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 15: Causing Trouble
It has been a total of 4 days so far that Mark and Rachelle spent on Raxus Prime. Day 1 they arrive to the planet got into fight with some junked up droids, learn that it was the Sith that is building the ships and have to help a criminal group of Rodians. Day 2, the leader of the Rodian criminal group, who did not mention his name, told them everything they know about the project that the Hutts is doing on the other side of the planet and look over maps and layout of the underground factory. Day 3 was spent proving to the Rodians that they were good at fighting and the Rodians made sure they have everything ready. Day 4 they set out to the underground factory on the other side of the planet and made a hidden camp in a junk up Star Destroy command tower.
The tower was position on top of a ledge looking out a large flat area with a large crater in the middle that have bunch of junk metal around. Closer to the center of the crater is a massive pile junk in the center.
Mark looks at Rachelle as the Speeder they are in with the purple Rodian who is the leader of the small group of criminals. There are 5 other speeders full of people. Mark looks at Rachelle.
"We are going in full blast so hold on tight, it is a drop." say the purple Rodian. Rachelle was about to ask why, but than she notice. A door is closing very fast. It has doors going in from the sides, the top and bottom, and diagonal. One they made it through the Speeder drops 50 to 200 feet, Mark guess.
The Speeder stop a few inches from the ground since it is a ground Speeder. They speed through the halls as it blaster cannon fire red bolts at it targets. The purple Rodian press a button and the side of the Speeder toward the right corner open up and a missile fires out of it. It destroys a wall and bunch of people and supplies that were along it.
Rachelle grabs the Speeder's edge quickly as two more missiles were fired out of it. She senses through the Force even more people dying. Then a beam of energy nails the Speeder and cut it in half, killing the purple Rodian.
Mark and Rachelle leaps out of the Speeder as the two halves crashed into strange looking Starfighter that is a sphere with two flat vertical wings. The Speeder exploded as if it was full of nothing but explosives. It sets a raging fire. Even standing a quarter of a mile, Mark can feel the heat.
Mark hears Lightsabers igniting. He looks over and sees Rachelle's green plasma blade hold out across diagonally upwards to defend herself from the upcoming group of Dark Jedi with various color of activated Lightsaber.
Rachelle used the Force to leap to one away from her mentor. As she leapt sideways, a Dark Jedi sends a Force Blast at Rachelle. Rachelle uses the Force to send the attack back at the. The blast hit the Dark Jedi in the head and the head exploded. Another Dark Jedi attempts to stab Rachelle in the back.
Mark leaps towards Rachelle and slashes at the Dark Jedi through the side. He falls down to the floor. Mark then quickly spins to Rachelle right and block an attack before it could hit her. His Lightsaber swings over her head and down when it block the attack.
"A Jedi cannot kill a defenseless foe. If they are fighting and if the only way to get out of it is by killing, then do it." say Mark as he used the Force to slams a Rodian Dark Jedi through the hall of a quarterly finished starship. It was hard enough that it puncture a hole into the hall.
"You get the back and left, I get the front in right." say Mark as they stand with there backs together as troopers appear. This time there was not Dark Jedi. Blaster Fire rain upon them. Effortlessly both Padawan and Master manage to block every shot that came there way.
Rachelle used the Force and made fuel station exploded sending the troops into the air burning. They hear a ship engine roar. Rachelle and Mark see a Star Destroyer Turbolaser fire at them. They run out of the way. Both of them know if they get hit by the plasma firing from the Turbolaser then they are as good as dead.
Rachelle then surprise Mark with her connection with the Force. She lifted the Star Destroyer up in the limited space, scraped along the top above their heads, and slammed it into the wall behind them. The engine dies off. Mark notice fuel was leaking from the Star Destroyer and heading to the burning fuel station.
"RUN!" shout Mark as he leaps over Rachelle and takes down the solider she was fighting. He grabs her by the neck of her tunic and pulls her along behind him. He uses the Force to open the blast door and tosses her inside. He leaps in and closes the door just in time.
They stumble backwards into the hall. The ground shakes violently as they heard a loud boom. The blast doors in front them glow cherry red. "That must be some very intense fuel!" say Rachelle moving back. "You have to think about it, the fuels for spaceships are highly flammable and that area had at least 30 Star Destroyers and over 200 Starfighter. Including the fuel storage underneath the ground the send fuel up to the station that you exploded." say Mark.
