Other Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Jedi of Chaos ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: DarkSoar 
The shuttlecraft's ambushers are revealed, and Ranma and Rosh are separated.
Anime/Manga: Other Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.24.2006 | Updated On: 07.04.2006 | Pages: 7 | Words: 8.5K | Visits: 939 | Status: Work In Progress
The shuttlecraft's ambushers are revealed, and Ranma and Rosh are separated.
Anime/Manga: Other Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.24.2006 | Updated On: 07.04.2006 | Pages: 7 | Words: 8.5K | Visits: 939 | Status: Work In Progress
Yep, another revision :D
Disclaimer: The Force is NOT my ally. I am NOT a Jedi...
A Star Wars-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy/Ranma 1/2 Crossover
Warning: If you prefer to read about a canon-like Akane, then I suggest, by all means, that you might not want to read this chapter.
The Jedi of Chaos
C&C from Elsa Bibat implemented
Chapter 2 (version 1.01)
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and head of the Jedi Academy was interrupted in the middle of his meditation.
'Luke, we have an urgent situation.' It was a telepathic summons from Kyle Katarn, a self-taught Jedi who was now temporarily serving as an instructor for the Academy.
Returning to the real world, Luke uncrossed his legs and stood up. He took a couple of steps towards the entrance of the meditation chamber but suddenly halted. His eyes narrowed and he sent out his Force senses to search the entire floor he was on.
'That's odd, I could have sworn that I felt the barest flickers of a Dark Side presence,' he thought, probing harder and thoroughly around the general area where he'd sensed it.
However, after nearly five minutes of concentrated searching, Luke had found nothing. It still troubled him but he soon reasoned it to be the remaining presence of Gantoris, one of his students who had fallen to the Dark Side and had paid for his folly with his life.
Well, he'd look into it later; right now, the Force impressions he was getting from Kyle took first priority.
The door swished closed behind him as Luke walked out into the hallway.
Barely twenty feet from the meditation chamber, Allura Takthan of the Disciples of Ragnos, slowly let out a sigh of relief as Skywalker's probing finally stopped. It had been close; she had barely escaped his scrutiny by the tiniest of margins.
Thanks to Mistress Tavion's teaching, the red skinned Twi-lek had learned how to dampen her Force aura, which had certainly come in handy during her infiltration of this Jedi Academy.
Thanks to Brakiss, an Imperial plant that had posed as a potential student for Skywalker, the Disciples of Ragnos had valuable intel on the structure and layout of the Academy. It was this information Allura was now using as a guide in this phase of her mission.
If someone had taken the luxury of asking her, Allura would have said this was a waste of her time. She would've preferred to eliminate the new arrivals but Mistress Tavion's selection of her for this job had not been up for debate. The founder and leader of the Disciples of Ragnos had told her that since she was considerably more proficient at stealth techniques than her human rival was, her chances of success were that much higher.
How true that was. Allura allowed a self-satisfied smile grace her lips.
In the five years since they first met, Crimson had always been singleminded when it came to training in the Force. The shorter human female had, in the course of her training, almost solely focused on the combative aspects including lightsaber training along with all of the offensive techniques powered by the Dark Side.
Allura, on the other hand, had chosen to be more versatile in her own training. Like her rival, she had also chosen to focus more than a little on lightsaber training; in that respect, she was quite skilled, though not Crimson's equal, at least not yet. Aside from that, she had learned only a few offensive techniques, as well as a decent number of others that focused on manipulating other people with the Force.
Also, her ability to channel the Force through her body to temporarily boost her physical talents was on a much higher level than Crimson's own. That was what allowed her to keep up with, and even sometimes defeat, her rival whenever they had a 'practice match.'
Aside from mastering the basic instruction, Crimson had very limited control over her Force aura. Had she been chosen for this mission instead, it was a sure bet that her blazing presence in the Force would've given her away almost immediately.
Thus, the reason why it had fallen to Allura to do the job.
During their briefing, upon hearing Allura's part in the mission, Crimon had nearly laughed her fool head off and had commented that "only such a weak, sneaky girl would be given such a pathetically easy task."
For that, her head had indeed very nearly come off as an insulted Allura had swung at her using a decapitation technique. It was only Crimson's reflexes which had allowed her to keep her head on,
and a impromptu lightsaber duel had broken out right there in the meeting room.
It had been cut short courtesy of Tavion. Although she usually enjoyed and even generally encouraged such hostile displays of murderous rivalry, Tavion had made it well known in the beginning that nothing trivial such as heated rivalry would interfere with a mission. And since both of her students had broken that rule, she instantly set into motion their punishment.
One powerful lightning assault later, both of her disciples had been instantly subdued.
There had been little to be gained with further dispute, and so Allura had finally accepted that,
barring her Mistress, she was the only one suitable for the job.
Which was why she was here right now.
The suppression of her Force aura inevitably condemned her mission to proceed at a very slow pace. Disliking every second of it, Allura had to sneak into the Jedi Academy the old-fashioned way; no mind-tricks, no Force enhanced speed or jumps, nothing that would require use of the Force.
She had to rely on hiding, crawling, and generally trying her best not to be seen or heard.
One thing that made it a whole lot easier for her was the fact that Skywalker was foolish enough not to post watch, or even have more than the basic security system, one that hadn't been upgraded ever since Brakiss' stay a few years ago.
She shook her head in scornful disbelief. As far as the Twi'lek was concerned, this was part of the reason why the Jedi were so easily deceived by Emperor Palpatine during the death of the Old Republic.
Their teachings against the use of guile, anger, hatred, everything of the Dark Side was a very exploitable weak spot in their training.
Shaking her head to clear it and once again focusing on the job at hand, Allura made her way to the staircase. According to Brakiss's information, Skywalker's chamber was on the third floor.
Good thing that she had managed to steal this Jedi robe from an instructor's room; it certainly made for a convenient disguise. She had left her own distinctive black robes with Mistress Tavion's group back at the Massassi Temple.
She'd better get a move on before someone noticed that she was an unfamiliar face. There was some data that she had to copy, after all.
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Somewhere in the vast forest of Yavin, Tavion's other disciple and Allura's hated rival was doing what she loved best.
Hunting down and disposing of two men.
Crimson reached out with the Force and, with some difficulty, managed to locate the nearest of her prey. There were two of them and were relatively close; about a mile away to the south. It was obvious to her that they had been selected among the survivors to get help; clearly their communications was damaged and could not be repaired.
Of her male prey, from what little she could get from 'reading' their Force aura's, it seemed that they would be hardly any threat to her, much less to her and her two subordinates. She could only base that assumption on the size of their Force aura's. Though she hated to admit it to herself, that Twi-lek bitch's senses were far more acute and accurate than hers.
One of the two male pigs was considerably strong in the Force, though the uncontrolled way his aura was leaking meant that he was untrained. The other possessed significantly less potential than his companion; to her, he was barely a shadow in the Force. In fact, it was so small that Crimson wondered why the fool even chose to train to be a Jedi.
Was Skywalker that foolish and desperate to rebuild the Jedi Order that he would accept anyone, no matter how little their potential?
No, Crimson decided. Mistress Tavion had told them many times to not underestimate Luke Skywalker; he was a force to be reckoned with. If the reports about him were to be believed, he had singlehandedly destroyed Darth Vader AND the Emperor in one stroke.
Skywalker had to have a reason why he'd taken on a student with so little Force potential; the Disciples just didn't know it yet.
Still in her black cloak, Crimson continued leading her two subordinates, Narissa and Talna, on a path that would carry them towards an intercept point with their two future victims.
While she'd informed Mistress Tavion that she was more than capable of eliminating a handful of untrained Jedi-wannabes, Tavion had crisply informed her that it was more for her subordinates benefit than for hers. Her subordinates were both human also, skilled and well motivated, but their training wasn't finished yet and they needed more field experience.
Although they were both taller and older than her, Narissa being the oldest and Talna the tallest, such things didn't mean a thing in the ranks of the Disciples of Ragnos. The only thing that mattered was the Force, or rather the Dark Side of it, and how you used it.
When the two of them were first assigned to her, Crimson had quickly established herself as the Alpha Female by simply giving them both a thorough beatdown with her superior Dark Side mastery when they had challenged her.
Ever since she'd first joined Mistress Tavion's group, Crimson had made it well known that she completely loathed and distrusted men, not tolerating them in the slightest. As a matter of fact, the first day she joined the Disciples of Ragnos, she had nearly killed a man who had tried to come on to her.
She became a figure to be feared, someone you would not want to cross paths with, even accidentally. Tavion allowed her behavior because it helped instill order and tighter control over the underlings.
With an attitude like that, it wasn't long before she was picking fights on a daily basis with any male member who glanced at her. More often than not, it would end with them being savagely beaten. She soon established a reputation for herself as a genuine man-hater, who would go to any lengths to right the wrong done to her in the past by the one of THEM.
By teaching them such lessons, she would force them to think twice before even attempting to abuse any women in their future.
She would not let any of her own be subjected to the torture that she had been through as a child and a teenager. That was why when Tavion had approached her with the offer to join the Disciples of Ragnos, she'd snapped it up immediately once she heard how much stronger she could become.
To her mind, that meant she would not have to fear about being abused by any man ever again.
Due to her stance, none of the male Disciples were in any hurry to sign up as her apprentice, having long learned to give her a very wide berth.
