Legend of the Harp
Episode I: Birth of a Jedi
Chapter 11: Vampire
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Aboard Revenge***
Having leapt away from Ilum I was on my way to my second errand. During the Clone Wars many ant hills were kicked over, and many dark places were searched in order to find weapons which would give advantage to one side or the other. Things were found and brought out that had never been seen before and might never be seen again. I needed to accumulate as many of these oddities as possible that had the potential to be advantages. That was the reasoning behind why I had acquired the Zillo beast.
My hope was that there would eventually be a rebellion against this Empire. I could not imagine how such a rebellion could ever hope to challenge the Empire on even terms. That meant it would need as many edges as it could get. Ships and troops with blaster-proof armor would be a good start.
Toward the end of the Clone Wars, the Republic had acquired nano-weapons. They were in limited quantities. A clear strategic or tactical advantage had not been found for the weapons and a steady supplier was also not available. Their only use had apparently been by Jedi traitor Barriss Offee as a terrorist weapon against the Order. I could see how the use of clones had driven her mad. It was one thing for the Council to accept the clones at the beginning of the war, but constantly failing to demand change made them look more complicit and more corrupt. I understood, to some extent, why the Council had continued to use clone troopers. On the other hand, it had been wrong and, in the end, sealed the fate of the Order. I would have had more sympathy for Offee if she had been honest in her actions rather than trying to frame Padawan Tano, which was simply cowardly and despicable.
To me, it was another example of something with enormous potential that no one had pursued. The Zillo beast was a living promise of super armor. Yet it had disappeared into the bowls of Republic research. These nano-weapons had incredible potential. A single warhead could, in theory, take out a whole Star Destroyer. If I could find a steady supplier, it could be a major weapon for a rebellion, evening the odds considerably.
I once again donned my Imperial Commander's uniform. The nano-weapons were still being held in a low security warehouse on Coruscant. I felt a good first step in tracking down a source would be to have the weapons themselves. I forged the appropriate documents and landed near the warehouse.
I presented the transfer order to the warehouse clerk. The weapons were already loaded in shipping containers. I used my external grav bay to take them. There were only enough weapons to fill a few shipping containers anyway. Then I flew away. I took the weapons to my stash. If there was leakage, I didn't want Upsalon or the Temple harmed.
I pulled them out and examined them closely. They were kept in magnetic bottles for long term containment. Essentially, they were a kind of explosive. One could spread them on something, then, the nanites would convert whatever they were spread on to an explosive. With the proper frequency transmission, the explosive would detonate.
If I could introduce a canister of the substance to each Star Destroyer energizer on the production line at Kuat Shipyards, it could be remarkably damaging to the Imperial Fleet. I'd have to think about that.
I had been hoping for some attached shipping documents or other indication of source would be with the crates and weapons. There was nothing. It was like these weapons had emerged from nothing and just ended up in that warehouse. I had dug in every database I could and found nothing.
I started doing forensic analysis on the weapons and crates. The weapons' magnetic bottles had a unique mineral signature, but not one on file. Not a terrible surprise. They all had clearly come from the same place, which made sense. Unfortunately, the signature didn't correspond to any known system.
The shipping containers on the other hand, had come from Doshion. That was a veritable clue. The shipping containers also had serial numbers and a manufacturer. Seemed like a trip to Doshion was in order.
Thirteen hours later, I had entered Doshion-space. Doshion was an outer-rim civilization that made a living on light manufacturing and being a shipping transfer point, which explained the containers. I stopped in at a local station and topped off on fuel. I had plenty of Batampte food onboard, but I got a meal in their café. I also got access to some local HoloNets. It didn't take long then to track down the manufacturer.
Luckily, the cook/housekeeper droid was efficient because I would need to jump into my Imperial Intelligence uniform again.
A few hours later had me touching down on one of Kavi Interstellar's landing pads. I came off my ship and was greeted by what I expect would be considered an attractive female Doshi. I presented my credentials.
"We are happy to cooperate with Imperial Intelligence." The receptionist said.
"A brief review of your records should be all we need. We know Kavi Interstellar is a good corporate citizen of the Empire." I replied.
