The 319th Expeditionary Fleet

This is the IC thread of The 319th Expeditionary Fleet. Click here for the OOC thread.

Jacen docked his ship in the hangar of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He hit the power switch followed by the cockpit hatch release knob and hopped out of his white Eta-2 interceptor with crimson accents. As he walked away he looked back, waving his hand, closing the hatch with the force.

He quickly strode down the vaulted halls of the temple toward the spire of the High Council. After many staircases, hushed passageways, and large rooms he finally made it to the base of the spire from whence he would take the turbo-lift to see the council. He was about to enter the lift when he heard someone call from off to the right. "Excuse me Jedi, the council is unavailable right now." Jacen looked over at the woman behind the desk. "I've been sent for by the council, I'm Jacen Mead."

"That's nice, but the masters aren't here today. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine called them to the senate building for a council of war. They left flimsi's for all their appointments today concerning their meetings." She said in a why am I here tone. She rifled through a stack of glowing stack of plasts before handing one to Jacen. "This is yours, enjoy."

Jacen took it from her and felt a mixed feeling of disappointment and relief in knowing he wouldn't meet with the high council this day. He wandered away from the desk as he opened the flimsi.

Greetings Jedi Knight Handa,

last meeting of the senate a vote was passed to send a small fleet of republic forces to search for undercover CIS bases in the Unknown Regions. directly after the vote was proposed several senators suggested the mission be a general exploration mission. Thus it would include starmap indexing, race cataloging, and possibly colonization efforts on hospitable planets for species made refugees by the war. Leadership was handed to the Jedi as do many operations, and We hand it down to you. We thought it wise to give you the position of general for this operation because of your unique prowess of the force.

Report to the republic navy spaceport to claim your fleet.

May the force be with you, general

Master Mace Windu

Jacens arms fell to his sides, his mouth fell open. He considered it a joke on the woman behind the desk's behalf, then dismissed the idea. He stood there pondering a few moments more....then bolted off towards his ship.

Kedefrodai wakes up...

He heard the alarms going off, mad dashes were made to the armory to get weapons, but it was too late. The enemy had caught them completely off guard, Kedefrodai could see this through the force, they weren't going to pull through on this one. Kedefrodai didn't like being a Jedi much, but he did like the advantages of being able to sense when the enemy was near and be able to anticipate almost all of their moves. This time, he could not anticipate what was happening, and his mind was on so many things, he couldn't hardly concentrate on using the force. "If only I could summon my power from long ago..." he thought to himself, but every time he tried, he failed.

He ran towards the bridge, trying to find the admiral on board, only to find that half the soldiers were dead, including the admiral. The men were frantically trying to keep the ship in one piece while trying to retreat, though this would prove to be useless. Kedefrodai knew the end was in sight...again...but every time he felt this way, it always felt the same, it always felt like his last moment. He ran up to the highest ranking officer to ask what he could do because he felt that he should at least do something useful. Before he could end his sentence, a massive blast hit the bridge, causing everyone inside to be thrown out into space, Kedefrodai breathed his last breath and darkness overcame him.

His body had been found, along with most of the parts of the ship, and most of the crew. Only ten percent of the crew survived. The crew had been caught unprepared while making repairs out in the middle of nowhere. By the time help arrived, it was already too late...too late for the clones, and too late for Kedefrodai.

Dodge, kick, slash, slash, uppercut, dodge, slash, slash, dodge, kick, uppercut, repeat. Deathblow. A simple, yet random and unorthodox fighting style that almost always succeeds in wearing down, and then killing her opponent. The man falls, dead, at her feet, and the crowd cheers.
"Well, folks, looks like 'Ice' has done it again! A winning streak, but can she keep it up with her next opponent, the deadly 'Otto the Terrible'?"
A droid approaches the young Zabraki and hands her a towel, with which she wipes the sweat off her face. She then turns to face the crowd, gives a bright confident smile and wave, earning more cheers, and leaves the arena.
"Wa wanna coe moulee rah?" She says, leaning up against the counter at the bar. ("When can I expect my payment?")
"Bargon u noa-a-uyat, Jeedai." The large, slimy Conatta the Hutt says in response. The Zabrak rolls her eyes. ("You will be rewarded, Jedi.")
"You said that two days ago at my last fight." She says, deciding that she didn't want to speak in that garbled language anymore.
"And you will be payed. Has the great Conatta the Hutt ever failed you before in giving you your payments?" Says Conatta's even slimier Major Domo, the Twi'lek, Kosha Passik. She sighs.
"Banya kee fofo Aduki, kolka." She says to the bartender, who hurries to get her drink. ("An Aduki double, please.") She then turns to face the Hutt, his slave who's name she cannot recall, Kosha, and Conatta's two Gamorrean body guards.
The Hutt speaks, and Kosha translates: "Don't worry yourself, Malara. All you need to do is keep up those impressive Jedi skills of yours to win the next fight against Otto, and you'll have enough money to go off-world like you intended."
"Yes," she thinks to herself, "because believe me when I say, getting involved in illegal death matches and more importantly, the Hutts themselves, was the LAST thing I had in mind when I came here to stop the horrible civil war that's been going on these last four years." She fights off the urge to shake her head, and instead picks up her drink. She lifts it up in a toast to Conatta, and then downs the whole glass.

