El'endia's Story

Colors:

* Light Blue: grammatical notes * Purple: Lee's suggestions * Gold: Matthew's suggestions * Black: normal * Red: note to self [Lee] * Brown: questions

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In his home on Coruscant, El'endia Starman rolled out of bed, the back of his neck tingling. He had felt this sensation once before, right before he was attacked by Darth Landin. He called both of his lightsabers to hand. Then he felt it again and he heard the telltale hiss of a door's locking mechanism releasing. El'endia muted his presence in the Force and made his way to the side of his bedroom door. All of a sudden his danger sense blossomed fully into battle awareness as Darth Landin came barreling through the opening. El'endia's lightsabers sprang to life, one with a golden hue, the other a deep violet. [note to self: make the suspense longer]



El'endia had made a long trek through the caves of a previously unknown planet at the edge of the Unknown Regions to obtain the crystals that powered these lightsabers. On the planet Charlie Alpha Delta, or CAD, he found some crystal troves. However, he had to fight a terrible monster called a rannym, like a cross between a mynock and a rancor, to obtain the gold-colored crystal. For the purple colored crystal, it required every ounce of his will to push back a creature that was extremely adept in invading people's minds. This particular foe, a vinad, looked like a nebulous, swirling, dark mass of energy. The planet had been formerly unknown because these two monsters were very accustomed to working with each other. Very few returned, and those who did were too frightened to speak of it. [note to self: extrapolate on this situation]



All of this and more sped through El'endia's mind in a microsecond as he brought his lightsabers up to block Landin's strike. Then he brought his second lightsaber down to block the other blade of Landin's lightsaber. Red clashed upon gold as El'endia slipped Landin's blade up over his head, bringing his purple blade down to forestall the other blade from cutting through his body. As he blocked Landin's strikes El'endia launched a back kick and followed through with his gold lightsaber. Landin flew through the air to slam against the duracrete wall and barely brought his lightsaber around in time to prevent his beheading. Then Landin whipped his lightsaber around in a vicious arc towards El'endia's head. El'endia ducked, feeling the hairs on his head curl as they burned from the proximity of the lightsaber and jumped over the return stroke. He then started to weave a purple and gold cage of light and started advancing on Landin. As he was advancing, El'endia said, "I can't believe you would do this to me."

Landin suddenly started Force choking El'endia as he growled, "You would never have understood why I left the Order, and now you never will!"

El'endia strained against the Force hold, "Your dawdling is your weakness." As Landin's eyes widened El'endia gathered the Force into himself and approximated a thermal detonator. The power of the Force wave dazed Landin so badly that he lost his focus. Sinking deeper into the flow of the Force, El'endia drew energy into himself, and started after Landin, moving so fast he seemed to be a blur. Sensing that someone was getting close, El'endia pressed his attack, furiously battling Landin towards the windows of his apartment. With one final strike, he launched a massive Force shove that hurled his nemesis through the transparisteel and into the man-made canyons of Coruscant. At that moment, a hulking figure in red Mandalorian armor landed on the balcony. Not knowing who it was, he brought his lightsabers up in defense. Then, feeling the benevolent aura coming from the newcomer, he lowered his lightsabers and asked: “Who are you?”



On the starship Thundershocker in orbit around Coruscant, Amtar Kyramud woke with a start. He had felt something was amiss on the planet, which is where they were headed. He was a Mandalorian, but a special case; he had the power of the Force within him. He had once been a bounty hunter before he found out that he had the Force. He quickly slid out of bed and put his armor on; he had forged it himself on his home planet of Mandalore. He had received the mantle of Mand'alor from Goran BeviinGoran Beviin, his predecessor. Amtar went to the hangar and registered to leave the starship in his fighter Warhammer. He strapped himself into the pilot's seat, while his reactivated super battle droid, SBD-1643, or Esbeedee for short, started the weapons systems. Amtar quickly went through the pre-flight checklist and lifted off. He flew towards the planet trusting in the Force to guide him. He activated his shields, prepared for trouble, and landed on the platform on the top of an apartment building. The Force was telling him that the disturbance was in a nearby building. Telling Esbeedee to guard the ship, he readied his Verpine shatter gun, activated his jetpack, and launched himself toward the adjacent building. He landed in time to see a dark robed figure falling from the balcony. He quickly jumped to that balcony, using the Force to guide his fall. After he landed he saw the figure inside look at him and bring up its lightsaber to block any potential shots. He must be some kind of Jedi, he thought. Seeing the lightsabers still raised, Amtar sent out a Force message of no harm meant and moved his hand away from his gun in a conciliatory gesture. Then the figure asked “Who are you?”

