Beyond - Legends The Lands of the Dead (Post-NJO AU: Anakin Solo, Jacen, Jaina, L/M,H/L,many more) New fic 4/16!

It won't be Yoda. Just another one of his species. Enemies of the Raithians, perhaps, explaining why we've seen so little of their species apart from Yoda, Yaddle and the one from KOTOR?

Anyway, nice update YK. I'd say more but I'm still shell-shocked from the BSG midseason finale.

 

Tahi: First.

Blisteringly fast Nicely done.

Ah - that's the Darth Malig diet. It does that to you.

You just have a panic attack from breakfast, a stroke for lunch, and a psychotic dinner

Seriously - the descriptions there and in the ensuing bit about Luke's struggle with his loss of the Force are awesome. It makes you realise that in some ways the Jedi are SO reliant on the Force that it almost puts them at a disadvantage.

Yeah, it's losing another sense they've become used to, though I think anyone would be going a little crazy in Luke's situation.

As you point out, knowing intellectually that the Force is there, even when you can't access it, doesn't really help - or bolster you against the situation.

Right, it doesn't really do him much good

I love that Luke thought about Obi-Wan. Maybe it's Obi-Wan giving him a nudge through the Force to strengthen him.

Hehe, that would be cool.

Ah, guilt is a terrible thing. It's kind of been Luke's downfall here, too, poor guy. A more political type would have denied everything and thrown some other issue into the discussion to distract everyone.

Yeah, he was too honest in the end. At least he's put the guilt behind and is recognizing this was all a setup.

Yes, Jacen is definitely a tool. (I need that drumroll image you used on MHR. LOL)



[image=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/YodaKenobi/drum.gif]

Poor man. So in need of comfort.

I'm sure Malig will show up eventually to comfort him ;
Luke's not the only one mystified. Nice link there to your prologue with he mention of Adas.

Thanks. Malig seems to have a fixation on Adas, for some reason

I'm really enjoying the mystery, Yoda.

Thanks! I'm a big fan of using mystery to push stories forward, so I'm glad you're enjoying it.

And I have to say that the ending really brought me up short. I did NOT expect that. Is it really Yoda?

Good question. It seems unlikely that it's really Yoda, since we all saw him die, but I guess there are a lot of possibilities

Fantastic chapter.

Thank you And thanks for reading and replying!







Cyn: Steals first!

You were very close!

*glares at Tahi* Curses!!! Foiled by the Aussie.

Tahi's a Kiwi actually. I'm sure she'll forgive you though

I'll be back later, right now I have to take Darth Toddler to soccer...
EDIT: Okay, I'm back. My team is made up of Sith acolytes I swear....



Should I assume the team didn't do well then? ... Or does that mean they did really well?

Anywho...I LOVED how you got into Luke's head here. Six months in solitary would tax the mental fortitude of Kyle himself.

lol! Kyle would never let himself get captured ;
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the stuff about Luke

And without the Force. *shivers* The comparisions between his physical and mental appearance wher fantastic...

Thank you!

So you're telling me that Yoda didn't fade off into the Force in ESB, but got beamed away by Darth Malig?

That seems highly unlikely, but you'll have your answer the next time we see Luke.

Either that, or Master Yaddle ain't as dead as we all thought.

That would be interesting...

Wicked post!

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it And thanks for reading and replying!








Ultima: Just an image of Yoda or another of his species?

That's the question. You'll have an answer soon, I promise it won't be one of these things that gets dragged out

Really interesting post.

Thanks and thanks for reading







zonzo: Awesomesause.



Wow. That's pretty deep.

Deep Thoughts, by Luke Skywalker:

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate.

And I can picture us

 

Yeah, *Sniff*, I do!

(Just kidding. Sort of)

 

Woah! First Luke is reduced to little more than the average guy and nearly broken! then...am I to guess he's come to the land of Yoda?

Great update!

 

Yes, my collection of images of my favourite heroes. And there already... Sixth your work. I want still

YodaKenobi

You as always are right, Master

 

Luke couldn't remember a time since becoming a Jedi when he'd been separated from the Force for so long. He felt so blind, so helpless. All of his senses were dampened and he was always tired from lack of nourishment.

Not having access to the Force has to be the most horrifying feeling for a Jedi.


What if it had already happened? What if his family was already dead? Leia, Han, Anakin and Jaina... Mara and Ben... Luke would have no way of knowing, cut off from the Force he could not have sensed their deaths, and was unable to reach out and reassure himself that there bright presences were still there, safe and probably worried for him.

This was where the panic set in.

And it was the greatest torture of all.

Poor, almost broken Luke.


They descended through thick blankets of clouds that looked as though they were weeping from a blaze on the surface, but when the shuttle punched through the last wisps, Luke saw one of the most chilling cityscapes he'd ever beheld. The sky was blood red as the sun was sinking into the distant horizon, the hole it burned through the black clouds staining everything around it like a seeping wound, while thick columns of smoke billowed up past giant durasteel constructs to drown the system's star further. Sunlight danced across the faces of transparisteel towers, and spires of chrome, silver, and black jutted up from an endless abyss of structures nearly as high as the galaxy's former capital, in an array of complex shapes.

What imagery! It is at once ominous and strangely beautiful.


"Yoda?"

Is it really him, or could he be the result of whatever it was they injected Luke with?


Loving the mystery. Can't wait for more.

 

Wow! That was great! I'm inclined to think this could possibly be Malachor from the Dramatis Personae. Good to see Faybol's Nasgu...I mean Kurol. This chapter leaves even more credence that Malig is Ben Linus.

Also, add me to the list of shell-shocked fans of Battlestar Galactica.

 

Intriguing as always, Yobi. I can't wait to find out more about this "Yoda" creature. (Note the skepticism.) Just how many characters are you going to try and resurrect here?

