Before the dark times - Neighborhood Riff-Raff.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Main Title (Original) 0:00 - 0:18]
A stranger is a friend one has not yet spoken to.
[Silence]
After Anakin, Artoo and Ahsoka were retrieved from Jabba's palace, the Republic forces left the planet on the Jedi cruiser 'The Negotiator', and were en route to Coruscant. During this time, Skywalker, Tano and Artoo went to the wreckage of the G9 freighter that the Jedi Knight had requested to be recovered from the desert planet, and began to personally repair and most likely modify the ship with his Padawan.
Grandmaster Yoda decided to go to the bridge of the Venator, knowing that both Anakin and Obi-Wan were going to be spending time with their respective Padawans for the time being, and knowing that they had the time to finally rest and properly start teaching the young pair their ways.
That left Kenobi with his Padawan, and the Jedi Master spoke to him. "It looks like now we finally have some time to properly rest, Orion."
"It appears so, Master." Dusk agreed with him.
"So, what do you plan on doing with this freetime?" Obi-Wan wondered.
"For now, I'll probably just accompany you." Orion said. "You're familiar with the ship, and I am supposed to learn how to be a proper Jedi from you."
"I suppose that's true." Kenobi was fine with that. "However, before I can properly teach you anything, I first should get to know you." He sat down on a nearby crate. "Tell me about yourself."
Dusk was silent at first. He was fine with talking about himself to his new master. The problem was that he didn't know what to talk about. "Um...sure. What do you want to know?"
[Play Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars OST Resolute 0:00 - 1:06]
The Jedi Master took a look at his Padawan for a moment, before settling on his gloveless, right arm. "Let's start with your arm."
"My...arm?" Orion was a bit confused.
"While we were en route to Jabba's palace, Commander Cody had debriefed the men you rescued." Obi-Wan explained. "Two of them recounted that you had quite literally grabbed Ventress' lightsaber with your right hand and shut her blade off with it."
"Oh, right." Dusk understood now, as he unwrapped the bands that weren't already cinched off around his right arm, and pulled up his sleeve, revealing the red metal arm that went all the way to the base of his shoulder. "The plates on the arm are made up of synthesized cortosis. It's not refined enough to short out energy on contact, but it can absorb and deflect energy, and with enough pressure applied, short out a lightsaber, though I only discovered that I could do the latter when I retrieved my lightsaber from Ventress."
"Interesting." Kenobi was intrigued with that. "What made you decide to equip your prosthetic arm with this metal?"
"It was actually proposed by a smither that I had helped prior to...losing it." Orion answered.
"It sounds like there's quite the story behind that arm of yours." Obi-Wan guessed.
"...Yeah." Dusk said.
"If you feel uncomfortable talking about it..." The Jedi Master noticed his apprentice's hesitance.
"No." The Padawan replied. "I can talk about it. It's just...it's a really long story."
"We're a really long way from Coruscant." Kenobi pointed out. "We're traveling from the Outer Rim to the Core Regions. It'll take a while to get there. I think you'll have enough time to share your tale with me, or at least get far in it."
After Dusk thought about it, he could see his master's point. "That is true." He decided to go for it. "Okay then. Get comfortable on that crate. You may be sitting on it for the whole trip."
Flashback to the starting weeks of the Clone Wars
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Thwarted Attempt 3:30 - 3:38]
The tale began on Coruscant, inside the Jedi Temple. While many of the Jedi Masters and Knights were away, assigned with their recently trained clone allies of varying battalions and star corps, it left the temple less crowded and less lively than it normally would have been.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Lunch and the Younglings 1:08 - 3:05]
Orion was with a small group of fellow Padawan learners, who had yet to be given Masters to learn under. However that did not mean that they weren't still studying the ways of the Jedi. They could still meditate on their own, and were of course being taught in the art of lightsaber combat to defend themselves.
The group was actually reviewing the latter of those two things, as they were in a dueling chamber, being supervised by Jedi Battlemaster Cin Drallig, who was the one personally responsible for instructing many of the Younglings and Padawans in the forms of the lightsaber.
Currently, Dusk was dueling against Serra Keto, who was currently matching the boy's form 1, blow for blow with her form 4. Orion was mainly on the defensive, blocking and parrying each agile and aggressive swing that Serra used against him, until she eventually gave him an opening that he took advantage of, striking her wrist with his saber and knocking her blade out of her hands, before pointing the tip of his blade to her throat. Master Drallig's voice was then heard. "That's enough."
Dusk then deactivated his saber and holstered it on his belt, while Keto used the force to retrieve hers and do the same thing. The two then shook hands. "That's twelve to eleven now." Serra said.
"You're still keeping count?" Orion questioned.
"Yeah. It's fun keeping track of how much ahead I am." Keto replied with a playful smile that Dusk soon also had on his face, before they laughed at their mock rivalry. "Seriously though, good match."
"Thanks." He replied to her. "You too."
