Initial Contact.

The semi-transparent tank appeared out of the mist that had somehow formed, despite the bright day, at the edge of the forest. And it fell down on the lush green meadow, and started rolling due to the meadow actually being a slope.

The several hundreds of devices that sustained the cryo-sleep of the person inside the tank was not present, and, therefore, the person was slowly waking up – only to experience the worst of rolling rides he'd ever been on. It almost felt like a centrifuge. The slope smoothened out into another meadow – and after a bumpy ride, the tank came to a stop. The man inside kicked off the upper cover, and stepped out of the tank.

Only then he realized he was fourteen, all over again.

Then it came to him. How the hell had he rolled down a green sloping meadow? Last he knew, he was located on a rocky island off the coast of Greenland. And, the surroundings were definitely not as bright as it was at the place he was standing. Quickly he scanned the area for illusions or traps.

Even with his best efforts, he couldn't find anything out of place - only the serene landscape and the beautiful forest behind him.

In a final attempt to find out more about his surroundings, he attempted to connect with the interface that maintained his phased-out worldwide surveillance network. He was shocked to his core when he found that the interface was only sending in blanks. How did THAT happen? How could his whole network fail?

He explored the grassy slope and the forest with caution all the while thinking about the unthinkable loss of his whole information network. He had walked for almost an hour before he noticed a strange metallic shimmer near the horizon. Metal meant civilization. He started out in the direction of the shimmering shine for what was likely a journey of about a whole day.

It will be much later that he'd realize his folly of not phasing in a vehicle from his dimensional-storage and riding it.

The answer to his question about the strange change in location and surroundings clicked almost two hours later. The safety precautions he'd taken before he went to cryo-sleep! The fail-safe system of runes he'd designed was supposed to secure him in case of a major universal disaster. It had taken his wish literally, and had yanked him out of that reality before dumping him in this dimension.

But if there was a disaster, why did no one wake him up?

He knew he had no way to get that answer. Instead, he just settled on the floor of the forest he was crossing and calmed himself. He had spent a lifetime fighting and enduring struggles, calming oneself to prevent panic was as simple as breathing to him. Still… How many people had to calm their minds down, after they've been dumped into a dimension other than his own? Not many.

He was sure he couldn't replicate the effects of the rune-magic gone haywire. It was the same sort of strange accidents that seemed to happen around him; aided by magic, his not-well-defined intent and colossal amounts of power that he held.

Almost half a day of the journey still left, he decided to camp near a waterbody. The water itself seemed to be fresher, cooler and sweeter than what he used to drink on Earth. Whatever this place was, it was very fertile – and not only in terms of land fertility. The whole environment, the complete system of the planet was healthier and fresher than anything he'd seen.

After drinking as much water he safely could, and then setting up under the shadow of a huge boulder, he conjured some MRE to eat. He'd started storing MRE years ago to ensure he stored non-perishable and theoretically less space, per calorie, consuming food materials in his dimensional-storage. A bit tasteless and chalky if left stored for long though.

He took a bite and remembered his folly. He had enough vehicles, both standard military and stuff conjured from his mindscape, stashed away inside his dimensional-storage to mobilize an equivalent of the Axis forces during World War 2. He needn't have walked for seven straight hours.

He said to himself, "I'm never doing anything before checking the D-S… Ever again…!"

After finishing his meal, he decided to rest that night. He needed more information and he couldn't risk it if there were beasts lurking in the wild at night, he can't fight them without proper intel.

So, he simply sat under the boulder, resting against the rocky surface. Even the rocky surface seemed smoother than it had any right to be.

When he was amply rested, he let his comms-interface extend out-of-phase information probes in an effort to start reconstruction of the phased-out information network. The first feedback he got was the abnormally high amounts of energy saturation in the surroundings. It was everywhere - an energy that seemed almost like an alternate form of magic filled every single iota of space around him. Taking the advantage, he connected his comms-interface with the energy and used the continuous network it provided to fast-track the creation of his Phased-Out Information Network 2.0.

The comms-interface, C-I, had connected all the dots and finalized the POIN 2 with an eagerness that reminded Harry of its sentience. True, it was inside his mind. But it was very much existent and even had human like characteristics, to the extent that it can actively advise him when needed.

