Private Crossing The Great Divide

[Marck Vallen]

CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE

“On many long journeys have I gone. And waited, too, for others to return from journeys of their own. Some return; some are broken; some come back so different only their names remain.” – Yoda
​

Spoiler: SPECIAL NOTE

The Following Roleplay starts in "The Gungan Council" Universe and is intended to explain how Marck moved forward in time from the TGC timeline to the Chaos Universe and timeline. It mirrors the setting of the TGC board just before its closure, but the details are not exact and have been adapted for the purpose of this story. In that board's timeline, it is the time of the New Republic and The Jedi Council is housed on Naboo where all Jedi are trained and the main Jedi Temple is situated. All character references are from that board and are characters that Marck played with in the past from that board and its history and do not reflect any of the characters that might have left that board and joined Chaos. Anything contained in this roleplay is individual to Marck Vallen and any characters from TGC Board that join the thread and does not reflect what may or may not happen on the TGC after their departure. Anything the characters do or say in this Roleplay is my creation and is intended for setup purposes only, and has nothing to do with the writers or characters referenced.

PLANET: Unknown
LOCATION: Unknown

'ah-hooo-ga'

'ah-hooo-ga'

The alarm klaxons continued to blare throughout the ship as Marck tried to open his eyes and clear his thoughts. His head was swimming with white-hot pain, not only clouding his thoughts but obscuring his memories, making it rather difficult to focus. He could feel his own blood slowly trickling down from his forehead, past his left eye, and onto the deck plating that his head and cheek were currently being pressed into by what felt a significant amount of gravitational force. His body ached all over and breathing seemed to be difficult. At first, he thought his difficulty breathing was due to not only the several broken ribs he could feel swelling and pushing into his lungs along his left side but also the strong force that was pushing him into the deck, only to realize it was also due to the air thinning out. As Marck's thoughts began to come more into focus he could make out the distinctive whistle of a hull breach, slowly blowing the air out into space from what must have been a small hole somewhere nearby.

Forcing his eyes open, Marck moved his head and tried to clear the overwhelming fog from his vision and mind, forcing himself into awareness. If he failed to start moving now it would only get harder and harder as the air continued to thin, the backup life support systems could only do so much until the whole system failed and the ship slipped into nothing but a vacuum. At that point Marck was dead, so failure was not an option. At first, everything was just a massive blur, a fuzzy approximation of reality. Closing his eyes again, Marck blocked out every sensation, the pain, the blaring klaxons, and especially the sound of the air escaping, and completely focused what little of his functioning mind that was left available to the Force. Only through the Force would he have the strength to move, and he needed its guidance. Very few of his recent memories were available, and without them, he had no idea what his current situation actually was, he needed the Force's strength to seal the breach and gain his barring.

As he reached deep within himself, Marck cut off the pain to his body, blocking himself from registering its debilitating effects. He ignored any healing his body would need, it could wait for when the breach was sealed, and instead focused on restoring his vision and mobility, giving himself the energy to move. As he opened his eyes, it didn't take long before his vision cleared and he could take in the ship around him. At least he could tell he was on his own vessel, the guardian, which would make navigation of the ship so much easier. He could also see that he was laying in the corridor leading to the main engine room, which is where he now guessed the breach was located. He must have been heading that way before taking a blow to the head from the piece of bulkhead that lay beside him still smoldering from whatever was damaging the ship.

Lifting himself up as much as possible, Marck began to crawl towards the engine room. Despite no longer feeling the pain that was still radiating through his body, his movements were sluggish and labored as the air continued to grow thinner and thinner. Pouring more energy into his weakened muscles, Marck pushed forward, turning all his focus onto the goal of making it to the engine room. As he reached the doorway that lead to the hyperdrive chamber, Marck could feel the air rushing past his skin towards the hyperdrive. Forcing himself to his feet, he stumbled forwards again, nearly falling, only managing to catch himself on the housing that contained the hyperdrive. As he forced himself to stand upright again, all sound in the ship vanished as the last of the atmosphere in this section of the ship finally made its escape. Reaching out into the Force, Marck scanned the metal of the hull desperately searching for the hole that was now stealing his life. As the edges of his perceptions began to darken, and the lure of unconsciousness began to nip at his mind, Marck finally found it, a pinprick of a hole at the edge of the hyperdrive bracing where the shield couldn't reach it. As he fell again to his knees, Marck used the very last of his strength to crush the metal creating a temporary seal. Satisfied that the ship was secured, Marck allowed the darkness to consume him as he slipped back into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

