Seeking a holocron

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel frowned. ”Although I know nothing specific, I know the answer lies here, somewhere in the forests. She may not have foretold her own death, but I get a feeling, nothing more, that she was aware of the fate of the Jedi and made arrangements for her knowledge to carry on after hr death.”

“I know she was one of several Jedi generals dispatched here during the Outer Rim Sieges to defend from Separatist attack. The Confederacy of Independent Systems wanted secret hyperspace routes recorded in the Wookiee archives. Maybe if we find them, we could find the answer to my secret.”

She sighed and looked around. ”I also think it is worth finding the Palsaang tribe. She had dealings with them. I feel the command base at Kachirho is too obvious a place to look, but can’t be discounted.”

She looked at her friend. It felt a little like a wild bantha chase and in one sense hoped her friend would put up with the vagueness of the plan – but deep down was delighted to have company.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

A few things were betterthen nothing but she was up for anything while moving with some attention. "Well it is a place to start and we don't have anything pressing to do. We can go exploring for anything here to work on." She was interested in what they might find. From investigating the inquisition warehouse where they had been preserving in caskets bodies or drawing out jedi... well she had seen some mummified bodies with all of that knowledge that may have been lost. "We can get there, find them and see what else the world has to offer." She was all for it and looking on the walk way they could find the direction while she pulled it up. "Ready when you are,"

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel had a bad feeling about this place. Although apparently gifted in Precognition, she had no control over what was shared with her by the Force and her powers were currently weak – given she was untrained and a Padawan. But something was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

She’d heard of many fearsome creatures down here and wondered how long it would be before they faced one. Unfortunately it was to be sooner rather than later. And worse still, it was not one but many creatures they encountered.

Wyyyschokk, also known as webweavers, or Kashyyykian giant weavers, were arachnids that lived in the lower levels of Kashyyyk's ecosystem. They were highly intelligent, though their intelligence level was unknown, as they were too dangerous to observe. In fact, wyyyschokk held the distinction of being the most dangerous predator on Kashyyyk, signifying them as one of the most dangerous in the galaxy. Not precisely fair for two Padawans to encounter.

They were known to be intelligent enough to coordinate ambushes on unsuspecting creatures, and had the tenacity to track their prey for over a kilometre. Which is precisely what they had been doing. Now two of them were about to pounce, no doubt planning to immobilise the Jedi with thick strands of web and copious amounts of poisonous fluid from their upraised mandibles.

Finally Sorel’s danger sense told her something was wrong – and it was likely Orihime was also made aware by the Force. Yet it was still a shock when two blue arachnids dropped from above, landing directly in front of our two intrepid Jedi, rearing up on four hind legs and striking a threatening pose with their front four.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

She could feel it, the force warning a few heartbeats before as she reacted. her body moving back and saber coming to her hand as it activated with a snap hiss and the differing shifting blues illuminated the area around her. She knew Sorel was there and the creatures while her body was moving with the force and opening herself fully to each part of it. Slowly she slashed at the beast while letting her saber extend into a staff while the second emitter flared to life and she was crouching down and spinning while she projected her aura using the sigil to protect herself with the force like an armor.

Enlightenment for when her body needed it to access the force along with the other things. Her mothers had taught them as well as passed it along to her and her sisters. All five daughters of Matsu before she slashed into a mandible feeling the resistance and then the movement rising up into the air to crash back down with the force guiding her blades into a wheel of hot plasma in front of her when one of the legs came up going away. her sabers power cell was designed to give the cutting strength to slice into beskar. Most things were easier to cut than that before she touched down again sliding uder the spider to slash into its underbelly.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel tended to focus on what she knew, which for now was limited but none the less effective. She found her natural ability in Precognition spilled over into combat. As she centred herself for combat, she seemed to gain a small but definite advanced notice of what her opponent was about to do. In cases like these, it could prove the difference between life and death.

As the creature pounced, she held up a hand and using the Force, pushed at it. But its forwards momentum added to its bulk meant it merely slowed the creature as opposed to push it backwards. But the effect was to throw it off balance slightly, as it did not expect to be jumping in what was approximately slow-motion. Sorel had no such handicap and once she got over the surprise of how ineffective her Force Push was, she swung her saber and lopped off the tip of one of the spider’s legs.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Orihime kept moving quickly and allowing her instincts to fight and protect herself while she felt Sorel but wasn't watchign the other girl. Attention there before she sliced itno the creatures leg making it fall down onto the ground. She weaved over to the side as her blade came down stabbing it through the face cleaving out a side of it. She could feel the other one there as Sorel was fighting it and she pulled at the legs to trip it up so Sorel could fight with it as she was keeping the force energies flowing around herself to protect while expanding her senses outwards to the forest to feel everything there.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel realised the time for patience and subtlety was gone. Instead she had to kill this creature and do it quickly.

