LOTF: Ganner Slarwalker/Chapters 1-4

The Man in Red
Ganner Slarwalker

42 BBY

As an infant, I was given to the Jedi from my birth world of Dantooine. I had a pretty 'average' experience, as much as a Jedi can really have, until I was finally given a Master. His name was Jason Battleboots.

Jason was one of the most kindhearted people I ever knew. He was a living proof that there was always a good side to everything, that maybe, just maybe, peace really was possible. He never killed unless it was absolutely necessary, and more than once he managed to redeem our opponents.



But it didn't always work.

It was, what, twenty-two years before the Empire? Twenty-three? We'd been assigned to bring in a small-time (or so we though) underworld criminal named Garm Antiburst, had been selling spices illegally. We already knew where he was, we just had to capture him and bring him to the proper authorities.

It's all coming back to me now. I remember it so vividly.

Jason and I were about a block away, checking out the building from afar. I put the microbinoculars down and offered them to him, but he declined. It was just as well; there wasn't anything noteworthy on the outside from what I saw. I remember watching him take off his hood and looking into the world with his dark brown eyes, his sand blonde hair blowing in the wind before saying "Let's go."

He cut a hole into the ceiling with his dark blue saber, and we both dropped in. We landed back to back in defensive stances, surrounded on all sides by armed thugs and I activated my own lightsaber. Its emerald blade shot to life, lighting the room blue and green. "No one has to get hurt," Jason said. A tan man with a mohawk in red Mandalorian armor walked out to greet us.

"Garm," I muttered.

"Indeed," Jason replied.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. We finally got big-time enough for them to call in their so-call peacekeepers. Tell you what. I'll give you guys thirty seconds to vanish, and then we'll see just how much peace you can keep."

"We're not leaving without you under arrest and your shipment seized by the Republic."

He laughed. "All yours, boys!"

The henchmen opened fire. Jason and I synchronized in the Force, deflecting the shots harmlessly across the compound, and then we broke off, non-lethally neutralizing the thugs. Garm began to run, but Jason deflected a shot into his leg, making him fall to the ground. Finally, when the dust settled, Jason and I deactivated our lightsabers, and he handcuffed Garm. "Blue Force, this is White Rook. We've got him." he said. "Copy that. We'll be there in a minute to extract." After a minute (they were surprisingly punctual), the CSF arrived. They took Garm, and Jason and I stayed to wrap everything up. As the CSF began to open crates, I felt something looming in the Force. Judging from his reaction, Jason did too. "Stay back," he warned, and he began to walk forward. In the corner of my eye, I saw a red flash - a bomb. Then, the entire building went up in flames as the boxes exploded.

I went flying from the impact, but I was barely hurt. Jason had to have done something to protect me in his last moments. I remember how I sat there, utterly in shock, for what felt like centuries. Eventually, another CSF officer was the first on the scene. His hair was covered but he had a worn face, with dark brown eyes and a long moustache that went from end to end on his face. He saw the destruction, cursed, and then began getting me up and trying to help me regain my senses.

"You're all right son, you're all right."

I wasn't, though. Things were never the same after that.

Recovery
The Order was very generous with helping me with the PTSD. This was back before the Clone Wars, when death wasn't the norm. I went through a lot of meditation along with the therapy. I don't know what the Order saw in me to believe I was still worth keeping around even after something that could've potentially ruined me forever. In the meantime, I got a new Master. He was an Arcona named Sen Qorbin. Master Qorbin's teaching style was quite different from Jason's. Though all Jedi were, at heart, meant to maintain the peace, Qorbin was more on the aggressive peacekeeping side. He taught me hand-to-hand combat: martial arts - Teräs Käsi - and more regular street fighting. Then I learned the art of the blade.

Under Qorbin I learned each of the seven forms of lightsaber dueling. The training was far from easy, and I was certainly better at some forms than others, but he taught me to blend them all in a fight - something I'm grateful for.

Eventually, however, every Padawan had their trials. Jacen and Qorbin had taught me two different ways to view the Force, different ways to utilize it, and different ways to let it utilize me. A few more missions went by with nothing especially of note. Justice was withheld, casualties kept to a minimum, peace restored. Jacen's death was behind me now, but I projected his legacy. Eventually the Council deemed me ready, and my trials began.

Ganner Slarwalker
The Trials had five tests: Skill, Courage, Flesh, Spirit, and Insight. Thanks to Garm I got a pass on the Trial of Spirit, but that still meant four grueling tests of my mastery over the Force and myself. Qorbin and the High Council worked together to decide how the Trials would be given, and I was soon given my first mission. At dawn, I entered the Trials Chamber. I had seen inside it once or twice before, but as I entered, the lights were off. Flanked by Qorbin and Master Windu, I entered the dark room, with one lightsaber in hand, another clipped to my belt. "May the Force be with you," Qorbin said. Then he and Windu walked out, and the door closed behind them, leaving me in the blinding darkness.

