McFlabbergasty

Ben dials the route to Nellith's intended destination into Yoodie's navprocessor. The Jedi Sentinel secures her precious cargo in one of the Hawk's freight compartments. The ship's course is a path drawn from Taris to Ossus via the Old Corellian Run, a hyperlane threading through the Arkanis sector. The Run was once a bustling artery of commerce, but that was over a thousand years ago. Now it is mostly a way for the Hutts and other unsavory types to travel to the Outer Rim Territories unnoticed by the law.

The rear cargo door is the last part of the ship to retract before take-off. The landing legs slide inward toward the freighter's underside as powerful repulsorlift engines carry the Hawk out of its gantry.

In an abandoned industrial complex within view of the Hawk, the Mandalorian Clone squad has set up a bivouac around their landed gunship. Automated blaster turrets complement their patrols to guard against Republic guardsmen and, even worse, the rakghouls.

The squad sergeant, Demorre Kro, receives a holo-message from a mysterious figure. It appears to be a tall Human in his thirties wearing a cloak to conceal his face.

"At ease, Sergeant Kro. Has the Jedi left Taris?" he asks.

"They are lifting off as we speak, sir. Shall we engage?"

"Only at my command. When I issue the order, you and your men are to eliminate everyone on that ship and bring me the artifact. The Mandalorian commanders will be most pleased to seize what the Jedi woman has brought onto that ship. Over and out." The hologram disappears in a flicker of blue light.

Kro turns to his men. One of them, Dagor Fett, peers at the setting star while perched on an eroded sculpture of a katarn.

They all look the same. They all have the same DNA. They are all brothers. Blood brothers. Fighting for the glory of Mandalore.

"We've got a job to do, boys," Kro says before he dons his war helm.

As far as EU inspiration goes I pretty much take whatever I need whenever I need it. That means anything from the Jedi Knight games, the KOTOR games, EAW, Battlefront, the comics and novels that I have read, and stuff I found on "The Secret History of Star Wars".

The chronometer log on Yoodie's last memory wipe is from just over a week ago. A short time ago on a moon not very far, far away. It had to have been Obi-Wan.

Nellith wonders what kind of mission the old man was undertaking that required the use of Ben's services. It probably did not involve fighting any Clones, as both the interior and the exterior of The Wandering Hawk are free of any blemishes or blaster impact marks. More likely a peacekeeping mission to convince the leader of a disputed world to continue supporting the Republic war effort. That kind of thing is Obi-Wan's forté.

I get the impression that you guys are having trouble adjusting to some of the changes and adaptations I've made to the EU canon to make my prequels. Is this whole Yoodie business a particularly egregious transgression? I'm curious because, to the best of my knowledge, non-corporeal AIs are not really present in Star Wars. They are usually manifested by a droid, whereas Yoodie is more of an abstract presence.

Nellith and Ben pile into the man's freighter, a modified Action VI transport named The Wandering Hawk.

Most Action VI-class ships need to be staffed with several hundred crew members to operate at maximum efficiency, but Ben's technical prowess has enabled him to construct a shipboard AI named UD-1 (or "Yoodie" for short) to run directly under Ben's control and manage all of the vessel's subsystems. Ben has imprinted a rudimentary personality into Yoodie, based off of a charmingly aloof friend from his childhood.

Yoodie is unable to provide an answer when Ben inquires as to why portions of his data banks are missing without a trace. The previous Jedi who used Ben for transit back to or from the Temple of Ossus didn't do the neatest job of wiping out the AI's memory.

Nellith thinks that the previous Jedi was probably Obi-Wan. He was always better at manipulating organic beings' minds using the Force than he was at hacking into computers.

What does that mean?

I haven't played Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon yet, but I really hope the music in there is something like the track I posted. I've gotten that impression from the game's advertising.

It's this kind of music that I listen to while brainstorming ideas for science fiction.

Anyone know of similar groups? I'm hunting for other tracks of this genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKH6ax2C8w

Enjoy!

I have an idea for a sci-fi themed boardgame. It came to me after playing Arkham Horror with a few friends recently. Basically the idea is that the players cooperate as the captains of a fleet of starships charged with defending the human race from a fleet of alien invaders. The beginning of the game sees the players populate the Inner Planets with resource-generating outposts, similar to the initial soldier placement phase of the game Risk. Once the Inner Planets have had all of their resources allocated, the actual game begins. The players must defend the Inner Planets against Aliens attacking from the Outer Planets. As long as the Aliens are kept in the Outer Planets region, the resources of the Inner Planets will continue to be extracted at their full capacity. But if the Aliens manage to break into the Inner Planets, then the resources generated on the those worlds will be at stake, potentially leading to all of the players losing. The only way to win StarCaptain is for the players to cooperate and locate the Alien Mothership and destroy it in combat.

I also have concepts for the character system, rules for combat, different cards and how to use them, etc. if you are interested.

I had fun writing this scene because of its call-forwards to the scene of Han's introduction in ANH.

Nellith looks around the bar to find a star pilot she can pay to take her to the Temple of Ossus, the Jedi headquarters located in an uncharted star system on the far reaches of the Outer Rim.

She finds the captain that the other Jedi have used for this purpose: a spirit-sipping washed-out bag of bones named Ben Cortel. Other Jedi have utilized his services in the Clone War and have taken care to wipe his memory with their Jedi powers. This was done to preserve the secrecy of the Temple's location. Such secrecy was necessary in a time of war.

