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Author: [[User:Oberon|]]
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{{#ifeq: Oberon | | Authors: ' |
Authors: Oberon
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Authors: |
Author: [[User:Oberon|]]
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{{#if:Jigsaw green.png|}} | [[:Category:Xanadu|Xanadu]] story universe |
[[Setting::Xanadu| ]]
{{#if:|}}| [[Image:{{{icon}}}|30px|center|Icon]] | This story uses "Commonwealth" spelling, so extra "u's" may show up in some words and not be an error |
So here I was sitting in a conference room at the Xanadu Convention Center four days after the events that changed my life. Sitting around the room were thirty-five people that comprised the entirety of the population of people who had dressed up as Jedi at the convention. For some unknown reason everyone had become what their costume represented four days ago. I was an anomaly, a Mando’ad Jedi Knight. The man I sat beside was a little more representative of the real Jedi here at the table, since there were roughly a dozen versions of him here in the room. His name was Simon Jackson and he had been my best friend before the event that had changed our lives. He was still my friend but now he was more than my friend he was also one of my comrades in the newly created Jedi Order. Each member of the order sat at a large table and looked at the five people at the head of the table. The smallest had been a child before the change but now he wasn’t even human. Instead he was in the form of Jedi Grand Master Yoda, the oldest and wisest member of the order. However this version of Yoda was much, much younger than the one that had appeared in the movies. The second Jedi Master was a tall bald, inteligent looking black man. The third man at the table was my own master Jedi Master Luke Skywalker though he was younger than I remember him to be. The last two were actually variations of the same person. The first represented Master Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of the Clone Wars and the second was much older, probably from the period when Master Luke Skywalker was merely a farm boy on Tatooine.
Master Yoda looked at me for a few moments before he asked in his small nasal voice
“Who are you?” I removed my buy’ce and replied,
“My name is Jason Hamilton IV but here I am known as Pieter Skirata.” The older of the two Obi-Wan’s asked,
“What time period are you from? And why are you wearing that armour?”
“I’m from the Galactic Alliance Period, roughly forty years after the Battle of Yavin IV and the reason I wear this armour is because I am Mando’ad.”
“You are a Mandalorian?” Asked the younger of the two Obi-Wan’s
“That is correct, my grandmother was a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars and my grandfather was a Clone Soldier. After the war my father was raised on Concord dawn where he married and had me and my older brothers, none of whom have my affinity with the Force.”
“So I see. How long have you been a member of the Jedi Order?”
“I’ve been a member of the New Jedi Order for the past ten years and I received my Knighthood only six moths ago. However, I have been mando’ad since I was born; my father trained me from the time that I could understand him so that I wouldn’t become dar’manda. That is the worst thing possible for a mando’ad.”
“What were you going to do about that Galactic Alliance, Confederation War, when the Jedi Council told you to fight it in?”
“That probably would’ve depended on what Mand’alor had to say about the war.”
“You mean that if your people’s leader told you not to get involved then you wouldn’t be there for the Order?”
“You have to remember that I’ve only been a Jedi for ten years, but a mando’ad for my entire life.”
“How in the world are you able to reconcile both of your conflicting commitments?”
“I don’t really think that my commitments are conflicting. In both cases I’m devoted to protecting people, by offensive or defensive actions if I must.” Master Windu, I recognized him now from my historic files at the Academy on Ossus and from what Master Tionne Solusar had told me a group of other Apprentices recently about the Fall of the Old Jedi Order and the Rise of the Empire. He looked at me before he looked at both Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi before he said
“Under the current circumstances we are going to welcome all initiates of the order, no matter what time period they are from and what their personal beliefs are.” I nodded slowly in thanks before I slowly said
“I thank you Master I will continue to serve the order as I have done in the past.” With that said I replaced my buy’ce and sat back in my chair to observe the proceedings.
Three hours later I was snoozing lightly in the chair while the four Jedi Masters talked over some obscure little facet of the Jedi Code when man in the uniform of the Miami Police came into the room and said.
“I’m looking for a negotiator, we have a crisis down town.” I looked up as the youngest of Kenobis stood up and asked,
“What is the problem?”
“A gang of thieves has holed up inside a bank with two dozen hostages and they are threatening to execute their hostages unless we meet their demands.” At that I stood up and walked over to face the officer and said.
“Sir some of us are trained for negotiation and some of us are trained for more aggressive means of solving problems. Master Kenobi here is an excellent example of the first while I am an example of the latter.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sir I am trained in various methods of hostile take-down, with and without lightsabers. While Jedi Master Kenobi is a master of negotiation and peaceful settlement of issues.” The policeman nodded before he said
“Ok both of you are coming with me.” I nodded and then looked over at Master Windu and waited until he nodded for me to go and I followed Master Kenobi out of the room.
“Master Kenobi would you mind if I collect a tool or two and a couple of comrades for the operation.” He nodded and I quickly made my back to the suite where I was still registered and collected my proton carbine, and four flash detonators. With that done I made my way to another room where I found twenty six clones in the room including the four that I was looking for. The four that I wanted were all dressed in black heavy combat armour.
“Tsikador ner vod. We have some hut’uun holed up in a bank holding a number of people hostage.” As I finished saying that I pulled off my buy’ce and let them look at my face. I bore many features of my grandfather, the broad rough cut features and the hard brown eyes. The four clones also removed their buckets. Each of the clones was identical in facial features, though I could easily tell the difference between them through their auras in the Force. Each of them looked at me and then the lead trooper said
“General what are our orders?”
