Private NJO Council - Tales From the Outer Reaches

[Zark San Tekka]

Valery Noble Kahlil Noble Amani Serys Jasper Kai'el

The Prosperity drifted in Coruscant's orbit like a beacon. Alliance capital ships gathered around her in vast formations. More were dropping out of hyperspace every hour to help reinforce a new Imperial frontline. Shuttles touched down on the mobile Jedi facility so often the incoming trail of shiplights resembled its own space lane. Supplies, precious cargo from the library, and personnel crowded each hangar.

If not for the engine vibrations under his seat and lack of skyline Master San Tekka could almost believe the Council gathered in their old chambers. Being back in space aboard such a massive technological marvel reminded him of his youth as a Jedi Knight.

"Not long ago I received a transmission from..." a shadow passed over the old man's face, "a former apprentice of mine, Thalia Senn."

Wars left scars on them all. Thalia was redeemed but Zark could not forget the pain he felt when she drew her blade against him. After Asmundr's death, he had not chosen another padawan and yet it was failing Thalia Senn that first shook his faith. Now a fully trained Knight herself she had avoided contact with the Order for some time.

"She claims to possess vital intelligence but would say no more over comlink."

Something out there had scared Zark's old student enough to make contact. Now she was in the same system, and they would be face to face again in moments. He could not hide a troubled expression.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Prosperity
Tags: Zark San Tekka , Valery Noble , Amani Serys , Kahlil Noble

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" Thalia Senn ?" Jasper remarked.

That was someone he hadn't seen in... well, in some time now. She was an elder student of his generation, a woman with a complicated history. It reminded him of being a padawan... A very irrational and brazen padawan, but that was some time ago now. With the Dark Empire clearly having some link back to the Maw, he certainly understood that Thalia was in a complicated position. Whatever she had found, it was clearly important. She would have surely kept to herself if not, right?

"That's... a surprise," he frowned, scratching the scruff on his chin. "But intel is intel, right? Best not look a gift horse in the mouth... I'd rather we have half a deck then no deck at all. I think that this is good news. Well, not that we're in this situation, but you know what I mean."

He trusted the information that was sure to come from this. Thalia knew her way around the galaxy, a lense that he hadn't seen through. They needed her perspective.

Whatever that revealed? Time would tell.

 

[Valery Noble]

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That was a name she hadn't heard in some time.

Valery didn't mention it, though. She noticed the way Zark's expression shifted when he mentioned the name and decided to focus on his message to the council instead. Thalia had important intelligence. Whether it was about the ongoing war or other trouble in the Galaxy, information from a fellow Jedi would never be ignored.

"I'm looking forward to seeing her, and hearing what she has to say," Valery added with a dip of her head. "I will soon be meeting with others who have been gathering intelligence as well. If we bring it all together, we'll make better decisions about our current situation." The sooner the core was stabilized, the better. This new Empire had gained some momentum in their path of conquest, but the Alliance was much stronger than when the Maw first invaded.

They weren't going to crumble so easily.

"When she's ready, she can come up here."

Jasper Kai'el Zark San Tekka Kahlil Noble Amani Serys Thalia Senn ​

 

[Thalia Senn]

Zark San Tekka | Valery Noble | Jasper Kai'el | Kahlil Noble | Amani Serys

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The hangar bays of the Prosperity were bustling, even in the Jedi wings. On her approach she'd nearly crashed into waiting vessels three times maneuvering her old Pamarthen patrol boat through the crowds of ships waiting. She only realized that she probably should have been waiting her turn when she touched down and a couple of angry techs berated her for her recklessness. Without her robes it took them a few minutes of shouting to notice the lightsabers hanging from her belts. They let her pass grumbling something about Jedi not following protocol and something else she didn't quite catch.

Something was definitely going down. Were the Jedi preparing for a long-term mission away from Coruscant? No, they wouldn't leave- couldn't leave now. Her eyes watched the Jedi that passed her, many of them giving her tentative nods or odd looks. She didn't recognize any of them. How long had she been away from the temple? She began to wonder if maybe a freshly minted Knight shouldn't have from the jump become a Wayseeker.