------------------------------------------------------------
Six Hours Earlier
PLANET: Naboo
LOCATION: Theeds, the Jedi High Council Chambers

"The Sith threat against the people of Naboo continues to be very real," Master Danster Bokoto said yet again with the same conviction he had been using for the last few days. The Council had been in intense deliberation ever since the last major engagement between the Jedi and Sith. During this most recent attack by the Sith, the people of the capital city of Naboo, Theed, suffered greatly. Not only had the city taken considerable damage, but many lives of both civilians, Jedi, and New Republic soldiers had been lost. The main garrison for the New Republic had been nearly completely destroyed by the Sith Forces, who had only used that attack as a distraction while a small group of powerful Sith infiltrated the Jedi Temple, breached the archives, and stole many priceless artifacts. The entire attack seemed to have been nothing more than a needlessly brutal distraction to steal a few holocrons. "As long as the Jedi Council continues to remain on Naboo, the people here will continue to suffer. We should return to Tython, and allow the New Republic to defend the people of Naboo."

Danster was a good friend, a powerful Jedi, and a loyal member of the Jedi High Council, but he was stubborn and stuck in the old ways of the Order. He did not agree with any of the changes that had occurred in the years since Master Hawk Hinata had taken the mantel of Grand Master, including the more militaristic stance on the continued conflict with the Sith. He was a staunch believer in the old Jedi code and the teachings of the order from before the Clone Wars. And since the renewed hostility between the Sith Order and the Jedi, he had also been pushing the idea that the Jedi should retreat from Naboo and return to the ancestral home of Tython. As there were very few residents of Tython that were not Jedi, the Order's presence there would not be putting any more civilian lives at risk. It would, however, have the side effect of limiting the Jedi's ability to launch any significant attacks on the Sith Order, instead of forcing the Jedi to wait for the Sith to attack, which Marck suspected was something that Danster intended in his suggestion.

"I agree that the threat from the Sith is real," Master Hawk Hinata said in response to Danster's statement but addressing the council as a whole. Hawk was using his signature authoritative tone, which left no room for interpretation that he was willing to broker any further argument with what he was about to say next. Hawk had always been a fair but commanding presence as the leader of the Order, but since his fall to the Darkside, trial, redemption, and return as the Grand Master, he had taken on a harder edge. He was as strong as ever in his presence of the light, but he was a little less willing to tolerate decent within the Council. "However the answer is not to be running to Tython, but rather to take away the Sith's ability to wage war on the people of the galaxy by attacking Dromund Kaas."

"I agree," Spark, Marck's sister and fellow member of the high Council added in before Danster could again protest. She was the longest sitting member of the Jedi High Council after Hawk and Danster, she had even been Marck's own Master when he was a Padawan and was often the balancing force between the two Jedi. Even then Marck found himself surprised by her willingness to commit to an attack so soon after the Sith's invasion. She was a brilliant healer, a stimcafe fanatic, and a powerful empath, but was not one usually quick to embrace violence. She would more likely try to bake a good pie and try to talk peace than to take the Jedi to war, but this last attack had rattled everyone. "The Sith have been allowed to lead the direction of this conflict for too long."

Before anyone else could add to the discussion the entire council froze as each felt the disturbance in the Force together. It had only been a few days since the Sith attack, the Jedi and New Republic forces were still in shambles doing their best to recover and regroup, none were in any position to defend again another assault. Yet that is exactly what was about the happen. Marck could feel the mass of Darkside users as they hurled through hyperspace en route to Naboo.

"We must be ready," Hawk said as he and each of the other Jedi Masters in attendance followed his lead. "May the Force be with us all."

