As always, many thanks to my wonderful Beta Reader WarmNyota_SweetAyesha at the Jedi Council Forums for the great support with proof-reading this story.
Thank you for sticking with me Ny! You've been awesome!
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Chapter Twenty-One
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The fourth planet was bleak and cold. Its faint sun made a low run over the horizon in just a few hours, which made a world covered with almost permanent night. The flat rocky surface seemed to have withstood the passing of time under extremely harsh atmospheric conditions. Gravity was suitable for humans, but the air wasn't.
According to plan, the Jade's Fire had followed a precise route that had been decided upon each planet's proximity to one another, with this giving Luke and Mara the option to make travelling times more efficient. They would visit the planets closest to one another first, and would leave the farthest ones for last. The word key produced by Threepio now made most of the unreadable data in the ancient map understandable, if it was written in Rakata; still the unrecognizable language composed by the sets of soft, organic symbols on one half, and angular, sharp symbols on the other, remained without translation.
Planets two and three – which they had visited just before, had proved to be barren planets devoid of sentience or life. In each of the two planets, after doing some thorough searching, they had found lone, but active monoliths, equal to the one they had found in Xaymni Si'kem.
Although her connection to the Force had remained plainly basic, it seemed that the new alien energy that Mara was carrying within, would help her locate the energy emanated by the portals – not without trial and error. With some effort on her part, she aimed to listen carefully, until she heard the faint whispers the dark energy uttered. Once in front of the gate, meticulously she would carve the organic shapes around the large vertical stone, just as she'd done before, and with this successfully deactivate each monolith. Luke would then efficiently take them down with his lightsaber.
For now, their search had gone on without complications, without incidents. But both were sure that with each destroyed monolith, they were effectively decimating the accesses to this plane in the Galaxy that Zaferath had kept open throughout the years. Surely this would only draw the ire of the Witch towards them, but they would worry about that when the time came.
Planet number four seemed to be less barren than its predecessors, and it hosted some sort of stronghold; a massive, black building with a semi-pyramidal form. The Jade Fire's scanners hadn't been able to go past the thick armoured walls. A heavy, dark tint of the dark side of the Force enveloped the colossal structure, and this only meant that bad things could happen at any given time.
They had to be careful.
Clad in environmental helmets, insulated flight suits, knee-high boots, jackets with hoodies, equipped backpacks and their ever-present utility belts, Luke and Mara approached the dark structure. The crisp coldness of the air making them expel faint clouds of vapor through the tiny filtered exhaust vents in their helmets.
Much different to regular breathing masks, the helmet's design was sleek and functional, and would pretty closely hug the wearers form of the head and face. It consisted of a hard shell that covered the whole head down to neck's level, where a pressure seal would hermetically close around, just underneath the jaw line; and a large, intelligent, transparent visor – that would automatically adjust its transparency depending on outside light brightness, that covered the area around the eyes, allowing full visibility. The design prevented from seeing the wearers face, as only the eyes remained visible. These types of helmets were almost weightless despite being packed with life-support gadgets, sensors and exterior lights. Limitless types of add-ons could be customized, depending on the wearer's needs and usage.
The need of full life-support helmets made it a bit uncomfortable for Luke and Mara, since they were not really used to wearing them, and they had to talk to each other through the inbuild comms, but it was a necessity in atmospheres like this. It was a good thing they had them.
"It's only midday and the light is so faint in this place…" Mara observed, her voice sounding odd and metallic through the comm device.
"I don't like this..." Luke's voice sounding equally metallic, "Again I'm having trouble accessing the Force… In all these planets the Force is always affected somehow!" he didn't mean to whine, but it was the truth!
"Maybe that's why Palpatine kept them hidden." Mara suggested.
"Oh! I'm sure that's why!" Luke let out with a hint of annoyance. The old, good Emperor… If one thing they could be sure off, was that he was always deceitful.
