Mission to Mustafar

[The Dark Man]

[Theme]

They walked out into the demon light.
But at the end they were brighter

A storm of ash swirled in great maelstroms that grew kilometres in height. The humidity of the planet was intense, and great rivers of lava flowed in every direction. Safe and high above these rivers, Jedi Selah and Padawan Dajeen arrived at a privatised landing dock. Though floodlights aided them to see, as the ash all but clouded any chance of sunlight every day and night, it seemed that no one was here. Droids operated worlds like this, harvesting them and sucking them bone dry for their precious resources. Though Jedi Selah wondered if it was worth mining a planet such as this, it was a risky operation and furthermore a costly one at that.

Brown eyes surveyed their environment. His smooth, brown skin was blemished by large, dark oval spectacles that rested on his wide nose. Thick lips remained flat, and he appeared emotionless. Dark robes snapped in the harsh, stiff breeze, and his tattered cloak began to sail with the wind. An ornate lightsaber clipped to his belt, electrum detail with a wintrium frame, the sign of a true Jedi Master, but anyone capable of sensing the Force would know the blade was not simply that, it was infused with two distinct force signatures. One had been around for only forty years, and the other had been imbued into the blade for three-thousand. It obeyed two masters.

"Intelligence reports a Dark Jedi in the system," The Dark Man began. "I have not met him personally, but he is dangerous." He swept his gaze from the environment and onto Lira, "And the Order told me you could help." Jedi Selah clasped his hands behind his back and moved towards the observatory, the doors welcomed him with a hiss and opened aside. He could feel something innately disturbing about this place, there were dark ripples in the pond that was the Force, and he felt them crawl across his skin like ice water through his veins, and he wanted to shudder at the malignant aura. Something horrible had occurred him, long ago.

@Lira Dajeen

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira only nodded in response.

She didn't feel right speaking up in this place. There was something about Mustafar that demanded silence. The raging geothermal energy, the powerful lava spurts, the constant decaying heat, it made her want to be silent. So she was. In her hand she held the lightsaber that Master Watts had given to her, the staber-staff containing two lightsaber crystals that burned so brightly blue that they appeared almost white.

Lira had only used the weapon once before, but she suspected that today would be a second time.

It didn't matter how many times she'd used it though, she had been training. The Electro-staff and the training saber she had used prepared her for actual combat. What Marcello had showed her would help with moving more fluid, and what Ben had taught her would let defend herself

The rest was up to the force.

Quietly, with soft leather boots she followed after The Jedi Knight. Her white robes were already stained with soot and ash giving them a slight gray tint. Her eyes stung slightly, but with multiple blinks she managed to hold off the pain long enough for them to make it inside. When they did something hit her, an awful feeling of sickness.

Her fingers tightened around the hilt.

 

[The Dark Man]

"Hrmphf," he mumbled through pursed lips, "The strong, silent type." He walked ahead of her, only turning to observe any physical emotional reaction she may produce at his comment. He brought his eyes ahead, a thinly corridor joined into a large foyer where computers were concealed in layers of dust, of which the resident droids paid no heed to clean. He moved forwards, hands extended out to thumb an ignition for the main core. Each finger than was delicately and meticulously hovered over various keys that would perform various tasks and input into the core. He began to type away with a speed that defied common sense, and a holographic display burst to life revealing various security camera's located throughout the facility, and not a single camera was picking up organic or droid life. They were alone. "Strange," Selah remarked slowly, "I was told a droid would be here to greet us but no one is home."

Though Lira felt the desire to console herself in silence, it was clear The Dark Man's thoughts did not only travel through his brain, but right out his mouth. He continued to slap keys, his hands moving back and forth as he began to slice into the network mainframe, hoping to analyse the current droid population, and their locations. "While a Guardian might bash down a locked door and a Consular simply knock," Selah said, eyes focused on the task at hand, "A Sentinel will instead use ingenuity to pick the lock." With that final word, his index finger slammed down on a key and the command was entered, and to his dismay, there was no records of droid activity in the past thirty-six hours, and their locators were inactive. "Well that is very interesting indeed."

[member="Lira Dajenn"]

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="The Dark Man"]

Lira gripped the lightsaber hilt a little more tightly as she listened to the Jedi Knight. The awful feeling of sickness lurked at the back of her throat, but it did not grow worse. Other Padawans may have been more visibly sick, their reactions may have been a bit more harsh, but Lira had a certain natural resistance against Aura's of the darkside.

She had been born and grew up on Prakith, only some one hundred Kilometers away from where the One Sith's Dark Lord had once resided. The feeling of the darkside that permeated his residence and the aura of his strength had reached all across Prakith, and unknowingly to Lira, and pretty much everyone else on Prakith, over the years she had built up a sort of resistance against the effects of the darkside permeating the air.

A skill that helped her now.

“Don't suppose we have the wrong facility?” A small little quip, perhaps something to loosen her up.

