Brokering, Business, and a Bridge
Chapter V | Episode V | 1/3/2020
Rath had spent the entire night working on restoring R5, while the rest of the crew slept. But even so, he had not come even remotely close to repairing the severely damaged droid. To say the damage done was catastrophic would be an understatement, and the Chiss knew that he would not be reviving his friend any time soon.
Knowing he’d need assistance, he decided to put his mechanical and technological know-how to his benefit. Taking inspiration from his own “intelligent” toolbox, Rath fashioned a set of mechanical arms hooked up to a spare computer terminal, the device could essentially work on repairing the droid without his supervision. At a much slower pace, admittedly, but anything that could free up his time was a benefit. He knew he couldn’t work on the droid at all times, after all. Twil would surely be haranguing him to build that false holocron when he awoke, for one thing.
Just as he finished setting up his new auto-repairing machine, the others began to emerge from the spare rooms Rath had offered them for the night. The data tape analysis had also just finished.
Eager to see the contents, Rath rushed to the pinging terminal. What he found was not more text, but an actual audio recording. Remembering the disturbing information he had already found on the data tape, Rath hesitantly played the recording.
The audio was badly deteriorated, but the words were clear enough to hear. The problem was not the quality of the audio, but the actual words being said. The words being spoken came out in harsh yells. Some of it was completely foreign to Rath. He had no idea what language was being spoken. But other bits were clearly an ancient Cheunh dialect. It was difficult to make out, but there was no mistaking it was Cheunh.
At this point the others had joined Rath, listening in on what surely sounded just like gibberish to them. All except one. Rath turned to his brother and asked, “Can you make any of it out?”
Nox narrowed his eyes and said, “Only pieces. It sounds like battle commands. Positioning, attack formations. That sort of thing.”
“They were fighting an alien species.” Zanroy cut in.
Rath turned to face the human in shock, assuming that he had somehow understood Rath’s conversation with his brother in their native tongue. But Zanroy was staring at the terminal screen, his eyes distant.
“I can see it.” Zanroy said, still staring off, “They’re angry at the Chiss. They claim the Chiss are abusing the life wind. That they don’t deserve it.”
“Oh!” Twil said, suddenly, “I can show you guys!”
It was then that Rath understood what was happening. Zanroy was having a vision of the past event, and now Twil would use his own powers to show us what Zanroy saw. This phenomenon was still new to Rath, and he found it unsettling, to say the least, but any information he could gather was worth the price.
Soon, his mind’s eye was no longer his own, as he saw the ancient battle unfold. Ancient Chiss soldiers were indeed in a battle with a strange alien species. The aliens were tall, with slightly elongated necks. Their faces were narrow, but their heads flattened out at the top and spread out to the sides. They were shouting at the enemy Chiss in a language Rath still could not comprehend. Meanwhile the Chiss were indeed issuing battle commands. The vision was hazy and the dialect was so ancient it was almost unintelligible, but Rath did hear one word in regards to the “life wind” that the alien species were arguing about, which struck a deep, deep chord: ozyly-esehembo.
“Ozyly-esehembo.” Rath repeated as the vision ended, looking towards Nox for confirmation.
Nox’s face was a look of shock and bewilderment. Rath had explained Zanroy and Twil’s powers of “the Force.” But he remembered this was the first time he had ever actually experienced it.
“Sorry, should have warned you.” Rath said.
Nox shook his head and laughed, “I can see what you mean by ‘settling’ now.”
“But you did hear what I heard right?” Rath asked.
Nox nodded, all amusement from his face now gone.
“Uh, excuse me. Care to fill us in on what’s going on?” Twil interrupted.
Rath turned, shaking his head, and said, “Ozyly-esehembo.”
“Gesundheit?” Twil replied.
“Sorry.” Rath replied, “In Basic, it would translate to sky-walker.”
“Sky-walker?” Twil replied, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rath turned to look at his brother once more, looking for confirmation.
Nox simply nodded, understanding enough of the conversation to know where it was headed.
Nodding in reply, Rath turned back to face the others, “This is a deeply guarded Chiss secret. Even most Chiss do not know about the oz-. About the sky-walkers. So, before I continue, I must ask that you respect this information, and never repeat it to anyone.”
Being met with confused stares, Rath continued, “A very select few of my people are born with a special gift that we have come to call Second Sight. You would refer to it as the Force.”
