Star Wars: A New Dawn

"You'll also have us," Neri called out as she approached Luke and the others.

~~~~~~~

(Didn't get a reply with post about case)

Luke clapped his hands twice, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Yes, Ford," he said first, "we will." He then turned, and nodded to Neri. "Thank you as well, Nerilly. Once the ceremony is done, I'd appreciate the chance to speak with you. Now, if those of you who are currently Jedi Knights or Masters would follow me to the hanger bay, we have a ceremony to perform."

Saltatha, Tamil, Ford, Neri, Siha, and Leia all formed ranks behind Luke as they filed out the door. Rowena sort of slouched along in the back, self-consciously fiddling with the ragged remains of her Jedi robes. She jumped as Siha laid a hand over her armored fingers, giving her a flat, amused look that clearly said 'breathe, Ena'. She did so, shakily, but it helped a little. Ena raised her hand to the braid in front of her left ear, black hair twisted into a thin rope, woven with silver and blue beads that matched her fur and eyes. Soon, that link to her past would be gone.

They entered the hanger bay of the Inflictor as a ship touched down; a Republic shuttle model, as it appeared. The back bay door opened, and a middle-aged Togruta woman stepped out, followed by no less than five Jedi Knights carrying two luggage cases between them.

"Hey, Skyguy Junior," she said to Luke, and Ena recalled her from her teasing tone and friendly demeanor; Master Ahsoka Tano. "Looks like you all made it out in one piece."

"Ahsoka," he replied, smiling. "What's the situation down on the surface?"

"Bad, but not as bad as it could be," she admitted, waving the Knights behind her to deposit the luggage cases by the Raptor and a nearby shuttle that was slated for the Requiem. "We lost the shipyards almost entirely, but the underwater hangers are mostly intact. Only lost two of those."

"Just two?" Tamil interjected, surprised.

Ahsoka's mouth curved up in a smirk, showing her sharp canines. "The rest were too deep to hit from the air, so the Sith sent in saboteur teams. Unfortunately with them, we were their welcoming party."

"That's why I'm surprised," Tamil snarked back. "With the amount of hell you tend to raise in an enclosed space..."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and blew an unladylike raspberry at the older Zabrak.

Luke laughed, stepping between the older Masters. "All right, all right. Settle down." Both parties backed up, still smirking. "Now then, I believe we have a ceremony to perform."

The Grand Master gestured with a hand, and suddenly all the lights in the bay shut off. However, the descending darkness was answered by the sudden ignition of thirteen lightsabers, blue and green and yellow blades illuminating the hall in a circle around Rowena.

"We are all Jedi," Luke said, his voice echoing through the suddenly silent hanger bay. "The Force speaks through us. Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real. Today we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed."

The Grand Master's eyes met Rowena as he lowered his ignited lightsaber to his side. "Rowena Lazuli. Step forward."

Ena walked forward unsteadily, dropping into a kneeling crouch at Luke's feet. The lightsaber descended over each of her shoulders, then held next to her ear, as Luke spoke the words that would seal her ascension.

"By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi..."

The blade sliced upward, severing her braid cleanly and letting it fall to the floor with a dull clatter.

"...Knight of the Republic."

Ena closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and bowed her head. She collected the braid and stood, blinking back tears. Pride and shame in equal measure compelled her to cry, but she held back.

The lights came back on, and she walked over to where Tamil stood, wordlessly holding out the braid in both hands for him to take, as was the custom. However, he closed her fingers around the beaded strand, causing the new Knight to look up in surprise.

"Keep it, Ena," he said softly, brown eyes warm with pride. "I know I'm not the one you want to present this to."

Without giving her time to reply, Tamil pulled his former Padawan into a tight hug, her canine head tucked against his left shoulder. "No matter what happens, Ena, know that I believe in you. And that I'm proud of you. Always."

Ena felt her tears fall free, and nodded into his tunic to wipe them off. "Thank you, Master," she whispered quietly, just taking what comfort she could from his embrace.

