Beyond - Legends Birth of Darkness (OC's / Action / Drama) Reviews earn you cookies!

[/IMG] Title: Birth of Darkness

Author: The Ascendant

Time frame: The story takes place 1000 years after current continuity.

Summary: Zego Tetrin and Landon Kinoda are padawans on the verge of earning knighthood during the newest incarnation of the Republic. Upon investigating a small smuggling operation on a far away planet, the two Jedi unknowingly interfere in a plot to eliminate all known order in the galaxy, headed by a formidable foe from the Jedi Council's past...but is this enemy the puppeteer...or the puppet?

Canon Characters: HK-47

Disclaimer: SW is owned by George Lucas and Lucas Lt. !!!

Notes: If you're a fan of action-filled fics that also balance a dramatic storyline with character development, then this one is for you. Reviews are appreciated!!!​

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....​

A millennia has come and gone, carrying centuries of war and bloodshed into the pages of history. No longer do enemies such as the Imperial Remnants or Sith threaten peace in the universe. Since those dark times, the established galactic core has sought expansion into other galaxies, reaching farther than ever expected and finding new worlds and species to bring into the fold of what has now become The Grand Republic. The Jedi Order still stands as protectors of all that is just, but centuries of remaining neutral in the political affairs of the Republic, only to watch it continuously attacked or compromised, has forced a more prominent role from the Jedi Council than in any previous age. One such esteemed Jedi, Oric Sunshear, Grand Master of the current order, possesses the title of personal advisor to the Head of State, gifting both wisdom and strategy whenever his services are needed. This is truly an era to be enjoyed..however..the black heart of the sinister is never without purpose. Even now it slithers in the shadows of space, like a serpent watching patiently before it strikes. An ancient darkness is coming, hungered by a yearning to destroy the long serenity the galaxy had finally earned. Two talented, but rebellious padawans on the cusp of knighthood now stand as the only opposition to an evil force more immeasurably dangerous than any before it.

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STAR WARS:​

BIRTH OF DARKNESS​

“Even those of us who are born into darkness, Zego, can choose to seek the light.” -Cole Wun Yee ​

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Entry 1: ​

RECON​

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The quickened steps of Landon Kinoda met with muffled taps, moving fast in stealth from within the shadowy veil of a silent corridor. He was Jedi. He was a Padawan. Young, but far from inexperienced. The current mission was Landon’s ninth by record. A small number in the long run, yet boastful when matched with the difficulty each assignment required to complete. His objective here was to infiltrate a smuggler’s port and extinguish their arms sales to terrorist regimes. So far, everything was going according to plan. Upon arriving on the planet Raymar 12, Landon hiked from the perilous mountain terrain, where his ship landed safely undetected. It was from there he came across a strange formation built into the rocks, noting it to be a well hidden exit hatch of some sort, and the end point of a secret passage way from the very place he intended to go.

Landon’s sharp blue eyes keened attentively into the blind darkness of the tunnel system he currently occupied, reaching through the Force to alert of any immediate danger, as well as guide him. Discovering none for the time, he took to a run again. The long sprint through what seemed like an infinite puzzle of dips and turns felt hauntingly similar to the halls of a catacomb, climaxing at a dimly lit ladder, easily spanning five levels above. Beams of light broke through a grated smudge in the high distance which lit a shine over the Jedi‘s cropped, blonde hair. On first speculation, it appeared to be a surface cover, a sight that delighted Landon until he realized how long it would take to reach it. Sighing aloud with a gruff tone, Landon grasped each rung and began his long ascent.

Still hundreds of feet below, the young Jedi could hear the choiring racket of utility lifts clunking into action, no doubt escorting crate after crate of stolen weaponry into various ships for delivery. It wouldn’t be long before they’d start their departure to parts unknown. The Force allowed this as a warning. Landon’s pace hastened, now taking three rungs at a time until his nose was but inches from the grimy, metallic skin of the surface grate. He again summoned aid. A clarity set in, augmented by the living Force, surging throughout Landon’s every thought. A relaxing haze fell over his mind’s eye, and only then could he truly see what threat awaited him.

