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Taron Malicos might have been part of my Order but what he is now, I... I have no idea. All I do know is having a lightsaber isn't what makes you a Jedi. We were peace keepers. We were betrayed by those we protected. Hunted down by the Empire. I... I might be one of the last of my kind. |
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— Himself |
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Cal Kestis has returned. The young Padawan who survived the Jedi Purge and later claimed the mantel of Jedi Knight, vanished mysteriously after first openly defying the Empire by denying them a valuable cache of hidden information. Now a dozen years after disappearing from the galactic stage he is back. Unchanged by the passage of those years Cal thanks to being frozen in carbonite, Cal lacks answers to what happened to his friends and allies. What Cal does have is a renewed determination to show the galaxy that a Knight of a Fallen Order can rise again.
Personality
As a Padawan Cal Kestis was a diligent and apt student, a hard worker who strove to learn what his Master could teach him of the ways of The Force, a believer in Jedi and their purpose as guardians of peace and justice. Cal had an innate openness about him and general good nature. Though he would have his struggles, he was generally quick to learn new skills uses of The Force that his Master would impart to him and if at first he failed, he would always rise back up and try again.
As a survivor of the Jedi Purge, he followed simple rules to survive, Don't Stand Out. Accept The Past. Trust No One. Don't Reach Within. Hiding from the Empire as a member of Bracca's Scrapper Guild, Cal kept mostly to himself, worked diligently, with a focused work ethic that saw him become one of their elite Riggers and did so with general humbleness so as to not draw undue notice. He kept mostly to himself, personable enough when approached, but otherwise staying quiet, unnoticed. Haunted by the past, by the traumatic events of the purge and the feeling of failing his Master, Cal refused to discuss that past, reacting with anger or cool dismal when the subject was broached. Cal also proved a bit of daredevil at least on the job and as it was part of the job description in many ways. That being the case, it was something he could indulge in without standing out.
Cal broke that last rule when his one real friend on Bracca was plummeting towards death. He reached within, risking his safety to save another. He stood out, breaking another rule and drawing notice from the Empire putting into the place as a hunted fugitive. He'd break the other two rules as well. He'd come to trust the unlikely crew he fell in with, a lost droid, a gruff pilot, a former Jedi, and a Nightsister of Dathomir, forging strong bonds of common purpose that allowed them to thrawt the Empire in recovering Eno Cordova's Holocrom. He'd come to trust in The Force once more and most importantly in himself. He would no longer merely accept the past, that the Empire had won and that it was now immutable fact the Jedi had Fallen and the Empire would rule. He would confront the past, defy that he would be forever broken by it, overcome what he had gone through of it to emerge a Jedi Knight.
No longer haunted by the past, no longer broken and held in place, Cal instead lets it drive him forward, giving him the determination to strive to be what a Jedi should be, a light in the darkness. Though Cal would like nothing more than to see the Jedi Order rise once more, he's grown to see that the Jedi were not infallible, especially when it came to eschewing emotional attachments. Cal's experiences have show him that although strong attachments and emotions can lead to the Dark Side, they can also lead one back to the Light. They are not just a weakness to feared as an exploit, but a source of strength to draw upon as well. If the galaxy is to throw off the yoke of Imperial rule, it will not be by standing apart, it will be by working together.
Background
As a Padawan, Cal Kestis survived the Jedi Purge. Traumatized by the death of his master and the betrayal of those events, his connection to The Force was severely damaged. Nearly powerless, he spent years in hiding working with the Scrapper's Guild on Bracca until events forced him back out into the open. After a series of harrowing trials Cal claimed his place as a Jedi Knight, his connection to The Force was healed and his faith in himself and the Jedi's purpose restored. It was a moment of triumph over tragedy with Cal having a new determination to show the galaxy that not all the Jedi had fallen, to help those oppressed by the Empire, and to bring peace and justice to a galaxy far, far away.
Then he vanished from the galactic stage. Captured by bounty hunters while providing a diversion to allow his friends to escape aboard the Mantis, Cal Kestis was placed in carbonite suspension until he could be turned over to the Empire. He disappeared without a trace when a stowaway BD-1 sabotaged the ship transporting Cal, causing the vessel to go wildly off course and crash on a remote planet in an obscure system in the Anoat sector of the Outer Rim Territories. With Cal rescued, though now stranded on a very inhospitable planet, Beedee left the young Jedi frozen in carbonite for safekeeping and activated an encoded distress beacon before entering into low-power mode to await eventual rescue. Due to the isolated location and weakness of the signal, that rescue would not come for another dozen years when that alert was finally detected.
