Forceful Stoicism 7 - (Star Wars, SI)

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The First Battle of Qotile, which mostly unfolded over our heads, was what I would consider a slaughter.

One thing that I truly disliked about being a force sensitive was that I could feel the deaths of many.

Everyone could within the order as the forces of Ranulph Tarkin and the Quintad of Eriadnu were getting slaughtered as the 'many ships against small but veteran ships' was not a good idea.

Boom and Kablam, the stars were on fire as we rushed to the Consular Transport Ships to get the delgation (plus Stark and his cronies) to Mount Avos to set up defenses.

It didn't take too long for Ranulph Tarkin and his buddies to make the 'smart' decision to not die in the battle and have their escape pods land to our new location.

There is, however, an issue with this regrouping attemp: Mount Avos wasn't exactly a safe space for this sort of stuff. Except for its mines.

Rallying with Tarkin was a bit of a 'good and bad' kind of news. Good because we had folks with blasters, bad because they were outrageously inexperienced for 'real war' as they called it.

Tarkin was even an abrasive fellow- differently from Wilhuff, Ranulph was a gloryhound and he was so desperately trying to get a fancy title to facilitate his rise to chancellorship.

In this very dire circumstance, it was a 'miracle' he had evacuated when he did because any further delay would have seen him and his close group of officers decimated together with their ship 'Invincible'.

But the worst bit wasn't even his stupidity, it was-

"So, you are a quitter."

My words felt as sharp and flat as they sounded, drawing a shocked and angry look from Tarkin as he finished nagging on 'this situation being unwinnable'.

It was ironic how the biggest quitter was the man-child that went around flaunting a huge fleet that just got wrecked mere hours earlier.

"H-How dare you- I am-"

"Someone that came here seeking to enable your rise to power, disregarding the conduct of war which should be your people's tradition and priority. Instead of chasing dreams, keep your arrogance to yourself- we are not dying here and you should stop demeaning our reasonable chances of success."

My sharp tongue hit the right spot as other people piped in.

"While I would have worded it differently, Padawan Cromie is not wrong. We have the odds to win if we all collaborate," Qui-Gon Jinn remarked strongly, Obi-Wan nodding but it wasn't his vouching that truly sold it.

"And he is not wrong about one thing, Senator. This whole mess came to be because of your stunt. If you didn't give Stark the reason to betray the negotiations, we would have been avoiding this waste of lives!"

Finis Valorum was many things and OTL history regards him poorly due to those things. But if there was something that stands out was that, if Plagueis and Sidious had not tampered during his rule, he would have been a good chancellor. And in such a displeasurable situation, he was much cross with his 'rival' in the Senate.

A pacifist Valorum may be, but he was not a doormat given the right instance.

Ranulph growled, looking away and possibly plotting a way to spin it back in the senate to his advantage. All in all, this gave us a few hours to act as Master Tyvokka and Plo-koon interrogated Stark and his commanders while Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, Komari and I were sent to scout over to a potential hangar with some unregistered ships we could take over.

The big plan was to get one of those ships to fit Valorum, Tarkin, and Gunray to bring Stark back to the Senate and explain what had happened so that reinforcements could come.

Adi Gallia stood behind to keep an eye on Tarkin, which meant half of the Jedi force on the planet was going to be unavailable to our VIPs for a while. Not ideal, but it wasn't like we had much of a choice.

And while the worst threats remained the pirates on the planet and the potential hostile fauna, there was a troublesome circumstance coming up during the trip: Master Jinn's curiosity.

For Komari, it was just some awkward 'uncle talk' that bordered on teasing at best and it hardly went into anything too serious as she was praised for the good footwork and force-control she had exhibited during the failed negotiations.

For me it was... awkward. He definitely moved in a similar line to how he treated Komari at first, very deceitfully keeping it 'tame' while his Padawan and Komari were around. Then, as he sent these two to check forward, I saw him approach me closer and with a less than 'happy' manner.

"Padawan Cromie, I believe we need to talk and I need to... apologize."

Out of all scenarios I had envisioned for this very moment, I was... disappointed in knowing this was something I had indeed expected to hear.

"Apologize? For what, Master Jinn."

"Xanatos. I understand you faced him and that you had to kill him and... I trained him."

"I am aware of this. But I don't get it- did you tell him to try and kill me?"

"N-No, but-"

"Master, please," I muttered, forcing a 'crack' in my usual flat look and causing the older Jedi to pause. "I understand your guilt and shame, but I believe that it is wrongly aimed. Xanatos was his own person by the end of the day, and you hardly had the years to truly shape him. He cared too much for his family and his father exploited that. It wasn't your fault."

The man appeared surprised, but he still frowned at something. "If that's your view, then what do you mean the apology-"

"Should have been given to your first padawan, Master Feemor."

"Feemor is-"

"Your first Padawan, your first success- the reason why you are a good Master, and Mari and I can see this is the same for Obi-Wan," I hummed truthfully. "Master, while I doubt Feemor holds it against you, by saying that Xanatos was your biggest failure and that no one can learn from you is alike telling him that all his background and education through your teachings was worthless."

"It... it is not."

"Then tell him. Rather than just 'thinking', you should be more open to 'talk'," I pointed out, looking away. "While I can't say much about emotions, I have learned that talking does wonders to straigthen out any misunderstandings."

"Hm? You speak from experience, Padawan," Qui-Gon remarked, not asked. "I do wonder if a suspicion of mine is correct. After all, your fellow Padawan is not that 'quiet' about her admiration for you."

I blinked, still looking away. "I love her."

"As-"

"As a romantic partner, maybe more. I believe the same is shared by Komari," My lips delivered the truth, harsh and naked as it was. "We just didn't have the chance, or never will, to expand on it. We understand our feelings and, while we don't utterly suppress those, we set up boundaries on how to work with those."

Qui-Gon appeared surprised by this and yet... he softened his gaze. The reason why I had said as much, knowing it was practically bordering on heresy within the order, was because I knew the man could relate. Qui-Gon had found romantic love too and he had yet to grasp it without messing things up.

"I see. Thank you for your honesty," He bowed his head. "I will keep quiet about it."

"Many thanks, Master."

After that resolution, we resumed our stroll and found the hangar. There were some digital security at play, but Qui-Gon could work wonders behind terminals and started to crack the security system and get some 'fake' IDs to use for the ship.

All that was left for us to do was to slip the ship back to Mount Avos, we succeeded but... we made a very interesting discovery: Ranulph had to be put to sleep after he tried to kill Valorum- which meant that we had a political issue at hand other than a pirate one.

Iaco Stark cackled in delight, the bastard bruised up a bit but definitely enjoying the mad show he had witnessed.

That being said, we had the ship and soon we had Adi Gallia take command of the ship containing the VIPs to get them out of the planet - leaving us to tend to these pirates without needing to worry about innocent lives for the time being.

AN

Komari is vibing at the thought of 'MURDERING PIRATES~'! And yes, after this mission there will be some 'peaceful chapters' to expand on what the relationship is between Dester and Mari.