Rafa V

[Lionchilde]

Silla felt the staff suddenly yanked out of her hands, heard it clatter to the ground outside the circle, and gasped.

 

"Come on, gal! Hit me!" Darsha encouraged, just before she effectively vanished from Silla's senses.

 

Well, Grandpa, it looks like Darsha's one of those "few"...now what? she thought.

 

Behind her, Speck twittered worriedly, giving her an idea. Her grandfather's methods may not work well against the Jedi, but she had another way. Darsha had done it when she moved the droid.

 

Concentrating, she felt for Darsha's presence through the Force, and found...nothing? The droid was there, her staff was even there--Darsha had to be. If she could even shield her presence with the Force, this was going to be impossible.

 

Use what you can percieve...don't focus on what you can't.

 

Silla focused on the Force itself, sensing the eb and flow of life around her, finding not the place where Darsha was, but where she conspicuously was not when the pattern indicated she had to be.

 

Springing forward, she leapt into a high spin-kick, aiming her foot exactly where Darsha's jaw should have been.

[/b]

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

If I knew where half the council was... Ara glanced at Kenobi. "Who do you think we should send? You're the only council member present that I can think of at the moment."

[Kayla Mhin]

((Okay, I'll finish it in this post. Consider it a marathon. ))

 

Back outside, Kayla looked at the list again, the lens assembly, blade-length adjuster, power cell, power conduit, and recharge socket she had yet to find.

 

The next riddle was simple enough, something about seeing out of a room... Most likely a window or something like that.

 

"Over there..."

 

Kayla stopped mid-step, was her mom going to lead her to each piece individually? If so, that would considerably speed things up. Perhaps she could finish finding all of the pieces really quickly. Mumbling a thank you, she set off in the direction the voice had indicated.

 

"Why now?" Kayla questioned as she walked, "Why couldn't you have told me who you were years ago?"

 

"You wouldn't have understood."

 

"Right." She mumbled with a small roll of her eyes.

 

The lens assembly was right where her mom had pointed her to and Kayla pocketed it with the rest of the parts then looked around, curious and wondering if her mom would actually show up again.

 

"Are you sure this isn't cheating?" It did seem so and Kayla wasn't so sure if this was what Scorp had in mind. But then, he hadn't said that she couldn't have anyone helping her.

 

Her mother laughed softly, "Yes, I'm sure."

 

This was wierd, Kayla decided. It was almost easier on her when she still believed that her parents had abandoned her. At least then she didn't have to deal with working out all their lost moments. Although it could be said that they had been there all along, helping her through the most difficult moments in her life, leading her through tough decisions, laughing with her, crying with her. But still, they could have told her, Kayla thought with a little anger.

 

-------

 

The next part, the blade length adjuster, Scorp had apparantly hidden either on, in, or under a tree. Kayla looked around the barren, dusty planet. "Uh, Scorp... There are no trees here." Of course, she didn't expect him to hear her, it was just an observation. But then, could he have meant a plant or something? Maybe he was talking about a little shrub. But to call it a tree? She shook her head, somewhat amused.

 

"Gonna help me with this one too?"

 

"No, you're doing just fine on your own."

 

That wasn't funny. "But, I don't..." Her voice trailed off and she gave up trying to convince the ghost of her mom to help. "I'll just go find a tree..."

 

Finding the tree, as it turned out, was the easy part. It was, however, probably the only tree on the entire planet. And what a tree it was, short, spiny and it definatly had to be the ugliest thing Kayla had ever seen. Giving it a quick inspection, she discovered the missing blade-length adjuster was inside of a small hole in the trunk of the tree itself. And furthermore, the hole was lined with spines which undoubtably wouldn't feel so great. And to add insult to injury, she had forgotten to get any bacta while on Scorp's ship.

 

Then a thought came to mind and rather then reaching inside the hole and manually pulling out the part, she levitated the object out and into her hand. Smiling proudly, she added it to her growing stash of objects and headed off to find the rest of the pieces.

 

The power cell and power conduit were easy enough to find but no matter how hard she searched, she couldn't seem to find the recharge socket. It wasn't where she expected it to be and the clue wasn't very descriptive. In fact, she was almost ready to give up all together when the voice of her mother echoed in her mind once again.

 

"You're trying too hard."

 

She rolled her head and sighed, "Right... So you're saying I'm ... trying too hard."

 

"That's what I said."

 

Okay, so she was trying too hard. Was she just supposed to stop trying to find anything? Then she remembered how she had found the second piece. Maybe that's what Ser'a wanted her to do. As she walked, her foot caught something and she tripped, scraping her shin and falling on her face. Now she was mad, generally she wasn't clumsy but for some reason she seemed to be very much so today.

