Faction Black Mire Part II [THR]

[Aurelian Veruna]

Spoiler

This is a more reactive, narrative story for the High Republic as a whole. No objectives, you can treat it like a social. Please join with any character, react, offer differing opinions. The story will be pushed at a regular pace. This will be a significant story piece to the background of the High Republic going forward. You might want to be a part of this one!

The void returned without warning.

It opened in the Naboo countryside like a bruise in the world, a perfect circle of black pressed into green earth. No light reflected off it. No sound carried across its surface. It simply was, an absence sharp enough to draw the eye and hold it.

Weeks earlier, Jedi Knight Lorn Reingard and his Padawan, Bastila Sal-Soren , had vanished into something like it. The Gungan guide who survived the swamp trek told the story in halting bursts. The ground had given way. The dark had swallowed them. Then it had closed, neat and final, as if nothing had ever happened.

The Council searched. They reached through the Force until their concentration frayed. Every attempt returned the same result. Nothing. Not distance. Not death. Just a void where two bright presences should have been. It unsettled even the oldest Masters.

When the void appeared again in the countryside, they moved quickly.

The Jedi established a perimeter at dawn. Sensor pylons ringed the site. Probes were lowered, then dropped. Each vanished without resistance. No signal returned. No debris. No echo. Days passed in careful repetition. Observation. Meditation. Argument. The Force offered no guidance. It did not recoil. It did not respond. It simply failed to exist within the hole.

Frustration crept in. So did fear. By the fifth day, word reached the Republic.

King Aurelian Veruna arrived under a pale sky, his transport descending with military precision. Gunships followed, settling into formation around the field. Soldiers of the Grand Army of the High Republic disembarked in clean lines, armor bright against the churned earth. Scientists and diplomats trailed behind them, datapads already active. Aurelian stepped forward without ceremony. He wore dark traveling robes instead of court finery, his posture straight, his expression controlled. He took in the void first, then the Jedi around it.

"This is no longer a closed spiritual matter," he said calmly. "Something like this does not belong to one Order."

A senior Jedi Master met him halfway across the field. "Two of ours are already lost," she replied. "This place resists instruments and reason. That alone should give you pause."

Aurelian's gaze flicked to the black circle in the ground. "Or it should tell us the problem isn't faith," he said. "It's physics we haven't named yet."

The air tightened. Soldiers shifted their weight. Jedi hands folded into sleeves, still but ready.

The void waited. Silent. Patient. As if listening.

 

[Wuxia Wukong]

Wu took another messy, juicy bite of the purple fruit as he sat cross legged at a safe distance from the perimeter.

Wu sat in contemplation. He was deep in thought while he, studied was too strong a word, pondered perhaps? Hmm yes he pondered the void. Wu didn't know what it was, where it came from, what it's extended effects were, what it meant for the politics of the republic. All of that was for much smarter men.

Wu didn't mind that he was not considered a great mind by the majority of… well everyone. Wu grinned at the thought.

No, but Wu heard of the phenomenon and was intrigued. It felt like the sort of revelation he had studied in ancient history tombs. Like Abeloth made present. Wu examined this curiosity within himself and had decided to indulge in it. Perhaps it was the Force guiding him, perhaps it was just his own insatiable curiosity. Not for answers. Answers were boring once you had them the mystery was gone.

This, this was a question. A very good question which Wu intended to be present for before a thousand different voices decided what it was, what it meant and of course how it could be used.

"Hmmm" Wu murmured to himself taking another bit of his juicy, purple fruit.

Perhaps, that was the true question, not so much what the void was but what it meant for the people outside of it. Wu rather hoped it wasn't as destructive a force as it initially appeared. Naboo was a beautiful planet, with much to be admired. It wasn't perfect by any means. The elitism certainly got tiring, but the grace and beauty which was corrupted into that elitism still had a wonder to it.

So few planets in the galaxy had such a presence, where art, architecture, culture even fashion were considered just as important as the needs of survival.

Wu found himself growing sad at the thought that it might be swallowed by the void. He hoped not. Though he did not know how much help he could be except perhaps helping with evacuation. Perhaps he would be required to give up his place on an evacuation ship for some small child.

The thought both pleased and saddened him. He would like to see Feng grow into the remarkable woman she was already becoming, yet he could think of no finer death and service than to save a child.

Of course should that happen it would mean many others could not escape the void as well.

Wu frowned. It was foolish to go to worse case scenario's right away. Perhaps the very smart men will be able to contemplate their way through to a solution. Wu however thought he might try something.

