The New Jedi Knights: Fate of the Force

Chapter 7: The First Mission

By MagicMansion

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Luke Skywalker. My characters are Jarrod, Josh, Kyle, Victor, Shawn, Mary, Abby, Rebecca, and General Titanus.

Luke awoke the next morning, and saw the sun outside. It had already risen high. Luke figured it had to be late morning. He walked outside onto his balcony, and looked at the city. People were bustling around, mostly those from Earth who were trying to get settled into their new surroundings.

A droid flew up to Luke, and sat down on the railing of the balcony. The top opened, and a projected image of his informer showed up.

"Master Skywalker."

"Yes?"

"We've got a few Imperial ships moving into the Republic."

"Where at?"

The informer sighed. "Tatooine sir."

Luke sighed as well. "They're doing it again. They should have learned from my example of Jabba not to mess with Tatooine. Okay, we'll head there and take care of them."

"Sir. They've got a Star Destroyer equipped with a superlaser."

"They won't be able to use it."

Luke ordered the little droid away, and he went down to find the rest of the Jedi eating breakfast.

"Sorry to interrupt your meal everyone, but we've got to get going. The Empire is approaching Tatooine with a Star Destroyer equipped with a superlaser."

The Jedi all finished off what they could quickly, and Kyle said goodbye to Abby and his daughter, who were allowed to live in the Jedi Temple with him. They got to their fighters, and took off. They jumped to light speed immediately, and got to Tatooine. They saw a ship approaching, and knew it was the Star Destroyer.

"Okay everyone. There's the Star Destroyer. Let's get down there and warn everyone."

The Jedi turned their ships towards the planet, but Jarrod stayed.

"Jarrod, are you coming or not?"

"Master, I don't think that's a good idea. Wouldn't the Star Destroyer have come out of light speed closer to Tatooine if it wanted to destroy it?"

Luke thought for a second. "Oh no. Jedi, turn back. It's a trap!"

It was too late. The fighters headed straight into heavy laser fire, and Luke knew there was no turning back for them now. He looked at the Star Destroyer, which jumped to light speed and vanished.

It had been a trap. They'd already taken Tatooine as their own planet, and probably had enslaved everyone on it. Luke looked at his home planet, and noticed there was no more laser fire.

"Red Squadron, Yellow Squadron, Green Squadron, where are you? Is everyone all right?"

No one answered. Luke and Jarrod waited in space for a response.

On the desert planet, the Jedi had landed their fighters outside one of the new giant laser turrets aimed into space. They were at the doors now, thinking of a plan.

"I say we just take down the door," Josh said.

"You would say that Josh," Kyle said. "We've got to consider what Master Skywalker would do."

"I think I've got an idea," Shawn said.

He walked up to the small scanner at the door.

"Shawn, what are you doing," everyone said quietly.

"Sh. Uh, hello?"

A voice answered. "Please provide password."

Shawn took out a small device Luke had given him in reward for assisting in the arrest of the man the previous day. He put it up to the scanner, and it beeped a few times.

"Okay, enter."

Shawn pocketed the small device, and the door opened.

"What is that thing," Victor asked.

"A code scrambler. Works on droids, clones, and most controls. It's kind of like a droid, but portable, and with no personality. Master Skywalker gave it to me after we arrested that guy yesterday."

The Jedi walked through the halls. They met up with a squad of ten storm troopers.

"Hey you. Halt! Do you have permission to be in here?"

Josh waved his hand at them.

"We have permission."

"Oh. You have permission. Proceed then."

The Jedi walked past the squad. They got to a door, and Kyle ignited his lightsaber. He cut around the edges of the door, and stepped back. Victor stepped up, and kicked the door open. He ignited his double lightsaber, and stepped in, deflecting shots back at the storm troopers who were firing the shots. The two girls stepped in, and used the Force to throw some troopers away from the controls. The other three Jedi stepped in, and Shawn got to the radio.

Back in space, Luke and Jarrod were still waiting.

"Master, you don't think they're dead, do you?"

"No. I still sense their presence on the planet."

"Master Skywalker," a voice said.

"Shawn?"

"We've taken over one of the laser stations. Kyle is trying to deactivate all of them from this computer right now. We'll call you when it's safe."

"Good job."

A few minutes later, Luke and Jarrod got another transmission, this time from Kyle.

"Okay Master, the stations are all shut down. Would you like us to take care of the storm troopers on the ground?"

"If you would please. We'll be landing in a bit."

Luke and Jarrod flew down, and saw their friends deflecting shots from a large group of storm troopers that had surrounded the one station. Luke and Jarrod took a few shots at the troops, and they fell to the ground in a heap. Luke and Jarrod landed and got out, igniting their lightsabers.

"Good job everyone," Luke said. "Although you could've told us you were ok."

"No," Kyle said. "They would have heard the transmission and sent troops out to get us. We were acting in hope of surprise."

"I see. Well, let's take care of the rest of these storm troopers. They should only be on this side of the planet. I think they were hoping to take care of us, and then send the Star Destroyer back. We'll let them know Tatooine is still ours though."

The eight Jedi proceeded through the remaining nine stations, and took out all of the storm troopers. At the final station, Luke picked up the radio.

"Hi there. This is Master Skywalker, Jedi Knight of the Republic. I've got news for you guys. Tatooine is still ours, so don't bother sending troops back here."

The radio crackled, and to Luke's surprise, he got a response.

"Master Skywalker. This is General Titanus of the Imperial Separatists."

"The what?"

"Have a nice day Master Skywalker. I think you'll find a nice surprise when you leave."

Luke turned to his celebrating team.

