Chapters Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
Prologue: Sparks of Hope and Fear
A long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far, far, far, far, far, far away....
Star Toons
Episode A113
Stories across the Stars
In the time of prosperity when the universe was at peace… disaster soon struck as an uprising by the sinister DARK ORDER, spread their rule across the galaxy.
Ruled by the ALMIGHTY TALLEST, and their syndicate of wicked allies, the balance of the force begins slowly tipping to the Dark Side.
Just when all seems lost, hope alights across the star systems, as several young heroes are about to take part in a journey that will change their lives forever….
Somewhere not far above from the planet Jakku
When one would look up to the stars, all would seem peaceful and serene, a nearby clear white moon seemingly at peace.
But the peace does not last for very long.
Soon a mysterious vessel appears flying over and eclipsing the view of the moon as it passes through, soon making it impossible for any on the planet’s surface to see.
Then, four small transport ships emerge from the hangers, as they journey down to the planet below.
Inside one of the vessels, 20 identical individuals were standing in position.
Each of them wore the same sort of stark white armor, almost skeletal, with flexibility on the joint design. The helmets had a betaplast finish.
They were the platoon of Stormtroopers, whose purpose was to serve and fight for the Dark Order Empire, as they, along with the other platoons in the others ships, journeyed down for what could be a fight awaiting them.
As the ship roared down to the planet’s surface, the ship jolted a little as it went through the atmosphere, the lights flickering on and off rapidly.
“Troops, blasters at the ready!” a voice spoke out via speaker, the Stormtroopers doing as they were told, prepping the very weapons they were carrying, the lights flickering as they did.
“Orders are simple,” spoke the announcer, “Attack any who stand in your way, show no mercy. Bring forth prisoners if ordered. Let no and- hey, WILL SOMEONE STOP FLICKING THOSE LIGHTS?!”
The last part revealed that the flickering came from a Stormtrooper fiddling with the light switch, as another trooper next to him, hearing the last statement, smacked him on the head to quit fooling around, while the other few groaned in annoyance of that embarrassing act, with the Stormtrooper having stopped fiddling with the light switch.
On the surface of the Planet Jakku, lies one of the several villages that reside on the planet, as many of the inhabitants have been in rough times during the reign of the Dark Order.
Luckily, there were those who put the residence ahead of their own, helping them with humanitarian relief aid, alongside the other star systems.
Today, though, during this evening relief, danger looms as the Dark Order Troops that are on their way from the spaceship orbiting the planet approaches, while a small spark of hope is about to come to light, which could hold the key to saving the universe from tyranny.
As the vessels slowly breach the atmosphere, down by the village, rolling up to look at the night sky, was a small, green and purple droid, which had a spherical body with a domed head.
This type of droid was a BB unit, part of the Astromech droids of the 2nd class of droids, known to help out on repairs and damage control, especially on spaceships and vessels.
The small BB unit looked up to the sky, then beeped in worry as it saw the incoming vessels, then it turned and rolled back into the village in a hurry.
The little droid hurried down the sandy paths, passing through the huts, almost like it was looking for something… or someone, until finally, it spotted her.
A beautiful, 21-year old young woman, with beautiful blue eyes and lovely, long blond, waist-length hair that was left down with a single long braid and long bangs swept to the left, and a leather band that went across her forehead, and was wearing a completely blue X-Wing fighter jumpsuit, which featured a matching colour skirt, with black shoulder pads, very blackish blue-green gloves and boots and a grey vest.
She was currently waiting outside a large hut, when she heard the BB unit bleep out to her, catching her attention.
“BB-7!” she said as she came up to the little droid that arrived to see her, “What is it, buddy?”
“What’s wrong, Astrid?” another voice, a male, got Astrid and BB-7’s attention as a lean, older teenager, with black hair (which looked like a mullet), with uneven-cut bangs that seemed to sweep to the left side of his face, length averaging just under his blue-grey eyes, but framing his face slightly longer and curled at his cheekbones, while the rest of his hair reached the back of his neck, flaring out in curved strands that sat on the top of his coat collar. On the right side of his face showed a scar.
He wore a dark blue-grey t-shirt with a brownish red jacket, on the top left chest of the jacket, showed in a white box was an equally white star, with seven small, black lines underneath it, showing that the star was going upwards, and wore black pants that his shirt overlapped, with white boots with black and red accents and had fingerless black gloves.
BB-7 bleeped in panic, as Astrid, seemingly understanding what it said, looked to the young man as she replied, “Keith, we’ve got a bit of trouble.”
“Let us hope that this will make things right.” a young, humanoid woman said, as she was given a small box that no doubt contained something valuable and important.
The woman was a humanoid being known as an Altean, who had brown skin and long, curly silver hair that was long enough to reach her hips, the long bangs pulled back out of her face, revealing her gold circlet with a teal embellishment in the center. Her ears were pointed to the top rather than round, and had small, sickle-shaped marks of pink situated on her cheekbones, right under each of her bright blue eyes.
She wore an all white royal gown, with gold bracelets on each wrist and a blue cape lined with gold that snugly wrapped around her shoulders and flowed behind her back, reaching her calves in a split, winged design, with the inside of the cape pink and lined with white. While underneath her white dress, she wore white boots with gold ankles and soles.
“It will, Princess Allura,” the man that offered Allura the box said, who wore a greyish brown cloak, hair white as snow, “you and I have travelled for so long and we’ve seen way too much grief and despair in the galaxy, too much that can’t be ignored.”
Allura nodded in agreement, “The Force has been tipped to the Dark Side for so long, no balance without the Jedi. Without hope. But with this, we may have a chance. And we’ll never give up until the war is over.”
The elder chuckled, “You very well sound like your father every time I see you.”
“Indeed, he was a noble warrior… and someone who was such a good father…” Allura said, letting out a sad sigh on the last part.
She remembered her father, King Alfor, ruler of the Alteans, who was one of the mighty leaders who stood against the Dark Order, aiding the Rebel Alliances with other races in their mission to stop the empire from spreading their rule, and went on to marry Melenor, becoming and husband and then later a father to Allura.
Even before the Dark Order, Alfor and her race was one of the proud allies in the Old Republic and the Jedi Order, intergalactic knights who swore to protect the universe with their powerful tools, lightsabers, and the powers of the Force, an anonymous energy that binds reality together.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck as during the time when the coup by the Dark Order began to rise, both parents were lost in the field of battle, resulting in Allura to take control of the throne, while she was the new ruler, she felt that she wasn't ready to be a Queen and remained as Princess, with the aid of her royal advisor, Coran, to help guide her, becoming like a second father to her.
The elder placed his hand on Allura’s as he looked to her with a comforting smile, “Your father will be proud of your determination.”
This made Allura feel a little better.
“We can’t thank you enough, Vero.” Coran, who was with the two in the hut, spoke to the elder, Vero. Coran was the advisor and father figure to Allura, who was an Altean with pale skin, short orange hair slicked back and flared out at the base of his neck and a distinctively bushy orange mustache, like Allura, he had pointy ears and sickle-shaped blue Altean marks on his cheekbones.
“With this bit of info, we may finally have a chance of stopping this war.” he continued, “We finally have a bit of hope.”
Allura and Vero nodded in agreement, until suddenly they all heard Keith’s voice from outside, “Princess Allura!”
Keith soon entered the hut via the rugged door, BB-7 following him, bleeping like crazy, and Astrid sticking out her head a bit as the three looked to the trouble souls.
“What is it, Keith?” Allura asked.
Keith looked to her with a serious look as he replied, “We’ve got company.”
Upon exiting the hut, Keith got out a pair of quadnoculars to get a good look, then gave them to Allura to see for herself.
Through the quadnoculars, she could see in the sky the four spaceships that were on their way towards the village, realizing that the Dark Order were coming, she put down the quadnoculars and looked to Vero as she said, “You have to hide.”
Vero looked back to her as he said, “You have to leave.”
Allura looked worried as he added, “Go! Get back to the ship, we’ll try and hold off as long as we can!”
Allura sadly nodded, knowing with sadness and fear that Vero would not survive, and gave the elder a small, quick hug as a sign of gratitude.
“I’ll stay behind help Vero.” Keith spoke up, getting the group’s attention on hearing this.
“Keith, you can’t!” said Coran, “You must help in protecting the Princess! You’ll be killed if you stay!”
“Look, I know I’m not good at following orders,” Keith stated, “it’s true that I push others away to avoid hurting, but I want to do what’s right and help. And right now, I have to make sure that we win this war, that hope gets through to everyone… even if I have to get reckless to do this… even if I have to take the
Allura was stunned by what Keith said, who was currently waiting for what she say… only for her to wrap herself around him in a hug as she said, “Be safe, Keith.”
Keith was stunned, but returned the hug, once they were apart, Allura then said, “May the Force be with you.”
Keith nodded as he replied, “You too.”
“Good luck, Keith.” Astrid said, wishing him luck, before turning to the royal Altean, “Princess Allura, we have to go!”
“Right!” Allura said.
“Lead on, Miss Hofferson.” Coran added, as they began to head off.
“Come on, BB-7!” Keith heard Astrid call the little droid, as it followed after them.
Keith turned to Vero as he said, “Better get ready, things may get messy.”
Meanwhile, Allura’s group rushed through the village, the villagers taking up arms to defend their homes and their allies.
Not far from the village, stood Allura’s vessel, a CR90 corvette, known as Blaytz V, named after one of Alfor’s old allies during the old reign of peace and during the first years of the Clone Wars.
Around it were several X-Wing starfighters (Keith’s was parked nearby in the village in case of trouble), upon arriving to their transports, while Allura, Coran and BB-7 hurried to the corvette, Astrid boarded her X-Wing.
“Everyone, into your fighters!” she cried, the other pilots hearing her orders, “We’ve got trouble coming!”
Back outside the village, the transports landed one by one in a row, as the doors opened up, the Stormtroopers pouring out, blasters at the ready, some of the troops firing at instant.
“Move, move, move!” cried on the unit leader Stormtroopers, as many charged at the villagers, who were fighting back against the invaders.
Blast fires flew left and right, as both sides took several casualties, most of the fighters from either side were injured or killed.
Keith, meanwhile, rushed to his X-Wing, getting inside the starfighter as quick as he could, powering up the ship.
However, the starfighter shook as it slowly started to leave the ground, only to wobble back down, as Keith noticed that one of the engines were hit, as a few Stormtroopers somehow saw him get into the fighter and fired on site.
“Dang it!” Keith cried, as he hurried to activate the drop-down anti-personnel blasters.
In the village, things weren’t looking good, as the villages were getting pinned down, shot and taken prisoner, while Vero watched in horror and despair of the village coming under siege.
Another group of Stormtroopers, also known as Flametroopers, used their flamethrowers to set fire to most of the huts, causing more panic and even killing those who thought were safe inside.
Keith got the drop-down blasters ready and fired back at the Stormtroopers, sending most of them flying (including those that were trying to apprehend him).
But it wouldn’t be enough as soon another blast struck another one of the engines, forcing Keith to abandon the starfighter, grabbed his blaster rifle and headed off to fight them on foot.
Back on the Blaytz V, Allura and the rest of the crew were preparing to make a break for it.
“Prepare for launch! Have shields at the ready! Make sure the escape pods are prepared in case they catch up to us!” Coran gave out the orders as the troops and pilots understood what he said.
“Astrid! Are you and the others ready to take off?” He contacted Astrid.
“Copy that, Coran.” Astrid replied, “We prepped and ready to go!”
“Good,” Allura spoke, “as soon as we take off, we must jump to hyperdrive as soon as possible!”
“Your highness,” said one of the pilots, “we’re ready to launch your mark.”
Allura let out a sigh, knowing that they had one chance, it felt like a rush, but they had to make it count.
She then looked to the pilot and spoke, “Take off at once.”
Back in the village, Keith had managed to fight back the coming Stormtroopers, though allies were falling fast.
‘Hope you’re able to get out of here, Princess.’ he thought as he continued firing blast after blast.
Meanwhile, during the battle, a group of Stormtroopers were taken down by a strong blast, sending them flying.
One of them landed nearby another Stormtrooper, who instantly rushed by to help, however, he looked as he saw that the fallen soldier was bleeding badly, and most of his black suit of his uniform was torn and bloody.
The fallen warrior looks to the Stormtrooper, placing his blood soaked hand on the trooper’s helmet, marking it with stained blood, before dying right in front of the Stormtrooper’s eyes.
It wasn’t until an instant, the Stormtrooper suddenly felt cold… with fear… as all around him hell was thrust everywhere, no matter where he turned, he was overwhelmed by the war, the fighting and dying, as Stormtroopers took away lifes, captured family and burned homes to the ground while screams filled the air, but to him, it felt like the sounds became blurry at what was happening.
Soon, following the fight, another ship, an imposing shuttle craft, arrived, landing by the four transports, and as the doors opened, several dark figures appeared from the craft.
One was a black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, four of them curved upwards while two of them were downwards, with a white tuft of fur on his chest, wearing a blackish grey cape, a black neck gaiter which seemingly had a voice distortion device which covered his muzzle, white gloves with black and red-tongued cuffs and gold rings, and had on air shoes.
The 2nd figure was all in amour from head to toe, looking like a creature known as a Galra, but all in metal, the face being angular and square, with pointed ears, elongated lower lobes, and a matching metal headpieace that covered anything on the front of the scalp, extending down from the flat metal nose and framing the lengths of his jaws and chin, but showing his metal face exposed, the face having no mouth, but with glowing violet eyes.
The black grey amour that covered his black space suit had a dark style, and on his cuirass, the armor had four glowing violet lines curving downward towards the center and upwards towards his shoulders, with a black cape clasped at his shoulders that were long enough to reach his calves with blue lining inside.
The 3rd figure looked like a slender catgirl carrying a blaster rifle, who had angular features including a pointed chin, straight nose and slanted almond-shaped, heterochromatic eyes, in the shades of pale yellow (left eye) and turquoise (right eye), along with three freckles on her cheeks, soft curving dark eyebrows and a thin fiendish smile with fanged teeth.
Due to her feline display, she is shown as a young woman with sharp claws on both hands and toes, small fangs, large, black, catlike ears and horizontal markings on her arms and three on her back that resembled a tabby cat’s stripes, as well as sporting wild, slicked back, spiked, grayish-brown hair, held back behind a cat-inspired reddish brown headpiece.
The uniform she wore was a reddish leotard, with a garment that covers her collar and right arm, with her left arm bare. It had a red diamond on the right shoulder, and she also wore a black fingerless glove that reaches midway of her forearm. On her waist, she had a sort of burgundy leggings and a black belt, with some sort of blackleg sleeve which runs from her feet to about halfway up her thighs. Her right shoulder, chest and legs were protected by armor coated in chromium, with a black and red cape that was clasped to her shoulders that went down to her calves. She was also barefooted, not wearing any boots at all.
As the three figures left the shuttle, the Stormtroopers had gathered the remaining villagers, as they formed a line surrounding them by the order of the unit leaders (the blood-stained Stormtrooper joined in too, but still feeling overwhelmed) while Vero was brought to the three new intruders.
Keith, unnoticed by the Stormtroopers for the moment, hid as he watched what was happening to the elder, all while hopefully get a good shot on the newcomers, with a good chance to help finish the fight.
Vero stood there, as the new arrivals approached him, until finally one of them, the Hedgehog, spoke.
“Elder Vero.” he said, while the voice sounded distorted, his original, gruff voice could still be heard.
“Shadow.” Vero replied, “It is good to see you.”
“You know what we’ve come for.” Shadow said.
“I know where you come from,” Vero stated, “before you were blinded by the Dark Side.”
“The Imperial data that was stolen and the Holocron, we know you have them.” Shadow explained, “And now you are going to give them to the Dark Order.”
“So you may destroy one of the very things that can bring back the Jedi Order that once helped bring peace to the galaxy?” Vero asked, knowing what they would do, with a tone that showed signs of refusal.
The catgirl let out a sigh as she stepped in, looking to Shadow, “Let me handle this, okay?”
“Listen, old timer,” she said to Vero, “here’s how we’re gonna do this, you can either give us what you got, and we’ll leave you well alone.”
Vero stood his ground, “We will never betray those who once protected us. The Dark Order rose from the Dark Side of the Force.”
The armoured figure then came up to Vero, pulling out his lightsaber, as it released a red beam of light as he said, “Then we shall show you the Dark Side.”
The armoured menace then raised his lightsaber, ready to strike Vero down, while Keith prepared to take aim with his blaster rifle, until everyone and the whole village heard the small booming sound of rocket engines.
The members of the Dark Order, Vero and Keith looked up as saw Allura’s ship, along with the X-Wings escaping upwards, almost leaving the planet’s atmosphere.
“Uh, was that what I think that was?” the catgirl asked.
“The very items that you seek, Captain Catra?” Vero counterasked the feline, Catra, as he continued, “They are now as we speak safe from enemy hands, knowing that they will have the power to bring hope back to the universe, let fear that you bring with you cloud our very future.”
Shadow, having still looked up to the sky, seeing the ships leave the planet, heard every word, still having that stoick look, before saying, “Pity that there is no future… for you.”
At an instant, he activated his red lightsaber, designed as a crossguard lightsaber, then struck down on Vero at the chest, killing him where he stood.
Keith witness what happened, angered, he immediately stepped out of hiding, fired his blaster, only for Shadow to quickly raise his hand, using the force to freeze Keith, and the blast fire, in their tracks.
With him frozen, two Stormtroopers were able to apprehend him, leaving the blast beam still completely frozen in place, as one Stormtrooper looked in awe that was possible… before touching the beam without thinking, causing a shock current that sent him flying and crash into several crates.
“I’m okay.” he calls out, groudily.
Keith, meanwhile, was brought to the three in charge, as metal brute looked down upon him.
“Well, well,” Catra said with a smirk, “looks like one stayed behind to fight. He even almost took you out, Shadow.”
“It is time we show him what happens to those who try to snuff us.” the armored figure said, bringing out his lightsaber, ready to strike.
“Darth Zarkon, stand down,” Shadow said to Zarkon, as he then pulled down the gaiter, revealing his muzzle, “this one could be of use to us. If he was part of the rebels, then the ones that just left will no doubt be part of the rebellion too, and he can tell us who exactly he’s with.”
Zarkon paused for a moment, then looked to Keith, glaring at him with anger of Vero’s death, while determined that, upon hearing what Shadow said, he will never rat out the rebels.
Zarkon then put away his lightsaber and said, “As you wish.”
“Take him aboard,” Shadow ordered the Stormtroopers who caught Keith, “he will be interrogated upon return to the ship.”
The Stormtroopers nodded in understanding, before taking the struggling Keith by the transport, while Shadow used the force once more, sending the blast beam in a different direction, towards Keith’s X-Wing, where it exploded upon hitting the engine.
“And the villagers?” Captain Catra asked.
Zarkon simply started to walk back to the ship, before looking back to the feline as he said two words, “Kill them.”
Catra understood and then turned to the Stormtroopers who were surrounding the scared villagers who were frightened by what was happening.
“On my command! Take aim!” she said, raising her hand in preparation, as the troopers all brought their blasters to the villagers, before long, Catra brought her hand down as she yelled out, “FIRE!”
Screams of the villagers were heard as the Stormtroopers fired their blasters… all except one, whose helmet was still stained with blood, lowered his weapon in horror and sadness, seeing the horrific outcome of the prisoners until the execution was done.
As Shadow followed Zarkon and Catra back to the transport, he suddenly sensed something, then looked back to the blood-stained trooper, who looked back at him, worry shown behind the helmet, until Shadow turned back and headed for the transport.
Upon return to the battlecruiser, a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer known as the Finalizer, the passengers of both the vessels and the transport exited their respective modes of transportations.
Keith, shackled, was taken for interrogation by two Stormtroopers escorting him, nudging their blasters hard at his back repeatedly.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” the prisoner said in annoyance.
The blood-stained Stormtrooper, meanwhile, continued on his way in a different direction, before coming down a nearby hallway, and then put down his blaster and immediately took off his helmet, revealing the face of a panting, overwhelmed young man.
He had curly, orange-brown hair, styled as a sort of mohawk and wore tunnels in his stretched earlobes.
The Stormtrooper seemed very distressed after what happened, sweat drops trekking down his face.
He looked back a little to Keith departing with the other troopers, and began to think of doing something...
“LRS-0504!” Catra’s voice caught the trooper’s attention by surprise, “You are to submit your blaster for inspection.”
“Yes, ma’am.” LRS-0504 said, knowing he was in trouble.
As she was about to leave, Catra turned to the nervous trooper as she said with narrow eyes, “And, may I ask, who gave you permission to remove your helmet?”
“Sorry, ma’am.” the trooper sighed.
As Catra left, she said as she passed by him, “Report to my division at once.”
Shattered, after she left, LRS-0504 put his helmet back on, the events of what happened still in his mind.
Author's Note
And so begins the ultimate spoof/parody of the greatest space opera saga! Stay tuned as we’ll be introduced to the rest of the heroes and villains, as most of them will play big parts of the story, before coming together over time!
A small Easter Egg of the numbers of LRS-0504’s name, it is basically a reference to Season 5 Episode 4 of the Original Steven Universe TV series, titled Lar’s Head, which Lars was resurrected after given a change of heart.
