Don't own any rights to Star Wars, this is a direct sequel to The Fading Past.
During the one month period HK-47 spends gathering information on the whereabouts of Padawan Ishka:
Master Veshei flies away from the Sith capital vessel once controlled by the Three Masters, now a derelict ship filled with corpses. Cracks rip through the hull, melted metal piled up over the last several hours compromising its structural integrity. As the vessel loses its stability, the dozens of sith transport craft still in its hanger bays depart amid the chaos. When theses craft are safely aboard the frigates and medical vessels of the Sith fleet, they enter lightspeed toward Coruscant. The few remaining ships of the opposing Republic force tried to escape for this planet, and the Sith have refused to give up the chase. Once they arrive, Sith vessels commence the bombardment of the largest urban centers without entering the atmosphere. Padawan Ishka's battle meditation ensures this victory comes swift with little resistance, now an agent of the Emperor. She doesn't know it yet, but her rise to power as apprentice was done to better control her for when he needs a new body. He plans to suck out her life force and replace it with his own when his current body deteriorates completely, but HK 47 compromises this plan.
Master Veshei's craft is a Sith craft so it wasn't tuned to the proper Republic channels, but she tries to rig the frequency anyway. After she sends out a message, no response from Coruscant comes back; perhaps her signal ID gave her away as Sith, or maybe it was already too late. The Sith frigates that stayed behind to clean-up the Republic fighter craft have left, and Master Veshei considers that the war has already concluded. Then a sharp pain hits her heart as the Jedi Temple on Coruscant is reduced to dust. The pain of their deaths, nearly every one of the hundreds of Jedi stationed there, runs through Master Veshei's body. Their faces, her memories, her past collides with this surge of negative energy. The work of her lifetime and far before that has disappeared. The Sith have won.
She resigns to her homeworld, Kashyyyk. Landing on a docking pad controlled by Czerka, an intergalactic trading company, Master Veshei introduces herself to the employee waiting to take a landing fee. Two wookiee slaves are behind the employee, at his hip is a stun rod capable of putting down a baby Rancor at its highest setting. He recognized her craft as a Sith model, and asks she leave them alone. Sith were on the rise recently, though news of Coruscant hadn't reached Kashyyyk yet. Master Veshei mind-tricks the Czerka dock manager into giving her a long-term storage space for the Sith craft. She also commands he never use his stun rod again. The two wookiees watch and realize she is not Sith, but a jedi. Their chief is a shaman of the Force, they ask she visit him.
Czerka runs the slave operation; the colonists they bring assist in the subjugation of the wookiee tribes. Colonists work for other intergalactic companies as well, who rent out Czerka infrastructure like mining equipment, etc. Czerka is the most powerful enterprise on Kashyyyk. Their governance and policing continue the repression of wookiees and non-Czerka colonists.
The two wookiees lead Veshei to their village. The Chief, one of many on the planet Kashyyyk, is not related to the chief that Master Veshei knew as a child in this same region. This Chief came to power in one of many civil wars between wookiees siding with Czerka and those who wouldn't. The previous chief and his family were executed after failing to establish an independent wookiee government. Prisoners of war sell as slaves to off-world markets within weeks of the conflict, the galaxy always looking for cheap labor. Fighting with Czerka meant a return to a life of hard labor, but the Chief decided to live rather than die. He regrets his decision to fight alongside them and their Trandoshan mercenaries, though if he hadn't he would've paid the price all the same. Veshei is a different lizard humanoid species that colonized the planet, not a Trandoshan. Rodians, human, Duros, Twi'leks, modernized towns housing these colonists create a semblance of life back home. The wookiees lack this luxury, and work for food. Czerka maintains control through a police force by justifying why they need one, the repression of wookiees and colonists who turn to crime.
