Kanan Jarrus - Warrior Jedi

Year: 19 BBY

Location: Corellia

"Get him! Don't let him escape!"

[Contact in sector 5.]

"Trooper down! Repeat, Trooper down!"

[Send reinforcements!]

The former Clones, now Imperial Stormtroopers, were chasing a 'renegade,' as they had started to call him, through one of the largest shipyards of Corellia. The figure wore sleek, dark armour with orange linings and a helmet. They knew who it was—a rising star in the bounty hunting community. Rinzler was the alias he was known by. For almost a month, he had been sighted all over Coronet City, the capital of Corellia, doing something no one seemed to know. The troopers were trying to find him because ever since he first appeared, troopers had started to go missing.

The former clones ran after Rinzler and fired their blasters, attempting to kill him. They didn't know whether he was behind the disappearing clones, but at this point, it didn't matter. Rinzler moved between several containers, using supernatural agility. The clones followed, looking to find him.

Trooper CT-4011 turned a corner ahead of the formation, scanning a narrow maintenance corridor.

[Clear—]

A metallic thudding sound was heard. He was gone. No scream. Just a thud. They rushed the position. CT-4011's body was intact, unconscious, stunned and restrained in some Jedi stasis bind, suspended mid-air, his face smashed against the container.

"Stunner teams forward. Stagger formation. Use vertical scans! And get me Nob off of there!" Captain Cole cursed.

Too late.

Above them, something moved. A dark figure dropped, twisting mid-air. Black armour blurred before their eyes, as their vision became blurry for some reason. A palm was thrust towards three troopers, hitting them with an invisible repulsive force. The three troopers flew into the wall panels. Their helmets cracked, and they fell unconscious.

"What is he?" someone asked, not understanding that it could be a Jedi.

Rinzler vanished into a turbine shaft before they could fire.

The last four clones breached the sublevel gantries, breathing heavily. Steam and oil filled the halls and the walls, and the white-blue emergency lights pulsed like a heartbeat—overhead: catwalks, pipes, coolant vents—all perfect for an ambush.

"Stack left. Staggered advance. Watch the ceil—"

*Zzrrrk-kkk—clank*

A black disc, with an orange blade, ricocheted off the wall, glowing with energy. It hit the ceiling, a pipe, then bounced into CT-2370's chest, stunning him and knocking the wind out of his lungs.

"A disc?! What the—"

Cole turned around, weapon raised and ready for action. But he was too late. From behind, Rinzler dropped to the floor. A disc in his right hand, spinning it at high speeds. Cole and the other clones fired at him, but to their astonishment, Rinzler absorbed the bolts fired at point-blank range. He deflected blaster fire with it, confusing the clones. They only knew Jedi to be capable of doing this, not anyone else. And if they had had their full mental capacity, they would have connected the dots—but someone was preventing that from happening. Rinzler didn't use a lightsaber, but something else.

And not only that. In his left hand, he held a blaster pistol—an old Clone Wars model, the DC-17, which he had modified. A blue pulse was fired from the blaster, hitting CT-8828 and stunning him.

Rinzler dual-wielded both the blaster and the disc. The blaster, which he had set to stun, sent blue rings toward the clones, knocking them out, while the disc deflected, parried, and returned their fire. The Captain waited for the right moment—when Rinzler threw the disc through the air—and fired.

The disc stopped its motion mid-air and whipped back to Rinzler's palm, absorbing the blast. He hurled it again, guiding it with a twist of his fingers. Kanan used telekinesis to guide the trajectory of the disc this time, making sure it struck true. And it did. It hit the last two troopers: one in the helmet, one across the arm. Kanan made sure not to kill them and only damaged them slightly. Both clones dropped their weapons, groaning.

Captain Cole was now alone.

He backed into the centre of the loading bay, scanning every catwalk, every lift arm. How could he have lost sight of Rinzler just now? That is what he asked himself. Taking another step, he heard the echo of his own voice.

"Execute Order 66."

"Good soldiers follow orders."

"For the Emperor!"

