Saga - ST Night of, well, a fair bit of consternation - Fanon challenge (Hoatzeri)

Night of, well, a fair bit of consternation​

Fanon Challenge - create a story for Raissa Baiard's fanon species, Hoatzeri; and say something about droids.​

Author: Sith-I-5
Timeframe: Between ROTJ and TFA
Characters: Raissa Accoe (teen Hoatzeri femme), canon, Legends, and OCs.
Genre: Drokk knows. Personal survival?
Summary: Master Skywalker leaves Ben Solo in charge of his jedi students. Shenanigans ensue.



Raissa Accoe was out in the jungle at night, like she was every night, while the other students of Grandmaster Skywalker’s Jedi Academy slumbered.

Enabled by her long flexible neck, she poked her head into undergrowth and into bushes, and if she spied one of the myriad grubs or worms, or insects, pecked at it and swallowed it down.

A rumbling sound, like a spacecraft descending from orbit, pulled her up short, head up as far as she could periscope it.

Was Master Skywalker returning from his trip already? They had only seen him off in his X-Wing, a few hours ago!

The Hoatzeri loped through the cooling jungle, splayed feet leaving clawed depressions in the soft mud, till she emerged into a clearing, spying the back of the taller Ben Solo, the teenage son of galactic heroes, General Solo, and Senator Organa-Solo. And also Master Skywalker's nephew.

He didn't like being here, away from civilisation, and had been getting lonely and depressed.

To help out, Master Skywalker had left him in charge while he went off on his two day errand, and she could see that Ben had really benefitted from the show of trust, and extra responsibility.
He had made sure everyone washed, cleaned their teeth, and retired to bed at a sensible hour, quashing several suggestions from the other youngsters that they stay up late now that they had some freedom.

The small hands at the ends of her flightless wings twitched open and shut with indecision as she contemplated joining him.

She was good at unconsciously shielding her Force presence, so there was a chance that he might never learn of her nocturnal wanders, and particularly that she was out of her nest.
On the other hand, fear led to the Dark Side, and being afraid to join him could trigger her journey on that path.

Sighing, she stepped up beside her fellow student, gazing up at the unfamiliar dark silhouette, diffused landing lights spearing down into the leafy copse, as it descended.

"If they are here to see Master Skywalker, they're out of luck." She commented, missing the brown jumpsuited Ben's strangled cry of surprise as he rounded on her.

"Doom?!"

She ruffled her feathers in pleasure at his use of the shortened version of their nickname for her, "Doom for Worms".

"Who are they?" She enquired.

"Th-the Knights of Ren."

Raissa's head swivelled from the ship to Solo at the noticeable change in his tone and aura, then glanced down quizzically as he started to unhook his lightsabre hilt from his equipment belt. "Ben, what're-" She stopped as she felt a strong feeling through the Force, a warning. "Bye!"

The scarlet blade fanned through the space where her neck had been, if she had not blurred away to his right, diving into the bushes, audibly crashing through the shrubbery.

He could hear her looping back towards the Temple. Where the dormitory was.

Solo got onto his comlink, eyes blazing yellow, although he could not see them himself. "We have a problem. One of them did not remain in bed as instructed. I will deal with her myself."

He had an idea that the young avian would either try to warn the others, or go for the pile of emergency comlinks. He had collected the latter of everyone, using the rationale that Master Skywalker wanted them reset, or a frequency added, or something.

Nobody's 'lie sense' seemed to be working that night, or maybe they did not trust themselves enough to deny a direct order from Luke's nephew.

Swivelling on the spot, listening and watching carefully, Solo tried to track his classmate's progress, and anticipating where she would be, thrust forward with his right palm to deliver a powerful Force Push, a trail of plants, grasses and the less hardy trees crunching flat in a near-instant straight line like someone had crashed a landspeeder through it, catching at the far end of the hundred metres, Raissa's thin legs as she dove aside from the effects.

Lit sabre in hand, he set off after her, the Force accelerating his gait, but he knew in his heart, the Hoatzeri was going to outpace him no matter that he tried. "Doom! Get back here! I just want to talk!"


Branches and drooping fronds slapped and scratched at Raissa as she sprinted for her life for the temple, spying the dark stone blocks through the primeval forest, she didn't have to contend with any of this stang at home, which was mostly great swathes of grassland, and if you saw a tree, you transmitted a holo of it to the Hoatzeri Natural History Museum to ask what the hell it was, but then again, she’d have been easy picking for Sad Ben, so swings and roundabouts, two other things Hoatzeri did not have.

Almost blind with panic, Raissa burst into the open ground between the forest edge and the Temple’s main concourse, where in years past, ground vehicles had delivered pilots and fuel.

She ducked her head into the main entranceway and clattered her way to the dormitories, shouting, “WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP! Ben has gone mad, tried to kill me, and a strange ship is landing.”

The first person to emerge into the stone-flagged hallway between the rooms, was the stocky, dark haired human, Gantoris, buckling his equipment belt and lightsabre around his one-piece sleeping suit, unsealed boots flapping about his shins. “Ben’s gone mad, you say?”

