Purge (Star Wars)

Detachment

Dawn breaks over Bogano as Greez lands the Mantis so masterfully the crew barely feels the ship touch ground. Cal leads Ilyana off the ship and into the morning light. After the smoke of the battlefield, the oppressive recycled air of the Inquisitor's cruiser and pollution of Daiyu, they both breathe deeply of the fresh, clean air vibrant with the life that surrounds them.

The landscape of Bogano is almost an illusion. The flat endless plains stretch on in all directions yet there is no direct path between any two points. Instead, the land is made up of small plateaus like islands separated not by ocean but by chasms so deep the bottom cannot be seen, some so wide no human could jump across them even with the aid of the force.

"This is the first place Cere brought me when she and Greez rescued me from Second Sister on Bracca," Cal explains, then points to a structure off in the distance. "That is the Vault where the holocron was hidden."

BD-1 trills from over his shoulder.

"No, I haven't forgotten," he tells the little droid as they continue walking forward. "This is also where I met BD-1," he adds for Ilyana.

As they walk toward the edge of the pillar, small furry creatures with big friendly eyes hop away on scrawny legs then dive into burrows in the ground. Curiously, the soft, musky odor they leave in their wake is reminiscent of the occasional smell she would catch coming from the vents on the ship. Ilyana can't help but smile at their warbles and they bound away.

"The Vault," Cal continues once they stop at the edge, "is a place strong with the Force. There's a chance that if you meditate there you might find some answers."

Cal continues to speak but Ilyana becomes completely focused on the Vault. Its massive spire reaches into the sky in stark contrast to the flat expanse surrounding it. However, it is not just the striking nature of the Vault's architecture that grips her attention but a pull that emanates from it. Something there is calling her and as it grows, all other things seem to fall away, the sound of Cal's voice fades then disappears, and her vision narrows as if looking through a tunnel made of mist.

The spire slowly looms larger, towering over her till she is unable to see the full facade of the structure at all but can now see the texture of the stone and arching runes that ancient hands carved into the surface. It all appeared in such fine detail as if she was standing directly in front of it, so she reaches out a hand and is surprised to feel the cool roughness of the stone.

Her vision clears and she realizes she is actually standing at the base of the Vault. She turns to Cal but he is no longer there. She looks around quickly and catches sight of the Mantis so far off in the distance that its colors appear dulled and distorted by the bright sunlight filtering through the humidity of Bogano.

How did I get here? She wonders, and for the briefest moment begins to head back toward the Mantis but stops suddenly when a voice speaks to her.

"I see you."

The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end. That voice. She has heard that voice before, back when she was still a stormtrooper sitting in that storage room meditating, desperately trying to regain the memories, the life, the name that had been taken from her. Then she had heard it again on Savereen.

She slowly turns back towards the Vault. The entrance is a wide slit in the stone rising all the way to the top of the spire. She steps into the opening. The interior is relatively small and cylindrical, the outer stone walls covered with ancient carvings, likely the language of the Vault's creators, the Zeffo. In the center is a smaller stone spire with a base no more than four or five feet wide, a dark opening in the middle, and a split in the top much like that of the outer structure.