Tatooine
Fringes of the Northern Dune Sea
26 BBY
Tatooine.
A desert planet under the harsh glare of two suns, plagued by slavery, gangsters, smugglers, and criminals of all kinds, with Jabba the Hutt being the famous ruler of the planet, or at least the closest authority to it.
A hooded figure, clad in a black robe, trousers, knee-high boots, and a matching cloak, stood in the fringes of the Northern Dune Sea, watching the Hutt's palace.
Anakin's hands balled into fists, and the creaking of his gloves almost drowned the noise of his racing heart.
Almost.
It wasn't the time for doubts or second guesses.
The Cloak of Levitation, his master's gift to Anakin, slowly raised him into the air to the level of the palace.
Anakin spread his hands, and hundreds of daggers, shaped with the energies drawn from other dimensions, appeared, glittering in the sky as harbingers of death.
The Hutt's palace was well guarded by Gamorrean guards, numerous armed thugs, bounty hunters, and enforcers, and it would be best to deal with them first.
The apprentice of the Sorcerer Supreme brought his hands forward, palms facing the palace with two mandalas sparking to life, and the knives lurched forward.
They weren't mere knives thrown and forgotten, but each was a sharp blade to pierce through the flesh of these slavers and seek new ones until they were spent. The guards were startled when several of their own died with a splatter of blood and bodily liquid but could not react before it was their turn.
Golden blades were difficult to see under the harsh suns of Tatooine and were too fast for the ordinary guard to shoot.
For the first time in a long time, Jabba the Hutt's palace was under attack, and there wasn't a single attacker in sight.
Still, a sniper managed to locate Anakin, but the blaster bolt heading for his head dissipated before finding its mark, sizzling without even leaving a scratch on the barrier he summoned.
Two blades were guided to the Weequay, one through the head and the other through the chest, before they sought new targets.
Anakin slowly approached the palace, and no more blaster shots came, as the guards were trying to shoot his blades, quite ineffectively. By the time he lowered himself to the entrance, there wasn't a single living being around.
He could hear the footsteps, however, as more guards raced outside to defend the palace.
Unfortunately for them, Anakin was creating another mandala in his hands, one that had sharp teeth and began to spin rapidly, and by the time the first guard was out, the first and last thing he saw was a golden line.
The circular saw, a neat trick his master had taught him, bisected the gamorrean into two equal parts, as well as the one behind him, and continued forward, leaving behind nothing more than butchered corpses.
Anakin stopped, closing his eyes as his stomach churned.
It was one thing to be trained for combat to put an end to the slavery on this planet; it was another matter to kill a living being and see the corpse so closely.
—
Floating over the hallways filled with corpses, he came to Jabba's court but did not see the fat slug anywhere.
"Where is Jabba?"
The slaves did not speak, too afraid, but the idea that Jabba may die prompted them to look at a particular point on the wall, and he understood.
Jabba was running.
Tendrils shot out from several mandalas, tearing the hidden door off, and he followed the trail.
With Jabba's death, this day would be the start of a new beginning.
—
When he found Jabba at the back of the palace, crawling to a repulsor cradle to escape, his path was blocked by a duros, one with a wide hat and a nasty grin.
"Sorry, kiddo, end of the road for you," the duros chuckled, pulling out twin blasters and launching himself up with rocket boots.
The blaster fire met his shields, dissipating at the point of contact and wiping the smirk from the bounty hunter's face.
Anakin summoned the tendrils once more, but this Duros was different from all the others he had killed so far, weaving through them quite successfully. He didn't have the time to waste on the blue sapient and summoned more tendrils.
One caught him on the leg, stopping him from moving, before others wrapped around his arms, the other leg, and torso, cocooning the bounty as he screamed impotently in denial.
Raising his hand to kill the duros, Anakin decided otherwise, as the bounty hunter could be valuable if Jabba was using him as a personal guard.
Opening a portal, he threw the duros into the mirror dimension.
Jabba had reached the repulsor cradle, laughing in glee as the vehicle lurched forward, but soon realized he was not going anywhere.
There was a portal at the front of the repulser, and each time the vehicle passed through, it just moved a few meters back, repeating it over and over, while the attacker watched him with disdain.