"Please don't be malevolent. There are good people here."

He probably looked like a fool. Talking to an event as if it could talk back, assuming it was sentient, hadn't it already demonstrated destructive inclination? Wu however didn't see the harm. Perhaps it wasn't thinking being, even if it were perhaps it did not think like us. Wu didn't know, he didn't think anybody knew. So in the meantime Wu tried to live by Jedi precepts and negotiate. Plead for peace.

"Hmmm" Wu murmured as he took another bite of his juicy purple fruit.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Aurelian Veruna Wuxia Wukong Lily Decoria Voli Cholrass​

Aiden Porte arrived before the sun fully cleared the low hills, boots damp with dew, cloak catching on the tall grass as he crossed the last stretch of pasture toward the perimeter. He felt the unease long before he saw the black circle, an absence in the Force that did not feel like death, or concealment, or distance.

It felt like a sentence cut short.

The countryside around it was too normal. Birds rose from hedgerows. A breeze moved through the trees. Somewhere far off, a farmer's droid whined as it turned soil. Life continued right up to the edge of the impossible, and then stopped.

The void sat in the ground like a perfect wound: no shimmer, no depth cues, no distortion. Just black. It didn't drink light so much as refuse to acknowledge it.

Aiden slowed at the sensor pylons, taking in the ring of equipment and the line of Jedi at measured intervals. Some stood with eyes half-lidded in meditation. Others watched with the stillness that came from long practice, hands tucked in sleeves, shoulders relaxed, spines straight. He recognized the look behind their calm. It was the look people wore when their instincts had nowhere to land.

He stepped into the calm space the Order always made for itself under pressure, and found it thin here, stretched over something that would not meet them halfway.

He bowed to the senior Master nearest the breach. "Master."

Her gaze flicked to him. The skin around her eyes was tight with exhaustion. "Knight Porte."

"I felt it," he said, because it was obvious he had. "Or… I felt where it wasn't."

"That's the most accurate description anyone's managed," she replied, voice dry. "We've lowered probes. We've dropped lines. We've sent seeker drones with redundancies that would survive reentry through an atmosphere. Everything goes in. Nothing comes out. No signal. No material. No disturbance."

Aiden's eyes returned to the circle. The edges were unnaturally clean, as if the earth had agreed to stop there. The grass right up to the rim leaned away from it, not in wind, but in quiet submission to a rule it did not understand.

"Lorn and Bastila?" Aiden said softly, as he looked over to the Master with concern. They are friends.

The Master's jaw flexed once. "Gone. Not dead. Not… anything we can name."

Aiden let his senses open fully, careful and disciplined the way Master Solenne Abraxas had taught him. His perception slid across the field. The Jedi around him were bright presences, layered with fatigue and vigilance. The soldiers beyond the pylons were sharp points, alert, nervous, anchored in training and the comfort of orders. The scientists were busy sparks, minds flickering through hypotheses.

And then...nothing.

The Force did not thin. It did not distort. It simply ceased, cleanly, at the void's edge. There was no feedback, no resistance. His awareness did not bounce off it the way it would off cortosis, or a shielding field, or an ancient Sith ward. It just…stopped existing where that circle began.

Aiden withdrew his senses quickly, the way one pulled a hand back from a surface that looked safe but offered no texture at all.

His stomach tightened, not with fear, fear was loud, but with something colder: the suspicion that he was not equipped for the kind of wrongness this represented. A new sound rolled across the pasture then: the descending thrum of transports, the clipped movement of boots, the sharp metal rhythm of a perimeter becoming military.

Aiden watched King Aurelian Veruna approach with the clean confidence of someone used to walking into rooms that changed when he entered them.

"This is no longer a closed spiritual matter."

Aiden didn't move toward him immediately. He watched first, watched the way Jedi shoulders subtly shifted, the way soldiers squared themselves, the way the air tightened with competing authority. He felt the fault line forming...

The void didn't care who claimed jurisdiction.

Aiden stepped forward when the conversation hardened toward confrontation, placing himself not between the King and the Master like a shield, but slightly to the side, an angle that suggested presence without challenge.

"Your Majesty," he said, inclining his head. Respect given without surrender.

Aiden had seen Aurelian in courts, in the controlled theatre of diplomacy. Here, in open field with a piece of the world missing, the King looked more dangerous, not because he carried a weapon, but because he carried certainty like a blade. Aiden did not intend on turning this into a debate, they were to fix the problem together, or not at all. The more time they spent arguing....that was time lost.

