The Floating Rock Gardens

*The Floating Rock Gardens of Ryloth were a tourist attraction on the Twi'lek homeworld of Ryloth, well known throughout the Outer Rim Territories.*

Ryloth belongs to Lord Negue Ragnos(me).

[quote="Negue Ragnos":1y2geil2]Ryloth belongs to Lord Negue Ragnos(me).[/quote:1y2geil2]

Ryloth does NOT belong to me.

*Crom'nen arrives at the Floating rock gardens. He pulls his cloak around him to protect him from the winds of the twilight section of the planet, where the cold and warm wind meet, suspending the rocks in the air. He sees a human child shoving the rocks around as tourists so often do. The Twi'lek people, however, perfer to see the rocks in their natural positions. He glares at the family, pouring intimidation through his eyes. He wills them to be afraid, until the parents figure out where this odd sense of fear is coming from. They father scoops up the child and the parents walk hurriedly away. He and F'rarl are alone when his commlink squeaks.*

Yes?



Return to Aargonar and wait for my arrival.

*Crom'nen shuts down the commlink and looks out over the garden.*

What do you think, my friend?

*F'rarl looks out at the rock garden and smiles as Crom'nen scares the family away. Crom'nen did not realize it, but F'rarl had been prepared to remove them from the premises by other, less savory, means. In cases like this, the less blood spilled the better.*

IC: This cell has been shut down for good? excellent. I say that we release the Yuzzum from service. We can convince them that they will be our representatives on planet, and thus their life debt is still honored.*

Releasing them was indeed my plan. I cannot have them tied back to me, and they will have little outside contact there. No one would think to look across the galaxy. I do not think they would make good representatives. I have further ideas to convince them of thier release.

*Crom'nen knows that his Corellian Corvette should be faster than the slaving ship. Having given them a head start, he turns back to the speeder.*

Come F'rarl. It is time for us to leave.

:: Captain, ready my ship. Get my secondary crew ready. You and the primary crew have earned the leave. ::



*Crom'nen gets in the airspeeder and starts warming the engines.*

*F'rarl quietly walks back toward the speeder and gets in behind Crom'nen*
IC: I am ready, drive.*

*Crom'nen begins to drive into his home city.*

All UFFW forces on Ryloth are at DEFCON 1.
This refers to maximum readiness. It is reserved for imminent or ongoing attack on UFFW military forces or UFFW territory by a foreign military power.

*His travels among the NOE as a Dantari shaman, wearing no trappings of the Corellian Order, have brought him far indeed from the Ranch in Kala'uun. For the first time he sees the Floating Rock Gardens, and is amazed. Perhaps more amazing still is that some of the retreating NOE forces had come here to see them before departing as ordered. Sidling up to one of the groups, he greets them, smiling broadly, and offers to treat their wounds. None of these have been skewered too awfully, but he puts Bacta patches on here and there, uses some of the Magic he'd learned as a child to cure infections, and heals through Ashla's gracious arm some of the deeper lacerations.*

*By the time he has visited as many as seem to need it, he has made friends with many among the "enemy", telling jokes, learning a bit of the lore from the various homeworlds of the troops, and moved on in peace, searching out more of the retreating NOE, spreading not only wholeness of body, but also of mind, of spirit, and of good will and cheer. He is a white light in the fog with the power to dispel, it not all, then at least that in which he comes into direct contact with, and those who will both looking past the finger unto where it is pointing, which is to the Fount of all Blessings Herself.*

*There were gathering here from among the NOE, mostly deserters, cowards, thieves, those too weak to walk the rest of the way to the drop ships that hand landed further out in the terrain to take them up, or those who had heard that there had been a breach in the ceasefire in orbit and did not know what was going on; in their confusion, they came to the renowned tourist attraction, now devoid of citizens, but filled with a growing mass of wounded and ashamed individuals who desperately missed their families back home, could not believe their own actions during some of this war, unaware they had been controlled like pawns by the battle meditation of the Sith Acolyte the shaman had met, and were pleased to be around others, not fighting for the first time in months or even years, marveling in awe at the floating rocks they could even touch and send off through space, an unexplainable phenomenon bordering on magic. To Yahz'hu, it was symbolic of the wonder of existence itself and at the making of peace between warring factions, not to mention making whole what was once broken.

Strong and agile, he spent his strength, but dipped into the current of Ashla, and being carried beyond himself, he offered healing to all, mentally and physically, who stopped in this beautiful spot along their Journey.

