Here, have this.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
Reviews and Criticism are always welcome.
5 Years Later
39 BBY or 961 ARR
The courtyard of the Jedi Temple often had many Knights and Masters practicing when the weather permitted. Today it hosted various groups of older initiates sparring in what looked like a Jedi Battle Formation. Two groups specifically met with blue and green blades set to training mode as they engaged in a team battle.
Overall one group held the edge while the other faltered somewhat only barely keeping from being overrun. The losing group of Padawan hopefuls fought hard regardless of their seeming disadvantage. Sitting in meditation above the courtyard in a different training arena was the Grandmaster himself. He was not merely watching the initiates' performance, instead guiding the group of padawans winning the battle through the art of battle meditation.
The other group however…
I dodged, leaping out of the way as the blue saber nearly cleaved me into two. My emerald blade lashing out and parrying it. I was forced to hop back for a breather and reinforce my link to the group of initiates down below. It wasn't easy as Master Yarael Poof was a demon with a lightsaber and never let up. An insect buzzed toward my face, distracting my eyes briefly. I knew better than to make a swat at it. It wasn't there. Damn Master Poof. The tall quermian jedi master was fond of doing that trick. I was forced to continue to hold the current connection and simply have my team in the other courtyard wait for an opening in Yoda's lines.
"Your turn, Knight." Master Rancisis called from the side lines.
I checked the readout of a headpiece given to me for training. It was a thin band with an eyepiece that covered one eye. The display held a dejarik board. Master Rancisis sat on the sidelines where he could take his time and plot out each move on the board. I, on the other hand, had to focus on the Lightsaber duel and prevent my "troops'' from being overrun by the Grandmaster's. I parried and managed a saber lock briefly allowing me to move pieces on the board. The saber lock ended quickly. Master Poof resumed his relentless onslaught.
There were never any breaks. Each master had to only focus on a single task. I realized the connection to my team was faltering. I ended my turn on the holo Degarik board quicker than I would have liked. I blocked and attempted a riposte, which was really a feint. I was forced back as I barely dodged Master Poof's own riposte. I reached out to the force, doing my best to partition my mind off a bit more.
"The Battle is swaying out of your favor Knight," Bastilacron announced from her podium set in between the two training arenas where she could watch my failures in both arenas. I was well aware, but I didn't have the time to be snarky. I could barely hold my concentration as it was. I parried and blocked. Still I worked on the connection to my team. I managed to send a plan I had in my head to them. I wanted them to pull a Battle of Cannae in order to circle Yoda's team. I held the picture in my mind willing it to be so. I was making headway when-
"Niman," Poof announced. We had both been using Makashi up till now, though we had started the battle with Ataru. I found I loved Makashi. It was a very fun form to practice, it didn't waste energy either. Every move was precise and fluid. Compared to Ataru which wasted too much energy in the forms style with all the jumps and twirls. Ataru did have some advantages, such as the constant motion allowing it to build a rhythm to it. Still I had to learn Ataru. It was rare that Poof would call for Djem So/Shien or Soresu as he knew those were my core lightsaber forms.
I switched forms igniting my second lightsaber. Its blue crystal was the one I took from the force cuffs on Troiken. I encased the crystal in the beskar I took from the Deathwatch Mando's shoulder pauldron. Seemed fitting and felt better in my hand than my first blade. I didn't settle for a shoto. It was a full sized lightsaber with a diamond pattern grip. Though I currently had the two phase switch set to a shorter length like a shoto.
Master Poof only ever used a single blade, However the danger came from how he gripped it. Using both his right hands, using his smaller right arm for an extra stabilizing grip. Part of me was amazed he had ever lost a duel with that edge. His mastery of Form 6 was a nightmare. The Form was a mix of the previous forms, barring makashi for some reason, which allowed a user to switch tactics at the drop of a hat. It was hell to try and counter, yet found myself drawn to its versatility.