Nine men took residence in a colossal cavern, nine armed smugglers to be exact. Most were entrenched with manually operating the utility lifts Landon heard previously, doing their best to hurry along production. What surprised Landon the most, though, was the extreme lack of use in battle droids, as only three stood present and on watch. Perhaps that was the point of such a small, yet adeptly concealed operation. The less traffic going to and from the planet, the less likely anyone would suspect criminal activity was taking place there.

Of course, what the clever smugglers didn’t expect was one of their men getting drunk on java juice, and then blurting a bit too much about said operation to a Twi’lek dancer, who on occasion would pass along useful information to the Jedi Order. From there it was only a matter of finding the man and tailing him. Part of Landon wanted to laugh at how easy it all was, but he knew better than to give into cockiness. “That’s Zego’s job.“ He grinningly thought before his focus then returned to the mission.

Subtly, Landon loosed one arm from the top rung, making certain to hold strong with his other, and applied suitable pressure to the bottom of the grate. To his luck, it was rather light for its considerable size. The young Jedi hoisted the metallic cover just high enough to peek out through a tiny space, barely larger than a writing utensil. In that small visual amount, he could identify a little more of the cavern’s layout. A Republic Transport sat patiently under the cave’s towering rocky entrance, its engines humming in neutral, and the rear ramp extended hospitably to the dusty floor.

The smugglers' plans now became a bit clearer. The transport was a fake, but a convincing one to even the best trained eye. Regardless, they were among the few vessels in the galaxy that could travel virtually unbothered by patrols, provided they possessed the proper shipping registration and navigational codes, which was easier and easier to come by these days. Especially, if you stole them. By the time the codes were reported as a theft, it would be too late. The smugglers would reach their destination, complete their transaction, and find alternate means back to their home base. It would also explain the rush the smugglers now endured to load the weaponry. Should a Republic Transport be spotted on any world outside the mid rim, for any reason, by any ship, it was galactic law that it should be immediately reported to the nearest authorities.

The smugglers’ time was limited with the ship out in the open, as was Landon’s if he wished to stop them. A distraction was needed, something to take all attention away from the grate’s direction, if only for a second or two. He wouldn’t need anymore than that. Carefully, Landon peered over his surroundings more closely, finding meager options at first, until suddenly something caught his steady gaze. An oil drum, most likely acquired to bath the battle droids in to remove contaminants, sat off to the far side of the cave. A pudgy, curly haired smuggler rested comfortably atop it, currently using its lid as a seat while he puffed away on a half-smoked cigarra.

“Hurry it up, scum-suckers! We gotta have this shipment outta here in the next twenty minutes or the boss is gonna have our heads on pikes.” The curly haired smuggler barked in a raspy tone, revealing that he may hold a rank of some sort among the lawless band.

This slight revelation only served to make the drum a more enticing opportunity. Fixing his eyes on his target, Landon widened the space of the grate opening with his free hand and compelled a channel through the Force. He pictured only the drum and what he wished of it to do. In that instant, just as the curly haired smuggler had begun a deep draw of his cigarra, the metal drum capsized beneath him, spilling out its oily contents into a thick wave of liquid black. The curly haired smuggler hit almost directly after, landing painfully hard, his arm splashing into the dark pool as he did so. In all the confusion of how his midair romp occurred, the smuggler had lost track of where his cigarra had flown to. Little did he know, it would only take a second before he knew the answer.

The cigarra’s warm, ashy tip followed closely behind until hitting softly into the oil spill. In no time at all the liquid mineral set ablaze, consuming every inch of it’s own body in a singeing wave of burning fire, including the human arm that lay within it. The curly haired smuggler cried out with a painful scream that echoed throughout the span of the cavern, capturing the attention of all in the near vicinity. The smuggler hectically scrambled to his feet in clumsy fashion, flailing and whipping at his flaming arm with his other hand, trying desperately to smother out the flames that now charred his flesh. Immediately, the majority of his the man’s fellowmen dropped what they were doing to run and assist their superior, and the ones that didn’t, kept their gawking stares firmly affixed to the scene playing out before them.


