The Forceproof Menace (Pre-TPM EU)

Some of you know I rushed prematurely into the FF Writer's Resource and that I've been stalling posting my little story.

Well here it is. It's best if you've read Rouge Planet and/or Dark Tide: Onslaught, but even if you haven't, the story should explain itself (be sure to tell me if it doesn't). Enjoy:




Eight months before the events of Episode I, Jedi Master Depa Billaba is dispatched to the uninhabited Outer Rim world Bimmiel to investigate the sudden death of a Jedi affiliate. But this seemingly simple task will prove more complicated when she realizes that she is not alone on the planet?.

Jedi Master Yoda woke from a brief meditation and tuned himself to the Force. The Council chamber was empty except for him.

A green light flashed on the armchair of his custom-made council seat, indicating that a holomessage was waiting. He pressed the button and a life-sized hologram of Depa Billaba coughed to life. It was a single-way, prerecorded holo, so there would be no dialogue between Depa and Yoda.

Depa bowed her graceful humanoid head. The transmission was clogged with static: ??pecially Mace Wind? or Yoda. The planet is full? army? droids?. Comlink damaged?ou must contact me if you can hear this.? The message ended there and the hologram vanished.

Yoda rubbed his wrinkled green head and went to gather the rest of the Jedi Council.
_________________________________________

Mongei Shai looked at the tall, thin humanoid bounty hunter. ?I don?t have time to be chasing this jeedai all over the planet. I have my own business.?

Aurra Sing nodded.

?I will give you forty thousand credits to kill it.?

?I will,? said Aurra Sing, and she walked over to her swoop. Forty thousand credits, she thought. Killing a Jedi is its own reward.
__________________________________________

The current Jedi council was a blend of many different points of view, each member with their own unique skills. There was the wisdom of Yoda, Mace Windu, and the ever-patient Yaddle; the martial skills presented by Even Piell and Oppo Rancisis; the telepathic mind powers of Yarael Poof and Saesee Tiin; the disciplined strength offered by Eeth Koth; Adi Gallia?s political genius; Thracia Cho Leem?s youthful attitude; Kwyndle Jade?s practical knowledge; and the fresh perspective of new member Ki-Adi-Mundi. In about a month Thracia and Kwyndle would resign their short-term seats to Depa Billaba and Plo Koon.

Mace Windu leaned his dark-skinned head in head in toward the real-time hologram of Depa Billaba. Since they had sent the link to her, the transmission was clear and almost static-free.

?The investigation went as planned?? Mace asked.

?Yes, that part was simple enough, Master. Deadly rodents called slashrats killed him. But that is not why I called.? She paused. ?There seems to be a small army here, consisting of mutant Colicoids and self-controlled droidekas.?

?An army,? Yoda said. The holocam turned to face him.

?Yes, Master.?

?Mutated, you say??

?They seem to have abnormal growths.?

The cam turned to Mace again. ?And what is it you ask of us??

?With your permission, I ask that three or four Jedi come to Bimmiel immediately to help me study this army and its motifs.?

?Three or four?? Ki-Adi-Mundi echoed doubtfully.

?There is a disturbance in the Force that I do not want to face alone. Four Jedi who are skilled with a lightsaber should be enough.?

Several heads automatically turned to Oppo Rancisis, a serpentine military master, but the old alien shook his shaggy head. ?Tua mai gon ag. Reea se gua Plo Koon,? he said in Thisspiasian. <I?m much too old. Send Plo Koon.>

?If you?re gonna send anyone, it should be Obi-Wan and his master Qui-Gon,? said Thracia Cho Leem. ?They probably have more experience than any of you.?

More than one pair of eyes glared, but no one commented.

Adi Gallia spoke. ?I will go, too. I would like to see these Colicoids, droidekas, and slashrats.? Besides being a political intelligence so

 

oo you posted

you're welcome...i'll get the rest back to you asap, school starts tomorrow so things are a bit hectic.

up

 

This is pretty cool. I like this idea, and I'll follow it! Up!

 

I'm back. Here's the next part:




Qui-Gon Jinn and Plo Koon were playing ?Resist the Mind Whammy.? Plo Koon was trying to convince Qui-Gon to play chess, but Qui-Gon wanted to play cards.

?I would play Dejarik,? Qui-Gon waved his hand. ?But you want to play Sabacc.?

Plo Koon usually didn?t use his hand for mind tricks, but he did now, to give him an edge. ?We will play Dejarik.?

Qui-Gon didn?t place too much emphasis on one word. ?You don?t want to play Dejarik.?

