Returning Home

[BZenwrath]

HOMEFRONT. The word, even by itself, shook Rorick's emotions; allowing old memories that had sunk into the recesses of his mind to rise to the forefront again. What was once a secure bastion of hope to the Imperial Knights was now an obliterated tomb in the ground. Hundreds of his fellow Knights were killed and those that were left were captured. The only survivors seemed to have been away at the time, completing various tasks across the galaxy. Without any point of contact, it was months before he had heard what had happened to his beloved family...

Now, years later, he had found enough information to pinpoint the location of the long forgotten base to a system within wild space known as the Seoul system. However, his mission was not to find peace with the destruction of his order, it was to help reinforce the rebirth of it. In Rorick's eyes, even the smallest find within the bombed out shell of the underground base would be worth it. As it stood, the rebellion has scarce resources and even fewer that are of interest to the Imperial Knights.

In preparation for the expedition, Rorick sought out the company of a new and more inexperienced member of the Imperial Knights, Jahairal Val Kharon. If anyone would benefit most from the travel and history behind the journey, it would be him. And so, Rorick had already decided that if anything small was found, it would be given to this young Knight.

In the entirety of his armor and his lightsaber at his side, Rorick sat at the helm of his freighter, the Vindictor. With his arms crossed and his foot leaned up against the console in front of him, he awaited their arrival at Seoul V. While there was no schedule so to speak, there was a sense of urgency or unease in Rorick's body language. Outwardly, he might seem a bit impatient or even excited, but in truth he was actually feeling a sense of nervousness and dread. It had been a decade since its destruction, but he never really came to accept that everyone he had known and became close with was gone.

Getting his mind off of the subject, he stood, stretching his arms in front of him and turned to check a few controls and gauges on a console on the opposite side Jahairal had been sitting. Once Rorick was satisfied with his check, he returned to his seat and crossed his arms in the same position once again staring blankly beneath his hood at the streaks of stars as they passed through hyperspace.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal sat straight backed in his seat as him and ser rorick traveled towards the site of one of the imperial knights old and grand fortresses, homefront. Jahairal didn't know much of the history of the knights, but he knew this place was important, and what had been lost here. The younger knight had a feeling that this would be a difficult place to search, and one that could much potential for the imperial knights and the rebellion.

He sat in his yellow armor, covered by his sand colored cloak and hood, and his skull mask, traditional to his people. He bore no lightsabers, not having one to bear, and instead had a pair of vibroswords, short and maneuverable, as well as a blaster pistol in a holster behind him. His golden slit eyes watched rorick in silence, able to tell his unease even without the force.

After a long period of silence, jahairal finally broke it by asking a simple question.

"I am being sorry if this is being beyond my place...but..." the kaleesh began, looking to rorick with concern in his eyes as he spoke, "I am...are you going to be okay?" the kaleesh finally asked, finding himself at a loss of words in how to express his concern for his masters tenseness.

 

[BZenwrath]

Glancing over his shoulder, Rorick pushed the present back to the forefront of his mind and quickly replied, "Thank you for the concern Jahairal, but I'll be fine..." He was being too sentimental; there was a time for mourning and that time was long past. His second chance to make a difference was paid for with the lives of his friends. Now it was his turn to make good on that debt he owed them. Rebuilding will be difficult, but with men like himself and Jahairal, it would become easier. Only then did it dawn on him that Jahairal might not know much about homefront or even the rest of the Sith's campaign against the Knights.

"Jahairal," He said, spinning in his chair to face his fellow Knight, "Tell me, how much do you know of our fall? The events that took place over the last decade or so?"

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal looked down a moment as he responded, his voice calm and a bit distant.

"I am not knowing much, other then the general events and information..." He said honestly, having been a new recruit only coming within the last few months before the order was assimilated into the rebellion. "I was being raised in a tribe by ourselves. Our leader was being banished from the rest of the kaleesh, and I was being kept from things not within the tribe..." he said as he looked to rorick.

