NationStates Jolt Archive

Star Wars: Episode Whatever
The Search for Teacher

It is a period of pangalactic civil war. The Jedi Council has dispatched two brothers from Clan Masaki to search for a powerful Jedi Master named IZUMI CURTIS. This Master has the power to command the very fundamentals of matter, manipulating and shaping substances to her will with a process known as ALCHEMY.

The brothers, Masaki Taylor and Masaki Jacob know they have a long journey ahead of them to search for their former teacher, though the Force is their ally in this search. Unbeknownst to them, evil forces prepare to gather, either to turn their Master or destroy her. They must seek her out and successfully return her to the Council or else all is lost.

Hyperspace

The passenger cruiser Swan of Naboo was a large, but simply designed ship capable of carrying several thousand passenger heading for the planet Adumar. In the general stateroom, two dirty-blonde 'teenagers' play pazzak against each other.

"Hah. 19! Let's see what you got!" One of the teens said, wearing a black jacket over a black sleeveless tunic and a dark pair of jeans. He also wore boots that could almost pass for military-issue.

The other wore lighter shades of clothing, mainly a blue tunic with a white dress shirt, buttons open and the sleeves unrolled and a pair of biege khakis. His shoes were more practical, but still good for rough moments. The other 'teen', a virtual twin of the other, gave a small smile and slapped down a card. "21. Read 'em and weep."

"Gaah! Why must you ace me so!" Fake tears ran down the first young man's cheeks. They disappeared as soon as they appeared.

"Perhaps you shouldn't rely on super-elaborate tricks all the time, Brother." The other seemed younger in the face of his elder brother as he smiled serenely.

"Pah, it worked for me against other folks." The young man retorted, sipping some beer.

"But not against me. I am your brother, Taylor." Jacob Masaki smiled wider.

Taylor scowled. "Am I supposed to scream and shout 'no' or something? That isn't even funny."

"But you're still short." No matter how old they were, teenage-appearing or otherwise, Jacob still knew how to needle his brother.

Taylor twitched. "I am *not* shorter than a Telrosian jumping bean!"

Jacob simply smiled as he sipped sake -a habit he picked up from Grandfather Alex- and feigned deafness. He's mellowed out for sure. That's a good sign.

The reason they were heading towards Adumar in the first place was to uncover rumors of a person with uncanny abilities hidden somewhere on the planet. It may or may not be their former Master, but it's as good a place as anywhere else to begin their search for Teacher.

=====

Unknown Planet, Unknown System. Might as well be Unknown Galaxy while we're at it, but the author disgresses.

An older woman and her blond/grey-haired husband watch over a small town on an insignificant planet in a place far from the chaos of war. Seemingly serene and happy, the man and woman appear to be waiting for...something as they teach a group of small children the basics of reading and writing.

The woman finished teaching and as she is grading her class' homework, she begins to stare at the sky outside. "They are coming, dear husband."

"Hmm." Her husband hummed. "I see. What will you do then?"

She smiled. "I do not know. For now, I will wait. Prepare. Test. Then choose."

Adumar

The Masaki Twins stepped off their passenger ship and booked a hotel under false aliases in downtown Yedagon City, one of the two major capitals of Adumar. Then, the boys wandered around town, looking for all the world like two tourists on vacation. They then entered a bar and waited for their contact, resuming their card game.

=====

The Valley of Shadows, Tenetia

Lord Itachi sensed a small, almost insignificant disturbance in the Force. It would have been passed by except that as a master of evil, the Dark Lord knew that nothing came to him without some measure of importance. He called a trusted underling to his throne. He would trust no one else to this task. "Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Kimbley."

"What is your bidding, my Master?" Kimbley asked, kneeling in respect, hating his Lord and yet can do nothing about it. Not if he wishes a quick and painful death.

"Do you remember the Jedi Master Curtis?" Itachi replied idly, his red eyes staring at the pale-faced Colonel.

"Yes. She was the master of alchemy and taught us alchemists our skills." Kimbley nodded, almost grinning at the thought of his own particular skill.

"Good. She is an important part of our plans. Find her. Turn her to our cause. If she refuses, she will become a threat. Bring me her head then." Itachi coldly ordered. His eyes narrowed. "No disintegrations."

Kimbley almost pouted, but then he boldly replied. "And if there are obstacles?"

"Then you may do what you must." Itachi allowed, sensing Kimbley's glee. "You have the resources of the Empire at your command. Do not fail me."

"As you wish, my Master." Kimbley rose and moved to gather his forces and make a plan.

Two young boys walked towards him. It was dark but he make out their shapes. A point of red on the horizon behind them, barely noticable but always there.

The two kept walking yet they never seemed to get any closer. Slowly the red point grew. At first it was impossible to notice but soon it began to fill more of the space between the two.

Then it came into view, a red light moving closer faster and faster. As it did a pain that was unidentifiable grew from uncomfortable to unbearable. It reached its climax as it seemed to overtake the two boy who now were running for their lives.

Suddenly the world around them seemed to shift as gravity rotated from below to behind them. Their feet fell from under them as hands grabbed to hold the ground. The red light was now a hole pulling at their heels.

They reached for him but screaming lost their grip. As they fell back into the red a dark voice called out in the pleasure of its conquest.

"MASAKI!"

New Tidan, Temple of Nav

Celric sat up with a start. Around him the bed sheets were soaked with sweat and most had been kicked to the floor. He placed a hand to his face, the image of his dream haunting his tired eyes. He ran the hand through his drenched hair and looked around.

He was in his room in the Temple, the familiar surroundings helping to anchor his mind in reality. It had been months since the attempted invasion by the mirror tidani, since he had killed his mirror self. That had done something to him. The injuries he had received could not be healed by the Order, and they had only just now healed naturally.

During his recovery he had not left the Temple, and he not really felt like himself. Finally when he had been starting to feel normal again the dreams had started.

He got up out of bed even though the sun would not rise for several hours. He needed to talk to someone, but first he needed a shower.

_____________________________________

An hour later he sat in a small garden on the grounds. Father Taal was in the middle of a small patch of grass sitting cross-legged. He had been in the middle of his morning prayer and his eyes were still shut.

"How many nights is this now?"

"Nine."

"I've done some checking since you brought this to my attention a few days ago. From what you described I think your best bet is the Masaki twins Taylor and Jacob. Coredia seemed quite concerned, but they reassured me the twins' safety would be looked into and any necessary steps would be taken."

Taal paused here.

"If this was prophecy...then perhaps it may now be avoided."

Celric was not satisfied. But he knew there was not much else Taal could do. Prophecy must be interpreted by the prophet lest meaning be added where none was meant.

"Thank you Father. I will leave you to your prayers."

Taal called after him as Celric left the garden.

"Do not let this overcome you Brother. Understanding takes time and patience."

When Celric had left Father Kygn walked in and sat next to Taal.

"What was that about?"

"He is having the dream again. It worries me, he is too young."

"Yes, but he has been through a lot lately. Sometimes the spirit blooms under pressure that would otherwise crush it."

"That has me worried too. He has not been the same since. I fear he may never be the same again."

"Do you think he could be the one we were told about?"

"I don't know."

"Ultan seems to think so."

"From what Ultan sees I hope not. For Celric's sake."
_____________________________________

Celric returned to his room but could not sleep. The sun began to rise over the mountains and he let the warm rays embrace him. But as the sun spilled fully over the peaks it flashed to red. Celric fell back as the red ball raced toward him until it seemed it would burst through his window.

"NO!"

He cried out and covered his face with his arm. Nothing. He lowered his arm and squinted out into the sunlight. It was again its normal orange and safely behind the horizon.

This needs to stop.

He activated his video screen and placed a call to Jurai.

"Can I speak to Taylor and Jacob Masaki please?"

The answer is quite disappointing as the operator replied.

"Hold on one moment...*elevator music plays for five minutes*...I'm sorry, sir. Taylor and Jacob Masaki are at an undisclosed location. May I leave a message for when they return?"

Celric's Quarters

Undisclosed. People only use that when no answer will be given or none can be. Either of which could be too late before he worked his way to someone who could tell him which one it was. And even then there was a chance no answer could be given anyway. This would likely get him no where. No matter, he had another idea.

"No, that won't be necessary. Thank you."

He closed the connection and opened up another. The face of an grey haired Tidani appeared.

"Ambassador Ferris, how can I help you?"
__________________________________________

Temple of Nav

Celric (http://images1.filecloud.com/582617/jedi_mae.jpg) moved through the halls of the Temple dormatories with purpose. He wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings, he was going over all the obstacles in the path of him finding the twins before anything bad happened. So obviously it came as a total surprise when suddenly the weight of another person landed on his back and hands covered his eyes.

Arms flailing and trying to recover his sight, Celric and his attacker slammed into a wall. Celric lay on his back looking up at the ceiling pain radiating from his nose. Despite trying to brace himself with his arms the momentum of the ambush had carried him.

"Was that really necessary?"

A familiar face appeared above his, long dark hair was tied up in short braids framing her face and the rest was a mixture of up and loose. Dark green eyes looked down into his with a big smile.

"Don't be such a baby. It wasn't that bad."

A drop of blood made its way from his nostril down his cheek. Her expression changed noticably.

"Oh. Well it's not serious."

She covered his nose with her hand and a warm glow took away the pain. Celric sat up to face her and wiped the blood from his face.

"Tara (http://images1.filecloud.com/582613/bree2qh1.jpg) what are you doing here?"

"I saw you storming through the hallways. I've been following you for like five minutes. When you are up and about for the first time in months people notice. You should really pay more attention. So where's the fire?"

"Ya you never know when someone might jump on you right? I had the dream again."

"So you think running through the halls will keep you awake? I hate to break it to you but I'm pretty sure it won't."

Celric rolled his eyes.

"No I've figured out who they are, Jacob and Taylor Masaki, but they are off on a secret mission and no one will give me any information on what that mission is. Even our ambassador only knows that they left Jurai recently. So I'm going there to figure out how to find them."

"I see. When do we leave?"

"WE don't."

"Do you seriously think I will let you go off on an adventure without me? Besides Taal already filled me in and asked me to keep an eye on you."

She flashed him her starline ticket and stuck out her tongue before taking off down the hall.

Celric sighed and ran after her.
__________________________________________

Jurai

Icy winds bit at the two as they walked out of the starport on Jurai. They were not on an official mission for the Shield nor were they expecting combat so they had dressed in casual attire not to draw attention. Celric wore a heavy white tunic and black pants, above he wore a thick black robe. Tara went with earth colors as she usually did, deep green shirt with brown pants and robe. Because of their affinity for close combat the Shield Knights had taken to using lightsabers, here on Jurai the swords would also draw less attention than back home. After all Coredia was where the Tidani had learned to make the weapons.

Celric looked around, his breath crystalizing before him, as they both tightened their robes and raised their hoods.

Tara looked at him.

"So where to first?"

"If they just left, and no one can tell me where, the first thing is to find where they left."

"There must be thousands of starliner companies here, and I don't even want to think about how many ships."

A public transport flew by, on the side a large advertisement for a starline. Celric smiled.

"We don't need to find thousands, we just need to find one."

He searched his datalink for the nearest office of the company. Then he confidently set off in that direction. Tara yelled after him.

"What? That's it? That's the extent of your research? Are you serious?"

He didn't stop though, he just kept going hand yelled over his shoulder back at her.

"Nav has prepared our path ahead of us. Are you coming or not?"

The double doors of the company blatantly proclaimed to the two Tidani Knights what this company was named: Czerka Star Lines. A subsidary of a company founded during the Second Sith War, Czerka Star Lines was a common transport line for many companies and passengers to purchase. As such, it would most likely be used by anyone wanting to maintain a low profile, as its ships range from the luxurious to the seedy. And of course, the Masaki Clan has cash to burn. Still, it wouldn't be easy for the two Shield Knights to find which ship the Twins were on as they are likely under any of several aliases possible for a royal family member to travel undetected. And that's if they don't use their powers to disguise themselves or use no-notice techniques.

Nevertheless, there was a smiling Info Guy waiting in the lobby of the business.

