Coming Full Circle

[Eugen Aker]

Briefing Room

In a word, the recent operation on Jakku had been a mess. What was meant to be a surgical raid to capture key crime lords and their VIP clients had devolved into one big shootout as Dursden barged onto the scene with guns blazing.

Now there were many more casualties than expected, all the key slavers had managed to escape, and scant intelligence was recovered.

They were back to square one, if not worse.

For his actions, Dursden had been summoned back to Kashyyyk to participate in an informal inquiry Jyoti, along with other operatives that she had deployed to Jakku to get a better picture of what had gone wrong.

The irony of leading the inquiry wasn't lost upon Jyoti, but she had a job to do to ensure nothing like Korriban or Mirial happened again. If the galaxy was to stand a chance against the Sith, then the next generation of Jedi had to be better than her.

Quietly, she sipped on her mug of white tea as she reviewed Dursden's records again. His story reminded her so much of Yuroic. He just as hard headed too, if the Potluck was anything to go by.

Is this the universe giving me another chance?

Privately, she was one of those Jedi that didn't normally subscribe to the notion of destiny or the Will of the Force. Though she wondered if the Force pushed back sometimes, trying to nudge her along.

[member="Draven Dursden"] [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Alyisa Mithel]

Aly was brought along today because she had witness the chaos on Jakku. She was still knew here and held no rank. She was not commissioned yet as a newly crowned fighter pilot here. She most certainly had the knowledge and experience, but as fate was still intervening she had not had the pleasure yet. So she had no uniform to wear and a flight suit did not feel appropriate. Luckily the former Tie Wing Commander did still have an intergalactic bank account and credits to spend. Now coming into the room she wore, this and it was casual attire for her. Far as she knew this was just an inquiry and not a trial.

 

[Sala'dine]

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"]

Sala'dine had been surprised and she wasn't often one to leave the fleet or her ship. She preferred it while she stood there in her uniform, black and silver with gold piping where it was needed and it gleamed from the sheen. Hair in a ponytail under the hat and her saber on her hip with her pistol. Combat blade in her boot sheath but most importantly was the datapad with what information she had from the operation. It had beent he Hand providing support and extraction... at least that had been the plan.

Instead she had a lot of former slaves, crammed in their hold for a long trip because they didn't want to leave any behind in the attack that was taking place. It had been.... on the one hand sure they rescued more but if you cram one hundred beings in a ship hold made to at best hold a third of that it wasn't exactly humane. She had been trying to double up the crew rooms and let them sleep in the rooms but there was stil only so much space on a ship without making them sleep in the halls.

Afterwards the Hand had met up with the Shadow and rest of the fleet. Her ghosts and Judges were something few got to see and they served more as an expeditionary force that few others could really see. Gir, Sentus, Roz were visible they were in the light.. she preferred what she did when she finally arrived and her marines stood to the side. She walked through the door and they were in the grey silver armor at her back.

She turned and was able to see Alyisa who had come and raised an eyebrow but was glad that the girl was... better. She hadn't seemed to broken up about her situation and Sala'dine approached her with a nod of her head. "Welcome Mithel." She said it with a nod of her head when her hand came up and she motioned towards the area they would be going to. "After you please." Wth a small look though she did wonder about the others the padawan and the jedi who had started most of the fighting.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh had been unable to participate in the mission due to being away on a personal errand. But by the report, it had gone terribly. Draven, a Jedi he had met at an event and had tried to teach, had completely bungled up the mission in a fit of toxic machismo. Orders had been ignored and as a result, the mission had been a failure. While they had managed to save some slaves, many casualties had been incurred due to Draven's action.

As a part of the Silver Assembly, Josh had been called for a hearing where they would speak with Draven about what had happened on that mission. These hearings always gave him bad juju considering how often they did them during the Republic days, to be fairly honest. At one point, Master Je'gan had attempted to have a fellow Jedi executed for a bungled mission. The fact he became the Grandmaster soon after that more or less spoke of how much of a mess the Order was back then.