So she rushed forward, her blade ascending diagonally from right to left in a long, swift arc. The spider managed to redirect the impact with one of its legs, which burned but did not sever. But it cost it its balance and it stumbled back. Sorel tried to press her advantage, her saber arcing up from left to right. The spider simply jumped out of harm's way, back-pedalling quickly to create space. Sorel broke off the half-completed sequence and settled back into the ready position.

At least she had the Force, which allowed her to anticipate and react to the moves of her foe. But she knew that victory required a combination of the Force and physical skill. She had worked on acquiring that physical skill over the past months. As this ability grew, she was able to devote less and less of her mental energy to the physical actions of thrust, parry, and counterthrust. This allowed her to keep her mind focused so she could use the Force to anticipate her opponent's moves. A few months ago she had still been a novice. She had only learned a handful of sequences. Now she knew almost a hundred, and she was able to transition smoothly from the end of one sequence into the beginning of another, opening up a wider range of attack-and-defence combinations. And more options made it more difficult for to anticipate her actions.

Spinning her saber in a quick flourish, Sorel leapt high in the air and came crashing down from above.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Orihime came out of her haze, the force energies brought on by reacting before she could think but she could see Sorel with a small grin on her face. The padawan was moving gracefully and made it look rather pretty before she looked at the dead spider near herself movign around it and watching around so nothing else came and she sent out the force energies. "Careful." She was working to keep the force energies there to help and sooth Sorel so she could focus. The attacking creatures were down to one that they could work out until she collapsed the blade into a shoto again and was ready for it to stay in her hand should she need to join in. The instinct to attack and defend wasn't there when she wasn't being attacked before watching it.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel was a little disappointed that she hadn't been able to finish off her fallen opponent, but she knew victory was near. The arachnid’s survival had extracted a heavy toll, she was sure. So Sorel rushed the creature again. This time, however, the giant spider didn't back away. It stepped forward with a quick movement, throwing out one of its legs. Sorel was caught off guard by the unexpected manoeuvre and was a microsecond slow in reacting. Her parry attempt knocked the leg away from her chest, only to have it slice across her right shoulder.

Sorel screamed in pain from the barbs as her saber slipped to the ground from her suddenly nerveless fingers. Sorel sank to the floor and rolled under the creature’s belly. She extended her left hand to the saber lying on the ground three meters away. It sprang up and into her palm, and she thrust it upwards with her off-hand, the right lying uselessly by her side. Some Jedi learned to fight with either hand, but Sorel hadn't yet reached that advanced stage. The weapon felt awkward and clumsy as she held it but it punctured the creature’s soft abdomen and it sunk in to the hilt, when she moved her hand around, doing the maximum amount of internal damage.

Its dead weight flopped on to her and despite rolling to the side, it pinned her legs under its enormous weight. She grimaced and wriggled free, feeling now returning to her right arm, although she was aware she was gasping for breath.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Damn, the padawan was moving as she saw it. Sorel had gotten hurt before she moved coming in towards her and crouching down. One hand coming out to embrace her and the other hand came out watching her. "This is becoming a habit with you." She had to admit she preferred the working to not get hurt but each wound and scar was a learning experience as well as a chance to know your limits. She had a mother who liked to give small advantages to jedi to prevent that so it was a little unfair. "I'll need you to hold still though." SHe was looking at her while removing the outlater layer of her robe and using it. "Lay down and show me your wounds, I'll use some healing for now." She had some medical stuff in her belt but a first aid kit wasn't the biggest thing she could work with before looking at the padawan.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

[member="Orihime Ike"]

Sorel laughed softly. ”What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?” She shook out her right arm and was pleased to find that feeling was returning to it – but with it came a pain in her shoulder, no doubt from the barbs. With her left hand she picked off a few of them.

Then she played the role of the dutiful patient and removed her cloak and lay down. Allowing her shoulder to be exposed, there were still some barbs attached and the area was red and starting to swell – and sting. ”I think this is the only injury. It hurts and seems to be getting worse. I wonder if the barbs were poisoned?”