"Hello, my friends! How may I help you! Are you interested in a trip to Mon Calamari? Or perhaps Galian? It's nice this time of year." The Info Guy beamed.

As they walked into the lobby, Celric looked around not sure where to start. This was as far as he had thought his plan through. Well technically his plan had ended when he sighted the advertisement for this company. Details.

The friendly man behind the desk drew their attention. Tara leaned up against Celric and whispered in his ear.

"I'll handle this."

She walked up to the desk and leaned on the counter, smiling sweetly. Celric followed behind her, as confused as he was curious to see this plan of hers.

"Hi there! My hubby and I need to find my parents. They left for New Dornalia the other day, but we think they might have gotten on the wrong liner because they havn't arrived yet and we can't get in contact with them."

She leaned in to whisper to the man. Waving her hand while guesturing to Celric.

"As if he doesn't complain about them enough already now we have to spend the rest of our vacation trying to find them. It would really help us out if you could give us a passenger manifest of your ships from the last week. I know you don't normally do this but it would be SUCH a big help to us if you could just make an exception this one time."

She ended with another big smile.

Well, that was quite a reasonable request. Of course, it might not technically be part of company policy, but if nobody knows about it... "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, beautiful. I'll get you the manifest."

A few minutes later, Info Guy gave them a datapad with the passenger manifest. "Will there be anything else?"

=====

A seedy man walked into the cantina in Yedagon City and sat down in the booth where the Twins sat. "So, you're here. Thought you'd never show up."

Taylor frowned. "Just get on with it."

"Whoa, don't bit my head off. Ok. It's not much, but in the outskirts to the north of the city, there's someone that's been doing odd things about. Nothing big, really, but I can tell you that if this was Imperial space, it'd catch the eye of the authorities."

"Well, it's not much, but it's something, at least." Taylor sighed, getting up.

"It might not be her." Jacob cautioned.

"Yeah, I know. Such is playing detective." Taylor put down some credits for the man's trouble. "Let's go, Jake."

The brothers Masaki left and took a taxi to the city's north sector. There, they will begin their search for the wayward Force-user.

"No I think this will be everything I need for now. But I'll be sure to come back if I need anything else."

She winked, turned, and walked off with the datapad in one hand and Celric on the other. They walked out of the building and onto the street again. Celric was a little stunned. Finally he spoke, his face completely serious.

"I only want to know one thing. Have you ever done that to me?"

She started to laugh.

"I'm serious. I want to know if you have ever done that to me?"

She spotted a cafe with a nice warm area to sit and read. She ran ahead and inside with Celric calling after her.

"A few times? Ten times? What, is it more than ten?! Tara!"
_____________________________________________

Almost a day had passed and Celric's eyes were having trouble focusing. He shook his head and tried to make sense of the records. Off to his right Tara was asleep on a couch. They had been able to rule out some of the ships, like ones headed to Tidan and ones headed to other parts of Coredian space. Also they had learned that the boys had not used their real names. Tara pointed out that they still might have taken another company but Celric was confident. Now for most of the time they had been doing background checks on passengers to see if the actually existed or were fakes. This narrowed down the names but the list that remained was still very long.

He decided that they would have travelled together, after all twins are twins whether on a secret mission or not, and he went ahead and discarded all names who travelled alone. Now this helped him greatly, the list had shortened considerably. Passing over each name he kept coming back to two. It was as if they were jumping off the page to him. He tried to focus on the others and search throught them all but those two were stuck in his mind. He pulled up the security snapshot of them. It was blurry and far away but there they were, two males of similar height and build.

"I found them!"

He woke up Tara to show her, suddenly the exhaustion faded into excitement and adrenaline at finally having accomplished something. She looked up sleepily at the pad shoved in her face.

"So where did they go?"

"Adumar..."

"That's pretty out of the way isn't it?"

"Ya, what could they be doing there? Well we know where to start."

"Cel that was days ago. They could be anywhere by now."

"Well we better get going then."

It was quite a disappointment for the Twins. The so-called Force-user turned out to be a charlatan out to swipe the credits from the unwary. Hidden in a corner, the boys argued over what to do with him. Well, it wasn't much of an arguement as Taylor seemed to take charge.

"Let's get him." Taylor said, shaking his head. "He gives Jedi a bad name. Not only that, he's stupid enough to think he would get away with it."

"Brother, maybe we should think about this..." Jacob said, but Taylor already got up and was heading towards the fool. "I hate it when he does that."

Grinning like a madman, Taylor stepped out into the crowd and watched the charlatan. The man seemed to have a good following with his so-called 'powers', but as a Jedi alchemist, Taylor could see that the man used too many movements, too much sleight of hand and a clever piece of technology to awe the crowd, while his pickpockets used the distraction to swipe the purses and wallets of the people.

Taylor shook his head. It was time to put an end to this idiot. He pushed through the crowd and reached the impromptu stage, where the fool was calling for volunteers. Time to call him out on the carpet. "Oy! You! Yeah! You! I've seen what you did, and frankly, I'm not impressed. A toddler could do better than that."

The crowd chuckled and Mr. Charlatan had a good laugh. "Oh, ho ho ho! We have a skeptic of the Force! Why don't you come up here and show me if you could do better than I could?"

"Oh, I don't know." Taylor feigned a spot of fear. "I kinda have a touch of stage fright, y'know. And besides, I doubt I'm all that good."

"Oh, please! What's the worst that could happen?" Mr. Charlatan asked. "Come up here, kid and let's have a grand ol time!"

Heh. Hook, line and sinker. Taylor thought with a grin as he stepped up to the stage. "Please, kind sir, what do you wanna do first?"

"We shall levitate these simple objects on this table." The charlatan said, pointing to various items on the wooden table. To the untrained eye, the well-painted items looked plastic and wooden, but Taylor knew that they were all metal. "Watch and learn, boy."

With grandoise movements of his hands, Mr. Charlatan lifted all of the objects in the air, and made them dance a jig. Taylor stood, still unimpressed, but the crowd was easily amused. The charlatan's eyes also seemed to dart through the crowd, but he didn't find the something he was looking for.

"Hmph. Child's play." Taylor said with arms folded as the objects flew back on the table. With nary a gesture, Taylor used the Force to levitate the entire table, while the objects flew about the table like planets in a solar system. The crowd exploded in applause at the greater skill of the young Jedi Knight. "Call yourself a Force user, buddy? You're nothing but a stage magician. By the way, the objects you lifted? They're all metal. I presume you have a magnetic field held somewhere about your body?"

The crowd began to murmur.

Mr. Charlatan laughed nervously but recovered. "I bow to your skills, Jedi! But can you do this?"

A candle was lit with more gestures and flames licked upwards, forming a circle. The crowd was pleased at the duel obviously forming. Taylor noticed that there was cuffs around Mr. Charlatan's wrists. Almost invisible because of the flesh-tone, but they were noticable through the Force.

Taylor grinned. "You really have no idea who I am, eh? I can do better than that with a snap of my fingers!"

The man laughed. "I'm sure you can, lad! Why don't you try?"

"There's no try, only do!" With that, Taylor snapped his fingers. Sparks flew, forming into a massive flame that looked vaguely like a cat. The fire-cat lashed out at the stage magician, who yelled and covered his face. The fire claws slashed the cuffs off, knocking them off with sparks flying. It was clear to the crowd now that this man was a fraud. They started demanding their money back.

"Ah, hehe. It seems you've won, Jedi." Mr. Fraud laughed nervously, then his face twisted in anger. "But you'll never win this! Men! Take him out!"

Suddenly, a large amount of blue sparks erupted from the rear from the crowd, as many stepped back to avoid them. Jacob was backing up Taylor with an impressive display of alchemy, forming hands from the ground that trapped many of the pickpockets before they could draw blasters.

Now Mr. Fraud was scared and backed up from the two Jedi Alchemists, waving a concealed blaster about. "Who--Who are you two?"

"Hah! I'm Taylor Masaki, the FireIce Alchemist!" Taylor grinned, pointing his thumb at himself.

"I'm Jacob Masaki, the Light Alchemist. You're under arrest for fraud and robbery." Jacob announced sternly. "Give the people back their money, or we'll do it for you!"

"Ah...Ah...Damn you!" Mr. Fraud cursed. He raised his blaster to fire at Taylor, who replied with another bunch of red sparks that flowed around Mr. Fraud and detonated in a flash of heat and light. "Aaah!"

He fell in a heap of black smoke, unconscious. Taylor chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Whoops! Looks like I overdid it again!"

Several minutes and a crowd of cops later, the Jedi Alchemists extracted themselves from the crowd and moved on. Disappointed that they no longer had a lead on Master Curtis, they booked a flight offplanet and decided to make for another Outer Rim planet that would be a possible choice, Dantooine. All they had now was the Force as their ally. Even so, it would be hard to find their old Master, but then again, they weren't the Masaki Twins for nothing!

Adumar

Adumar was crowded. Not exactly what they had expected for the outer-rim. The planet populated by exiled seperatists had been isolated from the rest of the galaxy for who knows how long. They had become their own galaxy of one planet, complete with the conflict.

As they walked throught the busy streets Celric picked up one of the local 'papers'. The main headline on the first page read: "Jedi Expose Con Artist." Under it was a large picture of a man being taken into custody, he looked like he had rolled around in ash.

Celric handed the pad to Tara and she skimmed over the story.

"Light and FireIce Alchemists. Is that them?"

"I think so."

"Says they disappeared without a trace before police could ask them about the incident."

"If no one is supposed to know they are here, why would they get involved in something so public and high profile like that?"

"Maybe they didn't like what he was doing? Ha!" She laughed. "Maybe this was their secret mission."

She elbowed him in the rib as she giggled. Celric laughed a little thinking about all this secrecy just to put a local pickpocket behind bars. But then he stopped laughing. Something about what she said had struck him.

"Maybe you're right."

"What? No I was just joking. Come on, be serious. That's ridiculous."

"Not to expose him, I know, but what if they came here because of his high profile? Think about it. We are out on the Rim, that is why a guy like this is able to do business. In the core he would be exposed and jailed in no time. Here its easier to hide. If Coredia wanted him gone all they had to do was contact the local authorities with proof or publish something in the local news. You don't send two Jedi to do this."

"So then why are they here? Why did they get involved?"

"I don't know. Would you? Maybe they were checking out the hype. I mean the guy wasn't out in the middle of the streets, at least not where law enforcement travels regularly. That's how these people operate, in the shadows. I doubt that they would have run into him by accident. So the question is why did they care?"

"So... why did they care?"

"Well if I knew I wouldn't have asked would I?"
_______________________________________

They travelled to the scene of the crime. The authorities were still cleaning up the area. There was a crowd, so the two headed over to it. Celric walked over to a man standing on the edge.

"Did you see what happened?"

"Ya. I was in the back. I saw those two boys, they were murmuring, something about the guy's power. Then the one charged up there and showed him up big time. I'm still waiting to get my wallet back from the police."

"Did they say anything else before that?"

"Nothing that I could hear. OH! One of them, the one that stayed behind, didn't seem to eager to get involved. I could hear him better when the other was moving to the stage, something about staying out of it or something."

"Thanks. Here, grab yourself a drink while you're waiting for your wallet."

Celric tossed the man some credits and moved on. The man was very greatful and called after Celric as they left.

"Thank you kindly, Sir!"
____________________________________

"So they were looking for him. They found him, but one wanted to leave and the other didn't."

Celric tried to sort out what they had learned. Tara wasn't sure yet, but it wasn't adding up.

"Why would you find someone you are looking for and then turn around and leave?"

"I don't think this was who they were looking for. It doesn't feel right."

"So where did they go? The people said they saw both of them sneak out and disappear, but no one said where they went."

Celric wasn't sure either. Their mission was a secret so obviously they didn't want to be noticed, but if this had been their mission why stay hidden. Clearly there was more to this that apprehending a con man. Just then something occured to Tara.

"Wait, here we are trying to find someone hiding in the outer rim. Now we find out that the twins were here looking into someone hiding here but they consider moving on before confronting him. What if they are here doing the same thing we are?"