"Faith won't map it. Physics won't intimidate it. If we treat this like a debate, it will take more people while we're proving a point." Aiden held his gaze without challenge. "Two Jedi are already gone. If you send soldiers in to satisfy chain of command, they'll vanish just as cleanly. If you send scientists in because the instruments must have an answer, you'll lose them too."

Aiden looked back at the void. He listened, not for sound, there was none, but for instinct, for the subtle signals his body offered when it knew something before his mind could name it. His skin prickled, as if the air around the circle were slightly wrong in temperature. He noticed how his breathing wanted to shallow near the edge, as if the body itself didn't trust the space.

 

[Kudau]

Kudau stared at the massive openness in front of him, the image filling him with anxiety. He was a hunter, whose entire life, or more specifically, his diet, was based on his connection to the force. The thought of this hole being a place where the force didn’t exist was already concerning, and to think of it growing… What else would it consume before it was sated? Can it be sated? He shivered at such a thought.

While he stood rigidly, staring a hole into the… well, hole… his mind raced with thoughts of what this entity or event could be. His thoughts immediately went to another hunter like himself. He had heard of, and seen, predators who lie still, patiently waiting for their prey to find their own path into their maw. Could such a predator exist on such a large and powerful level that the Force itself couldn’t help those caught in its jaws?

Then, he heard the words of the figure in dark robes, bringing him to his other idea…

“…it’s physics we haven’t named yet.”

Could the hole not be an entity, but simply an astronomical or terrestrial event? His family had taught him much in his homeschooling, but their knowledge of the fundamental laws of the universe was scarce and sparse…

He shook his feelings away. His head was far too full, and he needed to clear it. He looked to a gathering group of Jedi nearby, approaching the group to see if there was enough conversation and company to calm his anxious and overactive mind…

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Interacting with: Kudau
Aiden Porte Aurelian Veruna Wuxia Wukong

Cora had situated herself as close to the inky anomaly as she could manage - and given her current state, it wasn't as though she could slip past the defensive perimeter.

Legs crossed, back straight, eyes closed, she'd meditated. But meditation brought no answers. Time and time again, she reached out across the empyrean, trying to sense Lorn and Bastila. No response. She called for them. Again - no response.

It wasn't…violent. There wasn't any pain or death, at least none that she could perceive. That didn't mean that it wasn't happening. It also didn't mean that it was happening.

Meeting so many dead ends was frustrating, but Cora had become accustomed to frustration. It just meant that they needed to shift their focus elsewhere, toward different avenues that might provide some semblance of an answer.

With a grunt, Cora pushed herself up from the meditation circle. Even rising from a seated position had become a labor, given the size of her abdomen and the swelling in her ankles.

Ashla, her due date loomed only a few scant weeks away, but it couldn't come soon enough.

When the Jedi couldn't solve the mystery of the circular abyss, Aurelian had seen it fit to arrive. He was…oh, poor Aiden. Cora waddled her way over, one hand braced against the small of her aching back.

A man with lupine features approached the little gathering at the same time, and Cora cranes her neck as she peered up at him, squinting faintly against the glare of the strung lights around the site.

"What do you make of this?" she asked, careful to keep her voice low and unobtrusive in the face of the royal conversation unfolding before them. "I certainly hope it doesn't swallow us whole before I give birth," she murmured with dry mirth. "That would be a hassle."

 

[Kudau]

Corazona von Ascania

Kudau noticed the woman coming up to him, making room for her to interact with him and the others.

“I have been stressing myself in trying to decide if it is an unknown ambush predator, or if it is some kind of… natural phenomenon?” He sighs, “Point being, I have no idea, and from the murmurs of others here, nor do they…”

He paused for a moment, as a realization struck him. He then noticed the Jedi’s quite swollen abdomen, and with context clues, pieced together that she is with child.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” He turned to face the mother-soon-to-be, “My name is Kudau, and I would agree in your sentiment… the mire’s expansion would be an issue for all involved, let alone one preparing for motherhood…”

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Aiden Porte
Wuxia Wukong | Kudau | Corazona von Ascania

Aurelian did not answer immediately.

He watched the senior Master scoff under her breath, the sound sharp with sleepless contempt, before she turned and walked back toward the ring of Jedi. Robes whispered over grass. Interesting, Aurelian thought. Retreat framed as restraint.