Even filtered through an electronic translator, Plo?s voice was powerful. ?We will play Dejarik.?

?Master.?

Qui-Gon looked at Obi-Wan and Plo looked at the chronometer. They?d been arguing for more than an hour with no winner? yet.

?Yes, Padawan??

?Charza Kwinn is here.?

The three Jedi walked out to the landing platform where Adi Gallia was already talking to the many-legged, bristle-lined, S-shaped sea alien.

?Welcome aboard the Star Sea Flower,? he said. ?I have been told to hurry, so make haste.?

The dim interior of the Star Sea Flower smelled vaguely like the Mon Calamari biology pool at the Coruscant Aquarium. A couple inches of water flowed along the floor of the ship, giving it a cool, wet feel. A little wall around the boarding ramp kept it from spilling out. Food-kin crabs hurried here and there performing minor tasks and clacking their arms and legs. In a few minutes the star Sea Flower was in hyperspace on a direct route to Bimmiel.
________________________________________

Mongei Shai touched his left nostril to remove his ooglith masquer. He wouldn?t need his human disguise until that bounty hunter returned for her reward. He?d stolen all forty thousand credits from various credit bank vaults in the Mid Rim.

He looked at his Yuuzhan Vong face mirrored in his reflector villip. ?Magnify,? he told the creature. It obediently zoomed in, letting him admire the dozens of little scars, tattoos, and disfigurements that patterned his face. His nose had been broken off ages ago, and his eyelids had double notches in them. He?d recently sacrificed both his lips and when he would get out of this terrible galaxy, he?d have small horns hammered into his forehead.

Earlier that day, he?d contacted Nom Anor, the only other Yuuzhan Vong in this galaxy, and informed him of the pleasing results of his experiment: the mind-controlling coral grew well on the live Colicoids. The accursed droids, of course, were not suitable hosts for the coral (like all Yuuzhan Vong, he hated machines.)

Now twenty-five kidnapped Colicoids and seventy-five droidekas were at his disposal. The perverse droids, of course, would be smashed to bits with his amphistaff- a serpentine whip that could harden into a rock-hard stave or flatten into a razor blade.

Suddenly, the roar of a sublight engine blared through his ears. Someone?s landing, he thought. The droids may yet be of some use to me.

 

That was another good one! Liked the interaction between Plo and Qui-Gon.

 

Thanks, DarthMcClain! Now if only someone else would post... maybe I should have said "feedback" instead of "honest feedback."

 

I hope others find it as well. Its good!

 

up

 

Uppsters!

 

Alderaan_, you gunna post some more?

 

Here you go, my valued customer.


?Any idea where I should land?? asked Charza Kwinn.

Adi Gallia?s bright blue eyes were half-closed feeling for Depa Billaba. ?Over there.? She pointed.

The ship landed and Depa got on board.

?My shelter was destroyed,? she explained. ?The bounty hunter Aurra Sing is here. We should stay inside for now.? She proceeded to tell them what she knew:

The small army of Colicoids and ?destroyer droids? was kept in a large building that resembled a giant snail shell. She was unsure of their motifs, but all she cold sense was hostility pouring from them. For all she knew, Aurra Sing was in charge of the army. A few well-placed bombs should destroy the shell and wipe out the army.

?As for the slashrats, there where specific ?killing fields.? The grayish rodents ?swim? through the sand to their prey, leap out, and scratch it to death.?

?Colicoids aren?t native to Bimmiel,? Charza remarked.

?And there?s a much bigger problem,? said Obi-Wan. ?We don?t have any bombs.?

?Oh, but I do,? said Charza with a grin. He left and returned with three thermal detonators. ?Now here is the plan??
_____________________________________

They split into three groups of two each. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would get to the shell as the mynock flies, Plo Koon and Depa Billaba would approach from the right side, and Adi Gallia and Charza Kwinn would approach from the left. One person would plant the bomb, the other would watch for Aurra sing. Simple.

Charza didn?t like the dry sand-and-rock environment, but at least it wasn?t hot. Besides, it would only be a few minutes until they?d be heading back to Coruscant. He thought.
_______________________________________

Mongei Shai heard rocks tumbling outside the shell. He donned his ooglith masquer, gathered his pouch of stolen credits, and stepped out, expecting to see Aurra Sing. Instead he saw two jeedai.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon weren?t expecting to see a human come out of the shell. Depa hadn?t told them, and what?s more, neither felt anything from the Force.