 

...continued


She nodded rapidly, “I know it’s hard to believe-”

“No, not really. Bat Shat Loco, that boy.” The older man had not minded Solo being put in charge, and she would not have been surprised if Skywalker had talked the decision over with Gantoris first. “So when you say he was trying to kill you?”

“Slashed at me with his lightsabre, when I caught him in the forest waiting for that ship to land.”

Other students started to appear tentatively in the corridor. “I sense new people.” Said one boy, Brodie, one fist rubbing the sleep from his eye. “They don’t feel friendly.”

Gantoris looked towards them. “Those of you with lightsabres, grab them. Those of you yet to build your own, get to the emergency comlinks, call for help.”

Several of the younger students ran towards Master Skywalker's quarters, which was in a different wing to the dorms. Rather than go with them, for she too had not built a weapon yet, Raissa stubbornly glared at Gantoris. “Call who?” She interjected. “We’re alone on Yavin.”

The Eol Sha colonist counted off gnarled fingers. “Master Skywalker will still be in hyperspace, so call the New Republic. Try to get hold of General Wedge Antilles. Failing that, there were those S.G.I.S. femmes who turned up last year.”

“What, the Rancor Threshold?”

The students went silent. They recalled the visit by the embarrassed girl and her apparent cousin who had walked in from the jungle. Both were from the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service. Though the first woman had been reluctant to repeat the distress code out loud, the students' apprehension and reference to the act of calling them for help as crossing the Rancor Threshold, had been the news that the Service employed a Force Vampire. But not to worry, he did not eat jedi these days.

"Jedi," Solo's reedy tones wheedled up from the forest outside, "come out to play-eeee."

"Rancor Threshold it is then." She turned to go.

"Hurry up and get out of here!" Gantoris called after her. "I can feel them moving to surround us. They mean to box us in." The dark stone walls reflected his amethyst lightblade as it hummed into life behind her.

"He called them the Knights of Ren!" She called back as she raced after the students who had gone for the comlinks, her folded wings helping to bounce her off walls as she careened around corners too fast. "Coming through!" She called as she caught up with the youngsters, narrowly avoiding running over a rodian lad whose holdout blaster was slapping about in the shoulder holster scrunching his patterned pyjama top.

Raissa reached the barely-lit spartan chamber first, finding the assorted pile of personal comlinks laid out on a towel, on top of a knee-high stone block that must have served as a table or pedestal in the Temple's distant past.

Nowadays, the students learning to move objects with the Force, found themselves drafted in to move something like this when a ceiling glowlight needed changing.

The room shuddered to the bright flare of an explosion a couple kilometres away, that was partially visible through one window ahead and to her right, casting additional light into the room as the others caught up with her.

"Damn, they took the hyperspace relay station!" Flit announced, 11-year old Llordian boy, diverting from the comlink pile to stand at the window for a look.

The Rodian kid' shouted a warning and brushed past Raissa to tackle the other window-watcher around the waist, taking him to the floor as an iridescent blue blaster bolt zipped up through the rectangular hole in the stonework where he had been standing and crashed into the ceiling, raining sparks and glowing bits of stone to the flagstones. "What, are you crazy!" The clearly distressed Haddo knelt up and slapped his friend about the head and shoulders, "You could have been killed!"

"Good job, Haddo." Raissa praised, relieved at his quick thinking, since she had just stood frozen by the table, knowing that Flit had not made a wise move. "Now, stop hitting him please. Flit, you need to be more careful."

The Llordian sat up and hugged his Rodian saviour tightly, the latter clearly looking embarrassed at the attention.

"Stay away from the windows." She cautioned the others. Probably unnecessary now, after that rather graphic demonstration of the danger. She leaned a wing towards the rapidly diminishing pile and grabbed a Hush-205 for herself, the flattened oval of grey metal, had a four hundred kilometre range, and should create a white noise zone around her to stop Ben's friends intercepting her calls. "Gantoris said the enemy are moving to box us in. So you need to disperse through the Temple and try to find a way out. I'm going out the window, make my way down the sides."

"I'll cover you." Haddo volunteered, trying to rise out of Flit's hug. "Hey, let go, man."

"Sorry." The Human boy released his grip and sat back.

"Thanks. Grab a comlink, and keep your head down." Haddo pulled his blaster, a DL-18 she knew from earlier conversations. He indicated the open window that the blaster bolt had come through. "But don't use that one, Raissa. They are obviously covering it. Solo must have told them that this is where we would come to collect the comlinks."

"Uh guys?" One of the younger girls, standing close by in her animal print nightdress, right fist closed round an old white-and-silver cylindrical C1 comm unit.

Haddo, Raissa and several others turned to look at her.

"If they know this is where the comm devices are, we better hope they don't have any grenades that they can fire in here."

"Or better yet, an ion cannon." Haddo pointed out, demonstrating again his tactical knowledge. "Wreck all of them in one go. Raissa, Flit, follow me." He swept out of the room, the Hoatzeri shrugging at the other youngsters and junior students, and heading after the young Rodian.

He took them down one level, to a room with windows round the corner from where Solo's juvenile-sounding voice continued to wheedle.

