The New Jedi Knights: Fate of the Force
Chapter 8: The Sith's Return
By MagicMansion
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, or Luke Skywalker. My characters are Jarrod, Josh, Kyle, Victory, Shawn, Mary, Abby, Rebecca, Renaldo Snuttai, and the mystery man.
The next day the Jedi had a morning training session, and then went for a quick patrol around the Earth section of the city. No one seemed to have any problems, and the Jedi got to say hello to their parents before heading back to the Jedi Temple. When they got there, a droid met them at the door. The top opened, and a man's image appeared.
"Master Skywalker. Forgive me if I'm intruding on anything. My name is Renaldo Snuttai (pronounced Snew-ty). I'm from an area of the Outer Rim. We've been experiencing some noises outside our cities, and we're not sure what they could be. Sounds like construction, but we have no construction scheduled."
"Ok. Send us the coordinates and we'll come investigate," Luke said.
"Thank you so much Master Skywalker." The man hit a button, and the coordinates were displayed. Then, they heard a blast from the man's end, and heard him scream.
"Come everyone. Let's get to that planet as fast as we can. It sounds like trouble."
The Jedi ran to their fighters, and flew out of the atmosphere. Luke entered the coordinates, and the ships jumped to light speed.
When they got to the coordinates, they saw a small planet with several moons around it. Luke told everyone to ease their fighters through carefully.
The Jedi flew through the moons, both small and large, avoiding the small asteroids that also circled the planet. Luke heard a noise, and turned his X-Wing 90 degrees. A laser flew past him.
"Did anyone see where that came from," Luke asked.
"No," they all answered.
Luke felt uneasy. "Everyone, get into attack formation. Get to the surface of the planet as quick as possible."
The X-Wings and B-Wing got into attack mode, and flew through the asteroids and moons. Lasers fired here and there, the Jedi avoiding every shot. None of them could see where the shots were coming from though. Luke ordered Shawn and Victor, who he felt were the two best pilots, to fly around the planet and find the source of the lasers while the rest of them went to investigate the surface.
Victor and Shawn flew off to circle the planet, and the X- and Y-Wings flew to the planet. When they got there, they were immediately attacked by lasers. They flew over the stations, firing back, but destroying few of the hundreds of laser stations.
"If anyone sees an opening to get to the ground, use it," Luke shouted.
"Master, there are Separatist droids all over the surface," Kyle reported. "Storm troopers too. They're just attacking the people down there. It seems like a giant invasion."
"I see it too. We'll just have to come back with an army then."
"Negative on that Master," Victor said. "We aren't getting off this planet for a while. They have laser stations on all of the moons and some of the asteroids. They're buried in the ground. That's why we couldn't see them. Now they know that we know about them, and they aren't going to let us out. It seems they also have a shield generator on each moon, and are now creating a reverse shield."
"So nothing can get out," Josh said.
"Right. We're coming in to help you guys. We can't do anything out here anymore."
"Understood," Luke said. "Come in, and start firing at anything you can. As much as I'd hate to do it, the people here will have to be a sacrifice. They don't have a chance of surviving either way."
"Yes Master," everyone said sadly.
The fighters started firing at the ground, both missiles and lasers. They started taking out laser stations first, and managed to get some of the droids and troops on the ground. They flew around the small planet, but everywhere was the same: troops and droids blasting at the citizens.
"Master," Jarrod yelled. "There's some large building over there that hasn't been destroyed. Do you think it could be controlling this invasion?"
Luke looked at the building. It was completely surrounded by laser stations, and had four smaller stations sitting on each corner of a ledge halfway up the building. It looked heavily guarded by droids and troops, all of which stood in three lines around the building.
"I would have to say that if that building needs that much protection, it has something important in it. Some of us need to get down there. Red Squadron, do you think you can get those front doors opened?"
"I think that can be arranged," Josh said. "Would you like us to take care of the droids and whatnot if we find them inside?"
"If you could."
"Ok. Red Squadron, let's get going."
Josh led Jarrod and Kyle towards the building. The droids and troops looked up at them.
"Deflector shields up."
