Star Wars: Fugitives

[Chevron 7 locke]

"I see you're finally up and about. Care explaining who you are?"

 

The only respons Jolee had was to roll slightly on his left side and then snore rather loudly. The old man was having a bit of a nightmare.

 

"No Mission...damn it! I don't have any hair for you to color!"

 

Jolee snored again and then rolled back into his original position. His tired old bones were finally comfortable enough for him to get some long desired sleep.

 

"No...stay away! Don't even think about it...stay away from me when your holding that!"

[The Betrayer]

"What has happened?", asked Arken Phoenix, still struggling to open his eyes.

"I found you in the sewers. I suspect you have been there for quite some time. Five days, give or take."

"Five days? What has happened since then?"

"Due to your absence and the capture of two thugs who apparently were to blame for your 'demise', the Jedi Grand Master Bastila has taken control of the Republic. She has told people that she 'sensed' your death. And people do not know better than the Jedi."

Arken Phoenix was shocked. All his power, stripped in one day.

"Wh-who are you?", said Arken Phoenix.

"You can call me Zhar. We are the same you see, people believe us both to be dead."

"The famed Zhar Lesti-"

The stranger who identified himself as Zhar cut Arken short.

"I must leave now. I am leaving you a few hundred credits. I expect your eyesight to recover in an hour. Then, find the Ebon Hawk, and you might live to be Supreme Chancellor again. Farewell, Arken Phoenix."

[Ataris]

Drayden nodded, and was about to respond, when he heard someone talking on the other end of the Ebon Hawk. He smiled at the Exile.

 

"It seems you're getting new stowaways all the time."

 

Walking quietly over to the disturbance, he saw the old black man from before lying in the bed of one of the sleeping quarters, with the blue Twi'lek watching.

[Chevron 7 locke]

((I'm actually in the cockpit right now, sleeping in one of the chairs.))

[Jedi_Man]

(I was shocked at one of the posts, so I forgot to post)

Sam'kil followed the Exile.

"Tysyacha, you said you had a mission for me? Give me the specifics and I'll be off in a jiffy." Sam'kil told her.

[Tysyacha]

The Exile smiled. "Your mission is to go to Coruscant and find Bastila Shan, the new Grand Master of the Jedi Order. There, try to either drive her mad or convince her to give up her power-mad and deathmongering ways." She sighed heavily. "I still believe she can be saved, but it will take a miracle."

[Cyborg Ninja]

Pyscho shook his head and began to walk around the ship. All this info he just shared made him feel all weird inside. He turned to his two comrades.

 

"Alright, enough with the sharing stuff. I can just you guys, and you guys can trust me that's all that matters. Can we get another location check on the Exile with the force Chandria. I want to know exactly where she is on Ord Mantell or if she's already moved on."

 

He walked over to his crate of weapons.

 

Don't worry my babies, soon...soon.

[CommanderQ]

Gelvik brought the ship out of hyperspace.

 

"Well...here we are at Ord Mantell, let's just hope we'll catch the bounty before she leaves...."

 

He piloted the ship down to the surface, landing without problem.

 

"I'm thinkin' we should talk to the Criminal Underworld on this sort've of thing...they always seem to know something."

[The Betrayer]

[Where's the Ebon Hawk now? My char wants to tag along]

[Chevron 7 locke]

((In hyperspace from what I'm aware of.))

[Tysyacha]

"You already know what you have to do. Just look inside yourself..."

 

Indeed. Tysyacha Dvyx did know what she had to do after spending much time in the starboard dormitory, which she now shared with Niera, meditating. However...how could she? How could she turn herself in to the Jedi Master she had met, and then the Coruscanti authorities, and then the taskmasters who would set her to eight years at hard labor, at least?

 

She couldn't. She wouldn't. Not when there was Bastila to deal with.

 

The Exile decided she'd had the last straw after checking T3-M4's incoming data. The Grand Master of the Jedi Order had demanded one million credits for the continued privilege of avoiding capture. A million credits! Was Bastila greedy or crazy?! At this point, Tysyacha had to assume she was both. She called everyone to her in the Main Hold of the ship. Turning on the holoimager, she had it display Coruscant. "We have a problem," she announced, "and it is the Jedi Order."