"Looking for someone who doesn't want to be found?"

"That's where I'd go if I didn't want to be found."

"So where do we look next? Security isn't as tight out here, I don't know if we will be able to find out where they went like we did on Jurai."

"We find who they are looking for. At least we find someone like this joker who will draw there attention."
______________________________________

Tatooine

A few day later Celric and Tara stepped out into the heat of Mos Eisley during mid-day. Tara pulled her cloak tight to keep the sand out.

"We need to find somewhere to start asking around."

"I think I know just the place."

Crowds were never his thing, well, people really weren't his thing, never had been. The Jedi thing wasn't much fun as a result, and he'd left the order before he was asked to leave. He walked his own path now, that of the Gray Jedi, with no ties to either side of the Force, and little to lose. His grayish robes might have betrayed his old occupation, but then again if they weren't chocolate brown or black people really didn't profile you as a Jedi.

Argonians weren't really a common sight outside of their sector of space, but their race had quite a few Force-users in the Jedi ranks. While sometimes mistaken for a Trandoshan, he was quick to make the assertion that he was NOT some sith-spawned slaver scum. The fin-ear on either side of his head made that distinction, as did the blunted snout and aquatic lines to his body. The tail should have helped, too, but most folks missed that. Argonians were built for speed in the water, but were quite at home on dry land as well.

His lightsabers stayed well out of sight, tucked a little farther into his robes than most Jedi wore them, then again he never really claimed that title and really didn't like being called that, about as much as he liked being called a Trandoshan. It came back to the people issue again, and that was why he hung around the space-port on Dantooine, awaiting the repairs of his freighter. The 'Riptide' was a small craft, capable of minor cargo hauling or transport duties, as well as hauling his scaly butt across the galaxy. The new hyperdrive was almost installed, and he should be off this anti-Jedi planet in a few standard days.

Something was stirring in his mind, however, a tremor in the Force he hadn't felt in a long time, long before he'd left the order. While never a Jedi Master or ever having trained a Padawan, Jazack Zeevaan, or simply 'Jazz', had been widely respected for his lightsaber dueling abilities, and like most Argonian Jedi, his ability to absorb or deflect energy without the lightsabers themselves. They tended to suffer in the other, more telekinetic aspects of the Force like pushes and pulls, but that was of little consequence now. Jazz was a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars, and after the Jedi Civil War he'd left the Order in disgust, not that they'd really cared. He hadn't been the only one. No one had a use for an Argonian ex-Jedi with a bad attitude and a busted freighter, and he seriously doubted anyone would ever have such a need again.

Jazz sat silently with his arms crossed across his broad chest, seated on a plasteel cargo container, his tail tucked away behind him to keep the careless humans from stepping on it. While it didn't really touch the ground, they somehow always managed to put a boot on it. Then one of his boots, Republic military issues he'd picked up during the Mandalorian Wars, usually cracked them in the kneecap while he hit them with a harsh glare. Make no mistake, Jazz wasn't exactly a nice guy. The scars on his face didn't really do much to portray him in a kindly light, and with a lifespan like his race posessed, he would be around for a while to stew in his jaded disillusionment.

The scowl on his scaly features painted a picture of general malcontent as he glared at the humans crawling across his somewhat beloved spacecraft, it wasn't like they'd built a cantina of some sort on the sith-forsaken planet. Perhaps he ought to work on modifying a mositure vaporator to distill some homebrew instead of water. Now that was an idea...

Dantooine

The Masaki Twins stepped off the transport, wandering into the capital city of Khoonda, which isn't worthy enough to be considered a city, but whatever. The air was nice and clear, courtesy of Dantooine being a farm planet and breadbasket of the Outer Rim and there was grass everywhere. The boys would have liked to have live here if the war was over, but alas they must make do with a nice apartment on Konoha or the Masaki Mansion on Jurai.

Taylor and Jacob wandered out from Khoonda towards the ruins of the Jedi Enclave, hoping that there might be a clue, either physical or from the Force, as to the whereabouts of their Master. Of course, that's if they manage to get past the kinraths.

"Ergh! I hate these things!" Taylor grumbled as a kinrath shrieked and died under the orange-red glow of his lightsaber.

"For once, we're in agreement." Jacob replied as he skewered the guts of another. Once the last crop of kinraths were gone, they moved on towards the old enclave...

Tatooine

Music filled the air in the cantina.

It was hard to stand out in the busy bar, with all the aliens and off-worlders, it was a good place to... avoid certain people. Of course sometimes the ones you bump into can be as bad as those you are hiding from. Scum and villainy or something someone once said.

Tara and Celric sat at a table near the back pretending to mind their own business. Really they were listening in on the numerous conversations going on around them. If there was someone with great power hiding out on this backwater world it was doubtful they would be able to avoid attention forever.

"You picking up anything Tara?"

Tara opened her eyes and looked around a little before returning to Celric.

"Nothing much. I'm not sensing anyone here, and it doesn't feel like anyone here has been around power lately either."

"I'm not hearing anything interesting either. Though I think the guys over there at the bar are going to want to get off this rock asap. At least if those two in the corner get their way."

Tara sighed.

"This could take a while."

Dantooine

Back-story (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=538479)

Though they had been there nearly three full days already, none of the locals of Khoonda had dared venture near their ship, the Revenant-X (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/DMG2005/Revenant-X.jpg), that sat idly in a field to the west of the city's center. However, there had been brief contact between the city's director and the upper echelons of the Grey Order in order to establish at least minimal relations. Some of the inhabitants of the ship had gone off to get supplies, but for the most part the types of material they needed most was not of the kind that you could easily purchase or barter for. It was of the mythical kind like lightsaber crystals that were rumored to inhabit the caves of Dantooine, or cortosis and phrik that was now in short supply, or even more valuable... knowledge of the Force. Those were the kinds of things that one didn't run into at the market.

The Jedi Enclave that once had thrived here was only ruins now, covered in growth and in disrepair. However, it was rumored that there was still much to gain by visiting it even if looters had long since run off with the material goods. The residual Force, it was said, was strong there and often aided wandering Jedi in their searches.

Thus it was obvious why it was of great interest to Jessica (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/DMG2005/Jessica2.jpg). Intrigue, mystery, and adventure had always excited and enthralled the Princess, even if they often were accompanied by danger and "harm's way." As sister to the Lord Mistress, she was second in line to all of the titles that Dani held, but the burden of rule was not one that she knew yet. Even trained in the ways of the Grey, she had not lost her innocence or sense of fun. However, dealing with locals or being diplomatic were not her finer points. Not that she was violent, but rather she didn't fully get the relationship between the average person and a Jedi or a Sith or a Grey. That is why that when Jessica insisted and pouted for two days that she be allowed to leave the ship and explore, Dani finally agreed only after stipulating that Aliza travel with her.

Jessica was a Knight, and very skilled at that, but Aliza was a Mistress of the Order - a figure of respect - and wasn't as naive or light of heart. She had fiery appearance, dressed all in red to match her hair and lightsaber, and would stand out in any group for more reasons than one. Her wisdom was greater than her years and she seemed at times to be distant.

So on the third day of their presence on Dantooine, Jessica and Aliza set out from Revenant-X. Aliza, as usual, was draped in a red cloak that conflicted with most of the gray ones worn by Order members, but, not to be out done, Jessica rarely even wore a cloak. Her equipment and gear were readily visible, in contrast to Aliza's hidden ligthsaber hilt.

The moving pathway took them down the leg of the ship to a door at the foot that opened to grassy surroundings. Being just west of the city's center, they had to walk across a narrow bridge that resided over a tiny stream and then past the locals to the fields of the east beyond. As it was early in the morning, few locals were up, but more importantly, most Kinrath had retreated to their caves in dawn's light. But a few pesky creatures remained...

Aliza had her lightsaber out first, the red blade humming to life as she twirled and cut down the first foe. Her long hair streamed through the air in its ponytail, adding to the dramatic effect of her maneuver. Jessica, on the other hand, was looking at the advancing creatures with an 'icky' look on her face.

For some reason, certain insects’ appearances bothered her more than others, and when they were giant, ugly green insects, she really hated them. "Yuck..." she commented as Aliza continued slicing through Kinrath. The Princess had her lightsaber in her hand was poking nervously at one that didn't know whether it wanted to attack the girl or not. By the time she had actually thrust the lightsaber through its neck, her guardian had taken care of all of nasty creatures in close proximity.

They walked down the hill in peace, leaving behind a scene of shredded Kinrath corpses. A couple of turns around the rocks and the scene before them was one of both awe and sadness. "That's really it..." Jessica announced as the duo stared at the ruins of the Jedi Enclave. "That's from the Jedi Civil War." After its destruction, the Jedi had never rebuilt it, perhaps because of bad memories or lingerings of the force.

"It was inevitable..." Aliza said with a sense of harshness in her voice.

The stone of the courtyard was now under their feet, though patches had been uprooted by plants growing beneath or broken by wild beasts trampling over them.

Jessica rolled her eyes like the teenager she was before dashing off towards the entrance. "Come on!'

Aliza started after her into the floors below. "Be careful, Jessica. Jessica!!" The sound of stone tumbling echoed through the lower floor of the otherwise silent Enclave as Aliza sighed and added without any real conviction, "It could be dangerous in here..."

Jazz's features reached an even darker position, if that was possible, as his senses became aware of ever-increasing ripples in that annoying thing they called the Force. There were other Jedi here, more than two, and they were searching for something, probably around the old Enclave ruins. Pushing himself off of the cargo cylinder, he brushed aside the robe on his right thigh, revealing a heavy blaster of Zabrak manufacture in a quick-draw holster. It was a more practical solution when one wanted to stay under the social radar than flashing a pair of lightsabers around in public like a moron.

His stride was confident as he passed through the fields, a hand always hovering near his blaster, just in case. Kath hounds had never been too fond of his kind, and he wasn't too big a fan of theirs either. There would be no issues with his conscience if he had to put a bolt of destructive energy in one.

The Enclave loomed ahead, a little forboding as memories came back slowly. He'd been one of a few Argonian Padawans trained on Dantooine, and the old Enclave had been home for many years. Jazz's keen eyes locked onto something moving up ahead, no, it was two of them. Two beings, humanoid in appearance. A gloved hand settled onto the grip of the heavy blaster, gripping it lightly. The Zabrak were known for their destructive weapons, and his heavy blaster was no exception. An enhanced power cell and focusing chamber had been installed as well, allowing him to leave quite the crater in something, or more often than not, someone.

The ex-Jedi advanced slowly, not really sure why he was even standing in this forgotten place, why he'd even gotten up in the first place...

"That's not the best idea..."

There was an air of menace in his tone, his level baritone voice reaching their ears with little accent and light on volume. He'd been among humans for so long, speaking Basic was his primary language and his native Argonian was little more than a hobby. It wasn't that he cared about the fate of others, but for some reason he'd been compelled to say something. They were obviously thinking about going down into the tunnels below the Enclave, there were dark things down there, the nasty sort that ate even Jedi alive. They were drawn by the Dark Side taint, feeding off of it almost as much as they fed off of the flesh of desperate scavengers that risked life and limb for the chance of striking it rich...

Jedi Enclave Ruins

Taylor and Jacob passed through the creaking doors, their red and blue lightsabers bathing the interior decoration, or what passes for such decorations.

"You know, I wonder why we never returned to this Enclave and fixed it up." Taylor wondered.

"Hmm. I don't know either. But I don't think we can do it now, since the Empire's still large and in charge." Jacob replied.

"I guess, but I still think we should think about fixing this place up. It's a mess." Taylor said, then his senses perked up. "Hark. I sense a presence."

"Just picked them up?" Jacob needled him slightly, making Taylor scowl. "But yeah, someone's been here recently."

"Probably scavengers." Taylor said. "But it might be a good idea to take a look anyway."

"Nothing better to do around here." Jacob shrugged.

The twins moved on, with the goal to seek out the source of the disturbance.

Jedi Enclave Ruins

"That's not the best idea..."

