Setting: On the hangar deck on board “The Vigilant”
Lying in state is the body of the Bothan M’rath Et’tra wearing a black business suit (combat armor)
In one hand is a Sabaac deck with the idiots array (in one hand with the body)
A lightsaber (from Dee’laan) is laid on M’rath’s chest and his light foil is at his hip.
Standing near the casket are General Fen bel Iblis, General Lyta Miris, and General Fred Slick, all of whom are wearing their dress uniforms. Assisting and directing the mourners is Brig. General Dee’laan Gad’wa-heega (know by most as Stinky) who is wearing a light brown/buff colored robe with a belt on which hangs a lightsaber.
After all have been able to pay their respects, the Jawa moves to podium.
“Could everyone please be seated? Thank you”
“We have come here today to say farewell to M’rath Et’tra and celebrate his life.”
The Jawa motions to Fen to come to the podium to start. “General Fen bel Iblis”
Fen moves to the podium and begins to speak.
List of Honors (to be read by Fen bel Iblis)
Cross-crosslet medal for the rescue of Mercicon from Lord Vader
Crescent of Valor
Nova Cluster
Medal of Honorable acts (Nelios)
Bluestar of Adali
Pellaggia Freedom Cross
Golden Shield of Shiva
Founding member of the TD club
Promotional manager of Bantha Force
Sergeant Major rank (never gained higher rank as he felt it was important to keep in touch with the enlisted ranks of the Rebel alliance.
When Fen is finished, Stinky again comes to the podium.
“General Taylor Castell would like to say a few words.”
(please insert what Taylor had to say)
Once again the Jawa makes an introduction “Brig. General Fred Slick”
Eulogy (Written and read by Gen. Fred Slick)
Hello Everyone,
Most of you are no doubt expecting me to stand up here and praise M’rath because he was my friend, and for the many services he performed on the behalf of the rebellion. Those would indeed be excellent reasons for me being here, but they pale beside my real reasons for speaking to you this way. I believe that M’rath can still perform a service which dwarfs any he rendered before his demise. It saddens me greatly that he will have to do it in this manner, rather than by taking an active part in the shaping of a new Republic.
I had a conversation with a young force user not long ago. She was bitter over the treatment of her fellow force users by the rest of us, and felt that the Jedi were being held to an impossible standard. She was right of course. The Jedi are being held to an impossible standard. But she was wrong as well. The Jedi were magnificent in many ways, as everyone knows, but they were also tragic in ways that few people think about. There are a lot of old sayings that are particularly apt for this explanation:
A battle lost is the only thing worse than a battle won.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And What profit a man if he gain the world but lose his soul?
Consider…
The price of victory
The price of power
And the price of a willingness to pay any price
Where possible, the old Jedi council sought to achieve these things without paying the price which was charged to others. In the cases where this was not possible, they turned their backs on these things completely.
The Jedi had power aplenty, ladies and gentlemen, but they also had so many ironclad rules which governed the application of that power that they were functionally incapable of using it, even to save themselves. The tragedy is , that that was a good thing, and the practice is going to have to be resurrected.
The high standards to which that young lady I spoke of referred originated with the Jedi themselves. They were utterly impossible to adhere to. I know that, and any reasonable and logically thinking person would agree. But for a thousand generations, the Jedi managed to meet those impossible standards. I don’t know how they did it. As I said, it’s impossible. But I believe that if those of us with the aptitude band together, they can do it as well. As to why they should…
You know what it takes to make a man, a good, bad or indifferent man, into a monster? It’s a simple thing really. I’ve thought about it a lot, because the process has personal applicability. It doesn’t take surgery or cybernetics or even mind control, and in the absence of one other thing, none of those can do it. All it takes to turn a man into a monster is for that man to want something, anything really, badly enough to pay a piece of his soul for it. Every time he pays that price, his reflection in the mirror becomes a little scarier.
The reason that those ridiculous and impossible to meet controls existed on Jedi behavior is that when a force user turns into a monster, that monster is a lot bigger, uglier, and nastier than the run-of-the-mill variety. As you’re all well aware, since the destruction of the Jedi temple on Coruscant, and the associated cessation of their recruiting activities, we’ve been faced with a great many more of these than we ever dreamed possible. The bad guys are growing in numbers, and the force users among us are declining. If something isn’t done about that trend, it will be the luckier among us who are ultimately buried by it.
I organized the rescue of M’rath for many reasons, personal as well as otherwise. But the most important reason was that I saw something in him that I thought the rest of the galaxy’s force users needed badly… Something, in fact, that was and remains essential to their survival. Ever since the extermination of the Sith race by the Jedi and Old Republic forces 5000 years ago, one thing has been obvious to everyone who’s not a dark Jedi of some sort. Occasionally, but typically quite briefly, it’s been obvious even to them. Dark Jedi are not only bad for business, they’re bad for continued survival. For thousands of years, the Jedi managed to skim off the cream of the new force user talent, and their numbers enabled them to deal with any that slipped through the cracks and managed to obtain dark instruction of some sort, but that’s no longer the case.
I believe that M’rath had something, a spark, if you will, around which a new Jedi council could have been formed. It was my intent to begin the process of talking him into this as soon as we’d gotten him home. I don’t pretend convincing him would have been easy, and I expect that it would have taken a long time, but I believe he would have seen it my way in the end.
M’rath was a real person. He had faults just like any of us. But on many occasions, not least among them the one that landed him here, I had the privilege of watching him rise above his limitations. Had he survived, I panned to hold him up as a living example of adherence to the Jedi code. I imagine somewhere he’s chuckling in relief about that right now. But living or not, he provides an example to the rest of us. Impossible or not, those of us who aren’t force users should strive to be like him. Those of us who are force users should do more than strive. If nothing else, if more people are like him, maybe I’ll miss him less.
When Fred finished, Stinky introduces General Lyta Miris.
“General Lyta Miris”
Declaration of Rebellion (read and introduced by Lyta Miris)
The Declaration of Rebellion was directed personally towards the Emperor. The Declaration was done to defy our Imperial master and the New Order.
You have disbanded the Senate, the voice of the people;
You have instituted a policy of blatant racism and genocide against the non-human peoples of the galaxy;
You have overthrown the chosen leaders of planets, replacing them with Moffs and Governors of your choice;
You have raised taxes without the consent of those taxed;
You have murdered and imprisoned millions without benefit of trial;
You have unlawfully taken land and property;
You have expanded the military far beyond what is necessary and prudent, for the sole purpose of oppressing your subjects;
We, the Rebel Alliance, do therefore in the name –and by the authority- of the free beings of the galaxy, solemnly publish and declare our intentions:
To fight and oppose you and your forces, by any and all means at our disposal;
To refuse any Imperial law contrary to the rights of free beings;
To bring about your destruction and the destruction of the Galactic Empire;
To make forever free all beings in the galaxy;
To these ends, we pledge our property, our honour and our lives.
The body is then moved and the attendees are asked to move over to the view port. Looking out onto the twin stars of the system, the torpedo tube containing M’rath Et’tra’s remains is launched into the smaller of the two suns.
“Thank you all for attending and May the Force be with You.”
