Worlds Without Answers

[Arda Breaux]

It was an even longer journey to reach Lothal as it was surrounded by the Sith Empire, one had to take careful steps to avoid detection as they slipped through the boarders of the systems that surrounded their destination. Regardless, it allowed for the Grandmaster to take some time to better understand the Lothal keystone and the Lothal Jedi temple in general. Even as a Master Jedi, she was finding much of the old master's writing unreasonably cryptic and even wondered if this was the real reason the Jedi were hunted down by the Empire and faced extinction, all thanks to their riddles.

She had squared off some space in order to spread out her work, however, it wasn't much of a boundary as Teran seemed like a never ending question machine. At an extent, she didn't seem to mind so much, but it seemed after a moments silence, it was too much silence to where the padawan had to make some noise in the form of another question. She had explained what she knew about the Lothal temple, its location in the northern plains, and how it was in the center of a Force vergence; with what he saw on the Telos temple through the Force, a slight worry bit at her own thoughts on how he would handle someplace even stronger in the Force, never minding how it would affect her also, other than Jedha, she couldn't recall visiting too many places strong in the Light.

However, the strength of the dark side vergence on Korriban was anything like its polarized cousin on Lothal, they would certainly be in for a journey. Though records seemed to be all destroyed in the past centuries other than its location which was once ruled by the original Drast family. The woman looked at all the notes she took, trying decipher the design of the keystone and the text that was inscribed on the back of the stone and had a feeling it was going to take longer than she had expected to understand, but hopefully Lothal could give her a few more answers.

She let herself roll onto her back as she read page after page of clues several times over before resting the open book on her face, enjoying the silence that had finally come for the moment.

@Phoenix

 

[Teran Atrix]

While they crept their way sneakily through Imperial space, Teran was more concerned about the possibility of being intercepted by Sith or Imperials. His fingers tapped nervously on the armrest of the chair despite knowing that he shouldn't have been nervous. It wasn't usually that easy.

This nervous tapping was in part to let out nervous energy. He had realized she was getting tired of his questions so he finally shut himself up and sat there watching what she was working on. In some ways this might be even worse as he seemed to watch every move she made to the point of yet again being annoying. At least there wasn't any talking for the moment.

Moments later she rolled over and put the book on her face. He knew that feeling all too well. He had fallen asleep on a couple of different books when he was in the libraries below the Jedi temples.

His lips pressed together as he tried to figure out what to say, not realizing that that was probably going to be the wrong call. I know the feeling, he said with a nod. Need some motrin? he asked with a smile, trying to add some humor to her apparent exhaustion or frustration and probably failing. @GABA

 

[Arda Breaux]

Arda braced, her muscles tensed up as she heard her padawan speak, she really didn't want to think about questions at the moment, but when he suggested some motrin, she felt herself relax and smirk crossed her lips. The Jedi Master let a long sigh, but didn't remove the book from her face; she probably should have taken advantage of their space flight time and slept a bit more, but she would have to wait until their journey was over. Eventually, Arda removed the book from her face, laying it on her belly instead and then laced her fingers together behind her head.

"We should be nearly there." she told him, "And I have seemed to gather more questions than answers, my dear padawan." It was a silly thought to ever think she would be back in such a position, eager for the knowledge that others held, it would be so much easier to understand if something would just jump up and tell her the answer. However, then again, she knew the lesson behind that, answers were more of a test of one's knowledge, not always the accumulation of such.

"Before I was ever a Jedi, let alone a street rat in the slums of Corellia..." she paused, thinking how old she sounded, "I was an ever curious child, with so many questions that it bothered the elders." she pushed herself up and turned to face Teran, legs crossed and twisted at the torso for a quick stretch, "I was told to focus on using what I already know and in time, what is hidden will reveal itself." she glanced down at her own work currently, "I don't think that curious child has ever left me, so for now, I think I will remember that tidbit of guidance."

Arda stood up and carefully stepped over her work and headed to the cockpit, "Perhaps the answers will be at the Lothal temple, perhaps it won't be, I just have this feeling the Jedi Master who wrote these clues is just howling in his grave at us." she said sitting down in the pilots seat, the coordinates just about matched and the woman prepared to pull them from lightspeed.

As realspace came into focus, Lothal sat rather peaceful in the black matte of space, minus the Imperial shuttle activity that seemed to even put Arda on alert; though it was not part of the Empire, it has been a long time supporter until the Imperial civil war, but now it seems they were close again in rejoining.

"Huh, well, not to worry." she told Teran, knowing very much he was probably worrying.

@Phoenix

 

[Teran Atrix]

Teran squinted as she repeated what the elders had said to her when she was a child about answers to her questions coming out of her own knowledge. He was clearly quite dubious about an explanation like that. It sounded pretty lousy to him, but he didn't outright say that. It sounded like she wasn't quite so sure about what she'd been told either.

The idea of dead Jedi Masters laughing at him in their graves seemed rude. He stood up and slipped into the seat next to Arda and spun around to face the viewport. The stars flashed back into normalcy and Teran clapped his teeth together quietly in his mouth, biting on an imaginary... something. It was a nervous habit to keep him occupied but easy not to notice.

