Force Journey RPG

Upon his request, the warrior led Candrai to a site at the fringe of the forest—not more than ten minutes from the training grounds. What he saw made his heart sink. Sprawled awkwardly across a ruin stone, lay the broken body of a Gungan scout. The kill was fresh, the wounds distinct. The scout must have fallen from the knoll above, but not before being slain - at the blade of a lightsaber.

Candrai sat up, drawing the Force to himself as he searched the surrounding terrain for any recollection of the villain responsible. No doubt the fiend was long gone, but why did they attack? Was it premature, or intentional? The longer he thought about it the more he began to believe that this was no mere accidental encounter: it was a warning. His dark nemeses had returned.

“They were spotted on Raxus Prime,” Noutica said aloud, reading the report.

“Yes sir, a TIE squadron intercepted them trying to leave system.”

“But they still escaped.” The man seemed to take the comment at a personal blow, but otherwise remained silent. “Where to?”

“We’re still looking into that.”

According to the report, there had been a second vessel present during the skirmish at Raxus Prime. Initial investigations had failed to reveal further detail, but Noutica had looked into the mystery himself. And something was amiss.

“I found something else, sir,” the man waited for his superior officer’s full attention. “An officer overseeing the cleanup on Fobera told me that an ISB agent arrived shortly after you left. He surveyed the site and was asking questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

“The sort that would insinuate that he pursued the insurgents… to Raxus Prime.”

Noutica smiled. His attendant was learning quickly the intuitive analytics that agents of Imperial Intelligence were prided on. The ISB and Imperial Intelligence were rivals on the best of days, and to suggest their involvement was a matter of satisfaction for Noutica. Yet, that one of their agents was one step ahead, also made his blood boil. The ISB was larger and more affluent, something that was often made known. An opportunity to show them up was an unavoidable temptation. “Good, I want to know more. Find out who that agent is, what he knows, and where he went.

Well, where to begin? My name is Tars Alin, as I’m sure you know. I’m a human, simple as that. I was born on Coruscant twenty-eight years ago. My father was Hedrick Alin, a shipyard worker. I remember helping him with his repairs when he needed me to, and that was always, as he was barely scraping by as it was. He couldn’t support me, his only child. My mother was dead; she died a long time ago.

I learned to build, to fly. I could repair almost any kind of problem your ship can have. Eventually I decided that I couldn’t be a bother to my dad anymore. He could live by himself if he didn’t have to support me. I had decided to leave home, get a job, and become successful. Before I could leave, though, he was killed.

Well, he wasn’t killed. Tragic as it was, he really just died. An unfortunate shipyard accident. One of the anti-matter levitators had failed, and the ship he was working on crushed him. Killed by his livelihood.

I…well, I had lost someone before. It…could have been worse. My life was a wreck for a while. I ran away from my home, taking what valuables I could. I was fourteen? I think so.

I could tell you of the time I spent as a beggar, but that was not long. Then I worked at a Cantina. For a few years I got by. Then I became a thief. I was never caught.

I was about eighteen when I stole my first valuable. A watch from a store. I sold it for twenty credits. Thus began a period of time where I stole and sold, becoming moderately wealthy. I had amassed a thousand credits by the time I was nineteen. I used the money to buy a junker, a real old ship. I called her Money. She seated two, and had a small cargo area. Ah, those were good times….

I could tell you how I used Money to do odd jobs, and some smuggling, but that’s not really what you’re here for, I know. I sold Money after two years of hard work and saving, and eventually bought the Tars I. I stepped up my game, hauling more cargo and getting more money. I eventually became well-known in the Coruscant underworld. I suppose it was then that I began to take action against the Empire. Well, then, it was still the Republic.

I met some people; they are the ones you want to hear about. Arbacca, a stubborn Wookiee, Santo, a smart Jedi…Panzer, he was a Mandalorian, ‘nuff said. Nat, a Duros, came a little later. I suppose I’ll tell you about them later. I worked with them as a pilot, helping them take down gang lords and such. For the Republic’s benefit.

One day we had to scale the Republic 500, the Chancellor’s place. It was dangerous; you remember the attack on Coruscant, by the Separatists? We killed so many droids. It was kind of fun. We reached the top, trying to rescue Palpatine or somesuch. He wasn’t in his office. We looked around.

I saw his computer. “Order 66” was there, and details of what was going to happen. I was outraged, and so were my friends. I stole about a million credits from Palpatine’s desk. I suppose it was some kind of stolen money anyway, as no one has any business having that much in cash. We had to warn the Jedi.

I took the others in my speeder, and we flew away from the building. We were shot down by droids, buried in the undercity of Coruscant. I remember all going black. I though everyone was dead. If only we were that lucky….

