So, started writing the backstory a while ago, never finished it. Had some inspiration today, and went and rewrote most of the beginning. I'll be writing more on this over time, but figured, since there was some interest, I would start at least posting what I have so far here. Obviously, this is a work in progress, and starting out in a very specific part of his life. The story I have planned in my mind will cover a lot more of who he is, where he comes from, etc etc... but for now, I'll stop rambling and just let you read what's written down so far.
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“Scanners indicate that the planet is devoid of technology. Nothing on the surface to send any signals. No networks. Not even any signs of significant social structures. A few concentrations of lifeforms, but if they're animal or sentient, we're not aware.” The man standing at the terminal turned away, and pulled a datapad out of his breast pocket. “However, contrary to everything we're seeing, precisely thirty-seven standard hours ago, a distress signal was sent from this location to the Galactic Alliance, broadcast on encrypted military channels. The only vessel in the area was a scout freighter labeled Mistress Irony, who has failed to report in since. Logic dictates that this vessel is the source of the distress signal, but we cannot locate it on the planet.”
“Unfortunate,” Kieran said, stroking his chin. He glanced at the officers scattered about the bridge, and straightened his shoulders. “Have you tried a subterranean scan?”
“We did attempt one, sir, but were unable to do so. The surface materials contain high amounts of iron and lead; the scanners cannot accurately read anything through the dense pockets of this. It is, of course, theoretically possible that the freighter crashed and broke up into small debris that we cannot locate via orbital scanning, but even then we should be able to locate the beacon. Nothing shows.”
“Could it be underground?” Kieran asked, turning his sharp gaze on the officer.
“It is.... possible, however we believe it to be unlikely, sir. There's nothing that reads on the surface capable of moving a freighter, unless it was being operated under its own power, but then the question remains why is it hidden, and why haven't the crew reached out to us?”
Kieran frowned. “Good questions. Which I plan to answer. Assemble a squad of commandos. I will be heading to the surface myself, and we will investigate.”
“Yes, sir!” the officer snapped a salute, and turned away.
Kieran left the bridge, walking back through the rings of terminals until he came to the turbolift powers, and summoned a lift to take him down to the hangar. With everything that was going on in the galaxy, this was a rather inconsequential happening. A single freighter, lost? In the long run, it was minor, and would have been overlooked. But Kieran could feel something... different. The Force was horrifically strong on this planet. It was just outside the Outer Rim, literally on the fringes of the galaxy, and had been long overlooked by most civilized races. It was wild, untamed, a dense jungle, and, as scans had all indicated previously, without visible signs of civilization or even a dense wildlife population.
It all added up to something suspicious, and Kieran, as a Jedi, would figure out exactly what was going on.
He stepped out of the lift, his boots making little noise on the polished durasteel flooring underfoot as he strode across the hangar. A shuttle was in the center, already being prepped, and the mechanics were unhooking the fuel lines, and flashed him thumbs up as he walked up the ramp, and stepped into the cockpit, running the startup analysis and systems checks. The shuttle hummed as it came to life, systems lighting up green across his panels. He sat back in the pilot's seat, and let himself focus, centering himself in the Force, and reached out, towards the planet.
The feeling the planet itself gave off was strong, intense... almost like it was alive in and of itself, though finding any individual lifeforms proved nearly impossible to his senses, buried in the sense of the Force itself wrapped around the surface. He frowned inwardly; the Force was generally a calm flowing river, a sense of peace and serenity, and occasionally, depending upon circumstances, a wild turbulent river, churned into a froth by the actions of those within it's grip. But here, where it should be calm, placid, it was churning, twisting, rolling. Instead of a river, it felt more like channeled streams, concentrations of Force-energy running through one another, laid overlapping like a complex weave. He broke his concentration, and made sure the scans on the shuttle were all coming back clear.
“Master,” came the soft call. He turned in his seat to see his apprentice standing in the hatchway of the cockpit. “Am I to come with you?”
He nodded. “Come, sit with me.”
She stepped in, and took the copilot's seat. “What are we expecting here?”
He smiled slightly, thought he knew the expression was hidden by his respirator. A necessary tool, from an injury suffered while fighting the Vong during the invasion. He had taken an amphistaff through his chest, collapsing one lung, and while bacta and kolto tanks had healed the worst of the damage, he still couldn't breathe properly without it. It was quiet, made no noise, and only really regulated the flow of oxygen, making sure there was enough at all times flowing through the mask to account for his status. A little neuro connector on the back was plugged directly into his brain, reading his physical status to increase or decrease the flow accordingly. “That is what I want you to tell me,” he said softly. “Close your eyes, focus. Feel the Force. Reach out with your senses, and tell me what you feel from the planet below.”
