SWTOR Origins: Jegan
DISCLAIMER
It is widely known that the Star Wars Universe is the creation of "The Man" George Lucas and most of the characters and settings in this story are the sole property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd.
Likewise Star Wars The Old Republic is someone else's creation as well.
I am making no money from this story and no copyright infringement is intended. Star Wars is someone else's toy I am merely taking it down from the shelf and playing with it for a while.
Star Wars: The Old Republic. A brand new online video game put out by BioWare. Here is the origin story of my character the Jedi Guardian Jegan, telling of the events that led to his starting a life of training to become a Jedi Knight.
"Talpai!" Stahen snorted in disgust. "Pathetic little mud ball can barely support life. IF it wasn't so rich in Thorozite it wouldn't be worth the fuel it takes to come this far into the Outer Rim.
"Aye Sir." Commander Broll said, careful to keep all disgust and disdain for the small and thin young man, dressed in overly large and flashy battle gear, out of his voice. Not only had the pathetic looking Stahen been placed in command of the Operation he was a Sith Apprentice, and one being trained by Darth Kraloar who was rumored to be on the fast track to a position on the Dark Council. Taken for training in late adolescence Stahen had spent his early years as a slave of the Sith Empire. Until taken for training he had been bullied and abused not only by his overseers but by any and all of his fellow slaves who were larger, stronger, or tougher than he was, which most of them were. Now with the power to reverse those tables Stahen was quick to punish and torture others for the slightest transgressions.
"Make sure all the troops understand the mission parameters Commander! If any of them fail to follow my orders and interfere with my operation here I will personally see to it that they hate their Mother for giving birth to them before I end them!" Stahen ordered. He could sense the Commander's disdain and it galled him endlessly but he could take no action against his Master's ship's crew unless he could document a transgression that justified punishment. Darth Kraloar had been furious when he had gone overboard trying to instill the proper fearful respect in the ship's first crew and had ended up inciting them to mutiny. The rush of exhilaration while using his abilities to slaughter the crew had fled when he realized he couldn't operate a ship this size by himself, even with the Force. The punishment his Master had inflicted upon him after he had called for help still made him shudder to think about! How he hated his Master! Kraloar was always bullying him for no reason, just because he could. Well one day he would be in the position of strength then they would see who tormented whom!
With a start Stahen broke from his momentary reverie to find the Commander gone from his side to follow orders and confer with the operation leaders. Stahen started to raise a hand to level a punishment on Broll for leaving without permission but aborted the action when he realized he wasn't sure that the man hadn't requested it. Frustrated and bored he made a decision. "Commander!"
"Aye Sir?" Commander Broll answered stiffening to attention.
"Tell the men I will be going with them to the surface!" Stahen announced.
"Aye Sir." Broll replied with an impending sense of doom for the mission's success.
Eight year old Jegan huddled with his two younger sisters, Jensen and Kerowynn, in the arms of his Mother, Besawynn, and his Father, Jarvan, as the surviving miners were rounded up and herded to the entrance of the mine. The miner's limited supply of defensive weapons had lead to their being swiftly over run by the highly trained and superbly equipped Sith soldiers. The last of the fight in the miners had been ground out when the outpost Foreman had confronted the person in charge and demanded that the Sith obey the Treaty of Coruscant and leave immediately. The small thin man in oversized armor of inky black and blazing red had screamed in fury as bolts of crackling purple energy shot from his outstretched hands to course over the Foreman's convulsing body.
Cowed and terrified the miners had picked up the still shuddering Foreman and started moving toward the mine entrance again when the thin Sith announced that if they simply did as they were ordered no further harm would befall them and they would be released once the Sith had the Thorozite ore they had come for.
"No!" Jarvan gasped stiffening suddenly.
"What is it?" Besawynn asked her husband.
"They aren't going to let us go! They're going to destroy the mine with us in it!" he exclaimed.
