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<blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 4085613" data-attributes="member: 10079"><p><strong>Chapter 569: The Center of the Galaxy</strong></p><p></p><p>Technically, Tobias had been to Coruscant before. The problem with that was it had been many, many years ago and he had likely been an infant at the time. Most of his early memories were blocked away for his own sanity’s sake, and so if he had been to the planet, definitely, then the circumstances were not apparent to him. That was probably a good thing, considering what he’d been though as a child before Jyren and Marix had found him. And since then, despite all their adventures across the galaxy, he’d never been to the galactic capital with them.</p><p> </p><p>From orbit, it almost looked as if the planet was on fire. Horus had entered the system on the night side of the planet, weaving through a countless amount of ships and various orbital stations. The planet beneath all of the space traffic and general orbital clutter was a dark circle lined by whites, oranges, and reds. There were circles, huge lines going vertically and horizontally across the entire surface, and then other, small shapes created throughout. When Tobias asked about that, Master Ral had said that they were lights, both from heavy airspeeder traffic and the huge amount of buildings that covered every single inch of the planet’s surface.</p><p> </p><p>The flight in was just as fascinating as the view. Amongst so many different kinds of ships of so many sizes, Horus didn’t actually seem that out of place. In fact, a few of cargo freighters they passed looked more alien than anything Tobias had seen, except for maybe Yuuzhan Vong ships. The huge, orbital defense platforms were unlike anything he’d ever thought of. Massive, rectangular spires in the sky, surrounded by Mon Calamari star cruisers and Star Destroyers, they dominated Coruscant’s orbit. </p><p> </p><p>It was as they entered the atmosphere of the planet in an approach to the Jedi Headquarters that Tobias began to truly grasp how unique Coruscant was. Humans always called the things of non-humans ‘alien’, despite the fact that, at the same time, most of them touted a galactic culture. Tobias had just always seen things as ‘different’, with the word ‘alien’ just bringing up xenophobic ideas. Maybe that just came with the ability to be other species, but now Tobias found himself seeing something that, for the first time in his life, truly felt alien to him.</p><p> </p><p>In all directions around Horus, Tobias could see nothing but buildings. Some of them towered into the lower atmosphere, and even the ones that were down at lower altitudes were divided by literal canyons of speeder lanes. If there was an actual ground level to the world, Tobias sure as hell couldn’t find it, and he was looking hard. The buildings just seemed to go down and down and down and. Compared to that canyons Tobias was used to seeing, compared to everything Tobias was used to seeing, Coruscant and its features were like like a droid version of a planet. Where Tobias was looking for grasslands, forests, deserts, oceans, anything that was actually natural, he was simply presented with lifeless facsimiles of all of them. It was...somehow terrifying and awe inspiring at the same time. down. That didn’t even change as their altitude dropped to bring them to the dome-shaped Jedi Headquarters. </p><p> </p><p>According to Master Ral, the building was nothing at all like the Jedi Temple of the Old Republic. To Tobias’ surprise, Varis nodded and added his agreement, mentioning something about the Temples on Alraxia having information on the ancient Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Of course, Varis’ information would have been thousands of years older than Master Ral’s, but that seemed only to improve their mutual point on the magnificence of the ancient building that had been destroyed and lost decades earlier. However, the dome of the Jedi Headquarters was in no way mundane. It was a beautiful building, with a pristine white roof and dotted with circular landing pads that actually looked more like oddly-shaped arms all around it. Most of them were actually empty, however, which seemed odd to Tobias until it was pointed out to him that there was an internal hangar and that the platforms were mostly for temporary use.</p><p> </p><p>That remained true as Master Ral and Tobias disembarked. Varis had not even left the cockpit, simply saying a goodbye to the two of them before they left. There was no need to mention the fact that, if Tobias needed, Varis would be somewhere nearby, in galactic terms, if he was needed again. However, just as they exited into the odd-tasting Coruscant air, Horus had cut in and said that exact thing, obviously feeling it did, in fact, need to be mentioned. The ship then added something about Varis being boring and wanting more excitement before they left, and that brought a smile to Tobias’ face. Not all Kanyaks were arrogant, excitement-craving, speed-loving lunatics, but the most fun of them definitely seemed to be.