Dace ran across the galley into the cockpit, his dreadlocks whipping behind him, “Tara! It’s making sounds again, I think I got it to work!” His companion shot out of her seat by the console so fast she tipped over her cup of insta-pho-replica-soup, the liquid spilling across the worn floor of the old ship. “What?! Ouch! drek it Dace, my soup!”
As they both hussled through the ship, ducking low hanging cables and sparks from exposed circuits, Dace was babbling: “I did like you told me – put away the deathstick – stared at it – I think must have looked at that stupid thing for ages, and then that old dude popped up and started talking, this time it was about some ridiculous sword technique that involved waving your hand around and pointing or pushing or something, I didn’t quite catch it” Tara, showed him on through engineering, he was slowing down as he talked, so she interrupted him bruesqely “more farking ancient mombo jumbo and galactic gazetteering, that old man must have been all over the galaxy, you dragged me away from my favorite soup to listen to this dude talk about ‘Centering Oneself’ again?!” she punctuated her sentence by making overly expressive qoutation marks and rolling her eyes.
They both stumbled into Dace’s quaters, Tara wrinkled her nose at the combined smell of body odour, old deathsticks and engine oil as she looked disapprovingly at the pile of clothes, engine parts and random knickknacks strewn across the floor. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Dace continued, almost out of breath from the talking and running around. “I must have said something right or fiddled with the right circuit or something, because the bearded guy suddenly started talking about something completely different. -Tara, he mentioned Zanzat!”
Tara stopped her pacing and stood completly still, her face ran through several expressions of rage and grief before settling on an intense focus. “Show me. Now”
Dace swallowed and pointed at his bunk, lying in a pile of used bedding and dicarded clothes was the box. It was made of metal and some sort of glass, it had weird angles and inscriptions. It was currently glowing a calm green glow that came and went, Dace thought it sometimes pulsed in beat with his heart, but that was probably just a coincidence.
He picked it up gingerly and after some shuffling with his feet to sweep a open space in the detirus set it down on the floor and patted the floor to imply that Tara should join him. The human mechanic and the seloninan pilot sat on the floor staring at the glowing box…
“Nothing’s happening Dace.” Tara’s voice sounded annoyed, but for some reason Dace felt like he could hear some fear under her attempt at nonchalance, he looked back at the box. “Give it time, there is a trick to it and I think I have it now.” The young man drew a slow breath and stilled himself as best he could, it seemed like the box only responded to calm sentients, which was probably why they’ve had so much trouble getting it to work in the first place, What did that say about them and their lifestyle? Maybe something to consider … After all, it had been many cycles since -
Dace pushed away the stray thought and watched the green pulsing glow, trying to match himself to it somehow, to his left Tara fidgetted.
The glowing box slowly rose into the air, parts of it started moving and realigning as it unfolded and twisted lazily. Dace had seen some of it’s insides, but he still didn’t know what made it work – there were circuits and wires in ther, but they didn’t make sense, there were also things in there he swore were inscriptions or bits of stones and whatnot. They’ve heard of and seen similar boxes in museums and on their travels, but this one was different – like whoever made it had different ideas and tools than the other ones, or maybe hadn’t fully agreed with the original bueprints and improvised along the way.
The box hung there almost expectantly, Dace swallowed audibly and said with as much authority and calm as he could muster: “Please continue, Master”
Again the bearded man with the long hair and the scars appeared before them displayed in a see-through manner before them, as always he was wearing his worn robes and armor, his voice was pleasant and smooth, a trained orator.
" … so Sun’saith would travel out looking for the artifacts he refferred to as ‘The eyes’ while he guided us in his usual oblique way to continue on our path to find Nela Kohn and to try gain an alliance with the Gensu’dai. we-"
“Wait! who is this Nellacohn?! who are the Gensiday?! what the frak are you on about old man!?” Tara was moving her neck back and forth in a deeply animal way that Dace had learned meant that she was unsure, probably something in her racial memory from their hunter/warrior instincts. The old man kept talking, not seeming to hear her.
“… my preparation for our trip was hurried, but I did have the time to spend some time with Aach and together we discussed ..”
“I’m sorry to interrupt master” Dace gently interjected. " but who are these people you speak of, the Genso Daaii?"
The old man stopped his explanation and vinced as Dace messed up the pronounciation, he lifted a hand and with slender fingers tapped the rhytm as he repeaed the word slowly to Dace “Gen. Su. Da-i. Apprentice. They were … a form of warrior cult you might say, dedicated to several aspects around warfare and justice, like the art of armor craftsmanship and saber techniques.
-Their leader, Nela Kohn was the one who taught me the skills and techniques for crafting protection and how to blend the skill of the warrior with ones armor to create a perfect defense, the Metal Shroud as she would refer to it …”
“this is useless,” Tara sighted. “We don’t need info on how to prance around looking like First Order goons, we need info on Zanzath and where the invincible dangerous murdering bastard came from!”
