USH'S GAME EPISODE V- 'MAUSOLEUM'- DARK SIDE AREA

"I am confused by something, Master Kuylen," Wraith says. "They appear to be hyper-evolved frogs. How can they evolve if...there is no water? Without water, there could not be tadpoles. Without tadpoles, no frogs. Without frogs, no Zeitonians."

If you guys want 5o play war games, that is a fair idea and may make your troops better, with a few casualties. Hand arms only, though, points out Kuylen, lest a small war down here be NOTICED...

They can indeed get you plans- Kuylen already has some of the city that he is looking over.

"Well now," says Kuylen to you, Wraith, "do you seriously think ANY life could have evolved on a planet like this?"

"Quite frankly, I do not think it could," Wraith says, thinking for a moment. "Do you mean to say that the Zeitonians are not locals?"

"Oh they are, they very much are," says Kuylen. "The answer is the other way around to that."

"I do not know what that means then..." Wraith thinks for a bit. "Did the Sith have something to do with it?"

"Perhaps they have special spawning tanks somewhere in the city" Rah suugests to Wraith

"Well, in a way you are right, Wraith," says Kuylen. "But the answer is- this planet wasn't always like this..."

"Meaning there have been some...climate changes?" Galder guesses.

"Staggering ones," says Kuylen. "That wasn't a valley we landed in, Galder."

You KNEW there was something dody about that valley, Galder, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it. It was huge, but you have seen huge terrain features before.

"It was circular..." says Kuylen.

"Asteroid impact," Galder says. "Drastically changed the climate upon impact, or some time after that."

Kuylen shakes his head.

"Not an asteroid," he says. "The whole planet is covered in such craters."

"Oh...lakes then? Oceans?"

Wraith listens to Galder's suggestions.

"Lakes and oceans, I can only assume, were once plentiful, though I am no paeleontologist or geologist<" says Kuylen.

"You had the right idea, Galder, just the wrong cause. That was, and IS, a blast crater. All of them are."

"Orbital bombings? From the Sith War?"

"From what I understand," says Kuylen, "the Sith bombared this planet continually for four decades or more.

"Think of it, Galder. A whole planet of Force-trained soliders. Most assuredly, I am NOT the first who spotted that potential! This place... was one of the greatest battlegrounds in history. The Jedi and Sith fought for it over, and over, and over, and over... it was bombarded so much that the oceans boiled away and the topsoil was gone forever. Gone from the GROUND, anyway. Most of what was the surface of this planet now just blows around in the wind, forever.

"I am sure the Jedi would have bombarded it too but as ever they had a quaint regard for trying to protect the locals beyond their merely practical value.

"Anyway. The Zeitonians were advanced people, they moved their entire civilisation underground, But that was long ago and all that has been kept from them.

"There are, after all, only a billion beings on this planet. There should be ten times more, I imagine it is getting less and less each century. The wars are long finished but this forgotten gold mine stll dies slowly."

"That is indeed quite tragic," Galder says, knowing that Kuylen would want to hear. "It too shows that the Jedi are weak..."

"Well..." says Kuylen. "They fought hard. It was a long war." He sighs. "But Demnos saw more than just troops here... a planet where every being born could use the Force? He knew there was something to it. Hence... the Mausoleum.

"The Jedi, of course, wnated nothing more to do with this place... too dangerous for them or anyone else. They sealed it off and the Zeitonians themselves engaged in mass deception of their own people to remove all trace of the past as best they could. I suppose only this 'Elder' knows any of it now.

"And THAT is the mystery of Zeiton, Galder."

"That is quite a strange tale. I would not hear it with most planets," Galder says. "I take it that Wraith has been thinking about this since we arrived?"

"Also, I have a question..." Galder says. "What did you do with the Astrolabe? I know it hasn't come with us."