The POIN 2 was a work of art. It transcended all boundaries, went through every firewall and barrier, physical or not, and connected everything that it came into virtual contact with.

And, Harry was surprised to find a number of large…. SPACESHIPS?... around the edge of the planet's atmosphere. It seemed like a grave situation – one that, as much as he hated to admit, potentially could spark his fighting mood once again. He'd just have to be careful to assist the right guys.

Setting the C-I on surveillance duty, he went to sleep. The C-I kept a watchful eye out while creating modules to put into POIN 2 and extend its usefulness. The POIN 2, though it was still adapting and growing, gleaned as much as it could from every system it touched through the strange energy field – particularly from the local government's databases.

Around midday, next day, Harry woke up to his C-I's alerts. It transferred the intel to him – that several huge crafts were landing all over the planet, particularly close to the city whose metallic shine he'd seen last day. The intel also had the name of the city.

It was called Theed by the locals.

The C-I had taken samples of the local language and stitched it to a human comprehensible form. Quickly adding the data packet to his language abilities, Harry packed up and got ready to go.

This time there was a Wimik growling beside him.

###################################

The droids were lining up when they heard the roaring engine. Before they could even react, two-tonnes of Birmingham's best crashed against the dropship that had carried them to the surface. The resulting explosion took out the ship, the whole droid division and the ship that was landing beside the previous ship.

Harry's Wimik was reduced to a pile of sweltering molten metal. He saw the mess, realized that the 'aliens' must've been really high-tech if a single explosion converted the Wimik's strong frame into molten metal, and commented, "These guys are pretty advanced."

Oh, the joys of going up against better equipped enemies… He felt the thrill in his blood. But, he swore not to underestimate the enemy. After Columbia 2007, he had learnt his lesson.

Harry mounted a vehicle that the droids were using and only had a blackened side as evidence to the explosion. It was floating, for God's sake! With deliberate use of his C-I forcing POIN 2 to gather info on the vehicle he was trying to stand on… He had everything he'd need to drive it.

Nothing as surprising as getting fired at with your own weapons. Again, lessons from Columbia 2007. He wanted to use those lessons to their fullest. And use he did… Three droid groups were blasted spectacularly, two droids at a time, by the twin bolts of red energy streaking towards them at hyper-velocities that originated from nozzle like features located near the nose of the… uhhh, vehicle.

###################################

Sio Bibble, the Governor of Theed, was a very able bureaucrat. But he had a slightly less amount of patience than was normally ideal for someone of his position - hidden behind his amiable nature.

Being forced to walk around the city at blaster points didn't allow for the amiable nature to hide his impatience. As the group was forced to walk to Camp Four, he couldn't stop himself from sneering at the droid speaking at monotone. Obviously, it had no effect on the droid – they weren't made to perceive human emotions.

But the sneer quickly vanished when three figures jumped in front of the droids and slashed away at them madly. Within seconds, the whole droid group 'escorting' them was destroyed.

The older man stood forth and introduced himself, "Your Highness, I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. This is my padawan, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. We are the ambassadors from the Supreme Chancellor. And that is our local 'guide', Jar Jar Binks."

"Your negotiations seem to have failed." The Governor's impatience was showing through.

"They never took place", was all that Qui-Gon said.

The group moved fast in an attempt to get to the hangars which was on the other side of the palace complex. Their hasty retreat to the hangar, in order to find a transport and go to Coruscant, was thwarted when they found their only way being guarded two droidekas. They looked on from their cover behind the pillars as the two menaces patrolled the way, the two Jedi warriors hoping to find an opportunity to destroy the droidekas.

###################################

Harry's craft crashed after having used up all its fuel cells. He walked the rest of the way, sneaking around the droids patrolling the streets. His C-I was now working at cent percent efficiency. POIN 2 had successfully completed all the adaptations and had been freed from C-I controls. It was working autonomously to gather all the info that might be needed.

He must have gotten a little distracted, because a volley of red bolts sizzled past him as soon as he tried to turn the corner. He quickly jumped back and peeked out of the edge of the wall. Two of the machines that were supposedly called droideka were prowling the way in front of him. And, he noticed the group of people hiding behind the pillars.