She was kind enough to let me review their sales records. The containers in question had been purchased by a Mu Kridek.
I quickly reviewed the HoloNets right from Kavi Interstellar which showed me he was in-system. I repaired to my ship.
I changed into my normal gear and started working on Doshion's networks. A little slicing, a little access from already compromised passwords and a little Force pressure on some other passwords and their planetary network was an open holo tablet to me. A little research and I knew Mu Kridek was a human arms merchant, not native to the Doshion system, but who had come here thirty-some years past. He had been right to the edge of legality a number of times and that likely meant over the edge a few times he hadn't been caught. He had purchased the containers in the right time frame to make delivery. He was residing in a small apartment whose rent was two months overdue near the star port in the planet's third largest city. He also was renting a pad at the spaceport at which his ship was sitting. His Credit accounts also showed he spent a great deal of time at a particular bar nearby.
The ship seemed to be a small freighter of local manufacture. A visual inspection by security camera showed a ship in poor condition, one might even wonder if it could fly. Port records showed it had been sitting for over two months. A couple false security flashes and the ship would be grav locked down. I also noted that his Credit accounts were low, those that were lines of credit were getting towards maxed out and minimum payments, were, in some cases overdue.
A quick hop and I was landing in the same spaceport Mu was parked at. It would be some distance, so I took one of my hover bikes to the bar. I parked outside, then Shield and I entered the bar. It wasn't the worst bar I'd ever been in. It certainly wasn't the nicest. Mu was seated in a rear corner booth by himself, nursing a drink. I went to the barman and ordered two ales and then went to the table.
Mu was a bit surprised when I sat down at the table.
"Uh, hello." He stammered out.
"Hello Mu, I'd like to buy you a drink." I said putting down the ales.
"Okay..." He replied somewhat confused.
"I understand you're something of an arms merchant." I continued.
"Whatever you need, I can get!" He said in a proud and practiced way.
"I'm glad to hear that. I have particular needs." I said.
"Glad to hear it, just let me know what you need." He replied in a bluff salesman voice.
"About three years ago, you sold the Republic a shipment of nano-weapons." I began.
"Sorry sir if you came a long way, no more where that came from, sorry." He said.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Still, I need to know everything you know about where you got them." I insisted.
"Afraid I can't share that. Confidential supplier. Insisted on anonymity." He said.
"I could make it worth your while?" I began to offer.
"No, no, very confidential that deal." He said.
"Let me put it another way," I began, "You're two months overdue on rent. Your lines of credit are overdrawn. Your ship seems to not be in flight worthy status and now seems to be grav locked down. You seem to have a substantial bill with the spaceport as well. I could fix all that. Further, I have a lot of business in the arms trade. I could make you a prosperous man. All I need is a tidbit of information."
"That," and he paused, "is a very tempting offer, but I promised confidentiality, and these are some very scary folks."
"I can understand that, and, should we do business, I would want to be able to depend on your discretion as well. Still, I must have this information. Is there anything else I might offer that could convince you?" I counter-offered.
"I'm sorry. No." He replied.
I answered, "Let me put it another way. I have everything I offered on the table. Plus, a nice bonus. If that is not enough, I can drag you out of this bar and give you to some specialists I have in truth extraction. Then my offer would be to let you die. Which you would find very persuasive. I can understand if you are afraid of the suppliers, but I can help you and offer you protection. If you're scared of someone, it really should be me right now."
He started to stand up in a gesture of outrage, "Now listen you…"
I used the Force to push him back down into his seat and cut off air to his throat until he shut up.
"Really," I said, "it should be me."
You could see the white all around his eyes now. Would I have him tortured to death? It wasn't to Code, but a bluff where he thought he might be tortured to death? That had been done many times. If he called my bluff? I would really hate to face that kind of temptation.
"Okay, you win. I'll give. I still get the other stuff, the bonus?" He asked.
"Yes certainly." I said reasonably.
"Okay, then…" and he started to weave a tale.
I stopped air to his throat again.
"Please, truth only." I asked.
Now I could tell he really was afraid.
"You win." Then he began to tell the truth.
"The Clone Wars were on. Arms dealers everywhere were making a killing. I had deals, but I wanted more. I was traveling around the sector, looking for places that had advanced civilizations but hadn't been visited in a while. I figured, if they hadn't been visited in a while, maybe there was something they would want to buy. Maybe they would even have something to sell. A man could make a profit that way. I found this world, immediately it gave me the creeps, but a young man seeking his fortune, he's hard to deter. So, I landed.
"I landed at what looked like the largest city on the planet and walked around. It was weird. The lights were on so to speak. It wasn't a ruin where the place had been blown apart by war. It wasn't like it had been left unwatched, the population evacuated or dead from plague. It was like there had been people there five minutes before and now they were gone. I just walked around. There was stuff lying around that might be valuable. Jewelry stores left un-minded. Restaurants with caf still brewing. No one there. My instincts were all screaming, 'Get the hell out!' but I kept going. As the proverb says, 'Where there is great danger, there is great opportunity for profit.' So, I kept going.
"I was there for a couple days. Just walking around, looking at things. I didn't touch anything. The only food and water I consumed were from my ship. Then I met a woman. She was beautiful.
'What are you doing here?' She asked.
'I'm a trader. I came to see if there was anyone who wanted to trade.' I replied.
'What sort of things do you trade?' She asked.
'Weapons mostly, but I'm flexible.' I replied.
'I would like to trade with the galaxy beyond. I would like more visitors, but I am in the minority here. The others fear the outside. They feel that if you learn our technology, you will come back to harm us. Would you harm us?' She asked.
'No, I'm just a trader. Maybe a sharp deal here and there. I just want to trade.' I answered.
'Since you trade weapons. I will give you weapons. You take these weapons into the galaxy, then buy wonders of the galaxy and bring them back. Is that acceptable?' She asked.
'Yes,' I answered quick and a little surprised, 'yes, I would be happy to trade on those terms.'
We went to a place that had a supply of cardboard boxes. We took the boxes to a place that looked like a cross between a lab and a kitchen. She then began to fill the metal flasks there from some sort of tap. As she finished filling the flasks, she would seal them and put them in the boxes.
'How do these work as weapons?' I asked.
'You pour them on something, then wait a bit, then broadcast a signal on a particular frequency, each bottle has the signal and frequency marked. Then whatever you pour it on will explode.' She explained.
'Okay.' I answered thinking that if this worked I would be a rich man.
"Then we took them to my ship. As I came out from loading the last box, I found the woman was being confronted by three men.
"I've never been scared of someone like I was scared of those men. When they looked at me, I thought they were demons like from the old legends. Maybe in my wandering, I had found hell. They were definitely very upset with her. They had not wanted her to be trading with me.
"I got one message very clearly, 'Go and don't come back. If you tell anyone about this place, you'll die.'
"I didn't need to be asked twice. I was gone.
"I sold the stuff to the Republic. I wasn't a patriot, I figured they would pay more and they did pay good. I paid off my ship and lived on that money for a long time. But I couldn't get more, and the Republic couldn't figure out how to use the stuff. I moved on to other business. Since the war ended, business has been dead. So that's the story." He finished, and he gave me the coordinates to the planet in question.
Then he started choking and spitting. My intuition told me I should leave. I got out of there fast. As soon as I cleared the door, I leapt on my Mandalorian speeder bike and I was away.
"Ready with the force field." I said to Shield as the bar exploded.
Shield got the deflector up a split second before the shock wave from the explosion hit us. The energy field kept us airborne as the bike bucked under me. I only held on by trusting in the Force. It was lucky that I had brought the bike, nothing else would have been fast enough and my lungs would have breathed fire.
We landed at the port and I stowed the bike back aboard. I made sure Revenge was fueled up and ready to go, paid our port fees and we left. I had promised to make good on Mu's debts, at this point, I was sure he was in a place where they were all fine.
I departed Doshion space and proceeded to the co-ordinates I had. I exited hyper space to find myself in some very quiet space. Normally, an inhabited system for any technically sophisticated civilization will have stations, ships moving about on various errands, generally some form of Space Route Traffic Control. There was no movement, no stations, nothing. I moved in and found nothing in orbit around the planets except the natural moonlets one might expect.
There was a single world, fourth from a yellow sun, that seemed like it would be temperate and habitable. I began to scan the surface. As per Mu's story, there was evidence of a vast, technologically sophisticated civilization down there.
As I scanned it, a message started coming over the comms, "This is a quarantine world. All landings are forbidden. Anyone attempting to land will be met with lethal force."
The message repeated over and over. There was no response to messages sent in return.
Well, if they didn't want me to land, there were other ways to do this. I charged up my harness, had the pilot take me down just inside the atmosphere and I jumped out.
I free fell for some time. Than as I approached the ground, I used the flight system as a parachute. Then let myself fall to a fast Jedi landing. I knew coming to this place was foolishly dangerous, but I needed every edge, and this was an edge. It might be impossible, but I was a Jedi.
I started walking about the city, it was as Mu described. Like all the people had just disappeared a moment before I arrived. After I walked for a few hours, a woman walked up to me. She was quite beautiful.
"You must leave. They are coming. When they get here, they will kill us both." She said.
"Then we should both leave." I replied.
"We would need a ship." She said.
"I have a ship." I said.
"It would need to be a very fast ship." She said.
"My ship is quite fast." I replied.
"Summon it." She said.
I pulled up my comm on my left upper wrist, "Pilot come get me, best speed."
Then I looked at the woman and said, "We could meet it faster if we flew up to it."
"I can't fly." She replied.
I extended my left hand, "Then climb aboard."
She leapt on me as I began to climb.
Suddenly three men were also flying up to catch us.
My lightsaber was in my right hand. As my left was busy, the second pair of blades stayed stowed. They started firing on us. I had no trouble deflecting their shots, but I pulled my blaster as well.
I shot the one nearest to me. It seemed to ding him slightly and only slow him for a second. I spun the power wheel with my thumb to max and shot him again. That seemed to get his attention more but didn't seem to slow him much.
She spoke into my ear, "His life is distributed, you must hit more of him."
I used my left hand to spin out the front dial, so I could hit a larger area. I shot him again, and my shot hit most of his torso and hips. That slowed him down.
Unfortunately, they flew faster than me. I could see the ship coming down to get us. I kept shooting and changing power cells. Two of them were flying further behind, but the most eager one managed to fly up close. I used my saber to cut him in half starting at his right shoulder down to his left hip. I expected him to drop. I could literally see daylight in the diagonal line I had cut.
He just started to flow back together.
Suddenly, the Force took control. I disassembled my light saber leaving me with the Kyber crystal in my hand and the half-disassembled saber in my pocket. For a split second, I looked at my Kyber crystal for the first time since I had gotten it on Ilum. It was an off-center triangle, very much like a harp. Then, without thinking, I stabbed it into the creature. I'm not sure what I expected to feel on my hand, but my fingertips felt like I had shoved them into a white-hot furnace. The rest of my armored hand didn't feel much better. The creature did not respond well, he looked like a Dejarik piece that was spontaneously destroying itself and melting. His friends stopped immediately. After a few seconds, he blew apart. I used the Force to catch my Kyber crystal and put it in my pocket. My hand still felt like it was on fire, but we got on the ship. They started firing at us and I yelled in my comm, "Take us to the Fortress."
Then I passed out.
I awoke. I was in my bunk. I felt profoundly unwell and I had no feeling from my upper right arm. She was leaning over me.
"You are dying." She said.
"Why am I not in the med-bay?" I asked.
"Your doctor robot cannot fix what is wrong with you." She answered.
"Then I will return to the Force." I said.
"There is still one way you might yet live." She answered.
"How?" I asked.
"If I make you like us." She said.
"You are creatures made of nanites aren't you?" I asked.
"We are." She answered.
"I would be like a droid. I might lose my connection to the Force." I said.
There was nothing more important to me than my connection to the Force.
"It's possible. There has never been a Jedi among my people even before the Change." She answered.
"Then don't do it. It's better I go back now." I said.
"I'm sorry, I can't let you die for me." She answered.
Then she leaned forward and kissed me. It was very pleasurable. Then I lost consciousness again.
When I awoke again. I didn't feel unwell, I didn't feel good. I did feel weak and tired.
She looked down at me and said, "The Change is failing with you."
"Why do I feel so weak?" I asked.
"Even in our bodies, not every cell does every thing. Some cells specialize in particular tasks, thinking, moving, protecting, seeing, smelling, etc. One task is generating enough energy to power your body. You do not have enough cells doing this. Many of your cells are set aside for another task I am not familiar with. Can you still feel this Force of yours?" She asked.
I reached out to the Force and I could, bless the Force, still feel it.
"Yes, I can." I said.
"So, you still wish to live?" She asked.
"Yes." I answered.
"Good I worried the change was failing because you did not wish to live." She explained.
"So now I'll get better?" I asked.
"No, you will still die. It will just be slow and painful." She answered.
"I see." I answered.
I reached out to the Force for guidance.
"You emptied my pockets of all devices, but left me dressed otherwise for this change?" I asked.
"Yes." She answered.
The Kyber crystal, please bring it to me." I asked.
"The piku crystal, the one you used to kill Mabong?" She asked.
"Yes." I answered.
She spoke, "The Changed of my world have experimented with many ways of trying to gain personal and group advantage. What we called the 'piku crystal,' we knew had the potential to super charge energy production. Instead, it caused us to explode and melt simultaneously. It would have been used more as a weapon except we were so afraid of it.
She picked up my Kyber crystal with a part of my disassembled light saber and brought it to me.
"Put it on my chest." I said.
"You wish to kill yourself quickly. I understand." She said and put it on my chest.
The crystal sank into my chest.
The others had not been able to harness the power and abilities of a Kyber crystal because they were not Jedi. When they put a Kyber crystal in their body, it generated too much power, and they exploded and died. But I was a Jedi. I felt the crystal getting too excited and too calm, but I could balance it, the way I balanced the energy in my saber. Suddenly, I felt fine.
I sat up. That did not feel like it had before. I suddenly realized, I was missing so many feelings I was used to. I wasn't hungry at all. I didn't need to use a lav at all. I had no soreness or aches. It was an empty feeling. At least, blessed be the Force, I could still feel that.
"You feel empty?" She asked.
"Yes." I answered.
"Take my hand." She said.
I took her hand and suddenly I was inside her.
On her homeworld, they had discovered nanites and they had been so excited. They could make many new devices and many things could be enhanced. Say a window: A nanites enhanced window would never get dirty, because it would clean itself. It would never get cloudy, because when the wind scratched it with grit, it would heal itself. The multi-layer gaskets that worked the insulation, they would always self-heal. Even if someone smashed it, the pieces, down to the smallest grains, would find their way back together. A caf pot could stay boiling forever, even as it steamed, more water would keep getting added, the caf grounds would be kept from burning, it could literally boil forever until drunk and then it would just make another pot from captured water and restored grounds. For a while, it had been a paradise.
Then someone came up with a way to use the nanites as medicine. That had worked well too. Previously intractable diseases and conditions could be cured. All sorts of aches and pains could be treated. A body could be kept in current balance, perhaps forever. Then someone had come up with a way that the whole body could be replaced with nanites. At first, that looked like the ultimate achievement. But then people started dying. Not everyone could survive the Change. Many just failed and died. Many lived for a few minutes or hours, their balance wrong, as mine had been, and then they died slowly and in pain. Others would seem to be doing well, and then a few days later, just melt. Very few would complete the transformation with permanent stability.
They might have stopped the transformations, but then people who hadn't had the Change started to die. It was found they had too many random nanites in their bodies. Slowly, as they leaned on the windows kept clean by nanites, wore the clothes kept clean and in perfect color and hang by nanites, ate and drank the food made by nanites, had the medical procedures conducted by nanites, their bodies absorbed the nanites and the nanites, without the right places to go and things to do, they destroyed the bodies they were in. There was no way to make new nanite medicines fast enough. There were too many nanites in the environment to purge. The only way to survive was the Change. So, everyone who wanted to live took the Change. So, few survived. Then there was nothing to do. They could have left the planet and tried to see the galaxy, but the majority were terrified that if outsiders learned their secrets they would invade and kill them, so they forbade any travel or contact off world.
There was a problem. There were no children. There was no way to procreate. At first that didn't seem to be a problem, with the Change, we seemed to have functional immortality. The problems of the past were gone. There was no need, no sickness, no death. Perhaps it had been a terrible path to reach this place, but finally, now we were here, perhaps we could have a utopia?
The problem was, there was nothing to do. At first no one noticed, they played the same old games, read the same old books, watched the same old vids. Then they became bored. All they had left were their politics and personal animosities and an eternity to nurse grudges. Soon we learned, there may be no way to have children, but there was definitely a way to murder.
There were never many, but then they found an interesting diversion, war, and then there were fewer and fewer. Animosities and grudges were sealed with hate and loss.
Then it came that there were only five left. The three, Sage Kyun and her. The three were all that was left of the party of isolation. She had been from the party of exploration. Sage Kyun had been one of the originals to take the change and had fancied himself a neutral moderator. He convinced the three not kill her, but she could feel their hatred seething just below the surface. She knew that everything they had been would soon be lost if they could not communicate and get help from the outside. The three were beyond reason and would hear none of it.
Then the trader had come, and she had made him the weapons. They wanted to kill her for that so badly. Sage Kyun convinced them to spare her. They would set up an automatic warning. No more ships would come. She knew the three would never accept it. It was a matter of time before their hate boiled over and they murdered her. There had been ships on the planet. They were smashed, but with enough time, she could put one together and flee. The problem was the three would know and the instant they sensed her activities, they would attack. Her only hope was that someone would come and now, she wanted to live.
The three cornered and murdered Sage Kyun and she knew her time was measured. The arrangement had been that Sage Kyun would not allow her to be murdered. That meant if the three attacked, it would be three on two. That meant a very high likelihood that at least one of the three would die. But Sage Kyun had insisted on not staying with her or letting her stay by him. It would not appear impartial on his part. So, he died for his impartiality. They had cornered him alone, when she was too far away to help, or perhaps she was not ready to die, for the pyrrhic victory of taking one of the three with her. She had instead chosen to live a bit longer. Three on one, the odds were she would die and all three would live. It was a matter of time.
Then it seemed as if it was too late, she could sense the three were coming for her. She would be dead soon. Then he had come like a miracle chance at life. The three had been too close. One who has not taken the Change should not be able to stop one who has. But he had done the impossible and his ship. It was fast enough to run away from them and into hyperspace where the remaining two would not follow. He had killed their leader, Mabong. She suspected the remaining two would never be able to muster the courage to try to leave the system but might very likely murder each other eventually.
"So, I know a lot more about you now. What do you know of me?" I asked with old fashioned words, having gained a new appreciation of Binars in the massive amount of information she had passed to me in fractions of a second.
She showed me that she had absorbed some areas of my life and emotions, but others, like my connection to the Force were too alien for her.
"I feel what you felt for the destruction of your Order. It is much like what has happened to me. Also, I am grateful that you came and rescued me at great personal risk. I will join you in your fight to rescue your fellow Jedi." She said with words, adding great solemnity and weight.
"Perhaps I was just seeking a weapon?" I asked.
"You were, until we met, then you only sought to save our lives and you valued my life as highly as your own." She answered.
"Isn't my continued fight too much like the feuds that destroyed your people?" I asked.
"No. None of the balances are the same. Yes, for now you are vastly outnumbered, but there is an endless galaxy out there ready to rally to your cause. There is space for goodness to triumph. I have lived in hope for many times your life span when there was no hope. I will live in hope now when there is true hope." She answered.
"I can't argue with that. Do you have a name I can call you?" I asked.
"You can call me Sky." She answered.
***Ti Bault, Mid-Rim World***
We stood there on the ledge on a non-descript little mid-rim world. It was a pretty, not heavily developed place and this ridge was in the middle of nowhere. Not even a hint of civilization nearby.
