Post by Force_Flow on Nov 20, 2006 18:14:45 GMT -4
Fighting Sticks, Prolouge
Jehuvva "Sticks" Glee is a war orphan. She and a group of freedom fighters sabotage Sith activities around the Galaxy. Now, fate has led her to Taris, where she'll meet up with Cerasi and Carth, two of the three survivors of the Endire Spire's crash.
.Prologue.
Ever since she was a kid, Jehuvva had been victim of the Sith. They entered her city, killing as they went. Jehuvva was one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately, her parents were killed. She was only eight years old. Jehuvva went on to master swordmanship, and decided to take on the Sith once and for all.
She went where her instincts told her to, sabotaging and planting lies in the soldiers’ heads. She was barely known by the Republic, however, and so she made up a group of freedom fighters. They are scattered over three worlds: Taris, Mannan, and Korriban.
Jehuvva and two freedom fighters, Kays and Sheeka, both travel to Taris, where Jehuvva mysteriously knows that’s where the Sith will be striking next. She makes herself a legend in the Dueling Ring, taking up on the nickname “Sticks.” Sticks in now sixteen, trapped on Taris, and fighting for her own destiny, with a little help along the way.
xXxXxXxXx
The apartment was bitterly cold and dark when the newly christened “Sticks” arrived from her errands. She’d been over at the Cantina, signing up for the Dueling Ring. She was hoping that her two companions were already asleep when she opened the door and stepped inside.
“So you’re back?”
Sticks didn’t turn, trying to keep the aura of authority as the voice she recognized at Kays’ came out of nowhere. He must’ve waited for her: it took her quite a while to file the emergency medical treatment files that Ajuur had given her. It was around 0100 o’clock. The Cantina stayed open 24/7 in case things happened like husbands getting thrown out by wives, ect,. It was quite amusing.
“Yeah,” she answered casually, dumping her backpack beside the door and locking it. “I would’ve thought the slimeball would just sign me up. Seems like he’s got government issues.”
“All Hutts have issues, Glee.” Kays liked to call her by her last name, said he thought it sounded cool. She could see his pale, long face in Taris’ two moons, his green eyes sparkling. “And besides, I wasn’t—“
“—Tired, yeah, I know, Kays,” she said, waving a hand. “Where’s Sheeka? Over nextdoor having fun with the neighbor?” She took her elbow and stretched her shoulder as she said this.
“You mean Zac? He’s a bit too old for her, don’t you think?” Kays asked mockingly. “He’s more into you, Glee.”
“Tusker poop,” she scoffed indignantly.
“It’s like he’s batting his eyelashes at you,” he said, leaning against the wall. “You know he’s too shy to make the first move. Hasn’t asked you on a date, yet…”
“You’re disgusting,” Sticks said, climbing to the top of her bunk-bed which she shared with Sheeka. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Kays walked to the opposite side of the room. “She’s nextdoor.”
xXxXxXxXx
Later, around seven-thirty AM, Sticks woke. Sheeka had arrived and mysteriously slipped back into her bunk during the night. During breakfast, Sticks let Kays tease her about her relationship with the neighbor as punishment. Later, Sticks had drafted the conversation away to Ajuur and the Dueling Ring.
“The slimeball’s scheduled a fight between me and Deadeye Duncan,” she explained. “Want’s fifty creds for every round. He’s making a special discount today.”
“How’d you make him do that, Jehuvva?” Sheeka asked curiously while nibbling a pta fruit.
“Because Duncan’s the worst fighter around. He’s been there the longest, though, but not longer than this other guy: Bendack Starkiller.” Sticks took a sip of her water. “Ajuur gave me a name, which you will now call me unless I tell you otherwise. Understood? No one shall know our true names, background, or occupation. The regular stuff. You hear me?”
They did. “So what’s you’re new name?” Kays asked. She told them.
“Fits perfectly,” said Sheeka.
