The Jedi From Earth: A Star Wars Story #Wattys2023

Reconiscence

The star destroyer came out of hyperspace just beyond the asteroid belt of the planet and the remaining ships that retreated were guarding the planet. Mara had been stationed on Tatooine to mop up any further pockets of droids so Shawn was on his own. He looked out the window at the ships but neither side had begun firing, he heard Vader speaking to the admiral "we will blockade the planet prevent any escape and only fire if fired upon".

Shawn sensed Vader approaching and said "are we laying siege?"Vader said "yes we don't know of their numbers so therefore take your ship and slip past their fleet down to the surface and report their numbers" Shawn replied "yes my lord" and walked away to the elevator that took him to the hanger.

He got in the Strings and activated the cloak and flew out of the hanger toward the fleet. As he flew past the Providence class ship its engines vibrated the air and for a second he thought he'd been detected but nothing happened, then came the difficult part flying through the asteroid belt and Shawn dodged many smaller ones that flew in at incredibly fast speeds but by using the force he was able to guide himself past the belt and entered the atmosphere.

The planet was barren and rocky so hiding wouldn't be much of a problem. Shawn landed his ship in a small chasm and got out, the air was dry and arid like on Tatooine but there wasn't as much sand only dry dirt. He skulked around the canyon in case any droids showed up and saw a small cave, suddenly two Geonosisans flew out and Shawn ducked worried they'd spot him, but the two flew away and Shawn continued on.

He found several droid factories and Geonosisan hives before he found a large arena. As Shawn got closer he sensed something about it like a conflict of some kind began there, this must be where the Clone Wars began, he thought and just then he heard a rolling sound to his left and saw two Droidekas approaching. Shawn ignited his lightsaber as the Droidekas stopped and opened up with a blue sphere surrounding them and began firing, he defected the laser bolts back but the droids had shields so it wouldn't work, he blocked two more before using the force and pulled a large pillar down and crushing them with it.

Then he heard some slow sounding marching coming from inside the arena and saw ten super battle droids approaching and so he ran away and jumped over the pillar he'd just used to crush the Droidekas and there was a Geonosisan warrior hovering who fired there sonic blaster at him. Shawn dodged it and cut the warrior in two before landing, he ran back towards the canyon but then two droids armed with electrostaffs jumped down and spun them in a propeller motion.

Shawn defected the first one and then the second in a matter of seconds and found them to be highly skilled and very fast. Then one of them jumped behind and hit him with the staff and pain shot through him and he almost fell but turned around and force pushed it away before counterattacking the other and sliced off it's left arm but it still attacked with the staff in its right hand. Shawn then diced as it swiped at him and cut it in half before stabbing it in the head, then the other one attacked and he blocked it then sliced it leg off before its head.

He stood there scanning the area for more attackers and held his lightsaber ready. Then suddenly four rebel Bothans jumped down, Shawn was hesitant as these were people he'd have to work with and said "stand down and I won't kill you" with a serious forceful tone but the Bothans laughed and one of them kicked his lightsaber away from him before he could react, Shawn unleashed force lightning at the Bothan who fell engulfed by the lightning and held his other hand up and choked the other two. But the last one jumped and zapped him with some sort of device that made him release the others.

Shawn tried recalling his saber but then it was caught by another hand and he looked up and there was Ventress "you've improved I've seen Jedi fall much faster by the Magnaguards and others hold their own much longer" and then she said "take him away".

Shawn woke up suspended in some kind of force field of sorts and was slowly spinning also. He couldn't move either and sensed someone was approaching and the door slid open and Ventress and a Geonosisian with armor and rings on his wrists and a protocol droid walked in "allow me to introduce Archduke Gizel The Greater ruler of Geonosis" Ventress said and Shawn replied "there's no point in keeping me here the Empire has surrounded the planet you're trapped" then Gizel said something in Geonosisan and the droid translated "lord Gizel says it matters not for we are ready" Shawn said "you've committed treason archduke I hope you're ready for what happens next".

Gizel said something else and the droid translated "we build weapons here of course we're ready" then Ventress slowly walked around and Shawn saw his lightsaber was on her belt and said "I believe that's mine" she smirked and said "well if you're a good boy maybe I'll give it back" and said "now I'll only ask this once when is the attack coming?".

Shawn genuinely didn't know as Vader hadn't said when it'll happen "I don't know" he replied and Ventress held her hand at him and choked him and he gagged and coughed and she said "don't lie to me I'll grow tired quickly now when is it coming?" And released her grip and Shawn took in fast paced breaths and said "I swear to you I wasn't told about any attack only that we're blockading the planet" Ventress crossed her arms and said "alright I believe you Imperial scum but lie and I'll kill you without hesitation" then she and Gizel walked out of the room.

Shawn looked around for something to use to escape and saw a small wire that was exposed in the wall. He focused on it and it began to be pulled out of the wall and he moved it to the bottom of the stand and with the wire short circuited the stand and the force field went out and he fell limp to the hard floor. He groaned and stood up and removed the shackles on his wrists and ankles and looked around for an alternate route of escape, Shawn sensed someone approaching and jumped up and hung onto a stone slab on the ceiling as a droid walked in.

Seeing it was a single droid if wouldn't be much of an obstacle. Shawn quickly jumped down very quietly and ran out of the cell, then the droid ran out and said "hey you're supposed to be in-" and Shawn quickly crushed it with the force and threw it in the cell and shut the door and stealthily ran down the halls avoiding many droids until reaching the front of the building. Suddenly he ran,pit and there were battle droids outside one yelled "blast him!" And they fired at him.

Shawn dodged the bolts and force pushed them away before running off again. He jumped up the sides of two buildings before reaching the roof and found three Geonosisan guards who fired their sonic blasters at him, he ducked and rolled to the side before ripping up a piece of metal with the force and threw it at them. He ran and jumped along more roofs as rocket droids flew after him firing.

Shawn turned around and unleashed force lightning at them and they fell and behind them some more acrobatic droids followed. He jumped onto the ground and one of the droids fired a rope at his ankles and it tripped him, Shawn saw the droids getting closer and using ten force pulled down a statue but the droids simply jumped over it. One of them threw a gas grenade at him but Shawn pushed it back and reached down and undid the rope and continued running,

Then a rebel solder turned ten corner and Shawn not wanting to have to kill the rebels jumped on the wall pushed off and kicked the rebel in the side of the face as he did knocking them out before running on.
Then Ventress was there with two Magnaguards at her side and she said "that's far enough now" Shawn stopped and used the force and pulled his lightsaber from her belt and ignited it. Ventress gestured and the Magnaguards charged, Shawn unleashed force lightning at them and as they were slowed down he cut them apart.

Ventress ignited her own blades and said "impressive but I can't let you leave" Shawn pointed his saber at her and genuinely said "try and stop me". She spun her sabers and said "you've got some nerve" Shawn held his saber next to him with two hands readying but she lowered them and said "but I need someone to tell Vader about what's here so consider yourself lucky" and she ran off.

Shawn retracted his blade and ran off towards the canyon where the Strings was and got in cloaked it and took off. As he exited the atmosphere the imperial fleet had doubled in size, landing back on the Executor Shawn got out and passed the two lines of stormtroopers and made his way up to the bridge.