Mikaela Krynn [WIP]

[Mai Kobayashi]

Name: Mikaela Krynn
Race: Human/Miralukan Hybrid
Age: 36
Birthplace: Alpheridies

Allegiance: The Jedi Order
Status: Jedi Consular (Shadow)
Rank: Master

Height/Weight: 5'2", 112 Lbs.
Appearance:

Personality:
Master Krynn is a complicated person, taken on her own terms she might seem a stoic woman of few words that doesn't seem to hard to understand. She does not exemplify the usual traits expected from a Jedi, but then she also does not contribute to the order in quite the usual way. She does not lack in compassion nor mercy but her task is not one where such traits are often brought to bare. In most respects she is simply unassuming, never one to draw attention to herself needlessly. Tough she does not outright lie unless situations force her hand, she does not give up information easily and is fond of cryptic answers that say very little. In fact she is quite adept at technically speaking the truth and still misleading the person she is speaking to. This is because of where her true loyalties lie, not to the republic, not to any one individual, not even to the Jedi Council. Master Krynn is a guardian of the Order itself, one of the shadows that maintains the good of the order and fights the corruption of the dark side inside and out of it.

As such she is a spy master, secretive of her affairs and in turn working steadily towards being knowledgeable about the affairs of others. She is not unsociable, she cannot afford to be, but she is calm and calculating and never lets any emotion get the better of her. It is simply in her nature to passively observe before taking definitive action without hesitation. But when circumstances force her to speak with others she often slips into several persona she actively maintains as suitable for acquiring information in various ways. Tough her appearance might make her stand out in some small degree to those of human or near-human decent (and cultural upbringing) she uses her unseeing eyes to her advantage, she rarely volunteers information about her Miralukan heritage and leaves others to draw the connections themselves. People naturally tend to underestimate a young blind woman with cybernetics that are as much for the benefit of those speaking to her as they are for her own.

Their assumptions in that case make them vulnerable for Master Krynn is neither young nor helpless and tough her eyes may not see, her perception through the force is quite unhindered. She makes quite good use of this tendency most people have and supplements it with a demeanour that she deems would resonate with the person speaking to her in order to extract information. It is therefore important to note that she is one to believe in constant vigilance and will not engage in idle gossip or chitchat without some kind of ulterior motive. If there was none, she would not be speaking to anyone at all.

This of course is not always a beneficial trait, but neither is it a malevolent one, she does harbour genuine concerns for the orders future and every Jedi that is a part of it. Even someone as stoic as her realises that the Jedi code exists for a reason and no one is in control of their emotions all the time. Sometimes her duty can be as simple as to listen and to steer someone in the right direction to avoid them from falling prey to negative emotions. While she is fully capable of finding and destroying those who have fallen to the Dark side, she realises more then anyone there is not a single border between good and evil or light and darkness but only steps and tumbles along the way and sometimes someone needs that bit of compassion to take a step back before plummeting. It's these moments where she may genuinely smile, it's hard to see the good in people when you are constantly watching for their darkest moments but when she does see that struggle and can lend a small push to bring someone back from their confusion... Well those are the moments where she is truly happy. 

On the other hand, she can be without mercy to those who have fallen beyond redemption. Often there is still some good in everyone, but more often so there is simply to much darkness to risk extending a hand to help. There are some things someone simply cannot come back from and in these moments though it saddens her always, no matter how terrible a foe it may be, she preforms her charge.

Ships/Vehicles:
Supplied by the council as needed.

