Disclaimer: I do not own any of Star Wars, the right of ownership of Star Wars belong to Lucasfilm and I guess Disney too. The only thing I own is the characters you do not notice and the plot.
Chapter 14: Raxus Prime Problem
A red with white strap Consular-class space cruiser drops out of Hyperspace. The junk planet of Raxus Prime appears in the Transparisteel viewports of the front of the ship. "You know I read about this planet in the Jedi Archives, it is hard to image that this planet used to be beautiful with beaches and lagoon and now look at it. It is a dump." say Rachelle.
"It is not just a dump, it a place where many criminals and scum come to. So when I say be careful, I mean it. This place could be dangerous. It is also toxic down there." say Mark as he takes the ship down onto the planet. Just like the last time Mark was on the planet of Raxus Prime, it is slightly raining. Which makes him think that it most likely also raining on this planet and that he rain might be acid rain due to the planet be slightly toxic.
"How are we going to find a safe place to land with all these mess?" ask Rachelle looking out through the viewports to the junk. "Trust me; it is possible to land on these. Some of this junk has been on this planets for ages." say Mark as he landed on what he think it a cut away hall from a large ship that is the size of a Star Destroy or slightly bigger.
Mark got up and walks down the ramp to the planet junked surface. His black boots tap on the metal ground. Rachelle steps off the ramp and looks around as her mentor pulls out a handheld device. "Mace says they found the base by sonar, this little gadget will help us. Be careful of any crazy droids." say Mark. Rachelle perks up a bit when she hears this.
"Droids cannot become crazy, they can be programmed." say Rachelle. "I have been here before. There are droids made out of various junk. Self made droids that are called junk droids. I know hard to believe, and they are crazy because they could have bunch of different programming." say Mark.
Rachelle stops as she looks at up at her mentor as if he is insane. "Really, how do you propose they made themselves?" ask Rachelle. "Just like the Force, there are many mysterious to the galaxy and there always be. My guess is that half destroyed droids or malfunction droids rebuild themselves here." say Mark as he begin walking as the device in his hand scans for any noise underground.
Rachelle follows him over a hill of junk. She does not know how they will even find an entrance to a base underground with all the junk laying around on the planet surface. Are they even on the surface or just the piles of junk that lays on top of the surface of the planet?
"Wait when you say droids rebuild themselves are you talking about Droid Supremacy. That belief that droids get when they have Sentience programming?" ask Rachelle. Mark nods to this. "Wait that is true?" ask Rachelle shocked. "It is true, back in 97 BBY on Bakura there was a Droid uprising was caused by a virus. That is why many droids on Bakura needs restraining bolts. My grandfather told me that, his father was killed because of that uprising." say Mark.
Rachelle stands there with confusion on her face. "Why would anyone want to put a Sentience programming in a droid? It just a bunch of wires, bolts, nuts and metal." say Rachelle confused. "Many reasons, maybe to have a companion." say Mark. "You want a companion get a dog or cat." say Rachelle shaking her head.
As they walk around. Mark found nothing. There could be many reasons for that. The base could be out of the limits of the scanner. Not enough noise for the scanner. They could be in the wrong location, or there is something wrong with the device. Mark knows the scanner aboard the ship could pick it up. Maybe he should fly around to see where the location is.
Mark turns around and head back to the ship. As they head back to the ship, some droids that look like they were made of various pieces of parts and weapons begins to appear around them. Mark turns around and looks at Rachelle. "See." say Mark as he drops the device, grabs Rachelle and roll over a ledge.
They slide down a rare slope of dirt and onto an old war tank with a Galactic Republic symbol on it. The tank was heavily damage. Just as they land on it, where they leap exploded as if a bomb went off.
Droids begins to come out of the hill they slide down. Mark watches as they rise up from the ground. "I really hate this planet." say Mark as he used the Force to push all the droids away and slam them hard into the ground. Pieces of the droids still moved. A hand with a blaster in it fire.
