Chapter 7 Tarkin's Statue Fiasco
LUKE POV
Luke's peaceful sleep was disturbed by the sound of people and things rustling around. He opened his eyes lazily to see Soreli and newt strapping on blasters, vibro blades, and gas bombs used for creating distraction. Newt also had another odd blaster on his belt but he saw it was a paint ball gun. The desk that was usually cluttered with their equipment was cleared of anything except a coffee maker, a microwave, and other household appliances that belonged to the motel.
"What's going on," he asked sleepily.
"Sorry for waking you up," newt said glancing at him briefly before zipping up a red and black backpack. There were three backpacks in total. One was on the table, it was all black and Soreli was strapping a dark green and black one to her back. Newt had the other one. "Soreli decided to move our stuff to another place. We've stayed here too long after all, but now we're going to go have some fun and you're coming with us." Newt said handing him the black back pack as well as a paint ball gun.
Wiping the sleep from his eyes he sat up and looked at the contents of the backpack. It consisted of rolls a lot of toilet paper, paint bombs, and spray paint cans.
Ugh. Why do I get a bad feeling about this?
Looking back up at newt he asked, "Uh, what exactly are we going to do with this stuff."
Scoffing Soreli answered instead, "vandalizing that bunch of rich aristocratic bastards. That scum who thinks that they are so much better than everyone and are corrupting everything especially the senate..."
You got that right he thought
"…. Me and newt do this once in a while to tick them off," she said smirking. "By the way you'll need this."
She tossed him a black cloak.
He pushed the cloak to the side.
"I don't want to vandalize people's property," he stated.
"Oh, come now Luke. Haven't you ever wanted to get back at someone? We're targeting mostly senators and their associates. The senate is so corrupt because of them. Think of all the bad things they've done. They're not even helping end this war anyway," Newt said trying to persuade him.
His thoughts immediately leapt to Palpatine.
Sidious he hissed. That scum. Palpatine and his follows. Oblivious senate supporters. Of course they should pay. Pay for being so gullible and stupid he thought. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea. After all I'm not an official Jedi am I. he grabbed the cloak and stood up.
"Fine, I'll help you guys." I do need to relax and let go a little. Everything's been so serious and no fun and games.
"Great. Let's get out of here!" Newt cheered obviously pleased.
Newt threw on a dark brown cloak and headed out the door, a backpack in hand.
"Here, you might need this as well," Soreli stated handing him his lightsaber and then following newt. She wearing a jacket with the hood pulled up and a backpack on her back.
He stared at it for a moment, mildly caught off guard, and then he shrugged and clipped the lightsaber to his belt along with a paint gun graciously provided by Newt.
In the back of his mind a voice asked him if this was the right decision. He ignored it pulled on his black cloak drawing the hood over his face leaving just his mouth and chin showing to anyone who should look.
Looking at his reflection in the black clear glass of the microwave door he almost thought for a second that he looked like a sith, with the black clothes and all.
He shuddered as weird feeling of foreboding crept into his mind encompassing him.
SIDIOUS POV
Chancellor Palpatine sat at his desk in dim light brooding over something lost to him now. Something or actually someone he wanted to possess. To reveal all the secrets off, but it was not to be, at least not yet.
Sidious was angry. No he was absolutely furious. The spy he'd sent had lost sight of the boy and had paid for it with their life. Failure was absolutely unacceptable. He could still sense the boy's strong force presence but only because he knew what he was looking for.
It was out there. Somewhere. Evading him once again. The force was cloudy. The future was clouded.
He swiveled his chair around and gazed out the window at the lights in the evening sky.
Looking. Searching.
Soon night would fall.
As much as he'd like to stay here in his cozy office he had important matters to attend. That matter called Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala who thought it would be nice to have a little get together in the private gardens, exclusive to only those rich, famous, and of great importance. He'd been invited of course, as well as a few other senators such as that idiot Bail Organa. Just as a little break from the chaos around them with the war he caused.
He was well pleased at how it was progressing.
Soon, very soon…
LUKE POV
It was dark once again. The wind howled wildly. The sky was clouded. No moon. No stars. The world was filled with artificial lights. The lights of Coruscant. It would have been pitch black if it weren't for those blaring lights. Neon lights, head lights, florescent lights, all sorts of lights coming from anywhere and almost everywhere there was life. Lighting up the night.
