The Third Lesson

[Asha]

Pursuing the fleeing Imperial loyalists was not hard to do. When the Ifranian reinforcements arrived, Leah had leaped into action and ordered them all back into their ships to pursue the fleeing loyalist cell. So, the Ifranian cell and their Jedi companion traced their enemies back to an abandoned Imperial bunker on the nearby mountainside. The bunker was unkempt to say the least. Asha guessed that it had not seen upkeep since the Empire pulled off of Ifrane. It was small, overgrown with vegetation, and there was a rusted and unusable five hundred year old crashed Republic cruiser jutting out of the mountain side above it.

Already, as her ship landed, Asha could see the remains of the loyalist cell massing outside the rusted bunker's broken-down doors. She counted twenty in all—almost as many men as the Ifranians had brought with them. The loyalists didn't pull punches either. As soon as the Ifranians landed, blaster fire began to rain down on them. Asha exited from ship and entered a full-blow battle. Almost at once, she was transported back into the days of the Revolution. She remembered battles like this, and she was determined to win this one too.

She unsheathed her sword with one hand and drew her blaster with the other. She was a new Jedi Padawan now, but without a lightsaber, she would still be ducking blaster fire the old fashioned way. She aimed and shot at the nearest insurgent, scoring a headshot. But, almost immediately, return fire drove any confidence the one shot had earned her. A blaster bolt smacked the hilt of her sword, shattering the weapon and burning her hand. Asha screamed at the momentary flash of pain and the dull, burning throb that followed it. Instinctively, she took cover behind a falling log at the base of the incline leading up towards the insurgent bunker.

"Shit," she cursed to herself. "I really need that lightsaber now." @Deviant

 

[Leah Reach]

The pursuit of the loyalists was no easy feat but they were led straight into their main base of operations. An abandoned Imperial bunker tucked into a ridge, overrun by the wilderness, waited their inevitable arrival. Roots of trees ran along the hull of a crashed ship. Moss of a brilliant green festered against the bunker walls. The wind blew, insects trilled, and twenty enemies amassed at the base entrance. She could feel their eyes drill into the hulls of their transports. She could feel their hate, disgust and thirst for blood during their approach. They knew she and the people of Ifrane were coming. Not that Leah cared in the least. Justice would be served regardless.

A tempest of enemy fire streamed against them. The second the doors opened, several rebels dropped to the floor, barely registered into the battle. The first casualties. Her heart sank at seeing the men and women she now led fall so quickly, but as it sank, it burned. Her blood boiled. She would not concede to hate, but the Jedi Master knew it was high time for retribution. A scorched village, dead civilians, now rebels? The loyalists had hell to pay, and Leah would make sure they paid in full. Not bothering to use her personal blaster, she decided to unveil her lightsaber to strike fear in the heart of their enemy. Heads turned, gasps followed, but nobody fled in terror. Disappointing.

Trying to cover Asha, she deflected several bolts back to the enemy. All of them failed to make a mark. Fortune did not favor her then, but Leah had the Force. She was confident the rebels would prevail. As they pushed on, she fell behind the log and rested close beside her student. “Why, jealous?” She waved her active blade in front of her face, a clear smile in play. With a light chuckle despite the severity of the battle, Leah reassured her, “Don’t worry about it. I promise, you will get yours soon enough. As long as we manage to get out of this battle alive.” With a nod, she rose out of her position. Just as she did, a heavy blaster shot caught her off guard. Grip too light, her blade slipped out of her fingers and clattered to the ground. Out of cover, out of bodily reach.

She cursed under her breath and glanced to Asha, her eyes telling her not to get started. “You know what—“ She said, trying to make a lesson out of a very obvious mistake. “—a lightsaber is not always what defines a Jedi. It’s not as important as you might believe.” She gave a half-hearted smile as if she hadn’t just lost the only chance to advance due to a single bolt of plasma.

@Malon

 

[Asha]

Mood Music​

"Right," Asha replied glancing back over her shoulder at the enemies firing down on them from the overlook. "The Force is what defines a Jedi. The Force is what is important."

