Private The Sundering Dawn - Act 1: The Rumblings | Childhood

[Her]

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Childhood, in orbit of Nespis VIII, Outer Rim Territories, Auril sector, Auril system;
Within the former territories of The Empire of the Lost;
Five days following the events of The Giblim Incident.
Tags: Valery Noble

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"Alicia Drey, or should I say, Ella Nova?"
"I'm quite sure you know why I'm here. Running away and hiding doesn't mean we forget."
-- Valery Noble to Alicia Drey in A Dark Trail.

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Kalist is beautiful when the sun is at it's lowest, at dusk. You can see sunrays glistening against the Chalcedony in the city that was lost to time.

There is an anomaly in the Auril sector that nobody can quite explain. In orbit of Nespis VIII, the satellite known as Childhood is steeped in mythology, fairy tales and false hope. It was said that during the height of the Four-Hundred Year Darkness, when it is believed that the galaxy itself was afflicted by the disease known as The Gulag Plague, that pilgrims would travel to this place to find a cure for their affliction, and to seek a few extra, precious years in a time when life itself was on the verge of being wiped out in the known universe.

Of course, these superstitions and rumours were just that. A cure for the plague was never discovered, and over the course of four long, tumultuous centuries, a natural immunity to Zero's weapon was developed which killed off the disease. But that did not stop people from coming here back then. People will believe anything when there is hope. Half-a-century ago, following the annexation of the Old Republic by the One Sith, two heroes from either side of that certain Star War made their pilgrimage together to this strange, anomalous object that now hangs in the skies of the world. One of them, who had been afflicted by an ancient weapon that had attacked them on Dxun, had come here hoping to find salvation after being unable to discover a cure, and the other had helped them out of gratitude for saving them from the hands of their former comrades.

Two warriors, who had fought tooth and nail on opposing sides, had been brought together at the end of their time and whose pairing began a series of events that over the course of fifty years culminated in the recent economic collapse of The Empire of the Lost. Myth, combined with anomality, both surrounded and consequentially consumed the individual known as Ella Nova. Much like Childhood, who had been built by the fabled Builders, and of which their anomalies and creations were scattered across the realms of the Tion Hegemony with no understanding as for why, nobody really knows much about this former Jedi either. Just as pilgrims ate up the tales of cure and salvation at the height of the Four-Hundred Year Darkness, the truth about this former Jedi Knight has been obfuscated with the combined thanks of time, and by the power of the dark side.

If you were to ask the Secret Intelligence Agency for a dossier about Nova then you would discover a tale where a former Knight of The Old Republic became the representative to Humbarine in the early days of the Galactic Alliance, and whose service as a senator was a ruse to gain access to a peace summit held on New Alderaan which resulted in an attack and their consequential incarceration in a secret prison facility via cryostasis on Coruscant after they were tried and found guilty by members of the Jedi Council for the attempted murder of several dignitaries from across the galaxy who had gathered to debate and arrange peace after fifteen years of galactic warfare.

Then, at the turn of the ninth-century, remnants of the New Imperial Order and Brotherhood of Maw-- adversaries from THE SECOND GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR--launched a clandestine operation to free a captured Imperial Knight and other dissidents held in that very same prison to join them at Carlac as they founded the dreaded Dark Empire which sparked THE CORE WARS. Nova, who was freed by the same expats that would go on to form the Dark-Imperial bloc along the Outer Rim Territories, would go onto serve two tours at Typhon, and the attempted invasion of Coruscant, which later coincided with their rise to high office of Staff Director of the New Imperial Security Bureau during the reign of Velran Kilran over The Empire of the Lost.

If you were to ask someone from The Imperial Secret Service (successor to the NISB) then you would find a different tale. You would hear about a traitor, who went onto to found the seditious organisation known as The Fifth Wing, which went onto orchestrate a crisis in the Sartinaynian system as part of their plot to instigate an economic collapse of the Empire and the subsequent end of the Imperial occupation of the Tion Hegemony which later coincided with the dissolution of the Dark Empire. It would lead you into discovering a conspiracy that, upon digging deeper, appeared to be engineered to move and sway the late Empire of the Lost into engaging with the Galactic Alliance after members of The New Jedi Order had committed acts of war through the creation of a rebellion on Hurikane, and which was later turned on it's head after a member of The Fifth Wing was captured during The Sartinaynian Crisis which put the findings of The Trigonus Report into disrupte after alleged Sith corruption surfaced during the court martial of Sieliel Dimegor .

