Shikkar's Log

[shikkar-log]

Visions

It attempted to sleep again, and was haunted by dreams of the Jedi Temple, only everything was too big.

The training is to be mental. Visas wishes to connect with our minds. We may see things. She takes Rekha’s and Vazar’s hands to guide them, but does not touch it.

It sees itself. It stands. It is armed. It sees what could have been, dying to Parang. It sees its fight against Parang. It sees its mistakes. Now the fight against Lanvarok. Better, but not perfect. “The least useful of tools.” It hears said in its voice.

A shift. No longer ghostly images. Fully realised. Lanvarok is kneeling before the Master.

“Made significant progress with its time with the Jedi. This is good. You have not.”

“Master, the mine-”

“I do not care about the mine. I am disappointed that you were beaten so easily.”

The Master called it the least useful tool, but only because it is not in hand. It is sharpening. He said that if it meets here again, it will kill her, or she will kill it. And then it fades out.

Visas leaves us alone so we have some time to rest, and Vazar suggests we meditate together. He and Rekha link hands, he holds his other out to it. Reluctantly, it took it.

It sees a vision of this room, there is a woman sitting across from it, reaching out to it. It feels Safe. This is wrong.

It is somewhere else. A forest, a jungle, it is overwhelmed, it is being electrocuted. It sees the back of someone, large and muscled. The woman, the Jedi, she is dying. She is dead. It is lifted, and all goes black.

It is convulsing. It is scared. Visas is back. It wants to leave. It cannot leave. It cannot leave.

It makes itself leave.

Visas asks it “What does it want?”

It runs. Runs. Runs.. It has never been here before. It has never been here before. It has never been here before. Living quarters. This place is long abandoned.

It smells like her.

Focus.

Visas reaches out, she says she has an interest in seeing it well maintained. It ignores her.

It tries to think of it’s Master’s words, but they slowly change into a woman’s voice, telling it that it will make a great Jedi.

It runs again. More abandoned places. They are all familiar. It has never been here before.

It returns to the living quarters, and calls out to its Master. It is answered.

“Tool.”

“Task?” It tried to putt all of its misery into that one word.

“Very well.” The connection was broken.

The room feels sad. It opens the closet and tears a piece of robe off that smells like her. It does not know why it does this. It returns to the room assigned to it. Vazar checks in on it. It assures him it is functional.

It does not try to sleep that night.

[shikkar-log]

Trial

It attempted to sleep rather than meditate through the night. It was not successful. It went to the Room of a Thousand Fountains. It is calming here. It can sense that something is coming. Before it can attempt to focus in on the feeling, it is interrupted by Master Atton who questions it. It admits to killing Parang, and how it did so. He attempts some sort of parable. It does not understand. It returns to its room.

There is a Council meeting in the morning, and we are given a new mission. Following up from the data from Parang’s navcomputer, we are going to Sriluur - the Weequay home world - to try and track her associates.

In orbit of the planet, it is able to sense that there is a strong Force presence near the southern pole, but it does know who it is. We decide to land two klicks out and walk to the small settlement to try and avoid detection. However, a quarter of a klick out there is a sensor perimeter, and no simple way to avoid it. As we pass, three swoop bikes approach us. Vazar knows one of the riders. His name is Lucian Starfire, and there is a bad history between them. Lucian is being paid by a benefactor who had an “interest” in us.

They then escort us to the base, a series of unremarkable prefab buildings at the base of a large mesa, where we are lead to a building that is slightly larger than the rest. It is some form of logistics hub, with a holotable map of a series of tunnels going into the mesa.

There is a tall human woman with a breathing mask. She is who it is here for. She introduces herself as Lanvarok, and commends if for slaying Parang. She extends and offer to Rekha and Vazar to work for the Master. It is told it must continue its tests.

We are given rooms for the night, ostensibly for Rekha and Vazar to think over the offer. Vazar told us his past with Lucian, how they were both Jedi initiates who joined the corps together, and later struck out independently. Vazar repaired technology, and worked support as Lucian went out on bounty hunting jobs. They were... Close.

Over time, Lucian started to take more jobs alone. And eventually Vazar found out that he’d been taking on jobs to hunt down the remains of the Jedi Order. Vazar pursued Lucian on his latest job, following him into an old mining complex. It was too late to save the Jedi there, but he decided to save any future targets by collapsing the mine on Lucian. He thought it had killed him. Clearly he was wrong.

Further rumination is interrupted by a guard entering, saying that Lanvarok wished to see it. Vazar and Rekha were clearly wary of this, but it told them it would be fine.