Although Crimson was of the opinion that the Disciples of Ragnos should only be a sisterhood, she managed, however barely, to restrain herself from constantly trying to convince Tavion to accept her idea.
As powerful as Crimson become, she still respected Tavion as her Mistress and superior. She was a woman after all.
Thus the reason why Narissa and Talna had been assigned to her. There were others who'd been with the Disciples of Ragnos longer and were more experienced, but they were unfortunately men. The other women either were already assigned to their masters/mistresses or had other duties to fulfill.
Since Crimson had threatened to kill any man who dared come close to her, the only way to rectify this was to give her underlings of similar gender.
Tavion, and only Tavion, was allowed to call her by her forgotten name.
Crimson snorted inwardly; she couldn't dream of how she could have ever been naive, weak willed, and easily dominated way back then. The only things her past self and her now had in common was the hatred of males, though different in intensity and perspective. Her past self had hated teenaged boys but tolerated men. Crimson hated any man, teenage to adult, of any species with equal fervor.
To her, it was as if she lived two separate, different lives with no period of transition in between.
All in all, having subordinates wasn't such a bad arrangement. In fact, it could be downright pleasurable. It took some time and effort, but Narissa was slowly becoming to enjoy being involved in certain activities of Crimson's, which made for more than a few nights of indulgence.
Crimson allowed a faint lecherous grin to cross her face at what happened some nights ago, but managed to keep her mind on the mission. Yavin's forest wasn't exactly safe, having its fair share of predatory beasts, but they weren't of any considerable threat if the three of them kept on their guard.
The young Disciple of Ragnos was looking forward to the three following things; the rush and thrill of combat, the destruction of men, and also the whittling down the numbers of her enemies.
She didn't personally know who her prey was but she didn't care. They were men, and at some point, had probably hurt a female in the past, like the way she'd been hurt. Even if they hadn't hurt a woman yet, it was inevitable that they would do so in the not too distant future.
It was their nature; they were men, after all, and it was to be expected of them.
Crimson was their punishment made flesh.
Of course, she'd let Talna and Narissa into some of the fun as well, but there was always a possibility that she would lose herself in her lust for battle and kill them all.
Well, all of the males, that is; if there were any women, she'd let Talna and Narissa take care of them in order to see exactly what her subordinates were made of. Crimson disliked taking the lives of any female, however misguided though they be.
They were getting closer, and as the distance decreased, her eagerness grew.
"Soon, very soon," she chanted out loud, unconsciously rubbing her thumb against the hard, cool surface of her lightsaber.
Behind her, Talna and Narissa traded looks of mutual apprehension. Talna had been with the Disciples a couple of months longer than Narissa had, but this was their first time together to be on what they considered a real mission.
They had heard tons of rumours about the times when Crimson had gotten too carried away, and well, from all accounts it hadn't been a pretty sight.
The male members of the Disciples of Ragnos were dead certain that Crimson's sanity was slowly peeling away and went to great lengths to avoid her. They sure as hell didn't want to be near when she finally went off.
Her two subordinates began to consider themselves very unlucky; after all, they were pretty much stuck with her, like it or not. Despite their doubts, they had to follow her wherever she went.
Yet, as they did so, they couldn't help but have a very bad feeling about this mission.
With a swing of the lightsaber, the tree fell down across the looming ravine, creating an instant bridge.
Deactivating the energy blade, Ranma nodded in satisfaction. Waiting for the tree to stabilize, he stepped up on the trunk and casually strolled over to the other side, not giving the raging torrent below a second look. Once he reached the other side, he motioned for Rosh to walk across.
Rosh shrugged in reluctanct compliance. Ever since their little 'discussion' fifteen minutes ago, he had treaded the waters with a mixture of fear, hatred and respect. Though it had been difficult at first, he'd kept silent and avoided any sort of conversation with Korr.
After he saw how deadly a shot Korr was, Rosh was convinced that maybe he shouldn't try and push his luck; one could never know if Korr wouldn't shoot him on the spot next time.
Besides, Rosh was worried for the wounded back at the shuttlecraft. He knew that if he wasted more time by stirring up Korr's nest of hornets, their chances of living to see another day would be severely decreased.
In any case, he was still unarmed and, whether he liked it or not, was forced to rely on Ranma for protection, no matter how much it wounded his pride. However, dwelling on his wounded pride was quickly beginning to be replaced by jealousy.
To date, they'd already encountered three more of those reptiles, and Ranma had easily nailed them all with headshots each and every time. The ponytailed man made it look so effortless that Rosh wasn't sure if he was showing off or not.
One of those shots had been made while the reptile had leaped down towards them from a branch thirty-odd feet above the ground.
Rosh had only caught the descending blur a second before he was roughly shoved aside and, one quick laser blast later, the beast's corpse had crashed in the spot where he'd been.
Since then, Rosh was trying hard to ignore how much he envied the skills Ranma had displayed. He found himself failing as he continuously replayed what had happened. And he also found himself wondering about Korr's personality.
This led to him wondering what kind of life the other man had previously led, what kind of training he'd undergone to become what he was now.
As he considered Korr's seemingly impossible accuracy with the blaster along with his attitude, a very unpleasant possibility presented itself to him.
Was he trained as an assassin?
Rosh quickly began sweating and grew very nervous with that idea. He reflexively looked at Korr's profile and began considering it with what he knew of the other man. So far, Korr had displayed fewer emotions than a computer and maintained an ice-cold personality.
On the other hand, assassins weren't known for being humanitarian; Korr had already shown, however briefly, that he'd been concerned about the injured people back at the shuttlecraft. Then again, he could be faking it as some sort of camouflage or something like that.
Damn! Rosh's fear soon developed into confusion. He didn't know what to think anymore; his theories, observations, and imagination began chasing each other in circles.
He began to feel an urge to scream out loud to the sky and rip his hair out. Such was the magnitude of the influence Korr had on him. Damn it all! Unfortunately, he soon discovered that it was a very bad idea to ignore where one was walking. His right foot, while stepping forward, abruptly found itself bumping into the slightly charred end of the fallen tree. And since the height between the ground and the tree were different...
"What th---!"
Splat.
"Owwwwww..."
All things considered, Rosh should've been grateful. Although he did almost knock himself senseless (and rather painfully) on the rough, unyielding wood, it was the tree that kept him from falling to certain death into the ravine.
Of course as usual, Ranma was completely blunt in his response. There was no 'Glare of Death' this time, though there was the slightest traces of what could've been exasparation in his eyes.
"Penin, you klutz. What's the matter with you? Quit screwing around; we don't have time to waste. Get up or I'll leave you behind."
Having said his piece, Ranma then proceeded to start climbing a nearby tree, wanting to check their progress towards the Massassi temple and see if they were still on track.
"Damnit! I'm in pain here, you idiot! You could at least help me up, you know?" Unfortunately, either Ranma was ignoring him or he was already too high up to have heard.
Still lying facedown on the tree bridge, Rosh had missed Ranma climbing up into the three. Groaning in self pity, he lamented that this was not one of his better days. As he slowly got up, Rosh reached up to feel his face and cursed loudly.
A large bruise was already forming on the right side and he knew that he would look like half of something the cat dragged in.
Crap, this was Ran--, no wait, it was his own fault for not paying attention where he was going. While Rosh might be stubborn and hard-headed at times, he was not in the habit of blaming his problems on other people. At least, not all the time.
Carefully making his way over to the other side, he looked around for Korr. When he couldn't find him, Rosh was beginning to grow angry at being left behind. Regardless of the abuse heaped upon him by Korr, he didn't really believe the cold-blooded sociopath would have done that to him.
"Emperor's damnation!" he cursed, then impulsively dashed off into the jungle. "Korr, you bastard! Where the hell are you?"
Within seconds, he was lost from sight.
Eight minutes later, Ranma dropped down from the branch into a crouched stance. He looked around, a small frown tugging at the corners of his mouth when he noticed his companion's disappearance.
"How...inconvenient," he stated. "I should have had the Rodian come with me instead of him."
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At his vigil near the shuttlecraft's open side hatch, Dah'kk was fervently wishing that he'd switched places with Penin. The Zabrak nurse was nice, but gods above and below, her nonstop chatter was really getting on his nerves!
"Y' wanna know sumthin' funny? Ah wuz accident'ly engaged ta two guys back in med school, and Ah didn't even know it! They wuld buy me all sorts 'f gifts and treat me ta all th' best rest'rants; dear o' dear, Ah wuz in heav'n, don'cha know? Half th' time, I didn't even hav' ta spend a dime on myself 'n food an' entertainin' myself. Oh gosh, Ah wish I culd go back ta thos' days. Hey huney, d'ya think Luke Skywalk'r will treat us all ta a 'Welcom' New Students' party bash or sumthin' like it. I sur' wish he does! He sounds like a very nice man, don'cha think so? An' anuther thin'..."
The Rodian wasn't the only one who was suffering. The others who were awake, including the pilot, two of the Twi-leks, and one of the Kel-dor males were all unfortunately experiencing the same thing.
They really needed to be rescued, now more than ever.
Dah'kk's right round-shaped, black filled eye was twitching. At the moment, he was seriously thinking about shooting himself to end the pain. At the rate Aserna was carrying on, he didn't know if he could hold on to his sanity for long.
