Power of the Past

[Taeli Raaf]

It always paid to learn about the past, Taeli had learned. She had sent a message earlier to Connor she would meet him in the Almania system. She had decided that the next destination for their little jaunt was going to be the home of the Fallanassi and the White Current, but that was her next stop.

Currently, she was sitting in the grand data center that was housed on Obroa-Skai and she was going through records that had been preserved since the days of the Mandalorian Wars. Much of it was just things to fill in the gaps of her knowledge, but she was looking for something more specific. The Force had led her here, to shifting through old reports from the Galactic Cold War era, for something significant. Something that had the power to shift the landscape of the galaxy.

She had come across the tales of a certain Jedi Knight, one famous for leading the Republic in countless victories against the old Sith Empire, and she had just finished those tales when she began reading about the intriguing project that had been the reclamation of Taris.

Ambitious, very ambitious for the Republic to do when the war had been starting to heat up again. Naturally it had attracted the attention of the Sith and they had sent forces to stop it so Taris might remain a monument to their power, but it was more than that. A group of Republic generals had been on the world. Now whatever for? She would need to dig deeper into the files and the story.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Cross-analyzing the events on Taris those many many many years ago, she was starting to piece together a picture. Four Republic generals, known as the War Trust, had been on Taris conducting some sort of top secret project to further the Republic war effort as hostilities erupted with the old Sith Empire. What the project was was still hidden deeper in the files, but she did find death dates for the generals ... one right after the other in the span of days.

That told her that the Sith had intervened and assassinated the generals and sabotaged whatever project they had been working on. Just another piece of the puzzle and apparently the deaths had triggered a response from the Republic ... but that wasn't what she was interested in. She wanted to know more about this project.

Typing away, she figured she might get some details by looking at the individual four generals and those that worked under them.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Each man was a decorated war hero from the Great Galactic War, she saw as she delved into their dossiers. However, once they reached the rank of general, they had been brought into the Republic's Strategic High Command and placed in charge of innovating technology and tactics for use in the next war.

That right there was a hint as to what they had been working on during the events of Taris. It must have been a technology of some sort that would have tipped the balance of power in the Republic's favor if the Sith had targeted them for assassination. She couldn't find files on which Sith Lord was behind the attack sadly, but it wasn't important to the task at hand.

The man who had been behind the War Trust's operations on Taris had been General Faraire, while the other generals had been placed at other positions to oversee whatever project they had been doing. Tapping her chin in thought, she started looking into the position that General Frellka had been stationed at for the project.

It might just give her some clues for what they had been up to, even if the technology had been lost and destroyed during the Sith's attack on them. Records always survived in some form, even if just obscure mentions or forms.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

'Specialized mining equipment, radiation shielding units, special containers for transport that can handle unstable substances ... what the kriff were they working on?' she thought, looking over supply requisitions forms signed by General Frellka for his outpost. Apparently it had been some sort of mining facility, but what were they mining that would require radiation shielding units and special equipment?

Taris, as far as she was aware, had been stripped of any such materials years before even Darth Malak had leveled the place in his bombardment. You wouldn't need to mine building materials from the old city, you could just scrap that stuff. It must have been something radioactive, but formed after the bombardment ... a reactor leak affected something perhaps?

It was sounding like it had been some sort of new energy project, but that wouldn't call for such secrecy or targeting by Sith agents. Yes, new energy sources were valuable ... but there had to be more to this.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

'Okay, this is getting weirder,' she thought, as she moved through files about transporting the materials to the old sewer section of Taris for treatment and enhancement. General Minst had apparently been in charge of that operation, the Rodian was apparently more than a little paranoid as not many records were left from his part of the operation.

Only mention was that the reactor core was doing it's job ... so whatever they were charging and enhancing needed to be put through some sort of refinement process with an old reactor. Interesting, the radiation would probably create very potent isotopes that could be harnessed if done properly, but what could this material they were working on possibly be. It had to be the stuff from Frellka's mining operation, but there was still no mention at all of what it could be.

She did come across one report stating that a large reactor overload had occurred around the same time as Minst's death so she suspected whatever they had been using had either been destroyed by the Sith or blown up to protect the secrets. Kark it all. Gotta keep digging then.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

So Minst's operation had been some sort of refinement plant, and Frellka had been in charge of mining viable material for the project. Viable material ... viable material almost made it sound like it was some sort of organic compound they were mining. A radiation laced compound ... certainly possible, but she had never heard of such a material on Taris before.

Going deeper into the records, her eye's widened a bit as she reached a communique from General Durant to other members of the War Trust.

