Carvings In The Wall

[Aela Talith]

Unknown System
Southern Desert

"I hate the desert."

Aela smiled. "I know you do. You haven't stopped talking about it since we got here."

A gust of wind pressed against her, dry air and sand whipping against the scarf that she had tied around her head, the beige clothing that surrounded her whipping around as the gust pushed against them. She heard coughing behind her, a slight gag of the throat as if someone had swallowed some of the sand in the air. She couldn't help but smile again, turning to see a Tall Chiss half bent over and spitting.

"I was born on Csilla. I-"

"Yes." Aela interrupted Arn, the Jedi Knight who had accompanied her on four missions now. "You were born on Csilla, a planet of Tundra's and winter storms. I'm sorry that we couldn't go to Hoth, Arn, but I'm afraid the Jedi of Old didn't elect to build an enclave there so you'll just have to suffer through the heat."

The Jedi Knight looked sufficiently chastised, his gaze dropping to the sands. Aela smiled again, then turned back towards the dune that she had been scaling for what seemed like the past two hours. The desert had been an obstacle, one that they could not cross with speeders or ships due to the frequent sandstorms that erupted in this area. Any attempt to use the vehicles likely would have ended in a crash, and thus their transport had been set down some miles due south in a small alcove of cliffs, safely tucked away from any phenomenon of nature.

The walk here had been less then pleasant, an entire day spent walking across the Desert through heat and powerful gusts of wind.

In the end of course it would be worth it, and all of Aela's work would come to fruition.

She had gained knowledge that upon this world, hidden within Wild Space was an ancient Jedi Enclave. A tomb of sorts she supposed, a sight of what had been described as a massacre. She did not know when exactly it had happened, nor did she know why, only the telling of an old Myth, a city lost to the sands, a city populated by the Jedi. She had searched for months now, found a holocron, hyperlanes, proper navigation computer, and now it was all coming together.

Aela would have her prize, and the New Jedi Order would benefit from it.

"How is it exactly, that whatever planet we go to the weather seems to suit you perfectly fine."

Arn complained again, Aela stopping as she half turned around to address him. A smile, a real one this time pulled at her lips. "Good genes."

With that she continued on.

 

[Garza]

Deserts were not a favorite of mine. Considering I was born on the barren wasteland of Kro Var, I should be used to it right? No. I liked to be on other worlds that had trees, grass, and even fauna that didn't want to kill you at every second of the day. However, seeing as this planet may hold secrets deeper into the force, or even just old ruins to hold any kind of information, it was worth investigating.

Being someone who lusted for knowledge upon the force, someone who wanted to find relics of the past of any culture, I was always up for going to random, and even in some out of the way planets to find anything from a coveted lightsaber, to tomes of knowledge, and even just discovering a new place in which I could work. However, what made it all worth the while, was the journey to get there. Flying up above me in the skies, was a Velrain. A rather large bird that I had grown fond of over the years. Both my brother, Morna, and myself loved animals. He had once owned a Corellian Banshee bird. However the creature died of old age, Mine was projected to live much longer.

Considering this bird ate my weight in food every day, I wouldn't be surprised at the longevity of such a creature. Walking along, I continued to take step after step upon the sliding sand beneath my boots. The dunes were large waves of sand. Ever so slowly moving across the landscape due to the wind. Even now, I hated my hair as it was being flicked back and forth in the wind. Overhead, I heard the caw of Elsu, my Velrain companion. Looking up, I could see the bird start to circle around, and then dive down towards me. I smiled lightly as the bird was warning me of the ruins, or some kind of fortifications up ahead.