Stay tuned for more to come, until next time, True Believers, Excelsior!
Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
Planet Bracca, Shipbreaking Yard
Somewhere in the Mid Rim of the galaxy, lies the planet Bracca.
Once a site of a campaign during the Clone Wars and the Age of Peace, now it is a shipbreaking operation, breaking down wreckage of various starships and selling the components to the Dark Order.
All across the planet, dozens of decommissioned starships and other machinery spread throughout the landscape of the planet’s surface, all waiting to be broken down by the inhabitants of the planet, most of them all workers, given the name of Scappers, who, as part of the Scrappers Guild, work day and night on their job to earn the money.
Across the planet, Imperial probe droids, Tie Fighters and several of the Dark Order Stormtroopers patrol the planet, keeping an eye out for any troublemakers.
One a day like any other, the weather is damp and wet, but the work still keeps going, especially if one should work inside the ships they were scrapping.
Most of the workers find many ways to lift their spirits a little on the hard work, such as listening to music, like one young man, at the age of 21, who had bell-shaped auburn hair parting to his right with freckles on his cheeks and dull green eyes. Another interesting feature was a small, white scar just below his bottom right chin.
As he continued working inside one of the starships during one rainy day, while listening to music, he got a tap on his shoulder, turning to see an Abednedo worker wanting to get his attention, as well as pointing to where it’s ears would be, stating to the young fellow to take the headphones off.
Taking his headphones off, the young man looked to his co-worker as he spoke, “Listen, I don’t want to upset your rhythm, Hiccup, but the boss wants a word with us.”
The young man, named Hiccup, looked to the worker, then turned to see a droid, no doubt the boss, then back to the Abednedo as he replied, “Okay, Prauf. Let me get Tails.”
Prauf nodded in understanding, and turned back to droid forman, while Hiccup looked up to the highest parts of the wrecked ship, before giving a shout out, “Hey, Tails!”
Hiccup waited for a moment until finally he heard a bright young voice, “Yeah, Hiccup? Hang on, I’m coming down.”
Hiccup looked up until he smiled as a young fox with two tails flew down from the high parts of the wreckage and landed next to him, his flying possible to his two tails that worked like propellers.
“What’s up, Hiccup?” the two-tailed fox asked.
“Just got word from Prauf, Tails, says the forman needs us for a moment.” Hiccup said.
“Alright, lead the way.” Tails said, as he and Hiccup walked up to Prauf.
“Okay, you two,” Prauf said as he saw them head his way, “The boss would need all the help. Could be good for us…”
The three of them soon approached the droid forman, as Prauf gestured to Hiccup and Tails, “Here they are, chief.”
“An error has been detected on line 10-A.” the forman droid explained, “Hauler clamps are jammed.”
The droid pointed upwards to its left as it continued, “Worker Gobber needs some help to climb up and secure the cables.”
“So, Gobber needs some help, huh?” Hiccup asked, with a tiny bit of interest, “We’ll be happy to, though it’s not quite an easy maneuver.”
“The guild will pay you double for this shift.” the forman stated.
Prauf nudged Hiccup as he said with a grin, “C’mon, Hiccup. Little extra score, that couldn’t hurt.”
Hiccup looked to his friend, then looked to Tails, who had a good grin of interest as he said, “Besides, it’s nothing we can’t handle. Right?”
Hiccup shook his head a little with a smile and replied, “Alright, we’ll do it.”
“Get to work.” The forman said with a nod.
“C’mon, kids!” Prauf said, as he went ahead, with Hiccup and Tails following behind him.
As the trio journeyed to aid Gobber, Hiccup thought about how nice to see Gobber again, alongside Tails and Prauf, Gobber was another one of his few friends he made on Bracca, he and Prauf helped the young lads out of hard scraps, it was always nice to return to favor.
Hiccup and the others exited the wreckage they were in and looked out, seeing nothing but wrecked starships as far as the eye can see, until something landing from above the rain clouds caught Hiccup’s eye.
“Prauf! Tails! Look at this!” he said, pointing to the object that was landing.
“Well, will you look at that,” Prauf said, amazed, “a Seperatis ship.”
“I’ve heard about these types of class ships,” said Tails, “they’re known as Lucrehulks.”
The three looked at the Seperatis ship, which was indeed a Lucrehulk-class ship, which looked like a giant metal ball that was connected inside a metal ring that had a small gap in it for any ship to enter and/or exit.
“That’s right, Tails. Heck, it’s been ages since I’ve seen a Lucrehulk.” Prauf said with a smile.
“Yeah,” Hiccup silently nodded, “ages…”
“Y’know, breaking her will make big money!” Prauf said with a chuckle, before he and the others continued on their way.
Prauf soon headed up a ladder and onto one of the ramps, then gestured Hiccup to follow (Tails using his tails to fly up), when suddenly someone cried out, “Look out!”
Upon hearing this, Hiccup moved quickly out of the way, only to see several bits scrap metal and metal barrels crash into the ladder, knocking it down, leaving Hiccup no way to get up.
“Uh, not again…” Prauf groaned, as soon another creature flew up to where Prauf was, a female grey pegasus, who had walled-eye eyes, blonde hair and had images of bubbles on her flank.
“Derpy. I thought I told you to be more careful, you almost got Hiccup injured!” Prauf said in annoyance.
“Sorry, Prauf,” Derpy apologized, “I don’t know what happened.”
Prauf let out a small sigh, before looking down to Hiccup, “Hey, Hiccup! You ok?”
“Don’t worry, Prauf, I’m good.” Hiccup said, giving a thumbs up.
“Ladder’s out, though,” Prauf said, looking down to where the ladder use to be, “Gonna need to find another way.”
“Don’t worry, Prauf,” said Tails, “Derpy and I can fly him to site and meet you there.”
“If you say so.” Prauf shrugged, before looking down to Hiccup, “See you there, Hiccup.”
“Alright.” Hiccup said as he waved to Prauf, before the Abednedo left.
Tails and Derpy soon flew to Hiccup, as he grabbed hold of Tails’ hands and Derpy’s hooves, the spoke up, “Hang on tight, Hiccup. And enjoy the view!”
The two flyers soon took off, with Hiccup hanging on as they journeyed further to the site where Gobber was, Hiccup, meanwhile having a nice view of the planet he was currently on, though he imagined it nicer without all the scrap metal. After a good flight, they were near their destination, a starship that had the jammed hauler clamps.
“Hey there, Hiccup!”
Hiccup recognized the voice and looked down with a small smile, seeing a large man, with a braided mustache, and had a robotic left arm and a robotic peg leg where his right leg should have been.
Hiccup, Tails and Derpy soon landed, as they greeted the working friend of theirs.
“Hey there, Gobber,” Hiccup was the first to speak, “heard there was a problem with the clamps?”
“That’s right,” Gobber nodded, “and we need to get them sorted before the ship cutters start clipping the wings off.”
“Sure thing,” Tails said, before looking to Derpy, “Listen, Derpy. I don’t want this to sound harsh, but could you-?”
“It’s ok.” Derpy said with a small smile, “I love to be supportive, anyway.”
Tails let out a small chuckle as he said, “Of course you are.”
Gobber had a small look around, “Where’s Prauf?”
“He’ll be there soon to help out.” Hiccup explained, which Gobber nodded in response.
“Right then,” Gobber said, “Tails, use your… well, tails to fly down to use the manual override lever below the clamps.”
“Got it.” Tails said, giving a thumbs up, before flying down.
Gobber then turned to Hiccup, “You and Prauf will do the levers above.”
“Okay, Gobber.” Hiccup nodded as he went ahead.
Tails, meanwhile, hovered to one of the jammed clamps, and found the override lever he needed to switch, then pulled the lever down.
“Okay, first lever pulled!” Tails called out to Hiccup.
“Alright, I got this.” said Hiccup, as he pulled the lever from the top, allowing the first clamp to come back on, “First clamp secured.”
Soon, Prauf arrived, right on time to help on the second clamp, Tails switching the override lever below, and Prauf followed suit with the lever above, thus allowing the second clamp to be repaired.
“Good job, Tails!” Derpy called out to Tails, flying carefully to avoid causing any trouble.
“Hey you guys, come check this out!” Prauf called out, bringing Hiccup, Tails, Derpy and Gobber to Prauf’s position.
Once the four met up with Prauf, they were surprised at what their alien friend was next to.
“Look at this,” he chuckled, “It’s a Jedi Fighter!”
Gobber chuckled suit at the sight, “Looks like we found our payday with this!”
“Jedi… Fighter?” Derpy asked.
“It was a small starfighter that was used specially for members of the Old Jedi Order.” Tails explained, as he had a good inspection of it, “Used them during the Clone Wars in hope of bringing peace to every corner of this and every galaxy in the universe.”
“Bet this heap’s been here for like, how many years? Six? Five?” Gobber asked as he also examined the wreckage.
“10.” Hiccup said, as he seemed to have been focused on the old fighter for sometime, almost making his mind look like it was entranced by the sight of it.
“Whoever flew this must have gone down in a blaze of glory.” Prauf said, as he had a good look at it, before letting out a sad sigh.
“Those Jedi…” he said, “What a tragedy. I mean, I’ve always said that they couldn’t be traitors.”
Hiccup slowly nodded as he said, “Yeah… maybe…”
As he approached the fighter, he wiped away a bit of smudge, revealing the emblem of the Jedi Order, causing him to let out a small, sad sigh.
“It’s gonna be our luck when that Dark Order Empire gets a load of material from this.” Gobber stated.
“Yeah,” Prauf nodded in agreement, as he spoke his opinion, “I mean, here we are scrapping away these ships from the war, just so these guys can turn them around and make new ones.”
Hiccup, Tails and Derpy continued to look at the fighter, eyeing on everything it had, from the few broken window glasses on the pilots pod, to the astromech droid that was still connected in it, only it was out of power and been so for quite some time, as Prauf continued talking to Gobber.
“Can you believe this racket? All of us, risking our necks for the big bosses. And the pay was better during the Republic, too.”
The young trio approached the old workers, as Hiccup cautiously spoke to Prauf, “Hey, I think you should really watch what you say around here.”
“Listen, kid,” Prauf said, “A finder’s fee like this could be a ticket off this soggy rock for you and Tails too, even.”
Hiccup had a little thought on that, then looked to Prauf as he asked, “What makes you think that want outta here?”
Prauf and Gobber gave out small chuckles until the latter spoke, “C’mon, Hiccup, you, Tails and even Derpy there are young lads and lasses. You don’t want to end up like us.”
“Gobber’s not wrong there,” Prauf added, agreeing on what Gobber said, “sooner or later, you gotta move on and live your life. Find your destiny.”
Hiccup was having a small bit of what Prauf and Gobber said, when he and the others notice ship cutters completing a bit of their work.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Hiccup said about Prauf’s advice, before saying, “we should probably get back down now.”
“You’re not listening here, Hiccup-” Gobber was starting to say, when it happened.
As the group were just starting their trek down, they suddenly heard something metal snap.
Followed by another, and another.
They turned and looked in shock and horror, as the cargo ship cables that were holding onto the part of the starship wing suddenly came apart, causing the wing to suddenly tip down one way… the group still on it!
Tails and Derpy instantly took off, but were horrified when Hiccup, Prauf and Gobber began to slide down the wet, metal wing of the starship like a waterslide.
As they nearing the edge, Gobber used his metal arm to switch to a hook, sharp enough to try and cling onto the wing, Hiccup, unfortunately reached the edge, only to trip over get his metal leg caught on several of the ship’s old wires, causing him to dangle upside down over the edge.
“Hiccup!” Hiccup could hear Tails and Derpy’s voices calling out his name as the two-tailed fox cried out, “The Ibdis Maw!”
Hiccup looked down and his blood went cold, sure enough, he was dangling over the pit of the Ibdis Maw, a giant sarlacc creature that the workers usually tip the platforms full of junk into.
“Hiccup, Derpy and I will get you out!” Tails shouted.
“No! Go check Gobber! See if he’s alright.” Hiccup called back.
Tails and Derpy were uncertain of that, but did what he said.
Hiccup had to find a way to get back up, when he saw Prauf, holding for dear life on the edge while trying to climb up, but not quite for long.
“Prauf, are you alright?!” he asked.
“Hiccup!” Prauf cried, as he was beginning to lose his grip, “I can’t climb up!”
“Just hang on!” Hiccup cried out.
Prauf tried to climb up, but he soon slipped and was then dangling on the edge, slowly losing his grip, “I’m slipping!”
Prauf continued to try, but one of his hands lost his grip, and was then hanging for dear life with one hand.
Hiccup saw that Prauf was terrified, and that he wasn’t going to make it.
Tails, Derpy and Gobber (the latter being carried by the two young flyers, even though how much he weighed a little) were looking in worry at what was happening.
Until… Prauf lost his grip!
“Prauf! No!” Hiccup cried as Prauf started to fall, certain to become the Ibdis Maw’s next meal…
Until he suddenly froze, Prauf looked around, wondering why he was frozen in the air, then looked up, and saw Hiccup, reaching out with his hand, seemingly concentrating.
Tails, Gobber and Derpy were amazed at this as well, until they saw a hover platform coming by, Hiccup saw this as well, timing it so he can drop Prauf onto it.
Just in time, Hiccup let Prauf land on the platform, just as Tails and Derpy dropped Gobber on it before landing themselves.
Hiccup was last, as he untangled his metal leg, allowing him to land onto the platform.
However, as Hiccup landed, he noticed the pilot droid of the platform had taken damage, and rushed over there, knowing he would have to fly.
“Hang tight! I’m gonna try and get us outta here!” He cried, as he flew the platform from the sarlacc’s reach, though one of the creature’s tentacles hit a part of the engine, causing the group to have a crash land far away from the creature’s habitat.
After the rough landing, Hiccup, Tails, Gobber and Derpy hurried over to Prauf, who was still lying on the ground, struggling to get up.
“Prauf! Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Hiccup asked.
“I-I’m fine,” Prauf said, though his voice sounded a little shaky due to near death experience, “I… think I twisted my ankle on the way down.”
“Don’t worry,” said Hiccup, helping Prauf up then aiding him to walk a bit, “I got you. Now, let’s get out of here.”
“S-sure…” said Prauf.
“Hiccup,” Tails spoke up as he, Gobber and Derpy walked with Hiccup and Prauf, “what was that back there?”
“Did you do that hand thing? That caused Prauf to freeze in the air?” Gobber added.
Hiccup was silent as they asked, until Prauf spoke up.
“Wha-tha-that was the Force, wasn’t it?” he asked, the voice mixed with shock, nervousness and shakiness.
Upon hearing that Hiccup instantly said to Prauf and the others listening, “Just forget about you saw, okay? Please.”
“Th-the Force?! As in, THE Force?!” Gobber added.
“Look, guys…” Hiccup tried to speak, only for them to speak with so many thoughts in their head at the moment.
“No, I mean, I-I’ve seen them.” said Prauf.
“Incredible, I’ve heard many stories about the Jedi!” Tails added
“That was so incredible!” spoke Derpy.
“Guys…”
“I can’t believe you’re a Jedi!” Tails said with interest.
“We’ve all heard about it!” Gobber stated, “There’s bounties everywhere for guys like you and-”
“Guys, I know!” Hiccup said, getting their attention, “I know.”
He then brought a finger close to his lips, as a way to tell them not to tell anyone of this, seeing this, Tails, Prauf, Gobber and Derpy all understood and nodded in agreement.
Upon finally understanding that Hiccup was a Jedi, this changed a lot for the four of them, Hiccup had been by their side for years. He was their friend, and upon learning his secret, they agreed to not to tell anyone of this.
“Okay, Hiccup.” Tails nodded.
“We’ll have to be careful.” Prauf added.
“Right.” Hiccup nodded in agreement.
As the group walked away, Gobber looked to Hiccup as he said, “Don’t you worry, Hiccup. Your secret’s safe with us.”
“You’re our best friend.” Derpy stated.
“And we’ll be by your side no matter what.” Prauf said proudly.
Hiccup let out a small sigh, as he said with a small smile, “Thanks guys…”
Unbeknownst to them, as they headed off, high above where Hiccup, Gobber and Prauf were dangling almost to their near deaths, an Imperial probe droid had observed everything that had happened… especially of when Hiccup used the Force.
With the footage recorded, the droid prepared to contact the Dark Order on its findings.
The Finalizer, somewhere above Jakku’s surface
Within the giant Star Destroyer, painful screams could be heard within the corridors of the prison section.
Inside his cell, Keith was being interrogated by a brute of a commander, being a burly, muscular man, bald with a small, light scar on the left side of his face and black goatee.
Upon being brought to his cell, Keith had refused many times on spilling info on who he was working with and who had the info they took.
As a way to push him to talk, his interrogator had been giving him some bruices and some hard felt zaps to see if he’ll crack.
“You have quite the courage, lad,” the commander spoke, “but sooner or later, they all fall under the pressure. So, I’ll ask again: Who are you working for that has the data?”
Keith, a little beaten up, remained silent.
The interrogator only smirked a little before turning a dial on the control pad, causing painful electricity to strike onto the pilot, who let out another scream.
The interrogator looked back to Keith as he said, “I was able to crack the wills of several good soldiers before they spilled the beans. Even after the first bit of static.”
Switching off the static again, the brute looked to Keith, who was panting after another blow, but still he didn’t speak.
“Now then, are you ready to tell me who has the data?” the brute kindly asked.
Keith looked up to the brute, and seemed like he was about to spill… until he weakly said, “Kiss… my… Bantha.”
This made the brute mad, before turning the dial again, resulting in another zap for Keith.
After that, he looked to Keith, as he felt a little burnt from the electric shocks he got, and angrily said, “I'll not answer again, Rebel scum!”
Just then, the cell door opened, revealing Shadow, as he spoke, “Stand down, Ryker.”
Ryker looked to the black hedgehog as he said, “I’ll take it from here.”
Annoyed of not getting any info, Ryker simply bowed his head as he grumbled, “Yes, my lord.”
As Ryker left and sealed Shadow in with Keith, the hedgehog looked to the prisoner as he said, “I must admit, you have quite the determination.”
Keith looked to Shadow as he replied, “If that was some sort of compliment, you got a sick way of showing it.”
Shadow ignored that as he then said, “We’re set to track down that ship through hyperdrive, but we’re unsure of who it is that you are working for.”
“If you're gonna have a turn on roasting me with bolts to talk, forget it.” Keith snarcked.
Shadow narrowed his eyes a little as he still looked to the prisoner.
“Who said I was going to give you bolts to make you talk?” he said, coldly.
He then raised his right arm, and brought his hand close to Keith’s face, as the prisoner flinched and began to feel something… something cold… something sinister…
“You will give me what I want,” said Shadow, “Even if I have to peel every bit of layers of info out of you…”
Keith began to struggle as Shadow used the Dark Side of the Force, as he soon began to tremble, feeling every vibor of his body like it was burning, couldn’t hold it in any longer, he out a loud scream that no doubt be heard from outside the Star Destroyer.
Minutes later, Shadow emerged from the holding cells, Catra and Ryker awaiting him.
“Princess Allura.” the hedgehog said, having gotten the info he needed.
“The Altean Princess?” Catra asked, “She’s part of the Rebels?”
“Well then,” Ryker said, “if she was on the ship, then we’ll soon have the data back from her.”
“Prepare to jump into Hyperdrive,” Shadow said, as he went to the bridge, Catra and Ryker following him, “and prepare a call to the Tallest. They will hopefully be pleased with this info.”
Author's Note
We’ve now got introduced to another batch of heroes, with the intro of Jedi Hiccup, as I know that many are excited to see more of (along with Starfighter Pilot Astrid).
More of this exciting story to come, until next time, True Believers!
Excelsior!
Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
Coruscant
One of the core planets that can be shown as wealthy and powerful would be the planet Coruscant, which can be described as a planet-wide city, and was referred to as Notron or Queen of the Core.
Being an entire planet as one big city, there is no rest for the citizens, residents and others who live there.
Once one of the great capital planets for the Galactic Republic, it now became one of the central planets under the imperial control of the Dark Order, giving it the name Imperial Center.
Across the city, there are those who respect the Dark Order, while there are a few who question the empire’s actions.
We now look to inside one of the libraries on Coruscant, where a young teenage woman, being 17 and half years old, who’s skin being pale, light greyish mulberry and long hair being moderate sapphire blue with violet and brilliant rose streaks, tied up into a bun, and wearing thick black glasses, was busy doing some research on the Republic of old.
Across where she sat was another female, also 17, she had brown eyes and fair skin, her hair light brown, short and disheveled. There was no intention to style it, so it remained spiked outward at the back and obscured her face as unruly bangs, and donned thin, wire framed, half moon glasses with fake lenses.
She was currently doing a bit of studying of her own, before stopping for a second to look up to the bun-haired girl.
“How are those books coming along, Twilight?” she asked Twilight.
“Oh, just fine, thanks for asking Katie.” Twilight replied with a smile.
“Man, I can’t believe that you’re going through the whole history documents of the Clone Wars,” Katie started with a grin, “and you’ve just read through all ten books in less than 12 minutes!”
“I appreciate the compliment, thank you.” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses before explaining, “Tough it’s not the Clone Wars I'm keen on, it’s the ones who helped fight in it.”
