STAR WARS: HIDDEN IN HIDING
Death. Death tolled on the Jedi Order as the execution of Order 66,
the execution of Jedi,
went well underway.
With Lord Vader leading the clone forces,
the inhabitants of the Jedi Temple were slaughtered in an attempt to secure the temple.
Lead by the malevolent Darth Sidious, Vader and his Clone army begin to exterminate the survivors of the purge...
Another blaster shot echoed in the direction of the main hall. Another shot shortly followed, and three more in tow. The Jedi's numbers were thinning now, and it wouldn't be long until there would be no-one left. The attack on the temple lasted a few hours, with Clones filling in from all available entrances. The Jedi never stood a chance with such overwhelming numbers in a surprise attack. That was obvious.
With the majority of Masters now dead or injured, and Knights riddled with blaster bolts, there was no hope for the temple's chance of survival, at least not through Padawan Lorna Calliopi's eyes. The female human was found hiding under a pile of Jedi robes the Clones forged. These robes were aimed to be set alight, but not until the purge had concluded.
Wondering if anyone had made it out alive, the brunette sat frozen in the heap of clothes, holding her breath in an attempt to not create any noise what so ever. She couldn't hear movement beyond the clothes she was enclosed in, but she didn't want to take any chances.
The amount of deaths Lorna had seen whilst running for her life was uncountable. Her close and distant friends were murdered right before her eyes, and several well known Masters had fallen to the purge metres away from her.
In a frantic struggle of being shot at, Lorna's mind was a mess, thus causing her to get turned around in the Temple's daunting, maze-like hallways and corridors. Eventually she ran into this empty room and jumped straight into these pile of clothes; luckily the pursuing Clones were gullible enough to sprint straight past her hidden location.
So now she was frozen, in both fear and in the force. The death of the force-sensitive around her caused pain inside her frail bones. She felt their blood spill within her sweat. She felt their hearts stop alongside her hope. She felt them die, alongside the surrounding force. It was over, it was all over.
Lorna had been in such a frantic mind of thought that her ears managed to not hear the audible chattering from a nearby Clone search patrol. But when blaster fire was heard from the corridor outside, she was soon snapped out of her trance.
Her bones, despite being sheathed in insulation, shivered with frost as the sound of the Clones became closer. Her breathing had increased to some degree, and it was loud enough for any Clone to walk into this room and hear her.
Then a gruff voice bellowed out in the corridor;
"You two, check in there. You three, with me." The Clone ordered. Lorna focused her hearing past her rapid exhalation, and was able to pick out a cluster of footsteps disperse into an opposite room in the corridor. The other two, became louder and louder.
A lump had begun to form in her dirt-dry throat, and a bucket of sweat began to trickle down her forehead. Her body jolted at the sound of the door opening. This room was small, smaller than any room in the corridor. It would take the Clones only a second to hear her exhaling like an asthmatic before they would dive into the robe pile and execute the padawan. The thought of her death swam in the cold blood of her body, causing her to shake at a high speed.
But it was what one of the Clones said that tipped her over the edge of fear.
"Didn't you just love the look on that Twi'lek's face when she saw her Master fall? God I wish I had captured that." One of them chuckled.
Lorna's lungs, due to the Clone and his sick ways, squeezed out a barrel of air, so much air that a slight murmur emerged from Lorna's lips. Her hand immediately found its way to her mouth and clamped itself tight, thus preventing anymore accidental squeaks.
Then there was this complete silence, the Clones didn't move, nor did Lorna. There was just this awkward silence, almost as if the Clones weren't even there, but they were. And they finally moved.
"Did you just hear that?" One questioned the other.
"Yeah, it sounded like it came from over there." Then there was the sound of their boots approaching. Both of them were approaching. It was only a matter of time before Lorna met her demise. The sweat was faster now, and the breaths were intensified.
"That pile there, check it out!" Those words echoed in the skull of the padawan. Her heart had now joined that lump in her throat, both were whimpering soulfully. This was it.
Lorna had served the Order the best she could, despite never being granted a Knight. But she was more than grateful of her experience. She was grateful of her training, the force, and now her death. The thought still stuck deep inside her, it was cold, whispering throughout her body like death was calling out to her herself.
The anticipation was high, and so was Lorna's heart rate. She just wanted it to be over now, as quickly as possible. End it all in a painless fashion, that's all she wanted now. She wanted to fall with the Order, and that is what she was now going to do.
But before another footstep gaining distance could be heard, the sound of a lightsaber igniting shot out from the far end of the room. Lorna's sweat halted and her heart dropped back to its home stead.
"A Master Jedi! Open fire!" One of the Clones shouted, his gritty voice followed by the sound of blaster fire. The peaceful humming of the plasma blade rang out in the room as the sound of blaster deflection trailed behind.
After what sounded like three shots fired, the saber's humming picked up in pitch as it met with the Clone's armour. The sound was heaven to Lorna's ears, as the screams of the two Clones finished harmonising.
This wasn't the end. The force still remained, and it was in her favour now as she had just been saved by what sounded like a Master Jedi. Maybe it wasn't all over, and that spark of hope had re-ignited deep within her heart...
