"Generals, we're approaching the meeting site," the clone pilot announced, a vibration sweeping through the Counsular class cruiser as the repullsorlifts activated. "Looks like the reception committee is already here," he adds as the ship slowed for landing.

(Jereru, please describe the landing area and the people accompanying you in your first post. You are part of "the reception committee" on the ground, watching one of these land)

In the cold plains of the Enead's Taiga, near the village of the Water in the Fourth Aurora of Ubieth, several people stand waiting. The sound of a starship approaching makes them turn their eyes up to the sky, while in the background the cluster of wooden cabins is being turned into a reception banquet.

-Here they are- says Nehebka, a young girl with typical Amonet features: tall, dark skinned and gracile, with the traditional plait fluttering to the strong winds of the valley. -Istvan, remember to let the Kula do the diplomacy.

Istvan Koebis is a handsome young man trained by some of the best Kula of his clan, but is indeed nervous today. -I bet you're telling me this now 'cause later on you'll be too busy staring at the handsome and stro...

-Oh, please, Istvan, don't be so childish. This is...

-Hush, kiddos. This is important business, now.

The deep and resounding voice that ends the chatter belongs to Kulada, the Ubseth warrior protector of Mother Shuzal. He is a legend among his people, as Mother Shuzal is one of the most revered seers of the Shu and being his protector is one of the highest honours an Ubseth could aspire to. The man, a hardened and massive built war veteran in his forties, takes a step ahead to get to the place where the ship is about to land. When he walks, half a dozen reduced heads, hung from his war belt, wave to his pace.

-C'mon, kiddos. Let's take these Jiddeyes to Mother Shuzal. She is in wait.

At the village, inside one of the huts, Mother Shuzal, an elderly woman with a kind smile, and two other women, answering to the names of Sister Nerubtis and Sister Kual-Zaat, wait patiently for the visitors.

Aboard the ship, Treyan Vos'ka examines the holotable for what feels like the fiftieth time, scanning his eyes over an ever-expanding area about the landing zone. He searches the table for any sort of threats: angles an attack could come from, hidden droid battalions, even a rock slide that could wipe out the area before his forces can deploy. He sighs, and massages one pointed ear - a gesture similar to the odd human movement of pinching the bridge of the nose - he's not gotten much sleep on the flight over.

Stepping away from the holotable, he reflects on what he knows. He's glad to have mission command, as that way he can stop any **** fool heroics being performed where they aren't necessary. However, he's less sure of himself here. On a planet where the wheel is a mysterious and powerful tool, he's unlikely to have much use for his mechanical skills, especially since the Republic hasn't assigned any vehicles to the mission beyond a couple of gunships. Still, what he's doing is important. Preserving the sanctity of an unspoilt world - just the sort of thing he was always getting up to in his younger years. He chuckles: yes, his younger years, he thinks as he rubs a knot in his back from long hours hunched over a holotable. Ah well, time to get to work.

The sweat tickled her lekku as Tabithia meditated. Her left hand placed firmly on the floor of her quarters, her right hand sat balled into a fist in front of her chest, index and middle finger extended. Balanced on her left arm and totally inverted, she brought her legs from a split and raised them together, her right foot sliding along her left thigh until her legs went parallel and extended towards the ceiling. The effort was obviously great for her, as the sweat rolled down her lekku (which dangled to floor below and formed a snakelike coil below her head), but she had been trained to tax her body that her mind might travel deeper into meditation.

That is precisely what she found to be happening now, as the childish thrill of tickling along her lekku receded to a place far away and her mind journeyed beyond into the Force. Her mind swam through the darkness of silence until it came to a place with cloying patterns of light. She distanced herself from sight via her eyes and instead developed the sight of her mind and connection to the Force. Master Timan had always warned her that this was a dangerous moment in her meditation, for the temptation to fixate on the patterns and colors of her minds projections would, if followed, forever cloud the purity of the visions she would see. Remembering her lessons, and focusing on the disciplines she learned to control her power, she let go her natural impulses and instead followed her instinct. She reached out with her consciousness to the planet below, Navarion, and the billions that called it home. She searched for hints as to the coming meeting between Masters Vos'ka, Nezuma, and Ki-Von-Ahn and the native people.

