Peace and Cake are Lies! Chapter two
The air holds so much tension, that even the thought of igniting a lightsaber could cut through the atmosphere of the Jedi Council.
"And what is this decision you speak of?" Elias asks, hoping to hear his fate. "What is it? Exile? Execution? Jail time?" he voice holds just a bit too much joy for all the dark fates he could have.
"No. Not for you, death is. Life, only, you have." Yoda speaks in his usual speech pattern. "Give you a chance, we will. Prove your sincerity, you must."
"We have trials set up to test whether you are speaking the truth or not." Mace Windu informs the Sith Lord next.
"We are dispatching Raru to handle a mission for peace, however, she must go through the mission leaving her lightsaber here." Obi wan mentions "Your goal is make sure she achieves the peace. Without her, or yourself, killing anyone."
"Yes Jedi." Elias bows in respect, having been freed from his cuffs and risen to his feet. His eyes light up "So when do we leave?"
"At noon, today, your cruiser leaves" Yoda explains.
"I should apologize, I am not familiar with many of you, so please do tell." he asks. After the long and boring ordeal of the council's introductions, Elias politely dismisses himself "It is nice to meet you all, but it is getting late, I should get ready if I am to leave after lunch," He deduces.
"Very well, prepare your belongings and get some rest. This mission is meant to test you both. One of you is there to ensure peace, and if that peace cannot be reached."
"Then I am deal with any conflict that arises?" He nods his understanding.
"Yes, that is your mission." Obi-wan confirms "Achieve peace with as few deaths on either side though."
"Yes sir" Elias salutes and makes towards the elevator. After walking around for a bit, wondering 'where could I get a pot of hot water?' he walks into the cafeteria of the temple and grabs some hot water and head back to his room using the force to both hold the container of water and to heat it. He sits down and prepares a traditional pot of tea.
"Well, you're ready early." Raru notes, seeing his bags packed already. "I have not seen anyone so ready to go anywhere on a mission before."
"It is a common enough sight among my people to be ready very early before they do anything. And, once they finished preparations, my people then prepare a pot of tea. I understand that the tea helps both calm and prepare yourself for the task." He smiles as he finish his explanation.
She speaks, her voice holding her confusion "That's strange..." her eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"What is strange?" Elias questions politely.
"Well... It seems odd that though you claim to be a Sith yet you don't have a problem with the Jedi?" Raru asks, walking in. She surveys the very clone-like quarters of the Sith (Meaning everything functions and very few decorations, though he does have some stunning murals on the wall) . After the Should-be Enemy of the Jedi motions to a second mat on the floor she takes a spot, knowing that this will be a long story.
He pours the tea into a second cup for her "Here you go," and Force levitates the cup of tea over to her. After taking a sip of his unsweetened tea, Elias breathes out, "It is not that I don't have a problem with the Jedi, I am good at hiding my problem with the Jedi..."
Raru takes a swig of her tea, "So what is the problem you are so good at hiding?" Finding the unsweetened tea not to her liking, asks "Is there any sugar?"
He motions to the container of sugar before continuing his complaint "My issue is: How can they justify letting an entire planet die just because they would not hand over one stinking Sith? And then when a Different Sith from that world shows up they welcome him with almost open arms? Just to send him on a mission that sounds like he is going to end up as blaster fodder!" Elias laughs once at the notion.
"Hmm... good point... Why did I not think of that?" she thinks aloud looking to the ceiling,
"Perhaps because you aren't in my shoes." Elias retorts before returning to his tea.
After a dragged out silence, Raru glances boredly at the chrono, and pipes up."Well it is almost time for launch, it's probably a good idea to go there now."
"Right."Elias finishes his cup of tea. Attaching his Lightsaber to his hip he considers something, Why did they let ME go there with my Lightsaber, yet not let her take hers. He rises and follows her at a distance, musing over this, They WANT me to kill someone then... a politician I might not agree with? Well one way or another, I am not going to kill a civilian without reason.
The odd pair walk into the gathering area of the Jedi Temple. Hearing their names called, the Jedi and Sith walk in to the grav-car meant to take them to the shuttle launch pad. "So any details on the planet we are heading to?"