Both Aliza and Jessica had sensed his presence before he spoke, but did not react until the words reached their ears. Aliza, for her part, generally the more cautious of the two, had slipped her hand beneath the folds of her vibrant cloak to where the handle of her weapon hung.

The man that stood behind them seemed to be Trandoshan, though with little direct contact with that species, neither of the two Jedi could be sure. However, his presence also had a different feel about it; one very foreign and yet very familiar. It was the force, they sensed in him, though as with the duo, its signature was different than those that had inhabited that the enclave years before or those that had destroyed it.

Standing in the circular courtyard that branched off into different corridors, the two Grey Jedi confronted him.

"I think we'll be fin-" Jessica began to say before being interrupted.

"Do you know the depths? The Force that resides here..."

Jazz didn't nod, or shake his head. He'd been down there before, a long time ago, before the Sith had rained firey death from the skies...

"That could be said, but it's been quite some time..."

Their robes were similar to his, but looked like they'd been maintained much better. His bore the occasional, and well-hidden, blaster-burn, and a little bit of blood here and there, not that he was really that concerned with keeping his robes in good condition. There were no Councils to impress, no intergalactic delegations to look good for, nothing left of what the robes represented...

"And the Force you speak of has been long corrupted, I can't possibly understand what you'd want down there..."

The Dark Side radiated from the depths like a vile wind, cold and unforgiving as death, and about as forboding...

"And the Force you speak of has been long corrupted, I can't possibly understand what you'd want down there..."

"There are ways to clean up the Force." A soft, young voice spoke from behind in the shadows. Jacob Masaki was here! "You need only sufficient amounts of light."

"Or fire." Taylor appeared next, grinning.

"Shut up you. You ruined the moment." Jacob leered at his twin.

"Bite me." Taylor snapped back.

Jacob just shook his head. "Introductions all around, perhaps? I'm Jacob. This baka is Taylor."

"Hey!" Taylor yelled.

Jedi Enclave Ruins

"And the Force you speak of has been long corrupted, I can't possibly understand what you'd want down there..."

Neither Jessica nor Aliza responded immediately as the man's voice trailed off. Neither had a true answer to his implicit question.

"I can sense the force within you and within your words..." Aliza replied before continuing on. "But you do not carry yourself as Jedi - at least not any more - nor are you vile as a Sith."

Before she could carry her thought any further, a voice appeared from the shadows, followed by its source. Then another body appeared, a duplicate of the first; twins named Jacob and Taylor. Though the name struck a chord in her mind, Jessica could not think of why. The two of them, like the "Trandoshan" before them, echoed of the Force, though of a different resonance. A strange coincidence that so many of the Force should meet, but then perhaps a former Jedi Enclave of some importance was not such an usual spot. And then, of course, there were no coincidences, only the Force...

Taking the initiative, the Princess introduced the duo of Greys. "Jessica..." she said with a slight curtsey, though with no dress to speak of. "And this flame here is Aliza." She indicated the Mistress next to her.

"Pleasure to meet you two." Jacob said with a short bow. Then he sensed a strong warmth from his brother and smacked his forehead lightly in exasperation. "Taylor..."

The vision of loveliness passed before Taylor. Jessica even had a royal air to her movements, but nevertheless, Taylor felt an ache of loneliness he hadn't felt in a long time. Not since that girl who he met as an apprentice and died before he could strike up the courage to go steady...

"Dear Jessica, no goddess has ever passed before me than one such as you!" Taylor exclaimed with all the fervor of a teenager. "Please, allow me to request your presence in the best restaurant on Dantooine!"

"I'm sorry. Brother is always dramatic..." Jacob sighed.

Jessica covered her mouth playfully with one straight hand as Aliza frowned and rolled her eyes in both mockery and disapproval. Through giggles, though, the Princess replied, "Hehe... that sounds great. Maybe after we're done here?"

Again her companion rolled her eyes, knowing that she would have to report back to Lord Mistress Dani about Jessica. "I'm sure they'll make a great pair," Aliza responded to Jacob with a hint of sarcasm, truth, and annoyance in her voice. Don't think I even saw any restaurants on the way in... she thought as she remembered the holographic layout of the 'city' and her walk to the Jedi Enclave.

"Jessica... are you done giggling yet? I thought it was you who wanted to search through this place."

"Hehe. Yeah, I guess we can wait." Taylor flashed an award-winning smile.

"So what are you looking for anyway?" Jacob asked.

"I have no idea..." Aliza's rose-red lips wordlessly mouthed as Jessica turned to Jacob to explain.

"Well, nothing really..." she said a bit somberly as though she had just let someone down or failed in her task. "I just thought it would be fun to investigate. There are so many rumors about this planet, especially surrounding these ruins. So when they told me we were setting up camp here, I thought I might as well investigate... see if any of them are true, you know?"

After taking a breath for the first time in five sentences, the young princess continued on. "My sister said it would be too dangerous, what with all the beasts and dark monsters drawn to the echoes of the deathly Force here, but I thought it would be good training... Fighting something for real would be so much better than that stupid room." The room that she neglected to explain was a training facility onboard the ship that replicated a real environment and real enemies, never repeating the same situation. It had different settings, but the key thing was that it appeared real and thus could be used in a harmless manner to simulate combat. Some, however, didn't prefer to be manipulated or tricked...

"And also we thought that there might be artifacts or data that the looters didn't notice or didn't realize was valuable." Dropping her voice into a hushed whisper, she added, "Or maybe something that they couldn't see like the Force speaking to us..."

Aliza rolled her eyes one final time before breaking the dimmed whispers. "Yeah, so basically nothing." Jessica frowned, scrunching up her face.

The boys just rolled their eyes. Then something caught Jacob's eyes. A door was ajar and there was a very distant presence, like that of a flower he hasn't smelled in years. "Hmm. I feel something."

He went towards the door, and pushed it open. The presence became a bit more distinct...he frowned as he walked towards a podium in the center. He ran his hand over the smooth rock, noting the carvings etched onto the surface.

"What is it?" Taylor asked behind him.

"This podium isn't like the rest of the enclave material. It feels recent." Jacob said. "And the markings, I've seen them before."

"Where?" Taylor asked.

But Jacob didn't answer, not right away. Instead, he peered more closely at the markings, trying to recall when he saw them before. Then it clicked. "It's Old Basic! And...look, look, Taylor, do you recognize how it's layed out?"

Taylor looked closely at the writing, then it clicked for him as well. There were distinctive curves about the writing, which could only mean... "Teacher."

"Teacher." Jacob nodded. "She was here. I know it."

"How long ago?" Taylor asked quickly.

"Can't tell. But this is her work after all." Jacob grinned. "No one else could do this level of transmutation. Not even with an array."

'Yeah. So...what does it say?"

"Um...gee...I haven't used it in ages..." Jacob scratched his head, making Taylor facefault.

OOC: Oh no. Nonononono. Please, CW, FMA is the only anime I can actually stomach watching! Don't do this!

Its too big! It wont fit! *sob*

The Grey duo followed the twin Force users into the adjacent room, looking at the stonewalls that supported the retaining ceiling above them. It seemed to be something of a workroom with a pair of broken desks and some footlockers that had been bused open, probably by looters in the aftermath of the enclave's destruction years prior.

While Jessica thumbed through the footlockers and looked around at the broken furniture and remains, Aliza followed the twins to the podium at the middle. "Hell if I remember Old Basic," she commented when they figured out the script as being the standard an eon ago. "But who is this 'Teacher' you speak of?" Everyone had teachers in their lifetime, especially those raised in the ranks of the Orders - Jedi, Sith, Grey - but they seemed to take of this 'Teacher' like it was her name.

As all three of the accomplished Force users failed to translate the text, Jessica dawdled over and leaned over it as she clasped her hands behind her back. Old Basic, among so many other useless things, was taught to the Royal line by the mysterious "Knight" character. As her education had just recently finished, she still remembered those useless facts, including how to translate Old Basic... albeit not so well.

Without saying anything, she poked her head between the Twins and began the translation.

"Congratulations, my old students. You have discovered my first clue.
Your second clue is this:
Ancient and cultured, a... sea of... seas.
The healers healed and the tourists toured.
Solve this... writing for the next clue."

"She was our first Master." Taylor replied wistfully. "She taught us everything we knew about the Force before we discovered our particular powers. We called her Teacher out of great respect."

"We're looking for her." Jacob added. "The Council wants her to join them. Won't be easy. She's extremely stubborn."

"She knows about that and is enjoying this. I know it." Taylor deadpanned.

"Ok...so, sea of seas...healers that heals...tourists that tours....ancient and cultured..." Jacob said. "Hmm...where's that?"

"First clue is sea of seas. Must be a planet with oceans as a surface." Taylor said.

"That might narrow it down some. Mon Calamari, Naboo, Manaan, Ando, and Aquilaris are the ones I know of off the top of my head."

"Naboo's been blasted by Chronosia." Taylor reminded his brother.

"Oh yeah. Ando's out because not many people know of it, and it's not much of a tourist spot. Aquilaris is isolationist at this time. Mon Calamari sounds good, but there's the healing part. Mon Calamari has a big tourist business, but isn't known for healing, so that leaves Manaan."

"Oh yeah! Kolto comes from Manaan!" In glee, Taylor snapped his fingers, causing a spark to erupt and destroy the footlockers in an explosion. Jacob ducked in time.

"Watch it!" Jacob yelled.

"Sorry!" Taylor chuckled sheepishly.

"Yeah. Manaan it is!" Jacob shook the dust off his cloak.

Aliza tapped her wrist as the twins began listing watery planets. "Don't forget Aeeq, Ando, Aquilaris, Glee Anselm of the Nautolans, Marmere, Panna, Pantolomin, Rhommamool, Selab, Sembla, Tarento, aaaand... Velreone," she said as if reading off a list. When she was done, she looked up at the twins and added, "But your analysis sounds right; the Kolto was a prime healing chemical in centuries past. Manaan would be the most likely planet."

Jessica scrunched her lips and adjusted her mouth sideways in thought. "Hmm... well, I guess that's good enough. Finding a hidden Teacher is as good as any artifact." She turned towards the entry ramp where they had recently descended from, her tight clothes accentuating the movements of her body.

"Maybe you can take me to a restaurant there?" Jessica said over her shoulder. "They are bound to have better restaurants if they have a tourist market. And it's a long trip across the galaxy to the other side of the inner territories..." Her voice trailed off as she disappeared up the ramp and out of the enclave.

"It seems like she has invited herself along... I apologize," Aliza said dropping her head slightly. With a sigh, she asked, "Do you have an appropriate vessel or shall I procure one from our ship?"

"Sure." Taylor grinned. "We can find a good restaurant there."

"Um. We used transports to get here, no ships of our own: they'd be too conspicious for our search." Jacob replied. "Think you could help us?"

Jessica was already gone, presumably on her way back to their 'new home,' so Aliza, as her guardian for the moment, turned to follow her out of the Enclave's sublevels.

"Yeah, I think we'll be able to wrangle up a couple," she commented over her shoulder, her flowing red hair swishing with the movement. "I have to ask the Council, and they're only two-seaters without much room for movement. Extremely comfortable and luxurious, but you can't exactly stand up or walk around. Your welcome to follow us back to the ship, we'll depart from there..." Her voice trailed off as she disappeared up the ramp of shadows.

However, only a moment later her striking red figure reappeared. "I just realized... it may take a bit of convincing of the Council to allow Jessica to leave the planet with only me... and two strangers." She said it with an almost apologetic face, like she trusted them, but the Council would see it differently - their Princess leaving with a pair of Jedi and only one guardian. "Well them, come along... this could take a while."

This time as she departed up the ramp to the outside world, she did not reappear. It would be a few minutes walk to the Revenant-X and then a longer path to getting off the planet with Jessica...

"I think your Council might be able to see the necessity of our job." Jacob said. "Besides, it's not like we're Sith, right?"

Taylor nodded distractedly, still heads over heel in love with Jessica.

"The necessity of your job... sure," Aliza responded as they walked across the stone exterior path of the formed Jedi Enclave. "But the necessity of bringing Jessica along... I'm not so sure. She'll whine and complain if they refuse - and it won't be pleasant - but the Council will have its reasons."

