Manhunt (Open to a Jedi)

[Darth Vader]

The corvette tumbled out of its orbital vector, awash in fire. In its wake, its massive attacker loomed. The Star Destroyer Maleficent trundled toward the planet Dantooine, replacing the immolated Jedi transport ship it had just gutted with turbolaser fire.

Several levels below the command deck, a man fell to the glossed metal floor, his neck snapped. Another man, clutching a blaster-scorched arm, looked at his fallen comrade with shock. All around, the sound of mechanical breathing continued, until the bass-saturated voice spoke again.

"Who was the passenger, Captain? I won't ask a second time."

Captain Collivas closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"I had no passenger manifest. I don't know who we were escorting. Its all true, I swear."

The Dark Lord of the Sith was not satisfied.

"Your ignorance will cost you your life, Captain."

The black-clad Lord turned to a man in a grey uniform and jack boots.

"Commander Svek, take this man to the nearest airlock, and eject him."

"NO!!" Collivas protested, but Svek's curt nod sealed the Corvette Captain's fate, as four stormtroopers flanked him, and dragged him down the hall.

Darth Vader turned to a nearby console, and tapped a button. A bluish-white hologram flickered to life. The figure in front of him was broad-shouldered and square-jawed. He kept a full, well-manicured moustache that had begun to grey, as had the traces of hair that were visible from under his officer's cap. The figure turned toward Vader, and bowed crisply.

"What orders, m'lord?"

Vader spared no pleasantries.

"Major Drax, prepare your dropships and my shuttle. The Jedi has escaped. We will resume pursuit planetside immediately."

The Dark Lord didn't wait for whatever ingratiating answer in the affirmative his ground commander might offer. He deactivated the holo, and made his way toward the lift.

Within five minutes, one Lambda shuttle and two Y-4 dropships descended from the Maleficent's main hangar bay, plummeting downwards to the planet below.

[Morgan Evanar]

THUNK. The heat shield dented.

Morgan’s glove hissed when it briefly touched the smoldering outer casing of the escape pod. Now ruined, he pulled it off. He had been unable to convince Captain Collivas not to go down with his ship. Now, he was probably dead if the wrong Imperial faction had picked him up. The worst would be the Sith Order.

The Jedi Master looked up into the mid-afternoon sky. This was supposed to have been a supply run. Get supplies from Morishim, run them to Yavin, set a few things up, go back to Coruscant, repeat a few more times. The crew hadn’t even been briefed as to why they were going to Yavin. Now they were scattered across Dantooine’s vast plains.

Few people knew about the fact that the Jedi were re-establishing a presence on Yavin. Why had there been an interdictor cruiser in orbit over Dantooine, in perfect position to pluck a ship flying from Morishim to Yavin? Either there was a leak that just flooded and drowned several crew members of the Corvette or someone had played one amazing hunch. Or perhaps there was no hunch in play. Morgan frowned at that possibility.

Dantooine was almost wholly empty except for family plantations, scattered hundreds of kilometers apart. There were some space ports, but the Imperials would be watching them with extreme scrutiny. In the meantime, Morgan gathered all of the available emergency supplies, and with a dash of ingenuity, managed to make two of the packs fairly comfortable.

For now, he would find somewhere to lay low. He started his long jog east from the escape pod, his long legs devouring distance with each step.

[Darth Vader]

Like durasteel vultures, the shuttle and two landing craft descended lightly around one of the corvette's escape pods, which had crash-landed in a grain field. The Y-4 egress ramps lowered, and four platoons of stomtroopers rushed out, fanning around to form a perimeter. Behind the troopers, four AT-ST scout walkers and a dozen speederbikes exited, just as Lord Vader's shuttle lowered its ramp.

The Dark Lord strode down in long, purposeful strides, followed quickly behind by Major Drax, now clad in a more pragmatic battlefield garb of black cloth and a helmet of dark blastoid polymer. Without delay, the Major and the Sith walked toward the escape pod.