He turned his attention back to the young Knight. Too earnest. The kind of man who believed clarity alone could stop momentum once it had started. "You presume a great deal," Aurelian said at last, his voice even. No heat. No indulgence.

His eyes flicked briefly to the void, then back. He took the Knight in properly this time. The controlled posture. The careful breath. The way his attention kept sliding back to the circle despite discipline. Brave, Aurelian decided. And dangerously convinced that restraint was the same thing as wisdom.

"You monks have kept this quiet for weeks," Aurelian continued. "Two of your own vanish, and the response is silence, meditation, and closed doors."

Behind him, engines growled louder. Heavy transports crested the low rise, repulsors flattening grass as they rolled in. Sensor arrays unfolded. Mobile labs locked into place. Soldiers moved with practiced efficiency, not rushing, not hesitating. The field was changing shape.

"This is Naboo soil," Aurelian said. "And a Republic threat. Something that removes people from existence does not belong to one Order's internal deliberations."

He stepped closer to the perimeter, boots stopping just short of the pylons. He felt it then. The quiet pressure in the chest.

"I am taking control of this site," he said plainly. "Effective immediately."

"You will step back. Observe if you wish. Advise if asked. But you will not dictate access, methods, or timelines." His gaze hardened, just enough. "I will submit a full report to the Council when we are finished here. Until then, you are relieved of authority."

Another transport touched down. The perimeter sealed.

"You can pack up," Aurelian said. "Or you can stay and watch."

​

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Naboo
Tags: Wuxia Wukong , Aurelian Veruna , Aiden Porte , Corazona von Ascania , Kudau

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

Rayne had come here to sell access stock. She had a chit load of those dumb little bobble heads and had set up a little stall to sell as many as she could. Of course, she sold very little. She had come back to the spot where she expected her salvage Y-Wing to be so she could pack up and go back to her station. The middle of the countryside seemed remote enough to not be bothered. When she returned, however, she found a massive void, a safety perimeter of some kind, and a lot of Jedi. She stood there, awkwardly, for a moment, her wagon of bobbleheads behind her.

What was she supposed to do here. Could she get her ship out of that mess? How the hell was she supposed to get off world? Rayne didn't exactly have credits on her.

With a sigh, Rayne reached into her pocket and retrieved her vocoder, taken from the head of an old protocol droid. She fiddled with the volume for a moment before she let her will take control of the device, which projected out her voice.

"EXCUSE ME."

It was way too loud, and the vocoder squealed a little. Rayne's yellow face became a bright red as she scrambled to turn the volume down. She had now very successfully bothered everyone present.

"Sorry," a digital voice apologized through the vocoder. "I think my... ship is in there."

 

[Tatiana Sah]

"Fascinating." Tatiana crouched down near the edge of the void. She'd snagged one of the scientific devices before taking up a spot near the event horizon of the unnamed anomaly. It obviously was not a singularity, however, or there would be countless other measurable effects -- to say nothing about the planet quickly being pulled apart. It didn't seem to register on instruments. Even her own enhancements from her kind did little to reveal the truth of what lay before them. But it was said to be or impart a physical or tangible localized effect as evidence by at least two going missing inside it already.

Slowly, the silver woman with blonde hair straightened up and started to step back from the aperture. Her eyes were downcast toward the device in her hands before Tatiana stopped and looked to the side. Her gaze dropped before rising a second time. Cora spoke of birth, which had drawn attention to her belly briefly.

Her attention shifted to another nearby in particular, Wuxia Wukong . "Unlikely. The Scientists have attempted to send signals into it as both a means of detecting changes to the frequencies, and in an effort to detect if sapient life exists within. Neither have been revealing in this case. Personification of the Event is premature." There was a brief pause. A breakdown of the facts was hardly reassuring, however, so Tatiana added, "We will get them back."

"I am Knight Sah. Do you know those that are missing?"

Corazona von Ascania | Kudau | Aiden Porte | Aurelian Veruna

 

[Dominique Vexx]

Director Dominique Vexx of Denon happened to be moving among the scientists present as they worked. She was hardly a secret genius-level physicist in disguise, but she knew quite a few research and development companies that would jump at the chance to participate in whatever was happening on Naboo. So many new inventions, and so many potential applications for this hitherto understood phenomena. Naturally, she was there to facilitate the free flow of equipment and data.

Most frustratingly, however, was the very lack of data being returned for all the effort. Not that she was about to have them pack up. The scientists assured her there were still various tests to perform, and that they'd have answers soon. They were all rather confident about that. They would have answers soon. Dominique wasn't quite as convinced as she let on, but they didn't need her questioning their every decision. Yet.