That has to be the worst non-physical torture on record. Poor man. Are they ever going to throw him a bone? Even a little one?

And yes, you should definitely look up BSG - your detail oriented mind would love the intrigue. It's like one big puzzle - kinda like your stories.

*salutes*

Voz

 

Yet people keep trying to capture Kyle, but they all end up dead. What a waste of a life; those Sith wannabes don't know when to quit.

 

zonzo: Yeah, *Sniff*, I do!



(Just kidding. Sort of)

I'm sure




iamobiwan: Woah! First Luke is reduced to little more than the average guy and nearly broken!

Yeah He's pretty resilient though. Never count Luke Skywalker out.

then...am I to guess he's come to the land of Yoda?

That would be cool. You'll have to wait and see, but you'll have your answer soon.

Great update!

Thanks and thanks for reading





Bellum: YodaKenobi
You as always are right, Master






jagsredlady: Not having access to the Force has to be the most horrifying feeling for a Jedi.

Yeah, it would suck I think the whole prison thing would probably be worse.

Poor, almost broken Luke.

Luke always makes it through

What imagery! It is at once ominous and strangely beautiful.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it We'll be learning a lot more about this planet in the future.

Is it really him, or could he be the result of whatever it was they injected Luke with?

That's a great question. I will say that the injection is significant and it wasn't a sedative or anything. We'll learn more about it later

Loving the mystery. Can't wait for more.

Thanks so much for everything I'll have more for you tonight






corran: Wow! That was great! I'm inclined to think this could possibly be Malachor from the Dramatis Personae.

I think you could be on the right track there, but off a little I'll have an answer for you soon though.

Good to see Faybol's Nasgu...I mean Kurol. This chapter leaves even more credence that Malig is Ben Linus.

If Malig only wants Luke to remove a tumor on his spine, we'll know for sure!

Also, add me to the list of shell-shocked fans of Battlestar Galactica.

Will do.

People shell-shocked by the Battlestar Galactica mid-season finale:

jagsredlady
Wedge
Spike
corran2

Thanks for reading and your reply






Telanna: Intriguing as always, Yobi. I can't wait to find out more about this "Yoda" creature. (Note the skepticism.) Just how many characters are you going to try and resurrect here?

Hehe. You're right to be skeptical, that seems highly unlikely.

That has to be the worst non-physical torture on record. Poor man. Are they ever going to throw him a bone? Even a little one?

I think he'll find a lot of bones actually...

And yes, you should definitely look up BSG - your detail oriented mind would love the intrigue. It's like one big puzzle - kinda like your stories.

Hehe. I'll add you to the list of people whose opinions I trust who recommend BSG

*salutes*

*Salutes back*

Thanks so much for reading replying






GrandMasterKatarn: Yet people keep trying to capture Kyle, but they all end up dead. What a waste of a life; those Sith wannabes don't know when to quit.

The death totals at the end of every level are insanse

I wonder if we'll ever get another Jedi Knight game







New post on Friday. We'll find out what happened to Han and the Millennium Falcon in the next chapter. The Raithians are claiming they captured the ship...

 

Hmmmmm......Yoda?
Can't wait till the next post!

 

The new chapter... And how I it all over again have passed it??
Luke... It is amusing. Though I always could not suffer this character... Rather intriguing beginning. And when there will be a following post?

Bel

 

Yeah, it would suck I think the whole prison thing would probably be worse.

Yeah, but he wouldn't be in prison to begin with if he still had the Force.

That's a great question. I will say that the injection is significant and it wasn't a sedative or anything. We'll learn more about it later

Significant... What could it be? Can't wait to find out.

 

TSF: Hmmmmm......Yoda?

Well, there are a lot of reasonable explanations, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what's going on

Can't wait till the next post!

Will be up tomorrow! Thanks for reading






Bellum: The new chapter... And how I it all over again have passed it??

No worries

Luke... It is amusing. Though I always could not suffer this character...

Aww, poor Luke

Rather intriguing beginning.

Thanks, glad you liked it.

And when there will be a following post?

New post tomorrow. It will be a few chapters before we see Luke again though if that's what you mean.

Thanks for reading






jagsredlady: Yeah, but he wouldn't be in prison to begin with if he still had the Force.

Fact

Although if he escaped, I'm not sure where he would go at this point... but I can't really get into that yet

Significant... What could it be?

Heroin?

No, it's something that already exists in canon, if that helps.

Can't wait to find out.

It won't be much of a wait





New post tomorrow

 

*headdesk*

You had to go and say that didn't you????? Now I have to think about it.







Cyn

 

I'm on catch-up mode... thought I'd better start before I get too far behind.

Prologue: Wow!! There's no Tahiri, and no Anakin, but this is one of my favourite posts of yours!

The beginning...

There is a wound cut in space.

A jagged gash torn through the fibers of the galaxy that writhes and throbs and grows in swirls of gas particles and clusters of screaming white stars. The webbed cloud of emissions and plasma shimmers and churns in deep reds and violet, bleeding into the endless black far beyond the Outer Rim.

Against this wound, this nebula, a warship appears.

The Imperial Star Destroyer Admonitor slides through the star-flecked abyss, its hulking ion drives cooking a trail of blue efflux and banks listlessly away from the distant mass of weeping dispersal.



Wow! What a wonderful opening scene! It really drew me in, and I was literally staring at the computer screen with my jaw open just reading in awed silence.. Very beautifully written, some lovely prose there.

And then Thrawn & Parck are introduced!! I'm so happy to see those two... ever since Zahn introduced me to the Chiss, I've had a bit of a soft spot for them -- Parck in particular, for some reason.