“The Jedi, right?” Katie asked.
“The very same,” Twilight answered, “what me and others are finding is stuff of the old Jedi Order that existed before the Dark Order was formed, I’m just quite keen to know more of the Jedi that fought side-by-side with us.”
“You’re thinking that what we’ll learn from the past can help the future of the galaxy, aren’t you?” Katie asked with a smirk.
“Same said about you.” Twilight replied with a smirk of her own, “I bet your family would be proud of you with your work.”
“Thanks, Twilight.” Katie said with a smile before saying, “And please, it’s okay to call me Pidge, most of my friends do as well.”
“Sure thing, Pidge.” Twilight chuckled, before saying, “It’s quite interesting about how we have the coolest brothers ever, helping out the inhabitants that reside in the farthest reaches of space.”
Pidge let out a sigh as she replied, “Yeah… helping out…”
Twilight picked up that something was bugging Pidge, then she asked, “Is something wrong about that?”
“No, nothing’s wrong we’ve our brothers, we love them so much,” Pidge stated, “it’s just about the Dark Order and their way of keeping charge of things… you and I both know that something is up, isn’t it?”
Twilight sighed and nodded in agreement, “It’s true, it’s not that I like the Dark Order, as you said, they say that they are helping make things better, but at what cost…?”
“Exactly,” said Pidge, “heck, I haven’t heard a word from either my brother or dad since they were selected for working with the big leagues, and we never get told about what’s happening with them.”
“And while my brother is one of the captains of the Dark Order’s amries,” Twilight added, “I sometimes worry that I might lose him and he’ll forget which side he’s on.”
“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Pidge comforted her, “I know that there our others who will help you and your brother on doing what’s right.”
“Thanks, Pidge. Speaking of which…” Twilight said, before looking around as she quietly called out for someone.
“Spike? Spike?” she said, calling out for her companion as she looked around.
“Coming, Twilight!” a young voice spoke up, putting a smile on Twilight’s face, as seconds later, a young, baby dragon with wings flew by, carrying with him a few info pads, followed by a chubby young adult, large and husky with a mustache, with info pads of his own.
“Did you or Fishlegs find volumes 11 to 13 of the Battle of Ryloth?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t worry, Twilight,” the dragon called Spike said, “Fishlegs has it.”
“Here you go.” Fishlegs kindly said, offering the info pad to Spike, who then gave it to Twilight.
“Thank you.” Twilight gratefully replied, before diving into another bit of reading.
Fishlegs and Spike looked to their reading friend, before the former turned to the latter, “Did you find out more about the old Jedi Order stuff you two liked geeking out about?”
“Oh, Spike, you should know that it’s more than just geeking out.” Fishlegs said with a smirk, “This info we’re trying to look into is during the days of the Old Republic, as well as even before the Republic was founded. While we have been successful on finding a small bit of info on the Jedi Order, we’re still at a few dead ends.”
“What we do know is about the Jedi’s involvement in the Clone Wars before the Dark Order rose up.” Pidge added, joining a bit on the conversation, “Besides learning each planet’s history and culture, most of them share a special history of coming face to face with Jedi of the past.”
“Suppose that makes sense.” Spike said, “But still, you know that there aren’t a lot of records or info left about the Jedi, having been either confiscated or destroyed. Don’t you think we could be reaching deadends?”
“Have a bit of faith, Spike,” Twilight replied, “we’ll find a way to know more, sooner or later.”
“That’s the thing about Twily, Spike, there are no deadends that can stop Twily.”
The new voice that spoke caught Twilight’s attention, as she let out a smile as she turned to see her brother, Shining Armor, coming by to say hello, along with him was Cadance, whom the two have been dating for quite some time.
“BBBFF! Cadance!” Twilight said, as she got out of her seat and gave them a big hug.
“It’s so good to see you.” said Twilight with a smile.
“Great seeing you too, sis.” Shining replied, before looking at Spike and Fishlegs, “Same goes to your friends, also.”
“A privilege to meet you both as well.” Fishlegs politely said while bowing his head.
“Likewise.” Pidge greeted with a wave.
“What brings you two here, anyway?” Spike asked.
“We’ve come by to tell you that the Dark Order are preparing for the annual promotion assignment today,” Shining Armor explained, “and it would be nice for my sister to help my girl be there for support.”
Twilight was stunned upon hearing this, and then said, but in a voice which sounded different and way off to be an excited one, “Wow… that’s just… amazing.”
Shining and Cadance notice something wrong as the latter asked, “Is something wrong, Twilight?”
“Oh, no,” Twilight replied, trying to hide her skepticism, “nothing’s wrong. It’s all good.”
“Sis, Cadance and I know what’s wrong with the Twilight we know,” Shining spoke, “it’s okay to tell us.”
Twilight sighed, “It’s not that I’m not sad about your promotion, Shining. Really. It’s just…”
“Your thoughts about the Dark Order?” Shining asked.
“Yes.” Twilight nodded with a sigh, “I know that the Dark Order have stated about helping bring order, but… it’s just…”
“It’s ok, Twily,” Shining said, as he placed his hand on her shoulder for comfort, “We understand about how you and the others feel about the Dark Order, we all feel that way too. But we have to roll with what they do, even if we like it or not. We’ll find another way to help everyone, but for now, we have to do what they say.”
Twilight had a small bit of thought on that, before turning to her brother and her sister-figure as she put on a small, yet little bit sad, smile, “Ok, I understand.”
“Thanks, Twily.” Shining said, as he gave her a comforting hug, before looking to the others as he asked, “Would you all like to come along as well?”
“Sure, Shining.” Spike replied.
“I suppose so.” Fishlegs shrugged.
“If it’s alright with you,” said Pidge, “I think I would like to stay and continue a little bit on my studies some more. You can go on without, thanks.”
“Sure thing, Pidge. See you later, and say to your mother for us.” Cadance kindly said, as the group said farewell to Pidge.
The five of them soon began to leave the library, though Twilight still had a bit of deep thoughts, still thinking over the Dark Order, until suddenly, something bumped into her, causing her to fall backwards and landed on her bottom.
“Oh, sorry about that.” a voice said, as Twilight saw the owner of the voice’s hand being offered to her, causing her to look up.
There, in front of her, was a young teen, seemingly about her age, his skin being pale, light greyish amber with blue hair, kindly offering his hand to help her up. Seeing him made Twilight feel a little funny inside, but accepted the hand anyway as he helped her up.
“You ok?” he asked.
“Uh… yeah… thanks… for that.” Twilight responded, a small bit of blush on her cheeks, before saying, “I should get going now.”
Soon, Twilight started on her way again, though noticed Cadance giggle a little.
“What?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing.” Cadance replied, “You have to admit, though, it was nice of Flash Sentry to help you back there.”
“Isn’t he one of the cadets you’ve been training, Shining?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, he has been good at work, and has been one of the finest members of his squad.” Shining explained, “Couldn’t be more proud of him.”
As they walked, Twilight looked back a little and saw Flash looking back as well, before giving them a kind wave goodbye, which she responded back with a wave of her own, before continuing on their way to the assignment ceremony.
Senate Building, Imperial Plaza
Located at the heart of Coruscant, the Senate Building stood proudly in the Federal District, along with the Avenue of the Core Founders, the Imperial Executive Building and the Imperial Palace.
The Senate Building was known for delegations during the Old Republic before it became the Dark Order Empire, where delegates and senators would come to speak to pass laws and legislation.
Outside the building, dozens of citizens had arrived to witness the event of members of the Dark Order are giving assignments and promotions (sort of like a graduation day of sorts), hosted by the leaders of the Dark Order, the Almight Tallest.
“Welcome, proud citizens of Coruscant,” an announcer's voice spoke up, “welcome, once again, to the great assigning of the Dark Order. Where the youngest minds, having tested their might, bravery and brains to be ascended to great heights on the path to order in the galaxy and beyond.”
Along with the audience, a small group of soldiers, cadets and commanders stood proudly, ready and waiting for the arrival of their leaders.
Within the audience, Twilight, Spike, Cadance and Fishlegs were amoung those witnessing the event, then they spotted Shining among the troops on stage, giving him a small wave, and he waved back before returning to position.
A Star Destroyer soon appeared above, getting everyone’s attention, as the announcer spoke up.
“And now,” said the announcer, “please give a round of applause, because here they are. Your alknowning, all powerful leaders… THE ALMIGHT TALLEST!!”
Soon, flying out of the Star Destroyer, an Imperial Lambda soared down to the stage, as on the stage, special effects were taking effect with incredible laser shows, until, stepping out of the Lambda, two tall beings welcomed everyone with waves of their hands.
The two beings, their species being Irkens, both wore the same type of robe uniforms, but in different colors, one in red and the other purple, matching their eyes. They were the Almighty Tallest, the proud rulers of Coruscant and leaders of the Dark Order.
The crowd let out a proud applause on meeting the proud leaders.
“Thank you. Thank you!” Purple said happily.
“See,” Red spoke up to his counterpart with a nudge, “told you they’d dig the lasers.”
“Everything’s lasers with you,” Purple spoke back, a little annoyed, “I’m telling you, smoke machines are what the people really wha-AAGH!”
The last part was cut off as one of the laser lights stung Purple in the eye, causing him to fall over in pain.
Despite this, the crowd still rejoiced over the arrival of the Tallest.
“See?” smirked Red, as he continued to smile and wave, while Purple continued to wince in pain.
Once the applause died down, Red began to make his intro speech to both the citizens and troops, “Greetings, citizens of Coruscant, on this glorious day of promotional assignment. And welcome, mighty soldiers of the Dark Order. You are the finest examples of military training the Dark Order has to offer! Good for you.”
He then gestured to the troops behind him and Purple (who was getting back up) and said, “Standing behind us, however, are the proud soldiers and cadets that we’ve chosen for roles in one of the most crucial parts of maintaining order and justice to the Galaxy!”
The crowds went wild as they applauded for the chosen troops to be premoted.
“While you in the audience just get to sit and watch.” Red said to the troops in the audience, a little bit mockingly.
“You should have tried harder.” Purple added.
Red soon spoke up for the chosen recruits, “These superior ones…”
“Not quite as superior as us, of course…” Purple added.
“Duh!” Red agreed before continuing, “These less superior than us, but still quite superior soldiers, will each be promoted and assigned to the next steps of the Dark Order!”
The Tallest looked at the recruits as Purple spoke, “From here, you’ll be tasked with monitoring every corner of the galaxy and other star systems, most of you will be assigned to important projects, while others, you’ll be making one of your own.”
“And any trouble with any insurgences, and/or any info you may be able to gather, will be a special aspect of advantage to our… big… gang!” Red explained.
“The armarda.” Purple corrected, before crying out, “Now… LET THE ASSIGNING BEGIN!”
This was followed by a lone cheer from one of the cadets in the audience.
After a moment's silence, Purple called out the first candidate, “Step forward, Cadet Adora.”
In responce, a young female teenager with dark blonde hair, bluebell eyes and narrow brown eyebrows with an athlete body physics, stepped forward and approached the Tallest.
“Ah, Cadet Adora,” Red spoke, as he and Purple looked proudly at the young teen, “We have been seeing your training for quite sometime since you were recruited into the academy.”
“Since the first days of training, you and your team have slowly been successful in combat training, stealth and military planning.” Purple explained, as holographic screens showed the examples of Adora’s training back in the academy, “Such feats show perfect examples for making a fine candidate like you as Force Captain.”
“Really, Force Captain?” Adora asked, quite amazed at this.
“Indeed,” Red replied, as he handed her an imperial rank badge, showing six bars, red at the top and blue at the bottom, “wear this proudly, Adora, we and the rest of the Dark Order see great potential in you.”
Adora took the badge, then placed it on the left side of her uniform, before saluting proudly.
“In due time, you will be assigned to one of the nearby star systems, to help aid in spreading order to the residents of the planets in that system.” Purple ordered her.
“Yes, my Tallest.” Adora said, before making her leave.
“Next, Shining Armor.” Purple called out, and Shining soon stepped forward to meet the Tallest.
“My Tallest.” Shining Armor bowed to them.
“Nice meeting ya, Shining Armor,” Red greeted him, “you’ve been improving well on your position as Captain since the last time you stood before us.”
“Thank you, my Tallest.” Shining saluted, “Everything I’ve done, I have done for the Dark Order… and for those I care for.”
Twilight and Cadance smiled upon hearing that last part, though were also skeptical of the Order’s eccentric actions in the past.
“Oookay…” Red said, he and Purple were feeling unsure of that last part, “Anyways, eh, as a show of gratitude to your service, we hereby promote you to Commander Shining Armor.”
Purple then handed over a badge to Shining, being the same sort of badge similar to Adora’s, though this time it was addressed for Commander.
“We wish you best of luck, Commander Shining Armor.” Red announced.
Shining gave the Tallest a final salute, before leaving the stage, Twilight and the others applauded him for the promotion.
For the rest of the event, many candidates were summoned, and each of them given a different promotion, as the officer corps of the Dark Order had several ranks, from lowest to highest: Cadet, Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Commodore and Admiral, while the army too had ranks, which included Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Commandant, Commander, Major, Colonel and General.
Soon following this, the event soon came to a close.
“And so concludes the great assigning!” Red proudly spoke to the audience, before speaking up to both the troops of the audience and the newly promoted ones, “Help yourselves to some nachos, and we’ll see you later for further info.”
“Yes, gorge yourselves, you mooches!” Purple exclaimed.
“Oh, and remember (lasers)…” Red spoke up, whispering the last part to que the laser lights again… causing one to hit Purple in the eye… again, before saying, “in due time, the galaxy will be part of a new order, the Dark Order.”
The audience roared with applause on this, as a fanfare for the Dark Order played in the background.
Though during the celebration, Twilight still hoped to find out more about the Dark Order, one way or another, as well as find out what had become of the Jedi, if there were any Jedi left…
Later on, Imperial Palace
The Imperial Palace wasn’t always the home of the Almighty Tallest.
Long ago, the palace was once known as the Jedi Temple, back during the old days of the Republic, even before so, when the Jedi protected the many star systems.
The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was the primary base for the galactic knights of peace to reside, research info at the Jedi Archives and train future Jedi.
But sadly, all changed when Order 66 became active, and the temple was attacked by the troops who once fought side-by-side with, killing any Jedi that were there… even the Younglings didn’t survive.
Now, the Jedi Temple has been refurbished into the Imperial Palace, where the members of the Dark Order, along with its rulers, the Almighty Tallest, reside.
Inside, a meeting was taking place with a few WIP citizens who were supporting the Dark Order, with several members of the Dark Order themselves.
One of them was Grand General Robotnik, also known as Eggman, and proud leader who commanded the greatest armies known in the Dark Order, mostly some of them being robots, like Egg Droids and Egg Pawns.
While he was basically a scientific genius with a degree as Doctor, his tatics and movements in command had honored him in promotion to Grand General (the rank badge showing 12 bars, six of them on one side all blue, while three on the top were yellow and red for the bottom three).
Another member was Commander Peepers, a small, yet serious little alien called a Watchdog, a creature with one eye (also distinguished from the others by his helmet’s frill and extended lightning bolt, as most Watchdogs have a helmet with a lightning bolt), while branding the Command rank badge.
Next to Eggman, was a short human, who was mostly bald, with the small exception of the last six individual hairs on the centre of his skull that reach down to the back of his head, with a big nose to add, this was Snively Robotnik, Eggman’s stingy, silver tongued, cunning nephew, who secretly wanted to have the respect he deserved, despite being ranked as a Lieutenant (the rank badge showing three bars, two of them red with one blue, most other lieutenant badges have two blue with one red, or even two yellow and one red).
Beside them, stood two robots, one round and one cube-shaped, they were Orbot and Cubot, Eggman’s robotic lackeys, who assist their creator, besides Snively, of course.
And lastly, standing on the desk, was another Sith Lord, known as Darth Hater, a Skeleton being who wore a black hooded robe with lighting bolts on the sides, while he was a sinister, evil and cruel Sith Lord, he also had a bit of a childish temper and unstable ego.
Darth Hater was currently holding up a boombox, playing the fanfare of the Dark Order, nodding his head to the beat with a grin.
Once the theme was finished, he put away the boombox and looked to the VIPs, who were a little uncertain a bit.
“So,” he spoke, “do you like our theme song?”
Behind him, Peepers popped up to look at the VIPs, before giving them a thumbs up to impress Hater and avoid his wrath, which instantly they instantly praised him.
“Very well done, sir.” said one human as he clapped, “Marvelous, just marvelous!”
“Jolly good show!!” another spoke, also clapping.
Another member, an three-eyed alien known as a Gran applauded also, “Bravo, Lord Hater! Bravo!”
“Boo!”
Hearing that boo, Hater sneered at who dared booed him, turning to see another alien, a squid-like creature called a Quarren, who was booing him.
“Boo me will you?!” Hater said, angrily, “You’ll pay for your tretrory!”
He then zapped the Quarren with a bolt of force lightning (as most Sith can use) as punishment.
“B-but on my planet, booing is cheering.” he tried to explain, then demonstrated by clapping and booing at the same time.
“Shut up!” Hater said, zapping him again, until the Quarren fell over with his chair, after giving him a zap, Hater blew on his finger to get rid of a bit of smoke, like a gun.
“That’s enough, Lord Hater,” Eggman spoke, “It’s time to get down to business.”
As Hater got off the desk, Eggman spoke up, “As you all know, thanks to Order 66, the Jedi Order is no more, and we now control the galaxy. Disobey us, and your punishment… will be legendary.”
At that moment, the Tallest finally arrived, following the assignment.
“Welcome back, my Tallest.” Eggman bowed, as the others bowed in respect as well, as the Tallest reached their desk, Eggman spoke up, “We are happy to let you know that progress has been working swimmingly for the Dark Order. I was even chatting to our proud supporters about our progress.”
“That’s good, Eggman.” Red said, before turning to the VIPs, “Our Grand General speaks well, as we have complete control, and to top it off… we are tall enough to do so.”
“Um…” one of the VIPs asked, a little unsure, “Tall? Are you certain?”
“Well, duh!” Purple butted in, “Being tall is what it means to rule! Look at us, we are tall! Can you imagine how stupid it would be for someone small to lead this empire!”
“Yeah, that would be silly.” Red nodded in agreement, before mockingly spoke, “I mean, ‘Oh, look at me, I’m so tiny, but I’m a great leader. I like to lead with my tiny hands.’”
The two Tallest laughed and continued mocking, much to the discomfort and little confusion of the group around them, before Eggman broke the ice.
“Anyway,” he said the VIPs, “that will be all now, you may leave us.”
The VIPs did as they’re told, then left the room (one of them carrying the burnt, but still okay, Quarren with them).
After they left, Eggman and the others turned to the Tallest, who have just finished mocking about tiny leaders.
“Anywho,” Purple was the first to speak, “now that’s done, what’s happening now?”
Orbot instantly popped up as he explained, “As we speak, the finest leaders, scientists and agents come together for the great meeting with the Almighty Tallest, gathering intel and info on their different projects and missions to aid the Dark Order in conquering the rest of galaxy, the universe even, as well as rid it from those that would stand against us.”
“Er… we kinda already know about it, you don’t need to remind us.” Cubot said, as he approached Orbot.
“I know,” said Orbot, “I was just explaining to the readers about it.”
“Ookay,” Red said, awkwardly, before straightening himself, “anyway, contact the others, Dr. Eggman.”
“Of course, my Tallest.” Eggman responded, before turning to Sniveley, “Sniveley?”
Sniveley groaned a sigh, “Yes, sir.”
As Sniveley pressed a button, and soon, several holoprojectors popped up and came to live, showing different members of the Dark Order, such as the diabolical robotic droid scientist, called Dr. Nefarious, aided by his robotic butler, Lawrence, a skinny sith scientist dressed in black with a cape and helmet named Darthenshmirtz, and a commander who looked similar to Ryker, however, he had short, black hair and instead of a goatee he had a french cut beard, this was Viggo Grimborn, Ryker Grimborn’s brother.
Besides the members of the army, there were a few Sith with them, shown either in black hooded robes or black and grey uniforms which included armor.
One of the Sith was a dark, olive toned skinned Sith, with black hair and a goatee, while he looked thin, he had a muscular upper body and had a scar down his right eye.
Another looked like a unicorn pony, however, her horn was broken and she too had a scar down her right eye, and next to her, was a pug-faced hedgehog, who was currently eating some cake.
The next Sith to appear was a tall, pale-green skinned female humanoid alien, with white hair that was shaved into a mohawk (though currently covered by her black helmet with lightning bolt-like horns, wearing black crop top with spiked shoulder pads, a black, floor-long skirt with a thigh-high split on each side, while on her crop top showed a heart like it was painted in blood.
Another Sith as shown wearing an all black hooded cloak, though parts of her face could be seen from the hood, she had the appearance of a slender, small humanoid woman, most of face revealed she had long, red markings that extended from her prominent cheekbones down across her lips, nearly reaching her chin on either side of her face. Her face was angular with a noticeably convex nose. Her hair was kept slicked back and draped over her shoulders, long enough to fall across her chest.
“Ah, Eggman, my Tallest. It is so nice to speak to you again.” Viggo politely said, giving a small bow hello.
