Well, I'm not dead yet, and here is the eighth chapter.

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Chapter 8: The First Few Moves

Three weeks had passed since I found Satele Shan's holocron, and so many events took place in that time, that I can hardly believe my brain is still intact. Perhaps I should start off with the Radnor mission which arrived about eight days ago. The Jedi, Anakin, Darra, Ferus, Tru, and their respective masters were hustled away to the Jedi Council chamber immediately after debarking from their transport. Master Adi told me that they, and the other councillors, were surprised when she decided to change procedure and instead pulled a datapad from a sleeve and read out my report.

Needless to say, Master Windbag was not happy and demanded to know where that report came from. Also needless to say, he payed me a visit which consisted of useless shouting and evections that if I should dare to involve myself in the business of the Jedi, swift retribution would follow. I told him none too gently to get his purple-boxer-wearing arse out of my sight and to remember that I was a Jedi now. I spent the latter part of that day lurking in the series of secret passages that I discovered the other week and avoiding him like the plague.

My evil plan, involving Bardan Jusik, was moving along rather nicely. Over the last fifteen days or so I contrived to meet the kid on several occasions, sometimes returning a lightsaber that my own droids had stolen, at others dealing with a mysterious virus on his datapad. That's another thing I should probably mention, thanks to Anakin's initial instructions, and the tutelage that Jonson Shan – Satele's grandkid – left behind in the holocron when he built those chambers, I managed to subvert the entire Temple mainframe. I had control of security, transmissions, droids – you name it, and if it is electronic and linked to something, I could command it. I really don't know why Palpatine needed clones to wipe out the Jedi, a competent slicer might have done the job just as well, if not better.

So with operation: Outrageous in full auto, I had nothing to do but train. And train I did. If I wasn't lifting rocks with Master Adi, clashing sabers with someone, or sitting in the flight simulator, I was learning new techniques from the Shan Holocron as I had come to call it. Very soon I had absorbed the amount of Jedi skills a seven year old initiate would have, and my nights were often filled with memory transfers from inexperienced Padawans who could not shield properly or from the holocron itself.

At the present moment, I was rather miffed, hurried, overworked and a dozen other things. The mental stress from gaining so much knowledge in so short a time was taxing physically, and my physical exertions did not help matters. Nor was my mood, as despite the child's play that was the Temple's central computer system, the mission allocation and starship assignment subsystems were giving me a headache.

Somehow I managed to bypass the last security level on the MAC – mission allocation computer – and what I saw was discouraging. Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth had finalized the departure date for the Outbound Flight … which was tomorrow. And just like in the book, Kenobi was coming along. Oh I was not worried about them, Palpatine would make sure the Sith'ari would survive, I was however not happy with the loss of eighteen Jedi. I had nothing wrong with C'Baoth ending up in a metaphorical pine box, but I was losing potential allies.

Putting on my robe to look more dignified, I wrenched open a hidden trapdoor and dropped through to the dusty passage below. Here, in this labyrinthine network of stuffy halls and maintenance accesses I could cut my travel time to the Council Tower by half. And I could look more impressive too.

After verifying that no one was outside, I opened a section of pillar and stormed towards the turbolifts. No, I was not running; that would be unbefitting a Jedi, and a stormy Jedi at that, I was walking briskly, hands clasped in front of me, cloak billowing in my wake, and an expression practically saying, "I'll bite your head off if you get in my way!" plastered on my face.

The old doors to the Council chamber were shut as they were having a meeting, that however only made my entrance that much more dramatic. With a twitch of a finger the doors swung open and I barged in, stopping in the very middle of the floor. They were of course, not happy at the interruption, though Mace was more vocal than the others.

"I am here to save eighteen Jedi and fifty thousand civilians…" My voice held no mocking which might have been expected from my words, in fact, I was Jedi-calm. A rather blatant counterpoint to the greeting Master Windu gave me, to tell the truth.

"Explain…" Ki Adi Mundi demanded sternly. Seriously, I know they have to keep up appearances but could they not at least try to be civil? Maybe less Jedi would go bad if they were treated nicer?