"Hey y'all, Ah hav an idear! Since this 's sorta like a campout, let's sing sum songs! Ah'll start! Ah luv ya, ya luv me; we're a happy family! With a great big hug..." 1
The indigenous wildlife near the shuttle were minding their own business until they were startled by several loud cries that shouted in agonized unison.
"NOOOOO! MAKE IT STOP, OH PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!"
At that instant in the Jedi Academy, while listening to Katarn, Luke Skywalker's body noticeably stiffened.
"We lost track of the shuttle soon after it entered Yavin's atmosphere... Luke, what's wrong?"
The tow-headed Jedi Master had suddenly looked up at the ceiling, having barely registered Kyle's words.
He said in a distant tone of voice, "I just felt a minor disturbance in the Force...as if a handful of voices suddenly cried out in agony and were being subjected to some sort of horrible torture nearby. We have to move quickly, or else we won't have any new trainees left to teach. Kyle, please go gather the senior students and get them ready. We leave in fifteen minutes."
"You got it, Luke."
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Rosh Penin had lost track of how much time had elapsed since Korr had disappeared and left him behind. For that matter, he didn't really care.
Less than a minute after he began searching for him, Rosh arrived at the conclusion that he didn't need to waste time looking for Korr. He still had the beacon, and the injured people at the shuttlecraft still needed help.
So with all that in mind, he'd switched priorities, kicking 'Search for Ponytailed Prick' down to the bottom of the list and bringing up 'Locate Massassi Temple'.
He'd already climbed up a tree to check his position. It was with relief he'd discovered that he was only slightly off track. He'd long since corrected and periodically rechecked his course.
After a while, he began to rant out loud; not one of his better ideas, as he would come to regret later.
"Stupid Ranma. It's all his fault I'm in this godforsaken jungle. Dammit, why the hell did he have to force me to go with him, that cold-blooded nutcase. I could've been safely back in the shuttle, waiting to be rescued!"
Rosh took a moment to reconsider his words.
"I take that back. There's no way in hell that I'd place myself back in the shuttle just to be tortured by that air-headed ditzy nurse! Man, now that I think about it, I should've never applied to the Military Academy."
He took a moment to take a breather and then continued on.
"And I could've been home at a barbecue!2 Stupid Korr, this is all your fault!"
"Instead here I am, trudging through this humid, vegetation-filled crap, sweating like a rancor in heat, with hungry, man-eating predators hiding all around me, just waiting to get a taste of the good old #6 Penin meat special!"
Rosh shook his head in disgust and threw a fruitless glare at forest.
He really should have been more careful of what he was saying.
Rosh didn't know what warned him; some instinct or maybe the Force. All he knew was that he sensed something moving towards him from the right. He turned, looked, and immediately started running for his life.
He would've spat a short curse but time was a precious commodity at the moment. Thus, he made sure to hold the beacon securely against his chest and focused all his energy into running. Rosh didn't get a clear look, but what little he'd seen was more than enough.
Anyone with sense would do their utmost best to get away from a large, dark-red furry feline-like beast running at them with sharp, gleaming teeth.
As he ran, Rosh mentally added yet another thing to the list that was Korr's fault.
Somewhere behind Rosh, Ranma was quickly tree-hopping his way towards the Massassi temple, oblivious to the other man's predicament.
At the same time, elsewhere ahead of Rosh, three cloaked and hooded figures paused. Sensing that one of the two were rapidly coming their way, they arranged for an appropriate welcome.
Lines of sweat cascaded down Rosh's face as he frantically pumped his legs to go faster and faster. He didn't dare to look behind him to see how close his pursuer was; he knew how these things worked, he'd seen it happen on those holovid movies after all.
The second he turned his head, he would trip over an exposed root or vine and it would be all over for Alina Penin's oldest boy.
Thus he forced out all thoughts on how much his legs hurt, how hard it was getting to breathe, EVERYTHING, and just plain focused on staying more than one step ahead of it.
Leaves and small branches slapped at his face and body, the rapid rhythm puffs of air flew from his mouth, the adrenaline sparking through his body, Rosh had never felt so alive before. Then again, he had good reason to.
For the most part, he ran on, partially blind. This part of the forest was very dark, with only small patches of light to help him negotiate his way. It was enough so he was able to avoid being clotheslined by any low hanging branch.
Whenever he would think that he couldn't go on any further, the image of being painfully torn limb from limb spurred him on.
After what seemed to be several minutes of being chased (though in actuality was only twenty seconds, Rosh broke clear of the forest out into a large clearing with a wide river straight ahead. Beyond that was more forest and beyond that to the right, was the Massassi temple!
Apparently, by sheer luck, he'd been able to stay on track. Rosh immediately made a beeline towards it.
The rustling of bushes from behind told him that the red feline carnivore was after him. Damnit! Why won't it just give up!
His legs churning for all they were worth, Rosh eyed the river with dismay. It was obvious that he couldn't run across it, the drag of the downstream current would slow him down enough for the feline to catch him.
No, the only way to get across was to jump across. The river was pretty wide, but Rosh was positive that he could make it. He had no other choice, if he wanted to live.
That was always a good incentive.
The river was coming closer, but he knew without a doubt that his pursuer was quickly gaining, being on open ground meant that it didn't have to contend with maneuvering around trees and other such obstacles.
With the strength of desperation, Rosh gathered up his flagging energy and focused it into his legs for one last burst of speed.
Five feet. Four feet. Three feet. Two feet. One feet. He was now at the riverbank.
"Ohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshthishadbetterfrigginwork!'
With that last thought, Rosh tensed his leg muscles and jumped for all he was worth. For a single moment,
it was as if time slowed down and he was hanging over the river, inching forward at a snail's pace. From his position, he knew he would make it safely to the other side with inches to spare.
When his left foot finally touched down on the ground,
time resumed its normal passage. However, before he could even start to be happy about that, the forward momentum from his leap transferred to his landing.
In other words, he was unable to keep his balance upon landing and tripped, finding himself for the third time in one day, face flat on the slightly moist ground.
For a second, Rosh lied still, confused as to what had happened. His adrenaline, which had served him so well in preventing him from becoming catfood, quickly left his body, leaving him feeling weak as a kitten.
He lifted his head and then suddenly, his eyes widened as he abruptly remembered what was chasing him. He quickly rolled over just in time to see the feline-like predator launch itself over the river, just like he'd done.
And unless he did something very soon, said feline-like predator would be landing right on him.
Completely frozen by fear, Rosh did the only thing he could. Reflexively throwing his arms over his face, the young man screamed at the top of his lungs.
"MOOOOMMMMIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" 3
Two heart-beats passed.
Nothing happened. There was no impact of an oversized cat on top of him, there was no unbearable pain of his skin being ripped open by razor edged canines, there was no spurting of blood from ravaged blood vessels.
He was still alive! But how?
Rosh cautiously opened his eyes and lowered his arms. He looked around uneasily and immediately shouted out in surprise.
The red cat was still there over him, but something had frozen it in mid-air. For a moment, Rosh thought he was dreaming or hallucinating, but a female voice soon dispelled that theory.
"I'm sorry to interfere with your business, my feline sister, but I'll take over from here. Talna!"
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From the treelines where they'd been watching the amusing chase, Crimson had been tempted to let the predator catch the prey.
But at the last moment, her desire to have a little fun changed her mind; with that decided, she motioned to Talna, who understood what to do.
The three Disciples casually walked out into the open, Talna with her hand outstretched, using the Force to hold the large feline in place.
They stopped at a certain point, Crimson a little ahead of her two subordinates. In an overly dramatic tone, she said "I'm sorry to interfere with your business, my feline sister, but I'll have to take over from here."
She pointed at the forest on the other side and ordered, "Talna!"
Her subordinate nodded, her brow wrinking with the effort, and slowly dropped her live cargo at the designated area.
The red feline landed on her feet, snarled angrily at the three women and for one second was about to attack them. However, her animal instincts, which had kept her alive all these years on Yavin, warned her against that move. These three were definitely more dangerous than she ever could be. Hissing in displeasure, she wheeled around and vanished within the forest.
Rosh let out a breath of pure relief and he remained where he was for a few seconds, letting himself recover from the exhausting run. If he hadn't prepared himself physically for the New Republic Military -- he shook his head; he did not want to go there. It was a good thing that his rescuers had arrived when they did.
When he felt his legs were sturdy enough to support him again, Rosh stood up with some difficulty and faced them. He assumed that they were from the Jedi Academy; Skywalker must've found out about their predicament, somehow. After all, he was a Jedi Master and probably had his ways.
His initial greeting died quickly when he got a good look at them. There were three of them, undisputedly female, and what really took Rosh aback was their body language and their choice of clothing.
His intuition told him in no uncertain terms that the shortest one in the middle was the leader, and she was tense and angry at something, or someone. Check that, not angry, more like ... hostile. Very, very hostile.
The body language of one of the two behind wasn't nearly as tense or hostile as the leader's was, but neither was it encouraging. The tallest one seemed to be neutral, perhaps even a little sympathetic, but that was probably his imagination.
Also, their clothing was not giving him any assurance at all either. In his opinion, those black hooded robes they wore practically screamed out "Danger!" to his intuition. With every inch of their body covered, except for the mouth and chin, Rosh decided that it was quite evident they weren't going for a 'positive' public image.
In appearances alone, they looked very ominous and forbidding to him and a sudden chill ran up his spine.
