Chapter 8: Lurking Shadows

Chapter 8 of Burning Shadows.

Thomas sat himself down in the meeting room. It was an empty room with a chair in the center and no windows. He had completed the last test, and was waiting for his results. He was sure he passed, but he didn't know what rank he would receive. Each Jedi when they become a knight are assigned a specific lightsaber color depending on their combat skills, their skills with the force, and their skill with things like espionage. Thomas figured that he didn't do that well with espionage as he did the other two fields. He figured he might be given a blue lightsaber due to his proficiency with a lightsaber and combat, but he always thought that having a green lightsaber would be cool. But green lightsabers went to Jedi who used the force more than lightsaber combat. And since he had been very invested in lightsaber combat rather than force training, he figured he would get a blue lightsaber. The door opened and the review committee entered the room. One of them had a case in his hand. Thomas immediately guessed what it was, but stayed in his seat.
“Thomas Watson, by the judgement of the council, and by the will of the force, you have been named a Jedi Knight of the Republic.” They opened the case and revealed two lightsaber hilts. Thomas had put in a request for his desired style of combat. He picked them up and ignited them. They were both green. Thomas was very surprised.
“You are indeed very skilled using a lightsaber, but when you took the force training test, you shattered just about every record held previous. Therefore, your lightsaber is the color of a Jedi Guardian. Congratulations, Jedi Knight Watson.” Thomas was surprised. Not shocked, he figured he would pass the test, but it was great that he was one of the stronger force users in the Jedi Order. He was making his way back to his room, when he decided to take a detour and train in the real lightsaber training area. There were a few select training chambers off limits to Padawans so that they could focus on what their masters wanted them to learn. Now, he had a chance to brush up on areas he struggled with as well as learn some new tricks of his own. Since he was using his real lightsabers for the training, he was forced to fight a droid with specific lightsaber training settings. It was programed to know all studied forms of lightsaber combat to help teach the Jedi about the weaknesses of the opponents technique and their own technique. Thomas decided to go up against a setting that he was weakest against. A dual-wield double-bladed style on the hardest level. He practiced against this droid for a few minutes, winning a few duels but losing most of them. As he stepped out of the training room, one of the messenger droids was waiting for him.
“Greetings, Jedi Watson. I bring a message for you from the High Council.” The droid spat out a holo-disc which was about as big as the palm of his hand. He turned it on and Master Mike appeared into existence.
“Thomas. First of all, let me say congratulations for officially becoming a Jedi Knight today. And second, let me be the first to give you your first mission! This assignment will be in the outer-rim territories, and we are preparing your new Jedi Fighter for this specific mission. Please report to docking bay 13 for your ship, and mission details.” The disc deactivated, and Thomas returned it to the droid. The droid flew off in search of it's next objective, while Thomas quickly ran to Docking bay 13.

“Thomas. Glad to see you made it so quickly.” Thomas was gasping for breath and managed to finally say,
“Of....course.....Master Ful....Fulson.”
“Catch your breath young one. You aren't leaving just yet. Your ship is still being prepared, so you will have time to get any belongings you need for your trip. Mainly a disguise, and some money for the specific planet you are going to.”
“Please tell me I'm not going to Tatooine.” Master Fulson laughed, then shook his head.
“No, you will be going to the planet Estanoki. A plains type of planet that has been seeing a lot of Sith Knights lately. The Chancellor wished them exterminated, since he thinks that they are a threat, but the Council thinks that bringing them back here and protecting them would be the best course of action until the Chancellor is removed from office.”
“So, you want me to bring them back in a small tiny little fighter ship?”
“Goodness, no. We have already planned for that. Your job is to go to Estanoki, get in contact with these Sith Knights, then signal the Council and we will come pick them up and bring them back here. We figure you will be there for about a week, so take what you need. Leave your robe behind, we don't want you attracting any unwanted attention.”
“All right. I know just the outfit.”

