The Jedi Adventure
--sparkvallen
Original characters belong - of course - to Lucasfilm and used for entertainment purposes only. Other characters are based on real personages and are used for entertainment purposes too!
Chapter Ten
Aboard the Sith capital ship…
"Everything is proceeding as planned, m'lady."
A cruel, knowing smile passed over the rouged lips of the Sith. Lady Raefen glanced out the corner of her brown eyes and gazed upon her most prized apprentice, Darth Demetra. "Very good, my apprentice. Soon we will have this world fully under our control."
"And I will rule this world," Demetra replied softly, wonder in her voice.
Raefen turned to face her pupil fully. Of similar wiles and ambition, Demetra had proven to be the most capable of all the Sith adepts that had been indentured into service. She had risen above the rest and showed Raefen that not only was she capable with the Force but she was willing to do whatever was necessary in the campaign on her own homeworld.
"Yes… you will rule here as I rule the galaxy," Raefen reminded.
"Of course, m'lady," Demetra replied. "What would you have me do now?"
Raefen looked back out the viewscreen at the blue and white world they orbited. She voiced a soft "Hmm…" as she touched the Darkside of the Force. Beside her, Demetra remained quiet and attentive as she waited out her Mistress.
"I sense… something. A change to the world below. Do you sense it in the Force, my apprentice?"
Demetra rose a delicate eyebrow, looking out the viewport and trying to sense what Lady Raefen spoke of. In truth, she found her teacher quite unstable in being mad with power; she would hardly voice this, however, taking mental notes and looking for Raefen's weaknesses.
"No, m'lady, but you are stronger with the Force than me."
Raefen nodded absently, her gaze trained on the world beneath them. "Go down to the surface, Darth Demetra, and ensure that all is well. Or remedy the situation if you find unrest."
"Yes, Mistress, of course."
"I want to make a visit to the holding ship," Raefen continued, almost speaking to herself.
Demetra shrugged inwardly at this. "It is a foul place. The Darkside is strong there because those who resist are desperate and angry, but they're unfocused."
"Something… someone. Go, my apprentice, and do my bidding."
Dismissed, Demetra strode away from the command deck. The lesser Sith and slaves who manned the ship averted their gaze as Raefen's apprentice proceeded to the turbolifts with the hangar bay as her destination.
"May the Force be with the both of you," Spark said to Z'Trooper and Sapharin.
The two new Jedi Knights were dressed in the clothes of their homeworld once more, looking as ordinary as possible. Their lightsabers were stowed safely in backpacks they were both carrying, leaving them to like simple travelers. Their journey would take them into the city where the Sith "recruiters" would find them and then contain them.
Sapharin nodded. She had been very quiet since announcing her plan and having it eventually affirmed by her companions. Z'Trooper patted her shoulder. "We'll be safe."
Without another word, the duo set off toward the city limits, leaving the other Jedi behind. Being Force sensitive, they knew they'd be identified quickly - Talon and Falco's reconnaissance had taught them that much. They only had to refuse to join the Sith and their campaign. The "recruitment" center was a converted office building. Saph and Z'Trooper had no actual intention of entering - the Force sensitive Sith authorities would sense them, especially since they were trained Jedi compared to everyone else on their homeworld.
"So, why are you doing this?" Sapharin asked.
Z'Trooper gave her a look of quiet surprise. "I'm sorry?"
"Why did you volunteer to accompany me on this mission?"
Z'Trooper regarded Sapharin for a moment, knowing what she was thinking. He was know empathy, but he knew just the same. "If you're thinking this is about your physical state, you're wrong," he replied.
Sapharin raised a dark eyebrow. "Oh?"
He nodded, realizing he'd bulls-eyed the Tatooine womp-rat. "You have the people skills to rally the Force sensitives' who were taken prisoner. I have the technical skills to cause additional trouble for the fleet. And," he said with a wink, "you can back me up if things get heated."
Sapharin smiled, not having considered Z'Trooper's technical acumen. "Do you think I can convince them to help us?"
"Do you?"
She scrunched up her face at him for turning the question back at her. Sapharin nodded after a moment. "As much as I would want to say no, that someone else must be more qualified than me, I can do this. Maybe because I have to."
Z'Trooper half-smiled. "We have all come a long way, haven't we?"
"We have," Sapharin replied.
"Come from where?"
The two Jedi Knights paused in mid-stride. Looking over their shoulders, a uniformed Sith officer stood with his gray eyes regarding them. This was it, they both thought. Sapharin put on her warmest smile as she looked back at the Sith, letting go of her revulsion at the sight of a man who had helped to betray their homeworld.
"Good afternoon, Sir," she said cheerfully. "We were just speaking of how we've walked several miles since our car was out of gas. We've come a long way."
"M-hmm."
Z'Trooper waited a moment then asked, "Is there a problem, Sir?"
The Sith officer in his black uniform frowned. "Well, it is simply that I am aware you are Force sensitive, the both of you. So I wonder why you're walking from a vehicle that's out of gas when you should have given your allegiance to the Sith or be in orbit on the prison ship reconsidering your loyalties."
"Just lucky, I suppose," Sapharin said dryly.
"Indeed. Well, the choice is before you now," he said. "What are you going to do?"
Just as Z'Trooper had done to Sapharin moments before, she now turned the question around on the Sith officer. "Why did you do it?"
He tensed, his hand coming up to his holstered blaster. "You're in no position to ask questions. So I ask again, what are you going to do?"
Z'Trooper smiled, ready for the verbal spar. "Was it easy to sell out your family for a position among the Sith?"
The gray eyes of the officer flared with anger as he drew his blaster into his hand, pointing it at Z'Trooper.
Matter-of-factly, Sapharin said, "I think you have our answer."
After Z'Trooper and Sapharin had departed, the remaining Jedi had only to begin their critical strikes. Talon and Falco had lain out a strategy to wreak havoc for the Sith ground forces by targeting bases, ammo dumps and communication arrays that had been constructed. Working in two teams, the Jedi utilized the best of their skills to began toying with the Sith and their ability to maintain control over at least the region. If Sapharin and Z'Trooper were successful, they would soon have additional recruits to aid the cause. For now, one team was made up of Spark, Ebony and Talon; the second unit was Kyp, Joni and Falco so that technical, mediation and lightsaber combat skills were evenly distributed among the teams.
It wasn't long before all of those skills were being utilized in full either.
Spark growled under her breath as they retreated from a successful strike. She was under Ebony's defensive cover with the lightsaber as her friend kept she and Talon safe.
"What was that?"
"Just that I can think of 1000 other scenarios that would be more fun than this," she replied.
As Talon backpedaled and used the Force to dodge what blaster shots slipped through Ebony's defensive posture, he hollered back, "There is something more fun than this? Come on!"
With the central communications center destroyed for the region now, the Sith's ability to relay messages from one recruit center or base to the next was severely impaired. Given that the Sith were unfamiliar with the "primitive" technology of their homeworld, the Jedi were also able to cause problems with what was incredibly basic to them. With both teams, both Falco and Talon were managing to make computer systems go haywire: traffic lights, nighttime lamps and other powered system were soon disrupted, frustrating those under Sith control, which then impacted the Sith's ability to rule as uprisings began as well.