That said, Rosh didn't think that Luke Skywalker would approve of such attire. He found himself idly wondering how they could stand being almost completely covered like that during such a hot day like now.
Rosh was beginning to have a bad feeling about all this. His throat became suddenly dry, and the relief he'd felt at being rescued winked out and was being replaced with apprehension. Although he knew it would fail, he tried anyway.
"Thanks ladies," he began cautiously. "I would've been catfood if you three hadn't shown up when you did. Say, how did you manage to find me all the way from the Academy?"
His question went unanswered. The one in the middle who seemed to be in charge stepped forward, her mouth turning up into an eager and hungry grin. She unhooked her black and red lightsaber and ignited it.
The resulting snap-hiss made Rosh flinch, which she enjoyed seeing. The bruised half of his face made her snicker derisively, lowering her opinion of him by several depths.
It was at this time that every inch of Rosh's body screamed at him that he was in a lot of trouble. He wasn't an idiot; from the stories he'd heard of the fall of the Empire, these were probably Sith, like what Darth Vader and the Emperor had been.
Taking some steps backward, Rosh pasted a nervous smile on his face and tried to negotiate.
"Okay, let's have everyone calm down and I'm sure we can make a deal. C'mon, whadaya say? I'm not even a trained Jedi yet, meaning I'm no threat to you at all. So how about letting me go, c'mon, please?"
Unfortunately, his pleading failed to result in the desired conclusion. Crimson began advancing on him, matching him step for step, and brought her lightsaber to ready.
Behind her, Narissa seemed on the verge of saying something, but decided against it.
"Typical of a man; not having the courage to die with dignity. I'll be doing Skywalker a favor by helping him weed out pathetic worms just like you! Die, you weak excuse for a male!"
Rosh had a response ready for that.
"Oh, shit."
Crimson dashed forward and she lifted her lightsaber for a slashing maneuver. All of a sudden, in mid-step, the Force alerted her to an incoming threat from across the river.
Stopping in her tracks, she swiveled in the necessary direction and yelled out "Ambush!" while bringing her blade up defensively in an appropriate block.
It was a good thing too, because less than half a heart-beat later, a burst of laser bolts were fired at them from the trees on the other side of the river.
Reacting quickly himself, Rosh took this opportunity to dash into the woods, heading straight for the Massassi Temple. They were distracted, good. Now he had to reach the Temple before they caught up to him.
At their superior's cry, Narissa and Talna activated their lightsabers and prepared to defend themselves. All three ignored Rosh's escape; they could easily catch up to him after they disposed of this newest problem.
Unfortunately, things weren't as easy as they'd assumed.
Crimson easily picked off the laser bolt that blazed towards her face; as did Narissa. However, the last member of their group wasn't quite as successful.
Talna had been a split-second too slow to react. She ALMOST made it as she swung her lightsaber up in a half-circle to deflect the incoming bolt. Despite her attempt, the laser bolt shot past the energy blade, missing by a fourth of an inch, and burnt itself right between her eyes. 4
She fell on her back, convulsed for a bit then became still as she entered death's final embrace.
Crimson's eyes narrowed. Whoever ambushed them, and she was certain it was only one person, was one hell of a shot. All of those laser bolts had been aimed at the exact same spot for all three of them.
And what was more to consider was the speed of which the laser bolts had been fired...no hesitation between each shot. Just zap-zap-zap and that was it.
Knowing instantly that their comrade was dead, Crimson and Narissa didn't even bother to tend to her. They absently realized that Rosh had disappeared, but they didn't worry about that now.
The two of them wisely kept their guard up, not eager to dash into such an obvious trap, preferring to wait for their hidden attacker to show themselves.
"Narissa, go catch that coward who ran away," Crimson ordered. "I'll deal with this one."
"Sure thing Ma'am," her subordinate acknowledged and began to head towards the forest.
Only to be forced to defend herself when the second round of laser beams flashed into existence. This time however, instead of going for the both of them, they were all directed at her.
"You stupid idiot!" her superior roared at her. "Have you forgotten? NEVER turn your back on an enemy!"
"S-sorry Ma'am!" Narissa exclaimed, letting the Force guide her hand and she deflected every beam successfully.
Though she wasn't skilled enough to redirect them straight back at their source, she was capable enough to angle them in a way so they wouldn't burn her foot off or accidentally fly in Crimson's direction.
The young blonde shivered at the thought of what would occur should her superior's wrath, already provoked by her blunder, be incensed further by the latter.
It became obvious that their hidden ambusher was trying to buy their prey additional time. It was also clear to Crimson that he or she would keep firing at Narissa, further stopping her from chasing the man, which led to said man getting farther and farther away with each breath.
Of course, that simply wouldn't do at all.
Busily defending herself, Narissa was surprised when her leader's blade shot out and deflected one, then two laser bolts.
"Ma'am?" she asked uncertainly.
"Go," Crimson stated, an angry undertone evident as she stepped in front of her. "I'll cover you."
"Thanks a lot, Ma'am! Be right back in a minute!" Narissa caroled happily and sped into the forest.
The instant her subordinate vanished into the trees, the barrage stopped. Crimson smirked; she'd expected that to happen.
"Come on out and face me, if you have the guts for it, you ambushing, cowardly piece of filth!"
She'd expected another fruitless barrage of lasers; she'd expected the ambusher to run away. What she didn't expect was the person to actually meet her challenge.
Out of the woods, as if he didn't have a care in the world, calmly strolled Ranma Korr, weaponless except for his lightsaber held in his hand.
Stopping a few feet from the riverbank, he regarded the her with a measured look, as if mentally calculating her threat potential.
"Ambushing?" he asked in a mildly interested way. "A curious description, coming from someone who was definitely involved in a certain uncalled for, sudden attack on a certain shuttlecraft backaways."
"Pheh," snorted Crimson. "I'll admit that you got guts to blame that on me. Not that it matters since I'm wasn't the one who did it."
It was true; it had been Tavion who had blasted the shuttlecraft's engines with the Scepter of Ragnos.
"And yet, you did nothing to stop it and are in league with whoever WAS responsible. That makes you," he pointed at her, "guilty by association."
Her patience finished, Crimson brandished her weapon and shouted at him, "Enough talking! You ambushed us and killed one of my own, you bastard! I'm soo going to enjoy this..."
With that, she brought up her lightsaber to the ready and began walking towards the river, never taking her eyes off him.
With an eager gleam of anticipation forming in her eyes, she found herself growing excited.
The short lived mystery had been solved already; with the lightsaber as proof, obviously he was a Jedi. How else could the accuracy of his blaster shots could be explained? 5
This would be her first battle with a Jedi; hopefully he would provide her with a good fight. That Twi-lek slut was good, but she wasn't yet her equal in pure lightsaber combat. She was almost there however, and the 'practice' battles between the two of them weren't always one-sided.
Crimson entertained the faint hope that this man would prove to be as good, but she doubted it.
By reflex, Crimson probed him with her Force senses and became greatly puzzled, though her face didn't show it. Unless she was mistaken or unless he was trying to deceive her into underestimating him, this was the same guy she sensed earlier, the one with hardly any Force potential.
Just what kind of stupid trick he was trying to pull?
She spat in anger. Just like a man to trick a woman in order to make her misjudge him, so he could stab her in the back when she wasn't paying attention. Trick or not, he was going to die today at her hands!
And like she'd said, there was the matter of vengeance.
Talna had been a decent subordinate and, barring any new female initiates, it would be extremely difficult to replace. At least her death would help Crimson by focusing her thoughts of revenge. She flipped off the hood, letting her face catch the afternoon sunlight.
Black hair with blue highlights that reached the middle of her back was securely tied back in a tight, double knot. Wrathful brown pupils regarded her enemy with scorn. A furious scowl marred what was otherwise an attractive face.
"Whoever you are, you wouldn't believe how big a mistake you've just made. Your life, as of now, is forfeit, you stupid, suicidal MAN! Please, do me a favor and try to put up at least a little bit of resistance."
Her face emphasized her promise by twisting into a decidedly evil and menacing expression which had put fear into the hearts of many men.
It was completely wasted on Ranma, who didn't acknowledge it one bit. He shrugged, his posture giving off vibes of indifference, and ignited his lightsaber.
The chips of ice that vaguely resembled his eyes met her burning glare directly, showing not an inch of fear.
Holding the humming light-green energy blade a few inches away from his face, Ranma gave Crimson her answer.
"We'll see."
End Chapter 2
Began May 26, 2006
Finished June 16, 2006
Revised June 22, 2006
Further revised July 02, 2006
Author's Notes:
Revised version 1.00
Corrected the minor errors pointed out/discussed by Sebastian Palm and David Johnston. Thanks guys! Rewrote some paragraphs and added a one or two new ones.
Revised version 1.01
Tried hard to follow as much of Elsa's advice as possible. Fewer frequent scene breaks and decreased the number of ellipses (I never noticed how much I used them). The pacing, however, is going to stay pretty much the same. And for the humor, well, unless I think up some better ideas (and implement them in a yet another future revision), it'll go the same way.
Expanded on a few scenes and changed some minor details to make this chapter connect more smoothly with the next.
1 Yes, I'm evil. (chuckles)
2 Borrowed this line from ID4
3 If you haven't noticed already, Rosh is the designated comic-relief...well, until Ranma thaws out later in the story, though.
