Palpatine's Hospital

[John Hammond]

Hammond opened his eyes slowly, realizing as he did so that he had no idea where he was, or what was going on. He saw doctors huddling all around him, and somewhere to the side he could feel a hand squeezing his shoulder. His breathing was forced, and he realized he was not responsible for this. A machine was hooked up to him, and a respirator pushed air into his lungs.

"Commander, please stay still." One of the doctors saw Hammond attempting to move, but it was useless. Hammond was already unconscious, his eyes fluttering, and his legs moving.

"He's having seizures." One of the doctors, an old graybeard, looked at Hammond, and took his pulse, bypassing the droids. He took out a small light, and shined it into the Commander's eyes. The pupils did not respond, but instead the eye moved eerily of its own accord.

"Seizures, a heart attack, three broken bones when nobody laid a single hand on him, spontaneous bleeding and haemophilia. Nobody has this many illnesses at a time. What in the name of the Force is going on?" Tektor Fyyar was standing at the Supreme Commander's side, a hand on his shoulder. He was tall and powerful, instilling fear around him. For a long moment, nobody answered.

"He's not sick, Captain." One of the doctors finally dared to speak. "These... symptoms are all induced. They aren't part of any illness, and neither are they caused by poison, traumatic impact, autoimmune disease or something else. Whatever it is that is happening to the Supreme Commander, it is completely artificial."

Tektor was quiet as he thought about the doctor's official diagnosis, which he himself had reached when he saw what was happening to his closest friend.
"All of his body functions are breaking down..." He let a few seconds pass, and then, "Someone is trying to murder John Hammond."

[John Hammond]

Hammond woke up. This time, he woke up fast, completely conscious and aware, without the feebleness that had been present before. He still felt very weak, but better. The respirator was still attached, as were a multitude of tubes to his body. At his side, a droid monitored a computer that read his vitals, and typed in different codes to cause medicines to flow.

"What... happened?" John croaked, without even knowing if there was anyone else in the room.

"You're being murdered, my friend," Tektor was in the room, sitting down, looking sombre. "Some kind of nanorobot is causing all of your organs to break down. For the moment, the doctors have managed to isolate your brain and your heart, but it is too late to protect anything else, and they still can't find the robots."

Hammond closed his eyes for a moment, realizing the gravity of the situation. This murder attempt changed everything. "Are the fleets ready?"

"Yes... but... you are in no position to lead us to fight, John."

"No. Order all fleets to gather, and leave minimum security on... all planets.. There is a threat that I... wish to neutralize before I... before anything else happens. Send... send a message to Zorko and Solast that we will need them. Tell them to gather their fleets, and await further orders. Also.. contact Mandalore, and remind him of his honour and his duty to our allegiance. Tell him that the Empire is calling, and he must answer."

"Commander." Tektor stood up, bowed, and left.

[John Hammond]

"Commander, Alpha-1 is ready to move."

"Very well." Hammond waved at his escort, and motioned them to come in, "Get me to my ship. It's time to show the Mandalorians who really is the boss around here..."

[John Hammond]

"I need the defibrillator!"

"Stand back! Charge is set."
"Discharge"

Hammond's body shook with the shock. Still no response.

"Charge!"
"Discharge"

No response.

"Charge!"
"Discharge!"

A faint hearbeat. Then a flatline again. A respirator was attached, forcing the Commander's chest up and down.

"Let's do this once more, CHARGE" The doctors were sweating, knowing they were due for execution if Hammond died.

"DISCHARGE" As if screaming would bring the Empire's most important man back to life.

A moment of silence. And then, the sound of a faint, constant heartbeat.

[John Hammond]

"John. John. John, wake up, man, wake up."

John's eyelids fluttered open. His throat felt dry and it hurt.
"Wh... what is it?"

"John. You're dying." Tektor was sat down in front of John's bed, and he said this without emotion, fast and easy.

"Ha, ha, ha." Hammond's laugh was slow and painful. "Tell me something I didn't know already." He paused for breath. "What are.. what are we going to do, Tek?"

"Well, I've thought up a few things. First, I've made a couple of devices that should keep any robots out of your brain and your heart. The second is... well..." Tektor Fyaar, one of the galaxy's most audacious men, fell silent.

"What is it Tek?" Hammond felt a tingle of excitement in his chest, as he knew what the answer was, "You want to give me a new body?"

"Yes."

Hammond was silent. He was no engineer, but he knew that in many thousands of years, nobody had managed to transfer a living brain into another body. "We... we'd need a Force User."

Tektor smiled.

"No, John. We'd need 200 of the most powerful, best trained Force users."

Hammond smiled.

"Not a thousand?"

"Well, I... I won't go into detail but..." Tektor threw up his hands in despair, and sighed, "Ahhh, I can't resist!" He grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper, and he began to explain. "Well, the Force Damper I built can be re-engineered to work exactly the same way.

When we were working on Palpatine's Regenicon, we ran into an enormous problem, which was that we needed an enormous Force Field to keep him alive and to maintain his essence alive. We calculated we would need about 43.643 times the Emperor's power, or some 50.13 times Yoda's power, which is equivalent to about 1000 average Jedi. However, with the Force Damper working as a Force Magnifier, we could potentially increase the Force field by 5x, which would require only 200 extra Jedi to work with us.

The surgery would be pretty straight forward. Go in, attach some cables, detach your brain, and transfer you into an essentially perfect body, or robot if you prefer. The Jedi would be in charge of making sure your soul follows your brain, and then we would have to convince the midichlorians that your brain is actually their brain.
And.... you would be saved."

Hammond smiled.

"It's ok, Tek. I'm ready."

Tektor's face changed. He became very serious, and grabbed Hammond's forearm.
"You don't have a choice John. We have a mission to carry out, you and me. You can't die. Not yet. Soon. But not yet. I'll get everything ready."

Hammond was already deeply asleep by the time he finished. Tektor Fyaar got up, and left.

[John Hammond]

"Commander, Commander, we have a situation."

Hammond opened his eyes. Lately, it seemed that he was being shaken to consciousness on a daily basis, and he was getting really tired of it.

"We just got this holovid from General Fyaar's altered holotransmitter." Hammond nodded, and waved for the video to start playing.

He saw two doors opening as two outstretched arms pushed them apart. Then he saw a vortex of people being thrown back, and Jalua's impressive leap across the room, which threw Tektor back a long distance. He saw his friend's hand reach out, and disable the Empress' saber, and then heard his manic laughter as he was being pulled outside.

Hammond had almost begun to smile too when he saw Jalua's face change, and shoot Tektor Fyaar. Soon after, the video stopped, doubtlessly destroyed by Jalua's guards.

"This..." Hammond was deeply concerned by this. Although the pain hammered away at his body, he did his best to ignore it, and tried to focus.

"Get me a direct link to GA Zorko, or one of his Admirals. And ready my ship!"

Hammond was on a wheelchair, but now he turned to his head medic. "Is the suit ready?"

"I'm... I.." The doctor stuttered, but nodded. It was a prototype armour, meant to inject high doses of pain killers and medicines to the entirety of his body, meant to support him and aid his movement, while the helmet and the chest plate were extremely sophisticated devices meant to keep the nano-robots away from his brain and heart.

"Get me to it."

[Dan Zorko]

OOC: OMG! IRON MAN! ;D

[John Hammond]

OOC: Oh. Good point. Shoot. I was thinking more Vader.