While I could not see them yet, Soon I would be able to.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Unlike others visiting the barren world, Adder was here more or less by happenstance. She’d been running some errand or other for the Sheriff of Sulon; picking up some spare parts for a inundating machinery that had malfunctioned (She had her suspicions that it had been [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]persuaded[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] to malfunction with the help of a hydrospanner, but she lacked any evidence to back up her hunch.) To be perfectly honest with herself, she was rather glad that the job took her off-world – or off-moon, as the case may be – because one can only take so much open space.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]So, naturally, when her Force-damned trash can of a ship crashed, it just [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]had[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] to be on another prime swath of wasteland.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]This one was less rocky and more sandy – then again, the only difference separating the two were years – and slightly more red than the dull grey-ochre of her temporary home, but the dissimilarities ended there.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Frakkin’ desert,” Adder muttered and kicked the warped hull of her ship for good measure. She regretted it immediately as pain shot up her foot, and for the next few seconds, she could’ve entertained a decent audience with her colorful choice in expletives. Fortunately for the redhead, the term ‘wasteland’ suggested an area scant with life or, indeed, anything of interest.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]So imagine her surprise when she saw two figures crest a dune on her right, one tall and regal, the other doubled over and… blue.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Chiss? What’s a chiss doing in this hellhole?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Deciding that the day couldn’t get any weirder – and, woefully, that she’d lacked the foresight to pack the tools required for field repair – Adder briskly unholstered her trusty Westar and marched off towards the two dots now making their descent across the treacherous slope.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nick Imura"][/SIZE]​

 

[Nia Siroc]

Nia had always wanted to travel to a desert world. Her grandfather had told her that they'd come from such a place when she was little. Even their name referred to the dry winds that came from the south of that world. Now she was in such a place and it really was like an ocean of sand.

It was hot, like Lamaredd, but a dry heat that seemed to suck the moisture out of you. In every way it was so very different with the few scrub brushes and stunted, gnarled trees. There were no animals in sight save for what seemed to be a kind of buzzard circling high overhead. She supposed some creature was soon to die and the carrion bird was simply waiting for a meal.

Certainly the apprentice could feel the life forms. They were waiting for the sun to set from what she'd read. Many of these lifeforms had excellent night vision and their other sense were very sharp but it still struck her as an odd way to live. What it was good for was isolation.

Except for the sleeping creatures and themselves, there seemed to be as close to nothing as possible. Except sand because there was more of that than Nia could've imagined. The only sound seemed to be the wind with the occasional human interruption. What was eerie and interesting to her was how your words seemed to be swallowed up as soon as you said them. It seemed a place for silence.

The Jedi Order liked their isolation she'd gleaned from her history lessons. Why else would they build their temples and enclaves so far away from the core. Except for Coruscant, of course, but that place had been a convenient target many times. Not just for the Sith but the equally deadly and far more subtle politicians.

Perhaps it was better to meditate upon the Force so far removed. It certainly did remove the snares of the Senate and other such organizations. But it did make it harder for beings in genuine need to reach out when they needed you. Heavy thoughts for a seventeen year old not long removed from her back-rocket home and her brow furrowed as she worked over the issue.

Deciding to leave the issue for another day, she looked to Aela Talith and Arn, the rare Chiss Jedi Knight who'd accompanied the group elsewhere. They were here to find the ruins, recover any artifacts and to document things. Nia found such things interesting but not so much as the travel to far away places. That was what truly excited her.

@Adder @Nick Imura [member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"] | [member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Nick Imura"]​

​

Aela had never been a Jedi with the ability to sense others. She received vague impressions in the force, small dimples that if she truly focused she could barely make out. Others were more talented, Arn being one of them, but even he couldn't sense anything through the haze of power that came from within this desert. So Aela and her team of Jedi did not sense Imura, nor did they see Adder tucked into the folds of the desert down the dune.

"Come on." The Jedi Marshall motioned to her team. "Almost to the top."

The dune was half the size of a mountain, sand having gathered upon it for untold eons. The young Marshall pressed herself forward, boots digging into the soft sand as she ascended further to the top of the dune. Arn followed closed behind her, the others tagging along until eventually they reached the top. The blonde half turned towards her team as she reached the tip of the dune, checking to make sure that no one had fallen or been left behind, when she saw them all there she smiled, then turned back to what was in front of them.

Immediately as her eyes locked onto the scene before her the breath hitched in her throat.

There, stuck within the desert as though carved from the sands themselves was a massive sprawling structure. Red limestone buildings and huge courtyards lay before them, half a city built within the center of the desert.