Amtar replied, “I am Amtar Kyramud, Mand'alor, and may I ask who you are?”

El'endia answered, “Funny you should ask, I thought I was quite famous. Well, I am El'endia Starman, Jedi Master.”

Amtar said, ”Ok, Your Highness, who just fell from here?”

El'endia hesitated, unsure how to answer. “There's no need for that kind of talk. As for that guy, he was a recent enemy of mine. That was Darth Landin, my former apprentice.” Elendia sighed. "Its a long story."

“I find that talk of light and dark are very insignificant; to me there is only the Force.”

“But you can't deny that there are light and dark side aspects in every person.”

“I suppose that's true. So if you don't need help anymore, I'll just return to Thundershocker.”

"Well, actually, I would like for you to stay close by for a couple of days, because Darth Landin is a very persistent enemy and I don't want to have another confrontation with him."

"That's fine with me. I'll just return to my personal ship over on the other building. Now if you please, I'll use the turbolifts inside the corridor."

After El'endia grudgingly granted the request, thinking about the cleaning he would have to do later, Amtar walked through El'endia's apartment to an access corridor. There, he palmed an activator plate, summoning a turbolift to his level. Right before he entered, El'endia hurried out of his apartment and intercepted Amtar. El'endia said, "I sensed the Force within you. Do you have any training?"

Amtar replied, "I am mostly self-trained. I am a Mandalorian first, and a force-user second."

"How did you learn you had the Force?"

"I first started experiencing the Force in battles, before I knew what it was."

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I was on the world of Mandalore when the Yhuuzan Vong attacked. In my area, they had tried to get a landing party on the surface, but us warriors wouldn't let them get there without some bloodshed. My earliest encouter with the power of the Force was when I was picking off Yhuuzan Vong shuttles with my fighter craft. I was surrounded by several coralskippers, and I was facing certain defeat. All of a sudden, a strange comforting calm came over me. It seemed as if I was detatched from the situation, watching myself fight. My hands moved seemingly of their own accord, manipulating the steering handles and fire control. I smoothly aimed at a spot where there was nothing but space, and I fired without knowing why. Well, a coralskipper flew right into my turbolaser beams and was utterly destroyed. A few seconds later, I launched a proton bomb towards yet another seemingly empty spot of space, and yet again, a coralskipper flew into it and the explosion destroyed not only the coralskipper it hit, but two others flying in formation alongside it. This happened over and over, all while my hands were taking the craft through bewildering evasive manuvers. I know the Yhuuzan Vong could not be sensed through the Force the way Jedi usually do, but I think what happened to me happened because the Force did not wish me to die. I was fifteen at the time.

I and my comrades simply dismissed it as luck, but deep down, I knew it was more than that. I learned that I was Force-sensitive about when I was about thirty-two years old. A Jedi had crashed on Mandalore and was in flight with a Sith pursuing him. I do not know how the Jedi defeated the Sith, for the Jedi was gravely injured. He was near death when I took him into my dwelling and I nursed him back to health. Before he left, the Jedi asked me about any odd experiences, anything like unconsious action. I wondered, "How did he know?". I ended up confiding in him about what had happened seventeen years ago. He simply nodded as if he had expected this, and told me that he had sensed the Force in myself. Then he left, promising that the Force would be with me always. For a long time, I refused to accept his explanation, because it would have forced me to face the fact that I had something in common with the Jedi and Sith that gave the galaxy such a hard time with their squabbles. Well, after I accepted this fact, I decided to get at least some training in order to control the potential power within me and to use it to my advantage, for we Mandalorians are businessmen at heart. I met up with another Force-user and received some training. However, I had to break it off when Goran Beviin, at the time the current Mand'alor, passed on his position to me. I became the ruler of an entire nation, and so I had responsibilities to attend too. That is basically what has happened these past years, at least those events related to the Force.