"What makes you say that?" she asked. "They could have slaughtered us already if that was their intention. "
"I...I think the Force is warning me!" Jarvan said looking wild eyed.
"The Force? You're speaking nonsense!" Besawynn snapped. "You can't use the Force! You're no Jedi!"
"You're right I'm no Jedi but I am Force sensitive." Jarvan answered her. "I was tested when I was young and found to be sensitive but not strong enough to train."
"If you weren't trained how can you know what they plan on doing?"
"I don't know! I just have this unshakable feeling that if we walk into that mine we will all die and I keep seeing that Sith laughing in my mind!" he said as he put Jegan on the ground. "Jegan stay with your Mother."
"What are you doing?" Besawynn asked as her fear spiked.
"No Dad! I wanna stay with you!" Jegan yelled clinging to Jarvan.
"I'm not sure Besa. Jegan! You will stay with your Mother or I'll get my belt!"
"Jarvan please don't. He'll kill you!" she said looking desperately into her husband's eyes. Jarvan didn't return her gaze however as he seemed to be looking at something no one else could see.
"You may be right." he said softly then with more determination,"But I know that if I don't do something everyone will die." Jarvan moved from the crowd of miners to stand between them and the Sith. "Miners of Talpai, stop! If they herd us into the mines they will kill us!" The Miners paused looking back at Jarvan. The thin Sith screamed in rage and shot a short burst of electricity at Jarvan that knocked him to his knees.
"Wretch! How dare you defy me! I am Sith and you will obey me or you will die!" spittle flew from Stahen's lips as he screeched at the pathetic animal that had dared confront him. Jarvan slowly rose to his feet and continued to deliberately advance.
"We all die if we obey you! I can sense it!" Jarvan replied loudly enough for all to hear him. His words seemed to intrigue the Sith as the wild rage seemed to drain from him.
"Sense it can you?" he said speculatively. "I can feel faint tremors in the Force around you. I wonder if its enough to save you? Lets find out." Stahen reached out in a grasping motion and Jarvan jerked to a halt clawing at his throat! "Hmmmm...I thought not." Stahen said as he slowly raised his grasping hand and Jarvin was lifted off his feet by the invisible hand still choking him.
"Father!" Jegan broke free from his Mother and ran toward the Sith. One of the soldiers raised a rifle toward the boy but a motion from Stahen stopped him. "You put my Dad down!" Jegan yelled as he beat futilely on the Sith's armor.
"I sense far more potential in you little maggot. Potential indeed. In fact I can make use of you. Yes, with the proper training you will help me kill Kraloar and take his power for my own!"
"I'll never help you! Now let my Father go!" Jegan yelled.
"Oh you will help, but you will need much hatred if you are to be any good to me. Lets start on that now shall we." Stahen said as he clenched his hand and Jarvan's slowly sufficating body bucked as with a loud crunch of cartilage the imvisible hand holding him aloft crushed his throat!
"Dad!" Jegan screamed and ran to his Father as Jarvan's body collapsed to the ground convulsing as fading reflex tried to draw air past his ruined airway. Looking up from his dying Fathers face Jegan screamed, "You killed him! I hate you!" But the look in his eyes spoke loudly of fear rather than rage.
"No, no little maggot your terror won't help me. I need your rage." Stahen looked over the onlookers and pointed at Besawynn. "That woman there. The one with the bawling brats. She is your Mother yes?" he said. Jegan didn't look and didn't answer aloud but the look in his eyes was all the answer Stahen needed. "Ah! Excellent, lets ask her to help in motivating you," the Sith said as he again reached a hand out in a grasping motion.
"No! Mother!" Jegan screamed as he heard his Mother's sudden strident pleas for someone to take her babies. Looking behind him Jegan saw his Mother rising in the air as some of their fellow miners grabbed the girls from her arms and quickly melted into the crowed with them. Jegan reached desperately for his Mother as she floated over his head but Stahen kept her struggling form just out of his reach. "Please leave her alone!" Jegan begged Stagin as his Mother stopped near the Sith's right hand and, still floating just off the ground, was forced to extend her arms straight out from her sides until she formed a living cross facing Jegan.