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Poisoned was not good, the little medical training and equipment she had was not made to handle that.. well with science. The crystal set in the gold metal on her belt generally served for force techniques. She was getting more light and looking at the wound as it seemed to be swelling as her finger traced over it carefully without touching. "There might be some poison, we'll have to be careful." She grabbed at the canteen and water to clean the wound as she poured it and focused the force on the crystal on her belt letting the blue healing crystal charge up and glow a bright blue before it was sending out calming waves. "This should help clean and mend it but we'll need to hope the bacta batches hold long enough. Nothing to strenuous."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

[member="Orihime Ike"]

Sorel lay as still as she could. She had patience and knew she should not over-exert herself when being healed, and wondered if she could experiment in healing herself later. Given it was a poison, she decided against it. She just needed to keep focused and trust that the Force crystal and the bacta would do well enough until a trainer healer could take a look. Or maybe the Wookiees had an antidote? It was entirely possible, given the volume of these arachnids there were down here.

Once Orihime had finished, she pulled her robes back over her shoulder and pulled her cloak back on. The holes would require yet more darning.

”Well nobody could argue we don’t have fun.” She chuckled softly. ”Now, let’s keep going, there is a lot of forest to cover and I’m sure the Force will guide us when we are close.”

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

That was very true, it was hard to say they didn't know how to have fun as she st there with a wider grin on her face getting up with Sorel and keeping an eye on her. "True, there is plenty of fun to be had." She was moving and looking at some of the things there in the shadowlands while they could keep going. Working to have the force repel hopefully and keep away the more dangerous things so they wouldn't be attacked. At least that was the hope while she was moving seeing the larger vines all around them and breathing in deeply. Her crystal still glowing and radiating healing energy for both of them.

"You go lucky though, I think we'll work on your ability to dodge. It might not be the best but my mother taught me to avoid the scratchy things." The smile was n her face more as a small joke to lighten the mood but well she liked fighting with instinct wher her body reacted to the threat and the force guided it. Gave her a nice speed and reaction time but she had to work on things like having some power. her saber was nice for calming her body and mind before she came to an area where the trees cleared a little to give way to a ridge letting light filter through the thick canopy and reach down here to them while she started climbing up.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel stood staring at the ruin they'd found. A decade or two ago this particular patch of the forest would have been a clearing, home to a small village, home perhaps to a mixed community of Wookiees and offworlders who wanted to feel the dirt beneath their feet. A dry creek-bed snaked through the abandoned settlement, choked now with vines, ferns, and other native plants. The ruins had surrendered to the undergrowth, which was steadily overtaking it, but enough remained to show that the reason for the village's abandonment was not entirely natural.

Burned wood was evidence of fire. Circular, deep burns with a faint spiral pattern were evidence of energy weapons. Both were visible everywhere they looked.

She stepped closer. Thirty seconds ago she had been focused on her mission. Now, confronted by the ruin, she was utterly derailed. The truncated cone of the largest hut had split on falling. There was a clear entrance through that rent. It looked – her breath caught – it almost looked as though someone had blasted their way into it. Except here the evidence of energy weapons lacked the regular spirals of blasterfire. These scars were in straight lines, curving only slightly toward the end. Not blasted, then, but sliced.

A breeze swept through the overgrown clearing, making something move within the ruined hut. She brought her lightsaber up but didn't ignite it. The movement didn't come from one of Kashyyyk's many predatory species. It was a piece of cloth, fluttering. Leaning forward so her head was in shadow, she saw the remains of a long tapestry, tangled around an errant plank. There was a symbol on it, of a stylized hunting bird, perhaps, with wings and beak proudly upraised.

A strange feeling shivered through her. Unable to stop herself, she stepped into the shadowy ruin and touched the faded symbol with the fingers of her left hand. The space within was a mess, full of broken furniture and giant, alien cobwebs. The air was cool but very, very close. She felt suffocated, claustrophobic. She turned back to the door as though to flee, and stopped at the sight of a small green crystal lying on the ground at her feet.

Trembling, she knelt to examine it more closely. The gleaming gem was as large as the knuckle of her little finger and looked like nothing so much as the focusing crystal of a lightsaber.

Her head was swimming with questions and speculations. Why had they been drawn to this place? What had happened here that it should mean anything to them at all?

