[VOICE] Choose Your Own Adventure - James, Eiko, Elad

PRIORITY MESSAGE:
Sent: 344.53.21-032
Received: 344.53.22-461
By: Shadow Academy Actual
SUBJECT: URGENT

Brethren,

Its come to my attention that the aforementioned agents are now enroute to retrieve the Holocron of Darth Ruin. Eos is slightly closer to us which will allow us, given the proper motivation, to beat them to the planet and retrieve it before they do. You will use all available to means to obtain, transport, and place in my hands this artifact. Failure to do so warrants death. Prevent the artifact from falling into enemy hands at all costs.

~His Excellency
Taigakori Aybara Dupar
Headmaster of the Shadow Academy

Deep Ice
Hyperspace near the Aurora Oversector

Eiko silently scanned the documents in his hands, passing them across the table to his Aedile and Aurek's leader. It was strange to think of them as 'young,' but the thought lingered in his mind regardless. Potential, Eiko noted to himself. Age was trivial, in the end.

It had been on Tython alongside Darzu's holocron, according to the Headmaster's resources, then it moved hands and moved locations. Hated though Ruin had been, perhaps his charisma lived on to corrupt a handful of errant treasure hunters over the years, transfered over as stolen cargo and smuggled goods through a half-dozen sites. Eiko sighed. The information was sorely lacking, but without the options to dig for his own information and a race against some opponent. There were five individuals pinned as the core of the opposition - their faces were pieced together from hangar security footage and the little bit of surveillance that was being passed to the Brotherhood's operatives.

"What do you make of it?" Eiko asked softly of the two journeymen as he pulled out a map of the site at Eos where the holocron was supposed to be presently - old images that showed the layout of the world that was scarred still, seventeen years after the Exodus.

"There's information on the force signatures of the five Dark Jedi who are here - not names that I recognize, but that doesn't mean much." James pulled out a small datapad and started to hunt for more information. "I can't find anything on the names yet."

"I'm surprised that something like this was left behind when they left." Elad squinted slightly as he looked at the sheets. "Rather difficult to leave something of this caliber behind."

"It's more pitted than I thought it would be. The records said that there wasn't any official fighting in the Shadow Academy," James pointed out the massive rubble piles around the image. "This looks like it was a warzone."

Eiko leaned back in the chair of the briefing room, absently studying the red paint that formed the upper border of the Deep Ice's spartan walls. "We'll facing five reasonably well-trained Dark Jedi - each at or above your own skill level - plus whatever mercenaries or droids were paid for with that transaction the Academy reported."

"Do you feel comfortable with their information, master?" James looked up from the layout.

"It'll be enough for what we need. Everything that I've checked against our own work has yielded the same things." Eiko stood up and paced around the table, trying to work through the stack of information as he let the others learn what they could. Whoever collected the information was well-entrenched, competitive, and thorough. There was a sense of relief in having good information to work with - but what unsettled Eiko was the underlying threat. In its current state, the networks he'd built under Revan's authority and those he'd created for his own information hunts were equaled or bettered by someone else. Allied or not, the war for information supremacy was fought quietly and constantly.

But, Eiko commented privately, sometimes rare information is better than a flood of easily picked information. One crucial fact can upset the balance.

"Here's something interesting." James passed the datapad back to Eiko. "That older Dark Jedi has a little bit of a residual archive file - the name's been taken off of it along with most of the good information, but he served in the Emperor's Hammer and stayed with them during the Exodus. I don't think there's much to pull out of it, honestly, but... it's better than nothing. Tall, muscular, well-trained."

"Good," Eiko nodded. "So we can expect that Eos isn't unknown territory to them - at least one of them knew that there was information to be scavenged from that planet."

"Lord Eiko, we're preparing to exit hyperspace well away from Eos's orbit of Aurora. There's no indication of any other ships in the area. Your ship is being prepared in the hangar." The room's comlink system shut with a subtle click. Eiko motioned to James and Elad to rise.