Cin approached the pair while two other Padawans were following behind him. "Padawans, you both performed admirably. Serra, your transition from Shii-Cho of Ataru has been getting smoother and smoother for you. Continue your practice, and you'll be an expert with it in no time." He then addressed the other. "Orion, while you're still having trouble with adapting to a new form, your skill with Shii-Cho is still quite commendable."
"Thank you, Master Drallig." Both Padawans responded while bowing respectfully to him.
"You're both dismissed." Cin said to them before turning around and beginning to instruct the two Padawans that accompanied him here.
As both Keto and Dusk left the dueling arena, having finished with their scheduled training for the day, the pair were allowed to roam the temple and do whatever form of self growth that they pleased. "So Orion, are you going to head over to the library, like the bookworm you are?"
"Depends, are you going to go to the saber arena and keep fighting, like the thrill seeker you are, Serra?" The Padawan's banter was healthy as they both knew each other well enough to know what the other's past time would normally be.
"I prefer the term, refining my skills." Keto replied to his remark. "I mean, I didn't learn how to use Ataru overnight. You should come with me. You can work on using Soresu, like you wanted. It's much better than reading up another language at the library."
"Knowledge is just as much of a benefit as skill when it comes to being a Jedi." Dusk pointed out. "But in this case, you might be right. I do need to work on Soresu. I can't keep relying on Shii-Cho to get me through combat practices."
"That's more like it." Serra was glad to get that answer before she began to walk a bit faster towards the saber arena. "Let's keep score of how many of the training droids you and I can take out."
"It's always a competition with you." Orion mused as he followed his fellow Padawan on her way to the arena.
[Silence]
The pair made it to the entrance of the arena, and were greeted by a lightsaber training droid with a humanoid body and an abstract looking head. "Hello. Welcome, Serra Keto, Orion Dusk." It said in a static robotic tone.
"JTR-47." Keto spoke to the droid. "What's going on in the arena?"
"This Saber Arena is currently vacant." JTR-47 answered.
"May the two of us be allowed to use it to practice our forms?" Dusk requested.
"There are no scheduled training regiments at this time. Permission to use this Saber Arena is granted." JTR-47 replied. "What form of training would you like to begin?"
"Dueling the lightsaber training droids." Serra stated.
"What is the end objective you seek from this training?" JTR-47 asked.
"To practice the forms of Soresu and Ataru respectively." Orion said.
"Understood." JTR-47 responded before escorting the pair of Padawans into the arena. "The Lightsaber Training models will be activated shortly. Prepare yourselves for their deployment now." The two Padawans did as instructed and activated their lightsabers, making sure that they were still on low power for the training. Meanwhile JTR-47 left the arena's dueling ground and began to activate the lightsaber dueling droids that were stored inside the statues of the Jedi that were in the arena. "Your training will begin now."
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST Take Off 0:00 - 1:48]
Six lightsaber dueling droids came out of the statues, with one half wielding blue sabers and the other half wielding green sabers. The three with green sabers went for Dusk, while the three with blue sabers went for Keto.
Serra met her opponents head on, literally jumping into the action and landing in the middle of the three droids that were targeting her. The droids got into defensive positions, and began to block Keto's attacks that were thrown at them.
Meanwhile, the droids that went after Orion had quickly approached and surrounded him, making Dusk take a defensive stance, as he needed to defend himself from the three pronged attack, blocking the sabers swung at him, in his attempt to practice Soresu.
Serra jumped up and backflipped out of the way of an incoming strike, letting it land on the dueling droid that was in front of her at that time, disabling the unit and leaving her with two droids left to fight. She dashed towards the closer of the two and swung her green saber at the droid's blue blade, knocking it around as she began to push the droid back with a fierce, yet focused barrage of attacks. As she was about to go in for the final blow, the other dueling droid that was fighting her had gotten in the way, blocking her attack and pushing her back.
Orion blocked an attack from the front, before pushing the droid off of him and turning his body to block a second attack on his left side. He then pushed the second droid back before he repositioned himself to block a third attack on his right. He pushed back the third droid before defending himself from the first and second dueling droids at the same time, as the pair were attacking in tandem with one another, which made the Padawan back up and lose some ground.
The two droids fighting off Keto began to fight back against their target, getting as aggressive as she was with their attacks, using their artificial strength and speed to compensate for their inability to use the force. As the pair of droids began to barrage her with their blades, she was forced to back off and either evade or block their attacks when they got too close to her.
Dusk kept blocking and dodging the slashes of the two droids attacking him, until he finally managed to find an opening, tapping into the force to briefly increase his speed and reaction time, and striking the opening that was presented to him, slashing one of the droids in the mid section and deactivating it. As that droid collapsed, the other one continued to assault him, while the last droid grabbed the saber of its fallen ally.
Serra saw both of the droids she was fighting pounce towards her, but she used her connection to the force to quickly dash forward, flanking the pair of droids before blitzing behind one of them and slashing it in the back, removing it from the fight. The last droid targeting her immediately closed the distance and kicked her away, before grabbing the saber of its disabled ally and dual wielding two sabers against her.
