91 Blinded by The Light

(No excuses. Just didn't have time. Life often just has a way of getting away from you if you don't keep a tight hold on the reigns.)

-11:45 PM, July 4th, 2054-

-3 Kliks South of ANV Base Camp, Kessel, Outer Rim-

*Huuuuuuh* *Haaaaaaah*

The completely fresh air of Kessel combined with the crisp and cool temperatures of a dark night made for each breath to be calming and brought a sense of peace. This, of course, was all a façade that would be instantly betrayed by the night sky above.

Kessel was buried deep in a maelstrom. This meant that there were no stars in the night sky. Only rolling clouds of dust and the occasional lightning bolt could be seen.

On this night, however, there was an unnatural light source high above the surface. Streaks of blue light roared across the skies, direct evidence of the turbolaser fire that was being exchanged in the vacuum of space.

This revealed, despite the peaceful and silent night, that war had arrived. The unidentified cruisers had broken through The Kessel Run and were nearing the planet we sat on.

When Sirius and I had left the camp just a few minutes ago, there had been no turbolaser fire in the sky. Now, there was so we know that they had just arrived.

On the bright side, the movement of our assets was going quite well. A cave system had been chosen and it was currently being rapidly reinforced and expanded. It was impressive how advanced the drilling technology was.

My peace was suddenly disturbed by some noises coming from my right. I glanced over to find HK twitching a little bit with his eyes blinking different colors.

I shook my head. "HK, what the fuck are you doing?"

HK stopped making noises and looked at me. "Nothing your feeble organic mind can comprehend. Who's the chicken leg over there?"

I rolled my eyes. "His name is Sirius and he's my padawan." I then turned to look at Sirius. "Sirius, don't mind him. He has a few bugs in his programming."

HK's body clicked and his eyes turned red as he tightened his grip on blaster. "Bugs? What bugs? I'm the most perfect droid there is!"

I sighed and pulled out one of my holocrons from the pouch on my back. "I'm getting started."

I held the holocron with both hands before spreading them, keeping the holocron suspended in the air with the force. There was a connection with it that felt very natural. I tapped into it, causing the holocron to start shifting. The expected blinding purple light exploded from it.

A few seconds later, the light faded away to reveal a datachip floating in the air. I grabbed it, noticing that something was missing.

I turned to Sirius with an inquisitive expression. "Have you noticed some things disappearing?"

Sirius nodded. "Yes. I have noticed that there are less quests and that item descriptions haven't been showing up."

I shrugged. "Eh, whatever."

Sirius didn't know the reason for this. However, I felt that I knew what was going on. This firmed my belief that the force being real wasn't the only thing going on.

I plugged the datachip into my smartcomm and waited for it to load. Dozens of files quickly opened on the display. I reviewed them in silence.

Sirius walked over and poked me on the shoulder. "What is it?"

I looked up at him with the brightest smile I had worn in a while. "These are a bunch of incomplete designs for various lightsaber styles!" I continued tapping on my comm. "There's so many! They all change the emitter design to completely change the shape of the projected blade!"

I pulled the chip out and handed it to Sirius since he was somewhat of an expert with blades. Especially considering that he didn't even carry a blaster.

With the chip in his hands, I pulled out another holocron. With a quick burst of light, a small, leather case the size of a textbook was revealed. I grabbed the case, unlatching and opening it. "A set of tools?"

HK trotted over and whirred a bit. "I knew it! Those are made of beskar!"

I tilted my head in confusion. "Tools made of beskar? That seems like a bit of a waste."

HK snatched the box and closed it. "All of that carbon makes you stupid. You'll never need a new set of tools for the rest of your life and any little meat piles that you spawn, and they spawn, and so on. These won't even need to be sharpened."

I shrugged. "Alright. Put it in the speeder. It'll come in handy at some point."

I then took out the next holocron. 2 down, 3 to go before the big boy.

This time, I was nearly blinded by the light that came from the holocron. By the time I opened my eyes, several seconds had passed.

Once I opened my eyes, I found a featureless matte black and rectangular pillar on the ground. It had a hemispherical top and was about 3 feet tall.