"No, not Sith..." Aliza echoed before continuing in jest, "unless very cunning ones." She smiled for the first time since they had met to let them know she was joking. Having wandered through the winding path back to the main plains around the city's center, they now caught a sight of Jessica walking up the grassy hill. "But the Council is only slightly more receptive to people of your persuasion... Jedi... than to Sith."

Refraining to inform them that the "Order" in question was the Grey Order or explaining their philosophical ideas and general belief that the Jedi and Sith were mistaken, they continued on past the town center, over the bridge, and finally to the western plain where their ship (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/DMG2005/Revenant-X.jpg) rested...

The twins hung back a bit to confer on this latest tidbit.

"Hey, Taylor. Sounds like there is a third party to the Jedi and Sith." Jacob mused.

"Yeah. Seems to me they don't like either side." Taylor said. "Still, they may be receptive. Especially if they know who our Teacher is and why we're looking for her."

"Mmhmm. Nice ship they've got." Jacob commented as they came up to the ship.

"Yep. Looks like one of those spider Zoids we use."

"Yeah. Only better."

[Tagged for interest, and requesting permission to join]

((Same as Feazanthia. I wanna give these boys a hard time. :D))

OOC: MSN me and we'll talk.

Acid Asteroid belt
Dantooine System

Deep within the tiny bundle of metal and wires, a capsule barely larger than a beach ball, something activated. A low-priority subroutine, added almost as an afterthought in the probe's design.

<< Metallic object detected...>>
<<98% probability of artificial construction>>
<<Redirecting passive scan>>

Instantly, a garble of transmissions assaulted the probe's tiny synthetic mind. It sifted through them, picking out those that could apply to the ship-like object now on the surface of the nearby planet.

<<Beginning data catalogue>>
<<Activating data reporting subroutine>>
<<Stand by>>

Revenant-X

"Come along now..." Aliza called over her shoulder as she had somehow made her way some fifty or so feet ahead of the twins. She had probably been walking faster than she realized, subconsciously trying to get to Council before Jessica blew it all.

At the base of the unique ship, the fiery Grey waited patiently for the duo to approach. She had stopped at the bottom of one of the long legs where a door about twenty feet wide stood open. "Up the ramp here... it'll lead us into the main area of the ship." The path ascended, curving with the shape of the leg for the whole distance, slowly widening until it met with the outer corridor of the main disk-area of the ship.

Upon entering the true body of the ship, four Clone Troopers, Executioners - Clone Commandos - like all of those that had escaped with the ship, stood guard. At the other two entrances nearly identical scenes existed with a pair of Clones in a guard stance on either side of the entry way and two across the corridor.

If the ship was to be described in but a few words, they would be 'luxurious,' 'automated,' 'templesque,' and 'advanced.' It was everything the Greys needed it to be and more; it was both home and base, temple and ship; it was advanced in technology, had powerful defense systems, and everything was automated to an ideal state.

"The Council’s chamber is at the middle of the ship... you'll know the area when you see it," Aliza said. "I'm going to run ahead and report to the Council, you two can show up when you're ready."

"Portable Temple. Neato." Taylor whistled in approval as they arrived on the ship.

"All right, Jessica." Jacob nodded, then took a gander as well. "Yes, it is quite like the Temple at home, only mobile."

"You know, the problem with Temples is that they tend to sit there and look pretty. It's just begging for a seige." Taylor said, beginning another muse. "The Enclave shows the result of such a flaw."

"Indeed. Didn't Master Yoda commission a mobile Temple once?" Jacob asked.

"I think so, but didn't it crash somewhere?"

"Yeah, you're right. Dathomir, I think."

"Hmm. Something to think about when we get back home, eh?"

"Yeah. For now, it's a talk with their Council." Jacob nodded.

High Council Chambers

When the Masaki Twins arrived at the Council chambers, the session was already in full swing with the six Masters and threes Mistresses sitting in attendance. Jessica, for her own part, was sitting silently with an annoyed look on her face in the middle. Her head rested in her hands as Aliza finished her report the Council.

The red-cloaked Grey moved aside as she finished speaking to reveal the twins. "May I present Jacob and Taylor..."

Lord Mistress Dani smiled politely as she welcomed them to her ship. "Greetings and welcome. Mistress Aliza has informed us what has transpired, but we wish to hear what you two have to say..."

"Masaki, Taylor Masaki." Taylor bowed to the Council. Should we trust them, Jake?

They haven't killed us yet, Taye. Plus, you're in love with Jessica. Jacob bowed to the Council as well as mentally needling his brother.

Point. Taylor blushed slightly at that mention. I trust you on this matter, bro.

Okay. "Yeah, we're the Masaki Twins." Jacob nodded. "Our brother, Emperor Daniel Masaki and the High Jedi Council has charged us with seeking out our old teacher, Master Izumi Curtis to sit on our Council. Looking for her presence in the enclave ruins here, we came across your two members and they helped us uncover a clue to her whereabouts. Now we need transport to Manaan to find her next clue."

Upon their formal introductions and revelation that they were the Masaki twins, there was loud murmuring through the Council. Nobody seemed immune from the revelation, save for the Lord Mistress Dani who sat still and stared back at the twins. When they were done speaking, she looked to the side and then looked back. In the corner, shrouded by darkness, stood the fully armored, fully cloaked figure of the mysterious Knight. He gave a soft nod of the head, indiscernible by all but those looking for it.

There was a legend and respect for the Masakis in those hallowed halls. All had been taught to give aid to the Masakis when they were in need and respect them above other Jedi and Sith. However, nobody quite knew why such a practice or ideology had begun... it just was.

Eventually the murmurs died down and the Council members returned their sight to the Twins. "Very well," Dani said after a moment of silence. "We will provide you with a pair of ships to get to Manaan as well as the aid of your two new companions," she continued, indicating the Princess, who immediately looked delighted, and Mistress Aliza who had no change of emotion.

With no other matters to deal with, Dani glanced around at the various Members before finishing, "This session of the Grey High Council is adjourned." The Councilors began filing out of the room, glancing backwards at the Twins as they disappeared into the foyer.

Finally, only an excited looking Jessica and emotionless Aliza remained with the Masakis. "I have gained access to two of our advanced craft - a hybrid transport and fighter with lightspeed capabilities. They are two-seaters in tandem style and the computer will take care of standard flight to Manaan. We can leave whenever you would like..."

Taylor and Jacob blinked as the hologram disappeared. "That was quick."

That was simultaneous, by the way. They knew they were popular, but to affect an entire Council with just their names...wow.

"Uh, right. I guess we can get going now." Taylor nodded.

After securing the two fighter-style transports, the Twins and their female friends left the docking bay and roared into space quickly. Just as quickly, they made the jump to hyperspace...

Jazz had zoned for a moment, sort of an impromptu meditation on his part, but at least he'd kept them from the tunnels. The two males that had arrived reeked of Jedi teachings, too much good and wholesomeness, enough to make him sick.

Then again, they needed a ship, and he had just such a ship, provided the new hyperdrive was installed properly. He decided to follow at a distance, stopping short of entry ramp on the strange vessel they'd led him to. The oddest thing, however, was that there were Clones guarding the ship, the highly-trained commando version if his recent history was any use. When he'd served the Republic they'd used actual men, no copies. They seemed to not reguard him as a threat, even through his right hand rested on the grip of his lethal blaster...

"Good day..."

They nodded, keeping their weapons where they had been, and asking no questions. Perhaps that was something that could be said for Clone soldiers, that total loyalty was worth the price of erasing a man's identity by running him through a genetic copy machine. After some time had passed, Jazz gave up his waiting, and made the walk back to his ship. He returned to his cargo cylinder, watching with the same scowl he had been using the two or so hours prior to when he'd left to monitor that unusual happening at the old Enclave. Oh well, it might have been an interesting adventure, but then again he'd probably wind up in the midst of some holier-than-thou Jedi and possibly murder someone, and that would ruin his plans for the week...

[OOC: WA, you can interact with my ship/people and/or tag along for whatever reason.]

Some time later, the two heavy fighters exited hyperspace over Manaan and haggled their way through flight control before landing. Now secure in a docking bay, the four Jedi prepared to search for the next clue...

Meanwhile...

<<Data Reporting subroutine activated>>
<<Initiating cross-reference of transmissions with known galactic languages>>
<<Stage One translation complete>>
<<Preparing report, please wait...>>
<<...>>
<<...>>
<<...>>
<<...report compiling complete>>
<<Raw and refined data streams packaged and compressed>>
<<Beginning transmission>>

Through means largely unknown, even to the probe's designers, the probe began a steady pulse transmission of the encrypted data towards a designated reception point. Several dozen light years away, a patrol craft received the transmission, and the half-drunk technician simply rerouted it to FleetCom's database. Not his problem.

---

Aboard the great Explorer-class command ship Purifying Flame, the data stream was met with a bit more interest. The Hadat's boots made a steady thunk-thunk-thunk as he half-sprinted, half-jogged down the narrow corridors towards the Phia's ready room. The meeting was brief. Two things were known from the passive scans and monitoring of the pitifully encoded transmissions.

The aliens, whomever they were, had advanced technology similar to what the fleet had been finding throughout the sector's graveyards.

Even after countless times through the translator software, one word always came up the same - Manaan.

The FTL trajectory detected was analyzed, as were the most accurate star charts FleetCom could pull up about the sector. A system was decided upon as the most likely destination, and the proposal was sent up to Phia'sa Terrance Hood. There was no question as to what would come of this. The facts were laid out before them as clear as sunrise. They had technology, and they knew of Manaan.

And so, the Twelfth "Blood Falcons" Tactical Carrier Battlegroup (CVBGT) was deployed with the express instructions to intercept, detain, and interrogate the crew of the vessels, and to strip the unknown vessels of anything that could be used.

And there could be no outside knowledge of any of this.

As the glass cockpit roof slid back into the frame of the body, the lusciously redheaded Aliza popped out of the pilot seat with the Princess stepping out right after seemingly complaining about not being allowed to fly.

"That's why we have the computer systems..." Aliza explained. "Letting you fly would just be more work and more dangerous. And it's not like I flew either."

Jessica crossed her arms unhappily, but said nothing more in front of the Twin Masakis. "So what now?" she asked after a moment where the four gathered together. She knew little about the planet of Manaan besides her studies and its resemblance to a planet from her home system. More so, she knew little about what kind of clue to look for... as far as she knew, there was nothing quite as important to the Force on Manaan like the Enclave of Dantooine.

"Well, we'll just have to follow the will of the Force. Master Curtis is the kind of person who doesn't easily leave clues, but you somehow know they're around." Jacob said.

"You do that. I'm going to take Jessica around the place and take her up on that date." Taylor grinned, holding an elbow out for her. "If you would have the honor..."

Jacob sighed. "All right, just don't get reckless."

"Who me?" Taylor grinned wider and Jacob had the sudden feeling that Taylor was indeed going to do something reckless somewhere down the road...

((I'll let you guys get done what you're gonna do before making a fuss))

Jessica giggled before reaching her hand around Taylor's outstretched arm. "Sounds great. Thank you..." As they departed the Princess looked over her shoulder and waved with her free hand.

Aliza wasn't too keen on letting them wander off alone, but the city wasn't too big and they had a pretty reliable security staff if she remembered correctly. "Alright, let's get to work finding the next clue..." The faster they did so, the faster she could get her eye back on Jessica and get them going.

As it was a sea planet, there were many restaurants hawking seafood, and Taylor had but to choose one. So he did, and asked for a seat for two near a large fish tank filled with exotic species from here and elsewhere. As he read the menu, he decided to strike up conversation with Jessica.

"Say, what's your story?" Taylor wondered. "I mean, how'd you get to be a...umm...Grey Jedi or whatever?"

He didn't notice a small boyish figure sit down on a table opposite theirs. Looking for all the world like a preteen who wants fish and chips, the figure kept on taking glances at the 'couple', giggling quietly at times. He ordered a soda and kept watching.

=====

Another small figure watched Jacob and Aliza search for clues to Teacher's passing on Manaan from a corner. She also was childlike and giggled as she followed the twosome, currently oblivious to her presence.