Orion managed to keep a solid defense as he was dealing with one of the two droids that he had left, parrying an attempted power strike and creating an opening for a counterattack. He thrusted his blade through the droid's chest and decommissioned it, but was immediately put back on the defensive when the last droid he was facing attacked with a pair of sabers. He was once again pushed back, and was stuck waiting for an opening.
Keto and Dusk were soon pushed towards each other, and the pair of Padawans noticed how close they were getting to one another. As the two continued to get pushed closer and closer, they each gave a very brief look to one another, silently agreeing to do something together.
That something was a synchronized backflip towards each other, before the pair planted the bottoms of their boots against one another's, then both pushed themselves off of the other whilst still in the air, propelling themselves towards their opponents, catching both dual wielding droids off guard and giving them the openings they needed to slice their midsections, simultaneously disabling both droids at once in an admittedly stylish way.
As the droids stood back up, JTR-47 congratulated their victory from where he was. "Well done, Serra Keto, Orion Dusk."
[Silence]
As the two Padawans deactivated their sabers, JTR-47 approached them. "The combat data has been analyzed. Serra Keto. Your usage of Ataru has expectedly improved, however, your fight was longer than it needed to be, due to you ceasing your pursuit when your last opponent switched to dual bladed attacks. As Ataru is named 'The Aggression Form', aggression is the key to using it. Recommend continuing your attacks, even when one switches styles mid fight, and do not cease until you can confirm that Ataru is no longer optimal to use." The droid then faced the other Padawan. "Orion Dusk. Your usage of Soresu is acceptable at best. Your movements were controlled, however they were tighter than required, making your moves stiff and slower than normal. As Soresu was originally intended to be used against blaster fire and multiple enemies, speed and fluidity are essential. Recommend relaxing your muscles when not holding back a melee attack, or during a targeted deflection of a blaster bolt in future practices, as to keep your body flexible enough and fast enough to react and defend yourself from any direction necessary."
As the pair nodded to that, Serra spoke up. "Okay then. Let's go again and put what you told us into practice."
JTR-47 was about to reset the chamber, but was soon contacted by someone. "This is JTR-47. What is it that you require?" The person contacting him said his request to the droid. "Understood." He cut the transmission and faced the pair of Padawans again. "Your presence has been requested in the council chamber. Report there immediately."
"The council chamber?" Orion repeated. "The council is requesting us?"
"We better get going then." Keto said as she jogged out of the arena.
"Wait up!" Dusk quickly followed her out.
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST High Council Meeting 0:00 - 2:26]
Over at the high council chamber, Holograms of Master Mace Windu and Grandmaster Yoda were sitting in their seats, while Battlemaster Cin Drallig stood in the center of the room. The three of them waited for the people they requested to see, until finally they arrived. Four Padawan learners entered the room, and Cin spoke up. "Masters, these are the four most capable of my current students. Serra Keto, Orion Dusk, Zule Xiss, and Mak Lotor."
The four of them bowed to the masters before Mace spoke to them. "Padawans. The four of you have been summoned here, because you are the best of your current caliber. As such, the four of you will be given a mission that will take you outside of the temple, and on your own."
"Outside the temple?" Orion repeated, wondering why.
"On our own?" Zule also repeated, sounding a little excited.
"In the lower levels of Coruscant, you will travel to, yes." Yoda stated. "Suspicious activity reported, there has been. All on levels close to one another."
"Normally, we would send in a Jedi Knight or a Master, but all of us are currently being assigned to their designated clone units, and are unavailable." Windu told the Padawans. "However this matter cannot be ignored, and the local police have been unable to identify what is happening down there."
"So you're sending us down to investigate those levels and potentially quell whatever is going on down there?" Serra guessed.
"Your assignment is to gather as much information as you can about whatever is causing the suspicious activity at the level you are assigned to survey." Drallig stated. "You will then immediately report back to the Jedi Temple with the information you find."
"What should we do if any of us run into trouble?" Lotor asked.
"Resolve the situation as best as you can, but do not go looking for trouble." Cin answered. "You may be the best of your caliber, but remember that you are all still Padawans. You still have much to learn and improve on."
"You have your orders. Now head outside of the temple gates. There will be speeders waiting to take you to your assigned destinations." Mace instructed.
"Yes, Masters." The four Padawans replied in unison before taking their leave.
"May the force be with you, Padawans." Yoda said to them before they left the council chamber.
As the four Padawans were on their way out of the temple, Xiss spoke up. "Finally, some action. I'm sick of being cooped up in the temple, doing the same lessons over and over again."
"Do you not use your free time to learn your own lessons?" Dusk questioned.
"What else is there to learn?" The female falleen responded. "Swing your lightsaber this way. Use the force that way. Keep the peace. The wording may be different, but it's just those three lessons on repeat."
"And people say that I'm prideful." Keto commented.