Equipment:
Cybernetic Eyes (Do not allow her normal vision, Electric green in colour.)
Shadowskin body suit with Reflec coating
Master Krynn's Duelling Sabers

Stats:
Strength - Below Average
Agility - Above Average
Intelligence - Superior
Charisma - Average

Force Stats:
Telekinetic- Adept
Telepathic- Adept
Body- Adept
Sense- Master
Protection- Expert
Healing:– Novice
Destruction– Apprentice

Combat Training:
Echani (Adept)

Force Training:
Cloak of Shadows (Expert)
Deflection (Expert)
Energy Resistance (Expert)
Farseeing (Master)
Force Disarm (Adept)
Force Shield (Expert)
Force Sight (Master)
Force Thurst (Adept)
Mind Trick (Adept)
Mind Maze (Expert)
Move Object (Adept)
Rebuke (Apprentice)
Saber Throw  (Apprentice)
Slow (Adept)
Surge (Apprentice)

Other Training:
Starship Piloting (Adept)
Speeder Piloting (Adept)
Subterfuge (Master)
Intelligence Gathering (Expert)
Negotiation (Adept)
Mechanical Engineering (Expert)
Slicing (Adept)
Jury Rigging (Adept)
General Education (Adept)
Lore (History, Expert)
Forbidden Lore (Dark Side, Adept)
Language: Galactic Basic (Adept)
Language: Trandoshan (Understanding only) (Novice)

Lightsaber Training:
Shii-Cho- Adept
Makashi- Apprentice
Soresu- Expert
Djem So- Apprentice
Niman- Master
Jar-Kai - Expert

Biography:

3636 BBY

This is where Mikaela's history begins, but before we get to the moment of her birth let me provide you with some context about the state of the planet Alpheridies, her parents and in particular the circumstances in which they lived.

During the Jedi Civil War some 300 odd years prior the planet Alpheridies came under Imperial control. It's Jedi Academy, the Culu Memorial Center, was overtaken and the Jedi that had lived on the planet scattered into the population. Now in most cases they would be hunted down eventually, but there was one key factor to this planet that made that task much harder for the Empire to accomplish. The entire Miralukan populace that made the planet their home, was force sensitive and as a near human species those human Jedi and native Miralukan ones trained on the planet could quite literally blend seamlessly into the native masses.

For hundreds of years these Jedi worked tirelessly to undermine the empire in whatever way they could, which included smuggling newborn infants particularly strong in the force of planet to be raised in Jedi Academies in less troubled parts of the galaxy. Because of the unique gifts of the Miralukan people the order always maintained a presence of Jedi Masters and Knights on the planet in order to facilitate this flow of recruits and ofcourse to aid the oppressed people of Alpheridies.

Though all of them volunteers, very few Miralukan Jedi that had come from the planet in this manner ever returned. It did not do for Jedi to dwell on the past and the connection they may have had to the planet was long since abandoned. For them to volunteer to return home was seen as questionable at best. So it was that most of those that supported the planet from the shadow were human Jedi that could blend into the local population merely by hiding their eyes.

This may all seem only trivially connected to the birth of a single girl, but one of these Jedi was a Corellian born Human by the name of Atmos Krynn, Mikaela's father. The order ofcourse did not look favourably on Jedi that fell in love, but as was Corellian nature Atmos Krynn was boisterous and jovial by many standards. He was also a man scarred by time and conflict. His scars made him no handsome prize by anyone's measure. But to a people that did not see with eyes but through the force Atmos Krynn was a fine and caring man who, though he sometimes let his fiery passion get the better of himself, was a wise and strong man dedicating his life to their people.

Or at least that is how a local Miralukan Girl half his age saw the ageing Jedi Master. He used to say he saved her life but she saved his dedication. He had been close to giving up and retiring back home before they met. But she reignited something in him, passion, love, the reason he was fighting to begin with it mattered little. They fell in love in defiance of everything and the story begins about 8 months later, as the Jedi master used what pull he had to secure passage on one of the flights to smuggle the now ballooningly pregnant Miralukan girl of alpheridies and back to Coruscant never telling a soul just who this girl was. Ofcourse there were whispers amongst the Jedi on Alpheridies and many wondered why they were sending a pregnant woman when normally only children already born were ever taken of world.

But it mattered very little, as Atmos Krynn got his way regardless. Unfortunately securing passage for a full grown woman instead of a few small children was far harder and something went wrong as it is always wont to do. A contingent of Imperial soldiers attacked the secret landing site that the ship was about to leave from, and though he valiantly fought to protect the ship. He was ultimately killed with a smile on his face. The last thing he saw as he took of the veil that had obscured his eyes for years, the sight of the ship blasting off beyond the empire's reach. His last breath a whisper that he was ready for whatever came next now.