The doors to the council chamber opened and finally familiar faces graced her, though they all looked older, save Vallery and her damned good genetics. And who was the blonde? Was that...Jasper? On the Council? Too long...Gone too long.

Suddenly she realized how she must look. She'd flown straight from that burning village to Coruscant, expecting to meet them on the ground at the Temple. Instead she'd been greeted with chaos and ignored the need to clean up. She probably still smelled like smoke in her soot covered green and black spacer's gear. Dark color flushed her cheeks but she bowed.

"Council, thank you for seeing me on such short notice...Especially with," she waved her hands generally around. "All that seems to be going on. I've come to report disturbing news." She took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Somehow Darth Solipsis has returned. And he has a new crop of Dark Jedi working under him."

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[Zark San Tekka]

Valery Noble Kahlil Noble Amani Serys Jasper Kai'el

Zark's lips curled into a subtle frown. Memories raced through his head attempting to reconcile the lost young girl he'd once known with this haggard knight. He waited along with the rest of the Council for Thalia Senn to share her urgent intelligence until silence lingered. Synthskin fingers stroked the old man's beard in thought.

"It has been too long since you made contact, Thalia."

His neutral tone left the greeting open to interpretation. Behind an impassive gaze, Zark struggled to set his personal feelings aside. If his old padawan was here now in this moment of crisis then the Jedi Master must trust it to be the Force's will. There were no coincidences.

"You are just in time to help us evacuate," he glanced at Valery and arced his brow, "Coruscant is not safe for the Order anymore. Not after Tython."

He hesitated, sensing the knight's confusion. Perhaps it was better these revelations about the Dark Empire's rise came from a more friendly face. Thalia had clearly been expecting shock and dismay only to receive blank stares.

"What do you know of these Dark Jedi?"

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Prosperity
Tags: Zark San Tekka , Thalia Senn , Valery Noble , Amani Serys , Kahlil Noble

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"We're preparing for the Temple to become a battleground," Jasper added. "I'm... sure you remember the sacking. It was better to move the children... just to be safe."

They didn't need to be a part of this. Other Jedi? Fine. They could stay and fight. Hell, he was going to stay and fight, but this shouldn't fall on the children. He let out a sigh as he took in the words that Thalia had said. Solipsis had returned... The one who formed the Brotherhood of the Maw. Jasper had never seen the man, not in the flesh anyways. By the time he had returned from his self-imposed exile, the Sith lord had vanished without a trace on Tyton. Regardless, he undertsood the implication.

He lived through the Hyperspace War.

"Some who follow him... they seemed to be imperial remnants," the Sentinel of Harmony noted with a frown. "This is a... a notable departure from the methods of the Maw..." Of course, that was more Jasper musing to himself out loud. "Do you know anything else?"

It was a curious matter, as much as it was a force that could spell the destruction of billions of lives. It was vital to learn what they could to prevent as much as possible...

Not that they could prevent everything. They could try, at least.

 

[Thalia Senn]

Zark San Tekka | Valery Noble | Jasper Kai'el | Amani Serys | Kahlil Noble

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Thalia sensed the disquiet in the old man, one of her many Masters in her youth. She pulled the rigging and braced the sail as she spied a storm lingering beyond those old eyes. She risked a glance at the Grandmaster then to Jasper and folded her arms, brow arched in question. She tried to keep her face a nuetral mask but Master San Tekka's words blew like a bad wind.

"What do you mean after Tython?" She asked, the question bringing to life the fear she had tried to keep hidden. Her voice betrayed her, cracking. Her own memories of the last time she had been on Tython washed over her leaving her feeling cold and clammy. They're hiding something from you. No. They weren't. She stamped down Tempest's voice. She was a Knight of the Order, there was no need to hide anything from her. None of them seemed shocked though by her revelation.

The storm drew closer as the silence dragged out, Jasper's question forgotten to her.

"What's happened to Tython?" She asked again.

You already know. San Tekka's words echoed to her.

"It has been too long since you made contact, Thalia."

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[Valery Noble]

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"I fought Solipsis on Tython," Valery said after spending a moment in thought. "He and his new followers attacked Tython, Empress Teta and a few other planets. We did our best to defend them, but were forced to retreat." Coruscant was now at the very border of those captured worlds, so a lot of defenses were built up around it. A huge fleet, shielding and down on the surface, preparations were already being made for the inevitable invasion.

