[Solved] Lest We Forget: The Montitian Extraction

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Previously: The Miners of Montitia

Lest We Forget: The Montitian Extraction

Dracos was lost. He was looking for a plaza in the slums of Gardille, one of the larger settlements on Montitia, but the streets were a confusing warren of narrow, intersecting paths and alleyways. The homes and shops were stacked three or even four levels high with stairs connecting elevated paths and mezzanines. At least it was warmer down here than in the mountains, thought Dracos. Together with his Free Colonies partner, the large green lizard had tracked down a local leader, Numed Sinoos, in the nearby mining cliffs and convinced him to represent Montitia at talks on the New Republic capital, Chandrilla. Back at lower elevations, Dracos had discarded his heavy cloak, leaving his cyborg arm exposed for all to see.

“Hello!”, called Dracos. Sitting by the open air window of what looked to be a small home was a male Tren. Dracos thought he recognised the blue humanoid from among the miners he’d help rescue earlier, although the Tren’s simple features gave him some doubt. “I’m looking for Kwinn Plaza but I seem to be a bit lost. Can you point me in the right direction?”

The Tren smiled, confirmed he’d been in the mines, and gave Dracos a couple more directions. “You’ll know it when you see it,” he laughed. Following the instructions, Dracos puzzled over the phrase. More than one local had said the same thing: You’ll know it when you see it.

Dracos finally emerged into a large area. Tan stucco walls lined the space, interspersed with grey carved pillars. The earth was dry and dusty except where basalt columns pierced the planet’s surface. It was the kind of neighbourhood that Dracos had seen hundreds of times before on poor worlds. Homes and shops were inseparable and the front porch of hovels was treated as an extra living space. Here, a branch office of the local miners union, currently guarded by a wrinkled Asogian, sat across from a small baked goods and perishables stall. While all of that was unremarkable, what occupied the centre of the plaza was anything but.

“By Roomba, that is one ugly…”

The heart of the plaza was dominated by a four-metre high metal sculpture of a fantastical alien. It looked like the cross between a worm and a centipede and was shaped like the Aurebesh letter “usk”. Along both sides of the creature, metal wires bent outward in imitation of spines or flagella while on its head were sculpted six bulbous eyes.

“You’ll know it when you see it, alright!” said Dracos to himself.

“What do you think of our statue?” The voice came from a diminutive woman who had come up alongside Dracos. The reptile’s hulking body dwarfed the speaker, a wrinkled Weequay.

“It’s… quite something,” said Dracos, choosing his words carefully. “Is that… Is it Charza Kwinn?”

“You are a student of our history, then! Yes, the great Charza, hero to many on Montitia; although the younglings seem to care less and less these days. You must be Dracos. Numed told me to expect you, although I thought you’d be here some time ago. Come.”

The Weequay woman, Tas, took Dracos’ hand in an endearing way and led him through the plaza. She took him up some narrow stairs – ignored the calls of a purple Twi’lek droid salesman – past some Trandoshans selling ‘meat’ outside a boarded-up door, and into her small apartment.

“Numed tells me you want to hear about the Montitian Extraction. I was there, you know? I was one of the refugees.”

Over a cup of tea, Tas retold the story in rather meandering fashion of how Montitia was invaded by the neighbouring Extortins, who wanted the planet’s rich mineral resources to fuel their burgeoning war fleet. Eventually the Republic intervened. A group of Jedi Knights and their Padawans were dispatched to rescue as many of the Montitian refugees as they could. When extraction looked impossible, a brave pilot in an unarmed shuttle managed to pierce the Extortin blockade and rescue the Jedi and the refugees.

“That pilot was Charza Kwinn – and he damn well saved my life that day. That statue is the least we could do in thanks,” she concluded, her eyes tearing up. Kwinn was one of the Priapulin species, amphibian gastropods renowned for their pacifist ways.

“Montitia has never really recovered. We took on large debts from the Mining Guild to rebuild our infrastructure, but we have never been able to service the loans. Now the Guild oppresses us economically almost as must as the Extortins ever did militarily!”

Dracos took another piece of sweet cake to allow the woman to compose herself. “Can you tell me anymore about the Jedi involved?”

