AN: hello every body this one took a while sorry about that, but any way I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I only own my Oc's, the Sages of Ashla, the language of Tythonian, and that it.
(Chapter 7 the calm before the storm)
After the meeting was finished Daniel, Vega, Auron, and Asajj along with the shards that chose them went to the training room to practice fighting, "Daniel what martial arts are you familiar with?" Auron asked the padawan.
"I am proficient in Shi-Cho, Soresu, Ataru, Shien, Niman, and Aaron has been teaching me some martial arts he learned in his days as a mercenary." Daniel answered, "I was mostly in fights with blaster wielding droids so I'm not optimized for duels with trained force sensitives."
Auron nodded "We'll see about that, come at me." Auron commanded as he drew his lightsaber, activated it and held it in a defensive stance, Daniel nodded and activated his yellow blade and attacked the apprentice "Don't hold anything back treat this as if it's a fight to the Death!" Auron exclaimed as he parried the blow and countered causing Daniel bring his lightsaber to block the blow he barely managed to stop it, he than countered by leaping over the sith and tried to strike his exposed flank but Auron knew what he was doing and countered by throwing him across the room, Daniel stood up and leaped at the former sith and struck down at him Auron met the blow easily and sweeped Daniel's legs out from under him, Daniel fell to the ground but instantly recovered by throwing a push at the apprentice and standing up, Auron was sent flying up to the ceiling but he recovered half way and flipped around and pushed himself off the ceiling and into Daniel, Auron then sent a blast of low level lightning into Daniel.
"ARGH!" Daniel screamed in pain and punched Auron across the face, causing the 3500 year old teen to fall off of him and stand up Daniel started to bash into Auron's defences, Auron knew that he was trying to do Djem So he was doing ok but it was sloppy, Auron activated his second blade and incorporated his saber staff, Daniel struck at him, Auron purposely deactivated one of his Blade and caused Daniel to over swing, He than bashed Daniel over the head with the hilt of his weapon "All right I've seen what I need to." Auron said and deactivated his blade, Daniel nodded and deactivated his blade as well, and started to rub his head, "You did pretty well for someone who's never fought to the death before." Auron commented.
"I'm nowhere near as good as I could be." Daniel said with a wince.
Auron nodded in agreement "I saw that you used Djem So in our bout you said you didn't have any proficiency with it." Auron stated.
Daniel chuckled "Call it a desperation tactic, I always wanted to bolster my dueling abilities I figured Djem So was the best way to go, I unfortunately never got around to it."
"I don't know, you did pretty well with it for someone who never used it before, I can teach you the techniques of Djem So if you wish." Auron told him.
"I said I'd be willing to learn anything you are willing to teach me." Daniel told him
"In that case if you want to also learn how to fight better I will teach you some techniques myself." Asajj spoke up somewhat gruffly.
Daniel chuckled nervously "Okay." he said, then he saw the smirk on Asajj's lips, 'What did I get myself into, on one hand it would be nice to learn Makashi, on the other it's Asajj, she's going to eat me alive' he bemoaned to himself.
Auron then turned to Vega, "What about you Vega what schools of Martial arts are you familiar with?" he asked.
Vega was nervous "Don't worry I'm not going to make you fight me." Auron assured him.
Vega nodded "I only know what Daniel and Aaron have taught me, as well as marksmanship from Caleb." he answered.
Auron nodded in understanding "Alright then now all you need is a lightsaber to apply those techniques you learned from Daniel."
"Yeah, uh How do I make an Synthetic Crystal?" Vega asked.
Auron looked Daniel "Do you have a furnace on the ship?" he asked the Padawan.
"I think it's in the metal storage area." Daniel answered, "Follow me." he beckoned and led them out of the training room and into the metal storage area, indeed there was a small refinery in the room which fed materials into the assembly room adjacent to the room, "Yep we do." he said pointing to the furnace.
Auron sighed in disappointment, "It's not the right kind we'll have to build it on the planet, until then," Auron unclipped his master's saber from his hip and held it out to Vega, "You can use this." Auron told Vega, who looked at the weapon hesitantly than he looked at Daniel.
"It's Okay Vega the light saber won't hurt you, in fact I'm sure if you ask, Auron will allow you to purify the Dark side energy from the crystal." Daniel said, Vega turned back to Auron.
"If you must, I don't care." Auron answered the Question before Vega could ask.
Vega tentatively took the Saber from Auron "Thank you." He said gratefully
Auron smiled "Think nothing of it, though I will put you both through utter hell over the next month think of this as an easy start."
Asajj smirked she was definitely looking forward to the following month.
"Oh no." Daniel groaned.
The next morning Caleb was preparing breakfast for the group which consisted of about thirty people 'and nobody wants to help.' Caleb thought to himself as he worked hard to make breakfast he heard the door open 'please be someone who will help me?' he begged as he turned to see Alpha 17 in his chair and another clone behind him "Hello." Caleb greeted with a small wave.
Alpha 17 nodded at him "How are you doing?" the Arc trooper asked.
"I'm fine, look I'm sorry about Daniel…" Caleb started.
"It's Okay he's right we probably should have told the Jedi about the contingency order." Alpha sighed.
"Perhaps, but he shouldn't be casting the blame on you or the clones on this ship you didn't participate in the Massacre and you are just as much a victim of Sidious as we all are." Caleb said.
Alpha had tears well up in his eyes and he swallowed a lump in his throat, this surprised Caleb he never thought clones would get emotional like this, "He took our individuality away and turned us into nothing more than flesh droids, that and he started producing another clone army…" Alpha started.
"Wait what?" Caleb asked making sure he heard right "Another clone army?"
"These were made using Spaarti cylinders, I started to notice a slight change in some of the new recruits, I did a bit of digging and discovered that they were being produced via Spaarti clones, unfortunately before I could gather any evidence to support this I was transferred to the front line at Boz Pity and Grievous nearly killed me now I'm not a betting man but I have a feeling Palpatine caught wind of me snooping around." Alpha explained, This information was good for Caleb he knew about Spaarti cloning tech and that they could produce an entire army of clones in the span of a year of course the Quality of soldier was nowhere near as good compared to the soldiers the Kaminoans pumped out, due to the fact that these clones were essentially nothing but flesh droids and how they were made instead of being trained they were given memory flashes to learn how to use blasters, speak, and other basic functions and of course the clones tended to go insane all the time.
"What kind of monster does that?" Caleb asked, these were slaves with no free will of their own and he hated it of course so were the clones made by Kaminoans but at least they had free will and Caleb always hoped that once the war was over the Clones would be free to do what they pleased as citizens of the Republic.
"I know right! That's why I want to fight the empire to put an end to Sidious's reign and Finally die in peace." Alpha said.
Caleb looked at the paralysed clone for a moment, "I have no Idea when we're going to back to fight that monster." Caleb told him.
"I hope it's soon my brothers and I have an expiration date remember?" Alpha said bitterly, Caleb looked at the clones in sympathy before he had a thought.
"Why didn't I think of it before, look can you finish making Breakfast I need to check something Quickly!" Caleb asked the healthy clone before he took off running like a man with a purpose offering no explanation.
"What was that all about?" The clone asked as he took over in making breakfast, Prompting a shrug from Alpha.
Caleb ran into the turbolift and rode it down to the training deck and ran into the assembler room "Alpha?" he called
"Hello Ranger Sobec, how may I help you?" Alpha asked
"Please just call me Caleb, I'd like to Know are you aware of the clones accelerated aging process?" Caleb asked curiously.
"I am indeed, I must say the cloning methods used to create these clones are very inefficient." Alpha commented.
"Really the Gree used clones?" Caleb asked curiously
"The Gree had cloning technology used to replace organs and repair damaged tissue, the Gree have used it to clone entire people but this was a rare development and only used for couples who couldn't produce children naturally." Alpha explained, "If you wish, I can dig up the formula to slow down the aging process and help synthesise it." Alpha said.