The doors open up due to the malfunction of the wiring in the walls. In front of them, they saw raging flames all around them. The heat was very intense. They walk farther down the hall where more Dark Jedi attacks them.
They run at them. Mark and Rachelle bow down and used the Force to throws them over their back. Mark and Rachelle turn around and face them. They are more glad that it is their back facing the intense flames instead of theirs. Mark points the plasma bladed tip to a female Gungan.
"Listen here, I want to know where the location of Darth Vader is and how to shut down this base!" demand Mark. "What yousa goin do kill missa? Mesa defenseless and missa know Jedi no kill da defenseless." say the Gungan with a smile.
"Who say I was a Jedi." say Mark hoping to scare some answers out of the Gungan. The Gungan laughs. "Everyone knows who yousa. Yousa Jedi Master Mark Alan Zane. So der is noth yousa ganna doin to missa to taleo yousa anyth yousa wanna know." say the Gungan. Mark lifts the Gungan up in the air and walks toward the heated hanger where the destroy ships are.
"I do not have to kill you, the heat will." say Mark half honestly. He is using the Force to make sure the heat would not kill the Gungan. He is a Jedi and he does not kill the defenseless. He can see fear in the Gungan eyes. "Okeeday! Okeeday! Missa ganna talk! Please has mercy!" say the Gungan.
"Go ahead." say Mark. The Gungan explain everything to Mark, but did not know the current location of Darth Vader and that she have not seen Darth Vader in a year but she had seen Darth Destria.
Mark then use the Force to put the Gungan asleep and sit her down far from the fire. Rachelle knocked the human male out with the heel of her boot. "I got a question do you ever get a headache trying to listen to Gungan speaking. I am not trying to be mean, but all the Messa and Yousa, something about that drives me insane. Plus I never knew Gungans could be Force Sensitive." say Rachelle as they walk down the hall.
"Anyone could be Force Sensitive. All life has Midi-chlorians and you just have to have the right amount to have a connection to the Force similar to what a Jedi has to be able to have the Force as an ally. Now let's go find this control room and shut down this base." say Mark as he leads the way.
As they walk down the hall, a wall slides down to reveal a missile. Rachelle's eyes widen as she notices the size. "That is as big as the hall! They surely take security to an extreme level!" shout Rachelle. They run as the missile launch out of it department.
They turn into the small hallway where the two Dark Jedi jump out at them. The missile nails the wall where the blast doors. The missile was too big it exploded. Mark turn away from the explosion as he feels heat blasting past him. He senses the death of the two knock out Dark Jedi as they were burn to a crisp.
The main hallway collapses under the force of the explosion and impact of the missile. "We have to find another way." say Mark as they walk down a long hall with more caution then someone who has the highest bounty on their head walking in a planet in Hutt Space where there are more Bounty Hunters there then anything else.
When they rounded a corner, a group of humans in black military suits fired upon them with blasters. Rachelle once more surprise Mark with her skills of the Force. She raises her hands and uses the Force to deflect the blasters all around the hall. The walls were peppered with black spots. Both Mark and Rachelle knock the troops out. "You have been pay attention to what I have been teaching you. When I first met you, you couldn't lift something as heavy as a Star Destroyer up or block that many attacks with just the Force alone." say Mark with a smile to show her how proud he is of her.
Rachelle kept walking when Mark stop. Mark holds his hand out and she ran into his palm. She looks at him. "Just because it look safe does not mean to let down your guard. I sense a something troubling.
Mark takes the Holodisk of Maxus Zane out and throws it into the middle of the hall. 10 red lasers nailed and destroy it. "How do you suspect us to get through this, Master?" ask Rachelle looking at Mark. "Simple, we are going to have to use the Force to speed our running, use it to block the lasers, and possible use our Lightsabers. Okay whenever you ready get going. I will follow. Remember to let the Force guide you." say Mark. Rachelle nods to this.
After a few deep breathes Rachelle speed out of the hall and down the one. She rushes down the hall and the lasers seem to rebound off around her. Mark smiles he opens himself to the Force. Then he takes off running. He slides to a stop as he past the open blast doors.
