Operaton: Crystal Lekku was a concentrated effort by the Galactic Republic's Strategic Information Service to slow, sabotage and ultimately stop the activities of Twi'lek Sith Lord Darth Aivela, beginning with Avexiss Odé's Mission to Mustafar in 28 ATC.
Primarily, the operation focused on preventing Aivela from acquiring a collection of artefacts known as the Four Bound Spirits – powerful artefacts speculated to be creations of the Celestials – but also included a secondary objective of interrupting and stopping Aivela's research and experimentation into the combination of Sith alchemy and mechu-deru with Force-imbued crystals and Gree nanotechnology to create highly evolved and incredibly dangerous Sithspawn.
Aivela's ambitions were brought to an end when she lured Republic forces to an abandoned castle on Jum Tarra, believing she could use the two of the Four Bound Spirits held by herself and her protégé – Sera Artofen – to take the two held by her estranged husband – Benjamin Lambert.
During the final confrontation, however, Aivela was goaded by her husband's mistress – the Force wielder Aaellu – and set her Sithspawn guardian – Sammatra – against her love rival.
Due to the unplanned intervention of Isla Ahnkett, Artofen was ambushed and prevented from assisting her master against Lambert, ultimately leading to a duel between Aivela and Benjamin alone, one which ultimately led to Aivela's assassination at Ahnkett's hand after her failed attempt to retreat.
The operation was officially closed and the related files archived after the Aivela's funeral, though the events that transpired had knock-on effects that persisted for almost a century, beginning with a campaign against Aivela's short-lived ally, Darth Madré, that would become known as Operation: Kaasian Rose.
Prelude[]
Shortly before the War for Iokath, Twi'lek Sith Lord Lexi Lambert theorised a new cybernetic technology based on the combination of Force imbued crystals and rare Gree nanotechnology using insights gained from reverse engineering technological samples collected from the Eternal Empire of Zakuul and – later – data scans recovered by her husband – Darth Enigmus – during the fighting on the lost world of Iokath.
Born with gender dysphoria, Lexi had spent her life obsessed with altering biology and despite successfully solving her own identity issues using Rakatan technology uncovered on Belsavis she was never able to overcome the insecurities she had developed in her youth.
Unable to adjust and truly accept that she had succeeded in her life's goal, she fixated on using technology and the Force to further reshape the galaxy – and herself – to her liking.
This began with the Crystal Synthesis Project, a research initiative started by Lexi with the help of her apprentice, Sera Artofen, with the aim of creating cybernetics that would augment her limited Force abilities to match those of her more naturally gifted husband.
With Artofen's talent for Sith alchemy, her own skills in mechu-deru and her husband's wealth, Lexi set about acquiring Adegan crystals and Gree nanite samples purchased from the Tonvarr pirates, running small scale tests to verify the concept was theoretically possibly.
Using Artofen's alchemy, the pair were able to change the physical properties of Force-imbued crystals and convert them into a viscous liquid form. By combining this fluid crystal matter with Gree nanites, the Sith researchers were able to fashion microscopic beads of Force-infused, "liquid" crystal that could – thanks to Lexi's mechu-deru techniques – be bound and controlled through the Force.
Once bound to her will, Lexi could command this swarm of microscopic crystal particles to move as she wished, but in particulate form they would require constant direction, a considerable flaw.
To counter this issue, Lexi and her student ran tests to see if the crystals could be repeatedly changed back and forth between solid and liquid form to allow the crystallised nanites to be directed into a certain shape or form, then bound together into a solid material.
This culminated in the creation of a prototype sword that was imbued with the Force and incredibly resilient, made even more so by the alchemical enhancements and protections added by Artofen after if its initial creation. Artofen was gifted the prototype as a reward for her work.
Spurred on by their success, Lexi poured considerable resources into acquiring more of the exotic Gree technology and performed a number of tests on small animal specimens, confirming that the alchemical cybernetics worked as planned before designing four cybernetic limbs incorporating her liquid crystal technology with the intention of using them to replace her own.
Once Artofen had perfected the crystal appendages with her alchemical skills, Lexi – against Artofen's advice – went into surgery despite being heavily pregnant at the time, whereupon her healthy, organic limbs were removed and replaced by her macabre inventions.