Landon had his chance, now was the moment to make something of it.

 

First, the battle droids needed to go. Under the current situation it wasn’t difficult to guess that their programming wouldn’t permit mass confusion to register much at all to them. They were here for one thing and one thing only, locate intruder personnel and eliminate them. The minute Landon made his presence known, their sensors would detect his lightsaber as a threat and the lock-on process would initiate. The tricky part lied in disabling all three droids before the smugglers had any time to catch on to what was happening. If he was lucky, the Padawan could end this mission right now without any loss of life. Sadly, Landon never considered himself all that fortunate when it came to combat, with the exception of surviving this far. “Not like Zego.” He murmured.

Drawing in a final breath, Landon closed his eyes and sank deep into the Force, giving himself to it as its soothing power coursed through his every limb, igniting his very soul with a conscious feel of pure awareness. In that one invigorating instant, he found all he needed to stop these criminals. The grate cover erupted off the ground with an thrumming boom, sent spinning through the air until clanging down some six meters away. The battle droids spun their duranium-plated heads in a synchronized shift, hefting up their blaster rifles as they looked to target whatever should leave the uncovered tunnel hole. Little did their cybernetic minds suspect that something already had.

Landon floated briefly in flight from his elevated Force Leap above the droid closest to his position. His descent set in quickly from there, just slow enough for the Padawan’s lightsaber hilt to jump from his belt to his hand. A glowing blade of condensed cyan energy speared to life with a crackling hiss, ready and willing to deliver justice. Landon came down just as the first droid had locked on and quickly swayed in parry from the blast that followed. The bolt soared with murderous intent, bright and sizzling, propelling close enough to the Padawan’s head that he could feel its warmth. Had it been shot a millisecond faster, the end result may’ve been fatal.

Landon planted one boot as he came away from his evasion and immediately wheeled into a hard spin, his lightsaber flowing outward with him. The blade trailed a wave of clean cyan light that was almost too fast to spot before it sheared through the droid’s plated neck, removing the head with ease and leaving a rain of sparks and various spraying fluids in the aftermath. He pressed quickly ahead from there. Landon knew there was more to be done and celebrating his enemy’s death was not part of it yet. The Padawan’s legs pumped furiously toward the next droid through an enhanced sprint gifted to him by the Force.

He surged between a pair of ten foot crates at a blurring rate, estimating only seconds remained before the smugglers discovered they were being attacked. The next battle droid stood atop a tall rock formation just overlooking a hovering lift holding various weapon lockers. The droid’s single optical visor rotated as it adjusted to target the fast moving Jedi, then turned and took aim. A torrent of blaster fire lit into the air, showering red hot bolts at Landon’s closing prowl.

Just as the Padawan prepared to deflect the bolts away from him, a gleam from something else appeared in the corner of his eye. The third droid, the one closest to the group of distracted smugglers, had abruptly vanished, leaving a flicker of orange that faded nearly as soon as it appeared. Landon grunted at this, already suspecting the source of the disappearance to be a familiar one. The Padawan’s attention returned to the second droid just in time to bat the flying bolts back into the droid’s direction with a one-handed whirl. The group of smugglers had just finished extinguishing their superior’s arm when the pops of sparking and stench of burnt circuitry dawned on them.

Everything had happened so fast that not a one of them was able to understand how the droids that were supposed to be guarding them ended up in shambles. Some sought to raise the blasters they had on their person when a voice called out to them. “Keep your weapons where they are, gentlemen.” Said the golden-haired youth that stepped out from behind the cover of a large crate. “You’ve seen what I can do to things a lot more dangerous than yourselves.” Landon warned, igniting his lightsaber to give them all a clear indication of what they were up against.

