SWMV Issue #1
Chapter 7

Disclaimer:
I do not own Star Wars, or any other original content expressed in this work of fanfiction.
It is free so have fun!

Five pop's emanating from nothing caused all the nearby birds and other animals to shriek and rush away. Appearing from midair, five armored beings dropped into the snow of Galidraan's northern hemisphere. One of these beings landed on their feet and scanned the area around them.

The other 4 hit the ground hard, causing the snow to kick up with each impact.

POV change to Evrik:

"Oh shit." I sighed heavily. "Love, I think we fucked up." After reaching into my inventory and finding it empty.

"Running systems check. Stand by." My wife's voice said in my ear as I let my vision move over my team. They were alive and well, just dazed after being pulled from the Explorer Program and then promptly being launched into a mission. "Do you want the good news or the great news?" my wife asked.

"Zar, don't test me woman. You know I love the great news first." I said with a smile as her beautiful face appeared on the top right of my HUD.

"First, you succeeded in bringing an AI and four additional Explores into the mission. A feat never performed by the Eternal's in the history of the Explorer Program. Well done. Second, while you and your team lack any weapons, you are still invincible." Zar explained. As if sensing my vision on the team she added. "They however are not."

"Ok, now the good news?" I asked while moving over to a nearby windmill to get a higher vantage point.

"Congratulations! You are a force sensitive love. You always wanted to be a Jedi!" She smiled and blew me a kiss.

I rolled my eyes. "I can see how weak I am. If we run into a Voggaa clone I will not be able to protect them. Damn, I thought we had the enhancement nailed down. Where did we go wrong?" I asked leaping up with a force jump and looking around. "Man, that took 25% of my force stamina!" I grumbled.

"Don't forget to be positive E. You also gained experience. Humm… So did the group. You are apparently sharing experience as a group. That was not something we programmed." She said thoughtfully. "I will dedicate a subroutine back aboard the ship to investigate."

"What the fuck is going on!" Kane grumbled as he attempted to get to his feet and only succeeded in looking like a drunk fool. The big guy fell over quite comically and sprawled on his belly.

"Kane?" Banks asked as he carefully pushed himself into an upright position. "Whoa, what is all of this stuff in my vision?" I chuckled as he swiped his hands in front of him.

"Go have your date in the common room. Get out of the barracks." Zane growled and rolled over, obviously thinking she was sleeping and attempted to pull her blanket up. She was instead pulling an arm over her armored chest.

"This is cozy." Scar said. "Not very often a pretty lady lets me snuggle and feel up her chest… plate?" His original dark humor quickly turned into confusion.

Zane launched to her feet, with a display of agility that was much better than Kane's she kept her balance but was still a little woozy.

"Easy boys and girls. Take your time." I called down in my commanding voice. Seeing their reaction made me feel good. "Still got it." I said to Zar. Then to them through my helmet's external audio system. "Let your eyes focus on the icons and get your balance before moving about."

Four helmets snapped around to stare at me. With my force vision I could see inside those helmets and the shocking expressions behind the visors. "Damn, that just cost me another 25% of my force stamina." I grumbled dropping down to the ground. "Hero pose." I said sticking the landing.

"Um… boss?" Banks asked, carefully getting to his feet. "What is going on? You never have fun on mission."

"Great, memory loss now too?" I asked with a heavy sigh.

"Not totally. I recall Scar is a perv and all." Zane grunted, the first to figure out how to release the seal on her helmet. She took it off and froze when the HUD still stayed in her vision. "Oh, this is new." Her breath in puffs of mist in the cold air.

"I am not a perv. You pulled my… never mind." Scar shook his head. "The last thing I recall was, some Eternal alien named Voggaa taking us." He admitted.

"Ya, then all these popping noises and then hitting the ground here." Kane pulled his helmet off and blinked at the mix of sudden cold and at the HUD still in his vision. "Trippy, wasn't it just hot?"

"Ok, yes Voggaa did take you all. Left me behind, detonated what we thought was a tactical nuclear device. It wasn't a nuke; it was a Universal Temporal Eraser. Designed to erase the universe it detonates in. Except when it blew, it imploded the universe into my body and turned me into this invincible crystalline entity. This is what I really look like now." I explained phasing into my Crystalline Entity form. "Shit! That is a force power too?" I growled watching my force stamina tank to zero, though it did rapidly recharge.

