The Imperial Plan
By
Jamie Aspen (Jarhok
Belouve)
Episode
1:
The
soft padded footsteps echoed bluntly from the brightly lit corridor. Concealed
in a door arch to the right, two brown robed figures waited patiently for the
perfect moment.
“Keep calm Jarhok,”Squibit
whispered.
“I’m trying my best,”Jarhok answered, his
fingers itching for his saber hilt.
This was his first serious assignment and
he was very nervous but as usual Squibs presence kept him in check.
The Imperial
officer walked past completely unaware of the two Jedi. Jarhok began to shuffle
sideways out of the arch.
“Don’t get over confident
Jar,”Squib instructed and he rested a hand on his chest, “Wait until he’s
completely out of sight.”
The Imperial officer
proceeded down the corridor and round a corner, no longer posing a threat. That
certainly wasn’t the first close call on their mission. The reason the two Jedi
were there was to unravel a mysterious plot to invade the Jedi Academy on Yarin
4. Two Imperial ships were spotted by radar roaming near the planet. They were
tracked back to a seemingly normal Imperial outpost on a remote part on
Coruscant.
The Jedi ran down the corridor and round
the corner only to be faced with a key coded door. Jarhok unclipped his saber
hilt and began to move closer to the door.
“Stop,
think about what you’re doing,”Squib said, looking at Jarhok’s light sabre,
“That’s not very covert is it?”
“Then what do you
suggest master?”Jarhok questioned.
“I suggest we
wait for someone to come through then.well ask for the code,”Squib
said.
“That could be ages until someone.”Jarhok was
cut off mid sentence as a high ranking storm trooper came through the door.
Squibit swung his leg in an arc hitting the storm trooper square in the
chest. The storm trooper fell to the floor and Squib placed one foot on him to
keep him there. Squibit focused the force’s energies and gestured with his
hand.
“You will tell me the code for this
door.”
“The code for this door is 1471,”the storm
trooper answered.
“You will compliment me on my
purple trimmed Jedi robes and my Padawan’s
dreadlocks.”
“I like your robes and your Padawan’s
hairstyle is nice.”
Jarhok grinned at Squib,
considering he was supposed to be the wise mature one it didn’t always work out
that way.
The storm trooper got to his feet
and slowly walked away as Jarhok punched in the number. The doors slid open to
reveal a worrying sight. Ten storm troopers and a black cloaked figure waited on
the other side.
“You’re going nowhere
Jedi.”
“Hands up!”the leading storm
trooper said.
Reluctantly the two Jedi took
their hands away from their belts and put them above their heads. Two storm
troopers came up behind the JedI and stuck the butts of their guns into the
smalls of their backs,
“Get
moving,”they said.
Jarhok and Squibit were both thinking
the same thing, who was the cloaked figure and how did he catch them? Squibit
was looking closely at the black robed figure fearing the worst. They reached a
large thick blast door and the cloaked man whirled around. Squibit’s eye’s
widened as he was what was on the man’s belt. A light saber hilt! He gestured at
Jarhok and Squibit.
“In here, now!”he said and the
door opened to reveal three others behind, the two JedI solemnly walked into the
room and sat on the floor. Behind them the door slammed shut. The room or as
Jarhok noticed, the cage, was very small and was surrounded by a red force
field. The two Jedi sat opposite each other.
“Well how the hell are we going to get out of this one?”Jarhok asked.
It
was four hours later and the Jedi were meditating calmly on the metal floor when
they heard noises outside the force field. They looked through the fuzzy pane
and saw an escort of storm troopers approaching.
“Where’s
your force now huh?”one of them teased.
“Your light saber
can’t save you Jedi another jeered.
Jarhok felt anger boil up inside him and
he struggled to keep it down.
“Ignore them Jarhok, their
taunts mean nothing, the force is always with us,”Squibit assured
him.
The storm troopers grew tired of gloating over the
Jedi and walked away. The Jedi sat in silence again for a while.
“Can our light saber break through the door?”Jarhok
questioned.
“Yes but it would take time and the
whole outpost would come running,”Squibit explained.
“Ok then, maybe we could.”again Jarhok was cut off by a loud whining noise. The
force field flickered then disappeared, quickly followed by the lights. The
whole outpost shut down. Jarhok sprang to his feet followed by
Squibit.
“Not so fast Jarhok, this could be
some kind of trap.”Squibit warned.
But it was too late Jarhok was already
running ahead leaving Squib only one choice, to follow
him.
Jarhok reached out with the force to
guide him through the pitch black outpost, a large steel door was up ahead with
a lever located to the right. He reached the lever, pulled it and then walked
warily into the room.
Jarhok listened hard for
any noise but heard none. He crept forward, eyes peeled for any sign of movement
in the darkness. Jarhok was about to relax when he heard the swish of a robe.
Suddenly bright white lights flickered on, blinding Jarhok’s vision. He found
himself in a huge hanger holding on either side of him row upon row of tie
fighters. This wasn’t the source of Jarhoks fear though, the thing that chilled
Jarhok was the black cloaked figure in front of him.
“So you disobeyed your master and ended up here with no hope of living at all!
It wasn’t the right decision was it?”
“Squibit will
be here any minute! Just wait a few seconds and you’ll be the one who’s
worried,”Jarhok said bravely, hoping what he said was
true.
“You ignorant Jedi, you think you know about
the force? You know nothing, there is no good and evil, there is only power. I
was smart enough to take that power and so can you! When I look at you I see
potential, potential to be the best Jedi to walk the galaxy! One day you could
even rise above me! Be my Padawan and the journey to power and glory will begin.
Embrace the dark side of the force! Together Carda Joel and Jarhok could rule
the galaxy!”
“Why would I sink so low as that? Greed
isn’t my thing,”Jarhok piped up resisting the
temptation.
“Well if that is your choice, then I
will have to take your life.”
He grasped his hilt and activated his saber.
There was a slow hiss as his red blade snaked out. Jarhok unclipped his
lightsaber from his belt and held it just in front of his chin in both hands.
This was the heavy stance, one of his favourites. Jarhok’s palms were sweaty
he’d never been in a real duel before his past experiences had been against
training remotes, druids and of course the occasional play fight with his
master. Thinking of Squib filled him with guilt if only he’d listened then he
wouldn’t be alone. Jarhok put such thoughts aside, now was the time to
concentrate.
Darth Carda began to more forward
slowly advancing on Jarhok. Jarhok held up his lightsaber in
defence.
Carda leapt forward slashing in a downward arc Jarhok spun
away noticing Carda was open, very open. He ran in preparing to do a lethal
butterfly combination of swings, but Carda was one step ahead, he was never
meant to hit with his slash it was just a distraction. Carad spun around
knocking Jarhok’s lightsaber away with a single bone shattering swing. Jarhok’s
only chance had gone, he was alone with no one to help him, the end was near.
Jarhok collapsed to his knees knowing he was beaten and that there was no
turning back. There was a slow hum as Carda drew back his saber, the tool of
Jarhok’s destruction, for the final swing.
There was a huge flash of light
that filled the air!
Carda froze for a
moment, realising his mistake, there was a loud hiss and the smell of burning
flesh filled the air. A purple blade protruded through Carda’s belly. His body
stiffened and his sabre clattered to the floor. Squibit pushed Carda’s body away
and held out his hand to his Padawan.
“Never lose
hope Jarhok, the force is always with us.”
THE
END