"I am knowing that many were hunted. And that many were being killed...and I am knowing what it is like, to be watching all one has known be killed around them... he said, a sadness in his eyes as he remembered his past.

 

[BZenwrath]

"These days, very few of us have lived lives where we did not lose friends and family..." Rorick paused, nodding to the Knight across to him. It really didn't matter who you were in the galaxy, nearly all people of the galaxy had been touched by the taint of the Sith, and never was it for the better. That aside, Rorick decided a short history lesson was warranted, as it is unbecoming of an Imperial Knight to be ignorant of his own heritage.

"The Knights, like you said, were hunted down by the Sith Empire. We fought hard just to survive under the constant threat, but we still stayed vigilant and made strides to complete our duties. Vigilance was not enough. Our first homes outside of the Empire, Sith's Folly and Cyrillia, were destroyed along with much of our forces. From there we made secrecy chief among our traits by falling back to Homefront, our last major headquarters. The true location was only known to our leadership but somehow we were found. The Sith found Homefront and our order was nearly destroyed entirely. Homefront was the last time I saw any of the Knights I knew. Despite my own preconceptions, we pulled through and now we're here. Rebuilding once again, and you and I are a large part of that. Our duty as Knights for the time being is to grow and strengthen our order once again, so that we may purge the galaxy of Sith and their taint." ​

Just as he finished, A red warning light flashed, alerting the passengers they were about to come out of hyperspace. Rorick swiveled around in his chair, bringing his full attention to the scene that was about to unfold.

---

---

As soon as they dropped out of hyperspace, Rorick had to jump for the controls to steer the Vindictor from a direct collision with a large astroid or debris. The terrible ear piercing sound of ripping metal was heard as the hull barely skimmed by. This was followed by alarms, warning lights, and the hulls whine; all warning signs of being pulled by in by the gravity of the devastated rock of a planet, Seoul V. Its atmosphere seemed nearly absent, and its ground was shattered by the multiple battles that had taken place here throughout time. And then it came into view as they rounded the planet, or what was left of it... Through the storm of chaos that had erupted upon their arrival, Rorick spotted what a cluster of craters in the planet that were far too planned to be natural. While not completely certain without a scan, Rorick had the feeling the desolate remains of Homefront would be found there.

After a few minutes of struggling with the gravity of the planet, the chaos had subsided, allowing the craft to level out. Letting the force guide his intuition, Rorick set his destination in the computer and let the autopilot do the rest. After reading a little information his ship spewed at him in the form of digital messages, he stood up, and began walking to the ship's crew quarters, gesturing to Jaharial to follow as he passed by, "We'll need to suit up, the surface air isn't breathable... oh and go ahead and grab a plasma torch, we may need to cut through some debris." The Vindictor's quarters were small and rarely saw more than Rorick, so the majority of its space was either completely empty or filled to the brim with Rorick's personal belongings he had collected as a bounty hunter. Three re-breather helmets, the associated gear, and an assortment of medpacks, weapons, ammo, armor and tools could be found in the a sort of makeshift armory Rorick had created.

Without skipping a beat, Rorick tore off his usual visor and replaced it by sliding the armored re-breather helmet over his head. As soon as it was over his head, a seal was created, and its visor blinked to life. "The helmets are all linked through comm and visual data." He tapped on the helmet, "grab whatever else you need; what's mine is yours." And with that Rorick walked to the exit ramp, awaiting the familiar feeling of his ship touching down on solid ground.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal now understood what it was they were doing on this mission. This was no simply scavenger run, they were going to a graveyard of the worst kind, one where no rite to the dead had been made, and no spirit allowed to ascend. Homefront, its name an ironic reminder of what the sith had done to the empire, what it had done to the knights, and to some extent what it had done to the galaxy, would be a dangerous place, both physically, and spiritually.

Jahairal couldn't help but feel a sense of dread beyond the momentary panic he'd felt when they'd first exited hyperspace. For the kaleesh, a battlefield was a sacred area, some so sacred that they later become temples to that battle, and those descendents of those who fought in it. But a battlefield where no spirits had been allowed to ascend to the great journey, to fight alongside the gods, was quite the opposite. It was a cursed place, where only bad things could follow from going there.