4 I figured if Jango Fett could catch a fully trained Jedi Knight (Coleman Trebor) by surprise and eventually get through his defenses (Attack of the Clones)...
5 Crimson hasn't met Dash Rendar (Shadows of the Empire) or Wes Janson of Rogue/Wraith Squadron, two of the best gun-men in the Star Wars universe
Disclaimer: The Force is NOT my ally. I am NOT a Jedi...
A Star Wars-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy/Ranma 1/2 Crossover
Warning: If you prefer to read about a canon-like Akane, then I suggest, by all means, that you might not want to read this chapter.
The Jedi of Chaos
C&C from Elsa Bibat implemented
Chapter 2 (version 1.01)
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and head of the Jedi Academy was interrupted in the middle of his meditation.
'Luke, we have an urgent situation.' It was a telepathic summons from Kyle Katarn, a self-taught Jedi who was now temporarily serving as an instructor for the Academy.
Returning to the real world, Luke uncrossed his legs and stood up. He took a couple of steps towards the entrance of the meditation chamber but suddenly halted. His eyes narrowed and he sent out his Force senses to search the entire floor he was on.
'That's odd, I could have sworn that I felt the barest flickers of a Dark Side presence,' he thought, probing harder and thoroughly around the general area where he'd sensed it.
However, after nearly five minutes of concentrated searching, Luke had found nothing. It still troubled him but he soon reasoned it to be the remaining presence of Gantoris, one of his students who had fallen to the Dark Side and had paid for his folly with his life.
Well, he'd look into it later; right now, the Force impressions he was getting from Kyle took first priority.
The door swished closed behind him as Luke walked out into the hallway.
Barely twenty feet from the meditation chamber, Allura Takthan of the Disciples of Ragnos, slowly let out a sigh of relief as Skywalker's probing finally stopped. It had been close; she had barely escaped his scrutiny by the tiniest of margins.
Thanks to Mistress Tavion's teaching, the red skinned Twi-lek had learned how to dampen her Force aura, which had certainly come in handy during her infiltration of this Jedi Academy.
Thanks to Brakiss, an Imperial plant that had posed as a potential student for Skywalker, the Disciples of Ragnos had valuable intel on the structure and layout of the Academy. It was this information Allura was now using as a guide in this phase of her mission.
If someone had taken the luxury of asking her, Allura would have said this was a waste of her time. She would've preferred to eliminate the new arrivals but Mistress Tavion's selection of her for this job had not been up for debate. The founder and leader of the Disciples of Ragnos had told her that since she was considerably more proficient at stealth techniques than her human rival was, her chances of success were that much higher.
How true that was. Allura allowed a self-satisfied smile grace her lips.
In the five years since they first met, Crimson had always been singleminded when it came to training in the Force. The shorter human female had, in the course of her training, almost solely focused on the combative aspects including lightsaber training along with all of the offensive techniques powered by the Dark Side.
Allura, on the other hand, had chosen to be more versatile in her own training. Like her rival, she had also chosen to focus more than a little on lightsaber training; in that respect, she was quite skilled, though not Crimson's equal, at least not yet. Aside from that, she had learned only a few offensive techniques, as well as a decent number of others that focused on manipulating other people with the Force.
Also, her ability to channel the Force through her body to temporarily boost her physical talents was on a much higher level than Crimson's own. That was what allowed her to keep up with, and even sometimes defeat, her rival whenever they had a 'practice match.'
Aside from mastering the basic instruction, Crimson had very limited control over her Force aura. Had she been chosen for this mission instead, it was a sure bet that her blazing presence in the Force would've given her away almost immediately.
Thus, the reason why it had fallen to Allura to do the job.
During their briefing, upon hearing Allura's part in the mission, Crimon had nearly laughed her fool head off and had commented that "only such a weak, sneaky girl would be given such a pathetically easy task."
For that, her head had indeed very nearly come off as an insulted Allura had swung at her using a decapitation technique. It was only Crimson's reflexes which had allowed her to keep her head on,
and a impromptu lightsaber duel had broken out right there in the meeting room.
It had been cut short courtesy of Tavion. Although she usually enjoyed and even generally encouraged such hostile displays of murderous rivalry, Tavion had made it well known in the beginning that nothing trivial such as heated rivalry would interfere with a mission. And since both of her students had broken that rule, she instantly set into motion their punishment.
One powerful lightning assault later, both of her disciples had been instantly subdued.
There had been little to be gained with further dispute, and so Allura had finally accepted that,
barring her Mistress, she was the only one suitable for the job.
Which was why she was here right now.
The suppression of her Force aura inevitably condemned her mission to proceed at a very slow pace. Disliking every second of it, Allura had to sneak into the Jedi Academy the old-fashioned way; no mind-tricks, no Force enhanced speed or jumps, nothing that would require use of the Force.
She had to rely on hiding, crawling, and generally trying her best not to be seen or heard.
One thing that made it a whole lot easier for her was the fact that Skywalker was foolish enough not to post watch, or even have more than the basic security system, one that hadn't been upgraded ever since Brakiss' stay a few years ago.
She shook her head in scornful disbelief. As far as the Twi'lek was concerned, this was part of the reason why the Jedi were so easily deceived by Emperor Palpatine during the death of the Old Republic.
Their teachings against the use of guile, anger, hatred, everything of the Dark Side was a very exploitable weak spot in their training.
Shaking her head to clear it and once again focusing on the job at hand, Allura made her way to the staircase. According to Brakiss's information, Skywalker's chamber was on the third floor.
Good thing that she had managed to steal this Jedi robe from an instructor's room; it certainly made for a convenient disguise. She had left her own distinctive black robes with Mistress Tavion's group back at the Massassi Temple.
She'd better get a move on before someone noticed that she was an unfamiliar face. There was some data that she had to copy, after all.
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Somewhere in the vast forest of Yavin, Tavion's other disciple and Allura's hated rival was doing what she loved best.
Hunting down and disposing of two men.
Crimson reached out with the Force and, with some difficulty, managed to locate the nearest of her prey. There were two of them and were relatively close; about a mile away to the south. It was obvious to her that they had been selected among the survivors to get help; clearly their communications was damaged and could not be repaired.
Of her male prey, from what little she could get from 'reading' their Force aura's, it seemed that they would be hardly any threat to her, much less to her and her two subordinates. She could only base that assumption on the size of their Force aura's. Though she hated to admit it to herself, that Twi-lek bitch's senses were far more acute and accurate than hers.
One of the two male pigs was considerably strong in the Force, though the uncontrolled way his aura was leaking meant that he was untrained. The other possessed significantly less potential than his companion; to her, he was barely a shadow in the Force. In fact, it was so small that Crimson wondered why the fool even chose to train to be a Jedi.
Was Skywalker that foolish and desperate to rebuild the Jedi Order that he would accept anyone, no matter how little their potential?
No, Crimson decided. Mistress Tavion had told them many times to not underestimate Luke Skywalker; he was a force to be reckoned with. If the reports about him were to be believed, he had singlehandedly destroyed Darth Vader AND the Emperor in one stroke.
Skywalker had to have a reason why he'd taken on a student with so little Force potential; the Disciples just didn't know it yet.
Still in her black cloak, Crimson continued leading her two subordinates, Narissa and Talna, on a path that would carry them towards an intercept point with their two future victims.
While she'd informed Mistress Tavion that she was more than capable of eliminating a handful of untrained Jedi-wannabes, Tavion had crisply informed her that it was more for her subordinates benefit than for hers. Her subordinates were both human also, skilled and well motivated, but their training wasn't finished yet and they needed more field experience.
Although they were both taller and older than her, Narissa being the oldest and Talna the tallest, such things didn't mean a thing in the ranks of the Disciples of Ragnos. The only thing that mattered was the Force, or rather the Dark Side of it, and how you used it.
When the two of them were first assigned to her, Crimson had quickly established herself as the Alpha Female by simply giving them both a thorough beatdown with her superior Dark Side mastery when they had challenged her.
Ever since she'd first joined Mistress Tavion's group, Crimson had made it well known that she completely loathed and distrusted men, not tolerating them in the slightest. As a matter of fact, the first day she joined the Disciples of Ragnos, she had nearly killed a man who had tried to come on to her.
She became a figure to be feared, someone you would not want to cross paths with, even accidentally. Tavion allowed her behavior because it helped instill order and tighter control over the underlings.
With an attitude like that, it wasn't long before she was picking fights on a daily basis with any male member who glanced at her. More often than not, it would end with them being savagely beaten. She soon established a reputation for herself as a genuine man-hater, who would go to any lengths to right the wrong done to her in the past by the one of THEM.
By teaching them such lessons, she would force them to think twice before even attempting to abuse any women in their future.
She would not let any of her own be subjected to the torture that she had been through as a child and a teenager. That was why when Tavion had approached her with the offer to join the Disciples of Ragnos, she'd snapped it up immediately once she heard how much stronger she could become.
To her mind, that meant she would not have to fear about being abused by any man ever again.
Due to her stance, none of the male Disciples were in any hurry to sign up as her apprentice, having long learned to give her a very wide berth.
Although Crimson was of the opinion that the Disciples of Ragnos should only be a sisterhood, she managed, however barely, to restrain herself from constantly trying to convince Tavion to accept her idea.
As powerful as Crimson become, she still respected Tavion as her Mistress and superior. She was a woman after all.
