The Terran Alliance: The Dark Soldier- Crosspost

Chapter 1- Order 66

Chapter 1- Order 66

(July 24, 1994)

Nobody could have expected the chaos that has enveloped the Jedi Temple. Anakin Skywalker has apparently turned to the dark side, and led the 501st Legion against the Jedi Temple. They had slaughtered the British guards at the front gate, and had now entered the Temple. Clones filled the Temple, attacking any Jedi or British soldiers they could find.

In a corner of the Temple, a man throws himself behind a crate for cover. His name is Philip Nelson, a staff sergeant in the British Army. He's been fighting against the clones, but has found their numbers to be overwhelming. He had just escaped from an entire platoon moments ago.

Nelson double checks his SA80 assault rifle. Thankfully, his is a blaster version, meaning he doesn't have to change out ammunition packs so often, and can easily obtain new ones.

Nelson scans the area in his sight, and sees a few clones rush past a few hundred feet ahead, but they don't see him. Nelson is breathing heavily, but telling himself to calm himself down, he takes deep breaths to calm his breathing.

"I gotta get out of here," Nelson whispers to himself. He knows he can't fight against the entire 501st, and at this point from what he sees, it's not terribly likely that the Jedi will survive either. Even if they do, he can't make a difference. What he needs to do is get out of the Temple, and if possible, get Jedi or some holocrons to safety, and also get news of what's happening out to the Republic. Perhaps he can get the rest of the Republic Army to realize what's happening and stop Anakin, not yet realizing that this is more than Anakin turning and leading his own troops to attack the temple.

Nelson readies himself, then springs up from his hiding place, rushing down the hall. He quickly turns a corner, weapon raised, but only sees some clones in the distance.

Nelson rounds another corner and rushes down another hall, trying to head for the library. However, as he does, he passes another, smaller corridor, and stops. Looking down it, he sees partway down three Jedi trying to fend off a squad of clones, firing relentlessly at them. Then, Nelson realizes something else is there. What looks almost like a chair, with something in it. A second later, Nelson catches a glimpse of green pointed ears. With that, he recognizes who is in the chair. A Jedi youngling named Grogu. Grogu is a young member of the same species as Master Yoda, and is extremely powerful in the Force. He's also very young, being only in his late 20s, which is the equivalent of maybe a one year old for Yoda's species.

As Nelson watches, he sees one of the Jedi get hit by several blaster bolts and succumb. A second falls a moment later, followed soon after by the third. The clones seem to take a moment to reassert their situational awareness, then seem to notice Grogu.

Without thinking twice, Nelson races down the passage, firing his assault blaster at the clones. Three of the clones are gunned down in about two seconds. The clones hadn't noticed that Nelson was there, and in the moments they take to retrain their weapons towards him, Nelson guns down two more clones and wounds a third. The three remaining clones still alive and unhurt try to fire back at him, but Nelson does a combat roll before popping back up and firing again, killing the last three clones.

Nelson looks down at Grogu, quickly satisfying himself that the youngling is unhurt. "It's okay, little one. I'm gonna get you out of here," he says. Nelson then picks up Grogu, taking the blankets he had been sitting on and tearing them into strips. Using the strips, he straps Grogu to his back so he can carry the child without using one of his arms. Nelson then picks up his assault blaster again and sets off.

Nelson quickly makes his way to the library, gunning down a few clones he comes across. However, when he reaches the library, he finds it a disaster. Much of the great library lies in ruins, with data banks, holocrons, and other technology scattered across the floor. Bodies of clones, a few British troops, and Jedi litter the floor, and ont ehf ar side, he can see two Jedi still fighting a platoon of clones.

Nelson races into the library. Spotting a small bag on the floor, he picks it up and scoops several holocrons off the floor and into the bag. As he straightens up, Nelson spots something across the floor. A large holocron, dodecahedral in shape, and easily the size of a basketball. Nelson remembers hearing it mentioned once by a Jedi during a visit to the library. The Great Holocron.

Nelson weighs the risk before he sprints towards the Great Holocron. Reaching it, Nelson crouches down, scoops it up, and stuffs it into the bag. Straightening up, he sees the clones have killed the two Jedi and the survivors have noticed him. The clones start firing at him, but Nelson pulls a grenade from his belt, pulls the pin, and hurls it at the clones before turning and sprinting out of the library. He hears the grenade go off behind him, and also hears Grogu squeal a bit, but doesn't pay much attention.

Nelson quickly makes his way to a set of lifts, which are thankfully still working. Seeing two clones guarding them, Nelson dispatches both of them with a burst of blaster fire before he activates one of the lifts and hops into it.

As he rides up, Nelson knows that at this point, his only hope for survival is to get up to one of the hangars and steal a shuttle. He knows from layouts of the Temple that this lift will emerge very close to one of the hangars where shuttles for interstellar travel are kept. He's just hoping his occasional flights with his uncle in his uncle's Cessna all those years ago will give him enough of an idea how to operate the shuttles in the hangar.

Finally, the lift reaches its destination floor and the door opens. Immediately, Nelson sees several clones outside the door. Nelson guns down three of the four clones, then jumps on the fourth clone, tackling him to the clone. Nelson draws his combat knife and draws it down into the clone's chest several times, killing him.

Nelson slowly stands up, cleaning his knife and shaking the blood off his hands before grabbing his SA80 again. He then makes his way down the passage, heading for the hangar. It doesn't take Nelson long to reach the hangar. However, when he reaches the doors to the hangar, he finds an entire platoon of clones outside the doors.

The clones instantly open fire on Nelson. Nelson fires back, killing two clones, but then takes a blaster bolt to his knee. Nelson collapses, pain shooting through his body. Nelson growls in pain from the hit.

The clones continue to fire at him. Nelson rolls to the side, careful not to crush Grogu, and fires back, killing two more clones, but then gets hit again in the arm.

The clones advance towards him, weapons aimed. Nelson lets out a shout of frustration as he raises a hand instinctively. Then, he suddenly feels something in him before a wave of power surges out of his hand and slams into the clones, sending them flying into the wall behind them, knocking out several of them.

Nelson stares at his hand in shock at what he did, hardly believing what he just did. Then, he sees the clones starting to stir. Without hesitation, Nelson raises his assault blaster and fires, gunning down the clones where they lie.

Nelson races to the door and opens it, racing into the hangar. Several clones are in the hangar, and Nelson kills them instantly. He spots a Nu-class shuttle and races towards it. Nelson boards the shuttle and races into the cockpit. Nelson quickly examines the controls, and thankfully the controls are relatively easy to understand.

Right then, he hears a beep. Looking behind him, he sees an R2 unit behind him he hadn't previously seen. "Droid! Get us out of here!" Nelson shouts.

The droid beeps in response. And plugs into the navicomputer, powering up the shuttle for Nelson. Nelson lifts the shuttle off the ground as soon as possible and flies out of the hangar. A few clones on the ground fire at him, but they all miss.

The shuttle climbs up into orbit. Once in orbit, the droid programs the navicomputer to a random set of coordinates, and Nelson makes the jump to hyperspace.

As the shuttle enters hyperspace, Nelson removes Grogu from his back and and settles back into the chair. After everything he just went through, he's not sure what to think. But one thing is for sure. Somehow, he has power in the Force, and didn't know it until now.

As he looks out at the blue of hyperspace, Nelson thinks ahead to the future, wondering what on Earth he's going to do now.