The clumps of plasteel boots hitting the floor of the supposedly abandoned base echoed throughout the hallway, the sound steadily increasing in volume as the Stormtroopers patrolled the hallway. Keyan Farlander clutched his blaster pistol next to his chest as the boot steps slowly came closer to his hiding place, hoping that the Stormtroopers that were patrolling the hallway wouldn't think to look into his hiding place.
"What's in there?" Keyan could barely hear the Stormtrooper's report to a comrade, obviously pointing out the storage closet in which he was hiding. Keyan's knuckles turned white as the death grip on the blaster's grip continued, his left hand moving towards his lightsaber.
"A storage closet," the other Stormtrooper reported. "Do you think something's in there?"
Keyan reached out with the Force—sensing the locations and the intent of the Imperial soldiers that had him cornered. One was nearing the door, and both of them weren't in the mood for taking prisoners. Keyan positioned the hilt of his lightsaber towards the door, the blade emitter in the approximate location of where the enemy Stormtrooper's chest would be when he would begin to open the door.
Five…four…three… He began his silent countdown, patiently waiting for the opportunity to present itself. A slight regret at having to set up this ambush to get out of this situation flashed through his mind, but he remembered the words of Master Kenobi. "Sometimes the best defense is an offense." It was an older saying than that, but hearing it applied to using the Force comforted him in this moment.
One… He thumbed his lightsaber on, feeling a slight kickback as the emerging energy blade cut through the metal door within a second. A cry of pain could be heard as the first Stormtrooper was stabbed through the chest by the energy blade. The door continued to open, taking the lightsaber blade with it. The other Stormtrooper was too busy reacting to his compatriot's death to notice Keyan at first—it was a mistake that cost him his life. The red energy bolt fired from Keyan's BlasTech DL-18 blaster pistol hit the Stormtrooper's chest, ending his life.
Keyan retrieved his lightsaber from the door and placed it back on his belt before scouting the area, looking for any other hostile troops. The halls were empty, but if there were any other Stormtroopers in the vicinity they would quickly race to the location and find the two dead bodies. His hiding place was now compromised. "So," he whispered to the weapon he had found, "looks like I've got to carry you again…"
Luke blocked the quick flurry of strikes that the Dark Jedi he and Kyle Katarn were fighting, only to fall victim to a well-placed kick to a well placed kick to the chest. He stumbled backwards for a second before being able to regain his balance. Mara, however, was still on the offensive. Her lightsaber sent purple streaks of light through the air as she continued her attack.
Holding his lightsaber in one hand, Kyle Katarn did his best to block the few strikes that were headed his way. His left wrist throbbed in pain, the result of the Dark Jedi intercepting a punch a few minutes previously and expertly breaking it, leaving him only with his lightsaber skills. There had been a chance to easily end the fight a minute ago—an easy opportunity to send a 30kg metal slab hurling towards her head—yet the pain had interfered with his concentration, and the slab was only able to lift half a meter off of the ground before falling.
Mara advanced on Luke, fully intent to take out the unwounded combatant before finally finishing off the one she had wounded. Unfortunately, it seemed as if both of Kenobi's students weren't planning on just laying down to die. It appeared as if she had greatly underestimated her two opponents—at least for the moment. She easily parried an attack by the injured student and sent a powerful attack towards the blond trainee, hoping to regain the upper hand.
Luke withstood the powerful attack, bracing his feet on the floor. The 'sabers locked together with a flash of yellow light, briefly illuminating the room further. Through the clashing blue and purple blades, Luke looked into the eyes of his opponent. Her eyes were green—a piercing green that was filled with determination and anger. He pushed against the lightsaber, doing his best to drive both blades down into the Dark Jedi's shoulder. Both of the blades slowly centimeter-by-centimeter towards Mara, who calmly struggled against him.
"You're good," Mara admitted. Luke began to feel his control over the struggle weaken as the Emperor's Hand revealed her true power. She was doing something that she had rarely done—eagerly and readily tapping into the Dark Side, feeling the "twisted" power run through her body. "But not good enough," she added as the physical test turned to her favor. She pushed forward, sending Luke backwards for a few feet. A second later she twisted, bringing her blade up to deflect a jumping slash from the other student.