They hear blaster activating behind them. Mark turns around with Rachelle and notice it is the Rodians that bring them here. "Thank you Master Zane, with this station under our control we can fight back against the Republic, the Sith and the Hutts." say a female Rodian with a smile on her lips. Mark looks down and notices she has a Lightsaber on her waist.
"So you think because your leader is dead you can go against your promise!" snap Rachelle. "There was no promises, this was their plan along, wasn't it?" ask Mark looking at the female Rodian. "You are as smart as they say you are. Yes, we just wanted to get back at the Hutts and who hired them. You provided us with Information that we needed. We have to go after Darth Vader and Darth Destria. After we done with that, we will use the ships in this base to take down the Republic." say the female Rodian. "The ships are destroyed." say Rachelle.
"There are more levels to the factory." say Mark. "Well you keep this up, you might be the smartest Jedi I have every killed!" snaps the female Rodian. Mark sense Rachelle goes tense when she hears this.
Rachelle grip tightens on the sliver handle of her Lightsaber. She is not going to let some wannabe Dark Jedi kill her mentor. Not the person she is in love with. She took running of them. Before Mark could stop her, she was deflecting blasters. She then uses a massive Force Push to send all of them backwards in the hall. The female Rodian used the Force to steady herself.
The Rodian female launches at Rachelle. "I will enjoy killing you!" say the female Rodian. "You will have to go through me first!" snaps Rachelle as she blocks another attack. "You are nothing but a Padawan, I killed Knights and Masters that were better than you!" snaps the female Rodian as their Lightsabers locks and they were trying to push each other.
"Master get going to the control room! Shut this factory down!" shout Rachelle. Mark looks at her, debating rather he should go or not. Mark decided that Rachelle is skilled enough to take down this Dark Jedi.
Mark rushes down the hall to a blast door. Mark activates his Lightsaber and cut a circle through the metal blast door. He uses the Force to pushes the wall door inwards. It opens up to a large open room with shiny black tiled floor with matching roof. The walls are bright white. In the middle of the room is the control center for the whole base. Mark look up and he found there was not just a few levels but 10 levels each with a fuel storage underneath. This is one big base. Mark look for ways for shutting the power down, but the only way he seem to find something to shut it done is by a self-destruct button.
The whole blast door came falling down as Rachelle blasted through it. The female Rodian walks in. Rachelle stumbles up and makes a powerful swing with her Lightsaber. Her Lightsaber made contact with the female Rodian neck. She screams in pain, but the screams died down as her eyes became unfocused and she falls down to the ground.
Rachelle sighs as she walks over to Mark. "She was a bit more of a handful. She almost killed me 20 times." say Rachelle pointing to a few cuts to her tunic. Mark notice some redness appears on her light skin beneath the robe. "You okay." ask Mark softly as he draws near to her a bit.
"Yeah, it just scarred my body most likely. The Lightsaber tip just glazed my body." say Rachelle as the feeling love overcome her having him standing so close to her. "Good, now it seems like the only way to shut down the factory is by putting it into self-destruct." say Mark. "Then do it, Master." say Rachelle. "Look at the schematic, there are 10 levels full of ships and fuel for them. Press this button will cause a very massive explosion. I do not think we could get away in time." say Mark.
"That does not make sense, they would make it so there is time to get away." say Rachelle looking at Mark as she lean on the computer. "Wait, maybe this system is hook up to whatever system that Vader is using." say Rachelle turning the computer onto something that is not the base.
"What are you doing?" ask Mark. "I am trying to hack into Vader's Empire system. If I could do this, if there have been any communications from Vader to here, it might be able to lead to the location of Darth Vader or provide hints. Just give me a few." say Rachelle.
"So how far can you hack into the system?" ask Mark. "As far as I can. If this is a database to the system, then the whole thing is at my hand. Wait look at this!" say Rachelle. "What you find where Vader is?" ask Mark. "No, but I think I found why the Darth Vader has not target the Vice Chancellor." say Rachelle showing Mark the screen.
Mark reads what it says and was shocked. "This is evidence that Mas Amedda had went to the Hutts about assassination attempt against Padme in 16 BBY. It makes sense because between out all the people running for Chancellor it was tied between him and her. The assassination attempt was done by someone name Bobba Fett." say Mark as he looks at the screen. It makes sense, as long as the Vice Chancellor lives, Darth Vader can use this as a bribe to get the Vice Chancellor. Maybe he wants the Vice Chancellor there for him. Where you get this?" ask Mark. "I think from Vader's personal account or something on the database." say Rachelle.