On awakening she found herself weak and tired, but – ultimately – successful; the Force energy imbued within the crystals expanded her own reservoir of power, dramatically increasing her potential and bridging the gap between her husband's strength and her own.
Following her success, Lexi helped her husband – who was becoming concerned about Lexi's wellbeing – plan his departure from the Sith Empire to follow up on a vision he had experienced and felt compelled to pursue. Not wanting to implicate his wife and believing Empress Acina was the leader the Empire needed to evolve, Enigmus recruited a number of traditionalist hardliners who saw Acina's progressive attitude as anathema to the Sith way, gathering them in a single location to ensure that his wife was the one to unmask the conspirators.
This allowed Enigmus to appear to "escape", setting up his wife to reap the benefits while still aiding the Empire; by leading the massacre against the conspirators, Lexi had openly proven her loyalty to the Empire and the Empress and was well-positioned to claim her husband's vacated rank; which she did, boldly declaring her own name before the Dark Council, rather than simply being assigned one.
Thus, she became Darth Aivela, named after the Zakuulan deity Aivela, the goddess of passion.
Aivela continued her experiments to create Force-strong Sithspawn, which she – along with a team of Sith and Imperial researchers – developed into a distinct subspecies, breeding the creatures using accelerated – and highly unethical – reproduction methods so that their mutations eventually occurred as a "natural" adaptation, without the need for invasive and costly modifications for each specimen.
The first stable prototype of these naturally born and unaccelerated mutants was a Varactyl named Petrichor, the specimen that would eventually lend its name to the branch of the Republic Strategic Information Service that would lead the charge against her.
During this time, Aivela happened to chance across the resting place of one of the Four Bound Spirits. She sent notes on the artefact to her distant husband, knowing his interest in long-lost Force cultures and their creations, information that led to Benjamin's recovery of the second artefact on Dronim Major.
Unfortunately, the artefact was not the only powerful relic recovered during her expedition, and – unbeknownst to even the Twi'lek herself – Aivela was being manipulated, slowly and discreetly, by an ancient entity that had followed her back after she recovered the artefact.
It was only when Lexi sent her three children Ben, Alucia and Acina Lambert to live with their father – accompanied by the juvenile Petrichor – that his concern grew into a drive to intervene. He brought the varactyl to the attention of Frank Pad of the SIS, setting in motion the events that would lead to Operation: Petrichor in 27 ATC.
This operation – focusing on the neutral weapons factories of Voryle – served as a proof-of-concept operation to prove that integrating Force-users outside the strict religious boundaries of the Jedi Order into the Republic hierarchy – and protecting them from Jedi retribution – was a much more sustainable way of utilising the unique offensive and defensive capabilities that had historically been left to the whims of the Jedi.
Operation: Crystal Lekku[]
Mission to Mustafar[]
Surrender now and I'll guarantee your safety and fair treatment. Resist, and I'll do what I have to to bring you in for questioning.
—Avexiss Odé, addressing Tavion Wyntoq on Mustafar.
With Operation: Petrichor's success, Frank Pad and Benjamin Lambert were finally allocated a token budget with which to begin Project Petrichor in 28 ATC. They immediately set their sights on the Four Bound Spirits and stopping Darth Aivela – through reason or force – before she unleashed something truly catastrophic upon the unsuspecting galaxy.
To that end, the agents responsible for winning the day on Voryle – Isla Ahnkett and Zhavi Waverunner – were invited to join the project, despite their presence on the neutral world and their assistance there having been purely coincidental when the intended operatives were delayed by pirate activity.
Joined by the Pureblooded Jedi Shadow Avexiss Odé – on old friend of Lambert's – the group met to discuss the operation on Coruscant.
Examples of Aivela's handiwork had been employed on Voryle and most of the specimens had been identified as originating from Kashyyyk and Mustafar, suggesting some sort of poaching operation was taking place on both worlds to supply Darth Aivela with beasts from which her Sithspawn took shape.
With no actionable leads to go on beyond that, Isla and Zhavi were given the task of investigating Kashyyyk for any signs of animal smuggling, with which they could count on the help of the native Wookiees. At the same time, Avexiss would be heading to the fiery world of Mustafar, an inhospitable and largely unsettled planet where finding smugglers would be simultaneously both much easier and much trickier.