 

...continued


"Stay here." Raissa instructed as they came through the doorway across the empty stone-slabbed room from the outer wall, and without warning, dashed for the second window along, ducking her head below the upper rim, and tucking her feet up into her abdomen just at the moment that she reached it to dart through the gap, almost immediately nosing, or perhaps beaking, downwards to the blocks of dense stone blocks that formed the ziggurat-sloped temple exterior, extending her legs again and just spring off one after the other on her mad descent to the rapidly approaching ground.

Seemed like ages but was probably seconds, she flapped her wings to decelerate and leapt of the last stone to help level out her arrival, claws digging into the grassy loam to launch her into the edge of the jungle.

A scarlet energy bolt crashed out from her front and left, exploding the soaked bole of the tree she was just passing and she fired a retaliatory Force Push in that direction, spying the silhouette of an adult humanoid with a wide-brimmed hat sprawling back into the bushes, flattening several as he landed on them, his thick-barrelled blaster rifle landing amongst the leaves.

Raissa veered towards him, pausing to deliver a swift snap-kick of her three-toed foot into the inverted V of his groin, getting a high-pitched squeal of pain in return, which rather than cheering her, had her widening her eyes and wishing she had just kept going.

He clutched his wounded part and rolled onto his side, all the fight gone out of him. She could feel through the Force that he was not play-acting and waiting for her to turn her back.

She set off again, heading to some caves that she knew, a few miles from the temple, but that was where she planned to call for help from.

Branches and sodden leaves whipped at her, but the surrounding fauna was a determined blur to her, her panic subsided by having an end goal.

She felt stabs of pain, that she knew, she knew, were some of her fellow students being slain.

"I'm calling for help," she whispered as she ran, "I'm calling for help."

****

An unknown amount of time later, she came upon the clearing with the dark-mouthed caves ahead, a rippled surface of dark rock before her, split by a half-metre-wide brook running across her path.

Her limbs felt heavy as she staggered the last couple dozen metres to the cave entrance, and pausing to probe the interior with her Force Sense, she stepped cautiously inside, the sound of her clawed feet scratching the cave floor, loud in the silence.

Raissa scanned the cave's floor and jagged walls with both the Force and her keen eyesight, looking for a tight corner or alcove that she could reverse into and wedge herself into, then use the comlink.

* * * *

No plan survives contact with the enemy, it is true; but that does not mean that precautions cannot be taken.

When SGIS liaison, Samantha Irisa, had spoken to the students the year before, her cousin, Baille Harte, had walked out of the jungle and silently joined her in front of the padawans.

Hidden under foliage and claimed by the flora, lights blinked within the dark cockpit of the Imperial V-Wing starfighter that Baille had reluctantly abandoned there, as her old astromech globe worked out where in the Yavin star system it was, open a circular hatch in the topside and extended a telescopic metal aerial up through a layer of overlapping green leaves, which opened petals that fanned into the metallic bowl of a long-range rectenna, aiming towards a distant star.

* * * *
The Darth Unlucky

Many parsecs away, that same Baille Harte was on a swivel-chair at the communication station of an old Consular-class cruiser, putting the swivel action to good use as she stared up at the ceiling, bored out of her mind.
Her stockinged foot got purchase on the metal wall, and pushed her away for another slow rotation, her long red hair swishing as it hung down the back of the chair.

This job was like being the night shift emergency operator at Ice Station Zerek. No-one called in, not even to report getting their tongues stuck to the keylock of their snowspeeder.

It was night aboard the ship too, but this boring shavit was the only way for her to feel vaguely useful aboard the ship and in her life, rather than getting packed off to bed, hours ago.

"Hello?"

Baille heard the voice, but assuming it was a joke, snapped in tired irritation: "Not funny, Dad. Haven't you got anything better to do?"

"Pardon?"

* * * *
Yavin caves

Doom for Worms, as Ben called her, had appreciated the wan illumination that the glowing palm-sized hologram projected, a circle of empty grey squares with three filled ones of fading opaqueness revolving clockwise; but appreciated it a lot more now that the connection had apparently gone through, with the sight of a tiny red-headed human female in a yellow short-sleeved top with a glossy rainbow motif, sitting up straight in her chair and staring back at her in apparent surprise.

"Oh, bork! You're real!" The young woman in the holo sat back and cupped a hand over an ear as if listening for something, then leaned forwards again, looking shocked. "Well, I'm not being told off for swearing. You are real!"

What an odd test. Raissa thought, not knowing what to say. "Is..is that the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service?"

"What? Oh yes!" The holo-femme leaned back, pressing a finger to the colourful logo stretched over her chest. "Rainbow Rescue Rangers, a division of S.G.I.S. Please state the nature of your medical emergency."

Well, that sounded halfway professional. "The Jedi Academy on Yavin Four has been attacked."

"The what on the what-now?"

Raissa repeated the report, and added that she thought the attackers would be coming for her. "We were told to quote a distress code, but my mind has gone blank."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't recognise it anyway. Clearly a Condition Mauve."

"Mauve?" The Hoatzeri recognised the name of the colour but did not get the significance for this exchange.

"According to Dad, it's the universal colour for emergencies."

This was doing a wonderful job of keeping her mind of her own troubles. "What happened to red?"

