Aphra’s home was in the university district of a small backwater moon in the outer rim. It was a peaceful place. It hadn’t seen much of the clone wars and got just enough galactic attention to scare off pirates. The university district was particularly safe. Save for the rocky and xeno-naturalistic architecture, the place would have fit right in with middle-America. Every home had a decent amount of yard space, and everyone seemed friendly enough when I asked for directions. The place was idyllic in its own way; especially Aphra’s house which was situated on a hill and looked over the small city that surrounded it.

So, it should have come as no surprise when one of the “Dr. Aphras” answered the door after I knocked. Well, the five-year-old girl in front of me would someday become a doctor of archaeology. Chelli Aphra, the daughter of Lona and Korin Aphra was supposed to go on galactic spanning adventures two decades from now. Hell, she’d even manage to finesse Darth Vader. All the while, she would uncover countless ancient artifacts, some of which would prove incredibly useful or incredibly dangerous, or both.

“Can I help you?” She asked while holding the door.

“Yes little one, I’m here to see your father,” I replied with a smile.

“That might be hard, mom and dad are fighting,” she replied.

“Oh, what for?” I asked her.

“I’m not sure,” she replied.

I scratched my head for a second. “Oh. Um, I can wait. Can I come in or should I stay out here?” I asked.

“One second,” she replied in a singsong voice before closing the door in my face. From outside I could hear her feet pound away down the hall. She yelled something I couldn’t quite make out. Another voice yelled back, then a chaotic number of footsteps could be heard before the house grew silent again.

Finally, the door reopened. This time it was a blonde woman in a tank top. She had blue circuitry, presumably tattoos, running down from her shoulders to her forearms. The woman before me was Lona Aphra, the soon-to-be estranged wife of Dr. Korin Aphra. Had I not arrived, she would take their daughter and head off to some rustic planet looking for safety. The irony is that their new home would come under attack by raiders. She would die and Chelli would be sent back to her father. The whole experience would traumatize their daughter to the point that she would never have a healthy relationship for the rest of her life.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Mrs. Aphra I presume?” I asked, to which she nodded. “Then yeah, I need to have a chat with you and your husband. I recently acquired some information about the Ordu Aspectu, and I was told that he would be the best man for the job,” I explained.

“He has open office hours at the university, go find him there tomorrow,” she said before moving to close the door. During the conversation, I had my hands clasped in front of me to facilitate the type of respectful businesslike demeanor I had from my previous life.

With the movement of a finger, I grasped the door in place with the force.

She strained to close the it, not understanding why it was stuck. She put her shoulder into it and even tried to pound it closed before stopping in a huff.

“Do you need any help?” I offered while barely containing my laughter. In the name of Ragnos, I loved the force.

“Can you please leave,” she replied.

“I’m afraid that I cannot,” I said before gently pushing her out of the doorway and striding in. The door closed behind me.

“What are you doing?!” she said incredulously.

I ignored her and walked further in and headed down the hall towards their basement. The door was open, so I continued down the stairs to Korin Aphra’s office.

So engrossed in his work was the scholar, that he didn’t even notice my entrance. He stayed seated and had all his attention on some datapads and materials on his desk. I prowled around the sides of the room inspecting the various antiques and trinkets he had.

That was until Lona got her bearings and followed me down the steps with Chelli hot on her heels.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” she again demanded this time from the stairs.

“Just finishing up some research, I thought we just had this conversation,” Korin replied.

“I am not speaking to you, dear. I’m talking to the intruder who’s going through your papers!” she yelled.

That finally got the man’s attention. He almost fell to the floor trying to get out of his chair and face me.

With them all finally in the room, I forced the door to close behind her. Then I picked up one of the trinkets from his pile. It was an old grimy necklace with the symbol of the Ordu on it.

“That’s an antique!” he cried.

I nodded and then said, “sure looks like it.” I tossed it over to him, causing the man to fumble around in order to catch it.

“Who- Why are you here?” he asked, he had maneuvered himself between me and the rest of the family.

I pulled his chair to me from across the room and sat down. Then I leaned back and crossed my legs before saying, “Me? I’m here to lead you to the Ordu Aspectu."

That certainly got his attention. The Ordu Aspectu was Korin's life work. He spent time on other topics but mostly researched offshoots of the Jedi. The Ordu was one such offshoot that managed to not get massacred by the Jedi. Perhaps they just weren't dark enough to warrant genocide and exile from the galaxy's protectors the way the Sith were. No the Ordu managed to destroy itself without the Jedi.

