Son of a Clone Trooper - I < Mandalorians

No wonder Jedi start their training at conception.  This using The Force stuff is challenging.  Some things seem to come pretty naturally.  Moving stuff, pushing stuff, pulling stuff, other general concepts from the telekinetic gambit are all fairly easy.  However, some of the things I had managed in the past like lightning and mind tricks, well, those are quite challenging.  I tried to mind trick a small animal into chasing its own tail and the little bugger bit me on the leg.  The lightning was another monster altogether, but I think I figured it out.  When that critter bit me I instinctively cooked him with that most wonderful fingertip lightning.  He was tasty too, I might add.  It seems that when I am acting on impulse with raw emotion, that I am able to conjure it up.  I am still having a hard time controlling it, but I can now get lesser versions of my accidental lightning on a fairly consistent basis by channeling my emotions.  It’s not the face melting power of the inadvertent stuff, but man is it fun.  Starting a camp fire is quite easy now, and hunting for food becomes cooking food at the same time.

On another note, Mandalorians are some seriously tough people.  I was off practicing with my lightsaber near a lake.  I thought I was fairly secluded when all of a sudden I got a feeling and swung my lightsaber just in time to deflect a blaster bolt.  It seems that the local mercenaries aren’t too fond of Jedi.  It also seems that they are Mandalorians.  I wasn’t about to sit around and let that guy take pot shots at me, so I charged at him.  I figured closing the gap and tearing him up with a lightsaber would be the best thing.  I was so very wrong.  He pulled out a Cortosis weave vibroblade which promptly disrupted the plasma flow of my lightsaber and rendered it all but useless on first strike.  He then punched me...... HARD!  Man did that hurt!  Sitting in the dirt I used The Force to chuck a rock at his head.  It hit pretty hard but barely seemed to faze him.  I did it again, and, and again and the guy just kept coming.  So I used my power to push him directly.  Handily that did work and he went flying into a tree.  Then he got up again, and drew his blaster, taking a shot.  I ducked and rolled behind a bolder right about the time my lightsaber sparked back to life.  I jumped up and went to throw him back into a tree again.  I extended my hand and pow!  Lightning arced out and made contact with him.

Now at that point I figured the altercation was over.  Again, I was mistaken.  He got up, still smoldering and charged me.  If it weren’t for the fact that I was in imminent danger, I would have probably stood in awe at his intensity and sheer durability.  But since it seemed he had my worst intentions in mind, I decide to beat a hasty retreat.  It was clear to me that my skills were not sufficient to deal with him.  I hit him with another force push and ran.  I had no idea he was a Mandalorian until I heard something about Mandalore being shouted from behind me.  Oh, and apparently The Force allows me to run very quickly as well.  That will come in handy if I run into those guys again.  Though, they are likely to be hunting me at this point.  Perhaps I can seek refuge in that cave if they find me here.

In the meantime, I will just keep practicing on my skills.  I really don’t feel like heading to a new planet.  I rather like it here, and it’s quite isolated.  Still, I will have to count on leaving if I can’t deal with the mercenaries, or if the Empire escalates their presence here.  I will figure an escape route and decide which system to go to next if I have to flee this one.  There are many to choose from.  Lower population would be good, but perhaps hiding in plain sight might be smarter.  Someplace like Nar Shadaa might work.  It doesn’t matter much though.  I just need to make sure I have a good escape plan in place so I had better stop diddling around on here and get to planning.

Son of a Clone Trooper - My Lightsaber Makes the Coolest Noises

Lightsaber here I come.  You know that cave I was talking about a couple weeks ago?  Yeah, it seems I felt it calling because the thing was filled with crystals many of which were imbued with Force energy.  It was amazing.  It was like they knew I was here and were calling out to me.  I fear that if someone not Force Sensitive were to walk into that cave that they wouldn’t see the sights that I saw.  Instead I will try to describe them the best I can.  It was truly an amazing sight to behold.

I entered that cave with some trepidation having no idea what I would encounter.  I had seen some pretty dangerous looking animals in my exploration of the moon and who knows; perhaps it was some type of lure trying to draw me into a nest of something that wanted to have me for dinner… literally.  That was not to be the case.  I had gone a few hundred meters in heading down a very steep incline.  I distinctly remember looking back towards the cave entrance and seeing the smallest pin prick of light.  If the compulsion to go forward was not so strong I would have turned back at that moment. 

There was no natural light and my data pad really didn’t help much.  It seemed that the darkness simply absorbed its light.  My shins and toes paid the price for my lack of vision but it was a price well worth being paid.  I followed what could only be described as a feeling.  It led deeper and deeper into the cave.  I was beginning to worry that my data pad battery wouldn’t hold out for the return trip.  As it turned out, it didn’t matter.  I rounded a corner and there I beheld the most spectacular of light shows.

