Last time, Mace managed to survive a battle with Boba Fett and escape. Following Tarful's lead, he found his way to Kento and Mallie Marek and their infant son Garek, adding more ranks to the remnant of the Jedi Order. After getting them to a safe place, Mace was granted a vision of the son of Anakin and Padmé with a strange redheaded woman, fighting side by side as Jedi Knights. The Pathfinder started off to the planet of Lotho Minor, renowned around the galaxy as a planet of junk. What will the crew find there? And who is watching them?
Let's get into it.
We pick up with the Pathfinder dropping out of hyperspace and heading to the aforementioned planet. They land at a spaceport and Mace tells Tialna and Ram to stay with the ship while he goes out to scout. The place is a hive of scum and villainy enough to make Mos Eisley proud, though Mace is able to avoid the worst of the troubles as the Junkers move about and the non-native scavengers go looking for scrap. In one area, following the use of a Mind Trick, Mace manages to make his way into a sort of camp area populated by some humans and Duros.
Through Shatterpoint, Mace is able to quickly locate his target...unborn in the womb of her mother, a woman named Channett Jade. Channett is a member of the camp's scavenger crew, her husband having died during an excavation shortly before she learned she was pregnant. Mace attempts to converse with her, but the Empire's propaganda campaign against the Jedi has reached even out here in the Outer Rim and she asks him to leave, pointedly. The overseer of the camp also takes notice of this, and he slips away to send a coded transmission to...someone.
Mace and his crew remain on station to keep an eye on Channett, albeit from a distance. With her child only days away, she is visited by a strange woman who claims to be in the service of the Empire. This Second Sister gives Channett a sales pitch about handing the child over to the Inquisitors, but is likewise rebuked as Mace was. Unlike Mace, Second Sister promises to return and will take the child by force. Now, Channett actively seeks out Mace and finds him not far off, and he agrees to give her the help she requests.
It is the next morning that several things happen at once. Second Sister arrives to take the child and all she finds in the camp is Mace. She expresses some disappointment about this.
"Master Windu...what an unexpected surprise..."
"Trilla? Trilla Suduri? How are you-?"
"That woman is dead. You weren't the Jedi I was expecting...but I suppose you're going to have to do!"
This was indeed a trap, though not for Mace. He and Second Sister duel as Ram and Tialna sneak Channett away to the Pathfinder en route, however, she begins to go into labor, complicating matters. Witnessing this, Second Sister sends her Stormtroopers in pursuit of the trio and a stand-off at the ship is had - Tialna manning the on-ramp with a variety of blasters and Ram putting the Pathfinder's defenses to use. While Ram suggests taking off, while Channett is put in the medbay and the lone medical droid is activated, Tialna refuses until they know for sure whether or not Mace is alive.
The duel between Mace and the Second Sister is brutal. She doesn't have the raw power of Anakin, but is plenty powerful in her own right and has that tempered with the discipline that comes with Jedi training. The woman formerly known as Trilla Suduri is a beacon of the Dark Side of the Force, and Mace's use of Vaapad might not be enough to see him through this one. Like in his fight with Boba, though, Mace is fighting for an opening to disengage rather than take her out.
Yoda and Obi-Wan need to know, the Empire has agents of the former Order working for them. This, naturally, complicates things highly.
Trilla, however, is giving him no openings. Mace feels her pain, her anguish, and tries to talk to her - having learned something of his and the Order's failure with Anakin. Trilla, however, isn't so easily brought back to the light as Anakin is. With a slash, she destroys Mace's mechanical hand and he takes the opportunity to Force Push her away into a pile of refuse being carted off. Down a hand, Mace makes a break for it, managing to knick a speeder bike in mid-repair and fly it out to the Pathfinder's landing site.