"You do have a habit of showing off your saber skills during practice." Mak pointed out.
"He's got you there, Serra." Orion agreed with his fellow male human.
"I'm just confident in my abilities." Keto stated.
"Your last match should prove otherwise, considering Dusk beat you." Zule said.
"She's still ahead of me, Xiss." Orion said.
The four of them reached the outer gates of the temple and saw four speeders with droid drivers in them. "Time to begin our first solo missions." Lotor said as she entered one of the speeders.
The other three followed her lead and entered in their own speeders and the four were soon transported away from the Jedi Temple and off towards one of the many entrances to the Coruscant Underworld.
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST The Arrival 0:00 - 2:13]
Each Padawan was sent down to specific levels to investigate unusual activity that was reported there. Zule Xiss was assigned to level 2001, in the Arans district. Serra Keto was assigned one level below that, in Kelsall district. Mak Lotor was assigned two levels below, in the Ibens district. And Orion was assigned one level below that, in the Acora district.
In the Arans district, nothing eventful was really happening. The occasional vandalization of property, via painting rather vulgar words on the wall was spotted, but that isn't suspicious, as it is more harmlessly annoying. The few public places that Zule entered weren't really suspicious either. A few food courts, a stun tag arena, and a makeshift speeder racing track, all of which were populated, but not really lively during the day. It picked up a bit at night, but that was because of groups of rebellious teenagers just doing whatever they wanted to express themselves. Xiss reported on her comm line. "Nothing suspicious is happening on my end. Just dumb kids being dumb kids."
In the Kelsall district, it was quiet as well during the day and night. Not much paint on the walls, but there were plenty of posters for some random advertisement of something or other. Some looked a little more shady than others, but when Serra went to the locations advertised on these posters, she just found financially poor folk trying to sell whatever junk they had on them. It was just sad. Keto reported on her wrist comm. "All I'm seeing here is people trying to sell off their junk for credits. None of them have malicious intent. Some greedy folk, but they're all harmless."
In the Ibens district, it was a bit lively during the day. Some locals there seemed to have organized a neighborhood watch and they were keeping the streets mostly clean. They stopped a few fights and while the members of the watch did carry blaster pistols, the law didn't prohibit them from having these, and they all kept them set to stun. The members were also pretty respectable people and they usually reported to law enforcement whenever anything suspicious was happening. At night, it was mostly quiet, with just a few watch members patrolling the streets and checking for anything out of the ordinary. Some of them were unsure of Mak, but once the Padawan introduced himself and explained his intentions, the watch was fine with him being there. Lotor reported on his comm. "This neighborhood is actually well kept. A neighborhood watch is set up here and they're doing their job well."
In the Acora district, Orion walked around and nothing was out of the ordinary during the day. A few street performers. Some holoprojectors displaying some advertisements for some...venereal entertainment. And a few groups of people standing around some garbage bins with the garbage inside set on fire to act as a makeshift bonfire. During the evening not much changed. As Dusk walked down a bridge platform that was near some industrial silos, he gave his report. "Everything is quiet down here, Master. Nothing unusual to report. Are you sure my presence here is necessary?"
Cin Drallig was then heard on the comm line. "A Jedi must be patient, Orion. All will present itself in good time." He told him. "You may all return to the Jedi Temple, but be careful. The hour is late and the lower sectors are not always safe during the evening."
"Yes, Master." The four of them said in unison on the comm before they all ended their transmissions.
Orion then spoke to himself. "There's an Elcor transport station nearby. I can probably..." He couldn't finish that sentence as a rodian with a blaster in his hands was now in front of him.
"No. No, mikyuna cheekee huermo." The rodian pointed the blaster in an effort to deter Dusk, but the Padawan responded by activating his lightsaber. "Ahh! Jedi!" The Rodian turned around and began to flee.
[Silence]
As the rodian fled, Orion deactivated his saber, and gave chase. The thug might be scared, but he still had a loaded blaster that he was willing to use against people. As he pursued the rodian, he turned a corner and was face to face with two Kubazians who swung at him with knives in their hands. Dusk ducked and dodged the attacks before reigniting his blade to deflect a blaster bolt from the rodian's weapon back at the shooter, taking him out. The two Kubazians didn't stop their attacks however, and Orion was forced to dispatch them too. "Well that wasn't very nice."
"Help!" The sound of a man was heard nearby, prompting Dusk to investigate that as well.
What the Padawan saw was a kyuzo holding a gun to a human male while a weequay had a knife in his hands and spoke to the human man they were threatening. "Yducha grubo huermo." The weequay went to stab the man, but Orion jumped in and spin kicked the weequay in the head, knocking him over to the railing of the bridge platform before the kyuzo opened fire in an attempt to kill the boy, only to get his blaster bolt deflected back at him and die from the shot. "Soong Jedi!" The weequay ran off.
Dusk deactivated his blade and tended to the man he helped. "Are you okay, sir?"
"Thank you, Jedi." The man thanked him.
