Concerning Imperials

Posted on Sun Mar 17th, 2024 @ 10:12pm by Bomoor Thort & Theon & Thane & Amare

2,707 words; about a 14 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Grand Alban Library, Capital City, Alba, Outer Rim Alliance
Timeline: Daytime, Week Five

The mirror-finish of the thin data rod, sat openly on the small table before them, reflected the thin ray of sunshine stretching down from the high windows of the Grand Alban Library. Dust motes passed gently through the stream, drawing the attention of Thane briefly away from the galaxy-shattering object upwards, past Rift Knight Theon's bulky frame in the opposite chair and towards the rows of ancient tomes and modern holobooks that populated the gargantuan historical site. A combination of beautiful, ageing woodwork, technical craftsmanship and masonry typified all areas of the building, and Thane remained quietly in awe at the splendour and knowledge held within the library.

"Incredible," Theon's deep voice barely contained his amazement as he struggled to keep the conversation muted, "The best I had hoped for was some crumb of evidence that would confirm GalactaWerk's meddling with the Imps and you bring back the whole karking conspiracy manifesto."

His hand lingered over the small metal tube for a moment, before he withdrew it and shuffled back uncomfortably in his chair before leaning in again towards his old rivals-come-allies and their new Nautolan companion.

"Listen, I'm not sure I fully comprehend the magnitude of all this yet but, if this is what you say it is, I'm going to have to play this really smart or risk looking like a complete loon to the Rift Assembly."

Bomoor tapped the table next to the cylinder, "You'll see when you look at it - this is more concrete than any crumbs we could have come up with. You've got plenty of names, dates and details in there that you can cross reference to prove this is no fabrication. But you should not delay too long - we also have an arrangement to release this data through the Republic Intelligence Office, which should further confirm its legitimacy in the eyes of the public."

When Thane spoke, his manner and tone seemed almost distant, matching the long look in his gold-rimmed pale eyes, which continued to seem transfixed more with their surroundings than the momentous decision that had just been taken between them.

"What do you hope will come from these revelations, Theon?" The other Human asked, his voice making it clear he had not yet finished speaking. In the brief gap that followed, Thane brought his eyes back to the Rift Jedi, a gloved hand now resting on the table between them. He and Bomoor had not worn anything akin to Jedi robes on this occasion, given the locale, and he wore a mishmash of grey and black wrappings, given the impression of a dark-clad traveller or academic. "Do you feel so fervently for the Alliance over the Republic and its people; is it loyalty to a home, or perhaps an ideal?"

The words were not issued in a challenging fashion. Curiosity laced Thane's tone, and he was regarding both the library and their Rift confederate interchangeably. A few other guests milled nearby, perusing the offerings or holding hushed conversations of their own. None paid any mind to the group of four - it was not uncommon, of course, for Rift Jedi to wander these halls with their own companions or contacts.

"What do I want from all this?" Theon crossed his large arms together, allowing the arms of his robes to dangle gently upon the table, "I want others to see the facts that have been plain to me since Onderon: that GalactaWerks is a leech upon all the peoples of this galaxy, whether they be Republic or Alliance."

A small archive droid zipped past, making a muted whirring noise as its well-oiled servos propelled it towards the labyrinth of gently glowing shelves of data files. Theon did not pay it any heed and tightened his focus upon Thane.

"I am well aware of the implications of such a revelation and the upheaval it would generate everywhere, although perhaps worst of all within the Republic where the company has most of its tendrils wrapped. As a Knight of the Rift Jedi, I have many duties: to delivering justice in the Outer Rim and its supporting territories, to protecting life and the welfare of all I encounter, but also, on a personal level, I have a duty to Master Sazar and righting the wrong that was done to her and the lies that continue to perpetuate her death."

There was a pause, with all but one of the assembled group recalling the moment Theon stepped out of that ruined building carrying his master's body in his arms and how GalactaWerks Intendent Thendleton wasted no time in laying blame upon the young Rift Jedi for the destruction. Though now sitting across from one another as allies, Thane and Theon had locked blades that day to prevent the tense emotions leading to further trauma and loss of life. While never openly admitted, Theon most likely knew that the Caanan had spared him from expulsion from the order and arrest by GalactaWerks by defying him vigilante justice that day. Now, after so long, true, legitimate justice was within his reach.