 

Just as she was about to stand up, she noticed a pair of feet in front of her face. They were blue, insubstantual... It was Ser'a again.

 

"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

 

Kayla rolled her eyes and pushed herself up to a kneeling position, "Yeah, me neither."

 

"Do you see it?"

 

"See what?" Kayla asked, looking around for whatever Ser'a might be trying to point out. A glimmer of light reflecting off metal caught her eye and she reached out, picking up the final piece of her quest. Her cheeks flushed as she realized how close she had been and still walked right over the top. But then it could have something to do with how it looked, it appeared to be somewhat old but at closer inspection she saw it was actually new and shiny. Probably another way Scorp hid it...

 

"Thanks." She said and jumped up, now to get the stuff back to Scorp and to construct her lightsaber.

 

((Whew. *muse exlplodes in a puff of smoke* ))

[JasonMB]

"Are you going to continue my training now?" Jasyn asked and turned to look up at his master, hoping that the wookie's answer would be a 'yes.'

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

((hmmm so now will you publish you novel?))

 

Scorp broke his training he had grown somewhat tired from training for so long. However he felt Kayla had finshed her quest. HE could see her coming up dirty and brusied.

 

He whistled.

 

"Well it looks like you got everything. Lets go clean up and go retieve your crystal."

 

Scorp then handed her some robes.

 

"Eh your clothes look a bit dirty."

 

Then Scorp then wandered off and cleaned himself up. Returning in some better looking robes.

[Wookiee Jedi]

*Kirlocca smiled as he and his padawan walked towards the training area of the jedi temple.*

 

"Yes. However, when I took you out to Ilum, that was part of your training."

 

*Kirlocca walked into the room that both the jedi master and Jasyn were in before they headed out to Ilum. He turned around and looked at Jasyn.*

 

"Now, can you tell me....what did you learn from Ilum?"

[Kayla Mhin]

(( ))

 

Kayla nodded and did as he said. Then, after a quick shower in the fresher on board Scorp's ship, she applied some bacta to her shoulder and dressed in the robes. They felt strange in contrast to the clothes she was accustomed to wearing but she would get used to them in time.

 

Finally finished she headed back out to meet Scorp, "Ready when you are."

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

"I have decied we will rest up a bit before heading out." With that Scorp went inside of his ship to mediate he felt that for some reason he needed to wait a little loner.

[Kayla Mhin]

Kayla nodded, silently accepting Scorp's words. "That's fine with me, I guess." Maybe once he was done meditating they could duel some. But until then, she would meditate as well.

 

Looking around quickly, she saw a relatively shady spot up against some rocks and decided that it looked like a good spot to go meditate. She always had prefered being outside anyway, something about it was just more peaceful.

[JasonMB]

Jasyn sighed and thought for a moment before replying. So many things had happened on Ilum that it was hard to pick out what exactly he had learned.

 

"Fear is an enemy, not only to the Jedi but to all. And like fear, anger is also an enemy to the Jedi. I lost my head and, rather then running, I allowed my emotions to lead me and was captured." He paused again then continued with a smile, "I also learned that maybe I really don't know as much as I had thought."

[Skye Organa]

-- an encrypted comm comes in for Master Ara-Lai Kaipi --

 

Greetings Ara. I send bad tidings I'm afraid. My former padawan, Darex Trevelian and his padawan Shy-Ree have been captured by the Empire. I can sense that Darex is still alive but I hold grave fear for their safetly. I am relaying the following message.

 

Skye,

 

Perhaps by the time you get this, I will be dead. However, it is important that my message get out, and this is the only channel that would work. Thousands of Imperials have landed on Ilum and created a blockade around it. I do not know who their new emperor is, however, I can tell he is a force-user. They are capturing all the Jedi on the planet. I do not know who else is here besides Shy and I, however, I know that they are in grave danger.

 

Do with this message what you will, but I request that you at least inform the Council.

 

~Darex

 

*end comm*

 

I have scanned the holonet and the new self proclaimed Emperor is Jidai Geki. If SEED and the Empire have combined we are in a worse position than we were originally. Please contact me if you need me on this frequency. My current location is on Helix Station but I will be going to Chandrilla shortly. I can be contacted there.

May the Force be With You

 

Master Skye Organa

 

--- end comm ---

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara's face turned dark. She showed the comm to Kenobi.

 

"Things just went from bad...to worse."

[Zero]

"Ah, yes. How responsible of her. First she fails to comply with the callback, and now, she has lost a knight and a padawan, who also failed to return. Although cruel to say, Skye is on her own: we do not have the resources to send anyone to help her, especially if Geki is indeed the new emperor."