The three ships turned on the deflector shields, and the shots from the droids and troops bounced off of the ships. Josh fired his two remaining missiles at the door, which blew open. The ships did a sliding landing, much like they had seen Anakin and Obi-Wan do when boarding General Grievous' flagship. They took out a huge area of droids and troops as their fighters ran into them. The ships slid into the building, and Josh yelled, "I'm pulling an Obi-Wan."
He released the cockpit, and jumped out, igniting his lightsaber in the air. He deflected some shots while in the air, and landed, stabbing and slashing a few more droids and troops.
Jarrod and Kyle were unbuckling.
"Always has to be the showoff, doesn't he," Kyle said as he opened the cockpit.
"That's my cousin for ya," Jarrod said as he deflected a shot back at a battle droid.
The three stormed the building, deflecting shots from the troops and droids already inside, and from those which were outside coming in.
Josh picked up his comlink. "Hey, we could use some help in here guys. We're kind of outnumbered."
"On our way."
No sooner had this been said, than Luke, Shawn, and Victor's ships slid in. They unbuckled and got out, igniting their lightsabers as well. They began taking down droids and troopers with their fellow Jedi.
"Shawn, where are the girls," Josh asked as he and Shawn were backed together.
"Still outside, taking out as many of the laser stations as they can on the surface."
"Are they doing ok?"
"They were last time I checked," Shawn replied. The two deflected some more shots, and moved away from each other.
Jarrod was busy destroying droids on a walkway that went over the ground floor. A bunch of storm troopers had backed him up the stairs, and now he had droids behind him, with the troops still in front of him.
"Hey, is there any possibility of some assistance up here guys? I could really use it."
Victor looked up, and Force jumped up to the walkway. He re-ignited his lightsaber, and ran up behind the droids, holding his double saber in front him, taking the droids out quickly, before they had a chance to realize he was coming. A bunch of droids on the stairs turned and followed him to Jarrod.
"Well, I'm glad someone heard me," Jarrod said as Victor turned away from him to face the oncoming droids.
"Please," Victor said. "I wasn't coming to help you. I wanted to use my lightsaber to take a bunch of them out at once."
"I'm sure," Jarrod said over his shoulder, still deflecting shots from the storm troopers. "You always were selfish."
"I am not," Victor said, deflecting more shots.
"Are too," Jarrod said, slashing a close trooper.
"Hey guys," Kyle yelled from below them, "a little less arguing, a little more destroying."
"Shut up Kyle," they both yelled, smiling.
Luke was busy taking a large section of troopers himself, and they had backed him into a corner.
"Hey Josh," someone yelled. "You think we should try and surrender again. Maybe they'll fall for the same trick twice."
"Oh shut up. Besides, there are too many shooting at us right now for them to even hear us say anything."
The droids pressured Jarrod and Victor together, their lightsabers missing each other by inches now trying to deflect the lasers. Kyle got pressed back against a corner with Shawn, and Josh had managed to get over to Luke to assist him. The droids and troops were still pressuring all of them though.
"Okay guys. I think it's time for another plan," Shawn yelled. "Kyle, cover me." He backed up to a door, and put his scrambler on the keypad. It beeped, and the door opened up. Lasers flew out from the door.
"Wrong door there Shawn," Kyle asked.
"Chill out," Shawn yelled as he grabbed the scrambler, and did a lightsaber throw down the hall. The lasers stopped. "Okay guys, this hallway is clear. Kyle and I are going in it."
"We're doing what," Kyle asked before being pulled into the hall.
Shawn deflected a shot, and threw the scrambler to Josh in the corner, where a door was sitting. He shut the door.
Josh caught the scrambler, and made a quick line to the door. He put the scrambler on the keypad, and the door opened. No opposition was in the hall.
"Master, let's go. Jarrod, Victor, think you can get down here?"
Jarrod and Victor looked over their shoulders at each other, and each did a Force push, throwing several droids and troopers into the rest of the line. They deactivated their sabers, and jumped over the battle, and behind Luke. They went through the door, and Luke followed quickly, closing the door.
He pulled out his comlink. "Girls, are you okay out there?"
The comlink crackled. "Yeah," Mary answered. "We're both fine. None of the stations seem to be that accurate."
"Okay. Keep safe. We're inside what we hope is the control building." Luke switched to a different channel. "R2, activate deflector shields on all fighters." The droid beeped. "Thanks R2."
