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Author	Topic: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath (Short novella, canon characters) - Posted May 3rd
jedimasterbac Title: Fan Sites Manager Registered: Jun '04	Date Posted: 5/3 8:30pm Subject: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath (Short novella, canon characters) - Posted May 3rd - Date Edited: 5/4 3:00pm (2 edits total) Edited By: jedimasterbac
	Title: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath Author(s): Brandon "jedimasterbac" Rhea Timeframe: One day after KOTOR 2 Characters: Josham Kavar, Lonna Vash, Vrook Lamar, Zez-Kai Ell, Darth Traya, Jaxia Veers (the Exile), Berun Modrul, Terena Adare Genre: Partial AU, short novella, canon characters, KOTOR era Summary: Will be posted following completion. Notes: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath is the first novella in the Chronicles of the Great War series of Star Wars fan fiction, a series that charts the events of a conflict called the Great Territorial War. The novella begins a few days after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords and deals with the beginning of a reconstruction period for the Jedi Order. Characters from The Sith Lords that are re-introduced include Terena Adare, Berun Modrul and Josham Kavar who was thought to be dead at the hands of Darth Traya, as it is revealed that he survived the onslaught of dark Force energy in the Jedi Council chambers on Dantooine. The novella will be four chapters long, and the first one has already been posted below. Like other authors who have written or are in the process of writing lengthy series, in no way does the author suggest or maintain that any of his work is endorsed or licensed by George Lucas or LucasFilm, Ltd. The author will also not change the plot or do anything else to his work that is suggested that he does not agree with. This is his story and his has said that he is going to tell the story he wants to tell, though if your suggestion makes sense and it enhances rather than changes the story then he will give it the thought it deserves. This work also contains elements that may seem disturbing to some readers. Like any more mature Science Fiction novels, Star Wars: Chronicles of the Great War contains sci-fi action and violence, as well as mild profanity, though it is within the rules of TheForce.Net. If things like this offend you, then it is suggested that you stay away from them. However, it is highly suggested that you keep an open mind and read and review the stories for what they are rather than what you think they should be. The novella begins below. -----signature----- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (Star Wars Saga Reboot/Re-Imagining) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/27764984/p1/?1 Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath http://boards.theforce.net/before_the_saga/b10475/28417488/p1/?1 John McCain 2008
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jedimasterbac Title: Fan Sites Manager Registered: Jun '04	Date Posted: 5/3 8:32pm Subject: RE: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath (Short novella, canon characters) - Posted May 3rd
	Chapter One AWAKENING The Force had grown dark. For a year that seemed to be an eternity, Josham Kavar hid from his enemies. He and three of his fellow Jedi Masters had decided to go into their respective exiles because of the mission that they had all accepted years earlier, and in the hopes of trying to lure the Sith into a false sense of victory. Whether or not that worked was debatable, as Josham realized that he had found himself in a situation where the Sith could be victorious over the Jedi Order once and for all. During the year he spent in hiding on Onderon, he became an adviser to the queen, Talia Kira, and helped her during a civil war started by her disgruntled cousin Vaklu. Hundreds rose up in protest of the government being aligned with the Republic that they say as a hindrance to their progression as a society, but in the end Josham and his old friend Jaxia Veers, the woman who became the only Jedi exiled by the council at the end of the Mandalorian Wars for defying them, were able to defeat the rebellion. At that moment, the famed Jedi Guardian knew it was important to put aside any animosity he may have felt towards the young and beautiful Jedi Padawan he once called a friend. He heard what she had done during her exile and how she had sent one of his fellow masters, Zez-Kai Ell, to Dantooine where she hoped to reunite the Jedi Council that exiled her. Josham agreed to go there, though in the end they had been lured into a trap. Reunited with Zez-Kai and Vrook Lamar, Josham and the others held their ignited lightsabers in the air in preparation for what they believed would be an attack from Darth Traya, the former Jedi Master Kreia who became the leader of a trinity of the damned within the dying Sith monarchy. The old and graying woman was wrinkled beyond former recognition and her eyes were a pale white that almost appeared to be from a state of catatonia. It was as if Josham was looking right into the eyes of evil and the black soulless void of death. The woman was a cruel, cold-hearted manipulator and all three of the Jedi Masters knew that. She had trained Darth Revan to the point where he rejected the will of the council and fought to save the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars, only to have him return with an invasion army as the Dark Lord of his own Sith Empire. She had no softer side and she cared only for herself and for power, or at least that was how the Jedi Masters perceived her to be. Standing before the Sith woman, Josham thought back to the day that he and the others masters had gone into hiding. There had been so much devastation during that time, enough to make Josham wonder whether or not the Jedi would actually survive the wake of the atrocities committed by Revan and the other Lords of the Sith that had once been under his command. Thinking