The Terran Alliance: The Dark Soldier- Crosspost

Chapter 3- Ossus

Chapter 3- Ossus

As the sun slowly rises over the landscape, Philip moves some of the barely burning logs from his campfire around using a thick stick he's designated for the purpose of stoking the fire. He's been on the planet Dubrava for a few days now, resting and taking time to formulate a plan. He's also been testing his powers in the Force. He is already beginning to realize that he's actually even stronger in the Force than he first thought. He's also realized that he actually seems to be able to use his powers at their strongest when he's most frustrated or angry.

Philip finally lays his stick down, then turns to a bucket of water he's prepared. Picking up the bucket, he douses what remains of the fire, then gathers up the few items not already packed away in the shuttle and heads for the shuttle.

Philip had used the Jedi's records downloaded into the shuttle's computers in order to figure out where to go next. By examining the records, he had learned of the planet Ossus. He had known there was a brief campaign on Ossus right before the attack on the Temple, and that one of the ASAT Team members had been taking part in the campaign. However, the records aboard the shuttle indicated that Ossus had in millenia past been one of the Jedi's most important sites and a repository of much of their knowledge. Philip was hoping that if he went to Ossus, there was a chance that he might be able to find stores of Jedi knowledge still hidden on the planet. Knowledge that could be of help to him in learning about his powers and eventually destroying the Sith.

Philip boards the shuttle, settling into the captain's seat. "R2, program the hyperdrive once we get airborne. Set course for Ossus," he orders. The droid aboard the shuttle, R2-K7, beeps an affirmative response.

Philip powers up the shuttle and starts the engines. Once the engines are running, he lifts the shuttle off the ground and pulls it up to begin climbing out of the atmosphere. Once the ship exits the planet's atmosphere, Philip checks the navicomputer to confirm that R2 has programmed the navicomputer with the right coordinates, then pulls the hyperspace throttles and makes the jump into hyperspace.

(almost 2 days later)

Philip watches as the shuttle drops out of hyperspace, and the planet Ossus appears just ahead of him. The planet perfectly matches the descriptions listed in the Jedi records.

"Here we are, R2. Ossus. It looks like there aren't any Separatist or Republic forces still here, from what I can detect. Now, let's see if there are any Jedi secrets still left here," Philip says in a low voice.

Philip carefully pilots the shuttle down into Ossus' atmosphere, but keeping to a reasonable altitude within the atmosphere as he flies over the planet. He knows that the main Jedi Temple and Jedi Library on Ossus are somewhere along his flight path, but not entirely sure where.

After a long time of flying, Philip finally spots something. A series of large rock spires that indicate the location of the Temple. Philip heads straight for them.

As he flies over the site, Philip takes a quick look at what he's dealing with. The Temple is mostly in ruins, but it seems like it's relatively intact. Intact enough for things to still be hidden there.

Philip guides the shuttle down towards the ground, setting it down just outside the ruins of the Temple. Philip shuts down the shuttle, then stands up and heads out, saying to R2-K7, "R2, stay with the ship."

Philip double checks his SA80 assault blaster, then flips the safety off and ensures the ammo pack is properly secured before he sets off into the ruins of the Temple.

Philip moves slowly and carefully as he enters the ruins of the Temple. He has a flashlight attached to the top of his weapon, and trying to be as stealthy as he can. He knows he has no guarantee that no Separatist or Republic forces are on Ossus, or that any potentially hostile wildlife or natives could be in the ruins. He has to be careful.

Philip moves into the Temple, examining everything he sees as he goes. For the most part, he sees that there's not really anything. Although he knows that this section of the Temple complex is where the library was located, there's not really anything left. Philip can see ruins of what almost looks like bookcases or holocron repositories. But they are all empty and mostly wrecked.

Philip moves carefully through the first floor of the ruins. As he rounds a corner, he suddenly hears a snap up ahead. Philip whips in the direction of the sound and fires several bolts from his weapon. He quickly realizes that the source of the sound is some kind of creature that almost looks like a wild cat. A bit of smoke coming from its body indicates one of his laser bolts had hit the animal and killed it. Philip takes a deep breath, then resumes his search.

Philip makes his towards the center of the ruins. As he nears it, after a walk of almost half an hour, Philip suddenly finds a set of stairs, leading down into the ground. Thinking that perhaps if anything still remained in the ruins, it would be underground.

Philip carefully makes his way down into the ruins below ground. The stairs are a bit longer than Philip expected, leading rather deep into the planet's surface than he expected.

When he reaches the bottom of the stairs, Philip realizes it's even darker than he thought. Turning the brightness on the flashlight up, Philip moves even slower, watching his footing as much as he can, not wanting to accidently take a wrong step or fall through an unseen hole in the floor.

Philip searches through this lower level of the Temple for almost an hour. He finds a number of rooms, most of which seem to be for the library. However, all are empty. He does find a random lightsaber in one room, but the saber seemed damaged, as it wouldn't stay on for more than a few seconds. Philip left it behind. Philip did eventually want to get his hands on a lightsaber of his own, knowing that eventually he would need one if he wanted to take on the Sith, but didn't want to try and repair such an old one that was in such disrepair.

Then, Philip comes into a room. This room also looks like a room of the library. There is some light filtering through through breaches in the ceiling that connect to fissures in the ground leading up to the surface.

As Philip scans the room, he realizes that unlike all the other rooms he has been in, this one is not empty. Although mostly empty, Philip sees that there are a few holocrons in the room.

Philip grins a bit. His gamble on coming to Ossus has paid off . Whatever these holocrons may contain, they will certainly be of help to him in learning secrets of the Force and building up his strength in the Force to prepare to fight the Sith.

Philip goes across the room, examining each holocron and any writing/labels around them. The first two have no such labels, and the only writing he can see just identifies as Jedi holocrons. Then, the third one he comes to has a label that Philip realizes is written in the Galactic Basic script that he has learned, which describes the holocron as containing teachings of many ancient Jedi from the early days of the Order, including teachings of Xendor, a Jedi exile who founded the Legions of Lettow that Philip remembers reading about during his time at the Jedi Temple.

Philip puts this holocron into his bag, then moves onto the fourth and final holocron. However, this holocron is very different in shape. It is pyramidal in shape. Seeing there is a label, Philip bends down, and reads, "Holocron created by the ancient Dark Lord of the Sith Tulak Hord."

Philip raises an eyebrow. He doesn't remember hearing the name Tulak Hord, but by the words used, he's guessing that Tulak Hord must have been the leader of the Sith during the order's ancient days, perhaps even before the Great Hyperspace War.

Philip hesitates for only a moment before he reaches out and takes the holocron, placing it into the bag. He can't afford to shy away from anything that could help him stay alive and take revenge on the Sith. If this holocron can help him uncover secrets of the Dark side and learn to defeat Anakin, or whatever name he goes by now, then he will use it.

Philip does another sweep of the room, confirming that there is nothing left in the room. Deciding at this point that he's probably spent enough time on Ossus, Philip decides to leave the ruins.

In order to make sure he's careful enough to not get himself hurt in this place, it takes Philip almost an hour to get out and return to the shuttle. When he gets out of the ruins, he has to take a minute to allow his eyes to re-adjust to the bright light outside before he heads back to the shuttle.

As he boards the shuttle, R2 beeps a greeting. "Hey, R2. Yeah, I found some things. I guess we'll find out exactly what I found later," Philip says to the droid, still thinking about what kinds of secrets might be contained in these holocrons.