Thus the reason why Narissa and Talna had been assigned to her. There were others who'd been with the Disciples of Ragnos longer and were more experienced, but they were unfortunately men. The other women either were already assigned to their masters/mistresses or had other duties to fulfill.
Since Crimson had threatened to kill any man who dared come close to her, the only way to rectify this was to give her underlings of similar gender.
Tavion, and only Tavion, was allowed to call her by her forgotten name.
Crimson snorted inwardly; she couldn't dream of how she could have ever been naive, weak willed, and easily dominated way back then. The only things her past self and her now had in common was the hatred of males, though different in intensity and perspective. Her past self had hated teenaged boys but tolerated men. Crimson hated any man, teenage to adult, of any species with equal fervor.
To her, it was as if she lived two separate, different lives with no period of transition in between.
All in all, having subordinates wasn't such a bad arrangement. In fact, it could be downright pleasurable. It took some time and effort, but Narissa was slowly becoming to enjoy being involved in certain activities of Crimson's, which made for more than a few nights of indulgence.
Crimson allowed a faint lecherous grin to cross her face at what happened some nights ago, but managed to keep her mind on the mission. Yavin's forest wasn't exactly safe, having its fair share of predatory beasts, but they weren't of any considerable threat if the three of them kept on their guard.
The young Disciple of Ragnos was looking forward to the three following things; the rush and thrill of combat, the destruction of men, and also the whittling down the numbers of her enemies.
She didn't personally know who her prey was but she didn't care. They were men, and at some point, had probably hurt a female in the past, like the way she'd been hurt. Even if they hadn't hurt a woman yet, it was inevitable that they would do so in the not too distant future.
It was their nature; they were men, after all, and it was to be expected of them.
Crimson was their punishment made flesh.
Of course, she'd let Talna and Narissa into some of the fun as well, but there was always a possibility that she would lose herself in her lust for battle and kill them all.
Well, all of the males, that is; if there were any women, she'd let Talna and Narissa take care of them in order to see exactly what her subordinates were made of. Crimson disliked taking the lives of any female, however misguided though they be.
They were getting closer, and as the distance decreased, her eagerness grew.
"Soon, very soon," she chanted out loud, unconsciously rubbing her thumb against the hard, cool surface of her lightsaber.
Behind her, Talna and Narissa traded looks of mutual apprehension. Talna had been with the Disciples a couple of months longer than Narissa had, but this was their first time together to be on what they considered a real mission.
They had heard tons of rumours about the times when Crimson had gotten too carried away, and well, from all accounts it hadn't been a pretty sight.
The male members of the Disciples of Ragnos were dead certain that Crimson's sanity was slowly peeling away and went to great lengths to avoid her. They sure as hell didn't want to be near when she finally went off.
Her two subordinates began to consider themselves very unlucky; after all, they were pretty much stuck with her, like it or not. Despite their doubts, they had to follow her wherever she went.
Yet, as they did so, they couldn't help but have a very bad feeling about this mission.
With a swing of the lightsaber, the tree fell down across the looming ravine, creating an instant bridge.
Deactivating the energy blade, Ranma nodded in satisfaction. Waiting for the tree to stabilize, he stepped up on the trunk and casually strolled over to the other side, not giving the raging torrent below a second look. Once he reached the other side, he motioned for Rosh to walk across.
Rosh shrugged in reluctanct compliance. Ever since their little 'discussion' fifteen minutes ago, he had treaded the waters with a mixture of fear, hatred and respect. Though it had been difficult at first, he'd kept silent and avoided any sort of conversation with Korr.
After he saw how deadly a shot Korr was, Rosh was convinced that maybe he shouldn't try and push his luck; one could never know if Korr wouldn't shoot him on the spot next time.
Besides, Rosh was worried for the wounded back at the shuttlecraft. He knew that if he wasted more time by stirring up Korr's nest of hornets, their chances of living to see another day would be severely decreased.
In any case, he was still unarmed and, whether he liked it or not, was forced to rely on Ranma for protection, no matter how much it wounded his pride. However, dwelling on his wounded pride was quickly beginning to be replaced by jealousy.
To date, they'd already encountered three more of those reptiles, and Ranma had easily nailed them all with headshots each and every time. The ponytailed man made it look so effortless that Rosh wasn't sure if he was showing off or not.
One of those shots had been made while the reptile had leaped down towards them from a branch thirty-odd feet above the ground.
Rosh had only caught the descending blur a second before he was roughly shoved aside and, one quick laser blast later, the beast's corpse had crashed in the spot where he'd been.
Since then, Rosh was trying hard to ignore how much he envied the skills Ranma had displayed. He found himself failing as he continuously replayed what had happened. And he also found himself wondering about Korr's personality.
This led to him wondering what kind of life the other man had previously led, what kind of training he'd undergone to become what he was now.
As he considered Korr's seemingly impossible accuracy with the blaster along with his attitude, a very unpleasant possibility presented itself to him.
Was he trained as an assassin?
Rosh quickly began sweating and grew very nervous with that idea. He reflexively looked at Korr's profile and began considering it with what he knew of the other man. So far, Korr had displayed fewer emotions than a computer and maintained an ice-cold personality.
On the other hand, assassins weren't known for being humanitarian; Korr had already shown, however briefly, that he'd been concerned about the injured people back at the shuttlecraft. Then again, he could be faking it as some sort of camouflage or something like that.
Damn! Rosh's fear soon developed into confusion. He didn't know what to think anymore; his theories, observations, and imagination began chasing each other in circles.
He began to feel an urge to scream out loud to the sky and rip his hair out. Such was the magnitude of the influence Korr had on him. Damn it all! Unfortunately, he soon discovered that it was a very bad idea to ignore where one was walking. His right foot, while stepping forward, abruptly found itself bumping into the slightly charred end of the fallen tree. And since the height between the ground and the tree were different...
"What th---!"
Splat.
"Owwwwww..."
All things considered, Rosh should've been grateful. Although he did almost knock himself senseless (and rather painfully) on the rough, unyielding wood, it was the tree that kept him from falling to certain death into the ravine.
Of course as usual, Ranma was completely blunt in his response. There was no 'Glare of Death' this time, though there was the slightest traces of what could've been exasparation in his eyes.
"Penin, you klutz. What's the matter with you? Quit screwing around; we don't have time to waste. Get up or I'll leave you behind."
Having said his piece, Ranma then proceeded to start climbing a nearby tree, wanting to check their progress towards the Massassi temple and see if they were still on track.
"Damnit! I'm in pain here, you idiot! You could at least help me up, you know?" Unfortunately, either Ranma was ignoring him or he was already too high up to have heard.
Still lying facedown on the tree bridge, Rosh had missed Ranma climbing up into the three. Groaning in self pity, he lamented that this was not one of his better days. As he slowly got up, Rosh reached up to feel his face and cursed loudly.
A large bruise was already forming on the right side and he knew that he would look like half of something the cat dragged in.
Crap, this was Ran--, no wait, it was his own fault for not paying attention where he was going. While Rosh might be stubborn and hard-headed at times, he was not in the habit of blaming his problems on other people. At least, not all the time.
Carefully making his way over to the other side, he looked around for Korr. When he couldn't find him, Rosh was beginning to grow angry at being left behind. Regardless of the abuse heaped upon him by Korr, he didn't really believe the cold-blooded sociopath would have done that to him.
"Emperor's damnation!" he cursed, then impulsively dashed off into the jungle. "Korr, you bastard! Where the hell are you?"
Within seconds, he was lost from sight.
Eight minutes later, Ranma dropped down from the branch into a crouched stance. He looked around, a small frown tugging at the corners of his mouth when he noticed his companion's disappearance.
"How...inconvenient," he stated. "I should have had the Rodian come with me instead of him."
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At his vigil near the shuttlecraft's open side hatch, Dah'kk was fervently wishing that he'd switched places with Penin. The Zabrak nurse was nice, but gods above and below, her nonstop chatter was really getting on his nerves!
"Y' wanna know sumthin' funny? Ah wuz accident'ly engaged ta two guys back in med school, and Ah didn't even know it! They wuld buy me all sorts 'f gifts and treat me ta all th' best rest'rants; dear o' dear, Ah wuz in heav'n, don'cha know? Half th' time, I didn't even hav' ta spend a dime on myself 'n food an' entertainin' myself. Oh gosh, Ah wish I culd go back ta thos' days. Hey huney, d'ya think Luke Skywalk'r will treat us all ta a 'Welcom' New Students' party bash or sumthin' like it. I sur' wish he does! He sounds like a very nice man, don'cha think so? An' anuther thin'..."
The Rodian wasn't the only one who was suffering. The others who were awake, including the pilot, two of the Twi-leks, and one of the Kel-dor males were all unfortunately experiencing the same thing.
They really needed to be rescued, now more than ever.
Dah'kk's right round-shaped, black filled eye was twitching. At the moment, he was seriously thinking about shooting himself to end the pain. At the rate Aserna was carrying on, he didn't know if he could hold on to his sanity for long.
"Hey y'all, Ah hav an idear! Since this 's sorta like a campout, let's sing sum songs! Ah'll start! Ah luv ya, ya luv me; we're a happy family! With a great big hug..." 1
The indigenous wildlife near the shuttle were minding their own business until they were startled by several loud cries that shouted in agonized unison.
"NOOOOO! MAKE IT STOP, OH PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!"