Fortunately, the operation on Mustafar was supported by a Gage-class transport, giving Avexiss a much clearer idea of where she needed to search. Once she identified the Imperial base of operations, she navigated her way over and around the surrounding fields and rivers of lava and engaged Imperial forces, realising they were packing up the operation and, thus, time was of the essence.
The Sith commanding the Imperial troops – the Rattataki Tavion Wyntoq – moved to try and stop Avexiss, though it soon became clear she was nowhere near the duellist the Pureblood was.
She retreated with the help of the unstable landscape, leaving the remaining troops and captured animal specimens to their collective fate to ensure she – and the ship in orbit – were able to escape, ending Avexiss' mission in failure.
Mission to Kashyyyk[]
Welcome to Kashyyyk!
—Batauww, to Isla Ahnkett and Zhavi Waverunner.
Meanwhile, Isla Ahnkett and Zhavi Waverunner arrived on Kashyyyk to meet Avexiss' old Jedi Master Batauww, who had left the Jedi Order many years earlier to resettle into civilian life on his homeworld. Batauww was able to smooth the situation over with the Rwookrrorro chieftain and win permission for them access the fabled Shadowlands, on the proviso that they were accompanied by a local guide, a task Batauww volunteered himself for.
Taking the lift down from the treetops, the trio navigated the vast forest floor for several hours before encountering Trandoshan poachers operating in the area. Dispatching a number of them as they fought off the native beasts, they reached the periphery of their main encampment less than an hour later.
Set in a clearing, the encampment seemed well established; it had a barred cage dug out from the ground and a massive lift for the movement of the numerous transport containers lining the clearing, in addition to a number of small, makeshift shacks that the Trandoshans were using for accommodation during their prolonged stay.
Zhavi and Isla engaged the group – with Batauww supporting them from the treeline – and cut through them without too much difficulty, drawing out their zealous leader, a Dark Jedi named Tsosska.
Zhavi learned during her duel with the Trandoshan that he was working for Darth Aivela as suspected, and that his lightsaber and newfound command of the Force were thanks to the meagre training she had offered him to buy his loyalty. According to the alien, he was running the operation on the promise of more power in the future, although Zhavi struck him down once it became clear she had learned all she could from him, bringing his desire for further training to an abrupt end.
With the assistance of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force – who had deployed a small strike team on a covert operation to Kashyyyk to find the Dark Jedi and eliminate him – the trio were able to wipe out the poachers and inform the Wookiees of the operation, cutting off Darth Aivela's access to Kashyyyk's ferocious beasts.
Investigation on Corulag[]
Avexiss – never intending to remain attached to Project Petrichor – returned to her duties as a Jedi Shadow, leaving Kassie Kaadara – lost Jedi-turned-bar owner – to take her place. Accompanying Kassie, Isla and Zhavi travelled to Corulag in search of an Imperial defector in hiding from the agents of Sith Intelligence.
The defector was in possession of a stolen list of undercover agents, making him a very valuable – and vulnerable – potential ally. Joined by the Chistori Dark Jedi Damascus Lambert – Benjamin's former apprentice and "brother" – the group began their investigation in Curamelle, with Isla and Damascus breaking off to travel out to Crullov City to follow up on a lead acquired after an altercation with one of the Sith Intelligence agents operating covertly on the planet.
Unfortunately, as they ambushed the defector in the midst of selling his information to a criminal group, another interested party joined the commotion; Isla managed to grab the briefcase containing the data and make a run for it, only to be caught in an explosion – a trap rigged by another criminal, the cutthroat Togruta freighter captain Natasha Butler.
Butler escaped aboard her ship and – in doing so – thoroughly embarrassed the team, Damascus and Isla in particular.
Zhavi remained on Corulag to pursue her flirtation with Kaadara while awaiting further orders, leaving Damascus and Isla to escort the captured defector to a Republic facility before reporting their failure to Frank back on Coruscant.
Mission to Yavin 4[]
During the investigation on Corulag, Benjamin and his informal student Aaellu followed up on an intercepted transmission between Sith forces connected with Darth Aivela and the ranks of the Imperial Reclamation Service that pointed to a newly uncovered archaeological site on Yavin 4.