 

[Garza]

The sand was a slippery slope. Steps were likely to slide back a few inches for every step you took. Taking one misstep, or slipping could cause you to tumble all the way back down. These mountains of sand were not forgiving. They rose into the air like testaments of the law of deserts. Very few could survive walking across deserts for long periods of time. Sand was everywhere on you from the winds. Sand was in places sand was not supposed to go. The sun beating down upon us was hot, the sand reflected it. My boots had once been rather nice looking and sleek, however now, they looked warn and as though they had been used for a time older than myself. Cracking on the top-most layer.

I was alone as I walked over the berm yet another sand dune. Looking across, I could see slightly in the distance a small group of people. Too far for me to get any sort of confirmed feeling on them. But yet close enough to count them out. I wasn't too sure if it was a mirage, or if there really was a group of people there.

Either way, the ruins were ahead. I could see them, and began to walk a little faster there. If these people were real, then I didn't want to lose what I could potentially get from this place to Sith, or even Jedi who decided to hog everything. Maybe if I could keep my mouth shut and not act quite an ass I could make some allies...

Ha, I never made allies. It was a problem with me. I made more enemies than friends. And it was a bad habit. Sure, i'll give it a shot with these people. Wouldn't hurt. Lets just see how this all goes out.

[member="Aela Talith"], [member="Nia Siroc"], [member="Adder"],

 

[Ta'mur Rokar]

With the Jedi Order in shambles, Ta'mur Rokar, largely found himself taking less orders and acting more on his own. He was a wanderer, who delivered justice where it was needed. He was a strong being, one who largely viewed the galaxy as black and white. When he caught a 'scent' of darkness he would track it and deal with it. One such tracking had brought him here, to this desert world.

Rokar moved briskly on all fours, the hot silky sand burned at the pads of his hands and feet, but none of that was relevant. It was penance for any dark thoughts he may have had, for any of those he failed to protect from the servants of the Dark Side. It was hard not to feel anger, to detach himself emotionally from slaying evil. The original Jedi Code appealed much more to him.

Emotion, yet peace.

He had struggled with the words that the Jedi had adopted as canon. Why the change he did not know. Which had more validity? The Jedi had no longer been based as the keepers of peace. Was he the last of the true breed? He did not know.

'More force-signatures on the horizon...' Ta'mur made a mental note of their alignment.

He had to reach them before the darksider did. No more Jedi would die on his watch.

He sped up with the assistance of the Force coursing through his body. He would cover a great distance much more quickly. He would be upon them in moments, he only wished it would not be too late...

 

[Nia Siroc]

The red-brown buildings surprised Nia with their just suddenly seeming to be there in this place of nothingness. Although it was clear they had been long abandoned, part of her mind was certain the building had come from nowhere. That was impossible, of course, everything came from something. It also seemed to be the source of the pulsating energy of the world.

At first she'd thought it was the desert itself but drawing closer had revealed the real origin. It must have been very old indeed to permeate this world. Though her senses throught the Force were naturally strong, Nia was still very much a neophyte. Thus, the proximity of this old enclave distracted her from the feeling of an approaching dark side adept, a Jedi and a woman.

It was a fortunate thing for the Dark side adept and perhaps not so much for the downed traveler. Her eyes took in every detail of this stark but magnificent structure. It felt like the dwelling of some great and all-knowing mystic hermit. Too, she drank in the Light side energy, feeling refreshed and energized.

[member="Aela Talith"] @Ta'mur Rokar [member="Nick Imura"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Two more steps, and the feeling of unease in her gut eased. Two more steps, and her brow furrowed, eyes straining against the glare of the sun above. Two more steps, and her breath hitched, words of greeting dying on her lips.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Years of travel had taken her to many corners of the Galaxy, with just as many wonders to make up for the countless grime- and crime-infested worlds. But rarely had the woman witnessed sights as beautiful as these, where the rays of the setting sun caught just right against the deep reds of the ancient city. The light filtered like molten gold across the tops of the buildings, sinking the maze of streets into deep purple shadows. And yet it was all mere backdrop to the soft halo framing a familiar face perhaps ten paces away from where Adder stood, momentarily at a loss for words.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Aela?” she finally managed, the syllables harsh on her parched throat.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She wasn’t sure – how could she? she was in the middle of frakking nowhere – but the cut of her jaw, the proud stance, the hilt of the lightsaber clipped to her belt… Adder had once learned to remember people well, and was stuck with the skill even a decade later. She’d recognize those keen eyes anywhere.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Aela,” the redhead called out again, voice stronger this time, and laced with a fond smile. Adder made short work of the remaining distance, ignoring the shifting sand underfoot as she joined the blonde Jedi and her pair of tagalongs.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“You’re a sight for sore eyes.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nick Imura"] | [member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Ta’mur Rokar"][/SIZE]​

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"] | [member="Nia Siroc"] | @Ta'mur Rokar | [member="Nick Imura"]​

​

"Adder?" Aela sounded confused.