Frustratingly, she waited for the colors and patterns to coalesce into images as Master Timan had told her they would, and again, she saw nothing but colors and patterns. For years she had tried the exercise, and it was always the same. She felt her connection to the Force, and she allowed her consciousness to flow, becoming one with it. She was sure that she was successful in her connection to the greater world of the Force, but always she was denied the chance to Foresee the future, as if when at the edge of the great expanse of knowledge the Force contained she was forced to retreat from the precipice. She had spoken to Master Timan about it, but he had said only that the problem lay with Tabithia's own desire to see, not with her ability to do so.

She couldn't refute his statement, she felt that knowing the possible futures would force a Jedi to behave in certain ways that would guaranty its outcome. She felt that even when this is done to produce a positive outcome, it still proved to be dangerous - there was no guaranty that the future predicted was intended, or even the best. All that could be said is that it is the future seen, and if pleasing to the Jedi who saw it, then it could just as easily be the Jedi enforcing their will on the future.

It was a moral ambiguity that haunted Tabithia in many ways, and was the main reason that she wasn't a Jedi Knight now. Most of the disciplines required to be a Jedi Knight she saw the same ambiguity with. The ability to influence another's thoughts for example, even when used with the best of intentions, was robbing free will from another sentient being. The ability to move objects with one's mind and supernaturally enhance one's body were taking the will of the Jedi and enforcing it on the natural world in unnatural ways. Tabithia wrestled with the paradox of the Jedi - to be one with the natural world, yet in so many ways be told to manipulate it in ways not natural.

She found the disciplines she had learned, which her instructors were surprised at due to them being advanced disciplines, were the disciplines that allowed her to interact naturally with the Force. Restoring the natural order, not upending it. Her battle meditations allowed her to assist others around her by removing distractions connecting her consciousness to theirs and letting her ability to process aid theirs the same as shouting commands would - though through the Force it happened much faster, like the hive minds of ants or the Killik. Her ability to heal, restoring mind and body to the way nature intended it when injury or stress rent it asunder. Her skill with protection and unleashing energy merely the act of dispersing energy naturally back into the world when it had been trapped. All these things worked to serve the desire for natural balance in the universe.

In fact, the only skill of a Jedi she had managed to pick up was the ability to sense the Force in all living things, the first ability that is taught to young Jedi. In many ways, she felt herself a failure as a Jedi, for she couldn't find it within her to manipulate the world as a Jedi should. She understood that the Jedi acted in harmony with the Force, that they served as natural extensions of the Will of the Force, but she balked when it came time to do it. If she were to be totally honest about it, she was worried that she wouldn't be acting as the Force's will, but rather that she would be forcing her will onto the Force.

At this, her arm finally gave out, and she crashed towards the floor. Tucking her head, she rolled with the momentum and, end over end, came to rest sitting on floor near her bed. She had no more answers about what to expect from the meeting tomorrow than she had before, but she found herself in the unenviable (but all too familiar) position of having many more questions about herself and her position in the Jedi Order and the growing war at large than she had before. Stretching, she donned her robes and wrapped them around the two piece garment common to Twi'leks in the order. Slipping on her boots, she attached her lightsaber to the magnetic clip on her belt and headed towards the bridge.

Making her way through the ship towards the bridge, Tabithia regarded the stark cream interior of ships bulkheads. Matching the tunic coloring favored by the Jedi, she realized that the palette was chosen precisely for a diplomatic vessel like the Consular-class ship. Jedi chose the color due its psychological tendency to promote calm, a valuable trait on a ship designed to be a diplomatic courier like this one.

As she approached the turbolift to the upper bridge area, Tabithia spotted the glow of the holotable in the planning room. Peering inside, she saw Master Vas'ka leaning back, stretching after obviously being hunched over the holotable for far too long.

"If it's bad, Master, I can mend your back for you. Staying in one position for too long is never good. Becoming static in the world is to exit the Living Force, as Master Timan would have said." Moving to the holotable, her violet eyes, the color of amethyst, leveling on Master Vas'ka questioningly.

