Beyond - Legends Zekk - Interludes: 1-7 ~ The Complete Serial ~

Hi all! Thanks for replying I was beginning to feel a little lonely in here And 'hello' to all those lurkers I tell my self read this fic!

No worries VaderLVR64, and thanks for keeping the index going.

Hi Dathomirian, I take it you are enjoying your self? Next post can probably go up Wednesday. I'm glad you're looking forward to it. I've tried to keep the pace interesting.

Don't feel bad Lusa, I certainly know what it is like to get busy and so forth. *pardons all shame* And thank you for the feed back on the training section. I want to get to the good stuff, but I wanted to give a feel for the struggle of indoc. I wasn't sure if I had that balance right.
Have fun comforting Zekk.

 

Have fun comforting Zekk.

Believe me, I will! I think I going to ask him to help me burninate my trig homework. For revenge and stuff!

 

I'm up to my second page! This is the first time a post I started has done this! I use a lot of exclamation points in this paragraph! Wow! Indeed!

I think I going to ask him to help me burninate my trig homework.

Now see, Trig I actually liked. When I'm up to my neck solving a differential equation I get to missing the old trig days. Those problems were like logic puzzles!

Why, yes; yes I am a tool. I am an Engineer.

 

Yay for page two! Baloons and cookies for all!

Oh, you actually like math? Silly you! Actually, now that I think about it, I realise I'm not in trig anymore, 'cause it's the second semester. Pre-calc now. Fun fun.

 

No post yet? Very well I will be patiently waiting.

Could you PM me when you update? I don't want to miss anything. Great job so far MTFBWY.

-Dathomiran

 

Strike Team Xi, (or S.T. Xi for short) was one of the oldest teams. In some incarnation there had been a S.T. Xi since the formation of Rebellion. The log of previous members was held on the floor allotted to S.T. Xi, along with walls of metals earned by previous team members. These metals would never leave the display room for security reasons. They were earned on missions that never happened. The floor also housed their billets, gym, training area, and small canteen connected to the base kitchen by droid. This room also doubled as a briefing room.

?Allow me to introduce you to S.T. Xi.? Nak said. You?ve met me, and I?ll be your C.O. My second is Lt. Kyian Noth,? a feline Ranth of medium build looked up from his data pad and gave a gentle nod. ?He?s our weapons expert and occasional sniper.?

?Welcome to the team Jedi Zekk,? Kyian said softly.

?Thanks,? Zekk responded with an easy smile.

?Hey Cappie,? a high voice said behind them, ?This the new recruit then?? Zekk turned and saw a smallish being with smooth blue skin. He didn?t recognize the race. ?Pleased to meet you. I?m Garn. I?ll be your acquisitions officer and Chaplin.?

?Chaplin?? Zekk asked.

?Oh certainly,? he began smoothly. ?Are prepared for??

?Later,? Nak interrupted firmly.

?Oh, sure Cappie,? he said with a short bow and left.

?Come on, let?s find the good doctor.? Nak said with a jerk of his head.



In the med center was a large hulking alien with reptilioid skin, and a much smaller thin Meris with dark skin and solid red eyes. ?Gris, this is our newest, Zekk. You should have his medical files already,?

?Of course Cappie,? the Meris said. He swiveled his head towards Zekk and the large red eyes focused on Zekk, ?It?s a pleasure to meet you Jedi Zekk, I look forward to having you on the team.?

?Thanks Gris,? Zekk said.

?And this hulking thing is Korad,? Gris said good-naturedly.

Korad waved a massive hand and said, ?Korad basher for team,? in a rumbling low voice.

?Korad, right,? Zekk said, pausing a fraction of a second before saying, ?Pleased to meet you.?

?Korad bash good for you.?

?I?ll bet,? Zekk agreed.

?We?re going to track down Jokren and finish up introductions. Get prepped for night exercises tonight,? Nak said. The others nodded, and Zekk left with Nak.



Jokren was in an alcove surrounded by computers. Her cyborg implant read outs were flashing franticly as she stood with her eyes closed. Nak tapped a couple of key on a nearby pad. Jokren?s eyes snapped open and she focused on the two of them. The readouts on her implants cascaded to red and then dark. Jokren gave a prolonged blink before stepping forward and saying, ?Hello Cappie. Hello Jedi Zekk, welcome to the Strike Team Xi. I am Jokren, I am the team?s slicer and technician.?

?It?s a pleasure to meet you,? Zekk said.

?If you have any questions feel free to ask. If you find me abnormally quiet it is because of the way my brain interacts with my cybernetic implants. Speech is far to slow to produce in parallel with computer processes, so I effectively cannot speak when the implants are active. However, if you wish to speak to me, simply send me a communiqué with your name from any station I am connected to and I will speak to you at our earliest mutual convenience. Unless I am taxing my abilities I should be able to hear auditory signals, and will respond, though it may not be the most efficient way of communicating with me.?

