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tython
jedi temple
1528hrs local time
jedi temple
1528hrs local time
"Sir?"
The Kushari flight officer, a Guardsmen from the SDF, gently seized Keller by the shoulder and shook him awake.
"We've arrived, sir."
Keller blinked twice, first with his inner nictating membranes, then with both his inner and outer sets of eyelids. It took a few moments for the crewman's words to sink in, for their weight to hit him fully.
"Right, okay. Thanks for the heads-up. Is there any raukiil around? I could use some to clear my head," the sabre queried groggily.
The fully-armored trooper hitched his shoulders apologetically. "We could brew a jug before we hit groundside with the dispenser on the bridge. I can bring you a thermos if you'd like."
The lieutenant nodded sleepily. "I'd be glad of it, Guardsman."
Keller watched as the Guardsman responded with a brisk nod, then scurried out of the briefing room. He yawned mightily once the man was gone, and stretched out as much as his seating allowed. He'd sprawled out on a leather couch near the back of the room, and though it was too small to seat more than two full-grown Kushari, his kind actually liked sleeping in reasonably small spaces. The officer had curled up into a ball and passed right out with a duffel bag full of ammo and supplies for a pillow.
He hauled himself to his feet and stretched again. The feline ran his hands over the front panels of his armored bodysuit - he'd stripped out of his heavy SABLE armor before crashing, and needed to don the exterior portions of the suit again. He did so with practiced ease, and in a matter of moments had worked on the muscle suit and its outermost armor plates. He clipped his helmet to his hip, slung his rifle over his shoulders alongside his duffel bag, and set out for the hangar deck.
Keller's comms chirped in his ear as he ducked out of the briefing room. He instinctively touched two fingers to the little device, which clipped around his ear and placed a speaker inside, to avoid impacting his ear's natural range of motion. Combined with a throat microphone, the comms facilitated comfortable hands-free communication. He kept a finger on the device, which instructed it to broadcast as he spoke. "Lieutenant Keller here."
His simple introduction was met by a cordial female voice almost instantly.
"Lord-Commander, this is Captain N'Joni, of the KSV Dauntless. I'm afraid there's been a delay. The local defense fleet is insisting that we don't have clearance to land. I'd wager that they don't want the locals to see a full-fledged Destroyer hanging over whatever temple you're dropping in on. Comms is trying to explain our situation, but I'm not holding my breath. You'll be sent planetside in one of our smaller craft - I know it's not ideal, but you'll be taking a SD88 Meadowlark. We'll provide a pair of Firehawks as escorts, but that's all the fighters I can spare - I need the rest of Raptor Wing tasked with defending my ship. Head to the cargo bay - the Meadowlark is docked there."
"That's fine, Captain. Thanks for being so quick to get secondary transit arranged, ma'am," Keller replied. He paused, and mulled over the title she'd addressed him with. It was a bit baffling, especially as he wasn't a member of the Sajuuk kiithid, or of any kiithid that had anything to do with leading the Federation. He worked up his courage, and spoke. "By the by, I think you're mistaken; I'm a Lieutenant, not a lord. I thought that title was reserved for the leaders of the Federation."
Despite the notoriously low quality of in-ship communications, which were typically garbled thanks to the ship's myriad onboard comms and sensors, he could still hear N'Jonis' chuckling as crisply and clearly as if she'd been at his side. "Lord-Commander Sajuuk gave the order while you were resting. For the duration of the dealings with the Alliance, you've been given the title Lord-Commander. There's a private message for you from Sajuuk; I've placed it on the ship's internal comms network. You can access it with your Marine ID."
After thanking her and terminating the call, Keller pulled his helmet on and tapped into the warship's internal network. Called a 'C-Net' by military personnel, the Comms Network was isolated from the ship's B-Net - the 'Battlenet' into which all combat systems were tied. It was as if the ship had two entirely separate computer networks aboard, which were not physically or wirelessly integrated with one another - the C-Net handled all comms transmissions and, by being kept separate from the B-Net, rendered Kushari warships utterly proof against any hacking attempt initiated from outside the vessel. The hacker would just root about aimlessly in nonclassified files, with no way to access any of the ship's systems or classified data.
It only took a moment to find a partition with his name. 'Lrd. Cmdr. Keller, Sadiir L.' Even his personal C-Net partitions were being altered to reflect his new 'rank', even if it was only temporary - it seems that Sajuuk really had ordered that he be granted Lordship. "Awkward!" he mused silently. He navigated his way into the partition and unlocked a set of private comms. A few unread messages from old friends, a voice message sent from his sister earlier in the day, and a heavily encrypted file bearing the name 'Lrd. Cmdr. Sajuuk, Nima V.'