They didn't know it just yet, but the second clue was about to come to pass.

bump for DMG

bump for DMG

[OOC: Yeah, sorry. Haven't forgotten, I have just been very busy.]

Jessica quickly glanced over the menu, scanning each item despite not being able to tell whether she would like it or not. Seafood had always been an interesting food choice for the young princess, and she could never really tell if she desired it or despised it.

Taking a sip of her drink, she thought about the question briefly. "My story?"

"Same way as you got to be a Masakian Jedi," she replied, crafting a term for their Order. "You know, born of the flame. My family has been part of the Grey Order for as far back as I can think..."

Her blonde hair shifted to the side majestically as her eyes glanced back over her shoulder. The Princess' senses told her that somebody was giggling at them, though when she saw what seemed to be a small boy she thought little of it.

"I've never thought of being anything else. What about you?"

"Coredian Jedi. Masaki's just my surname." Taylor corrected. "Born of the flame, eh? Think this could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship. As for me, me and my brother first trained under our teacher Master Curtis in the arts of the Jedi and her specialty, alchemy. She was a slavedriver when it came to training, but we loved her all the same. After we sort of graduated (well, she said we should find your own way in the world and that was that), I hooked up with the then Colonel Mustang and became his apprentice, athough we always argued the hell out of each other. He was the guy who taught me everything about fire and indirectly, ice as well."

"Hello, are you two ready to order?" The Selkath waiter asked as he came along.

"Um, yes. Get me the Platter #3, please." Taylor said. "How about you, Jessica?"

"Sounds interesting... if not a bit different from my own training," she responded. His comments brought back memories of her days with the mysterious Knight who taught the royal lineage its skills. Though they had created a close bond over the years as she matured and he seemed to never age, the red suited Grey was just as mysterious as ever. Nothing was known about him and nothing was spoken about him - it was just the way of the Order.

"Are there many in the Coredian Order?" she questioned. It was mostly an innocent question, but it also peeked her interest that they would search the wide galaxy to find a replacement for a council seat rather than search within their own numbers.

"That sounds fine," Jessica said, not knowing what was good on the menu or what would fit her particular tastes. "I'll have the same." She smiled to the waitress who disappeared with their order, again catching sight of the giggling boy over her shoulder as she turned her head.

"Yeah, there's quite a few in the Order. Usually split between Jedi, Shinobi, Alchemists, and those that use purely magical abilities. Latter is very rare in any Coredian other than dragons, elves and demons, by the way. On top of the food chain is the Masaki Clan, who have varying knowledge in all three main disciplines. Then there's the High Council, who not only governs the Order, but our slice of the galaxy as well."

The platter of seafood arrived in a few minutes.

"Ahh! Itadakimasu (literally bon appetit) !" Taylor pulled out some chopsticks and began eating.

As the twosome ate their meal, the little boy had his eyes half-closed and then opened them again and walked over to the duo.

"You're shorter than I expected." The kid said to Taylor.

The food began to smolder as a scary-faced Taylor with veins popping all over his face stared at the little boy with an evil glare. "I'M NOT SHORTER THAN A MOUSE DROID!!"

"Didn't say that!" The kid said in a sing-song fashion while rocking back and forth on his heels and grinning as everyone in the restaurant stared at the threesome.

"What do you want, brat?" Taylor asked sharply.

"I have a message for you, from Master Curtis." The little boy said. "Meet me at the city docks."

"From Master Curtis?" Now Taylor was interested and his temper cooled off a bit. "All right, I guess. But don't call me short."

"I won't...chibi." The kid disappeared with a pop before Taylor could grab him.

"Augh!!" Taylor growled. "Why can't they all be like my adopted six year old kid John, who remain cute and quiet at all times? Why?!"

=====

A little tug on Jacob's cloak made him turn around and notice a little girl who looks like she wants something. "Why, hello, little girl. What do you want of me?"

"Oh, nothing. I just have a message from Master Curtis. Please meet me at the city docks." The girl smiled cutely and popped away.

"Hmm. Might as well head to the docks, then." Jacob said. "This must be the second clue."

Shinobi? Jessica wondered, not knowing exactly what a Shinobi was. Maybe they're like the Sith? "But there are combinations, yes?" Jessica asked about the varying types of people. "You said Master Curtis was an alchemist... is she not also a Jedi?"

When the small boy interjected into their conversation, Taylor seemed to get rather upset. The Princess, on the other hand, giggled despite the scene they were making.

"Aww... I thought he was kind of cute," she responded to his clearly rhetorical question.

---------

"Yesss..." Aliza commented in contemplation as they began walking to the city's edge.

"Do you suppose that she wants to meet us at the city docks to give us the message or that the message was to meet Master Curtis as the city docks?" Aliza wondered out loud. Either explanation seemed particularly strange to her: the former would be simply odd and the latter seemed too easy.

"I guess there is only one way to find out..." Her strides were long and direct. The quicker they got to the bottom, the quicker she could reclaim Jessica and do her job properly.

Shinobi? Jessica wondered, not knowing exactly what a Shinobi was. Maybe they're like the Sith? "But there are combinations, yes?" Jessica asked about the varying types of people. "You said Master Curtis was an alchemist... is she not also a Jedi?"
"Well, Shinobi are kinda on the Grey Side of things, which gets us Coredians flak in the media sometimes. They are often given tasks that a traditional Jedi would balk at, like assassination. You could say they're the troubleshooters of the Order, the guys the High Council go to for getting their hands dirty. Alchemists. Well, they're different, but also considered troubleshooters to do the dirty work. It's better if I show you what an alchemist is."

He removed a special marker from his pocket and then drew a circle with a triangle inside it on a napkin. Then, to the astonishment of the waiters, he broke his plate in half (fortunately, he cleaned his plate already), then set the pieces of the plate on the napkin. He placed his hands on either side of the circle and then energy flowed, crackling in a electricity-like fashion, reforming the plate back into a whole, acting as if nothing happened.

Taylor then explained what it is all about. "Alchemy is the study of understanding, breaking down, and reconstructing matter. One who is versed in this subject is known as an alchemist. This circle is a transmutation array, used as a catalyst for alchemic powers, and this one is one of the most basic arrays a student learns in the Academy. There are more complex ones, like the arrays on my gloves that allow me to adjust the ratio of gases in the atmosphere and induce combustion. More powerful alchemists can even create a circle with their bodies by clapping their hands together, like me and my brother. To top it all, I know of only one alchemist that could simply touch something and it is changed to something else at will, and that's our Master."

When the small boy interjected into their conversation, Taylor seemed to get rather upset. The Princess, on the other hand, giggled despite the scene they were making.

"Aww... I thought he was kind of cute," she responded to his clearly rhetorical question.
"Hmph. He's just a brat." Taylor said, signalling for the check. After paying, they started off for the dock.

=====

"Yesss..." Aliza commented in contemplation as they began walking to the city's edge.

"Do you suppose that she wants to meet us at the city docks to give us the message or that the message was to meet Master Curtis as the city docks?" Aliza wondered out loud. Either explanation seemed particularly strange to her: the former would be simply odd and the latter seemed too easy.

"I guess there is only one way to find out..." Her strides were long and direct. The quicker they got to the bottom, the quicker she could reclaim Jessica and do her job properly.
"Yep. Let's go." Jacob said as they headed for the dock.

Almost at the same time, the twins and their friends arrived at the dock.

"Did you just get a kid who said to meet you at the docks?" Taylor asked Jacob.

"Yeah. So you did too, huh?" Jacob asked in return.

"Yeah. Wonder what Master Izumi wants." Taylor mused.

Then the two small kids arrived with two pops -which made the twins wonder where the heck Teacher got the kids from and how they learned to teleport at such an early age- and walked over to the foursome.

"I'm Jack, she's Jill. The second clue is..." The boy said first, then the girl nudged him. "Eh, hehe. The Teacher has decided that a disturbance in the Force was urgent enough to warrant cutting short your search. You'll find her on Bakura."

"That was rather anticlimatic." Taylor grumbled.

"Oh, thanks." Jacob said. "Will that be all?"

"Nah, that's all." The girl said. "We'll see you around."

They popped away once more.

"Well, I guess it's to Bakura. Must be serious if Teacher's called us like that." Jacob said.

"Yeah." Taylor said. "Well. What are we waiting for?"

High Orbit, Manaan
Manaan System, Old Galactic Empire

A tiny pinprick of light speared the heavens before expanding horizontally, then vertically. What lay beyond the shapeless thing that the expanding energies created was a mystery. A standard humanoid could look into its depths and only be confused by what it saw. It could not tell whether the beyond was white, or black. Dark, or light. Inviting, or the most terrifying thing they had ever seen.

From the infinite expanse of the Slipstream flowed the Monk-class carriers (http://shipyards.relicnews.com/somtaaw/images/carrier2.jpg) Divine Retribution and Chiik'sa like a liquid that was simultaneously a solid. As the boxy carriers drew themselves from the Slipstream incisions, more pinpricks signaled the arrival of the rest of the fleet.

Their hull paint - black with seemingly random splashes of bright crimson - seemed to overshadow the white Beastslayer emblem upon their bows. Beside this emblem of national pride was the four-winged crimson raptor crest, its talons clutching the number "12". The Blood Falcons, made up almost completely of the former Soban cell, were often considered the most effective carrier battlegroup in the Hood's armada. Brutal, yes. But effective.

The sleek, angular lines of the Avatar-I battlecruisers (http://images.wikia.com/homeworld/images/8/86/Hiigaran_battlecruiser.jpg) and Revelation destroyers (http://images.wikia.com/homeworld/images/b/b8/Hiigaran_destroyer.jpg) took shape around the carriers, and seemed to mock the older designs with their beauty. Rectangular frigates, their edges rounded and equipped with the weapons chosen for their role, emerged in squadrons and took up flanking positions to the capital ships. Fighters and corvettes streamed from their parent vessels as gravity well FTLi began to saturate the system.

"Scan the surface," came the order. There was no holoconference. No sign to the other Falcons who was speaking. Only audio. This was how the Blood Falcons worked. You could not mourn someone you could not see. Someone you had never seen could not die. "Find those ships."

A rather large number of Selkath warships were alerted to the intruding fleet and interposed itself in front of the planet. The admiral was an old Selkath named Fira, wise in the ways of warfare and the tactics of Imperial and Rebel alike. He had to be, for Manaan maintained a stance of strict neutrality in all affairs and had enough firepower to maintain said strict neutrality, being capable of fighting a combined Imperial and Rebel fleet and still remain standing. Still, he had never before seen this new fleet and would have to tread carefully.

In a guttural Basic voice, Admiral Fira (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Slktt.PNG) hailed the intruders on all channels, holo and normal. "This is Admiral Fira of the Manaan Defense Forces to intruding fleet. You are intruding on the Neutral Zone of Manaan. You will state your nation of origin and your intentions. If you refuse to comply, you will be destroyed."

"That's interesting..." Jessica responded after Taylor's explanation of the way of things. "I'd only heard of the Sith performing alchemy in the past, and it didn't seem like you Jedi would want to associate with something like that... at least not by your description of the Order.

---------

"It would seem that her purposes are as urgent as yours now..." Aliza commented at the anti-climatic ending to their search. "Maybe it'll be easy to persuade her now," she mused hopefully as they made their back to their ships' hanger.

As they entered the bay, the flame-haired Grey paused suddenly as a feeling struck her. However, after a moment, she brushed it aside, though not entirely, and hopped in the ship.

"Wanna ride together?" Jessica asked Taylor as she waited between the two ships.

Neutral...

The word was rolled over the Sobani phia's tongue. Neutrality was a luxury that was unattainable to his people. Neutrality had nearly annihilated their way of life. Neutrality was the enemy. Neutrality was death.

Still, these "people", whatever they were, stood between the 12th CVBGT and its prey. The phia wanted to storm over them, to wipe them clean from the sky and take the world by force, but his instinct told him that to attempt such a feat would be suicide with his force. They did not know the enemy's capabilities; their strengths nor weaknesses.

