revivalproject | Jedi Lost

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Jedi Lost

WHO: Obi-Wan Kenobi and YOU
WHERE: Throughout Tembra
WHAT: A new arrival!
WHEN: Beginning of December
WARNINGS: None - Will update if needed.

It was a strange experience.

Obi-Wan Kenobi had recently moved into the little hut that he found abandoned near the Dune Sea on Tatooine. His Eopie had been munching on feed nearby while he fiddled with the broken down vaporator, trying to get it running again so that he would have a source of water. The twin suns beating down on him as he worked. It was miserable work, but it was necessary. The hood of his cloak pulled over his head to protect him from the suns and the blowing sand.

He had just put in a new part and was hooking it up when things suddenly changed. He found himself waking up in a strange place, surrounded by old crumbling buildings covered in overgrowth. A far cry for the beak desert planet he had just been on. In alarm he tried to get his bearings, confusion overwhelming and threatening panic which is managed to quell by releasing his feelings into the Force. It was then that he caught sight of a glowing orb, finding himself drawn to it.

After getting the mental download, things were clearer, but he was no more happy for it. He shouldn't be here. This wasn't his place. His destiny and purpose was to be on that force forsaken planet, looking after a young boy who was no more than a baby. Not in this strange place called Agra 10. He had to get back, yet he didn't know the first clue on how to do so. If he could just find out where he was exactly, find a ship, something, he could get back to Luke.

Not trusting the device that he found himself with, he tucked it away in his robe and began exploring the dilapidated city. His hood still pulled over his head as he snuck about and rummaged around. His senses on the alert for anything that might be perceived as a threat. Any sudden movement likely resulting in him whirling around and taking the defensive with lightsaber in hand or a force push for anything that got too close. He was on edge, suspicious of everything, expecting to be attacked.

In his explorations he eventually comes upon the hangar, hope filling him as he sees the grounded ships. Finally, something that looked promising! The Jedi making a dash for them, and finding that he could only access one which happened to open up for him when he came near. It was the Twin Roses. With the utmost caution he carefully stepped onto the ship, hoping not to run into anyone, and making his way to the cockpit.

((OOC: Feel free to run into him just about anywhere in the city! If you want to continue off a TDM thread I'm cool with that too!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For the first time in a long while, Cal's managed to feel comfortable being around anyone. But he can't forget how hard it had been at the beginning, right after everything had happened, being alone and uncertain of who could be trusted any more, and when no one trusted the Jedi in turn. It's easier to see the true damage done in retrospect, but it hurts no less.

Nodding as Obi-Wan brings them back to the main reason they'd sought out Echo, Cal turns his attention to the ARC Trooper again.

"It's about what Jon and I were trying to help figure out back on the Agrii ship," he says before glancing back at the other Jedi. "Ben knows what we're looking for." He hesitates to say anything more, feeling it best Obi-Wan explain further as he will.

There was a moment of hesitation, but Ben nodded as well. This wouldn’t be an easy discussion, and would likely lead to certain questions. Once that he needed to brace himself for.

“Yes. While I don’t know what Cal has told you, it’s clear you know about what happens to the Jedi and how your brothers were involved.”

There’s a grim expression on his face, his tone somber. It wasn’t an easy thing to talk about, and he doubted it ever would be. Cal was further removed from the incident and clearly just as scarred as he was.

“I’m afraid it was planned from the very beginning.”

"In the medbay," Echo recalls as Cal brings it up, gesturing some. "Yeah, I remember. It started with a few questions..." The slight falter in his words is barely noticeable when the Scrapper adds onto it, blinking behind the visor of his helmet. "He does?" He then looks to Ben. "You do?"

He does confirm that he knows what happened with a solemn nod, falling silent so that the older Jedi can continue. Any trace of expression remains hidden, but the tension and anticipation is seen in the way he shifts, in the way a similar numbness spreads through his body with that one sentence.

Hands and arms slowly go limp at his sides, and he now stares past the others – an external show of how he's not sure how to feel about the conclusion.

"What?" Echo fights the dryness in his throat, roughening the edges of his weakened tone. "But...how can that be?"

It had been difficult to swallow the first time he'd been told about it, and hearing it again now makes it no easier. Even telling Echo things as he had known them to be had not been pleasant, but the added fact that Obi-Wan was able to provide just made it that much more horrible.

Cal's eyes shift elsewhere, but he doesn't need to see to sense the ARC Trooper's confusion and uncertainty, and how much he'd rather disbelieve it. Maybe all of them would have reacted the same, had they the chance, had they known. But then if they had, none of them would have had to go through what they did, or what they would.

