A Beacon On The Edge

[Kaasii]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

STAR WARS: UNIVERSE

A BEACON ON THE EDGE

A Jedi emergency distress beacon has been activated deep in the Outer Rim, far past the reaches of the GALACTIC REPUBLIC. The Jedi Council on Coruscant has dispatched two JEDI KNIGHTS to bring to light the nature of the mysterious signal.

On the Outer Rim world of UKIO, a lone JEDI INVESTIGATOR has uncovered a sinister plot by a vicious fugitive that could spell the doom of the local population and time is running out for the peaceful, agrarian world....


The night sky cast a nearly purple hue on to the miles and miles of peaceful farmland of Ukio. The moon pierced the purple, illuminating several speeder bikes sailing above the ground, the screams of their repulsors breaking the serene quiet around them. The lead bike cut a sharp left turn, it's large and imposing rider waving a hand toward a dark farm house. The simple dwelling was soon surrounded by the riders. Each one dismounted after their leader, drawing weapons.

"They won't pay their taxes to our Lord, we're going to come and get those taxes!" the large being exclaimed as he kicked in the feeble, wooden door. As they entered, an akk hound began to bark and several beings rose up and turned on the simple lamps that served as a primitive source of light. Among them, a Mirialan man stood with his hands out.

"Look, Lord Zandu will get his payments! There's children in here!" The Mirialan placed himself between the armed men and the the family of four humans.

"Back off outsider! You're just a farm hand! Our fight is with Ky-do here, you better move if you know what's good for you!" With that, the hulking alien stuck his blaster pistol in the Mirialan's face. The look of frail fear quickly vanished. Suddenly Sydan Rwoz knew he had no other choice. He could not let these thugs kill any more innocents, the game was over. He closed his eyes and reached out with his feelings. Through reverberations in the Force, he could nearly see what each member of the group of thugs would do next. In what seemed like almost slow motion to him, he extended his hand and called his weapon to him. The shining, durasteel cylinder flew from under his simple bed roll and in an instant, the emerald blade was ignited. In an arcing strike, he cut the large alien across the midsection and used the Force to push him in one of the walls of the small dwelling. With a crash, half of the wall caved in. The next instant, he used a feint and upper slash in the typical fashion of his Juyo fighting style on the next thug. The being screamed in fear and pain as the cut traveled from his right hip to left shoulder. The third tried to run, falling in to the soft earth right outside the door step. He scrambled backwards pleading with the Jedi Knight and throwing his weapon away. Sydan disengaged the brilliant blade of his Jedi weapon and grabbed the man by his collar. The facade of a scared farm hand left his face entirely. He looked in to the being's eyes with a cold, hard stare.

"You're coming with us. I am going to tie you up in a few moments, if you continue to scream and jeopardize my position, I can not guarantee your safety. Do you understand?" The orange-skinned humanoid nodded, tears welling in his eyes. Inside, the family was cowering, Mr. Ky-do was shielding his children and wife.

"Y...You're a Jedi Knight!?"

"Yes and I am here to free all of you," replied Sydan as he dragged the living thug inside. He put the black-clad humanoid on to his stomach as he retrieved a pair of binders. He secured him with practiced precision and gagged the man with a dish rag. It wouldn't be long until Zandu discovered what had happened here, if Sydan was lucky the exiled Jedi would not have felt his use of the Force. He activated his emergency distress signal, making sure to hit the red button that cast the signal on an encrypted channel. Only the Council would be able to decode the signal now, he couldn't afford to let Zandu know he was calling for backup. He hurried the family outside to the speeder bikes and set them all up, attaching his prisoner securely to the rack on the rear of the bike he would be riding. The humanoid tried to scream and squeal, but his cries were muted by the dish rag. The three bikes sped off in to the night.

Three hours later...

As the sun began to break through the darkness, a large skiff pulled up to the half collapsed farm house flanked by three combat speeder bikes. The riders quickly dismounted and waited for their master. An old, but rigid human male dismounted, clothed in finely woven brown clothing. At his hip, hung a lightsaber that had a hilt reminiscent of bone. The three riders were cloaked in black, their faces obscured by hoods. Each one of them sported a lightsaber as well. The old man closed his eyes for a moment and held out his hand. His gray eyes quickly snapped open.

"It appears we have a Jedi Knight on the loose. Find him, bring me his head. There will undoubtedly be more of them, leave them to me."

With that, the three riders mounted their speeder bikes and jetted off in to various directions. Lord Zandu smiled, his Dark Riders were his ultimate tool on Ukio. The Jedi that would likely show up to assist their comrade would not last long, after all they likely did not know who they were dealing with. The Lord of Ukio returned to his skiff and had the droid pilot take him back to his palace, he needed to start weaving his web of deception.