“Wait, Chiss can use the Force?” Twil interrupted, “You always said your people can’t do what we do.”
“They can’t.” Rath replied, “Second Sight, the Force, works differently for my people. The only abilities they have relate to seeing. Seeing into the future, to see events before they occur. And more importantly, the power does not last. Only children can make use of second sight, by the time they reach adulthood, the power fades to nothing.”
“That’s strange.” Twil replied.
“So, why is this such a closely guarded secret?” Zanroy asked.
“It’s a secret because it is how the Chiss were able to maintain their dominance over their space of the Unknown Regions.” Rath explained, “Traveling in the Unknown Regions is perilous at the best of times. There are no Hyperspace routes out there. It’s too unstable for such things. So all travel must be made through much more complicated, much slower means. Unless, your pilot is gifted with second sight. In which case, you can travel through hyperspace. A second sight pilot can see any obstacle in the path ahead of time, and make pinpoint alterations to the flight path to avoid disaster.”
“So, your children pilot your ships?” Idozzi asked.
“Only the most important ships. Defense fleets and the like. Ordinary spacers travel through the slower means. Hence why most Chiss don’t even know about the sky-walkers.”
“Interesting.” Twil replied, “But what does any of that have to do with the data tape?”
“Apparently that alien species, which… come to think of it…” Rath drifted off, “I remember reading about those things. In the archives. I came across an entry with a sketch that looked very similar to those aliens. It mentioned something about how they used something they called the ‘life wind’ which my people compared to second sight. In other words, they were Force users. Hmm… well, apparently those aliens thought our use of second sight was abusing the power…”
“And what does any of that have to do with us?” Twil asked, starting to show signs of impatience.
“I don’t know.” Rath replied plainly, “You’re the one who led us to that dying planet. I thought those temples might have been Sith in design, but based on these new findings, I’m not sure anymore. It’s possible those ruins predate even those old wars.”
“But until we’re able to find some sort of significance in all this, I suggest we move on to more pressing matters.” Rath concluded, “What is your plan for Irbian?”
Twil was surprised at the sudden change of topic, but glad for it. He was hardly interested in ancient conflicts, although he admittedly was suddenly eager to meet one of these sky-walkers. They sounded fascinating to him.
“Uh, I don’t really have one.” Twil admitted.
“Mmhmm, just gonna go storm the castle and save the damsel in distress, then?” Rath asked sarcastically.
“Why not?” Twil asked.
“Might I offer you do at least a little bit of reconnaissance before attacking headlong?” Rath asked, heading to another computer terminal.
Soon enough, Rath had taken on the form of a Falleen, and had a Nemoidian on the screen.
“Hello, Kuto Jaral.” Rath greeted the Nemoidian.
“Hey there! It’s been a while.” Kuto replied, “So what is it you need this time?”
“I’m looking for information on Duke Erron Irbian.”
“Irbian? That spoiled Imperial punk?” Kuto spat, “What do you need to know?”
“Not popular with the locals, I take it?” Rath replied.
“No Imperial is popular here on Cato Nemoidia.” Kuto replied sourly, “Course, you won’t hear any of us saying that. Except for maybe the White Scars.”
“Ah, yes, the local gangsters.” Rath replied, “Mostly, I’m interested in the Imperial Palace that he claims is his residence.”
“Hardly call it a palace.” Kuto replied, “More of a fancy office building with a barracks attached to it.”
“What’s the security like?”
“Few dozen stormtroopers.” Kuto shrugged, “You planning on breaking in or something?”
Rath laughed lightly, “No, not me. And I’m not paying you to ask me the questions, Kuto.”
“Right, right.” Kuto replied, waving a hand, “Well, whoever your client is, tell him good luck. Won’t be sorry to see the back of that Imperial snob if you get my meaning.”
“Goodbye, Kuto.” Rath ended the call.
“Well, that’s a start.” Rath said, turning back to face Twil.
“Hmm.” Twil replied, “Mind If I make a few calls myself?”
“What do you need?” Rath asked.
“Figured I’d try Merl again, see if he’s got any info on Solomahal.” Twil answered.
Rath stepped aside and gestured towards the console.
As Twil dialed up the number, Merl answered, clearly wearing clothes that indicated he was headed to bed for the night. “Oh, hey there Captain Twil!” Merl greeted him.
“Hey Merl!” Twil replied, relieved to see his old friend was indeed still safe, “I just thought I’d follow up on our conversation earlier.”