Asha stretched a hand out in the direction of the incline and closed her eyes. Once more, she let down the walls that she had put up and let the power she had once feared flow into her. She imagined the rocks in the incline loosening until they could no longer maintain their form. She imagined an avalanche that would carry the men atop the incline to the bottom and crush them, along with the men that would be below the rockfall.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard the snapping of rocks coming loose from the cliff and the sound of them rolling down the incline; the screams of men followed them and fifteen died in the resulting fall. The remaining five, realizing what had happened, shouted and fled back inside the bunker where they no doubt had reinforcements waiting for them.

Asha used the momentary reprieve to tear off a piece of her shirt and wrap it around the hand she had burned earlier. Then she took up her blaster pistol again. She was still stunned that she had managed to use the Force so spectacularly without any real instruction as to how; but it had only confirmed to her that she had made the right choice earlier today. She was meant to be a Jedi. And, with the proper training, she could do just that.

She stood. "Come on!" she called out to the men. Then she looked down upon Leah. "Let's not give them any time to regroup or set a trap. We finish this now."

A renewed sense of confidence flowing through her, Asha became to make the climb up the incline towards the bunker in the side of the mountain. This time, she would not come down from the mountains until her homeworld was truly free... @Deviant

 

[Leah Reach]

Leah was stunned. She was beyond amazed. Asha had taken her half-hearted lesson to heart. She closed her eyes, stretched a hand outside their cover, ignored everything her instinct might have said. She threw herself into the open and struck fear into an already worried Jedi Master. Rather than confirm those fears, she chased them away. Thoughts scattered and mind rattled at what she was seeing, Leah watched her newfound student jolting the rocks on the mountain slope. The incline trembled. Whatever she was doing, she was doing it well. Before the loyalists even realized what was going on, it was too late. An avalanche was spurred. Gravity did the rest.

Almost the entire defending force was crushed in the span of a few moments. Not by the experienced Jedi Master, or the seasoned rebel veterans, but a single young woman who decided to take a chance. It was her leap of faith. Proof that she could be a Jedi and more. A fine smile etched into her features as she looked to Asha. Not even Leah had considered the idea of a landslide. She struck fifteen birds by nudging a few stones. If that wasn’t damned impressive, she didn’t know what was. Even then, the older woman struggled to process what happened and blinked several times in response to Asha’s call. “Ah— oh, yes— of course.” She managed to answer before following after the very promising rebel.

Climbing up the slope one rock and leap at a time, Leah eventually reached the entrance into the bunker. The other reinforcing rebels trailed behind them but she doubted they would be needed. With her lightsaber back in hand, restored confidence and a growing strength in the Force, the Jedi was convinced she and Asha could mow through the loyalists without further casualties. Which was exactly how it started. Once Leah reached the bunker and smashed into the opening, the woman flourished her lightsaber. Some remained defiant, others not so much. Those that slunk away would try to take her on from a range. Those not so clever decided to take a risk and shoot her point blank.

In the end, the Jedi Master slashed through one blaster and into another. She danced gracefully between several men, disarming them before cutting them down. One man attempted to charge at her with a stun rod, bewildered, anxious and clearly having no idea what he was doing. She raised a hand and gripped him with the Force. A moment later, she threw him into the ceiling and back into the floor. The display surprised the other loyalists but they weren’t planning to back down just yet. That was when Asha would come in.

 

[Asha]

Emboldened by her first true success with the Force, Asha charged up the incline and into the bunker along with her master. There she witness Leah Reach as a Jedi Master in all her glory. Her lightsaber spun, the Force coiled around her effortlessly; she was everything the legends said the Jedi were and more. Asha aspired to be every bit the Jedi Leah was some day... but today was, unfortunately, not that day. The freshly-made Padawan's attempts to join the fray were noble, and she got off a few shots in the direction of the enemy, but were ultimately doomed to failure.

A loyalist wielding a vibroblade charged her. Asha fired, but the attack was so sudden that she had little time to aim precisely and her shot missed. Without her own sword, she didn't have a weapon to go blade-to-blade with the loyalist insurgent. Fortunately, her years as a swordswoman had sharpened her reflexes enough that she could dodge the first couple of jabs; but a well-aimed, reverse-gripped slash cut a clean gash right across her face. Her reflexes had saved her from losing an eye (or her nose), but the pain was excruciating and followed by the feeling of warm blood trickling down her face.

