Post by Corran on Mar 20, 2009 22:25:17 GMT -5
This is a expermental draft of a Idea for a story I had, I left off finishing it the last time Tigeress dissapeared but I might continue it someday. If I do then this will probably be obsolete as I will rewrite it because its only a draft.
Chapter 1
Tchdwn beat his fingers on the table in front of him impatiently as he waited, “Ender should have been here by now”. The place he occupied was a corner booth located so Tch could keep his back against the wall and see anyone coming through the cantina’s lone entrance.
The cantina was lighted well enough but the corners and walls were in shadow. In the middle of the room 4 table’s sit but only the nearest was occupied but 4 men playing a game of sabaac.
The bar was lined by a few men who were relaxing after a hard day at work and the table’s along the wall were also lightly dotted with people. It would be crowded later but it was to early for the crowds now.
Tch shifted, his eyes straying to the nearest table where 4 men set playing sabaac. Watching closely, Tch noticed the player nearest him palm his hand and switch a card with one he had produced from some place on his person. Tch grinned humorlessly, cheating at sabaac was punishable by death in this place and the player who had just put the skifter in his hand didn’t even look old enough to shave.
Looking towards his wrist chronometer Tch sighed. Something must have detained Ender, “or he has betrayed me”. Tch dismissed that thought as soon as it appeared, Ender would never betray him. He had probably been watched to closely and hadn’t been able to slip away without raising suspicions. “Ill give him another half hour to show, if he isn’t here by then Ill leave and wait until he contacts me to arrange another meeting.” There were few people Tch truly trusted and he could number them on one hand. A leader could not afford to trust too many people, especially one who was the leader of a movement that was against the world government. Emperor Che Guevara I formerly known as Nader had placed a bounty on Tchs head that would make anyone who captured him wealthy enough to buy their own Island or to purchase a Duke title off of Nader Himself.
Tch himself had been the General of the Jedi Army before he had formed his on military unit known as the Ultimate Jedi Legends. Tch had originally formed it with Naders blessing but his increased power and the respect that he had gained had caused the Emperor to grow Jealous and he had demanded that Tchdwn disband the squad and tried to demote Tch to a General on the grounds that the Jedi Emperor Guevara would take over the duties of General of the Army himself and merge it with the title of Emperor. When Tch had refused Nader had flown into a rage and stripped Tchdwn of his rank and kicked him out of the army entirely. The entire squad of UJL had followed their Leader tch and Nader had outlawed them and started spreading propaganda titling the UJL as “Ultimate Jedi Losers” who had no discipline and had left the Jedi army because they could know longer handle it. “Tchdwn himself has left”, his news bulletins went on to say, “because he has challenged our Glorious Emperor himself to a duel for his title and when he failed to defeat him, he spit on the Emperors benevolent offer to let him stay in Jedi at the reduced rank of General and has fled taking with him the washouts of the Jedi army with him and vowing to unseat the Emperor. Since then the UJL has fled before the might of our Grand Jedi Army cowardly blowing up civilian and military targets. While the UJL is made up of the dregs of the Jedi army their complete ruthlessness and lack of any honor at all makes them a dangerous foe not to be underestimated. If you have any information please bring it to a ranking member of the Jedi army. Remember, Emperor Che Guevara and the Jedi army protects.”
Tchdwn grimaced. He was sick of Naders propaganda and even tho he knew it was not true he also knew he would evidently have to face the might of Jedi on the battlefield or he would lose the respect of his own people and be vilified so deeply in the eyes of the public that he would soon be unable to mount any sort of resistance at all.
Tch’s eyes wondered idly back to the nearby saabac game and watched as the credits piled up in front of the young cheater “that kid is winning to much to fast, he would be smart to leave now before someone challenges him and he gets shot or gets his head cut off in a duel.” Tch shook his head. The world was fool of young fools who thought they were invincible or just to smart to get caught. Most wound up dead, only a few would live long enough to move onto something else or even retire. Tch let his eyes wonder over the other players summing them up and trying to predict which one would challenge the card shark first.
The man across from the kid was playing very conservatively and his losses had probably been so minor as to be inconsequential. His face was bland but his blue-gray eyes were alert and he seemed to be paying more attention to everyone else in the room then to the game.
