Welcome to Gaia! ::

Saul delivered his message to the bartender and returned to the hangar without contacting the mandalorian. There he and Akira supervised the transfer of the ship to the Jedi section of the spaceport.

Meanwhile, the shield sat in the office of the professor. Not caring about the struggles around it, nor concerned when a woman slipped into the room and set a bug on it's surface. But the chip did wake the shield, it's processors detecting the proximity of the powered device. Immediately it activated it's ancient mechanisms, and drew the energy from the small device. It deactivated again as the bug was drained of it's battery life. There wasn't enough power in the tiny little device to reactivate the shield's primary functions. Instead the shield returned to sleep mode, dormant and uncaring of the outside world.

That night the professor took the shield to the university's scanning room, finally available. He slid the shield into the scanning chamber and shut the hatch behind it.

As the scanning system turned on it hurled powerful beams of electromagnetic energy into the shield. On the screens displaying the results the shield appeared to be a black void, there was no return from the device.

Inside the shield a fury of activity began as it absorbed the enormous burst electromagnetic radiation, soon it began to draw power from the scanner itself. The energy was drawn into the device itself, and it's central orb began to glow dimly. The scanner shut down within seconds, it's power cells purged by the shield.

Now nearly fully charged, the shield sat there it's glyphs glowing slightly, it's central orb a radiant blue. The astonished professor pulled the shield from the scanner, as he did his fingers touched two of the glyphs. They morphed, exchanging positions. As the keys were touched, a pulse went out through subspace, on a band not used in the vast majority of the galaxy, but within moments it's existence was detected by two opposing powers on the edge of the galaxy.

* * *

In a dark tower deep in the unknown region of the galaxy, six spirits quaked with the knowledge that the shield had been awakened. Even as their master approached their powers stretched across the galaxy, anticipating his command, and six bodies, sheathed in black, rose from a thousand year slumber.

Aurora’s blue eye went wide as she watched Master Caladon fall, smoking to the ground. She let her gear bag slide off her shoulder to fall at her feet.

As Lord Stryder turned to face the attacker Aurora’s saber hilt found its way to her hands, bringing the weapon to hip height.

The snap-his of her blades activation echoed Stryder’s roar as he charged his foe, their blades clashed and Aurora watched as the sith gained the upper hand on Lord Stryder, cutting him down.

“That was fast, almost to fast.” She thought to herself as her mind examined the situation in a new perspective. It was almost too convenient for this attack to happen, here in this mighty fortress so soon after Lord Stryder’s boasts. And for both Weapon Master Caladon and Lord Stryder to fall so quickly. It could only mean one thing, but if she was wrong, she pushed that thought out of her head and concentrated on the moment at hand.


As the sith cackled and hissed at her she stood ready, with dominant foot back and the tip of the blade pointing over the sith’s head. Shii-Cho was the only form she knew, she had been practicing it ever since she was old enough to hold the training sabers and knew its strengths and weaknesses. She was at a disadvantage. Taking stock of her surroundings and jugging the distance to the fallen form of Stryder, she went with her feelings.

“Lord Dorog Xrandla, I presume?” She addressed the sith, holding her saber at the ready. Either she was right and this was a test of some sorts, or she was in deep, deep trouble.

Hiding in a closet clad in her armor, Cene kept vigil over the shield, eyeing it's location on her HUD by means of the becon she had tagged on it.
It has been hours and her limbs were getting stiff, but she bore up without complaint.
The Sith would be after the shield. He wouldnt leave the planet without it.
But perhaps he wouldnt come tonight. it might be best to get a little shut eye in.

A warning flash on her HUD snapped, casting aside the thought of sleep.
Something was draining the energy cell on the shield's tracker.
Impossible. She thought. That was a fresh cell. Someone must be tampering with it.
And then the cell went dead.

That battery should have lasted months, weeks if it were broadcasting across space. Something had drained it in a few hours.
Irritated, the Mando pushed her way out of the closet, grumbling as she dug in her belt pouches for another tracker. She went to the last known location of the device and found it gone.
Grumbling still, she took off her helm, picked up the scent of burnt out energy cell and trailed it to the scanning room.

As she approached the room, her helmet started flashing and beeping wildly. Cene slid it back on and watched as a myryad of warnings assailed her on the HUD. Power fluctuations and readings of intense radiation danced in her visor as her comn systems burst briefly into static. Trickles of Blue light emerged from the room, the only sign of what was happening visible to the naked eye.

Pistol drawn, she turned the corner and saw the shied finish drawing power from the scanner, it's glyphs and central orb glowing blue.

Bloody Sith artifacts. They're always doing something you dont need them to.

The only man in here was the scientist studying the device, and he seemed to preocupied with the shield to notice the relatively silent entry of the Mando Warrior.
As the researcher snatched the shield from the scanner, Cene stepped up silently behind him and tagged him with her stun gauntlet, knocking the man out cold.