"We'll continue talking as we head towards the moon. They'll be right on our tails in all likelihood - we get into the old archives, down to the holocron vaults, find our prize, and get out as quickly as possible. Success or death."

MAAT Ripper One-Three
High Altitude over Eos

The Deep Ice had entered lower orbit around Eos when the three Jedis were notified by Captain Pantaro that a warship had been spotted dropping into the system. It was suspected to be the other Jedis. Preliminary scans revealed that the warship was far more armed then the Deep Ice, but fortunately slower then the Deep Ice. It was a blessing that Captain Pantaro had demanded that the Deep Ice be fitted with a updated core and more powerful engines. The Deep Ice would outrun the warship if it became necessary.

At the moment, Eiko, Elad, and James were in the backseat of the MAAT Ripper One-Three and tied into the comm system, allowing them to interact with the Aircrew.

"Sir, we're two minutes out from the coordinates you have relayed," the aviator in the cockpit spoke into his helm. The aviator went by the callsign "Slopok." Captain Pantaro had picked him off the streets of Corellia and raised him as a son. He was Captain Pantaro's best and most trusted pilot, the reason why he would be ferrying the three Jedis today.

James, Eiko, and Elad looked at each other. This was it. It was now or never, the point of no return. The crewchief, "Coral" grinned at the Jedis.

"Rough mission, Sirs?" Coral queried.

James chuckled, "As rough as an airboy picking up a gal on Friday nights."

Coral was a little stunned, "Sir, I would hate to see what you had for lunch."

Eiko laughed before questioning the aviator, "Is there any word about the warship, Slopok?"

"Sir, give me a moment," Slopok radioed the Deep Ice and received an answer, "Sir, the warship is moving slowly towards Eos. It should be here in three hours."

"Understood, Slopok." Eiko looked at his Aedile and Battleteam Leader, "We should be in and out before they arrive. Any questions?"

Elad and James shook their heads.

Ripper One-Three started shaking and slowing down. They were on the ground. The doors opened, revealing the cold barren landscape. There appeared to be no changes from the pictures that were provided. The craters were soften, the scorch marks less apparent, but it was all there. Whatever happened here seventeen years ago could only be described as a battle.

"Sir, Ripper One-Three will be loitering a few klicks above, relaying communication from and to the Deep Ice. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call." Slopok informed the Jedis.

Eiko respond, "Thanks Slopok."

The three Jedis pulled off their headsets, walked off the MAAT and stared at their environment. The archives should be located in the battered building to the right. Dust started to swirl up as the MAAT picked up altitude, flying in the wild blue yonder after vertically rising thirty feet.

"Time to go to work boys." Eiko muttered.

Planetside
Eos

The moon was more devastated than they imagined, the rocks and rubble scattered the ground they walked on, it was clear that some of it had come from the large building itself, as there was chunks and pieces missing all across the face of the dark ominous place they headed for.

“Well, no one has redecorated since the exodus, that or there was another war we do not know about.” The Quaestor noted as he navigated the team through the mess. He looked to James, 'Keep your eyes peeled, the warship may be three hours away, but it does not mean the threat is.”

It was not hard work but it was certainly annoying, the chunks of building lay all over making the trek take that much longer. As they finally passed through the worst of the devastation, there was a clearing with smaller rubble and debris scattered about the place, leading up to the ground floor entrance of the building.

As they neared the large arch that no doubt used to be a door, a small buzzing noise came from behind them. The three of them spun round, as Eiko threw his arm up and clenched his fist. The droid fell to the floor as the two journeymen rushed over to where it fell between the two large chunks of concrete they had passed through moments before, pulling out their weapons and scanning the area as they did. They both carried a DH-17, along with their weapon of choice.

