Log:Jedi: Signal Skip
Jedi: Signal Skip
OOC Date: January 28 2022
Location: Uncharted World - Deep Space
Participants: Jedi Order, New Republic: Chani Tahn, Rune, Yuun and Qutha Buvu Pah as GM
The helmeted head tilts, inclining towards Yuun when he speaks, and the voice that comes through the vocoder is a womans, <"It's not our transmitter..."> heads turn towards one another in either group. There's a murmur and a flash of hostility so rich and thick you could pour it on breakfast hot cakes. The click and whirr of weapons, still pointed to the ground, being prepped unmistakable. The glares for Yuun practically tangible, watching him move off with Erinn to continue work with the broadcast transmitter.
<"Looks like the Jedi managed their coup... Sixty years... just to find out what our fathers fought for was lost."> the old, but maintained, helmet focuses on those still standing near, from Vega to meditating Chani. The glares from those gathered scathing. <"Expect you're here to try and tell us you'll give amnesty and a ride back to see what was lost?">
Whatever the population that has built up around this artifact -- turning into a sacred site around an old beacon -- thinks it is, Chani Tahn finds it vibrant in the Force. Sitting on the ground with her legs crossed, feet pulled atop her knees, and hands resting palm upwards with the backs touched to the tops of her thighs, she casts herself off from her physical form and delves into the river of energy that binds them all together. It is countless voices manifest as one, the individual threads of a tapestry that defies true comprehension and understanding beyond that the individuals threads can be touched, moved, and manipulated to change, albeit insignificantly, the pattern. She does not communicate with the artifact.
Chani communes with the midi-chlorians inside of her, and they in turn communicate with the midi-chlorians woven through the very fabric that constitutes reality. While her fellow Jedi are ignorant to this communion and what it results in beneath the surface, deep inside her mind, they are privy to the result it has having on the physical world. The artifact itself moves, with pieces sliding along tracts that had been perhaps indiscernible to the naked eye. The whole monument fills the air with vibrations and noise, while the simple Jedi girl before it speaks with and asks, not demands or controls, the Force for its guidance and its way.
Arriving at a decent clip shortly after the two groups made their way around the pyramid comes the young Padawan named Rune. The Ysannan is breathing heavily, lines of sweat running down his face, and he stops just short of the group of Jedi and New Republic Engineer. He had stayed behind in the ship once the small cadre had disembarked, checking on the readings that were coming through the shuttle's sensor before exiting himself. In watching the sweeps, he had noticed the two packs that made their way around the pyramid to his fellows and, with much haste, had sprinted from the shuttle's berth to warn them.
"Everyone, be warned! There are two converging groups that make their way to y.... oh." Rune blurts out, only noticing in the midst of his explanation that his timing was very poor indeed. The novice Force user straightens with a nervous smile, pushing strands of wet hair from his vision, and tries his best to look very much unsurprised by the occassion. Given the moment, he takes in their surroundings, the parties arriving in full Clone Armor, the group of Jedi dispersed around a beacon, the New Republic Engineer who had been examining the device, and the sudden movement of the artifact as it shifts about on its tracts.
Yuun isnt normally preturbed about anything and even as the Trooper speaks, he doesn't look it at all. He's calm though the ability to say what he really wants to falls from him as he tries to think. He looks to the Trooper then the rest of the people here, they're only out here because they came and entered their territory. Yuun looks to the Trooper, right where he would think the troopers eyes would be. Just for a moment then to the others with him, shaking his head, "No, were not." he says honestly. "We didn't come here to cause harm or problems, the transmission was intercepted by the New Republic and sent to us." he says to the old Trooper. "We came to investigate to see what we can learn and help where we can." he says as he looks to the Trooper.
Yuuns voice doesn't waver but those who know him, knows that Yuun isn't a strong diplomat but he's trying. "If you're descendants of the crews who once were crewed on the ship above, do you want to reach out to anyone?" he asks. "I've not met any from the Clone Wars, but we are willing to assist you." Yuun states.
