.6 Alec Uban used the several days that he had to himself before his fellow Jedi arrived to the fullest extent. He explored the capitol city of Xolatis at length, watching the customs and ways of the aliens that lived there. There was a great volume of an unknown species that walked the streets in the day and at night, past the curfew which Alec decided to ignore. They were Humanoid, similar to him in physical form but their skin wasn’t pale and chalky white. Their eyes were a similar drab gray or olive green. He also observed they all seemed to be wearing some kind of article of clothing to cover all of their skin. Uban guessed that they were averse to their sun’s natural light. Uban wasn’t like many Jedi in a distinctive way—he did not familiarize himself with alien or foreign surroundings as quickly or as surely, he eventually let them soak into him, and let the Force direct him about Xolatis in whatever way it would. It was the day before his padawan Ikeeriot and Master Beserek and Anduil Siron came to Xolatis when he went out into the jungle, sensing a minute darkness within the great green that flanked all the boundaries of the city. There were dozens of unknown creatures lazing on the thick red branches that were strewn about all above his head when he went headlong into the forest. The living Force was an amazing symphony in the green forest of the Kalar’tai: the natives who stayed away from Lord Darchind’s capitol. The Force reverberated off of Uban constantly, as though he was a pebble being dropped into the direct center of an unending ocean, sending ripples out in all directions but also rocking back to him eventually. This was how he came to know such environments: not through his eyes, ears or perhaps scent, but through the Force. It took him a few hours to recognize how deep he’d gone into the Force and likewise the forest, but it was mid-afternoon when the small darkness he’d sensed growing in the forest became a hungry pang in the side of his stomach. There was a hollow, cold thing out there in the jungle, which batted his Force calm away angrily, trying to evade him. For that creature, there was no hope in evading Uban’s attention. Alec went further into the forest, trying to ready himself with what he might have to deal with. He had a vague sense that this disturbance in the Force might just be a predator enjoying the spoils of his hunt, but also a clear sense that it could very well be the revolutionaries trying to cover their tracks. Hopefully I can speak with them, maybe even find out more to this story of Darchind’s rise to power. Something was definitely missing . . The Jedi Master was glad he hadn’t brought his cloak for two reasons: the humidity and heat of the jungle would have clogged it with unneeded weight and the fact that Uban wouldn’t have been able to fully appreciate the beauty of the jungle around him. Just after crossing to the middle of a shallow streambed he came upon a water dwelling cross between an insect and some kind of reptilian. It had six legs and a tail that curved off to two sides in a V-fork at it’s end. It was a violet hue, and he noted it looked somewhat like Ikeeriot’s time he’d been bitten by an indigenous creature of Tatooine. What had the thing been called? A wamprat, Uban remembered. The lizard sped across the surface of the slow moving stream on it’s six nimble and spindly legs, skirting the edge first looking for young fish then going out into the middle of the creek. Uban smiled distantly, and when he stepped onto the other side of the river, he felt a dramatic change through the Force. It was colder, but that wasn’t just it—the jungle, a usual cacophony of critter noises and avian calls fell silent on this side. Uban’s smile faded slowly and drew into a concentrated look of concern. Had that been blaster fire he’d just heard? He walked on, and sure enough in the next ten meters of vine congested jungle he heard the mewing of distant laser fire. His hand touched the lightsaber at his side but decided against it for the moment. Perhaps they’re just holding target practice. I don’t want to have to come into their camp with a weapon in my hand. Like the vaguest of tremblings in the Force he’d felt, he could no longer believe he was going to end this conflict on Xolatis peacefully. Picking up the pace to a brisk jog, he filled his legs with the Force, drawing on it’s power like breathing in the air around him, it’s liquid Force streamed up and down his legs, relaxing and cooling his muscles as they tired and fending off his age’s cramps and early fatigue. Sweat slid down his shaved head as he started to run toward the blaster fire, which was more constant now, but he heard another weapon amid the tumult of the halting mewing of the lasers. A