"I need to go after that guy. Get someplace safe." Orion told him.
"It's not safe anywhere here at night." The man told the Padawan. "These thugs have been terrorizing us for weeks."
"Where are the authorities stationed here?" Dusk questioned.
"Haven't seen em since these thugs started showing up." The man replied.
The sound of blaster fire was then heard up ahead as well as a roar of some sort. Orion was already on the alert and got ready to leave. "Stay out of sight."
"Alright. Be careful." The man warned him before finding a place to hide.
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST Gas Leak 0:45 - 1:22]
Up ahead was the cause of the commotion. Two aqualesh, one holding a gaffi stick, and the other holding a blaster were busy helping a klatooinian with a blaster and a twi'lek with a knife try to kill a wookiee that was defending an ithorian and a bith from the thugs. The two thugs with melee weapons were slowly pushing the wookiee into a corner, while the two thugs with blasters had their guns trained on the ithorian and bith, ready to mug the pair. The two thugs with melee weapons soon got the wookie to his knees and the aqualesh raised his gaffi stick, ready to bash the wookiee's head in.
However, the gaffi stick was cut in two, as a blue blade spun through the weapon, before being called back to who threw it. Dusk dashed past the pair with melee weapons and reached the two thugs with blasters. Before the pair could shoot the civilians they were about to mug, Orion cut through both of their backs, killing them instantly.
While the aqualesh and twi'lek were distracted with the sudden appearance of the Jedi, the wookiee kicked the aqualesh in the back hard enough to send him over the edge of the bridge platform to fall to his death, before grabbing the twi'lek by his lekku and threw him over the edge as well. The wookiee then let out a mighty roar, before approaching the Jedi who saved him.
[Silence]
"Are you okay, big guy?" Orion asked the wookiee, who responded to him in his native tongue. Thanks to the padawan's research of other languages, he knew what the wookie said. "That's good to hear."
The wookiee then continued to speak in his native tongue, telling the padawan about what he knew here and what he was doing. "You were being hunted by these thugs for a while now? And after seeing them drag some woman away, you tried to stop them? What direction did they take this woman you spoke of?" The wookiee pointed to an intersection just ahead and over in the direction of where the Elcor transport station would be. "Thank you. Find a place to hide, and I'll go searching for this woman you spoke of." However, the wookiee did not wish to follow those instructions, instead telling the boy that he would assist him in this endeavor, as repayment for saving his life. "You don't need to do this. Your life would be at risk again." However the wookiee was adamant about his choice. Dusk conceded. "Very well. We'll watch each other's backs."
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST You're Under Arrest 0:28 - 1:47]
As the pair reached the intersection, Orion got on his comm line. "Master Drallig, this is Padawan Dusk. I've encountered what is possibly the source of the suspicious activity. Multiple armed thugs have been terrorizing the district I am in for the past few weeks, and are occupying it after the local law enforcement had stopped patrolling through it. I am currently making my way to the Elcor transport station, however these thugs seem to be almost everywhere, and are not afraid to attack me, in spite of revealing myself to be a Jedi."
"That is most troubling to hear." Cin responded on the comm. "Try to assist any civilians you come across however you can, but your priority is to return to the Jedi Temple to report this to the council."
"Yes, Master. I will..." He was interrupted by a gran with a large wooden club charging at him.
"I'll smash your SKULL!" The gran yelled out, alerting a few more thugs that were with him. Orion activated his saber and swung at the wooden club cutting it in two and rendering the gran unarmed, but he didn't back down and tackled the Padawan to the ground. "Die, skum!" However the wookiee that accompanied Dusk grabbed the gran by the head and threw him face first to a metal wall, leaving a splatter of blood on it as, ironically, his skull was smashed from the impact. The wookiee helped the boy up and were about to continue their way forward, but were soon stopped by the others that were with the gran that was just dealt with by them.
Three more thugs came into view, a kubaz with a blaster, a weequay with a shock baton, and a kyuzo with a pole with a knife tied onto it, making a makeshift spear. The kubaz opened fire on Orion who blocked the blaster bolts shot at him away, while the weequay and kyuzo attacked the wookiee. However the Padawan used the force to push the weequay into the kyuzo, knocking them both off balance long enough for his wookie companion to grab them both by the heads and slam them into one another, concussing them. Dusk then used the force to throw the still activated shock baton that the weequay had into the kubaz, electrocuting it unconscious.
The pair then saw a rodian who was clearly with the gang turn around and run in the direction they were heading, most likely to get back up. So the two of them ran after him, but not before the wookiee picked up the blaster that the kubaz had. They followed the rodian down an alleyway on the walkway, until another rodian and a zabrak with blasters came into view, who shot down the alleyway towards the pair, making Orion defend them from the blaster fire. The rodian that they were chasing turned around and also opened fire, but he was the first to fall as the Jedi deflected a blaster bolt at the thug's chest. Then the wookiee took a shot at the zabrak, landing a shot on the man's horned head. The last rodian then took off. "Lo boska! Lo boska!"
