Blurry

[Eisa Swan]

The Valhalla's Hangerbay​

Somewhere in Hyperspace​

It had been just over a day since the events that had played out within the Ithor system, what had started as nothing more than a routine patrol and shake down run to systems check and break in the recent upgrades made to the M-wing star fighter - had escalated with the pilot jumping into the Sector and finding out from the stationed Frigate's bridge crew that they had detected weapons fire on board. Despite discovering that Mandalorians had boarded the frigate and, the attempts made to prevent frigate from leaving the sector, the aggressors had made the sudden jump to hyperspace despite sustaining damage to the Ion engines and coolant systems.

Although she had not been fully debriefed following on from the incident, the ashen haired pilot was all to aware of the ship board rumours that the location of the Frigate was still yet to be determined. The Alliance's intelligence was scouring its way through the various sensor logs, observation post's long range scanners and running through all the possible telemetries to determine where the stolen frigate dropped out of hyperspace. Though as far as she was presently aware, nothing had come to surface to determine the fate that had befallen the ship, other than rumours and speculation.

All that was for certain was that despite the attempts of the Alliance fleet to surround and further obstruct the frigate from it's attempts to escape, the Retribution had made the Jump to hyperspace. The only trace being left was a volatile shock wave that carried in it's wake, a shock wave that had crashed down hard on the pilots fighter - sending it spiralling out of control as it suffered systems and power failure, and leaving it adrift awaiting recovery from the rest of the Alliance fleet.

After the lone star fighter had been recovered and brought into the hanger of the The Valhalla, the ship's ground crew had focused their attention on making the fighter safe and transferring the pilot to the med-bay. Despite the circumstances, the time in the med bay wasn't too far removed from the usual post sortie evaluation; cuts, bruises and the odd burn. In the pilot's eyes it was almost the standard run of the mill collection of injuries that she had sustained, having returned from countless missions for the Alliance with blaster wounds on her limbs, cuts from vibroswords to name but a few.

Once the medical crew were satisfied and the various treatments carried out, the ashen haired pilot was discharged and sent on her way. Finding out that the Grand Master had been in a meeting with the Fleet commander at the time of her being discharged, Eisa returned to the Hanger to assess first hand the damage that her fighter had sustained. Whilst most of the damage was to a degree superficial, it was by no means not going to require a lot of work to get the Cygnet back up and fully operational once again, there was some structural damage on the fuselage to contend with but the core of the issues lay within the inner workings of the fighter, relays and power converters had blown, surge protectors burnt out and a few hydraulic lines had ruptured.

At first sight the Cygnet was a sight for sore eyes, sitting in the corner of the hanger bay, propped up on hydraulic jacks above a pool of its hydraulic fluid. In the hours that had followed, the fighter had been gradually opened up and parts set down upon the various tool trucks and loaders that had surrounded the craft. The only signs of activity around the fighter was from behind a tinted screen as bright flashes and sparks crackled out from the underside of the fighter, and the periodic appearance of the slight framed female, clad in work coveralls and wielding goggles appearing out from behind the protective screen to retrieve some additional tools or parts before disappearing back to the underside of the fighter.

"Yes Ditto, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to go there" Eisa spoke out, as she tilted her head to the side to regard her service droid, sat beside her with it's spotlight pointed towards the exposed power converter assembly, her eyes narrowing as the droid chirped it's response. "Well that one is the neutral from the generator, and that's the inverter line from the power couplings in the wings" the female responded as she traced a finger along the indicated cables. "And those three are the live phase supplies" she continued as she pointed out the bundled up cables, before raising a curious eyebrow at the latest series of chirps. "Well thats cos we had to re-wire it so the Military power core would work with the existing systems" she responded as she manoeuvred the last of the replacement power converters into position, and gesturing for the droid to wield the part in place as she shifted her head off the side to avoid the cascade of sparks from singing her hair.

As she waited for Ditto to spot wield the component into place, the ashen haired pilot reached over for the hydro spanner so she could start to attach the cables to the newly installed part. Her lips pursing in thought as she looked over to the chronometer wrapped around her wrist, wondering how long the meeting between the Arda and Tycho was going to take, figuring that the Grand Master would want to discuss the events directly with the Ashen haired Jedi Master. Then again, she appreciated the capture and loss of such a key asset was not going to be a brief discussion, all she could really do for the time being was see to repairing the Cygnet - not that anyone who knew the Jedi would expect any different from her, as a result of having spent most of her teenage years as part of the rebellion's maintenance and engineering teams, she often found herself gravitating towards picking up some tools and carrying out maintenance work whenever she had down time whilst with the larger fleet.