 

After rising solemnly, she said, "Perhaps it is not the Order itself, or at least not everyone who calls him- or herself a Jedi. The problem is its cold, illustrious, and utterly insidious new Grand Master: Bastila Shan. She has been running the Order with an iron hand, which is not the Jedi way. It never has been. Her new recruits are learning her teachings, and if they master them, there will indeed be no hope for the galaxy if the Sith arrive. Despite what Bastila herself may think, the truth is that the Jedi will be Sith!"

 

She paused dramatically to let that sink in for a moment. Sadly, Tysyacha continued, "She has also been blackmailing me. I, my fellow comrades, am a murderer." Briefly, she told the story of how she'd killed the Jedi spies on Eriadu, believing them to be bona-fide members of the Exchange. "I am sorry for what I have done, but I cannot surrender myself unto the law. I must try--we must all try--to defeat Bastila Shan and what she has become."

 

She held out her arm, with the palm of her hand down. "Who stands with me?"

[Chevron 7 locke]

((Uh, I was left behind when Juhani bought time for the Hawk to escape, Now I'm flying to Coruscant in a stolen freighter. Didn't you see my post?))

 

Juhani busied herself with the controls as her stolen freighter dropped out of Hyperspace and headed straight for the brightly glowing planet in front of her.

 

"This is the Freighter Alvota with supplies designated for the Jedi Temple. Requesting permission to land."

 

"Permission granted Alvota. Have a safe journey."

 

"Thank you. I intend to. Alvota out."

 

Juhani quetly blanketed her presence with the force and then set the freighter down on the planet below near the Jedi Temple.

 

The hunt was begining at last.

 

Ebon Hawk

 

Jolee yawned and then slowly got up out of the chair that had served as his bed for a few hours and then quietly snuck into the medbay and searched for the little stash he had left there all those years ago.

 

Where is it? Where did I put that damn th- Ah!

 

With small tears of joy forming in his eyes he pulled out a large bottle of Dantooine Fire-whisky and gave it a look over.

 

Beautiful...It's been allowed to age perfectly for nine years and it looks like no has touched it.

 

He pulled a small glass out of the compartment and poured a small shot of the whisky into the glass and then took a small sip of it and a wide grin appeared on his face.

 

Damn good.

 

He walked into the hold where most of the crew was now gathering. He shrugged and got in line.

 

"Who stands with me?"

 

Jolee nodded. "The name is Jolee Bindo kid and I think you need to think about this. Bastila is the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, You don't just claim that title, you have to be the best at nearly everything to claim that title. Taking down Bastila would be like fighting the entire Jedi order at once. We need some sort of plan."

[Tysyacha]

((Sorry! Fixed!))

 

Bastila Shan sensed something was wrong. No--sensed was not quite the right word. She knew something was wrong. Someone was coming to hunt her...an old friend, a trusted ally who had once been with her and traveled with her. Now, that ally, long forgotten because Bastila had more important matters to attend to at the time--and more important people--was coming to take her revenge. No matter. The Grand Master would soon dispatch her, or else put her in her place. The Temple always needed laundresses, floor polishers, file clerks, and other menial personnel who were one step up from a droid. This one deserved to be one of them, and nothing more. Either that, or she deserved to be dead. There was no other way.

 

Calling the Knights and Padawans to her through the intercom system, she instituted an emergency fifteen-minute assembly. The title? "Vigilance."

 

"The Jedi have had many enemies throughout the course of its history," she said, "and, next to the Sith, there have been none deadlier than those who have wanted revenge upon the Order. Indeed, many of these seekers of perverted justice have become Sith, but not all. I want you to watch. I want you to keep your eyes open for those rogues and scoundrels who still call themselves Jedi, but who are nothing but cannoks in a gizka's disguise. If you see them, fight them. Simple as that. Or capture them and bring them to me. That is all." She turned and said, "If you fail, you will pay the price."

 

Indeed, everything had its price, and the price for victory was dear.

