[Solo] Touching History

[Cassius Droma]

The rains of Eadu were never-ending, it seemed. Torrential downpours pelted the rocky surface below, and thick clouds kept the light from gracing it. Perched on one of these rocks, almost hidden due to his dark-colored rain slick, was Cassius Droma. Water poured over his hood, but he’d managed to keep the rain away from the A295 sniper rifle he was aiming down sight.

Just a little more to the left. Adjust for the new windage. Breathe. Just… breathe. His eye twitched, as did his trigger finger. No, not yet. Not… yet…

The rain reptile scampered off. Cursing under his breath, Cassius looked up from the scope and out across the area that he’d been viewing for the past ten minutes. It was only one hundred meters, not terribly far, but he’d been waiting for the better part of two hours to have one of those little suckers stick their head out of their cave. The native reptile, he’d learned, could actually be a tasty meal, if prepared and cooked correctly. Otherwise, he’d have to ration out his supplies even more.

Sighing, Cassius stood, picking up his sniper rifle and slinging it over his shoulder to rest on his back.

He’d been on Eadu for four months now. Four long, agonizing months. At most, he’d expected to be trapped on the tempest planet for two weeks. Instead, the storms only got worse, and the prospect of he and his master, Romi Jade, faded into the distance. The Bendu had said that it was a storm within that they needed to take care of before they could calm the storm outside… whatever that meant.

It hadn’t been a complete loss – he was picking up new survival skills all the time due to necessity. Also, because of the lack of anything else to do, he was training a great deal with Romi. He was actually becoming proficient with his lightsaber, and was feeling more comfortable using the Force. Regardless, there had to be an end in sight.

Wiping the water away from the screen of his wrist-mounted datapad, Cassius unfolded and extended the small silver antennae at the top of it. After a quick scan, the weather report didn’t look good. A bright green mass was heading towards his position on his miniature radar – a new cell coming his way. He wouldn’t be able to make it back to the Stardust in time, and it was also getting dark. Walking around in those types of conditions was just too dangerous. Tapping out a quick, simple message to Romi explaining that he wouldn’t coming back that night, he sent it out, unsure whether it would actually reach his ship. Either way, he needed to at least try.

When the message sent, Cassius started to scan the area around him. He needed to find shelter, and quick.

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius nearly slipped on a rock, and grunted as he braced himself, his heart racing for a moment. To his left was a steep cliff, certain doom awaiting him hundreds of meters below. Taking a breath, he paused, looking around. He’d made a slow path back towards the ship, in the hopes that whatever shelter he could find would be at least close to what had become home. Finding nothing of the sort, his path meandered slightly, and for some reason, he felt the Force pulling him in a certain direction.

It was always difficult for the young man, whose life had been dictated by logic and reasoning for so many years, to follow a mythic energy that he couldn’t see or feel. His parents, engineers, would probably scoff at the idea. They certainly didn’t seem receptive when he’d emerged from the caverns below Rinn, explaining to him the amazing things he’d seen and learned. Shaking the thought from his mind, Cassius retrieved his electrobinoculars from his belt and did a sweep of the area, making sure to press his face to the device as closely as possible so the pouring rain didn’t get in his eyes.

A glint of light. Something mechanical, man-made. Cassius refocused the binoculars, and through the rain, fog, and darkness, he saw a building. At least, what was left of one. It appeared to be old and weathered, but something else had happened to it, as if it had been attacked or bombed. Either way, it looked like it was built into the cliff face itself, which meant that there had to be some sort of shelter from the rain inside, even if it was under a metal beam.

An old ladder, untouched by the previous bombings, allowed him to scale the cliff side and make his way to what looked like an old landing pad. Hefting himself above the threshold, Cassius took a moment to catch his breath. That ladder had been impossibly high. Slowly rising to his feet, Cassius felt a rush of something… like the Force, but a wave of it, crashing around him.

“Papa!”

The pad was suddenly engulfed in flame. The silvery sound of older model X-wings flew overhead. Cassius whipped around to see a man in a white cape pointing a blaster towards him. A purple proton bomb came for the pad, and then everything went white.

Blinking, Cassius looked around. Nothing. The rain pattered across the old debris, as if nothing had happened. He realized that his breath was hitched, his heart was pounding in his chest. Slowing his breathing, Cassius finally realized what had just happened – the Force had given him a vision. However, this was stronger than anything he had ever experienced, and it was specific to this location, it seemed.

He’d just seen the past. Whatever had happened here, it had been such a strong moment in history that it left an impression for him to find.