How he wished he wasn't a fourteen-year old boy. Conjuring the Land Rover and then several CTT (Crystal Tipped Titanium) bullets and banishing them at the droids to take them out on his way, had taken a lot out of him. Not physically. Just, he was feeling a pronounced deficit in his magical reserves – they didn't have had much time to recharge after he'd woken up from cryo-sleep.

Using as less energy as possible, he conjured a three feet long rod of solid Arez, a creation of his own, metal with sharpened tips.

POIN 2 confirmed that the shields that the droidekas were using were meant to keep out energy attacks, not physical blows. Arching behind, drawing his hands back as much as he could, he drew a breath and swung forth. The rod flew in an almost horizontal trajectory and pierced through the droideka closest to him, ripping off the spine.

By the time, the other droideka had recovered from the shock of a rod ripping its partner to bits, Harry had closed the distance between himself and it.

The kick with all its kinetic energy managed to throw the droideka back and faze it. Harry quickly drew the rod out of the fallen droideka and stabbed the other one near its neck region with all his might. It fell down, all its circuits and systems dead.

He felt the other group come up to him. He turned to meet them.

The man wearing robes and grey hair exclaimed, "Who are you? You are barely older than a teenager!"

"Actually, I'm just fourteen."

This drew more bewildered looks from everyone in the group.

Harry had sized everyone up within the five seconds that took them to recover themselves, and the Jedi move towards the droideka to check those… According to his own opinion, 'pathetic waste of metal'.

The Queen, cultured, withdrawn and exuding authority. A bit too much authority… That made him suspicious. It was that sort of authority that you flaunt when it's not yours.

The Governor, peaceful, quiet, amiable, but tad bit impatient. Able person, but lacks ruthlessness.

The Captain, Panaka was his name, was the ablest man in the group. His strong jaw hinted at his determination… Sort of man he could work with.

The two 'Jedi', or whatever they were called, were very well trained warriors who were using the energy around them to certain extents. Their Gungan cohort was insignificant.

The Queen's handmaidens were elusive and seemed to be more alert than the others in the group. They seemed to be trained in their job and were practically shadowing the Queen. Actually, they were doing a far better job of guarding the Queen than anyone else.

Initial assessment down, he addressed the group, the Jedi called Qui-Gon Jinn in particular.

"So, what are the plans?"

"We are trying to reach the hangar", said Captain Panaka.

"And how do you plan to do that? There must be hundreds of guards between you and your destination."

"We haven't got a plan. But we would've somehow managed to get Her Highness to the Hangar", said Qui-Gon.

"Master Jinn. That is the most terrible plan I've ever heard of."

Qui-Gon Jinn had a lot of questions in his mind, specifically how a fourteen-year old managed to get the tone of a leader right, how that same fourteen-year old guy knew his name when he didn't remember any introductions and how someone supposedly as young as him could've displayed the sort of ability that he did against the droidekas.

And all that was aside from the fact that the strange boy was practically absent from The Force. Everything had The Force flowing through them, this young boy was like a blank vessel in The Force – by all means, he should have been dead.

Before he could say anything, though, the young guy had started speaking again.

"I suggest we go with a plan that is better designed and detailed, not to say has the potential to be successful."

Qui-Gon reeled in anger. He almost shouted, "How dare you insult us? Do you claim to be better than Jedi?"

And immediately, he controlled himself. It was not the place of Jedi to show anger or arrogance.

The young guy said, "No. I merely wish to say that I've got a better plan."

For the first time, the Queen, Sabe – the decoy, herself spoke out, "What is your name, stranger?"

"Hadrian Black."

"And, what is your brilliant plan?" This was the sarcastic question of the irritated Governor.

"I say you leave behind a couple of your men with me. The enemy has capable weapons; they can attempt to shoot you out of the sky if you even managed to take off. Me and the men will aid in your escape and then distract the enemy to keep them from shooting your ship."

In the meantime, his C-I had successfully set up the LiveWire and then completely rebooted the system with new objectives distributed to the separate systems. The C-I took up its former duties as Command Interface and gave up its comms capabilities to LiveWire. POIN 2 was placed directly under LiveWire so that Harry himself didn't have to bother with every single intelligence detail.

With brutal efficiency, LiveWire bypassed every single firewall and security and accessed information. With POIN 2 assisting it, the battle tested interface had every single bit of easily accessible information.