It was easier to speak now that they were inside of the facility, the raging geothermal power of Mustafar was no longer plaguing her mind. Oddly, the idea of fighting a Dark Jedi of any sort did not put fear into her. Fear was not an emotion she accepted, Ben had told her so.

 

[The Dark Man]

"No, this is the right facility," Jedi Selah returned, clearly not grasping the concept of humour in the current circumstance. "I'm going to attempt to triangulate our suspect through the security cameras. He might have a hand at this." His hands moved over the keys once more, the tapping beat drowning out the distant noises of the imploding lakes of lava. It was clear Ekul knew a lot about their target when he opened his mouth, "While he has done evil, he is not exactly dark. I think it is his quest for knowledge that has forced him to take less than positive routes. For a long time I thought he was dead, after all he was my age when I was your age. But something tells me he is out here." His eyes looked up as he accessed the camera channels once more. "My mentor never considered him an enemy. It was strange, for they had fought for five days and five nights, my mentors arts against his, and in the end my mentor was bested - yet this Dark Jedi did not slay him. He stayed with my mentor for three years, learning all he could from him. This man had the art of healing the wounds of the heart and mind, and when he left, my mentor felt the victor and not the vanquished. In the end, my mentor counted him a friend."

"But why am I hunting him, you could ask," Jedi Selah said. "He has something that does not belong to him. The holocron of Jedi Master Ir’cara’suhl." If one had studied during their history lessons, they would know that Ir'cara'suhl was one if not the only Duinuogwuin to ever become a Jedi, let alone a Master, and after the Battle of Ruusan during the New Sith Wars, he was presumed dead. "I've found him," Ekul said, pulling himself out of that train of thought and discussion, raising a pointed finger to the screen hovering over them, a dark figure was sitting cross-legged on an embankment, seemingly in meditation. "We'll have to head back to the ship and take some swoops to reach him."

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira took in the information like a sponge.

She had a mind for memorization, and the tale that Ekul told her was firmly fixed in her mind as he went on. He nodded slightly, and the grip on her lightsaber relaxed slightly as she realized what exactly this meant for her. Maybe they wouldn't exactly be fighting his Dark jedi, maybe they would just be talking to him. Oddly that caused her to tense up in its own way.

Dark Jedi weren't meant to be talked to, at least not the dangerous ones. They were meant to be arrested and taken to court. Then again the way that Ekul described this man he didn't exactly sound dangerous, or rather, he didn't sound threatening. Lira considered for a moment, then nodded. Her eyes caught wind of the dark figure, narrowing slightly as she tried in vain to identify him.

Lira perked up slightly at the mention of swoops.

She had always liked vehicles, heck she had designed the Jedi's new Intercetpor that was due to go into production any day now, something she was particularly proud of. Remembering that achievement she began to experience a growth of confidence. “Lets go.”

The words were firm, and before he could protest Lira was headed back towards the ship.

 

[The Dark Man]

Before Ekul Selah could even shut down the hologram, Lira was already moving for the ship, and the swoops on board. He waited a few moments longer, making final progress to deactivate the hologram, and security cameras. He turned, his cloak not quite as long as the others, but still swirled around him as the movement. The cloak itself only came down to his knees, where others may adopt ones that track behind them on the floor and pick up dirt, or narrowly brush against their ankles. He believed those type of cloaks were the very reason so many Jedi removed them in combat. They were impractical, you may trip on them. A cloak like his did not require removal to fight, and while it could be a hinderance, it did not threaten to trip him onto the floor.

Exiting the facility, the humidity greeted him once more with a sly approach. He substituted this uncomfortable weather through the Force, imaging himself as if he were bathing in a fresh, mountain swimming hole. It was then he recalled the ones on Rendili, and a smile broke across his lips as he thought of home. He hadn't been there since he was thirteen, and he didn't think he wanted to return. He felt returning would ruin the perfect image he held in his mind of the place, much like people avoid their favourite holo-celebrities. Arriving at the ship, it seemed the local droid that came with the defender-class light corvette had already brought out the two swoops for both Jedi Selah and Padawan Dajeen. The Dark Man threw a leg over the bike, and urged Lira to take the lead. "I've never been a good rider, and you seem eager. Go on."


[member="Lira Dajenn"]

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira nodded.

Her next few actions were so swift that it was hard to keep up with her. She fiddled with her swoop, pressed a few things, started up vehicle, then jumped on top of it. The machine rumbled, and its exhaust pressed out. The young Jedi grinned, then kicked her feet up. Piloting was one of her skills, mechanics were her kills. This was what she was made for.

Lira pressed the controls forward, and the swoop shot off like a record.

The path was set out ahead of them, the map on the swoops controls telling Kira exactly where to go.

Navigating Mustafar proved to be somewhat difficult, the huge lava swells and the massive rock outcroppings needed to be avoided, and the ground was hardly easy to cross over with even repulsor vehicles. Yet even so, Lira didn't dread a single minute of their journey.