C4, A New Empire

"Talking." 'Thoughts.'

XX Near The Coast of the Land of Fire.

(Rey's Theme is playing in the background.)

William had just finish eating his breakfast and putting up his camp as first rays of sunshine were shining down upon him welcoming the new day's arrival, as he put the last of his items upon the speeder bike that showed signs of it's age but yet still had a certain beauty to it.

He then proceeded to mount the bike as as he still had a long journey ahead of him, thanks to its unique properties and technology it easily flew about water and then the Land of Fire.

William had rarely been at peace in such a long time thanks to the strange young man who in many ways was his superior, for the first time he allowed the force to simply guide him along his journey to this Hidden Leaf Village he had seen in his vision knowing that many of his questions could be answered there.

Eventually the road led into a area populated by trees as far as the eye could see and off in the distance a strange mountain with what looked like faces upon the rocky surface, and eventually he could make out a rather large wall that was quite impressed to say the least.

He stopped at the security guard post shocking many of them in the process, after a few moments they pointed towards a red Tower off in the distance which he then began to drive to.

As he continued upon his journey he eventually felt the will of the living Force telling him to stop, he then looked to his right only to see the food stand from his vision.

As he entered the stand he was shocked by what he saw as it was the same from his vision, the same picture was hanging upon the wall for all see and just to his left was the young girl from his vision.

"Who are you?" he asked not knowing what to expect as he was now in unfamiliar territory.

To his surprise she simply responded, "I'm no one!"

XX The Lost Lands, The Ship Graveyard.

Akima Fett, Bow and the two Padawan sisters Mavis and Quorra were currently walking through the beginning of the ship graveyard once again looking for the parts that would fix Akima's ship Slave Five, unlike the first time where they had been ambushed they were now aware of the many droids all around them and also salvaging what they could from the wreckage.

As they walked by they notice a rather old battle droid and a small pit droid salvaging some parts and talking amongst themselves, "I tell you this old Republic cruiser has some of the best parts, it's a shame not all the Separatist ships have the best parts."

The small droid let out a response along with his mannerisms which were then answered by the Battle droid, "Well I was hoping that they would have quality over quantity, after all I did start out as a Separatist droid you know!"

The 4 women could not help but find that a bit funny in a way as they continued onward only to see both R4-D4 and Prime currently supervising the recovery of several star fighters and Republican drop ships from one of the hangers, R4 was the first among them to notice them and left out several cheerful sounds.

At this point in time Prime also turned around and much to their own surprise gave them a warm welcome in his own way, "Well it is good to see you all here again and I might add without that one arrogant meat bag who was most rude."

All 4 of the women could only think about that was, 'Thanks a lot William!'

Right at this point the young man they had been hoping to see also walked out of the hangar and was honestly surprised to see them, "Well it is a surprise to see you all again, but my question should be why are you here as I already talked to Master Silas."

Akima stepped forward and brought out a small hologram projector which showed the parts she needed as she spoke, "I was actually hoping that these parts are still in working order or my ship will never leave the planet."

This caught him by surprise as well as his droid companions who under the impression that it was impossible to leave the planet because of the hyperdrive core acting like a magnet which caused all the crashes in the first place over 250 years ago.

Akima could clearly see the expression of 'does not compute' and decided to enlighten them, "The hyperdrive on my ship is relatively small and does not have some of the same materials that the larger ones must use which are what this planet uses as a magnet to drag them down to the surface, but unfortunately my ship is rather old and I haven't bothered to get these particular parts replace when I should have luckily I know there are some suitable replacements are here if I can find them?"

She then noticed the look of concern on his face as he then asked, "I hope this is not a relatively well-known thing, especially since there are particularly small hyper drives in a sense littered all over this planet and I would not like for the Sith to learn of this that are still on this planet."

Akima and Bow could understand what he meant as they had long suspected that some form of Sith that had survived on this world, with everything they had seen over the years it only made a great deal of sense.

Mavis then became curious as she then remember that everyone had wanted to repair as many of the ships in the graveyard as possible in case they ever needed to leave the planet in some kind of emergency and wondered if it was even possible considering these older ships and their hyperdrives.

"Guys what about the old evacuation plan in case things don't work out here, if what you say is true then how would we ever do it?" Mavis asked.