Soon enough, they reached the main entrance to the insides of the large structure. The walls on the outside were flat and smooth, no decorations or carvings, just slick, matt, dark metal covering the entire structure.
With a wide sweep of his arm, Luke passed the scanner he kept attached to his forearm over the door's exterior side… after brief moments the results came back. "Beskar?!" he let out in surprise. He then did a few more scans of the nearby walls. "Wow! I never expected to find a whole building covered in this!"
"That's Mandalorian Iron," Mara pointed out with some disbelief, approaching Luke as he held his forearm at chest level, reading the information on the device. "It is a rare material, their mining locations kept secret by the Mandalorian race. No wonder the ship's scanners could not get any readings!"
"I'd never encountered it in my whole life… but I've heard it's lightsaber proof," a hint of worry in the Jedi's voice. "I guess we must put that to the test!"
Luke got a hold of his lightsaber and ignited the green blade, then pushed the tip against the armoured wall… The bright blade didn't dig into the surface, it just stopped against it, leaving only a circled scratch when the Jedi switched off the weapon.
"I guess the tale is true then." Mara said, an ominous expression in her eyes.
The resistant ore could eventually break if enough, consistent force would be put against it… but, depending on thickness, only the Force knew how many lightsaber blows or blaster bolts would that take. It seemed like their advantages ran thin in places like this, so again they'd have to solely rely on their training.
An inevitable sigh of frustration left Luke's mouth. Well, things couldn't be easy, could they? "The place seems to be locked down… If this thing is nearly indestructible as its said, how are we going to make it through?" It was obvious that lightsabers would not do the trick… Time to think on the alternatives.
Mara was already on it. "Nothing is ever indestructible." With gloved hands, expertly she retrieved one of the small sets of low charge explosives from her backpack, along with a small bottle containing a viscid yellow liquid. Utilizing the kit, first she squeezed the flexible bottle against the flatness of the door's lock, letting some of the contained chemical soak the surface, then she attached a small box containing low charge explosives and signalled Luke to take a few steps back with her… With a fizz the small explosives made a small indentation against the metal. This was going to need a few more rounds. After a couple of more tries, finally the last set of explosives busted the lock open.
This time the automated functions of the heavy door worked, and it slid open without any further efforts.
In full alert, Luke and Mara stepped inside.
The very moment they went through the doorsill, a cold surge crawled up and down Luke's spine, "I'm Force blind in here… All I can touch is the dark side of it!" Dread was evident behind his words, as he felt the reassuring and comforting light side being heavily dampened and overwhelmed by pure darkness.
"Relax Farmboy, I'm sure this is only temporary… It must be the planet's influence what is doing this to you." She tried to sooth him.
Mara perfectly understood Luke's worry. Throughout the time they'd been friends, she'd witnessed what the misuse of his power had done to the Farmboy. For him, the unrestricted use of the Force always came at a very high personal price. Skywalker had always shown a natural ability to reach out and access the mystic energy unbounded… But just because he could do so, didn't mean that he should.
This was something the Farmboy had had to learn the hard way over the past few years, Mara reassessed. As he'd tried to rebuild the Order, he'd been rushing with his own training and mastery of the Force without noticing that at times he would draw not only from the light, but from a greyish combination resulting from a mix of light and dark. Meaning well had not been enough. Making choices and taking decisions under the greyish influence had only added to a number of misfortunes Skywalker had had to painfully face in his career as a Jedi. Once he'd realized that, he backtracked and relinquished to many of his flashy Force tricks until he'd be fit for them. Since then, he'd been training harder, disciplining his mind and body more consciously, emptying his mind and soul, until he'd be sure he was able to perform those feats while truly drawing only from the light.
After countless hours of focused training and dedication, the Jedi had already accomplished bringing back to use some of those so called "tricks", but many others were still underway, waiting for him to be truly ready. But even now, without rushing, Luke Skywalker was already fit to pull really astonishing, powerful stuff while being fully attuned to the light side of the Force; and Mara Jade – just as many others, had borne witness to that.