The Bloodrazor flew fast, faster than the rest of the traffic. Dodging and ducking. Swerving and turning, going at a speed that made the lights blur together until they looked like streaks and all were one together. The feeling was breath taking for him. He loved the thrill. The excitement. He missed this. Though he knew he should not. He was a Jedi after all. Or was he. He wasn't really sure anymore.
The wind whipped against his face trying to pull his black hood back but he pulled it tighter around himself.
He loved this feeling. The feeling of being alive and not just living. He felt being here had changed him a bit. He yearned for action but knew it was wrong. He was supposed to be a Jedi and Jedi did not want such things. He used to be so calm but now he guessed all the bottled up excitement of the past events were getting to him.
You know, who wouldn't be excited about being transported into the past. I can save millions of lives, maybe more. Though it is a bit lonely he thought sadly but the sadness didn't last long as Soreli swerved the Bloodrazer and took them into a thrilling steep dive to avoid a blaring airbus. His seatbelt jerked as he was tugged to the side and up.
He was sitting in the backseat while Soreli was driving and Newt lounged in the passenger seat.
They cut out of the line of speeders turning into a dark alley way, turning off their headlights.
After a while of taking a short cut Soreli steered the speeder up to a group of private mansion residences. They had snuck in through a secret entrance that was incredibly hard to find and almost impossible to get into due to security.
"Okay, let's go,"Soreli said parking and leaving the ignition on for a quick getaway. The Bloodrazer rumbled silently.
She headed over to one of the mansions, newt to another, so he decided to take one across the street.
There was a statue in the middle of the vast green lawn adorned with floral bushes and trees. He wondered how they kept it so green in an environment such as this. Coruscant wasn't exactly a place where you could expect vegetation to grow.
Using the force he jumped over the high gate and landed in the yard with a soft thud, pulling the cloak more snugly around himself.
The statue in the middle of the lawn caught his eye the most out of everything. The person looked eerily familiar. As if they'd been from another life, another time. The sharp features. The dead looking eyes. Just throw on an imperial uniform and you got…
GRAND MOFF TARKIN!
Holy cow it's Grand Moff Tarkin.
The gall of that man. This must be his house or something.
He looked once more at that statue.
The statue looked on at him with its sunken eyes.
It did in fact look kind of dreary just like the man himself.
Maybe it just needs a little color he thought smiling wickedly.
Laughing he shot out a red paint ball that splattered over statue Tarkin's face, a blue ball hit the neck, and two yellow paintballs for his eyes. He then spray painted tarkin's suit an obnoxious color of bright neon pink.
Now for the finishing touch. Toilet paper.
He threw it over, wrapped it around. Then covered the bushes and the trees with the stuff as well as drenching the vicinity with more paintballs.
He spray painted the words RIP TARKINK: EXPLODED IN THE STAR OF DEATH THAT RIPPED PLANETS APART on the walls of the house.
He didn't know if Tarkin knew about the death star yet but oh well it will be a little premonition. A premonition of things to come if he failed.
He also spray painted the words YOUR MASTER'S LAPDOG in yellow, KOOCHOO SLEEMO in green, GUY WITH THE SUNKEN CHEEKS in black, LIAR in red, and YOU WILL EAT YOUR OWN WORDS ONE DAY in a blue color. He stated that last one because of the death star. Tarkin had been so confident that the empire would win but he didn't even bother evacuating or taking precautions before it blew. Tarkin turned into such an arrogant bastard. He would have written more but all his spray paint cans ran dry.
He giggled a little. Job well done he thought taking a step back and crossing his arms over his chest while admiring his masterpiece as if it was a work of art, which it was to him it was.
He walked quickly across the yard, jumped the fence and headed back to the Bloodrazer.
Just as he reached the speeder when the rumble of engines reached his ears and he saw Soreli sprinting toward him and newt trailing her with two security police gunships hot on their tail shining a spotlight around the area and heading their way.
What in the world…
"Luke," she shouted, "gets in!"
Coming out of his stupor he jumped in the backseat. Soreli reached the vehicle and clambered in behind the wheel with Newt practically diving in the passenger seat.
Wasting no time the Bloodrazer took off.
