The Rebel Faction

Leia leaned back in her chair, her informal posture betraying the formal tone that their meeting was about to take.


"I agree that you have reached the point in your Jedi training where to keep you here at the Academy would be to hold you back. As you said... being a Jedi is all about venturing out into the galaxy to both learn and teach, and hopefully do some sort of good. Your time here as a Padawan at the Academy prepares you for the obstacles that lay ahead in your life as a Jedi.


I believe for you, that time is over. You have already indicated to me here that you have also recognized this, which makes me all the more confident in my decision."


Leia noticed the Azguard look up sharply at her use of the word 'decision' as if in sudden intrigue.


"You have demonstrated that through hard work and perserverance you have grown and matured as both a Jedi and an individual, and it is time for your accomplishments to be recognized on a more official level. Dolash, do you feel that you are ready to carry the title of Jedi Knight for this Order?"


Leia waved a hand dismissively.


"Me actually knighting you is a mere formality, to both honor you and signify your achievements to others. You've already developed your skills to the level of a Jedi Knight, and reguardless of whether or not you accept the formal title and the powers and responsibility associated with it, you will still be one."

Leia grinned, and rose from her chair.


"Then it is my honor to welcome you into the Order as a Jedi Knight. I hope that you will continue to learn and grow, and that you will find some way to put your newfound skills to good use. I know this meeting is deceptively informal, but from this point on you are officially a Jedi Knight.


Leia paused for a moment, during which she simply smiled at Dolash.


"There will be a small ceremony in the near future to commemorate your achievements, and to officially recognize your new role within the order. You are actually being promoted with Fraktusk, and the ceremony will be held for the both of you. You two are sort of like a graduating class, the Academy's first in a long time.


There are still arrangements to be made, and I will get back to you about those later. I... wish I could spend more time with you now, but there is something else I need to look after.


Congratulations Dolash, I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that we are proud of what you have accomplished."


Leia formally bowed to Dolash in a gesture of respect, and then turned to leave.


In the span of five minutes, a young Jedi had just found his place in the galaxy as a Jedi Knight. Hopefully, things would work out well for him. Few Jedi successfully made it through Jedi training; but even fewer made it to Master. So many parts of the galaxy were adverse to Jedi... and nobody was immune to the temptation of the dark side.


Leia departed, leaving the Dolash alone with his thoughts.

Most of the crew of the little shuttle were asleep, snoring lightly atop pull-out beds along the small living space their ship allowed. The Arrow Flight it was officially called, and for the show of the thing the name was engraved on the dash-board. The only two which remained awake were at the controls - Proq and Jubaz.

"So" said Proq, fighting the exhaustion that attacked his senses "Where do you think we're going?"

Jubaz, whose tougher Rodian constitution had yet to feel the touch of sleep, shrugged casually "Dolash knows, right? The Force will guide him, you can sense it on his mind."

Proq continued to squirm, trying to find a comfortable way to sit in the copilot chair. "Well... yeah... but still. I don't think that's really enough. I mean, what were we supposed to... Is this right? I don't know."

Jubaz was unaffected by his friend's confusion, but noted Proq's awkward tone. "You worry too much, friend. Are we not supposed to trust the Force? You and I have felt it, and has it ever turned us wrong? Has it ever betrayed us?"

"No..." Proq mumbled "I guess not..."

"There you go. If you must, remain vigilant, but fear only clouds your judgement. We will know what to do when the need arises. But for now, I will trust in the Force, and in Dolash."

Proq nodded. "Ok then. Looks like we're coming up on Freeport 9. This is where we were headed."

The ship was in the flow of hyperspace, and it's crew of Jedi gathered together to discuss their next move.

Dolash sat entranced at the far end of the main passenger area, just outside of the cockpit. Reaching out through the force, he tried to follow the thread of the person he had felt earlier.

Whoever it was, the man was certainly force-sensitive. Dolash could almost feel his anguish, like a beacon, coming from Kessel. All he could feel was stabs of emotion and confusion, the thoughts were far too garbled to make sense of or speak to. Dolash roused himself, and turned to his fellow Jedi.

"Who here knows of Kessel?" He said.