Mark kicked it far from them before it could fire. "You think the Separatist built them?" say Rachelle. "Possible, but I doubt it. They most likely have something that burn down metals and reshape them." say Mark as he used the Force to move out of the way of a large blade that came slashing down. Rachelle and Mark look up and see a large droid made out of old ship parts. The arms are bladed with what appears to be Turbolasers from a ship. They fire at them.
Mark and Rachelle runs through the legs of the large Droid. Mark quickly looks around him for something large. Rachelle notices a missile that has never been used. She used the Force to send it at the large Droid and activate the missile. Halfway to the large droid, the missile opens up and thousands of more missiles ram into the Droid. The large droid collapses to the ground so hard that it made the ground shake.
Mark notice the piles of junk on both sides of them are coming down. Mark used the Force on one side of the walkway as Rachelle did the same thing to the other side. "You know, I never will look at Droids the same way again." shout Rachelle.
When all the junk settle down along the side of the walkway, Mark hears bunch of blasters being activate as he senses life around him. Mark turns around and sees a criminal bunch. "Do not fight back. If you calm with us, we might just spare your life." say a purple Rodian in a red armor. Mark sense Rachelle reaching for her Lightsaber. Mark stops her.
"Are you with those Hutts!" demanded the Rodian as he points the blaster at Mark. "No." say Mark. The Rodian turns his blaster and fires once at Rachelle. Rachelle wanted to draw her Lightsaber, but she senses her mentor does not want to. She dodges out of the way.
"Do not lie! It would not be the first time the Hutts try to take our territory with people who can use magic." say the Rodian. Mark can tell this person had no idea about the Force since he viewed it as magic.
"Listen to me! We are not part of the Hutts! We are Jedi from the Galactic Republic! I am Jedi Master Mark Alan Zane and this is my Padawan Rachelle Hunter. We are here to stop the remaining of the Separatist from recycling the metals on this planet to build ships and droids to start a possible war with the Galactic Republic." say Mark with his hands up in the air.
"Separatist hasn't been here in 3 years. We drove them out of their bases. The only problem here are the Hutts" say the purple Rodian as he used a jetpack to fly down to the ground in front of Mark and Rachelle.
"We did not even know about the Hutts." say Rachelle. "Shut up! Everyone around this planet knows that the Hutts have part of the planet to themselves since 17 BBY they have been building stuff." say the Rodian.
"Listen to me, we from the Jedi Order. We mean you no harm out here." say Mark. "The Rodian looks at Mark straight into his eyes. Then he looks up to the other Rodians. "Put your weapons down!" shout the purple Rodian.
"You telling the truth, I see it in your eyes. Here what we're going to do. I know Jedi can do magic like the people with the Hutts can. We want the Hutts off the planet. They are unwelcome on this planet." say the purple Rodian as he looks at Mark.
"We will try our best. Do you know why the Hutts are building starships here?" ask Mark. "Sort of. Apparently, someone asked the Hutts if they could get a group of ship and weapons builder. The Hutts have gotten many people on this planet to help build the ships. My people and I was one of those groups back in 18 BBY. That was when someone, I guess asked the Hutts to find us for this project, came and killed most of the people in my group because we were making armor and weapons for ourselves, which the Hutts allowed. The Hutts betrayed us. They say we would be pay greatly for our services and we are allowed to make some weapons and armor for ourselves." say the purple Rodian.
"You have any idea who attacked you?" ask Mark. "They know how to do magic like you and your friend just did to prevent being crushed by the junk. It was a group of them. This happen couple of years ago, so my memory might be off. There were black robes and was leaded by what appears to be human female with bright red hair, which is slightly taller than your female friend here. She attacked us along with people who could use magic. As far as I know she left but her people are working along with the Hutts at the bases on the other side of the planet." say the Rodian.
"Anything else about them?" ask Rachelle. "Matter of fact yes, they carried strange weapons, similar to those on your belt. When they activate it has something like when you fire blasters but it stays like a blade or something." say the purple Rodian.
Mark and Rachelle looks at each other when they hear this. "The Sith." say both of them at once. Then Mark remembers the Rodian say something about a group. There are only two Sith. He knows that they are Darth Vader and Darth Destria. So, the others must have been Dark Jedi.