​

 

[Marck Vallen]

"Don't give up."

"You have to keep going."

"Get moving!"

The echoes of familiar voices kept reverberating around the darkness, bouncing off invisible walls and surrounding Marck, punishing him to keep going rather than sink even further into despair. One voice, in particular, seemed to be pushing harder than the others, encouraging Marck to focus all his energy on listening to its message, causing him to focus more and bring his consciousness closer to the surface. As he did the pain in his body began to return, causing the Jedi Master to groan and groggily open his eyes.

He was still on the deck of the engine room, alarms continued to blare, but less urgently, and thankfully the air loss klaxons had stopped their wailing, At least he was no longer in danger of suffocating in a vacuum, but if the stringent stench of smoke was any indication, he still might choke to death on the smoke that was slowly filling the small cabin. So much left to do.

"Master!" came the excited and yet still worried exclaim of his companion, R4, his pilot and mechanic. "You have not been deactivated. This is good. I was afraid the loss of your atmosphere had rendered you permanently non-functional." Marck could hear the familiar clanking of R4's feet as he came down the deck towards him, as well as the buzzing and beeping of his little handheld scanner. The droid was either checking his life signs, or examining the ship, but Marck couldn't tell which. Judging by the damage the vessel had taken, he figured the ship was in worse condition than he was and would warrant more focus than himself.

"Thank you for your concern R4, glad to see you are up and running as well," Marck croaked out weakly as he rolled himself onto his back trying to take stock of not only his own body but the ship around him. "It was pretty close there, but I managed to seal the breach."

"Yes Master," R4 said as he trudged along the hyperdrive poking his scanner at various spots while using a small extinguisher to put out the smaller fires that the main impression system was missing. Even though Marck couldn't sense any emotions from the droid, he could see he was concerned. He cared a great deal about their vessel the two called home and was obviously distressed by the damage. "Your patch job seems to be adequate for the moment, though we will need a dry dock for proper repairs as soon as possible."

"How bad is the damage?" Marck asked as he slowly pulled himself into a seated position. For a moment he almost allowed himself to fall back down when a wave of vertigo washed over him, but with some quick breathing exercises, he was able to push back that impulse. He was going to need some bacta injections and several hours of meditation before he would feel any semblance of strength, but for now, he needed to concentrate on the ship and their current situation.

Stopping for a moment, Marck realized that while plenty of alarms were going off, and he could hear the occasional boom from the hull giving way in different parts of the ship, he was not hearing any blasts from weapons fire. They had been under attack, hadn't they? The Sith, the Sith had been attacking Naboo and Marck had been... doing something... he couldn't remember. Focusing his mind a little more thought he defiantly knew the Sith had been attacking the Jedi and Naboo, and Marck had been part of the defense. "What about the Sith? Have they retreated?"

"Sensors are no longer functioning Master, in fact they seem to be in pieces," the little droid said as he continued to scan the hyperdrive. He was occasionally making a clucking noise that if MArck had to guess was akin to human annoyance, whatever he was seeing was defiantly upsetting the droid. Marck couldn't blame him really, even for the Jedi Master it was distressing seeing the vessel that he and Lukas had called home for the last few years having taken so much damage. "However, after the weird anomily, and judging by the fact that we are no longer taking enemy fire, I would surmise that the Sith are no longer harassing us."

"Anomoly?" Marck asked worriedly, still trying his best to recall what the droid was referring to, since his memories were still fragmented and disorganized. Many gaps seemed to exist from the time of the Council Meeting on Naboo to when he woke up on the 'Guardian' to the air leak. He knew they had been under attack, obviously taken damage, but then what? Had this anomaly caused the holes in his memory? "What anomaly?"