“Same to you too, Viggo.” Eggman replied.
“Viggo?” Red butted in, looking to Viggo, then Eggman, then back to Viggo again… then said, “I thought he’s Ryker.”
Eggman facepalmed, then groaned a sigh as he said, “We’ve told you before, that is Viggo, Ryker is his older brother.”
“But… they look exactly the same.” Purple said.
“Ryker is bald!” Eggman cried out, “Just like Sniveley!”
“I still have hair!” Sniveley angrily stated, pointing to the last strains of hair on his head.
“So what, bald is beautiful.” Eggman also stated.
“If we are done talking about having hair or not, we should be getting down to business, or else I’m signing off early.” the dark, scarred Sith spoke up, getting a little annoyed.
“Well, where is Ryker, anyway?” Purple asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about my brother.” Viggo spoke, “I’m sure he’ll join in our conversation when he’s done his business.”
“Yeah, it sure is important to have your private business when you go.” Cubot stated.
“Not that kind of business, Cubot.” Orbot said, as he facepalmed with his robotic arm.
“If we’re done, can we get on with why we’re really here?” the pale-green Sith asked.
“Of course, Darth Dominator.” Eggman said, before getting everyone’s attention.
“Fellow members of the Dark Order,” he spoke, “We are gathered here once more, for seeing the progress on our proud projects and operations, as well as new discoveries to use at our advantage.”
“I take it that you have something to show from your project?” Viggo asked.
“Oh, indeed, Viggo.” Eggman grinned, before pressing a button to reveal a holoproject of a giant space station the size of a moon, while it even looked like a face, due to the metal eyes, nose with metallic mustache and seemingly teeth.
“I present to you… the Death Egg!” Eggman proudly announced with pride.
There was a moment's silence, until finally Purple spoke…
“I don’t like it.”
Dumbfounded, Eggman turned to Purple and said, “I didn’t build it so you could like it! I build this space station as the ultimate weapon that will spell doom to those who dare defy us!”
Purple looked at the projection again… then said, “Well, I should like it.”
Eggman, a little annoyed, decided to ignore Purple for a moment, as the Tallest began snacking out on the food and drink that Orbot and Cubot began serving, until Darthenshmirtz spoke up.
“Of course you should like it,” he said, “heck, I’ve promoted it with this! See?”
Darthenshmirtz took out of his pocket what looked like a miniature version of the Death Egg, then presented in the other hand a walnut, then used the tiny Death Egg to destroy the nut’s shell and ate it, “I’ve been promoting this baby as an awesome nutcracker! Although using that baby that big, a-a walnut could be obliterated big time!”
“Extraordinary, Eggman,” Viggo said with interest, “from one great mind to another, your genius never ceases to amaze me.”
“Thank you, Viggo,” Eggman replied.
“I don’t suppose we should give some condolence to your little ‘brain trust’ for helping out on the construction?” Viggo asked with a grin.
“Oh, I’m sure to give our proud ‘recruits’, especially one of my good ‘friends’, Science Officer Holt, the awards they will earn soon enough for ‘helping out’ on this baby,” Eggman grinned wickedly, “soon, using this device, we will have the ability to wipe out an entire planet, or even a small part of any continent of any world.”
“Oooh…” Nefarious said intrigued, “So you mean, any planet, even those filled with just organic squishies could be annihilated?”
“Oh, indeed, Dr. Nefarious,” Eggman answered, “I hope this doesn’t clash with one of the certain projects of yours that you are working on?”
“For once, I give condolence to you for fine craftsmanship. Quite capable of having my work have a run for their money.” Nefarious said, before smirking with his robotic mouth, “Though, mark my words, what I have planned will be able to wipe out the squishies across every planet in this, or any other galaxy!”
Nefarious let out quite a laugh, as Lawrence spoke to the group, “He’s never been this happy for quite a while. He said upon learning of this project was a dream come true.”
The broken-horned unicorn rolled her eyes, before asking, “Is there anything else either of you would like to share with?”
“We do indeed, Darth Tempest.” Peepers spoke up, “While searching through the Jedi Archives, we had discovered something of interest.”
Peepers pressed a button, and the projection of the Death Egg changed, showing what looked like a laser sword.
“A lightsaber?” Dominator spoke, “Puh-lease… Most of us have already got one, and mine’s about 75 times cooler.”
“This is no ordinary lightsaber, Darth Dominator,” Peepers explained, “while lightsabers are powered by kyber crystals to create the energy blades of these laser swords you Sith and the Jedi use, this one is made entirely out of kyber crystals!”
This bit of info surprised and interested the group, as Peepers continued, “Together, these rare kyber crystals together form a special weapon called… the Kyber Saber.”
“Oooooh!” Hater said, moving forward to the projection, “Hater likey.”
He turned to Peepers and asked, “What’s it do?” before the commander could reply, Hater instatnly said, “Don’t care. Dibs. I want it. Gimmegimmegimme!”
“What?!” Dominator exclaimed.
“I said I called dibs on this,” Hater explained, “dibs.”
“You can’t call dibs!” Dominator complained.
Hater snapped back, “Can to! You never heard of the universal dibs protocol! Peepers, I want that Kyber Saber!”
“Yeah…” Peepers said, scratching his head nervously, “one small problem…”
“Aww… seriously?” Hater pouted, before sighing, “What is it?”
“We don’t exactly have any idea where the Kyber Saber might be.” Peepers explained.
Hater let out an annoying sigh, before Peepers counter explained, “However, our forces are searching the whole galaxy until the Kyber Saber is found!”
“It better, Peepers…” Hater sternly said to Peepers, “and soon…”
Just then, a beeping sound echoed, as another caller was coming in.
“Ah, it seems my brother has finally decided to join us.” Viggo said.
“A-ok, send that transmission through.” Purple ordered.
The group were expecting an audience from Ryker… however who popped up was not what they expected.
Popping up on projection, was Irken that looked like the Tallest, only smaller, and ranked lowest rank of Lieutenant (a badge which showcased two blue bars), as he made his (unexpected)appearance.
“It is I, ZIM!!” he cried out.
Seeing Zim, Purple spat out the soda he was currently drinking, drank a little more, then spat it out again, this time onto Orbot and Cubot.
“Wha-ZIM?!” Red cried out, being angry and caught unexpectedly by the call of the one trooper that he and Purple weren’t keen on seeing, as Zim had been lowered to the rank of Lieutenant due to many mishaps because of him.
“Greetings, my Tallest, Lieutenant Zim reporting for duty, and with a major update on the planet Bracca!” Zim proudly saluted, while most of the others groaned and were dumbstruck to see him.
“Zim?!” Red asked, “We haven’t heard from you for months! We thought you were dead!”
“Could a dead Zim do this?” Zim asked, before doing a ridiculous dance routine which seemed to have got on everyone’s nerves.
Just then, Shadow, Ryker and Catra popped up via holoprojector, seeing what was going on before the latter asked, “Is… this a bad time?”
“No.” Eggman groaned, “You may proceed, Captain Catra.”
“Thank you, General.” Catra bowed, before saying, “My Tallest, we have just manage to-”
“Hey!” Zim rudely interrupted, “I was here first! So I will give my report first!”
“We don’t care, Zim.” Red said, though seemingly unheard by Zim.
“My Tallest,” Zim spoke, “I just received word from Imperial probe droid A113 that it has detected… a Jedi!”
“Whoa, weally?” the hedgehog spoke up, having a mouthful of cake.
“That’s impossible,” the scarred Sith said, “there have been any signs of Jedi since the Purge.”
“Oh no?” Zim said with a grin, before playing the feedback the probe droid received.
As the others watched, the footage played out the events that happened on Bracca, as Hiccup was trying to rescue his worker friend Prauf from falling to his demise.
“Prauf, are you alright?”
“Hiccup! I can’t climb up!”
“Just hang on!”
“I’m slipping!”
“Oh man, this is intense…” the pug-faced hedgehog said, acting like he was on the edge of his seat as the drama unfolded.
It wasn’t until they witnessed what the probe saw happened, as Prauf lost his grip, then Hiccup reached out his hand, using the Force to save Prauf.
As the rescue incident continued following that, Zim paused the footage and looked to the group with a grin.
The others were surprised to see Zim did a good job, Viggo, on the other hand, was keen on this Jedi.
“So, this Jedi, ‘Hiccup’ has been hiding on Bracca for some time with those workers…” Viggo said, stroking his beard, before smirking back to the scarred Sith, “It seems that there are still a few Jedi left after all, Krogan.”
Krogan said nothing, but growled, having been proven wrong.
“I suppose we can thank you, Zim,” Viggo continued, “it’s been awhile since we encountered any rogue Jedi out here, so I think it’s time to continue the hunt.”
“I can’t believe Zim did a good job!” Red whispered to Purple, who nodded in agreement.
“I kinda liked it when we thought he was dead…” Purple whispered back.
“If there are any more Jedi like this one still out there, we must contact our Master, Drago.” The hooded female Sith spoke up, “If there any Jedi left out there, the Order of the Jedi will rise up from the ashes.”
“We will do just that, Haggar,” Shadow said, “especially as we have a situation of our own.”
“Care to explain?” Eggman asked.
“Black Spikes here has learned of a possible cell of Rebellion who had taken the Imperial plans, as well as a Holocron with Jedi intel,” Catra explained, “oh, and get this, it seems that one of those supporting them is the Princess of Altea!”
Eggman was stunned by this, then had a bit of thought, “Princess Allura… so she is helping out on trying to bring us down, is she?”
“We’re currently on route via hyperdrive to seize her vessle,” Shadow explained, “once we have her, the plans will be back in our grasp.”
“Very good,” Eggman said with interest, “find her, and bring her to us.”
“And the Jedi on Bracca?” Haggar asked.
“Eh, send one of your Inquisitor agents of sorts,” Red suggested, “like, uh, you know, those Siren Sisters?”
“The Siren Sisters?” Tempest asked skeptically, “You sure it would be wise to send someone highly to-”
“Don’t worry,” Purple interrupted, “they just come down, kill the Jedi, then go back to… whatever they usually do.”
While uncertain, the others decided to go ahead, until Haggar spoke, “Eggman, contact Master Drago.”
Eggman nodded, before pressing a button to activate a new holoprojection, revealing, sitting on a throne, wielding a staff, was the sinister Drago himself.
He was a tall, well-built man matching his intimidating personality. He had a left robotic arm, and while he had a hooded cape on, his hair was seen and shown to have tied in thick dreadlocks along with his beard. Multiple scars and cuts ran over his face and body, evidence of possible fights with other Jedi.
As he appeared, the others bowed at his presence, be it out of signs of respect… or even of fear.
“Who summons me?” Drago said in a sinister voice.
“Master Drago,” Haggar was the first to speak up, “we have encountered something of utmost importance.”
“The Jedi?” Drago suddenly asked, to which the others were stunned, none of them didn’t even mention him yet.
“How did you-?” Tempest began to ask only to be cut off by Drago.
“I have foreseen a new threat rising against us,” Drago explained, “the children of the Force. They must not become Jedi.”
“We understand, Master Drago.” Shadow stated.
“You and others, must hunt down this new threat.” Drago ordered, “And if they will not serve the Dark Order, eliminate them along with any surviving Jedi who would try to train them.”
“No need to worry, sir,” Snively spoke up, “I have sent out a few proud bounty hunters who can be able to track down these Jedi, the current survivors and those who have the Force within-”
“I have no need for Bounty Hunters, you worm!” Drago angrily said to Snively, who looked terrified at his fury.
“Fear not, my lord,” Viggo spoke, “I have friends in high places who weild the power of the Dark Side, Sith or Inquisitor, and I’ll be glad to aid them in their mission.”
“That’s Viggo to you, my lord,” Eggman added, “he is a master of strategy, and can know any Jedi or Rebel’s moves before they can act. That’s what I like about him!”
Hearing this made Ryker grumble with annoyance about his younger brother.
Drago remained quiet for a moment, before replying, “Do what you must…”
He then looked to the group as he said, “You have your orders, now follow them through… that is my bidding.”
“And so it is done.” The Sith members of the group responded, before the transmissions came to an end, leaving Eggman, the Tallest, Hater and those serving them alone with the Shadow, Catra and Ryker.
“You have your orders,” Eggman spoke to them, “go after the Princess, take Darth Deranger with you.”
“You mean that Berserker?” Catra asked, “He’s completely batty!”
“That wasn’t a request,” Eggman sneered, “that was an order.”
Annoyed, Catra obeyed, “Yes, Eggman.”
“It will be done.” Shadow added, as the last holoprojector switched off.
Eggman felt quite proud of himself, as he then turned to the others as he said, “Well, my friends, I must depart for now.”
“So, where are you going?” Purple asked.
“I will be making a quiet visit to see the work going on with the Death Egg. Perhaps say ‘hello’ to Holt while I’m at it.” Eggman explained, before looking to Hater, Peepers, Snively and the two robot lackeys of his, “you lot, come with me, we have work to do.”
The others followed after him, now leaving the Tallest on their lonesome.
“Wow, the Death Egg,” Red said with interest, “this will truly be the mighty weapon that will show the true might of the Dark Order. We shall be even more Almighty!”
“Yeah!” Purple agreed, “We will be amazing! We will all powerful! And nothign will stand in our way to control the gala-HEY! SOMEONE’S MAKING DONUTS!!”
The Tallest suddenly got distracted as they hurried over to get some donuts.
However, unbeknownst to them or the rest of the group that had their meeting, hiding in plain sight, a small spy drone was watching what had happened, and observed everything it had seen.
As the drone recorded what had happened, the operator clicked on a button to rewind, as it cut back to Eggman mentioning about the Scientist Officer named Holt… as Pidge looked and listened carefully, with serious worry in her voice, “Dad…”
She knew that something could be up with the Dark Order, but her father working for them on a dreaded weapon that could wipe out planets, she believed that her father would never agree to such a thing.
She was going to find a way to take down the Dark Order and save her father, as well as her brother if he was involved too… no matter what…
The Finalizer, detention centre, interrogation cell
Kieth was still under restraint as a lone Stormtrooper kept an eye on him to make sure there was no funny business.
Just then, another Stormtrooper entered the room, “Shadow wishes to see the prisoner.”
The guard obliged and disengaged the strains, allowing Kieth to be released, then escorted by the Stormtrooper who came for him.
Kieth was a little annoyed, especially as the trooper was holding on to his arm tightly, gun pointed at him too, as they walked down the Star Destroyer’s corridors, until suddenly the Stormtrooper carefully shoved him as he surprisingly said, “Down here. Quick!”
The two of them were soon standing in a small corridor, the Stormtrooper looking around as if checking if the close was clear, he then took off the cuffs, before he looked to Kieth.
“Ok, listen carefully,” the trooper spoke, “once we get out of hyperdrive, you do exactly what I say, and I’ll do what I can to get you out of here.”
“Wait, w-what?” Kieth asked, confused.
The trooper soon removed his helmet, revealing himself to be LRS-0504.
“This is a rescue mission.” he explained, “I’m here to bust you out! Can you fly a Tie Fighter?”
“Wait,” Kieth asked, “are you part of the resistance?”
“What? No, no. I’m helping you escape.” LRS-0504 explained, before repeating the question, “Can you fly a Tie Fighter?”
“Hey, I can fly anything.” Kieth answered, earning a nervous chuckle from the trooper.
“I don’t get it,” Kieth then asked, “Why are you trying to help me?”
LRS-0504 then sighed before replying, “I know it’s hard to understand… but I want to help you… I’m just terrified and… and… it’s just the right thing to do!”
There was a moment of silence for a moment, until Kieth said, “So you need a pilot?”
“Yes,” LRS-0504 replied with a sigh, “I need a pilot…”
Kieth had a small bit of thought for a moment, before letting out a sigh as he said, “Alright. Just don’t make me regret this.”
The now-rogue stormtrooper nervously chuckled with a smile, and nodded in agreement.
Just then, Catra’s voice was heard through the intacoms as she said, “Attention, dropping out of Hyperdrive in two minutes!”
Putting his helmet back on, LRS-0504 looked to Kieth as he asked, “Ready?”
Kieth nodded as he replied, “Let’s do this.”
Leaving the small corridor, the two headed off to where the Tie Fighters were stationed, knowing that they were going to fly out of here if they can.
Author's Note
And we’re done, and we get to see what schemes the Dark Order have planned! Let’s hope some heroes will find a way to stop them!
Until next time, True Believers.
Excelsior!
Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
Somewhere above Tatooine
There is a planet where the desert lands and rock spans across the planet, and they say that if there’s a bright center to the universe, they’d be on the planet that’s farthest from that.
Tatooine is a desert planet that exists in the outer rim of the galaxy, however, due to this, there is not quite enough water on the planet, thus resulting in moisture farms to be stationed across the planet, as water was drawn in from the atmosphere.
The planet is also one of the many planets controlled by the Hutts, an alien mob family who have control over several star systems, planets and even asteroid fields, given the name of Hutt Space.
Just then, Allura’s ship and the accompanied X-Wings arrived out of hyperdrive, as they arrived to see the planet they were just passing by.
“Jump out of Hyperdrive complete.” one of the pilots spoke up.
“Good work,” said Allura, “where are we, currently.”
“We are currently passing over the planet Tatoonie,” said the second pilot, as he looked at monitors for info, “a small planet, seems peaceful and… it’s seems to be controlled by the Hutts.”
“Those Space Gangsters!?” Coran cried out, before looking at Allura, “Princess, you know well as I do that your father and I have come across these Hutts while you were young. They’re bad news, and if the Dark Order try to come in contact with them, we will have even more difficulties if they join up!”
“I understand on that, Coran.” Allura said, before giving out a command to the captain, “Captain, have your men set a course for Altea and get ready to charge up the hyperdrive again.”
“Right away, ma’am.” the captain obliged, but before he could, an alarm went off.
“Princess Allura!” cried the first pilot, “It’s the Dark Order, they’ve just appeared out of hyperspace and they’re onto us!”
Sure enough, the Finalizer soon appeared out of hyperspace, seconds after Allura’s ship.
“Prepare to fire back and alert Astrid and the others,” Allura ordered the pilots and Coran respectively, “have them help us buy time to get the hyperdrive ready, if they fail… we’re done for!”
“Roger that!” Coran said, before communicating to the pilots of the X-Wings, “Astrid, the Dark Order are gaining on us, you and the others must try and get us time so we can jump to hyperspace!”
“Copy that, Coran!” Astrid responded.
In her X-Wing, Astrid communicated to the other pilots, “Alright, guys, you heard Coran. If you lot know your Star Destroyers, we have to take out the heavy weapons!”
“Roger that, Stormfly!” one of the pilots replied, calling Astrid by her pilot nickname.
Soon the X-Wings made a U-turn, before flying towards the Finalizer, as it made its way towards the ship.
The Finalizer, command bridge
Shadow and Catra looked to see Allura’s ship coming straight to them on a silver platter, the latter smirking with interest while Shadow remained stoik.
Soon, another figure appeared to join them, the one known as Darth Deranger.
The sith was wearing a hood cloak, but had his hood up, revealing his red hair, cut short and stuck up, and a short, shaggy beard. He also had two tattoos of three lines like claw marks, one across his left eye and the other on his upper right arm (though not shown whole due to his cloak).
He also wore a dark brown and metal tunic as the cloak was connected to.
“I hope I’m not late for anything?” Darth Deranger asked.
“Actually, you’re right on time,” Catra replied, “the princess’s ship is within range.”
“It seems that her escorts are coming at us as well, Dagur.” Shadow added.
“Oh, goodie,” Deranger, or as he was trully named, Dagur, said, letting out a disturbing giggle, before giving out the order, “now, swat those flies and fire a warning shot across her nose!”
The were followed and gunners open fired on the princess’s ship, while also attacking the X-Wing fighters as well.
“Time for the fun to begin.” Astrid said to herself, before giving out the command, “Alright, guys, follow my lead and try to take out those turrets.”
As they were halfway to the Dark Order ship, a dozen Tie Fighters began to fly out of the docking bays of the ship, charging towards them.
“Stormfly, we’ve got Ties, incoming!” cried one of the fighters.
“I see them, Ringo!” Astrid said, before muttering aloud, “They never make things simple for us, don’t they?”
Soon the fight began, Astrid and her band of fighters charged towards the Finalizer, dodging blast fires left and right from the ship and the Tie Fighters as they went.
As the Tie Fighters attacked, the X-Wings opened fire on them, all the while trying to evade them to get to the Finalizer to take out its defences.
Luckily enough, Astrid had been one of the finest and the best starfighter pilots known in the Rebellion, with her expertise and skills, she was able to out maneuver some of the Tie Fighters that were trying to blow her up.
Astrid flew her X-Wing forward, and fired onto four Ties, taking them out in a row, before she got word from one of the pilots.
“Stormfly, I'm gonna try and get to the Star Destroyer, but this punk’s on my tail!”
“Hold on, Gemi,” said Astrid, “I’m coming!”
Gemi was flying towards the Finalizer, however, she was having trouble as a Tie Fighter was catching up to her.
As the Tie Fighter pilot prepared to lock onto her, Astrid swooped in and shot the Tie down.
“Thanks, Stormfly!” Gemi replied, thanking Astrid.
