I didn't think I'd meet the little green alien so soon. At least up until the first half of the movies, this guy played a pivotal role in the grand scheme of things. Yoda then becomes Luke Skywalker's teacher later on, and ends up becoming a force ghost after dying. I can see the wooden cane at his side, but he doesn't appear to be knocking at death's door quite just yet. And don't let this appearance fool you. Depending on where I am in this gigantic story, Yoda can launch very swift attacks. I already know not to underestimate him.
And seeing clone troopers at his side, this helps narrow down my current placement. Perhaps some time during the Clone Wars? Definitely before Order 66, cause when that shit happens, most of these clones become Stormtroopers of the Empire. Seeing them not as Stormtroopers narrows the gap down quite a bit, actually. Order 66, if memory serves, happens in 19 BBY, and the Clone Wars begins 22 BBY. And I'm placed somewhere in that three year period. Not the worst by a long shot. It's not like I was brought into the period where the Empire is already running rampant.
I'll continue my search for what the exact year is, but for the time being, I didn't immediately approach Yoda. The clones near him held defensive positions, as did I. I wasn't outright aiming my Power Beam at them, but I could see the clones keeping their hands on their blasters, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.
"Master Yoda, I advise you to approach no further. We've made contact with an unknown individual. Identify yourself!", The nearest clone said in a commanding tone.
'Sheesh, already coming off strong. But then again, most clones just follow orders. They're far more used to a militaristic lifestyle than I am.', I inwardly retorted, hearing that commanding tone. I initially thought of playing a ruse, using Samus's speech style. I could just turn completely silent with a '...', like how she normally does. But that's her thing, not mine. Plus if I chose to remain silent right now, these clones could just straight up attack me. Deciding to speak up, I heard a modulated voice come through my helmet.
"The name's Samus Aran. I just landed here myself. Figured I'd do some maintenance on my ship without prying eyes before I continue my travelling. I didn't think I'd encounter other people here on this barren rock. I'm a merc by trade. Looks like your pod was shot down. Need some help fixing her up?", I suggested, causing the clones to pause.
"Great. We just had to encounter a merc. Putting that odd color scheme aside, this armor does paint you like a Mando. We're in a pretty tight spot so it's not like we'll decline your assistance, but it's not exactly the safest right now since we just got shot by those Seppies.", The nearest clone sighed, relaying the situation to me. So the Separatists are involved huh? Sure enough, I'm definitely in the Clone Wars. Now to figure out where exactly. "And what do you mean by ship maintenance? I picked up on no signature several clicks out.", The clone continued, still confused. The couple of other clones beside him also looked confused.
Yet before I could speak, it was Yoda who smiled back, and spoke to the nearest clone.
"Look not with your eyes, you must. A ship present there is. Hidden from sight, yes.", Yoda said, clearing the clones' doubt.
"Impossible. How could there be an invisible ship---?", The nearest clone tried to respond, only to get cut off by Yoda approaching me. My gunship was docked pretty close by, but I still had its cloak engaged. I could likely turn it off right now, but I decided to play along with this little game Yoda seemed to have started. I saw Yoda calmly walk past me.
And a side note, Star Wars likes to use Clicks to measure distances. It uses the standard metric format, but you'd often hear 1 Click, 2 Clicks, and so on. Each Click is one kilometer.
But my gunship was extremely close by. Just beyond the nearest coral trees. I saw Yoda continue walking closer and closer to my gunship. I didn't feel any bad intent, so I just let Yoda do his thing. His eyes were locked on something, and the moment he stopped walking, his eyes shifted upward.
"Quite impressive, I must say. This technology, not so easy to get a hand of. Allow this to be a lesson to you all, you must.", Yoda said. Raising his cane upward, he actually thwacked the gunship on the left side.
The clones saw the gunship's figure reflected into view, responding to Yoda's tap of his cane. Their eyes turned wide, as my gunship was pretty big. Not a carrier or anything, but it's size is on par with fighter ships.
