Main Menu

EXT. DEEP SPACE SILENT BLACK.

We sweep slowly across an endless tapestry of stars. A SHIP ROARS INTO FRAME: the N.R.S.S. Crossroad, a small scout vessel that moves under full ion thrust past the camera. As it does so, the camera tracks the ship's path, thus bringing the green and blue sphere of DANTOOINE into frame. Although the small vessel is obviously well-maintained, it is every bit as weathered and beaten as the planet is pristine.

INT. CROSSROAD COCKPIT

Piloting the ship toward DANTOOINE is CROSS, a uniformed woman in her early to mid-twenties. She speaks into the vidcom:

CROSS
(good naturedly)
…my authorization code is AC-5023, ground control; on detached duty from the New Republic Scouting Service. I apologize for arriving behind schedule, I was unavoidably detain--

INTERCOM
(Interrupting.)
Confirmed, Crossroad; proceed on current heading to landing area 2. Do not deviate from your current route, do not alter speed or bearing. Deviation will result in surface anti-ship batteries engaging.

CROSS
(After a surprised pause.)
Affirmative, control. Crossroad out.

Gyasi Vai is heading towards his mid-afternoon Lightsaber practices when he is met in the passage by his master. Master Dev informs Gyasi that he should pack his things and meet him in the main visitor’s chamber. Gyasi is somewhat confused by this schedule change, but as he comes from a warrior culture and considers Dev his superior, he acquiesces without question or comment. Gyasi is a 'Casgair' from the remote planet Kester, a warlike, tribe-based species who are basically human in appearance except for small goat-like horns that lie closely against the back of the skull. Casgair are also completely hairless.

Dar Vorthane is likewise heading for his next instruction, but has stopped off in his rooms for supplies when he is interrupted by a knock on his door. It is his own master, Kiri (Dev’s wife). She tells Dar to pack his gear and go to the main visitor’s chamber. Dar does so without further question or comment. Dar is an extremely large human. Coming in at around 6'9", Dar was, amazingly, a pilot for the Rebellion before coming to Dantooine to study the way of the Jedi -- suffice it to say that neither role is the first that one might guess he excels at -- he's been referred to as 'a wookie in a human suit' more than once.

Cross lands her ship (the Crossroad) safely on the slightly swaying landing platform of the concealed Jedi base, despite the downpour. She debarks the ship and is met by Nalak, a nearly-human male with blue skin and bright red eyes. Nalak escorts Cross to the main visitor’s chambers, where she is left with instructions to make herself comfortable. Cross helps herself to some juice, and flips through the pointedly not-rare and not-banned history books in the shelves nearby

Gyasi, Dar, and Master Dev arrive in the visitor’s lounge at roughly the same time. (Cross is somewhat frustrated by not being able to identify Gyasi's species precisely.) Pleasantries are exchanged and introductions made before the arrival of one of the senior (and quite aged) masters of the Academy. He is somewhat cantankerous about the entire affair, and soon leaves, instructing Master Dev to complete the briefing.

Dev does so, informing the group that the purpose of the meeting is to organize and dispatch a group to locate and recover certain texts and artifacts that were once stored in the Jedi Academy’s Library on Coruscant, during the Old Republic. Once thought entirely destroyed, it appears that while Palpatine did dispose with a large portion of the library’s generic texts, he did not destroy many of the more valuable and esoteric items, instead securing them for his own use and transporting them to several secret locations. Intelligence from the New Republic has indicated a few possible hiding spots, and it has fallen to the members of the Academy to investigate, as the forces of the New Republic are stretched far too thinly at the moment to be of assistance.

The Academy has chosen Master Dev to handle this task, and assigned him two padawan learners whose non-Jedi training prior to arriving at the Academy should pre-dispose them to survival in inhospitable situations. Further, Lieutenant Cross has been assigned by the New Republic Scout Service to detached duty with the Academy. Ostensibly, this is because of Lt. Cross’ academic degrees relating to areas of research invaluable to these tasks, but it is more likely that the N.R. chose Cross because she owns her own ship -- in assigning her, the New Republic will not have to provide any of their own equipment.

Oddly, Cross isn’t complaining.