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Zam Chase Pt. 1 1:16 - 1:44]
Just around the corner, a female mirialan sporting long black hair with red highlights was pressed against a wall by a nikto and duro, who both had knives in their hands. The nikto had the blade of his knife on the woman's throat while the duro was slowly moving his blade over to the woman's blue undershirt that she had on under an open brown sleeveless vest, tucked into her black pants, planning on cutting it open to see the 'goods' underneath. However, the pair soon got distracted when they heard footsteps approaching them and they saw a panicking rodian run towards them. The nikto had unintentionally moved his knife away from her throat, giving the mirialan an opportunity she needed.
She headbutted the duro that tried to strip her, making him lose his grip on her, allowing her to use her now free arm to punch the nikto in the jaw, before grabbing his knife and kicking him towards the rodian. She saw the duro regain his footing and come to stab her, but she managed to avoid the attack and counter with a stab of her own, piercing the back of the duro's head and leaving the knife in there, before grabbing the other knife from the now dead body's hand. The rodian was about to shoot her, but then a blaster bolt came from behind the two and shot the rodian in the back, making him drop dead. Before the nikto could tell what had happened, another blaster bolt came and nailed him in the chest, taking him out as well.
[Silence]
Getting the idea that she might not be safe with a weapon in her hands, she dropped the knife and put her hands up, seeing a human male and a wookiee come into her view. She immediately spoke up in basic. "Don't shoot! I'm not with them!"
Orion and the wookiee noticed the mirialan and the wookie spoke up in his native language. Dusk then responded to him. "This is the woman you saw getting dragged away?" The wookie nodded. He then spoke to her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, but who are you supposed to be?" The mirialan replied.
The Padawan then spoke to her. "Miss. I'm Orion Dusk, a member of the Jedi Order. I was told about suspicious activity in this sector and was sent to investigate."
"Well, Jedi. I'm not the only woman who was snatched by these sleemos." She told him while grabbing the knife she dropped earlier. "My twin sister was also taken, and I was trying to get her back before this blue bastard and his spike faced friend stunned and dragged me here."
"Do you know where your sister was taken to?" Dusk questioned her.
"Not exactly, but I have a pretty solid guess." She said as she picked up the blaster that the dead rodian had and inspected it, deciding to keep it to defend herself. "Before those two decided to take me here, they were going to take me to the Elcor transport. My guess is that they took my sister there too and are planning on using the transport to take her someplace else that these freaks hang out."
"Then we better hurry." Orion said. "The next Elcor transport is departing soon. We might be able to get to your sister before she is taken if we move fast."
"Alright then." The mirialan was on board with the idea. "I'm Shu, by the way."
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Shu." Dusk said to her, before the wookiee spoke his name as well to the Padawan. "And to you as well Wradar."
A.N. The names are pronounced as follows [Shu as (Shoo)] and [Wradar as (Ra dar)]
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Zam in Pursuit 0:00 - 3:15]
The three of them left the alleyway and made their way through the upper bridge platforms of the district, but were soon stopped when they heard the screams of helpless citizens below them. A female tholothian and a male togruta were being chased by a gand with a knife and an aqualesh with a metal bat. Orion knew he had to help them, and spoke to his two allies. "I'll meet you up ahead."
"Got it." Shu said while Wradar roared in agreement. "See you soon."
Dusk jumped off the upper bridge platform and landed on the floor below. He dashed over to the togruta and cut the aqualesh's weapon in two, before force pushing the thug to the wall and knocking him out. "Find a place to hide!" He told the togruta who quickly found a spot under a ramp to stay under for the time being.
Orion then ran as fast as he could, quickly closing the distance between himself and the gand who was about to cut into the tholothian that he caught up to. The Padawan jumped and drop kicked the gand off of the female tholothian, and towards a trash bin that was being used as a bonfire. Some of the blaze had snagged onto the gand's clothes and the thug began to run away in a panicked frenzy as his clothes were on fire and he couldn't quickly get them off.
As Dusk helped the tholothian up, who quickly ran over to a nearby pile of crates to hide herself, more blaster fire could be heard up above, as Shu and Wradar were in the middle of a shootout with five more armed thugs. A quarren, a selkath, a rodian, a kubaz, and a nikto had the two of them pinned down at an alleyway above. Orion knew he had to get up there fast, but he couldn't force jump from where he was and reach them. He had to take the long way.
The Padawan found the closest ramp that would take him up to their level and sprinted as fast as he could. When he reached the upper section of the district, he continued his sprint down the bridge platforms, almost reaching his allies. As he made his way there, Shu had managed to land a shot on the chest of the kubaz that was shooting at her, while Wradar managed to blast the rodian in the stomach. The two of them then noticed their Jedi ally approaching from behind the thugs and stopped shooting.