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Amtar replied quickly, "Why would I apprentice myself to you? I'm doing just fine right now." [note to self: make story points connect]

"Well, it would help you refine your control of the Force and give you more skills, not to mention an increased defensive capability."

Amtar ruminated over that for a few seconds. "I'll think about it some more, but I could go one way or the other. Ret'urcye mhi, see you later. Oya!" With that, Amtar entered the turbolift and began his descent.

El'endia leaned back against the wall, wondering why he had made such a odd request. Maybe it was the Force, maybe it was because I'm an old fool. Anyway, that's in the past. I'll just have to wait and see what becomes of it. El'endia headed back to his apartment to resume his sleep before it was shattered by the intrusion of an old friend from the past.

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As Amtar left the building, he saw an icon flashing in the upper left corner of his helmet HUD. He accessed the file and [learned/found out] that Captain Tomad was under attack. He hurried into his ship, and started to go through his preflight checklist when he saw that his engines were damaged. "Go out and check the engines," he told Esbeedee. The droid hurried out and a minute later it returned and gave him the report that the ship had holes inside the coolant lines, making it so if he took off they would leak fluids into the engines and cause them to overheat and explode. Haar'chak! If we take off we will be blown to smithereens. I will have to go get another coolant pipe. He then saw an explosion rend the sky, and he saw the hull of a starship falling towards the planet. That is Thundershocker. Tomad and crew of Thundershocker, Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum. I'm still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal. He took a moment to pull himself together after the loss of his comrades. Putting a resolute expression on his face, he activated his grapple and swung off towards the repair shop as debris fell from the sky. Then as he landed he saw a new message on his HUD. He opened it and saw that it was from Esbeedee. There were some unsavory people, to put it mildly, trying to steal the ship. He hurried inside and saw a big person walking into the back. Amtar entered the back room and saw someone buying a part from the Rodian shopkeeper. The person turned around, and Amtar saw that it he had a scar across his face, running all the way to his hand and he had a thermal detonator on his belt. Amtar asked. “Who are you?”

“I will not answer that, because you will soon be dead, so you don't need to know. And Mandalorian scum like you are all the same, all too arrogant to see past your own view.” the man answered.

"Is that a threat?" Amtar asked.

"Yes it is," the thug answered.

"I don't like being threatened," Amtar said, ejecting the vibroblades built into his gauntlets.

"You'd better put those away before someone gets hurt" the thug said.

"Ah, but it won't be me getting hurt." Amtar started to swing his left hand down at the thugs head, but reversed and came from the bottom. The thug tried to block the feint and had his right leg sliced. Amtar then brought both of his arms in from both sides and slammed his helmeted head into the mans face, dazing him. Then the thug brought his sword down with all of his strength, and Amtar was forced to roll sideways to avoid being split in half, then Amtar saw that the thug's sword was stuck in the floor and, seeing his chance, Amtar smashed his left blade into the man's face. Only then did he see the feint, trying to pull back, he jumped left and just barely dodged the vicious swipe at his chest. Feeling the power rising in him, he looked up and saw in slow-motion the vibrosword coming down, then as if his hands were moving themselves he saw himself reach up and catch the handle of the sword. Then he twisted the thugs wrist he heard the crack of breaking bone. Then the thug reached inside his jacket he pulled out a frag grenade, activated it, and threw it down. Amtar dove back noticing how slow the grenade exploded before his HUD went to static from the force of the explosion. Amtar took off the helmet and walked over to the body of the thug, to make sure that he was dead. Then as if nothing unusual had just happened Amtar walked over to the counter and handed the stunned rodian 1,000 credits to pay for the mess and new coolant pipes. He then left the shop, taking the vibrosword from the dead thug along the way, and took a taxi back to his ship. Once they had repaired the coolant pipes he started to fly out to the remains of Thundershocker to search for anything salvageable.

