Dominion The Heart of the Force (The Jedi Order | High Republic Dominion of Moonus Mandel)

[Lossa Aureus]

Robes | Lightsaber | Turmoil | Concealed Blaster | Nasty-Stabby | Dual Broken Core Daggers
​

Her arrival timed well with Vizion taking charge and directing those that had just arrived. A slight wave of her hand as she glanced around once more. Feeling something tugging at the edge of her connection to the Force itself.

Makko fell into step beside her as Briana retreated inside the starship. A strange changing of roster as she narrowed her eyes at Vizion in silent question before easing back and speaking to Makko.

"Place has been radio silent for however long and suddenly we get a distress signal." Lossa frowned, the movement unsettling her rebreather for a moment as she held her breath and pressed against the seal.

A single finger held up to give her a moment.

The seal whined before falling silent as she took a breath to continue. "Biggest worry right now is if anyone is alive. You don't get this kind of... wrong without some kind of fight or loss. Stick close at all times is about the best I've got till we know more."

The feeling of being watched settling over her finally as the thing that had been nagging at her senses. A short moment of concentration revealed nothing around them though. Either meaning something was cloaked within the Force, or something else she entirely did not understand.

Her attention shifting back to the group as Vizion went down memory lane. A grin appearing as she looked them all over.

"It'll be like old times if there's a food fight at the end of this. But glad to have everyone for this." Her nod final as she moved forward with a glance back to Makko. Her slight head nod for him as a saber handle blinked off it's clip and blinked into her hand.

Vizion Trozky | Bastila Sal-Soren | Aiden Porte | Lily Decoria | Justice Lesan | Lily Decoria | Makko Vyres​

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

She wasn’t the expert the Jedi were with the Living Force. Nor did she work with the Unifying Force. Kaia found herself working in the day to day and ebbs and flows of the Force. And this was some sort of flow. More life, but uncontrolled, unchecked. But she couldn’t pin it down. There wasn’t a gravity to it, there wasn’t intention.

Not that she could find.

It just… was.

“Have you seen anything that gives us a clue?” She called on the comms before turning to the Twi’lek. There was a tug in the Force, whatever this was, it was after the ones using the Force. “I should have stayed on the ship.” But this job called for more than that.

“Where are you? Seems better to be in a group…” She requested, as she eyed the tree line, reaching into the Force to find a way around… between the vines and the other beings she could feel…

Devi Jyn-tal

 

[Devi Jyn-tal]

​

L O C A T I O N:
Interacting with: Kaia Starchaser

Devi pressed her shoulder against the moss covered trunk of a tree as she heard the comm flicker with Kaia's voice. The static hissed between words but the Mirkkian caught enough to answer.

"We're northeast of your position," she replied, keeping her tone calm. "You'll see a ridge with silver barked trees. Head that way, but stay clear of the roots -- they move."

Beside her, Lola crouched low, her lavender eyes following a slow ripple through the ground. The vines were shifting again, weaving toward something deeper in the forest.

Devi frowned, her tendrils twitching in the air with unease. "It's not just growth. It's… searching."

Lola glanced over, voice low. "For what?"

Devi exhaled. "Us."

The forest stirred at that, giving a soft tremor that ran through the soil like a warning. It was then that bioluminescent spores began to drift down, glowing faintly around them as they fluttered.

"Kaia," Devi said, raising her voice slightly. "Hurry. Whatever's feeding on the Force here...it's waking up."

She drew her saber, the yellow blade's hum cutting through the thick air and enveloping her in a wash of gold as she turned toward the direction of the pull.

"Lola, with me. Let's make sure she's not walking straight into its mouth."

And with that, Devi moved through the underbrush even as the forest began to whisper in her wake.

 

[Makko Vyres]

MAKKO

Bastila Sal-Soren Aiden Porte

"It'll be like old times if there's a food fight at the end of this. But glad to have everyone for this." Her nod final as she moved forward with a glance back to Makko. Her slight head nod for him as a saber handle blinked off it's clip and blinked into her hand.