Half turning, the Jedi Marshall rounded on the group to find Adder storming up the side of the sand dune. To say that Aela was surprised was an understatement. This planet was in the middle of nowhere in wild space, there was nothing here and no one to visit what could Adder possibly be doing here? She frowned slightly, wondering if it was an illusion of some sort for a moment. her gaze cast towards Arn who slowly shrugged his shoulders.

She took that as a symbol that Adder was real.

"What are you doing here?" The Jedi Marshall asked as she turned around fully, disregarding the ruins for a moment. "Why are you here alone!"

This planet was hardly safe, worse then Tatooine by the accounts that she had. Sandstorms were common here and the creatures that lurked within the desert were large enough to consume entire starships without much of a second thought, not to mention that the ruins of the Enclave were something else no one should be exploring by themselves. There was no indication of what had caused the massacre of the Jedi who had stayed here, and whatever it was might actually still be lurking within the enclaves halls.

She frowned again, quite concerned over the presence of possibly her only friend.

Of course little did she know that there was another person upon this world, Nick Imura. He was about to stumble into a most unpleasant scene, the showing of what a graveyard the Enclave had become. Upon the hallowed grounds of the Lost Jedi City were hundreds, if not thousands of corpses. Some were standing, others had crumbled onto the floor, all of them were covered in a thick ash, flash frozen and scorched in an instant. A macabre showing of death on a grand scale, one frozen in time.

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Her smile faltered a bit at the sudden sharpness of Aela’s tone, but she recovered with a small chuckle.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Relax,” she said and briefly touched the blonde on the shoulder for reassurance. “This isn’t my first choice of a vacation planet. Probably not even the last, really. It’s hot like hell, and I just know I’ll be picking the damn sand out of my… [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]everywhere for the next five months.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder frowned in the direction of her downed ship. “That [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]trashcan [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]crashed on me. Threw me outta hyperspace a bit too close to the grav well of this rock and, well... here I am!” she exclaimed with mock jubilance, curling her lips into a hoload smile.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“What are you[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] doing here, though?” Her eyes narrowed in scrutiny, flickering from the Jedi to her two companions. The redhead opened her mouth, thought better of it, and switched to Huttese. [Kindergarten duty?][/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She knew from the weeks they’d spent undercover overthrowing the Shadow Syndicate that the Jedi was perfectly capable of understanding her. Chances were, of course, that the other two were as well, but that was neither here nor there now that the words had left her mouth.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nick Imura"] | [member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Ta’mur Rokar"][/SIZE]​

 

[Nia Siroc]

With a start, Nia turned as she heard a woman's voice call for Aela from the next dune over. The neophyte had been so engrossed in her study of the abandoned building that she'd not noticed the new presence. When the woman got close enough, Nia was taken aback by her appearance. The fiery red hair, the gem-colored eyes, the complex pattern of ink on her head and the bluish tint to her all made her quite striking.

Nia had never seen a being that looked quite like her before. She was clearly humanoid but not the garden variety of human like she was herself. Whoever this newcomer was, she also clearly knew Aela from the familiar tone they addressed each other with. Her presence here was quickly explained by her ship's sudden exit from hyperspace.

When she switched to Huttese, Nia was thoroughly out of her depth. She didn't even know the name of this language let alone what was being said. However, it was clear that she and the others weren't meant to hear. The young woman couldn't prove it but had a sneaking suspicion she was mentioned somewhere in that dialogue.

@Adder @Aela Talith [member="Nick Imura"] @Ta'mur Rokar

 

[Aela Talith]

She shifted slightly, waving for Adder to come stand beside her.

