Son of a Clone Trooper - Swoop Bike, Meet Force Lightning

I believe the word intense is far too weak a word to describe the training I have been subjected to by the Nightsisters.  The words, brutal, unforgiving and excruciating are much more fitting.  These women do not tolerate failure.  Fail to meet their standards and you become an outcast; if you survive.  It’s taken every ounce of strength and fortitude I have to get this far and it’s still very much the beginning.  I would have thought that the very beginning would be the worst.  Sort of indoctrination similar to the training my father described in his military service.  It’s not true of these women.  Each day becomes progressively more difficult, not easier. 

It hurts very badly, but I have found that the hurt in turn fuels my connection to The Force which then allows me to drive further than I ever thought was possible.  It’s a cycle that seems to be perpetual, but the fact is that one’s capacity for drawing upon The Force wears out and the result is an exhaustion induced collapse.  I am just beginning my recovery from said collapse.  I can feel the difference in me though.  The depth of my connection to the proverbial energy source has been revealed to me and it is much greater than I had previously imagined.  As a result my body is getting honed as well.  Drawing upon The Force to complete my tasks is only a part of it.  Through The Force my mind and body are being sharpened into a precise instrument of pure power.  It is nothing like the Jedi as my father described them.

As challenging as it is, I am finding great reward in my training.  It goes beyond the shaping of my mind and body.  My connection to The Force is growing.  I am growing closer to being able to fully give in to The Force.  For short bursts, I can let go and it will take over making me a tool of its will.  It reminds me of my run in with the leather chickens.  Except now I understand it.  The Nightsisters tell me that as my skills improve and grow more precise, so it will be when I give myself to The Force.  They say that it will allow The Force to guide me in doing things that I could not do without it, but that my skill and training will allow me to impose a conscious control over the precision of everything that is happening.  I am not sure what it all means, but it sounds really amazing.

Speaking of precision that is something I definitely need to work on.  It’s the opposite of what I have been raised to believe.  I large boulder is much harder to physically move than a grain of sand.  But that is not how it is with The Force.  I can blast around all manner of large objects with little to no effort, but when I try to use my power to pluck an insect from a rock I find myself clumsy and unable to complete the exercise.  I will continue practicing until I get it though.  I am nothing if not determined.

Lightning… Oh I can’t forget the lightning.  My dear mother has been giving me private lessons in my lightning use.  It’s only now that I realize that my previous attempts were sad and paltry.  I haven’t come half way to using it at my mother’s level and already it has increased ten-fold.  Instead of a couple of paltry, low-powered bolts, I am now able to emit a small storm of crackling, pulsing energy at will.  I hope that someday I will be able to destroy swoop bikes on a whim like my mother and her “sisters.”

Funny story now that I think about it.  I was out on a training exercise with a couple of Protectors who were teaching me the finer points of pole arm combat.  We had tracked our quarry to an area that was fairly close to one of the outposts for science expeditions and brave adventurers.  While we were there we heard the unmistakable sounds of several approaching swoop bikes.  The Nightsisters don’t take kindly to strangers (or anybody really) encroaching on their territory.  They sent me off beyond a ridge to watch and learn.  Three swoop bikes came racing over the top of the hill we were on and right into the Protector’s trap.  Lightning flashed from their fingertips and bikes exploded throwing their riders into the dirt. 

There were three of them a gigantic wookiee with an egg-shaped head, a bald human in his boxers, and another human with a Mohawk.  The look of confusion on their faces when they got hit was priceless.  I had no idea wookiees had the ability to show such expression on their faces.  The bald one was shouting profanities faster than I can swing a lightsaber and the one with the Mohawk had a look of malice in his eyes that could freeze a lesser man’s blood, at least until he saw what caused the accident.  Upon realizing what had happened, they turned and burst into a sprint.  Clearly confused, they ran the opposite way of the outpost. I followed my teachers as they pursued the running, screaming trio into the depths of the Dathomirian forests before breaking off pursuit.

When I finally caught up, the Protectors were heading back my way laughing hysterically.  It seemed the wookiee left a trail of droppings as he ran.  The bald human, apparently somewhat drunk tripped over a log and face planted into a pile of rancor dung and the one with the Mohawk looked back to see if they were still being pursued and ran right into a tree and got stuck.  To top it all off, they had gone right into the territory of a rancor even bigger than my mother’s ride, one that the Nightsisters call “The Ancient.”

Well, it’s time for me to bathe in some Bacta so I can resume my training sooner rather than later.  That stuff is great.  It will reduce my recovery time from a couple of weeks to a couple of days.  I am anxious to get back to my training.  I really want to learn more skills with weapons so that I can apply them to my lightsaber combat.  It’s still my favorite thing about having the powers that I have.  

Son of a Clone Trooper - Meaningless and Trivial Tricks

Well, it’s been awhile.  I am guessing everyone figured I got killed when I went out to face my mother and her army.  Admittedly I was terrified.  It’s not like she and her followers were pushovers or mere mortals deprived of a connection to The Force.  It’s actually quite the opposite.  Getting into their midst altered my perception.  I went from feeling it, and perceiving it intangibly to actually being able to see The Force swirling around them.  It was amazing to see the combined power of these frighteningly savage Force wielding women.  Their power seemed to pass from one to the other generating one massive collection of heavy, dark, ever moving tendrils of energy.  It was nearly imperceptible from a distance but as I grew closer their power seemed to amplify my own thus allowing me to actually see it.