buzz, or a hum. He was sprinting through the jungle now, hesitating whether or not the weapons he was hearing were really shooting against the hum of a lightsaber. As far as he knew, no one else had been dispatched to Xolatis to deal with the situation, and he found it unlikely the Jedi Council would go over his head to do so. As far as he knew. Uban barely had time to stop at the edge of the jungle at the speed he was running at before he realized the edge was a literal edge, and there was a twenty foot drop-off at the end of the jungle. Breathing calmly and watching to his sides to see if there were any camp sentries, he crouched on his haunches and squinted through the foliage to see below. An encampment that was constructed out of a circle of deforested land, the place below him looked as if it were in a desert environment and the jungle had just crept up and stolen the land from it. This was not the case surely, because Alec could still feel the cold of the air, at least sixty degrees and he was in the jungle. It was very likely the result of the fight going on below him; a ramification exacted on the environment through the Force. Uban could see the man fighting the revolutionaries very clearly, and he even recognized he who was holding a blue bladed lightsaber. He wagged it through the air and batted away laser fire as if the shots had been taken by a child, and Uban knew this man had to be some Jedi who had strayed too far from the conventional maxims of Jedi: peace, justice; this wasn’t how this man fought. Uban had seen him kneeling before Lord Darchind, a man in a blue cloak with his hood drawn over his head. There was a Rodian male firing from behind the cover of a downed speeder. Another soldier, this one a female Human, was yelling to the Rodian for grenades, much to the dismay of the Rodian, who threw one only to have it halted above his head until it exploded, incinerating him. The Dark Jedi(for that was who Alec supposed this man was now) struck down two onrushing warriors: one was a human male and another a tall Trandoshan, a long way from home, Uban remarked in his thoughts. Before he could stand and drop down out of the forest, the Trandoshan’s head had been severed from it’s neck and the Human was halved by the man’s blue blade. Uban gathered himself in the Force and jumped down to the bottom of the encampment. There was smoke billowing out from the main compound in the center of the camp while smaller streams of dark gray were wisping out into the day’s blue sky. "Run!" Alec shouted to the female Human. "Get into the jungle!" Better she stays alive in the jungle, then I might be able to talk to her, salvage a better agreement between Darchind and the revolutionaries . .if one could be made after this. "Die scum!" She screamed, pulling a hold-out blaster from her sleeve. She shot twice at Alec, so fast that he barely had time to react—and when he did, he deflected them back toward her rather then away. He gritted his teeth and watched the red laser bolts slam into the woman and knock her dead to the ground. "Hold it." The man holding the blue lightsaber said to Alec. Uban leveled his own white lightsaber in front of him, waiting. "Why are you here? Lord Darchind told me I would be handling this." "This is Lord Darchind’s way of ‘handling’ a situation then, hm?" Alec Uban asked, gripping his lightsaber tightly. "Taking in a fallen Jedi and using him to do his bidding?" The man in the blue cloak laughed instantly. He threw his cloak off, revealing a black tunic and black pants, along with a pair of boots that glistened in the sun. He was a Human, but obviously disfigured by some kind of accident. Half of his face seemed to be melted and the features on that half were uneven with that of his other half. "You pitiful fool." He said. "Perhaps you remember me? My name is Vance D’leckan; and I am no fallen Jedi. I am Sith." Alec couldn’t help but let his jaw drop. This man was not a Sith. He couldn’t be. Sith held crimson lightsabers. They were extinct. The very fact that this man would say he was a Sith though—that raised a question in his mind. Was there someone training this man to become one? Vance said with a sneer, "I was a padawan of your ‘order’ once. Once I graduated to Knighthood, the Council sent me on a mission alone. It was suicide. They sent me to this," the man flicked his fingers over his half melted face. Uban shook his head slowly. "I don’t know anything about the Council sending you on a mission, and I’m sorry that I don’t remember you, but I’m going to give you one last chance to stop where you are. If you come with me back to Coruscant after all this is over, I will vouch for you to the Council. You were obviously in no shape to be sent on a mission and grief has