From DralWarthn@aol.com Tue Nov 5 13:54:51 2002 Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 15:54:00 EDT From: DralWarthn@aol.com To: cantina@deathstar.org Subject: FoE Role-Play: Return [ The following text is in the "UTF-8" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Important Role-Play here! RETURN By Ron Winter Admiral Ciaran Storm stood watch on the bridge of his flagship. He enjoyed this time, as long as it was peaceful. His Alliance Star Defender class vessel, the StarStorm, was the flagship of the Storm Fleet. Despite the fact that his peaceful watch was to be interrupted, he was to be overjoyed for the same reason. He heard the beeping from the comm station. "Sir," the communications officer reported, regarding the beeping signal that all on the flight deck could now hear. "I've never seen this frequency used before." Storm had been striding to the station before the comm officer had finished. "It's Alliance, but not one I have ever seen." "I have specific instructions, ensign," Storm replied, noting the frequency and code. He took a data pad from the ensign, keyed in coordinates and returned it to him. "Head for these coordinates. Close all viewports. This is top secret, ensign." "Aye sir," the ensign stated, looking perplexed. "Don't worry, ensign," the admiral told him with an uncharacteristic smile. "This is a positive event." He strode away, heading for his office. It worked! He thought to himself, still smiling. They did it! His elation changed to solemnity, suddenly. But at what cost, he worried. * Space is quiet. But if sound could travel in the void, the opening of the portal between dimensions would have been an echoing, thunderous din. A corona of red, ethereal fire, highlighted by speckles of white energy, exploded outward as several vessels exited into normal space. Dral Warthen stood on the bridge of the Alliance Star Cruiser Fury. The Alliance Star Defender Justice traveled alongside him. A few other vessels were destroyed in their war with the Monitors. The Imperial Star Destroyer Stalker broke formation and moved to a position to enter hyperspace. Dral could not believe his hated enemy, the Sith Lord Vordis, had sacrificed his life for their success. Nolan Talsiir had taken over command of the Sith's vessel. Alliance Intelligence had strongly suspected Talsiir had also been the dark hunter and assassin known only as Shade. It was also suspected that this dark wielder of the Force was the Emperor's Hand. The Imperial craft was flanked by a smaller black painted vessel, the ship of Tolan Modranai, a self styled mage who had been the Imperial Senator from the planet Chronos. The man was pure evil, just like Talsiir. But after Vordis' death, Dral felt an even stronger darkness from the mage. The ISD's engines flared and the Imperial vessel was gone. In a way, Dral was glad they had departed. Working alongside Imperials had become difficult to stomach and a dark sider like Talsiir even more so. Dral reflected on their odyssey. Luke had discovered that an extra-dimensional threat endangered hyperspace travel as well as sentient life in their universe. Luke gathered people together who he had discerned through the Force to be the ones best suited for this mission. A spy had come to a Jedi stronghold and was discovered. The spy, an operative for an extra-dimensional race called the Monitors, after interrogation, produced the conceptual designs for a drive system capable of transmitting vessels and sentients to the dimension where the Monitors originated. The group discovered that the plans for our dimension included making hyperspace inaccessible and then to release their strange energies into our space, the result of which would destroy all energy, matter and sentient life. Their dimension would basically usurp ours. The mission cost them dearly. Lord Vordis sacrificed himself in Palpatine's name. And then there was Luke. Dral shuddered. Even though, in some strange way, there had been more than one Luke Skywalker, this was Dral's Luke, his dear friend who like a brother to him, also died saving their galaxy. Upon his death, Luke shared his secrets, his knowledge with a lost Jedi that was held captive by the Monitors since before the collapse of the Old Republic. All that remained of who Luke was, now resided in this Jedi's mind. Another Jedi named Cardan Nerise also perished and gave his knowledge to this Jedi, named Moradin Katar. Nerise had studied the secrets of the Jedi temples of Zoric, a world that had been destroyed by the Empire many years ago. They would all have to deal with the ramifications of leaving our galaxy like they did. Their departure was sudden and there was no time for good-byes or explanations. At least there was an upside to all the deaths. The enemy was defeated and there would be no reason to ever return there. He had to breath in deeply. Home at last, he thought ! His thoughts returned to his home galaxy. Dral knew the Trasiir had all but splintered apart while he was gone. They had been squires and protectors to the Jedi Knights but many of his number departed service even before he left. Whether he was to reform his order or not, he wanted to know what had happened to his friends. And for that matter, what had become of his family. Dral had also been the Avatar to the Celestial Dragon of Order. This was still complicated to him but he could feel how disorder had plagued this galaxy since he had been gone. He recalled the pain he felt when he had left our dimension so many years ago. Dral knew the Dragon had not been able to make the transition to extra dimensional space. He wondered where it was. He spread his senses out, wondering of Arcturus, Sybil â^À¦ and Rachel. And they would sense his return ... * Moradin Katar sat in his temporary quarters on the ASC Fury. He was trying to assimilate all of the information that had been uploaded to his mind through the Force from the deceased Luke Skywalker and Cardan Nerise. There were feelings behind certain things, for a sister and a brother in law as well as for a wookie friend. He felt the strong bond that had been lost between Nerise and a dark side woman. He found himself thinking on how this whole situation started many years ago. The Clone Wars had just started, as well as the Jedi Purge. A shape shifter had infiltrated a senator's entourage and Moradin's task was to capture the infiltrator. Somehow, it got the better of him during a final confrontation. Moradin awoke in a craft and soon that craft went through some kind of turbulence accompanied by flashes of red and white light from outside. He did not know it at the time, but he had just traversed a bridge between dimensions. He fell back unconscious, until their ultimate arrival. The shape shifter brought Moradin to his masters, a race known as the Monitor's. They were behemoths, large humanoids whose flesh was bleach white, decaying and they used large elaborate technological armored suits to keep their destructive energies contained. Behind the eyes, it always seemed there was something fowl there, smoldering. They never spoke anything understandable, preferring to have underlings translate. Moradin was held prisoner for many years. His physical form was tested, as well as his command of the Force. Eventually, he pieced together that the Monitors had perfected the spacecraft drive that could traverse dimensions and the shape shifters had started an infiltration of different political and military bodies in our dimension. Within the last year, they had implemented technology that endangered hyperspace travelers and in some instances, small, remote regions of our galaxy were destroyed. Then within the last few months, his meditative dreams seemed to finally contact someone. Anakin Skywalker's son, ironically, was to be his savior, as well as the galaxy's. Moradin had wished Luke had survived the deadly encounters with the Monitors. A Jedi Knight from Zoric, Cardan Nerise, a scholar of old, lost Jedi forms, was also a casualty of the war. Cardan and Luke's spirits moved on but their knowledge lived on in him. If I can focus enough with all of this knowledge and these memories bombarding me, he thought. Moradin was a Jedi Guardian, a knight of combat forms. He had lost the lust for adventure and other selfish pursuits long ago as a Padawan. But he excelled as a man of action. Moradin was usually an excellent bodyguard. Now he needed to become more of a scholar, especially since hearing of the fall of the Republic and the dark side's rise. But despite this Moradin was looking forward to meeting the Jedi of this age and to help them in any way that he could. Even the others that returned from this odyssey knew they had returned to a changed galaxy. Time, as always, would tell ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRANSMISSION FROM: DralWarthn@aol.com TO: The FoE Role-Play list Remember: Please send all non-Role-Play to the General Club list foe@deathstar.org If you have any problems or questions, please send them to: cantina-owner@deathstar.org