“Oh, right.” Merl replied, “Well, yeah, I went down there, but the place was all barred up. Looks like the owner closed up shop some time ago. Couldn’t tell ya when exactly. Not really my kind of place, ya know?”
“Sure, sure.” Twil replied, deep in thought, “Well, thanks anyway. I’ll have to come back some time and pay you guys a proper visit.”
“Well, I’d recommend waiting until these Empire idiots ship out.” Merl grumbled, “They’re making the place a lot less fun. Cloud City just ain’t what it used to be.”
“I’ll bet.” Twil replied. Saying his goodbyes, he then tried making a few other calls. But every time the call was answered, the call ended, as if the people on the other end were hanging up.
“Twil, what are you doing?” Rath asked.
“I’m trying to contact some business associates on Coruscant.” Twil replied annoyed, “But no one’s wanting to talk.”
“Coruscant?” Rath asked.
“I want to know if the Purple Pearl is still at the Good Trader.” Twil explained.
“Ah.” Rath replied, “I think I may know someone.”
Seconds later, Rath had a call going with a scummy looking Twi’lek thug. Meanwhile, Rath himself had taken on the form of a monstrous looking Gen’dai.
“Folnuja, I’ve got a job for you.” Rath started, acting much more gruffly than usual.
“Sure thing! What’s the job?” The shifty Twi’lek replied.
“You know of a place called the Good Trader?”
“Oh, yeah! That place got torn up something fierce a little while back. Saw some scavengers trying to get in just a couple days ago. They got torn to shreds by the automated security turrets though.” Folnuja replied.
“I need you to get in there and let me know if there’s still a purple YT-1300 in it’s docking bay.” Rath continued, “I’ve got a buyer lined up for that particular ship.”
“What?! Sneak in there? You nuts? I don’t wanna end up riddled with blaster holes.” Folnuja argued.
“How would you feel about doing the job for five hundred credits?” Rath asked.
The screen was a blur of visual noise as the communicator was haphazardly being tugged around.
“Five hundred?” Twil whispered angrily.
“Relax.” Rath replied quietly.
“Ok, I’m here!” Folnuja said, out of breath, “Can’t see the docking bay from outside though.”
“Payment on delivery of information, Folnuja.” Rath reprimanded the Twi’lek.
“Hang on.” Twil interrupted. Keying in his own datapad, he was able to still access the Good Trader’s security remotely. “Okay, he’s got five minutes.”
“Folnuja, security has been temporarily disabled.” Rath informed the Twi’lek, “Act quickly.”
“Uh… okay.” Folnuja replied wearily.
Twil watched the video screen in horror as he saw the absolute destruction that had been done to his Coruscant headquarters. Finally, the Twi’lek arrived in the docking bay. It was as empty and destroyed as the rest of the building, causing his heart to sink even further.
“Nothin’ here.” Folnuja said.
“Very well, you’ve earned your hundred credits.” Rath replied.
“A hundred?! You said five hundred!” Folnuja argued.
“No, I said you could earn a fine hundred credits for the job. Do not blame me if you misunderstood my words due to your inferior communications equipment.” Rath replied smoothly.
Folnuja then began shout Twi’lek curses at Rath.
“Folnuja, if you would like any sort of payment at all, and in fact, if you’d like to keep your life, I suggest leaving that place. Security will be back up soon.” Rath interrupted the foul mouthed Twi’lek.
Folnuja’s eyes grew wide. He shouted one final insult before cutting off the comm.
“Told you not to worry about the price.” Rath said, returning to his normal form.
“Yeah.” Twil replied, still shaken over what he had seen.
“Sorry, Twil.” Rath replied, “It’s possible Irbian has it. Speaking of, you’re still insistent on trying to negotiate with him first?”
“It’s worth a shot.” Twil replied, you know I’ve talked my way out of worse situations that that.
“Then I’ll need to get to work on the fake.” Rath replied, “May I see it?”
Realizing Rath was referring to the holocron, Twil pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to the Chiss. Immediately, the holocron sprung to life, and Suljo Warde’s gatekeeper began reprimanding Rath.
“You are not the current owner of this holocron. Please return me to Captain Twil Pinn.”
“Master Warde, I’m right here!” Twil hollered, running into view of the gatekeeper. He then explained Rath’s plan to create a fake to hand off to the Duke to save Aklee.