Other worlds around Tython and Empress Teta were being fortified in a similar way.

"We're preparing for their next attack and we're also going to make attempts to liberate worlds." Those plans hadn't been discussed yet, but the Alliance wasn't just going to sit still and wait for the enemy to keep attacking. Soon enough, they'd strike back and Valery would be coordinating those efforts.

Just like she had during the last war.

"Any information you have about those Dark Jedi will be useful."

Zark San Tekka Kahlil Noble Jasper Kai'el Thalia Senn ​

 

[Zark San Tekka]

Valery Noble Kahlil Noble Jasper Kai'el

Master San Tekka's frown deepened when he heard the raw emotion in his padawan's voice. Thalia had always struggled to master her feelings. Typical for pamarthens, but it had led her down a dark path once before. The Council pressed for more information on their enemy. So much about this changing face of evil they did not yet understand.

"The Deep Core has fallen into shadow."

He tried not to let the memory of Empress Teta stain his gaze with unresolved bitterness. Now it was back in the clutches of the terror Thalia Senn once willingly served.

"Their tactics are new," the old master continued, "Solipsis makes dark pacts with the worst kind of Imperial warlords. Fel's remnants have been twisted by defeat and false promises into a new slave army."

Like the rest of the Council he'd been too focused on the threat looming over worlds like Yavin and Dagobah. It was an arrogant lack of vigilance which had destabilized the entire Galactic Alliance.

"These Dark Jedi are still a mystery," Zark admitted before trying a simpler question, "On what world did you encounter the Emperor's servants?"

 

[Thalia Senn]

Valery Noble | Zark San Tekka | Kahlil Noble | Jasper Kai'el | Amani Serys​

Fear is deep water. The voice of her father filtered through her thoughts as her mind turned towards the millions suffering under this new Dark Empire. Maybe if she had been closer to the Force she could have sensed him, felt him through the waves of the Force. Waves of storm water flowed over her, chilling her to her bone. She breathed in and out, falling back on old Jedi meditation techniques to calm herself. There is no emotion, there is peace.

Hold steady.​

"I encountered a Mirialan Dark Jedi on a far flung Outer Rim planet. The world holds little to no importance in the region." Did she explain what she was doing there? Drinking mostly. They didn't need the details of her Wayseeking. "They were there seeking this," she pulled a rough stone sphere from her robes cut with ancient Jedi runes that glowed faintly along grooves in the rock. It looked like the Prosperity in miniture, if the prosperity was a sphere.

"They were seeking an Old Man who worked on the Prosperity project for this. A sort of...Jedi Wayfinder" She activated it and let the device speak for itself. It floated from her hands, the grooves shuddering and then pulling away from the electrum inner casing which twisted apart itself to reveal the meat within - a fully active Jedi holocron map. Oddly it only showed the Coruscant sector, not just the sector but the Coruscant system. A very specific point in the system. She didn't wait for the gathered Masters to guess.

"A wayfinder to the Prosperity. A way for any Jedi, or Sith, to find their way here. Now that..." She took a shuddering breath, "Now that I see what has happened in the Core I suspect they anticipated this move to the Prosperity, or at least this Dark Jedi did, and she sought for a way to find the Prosperity no matter what waters she called home." She paused, remembering something. "The way she fought...It was rough but...I recognized the technique of one of the Jedi Masters here...What was his name...?" She had passed through so many Jedi hands as a Padawan - a regular problem child - but she could usually remember them all but this one, his name came to her in hushed whispers and his face was hidden in shadow. "I think she might have learned to fight here with the Jedi, but I couldn't be certain who. Our numbers have swelled so much since the Hyperspace War."

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[Jasper Kai'el]

Prosperity
Tags: Thalia Senn , Zark San Tekka , Valery Noble , Amani Serys , Kahlil Noble

​

"A wayfinder to the Prosperity. A way for any Jedi, or Sith, to find their way here. Now that..." She took a shuddering breath, "Now that I see what has happened in the Core I suspect they anticipated this move to the Prosperity, or at least this Dark Jedi did, and she sought for a way to find the Prosperity no matter what waters she called home."