Obi-Wan swallowed and turned his gaze down, more than sensing the uneasiness coming from the other two. It was still hard for him to grasp, even though he knew the facts and had put the pieces together. The whole idea was an incredibly overwhelming one, as well as the fact that they had all been so blind to it until it was too late.

"I believe it's what you and your brothers were bred for. We were all deceived. By a Sith Lord who was none other than Chancellor, now Emperor, Palpatine. It's my conclusion that he orchestrated everything, including the war itself."

How did he do it? To think that one person can be behind the grand scheme of everything is impossible.

The question lingers in the back of Echo's mind, letting his head drop a few degrees while he refocused, pulling this information in with the rest of what he already knew. "...Then the war was pointless. We really served no other purpose." A harsh reality, but one that couldn't be avoided. But he doesn't want to feel helpless, looking up when the other two look elsewhere.

"We've fought alongside you, Ben." The name still feels foreign on his tongue, but he tries, concentrating on the part about him and his brothers and why it all came down to massacre. "As far as I know, we clones wouldn't have turned so easily on the Jedi. It's not like us to do that unless..." Unless something happened during the cloning process? He works through the pause, letting things click into place. "Jon said there may have been something behind the compulsion and we," he indicates Cal with a slight tilt of his head, since he was also present at the time, "tried looking into it. But we couldn't find anything."

The last bit of information Obi-Wan provides is new to Cal, although he supposes it probably should have all clicked into place, after knowing who had taken over as Galactic Emperor. It still does not lessen the sensation of having the floor dropped out from beneath him. The earlier queasy feeling makes its return, and Cal closes his eyes, listening as Echo processes what he's been told.

Pointless. All the fighting, all the deaths. No, there had been a very definite point, and one at the cost of so many lives. So that's how a Sith mind works. It's frightening.

He nods, trying not to get too caught up in such thoughts as he focuses back on what Echo says. "We tried making use of the medical scanning equipment aboard the Agrii ship. None of us were very sure about how to operate it, but BeeDee saved all the results so we could try to go through them again, see if we missed something."

Ben sighed softly as both Echo and Cal made their conclusions. Knowing full well this was difficult to hear, as it had been for him when it all came to realization. Stepping towards Echo, the Jedi reached out, aiming to place his hands on the clone’s shoulders if he let him.

“No, you wouldn’t have. You and your brothers were not only soldiers, you were friends. Even if there had been dissent, we would have sensed it. This was no fault of yours, or any of them.”

That last part was said firmly, with conviction. Letting Echo know that he didn’t blame him for what happened. They had been pawns in a terrible game.

“There were few I trusted more than Cody. One moment he was handing me back my lightsaber, and the next he had me blown off a cliff. It was not him that tried to kill me. Not really.”

As Cal then spoke, Ben turned to look at him and nodded solemnly.

“It doesn’t surprise me that you were unable to detect it. The culprit is an organic inhibitor chip. Implanted early in the growth stages of each clone. Thus it wouldn’t have appeared as foreign on any routine scans. We didn’t know it was there until a certain incident.”

Edited (Typo) 2020-12-23 00:07 (UTC)

Of course Echo lets Obi-Wan do this, not moving an inch from where he's standing as the man closes the distance to do so. Feeling the combined weight of the former General's hands upon his shoulders and the words he speaks tells him this is all true, that he can believe what he says and means and still maintain the same amount of respect for Ben even if he put his recent past behind him.

It still hurts, however, learning that Commander Cody of all people had switched loyalties on a credit. There's no changing that, but reaching an understanding that it wasn't fully his fault helps dull the pain a little.

The clone takes a breath, exhaling slowly as Cal says his part, only to lift his head when Ben tells them what caused the clones to turn. "An organic inhibitor chip?" Incredulity and realization meet and mingle in his tone and repetition of the factor they've missed. "The Kaminoans did a good job..." With how he says that, the two Jedi know it's not a compliment.

Hesitation has been a theme and it hasn't been skipped in its use, prompting Echo to then ask, "When did you find out?"

There's some relief in seeing Obi-Wan physically bridge that distance between himself and Echo. It's probably easier to do so with a soldier that hadn't been exclusively working with them in the same battalion. Cal isn't quite sure how he'd react if anyone from the 13th appeared. A chip of some sort somehow affecting them enough to switch so easily when not minutes before they'd joked and teased. It had been hard to believe just how casually the commander had lifted his blaster at his master as Tapal sensed a disturbance, and if the Lasat had hesitated for even a second to strike when he did, Cal's sure he wouldn't still be alive, so caught off guard, so confused as he'd been.

An organic chip certainly explains things. Cal's expression darkens at the thought. He shakes head, frowning. True enough there'd been a lot of controversy about the creation of a clone army to begin with. But it's hard to trace where all this Sith plotting might have first began, much things already being put into motion before he became a padawan. His thoughts only circle back to the madness of a war being started for the purpose of... of what? Power, it seems. Altair had not wanted to share the Sith creed with him, but Cal's sure that power plays a large part in it.

