AN: hello everybody here's a moderately short chapter, I can't give you an ultra long chapter all the time so any way not much it's mostly exposition but don't worry I tried to make it as enjoyable as possible.
Disclaimer: I only own my Oc's
(Chapter 6 Visions of Insight)
After Daniel had made the announcement of another mission he asked for everyone to gather in the tactical room, 'Maybe I shouldn't have asked for everyone.' Daniel thought to himself as he stood in the extremely crowded room, considering there were almost 30 humanoids in the room plus the 18 shards that Vega, Aaron, and Caleb found on the planet they were attached to a speaker that they quickly set up so that they could speak to the group and offer their input on the situation at hand, it was a temporary solution until they built them their bodies, there was also a communicator with a link to the assembler room so Alpha the Gree AI could participate as well.
"Okay, Jedi start talking what do you mean by 'we have a new mission from the Force itself'?" Asajj demanded.
"Okay for one If you don't want to take part in this mission that's fine we'll be sure to drop you off at the next habitable planet we come to." Daniel retorted.
"No we'll give you the shuttle we salvaged." Micah said.
"That doesn't have a hyperdrive." Auron pointed out.
"Oh no. I want to take part, I must admit I'm curious out of all the people the force could have chosen it chose us." Asajj interjected.
"Sir permission to speak freely?" Alpha asked from his chair it turned out that he was paralyzed from the waist down from the injuries he sustained during the battle of Boz-Pity, Daniel dipped his head in a slight nod "Why should we bother with this mission sir shouldn't we be more focused on fighting the Empire?" He asked.
Daniel just stared at him with a blank expression he let the silence hang for a moment before answering "If you saw what I did, you'd understand why I feel we must do this."
"Can you show us?" Caleb asked bringing every ones attention to him "I mean if you show us what you saw then maybe we'll have a better understanding of the urgency of this mission."
"I can do that with other trained Force sensitives I have no Idea how to bring everyone else in." Daniel answered.
"Than show Auron, Vega, and Asajj what you saw." Caleb said.
"I would also join you in this." The monotone speaker said signifying that the elder shard had spoken Daniel had taken to calling him Gaudian due to how protective of his children he was and to name it after a very famous saber crystal the Heart Of The Guardian.
Daniel looked at the other force users in the crew "Well? Shall we?" He asked gesturing to the floor and sat down cross legged to show he was ready to meditate.
Vega walked over and sat down to his right Auron sat down to his left and Asajj just walked towards the group and sat opposite of Daniel, Daniel looked over at Guardian "Do you mind if I use my power to move you over here?" He asked.
"Just do what you have to." Guardian answered, Daniel nodded and reached out with the force and brought Guardian in his speaker stand over between him and Vega.
"You all ready?" Daniel asked receiving nods and a verbal response of yes from Guardian, Daniel and the group all delved into the Force to bring up the vision he had and share it with the group.
After a few moments the group opened their eyes to find themselves in a city full of life, much to Daniel's confusion "That's weird." Daniel commented as he stood up
The group followed suit "What's the matter?" Guardian asked he had a ghastly humanoid form in the vision probably so he could move and look around.
"This isn't what I saw, I was in a field of green and a forest was nearby and a cliff overlooking a beautiful city it was night and I looked at the moon it was shattered into several pieces." Daniel explained.
Asajj looked up to see if she could see the same celestial body when she did she cleared her throat and pointed up "It appears that this would be the same world just another location." She commented as the group all looked to see the planet's shattered celestial neighbor.
Daniel nodded in agreement "Yeah that's the same moon alright, but why would the force show us this city?" He asked.
"To show you all what's at stake." A voice familiar to Daniel, Vega, and Auron answered.
"Who's there?" Asajj demanded looking around for the source of the voice.
"I am Qui-Gon Jinn apprentice to Jedi master Dooku and teacher of Feemor, Xanatos, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in life, Now I help my comrades and colleagues survive the Empire." Qui-Gon answered as he appeared before the group standing with them in the streets.
Asajj was speechless she didn't know that one could maintain their consciousness after death, she briefly wondered if Ky Narec had achieved such a state... 'but if he had he would have appeared to me wouldn't he?' She thought to herself 'or is he disappointed with me?' questions like those filled her mind until she shook them away.