@GABA

 

[Arda Breaux]

Arda was uncertain what she needed to be feeling at the moment. With all that had transpired, she was feeling all sorts of emotions and though the woman wanted to compartmentalize it all, she knew she could not. She could not feel it all later, but at the same time, if she felt it all now, it would be too much. Though her focus took her to Eisa, a Jedi she had known for as long as she had been inducted into the Order. Her rebel-turned-monk warrior attitude had always intrigued the Grandmaster ever since she had arrived from Corellia. They may had held more in common than they both realized, but never shared; and perhaps it was better that way, the silent understanding or some would call a female intuition in which words did not need to be spoken to be understood.

However, now was a matter of business and protocol as she approached the Master pilot. Her pose demanded respect as many stopped in their tracks to salute their commander and Arda would respond with a quick salute of her own as she called for them to be at ease.

Her pace slowed as she approached the ashen haired pilot while she kept herself busy; it was what most of the crew wanted to do while they flew through hyperspace back to base in order to further access their network reports that were all too quiet right now. "Eisa," she paused waiting to catch the Jedi's attention, "How are you doing?" she asked and then glanced at her ship, "How is your repairs going?" she asked.

@Plebometer

 

[Eisa Swan]

Gradually the background and white noise of the active hanger started to subside, leaving the only sound in the immediate area was the metallic clicking sound of the ashen haired Jedi's ratchet driver winding back and forth as she tightened the last of a series of bolts and lug nuts into place. Her emerald eyes narrowing slightly at the growing absence of the general humdrum of the hanger, although the wave of silence washing over the area was a strange occurrence to witness, the aura that had filled the hanger and was growing stronger was not. The Grand Master was approaching, setting the ratchet driver down onto the side of her creeper bed before easing herself out from underneath the dorsal hull of her fighter.

As the Grand Master approached the corner of the hanger where the cygnet was undergoing it's repairs, Eisa emerged out below from one of the fighter's wings - sitting up on the wheeled trolley before getting to her feet and stepping round the fuselage to meet Arda. Bowing her head in greeting as the Grand Master spoke out to her "Grand Master Breaux" the ashen haired master responded in turn, as lifted her head back up right, her bright emerald eyes raising slightly to look the taller woman in directly in her eye. Eisa's lips pursed in thought as Arda inquired as to how she was doing, before her gaze panned round towards her fighter as the grand master glanced over the Cygnet as she continued with her inquiry. A light sigh escaped the ashen haired pilots lips, as she briefly reflected on the question. "She's beat up plenty" Eisa spoke out, pausing briefly to reach over to place a grease stained hand upon the leading edge of her fighter. "But she'll fly true" she added whilst patting the durasteel plating before returning her gaze back to Arda.

The response from the ashen haired pilot carried a double weighting, to the casual on lookers observing the two Jedi from afar it would appear that Eisa was referring to the state of her fighter, when it had been pulled out from the endless void of space by the Valhalla's tractor beams - the M wing looked as if it had seen better days; fried systems and a battered hull to name just the overview of the damage sustained by the fighter. As for the pilot it would be evident to the Grand Master, that the aura that surrounded the ashen haired Jedi, that the recent events were weighing heavy on her mind.

From what started as just a simple patrol and shakedown flight to test out the latest upgrades made to her fighter, had escalated into a full blown blue milk run - finding out that the system she had jumped into and the frigate she had reported to was currently under siege by a band of Mandalorians. That despite the attempts to immobilise the frigate to prevent it being stolen, the warship had jumped to hyperspace, allowing it to fall into the wrong hands. What perhaps plagued the Jedi Master's mind the most, was not her failings to prevent to prevent the ship from being stolen, or the loss of the Alliance crew that were on board - but the further damage and harm that could be wrought at the hands of the Frigate's captors, the fact that like the shuttle she had seen the Mandalorians surround within the hanger bay, the Alliance's assets could be turned against themselves. That was perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the whole ordeal, especially when for years going on decade the Galactic Alliance had been careful to prevent becoming compromised, so to prevent the events of Naboo and Hoth taking place once again.

Pursing her lips in thought, the ashen haired Jedi turned her gaze off to the side before beconing her droid to come closer. The scuttling form of D1-TO came into view, craling along the contours of the fighter like a spindly legged insect before coming to a stop beside its owner. "I take it we've not had any word from the various networks whether the Retribution has turned up anywhere yet?" Eisa inquired as she pressed on a series of small buttons on the side of her Droid's outer chasis, before a small cylindrical data core was ejected from one of Ditto's ports. "I'm not sure if this would be of assistance in your investigations, but on the fly past we had sight of the mandalorians in the Hanger bay" she continued, as her fingers retrieved the ejected memory core from the droid and handed it over to the Grand Master. "Ditto has recordings of the Cygnets flight data as well as his own photoreceptors, if it helps in identifying who they were" the ashen haired pilot added, before she started to fish her free hand around her neck, easing out a rather worn looking silver pendant holding a shimmering cube shaped crystal that looked to share the same properties of a kyber. "Or there is this memory crystal. Should you wish to interrogate it?" Eisa offered, with a slight shrug, before letting go of her pendant and letting it hang back around her neck atop her coveralls.

