Star Wars: Rising of the Union/Life or death

Life or death

Abeo walked up to the one of the reception computers and accessed it. He found that the entire Republic Military Archives had been uploaded in to it. Immediately and tirelessly Abeo began picking and dissecting each of the Archives page in a vain attempt to locate anything about the Union. He spent hours looking for even a hint of the Union. The fact that most of the Archives on Sams Sinays had been lost during the Galactic Civil War didn’t help either. Abeo found himself looking up information on the tactical abilities of pre-hyperspace civilizations on the fringes of the galaxy from 50 000 years beforehand in a vain attempt to find anything.

After 8 hours Abeo downloaded the Archives and deactivated the computer. He was clearly frustrated and annoyed. When he rose from the seat he had just spent 8 hours in the hostages began to seriously fear for their lives. Abeo tightened his grip on his blaster, shook his black hair, which had by now grown, his blood red eyes gave the hostages something to fear and the scar on his arm seared red. He raised his blaster and pointed it at one of the hostages. The Commandos all turned at looked at him, a few with looks of worry.

Abeo hesitated, sometimes squeezing the trigger and loosening it again. After five minutes Abeo still looked determined to kill one of the hostages. Then, the computer began to beep. Abeo turned his head slightly to look at the computer, but still had his blaster pointed at one of the hostages. The computer beeped twice more. Abeo lowered his blaster and sat back down in the chair. Both the Commandos and the Hostages took deep breaths of relief. Abeo activated the computer. On the screen appeared a man with dark hair. “Abeo?” the man on the screen asked. “Yes, who wants to know?” Abeo replied suspiciously. “My name is Kendo Shan, we spoke several hours ago. Do you remember?” “Yes of course. Now, what is it you want of me Mr. Shan?” “I wish to warn you. The senator has ordered Republic Commandos to storm the Senate. They are to kill all of you.” “Why?” Abeo asked curiously “are you telling me this? I am after all a terrorist to your Senator.” “I am telling you this because I do not believe you are the type of person who would risk killing hostages.” “YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT TYPE OF PERSON I AM!” Abeo shouted throwing his chair back across the senate building and standing tall. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WOULD DO!” Kendo Shan did not look shocked at this outburst. “I do not sense you will kill the hostages.” Kendo Shan replied calmly. “You Jedi do not scare me.” Replied Abeo, who had now regained his temper. “What makes you think I’m a Jedi?” Kendo Shan asked. “I do not sense you will kill the hostages.” Abeo quoted. “I DO NOT SENSE! Only a Jedi senses Shan! Not an ordinary Republic Commander.” Kendo nod slightly in agreement “Good point.” “Now, tell me. What must I do to survive?” Asked Abeo. “Very well.” Kendo responded. He began a long and detailed description or what to do. “Then just climb in and your free. I will then meet you in my office.” Kendo Shan finished. “Sounds easy enough. Fine, I’ll set of immediately. See you soon.” Abeo replied as he turned of the computer. He turned around and looked at the Commandos. “Well men, let’s go.” Abeo said happily. After tying up the hostages Abeo and the Commandos walked behind the partition. Abeo then began to jog to a small door and swung it open. They entered a large circular corridor. Directly ahead of them was an elevator with two grey sliding doors. Abeo walked up to the elevator and the doors slid open, but instead of entering the elevator Abeo lowered to his knees and began pulling a grill from the wall next the elevator. It was hard work but Luca eventually ripped the grill from the wall. It was then that he noticed that the tool used to remove the grill was leaning on the wall next to him. Abeo laughed slightly.

He stuck his hand into the ventilation shaft and began rummaging around. Pretty soon he pulled out a small black bag and emptied it onto the floor. The only thing to fall out was a small blue box with a small whole in one of the faces and a button on the opposite. Abeo then rose to his feet, blue box in hand and pointed it at one of the corners of the elevator. He pressed the yellow button and a red beam shot out from the small whole on the opposite side of the cube. When the beam hit the corner of the elevator a small camera appeared out of thin air. The Commandos exchanged looks of surprise with one another. Abeo then entered the elevator.

