Star Wars: Return of the Sith

30: The Boars of Gamorr

By Nanaki

Gamorr

"Coming up on the Opoku system." Jerin announced from the pilot's seat. "I know no one wants to stop on Gamorr, but SOMEONE has been taking some very long sanisteams," he turned to look in Joona's direction, "so we need to stop in orbit for water, at least." Jerin was well aware that it wasn't just Joona, but almost all the girls. There was no other explanation for why they kept emptying the water tanks so fast. Joona just pretended not to be aware that she was the someone Jerin was talking about.

"Does Gamorr even have any orbiting space stations?" Denan wondered from his seat behind Jerin's.

"I'm sure there must be a few. I think the Empire built a few back when they were trying to 'civilize' this planet."

"Which Empire?"

"Does it really matter?" Jerin shrugged.

"No, I suppose not." Denan admitted.

"Plus, this world has been part of Hutt Space far more often than it hasn't, so there must be some." With that, the Justice emerged from hyperspace to reveal a verdant world rapidly growing in the cockpit canopy.

"It sure looks pretty, doesn't it?" Joona observed aloud. "You'd never guess it was so dangerous."

"Oh, Gamorr would be a great place to live, if it wasn't for the Gamorreans." Jerin grinned. "Of course, they probably say the same kind of thing about us." Now that they were getting close to the planet, several small space stations appeared on the scanners. Jerin steered toward the closest one.

"You... aren't going to let any Gamorreans come on board the ship, are you?" Joona asked, trying not to sound worried, though she clearly was. "Most of us have some traumatic memories associated with that race. Myself included."

"Yeah, about that." Tenn turned around in her seat to look at Joona. "Just how many Gamorreans are hanging around Kuat anyway? I would think a wealthy Core world like that wouldn't want them around."

"Enough so that the brothel managers thought a full twelve of their slaves should be green Twi'leks." Joona responded evenly. "I don't imagine there are many Gamorreans on the SURFACE of Kuat, but as construction workers or mechanics in the shipyards, there are plenty."

"Well, I can't imagine they'd need to come on board just to refill our water tanks." Jerin reassured her. When he hailed the space station to request permission to land, it was a very bored Nikto who answered anyway, and Jerin didn't see any Gamorreans in the background.

Then, when they were just a few hundred feet away from the docking bay, Jerin suddenly got a very clear warning of impending danger in the Force. Shooting a glance at Tenn, he saw that she clearly felt it too. What was not so clear was what the danger was, or where it might be coming from. The ship's sensors didn't show anything, so Jerin craned his neck looking through the canopy. He was still searching for some visual indication of the danger when a sharp series of explosions came from the rear of the ship. Arfive wailed in alarm, then displayed a schematic showing what Jerin already knew: the explosions had come from the engines. Jerin barely had time to process this, when the space station rapidly moved out of the cockpit canopy to the right, and they were hurtling toward Gamorr at a high rate of speed.

"Uh, what's happening?" Joona was tightly gripping her seat's armrests.

"Someone's got us in a tractor beam. Probably Seco or Negian." Jerin responded calmly. Toward the top of the canopy, he could barely make out a triangular ship, painted pure black, against the stars. "But if he thinks I won't dare to fire missiles at him when he's so close to the ship, he's dead wrong. Arfive, let's shove some Burstliners down his throat. Four should do it."

The blunt missiles shot forward quickly, but since the enemy ship was so close to the Justice, they were a fair distance away before they could open up and fire their five smaller missiles backward. Still, Jerin didn't think the pilot would be able to dodge all twenty at once. As it turned out, he only dodged fourteen. He shot six of them before they got to his ship, despite the fact that the missiles-within-missile of the Burstliners were designed to be too small for most targeting systems to lock onto. That opened up enough of a hole for him to dodge the others easily. "Was... was that it?" Seco's voice came over the comm, sounding more amused than usual. "You actually thought twenty was enough against ME? I'm insulted."

"Arfive, quad lasers." Jerin said quietly. If he let loose with a full barrage of ten Burstliners, he'd stand a pretty good chance of blasting himself along with Seco's ship. If he was by himself, he probably would have taken the chance, but not with dozens of passengers on board. Jerin let loose with a burst of laser fire for at least five seconds, but it had no discernible effect.