Now it was her turn to backpedal as both of the Jedi students went on the offensive. She expertly blocked the lightsaber blades as she slowly began to lead them to exactly where she wanted them to be. She was meters away from her trap when she felt something. Kenobi was near.
She had failed.
She cursed as she turned away from the two Jedi trainees, using the Force to leap onto the support beams that she had initially used to get the drop on the two. Landing easily on the beam, she raced towards the hole in the ceiling that she had used to enter the building to begin with. Behind her she could hear two more thumps as the two students gave chase. A quick glance behind her before she leapt through the hole revealed the uninjured Jedi to be the first in line, followed closely by the other student. Too close. She raised her left hand toward them and sent a powerful Push in their direction. Her plan was to use the Force to push both of the students off of the support beam and to the floor below, a move that would have given her several precious seconds to get away. With what must have been an instinctual movement, the young Jedi raised his free hand and negated the effects of her Force attack. She cursed once more before jumping onto the roof.
Luke easily made the leap and continued his chase, running along the rooftop less than eight meters behind the female Dark Jedi. He made a quick jump over a gap between two buildings, slightly closing the gap between them. She foolishly turned for a second, causing Luke to gain another few precious seconds on her. She took a few quick swings at him that were easily parried before jumping to the ground below. She had to reach the safety of the hangar before Kenobi reached her, and every second that she spent fighting off these students could mean the difference between escaping or ending up on the wrong end of a lightsaber blade. A piece of free piping she threw towards her pursuer failed to connect—an unfortunate product of her hastiness. In the distance, she could already see the faint blue illumination of what could only be Obi-Wan's lightsaber. It was still several meters away, but it added an additional urgency to her flight.
Through the Force, Obi-Wan could feel the fleeing Mara Jade as she raced away from him. There was fear, and there was the feeling that this young woman was swearing revenge on the Jedi. His highly attuned danger sense flared, alerting him to the fact that something was soon to happen. He quickly moved his lightsaber to the right, intercepting the freshly fired blaster shot that was aimed at him. Other shots soon followed, forcing Obi-Wan to kill his lightsaber. "Luke! Ignore her," he shouted to his pursuing student as the Stormtroopers continued to fire upon him. Their concentration on one target was soon broken as they discovered another target: the fleeing figure of Luke Skywalker. "We need to leave this base now!"
Almost on cue, the sound of the Moldy Crow's engines filled the air as it flew over the base, looking for the optimal place to land.
"There's our ride," Obi-Wan said as Luke finally managed to close the distance between the two, the young Jedi trainee tiredly deflecting the incoming blaster shots. "Keyan, did you hear that?" Obi-Wan said after pulling his comlink off of his belt.
"Loud and clear," the Jedi pilot replied. "I'm on my way there now."
"And there's Kyle," Obi-Wan reported as the other student raced through the open field, doing his best to stay out of the gunsights of the Imperial Stormtroopers. "We best get to the ship now. We can talk about this dark presence later."
Luke nodded as he sidestepped towards the general direction of the ship, deflecting the blaster fire as it streamed towards him.
Mara seethed as she watched the Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Jedi students neared the ship that would soon take them off of the planet; green eyes studying the movements of them, hoping that one day it would pay off. In her gut—more than likely something Force-inspired—she knew that she would one face this new Jedi Order again, and she knew that the battle wouldn't be so "neat." The Jedi would be stronger, especially the younger one, and they would prove more than a challenge than they already were. She would be stronger as well. Yet there was one silver lining in this meeting today. She had failed to kill any of the students, but she had learned a great deal of information that could prove quite useful in the future. The former Stormtrooper had been easily goaded into unleashing his anger—a feat that she hoped wouldn't be an isolated incident. This new Order that Kenobi had created was just under a year old and there was already the threat of the Dark Side destroying it from within—another fine example of Palpatine's rhetoric about the uselessness of the teachings of the Jedi.