Mara knew, though, that despite the awesome stuff Skywalker could do at this point as a Jedi Master, he was now utterly aware of his personal circumstances, and that the old saying "less is more" said a lot about him, and profoundly believed this to be true for him and his wellbeing.
They continued with their exploration. The dark greyish material of the inside walls provided a sober atmosphere, the automated systems in the building seemed to respond to their presence as expected; as they walked from room to room, the door sensors made way for them, the lights inside each quarter went on automatically… everything seemed to be working in perfect order.
Nevertheless, abnormal readings appeared on the inbuilt displays of the sensors on his forearm when Luke checked for the environmental conditions. "My sensors are glitching, Mara." The Jedi informed his companion.
The cold had subsided a bit inside the installation, but with their sensors acting crazy and giving out wrong readings, there was no way to know whether they could dispose of their helmets or not. They were indoors now and if the systems were in full order the air should be breathable, but with those wacky readings they could not know for sure and should not risk it. So better to keep the helmets on.
"Mine are too." Mara answered back, as she seemed to have come to the same conclusions, and while at the same time noticing the make of the panelling in the interior deep-grey walls of the stronghold. "Surely all that beskar on the walls is jamming the signals."
"We're completely blind here then," Luke stated in resignation, "We won't know what's around us until we are right on top of it."
"More reason to be in full alert," Mara reasoned, "Have you noticed the writings on the signs and the style of the décor? This is a Sith Enclave!" she discovered.
"I know…" he answered in a low, calm voice that revealed he'd noticed that same thing way long ago. "I should have brought Artoo with us, so he could jack in the main computer."
"Are you sure you want to gamble with this Sith stuff?" a hint of worry in her words.
"I'll take whatever I can put my hands on," Luke openly admitted, "Knowing about the dark side can prepare us better if we want to avoid it… or fight it back."
The Jedi had a point, but that didn't mean Mara liked the idea. She genuinely believed that everything Sith should disappear from the expanse of the Galaxy to never rise again.
Now it made absolute sense that the building was armoured with this durable beskar ore that would withstand any assault, even one with lightsabers involved. The local Sith surely hadn't wanted other Sith – or Jedi for that matter, to come storming into their precinct without offering any resistance.
"Can you feel one of those energy gates in here somewhere?" the Jedi asked while his gaze searched around the room they were in.
"Not yet." Mara admitted with a bit of frustration. It had been a while since they first entered the Enclave, and nothing had come up.
"Let's just keep going then." The Jedi encouraged when guessing on his friend's veiled frustration.
Mara kept extending her senses attuned to the new energy she was able to perceive inside herself; she could somehow manipulate it in a very rudimentary way. This new energy felt so different to anything she'd sensed before… It was different from the Force, but it was also connected to life and to something else. It felt so independent on its own, but so intrinsically a part of her at the same time. Weird.
This mission was getting so massive! She doubted they would complete it in the three-week time frame she'd set for it, they were already into the second week and they still had three more planets to visit. It all had started with her believing that she had found an external threat that needed to be stopped, and from that it had morphed into a matter that had everything to do with her, with her secret origins. That had been kriffin' unexpected!
The past few days had given her some time to start coming to terms with what she'd found out about this untold past… But there were so many unanswered questions! And to make things worse, that melt-down she'd had in Skywalker's presence had been an absolute embarrassment, particularly because she'd woken up wrapped in his arms the day after. They had both fallen asleep on the lounge's couch… The Farmboy had been terribly wounded, thus tired, and surely she'd been utterly worn out after crying her eyes out all over his chest! It had been a real relief when she had looked down and found they both had their clothes still on. Thank the stars that the Jedi was a decent man!
Sensing her shock, he had immediately woken up right after she did. Gifting her with one of his usual charming, innocent smiles when noticing her discomfort. Without uttering a word, he'd just helped her up, and had directed himself into the kitchen to prepare them both breakfast; showing no sign of embarrassment or remorse whatsoever. She knew that the incident had just given him hope. He should not hope! Not now that she felt like a mess.