"Mater Jinn what do mean to show us what's at stake? you already showed me." Daniel stated.
"The Force felt it necessary to show the entire group a more vivid version of events rather than the Vague version it did with you." Qui-Gon explained.
Daniel nodded and looked around the city then he saw something unusual a human with what looked to be animal features "Master Jinn you told me half the world's population were human what was the other half?" Daniel asked pointing at the humanoid just going about his business.
The entire group threw a quick glance in the direction he pointed and turned to Qui-Gon "The other sentients who live on this planet are called Faunus, they look human but they have similar features to this world's animal population."
"Interesting." Auron said as he turned and studied the Faunus.
"What are relations between Humans and Faunus like?" Vega asked as he to looked at the Faunus.
Qui-Gon let out a melancholy sigh which drew the group's attention again "Not good unfortunately, there is a lot of hatred on both sides, a lot of Humans view Faunus with disdain and see them as no better than animals, but quite a few Faunus have taken up arms and fought against the humans in hopes of taking their equality, and while they may have earned their equality it isn't through respect but fear, this group is called the White Fang, do not underestimate them, although a Faunus may look human those animal traits are more than just an aesthetic change." The ghost warned.
"Hold up, what makes you think that all of us are going?" Asajj asked while crossing her arms.
"You said that you were curious." Qui-Gon retorted.
"I am but you have only told us about a terrorist organization, that Jedi said that 'if we saw what he saw we would understand why we must help' so far you haven't shown us anything other than a city on a planet where the natives can't get along so what is so important that the Force wants us to come here?" Asajj demanded, no sooner did she finish her triad the civilians started to run in panic the group could see the pure panic and terror on their faces as they ran for dear life.
"Those creatures are why." Qui-Gon answered and pointed in the opposite direction the civilians were running the group heard loud inhuman roars and howling as they turned to see several dark animals prowling their way toward them. Daniel, Vega, Auron, and Asajj all reached for their `weapons on instinct but found that they weren't on their hips "You need not worry those creatures can't harm you this is just a vision." Qui-gon assured them.
"Are these the creatures you told me about?" Daniel asked somewhat unnerved as he stared into the red demonic eyes of the creatures, suddenly one of the smaller quadrupeds rolled up into a ball and propelled itself down the road towards the civilians he also took note that the creatures had bone like armor and all of them appeared to be wearing bone like masks.
"Yes, they are Daniel." Qui-Gon answered as several large quills rained down on the city prompting the group to look up and see the sky blocked out by what looked to be hundreds of flying versions of these creatures, the giant avian creatures fired their quills like projectiles while the smaller one dived down and tackled any human or faunus they could get a hold of.
"Oh Force!" Vega exclaimed the group turned to see a one of the smaller bipedal creatures start ripping into human, the amount of blood, the savagery of the kill and the agony induced screams of the man as he died, were actually disturbing even to the combat veterans of the group Daniel immediately grabbed Vega and turned him away from the horrific sight.
Suddenly the vision seems to get hazy and now the group could no longer see anything but a thick mist "That was really disturbing." Guardian said.
Qui-Gon nodded "What you all just witnessed was known by the natives of the planet as the 'Failed Expansion of Vale.'" Qui-gon explained.
"Y...you m...mean t...that actually h.h.h.h..happen...d?" Vega stuttered out still shaken by what he just witnessed.
"It happened about 10 years ago." Qui-Gon answered.
"Did anybody survive?" Daniel asked.
Qui-gon didn't answer and that was all Daniel need to know that indeed there were no survivors, "Does this world have anything to kill these creatures?" Auron asked "Like an army or the like."
"They do, this world has four kingdoms each with their own army." Qui-Gon answered, "They also have a special group of people who they send out to kill these creatures they're called Huntsman and Huntresses." Qui-Gon explained.
"You said 'special' are they Force users?" Auron asked curiously.
Qui-Gon shook his head "No the inhabitants of this world haven't discovered the Force they use two things to fight these creatures one of them is a mineral found on this planet that they call Dust this mineral contains energy of the elements like Fire, Ice, Lightning and many others."
"Interesting." Auron commented.
"Indeed." Guardian agreed.
"What was the other thing they use?" Asajj asked curiously and somewhat impatiently.