The group started down the hall, hoping to find Kyle and Shawn.
"Master, why are there so many droids and storm troopers here? Wouldn't the planet have noticed an invasion landing?"
"I don't think this is an invasion," Luke said as he turned a corner. "We were lured into a trap. This planet belongs to the Separatist Empire."
"Then, the droids and troops outside were shooting at…" began Josh.
"Each other. Yes. Everything was set up perfectly. Obviously someone wants to get rid of us before pulling off a plan."
"Well, there are a lot of people that would like to be rid of us, aren't there," Jarrod asked.
"Yeah. But I have a feeling there is a Sith involved."
Luke heard a laser blast, and saw it hit the wall they were headed towards. Kyle came around the corner, Shawn backing up after him, deflecting a shot.
"Other way," Kyle shouted.
They all broke into a run the other way and Luke turned to see two droids rolling around the corner they had just been at.
"What are those," Luke asked.
"Destroyers. Really deadly. I'm surprised the Emperor didn't decide to keep them in his army."
Shawn turned back around, and deflected a few laser shots from the droids, which had unrolled and were standing on three legs. Their lasers were firing rapidly.
"Whose idea was it to invent a droid that fired so fast," Luke asked.
"The Separatists your father fought against, that's who," Josh said.
The group continued running, and found a locked door.
"Who has the scrambler," Luke yelled. Someone tossed it to him, and he put it on the keypad. It beeped, and the door lifted. Two storm troopers leaning against the wall looked at him. He threw them back, and they fell, motionless. The Jedi quickly ran through the door, and, after deflecting one final shot from a destroyer, Shawn grabbed the scrambler and shut the door.
"Now what," Jarrod asked.
"We keep going," Luke told him. "It'll be pointless to go back to our ships until we can get that shield around the planet deactivated."
The group continued down the halls, running into few troops, and only one patrolling destroyer. They finally got into the control room. They killed the guards, and Kyle and Victor summoned the blasters.
"Everyone away from your controls," Kyle yelled.
The troops stood up and moved away from the control panels. Luke looked around at the controls. He turned to the line of troops.
"Which one of you knows how to deactivate the shield?"
One trooper put his hand up.
"Deactivate it." Victor tossed Luke a blaster, and Luke stood behind the trooper as he pressed a few buttons. Then, the group of Jedi heard a few doors in the room slide up. The one they had come through slid down.
"What did you do," Luke yelled at the trooper.
The trooper looked at him. "Nothing Master Skywalker." The trooper put his hand out, and Luke flew back against some other controls. The other Jedi looked over, but a line of droids had marched into the control room, and they blasted them. More droids followed, so the Jedi abandoned the blaster idea and ignited their lightsabers.
Luke kicked his feet to get up, and he ignited his own lightsaber. The trooper put his hand to his armor, and it collapsed around him, revealing a man who looked a little older than Luke. He was dressed in traditional Jedi robes, with a lightsaber and additional equipment on his belt.
"Who are you," Luke yelled.
"There is no need for you to know. You will not be leaving this building alive."
Luke looked over and saw droids and storm troopers pouring into the room, and they had managed to disarm the other Jedi. Luke looked back to the man.
"Shall we settle this disagreement," the man asked Luke, removing his robes.
"It'd be my pleasure to take care of a certain problem," Luke responded.
Luke jumped, and flipped over the man. The man ignited a red Sith lightsaber, and blocked Luke's first attack. The troopers watched the duel while three destroyers aimed at the other Jedi.
"Guys, we've got to take care of these droids and troopers," Shawn said.
"Thanks Mr. Obvious," Victor said. "But if we do anything, they'll take us out."
"Not if we take care of the droids silently," Josh said.
"How do you suppose we do that?"
"I didn't get that far yet."
Luke was still dueling the mystery man, attacking less frequently than blocking. The man was skilled with a lightsaber, Luke thought. Luke gave an attack, and both of them spun around, striking high, then low. The man threw Luke against the controls again, but Luke quickly got up, and saw a blaster lying on the ground. He knew it was dishonorable, but he needed to get his Jedi out safely. He summoned the blaster, but the man was ready. He jumped towards the blaster, and caught it before Luke could. He aimed at Luke, and fired three times. Luke deflected each without thinking, and one went towards the other Jedi.