“Anytime, Gemi,” Astrid responded, “now let’s get rid of that Star Destroyer’s accessories.”
“Copy that.” Gemi replied, as she and Astrid flew to the Finalizer.
However, as they tried to lock on, several more Ties flew in front of them, trying to shoot them.
“Dang it, fall back!” Astrid cried, as she and Gemi evaded the fighters, but continued doing what they could to stop them, but with the Finalizer also firing at them, it made things more difficult.
On Allura’s ship, the crew were having the same problems, as despite having the ship’s defences, they were still no match against the Finalizer, until suddenly, one of the blasts from the Star Destroyer hit the ship.
Inside, a lovely white unicorn with a stylish mane, dressed in a lovely white gown, was frantically looking for the Princess, when she cried out in alarm as a tremor from the blast caused her to tumble over.
BB-7 was currently with another droid, a silver protocol droid with blue optic lenses, as they felt the tremors done by the fire blasts, until they spotted the unicorn as they tried to help her up.
“Are you alright, Miss Rarity?” the protocol droid asked.
“Oh, I’m fine, Wheatley,” Rarity replied, though the tone of her voice showed signs that she was scared, upset and annoyed, “but I just hate having to be caught in these crossfire space battles. These tremors from getting hit do a number on her dress!”
Another tremor shook the ship, making the three of them worry.
“Did you hear that?” Wheatley asked.
BB-7 beeped and squeaked in worry.
“I think they shut down the main reactor!” Wheatley explained.
“We’ll never be able to use the hyperdrive!” Rarity panicked “We’ll be destroyed for sure if they keep attacking! Of all the worst things that could happen… this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!!”
At the same time in the control room, Allura, Coran, the captain and the pilots felt the tremor as well.
“Damage report! Stat!” Coran ordered.
“The main reactor had just got blasted, sir!” The second pilot explained, the worry shown in his voice, “Without power from it, we won’t jump to hyperdrive!”
Allura and Coran looked worried upon hearing this.
“This is not good…” said Allura.
“I hate myself for saying, Princess,” Coran said, looking to Allura, “but whoever is working on the guns must be an ace shooter!”
“CAREFUL, YOU IDIOT!!” Shouted Dagur, slamming his fist on the control pad, “I said across her nose, not up it!”
The gunner who was working on one of the turrets turned to the trio, revealing him having crossed eyes, “Sorry sir, I’m doing my best.”
Dagur and the others were dumbfounded seeing him, until Dagur grabbed hold of a nearby officer by his collar, and grumbled aloud, “Who made that man a gunner?”
“I did, sir.”
That reply got the trio’s attention, revealing the person who replied to be a man who had similar crossed eyes as the gunner as he added, “He’s my cousin.”
Dagur looked back to the officer and asked, “Who is he?”
“He’s a Moron, sir.” the officer replied.
“Yeah, I know that ,” Dagur said, “but what’s his name?”
“That is his name, sir.” the officer explained, “Moron. Major Moron.”
“Whoa-waitaminute, that’s his name?” Catra said, having overheard this and then asked, “And his cousin?”
“He’s a Moron too, ma’am.” the officer replied, “Gunner’s mate, First Class, Philip Moron.”
“Wait,” Dagur then asked, “how many Morons have we got on this ship, anyhow?”
Upon asked, almost all the workers on the bridge cried out, “YO!!”
The two (minus Shadow) were dumbfounded as they looked around, before Dagur stated, “I knew it. I’m surrounded by Morons.”
Deciding to roll with it, Dagur then cried out, “Keep firing, Morons!”
Meanwhile, down in one of the hangers of the Finalizer, LRS-0504 was currently escorting Kieth (while making sure that they weren’t caught or spotted), luckily, with the fighting going on at the moment, the soldiers, pilots and engineers were currently occupied, though Kieth and his unlikely ally couldn’t be too careful.
“Ok…” muttered LRS-0504, “stay calm, stay calm…”
“Don’t worry,” said Keith, “I am calm.”
The trooper looked to Keith as he said, much to the latter’s baffleness, “I’m talking to myself.”
They continued walking, passing by several staff and guards, “Not yet…” LRS-0504 stated, making sure it was clear.
Then finally, they were close to the nearby Tie Fighters, and no one was around, the trooper finally gave the signal, “Ok, go!”
Soon, Keith and LRS-0504 hurried into one of the Tie Fighters.
There were two types of Tie Fighters, one were the usale one seated, and the other were made especially for two people, one to pilot and one shoot, the two of them headed into one of the latter.
Once inside, Keith looked around as he and LRS-0504 seated themselves.
“You know,” he said, “I always wanted to fly one of these things.”
Keith then turned to the trooper helping him (who had just taken off his helmet) and asked, “Can you shoot?”
“Blasters, I can.” LRS-0504 replied.
“Ok, same principle,” Kieth said as he explained, “Use the toggle on the left to switch between missiles, cannons and mag pulse, use the site on the right to aim, triggers to fire.”
LRS-0504 looked at the controls he was told about, a little nervous as he said, “This seems a bit complicated.”
Soon, Keith managed to get the Tie Fighter to take off, however, as they tried to fly out, the fighter lurched, as one of its wings were still connected to one of the cable hooks.
“Hold on,” Keith said, “I’ll try and fix this.”
As he tried to get the fighter detached, what was happening didn’t go undetected, as within the control room of the hanger, one of the technicians noticed what was going on.
“We have an unsanctioned departure from bay 2.” The technician said looking at his readings.
Hearing this, the colonel gave out the orders, “Alert Force Captain Catra and stop that fighter.”
Upon getting the orders, down below, guards and Stormtroopers approached and surrounded the Tie Fighter and opened fire.
Seeing this, LRS-0504 used the controls that Kieth told him about, and returned fire, attacking the Stormtroopers and sending them flying from the blasts while Keith continued to try and get released. The rogue trooper continued firing the fighter blasters, as he began shooting down several of the docked Tie Fighters and even destroyed a part of the control room, sending the staff flying, knocking them out and killing most of them.
“Got it!” Kieth cried out, as he finally got the Tie unhooked from the hook cables, allowing them to escape. The Tie Fighter, upon release, soared out of the hanger pretty fast.
“Whoa! This thing really moves!” said Kieth, impressed by the fighter’s speed.
As they began to escape, the Tie soared underneath the Star Destroyer’s belly, as Keith then said, “We gotta try and take out those cannons and turrets as we can! Or else we won’t get far!”
“Got it!” LRS-0504 replied, as he got the cannons ready to fire.
“I’m gonna fly us into position,” said Keith, “Stay sharp!”
The duo continued to fly until they were nearing the lower cannons, that were currently firing on them.
“Up ahead, you see it?” Keith called out, “It’s a clean shot!”
LRS-0504 checked on the targeting system, and soon, once the target was locked, he opened fire with fighter’s blasters, destroying the turrets.
The duo cheered excitedly, though LRS-0504 was quite excited, “Did you see that?!”
“I saw it, buddy!” Keith said, as he continued to keep them steady before saying, “Let’s keep it coming!”
Meanwhile, at the same time with Astrid’s group, they were currently in a tough spot.
With the Ties chasing down their tails, the rebels lost one of their fighters, and Astrid was currently caught in a dog fight with one Tie Fighter after her.
Looking at her controls, she realized she was in trouble, as she tried to fire but nothing was happening or working, “Nonononononono! Dang it! Can anyone hear me, my weapon systems and that Tie’s getting me cornered!”
She then spoke up to her droid, “R5, try and work your magic and get the systems back up and running!”
The droid bleeped in response and instantly got to work as fast as it can.
The Tie Fighter pilot, meanwhile, was ready to take aim, one more hit and the rebel was toast.
Until, suddenly, as they were flying almost near the lower parts of the ship, Astrid saw a small explosion that occurred on the Finalizer’s belly.
This caught the Tie pilot’s attention too, as the two other pilots were too far from the ship and the one he was after didn’t fire, the thoughts were cut off as his fighter was then destroyed, with him in it, by Ringo.
“Good shot, Stormfly!” Ringo cried out, “We finally got a hit!”
“That… that wasn’t me!” Astrid stated, still surprised, until she saw a Tie Fighter fly by the explosion, then, to her shock, saw it fly towards another turret and shot it down, as a surprised thought went into her mind as she said, “I think… that Tie Fighter did that!?!”
“What?!” said a stund Geni.
Back in the hijacked Tie, Kieth looked through the pilot’s window and noticed Allura’s ship, as well as some of his X-Wing fighter pals.
“Hey, it’s Princess Allura’s ship!” Keith pointed out, “We have to help them out, fast!”
“You’re with the Princess?” LRS-0504 asked.
“That’s right,” Kieth explained, “and I think we’re gonna need your help too once we get out of this!”
The trooper had a small bit of thought, he was a bit scared of the Dark Order after what he saw earlier, but if he can help Kieth, he can maybe help him find some way to go far away.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Kieth then asked, cutting the rebelling Stormtrooper off his thoughts.
“Uh… LRS-0504.” the trooper replied.
“LR… what?” Keith asked, a bit baffled.
“That’s the name they gave me.” the trooper replied.
“Well, I don’t think we’ll use that,” Kieth spoke back, thinking aloud about the first letters of the trooper’s name, “LRS, huh?”
Then an idea came up as he said, “How about, Lars? I’ll call you that, okay?”
“Lars?” the newly christened trooper thought of it, and began to smile as he replied, “Yeah. Lars. I like that!”
“The name’s Kieth, by the way.” Kieth introduced himself with a small grin.
“Good to meet you, Kieth.” Lars said.
“Good to meet you too, Lars!” Keith replied.
Soon the duo were nearing Astrid's X-Wing, allowing Kieth to hijack the communications to contact his pilot friends.
“Here there, Stormfly,” he said with a cocky grin, “hope you don’t mind us joining the party a little late.”
“Keith?!” Astrid called out, “You’re okay!”
“Sure am, Astrid.” Keith replied.
“Astrid, what’s going on?” Coran’s voice came out, “I thought I was told a Tie Fighter was firing on that Star Destroyer.”
Astrid then contacted both Coran and Geni as she said, “Guys, it’s Keith! He made it out okay!”
“Keith’s okay?!” Geni asked.
“Yep, and I brought a new friend too!” Keith explained, “Long story, but I’ll tell you when we get back!”
Meanwhile…
“What do you mean a Tie Fighter destroyed our lower turbolasers?!” Catra cried out, as she and Dagur couldn’t believe what they’ve just heard.
“How did this happen?” she asked.
“What is going on?” another voice got her, Shadow and Dagur’s attention as Ryker popped up.
“Oh, I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Catra exclaimed, “we just got word a lone Tie Fighter made an unsanctioned departure in Bay 2 of one of the hangers and destroyed our turrets!”
“What?!” Ryker asked.
Shadow had a bit of thought, before asking, “Was it the prisoner? The rebel pilot?”
“Yes, sir.” one of the lieutenants stated, “and he had help… from one of our own.”
“Wait, what?” Dagur was next to be shocked and angry, “A Stormtrooper just helped the prisoner escape?!”
“Y-yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied, “they escaped in the Tie Fighter, not before doing damage in Bay 2, several are dead and others have serious injuries for medical attention.”
“Like who?” Ryker asked, “Any of our officers?”
“Um… oh, yes, those injured are Hamill, Ford, Fisher… oh, and Lars #2.” the lieutenant explained.
“Eh, they’re expendable…” Dagur said, like he didn’t quite care, “all four of them, including #2.”
“Lars #2 is my cousin!” Ryker said sternly.
“Whatever!” cried Catra, as she then ordered, “Charge up the ventral cannons to knock those fighters out of the sky, then check the registers to identify which Stormtrooper bailed on us!”
“The one from the village.” Shadow spoke, getting everyone’s attention, “LRS-0504.”
Soon, one of the lieutenants spoke up, “The ventral cannons are online.”
Dagur looked to the lieutenant and gave the order, “Fire!”
Soon, the Star Destroyer fired the ventral cannon lasers, as they homed on to both the starfighter X-Wings and the Tie Fighter.
Lars just discovered what was happening and let out a warning, “Watch out, homing blasts coming at us!!”
Keith, Astrid and Gemi noticed the alert signals and heard Lars at same time, then instantly made evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit.
“Guys, brace yourselves and get and get back to the ship, quickly!” Keith cried out.
Gemi was almost towards Allura’s ship, “Guys, hang on tight! I’m coming in ho-!”
A sudden explosion cut her off, causing her to scream as she got hit by on the blasts.
“Gemi!” Astrid cried out, as she now had one heading right towards her.
“B5, hope you got those weapons back online!” she panicked.
B5 frantically bleeped, as the droid was doing it’s best and going as fast as it could work.
Meanwhile, Lars was doing the very best he can to fire onto the homing blasts, though he only managed to hit one.
“Astrid, Keith! Get back to the ship right now!” Allura cried out.
“We’re working on it!” Keith yelled back.
Astrid, meanwhile, noticed the bogie nearly approaching her.
“C’mon, c’mon!” Astrid said, waiting for the weapons to get back on.
The missile was getting closer…
And closer… closer…
Systems came back on in Astrid’s pilot controls, as weapons finally came back on!
“Now!” she cried, as she instantly fired at will.
Unfortunately, as she fired, the missile was quite a bit close to her X-Wing, causing it to explode right behind her, which resulted in the back part of her starfighter taking heavy damage.
“Astrid!” cried Keith, as he watched the X-Wing plummet out of control towards the planet.
“Keith, incoming!” cried out Lars, as the Tie Fighter also took a hit, as the blasts destroyed a part of the wing, causing the Tie Fighter to also spiral downwards to the desert planet, in a different direction.
“Astrid! Keith! Can you read me?!” Coran’s voice cried out, but with no reply from either starfighters.
“We lost all contact, Coran.” the second pilot stated.
“Oh no…” Coran said, feeling that they’ve lost, until the ship jolted.
“Now what?!” Coran asked.
“The Dark Order have just activated a tractor beam,” the first pilot examined, “we’re being pulled in!”
Sure enough, the Finalizer slowly descended towards Allura’s ship, as it’s tractor beams brought it into one of the hangers.
“Everyone, prepare to be boarded!” Coran spoke out, as the troops got ready to fight back any who would try and attack.
The resistance all gathered around and across the passageways, as they then stationed themselves towards the door the intruders would get in.
Wheatley and BB-7 looked around as they witnessed what was going on, as the former worriedly said to the latter, “Sorry, BB-7, I don’t think there will be any chance of escape for Princess Allura this time.”
BB-7 let out some nervous beeps, until clanging sounds echoed around the ship.
“What was that?” Wheatley asked.
Though one seemed to answer, as everyone looked around and heard the noises everywhere.
Allura’s ship was finally inside the Finalizer, as inside, the nervous rebels looked back to the door, ready to fight back.
“Wait… what if they come through a different door?” one Rebel asked.
Suddenly, the door instantly blasted open, as Stormtroopers soon stepped out into the smoke-covered passageway, resulting in the rebels to open fire, though the Stormtroopers were also doing the same.
The insides of the ship soon became an indoor battlefield, as Rebels and Stormtroopers shot from left to right, striking most of one another down.
Wheatley and BB-7 had to make a quick getaway, as they wandered around the ship, it was like going through some sort of maze, all the while avoiding getting shot at too.
Meanwhile, the Dark Order forces began to overrun the ship as several more troopers and officers began to enter.
“Finally some real Rebel-Busting!” said a Stormtrooper in a female voice, as she and a few others stopped for a moment upon entry, though their uniforms had different shapes.
The female Stormtrooper took off her helmet, revealing to be a female teen with orange hair and a little bit long neck as she continued, “This is why I joined the Dark Order in the first place.”
“Yeah, Candance, we know,” one fo the troopers said, taking off his helmet, revealing himself to be a short, anthropomorphic raccoon, “You haven’t stopped talking about wanting to get into the action since Boot Camp, and we didn’t do anything after that.”
Another trooper took off his helmet, revealed as a blue jay bird, “Rigby, that’s because we were training and following protocol, instead of slacking off like you always do!”
“Whatever, Mordecai,” Rigby said, not actually in the mood, “I don’t see how finding some data chip is so important, anyway.”
“Dude, that chip contains all the stuff that the Dark Order have for personal gain to help bring peace to the universe,” Mordecai explained, “most of it even sounds awesome!”
“Yeah, Rigby,” another stormtrooper agreed with Mordecai, as he took off his helmet revealing his green face with shoulder-length hair, “and you know who else contains stuff for personal gain to help bring peace to the universe? My mom!”
“Good one, Muscle Man.” an Stormtrooper said, though was an odd one as it looked like a 5” ghost with a helmet on, and had an arm and hand sticking out the top of his head/helmet, as he then gave Muscle Man a high five.
“Alright, guys, quit screwing around.” one of the officers of the Stormtroopers spoke up as they approached them.
The first officer that spoke looked like a walking, talking gumball machine while the other officer was a naive, lollipop-shaped man.
“Listen up,” said the gumball officer, “this is our chance to shine, people. Our prime objective is to seek out and find the Dark Order data those Rebels have stolen from us.”
“And when we find them, we bust some Rebels, right, commander?” Candance asked.
“Indeed, Cadet.” the officer replied.
One of the Stormtroopers, also short, took off his helmet halfway, revealing to be a young boy as he said, “I’m so excited, I can barely contain myself!”
“I toldja ta go before this raid, Baljeet.” another short Stormtrooper said, halfway removing his helmet to reveal another young boy.
“That is not what I meant, Buford!” Baljeet stated, then paused as he said, “But now that you mentioned it…”
“Look, the orders are simple,” the officer explained, “find the data, then hand it back to the Dark Order.”
“And don’t slack off this time!” he then said as he looked to Rigby.
“Why do you always look at me when you say that?” Rigby asked.
“Dude, because you totally slack off all the time!” Mordecai pointed out, “Like when you slacked off when filling in the forms at bootcamp!”
“We got them signed, didn’t we?” Rigby asked with a smug look.
“I got them signed, you went to get a soda!” Mordecai arguely corrected Rigby.
“Well, well, well. If it ain’t Benson and the C-Squad.” another voice spoke up, getting the squad’s attention, Benson groaning as he recognized the voice.
“What are doing, Gene?” Benson asked as he turned to see another officer, Gene, who was a walking, talking vending machine.
“Why, I’m part of the mission of retrieving the data from the Rebelion, my dear Benson.” Gene said smuggly.
“Which is what we’re doing too.” Candace stated, only to be laughed at by Gene.
“You?! Puh-lease…” Gene said rudely before explaining, “You incompetences are supposed to be on chore duty as you were assigned to do. Such as looking for socks for Dr. Eggman.”
“Ugh…” Rigby groaned, “Chores? Isn’t that something for a droid to do?”
“All Stormtroopers have different positions, Cadet Rigby,” Gene pointed out, “even sanitation. It said so in the papers you signed.”
“I didn’t actually see that part.” Rigby confessed.
“Dude, that’s why you shouldn’t have slacked off!” Mordecai pointed out.
Gene soon headed off, chuckling as he said, “Well, I better catch up with the rest of my troops. Keep up with the work, Chore-Squard.”
Once he left, Benson and even Candance groaned with annoyance.
“This is totally a waste of my potential!” Candance angrily stated, “I was assigned to bust Rebelion armies, not sock duty!”
“Oh, dear Candance, no need to be in a spot of bother,” the lollipop-shaped officer said, “I’m sure that finding the socks could bring good luck for us to bring us great fortune.”
Benson sighed as he explained, “Pops, I told you that they treat us like trash, ever since bootcamp, we’ve been trying to get the respect we deserve, but it’s always ‘chores’ this and ‘chores’’ that. I just want, for once, to finally get the recognition we all deserve!”
“We hear you, Benson.” Muscle Man said.
“Yeah,” Mordecai said, before having a small thought, “you know, we should maybe, perhaps, divide and conquer.”
Benson had a thought on that, then said, “You know, that could work…”
“Alright then,” he then said, “we’ll try and do that, Candance, you, Mordecai, Rigby and Baljeet go with Pops, while Muscle Man, High-Five Ghost and Buford will come with me, if any of you get spotted, let them know you're ‘looking for socks’…” Benson said the last part by quoting with his fingers.
“But we’ll actually be finding the data,” Candance got what he was saying, “very clever, Commander!”
“Good, get going and let me know if you find anything.” Benson ordered Pops' group, who saluted, putting their helmets back on and headed off, Pops following them.
“Alright, let’s do this!” Muscle Man said, putting his helmet on with the others, then Benson’s group headed off.
“Coran, the Stormtroopers are everywhere!” cried the captain, “There’s too many of them and we’re losing men fast!”
“Try to hold on and fight back as hard as you can!” Coran ordered, as the captain obliged and hurried to join the fight.
Coran let out a worried sigh as he spoke, “Princess, we have to get going to the escape pods, with a bit of luck we’ll be-”
Coran turned to the Princess as he spoke… only to see she wasn’t there!
“P-princess?!” he cried, as he looked around frantically, “Where’s Princess Allura?!”
Back at the entrance where the Stormtroopers came through, as two checked on the wounded and/or dead, Darth Zarkon entered through the door, as he looked around the aftermath of the infiltration.
Soon he headed off to seek out the Princess, the two Stormtroopers followed… though stopped a little as they heard a little bit of complaining.