[Rugs]

Sunlight spread across the sky as the Jedi transport hurtled through the air. From above, Ukio looked much like any other agriworld: a sea of patchwork greens stitched together, broken occasionally by settlements or curling rivers. A town of moderate size spread across a low hilltop, overlooking farmland that sprawled for miles and miles in every direction.

It seemed, from the air, a quiet, unremarkable town, just as Ukio itself seemed a quiet, unremarkable world.

But something dark, something dangerous lurked behind the world’s pleasant appearance.

Locke had found it strange when he received an emergency transmission from the Council. A Jedi Investigator sent out a distress beacon from the world. For what cause, they did not know. Why Sydan Rwoz was on Ukio, they did not know. That, admittedly, was less strange. An Investigator himself, Locke knew well that the twists and turns of fieldwork often played out faster than word could be relayed to his superiors, or to the Council directly.

Sometimes it was just imprudent to send word until a task was finished.

Locke didn’t know Rwoz, not personally, but these days he spent more time running around Hutt Space than on Coruscant, or seeing to the affairs of his fellow Investigators. There was work to be done; too much, in the Chorus’ aftermath.

Even so, he couldn’t ignore such an urgent request from the Council, and departed from Circumtore to Bothawui, where he rendezvoused with Knight Kathar Maiavel en route to Ukio.

“Something’s not right down there,” Locke muttered as the ship descended toward a large docking facility at the heart of the town. “Be on guard.”

Ukio lay at the fringes of what had been Archeri-controlled space, before the Republic and Empire turned back the Chorus. All things considered, it had escaped the worst of their temporary rule. The occasional scar lingered — ruined farmland here, buildings with damage that’d not yet been repaired there — but the Archeri were capable of much, much worse.

Yet that didn’t seem to be the cause of the dark, of the wrong that lingered like fog not yet burned away by the morning’s light.

As the ship landed on one of the pads and settled onto its struts, Locke stood and checked his gear. He was dressed simply, as any ordinary spacer might be. His pistol rested visibly in its holster at his side and his lightsaber was tucked way inside his rust-red coat.

A simple tracking device revealed the way to Sydan’s beacon. Locke tucked that away as well. They were close, at least, but had some searching to do to track down the Investigator. He pulled his presence in on itself, hiding away in the Force. The end result was that he’d seem a normal man to any other Force user, though this dulled his senses, his feeling of the Force, in turn.

“You ever been on a job like this one?” Kathar was young, but seemed bright and competent, from what Locke had gleaned of him from conversation on the way over. But it was not every day that a Jedi was sent to aid an Investigator in distress. “Biggest thing we want to do is try not to make a bigger mess of things, if we can help it.”

He motioned for Kathar to follow once their preparations were complete. Despite his words, Locke couldn’t help but feel that ‘making a mess of things’ was not entirely in their hands.

Then again, was it ever?

[Symm]

Nervous. That was one word to describe how Kathar felt about this situation. Resting on Bothawui after the success of his previous mission, Kathar received an urgent call to meet another Jedi. That was it - no details aside from a time and a location. Of course, he was not one to question orders, so he went - and found himself shuffled upon a Jedi transport alongside Jedi Investigator Locke Nemsee. Kathar received further details once aboard, but even that was limited in scope. It was hard for him to figure out if that was intentional or simply that was all the information they had.

Why the council pulled Kathar into this, he could only guess. He was not an investigator and, frankly, knew very little about them. The Temple curriculum barely mentioned them, and those that dug into the profession found little on their activities. There were rumours of padawans that disappeared from their training, presumed to have failed out, that were instead shoulder tapped to become Investigators - but those were just rumours. At least, that's what Kathar thought. The fact that he had never heard of Locke Nemsee before this mission began to solidify those stories.

Not being an investigator himself, and knowing his strengths, Kathar concluded he was on the mission as muscle. So the council thought there would be trouble. With that in mind, in the moments between reading and re-reading the (brief) mission brief and talking with Locke, Kathar meditated on his forms.

He was in the middle of such meditation when beeping indicated they were about to drop out of hyperspace. Briefed that they would be keeping a low profile initially, Kathar dressed in simple clothing - like any other spacefarer. A blaster pistol sat on his hip, while his belt carried a small toolbag that stretched around his waist. Inside that toolbag, though, rest his lightsaber. The man met Locke and sat beside him as they began to descend.

Kathar paid rapt attention to everything Locke said - he was the subject matter expert here. A nod but no words as Locke told him to be on guard, looking at the nearest screen to monitor their altitude. Once the vibrations of landing settled, he followed Locke's lead and also stood. The Knight watched as Locke drew his presence in - and virtually disappeared from his senses. Kathar took a breath and tried to do the same; he found it difficult and, being not as practised at it as Locke, managed to partially obscure his presence. Hopefully, he would appear as barely force sensitive to any potential adversary. Even that, however, may be enough to raise suspicion.