The human femme leaned forwards enthusiastically, her chest pressing against the visible portion of desktop. "That's what I said! He'd say, that's just Corellians, and whatever you are..., Hoatzeri I guess. To the rest of the universe, red is camp. Oh, all the confusion; all that dancing." She turned away and yelled, "Dad! We have a Condition Mauve at the Jedi Academy on Yavin Four!"

 

...continued


The avian glanced worriedly towards the mouth of the cave in case the raised volume attracted pursuers. The holo and cave walls brightened a few moments later as a new holo appeared to the right of the woman. A close-up of another alien face, one that she recognised as a Twi'lek - humanoid with braintails - looked straight at her.

"Alright, Blue, fill me in. What has happened?"

"One of the students, Ben Solo, attacked me. Then a ship landed and the people inside proceeded to surround the temple. I got away, but they will be coming after me." She ruffled the feathers on the wing unused wing to get some air trapped for warm, and looked with concern at the two. So far, no-one had said they were sending help."

"Where's Master Skywalker?"

"He left on a business trip a few hours ago. Even if he felt something was wrong, he's probably still in hyperspace."

"Inside job, then. They were waiting for him to go."

"I just said it was Ben Solo!" She re-joined in irritation.

"Okay, calm down, Blue; I'm Agent Nifesta, and this is Agent Harte. You have been very brave, and have to hold on a while longer. We are on the way, but it could take us some hours, so we need to arrange immediate assistance for you. Sweetheart? Patch us in to Headquarters."

"Copy that." Yellow t-shirt leaned to her right and hit a few buttons, and almost immediately another holo-grammatic figure joined the first two, brightening the cave even more.

This was another youthful-looking human femme, short black hair in a pixie-style haircut, expressionless face, white short-sleeved top with the tops of four red capital letters across the front, that Doom was willing to bet spelled out the agency initials. "Mitch! Long time no see! And your little girl!"

"I'm not a little, ah whatever, chut-chut. (never mind)."

Raissa's gaze flicked from one to the other. It was like watching a family reunion, rather than dealing with people who had her safety as their first priority. Still, if this Twi'lek was the Force Vampire, she was less fearful about meeting him by the minute.

"Samantha talks about-"

"Not now, Angeo."

You are preaching to the choir. Raissa sighed, exhaling from the nostril holes in her beak.

"Jedi Academy on Yavin got attacked. Blue here is isolated and in danger. Baille, Honey, can you a headstart, in that new starfighter of yours?"

"Uh...uh..." The girl clearly did not get asked that a lot. Her jaw had dropped even further as she tried to use her words.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Get going. I will catch up in the 'Unlucky . Lim, she's all yours."

The first two holos dissipated, leaving her with the second woman, who immediately identified herself as a Mission Supervisor Angeo Lim, and followed it with some quite definite instructions regarding Clone Wars-era Vulture Droids, and keeping her comlink safe.

* * * *

​

Darth Unlucky

Baille and Mitch Nifesta saw each other in the corridor of a lower deck as he finished shrugging into his habitual tan robes, and she was pulling her t-shirt dress over her head.

"What are you doing?" Mitch enquired with mock indignation, "That's the uniform for rescue ops."

"Well, I cannot very well fly in it, can I?" She had the bundle in her hands, now only in underwear as she passed the older and broader Twi'lek.

"Of course you can; just don't eject." Mitch joked as he passed her, walking backwards as he continued to instruct his adopted daughter. "Now, when you get there, you are doing aerial surveillance, and only if necessary, air support." He wagged a finger as she regarded him. "Do not land under any circumstance."

The Corellian paused and stared back at him. "Why-ever not?"

"Whatever can take down a trained jedi, even partially trained junior versions; you do not...actually, I'll rephrase that, cos you're up for anything-" He registered her slight smile at the remark. "-I do not want you to meet."

"And what is a jedi anyway?"

Nifesta thumbed his own chest. "Similar powers to your Dad. Now, it is possible that whomever has attacked the Academy, could bring your starfighter down as well. So while I see you straining at the bit to get going, make sure you pack whatever you need to go to ground and evade capture long enough for me to get there. You read me?"

She nodded curtly. "Copy that."

"Okay, good luck. May the Force be with you." They both turned to their assignments, Nifesta calling behind him as he reached the turbolift. "And what are you not allowed to do?"

"Land on Yavin?"

"Good girl."

* * * *

Yavin IV

The chrome armoured figure of SG-12 stood enigmatically in the darkness at the foot of the Temple as before him, the Solo boy engaged one of the senior jedi trainees in a lightsabre duel, demonstrating a mixture of his jedi teachings with what he would have learned from Snoke.

The tan-jumpsuited giant lunged forwards, bringing his blue-white lightsabre over his head in a power strike, while Solo stepped backwards and dropped to one knee, slashing Gantoris across the torso as the jedi trainee closed the distance. The blue blade extinguished in an instant, plopping into the wild grass a moment before the slain jedi's upper half, his carbonised innards puffing vapour into the chill night.

"Fine work, Solo." SG-12 commended, nodding at the rising lad. He noted that the young turncoat was breathing hard from his exertions. "No, stay down. Recover your strength. There are enough of us to clean up the rest."