It was led to a smaller building, near the logistics hub. The guard remained outside as it entered. Lanvarok was there, as well as another stasis pod. There was a cup on the desk, next to a datapad. Lanvarok ordered it to drink from the cup, it picked up the datapad to read instead.

“Lanavarok

Parang is dead, killed by Shikkar. It has found great success in infiltrating the Jedi, as I knew it would. I want you to test it’s-”

The pad was taken from it. It was asked why it looked at it, and it responded that it was looking for its Master’s orders, as it took orders from its Master, not Lanvarok. Lanvarok responded that those were her orders, not its, and to drink from the cup.

It drinks from the cup. It is drugged. It could resist it. It does not. It must continue its trials. Lanvarok caught it as it started to fall, holding it as it lost consciousness. It does not understand why, but it was... Nice.

It awoke in the tunnels. Lanvarok is there. It is time for another trial. It is being tested to see if it is enough for the task ahead.

We fight. It has improved since Parang. There was an explosion. It takes advantage of the distraction, and cut Lanvarok’s breathing mask off. It is close enough to see that her eyes are clouded. Vazar and Rekha were there. It was winning. The caves were collapsing. Lanvarok went another way.

We are out of the caves, the dust settling as it went to the logistics hub. There was a second exit from the tunnels on the other side of the plateau. It retrieved Lanvarok’s datapad, then began its pursuit.

It commandeered a swoop bike, and made it to the other exit. Rekha was following it on a swoop of her own. It spotted another swoop escaping in the distance. Lanvarok.

She made it to a landing pad and escaped. JayThree picked up Rekha and itself from the desert in the ship, returning to the mining base. There had been another of the fighters there, and Vazar was able to check the navlogs on it, she had been to Sleheyron and Nar Shaddaa.

On the way back to Coruscant, it looked at Lanvarok’s datapad. The Master’s message said that we were both to survive the test. It has not failed. She had also made notes about sensing a hidden holocron that had once been on Korriban.

We returned and were debriefed by the Council. They ask questions about The Master. It answers questions on his teachings, but not his identity. We are to receive specialised training.

It took the datapad, memorised its Master’s message, then cleared it of all data except that about the missing holocron, then gave it to Bao-Dur. He thanked it for trusting him.

[shikkar-log]

Success

There is hope. JayThree informs us that the engine on the fighter is leaking, allowing us to track her. it has not failed yet.

As we are in hyperspace, it spoke to JayThree. The woman must die, and it could not have the others interfering. She would kill them. He was programmed to protect the Jedi. It is not a Jedi. He should keep the Jedi on the ship whilst it fulfilled its mission. He refused to assist it.

As we broke atmosphere on the forested planet, the others coming to the cockpit, it moved to the airlock. Rekha noticed it, but did not move to stop it. It left the ship, leaving the others behind. At least it had a head start.

It could sense its Master’s other tool, and moved through the deep floor of the forest quickly. It was briefly waylaid by some arachnid creatures long enough for Rekha and Vazar to catch up to it, but it left them to deal with the beasts.

It found her. She did not know where The Master was. But her gave her instructions to draw it out. And that only one weapon could leave the confrontation alive. It did not fight as well as it could have. There was a moment where it could see what would have been a killing blow that was just barely dodged. She threw it into her fighter, and for a moment consciousness was lost. It did not expect to wake up again.

Only then, Rekha was there. Her hand on its shoulder, it could feel her taking some of her wounds from it. Together, Rekha, Vazar and it, subdued her. She was unconscious on the floor, and it finished the task. The others were clearly uncomfortable with the decision it made, but it was easily justifiable to their sensibilities.

They started to examine the clearing she has landed her fighter in, it went to examine the small shelter along side it. There was a familiar looking stasis pod inside, a large case of more Eralam crystals. And a datapad with a message on it.

‘Parang

I understand the logic of not drawing unwanted attention, but I desire the attention this sale will create. Another of my tools - Shikkar - will come to investigate. It will follow to the facility on Kashyyk, where only one of my weapons will leave alive.

Master Esai-Urr’

The return trip to Coruscant was subdued. The case has been delivered. It found a place to hide the datapad in the room it has been given, a small space behind a vent cover. There was a debrief with the Jedi Council, the others were discreet about its interactions with Parang and the exact nature of her death.

It tried to reach out to its Master again, and received a vision. The Master setting up the camp on Kashyyk. His plan stretches, months, years, and will involve other weapons.

