14: The Chronicles of War: So it begins

Time period: A few months before ROTJ

Where: The Galaxy

The War begins…

The Ithorian Dragon Monks warned the “crew” of the Lovely Angel that the Shadowdrakes were making their move. In only a few months, they would be converging into the Core, leaving destruction behind. The Dragon Holocron had to be found, and in order to do that, the key to the Mystical door had to be found. The key was given to a keeper, one the dragons trusted. It was passed on from generation to generation in one family… the family of Kenobi. Ben Kenobi was the last to have it, and he died in the Death Star. The Jedis had to travel to Yavin Four to search for the key. But the ShadowDrakes knew…

Yavin Four was the beginning of the Chronicles for them. A great battle was fought, as they raced to find the key. Once it was found, and the ShadowDrakes were defeated with help from a Duinuoguin team, the Jedis opened the mystical gate to find the Dragon Holocron. With the knowledge held within the Holocron and the Dragon Library, plus help from the Ithorians monks, they established the Dragon Academy on Yavin 8.

Meanwhile, the Dirty Pair went back to their home sector to finish reviving the 3WA. The last safehouse they found had enough information to find the remaining safehouses. They begin to rebuild the 3WA from the ground up, establishing a Board of Directors, and a strong underground network of allies that reached into the depths of the Corporate Sector and further into the Galactic Core. They modeled everything after the Rebellion, fighting the tyranny of the Corporate Sector Authority and the building power of Shasti. It became apparent that Shasti intended on becoming Empress of the Corporate Sector. The Lovely Angels had other things in mind for her. Kei, and Yuri proceeded to undermine every move Shasti made to bolster her power. They had their own war to deal with.

Clarke, meanwhile, quested to save his clones. They looked to him to find the scientist who first created the Clarke project. Apparently, a slow acting genetic-disease was being released into the population of Rotut, as part of the final stages of eliminating the Clarkes project. Information supplied by the 3WA archive gave Clarke information of the origins of the Clarkes Project, its alternative name of Emperor’s Eye, and a relation with the 3WA Shasti project. It also gave him enough information to seek out the scientists who started the project, and established the underground network to free some of the clone slaves. After battling with the Empire’s secret force of clone-trackers, and his newly found twin brother, he was able to save his clones, train them for the Dragon War, and send a large number of them off to the Dragon Academy.

A few key points about Clarkes saga was related to the nature of the Emperor’s Eye project. Apparently, his clones were genetically manipulated by the Emperor’s best geneticists, adding in some of the Emperor’s own genetic code into the clones. This genetic code was then manipulated to turn the clones into “vessels” of sorts, designed to hold a portion of the Emperor’s dark force. This would extend his power beyond his ability to watch & influence. He can now physically manipulate, and effect things, infiltrate places he normally couldn’t, and increase his control over his own Empire. The question still remained, “Did Clarke have a portion of the Emperor in him, dormant, and waiting to be released?” The project history showed marginal success with the clones, but after the first few shipments to the Empire, the Empire ordered it terminated, and all related to the project to be “dealt with in a secure manner…” The last events occurred about the same time when he ran into trouble at the battle of Kal-na’-Fen.

Bastian quested to find his son, and find out the truth about his parents. It turns out that his adopted mother was his real mother, married to a tyrant of a husband, a powerful Imperial Senator. She had an affair with an brash fighter pilot who would later join the Rebellion. She became pregnant with Bastian, and in an attempt to hide it from her husband, medically transferred the embryo to a surrogate. At Bastian’s birth, she encouraged her husband that having a child would bolster his political power, and overall public opinion. She arranged for a staged-kidnapping of the child, and they officially adopted the infant once the surrogate was “taken care of.” The real father knew nothing of this. Bastian was later abandoned on Stend IV, when his mother had heard that her husband had found out about the affair. She arranged for is abandonment for his and his brother’s protection. Now, his real mother and adopted father were dead, from a Imperial staged-pirate attack, for an unknown reason. His real father had found him in the Rebellion, and had already become his mentor. Coming to a dead end, Bastian changed his focus to his son. His son being a Dark Jedi in training, he knew he would need the a Jedi’s help to track down and turn his son.

Bastian’s inheritance from his parents death, has also been waiting for him to turn twenty-one standard years old. Through his search for his son, he fell upon a path through parents’ estate. Apparently, his son was after the inheritance for more reasons than monetary gain. He found out that within his inheritance was a secret that would effect the Empire greatly. He had to stop his son from getting to it. Paul, Bastian’s brother, crossed paths with Baxter, as well. Paul did not survive this encounter.

