"Dammit I don't want to hear it! Shore up the defences on the southern side of the temple. NOW!"

Suddenly, a man sprung up from the mattress which lie upon the stone floor within his grand quarters, a cold sweat dripping from his thick brow. With a deep sigh, he reached for a rag beside his bed and began to dry his face, removing the moisture from his greying black beard; which had become matted in his troubled sleep. It had been eight years since the sacking of Coruscant, which signalled the fall of the Galactic Republic. But even now as he and his comrades hid deep beneath the ice on the snow world of Valkaina, completely safe from harm, the screaming and panic of the final battle in the conflict which had become known as the Mandalorian Conquest, kept echoing within his head.

"Master Antilles?" Came a feminine voice from behind the double doors of his quarters, which led directly into the council chambers much like the other four rooms which encircled it. Luthor was almost confused at the voice's presence, as it was almost certainly belonged to his former apprentice Maria Arvenni. The only other potential candidate being her twin sister Alessia. Which he deemed unlikely.

Rising from his bed, the Jedi Master ran his hands across the blaster burn scar that marked the gap between his pectoral muscles before throwing on his tan robes. His bare feet pattering on the ground as he moved to answer the door. with a look of disgruntlement upon his face he pulled the two doors apart and took a step back, locking them into place and lo and behold the woman stood before him was the recently ascended Jedi knight he had presumed it to be.

"Maria? I thought you would have left by now." Luthor stated, almost groaning as he spoke. The Jedi master was many things, but a morning person was not one of them. Batting his eyelids a couple of times to clear his vision, Luthor then looked his former apprentice in her jade green eyes and awaited her response.

"We had begun to embark upon Valdis' vessel, the Amber Dragon, master. However as we were about to be granted take off privelleges we received new intelligence on the location of Harma Allyn." responded the woman, her smokey voice having a slight quiver to it as she spoke. This worried Luthor slightly, as he had never known Maria to be particularly daunted by any task she was given to perform, especially when it came to missions that involved returning closer to the galactic core. The uneasiness almost radiated from her body to his senses, though another would likely have been unable to tell it, Luthor had essentially raised the Arvenni twins and could tell the moment either of them felt uneasy.

"What is troubling you Maria?" He asked softly, yet as ever a notion of authority present, almost as though he were demanding the information from his former student rather than asking politely. "It's just...this Harma...she's doesn't stop moving. I fear that this will all end up being for nothing. That our agents could have spent the time it has been taking to track her down to locate Mandalore. That is our goal is it not?"

He scoffed slightly at the young Jedi's statement, motioning her to take a seat within his chambers and sitting upon a chair himself in order to put on his boots. "These thoughts you are having, there is nothing to fear. From what our spies have told us, this Allyn, she's quite the formidable warrior. Though she lacks some restraint and has rather strong feelings about the Mandalorians, I'm certain that she will be a valuable asset to our cause."

"As for finding Mandalore..." Luthor paused, fitting the straps on the back of his leather boots inbetween sentences. The statement had almost made him laugh, one so young, one whom would not even remember the horrors of the first conflict with Mandalore's people presuming that it would be so easy.

"Let me just remind you that I fought throughout the entirety of the Mandalorian Conquest. Alongside Revan, alongside great men and women such as Valdis and Merak, the former of whom will be leading you on your mission. Ask him about the first war with the Mandalorians, and why we call it the Conquest. I'm sure his words will bear as much weight as mine when we say that another war with them is not winnable unless we are ready in every sense of the word." Luthor continued, his voice becoming grave and heavy the longer he spoke, it was clear that the things the Jedi master had seen during the war would shake a lesser man to the core, fortunately for those under his council's care, Luthor was far from a lesser man.

Though he sometimes had his doubts.

"I will be sure to master. Now, I should go. Wouldn't want to miss the party." Maria replied with a faint smile as she stood to leave, it was a rare thing for the mind of the elder Arvenni twin to be introverted and troubled as her sister was. But sure enough the talk with her former master had seemed to set her mind at ease, at least a little bit. As she strolled through the council chambers Luthor accompanied her to the elevator at the entrance and spoke as they walked.

"Indeed. We shall speak more of this upon your return, but for now, remember my teachings and I am sure that the three of you shall return as four. May the force be with you."

"May the force be with you as well." She repeated, the elevator doors sliding to a close.

As the elevator made a rapid descent towards the ground level of the pyramid, where the hangar-esque hole in the side of the mountain that the enclave was situated beneath; she wondered if what Luthor had said to her about the Mandalorians was true, or if he was just exaggerating to instil a sense of respect for their enemy within her as he always had done. Maria would always remember that was his main point in all of his lessons, that if she didn't respect her foe's capabilities, it would be easy to become careless.

It did not take long for her to make it to what was referred to as 'The Port' by the surviving Republic pilots and those Jedi whom were also tasked with piloting. This thought brought a wider smile to her face as it reminded her of her sister, Alessia. She wondered how the raid on Dantooine was going, or whether it had begun yet at all. All that she knew, and it was all that really mattered to Maria, is that her sister was safe. That much she could sense within the force. Maria had begun her walk towards the Amber Dragon on a landing pad beside the grounded Stalwart Fury when she was taken aback in awe at the scale difference. For her, the Stalwart was one of the largest vessels she had ever seen, and she would always be startled by it's apparent grandeur. She hoped that she would see it fly again one day. It was as she became lost in her thoughts that she noticed Ana on her way back to the Dragon and called out to her.

"Hey wait up!"