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara nodded grimly. "We still have the Keiran situation to deal with as well. Kirlocca has volunteered to meet him, regardless of where the meeting place is."

[Zane Arclyte]

Zane couldn't help but let his master's words bother him. His mouth dropped open, and the rocks he had been levitating dropped from the air with a thud. Even though he figured everyone around him could hear his thoughts, he thought them anyway. "On her own"? "Not enough resources"? But we're Jedi, we're supposed to be protecting and helping people, especially our own. If we don't, they get killed, or worse, turned. Then we have more problems.

 

She has to at least know there's hope, and I guess so do we. If we don't have hope, then no one will.

 

Zane shook his head and tried to concentrate on his telekinesis. I'll have to get myself stronger so no one I interact with will lack hope again...

[Wookiee Jedi]

*Kirlocca smiled at the young jedi.*

 

"And that my friend, is excatly what you should have learned. I planed to whole Ilum trip, just so you could learn that."

 

*Kirlocca saw a cloud of confusion hit Jasyn's eyes.*

 

"I'll explian it later in more detial...but as of right now...I have a special task for you."

 

*The jedi master pulled out a data pad and handed it to Jasyn.*

 

"It has four different archives that you need to pull and bring back here. All of them are in the temple now, but all of them rest in different locations of the temple. Your objective is to retrive them, and bring them back here, so that you can learn what is on them. And remember...the force is with you, let it guide you."

[Dartha Athanth]

(Oh well, Scorpie. I often forget she's not you. You I can kick around. Lionchilde... I can see we're going to be discussing philosophy... you did it with that 'perceive' right there. I'm not in big favour of empiriscists because I'm so short-sighted I can't see anything... but I'm not in favour of rationalists either because I don't have the brain cells..... But we'll save that for later.)

 

Not bad... Darsha thought appreciatively as the kick almost caught her in her chest. It would have caught her in her chin if she hadn't levitated.

 

She switched off the Force shield, and ran headlong into Silla. Lightly gripping Silla's tunic, she gently tossed her onto the floor, cushioning Silla's fall a little with the Force.

 

Now to see how the girl would react when in a position of weakness...

[Lionchilde]

((Philosophy...gah! I took one philosophy class, felt like everyone was speaking another language, and that was it for me. But, discuss away, Darsha...maybe I'll learn something this summer. ))

 

Silla felt Darsha coming, but before she could move, a pair of hands grabbed her tunic, tossing her easily to the floor. Instinctively, she reached out with the Force, grabbed her staff, and sent it spinning toward Darsha, at the same time darting her foot toward her opponent's ankle.

[Dartha Athanth]

Darsha caught the staff , and used it to fend away Silla's foot.

 

"Not bad, girl. Not bad at all."

 

She bent down to help Silla up. "Now... let's see what concepts you have of the lightsaber."

 

She reached her hand inside her jacket, felt the hilt of her master's saber, then thought better, and tossed out her own to Silla. THe long one, not one of the lightdaggers.

 

"Now Silla.... what do you think of a lightsaber?"

[Lionchilde]

Silla couldn't believe Darsha had caught the staff and knocked her foot away so easily, but she smiled at the compliment and allowed the woman to help her up.

 

Then, she caught the lightsaber, exploring the hilt curiously with her hands as she answered Darsha's question. "I've always been more comfortable with my staff than a sword," she said. "Besides, my grandfather says lightsabers have more value as collector's items than weapons in this day and age."

[Prince Vegeta Isolder]

Isolder understood Ara was busy, so did not bother her to answer his question. Besides, it seemed Kirlocca and the others knew what they were doing. He was going to depart when he heard Kenobi's response to Skye's request. Skye had treated him well many times before. Isolder had not been asked for input, but he could not hold his tongue.

 

"So you're just going to leave a fellow Jedi on their own? Forgive me, but the capture of a Knight and Padawan seem far more pressing than any meeting with a rogue Jedi. Perhaps you don't approve of Skye's methods, but that does not give you the right to shirk the responsibilities of the Order. Resources or no, we must involve ourselves in some capacity."

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara looked wearily at Isolder. This "leading the Jedi" thing was beginning to weigh heavily on her.

 

"Perhaps you would like to go, then? Maybe you'd have an advantage, with your blademaster training." She smiled. "Makes me wish I had taken some training in your arts."

[Prince Vegeta Isolder]

Isolder shrugged,

 

"Even if no one volunteers, I will go alone. Though I can assure you even I am no match for an entire fleet. I can't really believe the Jedi would not find this matter of high importance. Dismissing the plight of a padawan and knight, you still have the issue of the Empire's presence on Ilum, a planet of importance to all of us."

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara sighed. "I know, and I fear that there are other Jedi also captured on the planet."