“I see. That is a very clever plan, Captain Twil.” The gatekeeper replied.
“Thanks!” Twil beamed.
“Uh, yeah.” Rath interrupted, “That said, it would make this easier if you could tell me the physical mechanics involved in making one of these. Obviously, it won’t have any actual function, there won’t be any of your Force powers involved in it. But if I can create a convincing enough fake by just the actual materials used, it should do the job to fool the Duke.”
“Certainly, I understand.” The gatekeeper replied.
Twil now had a list of materials needed, and was in Brentaal IV proper with Idozzi and Zanroy to do some much needed resupplying and to get Rath the parts he needed to recreate the holocron.
After finding the best weapons merchant in town to get Idozzi a new blaster, he headed off to a raw materials merchant to get Rath’s parts. Upon arriving at the store, however, he was greeted by a small, dome shaped, red droid who was blaring a series of alarms at him.
Seconds later, a Mirialan woman appeared, shouting, “You! Where do you get off showing your face-! Wait. You’re not him. Stupid droid, that’s not the same Zeltron!” She yelled, smacking the little droid, “So sorry about that. How can I help you?”
Twil laughed, and said, “Uh, hi, yeah, I’m looking for some of these materials.” He then presented the woman with the list.
The Mirialan raised her eyebrows, and said “What on earth are you building with this?”
“Ah, got a good mechanic friend, he’s rebuilding a droid, said he needed some materials.” Twil replied nonchalantly.
“Your friend is rebuilding a droid with this?” The Mirialan asked.
Suddenly the small droid beeped at her.
“Forget it!” She said, “You wouldn’t be worth even a fraction of these parts.” She then turned back to Twil, “Yeah, I’ve got what you need, course it won’t be cheap.”
“I understand, you’ve got a business to run. I’m a businessman myself, actually. I run a galactic shipping company. I’d love to tell you all about it sometime, maybe over dinner?” Twil asked, unleashing his pheromones on the woman.
The Mirialan gave Twil a look that seemed to be a mixture of revulsion and intrigue, “After that last Zeltron, I don’t know how I could possibly trust another. But… you’re different. I can tell. Yeah, okay, sure. I’d love to go to dinner.”
“Fantastic!” Twil replied, overjoyed at the prospect from both a business standpoint and a romantic one, “How about five tonight? I’ll meet you here.”
“Sounds great.” The Mirialan replied, “Oh, by the way, what’s your name?”
“Oh, right, where are my manners? I’m Twil, Captain Twil Pinn. And You?”
“You can call me Janrose.”
When Rath saw that only Zanroy had returned, with boxes full of material and equipment, he only gave the Human a questioning look, as he took the materials off his hands.
“Twil has a date.” Znroy replied in an all too familiar voice of boredom mixed with annoyance.
“Of course he does.” Rath said rolling his eyes, getting to work on the holocron.
Twil was all too happy to go to dinner with the beautiful Mirialan woman. After all the chaos and fighting that he’d been embroiled in the past few weeks, it was nice to get back to some semblance of normal. Even if it was temporary.
It helped that the date was going far better than he had hoped. Janrose was very interested in Twil’s business, and Twil had finally found in her a pilot to take control of his KDY Guardian transport which he had been losing far too much money on using third rate contractors.
“So, basically, you’d have a ship of your own. You’re welcome to find your own crew. And you’d be doing large bulk shipping across the galaxy through my company, but under a pseudo-company name so it’ll look like it’s you’re own independent business, to avoid the troubles I’ve been dealing with lately.” Twil concluded.
“This all sounds too good to be true, and more than a little sketchy regarding those issues you said you’ve had with the Empire lately. But I’m more than tired of playing the Empire’s games as it is.” Janrose replied, “Alright Captain Twil, you’ve got yourself a pilot.”
“Excellent!” Twil shouted excitedly, “I think this calls for a celebratory drink! Waiter!”
When Twil arrived back at base later that night, Rath was still hard at work in his workshop, working on the holocron, while all the others had retired for the night.
“Twil.” Rath called out to him, not looking up from his work.
“What’s up, buddy?” Twil asked.
“Otto messaged me, he got Venlana’s contact info. I’ve relayed it to your datapad.”
“Excellent. I’ll need to follow up on that.” Twil replied.
“There’s one more thing that occurred to me while you were away.”
“Shoot.”