He looks towards Obi-Wan again when Echo speaks up again.

Power was exactly it. Obi-Wan would never trust a Sith Lord due to his own experiences with them. Not even one that supposedly seemed similar to a Jedi. They were all motivated by their own self interests. Palpatine had even appeared as a good man, but deep down he had been a monster. The Sith were evil and the galaxy would only suffer under their rule.

Echo’s question caused the Jedi Master to hesitate, though he knew such a question would come.

“What I’m going to tell you was kept confidential by the Jedi High Council. Though that hardly matters at this point.” There was no Jedi Order left. Everything had played out so there was no reason to keep secrets any longer.

“It happened... after anything you would have known, Echo.” Ben was going to dance around certain facts about this trooper’s future for the time being. It wasn’t relevant to the current conversation. “During a campaign involving the 501st, a single trooper suddenly attacked and murdered General Tiplar. The chips were revealed during our investigation, with the Kaminoans revealing that they were there to suppress the aggressive tendencies of your donor. The explanation we were given was that a malfunction with the chip occurred, probably due to a virus. Yet not without another trooper from the 501st also seemingly being affected. We accepted this explanation, deeming the incident a fluke.”

Ben shook his head sadly. For if they had actually discovered the truth, then the purge could have been stopped.

Echo waits, saying nothing as the older Jedi decides how to go about replying to his question. Thinking that he wouldn't get an answer, he was ready to accept it and let it go to rest; Obi-Wan's eventual reply stirs his attention once more, however, barely nodding when he mentions that the confidentiality of the matter doesn't matter anymore.

Whatever happens involves the 501st – the battalion under General Skywalker's command. His battalion. They had a reputation, yes, but they never had anything to that extreme occur. Hearing Obi-Wan say one of his brothers killed a Jedi General is shocking, but now knowing that two of them, any two out of all of them, 'malfunctioned' gives way to another bout of mixed emotions masked by his armor.

Between two jedi, he's very easy to read. Especially now since he hasn't said anything in regards to what he's just heard.

That certainly is a dropped bomb. Cal continues to stare at Obi-Wan as the Jedi responds. "...what?"

The Council knew. Even with the explanation given by the Kaminoans, the fact that they'd been made aware of anything possibly suspect and left it at that just doesn't seem right to him.

Echo's bout of emotions isn't hard to pick up, but even Cal's having trouble trying to take it all in. It's like getting sucker-punched, and he can't imagine what sort of thoughts must be going through the poor Trooper's head. The answers only bring up more questions, and he has a feeling no amount of answers will ever be enough to justify anything, and nothing can undo what's already been done.

He pulls his eyes away from the older Jedi, turning his attention and an apologetic look to Echo before he lowers his head with a frustrated sigh as he scrubs a hand through his hair. "...I knew this wasn't going to be a great conversation but..."

Echo was indeed an open book to Ben, and there is a solemn, grim silence from the Jedi for several moments. It had been a terrible burden for him to bear all this time. Aside from Yoda and Bail, they were the first ones that he had shared any of these thoughts with. He knew it would be hard to swallow. Ben still had difficulty coming to terms with it.

“I’m sorry,” he then says quietly. “Though now, looking back on the events, I believe the latter trooper may have been trying to warn us. I’m ashamed to say that we didn’t listen, and he paid for his efforts with his life.”

It was a grave mistake. One that had cost so many lives and it agonized him. However, it was not the Jedi way to grieve the past because indeed what was done was done. There was no changing it now, no matter how much one may wish it. Though if either of them wanted to place blame on the council, even on him, it would not be without merit.

It's a lot take in. Yet when has it ever been any less?

"...No, I..." Echo draws in a breath, loosely folding one arm over the other as he shakes his head. "I should've expected as much when we started getting into it."

Questions. Too many questions are forming, and now feels like a bad time to ask for specifics. He tries to get himself back and away from it, returning to what he's used to doing and actively adjusting it so that they can come out of this conversation mostly unscathed.

"Now that we all know this, we need to deal with the chip. If it's going to exist and potentially create a problem for us, I'm all for getting rid of it."

Cal doesn't so much grieve the past as he's still haunted by it. This new knowledge puts a different perspective on things, but he has to wonder if anything could have been changed.

He sighs again, turning away from the two for a moment, taking a few steps in a pensive circle, BD-1 hunched over his shoulder, hooting lowly. It's upsetting, everything he's heard, but there's nothing to be done for the past, and there's no point in getting mad at anyone when they were all victims. They'd all been fooled. There's a brief, bitter thought as Cal remembers the time he'd spent, waiting on Bracca early on, waiting for word from the Council, an unstoppable and superior force in the mind of a padawan. But nothing came, and he had no one to rely on but himself.