?I?ll remember that,? Zekk said with a blink.

?Excellent. I would like to say also that I look forward to working with you on the team. I saw that your training scores were superlative.?

?Glad to hear it,? Zekk said.

?If there is nothing else then?? Jokren asked.

?That will do,? Nak assured her. Jokren returned to her position in the alcove, gave a single blink indicating the activation of her implant and closed her eyes again as the blinking of the indicators became more frantic.



As they were walking back towards the canteen a being that moved around

 

A post! It's great! I'll post a better reply when I have the time, I have to go...

EDIT:

Okay, now for a better review...

The characters new were wonderful. You were able to express a lot of their personality with it. And the J/Z interaction was good...but terribly sad.

They must make up!

 

I've been busy haven't had a chance to read until now....

Wow. You clearly put a lot of work into creating all of this. The character Jokren was very creative and unique. Great job so far!

Can I wish for some more pleasant J/Z interaction? I like what you have, but I'm hoping it's not going to last too long...? Better timing w/S.T. Xi next time, perhaps? lol

Lovely writing, anyway. I liked that Zekk left when he heard of the emergency with Xi; it shows that he'll do the right thing no matter what.

-Dathomiran

 

Oh, that rocked my socks! The J/Z was wonderfully done, but its got me all angst up now! The other team members seem interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing why the called him.

 

Wee! fans!

Hi NemYim I just noticed, you snag first reply on the majority of my posts. It's like a I have stalker, but in a cool way. I'm glad you liked the Strike Team. You'll be seeing a lot of them.

Hi DA I'm glad you could make it! I'm glad you like Jokren. The female version of Lobo was kind of a fun diversion for me. I was thinking that the Star Wars galaxy is incredibly diverse, and they'd put the best in the rolls they needed to fill. Who's the best slicers? Well a cyborg of course I use her a lot more than I was expecting.
And yeah, Zekk always does what he feels is the 'right thing'. That will come up more later.

Hi Lusa I hope your socks are ok. Maybe it would help if you took your socks off before reading? This may not help though, as I try to make my posts so awesome that not only all of your socks will be rocked, but the socks of your neighbors will be rocked as well. It hasn't worked yet, but I keep trying.
The mission briefing is next, so you won't wait too long for what daring-do they will be up to

As to the J/Z aspect, wow. Everybody seems pretty bummed by things. Now I'm actually rethinking a part of the arc. We'll see. Still, from what I know of NJO they can't reconcile all that much. Maybe I can make it up to you guys, say ~100 pgs (in word) from now?

Yes, I know, I'm teasing.

Thanks for the reads and replies. Tell your friends!

 

Hi Lusa I hope your socks are ok. Maybe it would help if you took your socks off before reading?

Actually, I have perpetually cold feet! You will never find me without a think pair of wool socks and slippers!

This may not help though, as I try to make my posts so awesome that not only all of your socks will be rocked, but the socks of your neighbors will be rocked as well.

Rockin'!

 

I just noticed, you snag first reply on the majority of my posts.

I do? Really? *goes over posts* I do! I didn't even notice. Must be because I'm a computer addict...on it 24/7 except for school...well, almost.

 

Thanks for the patience on this post. I was away from my comp yesterday all day. I got to roll play! Joy!

---

Because he was off base when the page went out he was the last to arrive in at the ST Xi briefing room. The rest of the team was talking amongst themselves, and when Zekk entered Captain Nak looked at Zekk?s still dirty appearance, shook his head, cleared his throat, and said, ?Now that we?re all here, we can begin. It looks like we might get to earn our pay.? A couple of the team members knocked on the tables before them. Nak eyed them with a flash of amusement, and continued, ?What you are about to see is classified at the highest level. Its existence will be denied outside of this mission.?

?This is different from any other mission how?? Xigmid asked.

?This is the military, Xigmid. C.Y.A.? Kyian piped in.

?C.Y.A?? Zekk asked.

?Cover your afterburners,? Gris supplied.

?Ahh,? Zekk responded.

Nak keyed up the first holograph, and a strange looking ship appeared.

?As you are all aware, the main constraint of a cloaking device is the enormous power consumption required to power a cloaking array of any size. This ship is the ?Still Waters?. She?s basically a large power core, a cloaking array and just enough compartments to run her.?

Zekk nodded, the ship had a large spherical section, presumably the reactor, engines aft, and a relatively smaller cabin section fore.