The Corellian-made transport lifted off with the Jedi trainees in it, making Mara partially wish that she had followed the suggestion of an Imperial officer when he mentioned continuing the chase of the rebel in the town. There was no doubt in her mind that that rebel and pilot of this ship was one and the same. As the thrusters of the craft burned in the night sky, Mara Jade swore revenge…
"What happened down there?" Jan Ors asked as the four Jedi stumbled into the ship. Kyle and Luke were covered in a few small burn marks, dirt, and obvious signs of being punched and/or kicked in the face.
"Met a girl," Kyle said as he held his broken left wrist close to his body, "couldn't keep her hands off me—or her feet. The lightsaber wasn't that fun, either."
"There was another Jedi down there?" she asked, trying to remember if any of her former Imperial experience could shed any light on this recent turn of events.
"A Dark Jedi," Luke corrected. "A particularly powerful one, too."
Obi-Wan Kenobi stirred in his seat as Kyle exited the cockpit of the vessel to visit the first aid center. "At least our mission here wasn't a failure—despite the injuries sustained by half of our official roster."
"Official roster?" Jan asked, the intelligence agent in her flaring up.
"Leia Organa has sat in on a few training sessions," Obi-Wan replied. "The most she's done is lift a few pebbles with the Force at the moment. Don't worry—we're not training an entire hidden army away from Mon Mothma's eyes."
"How many of these Dark Jedi do you think there are?" Luke asked, remembering being told of the other Dark Jedi that had set up the Imperial ambush on Tatooine.
"I don't know their exact numbers," Obi-Wan replied. "I do know, however, that they are many and we are few—for the moment."
"Something I've mentioned to Mon Mothma in passing a few times," Obi-Wan cryptically said. "An idea that I assume that she's already put into motion…"
"Are you sure you saw him go this way?" Han Solo asked as he walked down a dark alley on some Outer Rim planet. While Kenobi, Luke and the other Jedi went off some routine mission for the Alliance, he was stuck here.
I swear, Chewbacca growled, doing his best to keep his high volume speaking of the Wookiee language down, fearing that the slightest misplaced growl could alert their quarry. If we can trust what our source said.
"That's doubtful," Han pessimistically said.
The alley stank; and various pieces of garbage littered the area. The street light's illumination barely permeated into the alley's darkness, and what light was able to invade the area cast devious looking shadows in which almost anything would be able to hide. Not knowing what kind of terror could be lurking in the darkness, Han Solo drew his blaster, knowing that if who he was looking for had come this way, he would obviously be spooked.
"Chewie, stay back a couple of meters and cover me," Han said as he stepped into the dark alley. The smells got worse as he continued down his way, a particularly foul smell coming from a nearby dumpster made his eyes water. Several meters down the alleyway, he stopped and turned around. "I don't think there's anyone down here. You must have been seeing--"
A bar of green light appeared centimeters from his neck and a strong arm subdued him. "Drop the blaster now," a voice said from the shadows. Knowing what a lightsaber could do to even heavily protected human flesh, Han quickly complied. The DL-44 hit the ground with a thud, a sound that didn't even escape the immediate area. "Tell the Wookiee to stand down," the voice said, seeing the silhouette of Chewbacca assume a fighting stance. "I've seen what members of his species can do, and I don't feel like crossing one today."
Chewie stood near the entrance to the alley, bowcaster aimed at the figure that was holding his honor-brother hostage. He growled out a warning in Shyriiwook, telling the stranger to release Han instantly. Through the green illumination caused by the stranger's lightsaber, he could barely make out the features of the face. A few wrinkles lined the dark skin, and a few gray hairs appeared out of the darkness. It only took a few more seconds for Chewbacca to see the identifying mark and recognize where the Wookiee had seen it before.
"Chewie, what are you doing?" Han exclaimed as his friend put down his bowcaster. "Take the shot!"
General? Chewbacca asked, sending Han's head reeling. He was being held hostage by the man he was supposed to bring back to the Alliance.
"Sithspit…" he whispered as the lightsaber blade continued to hover near his neck.