Damek was plodding silently away at a very mischievous power conduit aboard the RNS Imperium, a brand new frigate, still in the shipyard on Coruscant, when it gave a nasty shock that ran up his arm and nearly singed his barbels. He sighed. This conduit was the only one on the ship that had problems. Of course, it would be his sector that had the problems, not Gaius'. This conduit seemed to be personally making fun of him by resisting all attempts to diagnose and correct the error. This day just keeps getting worse for him... first the glitterstim deal was broken up by some snooping CorSec, and then his partner's freighter was seized, and now this stupid power conduit kept him on overtime in this cover job. Good though it was, it was still.... annoying.

After another shock, Damek just kicked the stupid thing, and to his surprise, the panels above it jolted into life showing a green status on power flow. Satisfied with his improvised work, he turned to see one of the technician's assistants running down the hall. He had seen this guy before, about thirty times actually, and each time he did that little run/swoop motion it meant he had an important message. Usually it was garbage, but the guy had an irreversible sense of self-worth at meaningless tasks. He even made himself a cute little medal. Truly, the only commodity more common than hydrogen was stupidity...

Jacen finally came into view of the space port on the ground below. The Skylane He took from the district the temple was in all the way to the spaceport was overflowing with other airspeeders and ships, as usual. As soon as he came into view of the port he dropped out of the skylane, not waiting to crawl over to the exit. He flew towards a small landing platform near the control tower. He hopped out of his ship and went inside.

Inside was a medium sized room with a large desk in the center of it, taking up most of the space. He walked up to the giant desk and looked down at the man seated behind it. "I'm Jedi Knight Jacen Handa. I've been sent here by the high council to..." The man broke him off mid-sentence. "Oh Hello, General Handa! We Were told to expect you for the new fleet that came in yesterday, the 319th."

He stood up and walked over to the large bay window and Jacen followed. The man pointed out the window. "Those are your ships over there. All of them are brand new except the Consulars, They were recently retrofitted as armed escorts." He walked back over to the desk and grabbed a datapad and handed it to Jacen. "It has more complete information concerning your mission, such as objective priorities, ships, manifest, crew, etc. Oh, of note is the Senior Clone Commander. He will be your right hand man during the mission. His name is Commander Cameron Bradock I believe. He is already on board the Impervious along with most of the crew preparing." He explained.

Jacen looked over a few pages and handed the datapad back to him. "Oh no thats for you to keep on you. The data is also on your computer in your quarters as well." He replied. "Okay sounds good. The only belongings I own besides the clothes on my back are my Infiltrator ship and my astromech, I assume I can store it in the Impervious' hangar??" Jacen asked. Of course general, I'll have someone load it up for you. You can take the gangplank out to the Impervious when your ready to go, General." He replied with an odd sense of giddiness. "Thank you sir for your help, goodbye." Said Jacen. The man nodded.

Jacen turned toward one of the three hallways that would lead him to the gangplank to board his ship. He was about midway to the Impervious, The hallway opened up to an open air walkway so one could see all the ships in the dock, it was immense. He took his eyes off the ships to look ahead down the walkway and saw a large stack of caskets, and all of a sudden his happiness fell. But then a most peculiar thing happened. One of the caskets opened...

Kedefrodai had been dead for a while, it takes 3 days to come back to life, many things can happen in that time, he was floating in space for some of that duration...

But now was his moment to wake up again. There are certain things that a person can get used to, like a certain taste or smell, but this moment never felt any different, it was always the same...

His eyes opened and he breathed in deeply, he noticed that it was dark and he had barely any room to move. "I must be in a casket, they must've had one heck of a good time trying to find me since we were out in the middle of nowhere." He laid there for a minute, he could sense other bodies around him so he knew he wasn't alone, but there were a few living beings around him, one in particular had a connection with the force, he knew he had to be careful. He popped open the casket, revealing the light that he had not seen in a few days, he squinted, but after a few seconds his eyes adjusted. "Glad I've got great eyesight, now I just gotta figure out where I'm at and what I should do next." He didn't feel darkness inside of him, it must've been one of those weird times when he didn't turn to the dark side after having been on the light side. He slid the casket lid off, though he quickly tried to use the force to grab the lid before it hit the ground. He tried to reach out as fast as he could and just barely caught it before it hit the ground. "phew!" He said as he jumped out of the casket and put the lid back on. He turned only to see someone standing a ways off, the man didn't seem to move, he must've been shocked.

Kedefrodai didn't quite know how to handle the situation, however, he knew that if he didn't say something that the man would probably report him in and he'd have a lot of explaining to do. He started to walk towards the man and waved as he approached, trying to appear calm, especially since he was trying to piece back together what actually happened, he figured he must've died on the bridge after the other ship blasted it into an oblivion. He turned his view to the right and saw his ship in large pieces, and almost had to cry, knowing that most of the caskets behind him were for men that he had served with. He had a more pressing issue to attend to though, so he kept walking forward and offered his hand...