Rescued at last, Cal was left with many unanswered questions. What happened to his friends and allies? What happened to their ship the Mantis? Did they escape? Were they destroyed by the bounty hunters? If they escaped.. what happened to them afterwards. With too many such questions with no ready answer to them, Cal focused himself on the on thing that was clear. That he had lost too much time. Too much time where the Empire only grew stronger, where hope faded, where belief in the Jedi and The Force was relegated to tall tales or dismissed as ancient religion best forgotten. Too much time lost and now that Cal Kestis is back he's not wasting any more time. The time is now. To remind the galaxy of what the Jedi were, guardians of peace and justice. To awaken the galaxy to what the Jedi can be, the light of a new hope, the spark of rebellion that can be fanned into flames. To show that even a vanished Knight of a Fallen Order can rise again.
SKILLS
The years Cal spent working in the physically demanding job of a Rigger for the Scrapper Guild on Bracca served to hone what his Jedi training had already begun. Cal is a highly skilled athlete when it comes to running, throwing, climbing, jumping, lifting, swimming, and so forth. He has excellent stamina, reflexes, and general fitness.
Cal has only limited skill when it comes to firing blasters, whether they be hold-out blasters, pistols, rifles, carbines, or various forms of mounted artillery.
Brawling - Competent Level
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Scrappers and Riggers are not known to be the most genteel of individuals; in his time among them Cal's been in more than a few situations that devolved into physical confrontations. Those experiences taught Cal how to hold his own in a brawl, though he's far better when he's got a lightsaber readily at hand.
Cal has an innate and a earnest charm that serves him well in dealing with others, enabling him to make friends and allies even among unlikely company, such as turning Merrin from foe to friend during the course of his time on Dathomir. Though he's best served when playing fully into his general openness with honest and forthright speech, years spent hiding from the Empire have made him quite adept at deception and misdirection when it would better serve him.
Knowledge - Competent Level
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Cal has a reasonable knowledge of many galactic cultures, planets, and so forth. He understands a smattering of languages, including Basic, Binary, Shyriiwook, Lasat, Abednedish, and ancient Zeffo. He's generally familiar with how to get by in the more rough and tumble regions of the galaxy and can fall back onto his early Jedi training to fit in among more refined company.
Lightsaber - Expert Level
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Cal trained extensively under Jedi Master Jaro Tapal during the Clone Wars in lightsaber combat, and though that training was tragically cut short by the execution of Order 66 and the death of his Master, Cal proved to be apt student who absorbed the foundations, if not the mastery, of the skills his Master was imparting to him. Lacking a full formal education, Cal has developing and honed his own unique style of lightsaber combat rather than adhering to any of the traditional forms, though they still serve as recognizable foundations of his bladework. He relies heavily on raw talent and improvisation, switching rapidly between Force powers and bladework, between offense and defense, between single-blade, double-blade, and dual wielding on the fly in a manner that can make him difficult to predict and respond to, even among those with greater formal training.
Mechanical - Expert Level
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Cal spent years in hiding working with Bracca's Scrapper Guild elite Rigger's, working salvage operations on everything capital ships to speeders. Those years have helped make him an expert when it comes to dealing with mechanical damage and repairs as even salvageable components and machinery often required some amount of repairing before being suitable for resale and reuse.
Cal has a basic knowledge of medicine, such that he can render basic first aid, even out in the field.
Piloting - Competent Level
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Cal's no ace starpilot, but he's reasonably competent behind the controls of most any vehicle. Years spent salvaging and working on all kinds of vehicles has given him enough general familiarity with layouts, designs, and control schemes that he can operate just about anything that flies or moves with reasonable success, including the time he commandeered an AT-AT during ongoing efforts to liberate Kashyyyk, resulting in the destruction of a large number of Imperial forces and a small reprieve in the fighting.
Years in hiding helped teach Cal the finer points when it comes to being stealthy and passing unnoticed. Knowing when to creep about in the shadows as quietly as possible or when to just move about as casually as possible or with deliberate purpose are just as important and Cal's gained expertise in knowing when and how to move to avoid notice. His slender frame is also an asset in this regard, allow him to squeeze through small gaps that others might readily dismiss as a path of travel.