"So can you hack into their files from a computer in the Jedi Temple?" ask Mark. "No, it has to be on a computer or terminal that is a part of the system." say Rachelle. "How did you learn this?" ask Mark putting his hands on his hip as Rachelle put the information on a Holodisk.
"Actually when I was younger, I was trying to gain more information in the Achieves then I was allowed and found my ways around the system." say Rachelle rubbing the back of her neck as she blushes slightly. Mark laughs as he pats her on the shoulder. The laugh ends when he hears a beep emitting from the computer. They look down at the screen.
The screen turns red. Mark looks at her. "What is happening?" ask Mark as he notice the words override. "Someone must have been monitoring us and they activate the control systems of the base." say Rachelle. Then the room flares red. "What does it do?" ask Mark. "It will lead them someone to us, unless we shut down the power." say Rachelle.
Mark eyed the Self-destruct button. He flips the cover and smashes his fist in. "Self-destruct in 10 minutes." say a feminine computerized voice. "RUN!" shout Mark as they begin to run to a set of stairs. He did not realize that it would be so little time. With all the fuel that is in the station, it is going to be a massive explosion.
They rush up to the stairs and found that it leads into a room full of Speeders. They rushes to the on closest to the front of the bay. There were no keys in it. "We cannot start it!" say Rachelle. "Are you a Jedi or not." say Mark as he used the Force to send battery charge from the battery to the starter to start the engine. Then they took off, Rachelle use the Force to blast open the doors.
"Drive like I told you not!" shout Mark as he holds on tightly. Rachelle pushes the pedal all the way to the floor. The Speeder lunges forward with the added speed. Mark look at the speed and notice they are going close to 100 MPH.
Mark is trying to calculate how much fuel and how explosive it could be. "Get faster!" shout Mark. "How far will the explosive be?" ask Rachelle. "I am guessing 50 miles." shout Mark. Mark watches as the speed flare up from 100 to 200 and than to 300 MPH. Mark look at the temperature gauge. "I do not know how much the Speeder can take it look like it is overheating pretty fast." say Mark loudly over the wind.
He looks back up. "WATCH OUT FOR THAT WING!" shout Mark as he notices a ship wing sticking up from the ground. They nails the wind and both Mark and Rachelle went flying over the small window and flow a quarter of mile over a hill.
Mark landed hard on the ground as Rachelle landed next to him. The next thing they know they hear a very loud explosion and a cloud of smoke and fire going miles up into the air. The ground shakes roughly.
Mark groans in pain as he sits up and look at Rachelle who is shaking her head slightly. She got some blood dripping from her forehead. "Ouch, that hurt." say Rachelle. "Nice going, either we have to find a working Speeder within this pile of junk or walk all the way to the other side of the planet to get to our ship." say Mark as he stands up lean against a piece of a old building with turrets on it. Mark look over and see that where the base was is nothing but a smoking crater with bunch of black smoke polluting the air.
Rachelle tries to stand up but she screams in pain and falls back down. Mark looks down and notice that Rachelle's left leg is broken. She did not have time to use the Force to ease the impact as he did.
Mark helps her up, throws her arm around the back of his neck, and helps her walk. "Keep that feet off the ground, lean on me and walk with your other leg. Wait I got a good idea." say Mark as he lean her against the ground. Mark grab to pieces of metal that was thin and he rips his shirt of his tunic into a couple stripes. He splints her leg with the rip pieces of his tunic.
"There that should keep the bone in place and will make it less painful to walk but you will still have me to help support you." say Mark as he helps her up and throws her arms around her. Rachelle look up at Mark with an admire look on her face. She knows he is in pain, yet he is still willing to help her out. It reminds her of the story that she heard about Mark's two fights with Palpatine back in 19 BBY. When he showed up to the Senate Rotunda, hit body was beaten and cover in blood but he still fight on as if it was the only thing he knows.