The whole scene was wonderful, but I was staring like a fangirl again at this part:

Thrawn takes the flimsi from Guthree and unfolds it as Parck looks over his shoulder to read. On the sheet are a few handwritten lines in Aurebesh, the marks beautiful and elegant at times, but others are erratic and jagged.

This is what it says:

Mister Guthree,

Many years from now, two men will come to see you. One will be human and the other will have the eyes of evil. They will ask you for the coordinates.

Kill them both.



Thrawn hears the rattle a moment before he lowers the flimsi and sees the muzzle of the blaster pistol shaking in Guthree's hand.

"I'm sorry..." he says. "But I'm scared he'll come back..."

The blaster sings out in a flash of blinding energy and Parck goes down, the bolt scorching through his shoulder. Thrawn dives to the ground, freeing his sidearm and aiming all in one smooth motion before the aging farmer can train his blaster on the Chiss.



Gah! Parck!!

Another burst of scarlet follows, leaving a smoking hole in Guthree's chest.

He falls to the ground, dead.

The thirteenth Imperial Grand Admiral pushes himself to his feet and stares down at the farmer's body, his great mind reeling.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Parck groans from behind. "I'm just great."

And a wonderful ending to a supremely wonderful post!! You have such a knack for really sucking readers in with your amazing intros and endings! If this post is any indication to what the rest of the 'fic will be like, I'd say that this is the best of the series so far!

Just brilliant!


Ant.

 

Cyn: *headdesk*
You had to go and say that didn't you????? Now I have to think about it.



If I was nice I'd point you in the direction of old stuff





Ant: I'm on catch-up mode... thought I'd better start before I get too far behind.

Glad to have you. There's no rush, of course

Prologue: Wow!! There's no Tahiri, and no Anakin, but this is one of my favourite posts of yours!

Hehe, thanks. I liked it a lot too. Was nice getting to write about Thrawn and Parck's mission into the Unknown Regions.

Wow! What a wonderful opening scene! It really drew me in, and I was literally staring at the computer screen with my jaw open just reading in awed silence.. Very beautifully written, some lovely prose there.

Aww, you're too kind I'm glad you enjoyed it so much

And then Thrawn & Parck are introduced!! I'm so happy to see those two... ever since Zahn introduced me to the Chiss, I've had a bit of a soft spot for them -- Parck in particular, for some reason.

Yeah, I like them too. Was fun doing the flashback to their younger days.

The whole scene was wonderful, but I was staring like a fangirl again at this part:

Glad you liked it!

Gah! Parck!!

We've seen him decades later, so you know he's going to live

And a wonderful ending to a supremely wonderful post!! You have such a knack for really sucking readers in with your amazing intros and endings!

Thank you It took me almost a week to figure out how to start this story and I wanted to come in with something really unexpected after the ending of Exodus. Glad it worked for you.

If this post is any indication to what the rest of the 'fic will be like, I'd say that this is the best of the series so far!

I hope so. There's a lot in this story I can't wait to write.

Just brilliant!

Thanks again and thanks so much for reading and replying






New post in a bit

 

Chapter 3: Raiders

"I'm going to ask you again— what is the security code?"

This time Admiral Vox didn't even wait for Han Solo to answer— he simply signaled the two-hundred-and-fifty pound giant beside him and in the next instant the soldier's fist was crashing into Han's jaw. To the Millennium Falcon's captain, it felt more like a duracrete block being driven into his face than the ridge of boney knuckles, and he tasted something metallic filling his mouth as he recoiled against the blow.

With his hands bound to the arms of the chair he was seated in, thick cables wound around his chest and the back of the throne, and his ankles tied to its base, it made it all the more difficult to even lean away from his captors' punches. They weren't in the Raider's detention area, but an office Han and his copilot had been whisked off to as soon as the Falcon had been tractored into the Raithian warship's bays and soldiers had stormed his beloved ship to take them prisoner.

Han didn't let more than a grunt of displeasure escape and wearily straightened himself as best he could, before he spat a mist of gore on the resicrete deck in front of him. The crimson beads spattered across Vox's boots and one leg of his trousers, and Han took solace in the revenge, watching the slightest spasms of disgust twitch across the Raithian's graying flesh.

"You keep asking me, but you keep hitting me in the head— how the hell am I supposed to remember?"

Han barely saw the look of disdain on Vox's face before his head was sent whipping back by the swift backhand of his torturer. Vox began to pace across the interrogation chamber while Han recovered, wincing to try and make the pain inflaming his every nerve stop.

"This can be painful, Captain Solo, or it can be very painful. One way or another though, you will answer my questions," Vox said. "What is it you're hiding in there? We both know eventually I'm going to get in, so you may as well tell me now."

"They're cargo holds," Han replied through swollen lips. "They hold cargo."

Vox turned impatiently to the brute lurking over Han. "I don't think we're quite getting through to him, Ensign. Perhaps another injection will dull his wit."

The droid on the opposite side of Han's chair was little more than a coiled dome of folded limbs, tubes, wires, spikes, and pincers, with two menacing red photoreceptors shinning through its dark housing. It moved forward on its tread and extended one of its many arms that ended in a metal drug injector.

Han's right arm was already an unnatural pink maze of welts and blistered flesh from the contraption's acid jets and electroshock probes. He ground his teeth as it extended the injector, a pearl of fluid glistening on the tip of the needle before it slid under his skin and pumped in whatever venom they'd been pouring into his bloodstream since his capture.

He tried to estimate how long ago it was that the Falcon had been caught in the Raithian warship's tractor beam and pulled into its bay. An hour? He couldn't be sure.

"Now, perhaps we can get a straight answer out of you, hm?" Vox asked, squatting down so he was eye level with Han. His whole body felt like it was on fire and his eyes glazed over as unconsciousness nearly blanketed him in its grasp. "What are the security codes for the Millennium Falcon's cargo holds?"

