Star Wars: Starkiller

(Garel City Spaceport)

In one of the bays of the spaceport was the temporary base of the Phoenix Squadron commanded by Commander Sato and captained by Hera Syndulla. At this moment the only 2 Jedi of the Squadron were practicing lightsaber combat.

"Nono you're doing it wrong." Kanan said as he approached his padawan. "Correct your stance, Form 3 is based on defense, not offense, your stance is still very offensive."

"But I don't know how to do it." Ezra said as he threw the saber to the ground. "You take it for granted that I know how to do what you're saying, but the truth is I don't." He said in frustration.

Kanan looked at him with a reprimanding look.

"Control your temper Ezra. Remember anger is not..."

"Not the Jedi way, yes I know, I got it, it's not like you've told me a thousand times." Ezra said through his teeth retreating to the Ghost standing next to them with the ramp open.

At the departure of his padawan Kanan sighed.

"Padawan trouble?" someone asked, who Kanan turned to look at, this being the clone formerly known as Captain Rex, now just Rex.

"Let's just say yes. Ezra always had trouble learning but ever since..."

"He killed the Inquisitor?" Rex asked knowing what he was going to say since he had told him about it.

"Yeah, he's been different, less focused, more conflicted, I'm afraid if he keeps this up he's going to end up going down a path I'm not going to be able to get him out of."

"Hey, take it easy soldier, I know the kid and he has a good heart, remember he was the one who insisted we put our differences aside in the first place." Rex said making Kanan reconsider his thoughts. "Besides Ezra told me that the Inquisitor thing was an accident and even if it wasn't, remember we are at war, we can't afford to be soft now soldier."

"Yes, maybe you are right, however, believe me I was there and it wasn't an accident, the Inquisitor was unarmed and yet he murdered him in cold blood." Kanan said remembering the attack on the Communications Tower on Lothal.

"Yeah well, it doesn't matter anymore the Inquisitor is dead, if you ask me one less threat from the Empire."

"You know, sometimes I forget I'm talking to a clone." Kanan said causing Rex to arch an eyebrow.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" He asked somewhat confused.

"Depends, you pride yourself on having been a soldier, don't you?"

"Haha I guess so, General."

"I told you I wasn't a General."

"Right, sorry Commander." Rex corrected himself causing Kanan to finally be tempted.

"Hahahaha"

"Hahahaha" Rex joined him.

Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by a twi-lek they knew well, Hera Syndulla, who watched with a smile as despite everything, they had managed to put their differences aside.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the ship, in her room, Sabine was painting as usual, though her mind at the moment was elsewhere.

'It's been a few weeks already.' The Mandalorian thought to herself as she continued to modify her canvas with spray paint.

Since the last time they had seen each other, there hadn't been a day that she hadn't thought of him, in their time together Sabine had managed to connect better with him than with any other person in a long time.

'I wonder what he's doing?' the Mandalorian thought as she continued to paint.

(Meanwhile elsewhere in the Galaxy...)

I had already returned to the ship.

The hum of the engines echoed softly in the background as I shed the protective suit, dropping it heavily into the storage compartment. I could still feel the fatigue in my body after the encounter with Maul, but my mind was too restless to rest.

I could not ignore what I had learned.

With the holocron in my hands, I made my way to the meditation chamber. The air inside the ship felt colder than normal, or maybe it was the tension still clinging to me. I knelt down in one fluid motion, holding the holocron in front of me, and with a touch of the Force, activated it.

A soft reddish glow illuminated the cockpit as the artifact opened, and soon after, the hooded figure of my teacher emerged, projecting before me with her usual aura of mystery.

Wasting no time, I spoke.

"So you know where the Mass Shadow Generator is?"

My voice broke the silence, firm but charged with a restrained urgency.

The projection remained motionless for a moment, as if considering my words or perhaps gauging how far I was prepared for the truth.

"I see you have learned more quickly than I expected," she finally said, her tone calculated, always halfway between patience and judgment. "Tell me, where did this sudden curiosity come from?"

I inhaled slowly, deciding how to approach the truth. There was no need to hide anything from her, she had seen enough of my mind to know when I was lying.

"Maul," I answered frankly. "He was looking for it, too. According to him, the Empire didn't destroy it...it just hid it."

A brief silence fell between us. For a moment, the holocron's light seemed to flicker slightly.

"Ah... Maul," the old woman murmured, her voice laden with a tinge of contempt. "The fallen apprentice, the discarded shadow. No wonder he still seeks remnants of power in the ruins of the past. The misery of the Sith is their relentless struggle for relevance... even when they have been forgotten."

"So... do you know him?"

She let out a slight sigh, as if the question was tedious to her.

"I know his story, as I know the story of all those who were shaped by their master's will," she said, a slight disdain in her voice. "Darth Sidious, the usurper of the galaxy, is not a being of chance. Every piece of his game is precisely placed...and Maul was just one more piece. Raised in the shadows, conditioned by pain and anger, he was little more than a disposable weapon to his master."

Her tone was cold, almost dispassionate, but there was something else in her words. Not compassion...but a deep understanding of what it meant to be a tool for another.

I looked at her carefully. She always spoke with that mix of authority and disdain, but on this occasion, her tone seemed more personal.

"You speak as if you've seen it with your own eyes."

Kreia tilted her head slightly, her expression almost enigmatic.