But for Jyoti, he had trust in her ability to make decisions. Though he could admit to seeing some hilarious irony here. He'd heard jokes around the Temple here and there that "Jyoti does what she wants"... And the lack of presence of the Grandmaster in this hearing made that little rumor stand out a bit. He found it more humorous than anything though.

Though he pondered what Jyoti's position was... She was the temporary Master Of The Order until a new one that he hadn't met had been brought in, and she was back to doing work in the Shadows. Why was she the one calling the hearing?

Regardless, he didn't speak when he walked in, simply bowed his head. With the witnesses here to speak, he was merely here to listen before he had reason to speak.

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"]

 

[Varindar Asyt]

After the debacle of Jakku, which led her to intervene on Chalacta under the cover of the Ta'jar Blood Gang, the very same cover she had used on Jakku, she was summoned into an inquiry regarding Jakku. Which will likely determine the fate of [member="Draven Dursden"], whom she feels his future among the SJ has been jeopardized. Meanwhile, Varindar did, in fact, avenge that botched mission somewhat on Chalacta. But she also realized on Jakku that she still needed to learn Force-cloak before she could actually consider calling herself a Shadow. And, of course, Force-healing and the mind trick. She knew [member="Alyisa Mithel"] on Jakku and later helped her out on Chalacta, with [member="Jyoti Nooran"] being originally slated to enter the mission. Like Charlie, Jyoti pulled out after Draven just barged in there like a rancor in a china shop. Yes, both Alyisa and Varindar owed their lives to [member="Sala'dine"], but she stepped forward the first because she was there when it all started. And, of course, while she heard about [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] on a number of occasions, she never had a reason to interact with him until today.

"I'm Varindar Asyt; because of my past with the Ta'jar Blood Gang, I saw fit to use my past as a Ta'jar member as cover for this operation. I was asking more details to the mark about the slave entitlement of the Ta'jars, thinking that I could use my allotment of slaves as a means to rescue them down the road. Because of Draven's actions, I was forced to break cover prematurely and to crush the barrel of Vee's slugthrower using telekinesis, in an attempt to diminish the risk of casualties"

 

[Alyisa Mithel]

“Hello”, Aly gave a genuinely pleasant smile to @Sala’dine.

Sala’dine did motioned and asked Aly to enter first. Aly did start to go first but wished to keep up the conversation.

“So what is this get together going to be like”, she asked of her new friend as they entered the room with everyone else.


[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Varindar Asyt"]

 

[Sala'dine]

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"] [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

She looked at her and walked. "It is going to be mostly a standard after action debrief. We will say what we saw and what happened so they can determine what went wrong and handle the problem the one jedi presented opening attacking everything." She said it and was walking when she looked at the dress that the woman was wearing. She looked at the others who were there as she sat down seeing the padawan enter and there was another jedi here as well. Sala'dine listened to her speak.

'Hmm I see.' She said it to herself and remained expressionless and waited until the padawan was finished showing her perspective of the situation and she had been on the ground when it happened. Sala;dine had been on the evacuation ship that would have bolstered the transports to rescue and retrieve them. She was checking on a few of the things before she waited for her turn to speak ensuring she had all of the information from the sensors.

"Thank you for this and apologies for not being around as often. THe testing facilities at Seoul have been interesting." She said it and clasped her hands behind her back. "I was contacted to provide extraction from the Jakku, the ghost fleet was within the unknown regions working to monitor the Kanzer and it would be easier to have stealth ships retrieve them then a visible fleet." With a look towards Jyoti though she locked eyes and continued.

"We had started the operations, transports being prepped and readied to go to the LZ where they would wait until the retrieval beacon was activated. Ranger's were prepared to drop in the deployment pods. As we were getting prepared for the start of the operation reports of blaster fire and forces attacking came to us. At first we suspected a rival had tried to take out the competition but we were proven wrong and then..."

She trailed off as she tried to think about it. "Then I was on the ground with my soldiers and we were inside the tent with the slaves. I am uncertain how we got there but the chrono registered that it had only been the span of a few seconds. Barring divine intervention from some deity I can only guess at quantum teleportation technology in the hands of criminals." She said it and was looking. "But continuing we engaged the crime lord who was there."