"The ability is called force phase. I told you not to play around until you understood the limits of your powers." Zar's voice chided, then her hologram appeared next to me. "Hey guys. E made me in Zar's image and programmed me with her personality. I am an Ultra Advanced Artificial Intelligence Assistant. I know it's strange seeing us, but you all died and were brought back. Technically you are alive again for the duration of this… mission. Once you are successful you will be rewarded with the option to continue living in this Universe, or another of your choice." Zar cut right to the chase.

"I don't even know what to ask." Banks was the first to speak up after each froze for a full minute to process.

"What is Galidraan?" Zane demanded. "Looks like frozen redwoods in Cali, but I can see in the HUD that we are on some place called Galidraan."

"No way! Boss, are we in Star Wars? Oh, tell me we are in Star Wars! Is this like some kind of game?" Kane sounded super excited taking in the big frozen trees and then his excitement waned when he saw the disappointing looking burnt out farm buildings around us.

"Kane is correct this is a Star Wars Galaxy. He's just not right about this being a game. You can die in many horrible and painful ways. The good news is that we reprogrammed the Explorer Program so if you do die, you can be relaunched into the mission. It just takes 4 hours of real time." Zar explained.

"Wait, wait, wait. We can die, then get respawned? How is this not a game?" Scar demanded.

"Why four hours? Why not instantly?" Zane inquired. "I mean I would do instantly if I programmed it." She pointed out.

"Why die at all? Why can't we be like you boss?" Banks added.

"Alright. You all have questions. The fact is we have a mission. We need to bring balance to the galaxy. Not the force mind you. To the galaxy. The sooner the better. The longer we stand around talking about this, the harder it will be to achieve our goals." I spoke up waving off more questions.

Kane spread his hands. "Come on boss. Fill us in. We just need to know what is going on." He protested.

"Fine. We can talk while we walk. Let's move. We need weapons." I focused on the area around us and sensed a nearby patrol. "Gods, my force powers suck! Force detection costs … rrr never mind. This way, Zar can you help fill the team in please?"

"No way! Can we be Jedi?" Banks asked rushing up to me and grabbing my arm. "Damn man, solid!"

"Indestructible crystalline entity, and yes. All of you have force potential, you can quiet your mind and learn to use the force, just like little Annie."

Zane snorted. "Maybe not Scar."

"Anyway, as for where we are. You are in an alternate reality that was created when thousands of years ago the first elected Supreme Chancellor of the Old Republic was assassinated." She left out it was Zane who did the assassination, then continued. "It caused a lack of confidence in the Galactic Senate, as a result alternate superpowers started up. Entire sectors that would have been a larger and more secure galactic superpower instead became different little ones. Lots of little wars, thankfully not many big ones. This is also just one of the many Alternate timelines that parted from the original Star Wars Galaxy. It was the third Universe to branch off the original Prime Universe to be exact. With me so far?" Zar asked.

"Yes… but I reserve the right to ask so many questions." Kane quipped.

"I'll make sure you have access to the Eternal Node Network so you can research later. For now, switch on your internal coms." I ordered motioning ahead. "Danger near."

Zar continued through the helmets internal comm unit where she appeared in the top right for everyone. "As Zane correctly pointed out, we are on the planet Galidraan, located in the Thanium Sector of the Outer Rim Protectorate. Grid Square R-6 on your galactic holomap." Zar spoke up with a wink at Kane. "I did the grid map based on something called Wookieepedia. Figured Kane would like it being out resident Star Wars know it all. The year is 956 After the Ruusan Reformation."

"Why not 44 BBY?" Kane asked in disappointment over the helmet coms.

"Because BBY/ABY is based entirely on a future battle that hopefully will not ever take place." I pointed out. "We are here to change all that."

"No way! Are we here to fuck up the timeline? This must be Legends, because Galidraan did not happen in canon." Kane seemed even more excited.

"God, I died and woke up in nerd heaven." Zane's complaint interrupted Kane's little happy dance.

"Cheer up. We are going to create our own faction. I'll let you name it. Maybe then it will be less nerdy." I fired back.

"Wait. Boss, you said we never name our organization. That's a rookie movie." Banks pointed out.

I shrugged. "Things change. Plus, we have the support of the entire Eternal Civilization, so that means we are legit."

"So, there are more like Voggaa?" Scar asked confused.