“Thomas stepped out of his ship wearing a faded Batman t-shirt and some baggy pants. His research showed that Estanoki was mainly populated by humans from Earth who were rich enough to not live on Earth but poor enough to be stuck in the outer-rim territories. As he made his way into the city, he made sure that his lightsabers cloaking mechanism was activated and that he knew where he was going. The Jedi Council had set him up with a room at a nearby hotel where he could get done what he needed to. As he approached the hotel, he noticed a giant protest going on just outside the Couruscant Embassy. It was filled with people carrying signs that said things like,
“SITH KNIGHTS PROTECT US! CHANCELLOR SEMPTI PROTECTS THE 1%!” And things like,
“WE NEED PROTECTION, NOT ANOTHER STUPID HATE SPEECH!” Thomas began to realize how much the outer rim territories resented the lack of attention to their planets. The local law enforcement wasn't stopping the protest, they were taking part in it. He was about to enter his hotel when a figure in a black robe jumped down from the roof of one of the buildings. He landed among the crowd and they parted. When he had enough space, the figure ignited a red lightsaber. Thomas panicked for a second and grabbed the hilts of his own lightsabers, but stopped when he realized that the crowd was actually cheering for this person. He then realized that this person was one of the Sith Knights that he was looking for. He was going to approach him, but he realized that if he did right then, the mob might lash out at him. So he quickly ran into the hotel while the Sith Kinght was speaking, dropped his stuff of then ran onto the roof. He got there as the Sith Knight was still talking. He was able to hear every word.
“The Republic has blamed us for every little thing! The Republic thinks we are nothing more than common criminals! But we aren't! We protect those who the Republic ignores! We stand strong against real criminals across the outer-rim territories! We are the Sith Knights! And we stand for the outer-rim territories! It is time we took a stand! ARE YOU WITH ME?!” There was a loud cheer from the crowd, and they began to march on the embassy. Thomas couldn't believe what he was seeing. A Sith Knight betraying the Republic? He was about to jump down and face the enemy when three more robed figures jumped down from a nearby roof and all ignited red lightsabers.
“Sith Knight Tevrez! You are out of place of the rules of the Sith Knight Order. You are to disperse these people and hand in your lightsaber immediately.”
“Look around you fools. These people don't want the republic. They want us, the Sith, to lead them. Not some corrupt Chancellor or elected official. They want us. They want out power. They want us to lead them. This is our time.”
“Listen to you. Acting like a fool. We don't strive for control, we strive for peace. Put down your weapon. Prove you are still loyal to our code.” There was a bit of a silence amongst the crowd, then out of the crowd came two more hooded figures, each with their own red lightsabers.
“People of Estanoki! It is time for your to voice your opinions. These three here want peace, hope, and want to uphold the laws of the Republic. While we offer you a more secure society, one led by the Sith. What say you?!” The crowd talked amongst themselves for a few moments, when one person walked over to Tevrez. Then another, then several more, and then the whole crowd was on the side of the Sith Tevrez.”
“Please people of Estanoki!” The Sith Knight yelled. “We are the good guys here! We are the ones that have been protecting you! These people are not Sith Knights, but rather Sith Lords! Please, do the right thing.”
“We are doing the right thing!” Someone yelled in the crowd. “Destroying the system that let us suffer and rot!” The crowd screamed in agreement with him. The Sith Lords all smirked and were about to charge the Sith Knights, when Thomas jumped down from his perch, landed right in between the two sides, and launched a tremendous force-push to knock the crowds back and knock the Sith Lords off guard. He drew his two lightsabers and rushed towards one of the Sith Lords he had knocked completely over, and stabbed him quickly. He turned to face his other opponents but then he saw the Sith Knights had joined the frey and had begun battling the Sith Lords. Thomas joined the fray with one of the Sith Knights that was going one-on-one with Tevrez. They clashed, and seemed to have the upper hand when the other Sith Knights killed the other Sith Lord and greatly outnumbered Tevrez. Thomas was about to strike the final blow when another Sith Lord came out of nowhere and fought off one of the Sith Knights. Then another Sith Lord showed up, then two more. Thomas made short work of the one he was battling, then took on Tevrez once again.
“So, it would seem that the Jedi Council was right about there being a parasite within the Sith Knights. Well now is the time for us to exterminate that parasite.” Their lightsabers clashed back and forth leading them to battle on top of landspeeders parked in the street, while crashing into stores from time to time leading up to the roof of a grocery store. At that moment, a great noise boomed out of the sky. Thomas looked up and saw several ships dropping out of hyperspace and attacking the embassy. People were jumping out of bombing doors and attacking the few Republic troopers that were on hand, and then several Sith Lords appeared and began attacking the Sith Knights.
“You see Jedi? You have already lost. This world is ours, as is all the outer-rim territories. Even now, the ships of the Sith Empire return once again to take what is ours, and begin to bring order to the galaxy. The Sith Lords have returned. The Sith Knights are dead.” Tevrez started laughing when a red lightsaber stabbed him from behind revealing a Sith Knight standing right behind him.
“Jedi. I trust you have a fast ship?”
“I only have one. And it's a one-man fighter.”
“Good. We have ships of our own. And we could always steal a few. You need to escape and tell the Jedi what you have seen here today. Tell them the Sith Lords have risen again, and that the remaining Sith Knights loyal to the Republic will soon arrive on Courascant.” Thomas nodded, and quickly made his way to the outskirts of the city to where his ship was. He had to sneak past a few patrols of Sith Troopers and hop into his ship. As he got out of the planets atmosphere, he saw a whole multitude of ships attacking the planet. He had to do some trick flying to get past all the guns of the enemy star destroyers. A few tie fighters got on his tail, but he had already jumped into hyperspace before they could blast him into space dust. As the auto-pilot took over, he let out a big gasp, then realized that he should contact the Jedi Council. He grabbed his radio receiver, then brodcasted a message.
“Thomas Watson, Jedi Knight, reporting on mission to Estanoki. Sith Lords have returned. I repeat, the Sith Lords have returned.”

Author's Note

Another late update, I know (hey, I have a life okay?!).
Please tell me what you think with a review!

Reviews

[New Theory]

Ohh yes the Sith Lords have returned , your book is like an action epic movie, slowly enfolding but is very satisfying and as far as being late in reviewing you have pretty much mentioned it in the Author's note so peace out. Long live and prosper :P. Wrong universe :P.