A cold anger coiled in her belly; the kind you usually got when incensed by a wound. And the Force responded to her a second time. Colder. Darker. She hadn't the experience or the training to know how to use it properly yet. So, when she unleashed a dizzying telekinetic blast of dark side power, fueled by her anger and pain, and crushing her assailant against the adjacent wall, she had no idea that her action was very un-Jedi of her or that she had mistakenly tapped into the very power she had come to fear.

The cold rush felt good, but there was enough wrongness to what she had done that Asha resisted using the Force again. Instead, she reloaded her weapon and charged after Leah, as was her original intent. She could figure out what happened later. For now, her homeworld needed freedom. @Deviant

 

[Leah Reach]

Maybe it was better if Leah maintained her forward position rather than give Asha a piece of the pie. Which, as it turned out, was nothing short of bittersweet. The Jedi Master managed to hack, slash and kick through several of the Imperial loyalists but her student struggled to continue her winning streak. Missed shots, cornered into a knife fight, left with a shallow scar into her cheek. Leah was ready to retreat from her onslaught to help her newest Padawan until the young woman lashed out in a power and strength she had feared to ever see. A taste of the Dark Side. The corridor grew cold and the world turned into a blur. Leah locked eyes with Asha for a brief moment. They would talk about it later.

With her enemy successfully dispatched and Asha returning to her use of a blaster, the Jedi Master continued her assault. Behind her, in the bunker entrance, several of the reinforcing rebels leapt into battle. Covering her flanks, protecting her from wayward shots, chipping away at the enemy. Leah soaked up much of the crossfire. Her lightsaber fluttered and moved faster than the loyalists could expect, deflecting bolts into walls, ceilings, chest plates or legs. One enemy collapsed into the floor as a round of plasma ricocheted from her blade and into his unprotected groin. That had to hurt.

Two more defending men recognized how futile their efforts against her were. She may have brought a sword to a gun fight, but that particular sword was the one in charge. Rather than concede or play along, the pair of guards looked at one another then unsheathed their own vibroblades. A real challenge. Almost immediately, they rushed her together. A jab into her left shoulder, a slash to her right thigh. They were quick and coordinated but Leah was faster. Her body swiveled, curling her shoulder inward to evade the thrust. At the same time, her thigh moved into the fine line she stepped into. In essence, the Jedi slipped narrowly between the two men and their attacks.

Before they realized what she did, it was too late. Her fingers tightened, the lightsaber in her hand spun around, and two bodies fell into the metal floor. With a satisfied grunt, she flicked a strand of hair out of her face and turned to the seven remaining loyalists. Outmatched and outnumbered, they began a gradual retreat further into the bunker, where they could find more cover and space. Leah quickly saw it as an attempt to lure them into a trap and aimed to prevent it altogether. Flourishing her blue blade, she rushed on. Feet silent against the ground, armor shaking, eyes straight ahead. Something straight out of any Imperial’s nightmare.

@Malon (DICE)

 

[Asha]

Asha's attempts to rejoin the fray were less than successful. Some of the loyalist insurgents, despite their panic, seemed to have noticed that she neither had full control over her powers nor a lightsaber to fend them off with. She took shelter behind a series of knocked over storage crates but was otherwise pinned by laser fire. From this position, she could fire back at them, but her aim was obscured by the very barriers keeping her alive—rendering her shots little more than warnings for the enemy to keep away. Worse, she was running low on ammo; she would not be able to keep this up forever.

But Asha had been a resistance fighter for years. She had been in worse situations than this one and survived; and now she had the Force to give her new strength. Reaching out with it, she seized one of the insurgent's blaster rifles and pulled the weapon in her direction. It came easier than she thought and Asha was proud of herself when she felt the cool metal of the weapon slap her waiting palm. Each successful use made this power much easier to call upon and manipulate.

A fresh weapon in hand, she unloaded blaster bolts into the enemy, killing some and sending the rest scattering. Free from cover, she stepped out from behind the crates and glanced down the corridor where Leah had vanished. She distantly heard the older woman's lightsaber humming and clashing as she swung it at her enemies unseen down the hall. "She almost makes this look easy," a sweaty Asha lamented.

