Wake Up

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shrugged. "I doubt I could."

The creation of artifacts weren't really his purview. He had made a set of artifacts for each of his children a while ago, and that had been quite difficult. The making of his ring and Kira's necklace had been even more difficult. Such things were possible, but hard.

"Once in a lifetime." He said with a smile. "Well, maybe not."

Honestly he had no idea how he would even go about creating something like that again. He imagined that it would be rather difficult, and in truth he thought that overcoming the curse in the first place had been more of a fluke then anything else. The affliction that struck the Talith family was old world Force, something that he had no idea about, and that had been brought about by the actions of his father. That was really all he knew about it.

He opened the second locker. "I created things that would be helpful to the kids, that was my goal, not sure I could recreate something like that."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shrugged. "I doubt I could."

The creation of artifacts weren't really his purview. He had made a set of artifacts for each of his children a while ago, and that had been quite difficult. The making of his ring and Kira's necklace had been even more difficult. Such things were possible, but hard.

"Once in a lifetime." He said with a smile. "Well, maybe not."

Honestly he had no idea how he would even go about creating something like that again. He imagined that it would be rather difficult, and in truth he thought that overcoming the curse in the first place had been more of a fluke then anything else. The affliction that struck the Talith family was old world Force, something that he had no idea about, and that had been brought about by the actions of his father. That was really all he knew about it.

He opened the second locker. "I created things that would be helpful to the kids, that was my goal, not sure I could recreate something like that."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Mmm... guess we can focus on just that map then?" Kira would reply, a crooked grin floating over her face. As she spun the shuttle, the viewscreen would pan to reveal the hanger exit.

"Come up with anything for the datacron?" With all of the items they'd been cataloging, perhaps he had found something that would help them in that ventures. Both exploring the planet and constructing the datacron were exciting for the Lorrdian. Something she could do with Soliael together.

Moving the yoke forward, Kira hit the thrusters to send them out into the black.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael caught himself on the hanging nets as they dropped out of the hangar and pushed them into space, holding himself upright as they passed quickly through space and into the edge of the planets gravity. The distance was short, The Freya having been in upper orbit around the planet.

"Backburner for now." He admitted to not having thought about it since earlier.

"Let's explore the temple-" The Former False god was interrupted as the shuttle slightly shook, the atmosphere breaking against the hull of the ship. He frowned for a moment as he realized that they probably should have taken one of the protocol droids, but a shrug rolled over his shoulders. "See what we can find, then get back to that."

Baby steps.

Baby steps were always better.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Just a little turbulence," Kira added, glancing just outside the viewport. As they hit atmo, the hull began to glow red. The shuttle gave another shake, but thankfully nothing too bad.

Thick bulbous clouds soon went streaking across the screen. The heat dissipated from the hull and soon they descended into the lower atmosphere. Condensation began to coat the viewscreen from the clouds.

A quick tap of her screen in the nav computer brought up their destination; the Jedi temple ruins.

"We'll be there in a few minutes!" glancing over her shoulder, Kira gave a wide smile.

"Find anything?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"All the same." Soliael said as he pulled half of another thermal suit out. "Will come in handy if we get cold."

That was unlikely.

The two of them had brought enough of their own clothes that it wouldn't be a huge issue, and Soliael had already put on thermal gear. He moved to the last locker, opening it to find three oxygen masks stacked on top of each other with recyclers included. Again, it would be helpful if they ever lost air...but the likelyhood of that wasn't very large either. The former false god let out a disappointed sigh. He'd really hoped for something a little more interesting.
"Oh well." He said to himself as he dropped down onto the acceleration couch.

At the very least the trip to the planet would be fast, and apparently Kira had already picked out a landing zone. His thoughts returned back towards the temple, the thought of what could have brought the Jedi here and what had made them abandon this place. It was an odd mystery, one that he desperately wanted to get to the bottom of.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"You sound soo thrilled." Kira managed to drone out with a dry tone. The clouds were beginning to thin, and once again, the Lorrdian's excitement arouse again.

"Come to the front." she requested, calling for her husband to come join her. Kira wanted him to be here for when the clouds would clear, allowing them to both see the planet together for the first time. There was something special in that.

"We'll be there shortly," a hand came up to adjust her mic. What would they find? What if there were actually survivors still there? They only barely scanned the surface. What if there were more below??

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shifted slightly, picking himself up and catching the nets above to support his weight. Walking in a moving shuttle was difficult enough, doing it while said Shuttle was hurtling through the atmosphere towards the planet below? Harder.

Gravity made things difficulty.

He fought the efforts of galactic forces however and managed to pull himself into the shuttles small cockpit section, dropping himself down into the co-pilots chair with a heavy thud. His eyes immediately tracked across the ground in front of him, tying it to the map that he had seen earlier which the probe had crafted on its way down. He tried to reconcile where they were with where he knew the ruins were, his lips thinning slightly as he did the short math in his head.