The fighting has become fierce at the ship, the Stormtroopers getting mowed down by the combined fire of Tialna and Ram. However, the Stormtroopers start lining up ion cannons, when Mace comes up on the sensor grid, Ram gets the ship to take off. Seeing this, and seeing the ramp open, Mace uses Force jump to clear the distance between himself and the ship - landing and the ramp sealing just as the Stormtroopers release their first volley. Channett's labor continues as the group escapes, much to the irritation of the Second Sister.
It is a few hours and a few blind jumps into hyperspace to randomize their location before they feel comfortable to stop a bit, going to a moon on a distant Outer Rim world. Channett gives birth to a young woman with red-gold hair, who she names Mara. Mace can sense the Shatterpoint is indeed with the girl - Channett no longer has it, as it wasn't hers to begin with. Channett agrees to have Mara trained as a Jedi when the time is right, but demands that she be allowed to stay.
In answer to this, Mace requests a Council meeting of the two Masters, Anakin, Kento, and Mallie. After some time, they all manage to conference by holoprojection.
Channett makes her case to the assembled Knights and Masters. In olden times, the Jedi discouraged familial connections in their apprentices - believing that such connections would see them more easily susceptible to the Dark Side. However, given both the children of the Skywalkers and the children of the Marek family, this may no longer be an option. Anakin, both Mareks, and Obi-Wan seem to be in agreement about it. Yoda, likewise, echoes their sentiment.
"Change, the Order must, if to survive we are. An exception, this cannot be."
Mace is unsure, but abstains from the vote and so the decision is made. As with Anakin and Padmé with their children, and with Kento and Mallie and their son, so shall it be with Channett and Mara. Rather than leaving them in a safehouse, however, Channett elects to remain on the Pathfinder as a member of the crew. She cites her engineering and repair skills, and Mace isn't able to argue with her on the point. Ram is good, yes, but the Duros is quick to point out that a second pair of eyes (and hands) is always a welcome thing.
Thus, the fourth and fifth members of the Pathfinder crew have joined.
Elsewhere, on the planet Nur, the Inquisitorius is called to a meeting with the Empire. They refuse, and the Empire decides to show up there instead. Expecting Mas Amedda or perhaps even Tarkin, they are surprised to find Kadann and several acolytes of the Prophets of the Dark Side have come to meet with them. While the Grand Inquisitor is off Jedi hunting and the Second Sister is off recovering from her humiliation in dealing with Mace, the Third Brother is there to make the meeting.
Kadann doesn't remain long, however. He makes it clear that the Empire is the authority and that the Inquisitorius will yield to it. When the Third Brother scoffs at this, claiming that they serve and obey only Sidious, Kadann snaps his neck with a mere gesture to prove a point. Having cowed the other Inquisitors present, Kadann tells them that they have one week to make their decision or else they will all be obliterated. He then leaves, letting the stew in that. A conversation is then had via holoprojection with Mas Amedda, Kadann telling him that everything is going according to plan.
On Coruscant, after this, Mas Amedda has a meeting with the leaders of the Imperial Senate. He informs them that he is sending them back to their homeworlds pending a full establishment of the Empire and the complete eradication of the Jedi threat. Those like Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Jar Jar Binks (yes, Jar Jar. Don't judge me) all immediately protest, but it is to no avail. Amedda's order stands and they are escorted from the Senate building. Bail and Mon Mothma have a conversation on the way out, both deciding to get in touch with Garm Bel Iblis and get to work on their project.
Tarkin does not overhear this, but he notices that the pair have been conspiring quite a bit...and thinks that an investigation into Alderaan's House of Organa and Mon Mothma's home in Chandrila might very well be in order...
...and that's where we're going to end it. The Empire might be getting some traction in finding the Jedi - oh, no! Together with that, we have the Prophets of the Dark Side vs. the Inquisitorius! What will happen next? Will the Rebellion be squashed before it can even truly begin? Will Mace train Mara Jade well in the ways of the Jedi?
Will I stop leaving these on melodramatic cliffhangers?!
Find out next time!
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