 

...continued


A pained scream drew the former Imperial Saber Guard's attention, and he turned to his left, where Doctor Boneface stood astride the Rodian youngster whom he had pinned to the ground with a Shoni spear through its back, while the stubby-legged Breetmal stood nearby, panting visible breath from its open mouth.
The grey metal implants were light against the bulky canine's dark fur.

SG-12 could not say the Kaleesh warrior's name, but the alien wore a mask of toothed bone, hence the nickname. He had gathered that it had a pathological hatred of both the Empire and the Jedi, the latter for siding with the Kaleesh' mortal enemies, the Huk, during a conflict during the pre-Empire days.

"Izvoshra!" Boneface exclaimed triumphantly to the stars, clenching his fists and arching his back.

"Elite?" SG-12 echoed, recognising one of the few Kaleesh words in his lexicon. "You killed a kid. Big deal." He turned and aimed a gloved finger into the dark jungle. "Now Hattie, he is still jumping on his heels from when that bird kicked him between the legs. Aside from Skywalker, she's the last one."

"Huk." The Kaleesh named his species' mortal enemy for some reason.

"Yeah, I imagine that's what he said, only in a much higher tone." The Saber Guard turned to the forest, his cape wrapping round him as he stared into the crowded foliage. "Follow me. We'll hook up with Hattie, and then go find that slitch."

He stalked into the jungle, using the Force to push the massive leaves and more annoying branches aside from his path.

Twelve did not want to give away his position by igniting his lightsabres to slash a way through, and quickly came upon the Ammuud mercenary, "Hattie" Jakes of the Odoon clan. The hat-loving human was still jumping on his heels and checking between his legs with an un-gloved hand when the Saber Guard came upon him.
Mud, sticks and twigs were all over the back of his dark clothes from where he had been kicked into the undergrowth, and there was sign of struggle around him, with several flattened shrubbery, but that struggle had been with him trying to get up.

"Come on, buddy. Shake it off." Twelve encouraged, unsure how to give succor to someone who had been injured...well...there. "Where did the jedi go? Although that might be a clue." He continued on seeing a golden cigar-shaped shooting star against the dark blue of the night sky, veering out of an almost vertical plummet, and glide across the tops of the trees to the left, but at quite the distance.

Hattie stopped jumping long enough to remind them that the Yavin star system was mostly devoid of life; no help should have gotten here this fast.

"Yeah, thank you, Captain Obvious. Let's go."

The three, and their dog...thing...carved a path through the jungle, tracking the object that had fallen from the sky.

****
Caves

Raissa concealed the comlink under her wing, and crept cautiously towards the mouth of the cave.
Though she was wary of being seen, the headlong run through the jungle had exacerbated the dryness of her throat, and she had seen a thin stream bubbling through the rock ground a few metres in front of the cave.

Accoe glanced round before venturing beyond the mouth of the cave, then, Dunno why I did that. She thought as she trotted across the grey rock to the waterway, and dove her head in, cool water rushing into her open beak. My Force Sense would have told me that something was...coming!

She pulled her head out of the water, blinking it from her eyes to gaze over the myriad trees, where some...glowing thing, size of a Mobquet speeder, was coming at her like a great bullet!

“"Ahh!"” She screamed, flapping her wings wildly as she spun around in a tangle of legs and fled the few metres back into the cave!

Once inside and into her ‘comm booth’, her name for the rough stone alcove where she had contacted the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service, and gave herself a once over as she tried to calm down and get her breath back.

“"The-there is peace."” She stammered, trying to repeat one of Master Skywalker’'s mantras, following with, "“No there fragging isn'’t, what the drokk was that?!”"

The Hoatzeri teen bent her neck to peer under her own wing, just to double-check the findings of her tactile self-audit. “"Where’s the comlink? Did I drop it?”"

Do Wampas pee in the snow? The metaphorical voice on her shoulder, if she had shoulders, enquired pithily.

"Shut up."

She reversed enough to turn in the alcove and snaked her head and neck close to the rock wall to get eyes on the outside where she had been drinking, and sure as sith on a shovel, there it was, her Hush-2-whatever, laying beside the micro-stream.

That femme's words came back to her: “"Keep the comlink on you at all times."”

The glowing thing stopped overhead, partially obscured by the roof of the cave, and DROPPED. Four legs like huge vibroblades crunched into the rock, almost perfectly astride the waterway and her comlink.

She shrank back as she stared at a huge droid of some type, easily two and a half times the height of Master Skywalker, looking like two three-dimensional letter Aureks, wide footprint, tapered to a point at the top. Like a sentient climbing frame. Twin vertical red slashes, obvious sensors or photoreceptors, moved within the assemblage to regard the comlink for several seconds, then scrolled up to regard her. Not the cave. Her.

There was a minor plopping sound behind her, ‘live streaming’, it could be said; but even had she managed to tear her attention away from the new arrival, she would not have needed to investigate.

There was more movement and twisting from within the central assemblage, and two short pipes rolled up to face her; she had no doubt that she was looking down the barrels of twin blaster cannon.