</p><p> </p><p>It had taken only a few more minutes of navigating the stark-white corridors of the building to arrive at their destination. The room was, apparently, a library of sorts, but Tobias saw no books nor any evidence of books. Sure, a table at the center of the room seemed to be scattered with various pieces of flimsi, but that didn’t count. There were a couple of holoimages on the wall that looked to depict some great landscapes on one wall, while the others were covered in shelves that held datapads. Or at least. Something like that. </p><p> </p><p>Master Ral did not seem to concern himself with any of that, instead moving straight to the table and activating the holoprojector in the center. The image shifted from the crest of the Jedi Order to a mix of images as Master Ral looked for something specific. They had been relatively silent the entire time in the building, and so Tobias wasn’t really sure what his Master was looking for. Considering their current surroundings, he expected it might actually have something to do with Tobias’ almost impossible reach with his Force senses. He was, however, surprised to see the image finally settle on the face of a man.</p><p> </p><p>Though Tobias had only met Luke Skywalker once, he recognized the face immediately. It was his calm voice that didn’t seem to match the visage of the man, which was a bit lined with age but somehow managed to convey his humble origins. The voice was filled with exactly the kind of wisdom that Tobias expected of the man who had brought the Jedi back into the galaxy. In fact, Tobias found himself so lost in admiring this man that he had to catch up on what was actually being said.</p><p> </p><p>When he returned to the moment, Tobias found that this was not a personal message to Master Ral, but a report on the state of the galaxy. It was meant for all of the Jedi Order, though with the state of the Holonet thanks to the war, was having trouble makings its way around. The details of the war were mostly glossed over, however, as Master Skywalker focused on the Jedi problems. Specifically, the split in the order that was growing more and more as a Jedi named Kyp Durron was leading his own faction to direct action in the war, where the rest of the order was still wrestling with just how involved they should all be without becoming a tool of the government. It was a complex situation that Tobias truly didn’t understand every facet of, mainly due to the fact that he was fairly disconnected to the order as whole. Because of this, it was when Master Skywalker’s report shifted directions that Tobias found himself much more interested.</p><p> </p><p>Not only was the Jedi Order having its own internal troubles, but the situation with the New Republic was growing more and more tense. There was, apparently, a lack of trust from the New Republic towards the Jedi, and as the Yuuzhan Vong made it more and more clear that they saw the Jedi as a separate entity, the thought of simply stringing up the Jedi for the Vong was becoming more pervasive. Perhaps that was why the Jedi Headquarters was so empty...</p><p> </p><p>When the report finally finished, Master Ral shut down the holoprojector and did something that surprised his apprentice. The Omwati Jedi Master let out a sigh, at the same time showing his tiredness and sadness through the Force. This faded a few moments later and Master Ral finally said, “What do you think of this, Tobias?”</p><p> </p><p>Though he had half-expected that kind of question to be asked, it didn’t change the fact that Tobias really wasn’t sure what to say. He thought about it for a few minutes, having finally started to understand what it meant to think before acting or speaking, but found himself coming to the same conclusion. His ears flattened against his head in annoyance at himself and Tobias just shook his head, “Its just a mess. I barely understand politics back home but here...I just don’t know. Seems to me like nothing is really going right at all.”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you agree with Master Durron?”</p><p> </p><p>There was so much more in that question than were obvious at first glance. But while Tobias did make sure to truly think about that question, it didn’t take long at all, “What he’s advocating for the Jedi seems to be exactly the kind of thing you’ve been teaching me not to do.”</p><p> </p><p>And then, as he always did, Master Ral shook up Tobias’ answer by asking, “Are you sure? Master Durron is trying to protect the lives of innocent people. Is it wrong to do that? Are you telling me that you believe we should sit on the sidelines and watch the Yuuzhan Vong kill billions of people?”