“Not many are interested in the old Jedi stories these days. ‘Legends’, they call them.” Tas snorted derisively. “I best remember a beautiful Sephi Jedi. ‘Chellemi Chuovvick’ – a name as graceful as she was. There were others: a human named Brand, I think, and … some aliens that were unfamiliar to me.” She shared some more details of the Jedi efforts to slow the Extortins. “But why do you care? That fire is long gone from the galaxy.”

Tas stood abruptly and began clearing the dishes to her tiny kitchen.

Silence. Unconsciously, Dracos rubbed the durasteel nub of his elbow joint. He knew he should say nothing. Take the story, move on. Endanger no one, least of all this quiet citizen. His eyes focused on the elbow and he winced with some phantom pain from his lost limb. Loose lips had led to this wound, after all, and much worse: death for some of his closest friends.

Not complete silence:  muffled tears, disguised as a cough could be faintly heard. Dracos gritted his teeth and wriggled one of his long incisors. Against his better judgement, he spoke softly:

“Their fire isn’t completely extinguished.”

Strange flickering shadows caused Tas to turn back. She gasped. Dracos was holding out his hand. Hovering above it was a small ball of light, almost like a flame, that cast the leaping shadows. Dracos met Tas’ eyes and let the light fade.

“You’re one of them! You’re a Jedi!”

“No… no, I’m not,” Dracos demurred, “but I used to know one – and I’ve picked up the odd trick from my childhood. My role – the real reason I’m here – is to seek out and recover the stories, the histories, the fingerprints the old Jedi left behind. We have lost so much already in the few short years since the Republic fell. The stories that you have shared with me today are an incredible gift to pass on to those that will inherit the mantle of all that the Jedi of old did for the galaxy. So, thank you and keep your hope alive.”

He hoped he wouldn’t regret those words. Surely this far from the main hyperlanes such words were safe.

Tas turned away again and began rummaging in a cluttered drawer. “Here, I want you to take this,” she said showing Dracos a small ring – a signet ring. It was steel, set with a pentangle of small red stones. “Chellemi gave me this while we were fleeing the planet. I was terrified and panicking but I commented on how beautiful the ring was. She told me it was a gift on her graduation to the rank of Jedi Knight. She took it off and gave it to me to trust that we’d be safe and that the Republic would protect us.”

Dracos tried to refuse the gift but the woman insisted. “My boys are not interested in such trinkets or believe even half my old stories anyway. No, it is best that you take it and pass it on.” Dracos embraced the frail woman and accepted.

Preparing to return to Gardille’s starport, he asked Tas for the fastest way back. “You go next door and borrow a flitter from Ulaha. You tell that Bith I sent you and she better not charge you for it or else there will be trouble!”

~~~~

Back at the starport, Dracos rejoined his Free Colonies partner, Bindi, for their shuttle off planet. Bindi spotted the ring and rolled her eyes. “Shopping for trinkets in the junk markets again? I don’t know what you see in them. Let me take you to the jewellers on Mirial one day, then you’ll see real craftmanship!”

“Call me sentimental, but I prefer something with a bit of history attached.”

Spoiler

Additional images

Gardille from above

The branch office of the miners' union

Dracos, Tas and the sculpture

Tren and Toydarian play dejarik

Stall for baked goods, fruit and vegetables

Ulaha's STAP rental, only 125 credits

Twi'lek boy

Spoiler

Behind the scenes

Lore notes

• The Montitian Extraction and the role of Charza Kwinn, the Priapulin, come from Gamer magazine. This is one of only 3 mentions of Montitia so I thought I’d honour it in this build.
• Charza is originally from the novel Rogue Planet, which also introduced Jedi signet rings. Here is the source images I relied on for my sculpture:

• The Tren species comes from the next grid over so it makes sense to place a couple here. If anyone is interested, a while back I created this resource for seeing the native species of each grid on the galactic map. It's out of date but should still be of use. 
• In terms of style, the use of minifigures hands is a nod to Nutttter Butttter's build, 
• Can't work out where the apartment images are from? Well, it's built into the back of this MOC!