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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr Midnight" data-source="post: 1558578" data-attributes="member: 69">The man from the ship spotted the Jedi and asked “Are you Turon?”Magnus stepped forward. “I am Magnus Turon, yes.”The man came down the ramp steps with a  swagger. “Jaren Creel. Got a communicator here for you.” He held out a holoprojector in his hand. Magnus took it and pressed the button. The beacon bleeped for a few moments before its call was answered, and Plo Koon’s head and shoulders filled the air above the projector in a transparent bluish cast. He spoke in his modulated drone. “Magnus,” Koon said with some relief in his voice. “The ship found you well?”“Yes, of course. Should we not be?”Pock, nearby, said “Hi Plo!”The Kel Dor nodded, acknowledging the boy. “Greetings, young Pock. Magnus, may we speak privately?” Magnus frowned. That didn’t sound good. “Certainly. Pock, you stay here with Mikau and do as he tells you.” Magnus walked into the treeline with the holoprojector. When they were alone, Plo Koon began. “I’ll not waste our time. Magnus, war has broken out. There was a skirmish on Geonosis about a week ago, and the Confederation of Independent Planets and the Republic finally came to blows. The Supreme Chancellor was granted special power to form an army to combat the rising Separatist forces. Two galaxywide factions are now at war.”“Wait,” Turon said, confused. “A week ago? Galactic war? Why haven’t I heard about this?”“You’re in an outer rim system,” Koon replied. “One that, I might add, is particularly difficult to get communications to. The holonet has been suspended, and I suspect news of the conflict is only now reaching your moon via holorecordings and week-old newsfeed transmissions.”Magnus thought for a moment. “This is bad. You know we’re on a moon with heavy Separatist sympathies, don’t you?”“Yes. This is why it’s imperative that you get Pock out of the system and home as soon as is possible.”“So who’s this man who came aboard the ship? Why haven’t the Jedi come to escort us home?”Plo Koon seemed almost to wince at this. “There were complications. It seems the Supreme Chancellor’s got all the Jedi tied up in sensitive missions at the moment, acting as generals and commanders for clone warrior strike teams around the galaxy. I myself only have a moment to speak to you before I’m back to duty here on Dantooine. The man is a great soldier, Chancellor Palpatine assures us. He was hand-picked for this mission. You’re in good hands with him. He’ll protect Pock as vigorously as you do.”Magnus set his jaw, frustrated and thinking hard. “The prophecy of old. You know he still isn’t aware of his own potential.”“Yes, and he must remain ignorant of the idea.”“Understood. One more thing: clone warriors??”Plo Koon nodded at his former student. “They’re a recent addition. I’m afraid it’s a long story, but if you should see a large number of men clad in white armor from head to toe, that’s them. You can trust them.” “I see.”“Magnus, Pock must be returned to the safety of Coruscant as quickly as you can manage. Leave immediately.” “We will, Master. Thank you.” He clicked off the communicator.Back at the clearing. Jaren was standing and making friendly conversation with the two Jedi. He showed some interest in the boy. “So. You’re Pock Sirus?”“Yep.”Jaren nodded. “Nice to meet you. Looks like we’re going to be shipmates for a while. If there’s any trouble, stay by me, kid.” He smiled.Pock shrugged. “Okay.”Magnus was walking briskly over to the group. “Pock, Mikau.” he called. “Get your things. We’re leaving.”“Right now?” Pock cried out. “Look, they finally managed to get a transmission feed out here! Maybe it’s a vidshow or something. Can we watch it first? Please?” He pointed away, towards the camp, where a large group of miners were huddled around the camp’s only holoprojector hub. They were watching grainy news footage of Jedi warriors fighting droid soldiers on some rust-colored and dust-strewn planet. A line of scrolling text along the bottom read: HOSTILITIES BREAK OUT ON GEONOSIS - - -  CONFEDERACY DECLARES WAR ON REPUBLIC - - -Mikau blinked. “Oh dear.”A large number of the miners were speaking angrily and gesturing towards the Jedi and the Republic ship that had set down among them. One reached to the ground, picked up a rock, and hurled it with all his force at the group. It bounced off the ship’s hull with a echoing noise.Magnus said “Oh dear indeed. Everyone on the ship. Now.”Jaren casually unclipped the fasteners on his blaster holsters as the miners began picking up weapons. Some grabbed rocks, some grabbed sticks, and others still grabbed vibro-axes and blaster rifles. They began walking forward, yelling anti-Republic slogans. The foremost and loudest of them was the plaintiff from Mikau’s earlier judgment. “WHERE YOU GOING, TYRANTS? WANT TO MAKE WAR ON THE UNION, DO YA?”Magnus, Pock, and Mikau were slowly making their way to the ship, not wanting to set the mob into a frenzy. Jaren, at the front of the group, stood his ground and drew his pistols. “Now see here,” he said. “All you just get back to your shanty-town and we’ll forget about this. Let’s not get ugly.” When it became clear that he’d failed to stop the group from advancing, he fired off a warning shot into the dirt at the foot of one of the mob. The man lost his nerve and fled, but the others merely began screaming and attacking in earnest. In a very poorly timed moment, another traveler aboard the ship decided to introduce himself. “Greetings,” a polite voice said behind the Jedi and Jaren. “I am Y3-Ns, droid/ship interface and maintenance. I’m quite pleased to make your- OH!!” The rust and bronze protocol droid flailed his arms as a blaster bolt ricocheted off the hull just half a meter to his left. Jaren began firing into the crowd. “Kid, stay with me, I’ll protect you!” Pock broke into a run and ignored the invitation, heading straight into the ship. Magnus joined him, and Mikau as well. “Pilot,” Mikau called. “We must make a hasty exit. Now, if it pleases you.” The pilot, one of three crewmen on the ship, answered “I’ve got to warm the ship back up… hold them off as long as you can!” The three Jedi drew lightsabers and lit them, prepared to deflect incoming blaster shots. Pock’s lightsaber was a bright green. Mikau’s glowed purple, and Magnus’ was orange. Jaren took a shot to the shoulder and grunted. “My shirt!” He fired two return shots into the crowd and dodged some thrown objects. One man threw something that wasn’t a rock. It was metallic and silvery. It landed on the side of the ship with a  metallic clap and stayed there, beginning to make a high-pitched whining noise that raised in frequency to almost inaudible levels. Jaren yelled “Bomb!”Mikau cast his hand out at the thing, grabbed it with his mind, and flung it away from the ship. It landed twenty meters away and continued to hum. It hadn’t landed very close to the attacking mob, but suddenly they were retreating. “Run!” one yelled. “Release it, now, NOW!”Jaren grinned for a moment. “Hey, they’re running! Hah, I…” His grin faltered. “Release what?”Across the camp, at a storage pen that stood nearly thirty meters tall, one of the miners was hitting a combination of numbers on a keypad. He then ran away to join the others, huddling with weapons drawn, watching the pen and the Republicans both. The sliding door on the pen slowly drew down into the ground. There, in the darkness, something huge was standing. The high frequency noise from the blaring metal object on the ground near the ship reached the immense creature, and its eyes blazed red with madness.“RREEEEEEEAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!”“Oh.” Jaren’s face fell and his eyes widened. “It.”MORE TO COME…</blockquote>

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