He opened it.
"Keller, there's a lot I need to explain to you but not a whole lot of time to do it in. I'm sorry, cub, but I'm going to have to skimp on details. I promise I'll explain when you're home to the Pantheon.
I've ordered you promoted to Lord-Commander based on Lenaari's feedback and my own experiences with you. [You didn't know it, but I took part in your training when you first joined our Order.]
You'll be given resources and privileged according to your new station. Don't get too used to it - the High Council may start complaining once they catch wind of your new title and rank, so it's likely only temporary. I don't have time to explain what all it'll do for you, but you're bright enough. I'm confident you'll put the pieces together in short order.
All I ask for you, for the moment, is that you get us the help we need with this Titan. This is your trial by fire, this will earn you your Lordship; get the Order to agree to help with this vessel. Find whatever information you can, bring back whatever experts you can. Do so quickly and quietly. Preserve our race's secrets.
It sounds like a small task, but you and I both know it's not. There's so much at stake here. It's not fair to lay it on you, not so suddenly, and for that I apologize. But you can do it, cub - I have faith in you."
~Nima Sajuuk
He closed the message, and saved a copy of it to his suit's onboard C-Net. "Reminds me of mum," he chortled softly. Lord Commander - he could scarce believe it! Lordship, and he wasn't even thirty yet! He laughed and shook his head. "Sajuuk works in mysterious ways," he quipped in amusement.
His stride carried him to the destroyer's amidships cargo bay. Perched inside, resting on antigrav cushions, was a single SD88 'Meadowlark' stealth dropship. The small vessel was designed for rapid tactical insertions, for close fire support, and for surgical strikes on heavily defended facilities. Ordinarily, its internal weapons bays were loaded to the breaking point with anti-tank missiles, rocket and gun pods, and various bombs and cluster ordinance. Today, it carried only its rocket pods, a half-dozen multirole missiles, and its 30MM chin gun. Most importantly, it would be carrying Keller planetside.
"Lieutenant Ke... Er, Lord-Commander Keller, this is Akula 1-1. We'll be your ride planetside. Raptor 3-1 and 3-2 are standing by to provide escort. We're ready for dustoff as soon as you are. As an aside, one of the kids from the bridge crew stopped by. Left a thermos for you. Said it had... Raukiil for you, sir."
Keller sighed in relief. The guardsman had delivered on his promise. The feline's belly growled in anticipation, and he felt his pace quicken. "Go ahead and spin up the engines, Akula 1-1. I'm boarding now. I need to be planetside as fast as you can carry me."
"Aye-aye, sir. We'll dust off as soon as you're aboard."
The Kushari flight officer, a Guardsmen from the SDF, gently seized Keller by the shoulder and shook him awake.
"We've arrived, sir."
Keller blinked twice, first with his inner nictating membranes, then with both his inner and outer sets of eyelids. It took a few moments for the crewman's words to sink in, for their weight to hit him fully.
"Right, okay. Thanks for the heads-up. Is there any raukiil around? I could use some to clear my head," the sabre queried groggily.
The fully-armored trooper hitched his shoulders apologetically. "We could brew a jug before we hit groundside with the dispenser on the bridge. I can bring you a thermos if you'd like."
The lieutenant nodded sleepily. "I'd be glad of it, Guardsman."
Keller watched as the Guardsman responded with a brisk nod, then scurried out of the briefing room. He yawned mightily once the man was gone, and stretched out as much as his seating allowed. He'd sprawled out on a leather couch near the back of the room, and though it was too small to seat more than two full-grown Kushari, his kind actually liked sleeping in reasonably small spaces. The officer had curled up into a ball and passed right out with a duffel bag full of ammo and supplies for a pillow.
He hauled himself to his feet and stretched again. The feline ran his hands over the front panels of his armored bodysuit - he'd stripped out of his heavy SABLE armor before crashing, and needed to don the exterior portions of the suit again. He did so with practiced ease, and in a matter of moments had worked on the muscle suit and its outermost armor plates. He clipped his helmet to his hip, slung his rifle over his shoulders alongside his duffel bag, and set out for the hangar deck.
Keller's comms chirped in his ear as he ducked out of the briefing room. He instinctively touched two fingers to the little device, which clipped around his ear and placed a speaker inside, to avoid impacting his ear's natural range of motion. Combined with a throat microphone, the comms facilitated comfortable hands-free communication. He kept a finger on the device, which instructed it to broadcast as he spoke. "Lieutenant Keller here."
His simple introduction was met by a cordial female voice almost instantly.