And she looked towards Aly the one who had proven the more skiled. "Unfortunately we couldn't fit all of the slaves on the transports we had. The battle outside was also more violent and dangerous then we had been able to think it would be. Slaves, criminals and rangers were being killed almost without regard and this was before the droid armies of the criminal Toa appeared to come from no where." She said it and was presenting the sensor data of it before she looked down.

"Once we managed to get as many on the transports as we could I had our squadron of Tengu lay down a proper covering fire and defend us as we cloaked and left to meet up with the others. While we were traveling through hyperspace something infiltrated the ship and teleported away after attacking us int he medical bay. The capabilities it showed to track us in hyperspace, get through the hull without damaging it, evade sensors and escape from the ship and hyperspace without incident.... was alarming."

 

[Draven Dursden]

Draven entered the room silently. He was fresh from the fight, not having had time to take a shower, change out of his combat gear, or anything before his dear friend Captain George had grunted into coms, "Draven. They need to see you." So Draven had gone. Two of his dudes came with him though, one flanking either side, the fit, and strong men quite imposing at the shorter, but stocky jedi's side. To his left, captain George, he had insisted no one else go in his place. To his right, Sergeant Felix. The three men entered the debriefing room, the door hissing open as they interrupted the padawan's eloquent speech, and found their seats. Ash and soot still covered Draven head to toe, and his blue eyes gleamed brightly as he watched the woman speaking, an arrogant, and unshaken smile pinned on his face from the minute he entered, to the minute he sat down, never leaving. The knight continued to watch her, blue eyes boring in with each blame casting word, and his smile simply remained on his face, and his expression and demeanor relaxed.​

​

The same could not be said for his two companions. The men seemed disgusted with the whole event, and made open their disdain for it as they awaited their leader's call to trial. Draven was deadly still, despite his relaxed expression, his complete and utter lack of movement once seated, was a tell, if someone was intent enough to watch him. The Jedi would not say a word to defend himself, until all accusations had been cast, and he had been called to speak.​

 

[Charlie Nooran]

Inquiry. Charlie had heard briefly what this was about. She was also made aware of what happened which was enough to frustrate the Padawan. He should have known better than to barge in like that and put so many lives in danger. She didn’t vocalize her concerns, they had already been heard by her master. Which for Charlie that was enough. She wandered in and noticed a couple of familiar faces, now wasn’t the time for pleasantries for it was business for the time being.

A learning opportunity, its what Jyoti called it when she welcomed Charlie to sit in. Upon sitting it seemed she had made it just in time. Draven had walked in soon after she did and took his seat. His expression was interesting, and Charlie wondered if he was sorry for the ways things ended up. The entire mission was botched. The look on his face made Charlie’s eyes roll so hard they threatened to fly out of her head. It was probably best she avoided doing that again. In her seat she kept her hands in her lap and waited for the proceedings to occur.

Was this the sort of thing that awaited her when she became a Master? She was learning quickly that being a Jedi wasn’t always fighting the Sith.


[member="Draven Dursden"] [member="Sala'dine"] @Alyisa Mithel [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Alyisa Mithel]

Being a guest Aly made her way in with the others, and found a seat.

[SIZE=11pt]She remained quiet for now. She was not used to the customs they had here and she did not wish to be disrespectful. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]When or if they needed her to speak they would ask.[/SIZE]






@Charlie @Draven Dursden [member="Sala'dine"] @Varindar Asyt [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Some of the operatives gathered gave their testimony ahead of Draven's arrival, detailing their individual assignments within the overall operation. All disrupted by the rash actions of Draven.

She glanced over at Josh a few times during their testimony. He was being unusually quiet, always seeming to have some quips ready for her at every encounter. No doubt he had some stored away for later.

Draven arrived with a pair of associates as Admiral Sala'dine completed her testimony. The trio seemed to make an attempt at appearing threatening, but the Echani remained unphased. In fact, she stood up from her seat, then approached the men with her hands clasped behind her back.

Slowly she circled around them a few times, not uttering a single word. However, a look of disappointment was clear on her face.

Finally, she settled right in front of Draven, making their height different painfully obvious. She had to tilt her head down to address him, much like a mother would as she prepared to scold her child.