"Not many actually" She tries to remember what the Masters said about the planet in the briefing. "All they said to the Jedi was 'bring us peace' along with a set of co-ordinates on the edge of Republic space..."
So this random planet gets the help of the Jedi, yet my people did not get anything at all, he complains mentally. "Very well. Sounds like a trap though... Think about it, We did not get the name of the species, or the name of the planet. All we got is that they are at war." He adds to himself, and their plea sounds more like asking for a mercy killing...
Jedi Apprentice, but soon to be knighted, Kymari tilts her head to the left in thought, her brown hair falling down on that side. "good point. Guess we should have sabers at the... Oh right the Council did not want me bringing my weapon."
"Because they want blood on my hands so they can finally have a good reason for killing me." Elias guesses aloud.
"Oh don't be so pessimistic." She tries to cheer up the dark soul sitting in the spot across from her.
"No I call it realistic, did you see even half of the glares that flew at me during my walks through the temple? Oh that and more than a few hands slipping to the hilt of their lightsabers." Elias shakes his in disbelief. "Let's bite the blaster. The next time I set foot in the temple, I am dead."
"Now that I think about the situation you are right. They aren't as willing to accept other beliefs as they claim." Raru taps her chin in thought, her head lies against her right shoulder as she looks out the trasparisteel on her right to admire Coruscant's skyline.
The Sith smirks slightly, That pilot-droid hasn't been paying us any mind at all. The transport craft reaches its destination and departs after it's payment is given.
After Elias finishes stretching, he makes his way to the spacecraft assigned for their joint mission. "Well, this is it?"
"If you're looking for the Icarus, then yep she don't look like much but hey she'll beat the poodoo out of an ship whose pilot is stupid enough to stand in her way. I'm Fyra Tarven" The female pilot walks out of the vessel slugging a wrench over her shoulders. "So you are Elias Kaiin and Raru Kymari right?" she asks making sure.
"Oh sorry I forgot my name tag. Yeah I am Elias" He confirms with a nod.
"Last time I checked Raru was the name given to me" the soon to be Jedi Knight nods her confirmation.
"Great. Now all we need is that Mandalorian." Fyra mentions the final member of the group who has not shown up yet.
"Wait, what Mandalorian?" Elias asks blandly.
"Oh you don't know?" the pilot asks with a quizzical expression, "There was a Mandalorian assigned to this mission as well. His names Marec Kote."
"Did I hear my name?" a young man, wearing the Shocktrooper variant of the Mandalorian armour, saunters over. His red armour gleaming in the light. The kama, reaching down to the top of his boots, no doubt hides a legion of weapons. Resting on his shoulder is his very thoroughly customized heavy repeating blaster. He has modified it to have greater accuracy and greater distance, though he lowered the rate of fire. "Well let's get this party started!"
Oh great a trigger happy Mando'a, just what this 'peace' mission needs... Elias almost face palms at the lack of foresight on the part of the Jedi.
"So who is leading this doomed 'peace' mission again?" the Mando'a asks, with a raised eyebrow, clearly amused by the current group.
"Not me" Elias mutters, his thoughts fill with doubts about the sanity of the Jedi Council Seriously? Who sends a Mandalorian to a peace talk?! I mean, really come on!
However Raru steps up, undaunted by the possibility of failure. "I will lead for now, after all we are not here to blow stuff up first. Diplomacy first blasting is a last resort."
The four of them enter the beater of a spacecraft. Fyra takes her seat as the captain. Raru takes the Navigator's seat, having at least a little experience navigating. Elias takes a seat behind her. The Mando'a sits across from him.
"Fair enough, fair enough," the Child of Mandalore replies, reclines in his seat and lays his blaster against the wall of the ship. "We might last a week with a good leader."
"That Raru is pessimism." Elias points out Marec's attitude, noting the difference between the two of them.
"Knock it off, I need to focus on navigating this thing." Raru demands silence from the rest of the crew.