"Lord-Commander, this is Captain N'Joni, of the KSV Dauntless. I'm afraid there's been a delay. The local defense fleet is insisting that we don't have clearance to land. I'd wager that they don't want the locals to see a full-fledged Destroyer hanging over whatever temple you're dropping in on. Comms is trying to explain our situation, but I'm not holding my breath. You'll be sent planetside in one of our smaller craft - I know it's not ideal, but you'll be taking a SD88 Meadowlark. We'll provide a pair of Firehawks as escorts, but that's all the fighters I can spare - I need the rest of Raptor Wing tasked with defending my ship. Head to the cargo bay - the Meadowlark is docked there."
"That's fine, Captain. Thanks for being so quick to get secondary transit arranged, ma'am," Keller replied. He paused, and mulled over the title she'd addressed him with. It was a bit baffling, especially as he wasn't a member of the Sajuuk kiithid, or of any kiithid that had anything to do with leading the Federation. He worked up his courage, and spoke. "By the by, I think you're mistaken; I'm a Lieutenant, not a lord. I thought that title was reserved for the leaders of the Federation."
Despite the notoriously low quality of in-ship communications, which were typically garbled thanks to the ship's myriad onboard comms and sensors, he could still hear N'Jonis' chuckling as crisply and clearly as if she'd been at his side. "Lord-Commander Sajuuk gave the order while you were resting. For the duration of the dealings with the Alliance, you've been given the title Lord-Commander. There's a private message for you from Sajuuk; I've placed it on the ship's internal comms network. You can access it with your Marine ID."
After thanking her and terminating the call, Keller pulled his helmet on and tapped into the warship's internal network. Called a 'C-Net' by military personnel, the Comms Network was isolated from the ship's B-Net - the 'Battlenet' into which all combat systems were tied. It was as if the ship had two entirely separate computer networks aboard, which were not physically or wirelessly integrated with one another - the C-Net handled all comms transmissions and, by being kept separate from the B-Net, rendered Kushari warships utterly proof against any hacking attempt initiated from outside the vessel. The hacker would just root about aimlessly in nonclassified files, with no way to access any of the ship's systems or classified data.
It only took a moment to find a partition with his name. 'Lrd. Cmdr. Keller, Sadiir L.' Even his personal C-Net partitions were being altered to reflect his new 'rank', even if it was only temporary - it seems that Sajuuk really had ordered that he be granted Lordship. "Awkward!" he mused silently. He navigated his way into the partition and unlocked a set of private comms. A few unread messages from old friends, a voice message sent from his sister earlier in the day, and a heavily encrypted file bearing the name 'Lrd. Cmdr. Sajuuk, Nima V.'
He opened it.
"Keller, there's a lot I need to explain to you but not a whole lot of time to do it in. I'm sorry, cub, but I'm going to have to skimp on details. I promise I'll explain when you're home to the Pantheon.
I've ordered you promoted to Lord-Commander based on Lenaari's feedback and my own experiences with you. [You didn't know it, but I took part in your training when you first joined our Order.]
You'll be given resources and privileged according to your new station. Don't get too used to it - the High Council may start complaining once they catch wind of your new title and rank, so it's likely only temporary. I don't have time to explain what all it'll do for you, but you're bright enough. I'm confident you'll put the pieces together in short order.
All I ask for you, for the moment, is that you get us the help we need with this Titan. This is your trial by fire, this will earn you your Lordship; get the Order to agree to help with this vessel. Find whatever information you can, bring back whatever experts you can. Do so quickly and quietly. Preserve our race's secrets.
It sounds like a small task, but you and I both know it's not. There's so much at stake here. It's not fair to lay it on you, not so suddenly, and for that I apologize. But you can do it, cub - I have faith in you."
~Nima Sajuuk
He closed the message, and saved a copy of it to his suit's onboard C-Net. "Reminds me of mum," he chortled softly. Lord Commander - he could scarce believe it! Lordship, and he wasn't even thirty yet! He laughed and shook his head. "Sajuuk works in mysterious ways," he quipped in amusement.
His stride carried him to the destroyer's amidships cargo bay. Perched inside, resting on antigrav cushions, was a single SD88 'Meadowlark' stealth dropship. The small vessel was designed for rapid tactical insertions, for close fire support, and for surgical strikes on heavily defended facilities. Ordinarily, its internal weapons bays were loaded to the breaking point with anti-tank missiles, rocket and gun pods, and various bombs and cluster ordinance. Today, it carried only its rocket pods, a half-dozen multirole missiles, and its 30MM chin gun. Most importantly, it would be carrying Keller planetside.