“Oh, really, guys?” Dagur asked as he looked around, “Look at this mess. ‘Hey Lords Deranger and Zarkon are coming, should we clean the place up? Nah, leave it they won’t mind’, really.”
Dagur soon hurried on to catch up with Zarkon, a little miffed of no respect for the Sith Lords for a proper welcome.
“Your majesty, we have to hurry!” Rarity said, as she and Allura were hiding out in the darkest corridors of shuttle, “The ruffians may find us any moment!”
“Don’t worry, Rarity,” Allura assured her, as she got out what appeared to be a data stick, along with some sort of cube, “if they do find us, what they’re looking for would be long gone.”
Rarity looked to the Princess as she asked, “Are you certain we might find a Jedi, especially this one you’ve been telling me about?”
“I know,” Allura replied, “this Jedi was once one of my father’s closet friends, and I know that he’s still alive out there somewhere, even on this planet, and if anyone can get all the info to him… it’s our little droid.”
She turned back and kneeled down… as she placed the data stick into BB-7.
“I can’t understand why we were assigned chores for the headhonchos.” Rigby said as he talked to Baljeet, as Pops’ group were patrolling the ship, “I mean, what color socks do you think these guys want?”
“Um, black?” Baljeet answered with a question.
“I’m just saying, right,” Rigby replied, “everything these guys own are black, or sometimes very dark grey!”
“It does make sense of a trend there…” Mordecai a little bit agreed.
“Oh, good show,” Pops said, “I believe everyone has a favourite trend of color! Mine is butterscotch brown.”
“Like lollipops?” Baljeet asked with interest.
Suddenly, Candance signaled the group to stop.
“What’s up, Candance?” Mordecai asked.
“Hold up,” she replied, “I think I heard something…”
Candance then gestured to Mordecai to follow her slowly and carefully, as they walked up to a corridor entrance and peeped to see what was happening.
At the sametime, at another corridor, Wheatley was looking for BB-7.
“BB-7! Where are you?” he called out, as he heard the battle still going outside while looking around.
Just then, he heard a familiar beeping sound, then turned to see a figure (Princess Allura) seemingly placing something inside BB-7, while looking around for some reason.
Wheatley looked to see what was going on, of course he wasn’t the only one, as Candance and Mordecai were witnessing the same thing.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Mordecai asked.
“I have no idea,” Candance replied, “but I know that they’re busted!”
Stepping away, Candance said to her group, “You guys wait here, I’ll get Commander Benson!”
She then hurried off, singsongy saying, “Oh, Commander!”
“Guess we’re not getting the socks.” Baljeet said.
“Don’t worry, I got some.” Rigby said.
Baljeet looked to him as he asked, “Really?”
However, Rigby replied, “Right here!” before doing a puncie on Baljeet’s arm.
“Ow!” the young Stormtrooper replied.
Rigby then got punched by Mordecai as the latter said, “Dude, not cool!”
Rigby looked up to Mordecai as he said, “Ow… that hurt, man…”
“Rigby, you’re wearing armor.” Mordecai explained.
“Yeah,” Rigby groaned, “but it’s plastic…”
“Now you know how I felt.” Baljeet replied.
Back with Wheatley, after witnessing what was happening, he saw the figure leave, while BB-7 soon rolled over to the droid.
“BB-7, there you are.” Wheatley said with relief as BB-7 rolled up to him.
The protocol droid gestured back to the door that led back out as he explained, “They’re soon heading to this direction. If they find us, they could have us scrapped at the Spice Mines of Kessel.”
BB-7 soon beeped and rolled passed Wheatley, which left Wheatley a little confused.
“Wait a minute, BB-7, where are you going?” Wheatlet asked as he followed his counterpart.
As they left, Allura looked back to the leaving droids as she whispered, “Good luck, BB-7…”
The Dark Order forces had taken the remaining survivors prisoners, along with the droids working for them.
Coran, meanwhile, was being held captive by Darth Zarkon and Dagur, as the former was holding the captain tightly by the neck, the Altean looking very worried, until two Stormtrooper scouts approached the Sith Lords.
“The Imperial plans are not in the ship’s computers.” one of the Stormtroopers stated.
“We have learned that the Princess of Altea has something that belonged to us,” Darth Zarkon said to the captain, as he continued to further his grasp on the captain’s neck, “what have you done with the data plans?”
“We received no data transmissions,” the captain tried to sugarcoat with lies, while he was struggling to breath and get loose of Darth Zarkon’s grip, “this is a consular ship, on… a… diplomatic mission…”
“Really?” Dagur asked in a sarcastically playful way, “Well, if this is a diplomatic mission… then where’s the ambassador?”
Darth Zarkon continued to strangle the captain until a snap was heard, resulting in the armored Sith to throw the captain to the wall and slump to the ground, dead.
“Commander, tear this ship apart until you find those items and bring me all the passengers, I want them alive!” Zarkon ordered with an aggressive tone to the Stormtroopers.
Coran looked to the two Sith Lords as he said, “You’ll never get anything from me, even if you have any painful plans for me!”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Dagur said, “we won’t be doing any harm on you… for now.”
Dagur turned to two Stormtroopers, “Guards, take him away.”
The two imperial soldiers obeyed and took Coran away.
One group of Stormtroopers were searching the corridors for any rebels to take prisoner, looking through each passageway.
Allura and Rarity, who were hiding in one of said passageways, peeked a little to see the Stormtroopers, then quickly pulled back to avoid getting caught.
However, they weren’t fast enough as one Stormtrooper spotted them, “There’s two, set to stun.”
Allura instantly fired her blaster, striking the trooper who gave the order.
“Hurry, Princess!” cried Rarity, as she and Allura made a break for it, but it was too late, as one of the Stormtroopers set their blaster to stun as ordered, then fired a stun ray at the both of them, knocking them down to the ground.
“They’ll be alright,” said the trooper as he and the others inspected them, “inform the Lords Zarkon and Deranger that we got the Princess.”
Meanwhile, again…
Wheatley followed BB-7 as they soon arrived at the room where the escape pods would be released if needed for abandoning ship.
“BB-7, wait!” the protocol droid called out to his counterpart, “We’re not supposed to be down here! We could get in trouble!”
BB-7 reached one of the escape pods, though the droid was not large enough to activate the doors, luckily, BB-units always come with grapple features, allowing BB-7 to pull himself up, and pressed the door button with one of his robotic arms.
Once the door was opened, BB-7 swung into the pod, before turning his head to Wheatley, who was just outside the pod and bleeped to him.
“Come with you?” Wheatley asked, having a nervous thought then replied, “I was told that if I ever go into an escape pod, I will die! Deactivated for good!”
BB-7 then beeped again, which surprised Wheatley from what he said, “Secret mission? What plans?”
The BB-unit blooped.
“I told you, I can’t go in with you!” Wheatley said.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Candance had returned with Benson’s group.
“You are certain that figure may have had the plans, cadet?” Benson asked.
“Absolutely, sir,” replied Candance, “they’re just down here.”
As she reached her group she saw that it was just Baljeet and Rigby.
“What are you two doing?” she asked.
“And where’s Pops and Mordecai?” Benson added.
“Right here!” Mordecai called out, as he returned with Pops, “Sorry, Pops started to wander off and I had to get him.”
Candance held in a groan, before relazing as she said, gesturing to the corridor where she and Mordecai saw the figure (Allura) install something in the BB-unit.
“The enemy and the droid are down there, sir.” she said.
As she and Benson looked, they realized it was empty.
“What the-!? Where did they go?!” Candance asked.
“I thought you said they were there!” Benson exclaimed.
“I did!” Candance exclaimed back, before looking to her group, “What happened? Where are they?”
“Guys, relax.” Rigby spoke up.
“Relax?!” Candance cried out, “Our biggest break has just disappeared!”
“It’s alright, whoever it was up and left, but you can calm down. The droid went with a metal man and went down that way.” Rigby explained, he then pointed with his gun in the direction he was referring to… only for the gun to fire.
It was there that the fire blast almost struck Wheatley, who panicked before deciding to get in the escape pod with BB-7, muttering aloud, “Oh boy, I think I’m going to regret this!”
Once the droids were in, the escape pod doors closed, allowing the pod to take off out of Allura’s ship and away from the Finalizer.
Inside one of the gunner controls, orders were made to fire on anyone trying to escape via escape pod, though they managed to take down a few, they spotted the droid’s escape pod.
“There goes another one.” the gunner said, getting ready to shoot.
“Hold your fire,” said the officer, “there’s no life forms, probably short circuited.”
“‘Hold your fire?’” the gunner asked, looking to the officer, “What are we, paying by the laser now?”
“Hey, you don’t do the budget, Terry, I do.” the officer explained.
As the escape pod hurtled away, the droids looked out to see the Star Destroyer they managed to escape.
“Huh, the damage doesn't look that bad out here.” Wheatley stated, as BB-7 beeped in agreement.
“I just hope this thing is safe…” said Wheatley, as BB-7 bleeped, as if he was saying ‘Me too.’
The two droids sat back and contiued to look out the window of the pod, as the escape pod continued to plummet towards its destination: the planet Tatooine.
Tatooine
“Whoa… is that a Star Destroyer?”
A lean 18 year old teenager, with light brown skin, short brown hair, thin eyebrows, blue eyes that were notibally shown as small irises and pupils, short and flared outward hair bangs and two strands sticking out, was currently looking up to the sky via binoculars, as he was previously doing a bit of work, but then noticed something appeared above the planet’s surface.
As he looked, he thought the object that appeared looked like a Star Destroyer, and that there were several small, tiny flashes that rapidly appeared around the object.
As he tried to get a good look, someone called out to him.
“Yo, Lance!”
Lance stopped what he was doing and then looked to see who called him.
Nearby was a 19 year old, heavy-set teenager, who had medium brown skin, black hair and brown eyes with thick, square-shaped eyebrows.
He had a round face with a short, rounded nose, and his body was full of muscle and fat; having thick muscular limbs and a large belly. He also wore an orange strip of cloth tied around his forehead, long enough to reach his mid-back, that kept his rather cut short hair out of the way, but allowed his bangs to frame his face.
“What’s up, Hunk?” Lance called out to Hunk.
“C’mon, we gotta get going or we’ll be late for work!” Hunk exclaimed.
“Oh, okay!” Lance replied back, he then took one small look back up to the sky, before hurrying on to join Hunk to help out at work, not realizing that what he just saw was the battle between the Rebels and the Finalizer.
And as the two left, they did not notice three different falling objects that were falling in three different directions, each one having a different story to tell…
Author's Note
HAPPY STAR WARS DAY, EVERYONE!!
Great time for me to update the story in time for this celebration!!
A head's up for you who like Easter Eggs, that the Dark Order Officers that were mentioned of those injured during Keith and Lars' escape are named after the original stars of the Original Trilogy, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
Hope you're enjoying this day and the story, as well with what's to come, until next time, True Believers!
May the Force be with you!!
Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
The Finalizer, docking bay…
Stormtroopers marched as they took the prisoners to the holding cells, while one group brought Princess Allura and Rarity towards the Sith Lords.
“Unhand me at once, you horrible fiends!” Rarity demanded, as she was muzzled by one of the Stormtroopers, while Allura was cuffed by another.
Soon the two ladies were brought to Darth Zarkon and Darth Deranger, though they were also accompanied by Shadow as well.
“Princess,” said Coran, who was still in custody with the Stormtroopers, and was with the Sith Lords as well, letting out a small sigh of relief, “thank goodness you and Miss Rarity are alright.”
“It’s okay, Coran,” Allura said with a small bit of comfort, before boldly turning to the Sith Lords and she growled, “Darth Zarkon. Only you and your allies could be this bold. The Imperial Senate of the Dark Order will not stay still for this. And when they find out about you attacking a diploma-”
“Ugh, there you go again, with the ‘diplomatic’ mumbo-jumbo!” Dagur groaned with anger, interrupting Allura, “So boring!”
“Don’t expect to be surprised, Your Highness.” Darth Zarkon spoke, “You weren’t on any mercy missions this time. Our comrade, Shadow, has learned you have gained vital intel of the Dark Order and the Jedi. We want to know what happened to the data you gained on Jakku.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Allura lied, still holding her ground, “I am a member of the Dark Order’s imperial senate on a diplomatic mission to Altea…”
“You are a part of the Resistance and a traitor!” Darth Zarkon angrily said, before ordering the Stormtroopers, “Take them away!”
The Stormtroopers obliged and took the two Alteans and Rarity to their holding cells.
“So much for that,” Catra spoke as she then joined them, “but I’ve got a bit of a scoop about our Trooper Traitor.”
She then brought out a intelpad, as it showed service records of the many Stormtroopers of the Dark Order, some were recruited into boot camps during campaigns, while others were abducted as infants and were made into soldiers.
The screen currently showed the image of the Stormtrooper they were talking about… Lars, or in this case…
“LRS-0504 reported to my division,” Catra explained, “was evaluated and sent to reconditioning.”
“So, weren’t there any, you know, prior signs of non-conformity or whatever?” Dagur asked.
Catra looked to Dagur and explained, “This was his first mission.”
“Well, at least we shot him and the pilot down, right?” Dagur asked.
“We still have to regain the data, whatever the Princess has done with them,” Shadow stated, until Gene appeared and spoke up.
“My Lords,” he said, “we checked around the entire ship from top to bottom, no signs of the Imperial data or the holocron that we’re seeking. However an escape pod was jettisoned out during the fighting, no doubt to the planet below, but no lifeforms were aboard.”
The Sith Lords and Catra looked to each other, until Shadow spoke, “She must have slipped them into the escape pod.”
Catra smirked, “Good, I’ll let Ryker go down and investigate. Hope he enjoys the sand and sun.”
As she began to leave, Shadow stopped her, “No.”
Catra stopped, confused, and turned to the hedgehog, “No?”
“Indeed,” Shadow said as he turned to Catra, “Stormtrooper LRS-0504 was basically part of your division, especially when you sent him with the others to Jakku, therefore, he is your responsibility.”
Catra couldn’t believe what she heard, “Are you saying it’s MY fault?!”
“In a way… yes.” Darth Zarkon replied.
“Ooh… someone’s in trouble.” Dagur said with a cocky grin.
“Hey, my troops are completely skilled for many outcome situations!” Catra snarled.
“Though they seem to have been skilled on commiting high treason.” Dagur snarkly said.
“You shall journey to the planet and search for the data and that holocron.” Zarkon ordered.
“But that would take days! Weeks! Maybe even months or years!” Catra exclaimed.
“You won’t be doing this alone.” Zarkon said, “You shall be assisted by Captain Scorpia.”
As if on cue, someone approached the group, causing Catra to turn and see who it was.
There, in front of her, stood a tall young woman, who, due to her namesake, had many of the physiological features of scorpions, such as a large stinger and pinchers instead of hands. She had white hair and wore it with an undercut, and while not shown on the front, on the back had the emblem crest of the Dark Order.
She stood there in front of Catra, looking very tough and imposing… until she happily squealed, “Kitty!”
“What the-?” Catra could muster, before she was picked up by Scorpia.
“Just so you know, I’m a hugger!” Scorpia said, as she instantly gave the catgirl a tight hug, causing Catra to struggle to get out of.
Once she was free she looked to the Sith Lords and asked, “Is this some kind of joke!?”
“Scorpia will see that you are kept in line.” Shadow said, as Scorpia looked to Catra and grinned goofily, as the hedgehog said to the catgirl, “Consider this your order… and punishment.”
Catra grumbled as the Sith Lords left, leaving her with Scorpia, as the latter said, “We are gonna be best friends! Super Pal Duo!”
As the grumbling Catra and naive Scorpia headed off to get ready to depart, a Stormtrooper slowly approached Gene.
“Sir,” the trooper said to Gene, “shouldn’t we have told them more than one escape pod was launched out during the battle?”
“Eh, it probably doesn’t matter,” replied Gene, “besides, I haven’t seen Chore-Squad anywhere around the ship, so they must have gone back to where they belong to do their usual labor work.”
Gene instantly left, leaving the Stormtrooper behind, as he then said to himself, “Perhaps…”
Tatooine, somewhere in the desert…
The planet Tatooine was a planet with miles and miles of sand wherever you’d look, nothing but sand, rock and sun if I might add too.
If one were to land on the planet’s surface, they would have a long journey to reach civilization.
And of course, three somethings landed onto the planet’s surface following the battle against the Finalizer as those that landed will take different paths… though in time they will come together.
We start as the escape pod crash landed somewhere in one part of the desert planet, as two droids managed to exit and wander away from the pod.
“I just don’t know how we got into this?” Wheatley said, as he and BB-7 walked across the sandy ground, “To be fair, BB-7, I could have gone to work on manufacturing, would have been nice too, if the previous worker didn’t give it the duplicate of himself.”
The two droids soon stopped and looked around the desert lands.
“Well, on the bright side, we can enjoy the scenery of this planet if we like,” he said as the protocol droid got a good look around, “Right now, let’s see… we have… sand… and some rock… more sand there… more sand… Oh! I see another rock there!”
BB-7 beeped up to Wheatley.
“Yeah, not so much to see around here,” Wheatley agreed sadly, “wish I brought a book with me. Maybe a camera for photos…”
BB-7 looked around as well, before turning to his right.
“Hey, where are you going?” Wheatley asked.
BB-7 replied with some beeps as Wheatley heard what his counterpart said, “A settlement in that direction? It looks quite rocky there.”
BB-7 beeps again.
“Are you… are you sure you don’t want to go this way?” Wheatley asked, gesturing to the left, “It’s quite lovely, easy too.”
BB-7 bleeped.
“What mission? What are you talking about?”
More beeping.
“Aw… confidential… I hate those… confidentiality is the worst part when talking to someone, it’s like-it’s like trying to figure out what you're getting for a surprise and they can’t tell you, hush, hush…”
BB-7 blooped.
“You… don’t want me to come with you?” Wheatley asked.
BB-7 blooped in reply, though it sounded a little sad.
“Oh, well… sure… I guess… look, maybe we can see each other again on the other side.” Wheatley said, as BB-7 sadly moved on, “Perhaps I can carry on and find a settlement on the left and you go the right… Okay! Good plan, I go left and you go right, and we’ll hopefully find someone then.”
Wheatley instantly went the opposite direction as he called out, “Go team! See you in a bit, or maybe an hour… hopefully… if you’re not scrapped…”
Soon both droids went in the opposite directions, though Wheatley went off, seemingly having feelings of uncertainty and a small bit of confidence, BB-7 sadly rolled along, not sure about going solo as he did want Wheatley to come along.
But still he rolled on, as the two droids went down seperate paths, wondering if they’ll bump into each other again soon.
Although, nearby their pod, another pod had crashed landed a little not, just two dunes away.
The 2nd pod’s door was pushed open, and Benson’s squad stepped out.
“Ugh, where are we?” Rigby asked as he stepped out of the pod.
“Tatooine.” Candance replied.
“Oooh-hoo-hoo!” Pops giggled, “What a lovely spot, I wish I brought my bucket and spade with me.”
“No time, Pops.” said Benson, once everyone was out of the pod, “We have to find those droids and capture them after SOMEONE let them get away.”
The group looked to Rigby, who grew a little annoyed and nervous as he asked, “Dude, why’re you all staring at me?”
“Because none of us accidentally used their blaster to alert our presence and allowed them to escape in the pod, Rigby!” Mordecai exclaimed.
“Hey, I said I was sorry, man!” Rigby annoyingly stated.
“Well, at least we know that the droids would have landed here.” Benson said, ignoring Rigby’s statement.
“So where to now?” High-Five Ghost asked.
“We don’t want to be out here for a long time,” Benson explained, “so we better hurry and even find a nearby settlement, the droids may have probably gone there.”
“Lead the way, sir!” Candance said.
“One problem, sir.” Baljeet pointed out.
“What’s that?” Benson asked.
“Socks, socks, socks, socks, so-socks, socks, so-socks!” Baljeet said in an… oddly familiar tune.
“Oh, Baljeet is right,” Pops said, “comfort is quite important to one’s feet.”
Benson groaned a little, before explaining, “Look, if we find and capture those droids, we can be promoted off labour detail!”
“Now that, I’m with.” Rigby agreed.
“Alright, let’s move out!” Benson said, as his group journeyed in a different direction of their own.
Meanwhile, in another part of the desert planet…
Lars groaned as he regained consciousness, as he looked to figure out where he was, before noticing a bright light in his sight. Shielding his eyes, he realized that it was one of the twin suns of Tatooine, then as he tried to get up, he noticed that he was still strapped in his seat from the Tie Fighter.
Taking off the belt and out of the seat, Lars looked around to check his surroundings, he saw his seat, which seemed to have got a parachute released out, no doubt it was activated upon during the crash landing, but then Lars realized that someone was missing.
“Keith?” Lars called out, as he looked around to find him, “Keith!!”
As he looked, he then spotted a bit of smoke nearby, realizing it might be from the Tie Fighter, Lars rushed over as fast as he can.
A bit of exhaustion running later, Lars finally arrived at the wrecked Tie, he looked around the wreckage, trying to see if Keith was still in there.
“Keith, where are you?!” Lars called out, “Are you ok?!”
