Star Wars New Order - Volume 1 Chapter 21 Final Preparation

It’s been a few days since Vaner became a Jedi Knight. During this time nothing change much as he followed the same ritual, he had for years now. He is waking up early, meditating, going to the Archives, meditating, training in lightsaber combat, meditating, training in the Force, meditating before going for some martial art training then a final meditation before sleeping.

Vaner still followed the same ritual but during this time he reduces the training part and spends most of his time in the Archives as he didn’t want to stay here much longer. He wanted to explore the galaxy, he had already seen some part of the galaxy during the rare time he had gone with his master, however, going out alone would be something else making him a little stressful but he was confident he would be able to deal with anything.

With him now being a Jedi Knight, he obtains access to new information and with these new accesses, Vaner finally found some information on his family, the Shan family. It was a Jedi family from a few thousand years back. And like anyone could guess the fact that it could be called a Jedi family means that following the Code was not something his family was good at.

This information didn’t really shock him as he was already expecting something like this but while digging a little more and crossing information from different book he finally found what could be some kind of explanation on the attitude of the council, as he came to the conclusion that his family was not just made of Jedi who didn’t follow the Code but also of Jedi who had fallen to the dark side and became Sith. But even this couldn’t hide their merits and what they had done for the republic.

After finally founding information on his family Vaner decides to work on the newly available information and he found some interesting thing in a book speaking about Jedi who had fallen to the dark side.

And so in such a book found a story quite interesting, this was the story of the Jedi Exar Kun. What Vaner found interesting was not the story of Exar Kun itself but what he did build; he had created a new type of lightsaber. This lightsaber didn’t change much in appearance, but it was said that while looking like a standard lightsaber his lightsaber was, in fact, a double-blade lightsaber. This type of lightsaber was never mentioned before and Vaner found why. Jedi are the righteous one so a lightsaber full of trickery wouldn’t but taught as this lightsaber help in taking enemies by surprise.

After reading about such a lightsaber Vaner was interested as this could be a really good secret weapon however before building such a lightsaber, he will need quite a few attempts and also a new Kyber crystal.

Well more like for two new Kyber crystal. It wasn’t that Vaner wanted to throw away his current one but he had no choices. Since the beginning, the Kyber crystal he obtained from Illum was special in the fact that it was way more sentient that it should but the thing didn’t end here.

With each passing year his crystal had improved, yes the crystal had improved. It absorbed more energy each year and with this increase in energy, it became stronger and stronger while also becoming more and more sentient.

When Vaner had found it on Ilum beside the fact that it was a crack crystal it was also a sentient crystal and with his connection, Vaner could understand his basic thought. But now with the energy it had absorbed the crystal reaches a point where it was almost a new species it couldn’t be really called a Kyber Crystal anymore.

With its new sentiency, the crystal became the same as a young child like a real living being without a body able to communicate clearly with Vaner and so when the crystal transcends his object state Vaner decides to give it a name and so his crystal became known as Carrak.

Such transformation was not without side effect and while these side effects weren’t directly harmful to Carrak or Vaner they still were troublesome. Indeed, with his increase in energy and sentiency the strength of the crystal increased too and now Carrak was becoming too strong for the lightsaber even with the crossguard.

And if the lightsaber hadn’t burst until now it was only thanks to Carrak who was actively reducing his absorption of Force energy while spending most of his time increasing his control over the current Force he already had so the lightsaber wouldn’t burst however this solution wouldn’t last forever and have a ticking bomb on himself wasn’t the kind of dream Vaner had.

And with this in mind Vaner had chosen two Kyber crystal for his two new lightsabers. His first choice is the Ghostfire crystal which was a crystal that produce a near translucent blade that had an illusory effect creating afterimage which would be really useful during duel especially if he could build a lightsaber like the one of Exar Kun making believe his opponent that the other blade was nothing but illusion then activating the blade taking him by surprise.

