The Quest for the Kaiburr Crystal Part1

The Quest for the Kaiburr Crystal
Part 1: The Faliure on Yavin IV

[Yavin IV is a half a day’s journey away.]

I woke up to that sound on this sound on the DB ship. My hand instinctively lurched to my utility belt, where my weapons hung. But I was in no danger, I was just sweating. On my Jedi disguise’s belt were a lightsaber. Under the disguise was my traditional Dark Jedi robes (the ones for the Protector rank.) They had my main weapons The Sith Sword was from my master Kat Pridemore, as a parting gift for my first mission. The other weapone was an, the Ion Blaster was from my Jedi brother, Owen. My lightsaber was from my dying cousin Elen. When her master, Ethan, had accidentally killed her, she had entrusted it into my care as she had lain dying. Officially, I was not allowed to own a lightsaber, but since it was a memento of my relative, they had allowed me to keep it, but not use it. This mission, however, was different. I needed for the Jedi disguise, and I probably would need it, so I had snuck it along with me in lieu of the training saber that I had been lent.

The mission. It was to retrieve the Kaiburr Crystal, a crystal that magnified the force powers of a force-user. The other part of the mission was to kill the Jedi guarding it.
“Why me?” I wondered. Killing a Jedi was going to be a very difficult task.

I went over to the other part of the ship to check on the other two passengers, two teens my age, but at a lower rank. They were just at the rank of Acolyte.
“Controlling them will strengthen your leadership skills.” Kat had said. I highly doubted it. They were the stubbornness pair of donkeys that I had ever met.

I found the two idiots hunched over a game of Galactic Chess. One of them was tall and lean with brown hair. He was Scithia. The other was the same with black hair. His name was Scipio. As I entered the room, Scithia looked up.
“Well if it isn’t the great Protector. Didja enjoy your wittle nap?”
My face flushed with anger, and I felt my ears turn red.
“Yeah, I did. What did you do; turn into a chess-playing hunchback? We have less than a day to get there. Why didn’t you spar with those training sabers the Council lent you?” Now it was his turn to get irritated.
“And when did you spar? In your dreams? If you’re so great, then why don’t you fight me?”
“Let’s start now” I said. I activated my lightsaber, and waited.

He was shocked when he saw it.
“Hey, wait a second. You’re not supposed to have that with you! They [the council] told you “no”!”
I smirked.
“Oho!! We have a loyal member here! What are you going to do about it? Are you going to squeal? If you do, I’ll kill you, skin you, and turn in your hide to the Jedi.”
“You’re not as strong as you think.” When he said that, chills ran down my spine. As he had said those words, his eyes had looked like they were far away, almost as if he was a powerful prophet, and I was a humble apprentice. But that moment passed. I put away my lightsaber, and took out my Sith Sword.

The rest of the time was spent in training. After sparring with the kids, and then sparring both of them again, I was exhausted. I gave them a Westar 34 each, and left them to practice shooting with them. I meditated and healed all of the bruises and burns that I had received for the last hour we were on the ship. When the computer announced that we were about to land, I was totally refreshed and ready for a real fight.

It was about daybreak on Yavin IV when we landed. The sun streaked the sky in a glorious shade of read, which captivated the boys, but did not bother me at all. I scanned the area for anything that might help and caught sight of an abandoned land speeder. Why would a speeder be laying in the middle of a barren moon? Was this a trap of some kind? I disregarded the idea, climbed in and motioned for the other two to follow my lead. I turned the speeder on and began to drive.

The journey was slow, mostly because the speeder that we were in was just a piece of trash. I saw one interesting thing on the entire voyage to the lost Jedi Academy. That was an ancient tomb, cut into a small, dark man-made cave, which I suspected was lightsaber-cut. From the ancient runes, I identified it as the tomb of Exar Kun. Just thinking about the rare and powerful artifacts hidden in its depths made me want to jump off the speeder and go explore. But I was forced to abandon that thought. I had a mission to focus on.