"Not a bad place to live." He commented as he looked at the dense forest below, mountains reaching up in the distance.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Doesn't seem to be any other settlements," was Kira's observation. The vast swatches of thick forests reminded her a bit of Endor. The lower they flew to get the forest into focus, the more they could see that it was old growth.

"No other lifeform signs," she added another small frown.

"Where would they have gone?" Kira managed to ask aloud. It was strange and to be honest, a little unsettling.

"Much of this planet so far seems to be untouched. I'm not getting any signs of advanced technology or any distress beacons."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shrugged. "They probably went back home."

That was honestly the best answer that he could think of. Not everything had a malicious reason to it, and usually the simplest answer was also the best. The reality of the galaxy was that force users were rare, those that joined the Jedi even rarer. It was also important to remember that old school Jedi didn't marry, they didn't sleep with one another, and they most certainly didn't have children. That meant numbers were very limited, and a place like this?

Why bother keeping it populated.

"There weren't a lot of Jedi back then." Soliael reminded her. "They probably didn't think this place was worth keeping."

What that said about this world Soliael didn't know, but it didn't push back his curiosity any. "We'll find out at the Temple."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"It's just strange, that's all," depending on just how old these ruins are, they could tell a variety of reasons. The occupants could have migrated here or more interestingly enough, originated here. Could this have been the dawn on a new type of Force devout? A bit out there, but the Lorrdian was prone to considering fantastic tales.

"Ohh!! Look!" A whoosh of awe fell from Kira's lips as she gestured to the area in front of them. The mountains here suddenly seem to jut out towards the sky. Sharp cliffs of black stone and covered with a carpet of green. They were volcanic pillars left behind from ancient volcanos. Adjusting the flight patten to avoid crashing, Kira swung them starboard, following around the edge. That's when they spotted them.

There were massive stone structures carved right from the mountain itself. Three of them that flanked an enormous waterfall. Thick curls of water mist rose high, that water fall had to be over a hundred meters just for the fall, with the statutes almost the same size.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

It seemed odd that such things would be here.

Time had a way of chiseling away at anything that organics built, though of course some things tended to last. Yet there was suspicion in him, mostly because more structure...meant more that had been abandoned. There was a difference between leaving a tiny temple and a massive creeping structure that seemed to decorate an entire mountain side. He watched the structure for a moment with consideration. Why leave something like this?

It would have taken decades, perhaps centuries of effort.

It seemed strange to him to leave something like that.

Even back on Exocron the monuments had not been simply abandoned. There were still thousands, if not millions, of people who lived within the structures there. They knew what had had happened and they lived among the grandeur and everything else. Soliael's lips thinned. He began to feel a slight discomfort in the pit of his stomach, wondering if something else might have happened to drive the Jedi from here after all. The idea seemed less and less far fetched.

The shuttle bucked down and headed towards a small clearing in the distance.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Kira set down the shuttle in a small patch of chaparral. Smaller bushes and bare patches of dirt. Perhaps it had once been cleared before? Or maybe an ancient fire might have been to blame. Either way, a small billowing cloud of dust rose as the Lorrdian set the shuttle down with a small shudder.

"Alright... let's see what's out there," she told her husband, going through shutting down the engines and power.

"I'll finish up here and follow you down." at the very least, she wanted to keep the shuttle at a state of readiness in the event they had to leave the area quickly. It paid to be prepared. Kira may be excited to go exploring, but she didn't want to end up at the wrong end of an unexpected emergency.

Outside, the weather was warm, if a bit humid. While there were no sapient lifeforms, upon closer inspection would reveal there were other creatures. A flutter of wings would echo as a flock of birds would soar into the sky. They had long necks and iridescent blueblack feathers. However, what was curious was that as soon as they reached the blue sky, they seemed to just.. disappear. What they would not realize is that the feathers had a natural photoreflective quality produced by an enzyme.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael didn't much care for the birds, sure they were pretty, but there was already an objective firmly rooted in his mind. Several Kilometers north of here was a mysterious Jedi Temple, a Temple containing a mystery that they had no clue about. That in it of itself was enough to rub him the wrong way, add the giant stone statues carved into the mountains and the odd perplexity of them being in an entirely different galaxy then Jedi usually hung out in?

Well, it was simple to say Soliael was curious.

He hefted the pack on his back, slinging the thing over his shoulders and stretching slightly as he stepped from the Shuttle. His eyes focused on the forest around them, the hot air touching against his skin. The humidity cut into his lungs pretty well, showing that the planet was likely in it's summer season at the moment. He frowned for a moment and pulled the small compass from his pocket. The needle spun around for a second, adjusting to the worlds magnetic field before quickly coming to a rest.

Soliael checked the map they had from the drones topography scan and then smiled.

A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

It would be a straight shot through the jungle from where they had landed directly to the Jedi Ruins, Easy enough, though in the pit of his stomach he had a feeling that it wouldn't be so easy. Perhaps it was his cynical side.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Oh, the humidity is NUTS!"

Of course, Soliael's wife would be a bit more vocal about her first impression of 'Mysterious Jedi Island' planet, as she now dubbed in her head.