"Outbound Flight," noises of enquiry circulated around the room, some more impatient than others, but I was going to handle this at my own pace. I might even see if I can embarrass them. "Am I correct in assuming that Jedi Master Jorus C'Baoth will launch his project in under a fortnight?" Master Windu of course, gruffly asked me what that had to do with anything. "Out in Chiss space, the Outbound Flight will be intercepted by their Expeditionary Defence Force. What's that you are about to ask me? Who are Chiss? They are a species who make their home in the Unknown Regions. Blue skin, red eyes, strict military training... Probably the best organised military in this Galaxy."

"Believed I did, that the Chiss do not attack, unless attacked they are…" Quite an astute observation, I did not expect Yaddle would know of them.

"That is correct, Master Yaddle. Though the Sith Lord is sending an agent to rile up the leader of the expeditionary force, Mith'rawn'nuruodo. I believe he will be provoked by the arrogant actions of Master C'Baoth and—" I got no further, as several voices were raised in outrage, master Windu being the loudest.

"How dare you!" and "He is a Master!" were the words of the day, quite expected really. "On your heads be it," I had lost my patience, though not my calm, "The deaths of seventeen undeserving Jedi and almost fifty thousand crew and families." I spun around and walked out. If they are not going to listen to me, then why should I bother?

I was not happy. Of course I knew that getting involved in galactic affairs was a big mistake. I also knew that if I was to meddle with the natural order of things, I would not be able to change all the bad stuff. Still, the failure of my first attempt at saving the Outbound Flight crew and Jedi stung, badly. It wasn't as much that I mourned the deaths to come, I was not aware of how that would make me feel, no what really made me unhappy was that I failed in a simple goal.

I needed to relieve stress, and I needed to start on my project: Allegiance project. I swept out of the Temple's main entrance, not caring if anyone would notice my departure. Master Adi would understand.

Down the steps I went, and oh was it tiring, however when I reached Fellowship Plaza and looked up, my jaw fell open. There wasn't really any marvellous architecture, but the sheer grandeur made me speechless. I had seen skyscrapers before, going even up to fifty floors, but this. These were not skyscrapers, they were space scrapers. Buildings reaching for hundreds of meters into the sky! And then my more cynical part noted that the casualties would be horrendous were there to be an earthquake….

I crossed the plaza and let the Force guide me to a public transit stop. Then came a five minute wait, for once in my life, a bus arrived on schedule, and I hopped onto a route-Aurek 698 to the Uscru Entertainment district.

It should be noted, that despite my extensive knowledge of the EU, I was lost. Really lost… I had no idea how to get around Coruscant, and even less an idea of where everything was. I however, was grumpy, and thus did not think straight. On the other hand, I'll have to thank Master Satele for teaching me how to follow the Force's call more closely, for without that tugging on my mind, I would not have gotten far.

As it was, as soon as I got off the transport and took twenty steps, someone tried to jump me. He must have been an amateur, for I heard his foot slip on a nearby pile of junk. It was all the alert I needed. Instinctively I crouched down and snatched up my saberstaff. Momentarily forgetting that I could instead turn it on and cut the guy in half, I gripped the hilt as I would a baton and brought it swinging up into his outstretched forearm. I heard an ominous crack, I had broken either his radius or ulnar, which would account for him dropping his vibroblade and shrieking madly. My instincts were not done with him yet, in the next second I smashed the hilt across his Rodian snout further stunning him. Then, for good measure, I thwacked the hilt into his temple, letting him topple to the ground, unconscious.

The thrill of the scuffle now over, I could contemplate what I did. I had just defeated someone in a him-or-me fight. Thankfully, he was still alive, I was not ready to experience my first kill. I had no compunctions however, of ruffling through his pockets, and pilfering his comlink, vibroblade and credcoins. So now, five hundred credits richer, I was on my way to the weapons market.

Three more attempted robberies and I had a puny DL-18 blaster pistol, a backpack, some ruffian style ware and credits. Lots of credits. One of the guys how tried to mug me was just finishing up a day's work, and I liberated six thousand credits off him. So in total, my balance was at eight.

Like any underworld, Uscru's black market was immense. If fact, it rather reminded me of the usual enclosed markets from Earth. The warehouse was filled with stalls, and seedy visitors. I was rather glad that I hid my Jedi apparel hidden away safely, or every blaster in the place – and there were many – would have been aimed at me. Choosing the quiet approach for now, I singled out a smaller vendor and after some aggressive haggling got four EMP grenades, the same amount of CryoBans, six glops and a bunch of frags. Then, guessing that he owed a crime lord some money – they all do, you know – I threatened to bring the Quarren in unless he gave me ten flash-bangs, two thermal dets, and a DL-21 for free. Feeling rather smug, I swaggered off to a suspicious storehouse.

