STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Cold War

Wraith cackles through his discomforting mechanical voice box, sounding choked and grating. He is proud of his personal performance in taking the train, having killed one of the Royal family and countless troopers personally, and even more with the explosion. It surely would have a great impact on the war and finally take Meja'Tsid.

"Well," Wraith says. "Time to see if Dak survived his assault..."

Wraith will call the Arnian forces and see what happened, and if he and Ker can be picked up.

Easily done! A speeder will be out shortly to retrieve you from the snow.

-

Dak-

You come to just moments later. Something is hitting you in the face, and it is very hot wherever you are.

Dak will try to pick himself up, protecting his face.

It's Pade slapping you.

"Wake up, cousin," Pade hisses. "We need to get out of here before we burn alive."

Dak will take his help. "That went off rather better than I expected..."

Pade leads you out of the wreckage of the burning building that you were thrown into by the explosion. All of the buildings in the area are on fire, their metal exteriors having been breached by the blast.

"We lost Reynal," Pade informs you. "And anyone else that was close enough. I think we're goddamn lucky to not have been vaporized ourselves..."

The roar of flames begins to give way to raucous cheering- your forces are celebrating the defeat of the Royalists.

"Reynal will be remembered as a hero, instrumental in this victory," Dak says, simply. "As will the others who have fallen for the cause..."

What is the plan now?

The taking of Meja'Tsid is a significant victory for your rebellion. All of Arnia was watching the fight keenly to see who would emerge the victor. You are quite confident that, had you lost, your movement would have lost its steam and your men would have deserted. As it is, you didn't!

It certainly helps that TWO members of the Royal Family were killed in the fighting around Meja'Tsid. For all their power, they are not immortal and they won't always win. This gives the rebellion hope, and slowly you gather more support...

-

Wraith did have something curious for you to look at, Dak. As you are aware, the Princes are all trained well in the art of Arnian knives, which you yourself are familiar with. However, the Princesses all appear to use lightsabers.

Wraith has the lightsaber of the noble he killed, Princess Ditari.

It looks exactly like yours, Dak.

-

Also, Wraith-

You snatched Ditari's experiment blaster that she "iced" Ker'Raos with. You don't really understand the science behind it (you'd need some time to tinker with Fix-It) but it appears to ensnare targets in ice!

For every two successes rolled, the target spends a turn Stunned. It has very low damage.

More support is always good!

That's... odd, about the lightsaber.

It is. It isn't a perfect copy or anything, but you did have to check to make sure Wraith didn't pick-pocket yours off of you when you first saw it. It is a little more stream-lined that your design, probably due to Ditari's femininity. But too close for comfort.

Weird. What might that mean?

Does Dak have Jedi Lore?

Not even a little bit.

In that case, Wraith can come up with a theory for you (since the Marauder/Executor DOES have Jedi Lore).

It is a common practice with Jedi Padawans building their first lightsabers to model their lightsabers after those of their mentors. Building a lightsaber is part technical know-how and part Force-guided instinct, and sometimes a Jedi does not even consciously design their weapon. It's even true of those living out on the fringe- Wraith's lightsaber is similar to that of his mentor, the Dark Jedi that taught him to use the Force and worked closely with his father.

Your lightsabers look nothing like any of the sabers that your group of Dark Jedi used, Dak.

So... someone was influencing Dak, even if it was subconsciously. Someone who was the mentor for the nobles here... someone here on Arnia... could the Queen-Mother be the source?

You've never even met the Queen-Mother, let alone studied under her.

Well did he study under anyone while on Arnia as a child?

You were hardly aware of your potential before Tyra Manette killed everyone you knew and kidnapped you, and Allori Rhen trained you in the Jedi arts. You had all sorts of intuitions that you were meant for more... but nothing tangible.

Well then, this simply doesn't make sense. Unless something was influencing him as a child, and he never even knew it... does Dak or Pade know who would have trained to the nobles?

Pade is pretty positive that the ONLY Force-sensitives that Arnia has ever produced have been in the Royal family. Any others born outside of it are usually brought into the family by marriage.