Akima understood what the younger girl was saying and responded accordingly, "Until recently it's just been a plan, but thanks to him it's become more of a reality after all they were here for the graveyard and what lies inside it so we must plan accordingly as well."

"Unfortunately that means were going to need some help and there is only one person we can trust to do that, but we still need to repair Slave Five just to get off this planet." Bow said.

Naruto could feel the will of the Force not only telling him to help them but also to accompany them on this little adventure for some reason, even though he had accomplished much he still felt that the living Force was still very mysterious at times.

"I believe I can help you in your search, however I believe it would be in everyone's interest if I were to accompany you on this mission." He said.

Prime was also very excited until he looked at his master's face and realized that this was a much more subtle kind of mission, "But master I can be quite subtle when I wish to be."

"Like the dear you killed which then proceeded to fall out of a tree?" Naruto asked.

"As I said before it was already up there, but I will neither confirm nor deny that I had any involvement in it's demise." Prime said.

Naruto could not help but rolled his eyes as he let out a chuckle and then said, "Let's get going."

XX Hidden Leaf Village, Land of Fire.

William and the young girl he had just meet then proceeded to exit the ramen stand while talking, "So let me get this straight, you are some kind of mystical space wizard?"

William could see from her point of view how far-fetched it seemed including space travel of all things since this world barely had any kind of flying vehicles of it's own design, the fact that she was even listening to him was a good sign.

"I would not describe the Jedi order in that particular light however it does work as a somewhat simple explanation I suppose." He said realizing he still had much convincing to do and decided to heed the strange young man's warning about these people as some of them gave him a particular set of nerves to say the least.

The young girl then noticed the speeder bike and walked over to it and convinced that's it was just some trick he was using, but as she then began to examine it she realized this was no trick whatsoever she turned to look at him with a sense of wonder.

"How did you do that?" she asked him.

He just gave her a rather plain look and then spoke, "This is not sorcery or whatever you ninjas can do it is a type of technology that this world has never seen before now."

Everyone was still in shock at what he had just said and could not believe it, after all for many of them what he had just said was only found in sci-fi books after all.

And yet here it was standing before them or rather floating before them, he then simply boarded the speeder and turned back to her.

"I will be heading to the Hokage tower to talk to your leader perhaps it would be a good idea to accompany me there." He asked.

"I don't know what to think of all this but something is telling me to go with you, I don't even know your name?"

He let out a small chuckle as he put his helmet and goggles on and then said, "It's William and you would be?"

"Aki Uzumaki."

"Well then Aki it is a pleasure to meet you, now hop on and let's it go." he said as she then hopped on back of the speeder as it came to life once more.

Before he spent off he spoke once more, "All right here we go, you've taken your first steps into a much larger world."

(the transition effect is seen on screen going from the bottom of the screen up to reveal the next segment.)

XX Slave 5, in hyperspace en route to New Imperial Galaxy 61 station.

The formidable starship known as Slave 5 shot through hyperspace with a grace and elegance that very few ships seemed to possess in this day and age, while it looked much like the infamous Slave 1 it was considerably more advanced and dangerous.

And yet to Akima Fett it was home, and a home with some guests at this time which she was not very accustomed to in all honesty well except for Bow that is.

The small living area was currently occupied by three young women and from Akima's perspective a former ninja and one astrometric droid with a rather unique paint job to put it mildly, Bow for the most part could not turn her eyes away from what she was seeing as this young man who might only be a slightly bit younger than the two sisters began to instruct them.

"I sense conflict in both of you and even dare I say it a bit of a rebellious side, while it's a good sign since you are still teenagers after all much like myself... And to be fair I am bit of a prankster as well." he admitted to them.

The two sisters were eager to hear everything he had to say and listen very intently, "Right now we're going through many changes in this never-ending road towards adulthood and unfortunately it's responsibilities, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have any fun along the way."

"Why is that?" Quorra asked him.

"A good question you have asked, but to some the answers are never simple and easy." Naruto said.

"I find that simple and easy never work out in the end from my own experiences, I do pray for it sometimes though." Akima said not realizing she had caught the young man's attention in the process.

"Yes you are right after all but it does not mean we should not try, I sense much anger and also sadness in you Akima for something that was never in your control but you wish it was." Naruto said to her.

"Are you okay Akima?" Mavis asked her older friend.