When the elevator reached the top floor the doors opened and Abeo walked out. They were now in another circular corridor. On one side of the wall was plain silver plating. On the other side the entire corridor was paned with glass. They could see Coruscant to the horizons. By know the sun was beginning to set and the city looked even more stunning than before. Abeo spent no time taking in the view. Hurrying along Abeo entered a door in the inside wall of the corridor, they entered a large oval room with hundreds of small platforms protruding from the walls. In the centre, on top a tall, wide podium was a stand atop it. Abeo looked to the top of the room at a small circular window. Abeo altered the settings on his blaster and pointed it at a small walkway just under the window. Pulling the trigger caused a small hook to shoot out of the top of the blaster connected via a thin electronic wire. The hook soared high into the air, right to the top of the room until it hit the metal walkway. Abeo then pulled his blaster to his belt and clipped the electronic wire to a special power pack. Then he replaced his blaster in his holster.

Flicking a switch Abeo swung high into the air and began to sway back and forth, slowly climbing higher and higher. The Commandos then commenced to do the same. When he finally reached the top Abeo placed his hand on a service ladder hanging from the walkway. Abeo pulled himself up on to the walkway and aided the Commandos in doing so as well when. BOOM!

“What the?” cried one of the Commandos. “What was that?” cried another. “It’s Republic Commandos, quick let’s get out of here!” Abeo shouted so that his voice echoed throughout the room. Looking upwards Abeo drew his blaster and shattered the glass window with its butt. The shards of glass hit the bottom of the room with such velocity that they were pulverised upon landing. Abeo pulled himself up through the roof and gave the Commandos a hand. When they had all climbed through Abeo stood to his full height. He could feel the wind blowing through his hair. The Sun had set by now and the traffic had almost completely disappeared. In the great plaza below were hundreds of Security and Military personnel. Senator Golan Zen could be seen entering his personal airspeeder and leaving. Shards for the Senates front doors could be seen scattered all over the surface of the plaza. Abeo spun around and began to slowly slide down the roof of the Senate until he reached the bottom. Using their grappling hook s they slowly creped down. The entire area around the Senate building was surrounded by New Republic personnel. Hiding behind a large crate Abeo directed the Commandos across the plaza and out of view. Abeo was the last to make a break for it.

Charging across the plaza Abeo stopped halfway and spun his head around to check it was clear. Confident he was not being followed Abeo carried on, around the corner and out of sight. “Now, let’s see,” Abeo spoke under his breath “Look for a grill with a ladder leading from it.” now in his normal voice. They spent several minutes looking for anything that looked even remotely like a grill, to no avail. “There, look!” cried a Commando, pointing high to a small hole in one of the skyscrapers walls. “Over there, the third skyscraper to the left. Sixth floor up.” “I see it!” Abeo shouted “Let’s go!”

They began to climb up the service ladder until they reached the ventilation tubes. It was a tight fit but they managed to reach the far side of the building. Abeo kicked hard against the grill, after several hard, tiring kicks the grill flew away from the shaft. Abeo stuck his head out of the shaft.

He immediately felt a strong gush of wind hit the side of his face. Abeo slowly tilted his head downwards. He found himself staring straight into an Abyss of cloud, smog and smoke. Looking up he saw Coruscants moon. Clear as crystal in the night sky. The stars shone brighter than he had ever seen them before. Abeo climber out of the shaft onto a thin ledge and slid along it. Around the corner and jumped onto the opposite buildings roof. Abeo knelt down next to another ventilation shaft and slid in. He dropped into a dimly light passage way. Each wall was line with black swinging doors at regular intervals. “What now?” asked on of the Commandos quietly. “Look for room 47568.” Abeo responded even more quietly. They split up into pairs and began search the entire floor. Abeo, walking alone searched the entire floor 3 times over, each time bypassing a small, narrow corridor. On the fourth time round Abeo decided to look down this passage, and, surely enough at the end of the passage…

Room 47568 Lt. Commander Kendo Shan Jedi Master “Jedi Master. Hmmm”

Next: History of a War