Jabba started to order the repulsor to turn left, but the vehicle was cut in two, and as the power died down, the lift failed, and the oversized slug fell unceremoniously.
Anakin sneered as the hutt begged for his life, offering peggats, credits, slaves, and anything else he wanted.
"I want you to die, but no, not yet."
—
Jabba the Hutt was about to arrive at Mos Espa in person to make an announcement, and as his faithful subjects—people who had to pay him for protection—began to arrive due to the overwhelming loyalty—fear of death—they had to the Hutt.
And he arrived, though not in the manner they expected.
There were sparks in the air before it grew into a circle, showing the inside of the palace, and a human boy came out.
Flying.
With Jabba the Hutt floating behind, caged like an animal.
"From this day forward, there will be no more slavery," the boy ordered, watching the stunned crowd, and Jabba screamed in pain as the cage shrunk, enough to hurt, but not enough to kill immediately.
"All the collars and implants will be removed without an exception."
"If I hear any refusals," Jabba screamed again as the walls of the cage began to close on him.
"Or delays," the hut screamed more.
"your" crunch
"Fates," crack.
"Will!" The screams turned to howls.
"be."
"much,"
"Worse." With that final word, Jabba's cries ended as he was crushed to a cube the size of a human.
The crowd was stunned in silence before it was broken by the free people attacking the known slavers.
—
Tatooine, as a whole, was in a state of rebellion.
Jabba the Hutt's public and agonizing execution at the hands of the Sorcerer, as the human was called, regardless of the impossibility of it, had thrown the planet into an uproar. With Jabba and all of his lieutenants and enforcers in the palace dead, the free people, at least those against slavery, had taken up arms.
With the Sorcerer targeting everyone that was on Jabba's payroll or was dabbling in slave trade, even as outnumbered as they were, the Freedom First earned victory after victory.
It did not take long before the matter came to the attention of the rest of the Hutt Cartel and the Galactic Republic. The Senate was worried about the political and security issues that might arise due to the unrest, while the Jedi Council just assumed another Force user had just deemed it sorcery and was shaking their heads, quite disappointed.
Until they saw the footage of a human opening portals with a wave of his hand, summoning energy shields, tendrils, daggers, and many other abilities that were not possible to acquire through the Force.
However, the Jedi Council wasn't the only party interested in these mysterious abilities.
—
Coruscant
Core Worlds
Jedi Temple
"I have no words." Master Adi Gallia was the first one to speak after the footage of the battles on Tatooine was over.
Throughout galactic history, there were dozens of Force sensitives with power beyond most, cementing them as legendary monsters.
None, however, could do the unnatural abilities showcased by the human in the recording. Energy shields, blades, tendrils, honest to the Force, actual portals, and more.
All created with the wave of a hand.
"Could this be the work of unknown technology?" Mace Windu wasn't quite ready to believe that there was a human, or any other species out in the galaxy, that could use the Force in this manner.
Not without more evidence than the holo recordings.
The Cerean Jedi Master, Ki-Adi-Mundi, considered Master Windu's point, but there was a small issue: "If it was, why introduce it as sorcery?"
Uttering the word left a sour taste on his tongue, as every now and then a cult believing the Force to be a source of primitive magic would arise, though obviously none with the abilities of the young human.
"To hide it. Everyone in the galaxy can seek to retrieve a highly advanced piece of technology. But only a select few would do so if it were branded as something mystical." Master Rancisis, the ancient Thisspiasian Jedi Master and a contemplative strategist, offered his thoughts.
It would be a logical choice by the sorcerer to dissuade most of the galaxy from targeting his technology if it were indeed technology and not a new method of Force using that they had never encountered before.
"While it is possible, I find it highly improbable. Even if we delved into myths and legends, finding a device, or devices, capable of doing all this while being small enough to be hidden on a human would prove to be extremely challenging. Master Piell knew that debating without further evidence was pointless.
Grand Master Yoda, who was content with listening so far, tapped his cane on the floor. "Correct, Master Piell is. Investigate this sorcerer further; we must."
The ancient Jedi was not sure if the Force was even at play in this case, but his knowledge acquired through centuries failed him.