For Atmos Krynn, there was nothing to come next in this world, and a month later on Coruscant the love he died for passed on during childbirth because of complications caused by their interspecies joining. Perhaps the force itself moved to have the two lovers reunited in it's embrace, somewhere out there, we may never know. But the Legacy of their love still remains. A new born infant to be taken under the wing of Coruscant's Jedi Academy. A little girl, by the name of Mikaela Krynn.

3626 BBY

Let us jump ahead in the story just a bit, by this time Mikaela Krynn has been a youngling in the care of the order pretty much her entire life, though the time leading up to her tenth year on Coruscant has not been easy. She has been under the care of Jedi Healers for quite some time. You see, though Miralukan's are a near human species and did descend from humans, evolution does not sit still and there are some biological incompatibilities between the two species that will not be ironed out quite perfectly quite so easily. Particularly their brain chemistry is quite different due to the complete lack of optical nerves and the parts of the brain used to process the impulse provided by them. In Miralukans these parts of the brain have instead been tasked with processing their unique ability to perceive the force.

Many pairings of humans and Miralukans have resulted in crippling defects and very few were successful in any way. Even fewer completely harmonizing human sight with Miralukan force sight within a single person. Though Mikaela was fortunate to survive even to this point, she was not lucky enough to be perfect in this regard. Though she was born with rudimentary optical nerves and eyes, they lacked any of the normal structures needed to process sight. Her brain did not have the capacity to process the distorted signals her vestigial eyes produced tough it was theorised it should be able to process sight if her eyes had formed normally and her hormonal levels were off balance due to similar problems with her physiology. But, though troubled, she was alive.

She was small for her age, never seeming to develop quite as fast as normal human children in a physical sense. Yes she may have been small in stature but she was tough and scrappy and in most cases she was quite healthy, though she often had bouts of headaches related to the problems with her eyes. Though the decision was not taken lightly, it is at this age that she received surgery to replace her vestigial eyes with cybernetic implants. While it seemed initially that the surgery was successful, her eyes did not allow her to see, though with the removal of the malformed eyes she was born with at least her headaches disappeared.

And though her human eyes may have been and perhaps always would be troubled, she was not blind in the normal sense of the word. Her body may not have been the strongest, or the toughest, or even the healthiest but she had great potential in the force and what her eyes could not see, her heart did. It was not long since then that she was accepted as a Padawan by a most curious master, but that story belongs later in her life.

Instead lets take a moment to see what kind of person she was in this young stage of her life. Though often plagued by headaches, Mikaela was a diligent student, keen to learn and to expand her knowledge in whatever way she could. One might think that this would be hard for someone who cannot see, but they would be wrong. As long as there is life nearby a Miralukan can, through the echoes of their passing in the force see far more then even the most eagle eyed of persons. They can even read or use Holo terminals merely by sensing the echoes other living beings imprint on the force. This sight is so minute and detailed that even the tiniest living creature does not escape their notice.

As such, to think that she would have been hampered in her mental development would be the height of folly, in fact she displayed a keen intellect a curiosity tempered even then by a strong will and a stoic disposition. Despite her shorter stature and young looks even for her tender age, she already displayed the demeanour of a much older and much more mature person. Electing on her own to study complex and challenging pieces of art and history simply because it kept her mind busy. Whenever she allowed her head to be less then full of thoughts the headaches would begin. She slept poorly and studied late, refining her personal skills even through burning the candle at both ends.

That was the chief motivating decision to allow such a young person to undergo such a questionable surgery to begin with. After all, the Jedi did not normally believe that cybernetics to improve on nature were really a good thing. Certainly if one lost a limb they might replace it, but even then some chose to simply retire instead. Replacing healthy body parts hoping to be better was after all a lust for power that was not in line with the morals of the order. The key part in this is healthy, for certainly that is what Mikaela was not. Her lack of sleep and brutal headaches were starting to take it's toll and it was no longer a matter of simply making her better, it was starting to be an issue of keeping her alive.

