“Come here, Girl!” Lietto the Hutt demanded, calling out to a young slave girl, no older than 14. The skinny Pantoran complied, silently walking towards her master with her head lowered in shame, coming to a halt at the base of the platform on which the Hutt lie. The Hutt reached out, his hand guiding his slave’s head up to meet his eyes.
“Ah, Chloe… So young; so naive. Don’t you know what happens when a slave doesn’t do what was asked about them around here?” The Hutt asked rhetorically.
A look of fear washed over her face as she realized what was about to happen. Just then, a painful jolt of electricity from the collar around her neck coursed through her, causing her to fall down onto her hands and knees. The Hutt nodded to two guards, who walked over to Chloe and grabbed her, one on each arm, and led her off.
After fading in and out of consciousness for an hour, Chloe found herself in a small room, chained to the wall by her leg in a small room, lit only by a slit of natural light let in through a window. She winced in agony from the large, bloody gashes striped across her back from while the guards had whipped her while she was unconscious. During that time, the guards had stripped her down completely before chaining her up, and had placed a small outfit made entirely of metal and red silk fabric on a small table across the room. She was just barely able to reach the brass bikini when she stretched out her arm. She put the outfit on, only to realize that it was incredibly revealing, and it wasn’t very comfortable either, but she decided it was better than nothing. That night, Chloe waited in her cell, a thin wire hairpiece hidden in the palm of her hand. As the lone guard entered and released her chains to take her back to the slave quarters, Chloe jabbed the hairpin into his throat. The pin slipped from her blood covered hands and she bolted towards the end of the hall. She knew she would only have until morning before a search party would be sent out for her. The Pantoran made her exit through a narrow window at the end of the hall.
Finally outside, Chloe ran straight in no direction in particular all night, giving herself a quick pause to regain her breath. As the sun rose, She could make out the outskirts of a city on the horizon. Two hours later, drowsy and hungry, she reached the city. She decided to head towards the cantina, hoping that someone there would buy her a meal and maybe even agree to help her off of Tatooine. As she rounded a corner, she found herself on the ground with a young Pantoran man standing over her.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there!” The man apologized.
“That’s alright,” she responded automatically.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” He asked, trying to make up for knocking her over.
“Anything?” Chloe asked, realizing the boy might be her ticket off of Tatooine.
“Within reason, I suppose, yeah.” He answered.
“Can you help get me off this planet?” Chloe asked.
“Sure! I was just headed back to my homeworld anyways.” He said, taking her by the hand and leading her to his ship. After they left the atmosphere, the man said “I’m Kadrol, by the way. What’s your name?”
“I’m Chloe. Chloe Garn.” She answered.
“Well then, Chloe, I tell you what. I’m headed to my parent’s place back on Pantora. I’ll bring you there and you can stay with us until you get back on your feet. They’re always looking for company anyways. We’ll also keep you safe from whoever’s coming after you. What do you say?”
“Ok, but how did you…”
“Well, for starters, you’re wearing a slave uniform. And secondly, people don’t typically agree to board a ship with a stranger.” Kadrol interjected.
“Do you…”
Interrupting once more, Kadrol answered “Have any clothes for you to change into? Yep. They might be a bit too big on you, but they’re clean and they just have to be better than what you’ve got on.”
“How are you guessing what I’m about to say?” Chloe asked, bewildered.
“Chloe…” He said quietly, “I’m a Jedi.”
Speechless, Chloe exited the cockpit to put on the clothes Kadrol had told her about. Finding the, exactly where he told her they would be, Chloe started removing the clothes she had on, starting with her sandals and working her wayup. Just as she removed the brass plate which was covering her small, pointed breasts, Kadrol rounded the corner to check the ship’s systems, only to find that his passenger was in the hall wearing nothing.
“Woah,” The man said, surprised and embarrassed, quickly turning away to give the girl some privacy. “I thought you were in the restroom!”
Chloe, who was used to changing out in the open as she had to do as a slave, was unfazed by his presence. “What’s wrong?” She asked, and sensing his unease, walked towards Kadrol, wrapping her arms around him in a hug; pulling his body into her own. Feeling an unexplainable warmth rushed through the Jedi’s body, Kadrol turned around to face Chloe, and reciprocated the hug. The embarrassment he had of walking in to see her naked had faded, and he was greatly comforted by her warm embrace.
After a few minutes in a prolonged embrace, Kadrol broke the silence. “So…. did you want to finish getting dressed?” He asked.
Chloe looked up at the taller man and shrugged, her arms still wrapped around him. “Yeah, sure.” She responded. With that, Kadrol went to the control panel he had planned to check in on as Chloe put on the spare clothes Kadrol had given her to wear. After he finished checking the coordinates to jump into hyperspace, he pointed to a couch, saying to Chloe, “Go lie down on your stomach over there and I’ll see what I can do to fix up your back.” Chloe nodded and did what Kadrol asked over her: not because she entirely trusted him, but because sand had gotten into the wounds, stinging her even more than before.
“I’m going to pour a bit of water on your back to get the sand out of your wounds. It might sting a bit at first, but only for a minute, ok?” Kadrol explained, pulling a flask of water off his belt.
“Ok.”
Kadrol grabbed a strip of clean cloth from a med kit and put it over the flask to conserve the water. As he tipped over the flask, about six inches above Chloe’s back, water started to trickle through the cloth. Chloe clenched her teeth and winced in pain as the the water fell into her wounds and down her back, washing the sand out with it. After he had gotten the sand out, Kadrol put the lid back onto the flask, putting the cloth down on a side table. After attaching the flask back onto his belt, Kadrol reached out with both his hands, placing them just above Chloe’s back. The Jedi closed his eyes and concentrated. Almost instantly, the gashes started to close, and her skin began to reform. As this happened, Chloe felt her pain beginning to fade. She was terrified, yet grateful. After several minutes, most of the wounds had completely healed without a trace that they were ever there, but a few remained. Kadrol felt his energy draining, all his power going into the young girl, healing her until a single mark remained, crossing from her right shoulder to the middle of the left side of her ribs. It was mostly healed, less than a few millimeters wide, and would probably heal completely in under a week. He walked over to the medkit he had left open on the sidetable, pulling out a bandage roll.
“We’re almost done,” Kadrol informed, “just stand up with your back towards me and your arms out so I can put this bandage on. It’s mostly healed, but healing you really sapped me.”
Chloe stood up and did exactly what Kadrol had told her, and Kadrol started wrapping the bandage around her, going over her right shoulder and between her breasts before wrapping around her waist a few times.
After he finished, Chloe turned around and lifted her head to meet Kadrol’s eyes. “Why are you doing this for me anyways? I’m just a runaway slave. I’m endangering you just by being here.” She said, a single tear started to form. Kadrol wiped it away with his thumb. “I… I felt something inside me when I ran into you that I can’t explain. It’s something I’ve never felt before. But what I do know is that it made me want to help you. That feeling is still lingering inside me.”
“Wow,” Chloe said quietly, stepping in to give the boy a hug, “Nobody’s ever told me they had feelings for me before.” Kadrol began to feel flustered as her bare chest pressed up against him.
“Chloe…”
“Yeah?”
“Can you put that shirt on? It isn’t that I don’t enjoy your hugs: I do. It’s unsettling to see…”
Chloe cut him off. “Ok.” She leaned up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. For everything.” She whispered in his ear before releasing him from her embrace. She walked over to the shirt and slipped it on. Kadrol let out a sigh of relief. It still revealed quite a bit, but it was better than her other outfit, and certainly better than nothing. “I think we’re approaching our destination soon. Feel free to join me in the cockpit if you’d like.” Kadrol stated as he turned to go take his place at the helm.

