Stolen Memories: Path to Reconnection

The Seeds of Trust------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Location: The Highrise, Hyperspace

The Silence was what bothered Korrik most. Sitting in the pilots chair and starring into the hypnotic blue spiraling of hyperspace was almost calming. Yet there was little time to enjoy it but at least it wasn’t silent. The three new additions to the crew made sure of that. And Korrik had plenty of his own to say.

“You…shot me.” He said slowly.

“Can you blame me? I was trying to save my friend.” Twilight defended.

“So your first thought was to shoot the guy helping her?” He asked.

“I had no idea you were her ally.”

“Twilight, I didn’t even have my blasters drawn, what made you think I was hostile?”

“…er…cus you were… in the city and… *ahem* you weren’t Applejack.”

“How very… single minded of you.”

“I had a goal and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me besides it only would have stunned you.” Somehow knowing that didn’t make Korrik feel any better.

“So… tell me more about you Korrik. I understand you fought in the Mandalorian Wars?” Korrik froze.

“H-how do you know that!?”

“Ya fought against the Mandalorians?” Applejack questioned as she walked into the cockpit. Twilight took a step back looking a little alarmed.

“Umm Velvet told me…I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“What did she tell you Twilight.” Korrik interrupted, his voice carrying a tone of gravity.

“She said… that you visibly carry the scars of the war. That the war holds a lot of meaning for you.”

“How did ya survive Malachor?” Applejack asked. Korrik stood from his seat and left the cockpit, leaving two confused ponies behind him. He walked to the port dormitory where Velvet and Areuli were having a conversation of their own.

“Areuli I’d like to speak to Velvet privately for a moment.” Areuli broke off from her talk and asked.“Can it wait? She’s in the middle of a very good st-”

“Areuli please leave, this is important.” Korrik’s face looked grim, the severity of what Velvet had inadvertently done was beginning to weigh on him.

“Umm… alright, I’ll be in the cockpit when you’re done.” She carefully got up from her cot and left the room, the door hissing shut behind her. The silence was back and it lingered for some time before either one was willing to break it.

“How much do you know?” Velvets expression didn’t change.

“What do you mean Mr. Delwyn?”

“The Mandalorian Wars Velvet! You told Twilight that I fought against them. How. Much. Do. You. Know.” A small smile appeared on Velvet’s face. “I see there’s no avoiding this. You remember that I work, well worked for the Exchange. And you have not exactly been discreet with your past dealings.”

“How could they know? I- I covered myself so well…”

“There is plenty we don’t know and there’s some that only I know. You carry much regret and pain Korrik, I’m slowly piecing it together.” Korrik turned back and looked Velvet in the eyes.

“So…you don’t know what I did?”

“I know how you value trust. If you truly want others to trust you and not betray you, wouldn’t it be best to tell the truth?” She dodged the question but there was some merit to what she said and with the state the republic was in… maybe the time for secrets was coming to an end. It was so long ago, it was the root of why he started to distrust all those around him. If he did indeed want to help his new pony friends, they needed to know more about him, he needed to plant the seeds of trust.

“Alright Velvet, you’d probably figure it out eventually right? You ready for this?”

Korrik walked back to the cockpit and was surprised to see that Applejack and Twilight had not moved the both of them were sitting where he left them. Only now Areuli had joined them. He decided to spare them the whole story, best not to overwhelm them he thought. He wanted to start earning their trust not scare them away. He took his seat back at the helm and stared out into the spiraling blue. Twilight was the first to speak.

“Korrik…I’m sorry if I-”

“It’s ok Twilight, I can’t blame you for asking.”

“So you were a soldier?”

“Given my line of work is that truly so surprising?”

“A little, going from soldier to… criminal enforcer is a bit drastic.”

“Remember that there was a lot of time between the end of the Mandalorian Wars and now.” Areuli and Applejack remained quiet.

“But those are different stories, you asked about the Mandalorians… truth is I never wanted to be a soldier, never wanted to fight them.”

“Then why did ya?” Applejack spoke up and asked.

“I didn’t have a choice, I never had a choice.”

“Why haven’t I heard this story?” Areuli inquired.

“You didn’t need to know now listen up, you may all think less of me after this but some things can’t go unsaid forever. Now like I said, I didn’t have a choice. I was born on Taris where I lived my whole life until 10 years ago. During the riots and panic after the Padawan massacre when that Jedi who killed them escaped Taris, public faith in the Jedi plummeted and amidst the chaos the Mandalorians started their onslaught.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 years ago (3,963 BBY)Location: Taris, surface.