We abandoned the trashy speeder, and I gave quick instructions before we entered the temple.
“Stay ready and do not submit to them, no matter how much they coax you to. They are stupid people, ready for more recruits to destroy the real power: us.”
We ran into the building and listened. We then headed right and found several doors, a few of them standing ajar. I heard hushed voices inside the first one. They didn’t seem to have noticed that me had entered the abandoned temple.
“Scithia, you come with me. Scipio, I want you to be the sniper.”
Then, I walked into the room, and knew exactly why I had been handpicked for this mission.

Among the three Jedi inside the accursed room was my older Jedi brother, Owen. Anger filled my veins. I would not kill my brother. That was too much to ask. But I could kill the blasted Padawans... I had no problem with that.

One of the Jedi turned around. He saw me and smiled as if he expected me, which took me by utter surprise.
“Inspection!” I quickly announced.
“Authorization?” he asked.
My Ion blaster was in my hands.
“Here it is.” I replied, and fired.

The Jedi somersaulted over the ion beam and landed in a corner of the room, right next to the wall.
“You’ll have to do better than that” he taunted with a smirk. He turned to Scithia. He reached out with the force and picked up the poor Acolyte with it. With lightning speed, he hurled Scithia against the wall. I watched as the poor boy slumped into unconsciousness. The Jedi turned to me.
“Your turn to die.” He said.
I fired again, and this time, my ion beam slammed into his heart. At the same time, Scipio sent a volley of blaster fire at the other guy. He died without giving any resistance. Now the only Jedi left was my brother.

Signaling to Scipio not to shoot, I walked up to my brother. He studied me carefully, and then looked away.
“Give me the Kaiburr Crystal.”
“Why? To make your Grandmaster stronger? I’ll never give you Palpatine’s crystal.”
That shocked me.
“It’s not Palpatine’s crystal. There’s only one Kaiburr crystal.”
“Nope. There are hundreds, but only two have been found. When Palpatine killed his master, he stole the crystal from his body.”
I was hooked. I wanted to learn more.

But Owen did not give me the chance. He activated his purple lightsaber, blew a metal whistle, and somersaulted over me.
“Farewell” he said. “If you turn to the light side, I will give you the crystal.”
Before I could protest, he began to run. As he fled, a blue gem on a golden chain fell out of his pocket. Before I could reach out and take it, the blond Jedi that had been my cousin’s master, and her murderer, stepped out of the shadows.

As he picked up the Aedgan Crystal (as I later learned that it was called that) I activated my emerald lightsaber. I pushed the accursed Jedi into the wall, and pinned him with my left hand. My saber was next to his heart.
“Have mercy” he pleaded.
I was so shocked, I loosened my grip. I had not expected him to have the guts to ask me to let him go. But that was my mistake. He pushed me down, sending my lightsaber skittering two feet away. Then he started beating me. His blows crashed over and over onto my face. Blood was pouring out of my mouth, and I was covered in bruises. But he wasn’t satisfied.
“Help me!” I shouted.
“Too late kid. Nobody’s going to help you now.”
When he said that, the words of Scithia rushed back to me. He had said “You’re not as strong as you think.” Somehow, he had actually predicted what was going to happen!




Anyway, Ethan decided that he had had enough.
“Okay. This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to get up. We’re going to leave the others in this dump. You will take me to wherever you hid your ship. Then, you will be locked into a room, and I will take you to our base. I have to spare you because Luke Skywalker wants to have a quick chat with you. If you don’t listen to me now, I’ll beat you some more.”

It was Scipio who saved me. He shot Ethan right in the head. I’ll never know why he took so long to do it. He claims that it was because he was so shocked at me being beaten, he couldn’t recover. However, I suspect he was enjoying it. Anyways, as soon as Ethan got shot, he knew he was dead. He stumbled backward, clutching the Aedgan Crystal. I ripped it from his hand and started taunting him.
“And now, my dear Ethan, I will take this object of obsession, that drove you mad.”
He died. I picked up my saber, and stepped outside.

Scipio and I had to haul Scithia all the way back to the ship. My stupid brother had stolen the speeder. May he burn for all eternity. Luckily, we hid our ship, or he would have stolen that too. We strapped the unconscious kid into a seat and gave him some water to rouse him. I climbed into the pilot’s seat and took off. My mission was not yet over.