We woke up weeks later. It could have been only a week, I don’t know. Order 66 had already happened. We were too late. All the Jedi were dead. The Chancellor had become the Emperor. And we were in the middle of it.

My friends, mostly being Jedi, had to hide. I supposed that I would join them. I think something inside me wanted to. I still had the million credits. We bought a ship and headed out-system. It was Arbacca’s suggestion to go to Montu Cordu. That’s when we began to build.

I’ll take it slower from here, if you don’t mind? Yeah, I know. I was intoxicated with money. I had never had that much before. I spend it on clothes, a speeder, used it to impress women. I remember a Twi’lek cook I had…made the best Nerf. Anyway, Arbacca had it in his head to make an army. He’s always been fussing around with his droids, building them better and making them stronger.

Eventually he had a little HQ set up. A cafeteria mess hall too. He’d convinced a bunch of Jawas from Tatooine—no, seriously—to come and work for him. They built his droid army and stuff. Fun to party with, those little guys.

We all had rooms in the HQ dorms. I had mine, and there was also one for Gabe, the little Jedi clone-boy, Nat, the Duro, Sev, a Jedi Mandalorian, as well. Gabe never stayed much. He was always missing, usually on Tatooine. He had a girl, too; got her pregnant. I big fiasco. I’m not sure what happened to him. Went off to save the world, I imagine.

Santo had disappeared. We all were wondering where he was. We didn’t find him for a while….

That’s a good story. I’ll start there.

Santo was a Jedi, tall and handsome, in his pale sort of way. He had longish black hair and a blue, double-saber. We went looking for him often, ever since he disappeared. It was on a random hyperspace travel that we were interrupted by some kind of field. It powered the ship down and we were helpless.

I was there, and some others as well. Arbacca and Sev, or Panzer. One of the Mandalorians. We came upon the Cube.

The Cube was a massive, well, cube, in space. Much bigger than our ship, and about as big as a Republic troop carrier. It glowed. Green. We were stuck, and all scared. The Cube had a tractor beam, and brought us in.

Inside was nothing. Nobody. We left the ship to find out what was happening.

A voice on some kind of intercom blurted out. We listened to what it had to say.

Apparently, we were some kind of game. She had unlimited resources to her disposal—it was a girl, she wouldn’t tell us her name—and we had to find her.

I personally didn’t want to find her, but seeing as the ship was powered down and a monitor with a countdown popped out of the wall, I guessed I didn’t have much of a choice.

There were mechanical spiders first. Hundreds of them. We had just left the hangar when we came upon a massive room with big pillars down the middle and holes in the walls. We shut them down somehow. It became dark, and we all were moving down a tunnel….

I’m sorry if this sounds jerky. I can’t…remember it all that well. We came upon the darkest room of all. There were eyes. I remember what they sounded like.

“GRAK!” over, over and over again. Monsters, with wings. Lizards. There was a big one. We ran. We shot a few, then ran.

Eventually we found the Mistress. That is what she called herself. Santo was kneeling before her.

“Santo!” I yelled, and he looked back. His face was angry, his eyes red. His hair was jagged and untamed.

He didn’t seem to care. He ignited his saber and we fought. Him and the Mistress against all of us. It was a long battle, but we won, just barely.

Santo had turned to the Dark. We had killed the Mistress, and all of a sudden he was better. He still looked bad, but he wasn’t evil anymore. She must have had some kind of spell on him. He broke down sobbing.

We asked him what was wrong. He killed Terra, his wife. The Mistress told him that she killed Liam, and Santo believed her. Liam was dead too. Liam was his Padawan. He left us then, and told us he’d never come back, and that he was going to do…something.

He deactivated the beam and left. We tried to catch up but couldn’t. He was fast. We escaped the Cube. I don’t know where it is now.

When we got back to Montu Cordu we had a new friend. His name was Damian, a huge man from the Cube. He had been under the Mistress’ spell too, but we rescued him. His home was Montu Cordu, ironically enough. We let him go home, and he lived there until the Invasion. Then he died, protecting his wife and kids.

It’s a shame. But some good came of Montu Cordu. Some, anyway.

Sev was only on the planet for a little while when Nahari came along.

Sev was sixteen, a real stupid teenager. Nahari was a less stupid teenager, older than him, a Mandalorian, true blooded. They met in a bar and hit it off immediately. He told me that she had made very…aggressive moves towards him in his ship, just afterward. They were married soon after. I don’t blame him. There’s nothing hotter than a female Mandalorian, if you haven’t seen one before.

I met Nahari’s older friend, Josey. It’s…hard for me to talk about her. Even now. I’ve…moved on, sort of. Well, I’m seeing someone else right now, but….