"Kill the Jedi!"

.

Kanan stands above the knocked-out clone and lifts him up using the Force. He walks through the halls and makes his way to the secret location he has set up for himself. Corellia's shipyards are large, and over time, he plans on infiltrating the command structure and the growing criminal presence here. He needs to take it slow, which is why he has started the next step of his plan. 

The first goal was to familiarise himself with the criminal aspects of the galaxy and learn how to navigate it. The second one is this one: recruitment and override. He has decided to reverse the process that Order 66 did to the clones, making them remember what happened. 

Arriving at his secret hideout, he places the Captain in one of the cells he has prepared for him and his brethren. A tactical droid enters the room and approaches him. 

{How was the mission, sir?}

"Good. Another five clones we can check out and try to reverse the process of Order 66. I couldn't get the others, but we will get more in time," Kanan says. 

{I believe that if more clones are reported missing, an investigation will be launched. Which would not be good for us. I suggest changing our base of operations.} 

"Your calculations are not bad, but you are forgetting the human factor in all of this. Those who already have some influence in this growing pit of crime will not want to have these incidents known. They will attempt to solve this on their own. We won't have to fear for Imperial intervention for quite some time."

{Understood. I shall prepare the procedure.}

Kanan walks to another room, where he has a small interface displaying the data they have found and researched so far. This includes not only the clones and the Inhibitor chip they discovered, but also the economy and hierarchy of Coronet City. 

***Post-Mission Report [Encrypted – Kanan Archives]

**Subject: Clone Trooper Interrogation Log, Coronet City, Corellia Shipyard Survivors

Recovered by: "Rinzler"

— 5 Imperial Clones recovered alive.

— All subdued using non-lethal Force-based techniques 

— Inhibitor chip scans initiated.

***

Kanan holds his hand on Captain Cole's head as the scan starts and uses the Force, just as he did when he discovered the programming of the Inhibitor Chips. He locates the chip and examines it more closely. He has been practising with it, but since it is considered a Dark Side ability, Kanan has refrained from going deeper into mechu-deru. So, he does it the old-fashioned way. 

"Get it out. And don't mess this up. On second thought, give me the tools, I'll do it myself."

Kanan has taken up shop inside a decommissioning facility in Coronet City's industrial area for now. That's where the battle droids from the Clone Wars are being sent and destroyed. Kanan, in a stroke of genius, chose this place. Instead of destroying the battle droids, he repairs them to build a sizeable force. And the former workers are all helping him. The use of Alter Mind had to be practised, and after using it on so many clones, Kanan has gotten good at it. Still, he is already planning to take over as a small 'criminal' overlord and then move into the shipbuilding business. He has long dropped the 'entitlement' all Jedi seemingly had. 

He gets to work removing the Inhibitor chip, and once he's finished, lays it on a tray for further inspection. 

"Urgh..." Captain Cole groans and holds his head. 

Kanan uses Force healing to heal the wound on his head and remove any other damage he has. After a minute, the Captain sits upright. Seeing the famed Rinzler's face of a young man confuses him. But that's not important right now. What's important is what he remembers that he and his brothers did. 

"Oh no!"

"Easy, there, Captain. That's a lot to take in, but you're safe now," Kanan says. 

"Where am I? And who are you? What did you do?" Cole asks. 

"You're in a decommissioning facility, in the industrial district. I brought you here to remove the Inhibitor Chip from your head and remove the programming. As for my name, I am Kanan Jarrus."

"Kanan Jarrus? Wait! What Chip and what programming?"

"When you were cloned, the Kaminoans implanted an Inhibitor Chip into your brain, to make sure that once Order 66 was issued, you would all go through with it and start turning on the Jedi. At least that's what I know so far. It was planned for a very long time, likely before the war even began. At least 13 years ago," Kanan explains. 

"And you... took it out?"

"I have. I believe it is time for you to remember your own morals and act by them. I can't do that with my former battalion, since I killed most of them. But you are one of the first for whom the chip was removed."