I sensed Yoda was making a push with his team of initiates. I kept projecting the image of my team encircling Yoda's team as best I could for now.
Master Poof's lightsaber zipped through the air and forced me to engage with both sabers and then in his offhand he sent me flying back using a force push, taking advantage of another aspect of Niman, allowing one to add force powers into the mix without breaking the flow of the lightsaber form. I slid back catching myself with the force, just barely managing to enforce my vision of the battle below to my team once again.
"Your turn once again, Knight Luminara." Master Rancisis called out.
I checked the headpiece and I mentally shook my head to see he damn near had my side of the board wiped clean. I focused on the pieces I had left. I saw he was forcing me into a corner with his stronger pieces to try and overwhelm my remaining stronger pieces. He had even bypassed some of the weaker pieces I had left to end the fight a bit quicker today. I managed to move each piece a little quicker this time focusing on trying to flank Rancisis.
Then Master Poof's lightsaber forced me back, both my sabers barely managing to keep his single blade at bay. This pattern went on for another ten minutes before my team of initiates was defeated. Yoda saw the trap I was setting and pulled his team back, before regrouping and overwhelming my team's flanks. I did something remarkable for me anyway. I managed, after five karking years, to pull a fast one against Master Rancisis. Part of me still wasn't sure I did beat him. He left an opening in his charge. It was a brief window, but I took the opening.
Despite the overall defeat, I didn't break the connection to my team once, and I managed to hold off Master Poof despite him switching between forms, not to mention his little illusions. He didn't use them much, but when he did it was usually at the worst time for me to be distracted.
I panted heavily deactivating and holstering my lightsabers. Master Poof deactivated his lightsaber. He didn't look like he broke a sweat. Not sure his species could sweat, but he wasn't even winded it seemed.
"It seems you have improved. Rancisis, it seems you'll be working for those dejarik wins after a while." Master Poof said in a playful tone.
"Don't think I didn't see you struggle to keep the pressure up." Rancisis countered as he slithered over. "I dare say she is picking up those lightsaber forms like a Mon Cala Sea Sponge. It won't be long until she is petitioning the Council to learn Juyo."
"It is uhm, something I am working toward." I admitted.
"You'd think the Sith were to suddenly jump out of the bushes with the tenacity she applies to her training." Master Poof remarked.
I laughed nervously doing my best to brush the comment off, "I just have always found the training to be fun. What's that old saying, "Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life?""
Yoda's cane clacked on the stone as he walked over. "A way to go, you still have. An old trick you attempted in the arena, it was." He said. He was right, but I was going to at least let myself be proud of holding my own a little bit.
"Sometimes, old tricks can be made new again." I said uncertainty.
"Indeed, right you are. Studied Rancisis' stratagems well, it seems." Yoda admitted. "Hard, have you worked. Sense though, your time under us is coming to a close."
"I still have yet to parjir a match." I said.
Poof chuckled, "You hear that? She thinks she could beat the three of us." I blushed, knowing I would probably never beat them all at the same time. Individually though… maybe. Okay maybe not. Then again you never know.
"Never about winning, the training was." Yoda lectured. "Learning the extent of your ability, and how to keep your concentration, it was."
"I have some more studies for you to read up on," Rancisis said. A datapad floated up to me. I took it and clipped it to my belt. His tone started to shift, sounding more excited. "I finally got the latest naval sim from the Anaxes War College." Rancisis had tried to introduce a war sim before, but his own perfectionism regarding how the game UI and various aspects of terrain management would distract him. He spent more time complaining to himself of the simulation's shortcomings than playing. I hoped this simulation would do the trick.
"Haat?"(Truly) I said a bit excitedly. While I wasn't a big fan of RTS games in my old life. Didn't have the patience for them. Something I had gotten a lot better at in this one. Not by much.