"Hello...I'm Kedefrodai, I'm a Jedi like yourself, I imagine you have many questions, and if you want them answered we will have to go to a more private area...I cannot divulge any information here..."

Malara takes a deep breath from her cigarra, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.
"Poodoo." She thinks to herself, and then she takes her small YT-1300 in for a landing.
The Predator was a recent addition to her small list of things she owned. The Hutt, Conatta, that was paying her to fight for him found her a smuggler that was leaving the system and also headed for her next planet, so Conatta decided to be a decent... slug, and introduce the two. She payed the smuggler half of what he wanted in advanced, promising him the rest when they got there. But, halfway there, he tried to attack her to get all of her money.

What he didn't know, was that she is a Jedi.

It was lucky for her in a way, though, because she got her money back and then some, all of his possessions, spice, and to top it all off, a free ship. So, as long as she could keep from crashing the hunk of junk (or losing it), she would be fine. She had also taken the time to go through his things. He had some clothes, which she quickly changed into since she hadn't washed her old clothes in weeks, some disguise equipment, a new blaster pistol, and a few well-hidden small hand grenades. There was also some spice hidden in the bulkheads and underneath some of the bunks in the crew's quarters that he was obviously smuggling, along with some high tech blaster rifles and pistols. Very dangerous, very illegal.
The ship itself runs smoothly enough; it's navicomputer was, thankfully, not voice-locked so she didn't have any problems making sure it hadn't been tampered with or anything. It was a decent size, and had a large tank for long runs. It also had several transponder codes, which she knew she would probably have to use at some point in time.

The jump ends, and, pulled from her thoughts, she overlooks the new planet.

Damek did not know what to do. This was rare. But then, so was the occasion. He decided it might be interesting, and to go with it. A new fleet was getting ready to leave on some crazy journey that would take months. Sienar Fleet Systems decided they would need their own weapons engineer in case anything broke. They chose Damek. And that was why the stupid grunt was so happy, with a new position opening up, he might get the chance to be promoted. Unfortunately for him, Damek had also slipped some glitterstim into his water as he was leaving the ship. Good luck getting over that.

The place he was supposed to be, or more accurately, the fleet he was supposed to be at, was only a few dockyards down. But in a spaceport the size of a large village itself, it would take same time on foot. So Damek jumped into one of the conveniently placed trams that ran around. He figured no one would miss this particular cargo tram, as it was empty. And was parked. No time to dwell. He did not go directly to this "319th" fleet but rather detoured to his ship, parked in a public area. The easiest way to fool authorities was to put stuff right under their noses. They only ever searched the ships in the private hangars, really.

He went in and grabbed a few essentials, namely: more glitterstim, his blaster he had ripped off some retired security guard or something, a lot of clothes, some special Dac lotion, hygenic details, a book, his datapad (personal and work-related), and a case with concealed compartments for the first two items. He then went out and reported to the fleet he was supposed to now work. A small, movable lift carried him into the belly of the large capital ship, silently floating, called the Impervious, according to the large letters printed on the side. At the very top of the would-be turbolift, he could just make out quite a number of other ships flanking this one. This certainly wasnt a surprise thing. How had he missed it before?

Jacen stared at the man quite confusedly for a long moment after he introduced himself. This is quite an odd fellow...But I'm sure I have time to hear his story before takeoff, I am the general after all. Jacen thought to himself. "Okay, Mr. Kedefrodai, I think I know a good place. I'm Jacen by the way." He said to the tall man.

Jacen motioned Kedefrodai to follow him as he walked onto the gangplank to the Impervious. He pulled out his datapad and led himself to his private quarters. He motioned for Kedefrodai to sit at the desk chair and he crossed his legs on the bed. "Okay, jedi. Tell me why you were hiding in the casket along with those dead clones. Do you know how much of a dishonor it is to those dead men that you play amongst their remains?"

Jacen stared at the man, he seemed caught up by what he had said. something played over his face, confusion perhaps? Whatever it was he had a feeling this wouldnt be a quick explanation...

Kedefrodai looked at the man sitting in front of him, he always battled with the idea of letting mere humans or any species for that matter, know of his species existence, he figured that it wouldn't end well. He said there, he knew that if he told this man the truth, that he would probably call him a liar and would have him thrown into a prison or something, but he would have to make one GOOD lie to convince him. Sometimes he wondered if telling just one person wouldn't be so bad, and even if he told others, they probably wouldn't believe him as well. So it all came down to this decision, the hardest decision of his life, did he really want to alter this universe because of his selfishness? Did he want to place this world in danger of being destroyed by a race that was more intelligent and powerful than anything they have ever seen?

So he thought...