"Oh, you do not have time for that." Seco informed him, sounding like he was trying hard not to laugh. Jerin was inclined to agree, as Gamorr was looming very large in the canopy. In fact, Seco's ship was already beginning to glow red with the heat of reentry. It had towed them to the edge of the atmosphere remarkably fast, Jerin would give it that. "See you soon." Seco said smugly, then his ship banked away quickly. Now they were out of the tractor beam, but without engines, it didn't make a whole lot of difference.

Jerin was relieved to find his thrusters were still operational, and he oriented the ship so that the planet's gravity would be pulling them in the right direction once it took hold, which should be pretty soon. Jerin angled his deflector shields toward the bottom of the ship, cursing himself for not turning them on as soon as he sensed danger in the Force. "Arfive, are the repulsorlifts still working?" The astromech quickly chirped an affirmative. Jerin turned around in his seat to find, as he'd expected, a hallway crammed with worried Twi'leks. "We'll be fine, ladies." He announced. "Thrusters are working, repulsorlifts are working. It'll be a gentle landing." All Seco had really achieved was forcing them to land on Gamorr, but what was the point of that?

With the Justice's shields protecting them from most of the heat and turbulence of atmospheric entry, it was a fairly gentle ride down to Gamorr's lush, green surface. It looked like they were headed toward a wide valley between two mountain ranges, about forty miles apart. Once they were down to about a mile above the surface, Jerin hit the switches for the repulsorlifts, and was relieved to hear them turn on without any trouble. Apparently Seco had known what he was doing, and had done a good job of hitting the engines, but nothing else. Finally, they set down gently on the grasslands, with the ship's landing struts sinking into the wet ground pretty deeply. "Well... that wasn't so bad." Joona admitted.

"Oh, I don't know about that." Standing up to peer out the canopy, Jerin saw what must have been at least several thousand Gamorrean boars, almost all in helmets, armed with spears and axes. They were divided into two groups on the left and right, their armor sporting two distinct color schemes. There were also a few dead Gamorreans on the ground, so it appeared that they'd landed in the middle of a battle between two rival clans. Whether this was full scale war, or a more ritualized display of might, Jerin couldn't tell, but it probably didn't matter a whole lot.

"Is that... a Gamorrean army?" Denan wondered. He was also standing up to get a better look.

"I'd say TWO Gamorrean armies. At least." Tenn responded dryly.

"Hoo boy." Jerin frowned in thought for a second. "All right, Arfive, get my jet pack fueled up. I'm going out in full kit."

"Wait, you're going to fight them? A whole army?" Joona's eyes widened.

"Well, I sure hope not." Jerin laughed a little. "But I need to go out and talk to them, so it's best to be prepared."

"Particle shields are still working, aren't they?" Tenn turned to look at him. "We could just wait in here until they get bored and go away."

Jerin mulled that over for a second. "We could, but that won't earn their respect. We're going to need some kind of help from the locals to get flying again. Plus, whatever Seco's up to, I'm sure it's better for us if we get airborn again as soon as possible. All right, you stay at the top of the boarding ramp to make sure that if any of them get past me, they don't make it in here."

.

A few minutes later, Jerin hit the button to lower the boarding ramp, and saw several dozen Gamorreans already clustered around the base of the ship. He saw armor from both armies gathered below, so their arrival must have resulted in a temporary truce. That was something that could work in his favor, but how? He wasn't sure what he was going to say to them, but he couldn't just stand here and wait for inspiration to strike. He started walking down the ramp, and had just opened his mouth to begin speaking, when an especially large Gamorrean, with more spikes on his helmet than most of the others, pointed at Jerin and barked a quick order. Jerin's helmet display helpfully translated it as: "Get him!"

'Come on, really?' Jerin thought in exasperation, even as the boars began swarming up the ramp. If he was an ordinary Human, he would have been pretty worried at this point. Fortunately, there was nothing ordinary about him. He was encased in armor made from one of the toughest, densest metals in the galaxy, and the Force was with him. But how much of that Force should he show off, that was the question. If he showed them he had Jedi level powers, that might intimidate them into backing off, but it also might make his helmet and his ship a more desirable trophy than they already were. As the first Gamorrean closed to melee range, Jerin decided against using any obvious Force powers. He would just hit them really hard.