Slowly, torches began to light the room. It was certainly not as I remembered it. The floor was made of a purplish-gray stone, which also composed most of the walls. Along the walls were also intricately carved creases of red, running throughout. I quickly noticed a humanoid form on the other side of the room, seemingly male. He wore a dark black robe with a sash of some kind running across his shoulder. Aware of a massive Dark Side presence, I cautiously began walking towards him, and he started to speak in a raspy voice.

"There is no passion...there is solely obsession."

I continued walking.

"There is no knowledge. There is solely conviction."

I marched forward. If the Trial was simply to not be creeped out by an old man, I thought I did pretty well.

"There is no purpose. There is solely will."

I was almost upon him now. I could now see his hands were blue - Umbaran?

"There is nothing."

He turned, revealing that he was indeed Umbaran, wearing an armored chestplate. With a menacing glare in his eyes he activated a ruby blade, and I lit mine, its green shimmering as we faced each other.

"Only me."

Spontaneously, he dove towards me, his lightsaber extended straight in an attempt to catch me guard. It just barely didn't work, and as he flew past me I took the liberty of severing the upper and lower halves of his body. He landed behind me and, from the torso up, turned over, dumbfounded, to look at me. For a brief second I felt the rush of victory - and so easily! Then, he let out a menacing cackle.

"Did you think it was that easy?"

In a single motion, his torso leapt onto his now standing lower body, and they seamlessly rejoined. Seeing what I'm sure was a face of pure shock, he developed a gleeful, menacing grin. He raised his saber and charged me again, to which I responded by impaling him. Again, he seemed to be shocked by death, and then regained his composure before pulling my saber out of his chest. He deactivated it and tossed it to one side, before throwing me across the room with the Force.

I hit the wall and fell to the floor, and when I looked up, the light had been extinguished, leaving me in utter blackness. I activated my second lightsaber, and began walking cautiously back. Aside from the minute sound of my footsteps, and the droning hum of my lightsaber, the room was totally silent. I scanned the room with both my eyes and the Force, but darkness clouded them both. As I shuffled backward, I felt something wet drip onto my hair. I quickly turned around, to discover a glowing red, convoluted monstrosity of a Rancor. It was even bigger than any Rancor I'd ever seen, and had two tusks growing from either side of its mouth. As our eyes found each other, it let out a booming roar that echoed in the seemingly infinite room, getting much slobber on me.

It swung one arm at me, and I dove over it. I quickly rebounded and made a few slashes in its leg, but it seemed to be too thick to penetrate. It raised its leg to stomp me, and I took advantage of this to topple it with the Force. I leap onto its face and stabbed into its head, as deep as I could. This only seemed to anger it, and it stood up and threw me off, with my saber still sticking from its brain.

Another roar. Blast, this thing really didn't want to die.

I tumbled around on the ground, and it approached me, each step causing another tremor in the earth. It didn't really seem like trying to get my second saber would end well, so I started looking around for the first.

That's how my first Jedi Trial went. I stumbled around being chased by a rancor in total darkness looking for a lightsaber. I actually managed to find it without tripping over it.

I activated it, and turned to face the rancor. Seeming to understand what the stakes now were, it stopped for a moment, and we stood. Simultaneously, we charged at each other. It took a huge swipe at me with it's right arm, which I jumped onto and then used to propel myself into the head once more. I grabbed my other saber, and with a great deal of force managed to pull it out, albeit messily. The rancor roared once more, in pain. Mercy crossed my mind, but the rancor almost grabbed me in my hesitation.

With both sabers I ran across its body, slicing wherever I could to hurt and weaken it. It tried and tried again, but I could not be touched. Enough damage to the arms and it was defenseless. Enough to the legs and it fell, unable to get up. I quickly set to work on the brain, and finally I heard the organ sizzle, and the final disgusting breath leave its mouth.

Sweaty and tired, I turned off my lightsabers and sat down for a moment. The fight was over. Then, from the back of the room, came the sound of clapping.

I turned to see the room lit once more, revealing me to still be in the strange room I had been in before the lights went out. Walking towards me was an elderly Nightsister.

"Very well done!" she said, in a congratulatory tone. Her next words, however, shifted grimly. "But know that your true trials are still to come." She laughed, and her laughter rang through my ears as I woke up standing in the Chamber, alone.

Qorbin and Windu entered. "Well done," Windu said. His voice was also congratulatory, but he looked worried. "You've passed your first three trials."

"Three?" I replied, incredulously.