It was kind of obvious just how obsessed Korrin was with this ancient order. It’s certainly hard to blame his wife for leaving, though she should’ve chosen a better destination. Hell, she could have stayed on this damn moon and just moved a few hours away, instead of some other rock in the Outer Rim.

“You know about the Ordu?” he asked. Lona just palmed her face with both hands.

“Not only do I know about them, but I also know how to find the Citadel of Rur,” I replied.

“Impossible, I’ve spent my entire life on this. How did you find the Citadel?” he questioned.

I removed my dark hood and fully exposed my face to the group, before replying, “I’m something of an artifact myself.”

He stared at me for a few moments and then muttered, “Yellow eyes…red skin…facial ridges…” He collected his thoughts before exclaiming, “It’s impossible, but... you’re a Sith?”

“Of course!” I replied. “I’ll show you how to find Rur, even let you publish anything you want regarding it. In return, you’ll work for me as my personal archaeologist,” I offered.

“I-“ he began to say before receiving a pinch from his wife. She was now holding Chelli in her arms and looking quite cross at this entire situation.

“You are not about to say yes to him?!” she hissed. “You’ve told me hundreds of stories about the Sith and their schemes.”

“That’s…a little racist, depending on how you're using the word” I replied. Sure, the Sith were basically designed for the dark side. And sure, I was also the other kind of Sith, but she was really jumping to conclusions. There was a Jedi Sith, I think. “Besides, this isn’t an evil scheme. I doubt either of you thinks the Jedi are evil and I’m basically working with them,” I explained.

“You’re working with the Jedi?” she questioned.

“I saved the Jedi,” I replied. "You can check the wanted posters, my ship was the one that rescued them from Coruscant," I explained.

“We would need the crystals from the university archives,” Korin said, probably more to himself than anyone else. He really hadn’t been following the rest of our conversation and was fixated on his goal of finding the Ordu.

“Don’t worry about that, I have a crack team infiltrating the university as we speak,” I explained. While I was grabbing the Aphras, the siblings and X2 were tasked with stealing everything they could from the university archives. It had an almost unimaginable amount of artifacts and clues that could lead us to important finds.

“You’re stealing from the university?” he demanded.

“Oh please, not like you haven’t thought of it before,” I replied. That was rich coming from him. In less than a year, he would end up doing the exact same thing. Sure, he only stole the artifacts because the empire had them slated for destruction, but that also figured into my decision to steal the stuff.

“You must know that this is the best path for your future. The Jedi have become taboo, do you really think a professor who specializes in their history will be allowed to continue his works,” I argued.

“…there have been some movements towards censoring my work,” he said thoughtfully.

“They’re censoring you?” Lona questioned her husband.

“Well, no not yet. But the administration has started to…encourage me against discussing certain topics with the students,” he replied sheepishly.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?! I can’t believe I gave up my tenure for this,” she hissed.

Just then, a light appeared out of the circular window in the office. I received a bad feeling about it. Forgetting about our differences for the moment, our small group turned to look out. There seemed to have been a small explosion, and now fire emanating from one of the buildings in the distance.

“You wouldn’t happen to know if that’s-“ I began to ask.

“-The University!” exclaimed Korin.

“Those nerf-herders” I muttered to myself, then I brought up my communicator. “2V, I’m gonna need that pick-up for our group ASAP,” I said into it.

“We are on our way, Sir,” he replied. Since losing his legs, the poor droid was essentially installed into the copilot’s seat so he could stay useful.

“We are not leaving with you,” Lona replied firmly.

“Oh, were you planning on staying here Lona? Or were you planning on running off to some remote farming planet?” I replied.

“What are you talking about?” she asked incredulously.

“You can’t stand how Korin neglects you and Chelli. Well let me tell you a secret. He’s not going to give up this obsession. He’ll just keep pushing until he finds the Ordu,” I replied coldly. “So yeah, you will all leave here with me tonight.”

“I…how did you know my name, how did you know my daughter’s name?” she asked, taken aback.

“I know everything, and I know the best thing you can do for your family is to come with me,” I replied almost maniacally. Outside the window, the university fire had grown far larger and was probably jumping between buildings at this point.