"Lieutenant Ke... Er, Lord-Commander Keller, this is Akula 1-1. We'll be your ride planetside. Raptor 3-1 and 3-2 are standing by to provide escort. We're ready for dustoff as soon as you are. As an aside, one of the kids from the bridge crew stopped by. Left a thermos for you. Said it had... Raukiil for you, sir."
Keller sighed in relief. The guardsman had delivered on his promise. The feline's belly growled in anticipation, and he felt his pace quicken. "Go ahead and spin up the engines, Akula 1-1. I'm boarding now. I need to be planetside as fast as you can carry me."
"Aye-aye, sir. We'll dust off as soon as you're aboard."
Keller's helmet sat in the seat beside him as the Meadowlark dropship descended towards the Jedi temple. He cradled a heavy steel thermos between the thigh plates of his armor, one hand firmly gripping the thermos' enameled blue surface. It was faded and chipped with age, and deeply scratched in places, but it kept its contents hot and that's all that counted.
He sighed as he poured himself a cup of thick brown-black raukiil - a traditional Kushari drink, more analogous to a syrup or thick soup. It was wildly popular with his race, being sweet and densely nutritious. Its taste was rich and smooth, not unlike a chocolate-flavored cream, and its qualities as a mild stimulant helped keep military men like Keller wide-eyed and alert even on the longest of days.
He finished off the dregs of the thin-walled steel cup and capped it back over the mouth of the thermos. The thermos was fixed to the back of his armor's 'belt' via a magnetic clamp, and he took a moment to wipe off the fur around his lips before he pulled his helm back on.
"Skids down in thirty seconds. Lord Commander, I suggest you hold onto something."
Keller took the words to heart, and reached above himself to latch onto a support rail with both hands. Such rails ran the lengths of dropship ceilings in Kith Sjet's navy; it allowed soldiers to have an extra handhold to latch onto, in the event that a wall wasn't close enough to provide support. Of course, in the cramped belly of a Meadowlark, the ceiling rails were barely even necessary.
As warned, the landing was rough but not unbearable. The dropship eased into a subterranean landing zone, carved in under the surface of Tython to preserve the world's surface beauty. The crew powered down and the Meadowlark's escorts returned to their mother ship, the Archer-class destroyer, KSV Dauntless.
The dropship's loading ramp hit the duracrete of the bay floor, and allowed Keller to peer out into the claustrophobic confines of the landing bay. It wasn't designed for repair or maintenance work; merely a stopover point for visiting ships. He hitched his shoulders and made his way towards the hangar's exit.
He was more lightly armed than he had been aboard the Dauntless - he carried his M88 handgun on his right thigh, a fighting knife in a sheath on his left bicep, and an ultrachrome 'combat machete' in a horizontal sheath at the small of his back. His armor itself had recently been upgraded, and now sported dual phased energy blades in both bracers, and the gauntlets and bracers themselves had a cortosis weave plating to defend against sabers, as did the helmet and throat. As a Marine, he felt naked without his rifle, like a man in a mountain blizzard caught without his pants on - it just wasn't right! Still, he had to manage. As a Lord Commander, he couldn't exactly be caught fretting over his own lack of armament!
The Kushari took a deep breath to steady his nerves once he reached the bay door. He palmed the control panel, and it slid open to reveal the center courtyard leading up to the Jedi Temple. It was likely he was one of many dozens if not hundreds of visitors to the Temple that day, if not that very hour! Or, perhaps, he was the only one. Tython wasn't exactly easy to find, after all. The Kushari didn't even know where it was - a GA ship had towed their vessel from Coruscant to the deep core, and when their business was concluded, they'd be towed back.
At any rate, all of that was secondary to Keller. What took precedence was the temple's beauty. While in his mind it had nothing on the Pantheon, a vast and ancient structure carved into the living stone of a vast mountain, the Tython temple was a thing of beauty in and of itself. The vastness of the main hall was breathtaking, and the sheer scope and scale of the entire facility was nothing short of awesome.
He let out a low whistle and peered at the structures through the protective glasteel faceplate of his helmet. "Almost a shame I'm here on business," he muttered to himself, "I wouldn't mind a chance to explore this place a bit more fully..."
After admiring the view for a moment longer, he gave himself a proverbial kick to the backside and went walking towards the central structure. "The Jedi are expecting me, and I'm sure Captain N'Joni already communicated our arrival and the purpose of our visit. Chances are there's a welcome party lurking around here somewhere. No way they'll miss me, either; I stick out like a sore thumb here. Too military, and these Jedi folk... Too civilian. Too monk-ish. If that's even a word."
---
[ooc: Part 2 in the Legacy of Titans story arc. Refer to Slumbering Giant for Part 1 in the LoT arc. This thread is, by its very nature, open to Jedi due to its location. Still, please pm me before joining. Thanks!]
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