?To make the Still Waters a feasible ship for operations she has been outfitted with an extendable senor boom that just barely extends outside the cloaking shield.? The holo shifted and zoomed in on the forward capsule of the ship. There, a boom extended and illustrated the range of the ship?s sensor package. ?It allows acceptable fly by sensor reading with what has been dubbed as ?the periscope? protruding from the cloak. The Still Waters is primarily meant for reconnaissance. However, its mission parameters are being widened for the purposes of our mission.? There were some glances amongst the team at that announcement. This would have to be interesting.

The holo changed again, ?This is ?The Royal Jewel?.? A pleasure cruiser appeared on the holo. ?The Royal Jewel is the fourth most expensive leisure ship this half of the Galaxy. Her passengers are from the highest echelon of high society. At 0400 capital time she was taken over by a group of pirates turned terrorists. They demand that captured members of their gang be freed and given transportation or they will begin killing one hostage an hour, every hour, starting fifty hours past the statement of their demands. Following these demands they jumped, and will contact the holonet ten hours from this time. Our mission is to follow the Republic response team already assembled, and if the negotiators can create an opportunity we will insert into The Royal Jewel, and wrest control from the pirates with minimal loss of life.?

Gris let out a low whistle. ?If this ever gets declassified Rouge Squadron will have nothing on us.

?Little chance of that happening I?m afraid. I guess General Spacas will have to put up with General Antellies gloating a little longer.? Nak said.

?What is the probability we?ll actually go active?? Kyian asked.

?Straight odds? Slim to none, but we have our mission and if we?re a go we have be prepared to go at full speed.?

There was a round of knocking on the tables at that.

?Ok, we have these parameters, let?s put together a plan. Zekk, I hope you?re as hot a hand with the flight yoke as they say. We?ll be using you to fly blind.?

?I?ll see what I can do,? Zekk said.

?Keesh,? Kyian swore, ?you?re a fly boy too? I thought I liked you.?

?Here?s the real question, can you fly with your eyes closed?? Xigmid asked.

Zekk smiled enigmatically, ?I?m willing to find out, are you??



So, the plan is as follows,? Jokren outlined, ?Once our window opens we will proceed to the appointed system in The Still Waters. Our resident Jedi will be at the helm of the Still Waters, and will pilot us to the

 

Awesome post. I can't wait for the action.

In response to your question, it would be great if you could continue to PM me when you update. I'm really enjoying this so far. Must have more!

Keep writing!

MTFBWY,
-Dathomiran

 

Wonderful post! The discussion of how it feels to be a cyborg and how it is to be a Jedi was particularily interesting. [yoda] Never saw the connection before, did I. [/yoda]

I wish good luck to Zekk on his flight maneuver...

 

Ooh, exciting! And do I sence a bit of Jokren/Zekk attraction? Good luck to Zekk on his mission!

 

40 posts up! Weee!

People seem to like Jokren. It's funny, when I first started wrote her I thought I wasn't going to give this rather interesting character idea enough attention in the story so I intentionally used her more. Now there are other characters I wish I could have fit in more time with.

I kind of meant to use that short conversation as a vehicle to explore what it was like to use the Force (and solar sails); and also that everyone in the GFFA uses the Force a little bit. Maybe nothing as flashy as a Jedi, but it is a part of everyone, and they all touch it.

I wondered if people would see a Zekk-Jokren attraction. I didn't intend it really, but they have become fast friends. If you read more is there... well, one of the best part of writing is the interplay between the writer and the reader, so have fun.
As for me, I had an idea of what was coming, so I didn't see it too much.

Ohh I tease.

 

Yes, you tease. All good stuff so far; I'm a little biased in hoping to see more Jacen, but actually it's been very interesting with Zekk as the lead character for once.

 

A new reader! Oh joy! Welcome.
I'm glad you're enjoying this, and I'm glad you like Zekk as the main character. As for Jacen... He's in other fics that I've written, is that close enough?

And it's Wed. New post time! Tell a friend!

---

?My mission orders tell me that I am to relinquish the helm to your Lieutenant Zekk once we have jumped to the non restricted zone. Once there your Lieutenant is to perform a docking maneuver using the newly installed extendable airlock collar; a maneuver that has never been attempted with this ship, let alone under cloak,? Captain Cintor of the Still Waters said to Captain Nak and the rest of S.T.Xi in the privacy of his briefing room. Captain Cintor was a Mon Calamari who seemed to like the plan even less than Major Isman had.

?Then our orders are in agreement,? Captain Nak said flatly. The console built into the table in front of Zekk lit up, and message appeared,

User: Xigmid c/o User: Jokren.
Message is as follows: Cappie is enjoying this, isn?t he?