The Trader shook her head at the memory, she could feel her face blush… She felt relieved that she had that large helmet on. Being honest with herself, she had to admit that after that embarrassing incident, oddly enough she felt closer to Luke than ever before… Yes, Luke.
Given the things that had transpired between them in the past few days, he'd been unfailingly supportive. Thankfully he had remained unobtrusive too, giving her space as to not overwhelm her. With this she'd felt free to choose when to open up to him about her concerns on what they'd found out about her past, and with his characteristic empathy and compassion, he'd helped her work her mind and heart around the matter, and to feel more at ease with all these new aspects of her own existence. Mara had to recognize that probably there was no one in the Galaxy who knew her better than he did… and she had almost killed him for the Force's sake! A pang of pain mixed with guilty anguish and embarrassment washed over her at the thought… It was a good thing that the Farmboy was Force blind at the moment and that he could not pick up on her emotions.
The sound of Skywalker's voice through the comm in her ear brought her back from the wanderings of her mind.
"Mara… Have you noticed that all the automated systems appear to be working?"
"Yes, I have Farmboy." Was her plain answer. Despite her mind being preoccupied with a lot of other things, her ingrained training had kept her from missing the obvious.
"After all this time?" he pushed the subject.
"Automated systems have a full operation life expectancy of several millennia; they can even go on forever if properly maintained… You don't need to be tech savvy to know that! If this place has remained untouched, it means the energy reactors have not been used very much and there must be a lot of juice left in them."
"You've just called it out!" he turned to give her a meaningful look through the glassy visor covering his eyes, "If properly maintained."
Through her own visor, Mara's green eyes widened in understanding, "You think there's someone in here?"
He'd already stepped closer to her, as to avoid an open view of their reactions, "I can't rule it out for certain," he admitted.
How did she miss on that! And if the Jedi was right, that someone might be watching… "It's sure a good thing that our conversation cannot be heard outside the inbuilt comms of our helmets." She expressed with relief, one more reason to keep the helmets on.
"Unless our signal is tapped on…" he added grimly, "But that's very unlikely." He then suggested as he looked around, pretending he was saying nothing.
"Right." A wave of adrenaline started to build in Mara's body and mind, she could tell an imminent confrontation lay ahead of them.
Their inspection continued, going from room to room, crossing through different doors. In a moment of clarity, a sudden realization hit Mara… Turning around, she headed back to the last door they had just crossed… It did not open. It was locked!
Alarmed, she turned to Luke, "Whoever is in charge of this place is luring us in!" her voice steady, but tight.
A hint of tension outlined his blue eyes, "That means we don't have another option but to keep going..."
"…and be ready." She finished his line; her eyes dark with threat.
Mara hated it when the Jedi was right! It always meant trouble.
Luke nodded, "Stay close!"
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oOo
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The unlocked doors kept leading them somewhere into the entrails of the stronghold. They made their way into a very long tunnelled passage that gave the impression of being curved in just one direction. The area was efficiently lit just as the rest of the facilities had been so far.
"This looks like some sort of corridor that will take us round something that lays in the middle…" Mara pointed out.
Yeah! It certainly looked like it. They followed it.
"I don't know… I think our spectators are going through a lot of trouble just to herd us in," Luke's words were full of suspicion.
"Undoubtedly to some spot where they'll have every advantage…" Mara clarified with equal amounts of distrust in her voice. "Maybe we should just stop and stay put, see what happens?"
That was a sound idea.
They both stopped in the middle of the corridor, two long stretches extending one in each direction, their senses alert.
The sound of a hissing vent three and a half meters above in the ceiling of the tunnelled corridor caught Luke's attention, maybe that could be the break they'd been waiting for! "I wonder if…" he mumbled while stepping away from Mara, just a couple of meters, towards where the vent was located to do an inspection. The moment he stepped away from her, an unexpected clanking sound of falling heavy metal and the hiss of hydraulic levers, startled both. Just past the vent's location, a flat, wall-to-wall piece of metal, slid down from above the ceiling, cutting Luke's way off. Instantly he turned around towards Mara, to only catch a glimpse of her image right before a solid curtain of metal fell between them.