Once they were sure it was clear, Elad leant next to the droid, turning it over to take a closer look at the markings underneath, “I have never seen this marking before, either in the Hammer or since then. The only thing I can say is this, the Prowler droid did not know we were here and did not expect such a … quick response.” He smiled at the Quaestor as he headed over to the pair, his lightsaber in his right hand, ready for any unforeseen attack.

The Templar stopped scanning the area and knelt next to his colleagues to examine the droid he had taken down, “Interesting, I am not positive, but I think the marking may be the mark of Darth Ruin, which creates more questions than answers. Be vigilant, we are not alone.” He rose and began slowly walking back towards the large archway, shortly followed by the Hunter and Guardian.

The three Dark Jedi, with weapons drawn, passed through the archway and quickly scanned their surroundings, which were once again littered with rubble and debris. Eiko looked at James and nodded to an archway on the right side of the entrance hall, as James began to move for the archway, Eiko looked at Elad, before nodding towards the archway on the left side of the hall. The pair disappeared through archways as Eiko looked around the hall for any signs of hidden opponents, lightsaber in hand.

Elad quickly returned, “The stairs only head up and they are completely destroyed, we would have to jump up but since the vault is down, I do not see that being necessary.”

The Quaestor nodded, “Lets go meet up with James, there is no one in here and we need to find a way down to the vault as quickly as possible.”

As they began moving to follow the Guardian, they heard blaster fire and James shouted, “Hey guys, best get over here, I found the stairs and then some.” The pair looked at each other for a split second before rushing through the archway and down the corridor to where James stood, at the top of a staircase, the body of a B-1 droid at the bottom, the head laying a few metres away, smoking from the blaster round.

He pointed to the right, “Lifts broke.” They laughed quickly as they began descending the stairs.

Descending to the second floor of the building, on the look out for more droids, the trio stumbled upon a corpse. Elad took up security while Eiko and James took a look at the corpse, trying to figure out who she was and how she died. From the purple on the tattered aged robes, it was deducted that she had been a Krath. Her body had already come out of rigor mortis, leading to Eiko's conclusion that she had been killed sometime 2-3 days ago. It appeared that she had suffered a single blaster bolt to the neck, severing her spinal cord and killing her fairly quickly.

James studied her face, sighing at the needless death of such a beautiful girl. He quickly located a holoprojector in her belt and turned it on. She appeared, excited:

"Finally, I am so close to finding Darth Ruin's Holocron. My research indicates that it has to be here in these ruins. Either it was found and stored here before the Exodus or hidden here after the Exodus for safekeeping, but it is here. After I find it, my master will be proud. I will have completed my Knight Trials and I will be a Jedi Knight."

She giggles.

The holo recording ends at this point.

"Any clues on which house she's a part of?" Eiko queries.

"None, Sir." James bends down and places her holoprojector back on her belt. "We can't take her body back, we don't have the time. When we get back to the Deep Ice, we'll contact the Dark Council, let them know that we found a young journeyman and let them deal with it."

Eiko nods in agreement and adds, "Whoever did this was experienced. This was not the work of an amateur. Be on the look out."

James takes another look at the fallen Journeyman, wondering who she was... what circle of friends was she in, what she liked and disliked. With that, he compartmentalized those feelings of grief, focusing on the mission of finding the holocron exclusively.

'Come on guys, lets get moving.' Elad said with some trepidation, blaster in hand, looking around for any signs of more droids, the corridor stretched ahead of them, seemingly endless.

They moved slowly down the corridor, constantly checking behind them to make sure they were not being followed by more Prowlers. It did not take long for them to reach the end of the corridor, it seemed to be a dead end but Eiko was running his hands over the wall to the right, he took a step back and raised his arm, in a split second the wall was no longer there, a door shaped hole was open to the group.

James moved through first, checking the way was clear, a few blaster shots later and he called back, 'Clear... now.' The others moved quickly through the doorway, surveying the three B-1 droid remains on the floor, still smouldering slightly. Just ahead of where they stood, the corridor opened out into a larger, oval shaped room, it was very quiet and the room was empty of life but full of items.