Receiving no consolation for himself, his spirit continued to sing of the spiritual blessings it had found in the night while it was speedily and safely traveling towards its goal in the midst of the contemplative life.

Ashla was communing deeply and in secret with his innermost self, beyond his comprehension or senses, purifying him, keeping him free from the darkness, temporality, and from his own selfish, lustful desire, even quieting his inner-warrior, creating him into the true image of the Force Herself; he stood true, then, as a garoo and a Jedi, and continued giving succor to his enemies.*

**A sparse and utilitarian repulsorlift barge rumbled into the area and came to a stop at the periphery of the Gardens, allowing a platoon of UFFW soldiers to disembark and take up defensive positions around the area while relief workers started the process of moving aid supplies off and start to get organized. Neg'ij was essentially a ride-along on this mission and had no real specialized skill in refugee management so he just tried to stay out of the way yet not so far out of the way as to make soldiers jumpy. Who ever knows with these types, right?

Neg'ij walked to the edge of a ridge and leaned on his cane as he gazed upwards at the rocks being suspended in the air. In his old life, he would've dragged those mammoth boulders down from the sky or smashed them into the various plinths of stone throughout the area just for fun but he had left the hatred and chaos behind and strove for balance. Taking a deep breath through the rebreather on his face and feeling the wind blasting across his reddish skin, Neg'ij was reminded of savage windstorms on Korriban he had experienced years ago. Feeling the winds blowing his cloak and rustling his long raven hair, he closed his eyes and leaned slightly into the wind, enjoying the feeling of nature holding him up against gravity with the need of manipulating the Force. It made him smile....**

**As he leaned slightly over the ridge with his eyes closed, Neg'ij could feel the heightened mood of those assembled in the Gardens and their uncertainty over the purpose of the troops who were fanning out in the area. He also felt one separate from the rest to approach him directly, although he could not fathom why he had singled him out instead of the leader of the relief workers or even the platoon section leader. Neg'ij leaned away from the edge and openned his eyes to take in this man coming for him and although he knew nothing of the Corellian Order, he could guess the robes were that of a Jedi. He listened to the man as he spoke and fought the urge to interrupt him with a "my men?" and equally fought the desire to laugh when he was called "sir". After all, he had just dropped into this situation and was a stranger to all sides involved and nothing to really gain except in the service of the Force. He pondered for a few moments before he replied.**

Dear sir, I think you have me mistaken for someone else with authority on this world. I am but a simple traveller who happened to come to this world at perhaps the most inopportune time yet have decided to put my skills to good use while I am here.

**Neg'ij tucked the cane under his one arm and stepped to within an arms span of this Jedi and presented his left hand to him by way of a universal greeting.**

I am known as Neg'ij and to the best of my knowledge these troops are here to merely secure the area and those over there are relief workers here to tend to anyone who needs specialized help. From what I have heard, the plan is to treat everyone who needs it and offer them passage to wherever they need to go.

**Neg'ij partially turned away from the Jedi to look at the bulk of the refugees to take in their condition before continuing.**

I suspect most of these won't be going back to the NOE and will be wanting to return to their families and homeworlds? If it would please you, I would escort them myself as I have naught much else to be doing in this galaxy at the moment.

*Bowing slightly, and taking the man's outstretched hand, the young man is slightly embarrassed.*

Neg'ij, I am Yahz'hu of the Dantari. Along with the Corellian Jedi, we have come here to help the Twi'leks and the UFFW against the NOE. The war has suddenly stopped, and it is good of you to come. Forgive me for thinking you in charge of these troops; it is my tribal upbringing, perhaps, to see the most aged as the most authoritative.

Perhaps, then, you can help me explain to whoever is in charge that some of these soldiers are not deserters, while others are. The injured, mentally and physically, have not expressed much desire to leave their service.

*Beginning to walk more into the group of troops here on humanitarian purposes, to Yahz'hu's relief, hoping the man will walk with him and tell him more of himself and how he came to be with the UFFW ships, also acquiescing to allowing him to escort the deserters to wherever they wished to go if he would be so kind.*

Well I guess I'm going to have to invest in some anti-aging miracle cure in the near future then, huh?