And though it did not grant her sight, perhaps that was in everyone's best interest. After all, had she been able to see through this surgery, wouldn't that have been a terrible lesson. Or perhaps she simply was never meant to see at all...

3621 BBY

At age 12, Mikaela was accepted as a padawan by a Jedi Knight named Jaenise Sunspear. It is quite alright if you have never heard the name. In fact, it is probably better if you have not for reasons that will become apparent in due time. This Jedi was a student of the more esoteric side of the force, a scholar and even a scientist. Jaenise had been born as a spacer, living most of her young life on a space ship, in fact until she was brought to Coruscant she had never even stood on real ground before. She had been accepted very late for a jedi at least and had barely been accepted into the order at the age of 6. Because of this she had acquired a knowledge and interest in the technology that kept her alive that never quite left her during her training as a Jedi.

Jaenise Sunspear loved to tinker with everything, she loved space ships and she loved droids but she loved nothing quite as much as things that combined all that love with her Jedi training. Jaenise Sunspear was famous, or perhaps infamous for studying the history of the Infinite Empire that to many still seemed nothing but a ludicrous theory. However to Jaenise the infinite Empire was well, in a word and obsession that she focused all her energy on researching. To some this single minded dedication was unbecoming of a Jedi but Jaenise preformed the missions she was given and then and only then did she indulge in her research.

And none could deny that she had made significant discoveries in her research. For while her passion lay with obscure research into a long dead civilisation, she also had a fondness for researching ancient and long forgotten bastions of Jedi History recovering a number of Holocrons that had provided invaluable insight into the formative years of the Jedi order itself. So when she came across a youngling with a fondness for art and history and a keen mind she finally took on a student. Perhaps on a whim, perhaps again it was simply because it was meant to be. But this chance encounter would define Mikaela's life in an unexpected way.

Mikaela was instructed by her master in many of the things she herself valued. Not the least of which, Jaenise taught her the importance of perspective. You see Jaenise thought that many jedi disconnected themselves so thoroughly from the world they lived in that they could no longer see value in opinions outside of their own. She taught Mikaela to keep an open mind and not to see the force as the only tool for every job. She instilled the knowledge of modern and ancient engineering into the young girl that still defines her to this day.

She thought her how to drive a speeder, how to fly a space ship, how to build and maintain one. She taught her about droids, about holocrons, in fact she instilled a rudimentary knowledge of just about every single piece of technology that people used in their daily lives into her young padawan. As student an teacher they were a very good match, Mikaela was curious and wanted to know as much as she could and Jaenise was a scholar of many things that wanted nothing more then to share her love of what most Jedi viewed as at best excentric distractions from their purpose.

Ofcourse there was more to their dynamic then merely Jaenise's eccentricities, she schooled the young Padawan in the use of the force, in diplomacy and many other essential skills a Jedi needs. But it is important to stress her oddities to explain why she insisted that the young Mikaela put her skills to the test to build a lightsaber before her master even considered training her in it's use.

Mikaela's first lightsaber was cobbled together from parts she had to salvage from coruscants lower levels, acquire on her own from unscrupulous offworld traders, or even design and assemble from parts she bought at a junk shop. To most Jedi their lightsaber is an important step in their training and the first real time they must build and master technology to such a high degree. For Mikaela it was the first thing her master tasked her to do to show how much of what she had been teaching her got through to her. About the only thing her master provided for her was her lightsaber crystal.

The crystal she received from her master was one of a kind, perhaps not because it was so rare though Stygium crystals were far from common. No what made it unique, at least in Mikaela's eyes was that her master cut her own lightsaber crystal in half to provide that of her student. Though the symbolism was lost to her at the time, thinking back on it later she felt that she should have then realised that her master was looking for a bond in their relationship that went beyond that what was supposed to exist between master and Padawan.

3613 BBY

Again we take a leap in time, not because what happened in the interim was uneventful or unimportant. But merely because the things that define Mikaela's life are the points I am highlighting here. This is the year she became a Jedi Knight. For many this would be the accomplishment of a long term goal and though many would say that surrendering to joy is not the Jedi way, most do feel some sense of accomplishment when making it this far. For Mikaela this moment was overshadowed by something else.

