"Welcome to the party, Darwin. Good to see another Jedi after so long. I hate to make this short, but Tatooine is a hot spot for Imperial activity lately, and we still have to hit the surface to find this Havoc fellow and another chap named Scumble."

Once Castor issued a somewhat friendly greeting, she peeked out from behind where Darwin was posturing and raised an eyebrow before she scooted over. He didn't look much like a Jedi, but then again, neither did Darwin.

He could sense Castor and two others by the docking ring, and could hear their voices, indistinct but friendly. Castor and one of the others were emitting a strong presence in the Force; if confirmation were needed that Sky were a Jedi, then that was it. He wondered who the other one was.
He opened his eyes, then screwed them shut and opened them again. Something must be wrong with his vision; everything looked as if he were staring into a kaleidoscope, a mash of colours all weaving in and out of each other, intersecting and spiralling off elsewhere.
"What the..." he started, then realised something. They weren't random patterns he was seeing, but fault lines. The viewport was a mess of them, and in the dead centre, a pulsing light beckoned him. Like fractures in a gem, it was as though he were seeing the Force connecting every particle in the viewport to one central area; a point of destruction, perhaps?

Caden looked down at himself, and saw a mass of these 'fault-lines' generating from his sternum and spreading out. They permeated the shuttle, and streaks of light spread back toward the area where Vax and their possible allies were talking. More lines spread out into the stars, beyond his ability to view.
This wasn't battle meditation, as Vax had told him about, but he had no doubt that it was some sort of Force sense. It was as though he could view the Force in its all-penetrating glory, and identify the areas where breakage could occur; whether that be physical destruction, or the implosion of an event. It was fascinating, and at the same time, scary to behold.

He unbuckled his crash webbing and went aft, though not as far as the docking ring, walking as if in a daze. He was surrounded by things only he could see, and yet couldn't begin to describe.
In the aft section, LT-318 lay where he'd been left by Shiva's droids. The droid, inactive since Nar Shaddaa, stared up at him lifelessly, his faceplate a blank mask of near-humanity. He looked like his designers had given up on the pretense of creating a human-like visage halfway through the job. At his chestplate, a faultline penetrated and glowed dimly. The droid was already half-broken, and the useless processing unit lay beside him. Caden reached out, and touched a finger to one of the glowing fault-spots on the broken component. It fell apart, its outer casing springing open and every circuitboard, wire and chip spreading across the deck.
Caden recoiled, his mind suddenly erupting with possibilities; and as he lost his focus, so too did he lose the strange ability he'd been experiencing. The ships interior returned to him, bland in its reality, yet somehow welcome in its simplicity.

"Shatterpoint..." he murmered to himself, a distant memory of a text he'd studied during his Jedi days suddenly returning to him. He was sure now that he'd just discovered an innate ability to read and exploit shatterpoints; if so, it may come in handy in the coming months.
Collecting himself, he tried to squash down his Force aura - for he was sure he must be bleeding a Dark Side presence openly after such usage of the Force - and moved to meet Vax and the others.

Added (11 Jan 2011, 11:36 Am)
---------------------------------------------
((7 days... bump?))

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

AUTOS: Darwin and Castor meet and discuss an alliance. Darwin is wary of working with Shiva, but agrees to work with Castor and Caden against the Empire. Both parties pass on communications frequencies and methods of contact and part ways without incident. A message is sent to Havoc and Scumble's forces directing them to a place in the Dune Sea where a meeting can be held.

Vax had sensed the Force energy, but said nothing as he returned to the cockpit and watched Sky's craft depart the Tatoo System. They had a new ally now, and they were a step closer to an actual rebellion. For now, it was back to gathering allies.

"Well boy, let us see if our other contacts are as friendly on Tatooine. I've a feeling Shiva will be needing us all before too long, and I'd like to see what the man has come up with."

"Not bad, if I do say so myself" Caden smirked, having successfully micro-jumped the ship into orbit over Tatooine. "Now we've just gotta find our contacts. Where are we meeting them?"

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"Tattooine....I hops someone brought sunscreen." She joked, obviously to herself because the droid wouldn't understand the joke. With a resolved sigh, Kaylie finished programming the nav computer.

"So, the contacts, yes. This Scumble fellow said he would meet us in the Dune Sea. Take us in, boy. Let's be ready."

Silent in his observations, he quieted his mind and slipped into the Force, ready this time for the extraordinary display of colours and tendrils, which he'd come to believe were simply his own personal idea of the Force's manifestation. Only this time, nothing happened. He saw a glowing mass centered on his solar plexus, but there were no strands to follow, so situational shatterpoints.
"We're going in blind" he called back to Castor; the wind was picking up a little, and he found himself shouting to be heard. The sandstorm must only just be starting, but he wasn't about to cool his heels onboard the shuttle and wait for it to pass. He was anxious to finish their business here and be gone, so he'd just have to drag the old man through the storm if necessary. "The Force is providing me with nothing, as far as direction goes. The Dune Sea is a pretty large place, but I put us down on the Western border so we should head East and look out for this Scumble" he shouted, flipping an eyebrow at the mention of Scumble's name. He wanted to meet this one in person, decide if he was truly anything considerable and worth reporting to Grand Vizier Pestage in his next update report.