There was a single, surmounting shiver that ran the span of each smuggler’s spine. A Jedi, the very symbol of justice and peace in the universe, had not only found and penetrated their secret base, but somehow managed to leave them virtually defenseless without them ever knowing. Even with their greater numbers, no one dared to raise a weapon in his direction, for fear of having the same death meet them.

“What do want from us, Jedi?” The curly-haired smuggler shouted with an ailing hike in his voice, feeling the fresh pain of his burned arm truly sink in.

“Glad you asked.” Landon answered with an upbeat grin. “Firstly, I’d like everyone to drop all weaponry they might be carrying and then start making your way onto that transport. Now, preferably.”

The rabble of criminals didn’t linger very long before doing what was commanded of them. One after the next disarmed themselves of any weapons they possessed. Everything from blasters to boot knives struck different areas of the dirt. From there they converged slowly toward the lowered ramp of the stolen transport. Landon kept both his vision and saber alert as he studied the men’s movements. It wasn’t likely with how easily they surrendered that one of them would risk a sneak attack, but then again, stupidity rarely had a limitation.

As the Padawan moved to join his captives inside and secure them somewhere within the ship’s domain, a sudden flush of alarm lit his senses. His blood raced and his skin swelled as Landon lowered his hilt imperceptibly, searching the Force for some type of clarity. A drumming, faint, but audible, sang through his ears, leading Landon to give chase around the portside of the transport and out overlooking the desolate desert. There, he found his answer. A masked figure blazed through the skies of sapphire blue, jetting at a pace that seemed to outmatch that of a speeder. He stalked in on the cave with incredible quickness, where he then speared an arm forward. Again the Force sent urgent warning, pleading the Padawan to act.

Landon spun where he stood and sprinted back to the foot of the transport’s ramp. “Get out! NOW!” His voice blared, much to the surmounting confusion of the smugglers.

An expulsion of sound erupted from the Masked Figure’s closing prowl, as a miniature projectile loosed itself from the mechanized wrist-launcher strapped to his extended arm. The projectile streaked through the open space of air, shrieking as it came to meet with the nose of the vessel. The explosion hit fast, almost claiming Landon before he could leap for cover behind one of the many giant crates. The cave walls then set to an immediate, violent quake, rumbling in rage as fire and broken metal filled its gullet. Flecks of dust rained down from the ceiling, dropping a cloudy mist over the trembling ground.

The Padawan held his place and hugged at the sides of his head, trying to keep out the deafening bluster of the ship’s ringing destruction. The chaos seemed to carry on infinitely. The horrendous blend of crashing wreckage and swirling flames roared at every angle, each harrowing boom resonating waves of scorching heat in the crumbling constraints of the cavern. Landon gripped at his ears with intensity, squeezing redness into them so hard, he’d failed to notice when the destruction finally subsided. As the lack of combusting racket finally occurred to him, only then did Landon allow himself the luxury of hearing once more.

The Force still told of imminent peril, and it was because of that fact that Landon chose to keep his presence shielded for the time. Slowly, he crept an eye around the length of the sizeable crate, bearing witness to the devastation that was just newly wrought. Burning metal debris crackled and popped, decorating the rocky terrain sparingly, and warming the air like a furnace. The main bulk of the transport, the cargo hold and cabin, remained ablaze and capsized from the impressive pressure of the explosion. It would now serve as a tomb and prelude to what was to come for those many smugglers held within.

Landon moved to stand, briefly taking a second to dust off the armored pieces of his brown robes. The Padawan stepped from cover, his hilt firmly clinched. With the Force, he could foretell the arrival of the Masked Figure’s descent through the sheets of smoke. The gusting vibration of his jetpack cleared a path through the cloudy screen that blanketed nearly all visibility, and in doing so, gave vague perspective of the attacker. When his boots touched the dirt, Landon knew then that a true fight for survival had arrived, for the man whose shielded helmet reflected the flames of a destruction he caused, was none other than Garo Fett, descendant of Boba.