SORELI POV
Not wanting to reveal the secret passage they used to slip in she steered it in the opposite direction and into the sky going way beyond the speed limit and already risking being noticed by the security.
They eventually mingled in with the rest of the Coruscant traffic. Ducking, diving, and swerving continually. Damn she thought inwardly cursing the vehicles in her way while letting out a series of honks from the Boodrazer.
She had outmaneuvered worse foes so this would be a piece of cake.
They Bloodrazer flew out of the scattering traffic and took a deep dive into the streets of the Coruscant underworld where she knew they would be safe for now but before they could make it one of the engines blew out causing the vehicle to lurch back up violently.
The jolt almost made her fall out of her seat and was forced to grip the controls so hard her knuckles turned white from the pressure.
The cause was revealed the next moment…
"HALT OR WE WILL CONTIUE TO FIRE" a voice from a speaker commanded. It was coming from one of the police gunships.
Dang, they're serious she thought.
Her brother took out his blaster and began firing back at them in quick succession. She heard the gunship's engines whine as it was forced into a rough swerve in order to avoid the counterattack. Fire rained down on them from behind as the security started assaulting with renewed strength.
This made her insides burn with rage. She herself was a calm and composed person with a professional poker face almost all the time but no one. Absolutely no one. Tried to harm her brother. She enjoyed doing what she did but whenever they got caught in tricky situations she just couldn't help worry for her little brother.
She grunted as she steered the speeder suddenly to the left to avoid the onslaught of laser fire.
To her growing horror when she glanced in the in the rear view mirror for a split second it looked as if Luke was trying to hold on for dear life. It was then that she noticed he didn't have his seatbelt on.
That complete and utter idiot! She internally screamed.
They flew over the edge of the special private Coruscant gardens when it happened. The gunship fired once more and she didn't have enough time to completely evade. It hit the underside of their speeder causing all occupants to lurch forward and then to the side. Her head smacked on the dashboard. Hard. And then the next thing she knew was that they had lost Luke. It had happened so fast it had taken her mind a while to comprehend what had happened. He had fallen over the side of the Bloodrazer and straight into the vegetation below.
As much as she'd like to stop and look for him they had to keep going as the gunships still fired away at them earnestly.
"Soreli we have to go back!" newt exclaimed shaking her, a desperate tone creeping into his voice. The hood of his cloak had long fallen down due to the rough ride and his head tentacles whipped around in the wind wildly.
"We can't," she voiced, her voice strained, while steering the Bloodrazer to dodge another set of incoming fire. "Once we lose these guys we can go look for him. And by the way you shouldn't be worried. He is a Jedi remember. I'm sure he'll be just fine."
"…o-okay," he whispered then he continued firing with vigor with his blaster hoping to hit one of the engines.
She steered them into a dark alley. The Bloodrazer actually managed to squeeze through the narrow place very easily; the gunships followed them close behind but the walls around them seemed a little too close for comfort and this caused the security force to lose ground quickly in the tight space. The first gunship behind them kept firing.
Deciding to do something risky to avoid getting hit she turned the Bloodrazer into a full out corkscrew. Besides the side of their speeder scraping close to the surrounding walls once in a while during the procedure they were fine.
And at least still in the speeder. Unlike some idiot who didn't even put on his damn seatbelt.
Coming out of the corkscrew she saw with satisfaction that she mildly distracted the police security force in charge of driving the gunships and that opened up to her brother the perfect opportunity.
Finally newt got a lucky shot. He hit the driver of the first gunship in the neck. The ship swerved and spun. It then crashed against the tight walls of the passage causing the one behind it to crash as well in a huge explosion.
Fire lit up the sky and chased after them in the passage, its flames licking up the surrounding area and getting closer. The heat from the inferno made drops of sweat mar her face which were quickly dried by the battering wind.
Deciding it was time to pick up the speed and get out she accelerated the Bloodrazer, outracing the flames of the explosion and eventually nose diving into a nearby crevice, finding safety in an outlet of a building that released steam from wide pillars. She kept their trusty speeder going until eventually finding a safe place to land deep in the old industrial district of Coruscant.
None would ever find them there.
(Hydra Note: if you have any questions or anything don't be afraid to ask because I don't bite (maybe).) – The One and Only Fanfir Hydra