"New Republic. You filth would corrupt the name after usurping." another of the crowd growls out before their attentions are all taken by the movements of the pyramid. The re-arranging panels forming into an entryway with shorting out glow-strips - one of which that simply showers sparks like fresh snow onto white sandstone floor panels.
Qutha looks to Rune when he arrives, offering a bit of a 'yep' shrug, but keeping his peace - looking between both groups and the pyramid that has opened. Several of those in the salvaged clone armor and old DC-15s taking steps towards it. The one in the full suit muttering, <"Whose there to reach out to? What is left after your coup?">
The fully armored figure continues to walk, intent on entering the pyramid, <"All we've had is this damned place broadcasting its signal, no matter what we tried.">
Her communion ends. Chani's eyes open to a transformed monument matching the vision she'd seen in her mind's eye. Her feet slip from their lifted position and her hands lift off her thighs, hovering to the sides of her when the effort of her feet pushing down and her body rocking forward turn into elevating to her full height. She cares little about the disturbed wrinkles in her trousers or robe, and chooses instead to draw closer to the pyramid. Grass tramples under her boot soles, and Chani's dark gaze trains itself on the tunnel that has revealed itself leading down into the structure. The steps are smooth, and the way is lined by lighting that malfunctions and sparks. Her attention does not cast itself to those gathered around or even her fellow Jedi. She has eyes only on the pyramid. "The way is open."
Simple. Succinct. Chani leaves her compatriots behind and begins to descend the steps, shifting the hem and lower body of her robes around her dark brown leather boots and the beige, loose trousers fit around her legs. Every step is a sharp tap that is first swallowed by the sky, but gradually becomes echoed and acoustic off the walls that surround her as she descends. She does so at a slightly angled approach, ensuring her boot touches as much surface area as possible. The angle of the monument, the obstruction of the sky, and it's failing lights lead Chani to draw the metal cylinder from her left hip. Her right thumb depresses the activation stud and the stone around here, and the stairwell as a whole, is illuminated with the intense, but ghostly glow of her lightsaber's cyan blade.
Holding it out and in front of her, Chani continues forward in silence.
Qutha's shrug is echoed with an apologetic half smile. Once Rune's attention returns to the troopers, and the shifting pyramid's opening passage way, he adjusts the light black and brown robes that adorn his form... sprinting in Jedi gear is not the most advisable, they tend to trap heat.
As the last stone shifts itself into place, Rune leans slightly to the side, curious hazel eyes peering into the dimly lit entrance way that Chani revealed. He reaches out with the Force, trying to determine what might be beyond that portal and, instead of anything discernable, gets a full blast of the power in return... the place is heaped in it, soaked in the Force, emanating from every corner, every stone. The wondering eyes go wide and he takes a reflexive step back after being buffeted by the power within.
A deep breath and a few moments later, Rune is following Chani, stepping past the others who watch and the Trooper intent on entering. He gives the old white armor a tilted regard, the briefest of moments for his eyes to flash over the plates and armament, and he's down the tunnel behind the Cyan glow. So too is his black metal cylinder grasped, removed from the belt at his waist, but not lit, simply ready in case the call for it arises.
Yuun doesn't allow himself to be baited, he heard of Order 66 and how the Clones turned on the Jedi and Palpatine turned the Republic to the Galatic Empire. "The message we got is an old one that was directed to the Jedi." he says to the Trooper. Yuun hears the shifting and he turns his head though his guard is still up as he sees the Trooper and the others moving towards the now opened pyramid.
He doesn't see Chani, but he does see Rune leave towards the pyramid, he turns to head towards the opening but he turns around, "So you didn't send this, that is fine. If you don't know what this is, maybe we can work together and see whats going on further from here?" he offers.