Hands on her new blaster rifle, she charged down the corridor after Leah. @Deviant

 

[Leah Reach]

The loyalists retreated further. Leah pushed on faster. A whirlwind of death and destruction, she aimed to destroy the enemy once and for all. Her mind reflected back to the village. The scorched homes, charred bodies, trapped families. She remembered the smell of burnt skin, the screams of innocent refugees, the roar of gunfire and a growing inferno. She remembered everything, including the men responsible. The Jedi Master always preached mercy when it was due, but the loyalists deserved none. For their actions today, justice was demanded. She would give it to them. With the Force and in the form of her lightsaber, its icy blade carving forward into the air.

Her advance and attack was another success, but even better than before. Leah may have had a rough start with the battle, but she was almost new and improved. The Jedi Master within her shined and the shadows of her enemies balked. Those that didn’t were immediately mowed through. A slash into one guard’s torso, scorching their insides and dropping them into the body. A direct thrust into the barrel of a blaster aimed toward her, burning through the weapon and directly into the face of its user. She tore the blade out, satisfied, and continued. She did until there were only three enemies remaining. No matter how far they retreated, it was clear. They could not contend with the Jedi Master, nor the rebel reinforcements behind her. They lost.

With her lightsaber raised high, guarding her midline and flanks, enough to intimidate the life out of any man, she called out to those left. “Surrender now or die.” She was quick to the point. The woman knew they deserved little mercy for what was done. They deserved death. However, understanding there was no reason to give into hate and revenge, she wanted to leave the people of Ifrane to hand down justice. With her not so idle threat, the remaining loyalists dropped their weapons. Her guard eased up. Be that as it may, one suddenly unveiled a pistol and aimed at the Jedi. With how close they were, Leah would be hard pressed to defend against a few bolts when they fired.

@Malon

 

[Asha]

Asha wanted to arrive in time to help Leah finish off the remaining loyalists, but she had been too delayed by other mishaps along the way, not the least of which was getting pinned behind those cargo crates earlier. Embarrassingly, it had taken her so long that she had not seen which route her Master had taken to trap the remaining insurgents. The sound of lightsaber battles had long since faded, leaving Asha wandering the winding halls of the bunker looking for Leah and the other fighters.

She was just about to give up when she was stricken with a strange sensation. She sensed danger. Was this what it was like to have the Force warn you that trouble was ahead? The young Padawan scanned her surroundings for signs of danger, but found none. Everything was empty... but then she heard the shots. They were down the hall aways, on the other side of the corridor.

Snapping into action, Asha ran towards where she heard the shots. She had no doubt she would Leah and any resistance that remained there. She just hoped that Leah wasn't the one being shot at, and that, if she was, the Jedi Master was alive when her new student arrived. Asha would never forgive herself if her lapse in timing cost one of the last-surviving Jedi Masters her life. @Deviant

 

[Leah Reach]

Surprised, Leah tried to react. Instinct pulled her into motion. Unfortunately, her student was not around when the shot was fired, left behind and down the corridor due to her earlier encounter with one of the loyalists. This left the Jedi Master to tank the strike on her own. Not so hard of a feat, with her lightsaber and reflexes, but the close proximity was what found her. Although she managed to step the side, believing it was enough to dodge the shot, she felt the shard of plasma shatter into her armored shoulder. Pain burned through. Her nerves were on fire. However, she survived. Her arm was fine. She tanked the hit. Now, it was time for retribution.

With one hand stretched out, she crushed the barrel of the man’s blaster with the Force. The metal crumbled under the pressure of the invisible hand, leaving the loyalist defenseless. Rather than dive forward and slip her lightsaber between his rib cage, however, she maintained her ground. The palm of her hand still open, fingers straining, she forced the man into the ground. She could feel his nose break against the floor. A single pull that knocked him clean out. As much as she wanted to crush his esophagus, Leah remembered. She knew it wasn’t right. Not necessary. The ambush was over, the battle was won, the makeshift war between the Imperial loyalists and Ifranian rebels reached its end.

Finished, the other rebels took the survivors into custody and Leah was left to poke at her wound. Surely, it hurt, but she knew she would be fine. Nothing like a day in a tank of kolto to heal it. Better yet, some alcohol and a bandage. Her armor had saved her from the brunt of the blow, as did her strength and perseverance as a Jedi Master. Even if it left a scar, no matter. She would take it as a remainder. Of the fight, the cause, and her dedication toward Ifrane and its people. Leah would take whatever came at her in stride, as she always had. For the most part.

Turning to face Asha, glad to know she was all right, she smiled. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

End Thread.​