Homecoming

[Coren Starchaser]

How many years had it been since Coren Starchaser made his way to Corellia? To be fair, it had been too long. The man was wondering just how far it had changed. He had been listening to what the galaxy had to say about his homeworld, There were those who were helping to terraform it, and vongform it, to piece it back together. What he was hoping was true, but it still didn’t feel completely like home. When Vong were involved the Starchaser just tended to forget it and avoid it as best as he could. What he needed was to sit down and feel the world out. It was outside of his Alliance’s cloud of influence, but just try to keep a Corellian away from home.

Hell, it was Corellia, getting onto the world was simple. Coren looked over his shoulder, out the window of the bar he was in was the spaceport. And beyond that? The YT-2000 known as Tachyon Rising. His ship for many a year. He was not regretting any trip he ever took in that ship, and this one was something he needed to do. On the table before him was the rocks glass of Corellian whiskey and his bloodsteel compass, a reminder of what had happened to this world, and one of his prized pieces.

His lightsaber was on his ship, but his pistol was on his hip. Looking around the bar, he knew he was supposed to be meeting someone from the Green Jedi. And it was someone who requested him. According to Rhen, it was a result of oddities in the Force. Fine, he could deal with that. Another sip of his drink, and the Starchaser was wondering what became of all the native born Corellians across the stars.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Coren Starchaser. The name rang well enough. Corellia had new landlords since his last visit, and it seemed a benign enough set-up at surface glance, but not exactly voluntary. So he had drifted back from the 'Rim to check out the situation. As he walked through the doors, a brief glimpse of his left hand caught the glint of a plain beskar & bloodsteel wedding band on the fourth finger, and he smiled despite himself. The woman was something else, and he had to keep reminding himself he had a wife as he walked about his business. Meetings had filled most of his time, but his meditations had been bringing up the name and face of the other wayward son of Corellia who waited for him. The Force didn't speak to him often, and even when it did it was vague at best. Thanks to his mishaps in the Outback learning to Flow Walk, his sense of time and visions of the future were slightly skewed.

He didn't enter in any dramatic fashion, but it was clear a few knew him, and likely more knew but didn't acknowledge. Despite being a founder, perhaps the founder, of the newly reborn Green Jedi, he was rarely in traditional robes of most Jedi. He wore the clothes he was used to in the Outback, of a curious design his Aing-Tii mentors seemed amused by. His lightsaber rested on his hip, and the opposite side carried a massive bryar pistol in a thigh holster, and a DE-10 rested in the small of his back hidden by the jacket. Glimmers of silver vine tattoos shone dull like as the light caught them, and he had no trouble picking Coren out in the crowd as he approached. The greeting was simple, easy, and with a blunt bit of humor. Pure Julius from the get-go.

A jed-cred rolled from his hands and went spinning across the worn tabletop to land roughly in the center of it, if slightly to Coren's side. His own, near the things twin and given to him by his wife, could be seen dangling at his neck, just under the shirt line. There was a slow and rolling nod of his head as he sat down and waved two fingers at the bar keep. The Green Devil was a favorite of his, and the League when it was active. The order didn't even need to be said.

"Coren Starchaser. I'm Julius Sedaire. Your face has been in my meditations often enough I feel I should know what you drink already, but I am assuming an ale and a shot of good whiskey will serve. Thank you, for coming, and for speaking with me. I know your history with this place is distant. But that cred isn't given lightly. Home is always open to you... And I am glad to see you on it's soil."

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

A son of Corellain, the man was used to what he was seeing here. Corellia was the world that was unlike any others, well, for the people who called it home. Welcoming and freeing, but with a sense of its own purpose. Looking across the bar, Coren tapped a credit chit on the table, listening to the music but waiting for the reason he came home. Sure, he should be here to visit the cities and walk the golden beaches, but this time it was for the purpose of meeting with some member of the Green Jedi. That group carried a lot of weight, even if Coren didn’t stand with them on every issue. Namely, the extent of which Coren would go to end the Sith, and fight the dark side.