"...easier said than done," he says as he rejoins the two again. "Not that it's not a relief to hear you agree. But we'd need the right equipment and someone with that sort of skill and knowledge. It's risky..."

Cal isn’t alone in that regard. Ben doubted that he will ever not be haunted by the past, especially since he put so much blame on himself, even if the others didn’t. Something might have been done if they had realized or acted sooner, but there was the same possibility that it could have only hastened the inevitable. By then the pieces had already been put into position. It arguably would have been too late, just as it had been when they did figure things out.

He too had once viewed the council, the order as a whole, as an unstoppable force that would always be there. However, that illusion had been shattered as he had grown up and became a part of the council. Though never would he have imagined any of this.

With Echo agreeing, Ben is relieved, but the Padawan’s words also deserve attention. “Cal is right. It will be risky and great care would have to be taken. It’s my hope that I can speak with the one who is running the hospital. Perhaps together we can figure something out.”

Edited (Typos) 2020-12-24 00:13 (UTC)

The clone looks to Cal when he rejoins them, his brow creasing behind the blank stare of his helmet. The feeling is pretty mutual, and he doesn't blame him for needing a moment. "Risk is a concept I'm familiar with," he says in turn, glancing back toward Ben, "but I understand. It would be good to plan it out and look into the resources we have on hand, hospital included."

If not right away, they'll at least have a plan in the near future. Being more vigilant of his own actions is also something to keep in mind, but he'll have to figure out how to go about that on his own.

"I think the facilities aboard the Agrii ship are better equipped for anything than the hospital here is. It's definitely a work in progress."

Cal won't mention that the last time he'd been in the hospital was to visit the Sith lord who had taken up the datapoint and acted as one of the few medics the city had. Perhaps it was better Altair had since disappeared.

"We'd have to get in contact with them, of course but I think it's at least an option if they haven't left orbit. If the ships are functioning we can maybe shuttle back and forth. But I do agree with Ben- if there's anyone that might know how to go about, well...that sort of process, that's probably the best place to start. All the equipment would be useless without the know-how."

“The Agrii ship? You mean it’s accessible?”

He had no idea that the strange beings he had come to learn about were actually in orbit, and with a ship that potentially resources. The Jedi Master nodded thoughtfully as Cal elaborated, folding his arms as he looked between the two of them.

“It’s settled then. I can inquire about the surgery if the two of you can see about transport to the Agrii ship and potentially using their facilities.”

"When I first arrived, everyone was aboard the ship. I can only assume it is," Echo recalls. "And at the time, we weren't anywhere near Agra 10 until we decided to head back."

He didn't get to see the entire ship, but he walked through a good portion of it. If ever they do go back to it, he may not have time to tour the rest. That, however, is not high on the short list of priorities right now.

But he agrees with the jedi, nodding when Ben splits the responsibilities between them. "Wouldn't hurt to try asking," he says to Cal with a tilt of his head.

"It should be. I don't think the Agrii were going to head off anywhere as far as they had before, for whatever reasons there had been. They still won't land on the planet because of the storm potential, but I think we should still be able to go for a visit. Our ships were damaged during the last storm so they all needed or still need a tune-up."

But that part wasn't impossible, and with Obi-Wan giving them assignments, Cal nods at Echo and the other Jedi. "It'll be some work with the Agrii given their communication skills, but not impossible."

Ben nods quietly in understanding as he listens to the both of them. It was certainly still a risk, but things looked hopeful at the very least. There was a chance, and that’s all they needed.

“It sounds like we have a plan, then. I will be in touch with the both of you when I have something to report.”

This is where Echo would normally reply with a quick 'sir,' shoulders back and spine straight with the dismissal before returning to his previous activities. Instead, he nods after another pause, still wildly out of his element but doing enough to physically keep himself from feeling awkward as his emotions settle into a tolerable level of ease.

"Sounds good," he says once they've all agreed on what they're doing. "It's all worth a shot. Hopefully something comes out of it."

There's a familiarity to it all, another mission with a Jedi and a clone trooper. It is a strange but vital mission, and Cal wants to see it through. With Obi-Wan wrapping things up, he nods at the both of them.

"Come on, you have to be at least a little optimistic," he says with a slight smile at Echo. They have a chance here. It's more than anything they might have had, and Cal knows there's some people here with special skills too. Already going over what his next steps will be, the padawan looks between Obi-Wan and the trooper again before his eyes settle on the former.

"So is there anything else that we need to touch on, any questions in general?" he asks.

Jedi Lost

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