"Please do so." Caleb said excitedly.
"Very well." Alpha said, "Unfortunately we don't have what we need at the moment to synthesise the formula."
"That's fine I'll send out a few Probes to look for what we need." Caleb told the AI.
"Alright then give me a data pad and I'll give you the ingredients." the AI stated, Caleb complied and did so, it took the AI less than a second to upload the data into the data pad, "Done, tell the droids to look for that."
"Alright." Caleb said as he looked at the list and made his way to the Tactical room, when he showed up bought up the command functions for the probe droids and put a series of commands to find the items on the list and deployed the droids to find those items, he also checked out the progress of the probe Droids in their system of choice, apparently they already found some Song Steel, Caleb was actually surprised, that mineral was very hard to come by and was one of the strongest metals in the galaxy on par with Phirk, he wondered what else they would find there, before he had back to the lounge to finish up breakfast.
When he got to the lounge he found one of the clones cracking some eggs and whipping it in the bowl, "Thank you I appreciate the help." Caleb said gratefully as he got another bowl and did the same, "What's your name?" Caleb asked, the clone looked at him curiously.
"I am thinking about one, I think that since we're going to this world I will name myself after a color." he answered.
Caleb nodded it made sense "Let me know when you decide." he said.
"Will do." he responded.
In the sleeping quarters Daniel was meditating with Sentinel to better bond with him, what this entailed was that the two would open themselves up to each other and get to know one another by letting each other probes each other's essence, it was an interesting experience the only other person Daniel had ever done this with was his teacher, there were some happy memories and some bad ones, he remembered that he had the misfortune of seeing the most terrifying memory that his mother ever experienced the rape that led to his conception and her most happiest memory his arrival into the world, when they emerged from that meditation he threw himself at her and told her that he loved her, "You didn't do much in those 1500 years on that planet did ya?" Daniel asked.
"No, we Shards are a patient people we can't go anywhere might as well just enjoy the scenery, but you have experiences, you dealt with the shame of being a product of a violent crime, endured abuse from some Jedi masters, you fought in a war for 3 years, a betrayal from the government you once served, a horrifying Parasite that infest an entire section of the galaxy, and now you are willing to save a planet of people you don't even know." Sentinel said, "You of course need to deal with your anger towards the clones." Sentinel stated.
"You saw what they did, who they killed." Daniel retorted he felt his eyes sting with unshed tears.
"Is that how they would want to be remembered, with acts of hatred and anger?" Sentinel asked gently.
Daniel felt tears fell down his face upon hearing that, "No." he sniffled, "That's not how they would want to be remembered," Daniel let out a small sob, "I know Alpha-17 and the others didn't participate in the massacre but every time I look at their faces I see the faces of their killers and I feel the need to defend myself because I think they're going to kill me too." Daniel explained as he cried silently.
"Broken bones, Destroyed buildings, these things are easily repaired, but Broken Friendships, Broken Trust these wounds take much longer to heal, Daniel take the first steps to heal, go to them." Sentinel told him.
Daniel looked away for a moment, "Daniel, I don't think Auron wants to teach a sith apprentice, he wants to help a friend." Sentinel added.
Daniel felt like a small child in that moment, "Will you go with me?" Daniel asked softly.
If Sentinel could he would have nodded, "Of course, let's not waste any time, and go to them."
Daniel nodded and came out of his meditation to find the room was empty which told him they went to go to breakfast, he released a shuddering breath and stood up, he picked up Sentinel and the two of them walked to the lounge well Daniel walked, Sentinel was along for the ride, he walked into the Lounge and everyone turned to face him.
"Hey Daniel foods on the counter." Caleb greeted.
Daniel looked at the food before looking back at the group, "Thanks, but there's something I need to do first." he said, he turned to the clones he looked at their faces and he felt those same emotions bubble to the surface, Sentinel sent waves of reassurance along their newly formed bond that strengthened every second, he took a deep breath "That night at the Temple I lost a lot of friends, Xey Pen, Du Epin, Viridian Mallory, and Kes Ametesti," he shuddered but continued "All of them died at the Temple, and when they died protecting the younglings I went ballistic, if it wasn't for Master K'kruhk and Padawan Piru I wouldn't be standing here, every time I look at your faces I see the face of their killers and I want nothing more than to tear you apart," Daniel told them honestly, "But by doing so I defile their memory, by holding onto this anger and hate, I tarnish the reason for why they fought I tarnish their memories," tears started to fall from his eyes, "And I don't want that, I know you didn't participate in the Massacre and I shouldn't cast all the blame onto you, You didn't kill them I know that, but when I look into your face I see the face of an enemy and I wish to defend myself but you never attack me and I'm left confused until I realise you aren't my enemy you're a Victim just like the rest of us." Daniel started to ramble before he stopped himself and took another Shuddering breath, "I want to fight alongside you again like we used to during the war, I want to repair the broken trust, I want to forgive you." Daniel cried, "But I feel I must also ask you to forgive me I have treated you like lesser beings and before you say 'it's fine' no it isn't fine, I should have realised that you aren't my enemy, Sidious is."
Everyone at the table was speechless at Daniel's speech even the clones were all gobsmacked, Alpha-17 brought himself in front of the young man the two of them looked at each other in the eyes, Daniel saw a sense of respect in the clone's eyes, and Alpha saw a pain and shame in the Padawan's eyes, "I can't speak for all of my brothers here," Alpha started, "But I forgive you and hope to one day fight alongside you as a brother again." Alpha told him.
Daniel nodded, Sentinel sent him waves of pride along their bond, Daniel smiled a watery smile even though Daniel still distrusted them it was a step in the right direction to rebuilding that trust.
Over the course of Breakfast Caleb reported that the probes found some songsteel in the system they were coming up on, much to the group's excitement, Alpha-17 also told him about Sidious making an army out Spaarti clones this helped Daniel realise that not all Clones at the temple weren't the traditional Kaminoan and it only served to lower his already low opinion on the Emperor.
After Breakfast was over the force users all went to the training room for an intense bout of training, while the clones went to the shooting range with the Rangers, "Okay so what are we going to do today?" Vega asked.
Auron smirked, "How are your defensive powers?" he asked.
Daniel immediately brought up a telekinetic barrier to protect him from the telekinetic push Auron sent their way, he stayed where he was while Vega was thrown across the room prompting Daniel to reach out and catch him, "I see you needed an active barrier to stop yourself from flying, we're going to spend today on developing your defensive powers." Auron announced and shot lightning at Daniel to shock him "No lightsabers for today." Auron added.
'He's enjoying this isn't he?' Daniel groaned from the electrical shock as he stood up 'I really hope the results are worth it.' he thought to himself as they began a grueling day of training.
"You worthless maggot!" Auron exclaimed after a few hours of blasting them with his force abilities, Vega had already managed to defend himself "You are supposed to defend against my attacks, I suppose you don't want to save mommy do you." Auron sneered, 'Ok I may be pushing it.'
Daniel's eyes narrowed in determination "Fine if that's how you want to play it hit me again!" Daniel shouted and hit himself in the chest, Auron threw another telekinetic push at Daniel and he stood there, than he started to make his way towards Auron screaming from the sheer effort of it, Auron was actually getting worried so he cupped his hands together quickly gathered his energies and threw a more powerful push at Daniel, Daniel was thrown from his feet and sent careening into the wall however he recovered by flipping over in the air and catching himself on the wall before coming off of it, "I did it!" Daniel screamed joyfully and laughed in jubilation, prompting a grin of satisfaction from Auron.
"You did but you should work on strengthening those telekinetic defences, that goes for you as well Vega." Auron told them prompting a nod from the two Jedi, he looked at the chrono, then back at them "Let's take a food break than we'll focus on defending against energy based attacks." Auron told them, the group nodded and went to grab some grub he than turned to Asajj, "So what about you?" he asked.