It was empty. Vader looked to the horizon, and spoke to his subordinate.

"Major, deploy your men to the next crash site coordinates. Be on the lookout for signs of escape. If the planet's inhabitants resist your search, destroy them."

The skin at Drax's jawline tightened somewhat, and he quickly followed up with a curt bow.

"As you wish, m'lord. Of course."

Nodding to a nearby stormtrooper that wore a red shoulder patch, Drax headed out, with a column of white-armored soldiers ahead of him. The scout walkers followed behind, at the flanks. The compliment of speederbikes shot out into the distance, vanguards of the death squads that had just landed.

As for Vader, he began walking in a different direction. There was no evidence to support his hunch. He felt it. Felt him.

Seeking out the Jedi's presence, the Dark Lord began his pursuit.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan stared at the river before him as it ripped by, and then trudged into the shallows, begining the upstream trek. Evening was closing fast upon him, and the air was picking up a chill. Even though he had covered a good fourty kilometers in the past two hours, he instinctively knew he needed to keep moving.

The Jedi wished for a wood or a forest, or even a jungle. Speeders and walkers performed much worse on that sort of terrain, and he knew how to move through that. Not that the grassland had slowed him down, but stealth would be preferable to speed. After a few more kilometers, he leapt to east bank. Behind him the sun gave up and sunk beneath the horizon.

The six hours of running had begun to take its toll. He had covered over a hundred and twenty clicks, and his stomach was insisting he stop. Morgan removed a ration from his mishappen pack, and opened it.

"Aw frell." he muttered, thick Tanaabian accent coming through. He guestimated it had been living in that escape pod for over fifty years. The smell must have been akin to Palpy's undergarments. It was one of the many times that he wished his sense of smell wasn't so very keen. The rest of the rations were no better. Apparently, the Republic hadn't been too keen on keeping escape pods up to spec. There would be many letters to military staff on this.

Kilometers of quiet stalking later, Morgan had consumed several birds and small mammals, raw.

Evanar sighed. He wanted to stop, to go home, to see Rie, to finish moving off Coruscant. The wind had begun to shift, and over the next two hours, the scent of rain carried through.

[Darth Vader]

The rain came in a trickle at first, and became a deluge within the hour. Major Drax's search began to slow, as the fields his walkers tromped on became wet and spongy, causing the AT-STs' feet to sink into the soil more than usual.

Drax cursed as rain poured off the sides of his helmet. In the distance, he spotted a house.

"Squad one, form perimeter."

The sound of rattling white armor answered him, as the first squad rushed toward the house, fanning out to cover it from all angles. Drax glanced back to the rest of his forces.

"Squad two, on me."

Drawing his blaster, Drax ran the next 120 meters to the front of the plantation house, with a column of stormtroopers in close proximity. They climbed the stairs to the porch, and one of the troopers set a circular object on the door, as the others moved to either side of the door. Drax moved to the end of the porch, as a thunderous BANG shattered the still of the rainy night. The breech charge blew the door inwards, clearing the way for the troopers to pour inside the house, where shock was spreading to the two dozen people inside.

[Morgan Evanar]

Four kilometers north, Morgan had taken refuge in a small stand of trees. While most would be nervous about falling, he had developed an art of sleeping on tree branches since childhood. An emergency blanket was draped over him.

Comically, an arm hung off the branch while the rain pounded on the blanket through the leaves. Lightning rumbled occasionally as the front tore through. Tomorrow would be cold and damp, but Morgan knew he only had five hours to sleep. There would be no luxury for the pursued.

There was another distant rumbled, but he didn’t feel the electromagnetic surge. Morgan’s eyes jerked open for a moment, but he closed them. Too far, and he needed the rest. When the rain stopped, and the mud was fresh, the chase would change distinctly in the Imperial’s favor. There wasn’t a good way to hide size fourteen feet in fresh mud. However, if those caves a few clicks back turned out to run far enough, that might allow him to throw the Imperials.