"An unidentified gravitational wave caught us as we attempted to escape the Sith fleet bombarding Naboo," R4 stated matter of factly, putting down his scanner and grabbing what looked like a resonance spanner and began to work inside an open hatch. It was good that the little droid could keep working and help fill in the holes while Marck himself remained disoriented and unable to do much more than sit on the floor. He would need to get up soon and start to help out with the repairs, or they could remain stranded for much longer than they had the resources to survive. Not that Marck was generally much help, technology, and the Jedi did not mix well, and most of the time he was more of a hindrance than a help. Still, R4 could give him some directions and he could do some of the basics. "There was a massive energy surge that knocked out much of our systems. As I was attempting to perform breaking maneuvers," R4 continued as he pulled a circuit board out of the housing he was working in and tossed it over his shoulders. A few sparks flew out and the little droid made beeping and squealing sounds that Marck guessed was the equivalent of a droid swearing in the machine language of the astromech, even though he was a pit droid. "We were pulled into what visually appeared similar to the hyperspace effect but my sensors indicated was very different in every other way, until all the ship's systems completely shut down, and I was rendered offline."

Marck tried to focus on what R4 was saying, Naboo had been under bombardment? They were fleeing. Had the Sith finally managed to destroy the Jedi? Were there other survivors? He quickly thought of Lukas, grateful that his husband was out on another mission elsewhere in the galaxy and wasn't on Naboo, but he also worried about everyone else on the Jedi homeworld. Had the people of Naboo managed to be evacuated before the bombardment? Had the other Jedi gotten away as well? What about Spark? She had been heading... somewhere... he couldn't remember. Despite his training, Marck couldn't help but feel panic rising to the surface along with a massive dose of frustration. So many unanswered questions were flooding his mind, and no matter how much he focused and called upon the Force, he just couldn't seem to find the answers yet.

"We need to get the sensors back up and running as soon as possible," Marck groaned out as he started to roll onto his hands and knees and began to push himself to his feet. He was still feeling very weak and wobbly, but he had had enough of sitting on his butt, he needed to be doing something anything. Lives besides his own were at risk and he was done being a passenger to events. "How bad is the damage? What can I do to help?"

R4 pulled his head out of the housing he was working on and looked at the Jedi Master with his single sensor and tilted his head to the side. It was an almost human gesture that clearly conveyed both annoyance and confusion with Marck's statement. The droid was very familiar with Marck's deficiency when it came to technology, and many times had R4 prevented MArck from causing more damage while the Jedi Master had been trying to help. "The patch job you completed means your atmosphere will remain intact, and life support is stable." R4 started as he turned back to his work on the hyperdrive, his mechanical voice carried a healthy dose of both amusement and frustration. "The hyperdrive, however, is on the verge of overload. Not only is it possible for it to explode at any moment, but it is sending out energy discharges interfering with other systems. I am attempting to either repair or shut down the drive." As R4 spoke another shockwave of energy emitted from the hyperdrive, this one Marck felt in his bones as the little droid screamed and went flying back hitting the bulkhead across the room. Sparks began to fly around the room as arcs of electrical energy began to spread out and a ever growing louder hum began to fill the room.

 

[Marck Vallen]

"R4" Marck yelled out as he watched the little droid hitting the wall, only being spared from the same forces throwing around his pilot because he had instinctually thrown up a Force shield around himself just before the energy wave had hit. The shield had absorbed the kinetic and electrical energy, momentarily leaving a glowing orb around the Jedi before it quickly dissipated harmlessly around him. Moving quickly, Marck reached out with the Force and tried to contain the energy building in and around the hyperdrive. R4 had been right, even with his limited understanding of the technology and how it actually worked, he could feel the power that normally remained contained beginning to quickly destabilize. Taking the shield he had built around himself he wrapped the barrier around the hyperdrive, slowly constricting the field to force the energy back into its containment bubble and hopefully hold it there.

"R4 are you alright?" Marck called out to the droid, hoping he was still functional enough to help him. He could hold the energy for a little while, but he wasn't sure for how long, and he defiantly had no idea how to stop the energy once it built up enough force to break down the shield. HE needed the droid to help him, otherwise, they were doomed. "Can you hear me?"