[Chevron 7 locke]

((Should we include Zhar in the Rp? I feel that he might be useful in taking down Bastila.))

 

Juhnai had managed to get up on one of the Balconys right before Bastila had begun her speech.

 

That shutta...How dare she call me a traitor! She is the traitor here...She has warped the beautiful image that the order one represented.

 

Juhani grabbed a voice amplifier and spoke the words through the intercom that others perhaps did not speak simply due to fear.

 

"Member of the Jedi Order...I ask you to hear my words. I was a Jedi who fought in the War against Darth Malak and I knew Bastila from that time. She was not like this. She was kinder and she followed the path of the Jedi. But what I see now...is a shell. A shell of the jedi she once was. She once said...The jedi do not kill their prisoners and that no one deserves execution...no matter what their crimes."

 

She took a deep breath and continued.

 

"And yet Bastila executed a prisoner just a few days ago. She designed a machine to kill! Bastila...left me alone for nearly seven years on Nar Shaddaa...so she could gain power. I was beaten, I was shot at and I fought with a Dark Lord of the Sith. And yet Bastila never even made an attempt to find me."

 

She took another deep breath.

 

"Bastila Shan has fallen, she just hasn't realized it yet. What kind of a Jedi blackmails a Jedi on the run? What kind of Jedi lets her prey escape justice on purpose?"

[Alkonium]

"We need stealth. We barge into the Jedi Temple, guns blazing, we'll be slaughtered. If we can sneak in, possibly through the vents, we could possibly bypass the defenses and confront Bastila directly, alerting as few Jedi as possible." Niera suggested. "Are there any cracks in the Temple's security that you know of?"

[Tysyacha]

((Sure! I wonder where a good place would be to fit him in...))

 

Bastila Shan's heart seized up. She knew that voice. She knew that tone, and she knew the presence behind it. It was a Cathar maiden, a Jedi, who had once fallen to the Dark Side just as Bastila had. The Grand Master, however, was under the delusion that she was still a Jedi. She called herself "proactive", "heroic", and "more willing to take decisive action against those who would do us harm". She called herself "a true Jedi, who will not compromise with cruelty and injustice". More than anything, she called herself a "leader", the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, guardian of peace.

 

She would not let herself be called anything else. She would not be broken.

 

The students--Younglings, Padawans, and Knights alike--all stared at their Grand Master with their mouths agape. Who were they to believe--the one who had taught them? Trained them? Counseled them in the ways of the Force and the Jedi? Or one of these very same so-called "rogues and scoundrels" of which Bastila had so recently warned? Four words would tell:

 

"Stand up and fight!" Bastila's scream reverberated through the hall. She ignited her double-bladed lightsaber, outfitted with a yellow crystal. "Liar! Come out from behind that loudspeaker and face me right now!"

 

Half of the auditorium started dashing out of it. The other half started crying.

 

"She's a Sith!" a Youngling wept.

 

"She doesn't even know it yet!" concurred a Master acting as her mentor.

 

"Get her!!!" No one tried, and no one did. This was from a Padawan.

 

"She's betrayed us!" This Knight's wail, more than anything, said it all.

 

Still, as the Jedi Order crumbled around Bastila, a few rose to her side. Ten Knights, as strong in the Force as they could be at their level of understanding, encircled their Grand Master in a gesture of fierce protectiveness. If the traitor wanted Bastila, she'd have to fight them all.

 

**************************

 

"Let's see," Tysyacha said. "The weakest entrances...are the exits! The garbage and laundry chutes! If we can get into those, and climb up into the Temple through those, then no one will ever suspect! It was one of my favorite things to do as a Youngling."

[Chevron 7 locke]

((I'll find a way to fit him in If I'm the one who controls him.))

 

"Liar! Come out from behind that loudspeaker and face me right now!"

 

Juhani slowly walked down the walkway toward Bastila who had Ten Knights surrounding her, each of them was strong in the force. She passed a weeping youngling and gently put a hand on his head.

 

"It will be alright, why don't you take your master and the other one's out of here. It will be much safer."