Survival - Competent Level
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Cal's a survivor, he's been doing it since the fall of the Republic and the purging of the Jedi Order while he was still a young Padawan. Living through those events has taught him much about what it takes to simply survive to the next day, scrounging to survive while always looking over his shoulder for the shadow of the Empire. Even after gaining work with Scrapper's Guild, Cal was always aware that Imperial forces could discover him at any time and he'd be on the run again and trained himself in various methods of staying alive in various environments. From the scrapyards of Bracca to the wilds of Kashyyyk, in most environments, Cal can find one way or another to make them reasonably habitable.
Technical - Competent Level
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From communications technology to droid programming, equipment repair, or rewiring a basic door lock, Cal's a competent technician thanks to his time spent as Scrapper's Guild Rigger. Cal's made excellent use of those skills since leaving that life behind and taking up the mantle of Jedi Knight, from the various modifications he's made to his companion droid BD-1 to building his own split hilt double-bladed lightsaber from a variety of components from different damaged ones, what he learned on Bracca has served him well.
Living through the Jedi Purge, the betrayal of Clone Troopers he'd lived and worked alongside, the death of his Master, may have broken Cal's connection to The Force for a time and kept him in hiding for years, but those events, though traumatizing never broke his will. When the time came to step into the open, Cal didn't falter or hesitate. His mind and will have been forged by his experiences into something focused and powerful. Though easier to reach, he remains difficult to sway or turn against his will. He weathers mental assault and intrusion better than most, and it's much more difficult to compel him to do anything he is not inclined to do.
ABILITIES
Tech Item: A99 Aquata Breather - Basic Level
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Cal possesses an A99 aquata breather, also called a Jedi breathing device. It is a small breathing device consisting of a compact mouthpiece that can fit in a utility belt. Routinely carried by many Jedi during field operations, it is designed to supply its wearer with a breathable gas, such as oxygen in the case of humans. Thanks to its advanced filters, it can work underwater, in a vacuum, or among certain noxious environments. Its miniature compressed air tanks can supply oxygen for up to two hours.
Tech Item: Climbing Claws - Enhanced Level
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Cal possesses a set of climbing claws recovered from the corpse of a Nightbrother on Dathomir. Essentially a set of fingerless gloves with claws that automatically extend and retract with the movement's of the wearer's fingers. They greatly speed and enhance Cal's ability to climb surfaces and in a pinch they can be used as makeshift melee weapons.
Force Power: Enhance Trait - Enhanced Level
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The Force can enhance its user in many ways. Specialized uses of this talent include Force healing and Force speed, but in more general terms it can be used to enhance the user in various ways. These include improving a skill that relies on mental focus or manual dexterity, imparting increased physical toughness such as to reduce injury, sharpening senses, or increasing physical strength. In practice, this ability can stand in for any other personal attribute when invoked, though only one attribute can be enhanced at a time: strength, dexterity, toughness, perception, intelligence, etc. This is accomplished via a brief meditation, after which the effect generally lasts from a few minutes up to a few hours, depending on the ability of the user and the length of time spend preparing. It can also be used in brief bursts of up to a few seconds with no advance preparation.
Cal is a fairly typical user of this ability. He most often uses this ability to sharpen his reflexes in combat. He does not as often enhance his strength or physical senses, as lightsabers do not require great strength to wield, and he tends to trust in his ability to sense the world around him through The Force itself.
As a result of his time spent hiding from the Empire as a Rigger of the Scrapper Guild on Bracca, which often involved death defying daredevil work of dangerous climbs, moving through tight passages, and performing acrobatic leaps across dangerous gaps in often unstable terrain to reach salvageable starship wreckage, Cal has particularly great agility, which passively operates at the Enhanced level at all times.
Force Power: Farsight - Enhanced Level
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This form of advanced clairvoyance allows The Force-user to see visions of other locations, even other times. This may include seeing a target in real time, witnessing the events happening to and around them, but it may also convey glimpses of the future, though these are seldom to be depended upon, as the future is always in motion, always changing. The more physical and emotional distance between the farseer and their target, the more difficult the feat becomes. Between two farseers, it's possible to achieve mental communication in this way, though usually such effects are limited.