The question of his qualifications came up, and Kathar shook his head, "No. I just completed a mission in Hutt Space, but it's not anything like this." As for not making a bigger mess? Kathar reached out and touched Locke's shoulder, "I need to be honest. I'm nervous about this; it's way outside my experiences. I'll follow your lead and try to stay quiet." He was nothing if not earnest - which was not exactly a boon on this mission.

Kathar drew in a settling breath and nodded as Locke gestured to follow - setting in behind the other Jedi.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Kaasii]

As the ship touched down, two black-clad men with heavy blasters approached the vessel. One of them, a Rodian had a datapad in hand. He was carefully looking over the ship and entering information. The other one was a short, stubby Lannik with a large scar on his forehead and a section of one of his long ears missing. The Lannik used a commlink briefly as the pair approached. All around them, people hustled back and forth with repulsor driven carts full of crates. A few droids interspersed were busily loading ships. For all intents and purposes, it looked like any other major spaceport of a an agricultural world. Every now and then the forms of spacers from all parts of the galaxy intermingled with simply clothed farmers and gaudily dressed merchants and brokers. Around the spaceport, other beings dressed in the same black clothing were patrolling and attempting to maintain order in the chaos. They didn't carry the rigid manner of professional soldiers, but they seemed more diligent than low paid security guards.

As the pair waited for the ship's occupants, they chatted. The Rodian nervously fidgeted with his datapad as if it was the first one he had ever touched, constantly checking the data with the Lannik.

Somewhere deep in the fields of an Ukian combined farm.

Two humans worked hard to try and please two young children as a Mirialan dressed in the rough clothes of a farmhand sat quietly in front of the entrance to a tool shed. His legs were crossed, his eyes closed. His hard, tattooed face seemed to not even find peace in moments of concentration. He reached out to the Force, the constant ebb and flow of the energies of all life around him were difficult to sort through. Everything from the smallest stalk of grass to the bustling spaceport called out, resonating with and against each other. It was akin to trying to focus on a particular snowflake among the vast white of Hoth. Finally, something was unlike the others, if only very briefly... No two of them! One was briefly bright in the sea of invisible sparks, the other remained a strong glow. And then, like a skip in a record something awful shattered the wave, and it was close to him. He quickly jumped to his feet.

"Stay here! If I fall, run in different directions. It can't get all of you!" It was as much a command as a plea. In an instant, a metal cylinder appeared in the Jedi Knight's hand and he rushed out of the tool shed. Nothing stirred in the fields of golden wheat swaying in what would normally be a serene Ukian wind.

Sydan Rwoz narrowed his golden eyes. The sense of sight was an easily befuddled thing. There were many ways to go unnoticed by most beings, but the same could not be said by a Jedi Knight. In his mind, he looked past what his eyes deceivingly showed him. He breathed in slowly, and exhaled slowly. Suddenly in his mind's eye the obstructions of wheat, light and other visual stimuli were gone. He felt it again, cold and hateful. The dark side of the Force, and not the typical signature of some sort of foolish adept. He lip curled at the thought. This was the aura of a master of the dark side. He kept his lightsaber tight in his hand, waiting for the precise moment to ignite it. Just at the moment that many would put their fears aside, the trained hunter leaped from it's hiding spot.

An orange blur followed by black sprang toward the Mirialan. He moved in a semi circle, letting his opponent's blade nearly cut him in to pieces. Quickly, he brought his own sword to bare. The hilt of his lightsaber went toward his opponent before the blade was ignited. In an emerald rush followed by a snap-hiss he nearly felled the attacker, had it not been for the assassin's reflexes. The being was completely concealed in a black robe, it's orange lightsaber held in an unorthodox stance.

"Hmmm.... A Jedi Knight who uses such dirty tactics," the cloaked figure laughed in a high pitched voice, "what a wonderful surprise..." In a flash of blinding speed, the cloaked figure was gone again.

Sydan closed his eyes and reached out with the Force. He couldn't overly trust his eyes while fighting this thing. In an instant, he rushed forward to where the thing had concealed itself with the Force. He feinted forward, and then struck from below. The orange blade flashed to meet his. He locked blades again, disengaging his own and sidestepping quickly. He sent a sharp kick in to the being's midsection as the blade fell forward in to nothing. He used all the fury he could muster to cut from an angle at the off balanced figure. His blade drove through it, and it dissipated. As he recovered, he heard another high pitched laugh. 

"You are a fun one to play with. I haven't tasted the death of a Jedi Knight in so long... I will have your soup young one!"

Sydan smiled a wolfish grin.

"I have heard of your kind, Anzati. Where did you learn your skills?"