“I know,” said Sticks. “And don’t worry. I think the Sith will be coming any time, now. I have a plan: When they come, their first objective will be the military base. Kays, you’re our most persuasive man: you get the job. Do whatever you can to get in. Once the Sith arrive, we’ll already have a seed just waiting to grow.”
“What about me?” Sheeka asked. The youngest of the group at fourteen, she was the best at putting her nose in places it shouldn’t belong and getting out safely again.
”You are going to be my informant,” Sticks said. “We’ve been here for four days, now, and you know the Lower City better than me and Kays. Go down there and make friends with the Beks. Make sure they trust you. After you do that, return to the Upper City Cantina.”
“Pretty free with the orders today, aren’t we?” Kays asked.
“We don’t have room for games. The Sith destroyed our homes, our families.” Sticks suppressed the memories that so desperately wanted to surface. “The only way to defeat the Sith is to destroy them. There’s not going to be mind games like we did on Cirrus. No sabotaging. It’ll be quick, and precise.”
She smiled, relaxing a bit. “We’ll strike a number of blows to this garrison until they’re off-balance. And then come down for the finale blow. The people of Taris won’t have to suffer like we had to.”
“But how do we even know that the Sith are coming?” Sheeka asked.
Sticks turned to the young girl. “The Endire Spire carries a passanger named Bastila Shan, a famed Jedi known for this magic called Battle Meditation. She’s important to the Republic war effort. If she dies, the Republic’s in ruins…”
“So the Sith will be after her?” asked Sheeka.
“The entire army is after her. Malak wants her as his pet, or else he’ll just kill her like all the rest. They’ll be here in two days.”
“How do you know all this, Sticks?” Kays asked, slipping into the ordered procedure of calling her by her fake name.
“An informant,” she said. “A big, slimy informant named Ajuur the Hutt.”
“Typical,” Kays muttered, sucking on a muja pit.
xXxXxXxXx
Sticks was at the Cantina when she head the explosions. She thought at first it was an earthquake. No one else seemed affected.
Because only she could hear it.
It was late at night, around 0300. Sticks had stayed that long to practice. Most of the people still there were passed out. But the bartender didn’t even hear the noises that made Stick’s head spin.
She walked out of the Cantina, both swords in hand. Her swords were a sharp metal, hooked at the ends. She could attach both blades together by a strong string (which she always did, never taking them off) and spin it to take out her opponent’s feet. The swords were her most prized possession.
The pounding in her head got louder as she looking up into the sky. At first, she thought it was a moon behind a cloud. But that was impossible, since the moon were in their lunar period and only one showed, which was to the opposite direction.
Trickles of white light reached over the clouds like lightning. Space battle, she thought. It was Sticks, not Ajuur, that was right after all. She had lied to her friends so they wouldn’t know the Secret. Though she should share everything with her gang, she didn’t. She was like that.
Nobody should know she was a Jedi.
Or was she a Sith? She could use the wrenched Force, for star’s sake. Her parents were proud. Called her their ‘Baby Jedi.’ She was going to be sent off for training, but the Sith stopped all of that.
She shook herself out of that horrible thought. It was too painful, even for the fearless leader of a rebel gang set on defending the Galaxy and killing Sith,
Space Battle.
From the looks of it, a ship was exploding. She cursed herself for not buying a comlink with the credits from Deadeye Duncan and Gerlon Two-Finger’s defeat. Kebla Yurt’s wouldn’t be open anytime soon.
She strode over to the transmitter, equivalent of a payphone in her own, low-tech world, and put in five creds. She jammed in her apartment’s signal and waited silently, watching the space battle overhead.
”Who’s there?” Sheeka’s voice. So relieving to hear.
“Sticks,” she answered. “Listen, I want you and Kays to go outside and look up.”
”What’s goin’ on, Sticks?”
“The Endire Spire has arrived and the Sith are here.”
A muffled shout of triumph. Sticks heard Sheeka’s voice babble on to Kays, repeating everything Sticks had said. ”Anything else?” Sheeka asked, upbeat.