Based on that transmission, they had reason to believe Aivela and her minions were on the trail of another of the Four Bound Spirits, hidden at a remote site far from the more well-known sites surrounding the Temple of Sacrifice and Massassi Temple.
Their arrival was expected, however, and when they touched down on the roof of one of the many small stone structures dotted around the site, explosive charges detonated and collapsed the roof, dropping Lambert and his ship – the Little Sparrow – down into the ruins beneath the ground.
Aaellu – having disembarked swiftly after landing on account of an argument the pair had been having while in transit – was separated from Lambert, proceeding on ahead of him to try and reach the Empire's forces first, hoping to single-handedly retrieve the artefact.
She dispatched a rare, native rage rancor before encountering Tavion Wyntoq, deployed to stall the Republic agents while her superiors claimed the relic. Unfortunately for the Rattataki, Aaellu had been well-trained by Lambert and quickly managed to sever her hand, disarming the Sith and allowing Aaellu to kill her with a stab to the chest.
Aaellu continued on and eventually reached the main temple, concealed on a small island just off the coast.
As they had suspected, one of the artefacts was buried there, but when Aaellu arrived Aivela's apprentice and research partner Lord Sera Artofen was present with her allies, claiming the orb before Aaellu could intervene. She moved to try all the same, determined to prove herself, only to be stopped by Benjamin, the former Darth catching up with her just in time to prevent her from making a fatal mistake.
Spotted in the process, the duo were forced to flee; they were outnumbered, and the advantage offered by the artefact Benjamin had absorbed was neutralised now that the Sith had one of the orbs to hand. The Petrichor agents jumped into the ocean, swimming back to the mainland in time to watch an Imperial vessel descend and extract the Sith and their Imperial servants.
Although they had failed, both agents had survived relatively unscathed and returned to Coruscant the following evening – as soon as they had finished digging their ship out of the ruins.
Mission to Felucia[]
No reason to suspect Aivela's got a hand in this either, but even the SIS has its political elements. It'll help our little project if we start making friends – friends we may need later – now.
—Frank, regarding the ambush on Felucia.
After their failed mission on Corulag, Isla and Damascus were deployed to the jungle world of Felucia to hit an Imperial force who were temporarily stuck while repairs were underway following a successful engagement with a Republic fleet.
Khruukunu, one of Benjamin's previous students who – while having been born elsewhere – shared his species with the natives, joined them on their expedition in the hope of easing the operation.
Isla was injured by the hostile locals almost immediately after arriving, a considerable setback if it had not been for Khruukunu's Force healing. Khruukunu used his natural mobility to move rapidly through the jungle, scouting ahead to locate the Imperials and identify the best way to reach them without crossing paths with the Felucians.
In spite of his efforts, Damascus and Isla were forced to fight their way through Felucian rancor riders and their mounts while hunting for the Empire's forces.
By the time they bested the mounted warriors, Khruukunu had spoken with the locals, who were more willing to communicate with him once he was alone and agreed – begrudgingly – to stop attacking his companions, willing to tolerate them temporarily if they were there to kill the Imperials trespassing on the grounds of the Ancient Abyss.
They managed to dispatch the Imperials at their encampment in a brief skirmish that culminated with the destruction of a walker, which was dragged away by the massive tentacles of the sarlacc.
To damage the ships in orbit, the trio packed any and all explosive material they could find into two troop Imperial transports. Isla flew alongside Khruukunu in a third vessel, landing in the hangar of one of the fleet's Gage-class transports and setting the timer on the explosives before escaping aboard Isla's ship together.
They repeated the process with the ship Damascus was piloting, damaging a second vessel and leaving the system before fighters could be deployed to stop them.
Though the vessels survived the blasts they were damaged significantly enough that they were unable to escape Felucia's orbit in time before Republic reinforcements arrived, forcing the Empire to abandon both, along with significant numbers of Imperial crewmen.
Mission to Hoth[]
Concurrent with the events on Felucia, Benjamin and Aaellu were exploring a potential connection between Darth Aivela and a small, out-of-the-way operation identified on Hoth. Far removed from the main sites of conflict, the activity there was light, yet sources on Hoth indicated that vessels serving Darth Madré had been in orbit to receive shuttles from the surface every few weeks.
