“Kashyyyk…” Dan let himself slip into the forest world’s atmosphere. Thick loam, moss and the undertone of rotted wood rose to meet him. “This will be more difficult than Taris, I’ll need to do more than crush some spaceships.”
The Wookie’s were currently under the thumb of Zaalbar’s collaborator brother, Chuundar. Even if Dan swept Czerka from the face of the world, the traitor to his own people would likely welcome their return in less than a month. He would have to remove the Wookie from power and replace him with a more suitable leader.
“Zaalbar’s father should be in the lower levels, and I want a look at the terraforming tech Revan was supposed to find,” Dan angled lower, between the gigantic Wroshyr trees. These non-native behemoths were the result of untended technology, leftover remnants from the Infinite Empire. “The Rakata left their machines running thousands of years ago, and now we’ve got kilometre-high trees…”
Krypton had terraforming technology, but nothing quite like what the Rakata stole from the Celestials. Not only would it help feed the Empire in the future, but it might have applications with Yggdrasil and the new forests on Sekot.
Dan descended below the canopy, a few kilometres from the Czerka base. Jolee Bindo was also in a lower strata, below the reach of this system’s sun. Before he found the grey Jedi, he needed to make a withdrawal from the super-corporation's accounts.
“Get ready to hack their mainframe, and let's send out a batch of clones…” Dan swept his hand and released a steady rain of symbiotes into the sunless forest below. “Leave the Wookie’s alone, but I want you to take control of the rest of the wildlife.”
“We understand…” Venom whispered into his mind, already focused on his hack of Czerka’s systems. “Shall we also download evidence of Chuundar’s collaboration? There are a great number of data files, alongside hours of video, that will discredit him in the eyes of his people.”
“It can’t hurt,” Dan nodded. He planned to use a bit of his own magical training to force the truth from the Wookie’s mouth for all to hear, but digital evidence would be a welcome bunch of cherries onto the cake of Chuundar’s downfall. “Just copy everything and drain their accounts, we can sort out what we need later.”
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Finished with Czerka - for now - he dipped lower, into the shadowed forest’s tangled depths. Dan glided past well travelled walkways, thicker branches that connected the towering trees. Most of the foot traffic consisted of the local Wookies, with a few Czerka expeditionary parties in the mix.
Dan passed by the Zaalbar’s old village and continued to descend. His eyes pierced layer after layer of wood, in search of the forest floor and Bindo’s primitive hut. In his own universe, most of Kashyyyk’s surface was already unreachable, even to the Wookies. The wroshyr trees would grow to the limits of the atmosphere, roots extended into the core of the world.
“There he is…” Dan smiled as the old man jumped to his feet and stared into the ceiling, right in line with Dan’s gaze. “Looks like he’s already noticed me.”
A gentle acceleration carried Dan before the hermit’s hand carved home. Built into the living wood, Bindo’s house cast a gentle glow onto the forest floor. Its oval door creaked open and a bald head poked into the nighttime air. Jolee narrowed his eyes and looked Dan up and down.
“What kind of thing are you?” The grey Jedi shuffled from his house, one hand raised as if to shield his eyes. “You’re a lighthouse in the force… though it rejects you as well.”
“My name is Dan-EL,” Venom receded from his face and repealed his youthful appearance. He descended to the ground and extended a hand toward the suspicious hermit, a smile on his face. “Sorry about the glow… I still haven't had time to sit down and figure out how to seal it away.”
“Well it’s damn annoying… how can anyone be expected to sleep with all this light!” Bindo walked around Dan and inspected him from all angles. “You’ve got an over abundance of lifeforce… so much so that it’s bleeding into your surroundings…”
The hermit held his hands a foot from Dan’s skin like a man might do to a warm fire. He shook his head and snorted. Jolee took a seat, cross legged in front of Dan and motioned for the younger man to join him.
“I can help you stop the leakage, if you like?” Bindo’s face remained crumpled into a frown, but it failed to reach his smiling eyes. “If you carry on like this, you’ll blind someone one day!”
Dan raised an eyebrow as he joined the hermit on the ground. The old man was wise enough to be a Jedi Master, wiser really, but he had less formal training than most. His philosophy on the Force and life was what Dan valued, not his active talents or techniques.
“Draw in your breath into a single point,” Jolee filled his lungs and motioned for Dan to do the same. He nodded as Dan obeyed. “Now, visualise that breath, hold it in your mind, still as the hunters of the forest around us…”
Dan let the hermit’s voice paint a picture in his mind’s eye. He slunk through the branches of a tangled jungle, every move quiet and restrained. The softest rustle, unsuspecting prey that strove for greater silence than he.
“That’s it,” Bindo’s word’s returned, a whisper amidst the visions. “Blend with the world, hold yourself quiet…”
A comfortable warmth tingled under Dan’s skin as the visualisation ended. He flexed his fingers and examined the backs of his hands. He couldn’t see the ‘glow’ that true Force sensitive witnessed, but whatever Jolee’s instruction had done, it had a noticeable effect.
“There we are!” Bindo slapped his knees and gave a gruff snort. “Now I can actually look at you properly,” the hermit leaned forward, face drawn into serious lines. “Now tell me, who exactly are you… and why is the Force so afraid of you?”