It beckoned me seductively, its tendrils wrapping around me and pulling me in.  I was powerless against it.  The closer I got the more I became part of it until I was standing face to face with my mother completely enveloped, and entangled in the web of dark essence.  I couldn’t have moved had I wanted to and I didn’t want to.  It was intoxicating and it bent my will to its desire with seemingly nominal effort.  It was easy to see how Axkva and her clans could overrun an Imperial prison.  I can’t imagine anything short of a full battalion of troops being able to handle the raw power these women possessed.

She stared at me with those piercing yellow eyes.  I could feel her consciousness penetrating my mind, rooting around my entire life almost as if she were looking for something.  I made no attempt to resist.  She was going to get what she wanted from me one way or the other; I might as well let her do it unimpeded.  I had nothing to hide from her anyway.  I occasionally caught glimpses of the memories she was looking at.  Several minutes later, apparently satisfied, she departed my mind, tilted her head, put her thin, long fingers on my shoulder and proclaimed, “My stolen progeny has returned!”

With her words, the cloud of dark energy dissipated into the air.  Apparently there was a conscious effort to produce it by the Nightsisters.  It was a curious thing.  Was it something to give them an edge?  Perhaps it was some way to use their collective power to empower each other should things have turned violent?  If so, why was I included in it?  My best guess is that they used their combined power to draw me in and keep me pliable and compliant while their Queen examined the strangely familiar human approaching them.  Whatever it was, its effects had begun to wear off.

No longer enamored by its seductive presence I realized just what had happened.  Not only did she not kill me on the spot, it seemed that my mother was not unhappy to see me.  Perhaps things had changed in the years since my father was held captive here.  Maybe the Nightsisters had found some value in men beyond being slaves.  Or perhaps it was the fact that I was Force Sensitive.  At that point there was no telling what it was that stayed her hand, much less made her accepting of me.  It didn’t matter.  I was just happy to be alive.

The rest of the clan began to disperse until after a few minutes it was just me standing there with my mother.  Despite my relief, I felt no warmth from her.  Ours was obviously not a reunion that provided her significant positive feelings.  That then begged the question again, why then was I still alive? 

As if reading my mind she responded.  “We did not kill you because you may prove to be useful to us.  You have a great power you have only just begun understanding.  Your potential is far greater than the meaningless and trivial tricks you have been performing.”

Meaningless and trivial were the words she used.  I was baffled.  The meaningless and trivial things I had done took every ounce of my concentration and willpower to execute and she made it sound like I had been performing parlor tricks.  My curiosity was piqued at the same time my ego was deflated.  At least she thought I had potential, and if those things were in fact simple tricks, imagine what I would be able to do with the proper training.

Again, she picked up on my thought.  “I will train you.  You have much to learn.  You are soft, weak and pliable, but we will change that.  We will need to change that if you are to fulfill your destiny.”

“My destiny?” I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.  I had heard those words come from Darth Vader on his Holonet spots.  As a matter of fact, from most of the stories I have heard and read, destiny seemed to be a common thing for Force users to reference.  Perhaps the connection The Force creates between everything allows its users to get a better understanding of how things work together to achieve an end.  Or perhaps it’s just as I had thought all along and it was just philosophical mumbo jumbo.  It seemed I would be finding out soon enough.

“Yes, your destiny.  You are connected to The Force as you call it.  It is strong with you and holds immeasurable power.  Do you think that you would be granted such a gift without it having some purpose?”  Her tone was one of little patience and little regard for ignorance.

“We will teach you how to unlock your power and give you the ability to reach your potential, but we want something in return.”  Here it was; the reason I was spared.  “When your training is sufficient, you will go back to the civilized parts of the galaxy and be our eyes, ears, and when called upon, our hands.  When your tasks are completed, you will get a ship adequate enough in size to accommodate me and my clans so we can escape this place.”

“Why not just load up on my shuttle and I will fly you all out of this system to wherever you would like to go?”  I asked with all sincerity.  It was not well met as evidenced by the fact that my face met the back of her hand. 

“If we wanted your shuttle, you would be dead and we would have departed before your corpse was cold!”  Patience was definitely not her strength.  “It’s your potential we want, not your ship.”

She paused staring up out towards the large moon in the sky.  “First you must prove yourself.  This planet is fraught with deadly creatures and the terrain is equally as dangerous.  You must stay here until I return.  In the time that I am gone you must survive without using your ship or the supplies on board.  If you are alive when I get back, then you will be trained.”

With a wave of her hand, the ramp to my shuttle closed.  She then mounted her rancor and rode off.

It took me about an hour before curiosity got the better of me and I wandered over to my shuttle.  I punched in the code to open the ramp and nothing happened.  I tried it again, still nothing.  I reached out with The Force to try and get the ramp to lower.  Again, I had no luck.  She had done something to it to keep me from cheating.  I was outdoors with the clothes on my back and my lightsaber at my side but nothing else.

I would love to finish the story up to this point, but I don’t have the time right now.  I have to leave for the Nightsister village shortly to begin my training.  I will get caught up here as soon as I can.  Until then, wish me luck.