He purposefully looked at the Jedi, not knowing what exactly to say, or even where to start. "I...was in that casket for a reason...I was actually dead...if I did my job correctly they'll still think that I'm in one of those caskets." He said looking the other man square in the face, not wavering at all in what he said, only pausing to think of the right words, but the pauses were not very long, he was taught at a very young age how to be very articulate in his speech, and apparently that part of him didn't leave him...even when he died. "I had died on that ship. The ship was caught by surprise and I'm guessing that most of us died. When I saw the ship out there, that pile of pieces back there, it showed me the devastation, and I could feel all of their deaths just by looking at it. I have this...problem...you see, when I die, I come back to life 3 days later. If you check the record, you'll note that that ship had been destroyed 3 days ago. Anyways, after coming back to life, I change a little, or at least, I change a little or a lot, it changes. I don't want anyone to know about this, I will do whatever you want to keep this a secret. My people do not want to be disturbed by anyone, and if your people decide to go investigate, my people will more than likely destroy anyone you send out, and then come here to destroy this world. I know this must be hard to swallow, but you have to believe me, I do not want anyone knowing about me and furthermore I do not want to lie to you, starting off my conversations with you by lying isn't going to get you or I anywhere. So...any questions?"

"Poodoo." She says, kicking the trash heap before her. She has crashed her YT-1300. She always forgets that she never actually completed her pilot courses.... she doesn't actually know how to land a ship. She can repair a lot of things, but she's in the midst of forest, she doesn't have the parts nor time she needs. No doubt the locals saw her going down, and are now either too frightened to move, or are already sending a search-and-destroy party to her location. Either way, she needs to leave. Immediately.

She grabs her bags, packed with her weapons, medicine, and clothes, pulls her long hair up into a scrunchy, and sets out. Deciding that a bright, shining, silver blade hacking through their forest might frighten or anger the locals, Malara pulls out her Sith Tremor Sword that she picked up on Korriban while she was still a young Padawan, and starts hacking away at the trees.

It's not long before she comes across an animal. Large, thin, quadruped, and muscular. She reaches out with the Force, and touches the creatures mind. It shakes, as though shaking off a fly, but aside from that, does not physically appear to be disturbed. She smiles. The beast lets out a grunt of pain, and it's shoulders seem to buckle as she grips the mind of the beast, imprinting herself onto it's mind. She withdraws, and the beast looks up at her, with a look in it's eyes of sheer obedience. She points at the ground next to her, and it comes to her immediately, as though reading her mind. She places her bags on it's back, and then continues on her quest for civilization, with her new friend.

Three days later...

She smiles, as she shakes hands with the merchant before her. As it turns out, there are two civilizations on this planet. One, tribal; the other, modern. She managed to avoid the tribal nation, and she helped out the modern nation as much as she could. It wasn't until she met someone of the modern nation that she found out that she actually landed on the wrong planet, and that the planet she was looking for is about two parsecs away. The merchant is headed for that planet, and if she agrees to help him for a few days once they arrive as his assistant, than he would take her there. As he was actually from the Republic, she gave him her word as a Jedi, and the two of them were off.

No, this definitely was something planned long, long ago. This Venator was brand new, still shiny and smelling of the strange mixture of disinfectant and welding torches. Damek being an engineer of sorts, his bunk for the entire trip was down near the propulsion deck. Thankfully, he was far enough away still to not be hearing the engines every time he would try to sleep. The only thing different about this ship than others he had seen and served on was the fact that several secondary rooms, crew rooms, and even a tool closet as he could see, were all filled with supplies. Right up to the tip of the ceiling. There was enough food and water around to break a siege of an Outer Rim world. Damek wondered what that portended for him.

He would find out. After stashing all his more sensitive items in various places around his bunk (a whole room to himself, engineers had it nice) he walked to the nearest turbolift and took it up to the Main deck, it being little more than the deck closest to the top of the main hull. Yet, it did link everything together, and being already in the aft, he just had to walk down the hall about two minutes when he found the turbolift to the bridge. He stepped in, pressed the button, and settled down to wait for the trip to be over. All of them.

Jacen stared at the man for a long moment with half slit eyes. He sensed no lies in the man. He opened his mouth, inhaled and paused before speaking, calculating his words and guesstimating probable reactions. "I believe you, Kedefrodai. The force is not without its mysteries which your race is clearly a part of. I will keep your secret."

Jest then a rather loud beep sounded over the desk comm followed by a voice, "General, This is Senior Commander Bradock. All ships, crew and supplies are accounted for, we are ready for departure." Jacen turned and hit the broadcast button and replied, "Acknowledged Commander, hold up a few minutes there are some jedi I am still goodbying." He released the button and turned back to Kedefrodai. "Well my friend its time for us to leave for out expedition into unknown space, seeing as I'm sure you have some disappearing to do I will leave you to it. Farewell, jedi."

Kedefrodai couldn't believe it, the man actually believed him, though then again, he probably sensed that this mysterious stranger with a mysterious tale was telling the truth. It's amazing what one can do with the force, he remembered a time when he not only could detect lies, but he could actually sense what the truth was behind the lies, it just shows how little these Jedi knew of the force. Even if Kedefrodai could figure out how to do that again, he wouldn't really need it, seeing that he was torturing prisoners at the time when he learned how to use the technique...