To many Jedi, their trials are gruelling and hard fought victories but very few of them accomplish all of them at once. Fewer still reach this stage after losing their master, and yet fewer still reach it because they struck their master down with their own hand. Now I have your attention, I will explain, but only after I clarify the circumstances, patience to is a trait Jedi value highly, and it will take a bit of doing to frame this dramatic event in the proper light.

After building her own lightsaber, and earning her master's approval for it's design, they finally begun training together to increase her skills with the blade. The young Mikaela though quick of mind and talented in her studies had always remained small for her age, physical skill was not her merit and her master was a scholar herself. It was needless to say that neither of them was a star duellist or a great hand with a blade but then that is only if we compare them to other more martially inclined Jedi.

It did not take long for the two of them to go on missions together, but as Jaenise was a scholar and a researcher first and for most, most of these involved excavations and long nights researching alien scripts to decipher clues about where to find some other long lost piece of technology or alien culture they were searching for. Sometimes they had to flex their proverbial muscles and take down a rogue droid or two standing in the way of their prize discovery, in others pirates and raiders out for some quick credits did the thrashing but still most of their missions were hardly dangerous compared to those most other Jedi faced.

No to this pair, the dangers lay in temptation. The knowledge they gathered was after all the minds path to power. Jedi do not strife for power for powers sake, only enough to serve and protect. But Jaenise's obsession with the infinite empire grew to more and more unreasonable proportions. She started to refuse missions offered her to focus on her research and slowly but surely Mikaela began to see a shift in her masters Aura that became more and more worrisome.

There are many instances I could record here that showed her masters subtle decline into ever more possessive pursuits, but perhaps it is best I come now to the crux of it all. After years of study Jaenise found whatever it was she was looking for. Without permission from the council she dragged her young Padawan to a site of historical importance to the order, whom's true significance had long since been struck from all records. How she found it and what led her to her conclusions I cannot say, but find it she did.

A smuggler hired to bring them there landed his ship on the small moon of a planet shrouded by debris fields, to Mikaela it was a terrifying experience, even from it's small desolate moon the planet, if not the entire system pulsed with a malevolence that send shivers down her spine. From up here, the planet seemed quite unassuming if not for it's terrible aspect in the force. This planet was Lehon, once better known as Rakata Prime.

It was on this moon that the two Jedi discovered a small structure hidden under it's barren surface. Protected by automated battle droids and worse they fought their way through the defences of the complex sometimes with guile, other times by using their technological aptitude to disable the defences, rarely but still on occasion with simple brute force. Everything about this place felt wrong to the young padawan's senses but nothing quite as wrong as the room at the very heart of the complex. Deep underground it was filled with nought but triangular boxes floating in suspension over pedestals that lined the walls. They could have been simple cargo boxes for all she knew but her senses told her they were far more then just that.

Whatever relics her master was looking for, this was not a good place. She mentioned her worries to her master but Jaenise reminded her coldly and implacidly that fear had no place in a Jedi's heart and that knowledge would remedy her need to be afraid if only she had the determination to reach out. Despite her misgivings, the young Padawan recited the code in her mind attempting to find some kind of determination to follow her masters guidance.

While she fought her inner battle with herself, Jaenise approached the pedestal in the very center of the room, touching her hand to the ancient artifact with a smile that did not do anything to alleviate her students worries. Mikaela never saw what took place in that instance though she would come to understand the nature and workings of the Rakatan mind trap that her master in her hubris had activated later.

When Jaenise turned around to face her student, Mikaela knew that something was horribly wrong with her master. Her sight in the force witnessed the dramatic shift in her masters aura moments before she raised her hands and spoke in a language she did not understand. But Mikaela understood the general gist of her intentions. She drew her lightsaber and a moment later the white hot searing pain of electricity wrapping around the blade and arcing across her arms forced her to her knees. The smuggler and the two members of his crew that had accompanied them so far had not been so lucky.