________________________



The deep humming of the Krayt Fang's hyperspace drive was somewhat soothing to Alessia's ears as she sat in the co-pilot's seat of Merak's ship. She felt at ease in the man's presence, something about his rogueish confidence and his knowledge of everything to do with fixing things made her feel safe for some reason. She knew it was foolish, but she placed a lot of trust in the Mirialan simply because she could learn so much from him. Perhaps it was something to do with her attachment to teacher-like figures, such as the almost parent-child relationship with her master Luthor. Sighing a little and not paying full attention to the things being said to her, the padawan obeyed and followed out any commands she was currently being given, but her attention was almost fully fixated on the well-being of her master and sister. Alessia could sense that something was troubling her sister even though they were light years away from each other.

The young woman had always found it strange, the way the force worked. No matter where she was in relation to her ever so slightly elder sister, she could always sense how she was feeling, even before they had been discovered by the Jedi order. She even remembered one incident when Maria had fallen and knocked herself unconscious, and Alessia herself fell unconscious too. Though such an occurence has not happened since, Alessia knew that they were deeply connected within the force. Coming back to her senses for a moment, Alessia heard a voice calling her name, or a shortened version of it; and so she snapped back to reality away from her mind-wandering and turned her attention to the caller.

"Yes, sorry, what?"

Computers. Aether hated them.

She just couldn't quite figure out how to work the things. Sure she knew the workings of a fighter inside-out, but trying to extract information from advanced information storage systems had her head hurtling through hyperspace! She wasn't as tech savvy as the other two aboard the Krayt Fang, especially not Merak. His level of knowledge on technical things was somewhat intimidating to her. Then again, who was the one who could survive in a desolate wasteland without even a lightsaber?

... Yeah, he could possibly also know how to do that, too. Aether had no idea.

She hadn't gotten to know him much since his arrival, despite being a fellow Mirialan. It was good to know that she wasn't completely alone by race on Valkaina, though. The two worked in opposite angles, really, Merak being technological, and Aether spiritual, hence why they hadn't had the chance to really converse. Well, until now, that is.

On the other hand there was Alessia, sister to fellow Jedi Knight Maria, an instructor in the Ataru form of saber combat. Aether had sought her for lessons in Ataru for awhile now, though wasn't always met with success, the other Jedi Knight being far more busy than Aether finds herself being. After all, who wouldn't want to learn from a prodigy? Also traditionally Jedi Knights aren't to be tutored, though Aether was taught by her former master that the pursuit of knowledge was far more valuable than tradition or rules, and she's lived by that motto ever since. Additionally she found that sparring was a perfectly fine way to learn, despite getting beaten quite easily in the process. She found Alessia to be intriguing; despite being twins to Maria, she wasn't quite as capable a fighter as her sister. Even so Aether had to admit that there was no-one quite as proficient in Force Healing than her, which far out-shined Aether's own ability. It bought her respect in Aether's eyes.

... Computers really were quite frustrating...

With a defeated sigh Aether spun her chair around and looked over at Alessia. "Alessia."

No response.

"Alessia. Alessia?"

That got her attention. "Yes, sorry, what?" Quizzed the other Jedi Knight, as she turned her attention to her Mirialan comrade. Aether glanced quickly at the display at her side, then back to Alessia. "Could you... please fill me in on what we're about to be running into? I cannot get the machine here to tell me what I need to know..." It was embarrassing to say, but Aether managed to mask it well, her expression stoic, almost stone-faced.

She really needed to get a better grasp on technology...

Harma Allyn had just finished a mission to Mandalorian backwater shithole. Now she was in some backwater shithole Cantina. She would describe pretty much everywhere as a backwater shithole if it wasn't Coruscant before the sacking by the Mandalorians. She was in a foul mood only two things would cheer her up bringing justice to those backwater Mandalorian shits or beating the crap out of people who deserve it, either way she was going to get drunk no matter which happens. She was sitting at the bar finishing off a bottle of some cheap drink when some drunk Rodian pig bumped into her and decided to use that opportunity to fondle her chest. She grabbed his left hand and spun around. She gave him a warning, he said something stupid, it sounded stupid she didn't speak his language. So she broke his wrist then slammed the bottle into his face. Which led to a fight with his friend which led to some random getting knocked into another guy that started them to fight. It became an all out brawl. The police had to get involved, when the fight was over the bartender had a hole in her head where her right eye was. Several other people were in jail or in custody at the hospital. Harma was in jail blacked out.

Merak was never more relaxed than when travelling through space or hyperspace, even if he knew there might be a gigantic shitstorm waiting for them on the other side once they hit their target destination. The Krayt Fang was speeding towards Dantooine, once a pivotal planet to the Jedi Order (or so Luthor had told him) that had since been pillaged and defiled after the Mandalorians bombed the resident Jedi enclave and dropped their own troops onto the ground for hostile take over. The peaceful farming planet had now become a pivotal outpost for their enemies, and if their trio could successfully wrest control of the former enclave ('from their cold, dead hands, if necessary') from the Mandalorians, it would be a step in the right direction towards reclaiming the galaxy for themselves and driving the tyrants back into the far reaches of space that they had come out of.
Beside him in the co-pilot's seat sat Alessia, a younger member of Master Antilles' hodge-podge assembly of Force users, though her age certainly didn't mean he thought any less of her. In fact, Merak rather enjoyed being in Alessia's company, as he could appreciate her eagerness to soak up information regarding anything technological; the Mirialan simply couldn't help himself and jumped at the chance to show off his skills and teach her a thing or two about piloting. Alessia admitted to spending a fair bit of time in Valkaina's simulation rooms but was quick to admonish that she had very little practical piloting experience. There was no better way, Merak had told her, to learn than by jumping in at the deep end.