Those were blast doors! One on each side of him, simulating a metal cage.
They'd been separated… Intentionally.
"Mara?" Luke called out from his side… Nothing. It seemed the blast doors were thick enough to jam their signals and prevent them from hearing one another, 'Blast it!'
On the other side, Mara was kept in her own cage. "Skywalker?" She called for him… He didn't answer. Their signal was scrambled.
The space she was locked in was large enough to pace back and forth in it, and it appeared like the corridor was neatly segmented at equidistant points. There were grooves on the walls at a matching number of meters that held the blast doors in place, and in each defined segment there was a number of lit panels above on the ceiling, a number of service panels on the walls for different functions that were not responding to Mara's attempts, and one closed door that would surely give access towards the middle section the whole corridor went around.
There was no way to know for how long they would be kept in there, or to know what was going on with Skywalker. Their comms were jammed and their bond through the Force was dormant, as the Farmboy had locked himself tight from the dark side energy that flooded the place. Whoever was there had wanted them separated… Of course that had been the sole purpose of all that herding… So they could be taken out one first and then the other.
Out of the blue, with a soft hydraulic hiss, the closed door that led to the insides of the circle, slid open for her… fulfilling Mara's grim expectations.
At the prospect, a whispered curse escaped her lips… There was just one way left to go… Through that open door.
Mara braced herself; without hesitation, she walked through and entered.
The walls of the large area she unwillingly found herself in were covered with the same semi-indestructible dark metal as the rest of the insides of the structure had been so far. Access doors at equidistant points could be spotted all around the area. The round nature of the space suggested it must be a focal point within the building to which the different sections in the complex had access to from different directions. Up high, a narrow catwalk went around the whole space. Higher above, a large dome that looked to be retractile, crowned the spacious area.
A hangar of some sorts, but there were no signs of any aircrafts or star ship equipment, all the vents were closed, the fuel outlets on the ground sealed, the shelves and lockers on the surrounding walls were absent… The area was spacious, with nowhere to hide or take cover.
The perfect place for an ambush!
Mara hissed under her breath and prepared for combat. She looked around, spotting movement atop.
A mean-looking figure, armoured from head to toe, stood tall above on the catwalk, openly looking down in her direction.
So that was their enemy. It was too high up to be able to make out the identity of her opponent, but one thing was clear: whoever that was, he or she was aiming at her with a menacing long-range weapon.
Swiftly, Mara drew her lightsaber and ignited the blade, just in time to block the first blow of laser fire. With scary precision, the laser bolts kept relentlessly coming at her, each bolt blocked with relative ease on her part, her arms holding off the powerful surges of the blasts against the blade… Too bad she did not know the lightsaber combat form that would allow her to aim the ricocheted bolts right back at their owner. 'Aaargh!' This was not the time to think about all the things she was missing on by not letting Skywalker to fully train her. Speaking of which… Why was it taking him this long to make his entrance? She was sure he would just not leave her there stranded! 'He's certainly taking his time!' Mara thought with clenched teeth as the blaster bolts kept crashing against her lightsaber's blade and making her arms shudder. He was certainly taking his time! Plus, she couldn't tell when the rest of the party would show up, for now it seemed she only had to worry about one sole enemy, but it might not last for long!
The blaster fire stopped, and Mara could make out the enemy form quickly and easily lowering itself down using a grappling hook. "Right, you have to come down stairs in order to take me out arsehole!" she muttered. No wasting any time, the Trader drew her blaster and aimed at the descending form, hitting it square four times before the last shot made her enemy lose the grip of the rope and fall a few meters down. Yet, with one skilful move the hit enemy rolled over on the ground buffering the force of the landing. Unhurt, the form walked towards the Trader with a purpose.