[Darth Vader]

In the deep of night, the torrential downpour continued all around the Dark Lord, though in his hermetically-sealed armor, it was of no consequence to him. The only thing that mattered now was tracking down the Jedi who had eluded him.

Vader paused at the edge of a field's clearing. To the east, trees could be seen in the dark. To the west, the terrain gradually became rocky. The Dark Lord reached out with the force, determined to seize its secrets for himself. There were two roads to the same destination. One was to trace the Jedi's path, and the other was to trace where the Jedi would be.

Vader's feelings told him to seek his enemy in the foothils, and so he did.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morning fog coated the still grassland as Morgan backtracked to the cave system just east of the river. Mud squished and slid beneath his feet, but he managed to keep his footing, although he occasionally slid a little. After the half hour trek was spent at a dead run, he was freckled with dots of mudd.

Now that solid ground was inside, the Jedi Master saw no reason to take any extra risk. Light twisted around him, and his already subtle Force presence became a confusing, indistinct smear.

The inner caves smelled of water, and, sure enough, an underground river ran into the one west. At one point, the river had surged up, so passage was impossible unless he swam against the current. He fished a braided fiber line out of his pack, and tied it in several places.

After he stripped down to his undergarments, Morgan grabbed a waterproof light dove in. The water was cold. It tingled against his body as he swam under the outcropping.

He popped up, sucking in oxygen into his lungs, and marveld. The whole cave was rife with crystals. Lightsaber crystals. A field trip under better conditions was in order.

Morgan dove back under and dragged his pack along against the smooth river bottom. After almost a half kilometer, the cave wall again merged into the river. Again, the Jedi scouted ahead, saw that the conditions were satisfactory, and retieved his pack.

Breakfast his stomach suggested none too subtly. He told his body to stuff it, and continued his trudging.

[Darth Vader]

"Major, the house is clear."

Drax nodded to the stormtrooper, and then turned back to the group of people assembled in the house's atrium.

"I will ask once. There were several lifepods from a starship that touched down here. Where are their passengers?"

Nobody spoke. They either didn't know, or refused to answer. Drax looked to an older man, whom he assumed to be the head of the house.

"Anybody?"

When he didn't speak up, Drax drew his sidearm, and fired twice at the man's chest, dropping him instantly. With an indifferent look, he returned his attention to the rest of the civilians.

"Silence is not an acceptable answer. If you make me wait, I will shoot one of you every minute you delay. Starting now."

[Morgan Evanar]

He emerged in the midst of foothills of a small mountain range. Morgan still sopped like a golden retriever, and he was still hungry. The morning mist had only just barely begun to burn off.

Lightfooted, and on more secure terrain (the grasslands were lined with rodent burrows), Morgan made incredible progress, until he heard a distant repulsorwhine. While his Force presence was rather vauge, he was staying visible because it was one less thing to concentrate on while moving.

The Jedi Master knew he was dealing with another powerful and praticed Force user. Light twisted and bent around him while he continued to negoiate the rolling terrain. A chorus of speeder bikes echoed through the hills. Where was the egg in this Imperial basket?

[Darth Vader]

Across the crest of an upcoming hill, a black silhouette emerged, approaching Morgan from the other side. It was still too far away to be identified, but there was a disturbing presence to the person.

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Vader paused at the top of the hill. He felt a presence, diffuse and weak, hidden amongst the crags and sparse grass of the slope. No doubt his hidden foe had felt him as well, as he was not as adept at masking his formidable presence.

[Morgan Evanar]

The speederbikes looped around for another pass. Morgan paused, careful not to loose any rocks. He watched as they dissapeared around the next bend in the dry riverbed. Two bends down, one of the cliffs had collapsed, making the route extremely difficult to navigate with a bike. The net had begun to tighten. He dropped the ten meters down into the dust.

