Star Wars Sequels Reimagined - Episode 8: Part 2 of 2

For Part 1: https://boards.theforce.net/threads/star-wars-sequels-reimagined-episode-8-part-1-of-2.50058527/

Star Wars: Episode 8 - The Shroud of the Dark Side (Part 2)

Over Coruscant, a large fleet of New Republic ships are beginning to assemble, from all over the galaxy.


Tardav Shen is especially adamant about visiting the captains of each of the largest ships, congratulating them personally on their bravery, and he has his entire staff bring hot meals to each of the crew members.

Leia Solo has meanwhile requested a Jedi knight to visit her in the capitol. Luke knows Jake, Versa and Aliisa are all itching to go after Rakkan, but he believes flying into the heart of Thrawn’s territory is too dangerous for them. So Luke sends them to see what Leia needs. He assures them that he will go after Rakkan personally, along with Rogue Squadron, because they are best suited to surviving in hostile territory. All 3 of them are very upset but follow Luke’s orders.

MEANWHILE:


Nobu Fett lands outside Grand Admiral Thrawn’s palace, and several very tough looking bodyguards with shock-staffs meet him, along with a squadron of stormtroopers.



They say they are here to take the prisoner off his hands (who is still unconscious, in a floating prison cell, like what obi-wan was in on Geonosis, but it can move)




Nobu says they don’t get anything until he gets paid, and after a tense standoff, and one of them reluctantly hands him a chip with the credits. Nobu checks the chip, nods, gets back in his ship and leaves.

When Rakkan wakes up, he’s still in the mobile cell, on a tall balcony, with Grand Admiral Thrawn. The view is of a vast courtyard below, with stormtroopers running drills, and ships overhead. (kind of like at the end of episode 2)



Thrawn tells him that he recognizes Rakkan’s unique talents, and wants to help him to develop them fully. At first Rakkan is angry at being captured, but Thrawn tells him there was no other way to meet with him, and that if he wanted to kill him he could have done so by now. He wants to work with him.

When Rakkan tells Thrawn he doesn’t want to work for Imperial scum, Thrawn asks, “How about working against them then?”

He says the New Republic has been complacent about fighting the imperial warlords, but Thrawn has actually been doing all the work, defeating all the war-hungry and violent warlords. Thrawn assures Rakkan he only wants peace for both his empire, and the New Republic. He tells Rakkan he has no plans whatsoever to attack the New Republic, and only wants Rakkan’s help to defeat the truly evil Imperial warlords. He shows him video clips of how the people on those warlord’s planets are oppressed, and says Rakkan would be doing a great service to the galaxy, by helping him free the people.

He also says unlike the Jedi order, he wouldn’t try to put idiotic rules on how Rakkan chooses to use the force, but instead encourage him to explore his abilities in any way he sees fit.Also, he says he will give Rakkan anything he wants in exchange for his help. He would even be second in command in Thrawn’s entire empire. Rakkan, while initially angry at being captured, calms down during Thrawn’s offer, and appears to be considering it.

When Thrawn’s bodyguards take Rakkan to his luxurious quarters, they deactivate the cell and let him go free. On a dresser near his bed, Rakkan finds all his things laid out and waiting for him, including the Holocron and his lightsaber.

MEANWHILE:

Jake, Versa and Aliisa arrive on Coruscant to visit with Leia. She can tell they are all despondent about Rakkan being captured, but she assures them if anyone can save him, Luke can.

She then says she requested Jedi help, because she’s noticed suspicious activity near the senate building. Ships are loading many crates of things, but they are not listed on the docking register. When she tried to investigate, she was shut down by those who were in charge of the matter, saying “they’ll handle it” but she suspects they wont.



So Jake, Versa and Aliisa wait in the shadows one night to see where the people who are making these mysterious deliveries go.



Jake follows the pilot of the ship, once he leaves it and Versa follows one of the men who was commanding the loading droids where to put the crates.

Aliisa goes back to her ship and waits for either Jake or Versa to call for a pickup if they need it.

Both men the Jedi are following travel separate paths to some of the lowest levels of Corsucant.

The man Versa was following secretly realizes he’s being followed by her. He taps out a message on his communicator. A few streets later, he is waiting for Versa with several thug-like aliens who try to kill her. She manages to defeat them all, but with all of them dead, she has no one left to follow or investigate.

Jake follows the pilot to one of the lowest levels of Coruscant, into a really seedy bar.



