This chapter is for everyone who has been requesting an update for a very long time. I've had to re-read the story myself to get it back in my head, but here goes...
The first sign of trouble Ben had was a sudden force-urge to duck. As he dropped, relying implicitly on the warning, a crimson line burned its way across the sky from a building close to a kilometre away, missing his skull by centimetres, before punching into a parked airspeeder, detonating a drive element and sending shrapnel everywhere, in the deadly form of durasteel knives up to an inch long and travelling at close to mach one as they scythed into the crowded street. Then the screaming began.
In seconds, Ben was back on his feet, lightsaber lit and glancing around for the attacker as he simultaneously pushed his sphere of responsibility out around him, blocking out the pain and terror near him with an conscious effort, before finding his attacker, just before it sent a second bolt screaming towards him, interposing his lightsaber between the bolt and his body without thought, meeting it at exactly one hundred and eighty degrees, sending the pulse of coherent light tearing back across the distance.
The shot caught the assassin droid just below the thorax as it rose, satisfied it had killed its target. The round burned into a actuator hub, blowing the circuits inside the droid before any surge protections coukd trigger, and triggering a suicide charge next to the droid's processor, instantly wiping the memory and blowing the droid into very tiny fragments.
As soon as target destroyed registered for Ben, he shut down his lightsaber, before tearing a medpack from his temple utility belt and moving to help.
~0~
Vestara was meditating, watching the holonews as a background as she attempted to focus onto a single tone or colour and hold that in her mind, along with a single still image. The exercise had been going well, until suddenly a breaking news story was run.
"Breaking news just in." The newsreader announced. "There has in the last few minutes been an explosion in the galactic market area of Coruscant. Casualty reports are yet to become clear, but it appears a red airspeeder was the source of the blast. Whether this is an accident or a terrorist attack by as yet unknown individuals remains to be seen. Our news-crews are on their way to the scene right now. We will be keeping you up to date on this story as more facts become clear." The camera cut to a live shot, showing smoke rising from a small plaza.
Vestara just felt sick. "Ben..." she whispered, feeling like she'd been punched in the gut.
Then her brand-new comlink sounded, using the cheesy ewok song Ben had selected as his personal caller tone on the device.
Nervously, she accepted the call.
It was Ben.
"Ves, I'm fine." He said. "I've got some shrapnel in me, but it's only small fragments. The cops have just arrived, and so have the ambulances. I've been helping where I can, but things are up in the air at the moment, and I don't know if I'm still in danger."
"What?" She asked, horrified. "Why would you still be at risk?"
"This wasn't an accident or a intentionally lethal attack. I'm supposed to have a hole in the side of my head, and no-one else should have been injured. Unfortunately, I ducked, and the bolt hit whatever exploded. The fire service are making it safe now, but I won't be getting that ring today. Kriff, newsies." He finished, before ending the call.
"Jedi Skywalker," she heard coming from the holo. "You appear to have been near or at the epicentre of this event. What did you see?"
"I saw a blast. I've got some holes in me, but they missed anything vital. I've been helping the wounded." He finished, with a meaningful glance at the talking head. "I can't tell you anything else."
Frustrated, the reporter replied "I'll let you get back to it, then.", before turning away, looking for a more cooperative interviewee to give them some lurid details.
Sickened, Vestara turned off the news, hoping Ben could get home to her soon.
