Quest for Knowledge
Posts: 257
  • Posted On: Apr 6 2007 4:21pm
Casus looked out of the viewport that dominated the back section of the circular chamber that he used for meditation and study, while his books occupied the rest of the wall except for space for the door with led out into the rest of the ship. He looked around at the vulums that he had collected over the last few years, most of them in less than preferable condition, but He guessed he should be happy he had gotten them at all. He turned his head slowly back to the window, looking back into the depths of space.

It always calmed him to simply stare out into the depths, the nothing ness that occupied all but the small spaces dominated by planets and other celestial bodies. The effect was almost like that of meditation for him. At the moment it was nothing but a blur as the Skyward traveled through hyperspace across a great deal of the galaxy to get to the confederation controlled planet of Almas. When he had left he had probably been on the planet farthest possible from the Confederation planet after delivering a cargo hold of spice. Although he hadn’t been all that displeased as it had given him considerably more time to meditate and learn anything he could about Almas.

Except for a few small pieces of information in newer books he hadn’t been able to find much out about the Jedi Academy because of how recently built it was. Basically all he knew about it was from what he had read on some reports forwarded to him by Awdin who had pretty much blown him off for some secret mission except for the few reports. Pretty much it hadn’t been readily explored except for a few privately contracted persons that hadn’t been able to get very far because of access restrictions and the like.

The Sith Fortress however had been a completely different story. It had been listed in more than one book many times, mostly coming up along with the name of Darth Rivan who had built the thing. Most of the info had described its focusing powers and purposes for its construction but a few hinted that Riven kept a library there for personal study, and that was what Casus wanted to get at mostly. But this too had been largely unexplored to its affiliation with the Sith. Casus himself was reluctant to go because it was a focal point for dark side energy and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go down that path yet. Absent mindedly he reached he left hand over and placed it on the Scarlet cloth that encompassed most of his right arm except for his hand.

He could still remember the day he had gotten the tattoo, the day when Amad had talked him into getting it telling how he could just get it removed if he didn’t like it, but who would want to remove such a cool looking tattoo. His mouth transformed into a scowl, his face turning downward, his gaze transfixed on his arm as he slowly unwrapped the cloth that enclosed it.

He could see the red and black pattern start a little farther up from his wrist twisting and turning in a beautiful but somehow menacing pattern that seemed to swirl about in Casus’s vision, never quite clear but not so blurry as not to still be able to be immune to close inspection. He traced the intricate pattern up him arm with his finger tip as it twisted and swirled up his arm almost alive in its own right. As he reached the top of his arm and the end of the pattern he removed his hand but for some reason didn’t return the cloth to its place around his arm. He could remember when he had finally read the passage explaining about the tattoo he had gotten especially the part about that it was forever bound to whoever had received it never coming off, there was also something about it somehow relating to force power but he hadn’t paid that much attention.

With a realization he wrestled his attention from the curving lines and alluring patterns of the tattoo. He had more important things to do and all it would do was to take his focus away from anything else at least while he was meditating. While he was practicing though it was a completely different story, as he seemed to be able to focus more if the tattoo was uncovered and he was able to strike with increased strength, ferocity most of the time. Largely though he hadn’t explored this much yet or looked into the books to figure out what it meant or any consequences.

Casus began the process of slowly wrapping his arm again making sure none of it was in sight, he could only imagine if someone on the street were to see it. With the scarlet cloth finally wrapped he returned to his meditation on the journey and planet ahead of him.

He quickly went through everything that he could remember about Almas and its culture, along with the info on the Jedi and Sith sites. With a start he opened his eyes and looked out at the approaching Juaire gunships, both of them weapons armed. He quietly swore to himself as though someone were nearby and could possibly have heard the expression.

The last time he had meditated around an hour ago even with his limited prowess that he had gained in the last few years, he had been able to feel them but had hoped that they would pass helplessly by not caring about him, but of course this was foolish. Rising he walked to the door which promptly slid open revealing the drab grey walling of the main hallway. Quickly he walked to the cockpit where he first of all powered down and hid all of the weapon systems, as they wouldn’t exactly like the power of the heavy quad lasers. Next was to power down the engines and slide into the flight chair.

“Unidentified Freighter, you will identify yourself and state you purposes, we are sorry for the inconvenience but we have reports of a pirate ship in the area of the same class.” Casus slid over in the chair and queued in one of the many ID codes that the former owner had installed, he picked one of the newer ones that didn’t have any infractions on it yet.

“Sending codes and ID now.” He sent the codes and sat back and waited for a response….