</p><p> </p><p>“No!” Tobias gave up thinking and finally devolved back into just reacting, “No, its...just...its...one of the first things you taught me, something I’ve only started to understand since I confronted that vision of my real father, was that a Jedi does not use the Force for attack. We aren’t aggressive. We are protectors and defenders. Taking the fight to the Vong is defending people, yes but...its twisting that idea. Its treading a line close to vengeance, but more like vengeance for lives not yet taken. And...and if you start fighting with your head lost in the future possibilities, you’ll start killing people based on what they might one day do, even if they never do.”</p><p> </p><p>A rare smile formed on Master Ral’s long features, “And to think, sometimes I believe you’re too busy lost in your own thoughts to listen to a word I say...let alone actually understand them.”</p><p> </p><p>Between seeing that and feeling the approval in the Force, Tobias couldn’t help a smile of his own. But that was wiped away a moment later when he started to think again, “What are we going to do, Master? There’s barely anyone here. I think I saw three other people in this entire building and I can’t sense many more beyond that.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’ve known how dangerous our situation has been since you became my apprentice,” the Jedi Master walked around the table to rest a hand on Tobias’ shoulder, “It seems that events are growing worse much more rapidly since the attack on the Academy. I had hoped that we could take time to rest here in the safety of Coruscant for some time but...but it seems that we may not be safe here for very long. I’m going to contact some of the other Masters and see what else I can learn before deciding on a course of action. Consider this a day off from your training. Get some more rest, relax, or explore the area. If you do the latter, don’t go far and be very careful. Keep your comlink open so I can contact you if something comes up.”</p><p> </p><p>Then, with a simple nod of his head, Master Ral left Tobias in that room on his own. A day off. </p><p></p><p>A day off on Coruscant, the planet that he’d been told so many stories about. He’d dreamed of coming to this world and having his own adventures there, but now that Tobias found himself on the planet at the center of the galaxy, literally and metaphorically, he couldn’t help but wish he was anywhere else. It just didn’t feel safe. He wondered if anything would, after Yavin.</p><p> </p><p>...not that it was going to stop Tobias from exploring, of course.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ankh-Morpork Guard, post: 4085613, member: 10079"] [b]Chapter 569: The Center of the Galaxy[/b] Technically, Tobias had been to Coruscant before. The problem with that was it had been many, many years ago and he had likely been an infant at the time. Most of his early memories were blocked away for his own sanity’s sake, and so if he had been to the planet, definitely, then the circumstances were not apparent to him. That was probably a good thing, considering what he’d been though as a child before Jyren and Marix had found him. And since then, despite all their adventures across the galaxy, he’d never been to the galactic capital with them. From orbit, it almost looked as if the planet was on fire. Horus had entered the system on the night side of the planet, weaving through a countless amount of ships and various orbital stations. The planet beneath all of the space traffic and general orbital clutter was a dark circle lined by whites, oranges, and reds. There were circles, huge lines going vertically and horizontally across the entire surface, and then other, small shapes created throughout. When Tobias asked about that, Master Ral had said that they were lights, both from heavy airspeeder traffic and the huge amount of buildings that covered every single inch of the planet’s surface. The flight in was just as fascinating as the view. Amongst so many different kinds of ships of so many sizes, Horus didn’t actually seem that out of place. In fact, a few of cargo freighters they passed looked more alien than anything Tobias had seen, except for maybe Yuuzhan Vong ships. The huge, orbital defense platforms were unlike anything he’d ever thought of. Massive, rectangular spires in the sky, surrounded by Mon Calamari star cruisers and Star Destroyers, they dominated Coruscant’s orbit. It was as they entered the atmosphere of the planet in an approach to the Jedi Headquarters that Tobias began to truly grasp how unique Coruscant was. Humans always called the things of non-humans ‘alien’, despite the fact that, at the same time, most of them touted a galactic culture. Tobias had just always seen things as ‘different’, with the word ‘alien’ just bringing up xenophobic