Tendrils of blue force lightning raged across the interior of the room destroying many of the other artefacts and ravaging the people in the room with a storm of coruscating lightning emerging from her masters hands. As it died down Mikalea fell to her knees, her saber rolling away from powerless hands as her master approached her. The other people in the room were all dead but her masters face was contorted in a smile so cruel she barely recognised her face. When she spoke it was in a harsh tone that Mikaela had never heard her use before.

She called herself the despised, and said that now she had finally escaped it would be only a matter of time before the entire galaxy bowed at her feet, she laid her fingers on Mikaela's face and raised her chin up to look down upon her former students face. She said she sensed some worth in the girl and that she would be the first to add to the army she would raise to take back the glory that had been denied her so long ago.

This is where most would fall into fear and despair. But Mikaela instead felt only numbed by confusion, this was not her master, she could not be and yet it was. She could still see flickers in this woman's aura that reminded her of who it was she was forced onto her knees in front of. She summoned all her will to face this woman eyes with all the defiance she could muster. She was repeating the final line of the code in her mind to give her solace because she knew what would come next. Every fibre of her being expected it, no she realised she had expected it ever since they had set foot on this moon. She was going to die, and for some reason that realisation did not shake her as she thought it would.

It was such a clear realisation and the pure brilliance of it was like a small light in the darkness that painted this entire system in darkness. If she died now, that was the will of the force, nothing more nothing less. It  was not something to be feared or despised simply her purpose. Whatever mystery it was she touched in that moment, when the woman who used to be her master stared into the padawan's cold and empty cybernetic eyes she stepped back clutching her head.

Mikaela rose as if guided by something more then just herself. She could see through the force, the emanations flicker in her masters aura. It was like every moment happened exactly as she expected, as if she was living a vision a few moments before everything she saw unfolded in reality. Her master was resisting whatever darkness had taken her over. There was but one option, she realised it before her master in pained notes and between heavy breaths spelled out the same conclusion that she had already come to. Whatever fatigue and pain had been wearing her down moments before her mind was so clear that her body acted even when she should be on her last legs.

Her lightsaber jumped from the floor into her hands and as her master smiled one final time, her head rolled away from her shoulders and Mikaela smiled to. Her lightsaber clattered to the floor as she fell backwards a smile still etched on her face. Could she cry, she might have then but as her master died, her consciousness to retreated into herself. She never felt herself fall backwards onto the stone ground.

She awoke again on coruscant, After Jaenise had blatantly ignored another of the councils requests they had send an old Jedi master by the name of Makar Mytos, her old master, after her. He had tracked them both to their destination and had arrived in time to see the young Padawan fall after sensing some of what had gone on in the bowels of the complex and hurrying to the scene. Though the death of his former student was regrettable he wished to know everything that transpired down in that room on that forsaken moon. 

So Mikaela spoke, she was still numbed by it all, she spoke like it was something detached from her, like she had just been an outsider watching her own life pass by without control or attachment to it. and in truth that is what she felt. She was unsure if she was simply to tired to feel then but it felt like telling the story removed something from her, something weighing down on her mind and piece by piece letting her make sense of it and understand it gave her clarity enough to accept it as what had happened. It was not like she did not feel sadness over her masters loss, but it was a dull ache that she could carry more easily because she found something else to gain from it. Clarity and insight brought her the serenity to speak freely and as she spoke she felt more at peace then she knew she should be.

Her master's loss would be felt, but she felt some small part of that feeling she had had in the temple, like some small part of a great mystery had been revealed to her. Like there was some purpose beyond all that she saw at that moment. She did not know what exactly, but she trusted that in time that to would become clear. She shared a single look with her own masters old master at the conclusion of her story and he handed her something as if to tell her that he understood and knew that there was nothing left to be said. He handed her the lightsaber that once belonged to her master, Jaenise and departed the room silently to leave Mikaela to rest and contemplate the events that had brought her here. She silently clutched the metal cylinder in her hand and allowed herself that one moment of grief in knowing that she would not see the person who had been her mentor and almost like a parent to her for so many years. The first and only time she truly let herself feel the full weight of the sadness welling up inside of her.