The prototype is working well, but it needs further testing. All of our expectations for the Siantide cells have been exceeded, I can safely say the power of the blaster has been multiplied exponentially beyond our wildest dreams. I can only hope a subject worthy of battle comes to find me.

It was the last message from the General to the others in a personal sense, she wondered if General Faraire had put a stop to such personal things or if the enemy had silenced the project not soon after. But she had a name now, Siantide. The pieces were falling into place, and apparently the project had been the key to developing a new power system that could boost the output of objects loaded with it.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Pulling up other tabs to look directly into this Siantide, she frowned slightly as she hit a security gate that had been imposed by ... Supreme Chancellor Saresh. Really? The security was still in place from back then, dear Force. Okay, time to go around it. Looking around, she didn't see anyone watching her or sense it, so she pulled out a small device from her bag and plugged it into her terminal.

Twiddling her thumbs, her device tore through the security gate and a flood of data came her way on Siantide. Unplugging her device, she made sure no trace of the hack remained before she went back to ... what ...

Siantide was developed by using the remains of those killed by Darth Malak's bombardment of the planet Taris that were exposed to radiation from leaking reactors. The project had been secret because of the expected backlash from others about the idea that the source of this new energy source was going to be those who died ... and the fact that the power output was rumored to be ten times anything else developed. A blaster could have the equivalent strength of a light turbolaser ... dear Force above and below.

Sitting back from the terminal, she couldn't stop her mind racing from the implications of what this project could mean. General Faraire had even developed a droid that ran on a Siantide power cell that had ripped through almost everything except the Sith who became known as the Emperor's Wrath in that time.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Jaxson, I have something we might want to take a look at," Taeli stated, downloading all the relevant files after she considered it for a good long while. She knew the scruples some might have with the process, as it meant needing areas of mass death where millions or billions died, but the idea had taken firm root and she knew this could change things.

She would need to look up planets that had suffered cataclysms or attacks that had resulted in many people dying. Check to see if a world was developed enough to have reactors around to change the material left behind. Develop a way to alter the material if need be. Secure hidden facilities and supply routes to get the project going.

The idea was there, lost in time except for a paper trail. She was tempted to go to Taris to try and find the old sites, but they would be long gone at this point.

"What do you have, Taeli?" Jaxson asked.

"Something that might effect things beyond anything we could have thought of before," Taeli stated. "I'll upload the data in a moment."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"I'm not sure of the implications this project might have," Jaxson as he looked over the data she had sent him. "We could definitely not do this within Republic space, it would certainly be frowned upon if we were harvesting the remains of people to fuel new power cells."

"This project would have to be so airtight, no leaks whatsoever," Taeli said, walking back to her ship now. "We need locations of where such mass events of destruction have occurred. Hopefully on worlds such as Taris where they were advanced enough to have reactors, but if not we will need to develop our own process. Make up a list of potential sites ... and gather an expedition to acquire stygium."

"Stygium? Why? That would have nothing to do with ... stealth transports for the materials?" Jaxson asked.

"Precisely, I want this completely airtight and hidden until we're ready," she stated. "It shouldn't be too hard to find locations though, galactic events of destruction always hit the news. I know Melida/Daan is one location we could potentially use."

"I'll put together a list and finish the data gathering process, run some discreet models on the radiation and how it effects the material," Jaxson stated. "Taeli ... are we really going to do this?"

"It could give the edge we need, something to truly differentiate from the pack," Taeli said slowly. "I won't condone any actions beyond gathering material from other events, I don't want to trigger things to get more. Planet wide catastrophes are not very good for anyone, and I find them abhorrent."

"I'll get a list."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Togoria, Melida/Daan, Corellia, Junction, and a few other worlds have experienced mass destruction in recent years, Taeli," Jaxson said. She was just finishing getting her ship ready for the jump to meet Connor. The list was short, but wars were messy and she suspected that other events would come along in due time ... it was a sad truth.

"Focus on Togoria and Melida/Daan," Taeli said, knowing those two worlds were in neutral space. "I'm not comfortable with placing any operations like this in Mandalorian space and Corellia is off limits."

"I'll get teams together to begin the necessary expansion projects to those two worlds," Jaxson stated. "People I know we can trust and who put science first."

It was a bit sickening, and definitely not something many Jedi would support ... but a project like this could do more good, even if it was morally questionable to use the remains of those that died in such a way for the purposes of refining them into a power source.

"Make sure a process is developed for the enhancing of the material and if it needs to be treated to create said material," she stated. "Not sure how much viable stuff we will find."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll have a report ready when we have begun."