Seating himself in the pilot’s seat, Kadrol reread the timer and other instruments. Five minutes. He thought to himself. Hearing the door to the cockpit open, Kadrol looked over his shoulder and motioned to the seat on his right. “Why don’t take a seat. We’ll be dropping out of hyperspace in just under five minutes now.” Kadrol said calmly. He felt more comfortable around her just knowing she had a shirt on. Chloe nodded politely, putting her hand on the top of the swiveling chair before daintily taking a seat next to Kadrol. “So, do you want to learn a bit about how to fly in the next few minutes?” Kadrol asked, trying to avoid silence.

“Sure,” Chloe replied, “what does this button do?”
“that one puts us into landing mode.” Kadrol answered.
“I see. And this one?” Chloe asked, curiosity lighting up her golden eyes.
“That one fires the laser cannons.”
“Oh. What about that?”
“That one turns on the headlights.” Kadrol responded. Only a single minute remained until they reached Pantora. As they timer reached zero, the Jedi pulled the switch above his head, dropping the ship out of hyperspace to reveal a beautiful white orb.
“Woah.” Chloe gasped in awe of the celestial snowball.
“Welcome to Pantora, Chloe.” Kadrol said, greeting her to his home planet.

He pressed a small red button on his right. “This is snowflake-seven requesting permission to land.” A crackling voice soon came over the com. “Snowflake-seven, you are cleared to land on platform zero-two.”