The Force literally flowed through everything, it was just too bad for the people who were keeping the data that Harry's interfaces accessed that the interfaces in question could harness the power of The Force, itself. Harry only needed to direct LiveWire to get him the information - if it was stored, it was accessible.

Captain Panaka said, "It is all well and good, Mr. Black. But we don't have any men at this moment except for the four guards at the back of the group."

Harry was shocked. Such incompetency was unexpected from a planetary defense force. Then again… These were peace loving people…

"Well, what happened to them?" He asked, even though LiveWire had already tracked most of the security personnel to multiple prisoner holdings, guarded by battle droids.

The Queen answered, "We are not sure. But they might have been taken prisoners."

"Then let's go get them. Captain… Panaka, was it? How are your combat skills?"

The Governor interrupted faster than the Jedi Master, "Young man, why not the Jedi?"

"Because, I prefer people with a proper rank, or title."

A confused Captain followed the fourteen-year old; leaving behind a group of stumped grown-ups and a strangely impressed Queen, the real one. She had no idea that a guy her own age could practically take over the command of a situation by mere words. Or, that the same guy could possibly have a rugged look that she had always learnt to associate with soldiers and bounty-hunters.

She was a teenage girl, despite being a Queen and all, and a boy who was roguishly handsome and seemed very capable was sure to get her attention.

Sylbe, one of her handmaidens, was also her own age. She looked at her Queen's face – eyes following the retreating forms of the two men – and snickered.

The Queen, disguised as a handmaiden, was standing just beside her. She heard the snickers and looked at her. Sylbe wiggled her eye-brows. The Queen elbowed her in return.

It may not have been a Queen's worthy act… But she was feeling like acting as a teenager girl for once.

###################################

Captain Panaka looked from behind the pillar he was using for cover. And what he saw wasn't something he was having any easy time trying to comprehend.

Harry disposed of the B1 Battle Droids with awe-inspiring and frightening efficiency and ease. He dodged in strange dashes and angular jumps, causing the droid to mostly shoot themselves. The ones who didn't get shot by other droids, were being shot by Harry – sometimes in mid-flight while dodging – with a blaster he'd picked up from a fallen droid.

With at least twenty-five men saved, Harry turned to Panaka and said, "It looks like we've gotten ourselves quite a few men. They should be enough. What do you think?"

"If you say so."

"Right. Men, pick up the weapons the dear droids have so generously given us." The twenty-five men scrambled around to gather the weapons from the piles of destroyed droids.

"Got everything you need? Awesome. Let's go."

The men, Harry and Panaka raced back to where they had left the Queen and her group. They seemed to be shocked.

Harry just smirked and said, "What? Expecting me to succeed, you weren't… I presume?"

Qui-Gon and his padawan, Obi-Wan, gasped upon hearing the similar manner of speaking. They thought only Yoda spoke like that. Luckily, no one noticed it.

The guards, now having their confidence back because of the blasters in their hand, stood all around the group while Harry spoke.

"Now, Captain Panaka. Lend me some of your men. I'll distract the droids enough to ensure their weapons don't zero in on you. You can take the rest of the men and get off the Planet, proceed with your mission to get the Queen to the Coruscant."

"But, how will you get out?"

"We will find some way. You guys get moving."

Master Qui-Gon Jinn realized that the young boy somehow had risen to take command of the whole situation. And, he was quite efficient in dealing with the situation. He was thinking quick and deciding fast – not wrongly either. He seemed to be working with a sense of familiarity born out of years of doing something.

Captain Panaka and the Jedi led the Queen's group towards the Palace so that they could cross the Palace compound and get to the Hangar.

Harry looked at the fifteen men he was left with.

"So, you are the members of this planet's defense force."

It was only a statement. None of the men answered.

"Well, at least you are properly disciplined. I can work with that."

The men almost sniggered at the young guy who was trying to lead them. Harry clearly saw the underestimation in their eyes.

"I will project a few thoughts into your heads. You'll need them to keep up with me."

Complying his mental orders, LiveWire sent the standard operating procedures and basic combat knowledge to their minds.

They all wobbled on their feet because of the influx of huge amounts of information. A few of them even sat down on the ground.

One of them managed to gasp out a few words, "What… What are… These? How do… Am I getting this… Knowledge?"