The Chief would rather die than continue watching the torture of his tribe continue. Veshei witnessed the wars with Czerka as a child; when she was a Padawan she wanted to come back and free the wookiees. Czerka in her youth did not control her home region, but they were known to her through the carnage they created. To the Chief, it seems it's Veshei's responsibility to help him. This task is too great for the wookiees to do alone, they need jedi and they need the best. Blood has been shed for too many years, the wookiee tribes lacking unity in their attempts to repulse Czerka. Master Veshei must give them a victory, to provide confidence that a wookiee uprising could lead to independence and success. She doesn't feel ready to do this, but wonders if the Force brought her back home for a reason. She explains that hours ago she witnessed the fall of the Jedi Order she'd known her whole life. Her heart aches with guilt and regret for what could've been done. If Master Vol had been with them instead of isolated on his own, if Master Pizza hadn't indulged in his desire for blood, if she had gone to kill the Emperor after his death. The Chief can sympathize with her sense of loss but admits he doesn't have time for her shit. This is Kashyyyk, and you are neither here nor there. The tribes attempted civil war many a time with nothing but suffering to show. 'Death is death, let life come back to our tribe.' He's not asking for her to save the world, just his people. Master Veshei admits she can work something out. In the meantime, she wants a seat at the table. The coming war will be under her control, the tribe and the Council of Tribes need to understand that she needs cooperation with the military to save Kashyyyk. The Chief says this will not be respected. Without strict control Master Veshei refuses to work with him; too many lives are at stake. She doesn't trust the Chief in part because the wookiees are no longer one cohesive community. Also, the fact two wookiees immediately trusted an unknown Jedi with talking to their leader in person means the tribes lack discipline and caution. This tribe clearly has deep respect for the Force, but she can't stomach the thought of zealous wookiees trying to fashion her a symbol of this Chief's strength when the war ends. Not content with doing the dirty work as a third party, Master Veshei wants to run the show. They reach no consensus. Master Veshei leaves, regretting that she must go live alone now. Maybe she can accomplish her destiny by defeating Czerka, but for now she must accept that no future has been set before her.
A long-term storage area houses aircraft, spacecraft, and much more. Master Veshei parks the sith craft in her space, and enters the storage space lobby. Dozens of rooms with differing space capability on sixty floors, this structure is teaming with life. Colonists, wookiees, Czerka, mercenaries, this is as much a garage as a space to store off-world weapons, drugs, food, wares, etc. Hundreds of differing people sit at this waystation. Outside this facility, nothing but trees as far as the eye can see. A highway network connects all the Czerka stations with their corresponding third-party structures. The road leaving this storage structure is dingier than the rest, and Master Veshei doesn't trust running across the forest floor as the safest option. At the base of this storage building with ten elevators running through it, Master Veshei walks outside to a path running to a speeder rental shop built out of scrap metal. After mind-tricking the guy at the counter she takes a speeder to her abandoned childhood home; a small hut on the southwest side of the region.
Worn down by disuse, without a door, the walls ruined, Veshei has her work cut out for her. Anything of value had long since been stolen, her parents missing as well, the only thing left behind a termite-chewed bench. Master Veshei stayed anyways, knowing she could make someone through a mind-trick let her stay in their home. Maybe they would do it voluntarily if it were the right people, but her exile as she saw it was her sentencing, her decision. She would make her stake on Kashyyyk as an independent figure with no malicious intention, though lacking an affiliation with the light side of the Force. Without satisfaction from suffering, her temporary stroll in the dark side does not cut in the roots of rampant corruption, strictly the employment of dark side energy in activities like stealing out of necessity. Guilt about the speeder weighs on her mind, making her uncertain of her path as a jedi. The news that a jedi master arrived on Kashyyyk must be out by now, there's no hiding forever. Within the forest, she might be safe for a few weeks. Better watch her back everywhere else. As of today, the Sith have reached a height of power never seen in the galaxy. Anyone taking pleasure in this turn in the war will abandon the Republic camp, which might lead to the end of the Senate. The Core Worlds won't want to halt the war because of how much they have suffered, but the majority will sue for peace. Over the next month, while HK 47 works on his plan, these Core Worlds fall to the Sith in an unprecedented fashion, any resistance losing so completely as a result of Padawan Ishka's battle meditation. The Senate finally collapses and the Republic for a time is no more.
At day 1 of this 1-month period however, Master Veshei in her hut watches as a dog-sized spider tries to come inside. She won't let it in, waving her lightsaber at the creature. It repeatedly runs out a window or back out the door, but waits outside for her to fall asleep, then approaches again. This repeated several times during the night, even though Master Veshei had the fireplace lit, the worn bench recut with her lightsaber. It works for the moment, she had no intention of going to sleep. She could hear in the jungle more creatures besides spiders, their sounds distinct. Deafening.