"The Trial of Spirit, already completed, and now the Trials of Courage and Skill." Qorbin responded. It was harder to tell with him, but it seemed he was concerned too.

"Your final two trials shall be determined in the field. They have yet to be determined, but we're working on it. In the meantime, take a break. You've earned it."

I did.

Jedi Master Sen Qorbin
I walked alongside my old friend Master Windu, through the long halls of the Temple. I could sense that he, as well as I, had been disturbed by the end of Ganner's trial. The fight with Ruin and the rancor had been orchestrated by us, but whatever he had seen had been shown to him by something outside the Jedi Temple. In fact, it seemed incredibly likely it had been a vision from the Dark Side itself. Mace spoke first.

"We need to know what he saw. Something dark is targeting him."

"Agreed. With all that has happened to him, I think he may have even been chosen by the Force for something."

"Perhaps. But to what end?"

"I know not, but I have a bad feeling about its intentions."

Ganner Slarwalker
Haruun Kal

Two days later

The thing I remember most about Haruun Kal itself is the rain. Of course, the planet had more than one state of weather, but from when we landed until we left, it was a torrent. I was sent there along with three other Padawans to find an ancient temple and overcome the dangers inside. Accompanying me were Yula Ardinn, a female yellow Zabrak about a year younger than me, Bail Malakath, a stocky human male around three years older, and Tyrral Thraxton, a slender, male Miraluka.

I vaguely knew Yula as a pupil of a friend of Jason's, but I had no recollection of the others. Thus, I spent most of my time on the way there talking to her about the Trials, while Bail and Tyrral seemed content to be alone. Yula told me about the Trials she still faced&#8210;Flesh and Skill&#8210;and those of Bail, who she knew a little (Spirit and Insight). She didn't know anything about Tyrral, though, and it seemed he wanted to keep it that way.

Finally, I felt the impact of the surface, and we all rose. The four of us walked off the shuttle into the rainy jungle a few miles out from the temple (it was the closest place we could land). Yula spoke up first.

"Do you feel that?"

I looked into the Force, and felt the others do the same. Something was in the jungle, practically intangible. I couldn't sense an affiliation for either the Light Side nor the Dark. Whatever it was, it was almost certainly within the temple.

"What is that?" Bail wondered.

"Only one way to find out," I replied.

We made our way through the jungle until we reached a clearing and the temple was visible. It was made of faded yellow bricks and stood tall, seemingly unaffected by the rain it must have endured for generations. We stood there for a moment, taking it all in. The pure Force energy was almost overwhelming here and whatever this temple was, it was undoubtedly a place of great power. And it was calling me, trying to pull me in. The four of us exchanged looks, and together we entered.

The first room we entered was mostly barren, with doors leading into other rooms on each wall. In the center, however, was a small shrine with a blue pyramid-shaped device on it- a Holocron. Being the only one of us with much experience using Holocrons, Bail walked up to activate it. It projected an elderly Krevaaki.

"Hello," he said. "I am Bodo Baas. Bodo Baas knows all probable futures, from his time until a time lost in mists and shadows.... I can help you."

We all had enough knowledge of the Jedi Order's history to know who he was.

"This isn't his holocron, though..." Yula stated, confused.

"You'll find this temple is more than capable of producing that which would seem....Improbable. However, at any rate, you didn't come hear to talk to an old man, I hope. Let's begin, shall we?"

The temple began to rumble around us, as though we were in an earthquake, and the door behind us closed.

"First, you must be divided into teams.... How fortunate, a perfect quartet. The Guardian, the Shadow, the Sentinel, the Sage. " He pointed at Bail, then Tyrral, then me, then Yula.

"The teams shall be the Shadow and the Sentinel, and the Guardian and the Sage." I stood with Tyrral as Yula walked past me towards Bail. The walls to our left and right slid upwards to reveal dark, seemingly endless corridors.

"Let the Trials begin."

Bail and Yula walked off into the distance, and Tyrral and I began down our side. We walked in silence for an indistinguishable amount of time in the dimly lit corridor, waiting for our test to reveal itself. Tyrral seemed content to keep to himself, as did I.

We continued on until we reached a circular room, like an arena. Another door slid close behind us, leaving our only chance of escaping in front of us. From the ceiling, a large droid dropped. It landed on its feet, with an electrostaff in its hands. As I activated and raised my saber, dozens others fell from around me in a similar manner, with a varying assortment of weapons. As Tyrral began to reach into his bag for some sort of contraption we backed up towards each other. As one, they all closed in to attack. It didn't seem like Tyrral was going to be contributing much, so without really thinking I took it upon myself to take them all on in defense of him. "Whatever you're doing, do it fast," I warned him. The first came, and I struck it down with ease. Then two, then three, and so on. The onslaught of droids was much more than I had anticipated, and I felt myself getting cut and taking hits that would be bruises down the line, with no sign of the attack stopping. Slowly my senses all faded, leaving only the will to fight, and as I watched a blue pulse stop all the droids in their tracks, even that went.

