-|Jedi Temple, Tolun Fi’s Lab, Day 1, 11:47 GST|-

A deep, violent rumble caused numerous fixtures in the laboratory to shake, some of which contained valuable specimens and samples that had taken some time to obtain and formulate. The stillness that followed was a peace illusion of calm before an even heavier impact caused several of the jars and vails to be lodged from their shelves, shattering in countless pieces. Tolun Fi watched a pair of juvenile kouhun he had been farming venom from scurry under the lab’s centrifuge out of sight and made no effort to stop them, or prevent the rest of the destruction that was currently befalling his laboratory. Instead, the Kaminoan calmly approached the heavy blast door, locking it with a flick of the wrist. 

His lightsaber was in his hand next, a tool as much as it was a weapon. A brush with the activation wheel caused the long azure blade to emit from the weapon, and it was immediately thrust into the control panel of the door. Tolun Fi was satisfied. It would take a lightsaber or a detpack to breach the door, which was all but a guarantee, but it bought him a few more minutes. The consular extinguished his blade, placing it back in its customary place on his hip. There was still work to do.

The terminal still counted up until completion, only a few percentage points from backing up the most important of his work to a small drive that was designed to sit flush and inconspicuous with the small diagnosis console and climate control center built into his suit. With any luck, the Sith wouldn’t discover it, and if they did they would have quite an amusing time trying to not only bypass the encryption but also translating all of the content from Kaminoan to the common language. The convenient problem with the Sith was in their racial superiority complex they were exceedingly poor at diversifying.They were rather squeamish about near-humans as it were, but anything and anyone who did not fit their narrow worldview wasn’t worthy of existing in their eyes. Someone would be along to kill him shortly, particularly because Kaminoans were decidedly not one of the species that fit the Sith vision of purity. Ironic, considering he was the product of countless generations of selective breeding and genetic engineering. Pure Sith were quite diluted specimen in comparison.   

The transfer was still not complete when yet another rumble shook the lab, causing the lights to dim and more glass to shatter. Tolun Fi could sense the extinguishing of life all throughout the temple, and he did not have to check the security holo to know the Sith were responsible, as the oppressive presence of the Dark Side hung heavy in the air. As he set about dismantling and destroying the equipment in the lab, he thought of the people he had grown to know rather well the past 30 years, knowing he would never see them again. It wasn’t grief that gripped him, but rather a sense of serenity. They would be released from the bonds of corporeal life and return to the Force where they would live on forever. 

The consular thought of Xid, the brilliant young man who was recently anointed a Jedi knight. Perhaps if Xid survived, Tolun would seek him out from beyond and provide guidance, were he able to find his way. He paused at a screen with Nazca’s face on it, the older girl who was saved from a Hutt cartel, if he recalled correctly. A diagram of her hands rotated slowly under the portrait, showing the cruel melding of flesh, bone, and metal. “Unfortunate timing, it would seem. Your surgery was next week. It is regrettable you will not have an opportunity to experience life free from those shackles.” The Kaminoan said to the screen before he ran the machine through with his lightsaber, he expression unchanging, observing the carnage he had unleashed upon the lab. It was a regrettable loss, but it wasn’t as if he was going to let the Sith defile his lab. It wasn’t as if there were many minds amongst them that could even begin to comprehend his work. There were sub-evolved creatures that consumed their own feces that had more potential than the Sith did. 

A single beep caught Tolun Fi’s attention and the Kaminoan walked towards the database he was saving his emergency back-up to, catching a falling jar of a neurotoxin that had shaken free of its cabinet. He sent this jar to rest beside the blast door with telekinesis. He had originally been testing to see if it could be used to halt the spread of cancerous cells or slow the heart in the case of advanced tachycardia. Now it would serve to perform in a much more hasty experiment with a very limited control group. Would the blast that took the door down destroy enough of the agitated liquid to render its toxicity inefficient to cause casualties, or would the heat promote an exponential expansion that would incapacitate any unprotected troopers that crossed the threshold? He reflected it was just as likely to be a lightsaber that pried its way through, thus rendering the inconspicuous jar useless, but it hardly mattered. 

Ejecting the drive from the server, Tolun Fi destroyed the console with his lightsaber and slipped it into its slot on his person. He had not expected to die by the blade, a tool he found to be a boorish necessity, but life was full of unexpected surprises, up to and including a daring and brilliant assault on the Jedi Temple deep in the heart of Republic space. There was regret he would be unlikely to finish his work, given the exceedingly long odds of him surviving the next thirty minutes, but there was a potential plus side; if he did survive, there would be a near endless supply of test subjects to complete his research. Now the only question was if the Jedi would prevail and repel the attack or if the Sith would ultimately destroy every soul in the Temple.

Tolun Fi frowned, realizing for the first time in a long time, he had nothing to do. Who knew waiting to die would be so tedious?