They would have to be cautious. They would have to play the enemy's neutrality against them.

A voice rang out over the standard bands, low and masculine.

This is the phia of the twelfth tactical carrier battlegroup, deployed by the Dominion of Feazanthia. We have traced multiple known fugitives to your world and are attempting an extraction. They are armed and very dangeous, suspected of carrying multiple weapons of mass destruction. We are beginning launch procedures of extraction craft and will endeavor to impact the planetary population as little as possible during this process. Your cooperation in this is appreciated and will be favorably noted.

The line was closed. The less these interlopers knew, the better. Launch tubes on board the carriers were loaded with Pelican dropships as LSF-18B "Acolyte" fighters swarmed around them. There was only one major surface city on the world's watery surface, according to their scans. That was their most likely destination.

"That's interesting..." Jessica responded after Taylor's explanation of the way of things. "I'd only heard of the Sith performing alchemy in the past, and it didn't seem like you Jedi would want to associate with something like that... at least not by your description of the Order.
"Yeah, but we do have stronger rules on the use of alchemy. It's a felony to make creatures, especially chimeras, with alchemy, as that's how many creatures of the Dark Side are born. It's also a felony to perform transmutation on another sentient being, living or dead."

---------

"It would seem that her purposes are as urgent as yours now..." Aliza commented at the anti-climatic ending to their search. "Maybe it'll be easy to persuade her now," she mused hopefully as they made their back to their ships' hanger.

As they entered the bay, the flame-haired Grey paused suddenly as a feeling struck her. However, after a moment, she brushed it aside, though not entirely, and hopped in the ship.

"Wanna ride together?" Jessica asked Taylor as she waited between the two ships.
Taylor blushed slightly. "Well, if that's ok with you..."

He and Jessica went into their ship while Jacob, who had no problems sitting with Aliza as he's already married, took Aliza's.

The two ships soon lifted off and it wasn't long before they detected two fleets in orbit, appearing to be in a standoff.

"Looks like we made it out just in time." Taylor mused.

"There's an interdiction field in place, though. We'll have to make a good run." Jacob replied.

"Yeah. Not a problem." The two ships accelerated to move out of the interdiction field.

---------

This is the phia of the twelfth tactical carrier battlegroup, deployed by the Dominion of Feazanthia. We have traced multiple known fugitives to your world and are attempting an extraction. They are armed and very dangeous, suspected of carrying multiple weapons of mass destruction. We are beginning launch procedures of extraction craft and will endeavor to impact the planetary population as little as possible during this process. Your cooperation in this is appreciated and will be favorably noted.
"I see. We cannot hinder you from your search, but nor shall we help you."

Then his underlings noticed two ships lifting off from the planet. He recalled that there were Jedi aboard, but as much as he wanted to help them, his mandate was clear. Then the Force (for all Selkath were versed in the Force), suggested that those two ships were involved somehow with the carrier battlegroup.

"It appears your fugitives are leaving the system. I suggest you do the same." The Admiral said to the Dominion's fleet commander.

Confirmed, out.

Short and to the point. That was the Sobani way. They had no time for meaningless pleasantries, espcially now that their prey had been flushed out like a scared skaal cub. Scores of LSF-18Bs darted from the protective shields of their parent craft and switched on their directional deflectors - a far cry from the mighty SENTINEL but suitable to deflect a few decent hits - and began locking on to the two alien fighters with their missiles. The carrier Chiik'sa began a hard burn towards the craft, its large bays open to intercept them. Ion cannons warmed and kinetic turrets tracked them. They were still too far within the gravity well to jump, it would not be difficult to disable and detain them.

The Blood Falcon phia had to be cautious. The alien fleet was still active and probably monitoring their channels. The deception would have to be maintained.

ATTENTION, FUGITIVE VESSELS. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LEAVE THIS SYSTEM OR YOU WILL BE TERMINATED. POWER DOWN YOUR ENGINES AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED. YOU WILL RECEIVE NO FURTHER WARNINGS. POWER DOWN SUBLIGHT AND TRANSLIGHT ENGINES IMMEDIATELY. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE.

He then switched to the Feazanthian D-band, so that only craft with the appropriate decryption codes could receive.

"Target sublight engines if necessary, but bring those vessels back intact. Boarding teams are standing by."

[ooc: Feaz, boarding team doesn't really make sense. From my earlier description of them, they are two-seaters that are probably a bit larger than fighters because of their extra-luxury component. However, there is no standing or walking room and no way to "board" one.]

OOC-Alright I'll change the semantics. But basically what they're trying to do right now is disable the fighters so one of the carriers can reel 'em in.

[ooc: I know, I was just clarifying.]

"What's going on..." Jessica wondered aloud as the enemy fleet began assembling to take them in.

"That's not going to be so easy," Aliza said in response to the Twins' comments. "It looks as if they are after us." She silently cursed herself for not listening to the earlier Force warnings that had whispered in her ear. "These ships are easily capable of holding their own... but not against an entire fleet."

Sitting in-between the planet below and a hostile fleet beyond, Jessica had a thought. "We could always turn back," she commented over the communications system. It was a good thing Taylor was piloting their ship at the moment because while Jessica might've been better than a normal pilot (due to her force sensitivity), she was by no means capable of taking on more than a couple fighters. Aliza, on the other hand, would be able to hold on for a while. The bigger problem was that eventually, if they did not get out of the interdiction field of the gravity wells, the tractor beams, ion cannons, or whatnot would get them. They needed to act.

"It's an idea," Aliza confirmed, waiting for the Twins to add their own thoughts and decisions. As "Jedi" they would stand a better chance on land against the enemy then piloting two transport-fighters against a fleet. "Plus..." the Grey added as an after note, "these can go underwater..."

"No. We can't go back. Our Master needs us." Taylor shook his head.

"Besides, we can't involve Manaan in this. If we go back, the owners of that fleet might decide to invade." Jacob added.

"We'll have to fight our way out, then. Battlemeld." Taylor suggested.

"Battlemeld." Jacob agreed.

The twins sank deeply into the Force, their minds linked by their strong bonds. Two minds became one. What one saw, the other did as well. When one reacted, so did the other.

Angle away from the carrier. Jacob said through the link, then pulled up a map of the system. There's a gas giant with several moons. We will lose them there.

Right. Taylor replied.

The fighters roared away from the belligerant carrier and fighters swarming them, heading out towards a gas giant that boasted eight moons and a large ring remiscent of Saturn. As the Force wills it, they will lose the fleet there and make the jump to Bakura...

OOC:
What weapons and defenses are available on the fighters?

OOC-Weapons are listed in my tech thread in my sig. Defenses involve a stripped-down angled deflector, titanium-A battleplate, and an ECM jamming suite. Nothing sophisticated. They're mostly built for speed and firepower.


"Sigma lead, moving in. Form up on me."

Five Acolytes angled to stay right on the engine trail on the retreating fighters. Tracer rounds flashed, and the steady dull whumpwhumpwhumpwhump of automatic rail cannon fire reverberated through the pilots. It was intended to be more of a warning shot, with the ferrous cored tungsten rounds detonating several dozen meters from the Jedi in a cloud of "flak". Other wings began accelerating into cannon range while many others stayed back and locked on with their missiles.

A mixed frigate squadron was moving coreward towards them all. The primary cannons on the two Firelance frigates glowed an eerie cerulean as their capacitors filled and prepared to fire.

Fingers flew over the consoles as the Twins set the fighter-transports' weapons to pwnage mode. The tail laser began tracking and firing at rear targets, while the forward nose and heavy laser cannon shot forward to disperse enemies. Missiles roared out from side pods, streaming out towards the two frigates and the last present were deployed like mines, being one plasma bomb from each fighter-transport to distract the enemy.

Secondly, the Twins began juking, using the Force as their guide to dodging enemy fire on top of the normal warning signs and sensors. Their fighters worked seamlessly to support each other, as no matter where the Twins were, either in space or on the ground, they worked as a team. Two brothers, one soul. Two Jedi, one kickass dynamic duo.

Laser fire impacted on the nose of one Acolyte, causing it to burn through the armor and ignite the ammunition supply. It detonated in a firey spectacle, but its fellows simply pressed their attack harder. The missile pylons of the light strike fighters began to lower as the craft entered their combat mode. Savior corvettes, their pulsed ion cannon turrets already warmed and glowing an eerie blue, began deploying from the Chiik'sa.

A cloud of black shrapnel exploded a few scant meters from the enemy missiles, followed almost instantly by several more. The Brushfire frigate of the mixed squadron had accelerated ahead of its bulkier bretheren, initiating a slow rotation to bring both of its burst-fire kinetic turrets to bare. Still, some missiles got through the protective screen and pockmarked the pair of Firelances with orange blooms.

This seemed to set them off.

Cerulean lances of energy spiked out from the bows of the two frigates, ionized particles seeming to reverberate away from their magnetic containment as the beams missed the enemy fighters.

Of course, they had never intended to hit their targets.

OOC: Don't forget those plasma bombs!

IC:
A second volley of missiles roared out from the Twins' craft, concentrating on one of the frigates while the other got a nice dose of laserfire from the twins' laser cannons (three per ship) as a distraction. Meanwhile, the tail lasers continued to keep the enemy at a healthy distance while the twins weaved through the enemy fire with uncanny precision and agility, continuing to aim for the gas giant and its attendant moons and rings.

As more missiles streaked towards the frigates, many being swatted down by the constant burst fire from the Brushfire, the cannons charged and fired again. This time they aimed the spinal ion cannons directly at the fighters, specifically the aft portions.

Fighters scattered as the mines came into range and detonated, their spheres of charged plasma engulfing a few of the light strikers. However, the remainder seemed spurned forward by the three corvettes rapidly closing the distance between the carrier and the fighters. Several Acolytes braved the laser fire and began accelerating ahead of the fleeing craft, continuing to keep a safe distance from the turrets.

Missiles streaked from pursuing Acolytes. The time for games was over. It was time to finish this.

"No. We can't go back. Our Master needs us." Taylor shook his head.

"Besides, we can't involve Manaan in this. If we go back, the owners of that fleet might decide to invade." Jacob added.

Aliza certainly did not agree with the Twins' analysis of the situation, but they were the ones flying and she had no choice but to accept their little "battlmeld" method. If it were her in command, she would have done just that: involve the Manaan defensive fleet to distract the enemy while they disappeared. With the entire fleet currently dealing with just the two fighters - be they Jedi-piloted or not - the odds were against them.

While the Twins piloted, dodging laser fire and other weapons, the Greys focused their control of the Force on dealing with the enemy's missiles. Some detonated prematurely, others veered off course and sped off into the depths of space, and a few even turned on their attackers. It was possible to stop normal blaster fire with the mind, but the type fired from ships was generally much more powerful and harder to deny. However, the most powerful minds would be able to once in a while negate a single blast... and if that ability came at the right time, it could save them from certain death.

Aliza cursed silently; if their ships were destroyed, she wouldn't get a chance to kill the Twins herself. Just a moment before the fire came, she cried out over the comm. "Ion cannons! Kill the guns, boost the shields."

OOC-Autocannons, not lasers.

OOC-Autocannons, not lasers.

[OOC: I assume the autocannons fire lasers, no? If they are firing real projectiles, there isn't much chance of them hitting.]

OOC-No, they're KE weapons. What the hell kind of ranges are you thinking that we're engaging at?

Aliza cursed silently; if their ships were destroyed, she wouldn't get a chance to kill the Twins herself. Just a moment before the fire came, she cried out over the comm. "Ion cannons! Kill the guns, boost the shields."
"Right!" The twins replied. Drawing power from the guns, they boosted the shields just in time as the ion cannon bolts grazed them. If it weren't so, the fighters would definitely have been stopped cold. As it was, they kept moving, breaking through the enemy fighter screen with their reinforced shields and leaving the frigates with another plasma bomb present.

"Coming up to the gas giant!" Taylor yelled through the link.

"Roger that!" Jacob replied.

The two fighters flew towards the planet's rings, letting the Force be their guide as they sped into what amounts to an asteroid field at a crazy-ass speed, hoping to lose their pursuers among the rocks...