Makko left his saber at his side. He didn't know what they were walking into. There were jedi from the Republic ahead of them, but he took no solace in having more allies.

The Force itself started to feel wrong.

"Yeah, let's stick together."

He caught up with the group as they headed for the hidden enclave. He told himself that this was a grave situation, that personal news could wait until later.

"Lossa, Cora is pregnant."

It slipped out before he could even stop himself. It felt wrong to speak woth pride and joy on the day after a tragedy.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lossa Aureus Makko Vyres Bastila Sal-Soren Lily Decoria Justice Lesan​

Aiden slowed as Makko's voice broke through the static. The words hung in the air, strangely fragile against the backdrop of the storm and ruin. For a moment, even the howling wind seemed to hesitate, letting the confession linger between them.

He turned his head slightly, enough to see Makko in the corner of his vision tense, ash clinging to the lines of his face, the attempt at composure cracking just enough to let the truth through. Cora. Pregnant. Life.

He exhaled slowly. "That's… great news, Makko." he said at last, voice quiet, genuine and steady. "Don't apologize for it."

"The galaxy's already drowning in ghosts." Aiden went on, his gaze returning to the ruins ahead. "Let the living remind it what it's fighting for."

Up ahead, he could see Bastila, but she wasn't waiting. Aiden moved fast, calling after her. "Bastila, wait."

But she was already through the breach. The scent hit him first: burned flesh, ozone, and the metallic sting of charred circuitry. The violet afterglow of her saber cast long shadows across the corridor beyond, and in that flickering light he saw what she had stepped into

They didn't die from battle." he said quietly. "This was internal. A surge, something that turned the Force itself against them."

The walls hummed faintly, a deep, rhythmic pulse that seemed to come from the heart of the complex. Aiden turned toward it, the hum matching the same tempo as the distress beacon that had brought them here.

"We're not done." he said, straightening, voice hardening with resolve. "Do you feel that, theres a place that's radiating with the force, powerful. That's where the signal originates, it has to be."

 

[Nien]

Devi Jyn-tal Kaia Starchaser
​

Nien could hear it, not with his ears, but through the stillness inside him. Every rustle, every sigh of wind between the trees carried the rhythm of something vast and restless. The vines trembled against one another, whispering words he didn't know, yet understood all the same. They called not for names or answers, but for feeling, the fear of those who dared walk among them.

The young Padawan paused beside the fractured wall of what had once been a meditation garden. Moss had swallowed the stones, and silver spores floated like drifting stars through the green haze. Beneath his feet, the heartbeat in the soil grew louder, an echo that pulsed within him. It wanted him to feel it. To share its fear.

The air pressed close around him, thick and wet, as if the forest itself was watching. Something tugged at the edge of his mind, curious, hungry. The instinct to pull away came and went like breath, but he stayed where he was, his small hands tightening at his sides. He closed his eyes, and the pull met the calm he carried within a quiet place his teachers had helped him build. The pressure eased, though the heartbeat never stopped.

"Afraid, you are…" a voice seemed to hum through the vines, though no mouth had spoken it.

He exhaled slowly. "Afraid, I am not."

The forest hesitated. Then, as if losing interest, it drew its whispers back into the undergrowth.

When Nien opened his eyes again, he saw movement through the veil of mist the faint glow of sabers ahead. Two figures stood near the remnants of a collapsed walkway: Jedi Knights Devi Jyn-tal and another Kaia Starchaser.

Devi's presence was steady, like the deep calm of a lake untouched by wind, while Kaia's burned with focused vigilance, a flare of light amid the shadows. Relief washed through Nien as he hurried toward them, his small boots crunching softly over the roots that crawled across the ground.

He nodded, ears flicking slightly. "Calling, the forest was." he said simply, glancing around before he moved to meet them. "It wanted… to know fear." His gaze lifted to them, earnest and searching.

 

[Devi Jyn-tal]

​

L O C A T I O N: Objective Two
Interacting with: Kaia Starchaser

The air felt wrong. Thick. Sweet.