Another auditory assault of laughter cut through the blowing wind. With the final laughter, Sydan had pinpointed the next attack. He spun in to a low crouch, and just as the Anzati struck again, he rolled forward and shoved his blade in to the air. The brain-sucker shrieked and the smell of burnt flesh and clothing briefly filled Sydan's nostrils. He used his innated flexibility and sprang in to a cartwheel, away from the being. He watched as it grabbed it's lower body and a belt-like contraption fell from it's waist.

"You're far too old if you think a stealth field generator will fool me. It's been a long time since the war, assassin. Tell me, of the depraved among the Sith Lords, why did they shun you? What did you do to make them hate you?"

The hood fell from the Anzati's face. What would have been an attractive woman was hideously scarred. Her mouth opened wide and a terrible shriek filled the air. It sent Sydan sprawling, and then tumbling. He hit a tree so hard it shook his consciousness for a moment. 

"I WILL CUT YOU APART SLOWLY!" The air around the former assassin seemed to boil with hatred, this was no acolyte.

As the power of a master of the dark side strangled the Force in to submission, the feeling was almost dominating. Sydan had encountered the Sith before, but this woman was far from ordinary. Sydan knew Anzati could live inevitably, and with longevity hatred only grew stronger. He focused himself as his attacker moved forward, it was all he could do to not let the oppressive feeling of the dark side start breaking him down. He needed to it, soon. The pair locked blades and Sydan began to viciously strike back, but for how long could he keep it up?

[Rugs]

“Don’t sweat it, kid. You’ll do great.” Locke grinned at Kathar as he walked past him toward the loading ramp. It wasn’t his first rodeo working with a non-Investigator, or a junior Investigator — there wasn’t much difference, with the really green ones. “But you have to believe that yourself. There’s no room for self-doubt, not in work like this. It’ll eat you alive.

“Just remember, as long as our cover holds, we are not Jedi. Got it?” Locke stopped next to the controls. He raised his hand to punch the button that would lower the ramp so they could depart, but he waited and looked to Kathar once more. “We’re just spacers. I’m Braxis Dreytila, and you’re my co-pilot. And if you can use the Force, well, that’s just something you found out when you were too old to be a Jedi anyway.”

They’d discussed their cover more in-depth during the trip from Bothawui. Lock decided it best not to use “Tyrvast,” the name associated with his undercover work with the Exchange, and forging some ID chips was simple enough. The Runner, their ship for the job, carried a generic shipping registration that any other spacer’s ship might have. Nothing to point back to the Jedi, or the Republic.

The basics should be good enough to get them past most questions, and if things got heated enough that either of them needed to draw their lightsabers, cover wouldn’t matter all that much anyway.

Locke sincerely hoped it’d be a matter of getting in, finding Sydan, and getting out, but Jedi affairs were rarely simple. Investigator work made even normal Jedi affairs look rote, by comparison.

“You’ll do great.” He punched the button and the ramp lowered with a pneumatic hiss.

A Rodian and Lannik, both in matching black outfits, awaited the Jedi as they descended the ramp. The spaceport, from a quick glance around, seemed fairly typical. A few other ships — some smaller personal transports and others boxy freighters — sat on neighboring landing pads. Locke noticed a few other people dressed in the same black as the duo before him. He wondered at that, for a moment, then let his attention settle on the matter at hand.

The Rodian seemed nervous. New on the job? Or something else?

“Morning, gentlemen,” Locke said, with a nod towards both of them. His voice was a bit rougher as his spoke, his accent less refined. It was a subtle adjustment — not so much as to seem cartoonish, but just enough to be believable — and easy to make after so long out in Hutt Space.

“Name and registration.” The Lannik’s voice was low and gravelly. Locke wondered what life he’d had before apparently getting involved in security. Perhaps he’d always worked the field, but he didn’t strike Locke as the type.

“Right, right,” Locke said, “don’t wanna waste your time, of course. Name’s Braxis Dreytila. Ship is the Runner, registration 6347-D67-808A53.” He handed over a small datapad with matching ship details. The Rodian looked it over, occasionally copying something to his own datapad, and returned it to Locke.

“Docking fee is 250 credits.” The Lannik, despite his height — or lack thereof— looked Locke in the eye as if to stare him down from a challenge.

“250 credits?” Locke whistled and made a show of being shocked to Kathar. It wasn’t that hard; the fee was outrageous for such a small spaceport. “You boys puttin’ the squeeze on everyone that comes through here, or are we gettin’ special treatment?”

“I don’t make the rules, I just see ‘em followed.” The Lannik folded his arms over his chest. “Now you can pay it, or try your luck somewhere else.”

Locke grumbled, but eventually acquiesced. They didn’t have time to waste arguing over a landing pad. “Alright, alright.” He motioned to Kathar. “Give ‘em the money.”

[Symm]

No self-doubt. Easier said than done, even for a Jedi. Still, Kathar nodded and buried away that nagging anxiousness, hiding it with everything else the Temple taught them to hide. Or rather, taught to control - it just didn't always work out that way.