"Alright, break it up you two," Ahsoka reminded them gently. She was smiling, but there was an expression of minor discontent behind her eyes; likely she'd been reminded of how her own situation with Knighting and her Master had gone. "Your luggage is ready to go."

"And did you-"

"Yes, Tamil, I did."

"Good." Tamil released Ena and stepped back, patting her once more on the shoulder. "Ena. Inside your luggage case, you'll find your Knighting present from me. May it serve you well."

With that, Tamil moved away to talk to Master Skywalker and Neri, leaving a confused and slightly overwhelmed Rowena behind.

Kitty throws open one of the doors aboard the raptor and steps aside. "And here go a few of the bunks. Make yourselves at home and all that," she says as Jaxie, Tsuni, and Jil look around in the triple-bunk chamber.

"Quaint," Tsuni says.

Nix walks by with a cot suspended in the air, following her down the hall. Jil's eyes, along with those of the others, follow her down the hall. "Uh... where are you-"

"Tell me you don't think I'm bunking with any of you people," Nix says. "I'll be in the cargo bay."

Zora sits upon her cot in the bunk adjacent to Jarik's. She rubs her temple. "Republic representative on a team of allied Republic and Imperial forces. The places that life takes me," she says to herself. "It must be a joke."

In the cargo bay, Nix finds an isolated corner full of junk. Shoving some of it aside telekinetically, she sets down her cot. When she goes to sit on it, she pauses. An electrical signal not in line with that of the ship catches her and she glances up to see a red light reflecting from a metal beam across from her. She rises quickly as something beneath her cot suddenly shifts and erupts up into view. She slides back on her heels and her ears are assaulted by low mechanical chatter. Buzzing, humming, beeping, and clicking.

A tall, dull grey machine stands before her. A B2 Battle Droid. Worn down, from the looks of it. Aged. Damaged.

"Okay," Nix says, spinning her saber hilt into her hand.

*i just had my character speak to Luke and you ignored it.*

*taking over Maeror temporarily in order to push on with Cervana*

Maeror had other things to take care off but when he heard of a ship coming back to dock at his, the name Cervana finally made him sit and decide what to do about her.

"Nazrin, I'd like you to meet the ship that is heading to dock, and remind Cervana of what happens when my orders are disobeyed. She doesn't make the orders around here, and I cannot condone her going off and doing her own thing. I know you have particular ways of teaching people a lesson and keeping them alive.

Oh, keep her alive. I'll give her another chance but do inform her for me that my generousity and second chances won't last much longer for her."

Suddenly the large metal droid slides down the hall on its back, sparks flying about. It screeches to a halt in front of Kitty, Jil, and Jaxie. "Kitty, what's that doing here?" Jil asks.

"Ooooh. That's what was in that leftover cargo," Kitty chimes.

The droid begins to pick itself up, only to be raised into the aid by Nix. "I'm gettin' real sick of surprises," she sneers as she ignites her lightsaber and marches toward the droid.

---

Nazrin stands before Maeror in silence for a moment before turning and walking off. He makes his way to the hangar bay, where a shuttle pulls in to dock. As the shuttle opens, a woman in red is carted out by Sith Troopers. Cervana. Nazrin observes her arm, then looks to the Troopers, who stand aside as Cervana is telekinetically lifted from the stretcher and carried through the air to the med bay, where Nazrin quite carelessly drops her on the table. He points toward a medical droid in the room and the droid hovers off, returning shortly with parts and pieces to create the new cybernetic attachment.

Cervana came to, rather delirious but she had enough in her to look around the room and spot Nazrin. Her eyes ran down him and spotted the equipment he had in his hands.

"Over my dead body... I don't want to be a freak. Ask Arden if she'd like an extra arm so it matches!"

Jarik glanced over at Zora. "I know the feeling, I'm one of what three men on this ship?" He chuckled. "Bathroom situation is going to need sorting out real fast." He heard the commotion from Nix's scuffle with the Battle Droid. He picked up his blaster carbine and headed out into the hall.