 

...continued


She hadn't known Ben's grandfather, but he had proudly told the gathered students that the man could block a blaster bolt with his gloved hand. Haddo had poopoo'd it of course, warning them not to try that brix at home, or anywhere really. What she wouldn't give for a quick lesson from Ben's Gramps on how to do that.

She remembered that Master Skywalker’'s lips had thinned at the mention of Ben'’s grandparent, and that Solo’'s own expression had hardened at the dismissal of his proud anecdote

PHOOM!

She was already ducking into her alcove as two scarlet bolts crashed past her to explode in the depths of the cave, the floor shuddering underfoot, and the heat of their passing singing the feathers over her flanks!

“"Why are you shooting at me?!"” She yelled to it through thighs and tail feathers. "“This is some rescue!”"

Get the comlink back, stupid! Shoulder Voice implored.

“"Look, there is no need to get snippy."” She was only too aware that she was arguing with herself, and kept herself tight in a feathery ball whilst trying to visualise in her mind, the communicator, and its position on the ground under the droid. Vulture Droid, the woman had called it.
Okay, visualised, she willed it to come to her, and it wasn’t easy to concentrate while terrified, and having to listen to the cracking and whining of cooling rock, within a sauna of guano-scented steam.

She could hear voices then, real voices from outside the cave, and she realised that her Force Sense had detected their approach moments earlier, but not told her as she was clearly on another line.

Risking a blaster bolt in the face, she carefully unwound herself and as carefully as possible, snaked her head on its prehensile neck over the rocks to peer out the cave at the vulture droid, and could see, through its legs, the shrubbery on the other side of the clearing, shuddering as the voices of beings carried through the mostly quiet night.

“"The slitch who kicked me must be there, in those caves!”"

“"Hang on, what the hell is that?”"

As she watched, the laser cannon turned away from her, to face the jungle, loosing a second pair of scarlet bolts into the foliage, the explosion cartwheeling a spreadeagled figure into the air, amid burning branches and sods of earth.

“"These aren’t the droids you're looking for!”"

She almost laughed at that, but the sound died in her throat at the sight of white lightsabre blades glowing into existence, and crossing into an X to block the next blaster bolt, which it did, but ploughing their grunting wielder back into the undergrowth.

Now she did laugh, half cathartic, half genuine mirth mixed with relief.

The droid’'s guns swivelled back to face her, but Raissa stretched a wing towards the comlink, the Hush-whatever-it-was springing off the ground and into her grasp, so that she could turn it to show the device' pink-and-grey fascia towards the already pausing droid. "Hah, diplomatic immunity!”" She crowed.

Beyond it, she could see brush waving as something retreated through it. It obviously attracted the attention of the climbing frame, for it turned its guns away from her, and pumped two superheated plasma bolts into the jungle. The guns twitched slightly to the right, and fired into the jungle again and again, different spots in a coherent line, as if it was tracking a retreating quarry.
Orange flames licked at the night sky where the sodden jungle’'s moisture had evaporated enough to get caught alight.

* * * *
Yavin star system

Mitch Nifesta felt like he was late to a party as the star-lines receded past his reverting Republic Cruiser to drop him down to sublight within the Yavin star system, and he coasted down into the jungle moon'’s atmosphere.

Pairs of New Republic starfighters flew high over the emerald-coloured tree canopy, either in patrol or search grids – clearly SGIS had gotten a call to the New Republic.
He did not know what else was going on in the galaxy, but apparently there were no X-Wings available; instead a Nebulon-B escort frigate that had pinged up on his scanners, and identified by his ship'’s automated telesponder interrogation as the NRS (New Republic Ship) Bank of L.A., had dropped off two flights of Incom-Subpro Z-95 starfighters.

The Twi’'lek pilot saw a flash of yellow on the ground in the vicinity on the Temple ziggurat and coasted the dark red transport in that direction, the bold colour and stubby cross-shape resolving into a parked N-1 starfighter in NSF (Naboo Security Force) colours, and he knew that meant the elf was here.

This brought a smile to his face; he did not see the slight SGIS agent often enough, and now that Mitch had resigned his commission to raise Baille, he hardly saw any of his old colleagues.

The ship shuddered around him as his command of it faltered as his descent into the Order'’s makeshift landing area, allowed another ship to rise into sight, a chunky-looking, stubby-winged military transport ship of a type that he had not seen since the Clone Wars, an AIAT, or Amphibious Interstellar Assault Transport.

An odd combination. Could fly through space, and land on water.

“What, are the Mon Calamari here too?” He wondered aloud as he lowered the landing gear, and applied the downward-facing thrusters and repulsors to set the ship down gently, close to where the two ships were parked. “Doesn'’t seem wise. Could’'ve been a trap.”

The miasma of moist, fresh air, mixed with a tinge of smoke and the smells of the intense presence of nearby plant life, both living and decomposing, washed into him as he opened the airlock door and lowered the ramp; a vast, vast difference from the throat-drying winds of the barren area of Christophsis where his habitat usually resided.

The Twi'’lek took several deep breaths, expanding his chest with the new air, then stomped down the ramp, under the flat-nosed conical shape of the forward salon pod.

