"In the stories I was told as a boy, the Sith had the practice of adopting a new name upon their ascension. It represented their new path, the cognizance that they had become something different than what they had been before. To them, a symbol of something stronger. I am not Sith, and neither are you, but I want the name I have given you to symbolize that you have become something new. We are presented with a unique opportunity in history, my apprentice, to be an object of change in the galaxy." He paused for a few moments, as he turned his dark blue eyes to the overhead view of the forests that was offered by the mountain summit upon which they stood.

"I took your lightsaber because it was red, a symbol of another gross instrument, as an object lesson to you Herak. Your anger gives you but a taste of the power you could accomplish if you saw it for what is was." He turns his head, regarding the other man with a glance.

"Red symbolizes anger. Hatred. Fire even, aggressive pathologies. Aggressive, my apprentice. Something you were not in our brief duel. Although, you may think that you were. As I said before, I see potential in you, but it has been squandered by what you have been taught already by others...and by yourself."

"There is no emotion, there is peace." He spoke, loud enough for Herak to hear.

"It is a line from the dogmatic Jedi code, but it is perhaps the most true statement about the Force that has ever been uttered by mortal being, and so you we need to strip from you all misconceptions, all personal agenda so that you might better hear the call of the Force, and better serve..by my side, as my apprentice, for what I have been called to do, I have need of an apprentice worthy of the task."

"I can only offer you a life of great suffering and sacrifice..but I can also promise you power beyond your every imagination."

"Are you willing to submit to this, Herak Echlio..or will you linger as something less?"

"Your first lesson is simple, Herak. It is in honesty, and self realization. Look out at the forest before us. I want to descend from this summit on foot, travel into the middle of the forest, you will know it because I have marked the tree in the center of the forest with white paint. When you find this tree, you will remove it from where it stands and bring it to me. You are not permitted to use the Force to accomplish this task, nor use any tools. If you find that you cannot accomplish this task, then you must return to me by nightfall. Go now, Herak, destiny waits for no man."

The forest is vast, and Herak would find it to be a long walk if he in fact walks. That is to say, that if Tes'dra sees him moving towards the speeder he had brought, he wouldn't say anything to correct the man's behavior. There would be a time for that, one could assume. They are 1,000 kilometers from the nearest civilization. The tree isn't a sequoia by any means, but it would be immovable by hand by virtue of its heer size and the depth of its roots. It is early in the morning, and so Herak will have the whole day to come to grips with this assignment, and perhaps learn the intended lesson.

He waited on the mountain summit, while Herak was attempting to perform the task set before him and sitting cross-legged, his head bowed slightly, chin to his test, he began to deeply meditate. It was his intent to channel the Force to himself to gain perception regarding the weapon that he meant to create, the lightfoil that would function as a lightsaber. There were stories amongst the Tapani nobility of the Mecrossa, assassins forged by the Sith that had once carried superior lightfoils to the riff raff in use today by the so called 'saber rakes'. The imitation of a Force tradition amused Tes'dra to no end, while he had been serving as a bodyguard to house Calipsa. He put the thought of the weapon into his mind and simply reached out with his senses, waiting for some sense of where to begin to come to him.

He knew that he may need to seek out rumored lairs of the defunct order to gain knowledge of what he sought and hoped that at the least, his efforts today would gain him some intuition as to where to look for the remains of the Mecrossa.

The lesson that he wanted instilled in Herak Echlio was one of honesty and self realization. True, Tes'dra saw potential in the man, but not unlimited potential, nor even world changing potential, but he was a tool of the Force and was to be used as long as he was willing to submit himself to the path that Tes'dra set before him. The man's combat repetoire needed work as well, his lightsaber skills were clumsy at best, but in a galaxy where the Sith had faded from existance, and the Jedi had been purged within the last one hundred years, it was only to be assumed that the old arts would fade away. It wasn't Herak's fault that as Cobra he had been improperly trained. Tes'dra would remedy this.

And then he would unleash his apprentice on the galaxy.

He rose from his meditations as Herak returned to the summit, and returned without the tree - as the master had hoped he would.

"Good, good." He says simply as he walks towards Herak, in the fading light of what was left of the day.

The question in Tes'dra's mind, is on how next to proceed with Herak's training. It is his first inclination to allow the man to rest for the remainder of the night, and to continue with the follow up lesson tomorrow. Tes'dra had been trained constantly, day and night, allowing for perhaps four hours of sleep at a time, if his father was in a merciful mood. But it had produced a man bred simply for all the demands of war, all the demands of the nomad lifestyle that he had been forced to live, as the agent of the Force's defense. But would this same regiment succeed with someone not of the Nintra blood, or failing that, someone who did not understand the gravity of what truly lay before them?

As a boy, Tes'dra had had the motivation of knowing that he would be asked to fight against the great evil that his family had prepared against since their days of their progenitor. What motivation would Herak be given, if not the truth of what 'Tarodal' was truly after?

"You have succeeded in your task by returning to me without the tree, Herak. You were never supposed to be able to lift the tree from the ground, a lesson I want you to learn well and remember. With the Force, all things are possible, but it does not mean that all things are guaranteed, or that it can always be assumed that all things are possible in our favor. I provide this analogy for you to compare it to.