"As the field officer who deployed you and others to Jakku, I know you were thoroughly briefed on the mission there, so there's no point in asking you a million questions to determine insubordination. You seem proud of it."

"What I'd like to know, was it worth it to doom countless victims to a continued life of slavery and violation? Because infiltration teams weren't allowed to get into position before your premature assault, we failed at catching any key traffickers or gathering critical information to truly disrupt their operations. Now they're gone with their criminal empires intact, and will be even harder to track as they will know to look out for our raids."

"So again I ask, was it worth it?"

[member="Draven Dursden"] [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Charlie"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"]

 

[Draven Dursden]

​Draven and his men had simply entered how they had seen fit, and really did not care about the reception. As far as the eye rolling Padawan, Draven ignored her, she was beneath acknowledgement. Draven noted her height advantage, and the obvious difference in size, but he had never let this bother him before, and refused to do so now. The knight, still lazy in his movements, stood up, instead of remaining seated, and stepped forwards, so he was only inches away from the woman, not enough to be offensive, but close enough to let her know that he would not be intimidated. The Knight said nothing to her question, and simply watched her, his blue eyes dancing across her posture and form, after a moment of this, they began to roam about the assembly. A group of unhappy, and grim faces surrounded him, the one accused seemed to be the happiest in the room, his troopers both conversing in low tones amongst themselves, not bothering to address of look at the assembly, they did not care for their opinions anyways.​

​

Eventually Draven spoke, ​"I am not hard of hearing, once would have sufficed. And as far as if it was worth it?" ​He shrugged his shoulders, rocking back on his heels and cocking his head ever so slightly, ​"You tell me. Yes, no key slavers were CAPTURED. But many were killed. Now, they will never be able to enslave others again, and their evil and wickedness in the universe has ended. Not only did WE," ​Draven gestured to himself, and the two troopers who sat on either side of his discarded seat, ​​"Permanently end this. But we also all but completely obliterated a entire droid army, which had gone unnoticed and unaccounted for by your forces. Who knows what would have happened if we had commenced with your...stealth? I suppose that is the word. Operation, and had the unpleasant surprise of a droid army marching in to our exposed backs. We obliterated this force, and preempted a possible deadly assault. Our casualties were minimal, and we dispensed justice." ​The short knight let out a deep, and lingering chuckle, ​"Which is more than can be said for any of you. Who simply gawked and watched while your betters worked. I don't recall seeing a single other jedi join our offensive, once they became aware of it. It seems like The Silver Jedi left their spine at home on this particular mission." ​​

The knight had been circling the room as he had made his little speech, mocking the way the jedi master had when she had attempted to appear oh so intimidating. The general blind admiration, and sheep like thinking of just accepting the scape goat which was presented to them, made Draven sick, and he did nothing to hide his disdain. As he sat, the Jedi let out a parting shot, ​"Those are my reasons. If you intend on sentencing me, then I implore you, cut through this drivel and get to it. No point in pretending like my reasoning matters, you all have obviously made up your minds."​

​

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"] @Charlie @Sala'dine @Varindar Asyt[member="Josh DragonsFlame"] ​

 

[Sala'dine]

She stood there and was listening to.... something. GOing back over as she sat down and watched with a raised eyebrow until the jedi knight finished speaking. She didn't speak up while the jedi master was handling the situation but she found there was a great deal of the information skewed. A droid army could have been handled by the ion mortors from the tengu that were flying overhead, a stealth squadron launching them could handle most problems.

She sat down looking at Aly who had been there on the ground and was one fo the slaves. SHe was helpful with her combat experience so Sala'dine would know how to handle things. She had survived when many had died and there was the ones the transports had managed to save. A risk from everything though until she turned her head for a moment to look at the blonde in case she was going to add anything. A small shake of her heqad to try and discourage it.

