KMC Forums - USH'S STAR WARS GAME- Christmas Thread 2007

Purity

Once, the Sith nearly conquered the entire Galaxy. It would be a mistake to attribute their eventual failure simply to their own infighting, significant as that was. The valour of the Jedi and all the free peoples willing to resist must be accounted for.

The simple strength of the Jedi must not be forgotten. They are disciplined and trustworthy. They can find help almost wherever they need it- and they understand the value of friendship. And in a Jedi Master you have one of the most powerful beings the galaxy ever sees, wise and strong and potent, and gifted with great powers of perception and foresight.

In many ways, the question was how the Sith could ever have opposed them. One reason is that it is easier to destroy than to protect... yet the Sith sought a Galaxy they could rule, not a wasteland. They had to build and protect too, eventually.

The reason the Sith could fight the Jedi and their Masters was because of their own weapon in return- the Sith Lords. Some Sith Lords were merely powerful Warlords, who rose by force alone. But some were truly horrible legends.

People speak stories of the Sith Lords, and ancient tales are there to be found- of Ragnos and Kun, of Revan and Bane, of Malphas and Demnos. These tales, wondering how these beings were so powerful, bring attention to the great powers they wielded, either by technology or the Force. Demnos and his Masoleum. Revan and his Star Forge.

Yet technology is technology, and the Force is the Force. It does not serve the Sith any better than it did the Jedi. Whatever technology could be found, the forces of the Light Side might be able to match it. Whatever unique force powers they had, the Jedi had great power of their own. We have to look beyond this to see how great Sith Lords could unify such a fractious ideal, and then pose a serious threat to the Jedi.

The answer is in their skill, their intelligence, their cunning. And in the greatest Dark Side weapon of all. Not a force power. Not a great and ancient technology. But an understanding of one of the most powerful forces in the Cosmos. The Lie.

The thing the Dark Side is most strongly associated with- by those who understand it- is Deceit. The trouble is, very few realise what that means until they run into it first hand. And even if you know it, that doesn't mean you will spot it. At the centre of the Galaxy, a Sith Lord is now Chancellor. It is Lies that got him there.

At the outskirts of the Galaxy the remaining Dark Siders are dying, hunted down by the Bureau. But these Dark Siders are a pale imitation of the Sith. They die because they have no chance. They understand the ways of violence, intimidation, power. Maybe the rudiments of deceit. But not enough. They have survived only because the forces of order have been weak; backed by the will of Dath Sidious, that is no longer the case. So they die.

(And if one tiny group with a faltering association with the brief moment of distraction that was Kuylen is found to still live... well. that would just be an extraordinary exception)

Just two Dark Siders- the genuine Sith- keep those powers of Deceit working, and instead of being hunted down in the outskirts, they are blossoming in the heart of the Galaxy, unseen. Just two. There can be no more.

Unless.., what if there was just one other Dark Sider? One more person who had those great powers of the Sith Lords of before, their insight, their cunning... and their gift for Deceit. And a man who understood one othet concept as well, perhaps better than any other. Purity.

If this was true... then the Light Side is in serious trouble.

Andro and Gallagher are two highly talented Jedi- Andro a precocious Swordsman, and Gallagher is gifted with uncommon natural Force power, and also has received the training and put in the dedication needed to make use of it. Opening their Jedi careers, they took part in a successful mission designed to bring the notorious Bounty Hunter Balek to justice. That mission was led by two Jedi who had once worked for the Master Gundark who was the Jedi who had chased Kuylen to the edge of the Galaxy. Balek had formed a small part of that story. In meeting the Jedi Roan Trilanger, Andro and Gallagher heard stories of this man Kuylen and his Dark Side followers, this rare glimpse of a concept- enemies wileding Lightsabres- that Jedi never really saw any more. Most likely not to be seen again either...