Asajj just looked at him for a moment "how about a spar?" she asked casually.
Auron smirked "You're on." he said and drew his lightsaber, Asajj did the same and charged the apprentice, Auron redirected her strike effortlessly, and countered by butting the hilt of his lightsaber in the back of her head, she growled and turned to face him she than struck with her sabers she fought with such precision that Auron thought she could perform neurosurgery with those sabers, she also fought with such grace that to Auron it felt as if she was dancing, after getting a feel for his opponent he launched his own counter attack, he unleashed a Djem So assault believing that she'd be weak against a strength based style, this proved to be somewhat correct she was left scrambling, she lept away and used her agility to her advantage, she approached more cautiously and the bout continued for several minutes without a sign of either of them tiring, Daniel and Vega had come back from their brief food break and saw the fight still going on without any sign of a victor after a few more minutes the combatants broke off and looked at each other both looking at the other with a sense of respect, "What do you say we finish this later and train these two slackers?" Auron asked somewhat sinisterly.
Asajj grinned and agreed "Very well teach them tutaminis they'll need it." she said and the two deactivated their sabers, she walked over to the side and watched as the fun unfolded.
"Do any of you know what Tutaminis is?" Auron asked.
"I have some skill but I've only used it in a utilitarian sense." Daniel answered.
"I haven't learned it yet." Vega answered.
Auron nodded he thought as much Jedi at this stage don't really perfect energy absorption for combative applications, "Okay then, Daniel I will work with you Vega grab a blaster give it to Asajj and she'll shoot you." Auron told him.
"Wait what?!" Vega shouted.
"You want to learn energy absorption quickly or not?" Auron asked.
"Yes, but not at the chance of dying!" Vega exclaimed.
"You learn faster under duress don't worry, you'll be fine." Auron said, "maybe." he added under his breath.
"What was that?" Vega asked
"Nothing." Auron answered, he looked at Daniel who was giving him a glare, Auron gave a look to tell him it will be fine "She'll set the blaster to sting." he told him quietly.
"She better." Daniel growled, "so what are we going to do?" Daniel asked.
"I'm going to test your limit see what you can do under duress." Auron answered and shot a bolt of lighting at the young Jedi.
Daniel on reflex brought his hand up to catch the bolt the bolt made contact with his hand and for half a second he managed to defuse the energy but it ultimately proved too much for him and he was electrocuted, he screamed in agony for a moment before it was done, he collapsed to the ground "I have a distinct feeling that you're enjoying this way too much." Daniel growled at Auron.
"I wouldn't have to try and rush you both if we had a bigger time table." Auron retorted, "That being said you managed to defuse my lightning for less than a second we'll have to strengthen your abilities and you'll be absorbing lightning no problem, at least from a person of my caliber anyway." Auron commented.
"That's better than nothing." Daniel said, "Besides we'll both improve our abilities who knows what we can do eventually." Daniel told him.
Auron nodded "You have to remember we also need to learn discipline so we don't become power hungry narcissists."
Daniel nodded such a danger was very real, than he had an Idea, "I think we should hold eachother accountable, that way when any of us stray too far the others are there to catch us." Daniel suggested, he said this outloud so everyone in the room could hear.
All the force users looked at each other, "So you want to remain true to the light?" Asajj asked gruffly.
"Yes I do." Daniel said.
"Daniel our shards will serve as the people who hold us accountable." Auron told him.
"I know but we all can and should hold each other accountable." Daniel reiterated as he looked at all of them.
Asajj shrugged to show she wasn't against it, Vega nodded and agreed with it, "I have no problem with that." Auron said.
Daniel nodded, "So all of us are in agreement about this?" Daniel asked, everyone nodded.
"Yep, now let's get back to training." Auron smirked.
'Oh sheb.' Daniel cursed as he prepared for another round of torture.
Aaron was in the tactical room drinking some tea and looking at the map, last night he sent out three probes to see if they could find Darth Navѐ so that they could get better grasp of the amount of time they had to prepare, he discovered something peculiar but before he could investigate he heard the turbolift door open and he turned to see Katelyn walking in.
"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't realise anyone would be in here." Katelyn exclaimed upon seeing him.
"It's okay I actually am just check the probes telemitry Micah and I sent out some to try and Find Darth Navѐ." Aaron explained.
Katelyn nodded in understanding, "Would you like some help?" she asked a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.
Aaron looked at her and nodded "Yeah, I found something just now and am trying to clear up the signal." he told her trying to be as professional as possible.
Katelyn walked over to the console and started to work "It may take a few minutes." she said, she saw that he had some tea, "Can I have some tea please?" she asked politely.
Aaron nodded and grabbed another cup, poured the tea from the thermos and handed it to her, "As you wish." he said charmingly, 'Okay what the hell am I doing?' he asked himself.
Katelyn just smiled, chuckled and accepted the cup, "Thank you." She said gratefully as she took a drink and began to work, after a few minutes she cleared it up and found that the probe found a ship, "The probe found a ship I don't recognise, could it belong to Navѐ?" Katie asked Aaron, as she blew the image up to the holo Projector.
Aaron looked at the ship for a moment he instantly recognised it as a Pursuer-Class enforcement ship used by the Mandalorians, "I doubt it, but it never hurts to be sure." Aaron answered as he called the force users in the training room, "Sorry for bothering you but I need your help in the tactical room please." Aaron said, just as he heard someone scream in pain.
"We're on our way!" Auron said, a few minutes later the four force users arrived, Daniel and Vega looked worse for wear, but Aaron knew that they were training really hard to face the immortal sith lord, "What's the matter?" Auron asked as he saw the ship on the holo projector.
"That's a Mandalorian ship." Daniel observed, "Why show us this?" Daniel asked confused
"You see last night I sent out some probes to see if they could find Navѐ's ship and this one is following us now I highly doubt that Navѐ owns the ship but I wanted to be certain." Aaron explained.
Daniel and Auron both reached out with their senses and found that no indeed it didn't belong to Navѐ, "No it's not him, but they could be useful allies try contacting them." Daniel said.
"I can send a signal through the probe." Katelyn said as she made it happen, "Done! Try talking into it." she said.
Aaron nodded and did so, "Hello Mandalorian vessel, what brings you this far into the unknown regions?" he asked, and waited for a moment.
"I...ra...re...senato... Na... ent… me." was the static filled reply.
"The Probe has some problems it's not properly relaying the signal." Katelyn reported.
"I'm sorry the probe has a problem can you fix it and repeat?" Aaron asked.
Vega was a bit confused "Why not contact them with the long range transmitter?" he asked.
Daniel turned to Vega "So Darth Navѐ can't pick it up as easily." Daniel answered.
After several minutes a voice of a young man came through the communicator, "Can you hear me now?" he asked
"We can indeed, I am Aaron Sobec of the Antarian Rangers, and you are?" Aaron asked.
"I am Rarok Cadera, I was tasked by Senator Organa to follow you and make sure you were fine." the man now identified as Rarok said, Ventress's eyes narrowed at the communicator but she said nothing.
"That depends on your definition of fine, considering that we're being followed by an immortal sith lord and are in a region being plagued by some kind of parasite, and may or may not encounter an extra galactic species out here." Aaron stated.
"Sounds like the adventure of a lifetime." Rarok commented.
"Eh… depends on who you are." Aaron said.
"True, so I am planning on helping you out but I have no idea where to go I've just been following the hyperspace wake from a ship." Rarok told them, Aaron looked at Auron and Daniel they nodded reassuringly than Daniel did a hand signal 'he has a Jedi on board.'