Cal was born with an innate talent in Farsight, a rare variant sometimes known as Psychometry or sometimes called Sense Echo. While Jedi are often at the mercy of The Force when it comes to receiving visions from it or require intense personal connections or deep meditative focus to even attempt to purposefully invoke them, Cal's talent enables him greater control in initiating such Force Visions, stronger focus on what he sees and experiences, and further reach in the times and places he can reach. When utilizing Farsight in conjunction with close physical contact with objects or places strongly associated with events or people he's attempting to connect with, Cal can more readily call upon Farsight requiring only a brief meditative stretching forth of his senses to perceive what insights The Force might grant him. Though Cal's talent enables him to more readily utilize his Jedi Farsight, what he experiences and learns during such intentionally triggered events remains largely within the province of the Will of The Force.
Most such visions are of mundane events or those that are inconsequential on the Galactic scale, and primarily are focused solely on past events, only rarely do they focus on the present and even less frequently the future. Others can offer deep insights that have the potential to directly change the course of larger events or create otherwise unintended or unexpected consequences. Notably Cal experienced several Force Visions triggered by his Psychometry during his search for Eno Cordova's Holocron that had him reliving key moments of his own training that helped repair his damaged connection to The Force and restored abilities he'd long thought lost to him. Another vision was powerful enough to cause the physical shattering of the kyber crystal in his Master's lightsaber, resulting in Cal having to travel to Ilum in search of a new one with which to build anew his own lightsaber. Yet another vision showed a potential future in which Cal was eventually turned to the Dark Side after gaining Cordova's Holocron and, rather than seeing that future come to pass, he destroyed it and the data it contained without looking at it himself, lest even his knowledge of that information somehow fall into the Empire's hands.
Though Cal has greater control in willingly initiating such visions he can still be caught off guard and have them unexpectedly triggered through careless handling of items steeped with powerful emotional remnants or strong ties to The Force itself, Force Wielders, be they Jedi, Sith, or Other, or people or events that Cal himself is strongly connected to.
Force Power: Force Healing - Basic Level
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By combining microtelekinesis and the ability to enhance the body in specific ways, Force-users are able to provide various healing effects for themselves or others. This includes repairing injuries, detoxifying poisons, combating illness, or even placing oneself or another in a stasis trance, allowing them to stabilize from injuries and exist with limited food, water, or oxygen or in other physically strenuous conditions for extended periods. This ability generally requires close proximity or contact with the intended target if it is being used on another. Such healing generally a gradual process, taking place over hours or days, though particularly gifted healers may be able to achieve much faster results.
Cal is not a naturally gifted healer. Normally he can heal most injuries, detoxify most poisons, or even fight off most forms of disease, but he will usually require a healing stasis trance for anything but minor problems, and it can take him days at a time to achieve full recovery--longer if the injury or ailment was especially bad. When in such a trance, he will awaken either after the period of time he intended to go under, when in peril, or when there is a grave disturbance in The Force.
However when operating in conjunction with proper medical technology, such as the stimpacks that DB-1 can dispense, Cal's able to boost his Force Healing to Enhanced level with the healing occurring much more rapidly, minutes becoming instants, hours becoming moments, and days becoming hours.
Force Power: Force Resistance - Enhanced Level
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The Force can be a powerful means of defense, even against other Force powers. The ability to resist other Force powers is especially useful when resisting invasive powers, such as draining one's essence through the Force, or exposure to the corrupting influence of the Dark Side. Force Resistance also grants passive defenses against powers that induced fear, disorientation, loss of senses, paralysis, or otherwise directly affect a target through the Force. Generally, it does not protect against having one's thoughts read or influenced via Mentalism, however, and it does not counter powers such as Force Lightning or Telekinesis.
Cal is a skilled user of Force Resistance, able to aptly resist direct force powers and the corruption of the Dark Side at an Enhanced level.
Force Power: Force Speed - Enhanced Level
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Force speed is a combination of applied telekinesis and body control and enhancement, allowing the user to move at up to hundreds of miles per hour, usually only for a few seconds before it becomes physically harmful to maintain. The greater one's aptitude with the ability, the faster one can move and the longer they may safely maintain that speed. While accelerated in this fashion, the user does not only become physically faster, but their agility, thoughts, and perceptions are similarly enhanced, the world seeming to slow around them and enabling greater accuracy in attacks or making it easier to defend against them. To safely avoid harming oneself, after using a burst of speed, one must rest for at least as long as that burst of speed lasted.