Andro and Gallagher were next sent on an undercover mission on the luxury medical world of Spiridos, rumoured to be the source of a vast illegal narcotics distribution network, but one that had been surprisingly tough to crack open. Posing as clients of the spa facilities they were sent to expose the operation- gallagher sent for his natural talents that would provide the needed insight, and Andro sent as protection (even without a Lightsabre- too much of a risk of blowing their true identity) should things turn nasty.

Things did turn nasty. The Jedi found violence, intimidation and murder on a scale they did not suspect- a section of the spa given to housing the terminally ill in suspended animation as they awaited a cure was instead being used for a far darker purpose. The clients were all dead.

These horiffic acts were at first put down to the viciousness of the criminals involved. So was the plot they uncovered to assassinate the Abbot Sienar, a visiting representative of a religion dedicated to the Light Side, a man who had caught a horrible disease in the course of his charitable work that required constant treatment. Brutal murder of a defenceless man who had done so much good was a further part of this viciousness they found.

Andro and Gallagher were already caught in the lie. Surviving exposure, attempts on their lives and then, their Jedi identity revealed and fightimg with sabres once more, a pitched battle as the crminals made their escape, they found out rather too late a small potion of the truth. The Abbot Sienar was no champion of the Light. he was a very, very powerful Dark Sider, whose cover inside the Church had kept him safe from Jedi and Bureau alike.

But this was only the tip of the iceberg of the twisted lied and deception that had led to this moment. Sienar's presence had been overshaodwing many around for years. Gundark's old Master had fought him before- and he was Master also to one of those surviving Dark Siders in Rand's group. As is the nature of the Force, none of this was coincidence. A great story was being told, but so deceitfully that none had seen it. Even Sienar could not see it all at once, but when he saw Gallagher on Spiridos he understood it all very quickly. For his relationship to Gallagher's past was very personal indeed.

Andro was defeated, but Gallagher's fate was wrose. He was taken, taken away to Mandragos, the home planet of the Abbot's religion. Mandragos should be known as a world of charity and good deeds. The Jedi will never see it that way now.

---

Andro returns to Coruscant, desperate for action and revenge. But as fellow Jedi Ithrorn had warned him, it is not going to be that simple. Sienar is well-protected, and arrest will be extremely hard. Things are possible, but it will take time- time Gallagher does not have. Worse still, Gallagher had been plagued by visions of the possible deaths of billions from an upcoming famine disaster about to hit a quadrant of the Galaxy. Andro does not understand how it all relates, but he fears Sienar's true plan is related.

Andro is sent on this difficult mission, but he is not alone. Roan has returned to Coruscant also, bearing stories of a very strange foe indeed he found on his mission, one gifted in the Force, clearly on the Dark Side. Once more, all these things seem to form a pattern. Unknown to the Jedi, at this moment Gallagher is already discussing this strange development of the 'Lady' and her followers with Sienar on Mandragos, whilst on far Epireus the Lady herself, and the agent of hers Roan met on Cassilis, is talking to Rand's group.

But the Lady will have to wait. Roan and the other returning Jedi join with Andro are dispatched to Mandragos to rescue Gallagher... and stop Sienar. It should be easy- Sienar is enormously powerful, but he is one man, badly crippled by disease. But somehow, the misison is frustratingly difficult. it is a mission to test the most patient of Jedi... and these Jedi are not the most patient.

At the centre of it all, Sienar is providing Gallagher with an extension of his training that he never thought would happen, Gallagher is mindful of the fate of those billions and must play along. At least, he thinks he is playing along. As time goes by, he is finding himself being drawn into the mystery that is Sienar, a being as powerful as any Sith Lord ever was.

Billions of lives are at stake. A world is at stake. And so is Gallagher's soul. Can gallagher and Jedi unravel the lie before it is too late for all?

On Spiridos, the Abbot spoke to Gallagher of the importance of Purity. Will understanding that save gallagher... or doom him?

__________________

"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"

"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"

BtVS