The room was filled with dancing light.  Light was everywhere and in all the colors of the spectrum.  Tendrils of light, like smoke, swirled up into the air then diffused against the damp cave walls.  The heat was nearly stifling.  The crystals themselves pulsated with Force energy which released as the colored tendrils.  They appeared nearly ethereal, but I could sense their physical presence as well.  The Force granted me vision to see these crystals in a way that no ordinary eyes could see.  They seemed to interact with each other and their combined energy was beyond anything I had ever experienced.  I wanted to take them all.  The Force had another idea though.

As I walked into the room, the tendrils of light intertwined and formed what looked like a corridor leading to a pair of crystals.  One, a clear crystal pulsed with white light so bright that I couldn’t look directly at it.  The other, whose colored light would spiral around the clear crystal, was the deepest, darkest blue one could possibly imagine.  These were the crystals, the ones that chose me.  I had no doubt about it.  Their energy pulses were synchronized with the beating of my heart.  I reached to pluck them from their rocky roots and the heat emanating from them was searing.  I couldn’t actually grab the crystals directly.  I needed some other means to collect them.

It was then that it dawned on me.  The old desert hermit had taught me about levitating items with the power of The Force.  It was the perfect idea.  The crystals responded with such amazing fluidity.  I suspended them in the air in front of me and used their light to navigate my way out of the cave.  As I moved further and further from the room, the light from the crystals began to dissipate, until I finally reached the entrance of the cave, where they appeared as just normal crystals.  I reached out and found that their temperature had also dropped significantly.  I could still feel the power in them though.  The energy was concentrated but in no way lacked from the power I felt in the cave. 

Something had changed in me while I was in that cave.  I could feel the life around me in a way I had never felt it before.  I could feel every creature and plant around me.  With concentration I could actually focus on specific ones and feel their impulses.  It was all around me.  I could close my eyes and map out the entirety of the moon with two exceptions.  There were two black spots in my visions.  These spots seemed to be devoid of any type of energy.  It was like my Force vision was blind to those spots.  I knew them too.  One was the Imperial bunker I had discovered, and the other was what I had thought to be some sort of mercenary encampment.

I must have stood just outside the entrance of that cave for hours just feeling the world around me.  I had even forgotten about my desire for a lightsaber.  I may have stood there for days were it not for the sound of approaching speeder bikes.  I took cover in some nearby bushes and watched as a couple of scout troopers when screaming past me.  I am guessing they were on patrol.  I don’t know what they expected to find at such high speeds, but it worked out for me.  I headed back to my camp.  It was time to put these crystals to good use.

I spent a week in the shuttle using the workspace and the secret cache of blasters I found on board.  There was lots of trial and error and I went through a number of blasters, stripping them for parts to build my lightsaber.  It takes serious concentration to perform precise movements with The Force.  Without conventional tools, I had to use The Force to bend and shape metal, hold objects, and wire controls.  Admittedly the wiring was my fault.  I didn’t connect the wires internally before I closed up the lightsaber.  Yeah, real smart, I know.  I finally got them to connect.  It’s not pretty, that’s for sure, but at least it works, and quite well I might add.

While the lightsaber works well; I am flawed.  I really need training with this thing, and preferably in a place without objects to accidentally cut apart.  I wonder how many Jedi died during lightsaber training from self-inflicted wounds.  Don’t worry I didn’t do any serious damage to myself, only a couple small scars.  I did crush my shelter with a tree though.  The saber went through the trunk of that tree like it wasn’t even there.  With some training, I could probably take out the entire Imperial bunker with that thing.  Those mercenaries wouldn’t stand a chance either.  I must continue teaching myself once I heal a little.  Oh and did I mention that it makes the coolest noises?  I just hope its humming doesn't attract any large, carnivorous bugs. 

The next things I will work on are my skills with lightning, or more to the point, figure out how I can do it again.  My theory is that it will only work when it’s necessary, or at least that’s the only time I can get it to work.  I must test that theory. 

Son of a Clone Trooper - The Forest Moon

Hell has a special place for dirty rats like Stanko the Toydarian and I am going to make a point of sending him there a little earlier than he had hoped.  That is if I ever go back to that dirt bucket planet.  My last entry was cut abruptly short by the white clad Imperial henchmen known as Storm Troopers.  As I suspected the subject of the entry was the culprit behind my revealed identity.  As I said, he was a revolting creature.  If it weren’t for the fact that I want to do it myself I would wish that Jabba the Hutt would wring his wretched little neck for bringing the Empire to his little corner of the galaxy.  Anyway, survival first, vindication later and then maybe some rest will come afterwards.

Rather than finishing out my previous entry in detail, I will summarize.  Stanko’s rudeness didn’t abate throughout the course of our conversation.  He did offer to purchase my Lambda Shuttle.  Naturally he lowballed me.  I wouldn’t expect anything less, but the price he offered was just plain insulting.  I mean, my father risked life and limb to save me by stealing it and to be offered a paltry eight thousand credits, ugh.  He must’ve thought me a fool, until of course he revealed his diabolical plan to get me to take the price.  Here he was trying to get his hands on a shuttle, which had to have belonged to a Grand Admiral given the level of luxury, for a song to resell it for a mint.  Yeah and he was going to use my history and desire to remain unfound as a bargaining chip.  Now you know how that went.  I gave him a verbal what-for and sent him on his way after managing to resist the urge to vaporize him on the spot.  A real sense of power comes to me when I get angry like that.  It can be quite tough to subdue.