Jerin easily dodged the first ridiculously telegraphed haymaker of an axe swing, then stepped forward and punched his opponent right in the chest. The boar's plate armor saved his sternum from being shattered, but he went flying backwards through a good half dozen of his comrades, knocking several of them over the edge of the ramp. Those that remained standing looked at Jerin in surprise for a second, but then charged right at him without hesitation. Jerin fought his way to the bottom of the ramp without much trouble, doing his best to simply knock them back, rather than cause serious injury.

Unfortunately, his surprising strength didn't seem to be making as much of an impression on them as the fact that he wasn't using his blasters, or otherwise killing anyone. Most of the boars put their weapons down and came at him with their bare fists, but otherwise, they kept right on coming. Through occasional breaks in the circle of foes around him, Jerin could see dozens more Gamorreans streaming toward the brawl from all directions, some of them laughing. If they were actually enjoying this, then Jerin clearly wasn't hitting them hard enough yet. But... was escalating this really the best move? He had originally planned on avoiding a fight, after all. While he had no doubt he could defeat the boars who were here right now, there were thousands more of them out there, and Jerin couldn't beat an entire army by himself. Maybe someone like Master Rondo or Asara Sebatyne could, but Jerin was far from being at that level. No, a different approach was needed here.

"Boars of Gamorr, wait!" Jerin bellowed as loud as he could, hoping at least SOME of them understood Basic. Mainly out of curiosity, the two nearby who were still standing did stop. "Now, I know there's a whole army of you out there, and you could just swarm me until I can't even move..."

"He's right!"

"Get 'im!" The two charged forward, aided by several more who had gotten back to their feet during the brief pause in the action.

'You have GOT to be kidding me.' Jerin groaned inwardly. He quickly flattened the ones who instantly charged at him, but many more were closing in fast. He spread his arms wide, then called out again, "Noble boars, STOP! Wait just a minute!" The new arrivals slowed to a walk, looking at him curiously. "Yes, you COULD send wave after wave of troops at me, until I'm finally worn down, but what proof of skill or courage is there in that?! I propose a different challenge." The Gamorreans nearby stood still, so apparently he had their attention. "Send your best warrior out, and I'll fight him one on one."

The large Gamorrean in the spiked helmet, who had originally ordered the others to attack, spoke up now. "And what is there for us in agreeing to fight you on your own terms?"

"Well, if your champion wins, you get my ship, no more fuss." Jerin replied. He really hoped the girls weren't listening in on this conversation from the ship. Did Joona know how to turn on the exterior microphones from the cockpit? Hopefully not, but she'd probably figured it out by this point. Also, there would be a bit of fuss in the fact that Tenn probably had enough power to Force Push them all into the planet's other hemisphere, but there was no point bringing that up. "But if I win, all I want is a little help repairing my ship's engines. Not such a big demand, is it?"

The apparent leader mulled that over for a few seconds, before turning to one of his underlings. "Go get Hetch." The underling scurried off to leave Jerin awkwardly looking around at all the porcine faces, but he returned less than a minute later accompanied by a very unusual Gamorrean. He was shorter than most of the others, but more surprising was the fact that he was in pretty good shape. At least, he appeared that way to Jerin's eyes, but to his fellow Gamorreans, he probably looked emaciated. He wore no armor, just a simple white vest and loose fitting pants. He also carried no axe, just a spear with a head somewhat larger than usual. Jerin didn't fail to notice that the others all gave him a wide berth, stepping aside quickly when he came near.

This was nothing at all like what Jerin had expected from a Gamorrean "champion", but he told himself to stay sharp. There was a good reason the others were all watching their step around this guy, after all. "I hear you want to fight the strongest warrior." The newcomer got right to the point.

"Well, I don't exactly WANT to." Jerin admitted. "But it seems like the fastest way to resolve this situation."

"Knowing my people, it probably is." He nodded, then tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. "My full name would be pretty hard to pronounce for a Human tongue. You can call me Hetch."

"I'm Jerin Danar." He nodded tightly. "So, how do you want to do this?"