“Yeah…” Sticks whispered. “I see an escape pod.”
All suddenly got quiet over the comm. ”An escape pod?” Sheeka said slowly.
”Point of impact?” inquired Kays.
“Next to Fire Fountain in the Eastern Part of the Upper City,” said Sticks, calculating. “They’re Republic: I can see the markings. Meet me there.”
She hung up and started at a run East. Both swords were held behind her as she ran like a trained athlete.
xXxXxXxXx
Carth Onasi was covered with sweat and blood. The young girl’s head rested on his lap, apparently unconscious after taking a serious blow while entering the atmosphere.
A red warning light shined brightly against the consol, and the capsule requested a series of manual operations, warning him in a calm female voice that ”explosive impacts have damaged the capsule’s automatic systems. Please do not worry, as the manual backup systems can perform perfectly well. Please perform the following function in the format requested.”
“Dammit!” Carth yelled.
His fingers flew over the controls, disengaging external shields, disengaging each of the primary source nodes and routing all their power to the secondary camber… He triggered the main repulser. Come on… he thought. No, too late. He triggered it too late.
He bent down in a protective crash position, trying to protect the young woman in his lap with his body as the ground came rising up to meet them.
A pilot wasn’t worried about crashing. A pilot was worried about the explosion that would happen afterwards. Usually an explosion happened unless the fuel tanks weren’t breached in any way. Carth hoped not. 35% of the deaths for the pilot’s these days was because they crashed and blew up upon impact.
He was worried. His gut twisted with the worry. The same worry he'd felt just a few minutes ago.
Three…
Carth struggled to think happy thoughts. His mother, all softness and light, or his father fat and round but always laughing. ”Son, the last thing I’ve ever wanted you to do was to join the military,” he had said. ”I may be against it, but I’m damned well proud of you, Carth.”
Two…
Carth adjusted his hold on Cerasi, holding her tight against his chest. He wouldn’t lose this brave woman. He needed help.
One, Zero!
BOOM.
Jehuvva "Sticks" Glee is a war orphan. She and a group of freedom fighters sabotage Sith activities around the Galaxy. Now, fate has led her to Taris, where she'll meet up with Cerasi and Carth, two of the three survivors of the Endire Spire's crash.
.Prologue.
Ever since she was a kid, Jehuvva had been victim of the Sith. They entered her city, killing as they went. Jehuvva was one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately, her parents were killed. She was only eight years old. Jehuvva went on to master swordmanship, and decided to take on the Sith once and for all.
She went where her instincts told her to, sabotaging and planting lies in the soldiers’ heads. She was barely known by the Republic, however, and so she made up a group of freedom fighters. They are scattered over three worlds: Taris, Mannan, and Korriban.
Jehuvva and two freedom fighters, Kays and Sheeka, both travel to Taris, where Jehuvva mysteriously knows that’s where the Sith will be striking next. She makes herself a legend in the Dueling Ring, taking up on the nickname “Sticks.” Sticks in now sixteen, trapped on Taris, and fighting for her own destiny, with a little help along the way.
xXxXxXxXx
The apartment was bitterly cold and dark when the newly christened “Sticks” arrived from her errands. She’d been over at the Cantina, signing up for the Dueling Ring. She was hoping that her two companions were already asleep when she opened the door and stepped inside.
“So you’re back?”
Sticks didn’t turn, trying to keep the aura of authority as the voice she recognized at Kays’ came out of nowhere. He must’ve waited for her: it took her quite a while to file the emergency medical treatment files that Ajuur had given her. It was around 0100 o’clock. The Cantina stayed open 24/7 in case things happened like husbands getting thrown out by wives, ect,. It was quite amusing.
“Yeah,” she answered casually, dumping her backpack beside the door and locking it. “I would’ve thought the slimeball would just sign me up. Seems like he’s got government issues.”
