Introduction: Kori Anders
They call me Kori Anders, a name that I love and cherish… though I do still wonder who gave me this name. My parents were heroes of the Republic, troopers who stood their ground against an Empire assault on a small Twi'lek village near an outpost. They had me during a short vacation staying with the Twi'leks, they were great friend with everyone and happened to be there the moment the attack started.
My parents hid me with the other Twi'leks as they ran off to stall the attack long enough for reinforcements arrived, two highly trained warriors standing tall against the vile monsters of the Empire. As much as I wish they were alive to be with me, they died true heroes, and if it was not for them then there wouldn't be a soul left alive in the village. I have to honour their memory and carry on their legacy.
Growing up in the village was amazing, the people there were always friendly and helping each other whenever they could. Even though I was born human, they raised me Twi'lek, something that I have never once regretted. It was somewhat difficult to learn Twi'leki, I once tried tying my long red hair into two large ponytails down my sides to mimic lekku, getting a few laughs out of my adoptive family.
Then came a day that changed my life forever. I was playing with some of the other children in the village when the old rock wall we usually play near crumbled, boulders raining down around us and as we tried to escape my best friend fell to the ground. Seconds before she was crushed by boulders, I lost my mind, closing my eyes and screaming in horror as all I could think of was losing my best friend. Instead of hearing the boulders crashing down on her like I had expected, there was nothing other than shocked gasps.
Opening my eyes, I found the boulders hanging in mid-air, my arms outstretched as if I was reaching for them. At first no one could say anything, just standing there as if time had frozen. I realised that I was the one holding the boulders, how or why I wasn't entirely sure off at the time but what I did know was my best friend was alive as long as the boulders didn't fall of her. I barely managed to move them away from her before letting them thump to the ground.
The adults didn't believe us when we told them what had happened, they thought we were just playing as Jedi and something weird had happened. It wasn't until word reached the outpost that the Jedi Knight stationed there travelled to my village just to speak with me, taking me aside to the old rock wall for a chat.
The Jedi Knight told me about the force and its special connection it has with certain people, she spoke of how the force effects every living thing. Then she tested me by channelling the feelings that I had when my best friend was almost killed into moving a stone she had picked up, at first I couldn't until frustration overtook me, then I managed to lift the stone from her hand and hold it in the air for a few seconds before it fell to the ground.
From that point onwards, I spent time at the outpost as the Jedi Knight's padawan until she managed to get me into the academy on Tython. I was resistant at first, leaving my village and my friends for a long time to train as a Jedi, though if it wasn't for them encouraging me to go forth and honour my parents name by taking it to the academy with me then I doubt I would have gone. The village held a festival for me leaving, hoping that I would one day return as a fully-fledged Jedi that they could be proud of.
The academy was an amazing experience, meeting other people and being able to study new things, there were even a few among the guard who knew of my parents. I even found a home among the Twi'leks training to become Jedi, they being as accepting and helpful as my village had been, though they were confused at first when I acted and sounded more like them than a normal human.
As I trained and grew, I found that I couldn't conform to the Jedi's rules, to be calm mindless machines working religiously towards a peace that seemed somewhat skewed towards the Republics point of view. I value justice and peace, but the Jedi took that to a level that I wasn't prepared to adhere to, and they would never relent on their code of ethics for anything. It was frustrating to know that there were only two orders available to the force sensitive, one emotionless droids and the other maniacal lunatics.
It wasn't until my first mission did things start to fall apart, they sent me with the Jedi Knight who first recruited me to investigate a Jedi distress signal that had gone silent. When we arrived, we found the ship to be scorched from laser fire, there were residual life signs on the ship that proved they were still alive. The Jedi Knight wanted to wait until we were absolutely sure this wasn't a trap, me on the other hand watched as a life signal blinked out, knowing that if we wait here any longer then there wouldn't be anyone left alive to save.
Sneaking by the Jedi Knight, I managed to get aboard the ship and found them barely breathing in a sealed hanger, and it wasn't long before I was found out when I managed to turn the ship's engines on easily. I should have taken that as my first mistake, my second was when I didn't listen to the Jedi Master yelling at me to run.