 

* * * *
Grass border around the Temple

The agent found his Elven counterpart all snazzed up neck-to-toe in white-and-black Imperial scout trooper armour, and standing by a body laying face down on the grass. A black carbonised slash through the side of the being's damp sleepwear, showed that he, she, or it had been slain by a lightsabre.

Mitch watched as the elf, Yavscout, raised his hands slowly in front of himself until they were over his head, and pointed at the brightening morning sky, and a localised shower of light blue particles materialised out of thin air about a metre above the body, raining down on it, instantly disappearing as it touched the clothing

Both elf and Twi'lek stood on opposite sides of the body, watching it for several seconds. No more sign of life than there had been before the light show.
"D.O.A." Nifesta queried, meaning 'Dead on arrival.'”

The elf looked up, finally acknowledging him. "“Mitch!”" His smile did not reach his haunted eyes. “"Long time no see. Yeah, apart from the survivor that called you, the rest are D.O.A. Inside the temple, out here, a few scattered through the surrounding jungle in every direction, as they tried to run, and were chased down. There is also one male EB (expired being) out by the cave that your padawan hid out in."” Yav sighed heavily. “"If I was a Cleric, I’'d be rezzing some of them, but they are too far gone for my powers.”"

Nifesta peered at the downcast healer, having no idea what that last bit meant. "“Riiiight."” He waved at the casualty. “"Shouldn'’t we be putting the body in cold storage or something? When the animals around here get their confidence back, they’ will be trying to snack on it.”"

"“The ranking officer has called out an NRI evidence response team, and we are under orders not to move or touch anything except to save lives."” Through the Force, Mitch had barely a second’'s warning that the emotional energy in his friend brightened momentarily. “"Oh, Fen'’s with the survivor."”

“"M-my Fen?"” The Twi'’lek reeled back. He had not seen his boy since he had gone to live on that Interdictor-class cruiser, the...hang on, that meant the jedi were here. The...the other jedi.

“"Dammit, don'’t these people understand the meaning of compartmentalisation?”"

Mixed feelings of delight at seeing his first kid again, and worry that the existence of one of the galaxy'’s biggest secrets was about to get rumbled, Mitch followed Yav’'s direction, and rounded the corner of the ziggurat’'s lower steppes, spotting a group of humanoid figures around the spindly-legged avian that he had chatted to some hours earlier.

It's small beaked head atop a long neck which brought it eye-level with most of their chests.

Most of the figures were in long-sleeved, thigh-length tunics, paired with trousers tucked into calf-length brown or black workboots. The belts pulling the tunics in at the waist each had black synthleather pouches, and a polished lightsabre hilt.

"Jedi Knights?!"” The avian exclaimed in a shrill voice. "“Master Skywalker claimed that we would be the first Jedi Order of the modern age."”

The one standing before her, a middle-aged male Twi’'lek with purple face, braintails and hands, nodded patiently down at her, while a slightly younger female human with shoulder length brown hair, and a mixture of the homespun trousers and a dark blue synthleather bodice, tried to drape a foil blanket over the cornered Hoatzeri, which that being pushed away with one wing. “"I’'m warm enough, thank you. I’'ve got feathers, see?”" She held up her wing as if it wasn'’t obvious at first sight.

“"You have had quite a shock.”" The woman advised, trying again with the blanket.

“"You have no idea, but it wasn'’t enough to make my down fall out,"” the youngster dislodged the covering again, letting it slide down her right flank, “"so knock it off with the blanket, please.”"

"“Cordelia."” Purple put up a hand, which had the effect of making his colleague abandon her project.

“"Thank you."” Raissa bit out.

“"So, we are technically...hold on-"” Purple looked aside, his eyes losing their focus for a moment. He looked back. “"-yes technically, and literally, a Jedi Enclave. Master Skywalker could still be correct that you become a new Jedi Order."”

Nifesta felt his face crease into a grin as he stalked quietly up to the group, although the Hoatzeri was already peering between their forms to observe his approach. “"That’'s no longer practical."” He advised, turning heads. “"Not unless Luke has a reserve list of students lined up.”"

The comparatively younger Twi’'lek looked around, a smile lighting up his own face. "“I thought I recognised that presence. Hi Dad!”" He gave an almost shy wave from metres away.

Mitch stopped, spreading his arms out ready to wrap his son in an embrace. "“C’'mere and give your Old Man a hug.”"

"Dad, I’'m forty-seven!"” Fenlaka Zula protested.

“"So not twelve then?”" The broad-chested Force Vampire teased, reminding his first adopted child that he had been using the same defence and tone back then, when the late Master Yoda had put them together, four years after Order 66. “"Did your cousin Samantha tell you that you had a little sister n...”" His voice trailed off as he raised his gaze to squint up into the heavens. “"Where is she?”"

Fen contemplated the older SGIS agent. "“This new sibling of mine; she wasn'’t in an old Actis-class interceptor, was she?”"

"“Not a bad guess.”" Mitch advised.

“"They shot her down!"” The Hoatzeri blurted, stretching her neck between the Zula and the blanket woman, Cordelia. "“Her ship crashed into the jungle.”"

Nifesta spun to face her, his mind also reeling, but sensing that she was referring to the New Republic. “"They shot her down? Why?"