He sees the pilot go into a back room, and when he tries to follow a club bouncer stops him, but Jake mind-tricks him into letting him in.

Once he enters the back room, it’s empty. But using the force, Jake find a fake wall panel, and opens it. After walking down a dark tunnel, he finds himself in the massive, empty sewers of Coruscant.

Far ahead, there is a light on in a window.



Jake approaches and inside he sees the pilot, and about 30 men in different kinds of imperial officer uniforms. He hears them say the senator’s shipments are almost finished, and Thrawn will be pleased.

The Imperial who seems to be in charge is holding a large data pad. Jake suddenly force-pulls the pad to him, smashing it through the window. The officers turn and pull out their guns, and a bunch of stormtroopers in a nearby building come out to chase him. Alarms start blaring.

Holding the data-pad tight, Jake jumps down to an even deeper level of the sewers and the soldiers follow him. Jake calls for Aliisa to come pick him up, and gives his coordinates. Jake runs into a large circular cavern-like room, with light streaming in from above and a huge, deep pool in the middle.




When the soldiers run in, a giant, tentacled sewer monster rises up from the water and starts attacking Jake and the imperials.



When they are all fighting it, Aliisa’s ship hovers down into the opening from above, and Jake force-jumps into the open door, and they fly out of there.



Jake later reports to Leia that whatever is in the mystery shipments, they are coming from Grand Admiral Thrawn. He gives her the data pad, but the data is all encrypted. Leia thanks him and tells him they’ll have their top encryption experts start working on what’s in the pad right away.

MEANWHILE:


Rakkan enters Thrawn’s large throne room, which has10 different strange alien bodyguards with exotic weapons standing guard along the pathway to Thrawn's throne. They all instantly tense and look like they are about to attack Rakkan, but Thrawn holds up a hand to steady them. Each of the body guard has a different type of electrically charged hand-to-hand combat weapon.



Rakkan steps up to the foot of the throne and nods at Thrawn, telling him he accepts his offer.Thrawn smiles and tells him he has made a great decision, and that thousands of people will be grateful for this, that he’s saving lives.

Thrawn knows that every single other imperial warlord would instantly ally to attack him, if they knew one of the 4 “heroes” of the new republic were now working for him. Also, despite his skills, Rakkan isn’t very intimidating looking, he just looks like a teenage kid that no one would believe has so much authority.

So Thrawn tells Rakkan he will need to keep his identity secret to avoid having all the other imperials ally against him.

Rakkan agrees to this, and Thrawn gives him a new name and title: Darth Mortak. While Thrawn doesn’t have the authority to make anyone a “Darth” and Rakkan isn’t even a true Sith yet, no one else knows.

Thrawn also says for Rakkan to disguise himself, he will need to wear a mask and armored suit at all times when he’s in public.


The mask has a voice modifier to make Rakkan’s voice sound older and more intimidating.

Thrawn is well aware of the similarities to Darth Vader that this new Darth Mortak’s look has, and it’s on purpose of course. Having a “Darth” working for him will strike fear into all his enemies. He now has the ultimate body guard, assassin, and possibly someone who can perform a battle meditation to enhance his troops during battle.

Rakkan is a teenage boy who is well aware that the suit makes him look and sound cool, and he’s now second in command of an entire empire, with the freedom to use the darkside as he chooses.

Thrawn then tells Rakkan that before he puts on the suit, he needs to talk to whoever the New Republic sent after him, to keep them from danger. He leads Rakkan into the communications room.

MEANWHILE:

Luke and the Rogue Squadron come out of hyperspace around Thrawn’s main base planet. The planet is heavily guarded by Star Destroyers and tie fighters.




Luke tells to Rouge Squadron that these are older imperial ships, and they have the newest, most enhanced ships in the New Republic, and that combined with their flying skill should help them be able to break through the defenses and find his captured student.

Suddenly Luke gets a transmission from the planet. It’s Rakkan. He tells Luke everything is fine, that he needs to leave. Now he has a chance to do some good for the galaxy.

Luke tells Rakkan he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Thrawn is evil and is just using him, and the dark side will consume him if he continues down this path. Rakkan tells Luke the dark side is nothing to be afraid of, that Luke was just too weak to control it as well as he could.

Luke tries to keep telling Rakkan to come back with him, but Rakkan cuts him off. He tells him he will never attack the New Republic, but is instead going to work with Thrawn, the New Republic’s only true ally, to defeat the other imperials across the galaxy. He then ends the call.