Aaron's eyes widened then, "Okay, Look before I tell you where to go I'm going to get the others." Aaron said, and got on the ship's internal communicator to call for Caleb, Micah, and Rohkea to get to the tactical room, when they all arrived Aaron immediately muted the audio so that Rarok couldn't hear them, "I think we may have a situation." Aaron began.
"A good situation or bad one?" Micah asked concerned.
"It may be good." Aaron answered.
"What?" Caleb asked confused.
"Do any of you know a Rarok Cardea?" Aaron asked, Asajj and Micah nodded their heads to show that yes they did know him, "Okay, Micah what do you know of him?" Aaron asked.
"His uncle was a member of the Cuy'val Dar the mandalorians responsible for training the elite clone troopers." Micah answered, "He also partook in the training with the clone commandos and fought in the war on the Republic's side." he added.
Aaron started to chuckle when he heard that, and turned to Asajj "I'm guessing you encountered him on the battlefield huh?" he asked.
Asajj merely snarled, and turned away not interested in partaking in the discussion, Aaron just let the matter be, "So he is apparently following the hyperspace wake of a ship, according to the probe it would take him a little over a month and a half to get to us if he follows that wake, I'm guessing he's following Darth Navѐ's ship." Aaron concluded.
"What do you think can he be trusted?" Micah asked looking for everyones opinion.
Aaron looked at Daniel, "Daniel here told me that he can sense a Jedi aboard his ship." Aaron stated, causing the others to look at the Padawan.
Daniel nodded to show that indeed he could sense a Jedi on board the ship, Auron stretched out with his senses and he to sensed a Jedi's presence on the ship, "I sense it too." Auron commented.
"He feels cold like he's in hibernation." Daniel added, this caused the group to think for a moment.
"Could he be in stasis?" Caleb asked reasonably.
Aaron looked at him and shrugged, "One way to find out." He answered and brought the audio back up, "Hello, you still there?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah still here." Rarok answered, "So I guess you want to know if you can trust me?" he asked.
"I'm sure you understand, but given with what's happened one can never be too careful." Micah answered, he subtly sent for Alpha 17 to come to the tactical room seeing as Alpha was an elite clone trooper and probably met this Rarok before.
"I completely understand and hold nothing against you, so fire away." Rarok responded.
Just than Alpha 17 came into the tactical room and rolled on up to the group, "You called for me sir?" Alpha asked.
"I did indeed Alpha, tell me do you know a mandalorian by the name of Rarok Cardea?" Micah asked.
Alpha looked at the chiss in confusion for a moment before he nodded, "Yes I do mostly by reputation, he's trustworthy and a good fighter, sir may I ask why do you wish to know?" Alpha asked curiously.
"Because he's following us in a ship right now." Micah answered.
"You found Alpha?" Rarok asked surprised
"Well I'll be damned." Alpha muttered, "Sir I believe that he is here to help us, I will vouch for him and if I'm proven wrong well…" Alpha trailed off but they knew what he was talking about.
"Thank you Alpha." Micah said with a nod, " there is something I'd like to ask of you Mr. Cardea, Do you have a Jedi onboard your vessel?" Micah asked seriously.
"So he's a Jetiise?" Rarok asked, "I found him in stasis on a ship that was derelict, he was the only survivor, he's a cathar and if the ship records are to be believed it's from the Mandalorian wars, do the math."
"Why haven't you woken him up yet aside from the obvious?" Micah demanded.
They heard Rarok sigh on the other end "Because the medical scan indicates that if I do, I run the risk of killing him If it's not in a safe environment and unfortunately my ship isn't exactly the best place to do so, not only that but he's suffering from a disease and I don't have the medicine to cure him." Rarok answered.
"What does he suffer from?" Micah asked concerned
"Falsin's Rot." the Mandalorian answered.
"That can be treated through the use of Bacta what the problem?" Caleb asked.
"I just told you, I dare not risk awakening him until I have better facilities at my disposal." Rarok answered somewhat annoyed.
"Wouldn't we have the proper facilities?" Aaron asked the Chiss.
Micah seemed to think about it before he shook his head, "Not at the moment but I can get the Alpha AI to build something, that reminds me, Rarok I'm going to send you on a slight detour I need you to go to a planet called Mugg Fallow and pick up a Sith Harrower Dreadnought." he said much to the surprise of the group and the Mandalorian.
"What?"
"I gave the Gree AI all the tactical data on the far outsiders I could and he determined that the 'Gauntlet' would be a great weapon to use against them if we ever encountered them." Micah explained with a smirk.
"But the Gauntlet was destroyed by Havoc Squad during the cold war." Daniel pointed out.
"Apparently Darth Aartsengel, had a prototype that they built during the War itself and his defection set its production back a few years." Micah answered.
"Okay just tell me where to go and I'll get back to you." Rarok said.
"I'm sending the Data to you now." Micah answered as he placed the Data pad against the console, "you will find all the Data about the threats we're facing out here I recommend you read it and it will also contain the coordinates to where we are going so you can get to us earlier." Micah told him.
"Will do, see you soon." Rarok stated as he cut the link.
"Wow, I think we should be called archeologist now." Caleb chuckled much to the confusion of the group, "Think about it, we keep finding ancient people from the past and as well as other Ancient Relics." Caleb explained.
Aaron just rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Sure, let's get back to training okay." Aaron suggested getting nods from everyone and everyone went to carry out their business.
After six days they arrived at the star system that Caleb had found and on the way discovered that the system had a lot of lightsaber resistant material from Song Steal to Phirik, the AI immediately went about to building mining droids to mine the metals so they can use them at a later date, during the trip the AI finally finished the shards droid bodies and Guardian as well as the other shards were looking forward to testing their droid bodies out on the planet when the ship set down the group all went out to see how the planet was, they chose the terrestrial planet in the habitation zone as their base of operation and set down in a clearing of a dense forest the trees were tall enough to shield the ship from any prying eyes that could be watching.
After the ship set down the crew did several surveys of the planet and found evidence of an old civilization on the Planet, "Should we check those ruins out?" Caleb asked
Auron really wanted to check out due to him being trained as an Inquisitor it was one of his duties to find ancient sith knowledge he of course didn't limit himself to just sith knowledge and one of his passions was archeology, "Maybe we should the force users can check it out and We can train and continue to hone our abilities while you all do what you need to do." Auron stated
Micah looked at them thoughtfully before he reluctantly agreed, "Okay but we should maintain contact." he told them.
Auron nodded and turned to the other force users "let's pack up and head out." the force uses nodded and packed some tents and rations and grabbed some of the speeders they salvaged from the ship "We'll see you in about a month." Auron said before they zoomed off towards the ruins, leaving the non force sensitives in the middle of the forest.
"Well I think we should set up a training regime." Caleb suggested, everyone nodded in agreement and went to work on doing that.
It took the force users two hours to get to the ruins, the parked their speeders and all of them agreed donned their new armor both to test it and for safety precautions, Daniel walked up to sentinel in his droid/suit Hybrid that looked very much like the armor the Jedi designed with some slight differences "Alright Sentinel let's do this." Daniel said.
Sentinel nodded and the front of the armor opened up big enough for Daniel to step into, Daniel turned and walked backwards into the suit, Sentinel made sure he was in it properly before sealing the armor with a hiss to show that it was vacuum sealed, Daniel looked at himself and marveled at how the suit felt like it was a part of him, he clenched his and into a fist and opened it several times and bent his knees, "It's going to take some getting used to but so far I like it." Daniel stated impressed.
Sentinel hummed in agreement, "Alpha said that in this suit your strength, speed, and reflexes are all tripled at the very least and if I were to increase the output I could bring it up to 5 times but he didn't recommend to do that for now, until he finished with the upgrades, he even said that one day we could increase it by a factor of 10 but that would be some time down the road." Alpha told Daniel.
Daniel nodded in fascination "That sounds nice, but I shouldn't neglect my training in Force Valor." Daniel said.