And they were going there right now. Jahairal closed his eyes and calmed his breathing, trying to purge the sense of nervousness inside of him and managing to calm a bit, hands and shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. This was for the greater good, to help them rebuild, to grow stronger and fight better then before.

'No good can come from a graveyard left to rot.' A voice retorted in his head, harsh and full of judgmental wrath, 'You would do well to remember this well, my son. For you will one day need to see the spirits off, when you slay them.'

'That's...not helping.' Jahairal thought as the ship landed and jahairal opened his eyes, hearing about the atmosphere. He stood and walked towards the area with the helmets, looking about as he found the one that looked well. It looked somewhat like his own mask, two eye holes and a breather shaped in a vertical slot like pattern, but more importantly it was one that would fit his head.

"Thank you, Ser Rorick. You are being hospitable..." Jahairal said as he lowered his hood, taking off his skull mask slowly as his missing ear and burned left side of his face were now visible for the imperial knight to see. The burns on his neck also showed a bit, the circular ring of scar tissue long healed and standing out from his darker skin as he brushed his hair back and adjusted his braid, fitting it in as jahairal quickly put the helmet on.

With a hiss, jahairal now had a metallic helmet that would keep him alive and healthy in the atmosphere, blinking in surprise. "This is being strange..." Jahairal commented, eyes getting used to the digital look the helmet gave him, "I am thinking...this is being impressive..." he said, moving his hand in front of his helmets eyes as he got used to seeing the word filtered.

 

[BZenwrath]

Rorick smirked underneath his helmet, "You'll get used to it before you know it,"

A few moments later the Vindictor touched down, its loud landing gear whining under the sudden pressure before normalizing once again. Once the ship was settled, the boarding ramp lowered in front of Rorick revealing a desolate world of rock and ice. They had touched down in what appeared to be a large basin but in actuality, they were in they landed in the center of one massive craters Rorick had seen from space. Steam vented out of a few cuts in the ground and despite their age, the blast craters still looked fresh due to the thin atmosphere and lack of weathering. A cool gust of air poured in through the open walkway, giving Rorick a slight shiver as he made his way down. He knew the Kaleesh beside him was a little nervous but it couldn't be helped. In reality, Rorick was as well. Before he left the ship completely, he looked back up to Jaharial in an effort to reassure Jaharial as much as himself.

When he was on the ground he began to scan the horizon, looking for any non natural formations. It was almost hopeless though, the planet seemed devoid of everything in terms of natural life, even the force presence here seemed week. With no sign of the first levels of the bunker in this particular crater, he began to walk his way around the crest, towards another one of the gigantic craters. Without any idea of what they might actually find, Rorick continued to lead Jaharial up and around the walls of the pits in the earth.

Scanning the horizon, Rorick failed to realize how weak the ground beneath his feet actually was. As they moved, It cracked and stressed from his and Jaharial's weight, weakening it with each step. It was a while yet before he had even noticed the distinctly hollow sound each step made and when he did it was already too late. Rorick turned to face his friend, just as the ground beneath Jaharial suddenly gave out. A second later Rorick fell as well, dust and debris following him down as he fell. Darkness enveloped him, and he struggled to keep his sense of direction and keep himself feet down. A moment later he hit the ground hard on his back; knocking the wind out of him and causing a significant amount of pain in his shoulder and arm.

For what seemed like an eternity Rorick laid on his back, shrouded in complete darkness. Still laying there motionless, he spoke up, "You still t-" He paused, coughing as he realized there was a familiar taste of blood upon his tongue. He forced himself to take a painful deep breath before forcefully continuing, "You alright Jaharial?"