Katria nodded "I do. I studied this region of space before, Kessel isn't exactly the nicest place in the galaxy. It's small, poisonous, and whoever's held it always turns it into a prison. Prisoners do the dangerous work of mining Spice, the drug. Even the supposedly holy Black Dragons mine it, and make a brisk profit from it - it's awful, really. Obviously, since the Dragons own it, less is known about how it runs these days, they're pretty secret."

There was suddenly a shudder aboard the ship. "Oh, and black holes. There's lots of them around Kessel. Don't worry, we're on a course away from them."

Dolash nodded "All right. So what do we know about BDE? They're a run-of-the-mill quasi-religious despotic war society with a lot of captured territory and subdued populations - ergo, dissidents, rebels, and heathens. They can't just kill all of them, for the dual reasons that someone has to mine the spice and that being killed is somehow less scary then being sent to an alien planet to be worked to death. We can guess there'll be a prison population here of people who don't deserve to be imprisoned."

"Well then, I'm sure we can do something about that." said Shillia. "What's protecting it?"

"My guess?" said Katria "A fully-kitted out defence fleet and heavily armed ground forces. They need to keep the prisoners contained, comb the nearby area for smugglers, and discourage any rescue attempts. The area is under Farfalen Jurisdiction, so I expect we'll see plenty of their forces."

"Any force users?" asked Jubaz.

"Unlikely, except maybe as prisoners."

Jubaz nodded "So no real threat."

"All of this still leaves the question of how we're supposed to get off of this place!" said Ian "I mean, sure, we could escape, but what about the prisoners? I don't think we can fit them all in."

"To maintain both a prison and a fleet, there must be plenty of shuttles and ship around." said Proq, casually. "We'll just snatch some of them, create a diversion, and fly everyone out in the confusion. Easy."

"No." said Fwar "Not easy. I do not see how we can circumvent their forces twice - the second time especially, considering that they will be alerted. Realistically, it is very unlikely an escape would succeed."

Dolash took time to consider, before responding. "There is one thing we are forgetting in this endeavour. The Force. It can shield our entry, and if we are skillful, it can shield our escape as well. Together, we should have the power to deceive them."

"How can you be so sure we have the power?" said Katria "How do you know we won't need help?"

Dolash paused again, and nodded. "I will put out a call for other Jedi. If others hear, they may come to help us." Dolash closed his eyes, and felt the Force flow through him. Like a ripple in a vast pond, he sent forth waves in the Force, stretching across space at a prodigious rate - the relatively calm waters of the Force having been undisturbed for years.

"If you're going to do that trick thing, you better get started now. We're coming out of Hyperspace." said Ian, who jumped to the controls.

As the viewscreen showed him a command bridge of a Black Dragon cruiser, Dolash smiled. I hope this works.

"Ship! Identify yourself!" Said the crewman.

Dolash waved his hand. "You don't need us to identify ourselves, we have a code clearance. It was a stretch, but with a visual to work with he could just feel the minds of the command bridge. They were tired, bored, and distracted with the thought of some violent entertainment coming up. It was more then easy to manipulate them.

The crewman nodded, as did his commander. "Yes, that is... the correct code sequence."

Dolash waved again "You can call off the alarm, this is just a safety inspection. You were told of it in passing a week ago, it must have slipped your mind."

The commander, looking in a daze, went over to his controls and tapped a few buttons. The alerted ships stood down once more.

Dolash found the concentration harder to hold. So long as they were not woken from their daze, he could keep them shrouded in an imagined shelter of illusion - looking to them like a standard safety inspector group in a regular, unmarked shuttle. They were almost past the fleet, when Dolash felt his concentration weaken. The other Jedi looked concerned, and both Fwar and Shillia began to concentrate, lending him their strength.

With the strain somewhat allieviated, Dolash managed to maintain the illusion until - at last - they were out of sight and out of range of the protective fleet, heading towards the prison complex.

"That was a close one." murmured Dolash, as he took his seat. "Bring up the map of the Prison Complex again."

A holographic image of the groun of Kessel formed before him.

"The train system that takes prisoners from the prisons to the work pits is nearby - if we set up camp there, we'll be able to intercept them." Katria pointed to a point near the mines on the thin, snaking train. "At this time of day, they'll be preparing to take the prisoners back to their prison, so we can ambush the train then."

Dolash nodded. "I will reach out through the Force, to see what I can see. Keep us on a path close to the ground and out of sight, we'll have to make the trip to the train on foot." With that, he closed his eyes, and returned to trance.