It was early afternoon when the sirens began blaring. The Republic was trying to stop the Mandalorian advance in the Outer Rim Territories and was stretched far too thin in the area, so when the Mandalorian fleet pulled out of hyperspace it took them only a few hours to destroy the few orbiting ships and start landing troops to the surface.

It was in the cities that the fighting was thickest. The Republic garrisons rose to meet the invaders and the whole planet was caught in between. The upper city was in ruin and the casualties were climbing by the hour. My family, my parents, myself and my younger sister Serana, were in the Upper city when they started their landing. I can’t even begin to describe the sight of their Basilisks raining from the sky, destroying every air defense tower and platform in a flurry of turbo lasers.

The air filled with the sound of battle as the sky began to become clouded in smoke and explosions. We ran along the walkways trying our hardest to escape to the Lower city, to a place where there was cover from their bombardment. But the walkways where in absolute chaos, civilians and soldiers alike ran back and forth trying to escape or confront the attackers. Then she fell, I don’t know who or how but I heard my sister shout out to me. When I turned back, I saw her on the ground struggling to stand amidst the sea of panicked civilians. My parents stopped running and watched as I tried to run to her but the moving crowd made it almost impossible to reach her. It was like trying to swim against a current. So I couldn’t do a thing when turbo lasers ripped through the walkway, knocking me back towards my parents. The rest of the walkway began to crumble away, spilling all those people on it, my sister included to the planet surface thousands of feet below. My screams were unheard as my parents dragged me away into the Lower city.

I didn’t see any conflict for the rest of the week as we scurried through the Lower city’s streets, usually one step ahead of the Mandalorians as they began clearing out the remaining pockets of survivors and the soldiers they sometimes harbored. The grief for my sister’s death must have hit my parents all at once; they began to breakdown and shifted their sorrow onto me. For the next few days they started blaming me for Serana’s death, saying I wasn’t fast enough that I could have saved her. So when the Mandalorians finally kicked in our door, they offered me to them in exchange for their lives. They took their offer only to slap a blaster in my hands and tell me to kill them. They said that they wouldn’t tolerate a useless conscript, that it was my life for theirs. I couldn’t do it…at first. I started thinking about the last few days, how they blamed me, how they both turned against me and how they were so willing and almost glad to offer me as a sacrifice for their own survival. I didn’t say anything to them, I closed my eyes and fired.

I spent the next few days as support for my invaders soldiers. They spoke freely of what sectors they had swept and where their forward camps were and would be. I felt the guilt of what I had done and how maybe they were right about me. Even if they weren’t, my family was dead. Because of me. As soon as I got the chance, I escaped and joined the resistance. They were a group of swoop gangs and others who were ready to stand against their oppressors. I brought with me what information I could on their base of operations, supply caches and troop movements.

The resistance leaders devised a plan to take out the person leading the siege, Cassus Fett, at his base in the Jedi Tower. Our assault on the tower was a surprising success but word reached us that Fett was not in the tower and before long Mandalorian reinforcements began arriving and gunning the resistance down. It was around this time that the Republic began withdrawing from the planet, saving whoever they could. After the failed operation at the Jedi Tower, I learned of one of the Republic’s salvage ops and I boarded their escape shuttle. They found me once they hit hyperspace and gave me two options, join the Republic Military or they would drop me off at the nearest planet. I thought back to what I had done and decided that fighting the Mandalorians was the best option. I looked at it as atonement for my actions, that joining the war was the best good I could do, even if it never banished the guilt from my heart. That’s how my new life started and how I learned that no matter how close someone is to you, they are capable of betrayal.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Present Day (3,953 BBY)Location: The Highrise, Hypersace.

Silence, how he hated the silence. All across the room the expression was the same, they were horrified, even Areuli who had known him for almost three years now.

“Y-you killed yer parents?” Applejack asked.

“How could you do that? You should have fought for them. Even if it meant you’d die.” Areuli added.

“Don’t think I haven’t considered that. Maybe I made the wrong choice but at the time…I couldn’t forgive them.”

“Is this why you didn’t want to talk about the war?” Twilight asked.

“Partially but the worst part is, that’s not the only atrocity I committed during the war, I did so much.”

“Like what?” the nav computer began beeping.

“Ask me again sometime. Areuli start landing procedures, we’ve arrived.”