He knew it wasn’t a battle that could be honestly won, but to all nine hells of Corellia if he wasn’t going to do what he could to stem the tide and push it back. That was what he had become, a warrior, a sentinel, a wall between the galaxy and the dark side. But his trips through the Unknown Regions soulsearching told him that it wasn’t enough. If he was going to protect the people he cared about, he needed to live, or else he was just as bad as the dark side. He wasn’t sure he believed that.

He turned to Julius. Yes, he’d heard a bit about this one. “Just a wayward son. Corellia is always o my mind. I never forget my roots. All ships come back here, after all.” He grinned as he nodded about the drink. “Ale and whiskey’ll do just fine. I know your name. Spent time in the Outback, yeah?” Time was always… weird there. And he was definitely going to recognize a Corellian in the flow.

[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"I know your name. Spent time in the Outback, yeah?”

That simple, almost innocent question tickled at the edges of his memory. Timelines flared and died in his mind, probable futures from this moment to their end, or where the vision played out. Vision swam, his eyes watered, but outwardly nothing physically happened. Just a sort of wrinkle in his presence in the Force, as if it had expanded and contracted impossibly fast. Shaking his head as if to clear from thoughts, he nodded and smiled. The Aing-Tii were something he didn't talk about much at all nowadays. But he used their teachings, all the same. And kept himself to many of their tenets. Taking the shot of whiskey, he turned the glass in his hands as he acknowledged the question and answered.

"Aye. Quite a bit of time. Learned some interesting tidbits about myself and the way of things. Man goes and stares out into the black, and he doesn't come back the same. But I know you, Coren Starchaser. Your family is known on Corellia even if your face isn't. We liberated home once, set up a government, and it has fallen to new owners again. I'm here to figure out the mess of what I saved. And see where to go next. And everyone I turn in my meditations is your face and name. So, obviously the Force wants us to meet.. Now the question is, why..."

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Sure, sometimes there were groups that wanted to stay secret, and sometimes Coren was a part of them. And he also didn’t see the need for secrecy sometimes. A Judge in the Outer Rim, a Warden of the Sky, a student of the Aing-Tii, and a Jedi. He was basically always hiding from someone, somewhere. But here? No, even the passerbys weren’t paying attention to Julius and him. For Coren, though, he was a person who was, at the worst of times, out of time. Slipping between parts of his life, looking at life not by the current actions, but by the sum of its parts. That was why he trusted the Living Force.

Following the Corellian with the shot, he leaned back. “I heard about what had happened here.” He took a sip of the ale. “Can you tell me anything about the nation that’s got their hold on our home?” Could they be worked with? Did they enforce some strange rules on the world?

“And do we need to stop them?” He wasn’t sure if this was the battle that needed to be fought, or if he needed to link with the other Aing-Tii student for a particular reason.

[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"At current? The situation on the ground is mostly normal. And i've got feelers out for better. That's part of the reason meeting with you. If we need a shakeup again, it'll need a bit more oomph. The One Sith was barely holding together when we hit them, and we still barely managed it. This regime appears fairly stable. And controlled by droids. Another reason to meet you was to get the measure of you. Need to make contacts beyond the Underground. "

A few sips of his ale saw him thinking. Between him and Starchaser lay a vast gulf of experience both similar and different. There was so much similar, and yet as much or more at odds. Coren took his fight a step further, willing to fight fire with fire. Julius held himself a head above his enemies, willing to get his hands dirty for sure... But always that step above them and their ways. Finally, he nodded to the jed-cred on the table as a way of starting a conversation.

"Wanted to make sure you had one of those too. Friend made some alterations to it. Hold onto it, and you'll know immediately how to get back to home, and once there, how to get to the Green Jedi temple. You're always welcome there, fully one of us or not. Your methods aren't really ours, but we fight the same fight. And, if you are willing, I've half a crazy idea in mind to go see these Droids claiming to be our rulers and make sure they know who is really in charge. Rocket fuel for blood and all that."