I could hear the sounds of a ship approaching, and 2V said over the communicator, “We’re just outside your location, sir.”

“Good; you'll see an opening,” I replied. I reached out with my left hand and leveled a heavy force blast against the windowed wall. It burst apart in bricks and earth, exposing a large hole to the outside. 2V took note of this and backed the Fury up to that side of the hill and opened the ramp.

I reached out with the force and pulled Chelli towards me. She flew through the air with a squeek, out of Lona’s hands, and landed in my arms. I made sure to make it a gentle landing but also secured her tightly.

“Pack your things. We leave immediately.”

“Care to explain, why you left the university in ruins?” I seethed at the two. We were currently on the bridge as we hurtled through hyperspace. It was just the three of us since I asked Bariss to play therapist for the now uprooted family. She was the most suited for these types of things. Jedi training, unlike its Sith counterpart, often included conflict resolution and empathetic negotiating. They made the perfect skills for convincing people you were on their side.

“It was my-“ Alha began but was cut off by her brother who answered at the same time.

“It was my fault. We were discovered by some armed guards and when I tried to disarm one, their tibanna gas cartridge exploded,” he explained.

The two looked at each other for a second.

“But it’s my fault we got caught,” Alha interjected. “Everything was going fine until I set off the alarms.”

“How did you manage that?” I replied while rubbing my temples.

“I may have tried to use the force to grab something, but ended up knocking over a statue,” she explained sheepishly.

“How big?”

“What?” she asked.

“How big was the statue?” I asked again.

She looked stumped for a few moments, then raised her hand above her head to show its height. “It was a stone carving of some warrior,” she explained.

“So, you caused a fire by making a trick shot,” I said while looking at Alhoy. “And you managed to channel enough of the force to knock over a very heavy statue?” I continued turning my focus to Alha.

They nodded.

“Damnit, I’m not even mad now,” I replied. The two of them grinned. “But this failure deserves punishment. Alha we will be upping our sparring time,” I explained.

She looked a little crestfallen at the thought of spending more time being whipped by my training sword.

“And, since Alhoy is such a good shot, he’ll be joining us to learn better hand-to-hand fighting,” I said with a smile. He adopted a similar defeated disposition upon hearing the news, but before either could respond I turned and strode into the main hold.

There, the nervous-looking Aphras were seated at the main table, while Bariss did her best to calm them down.

“Have you a better understanding of the situation?” I asked the group while taking a seat beside Bariss. On the way in I grabbed a nutrition bar and began to unwrap it.

“That you’ll let us go once you’ve gotten what you’re looking for?” asked Lona.

“Well yes, but you also understand that your husband will soon be unemployed. There isn’t a need for Jedi scholars within the empire,” I replied.

“Even better,” she replied while squeezing her husband’s arm. “We’ll find the citadel and put all this behind us.”

“The citadel and freedom is your payment, finding artifacts for me is the price,” I stipulated.

“Fine, fine. So where are we going now?” she demanded.

The Corporate Sector is essentially the most cyber-punk the galaxy gets. The large swath of systems at the edge of known space is controlled by a council of corporations; meaning it’s controlled purely by money and power. During the Republic the sector was quite small, sitting at only a hundred or so systems that straddled the Hydian way. Starting with the Clone Wars, it quickly expanded. The region became a reward zone for loyal corporations who were granted great power within the system. It was a genius move since many of the greatest corporations in the galaxy sided with the separatist, and the sector managed to coerce some of them into switching sides.

In the last few months, the sector was granted a charter to expand its area into thousands of new star systems. It also became a haven for all the surviving corporatists that weren’t murdered on Mustafar at the end of the war. Both of these events led to an unimaginable boom for the area. Planets like Bonnadan and Etti IV were in the midst of building revolutions, as their massive cities and industries expanded rapidly.

Bonnadan, the planet we found ourselves on, had some of the largest starports and factory cities in the galaxy. The mass industrialization had rendered the planet toxic with only life support systems and mass air purifiers in the population centers keeping people alive. A green haze permeated most of the world, not that one could really tell that from the offices I was waiting in.

In fact, the pristine white room, where I sat in a plush white chair, showed none of the pollutions of the outside world. Rakoth Custom Arms was, as far as I could tell, a remnant of Backtoid Armor Workshop. Its parent company ceased to exist once its holdings were nationalized by the empire at the end of the clone wars. Just like most separatists, its minor leaders ran to the sector with everything they could take once their bosses caught the wrong end of a lightsaber.