"Got it," he began, and quickly cut himself out just as Locke's real name started to form in his mind. Kathar shook his head and gave an embarrassed smile, "Got it, Brax." To Kathar, Dreytila seemed too complicated and Braxis too formal for his character, so he shortened it. Plus, perhaps he wouldn't forget something as simple as a one-syllable word. He hoped.

"I won't be a Jedi till you're a Jedi. Or if you need me to be one," he added on, as an afterthought. Perhaps there would be a situation where such a dynamic would be required, who knows?

At the pronouncement of his upcoming performance being 'great', Kathar's smile twisted wryly, but he said nothing. Keep that self-doubt tamped down!

Kathar followed Locke - Brax - down the ramp, taking on what he thought was a relaxed pose and settling a bored look over his face. It was distinct from his time on Circumtore seeking the Kyber crystals - there he'd pretended to be a hard mercenary and had carried himself as such. Here, Kathar put on airs of indifference, as if this was nothing new to him.

Even dampened as the Force was within him, he felt the nervousness of the Rodian as the alien approached. Kathar looked up at the two, then set his eyes back down on the ground between them. At the mention of 250 credits, and Brax's whistle, Kathar's brows quirked and he looked back up. It wasn't too hard to feign surprise - because he was. Two hundred fifty credits was a lot of money to the Jedi. He matched looks with Locke and rolled his eyes, followed by a broad shrug. He used the rolling shoulders and rolling eyes to look around, noting the black-clothed accomplices that were sitting about the port.

Strange.

Distracted by thoughts of the other strangers, it almost missed the order from Locke - Brax! He shared what he hoped was an incredulous look with the other man before mumbling something incomprehensible beneath his breath. In the end, though, he reached into a pouch and felt around. Eventually, he produced 300, dropped a 50 back into his bag, and handed it across towards the Lannik and Rodian.

The Rodian stepped forward, and Kathar pressed the creds into the others hand. There was that nervousness again. He thought about saying something witty, to try to alleviate whatever odd fears the person had, but ultimately decided against it. It was more likely to cause trouble than make him more relatable. So he remained silent.

[Kaasii]

The Starport

The Rodian hurriedly put the credits in to a pouch on his belt with the words "OFFICIAL FUNDS", he went to say something polite but was quickly cut off by the Lannik.

"So what did you two say you were here to pick up?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously. These two weren't regulars and he knew it, Lord Zandu would want to know about irregular visitors. Ukio was a popular world for trading and shipping companies, but even they sent the usual pilots and crewmen on tight rotations. With all the strange happenings over the last few days security needed to be tight, especially with that thing that killed some of the best of Zandu's legion. Those guys were professionals and veteran mercs, he hadn't seen the bodies but from what he was told it was really ugly.

Somewhere in Ukio...

Sydan centered himself, he reached out with the Force and used almost too much focus to reach the boy inside the shed. He pressed his thoughts hard to him, after all he was the only one receptive enough to possibly hear. RUN NOW! Sydan knew he would taste death soon. It had never scared him, in fact certain death brought an absolute peace to his mind. Maybe it was the fatalism he had picked up from soldiers during the war, but these kind of situations seemed to steady his mind and hands. As he relentlessly pushed back at his enemy, he sensed it wouldn't be far. The Force called to him, he could almost see it now. The coppery taste of blood almost came to his mouth then. The orange blade was going to slip past him and end him. He would go on and join the others, he didn't have the appendages to count them. He just hoped they wouldn't be angry with them, he couldn't save them.

Just as the moment nearly came, something impressed him to duck, and quickly. Suddenly, a mass collided with the black clad assassin. She sprawled and skittered in to a tumble, she plunged her orange blade in to the shape and Sydan knew now was the time to act. He quickly cut down, relieving her of her arm. The air filled with the rank stench smoldering flesh as he cut, and then in an automatic motion the coup de gras came. His emerald blade sank true in to her chest cavity and she only gasped for a moment. Her face was almost serene as life left it, Sydan looked quickly to what had stopped her assault and nearly ran to the crumpled form of Mr. Ky-do. His breathing was labored and wheezing. Sydan turned him over and his hard, golden eyes softened. Even though it has just been a cover, Mr. Ky-do and his family had become as dear to Sydan as anyone could have. The man had saved his life, while Sydan had been attempting to do the same for him it was expected of a Jedi to sacrifice himself for others. This simple farmer had a life outside of the pursuit of peace and justice, he had something to look to the future to. He was no warrior, but he was a friend. 

"Promise me you'll take him... He's special, I know you know he is." Mr. Ky-do's skin was starting to pale and his hazel eyes were starting to lose focus. Sydan pressed a hand to him, reaching out with the Force in an attempt to make his suffering ease. He knelt close to the farmer.