"Your battalion? So then you're... a Jedi?" he asks. 

"I was a Warrior and a Jedi. Now, the Jedi Order is dead, and the Warrior is all that remains. And as such, I have chosen to do what I do best: fight back. You now face the same choice. Fight or flee."

Captain Cole grows silent. He has a lot to think about, but the choice is clear. He is a clone, that much is correct, and he was used, manipulated and brainwashed to kill the Jedi. Now that he had gone through with it, like 99% of the clones, what was he to do? After a few minutes, he looks at Kanan and nods. 

"I'm a soldier and I have sworn to protect the Republic. I believe that to fight is the best way to go about it, to make things right."

"Good, then come. I'll show you around," Kanan says.

They walk out of the 'treatment room' and make their way through the facility. Cole can see the large furnaces used to melt down the droids and the droids themselves, in various states of disrepair. 

"So, how many are we now?" Cole asks. 

"How many what?"

"How many are we who are willing to fight this new Empire? How many of my brothers have you freed yet?"

"Well, at the moment, we're two."

"You just freed two clones?"

"No, I freed one, you. But we're only two at the moment. You and me."

"What?! A Jedi Padawan and a Clone Captain against the entirety of the new Empire? Oh shit," Cole groans. 

"Are you regretting your choice yet?" Kanan smiles. 

"Somewhat, yes."

"Good. So your brain is working fine again. Let me tell you a bit about what we have here. As I said, this is a decommissioning facility in Coronet City. It's where the Separatist battle droids, still left from the Clone Wars, are to be melted down. But you already know that, I think. The complex is patrolled by police droids and operated by organic workers, a few people, whom I... convinced to help our cause," Kanan starts explaining. 

"Convinced? How?"

"Jedi mind trick. A permanent variation. Took me a while to get it right."

"So wait, if I'm the first successful clone you freed, what happened to all the others who went missing? You did abduct a few clones over the last month."

"Ah, well. Those were failures. You see, as you said, I'm a former Padawan. So most of what I know is purely theoretical. Therefore, I need to practice things by trial and error. The others didn't make it. I'm sorry."

"You just killed them?! How could you do that? We are real people too!" Cole grows a bit angry. 

"I know that. I could have also killed them outright. And if I asked them, whether they would like to be mind controlled or dead, what do you think they would tell me?" Kanan asks and looks at the Captain. 

"Sigh... I suppose you're right. Alright, what else?"

"The workers are making sure that everything works fine, and those who have nothing to do are fixing the droids that can be fixed. I managed to reprogram a tactical droid, which is controlling the droids that are still working. The police droids that patrol the area are captured and then reprogrammed. I didn't know much about droids, so it took me a while to do that, but I am finally ready for it."

"What about my brothers?" Cole asks. 

"That's the question. We will need to think about our next steps. We need information on the larger state of the galaxy. Who holds authority over what, and what is going on in the Senate? Do you know anything useful?" Kanan asks. 

"Well, I know that Vice-Admiral Rampart was stationed on Kamino. I don't know enough, but I think the future of us clones isn't certain."

"Edmon Rampart? The one who oversaw the implementation of the chain codes?"

"Yes, that's him."

"Interesting. This could work. Well, now we must discuss what you should do."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you want to stay here? Or would you like to go back to your previous post and start working from inside?" Kanan suggests. 

"You mean spy? I'm a soldier, not a spy."

"And I was a Jedi, not a criminal. Yet, here we are, working with what we have. The times change, Captain; it's time you change with them. The benefit of having you take up your post is immense. I believe we could achieve a lot of good. Information is one of the most valuable goods to possess."

"Ugh... what would I need to do?"

"Well, there are two parts to this. On one hand, you would oversee this decommissioning facility, and on the other hand, you would gather intel. Anything that could help us build up resources is welcome."

"And where would you be then?" Cole asks. 

"I can't stay here all the time. But when I am here, we'll either increase our influence or build up more strength. Corellia is perfect in that regard. We can thrive in the chaos and, in time, build ships," Kanan reveals.