ideas. Maybe that just came with the ability to be other species, but now Tobias found himself seeing something that, for the first time in his life, truly felt alien to him. In all directions around Horus, Tobias could see nothing but buildings. Some of them towered into the lower atmosphere, and even the ones that were down at lower altitudes were divided by literal canyons of speeder lanes. If there was an actual ground level to the world, Tobias sure as hell couldn’t find it, and he was looking hard. The buildings just seemed to go down and down and down and. Compared to that canyons Tobias was used to seeing, compared to everything Tobias was used to seeing, Coruscant and its features were like like a droid version of a planet. Where Tobias was looking for grasslands, forests, deserts, oceans, anything that was actually natural, he was simply presented with lifeless facsimiles of all of them. It was...somehow terrifying and awe inspiring at the same time. down. That didn’t even change as their altitude dropped to bring them to the dome-shaped Jedi Headquarters. According to Master Ral, the building was nothing at all like the Jedi Temple of the Old Republic. To Tobias’ surprise, Varis nodded and added his agreement, mentioning something about the Temples on Alraxia having information on the ancient Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Of course, Varis’ information would have been thousands of years older than Master Ral’s, but that seemed only to improve their mutual point on the magnificence of the ancient building that had been destroyed and lost decades earlier. However, the dome of the Jedi Headquarters was in no way mundane. It was a beautiful building, with a pristine white roof and dotted with circular landing pads that actually looked more like oddly-shaped arms all around it. Most of them were actually empty, however, which seemed odd to Tobias until it was pointed out to him that there was an internal hangar and that the platforms were mostly for temporary use. That remained true as Master Ral and Tobias disembarked. Varis had not even left the cockpit, simply saying a goodbye to the two of them before they left. There was no need to mention the fact that, if Tobias needed, Varis would be somewhere nearby, in galactic terms, if he was needed again. However, just as they exited into the odd-tasting Coruscant air, Horus had cut in and said that exact thing, obviously feeling it did, in fact, need to be mentioned. The ship then added something about Varis being boring and wanting more excitement before they left, and that brought a smile to Tobias’ face. Not all Kanyaks were arrogant, excitement-craving, speed-loving lunatics, but the most fun of them definitely seemed to be. It had taken only a few more minutes of navigating the stark-white corridors of the building to arrive at their destination. The room was, apparently, a library of sorts, but Tobias saw no books nor any evidence of books. Sure, a table at the center of the room seemed to be scattered with various pieces of flimsi, but that didn’t count. There were a couple of holoimages on the wall that looked to depict some great landscapes on one wall, while the others were covered in shelves that held datapads. Or at least. Something like that. Master Ral did not seem to concern himself with any of that, instead moving straight to the table and activating the holoprojector in the center. The image shifted from the crest of the Jedi Order to a mix of images as Master Ral looked for something specific. They had been relatively silent the entire time in the building, and so Tobias wasn’t really sure what his Master was looking for. Considering their current surroundings, he expected it might actually have something to do with Tobias’ almost impossible reach with his Force senses. He was, however, surprised to see the image finally settle on the face of a man. Though Tobias had only met Luke Skywalker once, he recognized the face immediately. It was his calm voice that didn’t seem to match the visage of the man, which was a bit lined with age but somehow managed to convey his humble origins. The voice was filled with exactly the kind of wisdom that Tobias expected of the man who had brought the Jedi back into the galaxy. In fact, Tobias found himself so lost in admiring this man that he had to catch up on what was actually being said. When he returned to the moment, Tobias found that this was not a personal message to Master Ral, but a report on the state of the galaxy. It was meant for all of the Jedi Order, though with the state of the Holonet thanks to the war, was having trouble makings its way around. The details of the war were mostly glossed over, however, as Master Skywalker focused on the Jedi problems. Specifically, the split in the order that was growing more and more as a Jedi named Kyp Durron was leading his own faction to direct