 

She looked at Kenobi. "We have to send some Jedi. Keiran can wait, unless we send Kirlocca, who is willing."

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

Scorp broke his mediataion. He still felt he should go to Ilum but not for the reason he had, had to start with.

 

"Hmm perhaps We should leave no for Ilum."

 

Scorp then picked up the many different feelings of jedi. He figured there should be no reason for some many jedi to feel that way with out proable cause. HE decided to go seek out Ara. After walking a little bit he sort of spotted her. His view was blocked by another Jedi. He heard the words

 

"We have to send some Jedi. Keiran can wait, unless we send Kirlocca, who is willing."

 

as he approched. Taking note of Isolder and Kenobi. HE decided that perhaps now wasn't the best time to disturb her. He he quietly wiated on the outskirts of the little huddle.

[JasonMB]

"And remember...the force is with you, let it guide you."

 

Jasyn nodded and took the data pad, quickly scanned it, then left the room in search of the archives Kirlocca had sent him to find. The last four words of his master's instructions echoed in Jasyn's head. "Let it guide you..."

 

Nodding to himself, Jasyn closed his eyes and concentrated for a breif moment. Everything seemed to become clearer as he opened himself up to the flow of the force. All things were easier to see, clearer, distinct, alive...

 

He breathed in deeply and opened his eyes. Mentally pointing himself to a spot in the temple he started walking in that direction.

 

((Sorry it's so short. I hope to get time to post more later.))

[ObliviousKnight]

Armiena's black freighter appeared in Rafa V's orbit with hyperspace's signature flicker of pseudomotion following its pathway.

 

A desert planet. Lovely. The Jedi Knight shrugged slightly as she brought the Avenging Angel down to the surface. The Jedi could have chosen a better location... but there were definitely more unpleasant locations in the galaxy. So it would be hot. And dusty. But at least it wouldn't be a jungle planet...

 

Fortunately for her, as she exited the ship, she never glanced behind her to see how much dust the ship's repulsorlifts kicked up when they landed, turning the freighter's brand-new black paint job a tan, grey-ish color.

[Wookiee Jedi]

*Kirlocca watched for a second as his padawan, Jasyn, left the room to complete his duty that was given to him. The jedi master then sat down in his meditation position and let the force give him guidence. Just as the force was guiding his padawan on his duty, the jedi master was letting the force guide him to find answer and anything else that he might need on a mission that mmost likey was going to be given to the jedi wookiee...*

[Bron Dakari]

*Bron did as Nom had instructed and pushed himself great leaps with each stride. He pushed his legs onward with his mind, unitl he caught up with his master whom appeared to be taking it easy, so that Bron could catch up*

 

((Please excuse my late and generically short post. I have been living on coffee and vitamins ))

[Andon]

In a ripple of pseudo-motion the Renegade Night emerged back into real space, the modified starfighter's canopy filled with the sight of the arid scarlet planet before them. Two natural satellites orbited around the celestial body, sub-light engines humming at standard capacity as it weaved between the twin titans of the sky.

 

The E-Wing dropped it's nose and flew closely to the moon on the farthest right, riding its gravity shear and allowing itself to fall into it's orbit. As it rounded the horizon full power was thrown into the engines as the ship veered away from it's course and allowed gravity to propel it even faster as the slingshot effect came into play with its momentum.

 

At the controls, Andon Colos's features were like stone as he concentrated on the here and the now, the smallest smirk forming on his face as he performed a quick thruster burn and snap-roll to right the ship on a safer course as he penetrated the dusty atmosphere. Behind him sat Jurha Kahn and in her arms was Andon's newly adopted son, Nathan Stovachi, son of his long-time friend Leonardo Stovachi.

 

With the press of a button the Jedi Knight activated his scanners, the electronics making a wide sweep of the planet's surface area. After a few moments of searching the results popped up on a read-out display, the random whistles and beeps of his astromech droid being translated into readable phrases. Reaching out with his mind, the Jedi expanded his consciousness to the etheral plane, the shimmering warmth of unique auras in the Force confirming what the droid had told him.

 

So the Jedi are here afterall. As far as planets go, they're taking this "safety in remote" areas thing a little too far. Let's just hope this place has running water...

 

Following their Force signatures, Colos piloted his starfighter to the ruins of the temple and gently set the ship down, a small torrent storm of dust kicking up underneath of his repulsorlifts as he touched down. With the canopy raising itself, the Knight leapt out of the cockpit and moved towards solid ground in an elegant Force glide, his black cloak gently flowing behind him. Raising his hood to shield his eyes from the blaring sun, he turned to Jurha.

 

"Home sweet home."

 

Turning back the pair made their way into the ruins searching for the remnants of their fragmented Order.