?So there?re two more of you,? said the Yuuzhan Vong. ?I am Mongei Domain Shai. Prepare to die, jeedai.? He reached up to his nose, and the ooglith masquer began to peel away.

Qui-Gon was repulsed by what he saw: a disfigured, mutilated face covered with scars and tattoos. A snake coiled around his arm slithered into his hand and stiffened into a long staff, both ends flattened into razor blades. Two buzzing projectiles flew from Shai?s other hand and headed right for Qui-Gon.

In an instant his lightsaber had cut one of the things in half. The second missed, spun in midair, and flew back at Qui-Gon. It?s a bug!!! he noticed. The bug missed again when the Jedi Master ducked, and it smashed into a rock? and exploded.

The green-gray alien, meanwhile, attacked Obi-Wan with his amphistaff. Obi-Wan leapt above one slash, ducked beneath another, and struck with his own deadly blade. Mongei Shai brought his reptilian weapon into a defensive posture.

Obi-Wan knew his lightsaber would shear through the amphistaff and cut into the alien?s body, so he was utterly shocked when it didn?t. The amphistaff blocked the lightsaber!

The split second of confusion was all the time Mongei needed. The amphistaff snake flexed, became serpentine, and struck. Six venomous fangs drilled into Obi-Wan?s chest, pumping nearly a liter of sour-smelling poison into his veins.

?Take that, you ngdin!?

Obi-Wan stumbled back, suddenly weak.

Mongei Shai, amphistaff rod-like again, prepared to hack off Obi-Wan?s head when an emerald-green blade cut into his shoulder. The revolting alien whirled. Qui-Gon?s lightsaber had barely nicked the Yuuzhan Vong?s Vonduun Crab armor.

Obi-Wan reached down to his comlink, but passed out before his hand reached it.

 

Yay! Thanks!

It was nice to see some action, and Obi-torture. I have something else to say, but I'll PM you about it.

 

Intresting story! Just what I need, action and Obi torture.

Keep it going!

 

Up again!

 

YES!!! YES!!! another person posted! That's THREE readers! hahahahahaha!


I'm desperate for more, so if you've been reading and not replying, post your thoughts please!!!

 

?Qui-Gon?s in trouble,? said Plo Koon, hearing anguished cries through the Force. He and Depa immediately turned left and headed for the source of the Force-calls.
________________________________________

Adi Gallia felt their agony, too, but she and Charza had enough trouble themselves. The Colicoids and droidekas were emerging from the shell; Colicoids rushing forward with poison claws extended, and droidekas rolling forward like giant wheels, then expanding into deadly hunched-over tripods, enemy- finding sensors and blaster cannon-hands ablaze.

Charza hurled the thermal detonator, but a well-aimed shot from a droideka caused it to explode prematurely, succeeding only in knocking over a couple of still-rolling droids.

Suddenly, the Colicoids started attacking each other. Adi Gallia had sent confusing images into their brains.

Adi and Charza came to a wall of rocks. Climbing it would mean exposing their backs. They hid behind a large boulder. While Adi smashed droids with Force-flying rocks, Charza blasted a tunnel through the rock and slipped through, scraping his left side against the rocky wall. Adi squeezed through after him to the other side.

Not the most graceful beings in the galaxy, it took the droidekas a long time to scale the wall. A couple tried to squeeze through the crude tunnel or roll up over the stony hill, to no avail. When they finally made it to the top on blaster hands and pointed feet, the two invaders were gone. They started morphing back to wheel form and took off in search of their prey.
____________________________________________

Qui-Gon was near collapse when Plo Koon and Depa Billaba arrived. He allowed himself to tumble back and let Plo Koon take over the fight for a second. Then, with renewed strength from the Force, he leapt up and joined battle alongside his friend.

Depa Billaba did not ignite her lightsaber but laid her hands on Obi-Wan and sent a surge of healing power through him. Then she picked him up, awkwardly because he was bigger than she was, and ran in the direction of the Star Sea Flower.

She was about twenty meters away from the ship when a bolt of hot energy sang past her face. Aurra Sing was standing six meters away.

Depa placed Obi-Wan down on a somewhat flat rock and drew her lightsaber. Aurra holstered her blaster and ignited her own scarlet blade.

Aurra, though not a Jedi, was a formidable opponent, while Depa, a Jedi Master, was not especially skilled with a lightsaber.

Aurra lunged and attacked and thrust, driving Depa farther and farther back until Depa fell off the rocky ledge into the slashrat killing field.

Aurra turned to maim the Jedi boy that was lying on the rock? but he was gone!

