The Dark Wars

Episode I

Unsettling Peace

A.N- I obviously don't own anything related to Star Wars or any other copyrighted thing that I might mention. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Chapter 1

It has been 40 long years after the creation of the New Republic, and everything is almost back to normal. The Imperial Remnant has been all but wiped out from the galaxy. The Galactic Senate was fully reformed around 15 years ago, and there is a Supreme Chancellor (a Rodian named Krithor), however the Jedi Council has been given the power to overthrow the Chancellor and take control of the Senate at any time due to the events that lead the Emperor to power. Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is now an old man, well into his 80s, yet he still sits on the seat of the head of the Jedi Council. Through his efforts, he has remade the Jedi Temple on Coruscant (which was destroyed by Clone Troopers during the Clone Wars). Over the past many years, he has searched the galaxy for potential Jedi, however he has not honored the tradition set down by former Jedi that only children under a certain age may come to be Jedi. I was taken to be a Jedi around 15 years ago. I was 14, the youngest person to be let in since the times of the Old Republic. I was made a Jedi Knight about 10 years after being let in, and I had yet to pick a Padawan by the time of this story.

The first signs of anything to come was when a New Republic Destroyer intercepted a ship that was carrying material that was used to make weapons, such as the Stormtrooper's favorite, the E-11 Blaster Rifle, and also the Vortex X-2, an extremely deadly weapon that is manufactured on Geonosis. The Vortex X-2 is illegal in the New Republic, due to the fact that it kills you by disintegration, so when the New Republic troops found it, they put the ships crew under arrest and they searched the ship. In a hidden cargo room, they found blaster resistant armor, and engines capable of great speeds, but not great distances. This finding disturbed the Jedi Council, and they sent a few Jedi out to pick up information throughout the galaxy. I was one of the Jedi sent, and I went to Kamino to talk to the creatures there.

The Kaminoans weren't pleased to see me, because they had been out of business since the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of the Galactic Empire. The Emperor didn't see the need to continue building clones, and he feared that since Kaminoans would take any job, they might help the Rebel Alliance in building clones to fight against him. Because of his paranoia, he forbid them to continue cloning anything, and he had kept close tabs on them. Since then, they made their living trying to use their genius to create other things, such as advanced droids and medicines. When I came to them, they didn't want anything to do with me, but I knew that they were big when it came to knowing information about anything, because they were always looking for an excuse to build more soldiers, whether it be for or against the New Republic, so I convinced one to let me in, using my Jedi powers to trick him. I got a meeting with the Prime Minister, who was known as Sang Lo. I tried to get information from him, but he wanted something in return. I gave them an offer that he couldn't (nor wouldn't) want to refuse. I told him that if he helped us, then the Jedi Council would take the matter of letting Kamino clone again to the Senate. Kamino had no representative in the Senate to do that, because they weren't a diplomatic race. Sang Lo was pleased with my offer, and he told me what he had been hearing. According to him, there was a group of people who were buying up a lot of material to make arms, and that they were already going to a few star systems that weren't part of the New Republic yet, and they were preached their cause to them. When I asked him if he knew anything about this group he said,

"Well I don't know much about them, though I heard that they can do things to people, not natural things."

This intrigued me, and I leaned in closer to him from my seat in his office.

"What do you mean things? Have you heard what type of things they do?"

He looked a little nervous about talking to me about this, and I made a mental note to search this area before leaving for any signs of cloning or weapons manufacturing.

"Well," began Sang Lo looking as though he was forcing these next words, "they can make you do things. I heard that they made the governor and all of his party members sign a treaty with them that allowed them to use the city's food, hospitals and other things for their purpose. The weird thing is that this city's governor was said to be very against anyone that was anti-Republic. People from the city that were there when he made the agreement said that he looked very distant and that he responded to anything with a very monotonous tone."