An amused smile seemed to flash across Hetch's face, though it was hard to tell with Gamorreans, what with the tusks and all. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know you. So I've got no personal reason to want to kill you." Jerin pointed out. "Given that, I don't mind sticking to bare hands. But, if your comrades here would think me cowardly because of that..." His hands went to his belt, then came back up with a blaster in his right hand, and a vibroknife in his left. "Well, then we can get more creative." Jerin made sure to keep his blaster pointed at the sky, for the moment.

Hetch tilted his head, regarding Jerin curiously. He was clearly trying to decide if Jerin was making the offer because he was afraid of losing, or if something else was going on. Finally, he shrugged. "Bare hands works for me. But in that case, you should take the armor off. You've got a big advantage otherwise."

"Ah, but your species is naturally a lot stronger than mine." Jerin pointed out. "The armor evens things up."

Hetch thought that over for a second, before he shrugged again. "Lose the helmet and gloves, then we'll call it good." Jerin hesitated for a second, then he nodded, reaching up to unfasten his helmet. Apparently he wouldn't be able to use his favored tactic of an armored forearm to the throat, but an armored knee should work just as well. Hetch nodded in satisfaction as Jerin's gauntlets hit the ground, then he tossed his spear to one of the others standing nearby, who caught it nervously, then stared at it with something approaching reverence. Though Hetch hadn't demanded it, Jerin also detached his jet pack. He wasn't going to be keeping his distance in this fight, so it would slow him down a lot more than it would help. Now Hetch planted his feet farther apart, and crouched down a bit. "All right, give me your best shot."

Jerin finally allowed a smile to creep onto his face. "Oh, I think you're going to regret saying that." With that, he charged forward, very fast. Hopefully not fast enough to make it obvious that he was using the Force, but fast enough to be impressive. Jerin drew his right arm back as he closed in, but that was just a bit of misdirection, since he swung in with an uppercut using his left hand. Hetch blocked that with his right hand with apparently little effort, as well as Jerin's follow up right cross, but then his eyes widened as Jerin began to overpower him, even so. What happened next flashed by so fast that Jerin's brain didn't fully comprehend it until he was already flying through the air.

Hetch had retained his grip on Jerin's hands, then spun around and yanked Jerin's arms across his left shoulder in a move that had likely been intended to dislocate Jerin's arms from their sockets. However, since Jerin was using the Force to keep himself intact, it had instead sent him hurtling into the air, around fifty feet up at the top of the arc, and more than two hundred feet from his opponent by the time he got near the ground again. Jerin could have used a small Force Push to slow his descent, but he knew it would look more dramatic if he hit hard and emerged unharmed, which was exactly what he did. He had barely touched down when he charged toward Hetch again, this time in a true Force powered burst of speed. There was no point trying to hide his powers anymore, since Hetch could CLEARLY use the Force as well.

Hetch had apparently come to the same conclusion, since in the blink of an eye, he went from being around sixty feet away to right in Jerin's face. The dull clang of Hetch's fist slamming into Jerin's torso armor was one of the loudest sounds he'd ever heard, but at least it was accompanied by the satisfying smack of Jerin's fist connecting with Hetch's jaw. At least, it would have been satisfying, if there was any sign that Hetch had taken any damage at all, but there wasn't. Jerin slowly became aware that they were now standing in a small crater several feet deep, apparently created by the shock wave of the two meeting at such high speed. Hetch slowly withdrew his hand, flexing his fingers slowly, but not appearing to have suffered any real damage from punching beskar'gam plate armor. "Well, I admit, I wasn't expecting a real match." He raised an eyebrow, apparently in approval.

"Yeah, me neither." Jerin found a smile on his face in spite of his better judgment. His situation had just grown much more dire, now that he had to face a fellow Force user. Yet he couldn't help but be excited at the idea of fighting someone just as strong as he was, but not objectively STRONGER, the way Seco and Negian were.

Hetch looked around at his fellow Gamorreans, who were staring at them in wide-eyed astonishment. "Guys, you need to get a LOT farther back." He informed them calmly.

"Yeah, it's about to get crazy." Jerin's smile broadened. Then, it did. Jerin and Hetch launched Force Pushes at each other near-simultaneously, and they were roughly equal in power, based on the fact that neither managed to blast through the other. As they both redoubled their efforts, Jerin also aimed a kick at Hetch's left kidney. It connected, and Hetch staggered to the side, but this changed the angle of his Force Push enough so that some of it slipped past Jerin's. In the blink of an eye, Jerin found himself being hurled backward, into the ground. Jerin's initial relief that the ground was relatively soft from rain soon turned to irritation as muddy water trickled down his back, then into his underwear.

