The Eradication of the Jedi Presence on Hroskold

[Emlar Racta]

---

Master,

I tracked the signal from Hroskold, down to a Defender vessel that had landed on the surface. After ascertaining that the ship was empty and no transmissions were active, I landed The Scion nearby. Scans picked up a small cave opening up to the north of the landing site, and the vestiges of a trail from the other vessel suggested the target had also gone in. I made my way in, and immediately from the entrance the taint of the Light Side came upon my senses, a Force Sensitive albeit supremely alien in its nature. The first widening through the cave was filled with primitive life-forms, lichen-esque heaps crawling over the stone. The path in continued left from it, and shortly after going down it, I came across a supply crate left behind by the Jedi. A comms array, several crystal samples and archaeological tools made up the cargo, allong with a datapad I secured. Its one readily accessible entry was penned by a Knight Meshugah, explaining the reason for his expedition here was to investigate a theory about a native population on Hroskold. I followed further in, and stepped into a peculiar chamber. The walls harboured strange, recurring patterns and shapes, subtle enough to seem natural, and shaped by a hand that has a seemingly almost metaphysical understanding of how to bend stone in such a manner. Artifice that borders on naturality. The next chamber housed a stone figure: a short, stocky creature with a large stone hammer in hand. So richly detailed, that I would say the possibility of it being a construction is impossibly small. Exiting the chamber, was a fork that divided leftward - towards the Light Sided presence, and forward (east) towards another dead-end chamber. I investigated the eastern space first, a large stone spire rising from the ground. The artifice of the work here was far more noticeable, and seemingly intentionally so. The spire itself was wholly smooth, and its surface was covered in a litany of strange cracks that formed stable, repeating patterns - perhaps nearly three dozen of them that were unique.
I returned to the fork in the passage from earlier, and continued on through the cave. I passed through several more spaces that still retained this sense of pareidolia that emanated from the stone, its artificial-naturality constant.

It is at the end of this cave that I came upon the Jedi: a four-armed alien that seemed to have skin of stone, yet was perfectly organic underneath. Before I engaged, it remarked that its purpose was this, “the spirit of stone”, the proof of civilization he apparently sought. Engaging it, I quickly discovered the alien was rather strong and heavy, but in turn also particularly slow. Wielding a large blade, I had to wither it down over a series of injuries, primarily to the arms, and another to its leading leg. That, combined with a few bouts of Telekinesis was sufficient enough to bring it down. As its arms were severed and the Jedi laid upon its back, I felt its life ebb away, as if trying to slither into the surrounding stone itself. Perhaps in some form of communication to what it saw as a civilization around him. I finished it off shortly thereafter.

Its large weapon has been seized, and I have retrieved a partial geographical study of Hroskold from the Defender vessel, as well as several mineral and ore samples from the planet. A set of robes, and a collection of documents. Finally I have pulled the data from its navigational computer, although as expected it is encrypted. I have fried the electronics in the cockpit, ensuring that a recovery of the vessel cannot be made readily without substantial repairs and replacements of the instruments and consoles within.

The alien Jedi’s corpse has been secured, along with its severed appendages. I shall make them available to you, along with the rest of the findings that I have secured.

The Jedi presence on Hroskold is no more.

---

Signed,

Emlar Racta
Sith Apprentice to Lord Hazlem,
Pentarch's Voice