 

[Varindar Asyt]

"The dead slavers have fought us tooth-and-nail, alongside their droid forces, and we still rescued some slaves, I'll grant you as much. While we didn't gain information allowing us to deal as much damage to their slaver operations as we wanted to, the subsequent operation on Chalacta that I ran afterward against the Ta'jar Blood Gang, based on info gained during the operation, was better than an intact criminal empire. That operation on Chalacta was done without casualties, and miximg stun gas with fumigation was the way to go because the spaceport also had a pest problem"

[member="Draven Dursden"]'s answer left her a little perplex, and to claim that the defeat of the droid army was somehow worth killing slaves, some by the hand of the slavers in self-defense, others by his own men's hands, was perhaps a little bold. Usually criminals kept forces in reserve to fight other cartels, without seeking to outright capture a planet, or even a region of a planet. But if there was anybody to dispute both Draven's and [member="Jyoti Nooran"]'s claims, it was her. With [member="Alyisa Mithel"] and [member="Sala'dine"] also being part of the Chalacta operation, using stun gases mixed with fumigation materials, they were able to catch a few more of the Ta'jars. And free the slaves held in the spaceport they used to launder money. Poodoo: he was sounding like an extremist, a well-intentioned one, perhaps, but one to watch out for regarding signs of the dark side, she thought, while realizing that perhaps it's better for Varindar not to tell him that he is vulnerable to the dark side, much less in what ways. But perhaps telling him how Chalacta went was for the better, and closer to what they hoped to achieve on Jakku, but on a smaller scale.

"Just that there could have been some ways to kill off or capture slavers of various ranks without causing the amount of collateral damage you have caused, and that the ones we are most interested in are still at large"

 

[Alyisa Mithel]

Alyisa was still silent. The Former Atrisian Empire TIE Wing Commander made not even a move to approve or disapprove of anything being said so far.

She did take a deep breath when [member="Draven Dursden"] questioned her honor. He being a hot headed man who had no respect for his Order, his superiors, or his soldiers under his command.

Despite her rising passion Alyisa Mithel, A.K.A the Mauler… remained quiet and still.

[member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] @Charlie [member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

In the face of his tirade, she remained calm. She had known to expect a combative response from the way he entered the room. Asyt spoke up to provide a direct response to Draven, so Jyoti let her speak as she scanned the room. Sala'dine looked a bit bewildered.

"So if I understand this correctly, you're angry because you failed in forcing the hand of your teammates into acting just as recklessly as you? People were hurt when they didn't need to be because you didn't trust the rest of the team to do their part. Say, wouldn't have been grand for the infiltrators to be allowed to do their job and scope out the area and find that droid army before you walked into an ambush? Just a thought."

"Sure, you killed some slavers I suppose and wrecked a droid army. However, anyone with any experience knows that most serious enterprises like the ones those traffickers represented will have a replacement to lead the organization within a day. That droid army will also be replaced in a day. In the grand scheme of things, your actions accomplished very little. I think that you need to consider that you weren't doing this so much for those slaves as much as for yourself."

Draven had been a slave himself, which left him predisposed to take more extremist measures against them. Just like Yuroic.

Pacing again, she looked away from Draven to study the flor. "This isn't a trial, and you're not being imprisoned. However, you can't be allowed to run around to do as you please and needlessly hurt more innocents in the process. That is not our way, or we're no better than the slavers we're trying to stop."

She turned to look back at him. "The first item of business is resettling the slaves set free on Jakku, and providing extended aid to those injured during the course of the battle. Unfortunately, we can do nothing about casualties. After that, I would like to have you work with me directly for a while. Yuroic was a capable Knight, but I feel that he didn't give you everything you needed as a Padawan. You're hurting and it's affecting you, even if you don't want to admit it."

"That's the real reason we called you here today," she said, looking over at Josh. "We want to help."

[member="Alyisa Mithel"] [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Draven Dursden"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Charlie"]

 

[Sala'dine]

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Alyisa Mithel"] [member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

She was listening and the jedi master speaking made a point about it but Sala'dine flicked her eyes uncertain how uch to reveal. The Takama was where the rescued slaves had been moved. For medical treatment, educational purposes and offers and jobs. A new city in space that would allow them to choose what they wanted to do and the Silver jedi would be able to build them up and teach them. She was watching and could see Alyisa's face but she remained there wanting her to be quiet until the right moment.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh listened to it all. The accusation, the response... Though Draven's response took him aback a little, he wasn't all that surprised either. His attitude back at the potluck, and the reports he'd seen since made it so he wasn't entirely surprised, but to be this far gone? That was a problem. He listened to it all and remained silent... Until the moment that Jyoti would look toward him.