Sentinel hummed in agreement again "Agreed, you won't be able to always utilise this suit, as much as I enjoy your company Daniel this is still my Body." Sentinel said humorously.
Daniel chuckled, "True and I promise I won't overly rely on your body's suit function." Daniel told the Shard.
"Thank you Daniel." Sentinel said gratefully, "Shall we see what we can do?" Sentinel asked excitedly.
"Let's see." Daniel smirked and took off running towards the ruins that looked alot like a fortress or a temple maybe both, Daniel noticed how much easier it felt to run than normal it felt literally effortless and he could tell he was running much faster than he would normally pull off however he wasn't running faster than he could if he used the force to augment his speed but it was alright anyway, he noticed that he was running towards a gorge and he leaped over it he didn't even need to augment his Jump with the force to clear the 30 meter gap, he stuck the landing and looked back and laughed in disbelief, "Wow that was amazing, I did all that without using the Force." he said in disbelief.
"I did have to increase the force multiplier output in the legs to get over the gap." Sentinel told Daniel.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that on purpose." Daniel apologised, 'I should have thought about that, Sentinel did say that he could push the suit's force multiplier to a factor of 5 but it wasn't recommended.' Daniel thought to himself, "Are you Okay?" Daniel asked concerned.
"I'm fine, but please refrain from doing that until the AI says it's ok." Sentinel said.
Daniel nodded when the comm on his suit rang to life "Daniel here." Daniel answered.
"Couldn't wait for the rest of us?" Auron asked amused.
Daniel chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head "Sorry about that, got excited." Daniel said.
"Never let anyone tell you Jedi don't have emotion." Auron mused with a chuckle, "Watch out we're coming in." Auron stated, Daniel turned to see the others leaping over the chasm onto the side he was on.
"I must admit, these suits are amazing." Vega said excitedly while flexing when he arrived, Asajj said nothing but she silently agreed with the boy.
"Indeed, though I'm a bit worried about becoming too reliant on the suits." Daniel said bringing up a great point.
"The answer's simple we only utilise the suits when the situation calls for it." Auron stated.
"Plus the suits are also my children's bodies." Guardian piped in.
Auron, Asajj, Vega, and Daniel nodded, "So what we need to do is look at the situation and decide if it's better to have three very powerful combatants or six not as powerful combatants." Asajj said.
Auron shrugged, "We can worry about that later let's go explore the ruins." Auron suggested, the other agreed willing to shelve the topic for a later date.
The group made their trek to the temple ruins, Guardian told the remainder of the shards to stay and set up camp and keep a look out for any threats, as they walked into the temple they looked around Daniel noted that the architecture bore similarities to Jedi temples that he had visited it still contained features almost alien to Daniel, for one the temple has carvings on the walls which depicted great epics and history Daniel wish he could understand the text it looked to be descended from Tythonian but he couldn't understand the language at the moment, "Well this is interesting." Daniel commented, he could feel Auron's excitement through the force it was akin to that of a child in a candy store, Daniel looked over and saw that Vega was looking at one of the walls intently, he walked over to him and looked at the wall as well what he saw shocked him, he turned back to the group "Guys come take a look at this." he said, they didn't miss the urgency in his voice and came right over.
"What's the matt...er?" Auron started to ask but when he saw the wall he understood, "Oh."
"So these people fought those creatures that terrorize that planet huh?" Asajj asked, indeed the carvings depicted a conflict with the very same creatures, and these people who they now were certain were Force users.
"You know what this means right?" Guardian asked.
Auron nodded "There's bound to be some knowledge on these creatures somewhere in the temple, Daniel we're going to need your expertise in languages." Auron told him.
Daniel looked at him "I'll do my best, but the language is unknown to me it looks similar to Tythonian but it's also too different for me to understand at the moment." Daniel answered.
Vega looked surprised, "Isn't Tythonian the ancient language of the Jedi? Vega asked.
Daniel nodded "Yes it is, we are typically taught that when we are younger at around 5, You just barely started to learn it correct?" Daniel asked, prompting a nod from Vega, "Don't worry I'll take care of the translation." Daniel told him.
Vega nodded and looked at the carvings again, while Daniel looked at the text on the wall thinking that maybe he might be able to glean something useful perhaps a name to their quarry, Daniel saw the same word appear again and if his rough translation was correct he believed that he found the name, "see these word here, it's äzäzil" Daniel explained as he pointed at the text.
Auron and Asajj looked at him, "In case you haven't noticed we don't speak Tythonian." Asajj hissed.
"Loosely translated it means 'beings of the void' at least it does in old Tythonian; like I said, this is descended from Tythonian it probably means something else." Daniel explained.
"Well atleast we now have a name for our enemies rather than 'creatures'." Auron commented
"Void spawns?" Vega suggested.
"Good one." Asajj agreed.
"I wonder what this group actually is, they look similar to the Jedi but they're most definitely different." Daniel observed as he studied an image force wielder battling the Void spawns.
"I'm curious about their fate." Auron stated, "I mean seriously what happened to them?"
"A good question young one." An unfamiliar voice answered prompting the group to turn around to see a spirit clad in battle armor similar to the warriors in the carvings.
"Well if it's such a good question, I would like a good answer." Auron retorted.
The spirit shrugged, "Most of us died." he answered nonchalantly as if it was not a big deal.
"Works for me, how?" Auron asked.
The spirit pointed down a hallway, "That hallway tells the tale of our end." the spirit answered
The group all looked down the hall to see the walls covered in the same carvings depicting an epic of a war against the Void spawns some that they were familiar with others they weren't one looked like a massive dragon, and another a Bantha but with a weird appendage rather than a snout, they also saw a picture of a demonic looking woman, she was deathly white, her eyes were black with glowing red eye irises, she also resembled a queen and she looked to be commanding the creatures.
"Who the heck is this?" Auron asked the question that was on everybody's mind.
"We called her kuningatar mitätön." the spirit answered.
"You called her the 'Queen of Fertility'?" Vega asked confused.
Everyone looked at Vega strangely, "Vega, motätön is what he would've said if that were the case." Daniel told him, "He said if I'm right, 'Queen of the Void'?" Daniel asked.
The spirit nodded, "You know our language?" he asked.
"It bears a resemblance to ancient Tythonian the ancient Language of the Jedi." Daniel answered.
The spirit's eyes widened "Ah, so you are the others!" he exclaimed
"Eh?"
"You probably don't know what I'm saying, it's Okay I don't blame you I didn't know this myself till I became one with Ashla."
Asajj just groaned, "We don't need to know about your sex life." she growled
Daniel resisted the urge to palm his face, "Ashla is the ancient name of the Force, Asajj." Daniel grounded out, "He basically said 'he didn't know until he became one with the Force'."
"Whatever." Asajj muttered.
"Any way please continue." Auron said.
"I'm sure you're aware that the Jedi order was founded on Tython correct?" the spirit asked
"From what we know of yes, the followers of Ashla and the followers of Bogan fought each other in a conflict known as the 'Force Wars' the Followers of Ashla won and left Tython and eventually settled on the planet Ossus there they eventually became the Jedi Order." Daniel answered.
The spirit nodded in confirmation, "Yes, but what you may not know is that on the journey some of the followers of Ashla drifted away to the unknown regions till we eventually settled on this world, we called ourselves the Sages of Ashla and we dedicated ourselves to fighting the threats of this section of the Galaxy."
Daniel raised an eyebrow, "Did the Sages ever encounter the Mnggal-Mnggal."
"We stayed as far away from that thing as possible."
"Good choice."
"Tell me have you ever fought the Sorcerers of Rhand?" Auron asked curiously.
"On a few occasions but those were the extreme Zealots."
"So like the group terrorizing that planet we're heading to?" Asajj stated more than asked.
"Yeah people like them." the spirit answered.