He lifted his uninjured left arm, clicking a button on the side of his helmet which activated a infrared view. Looking up, Rorick began to realize how far he had fallen after spotting the small hole he fell through. The rangefinder on his tactical readout figured the distance was 65 feet. He was lucky to even be able to move at that height. He only hoped Jaharial didn't fall as far. After another deep breath Rorick attempted to stand, a sharp pain weighing down his right shoulder. He grunted as he tried to work through the strain and stand up straight again. When he was up and on his feet his entire body ached in its entirety. He could only imagine it was as if he was hit by a speeder at full acceleration.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal shivered from the cold as he looked about, eyes wide with how different the world was. It seems so disconnected, jahairal's own thermal pits covered by the helmet making everything almost dreamlike. BUt he didn't need his unobstructed vision to tell the planet was cold, beyond feeling it was simply looking around at their surroundings, recalling the rarest of times he'd seen snow from the stars, the concept almost foreign to him.

"This place...it is being so very cold..." Jahairal says, taking a few steps out of the ship after rorick does, blinking as he takes in the sight. It doesn't take a guineas to guess what made this hole, and jahairal can tell by the irregular melting and shattering points of both the rocks and ice that this was not a natural formation. Given what he was told earlier, its safe to assume this was a sith made crater, and possibly a grave. "I have never traveled to a cold place before...was this planet always being like this? With it being cold I mean." he asks as he follows, hands gripped around his cloak to keep a bit warmer.

As they traveled, jahairal could hear strange noises coming from around them, which he would then look to rorick to see what his reaction was. The senior knight would be more experienced in what to look out for in such as strange place as this. As they finally came out from the crater, jahairal felt something strange, as if slipping on a rock while standing in place, eyes going wide as he looked up to rorick, "Ser Knig-" he was interrupted when the ice gave way, and jahairal fell screaming down into the darkness.

Jahairal tried to reach for the wall, hand scrapping against it as he fell and just barely slipping off before a large protruding rock would have snapped his arm like a twig. Jahairal looked down from the wall, barely keeping upright as the ground came close and saw something else, desperate as he grabbed a armful of cloth and threw it out in front of him, the cloak snagging on a outreaching ice sheet 20 feet above the ground and snapping jahairal out of free fall, tearing as it did so before jahairal fell down with a plop into the snow below.

Jahairal lay in the snow motionless before he began to groan, working to stand as hacked a bit, rubbing his throat and shoulders as he heard his name called. Jahairal looked at his cloak, seeing it torn at his waist level as he looked to see ser rorick some distance away. He looked up to try and see where they'd fallen before he answered, spotting the other half of his cloak wafting gently on the ice sheet, now stuck upon it.

"I am being unscathed..." he said before he winced moving his neck, "M-mostly am being unscathed..." he said as he looked to rorick, "Are you being injured?"

 

[BZenwrath]

"I'm alive, if thats what you're asking." he coughed again, still mostly unable to normalize his breathing completely. After a few moments of dusting himself off, the movements still causing a great deal of pain, he finally admitted to himself he was badly injured. "I may have broken something." he muttered breathlessly to himself, "Okay, go ahead and find your way down here safely. Take your time though, no more accidents like this one understand."

With those remarks he went silent, observing the general area around him. Debris from the shattered ground above lay strewn across the icy floor, cover any glimmer the small amount of light offered them. The cavern was dismal, destroyed and nearly unrecognizable, but something on the wall caught his eye. It was metallic in nature, its reflection differing greatly from that of the surrounding surfaces. Slowly, Rorick limped over to the wall, bringing his one good arm up to wipe the dust from its surface. Rorick stood there motionless as he revealed a portion of what appeared to be an outer wall of Homefront. Stunned by either his own excitement or an eerie feeling of regret, Rorick stared blankly at the wall until Jahairal's arrival brought him back to the present.

"Alright," he said indirectly aloud, as if he was reassuring himself that he knew what to do. "Alright, lets spread out. See if we can find a break in this wall. If push comes to shove we might have to force our way in. Jahairal, let me know if you find anything but feel free to roam, just be careful."