"Yes. 12 of the original species survived a plague and then mass assassinations. Then they made millions of clones based on the original templates. Just do not count on them to help. They are only watching our pilot mission. Also, Universe #3 is a little more messed up than canon or legends could ever be. Will fill you in on just how messed up after this quest. First though, explore your HUD and figure out the details pertaining to the quest. Little tip, use your vision to scroll through the features. To select an option just focus your vision on it and push with your mind. It will get easier the more you practice." I paused and reached out with force detection again. "Man, they are headed right at us now, follow me." I motioned for them to follow me again.

"E, what are you doing?" Zar asked in my ear. "You are still Crystal Entity you." She pointed out.

"Chill love, I can't force phase yet and if the Banished One or Voggaa has any control over the team they will attack me any moment now. That's why I keep…" I felt the attack before it started. "Cover!" I barked, the team hitting the ground as a blaster bolt fired from ahead of us all hit and then bounced off me. I looked down and then fingered the scorch mark. "Oh hell no."

Looking up I saw movement as three dark armored beings emerged from the tree line. I took off at them with a super-fast sprint. My hands suddenly found two swords that I used to block the blaster fire. A continuous stream of shots that I did not recall from the movies. Still my swords blocked it all easily. "This is the force?" I asked amazed I could block the bolts as if time was slowing.

"No, you are still super-fast. You can see and react much faster than any jedi or sith. This is just a natural reflex. Don't lose those swords by the way. They are literally made up of your body mass and a part of you." Zar spoke up. "You continue exhibiting abilities I did not anticipate. I guess this is another good thing."

"Why is my force stamina recharging faster now?" I asked watching it creep up.

"This is yet again one of those good things. Evidently you naturally thrive on combat and your abilities are built to supplement that trait. Not something that we planned by programming it into the Explorer Program. I will add it to the things for my subroutine to investigate." Zar replied in my ear as I steadily approached the closest of the three.

The three armored attackers were members of Death Watch, a scouting party. I discovered this by accident when I focused on them.

"Hum, you just discovered a new force ability. It's called Observe. It is a passive ability that will not drain your stamina in battle. Even gives you a full backstory of the person you focused on in our databanks. This is… fortunate but continues to be confusing." Zar sounded even more thoughtful now.

"Great. They are going to jet away." I grumbled. Seeing their intention before they took off. "Force precog?" I asked when they continued to fire on me in the air.

"Yes, it lets you see events before they happen. Also, a passive ability. This is most unusual." Zar sounded like she was getting more confused. "Yes, I am confused. You already know all the force abilities and how they are supposed to work, but somehow you are altering their practical application in ways I cannot anticipate." She added reading my mind.

A tree branch brained the back one of the Death Watch making them drop like a rock. "I can't believe that worked!" Kane sounded happy with himself at least. Before the Mandalorian hit the ground I sliced his helmet off. Reaching out for the others in the force I hit them with a blast of force lightning.

"Fuck ya! Roast them mother fers boss!" Banks shouted with glee.

"Stop!" Zar spoke up panicked. "E, your force alignment dipped heavily to the dark side with that attack."

"I don't feel effected by the dark side." I pointed out with a shrug. I phased back into my normal human me as I approached the two Death Watch Mando's laying on the ground with smoke rising from their cooked bodies. I was initially happy my force stamina did not seem to dip at all after the force lighting attack. Then saw the reason why, it was a variant of force lightning and force drain that I had used. It had in fact fully charged my force stamina. I gave a shrug and turned to the armored bodies. Reaching out I went to pick up their weapons when all three of the Mando's were suddenly lying there in their underoos. The one still with his head detached and staring up at the sky. "Well, that was unexpected. An auto loot feature?" I asked. Eying the icon to open the inventory and taking out four of the weapons noting all the other items stored there.

"Yes. I have already disabled this for our group. That would be hard to explain if witnessed by the locals." Zar seemed to have gotten over her panic. "There is an icon now on your HUD's that will allow the looting to take place when safe." She added.

"Here." I tossed each a blaster, noting each blaster had a display of remaining "use points" in its description. They were not new but appeared to be well maintained at least. They all caught the weapons and began looking over the unusual configuration. "Pretty sure you just point and fire like ours." I kidded.

Banks shook his helmeted head. "When did you pick up a sense of humor boss?" he asked. "This is so unlike you." he pointed out.

"I suppose it's just a coping thing. I can go back to being a dick if you like?" I replied looking around for my swords and replaying in my mind how I made them.