It was an oddity for the other woman to be here, in fact it was so odd that Aela was almost entirely sure that it wasn't simple coincidence. The force had a funny way of guiding and changing things in a way to make them work out in a certain way. Her grandfather had denied this, always stating that the Force was not a manipulator but instead a force to be harnessed. Her own father had told her that he'd never truly considered that aspect of the force, perhaps to maintain his own individuality, but Aela had long since come to accept that the invisible hand of the force tended to push things in a certain direction.

"That." She said pointing to the city. "Is why I'm here."

The Jedi observed the City below for a moment before turning back to Adder.

"It's a city, lost centuries ago, millenia actually. The Jedi built it on this world as an enclave, a place to be away from the galaxy and keep from the dealings of the Old Republic." She knew the story well, she could tell it forwards and abckwards, but they hardly had the time for that now.

Arn tapped her on the shoulder, and she offered the Chiss a quick nod.

"Go on ahead." She told the others. "We'll be right behind you."

 

[Nia Siroc]

When Aela told them to go on, she looked to Arn who tilted his head towards the red stone. Nia gave the two a last glance over her shoulder before walking towards the red stone just ahead. When the young woman drew close, she stretched out her palm to touch the smooth rock on impulse. As her skin made contact, she gasped.

With eyes wide, she looked to the Chiss' grinning face. "It's not hot at all," she said just above a whisper and Arn shrugged. "The Light side of the Force does things like that," said the man "It helps to preserve and sustain."

He pointed back at the rock and told her to look closer. Doing so, Nia blinked and leaned until her eyes were centimeters away. There was not a mark anywhere that she could discern. Only the natural grain that any stone might have.

When she looked back to the older Jedi, he nodded. "It's amazing," she said with the wonder of this discovery in her voice.

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"] [member="Nick Imura"] @Ta'mur Rokar

 

[thatlazybrit]

"We're lost, we're going to die out in space, no one will remember us, or know who we are, or know WHERE we are!" Ket exclaimed in fear, I could feel it, then again, what force user couldn't? He tended to do this a lot. We had been taking a shipment to Arkas, a planet in the Tingela Rim controlled by the Silver Sanctum until The Dagger failed us and here we are, stuck in what I think is Wild Space with no way of knowing where we were and no way of getting out of this mess through hyperspace, we'd just have to fly the ship through the vacuum of space until we find a habitable planet.

What are the problems there you may ask? Well I don't know if you know, but our ship isn't as fast as hyperspace is, and if we aren't close to a planet, it takes at least 40 to 100 something years to get to one. So as you may be able to tell, I was a bit... grumpy. We had been flying for almost 24 hours now and things definitely weren't looking good, not for Ket at least. I still had the thought the force would be with us, as we were getting pretty close to a star now, hoping there was a planet orbiting it.

As we approached the star, there was one planet orbiting it. Just one. I was really hoping it was habitable, and as we drew closer, Ket started to cry, but not of joy, of sorrow. "We're going to die on another damn Tatooine?" He was right, it certainly looked like it. "Shut up, at least we're not dying up here, maybe something actually lives down there that might not kill us." And as I landed The Dagger near some sand dunes I couldn't help but feel the presence of force users, light and dark.

[member="Nia Siroc"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"] [member="Ta'mur Rokar"] [member="Nick Imura"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Following Aela’s finger, Adder focused once more on the red ruins in the distance. Then she frowned.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“And what’s so important about some rocks from thousands of years ago?” she asked, willing the crease in her brow to dissipate.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]In a more relaxed stroll, the redhead started after the two padawans, glancing from the city to the Jedi and back again every so often. They neared the sprawling skeleton of the settlement and Adder noted the figures in the crumbling streets with growing unease. Normally, that would be a source of reassurance, but these silhouettes were deathly still.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“What happened here?” She glanced over her shoulder at the blonde beside her, hating the small tremble to her voice that she failed to stifle.[/SIZE]

[member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Ravaj Jaricck"] | @Ta'mur Rokar | [member="Nick Imura"]​

 

[Aela Talith]

Aela frowned slightly. "Nobody knows for sure."

The history left that part out, well, almost.

"There was a massacre." The Marshall started as Adder and she fell in step right behind Arn and the padawan, following along as they stepped into the courtyard. She watched Nia with a slight smile, satisfied with the way the padawan was intrigued in her surroundings, though the young padawan seemed to mostly ignore the...darker aspects of the enclave. "The Archives didn't exactly say what happened, just that the Jedi here were attacked and wiped out in a single night."

