Ajunta Pall: Morality
In war, what did the enemy do to deserve death? In war, the goal is to kill indiscriminately in order to accomplish some abstract objective. What is this objective? For the individual it's simple: obey the commanding officers in faith that you are doing it for the greater good. For an army, it's to complete whatever objective the high command gives you. For the generals, admirals, and others planning the war effort, it's to disable the enemy nation or organization. But on the individual level, why do you have to send people to die? Why does the enemy have to die? One could say that it's for the greater good, but then why is it all of the sudden immoral to kill for the same reasons outside of war? Perhaps it's because the enemy poses a clear threat. But if this is the case, then how can once a peace treaty is signed, one can go back to living side by side with the former enemies? Does every person all of the sudden stop being enemies? Apparently, but why was each group willing to kill in the first place? These are the eternal questions that Pall struggled with.
In his life, he had seen the aftermath of decades of war. Each side had hurled bodies at the other only to sign an inconclusive treaty that put everything 'back to normal.' But why must this be the case? What is the point?
In war, there is no point, no morality, no ethics. Every side more or less believed in what they were doing. Soldiers did what they did for mostly noble reasons, either to protect their family or nation. They see it as self defense. In normal circumstances, self defense is justified, and the defendant is innocent. But in war, does it matter who is the aggressor? From the point of view of the millions killed by shrapnel, mustard gas, and enemy fire, they are the noble ones fighting in defense of those they love. In normal circumstances, it is wrong to kill an innocent person. How can anyone make sense of a scenario in which everyone is simply fighting in self defense? And even if one nation is the aggressor, whose fault is it? Certainly the enemy soldier disintegrated by a mortar blast was just doing what he believed in. Should the officers or politicians be blamed? Perhaps. But what if they were only preemptively attacking a perceived threat?
The Jedi taught that it was acceptable to take a life if and only if the enemy was a clear and present threat to the wellbeing of others. By this logic, the Jedi justified leading armies as battlefield generals and commanding fleets as admirals. The enemy soldiers were clear and present threats, so they must be eliminated. But for what goal. The past conflicts had been civil wars started by certain planets seeking to gain control of others. But why does that matter? Doesn't every person live under the thumb of another being all the time?
As much as Pall tried, he could not form any idea as to what was right and what was wrong. It seemed so absurd, so relative. Pall sought to apply an objective standard to war. It is impossible to make sense of, it is impossible to rationalize your friends and family being mowed down by artillery fire and drowning in blood and acid from gas.
In the end he was left with but one maxim: act on the desire to create the conditions necessary to prevent chaos from happening again. The last few wars had been a series of civil wars, and so to prevent that from happening again, Pall needed a way to either unify the Galaxy. The Galaxy had to be utterly sick of war. There must be a war so terrible that just the thought of it happening again would be enough for everyone to put aside their petty conflicts. But more than that, Pall would have to destroy the very foundation that caused such conditions to ferment. He would have to destroy the Jedi and tear down the foundations of the Republic.
Upon deciding this, he used his navicomputer to plot a reverse course to escape from the twisted knots of the Deep Core, and he set a path to Lettow. Upon arrival, he sought out those who had journeyed to the planet with him and told them of what he had experienced. Surviving fragments from their notebooks all make one thing clear- Pall had changed. It was like talking to a completely different person, a total stranger. Hord writes that it was like one of the Immortal Gods of the Sith had come down to the physical realm and was standing in front of him. Muur writes that the young man had changed and that now it was like talking to one of the legendary masters of old. Syn notes that it was like talking to the avatar of the Force itself. During their stay on Lettow, they had come to believe many of the same things, and so they left with him.
Their first goal was to investigate the mysterious object in the unknown regions that the coordinates pointed to. However, the unknown regions, at that time, were especially perilous with unstable hyperlanes that led to who knows where. In order to launch a proper expedition, they would need the necessary probe and advanced computing technology that real expeditions had. They spent months traveling and looking for a way until they encountered Remulus Dreypa.
Dreypa was a former Jedi knight who had left the order due to personal disagreements. He had returned to his homeworld Pelagon where he took upon the title 'Baron' which was bestowed upon him by his family. Despite his wealth and power, Dreypa was still not satisfied and he always sought to find a way to strike back at the Jedi. Pall was able to figure this out quickly and he used it to his advantage.
Pall convinced Dreypa to join his cause whereupon Dreypa lent him the funds necessary to finance the expedition into the unknown regions. However, Dreypa said that he knew of another former Jedi who could help them, a Marchioness from the planet Vjun named XoXaan. Pall was surprised to hear of XoXaan after so long, and he agreed to have Dreypa arrange for a meeting.
The meeting was scheduled a standard month later, and in the meantime Pall financed his unknown regions expedition. He obtained a small fleet of scout ships and probes, as well as an advanced encryption system to keep the location of the planet and any discovered details secret. When the meeting finally took place, Xaan had already been told what it would be about by Dreypa. Xaan was interested as she had considered rejoining the Order in the past, but didn't due to the unresolved issues that the Order retained. She agreed to Pall's plan and together, she and Dreypa began using their resources to seek out other former Jedi. However, their movement was not violent, at least not in the early stages. None of them had the resources to strike at the Republic and so they simply worked to get their new Order going before committing to any course of action.
A safe route into the unknown regions was discovered only days later. Dreypa, Pall, and a few others ventured out. The planet that they discovered came to be known as Rakata Prime. It was a blue green world that was the homeworld of the Rakatan Infinite Empire almost 18,000 years previously. However, what impressed the travelers the most was not the planet itself, but the massive structure in orbit around it. This construction was the legendary Star Forge. A weapon said to be able to break the spine of the galaxy.
Details on the Star Forge and the fall of the Rakata will be discussed next chapter.