Kedefrodai watched as the Jedi got up to walk out. "Hold on! I know the secrets of the unknown regions, not only do I have star maps of the area, but I also know much of the species and dangers that dwell there. You must allow me to go along with you, not only will that give me ample opportunity to disappear, but it will also allow for my talents to be put to use. I know many things that would blow your mind away. My skin is much tougher than yours and I have fewer bodily necessities than you. If you take me along I swear that I will only be an advisor and fighter and nothing more. You MUST take me, your life and the lives of all your crew depend on it! You will be signing your death warrant if you do not let me go with you."

Kedefrodai didn't know what to expect, the Jedi could easily say that he could handle the situation and that he doesn't need anyone's help; it wouldn't be the first time he heard that. Though then again, the Jedi did believe his story so perhaps will will believe Kedefrodai again. Kedefrodai hoped so, he wouldn't be able to bear the idea of knowing that he let countless lives die when he could've done something to save them...

Jacen stopped walking towards the door to the hall, his hand hovering in front of the door sensor. He turned to look at Kedefrodai and said, "If I didn't know any better I would've sworn that was a practiced sales pitch. Nonetheless, I have a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get, your in." He turned to go again and added. "You have 2 days to gather any supplies you may need, we disembark at high noon on the second day." He activated the sensor and left the room.

Two days later:

Jacen stood in the middle of the bridge. He turning to his senior commander he said, "Senior Commander Bradock, Whats the status on Mr. Kedefrodai?" "No ones seen him on the ship since he left two days ago, sir." Bradock replied. Jacen shook his head back and forth, looking at the floor. "I should have known. Graverobber." He said under his breath. He looked up to look outside the fore windows. "Mr. Grey, close the bay doors, take us into orbit." "Aye, aye, sir." Chief navigator, James Grey started working the console in front of him like a master of his trade, when all of a sudden he stopped. "Sir, It would seem someone just boarded the last bay entrance." Bradock moved over to Grey's console. "It's Mr. Kedefrodai, sir."

"Well, well. Commander, go and fetch him will you? Bring him to the bridge. Grey, resume your duties."

Kedefrodai heard Jacen say that he was allowed to go on the mission, his mind was put to ease. The first day he spent packing everything he needed...the little he had, trying to sneak into his old place was pretty hard seeing that he didn't want to be seen. His second day he spent scrambling around his apartment looking for the star maps...

"NO, they HAVE to be around here somewhere!" He frantically searched, unable to keep calm, which he would be able to do had he not died five days earlier. Just as he got to searching his bedroom, he noticed that it was almost time for the voyage. He swore in his original language, then he ran for the ship that he was supposed to be on. He ran into the last visible bay entrance, barely making it, and continued to run towards the bridge. If only I were more in-tuned with the force! He looked up to see a man in a uniform, by his outfit he could tell that he was some kind of commander, but not much else. The man introduced himself as commander Bradock, asking to escort him to the bridge. Kedefrodai knew exactly how to get to the bridge, and even if the layout were a little different, he could at least find his way. But not wanting to cause any problems, he walked with the commander. They got to the bridge, Jacen didn't look too happy, but Kedefrodai wasn't either. He ran up to Jacen, "I was looking and looking and looking...but I couldn't find my star maps! I can't give exact locations, but I can still be of great help to you! I just might be a little late sometimes..."

With that said it felt like forever waiting for a response, Jacen's face told Kedefrodai that he was not happy with his performance, but obviously he couldn't read Jacen's mind...maybe he would let this go? Or maybe he would have Kedefrodai shot out of the air lock...

Well of course Damek was turned away when he had gotten to the top of the turbolift. Non-military personnel aren't allowed up here, they said. So he had just gone back down to sneak around the engines. The hyperdrive was out of date, but on a military budget, thats to be expected. The engines themselves were pretty new and shiny, but the thing that caught the eye of Damek most was that the fusion reactor was down here too. Strange. It was small, very small, and yet powered the entire ship... something wasn't right with that. The Republic shouldn't have that kind of technical prowess yet. He dismissed it as paranoia. As long as the thing got them all to where they wanted to go.

Jacen, sensing some sort of distress or another turned to see Kedefrodai power walking like a galactic champion down the hallway toward him, followed by Commander Bradock. “Your a little late, we almost left without you....” He was cut off by Kedefrodai's desperate explanation.

After hearing his explanation for being horridly late Jacen felt his 5 o' clock shadow from yesterday that was turning into a short beard today. He hadn’t time for luxuries such as shaving the past two days. Commander Bradock kept him quite on his toes about orders and questions for the journey. Just about the last thing he needed right now was a huge drama here on the bridge about Kedefrodai's failure to acquire his star-maps.