"He will come with me, I will take him to the Core. Perhaps he will one day be as selfless as you have been, rest easy. There is no death, only the Force." Sydan felt the man's breathing stop and his essence return to the Force. He hardened himself again and wiped his wet eyes with a hand. Suddenly exhaustion set in and his body became heavy. As the adrenaline wore off, his body sagged and he hurried in to the shed. As he entered, he saw Mrs. Ky-do hugging the chilren tightly, the little red haired boy Nez was looked out between his mother's long hair. His eyes were wet and his cheeks red. He had told his father, Sydan did not know he managed to, but he did. 

"You must keep moving. Meet me at the base of the Table Mountain. There is a cave there right as the forest ends. Inside is my ship. I will meet you there in at least two days' time," Sydan looked outside and then back to the three humans, "he was a hero and I will make sure he does not just get left in the sun."

With that, the woman nodded and hurriedly grabbed her children and got them aboard one of the bikes. A sputtering noise of old repulsors let Sydan know they had taken off. He went outside and dragged Mr. Ky-do's body in to the shed. He then slumped down against the back wall, entering a meditative trance. He could not afford to sleep now, he had to regain his energy in a way only a Jedi could. His senses were alive, but his mind was far off and at peace as it drifted in to the strange web of the Force.

[Rugs]

For a first-timer, the kid was pretty good. He played well to the shock of the — frankly ridiculous — landing fee and made a proper show of being annoyed at the amount of credits they were being asked to fork over. You couldn’t just take extortion like that without some sort of show. Even if you had more than enough funds on hand to cover what expected costs might arise.

But they were good spacers, not undercover agents.

“What, do you all just not read the stuff I’m giving ya?” Locke echoed the Lannik’s annoyance, putting a hand on his hip as he leaned his weight on one leg. Annoyed at being questioned, when he was here on honest business. “I got it right here,” he said, once again retrieving the datapad. As he did this, he spared an annoyed look for the Rodian, who shirked back from his gaze. The Lannik seemed unimpressed.

They were, ostensibly, making a stop to pick up food that would be taken back to Bothawui to support the system’s recovery efforts in the wake of the Archeri invasion. It was a very real order, set up by the Order via Open Stars — a charity organization in the Republic that was heavily involved in recovery efforts across the Galaxy — before they arrived.

The Lannik took the datapad with a grunt and read the shipping manifest. After a few tense moments, he grunted tersely and handed it back. “Don’t get much charity work coming through here, you know.”

“And I don’t get such rude welcomes, most places I go,” Locke shot back, letting some agitation show. It was a fine line to walk, giving real agitation without pushing too far over the edge. “Now I am happy to answer whatever questions you may have, sir, but if there’s nothing else, my co-pilot and I will be on our way.”

“No, no,” the Lannik said, stepping aside and motioning for the Rodian to do the same. “Go right on ahead.”

“Thank you,” Locke said. He started to walk forward, then stopped, making a show of it, as if forgetting something. “May be pickin’ up a contractor while we’re here, by the by. Got to head to Hutt Space once our job to Bothawui’s done, and you know how things are out there these days.”

“That so?” The Lannik narrowed his eyes again.

Locke shrugged. “Might be. Depends on what the market’s got to offer.” He waved for Kathar to follow him. “Come on.”

As the two Jedi left the landing pad and stepped on a lift, Locke sighed, rolling his eyes. “I don’t know how, but that Lannik is gonna be trouble.” The lift carried them down into the spaceport from the pad. From there, they’d need to get some speeders and get on Sydan’s trail.

[Symm]

Locke put his hand on his hip; Kathar folded his arms across his chest. A gesture intended to convey impatience, but not to the point of defensiveness. After all, adopting this stance meant his hand was further away from his blaster.

Aside from that small motion, Kathar remained quiet throughout the remainder of the interaction. He flicked his eyes once more around the spaceport, finding nothing he'd missed on the times before. Then they were allowed to pass, and Kathar took up pace beside Locke. As he did when they exited the ship, he remained half a step behind the other: Clearly, Locke was in charge here. That was the message he hoped to convey and was the truth of the matter in actuality. He drew briefly up to Locke's step when the other turned to mention the contractor; Kathar twisted his head to glance over his shoulder while they discussed that wrinkle.

Then Locke gestured him forward, and he followed the man onto the lift. "Agreed. They seemed a little ungrateful for the visit. You'd think a place like this would be happy for the trade." Kathar glanced back up to where they departed from, "Think the black uniform was spaceport security? There seemed to be a few of them up there."

The lift shuddered to a halt, the brakes clearly in need of some love and care; a far cry from the Jedi Temple, where everything was meticulously maintained thanks to the Jedi caretakers. It was something that had, on his first real outing from the Temple, surprised Kathar. Now he had just come to realise that not everyone had the time or resources to keep everything in tip-top shape.