<"No drock, traitor. When the Chancellor managed to get out the warning of the Jedi Betrayal, the turncoats on board sabotaged the ship and forced our families to abandon or die. Murdered dozens of people and their Padawan sealed the place behind them. Then that broadcast started. Encrypted. Clearly we kept you dogs from finding them."> a touch of pride in the woman's voice.
The descent takes the group to a centralized hub of sorts, splitting in three directions with sandstone doors designed marked with iconography of simple clothed Knights and robed Masters instructing Padawans. The armored figure, moving alone with the others remaining outside trails at the rear of the pack.
To those who can feel it, there is a great sadness in this place. Soaked into the stones but far newer than the all surrounding sense of the force.
Chani's hand raises her lightsaber higher so that the cone of light cast around her does so from a better angle rather than forcing her shadow against walls surrounding her. Inside the monument, every step fills her ears with another version of itself. Even her breathing seems turned back on her, echoing as it does off the stone. It's for that reason alone that her lightsaber sounds loud. It's humming, and the energetic purr that punctuates the most subtle movement with it, fills her ears as the loudest noise. She keeps her wrist locked and her fingers firm around the metallic hilt to ensure its micro-level gyroscopic motions don't angle the blade in a way she doesn't want Chani approaches the door that is closest and most immediate to her left. Eyes narrowing in study of its iconography, she moves with a cautious gait and stretches the bubble of her perception out for feelings beyond the ones of sadness.
Her gaze searches, too. The walls surrounding the door she approaches is studied with an appraising eye, looking in a flash of vision to each side in search of a panel. Lacking one, Chani's gaze delves further, searching for some kind of switch. Anything that stands out as an indicator that the door could be opened by any sort of conventional means. Luckily, they don't seem to be as complex as the pyramid that was protecting them. Stepping close to the door, Chani's attention turns to its keypad. "I wonder if these have any security measures if the wrong information is entered."
This portion of the old tales of betrayal he had heard, the Chancellor being the one who orchestrated it all, he himself being a Sith Lord bent on the destruction of the Jedi. "You are wrong.. the Chancellor was, in fact, a Sith Master named Darth Sidious. He duped the galaxy and allowed them to believe the Jedi had turned on all while he made a grasp for power." With the last portion said, Rune turns back to look at the Trooper behind. "It worked and the galaxy suffered because of it." His peace said, the Ysannan turns back to their descent and entrance into the hub, eyeing the iconography and the passage ways as if the art would tell them the way.
He taps the hilt of his saber against his leg while he muses at their options. Choosing one, the novice closes his eyes to breathe evenly, his chest rising in falling rhythmically as he reached out with his senses to communicate with the Force in this place. Rune calls to the past, stretching his awareness into the echoes of yesteryear and and the sadness that possesses this place. In answer, as Rune's eyes slowly open, the Force delivers a vision:
"Master! We have to move master! We have to move!" a ghostly figure, human or near human, is helping along a nikto, both in Jedi armor. The nikto woman dragging her leg and the younger human with singe marks on their armor. No blood, the wounds are cauterized. They continue down and take the right hand door from the way entered, tapping a four digit code.
"We have to re-broadcast Kenobi's signal. Have to keep others from Coruscant." the Nikto says in thickly accented basic.
"How could this happen master?"
"I don't know -" the next is cut off as the door closes behind them.
As the vision fades and a frown slides over Rune's lips, his attention shifting to the right hand door and the keypad that lies beside it. "I am... I am not sure, but I do know they went through here." the Ysannan remarks, tapping at the sandstone door with the butt of his lightsaber hilt. "I was unable to tell the code that was entered, they were trying to prevent the horrors on Coruscant." he mentions, falling silent as he investigates the closed passage.