Somehow these seemingly solitary events, which should have no connection on a surface level, were in fact interlinked by one individual who was involved in all of them. To compound the mystery it was reported, and later collaborated, that Alicia Drey-- known by both the SIA and ISS to be the alias of Ella Nova, who impersonated an old, long dead entrepreneur from Chandrila (whom shared the same name) during her two year stint as Staff Director of The NISB-- had been discovered deceased in an apartment complex found in Lianna City almost a year ago. As far as both agencies were concerned the matter had been put to rest. While the seditious, treasonous organisation she had founded continued to operate long after her death, Alicia Drey, otherwise known as Ella Nova, was gone: a victim of her own subterfuge, and treason after being killed by the hands of someone involved in the plot which later led to the collapse of The Empire.

Why then has The Grandmaster of The New Jedi Order been led to Childhood upon a tip indicating that someone has new information about the late Director?

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BURST TRANSMISSION RECEIVED. ORIGIN: LOTHAL JEDI TEMPLE. SOURCE: NESPIS VIII, AURIL SYSTEM. REDIRECTED TO CORUSCANT, NEW JEDI TEMPLE. ~ To Valery Noble, I want to meet with you on Childhood. My identity is a secret, and I have no name for you. My operating number is TK-73. Have your associates in the SIA substantiate my credentials. I know that your comrades are starting again on Lothal, and so I have sent this letter to them with the hope that it is given to you. It has almost been a year since the woman you tracked and hunted down on Lianna has died. How do I know about that? Alas, I buried her here in this place. The information that I would like to pass onto you pertains to a report created by the organisation that she created to destroy the Empire of the Lost. It will be of great interest to you. I do not want members of The Lothal Protectorate to be aware of the full contents of The Trigonus Report. No doubt, given their former allegiances to The Tingel Arm Coalition, they would use it against The Imperial Confederation. Therefore I will provide the full report in person when we meet. I will be visiting The Director's grave on Stardate: 28042025. Seditious players among the Imperial remnants are still at play, and they look to spark a new conflict to succeed the Core Wars and Rim Wars of 900-902 ABY that you and your comrades in The Galactic Alliance contested. My aim is to avert and stop them with your help. There is no doubt that the Galactic Alliance have been tracking the recent collapse of hyperlanes, and the disappearances of ships, crews and star systems that have either been moved, or lost with thanks to the phenomena which coincides with the recent rise of THE BLACKWALL. Our collaboration into stopping the plot to bring the Imperial remnants back into war with the alliance, and to solve the mystery surrounding this elusive presence in the force, is with merit given the information I can provide regarding the plot which led to the demise of THE EMPIRE. Our collaboration, given our respective positions in two adversarial sides, will be useful to discover this elusive presence that is afflicting all of us. This is survival of the fittest. These are not normal times. A temporary armistice to create collusion into discovering what is happening is beneficial to our continued survival. Something is coming, and so we must stop it together. The Director was not who you think she was. The Jedi that you tried to bring back was murdered six years ago before the prison break. Help me.

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STARDATE: 280425.

The necropolis is eerily quiet as it always has been when Her has visited. It has almost been a year since The Director passed away, and although she carried a bouquet to pay her respects, she doubted she would ever be back here. The last time she had been here was to put Alicia Drey to rest. It wasn't where she was born but Childhood had been the beginning of the end so it felt fitting to bury her here. With the recent Disturbance in the Force, which coincided with The Giblim Incident , had led her back here and into making a play to bring the most powerful Jedi back into the convoluted plot which surrounded and had entrenched itself into the Imperial Remnant.

Offering The Director up to Valery Noble was the hook to bring her in. If there was a plot to bring the Imperials back into war with the alliance then that needed to be stopped. But would the likes of Her want to do with a woman who, for all pretence and purposes, was an adversary that was against everything that she believed? Why would someone, with the operational clearance of the Imperial Remnant, reach out with a copy of a classified report to try and stop war with the same adversaries they had fought in the Core Worlds and along the Outer Rim Territories? Was this really about the the disturbance, and elusive presence, that they felt in the force?