"They call it Aura, Aura is the manifestation of a being's soul, all things have Aura save one thing."
"Those creatures." Vega stated more than asked.
"Yes young, one not only do these creatures not possess a soul but they aren't bound to the force either." he revealed to the surprise of Asajj, Vega, Guardian, and to a lesser extent Auron.
"You mean the theory was correct?" Auron asked earning some curious looks from the others.
"What theory?" Daniel asked.
"The Sith theorised that if a creature could be severed from the force that even though they still count as a life form they have lost one of their traits the Sith called that a semi life form, he than theorised the existence of an Anti-Life form a creature without a connection to the force or a soul, it is Oblivian made manifest." Auron answered both excited and worried, "The Sith later determined it was impossible because all things have souls and the sith were unable to artificially create anything like that."
Daniel remembered something Qui-Gon said "Didn't you say that these creatures were created, who created them?" Daniel asked the spirit.
"She is oblivian incarnate, and that's all I can say about her." Qui-gon told them, causing everyone eye's to widen.
"But then how does she exist?" Daniel asked in disbelief.
"Well that certainly brings a few things to light." Auron said.
"If these huntsman were made to fight these creatures why are we needed?" Asajj asked.
"I'm wondering that myself." Guardian said
Qui-Gon looked at the group with such seriousness that they all gave them their full attention "originally these huntsman and huntresses were eventually supposed to end these abominations but the arrival of a group has put that in jeopardy." the mist swirled and they saw four silhouettes, "They are members of an organization called the 'Sorcerers Of Rhand'." Qui-Gon explained.
"The 'Sorcerers of Rhand'?" Auron asked.
"They are a group of Force users that live in the unknown regions." Qui-Gon explained
"Are they Darksiders?" Vega asked with a tilt of his head.
"It's a bit complicated to explain." Qui-Gon started, "The sorcerers believe in a Power greater than the Force." he stated causing the group's eyebrows to raise and a scoff to sound from both Auron and Asajj.
"Seriously?" Asajj asked incredulously.
"Yes they call it the Dark, essentially what this philosophy preaches is that Destruction is the only truth of the universe and that even the Force will one day die and everything will fall into oblivion, they believe that if one sets their primary goal to causing destruction than the Dark will reward you by allowing you to achieve your secondary objective." Qui-Gon explained.
"So they want to destroy this world because their Philosophy tells them to?" Daniel asked outraged.
"That and because to them the creatures are essentially the Dark incarnate." Qui-Gon said.
"So what you're saying is that they believe that these things are essentially their god incarnate and that they think their god wants to destroy this world?" Auron stated.
"More or less." Qui-Gon said.
"What is the problem though?" Asajj asked impatiently.
Qui-Gon looked at her with a raised eyebrow "The problem is if they succeed it won't just end here they could leave the world and then Mnggal-Mnggal could gain one of these things and use their bodies to spread him even further across the universe, that's the problem." Qui-Gon told her
"Thank you for elaborating." Asajj said.
"You're welcome." the spirit said cheekily.
"Can we access our Aura?" Vega asked curiously.
"... You can but you need the help of some one to unlock it in fact that's why no one discovered Aura in the known galaxy one no one realised it was possible and because of how the force interacts with living beings in known regions, the reverse is true on this world they haven't discovered the force because of how Aura works this however can be overcome and you can learn to use both Aura and the force but you need someone to help you unlock it, specifically a master." Qui-Gon explained.
"That's good to know." Daniel said, "What else should we know?"
"The sorcerer's primary objective…" Qui-gon started.
"Is destruction." Auron cut in getting Asajj, Daniel, and Vega to snicker a bit .
"Stop acting like a wise guy." Qui-Gon ordered playfully getting those who were snickering to full out laughing, "Their primary objective is to make sure that the Huntsman and Huntress fail, they are looking for the most powerful or at least the ones with the potential to be very powerful and either killing them or bringing them into their cult." he explained once they calmed down "These same people are the ones who will eventually go out and put an end to these demons." Qui-Gon added.
"Are all these individuals needed? We can't protect them all." Daniel said sadly.
"You're right you can't protect them all, there are two that are currently safe one of them is the son of a very powerful huntsman and descended from a long line of heroes the sorcerer's can't get close to him, the other is in a more vulnerable spot, she is the daughter of a huntsman as well but her family are not as well known and are a little more isolated, also her mother was killed by the sorcerers about 9 years ago."