“All Hutts have issues, Glee.” Kays liked to call her by her last name, said he thought it sounded cool. She could see his pale, long face in Taris’ two moons, his green eyes sparkling. “And besides, I wasn’t—“
“—Tired, yeah, I know, Kays,” she said, waving a hand. “Where’s Sheeka? Over nextdoor having fun with the neighbor?” She took her elbow and stretched her shoulder as she said this.
“You mean Zac? He’s a bit too old for her, don’t you think?” Kays asked mockingly. “He’s more into you, Glee.”
“Tusker poop,” she scoffed indignantly.
“It’s like he’s batting his eyelashes at you,” he said, leaning against the wall. “You know he’s too shy to make the first move. Hasn’t asked you on a date, yet…”
“You’re disgusting,” Sticks said, climbing to the top of her bunk-bed which she shared with Sheeka. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Kays walked to the opposite side of the room. “She’s nextdoor.”
xXxXxXxXx
Later, around seven-thirty AM, Sticks woke. Sheeka had arrived and mysteriously slipped back into her bunk during the night. During breakfast, Sticks let Kays tease her about her relationship with the neighbor as punishment. Later, Sticks had drafted the conversation away to Ajuur and the Dueling Ring.
“The slimeball’s scheduled a fight between me and Deadeye Duncan,” she explained. “Want’s fifty creds for every round. He’s making a special discount today.”
“How’d you make him do that, Jehuvva?” Sheeka asked curiously while nibbling a pta fruit.
“Because Duncan’s the worst fighter around. He’s been there the longest, though, but not longer than this other guy: Bendack Starkiller.” Sticks took a sip of her water. “Ajuur gave me a name, which you will now call me unless I tell you otherwise. Understood? No one shall know our true names, background, or occupation. The regular stuff. You hear me?”
They did. “So what’s you’re new name?” Kays asked. She told them.
“Fits perfectly,” said Sheeka.
“I know,” said Sticks. “And don’t worry. I think the Sith will be coming any time, now. I have a plan: When they come, their first objective will be the military base. Kays, you’re our most persuasive man: you get the job. Do whatever you can to get in. Once the Sith arrive, we’ll already have a seed just waiting to grow.”
“What about me?” Sheeka asked. The youngest of the group at fourteen, she was the best at putting her nose in places it shouldn’t belong and getting out safely again.
”You are going to be my informant,” Sticks said. “We’ve been here for four days, now, and you know the Lower City better than me and Kays. Go down there and make friends with the Beks. Make sure they trust you. After you do that, return to the Upper City Cantina.”
“Pretty free with the orders today, aren’t we?” Kays asked.
“We don’t have room for games. The Sith destroyed our homes, our families.” Sticks suppressed the memories that so desperately wanted to surface. “The only way to defeat the Sith is to destroy them. There’s not going to be mind games like we did on Cirrus. No sabotaging. It’ll be quick, and precise.”
She smiled, relaxing a bit. “We’ll strike a number of blows to this garrison until they’re off-balance. And then come down for the finale blow. The people of Taris won’t have to suffer like we had to.”
“But how do we even know that the Sith are coming?” Sheeka asked.
Sticks turned to the young girl. “The Endire Spire carries a passanger named Bastila Shan, a famed Jedi known for this magic called Battle Meditation. She’s important to the Republic war effort. If she dies, the Republic’s in ruins…”
“So the Sith will be after her?” asked Sheeka.
“The entire army is after her. Malak wants her as his pet, or else he’ll just kill her like all the rest. They’ll be here in two days.”
“How do you know all this, Sticks?” Kays asked, slipping into the ordered procedure of calling her by her fake name.
“An informant,” she said. “A big, slimy informant named Ajuur the Hutt.”
“Typical,” Kays muttered, sucking on a muja pit.
xXxXxXxXx
Sticks was at the Cantina when she head the explosions. She thought at first it was an earthquake. No one else seemed affected.
Because only she could hear it.