"What's going on? Why is there a Super Battle Droid on the ship?" Jarik asked, Nix seemed to have it restrained so he wasn't too worried.

-----

Cassus sat near the Katari waiting for the others to arrive for the main mission.

Ford clipped his saber to his belt and left the Knighting Ceremony.

------

Angalcon looked down at Case. "Perhaps you are mentally blocking your own tragic past? In any case, it would be best for you to push past it. Use the anger you feel to fuel yourself to higher goals and ambitions. Our past helps to shape us but it cannot be allowed to be a shackle, you must break the chains that hold you back Case."

Ena carried her metal luggage case into the bunk room, setting it down next to her chosen bed with a loud thunk and sliding it underneath with an armored foot. The case and its contents would've been very heavy for an ordinary humanoid, but Ena's armor made lifting 150lbs into a joke.

Ah, right. I still have to look at Master Tamil's gift... she mused, but a sudden metallic screech from the hallway put paid to that train of thought. She stuck her head out of the doorway, finding Jaxie, Kitty and Jil all staring at Nix, who was lifting a B2 Battle Droid into the air with the Force. She listened to the droidspeak coming from the B2's vocabulator, and blanched. "Nix, the droid's trying to apologize for startling you!" she half-yelped, rushing over and planting herself between the assassin and the droid. "Don't kill it!"

Neri gulped at Luke's words, knowing she wasn't out of trouble just yet. She sat throughout the service still in pain but she even wanted to go on the next mission in true Neri stubborn style.

"You think there is a memory block?" Case asked, "I don't think I've got it in me get to work out how to crack through it. Also... Was it done to... Protect me? I just remember that day of drowning, the water swirling and filling my nose and throat. It's my nightmare and I don't know how or why I was in trouble like that. When I asked the Jedi what happened they just say it must've been an accident. I must've been swimming in the lake by the city.

It's that constant short answer stuff that infuriates me! At least when I ask you something you'll at least give me some kind of an answer. Sometimes not the one I'm looking for but at least I can't a whinge about it not being the honest blunt truth."

Nazrin doesn't even turn around to face the woman. Yet her mouth is suddenly forced shut and she's forcefully pushed back down onto the table as if gravity just increased tenfold. Meanwhile Nazrin simply configures the parts and pieces into a new arm before reaching and placing a red chip inside of it. An... insurance policy. Once the arm is assembled, he presses a button and several sharp fixtures extend from the elbow point, meant to connect to the veins and drill into and attach to the bone.

He draws out his saber and ignites it, cutting open the nub that the medical drones had sewn together simply to keep her from getting infected. With the innards of the arm now exposed, Nazrin jams the cybernetic on, using the force to deafen himself that he doesn't hear the scream as the two medical droids in the room short out from the sound of it. The cybernetic drills into the bone and the spines connect themselves to the veins. Once that's done, Nazrin applies medical gel to the joining point.

Finally, Nazrin releases his telekinetic hold on her, allowing her to spring up to her feet. But before she can move again, Nazrin lifts her by the throat. He tosses her into the tray of medical supplies before planting a foot on her to keep her down. A droid projects a hologram of Maeror into the room.

---

"Well, y'see," Kitty says. "Me 'n' daddy didn't get to empty all the cargo from the previous owner outta here. This thing was probably in there."

"Because we needed a reminder that you were a thief," Jil sighs.

"Businesswoman," Kitty states.


As Lazuli darts down the hall and interrupts, Nix stares at her. She glances up at the hunk of metal for a moment, then lets it drop to the floor behind the Nalroni. "Fine. But keep it away from me," she says, heading off.

The droid chatters in droidspeak for a moment before sitting up.

"One of these days I'm going to watch as the blood drips from you and you take your last breath," Cervana hissed at Nazrin.

She panted hard and looked up to see Maerors hologram activated.

*Serra says "you're our new Mandalore?" to Cassus in Mando'a. Just added for flavor.