Once up close, Mara could now make out the true size and dimensions of her opponent, and realized why her shots had done nothing to stop it. The tall form wore a traditional Mandalorian armour, the helmet sporting the iconic Mandalorian T-shaped visor. It somehow looked a little makeshift, but it was undoubtedly fully serviceable; oddly enough, it bore the same colour as the walls in the precinct.
Mandalorians were a warrior race. Men and women alike were instructed in the arts of war since a very young age. This had turn them into formidable opponents, feared around the Galaxy for generations. Combat was the Mandalorian way, and they would put their skills under the service of the best payers. Yes, Mandalorians were mercenaries, honourable in their ways and contracts, but mercenaries, nevertheless.
Mara wondered about what was a Mandalorian doing there? If he or she was a real one, that was. Mandalorians hadn't venture far from their home planet, Mandalore, or the Outer Rim planets for decades! Surely this was just some sort of a copycat. The makeshift armour gave that away.
Soon enough Mara would prove that theory to be very wrong.
Trying again, she shot repeatedly at the armoured character who calmly walked towards her without stopping. Although the shots slowed the advance, these didn't seem to do the slightest damage… The armour was made of beskar! The same material that covered the walls of the whole facilities, the reason why the armour was the exact same colour and looked makeshift… Whoever this was, had accomplished to forge a full armour made of Mandalorian iron. Eventually, the material would give out, but it would take more blaster fire than the one Mara could produce with one single blaster pistol.
Menacingly, the armoured opponent quickened the pace… With a slow, precise movement, the Mandalorian warrior placed a hand above the shoulder and back, unsheathing a menacing beskad, a deadly type of Mandalorian sword.
Holstering her blaster, Mara then drew her own blade. She would meet her enemy head on!
If that sword was the real deal, her own weapon would not cut through it… not right away at least.
The luminous blue-energy blade met the dark solid one.
When her blade didn't cut through, Mara felt her arms vibrate at the impact. Several strikes and parries followed. Her opponent was strong and very well trained. Her opponent's considerable bulk did not seem to interfere with the agility and precision of the combat movements. The former Emperor's Hand knew that she'd have to be cunning and most of all swift, as it was called for when confronting larger, heavier opponents.
Mara knew that the presumed Mandalorian knew that the wielded weapon would not last forever against a lightsaber, so the strategy had to change.
Soon enough, it did.
In up close combat and with one expert move, the armoured contender produced a small stone shield on one hand and slammed it square against the tip of the lightsaber's blade. The lightsaber short-circuited and the blade extinguished instantly.
Mara recognized the material immediately, 'Cortosis ore!', a type of malleable rock that had the particularity of disabling lightsabers upon contact. It would take a while before she could ignite it again, precious minutes she didn't have.
Having disarmed the enemy, the Mandalorian then advanced towards Mara in two quick strides, aiming at her with his weapon.
Without wasting any time, Mara simultaneously clipped the hilt of her lightsaber to her utility belt and swiftly dodged, the beskad ominously swishing over her head. While doing a quick small squat before her opponent, she already had come up with counterattack measures. Her enemy had done a recognizable spinning attack movement, aiming at her with the sword in a circular motion and twirling to come back and down at her with the small shield he held in the other hand, and she knew what she should do.
Mara quickly moved out of his opponent's line of attack barely missing the powerful blow that smashed the stone shield against the spot on the floor where she'd been squatting seconds earlier, landing on a one knee position right next to her. Taking advantage of the inertia of her enemy's movement, with a graceful, agile move, Mara twirled on one knee and extended the other leg delivering a strong hook kick to her enemy's back of the head, making him fall flat on his face. Wearing the strong armour, the move didn't hurt her opponent, but gave her the time to jump on him a quickly disarm him. The environmental helmet she wore, didn't help her visibility and she was glad she'd been able to pull that little trick off. In that armour, her opponent had every advantage, and she needed to use her resources wisely. She reached for her blaster.