Harry merely said, "You have five minutes to gather yourselves. We have a big fight ahead of us. And I want all of you to be the best you can be."

A few men, stronger than the rest, mumbled, "Yes… Yes, Sir."

"Yes… Chief!" Harry snarled at them.

Most of them replied, "Yes, Chief."

Harry, pleased with the men, ordered, "Get to your feet. We will divide into groups. Our job is to delay any reinforcements that could be sent towards the palace. The main droid carriers are outside the city. So, we have lot of time and distance to hold them off, if they launch assault teams. Any questions?"

"Chief… We don't have enough weapons. And certainly not weapons powerful enough to hold off the droids."

"Can you get them?"

"Maybe, Chief. The Armory will have something."

"How long will it take for four men to get everything for everyone?"

"About fifteen minutes if we are here, Chief."

"Well, you and your three pals are Fireteam One. Call sign is Black One. Get moving… Enough weapons for all the four teams."

"Yes, Chief!"

The four men ran off inside the Palace. The Armory was located somewhere near the basement.

"The others, divide into teams of four and the last three, you're with me."

The men shuffled to get into teams. The information that was given to them via their minds made them ready to understand what he was talking about, but it was nowhere as efficient as his old teams were. Teams who were used to attaching themselves to absolutely unknown squads and breaking down into smaller teams seamlessly as fast as turning a corner.

Almost fifteen minutes later, Black One returned with weapons that looked formidable and bigger in size.

Harry had only comment to make before they all rushed, "Awesome!"

Harry barked at Black Two, "Get yourselves to some high ground. Two of you… Use your high-powered shots to wreck some major havoc. The other two can use the assault weapons to cover you."

The four men followed his orders and climbed up to the roof a three storied building. The two guys who had the high-output heavy energy weapons chose their targets and started shooting at once.

Harry smiled and said to himself, "Good. They are learning fast. Prime soldier material… All of them. The knowledge is hence assimilating faster."

He remembered when he was asked to train a few guys from Sayeret Matkal. It took him three days to teach them how to pick targets fast enough.

And when he trained the GIGN to get the crosshairs on targets faster, he almost got himself killed. Two of his students freaked out after the third drill and mistook him for their targets.

Compared to those, these were much better – picking up the tricks quicker.

He remembered the combined DEVGRU and SFOD-D training. They were really good. Almost as good as him – he even learnt quite a few dirty tricks and workarounds from them. Damn fine men, those guys were. The only guys he thought could match them was the guys who had given him his first proper real-world training. The Special Air Service – or, the Sport And Social as they were called.

He ordered the Black One and Three to hold the advancing assault force back. Then he gestured at the men in his team to follow him.

"Let's go Black Four. We have got a huge diversion to plan and pull off." He felt the Queen's group enter the Hangar.

He couldn't feel but be awed. If LiveWire feeds were to be trusted, something he'd do without a question, those Jedi were quite the fighters. He needed to find out more about them. Maybe, later, he would make a more focused and guided search on Jedi.

Harry and his took cover behind the crates, and looked from behind them. In front of them was the transport that the Trade Federation mongrels had used. The droids were guarding the ship.

Harry was still using the small blaster he had picked up from one of the droids earlier. He looked once at it and had a brilliant plan. A plan that would need his trusty Glock, though modified to take in the CTT rounds.

Blasters simply didn't have the range to take out the droids with accuracy.

C-I interfaced directly with the blaster and turned it into a timed energy bomb. With the amount of energy stored in the cells, it made for a perfect explosive ordnance. It also helped that C-I had compressed a lot of Force converted into raw Magic stored in the cell, making it as unstable as possible without making it blast immediately.

Harry's men saw him throw his blaster towards the Trade Federation craft and draw a strangely dull looking weapon. The few who peeked around the covers, saw two droids approach the blaster that landed a few feet behind them. And then – a huge explosion blinded them.

The craft blew up from below, completely decimating it. Most of the droids were also destroyed. Harry jumped out of the cover, shooting rapidly – and dropping the trio of B-1 droids that survived from a range far out of the ability of a blaster that wasn't big enough to NOT fit in a man's hand. Sound was heard of larger numbers of enemy approaching their position.

"Let's handle this the old way – up close and personal."