He had begun by explaining the basic controls to her and allowing her to get a feel for the movements in her own time, while maintaining that he would be steering the ship himself mostly until she was more confident. He had lied, of course, and had been sitting with his hands crossed behind his head for the past few hours of their travel time. Alessia apparently hadn't noticed, which was just as well or she might have panicked. The joke had gotten old by now, though, and Merak thought it was about time he told her since they would be dropping out of hyperspace soon.
"See? Not so hard, is it? Actually, you've been steering all on your own for the past..." he checked the chronometer on the front of the panel, "....three hours, so you really are a pretty good pilot, for someone who's never flown otuside of a sim room before. Now don't you start freaking out cause if you damage this ship we won't be friends anymore!"
She didn't seem to respond to his teasing, however, lost in her own thoughts. A series of angry clicks, whirrs and 'bloops' sounded from the hallway behind them that led into the rest of the ship, the small KM1 droid peering through the opening and apparently displeased to find that sole control of their vessel had been surrendered to someone so inexperienced.
Chuckling softly, Merak waved the droid away. "Relax, buddy, it's not like she's gonna crash into anything in the middle of hyperspace."

Regardless, Merak sat forward again and pulled his control cluster back into his hands as the navcomputer blipped softly to announce the drop, with another slightly rattling hum that made the Mirialan pilot wince sympathetically, the hyperdrive powered down and the planet of Dantooine winked into view. "Hey Clanker, why don't you go tweak the systems, make sure we've still got cloaking. We're gonna need it if we want to get down to the ground without being shout out of the sky." the droid beeped in confirmation, its bolts squeaking as it shuffled down towards the engine room.
Merak's attention, meanwhile, would be drawn to the second voice that spoke as they approached Dantooine.
"Could you... please fill me in on what we're about to be running into? I cannot get the machine here to tell me what I need to know..."
With a devlish grin, Merak twisted in his seat to look over his shoulder at the other Mirialan behind him. "Maybe they'd like ya better if you weren't such a technophobe, Aether," he teased good-naturedly, "Machines can sense fear, you know." that was, of course, complete bullshit as well, but Merak enjoyed messing with the fellow Mirialan. Not just because they were total opposites and she seemed to repel technology, but that in a roundabout way he liked to remind them that he was still useful to them. Being one of the only people in their group who was not Force sensitive was certainly very inimidating for Merak. While he held the Jedi in high regard, and he could respect their deep spiritual beliefs and tried to follow them the best he could, he had to admit that all this Force malarchy scared the crap out of him and he would never understand it. Thus, he enjoyed poking fun at Aether's aversion to the practical things he did understand, much like he was sure she laughed at him for not being able to grasp the simple spiritual things she relied upon on a daily basis.

Glancing sideways at Alessia, he questioned. "You wanna remind her while I get us in to land? This is gonna be trickier because we're trying to go in on stealth, I'll show you how it works some other time."

“Now run Ana! Save yourself!”

Those words were trapped in a young mirialan’s head, all that she kept thinking about and then the sound of blaster fire being heard in the distance. Zelliana still was having a hard time accepting that her master was gone, she had been hiding with him a few weeks earlier and then in the blink of an eye, he was gone, taking out by the Mandalorians and she couldn’t help but feel pain over his passing. Tears began to build up around her eyes, feeling guilty for her master’s death and how she regretted, abandoning him, at least that’s how she viewed it in her eyes.

“I should’ve stayed with him, he’d still be alive if I had,” the young mirialan spoke softly to herself.

She was supposed to be getting a new master soon, she believed his name was Tan El Nali, but she couldn’t exactly be sure, her thoughts still swelled with her master and currently, it was hard for her to focus on anything or anyone. Even when she first arrived on Valkaina, she mostly stayed recluse, interacting very little people of the enclave and mostly keep with herself. She knew that Jedi shouldn’t form attachments, but when she had been with her master for so long and began her training so late, it was hard for her not to.

Ana was broken from her thoughts when she heard someone call out behind her and quickly wiped away the tears that had built up before turning around. When she saw it was Maria, she gave a small facade smile, trying to keep her true feelings from bubbling to the surface again.

“Oh, hey Maria, what’s up?”

---

@Delta44 @The Elvenqueen

---

"We're under orders from master Antilles to sabotage the listening post which has been established here at the former acadmy on Dantooine, Maz has also requested that if we are able to remain undetected for long enough, we are to perform a data mine on the archives and recover as much of the knowledge as possible. Once that secondary objective is completed, the acadamy is to be destroyed to prevent the Mandalorians studying our combat forms and technologies." Alessia replied, swinging her chair around to face Aether as she spoke. Her voice was soft and sullen as it always was, something that a lot of people found to make them uneasy. It was one of the reasons Alessia had been enjoying the company of Merak and Aether so much. They didn't seem to be bothered by the general lack of self-confidence she always seemed to display. Though the fact of the matter was that she held all the confidence she needed, everyone was so used to Maria's outgoing and boisterous nature that they tended to expect the same from her.

Perhaps they could both sense that within her, even though Mer wasn't a force sensitive, she could tell that he was at least a little fond of her and that alone was enough to set Alessia's mind at ease. "Perhaps it would be best if you were to go and see to it that Captain Craske and his men are ready for landing. There's only ten of them, so it shouldn't take long." She continued, stopping for a moment to think of the man and his chalky white skin and matching hair. Alessia had read a lot about the Echani before, and was always surprised to find they were intense rivals with the Mandalorians at almost every turn. A gruntled veteran of many battles in service to the Republic, Alessia knew from studying his culture that he hated these missions wherein he was forced to don the heavy armour of the Mandalorians soas to to remain undetected.

But it was a necessity to allow the strike team to hide in plain sight and impersonate a patrol around the exterior of the enclave, whilst feeding information to Merak and the two Jedi within the base. Alessia was glad that it was Craske and his men alongside them, their success to fatality ratio was the lowest of any squad among the surviving Republic forces in the Valkaina enclave, and with good reason. The Blitz Crew's tactics and infiltration skills seemed to be second to none among their peers. If they had any at all.