That the Force was providing him with nothing was only partially true; his head was throbbing, not from the heat or the noise of the whipping winds. It was what he'd come to think of as his danger sense, a strange sensation that something bad was coming and there was little to be done to avoid it. It had hit him constantly on Nar Shaddaa, ending only when they'd escaped the High Inquisitor that had tried to accost them. Now he had a similar feeling, though not quite as pronounced.
He decided not to trouble Castor with it, instead unhooking a pair of macrobinoculars from his belt and scanning the terrain for signs of life, a task which proved difficult in the weather conditions assailing them.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"i can't be sure where Scumble will meet us, or even if he will. I just received a message from Shiva. Apparently Havoc and Scumble haven't been in contact with him lately. Shame it was a recorded message. He didn't let on to everything, but apparently he's brewing something big at Volus. He mentioned committing his fleet, but he wants us there to do the groundwork. We have a few names of agents of his who have been there a while and are good in the local population. For now though, let's see if this Scumble is here. If he's not on board with us, it's his loss."

He turned and began stalking his way back to the shuttle, keeping his senses alert for any presence other than his own and Castor.
"I say we give this up as a bad job, and go rendezvous with Shiva. If either of them were coming to meet us, they'd have made themselves known. The Dune Sea isn't heavily populated, and they'd have noticed a low-flying shuttle. If they were here, I doubt they are anymore".

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"I agree. Perhaps Shiva will have more answers for us. We did half of what we came here for and without incident. It's the least we can do. If there is something at Volus that requires us... perhaps we can partake of it. A shame, I might add, that you are unable to keep any of your Inquisitorious pass-codes useful. It would help to see if they had been captured and sent to Prakith."

Except Caden didn't believe in such things at all. It was true that he questioned the judgement of the Inquisitorius on some points, such as why a man like Castor should be met with execution. The old man had done nothing wrong, eking out a living on Felucia where he could do no harm.
Except, with a little encouragement from me, he is prepared to do harm, Caden thought to himself.
He dropped into the pilots chair, free of his dusty poncho and now in just his black combat gear, and began powering up the engines. Warning lights flashed briefly on the dash, alerting him to the bad conditions outside, and he switched them off.
"I can't say I've checked my codes since before Felucia, but I doubt the Inquisitorius would have ignored such a security threat once we didn't turn up dead" he murmered, running a standard pre-flight check before slowly lifting off and angling toward the stars. "If they've been picked up by the Inquisitorius, there's little we can do for them right now".

He pushed the shuttle at full-throttle through Tatooine's atmosphere, and felt the grav generators kick in once they reached space, the gravitational force pressing him to his seat easing off. He then unbuckled his crash webbing and stood, offering the pilots seat to Vax.
"Make yourself useful old man, take us to Shiva" he smirked, covering for the fact that he didn't know whether they were going to Shiva directly, or by way of Volus, and not wanting to ask since he didn't wish to raise Castor's suspicions so soon before he was about to disappear and send a message to his superiors. The sudden revelation - if it could be called that - that Vax might not trust him entirely made Caden cautious to the point of paranoia. Perhaps it was paranoia in itself that made him wonder of Castor's suspicions.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"We will head back to Rinn directly, boy. It shouldn't be a long trip. His message seemed... quite urgent."

Taking the controls with a faint smile, Vax brought them into hyperspace and away from Tatooine.

When nothing happened for several minutes, he sighed with frustration, and turned to the Jedi beside him.
"When you were meeting Sky, I tried to still my mind" he explained, speaking slowly and recalling the event. "I didn't experience this Battle Meditation of yours, but something else... I believe the Jedi called it Shatterpoint" he said, fairly certain now that the technique he'd long ago read about was what he'd experienced. "The only problem is, I can't seem to quiet my mind to be able to discover it again".

He was reluctant to as Castor for advice on the Force, or to poison his own ways with those of the Jedi, but there was nobody else he could turn to at this point. Had he been back on Prakith, he could have sought guidance, albeit with a cost; the other Inquisitors would have been wary of helping him develop beyond their ability to control, similar to how they encouraged his unfocused abilities as a means to their own ends.
"After we help Shiva at Volus, I want to go to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant" he said, hardly believing his own words. "I know it'll be heavily guarded, but I need access to whatever remains of the archives. If I'm ever going to achieve any kind of focus, I need guidance".

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot