So fun fact, my working title for this document was 'The Adventures of the Feral Archivist Squad', so that really sets the tone for things. This fic is completely written, and I intend to update this on Tuesdays and Thursdays until it's all posted.
Author warning; this fic contains Dai Bendu, a conlang created by ghostwriterofthemachine, loosingletters, and aroacejoot over on AO3. You can find links to their language there. The fic will later contain Mando'a, for which there are dictionaries online. All translations will be supplied in the author's notes at the end. I apologise for the inconvenience.
Anyone who thinks the Archivists are stuffy, Jocasta muses, has never actually seen them in action.
Bending down, she picks up the ball of flimsy at her feet and glances around. She's standing at a junction of the AstroNav section, between shelves Jenth-Leth and Mern-Osk, and after a moment to recentre herself closes her eyes.
Spinning on the points of her toes for around the count of five, she throws the ball forward again and stops, waiting for the Archives to stop spinning around her before approaching it again. She repeats this a few times, until the flimsy ball ends up stuck on one shelf, which she examines.
"Khorm…" She frowns, pulling both the flimsy and the datapad it had landed in front of down. "I wonder what could be there."
An ice world, according to her information, though fortunately with a Type one atmosphere so she wouldn't need much special equipment for her trip. It wasn't a place that she would normally go to; her speciality when it came to expeditions was more focused on the archaeology of Temples, and from what they'd already investigated there was no sign of one.
But the Force wills what the Force wills, she supposes, so she places the flimsy in her pocket and swaps the datapad to her off hand, pulling out her comm.
Empress Jo is online
Empress Jo: Leaving for a tenday trip at the end of the week, is there anyone feeling particularly called by the Force to join me?
Empress Jo: Also who changed my name again.
Empress Jo has changed her name to Jocasta
Pink Is Here: I blame Lii, personally.
Pink Is Here: Also where to, 'll meditate on it.
Liiway: Can't, I'm on a science rotation rn, and also rude, I did nothing wrong.
Jocasta: Khorm.
The Rug: This time.
The Rug: …the ice planet?
Jocasta: Yes.
Feeeeeesh: Why are you complaining Thy you'er good with cold.
The Rug: Who said I was complaining?
Stars: Crèche rotation.
Stripes: Dai with you.
Stars: Apreciated.
Dor-k: Technically I'm at a conference
Stars: *Appreciated. Apologies.
Jocasta: Why is that a technically, Mar Peil?
Dor-k: Ok first off who changed my name.
Dor-k: Secondly only beucase this is the most boring thing I've ever been to, Jo, so I'm down to leave if you need me.
Jocasta: Meditate on it.
Pink Is Here: You're compalning and not changing it back?
Jocasta: Actually, you know what, everyone just gets to meditate on it.
Dor-k: Just because it was changed doens't nean I need to be mad about it.
Jocasta: Everyone tenday trip to Khorm coming up at the end of this week, no, I don't know what we're going there for aside from research, presumably, meditate on it and message me if you're coming.
Lek'ture: Force you're just going for it, Jo?
Lek'ture: Better be ready to fight the Council.
Jocasta: The Council knows better.
Stripes: Dai with them, too, they'll need it.
Feeeeeesh: This is a surprise?
Jocasta snorts, closing out of the chat and putting her comm away again. Her Archivists were a silly lot, sometimes, but she did adore them.
Even if someone kept changing her name.
In the end, the shuttle she takes out is made up of a team of five; herself, Krrcthyyy, Clicker, Kiili, and Imik.
Jocasta is fairly sure that Kiili will end up hating himself for this after a short time, but the Jawa had insisted that the Force wanted him there and he'd even gone all the way to get proper winter gear ready for the trip. Clicker wouldn't have too much trouble, likely; his species thrived in the cold in a way few expected, given how reptilian he looked. And of course, Thy won't care at all. Wookies rarely do, in her experience.
Imik surprises her, as well. Given that they're usually out with the ExplorCorps, it was a surprise to even realise that they were in the Temple to begin with, but that they'd actually bothered to meditate on her request and then joined her is interesting.
The journey to Khorm doesn't take long, though it's certainly enough time to start getting sick of her companions. Jocasta adores her Archivists, she truly does, but patient in the face of adventure they are not. It's by the grace of Thy and her endless patience in the face of the Galaxy at large that she manages to keep Kiili out of literally everywhere because he's bored and wants to go mechanic on things.
Sure, perhaps Kiili could get the hyperdrive to go faster. But that is not something she wants to find out while in hyperspace.
So suffice to say, by the time Jocasta and her team reach Khorm, she's rather tired of all of her friends and quite looking forward to beginning their research on the planet, even despite the cold and the fact that they have no idea what they're looking for.
Which makes it incredibly irritating when they drop out of hyperspace and run straight into a Republic fleet.
Imik makes simple work of flying them into a safe space, at which point Jocasta accepts communications as the lead Jedi on the mission.
"Unknown vessel, this is the Denik-Ben, identify yourselves."
Well isn't that just convenient.
"Denik-Ben, this is the Seeker, under Jedi Archive Master Jocasta Nu. I'm leading a team of researchers here following the Will of the Force." She answers calmly. She doesn't recognise the voice at the helm, but presumably, it's Plo's Admiral.
There's a silence of great disbelief from the other end of the comm. She can't blame them.
"Well, I was, though it appears there is something of a situation." She adds. "I'll be taking my team down, no need to worry about us."
"I- General Nu, that would be-"
"Master or Madame, please, Admiral- I am talking to the Admiral, I assume?" Jocasta interrupts, signalling to Imik to take them down anyway. The Ugnaught looks mildly amused as they do what she asks, and the rest of her team isn't doing much better on that front. "I assure you, my team and I will be perfectly fine. Do me a favour and continue your excellent work keeping the space around the planet safe, we shall handle ourselves just fine."