As he arrived at the wreckage of Thundershocker, Amtar saw several battle cruisers around the main hull. I’d better find a way to look like another normal piece of debris. Amtar turned to aim at a hangar and fired the engines in one burst, then shut down all systems other than weapons and radar. He could see the atmosphere was still inside the hangar bay. The hangar shield must be active. He slid past the battle cruisers and entered the hangar. He told Esbeedee to stay at the weapons system and watch for anyone suspicious, opened the hatch, and quietly slipped out, searching for any enemies. The first thing he noticed was that the air was hot and moist. Probably proton torpedoes. He then noticed that the blast doors were open. The atmosphere must still be in most of the ship. I wonder if there are any survivors. Amtar found a turbolift, took it to the bridge, and stepped into the bridge area. He noticed that all the crew was dead, along with some people who weren’t crew. All of the dead bodies had blaster marks on them. Then he heard the crackling of a fusion cutter behind the weapons terminal. Amtar pulled out his Verpine shatter gun and checked the ammo. He jumped around the terminal ready for a fight, and saw a woman using a fusion cutter. She spun around and pulled out a blaster pistol when Amtar jumped out. After a moment when she saw he wasn't trying to harm her, she asked “Who are you and what do you want here?“ "I am Amtar Kyramud, Mand’alor,” Amtar answered.   “I am Ilesa Meshurok,” she said.    “What are you doing here?” Amtar asked.    “I am trying to fix this weapons system so that I can blow those battle cruisers back to where they came from,” Ilesa answered.    “There’s no use, the cannons have been vaporized, but you can come with me. I have enough room for more people," Amtar said. “Thank you, I just need to get a few items,” Ilesa said. Later they met at the hangar and loaded the items they had salvaged into durasteel containers; Amtar found out that Ilesa was a specialist with the E-Web cannon. After they left Thundershocker they flew down towards Coruscant, Amtar had quite forgotten the battle cruisers until he saw the missile lock alert in the main viewport. "Esbeedee, fire something to stop those missiles!" Amtar said. Esbeedee launched several groups of interceptor missiles at the incoming explosives. "Get us out of here!" Ilesa shouted. "Working on it!" Amtar replied. He raised their speed, and shot off into hyperspace.

"Where are we going?" Ilesa asked.

"We are going to fly past Coroscaunt and then come back, so they don't know it is us" Amtar replied

"Oh, ok" Ilesa said

They flew for a little while then Amtar stopped in an asteroid field.

"I think this is a good place to turn around," Amtar said

"How did you come to be Mand'alor? I know that that is the highest title you can earn." Ilesa asked.

"Well..."



I was fighting my way through wave after wave of hssiss, sent by Darth Landin, soon after when I had found that I had the force, when all of a sudden I received a message, requesting that I return to HQ. I dispatched the hssiss I was fighting and headed off towards our HQ. Upon my return I learned that the hssiss were moving in on one of our communications buildings. Goran Beviin, the current Mand'alor, was personally overseeing the defense, and requesting that I be there. I hurried to the communications building, and was shocked by the amount of soldiers commandos Goran Beviin had pulled out of battle to defend this one building. I was put on the front lines. We could see the hssiss approaching from the north and west. As they drew near as one all of us on the front line, as one unsheathed our vibroswords. [not everyone will have a vibrosword...many will have a beskad] As their forces collided with ours the sounds of clashing swords, roars, and blaster shots, were all I could hear. I was first attacked by one who decided that he was going to try brute force do defeat me, I swung my vibrosword hard up to block one lunge. I was prepared for anything that he could throw at me. He tried to behead me with a vicious bite that cost him his balance and gave me an advantage, I stabbed him through three times, Once through the stomach, once through the heart, and once through the head, I had only just removed my sword from his body when a second challenged me, I blocked his first blow with the very tip of my sword and shoved it hard in a maneuver that should have slid the sword down it's throat and choked it to death, but it bit down and pulled my sword out of my hand. I ejected the wrist mounted vibroblades built into my gauntlets, and in one final swipe i slit its throat. Before I managed to grab my sword pull my sword out, another one assaulted me, trying to take me out before I had a weapon. However, he didn't see my arms until the last second when i managed to dig one into two of his legs. [One vibroshiv in both calves?] He tried to land a blow to my head but I managed to trip him up[hssiss are HUGE] and pull out both blades from his legs and sink them into his face, as I got up, I had the familiar sensation of my body moving itself, killing anything in its way. Then I saw the hssiss dragging a still struggling man away, so I gave chase. After I caught up with them I smashed my sword into the creature's leg, effectively stopping it, but as it turned I saw the attack coming from behind me reflected in it's eyes. I knew as I turned that my turn was too late, it slammed into me knocking me out. A while later I woke up in some sort of camp, my hands were somehow attached to the wall behind me. I could see at least twelve other prisoners, We need to find a way to escape, then I heard someone walking into our tent, through the door behind me,