-------------

Ena let out a mild sigh of relief as Nix (more or less) granted the droid a stay of execution. She heard the B2's low, burbling Droidspeak and laughed. "Yeah, Beetwo. She's a pretty scary lady." The Jedi turned back around and held out a hand to the damaged Battle Droid. "Here. Let me help you up."

Beetwo reached out clumsily with his left hand, gripping awkwardly at air before it managed to clamp down around her forearm. Ena smiled a bit, encouragingly. "That works." She wrapped her fingers around his forearm in turn and hauled him upright, watching his legs scrabble at nothing and hearing his chassis creak and groan from strain. Ena winced at the sound; clearly Beetwo needed a serious overhaul.

"Not so bad, eh?" A low negative bleep, and Ena smiled, then turned to Kitty. "Hey Kitty. Where should we put him? Common area? We can't put him back in the cargo hold; Nix'll dismantle him."

***

Luke sighed quietly. He wasn't going to like this, but the stakes demanded it. He walked over to Neri, watching as she sweated and tried to hide her obvious discomfort and pain.

"Neri. How are your injuries?"

***

Rather than embarking to her ship, Serra walked over to where Cassus was sitting by the Katari, and stood in front of him with her arms crossed.

"Cassus Ordo. Gar cuun Mand'alor?"

Cassus looked up at the woman before him. "Ni cuy'. meg clan vaabir gar olaror teh?"

(I am. What clan do you come from?)

-----

"Could be a memory block, could be you've simply suppressed the trauma yourself." Angalcon said.

-----

Maeror looked down at Cervana. "I see you're procedure went well. Let the pain of that arm remind you of the consequences of failure. You promised me an arm remember, well you've paid that debt. Find a way to redeem yourself or find yourself a puppet to Nazrin." He said ending his hologram.

-----

Jarik looked around. "Cause I'm not here, okay. Do whatever with the droid." He said walking off to the mess area to grab a snack. He figured he'd be ignored on this ship full of women and Jedi. He was already regretting this assignment.

Kitty ponders for a moment, sizing the droid up. "There's the Storage and Repair Bay," she says. "There's stuff in there we could use to fix him." Kitty trots over the the B2 and looks up at it, her hands on her hips. "B2... Beeeetooo... I'mma call him Beta."

"Beta?" Jaxie asks.

"It has a nice ring to it," Kitty says.

Beta chatters in Droidspeak.

"Nice to meet you too, big guy," Kitty says. "Storage Bay's this way." She turns on her heel and glides off down the hall.

---

Once Maeror is through, Nazrin lets the woman up before turning and proceeding towards the door. Medical drones fall in to tend to the minor wounds on her that he'd left, himself. And maintenance drones come in the clean the mess.

"Just one minute you-" Cervana told Nazrin, "you go and see him in person and state the true facts. I haven't failed... I did exactly what I wanted to achieve.

Come now... Did you really think that you would be able to hold on to Leia for long? The whole troop came as expected and I took out two jedi's... I'm certain one lives and the other probably has too. If she has survived she's powerful enough that if anything ever happened to me, she would make the worthy replacement."

She crossed her good arm across herself and held on to the other, "you can do your typical ignore me... But I would pay close attention to the new kid walking around. She will be the end of us both. If I bring the Jedi to you and Maeror however, it will prevent that from occurring.

"Aliit Jendri," Serra says, grimacing. "Mhiru aliit aikiyc am." Her lips curled up in a smile. "Am gar traturven. Su, ni suvarir te adat gar cuyir."

(Clan Jendri. A clan that was desperate for change. Change you could represent. So, I wanted to see what kind of person you are.)

***

Ena slung Beta's arm over her shoulder, smile seemingly permanent now that she had a droid around. "Alright, c'mon buddy. We'll get you patched up quick."

***

Dark laughter suddenly lit up the room. "No, Darth Sestra. You failed horrifically."