The group moved forward, standing abreast of each other to enter the room at the same time, Elad and James with their blasters drawn, Eiko with his lightsaber out in front of him, waiting to strike down any attackers. 'Keep your senses keen, there is something happening here.' The Quaestor was squinting, looking around the room, just waiting for the inevitible.

James was astonished by the amount of artifacts that he was seeing, artifacts that had been considered lost a long time ago. He runs his hand across a sword, not knowing the significance.

Eiko walks to him, looking at the sword as well. “That is the sword of Exar Kun. It was forged by the Massassi people after he enslaved them. The sword was found by an archeological expedition about two years after the rise of the Galactic Empire.” James starts to pull the sword off the shelf, but Eiko stops him. “Don’t James… We are here for a Holocron. All this stuff, someone wanted forgotten. I would rather not draw his wrath on House Revan.”

James nodded. “Yes Master.”

Elad shouted from across the room, “Guys, I found something!” The two Jedis rush over to where Elad is on his knees, a lightsaber in his hand, carving a hole in the wall. “There was something odd about this wall, it didn’t fit in with the rest of the vault as if it was built after the vault. I carved a small hole in it and didn’t see dirt.” Elad has made the hole large enough for a person to crawl through. He goes first with Eiko behind him and James staying behind to provide security.

The passage way goes down and up about twenty feet with the light from Elad’s lightsaber lighting the way. The two Jedis crawl out of the tunnel and into a smaller room. Elad gasps in amazement as he looks around and locates the Holocron of Darth Ruin on a pedestal just ahead of him. “Boss, is that the Holocron?”

Eiko looks at it, using his facemask to analyze it. It is conclusive, this is a real Sith Holocron. But it is damaged. “Yes Elad, this is it. Unfortunantly, it’s damaged too extensively. The data on the Holocron was probably lost long ago. But take it.”

Elad looks downtrodden. He had seen Holocrons before in the Great Halls and Libraries, but they were broken Holocron. He had looked forward to a live one. Elad takes it carefully and places it in the duristeel canister that they had brought down to store the Holocron. The two Jedis go back to the vault, where James is waiting for them.

James gives them a questioning look. Eiko speaks, “It’s broken James, but we have it.”

James nods and replies, “We really need to go. The enemy will be here in about two hours.”

The three Jedis look at one another before going back out of the vault to the Corridor.

As the group were making there way through the corridors, passing through the the doorway they made earlier, Eiko put his arms out to stop the others, 'Do you hear that?' The sound of footsteps reached the others instantly, it was clear there was more than just one being up the stairs.

They made their way to the base of stairs, as quietly as possible so as not to alert the others. Elad creeps up to the bottom step, looking up to the hall above, he could see the back of a line of B-1 droids and heard a voice speaking. Before he could make out what was being said, he moved back to his companions and whispered close to the pair, 'More droids, their commander is up there too.'

Eiko nodded and pulled his lightsaber out once more, quickly followed by the Journeymen. 'Lets take them down as quickly as we can, so we can get out of here and back to the Deep Ice.' The Quaestor nodded and ran up the stairs, followed by James and Elad.

The Templar wastes no time, decapitating two of the droids as he makes room for the trio at the top of the stairs, to assess the situation they were in, the two Journeyman following closely behind, stopping either side of their Quaestor. They counted numerous droids and stood near the doorway at the back of the room, two hooded figures stood conversing, seemingly disinterested in the group of Dark Jedi that had just appeared.

The droids raised their weapons and turned on the trio, one of the hooded figures left the room and disappeared, the other looked around the room before giving the droids their orders, 'Kill them.'

The blaster fire started as James feinted to the right, driving his lightsaber into the first droid he came across before spinning round and severing a droids arm. Elad had feinted to the left, slicing a droid in half at their centre and blocking a blaster shot that came at him from the side, the ricochet shot hit another droid, causing it to fall back in a heap, the light from their eyes fading before it even touched the ground.