action in the war, where the rest of the order was still wrestling with just how involved they should all be without becoming a tool of the government. It was a complex situation that Tobias truly didn’t understand every facet of, mainly due to the fact that he was fairly disconnected to the order as whole. Because of this, it was when Master Skywalker’s report shifted directions that Tobias found himself much more interested. Not only was the Jedi Order having its own internal troubles, but the situation with the New Republic was growing more and more tense. There was, apparently, a lack of trust from the New Republic towards the Jedi, and as the Yuuzhan Vong made it more and more clear that they saw the Jedi as a separate entity, the thought of simply stringing up the Jedi for the Vong was becoming more pervasive. Perhaps that was why the Jedi Headquarters was so empty... When the report finally finished, Master Ral shut down the holoprojector and did something that surprised his apprentice. The Omwati Jedi Master let out a sigh, at the same time showing his tiredness and sadness through the Force. This faded a few moments later and Master Ral finally said, “What do you think of this, Tobias?” Though he had half-expected that kind of question to be asked, it didn’t change the fact that Tobias really wasn’t sure what to say. He thought about it for a few minutes, having finally started to understand what it meant to think before acting or speaking, but found himself coming to the same conclusion. His ears flattened against his head in annoyance at himself and Tobias just shook his head, “Its just a mess. I barely understand politics back home but here...I just don’t know. Seems to me like nothing is really going right at all.” “Do you agree with Master Durron?” There was so much more in that question than were obvious at first glance. But while Tobias did make sure to truly think about that question, it didn’t take long at all, “What he’s advocating for the Jedi seems to be exactly the kind of thing you’ve been teaching me not to do.” And then, as he always did, Master Ral shook up Tobias’ answer by asking, “Are you sure? Master Durron is trying to protect the lives of innocent people. Is it wrong to do that? Are you telling me that you believe we should sit on the sidelines and watch the Yuuzhan Vong kill billions of people?” “No!” Tobias gave up thinking and finally devolved back into just reacting, “No, its...just...its...one of the first things you taught me, something I’ve only started to understand since I confronted that vision of my real father, was that a Jedi does not use the Force for attack. We aren’t aggressive. We are protectors and defenders. Taking the fight to the Vong is defending people, yes but...its twisting that idea. Its treading a line close to vengeance, but more like vengeance for lives not yet taken. And...and if you start fighting with your head lost in the future possibilities, you’ll start killing people based on what they might one day do, even if they never do.” A rare smile formed on Master Ral’s long features, “And to think, sometimes I believe you’re too busy lost in your own thoughts to listen to a word I say...let alone actually understand them.” Between seeing that and feeling the approval in the Force, Tobias couldn’t help a smile of his own. But that was wiped away a moment later when he started to think again, “What are we going to do, Master? There’s barely anyone here. I think I saw three other people in this entire building and I can’t sense many more beyond that.” “You’ve known how dangerous our situation has been since you became my apprentice,” the Jedi Master walked around the table to rest a hand on Tobias’ shoulder, “It seems that events are growing worse much more rapidly since the attack on the Academy. I had hoped that we could take time to rest here in the safety of Coruscant for some time but...but it seems that we may not be safe here for very long. I’m going to contact some of the other Masters and see what else I can learn before deciding on a course of action. Consider this a day off from your training. Get some more rest, relax, or explore the area. If you do the latter, don’t go far and be very careful. Keep your comlink open so I can contact you if something comes up.” Then, with a simple nod of his head, Master Ral left Tobias in that room on his own. A day off. A day off on Coruscant, the planet that he’d been told so many stories about. He’d dreamed of coming to this world and having his own adventures there, but now that Tobias found himself on the planet at the center of the galaxy, literally and metaphorically, he couldn’t help but wish he was anywhere else. It just didn’t feel safe. He wondered if anything would, after Yavin. ...not that it was going to stop Tobias from exploring, of course. [/QUOTE]
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