In the act of standing, she was plunged into a vision more forceful than any she had experienced before.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Orihime remained close enough to feel and see Sorel but well it was hard to investigate being cramped near each other while she was looking over some of the things there. Her attention on the different parts while interest in what they had was going to the really fun parts. She moved quietly to some of the ruins searching through them and turned her head up when she felt something from the other padawan perking up as it brought her interest around. "You okay." She said it while moving but feeling something from the force happening to Sorel while her hand was on her saber in case something tried to come after them.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Kashyyk was burning. It was under attack on a global scale. The fires were visible from space, and so were the vast swaths of smoke poisoning the air. The Separatist blockade surrounding the planet was impervious and relentless. The only people moving to and from the surface were droids.

Battles raged around her as Wookiees fought with droids, not caring that they were hopelessly outnumbered. Huge forest forts spread through the canopy like underground tunnels, ferrying fighters and ammunition to the fringes, where the fighting was fiercest. Energy weapons struggled to penetrate the centuries-old bark of mature wroshyr trees, but set fire and flesh instantly alight.

The Padawan saw all this as though in a dream. She was part of the dream, but not a participant in it. Although she tried to speak and turn her head, she could not. The vision didn't allow her to change anything that had already happened. Already happened – or yet to come? Was this her destiny, to return to Kashyyyk and protect the Wookiees?

All around her lay the bodies of Wookiees, strewn in pieces across the ground. Sorel didn't care if she was seeing the past through someone else’s eyes or seeing her own future. She was simply certain she didn't want to see any more.

Her field of vision blurred. A blaster bolt had come out of nowhere. Her left hand came up, deflecting it deep into the ground with the power of the light side. Her right drew and ignited a green lightsaber with one rapid motion. Turning, she faced a trio of droids.

Past or future, her limbs moved with strength and surety, bringing her lightsaber up to slice a droid in two, then stepping forward to meet another head-on. Two blows saw the droid in pieces. The remaining droid fared no better.

When she rounded a bend and saw a village laid out before her beside a thin, trickling stream, felt as though she would be ambushed and killed before the vision could play out.

It wasn't to be, and instead she was bending down, under a wooden platform that jutted from the bole of a youthful wroshyr tree. Numerous tapestries waved in the breeze, among them one containing the striking bird symbol she had found among the ruins. Then hands, not hers but darker, removed a package from a knot in the tree.

And then Sorel was awake once more. She grabbed Orihime by the arm. “I had..a dream. I have seen the hiding place of…of something. What I am here to find, Master Unduli hid it here on Kashyyyk. We have to find it.”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

She was feeling something in the force and uncertain of it. Sorel was almost in a trance for a moment before her attention was on a few of the things. Slowly walking over near her until the girl seemed to come out of it. She could feel something around when finally Sorel seemed to come out of it and the padawan made a face squinting for her. "We can do that, what did you see?" She said it wondering what she could do to help in this search while looking around them at all of the ruined sections. "We have a lot of planet to explore so I am hoping your vision is accurate." There was a look on some of the things before she was ready to handle some of the visions she had seen.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel blinked. She was standing, frozen, staring at the very spot where the bodies had once lain. There was no sign of them now, not even a bone. Scavengers must have carried them away. There was only the crystal, which somehow come to be folded tightly in her hand.

She was trying to validate the vision, when it was nothing really but a dream – yet it felt so real. Was it just a fantasy. The truth was that she had been driven by something ever since she had arrived on Kashyyyk – an irrational feeling that she knew she could not ignore. Destiny was an overused word, even among the Jedi – but she knew she was here for a reason, as was Orihime.

And the hands of the Jedi Master she’d seen? And the green saber? It had to be Luminara. Time slowed. The air felt as thick as honey. She strained against it, fearing that she was about to succumb to another hallucination, but she remained in control of her limbs.

“Orihime. These banners,” she indicated the burned hangings, “Are the key. If we find this Wookiee tribe then we find whatever we are here to discover. That much I know. Perhaps your database can give us a clue?”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

The tribe that used to be here was the key huh? THe padawan was thinking about it and gave a nod of her head in undertanding. She could get behind that and hopefully they could find something about them to point where they migt be if they were still around. Surey not all of them were dead and gone.... but you never knew what might happen as she was searching around. "Alright then, we'll just have to find if any of them are still around and meet with them or hope we find something really cool to point the way like a marker or a sign would be nice... large neon letters saying going this way so we are not lost down here." She wasn't against the problems but more prepared for them and a number of things while time was going by. Large tracks were in the ground with vines and ancient kinrath husks, drag marks as well and torn up sectins of tree.