He was drawn away from Thane by the low voice of Bomoor, "I would never try to suggest that anything could make up for the loss of Sazar, but I would be remiss not to inform you that I encountered Thendleton again while on Bastion. He was responsible for shooting down a craft Amare and myself were travelling on and then endeavouring to execute us upon realising we had survived."

Theon's eyes ignited, attention now on the Ithorian, "Did you... I should say, what happened?"

Choosing his words carefully, Bomoor summarised the encounter, "He had hoped to hunt us down like the poor creatures he preys upon for sport. However, when he finally caught up to us, I was able to trap him instead. When he did not willingly answer my questions about GalactaWerks intentions on Bastion, I went into his mind and extracted the information myself."

The Rift Knight seemed slightly confused, but clearly wanted to get to the information he truly sought, "So what became of him? Don't tell me he is going to be held by the Imperials or, worse still, just released back to GalactaWerks?"

Slightly uncomfortably, Bomoor shook his head with some hint of dismissal, "I imagine Bastion will not see much reason to hold him forever, but I am not sure it matters what happens to him in the end. I did not leave much of his mind intact after he resisted my telepathy."

Furrowing his brow, Theon sat back again, uncrossing his arms for a moment before immediately crossing them again as he absorbed the news.

"I have imagined many fates for that man over the years, some less 'Jedi' than others," Theon admitted, "I am not certain where this sits on the spectrum. I am, of course, pleased he did not succeed in demolishing our lives further thanks to yourself. Between that and what you did at the helm of that Star Destroyer, you have certainly both become more powerful."

He passed his gaze over towards Amare as well, "Including finding other powerful companions like the young woman here. I can see why you have managed to hold back the forces converging against you on all sides."

Normally, Amare would have been chuffed at such a compliment, but she knew if the Rift Jedi had known that the shoto clipped to her side had belonged to a padawan of their Order, he would likely not be so flattering with his words. Her face remained stoic as her mind began to reflexively conceive an image of Theon as a slaughtered corpse on the floor, a clean lightsaber stab through the heart, but then she breathed in softly and slowly, dismissing the homicidal image for Thane and Bomoor's sake. She was playing their game for now, but she knew the Sith Code, and someday that stab would have to be directed at her master, as grim and impossible as that seemed to her given the sheer difference in power and skill between them.

Finally turning his attention back towards the data cylinder, Theon now seemed more confident in taking it from the trio and he plucked it firmly from the table before him, examining it in the light, before placing it into a pouch on his belt and firmly buttoning it closed.

"I hope this does not mark the end of our collaboration, but I have a feeling the coming months may be challenging for us all as political tensions spike," Theon smiled, his square jaw tilting down to reveal his teeth, "At least, I certainly hope they do."

"Our paths will cross again." It was Thane that spoke up once more, having withdrawn in some manner of satisfaction or contemplation as the Rift Jedi and the Ithorian had traded comments. He had shown no reaction to the reference to Onderon or Sazar on this occasion, and had not even given much thought to his own conflict with Theon all of those years ago. For the briefest of moments, he wondered at how such a battle would unfold now, and his own mind matched the imagery held by his apprentice moments before.

The group made their farewells to one another, Amare silent as the elder companions spoke, and Theon took his leave first, his galaxy-shattering prize concealed within his robes, to be taken to the heart of ORA power. When a few minutes had passed, and the trio had maintained their appearance as interested tourists for a little longer, they began pacing in the wake of the Rift Knight.

"It was a mistake revealing me to him," Amare said quietly to Thane and Bomoor even though Theon was well beyond earshot. "Now that he knows my face, it's only a matter of time before he mentions me to his compatriots, and they will start to piece together who was responsible for the loss of two of their own."

The grand library door slid open before them automatically and the three of them exited the building. While it was adorned with a beautiful carved and lacquered wood as dark as the trunks of Kashyyyk's wroshyr trees, the true door behind had all the usual mechanisms of any other automated door in the galaxy. Bomoor angled his head towards Amare as they walked.

"That is certainly one possibility," he remarked, "But I think it is better to be clear with them about your presence with us as they know we will stand with you in the unlikely event that they did piece together what happened. Not that it sounded like you had much choice in the situation."