Thinking about that day made Rachelle upset. She wished that she healed in the Bacta Tank faster, she might be able to save her mentor from some suffering her went through with the pain. She heard from Mace Windu that he actually died but the Force itself let him live, which Master Yoda later explain to her was rare thing called a Second Chance.
Mark reaches down to the left side of his belt with his right hand and pulls out what appears to be a Datapad. He activates and a map of the planet appears with two dots. One is green and there other is red. "We are about 100 miles from our ship. This might take a few days to get back, and hopefully there is a service pack somewhere around here that have edible food.
Darth Vader is sitting in his throne aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer. A female Duros walks into the room. "Sir, we got word that someone breached our systems from Raxus Prime." say the Duros lady. Her blue skin sticks out like a sore thumb in her black military uniform.
"You able to find out he it was?" ask Darth Vader. "Yes, watch this." say the Duros lady as she clicks a device in her hand and the holographic projector in Darth Vader's throne activate. Making a hologram of the interior of the command center of the factory appears in front of them. He looks and saw a young human female, most likely in her 20s with brown hair. Then he looks next to her looking straight at the screen was his enemy, Jedi Master Mark Alan Zane.
"Did you manage to get control of the whole base?" ask Darth Vader. "Only a quarter of it, as you see in this image, they were talking and then this man here, I believe his name is Mark Alan Zane press the Self-destruct button which not only destroy the base with all the weapons and ship in, but disable all connections to the base. Before he presses it we manage to find the file that they hacked." say the Duros lady as she click the button once more.
A holographic of a file replaces the image of Mark and Rachelle. Darth Vader reads the file. "We also found out that before we found the breach of security on the servers. They manage to download the file onto a portable device." say the Duros lady as she crosses her arms behind her back. Darth Vader looks at her. "I thought you say that the Servers was cannot be hack!" say Darth Vader angry as he stands up to the young lady. "I… I did. To outside terminals and computers, but not to terminals or computers that are hook up to the system. If…if they tried it from the Jedi Temple of anywhere else it will fried there whole system." say the Duros lady scare.
"Fix it, or I will fix you, and you know what that means." say Darth Vader gravely as he walks pass the Duros lady. "Sir…sir how do you advise us to do that with those the hook up to our own system?" ask the Duros lady. "I SAY DO IT! IF YOU DO NOT DO IT, I WILL FIND SOMEONE BETTER TO REPLACE YOU AND YOUR WORTHLESS PIECE OF BODY WILL BE SENT INTO THE NEAREST STAR. I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE!" snaps Darth Vader.
Master Zane has cost him thousands of ships that were being made. That just really makes him angry. First of all, how did he find out? Time to pay Jabba the Hutt a visit. He cannot let his plan go to waste. It took him some digging to find out how to get someone on the Republic side to help him. He steps into the lift and the lift stop on the bridge.
"I want this ship prime to go into Hyperspace immediately to the planet of Tatooine." order Darth Vader. The troops aboard the bridge quickly do as they order. They might not be Force Sensitive, but they know Darth Vader is in a foul mood and that means he easily gets mad. When he gets mad and someone crosses him then that person dies. It is that fear that keeps everyone in order. He will kill anyone without a second thought.
The ship seems to slow down a bit as they hear the Hyperdrive engaging. Then with a burst of energy, the ship rockets forward and into Hyperspace. They are now currently in route to Tatooine.
You gotta love it when the good guys, or the characters you rooting for makes their enemies have trouble. Nothing spells trouble in the Star Wars universe by exploding a whole starship factory up that is full with highly flammable fuels.
On a serious note, I did some reaseach on fuels for this chapter. Mainly the only type of fuel I can find on wikipedia that is used in ships like Star Destroyers or any ship with Hyperdrive and a call Hypermatter, but I could not find out it was liquid or if the ships have different type of fuel. To me it sounds like it is only use for Hyperdrive so I just stated fuel.
Once Again, I do not know everything exactly about engines in the Star Wars Saga so I use my knowledge that I have from learning so far in my Automotive Technology and the Speeder Engine just exactly like a car or truck. To start it you turn the key or press a button with the newer models, it sends a signal to the battery which travels down a cable to the starter which starts the engine.
On another note, once again this was another longer than usual chapter. Most of my chapters are 2000 to 3,500 usually. Besides this note according to Microsoft Word there is 4544 words in this chapter.
Till next time, enjoy.