Naboo
Outskirts of Theed
Days prior to the Annihilation of Exegol
The long stretch of recuperation, recovery of her skills, acclimation to the idea of the era she now found herself in had come to a close. Within that time, and after, she had done all she could to assist those that had welcomed her into their fold, to better prepare them for what laid ahead with her insight and skill, for the matter of rooting out one of the most incomprehensible darks. Something that inspired a similar harrowing feeling to the creatures that she and her creche-mates in the temple had been warned of over... what was now almost eleven hundred years prior.
But what and who lay outside the Shiraya Expanse called to her. A curiosity despite the misgivings that had settled into her on being informed that little had changed in the middling centuries for those of her lifelong ilk, since the start of her ‘sleep’. She ultimately couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing; could she really, truly find comfort, peace despite the storm, and just purpose in one place, without a connection to the culture of the Jedi?
Her culture?
With the ship that Kyyrk had procured for her many months past to replace the now-dilapidated relic that was her old vessel, her hilts reforged, and armour he had created at her behest, she had set out with her word given that she would return, if there was a need. She stopped at Naboo, the nearest world that pressed on her memory upon leaving the Expanse. She had come to know that the Holonet signal was better outside of the Expanse, than within it.
Where she might go after this stop, after pouring over holomaps in all these hours she was once again alone, whittling away at indecision caused by over two centuries of living memory, ended up in a stalemate, and instead of stewing, she ventured out to view the landscape of the usually picturesque world to clear her head. Having learned something of the pre-history of the Ascendancy, she had an idea of what wicked thing had wreaked havoc on the planet in the somewhat recent past, but that didn’t make the broken, slowly rebuilding city of Theed seem like anything less than a sort of déjà vu.
What threw her for a loop, though, was when she returned to her ship and laid her eyes on the holomap, which she could have sworn she had deactivated. No, there it was, lit up, and for some reason flickering heavily to bring her the image and name of a world she had never seen, nor heard of, in all her years. But first, she would have to make sure that this wasn’t some trick. Minutes later, having checked every nook and cranny and having thoroughly convinced herself that she was still alone, she came back to the map to find it switched off. Her brow furrowed, and she wondered if there was some fault in the map console’s hardware, or… maybe... ah, what was the name of it? Quietly, she activated the holomap and typed in the following letters:
E-X-E-G-O-L
She hit send, and after a few moments, an error buzzed - no such planet existed in the charts. “What the frack…” Oriadne drummed her fingers on the console, the image of this supposedly nonexistent planet burning at the edge of her consciousness, “...what are you trying to tell me?”
Was this some kind of riddle? A message? A warning? The Force wouldn't drop something with a growing feeling of urgency on her if it wasn't real, would it? Well, the next step was to try to gather information. She went to the holoterminal and ventured into the ‘net. Glancing at the virtual keys, she started her search.
> Where is
deletedeletedeletedelete
> What is Exegol?
What came up was coverage of a coming offensive that made her eyebrows creep slowly upward the more she looked into it. The more she came to understand what Exegol was. And where. What she wasn’t expecting was the propaganda from a 'Sword of the Jedi' of all people, nor the speech from one who appeared so young, but now she was better equipped to ask the right questions, to dig for what history she could find for the place, and any further intel.
After a short while digging, absorbing information, and digging some more, she sank back into the chair and threw her head back. “Palpatine’s true tomb, huh?” she mused, “You want me to go there?” Ori put on a firm smile, with the dreadful memories her research had dredged up roiling beneath the surface. She couldn’t walk away from this directive from the empyrean. “Well, far be it for me to argue. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve willingly walked into a vile nest, either.”
The Morellian righted her head and rose from her seat to walk back to the holomap. Wordlessly, she keyed in the set of coordinates she had dug up. What she was shown was little more than empty space. “That figures.” Though it wasn’t at all the same thing, the disappearance of Cularin came to mind - the Blink, as many had called it - and the brief time she had spent on neighbouring Almas, at the Academy there. She glanced at the travel time; well, at least this ship was faster than what had taken her to the Outer Rim all those years ago.
“When is this Alliance planning to be in-theatre?”
After looking into it, she found the time frame rather narrow. The Force liked to play things by the seat of its metaphorical pants sometimes, didn’t it? Covering her bases before she set out, Oriadne sent a message to the Alliance, a greeting, ahead of her departure, providing specific credentials that could only identify her as the Jedi she had always been and her ETA with a simple question, and a request:
‘Got room for one more Jedi? Point me to where you could use the help.’
When they had replied to her mid-transit, and after some back and forth eventually designated her link-up as ‘Strike Team Windu’, she felt a laugh rising in her throat, but the underlying feeling was solemn. The end of such a great Jedi as Master Windu had become, many great Jedi - her own master among them - was still as fresh as one year’s distance from a loss would be, in her mind. None of the sacrifices that ultimately paved the road to the doorstep of these world-devourers would be in vain.
Nor would those that were surely to come.