“Cleared to land platform zero-two, got it. Thank you.” Kadrol confirmed with the ground. He brought the shuttle to the platform located on the outskirts of the capital city. After a successful landing, Kadrol shut off the ship’s engines and opened the door. “Ok, we’re here.” He said, standing up out of his seat. The two walked down the ramp onto the landing platform, where Kadrol’s mother was waiting. He walked up to his mother and hugged her.
“Welcome home.” She said.
“I’m glad to be home.” Kadrol responded. It had been nearly a month since he had last seen her. After their hug, his mother noticed Chloe shyly standing behind him.
“Who’s the girl?” She asked teasing him.
“Mom!” Kadrol snapped out of embarrassment. “This is Chloe. I’ll tell you more back at home, but all you need to know right now is that she didn’t have a place to stay, and I told her she could stay with us until she got back on her feet.” He explained.
“Kadrol, you know I don’t like it when you make promises like that without consulting me about it,” She said admonishing him, “however, we do have extra rooms and I’m always happy to have company.”
“You’ll understand when we get back. It’s not safe to tell you out here in the public.” He assured her.
“Ok,” she said, “Chloe, come along now.” The trio proceeded to walk to a hovercraft driven by the Hauen’s butler, Bengar, where they were taken to the family’s large home.
“Bengar, would you please show this young lady to our guest room?” She asked politely. The butler gave a slight nod and waved Chloe to follow him inside.
“So, what did you want to tell me about our guest that had to wait until now?” Kadrol’s mother prodded.
“Oh yeah. Well, I picked her up on my trip to Tatooine, and Chloe was a slave there. She had runaway and I quite literally ran into her on the street. When I saw her, and the situation she was in, I felt a something I’ve never felt before. A sort of warmth. I also felt the Force bringing us together. But there was more to it than that.” Kadrol explained.
His mother paused for a moment to take it all in. Suddenly, she playfully pushed his shoulder. “Oh my Force! You **do** have a crush on her!” She exclaimed.
“What? No I don’t!” Kadrol retorted, partially because he had never felt this way about anyone before, and partially in denial.
“Whatever you say. I know your heart is in the right place and your motives for bringing her here are purely selfless, but you have feelings for her, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many would even say it is a good thing,” She explained, “I’m happy for you, Kadrol.”
“Thank you, mother. By the way, you should probably take her shopping today. She only has one pair of clothes that aren’t the ones she has on, and I don’t really want her putting on that other pair. Especially not in public.” Kadrol suggested.
“I’ll take care of that. You should go say hello to your father, brother, and sister.” She said.
Together, they walked inside before splitting up: Kadrol to the living room, and his mother to the guest room to check in with Chloe. Upon reaching the room, Mrs. Hauen saw Chloe sitting on the bed crying. “What’s wrong dear?” She asked sweetly, taking a seat next to her on the bed.
“Nothing, Mrs…”
“Please, call me Anya.”
“Ok,” Chloe sniffled, “Nothing’s wrong. It’s all so beautiful. I don’t deserve any of it.”
“Oh, sweetheart, come here,” Anya said tenderly, reaching her arm around the young pantoran. It’s our pleasure to have you with us. If you ever need anything, just ask, ok?”
“Ok.”
“But right now, wipe those tears away, because I’m going to take you to get some things to wear.”
“Is Kadrol going to come with us?”
“I’m sure he will if you want him to. Do you want him to come with us?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok then, let’s get going.” She said, helping the younger girl up. With her arm still around her, they walked out of the room to go to the mall. “Kadrol! Come here, we want you to come with us.” She called.
“Yes Mother!” Kadrol called out from the next room. The three hopped in and drove off to the mall. In the window of the first store they walked to was a beautiful icicle blue tinted dress made of draping fabricate thin as paper, dazzled with glitter which had been meticulously sewn into the fabric itself. The long flowing outer shell of the dress was nearly transparent, becoming more opaque as it neared the torso. The stunning gown had a sky blue undergarment sewn in to it, covering the midsection. “You **have** to try that on. You would look so pretty in it!” Anya said excitedly. The group walked inside and Anya helped Chloe pick out the correct size, holding each dress up in front of her to get an idea of size. “Try this one on. We’ll wait outside the fitting room for you.” Anya said, handing the dress to Chloe. While they were waiting, Kadrol’s mother leaned in and whispered to the man “You know, she has a thing for you too. She didn’t want to come shopping without you.” Kadrol blushed. Soon after, Chloe exited the fitting room wearing the dress. Kadrol’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t help himself staring at her. The dress fit perfectly, as if it was tailored specifically for her.
“So… what do you think?” Chloe said. “It looks bad on me, doesn’t it.”
Kadrol blinked a few times before speaking up. “N-n-no. You look a-a-abso-olutely st-st-stunning.” Kadrol stuttered.
“You really think so?” Chloe asked, blushing.
“Yeah.” He responded.
“Can I get it?” Chloe asked, looking at Anya.
“Of course. Get whatever you think looks good on you. I want to get a dozen every day type clothes, one or two fancy outfits for special occasions, a few sets of casual wear, and some pajamas.”
“Wow, ok. I think that’s more than I’ve had my entire life.” Chloe said in shock.
“Well, then we better get to it.” Kadrol teased. The group finished up in that store, paid, and headed on to the next. Hours later, the group arrived back at home.
“Kadrol, feel free to help Chloe put away her new clothes. I’m too tired right now and I just need to go get some sleep. Don’t stay up too long,ok?”
“Ok mom.”
As he helped Chloe put away her new wardrobe, Kadrol was in awe of every outfit, remembering vividly how Chloe looked in each one she tried on that day, a few in his mind sticking out in his mind more than the others.
“Chloe,” Kadrol said, hanging up the last outfit, “there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“Oh? What’s up?” She responded, turning her head to look at the Jedi.
“Come sit down with me on the bed.”
“So, what did you want?”
He took each of her hands and looked longfully into her eyes. “Chloe, I love you.”
The two leaned in and kissed. Kadrol shifted his hands around Chloe’s waist, pulling her in closer. Chloe moved in for another kiss, wrapping her hands around Kadrol’s neck. With each kiss, their passion for one another grew stronger. Soon, Chloe was on her back, Kadrol leaning over her. Chloe let go of Kadrol’s neck, and her arms fell onto her chest. “Kadrol, will you sleep here with me?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Kadrol said, climbing into the covers on the other side of the bed. Chloe climbed under as well, and tucked her head underneath Kadrol’s arm, resting it on his muscular pec. “Kadrol, does this mean we are dating now?” She asked.
“I guess so.” He replied, brushing his hand through her beautiful purple hair.
The next day, everyone had gone to work or school for the day by the time Kadrol got up. When Chloe got up, Kadrol had breakfast made for the two of them. That day, he taught her how to do traditional Pantoran dances, how to cook, and how to play a few card games. That evening, Kadrol would announce to his family that they were dating.