First, we had found the shuttle lying at the bottom of a ravine. It wasn't as easy as it might have sounded. We knew the Inquisitors were headed here, but we didn't know if they stopped or went on. Their beacon was operating weakly, which meant it was invisible from space when looking at the planet by most angles as it was lying with the remains of their ship at the bottom of a very deep, narrow crevasse. On a hunch from Gall we orbited the planet from many angles for a couple days, the whole time with me itching to be off, until we picked up the beacon's signal. We landed to look for it and found it in a spot where its twisted remains would be hard to salvage.
I rappelled down and found nothing but broken ship.
After that worthwhile use of time, we figured out where the ship had landed which was near where the sighting of our enigmatic Gozanti had sat. The sighting of the Gozanti is what brought us and when the two Inquisitors had gone missing, we'd been asked to look around for them as well.
The landing pad marks for both ships were clear and the scrapes where the Imperial transport had been pushed off the edge were there as well.
There were footprints we followed down a narrow mountain path till we got to a widening. Pieces of the female inquisitor were still lying on the ground with some dead birds around it. I'm a decent hand at tracking, but Gall could completely recreate the fight. He looked over the edge and we spotted the male in pieces at the bottom with some dead animals around him as well. Apparently eating the Inquisitors wasn't too healthy.
Then Gall picks up a metal card that had been hidden by dust. It was a duplicate of the one we found on Eadu.
"The Jedi and the girl we saw at Aram went down and came back up this hole." Gall said.
So, we went down. A long, long spiral flight of narrow, slippery, eroded steps later found us in a roughly spherical room with no features except for a small mound of dirt in the middle.
Gall knelt and sniffed.
"This is very strange. This was a Jedi holy place. It was not desecrated as I thought, it was removed." Gall said.
How exactly Gall had figured that all out, I had no idea. At the same time, I figured he was probably right.
We climbed back up to the clearing. This time I spotted one of the mini-scout droids. It was blasted, but it might still have something. I picked it up and put it in a bag.
Of course, that was when Gall spotted another of the damn things at the bottom of the cliff with the male so down I went again.
I collected up the second droid and some close up stills of the remains of the male.
We went back to Gall's ship and I went to work on the droids. After a few hours work I got playbacks from both. We got to watch, from two angles, the Inquisitors walk off their ship. We got some good looks at the Gozanti. It was definitely NOT stock and I would bet it was my pirate and our buddy from Aram. The Inquisitors walked down the same path we did to the entrance to that hole, but just as they were getting there, the Jedi from the station came out. He had some new clothes and a leather jacket, but it was our boy. I'm not an expert in the intricacies of the Force, but I would have to say Gall did better against this guy than both of these "Inquisitors" put together.
We watched the Jedi come out with the girl close behind him. He tangles for a bit with the two Inquisitors. The female Inquisitor orders the droids to attack. The girl shoots them.
"That's new. She didn't have a blaster at Aram station." I point out.
Gall nods.
One droid sails off the edge and its video comes to a very abrupt halt. The second, luck of all the stars, lands at the corner between rock wall and path and rolls so it's facing the fight. So, we get to see when the girl tries to shoot the female Inquisitor, the blast is reflected, and she takes it hard in the upper right chest and she goes down like a hover lifter with the power cut. That seems to piss the Jedi off and he just handles the two of them after that. The male goes over the cliff in pieces. The female, he holds her while she tries to run away and cuts her in half. Whoa. Then the Jedi drops the card and goes and checks on the girl, then picks her up and carries her away. Presumably to the Gozanti. The video footage shows another hour of empty mountain night before the droid completely collapses. One does hear the Gozanti take off and the transport go over the side.
"This is interesting. This guy never made it to Eadu right?" I ask.
"I don't believe he did." Gall answered.
"So, someone else dropped the card on Eadu."
"That must be the case." Gall said.
"So, we have two card droppers." I said.
Gall nods amused.
"This will move the Gozanti to the top of their queue." I say.
"Enjoy writing the report." Gall says ever so charitably.
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