We live in a strange, turbulent time where far away galaxies have been extraordinarily pulled closer together, and where the crew of a Super Star Destroyer-- numbering in the hundreds of thousands-- disappeared without a trace while entire planets, such as New Alderaan, were no longer where they should be. Everything was alien now. Like it had all been turned upside down. So, as a former Jedi, Her knew that the resources of The New Jedi Order were far more equipped into discovering the answers concerning the anomalies that had spread across the known universe over the past few weeks since the simultaneous collapse of The Empire of the Lost and The Dark Empire compared to the burgeoning, fledging confederation that was still being built somewhere in the Calamari sector.

Odd times made for peculiar partnerships. Together they would make a formidable team. One that would mark their first steps towards uncovering the mystery of CALLADENE.

Stopping before the grave, Her lowered the bouquet to the ground solemnly. She made sure to arrange the flowers neatly, and with the respect for the person below. Rising up to her full height she checked the chrono on her wrist, and then looked back up and around. Would her gambit pay off?

Is The Sword of The Jedi on her way to save her sworn adversaries in The Imperial Remnant?

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[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

The silence of Childhood's necropolis was profound — not empty, but charged. Like the air before a storm. The kind of stillness that settled over forgotten places steeped in too much memory, where time itself seemed to hold its breath.

When the low whir of engines finally broke that silence, it did so without apology.

The sleek transport touched down with precision, the hiss of hydraulics fading into the cold stillness of the stone-clad plain. From its open ramp, Valery soon emerged. Her presence was unmistakable, even without the badge of her title. Clad in her signature black tactical suit, her every movement spoke of discipline and danger. The material clung to the shape of a warrior honed by decades of conflict, each step echoing softly across the ancient platform as she approached.

Her hair was tied high, a practical ponytail that still allowed a few strands to fall loose, caught in the whispering breeze. The hilt at her hip glinted in the waning light, but she did not reach for it — not yet. The danger here wasn't in the open. It never was. Her amber gaze locked on the lone figure near the grave, the woman's form partially silhouetted by the haunting, metallic curve of the burial marker.

She stopped a few paces short. The Force swirled around her, sharp and alert — not aggressive, but present. A signal to the stranger that the galaxy's most infamous Jedi sentinel was not caught unaware.

"You brought me a ghost," Valery said, voice low but clear.

Her gaze flicked briefly to the flowers laid at the stone's base, then back to the woman who had summoned her here. There was no hostility in her posture, but no trust either — only the weight of wariness earned by years of watching idealism crumble under betrayal.

"And you used her name to get my attention." The wind rustled the tall grass at the edge of the necropolis. Behind her, the distant stars had begun to pierce the dusk. Still Valery did not move closer. Her voice lowered, just slightly.

"Start talking. Because if this is a game, I didn't come to play." She wasn't here for politics. She wasn't here for ghosts. She was here for truth — no matter how buried it might be.

Her ​

 

[Her]

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Childhood, in orbit of Nespis VIII, Outer Rim Territories, Auril sector, Auril system;
Within the former territories of The Empire of the Lost;
Five days following the events of The Giblim Incident.
Tag: Valery Noble

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"I still remember the Agricultural Corps... I hadn't shown any signs of promise with the Force. I wasn't even ready for my initiation. Carn Dista saw it. Life would have been so different if I had just been left alone in those gardens. It was peaceful."

"I miss home."

-- Alicia Drey to Valery Noble in A Dark Trail.

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"You brought me a ghost."

I share my dreams with ghosts.

"And you used her name to get my attention. Start talking, because if this is a game, I didn't come to play."

Her lifted the palms of her hands to the cowl of her robe, and clutched the hem of the fabric with her fingertips to lower it to her back, replying as she did: "No games, Grandmaster. Neither of us have the time."

"For the past two years there has been a conspiracy brewing among the Imperial Remnant. It was originally started to keep Velran Kilran in power following a coup d'etat against Aculia Voland and the administration that she created when she founded the Empire of the Lost after the Second Great Hyperspace War. Two years later the people involved have switched the goal of the conspiracy to set the Imperials into targeting the Galactic Alliance."