The face of the guy to the kids right was slightly flushed probably from to much drink and he was losing heavily and his face was growing more and more flushed. “He’ll probably be the first to accuse the kid.” He didn’t appear to be armed but looked to be something of a brawler with a flat nose and brawny build with his stomach bulging slightly over his belt.
The third man was small, wiry and wore a lightsaber openly on his belt. He had a empty holster on his thigh where his blaster had been taken from him when he entered the bar. “Blaster bolts are more dangerous to the other patrons when they start flying around willy-nilly. Lightsabers just skewer those that are foolish enough to stay in range.”
Tchs eyes went back the guy opposite the kid. “He’s more dangerous then the other two put together. He’s got the look of a trained fighter.” He hid it well but to a Soldier of Tchs experience his stance and his mannerisms bespoke of someone who was confident but not arrogant in his abilities. The man had dark, almost black hair and could only be described as “of average height and weight”. He was the type of guy that would never be picked out of a police lineup.
Tch looked back at his chronometer and stood suddenly. Ender was 70 minutes late and would likely not be showing. Tch dropped a few credits on the table and headed across the cantina towards the door.
***
Corran Horn looked across the table at the gambler across from him. Corran had seen him cheat several times but had kept quiet, not wanting to call attention to himself or to the table. Sitting beyond him the UJL Leader Tchdwn sat watching the saabac game somewhat disinterestedly.
He was a broad shouldered athletic looking man with oak brown hair and piercing green eyes that now looked a muddy brown because of the contacts he wore. Most woman would have described him as ruggedly handsome with a winning smile. He looked to be in his mid to late 20's but Corran knew his age was actually closer to 60. The anti-aging treatments he had undergone as a adolescent has assured that he would keep his youth for several centuries and if no untoward events occurred Tchdwn could expect to live up to 7-8 centuries.
The anti-aging treatments were not widely available and only the extremely wealthy or those in positions of power could afford them. The treatments were ineffective past adolescents though they could still be used to prolong someones life up to 150 years tho not at their physical peak.
Like all of Naders Generals who had helped him bring the planet under his Government Tchdwn had been handpicked by Nader and given the treatments as a adolescent by Nader himself.
No one knew how old Nader was exactly. Most agreed that he had been born 4 centuries ago and been the one who invented the anti-aging drugs that he had kept to himself until he had found those he needed to assist him in his goal of conquering the world.
Tchdwn beat his hands impatiently on the table and Corran smiled. He was waiting for someone and that someone Corran knew was Ender. Ender was Naders right hand since Tchdwn had left and also a former friend of Tchdwn. He had renounced all relationships to Tchdwn after Tch had left Jedi and went rogue. Publicly at least. Unknown to Nader he still kept in contact with Tchdwn and had helped him escape from the Jedi army several times. Corran knew Ender wasn’t leaking to much information to Tchdwn, he doubted Ender even possessed much information. Nader seemed to be the kind of person who played his cards close to his chest and trusted no one. As far as Corran could ascertain Tchdwn was only the latest of the old school Lords who had fought alongside Nader during his rise to power to be stripped of his position. Venom, the first Lord who had initially established Jedi and laid the groundwork for its expansion had made the mistake of trusting the ambitious Nader when he had joined him and had, once Nader was sure he was no longer needed, been killed in a gruesome manner. Nader had then lifted Venom up as a martyr and used him as a rallying point for many of his early recruits. The others, Jimbo, Nightmare, Tchdwn, and later Ender who received the same anti-aging treatment as the others but had came enough after the others that apparently Nader didn’t think of him as a threat.
Jimbo had disappeared under suspicious circumstances and then a document had shown up stating he had died of natural causes and signed by a physician who had then passed away from a heart attack.
Nightmare had been suspicious of Nader and worked to undercover some sign of treachery. Tchdwn had worked to keep Nightmare from openly rebelling against Nader while at the same time working to keep Nader from going after Nightmare and it worked until Tchdwn came down with a rare but serious disease that had him bed ridden for a month. Nightmare was sure that Nader had poisoned Tchdwn and openly confronted Nader.
Nightmare died during the heated confrontation apparently of a heart attack though there was some suspicions in some minds that Nader had simply stopped his heart with the force.