Yuun stops and he turns to look at the Trooper as she continues to speak and he lets out a breath as he looks to her. Calm, he feels the anger coming from the woman, he is following the group as they go into the pyramid, though he knows he can't leave his fellow Jedi alone. "Both sides lost during that time, during that war." he says. "We don't know what fully happened during those times, but this is a New Jedi Order, and a New Republic. Hanging on to that old hatered will do nothing but burn you out. We can't change the past, and I'm sorry for that." he says as he looks to her and the others, trying to convey his sympathies to them. "I've felt grief and anger when my family was killed by the First Order, I spiraled out of control." he says to her. "We didn't come here to take away anything offer aminsty. You're free to live here if you want, but if you want to get back into the galaxy and see what's changed and make new start we can help." Yuun says as he doesn't allow them to push past him for now.
Yuun allows the force to flow through him, he is doing his best but he knows that's all he can DO. Not try, but Do or Do Not. Why is Master Yoda's teachings coming to him now. He shakes hsi head a little, he trusts in Chani, Qutha and Rune who are in the Pyramid, he hopes they are ok, for now he is where he is needed currently.
<"I hope your family died screaming and begging, Jedi. My grandfather lost thousands of his brothers, used by your stinking lot so that you could betray them. We heard the stories. Your corrupt little order made into canon fodder. A slave army that was admissible because they 'weren't people, because they were manufactured product'. If any of the others go, you're free to take them. I don't want to see what you did to what my grandparents were betrayed for.">
Rune is glared at with naked disbelief, but the armored figure remains and watches while the Jedi nose about, recalling visions and mentioning the horrors of Coruscant. The panel by the door marked by Rune easily opened and with a similar state as what Chani found with the door on the left.
"We might need a droid. Without knowing how long the passcode is, we could be talking about.." Chani trails off. "A lot of possible permutations. Too many for us to do, even if it's not that many. We'd be here forever, and I don't think we have that much time." Rune mentions they went through a door behind Chani and the young Naboo native turns, scuffing against the sandstone floor with the scrape of her boot's sole and causing a subtle sway of her robes around her hips and legs in the process. "You had a vision?" Rune's statements make it plain, but the question is instinctive. She glances back at her door once before turning away from it completely. More taps. Her lightsaber purrs its whispered thrum. Chani exhales audibly enough when she gets close to Rune that the noise is easily observed by the other.
"Let's try the other key." Her left hand raises towards the door and this time her breath is no quick rush through her nose. Chani draws it through her opened mouth and then exhales just after. Her shoulders ease back. Her body relaxes as much as it can while holding her lightsaber over her head. She reaches out with the Force to test the door, first trying to lift it from the bottom and then testing it to the left or the right. She's searching for the slightest hint of give in either direction, indicated by the subtle ways that her hand moves, as if her fingers are physically trying to find some gap between the edges of the stone around its surface that can't be gotten to. She's put no pressure on it in either particular way when the muffled, deep sound of locks start going and even Chani steps back.
"Uhh, I didn't do anything but touch it with the Force." There's an edge of caution in her stance, but the door does nothing but slide open to permit them entrance, showing beyond a chamber. It looks, in some fashion, like a greatly miniature version of the council chamber in the Temple of Eedit, with a meditation chair before a large table bearing a holo-communications station that a Jedi from that time might have used to communicate with the temple on Coruscant. It's also big enough for many other things, though the purpose of which would simply be guesses for them. "Maybe this equipment is what's generating the signal." She glances to Rune. "Lead the way?"
Rune sighs at the continued vitriol spewed by the third generation trooper and his head shakes lightly from side to side. His lips draw into a thin line when he glances to Yuun who tries to explain the past to the woman as well. "Atrocities are committed every day in every part of this galaxy. The war that was, the one your Grandfather fought in, was something engineered by the Chancellor himself. He created the turmoil, and thus, the need for an army to fight a war. It was a needless war and thousands died so a man could make himself the center of the universe. Many lost loved ones unnecessarily but I can guarantee you with much certainty and a clear conscience that it was not the Jedi who caused the betrayal."
