Tuanul, Jakku
34 ABY
When the ball-like droid BB-8 arrived at the tent, his master Poe Dameron was glad that he hurried. The Jedi Master Lor-San Tekka and his assistant Marr Idi-Shael sensed the approach of danger. Neither of them realized until too late that the Imperial Remnant had paid them a surprise visit. A critical attack on peace as it would have seemed.
As Shael raced to safety on a speeder bike, Poe's pilot-in-training, sometimes girlfriend and the eldest daughter of Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, Syal, was also waiting when she saw the rogue fleet, jumping into her X-Wing to make a quick getaway as soon as Poe raced out of the tent. And no sooner did her X-Wing leave the ground when she jumped into hyperspace, Poe arriving at his three seconds later. He and BB-8 jumped into their and attempted to take off, but there wasn't enough time to leave when a duo of sleek, white plated stormtroopers shot at the engines. At this, Poe gave up and hid under his ship. When BB-8 came to him, Poe produced a sharp black artifact from a black pouch, mentioning to BB-8 that the artifact, whatever it was, would be safer in the hands of the Federation.
Soon afterwards, a shuttle landed outside the village. When the bay door opened, it was to allow a single figure to exit. Tall, dark, cloaked, with its face hidden behind a metal mask of a slitted forehead and a thick, snoutlike breathing apparatus, headed unerringly in the direction of Lor San Tekka, who had been apprehended by the stormtroopers. The figure was flanked by a young woman whose blonde hair had turned a shade of dark, as dark as the Dark Side of the Force. Tekka spoke first with eyes that were almost narrowed.
"Darth Caedus, only you could be so bold."
"Bold enough to take on the great master of fortune," said Darth Caedus from beneath the electronic amplifier of his voice. "You know what I have come for."
"And I know where you came from," his eyes turned to the young woman. "Especially you, Tahiri Velia. You used to be so pure and innocent."
The young assassin in question, Tahiri Velia, looked bloodthirsty and distraught. She held the crimson lightsaber in her right hand close to Tekka's throat.
"In case you haven't forgotten, old man, the death of Anakin Solo broke my heart."
Darth Caedus motioned to Tahiri to put the lightsaber down. She deactivated it almost instantly when her master spoke.
"We know you have the map to the Skywalkers. We understand you've acquired it and now you're going to give it to the Imperial Remnant."
Tekka plucked up courage.
"The Imperial Remnant rose from the Dark Side, while you two did not."
Smiling venomously, Tahari reactivated her lightsaber, her head leaning against Tekka's and her master's personal boundary.
"Let me kill him," she whispered into her master's right ear.
"Conserve your strength, Tahiri," Caedus said to his apprentice before turning to Tekka. "You do not want to turn this simple transaction into a tragedy, do you?"
Tekka looked at his captive neighbors with his face white as chalk, but before he could speak, there came the greatest pain he had ever suffered from the lightsaber blade of Darth Caedus. In his own act of trying to bring the leader of the Remnant down to his knees, Poe fired his blaster…and the shot remained in mid-air before Caedus, holding his left hand upwards, moved out of the way and proceeded to let the shot continue on its course. He stared at the pilot.
"The old man gave it to you, didn't he?"
To the troopers beside him, he added.
"Search him."
The Stormtroopers gave Poe a brutal pat down, but no luck.
"Nothing, sir."
"Put him on board," Caedus sighed miserably. "And kill the remaining villagers."
He spoke the last order to his master, Lumiya, a green-skinned woman adorned in silver that covered her mouth and the rest of her body, with the exception of the area around her eyes. Lumiya turned to the troops and shouted.
"Everyone on my command now! FIRE!"
And so they did, firing one shot at each village after another…all except one who could not understand why his superiors had to be so cruel. But little did he know that this would soon lead to a chain of events that would become his destiny and his freedom.