Epilogue

Months later, Kadrol would marry his girlfriend. Being married at age fifteen was commonplace on Pantora; in fact, it was almost expected of Kadrol to marry her. They had a small wedding held in the large backyard of the Hauen home. After the ceremony, they took their honeymoon on Naboo. Today, Kadrol and Chloe live on Seraph with their twin girls Myla and Kira who are now 8 months old.

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” Kadrol awoke at 08:00 to the sound of an incoming transmission on his Inquisitorius comlink located in the top drawer of his nightstand. Wearily, the Pantoran rolled over and opened the drawer, reaching into it to silence the nuisance. Kadrol had stayed up late the last night partying in celebration of his recent knighting. Picking up the device, he pressed a rectangular button on the front, playing a pre-recorded message.

“Operatives, we have discovered intel critical to taking out Capital Enterprises. We have located the Meridian. Your Mission, Inquisitors, is to take out as many critical support systems for the station as you can. Completing this mission will deliver a crippling blow to the Collective’s finances, which will shift this war heavily in our favor. Over and out.”

Kadrol was tired, but the threat of the Collective was growing by the day. He couldn’t pass up an opportunity to cripple the faction that wanted him dead. The knight got out of bed and hurriedly poured a bowl of Lucky Stars, his favorite cereal. After having a quick breakfast, he suited up in his Jedi Armor, grabbing a few other items he might need. He hurried into one of Scholae Palatinae’s civilian hangars, where members’ personal ships were stored, and climbed into his Fang Fighter. Kadrol did a quick systems check and put on his headset comlink. After having completed all system checks, Kadrol ignited the engines and took off, leaving the atmosphere of Ragnath, heading off to the location of the Meridian.

10:00

Approaching the location of the Meridian, Kadrol dropped his ship out of hyperspace. As he witnessed the space station already engulfed in a huge dogfight, Kadrol commanded the droid brain within his ship to run a scan of the station to locate the systems. The droidbrain whirred in compliance, and Kadrol started an attack run. A map highlighting the location of the objectives popped up on the display screen after Kadrol had closed the distance by about half. Kadrol rotated his entire ship to the right, setting a course to take out the shielding system of the Meridian.

That’s when he noticed an enemy fighter top left of him. Keeping the same course, Kadrol rotated the wings and fired three shots. Having led the oncoming ship, his first shot missed, but the second and third shots hit, the last one penetrating the fuselage and destroying the ship.

Having destroyed his target, Kadrol rolled the wings back down to their default position, drawing ever nearer to the Meridian. Coming into close enough range for an accurate shot at the shields, Kadrol fired a burst of shots at his targets. Each of the shots were absorbed by the shields as they made impact.

As the knight pulled around for another pass, he noticed that the basic shielding could be penetrated with enough concentrated firepower. He unleashed another flurry of shots, again absorbed by the shields. Pulling out for his next run, Kadrol spotted a pair of fighters on his tail. He could dodge their shots by rotating the wings, but it would be extremely difficult for him to shake them. Luckily, a friendly star fighter took out one of them before firing a missile directly onto the shield’s weak spot, exposing a hole approximately a meter in diameter right next to the generator. Kadrol pulled into a loop, and fired a single shot into the rear end of the ship that was tailing him.

Kadrol pulled his ship for another run at the shields, knowing that with a well placed shot, he could take out the entire shield system. Kadrol slowed his approach, lining up the perfect spot, and fired the single guided proton torpedo fostered within the vessel. The shot flew right through the hole, which was already starting to reform, and struck the base of the tower from which the shield was forming. Upon impact with the tower, the torpedo exploded, shattering the tower into countless pieces. A hole formed in the shield near the epicenter of the explosion, and crept across the shield, gradually eroding it. The shields were down.