Kasia's Padawan gives a nod to Chani as she nears, stepping back from the panel and the door, to give her as much space as she needs to investigate the block to their passage beyond. "I am sorry you have been fed a history of bogus facts..." Rune continues to the trooper as his fellow Jedi examines the door and stretches out with the Force in an attempt to find entry. "...I can feel the hatred radiate off you like heat from a star. But it is misplaced, we are here to help, the Jedi have only ever been interested in assisting those that need it, and for the betterment of all rather than the power of a few."
Fortunately for him, the Trooper, or everyone in earshot, there's the sound of locks giving way and the rumbling of a door. The Ysannan can't help but smile despite the anxiety of their company and nods to Chani as she explains her results. "Nevertheless, it seems that may be all that was required..." He peers into the dusty gloom of the room beyond, eyes narrowed as if that will help find more detail in what was revealed. "It could be." Rune replies, nodding politely and stepping forward with her invitation to enter the new destination, the light from Chani's lightsaber casting his long shadow ahead of him.
Yuun takes a moment to quiet himself, allow the words from the Third Gen Trooper to pass over him, he HAD to when the woman trooper spoke about how bad she hoped his parents died. Letting the breath escape him and his eyes close as he allows the force to flow through him. His eyes open as the deep sound of the locks start going. He looks to the Trooper when Rune began to speak, the dark skinned Courscanti is quiet listening to Rune as he speaks to the Trooper.
Yuun agrees and he turns to look to Chani and bow his head to her and he looks head at the opened door. Yuun doesn't say anything else for the moment, taking this time to focus on the current situation but not allowing his senses to put him at ease.
He watches Rune move forward towards their new destination, "I wonder what we will find here." he says more to himself but it's loud enough for those around him to hear as he moves closer towards the door but stops, "Ladies first." he gestures for Chani as she has her weapon already out. Yuun glances back at the Troopers for a moment to watch them but then to the team he came with.
<"Spoken like a perpetuator. Thank you for calling our grandfathers and grandmothers, who lived through it, liars."> the sneer persists in her tone. <"Get the signal turned off, get your shavit out of here and get off our stanging planet. We don't want you here. We don't want your propaganda. We don't even want your trade ships, knowing what it funds."> she begins to back away, rifle still held in case she needed to raise it and fire. Not turning until deep into the entry hall.
Inside the chamber two bodies rest, leaning against one another in death. No expression to be found in he desiccated remains. But the clothes they wear, the armor. There are blaster marks. Fatal in differing degrees by their placement. But they're slumped to the floor before one of the old terminals that is running at full power. As though systems had been set to divert all power to keep it running until there was none left, it broke down. Or it stopped.
On the top of the console, a fuzzing, error laden hologram is grinding out its last. Even without atmospheric interference, or the damage caused by the clone troopers, the Acclimator crew, or their descendants; the message is fragmented. A bearded man, somber faced but serious stands with his hood up, much of the start of the message is lost to distortion, but at the last it resolves enough for:
"Trust in The Force. Do not return to the**KRSSHTKRKT** that time has past. And our future is **K-K-K-Krhhhtk**. We will each be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. **shhHHHRRRKTHTt-t-t-t** friendships. But we must persevere. And in time, a new hope **TSHHHZIT**emerge. May the Force be with you, always."
And then it silences, disappearing and the communications console itself burning out in a fizzle of 'fairy light' sparks, smoke and the reek of burning plastic and metal.
Rune turns from his entrance into the revealed room to watch as the Trooper backs slowly from the room, the Jedi left frustrated but silent. Once her shadow disappears and her presence departed, he shifts to witness the final act of the two that gave their lives, the message from the hologram forlornly detailing the state of their Order before, blanketing the Force users in a hue fitting the occasion.
Now he understands why sadness streams from this place like a gushing river that overwhelms its banks... the hatred that lies embedded in those that took up residence nearby, the last moments of this temple's Jedi, the hope that was crushed, and the future stolen.
A deep sigh shakes his form and, with a long regard given to the departed, he lowers his head, shaking it in sorrow before looking to his kin. "Let us go."