At first, R4 did not respond, and Marck feared the worst before one of the droid's legs began to twitch slightly before suddenly the droid jumped up shaking his head. "Whoa," R4 said as his central sensor eye began to rotate and adjust, which Marck always translated as the droid version of blinking. "Sorry Master," the droid said as he righted himself, shaking his mechanical body for a second then quickly ran back to the hyperdrive hatch that had attacked him in the first place. With a few bangs and sparks, Marck could feel a sudden shift in the building of energy. What once felt like a torrent held back by his shield was slowly diminishing into a trickle then he could feel the energy easing backward. "Disaster averted Master," the little droid chirped as he pulled his head back out of the hatchway. "Energy is dissipating."

Once Marck could feel the danger had passed, he relaxed and allowed the shield to fall away. A small breeze that crackled slightly, washed passed them as the last of the energy washed out into the ship, but no more sparks or violent arcs of lightning escaped the hyperdrive core. Marck no longer sensed impending doom either, so he guessed all the immediate threats had been dealt with, for now.

 

[Spark Vallen]

Then...

"It's not my fault!" Spark exclaimed for what even she realized was likely the 99th time.

"Forget that," Maize growled, pushing past her to sit in the pilot's chair that the blonde had vacated. His dark blue eyes scowled at the star charts that he pulled up. "This makes no sense. I just want to know where we're jumping to."

Spark flapped her arms, exasperated. "How should I know? I was trying to perform the leap to hyperspace and--"

"How do you even have a permit to fly?" Maize barked.

While the two Corellians bickered like the old friends they were, Lukas pulled out his sleek datapad to check for messages from where he sat in the passenger seat in the cockpit of Spark's freighter, Cafinator. He wanted to make sure Marck was okay, sure that he would've sent a message once he was safe. Barring that, he needed to get a message to Marck to let him know they'd made it out. But, the device had no signal whatsoever. Lukas shut it down, then powered it back up. Nothing.

"Now what?!"

"What? I didn't--"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Lukas said, as the ship's lights went out, alarms started blaring, and an energy wave knocked them senseless.


Now...

"Ohhh.... ohh... stang..."

Spark very slowly blinked. Her gaze was blurry and red. Her head was throbbing like the Max Rebo Band had found a hardcore bassist and she thought she might be sick. She re-closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, trying to reach out with her Force senses instead because they would be steadier than her physical senses in this moment, clearly.

Maize. Lukas. Okay. Anyone else here...?

She blinked her eyes open again and slowly lifted her head, trying to remember.

"Ow, oh stang. That hurts."

Gingerly, she touched her brow. It was bleeding and she saw that she'd smacked into the hyperspace levers, gashing her head when the--

When what? What had happened?

Slowly, she turned her entire body to look for Maize and Lukas. Maize had fallen out of the pilot's chair altogether and was at her feet. Alive, but clearly unconscious. He didn't look any worse for the wear, from what she could see. Wiping blood from her eyes, she turned again, looking for Lukas. The only one who'd been strapped in, he was slumped in the restraints. Alive, but also still unconscious.

She decided to try and wake the wiry spy first. That seemed safer.

"Lukas... Lukas... it's Spark. Can you hear me?" she asked, gently touching his tousled blond head. "You okay?"

He stirred, then jolted with a start. "Frak! No... not okay. Gonna be--"

Lukas managed to at least turn away before he was sick. Spark paled looked away, taking calming breaths, never good with that sort of incident. She heard him unclick his restraints before she looked back.

"Sorry. I'll... clean it up," he muttered.

Spark only nodded, wiping her brow again.

"You're bleeding."

"I'm fine."

She could tell by the sound of the ship that it was operating on auxiliary power. Something had knocked out the power. That was the last thing she remembered. But, the back-up system had kicked in. The main power needed to be rebooted.

"Gonna see if I can get her back online," she said to Lukas. "I'll get the medkit too. Can you try and wake him up?"

"Lucky me," Lukas said wryly. "Check the passengers too. They might need help."

Oh blast, that's right. We were escaping. Refugees! And--

The rest was blank.

"Right, will do."

Spark winced then made her way out of the cockpit to check on the others and perform the tasks she'd prioritized. Cafinator was in one piece, more or less. She had to suppress fire on burning wires, leaving another awful stench, but aside from the low power and cargo thrown about, everyone and everything seemed okay.