She nodded, and closed her eyes. She was a pretty human girl, perhaps fourteen or fifteen standard years old, with dark hair that she kept tied neatly in twin braids over the back of each ear, her bangs hanging loose around her earthen brown eyes. She reminded him of his daughter... a girl he had not seen since she was just an infant, when she had been taken away from him by her mother, just before the Vong had invaded.
“It's... complex,” she said after a few silent moments. “The Force is in conflict with itself. Being forced, rather than flowing naturally. Why is that, master?” She opened her eyes to look at him.
He shrugged slightly. “I'm not sure. That's what we're going to find out.”
“I couldn't feel anyone there, no presences, nothing that was... well, alive.”
He nodded. “Yes. It's very unsettling.”
The commando squad loaded into the shuttle then, packing their gear, carrying crates of supplies, their high-powered rifles slung on their shoulders. They were suited up with helmets and vac-suits, just in case. He motioned for his apprentice to grab a couple extra suits, as the scans had indicated a thin, weaker atmosphere around the planet, he wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but wanted to be better safe than sorry. She grabbed them, and the commandos indicated they were prepped and ready.
He powered on the engines, the shuttle vibrating as the engines stirred to life. “Shuttle ready for departure,” he said into the com.
“Shuttle, this is Gold Fury control. You are cleared. Safe travels.”
He pushed the power regulator on the repulsorlifts, lifting the craft and spinning it to face out of the hangar, and gently eased some power into the main drives, coasting forward slowly, until they popped through the containment shield, and out of the hangar. He twisted the nose to point at the planet, and punched the drives, rocketing forward. The inertial compensator in the shuttle groaned slightly at the workload, but held as they took off. He set the navcomputer to calculating their descent and entry pattern, then turned to face the commandos.
“Listen up. Not sure what we're going to find planetside. Scans can't find the freighter, so we're not even sure if it's here. We're going in around one of the stone structures we located, to see what we can find. There aren't a whole lot of lifeforms on this planet, so we're not sure what to expect, what to see here. Keep your heads up, eyes open. If something looks hostile, take it down. We're not here to take chances. Understood?”
A chorus of ayes washed over him, and he nodded, spinning his chair back around. “And you, Temira, stay close to me,” he said to his apprentice.
She nodded. “Yes, master.”
The shuttle sliced through the atmosphere, and they got their first full look at the planet below. It was a wild, untamed mess of trees and spires of rock, rugged canyons and twisting, narrow rivers that rumbled and crashed their way along the surface. They slowed, and coasted just above the trees, staring out the viewports. Clouds hung thick and heavy in areas, but in others the sky was a pale, light blue, nearly a washed-out looking white color. The sun was small in the sky, a small white discus that looked almost like a pale, sick child of a star rather than a full sun, supporting it's own system. The clouds rolled and boiled with energy as they watched, moving rapidly over the ground, though there weren't any outward signs of winds or high currents that carried them.
“This doesn't make a lot of sense, Master,” Temira said softly next to him, studying the scanners. “I did a wide-range life scan, which means it should even be picking up insect and larger bacteria strains, but it's returning zero results. I can't penetrate more than a few inches underground, it's all solid lead.”
Kieran nodded, and checked the coordinates. They were almost to the stone formation that was their end goal. “I'm not sure what's going on here, but there's definitely something at work here.”
He guided the shuttled over the stone formation slowly as they reached it. It was less a formation, and more a piled ruin of rubble, they noticed immediately. The stone seemed to have at some point in time had a basic pyramid-type shape, but the top had fallen in, and one of the walls had collapsed, leaving the three standing about half as high as they should have been, with ragged tops. He frowned, and brought the shuttle into a relatively smooth landing spot in a clearing before the formation. The trees and jungle all ended about fifty meters away from the spot, abruptly enough that even the brush under the trees seemed to form something of a barrier all around.
He powered the shuttle down, and patted his lightsaber on his belt, to make sure it was still there, his mind already prickling with unease as he rose and turned towards the commandos. “We're doing this fast, and light. Get out there, take some scans, see if you can find anything. Move in trios, don't take chances. No casualties today, got it?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” they barked, and he lowered the ramp. They moved out as a group, their commander splitting them up and directing them as Kieran and Temira followed them out.
It was time to find out what this place was...