Devi, the Mirkkian, slowed as the forest opened into a hollow glowing faintly green. At its center hung a flower large as a human torso, its petals veined in gold and trembling with breath. The Murakami orchid.

Only it wasn't alone.

Roots pulsed around a kneeling figure fused to the soil, armor half-consumed by vines. When its head lifted, Devi saw the bloody, scared, and grisley hollow eyes of a Ravager, his veins glowing with the same sickly light.

Inside Devi froze. Space tales had talked about Ravagers. About men who went crazy deep in the black, tortured and tormented by Band Gora.

They had long thought to have been exterminated. But if there was one here now?

"Lola," Devi started, but the word died in her throat as the creature screamed. The Force buckled, air warping with fury and hunger.

Vines shot forward. Devi's saber ignited in a flash of blue-green, slicing through tendrils that bled luminous sap. Lola's yellow blade flared beside hers, cutting through another sweep of roots.

"He's feeding it!" Devi shouted over the roar. "We have to separate them!"

The Ravager lunged, half-man, half-root, saber drawn in a jerking arc. Devi caught the blow, their blades sparking against the dark pulse of the orchid's influence while Lola worked to prevent the roots and vines from tangling them both.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lossa Aureus Bastila Sal-Soren Makko Vyres Lily Decoria Justice Lesan​

Ash clung to the walls like moss, drifting from the ceiling in thin veils that glittered in the light of their sabers. Every sound echoed—their boots, the hum of plasma, the faint, ghostlike whispers carried through the Force. The Enclave was not silent. It was breathing, slow and broken, like something ancient and wounded struggling to stay alive.

Aiden kept his saber lowered but ready, the violet light from Bastila's blade spilling across his forearm as they moved. The halls bent and twisted, scorched doorways opening into chambers filled with shattered holocrons, melted datapads, and the outlines of where bodies once lay before turning to dust.

Aiden nodded, jaw clenched. "The resonance hasn't faded. It's still here, waiting." Then, movement.

A faint clatter of metal against stone, the scrape of something dragging itself closer. Aiden stopped short, hand lifting

From the shadows of a collapsed archive door, a figure emerged, half-crawling, half-lurching. Not human. A protocol droid, its once-polished plating now blackened and streaked with ash. One photoreceptor flickered weakly, the other gone entirely. Its servos whined as it straightened, clutching a cracked data core to its chest as if it were something sacred.

Aiden took a cautious step forward, hand still hovering near his weapon. "Identify yourself." he said evenly.

The droid's head twitched at the sound of his voice. Static sputtered from its vocal device before words forced their way through, distorted and halting.
"Jedi… Knight… identifier… confirmed…"

It staggered once, knees giving slightly, then steadied itself. "This unit… was assigned here, Designation… V0-LN."

"You sent the distress beacon?"

The droid's remaining photoreceptor dimmed and flared, its tone lowering. "The beacon was… automated. Emergency override. The Enclave… collapsed before manual input was possible."

"Collapsed?" Aiden pressed, stepping closer. "What caused it? A weapon? An attack?"

The droid's head turned toward him with a slow, almost human motion. The pause that followed felt wrong—too deliberate. "They sought to take something of extreme importance, they succeeded." it said at last.


The silence that followed was suffocating. Aiden's fingers tightened slightly on his hilt. "What did they take?"

 

[Nien]

Devi Jyn-tal Kaia Starchaser
​

Nien closed his eyes. The air was heavy, full of the scent of wet earth and something sharp, like sap drawn from a wound. He drew a slow breath, and the Force came with it not as a rush, but a rising tide.

He remembered what the elders had taught him: the light is not found in fighting the dark — it is found in remembering why you shine.

So he did.

He remembered laughter in the Sanctuary halls. He remembered the feel of sunlight on his face, the sound of the great bell at dawn, the warmth of hands guiding his when he was small. All of it, kindness, courage, warmth that had gathered in the small cradle of his being. And when the darkness reached again, he did not resist. He shone.