This caused me much concern. This sounded like someone under the influences of a Mind Trick. This would mean that some if not all the members of this group had training in the Force. This would mean that these people would be renegade Jedi because the Council has people hidden everywhere in the galaxy that look for people who aren't Jedi doing anything that involves the Force. I decided to question Sang Lo further in his information about this group of Force users because I sensed that he was holding something back from me.

"Can they do anything else unnatural to people?" I asked, hoping to get something out of him without him growing suspicious.

"Well there was this race of being that live on one of the moons of a system in the Outer Rims, and these people aren't very advanced. I heard a tale from one of their merchants, one of the few that leave their system to do business. This merchant told of a man who was like a god, who could invoke the powers of the sky, and who could cause the body to become angry at the soul. Of course this might mean nothing because this race is very behind."

I noted what Sang Lo said, and it would've sounded like normal reasoning if I had not been a Jedi. I saw what this merchant was saying from the beginning. He told of a person who had used Force Lightning on them (hence invoking the sky), and who had used the Force Grip on them (hence the body becoming angry at the soul, and try to choke it). Now I knew that we were dealing with Dark Force users.

In light of this new information, I decided to not pry Sang Lo into telling me anything about his relations with these Force users, but instead I went to inform the Council about my findings.

My ship was docked on a landing pod at the east of the city, and like usual when on Kamino, it was drenched in rain. My R6 droid was beeping at me, annoyed at being left in the rain for so long.

"R6! I need you to send this message straight to Coruscant!"

R6 beeped once, then his optical viewing port turned yellow, signaling me that he was transmitting this to the Jedi Council Chambers. Immediately, all the members of the Council appeared around me, looking at me with interest.

I saw Luke Skywalker lean forward in his chair as he spoke to me.

"What do you have to report Varujan?" asked Luke, with a slight rasp to his voice, a gift from his old age.

Bowing to him, I replied, "I fear that I have disturbing news. My contacts on Komino tell me that there is a group that is buying many things that may be turned into weapons, and they were talking to systems outside of the Republic about rebellion. The most disturbing fact is that they seem to be using Dark methods against people."

One of the masters looked anxious and asked in a worried tone, "What do you mean by Dark methods?"

"Well," I said, dreading the next thing I told them, "my source told me that they seem to be able to use the Mind Trick on people, and that one person even describes them using Force Lightning and Grip. This would point to Dark Force users that we might not know about."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed the master. "We know about all Force activity in this galaxy! No-one could've slipped past us!"

"Calm yourself Master Ire." said Luke calmly. "We cannot believe that we have a fail proof system. It's entirely possible that people have slipped past our spies. Please Varujan, continue."

"Thank you Master." I said, bowing to Luke. "I fear that the Kaminoans might be working for this group, so I will remain here for a while to investigate. I would suggest that the Council send someone to the Outer Rims, because that is where many of these things seem to be happening."

"We have already done so Varujan." said Luke. "We have been feeling uneasy because of the fact that the Outer Rim has been very quiet lately. The Republic has reported that many of the systems considered hostile towards the New Republic have calmed down over the course of the last few months. The Council is ready to intervene if necessary, but we won't get involved just yet. The Senate has agreed to send a fleet of ships into the Outer Rim area to make sure that nothing happens, and they are prepared to send 1,000 troops into battle if need be. For the moment I agree with you staying to investigate, and we'll tell you if you're needed in the Outer Rims. Until then, report on anything that you might find while on Kamino. In the event that you do find anything, you may only intervene if you feel that it is an immediate threat against us or the New Republic."

Bowing to him I said, "I will do that Master Skywalker. I will report in a week to let you know what I plan on doing."

"May the Force be with you Varujan." said Luke.

"And with you Masters." I said, bowing to the rest of them, and then again towards Luke.

I signaled to R6 to cut the feed, and then I sat down in the cockpit of my X-wing, and I thought about how I was to infiltrate the factories of Kamino without attraction trouble.