"Indeed, all though it is like pulling teeth out of rancor. They sent me three of the old copies before I threatened to actually make a visit and acquire the latest copy in person." Never get between Oppo Rancisis and his war games- coughs- I mean simulations. "I had to tell them any improvements the Jedi techs made to the program will be sent back. They took an interest after that."
"So we're dropping the Dejarik games in favor of the sim?" I didn't hate the dejarik games, but they felt more like a stop gap. Master Rancisis shook his head.
"Not entirely. I rarely get a Dejarik partner these days. We might switch it up a bit now and then." Rancisis said with an honest smile.
Poof couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Alas the difficulties of becoming the best Dejarik player in the galaxy. You have to force your students to play against you."
Yoda looked like he was ready to fall asleep. "Next week, we will meet. Much to do. Dismissed you all are." It wasn't force exhaustion. Yoda could use the force for days to lift the entire temple up if he had to. He was just old. Very old. It was getting late too. The sun was starting to set.
We all bowed and left the courtyard at the Grandmaster's bidding. I called Bastilacron to my hand and pocketed the datacube. I walked back hearing the initiates on my team grumbling that they lost. I felt bad, but odds are they will be on Yoda's team next week. I grabbed a quick bite from the Mess Hall, on the way to my room.
I thought briefly on the training as I walked to my room. Master Poof was one of the best duelists in the Order. His mastery of Form II, IV, VI, was a boon I didn't know I needed. Considering my near Mastery of Form III and V. So I was able to improve in all aspects of Lightsaber combat, part of me felt I was still going too slow. If I didn't kark up the timeline too much, Naboo would happen on schedule in about seven years. Seven years was all I had to prepare. I could go and mess with things in the background, but that would break the timeline, and let the Sith onto the facts someone was actively kriffing with their plans. It was frustrating to do nothing, but I was growing my skill set. Proving they existed would be harder. They covered their tracks well, and if they were somehow revealed, they would just go to ground and not come out of hiding for another thousand years. Even if it meant starting the Grand Plan from scratch again. They would do it too if they had too.
I shook my head. I returned to my room. I held out Bastilacron. Over the past five years I would consult the Gatekeeper regularly on each session for advice and throughout the week. I decided to have some fun summoning the Gatekeeper today.
"Cortana, I need a sitrep." I said, waiting for a response.
"What in nine Corellian Hells are you on about Knight? I swear you can be more of a nuisance than that Thisspiasian and his constant nitpicking of my tactics against Revan in the Jedi Civil War." That haughty tone again. It wasn't the first time I had wondered why she acted like her KOTOR self. Shan was actually very wise and a lot more patient as the Grandmaster of the Order. It was befuddling. I would have to ask Master Nu when I found myself in the library.
"Nevermind that, I was going to ask for an appraisal of my performance today." Bastilacron scrunched her nose up at the training method. A common occurrence. She didn't approve of it. Believing it was too much for me to handle. I wasn't sure either, but Master Poof seemed to think it was the best way to train me.
I mean I didn't mind. As most often the case. Training was something I loved to do. The Dejarik games were a bit annoying, but the goal was to force me to concentrate on different things at different times. It would let me use battle meditation on the go and not have to sit around waiting to get shot. There were other applications too. I remembered how the Deathwatch Mando kept me on the backfoot by constantly applying pressure via an insane amount of blaster fire. I thought how fast that battle could have ended if I could block and use force techniques without breaking concentration. It was a scary thought.
"Well," The holocron began, "Your win against Master Rancisis was well done. Even if you had simply found an opening, you exploited it well. Rancisis had grown overconfident or lazy and that is all it takes. Your battle meditation with the students still needs work, but your team managed to hold off the Grandmaster's for the entirety of the battle. So you have improved much from your initial discovery of your natural ability."
"Alright, there has to be a way I can improve? Maybe get the upper hand?"