A grimace prompted the scrunch of her nose, and immediately the woman took the small scrunchy around her wrist and began to tie her hair up in a neater ponytail. The last thing she needed was for her hair to stick to her neck. Hiking through this humidity was going to make them both sweat buckets. The sensation of having her hair cling to her neck was not her most favorite of sensations.

A press of a button and the ramp of the shuttle started to close, the hydraulic systems sliding silently shut.

"Definitely need sunglasses," Kira piped in. "Or a hat." where was her hat? She began to search her pack, pulling out a floppy straw hat her husband would be familiar with. It was the one she typically wore back on Borleaias. With a wide grin, she plopped it on top of her blonde head, shielding her eyes from the bright sun.

"Better?" teeth flashed in a wide grin, the woman securing her pack once again on her back.

"What do you think so far?" she spun in place, studying the scenery.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"I dunno." Soliael said quietly as he smiled at his wife. "It's odd."

To say the least. "A temple? Sure that easy enough to abandon, but giant statues carved into mountains?"

That was really what made him think that this place was something...more. The evidence was entirely circumstantial of course, more then that actually, it wasn't at all substantive, but Soliael tended to trust his gut with this sort of thing, and right now it was screaming that something was just...off. He didn't like it, and the humidity wasn't helping his mood any. Borelias got bad at time if you wandered into the jungle, but the ocean air generally tended to cut any sort of humidity.

"Why abandon a monument like that...and then not keep any records of it?" He'd been to the Jedi archives, knew all the old legends and structures.

This certainly wasn't one of them.

In fact the only extra-galactic mission that the Jedi had ever been a part of was the disastrous Outbound Flight mission, and that had been pointed towards entirely different galaxies, not the Rishi Maze. He didn't get it, and that's what he didn't like.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Could be anything really." maybe a great exodus? History had many similar stories of entire civilizations relocating populations from one world to the next. That it could happen here may very well be possible.

"Maybe it wasn't safe anymore," peeking over at Soliael's compass, she caught a glimpse of what direction they would need to go. 'Oh, that's relatively easy.' she mused. It was a straight shot.

Taking the initiative, Kira began to walk, boots crunching slightly under the bent grass.

"Maybe pirates?" a viable reason, she thought to herself, hooking her thumbs along the straps of her shoulders. There wasn't much of a path so they two had to make their own.

"The probe didn't pick up any signs of any potential battle." although the centuries could have flushed that away.

"Or maybe they discovered how to travel through space and finally decided to leave?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"They are Jedi ruins." He reminded her. "Built exactly like the ones on Ossus and those that Aela found. Jedi didn't originate in the Rishi Maze, and the likelihood of someone building with the exact same architecture as ancient Jedi? Unlikely, honey."

No, whoever built those ruins had come here from their own galaxy and then had eventually left again, or been wiped out.

Pirates seemed a bit more likely, but what Jedi ran away from a few pirates? Unless it was an armada, but if that were the case then there should have been signs of battle at the ruins, smashed statues, broken walls, A dozen other indicators that would show the former residents had been forced out. It didn't add up in his head, at least not cleanly. Really the only way they'd find out was by getting there and actually looking at everything else there.

He followed after his wife. "We'll see."

That was really the best way to answer the question, just to get there. Conjecture was all well and good, but things generally didn't tend to work out the way that anyone thought. It was better to simply get the answer straight from the source.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Okay! Okay!" Kira would exclaim, holding both of her hands up palm out as if giving up.

"Jedi ruins!" her brows rose, and the Lorrdian widened her eyes in emphasis.

"All I was saying that there are so many similar Jedi like traditions that it could very well be something like that, gosh." as Sol went hiking past her, Kira stuck out her tongue at him. Silly Neth! He had a tendency to get into his Neth the god of knowledge bit every now and then. That's when he was a little bit overbearing when it came to suggesting that he was right.

With an amused roll of her eyes, the Jedi Master took a few large leaps to catch up to her husband. The clearing was starting to thicken, and soon they were at the treeline.

"There is quite a bit of old growth here," it was curious, the ground cover was thick in sediment and leaves. Here and there were a few trunks that had fallen over, covered in thick moss. Ferns littered the ground, and after a while, Kira had to start pushing back the large leaves of ferns.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He doubted that anyone had been here for thousands of years, in fact he was rather surprised there was even much of a path left. Perhaps the forest had simply grown used to such things, the ground being tread on over and over for centuries before.

Soliael wondered if the forests around Belagoth would be the same.

"You know Jedi." Soliael said turning to his life. "Always crying about the sanctity of life."

He shot her a grin. "Tree-huggers probably didn't disturb the forest the entire time they were here."

After all these years he still got enjoyment from teasing her about Jedi. Of course his daughter was now also officially in the Jedi Order, and his son toed the line pretty hard...but he would get the last laugh. In a few centuries they would all be like him...or he was pretty confident of that anyway. No matter what though he could and most certainly would still tease Kira, mostly because it was easy. Not to mention beyond fun.