She spent a good amount of time loitering in the back or off to the side of the various group discussions held periodically. They worked independently, but shared data collectively to see if one might have found something -- anything -- that would unlock the secrets of this thing before them. They could see it, so logically it existed on some level in their reality; and they were all determined to figure out in what manner it did in order to interact with it further.

Meanwhile, she couldn't help but notice Aurelian was over there speaking with the Jedi representative. No doubt a similar conversation as those she'd had with corporate interests. He wanted answers. Of course he did, it was his planet. Hopefully he wouldn't needlessly start making decisions for the scientists any more than she had unless he was a secret genius physicist. Still, he'd want a plan or strategy for unraveling the mystery. Who wouldn't?

All the while 'no data' kept showing up on screens.

Dominique drifted over to a small group and looked at it from the perspective of a slicer -- of which she did have a hidden talent. Something created it. It manifested from somewhere or something. Like running code. Why couldn't they detect it? Projected from another level of reality? A mass illusion? The latter could be easily disproved by video broadcast elsewhere. Something that kept those lost within from easily returning whatever it was.

Open​

 

[Atham Harek]

​

Atham Harek was quite removed from politics. He was, after all, an apolitical entity. He was far more interested in women and drinking than he was concerning voters, polls, shaking babies and kissing hands and the like.

But, Lieutenant Harek, had to at least give the appearance of caring that he was so near a King. He was without his helmet- instead, his impeccable beret, polished armor, and impeccable posture. He carried himself like an Officer, his current Platoon Sergeant, Sergeant Cheran, next to him. Sergeant Cheran was much more of a fan of not shaving and being presentable, so he wore his helmet. But Atham liked the beret, and more importantly, liked the feeling of not being burdened by a helmet.

So stuffy!

He was near Aurelian Veruna when he gave a dressing-down to the Jedi. Not undeserved all the time, but Atham was also more of a gentlemen and diplomat. He coughed into his hand. Atham, despite his reputation as both a celebrated soldier and party animal, also occassionally showed snippets of leadership. Perhaps his men were fiercely loyal to him thanks to both his party antics with them, and his willingness to go to bat against the who's-who, dig in the trenches with his boys. He was an Officer and a gentlemen, true, however-

He was still a soldier, and good soldiers followed orders- and provided input.

"Your highness, perhaps the Jedi are still of use to us, hm? They are after all.... connected with one another." Atham said with a wink to Aiden, but a hint of a light jab. He adjusted his beret, looking over to the void. He placed his hands on his hips, looking to his Platoon Sergeant. He gave several whispered commands, and soon enough, the infantryman that came with Atham moved about, assisting and fanning out to prevent any incursions, or more importantly, onlookers. He pulled up a map on his wrist-mounted mapping tool, and watched as his men began an entire 360-degree coverage. Each point was to overlap in 'fires', areas of responsibility, creating a total perimeter to be filled in on with other units. He was the currently highest-ranking member of the Grand Army, until others showed their faces.

"If you'll permit me, sir, I can establish a liaison point so that the Jedi won't interfere with any Republic operations here, and keep them in the loop, and you." Oh, Atham! So helpful. Was he ass-kissing the King of Naboo? Partially. Was he also doing it to defuse the mounting tension between the Jedi and Republic present? Also partially, in part....

Was he trying to get the King of Naboo a bit further away from, say, oh, the giant hole of impending doom? While on one hand, Lieutenant Harek was not a fan of politics, the duly elected King of Naboo (the irony was not lost on the good Lieutenant) being sucked into a giant.... well, space arsehole, would look terrible on his end-of-year performance review!

While he could appreciate a gung-ho attitude, this was not the place to be morally grandstanding and as the children said "force farming". Or, standing at all really. He'd much prefer someone shooting at him than a giant horrific space entity appearing on Naboo mid-day. Ruined his tea and tee-time!

 

[Vizion Trozky]

BLACK MIRE
THE HOLE ☛ NABOO

Vizion Trozky stood, not in the robes of a Jedi, and a safe distance from the edge of the void; he and many other Sentinels eschewed robes for various reasons, but the finely detailed, twinned hilts on his person gave him away, here. He had no reason to hide them.