Day 2: The sounds in the early morning grow quieter; the spider gave up hours ago. The cold starts to lessen, and Master Veshei stops meditating and looks for food. Larger bugs will be a nuisance, but Master Veshei thinks she can make her home manageable. Returning to the Chief, Master Veshei asks for help even after refusing his plan. Chuffing, the Chief wants to help out of respect. Nothing comes of it, both find themselves at odds at a deeper level now. Veshei resents the Chief for not helping her, and the Chief ashamed for Veshei's selfishness. In his mind, she must pay if she wants help from the tribe. Master Veshei rebuilds the home, and hunts food she recognized from days in the forest. Master Veshei doesn't fully understand yet why she came home. Her life seems without purpose, but she didn't want to die in that sith spaceship or on Coruscant. The other Jedi have despised her for the last several months. Who would respond even if she tried to contact them? She travels to the Czerka station for a free lunch by a mind-tricked colonist running a grill in a filthy urban alley. Master Veshei calls around with a payphone, but can't find anyone. The pain from their deaths has blinded their presence to her through the Force, unable to tell who lived and who died. Perhaps some of those in her past are still alive, but she can't ring their craft ID, their comm system ID, nothing. All at once the net fell on the Republic, the Sith attacking as many systems as possible. With having everything she loved ripped out of her heart, Master Veshei grows cold inside. Any guilt she felt she resisted it through her resolve to one day take vengeance against the Sith.
No, it was over, but she knew this could happen. They all did, but the pain still sat there under her breast, refusing to leave. The question was what to do now. Calling the Chief, she agrees to help him even without military authority. The Chief, touched by her humility and aware of the political backlash, grants her military authority, believing that no matter his decision on the matter a time may come when she would take power from him rather than ask. This decision comes from fear, respect to her power, and awareness that he needs her more than she needs him. Who knows, maybe this Jedi will choose to use her military power with respect to the wookiees and not against them. Only time will tell, and the Chief can always label her an enemy of the tribe no matter her status. Better to use her now than wait for her to become an enemy. Master Veshei reads this off his head, and wonders if the wookiees will obey her demands once she returns power to the tribal system. Already she dabbled in manipulation against people unaffiliated with the Sith; who knows what will become of her in the end. As a sign of good faith, the Chief says he will send help to finish building her home.
Day 3: A few tribesmen/women come to help Master Veshei the next day. They cut the dense overgrowth outside, clean up the home, and Master Veshei each gives them supplies stolen from Czerka station. If she will fight for the wookiees, they might as well be her friends. One of the young adult tribeswomen is named Yorshicca. She's a Force sensitive, Master Veshei can feel it. There are thousands of Force sensitives on Kashyyyk, so Veshei doesn't make anything of it. She doesn't have the time to teach everyone. Yorshicca questions Master Veshei about the jedi, that everyone knows the stories but never suspected they would meet one. Veshei does not want the Jedi to be forgotten, and shares her life story with Yorshicca who because of her youth absorbs the story with wonder rather than sorrow.
Day 4: Yorshicca invites Master Veshei to lunch at her home. Yorshicca, as do most wookiees in the tribe, know what the Chief plans to do with Master Veshei. Yorshicca wants to help, admitting that the shamanistic teachings of the wookiees are largely based on the Force. On a few occasions Yorshicca has caused objects to float, she wants to expand her knowledge. The shamans can teach Yorshicca how to connect with the Force, but not how to manipulate it into power. Master Veshei admits she can't teach everyone, that there are many wookiees like Yorshicca. Yorshicca says she will teach the wookiees so Master Veshei won't have to. Master Veshei says it doesn't work like that, ideally the Order adopts babies or young children for training.
"Then let me follow you," Yorshicca presses, "I can protect the wookiees with what you teach me, the problems we face will no doubt outlive both of us. It's better someone down the road takes the torch rather than everything being left to the whims of the future."
Master Veshei says that as a leader of Jedi, she did everything she could to prevent their fall. Now that this has happened, she doesn't believe anyone can contend with fate. Not taking no for an answer, Yorshicca says that Veshei needs her no matter who or what decides the future. All this talk about preserving the past, and yet Veshei won't take a willing student. Pondering this criticism, she decides to advise Yorshicca but not train her. Master Veshei doesn't feel comfortable establishing this close connection, however. Everyone she knows died mere days ago, training a Padawan that may come to share this fate is not what she had in mind when taking exile as her new path. Then again, neither was fighting a war for the wookiees. Master Veshei returns home wondering if choosing to guide Yorshicca was another mistake or an act of the Force.