Darth Turpidus stepped out of the shadows like some unholy wraith; not there one second and then suddenly taking up space in the room. "Your personal objective... was to ensure that there was a worthy replacement for you. That was already taken care of well before your mission started. We have four of them lined up that I can name off the top of my head. In addition, you also failed your official objective, which was to lure the Jedi into a trap and kill off as many of them as possible. You failed to kill anyone. If all else failed, you had Leia Solo helpless, and could have killed her or used her as a hostage to ensure your escape. You did neither, and lost an arm in the bargain. That was especially stupid. Luke Skywalker survived a head-to-head confrontation with Lord Maeror. Facing him directly, rather than engaging in Dun Möch or using underhanded tactics, was a foolish move no matter how you consider it. Even I, the direct combat specialist of the Dark Lords, would hesitate to do so."

Turpidus was suddenly in front of Cervana, leaning forward with his red-slit visor inches from her face. "Wise up, Darth Sestra. Your arm and the pain you will now suffer are the price you paid for your foolishness and arrogance. But it is also a powerful weapon, and your pain a source of strength for a Sith. Lord Maeror's way of telling you that you're worth a second chance. Don't waste it."

"Shi a jag. solus ibac Kelir haa'taylir his adate kovid tug'yc. Kelir gar Gaa'tayl gar adate ra Sla'narir ti te Empire?" Cassus asked Serra as he stood up taking his helmet off. "Kovid dalyc verda cuyir meg gotal'ur cuun adate meg vi cuyir."

(Just a man. One that would see his people strong again. Will you help us or will you remain with the Empire? Strong women warriors are what make our people what we are.)

-----

Jarik sat in the mess area eating a bantha steak as he watched some HoloNet news regarding the war, the Sith were making a push towards Kuat now it seemed.

-----

Ford headed to the Katari with his belongings to prepare for their departure.

-----

Maeror looked over a star map, not one of the war effort but one showing severals worlds. Worlds he was going to comb for what he needed. Anzat, Prakith, and Korriban were first. Palpatine's Vault held secrets but it did not hold the one he needed most. He still needed one more piece.

Major stands by the armor door of the ship, arms crossed as droids carry in his personal arsenal. As they bring in the last of it, he moves on to find his quarters. Upon finding the room, his suit unlocks and he removes his helmet before taking a seat on the cot. "Guess it won't be too bad. The warm beds and hot food's gonna take some getting used to."

---

Zora takes a seat across from Jarik. "Imperial," she says. "Forgive my memory. I spend more time focused on the future than what happened five minutes ago. You are... Captain? Admiral? You appear quite busy at work already."

---

Kitty turns on her heels in the Storage Bay where there's a repair station and engineering station nearby. Her eyes flash green as she looks up at down the droid. "I just can't figure it out. Who would fuse Astromech and Battle Droid programming. That's gotta be counterproductive," she says. "He'd blow something up trying to access a data port."

Beta chatters further in droidspeak.

"Helpful," Kitty remarks. "Regardless... your programming's way newer than this body. This thing's an antique."

"Emperor." Jarik joked before looking up from the HoloNet. He chuckled a bit seeing the look on her face. "I'm a Captain. Captain Jarik Bahr. You can just call me Jarik though, little more friendly than 'Imperial'." He said before taking a sip of his water. "Anyways, yeah I'm working it's what I do best and we have one hell of a job ahead of us don't we?"

"Likely an attempt to either give a Battle Droid more processing and utility capabilities, or to make a combat-type Astromech," Ena said critically, checking his left arm's joint assembly manually. "Though why you'd want to make an even more lethal Astromech is beyond me." She finished, wiping her armored fingers off with a nearby grease rag. "So, what do you think? New full-range rotational joints, chassis upgrade, refit for the armor? And do we want to take advantage of the Astromech protocols or no?"

Beta beeped an affirmative on the last thing, making Ena smirk. "Still an R2 series at heart, eh?" She gave his chassis an affectionate rub, which he kind of leaned into as though he could actually feel it.