 

The youngling sniffed and ran out the door with the last of the Jedi running out. Juhani turned back to Bastila with narrowed eyes.

 

"Bastila Shan...you have fallen to the Darkside. But I am offering you the chance to redeem yourself. I fell once and was saved, and I believe you can be saved as well."

[Tysyacha]

((Let's have this conversation be long, so it will buy the Ebon Hawk and her crew time to get to Coruscant and infiltrate the Jedi Temple. Agreed?))

 

Bastila blinked. She looked at Juhani like a mother would look at a child who had suggested that she, the child, take over household duties and herself become the parent. "You think to save me?" Bastila laughed and laughed, and her merriment was dark and hollow. "How absurd, Cathar whelp! I remember when I first met you back on Dantooine. You pathetically claimed to have 'slain' your Master, Quatra, out of the measure of pathetic anger you had summoned via your training. Not only did you not kill Quatra, but you fell to the Dark Side over that weak supposition!" Her leer was gleeful.

 

"And how, indeed, have I fallen? Whom have I wronged? The Jedi Order? Hardly! Because of my teachings, my students are better-prepared than ever to fight evil. They have learned very advanced combat techniques--Sith techniques--that no other Master before me has ever dared to teach them! I say the only way you can fight evil is to know its tactics firsthand and then use them against your enemies. That is what Revan taught me. Have I wronged the Knights, Younglings and Padawans? Again, I believe not. If you think I have wronged the galaxy, by blackmailing Tysyacha Dvyx and killing that Exchange crime lord in the TIK Machine, you're wrong. They're criminals, and all criminals deserve to be punished. As for Tysyacha? She could have turned herself in at any moment, but she chose not to. Instead, like a coward, she ran and continues to run. I have wronged no one, you rogue..."

[Chevron 7 locke]

"You pathetically claimed to have 'slain' your Master, Quatra, out of the measure of pathetic anger you had summoned via your training. Not only did you not kill Quatra, but you fell to the Dark Side over that weak supposition!"

 

"Bastila...I thought for one brief moment that you could be saved. But I see I was wrong and I'm glad I am. I've been looking forward to making sure you pay for your actions!"

 

"She could have turned herself in at any moment, but she chose not to. Instead, like a coward, she ran and continues to run. I have wronged no one, you rogue..."

 

"You let her go...and now all of your students know the truth. The truth of what you have become."

 

Get Down and cover your ears and eyes Juhani!

 

What?

 

And then Juhani saw them, Dark shapes flying through the ground and landing at Bastila's feet and then a bright white flash filled the room.

 

Come Padawan! We need to move!

 

Juhani ran after the figure who was dressed in a traditional Jedi Robe that had a familiar scent to it.

 

Master Zhar? she thought even as she continued running away from the temple.

[Tysyacha]

A flash grenade?

 

A flash grenade?

 

How could Bastila have let herself be so foolish as to drop her guard enough not to notice the series of missiles that had so suddenly landed at her feet?

 

Covering her eyes, she protected herself against the smoke and light. When she clambered to her feet again, she noticed that Juhani was utterly gone. She turned to the ten Knights that had surrounded her, also standing up. "What are you waiting for?" she hissed. "In the name of the Order, seize them!" They're going straight to the TIK Machine once they're in my hands. There's no way I'm letting these traitors to the Jedi get away...

[Chevron 7 locke]

Juhani kept on running from the temple even as she heard the order over the intercom to capture her and her mysterious rescuer.

 

Is it really possible that this is Master Zhar? I thought he was dead.

 

And then she heard his voice in her head and she knew without a doubt that it was Zhar.

 

Attention all Jedi. This is Master Zhar formally the leader of the Jedi academy on Dantooine. Bastila Shan is not a jedi. I fear that she has fallen to the darkside. Anyone who wants to should flee the temple immediatly. Find someplace to hide until I contact you again.

 

Zhar looked back at her and it was then that Juhani noticed the scar that went down from the top of his head down to his neck.

 

"M-Master Zhar, what happend to you?"

 

"I had a brief encounter with a Sith, I was forced to flee after he scarred my face."