“"She refused to comply when they ordered her to land."” Zula put in.

“"My orders."” Mitch growled, a hand reaching up to take off his polarised dark glasses, allowing his blood red eyes to be seen, nay, witnessed. “"Because somebody was down here, slaughtering frakkin’ jedi.”"

Fen continued. "We picked up a load of troops from the frigate, and ferried them down here. They're off looking for the wreckage and to capture her.”"

Mitch jabbed the folded glasses at Fen's group. "Bring body bags, and signal the officer in charge to stand down. If she's hurt, this guano won't be the only massacre here today.”" He turned away, then turned back addressing the surviving student. “"Blue, well done on living long enough for us to get here. You probably passed one of the Trials during your ordeal.”"

Accoe peered up at him. "Trials? “What trials?"”

Nifesta waved his glasses at the jedi as he turned away. "“They'’ll fill you in."

THE END​

---

Acknowledgments:

Hoatzeri are a fanon species created by Raissa Baiard

Mauve Alert vs Red Alert created by either Steven Moffatt or Russell T Davies, for Doctor Who.

Breetmal are a fanon species, or at least the slang for them, created by Gamiel

The Jedi Enclave are from from the RPF roleplaying game, Galaxy at War: Schism of the Sith, which the author played in, and the chosen OCs are either ones he played, or ones without an actual owner.

"Hattie" Jakes is named after an actress, Hattie Jacques, known mainly for playing senior nurses in the Carry On series of comedy films.

Ben Solo taunts his peers with a line out of the film, The Warriors.

The "Rancor Threshold", is my SW equivalent of TVTropes' "Godzilla Threshold".

 

The Hoatzeri return!

Raissa (lovely name, by the way ) is quite a resourceful and brave young bird, keeping her head while those around her lose theirs-- figuratively and literally. Lyokah (my original Hoatzeri) would be quite proud....perhaps Raissa is/was/will be an ancestor of hers She's an interesting character. I think she comes across as a realistic youngster struggling to do her best after being thrust into a terrifying situation. I like her inner conversation with her "shoulder voice," and the fact that she makes mistakes like losing her comlink and struggles with her fear. It's always refreshing to see a Force sensitive character show genuine emotions and flaws. This

would definitely be me.

You've done a nice job including the fanon traits of the species: their curiosity, ability to run quickly, and signature combat move. Hattie is lucky he was only kicked by a juvenile Hoatzeri.

The idea that there is a separate enclave of Jedi-- with or without Luke's blessing?-- is intriguing. Hopefully they can train Raissa so the next time she meets that smarmy Ben Solo she can kick him where it counts, too.

Great story-- a fun response to the challenge and a worthy return for the Hoatzeri.

 

Thank you for the feedback.

Very glad that you liked how your creation has been realised.

In my unpublished headcanon, Raissa goes to join the Enclave, though she is given the choice to go home. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner by turning up. If they leave her for Skywalker, he would easily learn of their existence.

 

Hi Sith-I-5 always fun to read your stuff. I liked the snarks throughout, and in particular the elf healer.

A part of me thinks this would have made a pretty good serious story, too.

 

Hi, Kurisan, thank you for dropping in and reading. I did not go out of my way to make a comedy; probably just my style.

Findswoman, thank you for the feedback and for reading through. Raissa's regret over her kick was actually due to the man's vocal anguish giving away her position.
I appreciated when you agreed with Mitch on something. I like when my main OC gets a namecheck.

 

Kahara - thank you for the multiple likes; first time I have had ten alerts waiting for me.

I hope you are able to put down some thoughts too.

 

First of all - this is the best (edited) title ever. I could not open the original one that one day it was up and then I saw this. Wish I had screencapped the list of topics with both of them there, as that would've been funny!

I like Raissa Accoe a lot - she does not seem to be a classic lightside user, more like a realistic youngster who can see her own mistakes as well as others'.

The idea of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and his peers cowardly killing a bunch of Padawans while they're asleep is very plausible - after all, darkside users aren't actually known for ethics. The fact that most of these poor souls, as evident from the beginning of the second post, had not arrived to the point when they would've built their own lightsabers, makes it even worse.

This might be what's wrong with any boot camp type of a place in general - sure, discouraging individuality reduces some behaviours, but when exercised to an extreme, it makes the participants defenseless.

It's hard to pull off humour in such a painful story, but this did make me laugh. Yup, he just wanted to tell her something. Bwahahahaha!

Also this one - not sure if it was meant to be funny, but I imagined droid-as-plush-toy type of a thing.

And this was some extreme absurd.

*snort*

I didn't expect your own ensemble cast, led by no other than Baile Harte and Mitch Nifesta to appear later in the story, but you have pulled that out quite well. And the fact that they, despite the ever-present chaos, snark and general British sitcom (at least that's what it reminds me of) tone in their interactions delivered some wise words to Raissa and imply that her horrible real-life experience doubled as a trial, in a way. While not much comfort can be provided in a case like this, an implication that she's a bright ray of hope in a world that just shattered IS a big deal.

P.S. I think you got the species' name wrong in a couple of places early in the story, but that's most certainly a typo.