. Soon these Jedi will fall, and the Sith will claim victory in the name of Master Helzias." Bretew then typed down Jiles words on the panel and gave a sly chuckle. "He-he, he."
The five Jedi beings manned their respective stations aboard the Everlastings Bridge. Each with their own duties, Yoda at the Helm, Dorshe' at navigation, Chevacca ironically at the communications console. Saliv was running diagnostics over all the ship's system incase they over looked something the Sith left behind for the Jedi. While Grem oversaw the external sensors incase they should encounter anymore enemy forces. Unbeknownst to all of them that deep with in the bowels of the Jedi-cruiser all remaining astromech units lie in their recharge ports after their clean, and repair procedures in Main- engineering, except for R2-D2. The ever reliable droid, who had handed down the Skywalker for over two millennia, a true testament to dedication and commitment to Yoda's heritage, had been busy keeping up routine maintenance work. Having been upgraded so many times over the past Two-thousand years that even the little droid, with a big heart was surprised at his own commitment to such simple duties. But soon enough he would not be the same R2, which the Skywalker line had grown to love so much. The white and blue droid felt a surge a electricity overcome his circuits. Now controlled by the implanted object upon his silver dome, and he was no longer the lovable little droid, but instead an agent of darkness. With one mission, disable the Everlasting just before it passes over a forgotten solar system, so a task force of smugglers hired by the Sith could destroy the out numbered Jedi-vessel and no one else would know better. The droid had worked his way into the Hyperdrive control room. There he accessed the star-thrust control, and with one snip of the white wire near the primary fusion coil. The Everlasting was flung out of Hyperspace and sent into a violent tumble