*Image from DarkHorse.com
Issues 16, 17, and 18
A young Raana Tey is on Taris and watches as blater fire rains down on the planet from Mandalorian invaders. She rushes into the Jedi Temple, so sure that the Jedi have abandoned the temple for some time and runs into a room to see Zayne Carrick and the other Padawans standing over red space suits all with lightsabers on except Zayne. The Padawans force Raana Tey to look down and see who the individuals are in the space suits but she awakes from her night vision and tells her assisting droid that the visions will only stop once Zayne Carrick and Jarael.
On Arkania, Jarael arrives looking for the medical center to get help for Camper. After being called an Offshoot, Jarael is forced onto another shuttle where she meets Zadawi and shuttled to the Offshoots’ camp.
Earlier, aboard the Last Resort, Rohlan Dyre, the Mandalorian, tells Jarael that Camper needs to see someone who knows Arkanian gerontology to help him. Jarael agrees to return to Arkania to get him help but not from Adascorp, the people who Camper is hiding from.
Back in the present and in the Offshoot camp, Zadawi takes Jarael to her house to meet Perera and some hot soup. Zadawi goes off on how the Offshoots aren’t getting the help they need while Adascorp helps others for money across the galaxy. Perera tells her to put trust in Lord Adasca who does seek to help the Offshoots and will put an end to the Offshoot’s bad times. Later that night, Jarael and Zadawi discuss getting Jarael into Adascopolis looking like an Arkanian to get the help Camper needs.
The next day, Jarael (disguised as an Arkanian) gets into the medical facility and gets a doctor to look at Camper’s readings. A long time later, the doctor returns telling Jarael she can’t leave as Arkanian law enforcement shows up. Jarael takes an Arkania hostage but another voice says it knows who Jarael is and asks for her to follow.
Aboard the Last Resort in orbit, an Arkanian ship called the Arkanian Legacy shows up, and Camper knows the Company has found him. A holographic transmission of Lord Adasca with Jarael standing next to him is sent with Adasca saying he can save Camper and Jarael telling Camper they can be trusted to him him. Camper then loses consciousness.
Camper is rushed to a quarantine care center and Rohlan is detained since he is a Mandalorian. Adasca takes Jarael with him to tour the Arkanian Legacy. He explains to her how his grand father did not treat Camper well and that’s why Camper left. He worked with Adascorp and was a genius in both biology and technology but acquired the Balinquar’s Virus which remains dormant in Offshoots until old age; when Jarael’s sample of Camper’s genetics was read, they seeked to help him and cure him since they owe him that much. Adasca tells Jarael she did the right thing to protect him and to start looking like herself again while they all wait to hear how Camper’s treatment goes.
The remains of the Serroco battle group deep in space fall under attack by the Mandalorians, especially the Courageous. Admiral Karath orders non-essentials to the lifepods and remaining hands to prepare for being boarded. Mandalorians board the Courageous and Admiral Karath fights off Mandalorians receiving help from Carth Onasi. They rush to the brig to make a final stand and join Zayne in his cell. Admiral Karath asks Zayne to help them fight the Mandalorians but Zayne refuses to help unless the Admiral takes him with him. The Admiral agrees and Zayne stands up to reveal an escape route he’s been working on. They escape through the cargo bay and aboard the Deadweight.
Back aboard the Arkanian Legacy, Adasca visits with Rohlan in the brig and tells him that he will be of more importance once more pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Adasca also mentions how the ship is a biological research vessel and that Rohlan might find something to distract him with.
Jarael awakens in a chair to a holographic image of a Duros named Eejee Vamm who tells her it will be some time before Camper awakens and that Jarael should get some rest. Once Eejee ends the conversation and asks Camper, who never had Balinquar’s Virus but another small illness, if he’s satisfied about her safety and that she can’t leave until Camper finishes what he started before he fled from the company. Camper agrees to finish although he doesn’t like it to protect Jarael.
On Telerath, word of Serroco arrives and evacuation begins now that the fleet to protect the planet has been destroyed. Jedi Master Lucien Draay asks to make a private transmission since his meeting with Admiral Karath doesn’t look like it will take place. In the transmission, Lucien talks to Haazen, a key member of the Covenant. Haazen mentions using other seers since Lucien’s have all become distracted with Zayne and are nearly useless. Haazen also mentions Adasca seeking to get in touch with the Revanchist Leader among others to talk about a dark power. Lucien is to go to Adasca to find out what this dark power is.
Once again aboard the Arkanian Legacy, Adasca meets with Jarael and she thanks him for all he’s done but is still worried about Camper since the images she sees of him everyday seem to be the same. Adasca mentions how they will soon arrive at their destination for a business meeting and if Jarael would like to join him for dinner that night; she agrees.
Adasca meets with Camper to hear that he’ll finish his work and Eejee is told to finish the contacts for the business meeting and to find out if there’s anything special about Jarael’s genetics. Adasca moves on to talk to Rohlan to get him to send a message to a particular individual who Rohlan may not like but who’s interested in Rohlan. Rohlan is showed the message and will send it if he gets his freedom and Jarael is allowed to go with him; Adasca agrees.
The survivors of the Courageous now start heading to Arkania when they receive a message from Eejee inviting them to a meeting to help the Republic win in its current predicament.
With the Arkanian Legacy on its last jump to its destination, Jarael meets with Adasca for dinner where Adasca reveals his true intentions. He mentions how the Arkanian blood is running thin but individuals like Jarael may be able to produce true Arkanians, and Arkania will become the center of the galaxy again. Through genetically changing and controlling the minds of exogorths (or space slugs) which are creatures that predate the history of the galaxy and feed off anything, they can be controlled and do as Adasca wishes them to do. But he’ll need Camper to finish mastering control and then equip them with hyperdrives to become a plague to the galaxy.
(coming soon!)