---

---

@Sohtem

---

"Not much, just glad to be getting out of these damned caves again! It feels like it's been forever since I last went out on a mission, even if this is only a recruitment bit. Is your gear already on the Dragon? We won't get far on Tatooine without a disguise of some form. My kit is." Maria exclaimed, she was ever so excited to be able to explore the galaxy again, though she had never been to Tatooine before, she had read that it was covered in sand, nothing but sand everywhere. The prospect of this excited her, she loved sand, the planets and regions that tended to be littered with it were always hot and temperate places, much the opposite of Valkaina where it was cold and bitter. Maria much preferred warmth than the cold. Though then again, she also hated being underground, so perhaps the vast openness of a desert was so pleasing to her because of that fact? She didn't truly know, all that she knew was that soon she would be out in the wide galaxy, and nothing would stop her from achieving her goal.

Harma woke up in jail. She looked around. She laid back down she was either here for public intoxication or another bar brawl. Either way she didn't really care, it just meant free room and board and her droids could handle the ship at a lower power setting. It was actually saving her bottom line a few creds. Not like she had any jobs at the moment, or anywhere to be.

She was content to lie there and do her time however much time, last time was six weeks or was it months. Time lost all meaning to her, unless she was on a job, and then her droid kept track of it. As she was laying there some hideously huge Gamorrean female was snoring away, keeping her up. Her entire species was beyond disgusting.

The next day, the other inmates seemed to give that Gamorrean witch special treatment. Harma couldn't let that stand. They were all superior to that pig-lizard in every way, except brute strength, which the Gamorean used to bully everyone else even some of the guards. At lunch she intentionally antagonized the pig-lizard. It didn't take much, her superiority complex was only rivaled by her strength. One little pig snort set her off.

The pig-lizard roared and threw a table that was bolted to the floor, it hit and probably squished another inmate, Harma felt bad about that a tiny bit. The pig-lizard then started bum-rushing her. Harma easily could have side stepped but chose not to. She used a Force Barrier to turn herself into the immovable object. The only option was for one of them to surrender, Harma had no intention of ever surrendering. After a while the pig-lizard gave in, exhausted. Harma killed the pig-lizard.

Aether wasn't really good at jokes, but even she knew that Merak wasn't being completely serious...

... right?

"I'm not fearful. I'm simply a little annoyed." Aether reminded him adamantly. "Also, while I do believe that certain machines can display emotion-like responses, I do not believe this one to be such a machine. Therefore it's hard to imagine such a contraption could, in fact, display or sense emotion. Emotions have a deep connection with the Force; machines do not." Always willing to argue over her point of view. While she was certainly accepting of others viewing the world differently, her deeply spiritual sense made her voice her own opinion often, especially when not asked for. It also made her statement about 'not being fearful' seem a little less trustworthy.

Aether listened attentively as Alessia explained the situation, and felt somewhat reserved about destroying something in which she could gain so much knowledge from. Then again, that was part of their secondary objective, and Aether knew their enemies would also learn their ways if the temple were to remain standing. Ether sighed. "It is a shame that such a sacred place is to be destroyed, however hopefully we can preserve the knowledge it contains, if nothing else. I assume Captain Craske has the knowledge to pull off such a large-scale demolition?" Quizzed Aether once more. She had joined Craske on missions before, though since Aether wasn't appointed missions as much as her comrades, it meant they didn't know one-another an awful lot. Even so she knew he was quite capable, and felt confident of their success with him on their side. He had proved himself to her, so she trusted him.

'Let us hope everything goes to plan. Valkaina could do with the knowledge of this temple.' The Mirialan thought with a furrowed brow, something which she often did when thinking. Her mind went back to her master's words about knowledge once more, and she found herself silently wishing she could further her own and Valkaina's knowledge of the Jedi way. While she knew her master had distaste for the Jedi Code, he admitted there was much to be learned from them, more than she could learn from her comrades in Valkaina. She would trust the knowledge of the temple before that of her comrades.

Merak simply shook his head and chuckled softly in response to Aether's retort, he had gotten used to the other Mirialan always having something to say in retort to his teasing and never took it personally even if he did think she needed to loosen up a little more. Once again, their focus was back on the mission Master Antilles had entrusted them with as Merak and Alessia steered the Krayt Fang through Dantooine's atmosphere. As far as landings went, it was pretty smooth. Merak had done far worse, before, but thankfully Dantooine's atmosphere was stable and the worst he had to worry about was getting their cloaking activated before they got too close to ground level. The ship's systems groaned loudly in protest as he pushed the cloaking lever into the 'active' position, causing the Mirialan pilot to grimace again. He really needed to sit down with Clanker once they got back to Valkaina and run a few more diagnostics...the poor ship had taken more of a beating landing on the ice planet than perhaps he had originally thought.
"C'mon, Fang...c'mon baby girl, you can do it." some people (perhaps even Aether, due to her aversion to machines) might have thought it was silly that he talked to his ship, or even thought of it like a child of his, but Merak was incredibly fond of the Corvette regardless and not the least bit embarrassed to use nicknames in front of others. Call him crazy if they wanted, but he'd swear blind the ship responded to them.

The ship emitted another groan before a quiet "whoosh" could be heard as the cloaking devices finally activated and Merak breathed a sigh of relief. Just in time. he would observe quietly to himself, swerving to give the aerial radar dishes atop the roof of the listening post a wide berth, choosing a nearby clearing to set the ship down in. It was far enough away that their trio could approach without being spotted, but nearby enough to allow a quick escape should everything hit the exhaust fan and they have the need to get the frack out of there before they got killed. As the engines powered down, Merak leaned over and spoke into the intercom unit to make the Echani commander and his squad aware that it would be time to move soon.
"Captain Craske, we're landed. Let us know when your men are ready and we can start making a move." he didn't envy Blitz Crew for their assigned job, having to pose as Mandalorians and make sure that Merak, Aether and Alessia had an early warning of any incoming trouble. He was glad they would be sneaking past them and leaving that job to the commandos while they went about recapturing the Jedi archives hidden within the enclave.