"You said that there were a few of you left, Where?" Vega asked.
The spirit's eyes hardened and he took a stance, this caused the group to tense and also take combat stances, "I'm afraid I cannot answer that." the Spirit said deathly calm, "The last person who came here tried to and succeeded at killing one of them and I won't let the rest of them be harmed."
"Woah, calm down we're not looking to harm them we thought that maybe they could help us fight these creatures or train us in certain techniques, no harm meant." Daniel said trying to diffuse the situation.
The spirit studied them, "I won't take you to them until you prove yourselves." he told them.
"uh, prove ourselves?" Vega asked.
The spirit nodded "the last of the Sages are under my protection and I won't allow them to die needlessly." he stated as he clenched his hand into a fist.
"They killed someone close to you didn't they?" Daniel asked sympathetically.
The Spirit looked away his grief and anger evident, "I understand." Daniel told him.
"I know you do." the spirit stated, "I suggest that you train and get ready you're enemy will arrive when the moon reaches its next full moon stage a month and a half from now, if you wish to learn any techniques you'll find manuals in the vault in the east wing" the spirit informed them.
"Wait you never said what it was we needed to do to prove ourselves." Asajj shouted.
The Spirit just looked at her with a blank expression, "You must have the heart of a Sage." he said cryptically and faded away.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" Asajj screeched in annoyance
"Maybe they're like the Jedi?" Vega suggested.
"I refuse to be anything like the Jedi!" Asajj screamed, Frightening the Boy.
"That's your decision." Daniel told her.
"That's all you have to say, 'That's your decision.'" Asajj spat at the older padawan.
"Look I don't particularly care about your beef with the Jedi order all I care about is if you're going to help us or not." Daniel said.
Asajj growled at him, "You want to know what my issue with the Jedi is? Your order abandoned my master, Ky Narek, who was far more of a Jedi than any of you."
"Than Be a Jedi Like Ky Narek!" Daniel screamed at her, genuinely shocking her.
"What?" Asajj asked her blue eyes full of surprise from the Jedi's outburst and the message that it carried.
"Be like Ky Narek and take the fight against evil like he did, I never got to meet him and from what I heard of him he inspired me, Asajj if you really want to make Ky Narek proud I'm sure he would want you to pursue Justice like he did." Daniel said, his little speech left her speechless.
Asajj just walked away, determined to think about what the padawan told her.
Auron and Vega watched her walk away, "Did the Jedi really abandon this Ky Narek?" Auron asked.
Daniel sighed "I'm not sure it was a bit before my time, but I doubt that it was intentional." he answered.
"He probably got stranded and couldn't make contact." Auron thought out loud.
Daniel nodded "That's more likely it's not the first time it happened, and it certainly won't be the last." Daniel said.
Vega looked at him questioningly.
"The Galaxy is huge Vega, there are billions of worlds in the known Galaxy and many more to be discovered." Daniel answered the unasked question, "If your instruments stop functioning, it's very easy to get lost out there."
Vega nodded and looked at the carving of the 'Demon' Queen again those eyes that held such evil that Vega thought for sure they were staring back at him, he wanted, no he needed to get away "Should we go for the east wing now?" Vega asked.
Daniel tore his gaze from the text and turned to face Vega "Yeah sure, let's go." Daniel said probably guessing what troubled his little 'Brother', the group made their way to the east wing of the fortress/temple, as they approached their destination they found the spirit guardian in front of the vault door.
"In here lies a more detailed text of our history, our techniques, and even some of our weapons." the spirit stated as he moved to open the vault.
Auron's eyes lit up in excitement at what the spirit was telling him "Did you hear that Qixoni?" Auron asked his shard excitedly.
"Indeed, Try to calm down." Qixoni said somewhat embarrassed by the almost childish behavior of his partner.
"I'm sorry I can't help myself." Auron apologised, he could tell that Daniel was also excited but the Jedi padawan had better control of his emotions to not outwardly show it, Auron didn't blame him he understood that Daniel had spent a good deal of time meditating over the past few days in hopes of not losing control of himself again like he did on the shuttle after they picked up the survivors of the Bright Flight.
The vault door began to open with a creaking sound telling the group that the hinges hadn't been oiled in a while, after several seconds of cringe inducing screeches the door was fully opened and the group saw a massive room with a massive octogonal prism in the middle of the room with some spherical structures in in the storage apparatus, "Are those your versions of Holocrons?" Daniel asked in fascination.
The spirit guardian nodded, "The sphere represents Ashla's eternal life and those who serve her." the spirit explained.
Daniel, Aaron, Vega and Guardian nodded in understanding and continued to look around the room, the walls were adorned with weapons from swords, polearms, spears, staffs, throwing weapons, and even lightsabers, "Interesting that you carry all these types of weapons when you also have lightsabers." Auron commented.
"We actually didn't develope the lightsaber until our first encounter with the Sorcerers of Rhand, about six thousand years ago." the Spirit explained.
Daniel was actually a bit surprised at that, "The Jedi had lightsabers long before that, I think shorty after we made the migration from Tython of course the Jedi didn't really make them the primary weapon of the order till sometime before the Second Great Schism but still."
Vega looked at Daniel curiously, "The Second Great Schism?" he asked.
Auron was the one who answered "That Schism is what brought around the rise of the Sith."
"It's also known as the 'Hundred-Year Darkness.'" Daniel added.
Vega wanted to learn more but ultimately his desire to learn about the Sages won out and he walked into the room "Interesting." Vega remarked.
Daniel nodded and walked into the room as well, followed by Auron and Guardian, Vega walked over to a hand and a half sword display on the wall, he looked over at the spirit as if to ask permission to take a closer look at the weapon, the spirit smiled and nodded, Vega then grabbed the sword and took it off the wall, with one hand he grasped the hilt and the other grabbed the Scabbard and pulled the blade out of it's resting place the blade seemed to be made out of a beautiful silver metal that seemed to glow, "Well with these weapons they wouldn't have needed lightsabers anyway." Vega remarked.
"Why is that?" Guardian asked from the display of a pole arm across the room.
"Because the weapons are made of Songsteel." Vega explain while holding up the weapon for all of them to see.
"You are partially correct our weapons are made of an alloy made from combining Phrik and Songsteel as well as using the technique you call 'Force Weapon' something I have no doubt that all of you are familiar with." the spirit explained.
Daniel chuckled a bit "Wow this system has a lot of lightsaber resistant materials here."
"Hmm" Auron hummed in agreement, "That could spell trouble if anyone tries finds this planet and begin mining operations."
"Unlikely but possible, But I don't know how to prevent that from happening." Daniel sighed.
"We can worry about that later." Auron said.
Vega moved to put the weapon back, "You can keep it." the Spirit guardian told Vega.
The young boy looked back at the Spirit with surprise, "Are you sure?" Vega asked uncertainly.
"I have no problem with you taking a Weapon that once belonged to me I have no use for it as I am." the spirit said with a smile.
"This belonged to you?!" Vega asked surprised.
The spirit nodded in confirmation, "In our custom we named our weapons, my sword's name is 'Umbra's Bane' at least that's what it would translate into."
"I'm guessing this Umbra was of the Sage's greatest foes in your history?" Daniel asked curiously.
"You would be correct, he is a Powerful sorcerer of Rhand…"
"You said 'is'." Auron interrupted, Daniel, Vega, and Guardian caught that as well.
"He isn't dead? wait how long ago was this conflict?" Daniel asked.
"The conflict happened roughly 400 years ago." the spirit explained.
"This just keeps getting weirder, so we have a member of an organization that preaches destruction is the only truth in the universe and want things to proceed naturally but now we learn that one of their members is apparently immortal… wait what species is he?" Auron asked.
"Oh. he's not Human." the spirit assured him.
