James stood at the edge of the Glass Plains, his boots sinking into sand still warm from the day's twin suns. The Terraforming Nexus hummed in his veins, its energy synced with the desert's pulse. For a month, he'd woven traps into the dunes—pits lined with kinetic glass shards, illusions of quicksand fueled by Force Cloak (Lv. 4 → Lv. 5), and buried ion charges scavenged from Skarn wreckage.
[System Alert: Kinetic Control (35% → 42%) – Precision +10%]
[New Skill: Sandshift Ambush (Lv. 1) – Camouflaged traps deal +25% damage]
Lira crouched beside him, her fingers tracing glyphs in the sand. "They'll come from the east," she murmured, her Force Sensory Awareness (45% → 50%) tingling. "The storms there… they're wrong."
James nodded. The desert had whispered its warnings for weeks.
------------------
Thirty cycles later, a ship pierced Tanalorr's atmosphere—a jagged Sith Infiltrator, its hull black as a starless void. It landed 200 kilometers northeast, near the Ashfang Canyons, where the air reeked of sulfur and old bones.
[Galactic Attention: 45% → 60% – Sith Presence Detected]
Two figures emerged: a Sith Acolyte draped in tattered robes, her eyes hidden behind a visor, and her master—a hulting Pau'an with flesh peeled back to reveal cybernetic implants. "The disturbance is here," the Pau'an rasped, his voice a static-laced growl. "But the Force… it hides."
The acolyte activated a handheld scanner, its red beam slicing through the dunes. "The nexus is cloaked. Advanced tech… or Jedi tricks."
[System Alert: Sith Lore (Lv. 1 → Lv. 2) – Identified Sith Infiltrator-Class Vessel]
------------------
Another month bled into the desert's timeless rhythm. The Sith stalked the wastes, their probes slicing through James' illusions.
On the 43rd cycle, they found the settlement.
The Pau'an stood atop a mesa, his mechanical eyes zooming in on the shimmering dome. "A village. Primitive. But the nexus… it pulses here."
The acolyte frowned. "No Jedi symbols. No tech. Just… sand."
[System Alert: Advanced Force Camouflage (Lv. 1 → Lv. 2) – Sith Scans Partially Deflected]
James felt their gaze like a blade between his ribs. In the reactor chamber, he activated the Terraforming Nexus (Lv. 4 → Lv. 5), bending light until the settlement vanished entirely.
[Force Nexus Synergy (Lv. 3 → Lv. 4) – Energy Cost: -15%]
------------------
The Sith retreated, but not before seeding the desert with spies: probe droids disguised as rocks, and a Twi'lek slave implanted with a cortical transmitter.
[New Threat: Sith Surveillance Network – Infiltration Risk +30%]
That night, James gathered the tribe. "They'll send someone. Someone we'd trust."
Tharak hefted his grayed vibroblade. "Let them come. I'll peel their skin."
[Tribal Leadership (Lv. 6) – Morale: Steady | Vigilance: High]
------------------
Far to the northeast, the Sith Infiltrator's hatch sealed with a hiss. The Pau'an fed coordinates into a holoterminal, his clawed finger hovering over a planet-wide scan. "Deploy the agent. Let them think us fools."
The acolyte bowed. "And the boy?"
"The Force burns in him. Capture. Corrupt. Or kill."
[System Alert: Sith Phylactery Containment (Lv. 1) – Corruption Resistance -10%]
------------------
James turned fourteen, then fifteen, in the span of a breath. His body, once lean, now carried the dense muscle of a warrior forged in sand and desperation.
[Age: 15]
[Strength: 20 → 22 | Agility: 21 → 23]
[Force (Midichlorian Count): 9,200 → 9,500]
He trained harder. Teräs Käsi Combat (Lv. 7 → Lv. 8) drills left his knuckles bloodied. Force Telekinesis (Lv. 12 → Lv. 13) crushed boulders to dust.
But the true battle lay unseen.
------------------
In the settlement's marketplace, a stranger arrived—a Rodian trader with sun-bleached robes and a smile too wide. His left eye glinted, a microscopic lens feeding data to the Sith.
James passed him a cactus fruit, their fingers brushing. The Force screamed.
[System Alert: Force Sensory Awareness (50% → 55%) – Hostile Intent Detected]
The Rodian grinned. "Lovely village. So… peaceful."
James returned the smile. "For now."
------------------
[STATUS PAGE]
[Age: 15]
[Current Identity: "Victorious Defender of the Tribe"]
[Affiliation: Tribe of Stone Ridge]
[STATS]
[Strength (Physical): 22]
[Agility (Movement & Reaction Speed): 23]
[Force (Midichlorian Count): 9,500]
[Luck: 8]
[SKILLS]
[Staff Combat: 55%] [Advanced] [Foundation skill; opened into subskills like Whirlstrike and Fluid Assault.]
[Combo Chain – Fluid Assault: Lv. 3] [Allows for smoother, uninterrupted chains of attacks during melee.]
[Momentum Skill – Whirlstrike: Lv. 3] [A forceful spinning strike, useful for clearing space or staggering foes.]
[Pain Resistance: 75%] [Allows to keep fighting while injured. Developed from repeated exposure in training and battle.]
