Saga Ep II: "Duel of the Fates"- new post and PARTY INSIDE!!!

Hello readers,

After over a year of wanting to write a Star Wars fic, I recently stumbled upon the plot I wanted.

May God have mercy on us all...heheh.

First, I?d like to thank my most-helpful beta readers: ArnaKyle and Marawannabe. Secondly, I?d like to thank those of you who showed interest in reading this story. I hope your expectations will not be disappointed.

I guess this is technically an A/A story, but there?s much more-political intrigue, desperate battles, Obi-torture-a little of everything. So I hope if you like some of the latter type scenes, you won?t entirely dismiss this as ?just another A/A story.? It isn?t.

And yes, there is an Episode III that follows this.

I included some plot elements from known portions of the AotC storyline. I?ve also left many other portions out. This is not an AU. I?ve made considerable efforts to conform to the events expressed in the films/novelizations. At the same time, however, I know Lucas?s story will no doubt be much different from mine. Consider it not an alternate universe, but a ?parallel? one.

Regarding the EU: I incorporated a few bits here and there from Mr. Zahn, but by and large ignored the rest of it. As I said, my research consisted mainly of the films/novelizations.

Comments/speculation/feedback/etc. are ALWAYS welcome. Also, if you find yourself enjoying this fic, don't hesitate to inform your friends. I'm not an egomaniac, but I'd like to think if this is a good story it won't go unnoticed.

And now, as my favorite Sith once put it, I will ?dispense with the pleasantries? and get on with the story.


Star Wars

Episode II: Duel of the Fates

Chapter I: Old Friends, New Enemies
Part 1.

"Sithspawn!" Rai Aks cursed. The familiar sight of hyperspace travel in the small transport's cockpit windows abruptly resolved into starlines, which converged into individual points of light.

"Looks like there's something wrong with the hyperdrive," he said to his copilot, a Lieutenant. "And something tells me we'll catch Kessel for this. I don't think the Senator's in a very patient mood."

The Gran's eyestalks scanned various instruments, coming to rest on the hyperdrive monitor. All of the status readouts were a cheerful green except the hyperspace motivator's indicator light, which was glowing red.

Rai stifled an upcoming curse. "Motivator's out. See what you can find on the nav display."

The Lieutenant brought up the charts for their current position, then muttered something unintelligible under his breath. "Looks like we're in the middle of nowhere, Sir. No inhabited planets in sublight range."

"Wonderful Just wonderful,? Rai grumbled. ?Looks like we're going to have to do this ourselves. You go back there and tell the Senator that he'd better inform the Budget Committee he's going to be late. Then take the 'droids and see what you can do with the motivator. I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on the sensors."

His copilot rose from his seat, exiting the cockpit and entering the cabin occupied by Senator Aks Moe of Malastare.

"What's going on here?" the Senator fumed. "I felt us drop into realspace, and there's no way I can put my tax reform amendment in Chairman Antilles' bill if I miss this meeting!? He paused momentarily, then resumed his outburst. ?When I get back I'm going to have a very long chat with Lieutenant Rees and his maintenance crew?"

To his credit, the Lieutenant stood up to the politician?s notorious temper rather well. "I'm sorry, Senator, but our hyperdrive motivator is offline, and there's nowhere close we can pull into for repairs. I'm going to see if I can get the blasted thing fixed. You should probably tell Coruscant we're stuck for the time being."

"Very well," Moe conceded, turning to his aide. "You heard the Lieutenant. Tell Coruscant we're having problems with our ship."

***

Several minutes passed. The hyperdrive motivator had overheated, and the Lieutenant managed to locate a spare core in the ship's limited stash of emergenc

 

Looks great, Tim! I'll be watching...

 

Very interesting beginning. You all ready have me wondering who the red ship belongs to. I am looking forward to seeing where this is going.

 

Yes! It's up! Great start Tim! Very interesting beginning.

More please?

 

Oooooh, you know I'm there!

Great start, Timmy Boy! Keep it up!

 

Great start! This definitely looks promising.

 

This is certainly going to be a fic of action, one where I shall have to strap in and hang on for dear life. Very well-written, welcome to the writing world of JC, Tim

Am

 

ArnaKyle and Marawannabe: Thanks! Though you *did* know what to expect.

Red Rose Knight: Glad to have you aboard! Regarding the Red Ship's origins-well, that *is* the 64-thousand-credit question at this point isn't it? The fanart I spoke of shall be scanned shortly, BTW.

Fruity: Thanks!

Am: Glad to see you here. As Han Solo once said: "Hang on back there, this could get rough." Hehehehe. I like romance, but I also love a good Tom Clancy style military/political page-turning thriller type novel. So I hope this story has a little of both.

