A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away…

STARWARS
Jedi’s Creed

It has been ten long years since Revan fell to the Dark Side.
The Republic has fallen into disarray, and darkness reigns
supreme. Numerous Systems has broken away from the
Republic and joined a powerful and reformed Onderon under
the leadership of King Vaklu.

The Miraluka; the Galaxy’s last hope to see such threats are gone,
leaving everyone blind. Yet, there is hope. On the watery world
of Manaan, Jedi Master Vandar prepares his students to venture
forth and extinguish the darkness. With only a few to spare,
Vandar sends a lone group of Jedi to discover the truth behind
the powerful Dark Side.

All paths lead to Nar Shaddaa, the smuggler’s moon and paradise.
Thick with life and bounty, rumours are a bound and many paths
intertwine and cross there. It is on this world that the Jedi and
their soon to be allies first realize the power they are up against.
And what it may cost to bring balance to the Force…



Skyess Ban | ♀ | Juyo


Hyperspace travel was a dull, tedious and boring thing. And in this small, cramped shuttle that Master Vandar had graciously given the group of secret Jedi was in desperate need of repair. Skyess was well aware that Czerka had its hand in numerous shady things, but their hyperdrives and upgrades couldn't be beat. Obviously Vandar thought whatever low-grade gear this contraption had come with had been good enough. Skyess Ban begged to differ, as she sat at the controls of this particular shuttle, she found it quite disturbing when a low moan echoed down the corridors from the engine room. The half-breed of Twi'lek and Togruta looked back down the dark hallway with a frown.

"What was that?"

A cloaked figure popped his head out of the main room and glanced down the corridor and looked back up at Skyess, shrugging, before fiddling with the visor over his eyes and disappearing again. His name was Aramiel Takoli, a Defel padawan who Skyess wouldn't exactly call a friend, but more of an acquaintance. They had never really spoken much in the Academy, though they had sparred a great number of times. He was quite adept at lightsaber combat, but Skyess had always beaten him.

Laylan appeared from the engine room than, gathering the attention from Katrina who popped out of the starboard dorms and Lyreth Kafir who stepped into the hallway from the connecting, small hall from the cargo bay. While Katrina appeared to be concerned by Laylan's disgruntled appearance, Lyreth (who Skyess particularly despised...) looked unimpressed. Laylan noted by their looks before walking down the corridor with pride in her step to the cockpit. Skyess looked up at her.

"Well?"

"How long until Nar Shaddaa?"

"Probably a couple of minutes..." Skyess paused, looking at her sister with caution. "Why?"

"The Hyperdrive is a bit... Touchy."

All three of Skyess's Lekku twitched nervously from the way Laylan had said that sentence. "Touchy?"

"A mighty bit."

Another groan emanated over the shuttle, before something in the engine room popped. Steam hissed out into the hallway just as numerous alarms began to switch on. Laylan ran back to the engine room.

Skyess looked into space. "... Great."


~.~

The ship broke out of hyperspace without any sort of grace or elegance. The shuttle’s panels were falling off right, left and centre and the ride became extremely rocky. The hissing stream wasn’t the only thing now billowing from the engine room. Smoke and flames had begun to creep their way through the door and into the venting system. Every alarm possible was beginning to activate and billow warnings through various sorts of sounds. Skyess gulped, as they hit the atmosphere of smuggler’s moon, the ship threatened to fall apart, losing various components including a few that had been keeping this rocky ride from getting any worse. However, once said parts were gone, the ship begin to spin and tumble out of control. Skyess Ban cursed her master, and cursed whoever had built this sorry excuse for shuttle. She could hear the others calling out in anger and disarray as the ship broke through the atmosphere and now tumbled uncontrollably towards the towering city of Nar Shaddaa.

Through the spiralling, Skyess was able to make out what appeared to be an edge of one of the towers. She gulped, opening the comlink.

“Hold onto something!”

The hit was spectacular, the shuttle took a good chunk of the city with it, and its spiral was turned into a tumble. Skyess groaned, closing her eyes in desperation to keep her wits about her. Even the force couldn’t protect her mind from this; the spinning was sending everything haywire. Within a couple more seconds the shuttle smashed into another tower, bouncing off the side to glance off another before the ship’s nose was torn off as it flipped engine over nose into the side of another tower. The half-breed had hit her head numerous times, and now was too concentrated on saving herself rather than worrying about the ship. Laylan also crossed her mind, but she figured the knight could fend for herself…

The next instance seemed to last mere milliseconds. The hellborn shuttle was in a nose first dive towards the ground, which seemed to be litter in numerous large crates and if Skyess wasn’t mistaken, those were people…

And then there was nothing but the cold, grey ground.


Master Vandar stood beside the former masters Vrook, Dorak, and Zhar, they all stared towards a woman who had a sly smile on her face. She was dressed in a republic combat suit, and though her complexion and stance seemed normal, her eyes were a bright, vibrant yellow with a slight orange ring around the pupil. She looked at them in a condescending manner, though they seemed oblivious to it. Her hair was long and black, and this woman, whoever she was, was quite attractive.

“We have decided to train you.” Vandar spoke, with a smile. The woman looked at him, and smiled. But it was fake… It was, if anything, evil.

“Thank you, Masters.”

Skyess Ban stepped forward, out of the shadow, yet no one seemed to notice her. They all seemed to nod towards this woman, this wicked woman who had them all wrapped around her finger.

