TITLE: Thann Mithric's Sacrifice

Author: Jedi_Lover

Timeframe: Legacy of the Force Era

Characters: Thann Mithric

Genre: Minor Roulette Challenge at TFN

Summary: This is a challenge over at TFN. We are assigned a MINOR character (and I mean minor) and have to write a short story about him/her. I was assigned Thann Mithric and I immediately asked myself…who the hell is Thann Mithric? He was a Falleen Jedi sent with Kyle Katarn, Valin Horn and two other Jedi to kill, capture or homing-tag Jacen Solo, aka Darth Caedus.

I couldn't find out much about this character so I just made up everything about his background and Falleen biology and such.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.

~JL~

It's a little known fact that a Falleen's brain can live and function for up to two minutes without oxygen or bloodflow. This unique survival technique was called hypoxia tolerance—or the ability to survive in chronically low levels of oxygen. Thann Mithric knew much about Falleen anatomy and physiology. His grandfather was a renowned neurosurgeon and Thann's father was a skilled orthopedic specialist.

His family expected him to carry on the family tradition, but when he was a young teenager he had a chance run in with a Falleen Jedi named Zarith Kosokhan. The Jedi immediately recognized Thann's Force potential and encouraged the teen to returning to the Jedi Temple with him to train.

Of course this suggestion met with resounding disapproval from Thann's family. He was expected to go to University and become a doctor like his father and his father's father. Jedi Kosokhan respected the family's wishes and left without a new student, but the encounter forever changed Thann. He no longer dreamed about one day becoming published in the Falleen Academy Journal of Neurology, instead he fantasized of a life of excitement and adventure—a life of a Jedi Knight.

He waited until he was the legal age of majority and surreptitiously left his family home and boarded a passenger freighter for Yavin IV. There he began his training as a Jedi Knight. It was everything he expected—duty, honor, discipline, and sacrifice.

Right now he was enduring sacrifice—as his career as a Jedi Knight had recently came to an abrupt end. He didn't want to second-guess himself, but for some reason his mind drifted back to his family and their steadfast opinion that he was going to waste his life away as a Jedi. He really hoped they were wrong; he wanted his actions today to have made a difference.

Currently he found himself lying on the plaza deck near the Senate building. He was part of a strike team sent to kill, capture or tag Jacen Solo…and things were not going well. Master Katarn took a lightsaber strike to his chest and was clinging to life. Thann could see him out of the corner of his eye clutching his wound and withering in pain. Still, Thann could sense a feeling of hope coming from the Master. It was a hope that Jedi Apprentice Seha Dorvald would be successful in her mission. If she could manage to put a homing beacon on Jacen Solo's cape—an item of clothing he rarely went without—everything they did here today would be worth the sacrifice; they would help defeat a Sith Lord.

Thann couldn't turn his head to see if Seha was successful in placing a tracer on Jacen. He couldn't move at all. All he could do was stare at the dead body in front of him. It was a body whose Jedi robes were covered with filth from the conduit piping they crawled through to get past Galactic Alliance Guard security. In the center of the body's torso was a large blaster wound. It was a fatal injury, and it was the reason Thann's mind drifted back to anatomy and physiology and the idiosyncrasies of Falleen biology.

Thann Mithric had always found hypoxia tolerance in his species interesting. He just never thought he would actually experience the phenomenon in person, but that is obviously what was happening because the body he was looking at was his very own.

Jacen Solo had defeated him. The Sith Lord deflected a blaster bolt into Thann's torso and then decapitated him. His head had spun on the deck a few times before it came to rest facing his body. His eyes remained open. He would close them if he could, but that was not possible. All he could do was watch. He watched as Valin Horn and Kolir Hu'lya deflected GAG security blaster bolts toward Jacen Solo.

He watched as the semi-conscious body of Kyle Katarn slide out from his view. Thann would have smiled if he could. He realized it must be Seha evacuating the Master through the use of the Force. She wouldn't attempt a rescue if her mission was not a success. Jacen Solo was tagged; a small homing beacon was now attached somewhere on his cape.

As Thann's world dimmed, he heard Jacen talking. "You're a fraction of the man your father is."

"Funny. That's what I was going to say to you," he could hear Valin's reply.

The sound of speeders, blasters, sirens and footsteps drowned out Jacen's response. Suddenly, Thann's view changed. He realized Jacen Solo had picked up his head and from the angle he was hanging he surmised the Sith Lord was holding him up by his ponytail. The last thing Thann saw was Jacen Solo's yellow-tinged eyes glaring at him...then everything went black.

Jedi Thann Mithric felt a rush of the Force as he was pulled into its tremendous current and at that moment he knew his sacrifice was not in vain. Master Katarn had told Seha to wait until the situation was the most chaotic before attempting to tag Jacen Solo. Through the Force Jedi Mithric knew he was the one who created the chaos needed for her to succeed. Jacen Solo's days were numbered.

'If he can be tracked, he could be killed,' Thann thought and as he entered the deep recesses of the netherworld Thann Mithric smiled.