"Command, Bravo Lead. Target entering orbital debris field. Please advise."

The phia allowed himself the momentary luxury of thought. The damned fighters had managed to escape his trap!

"Begin tactical jump procedures. Plot a course through the gravity well, take us to the outskirts of that ring."

"At once, phia," came the tinny reply of the warship's A.I.

---

As the Acolyte wings slowed and moved away from the damaging ring system, the Avatar-class battlecruiser emerged from Slipstream just "above" the particles.

"Full scan. I want ring composition."

"Mixture of water ice and hydrogen, with dust and mixed chemical contaminants."

"Density?"

The A.I. paused for a full cycle before answering, catching on to what the phia was planning.

"Enough. Firing."

The battlecruiser turned to bring its dorsal and ventral turrets to bare on the ring. They couldn't get a precise lock on the two fugitive ships, but they were in there.

Four heavy ion beams penetrated the ring system, but did not emerge from the other side. The charged particles danced through the network of ice and dust at random as if they were reflected by a broken mirror. The cruiser continued firing, alternating fire between the twin turrets to keep a steady stream of charged ions pumped into the field.

And, like hunters waiting for the pheasant, the Acolytes and Saviors hovered nearby. If the ions did not disable them, the strike fighters and ion-equipped corvettes were more than prepared to do so.


OOC - One of the qualities of Homeworld-style ion weaponry is its dispersal in dust clouds, nebulae, and similar stellar bodies. While this drastically reduces its effectiveness as an anti-capital ship weapon, the charged particles dance through the clouds like lightning hitting just about everything in their path. This can be used to take out large groups of light craft, or to damage an enemy far outside the ion cannon's normal effective range.

"What the--?" Taylor yelped as the ion cannons of the enemy bombarded the rings of the gas giant.

"Look for a crater!" Jacob replied. "We'll hide in there and use the Force to ward off the lightning!"

"Right!" Taylor acknowledged as he and Jacob flew in zigs and zags, trying to avoid all the lightning dancing in the rings.

Then, they managed to find an asteroid with a crater just big enough for the fighters to hide in the shadow. Wasting no time, they flew in there and shut down their fighters double-quick. The lightning passed over them, but since their fighters were now inert, it only took a minor Force wall to deflect the charged ions.

Now they waited for the bombardment to pass before deciding what to do next.

Yes...

His eyes cracked, tentative at the light pouring in at them.

I sense it...

"Chief!" The voice was distant, soft. Like a memory of a memory. So focused was he on the new sensation.

"He's coming out of cryo prematurely, Jefet! No clue why. BP and adren just spiked. Frontal lobe goin' nuts!"
"Shut it down! Get 'im outta there!"

A warm feeling spiked through his toes and fingers. By the gods, he had toes and fingers! He had not felt them before. And yet, even they seemed distant.

His head swam with information coursing into it like an undammed river. It was as if he had been blind, and suddenly could see once more.

He soared through the cryo-bay, saw his armored body down below as the hadat pored over it, their brows thick with persperation as they saw one of their own in danger.

But he was not in danger. He had never been more free! Surely they could not see that?

Now was not the time for such trivialities. He had sensed it! Another! One touched by a god!

But was he not the only Gifted assigned to this battlegroup? These were not even his people! The Sobani were strong, yes, but lacked the grace of his own...

What was he?

It did not matter!

"Master Chief Petty Officer Daniel One-oh-one-four! Get your lazy ass up 'fore I kick it so hard ya fly righ' out yo suit!"

He snapped back to reality. He was Master Chief Daniel-1014. Gifted, Temple of Qwaar-Jet. Non-commissioned officer of the Intergalactic Feazanthian Navy.

"That won't be necessary, Sergeant." The voice oozed confidence through the armor's speakers. "I need a direct line to the phia. We're chasing two ships, correct?"

The sergeant, a tall man with dark skin (which, besides his face, was hidden by the marine battle armor), allowed himself a split-second of shock.

"Boy, don't you go doin' that crazy-ass mystical crap," the man said it with a smile. The sergeant had the deepest respect for the Gifted program, and Daniel in particular. "Git yer ass to the comm. Find them rabbits an' flush 'em out."

As the Chief strode out of the cryo-bay and into the carrier's narrow hallways, he stretched out with his senses. He couldn't so much see the void around him, but more felt it. He felt the hundreds of soldiers, the pilots darting around the gas giant's rings. He felt the cold metal of starship armor and the star-like heat of deutrium tokamaks.

Deeper, deeper into the rings he prodded. Felt the ion cannons bouncing and refracting through the debris.

And then...he felt the resistance. Unlike anything he had felt before.

And yet so familiar.

The Twins waited for the lightning to subside before they figured out what to do next. Then, a strong presence in the Force erupted, probing for them.

"A Force Sensitive? Damn..." Jacob cursed.

"I'll take care of him. Then we'll use *Kage Bunshin* to distract the enemy." Taylor said, and reached out for the Force Sensitive. He felt the lightning crackle and dance around him, the fighters darting around, looking for the two fighters. He reached a bit farther, seeing the battleship the 'Force Sensitive' stood on. The Fire Knight grinned as he got a lock on the guy, and taking a leaf out of Jedi Master Jacob Whitfield's book, decided to give the man a dose of the true nature of his powers. Hydrogen and oxygen were drawn towards the man, increasing their respective atmospheric ratios significantly. Then, all it took was a spark brought on by ionizing a bit of the air...and KABOOM! One fuel-air explosive, to go!

Not waiting to see what fate befell the man, Taylor quickly withdrew from the battleship and then the twins crossed their fingers, reaching not into the Force, but their inner source of chakra and proclaimed: "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Two fighter clones appeared next to the real ones, both having the exact same pilots and specifications as the real ones. They even showed up on scanners and for all the enemy knew, they were real. Even the Force cannot tell the difference between a Kage Bunshin and the original (at least none but the greatest of masters could tell). The fighters roared out of the crater, once again dodging and juking against the enemy fighter forces and the lightning. They decided to make a run for it, boosting their engines to the max and flying out of the rings back into clear space. If they could run above the ellipse, they could 'make the jump' and thus fool the enemy.

In the meantime, the Twins blanked out in the Force (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_Concealment), their signatures made as tiny as possible and their fighters became one with the asteroid (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_Cloak) ('you do not see us, opponents. Your sensors detect nothing. Move along.') to escape detection. Once the enemy were sufficiently duped, the real fighters will make their move...

"Damage control teams to Cryo-One."

It was as if the words had been dragged through mud. Some sort of ringing in his ear was making it hard to hear. And what was that constant pattering?

Daniel's senses came back to him. He was in the hall outside of the cryo bay. The ringing was his shield gauge - fully empty. The pattering was the fire suppression foam bouncing off his armor.

He had been searching for the two fleeing strike craft. He had felt...something. Some sort of power. Then...

...what had happened?

He had seen fire, been thrown against the bulkhead. He had felt jarring through his body as the explosion had drained his shields and pushed against his armor suit.

Internal Diagnostics Initiated

Daniel watched as a list of systems appeared in his HUD, switching from yellow to green as the suit checked itself. The bar representing his shield strength began to slowly grow again, the tighter-than-natural feeling crackling over his skin.

Rage coursed through him before he could stop it. How could he have been caught off guard? How had the enemy used such an ability past the warship's shields?

It didn't matter. He stretched out again. There the two fighters were, darting away from the asteroid belt.

How had they avoided the ion cascade?

It should have been more than enough to disable them. There was no way they could have avoided the dispersal of charged particles, let alone have enough power for an escape velocity that high. Ion weaponry disrupted any electrical system it touched, and the enemy clearly had reaction-based engines.

A skilled Gifted could avoid a dispersal bombardment for a time...but there was no way anyone could avoid anything moving that close to the speed of light for long. Not without some sort of jump technology, and the fugitives had shown no ability thus far to make a transition to translight speeds within the artificial gravity well.

Daniel felt the hands of the damage control techs moving over him. He waved them off. They were in the way.

How...

He watched without seeing as Acolyte wings chased after the mysterious fighters. Watched the tiny discharges of light as missiles launched. Watched as Savior gunships began moving in and opening up with their short-wave ion beams.

It just had the feeling of wrongness to it. He could "see" the two fighter craft. Could "feel" their realness. Could sense the humanoids at the controls. And yet...all his senses just screamed out in protest at his mind's acceptance of the enemy's existence.

He opened up a channel to the command holotank. The Divine Retribution's Jak'Phi was an elderly man, most likely a teenager during the Collective War. As the carrier's counterpart accelerated towards the fleeing "fighters", the Divine Retribution was just beginning its maneuver to follow.

"Jak'Phi, this is Master Chief Daniel-1014. Cease your maneuver immediately. The Chiik'sa can handle it. Take us closer to that planetary ring."

Though Daniel was not as talented at mental manipulation as one of Koshiir'Ra's temple, he still had some skill. The older Jak'Phi was unguarded against such an intrusion. The carrier ceased its maneuver and began accelerating towards the planet.

He could be court-marshaled for this, thrown out of the Navy and executed for treason.

But it felt right.

Great Sajuuk, He Who's Hand Shapes What Is. Guide my mind to my goal. Qwaar'jet, Sword of the Gods. Help my hand to bring my foes to justice. Koshiir'ra, Eye of the Universe. Help my eyes to see the truth...

The two 'fighters' rolled and dodged, looped and fought back with everything they had. Then just when it almost seemed like they were caught, finally, finally, they vanished with a flicker of psuedomotion, seemingly into hyperspace.

In the planetary ring though, all was quiet. The Twins and their friends were silent, broadcasting not a single thought, nor did their fighters emit a single radio wave. In the shadow of a crater, they waited in total silence, waiting for the carrier to go away...

The fiery Grey Jedi, Aliza, had to admit that she was quite impressed by the Twins' cunning tactics against the overwhelming numbers and power of the foe. However, their last act of hiding within the electric field was highly dangerous and put them in a very precarious situation should they be discovered. Nonetheless, that was not so at the moment. Why, though, she couldn't help but wonder as they sat in silence, Why are these people after us? Is it related to their quest to find Master Curtis? Could someone have found out about the Princess? She needed to contact the High Council...

Jessica peered about through the windows of their spaceship into the wide vacuum of space that surrounded them. Everything seemed to have changed so quickly. But then she felt something: the presence of another in the force - somewhat distant and detached, but present nonetheless. With eyes closed, her mind reached out into the depths of her consciousness where she had felt the other.

It wasn't like other force techniques learned at the academies. It was an ability she had simply happened upon one day and no other in the Order could explain it. Though it was crystal clear to her, she had trouble explaining exactly what it was. Jessica would appear as an invisible projection of herself within the environment of any being that she could detect. She could see and experience everything, but none could see or feel her. Essentially, her mind and astral projection existed in a higher dimension that looked through a one-way portal into the normal dimension.

There was, however, a dark truth about the ability that she had rarely visited. Unexplainable as it was to Jessica, the uncommon event had occurred before that the one being visited could sense the existence of the extra dimension and even enter it. It was a dangerous proposition that she naively gave little mind to. And, when two beings existed in the dimension together, they did so in total isolation and darkness. Nothing else existed except the two of them and blackness. Most dangerous was that the ramifications of their actions there were very real. The only difference between their existences was that in the higher dimension, there was no Force.

Thus she found herself staring at a strange man as he stood aboard a large ship. It was obviously the force sensitive that she had felt, but she knew nothing of the man. In her extra-planar existence, she waited to see what he would do next...

OOC: I will give Feaz one more day. After that, I will move on. No exceptions.

OOC: I'm moving on now.

IC:

Breathing a sigh of relief as the enemy fleet moved on, Taylor and Jacob flew out of the planetary ring and wasted no time in jumping to hyperspace for Bakura. From Manaan to Bakura would take at least twelve hours, so they settled in for a nap...

Bakura

"Finally, we made it." Taylor sighed in relief as the planet Bakura, far out in the outer rim, filled the view from the fighter. In little time, the two fighters landed at the spaceport and they began searching for any sign of their teacher.