"Don't tell him anything," Lando said from the other side of the room. He was similarly restrained, but the Raithians had focused their attention on Han for the majority of the interrogation.

His old friend's presence there made Han all the more uncomfortable.

There were two tried and true methods of breaking multiple people through torture and interrogation that Han knew of— one was to separate them to try and sift lies from truths in their inconsistencies and creating mistrust between the captives by telling one that the other had already broken. The isolation and sense of abandonment further worked to break their will.

The other was to keep them together and torture one of them in hopes that the other would break out of the horror of watching someone close being brutalized.

The fact that Lando was still in the room did not bode well for Han.

The conference room itself was comprised of gleaming durasteel walls and a polished crystalplas table that had been pushed aside. The officer who had started their interrogation was still present, looking slightly dejected by Vox's seizing his duty, while four Raithian troopers were standing guard at the door— Han was certain there were more on the other side.

The Admiral turned back to Lando with a sneer and for a moment, Han thought he was going to strike his old friend, but the pale human maintained his composure.

"Mister Calrissian— every time you interrupt my questions for Captain Solo with something other than the answer I'm seeking, this is going to happen."

Vox signaled to one of the soldiers behind Han and in the next instant, he felt the butt of a blaster rifle slamming into the base of his skull. Pain vibrated through Han's bones as he felt his teeth rattle and his vision blurred into trembling streaks of white light.

That one hurt.

For a moment, he thought he saw Jacen in the quivering blear, and that was somehow brought him more pain. He'd held on to a glimmer of hope that Jaina was wrong about her twin brother when she'd told them what happened on Togoria, that his son hadn't really betrayed them all. But in the months since he fled into the Unknown Regions with Leia and the Jedi, he'd seen Jacen on the HoloNet, at the helm of the Raithian forces on Denon, making raids against Jedi sympathizers and helping to put Corellia back under Galactic Alliance control.

It was that image he saw, Jacen dressed in a Raithian combat suit, his lightsaber blazing... their little boy a Sith.

He still couldn't believe it. If he could just get to Jacen and shake some sense into him. He knew that this Darth Malig had done something to him. The boy he and Leia had raised would never do this...

Eventually he blinked the image away and everything went back to the undulating haze of white.

"Now, Captain Solo— the code please?"

Han just shook his head, his vision clearing enough that he shot a guilty-looking Lando a keep-your-mouth-shut look.

"Perhaps we should try something more intense then?" Vox questioned. His gray eyes strayed to the torture droid whose electroshock assembly began popping with white-hot sparks.

"You'll have to do better than that." Han tried to muster as much bravado as he could still manage. "I was tortured by Vader himself, pal. He didn't get a thing out of me— what hope do you have?"

He left out the fact that Vader hadn't asked him a single question during that nasty session on Bespin— Vox didn't need to know that.

"You must think I'm a fool?" Vox glowered.

"Well, if I must..."

The mound of vein-bulging sinew beside the admiral landed another right-hook to Han's battered face and this time he felt his cheek split open.

"Easy pal," Han snarled. "Some of us weren't born ugly."

"You think I don't know that you allowed yourself to be captured?" The admiral went on. "A lone freighter too ancient to be of any real threat to a warship of this size and armament that traveled all the way through the battle and flew close enough to the Raider to get caught in her tractor beam? If even half of the reputation you've managed to acquire among your people is deserved, you're too good a pilot for that, Captain Solo.

"So why did you allow yourself to be captured? Why did you lock down your cargo bays with a security code when the Millennium Falcon was boarded? What are you hiding in there?"

Han didn't answer.

"Your Jedi friends, perhaps? Scans of your ship found no life forms on board but we know the Jedi can use their Force to escape detection... Perhaps it is your son and daughter hiding in there? We have special orders regarding Anakin and Jaina Solo, as I'm sure you know. If you were to hand them over, you and Mister Calrissian would be allowed to go free, and I would pull my forces out of Telex."

Han wasn't sure what the Raithians' interest in his children was, but it had started before Jacen had defected— the Raithians seemed intent on taking them alive where they wouldn't hesitate to kill other Jedi.

"There's no one on board," he replied.

"Then tell me what you're really doing here. Why did you come to the Raider?"

The former smuggler laughed, shaking his head. "All right. I came here to steal your ship."

Vox's head tilted to the side and he grinned. "You are here to steal my ship?"

"That's right," Han said, leaning back against his bonds and pretending to be comfortable. "In fact, it would probably be better for you if you just handed it over to me and my copilot now, that way nobody gets hurt."

This time it was Vox who laughed. "Really? That is quite bold, Captain Solo. Two men against the thousands on board here? I think I'd rather let it play out."

Han shrugged as best he could. "Have it your way."

"And whose idea was this? Who sent you here to capture the Raider?"

A grin formed on Han's face as he fought not to show how bad it hurt to smile, and flashed a row of blood-smeared teeth. "Grand Admiral Thrawn."

"Grand Admiral Thrawn?" Vox asked, his voice dripping with amusement. "That's incredible. Even outsiders such as us are aware that the last Grand Admiral has been dead for many years."

Han shrugged again. "I don't know if he's dead or alive, but he's the one who told me to steal your ship."

The Raider's deck trembled beneath his boots and the overhead glowpanels flickered, as the battle outside around Telex must have been growing more intense.

"I grow tired of this game," Vox sighed wearily as the warship steadied. "If you refuse to tell me the truth and surrender the Millennium Falcon's security codes, I will simply blow the cargo doors open."

"Keep your slimy tentacles off my ship!" Han growled through clenched teeth.