I walked up to it with great confusion. I wish the item descriptions would still show up for strange things like this. "What is this?"

HK suddenly shoved me to the side. "Move aside, meat bag."

HK's finger folded back, revealing a physically shifting key of sorts. Upon moving it close to the pillar, an interface began spinning and opening up. He inserted his finger into the interface and made a few whirring noises. His eyes also blinked a few times before he stepped back.

The sound of pneumatics and hydraulics escaped from the pillar as it started shifting. An optical sensor and a few lights were revealed on the dome while treaded legs pushed out of the side.

Oh! I see! It is an astromech droid! It must be quite special if it came from an epic holocron.

I glanced back at HK and saw him staring at the astromech. "I've never seen such a flawless shrimp."

I shook my head and examined the droid a bit more closely. The optical sensors on its dome shifted and then the lights flickered. It then beeped a few times. "What's so perfect about it?"

HK stepped back as if giving the droid some space. "While not as perfect as I am, it is equipped with durable tooling, armor plating, and extremely powerful computation abilities. Let's just say that it is capable of single handedly operating a capital ship in a combat scenario."

I nodded. "Ah, so not your average astromech."

HK's head snapped towards me as his eyes flickered red for a moment. "Even mentioning the word astromech in the same sentence as this little one is an insult. The GT-00 is that great of a masterpiece."

I smiled. "Alright! I never settle for the norm anyways, so this is good. Next!"

This time, the light emitted by the holocron wasn't as bright. It quickly faded so I opened my eyes. What was in front of me was what looked like a drawer for a server cabinet.

With great confusion, I grabbed the handle. "What now?"

HK grabbed the object and threw me to the floor. "Don't touch it. You'll contaminate this with your filth. It's just a child."

I patted the dirt off of my white robes, slightly irritated that they were dirty before I even fought. Maybe I could use the force to clean them… "A child?"

HK carefully stowed the drawer in the compartment on the back of my speeder. "This is the holy grail of technology, an AI core. While it is functional, it has had little exposure to the world outside of a lab. It can easily be corrupted with greed so don't touch it."

I sighed, getting more irritated. "That's the third thing that you've taken. You do realize that these are MY things, right?"

HK ignored me as he babied the AI core. I was evidently not getting back that for a bit. HK could kick my ass with his optical sensors off so there was no point in provoking him.

I could only shake my head and take out another holocron. As soon as I opened it, I was forced to take a step back by an explosion of force energy. Fortunately, that was it. HK may very well have killed me otherwise.

I felt my hair blowing from the force like a gust of wind was flying past me. After several seconds, the light faded. This had to be something good, right?

I opened my eyes but only found a datachip floating in the air before me. I snatched it and plugged it into my smartcomm. Almost instantly, an error message showed up stating that the files were too large.

Tilting my head, I flicked the datachip a few times, hoping that it would just work. "What is this?"

Sirius then suddenly spoke from the side. "Uhhhh, master, look."

I looked at him and then looked where he was pointing before nearly ruining my pants. "OH MY GOD!"

Three massive tanks the size of 18 wheelers with five dump truck sized wheels on each side were sitting in the field. They were matte black and had gold trim. There were also various spotlights, and they were covered in weapons with two larger weapons on the tops.

I then looked back at the datachip. "THESE ARE THE DESIGNS! HOLY SHIT! Hmmmm, what should I name them? AH! I'll name it the Havoc Turbo-Tank in honor of Jace Malcom's Havoc squad. Maybe I'll gift a few to him sometime soon."

With great excitement, I pulled out my last holocron. This was the coup de grace. The crème de la crème. The Legendary Holocron.

Smile on my face, I held it out in front of me. "Well, here goes nothing!"

After giving it the slightest tug through the force, it snapped open violently. Instantly, an overwhelming torrent of force exploded out of the holocron. I found myself rolling head over heels across the ground.

Several seconds of rolling later, I managed to grab onto some tall grass. I struggled to maintain my grip while my eyes stayed glued shut. The light was as bright as a star and made me feel as if I'd go blind if I opened my eyes.

For as far as my senses could extend, the force was in turmoil. What could cause such a violent commotion?