It's possibly a bit rude to just cut the comm call like that, but Jocasta finds that she doesn't really care.
"Seppies, huh?" Kiili chatters, squeezing his way into the cockpit. It's only his small size that lets him manage it, and Jocasta magnanimously allows him to shove an elbow into the back of her knees as he passes. "Interesting. This why the Force wanted us?"
"Perhaps." Jocasta answers reflexively, before pausing and looking around at her team.
Thy, a Silverback Wookiee that was several feet taller than the majority of species in the Galaxy, her grey fur marking her as a prize to be hunted- a fate that she's obviously avoided so far.
Kiili, a deceptively small being with an instinctive technological ability that was pretty much unmatched in the Archives, a skill in slicing that wasn't to be mocked, and a well-hidden lightsaber often better described as a lightshiv.
Imik, who spends most of their time out in the wider Galaxy with the ExplorCorps, and so is very competent with their 'saber and the Force, as well as a much larger range of weapons than most Jedi learn to use.
Clicker, who is just as deceptive as Kiili in that no-one expects something that looks reptilian to handle the cold anywhere near as well as he does, and who carries more lightsabers than any sane person should have on themselves.
And herself, she supposes, since being the preferred sparring partner of the Temple Battlemaster does put her in a good position, especially since her age means she's often underestimated. Before people know that she's the Head of the Archives.
It really is a strange day when the Wookiee is the person who's least likely to be an active combat threat…
"Almost certainly, in fact." Jocasta admits, with a smile. "Let's get down there and see what we can do, shall we?"
"Hopefully we find something more than a battlefield." Thy grumbles, and Clicker reaches over to pat her shoulder.
Jocasta presses comfort-apology-kindness in her direction, as well. The Wookiee is a gentle soul, really, and knowing that she's been pulled into the forefront of a conflict unsettles Jocasta.
The forgiveness-acceptance she gets back is nice, at least. It was the Force that guided them all here, so clearly it was necessary that Thy come with them. Still unsettling, but necessary.
Imik is an excellent pilot, as is expected from one who spends most of their time with the ExplorCorps, and they land in a clear-ish patch of land. Now on the planet, Plo's Force signature is a beacon on her senses, and after making certain everyone is comfortably in their cold gear, she leads the way to him.
...And also Kit Fisto, as well as a rather large number of clone troopers.
'Plo!' She calls out, reaching along their bond. There's a snow storm starting, one that's blown in during the short time since landing, and Jocasta takes a moment to thank the Force that the Seeker was made to handle much harsher conditions than a snow storm.
Plo startles, turning towards her even as she crests the top of the hill and makes her way along the plateau that they'd settled on.
"Jo?!" He calls back, making the troopers around him startle as well. She recognises both Sinker and dear Boost immediately, both in the Force and from their paint; while they hadn't had leave on Coruscant since picking up their new battalion, they'd sent their thanks for the blankets through Plo during one of their regular calls, and had had Plo send pictures along when the battalion had chosen their paint. The other clones nearby aren't as familiar, but she thinks she recognises a few of them in the moments she has before Plo is before her and bowing. "Jo, what are you doing here-?"
"The Force sent me." She says gracefully, two seconds before needing to brace herself with said Force to avoid being flattened by the weight of a clone in full armour.
"Agisti, ahran." Boost mumbles, lowly enough that the speakers in his helmet barely pick it up, and Jocasta's eyebrows rise even as she steadies herself and wraps an arm across his back.
"Agisti, paqor." She replies, blinking. "Are you well?"
Now that she's paying a little more attention- and not focusing as hard on using the Force to handle walking on the snow- the entire group is faintly on edge, more so from the members of the 104th, and especially with Boost, Sinker and Plo-
"Where is Wolffe?" She asks, dread rising.
"A few hour cycles ago now, a small scouting team went missing." Plo tells her, tusks twisted in dread-fear-discontent. "Wolffe was at the head of the team, as the storms have been causing some trouble with our equipment, but a strong enough Force bond would have been able to handle the distance."
"I see."
She takes a deep breath of the sharp, cold air. Lets it sit in her lungs for a long moment. Breathes it out, the automatic fright of some of her children being in danger leaving with it.
"Well, I believe I see at least some of why we were called here." She says decisively, turning to her team. "I do apologise that you were brought here on somewhat false pretences…"
Clicker laughs, a rasping sound, and shifts his weight slightly to avoid sinking further into the snow. "We came 'cause the Force called, Master. Study or rescue mission, we're here."
"As you say." She inclines her head, shifts her arm slightly so that Boost is curled into her side instead of pressed into her shoulder, and frowns. "I suppose we ought to get started, then."
"Dibs the tech." Kiili immediately claims, already making his way over to the group proper. "Let's see if I can't get yer comms working better."
"I'll meditate with you, Jo." Thy decides. "We might be able to reach out and find these troopers, especially if Plo has enough of a bond to talk with them."
"Guard duty, then." Clicker chuffs, as Imik just waves and wanders back towards the Seeker. They'll keep it safe and ready for them to take off on their rescue mission, she knows, trusting her Force-sibling. The Zalforian starts stomping around in the snow, moving deliberately slowly as if the cold is annoying him, and Jocasta huffs a little sigh before reaching out for Plo.
"Come on, then, ankai'a." She beckons. "We ought to get started."
Agisti- hello/goodbye (between people of equal rank)
Ahran- parent
Paqor- child
Ankai'a- darling, heartsong, soulmate