The Jedi Master would gently rise to his feet and began to pace around the room a bit. His expression was blank, completely unreadable. His mind even, was closed off to all in the room. He kept himself to himself, as he allowed everything to formulate before he spoke.

"So I hate to be a dog-piler" He would admit in a small glimpse back at the Josh they knew as he would look from the Assembly, to the witnesses, to Draven and his men, before shrugging his shoulders. "But you haven't given me all that much choice."

He walked toward Draven then, stopping in front of him. Normally, he would make jokes about the difference in height, if this were the normal Josh. But this wasn't. Even if it was a bit funny considering Jyoti's little display earlier, and the fact that Josh was even bigger than Jyoti. Instead though, he stepped a few ways back from Draven so he could see him fully and he could see Draven fully without having to look down on him much. He would give him that much courtesy.

"I challenged you to a sparring match during the potluck both to give the people a show... And for you to learn something" He spoke calmly, yet firmly, his eyes burrowing into Draven, piercing... Almost like he could disintegrate him with just a gaze. "We are Jedi, we are bringers of balance... And for that, we must PRACTICE balance. Even in combat. Against me, you were all offense... All ra ra ra, strike strike strike... And I told you it would be your undoing. You leave yourself open to killing blows... And to mistakes.

And you did it again despite that.

Worse yet... This mistake was not made in the heart of combat... But before the battle had even begun.

You disregarded all that I had hoped to teach you in our battle. I wanted you to LEARN, Draven. I wanted you to be BETTER. Better than me, better than all of us, I wanted you to be part of this Order's FUTURE, because you know what?

I'm not going to live forever."

He let that sink in for a moment, before he continued. The more that he spoke, the more the intensity increased, and the more that it rang out in his voice...

"I don't say this often because I am not a man of ego... But I am fully aware of my abilities as a combatant, that's why I'm here, that's part why I am in my position and it's part of how I'm still here despite seeing Republic after Republic, Jedi Order after Jedi Order rise and fall... You think your "Guys", your "Boys", have seen battle? I have seen wars, Draven... I have seen death, I have seen amounts of it that would make you, tweedle dee and tweedle doo on your left and right vomit. And the worst part of it is... I cut many them down myself. That's something I have to live with, and yet at the same time... I am damn proud of the warrior that I have become. Because it means that I can serve my purpose... And protect my family.

But one day, Draven... One day, I'm going to fight a battle I will not win. There is going to be a day... That I'm not coming home.

I have a wife and a son, you know that?"

Another pause, another moment.

"They are what drive me. The Jedi drove me for so many years, and yet I have chosen to continue to serve despite the fact I could have walked away when I found my drive, and my purpose... Because now I can protect my family, and because there are people who need me. Families that need me. Families that NEED ME... To be a JEDI MASTER... Make the right calls, do the right thing, and be smart about it because I am playing with their lives. If I kark up... They die.

But one day... I am going to be struck down. One day I am going to fall in combat, I know this. So when I'm dead, who's going to protect my family, huh Draven? Who's going to make sure that people like those slavers don't take my wife and kid? And what happens if they do? What happens if those slavers take my wife and my son?

The future of this Order... You... You are who would be tasked to get them back. And what happens then, if the one that gets sent... Decides to be a dumbass and charge in blindly with no plan? I have raided slaver camp after slaver camp... If they feel they will not be able to keep any slaves due to an overwhelming force, they will kill them. If they cannot have them... Nobody will, that is how they are. They either escape with the slaves, or kill them so they can never be free.

So you think that my family, while they are carried away because some idiot charged in blindly, or are killed because of a large force approaching... You think they're gonna give a damn that you destroyed a droid army they can replace in a day? That you killed a few slavers, when you could have captured them all just by gathering intelligence and taking them by surprise? You killed a few. So what? You could have gotten them all locked up... Or better yet, waited until the time was right and killed them all.