Travelling out on foot to avoid detection, the couple enlisted the help of the predatory wampas to bolster their numbers in anticipation of trouble. When they arrived at the small pocket of surface volcanic activity, they discovered another poaching operation.
Sensing their approach, Attrice Vhenn emerged from one of the shelters to raise the alarm and engage Benjamin in a brief duel while Aaellu and her wampa companions took out the Imperial troops staffing the makeshift holding facility. The Sith and her minions were forced to flee the area on foot, braving an oncoming snowstorm.
Benjamin and Aaellu opened the cages holding the specimens captured by the Empire before taking shelter in a nearby cave, returning to Republic territory the following morning.
En route, they received a call from Lord Dratine Rhonjenvyn, who had infiltrated the orbital station and taken Benjamin's pilot and lifelong friend Cerys Odé prisoner. As revenge for Aaellu's killing of Tavion, Dratine's apprentice and lover, the Sith Lord drained the life from the Twi'lek over the comm, forcing Benjamin to watch – powerless – as his oldest friend was reduced to a shrivelled husk.
Benjamin and Aaellu returned to the orbital station, using their SIS clearance to pass the security barricade and scoop up Cerys' remains – ignoring the protests of the security personnel – and take her away from the icy planet.
Skirmish Aboard the Gray Secant[]
Pausing the operation briefly to attend to Cerys' funeral and process the shock of her grisly demise, Benjamin and Aaellu resumed their work against Aivela by answering a surprising request from the Gree.
The legendary exploration vessel the Gray Secant had transmitted a distress beacon to the Gree indicating that it had encountered some sort of problem despite millennia of successful, autonomous operation. Lacking their own means, the Gree had sent a representative to the Galactic Republic, who were keen to assist and to do so quickly to bolster relations with the enigmatic and reclusive race.
Due to a combination of manpower shortages and the mixed successes of Project Petrichor, Benjamin and Aaelllu were assigned the privilege of resolving the problem.
To that end, the couple departed for the vessel's coordinates, whereupon they discovered Darth Madré's Harrower-class dreadnought docked with the seemingly immobilised Gray Secant. Powered down due to a foreign signal being broadcast from the Imperial vessel, the Petrichor pair had no issue docking with the vessel themselves, and soon set about finding out what the Imperials were after.
Even though the pair were assisted by the ship itself, they were nonetheless forced to fight against one of its colossal guardians – Xenoanalyst II – before they could access the hidden bowels of the mysterious vessel. There, they discovered the Empire's forces, eventually encountering Attrice Vhenn, the Pureblood the duo had seen off back on Hoth.
Waiting for them and prepared with an ambush, Vhenn used a Gree stasis weapon to immobilise Benjamin, forcing Aaellu to duel alone against an experienced Sith. Though her skills were tested, Aaellu was ultimately victorious, landing a killing blow that ensured Benjamin – helpless throughout – was spared from an undignified execution.
Additionally, with Vhenn defeated the Imperials had been denied the secret they were after, an ancient Gree Star Map hidden at the heart of the Gray Secant.
Once the treasure was removed from the hidden alcove that had concealed it for untold millennia beforehand, the ship's automated internal defence systems were triggered, releasing a small army of advanced security droids that quickly marched through the ship to converge on the Imperial docking tube.
Ignored by the droids, Benjamin and Aaellu took their chance to leave, boarding the Sparrow and watching from afar as signs of damage began to emerge through the hull of the Harrower.
Forced to detach from the Gray Secant, the damaged Imperial vessel moved clear of the Gree ship and jumped to hyperspace without delay, taking the immobilising signal with them and allowing the Gray Secant to disappear in the moments that followed. Benjamin and Aaellu returned to Coruscant to deliver the Star Map to the Gree representative, believing their task to be complete.
Mission to Tatooine[]
Better suited to the more grounded work Petrichor dealt with, Isla and Damascus were deployed to the criminal hideaway of Tatooine at the request of Colonel Vanrick Taetriss, an old friend of Frank's.