"Knights, let's go. We've landed ourselves in a second trap."

"What!" they all said.

"Let's go."

They ran to the main doors of the station, and Luke found that the General was indeed correct. Outside was an army of droids he had never seen before. Some of them had heads like a duck, some were insect-like, and some looked like humans with thick, dark skin and rounded heads.

"No way," Shawn said. "These are Separatist droids. They haven't been manufactured since the Clone Wars."

"Surrender," one of the red duck-headed droids said.

"Well, we certainly aren't going to take commands from a droid that shouldn't exist," Jarrod said.

Everyone did a quick force push to separate groups, and backed up to the doors, igniting their lightsabers. The droids unleashed an assault of lasers at the Jedi.

The Jedi stood at the door, deflecting as many shots as they could.

"Guys," Shawn said. "This isn't going to work. This going to be just as bad as the battle on Geonosis. We'll lose if we stay right here."

"You have a suggestion Shawn," Kyle asked. "We'd be glad to hear it," he said as he did a force push on a group of droids trying to flank them.

"Well, no. But we definitely can't stay here."

"Hey guys, I wonder if they're as dumb as they've always been," Josh said.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone, surrender. Trust me."

Luke figured it couldn't hurt to try. He wanted to meet this General Titanus anyway. He nodded. "We surrender."

The droids stopped firing, and all of the Jedi dropped their lightsabers. A few droids came over and put bindings around their hands. A single droid gathered up the lightsabers.

The droids loaded up onto a transport ship, and then the commander turned to the Jedi, who were surrounded by about twenty battle droids now.

"R2!"

Luke heard a popping sound after he shouted for his droid. He jumped in the air and caught his extra lightsaber. He backed up to Jarrod, and cut his bindings. Jarrod summoned his lightsaber while Luke deflected a few lasers away from the group. Within seconds, all of the Jedi were free, and had taken down the droids.

"Well, they are still just as dumb as they were when they took your father to meet Grievous," Josh said to Luke.

Luke smiled. His father had done the same thing inside Grievous' command ship.

"Okay everyone. Let's get out of here," Luke said as he tossed an explosive into one of the engines of the transport ship.

The Jedi ran to their ships, and took off quickly after getting R2 back into the X-Wing. The transport ship had seen them, as planned, and started the engines to pursue them. The engines exploded, and the explosions ripped up the transport, destroying it.

"Master, you used an explosive? How uncivilized," Shawn said.

Luke laughed. "I don't think Obi-Wan will appreciate you mocking him."

Everyone laughed, and they jumped to light speed back to Coruscant. When they landed, they took a much needed break in the Jedi Temple.

"Shawn," Luke said as he took the Padawan aside. "I know your performance was grand today, just as grand as the others in fact. If you would like to, I'll allow you to take your trials now."

Shawn nodded. "I know Master. But, I think I prefer being a Padawan for a while, so I can learn from you. Would that be ok?"

"Whatever you would like to do Shawn."

Shawn bowed. "Thank you Master. I think I'll just wait for my week to be over, and then take the trials again. Maybe I can learn something new to use in the trials."

"Maybe."

The two went back to the rest of the Jedi.

Later that day, a few rooms occupied more than one person. It was only early evening, but the Jedi wanted to talk for a while, and then turn in.

Kyle and Abby were in their room, talking.

"I'm glad you like this Kyle. I really wish I could help, but Luke says I should focus on taking care of our baby. He says she may have been chosen by the Force as well. Maybe you could train her when she is the right age."

Kyle let out a small laugh and kissed Abby's forehead. "Yeah. Maybe I will."

The two smiled as they laid down, they're baby softly sleeping near them.

Josh and Mary were talking in their room.

"This is so exciting Josh. I still can't believe that the Force was what brought us together."

Josh smiled. "Yeah. It's pretty interesting. But I'm glad it did."

"I just find it weird that I'd never given sword fighting a chance until Master Skywalker came to us on Earth, but now I'm great at it."

"Well, you've had two weeks of training under a Jedi Knight. It doesn't surprise me at all."

Mary smiled and gave a quick kiss to Josh. "Well, I'd best be off to my own quarters. You know Master Skywalker doesn't like us staying in the same room at night. I'll see you tomorrow hun."

"See ya."

Victor was in Jarrod's room with him.

"Can you believe Master Skywalker let me use a double lightsaber?"

"Well," Jarrod said. "I think he's impressed by both of us. He told me that you and I are the most skilled he's ever seen with our individual weapons."

"Really? That's cool. I think everyone has their strengths though. The girls seem to have a lot of control over the Force."

"Yeah, I noticed that. Maybe it's a gender thing."

"Maybe."

Shawn and Rebecca were in Shawn's room, lying on the bed.

"Sweetie, you aren't upset about not being a Jedi Knight, are you?"

"No, of course not. I think I might learn more studying under Master Skywalker for the week."

"Maybe. Then you would teach it to me, right?"

"Of course sweetie. I wouldn't keep that kind of thing from you."

Rebecca smiled, and Shawn gave her a kiss. "You'd better get to bed. If Master Skywalker does his check and finds you in here, I won't be a Knight for another year."

"Yeah. Goodnight honey," Rebecca said as she kissed him goodnight, and left.

The Jedi all went to bed, and Luke did a quick check to see that no one but Abby and Kyle were together. Then he locked the Temple for the night, and went to bed himself.

I hope you liked this chapter (hehe, I say that every chapter. If you don't like any of the first ones, I'm sure you wouldn't like this one either.) Anyway, more action coming up in the next one (cough, light, cough, saber, cough, duel). Did I just say that out loud? Oh well. Anyway, please continue reading, and review please.