Everyone ducked, except the Jedi, who were already seated on the ground.
"Now guys," Jarrod yelled.
They summoned their lightsabers from a table in the center of the room, and attacked the destroyers. The battle droids and troops turned, but all of the Jedi unleashed a Force push, and all of the droids fell over.
The mystery man turned, and threw three fallen battle droids at the Jedi, who weren't quite ready, not all of them anyway. Jarrod and Josh managed to jump in time, but Victor, Kyle, and Shawn were knocked down. Jarrod and Josh rushed to help their master. The man turned and fired a blast at each of them, and they deflected them away. The man used the Force to throw the blaster at the two young Jedi, and they dodged it, unknowing that was the man's plan. He hit a button, and the Jedi heard a platform extending above them. The man jumped up onto it, and Luke followed right after.
The two ignited their lightsabers again, and began to duel on the small platform, which was extending to become a bridge across the room, a door at each end.
Josh and Jarrod nodded at each other, and jumped up to help their master; Josh behind Luke, and Jarrod behind the man. A trap awaited them though, and the doors opened to reveal a line of battle droids behind each. Jarrod and Josh moved towards them, deflecting shots away from themselves.
Luke and the man continued their duel, now on a very small section of the bridge. The man continued backing up, and finally spun to attack Jarrod, who he'd gotten close to. Jarrod reacted and blocked the saber attack, the stabbed the droid behind him, deflected a laser shot, and blocked the next saber attack thrown at him.
Josh finally pressed the droids into the hallway, and he threw them back, and then slashed the controls with his lightsaber. The door lowered, and sparks flew from the keypad. Josh turned to see Luke and Jarrod in the heat of a duel with the man, Jarrod attempting and succeeding at fending off droids on the side of it. Josh looked down at his three friends. They had gotten up, and were battling the droids that had begun pouring into the room. Josh looked back at Luke and Jarrod, who could probably use help.
Jarrod deflected another saber attack, and Luke deflected one aimed at him. The man did a Force push on Luke, throwing him back. He spun to attack Jarrod, who ducked, and rolled under the man, who had just decapitated one of his own droids. Jarrod stood up, and put his lightsaber behind him to block the next saber attack. Jarrod spun, the two sabers crackling as they remained together. He pushed against the other saber, and managed to spin it up and out of its owner's hand. The man jumped up, avoiding Jarrod's attack, and grabbing his lightsaber. He landed on the other side of Jarrod, right next to an oncoming Josh.
Luke had gotten up, and looked around. He saw two more doors, each about 90 degrees from the other two, to form an X-shaped walkway. Luke feared that if he activated the other bridge, the doors would open to bring in more droids, but he needed to take that chance; he had to help Jarrod and Josh if he could. He looked down to where the blaster had hit, and lifted it with the Force. He used it to press a similar looking button, and the other walkways started on their way.
"One of you, get up here," Luke yelled to the three below. "I'll need your help."
Luke watched, but none of them had enough of an opening to get up. Luke would have to make do. Jarrod was still deflecting both saber and laser blasts. Luke jumped over the three duelists, and pressed the droids back. He stabbed the controls, and the door closed. He looked back, and the other two walkways had connected in the middle. Both doors opened, and he wasn't sure Josh or Jarrod had seen what was going on. But, the only thing that came out of the doors was Mary and Rebecca.
"How did you two get in there," Luke asked them as they rushed through the doors.
"Hangars," they both yelled.
They both summoned blasters from fallen droids, and began firing at the droids from the walkway. Luke looked from the girls and back to the duel Jarrod and Josh were having. The lightsabers were colliding quickly, and crackles and crashes could be heard all around the room.
The mystery man quickly jumped up to avoid a combined effort from Josh and Jarrod (they had attacked at the same time). He landed in between them again, and did a 180, kicking both of them back. Their lightsabers flew to the ground. Jarrod landed on his back on the platform, but Josh slid further, and slipped over the side, grabbing the edge quickly.
"Josh," Mary yelled.
A group of droids on the ground looked up, and fired at Josh, but Mary fired back at them, and Shawn had gotten to the area, and was quickly chopping them up. Josh summoned his lightsaber with one hand while holding onto the edge with the other. He ignited it, and deflected the blasts away from himself.