"Don't hate him Jegan, no matter what he does." she said to her son despite her own hatred toward the Sith.
"On the contrary maggot, hate me just as much as you can. You and only you can save her. But, you must not be weak for the weak will always suffer at the hands of the strong. Only hate can make you strong! Scream for me sow! Teach him to hate!"
"No." Besawynn said praying she could resist the torture she knew was about to come.
"Oh I think you will." Stahen said softly to her. Reaching out with the dark side of the Force he slowly crushed her right hand. Besawynn resisted the incredible pain as long as she could until the shattered bones grinding together was just too much and she screamed!
"Mother! " Jegan screamed as she did, reaching out toward her from where he still knelt behind his now dead Father.
"She suffers little maggot! All her pain and agony is your fault! You're too weak and pitiful to stop it." Stahen told the boy in a soft voice that somehow penetrated the screams of pain and suffering. "Now her agony doubles and its all you fault!" the Sith continued and just as slowly and methodically crushed Besawynn's left hand as well. Besawynn's screams rose in pitch until she was shrieking out her agony.
"Stop!" Jegan howled. "I hate you! Stop and I'll help you and hate you forever!" the boy vowed and indeed there was rising fury evident in his face.
"Ah! That's better!" Stahen said. "Very well I will stop." he said as Besawynn was lowered to rest on her feet her arms still outstretched. "But we must make sure your young rage doesn't fade on me." Stahen paused as if in thought a moment and then exclaimed, "I know! This should do the trick!" he smiled a truly evil smile and suddenly there was a distinct snap hiss followed by the snarling hum of a Sith Lightsaber.
Jegan looked on in bewildered confusion as his Mother's body arched in shock and her eyes bulged as they looked skyward and she wailed soundlessly.
"What...?" Jegan started to question. Stahen looked over Besawynn's left shoulder at the boy.
"This!" He snarled as the blazing tip of his crimson hued Lightsaber erupted from Besawynn's abdomen!
"Noooooooooo!" Jegan screamed as the blazing blade pulled back through his Mother's body and Stahen finally released his Force hold on her. The sudden release sent her staggering toward her son where she collapsed to her knees and her arms wrapped around her son protectively despite her crushed hands. Somehow despite his young age and small size Jegan stood upright under his Mother's weight holding her up with his hands clenched in the front of her robes as he ran out of air and his howl of anguish died.
"Yes! Your hate is much stronger now. I can feel it settling in your soul." Stahen crooned. "But...!
"No no no no no no no no no!" Jegan started inaudibly and slowly grew louder as Stahen searched the crowd behind him.
"Ah! There they are! Let's see what I can do to your sisters!" the Sith's glee at the misery he was about to cause was palpable in the air around him.
His eyes now blazing with rage Jegan roared in fury and a tremendous blast of Force energy, wild, unfocused, and unstoppable, streamed his Mother's hair out as if in a hurricane wind as it blasted out from him and slammed into the Sith Apprentice.
Unprepared for a blow that strong Stahen was hurled backward with electricity arcing wildly from his hands in all directions as the subduing jolt he had planned to hit the boy with went awry with his loss of focus. Wild arcs of energy coursed over a soldier, and the equipment case beside him, as Stahen landed heavily nearby. Moments later as all others looked on, stunned into immobility by the shock of what had happened, the soldier groaning and cursing in pain rolled to his knees and looked in the case where a slowly rising hum could be heard.
"Sir!" the soldier yelled at the still stunned Sith apprentice who was trying to sit up. "The device is armed and fixing to blow!" the panic in the soldier's voice cut through the fog surrounding Stahen's head.