back, he could still remember that day one year earlier as if it was only the day before. The Jedi Civil War was over and thousands of Jedi were dead, and many had left the order to save themselves after being disillusioned by Revan’s actions. The order had only a few hundred remaining active members and had effectively disbanded, though some remained on Coruscant, the capital of the Republic. That was, at least, until the devastation brought on by a mysterious Sith Lord called Darth Nihilus, the anomaly that was the Lord of Hunger. Jedi Master Atris, a member of the Jedi High Council that had exiled Jaxia, had called all Jedi she had kept in contact with to a secret conclave on Katarr to discuss the future of the Jedi Order. Though they did not know it, Atris had actually plotted to use the Jedi as bait and lure the Sith there in the hopes of destroying them, but Nihilus arrived and devastated the planet. His powers with the Force fed off of all life on Katarr, and all animal and plant life was killed in a matter of mere minutes. At the time, there were no known survivors. In the Great Jedi Pyramid on Coruscant, Josham Kavar had stood with three of his fellow Jedi Masters: Vrook Lamar, Zez-Kai Ell and Lonna Vash. Josham was a handsome man with blonde hair and relatively youthful features, despite being nearly forty standard years old. He had a tall and slender build that showed the grace of his years and the extent of his wisdom. He was a famed Jedi Guardian to millions, though despite his constant confident demeanor he felt nothing like a guardian to anyone, especially in the wake of Katarr. They all stood within the ancient yet elegantly modernized Jedi High Council chambers within the highest levels of the pyramid, as they were all members of the council. They stood in the center of the chamber within the great yellow and red ring that members would stand on when they were before the council. Josham had his back turned towards the other Jedi in deep thought, seemingly staring in a trance out the windows that were lightly tinted blue. He looked out beyond the structure he stood in, fixing his eyes on the Galactic Senate in-between the hundreds of buildings in the distance. He and the others had sworn a mandate to work with the Senate in protecting all Republicans, yet they had failed that solemn promise. Josham turned back towards his fellow masters, noting the worry in their eyes. The aging, bald-headed Vrook tried to mask his discomfort with the situation in his old and wrinkled face, though Josham could see through him. Zez-Kai, with his long brown hair and full moustache beneath his nose, seemed as stoic as he always did, but the lack of confidence was clear in his eyes. Lonna, though, tried very little to mask her emotions in her face, one of youth and beauty despite her graying hair. She was far too young to have hair that was nearly gray, though the stress of the desperate times had taken a great deal out of all of them. “Has there been any contact from other Jedi?” Lonna asked, finally breaking the silence that had befallen them minutes earlier. “Atris? Vandar? Anyone?” “No,” Vrook said in his serious and almost condescending tone. “We’ve heard from no one, which leads me to the only possible conclusion. The sins of Revan have finally come back to haunt us all.” “We have no time to stand here and discuss who to blame,” Zez-Kai told them, trying to reassure them in the desperate situation. “We need to protect our number one priorities.” “Agreed,” Josham said as he pulled a pendant on a chain out from under his tunic. “If the Sith find out about the artifacts, they’ll reign forever. We can’t let that happen if we ever want to defeat them.” The others followed his lead by pulling their pendants out from under their robes. Josham’s was an intricately designed jewel that hung from a strong metallic chain around his neck at all times, just as the other master’s pendants did as they did not trust anyone with them but themselves. Josham looked down on the brilliant blue tear-shaped piece of labradorite wrapped in sterling silver. The wrapping was from a natural stone, a beautiful form of feldspar that came to life when the light caught it. The light reflecting upon it caused a flash of light that was only comparable to the northern lights of Alderaan during the wintertime. “What are you proposing, Master Kavar?” Vrook asked in his normally suspicious tone of voice. “The four of us need to split up,” Josham told him and the others. “If we go into hiding, it’ll be a lot more difficult for the Sith to track us down.” “And it could allow the Sith to become overconfident,” Zez-Kai added. “Assuming this works, we may be able to regroup later and strike when they least expect it.” “But where would we go?” Lonna asked, her voice reflecting the fact that she was unsure as to whether or not the plan would work. “Wherever they would least expect us,” Josham told her. “I’ll go to Onderon. It’s a backwater world and the Sith have no connection to it.” “A logical choice,” Zez-Kai agreed. “I will go into hiding on Nar Shaddaa. It’s difficult to find anyone there, let alone one Jedi hiding in the shadows.” “I can make my way back to Dantooine,” Vrook said, recognizing the justifiably confused reactions from the others. “The Sith have not been there since Malak destroyed the old enclave. They would not expect a Jedi to return there.” “That is a wise choice, Master Lamar,” Lonna told him, “one that I will follow. I will go to Korriban. The Sith have abandoned it and I doubt that a decomposing corpse will try to attack me anytime soon.” Josham was taken aback by her suggestion that she would go to Korriban. Despite it being abandoned by the Sith a few years earlier, it was still strong with the dark side of the Force. The tombs of the Valley of the Dark Lords themselves were still littered with the spirits of ancient Lords of the Sith and it was likely that they haunted all of the wastelands. How a Jedi Master would be able to survive there was unknown to him, which