The Clone Wars: Friendship is Magic

January 1st

I don’t even really know where to begin. I guess I should begin at the beginning of this whole ordeal. It all began this morning after one of the strangest wake-ups I’d had since drinking the Uuzbeer with that female Cathar dancer… But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I guess I should do this correctly and begin with an introduction.

My name is Volund Starfire. I am a Sentinel of the Jedi Order and a General of the Grand Army of the Republic. My first shock within the galaxy, which I thought was the greatest I would ever face, was during my first assignment as a Watchman of the Naboo system. Compared to what came after, I should never have made such assumptions. Especially not with what is happening now.

Because of my training as a Sentinel, I was placed outside of the normal status of Battalion Commander which most Knights and Masters found themselves in. Though I was still given the rank of Jedi General, I was assigned to a Special Commando Squad after the events of Geonosis. The four members of Equus Squad, all of them Geonosis survivors like myself, were the best people I have had the pleasure and honor to work with.

Our actual mission was to patrol the Dalonbian Sector and destroy any Insurgent Droid bases. But, that was before the distress call we received. I was in the cockpit as we came out of hyperspace, when Riffraff alerted me to a signal coming over the Antarian Ranger special frequency.

“This is Jedi Volund Starfire,” I said over the comm. “What is your emergency?”

“Thank the Force, a Jedi.” The young woman looked no older than a padawan, but was wearing the rank insignia of a full Ranger. “We have lost contact with a Ranger patrol on the planet Seline. They were responding to a call from Jedi Watchman, Master Kingros. They have missed three comm checks and we do not have any resources able to reach them at this time. I hate to ask, but is there any way you can assist?”

“I’ll look into it,” I told her. She smiled up at me from the hologram. “If you don’t hear from me in three hours, notify the Jedi Council.”

“Yes, Master Starfire,” she responded. Then she looked again. “My apologies. Yes, Padawan Starfire.”

“It’s Knight Starfire,” I said absently twirling my braid between my fingers with a smile at her. “I just keep this to remind me that I don’t know everything… yet.”

“Alex,” I said over my shoulder. R2-LX was plugged into the droid socket behind the pilot chair. “Plot a course for Seline.”

“Flirting over a distress call, boss?” Riffraff, the commander of Equus Squad was rolling his eyes behind me as he used his headset to warn the rest of the squad about the coming jump. I saw three green lights on my board a moment before the astronav computer went green. I pushed the lever for the hyperspace and watched the galaxy melt into a tunnel of blue and white.

“Dropping out of hyperspace in five, four,” I yelled to the squad, and pulled the lever back when I got to zero. The stars appeared and one of them quickly grew to the ball of Seline. I knew it was a former Gree planet, but that’s about it. Even from this distance, it looked barren. Alkaline seas, ruins covering it, and a wispy layer of acrid pollution in the mottled sky.

“We have incoming,” Rimshot said from the scanning station behind me. I didn’t even hear him come into the cockpit. “Three marks at two-ten.”

“Engines are prepped,” Gridsquare said over the comms. He was the engineer of the squad. Not to mention a true master with explosives. No, more than that; he was an artist with explosives.

“Try not to do too much of that twirly flying, boss,” Shortfuze said from the ventral turret. “It throws off my aim.”

“Theirs too, you collateral bastard.” Gridsquare quipped.

“Stow it,” Riffraff ordered. He was a good leader and didn’t mind telling me how much of a… what’s the word he used… mir’shebs, I can be.

I felt the thumps of the turret shake through the ship. The three red blips on the scanner slowly revealed themselves to be a pair of vulture droids and a droid tri-fighter. I pulled up to face them and began a roll to orient one of the vultures in my sights. I squeezed the trigger and was rewarded with it exploding a moment before Shortfuse took the second with the turret.

The tri-fighter was firing and blasted a good chuck of power out of the forward shields. Alex compensated immediately, equalizing the power between forward and rear shields. It blew past us close enough for me to see its red lit visual scanners, diving into the atmosphere.

I dove into the atmosphere behind it, but it was jumping around too much for lasers. So, I got a quick lock and launched a concussion missile up its exhaust pipe. It may have been maneuverable, but the atmosphere provided too much drag for sudden turns. That didn’t apply to the thin missile that impacted dead center, blowing the droid apart.

“Rimshot, give me a location on that Ranger ship.”

“I’ve got two, boss.” He paused and uploaded a map to my primary HUD. They were about ten clicks from one-another, but both were pretty well destroyed. However, the one to the east looked to be a Consular-class scout ship. That would be the Jedi’s.

“Equus, take the west and look for survivors,” I said over the comms. “Alex, drop them off and then find me at the east ship.”

I got four acknowledgements as I unbuckled and passed with a pat to the astromech’s dome. The two commandos were already out of the hatch and grabbing their gear near the landing ramp. I passed them for the drop hatch.

“Must be good being a Jedi, able to drop at altitude into the ruckus,” Shortfuze said, giving me light punch to the shoulder as I passed.