The knight had a split second to decide whether to make an attack on the station’s reactor core or fuel storage system. ‘Without another proton torpedo, taking out either of the two systems accessible from the exterior of the space station will be nearly impossible. Besides, there are many more fighters supporting the Brotherhood that will get it.’ Kadrol thought to himself. Continuing to fly away from the space station, Kadrol had the droid brain in his fighter aid him in calculating the hyperspace coordinates to punch in. After various calculations, the Pantoran punched the starfighter into lightspeed for his return to Ragnath.

Upon his return, Kadrol was exhausted, the adrenaline of the fight that he was a part of two hours ago wearing off. He really couldn’t even be bothered to get out of his armor, barely pausing to remove his headset and the plastoid shell of his Jedi armor, before plopping himself back into bed. ‘Nothing more today, please.’ Kadrol thought, pleading to nobody in particular.

Manually added by Adept Morgan B. Sorenn

|Back-stor-y on Han.|
|Chew-ie, Kes-sel, Love, and gangs.|
|Maul shows up as well.|

Hyphens separate syllables just for clarity. “|” separates lines

Manually added by Seer Alara Deathbane

Welcome, welcome all!
We were utterly betrayed
By the Nayamas.

The Nayamas
Have committed many crimes,
And will be punished.

They have stolen goods,
and started an uprising.
We are now at War.

If we don’t stop them,
They will annex our great lands.
We must wipe them out.

Volunteer today
At a government building.
The Empire needs you!

It was just another day in Caelestis City for Kadrol. He had gotten up at his usual time, and was on his way to work. He was grateful that the clan was willing to loan him a vehicle to get to Adoronim Tower, where he helped his master and Consul, Elincia Rei with some of the clan’s busy-work. After arriving at the tower, he walked in the front doors, greeting the secretary of the building. He took the lift up to Elincia’s office to start sorting papers. Eli, who had always been an overachiever, was already there when he walked in. “Good morning, Kadrol.” The Twi’lek chirped.

“Morning,” Kadrol responded wearily.

“The Caelestis peaceforce needs you to help with their patrols. They’ve been understaffed ever since the invasion, and they received rumors of an uprising overnight. Think you can help?” Elincia informed her apprentice.

“No problem.” The Hunter responded. Kadrol left the tower and scrambled back home, where he suited up in his Knights of Ren armor and equipped his other necessities. Bones might be useful for this. Kadrol thought. He called out for his JN-66 analysis droid to follow him. Bones usually just stayed around the house unless Kadrol was on an archaeological site or another mission such as this one. The two hopped back in the vehicle and headed to the location Elincia had uploaded to his datapad.

Though the traffic was fairly bad, Kadrol managed to make it from his home on the city’s outskirts to downtown Caelestis in just 15 minutes. He parked the vehicle in an alleyway, and was immediately greeted by the Chief of Police.

“Good Morning, Master Kadrol. Thank you for helping out today. We need you to lead a patrol around the manufacturing sector of the city. The rest of the squad has already started their patrol.” The Chief said in a very deep voice.

“Ok, I’ll get right to it then.” Kadrol responded. He and bones then proceeded down the dark, quiet alleyway, which was only lit by the dim essence emitted from the street lamps on the road nearby; wrapping around the corner and into the alley in which he walked.

He hadn’t gotten very far when he saw a group of people rush into an old warehouse. Though it was dark in the alley, his suit was enhanced with sensors that allowed him to see well in even the darkest places. As the men ran past, Kadrol caught a glimpse of the Nayama crest on the side of one of their pants. He decided to follow them.

Kadrol stayed in the shadows so he didn’t attract any unwanted attention. He trailed them for a couple of blocks before the men slipped into an old warehouse. When Kadrol had gotten there, the trio had put a large backpack in the corner and headed out from another door. The Pantoran quietly entered the building, making a beeline for the backpack. Inside, he found a datapad, along with loads of energy cells along with blaster rifles and pistols. Kadrol picked up the datapad and unlocked it and radioed in to Elincia.

“I’ve found something that I believe to be related to the Nayamas.” Kadrol said excitedly.

“Kadrol, that was not the mission. You were assigned to patrol the area, not snoop.” Elincia answered.

“Ok, I’ll bring it back, master.” Kadrol replied, completely ignoring what Elincia was saying. He handed the datapad to Bones, who took it and stored it in the compartment in his chest.

“Kadrol, there will be consequences for this!” Elincia raised her voice, clearly irritated with how her apprentice continually disobeyed her. She hadn’t even finished the sentence before Kadrol terminated the connection, having heard a noise coming from the door the Nayama enforcers had exited from. He swung his head back and forth, frantically scanning his surroundings for a decent hiding spot. After a few seconds of searching, he found a spot among a row of shelves, a place dark enough that he would be concealed unless they were going to that exact area. He pulled Bones along, running to the place across the warehouse.