Nellith sits next to Ben, positioning the bag on her lap after doing so. Their balcony seats overlook Taris' vast cityscape. Civilian airspeeders are accompanied by Republic military fighters, no doubt to dissuade any would-be informants or allies of Mandalorian Clone insurrectionists.

Ben regards the Jedi with a faint look of recognition. Deja vu. He inquires as to her business. 

"Let's just say I have to meet a contact in the Outer Rim. I'd like to avoid any Clone entanglements."

He sets down his drink. "I'm listening. You're not Republic military, are you?"

"Not precisely."

"Good. I'm not a fan of those boys. What are you paying? Because if you show me enough credits, this job becomes a bantha of a different color."

"Five thousand up front, the other fifteen when we arrive at the destination."

Ben offers a wry smile. "You're certainly a lady of means. What are you? Some royalty? Connected to the Hutts?"

"Let's keep our backgrounds out of the discussion."

She waves her hand slightly. Ben's mind subtly re-arranges to suit her will. Not as much as she had hoped.

The old man's mind is stronger than Obi-Wan had told her. The Jedi will have to find another pilot soon. Ben does not realize it, but his mind is building up a resistance to Jedi mind tricks. Nellith realizes that her powers are not sufficient to wipe Ben's mind clean. She would have to get Master Palpatine to do it upon their arrival at Ossus.

Like I said, blunder on my part.

Yay for thread necromancy!!!1!one!!!eleven!!!!

Like I said, blunder on my part.

Yay for thread necromancy!!!1!one!!!eleven!!!!

That was on this forum? Damn. I knew I had posted this topic in the recent-ish past, but I thought it was on another forum. Silly how that happens.

Accidental double post. Nothing to see here.

I suppose Redblade could refer to a blood-drenched vibro-knife, which is what he wants to pull out of his father's torso.

Have there been any films made that try to portray a man-on-the-street depiction of periods of ancient or medieval history? Like someone just leaves a video camera running in the study of some noble. Or we see a glimpse of rough-housing and banter between men-at-arms swinging their weapons at training dummies at the barracks. 

Basically what I'm asking is if anyone has ever heard of a film-maker who produces slice of life films depicting life as it was centuries ago, with meticulous detail for historical authenticity. No music. No makeup, tooth whitening, or other cosmetic alterations that would not have been available in the particular time and place depicted in the film.

This was a hard scene to write. I decided that it would be best to not show the actual Facehugging of Newt on-screen. Even for an Alien movie, that would be going too far.

O'Neill tries to get Ripley to calm down. "It's okay, Ripley. You're still on the same course. We'd just like to run a few tests on you and ask you a few questions before you report to Gateway, that's all."

Ripley will not have it. She bolts out of the room, but turns a corner only to be blocked by the looming mass of Rodan. His flamethrower's barrel tip scintillates with a small flickering fire.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to pass, Lieutenant."

We cut to the dropship in the hangar. The craft's rear door is now open. Red light fills the interior of the parked vessel. The Xenomorph egg sits patiently in the back of the dropship's payload compartment.

Portnoy enters the hangar, wheeling the unconscious Newt forward on the stretcher. She will regain consciousness soon.

He wheels the stretcher up the ramp and into the cramped red-tinted interior of the dropship. All the way over to the egg, then he leaves.

Newt's lolling head rights itself as she blinks her eyes open. Her limbs are still strapped to the stretcher, but it looks like the old man re-configured the stretcher so that now she is lying at an angle to the floor instead of parallel.

Now all Newt sees is the Xenomorph egg bathed in red light.

The flaps at the top of the egg fold open, revealing the Facehugger inside. Three yellow fingers of the creature extend from the oval's orifice.

Newt screams louder than she ever did on LV-426.

Mrebo said:

I'm having trouble just because there are familiar names connected to unknown characters and my brain is trying to figure out the connections/importance. 

You're wondering about Nellith's last name, aren't you? :)

I see where you're coming from. This trilogy is definitely informed by elements of the EU, but the way I see it that's similar to what superhero movies do.

For instance, with Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy (not that I am trying to compare myself to him) everybody in the real world knows who Batman is...right? But, regardless of whether or not you liked the movies themselves (my opinion of his work is...complicated), I think it's safe to conclude from their favorable critical reception and box office success that you can re-tell a story that everybody thinks they already know, you just have to do it intelligently.

Each one of the three Nolan Batman movies cherry-picks elements of the comic book canon at its leisure. Nolan could have started the trilogy off with Batman facing the Joker, but he chose to delay the appearance of the clown nemesis until movie #2. Likewise, he wove together a storyline from numerous disparate elements in developing the third film. I am not well-versed in Batman comic lore, but it is my understanding that Bane, Catwoman, and Robin are not associated with each other in the comics like they are in The Dark Knight Rises.

As for the whole Redblade thing, yes I know it's kind of cheesy. But this is Star Wars. A sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek elements is acceptable, yes?

I'll post more of the outline as it becomes available. I feel like I start too many of these outline threads and then forget about them after a few weeks. :P

I think I'll update Alien III next.

Nice image, DL. It doesn't look forced*...I can easily imagine seeing that on the silver screen.

*EDIT: Unintentional pun alert.

CWBorne said:

Really she's there to keep Anakin grounded and in a sense act as the more everyday person when he starts becoming a serious Jedi. There's a bit of Grant/Hepburn dynamic with the two of them, with both driven a little crazy by the other, but also deeply appreciate of those very qualities. She's his connection to his humanity more than even Obi-Wan is, and once he loses that, he falls hard.

I like your use of classical Hollywood-age actors in your description of your film's screenplay. It makes me wish we could clone those actors for use in the Star Wars prequels. :)