The Jedi From Earth: A Star Wars Story #Wattys2023

Tense Atmospheres, Night Of The Broken Glass

Imperial Palace, October 7,2015
Shawn wasn't able to sleep that night from all the ruckus from the crowd chanting words like "end the war!, and "bring the government to justice!". He yawned and passed by a window seeing the crowd was still there, Maarek then practically shoved the window open and yelled "shut the hell up goddamn it!" Before slamming the window shut, "you believe this crap kept me up all night" Maarek said walking away clearly agitated. Shawn was also frustrated, "yeah it did keep me up" Mara said strolling over. "What're they even protesting?" Shawn asked, "dunno but let's go find out" Mara said walking down the steps yawning as she did,

Then Shawn saw Leia walking down another hallway and said "here lets go say hi" Mara rolled her eyes but followed Shawn, "hey what's up" Shawn said as he walked up to Leia "oh hi Shawn and just some unbelievable stuff on Earth going on in Syria", "what's happened in Syria?" Shawn asked although he'd never been interested or heard of major world events until they happened, "well here's the deal Russia,China and their allies in the Moscow Pact are beginning a military campaign against this extremist group called ISIS and the Syrian opposition" Leia said,"so?" Shawn said. "So they as in the Russians and Chinese aren't being careful about where they're bombing and it's killing civilians" Leia continued,

"Anyway President Johnson is wary of Riosovsky and Jeong Xi their jets are getting a little too close" Leia said, "so I've been called back by the Emperor to resolve it" she continued, Shawn was interested yet didn't really grip the gravity of the situation such as in April in Estonia. "What if you can't?" He asked, "then two things one the Emperor orders Imperial forces to intervene two your planets at war" Leia said heading into the throne room. Then her holoprojecter beeped and she looked at it "great, a Chinese drone shot down three coalition jets", Then she walked into the throne room leaving Shawn outside. Shawn paced back and forth for about three minutes before the doors slid open again and Leia walked out, "the uh Emperor is worried by this a little bit though" she said walking down the stairs.

Then the sound of the protesters turned into surprised shrieks and yelling after a series of popping sounds, Shawn sweet over to the window but saw nothing. "Come on let's check it out" Shawn said leading Leia along down the halls. As they made it to the entrance where the protesters had gathered up there was a cloud of a foul smelling gas in the air that burned Shawn's eyes and face a little, that's when he saw Jallar helping a stormtrooper who'd been struck by a blunt object up. "What happened?" He asked, "one of em threw a club or something" Jallar said, Shawn saw the troopers armed with riot shields were hitting their batons on them. "Clear them out!" Jallar yelled as the troopers began firing more gas and beat people randomly. Leia ran over "stop this" she said to the ISB officer who ignored her, Shawn was in a state of shock at what he was seeing, unarmed peaceful protesters were being bludgeoned with batons.

"My orders are from Lord Vader your highness and I'll use any means necessary to disperse these rioters" the officer said, Shawn heard that and was visibly ticked from it. But then he saw two stormtroopers drag a Zygerrian girl from the crowd and beat her with their batons. "Hey! Stop it!" He yelled running over practically pushing the stormtroopers away. The girl had tears running down her face, Shawn helped her up "why'd you hit her?" He asked in angered tone, the ISB officer stepped in "I'm sure you're aware association with any sort of disruptive assembly is punishable to the full extent of the law".

Shawn said "and I'm ordering you not to hurt them" a serious look on his face, the officer then drew his pistol waving it in Shawn's direction. The Zygerrian girl looked over Shawn's shoulder visibly shaken, "I'm going have to ask you to move" the officer said, "or I'm afraid I'll have to shoot you". Shawn crossed his arms standing tall with a determined look "go ahead,fire away", the thought of using his rank did cross his mind but felt that would make him seem weak or unable to articulate a solution. The officer had an angered expression but put his pistol away, "let the girl go unharmed" the officer said and the two stormtroopers backed away, Shawn glared at the officer as he strode off.