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Relief welled inside jahairal as he heard roricks voice, breathing a unknowingly held breath in a sigh of relief as he looked down the hole, seeing the outline of rorick below him just barely visible in the dim light below. He had been afraid for a moment that ser rorick had perished, the thought having consumed all others as he waited in silence.

Jahairal made his way down the ledge he'd ended up on as he looked about the area, jumping every so often and usually sliding down a slopped surface and using his lig sword to slow his descent and eventually stop himself. There was an odd sensation welling inside jahairal as he moved, a tingling of sorts in his head he'd felt before, and a feeling inside him with every leap and every step he took. It was like he knew the path to get down, a gut feeling that was stronger then that, and after a long trek in silence, jahairal was on the same level as rorick, and walked towards the older knight.

Jahairal looked up to the solid wall of metal, seeing it ascend upwards as ice and long frozen over rock covered its ever rising surface until it was swallowed completely, indistinguishable from the rest of the area. It looked as if the wall they were some form of wound to jahairal, a scar on the environment that wasn't healed, showing the damage of something long since past. Hearing the orders, jahairal gave a nod and made his way around the wall, heading the opposite way of rorick as he looked to the frost and dust covered metal wall.

Jahairal stepped over tumbled rocks and icy chunks, wathcing his step as he walked farther and farther along the wall, looking out for anything out of the ordinary. Jahairal was about to go back, to tell rorick he had failed and see if he had done better, when he felt that strange feeling again. He looked around curiously, not spotting anything as he felt the strange feeling in him, his own instincts telling him despite what his eyes couldn't see that something was here.

The kaleesh let out a sigh as he shuddered a bit, rubbing his hands together as he felt the cold about him. He wasn't used to the cold, and he couldn't say he liked it one bit. He closed his eyes, trying to clear his head as the strange gut feeling seemed to grow stronger. He looked confused a moment as he heard what sounded like wind, a strong wind at that, before he slowly looked upwards, his eyes opening as he'd thought he'd be looking up to the sky, and instead found himself staring at a outcropping of ice as the sound of wind stopped, some snow slowly blowing off of it while the rest of the chamber was still as a ghost.

Jahairal blinked as he saw the disturbance and disconnect, making his way up a sloping incline carefully as he found himself standing in front a a cracked layer of ice, a small, barely noticeable breeze disturbing the snow in front of the crack as the still loose powder blew aside gently. Jahairal drew his lig sword as he stared at the icy layer, looking to his blade as he activated the vibrofunction. His sword hummed as he looked back to the ice, and then plunged it into the crack. The ice broke apart and fell away, revealing a large crack like hole in the wall.

Jahairal looked to it as he deactivated his vibrosword, "I am locating a breach in the wall!!" He called out, looking into the hole as he took a step towards it, "I...I am going to be entering it." He said, softer then before as he took a step inside the hole, pressing himself against the wall to fit as he shuffled forward.

It didn't take long for jahairal to find his way through, stumbling forward as he was free of the narrow passage, he held out his hands and grabbed something solid and cold, a long clang echoing as jahairal looked down to see himself grasping a railing. He was on a walkway, overlooking some large room of sorts, old technology lay on the floor below, computers either smashed or long abandonded, displays cracked or coated with dust, and a feeling. A feeling of abandonment, or lonely and cold, and as the echo of jahairals crash still lingered slightly the kaleehs's gaze couldn't help but be attracted towards the center of the old conference room.

There, in the center of what looked to be an old central display, was a light. Its bright glow was somewhat blinding in this otherwise dark room, and it cast an eerie red glow about the place as jaharial stared at it curiously. What was it? Some sort of long dormant security measure? The way its red light flickered and sputtered, jahairal doubted that.

The kaleesh pulled himself over the railing and landed with a crouch, sword still drawn as he cautiously approached the item. He got closer and closer, and as he did so the object became more and more recognizable. It was a cylinder, a long cylinder with a fiery red end coming out, slight puffs of smoke emitting every so often as the object continued to illuminate noisely within the abandoned room.

