Marin Faulker.. just an ordinary guy living in extraordinary circumstances. Circumstances that he hadn’t yet come to recognize… but soon… very soon… his life would be flipped upside down… for good.

RING!!! Came the sound of the alarm. It boomed through the small room like a train’s horn running through the middle of your living room.

RING!!! Came the sound again.

The hand came from beneath the comfort of the warm blanket which it occupied to slam until it was able to turn the alarm off.

His eyes slowly opened sealed shut from a night of sleeping like a newborn baby. His hair matted nicely to the pillow so that when he finally decided to rise several minutes later it remained in that form. He walked slowly.. almost zombie like to the restroom. He stood there in front of the mirror.. his eyes half open.. his body bent over the sink..

“Another day… another dollar.” He muttered to himself as he began his daily routine.

That’s exactly what his life was.. a routine. The same old thing over and over to the point of monotony.

About an hour later he stood outside his apartment building located on the upper levels of Coruscant, the giant city-planet. He stood there clothed in his suit, brief case in hand, ready for work. He scanned the perimeter for a cab to take him to today’s destination. He worked for a large corporation called SKYTel which specialized in Galaxy-Wide communications. They had a network which spanned the Galaxy from the most desolate areas of Hoth to the richly populated Coruscant. Why their communications equipment would be present on a planet like Hoth was a topic for speculation. One That Marin himself had thought about on more than one occasion. SKYTel works closely with several other large corporations in providing communication in a wide range of methods.

Marin worked there as a programmer and was often commissioned to travel not only across the globe but also to other planets on rarer occasions. Today was one of those such occasions.

Marin looked down at his chronometer.. “Dammit! I’m gonna be late..” He whistled at a cab and waved his arms as it pulled up slowly to the curb to pick him up.

“Coruscant Central Station.. platform 36.. and if you can get there in 10 minutes there’s a 20 in it for you.” Marin said as he entered the cab and tossed his brief case on the side of the seat.

“You got it Chief” The cabby said, it was all of the motivation he needed as the cab zoomed off to its destination.

What started off like any normal day would soon prove to be anything but.

The sign read “Platform 36” when Marin exited the cab and tossed the cabby a credit chip, the twenty that he’d promised him originally for getting him to his destination on time.

“Just made it” he said as he hurried to the shuttle brief case in hand.

He heard the voice come over the intercom, “This is your final boarding call for flight 1980 to Duro, repeat.. this is your final boarding call for flight 1980 to Duro.”

“Crap..” He said as he started running to the platform. And then it happened, at the time nothing more than an inconvenience, but something that would turn out to change the course of his life.

SLAM!!! Was heard, well more.. felt than heard really, regardless next thing he new Marin Faulker was lying on his back. He fell to the floor with a thud as his head hit the ground before the rest of his body due to the sudden impact.

He rose quickly and albeit dizzily, he somehow stammered to his feet. He got up and the apathetic individual who had seemed to cause the impact had already grabbed his stuff and was rushing to get onto his own flight. Not however, before mumbling a quick “Sorry Mister”. He spoke to himself as he ran off quickly, “Dammit Tiran’s gonna kill me if I’m late…”

Marin however had his own problems to deal with. He stopped for just a nanosecond to gather his thoughts. He saw the individual running off in the distance, brief case in hand, Marin squinted to get a better look, “That son of a nerf herder, he took my..” Marin stopped himself as he looked down to see the brief case which was lying there on the ground. Without thinking he picked it up and ran to the platform to board his flight.

It’s interesting how life works, amazing actually, that one small event that could have been avoided by being just a second earlier or later could alter the path of your life and make you learn things about yourself that you never knew, and might have never known… for Marin that event was running into a man on his way to catch a flight to Duro. A set of circumstances which are just now starting to unravel.

We’re going to fast forward for a minute here, it’s hard to grasp the scope of Marin’s journey if you don’t quite know what’s at stake.

<font color = “33ff33”>3 days from now</font>

<font color = “FF0000”>COUNTDOWN: 7 MINUTES REMAINING</font>

He stood there… clothes torn… body beaten… yet somehow he had come to this pinnacle. He now overlooked the vast city that was Coruscant from his elevated location high above some of the highest rooftops. He looked down at the city which ironically seemed serene from this vantage. In mere minutes this could all be destroyed… not physically.. but destroyed nonetheless. The billions of inhabitants… all of them… they’d all die a horrible death, Marin himself not withstanding that tragedy. Unless… unless they’d been successful.

“Marin I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to pull this off man… and… if we can’t… I just want to say…” He trailed off as his voice carried static through the com unit.

Marin continued “I know… me… me too Maxx..” A single tear glided down the contour of Marin’s dirty face, it almost seemed like you could hear a pin-drop. When the tear hit the ground it echoed through Marin’s mind like the culmination of an ill fought journey.

“What are you two ladies jabberin’ on about… it’s about enough to make me lose my lunch!” Came a third voice through the com channel.

“CHIEF!!!” They both exclaimed in unison.

“But how did you..” Came the voice of Maxx.

“No time for that now Ace! We’ve got a world to save… and only…” He paused to look down at his chronometer, “6 minutes to do it!!!”

“OK I’m in position Chief… I hope this works.” Maxx said with reservation.

“It’ll work Maxx… I know it’ll work.” Marin said with confidence. “It has too..” He mumbled under his breath knowing the consequences of his failure.

And so they got into position… each of them with their own specific but equally crucial tasks, each of which you will come to understand more clearly.

<font color = “33ff33”>A few minutes later in the lower levels of Coruscant</font>

<font color = “FF0000”>COUNTDOWN: 3 MINUTES REMAINING</font>

“OK… I’ve got it… but… it may be too late… it might take a few minutes for those huge fans to stop spinning and… unless we can stop the explosion altogether… most of Coruscant will still be affected.. and..” Maxx stopped knowing the others knew exactly what would happen.

“Damnit!!” Marin said. “How can all of this be for nothing!!!” He said as he fell to his knees and slammed his hands into the duracrete. “Wait a minute!!! I’ve got it!!! The transmitter with the bio-weapon in the brief case… that’s it!!! Why didn’t I think of this earlier…” He looked down at his chronometer. “There’s still time…”

And so begins the tale of Marin Faulker… well at least the beginning of the end. How it ends is yet to be determined. What is clear is that whatever happens… Marin and his new found friends will have changed the course of the Galaxy… for good.

<font color = “33ff33”>The Present</font>

He stepped off the transport lazily. Brief case in hand.. not altogether coherent. The flight was longer than he'd have liked and his head still throbbed with pain. He stumbled off of the transport looking for the car that would take him to his next job. He scanned the perimeter.. usually they were in plain site and easy to find.

"Of course..." He sighed. "I've got the biggest headache of my life and I've got to search for this.." He stopped as he saw a man holding a sign which read "Faulker", and made his way in the man's direction. As he got closer this didn't seem like your normal every-day driver. You know.. they just have that look about them.. refined.. polite.. attentive. This guy didn't have that look at at all. But at this point Marin didn't even care.

He climbed into the back of the vehicle, laid his brief case on the seat beside him and dozed into a nap just wanting to get to work, get it over with, and go home as soon as possible.

"Wake me when we get there will ya?" Marin said his eyes already sealed tight.

"Oh you can count on that Mr. Faulker" The man said somewhat sarcastically.

In another state of mind Marin might have thought twice... but given his pounding headache... it was hard enough to process the thought the first time. He shut his eyes and dozed off into a nap which he'd hoped would never end. Ironically... it almost didn't.