The Mandalorian didn't waste time either, right after loosing his weapons and before Mara could take a hold of them, he advanced towards her delivering a powerful blow that loosened the blaster from Mara's hands before she could make the first shot. A blur of hand blows and kicks followed, that were missed by Mara by scarce millimetres. She retreated at every blow; she could not compete with raw strength against that armour.
So her lightsaber was disabled, her blaster gone, there were no weapons or objects she could use to defend herself, so she'd have to resort to hand to hand combat even if it meant she would bruise and might break some bones against that armoured wall, she'd have to use her legs to infuse more damage on her enemy and reduce her own.
Her enemy was smart, proving to have an intelligent, progressive strategy; little by little, making her more and more vulnerable… Evidently her opponent trusted his stamina and endurance, by purposely making the combat long, with this exhausting his opponent, until the opportunity for the last blow presented itself.
The Mandalorian's fighting style evinced a strong proficiency in Echani moves, the ancient art of unarmed combat, a discipline she'd been instructed thoroughly on. So that was her advantage, not letting her enemy know about her Echani moves and use her own knowledge of the technique to predict his.
In one close exchange, Mara found an opening, kicking her enemy hard on one knee and then on the other, making him bend and fall on the floor. But he didn't go down on his own, with unexpected speed he managed to bring her down with him. Both struggled on the floor, he was heavy, and his weight gave him an advantage. In one moment, his hands reached underneath the lower rim of her helmet, his fingers closing on her throat. She grabbed her enemy's wrists, trying to ease the strength exerted on her neck, her enemy was relentless. With furious intent, Mara managed to roll herself and her enemy to the side, precariously sitting up, bringing her enemy with her. Their faces were inches away from one another, their helmets screeching as these rubbed one onto the other, the Mandalorian's hands pressing on stronger.
Black spots were starting to make way into her field of vision, she would pass out if she didn't do something! One of her hands let go of her enemy's wrists. Reaching underneath her forearm with difficulty, Mara got a hold of her small, concealed sleeve gun… The weapon didn't have much fire power, but it would be enough!
The Mandalorian got shot at point-blank range right on the chest.
The shot produced a dark stain on the armour's surface, but didn't go through; still, the power of the inertia in it was enough to push the Mandalorian on his back a meter away from Mara. This gave her the free space she needed to act!
With a quick roll, the ex-Imperial Agent locked her legs around her opponents neck, pinning him down with his back pressed against the cold floor. She rose above her enemy, one of her knees digging strongly against the separation between his chest plate and his helmet, exposing his throat, strangling him… Her foot of her other leg pressing hard down on one of his wrists, her whole weight pressing relentlessly against his chest so he wouldn't move… As she breathed heavily, desperately recovering from her previous air deprivation, she realized there was a human male underneath all that armour, she could see the white of his neck.
The man in the armour desperately struggled, trying to take her off him with his free hand before he passed out from suffocation.
She pressed down stronger; her ragged breath evinced the effort she was making at applying all of her raw physical force on her hold. She didn't have a weapon at her reach, so she'd have to settle with strangling him until he vanished. Underneath the helmet she could see his throat contorting as he tried to gasp for air… She needed to hold him down just a little more and he'd be out.
The man grunted, made an effort to speak, "Mara?" he finally gaged.
When hearing her name, the shocked Trader hesitated for brief instants… How this stranger knew her name?!
Taking advantage of her surprise, the previously pinned down man broke free of her hold and smacked the ex-Imperial agent's head with the back of one armoured hand, strong enough to make her fall to his side. With great agility and speed, he then rolled towards where his weapon lay. Standing with his sword again in his hands, in one expert move he pivoted back to were Mara was just gathering her feet underneath her, and barely before she managed to fully stand, the Mandalorian hit her hard on the side of her exposed neck with the pommel of his weapon.
Mara fell hard, losing consciousness on the smooth floor.
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To be continued…