In the next instant, Hetch was above him, coming down with an elbow aimed right at his neck, but Jerin used the Force to backflip out of the trench he'd made in the ground, kicking Hetch in the chin as he did. In the brief second that bought him before Hetch charged forward again, Jerin summoned up the most potent Force Push he could manage. This time, Hetch went hurtling backward, but hadn't gone more than fifty feet when he stretched his arms out and seemed to stop in midair. As far as Jerin could tell, Hetch had used the same kind of omni-directional Force shockwave that he himself had discovered on Tatooine. As Hetch dropped gracefully to the ground, Jerin considered his options.

He could probably end this pretty quickly using Force Lightning, but somehow, that just didn't feel right. As aggressive and lethal as he clearly was, as of yet Hetch had displayed no inclination to use dark side powers of any kind. Also, this was supposed to be a bare-handed brawl, and the other Gamorreans would probably view shooting lightning at your opponent as cheating. He didn't want to give them a reason to say he hadn't earned his win, but even more than that, this was a rare opportunity to face off against someone much like himself, and he wanted to win fair and square.

Hetch didn't give Jerin any more time to think as he charged forward again. In the fraction of a second he had to get ready, Jerin gathered as much power into his legs as he could, then launched himself high into the air. As Jerin spun around to look back at the ground, he saw that Hetch was preparing to follow him up here, which was just what he'd been hoping for. Jerin waited until the moment Hetch's feet left the ground, then let loose with another Force Push. As Jerin had hoped, Hetch couldn't defend against that very well in midair, and was slammed back into the ground. By the time Hetch gathered up more Force energy of his own, Jerin was coming down on him hard, both of his armored knees driving into the Gamorrean's neck, and forcing him bodily to the ground.

Jerin actually found himself regretting that the fight seemed to be over as he got back to his feet, but Hetch was sprawled in the mud, not moving. In fact, Jerin wasn't entirely sure that he was still breathing. After a quick glance around to make sure that no one else was going to attack during the lull in the action, Jerin put a hand to Hetch's neck, checking for a pulse. He leaned down to listen for breathing as well. As soon as Jerin's head got close, Hetch's head jerked forward, his forehead slamming into the side of Jerin's skull incredibly fast.

Jerin sprawled into the mud before he could even think about using the Force for anything. The next thing he knew, Hetch picked him up by the armor and hurled him through the air again. Jerin could tell that his knee drop had had at least SOME effect, because this time he only went about seventy feet. Jerin landed on his feet, then charged forward again. Again, Hetch rushed to meet him, but not quite as fast as before. They exchanged a furious flurry of blows in the next several seconds, until Jerin realized that he was losing this contest. In terms of brute force, Hetch was stronger than he was, and just about as fast. Since his hands were too busy for a Force Push, he let out one of those omni-directional Force shockwaves, and it pushed the opponents apart.

Jerin suddenly felt an impression in his mind of both worry and irritation. For a moment, he thought he might be sensing Hetch's emotions in the Force, but then he realized these feelings had a decidedly feminine flavor to them, and they must be coming from Tenn. He was about to send some irritation of his own back her way, but then his somewhat punch-drunk brain realized there could well be another reason for this, aside from the fact that irritation was pretty much her default setting when it came to dealing with him. He might not have much time left until a certain dark side duo arrived on the scene. 'All right, time to wrap this up.' He told himself. 'Punches just aren't doing enough, so it's time to kick.'

Hetch had been waiting for Jerin to make the first move, and he raised his arms up in front of his head warily as Jerin charged forward. Instead of simply trying to power through Hetch's block, Jerin jumped into a forward flip, and aimed a kick at Hetch's head from above. Hetch managed to jerk his head to the side, but Jerin landed behind him and landed a solid kick to the back before he could turn around. Hetch let out a loud grunt and staggered to the side a bit, but he managed to finish turning around and got his arms back up to block Jerin's next kick. However, that next kick slid just above his hands, and Hetch found himself staggering backward. Jerin bounded into an amazing series of roundhouse kicks that were finally doing some real damage, to judge from the way Hetch was flailing backwards. Then, Jerin planted his right foot firmly, landing one more kick with his left, then at the same time...