"Sorry. But the owners of that shield want it back. No hard feelings."

Taking possession of the shield, the Mando'ad slipped it over her back, slid open a window, and launched a tether up the side of the building that hooked onto an overhanging ledge.
She rapelled down the side ofthe building, rewound the chord, and began making her way off campus.

Forget the little sithling. Killing him doesnt get me paid. Returning this to Korriban however will. She chided herself on letting a minor obcession get in the way of what really mattered in the mission. If it happened on the battlefield, she could wind up dead. Besides, the shield was acting funny. And when Sith artifacts act funny, bad things tended to happen.

She suddenly paused and looked at the shield.
Giving bad items to morally corrupt individuals seemed like a really dumb idea.
She had no idea what the Sith would do with the item since its brief spurt of erratic behaivior, but if they didnt destroy it outright, then they might just use it as a weapon or something stupid like that.
And they might just point it at Mandalorian space. Cene was sure they would try at least once.

She looked at the shield and asked herself the Fundamental questionmany Mando'ade asked in times like this: What Would Mandalore Do?

Without a twitch the bag was sent flying away before it even passed before the Sith's face.
He struck the girl's saber, the blow sending her tumbling towards Stryder, and seeing her reach down to help the man he opened his palm and used the Force to throw her back across the courtyard, away from the prone man.
"Theres no help for him, little girl. Nor is there any for you." The sith cackled triumphantly. "I will take my time killing you. There will be no mercy." The Sith laughed again, stepping on Stryder's Neck as he passed over him to her. There was a sharp crack as the Sith stepped on the man's neck.
"No Mercy at all."

"You've nowhere to run, Padawan." The Sith said with a smile. as he advanced cautiously with lightsaber raised for a strike. "I hope you've made peace with your maker."

As the Sith advanced closer, there was a series of rather audible crunching noises coming from above and to the right of the girl.

The Sith looked up from his position and hissed in severe annoyance, for sitting on a stairway leading up to the walls of the castle sat a dark haired Jedi clad in green robes with a mustache who was munching rather loudly on a bag of what looked like popcorn.

Seeing he had been spotted, the jedi smirked and shook the bag invitingly. "Sorry. How rude of me. Did you want some too?"

From the position where he had fallen, Caladon started shaking with barely surpressed laughter.

The Shield sensed the bioelectric field of the Mandalorian. Slowly it released a minuscule cloud of nano-robots. They wafted up, invisible and undetectable, and the taung-human hybrid drew hundreds of them in with her breath. Slowly over the next few minutes they filtered through her lungs, then into her bloodstream, and finally into her brain.

There they stopped, clustering around her memory centers as well as her auditory and optical nerves. As they sat there they recorded her brainwave patterns and midichlorian count. They transmitted the data back to the shield. There they were analyzed by the shield, and a similar profile was found within its records.

The shield knew that the person now carrying the shield was not one that it's power should fall into the hands of. As it determined this the shield began to override the transmission of the woman's auditory and optical nerves.

At first she only heard a voice, "Mando'ad..."

And the figure of Revan appeared before her, "What do you plan to do with me Mando'ad?"

The streets of Nar Shaddaa calmed after Maka had explored a while, searching for the foolish cretin's body. Where the hell is he.. He thought, seemingly just as he found the body of a crumpled Bothan in a nearby alley. The smuggler kneeled next to his body and searched through the jacket pockets until his fingers grazed something etchy, which gave him a slight scare.

Rendar's arm twitches as his hand creeps out, holding a keycard. Smirking, he pats the creature's head. "Thank you." Before standing, he searches once more finding the holocron with his hangar ticket. Hangar T-739. "Much obliged."

He stood up and nonchalantly walked towards the hangar.

Upon entering, he spots the Bothan's ship and enters using the keycard. Any good cretin knows to travel alone. He slipped in and searched around, ransacking and stealing anything that looked of some value.
kask!

A crash sounded behind him, sounding like a clumsy giant. With one quick motion, he draws his carbine and turns around, he aims and watches intently and opened fire. The rat which scared him was incinerated. "Urg.." He sighed, laughing at his own stupidity. After Maka searched, pillaged and took all he wanted he placed a sequencer charge just outside the hyperdrive and walked out towards his own ship which was coincidentally, right next to Hangar T-739.

The Sith cut off his saber and cursed as Stryder staggered to his feet.

"Well so much for that." the Lord muttered as he criked his neck, seemingly unhurt.

Still munching on his popcorn, the Corellian Jedi shrugged. "At least she didnt freak out or run. Gohgei must have done something right."

Caladon started chuckling and stood, none the worse to wear despite seemingly having been electrocuted. "You can put your saber away, child. The show is over."