Taetriss' son Erin Taetriss – a dishonourably discharged Republic soldier-turned-mercenary – was in some kind of trouble on Tatooine and had sent a message asking his father for help. Too old and too busy to fight himself, Frank had agreed to help Taetriss, primarily because Erin was travelling with a small Mandalorian clan led by a woman named Ramira Al-Zaidi, the fiancée of Tharah Odé – one of Darth Madré's most devoted apprentices.
Isla and Damascus followed their trail to a moisture farm, where they discovered the clan had taken on a contract to wipe out a small Exchange base while hunting for the elusive sand demon. Yet, simple as the contract seemed, they had been gone far longer than expected.
Chasing after them, they eventually discovered the cause of the delay, finding the clan trapped in the cave the Exchange had been using by the vicious locals, the Sand People.
Caught by surprise by two Dark Jedi attacking from the rear, the Sand People were dispatched in short order; thankfully both Erin and – more importantly – Al-Zaidi had survived the siege.
Grateful as they were, Al-Zaidi outright refused to betray Odé's trust. Isla was frustrated by their wasted effort, though the group parted amicably, the Chiss contacting Frank once they reached Anchorhead to request information on Tharah Odé herself, doubting she would show her partner the same loyalty and hoping – if an opportunity could be exploited – that they might yet win over Al-Zaidi.
Luckily, Odé had been operating in Hutt space for several months and had taken up residence on Nar Shaddaa during her time there. As the SIS monitored notable Sith and Imperial activity on the Smuggler's Moon, they had an address to investigate immediately, which Isla was able to infiltrate with the help of local contacts she had made during her time in Sith Intelligence.
From Odé's personal terminal, she learned that the Twi'lek had been pressed into an act of adultery to ensure her loyalty to Lord Artofen, with that act being recorded for use as insurance against her. A copy of the recording had been attached to a message sent by the Sith Lord and although it had been deleted, Isla was able to recompile and restore the file, download a copy of it to her own datapad and return to Tatooine to provide the evidence to Al-Zaidi in person.
Understandably, the Mandalorian was furious and wanted to confront Odé, but at Isla's urging agreed to spy for the Republic instead of immediately confronting the Twi'lek; with Al-Zaidi's help, they had eyes in Aivela's camp – albeit on the periphery – and Isla assured her that – before long – she would get her shot at vengeance.
Destruction of the Lost Gree World[]
Armed with the Star Map recovered aboard the Gray Secant and once again serving at the request of the Gree, Aaellu and Benjamin left Coruscant within hours of returning.
The Gree representative had used his species' limited know-how when it came to their ancient technology to unlock the Star Map and reveal the world it pointed to, a lost system that was host to only a single planet. What awaited them there remained unknown until they left hyperspace at their destination.
When they did, they discovered the planet's two moons frozen in a head-on collision, preserved on the eve of a local apocalypse by some sort of incomprehensibly powerful stasis field. Initially the couple were unsure about landing, though when they did they discovered the planet was host to an ancient Gree temple.
Inside the temple, an energy field barred their progress until they unveiled the Star Map, using the device to deactivate the barrier and gain access to a literal gravity well that descended deep beneath the planet's surface.
At the bottom, the pair found themselves standing in a partially flooded, pitch-black bunker, a trap designed to hide an enormous, serpentine droid – which did not wait long to emerge from the water to attack them. Although the droid sported energy shielding and impenetrable armour plating, the duo were able to exploit to watery environment to electrocute the monstrous mechanical guardian and – in doing so – disable it.
Defeating the droid revealed the source of the stasis generator's power: the last of the Four Bound Spirits, wired into an impossibly complicated housing that emerged from the floor.
Just as they anticipated, removing the orb deactivated the stasis generator and allowed the cataclysm above the planet to continue, giving the pair very little time to escape the bunker, reach their ship and leave the system before it was annihilated.
Not far from the temple entrance, they were surprised to discover they had been followed to the lost world by a Jedi Shadow who demanded they hand the orb over to the custody of the Jedi Order. Benjamin refused, ordering Aaellu to stand aside as he fought off the attacker and ultimately – irritated and with no time to spare – executed him, giving the couple just enough time to escape the system before its destruction and report back to Frank with news of their astonishing find.