He knew the Raithian Admiral was bluffing, but he also knew that Vox expected him to react to the threat. If his captors had any intention of blowing the cargo hatches open, they would have done so by now, and Han knew why Vox was apprehensive. The Admiral was afraid of damaging what might be inside, especially if it was Han's highly-valued children, but more importantly, Vox was deathly afraid that Han had packed the holds full of explosives that would trigger if the wrong code was punched into the security key pad or the Raithians used det charges or a flash torch to open the blast doors. There was room in the Falcon's cargo holds to jam enough detonite to blow a sizeable hole through the Raider, if one was so inclined.

Vox's only other option was jettisoning the YT-1300, but that would mean losing something potentially valuable inside, and Han could tell that was the last thing he wanted to do. The choice had to be eating him up inside to come down and interrogate Han himself while the battle was still raging outside.

"Then give me the codes," Vox said coldly.

"Go to hell!"

Han immediately found himself choking on something wet and warm as Vox's muscle delivered a chop-punch to his throat and for one terrifying moment, he thought his windpipe had been crushed. The aging hero coughed and hacked to try and get his breath.

"Have it your way." Vox turned to the torture droid again. "Cut out Captain Solo's eye."

"What?" Han jerked back from the droid as it extended a gleaming scalpel from its array of terrifying limbs towards his face, but quickly felt Vox's henchmen lock his meaty arm around his neck to hold him steady. The Ensign then grabbed a handful of Han's graying hair and yanked, tilting his head back to give the torture droid a clear cut. Han grunted and roared.

"Relax, Captain Solo," Vox smiled. "It's just your eye. You have two of them."

The sharpened blade had just touched his eyelid when Lando's voice broke through Han's screams.

"Wait! No! Stop!"

Vox waved the droid off and the scalpel pulled a few inches away from Han's face. "Yes, Mister Calrissian?"

"I'll give you the codes, just leave Han alone," the dapper business man grimaced.

Vox stood and nodded, taking a step towards Lando. "Very well. Tell me the security codes for the Falcon's cargo holds and your friend can keep both of his eyes."

"Don't do it, Lando!" Han growled. "It's just—"

"Shut up, ya stubborn old bantha. They're going to get in eventually anyway," Lando snapped. "We might as well get through this with as many of our organs and appendages intact as possible."

"A wise decision," Vox praised. "Now, the code, please."

Lando's jaw clenched with doubt before he finally exhaled and the security code came spilling from his lips. "Vev-Cresh-Usk-Senth one-three, Jenth-Trill one-one-three-eight."

"Thank you," the Admiral grinned. "If you're lying and this code triggers some kind of explosion, you can be sure I'll be back here to cut out both of Captain Solos eyes myself."

The Ensign released Han's head and the torture droid backed off completely, his servomotors whirring as his tread rolled across the resicrete, while Admiral Vox whirled around and headed for the conference room's exit and the troopers standing guard there.

"Vox," Han said, stopping the Raithian in his tracks. "When I get out of here, I'm coming to find you."

"Right, when you steal my ship, correct?" Vox snorted. "If you pull off that trick, I'll hand over control of the whole fleet to you."

With that, the Admiral stepped into the corridor beyond the conference room and let the door hiss shut behind him, sealing Han Solo and Lando Calrissian inside with six Raithians to watch over them.





Commander Jer'um watched as the security droid rolled up the Millennium Falcon's opened landing ramp and scurried down the curve of the freighter's main corridor, armed with its slicer programming and the pass code Admiral Vox had provided from prisoner interrogations. It would take the little droid only a few seconds to reach the closed hatch outside of the YT-1300's forward hold and begin entering the code into the keypad outside.

Jer'um's vision began to blur and he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to clear them— they must have been getting quite red by now. He kept his attention on the captured vessel and hoped the others didn't notice.

The Raider's secondary hangar bay was a massive chamber of alloy deck plating and bright glowpanels, with its rear wall giving the breathtaking view of space outside and the bursts of plasma and showers of cannon fire through the ship's atmospheric containment field. Besides the captured enemy freighter, there were few ships docked in the deck berths and even the web of overhead storage gantries were absent the stacks of Raithian warbirds that normally dwelled above, with every squadron having been deployed in the effort to take Telex from the Chiss.

A ring of Raithian soldiers and chrome sentinel droids encircled the enemy craft, their weapons drawn in anticipation of any threat that might leap out of the freighter while an explosive ordnance disposal team stood ready to rush inside. The hangar's blast doors had sealed all the hatches leading into the warship and Jer'um had ordered his cadre of soldiers to stand several meters away, knowing that Solo and his friend might be lying, and the code they revealed might actually trigger some explosive stowed inside the Falcon that would kill everyone in the vicinity— or that there were Jedi aboard.

Jer'um knew that the Jedi were a grave threat to the Raithians' way of life and one that had to be eliminated, but he didn't understand why the emphasis was always on capturing the band of wizards alive— especially those named Solo.

Perhaps the alchemists wished to transform them into weapons the Raithians could use?

Beads of sweat were beginning to gather on his forehead and upper lip, and he brushed them away. It wasn't just fear of the Jedi that was making him sweat or his hands tremble, but the furloughs he'd been spending on Ord Mantell, a world buried in casino complexes and wreathed in the dazzling glow of neon lights that seemed to burn eternally. Jer'um had picked up more than one bad habit in the promises of those lights, including a frantic addiction to a substance called "glitterstim" that gave him brief bursts of telepathy.

Raithian soldiers were immune to the effects of most drugs, but in the systems their empire controlled, there was no such psychotropic.

Jer'um wasn't a happy man. His life was service to the Raithian Empire, and after twenty years in the military, he had very little to show for his sacrifices— no wife, no family... he didn't even own a home. The life of a Raithian soldier was one of constant voyaging and war. He had become a nomad. Glitterstim was something he could have and it made him happy and not so lonesome... at least for a few hours.