Luke and the man stared at each other for a moment, and then the lightsabers ignited, and the original two went back to their duel. The lightsabers clashed, and the speed of the duel sped up.
On the ground, Victor and Kyle had managed to separate and close the doors. They got back to the task of destroying the almost 200 droids packed into the room. The two Jedi weren't even sure if they were destroying all of the droids; they figured some were being hit by laser blasts from other droids. Shawn was still fighting the droids that were shooting at Josh.
Up on the bridges, the girls were still firing at the droids on the ground, and Jarrod had just gotten up. He looked for his lightsaber, but didn't see it among the motionless bodies of destroyed droids. He jumped down into the middle of a group of droids, and Force pushed them away. He dropped down on his back, and disappeared among the now foot high pile of metal. Droids surrounded the spot where he had fallen.
Luke and the man were still in the middle of their lightsaber duel, but Josh finally tossed his lightsaber up onto the bridge, and lifted himself up. He ran to join Luke, and jumped over the two. The man kicked Luke back for a moment, and pointed his hand towards the flipping Josh. Josh flew up high, and reached for anything to grab. He caught a decorative outcropping, and watched his lightsaber fall down to the ground. The man looked back to Luke and continued the duel.
Kyle, Victor, and Shawn had managed to thin out the droids; less than 50 were left. The girls were helping take out the rest, but no one was doing anything to those surrounding Jarrod's disappearance spot; they were all afraid he would pop up and get hit.
The droids surrounding Jarrod heard a lightsaber, and Jarrod indeed popped up, and took out every single one of the ten droids surrounding him. He looked up at Josh, and Josh looked down at him.
"Yo, catch dude." Jarrod threw the lightsaber up, and Josh swung himself towards the bridge, and fell towards it.
Josh caught his lightsaber, and ignited it. He ran towards the man, and rejoined the duel. The man continued to fend off the Jedi, despite the two to one odds against him. He attacked Jarrod, blocked Luke's attack from behind, spun, attacked Luke, ducked, Luke blocked the miss Josh had almost hit him with, and the two dropped their lightsabers towards the man, who rolled onto the other bridge. He stood up, reigniting his lightsaber, and pressed the two joined lightsabers into the bridge. He Force threw Luke back, his lightsaber deactivating and sitting where Luke had just been. He Force threw Josh back as well, with the same effect. He looked down, and saw the droids dwindling down to less than ten.
He ran towards one of the hangers, but not before Victor had seen him. Victor jumped up, blocking the man's path. The man stopped in his tracks after seeing Victor's double lightsaber.
"Ah, trained under the Sith huh?"
Victor looked at him, confused.
"You didn't know? Every Jedi that has every trained with a double lightsaber has become a Sith. Don't worry; you'll make a great Sith Lord."
The man Force threw Victor off the bridge while he was distracted, and made a run for the hangar. The Jedi finished off the droids, and heard a ship take off.
"Where does he think he's going," Kyle yelled. "The shield isn't down."
"No, but we're going to follow him," Luke said, getting up and summoning his lightsaber. He closed his eyes, and went for one of the doors that had opened from the original bridge. He cut it away, and kicked it opened. He ran down the hall, and looked out one of the windows. The main room where they had slid in was below the hallway.
"Everyone but the girls, down here. Girls, get back to your fighters and follow that guy. We'll be right behind you."
The boys came down the hall, and Luke heard the Y-Wings take off. The guys all jumped down from the window, and fended off the few droids that were surrounding their ships. They jumped in, and flew out of the building.
They saw the Y-Wings in close pursuit of a small Imperial Shuttle. They caught up, and followed the shuttle out of the atmosphere. It made it through the asteroids and moons safely, and left the small planet's system. It jumped to light speed quickly before Luke could lock onto its projected coordinates.
He sighed. "Ok everyone, let's get out of here and report this planet to the Republic Council. They need to know it isn't part of our system now."
They jumped to light speed, and headed for Coruscant.
Okay, if you've been reading this story, this has to be your favorite chapter thus far. If it isn't, I don't know what you're into in Star Wars, maybe the romantic side, I'm not sure. But other than romance, everything was in this chapter. (Ok and maybe it's missing an army-on-army battle too.) Anyway, as always, please review. More to come still.