She shifted slightly, stopping by one of the hunched over corpses. The figure was kneeling above something, frozen in time and stuck in place. It looked like he was protecting something, his arm scooped beneath him. Aela reached under him, her fingers reaching beneath the corpse. Her hand wrapped around a small cylinder, a silvery rusted out lightsaber hilt. Her hand brushed the figure as she pulled the lightsaber out from beneath it, his form crumbling slightly as degraded carbonite fell to pieces.

Aela gasped slightly, withdrawing a step as the figure turned to dust.

Her fingers tightened around the ancient lightsaber hilt. "This happened thousands of years ago, all we know is that one day they were here, thriving, the next they were gone."

She frowned again, looking at the saber.

"There's something here." Her eyes turned to Adder. "Or there was something here. It could help us, and I intend to find it."

 

[Nia Siroc]

Nia had moved beyond the first buildings now, Arn in tow, when she found the first of the skeletal remains. Without even looking back, she went forward to kneel next to the bones with the older man standing respectfully a few paces away. Who was this being and how had they met their end? The gravity of the situation came crashing down onto her in that moment.

Were they a Jedi or perhaps someone who had chosen to live in this place, away from the troubles of the galaxy. Except that whatever they had tried to escape had found them in the end. Nia looked over her shoulder at the Chiss whose mirth had vanished out of his respect for the deceased. Their eyes met and they communicated without words.

So did the young apprentice become aware of the sad fate of this seemingly magical place. At each being's remains she knelt and looked upon them with a sense of sadness. She sighed and hung her head sadly at one especially small one and Arn placed his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "There is no death, there is the Force," he said with quiet conviction.

[member="Adder"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Nick Imura"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Why couldn’t she crash on a garden world for once? Sure, unexplored frontiers of civilization were all fine and dandy the first few times, but Adder wouldn’t mind plopping her ass down on some remote beach for a few months. Or indefinitely, really.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Her facial muscles fiercely disobeyed her orders and continued to deepen the furrow between her brows. [/SIZE]Concern was openly etched across her features as she lifted her keen green gaze back to Aela. All the hairs on her neck stood on an end, and something cold and spidery was crawling up her spine. Adder shuddered.

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Looks like carbonite,” she mumbled after untold pregnant seconds had ticked by. The redhead had seen enough of its effect back on the job, and she’d never quite forgotten how it looked like. Especially not that particular incident when they’d found some prisoner that had been frozen for the best part of fifty years. He hadn’t crumbled quite so dramatically, but Adder – who’d been a mere rookie in those days – had been the one left with a broom in her hand to sweep the cell clean.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Somehow she doubted a broom would be of any use here.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Let’s get on with it, then,” the woman muttered finally, glancing about the abandoned square.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Ravaj Jaricck"][/SIZE]​

 

[Aela Talith]

She slowly nodded, her eyes turning to the lightsaber in her hand.

The weapon was strange, broken almost, half finished. Aela let the weapon roll in her palm, inspecting it. The crystal at it's center was a pale blue, almost white. She recognized the components of a lightsaber, the power cell, emitter, everything, yet the case was missing and some of the stabilizers were gone as well. She frowned for a moment, would the weapon even work? For a second Aela turned, watching Adder make her way towards Nia and Arn.

The Marshall lingered for a moment, turning the emitter of the lightsaber towards the ground. With her thumb she pressed the switch of the lightsaber, the bright blue blade pulsing into life with a slight whirring sound. Her head cocked to the side, eyes fixated on the small bits of plasma that seemed to spark from the base of the blade itself. Aela pursed her lips, head shaking slightly as she tried to comprehend the oddity of the weapon.

"Aela."

Arn called her name, Aela's head snapping to the side as her attention was caught. She quickly nodded her head and turned off the saber, placing it on her belt and breaking into a jog to catch up with the others.

They began to ascend the stairs of the main building, all four of them climbing the thick limestone steps that had been carved into the bare rock. Massive statues sat to either side of them, all of them robed and hooded. They seemed to stare at the group, following them all the way into the enclave.