Charza Kwinn ran uneasily, his back stretched out like a stretcher, carrying Obi-Wan. Crawling like a centipede, he quickly reached the Star Sea Flower and wriggled on board.

?Get some bacta on that wound,? he told several food-kin. With Obi-Wan in their care, he ran for the cockpit and fired up the repulsors.
________________________________________

A glowing orange saber blade descended on Aurra Sing. She blocked Adi Gallia?s blow, and counterattacked. Adi parried and swept wide, missing completely when Sing deftly sidestepped.

Aurra Sing swung her saber, intent on severing Adi?s arm at the elbow. Adi brought her right hand down, but not fast enough. Aurra?s blood-colored beam nicked Adi?s saber hilt, causing Adi?s entire lightsaber to explode. The eruption burned Adi?s blue-tinged hand, but luckily she held her lightsaber with a reverse single-hand grip. If she hadn?t, her left hand might have been cut off.

Adi leapt back and tossed her useless lightsaber away. Another slash from the bounty hunter severed a tentacle from Adi?s Tholoth headdress. Adi didn?t let that or her pain distract her.

A large stone sailed through the air. Aurra easily bisected it and the other rocks that followed.

Adi turned to run for the Star Sea Flower but it was lifting off. Aurra Sing was clipping her lightsa

 

Sounds good, I really like it!

 

a fourth reader!

 

Cool. Nice action!

 

Hovering five meters above her was a YT-1150. Aurra prepared to deflect anything it might shoot at her, but its weapons were not aimed. Instead, the boarding ramp lowered and a dozen little crabs leapt out.

The first freefalling food-kin got slashed in half. The second was batted aside. The ten others landed on Aurra and swarmed around her, pulling at her sensor implants and chipping at her body paint.

Aurra frantically tried to claw them off, but a burst of Force lightning erupted onto her leg. She spat a curse at Adi and leapt onto her swoop to escape the lightning attack, food-kin letting go the second before she sped off.
_______________________________________

The sand boiled around Depa as two gray blurs blasted out of the dunes toward her. One slashrat opened a gash from the back of her neck to her shoulder. The other was neatly cleaved in two.

A rancid stink rose from the dead rodent. Through the Force, Depa felt the other slashrats leaving, repelled by the stench.

Depa leapt up onto the ledge and boarded the Star Sea Flower with Adi and the food-kin.
___________________________________________

Mongei Shai loosed his last thudbug on Qui-Gon. Plo Koon spun his lightsaber and slashed at Mongei. The Vong blocked with his amphistaff.

Suddenly, the stiff rod became whip-like and the red-eyed serpent?s head lashed out at Plo?s face. Multiple fangs raked across his sensitive Del Kor facial organs, shredding them so that they hung like tattered threads against his face.
It was as if all his senses suddenly blanked out. Half blind, deaf, and deprived of smell, Plo reached out through the Force to anticipate the alien?s movements-but got nothing. Absolutely nothing.

With his one good eye, he noticed the brown-green staff blade flying at his neck. He ducked? too late. The cutting edge dug into the back of his neck, severing nerves and paralyzing him.

But that, he thought, cannot hinder me. He abandoned himself to the Force, letting it control his movements. His muscles no longer controlled him, the Force did. Even with only one eye, he felt more powerful than before he let the Force control him.

Qui-Gon?s saber slipped past the amphistaff and hit the alien?s flank. But against the Vonduun Crab armor, the lightsaber's effect was like a stick against a durasteel wall.

Mongei leapt over Qui-Gon and attacked from behind. His movements were fluid and martial, but decidedly un-Jedi. As Qui-Gon blocked the amphistaff strike, a tremor resounded in the Force.

Blast! He thought. Droidekas!

 

Oooohhh...this dont seem to be going well for your heros, now do they? As always, good job.

 

thanks. Sorry I haven't been able to post in a while.... But after the terrorist attack, I've been kinda busy. I hope not too many JCers died... the death toll is catastrophic. Notice the last part of my sig.

Anyway, here's the next part
-------------------------------------------
One food-kin began clacking like crazy.

?Look!? said Obi-Wan.

A bronze wave of rolling droidekas surged toward the three combatants.

Charza fired two proton torpedoes at the rolling wave. The flaming blue-pink spheres detonated on both sides of the wave, instantly disintegrating each destroyer droid.
__________________________________________

Filled with the Force, Plo Koon hammered the amphistaff again and again until it finally gave way. Plo?s blade tore at its head until it became limp and died.