At that instant in the Jedi Academy, while listening to Katarn, Luke Skywalker's body noticeably stiffened.
"We lost track of the shuttle soon after it entered Yavin's atmosphere... Luke, what's wrong?"
The tow-headed Jedi Master had suddenly looked up at the ceiling, having barely registered Kyle's words.
He said in a distant tone of voice, "I just felt a minor disturbance in the Force...as if a handful of voices suddenly cried out in agony and were being subjected to some sort of horrible torture nearby. We have to move quickly, or else we won't have any new trainees left to teach. Kyle, please go gather the senior students and get them ready. We leave in fifteen minutes."
"You got it, Luke."
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Rosh Penin had lost track of how much time had elapsed since Korr had disappeared and left him behind. For that matter, he didn't really care.
Less than a minute after he began searching for him, Rosh arrived at the conclusion that he didn't need to waste time looking for Korr. He still had the beacon, and the injured people at the shuttlecraft still needed help.
So with all that in mind, he'd switched priorities, kicking 'Search for Ponytailed Prick' down to the bottom of the list and bringing up 'Locate Massassi Temple'.
He'd already climbed up a tree to check his position. It was with relief he'd discovered that he was only slightly off track. He'd long since corrected and periodically rechecked his course.
After a while, he began to rant out loud; not one of his better ideas, as he would come to regret later.
"Stupid Ranma. It's all his fault I'm in this godforsaken jungle. Dammit, why the hell did he have to force me to go with him, that cold-blooded nutcase. I could've been safely back in the shuttle, waiting to be rescued!"
Rosh took a moment to reconsider his words.
"I take that back. There's no way in hell that I'd place myself back in the shuttle just to be tortured by that air-headed ditzy nurse! Man, now that I think about it, I should've never applied to the Military Academy."
He took a moment to take a breather and then continued on.
"And I could've been home at a barbecue!2 Stupid Korr, this is all your fault!"
"Instead here I am, trudging through this humid, vegetation-filled crap, sweating like a rancor in heat, with hungry, man-eating predators hiding all around me, just waiting to get a taste of the good old #6 Penin meat special!"
Rosh shook his head in disgust and threw a fruitless glare at forest.
He really should have been more careful of what he was saying.
Rosh didn't know what warned him; some instinct or maybe the Force. All he knew was that he sensed something moving towards him from the right. He turned, looked, and immediately started running for his life.
He would've spat a short curse but time was a precious commodity at the moment. Thus, he made sure to hold the beacon securely against his chest and focused all his energy into running. Rosh didn't get a clear look, but what little he'd seen was more than enough.
Anyone with sense would do their utmost best to get away from a large, dark-red furry feline-like beast running at them with sharp, gleaming teeth.
As he ran, Rosh mentally added yet another thing to the list that was Korr's fault.
Somewhere behind Rosh, Ranma was quickly tree-hopping his way towards the Massassi temple, oblivious to the other man's predicament.
At the same time, elsewhere ahead of Rosh, three cloaked and hooded figures paused. Sensing that one of the two were rapidly coming their way, they arranged for an appropriate welcome.
Lines of sweat cascaded down Rosh's face as he frantically pumped his legs to go faster and faster. He didn't dare to look behind him to see how close his pursuer was; he knew how these things worked, he'd seen it happen on those holovid movies after all.
The second he turned his head, he would trip over an exposed root or vine and it would be all over for Alina Penin's oldest boy.
Thus he forced out all thoughts on how much his legs hurt, how hard it was getting to breathe, EVERYTHING, and just plain focused on staying more than one step ahead of it.
Leaves and small branches slapped at his face and body, the rapid rhythm puffs of air flew from his mouth, the adrenaline sparking through his body, Rosh had never felt so alive before. Then again, he had good reason to.
For the most part, he ran on, partially blind. This part of the forest was very dark, with only small patches of light to help him negotiate his way. It was enough so he was able to avoid being clotheslined by any low hanging branch.
Whenever he would think that he couldn't go on any further, the image of being painfully torn limb from limb spurred him on.
After what seemed to be several minutes of being chased (though in actuality was only twenty seconds, Rosh broke clear of the forest out into a large clearing with a wide river straight ahead. Beyond that was more forest and beyond that to the right, was the Massassi temple!
Apparently, by sheer luck, he'd been able to stay on track. Rosh immediately made a beeline towards it.
The rustling of bushes from behind told him that the red feline carnivore was after him. Damnit! Why won't it just give up!
His legs churning for all they were worth, Rosh eyed the river with dismay. It was obvious that he couldn't run across it, the drag of the downstream current would slow him down enough for the feline to catch him.
No, the only way to get across was to jump across. The river was pretty wide, but Rosh was positive that he could make it. He had no other choice, if he wanted to live.
That was always a good incentive.
The river was coming closer, but he knew without a doubt that his pursuer was quickly gaining, being on open ground meant that it didn't have to contend with maneuvering around trees and other such obstacles.
With the strength of desperation, Rosh gathered up his flagging energy and focused it into his legs for one last burst of speed.
Five feet. Four feet. Three feet. Two feet. One feet. He was now at the riverbank.
"Ohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshthishadbetterfrigginwork!'
With that last thought, Rosh tensed his leg muscles and jumped for all he was worth. For a single moment,
it was as if time slowed down and he was hanging over the river, inching forward at a snail's pace. From his position, he knew he would make it safely to the other side with inches to spare.
When his left foot finally touched down on the ground,
time resumed its normal passage. However, before he could even start to be happy about that, the forward momentum from his leap transferred to his landing.
In other words, he was unable to keep his balance upon landing and tripped, finding himself for the third time in one day, face flat on the slightly moist ground.
For a second, Rosh lied still, confused as to what had happened. His adrenaline, which had served him so well in preventing him from becoming catfood, quickly left his body, leaving him feeling weak as a kitten.
He lifted his head and then suddenly, his eyes widened as he abruptly remembered what was chasing him. He quickly rolled over just in time to see the feline-like predator launch itself over the river, just like he'd done.
And unless he did something very soon, said feline-like predator would be landing right on him.
Completely frozen by fear, Rosh did the only thing he could. Reflexively throwing his arms over his face, the young man screamed at the top of his lungs.
"MOOOOMMMMIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" 3
Two heart-beats passed.
Nothing happened. There was no impact of an oversized cat on top of him, there was no unbearable pain of his skin being ripped open by razor edged canines, there was no spurting of blood from ravaged blood vessels.
He was still alive! But how?
Rosh cautiously opened his eyes and lowered his arms. He looked around uneasily and immediately shouted out in surprise.
The red cat was still there over him, but something had frozen it in mid-air. For a moment, Rosh thought he was dreaming or hallucinating, but a female voice soon dispelled that theory.
"I'm sorry to interfere with your business, my feline sister, but I'll take over from here. Talna!"
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From the treelines where they'd been watching the amusing chase, Crimson had been tempted to let the predator catch the prey.
But at the last moment, her desire to have a little fun changed her mind; with that decided, she motioned to Talna, who understood what to do.
The three Disciples casually walked out into the open, Talna with her hand outstretched, using the Force to hold the large feline in place.
They stopped at a certain point, Crimson a little ahead of her two subordinates. In an overly dramatic tone, she said "I'm sorry to interfere with your business, my feline sister, but I'll have to take over from here."
She pointed at the forest on the other side and ordered, "Talna!"
Her subordinate nodded, her brow wrinking with the effort, and slowly dropped her live cargo at the designated area.
The red feline landed on her feet, snarled angrily at the three women and for one second was about to attack them. However, her animal instincts, which had kept her alive all these years on Yavin, warned her against that move. These three were definitely more dangerous than she ever could be. Hissing in displeasure, she wheeled around and vanished within the forest.
Rosh let out a breath of pure relief and he remained where he was for a few seconds, letting himself recover from the exhausting run. If he hadn't prepared himself physically for the New Republic Military -- he shook his head; he did not want to go there. It was a good thing that his rescuers had arrived when they did.
When he felt his legs were sturdy enough to support him again, Rosh stood up with some difficulty and faced them. He assumed that they were from the Jedi Academy; Skywalker must've found out about their predicament, somehow. After all, he was a Jedi Master and probably had his ways.
His initial greeting died quickly when he got a good look at them. There were three of them, undisputedly female, and what really took Rosh aback was their body language and their choice of clothing.
His intuition told him in no uncertain terms that the shortest one in the middle was the leader, and she was tense and angry at something, or someone. Check that, not angry, more like ... hostile. Very, very hostile.
The body language of one of the two behind wasn't nearly as tense or hostile as the leader's was, but neither was it encouraging. The tallest one seemed to be neutral, perhaps even a little sympathetic, but that was probably his imagination.
Also, their clothing was not giving him any assurance at all either. In his opinion, those black hooded robes they wore practically screamed out "Danger!" to his intuition. With every inch of their body covered, except for the mouth and chin, Rosh decided that it was quite evident they weren't going for a 'positive' public image.
In appearances alone, they looked very ominous and forbidding to him and a sudden chill ran up his spine.
That said, Rosh didn't think that Luke Skywalker would approve of such attire. He found himself idly wondering how they could stand being almost completely covered like that during such a hot day like now.
Rosh was beginning to have a bad feeling about all this. His throat became suddenly dry, and the relief he'd felt at being rescued winked out and was being replaced with apprehension. Although he knew it would fail, he tried anyway.