"Knight Kenobi, you were on Tatooine during the Naboo Crisis. Do you remember anything that might be related to this sorcerer?" Master Koth was aware that it was a stretch, but not many Jedi found their path leading them to Tatooine, and he was the only one in the Council Chambers to have been there.
"I am afraid not, Master Koth." The young Obi-Wan Kenobi shook his head.
Something like that would have been quite memorable.
A unanimous decision was reached to send an investigation team to Tatooine to determine whether this sorcerer was a never-before-seen kind of Force user or something else.
Due to his previous experience on Tatooine, Knight Kenobi was chosen to accompany the team that would be led by Master Plo-Koon, along with Quinlan Vos.
—
Tatooine
The Freedom First, a movement created by the free people of Tatooine, along with the slaves liberated during their war against the oppressors,
Anakin created a large mandala, blocking the incoming blaster fire, while the fighters of the Freedom First used the opportunity given by the shield to return fire without the fear of death, an advantage the slavers did not enjoy.
"Rocket!" A soldier shouted in warning, but Anakin had already opened a portal with it, causing the rocket to enter and come out of the other end, right in the middle of the Weequays firing the heavy blasters.
The enemy was pulling back slowly, which meant it was the time to finish this. The mandala grew in size, and Anakin pushed it forward. The screen of energy slammed into the pirates with the force of a podracer, leaving them with pulverized bones and flesh turned to a paste.
The freedom fighters rushed forward, taking what weapons were in good condition, and proceeded to clean the rest of the compound.
Anakin had started a war by executing Jabba in public between the people who wished for freedom for all and the slavers that were defiant in the face of his warnings. They constituted a significant part, but there were those that had set their slaves free and were left untouched.
Still, they were winning, and each victory cowed more slave owners into compliance, and he wouldn't stop until all of Tatooine was free and then the Outer Rim.
—
The Hutt Cartel was not going to let the revolts in Tatooine take the planet. It would be bad for business and might give others ideas. The records of the battles convinced the Cartel that it was the work of a Force user, and it hired the most elite bounty hunters across the galaxy, with known success against the Jedi.
Jango Fett, the greatest bounty hunter alive, would lead a team consisting of Aurra Sing, Zam Wesell, Bossk, Black Krssantan, and Dengar, along with a dozen IG-series assassin droids.
Cad Bane was sought after as well, but the Duros was nowhere to be found.
Once the leader of this rebellion, its symbol, was dead, the Hutts would sweep in and take Tatooine back, along with all of Jabba's assets.
—
"Hey, Mom," Anakin greeted his mother as he stepped out of the portal, still floating to not dirty the floor with dust and grime, but a spell took care of it quickly.
"Anakin, there you are." Shmi came out of the kitchen of their modest home, wiped her hands on the apron, and cupped her son's face, checking him for injuries.
His son huffed while she fussed over him. "How are you doing? You're not hurt, are you?"
"No, Mom, not even a scratch on me." Anakin took his mother's hands off his face, giving her a hug.
Satisfied, Shmi pointed. "Good, go on and wash up; I made dinner."
Having running hot water was a luxury of the highest order in a place such as Tatooine, and it was one Anakin indulged in whenever available. Once cleaned and dressed in casual clothes, he sat down, ready to partake in the small feast his mother had prepared.
He was a growing boy after all.
"How is it going out there?" Shmi was constantly worried about her son, and hearing news of victories each day helped her heart settle down.
"Good, good, we took most of Mos Eisley, and we are going to finish it soon."
The battles raged all over the planet, from the capital city Bestine to the small settlements like Wayfar, but without Anakin's direct help, the Freedom Movement could only force a stalemate, but it was changing each day as he directed supplies and manpower with portals.
The logistical and strategic advantage of his portals could quickly change the outcome of any battle. They could flank the enemy, make traps and security measures useless, and sabotage or steal strategic assets, such as fuel and supply depots.
And there was not a single thing the slaver scum could do.
Just like all good things, however, Anakin knew the situation wouldn't continue like this forever, not when the damn slugs were out there, no doubt planning a way to snuff out the rebellion.
Unfortunately for them, once he was finished on Tatooine, he would assassinate the members of the Cartel, preferably all at once, decapitating the criminal syndicate in one move and leaving a power vacuum that would result in a civil war among the remaining hutts.
Not now, but soon.