So I didn't think this was in Imperial space anymore? he pointed out, tapping at the console and pulling up a zoomed in version of the ships for the display readout.

I've got at least a dozen Empire-marked shuttles going to and fro, he said, motioning out toward space. We gonna mess up the Imperial plans here or just investigate the temple? he asked, feeling exceptionally mischievous and hoping her answer would be "yes."

 

[Arda Breaux]

She could feel the unease, more so now that they came face to face with Imperial ships. Arda glanced at her padawan as he questioned his own knowledge and the Jedi Master frowned, "Lothal probably still holds Imperial sympathy, plus Imps have an inflated self-worth, they most likely think Lothal still needs them..." she said watching as he zoomed in on the ships that were moving in and out of the atmosphere. They definitely were marked with the Empire's insignia, however, Arda wasn't going to sweat a few Imperial shuttles, and felt disapproval as she glanced at Teran for suggesting to mess up Imperial plans.

"As much as I enjoy a suicide run as the next rebel, I have a feeling our odds would not be in our favor with this junk of a ship." she frowned and if she could frown harder, she would have as their ship was hailed by an Imperial shuttle. The Jedi groaned with annoyance, "Maybe we'll do a little of both..." admitted the woman knowing that would only feed her sudden mischievous padawan.

"This is The Pig Hair, I am transmitting our authorization badges, we're here to conduct educational agricultural research as scheduled." she spoke over the comm while sending over the images of their identifications, the comm went silent as she flew casual until they were given permission to enter Lothal, but that silence lasted for a bit too long and Arda glanced at Teran, the Force gnawing her senses of a growing danger. "We're about to have trouble, strap in Teran." she said, slowly turning the ship, her hand resting on the thruster, ready to pull to send them off to a safe distance in order to jump, however, they were met with the scream of fighter engines moving overhead and the comm crackled with the command of the Imperial commander.

"The Pig Hair, you will be escorted to a secured location for further authorization."

"No thank you." she said and switched off the comm, the sublight engines burned and the ship shot off, the fighters followed, but the shuttles blocked their path to move out of the gravity well of Lothal. "Hang on..." Arda gasped as she pulled the ship into a tight turn, the creaking of the ship told them it probably would not be able to do that too many times more as the Jedi Master maneuvered the craft to evade the turret fire.

More fighters came and now the larger ships were also taking shots at the Jedi's shuttle, they were going to be star dust soon if they didn't get clear and Arda dove the ship into Lothal's atmosphere.

@Phoenix

 

[Teran Atrix]

Teran shot her a sideways glance when he heard that the ship they were flying on was known as the "Pig Hair." What kind of a ship name was that? Really, there was some judgment going on now.

He sat forward in his seat as he realized that they were about to have trouble, and a mixture of excitement and anxiety immediately began to fill him up. All is as the Force wills, he reminded himself, realizing that that statement was quickly becoming his mantra in a galaxy that was filled with dangers he was unprepared to face. It was a comforting feeling when all else failed to know that nothing that happened to him was an accident.

He strapped in as he listened to the comlink traffic and realized they were about to be in for a fight or some real trouble. For a moment he thought they were going to play along, but then it seemed Master Breaux had other plans. Pealing off and zipping away, they were in trouble almost immediately.

WE'RE GOING TO CRASH, his mind was screaming, and it certainly wasn't looking good. Laser fire slapped at the shields and Teran glanced at the console. Shields at 60%, he said. Does this ship have guns? he asked, beginning to brace himself for an inevitable crash. @GABA

 

[Arda Breaux]

Though Teran had not said a word to the Jedi, his thoughts were screaming through the Force and Arda had to give him a disapproving Jedi Master glance, "Teran, hush now, crashing is the least of our worries." she told him seeming entirely too calm as though she may have possibly done this several times with success. He read out the shield reading and asked if the ship carried weapons, "Never thought we would need weapons, sixty percent is still fine." she told him, corkscrewing the ship's course as she kept descending, the capital city growing larger, "We'll get a better shield.." she said inhaling deeply and further pushed the ship's engines, sending the alarms to sound across the control panel.

The ship shuddered with the turret fire from the fighters as the shields were beginning allow bleed-through, but they were they were nearly in range, "Lets hope they follow protocol...." she told Teran and the glassy dome quickly began to take shape, the city's shield generator had been activated. Arda leaned forward, pressing against the yoke, her jaw hardening as she started to hold her breath until, by the will of the Force, enclosed the them inside, cutting them from the fighters that had tailed them. The Jedi Master gasped, it was an entirely too close of a call, but they had sustained enough damage from the fighters and pressing beyond the ships limits, that the Pig Hair would no longer be flying them as systems began to fail.

"Ok...we just have to land..." she told him, trying to keep the ship straight enough to land in the streets, "And land before a greeting party reaches us." she said, managing to strap the harness across her lap before having to do some fancy switch flipping, "Lets get some drag here..." the ship jolted, but it was slowing enough that it wouldn't explode on impact.

The street would come quickly, but the landing wasn't any thing one could call smooth as the hull tore through the duracrete and the impact would still leave bruises on the Jedi from where the harness had kept them in place. It was surprising and painful enough even for the Grandmaster to let out a yelp of shock as the ship slowed to an eventual stop.

@Phoenix