Jorin approaches the two Masters as the sun sets, the sky bathed in pastel red, yellow, purples and deeper blues as the night sky slowly marches across the sky, chasing the sun.

Masters, Jorin's voice is somber as he bows slightly to the two senior Jedi, The service is complete.. the men seem at peace. Which appears to be rare for them in this war..

"It is a well-earned peace," Mireska said Jorin, then gestured to the grove of crystal trees. "I've been meditating here, sunrise and sunset, the past few days. I find it useful for maintaining both my connection with the Force and my calm in times of stress." And Force knows that I need to maintain that calm. Nothing's worse than a Healer gone bad ... as both Trench and I found out. "Remember, Jorin, when meditating,the first goal is a calm mind, not an empty one. Emptiness is an invitation to unwanted guests. Listen, but do not empty yourself." Especially when there are possible Sith on the planet.

She found her usual clear spot beside one of the trees and sat down in a full lotus position. Then she leant back so that her body was in contact with the living crystal. Closing her eyes, Mireska calmed her breathing and heart rate, and waited likewise for her thoughts to reach tranquillity. Emotion, yet Peace. Passion, yet Serenity. Chaos, yet Harmony. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. The familiar koans and mantras flowed comfortingly through her mind.

Then Mireska opened her inner senses to the Force around her. Right beside her were the sun-bright lights of Jorin and Ker'see, and all around them the sea of varied lights that were the clones. No one who can see them in the Force would ever call them identical. Stretching out her senses, she could feel the various emotions of those nearest her. This would be a useful ability to develop further ...

And again, as during her previous meditation sessions, a faint tone echoed through the Force. Curious, and determined to find its source this time, Mireska focused on that note and followed it back to its origin. It is similar to Ilum, but there's more determination. In fact, I think that it's ...

Mireska opened her eyes in startlement.

"Kyber!"

"What's that Mireska?" asks Ker'see coming out of her meditation. The Duchess dozed peacefully over her lap? "Didn't you lose your crystals?"

Jorin knelt, closed his eyes and opened himself in the Force.. He followed Master Mireska's advice and let go of the days of stress and failure, loss of comrades... Fury is one with the Force.. The Force is with me, so Fury is with us... Jorin could feel it in the Force.. he opened his sphere of awareness, two bright outlines were nearby.. Mireska, Ker'see... He expanded further, trying to fine tune his senses more this time, to get the same definition as the two masters.. faint orbs of tiny insects.. and the larger pillar-like shapes that he knew were clones. He knew which were Camouflage and his men.. but other than impressions and feelings, definition eluded him. My connection isn't strong enough.. yet. The Force provides what is needed.. nothing more.... patience.

Jorin let the sphere hover at the edge of his conscious control for a moment longer before letting go, letting it shrink back to the ten meter range that he could maintain without any effort, letting his focus go from creature to creature, listening to the interaction with the Force. Unlike more experienced Jedi, adept with the Living Force, Jorin couldn't fully understand what he "heard" of the connections, to him, at this stage in his training... it sounded like music. Almost voices that he couldn't quite understand, but almost a musical song... (He once mentioned it to a Master in the Temple. He simply smiled, telling the young Jorin that he was taking his first steps into a larger universe, and to let the Force guide him..)

Jorin idly listened to the concert for a while, but there was ... something in the background.. something working it's way to the surface.....

Mireska's voice snapped him out of his thoughts... What Master? Jorin asked, looking to her. Noticing Ker'see's confused face....

"No, Ker'see, that's not, I mean, yes, I did lose them, but ... there's kyber in the grove!" Mireska stumbled over her words in her excitement.

She uncurled her legs from the lotus and leapt to her feet, casting about in the Force like a hunting nexu.

"There!" Mireska pointed at the tallest - and probably oldest - crystal tree in the grove. She strode over to it and knelt before starting to dig in the soil at its base with her bare hands, ignoring the startled looks cast at her by Jorin and Ker'see.

"The crystal trees are connected deep underground with much larger seams of crystal ... it's only on the surface that they resemble more organic plant lifeforms in shape ... but if I can get to the roots closest to the surface ... I've been hearing its song during my meditation the past few days," came Mireska's disjointed explanation as she dug deeper. "I heard it again just now, louder than before, and managed to home in on it ... there!" she exclaimed in triumph.