Zekk glanced over, and saw Xigmid innocently watching the proceedings before him, in one hand was a stylus, in the other his pad. Zekk caught Gris looking at the same thing he was, so Zekk casually turned away. Glancing down at the console again he saw the message change to,

User: Kyian c/o User: Jokren.
Message is as follows: Well, job satisfaction is important after all.

The screen went blank, and Zekk turned to see that the Captain of the Still Waters was watching him carefully.

?All right, I?ll go for the bait, what makes you think you can do a better job than my helmsman?? Captain Cintor asked Zekk directly.

Zekk shifted uncomfortably, ?Well, I did win the 93rd annual Blockade Runners Derby.?

Captain Cintor responded coldly, ?While that is not a small feat, you did not do it in my ship. Why should I put the lives and safety of my ship in the hands of a Lieutenant who has never even flown her before, on a very sensitive maneuver that has never been tested before? Don?t even think about quoting me orders, these are the most void brained orders I?ve ever received. However, as I am the captain of this vessel, it is my prerogative to countermand any order within this hull.

Zekk nodded, glanced up at Nak, who gave the slightest of nods, then faced the Captain directly. ?Captain, my name is Zekk. I have been training for the past number of years under Master Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Jedi. I am not a full Jedi yet, but there are very few in the Galaxy who are better suited for the maneuver we have to complete for S.T. Xi to carry out their mission.?

The Mon Calamari paused at that and finally nodded assent. ?Very well Lieutenant, in one half hour you will be given the con. My helm officer will give you the basic training you need to learn how to handle The Still Waters, learn how to use her under cloak, and then if the Force is with us perhaps we will succeed.?



Piloting The Still Waters was unlike anything Zekk had ever done before. In his years around the galaxy he had gained a fair bit of experience, but he was maneuvering and piloting by instruments and the guidance camera and sensors on The Still Water?s periscope. The camera gave him some visual guidance, but it did feel artificial.

The controls of the Still Waters were fairly intuitive, and they responded well. It was a much larger ship than Zekk was used to controlling, but once Zekk was able to get a feeling for the bulk of the ship he was able pass what drills the helm officer had formulated for use of the helm. Zekk was finishing the last of his practice runs under cloak when intelligence gave them the coordinates of the latest message from the pirates. Their dead line was up.

Zekk completed the navigation maneuver and jumped to light speed, knowing he would be too late to save someone, but at least he would be closer. He came out of hyperspace, and moved out of the immediate area. There was an energy signature from the drop out of hyperspace, but the cloak would still prevent them from

 

New post! Yay!

It was very realistic to have the Captain doubt Zekk, and have them worry about whether he can do it or not, instead of just saying, "OKay, do it.". And yay for Zekk! He made it! Mostly, I think.

 

*stops lurking*

Okay, I liked the touch of Zekk confronting himself over the issue of whether to use the dark side or not.

 

Readers! I wasn't sure where everyone was. I guess I shouldn't update at 12:00 am

Thanks for the reply NemYim, I'm trying to make everything in this story as reasonable as I can. I love going through a story and trying to figure the ramifications of something, or how a society would react to something.

Hey Ace Venom, good to see you here. I'll respond to 'Into the Dark Side' soon, I promise I really felt that I had to find a balance with Zekk. He's touched the Darkside, so that will dominate his destiny, but he's done a lot to get over the Darkside, so he shouldn't be angsting about it incessantly (plus he'd be a boring character to write if I wrote him like that). Rather than have him continually guilty I felt he should always feel the temptation to do things the easy way. Some further implications of leaving the dark path will be brought out later.

 

You've clearly put a lot of work into the plot. Great job! I agree with NenYim that it makes everything more realistic.

Action. I love action! I like how you created the tense situation of having only one shot. MTFBWY. Keep writing!

-Dathomiran

 

Hey, there you are DA!
I'm glad the work I've put into this has shown through, and this is just Interlude 1, the rest have more tightly woven continuity and story elements!
I'm glad you said that about the tension in the docking scene. I wasn't sure if it had enough tension. It was a small climax, but I wasn't sure how to draw it out farther.
The next post will have less action, but it will set up to the following post which will have more action than you can shake lightsaber at (and as we've seen, that's a lot of action).

Following that will be the epilogue for Interlude 1: Transitions Now comes the question to you folks. I've got nearly 50 posts here (it would be sweet if I had 50 before I post the next scene, hint, hint). Should Interlude 2 be continued in this thread, or should I start a new one? Throw your thoughts up here.

 

I think the second Interlude should be continued here. You haven't got lots and lots of posts, (though 50 is still a lot), and it would be easier for new readers to find the first one to catch up. You'd have to change the title though, Zekk Interludes I and II or something like that.

And I can't wait for the action...