Jerin froze where he was, his left hand only about an inch away from the button on his belt that would activate his repulsorlift boots. That would be cheating, but he'd lost sight of that in the heat of the moment. He began to lower his left foot, when he realized what he should have done: 'Force Push through your foot, idiot!' But now, it was too late. Hetch managed to stay on his feet, and wrapped his arms around his torso, gasping for air.

The Gamorrean took a couple of big, ragged breaths, then looked sharply at Jerin. "Wait a minute, what was that?"

"What was what?" Jerin wondered, wincing as he put both feet back on the ground. He'd overdone it a bit with those kicks, and his groin muscles were not happy.

"That look on your face just now. You had me. It was over." Hetch elaborated. "And yet, you stopped yourself for some reason."

"Oh, well, I was about to activate my repulsorlift boots." Jerin admitted. "But that wouldn't have been 'bare hands only', so I stopped myself. THEN I realized that I probably could have sent a Force Push through the sole of my foot, but it was too late by that point."

Hetch gasped for air for a few more seconds, then he let out a ragged laugh. "You have a belt full of weapons that you never touched once, and you felt guilty because you almost used repulsorlift BOOTS?" He let his hands fall to his sides, and stood up a little straighter. "You hold yourself to a pretty strict code of conduct, don't you?" Jerin wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. Then, Hetch turned and called out to the surrounding crowd of Gamorreans, "Hey, I'm declaring this fight over! He won!" He turned back to Jerin and finally extended his hand. "Good match, Human. It's been a while since I had this much fun."

Jerin hesitated a second in surprise, but then he shook Hetch's hand. "Yeah, my loose teeth probably wouldn't agree, but that was great! I've never had the chance to fight someone just like me before."

"I'm not JUST like you, Human." Hetch replied, a look of irritation on his face. Then it vanished. "But I know what you mean." He nodded. In the next moment, a look of shocked surprise appeared on his face as a purple lightsaber blade erupted from the right side of his torso. Hetch seemed to be trying to say something, but then the blade was shut off, and he collapsed to the ground face down, not moving.

Jerin was not overly surprised to see Seco standing just behind where Hetch had been. But instead of the smug grin Jerin had expected, there was a look of impatient irritation on Seco's face. "Oh, COME ON!" Seco gestured impatiently with his left hand. "I wait through that whole fight, which actually was pretty close since you handicapped yourself so much... and all I get at the end is mutual respect? What the hell was that?!"

Jerin took a few deep breaths, then calmly unhooked his own lightsaber from his belt, and nodded in satisfaction as its black blade hummed to life. "Well Seco, there will be no mutual respect at the end of THIS fight, I promise you that."

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"How easy it must be to play the protector when you think yourself untouchable. How wrong you are." - Nicol Bolas, Magic: the Gathering - Hour of Devastation

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(Nanaki's note: So, everyone's seen the end of Rebels by now, right? If not, you have only yourself to blame for reading past this point.

Anyway, while Rebels can't be shoehorned into the Expanded Universe timeline, (Which I actually think is unfortunate, since it was a Star Wars TV series I genuinely liked.) there is one aspect that's of great significance to this story, even so. Of course, that aspect would be Jacen Syndulla, and the questions he raises. I don't mean just, "Where did he come from?" I think everyone who's seen the prequels can figure that much out. But there are two more specific questions that need to be addressed, which are:

1. Did Kanan do it on purpose?
2. Why is Jacen Syndulla so very Human, when his mother is so very not?

Let's tackle those in order. First, did Kanan Force-impregnate Hera intentionally? Well, no. Not consciously, anyway. Kanan was already using all of his power to hold back the explosion, and slowly losing ground. Then, when it looked like Hera might be about to run toward him, he used a bit of power he probably couldn't afford to spare to hurl her away, back to the ship. In the midst of all that, I doubt very much that Kanan had the mental focus to spare on thinking about leaving a legacy behind. Even if he DID, I don't think Kanan would have done such a thing without knowing, with absolute certainty, that Hera was okay with it. It just wouldn't be in character for him. For all his skill, power, and courage, Kanan was not a take-charge alpha male. He played that kind of role in the group, because his friends needed him to, and he had the skills to back it up, but that wasn't really in his nature, deep down.