"To think we allowed a ship to get so close to us...", The nearest clone responded. He seemed to be the leader of the bunch. I simply smiled, only to reach my hand near my helmet. At the same time, I heard Adam's voice speak.
[Threat Analysis complete. No immediate danger detected. Caution is still advised.] Adam said, saying my immediate situation was all right.
"Remove the cloak.", I issued.
[Understood.] Adam replied, causing me to become surprised. I thought he'd try to suggest otherwise, but perhaps he was monitoring the ongoing situation. The clones were likely scouting their perimeter as I landed. It's something they know how to do. I was going to do the same and scout for a while, but Yoda was the one to initiate an encounter first.
To the clones' shock once again, they almost jumped back seeing the amber gunship become visible one moment after another. It was as if it was releasing tiny particles into the air. All the while, Yoda smiled back at me, acting like he had known about this all long.
"Good. Good. Bounty hunter you may be, but your intentions are clear. Come, a discussion we will hold. A challenge we currently face, there is.", Yoda said, calling out to me to join him for a discussion. But where, exactly? All I really see is a single fallen pod in the opposite direction to my gunship. But before I could ask, the commanding clone was the first to voice their opinion.
"You can't be serious Master Yoda. You want us to cooperate with a merc? I mean, we can take every hand we can get, but we can't exactly guarantee your safety. It's just us four down here.", The clone said in full disappointment.
"Bounty hunting isn't the only thing I can do. As long as it's a job, I can get it done. Sounds to me like you need as many hands as you can get your hands on. And I'm your girl.", I said, replying full of confidence. Hearing that, the clone raised his eyes.
"Did I hear that right? You're a woman?", The clone asked, surprised.
"You didn't hear me wrong. That won't be a problem, will it?", I responded with a question of my own.
"I didn't mean it like that, so I apologize if that came out weird. It's just, unless you're a Mando, there aren't a lot of women out there who do your line of work. At least from personal experience.", The clone responded, feeling a little guilty. I just shrugged him off with a laugh.
"Haha! I'm just a simple girl trying to make her living in the galaxy. As long as I can get some credits out of this, consider myself hired.", I replied, laughing.
"Your desires, many people struggle to achieve. A common goal, we share. Payment you shall receive, from The Republic.", Yoda answered, sealing the deal.
"Well when you put it that way, I can't exactly refuse Master Yoda's command. The name's Thire, I serve this squadron as their Lieutenant. Or what remains of it, anyways. We are in a pickle, as you stated. That's Jek and Rys. We'll make sure you get paid one way or another, as long as we can get out of the Seppies's grasp. We aren't exactly in the best position right now.", Thire said, introducing his troop to me.
"You did mention that.", I said. "What's this about a challenge?", I asked, getting to the main topic.
"A discussion, we will have. Come. Come.", Yoda simply said. Seeing as we were now cooperating, Yoda called for me to follow him. He attempted to earlier, but now we've all reached an understanding.
It looks like my first job did come sooner than later. I mean, I'm completely broke. I could use some items inside my gunship to obtain some credits, but I'd rather not stoop that low. I'm vaguely starting to remember where we are right now, and Adam sure did his thing alright. Turns out this is the Coral Moon of Rugosa, which was quite barren. But it held a certain alien species that Yoda would seek out to persuade them to join the Republic. The only thing was that the Separatists also found out ahead of time, and launched a surprise attack while Yoda was en route to this place. Only one pod remained behind. But to everyone's surprise, Yoda initiated a challenge with the Separatists, a challenge to see who could persuade the King to join their cause.
But now, I was added into the mix. An independent bounty hunter who is likely on par with a Jedi's prowess. I can't wait to see how this will go. And if things go well, I'll get my first payment!
After we all introduced ourselves, we followed Yoda back to their pod, and began a discussion on how to tackle this challenge. As I joined them, I made sure to turn on the cloaking again on my gunship.