Folding her arms over her chest, the ashen haired pilot leaned against the hull of her fighter with a light sigh escaping her lips. Her emerald hued gaze scanning over the surroundings of the hanger, taking in the movements of the near by deck hands before moving over to regard the Grand Master. "Its starting to happen again, isn't it Arda?" Eisa questioned through a hushed tonne, her eyes narrowing slightly in thought. "The Currents of the Force are starting to darken, not from the corruption of the Sith but with the distant longing to bring death" She added as she cocked her head slightly to the side to obscure her facial features away from any passers by or onlookers. "I can hear the Darkside's whispers starting to become louder once again" the ashen haired master closed off in confession, a serious expression plastered over her usually jovial features as she whispered to the Grand Master - knowing that of the few original Jedi that remained in the order, Arda was one of those present on Hoth that witnessed Eisa become tainted by the Darkside, when she emotionally snapped at the board cast of her family's execution.

 

[Arda Breaux]

The corner of her lip curled slightly upward as she answered the Grandmaster, she knew what she had meant, but adjustments would be made, she would be better, wiser in her experience. Eisa turned the focus back onto their missing ship, it would turn up somewhere, it was too big not to ignore, even if it meant arriving on one of their worlds in an attack by the enemy. Arda shook her head gently, indicated that their networks were quiet, but they were listening, chatter would come up somewhere and they would respond. She wondered though who their aggressors were, as Eisa spoke about her observation, she remembered whoever was over the comm had spoke about them yelling Mando'a. Then there were the two Mandalorians on Ithor that evening, which was odd, she knew they were not enemies, but not their allies either.

It was odd...and just so happened, there were Mandalorians on the Retribution...

"Curious..." she softly responded, "Enter in your report all your observations and what was picked up." she directed, and focused on the crystal for a moment, but Eisa surprised Arda with a question. It wasn't the fact her Jedi was asking a question, but more in the reference to what she was feeling. The woman thought for a moment knowing what Eisa meant, "Its hungry for a source, the Empire is crippling, dying, but its effects will be long lasting. We must remember our training, the dark side will always be present and five centuries of darkness has well rooted in the galaxy. It will take years before we feel the Force fall back into balance." Arda explained.

"The Sith may disappear, but their effects will still be felt. We cannot look too far into the future, for it is not certain, but there is an uneasiness." The woman folded her arms across her chest, "The dark side is resourceful, patient, and indiscriminate; as we all are connected with the Force, the dark side can also lurk."

@Plebometer

 

[Eisa Swan]

Nodding in acknowledgement as the Grand Master directed her to enter the sighting of Mandalorians within the ships hanger as part of her report submission, the Ashen haired Jedi master tumbled the data core between her fingers for a moment before pocketing it within her overalls - once she had finished seeing to the repairs of her fighter, the report would be filled in due course. "Of Course Grand Master" Eisa responded with a dutiful bow of her head, her expression becoming thoughtful as the conversation moved towards the aired concerns over the looming darkness.

The Grand master's words made sense, with the shift in the Galaxy's dynamic and the Sith's loss of it's controlling strangle hold that it once held for five long centuries, the Dark Side was looking for other vessels to prey upon. Spreading it's corrupting influences amongst the weaker willed, looking to lure the unsuspecting into its corrupting snare with the whispers of power, riches and strength.

Pursing her lips in thought, Eisa looked to the floor for a moment, briefly contemplating on the assertion that the Jedi must remember and heed their training, so to guard themselves against the corrupting influence, otherwise they would themselves be susceptible to falling to the dark side as their Sith and dark Jedi counterparts had done so in the past. The risk was more so prominent now than ever, Jedi had fallen to the dark side before - giving in to its lures and temptations, appealing to the Jedi's desire to bring peace to the galaxy and offering the supposed strength and means, but at a cost of the Jedi loosing sight of their own self and devotion to the light.

A Risk that the Ashen Haired Jedi master was all too familiar with, for over a decade since her awakening of her connection to the Force, she had been hearing the sweet whispered nothings of the Dark Side, tempting and luring her to give into her desires and emotions, corrupting her thoughts and sowing the seeds of doubt into the recesses of her mind - so that it festered deep within, creating a conflicted tumultuous presence in the Force that surrounded her during her years as a Jedi Knight. Something that perhaps had it not been for her chance encounter with the Force entity, The Bendu then the corruption may had taken a deeper routing within and she might well had fallen to the Dark Side.