"Okay why did they kill this woman?" Auron asked.
"You must find that out for yourselves." Qui-gon answered.
"Alright then, but can you now tell us where the planet is?" Daniel asked.
"The planet is…" he started causing Daniel to lean in to listen better, "somewhere in the unknown regions." he answered, no sooner than he said that they all woke up
"That nerf herder!" Daniel bellowed as they woke up.
Auron started laughing hysterically, "oh that was a good one." he said as he clutched his sides
"What all did you see?" Micah asked the group, immediately the force sensitive got serious.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Vega stated having remembered the gruesome death he witnessed, Daniel reached out into the force and pulled a clone trooper helmet towards himself and gave it to Vega who wretched and lost his dinner into it much to the trooper's displeasure.
"It must have been bad." Aaron said.
"Vega's never seen a combat scenario before." Daniel explained.
"So what did you see?" Micah asked again.
The force users explained the vision that they saw from the planet, to the natives, and the creatures that haunted them, and the Sorcerers of Rhand.
"Wait the Sorcerers of Rhand, You're certain?" Micah asked.
"Yes." Daniel answered.
"You know this group Micah?" Aaron asked curiously.
"In many ways they're the Sith of the unknown regions, but unlike Sith the Sorcerers preach that Destruction is the only truth in the universe and seek to let things proceed naturally now some take this belief even further and seek to accelerate the process, unlike the Sith who seek to dominate everything and make bids for immortality." Micah explained.
"Huh, interesting." Caleb commented.
"This band of Sorcerers must have found this planet and discovered those things on the planet from what Qui Gon told us they believe these creatures are essentially Oblivion made manifest."
"They believe they're carrying out their god's will." Micah concluded, "This won't be easy."
"Sir, I still don't see any reason to help them." Alpha-17 stated.
"Because this planet and the inhabitants can help us in our fight against the Empire down the road." Daniel told him, "Plus the people are very much for the Galactic Empire right now we should wait before making our move." Daniel added.
The crippled Arc Trooper could see the logic in that "I understand sir." Alpha-17 sighed.
"You wanted to fight the Empire didn't you?" Auron asked.
Alpha looked at the other clones than back at everyone else "We were used by Palpatine you damn well better believe I want to get back at him and make his life utter hell." the clone growled.
Daniel just listened to the Arc trooper as he vented "First he put us through a war that turned out to be a farce, than he executed the order to kill our friends and bond brothers in battle…"
"Your brothers made the choice to follow that order they could have disobeyed if they wanted to." Daniel interrupted harshly.
"No they couldn't!" Alpha exclaimed.
Daniel was surprised by that "What are you talking about?" Daniel demanded.
"Daniel." Caleb said drawing the young Jedi's attention "We ran a brain scan on them as soon as we could we found a chip inside their brain, we analysed it and discovered that it messed with their frontal lobe." Daniel's eyes widened at the implications
"The chip prevented them from making their own decisions." Daniel realised.
"Only those with extraordinary willpower could have resisted." Caleb added.
"Sidious is more sick and twisted than I thought." Daniel muttered as he covered his eyes with his hand.
"He turned us into nothing but flesh droids." one of the clones growled out, the one whose helmet Daniel took.
One of the other clones looked at Daniel hopefully "Why are you looking at me?" Daniel asked.
"Sir, with this new information I hope that you would be willing to accept our apologies." he said.
Daniel looked at him for a moment then his eyes hardened "No." Daniel said simply
"Sir?"
"You may have been controlled but you still pulled those triggers, and not only that but you knew the order existed and didn't think to tell the Jedi and let them know, all you had to do was go the council and say 'hey we have a contingency order to kill rogue Jedi it's called order 66.' and then we would have looked into it and discovered what it actually was about, but instead you kept it secret and now we're all fugitives thanks to your brothers." Daniel growled.
At that the clones didn't bother trying to speak to him again, "Okay so we're all in agreement about going to this planet?" every one except Ju and the Shards nodded, Ju because he had no idea what was happening and the Shards because they had no neck joints or head for that matter to nodd.
"All we need are the coordinates and we'll be on our way." Micah said.