Kadrol rolled into position just as the door opened. Kadrol wished he had something that he could use to record the beings talk without drawing too much attention to himself, but his datapad was the only device he had that was capable of recording, and that would emit too much light. Deciding it was too risky, Kadrol peered above the shelf above him. The men were playing Sabacc. *Drat* Kadrol thought to himself, ducking back behind the boxes on the lowest shelf. The Gray Jedi was stuck until the men moved once more. The other option, he realized, was to use his blasters to take out the guards. That too was risky. He only had a few shots before the guards would alert the rest of the Nayama Syndicate. He didn’t trust himself to take out all three of them with what he estimated to be just six shots before they sent out an alert to the others. Kadrol sat behind the boxes for what seemed like an eternity, although it had only been around fifteen minutes, before he heard a ringing. Peering back over the shelf, he saw the trio nod and walk out of the warehouse. The Pantoran let out a sigh of relief. He could finally leave now. He waited another minute before sprinting out of the warehouse and all the way back to his vehicle. He didn’t want to take any chances.

Out of breath, Kadrol climbed in and sat sown in the drivers seat. Bones hovered in the passengers seat. The droid could hover. Why it insisted on sitting, Kadrol had no idea.

“Can I have that datapad we picked up earlier?” Kadrol asked the droid. Without hesitation, Bones opened up the chamber in his midsection and pulled out the tablet, handing it to his master. Kadrol took the datapad and tried several times to unlock it using various methods, but to no avail.

“Bones,” he asked, “can you upload all of the data in this into my datapad?”

“Why, yes.” The droid replied matter-of-factly. Kadrol then handed the datapad back to Bones, who had reached back into himself to pull out Kadrol’s datapad. Bones pressed a few buttons and did a few other things that bewildered Kadrol, before handing Kadrol his own datapad and storing the stolen one away. The Gray Jedi opened the datapad and found evidence that would aid the clan in its conquest for land. With that, he rushed off to deliver the intel to the clan summit.

Kadrol Hauen had been fascinated with extinct species of Fauna since he was a young boy. Learning about the ancient beasts let Kadrol drift into his own imagination where he lived alongside these mythical beasts. An imagination where even the most dangerous of beasts could become his friend. Through the years, his imagination would become focused on hyper-realistic scenarios and less on more fantastical things. Though his general love for these creatures would eventually fade, the memories were stored away and Kadrol unknowingly took a liking to History.

When Kadrol was twelve, he was reintroduced to the world of these beasts in a class at school. During this unit, Kadrol also learned about Paleontology’s sentient-based counterpart: archaeology. At this point in his life Kadrol was more intrigued by the empires of the past, such as the Old Republic and the Sith empire. He also found ancient battles quite intriguing: ones before droids were able to be mass produced as they were in the Clone Wars. The Jedi and Sith orders and the evolution of the lightsaber were, in his opinion, the most fun to learn about.

The following year, Kadrol was recruited to the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. In his first few months, he had begun to notice all kinds of Brotherhood funded archaeology digs to uncover ancient artifacts from the ancient Sith as well as the ancient Jedi Order, as well as to fill in holes in what was known about these Force users of old. He had immediately asked his master, Brimstone, if he could take leave and participate in a few of these archeological digs. While on these archeological digs, Kadrol himself never actually discovered anything particularly special, but he did try to gather information about them based on where they were found and the things they were found with.

That was two years ago. Now the Pantoran had returned from a self-inflicted exile from the Brotherhood, and was now going on archaeological digs again. Today he had arrived at one of the newest dig sites the Brotherhood set up, and Kadrol was assigned a much more hands-on role. The site was located on the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban. Many graves of the ancient Sith Lords had already been excavated by groups from as early as a thousand years ago, but this expedition wasn’t focused on the graves of the ancient Sith, but rather the places thought to be the site of long forgotten temples and other ritual sites.

When the Acolyte arrived from the moon of Ragnath in the Caperion System, the dig site had already been marked off into a five by five grid by a series of metal rods stuck into the ground periodically and tied to another rod with a thin twine of sorts. This method helps the archaeologists record where each artifact was found to try to formulate a story to piece together the past. It also helped with delegating others by assigning them a section to dig in. From the location of the camp, the sections were marked vertically with letters, and horizontally with numbers. Kadrol was one of five people assigned to section B5.

Day after day, the team would go into the section and dig. When an artifact was found, the person who unearthed the object would call for a mapper to record the location, and then they would carefully uncover the object using a brush, chisel, and other small tools. Usually the object was a piece of pottery or simple jewelry, but a special item would come up every once in a while. Whenever something special was found, Kadrol was rejuvenated with a thirst to discover something unique once more.

