Silhouette

A lightsaber is an incredibly inconvenient piece of equipment.

When activated, it shines like a beacon and roars like an ion-engine; and that's just when it's held steady. Simply swinging one makes the roar that much more prominent and when it strikes, it cracks as if it were bolt of lightning. The very act of holding such an item in one's hand is synonymous with a single incriminating word thats as good as a death sentence these days.

Jedi.

Yet for all its drawbacks, a lightsaber does have one redeeming quality: it is very small, which is probably the only reason why I still have mine. Not to mention that it can be quite handy as a tool in the right circumstances.

And then there is the almighty Force. Mediclorians within one's cells helping to play tricks on the very fabric of reality, all before reality has a chance to realize that it's been duped. Such parlor tricks have even more possible uses than the lightsaber, but the Force is conversely, even more dangerous to use than the lightsaber. The Empire's inquisitors have ways to locate, hunt down, capture and presumably kill any individual found to have some affinity with these parlor-tricks. And they do so through the Force; this is why I rarely use the Force any longer, at least overtly.

There is a curious planet within the inner-rim territories known as Myrkr, and on it are even morecurious creatures called yasalamiri. These little lizard-like animals –who have few more thoughts than to eat, to mate, or to survive– are essentially able to dam the flow of the Force, shut-off the tap to that reservoir of power. The yasalamir can render any individual who uses the Force to attack unable to harm them, and also renders the creatures undetected by those who use the Force to find them. Though it is possible for one to learn this technique, it does inconveniently inhibit one's ability to use the Force for anything else. However, after Palpatine called for the extermination of all Jedi everywhere and began his campaign to eliminate all who use the Force, I have found this technique most useful in keeping a low-profile.

During the war, I was but a young Jedi Knight involved in the Bothan Spynet's operations based out of my home-world: Bothawui. The Grand Army of the Republic wanted to "keep an eye" on the Spynet, to make sure they were cooperating with the Republic's needs, so they sent in the clones like they'd always do. Not surprisingly, the Spynet administrators were nothing short of absolutely furious, and refused to allow the troops into their deep operations. The only compromise they would accept was to allow a Jedi –a Bothan Jedi specifically– to babysit their highest workings.

That would be me.

The Bothans, particularly in the Spynet, are a practical, cunning, even if a bit of a self-centered bunch. Do you know what they did when the infamous Order-66 was issued? When the clone troops burst into the Spynet's operations facility to slay me, the Bothans thought fast –putting their own interests first, as always– and made quite a show of staging my death. The thermal detonator may have been a bit overboard in my opinion, but it was enough to fool the mass-produced, single-minded soldiers of the Republic, or Empire, whichever it was at the time.

The Spynet saw the advantage in having a Jedi Knight hidden away within their ranks, and since the order was disbanded, they offered me a chance to work with them and live, or they would turn me over to the Empire to die. They didn't have to make it such a stark choice between life and death, as the circumstances at the time were like that anyway.
I took them up on their offer, obviously, and I am alive, well, and out of the clutches of the Empire –even if the Jedi Knight the spynet was assigned is officially dead.

My teacher in the order was Jedi Master Kai Hudorra, but I presume him dead now: the same as a vast majority of all who were assigned to be Senior Generals in the Clone Wars. My given name was Mashir Ivei'lya of Clan Ilya, but I have not used it openly for over a decade. This is not a problem, as the Bothan Spynet highly encourages the use of aliases and false identities.
My Spynet Codename is "Silhouette", and I often am not referred to by anything else.

And now, agents within the Bothan Spynet, with its fingers and ears reaching all-across and all-through the Galaxy, have finally confirmed the rumors about this Rebellion against the Empire. Now that, is an intriguing prospect, one I am certain my fellow Spynet Operatives won't be able to resist getting themselves involved into.

Author Note:

This is simply a project that came to me recently. If enough people like it, I will probably continue it.