Cal is able to increase his agility to perhaps twenty times that of a normal human, able to catch slower-moving projectiles, such as primitive arrows, or to dodge blaster fire with a bit of luck. In this state, he can run at up to 250 miles per hour. He can maintain this state for up to thirty seconds at a time before doing himself harm, though he usually uses it for far less time than that at once, using it instead in tiny increments during a fight or for a momentary burst of acceleration when he needs it most.
Weapon: Lightsaber - Enhanced Level
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An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, the lightsaber, sometimes referred to erroneously as a laser sword, is a legendary weapon favored by many Force-users, especially Jedi and Sith. Lightsabers consist of a plasma blade, powered by a kyber crystal, emitted from a hilt, usually made of metal. The blade can be toggled on or off, allowing the weapon to close down to just the hilt. A weapon as dangerous to the wielder as to their opponents if used carelessly, a lightsaber requires rigorous skill and training. The weapon becomes much more effective when used in conjunction with The Force.
Cal's current lightsaber was made using components scavenged during his search for Eno Cordova's Holocron, the remains of the lightsabers of Jedi Master Jaro Tapal and former Jedi Knight Cere Junda, and a split kyber crystal he recovered from Ilum. Composed primarily of Haysian smelt (a rare type of gold), Cal's double-bladed light saber features Eno Cordova's emitter on one end, Cere Junda's on the opposite, with control switches from Jaro Tapal's saber and sleeving representing Valor and Wisdom in the middle of the joined hilts making up the rest of the weapon.
Powered by the twin kyber crystals gained on Ilum, Cal's saber can project a orange colored blade from one or both emitters at once, going from single-bladed lightsaber to double-bladed lightstaff in an instant. Additionally Cal, having taken a cue from the splitting of his kyber crystal in two mere moments after gaining it, designed his lightsaber hilt to separate and rejoin at need, allowing him to split the weapon into two single-bladed lightsabers that he can dual wield.
Force Power: Mentalism - Basic Level
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Force-users of sufficient ability are able to perform a vast array of mind-to-mind effects, from reading the thoughts of another or probing their memories to actually influencing or controlling their thoughts, telepathic communication, or shielding their own minds or the minds of allies from such effects or influences. Force Mentalism can also be used for healing purposes, such as easing the trauma of another or helping them recover suppressed memories.
Due to his truncated training Cal's mental powers are currently rather limited. He can semi-regularly perform the classic "mind trick," implanting straightforward suggestions into unprotected minds who lack great willpower. This enables him to convince a target that they have heard a noise they did not hear, make them fail to notice something for a moment, or even implant a simple command, such as making a guard allow him to pass them by. This effect clouds the thoughts, often leaving the memory of that moment very murky, but it does not work on especially strong minds.
With intense focus Cal can attempt to attain deeper mental communion with others, but doing so requires either direct contact with them or forging a link through The Force by using his Psychometry talent and a focus object or place that shares a connection to the individual in question. Doing either is greatly draining on Cal leaving him exhausted and potentially vulnerable until he can recover from the mental exertion.
Force Power: Telekinesis - Enhanced Level
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Telekinesis is the well-known ability to manipulate physical reality, especially physical or kinetic energy. It is commonly used to push or pull targets, to levitate creatures or objects, to deflect attacks, to apply crushing force to a target, to throw objects at a target, and even to allow the user to leap exceptional distances without harm, to simply name some of the most common applications.
Though not as strong as some other Jedi when it comes to manipulating physical objects with The Force, Cal is exceptionally adept in working within him limits with great skill and aplomb. Cal's capable of using Force Pushes, Pulls, Repulsion and Stasis often on multiple opponents at once and in rapid succession. He can skillfully control his lightsaber in the midst of a throw whether it's operating in its single-blade, double-blade, or split configuration, propel himself in astonishing death defying acrobatic leaps across great distances, pull vines/ropes/cables directly to his hand in mid-fall for climbing or swinging purposes, push aside barriers, yank down objects to form traversable bridges, and even enable himself to briefly defy gravity using his telekinesis on himself to perform seemingly impossible the feat of wall running.
ADVANTAGES
BD-1, often referred to simply as BeeDee or even Buddy, is a BD unit droid, a small bipedal droid designed to assist with research and exploration, that originally accompanied Jedi Master Eno Cordova on his journey investigating the history of the Zeffo. BD-1 and Cal met while the former was following the trail of Eno Cordova in search of the Jedi Holocron Master Cordova had hidden that contained information of vital import to Empire and the remaining Jedi alike. The two quickly formed a strong bond of companionship and BD has been with Cal ever since.