While Craske and the two Jedi got themselves ready, Merak rose from the pilot's seat and bid the two ladies in the cockpit a temporary farewell, breezing back into the main compartment and back down the staircase that led to the main engine room where most of the ship's computer and mechanical systems were located. Here, Clanker currently sat with one such computer panel ajar, plugged into the system as it ran a diagnostic.
"How are we looking, buddy? That didn't sound so good back there...please tell me our stealth field generator isn't fried."
The series of beeps and clicks that the droid responded with didn't sound awfully comforting. "How bad is it?" Something to the effect of "pretty bad" was the KM1 unit's reply.
Groaning and running a hand through his hair in agitation, Merak's gaze drifted up to the ceiling and he muttered. "Fix it up as best you can, we just need it to work long enough to get us through this mission and then you and I can worry about fixing it properly when we get back. Just keep it from frying the engine power systems."

Merak took another detour to grab a handful of programming spikes and as many datapads as his personal backpack could carry (there was no telling how much information they would have to extract from the enclave, best to be over-prepared than under-prepared, he thought), before rejoining Alessia and Aether. "I'm as ready as I'm going to be, shall we check up with Captain Craske and get this over with?" he wasn't confident on hedging his bets that Clanker could keep the generator going enough to stop the Mandalorians from spotting the unauthorised ship in the middle of the Dantooine plains. The sooner they could get away to the enclave and back again, the better. He made sure to convey this to the two Jedi passengers.

Tan El Nali

---

Sentinel Tan sat by a holo-communicator, in his office well office was a stretch he'd seen prison cells with more space. Surrounding him documents stored on treaties, past Jedi Delegations, favors, and Republic data mixed in with the risk, the room covered in cabinets to hold it all. In the time he had been here he had organized it, cataloged the vast majority of it then had his protocol droids memorize locations of data and relevancy.

However he was currently playing a much more dangerous game... He'd located a group of rogue Republic star fighter pilots, aces from the war who had turn pirate. Currently he was bluffing his way through a call to convince them to join with the Jedi Remnant here. Currently he had used false reports, and his local infamy among Hutt's, and his half truths soon they had come to terms.

With that done he hung up and began the paper work... Again, every system with rebels or resistance was sending messages, all wanting Jedi or to be brought in. Of course they couldn't do it all, so it was his job to send it around to others or try to convince them to stick out alone longer. Anything major he took it to the council, so far nothing yet.

By the force he longed to strike something with his saber, to move and duel! His master might have been one of the orders greatest diplomats but Sentinels craved action, to do things and sitting around here waiting to be given more reports or to be barked off for not finishing the work faster made him want to shove his saber in his throat and turn it on.

Tan got up slowly, perhaps a short trip out? Find a sparing partner and relax after it's not like work was going to go anywhere... Unless it got blown up... Maybe he could find a way to blow up the office all the boring documents gone and he could just teach saber combat. The young jedi smiled at that thought, his time protecting the people in forgotten parts of the galaxy had changed his strict upbringing some.

Mazai Kiro

Maz rode the otherwise empty elevator down from the Council Chambers to the Library, as it descended she ran her hand across her head tentacles and robe in one last attempt to make sure nothing was amiss on her person before the doors opened. As she entered the library her black eyes scanned across the room, it was sparsely inhabited at these hours with only a handful of visitors throughout. After the cursory examination she promptly began to stride through every aisle of the library keeping an eye out for anything that might be amiss or someone who might be in need of some assistance. Predictably however, everything seemed to be fine, what few visitors were present were there frequent enough they knew their way around almost as well as her.

Finally she turned her attention to the holocron vault, she could feel the dark energy of the Sith Holocrons, a constant reminder that she should consider moving her desk a bit further away from the vault. As she did every day she took a moment to consider just destroying the lot of them. She'd get in trouble sure, but it might be the right thing to do. Who knows what horrible things the wrong person might be capable of with those holocrons? She'd never forgive herself if the knowledge on those holocrons ended up being used for evil. But as she had done every day prior she thought better of it and instead turned her focus to a small desk near the vault.

She took a seat at the desk and activated a datapad sitting on it from the day before. As the datapad flickered to life it revealed an ancient Jedi text. A report on the Outer Rim world of Rhen Var compiled by Jedi explorers of times long past. It detailed the architecture, geography, and geology of the planet as well as even some information on the society and culture of the now extinct native Rhen Varites. It was one of hundreds of such texts she had read since arriving on Valkaina. Though the irony of reading about a desolate lifeless ice world while living on a desolate lifeless ice world wasn't lost on her, she found the whole thing fascinating. As Valkaina was actively exemplifying, even planets that are little more than afterthoughts to the galaxy at large were absolutely invaluable. She longed to be out exploring like the Jedi who had compiled this text once were, but still recognized the importance of her task at the Temple. For now, this was more important than exploring far away worlds. Knowledge like this needed to be preserved. She shuddered at the thought of how much knowledge would be lost to apathy should the Mandalorians be ultimately victorious in their conquest of the galaxy.

Maz was however roused from her musing as she noted an adolescent Zabrak dressed in the garb of a padawan approaching her desk from the reading area out of the corner of her eye. She clasped her hands together atop her desk and smiled warmly as he approached. "Excuse me, Master Kiro?" he spoke softly to her. "Yes, what can I help you with?". He replied nervously "I-I'm looking for a text on lightsaber repair." She maintained the same smile being sure to not seem condescending or patronizing in any way, recognizing how embarrassing the situation likely was for him. She rose to her feet and put a hand on his shoulder before leading him to a holoterminal near the reading area and quickly brought up the title and places of all texts pertaining to lightsaber construction and repair. "One of these should suffice. But do be careful." He looked over the terminal taking note of everything on the display. "Thank you." Maz nodded "If you need anything else feel free to ask." she waited a moment before turning away and returning to her desk. Another thrilling adventure on Valkaina! she thought to herself as she sat down and set back to reading once more.