Days 5-30: Master Veshei practices how to read minds and create phantom thoughts while Yorshicca watches. It's not a class, Master Veshei still hasn't accepted her as Padawan. The best Yorshicca can hope for, is to pick up some tips along the way. Master Veshei does take the time to explain how she reads and controls minds, but goes into no deeper detail. Companies like Czerka train their managers in manipulation resistance, the result of how often Sith and Jedi use their powers to take advantage of people. Most employees won't have this training because it costs a lot of money and takes a long time to learn. Practice will sharpen Veshei's abilities, and give Yorshicca a brief glimpse into the work ethic Jedi need to apply to become masters.
After several days, Veshei practices regains her confidence as a jedi master, and decides to teach Yorshicca skills beyond mind control. These include Force Jump, Force Heal, Force Speed, Force Defense, and Force Awareness. These skills are basic to Jedi, Yorshicca picks them up quickly. She works just as hard as Veshei, and having already explored her sensitivity Yorshicca was already on the path to learning how to use the Force. Master Veshei expediated this process, but admits that Yorshicca will no doubt become a powerful Jedi. They initiate a Padawan-Master relationship, but spare no time to celebrate. Both are aware that training these past weeks is for a war, and they don't have time to think about anything else. Veshei ensures Yorshicca possesses the skills necessary to become a jedi one day, the least of which how to handle a lightsaber. Having been familiar with swordsmanship, Yorshicca picks up lightsaber techniques quickly.
Year 1: Beginning of the Fall of the Sith
Backstory: At this point, HK-47 had succeeded in killing Padawan Ishka. The Sith begin a series of civil wars that rip apart their empire, which leads to the revitalization of the Republic.
Months 1-3: Now a Padawan, Yorshicca shares Veshei's lightsaber. They managed to steal a vibroblade while training a month before, a one-sided sword with alloys that allow it to block a lightsaber. Yorshicca is 140 years old which for a wookiee is a young adult. Though out of the preferred age range, the strength of her connection with the Force can't be denied. Whether training her so late was a bad idea or not, Master Veshei felt compelled to do so. Without Yorshicca, Master Veshei may have ceased to be a Jedi. Together, they act as representatives of an Order seemingly lost to time. Because of this relationship, Master Veshei maintains the values of the Order in her heart, to better guide Yorshicca and better heal herself. Master Veshei has no excuses to give, not anymore. She still mourns her dead friends in secret, but no longer wishes she could change her actions. The past is the past, and now they must look forward. They continue training, both looking to become more than jedi but friends, warriors, fellow officers of politics and war.
4th month: The Chief informs Master Veshei that his people are prepared for revolt. Master Veshei and the Chief planned this militarization of the tribe to keep the peace if they succeed, and to defend themselves if they fail.
The Chief's Wookiees follow Veshei and Yorshicca to the Czerka station of the region. Veshei could not stop them, nor did she want to. Dozens of guards try to, but one by one Master Veshei mind-tricks them into believing that she is the manager. She meets with the real manager, a human woman who tries to convince Master Veshei this is pointless. All the other czerka stations on Kashyyyk will come after her. The Manager has heard about this jedi master, and expected war. She called for help from the other stations already, it's only a matter of time. Master Veshei explains that she, the Manager, will call off the reinforcements. Manager says how. Veshei gets to work on her mind.
She leaves the czerka station a hero to both wookiee and colonists. The Chief wanted the colonists slaughtered, but Veshei explains she didn't help him to create a different kind of oppression. The Chief rescinds his order out of respect for her saving his people, and perhaps out of fear. Though he could take away her military status at any time, Master Veshei would never go quietly. Not now, not after the war has already begun. Veshei admits her work remains unfinished, so long as a single Czerka station remains active the tribes will remain under threat. She must convert the other managers, and then lead war against anyone resisting a return to the tribal system. It is the only way to keep the wookiees of her homeworld free. The employees themselves will defend the rights of the wookiees, even if it's through Veshei putting commands in their heads. Some willingly aid her and the wookiees, others need convincing.
Month 5 – Year4: Offworld Czerka ships arrive because of the complaints, but find they can't take the planet from the wookiees. No matter how many armies they send, few ever come back alive. In year 4 the war ends in stalemate, Czerka decides Kashyyyk is no longer worth the trouble. Padawan Yorshicca has been scarred by war, but her connection with the Force helped her tolerate the conflict. Members of her family and tribe died fighting alongside mind controlled and non-mind controlled Czerka staff and colonists. She survived and learned to kill, learned to control minds, learned a few lightsaber forms and sword stances. Her path to the Force is paved by the hands of a veteran, Master Veshei knows how to cope with war among other things. She struggled just as Yorshicca does with the pain of war, and her experience aids Yorshicca.