You have been ordered to attack a base by yourself, there are numerous guards, defensive installations and heavy armor arrayed against you. Perhaps yes, with the Force you could overcome the base by yourself and not suffer death.

But perhaps it is the will of the Force that you must not attack this place alone, and so when you move against it anyways, without taking the proper precautions and arrangements, you will die.

Not because the Force failed you - but because in your arrogance and lack of honesty with yourself, you failed the Force."

He looked at Herak for a few moments, judging by the man's reaction if the necessary education was dawning on him or not.

"Your first true mission as my apprentice is going to be spear heading an Imperial invasion of the Tapani sector, Herak. I am in the process of producing the necessary assets for you to accomplish this. The goal is going to be to draw the Empire and the Republic into open war with each other. A side goal in this, is the assassination of a man named Mical de Crion. He is the Senator to the Republic from the Tapani sector, and a paranoid fool. This too, will be your assignment. I tell you these things so that you have a bigger picture to look forward to, as your training continues."

"Your next assignment is to go down into the forest and construct two training rods of lightsaber length. Make them of thin branches corded together with wire, and when you have done this return to me here on the summit, Herak."

As Herak left, would view a message sent by the Senator of Brentaal, and pen his own message to the politician and have it sent. He would send another message via the galactic grapevine to the erst while mercenary group known only as the 'Lucian Alliance'. After these things were done, he took up sitting on a rock in the midst of the campsite to contemplate on what events were being sent in motion. He knew that in his present state, Herak was not yet suitable to act without moderate to direct supervision, and he thought that perhaps he had acted too rashly in already contacting the senator and the mercenary group, but he shook his head to this thought. No, it had felt right. It was time to begin.

In his mind and his perceptions, he saw the Tapani sector engulfed in a regional war fought by proxies of the Empire and Republic that would draw attention away from the hotbed of intrique that was the Mandalorian Sector, and he hoped they would capitalize. The Duchess had never responded to the message he had left for, but he dismissed it as a minor concern. Perhaps it was not the way. Or perhaps it wasn't yet time for the Duchess to respond to the 'calling' he had offered her, as a focal point for the leadership of a united galaxy. He at times could perceive far into the future, but as wise men have often said, always changing, the future is.

He turned his thoughts and feelings once more to the secrets of the Mecrossa Order. It was his meditations and research into this order that had led to his decision to contact the Brentaal Senator, with a claim that he could implicate a Senator in a plot against the Republic. The Mecrossa Order had been hidden amongst the Pelagia family, of the Tapani sector. Mical de Crion's secretary? House Pelagia. He seriously doubted that any present member of the family persisted in the true Sith tradition, but it would be plausible enough once Herak was used appropriately, to cast enough suspicion on the Tapani sector's Senator to have him removed from office - perhaps even arrested. And then Tes'dra would have the man killed. It had at first struck Tes'dra as odd, that he so desired the man's death, but it had settled on him, and become more and more apparent that the man's death must be the will of the Force.

He turned his thoughts then to that of his apprentice, Herak Echlio. He felt that soon, perhaps sooner than he might have thought the man would be truly ready, that he would need to put the man into play in the scheme that was currently afoot. He trusted that the Force knew what it was moving him towards, and after all, perhaps the Force needed a gross instrument at this time.

"For what I have planned for you Herak, you need not be able to defeat every foe that crosses your path, but rather, you must be above defeat yourself. Endurance, resilience, the ability to simply continue on - these are the things that will make you great, that will allow you the time to grow and to continue to serve the Force in the manner it has shown us."

He walked a slow circle to Herak's right, taking his own lightsaber from his belt as the green blade shimmered to life. The blade was in his right hand, as he took a crouched stance, his knees slightly bent, his feet shoulder length apart.

"I do not know how familiar with the lightsaber art the Jedi Order is, Herak. Much of the knowledge was lost during the rise of the Empire, according to the lore of my people. So I will assume that you know nothing of which I speak, Herak."

He spun the blade in a figure eight about the front of his form, starting high and to his right, down to his left, across and down to his right, then back up to his left. The movement is intentionally done slowly and deliberately. He spun the blade on his right side, parallel to his body, then reached across his body and repeated the same movement on his left.

"These are the basic defensive velocities of Soresu. Watch very closely." He repeated the movements again, just as slowly as he had the first time.

He repeated it again, his eyes on Herak, to ensure that man was paying rapt attention. Each time he went through the three velocities he increased the speed of the movement until the blade was simply a green blur about his form.

Again. And again. And again. An hour passed, as he expected Herak to simply continue watching. He wanted the man to have seen Tes'dra perform the movement so many times that the image was burned into his retinas.

"Soresu is the art of defense, my apprentice. Master it, and it will keep you alive. It will not always enable you to kill your foe - but that is not always the goal, or the only way to win a battle. Sometimes surviving is simply all you must do. And indeed Herak, that will soon be your mission."

The green lightsaber blade went out, as he returned the smooth curved black hilt to his belt.