 

[Cassius Droma]

The sound of creaking metal sounded behind Cassius as he released the debris that he’d been holding up with the Force in order for him to move into the larger structure. At the end of the day, performing a feat like that with his limited Force abilities drained him considerably. Regardless, he had to look at the result – he was dry. The lulling sound of rain and thunder was outside, and a wall of debris and twisted metal shielded him from the weather.

Despite the little light that poured through the cracks, it was still pitch dark, and Cassius pulled out a small lamp and turned it on after setting it down. He took off his soaking rain slick and draped it across the debris in order to block any sort of rain that may be redirected his way by a change in wind. Turning around to take a look at the hallway he’d gotten into, his heart skipped a beat and he visibly jumped. A set of Imperial stormtrooper armor, picked clean by the scavengers and weathered with time, lay on the ground next to the wall, the body that had once been in it completely decomposed. It was as if someone had thrown the armor on the ground.

His hand reached out, but he hesitated. Whatever he’d experienced out on the landing pad, he had a feeling he could do again. And yet, something told him to not touch the dead body – dark things swirled from it. His breathing intensified as he was making his decision.

He touched the helmet.

Heavy breathing. Boots pounding on the floor. Anticipation. The alarms were blaring in his ears. His gloved hand had a death grip on his E-11 blaster. He reached the door, hearing the telltale sign of incoming Rebel X-wings.

A flash of light. Immense force pushed him into the wall. Shock. Fear. A feeling of the end.

Cassius sucked in a breath as he practically threw himself back from the eroded set of armor, his back hitting the opposite wall. He was hyperventilating, his hands shaking. Clenching his fists, he told himself to calm down. There was no threat – he was in an empty, dark hallway. He focused on the sound of rain outside, something consistent he could cling to.

Within a few minutes, he’d calmed down. Now he knew – whatever power this was, he experienced emotions as well as events. Lesson learned: don’t try to use this on dead bodies. The emotional toll could eventually lead him down the path of the dark side.

 

[Cassius Droma]

Slicking his wet hair back out of anxiety, Cassius took another worried glance at the stormtrooper armor. If he had to guess, what he had just experienced was a form of Psychometry – seeing the history of objects. It wasn’t as common among Jedi, and had a higher chance of showing up in Kiffar Guardians. Cassius certainly wasn’t a Kiffar, so he had to guess it was some sort of latent ability he’d had this whole time. It suited him, really – his interest in archaeology and history would be greatly helped by it.

For now, though… he didn’t feel like experimenting too much. Something very awful and tragic had happened here, and experiencing the emotions of those involved would be too much for him to handle. Yet, he felt the Force call to him, from deeper inside of the dark complex. He shone his light down the hallway. There was copious amounts of rubble, debris, and I-beams laying all over the place, yet, but a clear path was still open to him.

He could have also sworn there was some sort of greenish glow near the end of the passage.

Clambering over metal beams, and a few more pieces of stormtrooper armor he was keen not to come into contact with, he eventually came to a long turbolift shaft. Luckily, he still had some climbing gear on him. Taking out his grappling spike launcher, he shot out a cable into the space above the turbolift door in order to create an anchor. It stuck with a satisfying thump, and he hooked the device to his belt before starting his descent.

It was somehow even darker down here – the beam-light he had could barely see past the warped metal and rocky rubble from cave-ins. There seemed to be less damage down here, though, as whatever had destroyed the area up above couldn’t reach this far. Enough to make it unusable for whatever its original purpose had been, but not too much as to restrict his movements.

He slowly pushed onward, using his handheld beam-light to guide the way. Something was pulling him deeper and deeper, towards a particular part of a larger room he had found himself in. There was a metal container that seemed to hum with energy… or maybe that part was just in his head. Regardless, he could feel the Force pulsing through it as he placed his finger tips on the top of it. This was what he had come for.

Unclipping the latches, it opened with a nice hiss, and Cassius was met with a green glow as dozens of small kyber crystals glinted up at him. They were neatly arranged into small foam inserts by rows. Some of the crystals seemed cracked or chipped, but there was one, directly in the middle, that was not only whole, but shone brighter than the rest.

Cassius pinched it with his thumb and index finger, and immediately he could feel the connection. He couldn’t put it into exact words, but it was almost as if the crystal had called him, had chosen him. For what, he wasn’t entirely sure. Kyber crystals were the main components in lightsabers… but he already had a lightsaber. It was hanging off of his belt right at that moment. Then again, it wasn’t one he had built. Perhaps, in time, he would have to build his own weapon… and this crystal would certainly be at the heart of it.

He placed it into a small pouch on his belt, making sure it was well secured. Looking around, he found nothing else of interest. It was time to get back up to the main hallway where his shelter was and hunker down for the night. He’d be able to get back to the ship in the morning.