Eiko headed straight for the hooded figure, decapitating droids and blocking blaster fire as he moved. As he got close to the hooded figure, they swept their hood back, revealing a long haired human woman. She smiled devilishly at the Templar before igniting a lightsaber in her hands, the green blade hummed as she lifted it to defend against the Dark Jedi. Eiko checked on his companions, seeing Elad and James were handling the droids easily now, with only a few remaining, he turned to the woman, 'Who are you and what are you doing here?'

She shook her head, 'You will get nothing from me, only death.'

Before Eiko could reply, she swung her blade towards him, he quickly lifted his own to parry her attack, following through with an attack of his own. They attacked and parried for a moment before she jumped up over his head, landing just behind him and thrusting her blade towards him. The Templar was ready though, he side stepped and brought his blue blade up as she thrust hers out, severing her right arm just above the elbow.

She fell backwards on the floor, writhing in pain and gripping the stump where the rest of her arm used to be. Elad and James had destroyed the remaining droids and stood either side of the woman, lightsaber's still ignited, blades pointing towards her. Eiko put his lightsaber away and picked up the hilt of the blade the woman had lost, and her arm.

'Tell me who you are and why you are, now!' He looked down at her, anger on his face. Before another word could be shared, she leapt forward, pulling a small blade from under her shirt behind her back and thrusting it towards Eiko. The dagger dropped to the floor, landing just before the woman's head, followed a moment later by her body as it collapsed to the floor under James' lightsaber, which was still held out where her neck had just been.

They put looked around the room before putting their lightsaber's back on their belts and gathering at the main door. 'Well, she was unhelpful. We cannot leave without trying to find the other one, who left just before the fight. Perhaps they will have some information for us.' Elad smiled as he looked out the door.

'You are right, we must track the other one and either get information or kill them too. They may tell people we were here, or worse, that we have the holocron.' Eiko looked deep in thought as he spoke but then he nodded and looked out the door too.

James laughed, 'Right, well were now hunting a person instead of a holocron, it is just one thing after another.'

“Jedis.” Eiko and the journeymen look behind them at the corpse of the slain Jedi. “Yes Jedis, pick up the communicator.”

Eiko walks to the corpse and pulls a communicator off of her belt.

“I see you killed my associate, Jedi.”

“Who are you?” Eiko queries.

“Why don’t you start off by telling me who you are, Jedi.”

“I am Eiko.”

“Ahh, the famous Eiko. Hmm, I didn’t think we would meet this soon. My name is Solomon Ashe. And you are my enemy, Revenae.”

“It’s Revanite and why are we enemies?” Eiko looked at the two journeymen, puzzled even more than them at this revelation.

“I think I’ve enjoyed our chat, Eiko. Oh… if I were you, I would walk out. I have a feeling the building is about to implode.”

The three Jedi rush out of the building as fast as they could since they weren’t taking the chance that he was bluffing. As they run out of the building, they see a ship take off from the top of a cliff overseeing the Academy.

“Master, he was watching us the entire time.” James said first, shaking his head.

Elad nodded in agreement, “I think he might have been the other guy. Now we know his name. Why does he hate us?”

Eiko gazes at the sky, “I got a feeling that won’t be the last of him.”

The building explodes and comes crashing down, the shockwave hurling them away from the building, tumbling head over heels.

James gets up and looks at where the Academy once was, “Well, he wasn’t lying about that. The dead Journeyman probably stumbled upon them planting charges and died. But why was he here in the first place?”

Eiko looked at James, “Information. The archives here contains hundreds of thousands of files. My bet is that he was looking for information on his enemy and he blew up the building to cover his tracks.”