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

See? This was what he needed. Someone he could trust on the ground of the homeworld. He was wanting to help but there was only so much he could do from his position in the Alliance. He wasn’t sure what the Metal Lords, the clanky people nearest to Corellia, had in mind. “I’ve got a few contacts. Mostly Underground, but the Alliance does put me in contact with the right folks. All over the galaxy.” Mostly. But he knew a few people who knew a few people. And he was hoping that the ones he was trying to not burn bridges with, like [member="Kira Vaal"], were going to be some help.

Julius knew what he was doing, Starchaser would give him that. It was nice to see someone like this, someone who knew how to approach the battlefield and the changing guards. He looked at the JedCred that was tossed on the table and picked it up as Julius started speaking. “I won’t be letting this out of my sight. Got a compass similar, Corellian Bloodsteel… Always carry home with you.” Not to mention his daughter built her whole damned ship out of it.

“Hell, if you need someone to come with you, I’m willing to go. Just need to… go as a Jedi, not some armed Alliance member. Don’t need to start some incident over the world, y’know?”

[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"Now there is some confusion, to be fair. Some are saying some Sith loyalists are playing a ruse, and have called the Metal Lords here to take up stewardship to destabilize control for their Masters' to swoop in again. If that's the case, I'll litter the beaches and ground with scrapheaps and purge them just like we did the first time. And I will be much, much less merciful. The best plan might be for the two of us to take a walk-about, or find those we can trust to do so on our behalf. Get a reliable feel for the way the wind is blowing beyond the surface appearance"

A slow breath came out from him, his accent had shifted to the baser Corellian drawl as anger at one of their own still clamoring for Sith favor had taken hold, and he had to exert old meditative techniques to calm the sudden welling of rage and darkness within. Taking a swallow of the ale, he sighed contentedly and gazed about The Green Devil with a bit of content in his eyes, forcing himself to calm in familiar surroundings. Someday the warring would end, and he would bring Keira here. All of his family and the wayward children of Corellia. Just one day of peace, laughter, and contentment. Then they could be the unflagging backbone of the galaxy without complaint again. Corellia had bled again and again, and the Galaxy just let her rise on battered bones to bleed once more with little to help. [member="Danger Arceneau"] and others had been amazing in helping.

"And if you need to look more a Jedi than Alliance man, well we could visit the Temple and get you a set of cloak and robes. I bet I could sell pictures and make bank off Coren Starchaser in those things!"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren took another swig of his drink, looking up from it while Julius was speaking. There was already a lot in common and a lot of good to come from speaking to this man. Definitely was good to connect to someone from the homeworld. “Sith won’t be stepping foot on this world, not without me here to greet them.” And even then, they’d have to get through his fleet. He’d bring the whole damned Alliance.

“You have people on-world that can handle meeting people? I can make a call out through Alliance space, and see what allies we can pull. We’ve been connecting with the Outer Rim boys, I know that’ll bring a lot of people here too.” Smugglers and their ilk were always the best.

“Never was one to sit in just one order. I’ve got robes, but… I’m a spacer, y’know? Meant to be in the stars. And meant to be where I need to be. Can’t get everywhere dressed as a Jedi. Where here though, on world, am I needed most?”

[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"At current? I've been off-world a moment, left the League members in place. But we should check the Green Temple, and CorSec.. They'll have sitep and contacts. And me showing up and making some noise will likely stir those on the fence, and if I show up with another living legend of the homeworld here, well we might just have ourselves a party. We can use the Temple, which should be our second stop, to ping people in the League and call in reinforcements. I left and got married. Have a verd'ika on the way. Wife is laying low in retirement, but she grew up here too. She understood, when the reports came in. So i'm back from the black sands to do business with the devil, if need be. I even have a ship you might like to see. Came back from the Rift with it, in a way."

Here he drained the beer, and stood eyeing his brother. Not by blood, but he could certainly feel a kinship. Differeing pip-sides or faces of the same die, to use a Corellian phrase on a well-liked aphorism. Had they met sooner, who knows what the two might have wrought or became? Regardless, life had taken them down a few different roads than it might have. A quick hand was extended to his new friend, and a crooked half-grin his wife never seemed to tire of, or never seemed to not roll her eyes at, or both, spread across his face.

"Well, let's go be big damn heroes one more time, eh?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]