"In the center of camp there is a crate, within this crate there are two lightsabers. You will spend as much time as it takes to master the three velocities that I have shown you. You will complete this task in solitude, as I must leave the planet to continue our goals. When you have mastered the velocities you will open the crate, and you will take the lightsabers. When you have completed these tasks, you will go to the city you landed in on this planet, take up residence in the 'Noble Rake Inn', and await further instruction."

He paused for a moment after giving these instructions, to give them a chance to soak in.

"Remember the lesson you have been taught so far, Herak. If something is impossible and doomed to failure, arrogance is not an acceptable answer." And he would turn and begin to walk away, as even while the mission that Herak would be given after this training evolution would perhaps be of great importance to the crusade as a whole, it still would be a test for the apprentice.

Success would mean growth in the Force, growth in confidence, and a step closer to the ultimate goal. Failure would mean Herak's death.

The lightsabers in the crate are of the most basic and simple construction, green and blue in color. No more than the crude first tools that any Jedi learner might create with their first attempts to fashion a lightsaber. The appearance and similiarity was intentional.

And then there was the third faction, the Mandalorians and Kalevala. He had never gotten a reply yet from the Duchess, but something told him that it would come in time. Patience is the key note of his plans, patience will be the call word for all that he is currently undertaking. Someday, the Force will call for swift and decisive action, but for now? It requires patience and diligence.

Added (01 Apr 2010, 2:00 Am)
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On the other side of Jinda, the world that Herak was currently on, and that Tarodal was currently leaving, several components of the Calipsa family were arriving, namely Jind'al, the woman that he had for so long been a loyal guard to, and her father and several other notable members of the family. Among them was Tarodal's replacement, a younger man named Belar Teak that was quite unforgivably in love with Jind'al and while suitable as a bodyguard for the daughter of a nobleman, he wasn't on the same level that his predecessor had been.

He had been hired with Tarodal's recommendation for a particular reason, because Tarodal believed that eventually the young man would fail to do his duty and allow Jind'al to be killed, and at the time Tes'dra hadn't been sure why he needed to put such a tragedy in motion, but now more was falling into place as Tes'dra continued to develop his plan and begin to utilize his apprentice, the newly christened Herak Echlio.

Herak Echlio, the man that would be the first public face of Tes'dra's movement to bring the galaxy into one galactic government. To topple the Republic, the Empire and all the fringe factions all at once. To accomplish what no one else for all of time had ever done. It perhaps might seem impossible, and out of scale with the effect that one person can have...but Tes'dra must accomplish it, else his failure doom the Force, and the galaxy along with it.

While the apprentice trained in solitude on the summit of forelorn Mt. Jinda, the master was alone in his long range Y Wing, enroute to an isolated moon in the Tapani sector. He did not want to be far from his apprentice in the coming days, if all that he planned and foresaw came to pass as it might, he would be needed nearby. He could sense a wild card in the works, someone - or something that perhaps was outside of what Tes'dra had considered in his plans, and would need to be dealt with quickly and decisively. There could be no failure.

At the Noble Rake Inn in spaceport city, as it was called on Jinda, Herak would find that he was discretely approached by a man who wore inconspicuous spacer attire. He would state that he was from "T" and had a delivery for "Lord Herak". Much more than this, the man would be unable to answer for Herak. The delivery is made in a discrete enough manner but it isn't done top secretly, so patrons of the Inn and the staff might be able to answer questions later about a description of the man who delivered the package and the man that received it.

Indeed, they would be asked about it soon enough, Tes'dra could reason.

The package is simple enough in its construction, a simple box that contained a pre recorded hologram, when the blue lighted figure appeared from the display, Herak would see a man wearing brown robes reminiscent of Old Republic era Jedi, about the same height and build as Tarodal, but the face is obscured greatly by the shadow cast by the hood the figure had pulled over its head. A voice, not Tarodal's, but perhaps distorted by some voice distortion device spoke.

"There are enemies to the Jedi on this world, Herak. You must destroy them, else we will perish from the galaxy. This woman..."

The display would flicker to a hologram of Jind'al Calipsa, daughter to Lord Calipsa, a raven haired beauty...

"Is pregnant and has refused to turn the child over to our Order. She must be killed because the child she carries cannot be allowed to given to anyone but us to raise, and if we cannot have it, it must never be."

The display flickers to Juark Calipsa, a man well into his fifties. Silverish hair, a strong build. Once upon a time he had been a proud soldier.

"He is the Lord of House Calipsa and must be killed as well, to remove our Senator's opposition, else we be left defenseless in the Senate."

The image returns to that of the man in robes with the hidden face.

"They are on Jinda for a family meeting, at a compound at the these coordinates. xx.xx.22.x. You must go there and act swiftly to destroy them, my apprentice. There will be guards, but nothing that a full fledged Jedi Knight cannot overcome. Return to me at these coordinates, xx.223.321.1 when you have completed this."

The coordinates would lead Herak to an estate several kilometers from spaceport city. It is patrolled by three teams of two guards outside the estate walls, there are motion detecting alarms with cameras as well. Herak will have to investigate further to obtain more information.