 

Juhani could sense someone following them. "Come Juhani. We must keep moving. Bastila is power hungry and I don't believe she'll tolerate anyone trying to take that power away from her."

[Jedi_Man]

Sam'kil faded out of existence, making his body float through the reaches of space until he reached the Jedi Temple. Appearing in reality, he floated his way up to the tallest center spire.

Moving through the wall, Sam'kil spoke.

"Hello, Bastila, I hope you don't mind if I call you Bassy." He said as he entered. "You've done me a disservice. But I'm here to help you." He tried to convince her.

[Ataris]

The Ebon Hawk was preparing to land on one of the nearby landing pads of the Jedi Temple. Who knows what was going on inside, for there were Jedi streaming out of the large structure. It was very strange.

 

Drayden stepped forward towards the Exile. "I will hide in shadow." He activated his cloak, and, as the landing ramp extended, he bolted out of the ship and ran straight for the temple doors. It didn't matter where he was going. There was only one enemy, and the least he could do was fight alongside his new allies.

 

Bolting through the doors, the ran past the Jedi nearby, all looking at him strangely, but they let him pass, regardless. He heard talking nearby....

[Cyborg Ninja]

Psycho was glad that they had finally landed. He waited for the ramp to drop before stepping out. He took only a few steps before already regretting being here.

 

"I'm thinkin' we should talk to the Criminal Underworld on this sort've of thing...they always seem to know something."

 

"I don't think we'll be doing that... you might want to see this unless you don't like a bunch of bodies." Psycho yelled up to him.

 

He walked over to the first body he spotted. He knelt down and looked at the slash mark in his body. It went all the way through seperating the left arm from the torso. It was to deep to be a vibroblade and too long to be a blaster shot. He looked closer and remembered the mark from long ago...it was the mark of a lightsaber. He placed a hand on the man's body to make sure he was really dead. As soon as his hand made contact with the body his head shot up. Images began to flash in his head. He could feel his body becoming lighter than usual. He began to see things from another perspective; he was in the man's mind. He watched as the man had a stealth generator on him. He was crouched in front of the Ebon Hawk just waiting. The man's eyes shifted to look at the Exile. She was speaking to a Twi'lek and the cathar jedi from before. He listened to them talk about Bastila and their next move. As they moved into the ship the troopers began to decloak one by one. The cathar jedi raced out of the hawk and began taking them down. Pyscho's head shot up again and he was back in his body. He stood up and checked a pulse on his neck to make sure he himself was alive. He walked back to the ship and up the ramp.

 

"Scrath that crime lord thing, set coordinates for Coruscant. She won't get away from us again."

[The Betrayer]

Arken Phoenix noticed the Ebon Hawk near the Jedi Temple, and the commotion occurring there. It did not take him long to put the pieces together. He rushed the to the Republic Senate. At first, the Senate Guards did not let him go in. But when they realized who he was, and how he was still alive, he was let in. He rushed in, interrupting an important Senate meeting. He went in the chambers for the Coruscant Senate, since in the Chancellor's chamber lies the representative of Bastila Shan. The Coruscant Senator, a man with a proud appearance, was shocked at Arken's arrival.

 

Arken pressed the button that will bring forward and elevate the pod he was in. He spoke aloud, "My friends, it is I. The true Grand Chancellor. I was betrayed by this pathetic Grand Master Bastila Shan who coveted my power. But I have it still."

Murmurs surrounded the Senate. Arken pointed at the Jedi in the Chancellor's pod.

"I ask this of those who are still loyal to me: Arrest this fiend, and arrest Bastila Shan. We might yet undo the damage she has done."

And like clockwork, Senate Guards rushed from one pod, hovering towards the Chancellor's pod. They arrested the Jedi, who put up no resistance.

"I need a unit of the Republic's greatest soldiers. For now, it is time for war!"

 

==========================================================

The Chancellor's arrival at the Jedi Temple was timely, as it seemed Bastila and her knights were putting up strong resistance.

 

The soldiers managed to kill all of Bastila's Jedi Knights, and Bastila ran. The Chancellor, taking the lightsaber of one of the fallen Jedi, ran in pursuit.