Jahairal had seen these before, during the night raids of his past. This was called a flare, and it didn't last long, certainly not long enough to still be lit down here on its own from before the base was abandoned. Which could only mean one logical thing, the kaleesh knight realized.

They were not alone.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal looked about the large room, suddenly feeling a lot more cautious about his surroundings. It was a large space with areas that could be used to overlook the perimeter, old machinery and electronics that could be used for cover, but other then that there was the cold and the dark pervading the area. The kaleesh walked away from the center of the room, going towards an open doorway that lay on the farside, an exit, or possibly entrance, to the room he was currently standing in.

Jahairal took the time to look to the left and the right, seeing one side being covered in thick layers of ice and the other sides doors being sealed shut, leaving only the center doorway wide open. As he took steps closer and closer towards it, he noticed that his were not the only footsteps.

A fine layer of dust had been disturbed leading towards the open doors, the markings small and close together, like whoever made them had been perhaps walking on tips of their toes? Or perhaps they had small feet? Either way, he could not tell how many there were, which worried him greatly.

The kaleesh stepped forward and through the arch, coming into a darkened hallway, its walls noticeably tarnished, some of the panels lay next to exposed circuitry of the walls themselves. He raised a brow curiously as he looked both ways, seeing stretching darkness one way, and at the far end of the other way, a flare burning in the darkness, casting a red glow as it had in the room previous.

Jahairal took a few seconds to think as he turned to walk towards the flare, curious to see where it might lead, and ready to make a run back to ser rorick if need be.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal continued to follow down the hallway, coming accross a massive hole in the wall where the flare had led him. It seemed this part of the base had been damaged during the massive bombardments of the planet above, and he crossed through the faucility, following the path that someone had set out through the base.

In most parts he travelled in darkness, something jahairal wasn't used to at all, as he followed the glowing points leading him to...something. He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into with this whole thing, part of him wondering if he should turn back. But something wouldn't let him. Something told him he needed to go along this path, that it was important. This continued until he came to one flare, where he stood at the intersection of two corridors.

The flare path continued to the left, snaking into the darkness to another corner of the this place. But something...it told him not to follow this one. He looked to the left, and slowly began to walk his way into the darkness, no flare to guide him as he continued to walk forward. This feeling he knew well enough from his meditations, but to have it working here, guiding him forward, was a new sensation for the young knight.

Jahairal was about to take another step, blind in the dark thanks to his helmet, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, an intense feeling creeping in around him that he couldn't explain. Jaharial looked down, seeing darkness below as he slowly moved his foot and kicked off some dust, watching it gently flow down into the pit he'd almost walked right into. Jahairal waited a moment before he leaped down, landing in a crouch as he looked about his new surroundings. A head of him, he could see some light leaking in, and from behind, he could see the pathway blocked off by the collapsed debris of the floor above, blocking access.

Jahairal moved towards the light, keeping close to the wall as he saw where the light was coming from. The hallway ahead had a chunk of its wall missing, allowing anyone to peer down and see a wide expanse of space, a chamber of some kind, where below what looked to be the remains of a laboratory of some kind lay. This part of the facility still had power, and the orange glow of emergency lights illuminated the space brightly compared to the darkness hed traversed to get here.

And below, he could see figures moving, humanoid in shape, as they seemed to be searching for something. Jahairals eyes narrowed as he growled silently. It seemed that he'd found the people who'd come here, and judging by the way they were searching, they were looking for something in particular.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

"We've been down here two days now. You guys sure there's gonna be anything here?" One of the scavengers asked as he shoved a table aside with a grunt, looking behind it and growling in frustration.

"No. Not until we find out how to open that room back there." Another replied as he stepped through a broken window to another area of the chamber, though apparently still within earshot, "We can't well blast it open considering last time cause a damn cave in."

"Corridor in you mean." Came the bemused reply that sounded different then the others, a weequay amongst the group snickering as one of the others picked up a nearby piece of rubble and chucked it at the man.