"Yes dictator." Elias replies, leaning back in his seat and closing his eye's for a bit. A vision plays out before him. two distinct paths show themselves to him, but he hears only silence. The first path plays out like so.
A smoking and decimated battle field littered haphazardly with corpses, except this covers the entire world. Not a thing moves except with a twitch in its death. An entire planet wiped out with him standing over it and his comrades dead at his feet as well.
The second differs and advances like so.
A planet and it's people ring out in harmony and his associates stand with him watching the world in its peace. He glides his eyes open, Well we all know how this song and dance will go. "We there yet?" he asks rhetorically just to annoy the navigator.
"Actually yes we are." Raru replies keeping her temper in check. The vessel enters the atmosphere of the planet, signaled by the orangish glow surrounding the bow of the vessel. The landing gears deploy and they land where the space traffic controller tells them to land.
Raru, Elias and Marec exit the vessel. Fyra stays on board, "Yeah I got some maintenance to do and besides, I don't know of how much use I'd be in a diplomatic setting..."
"Very well, Fyra we'll leave you to it then." Raru nods at the pilot and engineer of the ship. As they step out into the alien environment the vibrant colours and wildlife astounds the three offworlders, standing on the landing pad.
"Welcome to our humble world. Come our leaders wish to speak with you immediately." The transparisteel-like humanoid being that greeted them very clearly emphasizes the immediately part of the sentence.
The three humans (Or two humans and one demi-demon if you count the Mandalorian as non-human) walk into the massive main hall area of the base. The roof looms over them a hundred floors straight up. All the people they pass by are as clear as transparisteel.
"Welcome Raru of the Jedi Order, soon to be knighted we hear. Elias, the last remaining Sentinel of Eshrym (1). And Marec, Child of Mandalore (2), to the home of the Sekkari (3)."
"I have two questions. What exactly are these wars we have heard about? And how do you know about Eshrym and her Sentinels?" Elias asks, thrown off slightly by the use of his title of Sentinel.
"Our people are split in two... No matter what, our current society will die." The leader clearly states "However we fight over what do about this. Half of us are willing create a means for our rebirth, known as Seed pods. We would place a certain amount of our life forms into each pod, program how to make our tech into the database and deploy it on another planet."
"I hear a but coming…" Elias mutters
"However, our recent attempts have not responded to our calls..." a different member of the assembled leaders. "Our people face their doom here or at the hands of the metal ones. SO your job is to either force the people to agree with this policy or to convince them that you could find a planet where the Seed pods can deploy and live in peace."
Oh so that's why the Jedi insisted Marec come along... Marec and I get to fight, Raru plays diplomat and Fyra gets our ship fixed. Elias smiles this might not be such a bad first mission.
"As for Eshrym and her Sentinels, well we had an ally in Sanghelios(4). Before her destruction of course." The Sekkari leader informs and amends.
The doors behind the trio blast in as battle droids pour into the main "None of you plastics move or we will shoot!" the battle droid orders.
To be continued...
(A./n.): So you have a guest, of all people, to thank for getting me off my tail and actually writing this for now. So If you like the story (Or feel the burning urge to burn it to the ground) then please drop a review (Though for Pete's sake tell me why you are burning it to the ground so I can improve on it). I might get the next chapter done quicker...
So Eshrym is the native's name for Elias' homeworld before her destruction. And is also a reference to a certain series of modern video games, through the native's name for the planet (Sanghelios). Humans were the secondary species of this planet and they were not willing to accept CIS control. The natives, however, willingly accepted the conquerors of the human in habitants. I will say this: this story is NOT a crossover, I am just tying a few things together.
Sekkari is a reference to Stargate: Atlantis. I will explain, later in the story, why they are appearing so long before their thousand years are set to begin. Like I said before: this story will NOT become a crossover. I do have plans, though, for using Elias and Raru in a crossover just not this story.
I do know a bit of Mando'a so expect a few good rants from Marec.
Sentinels are the guardians of Eshrym, trained to defend and preserve their way of life. Elias is the last of these guardians, so he preserves a lot of their customs in his day-to-day life by following their customs.