"Ah, don't worry about it young one. I've had worse. On one of the moons of Sarkos I once spent two days in the same position dug into an earth bank waiting for a group of pirates who were raiding a village. When they came along I jumped out and disarmed them without a shot being fired. I think I can handle a bit of a back ache," he pauses. "Not that I don't appreciate it of course. I remember when I was a Padawan like you, always eager to please my master and his companions. You know I nearly failed my trials: the Trial of Insight almost did for me. I never was the most thoughtful Jedi. I got distracted by any new fact that came my way," he pauses, and strokes his goatee.

"Come on, we should head up to the bridge," Treyan pauses to collect his robe from the chair on which he'd idly tossed it, collecting it around his broad shoulders. He checks his lightsaber is in place, then nods to the Twi'lek as he steps out of the door. Passing into the hall, he pauses to look out of a window at the rapidly growing ground below. "There's something familiar about this place. It reminds me of one or other world I've visited. Have you ever been to..." the two Jedi head up to the bridge, as Treyan talks about the places he's been and people he's seen.

Pausing to look one last time at the lower back of Treyan Vas'ka, questioning how minor the ache was. She regarded the Bothan as he picked up his robe. His shoulders and arms, while slight compared to those of human, where heavy with muscle and corded like steel wires. The dark fur that covered most of his body hid a thick neck that hinted at his raw strength, and though only an inch or so taller than Tabitha, he walked as if he towered over those around him as if perfectly at home in whatever surroundings he found himself in.

As he moved from the room, Tabithia took a last look around and turned off the holotable to save power as she followed the elder Jedi into the hallway, his talk of planets visited and wonders encountered playing havok with her imagination. "To see the sights he has seen," she mused internally. The wonder of it she quickly cast aside for, especially in these days of conflict, her place was in service to the Council and the Senate. The days of Jedi Knights gallivanting across the galaxy righting wrongs and exploring new places was over for a time, now they were needed as advisers to the military, directing and supporting troops in the defense of the worlds left in the Republic. With each story the Bothan told, she smiled a little more, realizing this may be the closest she would ever be to seeing the galaxy.

As they exited the turbolift up to the bridge level, Tabithia caught a glimpse of one of the clone soldiers of the Republic seeing to his gear at the duty station nearby. She watched as he patiently and meticulously went over his gear piece by piece, setting each armor plate tight to his body glove and ensuring it fit properly and in place. She admired the precision of his review, and did her best to remember the rote that was used to inspect and secure the gear as it may come in handy in the field.

She watched as he slid the helmet over his short brown crew cut, and listened to the sound of the environmental seals snap into place when it settled on his head. She counted over a dozen symbols of the Republic on it, overlapping the olive green striping that identified the soldier as a Sergeant. Tabithia wondered what they stood for; Separatist droids defeated, planets saved, missions completed, she didn't know, and considered the question far too personal to ask. Briefly she wondered if there was a protocol for such flare, but recalled no such regulation, so she put aside her wonder for later, when perhaps she formally could ask the Sergeant its meaning and quickly moved to catch up to Master Vos'ka at the entrance to the bridge.

As they reach the bridge, Treyan imparts some last advice on his young companion. "Well, if there's plenty of life left in me - and stars, I'm only thirty-three, I've got plenty ahead of me - then you've got a whole life to live. Remember that - you've got a whole galaxy to see. Don't listen to what the Council tells you. No Jedi ever did good work sitting in the Temple. Everything I've done I did without anyone telling me to from a stuffy chamber on Coruscant, and it was all worth it. Remember that," he turns to the pilot. "Captain, has the Clone transport arrived in system yet? See if you can put me in touch with their commander."

Jax strides through the bridge door shortly after the two Jedi.

"Generals... Commander" Jax says to acknowledge his superior officers. Taking up a position behind the pilots Jax watches the ground get larger through the viewport as the ship continues its descent.

A world untouched by modern technology. There's something you don't see every day.

"Sergeant. Good to have you here. We can always use some extra firepower. What unit are you with?"

Darex Nexuma stood quietly on the bridge, pulling his robes closer around him. Staring out into the blue void of hyperspace he lost himself in the Force, trying to attune himself to the living Force. This mission was a daunting task and it would only be successful with the aid of the Force.