Alderaan21: Gratzi!

Wow! If at this point I am lacking readers in quantity, I have more than made up with respect to readers of *quality*. All of you are among my fav. SW fic writers.

Thanks very much for your interest!

To my betas: the aforementioned plot arc and the next few posts shall arrive later today.

More to come soon!

-Tim

 

Great start, Tim! I've been looking for this ever since our chat. Nice space action, and I loved the description of the mysterious ship. I'm also wondering who it belongs to, so let's get moving!

 

Great start Tim, I'll be adding the to my list of stories to keep an eye on. Also should be interesting to see how you work Zahn in , although I have this sneaking supsicion it involves duplication. Keep it coming!

 

Jedi Jae: welcome aboard! Again, apologies for not reminding you when I posted this...

Tych_sel: Wohoo!! New reader! Your question should be answered soon.

-Tim (who hopefully will be updating shortly, as soon as he hears back from his betas)

 

Great start Tim...interesting start for an episode II fic. Can't wait to see how it evolves. Once again--Great job so far

 

Hola! Como estas? *lapses into further Spanish vocabulary*

heehee

For once I get to be a loyal beta and *up* this fic!

 

Ooooo! I'm hooked!!

 

Chapter 1, part 2

Val?ri was having a busy day, even for one who monitored communications to and from the Senate building. Today was the day of the monthly meeting of the Senate Budget Committee, and no doubt, planetary and system governments were making urgent requests and demands for information from their Senatorial representatives. Millions of projects, from renovation of the third floor balcony of Alderaan?s embassy building, to the small Republic Fleet?s upcoming starfighter procurement contracts were at stake, and everyone was naturally demanding a piece of a rather finite pie.

She was snapped from her momentarily straying thoughts when, suddenly, one of the emergency monitoring relay indicators flashed a red and yellow pattern.

Flashing red and yellow was the code reserved only for Republic Senators in distress.

She rapidly switched the com to the proper channel. ?This is Comm Central, report.?

?Central,? came a voice, anything but calm and professional, ?incoming transmission from Senate transport 0071, priority 1!?

Priority 1 was only assigned to messages used in time of imminent attack or during wartime.

?Copy, relay station 71, duplicate and then transmit to Fleet Headquarters at once!? Val'ri ordered.

?Emergency frequencies? Priority 1 clearance? What in Kessel is going on?? she asked her display monitors.

?I don?t care,? Admiral Rik Haas of the Republic Fleet roared at the holovid screen. ?Major, it is ridiculous to expect me to effectively defend a third of the outer rim with only a single undersized fleet! My starfighter maintenance crews are reduced to scavenging from salvaged wrecks just to keep their crates out of the hangar long enough to clean out the mynocks in their engine nacelles! Now I don?t care what you have to do, but you tell those credit-pinching nerf herders in the Budget committee to pull their??

Suddenly, a young Lieutenant, a courier, bolted into the room, panting from the exertion of running the five flights of stairs that separated the Admiral?s office from the communications room.

Of course, Haas was not surprised that the fleet could scarcely allocate enough credits to pay for repairing the balky turbolifts. Just another item on a long list of grievances against the Senate.

?WHAT?? Haas roared, furious that the young officer would interrupt his tirade. Delivery of a good tongue-lashing was a prerogative of rank that Haas held dearly.

?Admiral, Communications received a relay message from Comm Central in the Senate building. Senator Aks Moe of Malastare sent an emergency transmission that his vessel was being attacked!?

?What?? Haas asked him as he jumped to his feet. He nearly ran for the Operations Room, simultaneously barking orders to be relayed.

?Get me the Supreme Chancellor?s office online NOW!! And for Force sake, put all units on alert!?

***

The room, like all those in the lower depths of Coruscant, had not seen light in at least a millennia. The omnipresent vertical migration of the city populace left the lowermost levels in abandoned disrepair. As nature abhors a vacuum, many dark and fearsome inhabitants had reclaimed the abandoned depths of the city. Little else about the shadowy, malevolent invaders was known, and few had any desire to investigate.

No being of good reputation, regardless of species, would venture to such depths, and a brave warrior would not have been thought a coward by his comrades for refusing to do so. To visit the lowermost levels of Coruscant and return intact was the domain of a creature possessing either great malice of his own, or highly formidable powers.

Darth Sidious, however, was precisely that sort of being, and had little to fear in such a region. Places of darkness, mystery, and evil were his preferred environment, and they served as an ideal secret base of operations.

Operations that were once again moving, in the eternal patience of the subtlety of a Sith. He was entirely undaunted by the defeat of the Federation army at Naboo, for the invasion was m

 

Ooh, am I first?