Auron started to chuckle again as did Asajj as a scowl appeared on Daniel's face "Qui Gon hasn't given me the planet's coordinates." Daniel hissed in annoyance.
"He does realize that we can't go to this planet without its coordinates." Micah deadpanned.
"Perhaps we're not meant to focus on that task right now." Aaron suggested.
"Okay then let's get onto other business, Aaron you said that you got pictures from the cave that Ju lived in?" Micah asked.
Aaron nodded and pulled out a disc from his pocket and put it in the slot, the holo imager sprang to life and the images became clear Ju immediately growled upon seeing those aliens and Micah's eyes widened when he saw the ships he turned to Ju "You're sure these are the creatures who attacked you?" he asked seriously.
Ju turned to look at the Chiss "Micah know the Keloe Mleikiskoe?" Ju asked curiously, everyone turned to look at the chiss.
"I most certainly do, the chiss call them the Far outsiders, because we have reason to believe they come from beyond the Galaxy's borders." the chiss answered.
Daniel was intrigued "An extragalactic species, amazing." Daniel said.
"It would be if they didn't constantly attack us." Micah growled.
"What do you know about these guys?" Caleb asked.
Micah's eyes hardened a little as he looked at the projection "From what we know they use organic technology, and they apparently have the tech to generate gravitational fields, powerful ones at that."
"Micah that's not unusual the Republic has looked into that type of technology." Aaron pointed out.
"I know, but the level these aliens have brought it to is unbelievable, they use it to protect their ships, in essence they use gravity for their shields." Micah revealed, causing everyone eyes to widen at least those who understood the implications of such technology and those who had eyes to begin with, "They can also use these gravitational fields to siphon deflector shields, however the chiss had figured out a way to counter that by expanding the sphere of the inertial compensator by 13 meters, that helped protect the shields from the gravitational stresses."
"How come you never mentioned this before?" Aaron demanded.
"I didn't feel it was necessary." Micah answered.
"An alien race from another galaxy shows up in our galaxy and the chiss didn't think it was a good Idea to tell the Republic or the Jedi?" Aaron retorted.
"I told you the Chiss don't trust outsiders, plus we originally thought that you were in league with them that's why I was sent in to join the Antarian rangers to determine if you were." Micah revealed.
"You were a spy?" Caleb asked his voice carried surprise.
"Why would you assume the Republic was in league with them?" Vega asked.
"Because when we first encountered them the Outbound Flight showed up in our space shortly before hand." Micah answered, "Now we know that isn't the case."
"The Outbound Flight? That went missing sometime before the clone wars, what happened to it?" Daniel asked curiously.
"Picket Force Two under Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo destroyed it." Micah answered.
Daniel had mixed feeling about the news on the one hand that destroyed any chance to expand into the unknown regions on the other it got rid of one of the few Jedi masters Daniel detested, Master Jorus C'baoth, that man unnerved Daniel even to this day especially his philosophy on how force sensitives were the rightful rulers of the universe and that they should take that place of course Jorus never took any action to take power so Daniel just blew him off as a man with all talk and no action unfortunately he had the misfortune of experiencing Jorus's bouts of anger that landed him in the healing ward, of course there were 5 other masters and 12 Jedi knights aboard the outbound flight some of them were decent people, he sighed, "Well nothing we can do about that now."
"If I may black bisector?" The Gree A.I asked causing everyone to turn to the commlink, "I believe I can come up with some tactics, and technology to fight the 'Far Outsiders' I just need all the tactical Data you have on them Ranger Micah."
Micah nodded "You'll have it by tomorrow."
"By the way Alpha how are the suits and bodies coming along?" Daniel asked.
"They'll be done in three days black bisector." Alpha answered.
"What is he talking about?" Guardian asked curiously having felt that it related to him and his children.
Daniel looked at the elder shard than at the others "You didn't tell him?" he asked the rangers.
Caleb palmed his face at the reminder "I felt like we forgot something."
"I'm just messing with you I know what he's talking about." Guardian stated monotonically "I did however tell Vega to tell the AI to just make me a droid body not a hybrid so I could make sure that none of you abuse my children." Guardian added.
"I can't speak for the others but if I were to do such a thing I will not stop you from doing whatever to me." Daniel told him.