“I could always show you how it feels,” I said back to him, using the Force to pull him off balance toward the closed hatch in the floor. He didn’t fall, his heavy armored boot slamming down to arrest his momentum.

“I ain’t a Jedi and couldn’t survive actually hitting the ground.”

“That’s the point,” Rimshot said, smacking Shortfuze on the back of the helmet.

I pressed the button, opening the hatch. The mottled gray and brown of the ground was shooting by with no signs of slowing. Then, there was a wall and the ship banked into a decelerating turn. I gave a bit of a salute to Riffraff and hopped into the nothing below the hatch.

“That looks like so much fun,” Gridsquare said before their short-range comms were too distant for my earpiece to pick them up.

I hit the ground, using the Force to slow me and absorbing the light impact with my knees. I activated my lightsaber and sent an unconscious burst of will into my combat sense. There was nothing around me, but I stayed sharp. Sith can shield themselves from detection.

It took me ten minutes to reach the wrecked Consular-class vessel. It wasn’t just blown up. The blast pattern and debris track looked like it was set to self-destruct. I moved one of the engine shrouds and found the Jedi, all six parts of him. They were all fairly charred from the explosion, but something told me he wasn’t exactly in one piece when the ship blew.

I waited a couple more minutes for Alex to land the ship and join me before we made our way to the nearest landmark. It gave me some time to ponder what the Jedi was doing here. I recognized him, but only in passing. Besides the watchman for the sector, he was also an archeologist. That might explain why he was here, but what could have taken him out in such a way. Surely not a droid.

When I reached the ancient structure, I was surprised. There were two cores about one hundred meters to the east and west of the central structure. That had a pair of large rings separated by about fifty meters. However, what was even more astonishing was that the entire structure was apparently active. It looked to be thousands of years old, but the dim lights were on.

There were a couple of cleared blocks of stone on either side of the massive architecture. Nearing, I saw the stone was lit from within. It was displaying Gree symbols in patterns that I was not familiar with.

“Alex, see what you can do with this,” I told the droid. He responded with an acknowledging beep and used his manipulator arm to toggle the symbols around. That’s when I felt it.

It was subtle; just the hairs standing on the back of my neck, but it made me activate my lightsaber over my head. I caught the red lance of energy just before it would have split me from skull to pelvis.

Jumping forward into a roll, I rose to face my attacker. She was dressed in black leather with strange gemmed bracelets. She was definitely Zabrak, the two small horns on the front of her head framing her pulled back black hair. Beyond that, I had never seen the form of clothing she was wearing.

“You shouldn’t be here, Jedi,” she spat at me, activating the other blade of her lightstaff. It glowed hot and angry, the light dancing across her features in fearful and scintillating ways.

“Of course I should,” I replied with a smirk. “You’re here.”

She let out a primal scream of rage and ran forward. Her attacks seemed random and wild, but were nowhere near weak. What was very surprising was her form. It was similar to Ataru, but seemed less refined. I was able to parry her attacks away, but knew I would not be able to hold against them.

I retreated back and saw her raise her right hand toward me. I intercepted the blast of red lightning into my lightsaber, but the raw power within in actually tinted my blue blade into a near purple. The bright serpent tongues of light licked at my vision, obscuring her next attack. Had I not rolled backward from the force of the electrical discharge, it would have taken my head.

That’s when I saw my chance. Her swing came low and I moved to parry it, but raise my blade at the last second, catching her lightstaff between her hands. One blade shorted a moment before it would have taken my leg, but the other was still blazing red.

“You will give your life for that affront,” she said, the clipped tones of a Coruscani accent dripping with anger and something else. I could sense the darkness wrapping its tendrils around her. But then I saw a small ray of surprise. Alex was carefully moving toward her from behind. His stunner primed.

“Give me your best shot,” I quipped to keep her attention on me.

She let out a scream and fired a blast of her strange lightning into her own lightsaber. The blade crackled with the electricity as it swung at me. I caught it at the tip of my blade and parried it into the strange stone control panel. At the same time, Alex hit her in the thigh with his stunner.

I’m not sure what exactly happened after that. I heard the hum and grinding of an ancient machine. There was an explosion which blinded me and a spectrum of colors that deafened me at the same time. Then, there was a star hanging in a blue sky and I was surrounded by it. In the distance, I could see the shockwave of the multi-colored explosion traveling off and a rainbow starting from where I had begun my fall.

I could hear Alex screaming, but it sounded strange, not like his usual static chirping voice. I wasn’t screaming, though I knew I should be. I was disoriented and my arms and legs were not moving like they should. Tensing different muscles, trying to roll myself into a slowing position, I succeeded in only throwing myself to either side like an airspeeder with a loose panel.

“I’ve got you,” a voice cried out. I felt something grab me under my arms, but it was strange because they weren’t where my arms should have been. I felt slowing and then I was placed on the ground lightly.

“I’ve got his little friend,” I heard an almost whispered voice say above me.

I tried to say something, but felt my consciousness slipping from me. I pushed my blurry eyes open one last time and saw something that didn’t make sense. I was surrounded by what appeared to be six animals in various colors. Then, I blacked out completely.