He stepped out of the lift and glanced around; eyes assaulted by various signs in obnoxious colours that advertised everything and anything in multiple languages. There was one sign in particular that caught his attention, and he gestured in that direction, "Speeder hire."

The man started in that direction, having to step around various aliens as they shilled their products to him, "No, thank you. No. No, thanks. Thanks." He was far too polite, and the vendors sensed this - an easy mark. Kathar eventually broke through the throng and let out a huff of annoyed breath before stepping into the store - an invisible laser tripwire setting off an alarm intended to sound pleasant, but just set Kathar's teeth to grinding.

The proprietor poked their head up from behind their desk, then jumped up onto it, landing on their arms, "Ah, customers!" A dug, wearing ridiculously oversized goggles and with various circlets hanging from their legs, waved at them. "What are you looking for? I have the most extensive selection of speeders this side of the galactic rim! You need for two people?" They glanced between the two, keen eyes measuring them from top to bottom.

"No," Kathar shook his head, stepping up to the counter. It seemed he was happy to take the lead here. After all, how difficult could it be to hire a speeder? "We need at least three seats. Have you got anything like that?"

"Mmm," began the dug, pretending to glance down at a notepad on their desk, "Ah, lucky you. I have one left. It is state of the art, best model! You won't find better anywhere else. It is expensive, but worth the credits, I assure you."

Kathar frowned, "How expensive?"

The dug named an outrageous price, and thus began a back and forth; this, at least, wasn't too alien to Kathar. Bartering was a common thing on Coruscant, even for a Jedi. After some time, Kathar, conscious that they were on a timer, settled on a deal. It wasn't for the three-seater though; instead, he hired two speeders, one single and one double. Even that was significantly cheaper than the exorbitant price the dug initially tried to charge them.

Kathar mounted up in the double, allowing Locke to take the single, "I'll follow you. You know the way." After all, Locke had the tracker!

[Kaasii]

Mr. Ky-do had been covered in as best a grave as Sydan could dig him. It wasn't much, but it was marked with a circle of stones. He was now walking through the woods. He had elected not to use a trail, too easy for one to track him and far too obvious. If anything, he had been trained very well in the arts of evasion and escape. They were mission essential skills and something Viramax had hammered in to him. He had circled around for kilometers, occasionally backtracking and making his pattern of travel erratic. He was operating off of a preternatural navigation technique with the Force. He had been around the Ky-dos long enough to be able to single them out in the ever-shifting currents of the Force. Since he had left, it had grown from the bright sunshine to an inky blackness that heralded he was some time in the late night. He could smell moisture on the air, rain was coming. He may be a Jedi Knight but he was not immune to the elements forever. Ukio had hard and cold rains, something that made the planet such a bountiful agriworld. The miniature monsoons were rough and many of the fauna of the world were closing in for what could end up being a week or more of hard rains. As he passed farms, he witnessed farm workers sealing up sensitive equipment and opening flood drains around their collective farms. He had seen few of Zandu's men this far out, Ukio was sparsely populated and even more so in the depths of the farm lands and woods.

Sydan's stomach began to rumble and he could taste bile. He was no survivalist and did not trust his instincts on what was and wasn't edible in the forests. He hadn't eaten in some time and his mental and physical exertions were taking a toll on his body's reserves. The Force could be used to stave off the effects of the body, but it wasn't permanent and if he continued on this way he could potentially do permanent harm to himself. The Mirialan Jedi stopped as he came to a clearing with a large tree, he needed to rest. He quickly climbed to the canopy of the large tree and rested atop a limb that was easily as wide as he was tall. He crossed his legs and placed his hands in front of himself. He began to run through the mental exercises all Jedi knew. He quickly let his thoughts leave his mind as he reached out with the Force. He remembered the light he had felt before fighting Zandu's assassin. He tried to focus on it, the pain of hunger seeming to vanish with the tranquility of meditation. A tingling feeling ran from the top of his all the way to his finger tips and toes.  In his mind's eye he focused on the flickering flame. It had to be another Jedi Knight, there were few beings who radiated such serene power without training and none of them were Ukian.

He focused on the memories he had of the events earlier in the day... The dark side of the Force, the imminent danger. He tried to show the light images of his battle, the family and most importantly the small blond boy. Then, he showed the clearing and the tree. My powers are weakened, they are coming and they will not stop until we stop them... Use your feelings, you will see through the deceptions laid before you. This world is in jeopardy, more so than it may seem on the surface. Something terrible will happen here. Come to me, I am their focus, they fear my presence. If I am slain, you must carry on, you must stop him. Zandu is not his name, he was a Jedi Knight during the war. Look past what you see and you will feel it. I have foreseen my death already before, it may yet be at hand again. He hoped the message would leave impressions on the Jedi. With that, his consciousness faded and he went in to a dreamless sleep.