was of great concern. “What about the dark forces that reside there?” Josham asked. “There will be a great deal of temptation involved with going there.” “I can handle the occasional temper tantrum, Master Kavar,” Lonna told her. “Besides, this is my decision to make, just as going to Onderon is yours.” Josham nearly spoke up once again, though he knew that she was right. It was her decision and he would respect it, even if he disagreed with him. He could only hope that her relic would remain safe, as he knew that she was risking it falling into the hands of the Sith if she came across one. When no one else spoke up, Josham nodded. He did not need to say anything, as they were all thinking the same thing. A great deal could go wrong, but only if the Force was no longer with them. If they were lucky, everything would change for the better because of their actions. One year later, nothing had changed, except for Josham’s point of view. Had Traya spoken to him even just a few days earlier, it was likely that he would have put very little thought into what she had to say. It wasn’t a few days earlier, though, and he realized that she may have been right about some of the things she had said. If that was true, then it was also perhaps true that the Jedi Order had committed a great many wrongdoings during the last few centuries. How could they have ever hoped to know the threat that they faced when they had never walked the dark places of the galaxy or faced war and death on such scale? If they had traveled far enough, rather than waiting for the echo to reach them, perhaps they would have seen it for what it was. Perhaps they would not have been too late in trying to save the order and the government that they had fought so long and so hard to protect for so many years. There was a place in the galaxy where the Dark Side of the Force ran strong. It was something of the Sith, but it was fueled by war. It corrupted all that walked on its surface, drowning them in the powers of darkness. It corrupted all life and it fed on death. Revan knew the power of such places and the power in making them. They could be used to break the will of others, of Jedi, by promising them power and turning them to the Dark Side. The Mandalorian Wars were a series of massacres that masked another war, a war of conversions that culminated in a final atrocity that no Jedi was able to walk away from. Except for the Exile. That was what Darth Traya sought to understand, how one could turn away from the Force and still live. It was because she was afraid. Traya’s words seemed true enough, but Josham knew that there had to be another reason for the Exile surviving the Force being taken from her. Whether it was her initial strength in the Force or her young age was a mystery, but he could not believe that it was fear and only fear that would keep a Jedi Knight alive. Little did he know that he was about to find out, as he and the others were still prepared to defend themselves. Josham had hoped that Lonna would be there with them, though she had been killed on Korriban days earlier. The Exile was lying unconscious on the ground, the ground that they would soon find themselves on as well, but for some it would be longer than others. They quickly tried to raise their blades in defense of what they thought was a powerful wave of electricity from the Force, but it was not that. The Force was literally being drained out of them, as if life itself was being torn to shreds within them. Just before darkness overtook him, Josham realized exactly what Traya was doing. After fighting for so long, he knew that if he was to survive he would likely be removed from the one thing he had become accustomed to. They who had forever seen all of life and who had forever seen the galaxy through the Force would see it through the eyes of the Exile. When the darkness that had overtaken him began to subsided, Josham’s eyes slowly opened up. He winced from the bright light overhead and he could just barely make out the silhouette of a man standing over him. He tried to reach out to the Force to sense the man’s thoughts to who he was, and to see where Josham had been taken. Despite how hard he tried, he could not get the Force to respond to him. It was as if it had turned away and taken away all of the gifts it had given him. He felt cold for the first time since he was a confused young boy who did not know how to effectively reach the Force. The feeling was not one of literal temperature, but rather a feeling of emptiness. He felt alone and afraid, as if his one and only loyal friend had suddenly betrayed him or as if a loved one had been ripped out of his life. He had no idea what the future had in store for him, but he did know for certain that there would always be a feeling of emptiness even when around thousands of people that he knew and respected. When the fogginess in his eyes began to subside, he could see that the man above him was a young Human male. He wore the coat of a doctor and seemed relieved that Josham had finally awakened from his slumber. Josham looked off to the side to see a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway, though he did not know who she was either despite the fact that she too looked pleased to see him away. The medical facility he was in was a mixture of light blue and gray steel plates and multicolored electronic lights from the various computers and medical screens throughout the room. In the screen next to him, Josham could just make out his own face and could tell how terrible he looked. There were large red bags under his eyes and the color in his face had become a mix of yellow and green. It was almost as if he was very sick or was suffering from extreme fatigue. “What...,” Josham said, though it was difficult to get the words out initially, “...what happened to me? Who are you?” “My name’s Berun,” the young man told him with a tone of confidence, “and you’re in the Khoonda medical offices. You’re going to be fine. You just need to relax.” Berun Modrul, a tall young man