"I have seen more than you imagine, my young apprentice. I know the echoes of the past, the whispers of those who have ruled and fallen. Sidious, Maul... they are all but pieces of an endless cycle. And I have walked among the shadows of that cycle for longer than you can conceive."

His words left me thoughtful. It was not the first time he had spoken with such assurance, as if his knowledge was deeper than that of any historian or living witness.

I decided to try another question.

"Who are you really?"

His response was almost immediate, as if he had been waiting for me to ask.

"My name is Kreia," she said calmly, with no pomp or mystery in her voice. "And while I would give you many reasons to remember it, I assure you that, in the grand scheme of things, my name is of little consequence."

I watched her in silence. Kreia. I had not heard it before. Not in the records of the Empire, nor in the murmurings of the Rebellion. But something in the way she said it made me realize that name carried with it a weight I didn't quite understand.

"Tell me, Galen, are you still so interested in learning the fate of the Mass Shadow Generator?"

Her sudden mention of my name snapped me out of my thoughts. I gritted my teeth, regaining my focus.

"Yes. More than ever."

Kreia let out a dry whisper, almost a laugh.

"Then listen carefully... for what you seek lies in a place few have ever heard of, and fewer still have survived to tell the tale."

She leaned forward slightly, the light from the holocron casting shadows on her face.

"The Mass Shadow Generator was moved after the Battle of Malachor V. The remains of the weapon were not left on the planet. They were taken to a place... forgotten even by the Jedi. A dead world, far from the reach of the galaxy. A graveyard of things that should never have existed."

"Where?" I asked, feeling my heart pounding.

"Rakata Prime," she answered in a whisper. "The ruins of the Infinite Empire. That's where you'll find what you're looking for... or where you'll get lost, if you're not careful."

The name made me hold my breath. Rakata Prime...

I frowned. It wasn't a world I'd ever heard of before. Not in the Empire's records, not in the files I'd been able to study in my training with Vader.

"Rakata Prime..." I repeated softly, letting the name roll off my tongue, searching for some spark of recognition. But I found none. I looked at Kreia with a frown. "That name tells me nothing."

Kreia let out a sigh, one that didn't hide her disappointment.

"Of course it doesn't," she said, with that condescending coldness she always adopted when she pointed out my ignorance. "Knowledge about that world has faded over time, deliberately erased by those who feared what slept there. Both the Jedi and the Sith have tried to bury its history, for different reasons... but for the same purpose."

She turned slightly inside the holocron, as if her gaze could pierce space and time, contemplating something only she could see.

"Rakata Prime was the heart of the Infinite Empire," she continued. "An ancient empire of conquerors, the first civilization in the galaxy to use the Force not as a gift, but as a weapon to subdue and enslave."

I tensed at hearing that. The Force... used for absolute domination.

"An entire civilization of Force users?" I asked in disbelief.

Kreia nodded slowly.

"The Rakata were not like the Jedi or the Sith. They had no codes or philosophies. To them, the Force was simply a tool to rule. Their technology, their constructs, their weapons... everything was tied to their connection to the Force. They owned the galaxy in an era when your Republic was nothing more than a handful of primitive worlds. From their strongholds on Rakata Prime, they launched an unprecedented campaign of conquest, enslaving entire species, draining worlds of life to feed their war forges."

I grimaced. It wasn't hard to imagine. An empire built on the Force... and on blood.

"And what happened to them?" I asked, though I could already sense the answer.

Kreia smiled with a hint of irony.

"The same fate of all empires that grow too fast and drown in their own greatness," she said. "A cataclysm. Not an external one, but one born of its own power."

His voice grew deeper, almost whispery.

"Their connection to the Force began to fade... for no apparent reason. As if the galaxy itself had doomed them. Without the Force to fuel their technology, their fleets collapsed, their war machines became useless... and their slaves rose up in rebellion. The Infinite Empire collapsed in on itself, leaving only ruins scattered across the galaxy. Rakata Prime became a tomb for its legacy."

I leaned forward slightly, intrigued.

"And what does that have to do with the Mass Shadow Generator?"

Kreia paused before answering, as if deciding how much to tell me.

"After the fall of the Infinite Empire, Rakata Prime was forgotten... deliberately. But throughout history, those who wished to hide something too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands have turned to that world. Its atmosphere is unstable, its location difficult to reach, and its surface is covered with ancient ruins... some of which still contain traces of the Rakata's power."

Her words floated in the air for a moment.

"The remains of the Mass Shadow Generator were moved there after the Battle of Malachor V," he finally said. "The Jedi figured that, if they couldn't destroy it, they could at least hide it on a world no one was supposed to find."

I narrowed my eyes, sensing that something didn't fit.

"If the Jedi hid it there... how did Maul know?"

Kreia let out a short, dry, humorless laugh.

"Because forbidden knowledge never stays buried for long," she said resignedly.

"Someone always digs it up, whether out of greed, desperation... or simple arrogance."

I took a deep breath, letting the information settle in my mind. Rakata Prime... a forgotten world, a graveyard of a civilization that used the Force as a weapon of conquest... and the place where the key to destroying the Mass Shadow Generator lay.

I stood up slowly, my gaze fixed on Kreia's projection.

"Then that's where I must go."

Kreia tilted her head slightly, her expression indecipherable.

"Perhaps," she murmured. "Or maybe... that's where you'll find something that will change your destiny forever."

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Sorry for the delay.

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