"No, we like the new you." Zane spoke up. "Where…" she paused as I again called the swords into my had from my… hands. "Are those… coming out of you?" she asked curiously.

"Ya, little strange. Here." I tapped each on their armored heads.

"Gee, thanks. Have I been knighted?" Scar snorted.

"E put a trace amount of his crystalline entity on you each. He can now sense your exact locations and contact you directly through the earpiece without comms." Zar spoke up.

"You put part of yourself on us?" Kane demanded.

"Just in your ears. Turn off the coms, they knew where we were because they were tracking us. Zar, we got to figure out how they can track Eternal Tech. That should not have happened." I replied with a shrug.

"What the fuck man. In our ears? What the hell!" Kane demanded pushing up into my face.

"Kane, easy man." Banks tried to calm down his friend.

"No. Let him get it out. This will be easier." I held up my hand to stop him.

Kane took a deep breath. "What if I don't want to do this?" he asked.

"Bro?" Scar asked. "You would leave us?"

"There is no us. We died, or so he says. Our gig with him is over. We don't have to follow him around from galaxy to galaxy. Universe to universe. No, we did enough. I'm done." He turned and stalked away.

"Bro, come on. This is Star Wars!" Banks called.

"Let him go, it's easier this way. He is right. Go on. Follow him. You guys can go live your life." I turned and moved on.

"Boss, stop!" Zane rushed over and grabbed my arm. "Shit, you are solid. Come on, Kane will eventually see reason and rush to join us. If not, then good for him. He got out. It's what we always wanted."

Banks looked back and forth between me and Kane. "I'm sorry. I got to go with Kane boss." He said sadly. "Can't let my bro go it alone."

"I still think you all should stick together. Get acclimated to the area, then the galaxy. When the time is right, we will meet again." I put my hand on Banks and Zane's shoulder. Then for fun made a third arm reach out to touch Scar's shoulder and a scorpion's tail rise above my head.

"Fucking A!" Zane shouted as they all jumped back raising their weapons. "What the hell are you going to kill us?

I laughed. "Just messing with you guys." Phasing back into my normal armored merc self. "Go catch up to our friend. I'm serious, it's an order if you want. Here take all the credits those three noobs had." I handed them over. "Zar, they still have the link to the Eternal Node Network, right?"

"Yes, and to me." She confirmed.

"Good love. Ok, guys. I can't just stay here talking. I have responsibilities now that are greater than our group. This is something bigger than us." I shrugged, then took off faster than they could follow.

"This fucking sucks! What the hell are we going to do without Boss?" Zane's voice came to my ears as I ran zooming through the trees like Luke and Leia did in RTOJ.

"Hey, you always have me." Scar's voice came next.

"Zar, silence the feed" I said only to her.

"No." she said in my ear. The word caused me to lose focus and trip. She was programmed to be my personal AI. To take every order I gave without question. Normally a little trip would not be bad, and it would be something that I could easily recover from. Yet when zooming along at 300 km an hour, a trip was… unpleasant to say the least. I hit the ground, then rolled through some cartwheels and then slammed through a tree. Yep, still bouncing after that like the ball in a pinball machine, bouncing off other trees and rocks. Eventually the hard frozen ground brought me to a stop.

"I guess I deserved that one." I grunted, staring up at the snowflakes that were falling onto my helmet's visor.

"You're a bigger ass than ever. So yes." Zar said then turned herself off my HUD.

"Fuck."

End of chapter 7.

Well cheers to you. You got to the end of chapter 7! 😊

If you all wish I can split this one up into smaller sections like in the prior chapters.
Laters all! Thanks for reading. Appreciate you!

Side note.
Thinking of expanding into other Star Wars AU ideas.
I was going to have Evrik's now AI wife Zar call me out for only having one story so far, but the humor was not right. At least not yet.

So… concept idea here for Issue #2 that I was going to have her mock me for.
Ben Kenobi is compelled by the force to "overload" the tractor beam generator. In the movies he powers down the tractor beam generator by the by. "A power loss at one of the terminals will allow us to leave" C-3PO had stated.
This starts a small chain reaction and power surge into the Death Star's control systems.
And wala… we have the damaged DS1 in an AU timeline along with whatever may be on it.
Sounds like some fun for our antihero and his merry band of Merc's to join and attempt to bring balance.

** Updated on 10/07/2023
Did not lead off with the Antihero Monologue here. If any requests for it will Evrik will surely respond.