He bobbed his head slightly as though weighing the thoughts up, "At least, you didn't based on how you tell the tale."

"I've shared to you the logs from the Silver Sigil," Amare reminded him as they casually set foot back onto the city streets. She was uncertain if Thane or Bomoor had had time to review the remainder of her recorded reports about her time on Lorrd and on the Rift Jedi ship. So much had happened recently that it seemed very unlikely. She suspected that was about to change after leaving Alba.

"The Rift leader himself gave the order to bring me back to their enclave in restraints to be 'cleansed of corruption'," she continued. "I'll never forget those words. So I made the hard choice and acted accordingly to defend myself. Still, that week of training taught me much. Master Nakomo was a formidable swordsman, and he did not think as other Jedi do. He did not believe in light or darkness. For him, there was only the Force and the willingness to follow its will, no matter where it took him...even to his death at the hands of a girl who betrayed his trust..."

The guilt and trauma was palpable as Amare's voice trailed off. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and shook her head a bit trying to forget that day, hating how the memory made her look and feel so weak.

"There is a certain integrity to the mantra and manner of these separatist Jedi, Amare," Thane acknowledged as they walked.

The call of a cluster of seabirds overhead threatened to draw his attention upwards, now that the open sky stretched out above them. A cluster of younglings ran in front of the group, quite ignorant to the beings they forced to stop in their path. One of them, a Near-Human boy with a sage hue to his skin, paused in front of Amare, and looked up at her awkwardly, smiling and giggling in some vain effort to shatter the awkwardness, before he quickly darted off to join his friends across the courtyard.

Amare watched the boy with eyes that were almost mournful. For a brief few seconds, she wanted to embrace her maternal instincts and hold a child of her own in her arms and protect and nurture them, but then grim torment and loathing quickly swept that feeling aside as such thoughts made her feel uncomfortably weak and vulnerable.

It was then that she experienced a faint almost imperceptible image flashed in her mind of a little Nautolan child looking up at her in a stately upscale room...

"But," Amare's master continued, "they strike me as slavish, if not more so, despite their origins and claim to be founded on grandiose principles of freedom and justice, than the Reborn Jedi that spawned them. They are, ultimately, as defined by the Reborn Jedi Order as Quellus' pupils. A counter-culture that is just as mindless, built around opposition to something they have seemingly failed to even bring themselves above. Instead, they would stand as glorified generals and sentries to a failed experiment of a country." Thane brought his offhand round to massage the metallic digits on his right side, as if soothing some illusory malady in the artificial replacements as he spoke and walked. "At least they do not pretend to be pacifistic monks, openly embracing their part in government and rulership. They're refreshing, if misguided." He glanced to Amare meaningfully, as if any lesson on the subject should have already been memorised. "Do not pity the man whose supposed clairvoyance in the Force did not save him from a true scion of its power. Delight in the lessons he taught you, in life and in death, and his meaning is established, surely."

His apprentice had took those words to heart, as her remorse for those Jedi she murdered was gradually fading by the day. She took heart in remembering Nakomo's face that day; the man looked like he was ready to accept his end rather than struggle against it.

Nodding slowly as he listened to Thane's musings on the Rift Jedi and instructions to Amare, Bomoor seemed compelled to add.

"Of course, all of life is a journey from ignorance to clarity so do not think less of those who are yet to enlighten themselves to the harsh realities and splendid beauties of this Galaxy. Spurn only those who seek to keep others in ignorance, much like the misguided Rift knights that sought to arrest you out of their own ignorance of what you truly represent."

He then shot a lighter tone into his echoic voice as he gestured towards a crossroads they were approaching, with one branch heading down into a covered marketplace with small businesses set into small stone shopfronts on either side of the cobbled pedestrianised road.

"Ah, I believe I should head along here to reach the antique robotics dealer you and Rex identified earlier. He may have been waiting some time."

He nodded to Amare, "Are you still keen on coming along too?"

"Yes," she replied with a curt nod. "I've been looking forward to it."

"Very good," Bomoor nodded, "After all, you will need to make sure the trader honours the deal you struck last time."

He turned to Thane finally, speaking plainly, "I am satisfied in how we resolved things with Theon there. Now we must simply wait to hear from our other contact and hope we did not just light the fuse to blow up the galaxy."

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