It was late at night, around 0300. Sticks had stayed that long to practice. Most of the people still there were passed out. But the bartender didn’t even hear the noises that made Stick’s head spin.
She walked out of the Cantina, both swords in hand. Her swords were a sharp metal, hooked at the ends. She could attach both blades together by a strong string (which she always did, never taking them off) and spin it to take out her opponent’s feet. The swords were her most prized possession.
The pounding in her head got louder as she looking up into the sky. At first, she thought it was a moon behind a cloud. But that was impossible, since the moon were in their lunar period and only one showed, which was to the opposite direction.
Trickles of white light reached over the clouds like lightning. Space battle, she thought. It was Sticks, not Ajuur, that was right after all. She had lied to her friends so they wouldn’t know the Secret. Though she should share everything with her gang, she didn’t. She was like that.
Nobody should know she was a Jedi.
Or was she a Sith? She could use the wrenched Force, for star’s sake. Her parents were proud. Called her their ‘Baby Jedi.’ She was going to be sent off for training, but the Sith stopped all of that.
She shook herself out of that horrible thought. It was too painful, even for the fearless leader of a rebel gang set on defending the Galaxy and killing Sith,
Space Battle.
From the looks of it, a ship was exploding. She cursed herself for not buying a comlink with the credits from Deadeye Duncan and Gerlon Two-Finger’s defeat. Kebla Yurt’s wouldn’t be open anytime soon.
She strode over to the transmitter, equivalent of a payphone in her own, low-tech world, and put in five creds. She jammed in her apartment’s signal and waited silently, watching the space battle overhead.
”Who’s there?” Sheeka’s voice. So relieving to hear.
“Sticks,” she answered. “Listen, I want you and Kays to go outside and look up.”
”What’s goin’ on, Sticks?”
“The Endire Spire has arrived and the Sith are here.”
A muffled shout of triumph. Sticks heard Sheeka’s voice babble on to Kays, repeating everything Sticks had said. ”Anything else?” Sheeka asked, upbeat.
“Yeah…” Sticks whispered. “I see an escape pod.”
All suddenly got quiet over the comm. ”An escape pod?” Sheeka said slowly.
”Point of impact?” inquired Kays.
“Next to Fire Fountain in the Eastern Part of the Upper City,” said Sticks, calculating. “They’re Republic: I can see the markings. Meet me there.”
She hung up and started at a run East. Both swords were held behind her as she ran like a trained athlete.
xXxXxXxXx
Carth Onasi was covered with sweat and blood. The young girl’s head rested on his lap, apparently unconscious after taking a serious blow while entering the atmosphere.
A red warning light shined brightly against the consol, and the capsule requested a series of manual operations, warning him in a calm female voice that ”explosive impacts have damaged the capsule’s automatic systems. Please do not worry, as the manual backup systems can perform perfectly well. Please perform the following function in the format requested.”
“Dammit!” Carth yelled.
His fingers flew over the controls, disengaging external shields, disengaging each of the primary source nodes and routing all their power to the secondary camber… He triggered the main repulser. Come on… he thought. No, too late. He triggered it too late.
He bent down in a protective crash position, trying to protect the young woman in his lap with his body as the ground came rising up to meet them.
A pilot wasn’t worried about crashing. A pilot was worried about the explosion that would happen afterwards. Usually an explosion happened unless the fuel tanks weren’t breached in any way. Carth hoped not. 35% of the deaths for the pilot’s these days was because they crashed and blew up upon impact.
He was worried. His gut twisted with the worry. The same worry he'd felt just a few minutes ago.
Three…
Carth struggled to think happy thoughts. His mother, all softness and light, or his father fat and round but always laughing. ”Son, the last thing I’ve ever wanted you to do was to join the military,” he had said. ”I may be against it, but I’m damned well proud of you, Carth.”
Two…
Carth adjusted his hold on Cerasi, holding her tight against his chest. He wouldn’t lose this brave woman. He needed help.
One, Zero!
BOOM.