But when he was back on duty the withdrawals were a constant distraction and he knew his superiors were beginning to take notice. He imagined it was why Admiral Vox had chosen him to be in the hangar when the Millennium Falcon was cracked open, and the possibility of any one of a dozen different horrific deaths might await him.

Jer'um had been demoted from Commander to test subject.

The thud of two heavy pieces of metal pulling apart sounded and brought the commander's attention back to the Falcon just as its loading ramp began to descend with a hydraulic hiss. Immediately, the troopers and sentinels surrounding the old freighter raised their blasters sharply, preparing for the maelstrom that was certain to come crashing down the plank of ridged metal to tear them asunder. Jer'um ducked behind the nearest soldier and the protection of her metallic blue plasmasteel armor and studied the datapad he had setup to communicate with the security droid to see it had sent a message that the code was successful.

Then there was nothing. No message of danger scrawling across the glowing screen, no noise of any kind save Jer'um's own haggard breathing and the occasional rattle of a nervous blaster.

And then they heard the lightest tap of metal feet coming from inside the Falcon, and even the sentinel droids seemed to tense. In the next moment a pair of golden legs appeared timidly wobbling down the ramp, accompanied by a panicked voice speaking perfect Basic.

"Goodness! Don't shoot!"

When the figure made it down further, Jer'um saw that the intruder was a simple bronzium protocol droid with a pair of glowing yellow photoreceptors that seemed to widen when they took in the array of blaster muzzles pointed in its direction.

Jer'um couldn't believe it. "What the..."

"Oh no! I'm doomed!" The droid cried, its arms raised above its shiny head as best its rigid form could allow and waving slightly in fear. "Please don't shoot! I'm armed only with fluency in six million forms of communication!"

"Permission to destroy?" The nearest sentinel droid asked.

Jer'um shook his head and waved the droid off, before taking a step forward and calling out to the stowaway.

"You there! Stop!"

The protocol droid froze in place.

"Who are you?"

"I am See-threepio, human-cyborg relations," the strange droid intoned.

"What were you doing on the Falcon?"

"It's all Captain Solo's fault," C-3PO cried. "He locked me back there and told me to activate the cargo when the doors opened."

"The cargo?"

Jer'um's answer came in the form of heavier footfalls within the gaping jaws of the Millennium Falcon's cargo ramp, and soon a different droid appeared. It stood nearly two meters tall with a thick skeletal shell of gleaming black and gray laminanium armor. The droid's arms were mounted with variable-output blaster cannons, an electroray discharger, and a launcher for self-guiding minirockets.

But Jer'um couldn't take his eyes off the burning yellow photoreceptors buried in its skull-like head, so inhuman and unforgiving, so different from the protocol droid's.

He'd seen Tendrando Arms War Droids before and he knew just how lethal they were.

His blood ran cold and he gave the order to fire as quickly as his brain would allow, only to see two more of the war droids storming down the ramp.

"Sibit," he cursed under his breath before diving to the deck.

The hangar exploded in cascades of red blaster fire streaking in every direction and Jer'um looked up to see more than a dozen of the war droids rushing down the landing ramp with still more pouring out behind them. Forearm-mounted blaster cannons spewed flurries of cannon bolts across the chamber and chewed through Raithian body armor and sentinel plating. To his right, Jer'um watched in horror as a minirocket streaked into the line of soldiers on a trail of red-glowing propellant and blossomed in a sphere of rolling plasma that boiled the EOD crew and hurled three troopers across the hangar in broken shells of ruptured plasmasteel.

A few of his soldiers were wielding Verpine shatter guns, a weapon that had seen some success against the Jedi, but were doing little to the Tendrando War Droids. One of the hulking droids stepped forward, its gleaming armor pitted with shatter gun slugs and blaster scorches and continued to fight, the laminanium actually healing as it poured blasterfire across the hangar and ejected the flattened rounds. To his left, Jer'um spotted a Raithian sentinel droid wielding a warstaff and moving to stop another of the invaders, only to have the war droid punch through its brain casing and leave the spindly machination clattering to the deck in a pile of lifeless limbs.

He counted at least fifty of the Tendrando droids by the time the Falcon's ramp was empty, and they seemed all too prepared for the assault, with two squads rushing to the hangar's control booths and killing their operators before they brought down the hangar's shields. For a moment, Jer'um feared they would deactivate the containment seal as well and leave them all sucking vacuum, but that didn't seem to be in their programming.

The commander finally drew his own blaster and began sending bright volleys of energy across the hangar as he sought refugee behind a carboplas storage crate, nearly tripping over a pair of mouse droids scurrying across the floor in their attempt to escape the fate awaiting everyone in the hangar. Jer'um knew he should have been issuing some sort of order, but all thought seemed lost in a haze of panic, too stunned by the turn of events and the force Solo had managed to smuggle onto the Raider.

To his relief, his soldiers seemed to be taking the initiative themselves, regrouping after the initial assault and concentrating their fire, taking down a trio of war droids by burning through their laminanium armor to their glowing power cores with a hail of blaster fire, and pitching ion grenades into the enemy lines that disrupted the droid's systems and made them easier to pick off. It was no surprise— Raithian soldiers were the best trained and conditioned in the galaxy, capable of adapting to almost any combat situation.

The victory was short lived, however, when a black Chiss shuttle appeared, sliding through the hangar's atmospheric containment seal and revealing the war droid's purpose in deactivating the particle shields that stopped enemy ships from entering. Before the shuttle even touched down, the landing ramp had cycled open and a line of Jedi began tumbling out, blade's blazing in incandescent blue, green, and violet.

Jer'um had never seen anything quite like it. The Jedi moved with inhuman speed and agility, catching the streams of blaster fire spitting from the Raithian blaster rifles and deflecting each back at the dwindling cadre of soldiers and sentinel droids or sending them ricocheting across the chamber and burning carbon black pits in the durasteel confines that glowed with traces of flickering flames.