The sound of repulsor engines began to echo again. The Jedi Master started his dash. When the speeder bikes slowed down to make the next bend, he had matched speeds, and jumped onto the back of one of the bikes.

Morgan smashed the driver's back, and then tossed him off. His compatriot turned, wondering if his co-scout had engine trouble. He looked to his right, and was ripped from his bike. Evanar crouched down and gunned the engine. It was woeful. He wished he had his speeder here.

[Darth Vader]

The Dark Lord turned sideways in time to see the errant speeder depart, its driver dead on the ground. Reaching to his belt, Vader drew a comm device.

"Major, the Jedi is headed back in the direction of the plantation. Draw the net around him. I shall cut off his escape."

With that, Vader strode down the craggy hillside, wasting no time.

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"Understood M'lord. Drax out."

Major Drax tucked away his comm device, and glanced at the civilians assembled in the room.

"It appears that you are not harboring Rebels after all."

He smiled thinly.

"I commend you for your honesty. We are now leaving. Stay in your home. If I find anyone aiding and abetting rebels, I will execute the offenders."

Glancing to a white-armored trooper, Drax nodded.

"Let's go."

The squads filed out in precise order, regrouping outside. Once clear of the house, Drax spoke to a trooper wearing an officer's orange shoulder patch.

"Barricade the exits, and light the house on fire. We're leaving to intercept our target."

The stormtrooper nodded, and gave a series of hand signals. One column of troopers assumed a position near a chokepoint that led to the plantation. The AT-ST's moved to support the flanks. The other squad began priming incendiary devices, in preparation for Drax's cruel reprisal against the civilian plantation.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan drained the blaster power banks, so there would be more energy on hand for the top end. He adjusted the handlebars, and attempted to flatten himself out agains the bike. Below, the grass rippled in the wind.

He dipped the speeder hard right as he crested a hill. A blaster bolt from an AT-ST splattered on the space his former path would have taken him. Morgan drifted the back end out, and then gunned the engine, pointed the speeder right twoard the lone scout walker.

A twitch from the anti-personel blaster, and the Jedi Master loosed his lightsaber. The long blue blade bounced the shots back at the armor, blackening it in spots, but doing no real harm.

Evanar gunned the engine, leveling his lightsaber at the machine's knee joint, and dragged it across with a hiss. It would take several passes to do serious damage, but it was a start. He turned the saber off, and re-attached it to his belt loop, crouching back down against the speeder, doing his best to make the river, where the ground was more spungy.

[Darth Vader]

"Contact left flank. Distance three seven decimal four."

A nearby stormtrooper reported to Drax, his macrobinoculars fixed on Morgan's maneuvering speederbike.

"Looks like one of ours." Drax growled from beneath his moustache.

"Where's he going?"

"There's a river within two kilometers of that position."

Drax stood silent for a moment, then spoke again.

"Make contact with the Maleficent. I want TIE support now."

This quarry was too slippery for his tastes. Explaining this to Lord Vader would be a hazardous task.

Drax turned to his subordinate again.

"What are you waiting for? Deploy speederbike pursuit at once."

[Morgan Evanar]

The ion engines were audible before the fighters were visible. The military spec twins had a definitive roar.

Morgan's main saving grace was that he was a small, agile target. He eased his speeder over the river, where the grasses wouldn't interfere... and dissapeared.

He eased off the throttle, minimising the air displacement and the engine wine, if the fighters were equiped with sonic sensors.

[Darth Vader]

UURRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

The Interceptors plummeted from the heavens above, quickly locating Morgan's speeder. Their laser cannons screamed, throwing bolts of green energy across the ground, kicking up dust and debris as they followed the Jedi. The TIE's were far faster than the speeder, requiring them to make their attacks in brief passes, rather than engaging in a sustained strafe. On the plus side, it meant that neither TIE could fire at him for an extended period. However, the fighters swung around, and swooped in from odd angles, forcing the Jedi to swerve continuously.