Wilkdon arose from his slumber like many an old man had done before. With plenty of grunting, groaning, stretching, and a few popping sounds, he sat up, slid off of the bed, and began to get dressed. Garbing himself in robes that blended the traditional dress of both the Jedi and the Luka Sene, finished with fur-lined boots that provided ample protection against the cold of the more remote sections of the Temple. Taking hold of his staff, and carefully leaning against it, Wilkdon stepped out from his room, and headed for the dining area, eager to partake in some breakfast.

Entering the dining hall, Wilkdon carefully arranged a simple meal, sitting alone at a central table. The hall was rather empty at this hour, though the morning crowd was slowly starting to trickle in. Eventually, Wilkdon found himself accompanied by a recently-anointed Knight.

"Greetings Master Rumnaheim, A-" spoke the youth, before Wilkdon raised a hand to cut him off. Please, I'm just an old man trying to do some good in this galaxy, not a Jedi Master...Call me Wilkdon." The young Jedi nodded, and spoke hesitantly "O-okay, Wilkdon. Are you enjoying your meal?"

The old man nodded, taking a sip of his beverage, and replied "It is...satisfactory. Certainly not the best meal I've had in my life, but one of the better once since we founded the Enclave, now that we finally have more reliable supply lines. But...I sense that this is not why you have chosen to sit with me...So why are you here, if I may ask?"

The youth sighed "Well Ma-..Wilkdon, sir. I w-was wondering, how do your people see, e-exactly? My Master once stated something about Force Sight, but I was never fully instructed on the matter." Wilkdon nodded softly "I can offer instruction in the future, but not today. I am willing, however, to retrieve instructional texts from our archives for you, if you so wish. And then, once you have studied them, we can convene on what you have learned. I'm planning on heading to the library after I finish my meal, so I will be sure to gather them straight away. Which dormitory do you call home?" The young knight informed Wilkdon of his residence, and after the two finished their meals they parted ways

After breakfast, Wilkdon made his trip to the library. Approaching the desk at which sat Mazai Kiro, he politely rapped his knuckles against the desk, to draw her attention. "Forgive me for the interruption, Master Kiro, but I would like some assistance. I was wondering if you could aide me in gathering our texts on the study, teaching, and application of Force Sight, and any on Miralukan anatomy. I have a new acquaintance who wishes to learn about how we see, and I'd like for him to be able to learn while I attend to other matters...Now, I'd gather the texts myself, but I'm afraid I'm not as limber as I used to be...Plus, I'd enjoy the company."

@cunfuzzler

Valdis sighed, having readied his ship for launch for the second time in the past twenty minutes, he really ought to get a droid for tasks like this. He was waiting for Maria to return before they set out on their recruitment mission, or would it be extraction? since their target was already a Jedi, either way the ship was going nowhere until her return.

He stood up and walked out the ramp, looking around the port in case she was near, spotting her talking to a Mirialan nearby. He made his way over, ignoring the looks he recieved from some of the other republic mechanics and pilots, despite being a jedi the fact that he was also a Mandalorian still got him suspicious looks and cautious glares, and the armor didn't help. "Everything is ready to go, we can leave when your ready but we should go soon" he eyes another glaring mechanic out of the corner of his helmets visor "else less friendly Mandalorians get to our jedi first" He then looked to the Mirialan, whom he didn't recognize as being on the mission originally "Will you be joining us?"

@Sohtem@DirtyDingo

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Atan stood on a small balcony area overlooking what amounted to an underground courtyard in the center of the few rooms and quarters dedicated to the Zeison Sha in the enclave. Right now some of the Zeison Sha warriors were training new initiates on the use of the discblade, some of the initiates had even been padawans from the order here, a point of tension between The Jedi and the Zeison Sha. Such tensions were inevitable, what with the two ideologies moving in together, though they are, thankfully, minor, the most he's had to deal with is two or three incidents of a Jedi knight accusing them of 'stealing' or 'seducing' their padawan but otherwise it was usually debates over clashing ideas, and Atan did his best to make sure it didn't escalate past that.

Right now, however, if he remembered correctly, Master Antilles had called for a meeting of the Jedi council in charge of this enclave, and though he was not a Jedi himself, as the pseudo-head of the Zeison Sha here he was called to participate. He should probably start on his way there now. He turned around and walked back into his quarters, setting datapad on a desk against the wall and heading out the other door.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, I was beginning to get a little stir crazy myself,” Ana gave a small chuckle, she was actually looking forward to getting out of the enclave for a bit, she’d been alone for the most part and even she could see that was starting to become unhealthy. “Yup, made sure I had everything before I came down,” Ana added, she was surprised she hadn’t forgotten what with her mind being preoccupied on other things, but no doubt it was her master’s constant reminders to always have herself prepared that kept her from forgetting.

Ana took notice to a man approaching Maria and herself, she could tell right away he was a Jedi as well, his armor giving away that he was Mandalorian too, something that she was surprised to see within the ranks of the Jedi all things considered, then again she sort of was a Mandalorian as well, so perhaps it wasn’t all that strange after all. “Oh, yes, my name’s Zelliana Nasan, but you can just call me Ana, everyone else does,” she responded cheerily when the Mandalorian Jedi addressed her.

She was quite curious about the mission they were going on, she felt much wasn’t told about what they’d be doing, so either she hadn’t been fully listening when it was being discussed or it was being kept purposely vague, though considering how she usually was, she didn’t put it past herself to have not paid attention, “So what exactly is this mission we’re going on?” She asked no one in particular.