"**** you and **** your lame jokes man. I almost died setting those off." A man whose head looked like a squid replied, jahairal staring in bafflement at the Nautolan, never having seen one of his kind before, "There's gotta be a control panel of some kind we overlooked. If we can get it we can jump it and get the doors unlocked no problem."

"Whatever you say Brasna." The weequay replied with a roll of his eyes, "What exactly are the odds of that happening? We just happen to find the magic way in after we already turned this place over yesterday." he said as he moved another piece of debris out of the way. "It'd be better if I just torched my way through."

"And set off traps like the last time?" The one from earlier, a human, chimed in as he took a seat on the table he'd shoved aside, "You know, it might be easier to have done this if someone hadn't torn the wiring from the walls first."

"What? How was I to know that place had reserve power? The rest of the place sure as salt didn't." the man who'd gone through the broken window replied, "Besides. All we have to do is stop looking in places we already checked, and look in places we didn't...." he said before he stopped, the sound of a few things clattering and banging audible, "Hey Guys! I think I found it."

The others went towards where their comrade was, while jahairal stuck to the shadows, glaring from above the group as he kept himself from acting. While he wanted to, he was curious himself, just what had these fools discovered. He'd wait till they left a bit farther, then he'd make his way down and see for himself.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Jahairal stuck to the shadows as he watched the last one of the raiders leave through the window, before he dropped down and hide behind one of the desks. It was dark here, but jahairal could see just fine as he crept towards the window, keeping low and out of sight.

He peaked his head over, spotting a the backs of a few of the raiders as they entered a room, a tore off control panel laying next to it as Jahairal slowly climbed over the window itself, careful that his footstep made little to no noise. He could hear voices from inside the room, and as he came closer, the voices grew louder and more excited.

"Look at this stuff. Could be worth a lot of credits to the right people."

"Or worth a lot of us, if we want to use it."

"Use it for what? Its not like we got any of those fancy lightsaber things."

Jahairal froze midstep as he heard that, now next to the control panel the others had used as he blinked. He hadn't heard that right, had he? They'd found something related to lightsabers, here? This was bad. Very bad.

"Oh really? Well then, gentlemen, feast your eyes on this!" One of them called as a familiar sound filled jahairals ears, a sudden hiss and a resounding thrumming through the air as he peaked his head around the corner and spotted what he'd dreaded.

One of the raiders held a lightsaber in his hand, a simple hilt and simple design, but a working one no less as he looked at the glowing blade, burning like a lit torch in the darkness around them.

"Holy Krong, where the farkled did you get that!?" One of the raiders said as the others backed far away from their comrade. He laughed as he stared at the blade, giving it an experimental swing and embedding it in a wall, fiery orange blade embedding in the wall as fumes billowed from the scorched metal.

"WATCH IT!!!" Another raider screamed as he shielded his eyes from the impromptu welding, rubbing them as the one holding the saber looked it over, "What's the moron doing? I can't see anything!"

"Hey! Watch who your calling a moron," The moronic member of their group said as he looked at the hilt he held, "Should be an off switch here somewhere. Just gotta...there!" He said as he found the throtle switch, flicking off the blade before he dropped the hilt with a yelp.

"OWWW!!! Damn thing burned my hand!!" He said as a few flicks of hot plasma dripped onto the raiders gloved hand, as if the blade had some sort of liquid property to it. The blade itself had been orange, and its field had shimmered like it really was made of flames. Even on the emitter, there were scorch marks as it fogged up the cold air around them with its heat.

All the while jahairal stood where he was, still as a statue and silent as a grave. These raiders, who broke into his place, and damaged its interior, were now keen on stealing from it and desecrating its belongings to do so. These places, to jahairal, where something like tombs. They contained memories of those slain here, and the spirits here relied on them, at least according to jahairals old faith they had.

And these fools were bent on destroying that for profit. Worse yet, they made a mockery of a powerful weapon like a child playing with a blaster, lacking all concept of the danger he held in his grasp.

These raiders needed to be dealt with, and jahairal resolved that if anyone were to do it, it'd be him.