[Tactical Insight: Lv. 5] [Grants limited predictive combat intuition; recognizes enemy stance shifts and weaknesses.]
[Force Body: Lv. 3] [Boosts physical resistance and stamina recovery; triggered through willpower during the first trial.]
[Force Sensory Awareness: 55%] [Allows user to detect hidden threats, resources, or presences (e.g., water sources, approaching enemies, or Force-sensitive beings) through the Force.]
[Force Telekinesis: Lv. 13] [Most used Force ability. Can lift, push, and crush enemies mid-combat. Precision is improving. Lift limit is expanded.] [Increased precision and lifting capacity.]
[Kinetic Control: 42%] [Compressing air with invisible force. Summoning the hyperstorm vortex during a battle.] [Precision improved while summoning hyperstorm vortexes.]
[Force Cloak: Lv. 5] [A rare and advanced Force ability that allows a user to mask their Force signature, making them undetectable to other Force-sensitive beings. It's often associated with Sith stealth tactics (e.g., Darth Sidious hiding his dark side presence) or Jedi Shadows (elite Jedi who hunt dark side artifacts covertly).] [Enhanced to mask settlements and amplify illusions.]
[Advanced Force Camouflage: Lv. 2] [Mask not just the tribe's Force signatures, but also physical structures from scans.] [Evolved to mask physical structures from scans, not just Force signatures.]
[Force Reinforcement: Lv. 1] [A utilitarian Force skill that strengthens objects, structures, or the user's body. Jedi often use it to reinforce shields or fortify defenses (e.g., Bastila Shan's Battle Meditation indirectly bolstered allies). Sith might enhance weapons or torture tools.]
[Force Echo: Lv. 5] [Glimpse memories imprinted on objects with audio traces. Get glyphs reaction and ancestral visions from objects.]
[Force Deflection: Lv. 1] [Redirect blaster bolts and physical attacks.]
[Kyber Purification: Lv. 5] [Cleanse dark energy from corrupted kyber crystals.] [Mastered cleansing Sith corruption.]
[Sith Lore: Lv. 2] [Identify Sith relics/curses (e.g., Tharak's corrupted vibrosword, the phylactery).] [Identified Sith Infiltrator-class ships and surveillance tactics.]
[Sith Phylactery Containment: Lv. 1] [Suppress dark energy leaks from the vault's Sith sarcophagus.] [Uses Kyber Purification + Force Nexus Synergy to seal corruption.]
[Force Nexus Synergy: Lv. 4] [Amplify Force abilities within the reactor's radius (e.g., faster skill progression, stronger telekinesis).] [Limitation: Drains reactor stability if overused.] [Reduced energy cost for reactor-linked Force abilities.]
[Strategic Planning: Lv. 6] [New skill unlocked from tribe leadership and defensive planning. Provides insight into long-term survival and defense strategies.]
[Basic Engineering: 38%] [Construction and fortification design.]
[Salvage Crafting: 34% Success Chance] [Repurposing scavenged materials (starship parts, Skarn weapons, etc.) into tools, weapons, or infrastructure.]
[Starship Engineering: Lv. 1] [Can repair basic systems (life support, power grids).]
[Tribal Leadership: Lv. 6] [Governing, morale management, organization.]
[Environmental Empathy (Passive): Lv. 3] [Grants an instinctive connection to the planet's ecosystems, letting the user "read" environmental patterns (weather shifts, geological stability, resource distribution).]
[Hydraulic Mastery: Lv. 1] [Grants advanced understanding of water systems (+10% irrigation efficiency).]
[Hydroponics Design: Lv. 2] [This skill boosts food security by allowing soil-free cultivation in sealed greenhouse domes, using recycled water from hyperstorm runoff and Force-regulated humidity.]
[Crisis Management Lv. 1] [Enables the user to make rapid, effective decisions during emergencies (raids, natural disasters, resource shortages).]
[Risk Assessment: Lv. 1] [Calculates cost/benefit ratios for critical decisions.]
[Teräs Käsi Combat: Lv. 8] [A melee weapon and hand-to-hand combat technique that was created to fight force-sensitives, particularly members of the Jedi Order.] [Unlocked "Dune Tempest" Combo (spinning staff strikes + Force-assisted momentum).] [Unlocked "Dragon's Bane", +25% damage vs. large creatures.] [Unlocked "Advanced Combos" for close-quarters efficiency.]
[Earthborn Resilience: Lv. 1] [Brutal training regimen blending Earth endurance and desert survival. Reduces fatigue from manual labor and combat.]
[Archaeotechnology: Lv. 3] [Decoding/repurposing ancient tech (e.g., reactor's stone tablet, geared mechanisms).]
[Low-Tech Engineering: Lv. 1] [Designing systems without galactic tech (Roman aqueducts, windmills).]
[Terraforming Nexus: Lv. 5] [Advanced climate control, sandstorm illusions, and tactical environmental manipulation.] [Climate Control: Redirects hyperstorms, irrigates fields.] [Force Illusion: Projects a sandstorm shield (masks the tribe from scans).] [Expanded to fully cloak the settlement and manipulate environmental illusions.]
[Sandshift Ambush: Lv. 1] [Camouflage traps (pits, ion charges) in dunes for +25% damage.] [Combines Kinetic Control and Environmental Empathy.]