After lowering her hood, Her slid her hands into the folds of her robe and drew a datastick from there. With a gesture of her wrist, as if pulling onto something that was there, but could not be seen, the stick levitated from her palm towards Valery as Her guided it with the force. When she caught the stick, Her explained: "After the Battle of Maldra 4, the Imperial Ruling Council held a secret meeting on board an S.S.D called The Revenge. In that meeting a member of The Fifth Wing, now known to me as Sieliel Dimegor, debriefed the brass in regards to the failure of the New Imperial Security Bureau and their decision to either withhold, or failure to acquire strategic information regarding a superweapon that the Tingel Arm Coalition detonated during the battle between The Rebellion and The Empire. Blinded they sustained heavy losses at the hands of the rebellion in spite of their victory over them on that day."

As Valery held the datastick given to her by the mysterious, dark woman in front of her, Her pointed to the device in her hand, and continued her explanation:

"Dimegor then submitted a dossier that she called The Trigonus Report to the Kilran administration during that same meeting elaborating on a Jedi plot to destroy The Empire of the Lost. The report included an autopsy performed on Alicia Drey, the Staff Director of the N.I.S.B, who was discovered deceased by Dimegor's special task-force known as The Imperial Immortals, as Ella Nova: a former Jedi Knight from the Old Republic who infiltrated Lianna two years ago, and created an organisation that calls itself The Fifth Wing to destroy The Empire from within in collaboration with The New Jedi Order whose members were substantiated to have founded the same rebellion which attacked the Imperials during The Battle of Lothal which resulted in the death of Velran Kilran."

"Three months later, after the meeting on The Revenge, a crisis in the Sartinaynian system came about as representatives of The Diarchy and Empire were attacked during a diplomatic summit held in Ravelin after they were shot at in an assassination attempt, while at the same time, a Star Destroyer fired upon the capital without warning. The attack was a false-wing operation designed to frame both sides into acts of war, and while the Imperial leadership were trapped on Bastion in the ensuing battle, back in homespace, an economic collapse was orchestrated which resulted in the Imperial occupation of the Tion Hegemony coming to it's end."

As Her continued to speak she foresaw no love lost by the Jedi standing in front of her regarding the demise of The Empire. Members of the New Jedi Order, after the Lothal Protectorate were usurped of their government over the planet of Lothal, colluded together to create the Tingel Arm Coalition as a rebellion against The Empire of the Lost. Standing before her was their leader-- a woman who had just recently defeated The Dark Empire and emerged the victor of The Core Wars. Valery Noble was also a veteran of the last Star War known historically as THE SECOND GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR which had been contested by several Imperial aligned factions such as The New Imperial Order who had also been defeated by The Galactic Alliance.

The Sword of The Jedi had toppled half-a-dozen Imperial administrations. Whether they had been those aligned to the three Sith Warlord factions that currently made up the modern day Sith Empire, or those who existed under the berth of an Iron Sun, Her predicted that to someone like Valery Noble that there were some distinct differences that were understood between those who were ruled by Sith Lords or Imperial Warlords but at the end they were all bad guys to her that needed to be stopped, and she had risen up time and time again to stop them.

The end of The Empire of the Lost and it's occupation of The Tion Hegemony had likely been welcomed news to the likes of her. As Her continued to speak she brought it around to the crux of why the two of them were stood here, talking about seditious acts, and treason against what had been one of the galaxies most powerful entities, in front of the grave of the woman who had put it all into motion.

Or so it had seemed.

"With The Emperor and The Director gone, the organisation known to us as The Fifth Wing is still operational, and their goals have changed. They engineered the end of the occupation because it was no longer useful for their goals. The crisis that they orchestrated in the Sartinaynian system, alongside the economic collapse of the The Empire, has been substantiated and proven to members of The Imperial Confederation to have been orchestrated by a former Jedi working in league with members of The New Jedi Order as part of a galactic conspiracy to destroy Imperialism. It is the prerequisite towards justification to instigate a new conflict between the Imperial remnants, which have banded together to form this confederation, into attacking the Galactic Alliance in retaliation against the Jedi plot which seemingly brought an end to The Empire."

"But we both know this is a lie."

Her pointed down towards the grave in front of them. As she held her finger pointing at it, she said: "What the report that I have given to you today does not include is the fact that Ella Nova was murdered during her incarceration six years ago, and that she was swapped out by a cloned duplicate which assumed her identity and went onto to impersonate Alicia Drey among the Dark-Imperials and the Kilran administration until it was killed by persons currently unknown to me."

"The reason why I know all of this is because I was there when the real Ella Nova was killed."

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