Cue the use of a thermal detonator to blast open a pipeline, then cue the theft of ten more grenades and a spectacular boom set on a two minute timer and I was out of there. My path took me to the Outlander where I hid in the crowds watching the podraces and thought and pondered my next actions.

An interesting thing about the Force, it only sometimes tells you what to do, but it does not tell you why to do it. In fact, it is rather like the Yuuzhan Vong slave seed, giving you positive and negative sensations according to your actions. Like playing hot and cold, only in the most dangerous underworld in the galaxy. I had made it here only through following where the Force led me, and doing what seemed more daring. The amount of ammo on me was enough to blow a Jedi Cruiser, but I had no idea what to do with it.

So, essentially resigning myself to some reckless and insane course of events, I let my eyes drift shut, cleared my mind, sort of like visualising a blank CMD window in Windows with the cursor blinking, and awaited the Force's call. Interestingly, this time text began to appear, something like "Nik\Brain: pay attention." Then some more incomprehensible lines scrolled through, and a video screen appeared, mind you, this was all in my mind's eye. Creepy huh? So on the vid, it showed a sniper scope like focusing thingamajig and it panned around the room before settling on two shady fellows at a corner booth.

Feeling slightly inapt as I had not learned how to use the Force to isolate sounds, I did it the old fashioned way and walked over to snoop. "I hear Thorgo is in some issues?" says Sleemo #1.

"Yea, the Pykes raided his supposedly secret storehouse…" I did not like the sneering tones of Sleemo #2, and was about to walk away when in my mind's eye again, the Force wrote, 'ERROR: STAY HERE…' Stay here, then stay here. "…So Thorgo is really antsy about now, says he wants to move to Ord Mantell, he's already shipped his spice operations there. Still got the base to clear."

The dealings of Hutts were not my concern, well I thought so. The Force however had other plans, and it kept on flashing a Boba Fett-in-action poster in my face. I thought for a minute, until I had a most ludicrous idea, I was supposed to storm the Hutt's base. For what purpose, I didn't know. Still, I learned the hard way that not following the will of the Force was a bad idea. And besides, a Hutt is bound to have money, and lots of it.

After some incredible luck, I nicked a speeder bike and made a rather inconspicuous way to the Crimson Corridor and Thorgo's base. Kinda stupid, big neon letters declaring "THORGO"S PLACE" only in Aurebesh. It was obvious that the Hut was moving out, security was pathetic. I rode up, blasted all but one entrance shut, used the Force to smash open the gate, and strode in like I owned the place.

The crumpled metal knocked out the two piggies that guarded the door and I strode into the main audience chamber. First I ducked my head through the door to ascertain the situation, then I lobbed in two flash-bangs and while everyone was acting stupid, I followed up with three glops. Once the substance set, I walked in, blaster in hand, and pointed it at the rather small Hutt in the corner. "This is a hold up, give me all your cash!" Then, I reconsidered, "And don't forget the other currencies and credcards…" Since I don't know much Huttese, Wookieepedia again, I will not relate what I was told. The fat guy did mention though, that I would get into trouble for this. Sneering, I walked around, methodically knocking everyone out with my DL-21's butt.

I knew it was too easy. Apparently the gate I used was the back door, and thus few guards patrolled it. The rest of the base was a challenge though. At least sixty thugs. All wielding blasters and wanting to shot me with them. Why? What did I do? I was forced – not pun intended – to stun or knock them all out.

The barracks where the easiest. I tossed a coma gas grenade in the room and closed the door before they realised what was going on. And to, a score of people was safely out of the way. The hangar was next, where a CryoBan was useful, and ten point-blank stun shots. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, you throw in something to immobilize them, then walk from statue to statue with a blaster and pull the trigger. No aiming involved!

The real issue came near the vault. Fifteen mercs who looked slightly less dishevelled than the rest of the rabble. Here I got into a protracted fire fight. Please note, I used up my entire ammo supply in that fight, and all my non-lethal ordinance, and still, seven guys where still standing. Really, I do NOT know what possessed me to draw my saberstaff, set it to training intensity, and charge in.