Rath finally set down his work and turned towards Twil, “Those coordinates I found from Vex, that I sent those former clients to investigate. It occurs to me that we may be able to pinpoint their significance a little better.”
“How do you mean?” Twil asked, only halfway following the strange conversation.
“The whole reason I let you invade my mind, to know my family as I know them. You said you can ‘sense’ a person’s general direction. Well, if you can sense a direction where my family is, and that direction lines up with one of those coordinates. Then that might help me pinpoint where they are.”
Rath then headed over to a terminal that Twil had not seen Rath use before. Upon activation, a massive holomap of the entire galaxy splayed out throughout the entire room.
“We are here.” Rath said pointing to one of the millions of planets on display, which lit up a bright blue color, “The two coordinates I got from Vex are here, and here. Rath said, pointing again, with two more planets lighting up, this time in red. If you’re able to sense any of my family in those directions, then I might be able to narrow down my searches.”
“I see what you’re getting at.” Twil replied, “Okay, sure.”
Twil then tried his best to focus in on the Force, to sense Rath’s family, which he felt like he knew quite well at this point. Much to even his surprise, he could sense them. But the direction wasn’t anywhere near the locations Rath had pointed out.
“I can sense them.” Twil said, “But they’re nowhere near there. The direction is… there.” Twil said, pointing to an area in the unknown regions. And are Rath and Twil both instantly recognized.
“The second compass coordinate.” Rath said, slumping into his chair.
“Rath! After eight years, you finally know where your family is being held! Isn’t that exciting?” Twil asked, clearly pleased with himself.
But Rath was a little too in shock. They were there. He knew exactly where they were. And yet, there was nothing he could do about it. If they were there, then that meant the Empire was there. It could very well be the location the Empire had been sending all those kyber crystal shipments. Who knew what kind of defenses a place like that had. How many planet destroying ships were they building on that planet? Was that planet dying as well? How much time did Rath actually have? For the first time in eight years, he had an answer, but much to his own shock he had no idea what to actually do with the information.
“It’s a start.” Was all he was able to say, “Thanks Twil. I’ll keep working on this. It should be ready by morning.”
Twil gave Rath an odd look, most likely due to his complete lack of excitement, but said, “Sure thing. Get some rest yourself.”
Rath didn’t respond as he had already resumed work.
“Wow. This thing looks like an exact duplicate.” Twil said, holding the fake in his hands.
“That was the intention.” Rath replied.
Twil laughed, “Well, job well done then!”
“Twil you should get going.” Rath said, “Get to Cato Nemoidia, scout out the Imperial palace, get some information before acting.”
“And you’ll join up with us later?” Twil asked, again.
“I’ll follow in half a day’s time.” Rath replied, “I don’t think it wise to travel all together on this. If Irbian is expecting you, and things go south, you’ll need someone on the outside.”
“True.” Twil agreed.
“Besides, I’ve still got some things I need to get done here.” Rath added.
“Plus you need to rest.” Twil reprimanded, “You look awful.”
“I’ll rest on the flight there.” Rath said with a wave of his hand.
Twil sighed, but headed out to the Sovereign, where the rest of the crew was waiting. With little fanfare, Twil got the Sovereign into the air, and into hyperspace. Thanks to the fact that both Brentaal IV and Cato Nemoidia were pretty much directly on the Hydian Way, the trip to the Imperial Controlled planet was not as long as Twil was expecting it to be.
Soon, they were looming over the planet, he noted that the entire planet was covered in strange cities built upon massive bridges connected between large jutting rocks.
“Bridges.” He shuddered to himself, thinking back to one very different bridge in particular.
As they entered the atmosphere of Cato Nemoidia, a very bored sounding Imperial hailed them, using the false call sign Twil had set up.
“Golden Sparrow, you are cleared to dock at landing port Besh. Please note that all passengers entering the city will be subject to standard search procedures. Docking fee will be three hundred credits per day.”
“Understood.” Twil said, holding his tongue on the outrageous price of a docking fee. The less commotion they caused the better, after all.
“They’re gonna search us? Zanroy asked, nervously.
“Standard Imperial procedure.” Twil replied, “As long as you don’t look too sketchy, they usually don’t bother too much with actually searching.”
As the three reached the check point, however, Twil found that he was very wrong. These Imperials were scanning each individual entering the city. He could only hope their scanners weren’t set to detect the kind of stuff they were carrying.