Yula Ardinn
"Not gonna lie, I expected the Trials to be a lot more interesting than this." Bail simply wouldn't shut up. We walked through the torchlit walls, slowly turning green with the mosses of the jungle they had been in for so long.

"Paitence is a virtue," I reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's not exactly one of our Trials. Where are the obstaces? The enemies? The puzzles?"

Almost on cue, something slowly crawled out of the shadows in the distance. It was roughly my height. Lightly growling, with the light shining off its scales, I quickly identified it from my studies as an akk dog. They were native to this world. All I had to do was look it in the eye, and out of respect it would ignore me. As more crept out from behind it, I locked eyes with it. Immediately, behind me, Bail's lightsaber snapped to life. "Don't!" I yelled, but it was already too late. Ignoring me, the pack ran towards him. "Now this is more like it!"

He entered the frenzy, slashing away only to quickly realize the armor of akk dogs could handle lightsabers quite easily. Instead, he let out a large burst in the Force, pushing the dogs away from him on all sides. I took advantage of this moment to run to him and tackle him, causing his lightsaber to deactivate.

"What the-"

"Shhh! Look into its eyes!"

He stared at the dog, and it stared back, and they held this gaze for a minute. At the end, it let out a long howl and followed the others back into the shadows whence they came. After sitting there a moment in silence, Bail remarked, "Ya know, you could've told me that sooner."

Tyrral Thraxton
Panting and sore from fighting off robots, I laid Ganner down on the ground to catch my breath, holding my green lightsaber in one hand. The pulse bomb had taken out all the magnaguards in the room, but as I pressed forward, more that were seemingly unaffected had occasionally leapt out from the shadows to attack me. Now, as I stoo here for a moment, everything was silent.

"A thousand Jedi died cursing Darth Desolus."

I turned around to view the source of the voice: an armor-clad Pau'an with a shield.

"Now you too will-"

I charged straight at him with the Force, knocking him off balance and making him drop the shield. Our lightsabers met as I went in for another strike, and he easily overpowered me, knocking me back several feet next to Ganner. He raised his saber high above his head and sent it crashing down in a vicious slash, which I barely held back with my saber, putting us into another saber lock. He pushed, bringing my own blade closer and closer to my neck. Just as I couldn't take anymore, Ganner suddenly got up, activated his own green blade and impaled him. WIth a face of pure shock, Desolus blew away into shadows.

Ganner grabbed my and helped me up.

"Even?" He asked.

"Even." I replied.

We proceeded through a doorway into the final chamber.

Another hologram of Bodo Baas awaited us eagerly. "Welcome," he greeted us. "I believe the others will be with us shortly."

"Looks like we did it," Ganner commented.

"Indeed," Baas replied, "But--" Baas was cut off by a series of booms in the distance getting louder by the second.

 BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

Bail crashed through the walls almost 45 degrees to the right of the doorway. A tall, black-robed and hooded figure with a red lightsaber leapt after him with Yula in tow. Ganner quickly Force pushed him out of the way. He skidded back a few feet and looked up, darkness still covering all but one bright yellow eye.

"More than one...." His deep voice muttered. Bail got up, and Yula caught up to us, and we all stood with our sabers ignited facing him.

"I can see the headlines now- four Padawans gone missing on their first mission to a Temple in the Mid Rim." He taunted us.

"Five," Baas replied. He drew a saber, and with a flash, he was no longer a hologram of the Jedi Master. As the disguise disappeared, he was revealed to be Qorbin. He activated his turquoise lightsaber.

"Can you take four Padawans and a Jedi Master?"

"I have before."

"Not this one."

The yellow eye scanned us up and down, deciding whether or not to attack. Finally, the hooded figure turned and walked back into the shadows.

Trials, Part Three: The Four Masters
After the man disappeared, Qorbin told us our trials were complete. He also warned us not to speak about what we had seen here for some reason. He told me he was going to take care of it quietly, by himself. We never mentioned it again, but Qorbin was never quite the same after that; he was cautious to the point of borderline paranoia.

As for the four of us,we became close friends as we progressed into and through Knighthood, and became quite the team over the years. A week before the Clone Wars began, Tyrral and I became Jedi Masters. Two weeks later, Yula followed, then Bail.

A year later, the four of us set out to a new destination: Umbara.

We had grown up, but looking back on it after all these years, we were still kids, bright and full of hope. Part of me wishes I could go back to that time when I didn't know the Galaxy for what it really was, but the second we set foot on that planet it was over.