Five minutes later, it was over. I had half a dozen blaster grazes all over me, but at least I returned the favour with my saber and at least they were all knocked out. I was rather proud of myself, I was not seriously injured, and no-one got killed. After looting the vaults, did I ever mention that a lightsaber is my new best friend? It can cut through locks no problem! So yes, I nicked a good six hundred thousand credits in various currencies and bullion, loaded it all onto a cargo skiff, and flew off to the hidden hangar I had discovered.

It was all too easy, as I had said. Two attempts to take over the cargo skiff and that's it. It should be harder to rob a crime lord, or be a Jedi for that matter. Well, I guess I had more than my fair share of beginner's luck.

Suffice it to say, Master Adi was not pleased with my state when I arrived. "You look like a nexu after a fight with an Ackley in a trash compactor!" I looked into a mirror, and was forced to agree. I was not wearing my Jedi apparel, the swoop biker's outfit crossed with a mercenary's poor attempt at shopping was torn and burned, well everywhere. My hair was sweat-slicked, my face had a bruise or two, I was covered in residual goo and soot from my grenades, and the few blaster shots actually numbered over a score and a half, and a few had penetrated deeper than what would feel comfortable. I was so going to lodge a complaint with the Force. Strange though, how I didn't feel anything. Though, it might have been a blessing in disguise, as otherwise I would not have been able to function properly.

So, the next forty minutes where spent by cleaning up, and by Master dumbing a few gallons of bacta on my various wounds. Which of course, did not come without a good deal of admonishments.

As I lay all bandaged up on a couch, Master Adi sat down across from me, and demanded, "What possessed you to go gallivanting around the undercity?"

"Well, I guess the Force wanted me to. And I needed to knock something out after the Council session…" And well, I related a good portion of my adventures, though I skipped the part about the credits.

Surprisingly, Master Adi chose to ask me what I knew about Outbound Flight. Seeing as I knew she'd listen, I related the events of the book, complete with Darth Sidious' conversations. My retelling took a good two hours as I included as much detail as possible, at the end of which I was near ready to nod off and Master was livid. When she discovered that she was unable to speak verbally, she mentally hissed,

"That … that man! And he's a Jedi Master? How did we not notice that!" To that, my answer was that the Jedi were complacent. However I was still puzzled, why was Adi Gallia siding with me so much? I heard she was fiercely loyal to the Order, and I honestly wasn't the model Padawan. Choosing to believe that it was because of the extensive training link, I ignored all other implications and decided to go with the flow. After all, I was not fully in command of my destiny here. There were higher powers at work. "—Have you even heard a single word I said Padawan?" Her voice was more amused than annoyed. I shook my head in the negative, with a sigh, Master Adi restated her offer "Is there anything I can help with?"

It was a good question, for one thing, I needed to visit Kamino sometime very soon. Then, I wanted to get in touch with Jango Fett so that he could teach me how to kick butt without being a Jedi, kind of like what Jaina went through with the Mandos in LotF. But something gave me the impression that my Master was not asking about that, but about the Outbound Flight in particular. And there was the difficulty. I had no means of stopping the project, nor of stopping Palpatine's messenger, but I could not let all those Jedi just die so ignobly. Then I remembered about Clawdites, and I felt truly evil.

"Say Master," I began in a cheery, sing-song voice, "Do you think you could incapacitate Master C'Baoth for forty eight hours or so?" She looked at me, well I don't know, in a 'are you bonkers?' fashion and well, I guess I did sound like that. "No, here's what we can do. If we remove a Jorus C'Baoth, then he cannot antagonise everyone. We hire a Clawdite to impersonate him for the departure, but then he'll disembark. True the expedition will be left without a leader, but they can handle it I think, maybe," here I had a moment of inspiration, "We tell them to find a Zonama Sekot and settle down! Yeah, that should clear them out of the Chiss and the Trade Federation's path!"

Adi Gallia exuded dubiety in the Force, and asked me where I was going to get the funds. Oh well, I knew those credits would come in useful sooner or later. With that plan settled, I went to bed, schemes hovering just out of my reach.

Well, that's that. Hope it ain't to repetitive, but I am trying to emphasise the point that Nik is not trying to ruin everything.

Anyway, more to come in the future,

May the Fiction Be With You ~~CC-645

Clean word count: 3,652 | Total clean word count: around 28,535 | Updated 02/25/13 0251 PT