“You are to follow me until we reach our destination.” As we walked down the halls to the exit where the policeman had parked his vehicle I asked.
“What are your name’s?”
“We are Delta Squad I am RC-1379, he is RC-1380,-.”
“No I want your real names, and don’t tell me that you don’t have any because I know better.”
“I am Geezer, but I also go by the name Christopher Hanson, that is Sev, also known as Charlie Wilson, that is Atin, also know as James Rolston, and that is Burner, also known as Brian Konradt.” I nodded and then looked at each soldier as we climbed into the swat van that would take us to our drop off point. Once we were inside the van a police officer pulled out a laptop computer and activated it to show us a blueprint of the building that was our target.
“The hostiles are holed up in the vault on the ground floor, there is only one way into and out of that vault. They also have clear sight-lines to the front entrance of the bank so we can’t go through that way. They have also told us that if they see any sign of swat then we will be recovering the hostages from the ceiling of the vault with a blotter.” I shook my head before Atin said
“So in essence what that means is that they’ve rigged the whole place to blow sky high at the first sign of police special forces.”
“That’s where you guys come in. Xanadu’s still not fully understood by all that many people so I don’t think that they would react if we had two of you walk by the front of the bank just as we begin the assault. That is if your other compatriot can’t get them out of the building without shooting.” I nodded
“Can we also have two of us go through the rear entrance?”
“I don’t think so, the bank robbers have told us that they have rigged that door with an explosive device.” I opened my cloak to display my two lightsabers before I said,
“Under the circumstances that won’t be a problem.”
“Are you telling me-.”
“I’m a Jedi as well as a mando’ad.” The man nodded his head as the van stopped and we all piled out of the vehicles. I turned to face them and said
“Ok ner vod lets go get those hut’uunla shabla di’kutla but we can only stun them so use your PEP Laser attachments on your DC-17s.” Each of the troopers nodded and then all as one we replaced our helmets and I shouted, “Oya ner vod!” before I began jogging down the street with two of the commandos following me. Four minutes later we I arrived at the back door of the bank and I placed my hand on the door and stretched out my Force senses to see if there was a bomb on the other side. When I felt the weapon on the other side I shuddered at the power that was contained in those explosives. The bomb was a ten kilo device made up of plastique with a simple detonator that was supposed to be set off when the door was opened. I refocused my concentration and extended my senses once more and carefully got a sense of the entire mechanism until I felt how to deactivate the weapon and promptly flipped the appropriate switch. Once the bomb was deactivated I pulled my shoto out, activated it and cut around the lock to allow me to open the metal door. With that done I switched off my weapon and reported over the helmet comm-link
“Rear door accessed and cleared, progressing into building.”
“Proceed to objective 2.” Inside my helmet I brought up a schematic of the bank and looked at it before I located out second objective and began making my way towards it with with the two commandos following close behind me.
“Master Kenobi how are those negotiations going?”
“My name is Jordan Horowitz, and so far I haven’t been able to make much progress. These people are very determined and desperate, I doubt that my negotiations will work.”
“I guess that means that I’ll have to take the lead here and diffuse the situation with my own form of negotiations.”
“What in the name of the Force do you intend?”
“What I intend Master is to use a blaster set on stun to take them down.”
“How uncivilized.”
“Sir I’m not fussy about the kit I use. For every situation there is a right and a wrong tool to use. In this case flash detonators and a stun blaster are the right tools to use.”
“I understand, but remember that their are civs mixed in with the hostiles.”
“That is why we are using non lethal weapons.” The three of us made our way down the darkened hallway of the bank. We were all perfectly comfortable with the lack of light because the visors in our helmets included an advanced HUD that allowed us to see in almost any light condition. Finally after sneaking around in the darkened building for several minutes we finally found ourselves in a position where we couldn’t move any closer without being seen. I silently activated my comm and said
“Master Horowitz I’ve gotten as close to the safe as I possibly can without being spotted. What do you intend for us to do next? Sit here on our shebs until the sun goes nova?”
“I think that whatever happens next is entirely up to you. The reason being is because you are closer to the problem than I am and are in a position to deal with the threats as you see fit.”
“Under stood Master Horowitz.” I replied and then I switched the comm to the Commandos channel before I said,
“ Tsikador ner vod. I’m working on a plan that will make sure that non of the civilians get slotted. I’m going to deal with the explosives, while you go in there with flash detonators and PEP lasers and take out the threats. When I say Oya. I want you all to go in there as fast as possible. I don’t want those hut’uun to have a chance to re-activate their bomb after I’ve de-activated it.”
“Understood General.” With that dealt with I closed my eyes and slowly began to let myself fall into a Jedi trance. I submerged myself deep in the Force until I could just about see the whole city around me. After a few moments floating on the currents of the Force I focussed myself on my objective. The device that they were using was even more potent then the one that they had left at the back door. This one was approximately fifteen kilograms in weight and was stuffed with nails glass and other miscellaneous shrapnel to increase it’s damage potential. Surrounding the device were seven dark shadows in the Force. They projected a mixture of fear, anger, hatred, and malice. Around them were twenty one hostages which were also marked by their fear, but they possessed none of the other dark emotions of their captors.
| Preceded by: The Mandalorian |
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