He listened to the exchange between the King and others, while he was was eying the void for not the first time, as mystified by it as every damn person here. When it came to the Nether the year prior, his particular talents hadn't been able to pierce the veil to find who they'd been looking for, and so far this had ended up being no different; he was still no more certain whether this was an impassable limitation, or a limitation that needed growth, sufficient exposure, and experience to overcome... but overall his thoughts weren't of himself at this point, weeks on. Nor was it his decision to keep this behind closed doors for so long. Naboo was just as much his home as anyone here. He knew the vanished, but there were those around him, close to him, that this hurt, or would hurt more.

His eyes rose and head turned slowly the moment Aurelian Veruna began to assert authority over the situation and wall the Order out of it, but a question diverted his attention yet again. Warm and gold-flecked brown glanced at the younger knight... Tatiana Sah , was it?

"I do. One, Knight Lorn Reingard, is a fellow member of the High Council," he stated, but his gaze shifted back to the King, who was more or less his own age, as he continued, "and the other, Bastila Sal-Soren , is his padawan. I've known her since we were children. Before I was ever a Jedi, Your Highness." As he did every one of the Sal-Sorens, and many other denizens of the nobility, both living and gone, though many of those other connections had withered with time, as the Jedi way diverted his path. "Knight Vizion Trozky, Your Highness," he continued, keeping his tone and gaze even, "Not to discount your regal authority, but the likelihood of this void being Force-linked is rather high, and that makes it as much the jurisdiction of the Order, as it is a matter that concerns the Kingdom and the Republic."

He breathed a sigh out his nose. Moreover... "This is my home too." He flicked his attention over to Atham Harek , having heard him well enough. Thoroughly attuned senses, keen hearing. "Incidentally, I am also the Council's primary liaison with the GAHR." And the RIS. Not that a Lieutenant would have known that such a thing was already in place. He wasn't sure that even the King knew. Well, now he did. He turned back to Aurelian, and crossed his arms, stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Keeping this quiet wasn't my decision."

He wasn't usually one to be overly disagreeable in council, that had been Brandyn Sal-Soren , but keeping a zipped lip about this incident had made him so. Maintaining silence was far too much of a risk in this case.

"You are of course," he swept a hand out towards the void, "welcome to form your own conclusions, in that I won't interfere. But I'd advise against keeping us at arms length. There's too many unknowns."

There was no telling what might happen.

Aiden Porte • Corazona von Ascania • Dominique Vexx • Kudau • Rayne Lo'to • Wuxia Wukong​

 

[Voli Cholrass]

Current Outfit
Pre Built Lightsaber

Voli had arrived at the hills a smile formed on her face. It looked like it came from an idyllic painting her parents would fawn over in their many visits to the Courscant Art Museum. Voli always found them dull and drab but an odd sense of nostalgia took over. She still preferred her media darker and gorier, and music being rebellious and pessimistic but her time in Naboo softened Voli's stance on the bursting colors. "I think I'm getting soft period," she thought.

It was also a good time to hone her senses. Dreidi Xeraic would always test Voli to see if she is continuing to strengthen her connection to the Force. At first, Voli found it impossible, but with practice, getting in touch with the Force was as simple as tying a shoe. The challenge was to maintain connection and pervert it with temptation and dark impulses. That..... was something Voli struggled with. She was still fiddling with her Sith Holocron something that she kept hidden from Dreidi all this time. The blasted wouldn't open even after all of her research, but Voli was still determined to unlock the secrets.

Her violet eyes fell upon Master Aiden Porte and she walked towards him smiling in the process. "Good day Master," Voli said with a bow.

 

[Holly Starstorm]

​

LIVE:

"This is Holly Starstorm reporting live for HoloNet News from Naboo. Behind me, the normally serene countryside has become the center of mounting chaos, as High Republic officials and Jedi representatives struggle to determine the nature of a mysterious void phenomenon that appeared without warning earlier today.

Tensions are rising between the Jedi Order and Naboo's planetary government, with sharp disagreement over how—and whether—the anomaly should be contained or studied.

Unconfirmed reports suggest this may be linked to a similar void event weeks ago, during which two Jedi were declared missing. At this time, officials have issued no statements confirming their recovery.

We will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds. Stay with HoloNet News for updates on this developing story."


NOT LIVE:

Holly handed the microphone off to her tech and exhaled, the practiced tension draining from her shoulders. She pushed a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear, eyes already scanning the gathered officials, aides, and robed figures clustered beyond the perimeter.

Now came the harder part, getting someone to talk once the cameras stopped rolling.

She couldn't help but wonder if anyone here would dare speak freely to the press… or if fear of the void—and of the Jedi—had already sealed their lips.



Tags: Open!