After searching high and low, Lars finally spotted something next to the wreck.
On the ground, lay what looked like a brownish red jacket, and on the left top showed in a white box an equally white star, with seven small black lines underneath it, showing that the star was going upwards.
Keith’s jacket.
Picking up the jacket, Lars looked around one last time, hoping to find his friend he helped escape, but there was no sign…
With no other choice or anywhere left to go, Lars decided to journey on foot to find civilization, taking the jacket along with him.
As he walked, he looked back a little to see the Tie Fighter wreckage, knowing that it would do no good now, he journeyed on, as the Tie Fighter slowly faded from sight.
‘No turning back now…’ he thought, as he continued on his way, as well as starting to take off parts of his Stormtrooper armor.
Meanwhile, again, in another, another part of the desert planet…
On the very far off parts of Tatooine, a lone X-Wing starfighter crashed and landed ways away.
It was smoking from the back with major bits of damage, and it look like no one could have survived.
Luckily, someone did.
Inside the cockpit of the X-Wing, Astrid was knocked out when her ship crashed, but soon, she began to move a little, and she finally gained consciousness following her crash landing.
Astrid felt a little groggy, but soon, she came to her senses as she undid her belt and tried to open the cockpit window, which looked a little damaged and broken.
Once she got it open, she looked around her surroundings, as she noticed that she had landed in a desert of sorts.
She jumped out of the cockpit for a moment, and then turned to her astromech droid, but her face showed a mixture of shock and sadness as she looked to the droid.
“R5!” she said, as she saw that her droid that accompanied her for her X-Wing was damaged beyond repair, smoke came from the head, and circuits were fried and sparking out electricity.
She placed her hand on her starfighter and looked up to her damaged droid, “I’m so sorry, R5…”
After having a moment to remember her droid, Astrid went back to the cockpit and began to try and make contact.
“Coran, this is Stormfly calling!” she said, “I’ve crashed landed on some desert land and my ship and droid are damaged following our crash land. We need help, does anyone copy?”
The communicator just staticed for a moment, then she tried again, “This is Stormfly contacting the Princess of Altea. Princess Allura, it’s Astrid. Can you hear me?”
There was still no reply, as Astrid soon began to worry if something happened, then remembered that she crash landed thanks to the Dark Order, and now her allies must have got caught, along with the Princess.
She got out of the cockpit again, then looked up to the skies and thought aloud, “I hope Princess Allura is ok…”
She then grew a little peeved as she said to herself, “I swear, if I ever see any of those Dark Order jerks who shot me down, and if they even hurt my friends, I’ll…”
She growled as she kicked away a small bit of debrier from the ship in frustration.
After letting out her frustrations, Astrid let out a small sigh, then looked around the desert.
“There has to be a settlement around here somewhere.” she said, then looked back at her damaged X-Wing.
“Not much to do with this baby now,” she said with a sad sigh, then looked back to the desert, “better start looking forward now…”
Astrid went back into the cockpit to get some stuff, as most X-Wings have space for a good amount of supplies, though following getting hit by the Dark Order and crashing on the planet, Astrid’s supplies may have slimmed due to losing a few.
Once she got enough of what she got left, such as a bit of food and water, her blaster rifles and several blankets, Astrid put on her backpack and was ready to go.
Taking a good, deep breath, Astrid walked forward, as she did, she thought about what to do when and/or if she finds a nearby settlement, such as get help, find more supplies and find a new ship to help her get back to the others if they managed to get away in time.
Despite the heat and possible dangers, Astrid was ready for what may come next…
Wheatley had been walking for possibly several hours.
It had been sometime since he and BB-7 went their separate ways for now, but Wheatley missed his friend for quite a while, as he wandered across each dune in the desert.
He finally stopped at a nearby skeleton remains of a krayt dragon as he looked back.
“Oh, BB-7, that little blighter… it seems just not fair…” he thought aloud to himself, “it could be his fault for not telling me this secret mission of his…”
He looked back to the route he was on, “Maybe I shouldn’t have gone this way… though I doubt he’ll do better…”
Suddenly, he spotted something far off in the distance, it looked like some sort of object, and it looked like it was flashing or something.
“Wait… is that…” he said, as he looked closely, then grew excited as he exclaimed, “a transport! I’m saved!”
Wheatley then waved his arms about to get the transport’s attention as he cried, “Over here! Help! Hey! Oy, oy! Please, help!”
Back with BB-7, he continued rolling down the path he was taking, while it was a little rocky, he managed to reach a canyon pathway.
BB-7 felt a little lonely, and everywhere he went, he could simply see nothing but rocks wherever he went.
However, as he continued, he couldn’t but feel like… he was being watched.
His rolling slowed down a little as he felt that, then he looked up… and thought he spotted a figure quickly hiding behind one of the rocks.
He even heard odd, gibberish voices too.
BB-7 rolled carefully as he heard a bit more gibberish voices, and several pebbles falling off big rocks.
BB-7 finally started to roll a little faster and made a quick turn around another rock… only to be in front of an odd looking creature, not taller than a human, wearing a cloaked robe, and wide orange eyes as they looked down to the droid.
The creature let out a gibberish yelp, and BB-7 made a U-turn… only to be cornered by another one of the robed creatures, as it fired a blaster on him, which instantly stunned the BB-unit in its place, before falling over.
The creatures that BB-7 encounter were known as the Jawas, meter-tall humanoid creatures, who are known for being passionate and scavenging for robots, droids and scraps to sell to local residents.
The blaster they also use was an ion blaster, which stuns a droid, similar to paralyzing to organics.
The two Jawas approached the stunned BB-7, then called out to the rest of their kind, as a few more Jawas came over.
Finding that they’ve found another droid to sell, the Jawas picked up BB-7 and headed off home to their transport, a sandcrawler, which is used as means of transportation, scavenging and protection from threats and sandstorms.
Arriving at the sandcrawler, the Jawas placed BB-7 down to where a transport tube was lowered above the droid, then placed a small disk, a restraining bolt, on the side of BB-7’s face, before the tube sucked the little droid up.
BB-7 fell inside with a crash, as inside were many types of robotic parts, spaceship parts, scrap metal and droids of many shapes and sizes.
The BB-unit finally woke up, as it looked around his surroundings, it slowly rolled around, looking at what he could see.
BB-7 saw many types of droids, some were offline and others were still active, until a familiar voice called out, “BB-7?”
BB-7 turned, and bleeped in surprise as there was Wheatley, as he too was collected by the Jawas.
“BB-7! It is you!” Wheatley said happily, as the two reunited while the sandcrawler began to move.
The Jawas, in their control room, set their coordinates as they once again headed off throughout the night.
Despite the predicament they were in, Wheatley and BB-7 were happy to be back together again!
Author's Note
And here we go, the outcome on what has happened with our space battle last chapter!
Next time, we see what’s been happening with Hiccup and his buddies, as they must face a group of Sith on their tail… and perhaps new allies?
Until next time, True Believers.
Excelsior!
Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars
Tatooine, somewhere in the desert
After a good bit of walking, Astrid decided to make a bit of camp for the night.
With a small bit of supplies she recovered from the crash, Astrid had to make do with what she had.
There wasn’t a lot of wood or bark in the desert, and since it would get cold at night, she had a warm light to use as a substitute to keep herself warm.
“Beats camping out cold… I guess…” she muttered, as she wrapped herself warm in a blanket, giving her a little extra warmth.
A distant animal cry caught her attention a little, as she had her blaster with her in case something would come by.
She then let a small sigh, before getting out of her pilot top something that she was wearing around her neck.
The object revealed to be some sort of necklace, and connected to the chain, held by golden metal, was a crystal, and the metal had writing engraved on it in Aurebesh.
Astrid looked to the necklace, as well as the crystal, as a small smile appeared on her face, as she began to remember the day she got it…
Many years ago…
Astrid was quite at a young age, around 7 years old at the time when her closet best friend was leaving for Jedi training.
“Here you go, Astrid.” said a young boy, the same age as her, “I… uh, made this for you.”
Astrid looked as the young boy handed her the necklace, and she was stunned to see such a gift.
She then looked carefully as she said, “Wait, wait… is that?”
“Indeed, it is,” the boy replied, pointing to the crystal, “A Kyber crystal. The very same crystal used for lightsabers.”
The young boy gave the necklace to Astrid as he added, getting out one just like her’s, “It was a bit of a big crystal, so I split it and made a set for the both of us.”
Astrid looked to the necklace, still speechless, though as the boy saw her, he began to look a little nervous and a little sad as he said, “I… uh… I understand if you don’t like it and-”
“Hiccup,” she said, as she looked to the boy, Hiccup, and smiled, “I love it!”
Hearing this, Hiccup gave out a small little grin, as he then helped her place it around her neck.
Astrid then looked at the writing that was engraved and asked, “What does this say?”
“That is Aurebish,” Hiccup explained, “and the words on it translate as ‘Trust in the Force.’”
Astrid looked back at the necklace as Hiccup said, “So no matter how far we’re apart, always trust in the Force, and you’ll always think of me, as I will of you.”
Astrid’s eyes grew a little misty, her cheeks blushed a little as she smiled and said, “Thank you, Hiccup.”
Hiccup smiled upon hearing it.
“Padawan! It’s time to go!”
Hiccup and Astrid heard the voice, then turned to see a Jedi, who was a humanoid being shown to be a Lasat, with greyish purple fur skin, with prehensile feet and large finger pads and big ears and yellow eyes, looking to Hiccup as he gestured to him to come with him.
“I gotta go.” Hiccup said.
Astrid nodded, as she and Hiccup then embraced in a small hug, once they finished hugging, Astrid started to leave…
But then stopped as she quickly gave Hiccup a small peck on the cheek, catching Hiccup completely by surprise.
“Bye, Hiccup!” Astrid said, as she waved goodbye as she left.
Hiccup was left stunned, feeling the spot where Astrid kissed him, then a big goofy grin came up on his face, as he never felt so happy.
“Padawan!” the Jedi spoke up, “Let’s go!”
“Coming, master!” Hiccup said, as he hurried up to join his teacher, while waving goodbye to Astrid as he left.
Astrid looked on as she saw Hiccup join the Jedi, as they headed off to parts unknown for Hiccup’s lessons.
Present Day…
The day that Hiccup left for training was the last time she saw him.
Her smile soon turned into a frown, as she then remembered the dark tides that came later on in future.
She remembered during the final days of the Clone Wars, the Clone Troopers suddenly turned against the Jedi, resulting in almost all of them being wiped out, her heart sank when she learned that Hiccup was nowhere to be seen, and was presumed dead to the galaxy.
But she felt, deep down, that there was a tiny bit of hope if he was still alive, but it felt like it was slowly fading…
She held the necklace close to her heart, then looked up to the starry sky.
“Hiccup…” she quietly muttered, “I miss you so much…”
Bracca
After what almost happened to Prauf earlier, Hiccup needed a bit of time to think, he was currently riding on one of the train work systems with Prauf, Tails, Gobber and Derpy, having the four agree to keep what they saw a secret.
Hiccup, meanwhile, was looking at his kyber crystal necklace he had made when he was young.
A small little smile came to his face when he remembered the day he was going to his Jedi training, and before he left, he gave his closest friend, Astrid, a necklace similar to his.
She was the closest friend he had back on his homeworld of Berk, and he missed her very much.
One of the things he never forgot was when she kissed him on the cheek, while back in the Jedi Order, the Jedi had to be careful not get too caught in their emotions and feelings, but there was a small bit of feelings he slowly had for her overtime they bonded.
He then let out a sad sigh, thinking about her, his parents and what may have happened to them.
“You holdin’ up okay?”
Prauf’s voice cut him from his thoughts as he looked to see his friends looking at him a bit, putting away the necklace back in his top, and then replied, “Good. Yeah… and you guys?”
“Yeah, heh…” Gobber lightly chuckled, “We’ve never been better…”
“Gobber’s right there, Hiccup.” Tails added.
After a small bit of awkward silence, Prauf spoke up again.
“Hiccup…” he said, “We’ve been working with you for some time now. Neither any of us have ever seen you do anything like that before…”
“Prauf’s right, lad,” Gobber said, “and we’ve sure have been through some heck together…”
“We all understand the risk that you took for me,” Prauf said, kindly, “I just… I just don’t know how to repay you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Hiccup said with a half smile, “and I mean it.”
“You don’t have to worry about us, Hiccup.” Tails said, “You’re our best friend, and we’ve got your back as you’ve always had ours.” Derpy nodded her head in agreement.
“That’s true,” Gobber said, before he let out a concerned frown as he said, “But this place… is not quite safe…”
Hiccup understood what he meant, as he and the others carefully looked around to see if anyone was listening, luckily, no one wasn’t.
“Maybe… it would be best for you to… disappear.” Prauf suggested.
“I’m just gonna go back to my place and get my stuff.” Hiccup explained, “Tabbers owes me and Tails a favor.”
“Heard he was up on Nar Shaddaa?” Gobber asked, which Hiccup nodded in agreement.
“If you like, Hiccup,” Tails said, “I can come along with you and help out offworld, R4-Z1 and I could maybe sort something out from there.”
“It’s nice to offer Tails, but I don’t want you to get round up on this…” Hiccup said with a sad smile, “But thanks anyway…”
“So, you’ll be going?” Derpy asked, with an upset face.
“Yeah, sorry,” Hiccup nodded, “you’ll probably won’t see me here for a while…”
“Ooh… alright…” Derpy replied with a sad sigh.
“Okay, Hiccup…” Prauf said, patting him lightly on the shoulder.
Hiccup appreciated the support his friends were giving him, ever since he first got here, Prauf, Gobber, Tails and even Derpy have been kind and supportive of him throughout the years he spent on Bracca.
As he took one last look at his friends, Hiccup let out a sigh, exhausted after using the Force and the hard work he did, then closed his eyes for a while.
It was for minutes later, that Hiccup opened his eyes again, but he then noticed something… all the workers in the carriage were here with him… but his friends had disappeared.
Hiccup got up from his seat and looked around, there was no sign of Gobber. Or Tails. Or Prauf. Or Derpy.
“Gobber? Prauf?” Hiccup spoke up, hoping to see if any of them could hear him.
There was no response, so Hiccup walked over to the door to check the next carriage, once he entered the next one, he looked around the crowd inside to find his friends, as he called them out again, “Tails? Derpy, are you around here?”
Hiccup looked until he thought he saw the door to the next carriage close.
Believing one of his friends went that way, he journeyed through the door to the next carriage.
Entering the next coach, he seemed to finally caught the sight of Prauf entering through the next door.
“Prauf? Wait up!” Hiccup cried as he walked through the crowd, but as he did, the lights suddenly began to flicker, and windows started to show nothing but darkness, it was possible due to it was nighttime possibly, or the train was going through a tunnel, but Hiccup suddenly felt something cold as he continued.
Entering the next coach, he could see Prauf enter through the next door, causing Hiccup walk a little faster, but that was then things started to get weird… and sinister. As he walked past other workers, it seemed that every time the lights flickered, one or two of the workers suddenly vanished.
Once he entered the next coach, it was completely empty, with no lights except for on the doorway that Prauf was standing in front of.
“Where’re you going? Where’s everyone else?” Hiccup asked, but Prauf said nothing and walked through the door, as it closed in front of Hiccup as he arrived.
Hiccup pressed the button to open the door, but oddly, nothing happened, he tried again, still nothing.
Hiccup pressed the button a few times, but still the door won’t open.
“What’s going on?” Hiccup asked, as he banged on the door, then pressed the button again… and a sinister voice spoke up.
“Execute Order 66.”
Those three words brought a shiver down Hiccup’s spine as he heard it, he couldn’t understand what was going on, so he tried to go back to his seat in his coach, so he turned around to walk back down the Jedi Cruiser corridor and… wait, the Jedi Cruiser corridor?
Hiccup looked around in confusion of what was going on, wasn’t he in the workers’ train on Bracca?
“What the…?” Hiccup could muster, until he spotted an astromech, an R2 droid, working on something.
“Hey, can you help me, little droid?” Hiccup asked, but it seemed like the droid wasn’t listening.
Once the droid finished, whatever it was doing, the droid went down the hall, causing Hiccup to follow it as it went through to another room as the door closed behind it.
Hiccup went over to the door, but as it did, the doorway suddenly began to expand longer, like the door was moving away fast from him.
After the extension of the corridor, ship alarms suddenly went off, making Hiccup nervous of what was going on, as he continued down the hall.
Just then, the doors suddenly shut, leaving Hiccup feeling like he was trapped in a box, causing him to rush to the door. He felt very nervous when he reached it, and slowly raised his hand to try and open it…
Suddenly, the door opened up fast, revealing a Lasat warrior to appear in front of a startled Hiccup, as he fell over backwards and crawled backwards on the floor.
Before Hiccup could do anything else, he was suddenly hoisted up as the Lasat raised his hand.
“Apprentice, mark well and listen carefully:” the Lasat said.
“M-master Tapal?!” Hiccup said in shock, as he realized he was confronted by his old Jedi Master.
Before Hiccup could say anything, Tapal soon looked to Hiccup as he finished his sentence as he said, “Trust only in the Force!”
Tapal lowered his hand, causing Hiccup to fall to the ground with a thud…
“Hiccup!” Tails’ voice called to Hiccup as the train jolted.
The jolt caused Hiccup to wake up as he cried, “Master Tapal!”
Hiccup was startled from what happened, as he breathed heavily as he looked around.
“You okay, lass?” Gobber asked.
Hiccup was baffled of what had happened, but looked to Gobber as he repleid, “Y-yeah, I’m good…”
Hiccup then looked around, as he saw the other work passengers looking around in confusion, until it finally hit Hiccup: “The train’s stopped.”
“That’s right,” Tails replied, “that’s why I had to wake you up to tell you that.”
“Something’s going on around here.” Prauf added.
As the group got up, the coach doors opened as two Stormtroopers appeared.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Hiccup muttered to the others.
“Everybody up, identification at the ready.” one of the Stormtroopers said.
The first Stormtrooper walked ahead of the second and went to the other side of the coach, as the carriage side doors opened up as he said, “Everyone out and line up.”
“Probably just another contraband inspection.” Prauf suggested.
Hiccup, his friends and the others did what they were told, and walked out of the train and into the rainy weather outside, though Hiccup grew a little suspicious, and put his hood up just in case.
As he stepped out, he saw several other Stormtroopers observing the workers as they got out, then saw standing among the troopers, was Lieutenant Zim, along with his robot minion, Gir, the Irken grinning wickedly and evil-like.
Soon Hiccup saw a ship landing nearby, and stepping out were three young femine figures each wearing a helmet.
Hiccup definitely had a bad feeling about this.
Three masked female figures walked up to Zim and the Stormtroopers, as they looked to the group of workers, along with Hiccup and his friends.
The three females soon took off their masks, each one revealing a different face for each of them.
The first one had pale apple green skin, with luminous vivid orange hair with yellow streaks, her hair quite afro-like, and had a purple headband with spikes.
The second had skin which was pale, light greyish fuchsia with moderate purple hair with light aquamarine streaks, her hair worn in two ponytails.
The third female had arctic bluish white skin, and had light article blue hair with streaks of moderate persian blue, worn as a single ponytail.
“Is that all of the workers?” the first female asked.
“Yes, Agent Adagio.” one of the Stormtroopers replied.
“As you can see, the workers here are well organized and trustworthy…” Zim stated, before shouting out, “OR SO WE THINK!”
“It is alright, Zim,” Adagio said, with a small grin, “We’ll take it from here.”
Adagio and the other two females approached the group, Hiccup and his friends were a little nervous.
“We are here seeking a dangerous fugitive.” Adagio announced, “I can assure you that this is no common anarchist… but a devotee to the treasoners Jedi Order.”
Murmurs of shock, confusion and worry came from the workers, while Hiccup and his friends looked more worried than scared, as they realized that, somehow, Hiccup’s rescue of Prauf was noticed somehow.
Adagio looked to the second female, “Aria.”
Aria nodded, then looked to the crowd of workers as she said, “If the Jedi doesn’t turn himself in, or if anyone doesn’t turn him in either, there will be a charge of sedition.”
“The punishment,” Adagio added, “will be summary execution.”
The Stormtrooper around the workers readied their blasters to open fire, causing everyone to back away a little.
“Look, mister Jedi, whether you are,” spoke up the third female, who looked a little different to Adagio and Aria, as she looked quite… optimistic, “we don’t want to hurt you or your friends, we just want you to come and surrender. That’s all.”
“Sonata, of course we’re gonna hurt the Jedi!” the second female said, a little annoyed, “He’s a threat to the Dark Order!”
Adagio groaned, not wanting to hear another argument between the two, “Hold your ground, Aria.”
Adagio looked around at the group, “We’re waiting.”
Hiccup looked nervous at the situation, if he turned himself in, he would end up getting killed, if he didn’t he and the others would die.
While this was happening, Prauf looked to his friends, especially Hiccup, as he saw that they were indeed in big trouble, realizing there was no way out… unless…
With quick thinking, Prauf stepped forward a little, “I think… it’s time someone came forward.”
Hiccup and others saw what he was doing, and worried for his safety, Hiccup held Prauf’s hand, as his alien friend looked at him with worried, yet comforting eyes.