Before the three remaining thugs could figure out why those two stopped shooting at them, Orion had reached their position and slashed the blaster in the kubaz's hand, before axe kicking the selkath's head to the floor, knocking him out. As the kubaz pulled out a knife and the quarren was about to shoot the Padawan in the back. Shu and Wradar each took a shot and blasted the two thugs, taking them out.
As the three of them regrouped, an announcement went off on the PA system. "Elcor transport departing." The three of them looked and saw the Elcor transport, which had multiple different alien species, including an unconscious female mirialan that looked similar to Shu, but had shorter hair and wore black and yellow, instead of brown and blue, depart.
"NO!" Shu saw her sister in there with the crowd of thugs. She ran past her allies and up the ramp that led to the Elcor transport's tracks, but the transport was already gone by the time she reached the spot, and she was instead greeted by many unfriendly faces. "GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER, YOU BASTARDS!" She shot at and killed a kubaz and a rodian that tried to shoot her first, but weren't as quick on the trigger as her. She then turned and shot at a klatooinian, but the thug had an energy shield that absorbed her shots. A duro with a blaster then shot at her, but she tucked and rolled out of the way before shooting the duro in the head. She was about to shoot at a melitto that was pointing his blaster at her, but was tackled from the back by a male human thug. He was about to shoot her, but was blasted in the back by Wradar, who along with Dusk had made it up the ramp to support her.
Shu pushed the dead human body off of her, but got her blaster knocked out of her hand by a gran with a wooden bat. She pulled out the knife she took from before and dodged another swing from the gran before slashing at the thug's chest twice, making him back up. She didn't let him get off that easy though, as she pursued him and stabbed him in the chest.
Meanwhile, Orion had ignited his blade and was busy deflecting blaster bolts from the melitto as well as a nikto, deflecting the bolts back at the pair before blocking an attack from a trandoshan with a metal mace. However, something surprised the Padawan. His lightsaber didn't cut through the mace. The trandoshan laughed before speaking to him. "Ssssss. Nice try, Jedi. But the Black Heth isn't afraid of your laser swords anymore."
Dusk was confused, as he had never heard of this so-called 'Black Heth' until now, but he couldn't focus on that, as he was kicked back by the trandoshan, who then pulled out an ACP shotgun and fired at him. The Padawan dodged the scattershot, before closing the distance again and slicing the shotgun in two. The lizard attacked with his metal mace again, but the Jedi blocked it with his saber. The two pushed against each other, but the boy noticed something that his opponent didn't. The part where his saber was hitting his mace was starting to heat up.
Wradar meanwhile, shot down a twi'lek, a nikto and a bothan that were trying to shoot at him and Shu. The wookiee then shoulder bashed a weequay who tried to get close with a metal rod, before shooting the thug while he was down. He noticed an aqualesh with knuckle dusters and a quarren with a gaffi stick charge at him, closing the distance and making Wradar fight up close. He backhanded the quarren off the Elcor transport platform, before taking a punch from the aqualesh's knuckle dusters, and retaliating by bashing the thugs head with the bud of his blaster, before shooting the thug point blank in the chest, taking out the last of the thugs that were near him.
Shu meanwhile was finishing up on her side as well. After stabbing the gran in the chest, she took his bat and bashed the klatooinian with an energy shield's head, before taking his energy shield and using it to defend herself from a weequay and selkath that tried to bash and slash her with a hammer and knife. She shield bashed the weequay with the hammer away before bashing the selkath with the wooden bat so hard that it snapped in two, concussing the thug, before grabbing the knife he had and using it to fight against the weequay. After blocking and shield bashing him again, she pressed her attack and slashed at the thug's throat, taking him out.
Orion meanwhile had an idea and began to execute it. After pushing the trandoshan off of him, he slashed at the mace again, striking the spot that was heated up, noticing it get hotter. He then did it again, and again, figuring out a potential way to break this durable mace. As soon as the trandoshan noticed however, it was too late, as the burning metal began to bend his mace out of shape until it snapped off, leaving a handle with a pointed burning metal tip where his mace used to be. He tried to stab Dusk with the broken weapon, but his hand was cut off by the Padawan's saber, making him yell out in pain, before dropping to his knees.
[Silence]
"You Jedi welp." The trandoshan growled out before trying to swipe at the boy with his claw, only to get kicked to the floor.
"Where are you taking that woman?" Orion questioned him.
"There's only one track. Work with that. Heh heh. ACK!" His chest was stomped on by Shu.
"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HER?!" She demanded to know.
"Tell us now while you still have a chance to live." Dusk threatened.
"Sssss. That's not your Jedi way, killing an unarmed life form." The lizard replied.
[Play Star Wars Return of the Jedi OST Bounty for a Wookie 0:00 - ]
"Who said I was going to kill you?" The Padawan pointed out before Wradar grabbed the trandoshan by the neck and began to squeeze. "You seem to be the leader of this former group of troublemakers, which means that it was likely you who ordered them to hunt down this wookiee here. Plus, you just kidnapped this mirialian's sister. They both have good reasons to kill you. And as a Jedi, I have to preserve peace. Peace that you and your group here was disturbing. So letting them kill you would actually be beneficial."