"Not at the moment. You are nearing the end of what can be taught. I have taught you much of this holocrons knowledge." her tone was flat and that frown told me much. The Holocron flickered out of existence and I set the cube on a shelf on the wall. My room was very sparse. Only furniture was a meditation pad and a bed indented into the wall. The rest of it was rather spartan, say for some drawers and a closet to hold my robes.
I looked at the datapad. It was another battlefield analysis. I groaned. Learning tactics was all well and good, but damn did it make for a boring read. I sighed until I read the subject. It was about a battle in the Sictis Wars against the Technobeasts. I shivered thinking about those monsters, but was still intrigued. They were an unnerving concept in my old universe and now, I was in their universe. I was glad they were all gone by now. Then I realized I was in the Star Wars verse and Sith abominations always turn up millennia after the Sith's death. I could very well stumble upon these things one day. Lovely.
Still I read on, learning of how the Technobeasts themselves were actually rather easy to defeat for the Jedi. It was their stupid techno-organic nano-virus that was the real danger. The Sith would infect boarding pods and launch them at Republic ships. If there wasn't a Jedi on board to repel the beasts, the sailors were all but screwed. The pods themselves didn't need to even expel troops just release the damn nanovirus. It was one of the reasons the Jedi were so beloved in the Pre-Russan Reform days.
Now the particular power employed by the Jedi to destroy the technobeasts and the nanovirus was Ionize. I looked at the text dumbfounded. I tried to recall when this amazing droid disabling power was ever used in the Clone Wars. I drew a blank. This would be so useful even without a droid army to fight against. I couldn't swing a dead nexu without hitting a droid anywhere in this galaxy. Mechu Macture was the official name. I would have to look into learning this for sure. I sighed, one more thing to add to the growing to do list.
I meditated after I finished reading the Datapad. Rancisis would no doubt grill me later on the battle specifics. It was during Meditation that a thought occurred to me.
One of the biggest contributors of the Jedi's downfall in the Clone Wars was propaganda. The Media was in the Sith's pocket. They would downplay the achievements of the Jedi at every possible angle barring Skywalker, even giving more credit to the ships the Jedi used in battles then the Jedi themselves. Hell, no one batted an eyelash at Order 66 because of it.
I would need to fix that, but how? My thoughts drifted to Media outlets like GNN. The Sith owned them. Could I not buy or build my own media network? I had some creds but I mostly let a broker handle my Trade Fed stock. He sold half and started investing in companies like Bactiod, Blastech, and Kuat. In essence Companies I knew were going to make bank during the wars to come. I wondered how to go about it. I would have to visit my stock broker.
I only met the Masters once a week ever since Troiken. They left me to train on my own for the time in between. Which I did, but I was going stir crazy. I think Galidraan and my time in the Stark dungeons scared the Jedi just a little bit. Battle Meditation wasn't an ability the Jedi would want to piss away by having me die on some mission in the sticks. I feared I was going to get the Bastila treatment. Luckily there wasn't a Galactic scale war on at the moment so they may let me out of sight at times provided I didn't go offworld.
"How did the real Bastila deal with the Council's interference in her life?" I asked the Holocron.
The Holocron didn't answer. It gave a noticeable flicker though. I should have known it wouldn't answer. Some questions were beyond its programming.
I looked at the time. I frowned. Still had an hour before closing time at Ganorn's office. I pulled out my communicator and rang him up.
"And here I thought, I'd get to go home early." The Iridonian Zabrak said. His skin was a burned orange with the black face tattoos customary to his species.
It wasn't a profession his kind was known for. He moved to Coruscant for unknown reasons, but worked his financial magic like a wizard. I stumbled upon him at the blaster range, where I saw him practicing in one of the Teras Kasi fighting rooms. He was good, I will admit. No one at the range knew I was a Jedi so I decided to learn a bit of the day to day of non-force sensitives. We got to talking and mentioned I acquired some Trade Fed stock at some point. He got bug eyed and told me that the worth of it nearly tripled after the Stark Hyperspace War. He offered to be my broker then and there. I was hesitant, but the Force gave me no warning signs so I let him work for me. Haven't really regretted it since.