Her by-then filthy hands and broken nails had uncovered a small tree root not far below the surface. Clinging to it were a number of dirt encrusted nodules, similar to the tubers commonly eaten across the galaxy.

Closing her eyes, Mireska dropped into the Force and let it guide her hand as it moved along the unearthed tree root. There you are! Her hand darted to one of the smaller nodules and grasped it. The song of the Force rose to a brief crescendo in her inner ear before dropping to a comforting yet determinedly steady hum. Hello there.

She staggered to her feet again, staring at lump of dirt in her hand. When she started to brush the soil away with her thumbs, the light of the setting sun struck the surface of the crystal being uncovered and a teal gleam shone from between her fingers.

"Kyber," Mireska breathed in awe.

She looked around at the other two. "I think that there's more. Can you hear it calling?"

Ker'see looked at her comrade and rose carefully feeling out with the force as Mireska did. Her sense of the force wasn't as good as Mireska's but maybe if she relied on over aspects of the force. She unfocused her vision and then refocused using the force penetrating through the layers of the dirt and soil seeing the trees the Mireska mentioned.

She could see as far down as she wished but something blocked her vision, a bright spot in the dirt and force. It called to her in an all too familiar cadence. She crouched above the spot and started to dig herself, shifting dirt and stones in the process and keeping her force enhanced opens, fearing to blink lest she lose it.

Her fingers grasped it and she smiled, the surrounding soil easily moving away as she lifted it up. She raised it to her eyes and dropped the force enhanced vision.

"Hello new friend," she whispered. She turned to see The Duchess sitting next to her and she smiled.

Jorin turned, the lone voice in the song fresh in his mind.. Yes... I think.... Jorin wandered a few steps, eyes shut, listening.. There! Jorin dropped to the ground and began digging with his combat knife, carefully scraping layer after layer of dirt until he came across a crystalline root. Through the Force, he could trace it back to the old tree, it's root system branched across the clearing. Jorin carefully brushed away the dirt, a faint glow in the darkness of the early evening shone between granules of soil, the singing was louder, joyful. Jorin cleared the last bit away, exposing two emerald crystals. Mireska was right, it was Kyber! Hello little ones.. Jorin breathed as he extracted the two kyber out of the root system, bathing them with Force, letting it flow through him and into the crystals.

Jorin rejoined with the others, his crystals laying in his cupped hand. Masters, I asked Spanner when we came back to go through the salvage yard for more components that could be useful to construct more lightsabers... I intended to create another training emitter.. but now..... Jorin let the train of thought trail off as he continued to listen to the crystals.

Mireska suddenly realised that she was standing there with dishevelled hair, clothing askew, dirty hands, and broken fingernails.

"Ummm, I think that I need to clean up, clean up my new friend here, and then make a midnight - well, early evening - raid on Spanner's workshop discards. I have a lightsabre to construct!" she said. "Meditation session dismissed for now, I guess?"

Jorin bowed to the two Masters, and walked straight to Spanner's workshop cleaning the crystals between layers of his tunic.

Remembering that she had a lightsaber to hand Ker'see took it out and opened it up. She took out the training emitter and carefully pocketed it before placing in the small crystal.

She closed it up and ensuring the blade wouldn't skewer a friend turned it on.

A cerulean blue light bathed the group and the Devaronian smiled.

Mireska hurried to her quarters and practically threw herself into the shower. That's my third shower in one day. I'll be turning into a prune if I'm not careful!

She kept her inner ear on her new crystal's song as she saw to personal cleanliness. After carefully cleaning and trimming her nails back, she almost reverently washed off the last bits of soil clinging to the blue-green crystal. Once it was both dry and clean, she held it up to the light. I am so happy to have found you, my friend!

Yet another set of filthy clothing was dropped into the laundry basket - A t this rate, they'll start billing me for the laundry service! - and she pulled out some more clean clothes.

Workshop ho! There must be something useful amongst Spanner's discards!

Jorin walked into Spanner's workshop and knocked on the door frame, Spanner, are you here?

Ah'm here Com'ander, jus sortin through items we c'n make Havok's arm.. If yer here for your items, their o'er there.. got three whole bins with parts for you to sort through.

Jorin nodded his thanks, Thank you.. as it turns out, Masters Ker'see and Mireska may stop by later.. We managed to find Kyber crystals this evening, so we can construct new Lightsabers...

Ah, see.. Spanner replied, even though it was clear in the Force he didn't.. Well, hope you find what y'all need.