The wookie, Harry, enlisted with the Rebel Alliance, as part of the Special Missions teams. His goal was to start a team of special action swoop commandos… a kick ass swoop gang to battle the Imperials. He and his gang get involved in many covert battles, supporting the now intense war against the Empire.

Tathis split off from the group, and traveled to the Core to start and underground information network. With the help of Khitan, he was able to see his dreams come to near-full fruition. Tathis faced several challenges as time went on while building his network, but after 4 to 5 months, Tathis had secretly created a strong network of agents, and slicers that rivaled some crime organizations.

The 3WA also had developed during those months, to the point where they were able to send hardware, and financial support to the Dragon War. Bastian was able to direct some support as well, from within a cache of credits his mother allowed him access to. The Dragon War army was developing rather well. Thousands upon thousands of allies, from Vangar the pirate – ally to Harry – to groups of coynite mercenaries, arrived saying the “just felt a calling…” This war was larger than anyone imagined.

The ShadowDrakes had advanced deep into the Outer Rim, destroying system after system. Two of these systems happened to be Yuri and Kei’s homeworlds’ systems. Parax had an idea why this happened, but denied it for the guilt. The training was progressing well, and as they began to send out armies, they discovered that the Game – Battle For Destiny – could be used to coordinate the war. Once the Dragon Jedis began to fight back, the ShadowDrakes began to fall back. However, this bothered Parax and Mishavek. It was almost too easy…

The battle was fought deep in the Wilds, to a point in an unknown system. This system was made up of a single asteroid belt of a blue crystalline material. The crystals emanated Force.

The entire light side force converged on this sector, each squadron of Dragons reporting in telepathically. Then suddenly others began to drop out of hyperspace, on lightside dragons,… others from many universes outside of their own. They were not alone in the fight.

Finally, the Dark side showed up, ready for battle, and equaling them in number. The space between was tense, the Force was a whirlwind of stirrings. Parax already knew that the key in defeating the ShadowDrakes was to ally with the Dark Side. One wrong move, and this could be turned to chaos. Using the Battle for Destiny games board, the Light Jedis laid out contingencies for any attack. They waited for the ShadowDrakes to arrive, hoping the Dark Side was here for the same reason.

They were wrong…

In their arrogance, the Dark Side attacked, and the wave of battle overtook the entire system. Dragons and starships attacked, blasts and breath-weapons filled the stars. The battle was evenly matched, and the only thing that was winning the battle was chaos.

The ShadowDrakes and chaos…

The only way to stop the madness was to get to Tremayne’s Dragon. The only way to stop chaos was to remind the Dark Side of how close the chaos came to winning millennia ago. Parax, Alexander, and Mishavek, both mounted on their Dragons, fought their way to a large crystalline asteroid, where they confronted Tremayne’s Dragon. Against Tremayne’s demands, the Dark side dragons made peace, and awaited the ShadowDrakes. They knew if the chaos stopped, the ShadowDrakes would be forced to some out of hiding, and try to win the war all together.

And they came…

But the two forces of Light and Dark were too great. Many a great dragon and rider fell, that battle, but chaos was vanquished all together. Mobarius was reduced to a dark crystal, Mandrakor was turned from the lightside, and Marax died. Parax lost an arm in the battle, and Alex was badly wounded. All three came out of the battle as full fledged Jedis.

Once the war was over, it was like nothing happened. They had spent a large part of the past two years preparing for this, and now no one even knew. It was truly the Battle Behind the glory.

In the war, many things were lost. Not only were several planets lost, but two were the home worlds of Kei and Yuri. Parax’s will to continue as a teacher was lost, and he retired on Yavin 8, a hermit, but forever watching for signs of another Dragon War. Alex also retired, in command of a freighter business left by his friend, and forever hding for the Empire and the Purge. Mishavek returned to the Rebels, after such a long absense, and became a Special missions team leader. With Tathis and Bastian back with the Rebellion, the two were assigned to Mishavek along with two new individuals, mysterious Dervious who claims to be a true Mandaloran, and Devron, a human tech with a questionable background, and even further questionable loyalties.

The 3WA board of directors assigned the Dirty Pair as their direct special task force to handle critical missions for the 3WA. They in turn hired Clarke on a free lance basis, to help in their endeavors.

With the Dragon War over, the universe seemed to realign itself to something a little more normal. They were now entering a New Era of adventuring.