Come to find out, after putting my ear to the ground to help escape the Imperial agents, he had already done the deed and was hoping to make a little cash as well.  Turns out he had a vendetta against Clone Troopers and decided to take it out on me.  It’s a good thing I didn’t sell the ship otherwise I would be stuck on that hole of a planet as some sort of hermit living out in the vast desert.  I am glad it didn’t come to that.

No, I made it off that rock and found my way to the most stunning moon.  I am not sure what it’s called but it’s pretty much covered by forest.  There are some skittish little furry critters that hide in the bushes and jabber a lot.  I don’t always see them, but I can feel them around me all the time.  It feels as if they are constantly watching me.  Regardless, it really is pretty here.  When I got here it appeared that I was the only form of life on this planet with advanced technology.  A little exploring laid that idea to rest.  The Empire is here too.  I see them moving throughout the forest.  They have a big dish being constructed, a reinforced bunker and a fairly large detachment of troops.  They clearly aren’t here for me though so I’m not too worried.

While I was working my way back to my ship on Tatooine I met up with another Force user out in the desert.  He seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it.  Still, he was amazingly helpful.  He taught me something he called the Jedi Mind Trick and oh my do I love it.  If I ever make it back to Rori I am so going to mess with people.  I already got a Storm Trooper to turn his helmet around backwards and take off running as fast as he could.  And they call what they wear, armor, HA!  He got flat cold cocked when he ran into that wall.  The longer I think about the things I want to do with my new found powers, the bigger my smile gets.  Perhaps being Force Sensitive really isn’t that bad.  Other than being hunted by Emperor Palpatine’s forces, it’s pretty cool.  The old guy even gave me a “schematic” for making my own lightsaber and oh how I want one.   I use the term schematic loosely as it is really just a sketched technical drawing on the back of a cantina napkin.  Hey, I didn’t have anything else to write on at the time.

My father told me about lightsabers though I have never actually seen one in person.  He described them as a laser sword that could deflect blaster bolts and cut through nearly any know material in the galaxy.  How handy would that be when running for your life?  Of course I am looking at this schematic and while most of this stuff is fairly easy to come across, like durasteel, I have no idea where I am going to get other things.  For instance, where does one find a crystal imbued with the power of The Force?  And then I have to somehow tune it with my own resonance?  You have got to be kidding me.  I think it might be awhile before I can actually make one.  I did find other advanced people on the planet too.  They appeared very sophisticated and extremely dangerous.  But perhaps if I could find my way into their supplies I could find some of the things I need.  Admittedly I have become more brazen after my Krayt Dragon incident.

The strangest thing also happened the other day.  I was walking through the forest and got snagged up in some snare trap that the little furry guys set to catch dinner.  It snapped around my ankle with ferocity and whipped me up into the air after dragging my head fifteen feet across the forest floor like some kind of terrestrial broom.  Boy was I pissed.  Remember how I said I could feel power rising in me when I got mad?  Yeah that happened as I dangled, inverted, a few feet above the ground.  As I wallowed in my anger and self-pity I could feel my hands actually getting hot.  I was looking at them and sneezed and wouldn’t you know it, lightning shot out of my finger tips and crashed into the tree branch supporting the snare line.  It was shocking (pun most definitely intended).

The fall wasn’t so bad, nor was the landing; it was only a few feet.  It was the tree branch landing on me that really smarted.  The lightning severed the branch from the tree, which, in accordance with the laws of gravity, managed to find its way across my mid-section.  Don’t worry; I’m not peeing blood anymore. 

I have been trying to figure out how to make the lightning work again, but to no avail.  I will keep practicing as it’s way cooler than just moving stuff around with The Force.  Of course that’s not to say that moving stuff around with The Force is bad.  It keeps me fed without having to make traps.  I just walk up to the river and with a flick of the wrist, I have fish for dinner.  I even had a pig roast the other night.  There are boars in the woods that are as tasty as can be.  Still, that lightning, that stuff was something else.  Now if I could only choke someone with my mind.  Yeah, then my powers would be complete.  Wow, I sounded eerily like Emperor Palpatine there.  I better reel that in.  After all I don’t want to be one his to command like my father was before me.

The last interesting thing about this place is something I found just this morning.  I was, as usual, walking through the forest (not much else to do here) and got a compulsion to head over towards the mountains.  I can’t explain it.  It was almost like something was calling me.  I started following it and it led me along like the smell of fresh meat does a Wookiee.  It took the bulk of the day but here I sit at the mouth of what appears to be a ginormous cave.  I must go in.  The feeling is too intense not to.  I figured that before I wandered in, I should at least complete this entry.  Perhaps if I get stuck in some crevasse that someone reading this might find me before I croak.  That being said, in I go.  If I make it back out alive, I will be sure and post my findings and what was so compelling about the cave.