"Coward!" he snarled as he made a flinging gesture and, even as the soldier was reaching for it, the case hurled toward Jegan and his mother. Still not focusing properly Stahen only managed to move the case halfway between them before he lost control and it crashed to the ground.
"No! I could have stopped it but now it's too late and we're too close!" the soldier screamed and started running away. Stahen, as the soldier's words sank in, reached out and used the Force to yank the soldier back and put him between himself and the impending explosion.
On the other side Jegan tried to pull his Mother around him so he could shield her with his own body, useless as such an attempt would be. His Mother however, dying and consciousness fading, somehow knew she couldn't allow him to move her and she tightened he arms around her son and willed herself to hold steady.
The device, meant to collapse the mine's tunnels on its miners, detonated with an immense concussive blast that knocked all nearby to the ground. After long moments a limp lifeless form rolled aside revealing the Sith Apprentice underneath it. After slowly and painfully climbing to his feet Stahen looked at the dead soldier and sneered derisively, "Well at least you died usefully!" he said and started when he heard nothing. The fingers he used to feel his ears came away wet with blood from his shattered ear drums! With a cry of rage he couldn't hear he looked around wildly for the brat who was the cause of his woes. The ground where the brat had been was blasted flat and empty! His gaze moved farther out and finally saw the shredded remains of the bodies of the maggot's parents. Too easy an end for them by far! Then he saw Jegan, limp in the arms of one of the miners his face where it had risen above his mother's shoulder at the moment of the blast a bloody ruin, disappearing into the mine entrance. Seeing the object of his fury escaping drove Stahen's rage even further out of control. A searing blast of dark energy burst from his hands and just missed Jegan and the miner carrying him as they passed around a bend in the mine tunnel.
"Sir! The ship reports a Republic cruiser is inbound!" a soldier yelled out as he ran up behind Stahen. The Sith apprentice with his burst eardrums however did not hear him and fired another rage fueled blast at the mine entrance rocking the ground. The soldier desperate to get his vital message across made a fatal mistake and grabbed Stahen by the shoulder to get his attention. Stahen reflexively whirled on the perceived assault and let loose a torrent of energy that flung the helpless soldier back to fall in a smoking heap of scorched flesh and armor.
"What are you fools doing just standing around?" Stahen yelled out. "Go in there and bring them out here! I want that boy! He will pay for this!" When a second soldier approached him and took his helmet off and repeated the message about the Republic cruiser's imminent arrival, Stahen again fried the nearest target leaving a second dead soldier beside the first. "I ordered you to retrieve that boy not stand around flapping your lips at me!" he raged.
The next soldier to approach him had taken the time to make a brief entry on a datapad that read, "Republic cruiser incoming. There is barely time to grab the ore and get out."
With a cry of rage that he couldn't hear Stahen reached deeper into the Dark side of the Force than he ever had before and reached out and collapsed the entrance section of the mine tunnel, solidly packing the access to the mine well beyond the miner's ability to dig clear before their air ran out. Whirling back to the soldiers he loudly ordered, "Get that ore now! You, make sure those bodies are not left behind! You, make sure we leave nothing of ours behind. Those maggots will be dead long before the Republic can dig them out! They will never be able to reveal our presence here!"
The miners had given up hope and were almost dead when a small opening was somehow created in the top of the rubble and boulders blocking their exit. Two hoses entered through the opening, one falling all the way to the floor and the other hanging just past the blockage near the ceiling. As soon as they cleared the opening the lower hose started pumping life giving fresh air into the mine while the other suctioned the old stale air out.
Revived by the fresh air the miners puzzled over their rescue. They could hear the sounds of shifting rubble and knew they were being dug out but could neither hear nor feel drilling or digging machinery being used. Finally a clear line of sight opened up as a last boulder silently lifted into the air and floated away. There at the entrance they saw a large contingent of Republic Troopers preparing an emergency triage area. But it was the two Jedi, one human and one Zabrak, who grabbed their attention. Kneeling as they focused deeply on the task at hand the Force created a visible aura around the two as they continued clearing a path to the trapped miners.