"Okay, that makes a bit more sense." Auron remarked
"Of course let's not rule out the possibility of him being a hypocrite." Daniel added.
"That's true, not everyone in an organization follows the rules." Auron agreed with a shrug.
"Well Umbra is one of the Zealots when it comes to the Sorcerers teachings, his species has the ability to heal at much faster speeds and recover from wounds that would be fatal to humans you combine that with the powers that Bogan provides him and he can recover in no time."
"Bogan?" Vega asked confused
"The Dark side, Vega." Daniel answered prompting Vega to nod in understanding.
"So he has a very long life span, why is the sword called Umbra's bane than?" Auron asked confused.
"Because with that blade I made it so that he had to spend 50 years recovering." the spirit answered.
"Makes sense." Auron said accepting the answer, "why didn't you just kill him?" he asked again.
"At the time I thought I did, I later found out I was wrong." the spirit answered, "I mean how was I supposed to know he could survive from those wounds I gave him?"
"What were the wounds you gave him?" Daniel asked.
The Spirit looked at Vega "Are you sure you want me to tell you?" the Spirit asked the group.
"That bad huh?" Auron asked.
"Yeah that bad." the spirit answered.
"Why is this important? as far as we know this Umbra isn't our enemy yet." Guardian piped in.
"Guardian brings up a good point I mean it's not like Umbra is the Sorcerer terrorizing the planet we're going to, right?" Vega said.
Daniel and Auron shrugged "Anything's possible." Daniel answered.
"And in that case if we needed to kill how would we do it?" Auron asked.
"Throw him into the sun that worked for Anakin when he killed Durge." Daniel answered, Auron looked at Daniel questioningly, "Durge was a Gen'Dai bounty hunter and had some psychological problems to say the least." Daniel answered the unasked question.
"Damn." Auron muttered.
"Yeah, that's an encounter I wish I could forget." Daniel added, with a shudder.
"May we take one of your holocrons?" Guardian asked both to change the subject and because they were all curious to see what was in one of the holocrons.
The spirit guardian looked at them and nodded he than walked up to the holocron storage apparatus and using the force pulled out one of the spherical holocrons and walked back to the group with the holocron orbiting him, "Please, meditate with me." he beckoned as he knelt down the sphere came to a stop in front of him and started to spin on an axis.
"Shouldn't we get Asajj I feel she would want to be a part of this?" Daniel asked.
"Let's contact her." Auron suggested, "Qixoni open up communications with Asajj and Rubat." Auron requested, Qixoni set about carry out the request.
Asajj made her way to the top of the fortress to contemplate what Daniel told her, "Could I be anything like my mentor? Is it too late for me?" she asked out loud to no one in particular.
"I wouldn't say so." Rubat answered, "It's your life you make your decisions." Rubat added.
Asajj said nothing but listened to her anyway.
"What was Ky Narec like?" Rubat asked curiously after a moment of silence.
Asajj smiled sadly, "He was a great man, I viewed him like a father, he died before he could finish my training, and in my anger I killed his killer and swore to kill the last of the Warlords on Rattatak the tattoos on my head were marked for each of them that I killed." Asajj started.
"You have twelve tattoos on your head." Rubat pointed out.
"So I killed twelve Warlords." Asajj said nonchalantly.
"Why do you think the Jedi abandoned Ky?" Rubat asked curiously.
Asajj sighed, "I don't know anymore, I suppose it was something I just told myself after he died and then Dooku confirmed it for me and after a while I just believed that they abandoned him." Asajj explained 'I still believe that.' she thought to herself.
"Okay what if you take Daniel's advice and follow in Ky Nareks footsteps? he fought against the Warlords of Rattatak when he didn't have to, that to me sounds like a hero." Rubat suggested.
Asajj took the time to think about the suggestion, before she could respond her onboard communicator chimed and she saw that it was Auron contacting her she mentally told Rubat to answer it "Asajj here." she answered neutrally.
"Hey Asajj we found a vault with the Sage's holocrons and other things, the guardian of this temple is going to open a holocron would you like to be present?" Auron asked.
"I'm on my way." Asajj answered and stood up.
"Okay we'll see you soon." Auron said and closed the link.
As Asajj made her way to the Vault Rubat continued to talk to her, "Have you thought about what I said?" she asked.
"If I follow in Ky's footsteps I don't want the title of 'Jedi'." Asajj answered.
"No one ever said you needed to be a Jedi to save people." Rubat retorted, already knowing that her partner was going to and is following in her master's footsteps whether she realised it or not.
Asajj nodded in agreement but she sure as hell wasn't going to act like a holier than thou "grey" Jedi or "grey" force users for that matter, Asajj never liked those people very much, than again there were few people she did like.
It didn't take her long to find the Vault thanks to Rubat putting directions up on her HUD she walked in to find the rest of the group all standing in a loose circle with a spot open for her she walked into the vacant spot and completed the circle, "So now what?" She asked.
"Now I will open the holocron." the Spirit said and knelt down to meditate, the others all knelt down as well, the spherical holocron came into the center of the group and the speed at which it rotated on it's axis increased, the spirit seemed to entered a trance and spoke in a deep almost inaudible manner "tunteet vielä rauhaan, ei ole tietämättömyyttä, On tieto, intohimo vielä tyyneys. Ashla ylläpitää harmoniaa, viisaat ovat päättäjät rauhaan, viisaat käyttää valtuuksiaan puolustaa ja suojata, viisaat kunnioittaa kaikkien elävien olentojen, viisaat palvella muita sijaan sääntö, pyhimykset pyrkivät parantamaan itseään ja koulutusta, lopulta me tulemme yhdeksi Ashla." as the spirit did this mantra which Daniel assumed was the Sages Code, the sphere split and increased in size and the shell parted until the all were inside the sphere, the group looked around them and saw some holographic data, the spirit came out of his trance and stood up "So what would you like to know?" he asked.
"What was that mantra you were speaking?" Guardian asked curiously.
"The Jedi have their code so do we, the mantra I was speaking was the Sage's Code." the spirit answered, a holographic display enlarged in the middle and showed them the Mantra first it showed it in the Sages natural language than it changed to show it in basic.
Daniel read it aloud "Emotion yet Peace, There is no ignorance, There is knowledge, Passion yet Serenity, Ashla maintains harmony, Sages are Makers of Peace, Sages use their powers to defend and protect, Sages respect all living things, Sages serve others rather than rule, Sages seek to improve themselves through Knowledge and Training, In the end we become one with Ashla."
Auron just shrugged after listening to the words, Asajj just sat where she was, Vega tilted his head to the side, and Guardian seemed to be contemplating the words.
"It sounds like a mix of the three Jedi codes." Daniel remarked.
The spirit shrugged "Wouldn't surprise me we do come from the same place after all, our beliefs may very well be a lot similar."
"Three Jedi codes?" Vega asked curiously, "I'm aware of two but there is a third?"
"It's basically an older version of 'there is no emotion, there is peace' if you basically take all the lines and remove the 'there is no such and such, there is such and such' and change it so that it's 'such and such yet such and such'." Daniel explained.
"Oh." Vega noded in understanding.
"What is the other Jedi code?" Auron asked curiously, Guardian was also curious and gave Daniel his full attention.
"Jedi are the guardians of peace in the galaxy. Jedi use their powers to defend and protect, never to attack others. Jedi respect all life, in any form. Jedi serve others, rather than rule over them, for the good of the galaxy. Jedi seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training." Daniel answered.
Auron hummed in thought "Interesting." Auron remarked.
Daniel nodded "You know this holocron design is interesting what all can you do with these things?" Daniel asked the spirit.
The spirit smiled "We have three types of holocrons as you call them, this one is a knowledge holocron we use these to teach our initiates the philosophy of the sages and the powers that Ashla provides, the next is a combat holocron there we teach our initiates in the art of combat and the sphere can generate a holographic representation of an enemy or foe and in some cases a reenactment of a battle to help develop battlefield tactics."