**Two Weeks after Kadrol arrived on Korriban**

Kadrol enjoyed digging on the site. He found the job like a sort of a game: whoever found the coolest or rarest thing was the “winner.” The morning was just like any other on the site: everyone would wake up at the brink of dawn to eat and get dressed before heading out to the dig. Kadrol woke up wearily. The constant early mornings were not something he was used to. When he was training, his master, Kylex, usually didn’t come to get him for training until midday. As he headed out, he couldn’t help but watch in awe at the sunrise over the reddish planet.

Reaching the site with his tools, the Acolyte started in the same spot he had left off on the previous night. He needed to dig down about two meters for this dig. He dug for about an hour, as everybody else arrived and started digging their spots, when he thought he saw something shining in the ground. He climbed out of his hole, which was a waist high hemisphere in the earth, and grabbed his trowel.

The Pantoran jumped into the hole excitedly and began to dig out the dirt on top of the shimmering golden object. It took him another hour or so uncover the object, revealing it to be a scepter of some sort. It was around one and three quarter meters in length. The half Kadrol had dug out so far had something engraved in it: probably some ancient language used by the Sith. The golden rod was adorned with rubies and it had a dragon’s head shaped on the top. Excitedly, Kadrol used his comm link to report in his findings. A few minutes later, a vehicle drove up to his section, and the mapper designated to his section stepped out with a map of the findings in the section. He used a measuring device to mark the location of the scepter from the side of the section, and made a mark on the map. Kadrol now had permission to finish digging out the scepter. The vehicle stayed where it was parked until Kadrol had painstakingly dug out the rest of the beautiful scepter.

He and another archaeologist put on fresh latex gloves and carefully wrapped up the scepter to insure it wouldn’t be damaged on the way back to camp where it would be analyzed. If the head of the project deemed it of enough value, Kadrol might even be assigned to learning about his discovery, but for now, he would continue to excavate.

36 ABY- First Order Command Ship

“This is Kadrol Hauen, requesting permission to land.”

“State your business.” The officer replied.

“I come on a diplomatic mission from the clan Scholae Palatinae.”

“Insert your landing codes.” The Officer mumbled, clearly bored by his job. Kadrol did as he was told, and reached up, punching in the code to be transmitted.
“You have permission to land.” The voice said over the system. Kadrol drew in closer to the monsterous ship so the tractor beams could pull the ship in.

After the ship had landed, Kadrol lowered the shuttle’s ramp and stepped out. He was immediately greeted by a swarm of stormtroopers: twelve to be exact. Without a word, the beckoned the Pantoran to follow, and they led him down the long cooridor. As they reached their location, the lead trooper opened the door. Kadrol stepped into the interior of the room, and the doors closed behind him. As he looked around, a voice said “Ah, you must be Kadrol. Take a seat.” Kadrol grabbed a chair and sat down. He came to be seated across the long table from Kylo Ren. “I’ve heard much about your training,” Kylo said, “Palatinae stands with everything the First Order believes in, but I’m sure you know that already. I am much more interested in seeing what you have learned.” Kadrol didn’t know how to respond. He had grow up idolizing Kylo, and now he was in the same room with him.

“Come on. Show me what you have learned.” Kylo said. “I will show you the ways of the Force.”

“Ok.” Kadrol replied. He genuinely could not think of anything to say. Even if he had something to say, he wasn’t sure he could physically get the words out. Kylo led Kadrol into a large training room similar to the one he was used to back on Antei.

Kylo Ren pointed him to a dummy, saying “Give it all you’ve got!”

Kadrol drew his lightsaber and demonstrated the few moves he knew. The purple blade hummed as Kadrol struck the dummy very carefully and precisely. He didn’t want to blow his shot of impressing the Supreme Leader.

“Stand back.” Kylo warned. Kadrol took a step back. Watching the Sith, Kadrol became entranced with the fiery red blade with the iconic cross guard. He couldn’t help but just stand there in awe as Kylo Ren sliced the dummy to bits. As he finished, Kylo remarked “In time you will be able to do all this, and more. I look forward to watching your career with great interest.” For the rest of the afternoon, Kadrol sought to learn all he could from Kylo.

As the day came to a close, Kadrol said goodbye and headed back to his ship. “Hey, Kadrol!” Kylo said from behind him, “Tell your clan that the First Order fully supports clan Scholae. Also, I’ve had my Imperial armorers make you a set of armor. It’ll be delivered to you soon.” Kadrol turned around, closed the ramp, and took off. What a day.

*Capital City Space Port, Capital City, Pantora*

Kadrol heard the landing thrusters activated. Finally. He thought. I am home. The shuttle’s door opened, and the young Pantoran stepped out. Hailing from the upper class of Pantora, he had people to do almost everything for him. One of his family’s servants, Jax, walked aboard and brought Kadrol’s luggage out in a hover sleigh. After all his stuff had been put in the trunk of their hover car, the two took off toward the house.

“Master Kadrol, how was your stay on Antei?” Jax asked, trying to make conversation during the twenty minute drive.

“Not bad. I learned a lot while I was there.” Kadrol replied.