No... Instead, your ego, your desire to rush in blindly... You doomed them. Now who knows when we'll be able to find those slavers again? Who knows how many slaves we could have saved if you'd just stuck with the plan?

You think I want to trust my families safety to someone who does that?

I want to trust my families safety to someone that is even better than I am."

He stared him dead in the eyes, a hush staying over the room as he spoke... His tone was intense, ominous... Completely serious. There was no playfulness, no jokes, no humor... Just a man who saw the demise of many families if people like Draven kept running around the Order.

"And you showed that you were unwilling to be better. That you care more about the glory of killing some droids and a few slavers than the big picture. There are hundreds of families that are missing members still because of you. So what if you saved a few? You doomed hundreds more. And for what? Your ego? Destroying a droid army that is of no consequence? I build droids for fun, if my droids get kabooshed I just rebuild them. But I can't replace the time lost in captivity... I can't replace lives lost.

When I screw up, if any live are lost because of me, Draven... It haunts me forever. Yet here you stand, proud of yourself... Acting like you're some kind of war hero when there is blood, and potential blood on your hands."

He shook his head.

"Be. Better. If you didn't understand my lesson the first time, understand it now... Be better. Be better than yourself... Be better than anyone else in this room...

Be better than me. Be the man that protects my family when I'm gone. Learn patience... Learn tolerance... Learn balance. Be five times... No, TEN TIMES... The Jedi that I am, I am begging you! Be better than me. The Order needs to evolve and we need the younger generation to be better than we are... Be a part of that. That's all we want. That's all we've ever wanted. You think we're here to punish you, to serve you some war crime sentence? What do you think we are, the Republic? If you want to be a soldier and ra ra ra go shoot people blindly... Go be a damn soldier.

If you want to be a Jedi... Then be the best damn Jedi you can be. If you have no ambition to be the best Jedi you can be... Why the hell are you even here?"

Josh took a deep breath then. It was a rare show from him, the way he was now. But Draven's actions, his arrogance in response, it struck a chord with him. Becoming a family man had opened Josh's eyes to the reality of their actions, to the reality of how important their mission was...

Josh never truly realized how important their mission was until he himself had something to lose.

And he couldn't trust his families future, the Order's future, and the lives of others... To someone who didn't hold enough regard for them to think with a broader scope.

"But... I think I have an idea" He spoke, more softly now as he would begin to calm down. "I agree with Master Nooran's decision to have you work under her... But I have a boon to ask, Master Nooran" He spoke as he looked toward Jyoti. "I request that before he work under you, he accompany me on my next slave camp raid."

He then looked toward Draven.

"I want you to see how the situation should be handled... I want you to learn, hands on."

His expression deepened then as he stared at him once again.

"But if you pull what you did before, in that mission... I will personally track down the families, somehow, some way... Of every slave who was either killed or compromised because you screwed up. And you will personally apologize. You will look them in the eye and you will tell them exactly why their husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, loved one... Isn't coming home. Go ahead. Tell them you killed a few slavers. Tell them that you killed some droids."

His expression told that he was dead serious on this statement. Josh was not a man that lied. So he would finish with one last statement...

"Be the Jedi we know you can be. If we didn't think you could be... You wouldn't be sitting in this room with us right now."

Harsh? Perhaps. Josh could be a strict teacher when he needed to be... This was a time where he needed to be. Or Draven would doom himself, and others.

The Order needed to be better... Now and in the future. And Josh would lay the foundation down brick by brick if he needed to.

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] - [member="Alyisa Mithel"] - [member="Varindar Asyt"] - [member="Sala'dine"] - [member="Draven Dursden"] - [member="Charlie"] Brown

 

[Varindar Asyt]

"Any provision of resettling slaves saved on Jakku, will also have to be extended to the slaves saved on Chalacta as well. They should be allowed access to education so that they can be functional as freedbeings in society: some of those slaves don't seem to be able to function outside of slavery. As a former slave myself, I can say as much: freedom is beneficial only to the extent a sentient is tooled to make good use of it"

