Luke drummed his cybernetic fingers on the armrest of his seat. The ship was as non-descript as he could. Its standard use was in-system travel between planets. The hyperdrive required multiple layovers for a journey beyond the local star. At least the seats were comfortable. Everything else was barely able to pass inspection except for the comfort items. Excellent seats, wonderful beds, and even a deluxe fresher. Whoever had this ship before wasn't fooling around.
He leaned his head back against the rest. The Rebellion had been rough, but it wasn't anything compared to after. Killing Palpatine, redeeming Anakin Skywalker, and destroying a secret superweapon was great for morale, but it didn't end the war. Each Imperial Moff had their own army and resources. They took the death of Palpatine as a promotion rather than the end to the war. The Rebellion was now fighting a dozen smaller battles across multiple systems. Each had their own details that needed to be considered. There were a couple that were happy to acquiesce to the Rebellion. Allies were always nice, especially the ones that didn't have betrayal in mind.
Luke hadn't expected the number of Force Users to suddenly skyrocket. Dark Jedi, Neophyte Sith, and untrained Force Users were popping up everywhere. It seemed like every Imperial Moff had a cadre of them now that Palpatine wasn't around. Actual Sith were thankfully rare. Darkside Force Users were incredibly common unfortunately. It was also a lot easier to acquire a fabricated kyber crystal that was almost always red. Natural ones were only available in certain locations that were guarded secrets.
This current mission was one of the more ambitious group of not-quite Sith. They weren't slaughtering people for no real reason. It was disappointing how many new evil groups thought that killing random people was the path to power. Every ritual, gathering, or simply a hideout was filled with death. Killing people indiscriminately, while worrisome, was not evil. There were killers out there that targeted specific people that ticked the right boxes. Those people were evil. Killing some random person to show power was insecurity.
Luke had tracked the current group to some backwater planet that didn't have a name in the registry. What it did have was a massive presence in the Force. The Dark and the Light were represented as beacons dotted around the entire planet. He had never seen anything like it. This group hadn't bothered with defenses around the planet as it would have drawn too much attention. A proper scan could identify a ship at a frankly ridiculous distance. They were using the planet aura to cloak their location.
The planet itself was rather forgettable. It had vast forests, lakes, and the occasional ocean. The closest thing it had to a desert was a slightly less green area. He had enough sand to last him a few lifetimes. It wasn't as bad as people made it out to be, but he hated feeling like he had grown a few inches simply from the buildup in his shoes.
He had an actual ship these days rather than just his X-Wing. For one, it gave him room to walk around as well as the ability to sleep on a bed. The mattress wasn't the most comfortable, but it was better than trying to rest in the pilot's seat. He chose a model that was used across multiple systems. The utilitarian ship was made to be modified. It could be used for high-atmosphere travel, interstellar deliveries, and a dozen other industrial jobs. He had modified his to have a small living quarters. The addition also hid an advanced suite of counter-intelligence technology. Scans would read as registered to a random planet-hopping technician. He wasn't worth robbing and could potentially be useful enough to patch up their ships without asking questions.
That line of thought didn't last once he stepped out. Luke had taken a liking to the black suit, though he added some gold accents for some color. He had originally planned on using green since it was the color of his lightsaber. Gold looked better. Presentation was important for the founding member of the new Jedi Order … when it eventually took shape. He had been jumping from system to system solving problems rather than gathering students or preparing the location for the academy.
A light on the console blinked to alert him that it had finally figured out how to approach the surface without causing too much of a scene. He had a prepared ad for his repair service if anyone got close enough to properly hail him.
Luke took a wide, sweeping arc on his approach. He found the landing area easily enough. There were six other ships waiting. They hadn't been here for long as the grime that dotted their exteriors were the standard artifacts from breaking atmosphere rather than dust.
He was walking into a gathering of at least six Force Users with ill intent. The information he had gathered pointed to some ritual. It was one of those shrouded in mystery, lost to time, or hidden away in a lost tablet. Honestly, the Jedi and Sith from the past certainly loved hiding their knowledge in random little pieces of tech. His favorite so far was an encoded disc hidden inside a broken filtration system. The 'Dark Jedi' had claimed that it had been passed down from Master to Apprentice since Darth Bane started the Rule of Two. Luke scanned it once the battle was over. It was a treaties on proper breathing techniques for long-term meditation. Interesting for sure but hardly a secret that would shake the foundation of Force Users.
They had chosen one of the few rocky areas on the planet. On closer inspection he could feel that the Force saturated the stones. He would bet that similar spots like these marked the other locations of Force power. This had been the only one with signs of life.
