In author Mark Wooden’s latest installment of “Star Wars” fanfiction, Jedi Nile Chinelo encounters an Imperial Inquisitor.
Meanwhile, her smuggler companions Corana Biabru and Piani Nuruodo realize they’ve crossed Teth crimelord Ungror the Hutt.
“Star Wars” fanfiction Episode II Trailer!
It was all Nile could do to avoid colliding with the apparently suicidal pilot of the other swoop. Unfortunately, as she dodged the oncoming vehicle, the dark rider slashed at Nile’s swoop with her lightsaber.
The energy blade tore through the rear engines of Nile’s swoop. The vehicle bucked under Nile’s control, smashing against a wall. Nile and her rider were thrown from the swoop.
Using her Force skills, Nile was able to control her landing.
The Rebel sympathizer contact was not as lucky nor as skilled.
He was thrown from the swoop and landed hard. Nile moved to his side and checked for signs of life.
All the while she heard the attacker’s swoop come to a stop a short distance away.
The contact was still alive, but barely. He’d need immediate medical attention.
The Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) were already swarming the area pursuing Nile and the sympathizer. They’d evaded them thus far, but the explosion from her now destroyed swoop would quickly draw them in.
Their capture would land them both in an Imperial jail. Nile would suffer worse for if they realized what she was.
The sensation of a wave of darkness crept through Nile again. Turning toward it, she saw the dark rider approaching. She’d dismounted from her swoop and held the red-hued blade of her lightsaber at her side.
Their attacker wore black leather from her neck to the thigh-high boots on her feet. Half her head was shaved. The other half had long hair that ran to her shoulder and was the color of her lightsaber blade.
In her late teens, the attacker was also far too young to be a thing that radiated so much evil.
Nile stood and addressed the girl. Referring to the fallen man at her feet, she said, “This man isn’t a part of this. He has a family to return to.”
The attacker revealed a menacing smile filled with black teeth. “He is no concern to me.” She pointed her blade at Nile. “I’m here for you, Jedi!”
She spat “Jedi” as if it were a foul word.
“Let me get the attention this man needs,” Nile said, “and you can have me.”
Nile threw back her cloak’s hood, revealing her face to the young girl. Situations like this had formed the deep lines in the brown skin of Nile’s face. The rain pelted against the gray and black braids that flowed down her back.
The attacker’s lips curled into a snarl. She raised her free hand and balled it into a fist. Nile heard her contact gasp. Looking at him, Nile saw him tremble. Concerned, Nile turned fully to him.
The trembling turned into violent shaking. Nile could feel the waves of Dark Force energy seeping through the man. She turned back to her lightsaber-wielding attacker.
“Stop this!” Nile said. “He means nothing to you!”
The Jedi heard the sickening crack of bone from the man. She closed her eyes in a moment of respect.
“And now,” the attacking girl said with far too much joy in her husky voice, “he means nothing to you either.”
The attacker spun her lightsaber, ending in a battle stance Nile recognized. It was the opening kata of an Imperial Inquisitor, one wielding the dark arts of the Sith.
It would be easy to combat the Inquisitor now, to avenge the death of the man whose only crime was trying to help those less fortunate than himself.
But Nile realized that combat would only lead to more death. That wasn’t the legacy she wished for the man who’d helped her and the Rebel Alliance.
Despite the horror of the moment, she had to get the supply rendezvous data he’d given her to the Alliance.
Nile had to complete her mission.
This Inquisitor could not stop her.
Past the Inquisitor, Nile saw the flashing lights from the swoops of approaching ISB agents. She assumed they’d come from both sides of the street, boxing her in. The only means of escape was up.
Drawing on the Force, Nile launched herself skyward. Her feet connected high up on the wall of the building on her right. Pushing from this and continuing the flow of the Force, Nile made it to the rooftop of the building on her left.
Nile looked down at the Inquisitor. Rain sizzled against the girl’s lightsaber, burning off to steam. It was a suitable metaphor for the Dark Force user’s anger.
That anger, the cause of her contact’s death, haunted Nile as she raced across the rooftop toward the spaceport.
Corana and Piani looked down the Princess’s Claw’s gangplank at the five grim-looking mercenaries waiting outside the ship. Four of them were humans, the final one a Rodian.
All of them dressed like they barely had two credits to scratch together, but mercenaries weren’t known for their fashion sense.
They were known for their ability to find people and hurt them. These five came prepared for it. The four humans had metal clubs in hand and vibroswords at their hips.
“Get the hell back in that compartment and stay there,” Corana whispered over her shoulder to the fresh, young suited man who was Cragen’s client. Behind him were six teenaged girls who Corana and Piani had assumed were Cragen’s latest slaves to trade.
Turned out Cragen had rescued the girls from kidnappers to turn over to the suit.
Who knew a slaver could be paid to do good?
Luckily, the mercenaries at the bottom of the gangplank hadn’t seen the suit nor the girls. The civilians quickly shuffled away from the scene, hopefully putting them out of harm’s way.
The Rodian stepped forward. He draped his green arms around a dual-bladed vibrostaff perched across his shoulders. “Hello there!” he said in a bizarre accent, further muffled by the curve of his snout. “This is the Princess’s Claw, is it not?”
Neither Piani nor Corana said a word.
“Ungror the Hutt would like a word with its owners.”
The rebel smugglers looked to one another. Ungror the Hutt was the crime boss on Teth. He was also the guy Cragen stole the girls from.
Corana motioned for Piani to take this one.
The Twi’lek inhaled deeply before moving to the top of the gangplank and making herself visible to the mercenaries. Piani adopted a sensual stance, one she’d, unfortunately, had to hone in her days as a slave girl.
What was once used to please men now became a weapon against them.
“They’re kinda incapacitated right now,” Piani told the Rodian.
The Rodian looked quizzically at her.
Piani ran her hand down the front of her mid-drift shirt, making sure to trace every curve of her body down to her low-slung leather pants. “I can’t help it if we’re that good at what we do.”
Corana shook her head, then ran her blue-skinned hand through her full head of red hair to get it back out of her face. She’d seen Piani play this trick before. The girl knew how to use that beauty to her advantage.
Boy did it work on the human mercs outside the ship. They sized Piani up like the headlining dancer at a Hutt slave show.
Unfortunately, the Rodian wasn’t as impressed. “Do your services truly require that vibrorapier at your hip?” he asked.
Piani made a provocative show of walking down the gangplank to approach the Rodian. Corana swore she saw the human mercs licking their lips.
Once in front of the Rodian, Piani said in a near purr, “More often than you’d think.”
The Rodian slowly nodded. “Me and my friends are heading over to Wheatley’s Bar.”
“I’m familiar with it,” Piani said.
The Rodian snorted. “I’m sure you are. Tell your client the owner to meet us over there.”
“I’ll escort them myself,” Piani said.
The Rodian laughed. “That’s what made me miss them in the first place.” Suddenly very serious, he added, “No thanks. I’ll leave some men at the hangar entrance to get them.”
He turned from Piani and led his men toward the hangar entrance. Corana joined Piani at her place outside the ship.
“I think we’d best get to the Bevryder,” Corana said.
“We have to get these girls out of here!” Piani said.
“We also have to get Nile out of here!”
Piani stared Corana down. The red-haired smuggler started to argue when the sound of hydraulics cut her off.
The gangplank was closing.
To be continued on September 13th!
Like the story so far? Be sure to also check out Mark’s original writing, the “Shadowdance” urban fantasy series!
I wrote the opening crawl, but the folks over at Kassel Labs made it look like the real deal. Check them out!