"Oh."

That was... a massive problem. They had a way to the Prosperity? Was that even possible?

"That might be the most important information we could have recieved," Jasper remarked. "The fact that you have that device has... no doubt saved a lot of lives."

He shuddered at the thought of a fleet coming out of nowhere, laying waste to all who lie in rest on the Prosperity. The children being moved out of the temple on Coruscant was deemed as the best action for their defense. Now? It was almost as though they had moved them all directly into the line of fire. Action needed to be taken to prevent anything further.

"Are there more?" he asked. "Do... you know of anything other location that may be compramised?"

 

[Thalia Senn]

Jasper Kai'el | Valery Noble | Amani Serys | Kahlil Noble | Zark San Tekka

"There might be," She said, the uncertainty clear in her voice. "The Old Man said he was one of at least three others sworn to secrecy. I think this is only a portion of the map though. See how it focuses around the Corusca sector? And here, it looks like certain hyperlanes and egress points into the system are cut off."

"Do... you know of anything other location that may be compramised?"

Tempest loomed over her, her skip boat drenched in sea foam and storm rain. Thalia pinched her eyes closed and bowed her head.

"I was weak," she said, unable to keep the tears back now. She bowed her head, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. "The Dark Jedi, she probed my mind. She- She probably knows or can find the location of every temple, enclave, or outpost I've ever been to." She choked back a sob. Had she saved lives with this map? Maybe, that remained to be seen but this? "I'm sorry. I should have asked for help so long ago but- My connection to the Force...Its been weak ever since-" Ever since the war had ended. Ever since she'd left on her sojourn. "I couldn't hold her back."

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[Valery Noble]

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"Do not worry," Valery tried to reassure Thalia when she spoke of her weaker connection and having been unable to hold back her attacker, "The information you've offered is very important. We're keeping the Prosperity moving, but perhaps we'll have to consider bringing the younglings all to the Vonnuvi Enclave. Maybe even construct a new Temple somewhere safe." Thalia had greatly diminished the risk of the younglings being found, but there was still a risk.

Even just knowing that these people were looking for the Prosperity rubbed her the wrong way.

"For now, try to get some rest and maybe I can help you recover your connection. Years ago, I helped Amani Serys recover her Force sensitivity and I've done the same for my husband. If you're open to it, perhaps I can help you as well." It was an offer that would always stand, whether she was ready for it now, in the future, or even if she decided not to take her up on it at all. Thalia was a Jedi, so she'd always be able to rely on her help.

"We'll have to look more into these Dark Jedi and fallen Imperial Knights as well. They're looking for us, but we can also start looking for them."

Zark San Tekka Thalia Senn Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Zark San Tekka]

Valery Noble Jasper Kai'el

"I sense this failure troubles you, Thalia."

Her tale troubled Master Zark as well. Many secrets of the Prosperity's discovery and construction were lost with its mysterious architect Arcanus Sunstrider. Even the old man had not known of these wayfinders. While Jedi rallied to defend the Core the darkside cast a long shadow over the outer reaches.

"We must trust the Force meant for you to be there," he leaned forward to examine the map fragment more closely, "If there are more of these lost wayfinders the Order should seek them out."

She looked so lost. Zark wondered where her training went wrong. He'd chosen Thalia Senn because she was a natural candidate. If their bond had been stronger, would she have listened to the Dark Lord's lies? Maybe it was too late now. Valery might be able to in time restore her connection but only one thing could restore her confidence as a Jedi Knight.

"You know the Territories and are a gifted pilot. I can think of no other Jedi better suited to complete this map and protect it from the Dark Emperor."

 

[Thalia Senn]

Zark San Tekka | Valery Noble | Jasper Kai'el

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It was like facing her Trial of Courage all over again. That had been a difficult day, in those ice caves of Ilum, where she had found a new kyber to power the match to her remaining green saber. The courage to continue on, the courage to follow her path as a Jedi. She swallowed and nodded. Master San Tekka was giving her a task, a new Trial.

"I will set out immediately," she said and bowed. Her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly, the sound echoing in the intimate chamber. She felt the blood rush to her ears when she stood and gave a sheepish smile. "Well, as soon as I'm back in top shape," she amended.

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