Jorin sat in front of the bins, picking through the various parts, letting the Force guide his hands. When he finished, he found that he had pulled out enough to assemble at least three hilts. At first he was confused.. but he decided to trust that the Force had a plan, even if he didn't know what it was yet.. Probably all those designs I've been looking at... He packed the components into a small bag and returned to his quarters to begin.

Spanner, I'll come back in the morning to give you any assistance I can with Havok. Jorin called out.

Spanner's head and shoulders popped out of his office, Sure thing Com'ander, g'night!

Half an hour later, Mireska reached Spanner's workshop and knocked on the door frame. "Hallo, is anyone here?"

Spanner leant out of the office, clutching a mug of caf. "Sure is. I 'ave a buncha BARCs ta fix. Young Jor'n saidya'd be by fer some spare parts... Dey're in those tree bins over dere, Gen'ral." He finished by pointing in the direction with the caf-holding hand.

Mireska nodded her thanks with a smile, and went over to examine the contents of the three bins. That's ... a lot of stuff. I'll ask the Force to help me seek the necessary pieces.

She closed her eyes and began to sink into a meditative trance. It'll work better if I treat this as a moving meditation ...

Mireska cast her senses outwards in the Force, then started moving one hand over the bins, plucking out pieces at seemingly random and gathering them in her other hand. When she felt that she was finished, she opened her eyes again and looked at what she held. Excellent! Together with the contents of my lightsabre weapon repair kit, I should have all the necessary parts.

She carefully stored the smaller, fiddlier bits in a pocket, and settled the larger bits more firmly in her hand. Once certain that she wouldn't drop anything, she called a cheery "Thank you and goodnight!" as she passed Spanner's office and left the workshop.

Back in her quarters, she cleared her desk and laid a cloth over it. Then she laid out all the scavenged bits, her own lightsabre weapon maintenance kit, her Jedi multi-tool, and finally the new-found kyber crystal. I guess that I'll start calling it a Christophsis crystal. It might be a good idea to let the Temple artisans know about the kyber source here - if they don't already know about it , she mused to herself as she set to work on re-creating her lost lightsabre. But in person, I think, that'll be most secure. Kyber sources are supposed to be either secret or well-guarded, and preferably both. Can't have any pesky Sith trying to build some stupid super-weapon out of it!

Later that evening, Mireska looked at the lightsabre components with bleary-eyed disgust. I need to meditate properly and get a good night's sleep before I can sort this mess out properly.

The next morning, after a refreshing sleep, she took another look at the lightsabre parts scattered over her desk. She then made the ancient Mirialan gesture which indicated recognition of one's own stupidity, accompanied by the traditional exclamation of "D'oh!"

I was an idiot last night - obviously still too stressed after a long day! This shouldn't take more than an hour at the most to assemble properly.

And the lightsabre was indeed assembled by breakfast. Mireska even managed to adjust the Christophsis crystal so that it would be even more useful against objects. Property damage sounds like a good thing right now. All those droids ...

The deep teal blade was a thing of beauty, and reminded Mireska of the most common colours used for the Healer working uniforms. Hello there, little one. I hope that you're comfortable for now. There'll be more work done on your new home, but not right now.

On the way to breakfast Mireska swung past the workshop for one more Force-assisted rummage through the "Jedi bins". That netted her the necessary parts to re-create both the magnetic weapon tether and damping emitter. Unfortunately, I don't believe that I'll get the time just yet to finish fixing up my beautiful new lightsabre, she thought to herself as she carefully dropped the parts into the small bag which she'd remembered to bring this time. I'm pretty sure that Loathsom and his forces will be up to no good, not to mention that red 'sabre-wielding woman - and we simply must get more information about her!

Before going to bed, Camouflage returns to the barracks and checks up on his men, then stops by the medbay to check on Havoc. He isn't allowed in, but he's assured that Havoc is doing fine, resting. While he's there, he also checks on Condor's condition and is sad to find that the commando is still in a coma, and the doctors aren't sure they'll be able to revive him.

He heads back to his quarters to pack it in, but before going to bed he performs his nightly ritual of reciting the names of his fallen friends and brothers: "Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum. Sol, Deuce, Kad, Deadeye, Blunt, Sev, Dash, Bell, Cutter, Mynock, Kaden, Dargai, Fi, Square, Thunder, Ne'tra, Sharp, Tad, Dire, Chatter, Dragon, Shuk, Niner, Trio, Cannon, Merc, Dral, Brak, Raysh, Sixer, Mirshko, Shev'la, Rus, Rosco, Sei Vanta, Fury."