In that case, what DID happen? Well, even as Kanan was reaching out with the Force to hurl Hera away, his mind was undoubtedly filled with a burning determination that he had to save his friends, and Hera especially, no matter what it took. Hera, for her part, was also reaching out toward Kanan, surely hoping that there must be something she could do to save him, even as the logical, pragmatic leader in her probably saw that there wasn't. I think the Force itself basically put two and two together here. In that moment when Kanan used his power to send Hera away, in order to save her, I think the living Force sensed the intense mutual love between them. Not just romantic love either, but also a strong mutual respect and admiration from all the times they'd risked their lives together. In that moment, I think the Force did what it could to give them what they wanted, within the bounds of what was possible.

Of course, the bounds of what's possible changes a LOT depending on which particular Star Wars property you're dealing with. If this scene had been in The Force Unleashed, Starkiller would have just encased the whole explosion in a giant Force energy bubble, then sent it hurtling right back at the Imperial forces. In fact, considering that Rebels was a series that featured Jedi who have no problem blocking starfighter laser blasts with a lightsaber, faster than light space whales, a Force-sensitive who can literally become a thunderstorm, Force-sensitive wolves who can literally teleport, and a Jedi Temple built on top of a combination of an infinity gate and Aing-Tii flow-walking, Kanan's last scene was surprisingly realistic and down to earth.

Wait, am I really complaining about relative levels of realism in a franchise that started off with a movie where the bad guys' planet-destroying superweapon is itself destroyed by a rag-tag group of ill-prepared rebels who spend an excruciatingly long time stuck in a trash compactor, and are only saved by their gay robot sidekicks? Let's just move on.

The next question, and one that's far more pertinent to this story: Why is Jacen Syndulla Human, when his mother is not? (Side note: Wookieepedia's entry on the character is impressively unhelpful in answering this question, or even addressing it.) Do the normal, Human rules of genetics apply here, and does this mean there was a fifty percent chance that Anakin Skywalker would have been born as a Muun? Well, no, it's a bit more complicated than that.

Long ago, in Star Wars Insider's "Ask Lobot" feature, they confirmed that Humans and Twi'leks can indeed breed. This was in response to a question about why some Twi'lek females have Human-like ears, and some don't. (Side note: I'd love to know what source the "Ask Lobot" people were citing in that response, since it's not something I've ever stumbled across myself. Was it an old West End Games RPG book?) From this, I inferred that the Twi'lek genes must be highly dominant in that situation, if ears are the only Human-like trait the resulting hybrid child exhibits.

Of course, that was referring to traditional, sexual reproduction, not using the Force to stimulate someone's midi-chlorians into creating new life. In the latter case, the fact that the "father" is not actually contributing any genetic material should make it LESS likely that the child will inherit any of the father's features. That's why Anakin Skywalker was just as Human as his mother, and not to give too much away here, but that's why Tenn's child will NOT be a Zabrak.

Jacen Syndulla would seem to fly in the face of that logic. However, just like with the first question, I think we need to keep the context in mind here. Darth Plagueis' creation of Anakin affected an unwitting test subject that he couldn't actually choose. In Negian's case, he was able to choose his target, but his subject was an unwilling participant who had no say in the matter. With Hera and Kanan though, there was mutual love and respect, and I think it's safe to say that either of them would have sacrificed themselves to save the other, without hesitation. I think the Force itself discerned that Hera would very much want a child that would remind her of Kanan, and that's why the resulting little one has no lekku, and only a slight greenish tint to his skin.

Now, I'm aware that my proposed answers to these questions both rely on the Force having a will of its own to an extent that's rarely been seen. However, when did George Lucas, Gary Kurtz, or anyone else who might have a say in the matter, write down a definitive list of what the Force CAN'T do? There aren't a lot of hard and fast rules of what's possible in Star Wars, and if the Force can bring down a Star Destroyer or allow people to communicate across light years, I don't think a little reading of people's emotions and magically making a baby is out of line.

Also, I really can't think of any plausible alternative explanation in this case. If anyone has any thoughts on this subject, I'm all ears.)