She would be asked to repeat this story many times, to many different people. And though she spoke dispassionately and in calm reasoned measure it was not as if she felt nothing at all. It was a clarity that let her be outside of such confusing emotions without denying their existence entirely, she felt without being swayed by her emotions and for the first time she thought she understood the deeper nature of what it meant to be a Jedi. It took a long time and many questions for the council to decide what to do about her training. She had shown blind faith in her master where it might have been more prudent to question her and alert the council.

But she had also forged her own lightsaber already and given proof of her skill. She had acted swiftly and decisively in a situation in which most padawans would be overwhelmed by not just their own negative emotions but the deep dark side energies permeating the moon on which she had been. It was decided that the recklessness of her Master did not deter from the wisdom she had shown in the situation and that though losing her master was a great loss and the death of a Jedi at another Jedi's hand was not a matter to be taken lightly, the actions that she had taken were in the best interest of many other innocent lives as the entity that had taken possession of her master had shown itself willing and fully capable of murder.

It was because of those reasons and on the recommendation of Master Mytos that the council had decided to bestow upon her the Rank of Jedi Knight and that if she was willing to do so, the Council recognised her remarkable resilience to the corrupting influences of the dark side as well as her own impressive resolve to put the good of others above all other concerns as the necessary qualifications for her to be trained as one of the shadows of the order to be tasked with tracking down and destroying those sources of influence the dark side had in the galaxy. Upon her acceptance she rose to her new rank and embarked upon a new step in her life that had changed very drastically from where she had been heading in that single event.

3607 BBY

Six years passed since Mikaela became a Jedi Knight and where most Jedi received missions frequently enough to keep them quite busy, the shadows of the order are usually deployed with more hesitation. Though at the time many of the more experienced shadows were busy dealing with the rising suspicions towards the empire or following up on members of the order that returned from assignments in the empire only to leave the order behind shortly after. Mikaela was not quite experienced enough to handle such delicate tasks on her own. Instead she spend much of her time improving her own skills.

She had been trained by her former master in the more esoteric disciplines of the force and in combination with her keen mind, mastery of the force came easily to her. Yet a wise jedi once said that you are never to old to learn something new. So first she sought out the man who had recommended her promotion to Jedi knight to begin with, Master Mytos, and asked him to instruct her of what exactly was expected of her in this new role she was cast into. In between his own missions and the ones that were sporadically assigned to Mikaela herself she studied the nature of the dark side more closely then most Jedi ever do. To know the power and the lure of the darkside is to arm yourself against it but never can you be complacent for when you believe you are incorruptible you have already fallen. Words of wisdom that never left her as she continued mostly to study and improve her skills.

For a Shadow, combat is a way of life and her skills with a lightsaber were never quite as good as her mastery over the force. So she had sought out the orders more skilled duellists to learn more in depth secrets of the many forms of combat, learning from not just living blade masters but also the great archives of the temple on Coruscant. She studied the nature and history of the most common forms of lightsaber combat and based on this theoretical knowledge devised for herself a list of which styles to learn and what techniques would be essential for fighting against other lightsaber wielding foes.

Then she practised her skills by duelling other Jedi at every opportunity she got and used that actual experience to fine tune the often flawed predictions of her theoretical models. She was no great prodigy with a lightsaber and in sheer frustration decided that two would be better then one and took up a second training lightsaber in duels only to find that two swords takes even more skill then just one. She did not become better at it by some natural talent or disposition at the art. No she had years tenaciously working every day she could spare on her skills, on her theories, on her research and on her own physical condition to improve.

When out on missions she took up her Masters old lightsaber next to her own. Not out of any residual attachment, merely it was convenient and available and she had little time to build a second blade between all the rigorous training she was doing. Yet it was not without merit, using sheer determination and dedication to her pursuits she transformed herself from a Jedi trained only in the basics of Form I to a capable duellist that had developed her proficiency in Form III to outlast her opponents whilst borrowing the principles of forms II and V to add the necessary offensive ability to her duelling style. She also began using some of the form VI techniques for dual bladed combat in her own particular style.