"All I can say is that you will like the Body I'm making for you Guardian." Alpha said.
"I look forward to seeing it." Guardian stated.
"Father." another shard spoke up, "four of us have volunteered to bond with the other force users." the second eldest said.
"What's he talking about?" Daniel asked curiously.
"After Vega allowed me to probe his essence I learned of what you wanted to do so I told my children to see if they wanted to bond with any of you at first I thought there'd only be four of you but the arrival of this one," indicating Asajj, "I said five of them choose."
"Are you sure?" Daniel asked the shards, a bond like that was for life and despite the fact that Daniel, Vega, and Auron were all young 'well Auron technically is over 3500 years old' the shards had much longer life spans than humans.
"Yes we're sure, this is the best way to ensure that we can function better as suit and wearer." the other shard said.
Daniel nodded and knelt down in front of them "I accept your offering and offer myself to you in turn." Daniel said.
"You Daniel Valo son of Naomi Valo and padawan of the Jedi order, Is who I have chosen to be my wearer." the second shard said, "Call me Sentinel." the one now identified as Sentinel identified himself.
Daniel nodded "Thank you for your trust Sentinel I won't break it." Daniel promised.
"Vega Ryal Padawan of the Jedi Order, I Adegan choose you to be my wearer." another shard spoke up, Vega walked over to Adegan.
"Thank you, Adegan." Vega said with a small bow of respect.
"Auron apprentice to Darth Aartsengel, I Qixoni choose you to be my wearer." another shard stated Auron could feel a warning from Guardian and nodded his head.
"Thank you for trusting me." Auron bowed.
"Asajj Ventress, I Rubat choose you to be my wearer." a fourth crystal stated, Asajj looked at the shard with uncertainty before she nodded hesitantly.
"Thank you." she said softly.
Daniel nodded to himself "Now that, that's done I think it would be best if we find a planet to set down and wait for Darth Navѐ to come to us."
"We took care of that while you were throwing a hissy fit." Caleb said humorously, drawing a scowl from the padawan, "We sent out several probes to find a suitable system without Mnggal-Mnggal presence or any presence for that matter, and we narrowed it down to three possibilities." Caleb said as he brought up a map.
The Map highlighted three star systems and Caleb selected the first one about three light years away, "First we have the system with a blue giant, it has 6 planets in the stars orbit 2 of them Terrestrial and the rest Jovian, only one of the terrestrial planet is habitable." Caleb stated.
"Unfortunately that system is far too close to the Nihil Retreat." Micah said shutting that idea down.
"Why is that a problem?" Caleb asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because the Nihil Retreat is home to the Sorcerers of Rhand." Micah answered.
"Ah good point, moving on than." he than panned the projection over to a system with a binary star a white dwarf orbiting a yellow star "This system has 8 planets, 3 terrestrial, 4 Jovian, thing is one of the Jovian's is actually habitable we just need a platform to stay in the sky." Caleb reported.
"Caleb it would be ideal to have ground underneath our boots, not gas." Aaron said.
"Ok and finally." he panned the projection over again to a system with a blue sun, "This system has 14 planet's 8 terrestrial and 6 Jovian, two of the terrestrial planets are habitable and so is one of the Jovian planets as well as several moons in the system." Caleb reported.
Daniel liked this option the best, infact every one liked that option the best, "What does our resident expert on the unknown regions have to say about this?" Caleb asked Micah.
Micah nodded in admiration "I like it I'll set a course, it'll take about a week to get there."
"What about mineral deposits?" The Gree A.I. asked curiously.
"I wasn't really looking into that but now that we have decided I'll have the probes look into it it will take them a few days to tell us what we're looking at though."
"Is that all there is to discuss?" Micah asked, everybody looked at each other before shaking their heads, "Than meeting adjourned, let's go about our business."
AN: Check out my friend's stuff he's known as RevengeS197, explanations: yes I am allowing force users to unlock their aura's however as a result their semblances won't be to extraordinary, my friend pointed out that the scene where the shards chose their partners came across as a Pokémon reference I was not trying to make a reference to that it was actually a reference to a series of books I read called "His Majesties Dragon." if you like history and dragons this series combines the war with Napoleon and Europe but includes Dragons I can't recommend that series enough check it out it's a great read. if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask and I'll see you in the next chapter see you than.