“Well, that is good to hear,” The servant said. “Your parents have been very excited for your return.”

“I can’t wait to see them too.” Kadrol said longingly. A few more minutes passed in silence before they arrived. After Jax had parked the vehicle, The two walked toward the doors of the large house. He hadn’t even touched the handle before the door opened.

“Kadrol, you’re home!” His mother said, hugging him. His mom was fairly young, only 34 years old. She was also very sweet and beautiful. Her pink-purple hair was tied up in two buns, as many senators wore their hair. She was wearing a gold headdress that perfectly accentuated her magenta dress.

All of a sudden he felt two more arms wrap around his waist. “Hello, Shane.” Kadrol said instinctively.

“I missed you, Brother.” Shane said.

“I missed you too.” Kadrol replied. “Where are Dad and Tanya?”

“They went out to do something. They’ll be back soon.” His mother answered. The two of them walked towards the family room to catch up. Shane ran ahead.

“Shane is super happy to see you again. It’s been way longer than nine months for him.” Kadrol’s mother explained, laughing. As the two reached the family room and sat down, the door opened again.

“Those two have great timing,” Kadrol said sarcastically.

“Let’s go to the dining room.” This time it was Kadrol who ran. When he reached the dining room, he and his sister locked eyes. Kadrol ran and jumped right into his sister’s arms. She had always been pretty strong, considering she was a year younger than Kadrol was. The two shared a bond so strong that it was indescribable.

“Welcome home, Kadrol.” She said, putting him back on the ground. The two embraced each other.

“What about me?” His father asked.

“Ok, ok. I missed you too, dad.” Kadrol said, giving him a hug as well.

“Let’s take a seat and you can tell us all about your trip over some pie.” His mother said, gently. The family took a seat and his sister, Tanya, served each of them a slice.

“So, what did you do while you were away?”

“Not much. I did a lot of studying and testing, as well as a lot of training while I was on Antei… I’m getting pretty tired. I’m still running on Antei time.” Kadrol said, yawning.

“Get some sleep. We will see you in the morning.” His mom replied.

*The Next Morning*

Kadrol awoke at his usual time. Of course that time was also 5:00 here on Pantora. He took the liberty of telling the couple cooks they had that they could take some time off and that he would make breakfast. By the time his family made it to the table an hour and a half later, he had made some Pantoran-style hotcakes and squeezed some Pantorange (a delectable fruit comparable to a cross between an apple and orange) juice. He was glad to be able to give the cooks some time off. They deserved it.

After breakfast his siblings had to go to school. His father went to organize his army figurines on his battlefield of a table, or as his mom would say, “He went to go play with his big kid toys.” Kadrol, being a diplomat at heart, went to the Pantoran senate with his mom to work on some of the bills she was trying to pass.

The Pantoran senate was fairly large, but could be compared to a dot on a piece of paper when compared to the galactic senate building, which was now a landmark on Coruscant. The Pantoran senate held 112 senators, two from each sector of Pantora.

“K., I need your help with the wording in this bill.” His mother said, exasperated. K was the nickname people had given him. He didn’t fully understand why, though, because Kadrol wasn’t really a long name that needed to be shortened, nor was it difficult to pronounce. He didn’t mind people calling him that, though.

After a couple minutes of reading and analyzing speeches from opposition of the bill, Kadrol exclaimed “I think I’ve got it! Your problem is that you need to add the Naboo Comma. It should say ‘a thousand credits for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology,’ not ‘a thousand credits for physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology.” The concerns our opponents are voicing is that the credits for occupational therapy and speech-language pathology, without the comma there, would split the allotted amount between the two sections.”

“Good work, Kadrol! That might save the bill!” His mother exclaimed. Kadrol had become used to helping his mom while he was home, and he had loved it ever since his mom first took him to view a senatorial session when he was ten years old. Though the most he usually did was run and get things, he enjoyed following in his mother’s footsteps. When his mother was younger, granted she had been 18 when she started, she was an aide to a senator. It was usually the only way to become a prominent member in the senate, though there were a few exceptions.

“K., Do you want to watch a session from the viewing platform with me?” His mother asked.

“I would love that.” Kadrol replied quickly. He had seen the senate debate things before, but he had never actually been in the platforms with the senators before.

“We have to be there in half an hour.”

“Ok.”

The two ate their lunch and then walked to the senate chamber. There was a loud buzz as the senators talked amongst each other before the session began.

“Order!” A Voice boomed, aided by a microphone. “Let’s debate the personal health care bill. The committee chair will be the first to speak.”

The debate took about four hours. There were a few good points in the debate, but some senators, particularly the ones who openly opposed the bill, droned on for what seemed like forever. After the debate portion ended, it came to a vote. The bill passed with a vote of 73 to 32. It was getting late now, and Kadrol and his mother retired to the house, where Kadrol fell into bed, almost immediately started falling asleep. Wow. He thought. This all started just like any other day, and I ended up getting to watch the senate in action.