Mazai Kiro

Maz quickly closed the report on Rhen Var as Wilkdon tapped on her desk. Turning her gaze instead up towards the elder Miraluka, he was always a welcome sight. As she listened to his request for texts on force sight and Miralukan anatomy she began to take a mental inventory of the library she knew the section which held most of the texts on force sight and most other 'force sense' abilities. But Miralukan anatomy was something she would have to look up in the archive database. There wasn't much demand for books on most species' anatomy, she felt a little bit of excitement at the request actually, it was something new at the very least.

"Oh, trust me, you're not interrupting anything, just a boring Jedi reading about an extinct culture and the history of an lifeless planet. It would be my absolute pleasure to assist you. It is what I'm here for after all." She smiled and scooped up the datapad from her desk as she rose to her feet cradling it in both hands in front of her. Once she was standing she looked up at Wilkdon once more. "Now let's not disappoint your new acquaintance." Walking around the side of her desk as she spoke unti she was beside Wilkdon. "If you'd follow me, most everything we have on force sight should be just this way." She began towards a large shelf of holobooks across the library as her gaze drifted down to the datapad before her once more. The screen now categorically displaying the library's database, she methodically tapped on it's screen looking to find where exactly texts on Miraluka anatomy would be.

@DepressedSoviet

---

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Luthor felt restless standing in the council chambers, which would be barren were it not for the low-legged round marble table and set of five spherical armchairs. The aging Jedi master paced back and forth as he would any day when his schedule was clear, being sure to make himself readily available and easily found for any initiate, trooper or pilot whom needed his attention. With a low grunt he reached into the inside of his robes and pulled forth a holocron, though it was far from ordinary. Whereas a Jedi holocron would usually be of a cubed or dodecahedral shape, this one seemingly morphed and shifted shapes between those and the form of a pyramid, being entirely unable to keep a solid state for any longer than a few seconds once it touched the Jedi master's cold, wrinkled palm. Antilles paused for a moment and then sighed, focusing his energies into the holocron, causing it to activate; as he tapped into the force to make use of the device, a strange, almost solid red goo began to writhe and fluctuate with energy before projecting a blue light towards the Jedi master's face.

"Furthermore this is also the reason there can only be one Dark Lord. The Sith must be ruled by a single leader: the very embodiment of thestrength and power of the dark side. If the leader grows weak another must rise to seize the mantle. The strong rule; the weak are meant to serve. That is the way it must be." He explained, almost matter of factly before quickly ending the recording and hiding away the holocron once more. From the knowledge he'd gained from this holocron, Luthor knew without a doubt that this Sith holocron was even older an artefact than the order had initially believed, and he almost felt guilty adding further knowledge of the dark side to it's databanks. But the man was so resolute in his belief on how to attain a true balance in the force, that he had no qualms adding his own input into this holocron, which oozed with the energies of the dark side into his palm. It was a rare thing, for an artefact to have such influence. But it was a risk he was willing to take.

For knowledge, is power.

---

@Delta44 @The Elvenqueen

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"I believe that course of action would be prudent, yes." Alessia replied to Merak, her well spoken mannersisms sounding slightly less out of place due to Aether's presence. With that, the three of them set off down the hallways towards the cargo hold; where the Blitz Crew had been double-triple checking their equipment since the Fang dropped out of hyperspace. As she'd expected, Craske and his men were standing around, absolutely itching to get into the fray. The padawan looked around the hold at the squad, it was comprised almost entirely of humans. The only exceptions being Errorkh, an incredibly old Trandoshan with almost black-green scxales and a penchant for seeing things burn, Qavii, a Zabrak sniper with a talent the likes of which Alessia had never seen in her relatively short life and of course captain Cato Craske himself. The Echani was visibly displeased with the weight of the snow-white beskar armour that adorned the bodies of he and his team.

"Ten-hut, captain on deck!" Bellowed the gruff and husky voice of captain Craske, being followed by the crunching sound of armoured legs clapping together and soles stepping on the steel flooring of the hold. The team's leader proceeded to eyeball his squad for the slightest movement which had not been requested.Tthe Blitz Crew were an old-school unit as far as republic commando teams were concerned, dating all the way back to the great sith war, and Cato Craske had been around since the unit was formed. A career soldier, Craske's squad said more about his character than any of his actions could.

Alessia would have been lying if she said she wasn't startled by the flawless uniformity of the commandos, it was as the room fell silent again; that she began to speak, but was quickly cut off by Craske. "I weren't talking about you, padawan." He said, almost growling as he spoke. Craske then turned his attention to Merak, awaiting orders for he and his fellows. To an outsider it would seem as though Cato wasn't particularly fond of the Jedi order, though this simply was not the case. The Echani simply had too much respect for the men and women who flew the various fireteams into combat. Something that had gotten him into trouble with a few of the less tame Jedi before.

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@Sohtem @Zetsuko

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Nodding to Valdis as she neared the ramp she listened to him with intent, Maria joined the captain of the Amber Dragon atop the boarding ramp. Ever since meeting him for the first time Maria always held Valdis in very high regard. As a padawan, Luthor would always tell her and her sister stories of the mandalorian wars, the hardships of a galactic-wide war and of course would teach them the tactics employed by the mandalorians during the campaign. Though he would always tell them he hoped that the war would be over before it was their time to fight it. The woman chuckled to herself slightly, 'look how well that went.' “So what exactly is this mission we’re going on?” Ana had asked, but in truth, Maria didn't know much about this mission either. No-one ever did when they went out on a recruitment mission, pretty much all the details the enclave's spies had managed to get through the channels in the latest update were 'Tatooine, Mos Eisley.' At least they had a starting point this time.

"As far as we know, our target is currently taking an off day on Tatooine. She goes by the name of Harma Allyn and has been working as a mercenary around the galaxy since the war 'ended.'" Maria explained, not a second afterwards the blinking red lights which indicated a vessel being cleared for take off began to flash. With that, she looked to Ana and motioned to the group that the three of them should board the Dragon and perform their prep-work on the ship.