A deep sigh escaped Eisa's lips, as she reflected on the gravity of her past self, the years of guilt that she had carried with her from one battlefield to the other, had ebbed away at her mind. "Unfortunately there will always be those who act out of emotion" The master spoke, echoing the Grand Master's words of caution. "Even though the Sith are retreating back into the shadows, I feel that the time that a Jedi's sole role is to guide those away from their emotional impulses....Is perhaps to come long after our generation" she added before pursing her lips in thought, as her gaze moved away from the Grand Master to regard her hand briefly before it reached down to retrieve her lightsaber from her belt and turning over the battle worn hilt.

"There was something I had learned, about myself from the Force Entity on Atollon" Eisa spoke out after a brief pause, her emerald gaze looking up away from her weapon and towards the Grand Master. "I know that to be a Jedi, I must resist the allure of the Dark Side by refusing to allow my actions to be controlled, ruled, by my emotions." she continued as she adjusted her grip of the lightsaber, inverting her hold of the weapon before clipping it back onto her belt.

"I won't lie to you Arda, the path I have walked is one that I would not wish upon any other Jedi" Eisa continued as her attention returned back to the Grand Master. "To have gone against the most basic of principles of the Code, casting aside the preservation of life, in the name of bringing Hope and Peace. Without carrying the guilt or allowing the weight of my actions, play on my emotions. Made me feel like I was no better than the very sociopaths that we are to protect innocents from" she added before pausing slightly, her brow furrowing pensively.

"I came to realise that despite Master Reach's best intentions, none of the training that she provided, or even what was noted within any of the ancient Order's texts, really covered how a Jedi is to come to terms with or even accept the reality that in circumstances like ours, in order to bring about an age of peace. We have to wage war" The ashen haired master continued after a moment's silence. "But in all honesty I'm not even sure whether it is wise or not to even document how to carry and bare the burden and guilt within the training texts or even the Great Holocron" as added, before trailing off with a resigned sigh. "Mostly it is in the hope that in future generations, a Jedi's role would not be of one bathed in as much bloodshed as mine"

 

[Arda Breaux]

Arda listened to the Jedi's concerns about the type of Master she will become in the the years ahead of her, most curiously she spoke of Atollon where she too had met the Bendu. Though her mind was twisting on when the Jedi had seen the Bendu (either prior or after her own encounters) he had never spoken of additional guests. Crix was the only other she had known going through the Bendu's tests. Though Eisa brought up her concerns with the struggle of war, she knew she had been a Rebel as far back as she could remember and possibly been one of many who had been born into war. It was an issue regardless, one that Arda had to internalize and process on her own. The values of the Jedi often conflicted with war, they were never meant to fight a war, they could advise and aide, but eventually it will wear them down.

Much like the Jedi five centuries prior after their own hundred year war with the exiles.

"We come from a different time and soon we will have Jedi in the Order who had not seen the war and bloodshed we have seen. It is an usual predictament but one that must not be push aside, for this galaxy may see more wars and the Jedi will need to know how to survive and persevere as we have." explained Arda, reassuring Eisa there was nothing unnatural about her experiences.

She noted the crystal around Eisa's neck, "You do not need permission to pass on your knowledge, Eisa." Arda said softly, "The more we can record and save, the more hope and insight we can give future generations."

@Plebometer

 

[Eisa Swan]

A brief sigh passed the ashen haired Jedis lips, as the Grand Master spoke out - citing the unorthodox situation that the order had found itself in. Whilst the whole scenario was far from the ideals of the Jedi not only from the past but of those yet to come, to hear that they certainly weren't the first and perhaps unfortunately won't be the last Jedi to walk such a bloody path - it was despite a sobering thought, there was a degree of comfort to know that perhaps all that the Order had experienced could be of use for future generations.

Feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her conscious, and shoulders. Eisa's head slowly raised upwards to look at the upper bulk heads above, a long exhaled breath passing her lips as she relaxed a little. A soft smile spreading on the Masters Features as she lowered her gaze away from the ceiling and back down to regard the Grand Master. "Thanks Arda, I'll start making preparations to collate and organise everything that's been recorded in this crystal or Dittos Core..." Eisa responded, with a slight nod in her battered and dinged droid, that was busy spot welding a replacement part into place along the wing spar. "Hopefully there'll be more than enough to help guide the generations that will come after us" she added, before lightly chuckling and shaking her head at the thought.

Leaning back against the fuselage of the Cygnet, her bright emerald eyes looking briefly at the reflection in the cockpit. "Never would of thought I'd hear myself say that" Eisa explained as her gaze moved back to Arda. " preserving teaching for future Jedi.... Wouldn't have thought anything thing like that when we were rummaging through a scrap yard on Tatooine." she added with a light chortle, a warm smile spreading on her features as she reflected back when the two meet on Savareen.