The Force flowed outward from him, soft and golden, like the light before morning. It wrapped around Devi first, then move to Kaia, smoothing their spirits, tension if there was any, it was aide for them, to keep the darknessa at bay. To give them that edge against whatever they would face. Nien sat in his hovertram, eyes closed focusing on the force around him. The light came foward...

"Together." he said softly, his voice almost lost in the wind. "Strong, we are. The light listens… when we share it."

 

[Devi Jyn-tal]

​

L O C A T I O N: Objective Two
Interacting with: Kaia Starchaser

Sparks flew as the metal salvaged axe of the Ravager clashed with Devi's lightsaber.

The Ravager swung hard, the makeshift axe shrieking as it met Devi’s saber. The Mirkkian grimaced; the weapon was forged from phrik scraps so it was dense enough to not be cut through by her saber. The Ravager was on full adrenaline and a puppet for the ORchid, and as he attacked, each strik rattled through her arms forcing her to shift footing and adjust her rhythm.

The Mirkkian gave a grunt before driving her saber upward in a bright arc. The Ravager twisted, but not fast enough. Her blade carved through the corrupted limb, sending the phrik axe tumbling into the ground. The creature roared, stumbling back, its body convulsing under the orchid’s control.

But Devi didn’t hesitate. One swift step and her saber sliced through the torso with one quick motion, two heavy thuds striking the ground as the scent of seared acrid flesh hit Devi's nostrils.

That was a mercy.

Behind her, the orchid shrieked, its vines flailing wildly toward the nearest pulse of power. Lola surged forward, her yellow blade flashing as she drove it into the flower’s core, slicing again and again until the glow dimmed and the air stilled.

Devi exhaled slowly as she crossed the distance to the fallen Ravager. She looked down, grim as she studied the muliated face, arms, and the signs of the telltale radiation burns.

“What is it?” Lola asked softly.

Devi’s voice was low. “We’ll need to meet with the Council. If I’m right, we may have Ravagers in the Mid Rim again. ”

She then took out her comm and reached out to Kaia. "Kaia, we have what appears to be a Ravager and an Murakami Orchid.. We wiill be bringing the remains back for inspection.

~ Exit Post~

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lossa Aureus Bastila Sal-Soren Justice Lesan Lily Decoria Makko Vyres​

The Heart..." the droid said, voice fraying. "A containment vessel. It powered the Enclave's vault and the Codex within. The Codex recorded, " static burst through its speaker, cutting the next word into broken noise. It stuttered, then continued, quieter. "Recorded the origin of the luminous. Every one born attuned to the Force, from the days of the First Light to this age. Their names, worlds, bloodlines. The registry of all who would ever feel the current."

Aiden's breath caught.. "That's not possible, you're saying it tracked every Force-born being in the galaxy."

"Yes," the droid vocal came clearer. "It has been stolen."

"They could hunt every child." Aiden finished grimly. "Every potential force user before they even...." Aiden trailed off, as he thought of the chaos this would unfold.

The droid's head jerked again. "I do not know who took it. But…" It extended a broken arm toward the far wall. A holoprojector sputtered to life, casting light across the dust.

The image was grainy, distorted by interference. Figures moved through the archive hall, half a dozen, armored in scavenged plating and cloaked against the ash storms. Their faces were obscured by breath masks, their motions efficient, ruthless. One carried a containment crate, the Heart, if the droid's words were true.

Aiden watched in silence as the lead figure looked up toward the recording lens. For a moment, even through the haze, he saw their eyes, cold, calculating, devoid of reverence.

When the feed cut out, the area was quiet again save for the hum of damaged circuitry.

"Not Sith." Aiden murmured. "Not Imperial. No discipline, no creed." He rose slowly, dust falling from his coat as he looked to the others. "Scavengers. Ravagers. Maybe even mercenaries who stumbled onto something they don't understand."

Aiden glanced toward the dark corridor leading deeper into the ruin. The air there pulsed faintly with the same rhythm as the Force's scream, steady and low.


He exhaled, the sound heavy in the silence. "Whatever they are, if they've taken this Codex, we must get it back. Time is already against us...."

Exit post​