Great post, Tim! You captured all of the urgency and barely-controlled chaos of a military comm center. I felt like I was right there.

A Chiss apprentice? Interesting choice for Palpy. Can't wait to see where this goes.

 

Thanks, Jae.

I've been doubly lucky in the military side of things-I'm a history major and also enjoy reading Clancy-type stuff, so that subject isn't exactly foreign to me. Secondly, my roomate served in the US Navy as a corpsman on a submarine, so he's very helpful with military scenes, especially stuff that occurs on the bridge of a warship.

Glad you liked it!

-Tim

 

Oooh!!!! Yay you heard back from all corners! Great job! More please!

 

It seems to be all go. The first scene resembles something out of a movie, I can't bring to mind which one though. Awesome work! The Sith seem to be moving again, casting their wicked ways over the Republic. Shocking!

Am

 

Ooooooo! Ahhhhhh! I love it!!!!!!

 

What's Palpy got up his sleeve? Hmm. I guess I will have to wait. This is really intriguing.

Another postie, please?

 

Very nice start, Tim. You have a gift for capturing the military mindset.

I, too, have read a lot of Clancy - and very much enjoy his political commentary and intricate plots. However, when he begins to spout twenty-three pages of technical read-outs, my eyes tend to glaze over, and I wander off to find new action scenes. I frankly couldn't care less about the tech-specs for the next super submarine, etc., etc. The people involved in building it and/or using it are much more interesting.

I'll look forward to more. (And, BTW, what anti-estrogen rant?)

And, as you mentioned on Red's thread, I too believe it is the darkness that makes Anakin interesting - even if I am famous for disliking the brat. Hey - I rather dislike historical monsters like Hitler and Stalin too - but that doesn't mean I find them dull.

Write more soon.

 

Very nice start, Tim. You have a gift for capturing the military mindset. >>

Thanks! I try.

I, too, have read a lot of Clancy - and very much enjoy his political commentary and intricate plots. However, when he begins to spout twenty-three pages of technical read-outs, my eyes tend to glaze over, and I wander off to find new action scenes. I frankly couldn't care less about the tech-specs for the next super submarine, etc., etc. The people involved in building it and/or using it are much more interesting.>>

Agreed. That's why I loathe Trek-I could enjoy Wars without knowing how the quantum toilet paper dispenser on the Falcon functions and the theory behind it. I could just picture a Trek version of ESB:

C-3P0: "If we reroute the power to the negative power coupling by inverting the quantum tachyon pulse through the warp nacelles, that should fix the burnt out light bulb in the cargo hold..."

Heheh. 3 hours after the movie was over, they'd still be stuck in the asteroid field, debating.

Clancy has gone downhill, though, IMO. Red October and Red Storm rising were great, Sum of All Fears now seems disturbingly ominous, and Without Remorse was an interesting change of focus. His Op Center and more recent stuff, though, I was never a fan of.

I'll look forward to more. (And, BTW, what anti-estrogen rant?) >>

Oh, something simmering in the back of my mind that I have never posted, yet a few of my close friends in the FF universe know about.

<<And, as you mentioned on Red's thread, I too believe it is the darkness that makes Anakin interesting - even if I am famous for disliking the brat. Hey - I rather dislike historical monsters like Hitler and Stalin too - but that doesn't mean I find them dull. >>

Well, yes. As I once joked with a rather devout Christain friend "Who wants to go to heaven? All the really interesting people are in Hell." LOL

Write more soon. >>

I will. Darth History Exam is now over, so I can get back to working on it.

-Tim (noting RRK and Cyn's Favorite Jedi Knight will be appearing shortly, and wondering what the Masters will think of his characterization in this particular story..LOL)

 

TIM-- noting RRK and Cyn's Favorite Jedi Knight will be appearing shortly, and wondering what the Masters will think of his character in this particular story. LOL

Now why should I find that phrase ominous?

But you might be surprised how open-minded we can be. I have no objection to different interpretations of Obi-Wan/Anakin/Whoever, in an AU setting.

That, after all, is what makes a horse race!!

I probably wouldn't read a fic in which he was depicted as a sniveling, back-stabbing coward - because I don't particularly care for stories that completely rewrite established characters; I think they're a cheat. If an author wants to write such characters, they should create their own, rather than bastardize someone else's. But, other than that, I'm cool with whatever you choose to write.

Hey - did you just call me a Master?

OK - now I'm really weirded out here - - - wandering off to check my mirror for gray hair and wrinkles.

Bring it on, History Buff. Can't wait.

 

Hey - did you just call me a Master? >>

Twas merely a term of utmost respect for those who, in FF-land, have IMO done a superb job of handling his character-which certainly is left open to a great deal of extrapolation.

LOL

-Tim