The Jedi have it attending classes alongside Rekha and Vazar. Lightsaber skills and deflection with Master Atton and the mechanics of lightsabers with Master Bao-Dur. Of all the Masters on the Council, it is Master Bao-Dur who seems to most understand it as a weapon. The others keep having misapprehensions of personhood about it.

[shikkar-log]

Failure

Practise.

New mission. Investigate someone selling Eralam lightsaber crystals on Balasco. Arai, the planet the crystals were originally mined from was bombarded in the Great Hyperspace War, and all sources were thought lost.

The journey is uneventful.

We find a stall selling the crystals, the stall holder ran at the sight of Rekha and Vazar. It pursued.

He was caught quickly. He bought the crystals from a woman, who said she had found a way to get the crystals off Arai. It was previously only three or four a time, this time it was a whole pack of them. She has no schedule to her visits; anything from a tenday to half a year. She was last seen five to seven days ago. He ran because the woman told him that if any Jedi saw him with the crystals, they would kill him. Vazar and Rekha assure him this is untrue, and buy the lightsaber quality crystals from the man.

We travel to Arai. The planet is a blasted void. There is, however, a fighter and a cleared cave entrance that leads to a natural crystal cavern. It is the woman from the vision. She could sense it, even through its cloaking of itself. She mentioned the Master.

It attacks. The others decide to join in. They will die. She will kill them.

JayThree joins the battle with his heavy blaster. -a crystal is shattered and it holds so much pain-

She chooses to leave. It pursues.

She escaped.

It had failed.

[shikkar-log]

Tasks

We are being sent to Sorjus to meditate a dispute between the Paaerduag and the Republic. We have been assigned a ship, and a droid to pilot it for us. His designation is SD-J3D1, he prefers JayThree. He is a refitted combat droid, customised by Bao-Dur. He has a lot of personality.

The journey was uneventful, the others left it alone. Once we arrived, we were taken to the offices of one of the Republic officials.

There are multiple issues. Supplies are being stolen. Then Republic rebuilding blueprints are inaccessible to the native Paaerduag. The Republic believe the Paaerduag are stealing to delay the construction. The Paaerduag want to try and find a missing architect who has made accessible plans.

Racial tensions are high. A riot almost started because of an incident between a human worker and a Paaerduag, but it helped defuse the situation.

Rekha and Vazar return to the ship to research the architect.

It has laid a trap for the thieves. Supplies have been sent to an empty building, to be installed tomorrow. Only the security forces know that they are there. It will wait.

Four thieves, wearing stealth field generators. Three humans and one Chandra-Fan. Two are captured (one of the humans and the Chandra-Fan). Non-lethal force was used, the prisoners were given to the local authorities.

It returned to the ship to pass what remained of the night.

We started the day intending to go to the architect's apartment, where they were kidnapped from. Only to discover that Tekli - the Chandra-Fan- has had a release order put in for him.

It politely questions Tekli. He tells it that he works for The Exchange, his boss is El'siphonen'kael, and the identity of the mole in the security force.

We then tracked Tekli once he was released, he led us to The Exchange headquarters. We entered via the roof, finding a large server bank. Vazar managed to gain access and gets a datadump, disables the building's turrents, and found the architect: Jo'vishanan'kael.

Heading through the building, we pass Tekli getting tortured, find the architect; and start to leave. There is a brief engagement on the ground floor, it takes some small blaster burns, but is still functional.

We return to the military base, alert them to the remaining Exchange members and their base. The architect can provide The Republic with accessible plans for the starport. Mission Success.

We return to Coruscant.

It's Master is out there. It sensed him for an instant on the way to Sorjus. And on the way back it received a vision. A woman. It must find her. But is it to kill her, or something else? It is disquieting without Master. It lacks purpose.

[shikkar-log]

[shikkar-log]

Awakening

Awaken from stasis. Master is not here. Jedi have the stasis pod.

People found the base. Abandoned.

This must be a test.

They asked questions. It answers. They ask how long it has been in stasis. It does not know. They ask if it has heard of the Mandalorian Wars. It has not. They ask what it is. It is a weapon.

They show it items retrieved from the base. The vibroblade its Master had given it for tasks before is there. Rusted, corrosion on the powerpack. It has been some time.

This is a test.

The Jedi have seemingly no issues with wielding a a weapon. But lack the skill to do so effectively.

It is taken to a training room and introduced to the two others it shall be working with. Rekha Kithra and Vazar Brooklet.

It was told to spar with them. They are not completely defenceless, but greatly lacking.

The Jedi do not seem to prepare their students for actual combat. And place many unrealistic restrictions upon combat. No use of the Force, and no attacks to cause harm. No wonder there are so few of them left.