With a safe path finally cleared the Forman lead the way out carrying Jegan in his arms and went straight to the two Jedi. "Masters Jedi! Please can you help this lad?" he asked. The human Jedi immediately reached out and a glowing Force aura appeared around the boy.
"His injuries are severe!" the Jedi said. "His survival is not guaranteed but we have first rate healers with us and I shall stay with him as long as necessary. Poor lad, he will always have scars from this day, mentally and physically, even if he survives. Hand him to me. I promise you we will give him the best care possible." the Jedi promised as he gathered Jegan into his arms and carried him off to be cared for.
"We owe you our lives." the Foreman said to the Zabrak Jedi as he turned to him. "What can we do to repay you Master…?"
"Revenaught. Knight Revenaught and my friend Knight Khayle is tending the young boy." the Zabrak Jedi offered the introduction the Foreman was requesting. "No repayment is necessary. We're glad we were close enough to help and in reality it's that young boy you have to thank for the rescue. I felt his anguish and rage echo through the Force and diverted our course to investigate. I would ask what happened, but I can sense the Dark Side residue left here. The Sith raided for resources I gather?"
"You have the right of it." the Foreman answered and launched into the tale of the day's events.
"So the boy and his sisters are orphaned now?" Revenaught asked when the tale had been told.
"Aye. Jarvan and Besawynn only had each other. No other family here or anywhere that I know of."
"May I see the girls?" Revenaught asked.
"If you like. They weren't hurt but we haven't been able to calm them." the Foreman said as he motioned the women holding the crying girls to approach.
"I can help there." Revenaught said and laid a hand on each of them. "Easy little ones. Sleep and let your troubles go for a time." he said to them and through his calming influence their cries faded and soon they did indeed sleep. Revenaught focused on them for a few moments more then returned his attention to the Foreman. "As I suspected, these two are every bit as strong in Force potential as their brother. As they have no family to ask I turn to you as the leader of this community. These children, all three of them, have a strong future with the Jedi Order if you allow it. The Order needs Knights with their potential and will welcome them eagerly. Will you entrust them to our care?"
"Their Father would have said yes in a heartbeat. Their Mother always wanted something better than the life of a miner for them but I'll be honest I don't know if she'd have approved. Jedi never have it easy from what I've seen and now with the Sith ravaging the galaxy it's even worse. No offense." the Foreman answered.
"None taken and you're right; the lives of Jedi are seldom easy. If it eases your decision though the final choice will be theirs. The option to forgo the trials and leave the Order for another life is one offered to all when they are capable of deciding for themselves. And I will also tell you this; these three are strong enough that they will use the Force one way or another eventually. The Order can help them resist the lures of the Dark Side and avoid becoming a monster like the man who killed their parents has become."
"Well you offer me a choice that is no real choice then. A mining outpost is no place for children that young anyway. You'll see that they are well cared for?"
"I promise they will receive the best care the Order can provide." Jedi Knight Revenaught said as he gathered the smallest babe in his arms.
Jegan sighed as he emerged from his meditative trance. As always happened when he sank that deeply into the Force, he relived the events of the day he lost his parents and gained the Force. He knew the Masters still had reservations about allowing him the opportunity to take the trials because of it. As he ran a hand over the maze of scar tissue that covered his face and head and the metallic implants that had replaced his ruined eyes he admitted, if only to himself, that they just might be right in their concerns. He had grown hard and bitter and had little sympathy for the weak but a private hatred for the Sith that kept him focused on becoming as strong as he could be in order to stand between them and those they would ravage.
Rising he gathered his small pack of gear and left his room for the last time. The shuttle, that would take him to Tython and the Trials to earn Knighthood, would leave soon and he was more determined than ever to be on it.