“That can’t be…” Skyess spoke, startled when the woman looked over at her. Her eyes burned into Skyess’s. Her body trembled with fear and the entire scenery went dark. “Could it have been…”



The next scene was more familiar. It was the glass room of the Manaan Academy. She remember this, everyone chosen for this mission had stood here, facing Vandar. He was lecturing them all on the dark side and how it now controlled the galaxy. And how they were supposed to arrive on Nar Shaddaa quietly and scout around. Attempting to gather any information on the Sith and their recent doings. From left to right, the adventurers stood in this order, if Skyess recalled correctly.

Laylan Burgundi: a Jedi Knight who had quite a sarcastic attitude, and was quite loyal to the ways of the light. She was also like a sister to Skyess, and if she remembered, much older than the others, yet still looked young.

Herself, a half-breed who was quite, tended to scheme, had a rivalry with an annoying Jedi Knight named Lyreth Kafir.

Katrina Maiya: One of the nicer students, she tended to be kind and caring. Skyess didn’t have anything against Katrina, they both practiced Juyo, which made Kat all the more impressive to Skyess.

Aramiel Takoli: A Defel who seemed to keep to himself most of the time, unless he wanted to spar. The cloaked fighter was usually Skyess’s sparring partner, and usually had a new trick planned every time.

And finally, Lyreth Kafir: A human who seemed to be the complete opposite of Katrina. No, this girl was headstrong and seemed to think she was the best in everything. Skyess absolutely hated this woman… She duelled with Lyreth once or twice, when their arguments had grown out of hand. She had beat Lyreth, though when Lyreth switched from thinking to purely instinct, Skyess had been taken back.

Yes Master Vandar, quite a time you established. One that had such a wide range of people; there was no way they could get caught off guard.

Apparently that had been false, as the ship falling apart was quite a surprise.


“Skyess!”

“What? Huh?” She grumbled, her eyes opening to see that her restrains had broken and she was slumped against the control panel. She looked over her shoulder to see Lyreth standing next to her, looking quite irritated. Skyess Ban looked around in a slight daze before coming to her senses and realizing that there were a number of people staring through the broken helm glass at her. She blinked, and scanned each one of them. None of them appeared to be much of a threat, but then again. She had just hit her head, compared to the free fall she had just experienced; nothing was quite as frightening or daunting.

“What happened?” Skyess questioned, standing up and flicking a number of switches. Lyreth groaned and leaned against the other chair.

“You crashed the ship.”

“I what?” Skyess snapped in return, glaring at the human. “I didn’t crash-“

“Get off the ship, get off the ship, get off the ship, get off the ship-“

Both Lyreth and Skyess were interrupted when Laylan, covered in ash, soot, and what-have-you, ran in between the two of them and dived out the hole in the cockpit window. Both of them blinked, glancing at each other before Lyreth ran back to get the others and Skyess clambered and then rolled out of the window. She hit the ground hard and was pulled to her feet by Laylan, who was practically dragging her away as the other cleared out of the ship by the shuttles loading ramp. Skyess was confused, she looked up at Laylan and then back at the ship.

In a split second, a number of poorly dressed and unhealthy looking civilians were thrown through the air as the ship exploded. The group of Jedi gawked as their transport erupted into flames and sent shrapnel, people and other projectiles in all directions.

“Great…” Skyess grumbled, turning away from the fire as she tried to think.

“Vandar will believe we’re dead.” Everyone turned to Katrina, who shrugged as what she was telling was the truth. “That shuttle had a transponder on it, when the signal disappears, Vandar will assume we’re dead.”

“Perhaps he should’ve given us a shuttle that would not explode after interplanetary travel.” Aramiel spoke up, looking around. People were beginning to stare at them.

“Right, we need to get out of this place…” Laylan trailed when she noticed a number of Gamorean thugs entering this closed off sector.

“We’re in the refugee sector.” Lyreth smiled, recognizing this place. “We probably won’t draw attention at the catina. Let’s go there.”

“Yes, a drink would do me wonders…” Laylan grinned, as the group filed out of that sector.


The catina was fairly busy, and had all sorts of nasty looking creatures inside. A couple of robed individuals probably looked more like a strange group of monks rather than the long extinct Jedi. Though, Skyess was wary, the sorts that hung out in these sorts of places were usually not to be trusted. Of course, Skyess Ban had seen them all when she was owned by the filthy, horrid Hutt. She didn’t even remember the Hutt’s name, only that he had been close with Vogga, who ran the docks here. No doubt if Vogga found out she was here he’d try to repossess her just for revenge.
Luckily, no one knew, other than Laylan, and Laylan had sworn not to tell a soul. So unless her sister was suddenly into spilling secrets, no one should know. Not even Master Vandar knew the full extent of what happened. It was better that way, she believed.

“Should we continue with the main objective?” The Defel questioned, as they all sat down at a table in the farthest corner of the catina.

Skyess bit her lip, trying to think of her answer. But the environment was so distracting, people all over seemed to either be minding their own business or having heating discussion. Being trapped in that Academy had really toned down her grasp on reality. Surrounded by the damned moral code and all had been driving her insane until the day Vandar had told her and the others they had been picked to leave.
And now that Master Vandar believed they were dead, perhaps Skyess Ban could have a bit more freedom. She would probably still have to practice certain force techniques in secret, but her emotions could be allowed to show more, and enhance her combat technique greatly.

‘Maybe Revan had the right idea.’ She thought, though it startled her slightly. ‘Not in joining the dark side, but obtaining more freedom... No doubt she benefited from it, she got an entire army…’

~ . ~ . ~ . ~

It begins! Everyone, if it wasn't obvious, get to the catina. Don't care how, just do please. Feel free to interact with other characters once your there! Have fun~

And may the force be with you....