In General she became a patient and cunning duellist, waiting out an opponents mistakes using her defensive expertise before going on the offensive using a swift change between the techniques she used to punish any opening given to her with a quick strike meant to incapacitate an opponent. It was this patient nature coupled with the ability to decisively act on a moments notice when needed to that made her into the person she was to begin with, but having watched her abilities grow, Master Mytos decided that it was time to ask her to accompany him on a mission of some importance that would become a sobering reminder of what exactly she had agreed to become.

Accompanied only by the masters protocol droid that usually accompanied him when he went into the city, the two Jedi first traded in their robes for clothes that would more easily let them blend into the general population of Coruscants Dacho District to track down a former Jedi who had returned from an assignment in Imperial Space and left the Order about 3 months later. Most of the time those leaving the order were kept an eye on but left mostly alone but this particular Jedi had managed to drop out of sight of the order for some time and disturbing rumours of him now leading a 'cult' of some kind down in the works had begun surfaces. Master Mytos as one of the orders most excellent trackers had been tasked with finding out how much of these rumours were true and then to act at his own discretion in solving the matter.

Or at least that's what the protocol droid made of the Trandoshan Jedi's words. She had no doubt that what he actually said had not been quite so delicately worded from the look of annoyance he had shot the droids way before refocusing his concentration as he manoeuvred the speeder they had taken to get to their destination through narrow flight paths between Coruscants endless high rise skyline. They touched down on a dilapidated flight path on some of the lowest levels of Coruscants infrastructure. Nobody really lived down here that didn't absolutely have to and most of the workers actually keeping the city running down here were ageing droids that wouldn't complain about the conditions.

The two Jedi made their way through the lower levels of the works trying to attract as little attention to themselves as possible and investigating whatever clues it were that Master Mytos was looking for. For days they lived of of whatever food rations they had brought with them and water tapped from 'access points' in the cities water supply lines that ran through the underground maintenance sections. After all the underground sections of the city were massive and a resourceful former Jedi could hide out anywhere in the huge network of tunnels, suspension bridges masses of adjacent building foundations fused together by just how many times they had been build over and remodelled and the large and infinitely complex systems that kept the higher levels of the city running through systems that most people did not even know existed.

Master Mytos used this time to instruct Mikaela in using the force to look beyond what her force sight could see in her immediate vicinity, to perceive glimpses of the future and insights on near by locations and events by simply opening up her senses. Perhaps the natural attunement of her senses to the force helped her in this regard but a number of the glimpses she received turned out to be extraordinarily helpful in narrowing down their search and the technological knowhow she had learned from her master was something that had always baffled Master Mytos when he had still taught her.

The fact that he had been her masters master was at once a somewhat strange and at the same time comforting realisation. He was very different from Jaenise and yet she noticed similarities in the way that both of them had taught her. Where Jaenise had been an expert on all things mechanical, Master Mytos was an expert on wilderness survival, tracking and stealth and though down here it seemed like the technological skills Mikaela had learned from her former master would be more helpful, when they ran out of food is was Master Mytos that somehow managed to capture a huge armoured rat like creature that had nested in the tunnels and actually smelled quite good when cooked (tough he ate it raw.)

It took them two weeks to finally track down the former Jedi that they had been sent to check on. As they feared he was rallying the disenfranchised people of Coruscant into a frenzy against the Republic that had abandoned them and sat high and mighty in the shiny peaks of their towers while those who fell through societies cracks lived in places like this as if they were filth. In all honesty, it was quite a good speech and some of the accusations he made about the inequality they faced were even true. But his motivations were not to help these people they were of a far darker sort.

3602 BBY

It

Roleplay Sample: .

[Rugs]

Still working on this, Mai Kobayashi?

[Mai Kobayashi]

Yeah at the moment I am focused on some work but I am still writing on merrily in notepad on my tablet. I should be done pretty soon.

[Rugs]

Moved to inactive pending, Mai Kobayashi. Can be restored upon request