A well-aimed kick from Qui-Gon sent Mongei Shai tumbling down to the slashrat killing field. Qui-Gon collapsed in a panting heap, but Plo leapt down after Mongei.

The Yuuzhan Vong landed on his back, still clutching the useless amphistaff. Plo landed nearby and drove his lightsaber into the Vong?s chest. The Vonduun Crab armor held for one second? two seconds? then the lightsaber shoved through, killing Mongei Shai.

The sand began to shift, indicating slashrats were near. Using the Force, Plo levitated back up to the ledge and collapsed, physically and mentally exhausted.
Down in the killing field, slashrats began to devour the Vong and amphistaff. In a few minutes the Star Sea Flower found them and landed.

Plo levitated his paralyzed body up the boarding ramp. Qui-Gon picked something up off the ground and followed him.



The action may seem to be winding down, but don't worry, there's a sequel coming when I finish this one! I'm so excited about it, I'm tempted to post a bunch of teasers here. I'll just say there WILL be a parellel to the terrorist actions of Sept. 11 in the sequel of the sequel- in other words I hope to make this a trilogy

 

Cool, Alderaan_, keep up the work!

 

Uppp!!!

 

All right, here's the next part.

The ship was silent. Even the food-kin stopped clacking.

?I was not aware that Jedi could discharge lightning from their hands,? said Charza, to break the quiet.

?Jedi don?t usually use lightning as a weapon,? replied Adi. ?It is usually used to revive unconscious people.?

Obi-Wan was apparently having trouble speaking, but could manage. ?And if your ship ever loses power, you just send a little jolt through the wires.?

?What happened to your Jedi lightsaber?? Charza asked Adi.

?Aurra Sing was able to destroy it,? she said and removed the bacta patch to reveal a blackened hand.

The others were wounded as well.

Charza had lost three arms by scraping them in the tunnel. They would take a week or more to regenerate. Depa had a slashrat scratch on her shoulder. Obi-Wan had been bitten by the amphistaff and if not for his strength in the Force, he would have been dead by now. Qui-Gon?s hair and beard were dark with blood from amphistaff wounds. Plo?s mutilated sensory organs would require extensive surgery and his nerves would have to be rewired by a medical droid.

They reached Coruscant without incident and after five days of bacta treatment and healing trances, the five Jedi were ready to report to the Jedi Council.

Vergere, Thracia Cho Leem?s former apprentice, temporarily sat in Adi Gallia?s seat.

After hearing the story, even the most perceptive eye could not have interpreted Yoda?s expression. He had personally hoped for Aurra to become a Jedi more than twenty years ago when the mysterious Dark Woman had brought Aurra from Nar Shadda. The majority of the Council had decided that Aurra, then 1 ½, was too old to be safely trained. But Yoda?s powerful opinion ultimately changed a few minds, resulting in Aurra?s training. She?d failed before she reached the rank of Padawan.

Now she was a killer, an evasive, emotionless murderer specializing in Jedi hunts. Aurra Sing had seemed so strong, had claimed to be ready, maintained that she was not afraid. Now it was virtually impossible to turn her back. Yoda had promised himself never to make that mistake again.

He focused his attention when Mace spoke up. ?You say this alien?s weapon and armor resisted your lightsabers??

?Up to a certain point, yes,? acknowledged Plo. ?It could bite, too.?

?The weapon?s venom, once inside the body, multiplies and overwhelms the heart,? said Thracia, smiling warmly at Obi-Wan. ?Medical studies show that you should have died. I?ll remember your bravery if I?m ever in need of a dispatch.?

Yoda switched subjects. ?Perhaps blocking your perception, he was.?

?You are suggesting he was using the Force?? asked Mace.

The practical Kwyndle Jade interrupted. ?A Force-resistant being may not be so unusual. There are many unknown regions it could have come from.?

Vergere agreed. ?We know for a fact that there are species naturally immune to most mind tricks. And we?ve all heard the rumors of the ysalamiri, which are supposed to counteract Jedi powers. Perhaps this creature was naturally hard to perceive.?

Nobody argued, but as Qui-Gon exited the chamber, he felt something was wrong. Could it be something about the forty thousand credits he?d picked up on Bimmiel? No, those were being safely returned to their proper bank vaults.

His mind grew cloudy. Suddenly he realized he hadn?t played Dejarik in a while.

?I? will? play?? he began, and then snapped out of it.

?No!? he said to Plo Koon. ?I don?t want to play Dejarik, but Sabacc will do fine.?


The End...


...of this fic. There's a sequel coming soon for my loyal reader(s)!