Jorin knelt on the floor and laid out the components on a piece of cloth, he studied them for a few moments before beginning his meditation. Jorin could see the Force threading itself through the various components, he could see how they would fit together. But there was a tug, a slight tingle in the Force, they way he saw some of the components were different from his last saber.. Longer, dual emitters. Jorin took a breath and calmed his mind, he would have to work his way to such a weapon, further study would be necessary before he could attempt building it.. He, and the Force would have to be patient. For now, he would make due with a simple hilt for now.

As Jorin assembled his temporary hilt, a thought occurred to him.. That youngling with dual Shotos.. Jorin remembered his own shoto, the shock from the training emitter could be a valuable tool in case non-lethal methods were needed. He would have to consider that....

When he opened his eyes, the hilt floated at eye level. He reached a hand out and activated it. An emerald blade sprang out of the simple hilt with a snap-hiss, thrumming as he gently swung it back and forth in the air.

It's a start. he whispered to it, We'll get you fine tuned in no time...

In the morning, Jorin spent some time in meditation, focusing on his connection with the crystals and on the Force. Then he made his way to the Command center, walking passed the Maintenance area. As he walked, he found a discarded length of conduit about as long as his arm.. It seemed to call to him. He picked it up, feeling the heft of it and noticed how well it fit in his hand. He gave it a test spin and pretended that it had a blade at either end. Hmm... he held it to his belt to check the length. This could work.. I should ask Master Mireska and Ker'see if they have experience or advice for double bladed sabers...

With his new.. training aid in hand, Jorin continued to the Command center. He walked in and greeted the Clones on duty. Who is the officer on duty this morning, Trooper?

Cody replied: I am commander. There seems to be increased CIS activity, but nothing particularly aggressive at this point. I was monitoring the situation while you and the generals rested, because it wasn't an urgent concern at this point.

Jorin nodded as he approached the holomap, Any sightings of the Separatist leadership, or the woman with the red lightsabers?

1 hour ago, RuusMarev said:

Jorin nodded as he approached the holomap, Any sightings of the Separatist leadership, or the woman with the red lightsabers?

no to both commander.

Jorin nodded his thanks, Please contact me if you need anything Commander, I'll be in my cabin meditating.

Jorin returned to his cabin, laid out the components and crystal on the cloth and began mediating on the construction of his new hilt and attunement of the crystal. Feeling the force flow through the metal components, altering the molecular makeup just slightly, ensuring the power cell was primed and prepared to optimize it's charge, that the relays and wires carried the electrical flow efficiently. The crystal seated gently in the armature, Jorin began to assemble the components, the Force flowing into the powercell, through the connecting wires and capacitors. Jorin adjusted the Crystal matrix slightly, aligning the focusing lenses and power distribution circuits. The crystal signing happily in his mind, growing stronger in the Force.

When he finally opened is eyes, the hilt cradled in his hands, he activated first one blade, then the second. Each extending in a sharp snap-hiss and low thrum as the energy blades moved through the air. Satisfied, Jorin shut the blades down and stood, clipping the hilt to his belt. Now to assist Spanner with Havoc's new arm.

Meditating with the her new lightsaber Ker'see realises that she could probably get a lot more out of it and decides to start working on it. She knows that Mireska has the tools she needs and heads to her quarters.

She knocks on the door and when it swishes open says: " Good day, Mireska," greets the Devaronian. "Could I borrow your lightsaber tools?"

"Of course, Ker'see," smiles Mireska and quickly passes them across. "Good luck!"

Ker'see nods in response and quickly moves to the work area to work on her crystal, planning to make it more deadly.

After hours of working she comes away with a more focussed weapon. Promising herself that she will continue to work on it when her skills are worthy.

"Thank you, Mireska," Ker'see says as she returns the stuff. "Time to go test this thing out!"

Heading to the training area with her new blade Ker'see waits for others to clear out and places a target in front of her.

Let's see what this one does for me.

She steps back from a small distance ignites the blue blade and then leaps forward lunging forward with the blade.

It cuts through the dummy with no resistance whatsoever and Ker'see smiles to herself.

Thank you, new friend...