He looked at him calmly and said, “Mr. Kedefrodai, worry not, a few days before I hadn’t expected to have a 'hint guide' for our mission and we don’t now either, we are at no loss. If anything we still have your memory which will do finely for now.” Turning back to his commander he ordered, “Commander Bradock, see to it Mr. Kedefrodai here gets a small dormitory near the bridge, he will be our aide for the extent of this mission.” “aye, aye sir. Kedefrodai, if you would come with me please we'll find you some quarters...” Bradock kept talking to him as he started walking back down the hallway, giving orders to underlings as he went.

Kedefrodai was relieved when he heard what Jacen said, he surely thought he would be more mad than he acted. He couldn't read minds just yet, but he could tell that Jacen was somewhat mad, at least he had the decency to not yell at him in front of all the men. He saw Bradock walk towards a hallway, so Kedefrodai followed him.

Kedefrodai had an idea where he wanted to stay, but he wasn't too sure if there would be a room available. "Commander...is there any way I could get a room near engineering? I would like to stay near there so I can work on building things." The commander turned around to look at him "ah so you are an engineer?" "Well technically I'm a Jedi, but I have had....plenty of engineering experience, I would like to build my own fighter and maybe a personal shuttle while I'm at it." "Hm...well let's take a look around and see what we can do, if there aren't any available I will remove someone from their quarters." "Oh that's not..." he was cut off by commander Bradock speaking to some of the clones, seeing if any of them knew what was available and what wasn't. "Aye sir, there is an empty room, we were going to use it as a storage room, but since you need the room more than we do, you can use it" said the clone to Bradock. "Good! Then let's move you in, do you have much to..." he stopped when he turned around to see what Kedefrodai was carrying. It wasn't much, he had his lightsaber, a few holodisks, and the clothes on his back. Kedefrodai, through most of his lives didn't like to carry much...or at least not that you can see, he has many pockets in his cloak that carries many different weapons. Commander Bradock couldn't see it, but he actually had a rifle, pistol, and a sonic emitter in his cloak.

Commander Bradock left without saying much else, he apparently had other important things to do. Kedefrodai walked into his quarters, they weren't too big, but he only needed a small space. He almost felt that the room was too big, he was used to being in a room similar to this, after all he did serve the Republic for about 20 years now. He didn't really care much, but the space could've been used for something better. When he was done putting his few things away, he sat on his bed and started to think to himself, he did this quite often, since he had MANY things to think about.

He went to engineering, looking around he found a clone who, from what was on his armor, looked like he was the head engineer; he had been friends with a clone like him in his last life. He asked the clone what his name was, he said it was Jolt, so Kedefrodai went on to ask him about where the tools were and so forth...

Damek watched from a dark corner that he had retreated into while a new person came right off the turbolift and strolled right up to a clone and began chatting happily. This man had a certain air Damek didn't like. At all. His demeanor spoke of secrets held for a long time, and would probably be held for longer. Damek strained to hear the words of the conversation, and just his luck, the guy was spouting jargon like a new school graduate. Damek knew what was coming, he had experienced it before. Very particularly, in a cantina on Abregado-rae. Some hot-shot smuggler that had just made a run and celebrating, "The Kessel run in 5 parsecs! So close to that one Aluminum Falcon!" He was of course, dead drunk at the time. Arrested within a minute. Unfortunately, so was everyone else in the room. Which is why Damek had to deal with this little snot telling him how great he was over everyone else because he did something amazing for a week while being processed.

Damek didn't think it would be that bad, however. Ah well, he would have to introduce himself to the guy. He had another feeling they would have to get real close real soon. Call it instinct, but things were going to go south and fast. Damek emerged from his nice corner and walked past the small station to one on the wall. This was his official station, monitoring power draw and heat emissions from the turbo-lasers. New ones too, not the old fashioned plasma launchers, but the high-tech tibanna enhanced laser bursts. Just a fancy way of saying it was hotter and burned through armor faster. It didn't really matter to Damek, except that tibanna was highly corrosive in its military-grade form. Just a bunch more work to trudge through to keep his behind off of the Coruscant watch list. It didn't matter, checking the display, really. A coolant leak on the starboard forward battery would take most of his time already. All brand new and shiny, it breaks as fast as the rest. He totally forgot about the stranger as he ran and threw his stuff into a supply closet and grabbed the hydrospanner from a wall locker. When would the blasted ship take off? Just having the option of getting off the thing was giving Damek lots of second thoughts.

As soon as those two were out of sight Jacen started making his way to the bridge from the long hall. He returned to see Chief navigator, James Grey, turned in Jacen's direction. "General, we have the green light, waiting on your command." Jacen gradually slowed his pace and eventually stopped into quite an epic, yet relaxed stance and said, "Take us out, Mr. Grey." "Aye, Aye, sir." The sudden lurch in the upward direction was unmistakable, yet not uncomfortable. He whipped his head around to the Chief of communications. "Lieutenant...I'm sorry I don't recall your name but please communicate to the other ships in the fleet to fall into position." "Yes sir, and my name is Shanteen Centura by the way, sir." "Very good, Lieutenant Centura." As she started talking into her headpiece Jacen walked over to the on-board holo-projection of the known galaxy. Jacen pointed out a point in space with his finger and a way-point miraculously appeared there. "Mr. Grey, plot a course for the borders of the unknown regions, here to be exact." He motion to the way-point. "Can you give me a time estimate at full hyper-speed?" "Pre course plotting? About 8 hours, sir." Mr. Grey replied. "Splendid, make it so, Lieutenant. I will be below decks, message me with any problems." Jacen commanded, and with that, he made for the closest repulsorlift.

