Starting Point

Starting Point is the third novella of the second part of The Vesal Chronicles saga, the second part featuring Jeden Vesal as the main protagonist. Following Jeden's exploits after becoming a Jedi Knight, the book shows Jeden's first true missions for the Order alone, as well as some of his first interactions with the galaxy as a whole.

Synopsis
Beginning as Jeden leaves Coruscant to scout the Outer Rim, Jeden finds he has to refuel and lands his starfighter on Corellia. After meeting a smuggler and criminal operative in the streets of Coronet named Knocker, Jeden discovers of a criminal on Corellia nicknamed the Sculptor, who is freezing in carbonite all of his opponents. When Knocker is hit in the leg by a sniper, Jeden chases the shots to a government building. He finds the sniper covered in explosives, pleading for his life as he tells Jeden the Sculptor forced him to attack Knocker, before the explosives detonate. Jeden survives and meets Coronet's chief of police, Captain Kelasa, who tells Jeden that he believes the Sculptor is using an ancient Force-sensitive artifact, and tells Jeden that if the Jedi helps him catch the Sculptor, he can have the artifact. Jeden agrees.

For some time, Kelasa and Jeden help demolish the Sculptor's criminal empire in Coronet, before confronting the Sculptor in his hideout. However, Kelasa turns on Jeden, revealing he was working for the Sculptor the whole time so that the Sculptor, a heavily-disabled Rodian, could have a Jedi hostage. However, help arrives in the form of Sun Jovin, one of Jeden's former classmates in the Jedi Order and a childhood bully. Sun strikes down Kelasa before taking a blaster shot from the Sculptor to save Jeden. Faced with imprisonment, the Sculptor commits suicide. Jeden forgives Sun's childhood misdeeds, before being tasked by the Jedi Order to go to the Dune Sea on Tatooine to search for a Jedi artifact rumoured to be scavenged by a clan of Jawas.

Arriving on Tatooine, Jeden instantly causes trouble when he is led to believe that he can take the artifact by the Jawas, only to discover he was told this by a rival clan who really want to take the holocron for themselves. Jeden manages to escape the betrayal and the two Jawa clans eventually begin attacking each-other, beginning a two-month long civil war. Jeden intervenes, managing to convince the Jawas of signing a peace treaty before he returned to Coruscant to put the holocron in safe hands, those hands being Liko Eil's, one of Jeden's close friends.

Jeden is then told to travel to Rattatak, a troubled world and home of the warrior-like Rattataki. Learning of a milennia-old lightsaber crystal being held by a madness-ravaged Rattataki clan, Jeden tried to infiltrate the clan's compound to take back the crystal, only to be captured and put in an arena, his lightsabers and equipment gone, to face hordes of Rattataki warriors.

Jeden fought the warriors, defeating them either by killing them or making them yield. Amazed by Jeden's strength, he clan decide to give Jeden his equipment, as well as the lightsaber, as a reward. Jeden returns to the Temple and remains for some time.

The story ends with Jeden learning that Jedi Knight Obi-wan Kenobi and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker have been captured by Count Dooku, once a Jedi Master and now a Sith Lord. Jeden sets out to the planet of Geonosis to help rescue the Jedi alongside other members of the Order.

Main characters

 * Jeden Vesal - a male, Human Jedi Knight tasked by the Order to search for Jedi artifacts and the main protagonist of the story. Jeden takes part in many notable events during the story, such as the attempted capture of the Sculptor, ending the Jawa Civil War and facing an entire clan of Rattataki warriors and coming out victorious.
 * Liko Eil - a male Zabrak Jedi archivist and one of Jeden's close friends. Liko is the one Jeden returns his discovered artifacts to, and the pair exchange multiple conversations throughout the story.
 * Knocker - a female Torgruta who works as an operative for multiple criminal organizations on Corellia. Jeden befriends Knocker and gets most of his information surrounding the Sculptor from here. Knocker also convinces Jeden that not all criminals are necessarily bad, after learning that Knocker only does what she does to feed and shelter her younger sister.
 * Guno - a Jawa scavenger of Tatooine and a former member of the Koloko clan. After leaving his clan due to their extreme means of getting items from the Dune Sea, including extorting other clans, Guno befriends Jeden after his recovery of a Jedi holocron ignites war between the Koloko and Jera clans. Guno later becomes an asset for Liko and the Jedi archivists on Tatooine.
 * Captain Kelasa - the chief of police for Coronet and a Human male. Kelasa aids Jeden and tracking down the Sculptor and demolishing the Rodian's empire, only to reveal himself as a traitor, originally working for the Sculptor but later deciding to capture Jeden as a hostage. Kelasa is killed by Sun Jovin and is promptly replaced by another police member.

Side characters

 * The Sculptor - a heavily-disabled Rodian criminal under the name of the Sculptor. The Sculptor uses an ancient holocron to freeze and imprison his criminal rivals, though later began targeting Corellian officials and Jedi. The Sculptor is later confronted by Jeden and Sun, and decides to commit suicide rather than face prison.
 * Chief Falakaw - a male Rattataki warrior and the leader of a clan that imprisoned Jeden. Falakaw hoped to use an ancient lightsaber crystal to build his own lightsaber. Unbeknownst to him, the crystal held power only a Force-sensitive could be immune to, and the Chief's entire clan were drove to madness. After Jeden defeated all of Falakaw's warriors in bare combat. Falakaw gifted Jeden the crystal and his belongings and later travelled into the wilderness, and was never heard from again.
 * Sun Jovin - a Rattataki Jedi Knight male. Once a bully of Jeden and other Jedi Initiates, Sun changed dramatically. Sent to Coronet to aid Jeden, Sun killed Kelasa before jumping in front of the Sculptor's last blaster shot, wounding himself but saving Jeden's life. Jeden forgave the Rattataki, though didn't talk to him again for some time.