In that moment, Jer'um knew that he and everyone else in the hangar was going to die. Admiral Vox should have jettisoned the Millennium Falcon when he had the chance. The red-eyed commander fished the comlink from his belt and tried to speak loud enough to be heard over the cacophony enveloping the hangar.

"It's a trap!" He yelled into the little device. "Open the seal! Flush the hangar!"

The words had barely left his mouth before the wall of glowing blue energy ahead vanished and a deafening rush of pressure replaced all sound. Everything was being sucked towards the open starfield, and Jer'um let himself go, tumbling out into the void in a hail of flotsam and Raithian bodies.

As every cell in his body ruptured, he couldn't help but be overcome with a tremendous sense of relief.





Leia Organa Solo followed Mara through the shuttle's open hatch, leaping from the moving vessel in a forward flip and igniting her lightsaber in the tumble as she landed in a tide of red blaster fire. The Jedi Knight immediately swept her blade in front of her, sending the streaking bolts back to their sources, while the rest of her team was Force-falling out of the shuttle behind her into the hangar bay.

Valin Horn had leapt out on Leia's heels, followed by his estranged master, Kyp Durron, his blade weaving in mid-air to deflect enemy fire as he plunged to the durasteel deck. Next came Wrev Caster and Kyle Katarn, the two Jedi landing just a moment before the Chiss shuttle touched down meters from the Millennium Falcon, and the strike team's last members, Leia's Noghri bodyguards Meewalh and Cakhmaim sprinted down the landing ramp, crooked daggers clutched in their clawed fists.

Lando's droids had already expunged half of the Raithian opposition in the Raider's secondary hangar bay, their trail of carnage evident in the blast-mark scarred deck and piles of shattered body armor and snapped sentinel limbs. Something whizzed past Leia's head so closely that she felt the loose wisps of the bun her brunette tresses were knotted in flutter against the nape of her neck. Her eyes darted in the direction the projectile had been hurled and spotted several of the troopers wielding Verpine shatter rifles.

Shatter gun pellets bounced off the deck in front of her and ricocheted against her thighs and torso, while the daughter of Darth Vader danced through the onslaught, her electric blade whirling around her like a shield to bat away the dashes of crimson energy.

Mara had already reached the enemy lines, leaping into the fray with an overhand hack of her lightsaber that bisected an unprepared Raithian trooper, before spinning and delivering a roundhouse kick that snapped the neck of another. The glint of a spinning warstaff caught Leia's eye as a skeletal sentinel droid rushed forward to confront her, and she raised her blade in a sweeping parry to knock the droid's weapon aside. Leia's lightsaber wheeled around with three blindingly fast slashes that traced a series of glowing scars across the droid's chrome plating.

Its servos whirred and Leia dropped to the deck just in time to feel the sentinel's warstaff pass over her head on the back swing. She pivoted and swung her blade around in a fan of violet light that clipped the droid's knee joints and left it clattering to the deck in a shower of sparks and wild trilling, and its torso came apart where Leia's weapon had torn through, spraying white-hot shrapnel in every direction.

Blasterfire scorched holes in the deck around her and Leia threw herself into a forward somersault before coming up on her feet and extending her free hand, sending another pair of sentinel droids sailing across the hangar with a jolt of Force-energy that crushed their spindly frames like old bones.

That was when a great rush of air roared through the chamber and Leia felt herself being sucked out of the hangar along with everything else. She clung to the deck with the Force and jammed her blade through the plating in a futile effort to gain traction, succeeding only in scorching a crooked furrow through the resicrete as she was dragged backwards.

Looking over her shoulder, Leia saw that the hangar's atmospheric containment field was gone, leaving no boundary between them all and the unforgiving void outside. Broken sentinel droids and flailing Raithian troopers tumbled into the nothingness where the pressure would destroy them before oxygen even became an issue.

They'd known this would happen, that the Raithians would vent the hangar the minute they feared the Jedi might take control of the ship, and it's why Thrawn had insisted on sending in the Tendrando war droids first to secure the hangar. For their part, the droids dug the retractable spikes built within their fingertips into the deck to hold in place, though Leia spotted at least three who weren't prepared for the sudden surge and were ripped away into space.

Just when the pressure was building in her head to the point where black spots were beginning to appear in her vision, the hangar's emergency blast doors slid shut, restoring oxygen and artificial gravity to the chamber. Leia allowed herself to slump only a minute, looking over to the Tendrando droids in the control booths who had managed to upload the override program Thrawn asked Anakin to design into the Raider's systems. So far, her youngest son was the only one who'd had any success studying Raithian technology, but even with Anakin's ability to understand complex alien machinery, they knew that their override would only last so long— once the crew on the Raider's bridge discovered that the blast doors had shut, they would open them and then there would be nothing to stop them all from being jerked out into the vacuum.

Instantly the Tendrando droids were shooting grappling cables into emergency blast doors and anchoring them to a pair of durasteel clamps they buried into the deck. With the anchors in place, the door's motor would burn out before it would open from the bridge— the crew would have to come down and unhook them manually if they wanted to do that, and Leia didn't plan on waiting around that long to see if they did.

There were only a few Raithians still standing who'd survived the space exposure, and they were dispatched by Kyle and Kyp in three seconds and a blur of white lightsabers.

"Secure the hangar!" Mara ordered.

"Four-Bee!" Leia called to the droids, looking for the one Lando had designated as the team's leader.

The laminanium-plated warrior emerged from the crowd and stepped towards Leia as the others gathered around her. "Jedi Solo," 4-4B acknowledged in a ridiculously deep version of Lando Calrissian's voice.

"Will that door hold?"

"Emergency grappling clamps have a ninety-nine-point-three percent effectiveness at preventing unwanted door retractions."

