Fighting with Monsters
Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 2
a fanfic by Sisiutil
Chapter 4
For too long, Kilu Branon and many of her comrades in the New Jedi Order fervently believed, the Jedi had been absent from the galaxy. The Great Jedi Purge at the beginning of the dark period of Imperial rule had made the order all but extinct, save for a handful of Jedi who were forced into hiding on the most far-flung worlds at the very edge of inhabited space. As a result, the inhabitants of the galaxy's many star systems had nearly forgotten about their former guardians of peace and justice. Many of the good people of the galaxy had forgotten what protection the Jedi could provide; even worse, the evil beings inhabiting the galaxy--of which there were far, far too many--had lost their fear of the Jedi. Granted, whoever was behind the recent attack that had killed her Master had sent over a dozen thugs against two Jedi; but to attack the Jedi at all showed how ignorant these beings were of the power a Jedi could wield. It showed a lack of proper respect. Kilu was now determined to show the thugs who had killed her Master how foolish it was to attack a Jedi at all. Even a mere apprentice Jedi such as herself.
Kilu Force-jumped off of the top of the wall, aiming for a spot directly in the middle of the dozen beings who were waiting in ambush for her. As she soared towards them, she activated her lightsaber. The weapon's low hum and the bright green flash of its blade were the first indication to the thugs that something was horribly, terribly wrong. Kilu landed perfectly in their midst and swung her body and her blade in a deadly arc. Before her adversaries could even react, she had reduced their number by four; they lay on the floor of the hanger, two of them sliced in half at the waist, the others lacking whole limbs. The screams of those who still lived stuck terror into the hearts of their companions, who fumbled clumsily as they strove to bring their weapons to bear.
Kilu's lightsaber blade swung at her closest adversary, slicing off the man's blaster hand at the wrist. He fell to the ground, his screams adding to the general confusion. Another thug, further away, managed to aim his blaster. The weapon spat a bolt of hot energy at her. Moving like a dancer and guided by the Force, Kilu swung her lightsaber around her body; she managed to ricochet the shot harmlessly off the bright green blade of energy and directly back to the man who'd fired it. The bolt caught him flush in the chest, and he fell backwards, dying before his body struck the ground.
The remaining thugs back-pedalled out of range of the lightsaber's deadly blade and began to fire. As Kilu's weapon rapidly shifted and swung to block their shots, the other part of her plan came into effect. From the top of the wall, Axel began to fire his blaster at their opponents, picking off gunmen from a safe distance and without risk of hitting Kilu. Only four opponents remained now...
Just then, the door to the hangar opened, and two more thugs, the human and the Rodian who had been waiting outside, ran in to aid their companions. Axel saw them enter. Kilu was several meters away, preoccupied with blocking blaster shots from the remaining attackers. Her back was to the two newcomers. They were raising their blasters, and from this angle, Axel could take out one, but not both, before they got a shot away. Perhaps she could block the shot. Then again, perhaps not. He couldn't take the chance. Not with Kilu's life on the line.
Axel didn't even think about what he did next, he just did it. He yelled at the top of his lungs and took a few rapid steps along the wall's top, his fear of heights suddenly forgotten. He then dove, still yelling, throwing himself at the two newcomers.
His gambit worked; they turned away from Kilu to look up at this new threat descending from above. Axel fired his blaster, his shots going wide as he fell, but his whole objective was to take their attention away from Kilu. In that regard, he succeeded, perhaps too well. The human swung his blaster around towards Axel and fired just before the freighter pilot landed on top of him. The shot tore through the flesh of Axel's right upper arm; his yell changed from one of aggression to one of pain. He fell on top of the human, who broke his fall, and together, the two struggled. Axel brought his knee up in between the man's legs and felt his opponent's body stiffen in sudden, debilitating pain. He brought his knee up again just for good measure.
The Rodian back-pedalled from where Axel was fighting his partner, then raised his blaster. Out of the corner of his eye, Axel caught the movement. He wrapped his still-functioning left arm around the groaning, pain-wracked human beneath him and rolled over, pulling his opponent on top of him. The Rodian's blaster shot ripped into his partner's back, killing him. From underneath the dying human, Axel raised his blaster and shot the Rodian in the chest twice. The alien fell to his knees, then over to his side.
Kilu, meanwhile, was still fending off blaster shots. She blocked one more, then Force-jumped high into the air through a forward somersault and twist. She landed in behind her adversaries and swiped her blade at them before they could even turn around to face her. Three of them fell; one remained. She raised her lightsaber, holding it between herself and her remaining opponent in a defensive posture. The lightsaber's bright tip was pointing directly at his face, illuminating the burly human's thick, unruly black beard and his fearful eyes. Silently, with her dark brown eyes holding his terrified gaze, Kilu dared him to attack. Wisely, he declined; he released his grip on his blaster and let it drop to the ground, then turned and ran past her to the hangar door. Kilu let him go.
"He's... getting away," Axel said as he pushed his dead human opponent off of himself. The man's body weight had shifted, pinning Axel's left arm and preventing him from taking a shot at their retreating opponent himself.
"Yes," Kilu said. "And he'll be scared, and he'll spread the word. He'll tell others what it's like to fight a Jedi," she added with no small amount of satisfaction. She turned and looked at Axel and saw him grasping his right arm and grimacing as he struggled to rise to his feet. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed, and ran over to him.
"Thanks for noticing," he muttered through a pained grimace.
"It's just a flesh wound," Kilu said with some relief as she took a quick glance at his burned upper right tricep. "You still have that medi-kit aboard?"
"Of course," Axel said. He turned to face his ship. "Arf! ARF! Open the damn door, it's me! Arf!"
Kili smiled and laughed briefly as the boarding ramp lowered in front of them. "You should have come up with a different nickname for your droid. This one makes you sound like a dog," she said as the port-side loading bay ramp lowered. Axel turned to glare at her, but said nothing, which Kilu realized was a refreshing change of pace. As they waited, she defensively reached out around them with the Force. "Damn," she swore quietly.
"What's wrong now?" Axel asked her, his left hand still covering his aching right tricep.
"You were right," she said. "I should have killed him. It looks like he's gone to get reinforcements. And..."
"And what?" Axel demanded testily as they walked up the boarding ramp.
"And," she said, casting an apologetic glance at him, "he'll probably alert the ship that's waiting for us in orbit." She shrugged abashedly.
Axel stopped in his tracks to fix her with an angry glare. "I hate to say I told you so..."
"Since when?" Kilu asked ruefully.
"You're right," Axel said. "I told you so. Next time, kill all the bad guys. That's what they're there for." He slapped the wall panel to close the loading bay door, then grimaced as he brought his hand back to cover his upper arm again.
"Can you fly with one hand?" she asked him.
"Sweetheart," he said as a cocky grin appeared on his face, "I can do a lot of things with just one hand. As you should well remember."
Her response to that was to roll her eyes and follow him to the cockpit. "Men..." she muttered under her breath.