shaken you. Turn back now—." He paused. "Please." He added desperately, looking at the ground, which was strewn with bodies. I can only vouch for him if they attacked him first . .if this was an unprovoked battle then he’ll be exiled . . "Ah!" Vance yelled out. "But I didn’t let them attack first! I was sent here on a mission to kill these violent anarchists!" "I was sent here to commence negotiations." Alec replied. If Darchind hadn’t suggested it to him, he would have done it anyway. If this wasn’t the only cell on the planet though, there would be reinforcements coming soon. "I’m sorry, but I won’t be detained any longer." Vance said. He started to walk to his right, which would have led him up a path back into the jungle through a narrow crevice in the rock wall surrounding the camp. "I can’t let you leave here, Vance." Uban said. "Come with me or I’ll be forced to—." "To what? Jedi?" Vance mocked. He had stopped walking and was bring his lightsaber up into his guard position. Alec sighed desperately. He permits me no choice. There is no passion; there is serenity. Alec Uban closed his eyes for one moment and felt a prickle in between his shoulder blades. He ducked easily but deftly. Vance’s blue blade swung right over Uban’s head and Uban could hear the hum of the lightsaber well enough to know he might be missing an ear the next time he decided to bring the code too far into battle with him. Graceless old legs, he griped inwardly as he leapt backward aided by the Force, feeling the soreness in his joints. Uban flipped backward and landed easily on his feet, ushering the younger combatant toward him by directing his white lightsaber out in front of him laterally and smiling. "Venerable, old man." Vance spat. He rushed in and slammed his lightsaber down, blue on white, and a blast of cold air expanded outward from them, the Force crackling between them. Uban danced backward a few steps and let Vance rush in again, but once the young man’s guard was down he went on the offensive. Uban slashed at Vance’s legs, bringing the man’s guard down below his waist. Uban kicked Vance in the chest, pushing him backward into a stumble worthy of a fall from anyone else—but this man had once been trained as a Jedi, so he kept balanced on the balls of his feet. "Good, old man but—." Before Vance could finish, Uban stretched out his hand and pushed with all his Force might, an involuntary growl of thunder issuing from his grasp. Vance went tumbled through the air, landing with a crack of the back against the landspeeder the Rodian had been hiding behind. "Minds your manners, young one." Alec scolded, wiping his lip with his free wrist. Uban strode up the Vance, who was still on the ground when he felt the danger sense in between his shoulder blades once more. He flicked his lightsaber over to his free hand and let it dance behind his back, reacting fast enough to bat the laser shots away, but more freedom fighters were on their way to the camp. Someone must have escaped and tipped them off to the attack. Alec turned his head back just in time to see Vance swinging downward at him with both arms on his lightsaber’s hilt. No time! Alec thought. He dropped his lightsaber to the ground. Just have to hope I’m stronger then him! He raised his arms and clutched Vance’s wrists below the hands and held them there. They struggled, Vance roaring out of exhaustion. The Force flooded into Alec and he closed and opened his eyes calmly. The Force is my ally, not anger. "You dirty son of a nerfherder!" Vance screamed. With one last push of rage he tried to complete his swing. Alec would have been cut down the middle of his head had he not used the Force to pick up and ignite his lightsaber. He stabbed Vance through the chest and held it there for just a moment. Vance’s eyes went wide and bloodshot and he fell off the blade. His own blue lightsaber fell to the ground, extinguished. Uban knelt quickly by Vance and looked at the man’s eyes. There were tears rolling out of them, and Uban had no doubt such a wound would hurt that much. To break a former Jedi’s resolve like this though . . Vance coughed hoarsely. "You’ll—." Uban clipped his own lightsaber onto his belt and took Vance’s. "You’ll never win—he is—Sith . ." Vance gasped. His dying words. Uban shook his head at the fallen Jedi and tucked Vance’s lightsaber inside his tunic. He heard the crunches and footfalls behind him, not close, but within shooting distance. Uban stood up from his knees and groaned inwardly at the pain. Once I’m in the jungle I’ll be able to hide but now—. The mewl of blaster fire started to pepper the ground around him. Uban rushed back the way he’d come from, sprung into the jungle with a Force-aided leap and started his long journey back to the capitol.