BD-1 sports an array of features standard to BD units, such as a stimpack dispenser, hover thrusters, spotlight, holoprojector and mapping system, science scanner and database, and a repaired scomp link for accessing other computer systems. Additionally Cal further modified BD-1 during their journeys together and now the little droid boasts an overcharge regulator allowing him to power or depower a variety of heavy industrial machinery, a slicing module for hacking computer systems and even other droids, and a hoisting motor that enables the little droid to be used for powered ascent up ziplines.
BD-1 is most often found clinging to Cal's back, occasionally peeking over his shoulder in almost timidly shy, yet curious fashion. When Beedee finds something he deems worthy of investigation though, the little droid has no qualms about hopping down and rushing forward to towards whatever new thing has caught his attention, often with little regard to his own safety.
The ship now known as The Emerald Vagabond, formerly The Savage Cutless, is an old Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter. Previously still in operation during the early days of the Empire as a smuggling vessel, the ship was consigned for eventual destruction on Bracca after being captured by the Imperial Security forces. That destruction was greatly delayed by the ship being deposited in a particularly tricky and unstable portion of the Bracca scrapyards, a place that even the most daring of Riggers considered a suicide job to approach, and so it rested there forgotten and ignored. Forgotten and ignored right up until Cal Kestis, former Rigger and daring Jedi Knight, in need of new transportation after his return made a clandestine recovery of the ship. Able to get the starship running long enough to purloin it and reach safe harbor, he absconded with the old freighter and has since restored it to fully operational status
The Emerald Vagabond, though smaller than a YT-1300 freighter, still boasts a large cargo hold, many hidden compartments throughout the ship for added security in keeping precious cargo (or even people) safe, dedicated living areas for crew and passengers alike, and a set of twin engines that are over-sized for its class to give the ship extra oomph when it comes to outrun opponents and authorities.
When flight's not possible, the Vagabond can still put up a reasonable fight, a thick layer of armor helps keep passengers, crew, and cargo safe while its offensive weaponry can make attackers think twice about starting trouble in the first place. In addition to standard front mounted laser and torpedo batteries it features two twin laser cannon turrets, one top mounted and one on the port side of the vessel, with both able to be manually controlled or fired remotely from the cockpit.
The Emerald Vagabond also has a brand new and very distinct green and gold paint job to go along with its new designation, a color scheme and paint job that BD-1 was entirely responsible for.
WEAKNESSES
Cal Kestis is a young man on a mission, one that was too long delayed by events that have left him with unanswered questions that plague him. That delay and the mystery of what happened to his allies during the long period in which he was out of action have created a drive within Cal. A need to make up for lost time, to atone for not being there when he was needed most, and to discover what happened to the members of his former crew. That drive within him, though it serves well to keep him pushing forward in what seems like an impossible fight against the Empire, can also push him into taking rash actions, to discount his own safety in order to achieve his goals or get the answers he craves.
As a survivor of the Jedi Purge, Cal is a wanted fugitive of the Empire as a "devotee of the treasonous Jedi Order". Having somehow skipped nearly dozen years of time hasn't had much impact on the heat dying down either. After all, he'd previously hidden himself away for five years before being flushed out into the open and that was when he was a mere surviving Padawan. Then he escaped again and when he returned only a short time later he had been proclaimed a Jedi Knight, snatched a Holocron containing vital information from the Empire's grasp, was nearly responsible for an Inquisitor turning back towards the Light, had a brief face to mask confrontation with Darth Vader and managed to escape that alive along with a former Jedi Knight, and then just like that Cal was gone again. With all that added to his list of "crimes", it's little wonder that the Empire, and Vader himself, have been especially diligent in actively chasing after even the whisper of a rumor that Cal Kestis still lives, no matter how long that search takes.
Cal's talent in Psychometry requires an innate openness of spirit, an almost instinctive willingness to forge connections between himself and distant times, places, and individuals through The Force. That receptiveness and the unexpected shortening of his formal Jedi training has left him less guarded easier to reach via mind-to-mind means.. Fortunately, Cal has an exceptional willpower and though it may be easier to intrude upon his mind that does not mean those seeking to exploit such intrusions will have an easy time dealing with that will just an easier time gaining access to it.