"Valdis Freyr, or sa a Mando Adann Stal" He introduced himself to Ana after she gave her name, this was followed by Maria answering her question about their mission as they headed into The Amber Dragon. As the lights came on he turned to Ana one more time before boarding the ship "I don't know if you have all of your gear together or not but if you have missed anything you needn't worry, I keep some spare things on the ship" he tipped his head toward the entryway "come on and find a seat, we can finish prep in hyperspace"

He walked in and went to the cockpit, taking the controls so they could take off. Once they had got off world, as he didn't have a droid, he had to manually prep the engine and input coordinates for the hyperspace jump himself. His attention was on the controls while he did this, leaving Maria and Ana to their own devices, he couldn't help but feel just a bit of excitement, glad to be on something other than a supply run at least. Once he was done and they were underway he leant back in his chair and looked to his passengers, giving Maria a short nod before looking to see if Ana had actually forgotten any of her kit.

@Sohtem@DirtyDingo

Merak blinked in surprise and glanced between Alessia, who looked perhaps a bit shocked at being told to to pipe down, and the Echani commander who seemed to be waiting expectantly for him to say something. The Mirialan pilot was at a loss, not used to having much of an authority over other people at all, (even if it was simply in someone else's viewpoint of him), rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he stammered. “Oh, uh….well thank you, Commander Craske, sir, but Alessia and Aether have most of the mission details, I'm just the errand boy!” a nervous chuckle escaped him as he flashed the two Padawans another apologetic look, inviting them to correct any errors or missing info in his explanation. “The three of us are going to retrieve as much archive data from the raided enclave as we can, but to do that we need your men on the perimeter to give us advanced warning of approaching Mandalorians so we know when our times up and we need to get out of there.”
Clanker would remain with the ship to ensure that the Fang would be prepped and ready for a possible abrupt exit. “We don't want anybody getting hurt if we can help it, the goal for you is to blend in not to cause trouble for the Mandalorians though if it comes to a firefight we have to get this info out of their possession and back to Master Antilles on Valkaina. So if there's nothing I've missed that the Jedi would like to add, all I can say is do what you do best and good luck.” He wasn’t going to try and tell the Blitz squad how to do their job, he knew they were one of the best crews they had and had an immense level of respect for every one of them.

“Oh, well lucky them,” she responded in a jokingly sarcastic tone, after they finished discussing what little they knew of the mission and the pleasantries were done with Ana boarded the ship with Valdis and Maria, she was curious of how Valdis came to be with the Jedi, most people held prejudices towards them and she imagined that even the Jedi would be reluctant to have one in their ranks, but she knew it wasn’t her place to question such things.

Once they were off, Ana checked over her gear once more, everything she needed seemed to be there, at least it was one less thing to worry about, she still couldn’t help but be curious about the mission they were going on, however with none of them knowing anything further, pressing for more information would be impossible. Seeing as there wasn’t much to do, she set her bag to the side and then sat down on the floor of the ship, closing her eyes as she began to meditate and try and calm herself a little more, she may have been keeping a decent outward appearance, but inside, she was still feeling a whirlwind of emotions that wanted to come to the surface.

“There is no emotion, there is peace...” she whispered to herself, feeling the emotions inside beginning to settle a little.

What little peace she managed with her emotions didn’t last however, once more they came swirling back and her meditation was broken, “Alright, guess that won’t work, perhaps a distraction will ease my thoughts,” Ana spoke to herself once more; glancing over to the cockpit, she added, “Suppose learning a little how to fly a ship could help,” she then made her way over to Valdis, “Think you could teach me a little on how to fly a ship? If it’s not too much trouble I mean,” Ana never had much interest in piloting, but knew she would need to learn one day and unfortunately, her previous master never got the chance to teach her.

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@Delta44 @The Elvenqueen

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"As you can all well imagine, the equipment the Mandos have set up inside will be heavily guarded. We will have to move fast and quietly. Craske, if you and your men can somehow remove the guards from the scanners and communications interceptors without killing them, that should give us a little more time inside the acadamy. However, do not let this idea compromise the mission. If you feel that being rid of the guards is a necessity then, well...I don't have to tell you what to do. Once we give the call that Merak has completed the datamine, you are to detonate the charges and rendezvous with us back here." Alessia added once her comrade had finished speaking. The commandos responded with grunts and nods of agreement and quickly set off, they didn't need to be told any more.

With the Blitz Crew off on their assignment, Alessia nodded to her comrades and set off in the opposite direction, with Merak and Aether tightly in tow, the pilot with his vibroknife in hand and the two Jedi with their lightsabers at the ready, just in case they were to fall unto some terrible luck and get themselves detected early on. After a short while of moving slowly through a light patch of forest, leading up to the enclave's rear, the small strike team had made their way to a ridgeline overlooking the courtyard. There, Alessia noticed that Craske and his men had gotten substantially ahead of them and were already hiding the bodies of the first patrol they had encountered. With a look of amazement on her face, Alessia tucked her body in and rolled, slowly sliding down the incline at the ridgeline, Merak and Aether acted accordingly and followed their human companion down the slope in their own respective manners. As they reached the bottom, Craske ordered his men into what Alessia could only assume was a sub-level of the structure.

The strike team then ducked into cover behind a set of large crates stacked up on each other. Not long after, a large patrol of Mandalorian infantrymen, numbering at least fifteen came out into the courtyard from the main entrance. "These men, plus those already slain by the Blitz Crew must account for the majority of the patrolling troops stationed here. If we were to take them out we'd be able to move around with far less risk of being discovered. Or we can let them pass. No telling how long they'll be here though. As much as it pains me to say, I feel our best option here is to engage. How about you two?" Alessia whispered, feeling a little like her sister with the suggestion. Which bothered her slightly, as she always went to great lengths to seperate herself from her sister in both her actions, and personality.