Two Sith Lords broke from seemingly nowhere to kill me and the boarding party of Republic troopers I had with me, I barely managed to hold them off when the Jedi Knight arrived to my aid, taking both of them while I aided the troopers in securing the survivors. It was a difficult fight to escape from, the Sith had additional ships hidden not far from the location that jumped in once the trap was sprung.
My vibrosword fell from my belt during the chaos, forcing me to steal a lightsaber from one of the Sith Lords' who was dual wielding, entering into the fray we managed to drive back the Sith before making our escape. I knew that we wouldn't getaway with the Empire ships converging on our own, it was an impossible situation without losing many of our own.
An idea formed in my mind that had me returning back into the ship, ignoring the Jedi Knight's yelling and disobeying orders to save everyone. The broken ship was in between us and the Empire ships, setting the explosives that our troopers had to ditch in order to lighten themselves, rigging the ships core and taking the detonator. Luckily, the Jedi Knight had held the ship from leaving until I returned, upset at me with my disobedience.
When the Empire ships passed alongside the broken ship, I detonated the explosives, taking all of them out in one go. I earned respect from the troopers for not only going in there and saving their comrades, but also getting them all out alive despite the overwhelming odds. As for the Jedi Knight, she yelled at me for hours, disappointed in me for not only disobeying orders, but being completely reckless.
My punishment continued at the academy, I was berated and told that I could never become a Jedi if I continued being wild and out of control. What was worse was the Jedi Master I had saved, they were adamant about having me thrown out of the order for my recklessness after they had managed to cut the distress beacon. It hurt to know that my efforts weren't thanked or even acknowledged, I spent a lot of time thinking of returning to the village over staying here. When I remembered their faces and how proud they were of me, I realised I could give up, that I had to stay strong and push forward.
Using my time wisely, I practiced and taught myself everything that I could, focusing on becoming better than anyone else. A part of me wanted to have been able to fend off those Sith Lords myself, while the other wanted to never have to put anyone's life in danger ever again. I rose through the ranks with my skill and power, though no matter how many Jedi Knight's I defeated in sparring, I never rid myself of the padawan title.
Frustration and anger filled me, cursing the names of the Jedi for their archaic ways, I set about pretending to be like the impassive droids that they wanted me to be. Though my acting skills weren't great, I fooled many of those in the order. When I was called to the council room, I thought it was going to be my graduation into becoming a Jedi Knight, but it was really for one of the weakest and talentless padawans. One who shouldn't have been given the title after they had lost countless lives on a mission gone south because of their ineptitude, it was a scalding slap to the face as I realised that I was called specifically to see this moment rather than those close to the padawan.
In outrage, I broke my calm and yelled at the council, falling right into the trap that should have been painfully obvious. Seizing upon my mistake, the Jedi Master who I had saved turned on me and finally had his wish, to throw me out of the order once and for all. I still cannot believe that I fell into that trap so blindly, if I had bit my tongue and kept quiet then maybe I would have been a Jedi Knight like my village hoped I would.
Leaving the academy, I could only feel shame, knowing that not only did I fail in living up to the hopes of my village, but also failing to outwit that evil Jedi Master. It confused me as to why one such as he would be so adamant on kicking me out, I knew I was reckless and rash with my decisions, yet I still achieve results far better than those who follow the rules. No matter how I think about it, I will never understand an order that praises a fool for getting innocent soldiers killed while berating another who managed to get every one of those under her command home alive, and deal a blow to the Empire.
There was one silver lining, the Jedi Knight who recruited me did talk with me before I left, agreeing with my point of view on the matter. She had been in many situations where she had been saved by troopers, and even though she was mad at me for disobeying orders, she was proud of me that I got everyone out alive. She told me that despite being thrown out of the order, there were still force users out there who had forged their own path, choosing neither side to commit themselves to.
Her words gave me the confidence and hope that I could still live up to my village's hopes, that I could become the warrior that they knew me to be. Just like my parents.