"So which of you wants to live?" Someone asked.

No one answered.

"Do you all dare to spurn Darth Landin? I will return later, and you had better hope one of you is willing to tell me where your main HQ is."

As he left the tent I memorized that name, in order to remember who I most wanted to kill. "What did they attach us to this pole with?" I asked.

"I don't know, some sort of Force trick," someone answered.

"Let me try to get us out," Amtar said.

I concentrated hard on releasing the attaching mechanisims. I felt strange, almost like I was floating. Then all of a sudden I felt whatever held me there dissappear. I stood up and shook my hands to get the blood flowing. After my circulation had returned to my hands, I turned around and looked at the other's bonds. I noticet the glowing bands, then I concentrated the same way I had done with mine, and the bonds dissappeared. After I released them, we crept out of the tent and saw that it was pitch black outside. Remembering that Darth Landin said he was coming back, we slid out of the camp, and quickly ran back to the battlefield. There, we saw that we were the only survivors. So I took the title of Mand'alor. [maybe not so fast, we don't know if Boba Fett died, and he will likely be dead by the time of the battle anyway...]



By the time Amtar had finished his tale they were back at Coruscant.

"Wow" Ilesa said

"Yes" Amtar agreed.

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El'endia was eating breakfast when his apartment door chimed. Wiping his mouth with a piece of flimsiplast, he got up and made his way over to the door. I wonder who could be calling at this hour. Maybe it's Amtar again. Before he opened the door, El'endia expanded his awareness towards whoever was outside his dwelling. Yup, it's that Mandalorian again. Opening the door, El'endia said, "Back so soon?"

"May I come in?" Amtar asked.

El'endia moved aside to allow Amtar into his home, "Yes, you may."

As Amtar strode in, he swept the room for electronic bugs with his built-in helmet sensors. Okay, it's clean. Well, electronically clean. Jeepers, El'endia needs to bring in an exterminator to get rid of this granite slug infestation. "We need to talk."

What could be the problem? "Okay, lets go sit over here," pointing to a set of chairs surrounding a dejarik table.

Amtar remained standing, "No thanks, I prefer to stay standing."

"If you wish," said El'endia. "Now, you wanted to talk about something."

"Yes. Tell me more about who you fought yesterday."

"You might want to sit down, it's a long story, like I said yesterday."

"I've got all the time in the world, and I don't need to sit down."

"While I'm talking, shall we play a game of dejarik?"

"Yes, we shall. Be warned, I have played this game countless times before, and you might lose."

"Oh really? Let's find out! Anyway, about Landin..."

[flash back by Lee]

"Would you mind if I, and a friend I acquired on Thundershocker stay with you?" Amtar asked.

"Not at all!" El'endia replied.

"I'll go get her then," said Amtar, walking out to the turbolift.

He hurried to where he had parked Warhammer.

"Ilesa, he said we could stay with him."

"Allright, let's go," Ilesa replied

Before they left, Amtar instructed Esbeedee to stay and guard the ship.