Jump 172: Star Wars: Dark Empire

Jump 172: Star Wars: Dark Empire

Location: Pinnacle Base
Age: 22
Identity: Jedi Master
Drawbacks: [+1000] The Trilogy Continues, The Eye Of The Force, Bounty Troubles, Dead Or Alive: Hutt Cartel, Unwanted Visitors

[700/2000]  Legends
[Free]      The Power Of Friendship
[Free]      Bastion of Peace
[900/2000]  Breaking The Storm
[1200/2000] Dragged Into Eternal Darkness
[1600/2000] Precision Like A Scalpel
[1700/2000] Han Shot First
[1800/2000] Your Story
[2000/2000] Jedi Holocron

"... and so that, dear children, is why you Do. Not. Fuck. With. The. Dark. Side."
"But I thought only a Sith deals in absolutes?"
"It may have slipped your mind, Kyp, but what species am I?"
"Oh. Sorry, Master."
"It's also from having seen it for so long. Literally thousands of years of the Dark Side of the Force used by thousands of Sith and fallen Jedi. And even then, every time I touched it, it was a temptation. If it's that bad after so long for someone like me... well, you can imagine how bad it would be. It's an easy path to power, all you have to do is give up everything in exchange because you'll be a slave to that high."

Oh, there's so much going on in this era. And yet, because of what I can do, I can make sure I could still keep an eye on the troubled kids that need an extra hand. Like Kyp Durron, who was actually surprisingly good if you just had someone there to fücking listen to him instead of letting the plot take him like a leaf in the wind. In fact, with so much of the modern Jedi order, a lot of it was a matter of just giving people an occasional pep talk or some honest support instead of letting them cut everyone off when they just need some help.

Like Kyle Katarn, when it came to that whole thing with the robotic Storm Troopers. Honestly, creating a dozen squads of Terminators to throw at them while he deals with the rotten core elements of it was hilariously effective, even if those Terminators had to be clad in deceptively cheap looking droid parts so that they look like they actually belong in this universe.

Or, you know, Luke Skywalker, when he decided that posing as a dark side apprentice to Palpatine would be the way to infiltrate his empire in the hopes of cracking his secret of immortality so he can shut him down...

"No."
"But-"
"No, Luke."
"But I-"
"Luke. No."
"Come on, I-"
"Do I have to get Leia over here to yell at you? I will absolutely call Leia over here to yell at you."
"Then how would you propose we stop him?"
"Trust the Force."
"But the Force is telling me-"
"No it isn't."
"... What. Yes, it is. I have meditated EXTENSIVELY-"
"That's the Emperor messing with you. Which is why I'm here. Can you guess who he pulled this on, before the Clone Wars?"
"...my father."
"That was during, but you're not wrong. Before him though, it was Count Dooku, Yoda's former apprentice, one of the most incorruptible Masters of the Jedi Order and a master of hand to hand combat. A bit of subtle influence, and a couple years later you had Darth Tyrannus."
"That is incredibly disturbing."
"Yet does the Force tell you I speak anything but the truth, now that you know to ask?"
"... it does not."
"The Force will be with you always, Luke. But sometimes you simply need to know the right questions to ask."
"Okay. So, again, how do we stop him?"
"Oh, that's simple, I'm going to pose as his apprentice-"
"Wait, are you serious-"
"-and betray him at the most opportune moment-"
"-that is LITERALLY MY PLAN-"
"-which is immediately, because I will drop my mask long enough to make the force scream in terror-"
"-and now you, wait, what?"
"-and snag his soul before I throw it in the recycler."
"Hold on a moment, go back to where you make the force scream in terror."
"Oh, right, that part."
"Yeah. That part."
"That's the part where I'm millions of years old and a god of assorted things that has been running around alternate universes stealing civilizations and putting them on the inside of a Dyson shell but I decided not to do it to this universe because quite frankly the Force is cool but I don't want any part of it."
"... why do I feel the Force feeling frightened?"
"Because it's smart. I mostly keep under cover, because nostalgia. But the Force learned a long time ago that I am perfectly willing to live and let live. Unlike the Hutts, who are too stupid to continue existing."
"That's quite the non-sequitur."
"Not really, they just have bounty hunters that are coming after me again that will attack as I'm trying to leave the system, which starts off a chain of events that splits Darth Sidious' attention and culminates in their mutual destruction."
"You know, sometimes I regret these conversations we have."
"Ah, don't worry, you're awesome like that. Anyway, I've got to run, but tell Mace to keep an eye on Kyle, would you? He's a good guy, but he needs a little more work with Vapaad..."

It turns out that if you actually are able to distinguish between Palpatine mucking things up and the Force itself, it's so much easier to see what's what, where it is, and how all the insanity fits together.

It also turns out that the Vong, when met with sufficient force early enough on ... okay, they really aren't easy to deal with, by any stretch of the imagination. But when you've got Imperial ships that were mothballed that you managed to pull out, up to and including a pair of Executors and an Eclipse, it's easier to point the New Republic's senators at the footage and tell them that yes, this is a hostile power that needs a strong fleet to defeat it.

Though they still bicker and whine about how much it will cost, even while worlds are slowly taken by the Vong, before they get off their asses.

Ugh, this is why nobody wept when the Republic went Empire again. Same rot at its core without a single Sith to blame it on.