After a quick refuel and bunk assignments on the Crossroad (Dar and Gyasi share a cabin, while Cross and Dev each have one to themselves), the ship takes off and Dar and Cross calculate a somewhat slow (36 hours), but safer heading into the nest of wandering nebulae and drifting inter-system storms known Myto’s Arrow, home to the desert planet Gabredor II, a planet on which Palpatine may have made use of a ‘special cave’ for a storage point -- more information is not available. The 'Myto's Arrow' zone was once an experimental new trade route between Dantooine and the nearby Obtrextor Sector, but has long since fallen into disuse.

During the first day of the trip, Cross avoids the Jedi and works on a backup shield generator. She isn’t able to concentrate on the task at hand, however, and ends up shorting out the generator entirely.

Meanwhile, Dev sets the padawan several difficult (for them) tasks involving strong control over their abilities. These two fairly simple tasks occupy the young Jedis’ day.

After a sleep period, the ship is closing in on it’s destination. Upon arising, Cross pulls out a small but valued text she has possessed and kept hidden for years: a collection of Jedi meditations she located in a library on Coruscant – small enough to have been missed during the Jedi Purge. Opening to a random page, she reads:

Cross frowns to herself, and re-hides the book.

Upon arrival in-system, the Crossroad pulls into low orbit over Gabredor II? and initiates a standard scanning flight-pattern, looking for any indications of habitation. After several passes, the crew has located no notable energy patterns, some trace signs of lower-order life, and absolutely nothing that looks like a cave full of Ancient Jedi Lore. Finally, Cross resorts to simple visual scans of the planet at high resolution, during which she notices an unnaturally flattened hilltop in the midst of a badlands-like area in the center of the largest continent.

Cross: "How about that? That might be something."

Dev: "It’s a hill."

Cross: "It’s a flat hill."

Dev: "And?"

Cross: "It’s the only noticeably flat hill that I’ve seen, when you look at a whole planet and see something unlike everything else, and absolutely nothing like the cave we’re looking for, then that’s where you go."

Dev: "… okay, you’ve got my vote…"

… and the ship descends.

Upon the debarking the ship, the group notices what <i>might </i>be a footpath leading away from the top of the hill. They proceed to follow this path, and eventually come to an open depression facing a large overhanging cliff pockmarked with cave openings. (The overhang having hidden the caves from the ship's scanners.)

Much comparison is done between the various cave mouths to determine the correct one, until finally Cross decides save some time and extend her ‘special abilities’ that she is trying to keep secret. (Her habit is to use this abilities more during scouting missions when she is alone, and her instinct takes over here, despite the Jedi Master nearby.) She ‘feels’ that one of the cave mouths possesses a certain ‘attentive energy’, as though more sentient thought had been focused in that area than in others. She contrives a quick ‘discovery’ of a boot print near that cave mouth, and the group proceeds inside, discovering a man-made passage within.

Things go smoothly... for about 50 feet. Not long thereafter, Dar (who is bringing up the rear), hears something behind him and turns to see several hukora: bipedal, semi-intelligent humanoids covered in an armored carapace the makes their appendages deadly weapons. The creatures, whose heads are vaguely vulture-like, communicate through a staccato clicking which fills the passage. Although Dar and Cross both try to drive the creatures off by firing blasters 'near' them, combat ensues, during with Dev is wounded. The Jedi eventually realize that the creatures are being generated by an unusually powerful holo-projector, and disable it. Dev turns out to not be injured.

Not far down the passage after this diversion, the group comes upon a door, which appears to be operated by some sort of hand-print identification device (although the hand-print device is carved from some sort of stone). The door is made of the same stone, and proves impervious to lightsabers(!) After much experimentation, Dar realizes that the stone is imbued with the Force. He sends some Force energy into the stone through his touch, and the door opens.

Within is a small monk's cell, consisting of a sleeping pad (long out of use), and a wide sink that could almost double as a wash basin. Water pours into this basin continuously, and likewise disappears through several drains. Nothing else is of note in the room; except for the door on the back side of the room... oh, that and the fact that the FIRST door just closed, and there doesn't seem to be a way to open it from the inside.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

The group opens the second door to discover a room entirely walled in bookshelves (extremely rare, since paper products are practically unheard of.) Most of the books are completely rotted through, but the real treasure sits unharmed in the center of the chamber. What can only be a Jedi Holocron rests on a featureless plinth. The Holocron is carved in bas-relief in Old Corellian. Cross skims the dialect and surmises that the text details the procedure for creating the Holocron in the first place.