That said… I wish I could have told them about my adventures, of my missions and of the places I had seen. I knew I was scared to tell them I had failed, that I was returning home not even a Jedi… but I wasn't given the chance.
When I returned home… all that was left was fire and brimstone. The houses destroyed and corpses littering the ground, blood splattered every where along with pieces of bone and disembodied limbs. The scene horrified me, I couldn't speak or even think, my mind just went blank as it tried to process what my eyes were seeing.
In my mindless state, I noticed Sith laughing and playing with the dead body of my best friend. That image alone was forever seared into my mind, not just for the fact that my best friend was dead and they were playing with her corpse as if she was a ragdoll, but because I lost all sense of my sanity. I rushed forward and took their lightsabers from them, cutting them down before they could even respond to the sudden change of events. From there it was a massacre, I slaughter Sith and Imperial soldier alike, uncaring to their screams for mercy or their attempts to flee.
Not even the Sith Lords accompanying the forces stood a chance against me as I destroyed the Empire's forces, once all was quiet I screamed into the night for hours on end, unable to rid myself of the rage and hatred burning in my heart. I wanted to find more of them, to kill more of them, to spill more of their blood than the village they had mercilessly killed.
It wasn't until daybreak when my calls were answered, a Jedi Master and their padawan had arrived with one of the remaining villagers to aid in the defense of the village. Though they arrived too late. They found me sat at the village centre cradling my best friend's head in my lap, the piles of dead Empire forces littered all around me. I knew that the Jedi weren't my enemy, but they were to blame for this, they had promised me that my village would be safe while I was at their academy.
I turned on the Jedi Master, fighting her with everything I had left in me, hoping to end her and her padawan for arrive so late to the battlefield. I only wished this Jedi Master was the one that had me thrown out, at least then I would have some satisfaction in killing them other than out of rage. The fight ended quickly when I gained the upper hand, destroying the Jedi Master's lightsaber and standing before her ready to strike her down.
Fuelled by rage and hatred, I went for the killing blow, determined to end her existence for failing to save my village. It never hit her, instead it cut through the last remaining villager who had jumped in the way of the strike, sacrificing their life for the Jedi's. The realisation of my actions knocked me out of whatever state I was in, forcing me to see what I had done and the carnage I had wrought.
Holding the villager in my arms, I tried to apologise, to say something about how useless I was for not being there to defend them when he silenced me. He told me that once they saw the destruction of our village, he didn't have the will or the strength to go on, he wanted to die so he could be among his family. The villager knew that killing a Jedi Master would have been the biggest mistake I could ever make, he sacrificed himself to save me and to stop me from becoming a monster just like those who had taken the lives of my family.
With his dying breath, he told me to find whoever launched this assault and get revenge, not just for the village but also for my parents as he revealed the leader to be the same person who took their lives. With a broken heart and tears falling down my cheeks, I ran from the village, escaping from the reinforcements that had been called in by the padawan. Never given the chance to bury my loved ones.
This is how I ended up on Tatooine, how I came to be hunting the scum hiding there in hopes of finding a collaborated of the Empire and find him I did. Unfortunately, he wasn't useful in anyway towards my mission, only bleating cries of how they forced him to capture tourists and send them to the Empire as slaves.
With my trail gone cold, I stormed back to my stolen ship, hoping that my contact on Nar Shaddaa would explain in detail how they assured me of finding even a partial lead to whoever orchestrated the assault on my village. Though as I got to it, I was ambushed by a bunch of goons that had worked for collaborator and were trying to kill me in some inane idea of regaining their lost pride.
The battle was tricky on the open sand dunes, forcing me to dip behind crests in the sand for cover. Then when I thought the fight was finished, they used a laser cannon on me, something they shouldn't have been using as they couldn't aim the thing for the life of themselves. Hitting the engine of my ship destroyed it in one shot, cascading pieces of it fell all over the area as I was thrown to the ground.
The loss of my ship and the fast retreating goons had me screaming at the stars once again, having not only lost the trail but my ship as well, I had had enough for one day. I trudged my way towards the nearby town that I had seen upon my arrival, hoping to find a ship that could get me to Nar Shaddaa.