Once inside, before pressing a level he pulled out his comm and messaged for Commander Bradock. "Commander, where did you place our guest, Mr. Kedefrodai?" Almost immediately bradock answered, "We actually found him a room on engineering, by request. His room number is...352E." Ah, thank you Commander, that will be all." Jacen playfully reached out with the force to activate the button for deck E. He knew he would have to cut down on such measures and act more cultured. At least in front of the subordinates, the whole mission could unravel if he didn't keep up a guise of seriousness. Whilst thinking about this another, bigger thought hit him. He was leading a fleet, by the stars! He started breathing heavily, obviously the shock had finally subsided. he assumed that finally taking off and getting into space somehow solidified the fact that he was actually leading the whole she-bang. All of a sudden a ding came from over-head and the twin doors opened to reveal a much less polished, gritty level of the Impervious.

He made his way, easily enough to 352E and pressed the panel, no answer. Mentally chastising himself for being such a fool as to waste time like this when he had the tools to do the job much quicker. He again reached out and tried to sense all the living things around him. He closed his eyes and started analyzing the different lifeforms and immediately found the blazing collection of force energy, Kedefrodai. Surprisingly not far away, he made his way oer to him to find him talking to a clone. "Keeping the man from his work are ye?" He looks from the Jedi to the face he had seen thousands of times before, but never this specific person and said, "I'm going to assume your off-duty right now." He says with a smile. He looks back at Kedefrodai. "How does the room suit you? I hope there are no problems."

Kedefrodai was speaking to the clone still, he decided a long time ago that he shouldn't reveal too much information to people who don't know him too well. If he said too much to this clone, he would see the fact that he was young and then start to question how he could know so much about technology. He knew so much about technology...he had died many times trying to fix problems with his many ships...he knew things that no other person knew, or could know, because he could come back to life...

Kedefrodai saw Jacen walk up, he sensed that he wanted to speak with him on a personal level, at this point in time he could sense people's motivations, but he wasn't too sure about the ACTUAL thoughts yet. Speaking of reading minds, he could sense that the Mon Calamarian was watching him, but he couldn't make out what the person was thinking. Whatever the case, he couldn't sense any hostility in the man, but he needed to keep either keep his distance or confront him, neither idea was great but those were his only choices...

Jacen asked Kedefrodai about his room, Kedefrodai had to think about that for a minute, it wasn't the smallest room he had, but luxury wasn't quite the word he would use. "It works, I don't need anything more than what I have. All the things I need I have on me already, so all I need is a bed. If you could, I would like to speak to you about something in private."

Kedefrodai and Jacen started to walk away, then Kedefrodai asked him "as I have said before, I remember everything in my past, but all my experiences are gone, if I am to be an asset to your team, I will need a teacher, I request that you teach me in the ways of the force and in lightsaber combat. I am a fast learner, so it shouldn't take too long, I have been known to master things in a few weeks that others would take years to even begin to master. If you could help me to be a Jedi Knight I can take it from there."

"WORSE DECISION OF MY LIFE." Malara decided as she snuck her bags out the back door of the small apartment building next to the kiosk where she had been working. The skimpy dress she had been given to work in she had made the decision to keep. In her experience, though very demeaning, such things could come in handy at future events. Such as those when dealing with the Hutts.
"MAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA!!" She heard coming from downstairs, and using her knowledge of the Force, she ran down the staircases, two-at-a-time, and jumped into the small air taxi that was waiting for her outside.
"Koona t'chuta?" Said the Trandoshan driver with a chuckle. ("Going somewhere?")
"Tagwa. Bu poolyee yama. Ting cooing koo soo ah." He nodded, and the ship took off towards the spaceport. ("Yes. The system's consultant. I have the credits.")

A few days later...

Growling, she kicked the side of the building, stubbing her toe. Grunting at the pain, she cursed her misfortune. She was right, yet again, in deciding to keep the dress. When she arrived at the system's consultant's office, he told her that all flights off-world were booked up for a week; and she had to pay off a captain of a ship that wasn't leaving for another two days just to guarantee passage. Along with having to give him a lap dance that night at the bar where she currently worked. She was a waitress, working for the local Hutt boss. Apparently, this one was a little odd in preferring Zabraks over Twi'leks, Humans, and Zeltrons, so she only served him when he was there, which was basically all the time.
She had just gotten off-shift, when a young man came up to her.
"Are you Malara Valm?" She gave him a sideways glance as she pulled a coat over her shoulders.
"Depends. Whose asking?" He saluted her quickly.
"Lieutenant Commander Jacen Todd of the Titonic, ma'am." She nodded, the Titonic was the flight she was bound for.
"Then I am she."
"The schedule has cleared up and some of the passenger's canceled last minute, so you have been promoted to one of our Luxury Suites. We're taking off immediately." She nodded again.
"Thank you, Commander. Lead the way."