The doors opened and the voices of his fellow Jedi broke his mediation.

Treyan Vos'ka's words bringing a wry smile to his face.

Darex nodded respectfully.

"The Force leads us on many paths, and here we find ourselves in service of the Council.

Greetings Treyan Vos'ka and Tabitha Lecala."

With a soft smile and bow, Tabithia returned Master Nezuma's greeting, "Thank you, Master. A pleasure to meet you. I only hope the Council's faith in me was not misplaced."

In reply to General Vos'ka:

"Thank you sir. Most recently I was attached to the 13th Assault Battalion of the 41st Legion."

(OOC: Sorry about that, following and composing on the go without consistent Internet, we can insert my part right before Jax comes in?...)

-Sorry, Neb. I admit I am nervous. All what happened since we had to flee, the death of Kula Kalopsita, the near extermination of ou...

-I know. Same happens with me, don't worry.- Nehebka whispers while they follow the warrior to the improvised landing site. -We have to work this out together.

They smile at each other, sharing the link of those who know they don't have anything but hope. for a moment, the only sound is their feet treading the earth.

-You were right, actually, Istvan. I am really eager to meet those Jiddeyes. Will they be like us? Will they be green with trumpets as ears? Just imagine, 3 months ago very few people in the planet even knew starships existed, let alone see one! And know, I just think we've seen too much of them...- A tear began rolling down her cheek.

-I just hope we're not asking for help to get rid of a bug and fall prey to a worse one... These folks are at war, and we're going to be involved, want it or not. But w...

-Kiddos, walk faster. We're not playing now no more.

Meanwhile, in the village...

-How are you feeling, Itzal?- Sister Kual-Zaat has rushed in to check the young Itzal is in good conditions to talk to the Jiddeyes.

-I'm fine, Sister.- Itzal says from his bed. -My wounds are fine, and I can't wait to talk to the visitors and tell them what I saw at the tin-man factory. Also... through the window I saw you were preparing a banquet...

Sister Kual-Zaat smiled. -Yes?...

-Would anyone bring me some roast?

-Sure, kid.- The fact that he's so hungry is a good sign. -A big portion for you.

"Greetings, Master Nezuma. A pleasure to see you again. The journey wasn't too hard on you?" Treyan is pleased to see his fellow Wandering Jedi. "But, Tabithia, you should probably remember that the Council could misplace its own robes. Trust in yourself, and you'll be fine."

"I haven't served with the 41st, but Master Unduli passed on good words after Geonosis. It's good to have you here."

"A pleasure to meet you too. Put your trust in the Force and yourself and the rest will take care of itself," Darex said to Tabitha

The clone-pilot looked back toward Treyan. "Sir, the transport is following at 50 MGLT and will be on the ground shortly. As will we."

Deploying the landing gear, the jedi "cruiser" (light corvette really) circled momentarally before setting down in a level, treeless area ahead of the waiting native leaders.

"Come on, let's go meet the natives," Treyan settles his robe around himself and leaves the bridge.

Tabithia raised a single, sleek, eyebrow at Master Vos'ka's condemnation of the Council, and for a brief moment opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, she merely smiled demurely and nodded. Her attention quickly turned to the pilot as he spoke, and with great interest she watched as the clouds parted and gave way to the forested land below. Nodding an ascent to Master Vosk'ka, she followed him from the bridge.

Treyan pauses by the boarding ramp, and turns to Tabithia. "I can sense your feelings. Well, actually I can just see your face. I'm sorry for my words on the Council. They are wise, far wiser than I, and though I will mock them until the end of time, I still respect their wishes. But don't assume they see everything. They never saw this war coming, and now it consumes the galaxy. What else might they have missed?"

"Let's not miss this meeting," Darex said with another smile, as he walked to the bottom of the ramp, waiting for Treyan to take the lead.

As the cruiser begins its landing sequence Jax excuses himself from the bridge, retrieves his rifle and other gear from the armory, and waits near the exit ramp for the Jedi.

"Sergeant, before we land, can I just ascertain your role? Are you commander of the Clones, or a specialist assigned to us?"