Tchdwn recovered and shortly thereafter had formed his elite Jedi Legends group.
And now, he was sitting in a cantina waiting for the last Jedi Lord left in Jedi to show up. Corran made a show of looking over his hand as he pondered. He knew Ender would not show up. Earlier Nader had called Ender into a closed door meeting and they were still talking. “If Nader harms Ender I will join Tchdwn and his UJL.” Ender had been the one that recruited Corran into the Jedi at the rank of Corporal. Nader had shown up several times to make pretty speeches that the rest of the recruits has swallowed up but Corran had seen little to endear Nader to him.
“His influence is waning. He was once a strong man and a good leader. Now he has let paranoia and his own ego take control of him. His power has corrupted him and he is undermining his Influence. He will fall soon enough but will he take Jedi with him?”
Corran’s hand was a good one. Good enough that normally it would be almost sure to take the pot but not when someone was cheating as blatantly as the kid was. Corran slapped his cards face down on the table, “I fold”. The burly man to Corran left looked at his hands with barely suppressed glee and shoved the remainder of his chips onto the table. The kid shrugged and matched it then turned to the next guy inquiringly. “To rich for my blood” The wiry mans voice was raspy, probably made so by whatever had left the scar along the right side of his throat.
The kid grinned and flipped his cards over then reached for the pot. Behind the kid Tchdwn had suddenly stood and was heading in their direction on his way to the door. Corrans com link pulsed with the preprogrammed code that informed him that Ender had come out of the meeting with Nader and was apparently unharmed.
The face of burly man to Corran left had suddenly flushed and he stood smashing his massive hands down on top of the kids hand as it reached towards the pot. “You no-good swindler. You’ve been cheating this entire game” he raged at the kid. Tchdwn stopped behind the kid then suddenly grabbed him in a wrestling hold. At the same time he slipped all the evidence of the kids cheating off him and pocketed it. “Search him. If you find evidence of cheating then ill let you do what you want with him. If not he walks out of here.” The other patrons at the Cantina had went suddenly still at accusations of the burly man and all eyes were turned towards the table in anticipation of a fight. The burly man glared at Tch and growled “You should have stayed out of this Mister. Now I’m going to pulverize you.” He cocked back one massive fist and then Corran spoke: “Why don’t we settle this like gentlemen and do like the stranger suggested?” The big man turned to glare at him then turned to the wiry guy across the table, “search him,” then to Tchdwn. “You better hope I never run into you in a dark ally.” Tchdwn just looked at him unimpressed. The wiry man quickly frisked the kid then looked up. “He’s clean, he’s just been having a remarkable streak of luck.” Corran glanced at Tchdwn and met his eye, “Bravo Tchdwn” he mouthed. Then grinning at Tchdwn startled expression he turned to the heavyset man. “Looks like the kid is on the level” The man frowned mightily “He’s guilty I tell you, next time he plays Im going to be watching him like a hawk and I’ll prove it.” The man turned stomped up to the bar. The other patrons cleared out of his way looking disappointed. They wouldn’t get their fight today.
Corran nodded to Tchdwn then turned and moved swiftly to the door and ducked out into the shadows of the deepening twilight.
***
Tchdwn let go of the kid and ran after Corran. “Who is that guy and how does he know who I am? Is he why Ender didn’t show up? Does he know Ender?” There was no answering those questions for sure. That the guy was a trained fighter was obvious, who he worked for less so. Naders control wasn’t absolute there were other factions out there of varying power. Jedi just controlled the government. They guy could be a operative for the criminal organization Sitharis or some other major power on the planet. Any of them would be almost as bad ad Jedi itself. Jedi would arrest or kill him on Naders orders but the amount of money on Tchdwns head would be enough to have just about anyone going after him even if they didn’t like Jedi. There might be a few organizations out there that hated Jedi enough and thought Tchdwn was enough of a problem for Jedi that they would not turn him in but those were few if any.
Tchdwn reached the door and stepped out. The man was gone, vanished as if he had never been there. Tchdwn looked around then up but there was no trace anywhere. Sighing Tchdwn turned and headed West up the street he would get his men looking out for the mysterious stranger but he doubted they would find him. He’d just have to wait until he talked to Ender again.