“Give me some time, I think I’m starting to figure it out, " Dace said as he tried calming down his friend, the glowing box was flickering and starting to close. He stared at it and tried to forget about everything the silver warrior had done to them. “Master, I fear you have lost me, maybe it would be better to go back to the start? you mentioned something about Sun. Sayt. leaving to look for something, where was this and how did you get there?” Dace tried his best to get the pronounciation right this time.
The apparition of the old man flickered and an exasperated look crossed his features as he berated Dace. "You must focus apprentice, one of the first lesson is to pay attention to the universe and that involves listening when people talk … " He chuckled suddenly, before continuing "but I guess I’ve done the same as well when I was a padawan, and things are not as peacful as they were then … "
“Ok, apprentice let me go back to the events after leaving the jungles of ”/wikis/pybus" class=“wiki-page-link”> Pybus , and the vault where we faced the deluded warriors that claimed to be Jedi Knights. As you recall, we were in the captivity of the empire and had just struck a deal with their leader:
After our third meeting with Sinnius and our deal to share information with him in our joint venture to foil Kiados nefarious plans, we were promptly escorted to Nar Shaddaa.
Arriving at one of it’s numerous spaceports we quickly acquired lodging and managed to make contact with an individual that could help us sell off some of the riches we had liberated from the vaults on Pybus; Tianos Grek.
Grek it would turn out was connected to Ta’lon and his crime empire, so we took the opportunity to get some rumors from him and to pay off some of our debt to Ta’lon.
This left us with a lot of credits, but no clear destination.
After several seeking and investigations, mostly using Onda’s connection with the force to look for Jessek or Vex, we had some answers, but mostly just piles of uncertainties.
Then Onda andJoe stole a ship.
Sigh
Escaping from Nar shadda, we again turned to Ondas powers, this time we sought out The Last Echo. Our parley with Sinnius had revealed that the ship was mobile again and head been seen on Spintir after Kiados attack. I had my own suspicions and hopes to who could be piloting it now, but I wasn’t sure.
In Mandalorian space we came upon the drifting Cr90 Corvette and docked with them.
After some suprise and a happy reunion with Aach, we met with Sun’saith in the newly converted dojo and shared what we knew.
He in turn brought us up to date on events while we had been away, apparently Aach had restored The Last Echo with the help of the Isini cult.
Upon hearing of the artifacts Kiados had collected so far he finally revealed to us that there were 4 artifacts Kiados was seeking.
That meant that unless we could find Jessek and the Sirens soul, she had all of them but the last.
So Sun’saith would travel out looking for the artifacts he refferred to as ‘The Eyes’ while he guided us in his usual oblique way to continue on our path to find Nela Kohn and to try gain an alliance with the Gensu’dai. I hoped that what Sinnus had told me about her joining the empire was wrong, but I had to see for myself.
My preparation for our trip …"
“yesyesyes, we heard all that! this is getting us nowhere.”
Tara stood up and brushed some dust from her pilot suit “I am going back to my soup – you stay with this old-man-in-a-glowing-box for all I care, let me know if he says something useful!” Tara stalked out of Dace’s room, he could hear her grumbling and kicking random objects as she made her way to the cockpit.
The hologram of the man with the beard was quiet, he seemes to be staring a Dace.
Suddenly Dace realized that he had never told the old man to pause his rambling.
But that meant …
“Is there something else you want to know?” the bearded mans voice was almost smug.
“Uh, what?” Dace’s suprise, made him do a double take at the apparition. The one that answered to ‘Master’ was standing with his hands behind his back and with a raised eyebrow at him. “Wait, you can hear her? So you were deliberatly ignoring her? And you can ask questions?!”
“You and your friend have been accessing my old journals, but is it really my lifes history you want to know? I can tell you other things, I can TEACH you other things, Dace.”
Dace scrambled backwards until he hit the bulkhead next to his door, he briefly considered running through it and never coming back, the hologram knew his … “Y-y-you know my …”
“Yes, Dace, I know your name, I know Tara’s name, I know that we’re on a ship – although the model is unknown to me, I know that the events I have described to you happened a long time ago.” The apparition gestured with his left hand as he listed up the items on his list. “This Holocron you have in your possession is more than just a recorder of old lore, Dace, it contains an imprint of my soul and my personality, a ghost in a machine if you will.”
Dace’s head was spinning, the smells and clutter of his room suddenly seemed oppressive and he felt himself wishing for a time where things were simpler, easier, before Tara’s brother hired him for this ship, before he died….
“What’s going on? who are you? what do you want?!”
The hologram of the old man straightened up and folded his hands in front of him.
“My name is Kotan Blen, I am the last of the Gensu’dai, and I want to teach you to harness the force.”