"Yes it's just something I don't like to talk about much, what about you boy... Ha ha you know it just came to mind that I don't even know your name?" Akima said realizing after all this time she had not yet asked this simple question.

Naruto felt quite comfortable around these people and decided to level with them, before he could speak he heard R4 making worried like sounds only to be calm down by gentle hand upon his head as his master decided to tell his story, "My name, you know there was a time I was not to sure what my name was... For a time people called me Monster! Demon! and even Murder!"

The girls could only listen intently as he continued, "And then there were those who said my real name, Naruto Uzumaki and it gave me a sense of purpose and knowing this is who I am... But then new names came like a loser and that thing among others, and then when I tried to save a friend of his own darkness and failed to do so they called me traitor and cast me out like they were doing me a favor in the end."

The girls had to admit that they were learning a lot more about him than they ever thought possible, "That's how I ended up in the ship graveyard looking for a place to hide, and that's where I met him the spirits who would train me in the ways of the Force."

The girl had seen the spirits before but they could tell this was something more, "My first master was none other than Darth Sidious of the Sith Knights and the dark Lord of the Galactic Empire, he trained me in the ways of the dark side and made me for time a Sith Lord and he gave me another name which I will only use against my enemies... Darth Maelstrom, but what am I now Sith? Jedi? I guess that I am something new and a new name will be needed as well."

The girls were speechless for all intensive purposes and realized there was so much more to him, Mavis could not help but ask this next question, "What happened to your dark master?"

Naruto gave a sad smile as he responded, "The only reason he was able to teach me was because of the living Force's well, he chose the Dark side and became so a part of it that his fate was sealed from that point onward except to pass on what he knew to me so that I could use it but not like Sith much like the first to wield the Force which have been long since forgotten thanks to the endless march of time and change."

Everyone was speechless as the alarm went off warning that they were approaching their destination, "Thanks for the story and it's nice to meet you Naruto but now we're about to arrive so come on."

Everyone entered Slave 5 cockpit to watch the blue white show of Hyperspace giveaway to the black void of space build with stars in the background and amongst them a rather large and impressive looking space station directly before them, the three Force users had never seen anything like it in their lives.

All around the station were many cargo and personal ships flying about as well as many rather large Imperial Star Destroyers, from time to time a tie fighter could be seen flying around or providing escort or some of the civilian ships as they went about their business but what was striking was that many of them actually had unique markings about them making them all very different even to the Star Destroyers.

Akima then decided to give a bit of a story of her, "Welcome to New Imperial Galaxy 61 Station, it's a deep space trading refueling station set up by the New Empire unfortunately it will soon be in the hands of the New Republic soon and any hope for rogue Jedi will be lost with it."

This caught Naruto's attention almost immediately, "What problem would the New Republic have with the Jedi?"

"That is a very long story and in a way a very personal one as well, but to give you a quick summary the new Republic uses the new Jedi order that they helped create like their own personal attack dogs, some of the Jedi Masters didn't take too kindly to that and neither did some of the people who helped create the New Empire when they left Republic." Akima said.

For some reason Naruto had a very bad feeling about this and knew he needed to know the whole story, Quorra then decided to put her own two cents into the conversation, "Well it's still in the new Empire's hands right now so I don't think we should have to worry about anything at all."

Naruto could not help but let out a nervous chuckle as he then pointed to a ship with Republic markings on it, "You just had to jinx us didn't you."

End of C4.

Development Diary 4

first of all I like to apologize for taking so long with this story but a lot of things have happened within this year but I never stopped working on the chapter, plus I had a lot of new videogames to work on as well as stories that are still in development and also certain things that happened in my hometown.

Since I live in Las Vegas the October 1 shooting has had a major impact on all of us who live here and I would be lying if I said we weren't afraid but we were also still getting over the shock of everything which hasn't helped much in the long run.

And yet we are Vegas Strong and we are going to keep on living our lives for those who are still here and those who are not, and now the holidays are here as well and I will admit this will be a rather interesting year and I hope nothing else tragic will happen to anyone.

As for the story I hope you all like it and will begin work shortly on the next chapter as for release date I don't know when that will happen for the next one but I am hoping it will be soon, but also made a few changes in a few parts of this chapter which will be edited into the older ones soon I hope.

with that said happy holidays and please read and review.