Four days later...

"What a wonderful smell you've discovered, Malara." She thought to herself as she stepped off the ship and onto a new planet... Ankus.

Gunners think they can just start toying with settings, blowing safety codes out the window and snapping common sense in half. grumbled Damek to himself, as he walked slowly and covered in grease and sealant back to whatever room he had thrown his bag in. Yes, they were right, however. Increasing the coolant pressure overall would increase its heat sink properties, allowing more shots to be fired. But when you took it past the obviously labelled max pressure, something would break. Then the coolant would go everywhere and the stuff was nasty. It was only slightly toxic, however, so he got in and sprayed sealant all over the place to stop the leak, then commanded the clones who were supposedly gunners to clean up the mess. And to his surprise, they did. He had no military ranking however, so maybe they were feeling guilty. Or scared, as he had been very angry with them.

Upon returning to the Engineering deck, he rounded the corner to the hallway where the room was to stare at the back of a tall, commanding figure. At first, anyway. Then he noticed the lightsaber hanging casually from the belt tucked under the brown, flowing robes. He watched in wonder as the Jedi walked towards the main control center for Engineering. What the hell could he want down here? Damek decided it didn't much matter. He went over to the room where he had thrown his stuff and noted the door had closed. Strange. He opened it with a quick code hack of the keypad and retrieved his bag. Then he noticed the already placed personal affects around. Already taken. He slumped out of the room and walked further down the hall, to find another. The new one was smaller, without a light, but it did have a bed and a very dark alcove directly above it. All you had to do was reach up. He stashed his more secretive items there and left the bag on the bed, then headed to follow after the Jedi.

Entering the what-you-could-call-a-command-center, he looked in more wonder as the Jedi chatted up that strange man he had seen earlier like he was a friend. Then they walked off, leaving the clone Engineer just standing there. Detective work wasn't his thing, but Damek was very curious. He followed behind the two "friends," sticking to the shadows and trying to catch their conversation. Not much luck on that end but bits and pieces. Something about the past, then a needing a teacher, and something else of training, then me a Jedi Knight. So they were both Jedi. That explained a little. Damek continued to follow them, wondering what else he could hear. This was starting to get far more interesting, as the brown robes of the tall one shifted to reveal a commander's patch on some heavy armor. He certainly didn't seem like a commander, skulking around engineering with one of his subordinates.

Kedefrodai could tell that Jacen was thinking pretty hard about his question. Perhaps he didn't feel that he was worthy of having an apprentice? Or perhaps he feared that if Kedefrodai was correct about everything he had said that he would learn too quickly and then maybe even fall to the dark side. This had happened to Kedefrodai too man times to count.

The first time....well the first time was in his first life...he had been a Jedi, and a great one at that. He fought in the "Alien War" as his people came to call it. He had not been raised by his parents, they were important figures and therefore had more important things to worry about. Kedefrodai was pretty much raised by himself, although he did have many mentors and guardians, he felt that he learned the most from watching and listening to his father speak. His father, Kedefron, knew exactly what to say and how to say it, he knew how to sell something to you so well, that you could not refuse it! Kedefrodai learned a great lesson from his father without even him even realizing it, the lesson of persuasion. If you can't get someone to agree with you, then you must persuade them to do so.

Anyways, Kedefrodai knew that Jacen wasn't really thinking that this man who asked him to be his apprentice would turn to the dark side, that would require more knowledge than Jacen had of him. If only Jacen knew how much of a struggle it was for him to control his emotions. When he was younger, Kedefrodai never learned to control his emotions, he simply learned how to cover them up. This was the greatest mistake of his life and even his parents' greatest mistake...letting Kedefrodai's emotions stay out of control. His parents were never around to discipline him, and no one else would dare try, so Kedefrodai was alone in controlling his emotions. This is why he fell to the dark side, he fell because he could not keep control, and in the end, it cost him his academy, his life, and the life of his apprentice...

Only within the past couple thousand years has he learned to control his emotions. The dark side is still hard for him to resist, but at least he now can control how he feels...most of the time. Kedefrodai had to laugh a little, his new found friend Jacen was only in his mid twenties he had guessed, but he would only live so long, and then he would die. Kedefrodai had no idea what the word meant, dying to him was the end of one life and the beginning of another, whereas to most other beings it was the end of their physical life and the beginning of their spiritual one, depending on what they believed. Kedefrodai didn't know what that felt like, and he was jealous, he was VERY jealous that other people could find a peace in dying that Kedefrodai would never know, a peace that they would die and that their suffering would end, whereas Kedefrodai's...would not...

Still he waited for an answer, it would take a few moments...Kedefrodai waited, until finally Jacen's mouth began to open...