“Prauf…” Hiccup could muster, looking a little scared, as Tails comforted Derpy, both them being a little scared too.
Releasing his hand from Hiccup’s, Prauf placed a hand on Hiccup’s shoulder and said in a comforting, quiet voice, “It’ll be alright, Hiccup.”
Prauf looked back to the three sirens as he took a deep breath, and decided to make his voice heard.
“I, uh..., I-I've been working on this heap a long time. Way before the war. We refit and rebuild ships. Best in the galaxy.” Prauf spoke up, as he did, Hiccup secretly got out his lightsaber while no one was looking, at the sametime, Gobber and Tails looked to each other, as the former was secretly switching his robotic hand into a blaster, while the latter activated his wrist communicator, “Then came the Empire. The Dark Order. And engineers...became scrappers. The workers - just started getting worked.” Prauf pointed out, as he looked to his friends before making his stand, “But we all know the truth. We're just...afraid to say it. To the Empire...we're all just expendable.”
“Indeed… you are.” Adagio said, stepping in front of Prauf… as she activated her lightsaber in front of him, impaling him from the chest.
“PRAUF!!” Tails, Gobber and Derpy cried out in horror.
“NO!” Hiccup screamed, as he activated his lightsaber, showing a green beam of light, as he tried to strike down Adagio, only to realise she had a double bladed lightsaber when a second red beam appeared and countered his blade.
“Well, well,” Adagio smirked, as Prauf’s body slipped off her lightsaber and collapsed to the ground , “look what we have here. A lightsaber.”
“Guys, run!” cried Hiccup as he looked to the others, as he and Adagio clashed lightsabers.
Aria looked to Gobber, Tails and Derpy as she heard Hiccup call to them, then smirked at the idea as she ordered, “Continue as ordered, execute them!”
The Stormtroopers instantly brought up the blasters to the workers, aiming at them, much to Hiccup’s friends’ worry… until one worker brought out his blasters and rapidly fired on the troopers, catching Hiccup, his friends and the Siren Sith by surprise.
The worker then took off his hood he had on, revealing him to be a blue-feathered falcon as he looked to the others as he cried out, “Go! Hurry!”
The other workers instantly ran for their lives, while Hiccup’s friends were baffled by what happened, until the falcon saw several more Stormtroopers heading their way, then turned to them and said, “Come with me! Now!”
Tails, Gobber and Derpy did what he said, and hurried with him as quickly as they could, until Tails used his namesakes to fly ahead as he said, “You guys go on! I’m gonna get R4-Z1!”
“Careful, lass!” Gobber shouted, as he used his blaster arm to fire on the upcoming troops as he and Derpy accompanied the unexpected ally.
Hiccup, meanwhile, continued his fight against Adagio, though Hiccup hadn’t been using his lightsaber for quite a long while, making him a little rusty, giving Adagio the upper hand as she then used the Force to shove him backwards.
Hiccup was suddenly caught by a robotic arm, as he looked to see Zim smirking as he robot minion had him at the ropes.
“Peekaboo, I see you!” the robot giggled.
“Excellent work, Gir!” Zim grinned, before crying out, “I HAVE FOUND THE JEDI!!”
The young Jedi soon used his lightsaber to slice off the robotic arm that got hold of him, unfortunately, he was held over the edge of a cliff, resulting in him to tumble down.
“No! You blasted idiot!” he could hear one of the Sirens, possibly Adagio, cry out to Zim and Gir, before their voices were out of range from the fall.
He didn’t fall for long, as he then crashed through the roof of a passing train, landing inside a storage cart with a few bruises.
“What was that?” came a voice of a Stormtrooper, as Hiccup tried to pick himself up from the fall.
“Checking out the disturbance.” another Stormtrooper voice said.
“Augh… that really hurt.” groaned Hiccup as he got himself up, only to be in the presence of the two Stormtroopers.
“Hold it, don’t move!” ordered the 1st Stormtrooper, “How’d you get here?”
Hiccup raised his hands (one of them still holding the lightsaber), “Easy now, guys.”
“We seem to have a stowaway here.” the 2nd Stormtrooper said as he contacted for help.
“Hey, don’t need to call this in.” Hiccup warned them.
“Too bad.” the 1st Stormtrooper said, reading his blaster.
With no choice, Hiccup activated his Lightsaber to attack.
“It’s a Jedi!” the 1st Stormtrooper cried, before Hiccup struck him down, along with the 2nd before they could do anything.
Hiccup hurried as he could, but when he got out, he saw several more Stormtroopers nearby, as he heard one of them speak, “We got orders, there’s a Jedi on board. Shoot to kill.”
Hiccup realized he will have to do what he can to get away, as well as take down the Stormtroopers.
Taking a deep breath, Hiccup rushed onward, lightsaber at the ready.
“There he is!” a Stormtrooper spotted him, “Blast him!”
Using his lightsaber, Hiccup deflected as many blast fires as he could, before coming within range of the troopers and striking them down hard.
Hiccup hurried as he could to get into the next cart for shelter, then rushed out again to see if the coast was clear.
“Hands up, Jedi!”
It wasn’t.
Hiccup looked to see two Stormtroopers up on one of the carts, as he got his lightsaber ready again.
“Contact command,” said one Stormtrooper, “we’ve located the Jedi and-”
Just then, something blasted the trooper mid sentence along with the 2nd one, as they plummeted to the ground of the train.
Hiccup looked and smiled, as Tails and a black and gold R-series droid flew by and landed on the train.
“Tails! R4-Z1!” Hiccup smiled.
“Thought you can use the help, Hiccup.” Tails smirked, as R4-B4 beeped happily.
Before they could make a move, another voice got their attention, “It won’t be enough to defeat us.”
Hiccup, Tails and R4 turned to see Aria, with a serious look, as she brought out her lightsaber, ready to fight.
“Don’t move, Jedi.” came a Stormtrooper’s voice, as he had with him a control baton.
Tails and R4 got out of the way, just as Aria charged against Hiccup, who tried to counter her attacks, though he was quite unmatched as the Stormtrooper tried to strike him down too, giving the Jedi a disadvantage of two against one.
Aria had quite a good amount of balance, while the trooper worked as a distraction, though while Hiccup did his best on avoiding getting struck down, he was soon nearly close to the edge of the moving train, which would lead a straight plummet down.
Seeing the Stormtrooper closing to Hiccup, who was nearing the edge, and was about to strike again, R4 charged at the trooper, letting out a squealing beep as it used a static tool to zap him, seeing this, Tails found one of the downed Stormtroopers’ blasters and threw it at the trooper, knocking him on the head and caused the Stormtrooper to clumsily fall off the train.
“Thanks!” cried Hiccup, as he continued to fight Aria.
“No problem!” Tails replied, however, it was short lived as he and R4 spotted an Imperial patrol transport, as it began to open fire on them, causing the two to try and find cover.
Before they would be toast, some blaster fire soon began shooting towards the patrol transport, before several finally struck it down.
This caught Hiccup, Tails, R4 and Aria’s attention, until a ship soon flew by, no doubt for the friends was the one that shot down the transport.
As the ship, which looked like a Stinger XL, slowly began to get closer, the door hatch opened up, revealing the blue falcon that had helped Gobber and Derpy, and along with him, a young teenage woman, who had light ceruleanish gray skin, and had rainbow hair with goggles.
“Hey! We’re here to help!” the young teen shouted.
“Who are you?” Tails asked.
“No time!” the falcon exclaimed, “Just keep going!”
“We’ll try and pick you up as soon as we can!” the girl added, as the ship soon began to fly away from them, and soon zoomed on ahead, as two more patrol transports were chasing after the ship.
Tails decided to do what they said, as he and R4 rushed over to the next cart, and climbed up to the rooftops of the train.
The young fox turned back to Hiccup as he cried, “Hiccup, we have to get going!”
“Working on it!” Hiccup cried, as he continued his fight with Aria.
Luckily, Hiccup found an opening and used his legs to trip her over, allowing him to get a head start to jump up to catch up with two.
The three friends soon hurried as quickly as they could, but soon, Aria was catching up as she soon joined them on the rooftops, until she used a force jump to land in front of them.
“This has been fun, Jedi,” Aria smiled, before glaring, “but this ends right now!”
“Oh… ok, this is bad.” Hiccup said in a worried groan.
Things were about to escalate downward hard, as the friends and the Sith soon heard far off explosions that were slowly getting closer, as they turned to where the train was going, they saw in shock and horror that a bomber Tie Fighter was flying their way.
Inside the bomber, Zim laughed maniacally at his greatest plan: to stop the Jedi on the train, he would blow up the train tracks, resulting in the train plummeting and killing the Jedi.
“Yes. YES!” cried Zim, “Destroy the tracks! Send the Jedi to his plummeting DOOM!!”
“But sir,” the pilot, looking worried, spoke up, “Agent Aria is still-”
“BE QUIET!!” Zim yelled back.
As the bomber got closer, the friends' eyes widened in panic as Hiccup cried out, “This is worse!”
Aria, meanwhile, just scowled at what was happening, before making another force jump, allowing her to land onto the bomber Tie, just as it dropped another bomb as it exploded, causing the train to come off the rails, as well as cause the heroes to lose their balance and slide down the train, falling of the roof, then onto the flatbeds and even inside train carts.
R4 was able to get his rockets active as he flew downwards, but Hiccup and Tails began to have trouble, until they spotted the Stinger flying below, the door hatch still open, as they heard the young teen’s voice.
“Okay!” she cried, “Jump now!”
Using all his might, Hiccup managed to make a jump, along with Tails, as they both took a leap of faith, jumping off the falling debris that was a train, and grabbed hold of the edge of the door, while R4 managed to fly into the ship (though bumped into the blue falcon from earlier).
As they tried to get up, the teen, along with Gobber, came up to help them up.
“Hold on, lads,” said Gobber, “we got you!”
The teen managed to get Tails up, and passed him to Gobber, but just as they were half way on helping Hiccup, Tie Fighters soon opened fire on the ship, causing it to rock a bit and causing Hiccup to fall.
“Hiccup!” was all he could hear from Tails and Gobber, as Hiccup continued being in freefall, knowing that he would no doubt get killed upon landing.
As he fell, he spotted and grabbed hold of one of the scraper droids, while it didn’t stop him from fallen, it did slow him down a little (though the droid was seemingly annoyed of the hitchhiking worker holding on to it and tried to get him off), until Hiccup finally found a nearby platform and tumbled over to it.
As he got up, he looked up and saw Adagio appear over the top of a high ledge in front of him, before using the Dark Side of the Force to slowly levitate down to his level.
“Going somewhere, Jedi?” she asked, activating her lightsaber again, powering up one side of the double-bladed lightsaber.
Hiccup reactivated his lightsaber, and then steadied himself in a defensive position, holding his lightsaber near horizontally.
Adagio looked at this position and smirked, “I recognize that stance. Perhaps you’ve had some training after all.”
As Adagio approached, Hiccup carefully stepped back, while taking quick glances behind as he was slowly closing to the edge.
“Who was your master, Padawan?” Adagio asked, still smirking an evil grin, “Someone I killed, perhaps?”
Adagio then brought her lightsaber to Hiccup, who countered it with his lightsaber, both beams of light clashed for a second, before the warriors parted.
Hiccup and Adagio parried on each strike of their lightsabers, until Hiccup got an idea, as she got him in another horizontal block with their lightsabers, Hiccup sidestepped quickly and hit Adagio on the head with the handle of the lightsaber.
“You little brat!” Adagio growled, rubbing her head, before activating the other blade of her double-bladed lightsaber.
Hiccup realized he was in trouble, a single-blade lightsaber he could handle, but it was hard to take on one with a double-bladed lightsaber.
He swung his lightsaber at Adagio, who countered with one side of the lightsaber, before swinging the other side at him, causing him to counter with his.
Hiccup ducked and dodged as best as he could, as Adagio continued to fight without breaking a sweat.
As she made another swing of her lightsaber, Hiccup backflipped to dodge, however, he realized he reached the very edge, and quickly regained his balance.
He turned to see Adagio strike, but out of nowhere, Hiccup quickly brought out another lightsaber, much to the Siren’s surprise.
Just then, the stinger soon appeared beside them, as Hiccup and Adagio turned to see the front of the ship… before it opened fire. Adagio quickly jumped out of the way, while Hiccup tumbled over to avoid the blasts as well.
“Get on board!” Hiccup could hear a voice, as he looked up to see a fox and the teen, along with Tails, who had a worried look.
“Hurry, Hiccup! Jump on board!” he cried.
Hiccup got up and hurried as quick as he could just in time, as he and the others looked to see Adagio approach them, her hair a little messed up, as she then reactivated her lightsaber and approached them.
Hiccup was suddenly grabbed by the teen and tossed him inside, though the Jedi kept his balance and remained standing up, until he saw her and the ofx open fire with their blasters at Adagio, who dodged and deflected the blasts with her lightsaber, as she then began to run faster towards the ship.
“CAPTAIN! PEPPY!” the fox cried out inside, “Get us out of here! Quickly!”
He then turned to the teen, “Rainbow! The doors!”
“Right!” cried Rainbow, as she quickly pressed the button to close the door while continuing firing on the Sith.
Adagio charged as she then made a jump to strike them with her lightsaber… only to miss as it struck the door as it closed just in time.
Soon, Hiccup (his lightsaber at the ready), Tails and their rescuers passed by the others (who were glad to see Hiccup was okay) and reached the pilot controls, to see a four-armed Latero and a rabbit at the controls, both frantically preparing to make a hasty exit.
“Peppy! We got the Jedi!” cried the fox, “Get us out of here! Fast!”
“Way ahead of that, Fox!” the rabbit, Peppy exclaimed, “Though a reminder that all but one of us don’t have four arms! Stand by for a jump to lightspeed in a few seconds!”
Suddenly, Adagio jumped onto the cockpit glass, hanging on tight, and used the Force to take control of the control wheel the Latero was holding onto, causing the ship to spin around, the Siren Sith still hanging on.
Tails saw what was happening and grabbed the wheel, turning it a different direction, causing Adagio to lose her grip on both the wheel via the Force and hanging onto the ship, causing her to slip off and land back on the platform.
The Stinger ship soon took off, several Imperial transports gaining after them.
“Alright,” Peppy exclaimed, “Entering Light Speed… NOW!!”
As he pulled the hyperdrive lever, Hiccup and his friends looked stunned, as they and their unexpected rescuers entered light speed, as they escaped the planet Bracca.
Back on the platform, Adagio, fixing her hair, looked up to where the ship escaped, and glared, knowing that they and the rest of the Sith and the Dark Order will find Hiccup and his friends soon enough.
Back inside the ship, the others took a breath of relief as they were finally save for now.
The Latero turned to see Hiccup, still a little on edge with nervousness, his lightsaber still on, as he spoke to calm him down, “Okay, uh, shut that thing off and grab some seat.”
Hiccup looked to the Latero, then back to his lightsaber, remembering it was still on, then did what he was told and switched it off.
The young Jedi soon approached into what appeared to be the lounge of the ship, seeing his friends taking a small breather.
“So glad to see ya ok, Hiccup.” Gobber smiled as he looked at him.
“Thanks, Gobber,” Hiccup nodded, “you too.”
He and his friends soon turned to their unexpected rescuers, who were formed out of the fox named… well, Fox, the rabbit that went by the name of Peppy, the rainbow-haired teen Rainbow, the blue falcon, a frog and the four-armed Latero as he said, “Thanks for the help… but who are you guys, anyway?”
“They’re with me.” a new voice spoke, as Hiccup and his friends turned to seea young woman, about his age, who had cyan eyes, brown skin with long, dark brown hair that most of it was kept in a ponytail.
“My name is Korra,” the young woman, Korra, introduced herself before gesturing to the others, “these here are Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, Rainbow Dash and our captain, Greez Dritus.”
“Greetings!” the toad named Slippy waved.
“How ya doin’?” Greez the Latero said before adding as he pointed to Korra, “Yeah, the Mantis is my ship, but y’all better pay attention to this lady here.”
“Do you have a name?” Falco asked.
“I’m Hiccup. Hiccup Haddock.” Hiccup introduced himself.
“My name is Miles Prower,” Tails gestured to himself, “but everyone calls me Tails.”
“And this here is my droid friend, R4-Z1,” he added as he introduced the astromech to the crew, as the droid beeped as a way of saying hello, before gesturing to the others, “and this is Derpy Hooves and Gobber.”
“Pleasure.” Gobber said, but then looked to the group as he asked, “Who were those sinister She-Devils back there?”
“They used lightsabers like the Jedi,” Tails pointed out, “only those ones were red ones.”
“They’re Sith.” Hiccup said, as both parties looked to him, “I learned little about them from my master. They represent the Dark Side of the Force. While Jedi use the Force for knowledge and defence, the Sith use it to attack upon others.”
Korra and her crew looked to one another with unease, before looking to Hiccup’s group as she explained, “Those three you’ve encountered, they call themselves the Siren Sisters. They are Imperial Inquisitors. Force user agents of the Sith who were sent to hunt down any surviving Jedi following the Purge.”
“You're lucky that we intercepted a transmission communication between them and their bosses.” Falco spoke up, “We heard that a Jedi was seemingly detected on Bracca and the Big Cheeses of the Dark Order sent some of their best there, and we sent yours truly to locate the Jedi and bring him or her here before they found you.”
“But now that they know who you are, they and the others won’t stop until you’re dead!” Rainbow pointed out.
“Really, so then, what’s the bounty for Jedi these days?” Hiccup asked, seemingly sarcastic.
“That’s gratitude for ya.” Greez smirked.
Korra approached Hiccup as she said, “I understand you’ve been surviving on your own for so long it’s hard to trust anyone, despite that it’s kept you alive.”
“But he wasn’t alone.” Derpy spoke up, getting their attention.
“Derpy’s right,” Tails nodded, “you’ve had us, Hiccup. And we’re always on your side, just like we said.”
R4 bleeped happily in agreement.
Hiccup smiled as he looked to them giving him support, until Korra spoke up, “They’re right, Hiccup, and right now, this is something far more bigger than surviving.”
“And what’s that?” Hiccup asked.
Korra looked to him and smiled, “Rebuilding the Jedi Order.”
Hiccup and his friends were stunned a little.
“The Jedi Order?” Tails asked.
“That’s right,” Korra nodded, “it may seem like that everyone believes that the Jedi are gone, but as long as there are Force-sensitive beings out there, those who have a strong connection to the Force, along with any survivors as we mentioned, there can be hope for the Jedi to return. Hope to stop the Dark Order. Hope to help tip the scales of this war. And hope for a new generation of Jedi.”
“What about the Jedi Council?” Hiccup asked.
Korra looked to him with apologetic eyes as she replied, “I’m sorry. They’re all gone.”
Hiccup looked stunned in a sad way, almost like the info pierced his heart fast, if the Jedi Council was gone, then that meant…
Hiccup soon sat down, as the news sank in.
“Is something wrong, Hiccup?” Derpy asked.
Hiccup sadlu sighed as he looked to both groups as he said, “My mother was part of the Jedi Council…”
Both parties looked stunned in shock about it, until Korra placed a hand on his shoulder as he looked to him with compassion.
“I’m sorry, Hiccup…” she said, looking at him with a small comforting smile, “Bet she was a great Jedi.”
“More than that,” Hiccup sadly smiled, “she was a great mom any kid would want.”
Hiccup then took a deep breath, then looked to everyone around him, “So it’s just us for now, huh?”
“Got a problem with that?” Greez smirked.
“No,” Hiccup smiled a little, “I suppose it’s worth a go.”
Korra smiled before looking to Greez, “Set a course for Bogano, Captain.”
“Aye, aye.” Greez nodded, before heading back to the controls.
“Welcome aboard, guys!” Rainbow winked at the group as she headed off.
Korra looked to Hiccup’s group, “In the meantime, take some time to rest and relax. You all had a tough day today.”
“Ma’am, after everything that’s been happening, we can’t thank you enough.” Gobber kindly said to Korra.
“You’ll be safe, for now,” Korra looked to Hiccup, “we’ll explain more when we get to our destination.”
As Korra began to leave with the others heading back to their stations, Hiccup turned to Korra.
“Korra,” he said, getting her attention, “thanks.”
Korra just smiled and nodded, before heading to her quarters.
Hiccup then got out the necklace from his top, making sure it was still there, then let out a small sigh as he looked at it.
“Is that yours?” Derpy asked, getting his attention.
“Oh, yeah.” Hiccup replied, “I made this myself, I even did one for a close friend of mine to have, too.”
“It’s made from a Kyber Crystal, isn’t it?” Tails joined in.
“That’s right.” Hiccup nodded.
“But what’s written on it?” Derpy asked.
“It’s Aurebesh, and translates ‘Trust in the Force’,” Hiccup explained, “I made these for me and my friend, Astrid was her name, and that no matter what happens, wherever we are, even if we’re apart, we will trust in the Force, knowing we may see each other again.”
“Must have been someone very special, wasn’t she?” Tails smiled.
“Yeah…” Hiccup nodded with a small smile, looking back at the necklace, “she was.”
Author's Note
Hope you guys are enjoying this so far, as Hiccup and friends begin their adventure.
Next time, on another planet, get ready to meet another band of heroes!
Until next, True Believers!
Excelsior!