The trandoshan, now realizing that his life was actually in extreme danger, quickly broke. "Alright! Alright! I'll talk! I'll tell you whatever I can! And then I'll leave town! I swear! Just don't let them kill me!"
Orion nodded to Wradar and the wookie let go of the thug, letting him catch his breath. Dusk was glad that the lizard didn't call his bluff. He wouldn't have let the guy die, but he needed to know as much as he could, so he could report this to the Jedi. "Now talk. Where are those members of yours taking her sister?"
"To an abandoned construction site, in the Verity district." The trandoshan answered. "We use it as a base, ssssss to store weapons, prisoners, basically anything that we could sell to whoever was interested."
"And this Black Heth you mentioned. How far is this gang spread?" Dusk asked.
"We only have that construction site, this district, and a landing platform that I don't know about where we do business and receive weapons." The lizard replied. "We were about to branch out to other districts after we received another shipment from our last clients."
"What clients?" Orion wanted to know.
"I don't know." The thug said. "I'm not in charge of that stuff. Sssss I just ran things down here."
"Anything else you can tell me about your gang?" Dusk asked.
"What you saw here, sssss was just the tip of the spear." The trandoshan stated. "My group didn't have any explosive weapons, and only I had a weapon that could block your fancy lightsaber. But I can bet all the credits in the galaxy that if you try to storm your way into our base, your Jedi weapon won't save you."
"We'll see about that." The Padawan then knocked the lizard out.
"Next Elcor transport arriving at station." The PA system announced, as another Elcor transport arrived.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST The Parting Gift 0:00 - 0:28]
Orion looked at the pair who helped him get here and told them what he was going to do. "I need to report these findings to my masters at the Jedi Temple. They will know what to do with it."
"While you do that, I'm going to go after my sister." Shu told him. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for anyone while she's being held captive by those scug suckers." However Wradar was against her going alone. "If you're so worried, then come with and watch my back."
"The two of you can't go after her alone." Dusk said. "You'll be captured or worse killed. Just let me report to my masters, and I promise, they will make sure that your sister is liberated from them."
"I'm still going." She was adamant about that. "If your masters want to help, then they better show up at nightfall, because that's when I'm going to get her back."
The three of them then boarded the Elcor transport and left the Acora district.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST The Jedi Council 1:11 - 2:02]
Orion and the other Padawans had made it back to the Jedi Temple and gave their individual reports to Master Drallig, Windu and Yoda in the council chambers. When Dusk gave his report however, the masters had realized that whatever was happening down there was worse than what they had thought. "Weapons that can endure multiple lightsaber strikes? Being sold to common thugs?" Cin repeated.
"Whoever these criminals are receiving their shipments from must know where to get this material if they are able to sell it to just anybody." Mace said.
"Urgent, this matter has become, yes." Yoda stated. "But too far are we, to handle the matter."
"That is true, Master Yoda." Windu replied. "However, if this Black Heth is allowed to continue receiving these weapons from these mysterious arms dealers, then Coruscant will become a battleground in itself, which we cannot afford."
"You're not suggesting that we send out this Padawan again, are you?" Drallig realized.
"Afraid, no choice, we have." Yoda said. "Proven capable, Padawan Dusk has, with fighting the Black Heth. And alone, he will not be. For his two allies he made whilst fighting the criminals, at the construction site, will they be, by nightfall."
"What about sending the police force?" Cin suggested.
"If the Black Heth does indeed use that site as a base, then if the police force is sent, then they could easily use the prisoners they have there as hostages to barter with as well as erase any potential data they have on where they got these weapons." Mace pointed out. "If we want to stop this before it's too late, then we must be covert. We cannot make the same mistakes that we made at Geonosis here."
Knowing what was going to come next, The Padawan mentally prepared himself for his next mission outside of the temple.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST End Credits 0:00 - 0:52]
You can thank the extreme abundance of Star Wars content for me being in a Star Wars mood. So, now comes the origin story of Orion's arm. (Or as I like to call this, the Origin of Orion ark) As you can already tell, I wrote this like I was writing an actual episode of Star Wars The Clone Wars, title theme, fortune cookie advice at the beginning and all, as well as the end credits music at the end. Anyways, This chapter takes heavy influence from the Star Wars Obi-Wan game, and also has characters from the Star Wars Republic Comics, as well as from the Revenge of the Sith Video Game, in the form of the other Padawans that were present in the chapter. I plan to make use of the other members of the 'Padawan Pack' as well as Serra in future chapters of the Origin Of Orion ark, but they are not the only comic and EU Jedi that will be part of the story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and until I decide to upload again. ;)
P.S. Here is a link that will show you Shu and Wradar's designs. Just replace the , with . and the ; with :
https;/www,deviantart,com/xthe-oc-maniac/art/Shu-Iwara-and-Wradar-914328940