How are you planning to do two attacks on him, Rusky?
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It will take some time (and Observation rolls) to check this factory over; it is, as I say, huge. All the heavy equipment has been removed- that's a heck of an operation; you wonder why they bothered? Why abandon the factory but keep all the equipment? May as well just keep the factory, surely?
But as I say, it has been done in haste- some scattered gear has been left around; sifting through it will be time consuming so I want to be sure that is what you want to do.
Kellan had absolutely no intention of informing Kir Ascar, of all people, that she had somehow lost her ability of using the Force to sense future events. Remembering her failed meditative attempt the night the Viceroy's rooms were permeated with poison gas, she repressed a brief shudder.
"I did indeed feel out for the Viceroy's future, as you suggested. There were many shifting layers of vision; difficult to discern anything definitive, as it always is with the future," Kellan told him. "You know that yourself, Kir."
"In general I know that," says Ascar. "But with the Viceroy, I know no such thing. Because when I tried to sense his future..." he says, leaning in very close to you, "I got nothing... literally."
He leans back again.
"Are you really telling me you got something? If you did, you really should tell your superiors. It is my estimation that no-one on the Council has met with any more success. That is why they cannot help you."
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Your insight serves you well, Marcus, and certainly will help you with your Observation rolls, which I shall make now.
Ok, the two of you find the following over the next two hours:
1. A signal receptor for a standard Baktoid Combat Automata. Or 'Battle Droid' as they are more well known. From what you can tell, the piece was manufactured here.
2. Vlad, you come across an old holograph picture, in static 2D form. It is somewhat old and degraded and at this point you cannot make out the caption attached. but it appears to be a group of important dignitraries at the front door of this factory when it was in its prime. In the foreground, the Viceroy Nute Gunray is shaking hands with another person, a human, who also looks to be of importance
3. Marcus, you find what you were looking for- a discarded receipt copy, bearing the credentials of the stellar trucking company that moved the gear out of here, to wherever they have shifted it to.
No outgoing planet reference though- it has not been moved to any other registered planet.
Inwardly, Kellan was at odds with herself. Ascar had just seemingly confessed his own lack of perception, albiet out of Senator Riordan's range of hearing, yet she felt with the mixed company present that this was not the place to discuss what she considered a personally distressing situation.
"In your 'estimation' ?" she echoed. "Tis rather lofty, even for you, Ascar, to presume to second guess Jedi Council members." Although she had wanted to talk to Jeb personally about this, it seemed now was going to have to be the time. Kellan decided to bite the bullet. "No disrespect intended, Senator, but could I possibly have a word with your advisor privately ?"
Kellan could not put her finger on why she would make a bald confession to Kir Ascar on an issue that was very private to her; the very instinct that told her to distrust him told her the opposite- but were those instincts reliable at this point ? Self-doubt would lead to fear. That was someplace Kellan simply would not go. Right or wrong, a decision was made.
"Jeb, I meant to discuss this with you privately but with protecting the Viceroy and everything surrounding this assignment, time has not been kind." Kellan then turned her attention to Ascar. "I admit I have been able to sense nothing." Her commitment to the Order and her sense of duty was causing this verbal acknowledgement to be nearly physically painful. "Nothing. As in not even the Viceroy's presence in the Force, Ascar. He does not even exist. "
"The same feeling I got, Kellan," says Ascar, using your first name without permission. "I have never felt anything like that before.
And when I encounter something in the Force I have not felt before... I get interested. I have a gift for you. From my collecton."
He reaches into his bag, and pulls out an expensive looking gift box. Taking it curiously, you open it to reveal a jewelled necklace- an antique piece, by the look of it.
She would never, for the life of her, figure this man out. Putting aside the reprimand for his sudden familiarity left her struggling a bit for words. "This is quite.....unexpected. Tis a lovely piece," Kellan responded. "Is there a story behind your acquisition of it ?" She made sure not to sound rude.
"Ah..." says Ascar.
"This is an Eburian coronation necklace, designed for one of the Princesses of that world. A tall, blue-skinned people without a bad thought for anyone. Rather insular, though; they were nominally Republican members but didn't mix.
I say 'were'. That necklace is several thousand years old, was the last of its kind made, and there will never be any again. Eburia was 'sanitised' by a particularly determined Sith Lord named, I believe, Darth Furion. Eburia was home to outstandingly valuable mineral desposits the Sith Lord wanted for his war machine. The Eburians refusal to travel elsewhere made them particularly vulnerable to Furion's chosen method of attack- viral warfare. The pathogen he used was devastatingly effective on Eburian biology; his own forces were all vaccinated. All he had to do was secure all planetary communications, starports and decent medical facilities, and then wait for the whole planet to die. He brought in a robotic labour force to do the mining.
"So, a whole planet dead at the whim of the Sith. It was known, of course, but rare even by their standard- even the Sith preferred to use rather than destroy. Furion was powerful, but impractical; the Jedi eventually killed him some two decades later. A little late for poor Eburia.
"Which is the nub of the problem. The death of a whole world causes a large disturbance in the Force, Kellan. Not just at the monent itself, but in pulses that go back through the Circle of the Force to be sensed by those yet to reach that point. You yourself know this, Kellan. Even the possibility of Zeiton's annihilation sent shudders through your sensitive mind. And had it actually HAPPENED... well...
"But you know what? The Jedi, none of them, even the most powerful amongst them, did not sense a single thing coming for Eburia. Not a thing. As if the world... did not exist. Even more tragically, everyone was so used to hearing nothing from the world, that no-one even noticed for six months. But it DID exist. That necklace is one of its final testamonials.
"I have other such stories... but none that quite so neatly sum it up. In history, when fighting the Sith, the Jedi have noticed at times, when sparring off against particualrly powerful Sith Lords... that their ability to use the Force had started to fail.
Now I wonder... had the Jedi received some vague warning of Furion's plan for Eburia... and had deliberately tried to sense its fate... how do you think that might have felt, Kellan?"
"How do I think that might have felt ?" It boggled the mind. "Overwhelming. To sense its fate, the future, to know that was indeed to be its fate...." Kellan was at a loss for words as she tried to contemplate the whole notion. Conversation with Ascar, while fascinating, she had to admit, was draining. Particularly this one.