***

"Pirusti johayc," she said with a smirk, flicking her hair over her shoulder with a toss of the head. "Bal mhiven kelir haa'taylir. Meh vi oyacyir adol ibic, Ni ru'kel cuyir briikase at olaror yaim." She turned away and headed towards the Lambada-class shuttle slated for her ship. "I look forward to working with you. Mand'alor."

She glanced over her shoulder and called out to the members of the main team. "Also, to the rest of you. Split up. Half with the Mand'alor, half with me on the Requiem. No sense putting all our Krayt Dragon eggs in one basket for the Sand Demons to snack on."

(Good answer. And we'll see. If we live through this, I would be happy to come home.)

Cassus smirked and smiled as Ford walked up next to him.

"Wedding bells huh?" Ford joked.

Cassus glanced to the Jedi. "Even if that were so, you wouldn't make it half way through a Mandalorian wedding." He smiled before heading onto the Katari.

"Tch, would so." Ford said he looked around before heading off to find Jaxie before leaving.

-----

Saltatha gathered up his things and went onto the Katari, he preferred to travel in his old friend's ship. It would focus him for what was to come.

Cervana swallowed even as she felt her throat tighten. She didn't want to admit that Darth Turpious was making her feel threatened and she managed to pull her head up looking directly at him.

"I failed all that..." She replied, "but imagine just how strong we would be having a very powerful former Jedi on our side? One more powerful than the br- the kid. My visions have never been wrong so far and I've done a great many things for you all, you cannot deny that. Believe me that the vision I saw had this... the girl being a threat not just to me but to a few of us. I do not think that Angalacon should be training her to be one of us, he may regret it when she turns on him."

She stopped and took a breath, "as for the other... I know I can turn my sister. It will be easy and she will be a wonderful addition to our side."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Neri, the sister, wasn't anywhere near feeling 'powerful' but turned her head to face Luke.
"Me? Perfectly fine," she said quickly. She looked around and at the floor as well before giving out a huge sigh and grin, "oh, curse you. You do that so well... I can never hold back a lie nor a secret from you. So... You want the real truth. I'm in absolute agony pain wise but I'm happier to be out of that awful tank and bed. You're not putting me back there- I'll personally break every tank so you can't."

Turpidus actually laughed out loud at Cervana's declaration. The sound echoed through the otherwise empty room; Nazrin had already left. "A 'powerful former Jedi', is it? You mean... like the one you're speaking to right now? Or perhaps you meant the three heads of our Order? Face facts, Darth Sestra. We don't need a loose cannon. If you can't act as a soldier of the Sith, you'll be disposed of. Should you succeed in turning your dear sister? Fine. Great. We'll throw you a party. But you're allowing that ambition to get in the way of our organization's goals. Learn from me. Or Angalacon, arrogant bastard that he is. We didn't allow our desire for our potential apprentices to interfere with our jobs as Sith. Even more than that, we never put ourselves in a position to be caught without backup as you did. There's ambition, which is expected. But you were also careless. And that is unacceptable."

His gauntleted hand shot out, grabbing Cervana's forearm right where her prosthetic met flesh, causing spikes of pain to radiate down her arm. He should know; Turpidus' Sith Stalker Armor was based off of similar tech. "Like I said, this is your second chance. But it also means that you're on very. Thin. Ice. Tread carefully, Sestra. Otherwise, it'll probably be me who hunts you down." His voice sharpened into a nasty rasp. "And I'll enjoy every second of it."

He turned and walked off, waving a hand lazily. "Best of luck. I have high hopes for your future."

***

Tamil walked up just as Neri gave her ultimatum. "Then we'll sedate you and hook you up to a bacta pump," he said bluntly, drawing up next to Luke. "You're in no condition to accompany us. And your personal feelings on this mission are affecting your judgement. That's even worse."

"Perhaps so," Luke said, holding up a hand in front of Tamil. "But Nerilly... your conviction cannot be denied. So I want you to talk me into this. Will you act as a sister? As a soldier? Or as a Jedi? Answer me truthfully. I want to hear what you believe we should do before I come to my decision."