The wookiees of Kashyyyk hold a meeting, and decide someone must lead the tribes lest war break out among them. They can decide on no member of any tribe, instead choosing their protectors Padawan Yorshicca and Master Veshei. They in a way are neutral parties, the Chief from earlier voided out Yorshicca citizen status on her request so she would be known as a Jedi first and a tribeswoman second. The tribal system brought about this decision not out of confidence in Master Veshei, but in their fear of entrusting too much power to one tribe. She administrates them well, exceeding their low expectations, and tries to keep colonists from falling into second class citizenship. This bothers the tribes, but they understand that she doesn't want wookiees to become like Czerka. Despite this work toward peace, outbreaks of violence are constant. Many wookiees are unhappy with the ruling, but the tribal system holds together. No tribe officially abandons the cause of a unified Kashyyyk, and Master Veshei avoids as best she can manipulating the minds of wookiee/colonist rebels. When it was Czerka, mind control was acceptable to thwart a greater enemy. Now, the war would be fought by politics and public image, not necessarily her cunning. Mind controlling wookiees at will would make Master Veshei appear abusive of the people she tried to uplift. No one in politics wants to look like a hypocrite, and Veshei knows politics well. She did lead the Grand Jedi Council on Coruscant, after all.
Backstory: Having survived small detachments of attacking rogue Sith, the Republic rebuilds itself and formally reclaims the ruined world of Coruscant in year 2 of this history. Jedi within the following months return to their decimated Temple to manage its reconstruction as well as track down more hidden Jedi. Through the Force they look for familiar faces, and energies that could point to a Force sensitive. Across the galaxy this new Jedi Order sends scouts to reform their society. Master Deuyea from Part 1 used to know Master Veshei, and recognizes her energy. The new Council sends a master out to find her by the end of year 6.
Year 5-6: Padawan Yorshicca assists in administrating the government as a religious advisor, loyal as ever to the Force. Master Veshei relinquishes her leadership role, but continues as an administrator for a few different regions that still struggle with rebels. Czerka may come back one day; until then the wookiees plan to stabilize their economy and protect their claim. Relative peace comes over Kashyyyk, their greatest enemy for hundreds of years now eliminated.
Last days of year 6: A jedi master named Queel (rodian, female, mid-30s) arrives at one of the innumerable small landing pads on Kashyyyk. The wookiees are suspicious, and question him. He doesn't attack when more wookiees arrive to arrest him. The Chiefs, Padawan Yorshicca, and Master Veshei discuss the fact that the outsider says he's from Coruscant. Master Veshei refuses to leave, even if the Jedi have returned. Queel wants to send delegates to represent her on Kashyyyk; the jedi need her to lead the Jedi Council. Master Veshei says she already has a delegate to stay on Kashyyyk. Padawan Yorshicca says the Chiefs will need a tribunal to discuss this further. The Chiefs say they have no other wish, Yorshicca is a Jedi now at a level where she can trick minds and create phantom thoughts. Yorshicca has been skilled in this field because of how often she's had to help Master Veshei on seemingly endless missions for 6 years. Padawan Yorshicca admits to the Chiefs that she must go with Master Veshei, that it is her destiny to join the fabled Jedi Order. The Chiefs are furious that their future will be trusted to a few new Jedi who might leave them for something more important. They need at least one of them to take out Czerka in case they ever come back.
Master Queel says he only needs Master Veshei, since they have no other Master willing to serve as Grand Master of the Jedi Council. Master Queel is just another of about thirty masters, and they need someone with experience in administration and war. Master Veshei can't believe that there's so few. Master Queel explains that that's why they need her.
Padawan Yorshicca decides to stay on request of the Council of Tribes, then join Master Veshei in a couple years when the tribal system elects a new leader. The Chiefs hate it, but concede that Yorshicca does not have a responsibility to them since she voided her tribal status years ago. She ceased to be a wookiee when she became a jedi. To the Chiefs, Yorshicca was a symbol of wookiee exceptionalism. Now they must manage on their own, if Master Queel can deliver other jedi then all is well.
Backstory: Meanwhile, HK-47 R1 models are built and produced by the Sith remnant. They have resources in the unknown regions which were not abandoned during the collapse of the Sith. The Allied System society is gone, but the few Sith left still have their ambitions. Soon they will lead a formidable resurgence from the few remaining Sith worlds in uncharted space, worlds ruled directly by Sith without the Allied System form of governance.