The landing area was too quiet. With so many ships around there should be some lingering engine sounds. Clicking, vented heat, water systems cycling, and a few dozen other little noises that were not here. He didn't need the Force to know this wasn't good. With the Force, he could sense that it all came from a large hole in the ground. The area around it had been carefully maintained for easy approach and someone had gone through the effort of making stairs. With handrails. That did not bode well. It made whoever this was appear to be somewhat competent. Further hints that the group potentially had common sense was the fact that none of their ships screamed EVIL like other would-be Sith flew.
Luke unhooked his lightsaber from his belt as he cautiously approached the stairs. A cool breeze ruffled his head as he got closer. Proper ventilation. Another point in the 'common sense' column. He liked it better when they were idiots.
The stairs were well-made. Industrial by the look of it. The kind used in quick colony construction. Ugly, but they did the job and could take a beating. The walls of the cave had been smoothed out. New supports were spaced out at measured intervals. There were even lights hung on the wall. This did not bode well. Either this group happened upon a mining operation, on an unnamed planet, and only in one spot; or they had made this all on their own. It wasn't a fast process to get something like this in place. How had he missed something like this for so long? They weren't violent or unhinged like the others he had faced in the past. Maybe that was how they had lasted so long. Slinking in the shadows while the noisy ones were thinned out.
There was a strange pulse in the Force the lower he went. One moment it would be Light then the next it was Dark. It was messing with his equilibrium. The lack of people combined with the energy fluctuations set off his instincts. A mixture of curiosity and duty kept one foot in front of the other. He would usually have been attacked a few times by now.
Luke stepped into the final chamber. He had finally found where everyone was. A least a hundred Geonosians were working on some sort of machine. The sight made him stop in his tracks; last he knew the entire species had been wiped out by the Empire.
He had no idea what the construction was, but it was the source of the fluctuations in the Force. The machine was the shape of an hourglass with a vertical shaft with kyber crystals imbedded at regular intervals. Energy crawled along it in pulses. The frame was a metal that he could recognize by sight.
Beskar.
The Mandalorians would start a crusade if they found this thing.
Luke realized he had started walking towards the machine. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. The Geonosians didn't acknowledge his presence. They actually moved out of his way the closer as he got closer. Thousands of voices echoed through the Force that grew in volume the closer he got. The machine had a pull that slipped through his defenses without an issue. He watched as his hand reached out to the pillar of its own accord.
The chamber around him lurched and shifted as the machine slowly faded. His hand stayed on the pillar through all of the changes. The Force swirled around him. It pressed in on him, wrapping around him until it completely covered his body. His vision was overpowered by Force energy in a kaleidoscope of colors that didn't have names.
Luke felt the sleeve on the arm with his cybernetic hand strip away into threads. The Force intensified around his arm. Needles of ice worked along the length of his encased arm starting at his shoulder. The feeling reached a little further each moment before spreading to the rest of his body.
After what felt like an eternity the pillar began to fade away as well. The pull, and the energy that wrapped around him, lessened with each crystal that disappeared. He stumbled a few steps back as the sensations cut off abruptly. The echoes, the pressure, and the colors went from slowly receding to gone without warning. Luke fell flat on his back onto the cave floor. He was alone. The machine was gone as were the Geonosians. A wave of exhaustion compounded the issue even more.
His eyelids grew heavy, his breathing slowed, and consciousness slipped away from him.
§
Luke woke up to a feeling that was completely foreign to him. The Force felt alive. He could feel so many other people that were all connected. Tears streaked freely along his cheeks. The closest he had felt the Force this alive was when he was around Leia. Even then it was so much weaker. A stone compared to a mountain. His plans for a New Order had been on hold until he had thinned out the potential dangers in the early days. His encounters with other Force Users were few and far between.
Luke ran his hand down his exposed arm. The subtle line between synthetic and natural flesh was missing. He held his hand up to his face. It had been fully restored. He was able to pull his attention away after a long moment only to realize that the rest of his clothing hadn't been spared in the process. Luke wasn't nude, but it wouldn't take much to get there. His pants were mostly intact, at least where it mattered. They turned to frayed thread just above his knees.
His hand instinctively dropped to his lightsaber only to find it missing. He scanned the chamber as he got to his feet. The chamber was completely empty. It was also smaller and lacked the industrial touches from before. His footprints were the only ones in the chamber. The passage ahead was natural rather than carved out by machinery. There was still a strange fluctuation in the chamber, but it was nowhere near as intense without the machine.
Luke made it outside. He shook his head as he found the clearing was empty as well. His ship was gone. The only positive so far was that he could feel more lifeforms on the planet, a small pocket felt sentient. He turned in a slow circle until he felt the strongest concentration. It wasn't too far. At least his boots had survived. Mostly.