We arrived in the morning, but it was already the afternoon. I grew impatient. It may have been too long of a wait, but the BCA was currently installing custom fabricated limbs for Bariss, who herself was still in the operating room. Just as I was getting ready to storm the place, a nurse droid entered the room.

“Well, is it done yet?” I demanded.

But instead of answering, the droid simply moved out of the way and Bariss entered the room on her own. If you weren’t looking closely, you might not have even noticed that the woman now had metal limbs. While we didn’t use synthetic skin, they were plated in custom molded phrik armor that was painted to match her natural green skin. The mat coloring and artfully molded plates could fool most people into thinking the limbs were all natural.

If it was up to me, her new limbs would have been filled to the brim with lethal gadgets. I really envisioned her as the perfect fighter with digitigrade legs and clawed feet. Her arm would have a cable gun and flamethrower if I had my way. But Bariss was something of a naturalist. She wanted no assistance and was almost against having the phrik plating, which I had to convince her on. I didn’t want to press her too hard with upgrades either. Ultimately they would be her limbs. I can only imagine living with body parts that seemed foreign since my own body was perfectly intact, so I dropped the issue.

“How do you feel?” I asked her.

“Perfect!” she said with enthusiasm, before doing a spin and then crouching down into a fighting stance. “They warned me that it may take a few weeks for my brain to fully meld with the new limbs, but I have not noticed any problems thus far,” she explained with a smile.

“That’s good, now let’s get out of here,” I said and started to leave.

“You shall find no complaints from me,” she replied.

Our trip to Bonnadan was deceptively long. First, the team, save for Bariss, had to get chain codes. We could have done this sooner, but I was avoiding it out of principle. Chain codes meant taxes, and I was not trying to make my enemies any stronger. I also didn’t love the fact that, should we get a rap, our codes could be tracked from at least a few miles out.

Our republic credits were exchanged for the imperial ones that held sway even this far out in the galaxy. From there, we split up. Alhoy would watch the ship and our guests. Alha had to get her armor resized and refit, while I had to accompany Bariss since she couldn’t get a chain code and wouldn't be able to make such large purchases. Jedi biometrics were compromised, so standing for a chain code was tantamount to sending a letter to the emperor explaining where you were. The various purchases took close to 50,000 credits, which wasn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things. But much like when you pay in cash and slowly see your wallet empty, it certainly hurt.

Rakoth Customs was situated in the city center of Space Port One, so named because it was the first and largest of the ten major ports on the planet. The locals just called it Bonnadan City though. Much like the business we just exited, this area was clean and sterilized. Massive skyscrapers stretched towards the green-tinged space and the streets were wide and well kept.

Our ship, on the other hand, was parked on the far outskirts that held many of the old mines and factories. Sure, it was cheaper to park hours away, but it was also important to keep a low profile with one of the hottest ships in the galaxy.

It was halfway into our journey, just as night fell that Bariss whispered, “I am receiving feelings of danger from the force.” We had mostly left the clean and advanced city behind at this point and were entering the dirtier and much more lawless city blocks.

“Me as well,” I replied. For the last half hour of walking, I felt as though we were being watched. I’m pretty sure I spotted a person or two following us, but I couldn’t ID them up to this point.

“Do you think it’s a trap?” she asked.

“Probably, but I wonder if they fully understand their quarry,” I said with a smirk.

“They certainly seem prepared,” I remarked. The two of us were wearing large black cloaks with hoods that obscured our bodies. I reached into my folds and readied my saber.

“Should we double back and try to lose them?” she asked.

“Did you really just ask me that?” I replied.

She shrugged but similarly readied the recreation of Senya’s lightsaber pike that she was using as a walking stick before her operation.

Our path led us to a dark alley between two abandoned buildings. The streets were suspiciously empty. It was a comically obvious place for an attack, so I wasn’t surprised when a mass of fur stepped up to block the exit and our two followers did the same from where we came in.

“I’ll give you this one chance to walk away and say you took a wrong turn,” I called out to them and ignited my blade.

“Not a chance, the bounty on your head alone is worth more than we made last year,” a woman’s voice replied from above us.

“Wow,” was all I could say in response. There’s no way these two-bit hunters were ready for this.