We were married. Best times of my life. I was the Admiral of our Navy, the Montu Cordu Resistance or something. I was young, and happy. She got pregnant, but I didn’t know until…well, nine months came along. You see, I was fighting against the Empire then. We had a little help from an Ackbar character. Gave us two HUGE ships, I’m not even joking.

Another Jedi, well, a few actually, had joined us by then. Me and the Jedi were fighting the Emperor, side by side. Well, I suppose it was really the Jedi and me, as I’m less important than any Jedi, right? Tamor’a, an…attractive, to say the least, Jedi, with a yellow saber, we met on Cordu. Candrai was a pointy-eared Jedi. Dark Side when we met him, Light Side after; you know. Zolar, he’s funny. A Zabrak Jedi. He was with us just after Montu Cordu. With them, Gabe, Sev, Santo and Terra, we had a good little army.

As you know, things kind of fell apart, and we’d lost a few towards the end. Gabe also disappeared. I’m repeating myself.

We fought the biggest battle; three ways—Bloodlust Pirates, the Empire, and us.

We were nearly destroyed. I survived, with the Jedi, the Wookiee, and a few droids. We retreated to Montu Cordu. It was the first time in nine months I’d been there, and I heard that my wife was giving birth.

I went to the moon of Montu Cordu, where our second base was, but it was bombed. The Empire had ambushed us! It was the beginning of the Montu Cordu Invasion.

Josey died…just after giving birth to my little Aelias. I was a wreck, much more than after my father had died. Not only that, our entire operation was destroyed. We had to run, we had to hide. And where did we end up?

Arbacca ended up in Tatooine, working for Jabba. I am here, on Naboo, with Candrai and Tamor’a. Zolar is building a home on Arodoni VIII. Sev is on Mandalore with his family. Nat is here, with his family, doing trans-atmosphere jobs.

My new girl? That’s Harene, Sev’s sister. He’s not too happy about it.

Other adventures? I’m not sure I have the time. Maybe someday.

The Empire? I can’t really do anything about it. I don’t plan to. Hopefully I’ll be able to adventure some more one day. In fact, I’m thinking of selling the Card.

Yeah, I skipped a few parts, but they aren’t for me to tell. I hope you got everything.

My interview with Tars had left me frustrated and irritated. Surely he had a better memory? I couldn’t find anything else from him. I wanted to know the story of so much more. About Tamor’a’s joining the group, and Candrai. Nat and Arbacca’s background. Gabe’s disappearances.

The woman beside him knew what he was thinking. She might as well have been reading his mind; it wouldn’t have been the first time. “It’s for the best,” she said mechanically, the mantra they had unwillingly procured for themselves.

The words caused the man to frown. How many times had they said that, how many times after all they’d been through and after all they’d done?

The man was reminded of his many transgressions, of his temptation and how he had succumbed to the darkness. Even after his redemption, the man remembered the part he played in the downfall of others; he vividly recalled the children killed by an enemy he had failed to protect them from. He winced to think of the lives taken in that battle, this very child in his arms, whose parents were killed—one immediately, the other not so long afterward.

The man thought about the natives he had trained against the evils of their day; he had forged warriors, but to what end would they ultimately fail? More criminal masterminds, more deranged knights-errant? Or would they be desolated (as so many before them) under the evil regime’s ruthless galactic conquest?

The man then considered his most recent student. This was the one he had sent away to survive amidst a rag-tag group of adventure-seekers, on a planet in the very heart of that same evil regime. He had envisioned that student’s ruin, and desperately sought to spare him of that. Or had he unknowingly sent the young man straight to his demise?

And now… now the man was fleeing his new job, home, and life to escape the impending doom that was ever encroaching upon them. They had to leave. What choice did they have?

The worst part of all was yet to follow. The man knew that he was slipping. He was not the father this boy needed, he never could be. He was not the husband his wife needed, for there was too much darkness left in his heart, no matter how diligently he fought to purge it from within.

He saw the brokenness that lay between them all, as if his inner sight made tangible the invisible threads that once bound them together. He was hurt, and she was hurt. He had fallen and still felt the slimy shame of his past. She had been forced to slay her protégé and this after suffering the deepest of betrayals.

We’re too broken, the man mused, watching her dark eyes as she took the child from his arms. She caught his stare, and paused, the mutual understanding as clear as crystal, as mournful and final as a loon’s call.

They would find a safe place for the child. They would take a break from their attempts of parenting and from their marriage of play-acting. They would leave no clues to their former lives, nothing to tie them to their past.

They had already destroyed their iconic weapons, had burned their order’s robes. They would shroud themselves in new identities and quench the inner sight which once so strongly defined them.

Something like Fate was tugging at the heart of Candrai Enn’ado, and he knew that soon he would know why. He would embrace it, even if it meant doing so alone.