_______

The three Jedis were looking at the horizon, marveling at the beauty of the sunset. The MAAT dropped down next to them, the dust flying from the air being pushed down by the thrust generated from the sleek and aesthetically pleasing space going vessel. The door opens and Coral waves them aboard. As they take seats on the side of the MAAT, Coral hands them headsets.

"Ladies and gentleman, my name is Slopok. I’ll be your pilot this afternoon. House regulations has designated the non-smoking MAAT. For those of you who are on the Ripper One-Three frequent flyer program, you'll be earning a hundred free credits this afternoon. For those of you who don’t know, Coral will be your steward this gentle and short trip back to the Deep Ice. And as always, the airsickness bags are located in the seats in front of you."

James chuckles after Slopok completes his routine. He had heard it several times, but the mock introduction always brightens him up. “Hey Coral, some water?”

“One water coming up.” Coral turns around and before he can pull the water out of the fridge, three waters fly out and towards the Jedi, startling him and sending him on the floor. He gets up and looks at the Jedi, who are laughing, no doubt a mock nasty stare underneath the helmet. “My fair Jedis, how rude of you not to get me one.”

With a single thought, James plants a bottle of water in Coral’s lap. “There you go, my fair crew chief.” James replies with an mocking empathizes on “fair.”

Coral takes off his helmet, puts on a headset and takes a swig before asking, “So, how was the mission?”

Elad responds, “It was successful. We found the Holocron.” Coral grins and makes a thumbs-up gesture.

Eiko gets on the comm system, asking, “Slopok, any word on the warship?”

Slopok responds, “Yes Sir, I have been getting regular reports from the Deep Ice. The warship is still making their way here and is about an ninety minutes out. But the Deep Ice has moved to the other side of the moon, keeping the moon between them and the warship. They have not been detected and as far as the warship knows, we were never here.”

Eiko is cheered up by this news and with joy in his voice, voices himself, “Thanks, Slopok. That’s good news!"

“Yes, Sir,” Slopok agrees with Eiko and adds, “We should be back in twenty minutes and ready to jump as soon as we dock.”

The three didn't talk about the new enemy the entire trip, just happy to have completed their mission and return to the Deep Ice alive. Solomon Ashe would have to wait another day.

"Lock the ships down for the jump," Eiko spoke through his speakers as he climbed out the side of the MAAT. "Get the Ice away from here."

"Would you like us to wait for..."

Eiko rounded to stare at one of the technicians. "I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to. We'll survive the jump with the ships.

His gut churned as he held his tongue about the man they'd met in the ruins. While James seemed quick to forget the threat, Eiko couldn't get his mind away from the man who knew about Revan - knew that whatever had slipped out of his control was a major threat to the House's security. Leaks had sources and those sources were liable to break everything he'd meant for this House.

He took a quick correcting step as he moved out of the hangar as the ship shifted out of natural space into the rush of hyperspace.

- - -

Eiko cradled the Holocron underneath layers of fabric as he pulled it out of its canister. Even as damaged as it was, there was always the threat of waking up the dead systems and all the guardians and defenses that accompanied the Dark Lords of the Sith into virtual immortality. He pushed it forward to the Headmaster's hands, the quiet of the Headmaster's offices shared just by the Quaestor and Headmaster.

Taigikori noticed the slight downturn in the Quaestor's head. Eiko's glance met the Headmaster's for one second - enough to understand that the steel-jawed man had a question.

"It must have been damaged during the Exodus or shortly thereafter," Eiko spoke softly. "I trust your archivists will have no issue with it, though, since it seems repairable."

"For your sake, I hope so. Anything else?"

"There are several artifacts that I believe should be recovered - even with the damage done to the structure," Eiko skirted the issue of when the damage had occured. Better to leave those things alone until he had time to properly prepare himself for "Perhaps my House would serve to clear items out of Eos without raising the alarm of adjacent systems. Another House also lost a journeyman in the ruins, killed by an assassin droid." Eiko bowed lightly. "There shouldn't be anything else I need to bring up with you - the report was filed as you asked."