**He added a wink at the end of his comment yet seeing the young man's embarrassment made Neg'ij feel not so good but better than posing as something he was not. He inwardly vowed that he would help this Dantari as best as he could in exchange and clasped his arm around the shorter man's broad shoulders to let him lead the way towards the others, slightly leaning on him instead of using the cane. He waved his hand ahead at the assembled Twi'lek and UFFW members.**

The leader of the relief workers is that white Twi'lek there....I believe his name is Melokee? Malewky? Hmmmm....oh wait! Mal'ee'kii! That's it! As for the the soldiers, they all look the same to me and they all give me funny looks, so you might have better luck deciphering the markings they have for rank than I would. Personally, I would just ask Mal'ee'kii....he's a pretty stand-up guy in my estimation. He wants nothing more than to help people so he will make sure everyone is take care of, I have no doubt.

**Neg'ij adjusted the rebreather slightly as it kinda itched a bit and then looked sideways and down at his new friend, intrigued by a species he had yet to have met before and unsure how to brooch the subject. With nothing leaping immediately to mind, he just barreled forward with the direct approach that had always served him so well.**

So a Dantari, eh? I don't think I have met one of your kind in all my travels, Yahz'hu. Are there many of your kind left on Dantooine?

**As Neg'ij listened to Yahz'hu, he was struck how similar his tribal culture sounded to how his own species was at one point, although the Dantari were probably alot less chaotic and destructive than what he had heard from oral traditions of his own ancestors. He also could empathize with the massive loss of brethren to some form of holocaust and the hopes for rebirth for a species. They had started to get closer to the relief workers and their base camp when Yahz'hu asked about what species Neg'ij was from, which caused him to stop abruptly for a short moment that would have definitely been noticed by Yahz'hu but not likely by anyone else.

Neg'ij nudged the Dantari into a new direction that skirted away from both the UFFW and NOE groups and waved to Mal'ee'kii to catch his attention. Shouting out to him the information that Yahz'hu had told him about how they need to ask every refugee their individual needs and separate them accordingly, they left the professionals to their jobs while they wandered off.**

Mine is not what could be termed as a conventional story, and certainly not one I can risk a common person overhearing.

**I don't even know if you will try to gut me when I tell you, Neg'ij thought to himself defeatedly but he felt as if this one might be worth the chance and so he decided to continue regardless with a sigh.**

I sometimes have flashes of a time long before but my first real memory is falling face down on the glassy ground of a crater on a now dead planet. The tribes of my people had been extinct for millennia before essentially being torn from our ancestral afterlife back into this world but it was such a blessing at the time! We spread out and repopulated, evolved and grew....it was a new beginning for us all once more. I was very young and barely learning to hunt myself when the Great One came and selected me for training in the Force, although this was destined to be mostly tending into the darkside of the spectrum.

**Neg'ij stopped for a moment and composed his thoughts, trying to not let his memories of the dark years get the best of him.**

My master was not a totally evil man but believed that the ends always justified the means at all costs and it was that very tendency that nearly got me killed and has gotten very many others. I had been hand-picked to be one of twelve to serve as elite guards for the yet-to-be-born son of a close personal friend of the master and I quickly rose to be the Prime among them. For many years we worked mastering our skills in ruthlessly dealing with all threats from the birth of the boy through a great portion of his life until that fateful day when the worthless piece of garbage father of his came to kill him....

**Neg'ij's words caught in his throat as it was clear he had cared deeply for the boy and that the event was a very difficult thing to deal with for maintaining control over his rage and hatred. His breathing deepened and muscles tightened and complexion darkened but he started to rapidly recite unintelligible phrases under his breath in an unknown language and slowly returned to normal.**

I'm sorry but it is a difficult thing for me to retell. Everyone else died that day; all my comrades and my charge, all in one savage battle that left me on death's door for weeks myself. I was crushed, my soul completed depleted....it had been the sole focus of my entire life! I would have wasted to nothing myself but it was the former friend of the master who guided me to the light side and I have been finding my way ever since.

**Neg'ij stopped and took a couple steps away from Yahz'hu so as to be able to have the freedom of his arms before he continued, reaching to remove the rebreather as he spoke.**

But my path is very much complicated by the nature of my parentage...for I am a Sith'saarai, or in the common tongue a True Sith. We are the Sith as they were before they were perverted by the dark and evil ways of exiled Dark Jedi. That more recent presentation kinda makes seeking Jedi training rather difficult when most Jedi Masters try to kill you on sight due to misconceptions of history, let alone entering most civilized places that are not bastions of stinking evil.

**Neg'ij just stood there grasping his cane tightly in anticipation of anything while letting the rebreather fall to the ground and allowing the tentacles of his beard writhe freely for once.**