Luke then sends a coded message to Rakkan. That he still has 24 hours to change his mind, and that he and Rogue Squadron be waiting in orbit around nearby planet in case he wants to contact him to be brought back.

Then Luke and the rest of Rouge Squadron jump to hyperspace.

Thrawn’s forces intercept the message, and decode it. Then Thrawn signals for a large fleet of Star Destroyers and tie fighters to gather together. Some of his largest Star Destroyers have a new addition to them, hyperspace dampening field generators.

When activated, they make any ships caught inside the field unable to jump to hyperspace. They can make the jump once they leave the field, but the fields are massive in size, almost the size of a planet.

Luke, in the meantime, has sent a message to Leia, knowing he will be in trouble and gave her his coordinates.

While Rouge Squardron is in orbit around the planet, suddenly 10 star destroyers jump out of hyperspace, each spilling hordes of tie fighters. Rogue Squadron dodges the incoming fire as best they can but finds they cannot go to hyperspace. Their ships start taking damage.




Suddenly, the New Republic’s Super Star Destroyer, now renamed as “The Liberator” exits hyperspace. The Imperials are taken by surprise, and cannot leave because of their own hyperspace dampening fields. The Liberator defeats all 10 Star destroyers, as well as many tie fighters. Rogue Squardron takes out the rest of the tie fighters.




"The Liberator"

Leia, Jake, Versa, and Aliisa are all on the bridge of ”The Liberator” watching it happen. And when Luke’s squadron finally docks and join them on the bridge, there is a feeling of celebration until Luke tells his kids and Aliisa what happened with Rakkan.

They all appear crestfallen, and look out the bridge view of The Liberator at the galaxy.

On Thrawn's homeworld, he stands on the balcony, looking over his troops, as his fleet can be seen assembling in the skies overhead. Next to him stands the now fully suited Darth Mortak. The movie ends with Darth Mortak's theme playing, which will be the minor key version of Rakkan's theme.




Episode 8 Super Short Summary

Luke trains Rakkan on the Jedi academy on Naboo, along with Jake and Versa. Aliisa works there as a transport pilot for the Jedi, and to be close to her friends.

Rakkan likes it at first, but his experience with the dark side make the light side seem to slow and weak, and he gets frustrated with Luke’s teachings. Luke takes away Rakkan’s lightsaber because he sees the dark side in him.

One night Aliisa secretly gives Rakkan back his red lightsaber.

Then imperial spec ops then show up in the middle of the night to try to kill Rakkan, sent by imperial warlords who want revenge for Rakkan capturing the Super Star Destroyer.

Rakkan is saved and aided by the bounty hunter, Nobu Fett, who kills them, but then Nobu Fett knocks Rakkan out with a drugged dart, because he was paid to capture Rakkan alive and bring him to Thrawn.

Jake, Versa and Aliisa all want to go after Rakkan, but Luke has tracked the path of the bounty hunter’s ship and sees it goes into Grand Admiral Thrawn’s territory. He knows they will be killed if they try to follow. Leia then contacts Luke and asks for some Jedi help on Coruscant, so Luke sends those three to keep them occupied and away from the situation.

When all 3 arrive, Leia says there is suspicious activity going on near the senate building. Jake eventually manages to track the suspicious activity to imperial officers who are hiding on the low levels of Coruscant, and finds that Grand Admiral Thrawn is sending something to a senator, who is working with him. Jake manages to capture a data-pad from them, but the information is encrypted.

Meanwhile, Thrawn has persuaded Rakkan to work for him, because he is killing other imperial warlords and promises never to attack the New Republic, plus Rakkan is free to use the force however he wants, plus he can be second in command of the empire.

Rakkan agrees, and when Luke shows up with Rogue Squadron to rescue him, Rakkan tells him to leave, that he doesn’t want to be rescued, that he and Thrawn are doing the galaxy some real good, and Luke is a coward to be afraid of the dark side. He then cuts the transmission.

Luke sends another message telling Rakkan they are hanging out nearby if he changes his mind. Thrawn intercepts the transmission, and sends a fleet there to kill Rouge Squadron, but then Leia, Aliisa, Jake and Versa show up in the Super Star Destroyer and together with Rogue Squadron, they kill all the imperials in that area. They are sad when the find out what happened with Rakkan, and stare off into the galaxy.

Thanks for reading!

For Episode 9:
https://boards.theforce.net/threads/star-wars-episode-9-an-empire-reforged-part-1-of-2.50058534/