As tempting as it would be to push the case for Trandosha, the big problem with Trandosha was that its educational infrastructure was just not up to standard, especially if what Elianne told her about it was correct back on Ceraluen or Durkteel. [member="Jyoti Nooran"] had the right idea, however. Yes, [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] had good reason to be stern towards [member="Draven Dursden"] while [member="Sala'dine"] kept quiet, much like [member="Alyisa Mithel"] had. Just that she had no real idea how to go around implementing a slave resettling plan beyond the need to provide them with the tools to function as freedbeings. And yet, she could understand that she wouldn't want Draven to touch a slave resettling plan with a ten-foot pole, nor would such a plan would be implemented without taking care of the differences between slaves and refugees from a resettling standpoint, especially since the provision of education to slaves was likely to be a bigger chunk of the plan than is the case with refugees.

"At this point I would trust Jessica to take care of the more detailed implementation of a slave resettling plan, especially when it comes to dealing with the relevant local authorities. That said, resettling slaves is somewhat different from resettling refugees"

 

[Draven Dursden]

​Draven fell silent at the two master's barrages. The Knight had seemed somewhat....unaffected by both of them. He sat back in his chair, and waited for the man to finish. He obviously had a lot to get off his chest, and Draven didn't want to impede him in anyway. He looked at him hard, when he heard the master's suggestion, but said only this, ​"Lets finish this tribune, trial, or whatever you'd like to call it. I have things to attend to." ​Both the men who had accompanied him awaited their commanders order to leave, and seemed anxious to get going. Draven's voice was hallow when he uttered the phrase, the only real indication that he had been effected by either of their speech. He had done what he though was right, and that was what he had, and always would, continue to do. Draven made this pact with himself in his mind, as he awaited their closing statements.​

​

Slowly, the knight slid his finger up and down his saber's cold hilt a habit which he had acquired under his apprenticeship with Yuroic. Memories came flooding back of their first, brief training session. All he had received from his master had been awkward scorn, and question at his every move, keeping the young and conflicted Padawan at arms length, never reaching out to him. So Draven had fallen into himself, just using this to fuel his rage, that which he kept so buried, as to not expose it to the other jedi. His anger at everything around him. His home, his lack of a family, his lack of a master, his lack of friends, loved ones. The knight used this to fuel his view of the world, approaching everything he did with the underlying current. He knew that this would not go over well if he exposed it to the others, Yuroic had made that much clear in their first training session. So Draven did, and continued to bury it, deeper and deeper, letting it fester like a unchecked plague, haunting his every step.​

​

The stern approach which Josh had taken was like beating a mule upside the head with a stick, that had been beaten all its life. Draven just tuned him out, muted him, and jerked his head back metaphorically, openly showing disinterest. The only time when he showed mild semblance of interest was when he heard the request to be brought on the next slaver raid with him, with a sigh, the fresh, and young knight shook his head, ​"Believe me, I have no intention on taking initiative any time soon in the future. This tribunal has shown me how the jedi look upon such things." ​Looking away, the rest fell on def ears. As did most of the woman master's speech, but that last line. She managed to cut past the bluster, and raging inside, the red view which he saw the world in, of everyone being a potential enemy, to cut to the core. She offered friendship, something which Draven had never really known. The last time he had, was back on his home world, when he had known- Draven stopped his mind. He refused to go there. Ever. Not again. The last time had nearly destroyed him.​

​

Draven's eyes widened when she muttered, ​​"Help you" ​and for just a moment, his disinterested, and angry, angsty demeanor fell away. Sitting in the chair was not a bluster filled, angry, and hateful knight, but just a teenager. The gangly, acne covered, grime infested teenager which had come to the temple, and his weak little frame, holding on by a string, and desperate for a mentor, a friend, and a teacher.​

​

Draven was quick to snap to, when Josh began to speak. His eyes cut back into focus, and his muscular frame swelled, the arrogant mask being shoved back into place, as he picked his countenance back together. The knight sneered, and rolled his eyes in disgust at the older man's statements, and even yawned, leaning back in his chair. The guise was back in place, the slip only having lasted a second. The Knight said, once everyone had finished speaking, in a drawling, bored tone, "Am I done here?" ​

​

[member="Varindar Asyt"] [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] [member="Sala'dine"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"]​