"Thanks ladies," he began cautiously. "I would've been catfood if you three hadn't shown up when you did. Say, how did you manage to find me all the way from the Academy?"
His question went unanswered. The one in the middle who seemed to be in charge stepped forward, her mouth turning up into an eager and hungry grin. She unhooked her black and red lightsaber and ignited it.
The resulting snap-hiss made Rosh flinch, which she enjoyed seeing. The bruised half of his face made her snicker derisively, lowering her opinion of him by several depths.
It was at this time that every inch of Rosh's body screamed at him that he was in a lot of trouble. He wasn't an idiot; from the stories he'd heard of the fall of the Empire, these were probably Sith, like what Darth Vader and the Emperor had been.
Taking some steps backward, Rosh pasted a nervous smile on his face and tried to negotiate.
"Okay, let's have everyone calm down and I'm sure we can make a deal. C'mon, whadaya say? I'm not even a trained Jedi yet, meaning I'm no threat to you at all. So how about letting me go, c'mon, please?"
Unfortunately, his pleading failed to result in the desired conclusion. Crimson began advancing on him, matching him step for step, and brought her lightsaber to ready.
Behind her, Narissa seemed on the verge of saying something, but decided against it.
"Typical of a man; not having the courage to die with dignity. I'll be doing Skywalker a favor by helping him weed out pathetic worms just like you! Die, you weak excuse for a male!"
Rosh had a response ready for that.
"Oh, shit."
Crimson dashed forward and she lifted her lightsaber for a slashing maneuver. All of a sudden, in mid-step, the Force alerted her to an incoming threat from across the river.
Stopping in her tracks, she swiveled in the necessary direction and yelled out "Ambush!" while bringing her blade up defensively in an appropriate block.
It was a good thing too, because less than half a heart-beat later, a burst of laser bolts were fired at them from the trees on the other side of the river.
Reacting quickly himself, Rosh took this opportunity to dash into the woods, heading straight for the Massassi Temple. They were distracted, good. Now he had to reach the Temple before they caught up to him.
At their superior's cry, Narissa and Talna activated their lightsabers and prepared to defend themselves. All three ignored Rosh's escape; they could easily catch up to him after they disposed of this newest problem.
Unfortunately, things weren't as easy as they'd assumed.
Crimson easily picked off the laser bolt that blazed towards her face; as did Narissa. However, the last member of their group wasn't quite as successful.
Talna had been a split-second too slow to react. She ALMOST made it as she swung her lightsaber up in a half-circle to deflect the incoming bolt. Despite her attempt, the laser bolt shot past the energy blade, missing by a fourth of an inch, and burnt itself right between her eyes. 4
She fell on her back, convulsed for a bit then became still as she entered death's final embrace.
Crimson's eyes narrowed. Whoever ambushed them, and she was certain it was only one person, was one hell of a shot. All of those laser bolts had been aimed at the exact same spot for all three of them.
And what was more to consider was the speed of which the laser bolts had been fired...no hesitation between each shot. Just zap-zap-zap and that was it.
Knowing instantly that their comrade was dead, Crimson and Narissa didn't even bother to tend to her. They absently realized that Rosh had disappeared, but they didn't worry about that now.
The two of them wisely kept their guard up, not eager to dash into such an obvious trap, preferring to wait for their hidden attacker to show themselves.
"Narissa, go catch that coward who ran away," Crimson ordered. "I'll deal with this one."
"Sure thing Ma'am," her subordinate acknowledged and began to head towards the forest.
Only to be forced to defend herself when the second round of laser beams flashed into existence. This time however, instead of going for the both of them, they were all directed at her.
"You stupid idiot!" her superior roared at her. "Have you forgotten? NEVER turn your back on an enemy!"
"S-sorry Ma'am!" Narissa exclaimed, letting the Force guide her hand and she deflected every beam successfully.
Though she wasn't skilled enough to redirect them straight back at their source, she was capable enough to angle them in a way so they wouldn't burn her foot off or accidentally fly in Crimson's direction.
The young blonde shivered at the thought of what would occur should her superior's wrath, already provoked by her blunder, be incensed further by the latter.
It became obvious that their hidden ambusher was trying to buy their prey additional time. It was also clear to Crimson that he or she would keep firing at Narissa, further stopping her from chasing the man, which led to said man getting farther and farther away with each breath.
Of course, that simply wouldn't do at all.
Busily defending herself, Narissa was surprised when her leader's blade shot out and deflected one, then two laser bolts.
"Ma'am?" she asked uncertainly.
"Go," Crimson stated, an angry undertone evident as she stepped in front of her. "I'll cover you."
"Thanks a lot, Ma'am! Be right back in a minute!" Narissa caroled happily and sped into the forest.
The instant her subordinate vanished into the trees, the barrage stopped. Crimson smirked; she'd expected that to happen.
"Come on out and face me, if you have the guts for it, you ambushing, cowardly piece of filth!"
She'd expected another fruitless barrage of lasers; she'd expected the ambusher to run away. What she didn't expect was the person to actually meet her challenge.
Out of the woods, as if he didn't have a care in the world, calmly strolled Ranma Korr, weaponless except for his lightsaber held in his hand.
Stopping a few feet from the riverbank, he regarded the her with a measured look, as if mentally calculating her threat potential.
"Ambushing?" he asked in a mildly interested way. "A curious description, coming from someone who was definitely involved in a certain uncalled for, sudden attack on a certain shuttlecraft backaways."
"Pheh," snorted Crimson. "I'll admit that you got guts to blame that on me. Not that it matters since I'm wasn't the one who did it."
It was true; it had been Tavion who had blasted the shuttlecraft's engines with the Scepter of Ragnos.
"And yet, you did nothing to stop it and are in league with whoever WAS responsible. That makes you," he pointed at her, "guilty by association."
Her patience finished, Crimson brandished her weapon and shouted at him, "Enough talking! You ambushed us and killed one of my own, you bastard! I'm soo going to enjoy this..."
With that, she brought up her lightsaber to the ready and began walking towards the river, never taking her eyes off him.
With an eager gleam of anticipation forming in her eyes, she found herself growing excited.
The short lived mystery had been solved already; with the lightsaber as proof, obviously he was a Jedi. How else could the accuracy of his blaster shots could be explained? 5
This would be her first battle with a Jedi; hopefully he would provide her with a good fight. That Twi-lek slut was good, but she wasn't yet her equal in pure lightsaber combat. She was almost there however, and the 'practice' battles between the two of them weren't always one-sided.
Crimson entertained the faint hope that this man would prove to be as good, but she doubted it.
By reflex, Crimson probed him with her Force senses and became greatly puzzled, though her face didn't show it. Unless she was mistaken or unless he was trying to deceive her into underestimating him, this was the same guy she sensed earlier, the one with hardly any Force potential.
Just what kind of stupid trick he was trying to pull?
She spat in anger. Just like a man to trick a woman in order to make her misjudge him, so he could stab her in the back when she wasn't paying attention. Trick or not, he was going to die today at her hands!
And like she'd said, there was the matter of vengeance.
Talna had been a decent subordinate and, barring any new female initiates, it would be extremely difficult to replace. At least her death would help Crimson by focusing her thoughts of revenge. She flipped off the hood, letting her face catch the afternoon sunlight.
Black hair with blue highlights that reached the middle of her back was securely tied back in a tight, double knot. Wrathful brown pupils regarded her enemy with scorn. A furious scowl marred what was otherwise an attractive face.
"Whoever you are, you wouldn't believe how big a mistake you've just made. Your life, as of now, is forfeit, you stupid, suicidal MAN! Please, do me a favor and try to put up at least a little bit of resistance."
Her face emphasized her promise by twisting into a decidedly evil and menacing expression which had put fear into the hearts of many men.
It was completely wasted on Ranma, who didn't acknowledge it one bit. He shrugged, his posture giving off vibes of indifference, and ignited his lightsaber.
The chips of ice that vaguely resembled his eyes met her burning glare directly, showing not an inch of fear.
Holding the humming light-green energy blade a few inches away from his face, Ranma gave Crimson her answer.
"We'll see."
End Chapter 2
Began May 26, 2006
Finished June 16, 2006
Revised June 22, 2006
Further revised July 02, 2006
Author's Notes:
Revised version 1.00
Corrected the minor errors pointed out/discussed by Sebastian Palm and David Johnston. Thanks guys! Rewrote some paragraphs and added a one or two new ones.
Revised version 1.01
Tried hard to follow as much of Elsa's advice as possible. Fewer frequent scene breaks and decreased the number of ellipses (I never noticed how much I used them). The pacing, however, is going to stay pretty much the same. And for the humor, well, unless I think up some better ideas (and implement them in a yet another future revision), it'll go the same way.
Expanded on a few scenes and changed some minor details to make this chapter connect more smoothly with the next.
1 Yes, I'm evil. (chuckles)
2 Borrowed this line from ID4
3 If you haven't noticed already, Rosh is the designated comic-relief...well, until Ranma thaws out later in the story, though.
4 I figured if Jango Fett could catch a fully trained Jedi Knight (Coleman Trebor) by surprise and eventually get through his defenses (Attack of the Clones)...
5 Crimson hasn't met Dash Rendar (Shadows of the Empire) or Wes Janson of Rogue/Wraith Squadron, two of the best gun-men in the Star Wars universe