That was Harry's way of telling that they would be fighting an urban guerilla battle. And so they fought. Four against almost a hundred. They fought from shadows and fired from the back. Their leader, Harry, led them around the alleyways and shortcuts like he knew the place from his birth. He had LiveWire to thank for that.

Finally, when the last of the droids were torn apart by Harry's CTT rounds, they gathered at the point they had left the other three groups at.

They were still holding out on the advancing huge droid army.

Harry shouted to be heard above all the sounds commonly associated with a battleground, "Everyone, RETREAT!"

The men quickly followed his orders. One by one they left their positions and joined him and his team behind a huge building.

"The Queen's group has taken off. We can plan our escape now."

"Hey, Chief. We were enjoying this so much… Can't we have some more fun?"

It was Harry who was standing there with his jaw hanging, a few seconds later, out of the sheer shock. He gave the intelligent reply, "WHAT?!"

"Yeah, this is the most fun we have had in our life!"

Woah… He had created a trigger-happy group of maniacs who loved destruction as much as he did. In record time! And he, for one, wasn't about to deny the fun… Since their targets were non-living anyway.

"Well… I guess another fifteen minutes would be okay."

There was a small whoop of joy and the men quickly got back into teams and dispersed to wreak havoc.

Harry mentally tried to think of the reasons that could've facilitated the quick transformation of these soldiers. He didn't think the standard op protocols were this… destructive.

It was the same set of protocols that NATO and many other countries used.

Was it?

Harry reviewed the set of protocols once more. When he finished, he was gob smacked. Now that he thought about it, it stuck him as odd that none of the men questioned him when they saw the decidedly freaky things – like a blaster exploding with more potent than a bag of thermal grenades.

In their respective standard op protocols, or the Standard Operating Procedure as it was officially called, the British Tactical Actions Command, the American Special Operations Command and the NATO HIGHCOM had included the fact that no one was to question when they witnessed anything strange being done by the entity identified as Ares. The other rules of engagement were suitably modified to suit Ares' presence; i.e. to ensure his teammates could keep up with him, they were simply ordered to be more destructive. Harry's standard op protocol set was a cumulative bundle of those three.

He felt that not knowing otherwise might have transformed these men to permanently be like that.

An explosion told him that the men were having way too much fun. Not that he minded – he minded the fact that they were doing it without him.

He pulled out his M82A3 from his phased-out pocket dimension and checked it before loading the .50cal CTT rounds. Securing a roof, he got into position to partake in his brand of fun as the fifteen arsonists he had unleashed blew up and shot down things that annoyed them most. The Trade Federation assets were all on that list – they were the only things on that list.

Harry lined up his shot perfectly. The droid who seemed to be the leader of the whole fiasco was painted in a lot of yellow – very wrong choice of color to be connected to warfare purposes. Well, it made his job easier.

The high powered Crystal-Tipped Titanium bullet shredded that stupid piece of walking junk metal to pieces. Pieces that were no bigger than screws, though.

It was sad the throne room was as high and deep inside the palace as it was and that the Trade Federation goons were currently quartered there. He would have really liked to paint them on the wall behind them. The CTT rounds inside his modified M82A3 were certainly up to the task.

He gave orders to the closest guy he could find.

"Get everyone. We are getting out."

He felt the Queen's ship get hit, that was why he had refrained from sniping a few other droids. By the time he had found the guy to order him to gather the men, LiveWire let him know that the ship was safe and had escaped the blockade. But the hyperdrive was leaking. Just as they entered hyperspace, LiveWire gleaned the location data.

When the men have gathered, Harry let them know the situation and his decision of going after them.

"Yes, Chief." Fifteen voices let him know that he had fifteen extra guns to rely on.

Finding a space worthy ship was a matter of ten minutes and getting it airborne was a joke. It was easy when all the ground based anti-air assets have been cleared off.

Harry had experience in flying the most sophisticated tech back on Earth. Though the controls before him were far more advanced than anything he had ever imagined could be possible – flying was flying. He was a born Seeker.

And having LiveWire, who learned things faster than a single chemical state change in an atom, interface with the systems was something that helped him get past the blockade scot free.

He had LiveWire feed the location into the ship's computer. It was the first time in hyperspace for him.

The ship started towards its destination: the desert world of Tatooine.