"Thank you" the Zygerrian girl said hugging Shawn before running off down the steps, he looked at Leia who looked surprised and proud "that was probably the bravest unselfish thing I've ever seen" she said before looking at the plaza, Shawn doe as well and saw the stormtroopers had pushed the crowd back off the palace steps with many injured being rushed off. But then he saw some other regular stormtroopers had a line of ten people lined up on a wall further down blasters aimed, Shawn averted his gaze before the sound of blaster fire echoed. Leia then said "let's go" her tone sounded as if she were on the verge of tears,

About an three hours later Leia was sent back to Earth with orders to deescalate the situation in Syria. Shawn walked into one of,the common rooms and saw Mara was typing at something on a datapad while Maarek was reading something on a datapad but kept dozing off, Roganda was sitting in front of a mirror putting a small blade in her sleeve. Shawn went to one of the tables and poured four small glasses of some sort of coffee alternative before passing them around, "thanks" Mara said sipping it, Shawn nudged Maarek who seemed startled at first but took the glass and downed it, then he went over to Roganda and set one down "oh thank you" she said with a slight smile. Shawn sat down in one of the chairs sighing deeply as he removed his gloves and rubbed his eyes,
What happened out there?" Mara asked, Shawn was still flabbergasted by it and said "the troopers were hitting people with batons". Mara seemed surprised too "really? Wow it'll maybe get out of hand later", however it did.

About five hours later Shawn was dozing off when he saw a plume of smoke rising from the window, getting closer he saw many buildings around the plaza being burned and smashed along with people being beaten up by other civilians. Mara gasped and said "oh my god" handing Shawn a pair of binoculars, looking through he saw a line of ten people being lined up, looking away he said "let's go stop it", then Maarek jumped up " finally something to do". Shawn walked outside and practically ran down the stairs, outside in the plaza there were people beating up people. Then Mara climbed in one of the trees before jumping on the roof of a building. Shawn followed her as did Maarek,

Shawn saw several windows bad been smashed as well as some speeders overturned and on fire. Mara jumped down onto the street, Shawn followed her landing on the hood of a speeder and jumping off, "what's going on?" Shawn heard Mara say before she yelled out in pain, Shawn looked over and received a club to the cheek, he groaned but shook it off punching the attacker in the face. Mara stood up holding her arm which had turned a purple color, the man scampered off. Maarek then landed next to them " what happened? I heard you guys shout", "some random asshole hit us" Mara said,

Then a walker walked down another street firing tear gas. "Come on let's go" Shawn said. They jumped back on the roof bit suddenly it caved in underneath, Shawn using the Force pushed Mara onto another roof before catching the edge of the wall. However Maarek missed and landed on the ground hitting his shoulder hard which he yelled out a series of cusses, Shawn jumped down and Maarek stood up holding his arm "damn I think I dislocated my shoulder" he said climbing out the part of the wall that'd been burned out.

Shawn rubbed his cheek which hurt like hell and said "yeah I'll bet this hurts worse" before they made it back to the plaza where Mara was now. "Great idea lets run toward the chaos and get clubbed" Mara said in a slight sarcastic tone, "not every day this happens" Maarek said, "why aren't the police here stopping it?" Shawn asked as that'd been what'd been on his mind from the start of the riot or what ever it was. "Maybe it was sporadic" Maarek said, as they made it to the top of the stairs the sound of a familiar mechanical breathing got louder and louder.

"Why'd you three run off?" Vader asked crossing his arms, " uh apologies Lord Vader we were investigating the cause of this riot" Maarek said. Vader said "if you're all smart you'd have avoided the riot all together", before gesturing them away. Shawn still held his cheek when suddenly Vader said "Hand Mendes come here" very sternly, Shawn walked over. "I was informed of your interference with an ISB major is that correct?" Vader said, "yes sir" Shawn admitted. Foolish yet brave however do not pull a stunt like that again understood?" Vader said, "I understand sir" Shawn said walking away,

Walking into the common area Shawn saw Roganda holding Maarek's arm and popping it back into its joint, Mara said "wait I did see a lot of ISB people around today could they have?" Spinning her hand around indicating she was trying to articulate her words, "Nah they wouldn't why blow up a bunch of stuff if you have to pay the money for it be rebuilt" Maarek said, Shawn sat down on one of the couches and Mara scurried over with a cold pack pressing it to his cheek "ow" he said wincing. But then his pain turned to exhaustion and he stood up "I'm tired good night", Mara then ran over and hugged him "thank you for saving me" Shawn hugged her back "no problem" he said before walking away.