"Do you have one of the Void Spawns?" Auron asked hopefully.
"We do indeed, there are so many different types of the Void Spawns." the spirit answered, "Sadly we have nothing on the Queen and I believe we may not have everything on how the Void spawns operate, they are after all really hard to study." The Spirit added.
"This is perfect we can learn how these creatures fight and there weaknesses." Auron stated excitedly.
"It is a good place to start." Asajj agreed.
"What is the final Holocron type?" Vega asked curiously.
"Those are family holocrons." the spirit answered, "They contain our bloodlines and the memories of our ancestors."
"I take it that family is important to the Sages?" Guardian asked.
"Yes it is, though we actually view those who devote their lives to Ashla with more respect, we do value Family and its structure." the spirit answered.
"The Jedi don't have families, they did in the old days but at some point the order decided to not allow its members to have a family in that sense." Daniel stated, "There are of course exceptions but that's due to certain circumstances than anything really."
"I see, so the Jedi chose to completely dedicate themselves to the service?" the spirit asked genuinely interested, which honestly surprised Daniel he actually expected the spirit to tell him that was a completely stupid decision.
"That was the Idea yeah." Daniel confirmed.
"I was always interested in learning how different cultures operated, why is it that people hold that against the Jedi? there's nothing inherently wrong with how they chose to run their order." the Spirit added having sensed Daniel thoughts.
"That's what I think." Daniel said happy to meet someone that actually gets it, "I mean if a member of the order wants to start a family there's nothing preventing them from leaving the order." Daniel added.
Asajj looked at Daniel with a raised eyebrow though Daniel couldn't see it.
"Daniel." Vega started catching the Padawan's attention "What if you wanted to start a family, I know you had feelings for…" Vega trailed off realizing that he brought up a painful memory.
Daniel sighed "That may be true, I did feel something for her but I am a teenager it's only natural for something like that to happen I thought that one day I would grow out of it." Daniel explained, "and I made a promise to myself and master Yoda 'should that day come that I want to start a family and found someone to share my life with in that way, I will leave the order and not call myself a Jedi anymore'." Daniel told them.
"You respect the Jedi a lot to do that." the spirit said.
"Yeah I do." Daniel answered, "I respect them to much to try and hide something like that and I don't like lying."
Vega looked at Daniel in thought, 'perhaps I should make that same promise.' he thought to himself.
Auron looked at Daniel with a sense of respect, "So who was this girl you were interested in?" Auron asked.
"It's not important now." Daniel said with a sigh of sadness.
Auron connected the dots and understood, "I see."
"Can we change the subject please?" Daniel asked.
"Of course, wait what time is it?" Auron asked, "Oh never mind Qixoni got it, about thirty minutes to sunset." it says.
"I recommend you stay in the temple the creatures that live on this world are nocturnal and are very dangerous." the spirit suggested upon hearing that Daniel sprang into action and jumped to his feet.
"Guardian I suggest you contact your children and tell them to get into the fortress I'll contact the others and tell them to stay safe, is there a hanger they can go to?" Daniel asked the spirit.
"Yes it's in the cliff side on the far end of the temple's entrance where you all came in." the spirit answered.
"Is it big enough to hold our ship?" Daniel asked.
"It should be."
"Okay then." Daniel accepted the answer and called the crew back at the landing area "Micah it's Daniel please respond."
"Micah here what's wrong." the Chiss's voice responded over the armor's internal comms.
"We have reason to believe that there are creatures that come out at night here the temple we're in apparently wards them off, we know of a hangar that may be big enough to hold the ship can you and the others get over here we don't know what's out there." Daniel told him.
"Alright then I'll get everyone moving how long till the sun sets?" Micah asked.
"Thirty minutes please hurry." Daniel urged.
"We'll be there with plenty of time to spare." Micah assured him.
"Okay Daniel out." Daniel finished.
"We parked in the woods remember, those creatures are probably waking up already and if they're in the woods…" Asajj started.
"Your friends are in danger if they are in the woods!" the Spirit exclaimed.
Daniel gulped in worry "Most of them are veterans they can handle themselves." he said mostly to reassure himself.
"I hope you're right." Vega said worried for the others.
Meanwhile back with the ship a majority of the group was outside the ship stretching their legs the only ones still aboard the ship was Micah, and Alpha-17 and the medics/crew of the Bright Flight.
Aaron looked at the sky and noticed it was getting dark "Hey guys I think we should move aboard the ship It's getting dark out." Aaron suggested to the group.
Caleb looked at the sky "Yeah I agree." Caleb agreed and made his way to the ship, suddenly Ju started to Growl and turned to look into the woods "Ju what's the matter?" Caleb asked worried as he and the others got their weapons ready.
"Dhanderoe." Ju growled.
Rohkea growled something.
"They smell bad, good to know." Aaron said sarcastically, "How many are we talking?" Aaron asked.
Rohkea growled out an answer.
"What do you mean 'You can't tell'?!" Caleb asked.
"Defensive formation!" Aaron shouted, the clones all immediately took a defencive formation with their backs to the ship all of them forming a loose semi circle.
Suddenly Aarons wrist comm pinged and he answered it "Aaron here." he said tensed.
"Aaron, Daniel just contacted me there are some creatures that come out at night get aboard the ship we're going to meet the others at the temple."
Just than several scraggly looking creatures burst into the clearing all hooting and howling, all seemed to be wearing haphazardly put together armor the were armed with jagged looking daggers and blades and even bows and arrows the all came to a stop several meters away from the group all of them looking at them like a predator does to cornered prey, some wore helmets but those he could see all seemed to have pale skin and reptilian eyes that seemed to stare at them hungrily Aaron saw that some of them were gnashing their teeth in anticipation, "Uh. You're a bit late on the warning." Aaron remarked.
"Vun'bicn hah," the chiss swore in his native language, "How many are there?"
"A lot." Aaron answered simply "We could use a bit of help out here."
"I'll send HK-51 out." Micah stated.
"What's wrong with using the point defence turrets?" Caleb gritted out.
"Their targeting system's out of alignment I don't want to accidentally hit you guys." Micah answered.
"Who the hell sold you this piece of Junk?" Caleb rhetorically asked frustrated.
"I'm sending HK out now." the Chiss assured them, "Keep the comm open."
Aaron and the others looked out over the hoard and saw a bigger version of the creature Aaron assumed that he was the leader, he was wearing clad in dark mail armor and was armed with a great spear, and a backsword, he was also as tall as Aaron was which was a little over 2 meters tall or 6' 3" compared to the rest of the creatures which were about 5' 5" at the most.
Everyone's grip on their rifles and pistols tightend Ju clenched his fists and growled a warning at the creatures.
The leader held his hand up in a 'hold' motion and all the hooting and howling ceased, Aaron seriously wished that they wore the armor the Alpha A.I made them for this, knowing that although they appeared primitive they vastly outnumbered them, than the leader bellowed two words in a language the group didn't understand "Gore Atul!" and pointed sharply at them, at that the hoard all shrieked in delight and charged at them hooting and howling all the while.
AN: oh boy what's going to happen to our non force sensitives will they find a way out of this predicament will they die trying in a valiant stand find out next time one Drago... I mean soul of the Jedi... okay enough fooling around, okay so I am now taking in Oc's if you want me to use a character you feel free to PM me, thank you for the character Rarok Cardea, Mandalore the Freedom, special thanks to Revenge S197 for helping me with this go check out his stuff and go check out Mandalore's stuff too, also if any of you caught on I used some Lord of the Rings elements in cluding the language of Black Speech so yeah Black speech belongs to J.R.R Tolkien also those creatures are inspired by the Orcs from the lord of the rings how ever I will make them different you'll see how next time until than, May the Force be With You.