As for his second crystal, Vaner was still thinking about it. He had thought about the Dawn of Dagobah a crystal capable of poisoning the opponent when it inflicts wounds but after discussing with Carrak he came to the conclusion that he first needed to test something with a Lava crystal which could be a better alternative if their plan was successful.

However, with all his researches and his own knowledge about Star Wars Vaner found something wrong and that was the existence of information on the Dawn of Dagobah when the planet was supposedly not known.

And thinking about Yoda knowledge in the dark side Vaner came to think that Yoda lightsaber might be powered by such a Crystal and lack of information about this planet could because he had erased them. As for the dark nexus, it could be the result of Yoda training to the dark side. But all of this was only a supposition as he lacked too much information about this world making him regret not being more of a fan in his previous life.

Closing the book in front of him about droids Vaner felt that he did all the research he needed and took copies of the one that could be useful during his trip. ‘Just need to pack my things and then find a way out’ thought Vaner while sighing becoming quite exasperate with a part of the Order.

Knowing he would leave in the coming days Vaner decide to find his master to inform him of his decision so he could help him cover when he would leave.

While making his way toward his master meditation room Vaner could feel something or someone was observing him ‘tsh, still following me’ thought Vaner. This wasn’t the first time in fact since a few days after he became a knight, he starts to feel something following and observing him but at that time it was way more discrete. So, from this he concludes that it wasn’t something but someone and that this someone had probably changed during the last few days.

Arriving at the room Vaner entered directly not asking if he could. Entering the room Vaner could see his master quite shocked at his arrival for a short time before his expression became quite heavy.

Seeing Vaner looking at him inexpressively Ki-Adi-Mundi let out an exhausted sigh before saying”I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide it from you forever but I didn’t think you would learn about it so soon.”

This sentence caused Vaner to become totally confused and since clearly shown on his face and Mundi who was closely observing Vaner realized that he said something which he shouldn’t have.

“What do you want Vaner ?” said Mundi in a more normal voice as if he had never said anything before.

“Oh, I wanted to Wait, no, master what was that about before? Don’t try to change the subject.” asked Vaner realizing he had almost been trapped by his master.

Seeing his former apprentice looking at him with a serious and questioning face Mundi knew that he wouldn’t be able to switch subject and he let out another heavy sigh.

“Sit down Vaner and keep calm, ok” Said Mundi in a soft voice. Which caused Vaner to realize something really wasn’t right here and thought about what could have happened while sitting down and the only thing that came to his mind was that the council had succeeded in keeping him caged angering him.

“You know, you are not the only one from your generation who have become a Jedi Knight.” Said Mundi slowly while thinking how to say to Vaner what he needed too. “Around one month before you did your own trial 2 other padawans did their own.” Said Mundi before stopping again.

Hearing his former master Vaner new that his former assumption was wrong, but this didn’t make him happy at all. He felt he knew what Ki-Adi-Mundi would say next however he didn’t want to believe what he had deducted and so he stayed silent looking at his master while his face starts to lose color.

During his whole second life, he only became close to a few people, so few that you can count them on one hand so what was coming was starting to hurt before it was even confirmed.

Seeing Vaner losing color Mundi’s face became pained but he knew that he need to say it and so he continued “They succeed their trial and soon left on a mission together however we received news yesterday that they wouldn’t come back to the temple.” Stoping again Mundi took a deep breath before saying softly to Vaner “I’m sorry Vaner but Raskta and Bahk died during the mission”.

Hearing these final words Vaner mind went blank as he froze for a few minutes before coming back to himself. “I see, so they died. Hmm, it happens after all this world is not safe and there are Siths outside too now.” Finally said Vaner in a totally monotone voice.

“Thanks for telling me Master” said Vaner as he slowly stood up still as pale as before. “Oh yeah before I forget, I came here to tell you that I would be going out in a few days.” Said Vaner in a calm and monotone voice before leaving the room and heading toward his chamber.