As Twil reached the Imperial with the scanner, the machine beeped loudly at an item in Twil’s pack.
“Alright, open it up.” The Imperial said, dully.
As he did so the Imperial snatched the holocron out of Twil’s pack and asked, “What’s this?”
“That? Oh it’s just some fancy flimsiplast weight I found off world. Seemed like the right kind of shiny pretty toy I could pawn it off for a good price here to one of the Nemoidians.” Twil lied.
The Imperial eyed him wearily, “Uh huh… A likely story for a spice runner if you ask me. Seem’s like the perfect kind of thing to stash some spice.”
“Spice?” Twil asked, holding back a laugh, “How would I get spice in that? Beisides which, look at it, that’s way too fancy to use as a spice container, that thing is probably worth more than any amount of spice it could potentially hold.”
The Imperial appraised the holocron again and said, “Yeah, yeah. Get on then.” Waving him through.
While Twil dealt with his issues, Zanroy was having problems of his own. The Imperial he was dealing with had found his newly constructed lightsaber.
“What’s this supposed to be, eh?” The Imperial asked.
“Oh, just some scrap project I’ve been working on.” Zanroy replied, attempting to appear calm, “I like to tinker with different things, you know.”
The Imperial eyed him suspiciously, “Looks a little too refined for scrap. What is it?”
Just then, the Imperial accidentally ignited the lightsaber, causing the pure white blade to spring to life, barely missing the Imperial.
“What the hell?!” The Imperial shouted, dropping the saber on the table, jumping backwards.
Before Zanroy could say any more, Twil jumped in and turned off the saber. “Sorry about that!” Twil exclaimed, “My friend here likes to tinker with stuff. This is just a new prototype of a fusion cutter he’s been working on. Obviously it has some kinks that still need to be worked out.”
“Alright, alright, you lot get out of here. And don’t be messing with that fusion cutter in this city. You could hurt someone.” Another Imperial spoke up.
“Yes sir!” Twil said, shepherding Zanroy and Idozzi into the city proper.
“Well, that could have gone better.” Idozzi said, annoyed.
“Could have gone a lot worse.” Twil replied with a smile.
“Yeah, yeah.” Zanroy said, annoyed, “Let’s just get to work.”
Most of the day had been spent scouting out Cato Nemoidia. Twil was anxious to save Aklee, but he knew he had time. More importantly, he knew that Suljo Warde had come here after creating the holocron. And if there was a data crystal here, he wanted to collect it first, before causing all hell to break loose in the city when they attempted to save Aklee. Despite his best hopes, he knew that Irbian would most likely not settle for a fair trade off.
Zanroy had been scouting the Imperial palace, which in fact was really nothing more than an elegant office building attached to a courtyard with minimal security, and an Imperial barracks.
Meanwhile, Twil had decided to consult with Suljo Warde. Heading to one of the more refined restaurants in the city, he obtained a private dining room with Idozzi, on the pretense of a nice private dinner.
Before activating the holocron, though, Twil could sense that the waiter was hovering near the door to their dining room. Using a slight mind trick, he caused the waiter to rush off. And from the sound of it, he rushed right into another waiter. Suddenly, there was pure chaos reigning outside the door, but Twil could hardly be bothered with that. He activated the holocron, and Suljo Warde’s gatekeeper appeared once more.
“You are in the right area, Captain Twil.” The gatekeeper greeted him, “Suljo Warde certainly came to this city after he created this holocron.”
“That’s good to hear!” Twil replied, “So, there’s a data crystal here after all?”
The gatekeeper was silent for a time, as if thinking, before saying, “I believe so, yes. But I am unsure of it’s exact location.”
“These data crystals, do they give off any sort of Force energy?” Twil asked, reaching for any way to pinpoint the location.
The gatekeeper thought again, and said, “Yes, Captain Twil, they are much like kyber crystals, in that regard.”
“Hmm.” Twil mused.
He then reached out with the Force. Much to his shock, he could sense the slightest, faintest hint of something akin to a kyber crystal, somewhere in the center of the city.
“That’s it!” Twil said excitedly.
However, he was quickly interrupted as the brouhaha outside his room had finally spilled over, quite literally, as one of the walls of his private room collapsed, as four drunken, brawling Nemoidians came crashing through.
Before Twil could so much as react, the Nemoidians spotted the active holocron, and almost in unison, they shouted, “Suljo Warde?!”