with buzzed brown hair, was a second in command of the Khoonda Militia and was a trained medical officer. He had been an opinionated man until a few days earlier, as he believed that he knew better than his superior when it came to dealing with the mercenary threat that Khoonda had faced, though he realized that he was wrong when his commander’s views of the mercenaries proved to be correct. He was one of the few members of the militia who did not have any issues with the Jedi Order or its members, as he believed that they did what they could to help. “Who are you?” Josham asked the woman standing in the doorway as he tried to sit up, though Berun made sure that he sat up slowly so he would not use too much of the energy he was greatly lacking. “I’m Terena Adare,” the aging woman told him. “I’m the administrator of this facility, and I’m very pleased to see that you’re alright.” Josham recognized her name once he heard it, as Vrook had spoken of her on more than one occasion. Adare, a tall and slender middle aged woman who kept her hair back in an intricate bun and wore simple gray clothes, had served for a few years as the Agricultural Administrator of the planet. After the devastation of the Jedi Enclave at the hands of Darth Malak during the war, she put a great deal of effort into ensuring the survival of the settlers in the area who were not killed from the attack. Her work eventually put her into a position where she was able to be appointed Administrator of Khoonda, a task that was formerly entrusted to the members of the Jedi Order. Despite the strong distrust of the Jedi Order throughout Khoonda, Adare recognized that there was not a strong enough militia to ensure the settlement’s safety so she kept in constant contact, albeit secret contact, with Master Lamar. He was a friend of hers for many years, so she knew she could depend on him to help in the defense of the colony. Her friendship with him helped her to remember all of the good things that the Jedi Order had done for Dantooine, so despite the bad reputation of the order on the planet she trusted them with her life. “I don’t know how we survived that attack,” Josham said as he looked around the room, trying to find his colleagues. “Where are Master Lamar and Master Ell?” Adare shifted uncomfortably where she stood. She knew that Josham had already suffered through what she could only imagine to be a traumatic ordeal and what she had to tell him would undoubtedly not help the situation. Still, she owed it to him to tell him the truth, despite the painfulness of such a truth. She stepped closer to the bed that he sat on, trying to maintain a level of comfort. “I’m sorry, Master Kavar,” Adare began slowly, “but I’m afraid they did not survive the attack. We’ve kept them in the enclave where we found you. We weren’t sure what types of rituals there were for them.” Even before she spoke, her words told him what had happened. Josham did not know how he survived while the others did not, though he was not in a position to think about it. His mind was already numb and all he could focus on was the pain that the emptiness surrounding him left throughout his mind. He wanted to mourn all three of his fellow Jedi Masters, but he physically and mentally did not have the energy to do so. As he tried to sit up further, Josham became disoriented once again and nearly fell off of the bed that he had been placed on. Berun caught him before he was able to fall to the ground and helped lay him back down on the bed. He considered resisting for a moment so he could leave the facility, but he decided against it. There was little more, if anything, that could be done for him, but he would give them the opportunity to at least try to help him. “You’re going to have to stay here and rest for at least a few more hours,” Berun told him as he placed a pillow beneath his head. “After that, we’ll see what shape you’re in before letting you go.” “Alright,” Josham said wearily. “Thank you for your help.” “If there’s anything I can do for you when you wake up,” Adare said, putting her hand on his shoulder for a moment, “please just ask. I’ll do whatever’s in my power to help you get back on your feet.” Josham nodded, but before he could respond the darkness of fatigue began to overtake him once again. Instead of falling unconscious as he expected, though, he allowed himself to fall into sleep. His mind and body had been incredibly taxed and he was more tired than he ever remembered being in the past. He had no desire to fight the urge to sleep and simply allowed himself to fall into it. -----signature----- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (Star Wars Saga Reboot/Re-Imagining) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/27764984/p1/?1 Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath http://boards.theforce.net/before_the_saga/b10475/28417488/p1/?1 John McCain 2008
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Darth_Drachonus Registered: Oct '05	Date Posted: 5/6 1:11pm Subject: RE: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath (Short novella, canon characters) - Posted May 3rd
	Interesting. Add me to this PM list as well, if the boards and the Force allow the PMs to come through -----signature----- Don't **** with a Jedi Master son-Luke Skywalker
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jedimasterbac Title: Fan Sites Manager Registered: Jun '04	Date Posted: 5/13 10:31am Subject: RE: Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath (Short novella, canon characters) - Posted May 3rd
	Glad you find it interesting so far. I'm going to next the next two chapters of The Chosen One out and then I'll be finishing this story. -----signature----- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (Star Wars Saga Reboot/Re-Imagining) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/27764984/p1/?1 Chronicles of the Great War: Aftermath http://boards.theforce.net/before_the_saga/b10475/28417488/p1/?1 John McCain 2008
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