"Was one of those people who used magic was wearing a golden mask and black clothing?" ask Mark. "No, but on my run out, I saw that red hair human lady talking to a hologram of someone like that." say the Rodian. Mark reaches down to his belt with his left hand. The Rodian raises his blaster to Mark's heart. Mark pulls out a Holodisk from his pocket and turns it on.
"Was this guy there?" ask Mark showing a hologram of Maxus Zane. "Yes! That the person who was with Jabba the Hutt, when we got recruited on Tatooine back in 18 BBY." say the Rodian. Right away Mark knows that they are dealing with Darth Vader. Seem like this mission that wasn't suppose to have any connection with Leia just became a part of Mark's mission to find and rescue Leia from the evil clutches of Darth Vader. If he can deal some damage to Darth Vader before any actually war begins, the will be great for the Republic.
"Okay, me and Rachelle here, we are not friends Jabba the Hutt nor the people those who asked him to find you guys. Matter of fact, those people that asked Jabba, could be consider enemies of the Republic. We will help you to get them off your planet. First, we need to gather as much information that you know about them before we do anything. I am not risking my life or Rachelle's life for people we do not even know without knowing exactly what we are getting into." say Mark.
"Deal, we have a base not to far from here. It is an abandon factory from the old days." say the purple Rodian as he helps Rachelle up the hill by flying up there. Mark used the Force to leap to the hill.
As Mark and Rachelle walks with the group of Rodians. Mark cannot believe that they were so far off from the location of the bases that they were looking for. Mace Windu was wrong, it was not the remaining Separatist building ships, it was the Sith. There was no way Dooku would have known that the Hutts had driven the Separatist out, because it happen after 19 BBY and since 19 BBY Dooku have been in prison on Coruscant.
Mark highly doubts the remaining Separatist would be a problem to the Republic. They have no leaders or any government to back them up anymore. It seems like the major problems are the Hutts and the Sith. If the Hutt Council is working for the Sith then that can means a lot of trouble for the Republic. The thing is, the Sith will have to pay a lot of money to the Hutts to keep them loyal to them. Mark already knows the Hutts are one of the most greediest people in the whole galaxy. They have no loyalty to any other besides the loyalty to money. That right there makes them the most untrustworthy beings in the whole galaxy because they could be sway by money or power.
He does not know why people decide working for the Hutts is such a good thing. Given any time, the Hutts could stab you right in the back just like a Sith. People suffer when the Hutt Empire took most of the galaxy before the formation of the Republic.
Mark is not thinking negatively about the Hutts because of what they did to his mother, but it is common knowledge of their criminal ways. The thing is most people fear them because of all the greed and power they do have. Who knows maybe one day the galaxy will be rid of Sith and Hutts? They seem to be the major problems in the galaxy.
Still that is something he is not focusing on. He needs to focus on stopping Darth Vader getting more ships and equipment and hopefully be a step closer to finding Leia. If the Hutts go down with the Sith, he is not complaining that is another bad thing out of the galaxy. His duty as a Jedi and to protect peace, the Sith and the Hutts are a bit problem with that peace that the galaxy is trying to have.
Mark looks at the base they were heading to. There was a force field around it. How did they miss that when they landed on the planet? Mark was sure that they did not land to far from here. A part of the force field phase away to let them walk through. As soon as they were through the force field was whole once more.
Mark is not going to trust these Rodians blindly. They are criminals after all, and who knows when they will stab them in the back, but for right now they are working for a common goal. As long as they get to leave the planet peacefully then Mark does not care what kind of actions these criminals do on the planet as long as it does not endanger the Republic in anyways. He senses that they do not trust him and Rachelle as well. That is understandable for a point of view.
Before they talk, they decide to call it a night and they will talk tomorrow. Through the Force Mark, know they will not turn there back on him unless he shows them that he is against them. They seem to be perfectly honest with their conditions for them. If he and Rachelle help them, which in fact will help the Republic in ways, then they will be able to leave.