She also notes 4 finger-sized holes on two opposing faces of the cube, but opts AGAINST testing the fit. Instead, she proceeds to slide the 1ft. stone cube off the base, but as she slides it, she notices that the plinth it rests on is carved, but only on the top face. The text being exposed by the movement of the Holocron is written in an even more ancient dialect, and reads (Cross thinks): "You'd better find the real Holocron, fast."

The plinth starts to sink into the floor. The group does it's best imitation of a flock of decapitated chickens. Dev reaffirms the previous assertion that lightsabers cannot get through the outer door. Cross manages to determine that the real Holocron is within the plinth itself, but that too proves impervious to Dev's weapon.

Dar saves the group at the last moment in a desperate 'Oh, why NOT.' attempt to disable the trap using water from the outer room's fountain. This not only works, but releases the true Holocron.

As the group is packing up, the distinctive sound of an approaching ship propels Cross into a flat-out run (though she is passed quickly by Gyasi).

Near the landing site, another ship is coming to ground -- N.R.S.S. memos had recently mentioned the appearance of the 'Skipray Blastboat' among Imperial Forces and certain Outer Rim smuggling organizations, but Cross hadn't actually seen holo's of it. She understands now why the N.R. Scout orders are 'do NOT engage'.

As the ship (barely) sets down, four armored figures leap from the craft, heading towards the group at a full run. Their armor is black, and obviously quick thick, but does not seem to hinder their movements in the least. (One fellow actually leaps nimbly over a comrade who stumbled when Cross shot him in the leg -- not something you'd ever see a Stormtrooper pull off).

The battle is heated. Cross is wounded by blaster fire, and Gyasi (the only Padawan with a Lightsaber) has difficulty even breaching his opponent's armor. Dar is struck on at least two separate occasions, but surprises both his enemies and his allies by brushing off what would, on a mere mortal, have been enough to put him down for the count. Dev engages two of the soldiers while Cross makes a beeline for the Crossroad. Dar sets his blaster aside for the more satisfying 'hands-on' approach.

By the time Cross (dodging blaster fire from both a soldier AND the Skipray!) makes it to the ship and sends PD-9R to retrieve her backpack, three of the four soldiers are down, and the Skipray is lifting off and swinging it's missile bays to bear on the battle below. As the Skipray lifts, a robed (and armored) figure leaps out of the open hatch, igniting a Lightsaber as it charges Dev.

Seeing the Skipray setting up for a nasty surprise, Cross hops into the gun turret and brings the guns online, targeting the missile bay on the Skipray. Dev and his robed opponent kick up a huge cloud of dust as they engage. Gyasi rushes to assist his master as best he can as Dar puts the finishing touches on the last soldier.

The ground shakes, the skies darken... the Angels looks down from the heavens and say, "Damn, that's a lot of Force Points."

Within seconds, it's over. Cross manages to fire a barrage into the missile bay, sending the Skipray up in a fireball before it can... fire. Dev is wounded in the fight, but his opponent simply can't keep up with two opponents -- Gyasi takes full advantage of the warrior ignoring his Padawan-self and lops off a chunk of Dark Jedi. Dev finishes the job.

While collecting PD-9R from the battlefield (the Droid had successfully retrieved the backpack, but had accidentally tripped and deactivated itself in the process of returning to the ship), Dar notices a dark presence near the Droid, coming from a 'rock outcropping' that 9R had tripped over. With Cross' direction and 9R helping to dig, the group unearths an INCREDIBLY ancient fighter craft covered in writings Cross cannot even identify, let alone read. Dev opines that it might be the ancient tongue of the Sith. The ship had apparently crash-landed here eons ago. The cockpit interior (empty of corpses) has no physical controls other than a double-grip steering mechanism which boasts (?) a means of drawing blood from the pilot while it was in use. The ship was apparently controlled by the sheer will of the pilot, and reeked of the Dark Side. It was evidently some soft of craft from one of the Ages of the Sith, making it possibly 4 thousand, but more likely either 10 or 25 thousand years old!

Before the group could continue excavation, the Crossroad's proximity sensors chimed, indicating that more incoming craft had been detected. Running to the ship, Cross counts four more Skiprays dropping out of high orbit and racing towards the landing site. The group beats a hasty retreat, and the 'rays do not follow. The Crossroad jumps to hyperspace and Dev confronts Cross about her largely untrained Force abilities.

With the Holocron safely aboard, but the dark mystery of the Sith ship still hanging like a cloud over Gabredor II, the Jedi make their way back towards Dantooine to recover and evaluate their discoveries.

ARC Logs