[Rugs]

“‘A little’ is putting it mildly, don’t ya think?” The Rodian, at least, had mostly kept his mouth shut. The Lannik, though — Locke knew his type. If that one didn’t stir up trouble, he’d eat his own pistol. “If they treat everyone trying to dock here like that, it’s a wonder this place gets any traffic at all. Stars know I wouldn’t come back again if I had the choice.”

As for the black uniforms. Locke tilted his head this way, then that, brown furrowing in thought. “Could be,” he finally said. “Could be something else though. Can’t say I’ve ever had legitimate spaceport security shake me down like that. Not anywhere that wasn’t run by someone who didn’t have any business running a place.”

The lift screeched and groaned as it stopped. Locke didn’t pay it any mind. “But we’re in strange times. Best keep alert.” The doors opened slowly and the Jedi emerged into a concourse of sorts, full of people and vendors selling just about anything imaginable.

Locke, for his part, ignored most of the noise, though Kathar, well...

It was amusing, watching him try to fend off just about everyone who thought they had something that might be worth a cred or two.

As Kathar took the reins in securing a speeder, Locke excused himself to a nearby refresher. He had faith the kid could get them a ride without being swindled out of all their money. In the meantime, he slipped away into the small and, thankfully, private refresher.

The true purpose of stepping away wasn’t only to relieve himself, but to check his tracker. Sydan’s beacon still hummed, moving slowly some kilometers away. Perhaps he was moving on foot? The investigator seemed, as far as Locke surmised from some limited cartographic data, to be in the middle of nowhere.

Curious. He slipped the beacon away, washed his hands in the small sink and stepped back outside.

Speeder negotiations were wrapping up as he returned. Kathar had secured them two speeders, instead of one, and at a savings compared to a single vehicle. “Good work,” Locke said as they boarded their rides. “We’re heading northwest, from here. Stay close.”

Locke gunned the speeder out of the spaceport. In short order, they’d made it out of the small town and into the open farmland that stretched on and on and on. He led Kathar in a long, shallow curve that bent their path from west to the north, and throttled up.

Though he wanted to open himself to the Force and read its currents, he did not. They were diving headlong into a sea without knowing if the waters below were clear or full of lambro sharks. Still, he could not shake the feeling that something wrong was afoot on Ukio, and not only for Sydan’s distress signal.

He didn’t trust the speeders enough to talk to Kathar over the comms, so he motioned the younger Jedi to fall in beside him as he eased a bit on the throttle. They were, at least, in the middle of open land, with no one in sight. “What do you think, kid?” He called over the engines. “What do you sense?”

[Symm]

The open fields they traversed fascinated Kathar. There was nothing like this on Coruscant. Sure, there were enclosed parks, but nothing on the scale of the farmlands on this planet. He'd seen such fields in holovids, and occasionally flown over them on the brief excursions enjoyed as a padawan, but he'd never been amongst them. Now, too used to the Temple and ecumenopolis that was the Republic's capital, the sheer emptiness made him feel uncomfortable.

Kathar had led a sheltered life.

He pulled the speeder to the side slightly as Locke fell back and gestured, and Kathar matched speed. The younger Knight leaned over to listen to Locke. What did he sense?

Kathar furrowed his brow as he considered his feelings. "It's very quiet, serene almost, except," he paused, cocking his head to the side as he thought he heard something. "Except there's something beneath it. Something brooding? Malevolent?" Kathar shook his head. Suddenly Kathar lurched to a halt as the Jedi, senses overloaded, slammed on the brakes.

He squeezed his eyes shut and put a hand on his forehead, focusing on the messages that poured in. It lasted for seconds, but to Kathar, it seemed longer, as though he'd lived through the scenes projected at him.

Enough time for Locke to circle back and Kathar looked straight at the man, "He just contacted me, through the Force. I think he was attacked recently, and there was something about a boy...I didn't understand that part. Apparently, there are some sort of deceptions or illusions we have to see through. And," Kathar paused, hesitant to think of the rest, "I think there's a dark Jedi here."

After letting that sink in, Kathar continued, "Then he stopped. I think he passed out. I know where he is; we have to get there now."

After an acknowledgement from Locke, Kathar gunned the throttle, edging slightly ahead of the other Jedi. He reached out with his extra senses, allowing them to lead the way. The landscape blurred past, and soon the promised rain started to patter upon their faces lightly; a small example of what was to come.

After a few kilometres, the two Jedi pulled up outside of a thick forest, where they couldn't take their speeders in. Kathar pulled his in as best he could, out of sight, then hopped out. "Just a little bit further." The Jedi promised, this entire endeavour setting him on edge.

Kathar led the way where they would, eventually, come upon the clearing where Sydan lay.