"I just wanted to check on my investments, that is all." I said.
He shook his head. "Let me guess, more weapons and arms manufacturers?"
"Not this time, I was thinking of a media outlet of sorts. Maybe a smaller station. Not GNN big, but something smaller, though still galactic in scale."
The Iridonian rubbed his chin. "I know just the one. I will let you know the details once I look into it further."
I shrugged, "Thanks Gan," I said. He gave a half salute and ended the call.
I looked at the time. Tomorrow I had training with the other Knights. If I got the chance I would take a speeder to a blaster range I often visited in the city. I wasn't going to go down into the temple depths if I could help it. I would never hear the end of it. The Force Luddites that called themselves Gray Paladins skulked around down there. Maybe I was being too harsh, but they started it. Smug assholes the lot of them.
Their ideology wasn't the problem. Okay maybe it was the issue. In a lot of ways they were closer to the true Jedi path then the Council. In other ways though… They were annoying and in my mind, were a waste ultimately. In essence they denied the Force by not using it to its full potential. The Force would not grant access to its many wonders only to have one squander it. However, I will admit they make up for it by being really good shots.
Damn good shots. They can shoot enemy blaster bolts out of the air. Guess that sort of takes the "Blaster are only Offensive Weapons," argument off the table. At least they weren't constantly trying to recruit me into their little splinter cult. Spending too much time in the basement might send the wrong idea to higher ups. Or have them breathe a sigh of relief that I was planning on living in the basement and not going around shaking things up. Heh, no chance of either.
I got ready for bed and shed my robes. I threw on a lighter set. Jedi didn't meditate all the time after all. I looked down, appraising my body. I had finally "grown up" one could say. I filled out my robes a lot better now losing that awkward teenage gait and now sported a more feminine and toned frame. Which was good. I could finally get some actual custom gear, and not have to worry about outgrowing it. I just had to find some materials and construct some proper armor.
I walked over to a drawer near the lamp and pulled out my personal datapad. I was working on a design that I think would be suitable. I was inspired by armors from the New Sith Wars as well as the Ancient Republic. I added some Mirialan designs that would be engraved on the plating as well. I needed to get a hold of some cortosis. I wouldn't mind some beskar'gam, if the Mandos weren't so stingy with it. However beskar was heavy. I needed to actually acquire some materials without the Council knowing. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
The next morning is when I heard the news. The Jedi Strike Team sent to Baltizaar was ambushed by the Bando Gora. Only a few of the Knights and a couple padawans came back. Why did that ring a bell? It wasn't until I questioned further that I found out that the newly anointed Knight Vosa was assigned to the strike team. Then it all clicked. The Bando Gora were a bunch of weird darkside worshippers that loaned their services to the underworld for money. In the OG timeline they captured Komari and tortured her until she wnet crazy, killed the leadership, and took over the Cult. They were also the biggest suppliers of Death Sticks in the Core. The Jedi had never taken them seriously though.
I knew I didn't have much time. I volunteered to go with any team that was sent to investigate if the Jedi were still alive. However I was turned down. The Council didn't want to let other Jedi get killed in a potential trap. I knew I had to get Vosa out of there. I didn't want Dooku to fall or Komari to turn into a crazy cult leader for that matter. Damn, and here I thought I was sticking to the rails. Kark it.
If the Jedi were not going to do anything, then I knew it was up to me. I just had to make a few calls. Luckily I could skip Bathizaar and head straight for Kholma, home of the Bando Gora headquarters. I just needed some back up and I knew exactly where I could find some.
A/N: So yeah, a bit of time skip. I mentioned this already, it may be a while before the next chapter comes out. I am going to do a proper outline and explore different avenues I could take with this, and think over the butterflies unleashed going forward. I know where I want to end up, I just need to plot a proper course in order to get there.