Leia nodded, before taking in her surroundings. "Give me a casualty report."

"Four units were destroyed while securing the area," Fourbee announced. "Three more were lost in the breach. The forty-three remaining units bear only superficial damage."

"That's good," she said, trying to hide her surprise. It was better than they'd done in the simulations Thrawn had been running all week.

"Superficial damage?" Came a distressed, but familiar voice. Leia turned to see C-3PO waddling toward her through the crowd of war droids and Jedi. "Look at the blaster scarring on my left arm covering! The energy transducer was almost fried... this will take weeks to polish out!"

The Tendrando Arm's droid just stared at Threepio in bewilderment, before the protocol droid seemed to notice Leia standing beside him for the first time. "Oh, Princess Leia, thank goodness you're here," he cried. "I'm afraid I almost perished leading the charge, but I think I must have been quite effective."

"I'm sure you struck terror in their hearts," Leia replied, patting the loyal droid on his arm.

"Breath masks," Mara said, strapping a black plastoid rebreather across her mouth and nose. "They'll try gas when they realize the doors won't open."

The Jedi quickly complied while the war droids finished sweeping the hangar for any unseen threats. Leia didn't know why Grand Admiral Thrawn wanted to capture the Raider, but he'd devoted a lot of resources into their mission and put her in charge of leading it. She could hardly believe that things had become so desperate that she was almost blindly following the orders of a being who'd tried to kidnap her and her new born children more than once. He'd wanted to use them back then to lead his fleets against his enemies— the irony involved in Leia and the Jedi doing just that decades later was not lost on Leia, and she hoped they were not making a mistake in trusting Thrawn. But she also was never under any illusions about how he saw them— assets, nothing more.

She feared a day would soon come when Thrawn and the Jedi's goals were no longer compatible and they would become enemies once again.

"We have to move quickly," Leia said, her voice muffled behind her breath mask. "It won't take them long to figure out what happened and send more troops. We split up into three teams from here. Mara and Kyle will take half of the droids and proceed to the bridge. Kyp and Wrev will take one cadre and disable the ship's communications."

The four Jedi nodded, before beginning to head for the hangar exit.

"What about me?" Valin asked. He was the youngest member of the team and Leia could see in his dark eyes that the pain of his father's death still haunted him and fueled his need to prove himself— to live up to Corran's heroic sacrifice during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

"You're coming with me and the Noghri," Leia said. "We're going to the detention area to get my husband back."

 

First!!

 

Second.

Gah - beaten by the Aussie. LOL

"You keep asking me, but you keep hitting me in the head? how the hell am I supposed to remember?"
Classic Han.

The droid on the opposite side of Han's chair was little more than a coiled dome of folded limbs, tubes, wires, spikes, and pincers, with two menacing red photoreceptors shinning through its dark housing. It moved forward on its tread and extended one of its many arms that ended in a metal drug injector.
Aie - reminds me of the scene in ANH when Vader tortures Leia.

Pain vibrated through Han's bones as he felt his teeth rattle and his vision blurred into trembling streaks of white light.

That one hurt.

For a moment, he thought he saw Jacen in the quivering blear, and that was somehow brought him more pain.
Yes, that rang very true. Han has been tortured more times than most have had hot dinners, but betrayal by a son is much worse.

Gruesome torture scene. I like the fact that Vox is onlt too well aware of Han's reputation. Golly - I thought poor old Han was going to become another Booster for a moment!!! Saved by Lando - or was he? LOL

I liked that backstory on Je'rum - so he's hooked on spice. Oooh.

Oh no! I'm doomed!" The droid cried, its arms raised above its shiny head as best its rigid form could allow and waving slightly in fear. "Please don't shoot! I'm armed only with fluency in six million forms of communication!"
Absolutely loved that bit.

The victory was short lived, however, when a black Chiss shuttle appeared, sliding through the hangar's atmospheric containment seal and revealing the war droid's purpose in deactivating the particle shields that stopped enemy ships from entering. Before the shuttle even touched down, the landing ramp had cycled open and a line of Jedi began tumbling out, blade's blazing in incandescent blue, green, and violet.
Classic Star wars.

I like the fact that only Anakin can understand the Raithian tech. Great action scene there in the hangar with the YVH droids, and I giggled at old C3PO. Such fun.

I think Leia's right to question Thrawn's motives and his apparent complicity. I like that she's so compassionate to Valin. What a woman.

And what a chapter!

 

Crap, I'm late.

Why are they being so mean to Han? It's not like they can't just get a fusion cutter and force the cargo hold open...

 

Fourth.

And I loved the appearance by the Tendrando Arms Droids. Raithians got owned!

Vox better hand over the entire fleet to Han, now

 

Valin! Kyp! Kyle! Mara! Leia!

Awesomeness!

The addition of Mr. Threep leading the charge was what put it into badass territory.

And Han...wow, that man has some serious cajones to volunteer to be tortured so that the strike team can land. There's taking it for the team, and then there's serious disregard for one's one well being.

But considering how many time's Han's been tortured, maybe it's a sign of brain damage?



Great battle scene and an interesting kink in the Raithan armour. Very interesting indeed.

Niiice post.

Cyn

 

sixth

that was interesting. btw i would like to say quite loudly

STUPID ANAKIN, also stuipd thrawn. you think someone as smart as thrawn would realize that anakin would go flying in to save his parents. so why didn't he tell him aobut it?

btw nice interrogation scene. would han really have let them cut his eye out over a code that they WANTED to give to the raithiens?

 

Mara and Kyle fighting together? Ouch. The bad guys should just give up now. I've played Jedi Knight enough times to know that the droids are gonna get bored 'cause there's nothing for them to kill.

Great chapter, YK. As an action fiend myself, I really like the way this flowed.